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. 4310 October 23, 2010
Thought for the week: "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." – Bill Cosby
"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these." – George Washington Carver
"For bravery none compares with our Lord. He never turned His head from danger, not even when hell's hatred and heaven's justice appeared against Him." – William Gurnall
"Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion—it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ." – Billy Graham
"Never let life's hardships disturb you; no one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages." – Nichiren Daishonen
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." – Leo Tolstoy
"He whom you would change, you must first love." – Martin Luther King
Write down the six most important things you have to do tomorrow (or put in your Palm Pilot, computer "to do" list). Do this every night for the next day. Works like magic! You will get more accomplished than you can imagine. I have done this daily for over 25 years. I don't leave the office without tomorrow's list.
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? What did you write?"
The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way." I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it." Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that 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 Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear. The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling. And even more beautiful is knowing that you are the reason behind it.
If someone avoids rejection, they can never achieve anything in life. In fact, it's just the opposite. The more you get rejected, the more you will succeed and achieve! Being bold, asking, doing, seeking, and taking action invites rejection—but also leads to getting what you want.
A very successful man, when asked what one could do to achieve their goals, said, "Double your failure rate'!" In other words, "do more". Take more risks. Work hand-in-hand with rejection. I wish someone told me this when I was 20 years old and afraid of failure. Never be concerned with rejection and "failure".
The only failure in life is not trying enough. To reach your goals, you must go head first into short-term failures and rejection. I read a book about successful business people which stated the average successful business person "failed" in seven businesses before his/her great success. Don't worry what others think and say—just "Do it".
Ray Lammie's Thought for Today. To subscribe send a blank
email to belbarbara@aol.com with "Subscribe to TFT" in the
Subject line.
Disdain for money is a common theme among moralists and philosophers. But money's not the problem. It's what people do to get it and what they do with it when they get it.
In Fiddler on the Roof, a poor man sings of his daydreams of the wonderful life he'd have if he were a rich man. And surely it would be better. As someone once said, "I've been poor and I've been rich. Rich is better."
Yet the Biblical warning that "Love of money is the root of all [kinds of] evil" reminds us to be aware of the difference between need and greed.
It's one thing to make money a central goal to escape poverty and provide for basic necessities. It's quite another when money becomes our primary motivation and measure of success, or when we equate happiness or worthiness with wealth.
The love of money can have a powerful narcotic effect on our values. It can push us toward or keep us in unhealthy relationships and unsatisfying careers. It can lead us to undervalue the importance of relationships and work. The desire for money can make us into workaholics who neglect family and friends. And it can spawn dishonorable conduct that pollutes our souls and makes us unworthy despite our net worth.
According to an old Hasidic saying, "One who thinks money can do everything is likely to do anything to get it."
Perhaps the French philosopher Rousseau said it best: "The money you have can give you freedom, but the money you pursue enslaves you."
The challenge is to put the value of money in perspective. In the end, the question is: How much are you willing to pay to have money?
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion."1
So what are the six-plus-one things that God hates?
eyes that are arrogant,
a tongue that lies,
hands that murder the innocent,
a heart that hatches evil plots,
feet that race down a wicked track,
a mouth that lies under oath,
a troublemaker in the family.2
The fact is that God hates all evil because it is diametrically opposed to his nature which is perfect holiness. Another reason God hates evil is because it is destructive to those whom God loves: us!
Furthermore, we too are to hate evil; that is, the actions of evil people. As God's Word instructs his people, "Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts."3 In other words we are to love the things God loves and hate the things God hates—naturally, for the right, not selfish motives. What is more, if God
didn't hate evil, he wouldn't be God and he wouldn't be good. And if
you and I don't hate evil, we can be sure that we don't love
righteousness.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to become more and more God-like in my daily living and hate all evil, and never be guilty of committing the seven things that you loathe and all other evil practices. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. Proverbs 6:16 (The Message).
2. Proverbs 6:17-19 (The Message).
3. Amos 5:15 (NIV).
8. Receive Daily Encounter E-mail ... Without Charge
Daily Encounter, a without charge weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 360,000+ 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 93 million e-mail Daily, Weekend and Prayer Encounters are delivered to subscribers every year!
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.
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.
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
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 360,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to almost 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:
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
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
"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."
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.
