French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, after visiting America in 1831, said, “I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests–and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning–and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution–and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!”
Greatness is a product of careful attention and hard work and doesn’t happen by accident. We choose the path we will follow in the small everyday decisions that we make. This week as we continue to look at the seven Churches in Asia we come across the one Church Jesus had no correction for. They were good and they had been faithful and Jesus commended them on both accounts. They show us all these years later how to be the kind of Church family Christ desires.
