Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 14 – No. 3812 September 22, 2012
Thought for the week: "Truth fears no questions." – Anonymous
"Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose." – Anonymous
"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember this whole thing [Disneyland] was started by a mouse." – Walt Disney
"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." – Anonymous
"Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, "What's in it for me?" – Brian Tracy
"Character is much easier kept than recovered." – Thomas Paine
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." – The Bible (1 Corinthians 13:4-5, NIV)
If you've ever worked for a boss who reacts before getting the facts and thinking things through, you will love this!
Arcelor-Mittal Steel, feeling it was time for a shake up, hired a new CEO. The new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers.
On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning against a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business. He asked the guy, "How much money do you make a week?"
A little surprised, the young man looked at him and said, "I make $400 a week. Why?"
The CEO said, "Wait right here." He walked back to his office, came back in two minutes, and handed the guy $1,600 in cash and said, "Here's four weeks' pay. Now GET OUT and don't come back."
Feeling pretty good about himself, the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-ball did here?"
From across the room a voice said, "Pizza delivery guy from Domino's."
A woman baked bread for members of her family and an extra one for a hungry passerby. She kept the extra bread on the window sill, for whosoever would take it away.
Every day, a hunch-back came and took away the bread. Instead of expressing gratitude, he muttered the following words as he went his way: "The evil you do remains with you; the good you do comes back to you!"
This went on, day after day. Every day, the hunch-back came, picked up the bread and uttered the words: "The evil you do remains with you; the good you do comes back to you!"
The woman felt irritated. "Not a word of gratitude," she said to herself. "Everyday this hunch-back utters this jingle! What does he mean?"
"One day, out of desperation, she decided to do away with him. "I shall get rid of this hunch-back," she said. And what did she do? She added poison to the bread she prepared for him! As she was about to place it on the window sill, her hands trembled. "What is this I am doing?" she said.
Immediately, she threw the bread into the fire, prepared another one and kept it on the window sill. As usual, the hunch-back came, picked up the bread and muttered the words: "The evil you do remains with you; the good you do comes back to you!"
The hunch-back proceeded on his way, blissfully unaware of the war raging in the mind of the woman. Every day, as the woman placed the bread on the window-sill, she offered a prayer for her son who had gone to a distant place to seek his fortune. For many months, she had no news of him. She prayed for his safe return.
That evening, there was a knock on the door. As she opened it, she was surprised to find her son standing in the doorway. He had grown thin and lean. His garments were tattered and torn. He was hungry, starved and weak. As he saw his mother, he said, "Mom, it's a miracle I'm here. While I was but a mile away, I was so hungry that I collapsed. I would have died, but just then an old hunch-back passed by. I begged of him for a small part of his food, and he was kind enough to give me a whole bread. "As he gave it to me, he said, "This is what I eat everyday; today, I shall give it to you, for your need is greater than mine!"
"As the mother heard those words, her face turned pale and red. She leaned against the door for support. She remembered the poisoned bread that she had made that morning. Had she not burnt it in the fire, it would have been eaten by her own son, and he would have lost his life!
It was then that she realized the significance of the words: "The evil you do remains with you; the good you do comes back to you!"
Do good—and don't ever stop doing good—even if it's not appreciated at that time.
– Author unknown. Submitted by Jim/Carolyn Wheeler.
Take Apple icon Steve Jobs, who passed away in October of last year from pancreatic cancer. Lauded by Time magazine as "technology's great inventor," Jobs and his creativity have impacted nearly all of us—from Pixar to the iPhone. He ended life with $8.3 billion in the bank. But as his biographer, Walter Isaacson, said in an interview with NPR, Jobs was "a tough customer, very demanding ... he divided everybody into heroes and dunces ... he could be brutal."1
I don't know where Steve stood in his relationship with God. I just hope that he had sought God's forgiveness and had accepted God's Son, Jesus Christ, as his Lord and Savior.
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"2
1. BreakPoint, by Chuck Colson, February 14, 2012. www.breakpoint.org.
2. Mark 8:36 (KJV).
A thought for today, and the years to come, from the far distant past: "To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right."
6. Dishonest Merchants Don't Deserve Your Business
By Josephson Institute (of Character Counts) (763.1)
Some time ago, I received a handwritten message on a yellow self-stick note attached to a torn-out page from a magazine about a new book. The note said, "Mike, thought you might be interested." It was signed "L." It was sent in a non-business envelope with a stamp, but no return address. My assistant thought it was a personal message from a friend and put it on top of my correspondence.
It wasn't from anyone I knew. It was a marketing trick to sell the book.
I'm sure you've seen other deceptive ploys: mailings disguised as telegrams, urgent "personal" messages, announcements that you've won something, window envelopes whose interior looks like a check. An especially audacious variation is the salesperson who calls pretending he knows you. To get through the screening process, he or she will shamelessly try to con your secretary with "Oh, he knows what it's about" or "He asked me to call."
These are all lies and deceptions, but they're used because they work. The people who send them don't care about their credibility or who they offend. No one knows who they are.
While one can appreciate resourceful techniques, clever dishonesty doesn't make an action less despicable. I make it a rule to never do business with anyone who uses such techniques.
What's the harm? The harm is that someone has invaded my life with a lie, depriving me of the choice to decide what I will read and whom I will talk to. Worse, it erodes trust and builds cynicism. Dishonest merchants don't deserve your business.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Then he brought them out and asked, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.'"1
In July of last year, three young tourists when visiting Yosemite National Park were swept over the 317-foot Vernal Fall. One of the tourists, a young woman, was no doubt drawn by the alluring beauty of the raging waterfall and the fast moving Merced River below after a record winter snowfall. Tragically she slipped on a rock above the falls. Two friends reached out to rescue her and the trio was swept over the edge.
At the bottom of the trail leading to the Vernal Falls there is a sign warning about the fast moving water. Also, when entering the Yosemite Park, visitors are given a news paper warning about water hazards and to stay away from fast moving water.
Furthermore, at the top of the Vernal Fall there is a guard railing and a metal safety barricade marked with a warning. Tragically the victims of this tragedy ignored all the warning signs, climbed over the barricade, and fell to a horrific death.2
How foolish we say, and yet, I wonder how many warnings in life we ignore. The greatest tragedy of all is when we ignore all the warnings in God's Word, the Bible—and especially so if we ignore God's warnings about life after death.
For example God's Word reminds us that "It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment [of God]."3
Furthermore, as God said to the nation of Israel, the same applies to every one of us: "Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel ... prepare to meet your God."4
And to Christians: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."5 Yes, this word is for Christians. We will not be judged for our sins because Jesus paid that judgment price on the cross for us when he died in our place. But we will be judged on the basis of how faithfully we have served God since we became Christians—and be rewarded accordingly.
Again, in the words of Jesus: "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."6
Whatever you do, do not be like the tourists who disregarded all the warning signs in the Yosemite National Park and fell to a horrific death, and disregard God's repeated warnings, and ignore God's only remedy to assure us from a lost and hopeless eternity in hell—which is to "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved."1
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please open the eyes of my understanding so that I will clearly see all your warnings in your Word, and give me the wisdom to accept your gift of forgiveness for all my sins and with this the gift of eternal life to be with you in heaven forever. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
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"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."
