Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 15 – No. 2813 July 13, 2013
Thought for the week: "How we spend our days—of course—is how we spend our lives." – Unknown
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." – Jim Elliot
"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." – William Carey
"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass.' 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.'" – Harmon Killebrew
"If we are correct and right in our Christian life at every point, but refuse to stand for the truth at a particular point where the battle rages—then we are traitors to Christ." – Martin Luther
"A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind." – Albert Szent-Gyorgi
"None are so empty as those who are full of themselves." – Benjamin Whichcote
"Each one of us can work for a small change in the world around us." – Lamar S. Smith, Politician
1. You can't count your hair.
2. You can't wash your eyes with soap.
3. You can't breathe when your tongue is out.
Put your tongue back in your mouth, you silly person.
Ten things I know about you:
1. You are reading this. 2. You are human. 3. You can't say the letter ''P'' without separating
your lips. 4. You just attempted to do it. 6. You are laughing at yourself. 7. You have a smile on your face, and you skipped
No. 5 8. You just checked to see if there is a No. 5. 9. You laugh at this because you are a fun loving
person and everyone does it, too.
10. You are probably going to send this to see who
else falls for it.
You have received this e-mail because I didn't want to be alone in the blind category. Have a great Day. Laugh, and then laugh and sing. It's a beautiful morning even when it's not.
"Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many."
BILL'S PUNCH LINE
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A certain downtown businessman became fond of the little boy who shined his shoes every day. He did such a good job that one day the businessman asked him, "Son, how come you are so conscientious about your work?" The boy felt complimented. He looked up to the man, and said, "Mister, I'm a Christian and I try to shine every pair of shoes as if Jesus Christ were wearing them."
The businessman saw something genuine in the shoeshine boy. Soon after that he began reading his Bible. When he decided to be a Christian himself, he credited his decision to the little boy who shined every pair of shoes "as if Jesus Christ were wearing them."
– Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!, C.S.S. Publishing Company, 1990.
God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs. For example, the eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days; those of the canary in 14 days; those of the barnyard hen in 21 days; those of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days; those of the mallard in 35 days; those of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days. (Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week)!
God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant. The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.
The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first. How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!
God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains. Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind; each orange has an even number of segments; each ear of corn has an even number of rows; each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains; every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.
All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundredfold—all even numbers.
The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.
God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day. Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!
The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only the One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a profitable end.
Former President Jimmy Carter was 70 years old when he wrote this poem about his father:
This is a pain I mostly hide,
But ties of blood or seed endure.
And even now I feel inside
The hunger for his outstretched hand.
A man's embrace to take me in;
The need for just a word of praise.
Isn't it extraordinary that even after a life of monumental achievements, President Carter still feels pain when he thinks of his father, who either could not feel or would not express love and approval? Unfortunately, there are many people in his shoes, left with bitter feelings and enduring wounds inflicted by their parents.
Yet not all bad parents are bad people. Caring parents can unintentionally injure children through excessive harshness or permissiveness, or through well-intended criticism and advice that comes out as relentless disapproval or oppressive negativity. Kids not only need to know they're loved; they need to feel worthy of our love. They need to be valued not simply because they're ours, but because of who they are.
It's never too late to try to fix whatever's broken:
Express caring, pride, and approval more lavishly and often.
Be less critical, more helpful, less controlling.
Set aside your need to be right.
Be less self-righteous and more respectful toward those you love.
Be sincerely accountable and genuinely apologize, even if it's not enough.
It's not always possible to fix things that are broken, but it's worth a try.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"1
One of the first rules in a healthy support group is to not confess anybody else's sins and faults but your own.
I think the following rule (though not likely to ever happen) should apply to every newspaper journalist, radio and TV commentator, and every politician in that they should never be allowed to confess another's sins publicly without having first confessed their own publicly! This surely would silence a whole lot of negative, nasty, and dishonest criticism.
As Greg Laurie said, "Show me a person who is hyper-critical, and I will show you a person who is guilty of far worse sin in his own life. David was guilty of adultery and of premeditated murder. Yet he thought it perfectly just to kill a man who had merely stolen his neighbor's sheep. Of all people, King David should have been 'Mr. Compassion.' But instead, he was 'Mr. Hypocrisy.' He fell neatly into Nathan's little prophetic trap, as the prophet pointed his finger straight at David and said, 'You are the man.'"
Here's another possible pitfall, to quote Cecil Osborne again: "When we are hiding a deeper sin or fault, we tend to confess a lesser one all the more vigorously," to which I would add, "or we confess someone else's sins and faults."
We can't expect open honesty with many non-Christians, but for those of us who claim to be Christ followers, before we look at the sawdust in another's eye, let us make sure we get rid of the plank in our own eye.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please deliver me from the sin of having a critical, negative attitude and help me to see that when I do criticize, it has more to do with me than the one whom I am condemning. Please help me to see and get rid of any planks in my eyes. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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