Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
To receive the email edition of Weekend Encounter (without charge) click on the Subscribe button.
Privacy policy: We do not sell or rent subscriber's e-mail
addresses to anyone. We value your privacy.
Global Communications Outreach:
Learn how to be a missionary right from your own home and have a vital part in worldwide gospel outreach by becoming an ACTS People Power for Jesus Partner. Click HERE There is no charge.
Vol.18 - No. 4216 October 15, 2016
Thought
for the week: "I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure—try to please everybody." – Herbert Bayard Swope
"The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep need meet." – Frederick Buechner
"The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind forward." – Igor Sikorsky
"Someone once asked Wayne Gretsky, the great hockey player, how he managed to become the best goal-scorer in the history of the game. He simply replied, 'While everyone else is chasing the puck, I go where the puck is going to be.'" – Unknown
"Expectations tend to be self-fulfilling." – Author unknown
"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do." – Henry Ford
"If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you'll find you've done it." – Pam Shaw
"Be grateful for your problems, for they stimulate an 'I-can-solve-it' new attitude." – Mark Victor Hansen
"Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer." – Denis Waitley
The minister of a well-attended, strong, and enthusiastic church often showed himself ready and able to deal with any situation that might come up. One Sunday, just as he was reaching the climax of his sermon, his own young son entered the church, ran to the center aisle, started making loud beeps and vrrrmms like a car without a muffler, then zoomed right toward him. The minister stopped his sermon, pointed severely at his son, and commanded, "Jimmy, park the car immediately beside your mother on that bench (pointing), turn off the ignition, and hand her the keys." The sermon continued undisturbed ... after a good laugh by the congregation.
We signed up for a hike with a ranger, who told us a remarkable thing: when a tree's life is threatened, stressed by the elements of fire, drought, or other calamity, it twists beneath its bark to reinforce and make itself stronger.
On the surface, this new inner strength may not be visible, for the bark often continues to give the same vertical appearance. Only when the exterior is stripped away, or when the tree is felled, are its inner struggles revealed"
Inner struggles for folks like you and me can also make us stronger if we so choose, and face our difficulties and challenges with courage and determination and not allow them to defeat us.
Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he
was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring
child.
The Winner? A four year old boy whose next door neighbor was an
elderly
gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the
little boy
went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat
there.
When his mother asked him what he said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."
Two businessmen were traveling by train to an important business meeting. In
the seat opposite them was an old man with a shaggy beard, dressed in a
tattered sweater and jeans. Throughout the ride the two told each other
crude jokes about bums and tramps, with particular reference to the chap in
the next seat. When they arrived at the meeting they discovered this "tramp"
was a world-class scholar and the meeting's keynote speaker. Realizing he
had heard everything they said en route, they apologized. "It is not my
forgiveness you need," he responded, "but the forgiveness of all the common
people you hold in such disdain."
Charles H. Bayer, When It Is Dark Enough, CSS Publishing Company, 1994,
0-7880-0001-2.
Tim was disappointed that his father didn't attend the last soccer game of the season, but he wasn't surprised. Tim was a mature 10-year-old and he understood that lots of clients depended on his dad, who had to work most nights and weekends. Still, it made him sad, especially since this year he
won the league's most valuable player award.
One evening Tim got up the nerve to interrupt his father's work to ask him how much lawyers actually make per hour. His father was annoyed and gruffly answered, "Well, they pay me $300 an hour."
Tim gulped and said, "Wow, that's a lot. Would you lend me $100?"
"Of course not," his father barked. "Please, let me work."
Later, the father felt guilty and went to Tim's room where he found him sobbing. "Son," he said, "I'm sorry. If you need money of course I'll lend
it to you. But can I ask why?"
Tim said, "Daddy, I know your time is really worth a lot and with the $200 I already have, I'll have enough. Can I buy an hour so you can come to the awards banquet on Friday?"
It hit his father like a punch to the heart when he realized his son needed him even more than his clients did and that he needed to be there for his
son more than he needed money or career accolades. He hugged his son and said, "I'm so proud of you, nothing could keep me away."
Lots of parents are stretched to their limit trying to balance business demands and family needs. It's always a matter of priorities. But if we
don't arrange our lives to be there for our children, they will regret it—and after it's too late, so will we.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up-building" (Romans 14: 19, RSV).
"I know what makes him tick, and I know what ticks him off!"
These were the words of a speaker I heard when talking about her relationship with her husband—with whom, by the
way, she had a very good relationship.
Clever lady. Smart wife!
For couples, and friends for that matter, to relate well to each other—and to build each other up—each needs to know
how the other ticks; that is, understand each other. First though, we need to know and understand ourselves ... and
know what ticks us off and why we get ticked off (get angry)!
There are some things we ought to get angry about, such as at anything that is harmful to others, but oftentimes we
get angry—and overreact—not because of what the other person has done, but because of who we are. In other words,
when I have a lot of unresolved hurt and anger from the past, it can get triggered by the slightest incident and I overreact!
What the other person does may or may not be a problem, but my hurt and my anger is always my responsibility. And to
the degree that I overreact, that is always my problem!
So we need to know not only what ticks us and each other off, but also why we get ticked off ... and what we need to
do about it if we are to have fulfilling and meaningful relationships.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to know, understand and accept myself, so I will be much more
understanding and accepting of others. And help me to face and resolve my character issues and be a peacemaker and not
a troublemaker. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
Daily Encounter,
a free weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now
going to 400,000+ worldwide subscribers every weekday of the year. Scores of letters from around the world
have come from readers saying how much they are being helped by this
brief, practical devotional.
Over 100 million e-mail Daily and WeekendEncounters are now delivered to subscribers every year!
NOTE:
Some ISPs (especially AOL) now use e-mail filtering software that
allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or
'approved' list. Please be sure to add acts@actsweb.org to yours so you won't miss any issue of Daily Encounter.
9. Receive E-mail Edition of Weekend Encounter ... Free
NOTE:
Some ISPs (especially AOL) now use e-mail filtering software that
allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or
'approved' list. Please be sure to add acts@actsweb.org to yours so you won't miss any issue of Weekend Encounter.
One
of ACTS greatest needs is Prayer Partners to stand with us as we seek
to share the gospel with millions of people around the world through
E-mail and the Internet and to win the lost to Jesus. If you would like
to be an ACTS Prayer Partner, please subscribe to the Prayer Encounter list. Prayer reports are emailed when a special need arises. Thank you.
Weekend Encounter and Daily Encounter
are just two of the ways the nonprofit organization, ACTS
International, is working to improve the spiritual and emotional life
of many thousands of people around the world.
Every weekday Daily Encounter is going to 400,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter
is going to 6,300+ subscribers worldwide-many of whom are in places
where it is forbidden to spread the Christian gospel and message. Plus
we reach several hundred thousand more every week through our
advertising. As a result every day we are seeing an average of 5-6
salvation responses from around the world-over 2200 in the past 12
months!
If you find value in the free Weekend Encounter and/or Daily Encounter,
we hope you will be comfortable donating at least $26. That's only 50
cents a week for an entire year (tax-deductible in the U.S.). You can
donate in one of the following ways:
Oprah Winfrey:
"Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age
three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went
beyond our farm in Mississippi." - Oprah Winfrey
Books:
Books by Dick Innes, Editor of Weekend Encounter You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing How to Mend a Broken Heart I Hate Witnessing-A Handbook for Effective Christian
Communications
1. To donate FREE (to you) food for the hungry
2. For FREE Bible concordance and Bible helps 3. E-Word Today for a daily Bible reading
4. To find your ZIP+4 Area Code in the U.S.A.
5. How to find and write to your U.S. Representative
6. ASK Jeeves ... your questions answered fast
7. Send a FREE greeting card for all occasions
8. To check the weather in your area
9. Hoax Web Sites
10. Plus many more sources of helpful information