Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 9 â€" No. 5107 December 22, 2007
Thought for the week: "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." â€" Jesus (John 14:2-3 NIV)
Wishing all our readers a very Merry and God blessed Christmas, and many thanks for the opportunity to share with you in this way every week. From Dick and Joy Innes.
Thought for the season:"The message of Christmas is not about the proclamation of a holiday or the declaration of a season. It is about the proclamation of a Person and the declaration of Salvation. The birth of the child in the manger was an event that prophets had written about, the people of Israel had spoken about, the patriarchs of old had wondered about, and the angels of God shouted about on that glorious night when Christ was born." â€" Roy Lessin, Co-Founder DaySpring Cards
"Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things and I'll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things." â€" Lawrence Bell
"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way." â€" Babe Ruth
"Most of the important things in the world have been accompanied by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." â€" Dale Carnegie
"Temptation usually comes in through a door that has deliberately been left open." â€" Unknown
"He who throws mud loses ground." â€" Anon
"The older we get the more we realize that service to others is the only way to stay happy. If we do nothing to benefit others, we will do nothing to benefit ourselves." â€" Carl Holmes
"Peace if possible, but truth at any rate." â€" Martin Luther
Robert Croteau writes in Aspire, In the mid 1980s, singer Amy Grant's life was not as charmed as it appeared. Her problems with her marriage, her husband Gary's cocaine habit, and their talk of divorce left Amy in one of her darkest moments. She remembers:
"For a few days, I just stayed in bed and mourned my life. The only way I could seem to see was just junking it all, moving to Europe, and starting everything all over again. It was my sister, in a last-ditch visit, who marched up right beside my bed and said, 'Fine, go to Europe, leave it all behind, start your life again. But before you go, tell my little girl how you can sing that Jesus can help her through anything her life, but that he couldn't help you.'"
The words hit home. Amy and Gary began marriage and personal counseling, slowly rebuilding their relationship with each other and with God.
Source: Encounter magazine (ACTS Australia), June-July, 2007, p. 15
I wrote your name on a piece of paper,
but by accident I threw it away.
I wrote your name on my hand,
but it washed away.
I wrote your name in the sand,
but the waves whispered it away.
I wrote your name in my heart,
and there forever it will stay.
Year after year with "tireless regularity and eternal patience," God reminds the world every Christmas that he sent his Son, Jesus, to save lost mankind. Christmas is also God's reminder that Jesus is coming back to earth for all who have accepted him as their personal Lord and Savior.
His first coming is an indisputable fact of history. His second coming to end this world age is as certain. According to Bible scholars, there are 1,845 references in the Old Testament and 318 in the New Testament about Christ's coming again. This means for every prophecy in the Bible about Christ's first comingâ€"every one of which was fulfilled in minute detailâ€"there are eight about his second coming!
Jesus is coming again. God has promised this in his Word, the Bible. Jesus himself promised it as well.* And all the signs that Jesus and the Bible said would immediately precede his return are evident today, also reminding us that Christ's return could be very soon. If it were today, would you be ready?
A few weeks ago Joy, my wife, went with a group of nine ladies from our church on a two-week mission trip to Malawi in Africa working in conjunction with World Vision to help bring a measure of help and hope to a very impoverished people in an area ravaged by AIDS.
Joy and I together support a girl in Malawi so she can be given an education and help get a better start in life. This girl, Matilda (name changed), lives in the village where the team was going so Joy was planning on visiting her and taking gifts for her, her two brothers, two sisters, and her mother and father. However, it was explained to the team before leaving for Malawi that when giving gifts to a sponsored child and his/her family, many of the village non-sponsored childrenâ€"as many as 64â€"gather around and look on in wonderment and envy as gifts are being given to the sponsored child and his or her family. But these children receive nothing.
When Joy told me about this, I wept. It reminded me of the time when I was a child how my parents took me to a church Christmas gift program for children where every child in the church received a Christmas giftâ€"except me. At the time I felt devastated and can still feel that childhood pain almost as if it happened just a short while ago.
With tears in my eyes I said to Joy, “Let’s do a little something for these forgotten children. Let’s....
"The people of this generation ... are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.'"1
On a December day back in 1903 at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright, after numerous failures to fly a heavier-than-air machine, made amazing history. They achieved something that no man had ever done before. Ecstatic, they sent a telegram to their sister Katherine: "We have actually flown 852 feet. Will be home for Christmas."
Overjoyed, Katherine ran down to the local newspaper and pushed the telegramâ€"the greatest news story of the new centuryâ€"into the hand of the editor. After reading it, he smiled and said, "Well, well! How nice the boys will be home for Christmas."
The religious people of Christ's day who were actually anticipating his coming as their Messiah failed totally to recognize himâ€"and ironically had him crucifiedâ€"because he didn't come and didn't operate in the way they expected him to.
How sad it is that so many miss the full meaning of Christmas in that they have never thanked Jesus for dying for their sins, nor accepted the most profound and precious Christmas gift ever given ... the gift of the Savior and his pardon for all their sins and his gift of eternal life.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for the most wonderful Christmas gift ever givenâ€"the gift of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Please use me to share your great gift of salvation with as many people as possible for as long as I shall live. And because of my inadequacies, please do this through me. Use me every day to be as Christ to whomever you bring into my life and grant that they, seeing Jesus in me, will want you for themselves. Eternally grateful, in Jesus' name. Amen."
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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." â€" 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 Witnessingâ€"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.
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On Sale at: http://www.actscom.com/store
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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...
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Because the world would die without,
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