Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 14 – No. 0812 February 25, 2012
Thought for the week: "It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." – Anthony Robbins
"It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy, it is what you think about." – Dale Carnegie
"Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree." – Marian Wright Edelman
"We all need a daily checkup from the neck up to avoid stinkin 'thinkin' which ultimately leads to hardening of the attitudes." – Zig Ziglar
"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe." – Thomas Jefferson
"What will your children remember? Moments spent listening, talking, playing and sharing together may be the most important times of all." – Gloria Gaither
"Leadership is about people, management is about process." – Bob Kellsney
1. Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2. Wrinkles don't hurt.
3. Families are like fudge ... mostly sweet, with a few nuts
4. Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held
its ground.
5. Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6. Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber,
not the toy.
One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house.
His three children were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house.
Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.
He quickly headed upstairs, stepping over more toys and piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she may be ill, or that something serious had happened. He found her lounging in the bedroom, still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.
He looked at her in bewilderment and asked, "What ... happened ... here ... today?!"
She smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and ask me what in the world did you do today?"
4. A few words about the Christian church in America
From overseas, Sarah Posner, writing in The British Guardian.co.uk: "What happened to American Christianity? It is constantly reimagined, manipulated and exploited."
And in Prophecy News Watch: "Today's new brand of Christianity has a different gospel and is targeting thousands of the younger generation with a so-called hip, cool, experiential spirituality."
And our long time friend, and solid, Scripture-focused mega-church minister, Dr. Michael Youssef, warns of the danger that "Christian" ministers, Jewish rabbis, and Muslim imams would co-lead a service in "Christian" churches around America using a multi-faith liturgy. And he points out that 70 churches across America have agreed to conduct such a service, designed to promote "religious tolerance."
Dr. Youssef adds, "Has anyone noticed that none of these events are ever held in a Mosque? It is an anathema to have a Christian minister speak in a Mosque, but they are happy to occupy the pulpits of hapless Christians in American Christian churches. Indeed, it is considered a triumph of Islam over the infidels when they occupy Christian pulpits without opening their Mosques to Christian preachers."
Looking back on your life, what would you change if you could?
In the classic 1946 film "It's a Wonderful Life," the main character, a small-town bank officer played by Jimmy Stewart, is about to commit suicide when an angel shows him how different the lives of people in Bedford Falls would be if he hadn't been born. The movie is a favorite because it affirms how each of us touches others' lives and shapes the future in unexpected and often marvelous ways.
More modern films like "Back to the Future," "Sliding Doors," and "Frequency" are built on a similar premise: If you change the past, you change the future—often in dramatic and unpredictable ways. If you change one thing, you change everything. Given the potential impact of every decision you make, it's wise to think ahead. Although few things turn out exactly as we plan, the better we understand how our choices start a chain reaction of events, the more likely we are to get what we want.
The enormous complexity of cause and effect leads to another conclusion: It's futile to look back at our lives with "what if" scenarios. What's done is done. Although changing our past would change our present, it would do so in ways that are so unpredictable that we could never know whether it would be for better or worse.
Accept and celebrate the fact that what you are today is a direct result of everything that's happened to you. It's pointless to wish things were different. Remember, if you change one thing, you change everything.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand."1
Paul Dickson discovered that the size of the cut he inflicted on himself while shaving was directly proportionate to the importance of the event for which he was shaving. That led him to an interest in other "universal laws" evident in daily life. The following are a few of the many he has collected:
"No books you lend are lost except those you particularly want to keep." "There are three ways to get something done: do it yourself; hire someone; or tell your kids not to do it." "You can throw a burnt match out of the window of your car and start a forest fire easier than you can start one under dry logs in your fireplace with a box of matches and the complete edition of the Sunday newspaper."
Let's face it, more often than not, it's life's little annoyances that get to us and hit our "frustration" button. As one humorist put it:
It's the little things that bother us
and put us on the rack,
you can sit upon a mountain,
but you can't sit on a tack!
And most of us have at least one "frustration" button—by whatever name you call it—which is an area of weakness that God wants us to overcome. As long as I have a "frustration button" that is still active, it's a reminder that I still have some growing to do so I can get to the place where I quit being frustrated and trust God for everything!
Hmmm ... I'm still working on mine ... but God hasn't finished with me yet. Fortunately.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that I can bring all my 'frustrations' to you. When I do this, please help me to see if there is anything I can do to resolve the problem that is causing my frustration, and then do what I need to do to the best of my ability, and trust the outcome to you so that I will experience peace of mind. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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