Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 17 – No. 5215 December 26, 2015
Thought for the week: "Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did." – Unknown
2015 has been a very good year with both its challenges and its victories and, as we draw to a close of another year, we thank all of our partners for making Weekend Encounter, Daily Encounter and Prayer Encounter available free of charge to more than 373,000 subscribers worldwide. Be sure to read our encouraging annual report at http://www.actsweb.org/acts_in_action.php.
Happy New Year: Joy and I wish all of our readers God speed and his very best for the New Year of 2016.
"God doesn't always still the storm, but he can calm the sailor." – Anon
"When I was a pastor of a country church, a farmer didn't like the sermons I preached on hell. He said, 'Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus.' I said, 'That's where I got my information about hell.'" – Vance Havner
"It is not the straining for great things that is most effective; it is the doing of the little things, the common duties, a little better and better." – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." – Winston Churchill
"None of us can be free of conflict and woe. Even the greatest men have had to accept disappointments. The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them." – Bernard Baruch
"You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose." – Lou Holt
"Kierkegaard said that most of us read the Bible the way a mouse tries to remove the cheese from the trap without getting caught. Some of us have mastered that. We read the story as though it were about someone else a long time ago; that way we don't get caught." – Maxie Dunnam
Some people never seem motivated to participate, but are just content to watch while others do the work. They are called "Speck Taters."
Some people never do anything to help, but are gifted at finding fault with the way others do the work. They are called "Comment Taters."
Some people are very bossy and like to tell others what to do, but don't want to soil their own hands. They are called "Dick Taters."
Some people are always looking to cause problems by asking others to agree with them. It is too hot or too cold, too sour or too sweet. They are called "Agie Taters."
There are those who say they will help, but somehow just never get around to actually doing the promised help. They are called "Hezzie Taters."
Some people can put up a front and pretend to be someone they are not. They are called "Emma Taters."
Then there are those who love others and do what they say they will. They are always prepared to stop whatever they are doing and lend a helping hand. They bring real sunshine into the lives of others. They are called "Sweet Taters."
A graduating student at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, had just received his appointment from the bishop. He was grousing and grumbling because the appointment didn't fit what he felt he deserved. Another student, in a loving but unsympathetic way patted him on the back and said, "You know the world is a better place because Michelangelo didn't say, 'I don't do ceilings.'"
A pastor looked over the assembled members for his Thursday afternoon confirmation class. Only one teenager was there for the class that should have been filled with fifteen youths. Only one young girl was there to benefit from the pastor's knowledge and preparation. Only she had prepared her assignment from the week before. The lone member of the class was a thirteen-year-old girl. Her mother had left her job as a waitress in order to pick her daughter up at school and have her at the class on time.
Her mother had told the pastor at the beginning of the series of confirmation classes, "I did not have the benefit of a church when I was growing up. I am determined that things will go better for my daughter than they went for me."
Her mother was definitely determined. Determination was her middle name. She would move any mountain in order to ensure that her daughter participated in all church activities.
At first the pastor considered canceling the class. After all, only one student was present. But the determination and dedication of the mother and her daughter moved him. He went ahead with the class. After all, the mother's dedication ought to be rewarded with at least this much response from the church.
Ten years later, when the pastor returned to that church, a beautiful young woman came up and introduced herself to him. She was a new teacher, specializing in children with learning disabilities. She was also an officer in the church, a leader of the young adults' group. Then the pastor remembered: She was the lone little girl in the confirmation class that Thursday afternoon ten years ago. She was the fruit of her mother's determination that her daughter would receive a blessing from the church.
King Duncan, Collected Sermons
Cited on WITandWISDOM, by
Richard Wimer www.witandwisdom.org
Long ago, Samuel Johnson said, "Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, but knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." Warren Buffet updated that notion: "In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you."
In the early nineties I was asked to spend a full day talking about ethics with the entire California Senate. I was their punishment. Three senators had been convicted the previous year and voters had passed an ethics initiative requiring legislators to receive education on ethical principles.
This was a high-profile, high-prestige program, and I didn't want to be naïve about the political realities and rationalizations in Sacramento, so I spent days interviewing senators and staffers.
During one interview a senior staffer confided, "We need this program. People lie a lot up here." I wondered if I should act surprised. ("Lying in politics? I'm shocked!") But before I could respond, the staffer added, "I hardly ever lie."
"Gee," I thought to myself, "do you hardly ever take bribes?"
Although his statement sounded like a confession, he wasn't embarrassed at all. In fact, he was proud. "Hardly ever lying" made him morally superior. In a culture where lying is common, the occasional liar feels like a saint. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
I've heard variations of this justification—"I'm not so bad as long as others are worse"—so many times I've given it a name: The Doctrine of Relative Filth.
It's a rationalization used by cheating athletes and coaches, dishonest businessmen, and others who minimize their moral shortcomings by comparing themselves to those who have even lower standards.
What a pathetic defense! People of character aren't satisfied being better than someone else. They strive to be the best they can be.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Dr. Alfred Adler, international psychiatrist, based the following conclusions on a careful analysis of thousands of patients: "The most important task imposed by religion has always been, 'Love your neighbor....' It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow man that has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring."
Almost every day I pray, "Dear God, I'm available again today. Please make me usable and use me to be 'as Christ' today to my family, to someone in need, and in some way to every life I touch."
What a difference we Christians would make in our homes, places of business, schools, cities, and nation if every one of us would make this commitment every day, mean it, and practice it.
Will you make that commitment to God today?
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, I'm available. Please make me usable and use me today to be 'as Jesus' to my family, to someone in need, and in some way to every life I touch. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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I Hate Witnessing by Dick Innes
God's Formula for Success by Dick Innes
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