Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 8 – No. 5206 December 30, 2006
2006 has been a very good year with both its challenges and its victories and, as we draw to a close of another year, we thank all of our partners for making Weekend Encounter, Daily Encounter and Prayer Encounter available free of charge to more than 67,000 subscribers worldwide. Be sure to read our encouraging annual report at http://www.actsweb.org/acts_in_action.php.
Happy New Year: Joy and I wish all of our readers God speed and his very best for the New Year of 2007.
"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." – Joseph Addison
"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens." – Lewis L. Dunnington
"Few things are more infectious than a godly lifestyle. The people you rub shoulders with everyday need that kind of challenge. Not prudish. Not preachy. Just cracker jack clean living. Just honest to goodness, bone-deep, non-hypocritical integrity." – Charles Swindoll
"Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat." – Theodore Roosevelt
"My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces." – Wilma Rudolph 1940-1994, Olympic Gold Medallist
"We cannot live with bitterness because it will first manifest itself in our spirit, then in our emotions, and finally in our bodies." – Tom Drout
The Four Stages of a Man's Life: 1. You believe in Santa
Claus
2. You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3. You are Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.
Kids and Kops: It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me.
"Is that a dog you got back there?" he asked.
"It sure is," I replied.
Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then toward the back of the van. Finally he said, "What'd he do?"
Writer Charles Swindoll once found himself with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it. "I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day," he recalled in his book Stress Fractures. "Before long, things around our home started reflecting the patter of my hurry-up style. It was become unbearable.
"I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, 'Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin' and I'll tell you really fast.' "Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered, 'Honey, you can tell me—and you don't have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly.'
"I'll never forget her answer: 'Then listen slowly.'"1
A little girl was about to undergo a dangerous operation. Just before the doctor administered the anesthetic, he said, "Before we can make you well, we must put you to sleep."
The girl responded, "Oh, if you are going to put me to sleep, then I must say my prayers first." And she folded her hands, closed her eyes, and said:" Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take. And this I ask for Jesus' sake. Amen."
Later on the surgeon admitted that he prayed that prayer that night for the first time in thirty years.1
1. Donald L. Deffner, Seasonal Illustrations, San Jose: Resource, 1992, 88 Cited on eSermons.com
In response to the question, "How do I feel when I fail to forgive?" on the ACTS website a reader, Chiradeep Patra, from India wrote:
In my case when I fail to forgive:
1. I lose my inner PEACE
2. I feel GUILTY myself
3. I feel IRRITATED
4. I feel ANGRY
5. Physically, my heart pounds
6. I get a headache.
It's always better to forgive than feel sick physically, mentally & spiritually.
The students at Sandy's high school were badly shaken by the news that a classmate had killed himself. The suicide note said, "It's hard to live when nobody cares if you die." Glen, a teacher, realized this was a teachable moment about the importance of making people feel valued. He asked the class to imagine they were about to die and to write a note "telling someone how and why you appreciate them."
Sandy, who had a rocky relationship with her mother, decided to write her mom. Her letter said, "We've had some rough times and I haven't always been a very good daughter, but I know I'm lucky to have you in my life. You are the best person I've ever known. And even when I disagree with you, I never doubt you love me and want what's best for me. Thanks for not giving up on me." When her mom read the note, she cried and hugged Sandy tightly but said little.
The next morning, Sandy found a note on her mirror. "Dearest Sandy, I want you to know being your mother is, by far, the most important thing in my life. Until I got your note, I thought I had lost your love and respect. I felt like such a failure. I intended to end it all last night. Your note saved my life."
Be careful not to underestimate the power of expressed appreciation. It won't always save a life, but it will always make someone's life better.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
David, the psalmist, prayed: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."1
You sit with your head in your hands thinking you're a total failure. "I've blown it again," you mutter to yourself in despair.
Hold it right there! Did you know that Walt Disney went broke seven times and had a nervous breakdown before he became successful?
And that Enrico Caruso failed so many times with his singing that his teacher advised him to quit. He didn't. His mother saw to that. And he became one of the world's greatest tenors.
And Thomas Edison was called a dunce at school. Later, he failed more than six thousand times before perfecting the first electric light bulb.
Think, too, of King David in the Bible. He blew it big time. He not only committed adultery with Bathsheba and got her pregnant, but had her husband killed and took her as another wife. When he admitted his failure, God forgave him and gave him another chance. In fact, Bathsheba became the mother of King Solomon through whose line Jesus Christ came.
And remember Paul the apostle: he was so opposed to Christianity he was running around having Christians killed when God got a hold of him and turned his life around and used him in an incredible way.
God wants to turn our lives around too when we fail. So, if you feel like giving up, don't. Remember, failure is an event not a person. Now's the time to give God a chance. It starts with being honest with yourself, with a trusted friend, and with God-admitting how and where you've failed and asking God to forgive you and to help you.
For real encouragement, read all of Psalm 51. And listen to these words also written by David: "There was a time when I wouldn't admit what a sinner I was. But my dishonesty made me miserable and filled my days with frustration. All day and all night your hand was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water on a sunny day until I finally admitted all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, 'I will confess them to the Lord.' and you forgave me! All my guilt is gone."2
What a gracious, loving, forgiving God we have.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please be merciful to me, a sinner. I confess all my sins (name the ones you've never confessed before) to you. Have mercy on me and forgive me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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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
Books by Bestseller and Popular Authors: The Miracle of Kindness His Needs, Her Needs by Willard F. Harley, Jr.
has topped the charts as the best marriage
book available. More than one million couples
have read it ... made their marriage sizzle. Fall in Love Stay in Love Just Hand Over the Chocolate ... Love, Sex, and Lasting Relationships Sex Starts in the Kitchen Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours Harried With Children Adolescence Is Not an Illness Show Time It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian
On Sale at: http://www.actscom.com/store
Cassettes:
Healing, Wholeness & Happiness by Dick Innes
Loving & Understanding People by Dick Innes
I Hate Witnessing by Dick Innes
God's Formula for Success by Dick Innes
Damaged Emotions by David Seamands Healing of the Memories by David Seamands...
On SALE at:http://actscom.com/store/cassettes.htm
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