Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 16 – No. 1214 March 22, 2014
Thought for the week: "There are many wonderful things that will never be done if you do not do them." – Charles D. Gill
"The first part of success is 'Get-to-it-iveness;' the second part of success is 'Stick-to-it-iveness.'" – Orison Swett Marden, Editor, Success Magazine
"The important thing is not to stop questioning." – Albert Einstein
"A strong man stands up for himself ... A stronger man stands up for others." – Keeler
"The best helping hand that you will ever receive is the one at the end of your own arm." – Fred Dehner
"Harry Emerson Fosdick said: 'Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.' Sadly, it can be destroyed by evil, controlling people." – RWI
"Nature decrees that we do not exceed the speed of light. All other impossibilities are optional." – Robert Brault
The boys had been up in the attic together helping with some cleaning. The kids uncovered an old manual typewriter and asked her, "Hey Mom, what's
this?"
"Oh, that's an old typewriter," she answered, thinking that would satisfy their curiosity.
"Well, what does it do?" they queried.
"I'll show you," she said and returned with a blank piece of paper. She rolled the paper into the typewriter and began striking the keys, leaving black letters of print on the page.
"WOW!" they exclaimed, "That's really cool ... but how does it work like that? Where do you plug it in?"
"There is no plug," she answered. "It doesn't need a plug."
"Then where do you put the batteries?" they persisted.
"It doesn't need batteries either," she continued.
"Wow! This is so cool!" they exclaimed. "Someone should have invented this a long time ago!"
"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."
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
My confession:
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
In light of recent events—terrorists attacks, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.
The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with, 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing yet?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Please pass it on if you think it has merit.
If not, then just discard it. No one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.
The world is changing. It's time to wake up. For a culture to maintain itself it has to have a fertility rate of 2.11. That is, there needs to be an average of 2.11 children born to every family. Anything below that and a population will eventually die out.
In Europe today the fertility rate is only 1.38, and in Canada and the USA it is only 1.6, but if you include the Spanish people in the U.S., it is 2.11.
However the alarming fact is that Muslims have an 8.1 fertility rate, and in 5 to 7 years Islam will be the dominant religion in the world.
The only answer and hope for today's world is the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. To help achieve this goal ACTS International is reaching many thousands of people worldwide with the gospel and message of Jesus Christ—24-7-365.
If you were arrested for kindness, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
Some people cheer up a room by entering it, others by leaving it.
What do you bring to your interactions with work-mates, friends, and family? Is it encouragement, optimism, or kind words? Or is it pessimism, criticism, or cynicism?
People often forget what we say and usually what we do, but as Maya Angelou said, "They always remember how we made them feel."
Here are some other wise words about kindness:
"Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away." – Sir Arthur Helps
"You will regret many things in life, but you will never regret being too kind or too fair." – Brian Tracy
"Don't wait for people to be kind. Show them how." – Anonymous
"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention." – Oscar Wilde
"That best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love." – William Wordsworth
"Kindness is loving people more than they deserve." – Joseph Joubert
"We are made kind by being kind." – Eric Hoffer
"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." – Benjamin Franklin
"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom." – Theodore Isaac Rubin, M.D.
"Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true." – Robert Brault
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Golfer Arnold Palmer has won hundreds of trophies but he never flaunts these. In his office is only one trophy on display. It is a small cup he received at his first professional win at the Canadian Open in 1955.
On his office wall is this lone framed plaque that reads:
If you think you are beaten, you are. / If you think you dare not, you don't. / If you'd like to win but think you can't, / it's almost certain you won't. Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man, / But sooner or later, the man who wins / is the man who thinks he can.
Life's battles, challenges, successes and/or failures are all fought, won or lost in the mind.
"Keep your heart with all diligence," said Solomon, "for out of it are the issues of life."2 The heart in the Bible refers to the total mind: the intellect, the will, and the emotions. And that's the "mind" we need to guard with all diligence, and daily commit and trust to God.
Be assured, too, that "what the mind dwells on the body acts on." If you don't agree with this, just think how temptation works.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to guard my heart and mind with all diligence ... and keep my thoughts focused on things that are 'true, pure, and of good report.' Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
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Because the world is filled with deceptions and lies,
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Because the world would die without,
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