Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 17 – No. 4015 October 03, 2015
Thought for the week: "A good exercise for the heart is to bend down and help another up." – Unknown
"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." – The Matrix
"America today is running on the momentum of a Godly ancestry, and when that momentum runs down, God help America." – General Omar Bradley
"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success." – Norman Vincent Peale
"Anger of the mind is poison to the soul." – Ecuadorian Proverb
"Every accomplishment large and small begins with the same decision: I'll try." – Ted Key
"Being rich isn't about money. Being rich is a state of mind. Some of us, no matter how much money we have, will never be free enough to take time to stop and eat the heart of the watermelon. And some of us will be rich without ever being more than a paycheck ahead of the game." – Harvey B. Mackay
It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Bart, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me.
"Is that a dog you got back there?" he asked.
"It sure is," I replied.
Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, "What'd he do?"
In the classic, Acres of Diamonds, Russell Conwell begins with the legend of Ali Hafed.
Ali, blessed with a farm and many orchards, was still discontented. He wished for great wealth. So he sought out the village priest and asked for guidance.
The priest advised him to look for a river with white sands. There he would find diamonds. Many diamonds. So Ali left his family with neighbors, sold his farm and went in search of diamonds. For years Ali searched, never returning to his family.
Ultimately, Ali walked into the ocean's waves, willfully ending his life—penniless and broken in spirit.
While Ali was searching for his great wealth, the new owner of Ali's farm continued about making it a productive piece of land. One day, as his camels were drinking from the river that ran through Ali's property, he saw a strange rock. Pulling it out of the stream and examining it, he was in awe. It was a very large diamond.
That farm became the site of the world's largest diamond mine! Right there in Ali's back yard was the river with white sands the priest had spoken of.
Perhaps you have heard of the man, Arthur Malcolm Stace, who became affectionately known as Mr. Eternity and lived in Australia some years ago. Early in life he was an alcoholic derelict who, before reaching middle age, was converted through a rescue mission and later himself became a street-corner evangelist. Shortly after his conversion, he heard a sermon entitled "Echoes of Eternity." He was so captivated by the importance of the word "eternity" that he began using his free time to spread the one-word message across Sydney. "Eternity went ringing through my brain. Even though I could scarcely write my own name, I felt the divine urge to write this word."
So, fifty times a day for over thirty years, he wrote Eternity on the sidewalks of Sydney, usually in the early morning, with white chalk and with faultless script. When he passed away, the Sydney morning newspaper carried a story of this unusual man who had chalked Eternity on the city streets over half a million times in that metropolis of significant population. The thought of eternity does impress upon us the seriousness with which we must regard our soul.
– Echoes of Eternity, Dennis Kastens, CSS Publishing Co.
"When I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song," tenor Luciano Pavarotti relates. "He urged me to work very hard to develop my voice. Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Modena, Italy, took me as a pupil. I also enrolled in a teachers college. On graduating, I asked my father, 'Shall I be a teacher or a singer?'
"'Luciano,' my father replied, 'if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.'
"I chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it's laying bricks, writing a book—whatever we choose—we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that's the key. Choose one chair."
Jaren had a history of asthma and he wasn't a good athlete, but he badly wanted to earn a letter in distance running. He worked hard trying to build endurance and speed so he could make his high school team and earn a letterman's jacket. Though some members of his family urged him to try something else, his mom consistently supported his dream. "If you want it enough," she said, "you should go for it. I believe in you. Besides, just trying will make you stronger in every way."
As a tenth grader he qualified for the team, but he didn't get into enough competitions to earn his letter. The next year he wanted to try again, but his mom contracted cancer. She urged him to keep after his goal and Jaren ran hard in the off-season, wanting to justify her confidence. Each day he'd tell her his times and she'd say, "You're getting better. I believe in you." His running improved and he made the team and though he wasn't the top runner, he was a sure thing to earn his letter.
Sadly, Jaren's mom died a month before the awards banquet. When it was time for the presentations, the coach gave Jaren an envelope with a note in his mother's handwriting: "I knew you would do it. I'm so proud of you." Then the coach handed Jaren a beautiful leather letterman's jacket. "Your mom bought this last year and asked me to hold it for you," he said. Inside was embroidered: "I believe in you. Now, it's time for you to believe in you."
"It is God himself in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work [of telling his Good News to others], and so we never give up."1
I once read about a man who loved to hunt, and bought two topnotch bird dogs. He kept and trained them in his large back yard.
Down the street lived a vicious-looking bulldog who liked to crawl under the fence to attack the two setters. Day after day he would come, and the two setters would tear the bulldog apart, until he could take no more and slip away with his tail between his legs.
But, each day, for weeks, he kept returning. And each day would go home whining in pain, licking his wounds.
After several weeks something interesting happened. The setters just had to hear the bulldog coming and quickly scurried into the basement of their owner's home. They had had enough, even though they had beaten the stuffing out of the pesky bulldog time and time and time again.
The bulldog's dogged persistence made him the winner. Determination, persistence, hanging in when others check out—that's what makes a winner a winner.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, help me to give up on and let go of those things in my life that are not in harmony with Your will, and to never give up on those things that are. And give me the wisdom to know the difference. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus's name, amen."
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