Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 16 – No. 2914 July 19, 2014
Thought for the week: "Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God." – Leo Buscaglia
The French police officer stops his car and asks the gentleman if he has been drinking.
With great difficulty, the Englishman admits that he has been drinking all day; that his daughter got married in the morning to a French man, and that he drank champagne and a few bottles of wine at the reception and quite a few glasses of single malt thereafter.
Quite upset, the police officer proceeds to alcotest (breath test) him, which he fails and asks the Englishman if he knows under French Law why he has just been arrested.
The Englishman answers with humor: "No!" And then says to the policeman, "Do you know that this is a British car, and that my wife is the driver ... on the other side?"
If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
One of my favorite quotes, which I like to repeat from time to time, is from Theodore Roosevelt who said: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
5. Good People—A Yiddish Folk Tale
An old man sat outside the walls of a great city. When travelers approached, they would ask the old man, "What kind of people live in this city?" The old man would answer, "What kind of people live in the place where you came from?" If the travelers answered, "Only bad people live in the place where we came from," the old man would reply, "Continue on; you will find only bad people here."
But if the travelers answered, "Good people live in the place where we came from," then the old man would say, "Enter, for here too, you will find only good people."
Imagine being put in charge of a residential camp for delinquent teenage girls confined because they are considered dangerous. Many have serious mental health issues, impulse control problems, and an awful lot of anger.
One of the last terms you'd apply to any of these girls is lovable.
So when Pauline Starks and her colleague Gerry Davis (both with more than 25 years of experience at the Los Angeles Probation Department) spoke to the Josephson Institute's Board of Governors about the importance of giving these girls love, it was pretty impressive. They refused to write these girls off as if they were social rubbish to be thrown or locked away. Instead, they saw young, damaged girls who needed and deserved to be loved.
They came to talk about how the CHARACTER COUNTS! program helped them change the lives of juveniles confined to Camps Scott and Scudder in Lancaster, California, and there wasn't a person in the room who was not inspired.
It's been said that kids don't care what you know until they know that you care. Pauline and Gerry told stories and cited statistics to prove the effectiveness of liberally applied caring and respect. You might expect that nearly three decades of working with criminals would harden them, yet they spoke of the girls with such tenderness, and described little successes with such pride, that it was evident that their natural compassion and empathy shielded them from cynicism.
What a joy it was to spend an evening with these mortal angels who have found meaning and purpose in changing lives through love.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, 'Do you want to be made well [whole]?'"1
If I were to ask you if you want to be made whole, I'm sure you would say yes. But what does it mean to be whole? Simply put, it means to become a whole person especially in mind and spirit; that is, to become emotionally well, and spiritually well. Quite a challenge to be sure.
As long as we live in our human body we will be subject to sickness and disease. However, the more whole we become emotionally and spiritually, the healthier we are more likely to be physically. Unresolved spiritual and/or emotional issues make us much more susceptible to illnesses of all kinds.
For instance, a person whose life is riddled with guilt because of unconfessed sin, or is nursing a grudge and refusing to forgive someone who has hurt him or her is more than likely to get sick physically and/or mentally. Many an ulcer, for example, is caused not so much by what we are eating, but by what is eating us on the inside. And when I repress super-charged negative emotions, as John Powell puts it, "My stomach keeps score."
While the principle for being made well/whole is simple, the process is anything but simple. That is, if we want to be made well/whole, we need to resolve all past hurts, forgive anyone and everybody who has ever hurt us, face and resolve every buried negative emotion, deal with and resolve any unconfessed sin, and make our life right with God.
Remember, too, there is a world of difference between a want and a wish. To be made well/whole takes total commitment, personal honesty, and determination. The half-hearted never make it. They may wish to get well but they don't want it badly enough to be willing to pay the price of doing what it takes to be made well/whole.
Jesus's invitation is still available. Receiving the answer is up to each one of us. Do you truly want to be made whole/well? For only to the degree that we are made whole will our lifestyle, our behavior and actions, our manner of living, and our relationships be wholesome.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to understand fully what it means and what it takes to be made whole, and give me the courage and will to do what I need to do in order to be made whole. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."
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