Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 10 – No. 3008 July 26, 2008
Thought for the week: "To risk nothing is to risk everything. Instead of living fully, I'll be dying slowly. And never will I discover the joy of loving nor the high achievement of becoming all that I was meant and created to be." – Dick Innes
"The greatest place to live in all the world is where you are loved." – Unknown
"As a Christian we are to do right regardless of the consequences. It is never the wrong time to do the right thing. And it is never the right time to do the wrong thing." – Dick Innes
"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." – Stephen King
"You always pass failure on the way to success." – Mickey Rooney
"I do the very best I know how—the very best I can; and mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything." – Abraham Lincoln
"We make a living by what we earn, but we make a life by what we give." – Unknown
"Giving is an attitude of life. As the greatest teacher of all times said, "Give to others and God will give to you. Indeed you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands—all that you can hold." – Jesus Christ, Luke 6:38 (Good News Bible)
While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I often take my four-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds.
She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs.
One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, "The tooth fairy will never believe this!"
Charles Plum, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a jet fighter pilot in Vietnam...
After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years in a Communist prison. He survived that ordeal and now lectures about lessons learned from that experience.
One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"
"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.
"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"
Plumb assured him, "It sure did—if your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."
Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform—a Dixie cup hat, a bib in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wondered how many times I might have passed him on the Kitty Hawk. I wondered how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you,' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."
Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.
Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute? Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day."
In all His dispensations God is at work for our good. In prosperity, He tries our gratitude; in mediocrity, our contentment; in misfortune, our submission; in darkness, our faith; under temptation, our steadfastness; and at all times, our obedience and trust in Him.
People are always saying, "I'd give anything to be able to ...." There is a basic leadership principle that says, "6x1=6." If you want to write a book, learn to play a musical instrument, become a better tennis player, or do anything else important, then you should devote one hour a day, six days a week, to a project. Sooner than you think, what you desire will become a reality. There are not many things a person cannot accomplish in 312 hours a year!
John Mason, Business consultant and author. Source: Faith Thought of the Day by Ray Lammie. To subscribe send a blank email to RIL3@aol.com with Subscribe in the Subject line.
You can tell a lot about a person's character by how he or she acts at the grocery store.
I remember being in a crowded store that had a shortage of shopping carts. A prosperous-looking fellow and his wife were pushing a cart when another man stopped them. "Excuse me," the second man said, "but that's my cart."
The first guy looked annoyed and, instead of apologizing, protested, "But someone took my cart." His wife glared at him, and he reluctantly relinquished his ill-gotten gain.
He had ignored the age-old wisdom: "Two wrongs don't make a right" in favor of a distorted version of the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as others have done unto you."
Then there are the folks who change their mind about buying an item and put it on the nearest shelf, rationalizing that the store hires people to put misplaced things back. Schools employ custodians to clean the halls, but does that mean it's okay for kids to throw their candy wrappers on the floor?
Finally, there are the express-line cheaters who enter the "10 items or less" line with 14 items because they're in a hurry or they love having a competitive edge. They count on the fact that no one will call them on such a moral misdemeanor. And if someone does, they're ready to play lawyer: "It depends on what you call an item. These melons are part of the fruit group so I count them as one."
Being considerate, playing by the rules, and setting a good example are important, even in the grocery store.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin."1
Some time ago I read the following story taken from The Prairie Overcomer magazine.
The man huddled on the cabin floor was slowly freezing to death. It was high in the Rockies in southwestern Alberta, and outside a blizzard raged. John Elliott had logged miles that day through the deep snows of the mountain passes. As he checked for avalanches, and as dusk and exhaustion overcame him, he had decided to "hole-up."
He made it wearily to his cabin but somewhat dazed with fatigue, he did not light a fire or remove his wet clothing. As the blizzard blasted through the cracks in the old cabin walls, the sleeping forest ranger sank into oblivion, paralyzed by the pleasure of the storm's icy caress.
Suddenly, however, his dog sprang into action, and with unrelenting whines, finally managed to rouse his near-comatose friend. The dog was John's constant companion, a St. Bernard, one of a long line of dogs famous for their heroics in times of crisis.
"If that dog hadn't been with me, I'd be dead today," John Elliott says. "When you're freezing to death, you actually feel warm all over, and don't wake up because it feels too good."2
How easy it is for those of us, especially in the West, to get lulled into sleep by the pleasures of this world's riches and what money can do for us ... or for others who get lulled into sleep by the pleasures of sin, which as today's Scripture says, all pass away.
Sometimes God sends, or at least allows and uses, setbacks or problems that come into our life to awaken us out of our sleep to the reality of the situation we are in-to save us from spiritual bankruptcy and for some, to save from eternal death.
Whenever I am going through difficult times, I ask God, "What lesson is there in this experience that you are seeking to teach me. What is it that I need to learn?" I encourage you to do the same.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, if I am asleep in my complacency to the reality of my spiritual condition, please send into my life whatever it takes to awaken me to reality, help me to see exactly what I need to do, and give me the good sense and courage to act accordingly. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
Note: If you have never accepted God's forgiveness be sure to read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at: http://tinyurl.com/8glq9.
1. Hebrews 11:24-25 (NIV).
2. The Prairie Overcomer, published by the Prairie Bible Institute, Three Hills, Alberta Canada.
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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
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