ACTS International
Home Page of ACTS International
Home Page of ACTS InternationalHow to Find and Know God without having to be religiousLife Help Articles dealing with faith, family, and practical helps for purposeful livingDaily and Weekend Encounters with more than a third-of-a-million worldwide subscribersSupport the Work of ACTS International a not-for-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible for U.S. donorsCurrent report on the ministries and services of ACTS InternationalOnline Store of ACTS ... ACTS CommunicationsAbout ACTS International
ACTS International Home Page Click here for the current issue of  Daily Encounter
         
     
   
Tell a Friend Site Map Share and/or Bookmark
   
         
   
 Dick Innes


Weekend Encounter

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. 4816  November 26, 2016

 
Thought for the week: "It's in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." – Anthony Robbins
 
    INDEX
1.   Words of Wisdom
2.   On the Lighter Side
3.   Creative Day Dreaming
4.   Little Man – Big Man
5.   Strategy for Success
6.   Sweet Adversity
7.   Affluenza
8.   Receive Daily Encounter Devotional  Without Charge
9.   Weekend Encounter E-mail Edition  Without Charge
10.   Know God ... Without Having to Be Religious
11.   Seven Pillars of Character
12.   Prayer Partners Needed
13.   Please Help Support Weekend Encounter
14.   Helpful Books
15.   Free Services
16.   ACTS in Action Report; Archives for Daily and Weekend Encounter
 

1. Words of Wisdom

"For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.'" – John Greenleaf Whittier

"The person who pursues revenge should dig two graves." – English Proverb

[Oh God] "Grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." – Native American proverb

"There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering." – Theodore Roosevelt

"Achievement requires more than a vision—it takes courage, resolve and tenacity." – Neil Eskelin

"What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin." – Henry Ward Beecher

"The worth of a man is revealed in his attitude to ordinary things when he is not before the footlights." – Oswald Chambers

Index

2. On the Lighter Side

Weddings can be adventures. I will never forget one several years ago that went just beautifully until the very end of the ceremony. In that tender moment when bride and groom kissed, the bride's five-year-old brother, the ring bearer, let out with a "YUK!" The congregation was on the floor laughing. As people left that afternoon, the place glowed with everyone's grins. And in years to come, when people think of that wedding, the one thing they will remember is YUK!

- Dr. David E. Leininger, "This Jesus is Something!"

Index

3. Creative Day Dreaming

"The only big ideas I've ever had came from daydreaming, but modern life keeps people from daydreaming. Every moment of the day your mind is being occupied, controlled by someone else—at school, at work, watching television. Getting away from all that is really important. You need to just kick back in a chair and let your mind daydream."

– Paul MacCready

Index

4. Little Man – Big Man

I recall, as a boy, a man who lived on one of the most thickly settled streets on the East side of New York City. We children coming and going from school would often times see him. He was a little old man with a gray, straggly beard, who dealt in coal and ice. He had his place of business in a dark basement underneath a huge tenement. In winter he sold coal and in the summer he sold ice. He would sell coal by the bucket load and would carry these buckets up three and four flights of stairs. In the summer he would buy large cakes of ice, cut them into smaller cakes, and carry them up five, six flights of stairs to his customers. He was always bent under a load. We called him "Humpback," though he was really not humpbacked. This little man with the gray, straggly beard, "Jacob the Humpback," died quietly like all humble folks, as he had lived.

A few years ago I learned that one of his sons, because of the labors of "Jacob the Humpback," had become a professor of mathematics in a large university, and another had become a surgeon. I suddenly asked myself, "Little man, how big were you?"

Abba Hillel Silver in James W. Cox, The Minister's Manual 1994, San Francisco: Harper, 1993, p. 46.

Index

5. Strategy for Success

Vince Lombardi believed that mental attitude accounted for 75 percent of the ingredients of winning. Everyone wants to win, but most people don't believe they can, and therefore give up before they have tried. The more you believe you can win, the harder you will work. The harder you work, the more you will believe you can win, and the longer you will persist until you succeed.

– Ari Kiev, A Strategy for Success (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1977), p. 39.

Index

6. Sweet Adversity

by Michael Josephson of Character Counts (340:1)

No one wants pain, troubles or hardship, but it's absolutely inevitable that we all will have plenty of each. And they won't come at times of our choosing or in doses we think are manageable. Adversity is never welcome, but it's not necessarily our enemy.

As the blade is sharpened by friction with a harder stone, our character and the quality of our lives can be shaped and strengthened through struggle and striving. Shakespeare said, "Sweet are the uses of adversity / Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, / Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." Adversity's precious jewel is cut by the chisels of confidence and competence, forged in a process of confronting and overcoming difficulties. As Nietzsche said, "What does not destroy me makes me stronger."

This poem by an unknown author reminds us that what we need is not always what we want:

I asked for Strength
And God gave me Difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for Wisdom
And God gave me Problems to solve.
I asked for Prosperity
And God gave me Brain and Brawn to work.
I asked for Courage
And God gave me Danger to overcome.
I asked for Love
And God gave me Troubled People to help.
I asked for Favor
And God gave me Opportunities.
I got nothing I wanted.
But I received everything I needed.

The road to achievement and fulfillment is dotted with hazards and tragedies that can wound us, frighten us and slow us down. But afflictions and misfortunes can stop us only if we surrender. If we exercise courage, patience and perseverance, we can overcome any adversity, bearing pains we cannot relieve and solving problems we cannot avoid.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

© 2005 Josephson Institute of Ethics; reprinted with permission. Michael Josephson, one of the nation's leading ethicists, is the founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics and the premier youth character education program, CHARACTER COUNTS!  For further information visit www.charactercounts.org.

Index

7. Affluenza

Sample of Daily Encounter by Dick Innes

"Then he [Jesus] said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.'"1

We recently had a speaker at our church who conducted a class for parents to help protect them from becoming infected with "affluenza." The idea being that we and our kids can get so caught up in the world of materialistic affluence that we miss the real meaning of life.

I believe that one of the main reasons we are so materialistic here in the West is because we are so emotionally repressed. Emotions are God-given. They add beauty and interest to life. When they are repressed and denied, life can be deadly dull and empty.

Furthermore, when we bury emotions, we tend to settle for counterfeit experiences and the feelings they produce. For instance, when the emotion of love is repressed, there is a tendency to substitute lust which can look like love and feel like love—but it isn't love and a very poor substitute at that—and leaves one more empty, lonely, and unsatisfied.

Also, consider the emotion of wonder—the emotion that puts sparkle into life and moves us deeply when a baby wraps its tiny hand around just one of our fingers and in so doing touches our very heart. When wonder is repressed, we become "characteristically bored with life," and tend to turn to materialism in a vain attempt to fill the empty void in our heart. And instead of loving people and using things, we end up unhappily loving things and using people.

So if we want to avoid the problem of "affluenza" and the blight of empty materialism and learn to fully live and fully love, it is essential that we get in touch with—and connected to—all of our God-given emotions.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please deliver me from the blight of materialism which can easily become the driving force in my life. Help me to get in touch with all of my God-given emotions and use them in the manner and ways you designed them to be used so that I will learn to fully live and fully love. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Luke 12:15 (NIV).

Index

8. Receive Daily Encounter E-mail ... Free

Daily Encounter, a free weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 400,000+ subscribers. Scores of letters from around the world have come from readers saying how much they are being helped by this brief, practical devotional.

Over 9 million e-mail Daily, Weekend and Prayer Encounters are delivered to subscribers every year!

Click HERE for more samples of Daily Encounter

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.

Index

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.

Index

10. Know God ... Without having to be religious

Click on: How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian -- without having to be religious. Know God

Index

11. Seven Pillars of Character

The first of these six pillars of character are from Michael Josephson of Character counts to which I have added a seventh:

  • Trustworthiness
  • Respect
  • Responsibility
  • Fairness
  • Caring
  • Citizenship
  • Personal Honesty

Index

12. Prayer Partners Needed

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. Approximately two prayer reports are emailed monthly. Thank you.

Index

13. Help Support Weekend Encounter

    "Changing the World . . . One Person at a Time" 

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 48,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to 9,000+ 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 9 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:

Donate Online: You can donate online at ACTS secure web site. Click HERE on ACTS support donations.

Donate Through PayPal:You can donate securely through PAYPAL. Click HERE on PayPal. Where it says Payment For: type in Donation.

Donate by Telephone: ACTS accepts credit card donations by phone by calling 1-949-940-9050.

Donate Through Postal Mail: If you prefer to write a check or money order, please send it and make it payable to:

     ACTS International
     P.O. Box 73545
     San Clemente, California 92673-0119
     U.S.A.

Index

14. Helpful Books and Cassette Messages

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

   On Sale at: https://actscom.com/books_sale_5-14.php

Index

15. Free Services

 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

GO TO:
http://www.actsweb.org/links.php

Index

16. ACTS in Action Report and Encounter Archives

ARCHIVES: Daily and Weekend Encounters

"The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace."


Know God

ACTS International
PO Box 73545
San Clemente, CA 92673-0119
U.S.A.

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.

 
   
         
   
Site Map   Top
   
     
         
Find Peace With God footer
 
  ARTICLES
About God
About Faith
Relationships
Success/Failure
Solutions
Recovery
Ask the Teacher
Better Living Tips
Friendship
Words of Love
Words of Inspiration
People Power for Jesus
Simple and Effective Witnessing for Christ

SITE TRANSLATIONS
Spanish Espanol
French Francois

  DEVOTIONS
Devotionals
Daily Encounter
Weekend Encounter
Encuentros Diarios
Archives
Subscribe
When God Is Silent
Prayer Partners
  Needed

Special Needs

BIBLE HELPS
Helps and Studies
Today's Reading
Annual Reading

  QUOTES AND TESTS
Today's Quotes
Happiness Test
Stress Test

ACTS IN ACTION

ACTS Websites
ACTS in Action Report

COMMUNICATIONS

Syndicate ACTS Articles
"I Hate Witnessing"
   Audio—No Charge

Opening Closed Minds
Effective Communications
Jesus, the Communicator
Punching Holes in
   the Darkness

  REPORTS
About ACTS
Be an ACTS Friend

MISC.
People Power Invite
Links
Weather
Privacy Policy
Snail-Mail List
Contact Us/Feedback

ACTS BOOKSTORE
Online Bookstore


Site Map
Report problems to ACTS International
All pages in this site © Copyright 2005-2024 by ACTS International
P.O. Box 73545, San Clemente, CA 92673 U.S.A.
 
HOME   Daily Encounter  Find Peace With God