Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 11 – No. 2309 June 06, 2009
Thought for the week: "Just remember, man gives the award. But God gives the reward." – Denzel Washington's mother
"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." – Helen Keller
"Before you begin a thing, remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead. You can only see one thing clearly, and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin." – Kathleen Norris
"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." – Art Linkletter
"Courage is fear holding on a minute longer." – Unknown
"While your children are growing up, they might forget some of the sermons you've preached or act like they're not interested in the things of God. But they'll never forget your example. Live above reproach and let the light of Jesus shine brightly through you." – Gloria Copeland
"True repentance hates the sin, and not merely the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered and felt God's love." – W.M. Taylor
The Salvation Army lassie who was informed by a policeman that a local ordinance would prevent her from ringing her bells to invite contributions. But such a crude law could not stop such an inventive woman. The next day she did a brisker business than ever as she waved one sign and then another in the air. The signs said "ding" and "dong."
Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.
A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants. The race began. No one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. You heard statements such as:
"Oh, WAY too difficult!" "They will NEVER make it to the top." "Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"
The tiny frogs began collapsing one by one, except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher. The crowd continued to yell, "It is too difficult! No one will make it!" More tiny frogs got tired and gave up. But ONE continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn't give up!
At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower, except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!
Then all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it. A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal.
It turned out that the winner was DEAF!
The wisdom of this story is: Never listen to other people's tendencies to be negative or pessimistic, because they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you—the ones you have in your heart!
Always think of the power words have. "There's life and death in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21). Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions! Therefore: ALWAYS be.... POSITIVE! And above all: Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your dreams! Always think: God and I can do this! If you fall down 10 times, stand up 10 times.
6. Righteousness Is Revealed in Conduct, Not Rhetoric
By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (591.5)
It's hard to look at the world and some of the people who seem to get ahead without occasionally asking ourselves why we should be ethical. However normal it is to think like this, the question should be off limits for people who profess strong religious beliefs. After all, what religion doesn't mandate morality?
To authentically religious people, the motivation toward virtue is grounded in the acceptance of a nonnegotiable duty to be a good person in the eyes of their God, not in anticipation of personal benefits. Dishonest, irresponsible, or unfair conduct is simply wrong.
Although skeptics may suspect the rhetoric of religious advocates and proselytizers, there's a positive correlation between religious conviction and virtue. I think the vast majority of deeply religious people draw guidance and strength from their beliefs and live better lives.
Still, religious claims and even sincere convictions are no guarantee of righteousness.
Besides disturbed individuals who believe their deity commands them to perform horrible acts, discredited televangelist preachers like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, and priests who molest parishioners, we must also face the fact that people like Ken Lay of Enron, Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom, and John Rigas of Adelphia, masterminds of some of the world's greatest swindles, were highly vocal and visible about their Christian beliefs.
Whether these wrongdoers were mentally ill, hypocrites, frauds, or sincere believers with personal weaknesses, their stories remind us that we can't take for granted the link between religious claims and worthy conduct. It's not that religion fails people; it's that people fail their religion.
In the end, regardless of its source, righteousness is revealed in ethical and upright conduct, not rhetoric.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"And then he [Jesus] told them, 'Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere.'"1
It's hard to even begin to imagine what the nine coalminers felt in Quecreek, Pennsylvania, back in 2002 when they were trapped 244 feet below the surface in the 50-degree cold while struggling for survival in a pocket of air in the flooded coal-mine. Thinking they were doomed, several wrote farewell notes to their loved ones. Miner Blaine Mayhugh, 31, asked his boss for a pen when the water in the shaft kept rising. "I want to write my wife and kids to tell them I love them," he said. Then, fearing their death, the miners tied themselves together so all of their bodies would be found if they drowned. It must have been a terrifying experience.
What a relief it was when we learned of their amazing rescue and thanked God for the team who worked feverishly day and night for three days to save the trapped miners—and marveled how they not only found exactly where the men were trapped, but also how they were able to rescue all nine miners.
The New York Times (July 29, 2002) described how a wave of exultation swept out from the floodlit rescue scene as the first words resounded up from below with the news that all the missing miners had survived their ordeal. People were weeping and cheering at village roadsides and television sets at the news that the disastrous flood deep underground had left no fatalities among the harried night crew that disappeared on Wednesday deep in the Quecreek mine.
If only the church as a whole and today's Western Christians had the same commitment to rescue those who are bound for a lost eternity in darkness without God and without hope.
Here in ACTS International, while we are just a tiny organization, we are among those who are doing everything in their power to reach the lost for Christ. Never before has the church had the technology that makes it possible to reach so many ... by so few ... for so little comparative cost.
But like so many others who are doing this works all we lack is the support. God has given his church the life-saving message, the methods to communicate it to untold thousands of people worldwide, but we just don't have the sufficient means.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please move among the hearts of your people to join with and support the rescue teams who are on the front line of action seeking to win the lost to Jesus. Help me to realize the full impact of the unthinkable doom of those who are lost in darkness who, without your salvation, are doomed for eternal damnation and will be lost forever without hope. And grant with your help that I will do my part in obeying your commission to help take the gospel to everyone, everywhere. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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