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. 3311 August 13, 2011
Thought for the week: "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." – Mahatma Gandhi
"The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use. He does not flow through methods, but through men." – E. M. Bounds
"Love is always bestowed as a gift—freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love." – Dr. Leo Buscaglia
"The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself." – Benjamin Franklin
"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again." – Abraham Maslow, Psychologist
"To get the full value of a joy, you must have somebody to divide it with." – Mark Twain
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of your own ignorance." – Confucius
"The world is a looking-glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it, in turn, will look sourly at you; laugh at it, and with it, and it is a jolly, kind companion." – William Makepeace Thackeray
It is amazing how two people can go through the same experience and get precisely opposite things out of it. Two prisoners looked out through the bars—one saw mud in the courtyard; the other saw stars in the heaven.
There is the story of two girls who went for a walk in the country. When they arrived back home, they were asked if they had enjoyed it. One talked about nothing but the dusty road, the flies and the heat and how uncomfortable it all was. The other girl spoke of a field of wildflowers and a glimpse of the sea at a bend in the road that she would never forget.
Pessimism—optimism. The thirsty man was given a glass of water. "But it is half empty," he complained. "No," said the giver, "It is half full."
Keep your eyes open—there is much to see and admire. And keep open your hearts—all that we are comes from God. Give thanks.
From Pastor Ron Clarke, w4w2@bigpond.com,
Tasmania, Australia.
In times of national and/or personal need, we have often raised the question: What can we, as Christians, do?
The answer, from New Testament times to now is always the same: we are instructed to pray. If we believe—and we do—that ours is a prayer- hearing and prayer-answering God, then we are not acting in conformity with the admonitions in the Scriptures if we do not pray. For example: "Men ought always to pray" (Luke 18:1); "Pray without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17), and more specifically, "I exhort that prayers be made for all men ... for kings and for all that are in authority" (I Timothy 2:2,3). And not forgetting Israel, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Psalm 122:6). There is an old familiar saying concerning our part in fulfilling the Great Commission to preach the Gospel to the whole world: "Some can go ... others can give ... all can pray."
I suspect it's an indication of low expectations that I was so delightfully surprised when I found a note on my door Saturday afternoon from a person who said they found my wallet a few hours earlier.
Apparently, after pulling out my credit card to get gas, I put my wallet on the top of the car for a moment to answer a phone call. Obviously I forgot and drove off.
Patrick and Catherine saw the wallet in the middle of the road a few blocks from the gas station. They stopped their car to retrieve it. It was filled with all the things one keeps in a wallet these days, including an emergency $100 bill and other cash. There was no home phone number, but they got an address from my driver's license. As true good Samaritans, they decided to drive to my home to return it. When I didn't answer the door, they left a note with their phone number. When I went to get the wallet, I was so relieved and grateful, I intended to give them the emergency $100 bill as an expression of gratitude, but Patrick refused. He said he was just glad he could be of help.
Patrick and Catherine were instinctively honest, but they believed in the Golden Rule as well. There were business cards in the wallet with my office phone number. They could have waited until Monday to call, but they didn't. They drove over to my house because they realized the trauma the loss of a wallet and all its contents could cause. I'm sure there are other people who would've done what they did, but not nearly enough.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Have you ever ordered the morning to begin, or shown the dawn where its place was? ... Can you bring out the stars on time? ... Can you shout an order to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Can you send lightning bolts on their way? ... Job, are you the one who gives the horse its strength or puts a flowing mane on its neck?"1
A store manager overheard a clerk saying to a customer, "No, ma'am, we haven't had any for some weeks now, and it doesn't look as if we'll be getting any soon."
Alarmed by what was being said, the manager rushed over to the customer who was walking out the door and said, "That isn't true, ma'am. Of course, we'll have some soon. In fact, we placed an order for it a couple of weeks ago."
Then the manager drew the clerk aside and growled, "Never, never, never, never say we don't have something. If we don't have it, say we ordered it and it's on its way. Now, what was it she wanted?"
The clerk smiled and said, "Rain."2
Job, in the midst of all his sufferings, understandably questioned God and, like most of the rest of us, had to learn the hard way that there are many things we can't order, change, fix, or do. Job began to get on top of his painful circumstances only as he accepted his situation and chose to trust God. "Though He [God] slay me," Job said, "yet will I trust Him."3
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to know what I can do, but also be aware of my human limitations while all the while appreciating more and more your unfathomable greatness, goodness, mercy and love. And please help me to remember that honesty is still and always will be the best policy. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. Job 38:12, 32, 34-35; 39:19 (NIV).
2. Alan Smith, White House, Tennessee. www.TFTD-online.com.
3. Job 13:15 (NKJV).
8. Receive Daily Encounter E-mail ... Without Charge
Daily Encounter, a without charge weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 407,000 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 one prayer report is e-mailed 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 407,000 subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to 7,994 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."
