Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
To receive the email edition of Weekend Encounter (without charge) click on the Subscribe button.
Privacy policy: We do not sell or rent subscriber's e-mail
addresses to anyone. We value your privacy.
Global Communications Outreach:
Learn how to be a missionary right from your own home and have a vital part in worldwide gospel outreach by becoming an ACTS People Power for Jesus Partner. Click HERE There is no charge.
Vol. 10 – No. 4108 October 11, 2008
Thought for the week: "The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work." – Oprah Winfrey
"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway." – John Wayne
"It doesn't matter how strong your opinions are. If you don't use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem." – Coretta Scott King
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also with overcoming it." – Helen Keller
"I have witnessed the softening of the hardest of hearts by a simple smile." – Goldie Hawn
"Grandchildren don't stay young forever, which is good because granddaddies have only so many horsey rides in them." – Gene Perret
"Prefer a loss to a dishonest gain; the one brings pain at the moment, the other for all time." – Chilon
You are driving in a car at a constant speed. On your left side is a big drop, and on your right there is a fire engine traveling at the same speed as you.
In front of you, running side by side, are a pig and horse. You cannot overtake them. Behind is a helicopter chasing you at ground level.
What can you do to safely get out of this dangerous situation?
Robert Thornton, a professor of economics at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, was, like many teachers, frustrated about having to write letters of recommendation for people with dubious qualifications, so he put together an arsenal of statements that can be read two ways. He calls his collection the "Lexicon of Inconspicuously Ambiguous Recommendations", or LIAR, for short.
Thornton explains that LIAR may be used to offer a negative opinion of the personal qualities, work habits or motivation of the candidate while allowing the candidate to believe that it is high praise.
Some examples from LIAR:
To describe a person who is extremely lazy: "In my opinion, you will be very fortunate to get this person to work for you."
To describe a person who is totally inept: "I most enthusiastically recommend this candidate with no qualifications whatsoever."
To describe an ex-employee who had problems getting along with fellow workers: "I am pleased to say that this candidate is a former colleague of mine."
To describe a candidate who is so unproductive that the job would be better left unfilled: "I can assure you that no person would be better for the job."
To describe a job applicant who is not worth further consideration: "I would urge you to waste no time in making this candidate an offer of employment."
To describe a person with lackluster credentials: "All in all, I cannot say enough good things about this candidate or recommend him too highly."
Robert Thornton is right, isn't he? We don't like to hurt people's feelings, but we don't want to be totally dishonest either, so we are excited to find a way to be ambiguous. We call it ambiguity, speaking a half-truth, using mental reservation, twisting the truth a bit, being ambivalent. Perhaps at least Thornton was more honest when he called his collection "LIAR".
It may be that no Christian characteristic has suffered more in the workplace than honesty. It shouldn't be that way. Jesus wants his people to be known as a people of truth. It is important that those around us can trust what we say without wondering whether we really mean it or not.
"Therefore, putting away lying, each one speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another" (Ephesians 4:25).
As related in "On This Day" by Robert Morgan, in November 1873, Chicago lawyer Horatio G. Spafford took his wife and four daughters, Maggie, Tanetta, Annie, and Bessie, to New York, and boarded them on the luxurious French ocean liner, the S.S. Ville du Havre. The Great Chicago Fire had destroyed everything they owned, and Spafford was sending his girls to an English Academy until the Chicago schools (and their lives) could be rebuilt. As he saw his family settled into their cabin, an unease filled his mind and he moved them to a room closer to the bow of the ship. Then he said "Goodbye," promising to join them later in France.
During the night, as the Ville du Havre glided over smooth seas, the passengers were suddenly thrown from their bunks. The ship had collided with an iron sailing vessel, the Lochearn. Water poured in and the Ville du Havre tilted dangerously. Screams and prayers and oaths merged into a nightmare of unmeasured terror. Passengers lost their footing, clung to posts, tumbled through darkness, and were drenched by powerful currents of icy, in-rushing sea.
Loved ones fell from each other's grasp and disappeared into foaming blackness. Within two hours, the mighty ship vanished beneath the waters. The 226 fatalities included Maggie, Tanetta, Annie, and Bessie. Mrs. Spafford was found nearly unconscious, clinging to a piece of the wreckage. Nine days later, when the survivors landed in Cardiff, Wales, she cabled her husband: "Saved, alone."
He immediately booked passage to join his wife. On the way over, during a cold December evening, the captain called him aside and said, "I believe we are now passing over the place where the Ville de Havre went down." Spafford went to his cabin but found it hard to sleep. He said to himself, "It is well; the will of God be done," and later wrote his famous hymn, based on those words:
"When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul."
This is number four on my list of all-time favorite commentaries.
According to a story in the book, Hugs for Dad, by John William Smith, a father asked his son after grocery shopping to return their cart to the retrieval area. Although it would have taken only a minute, the son protested.
"C'mon, Dad," he said, "there are carts all over the lot. None of those people returned theirs. No one expects them to."
Then Mom chimed in. "For heaven's sake, they pay people to collect the carts. Returning one more won't change the history of the world. Let's just go."
Dad was about to surrender when he saw an elderly couple walking together to return their cart. After a moment, he said to his son, "We're not responsible for what other people do, but we are responsible for what we do. There are two kinds of people: those who put their carts away and those who don't. We put our carts away because that's the kind of people we are."
This story isn't just about grocery carts. It's about doing the right thing in a world that seems to promote rationalizations and excuses that demean or trivialize simple acts of virtue. There are two kinds of people: those who find the strength to do what they ought to and those who find excuses not to.
People of character do the right thing even if no one else does, not because they think it will change the world, but because they refuse to be changed by the world.
I'm not saying people who don't return their shopping carts are moral felons, but there is a lot to admire in people who have such a strong sense of decency and responsibility that they put principles above convenience.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"But Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal it up so that it will not be understood until the end times, when travel and education shall be vastly increased."1
In 1927 in Signs of the Times, John Lewis Shuler wrote: "Sir Isaac Newton made a most daring forecast two hundred years ago regarding a future development in rapid transit, which at that time seemed absolutely beyond the possibility of ever seeing realization. Newton declared that he was convinced from a study of Bible prophecy that there was destined to be a marvelous increase in the speed of transportation on the earth.
"'I believe,' Newton said, 'that in the providence of God, though the method now be entirely hidden, men will yet travel on the earth at the rate of fifty miles an hour.' Newton lived from 1642-1727. In his day the most rapid travel by land was by horse. Stagecoaches drawn about eight miles an hour by horses held the record on land."
I imagine that many would have thought that Newton was crazy when he based such a wild prophecy for his day on what he had read in the Bible. He was certainly right, even if he grossly underestimated the speed at which people would travel in the future. Imagine if he could have seen our day when thousands of people are flying daily across the world at speeds more like 500 mph., not to mention the incredible speed that astronauts travel when circling the earth and/or fly to the moon.
So what about Daniel's prophecy approximately 2,500 years ago? Many Bible students believe that we are living in or are close to the end times—the time when Jesus Christ will come again. Not only has travel speed vastly increased but think about knowledge. We are living today in a time of a knowledge explosion—especially so because of computers, the Internet, email and blogs.
Christ's first coming is an indisputable fact of history. He promised he would come again so we can be just as certain of his second coming—but only God knows the exact day and hour. The important thing is not the date of Christ's return, but that we are ready for him when he comes. "Therefore, keep watch," Jesus said, "because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man [Jesus Christ] will come at an hour when you do not expect him."2
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for your promise that you will come again for all who believe in you and trust in you. Help me to make sure that I will be ready for that day should it come in my lifetime so I will not be embarrassed at your coming. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
Daily Encounter, a free weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 189,000+ subscribers. Scores of letters from around the world have come from readers saying how much they are being helped by this brief, practical devotional.
Over 49+ million e-mail Daily, Weekend and Prayer Encounters are delivered to subscribers every year!
NOTE: Some ISPs (especially AOL) now use e-mail filtering software that allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or 'approved' list. Please be sure to add acts@actsweb.org to yours so you won't miss any issue of Daily Encounter.
9. Receive E-mail Edition of Weekend Encounter ... Free
NOTE: Some ISPs (especially AOL) now use e-mail filtering software that allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or 'approved' list. Please be sure to add acts@actsweb.org to yours so you won't miss any issue of Weekend Encounter.
One of ACTS greatest needs is Prayer Partners to stand with us as we seek to share the gospel with millions of people around the world through E-mail and the Internet and to win the lost to Jesus. If you would like to be an ACTS Prayer Partner, please subscribe to the Prayer Encounter list. Approximately two prayer reports are emailed monthly. Thank you.
If you have a special prayer request please submit it to David Clark at: www.responda.co.uk/prayer.php. David is not on the ACTS staff but is offering this as a service to Daily and Weekend Encounter readers.
Helpers Needed: If you can help David pray for prayer requests, please could you go to: www.responda.co.uk/member.php
Weekend Encounter and Daily Encounter are just two of the ways the nonprofit organization, ACTS International, is working to improve the spiritual and emotional life of many thousands of people around the world.
Every weekday Daily Encounter is going to 189,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to 10,000+ subscribers worldwide—many of whom are in places where it is forbidden to spread the Christian gospel and message. Plus we reach several hundred thousand more every week through our advertising. As a result every day we have been seeing an average of 16 salvation and re-commitment to Jesus Christ responses from around the world—over 3000 in seven months!
If you find value in the free Weekend Encounter and/or Daily Encounter, we hope you will be comfortable donating at least $26. That's only 50 cents a week for an entire year (tax-deductible in the U.S.). You can donate in one of the following ways:
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." – 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 Witnessing—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.
has topped the charts as the best marriage
book available. More than one million couples
have read it ... made their marriage sizzle. Fall in Love Stay in Love Just Hand Over the Chocolate ... Love, Sex, and Lasting Relationships Sex Starts in the Kitchen Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours Harried With Children Adolescence Is Not an Illness Show Time It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian
On Sale at: http://www.actscom.com/store
Cassettes:
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...
On SALE at:http://tinyurl.com/2unmmy
1. Bible concordance and Bible helps
2. New Hope Crisis Counseling with trained
lay/volunteer counselors. www.newhopenow.org 3. E-Word Today for a daily Bible reading
4. To find your ZIP+4 Area Code in the U.S.A.
5. How to find and write to your U.S. Representative
6. ASK ... Smart answers fast
7. Send a FREE greeting card for all occasions
8. To check the weather in your area
9. Hoax Web Sites
10. Plus many more sources of helpful information
"Because the world is hungry,
go with bread.
Because the world is filled with strife,
go with peace.
Because the world is filled with deceptions and lies,
go with truth.
Because the world would die without,
go with the love of God."
ACTS International
PO Box 73545
San Clemente, CA 92673-0119
U.S.A.
To receive the email edition of Weekend Encounter
without charge click on the Subscribe button.
Privacy policy: We do not sell or rent subscriber's e-mail
addresses to anyone. We value your privacy.