Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 18 – No. 4116 October 08, 2016
Thought for the week: "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." – William Ward
"A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers." – Robert Quillen
"What would you do, how would you change your life, if you learned today that you only had six months to live?" – Brian Tracy
"Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway." – Mary Kay Ash
"There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us less." – Philip Yancey
"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it." – William James, psychologist
"The bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you forget to make the turn." – Submitted by Kathy Savage
"I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult ... I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking." – Og Mandino
"Every intersection in the road of life is an opportunity to make a decision." – Duke Ellington
open secret
larger half
clearly confused
act naturally
alone together
Hell's Angels
found missing
liquid gas
deafening silence
seriously funny
living dead
jumbo shrimp
advanced basic
tragic comedy
unbiased opinion
virtual reality
definite maybe
original copies
pretty ugly
same difference
plastic glasses
almost exactly
constant variable
even odds
minor crisis
extinct life
genuine imitation
exact estimate
only choice
freezer burn
free love
working holiday
rolling stop
It's like the beaver told the rabbit as they stared up at the immense wall of Hoover Dam, "No, I didn't actually build it myself. But it was based on an idea of mine."
– Charles Townes
(Nobel Prize winner in laser technology)
Employ the power of positive quitting. Most of us view quitting as something negative, but it's not. "Winners never quit," we're told, when, in reality, winners quit all the time: choosing to stop doing things that aren't creating the results they desire. When you quit all the things that aren't working for you, when you quit tolerating all the negative things that hold you back, you'll create a positive "charge" in your life as well as create the space in your life for more positive experiences.
At Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78, George Washington and his troops were in utterly desperate straits...
He appealed to the governor of Pennsylvania for help. Jacob DeHaven was a staunch believer in the revolutionary cause and lived near Valley Forge. Hearing of Washington's appeal, he loaned him $50,000 in gold and $400,000 in supplies. The army survived the winter, but after the war DeHaven was never repaid. Now his descendants are trying to collect. They claim that the loan, compounded at 6 percent interest daily, amounts to $141.6 billion.
In one sense, all the money in the world could never repay DeHaven for what he did. In reality, he saved the cause of freedom for all America.
THOUGHT: There's another debt all of us owe that we can never repay. It is the price Jesus Christ paid to give us liberty from the bondage of sin's guilt and judgment. He redeemed us with His precious blood so that we might have spiritual freedom [and the gift of eternal life].
I must admit that I have not had "Aroma Therapy" treatment as a means of managing stress. There are times however while photographing roses that I let the aroma waft into my nose. I pause and smell the rose before proceeding with a click of the shutter button. There are other times when I recall the pleasant aroma of a yellow rose.
Yes, there is something worthy about taking a moment to smell roses. There is also something about walking into a men's locker room after a sporting event. With the hoopla of winning a game, one may actually overlook the smell of victory. Another thing that carries a lingering aroma is the smell of ozone at the beach before a rainstorm.
I am reading through the book of 2 Corinthians and in the second chapter, found the thought that as Christians, our lives carry a certain aroma. We are being examined by the world around us, and our deeds and actions show the aroma of Christ who loves us, and through us show others how to live exuberantly and victoriously. At the end of this particular chapter St Paul says that our lives are an aroma to those who are destined for eternity. To those who are destined for everlasting destruction, our aroma is a rotten smell; and for those destined for eternal life with Christ, our aroma is sweet and refreshing like a newly opened rose on a warm summer morning.
To carry this simile of a rose a bit further, it dawned on me that tending a rose bush is hard work. To get a beautiful long-stem rose, one must cut away small shoots and water the ground correctly. It also takes time and attention to keep pests away, and to prune in just the right spots. The same thing happens with our lives over a period of time.
In the sixth chapter of this book, I read how our lives go through thin times and thick times. We may feel sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. We may be flat broke, but because of joy we enrich others. We may be regarded as one of society's unknowns, but are well known to God. We may feel overworked and underpaid, yet our patience and kindness speaks a good reputation. Whenever God wants to do something in response to prayer, he often works through those who have been down the pot-holed roadways of life. To encourage people who have never seen real Christianity at work, he displays us along with our wrinkles, our scars, and our broken lives. This demonstrates beyond question a sweet flavor of faithfulness, one in which Christ uses our lives of kindness and love as an Aroma Therapy to change our corner of the world.
"We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete [mature] in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me" (Colossians 1:28-29, NASB).
We don't have to be good for goodness sake!
In fact, as strange as it may seem, being good may be our worst enemy. It was for the Pharisees. Their external goodness was a cover-up to avoid seeing who and what they were on the inside. Jesus didn't approve of their external religiosity! In fact, he opposed it vehemently.
It can bring a great sense of freedom to realize that God isn't into rules, but rather relationships. His goal isn't to make us good, but to make us whole and to see us healed from the inside out. The end result will be goodness but goodness that comes from a healed heart--not from adhering to rules dictated by legalism.
This is not an excuse to act out in sinful or destructive behaviors. Not at all. As the Apostle Paul said, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means."1
What it does mean is that I need to grow towards wholeness and maturity by recognizing my inner brokenness, my weaknesses, and my unresolved character issues and bring them not only to God for healing, but also to a trusted friend and/or counselor. As James said, "Therefore confess your sins [and faults] to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."2
Again, God's goal is not to make us good, but to make us whole. It's the heart that counts with him, not the externals. If all I have is external goodness, I am no better than the Pharisees. Realize too, that only to the degree that we are made whole will our lifestyle, our attitudes, our actions, our behaviors, and our relationships be "wholesome."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to see my broken parts so I can bring them to you for healing. Face me with my reality, make me whole, and lead me to the help that I need to do this. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
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