Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 18 - No. 4616 November 12, 2016
Thought
for the week: "When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others." – Peace Pilgrim
"You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety." – Abraham Maslow
"When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier." – Roy Disney
"No matter how small and unimportant what we are doing may seem, if we do it well, it may soon become the step that will lead us to better things." – Channing Pollock
"Self-esteem—an estimation of who I am apart from what I do." – Nathaniel Brandon
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." – Dwight Eisenhower
"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, but knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." – Samuel Johnson
"What you allow, you encourage." – Unknown
"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." – Norman Schwarzkop
Bill was a frequent user of a pay telephone at a popular truck stop, and was greatly inconvenienced when the phone went out of commission. Repeated requests for repair brought only promises. After several days, Bill again contacted the phone company and told them there was no longer a rush. The phone was now working fine... except that all money was being returned upon completion of each call. A repairman arrived within the hour!
When Lord Horatio Nelson was fighting the Battle of Copenhagen, his senior officer, Sir Hyde Parker, also known as "Old Vinegar," hoisted the flag signaling retreat. Nelson deliberately put his telescope to his blind eye and said, "I do not see it."
If he had surrendered when it looked like defeat, he would not have captured twelve Danish ships. I don't see defeat. Do you? When you're fighting the Battle of Perspective, Satan will hoist his flag, trying to discourage you. Remember to put a blind eye to the telescope. Refuse to see the retreat flag. Keep going forward.
– Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind, But Now I Squint (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2004), p. 139.
Almost Wasn't Born ... Charles McCarry can claim a varied career. In addition to being the author of The Tears of Autumn and The Last Supper, he served as assistant to the Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower cabinet and has done two stints in the CIA. But he almost wasn't born.
Says McCarry, "My mother became pregnant with me at the age of 39. She had nearly died while giving birth to my only sibling. Her doctor, who believed the second pregnancy was a serious threat to her life, advised an abortion. The advice made sense but my mother refused to accept it. Just before she died at age 97, I asked her why. She replied, "I wanted to see who you were going to turn out to be."
In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, quoted in Feb. 1990, Reader's Digest.
* * * * * *
C. Everett Koop, M.D., formerly the Surgeon General, states that during his 35-plus years of practicing medicine, "Never once did a case come across my practice where abortion was necessary to save a mother's life."
Sanctity of Life, C. Swindoll, Word, 1990, p. 23
Heartbeat
* * * * * *
Medical authorities determine a person to be "alive" if there is either a detectable heartbeat or brain-wave activity. With that in mind, it is eye-opening for some to realize that unborn children have detectable heartbeats at eighteen days (two and one-half weeks) after conception and detectable brain-wave activity forty days (a little over five and one-half weeks) after conception. What is so shocking is that essentially 100 percent of all abortions occur after the seventh week of pregnancy.
Sanctity of Life, C. Swindoll, Word, 1990, pp. 11-12
Sarah's mom agreed to let her 16-year-old go to a party if she promised to be home by midnight. But as the Cinderella hour approached, Sarah did a quick risk/reward calculation. She knew her mom would be angry and probably ground her, but she was having so much fun she decided it was worth it. Sure enough, when she got home at 2:00 a.m., her mom was waiting for her, enraged that Sarah had violated her promise but relieved she was safe.
"Breaking your word was bad enough," her mom said, "but how could you be so cruel and selfish not to call and say you were safe? I was worried sick." Sarah finished off an evening of bad choices with another: "You forced me into agreeing. The curfew was unfair. As to your worrying, that was your choice. I was perfectly safe. Just tell me the punishment and let me go to bed."
This is ugly.
Sarah's first mistake was to think she had a right to break her promise because she was "forced" into it. Mom's proposition was "Deal or no deal?" Sarah made a deal and, like it or not, she was morally bound to keep her word.
Her second mistake was to think she could buy off the moral duty to keep her promise simply by accepting punishment. Her mom's trust wasn't mended because Sarah paid a penalty. Ultimately, the issue was not about curfews and parties; it was about trust and credibility. Her lack of remorse and accountability only made things worse, critically damaging her relationship with her mom.
Her third mistake was to think, despite her refusal to accept responsibility for inflicting mental anguish on her mom, that she wasn't responsible. She was. If she bothered to think about it, Sarah knew her conduct would cause gut-wrenching worry, every bit as painful as a punch to the stomach. A person is ethically accountable for the predictable consequences of their actions.
In a nutshell, Sarah did not act with character. She was untrustworthy, irresponsible, disrespectful and unkind. It will take her a long time to build the healthy bonds of trust that both she and her mom want and need.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8, NIV).
I have read how, "while attending a university in London, Mahatma Gandhi became almost convinced that the Christian religion was the one true, supernatural religion in the world. Upon graduation, and still seeking evidence that would make him a committed Christian, young Gandhi accepted employment in East Africa and for seven months lived in the home of a family who were members of an evangelical Christian church. As soon as he discovered that fact, he decided that here would be the place to find the evidence he sought.
"But as the months passed and he saw the casualness of their attitude toward the cause of God, heard them complain when they were called upon to make a sacrifice for the kingdom of God, and sensed their general religious apathy, Gandhi's interest turned to disappointment. He said in his heart, 'No, it is not the one true, supernatural religion I had hoped to find. A good religion, but just one more of the many religions in the world.''¹
Let us remember that as children of God we are not called to do witnessing but we are Christ's witnesses. This is true wherever we are, wherever we go, whatever we do—in all things at all times we are being witnesses. I recall reading years ago the following words on a poster in the office at the college I attended.
The living truth is what I long to see, I cannot live on what used to be, So close your Bible and show me how The Christ you talk about is living now.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to remember that as a child of yours, I am being a witness for you in all things at all times. Help me to so live that my life will always be a good witness and be used to help win others to you. May people, seeing Jesus in me, want Jesus for themselves. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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