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 Dick Innes


Weekend Encounter

Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes          
Published by: ACTS International

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Vol. 19 – No. 1617 April 21, 2017

 
Thought for the week: "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." – Albert Einstein
 
    INDEX
1.   Words of Wisdom
2.   On the Lighter Side
3.   Giving
4.   Tradition
5.   What's Inside Comes Out
6.   The Russian Lady and Willful Blindness
7.   The Gift of Tears
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.   To Submit a Prayer Request
14.   Please Help Support Weekend Encounter
15.   Helpful Books and Cassette Messages
16.   Free Services
17.   ACTS in Action Report; Archives for Daily and Weekend Encounter
 

1. Words of Wisdom

"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." – Unknown

"Anger is only one letter short of danger." – Unknown

"Kind words are like honey—enjoyable and healthful." – King Solomon (Proverbs 16:24)

"It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water." – Franklin P. Jones

"Remember: Flattery is like perfume. Sniff it, don't drink it!" – Unknown

"The end never justifies the meanness." – Cited in Bits & Pieces

"No matter what your past may have been, everyone can have a clean future. Talk to God about it. He has the answer." – Anonymous

"You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Index

2. On the Lighter Side

Well-known for his competency and ingenuity as a carpenter, my husband was fixing our cottage dock. He removed his watch and placed it on the dock so it wouldn't get wet. To make sure it wouldn't fall into the water, he decided to anchor it around a nail. He held the nail against the wood in the center of the band, and with one deft blow he smashed his watch to pieces.

–Cited on WITandWISDOM www.witandwisdom.org

Index

3. Giving

So give to the needy sweet charity's bread, For "giving is living," the angel said. But must I keep giving again and again? My peevish and pitiless answer ran. "Oh, no," said the angel, piercing me through, "Just give till the Master stops giving to you."

– Anonymous. Submitted by Joe Pritchard.
     dpjpabriel@mindspring.com

Index

4. Tradition

Years ago Harry Emerson Fosdick told about a church in Denmark where the worshipers bowed regularly before a certain spot on the wall. They had been doing that for three centuries—bowing at that one spot in the sanctuary. Nobody could remember why. One day in renovating the church, they removed some of the whitewash on the walls. At the exact spot where the people bowed they found the image of the Madonna under the whitewash. People had become so accustomed to bowing before that image that even after it was covered up for three centuries, people still bowed.

Tradition is a powerful thing. The Pharisees had learned to substitute tradition, custom, habit for the presence of the living God. Traditionalism rears its head in many ways, in many times and in many places.

– King Duncan, Collected Sermons, Cited on       http://www.preaching.com

Index

5. What's Inside Comes Out

A certain downtown businessman became fond of the little boy who shined his shoes every day. He did such a good job that one day the businessman asked him, "Son, how come you are so conscientious about your work?"

The boy felt complimented. He looked up to the man, and said, "Mister, I'm a Christian and I try to shine every pair of shoes as if Jesus Christ were wearing them."

The businessman saw something genuine in the shoeshine boy. Soon after that he began reading his Bible. When he decided to be a Christian himself, he credited his decision to the little boy who shined every pair of shoes "as if Jesus Christ were wearing them."

What's inside us comes out in our social and moral behavior. Here is the other extreme:

Another boy was raised by a mother who showed him no affection, no love, no discipline. He was a "loner" in school. The girls teased him and the boys beat him up. He joined the marines but only found abuse there and, eventually, was dishonorably discharged. He married and tried to have a family, but his wife hated him. He lost all sense of self-worth. Maybe you've guessed his name.

One day—it was November 22, 1963—he went out into the garage, took a rifle, drove into Dallas, and put two holes in the head of our former President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Yes, his name was Lee Harvey Oswald. One who lacks self-esteem and has a poor self-image is likely to be negative, anti-social and often deplorably immoral.

Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!, C.S.S.
Publishing Company, 1990. Cited on:
http://www.sermonillustrations.com/

Index

6. The Russian Lady and Willful Blindness

By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (481.2)

According to legend, a Russian countess was driven to the theater by her coach on a bitterly cold evening. To be sure she wouldn't have to wait afterwards, she ordered the driver and footman to remain outside until she returned.

She cried during the play when a loyal servant was being mistreated by an uncaring lord. When the performance ended, it was snowing heavily outside and a small crowd had gathered around her carriage. She demanded to know what was going on. The driver fearfully told her that the old footman who had stayed with the coach as she ordered had frozen to death. The lady was appalled.

How could a sensitive woman who cried at the plight of fictional characters be so callous about the comfort and safety of her own servants? Sometimes people see only what they want to see and know what they want to know. It's a form of willful blindness that afflicts many of us who profess grand principles of caring and respect that we ignore when we deal with people in our own lives. I've seen parents who want their children to be happy, self-confident and honest, yet brutalize their kids with relentless criticism and confuse them by cheating on their taxes or lying to get them into better schools.

Sometimes well-intentioned coaches ignore injuries, emotionally abuse young athletes or work them as if they were in a slave-labor camp—all the while convincing themselves it's for the athletes' own good.

And I've worked with executives in companies that advocate employee well-being and family values who look the other way when employees, either out of fear or the desire to please, work excessively long hours and neglect their families, causing stress and domestic conflict.

We all have moral blind spots. The challenge is to have the humility to find them and the character to fix them.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

© 2007 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. The Gift of Tears

Sample of Daily Encounter by Dick Innes

"Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep" (Romans 12:15).

An article in Parables, Etc., shares how "Author 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 was a four-year-old child 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 had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry.'"

By the time I was five years of age I had learned that "big men don't cry," so I learned well never to cry. As an adult, however, I came to realize that I had a problem because I couldn't cry. So I asked God to give me tears back! Whew! He did!

Not so long ago a friend from church lost her teenage daughter. She was well on a Friday. The following Friday was her funeral. This friend had already lost her son during the Vietnam war. Another friend and I visited her on Saturday night. It was incredibly sad. I had nothing to say. At times like these words can seem so empty and meaningless. I simply sat on the floor and wept with her.

Rare are the friends who know how to weep with those who weep. May God help us all to learn how to be this kind of a friend.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you not only for the gift of laughter, but also for the gift of tears. Please help me to always be sensitive to the hurts and pains of others and learn how to weep with those who weep, as you did when your friend, Lazarus, died. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen."

Index

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

Daily Encounter, a free weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 61,000+ 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 15 million e-mail Daily, Weekend and Prayer Encounters are delivered to subscribers every year!

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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. To Submit a Prayer Request

If you have a special prayer request please submit it to David Clark at: www.responda.co.uk/prayer.php. David is not on the ACTS staff but is offering this as a service to Daily and Weekend Encounter readers.

Helpers Needed: If you can help David pray for prayer requests, please could you go to:
www.responda.co.uk/member.php

Index

14. 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 61,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to 10,000+ 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 3000 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:

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 1-949-481-4262.

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     San Clemente, California 92673-0119
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Index

15. 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: 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

  On SALE at:
http://tinyurl.com/2unmmy

More books, tapes and poems by D. Innes also available at: http://www.actscom.com/store

Index

16. Free Services

 1. Bible concordance and Bible helps
 2. E-Word Today for a daily Bible reading
 3. To find your ZIP+4 Area Code in the U.S.A.
 4. How to find and write to your U.S. Representative
 5. ASK ... Smart answers fast
 6. Send a FREE greeting card for all occasions
 7. To check the weather in your area
 8. Hoax Web Sites
 9. Plus many more sources of helpful information

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

Index

17. 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

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PO Box 73545
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