Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 7 – No. 3405 August 20 , 2005
Thought for the week: "Let us be certain not to make our choices by default, but by very careful and prayerful planning for the choices we make will make us—for time and eternity." – Dick Innes
"The wise don't expect to find life worth living ... they make it that way." – Author Unknown
"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian." – Dennis Wholey
"I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results." – Florence Nightingale
"So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself." – Florence Nightingale
"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air." – John Quincy Adams
"The twin killers of success are impatience and greed." – Jim Rohn
"Absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence." – Unknown
"We can chart the path to the future clearly and wisely only when we know the path that has led to the present." – Adlai Stevenson, US Senator
A candidate for city council was doing some door-to-door campaigning, and things were going pretty well, he thought, until he came to the house of a grouch-looking fellow. After the candidate's little speech, the fellow said, "Vote for you? Why I'd rather vote for the devil."
"I understand," said the candidate. "But in case your friend is not running, may I count on your support?"
In the coral reefs off the Caribbean lives a small fish known as the Kissing Fish. It's only about two to three inches long. It's bright blue, quick, and a delight to behold. Most fascinating is its kiss. It's not uncommon to see two of these fish with lips pressed and fins thrashing. They give the appearance of serious underwater romance.
You would think the species would be an aquarium lover's dream. They look energetic, vivid, illuminant, and affectionate. But looks can be deceiving. For what appears to be a gentle friend in the sea is actually a pint-sized bully of the deep.
Ferociously territorial, the Kissing Fish has laid claim to its camp and wants no visitors. His square foot of coral is his and no one else's. He found it, he staked it out, and wants no other of his kind near it.
Challenge his boundaries and he'll take you on, jaw to jaw. What appears to be a tryst is actually underwater martial arts. Mouth pushing, lip locking, literal jawboning, power moves with the tongue.
We don't have to go the Caribbean to see that type of power struggle. Mouth-to-mouth manipulation isn't limited to the Caribbean.
Look closely at the people in your world (or the person in your mirror). You might be surprised how fishy things get when people demand their way. Kissing Fish aren't the first to use their mouth to make their point.
– From And the Angels Were Silent, by Max Lucado.
Cited in Parables, Etc., April, 2005
Psychologist John Gottman asks the question, "How can you prevent a marriage from going bad—or rescue one that already has?" After extensive studies, Gottman claims, "I am now able to predict whether a couple will stay happily together or lose their way. I can make this prediction after listening to the couple interact in our Love Lab for as little as five minutes!" How can we know? "What can make a marriage work is surprisingly simple," he says. Happily married couples aren't smarter, richer, or more psychologically astute than others. But in their day-to-day lives, they have hit upon a dynamic that keeps their negative thoughts and feelings about each other (which all couples have) from overwhelming their positive ones."
Other research on marital unhappiness suggests that there are four negative reasons that will lead a couple toward divorce. Perhaps not surprisingly, God's Word has something to say about each: Escalating a fight (Proverbs 15:1); Negative comments (Proverbs 29:11); Invalidating comments (Proverbs 25:20; 1 Pet. 2:17); and Withdrawal and Avoidance (Ephesians. 4:25 and Matthew 5:23-24).
An honest driver is being tailgated by a stressed-out driver on a busy boulevard. Suddenly the light turns yellow just in front of her.
She does the honest thing and stops at the crosswalk even though she could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating driver hits the roof, and the horn, and yells in frustration as he misses the chance to get through the intersection.
As he is still in mid-rant, he hears a tap on his window and looks up into the face of a very serious police officer.
The officer orders him to exit his car with his hands up.
He takes him to the police station where he is searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell.
After a couple of hours, a policeman approaches the cell and opens the door.
He is escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer is waiting with his personal effects.
The officer says, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, shaking your fist and yelling at the driver in front of you. I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker, and the chrome plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally I assumed you had stolen the car."
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He'd either be insane or else he'd be the devil of hell."
"You must make your choice," Lewis continues. "Either Jesus was and is the Son of God, or else He was insane or evil, but let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we
will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:15, NIV).
Michael Josephson of Character Counts shared how, "Two young men in Florida removed a stop sign and brought it back to their fraternity house as a trophy. A fatal accident occurred at the sign-less intersection and the men were convicted of manslaughter.
"In Tennessee, a couple of teenagers were in a high-rise building and one took a dare by the other and slid down a trash chute in the hall—right into an automatic trash compactor. He died and his friend was traumatized, possibly for life.
"What makes these stories all the more tragic is that we're not talking about bad kids; we're talking about fundamentally decent kids who made really bad choices."
Good people can make bad choices just as bad people can make good choices. The fact is we are all the sum total of all of our past choices. Our past was shaped by the choices we made in the past. Our future will be shaped by the choices we make today.
Let us be certain not to make our choices by default, but by very careful and prayerful planning for the choices we make will make us—for time and eternity.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please forgive me for all the bad choices I have made in the past and help me to make wise and careful choices today and in the future. As with Joshua of old, 'As for me and my household we will serve the Lord.' Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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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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