Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 15 – No. 4913 December 07, 2013
Thought for the week: "The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire." – Ferdinand Foch
Those of us who know and try to live by God's word must be diligent and make our voices heard! The trouble with our country and with the world in general is that the "Patients are running the Asylum"! Satan has been very busy and recruited his minions to take places of power, and we've let them!
"A student at Jacksonville University in Florida was given a tract. The student crumpled the pamphlet up and tossed it into a trash bin in his dorm. Later, his dorm mate picked it out of the trash, read it, and was soundly saved. He is now a pastor of a church in Florida."
"A Christian I met in a home group said he was raking litter off the Avon River. It was dull, boring work and he often wondered what life was all about. One day he raked a soggy piece of paper off the water and decided it was interesting enough to keep, so he carefully placed it in his bag and took it home. That evening he dried the paper in front of a heater and carefully unfolded it, then he read it. It was a gospel tract. He became a Christian that evening." – Richard Gunther
Billy Graham said, "Nothing surpasses a tract for sowing the seed of the Good News."
A famous singer had been contracted to sing in a Paris opera house and ticket sales were booming. In fact, the night of the concert found the house packed and every ticket sold. The feeling of anticipation and excitement was in the air as the house manager took the stage and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your enthusiastic support. I am afraid that due to illness, the man whom you've all come to hear will not be performing tonight. However, we have found a suitable substitute we hope will provide you with comparable entertainment." The crowd groaned in disappointment. The environment turned from excitement to frustration.
The stand-in performer gave the performance everything he had. When he had finished, there was nothing but an uncomfortable silence. No one applauded. Suddenly, from the balcony a little boy stood up and shouted, "Daddy, I think you were wonderful." The crowd broke into thunderous applause.
We all need people in our lives who are willing to stand up once in a while and say, "I think you are wonderful."
As a full-time ethicist—can you believe there even is such a thing?—I spend lots of time talking and writing about right and wrong. One thing I've learned is that in the last analysis, consistently doing the right thing is easier said than done.
For one thing, it's not always easy knowing what's right. We want to believe that ethics is simple and that everything we needed to know we learned in kindergarten, but if that's so, I must have been absent that day. There are many situations where ethical values clash and there's no clear or simple right thing to do.
But even if we always knew what was right, consistently doing it isn't easy. Sometimes we just can't get everything we want by being honest and following all the rules. Ethics limits our options and can be a competitive disadvantage. So, when there's a gap between what we want to do (our desires) and what we should do (our ethical duties), we often rationalize or compromise. Thus, even basically good people lie occasionally, cheat just a little, and justify moral shortcuts. No one is perfect. It's human nature.
But it's also human nature to strive for moral perfection and to care about our character. That's the part of our nature we need to strengthen. A healthy and realistic goal is not to be perfect but to be constantly getting better. And one doesn't have to be sick to get better.
Yes, it often takes moral will power to do the right thing when it costs more than we want to pay, but that's what character is all about. For all our cynicism about the growing hole in our moral ozone, there are lots of good people who resist temptations every day.
Sure there's a price, but there's also a big pay-off. You'll improve the quality of your life and set an example for your children.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Only let your conversation and manner of life be worthy of the gospel."1
A boy came home from school one day with a note from his teacher saying she had to punish him for swearing. His father took him aside and said, "Well, son, what about it?"
The boy replied, "I have nothing to say, Dad. I deserved it. She heard me say what I said and called me into her office."
"Then what happened?"
"Well, she asked me where I had heard such language. But I didn't give you away, Dad. I blamed it on the parrot."
Need I say more except to say that the heart of all effective teaching is "show me, don't tell me." That is, we need to model what we want our children to learn, to become, and to do!
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to model for my children and others the kind of person you want me to be so that others seeing what you have done in my life will want the same for themselves. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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