Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
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Vol. 13 – No. 5011 December 10, 2011
Thought for the week: "The time is always right to do what is right." – Martin Luther King, Jr.
An Israeli sense of humor at UN set the record straight.
An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nation Assembly and made the world community smile.
A representative from Israel began: "Before beginning my talk, I want to tell you something about Moses: When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath!'
"Moses removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water. When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Palestinian had stolen them!"
The Palestinian representative at the UN jumped up furiously and shouted, "What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren't there then."
The Israeli representative smiled and said, "And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech!"
Kim Sherer wrote, "One night while my young son, Ryan, was sleeping, a storm began brewing outside. After a loud clap of thunder, I heard him wake up so I headed toward his room to comfort him. He asked me to stay with him until he fell asleep. As I lay there, I realized he hadn't asked me to make the storm go away, but to stay with him. How many times, I wondered, have I asked God to take away the storms of life, when instead I need to ask him to stay with me and help me weather them more peacefully?"
What a beautiful thought!
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
Thought for the Day by Alan Smith
Helen Street Church of Christ, Fayetteville, North Carolina
To subscribe to "Thought For the Day," send a blank e-mail to join-thought-for-the-day@hub.xc.org
My words say
"Yes" to life
But what I don't do
often says the opposite.
Will choice,
or fear,
or fate,
or chance,
or indecision,
or doing nothing,
or somebody else,
or what others think,
or my need for their approval
determine my destiny—
or will I?
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me" (Matthew 18:1-2,5).
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
The Sr. Pastor of my church once stated in a Sunday morning sermon, "you never know when you're doing the work of eternity." In the context of his sermon, it sounded great and I took it to heart. Two years after that fateful sermon, God provided me the opportunity to understand those words in a way that—well, only God can provide.
That opportunity took place in El Tamarindo, in the Dominican Republic, an impoverished community on the outskirts of the capital city of Santo Domingo. While in El Tamarindo on a one-week Mission Trip, I settled into a routine that included each afternoon about an hour or so of playing with the kids of El Tamarindo. Try to picture this, these are poor kids, really poor. One of the things that you can't help but notice is that the kids wear the same torn and tattered clothes day after day. Most are shoeless. In this environment, the law of the street can be summed up with a few words, the toughest boy (or girl) very often makes the rules. Fist fights break out spontaneously with an amazing frequency. During my week in El Tamarindo, I broke up two of these fist fights.
When I broke up the first fist fight, that's all I did. I broke up a fist fight. The two boys went their separate ways, maybe to fight again another day.
But the second fight served to teach me some lessons I won't forget for the rest of my life. The first part of the fight was just like the first fist fight I had broken up, physically grabbing each boy to pull them apart. But after those first moments, something very different happened—a moment of grace that did not come from me. What occurred is still as vivid as if it happened yesterday.
I marched each boy, my arms about their shoulders, to a car parked in the dirt street in front of the house where we were staying, and sat them down on the car's hood and spoke to them from my heart. I told them, "Enough with this hitting each other! Do you know how important you both are in God's eyes? Do you know that you are more important in God's eyes than I am or all the other Americanos? Neither answered me. One seemed to be listening, the other (his name is Ransel) kept a stone-cold stare straight to the ground. His body language spoke of so much anger close beneath the surface. But I persisted, and went on to tell them, "Boys, God's son Jesus Christ said that when we welcome a child in his name, we welcome him."
"Do you know what that means, boys?" Silence....
"It means that if you do something good for a child, it's like doing something good for God. But boys, now listen and don't forget this, it also means that when you hit a child, it's like you're hitting God."
Same reaction! One boy seemed open and attentive while Ransel seemed filled with anger and bitterness. It was at this moment that a sin was committed, perhaps greater than those boys hitting each other with their fists. I judged Ransel.
The next day the El Tamarindo community and our team met for our send off at the end of our time in El Tamarindo at the local elementary school. To my surprise, there was Ransel. In fact, he even managed to snag a seat directly behind me in the school during the many short speeches given by various members of the community. And then to my even greater surprise, about half way through the speeches, I heard sobbing behind me. I turned to see Ransel with his head on his arms, crying hard--not little sniffles, but gut-wrenching sobs with lots and lots of tears. I turned and said, "Come here, little man."
This twelve-year old "street tough" then climbed onto my lap, buried his head on my chest and cried and cried and cried.
I can't think of any other moment in my life so far when I've so strongly felt God's presence. This little boy, whom I had summarily written off, had gotten the message after all.
1. Only God can read a person's heart; it's
important that we don't judge.
2. Never pass up the opportunity to share your
testimony of faith for you NEVER know when
you're doing the work of eternity.
The serious damage done to our economy, social institutions, and personal relationships by widespread cheating and dishonesty is bad enough. But widespread acceptance of such behavior as inevitable threatens to make our future a lot worse. In effect, our culture is being infected by a disease: the disease of low expectations.
The disease is manifested by the corrosive assumption that human nature can't be expected to withstand pressures or temptations. In other words, when there's a conflict between self-interest and moral principles, self-interest—in fact, short-term self-interest—will generally prevail.
Thus, whenever a politician lies to get elected, a student cheats to get into college, or an executive commits fraud to save a job or earn a bonus, we blame the system rather than the individual. Under the influence of the disease of low expectations, an increasing army of apologists argue that both the carrot and the stick—previously thought to be valid motivating techniques—should be condemned and eliminated as corrupting influences that create irresistible pressures to cheat.
A school superintendent in Iowa once told me, "Cheating isn't the problem; it's the way we test." We can't expect students not to cheat, he implied, especially when the stakes are so high.
I wonder whether he would be as comfortable with a similar explanation of recent corporate scandals: "Fraudulent accounting isn't the problem; it's the way we compensate executives."
Don't buy into this dreadfully pessimistic and perverted perspective about human nature. Cheating is wrong and harmful. Integrity is real and possible. It just takes character.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. You are the LORD God."1
How easy it is to take God's blessings and provisions for granted. I've lived in Southern California for several years and have experienced earthquakes which shook the good old terra firma I was standing on. I've seen the results of ravaging fires that destroyed scores of homes, riots that destroyed scores of properties, and floods and mud slides that also caused great losses.
Southern California is little more than converted desert, and what amazes me is where all the water comes from to meet the needs of some twenty-plus million people! I've lived through several years of drought, and still there was enough water. Most of the water comes from the most marvelous water storage system ever created, and it's not just from the many man-made dams and reservoirs, as wonderful and as necessary as these are. It's from the snow that stores water for many months of the year and releases it basically as it is needed. If it weren't for the magnificent mountains and the amazing supply of snow, Southern California would still be little more than a desert.
It also amazes me how so many people complain about rainy days when we get good rains in such a dry and thirsty land—rains that fill up the rivers, dams, and reservoirs and store billions of gallons of water in the form of snow over thousands of square miles of rugged mountains—rains that keep us alive!
All God has to do is turn off the sky's faucet or blot out the sun for long enough, and every living thing would die.
As the Levites said, "Truly, God gives life to everything."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for all the incredible blessings you provide for all of us all of the time. May I be ever mindful of these and thankful for them. Help me to always have a grateful heart and live in an attitude of gratitude. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
Note:If you have never accepted God's greatest blessing ever, please read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at: http://www.actsweb.org/christian, and be sure to accept God's forgiveness and his gift of eternal life.
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