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 Dick Innes


Weekend Encounter

Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes          
Published by: ACTS International

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Vol. 16 – No. 0214   January 11, 2014

 
Thought for the week: "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell
 
Index
1.   Words of Wisdom
2.   On the Lighter Side
3.   A Drink of Water
4.   Unsung Songs
5.   A Baby Girl
6.   Lessons from the Monkey Pot
7.   Dangerous Pets
8.   Receive Daily Encounter Devotional  Without Charge
9.   Weekend Encounter E-mail Edition  Without Charge
10.   Know God ... Without Having to Be Religious
11.   Prayer Partners Needed
12.   Please Help Support Weekend Encounter
13.   Helpful Books, CDs, and Cassettes
14.   Services Without Charge
15.   ACTS in Action Report; Archives for Daily and Weekend Encounter

1. Words of Wisdom

"A man's make [character] can be seen by the way that he treats those who are of absolutely no value to him." – Unknown

"Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps." – David Lloyd George

"I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately triumph than to triumph in a cause that will ultimately fail." – Jim Elliot

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." – Cyril Connolly

"Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell." – C.T. Studd

"Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men there, Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to make the Man of Sorrows the Man of Joy by the conversion to him of many." – J. Hudson Taylor.

Index

2. On the Lighter Side

A woman once called the police station to report a skunk in her cellar. She was told to make a trail of bread crumbs from the basement to the yard—then wait for the skunk to follow it out of the basement. A while later the woman called again and reported that she had done as she was told, and now she had two skunks in her basement.

Index

3. A Drink of Water

"Daddy, what can I do for you?" asked the small boy, overjoyed when his father returned home after a long trip overseas.

"You can get me a glass of water," answered his dad.

The little fellow rushed across the room, poured some water into a glass on the table, spilling some as he did. Then he grabbed the glass and carried it to his father, holding it with his two muddy fingers inside the rim of the glass. When his father took it from him, two dirty little streams were trickling down the inside of the glass. The father turned the glass around and drank every drop of water while his son stood there rubbing his hands on his t-shirt saying, "Daddy, what else can I do for you?"

– ACTS (Australia) Encounter magazine

Index

4. Unsung Songs

How many songs never sung,
poems never written,
pictures never painted,
risks never taken,
bridges never crossed,
romantic words never spoken,
all locked inside a lonely heart—
the prison of another's making—
are left unexpressed
because somebody
shamed us, abandoned us,
or perhaps silenced us
with a cruel word,
a thoughtless deed,
and said or just implied
we were not good enough?
And tragically
we believed them—
so let this be the moment
we choose to believe them
no more ... and sing, sing, sing.

– Dick Innes
  
© Copyright

For this and other poems by Dick, beautifully presented, Click HERE.

By way of interest, I was motivated to write this poem because a well-meaning friend once told me how badly one of my poems was written! It happened to be this one: "Rainbows."

As somebody else wisely said, "Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance."

Index

5. A Baby Girl

"She loves you!" These words, spoken by an unknown aboriginal father in a Melbourne (Australia) restaurant, gave Australian author, Alan Marshall, new purpose in living.

Marshall had been playing with the baby who, resting on her father's shoulder, was facing him across the back of an alcove seat. As he waggled his fingers to imitate a butterfly, the baby's dark eyes sparkled with joy, and she bounced excitedly.

The father glanced over his shoulder at Marshall, smiled, and spoke the words that were to mean so much to him, "She loves you!"

A young man crippled with polio and cramped by a sense of inferiority, Marshall was warmed and inspired by their meaning, for they began to show him the excellence of love. Recalling the incident years later in his book, This Is the Grass, he wrote, "I felt I wanted to write books that meant something."

– by Dorothy O'Neil

Index

6. Lessons from the Monkey Pot

      By Michael Josephson of Character Counts (775.3)

Many years ago a man came to a village in India to catch monkeys so he could sell them to zoos. The monkeys, however, were very clever and every sort of trap he set failed. A young boy watched the man's pathetic efforts and laughed.

The man said, "If you can catch me a monkey, I'll give you $2." (That was a huge amount of money then.)

The boy went to his home and took a clay pot with a narrow neck. He placed a few nuts around the pot and put lots of nuts inside. He then tied the pot to a tree and he told the man, "We should have a monkey in a few hours. Let's wait in the village. The monkey will call us when he is ready."

Sure enough, a band of monkeys soon discovered the nuts and the pot. One slipped his hand in the pot and grabbed a handful of nuts, but he couldn't pull his hand out of the narrow opening of the pot because his fist was clenched. The monkey panicked and started making loud noises. Some of the other monkeys tried unsuccessfully to pull the pot off his hand.

The boy and the man heard the ruckus and the boy got a sack. As they approached the monkeys they all ran away except the one with its hand in the pot. The boy grabbed the monkey and the pot. The man was amazed and asked the boy the secret of his monkey trap. "Why was it so easy for the monkey to get his hand in but so hard to get it out?"

The boy laughed and said, "The monkey could have easily got his hand back out and escaped, but he would have had to let go of the nuts in the pot, and he just wasn't willing to let go. They never are."

What lessons can be learned from this story? Do people sometimes trap themselves by holding onto things that they should let go? Do you?

This story is often used to illustrate the power of greed. People get trapped by the trappings of success, by wealth, and by a limitless desire to acquire and hold onto material things—even when the things they hold do not give them what they want or need. But there are other dimensions to the story as well. Many people trap themselves by holding onto negative feelings—resentment, anger, and jealousy—that both lessen and limit their lives. Like the monkey who derives no pleasure or nourishment from the nuts he holds in his hand, we can derive nothing of value from these negative emotions. Many of us could improve our lives instantly by the simple act of letting go.

It's so simple, yet so hard.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

© 2014 Josephson Institute of Ethics; reprinted with permission. Michael Josephson, one of the nation's leading ethicists, is the founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics and the premier youth character education program, CHARACTER COUNTS! For further information visit www.charactercounts.org

Index

7. Dangerous Pets

A sample of Daily Encounter by Dick Innes

"What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven! What joys when sins are covered over! What a relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record."1

I read about a girl who had a raccoon as a pet and was warned that it was about to undergo a glandular change that animal specialists say happens when they are about eighteen months old. This change can make them very dangerous.

Unfortunately, the girl didn't heed the warning, protesting that her much-loved pet would never do anything to harm her. She was wrong—very wrong. Soon after, her raccoon clawed her so viciously she had to have reconstructive facial surgery.

Unresolved personal conflicts can have a similar effect. Some people can look very calm on the outside, but underneath they have a reservoir of super-charged repressed negative emotions that they never learned how to handle creatively.

At some point something happens. Their stored-up negative emotions are triggered—often by something as simple as somebody making a trivial mistake—and kaboom! They explode. Or they implode and become ill, or may even have a heart attack.

Other people have a secret or pet sin they hang on to, telling themselves that it would never harm them. In time, however, it becomes a habit, the root of which they've never resolved. And then the habit gets the better of them and becomes an addiction that ends up badly hurting them and their loved ones.

So, whatever "pet raccoons" you and I may be harboring, we need to be aware that they could hurt us real bad if we don't get them out of our life.

As David said, "There was a time when I wouldn't admit what a sinner I was. But my dishonesty made me miserable and filled my days with frustration. All day and all night your hand was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water on a sunny day until I finally admitted all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, 'I will confess them to the Lord.' And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone."2

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, if there are any 'pet raccoons' in my life that I am either harboring or unaware of, please bring these to my attention and help me to see how dangerous they are and, with your help, get them out of my life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Psalm 32:1-2 (TLB)(NLT).
2. Psalm 32:3-5 (TLB)(NLT).

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Index

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Index

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Index

13. Helpful Books, CDs and Cassettes

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

Click HERE for books, CDs, tapes and poems by Dick Innes and others.

Index

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Index

15. ACTS in Action Report and Encounter Archives

ARCHIVES: Daily and Weekend Encounters



"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."



© 2014 ACTS International


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