Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 19 â€" No. 1407 April 08, 2017
Thought for the week: "Marriage is a journey towards an unknown destinationâ€"the discovery that people must share not only what they don't know about each other, but what they don't know about themselves." â€" Michael Ventura
Wishing all a very Happy and God-blessed Easter Season!
"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." â€" Lin Yutang
"Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for him." â€" Oswald Chambers
"When men believe God, they speak boldly. When they doubt, they confer." â€" A.W. Tozer
"Worry doesn't help tomorrow's troubles, but it does ruin today's happiness." â€" Unknown.
"There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, pure, simple, and useful life." â€" Unknown
"The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing." â€" Eugene Delacroix
Chickens appear healthier and happier and lay more eggs when farmers play music to them, the British researcher Bryan Jones told an international poultry farmer's gathering in Atlanta.
After surveying more than one hundred poultry farmers at a British pig and poultry fair, Jones said that 45 percent of the farmers routinely played music to their birds. Ninety percent said that birds dosed with music were calmer, 52 percent said they were less aggressive, 20 percent reported the overall health of the flock had improved, and 16 percent claimed increased egg production.
"We asked the farmers whether some types of music were better than others. They indicated that heavy metal was the worst, but chickens didn't like opera or jazz either."
â€" From The Houston Chronicle. Cited in Parables, Etc.
An article in a national sports magazine told of a father whose all-consuming desire was to make his teenage daughter into a tennis star. This often resulted in withering verbal tirades, and his compulsion turned his family into a band of semi-nomads. Despite the father's efforts, his daughter became only a moderately successful tennis player.
The question is: Who was the father doing it for ... his daughter or himself?
In all probability he was doing it for himself ... wanting to find fulfillment which he had never found for himself through his child. It is highly conditional love ... which is not love at all. At best it is contaminated love. At worst it could be pure control or toxic love. It implies that if you perform the way I want you to, I will give you my love and approval, but if you don't, I will withhold these. Not that this is ever admitted or spelled out, but the subtle underlying hidden agenda message is communicated loud and clear.
And when this kind of so-called love says, "I'm only doing it for you," it then adds false guilt to the already over-controlled child.
These tactics are psychologically damaging and can and do scar children for life.
About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness.
In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?
Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision.
â€" Lynn Anderson, Abilene, Texas. Cited in Rostrevor
Baptist Church Focus, South Australia
Eye contact, when you talk to others, achieves a positive connection. About five seconds of steady eye contact generally is appropriate. Less suggests that you are nervous or don't want to connect. More can seem like staring, or be seen as intimacy or intimidation. Five seconds also is about how long it takes to complete a thought or sentence.
From "You've Got to Be Believed to Be Heard," by Bert Decker, in "Executive Edge." Cited in "Media Management Newsletter" (4/94).
Several years ago Today in the Word reported how the world-famous boxer, Muhammad Ali, was known as "The Champ," arguably the most famous athlete of his day. He was on top, and his entourage of trainers and various helpers shared the adulation with him. But the party ended, leaving many of Ali's loyal followers disillusionedâ€"and in some cases, destitute. Ali himself, now halting in speech and uncertain in movement, says, "I had the world, and it wasn't nothin'."
"How different are the words of Jim Elliot, martyred missionary, who said words to the effect, "He is no fool who gives up that which he can never keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
And this is true for all true followers of Jesus Christ. His promise to his trusted servants is: "When the Chief Shepherd [Jesus Christ] appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away" (1 Peter 5:4, NIV).
"Then [King] Agrippa said unto Paul, 'Almost you persuade me to be a Christian'"1
"The call of God," said Oswald Chambers, "is like the call of the sea to the sailor. Only he who has the nature of the sea within can hear the call."
In other words, the man or woman who loves the ocean and "hears the call of the sea" can never rest until he or she launches out into the deep of the oceans beyond. For those whom God is calling to follow him, to serve him, to accept him, to love him ... we will never rest until we answer his call and come to God through Jesus and do his bidding.
Indeed, "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God."
The danger is that if we keep resisting God's call, we will distance ourselves from him to put us out of hearing range. God never stops calling us, but we may never come back to hear the call to answer it.
King Agrippa had the opportunity to answer God's call and become a Christian, but his answer was almostâ€"and almost is never good enough. To jump a deep chasm and almost make it is to spell disaster. As far as we know, King Agrippa never did accept Jesus as his Savior nor receive God's full and free pardon and the gift of eternal life.
How tragic to have this kind of opportunity and not accept it. Accepting Jesus is God's passport into heaven. Whatever you do, don't leave earth without it.
Answer God's call today. To see how, see No.10 below. Be sure to do that today as none of us have any guarantee of tomorrow. Don't be an almost persuaded.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, I want to answer your call and find you. Please help me to do that today. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen."
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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 Witnessingâ€"A Handbook for Effective Christian
Communications
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