Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 12 – No. 2910 July 17, 2010
Thought for the week: "The person who pays an ounce of principle for a pound of popularity gets badly cheated." – Ronald Reagan
"When you have a purpose in life, a vision for what you want to achieve, and know why you want to achieve it, work becomes fun, and the time you spend working seems to just whiz by." – Clayton J. Moore
"One man practicing sportsmanship is better than a hundred teaching it." – Knute Rockne
"What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has." – Arthur Schopenhauer
"Don't wait until the storm passes over, learn to dance in the rain." – Unknown
"Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use." – Ruth Gordon, actress
"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." – Jim Rohn
Last night, my kids and I were sitting in the living room and I said to them, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."
They got up, unplugged my Computer, and threw out my wine!
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help."
There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning?" and continued, "What did you write?'
The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
What he had written was: "Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it."
Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing? Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?
Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile.
We watch nature shows on television and are amazed at the wonders of the oceans, sky, space and life itself. We see flowers, trees, and plants and are in awe of their beauty. We go to zoos and see so many wonderful animals, birds and reptiles and say, "WOW!" Why is it that we take the biggest miracle for granted—that miracle we see in the mirror?
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).
According to Snopes.com the following prayer, supposedly by Billy Graham and quoted by Paul Harvey, is false. The prayer was read by Rev. Joe Wright who delivered the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives in January of 1966. It was a version of a prayer written in 1995 by Bob Russell who had offered it at the Kentucky Governor's Prayer Breakfast in Frankfort.
"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.
We know your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!'
According to an old parable, Bart was caught inside his house during a flood. The water was a foot high when a rescue truck offered to evacuate him. Bart refused, saying, "God will provide."
The levee broke, and the water got so high he had to climb onto the roof. A man in a rowboat paddled by and urged him to get aboard. Again Bart refused. "God will provide."
Soon the waters rose so high that Bart had to climb on top of the chimney. But it wasn't enough, and the water swept him away. Bart shook his fist toward the sky. "God, why have you forsaken me?"
A helicopter pilot maneuvering to rescue Bart heard him and yelled back, "You fool, God sent you a truck, a boat, and this helicopter. Now use the arms He gave you and grab the rope!"
Bart reminds me of people who moan and whine about never getting the breaks other people get while passing up opportunities that could help them get what they want. Remember the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion who expected the Wizard of Oz to give them the one thing they thought they needed, only to find out they already had what they were looking for? Many of us greatly underestimate and underuse the power within us and the resources around us.
Wanting, wishing, and worrying aren't enough. Real success and personal happiness come to those who accept responsibility for their lives. They seize obvious opportunities, search out and find hidden ones, and when necessary, make their own. As golfer Gary Player once said, "It's amazing. The harder I practice, the luckier I get."
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."1
"For the first time in her life, Western Oregon University's Sara Tucholsky not only hit a home run in a game against Central Washington University, but she hit it over the fence.
"She had passed first base and was on her way to second base when she collapsed. Something had happened to her knee and she couldn't run. No one on her team could help her around the bases because if they touched her, she'd be out. That's when her opponents from Central Washington picked her up and carried her around the bases and across the home plate. 'My whole team was crying. It touched a lot of people,' says Tucholsky."2
I don't know if any of these kids were Christians or not, but what an incredible example for all of us. In doing likewise we certainly would be helping to fulfill "the law of Christ."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me always to be available to bear another's burden when his or her load is too heavy to bear alone. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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