Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 18 – No. 1416 April 02, 2016
Thought for the week: "A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence." – Jim Watkins
"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from indomitable will." – Mahatma Gandhi
"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." – William Arthur Ward
"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." – Maya Angelou
"It's always too soon to quit." – Norman Vincent Peale
"If at first you don't succeed, try and try again." – Proverb
"Winners never quit and quitters never win." – Unknown
Louis Pasteur, the pioneer of immunology, lived at a time when thousands of people died each year of rabies.
Pasteur had worked for years on a cure. Just as he was about to begin experimenting on himself, a nine-year-old, Joseph Meister, was bitten by a rabid dog. The boy's mother begged Pasteur to experiment on her son. Pasteur injected Joseph for ten days--and the boy lived. Decades later, of all things Pasteur could have had etched on his tombstone, he asked for three words: Joseph Meister Lived.
Thought: Our greatest legacy will be those who live eternally in heaven because of our efforts.
From his earliest days in politics, Lincoln had a critic who continually treated him with contempt, a man by the name of Edwin Stanton. Stanton would say to newspaper reporters that Lincoln was a "low cunning clown" and "the original gorilla."
He said it was ridiculous for explorers to go to Africa to capture a gorilla "when they could find one easily in Springfield, Illinois." Lincoln never responded to such slander, and never retaliated in the least. And when, as President, he needed a Secretary of War, he selected Edwin Stanton. When his friends asked why, Lincoln replied, "Because he is the best man for the job."
Years later, that fateful night came when an assassin's bullet murdered the President in a theater. Lincoln's body was carried off to another room. Stanton came, and looking down upon the silent, rugged face of his dead President, he said through his tears, "There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen." Stanton's animosity had finally been broken. How?
By Lincoln's patient, long-suffering, non-retaliatory love.
– Dr. Dale Johnson from Sermon "How Is Your Love Life?" Cited on eSermons.com.
An old man going a lone highway
Came at the evening, cold and grey,
To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a swollen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim.
That swollen stream held no fears for him,
But he paused when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You're wasting strength with building here.
Your journey ends with the ending day.
You never again must pass this way.
You've crossed this chasm deep and wide.
Why build this bridge at the even' tide?"
The builder lifted his old grey head,
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
"This swollen stream that was naught for me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He too must cross in the twilight dim.
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
Years ago I heard a story of a dad named Paul who gave his young son a small chalkboard to practice writing on. One evening his son called out from the bedroom, "Dad, how do you spell best?"
Paul answered him. Moments later, the boy hollered, "How do you spell kid?"
Finally he asked, "How do you spell ever?"
When the boy showed him what he'd written on the chalkboard, Paul expected to see "I'm the best kid ever." Instead, the boy beamed as Paul read the message: "You're the best dad a kid can ever have."
Paul recalled that it was one of the best days of his life. In fact, he had to buy his son another chalkboard because he wanted to save this message forever and hang it on his wall. It's still there.
Feeling appreciated is enormously important to adults as well as children. So much so that we often don't think enough about what we'd most like to be appreciated for.
Being appreciated at work is a big deal. Who doesn't want approval and respect from one's boss and coworkers? Beyond the economic value of raises, promotions, and commendations, praise can be gratifying and motivating. That's why good employers look for opportunities to acknowledge and thank employees for their contributions.
Yet as meaningful as work recognition is, if you could choose between winning your child's "Best Mom/Dad a Kid Can Ever Have" award and being named "Best Employee," which would you choose?
The point is not to belittle the pursuit of approval in your business life but to remind you how much more meaningful it is to know you're important to and appreciated by the people who love and need you the most. Your most important job in life is to be worthy of that appreciation.
Being the "best ever" mom or dad, husband or wife, or friend — it doesn't get any better than that.
"Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise ... the weak things of the world to shame the strong ... the lowly things of the world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."1
Irving is credited with having made the remark that "a barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion." Another way of saying the same thing is that "the race is not always to the swift but to those who keep on running."
One of the encouraging aspects about God is that you don't have to be an expert or anything out of the ordinary for him to use you. God uses people just like you and me. Consider, for example, the men Jesus chose to be his disciples: a couple of fishermen, a despised tax gatherer, a thief, and so on.
Jesus himself didn't attend college or seminary (or the equivalent in his day) but chose as his profession to be a carpenter as was his father, Joseph.
For God to use us, we just need to be available and faithful to his calling, and get adequately trained so we can do the best we can in our service to the Lord. While the disciples weren't qualified to be disciples when Jesus called them, they spent the next three years being trained by the Master Teacher Par Excellence—the Lord himself.
Remember, it's better to be a barking dog than a sleeping lion.
What a difference we Christians would make in our family and all our relationships, in our church, and in the world in which we live if we would all pray the following prayer at the beginning of every day: "Dear God, I'm available. Please make me usable and use me today to be as Christ to my family, to someone in need, and in some way to every life I touch. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."
1. 1 Corinthians 1:26–28 (NIV).
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Oprah Winfrey: "Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi." – Oprah Winfrey
Books:
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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