Greatness Is In God's Word

A preacher told of hiring a carpenter to restore an old farm house. On the first day when the carpenter was to report for work, he was an hour late. His tardiness, he said, was because he found that his electric saw was not working, and in addition, he had found a flat tire on his old truck. Nevertheless, he put in a full day’s work. When finished; he got in his aged truck and turned the key in the ignition only to find that the stubborn vehicle refused to start. Seeing the problem, the preacher offered to take the carpenter home and the tradesman got in the preacher’s car. They engaged in friendly conversation on the way and soon arrived at the man’s home. Before exiting the car, the carpenter invited the preacher in to meet his family. They both got out and started toward the front entrance. As they walked by a tree in the yard, the carpenter stopped for a second and touched the tips of several branches of the tree without comment. Entering the home, the smiling carpenter kissed his wife and hugged his two small children who had joyfully wrapped them-selves about his legs. It was obvious that the family was close and quite happy. After visiting awhile, the preacher made his way to his car with the carpenter accompanying him. As they passed by the tree again, the preacher said that he had noticed the tradesman had touched several branches of the tree with both hands when they had passed by earlier. “Why did you do that?” asked the curious preacher. “Oh,” said the carpenter, “that’s my trouble tree. I know can’t help having trouble but I try to keep trouble out of my house as much as I can. When I come home each day, I touch the branches of the tree and symbolically leave my troubles on the tree. In the morning, I pick them up again. But, strangely, it always seems that when I am ready to deal with my troubles in the morning, I don’t seem to have as many as I had the evening before.”


[Proverbs 14:34] “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.”  While campaigning for office, our now President Donald Trump used the campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” As President, he has implemented many of his ideas and proposed policies to make America great again and whether it’s acceptable or not, all the numbers and surveys say the country is definitely stronger, secularly, than it was three years ago, but we are becoming spiritually bankrupt. America will never be great again until our spirits are once again filled with Godly righteous living. Allow me to share with you what will make America great again. 1) A deeper knowledge of God’s word [Hosea 4:6; Revelation 1:3]. 2) Godly homes [Psalm 127:1; Genesis 1:27-28; 2:18ff; Hebrews 13:4; Ephesians 5:22ff]. 3) Love and unity [Mark 3:24; Acts 10:34-35; 17:26; John 13:34-35; 17:21ff]. 4) A stronger work ethic [2 Thessalonians 3:10; Genesis 2:8-15; Nehemiah 4:6; Romans 12:11]. 5) A servant mentality [Philippians 2:3-8; Galatians 5:13; John 13:12-17; Romans 12:9-21]. 6) Less materialistic and more spiritualistic [1 Timothy 6:10; Matthew 6:33; Colossians 3:2; Ecclesiastes 12:13]. 7) Arm citizens with the sword of the spirit [Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12; James 1:21; Romans 1:16]. I implore you to look at these Scriptures and ponder on them as to the changes they would bring about in your life, and the changes that would come about if we all implemented God’s teaching into our lives. Just look and listen to the world and you will discover “...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). Start by planting a trouble tree in your heart. His name is Jesus. Give Him you troubles each night and you’ll start with fewer troubles each new day.