Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 18 – No. 1016 March 05, 2016
Thought for the week: "He/she who kneels before God can stand before anyone." – Unknown
"Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out." – Ronald Reagan
"I will study and prepare, and someday my opportunity will come." – Abraham Lincoln
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." – Dale Carnegie
"What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise." – Oscar Wilde
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams
"Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open." – Elmer G. Letterman
Sam was a four-year-old who loved candy as much as his mom did. Sam's dad gave Sam's mom a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day. The box was heart-shaped and filled with tons of various chocolates. After a few days had passed, Sam went to the box and reached out to touch one of the pieces of chocolate. Sam's mom said, "Now Sam, you know that if you touch it you have to eat it."
Sam then reached out and tenderly patted the top of every piece of candy with his little hand. He then turned to his mother and said, "Well, now I guess I have to eat them all."
Today'sTHOT
Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and pinning the tail on the donkey. But I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from three feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.
Although many of us appreciate Winston Churchill, his stature, his inspiration that sustained England during the gathering storm and in their finest hour, we may not have realized his faith in Christ. He planned his funeral carefully, choosing every hymn, lesson and participant. In 1963 as the "Liturgy of Burial" in St. Paul's Cathedral concluded, there was a brief silence and then from the Whispering Gallery a bugler sounded TAPS, signifying the day is done, life is over.
After a specified interval, from the other end of the great dome, buglers played REVEILLE, the dramatic announcement that a new day had just begun. Churchill thus testified to the Resurrection, that a new day, a new chapter of life as beginning for Christ's faithful soldier and spokesman for human freedom. It had been 148 years since Victory at Waterloo, but the message remained the same, "God has given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord."
J. Lorne Peachey, The Mennonite. Christianity Today. April 2000.
Cited in Encounter magazine (Australia), April/May 2004
God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs. For example: the eggs of a canary hatch in 14 days. Those of the barnyard hen in 21 days. The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days. Those of the mallard in 35 days; and the eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
Notice: they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week!
God's wisdom is also seen in the making of an elephant. The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.
The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.
God's wisdom is also seen in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.
Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind. Each orange has an even number of segments. Each ear of corn has an even number of rows. Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains. Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.
The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.
All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks.
The Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold all even numbers.
God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day.
Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature. He could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!
The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure.
"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
One day a poor boy who was selling goods door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left. As he was hungry, he decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal, he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so she brought him a large glass of milk instead. He drank it slowly and then asked, "How much do I owe you."
"You don't owe me anything," she replied. "My mom has taught us to never accept pay for kindness." He then thanked her profusely and as he walked away. Howard Kelly not only felt rejuvenated physically, but his faith in God and mankind was rejuvenated also. He had been on the verge of giving up, dropping out of school, and going back to the farm.
It is a fact, however, that truth is stranger than fiction, for as it turned out, years later that woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled and sent her to the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore where specialists were summoned to study her rare disease and recommend an appropriate treatment if they could develop one.
Dr. Kelly was called in for consultation and when he learned the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he sought out her room and looking in, without entering he recognized her as the beautiful young lady who had been so kind to him many years ago.
So he went back to his office determined to do his best to save her life and from that day he gave special attention to her case.
After a prolonged struggle, the battle was won. On the day of her scheduled discharge, Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass her hospitalization statement to him for his approval.
When he read it, he made a note at the bottom of the page and had it delivered in a sealed envelope to his patient.
Needless to say, she feared to open it for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay it off. But finally, screwing up her courage, she opened the envelope and stared in horror at the large figure in the amount owing column. Then to her great relief, her eyes were drawn to the hand written note at the bottom of the page which read: "Paid in full with one glass of milk."1
NOTE: This is exactly what God did for you and me in giving His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the just penalty for all our sins by dying in your place and mine on the cruel Roman cross some 2,000 years ago at Calvary in Jerusalem. For all who have cofessed their sinfulnees to God and asked for His forgiveness, God writes right across their debt account: "PAID IN FULL."
If you have never received God's forgiveness for all your sins, I urge you to do his today. For help: Click HERE for God's Invitation.
"But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said."1
"While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men's hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism."2
Some 4,000 years ago, when God called Moses to deliver the ancient people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, Pharaoh refused to let the people go. God kept sending plagues on the Egyptians so Pharaoh would agree to let the Israelites go, which he did. But as soon as there was relief from the plague, Pharaoh changed his mind, hardened his heart and refused to let the people go. After continual resistance, eventually God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
When we continually fail to adhere to God's Word and His message of obedience and salvation we end up hardening our hearts. Eventually God may harden our hearts too--a dangerous course to follow.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please give me a heart that is open to Your Word, that accepts Your free offer of salvation, and the desire to always live in harmony with Your will. And please soften any areas of my heart that I may already have hardened. Gratefully, in Jesus's name. Amen."
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Books by Dick Innes, Editor of Weekend Encounter You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing How to Mend a Broken Heart I Hate Witnessing—A Handbook for Effective Christian
Communications
Healing, Wholeness & Happiness by Dick Innes
Loving & Understanding People by Dick Innes
I Hate Witnessing by Dick Innes
God's Formula for Success by Dick Innes
Damaged Emotions by David Seamands
Healing of the Memories by David Seamands
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