Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 15 – No. 3213 August 10, 2013
Thought for the week: "Opportunity comes to pass, not to pause" – James Wallace
"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said." – Peter Drucker
"People are in greater need of your praise when they try and fail, than when they try and succeed." – Bob Moawad
"It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you are not." – Denis Waitley
"He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy." – Bible (Proverbs 28:13 NIV)
"The glad hand is all right in sunshine, but it's the helping hand on a dark day that folks remember to the end of time." – Amadeo P. Giannini
"Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayer." – J. Sidlow Baxter
Deacon to minister in church: "We need better communication in this church!" Minister (impatiently): "Yes, but I don't want to talk about it now."
My aunt died this past January. Her bank* billed her for February and March for their monthly service charge on her credit card, and then added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. (The balance had been $0.00. Now it was somewhere around $60.00.)
I placed the following phone call to Bank:
Me: "I am calling to tell you that she died in January."
Bank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."
Me: "Maybe, you should turn it over to collections."
Bank: "Since it is two months past due, it already has been."
Me: "So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?"
Bank: "Either report her account to the frauds division, or report her to the credit bureau. Maybe both!"
Me: "Do you think God will be mad at her?"
Bank: "Excuse me?"
Me: "Did you just get what I was telling you ... the part about her being dead?"
Bank: "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor!"
(Supervisor gets on the phone.)
Me: "I'm calling to tell you my aunt died in January."
Bank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."
Me: "You mean you want to collect from her estate?"
Bank: "(stammer)."
Bank: "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"
Me: "Sure." (Fax number is given).
(After they get the fax.)
Bank: "Our system just isn't set up for death."
Me: "Oh."
Bank: "I don't know what more I can do to help."
Me: "Well. If you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. I really don't think she will care."
Bank: "Well, the late fees and charges do still apply."
Me: "Would you like her new billing address?"
Bank: "That might help."
Me: "Odessa Memorial Cemetery, Great Northern Hwy 129 and plot number given.
Bank: "Sir, that's a cemetery!"
Me: "What do you do with dead people on your planet?"
* The name of bank is deleted because, who knows, this just might have happened.
I have read how a young Christian was discouraged in his attempts to read and remember the Bible. He said, "It's no use. No matter how much I read, I always forget what I have just read."
A wise pastor replied, "Take heart. When you pour water over a sieve, no matter how much you pour, you don't collect much. But at least you can end up with a clean sieve."1
Even if we can't remember a great deal of what we read, if we keep reading God's word, quality books, uplifting magazine articles, the content will rub off on us and have a much greater effect on our thinking and life than we realize.
TV star, Oprah Winfrey, said, "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."
"When you give someone a book, you don't give him just paper, ink, and glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life." Christopher Morley 1890-1957, Novelist, Journalist and Poet
Take time every day both to read and to pray. As prayer changes things so does constructive reading.
1. 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, p. 29, Edited by Michael P. Green
by Max Lucado
It has been a long day. Jerusalem is packed with Passover guests.
The disciples enter, one by one, and take their places around the table. On the wall hangs a towel, and on the floor sits a pitcher and a basin. Any one of the disciples could volunteer for the job, but not one does.
After a few moments, Jesus stands and removes his outer garment. He wraps a servant's girdle around his waist, takes up the basin, and kneels before one of the disciples. He unlaces a sandal and gently lifts the foot and places it in the basin, covers it with water, and begins to bathe it. One by one, one grimy foot after another, Jesus works his way down the row.
I looked for a Bible translation that reads, "Jesus washed all the disciples' feet except the feet of Judas," but I couldn't find one. What a passionate moment when Jesus silently lifts the feet of his betrayer and washes them in the basin! Within hours, the feet of Judas, cleansed by the kindness of the one he will betray, will stand in Caiaphas's court.
Behold the gift Jesus gives his followers! By morning they will bury their heads in shame and look down at their feet in disgust. And when they do, he wants them to remember how his knees knelt before them and he washed their feet. He wants them to realize those feet are still clean. "You don't understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later" (John 13:7).
Remarkable. He forgave their sin before they even committed it. He offered mercy before they even sought it.
To laugh often amid much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.
"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5, NIV).
I love the title of the Country/Western song, "What part of no don't you understand?"
Have you ever noticed that some of us have a difficult time saying no to people? We think we always have to be "nice" to be a good Christian and give in to others' demands or even to their requests.
As popular author, Rick Warren, asked: "Isn't a Christian supposed to be meek?"
And then, answering his own question, he said, "Yes, you are supposed to be meek. But meekness is not weakness. There's a big difference. Meekness literally means 'strength under control.' Picture a wild stallion that has been broken and is now tamed. That stallion still has as much power as when he was wild, but now that power is bottled up for the master's use.
"Only two people in the Bible were called meek—Jesus and Moses. Neither of them were weaklings or wimps. They were strong men of conviction. God doesn't expect you to just cave in every time somebody wants to manipulate you or control you. What would you do if someone asked you to do something immoral or illegal or unreasonable? You'd say 'no!'"1
When someone tries to make us feel guilty if we say "no" to something they want us to do, a simple response like the following can be very effective: "You're not trying to make me feel guilty are you?" Of course they will deny it, but as long as we don't let them control or manipulate us through guilt (false guilt), in time they will stop trying to put a guilt trip on us. And by the way, people only make us feel guilty with our permission.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to learn to be genuinely meek and say 'yes' when I need to say yes, and 'no' when I need to say no—and not feel guilty about it. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen."
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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
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Books by Dick Innes, Editor of Weekend Encounter You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing How to Mend a Broken Heart I Hate Witnessing—A Handbook for Effective Christian
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