Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 19 – No. 1817 May 05, 2017
Thought for the week:"As one goes through life one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don't move." – Katherine Hepburn
"Foolish are the generals who ignore the daily intelligence from the trenches." – Author Unknown
"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable." – Sidney J. Harris
"A lack of Bible study leads to 'truth' decay." – Unknown
"Your integrity will affect your destiny, don't leave home without it." – Clarence E. Hodges
"Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it." – Lou Holtz
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." – Mohandas Gandhi
"Don't wait. The time will never be just right." – Napoleon Hill
"Alexander, Caesar, and Hannibal conquered the world but had no friends.... Jesus founded his empire upon love, and at this hour millions would die for him.... He has won the hearts of men, a task a conqueror cannot do." – Napoleon
The minister of a well-attended, strong, and enthusiastic church often showed himself ready and able to deal with any situation that might come up. One Sunday, just as he was reaching the climax of his sermon, his own young son entered the church, ran to the center aisle, started making loud beeps and vrrrmms like a car without a muffler, then zoomed right toward him. The minister stopped his sermon, pointed severely at his son, and commanded, "Jimmy, park the car immediately beside your mother on that bench (pointing), turn off the ignition, and hand her the keys." The sermon continued undisturbed ... after a good laugh by the congregation.
Truth, if it becomes a weapon against persons.
Beauty, if it becomes vanity.
Love, if it becomes possessive.
Loyalty, if it becomes blind, careless trust.
Tolerance, if it becomes indifference.
Self-confidence, if it becomes arrogance.
Faith, if it becomes self-righteous.
Ashley Cooper,
in Leadership...with a human touch.
To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk rejection.
To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken...
because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave.
He has forfeited his freedom.
Only a person who takes risks is free.
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." – Western Union internal memo, 1876
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" – David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s
"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." – A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
"Who ... wants to hear actors talk?" – H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind"
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." – Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." – Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." – Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895
"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" – Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer
"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." – Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." – Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." – Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." – Charles H. Duel
"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." – Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." – Bill Gates, 1981
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." – Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." – The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
I once heard the chairman and CEO of a huge public company tell a roomful of ambitious, hardworking, dedicated executives that if he had to do it all over again, he would have spent more time with his family. That's not news, but to Type-A personalities, it's easier said than done.
David L. Weatherford's poem "Slow Dance" sends the message in a particularly compelling way:
Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round
Or listened to rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight
Or gazed at the sun fading into the night?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
Time is short, the music won't last.
Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask, "How are you?" do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores running through your head?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
Time is short, the music won't last.
Ever told your child, "We'll do it tomorrow,"
And in your haste not seen his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die,
'Cause you never had time to call and say hi?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
Time is short, the music won't last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere,
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It's like an unopened gift thrown away.
Life is not a race, so take it slower,
Hear the music before your song is over.
The question isn't whether this makes sense to you. It's what are you going to do about it and when are you going to start?
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Let us then approach the throne of grace [God] with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."1
One night some time ago when I badly wanted some practical guidance from God, half in jest—half in frustration—I picked up my bedside telephone and dialed 1-800-4-HEAVEN.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz was the only response I received.
I was telling a friend about this the next day so dialed 1-800-4-HEAVEN again. This time I received a recorded message. It said in one of those typical monotone mechanical computer voices: "You are dialing the wrong number!"
At a later time I tried calling 1-800-4-HEAVEN again. This time a real live person answered. I got such a shock I never did think to ask the person who they were!
Seriously, it's not how we pray that matters. It's the attitude of the heart that counts. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, we need to seek/worship God "in spirit and in truth."2 That is, when we come to God, we need to be sincere and speak honestly from the heart.
We also need to pray in faith. As the Bible says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."3 And Jesus promised, "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."4
Of this we can be sure, when we come to God with a sincere heart, have faith in him, and pray in harmony with God's will in Jesus' name, we have the assurance that God will hear and answer our prayers—according to his will and not necessarily ours.
Suggested prayer: "Thank you God, that when I come to you with a sincere and honest heart, you always hear and answer my prayers. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. Hebrews 4:16 (NIV).
2. John 4:24.
3. Hebrews 11:6 (NIV).
4. John 14:14 (NIV).
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