Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
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Vol. 13 – No. 0411 January 22, 2011
Thought for the week: "Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks." – Phillips Brooks
As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky back country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the digging crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late.
I went to the side of the grave and looked down, and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family or friends. As I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together.
When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full. As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I ain't never seen nuthin' like that before, and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."
This is a new "wear your seat belt" ad that the UK is showing. It was created by a private individual not hired to do it, but because the cause is important to him, he came up with this idea, and now it's being hailed across the world as a 'beautiful' commercial. The video has become so popular with the general public that people are forwarding it to friends/family on their own so quickly, that it has spread all over the world in a very short time.
One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry.
He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water! She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it so slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?"
"You don't owe me anything," she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness."
He said, "Then I thank you from my heart."
As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up on God.
Many years later that same young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease.
Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once.
He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to her case. After a long struggle, the battle was won.
Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, and then wrote something on the edge, and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words:
"Paid in full with one glass of milk."
(Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.
Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed: "Thank You, God, that your love has spread abroad through human hearts and hands."
There's a saying which goes something like this: Bread cast on the water comes back to you. The good deed you do today may benefit you or someone you love at the least expected time. If you never see the deed again, at least you will have made the world a better place. And, after all, isn't that what life is all about?
In 55 BC Cicero said: "The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
Noah needed an A on his term paper. A friend said that lots of kids recycled papers they didn't write, and he offered to give him a paper his older brother had gotten an A on three years before.
When Noah asked his father for advice, his dad told him he hoped he wouldn't cheat, but he didn't want to be judgmental. "It's your life, Son," he said. "I can't tell you what you should do. It's a personal decision."
That's shabby parenting. Noah's dad declined to provide moral guidance and lost a golden opportunity to strengthen Noah's values and his own credibility as a reference point. Kids need parents to bolster their moral willpower and to help them resist temptations. His reluctance to intervene and influence was an abdication of responsibility.
What's more, his noncommittal response wasn't an expression of neutrality but a statement that conveyed the moral judgment that honesty and integrity are optional.
Yes, this was a personal decision. Noah could choose to be honest or dishonest, ethical or unethical—it was his call. But the real question was one of propriety. He didn't ask his dad, "What can I do?" but "What should I do?" This was a question about ethics, and it shouldn't have been dodged or evaded.
If we want our children to build good values and strong character based on virtue, we have to teach and advocate those principles. Sometimes that means saying, "That's wrong."
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Some "years ago as several million watched on TV the beginning game of the World Series baseball in San Francisco, there was a sudden interruption of the opening interview. The screen blinked and went blank. When the program resumed, a special news bulletin appeared. The San Francisco metropolitan area had experienced a serious earthquake. We all watched the live pictures as the huge fire in the Marina area burned. A remote camera crew was there and we saw the firemen fighting the fires.
"The scene I remember the most, however," said the writer of this article, "was a group of people standing around just looking at the destruction and looking at the fire. All of a sudden a policeman came up to the crowd and yelled out to them: What are you people doing just standing there? You must get prepared immediately. Go home and fill your bathtubs with water. Be prepared to live without city services for 72 hours. The sun will set in another hour and your time is running out. Go and get prepared."2
I can, at least to some degree, identify with these people. Living in Southern California I've experienced several earthquakes of varying degrees. In two of the worst—one a 4-point something and the other a 5-point something—I woke up and said to myself, just another earthquake, rolled over and went right back to sleep. That was a very dangerous and foolish attitude and I realized that I need to "wake up and get with it" the next time an earthquake hits, and at least dive under a table for protection, otherwise I could be badly hurt or even killed if/when a really big one hits.
Even as a kid I learned in the Boy Scouts the motto: "Be Prepared." We all need to be prepared for unexpected crises as much as is possible. And absolutely nowhere is it more important to be prepared than it is to be prepared for eternity—to meet God face to face, "for man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment [God's judgment]."3
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that in your Word, the Bible, you repeatedly warn us of the danger of not being prepared for eternity. Help me to know that I am ready to meet you face to face, and help me to so live that I won't be embarrassed on that day but will hear your welcoming words, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'4 Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
NOTE: To be absolutely sure that you are prepared to meet God face-to-face and ready for eternity read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at: http://tinyurl.com/real-christian
1. Amos 4:12 (NIV). 2. The Staff, www.eSermons.com.
3. Hebrews 9:27 (NIV). 4. Matthew 25:23 (NKJV).
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