Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 17 – No. 4615 November 14, 2015
Thought for the week: "The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention." – Unknown
When going through an airport during one of his many trips, President Bush encountered a man with long hair, wearing a white robe, and sandals, holding a staff.
President Bush went up to the man and said, "Aren't you Moses?"
The man never answered but just kept staring straight ahead.
Again the President said, "Moses!" in a loud voice. The man just kept staring ahead, never answering the President.
Bush pulled a Secret Service agent aside and pointing to the robed man asked him, "Doesn't that man look like Moses to you?"
Again the President yelled, "Moses!" and again the man stared ahead and didn't answer.
The Secret Service agent went up to the man in the white robe and whispered,"You look just like Moses. Are you Moses?"
The man leaned over and whispered back, "Yes, I am Moses. However, the last time I talked to a bush I spent 40 years wandering in the desert, and ended up leading my people to the only spot in the entire Middle East where there is no oil."
A story is told of a king who was suffering from a malady and was advised by his astrologer that he would be cured if the shirt of a contented man were brought to him to wear. People went out to all parts of the kingdom after such a person, and after a long search they found a man who was really happy...but he did not possess a shirt.
– Pastor's Professional Research Service,
"Happiness." Cited by David Leininger,
"Ask the Average Person."
www.presbyterianwarren.com/average.html
Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in it—one larger than the other. From a distance, each looks like every other horse. But if one stops the car, or is walking by, one will notice something quite amazing.
Looking into the eyes of the larger horse will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him. This alone is amazing, but it is not the most amazing thing about these horses.
Listening, one will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source of the sound, one will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to her bridle is a small bell. It lets her blind friend know where she is, so he can follow her.
As one stands and watches these two friends, one sees how she is always checking on him, and that he will listen for her bell and then slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she will not lead him astray.
Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges. He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need.
Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by God and those whom he places in our lives. Other times we are the guide horse, helping others see God.
Tony Whittaker writes, "I came across this quotation [some time ago now]. I can't locate the source—it may be Barna Research. But it rings true, tragically: 'When surveying people who stopped attending church after six weeks, 92% of them said it was because no one talked to them.'"
Lots of parents are filled with pride when they talk about how bright, beautiful and/or talented their children are. I'm certainly no different. I look for every chance to show pictures of my kids and regale my captive listeners with anecdotes of their charm and cleverness.
Years ago, a proud mom named Gail Silvers wrote to tell me about another quality in her adopted six-year-old son Kyle—his loving heart. Apparently, Kyle has a sort of poetry of love and kindness in his blood. When he was five, he told his mom, "When I kiss you, it means that my heart is going into my lips to tell you how much I love you."
She told me of the time when she and Kyle were on their way home after a five-hour stint with Meals on Wheels and they stopped to render aid to a woman whose car had broken down and was parked on the side of the road. In her car were three children, including a two-year-old baby.
Kyle was curious and when his mom told him the family needed some help, he replied, "There's a baby in the car who's scared because their car is broken. I have to talk to her." When Gail told him the little girl didn't speak English, he said, "Mommy, do you think she speaks love?"
Kyle went to the baby, talked quietly, hugged her and kissed her cheek. Then he decided to entertain the two-year-old with a 10-minute slapstick routine that even took Gail by surprise. As the baby and everyone else laughed, it was clear that Kyle's instincts were right. The baby knew how to speak love, a universal language we all ought to speak more often.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness."1
I recall exactly where I was standing some years ago when an extremely simple, yet profound truth suddenly dawned on me as I said to myself, "The reason I felt empty inside is because I am."
Like thousands of other kids, I grew up suffering from love-deprivation; and for a big part of my life worked tirelessly to gain approval, not realizing that I was substituting this for the love I yearned for deep inside.
Approval can look very much like love. It can be given in love but it isn't love, and when substituted for love it never satisfies.
Approval is based on what we do, but we need to feel loved and affirmed for who we are. Approval is a good thing when given and received for the right reasons, but when substituted for love it can become another addiction to anesthetize the pain of not feeling loved. It can be like a drug. The more we get, the less it satisfies, so the more we seek after it.
Affirmation is based on who we are apart from what we do. And only when we feel affirmed, can we get off the merry-go-round of doing all sorts of things to get approval.
More than anything else we need to know God the Heavenly Father's love and affirmation at the very core of our being. This, I believe, is one of the greatest needs of every human heart without which we may believe in God with our head but still feel disconnected from him in our heart.
And how can I know God the Father's love and affirmation at the core of my being? First, by believing that God loves me because His Word says so and taking this by faith. Second, by sharing my total self over time (especially my dark side) with one or two safe, trusted friends who will love and accept me just as I am—warts and all. As they do this for me, little by little I come to love and accept myself and in so doing I feel affirmed and open myself to accepting God the Father's love and acceptance through them.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please give me a friend or two with whom I can be totally open and honest, friends who know me and will love me still, and through whom I can feel and know your love and affirmation at the very core of my being. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV).
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