Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 16 – No. 2114 May 24, 2014
Thought for the week: "If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow. Perhaps it all will." – Ecclesiastes 11:4, 6 (TLB)
"Reading without reflection is like eating without digesting." – Edmund Burke
"Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once." – Lillian Dickson
"My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment." – Oprah Winfrey
"What is important is not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us." – Jean-Paul Sartre
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving." – Dale Carnegie
"Every failure is a challenge. If taken as a feedback, you are bent to succeed!" – Unknown
"Remember, what we allow we encourage." – Michael Josephson
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." – Abraham Lincoln
My kid brother, a strict vegetarian, travels abroad for long periods on business. When he got back from Europe one time, he called our parents' home and told Dad he was about to pay them an unexpected visit.
When Dad hung up the phone, he called to mother. "The prodigal son is returning! Kill the fatted zucchini!"
Once, when he was managing the Washington Senators, baseball legend Gil Hodges discovered four of his players had broken curfew the previous night.
Immediately, he called a team meeting and said, "I know who you are but I do not wish to embarrass you. You know the rules—you will each be fined $100. I have placed a cigar box on my desk. I expect the four of you who broke curfew to put your money in the box by 3:00 p.m."
At the end of the day, Hodges found $700 in his cigar box!
Have you ever seen a chicken hawk go after its prey? The old mother hen is often aware of the presence of the hawk in time to gather her chicks under her wing. With a furious fuss she squawks till her brood is safe by her side. She fluffs out her wings and protects them with her own body. The chicken hawk dives and the hen turns her body toward him and cocks a wary eye without moving from her children. The predator comes in again for the kill and the mother spreads her wings even wider. A third time he dives only to be thwarted by the determined self-sacrifice of the mother hen. She is too big to be a target and the chicks are too safe to be seized, so he flies away.1
He [God] shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler" (Psalm 91:4, NKJV).
You can speak of Jesus as prophet, holy man, teacher, or spiritual leader, and few will object. But speak of Him as Son of God, divine, of the same nature as the Father, and people will line up to express their disapproval.
A billion Muslims will say: "Prophet, yes. God, no!" Jews scattered around the world will say: "Teacher, yes. Messiah, no!" Liberal Protestants and religionists of various stripes will say: "Exemplary man, yes. Divine, no!"
Who do you say Jesus is?1
But what about you?" he [Jesus] asked. "Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16:15, NIV).
If you want to raise the blood pressure and lose the respect of people serious about sports, belittle their passion by telling them, "It's just a game." Then smugly point out, "It's not whether you win or lose that matters most. It's how you play the game."
To those who devote substantial portions of their lives to sports as athletes, coaches or administrators, these clichés are naive and offensive. In the world they live in, winners are respected and highly paid while losers get eliminated or unemployed. In fact, even youth coaches rate winning so highly that they think a child would rather sit on the bench of a winning team than play for a losing team. Surveys show they are dead wrong. Kids like to win, but it's the adults who need to win.
Winning isn't everything, but it's a lot. It's the grand reward for effort, the golden ring that motivates sacrifice and justifies hard work. Yet too many adults overestimate the importance of victory and underestimate all the fun and learning that can take place in passionate pursuit of victory.
I always wanted to win but as a high school basketball player who played three years for a mediocre C-team, I know that one can enjoy the game immensely and develop important life skills without winning.
If we teach our children to love the process more than the result, to find pleasure in competition and play, not merely victory, we give them a lifetime gift of renewable pleasure.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
He [Jesus] was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities [sins]: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD [God] laid on him the iniquity [sins] of us all" (Isaiah 53:5-6, NIV).
Seventeen-forty-one was a very depressing year for George Frederick Handel. His latest opera failed. His Italian opera company in London was disbanded. That same year Queen Caroline passed away and the commissions Handel had received for composing music for royal occasions all but dried up. A stroke experienced several years prior not only affected him physically, but affected his music. It seemed as if he had lost the genius that made his music so popular.
Late that year, Charles Jennens, a poet known by few, sent Handel a manuscript with a request that Handel set it to music. When Handel read the copy, the words gripped him. Suddenly he came alive. Immediately, he began to put the words to music. He labored all through that night and much of the following day. In fact, he worked day and night for 22 more days, barely stopping to eat or sleep.
When his composition was finished he sensed that it would be a true masterpiece. His "Messiah" was performed the following year and was an immediate success.
The words that Jennens wrote that inspired Handel and lifted him out of the pit of despair were about the Savior: "He was despised and rejected of men. He looked for someone to have pity on him, but there was no man. He trusted in God. God did not leave his soul in hell. I know that my Redeemer lives. Rejoice. Hallelujah!"
On this day 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on a torturous Roman cross to pay the penalty for our sins. But thank God on Easter Sunday Jesus rose from the grave, triumphant over death, giving all who accept him (Jesus) as their Savior the same assurance that Job of old had when he said:
"For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold ..."
(Job 19:25-27, NKJV).
Suggested prayer: "Dear Jesus, how can I ever thank you enough for dying on the cross in my place so all my sins could be forgiven and I could be given the gift of eternal life. Indeed, you are the Christ, Son of the Living God, the Great Creator of the entire universe—and I claim you as my Lord, my God, and my Savior. In appreciation for your dying for me, help me to live for you. Always and forever. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen."
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