ACTS International
Home Page of ACTS International
Home Page of ACTS InternationalHow to Find and Know God without having to be religiousLife Help Articles dealing with faith, family, and practical helps for purposeful livingDaily and Weekend Encounters with more than a third-of-a-million worldwide subscribersSupport the Work of ACTS International a not-for-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible for U.S. donorsCurrent report on the ministries and services of ACTS InternationalOnline Store of ACTS ... ACTS CommunicationsAbout ACTS International
ACTS International Home Page Click here for the current issue of  Daily Encounter
         
     
   
Tell a Friend Site Map Share and/or Bookmark
   
         
   
 Dick Innes


Weekend Encounter

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. 12 – No. 3810 September 18, 2010

 
Thought for the week: "God's plan will continue on God's schedule." – A. W. Tozer
 
    INDEX
1.   Words of Wisdom
2.   On the Lighter Side
3.   A Glimpse of Heaven
4.   Faith Thought for Today
5.   Laughter ... a Great Medicine
6.   Teaching Our Children to Make Good Decisions
7.   Soar With the Eagles
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.   Services Without Charge
16.   ACTS in Action Report; Archives for Daily and Weekend Encounter

1. Words of Wisdom

"Never let yesterday use up too much of today." – Will Rogers

"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got, and you'll always feel what you always felt." – Unknown

"You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind." – Mahatma Gandhi

"Everything you reprove in another, you must carefully avoid in yourself." – Marcus Tullius Cicero

"One person you can never get away from is yourself. Be true to yourself. Respect yourself. Live life with integrity." – Ray Lammie

"A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying he is wiser today than he was yesterday." – Alexander Pope

Index

2. On the Lighter Side

Gallagher opened the morning newspaper and was dumbfounded to read in the obituary column that he had died. He quickly phoned his best friend, Finney.

"Did you see the paper?" asked Gallagher. "They say I died!"

"Yes, I saw it!" replied Finney. "Where are ye callin' from?"

Source Unknown

Index

3. A Glimpse of Heaven

My father's twin brother and his wife, who were devout Christians, had a son, Bob, who was their only child. As a teenager, Bob developed a heart problem as a result of rheumatic fever. Nevertheless, as a young man he married and had a son who was still an infant when Bob became seriously ill at the age of 29. Bob's parents didn't know where Bob stood in his relationship to God, so as he lay on his deathbed his mother asked if he knew where he was going, meaning do you know you are dying. Bob replied: "Yes, I've been there and it's beautiful."

Did Bob really get a glimpse of heaven? Only God knows for sure, but I believe he did. What a wonderful way to comfort a humble Christian woman who, nine months earlier, had lost her husband, and was now about to lose her only son. Somehow it seems more like God to reveal his Kingdom to a humble Christian in the middle of nowhere than to the high and mighty of this world. For me, hearing this story at a young age had a real maturing impact on me. It caused me to think of God, heaven, and Christianity in more adult and less childlike terms.

By Gordie Peterson

Note: For further insight about heaven read: "What If there Is a Heaven?" at: http://tinyurl.com/heaven-what-if and "How to Be Sure You're Going to Heaven" at: http://tinyurl.com/heaven-certainty.

Index

4. Faith Thought for Today

Every day do something you don't want to do. Pick up someone else's trash. Surrender your parking place. Call the long-winded relative. It doesn't have to be a big thing. Helen Keller once told the Tennessee legislature that when she was young, she had longed to do great things and could not, so she decided to do small things in a great way. Don't be too big to do something small.

Ray Lammie's Faith Thought for Today. To subscribe send an email to belbarbara@aol.com with Subscribe FTFT in the Subject line.

Index

5. Laughter ... a Great Medicine

"Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat.... Never take yourself too seriously."1

As God's Word taught some 3,000 years ago: "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones" (Proverbs 17:22, NIV).

1. Og Mandino

Index

6. Teaching Our Children to Make Good Decisions

By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (662.1)

Two young men in Florida removed a stop sign and brought it back to their fraternity house as a trophy. Shortly afterward, a fatal accident occurred at the sign-less intersection. The students were convicted of manslaughter.

In Tennessee, two teenagers were in a high-rise building. One dared the other to slide down a trash chute. His friend did so—right into an automatic trash compactor. The one who egged him into the fatal accident was traumatized, possibly for life.

Four college fraternity students in California were charged with manslaughter when a pledge they were hazing died after they forced him to drink gallons of water.

What makes these stories all the more tragic is that we're not talking about bad kids. We're talking about fundamentally decent kids who made really bad choices.

The recurring nightmare of caring parents is that, during the course of growing up, their children will seriously damage themselves by unwise decisions. An endless array of bad consequences can result from reckless conduct to impress friends, thrill seeking, or giving in to the temptation of drugs, alcohol, or sex. And when kids get involved with irresponsible, manipulative, cruel, selfish, or simply stupid people who call themselves friends, there's no telling what dumb things they will do.

All youngsters will make foolish mistakes, as we did. Still, we can equip them with reasoning tools that can help them see and avoid really big, bad choices.

We can improve their decision-making skills by talking to them often about the importance of acting rationally, even when everyone around them seems overtaken by impulse. We can tell them stories to help them evaluate situations and anticipate potential consequences.

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. Soar With the Eagles

Sample of Daily Encounter by Dick Innes

"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint."1

Did you know that an eagle knows when the storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come.

When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle doesn't escape the storm; it simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm.

When the storms of life come upon us—and all of us will experience them—it may not be easy, but we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief in Jesus, our God—and daily committing and trusting our life and way to Him. The storms do not have to overcome us. We can allow God's power to lift us above them. God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in our lives. Remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down, but rather, how we handle them.2

As God's Word says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."3 Admittedly, this can take time.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, help me to always hope and trust in you so that, when the storms of life rage around me, I will be able to soar like the eagle above the turbulence and become a better, stronger and calmer Christian as a result. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen."

Note: For additional help read "Lessons from Suffering" at: http://tinyurl.com/exuyw

1. Isaiah 40:31 (NIV).
2. Submitted by Dick Nichol who has since lost his wife through cancer. Author of the Eagle story is unknown.
3. Romans 8:28 (NIV).

     For more information on Daily Encounter, Click HERE.

Index

8. Receive Daily Encounter E-mail ... Without Charge

Daily Encounter, a without charge weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 354,000+ 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 92 million e-mail Daily, Weekend and Prayer Encounters are now delivered to subscribers yearly!

Click HERE for more samples of Daily Encounter
Click HERE to subscribe

 

 

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.

Index

9. Receive E-mail Edition of Weekend Encounter ... Without Charge

Click HERE to subscribe

 

Index

10. Know God ... Without having to be religious

Click HERE to Know God and be sure you're a real Christian

 

Index

11. Prayer Partners Needed

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.

Click HERE to subscribe

Index

12. To Submit a Prayer Request

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

Index

13. Help Support Weekend Encounter

    "Changing the World . . . One Person at a Time" 

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 354,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to 8,000+ 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 are seeing an average of 5-6 salvation responses from around the world—almost 3000 in the past 12 months!

If you find value in the 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:

Donate Online: You can donate online at ACTS secure web site. Click HERE on ACTS support donations.

Donate Through PayPal:You can donate securely through PAYPAL. Click HERE on PayPal. Where it says Payment For: type in Donation.

Donate by Telephone: ACTS accepts credit card donations by phone by calling 1-949-940-9050.

Donate Through Postal Mail: If you prefer to write a check or money order, please send it and make it payable to:

     ACTS International
     P.O. Box 73545
     San Clemente, California 92673-0119
     U.S.A.

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

15. Services Without Charge

 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 greeting card without charge for all occasions
 8. To check the weather in your area
 9. Hoax Web Sites
10. Plus many more sources of helpful information

GO TO: http://www.actsweb.org/links.php

Index

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

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.

 
   
         
   
Site Map   Top
   
     
         
Find Peace With God footer
 
  ARTICLES
About God
About Faith
Relationships
Success/Failure
Solutions
Recovery
Ask the Teacher
Better Living Tips
Friendship
Words of Love
Words of Inspiration
People Power for Jesus
Simple and Effective Witnessing for Christ

SITE TRANSLATIONS
Spanish Espanol
French Francois

  DEVOTIONS
Devotionals
Daily Encounter
Weekend Encounter
Encuentros Diarios
Archives
Subscribe
When God Is Silent
Prayer Partners
  Needed

Special Needs

BIBLE HELPS
Helps and Studies
Today's Reading
Annual Reading

  QUOTES AND TESTS
Today's Quotes
Happiness Test
Stress Test

ACTS IN ACTION

ACTS Websites
ACTS in Action Report

COMMUNICATIONS

Syndicate ACTS Articles
"I Hate Witnessing"
   Audio—No Charge

Opening Closed Minds
Effective Communications
Jesus, the Communicator
Punching Holes in
   the Darkness

  REPORTS
About ACTS
Be an ACTS Friend

MISC.
People Power Invite
Links
Weather
Privacy Policy
Snail-Mail List
Contact Us/Feedback

ACTS BOOKSTORE
Online Bookstore


Site Map
Report problems to ACTS International
All pages in this site © Copyright 2005-2024 by ACTS International
P.O. Box 73545, San Clemente, CA 92673 U.S.A.
 
HOME   Daily Encounter  Find Peace With God