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 Dick Innes


Weekend Encounter

Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes          
Published by: ACTS International

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Vol. 12 – No. 1210 March 20, 2010

 
Thought for the week: "You never know when one act, or one word of encouragement can change a life forever." – Zig Ziglar
 
    INDEX
1.   Words of Wisdom
2.   On the Lighter Side
3.   Integrity
4.   Some Rules Kids Won't Learn in School
5.   Medicine Left in a Bottle
6.   The Power of Kindness
7.   Gift of Encouragement
8.   Receive Daily Encounter Devotional  Without Charge
9.   Weekend Encounter E-mail Edition  Without Charge
10.   Know God ... Without Having to Be Religious
11.   Prayer Partners Needed
12.   To Submit a Prayer Request
13.   Please Help Support Weekend Encounter
14.   Helpful Books, CDs, and Cassettes
15.   Free Services
16.   ACTS in Action Report; Archives for Daily and Weekend Encounter

1. Words of Wisdom

"The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune." – Plutarch

Worrying is paying interest on a debt you might not even owe." – Mark Twain

"To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge." – Benjamin Disraeli

"The ability to summon positive emotions during periods of intense stress lies at the heart of effective leadership." – Jim Loehr

"One man has enthusiasm for 30 minutes, another for 30 days, but it is the man who has it for 30 years who makes a success of his life." – Edward Butler

"I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church." – Charles H. Spurgeon

Index

2. On the Lighter Side

The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up..

He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, ''I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally. I assumed you had stolen the car.''

Index

3. Integrity

The story is told of a father who took his two boys one afternoon to play miniature golf.

The father walked up to the man at the ticket counter and said, "How much is it to get in?" The young man replied, "Three dollars for you and three dollars for any kid who is older than six. We let them in for free if they are six or younger. How old are your two?" The father replied, "This one is three and the other one is seven, so I owe you $6.00."

The young man at the ticket counter said, "Hey mister, did you just win the lottery or something? You could have saved yourself three bucks if you would have told me that the older one was six; I wouldn't have known the difference."

The father replied, "Yes, that may be true, but the kids would have known the difference...."

"The integrity of the upright will guide them..." (Proverbs 11:3).

By Steve Higginbotham on KneEmail. To subscribe, send ANY message to: kneemail-subscribe@welovegod.org

Index

4. Some Rules Kids Won't Learn in School

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Often attributed to Bill Gates, but according to Snopes.com, it was not written by Mr. Gates but by Charles J. Sykes, author of the 1996 book, Dumbing Down our Kids: Why American Kids Feel Good About Themselves, but Can't Read, Write, or Add.

Index

5. Medicine Left in a Bottle

Someone has pointed out that the mere knowledge of religious truth "without an honest attempt at translating it into action and putting it into practice, will not profit a person very much." Medicine left in a bottle, unused, will not help anybody. Machinery stored in a shed and never used will be of small value to anyone. Books that are kept on a shelf and never read will help nobody.

Abraham Feldman. Cited on This Day's Thought,
    www.thisdaysthought.org 

Index

6. The Power of Kindness

By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (636.3)

Bob wrote to tell me that having just lost his bride of 42 years, how deeply important it's been to him to be the beneficiary of grand and spontaneous acts of kindness of strangers.

In one case, he was overcome with emotion while seeking to make copies of all the notes of love and support he received. A young woman, seeing his pain, hugged him until he regained control.

Weeks later he was at a restaurant and began to cry when he thought about his wife. A waitress sat beside him and held his hand. As long as there are people like that in the world, Bob concluded, there's still hope.

The great musician Pablo Casals said, "Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he acts on it and listens to it, he is giving a great deal of what the world needs most. It is not complicated, but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act upon it."

The poet William Wordsworth put it another way, declaring that the best portion of a good person's life are "little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love." And novelist Henry James said, "Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind."

Think how much better the world would be and how much more gratifying your life would be if every day each of us set out to do lighten the life or brighten the day of another with simple kindness.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

© 2009 Josephson Institute of Ethics; reprinted with permission. Michael Josephson, one of the nation's leading ethicists, is the founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics and the premier youth character education program, CHARACTER COUNTS! For further information visit www.charactercounts.org

Index

7. Gift of Encouragement

Sample of Daily Encounter by Dick Innes

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."1

Michael Josephson of Character Counts says that "Mark Gibson, a former gymnastics coach, tells a wonderful story about a 15-year-old girl I'll call Cindy. When Mark coached at a gym where several world-class gymnasts worked out, he said Cindy was the most important person in the gym. Cindy wasn't the best athlete—not even close. But when she was in the gym, everyone whined and complained less, worked harder and achieved more. She brought out the best in everyone. You see, Cindy was blind.

"When it was her turn to do the vault, her mother would run alongside her, saying, "We're getting close, we're closer," and when her mom said, "Vault!" Cindy, with complete trust in her mother and herself, would jump. It was awesome.

"Neither Cindy nor her mother allowed her sightlessness to confine her, so they soared like eagles for all to see. Cindy led in the most powerful way possible, not by fancy rhetoric but by example. All who watched her strive to be the best she could be realized how much more there is within themselves."2

Cindy's mother was a great encourager to her daughter. As Christians, that's what you and I need to do for others.

The word encourage comes from "en," meaning "in," and "courage" meaning to "fortify one's inner strength in fearful situations." In other words, an encourager is one who puts courage into another or who puts inner strength into others when they are afraid or needing a helping hand.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for all the people in my life who have encouraged me along the way—who have helped spur me on when I was feeling insecure, fearful, and afraid of failure. They were 'as Jesus' to me. Help me to be sensitive to the needs of fellow strugglers and be 'as Jesus' to them and be a great encourager in their time of need. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV).
2. Michael Josephson of Character Counts www.charactercounts.org

Index

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Index

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Index

14. Helpful Books, CDs and Cassettes

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

Click HERE for books, CDs, tapes and poems by Dick Innes and others.

Index

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16. ACTS in Action Report and Encounter Archives

ARCHIVES: Daily and Weekend Encounters



          "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."



Know God

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