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. 13 – No. 1411 April 02, 2011
Thought for the week: "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love." – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Good people are found, not changed. Recently I read a headline that said, 'We don't teach our people to be nice. We simply hire nice people.'" – Jim Rohn
"Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions." – Albert Einstein
"Sometimes, the most helpful thing you can do for another is to let them learn stuff for themselves, at their own pace. It's also one of the most helpful things you can do for yourself." – Mike Dooley
"I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately triumph than to triumph in a cause that will ultimately fail." – Jim Elliot
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." – Cyril Connolly
"Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell." – C.T. Studd
Two rural church deacons who were having a sociable beer in the local tavern when they saw their minister drive by and take a good long look at their pickup trucks parked outside.
One deacon ducked down and said, "I hope the reverend didn't see us or recognize my pickup."
The other replied indifferently, "What difference does it make. God knows we're in here ... and he's the only one who counts."
The first deacon countered, "But God won't tell my wife."
A Web walk each day with Peggie through a home called Peggie's Place! Note: This devotional was written when an unnamed son was a teen ... grown-up now ... nothing much has changed!
There's a science student in our house—and sometimes it gets quite interesting! One day in an after-school conversation, he used the word "entropy."
Strange word—I squiggled up my nose and said, "Huh? What's THAT?" He proceeded to explain (don't kids love to explain "all they know" to their parents!), and I have just checked out his explanation in my dictionary. Let me share it: "entropy: (Physics) 1. A mathematical expression of the degree to which the energy of a thermodynamic system is unavailable for conversion into work. 2. The irreversible tendency of a system, including the universe, toward increasing disorder; also, the final state predictable from this." Now we know...and aren't we impressed ... grin!
WELL, *I* am not impressed with "Entropy" I find when I peek into my son's room—forget the fancy word—MESS is a better word for it! If anyone deserves the badge of "Entropy Personified," it is my beloved son—or his beloved brother—who could take the badge away from him with little effort—if he could find it in his room! Teenagers and tidy rooms are not synonymous ... disorder is the order of the day ... and would you believe? A teenage kid can actually sit or lay in the middle of the whole mess, do his latest homework assignment, perfectly at peace with it all—no problem!!
I SAW it—I could not BELIEVE it—and if YOU have a teenager in your house, you know what I mean! Now THAT is "Entropy Personified!" And where in the world am I going with this sixty-four-thousand-dollar word?
To YOU and to ME—who so often find ourselves in the middle of a mess—total disorder and chaos all around ... how in the world can you find perfect peace in the middle of ENTROPY PLUS? You find it in the PERSON of God the Father, the One who "in the beginning" brought order out of chaos when He called the world into existence. You find it in the PERSON of the Son, the One who spoke peace to the hearts of His friends in the middle of the storm. You find it in the PERSON of God the Holy Spirit, the One who speaks peace to your spirit with disorder all around!
Need that peace today in the middle of your messed-up world? HE is "Peace Personified" and can bring peace—AND order—to your life. He will stand beside you "in the middle of the mess," and You can know His wonderful peace. Now believe it—prod those "Entropy Personified" people in YOUR house to pick up the mess—and may you have a great PEACE-filled day!!
Scripture: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee" (Isaiah 26:3).
Prayer: "Lord, I'm in the middle of a mess; I need Your peace; I need Your plan put into operation to bring order to my world—but Lord, I know, in the midst of it, I can know Your peace. Walk beside me, dwell within me, and give me that "peace that passeth understanding." I turn to You Lord for strength, help and grace, in Jesus' Name, Amen."
Faith is the avenue to salvation. Not intellectual understanding. Not money. Not your works. Just simple faith. How much faith? The faith of a mustard seed, so small you can hardly see it. But if you will put that little faith in the person of Jesus, your life will be changed. He will come with supernatural power into your heart. It can happen to you.
Years ago, my wife Anne was talking to a woman I'll call Lila about another lady I'll call Gwen. Gwen had just been laid off, and since she had only worked for the company for a short time, she wasn't eligible to continue the company's medical insurance. That's important because she was eight weeks pregnant, and the reason she took the job was to get medical insurance.
Gwen was upset and went to a lawyer. Together, they decided to threaten her employer with a lawsuit, claiming the company terminated her because they found out she was pregnant.
Anne asked, "Is that what really happened?"
"Well, no," Lila answered, "but Gwen really needs the insurance, and she hopes the threat will force the company to make a settlement."
"But that's dishonest!" Anne said. Shocked by Anne's judgmental attitude, Lila stressed again how hard it would be for Gwen if she had no insurance because she had no husband. She was artificially inseminated. Gwen thought of asking the company if she could keep her insurance by paying the premiums, but her lawyer said it would weaken her case.
Anne was incredulous. "Weaken what case? Her case is a lie! I know she's in a tough situation, but how can Gwen possibly justify making a false claim?"
Lila concluded: "Gwen only did what she had to do."
It's one thing to feel compassion for Gwen. It's quite another to justify fraud simply because she thought it was necessary. There's a certain seductive force to necessity claims, but neither real nor perceived necessity gives anyone a moral free pass. Personal needs and wants just don't trump moral principles. Remember, character is doing the right thing even when it costs more than you want to pay.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."1
You may have read the following poem, but it is well worth reading again:
I took a piece of plastic clay
And idly fashioned it one day;
And as my fingers pressed it still,
It moved and yielded as my will.
I came again when days were past,
The form I gave it still it bore,
And as my fingers pressed it still,
I could change that form no more.
I took a piece of living clay,
And gently formed it day by day,
And molded with my power and art
A young child's soft and yielding heart.
I came again when days were gone;
It was a man I looked upon,
He still that early impress bore,
And I could change it never more.2
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to be as Christ to my children (and/or to any children that I may have the opportunity to influence) so that they, seeing Jesus in me, will want him in their life as well. Help me to model your love and loving ways so that my life will impact, not only my children so that they will grow up in the ways of God, but in some way every life I touch. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
8. Receive Daily Encounter E-mail ... Without Charge
Daily Encounter, a without charge weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 390,000+ 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 100 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 390,000+ 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."
