Fuel For Faithful Work;

What if your calling isn’t a pulpit, but a blueprint? We dive into a five‑minute story that redefines purpose through the life of R. G. LeTourneau—the school dropout turned world‑shaping inventor who treated God as his chairman and generosity as his strategy. From iron foundry grit to hundreds of patents, from WWII earthmoving dominance to a university with a living spiritual legacy, his journey shows how business, engineering, and finance can become instruments of ministry.
You’ll hear how practical faith shapes daily choices: building tools that solve real problems, aligning profit with impact, and treating integrity as worship. We connect the dots between innovation and service, showing how planned, joyful giving becomes the fuel behind pastors, teachers, missionaries, and creators who carry hope into the world. If you’ve ever wondered whether your skills in business or engineering matter to God, consider this your nudge to say a big yes and watch what follows.

Transcript

God Works Through People;

Callings Beyond The Pulpit;

The Rise Of R. G. LeTourneau;

Faith As The Blueprint;

Kings Who Fuel Ministry;

Blessing And Sign‑Off

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. Hey, good morning, everyone. It's good to have you here with us again today. I spent some time reading this weekend, and I came across this statement. Every Christian at some point must come to the full realization that God does not sit on his throne to magically answer prayers at our demand. God often chooses to work through people, his people, to build his kingdom. Well, in the Old Testament there were two specific groups who God chose to help lead the people. One group was the prophets or the priests. The kings were not only in charge of overseeing the governance of the people, but part of their job also included supplying the finances to the priests and the prophets so that God's work could be done. And those two roles still exist. The people who are doing the ministry and those who are helping to support that ministry so the ministry can be done. Both are still very important. Often here on Starting Right, I have said that God has a plan for each of our lives. There's a purpose for each one of us. And I know that sometimes people assume that what I'm talking about is God wanting and having a plan for you to be a Bible school teacher or a Sunday school teacher or a pastor or a missionary. And that's really only part of what I'm talking about. We need to have some of the aspects of all of that happening in our lives, but that may not be your calling. Your calling may be in something totally different. Let me tell you about a man by the name of RG Laterno. He was born back in eighteen eighty eight and lived a very remarkable life. At the age of fourteen he dropped out of school and began to work in an iron foundry, and over the next few years he developed a sincere passion for machinery, beginning with his love for cars. After serving in the Navy in World War I, he found himself with five thousand dollars worth of debt and no job opportunities when a farmer offered to pay him to level some land that he owned. Laterno said this was the turning point in his life. Working on clearing that land, he realized that machines could do the job far more effectively than could be done by hand. And up to this point in time there were no machines doing this job. Roads were built by road gangs working hard with picks and shovels and wheelbarrows. That's how they built the roads. But Laterno said there's got to be a better way. Well, he found a better way. He found many different better ways. Over the next fifty years he would be responsible for over three hundred inventions, including the bulldozers, scrapers of all kinds, dredgers, portable cranes, rollers, dump wagons, bridge spans, logging equipment, mobile sea platforms for oil exploration, the electric wheel, and many others. And when World War II came along, he produced seventy percent of all the army's earth moving machinery. Not bad for a kid that dropped out of school at fourteen, huh? And you may wonder how could one young man come up with all of those ideas? Well, he gives credit where credit really is due. You see, he had a Bible verse for his life. It's one that we've talked about. It's Matthew six thirty three. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things shall be added to you. From that foundation, he felt that he was clearly called to be a businessman for God, and he often spoke of God as the chairman of the board. He began to create so many inventions that he had trouble keeping up with them all, and the money was coming in in huge quantities. He once said, You will never know what you can accomplish until you say a great big yes to the Lord, and he certainly proved those words true. His business efforts, although incredibly successful, never deterred him from what he felt was his reason to exist, and that was to glorify God and spread the gospel message. He shared his faith with millions of people during his life. He founded missionary efforts in Liberia and Peru. He and his wife founded Laterno University in Longview, Texas, which has a longstanding spiritual legacy, and it continues to hold to those foundations today, producing more than ten thousand alumni who are serving the Lord in fifty-five different nations. His attitude was always positive, looking towards the ultimate accomplishment, and he was known to say that the only difference between can and can't is a little extra effort. He was truly an amazing man. Oh, by the way, just one more thing. Very early on in his business he established something called the Laterno Foundation. That foundation was used to take ninety percent of his salary to give to Christian work around the world. He was completely convinced that he could not outgive God. Laterno is a man who knows what it meant to be a king in God's kingdom, not as a ruler, but as a supplier to the people who are doing the work of ministry. Now, he gave away ninety percent of his salary, that's not what I'm suggesting for anybody. But what I am saying is that every time we give to the ministry of God, we are the fuel behind the ministry. And God uses people, people like you and me, to become kings for the kingdom by providing those finances so the ministries can continue. Be blessed, my friends. Have a great day, and we will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.