Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 9 – No. 4507 November 10, 2007
Thought for the week: "If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?" – Stephen Levine
Weddings can be adventures. I will never forget one several years ago that went just beautifully until the very end of the ceremony. In that tender moment when bride and groom kissed, the bride's five-year-old brother, the ring bearer, let out with a "YUK!" The congregation was on the floor laughing. As people left that afternoon, the place glowed with everyone's grins. And in years to come, when people think of that wedding, the one thing they will remember is YUK!
Dr. David E. Leininger, "This Jesus is Something!"
Source: www.sermons.com
To be true, cancer is a dreaded disease, but as Perry Smith wrote:
Cancer is limited:
It cannot cripple love,
It cannot shatter hope,
It cannot corrode faith,
It cannot eat away peace,
It cannot destroy confidence,
It cannot kill friendship,
It cannot shut out memories,
It cannot silence courage,
It cannot invade the soul,
It cannot reduce eternal life,
It cannot quench the spirit,
It cannot lessen the power of the resurrection.
Source: Encounter magazine (ACTS Int. Australia),
July/August, 2006, p. 21.
Near the Village of Gevas in eastern Turkey, while shepherds ate their breakfast, one of their sheep jumped off a 45-foot cliff to its death...
Then, as the stunned shepherds looked on, the rest of the flock followed. In all, 1,500 sheep mindlessly stumbled off the cliff. The only good news was that the last 1,000 were cushioned in their fall by the growing woolly pile of those who jumped first. According to The Washington Post, 450 sheep died. The Bible often refers to human beings as sheep (Ps. 100:3; Isa. 53:6; Matt. 9:36). Easily distracted and susceptible to group influence, we would rather follow the crowd than the wisdom of the Shepherd.
Whom are we following? One another? Or the voice and direction of the Good Shepherd? Our challenge is to avoid the mistake of the sheep who blindly followed one another over a cliff. We must make it our daily purpose to ask ourselves: Am I listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd? Am I following Him?
"I [Jesus] am the Good Shepherd.... My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me" (John 10:14,27).
There was a woman whose husband loved her very much. During her convalescence from a severe illness he carried her from room to room. On sunny days he would carry her onto the porch or out into the garden. He waited on her constantly. On day, the physician told him, "If you keep this up, she will never walk again. She likes being carried, and she will never even try to walk."
The husband saw the point, so when he went home that night he watched as she walked tremblingly and stumblingly. He even let her fall and painfully pick herself up. I would have been so easy to rush to her side and keep her from falling. And that is what we want God to do. We want Him to pick us up when we fall, and rush to our sides to take away all the pain. No one can ever imagine what it cost God to refrain from intervening as His own beloved Son was put to death. But God's holding back was not weakness. The Cross of Christ became the power of God unto salvation."
C. L. Allen, "Joyful Living" (Revell).
Source: Preaching Well, Vol. IV, No. 2.
Gary Smit, a school superintendent in Lombard, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), is a passionate advocate of CHARACTER COUNTS! He says his school system adopted the program because it makes such a difference in the lives of kids and communities.
He illustrates his convictions with powerful stories including the following. An elementary school was engaged in a major fundraising drive to purchase plants and flowers to beautify its grounds. After collecting $400, it scheduled a Saturday for a special planting celebration and sought the help of kids and their parents. One of the students—a girl I'll call Karen—announced she and her parents would not be participating in the planting because her father had lost his job and they had been evicted from their apartment. She said she would have to move to another school.
Chris, a fourth-grader, made a motion to donate all the money they had collected for plants to Karen's family so she could stay in the school. "If we're a CHARACTER COUNTS school," he said, "caring is more important than plants."
The motion passed unanimously. When the faculty heard about the gesture, they decided to match the $400. And when word reached the local newspaper, the community got involved. More money was contributed, and Karen's father was offered a job. Karen was able to stay at the school and eventually graduated.
By the way, Dr. Smit added, the school was beautifully landscaped with plants and flowers also donated by members of the community—all because of the character of one fourth-grade boy.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."1
A Daily Encounter reader asks, "I just broke my engagement with a man whom I deeply loved. We have had a lot of problems and when he gets angry, he is out of control and says very hurtful words. He wants us to get back together but I am very confused.... How can I know God's will?"
Dear Joanne (name changed), it is true that broken engagements and broken relationships can be incredibly painful. I know. I've been there. However, to discern God's will in these matters it might be wise to first ask, "What is not God's will?" In answering this question, you can be certain that it isn't God's will for you to allow anyone to abuse you. People who do are almost always codependent; that is, they have a need to "fix" others in order to avoid facing and "fixing" their own problems.
Second, you can be certain that God's will is that you first work on your own growth and maturity. There is a reason why you were attracted to an angry man. For instance, was your father an angry man by any chance? Whatever the reason, it is imperative that you ask God to face you with the truth about yourself, and to show you the issues in your life that you need to resolve. Furthermore, what we fail to resolve we are destined to repeat.
While God doesn't make our decisions for us, he will give us wisdom if we ask him for it. Obviously we need to be very wise in such situations and don't allow ourselves to be controlled by our heart alone. The reality is that as long as this man has a serious anger problem, anyone who marries him will be heading for future heartache and disaster.
Unless this man gets into an in-depth anger management counseling program (that probably isn't likely) to resolve his anger problem, it is imperative that you don't go back to him. And even if he does get into such a counseling program, you would need to have absolute assurance from his counselor that he has resolved his anger (and any other relational problem/s).
Much wiser for you to resolve your hurt and move on without this man in your life. Better to feel hurt and disappointed now than suffer for the rest of your life. I trust these suggestions will help.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, in every painful situation please give me the wisdom to, first of all, see what I am contributing to the problem, and the good sense to resolve my own issues first. And then help me to see the overall truth of the conflict I am in so I will know exactly what I need to do. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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