Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 13 – No. 0811 February 19, 2011
Thought for the week: "Life is an echo. What you send out comes back." – Chinese Proverb
"When we turn our back on Israel, we will not escape the judgment of God. We will not." – Charles Stanley
Speaking of Israel, God said, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:3 (NIV).
"Successful people form the habit of doing what failures don't like to do. They like the results they get by doing what they don't necessarily enjoy." – Earl Nightingale
"You are not called to fix people—you are called to love them. And sometimes that is the more difficult job." – Unknown
"The wisest mind has something yet to learn." – George Santayana
"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." – John Jay, first Supreme Court Chief Justice
Working as a pediatric nurse, I had the difficult assignment of giving immunization shots to children. One day, I entered the examining room to give four-year-old Lizzie her needle. "No, no, no!" she screamed.
"Lizzie," scolded her mother, "that's not polite behavior." With that, the girl yelled even louder, "No, thank you! No, thank you!"
What would you do when a crisis sours your life? We hear of folk who lose everything in a house fire, or, more recently, of folk who struggle to make ends meet. Tough circumstances draw us closer to God if we don't whine or complain. It's hard to trust when our prayers are not answered right away, and even harder the longer we wait. It takes faith to believe the answers will come.
I've been reading Job, the oldest book in the Bible. We know that Job was the richest man of his era, but in one day he lost every thing he owned. And, he was devastated when all his children died in an unexpected tornado. His wife suggested he curse God and die. Cursing God was something he could not, and would not do. In the depth of his despair, he remarked that since God have given him all things, he was entitled to take them all away.
When three friends visited, supposedly to comfort him, he argued that he had done nothing so wrong to deserve losing every thing. When the argument heated up, Job became irritated and his friends stopped talking. They saw that he was self-righteous. To his credit, Job said that he knew God was quietly behind the scenes though he couldn't see His steps. He did not know that God permitted this test because God trusted him to not curse. The question comes back: how do we handle ourselves when we lose every thing? Do we believe that God knows what is happening, and do we know that he hears our prayer?
When Job was at the "end-of-his-rope", God stepped in to ask: "Job, where were you when I created the heavens?" When asked a second time, Job surrendered. Humbling himself, he said that he was indeed sorry for rambling beyond what he knew. He admitted that he had known God only by reputation, but now he knew God from personal experience.
Job learned that God lifts us up at our weakest point. Job's story is not unlike the story in Philippians 3:10, where Paul said that what counts is to know Christ from personal experience. After Job's admission and submission, God allowed his things to be restored and then doubled. Job had ten more children; he lived another 140 years; and saw four generations of his family mature. The reward for enduring trials is an amazing maturity in Christ, a deeper relationship with God, where His closeness is our treasure.
A society that puts equality ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. A society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality."
Truth and government have long been a desirable combination, but current experience proves it is one which is not being regularly achieved
It is interesting that the importance of a union of truth and government is not relegated to America's Founding Fathers in expressing their concept of how a nation should operate. More recent government leaders, both in America and Britain, spoke of the importance of truth. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy said, "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive and realistic." And in 1916, Sir Winston Churchill, then a young Member of Parliament, said, "Truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but, in the end, there it is."
The British seem more open to speak of abuse in this area. As recently as 2003, Gaby Hinsliff, Chief Political Correspondent, wrote in the British journal, The Observer: "They may prefer to call it being 'economical with the actualité.' But it's official: politicians just can't help telling lies ... A new study of the art of telling political whoppers, concludes what cynical voters have long suspected—that it is almost impossible for modern politicians to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." And in 2005, Peter Osborne, political editor of The Spectator, wrote: "Britain now lives in a post-truth political environment." But hundreds of years before them, in the 15th–16th centuries, the Italian philosopher who is considered the father of modern political science, Niccolo Machiavelli, theorized that if politicians did not lie, they would surely fail, because lying is fundamental to politics.
And the lack of truth in the way our present government and the strongly supportive media operates, gives strong credence to the fact that America —like our friends in Great Britain—is living in a "post-truth political environment."
There's a song titled "Thank God for Dirty Dishes" that makes the point that if you're lucky to have enough food to make dirty dishes, you should be grateful.
So instead of grousing about your property taxes, be thankful you own property. When you have to wait in line at the bank or are stuck in traffic, just be grateful you have money in the bank and a car to drive.
It makes sense, but that doesn't make it easy.
I have to admit that appreciation has not been a natural attribute for me. In my more ambitious days when I believed that excess was not enough, gratitude seemed like a form of surrender and a very poor life strategy. After all, if you're satisfied with the way things are, you'll never make them better.
What a pity I had to reach my 50s before I began to appreciate appreciation. I finally began to see that it was irresponsible and irreverent not to realize how many things I should feel grateful for. I also came to realize how good it feels to acknowledge how good I have it.
Real gratitude is much more than politeness, like saying thank you when someone passes the salt or conveys good wishes; it's a deeper psychological state of genuine thankfulness.
Whether we believe whatever good fortune we have is the product of our own labor and talents, random luck, or a gift from God, the fact remains that each of us could spend a full day identifying all the things that merit gratitude.
According to an old proverb, "If you never learn the language of gratitude, you'll never be on speaking terms with happiness." I'm still a beginner, but it's true; the more I appreciate, the happier I am. That's a lesson I want my children to learn.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Therefore confess your sins [and faults] to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."1
Michael Josephson of Character Counts was addressing a group of journalists regarding journalistic ethics. He "posed the question, 'When is it proper for a journalist to report about the private life of a public official?'
"Jack Anderson, a well-known investigative columnist, replied: 'I don't think we should report on the private behavior of a politician unless it's relevant to his job.' Then he added, 'but we don't always follow our own tests.'
"I asked him to explain and he said: 'A few years ago, a woman came into my office and gave me an airtight affidavit that the mayor of Tucson had bit her on the thigh. Now, I didn't think this was too relevant to his job, but some stories are too good to pass up.'"2
In this political mayhem going on in the U.S. at this time, between competing politicians attacking each other, and considerable biased media, there are many times when I feel like throwing up. One wonders if there are any ethics.
I think there ought to be a strict rule that governs all media that says, "No politician or journalist (or anybody else) is allowed to confess anybody else's sins and failures publicly, before confessing his or her own publicly." Zero chance of this ever happening.
Sad to say, far too many of those who call ourselves Christians don't do too much better. We can be quick to confess others' sins while hiding our own. The Bible tells us to confess our sins to each other . . . not to confess others' sins to each other. There's another name for this. It's gossip. The Bible condemns it.
When it comes to Christian growth groups, rule number one is, "Confess nobody's sins but your own. Period." True, in life there are times when a leader's behavior needs to be confronted, but before we do it, let's make sure our own life is squeaky clean, that our own sins are confessed and resolved, and that our life is right with God.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please deliver me from the sin of gossip. Help me to see my own sins and faults, confess these to a trusted friend and to you, and with your help overcome these. And help me always to live and abide by Christian ethics. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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