Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 15 – No. 2113 May 25, 2013
Thought for the week: "If you ALWAYS have to win the argument, you will eventually lose the relationship." – Seen on Facebook
"Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade." – Rudyard Kipling
"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure." – George Woodberry
"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under." – President Ronald Reagan
"Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair." – Douglas MacArthur
"Losing is a learning experience. It teaches you humility. It teaches you to work harder. It's also a powerful motivator." – Yogi Berra
"Lord, give me firmness without hardness, steadfastness without dogmatism, and love without weakness." – Jim Elliot
To celebrate my birthday, my husband and I dressed up for an evening at the theatre. We left our Manhattan apartment to take the bus downtown, but we didn't have exact change, so my husband ducked into a store to break a few dollars.
As I waited, I was approached by a panhandler. He held out his tin cup and said, "Lady, can you spare some change?"
"No," I answered. "I'm actually waiting to get some right now."
Looking as me with surprise, he leaned forward confidentially and said, "You gotta get a cup."
One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.
My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And, I mean, he was really friendly.
So I asked, "Why did you just do that? That guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"
This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."
He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage—frustration, anger, disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it, and sometimes they'll dump it on you.
Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.
Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't.
What would you do, if told you had 10 years to live? Would it change your life? Of course, it would. But what would you do with those 10 years? Go wild, lose control and do anything you wanted, with no conscience? Sulk and have a big pity party? Sit around feeling sorry for yourself, have a long depression? Drink and eat more?
I believe that we are a product of what we have been over the past years. If we did little with our life, then probably it would be more of the same—only intensified. If we lived a life of substance, then we would probably continue on that course. In fact, it's my guess we would work at being the best we could be. We would smell the roses, waste less time on things that have no meaning, value our friendships more, and work harder at the things in our life that count and have meaning.
The love we have for those who are really important in our life would grow even more. We would start to really see the good things in this world, and less of the bad. We would care more about those in need, and help those who we can. We would not want to waste a single day, and would appreciate each day for what it is—a miracle. Would we stop learning and growing as a person? I don't think so. If that's who you were, you will continue to do the same.
One area that does seem to change for people in this situation is their spiritual life. Most of us don't want to give much thought to the dreaded 'life after death'. If told the end is near, then you are faced with thinking about it. Gaining a sense of oneness with our Creator certainly is a comfort. Maybe it's the most important thing anyone can do in this situation [or any situation]. There is no lasting peace and comfort, with money, achievements, titles, hobbies or endless TV.
A Daily Encounter reader writes, "I love the title of your book, You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing, and want to share an experience I had concerning broken wings. This experience came when I needed it the most.
"In June 2003 my husband was in a terrible car wreck. We spent several days in the hospital. I have expressed my gratitude to God many times for saving his life. His body was one solid bruise, a whiplash, and broken ribs. I had to get a strong stance just to help him up (6'3") as he couldn't do that by himself. I did great for two weeks, but utter exhaustion and emotional drain attacked me. I went to bed one night, half-praying, half-crying and half-asleep, sort of in that twilight zone just before falling asleep. Some may call what I experienced was a dream, but to me it was from God in the form of a vision. I saw a beautifully wrapped package with beautiful ribbons and bows. I tore it open immediately and there lay a bird's wing, shimmering in brilliance and outlined in silver and gold. I immediately fell asleep and awakened the next morning feeling totally restored.
"I knew that had to be in the Bible and found it in Psalm 68:13 (NIV): 'Even while you sleep among the campfires, the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold.' The Comforter had come to me, and by the way, my husband has fully recovered."
Ben just came to town as a new rabbi. Unfortunately, his first official duty was to conduct a funeral service for Albert, a man who died in his eighties with no relatives. Since Ben didn't know the deceased personally, he paused from his sermon to ask if anyone in the congregation would say something good about Albert. There was no response. Ben asked again: "Many of you knew Albert for years, surely someone can say something nice."
After an uncomfortable pause, a voice from the back of the room said, "Well, his brother was worse."
If you died tomorrow, what would people say about you? Would it make you proud of the way you lived and the choices you made?
Thinking about the legacy we leave can help us keep our priorities straight. Few people would be satisfied with an epitaph like: "She always got what she wanted." Or "He never missed a deadline."
There's an old saying, "If you want to know how to live your life, think about what you'd like people to say about you after you die ... and live backwards." The idea is that we earn our eulogy by our everyday choices.
In his book, When Everything You Ever Wanted Isn't Enough, Harold Kushner writes: "Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it."
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."1
In considerable thinking today among college students and others, so-called truth is based much too often on one's personal experience and how one feels about it.
As Mark Early wrote in Breakpoint, "Take, for example, the argument for s-e-xual experimentation. It goes like this: 'In order to make wise choices about s-e-x, you have to experience it.' This isn't just a 'line' a guy might use with a girl; it's a false theory of knowledge. It says that personal experience is the only way to know anything, and the test of experience is, of course, how you feel."2
Some also reason that because they can't see, experience, or feel God, he therefore doesn't exist.
In other words I make my experience and how I feel the final voice of authority on what is true and what is false, which, of course, is a way to justify what I want and choose to believe and do.
Certain drugs are addictive. That is true regardless of what I think or feel about them. If I experiment with these drugs to seek to prove my point, I can no longer think clearly or rationally. Furthermore, is fornication, adultery, abortion, homo-s-e-x-ual behavior, gay marriage or any other actions that God condemns right or wrong based on my experience and feelings? No. These actions are wrong because God's Word says they are. And God says they are wrong because they are ultimately harmful to those who indulge in them.
To make my experience and feelings the test of truth is to raise myself above God, implying that I know better than he knows. Rather egotistical to put it mildly, and ultimately self-destructive to put it realistically.
God's Word is the final voice of authority and the standard by which we measure all truths. If a behavior is in harmony with God's Word, we know that it is right.3 If it is out of harmony with God's Word, we know that it is wrong and harmful. We also need to remember that "there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." It is much, much wiser to go God's way than my own.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for the principles for healthy living you have given to us in your Word, the Holy Bible, that, if we follow, will lead to eternal life. And that, if we reject and go our own way, will lead to eternal death. Thank you for this warning, and thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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