Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 11 – No. 1409 April 04, 2009
Thought for the week: "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." – Dwight Eisenhower
"He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help." – Abraham Lincoln
"If Columbus had turned back, no one would have blamed him. No one would have remembered him, either." – Anonymous
"He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass." – George Herbert
"The world is not moved only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker." – Helen Keller
"It is funny about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you will very often get it." – W. Somerset Maugham
"In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us." – Flora Edwards [Note from RWI. Isn't it amazing how many people actually take an idea from Jesus and make it sound like they originated it.]
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
3. The Best Policy ... Even If It Is a Little Late
A Sussex (England) man who forgot about a speeding fine for 52 years has paid up after finding the ticket in an old coat pocket.
John Gedge, 84, was caught doing 55mph in a 35mph zone during a holiday to Philadelphia in the US in July 1954.
He promised to pay the fine when he returned to his hotel, but forgot—until he found the speeding ticket last week.
He sent a note of apology with a £5 note to Philadelphia police and phoned to say sorry.
John, who lives in an East Sussex nursing home, said: "I told them that Englishmen always pay their debts, and my conscience is now clear."
US police officer Mark Focht said: "I'm going to frame the letter and the five pound note as an example to everyone that honesty is the best policy, even if it is a little late."
"Throughout all history, the great wise men and teachers, philosophers, and prophets have disagreed with one another on many different things. It is only on this one point that they are in complete and unanimous agreement. We become what we think about."
Earl Nightingale, Author of The Strangest Secret. Source: Insight of the Day by Bob Proctor, insights@insightoftheday.com
In his most recent Friday Evening newsletter, Tom Barnard wrote: "Author Fay Angus tells the story of attending a weekend retreat at a Christian conference center in Southern California. At the registration desk, she was given a small, glass container wrapped in decorative paper. She was told to unwrap the package and read the directions taped to the item. When she opened it, she discovered it was a small baby-food jar containing a walnut surrounded and filled to the brim with grains of rice. The directions read as follows:
The walnut in this jar represents the time we spend with God. The rice represents the time we spend doing other things. If you pour the rice into the empty jar first, then try to insert the walnut, it will not fit. The rice takes up too much space. If you put the walnut into the empty jar first, then pour the rice around it, there is sufficient room for everything. Likewise, if we spend time doing other things first, we never will find time to spend with God. If we spend time with God first, there always will be time for everything else.
Jesus was quite clear on the subject of walnuts and jars. He said, "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well" (Matthew 6:33, NEB).
As a full-time ethicist—can you believe there even is such a thing?—I spend most of my time talking about right and wrong with parents and politicians, kids and corporate managers, journalists and generals. One thing I've learned is that ethics—being a good person and doing the right thing—is easier said than done.
Ethics, or the lack of it, is everywhere. It's in the news, in schools, in the workplace, in sports, in parenting, you name it. Ethics would be easy to adhere to if we never wanted to do things we know are wrong. Unfortunately, if you're like me, there's a constant struggle between what I want to do (my desires) and what I should do (my ethical duties).
I want to avoid taxes, pay lower insurance premiums, and have the freedom to go through the "10 Items or Less" line with 14 items. Business executives want larger profits, politicians want more power, lawyers want to win.
Too often, our wants overcome our ambitions toward honor and virtue. We lie occasionally or cheat a little. As a result, there's a hole in the moral ozone...and unfortunately, it's getting bigger.
It's going to take moral courage and real character to repair that hole.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise ... the weak things of the world to shame the strong ... the lowly things of the world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."1
Irving is credited with having made the remark that "a barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion." Another way of saying the same thing is that "the race is not always to the swift but to those who keep on running."
One of the encouraging aspects about God is that you don't have to be an expert or anything out of the ordinary for him to use you. God uses people just like you and me. Consider, for example, the men Jesus chose to be his disciples: a couple of fishermen, a despised tax gatherer, a thief, and so on.
Jesus himself didn't attend college or seminary (or the equivalent in his day) but chose as his profession to be a carpenter as was his father, Joseph.
For God to use us, we just need to be available and faithful to his calling, and get adequately trained so we can do the best we can in our service to the Lord. While the disciples weren't qualified to be disciples when Jesus called them, they spent the next three years being trained by the Master Teacher Par Excellence—the Lord himself.
Remember, it's better to be a barking dog than a sleeping lion.
What a difference we Christians would make in our family and all our relationships, in our church, and in the world in which we live, if we would all pray the following prayer at the beginning of every day: "Dear God, I'm available. Please make me usable and use me today to be as Christ 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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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
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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
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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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