Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
To receive the email edition of Weekend Encounter (without charge) click on the Subscribe button.
Privacy policy: We do not sell or rent subscriber's e-mail
addresses to anyone. We value your privacy.
Global Communications Outreach:
Learn how to be a missionary right from your own home and have a vital part in worldwide gospel outreach by becoming an ACTS People Power for Jesus Partner. Click HERE There is no charge.
Vol. 15 – No. 4013 October 05, 2013
Thought for the week: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." – Margaret Mead
"This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in." – Theodore Roosevelt
"How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment before starting to change the world." – Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." – Booker T. Washington
"Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love." – Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do." – Edmund Everett Hale
A man hated his wife's cat and he decided to get rid of it. He drove 20 blocks away from home and dropped the cat there. The cat was already walking up the driveway when he approached his home.
The next day, he decided to drop the cat 40 blocks away but the same thing happened. He kept on increasing the number of blocks but the cat kept on coming home before him. At last he decided to drive a few miles away, turn right, then left, past the bridge, then right again and another right and so on until he reached what he thought was a perfect spot and dropped the cat there.
Hours later, the man calls his wife at home and asked her, "Jen is the cat there?"
"Yes, why do you ask?" answered the wife.
Frustrated the man said, "Put that cat on the phone, I am lost and I need directions."
Don't delete this because it looks weird. Believe it or not you can read it, and fast:
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Bishop Gerland Kennedy of California tells the true story of a shipwreck off the coast of Evanston, Ill. many years ago. The students of Northwestern University came to the rescue. One student, Edward Spenser, personally saved the lives of 17 persons that day. Years later a reporter was writing a follow-up story on the event, and went to interview the now elderly Spenser. When asked what was the one thing that stood out about the incident in his mind; Spenser replied: "I remember that of the seventeen people I saved that day, not one of them ever thanked me."
A young preacher was officiating at the funeral of a war veteran.
The deceased's military friends wanted to take part in the service at the funeral home, so they requested the preacher to lead them out through a side door. This he proceeded to do, but unfortunately the effect was somewhat marred when he picked the wrong door. The result was that they marched with military precision into a broom closet, in full view of the mourners, and had to beat a hasty retreat covered with confusion.
Thought: If you're going to lead, make sure you know where you're going.
KneEmail #722: "And if the blind leads the blind,
both will fall into a ditch" (Matthew 15:14). http://www.oakhillcoc.org
Do parents have moral standing to impose standards on their children that they themselves did not follow when they were kids? Is it ever ethical for parents to lie to a child about their youthful experiences?
These are important questions because it's a parent's duty to teach, enforce, advocate, and model good behavior for their kids. Sure, it'd be easier if we never did anything we're uncomfortable being honest about, but judgment and responsibilities grow as we mature. Good parenting would be impossible if we were disqualified from setting and demanding high standards of prudent and ethical behavior no matter how foolish we were as youngsters. Our duty to be a good model concerns the present, not the past.
The tougher question is about being honest about past conduct. As many listeners pointed out, depending on the setting of a confession and the age of the child, discovery of a parent's moral shortcomings could be highly disturbing, even traumatic and, yes, some children will use our past mistakes as an excuse for their own.
These are horrible risks, but I believe successful parenting requires a deep and unshakable trust and an open and honest relationship. In relationships of trust, every lie or deception becomes a buried land mine.
Rather than lie, I would set limits on the things I'm willing to talk about. At the same time, from an early age I've tried to create realistic expectations by being open about my deficiencies, making it clear I never was, and still am not, all I want to be. I hope my kids have no illusions. They should know I made and learned from lots of mistakes.
I've never wanted my children to think I'm better than I am, but I do want them to know I'm struggling to be better than I was.
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
There's a wonderful beach near to where I grew up in Australia. It's called the Forty-mile Beach which stretches North of Noosa Heads in Southern Queensland for 38 miles. It's a wide beach with exquisite fine white sand that is so tightly packed that the beach is actually gazetted on maps as a highway. Cars and vehicles are going back and forth all the time. You just need to be careful to get in and out before high tide.
A couple of years back when I was visiting family, I rented a small four-wheel-drive and drove the entire length of this beach. Joy and one of my sisters were with me. About mid-way are the beautiful colored sands, which are quite fascinating. There is also a wrecked ship that got tossed up onto the beach, I presume in stormy weather. It is more than half rusted away.
As we were merrily driving along there was another vehicle approaching us in the opposite direction. Startled, I said to Joy and my sister, "Look at this idiot. He's driving on the wrong side of the beach!" Oops ... the idiot was me! I wasn't in California. I was in Australia where they drive on the left side of the road, and I was on the right side. On this occasion, right for me was definitely wrong!
I was red-faced!
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to always remember whenever there is a difference of opinion to never jump to the conclusion that I am in the right and the other person is in the wrong, but seriously consider first that I may be the one who is in the wrong. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
NOTE: Some ISPs (especially AOL) now use e-mail filtering software that allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or 'approved' list. Please be sure to add acts@actsweb.org to yours so you won't miss any issue of Daily Encounter.
8. Receive Daily Encounter E-mail ... Without Charge
Daily Encounter, a without charge weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 374,000+ subscribers. Scores of letters from around the world have come from readers saying how much they are being helped by this brief, practical devotional.
Over 100 million e-mail Daily, Weekend and Prayer Encounters are delivered to subscribers every year!
NOTE: Some ISPs (especially AOL) now use e-mail filtering software that allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or 'approved' list. Please be sure to add acts@actsweb.org to yours so you won't miss any issue of Daily Encounter.
One of ACTS greatest needs is Prayer Partners to stand with us as we seek to share the gospel with millions of people around the world through E-mail and the Internet and to win the lost to Jesus. If you would like to be an ACTS Prayer Partner, please subscribe to the Prayer Encounter list. Approximately one prayer report is e-mailed monthly. Thank you.
Weekend Encounter and Daily Encounter are just two of the ways the nonprofit organization, ACTS International, is working to improve the spiritual and emotional life of many thousands of people around the world.
Every weekday Daily Encounter is going to 374,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to 7,555 subscribers worldwide—many of whom are in places where it is forbidden to spread the Christian gospel and message. Plus, we reach several hundred thousand more every week through our advertising. As a result, every day we are seeing an average of 5-6 salvation responses from around the world—almost 3,000 in the past 12 months!
If you find value in the Weekend Encounter and/or Daily Encounter, we hope you will be comfortable donating at least $26. That's only 50 cents a week for an entire year (tax-deductible in the U.S.). You can donate in one of the following ways:
Oprah Winfrey: "Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi." – Oprah Winfrey
1. Bible concordance and Bible helps
2. New Hope Crisis Counseling with trained
lay/volunteer counselors. www.newhopenow.org 3. E-Word Today for a daily Bible reading
4. To find your ZIP+4 Area Code in the U.S.A.
5. How to find and write to your U.S. Representative
6. ASK ... Smart answers fast
7. Send a greeting card without charge for all occasions
8. To check the weather in your area
9. Hoax Web Sites
10. Plus many more sources of helpful information
"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."