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. 9 – No. 3407 August 25, 2007
Thought for the week: "The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy." – Florence Shinn
"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." – Colin Powell
"People seldom get dizzy from doing good turns." – Unknown
"Everyone wants to be appreciated. So if you appreciate someone, don't keep it a secret." – Mary Kay Ash
"Better to be prepared and not called than to be called and not prepared." – Jim Wallace
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names may break my heart" – Linda McCartney
"When one door closes another one opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us." – Alexander Graham Bell
"If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth." – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Fred Craddock tells the story of a missionary family in China who was forced to leave the country sometime after the communists took over.
One day a band of soldiers knocked on the door and told this missionary, his wife, and children that they had two hours to pack up before these troops would escort them to the train station. They would be permitted to take with them only two hundred pounds of stuff.
Thus began two hours of family wrangling and bickering—what should they take? What about this vase? It's a family heirloom, so we've got to take the vase. Well, maybe so, but this typewriter is brand new and we're not about to leave that behind. What about some books? Got to take a few of them along. On and on it went, putting stuff on the bathroom scale and taking it off until finally they had a pile of possessions that totaled two hundred pounds on the dot.
At the appointed hour, the soldiers returned. "Are you ready?" they asked.
"Yes."
"Did you weigh your stuff?"
"Yes, we did."
"Two hundred pounds?"
"Yes, two hundred pounds on the dot."
"Did you weigh the kids?"
"Um ... no."
"Weigh the kids!"
In an instant the vase, the typewriter, and the books all became trash. Trash! None of it meant anything compared to the surpassing value of the children.
Source: Thought for the Day by Alan Smith, Helen Street Church of Christ, Fayetteville, North Carolina. http://www.tftd-online.com
The optimist fell from the fourth floor sill
And as he passed each window bar,
He shouted to the folks below,
"Doing all right so far...!"
How ridiculous! Yet there are preachers across the land that advocate a lot of feel-good religion without a call to commitment or even a call to reality. A preacher was telling a congregation that if they lived right, God would bless them with health, wealth, popularity, and happiness. Tell that to families who mourn the loss of their loved ones. Tell that to a family who loses their home in a fire. Tell that to one who works for years at a job and then gets laid off in a cut back.
Jesus Himself is described as "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). Jesus calls us to have a balance in life. He wants us to be real, not some kind of phony religious nuts who go around with fake, painted-on smiles. The difference between us and the world is not measured by our lack of problems, but rather by the presence of a constant Friend who helps us through them.
In contrast to those who never appear to have a sad moment, there are some who are under the misconception that to be truly humble, we have to put on a sad look and a sad disposition. Jesus specifically warned against trying to get people to feel sorry for us when we are fasting, giving, or praying (Matthew 6:1-18)....
In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor;act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn you will find yourself disliking him less."
If we interviewed 100 people who are unusually happy, I think the most prominent common denominator would be unusually good relationships. Despite the widespread promotion of materialism and vanity in our popular culture, wealth and beauty are not enough to produce happiness. In fact, they're not even necessary. What's more, bad relationships—at work, at home, or among friends—are a surefire source of anguish and heartache.
For most of us, the connections that most strongly influence our level of happiness are family bonds. And the most powerful of all are at the inner core of family, especially parent-child relationships.
No matter what your age, your kinship with your parents will always have a unique capacity to generate comfort or pain. Many children have ambivalent feelings about their folks. Yet most crave their approval, respect, and love. Parents have a similar need.
If you're a parent, resolve to make more consistent and conscientious efforts to make your children feel appreciated. If you want to make their lives and yours happier, be careful to not demean or diminish their achievements and to avoid expressions of disappointment. Tell your child you're proud to have him or her as a son or daughter.
And if you still can, give your parents pleasure by showing them you love them, not only for what they did for you as a child, but for who they are now. Talk to them frequently and talk of meaningful things. Ask their advice and don't roll your eyes in disdain if you disagree with it. One of the best ways to express your love is through respect.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me [Jesus], because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."1
I believe it was Ernest Hemingway who coined the phrase "growing strong in the broken places." When a bone is broken, for example, the calcium buildup that "welds" the bone together makes that the strongest part of the bone.
When our life is committed to God and we bring our broken parts to him for healing, we also become strong in the broken places.
Another aspect on being broken is in the words of Vance Havner who said, "God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume ... it is Peter, weeping bitterly [after his failure of denying Jesus], who returns to greater power than ever."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please give me the courage to face every 'broken part' in my life and bring these to you for your healing and lead me to the help I need for full recovery. Grant that I, too, will grow strong in the broken places and be used by you to be a blessing and encouragement to others. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
Daily Encounter, a free weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 88,000+ 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 22 million e-mail Daily, Weekend and Prayer Encounters are delivered to subscribers every year!
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.
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.
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.
NOTE: Please hold prayer requests until September 3 as David is on vacation/holidays.
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
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 88,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to almost 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 7-9 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:
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://tinyurl.com/2unmmy
1. Bible concordance and Bible helps
2. New Hope Crisis Counseling with trained
lay/volunteer counselors. www.newhopenow.org 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 ... Smart answers 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
"Because the world is hungry,
go with bread.
Because the world is filled with strife,
go with peace.
Because the world is filled with deceptions and lies,
go with truth.
Because the world would die without,
go with the love of 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.