President

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

On Thursday, November 27, 2003 President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq so that he could thank U.S. troops for defending the American people from danger. The President served Thanksgiving dinner to 600 soldiers. Speaking of the soldiers far from their home, he said, “It’s got to be lonely for them. I thought it was important to send that message, that we care for them.”  The visit was well received by the battle-worn soldiers, but it also surprised the President’s family, who were expecting him at his ranch in Texas.

Tancredo Neves ran for the presidency of Brazil in the 1980s. He boldly declared that if he got 500,000 votes from his own party, not even God could keep him from being president. He won the election, but one day later he got sick and died. There is no way to know if God accepted his challenge, but what we can know for sure is that human beings should not make such bold, arrogant statements.

Source: Unknown

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

“Men who live in the past remind me of a toy I’m sure all of you have seen. The toy is a small wooden bird called the Floogie Bird. Around the Floogie Bird’s neck is a label reading, ‘I fly backwards, I don’t care where I’m going. I just want to see where I’ve been.’”—Harry Truman

Source:  The Words of Harry S. Truman, Harry Truman and Robert Donovan

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

“In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality of a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, on a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man’s associates find him guilty of phoniness, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.”—Dwight D. Eisenhower

During the civil war Abraham Lincoln met with a group of ministers for a prayer breakfast. One of the ministers said, “Mr. President, let us pray that God is on our side”. Lincoln’s response showed far greater insight, “No, gentlemen, let us pray that we are on God’s side.”

Source: Unknown

On March 4, 1841, William Harrison, the 9th President of the United States, delivered what proved to be, the longest inaugural speech on record. It was  nearly 9,000 words long, and despite efforts from his staff to convince him to shorten it, President Harrison insisted that the nation needed to hear the whole thing. So for nearly two hours, in the rain, on an unseasonably cold day, the President stood and delivered his address, word for word.

Clark Clifford shares this reminiscence of his former boss, President Harry Truman: Every morning at 8:30 the president would have a staff meeting. One day the mail clerk brought in a lavender envelope with a regal wax seal and flowing purple ribbons. Upon opening it, the President found a letter from King Saud of Saudi Arabia, whose salutation began, “Your Magnificence, Your Magnificence,” Truman subsequently sent a message to the United Nations supporting the admission of 100,000 Jews into Palestine. Soon afterward he received a second letter from King Saud. This

In his old age, President James Madison suffered from many ailments and took a variety of medicines. It is said that a longtime friend from a nearby county sent him a box of vegetable pills, one of his own home remedies, asking to be informed if they brought relief. In time he received one of those gracious and carefully worded letters for which Madison was noted. It went something like this, “My dear friend, I thank you very much for the box of pills. I have taken them all, and while I cannot say I am better since taking them, it is quite possible that I might have

Have you ever heard the story about the man who became president for a day?

Does anybody know the name of the man who was president for a day?