Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 16 – No. 1114 March 15, 2014
Thought for the week: "As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." – Andrew Carnegie
Louis Pasteur, the pioneer of immunology, lived at a time when thousands of people died each year of rabies.
Pasteur had worked for years on a cure. Just as he was about to begin experimenting on himself, a nine-year-old, Joseph Meister, was bitten by a rabid dog. The boy's mother begged Pasteur to experiment on her son. Pasteur injected Joseph for ten days—and the boy lived. Decades later, of all things Pasteur could have had etched on his tombstone, he asked for only three words: "Joseph Meister Lived."
Thought: Our greatest legacy will be those who live eternally in heaven because of our efforts.
The year was 1863, on a spring day in Northern Pennsylvania. A poor boy was selling goods door-to-door to pay his way through school. He realized he had only a dime left, and that he was hungry. So he decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door.
Instead of a meal, he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry and so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?"
"You don't owe me anything," she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness." He said, "Then I thank you from my heart." As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strengthened also. He had been ready to give up and quit.
Years later, that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease.
Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, he went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor's gown, he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day, he gave special attention to the case.
After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested from the business office to pass the final billing to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge, and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally, she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words:"PAID IN FULL WITH ONE GLASS OF MILK."
(Signed)
Dr. Howard Kelly*
*Dr. Howard Kelly was a distinguished physician who, in 1895, founded the Johns Hopkins Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. According to Dr. Kelly's biographer, Audrey Davis, the doctor was on a walking trip through Northern Pennsylvania one spring day when he stopped by a farm house for a drink of water.
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.
One mid-morning recently Joy and I had a most puzzling experience. We were standing in my office at home when, suddenly—and seemingly out of nowhere—was this very loud, clear-as-crystal trumpet blast. It was "Reveille," the well-known military bugle call: "You've got to get up; you've got to get up; you've got to get up in the morning!"
A few minutes later the same trumpet call sounded again. Three times it sounded. I felt like it was coming from my office. The second time, Joy felt like it was coming from her office. The third time, we were standing in the hall and we both thought it was coming from somewhere in the hall. It felt like we were in the middle of surround-sound without the vaguest idea from where the trumpet call was coming.
We live "next door" to Camp Pendleton Marine Base and wondered if it came from there. We noticed through our window that our neighbor across the street was in his front yard at this time, so we asked if he heard the trumpet call. He didn't, so we concluded that the calls didn't come from Camp Pendleton. Had they done so, it wouldn't have been in mid-morning! Half joking and half serious, I said to Joy, "This isn't God's trumpet call announcing the return of Jesus, is it?" We waited ... but nothing more happened.
Interesting, too, that Joy and I both heard these three trumpet calls. Had only one of us heard them, we may have been tempted to think the other one was losing it! But it was very distinct to both of us. Furthermore, we were equally puzzled—and still are.
Regardless from where they originated, they are a graphic reminder that sooner or later, just as suddenly, God's promised clear-as-crystal trumpet will sound with the call: "It's time to get up; it's time to get up; Jesus has come; it's time to get up and go with him to Heaven!"
As God's Word promised, in writing about Christ's return the Apostle Paul stated, "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead [believers in Jesus] shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.1
Furthermore, Jesus Himself promised his followers: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house [Heaven] are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."2 See also What God's Word has to say about Christians who have already died at the time of God's trumpet call.3
Of this we can be absolutely certain—like the trumpet call Joy and I heard—when it is least expected, God's trumpet call will sound. If it were today, would you hear it? Would you be ready to get up and go with Jesus? We will either go with Jesus, or we will be left behind—the latter of which is an extremely sobering thought.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for your promise, and that of Jesus, that Jesus will return to earth to take all his true followers to be with him in Heaven forever. I look forward to your great trumpet call to announce that Jesus has come. Please help me to be ready for this day and this moment. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
Note: If Jesus should come today and you are not absolutely sure you would be ready to be caught up with him, I urge you to read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at: www.actsweb.org/christian.
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