Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 9 – No. 4907 December 08, 2007
Thought for the week: "Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light." – Jennie Jerome Churchill (mother of Winston Churchill)
"Our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become." – Unknown
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." – Marcel Proust, Author
"A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before we changed." – Earl Nightingale
"Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there." – Will Rogers
"It's nice to be important; but it's more important to be nice." – Unknown
"Never follow the crowd in what you do; the crowd has never produced anything of lasting quality, value or beauty." – Denis Waitley
"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or in the life of another." – Helen Keller
Sometimes the best thing we can do is to move on to another field. Paul Harvey tells the story of Joe, who was born into a family of Sicilian immigrants, a family who had a 300-year history as fishermen. Joe's dad was a fisherman. His brothers were fishermen. But Joe was made sick by the smell of raw fish and the motion of a rocking boat. In a family where the only acceptable way to earn a living was by fishing, Joe was a failure. His dad used to refer to his son as "good for nothing." Joe believed his dad. He believed that his attempts at other types of work were an admission of failure, but he just couldn't stand the smell of the fishing business. One thing that Joe could do was to play baseball. Giving up a field where he could not succeed, Joe DiMaggio moved to another field and became one of the great successes of baseball.
David G. Rogne Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost
This past summer on June 16, a major religious body in the United States at their national convention voted against two proposals that expressed opposition to all same sex unions.
First, how much presumption does it take to vote against a biblical truth? Who does man think he is, voting against the edicts and pronouncements of God? Do people think majority rules when it comes to God's revelation? Do people really think they can "vote God out of office" by reaching a majority decision against God and His platform as set forth in Scripture? Apparently so.
Second, how much presumption does it take to vote for or against any biblical matter? Why would anyone be "voting" on any biblical or moral issue? Has not God already spoken? Does not Scripture already "thoroughly furnish" us with answers to doctrinal and moral matters (2 Tim. 3:16-17)? Is truth determined by a vote? Let God be true and every man a liar. Friends, no vote needs to be taken, rather people need to open the Bible!
Apparently, people need to be reminded that truth is not what we make it, but what God stated. Morality is not determined by a vote, but by the revelation of God. Rather than "voting," wouldn't people be better off just obeying the word of God?
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgment...Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and lack of harmony or proportion is more readily seen." These are the words of Leonardo da Vinci, and no idler he; he excelled as a painter, sculptor, poet, architect, engineer, city planner, scientist, inventor, anatomist, military genius, and philosopher.
6. Entitlement Attitudes and False Necessity Claims
By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (472.1)
When Gwen discovered she was pregnant, she quickly took a job that offered medical insurance and said nothing about her condition. A couple of months later, she was laid off, leaving her with no insurance.
Although she had kept her pregnancy secret, Gwen went to a lawyer. They decided to sue her employer, claiming she was terminated because the company found out she was pregnant. When Gwen told her friend Ann about this, Ann was appalled, "That's dishonest!" she said.
Gwen responded angrily, "Don't be so judgmental. I had no choice. I'm doing what I have to do. You'd do the same thing in my situation."
Ann said, "No, I wouldn't. That's not the way I was brought up."
It's easy to sympathize with Gwen. While her decision to lie is understandable, it's not justifiable. It's fraud, plain and simple. Unless we are willing to endorse the right of everyone to lie to get what they think they deserve, we must insist Gwen find another solution.
Both personal responsibility and the integrity of social programs are undermined by a rampant entitlement mentality that goes something like this: "Whatever I want, I need. Whatever I need, I deserve. I have a right to do whatever is necessary to get what I deserve."
Similarly, I worry about the all-too-quick resort of claiming needfulness to justify dishonorable behavior. Nietzsche once warned against granting moral immunity based on dubious exigencies. "Necessity is not a fact. It's an interpretation."
In a world where "me-first" rationalizations place personal wants and needs above moral principles, we will all become victims sooner or later.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Many achievements in life have come from a setback, an accident, or some kind of crisis or even suffering. For instance, the first cars had to be started by cranking the motor by hand. At times the engine would "kick" back the crank handle. This happened to Charles Kettering and it broke his arm.
"There must be a safer way to start cars than this," Kettering reasoned and he went on to invent self-starters for cars.
Jacob Schick was prospecting for gold where the temperature fell to 40 degrees below zero. He had a hard time trying to shave with a blade without sufficient hot water—so he invented the first electric shaver.
Eugene O'Neill had no specific goal or aim in life until he became ill and had to go to hospital. While lying flat on his back he began to write his plays.
A number of years ago I had an accident on a construction site which put me in hospital for a week. For a few years I had been battling a sense of God's call to Christian service but never acted on it until I was flat on my back with time to think. It was there in the hospital that I said, "Okay, God, you win. I know what you want me to do." That was the day I made the decision to go back to college to train for Christian ministry.
So, when things go wrong in your life and you experience a major setback, lose your job, or have an accident, perhaps God has something for you to learn, or something else he wants you to do. The important thing is to be open to what God is saying.
Often a disaster is "God's wake-up call" to teach us an important lesson, to help us grow, or to lead us in a different direction.
Most of us are not going to be struck down like Saul [Paul] was and hear a voice from heaven and be left blind for three days when God calls. Some of us, though, who are hardheaded, have to be hit over the head as it were with a "four-by-four" for God to get our attention. But, for most of us, God leads through his Word, our circumstances, and through a "still small voice" within that gives us a sense of what God wants us to do.
"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples . . . As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'" (Acts 9:1,3-4, NIV).
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, help me to see/hear/learn what you are saying to me in every adverse circumstance I may experience, as I truly want to be what you want me to be and to do what you want me to do. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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