Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 18 – No. 1516 April 09, 2016
Thought for the week: "If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." – Jim Rohn
"Passionate commitment is powerful, but its power will often be drained by setbacks, disappointments and failures. Persistence is the power that allows you to regenerate your passion and your will to keep trying until you succeed." – Michael Josephson
"If you do what you ought to do, when you ought to do it, the time will come when you can do the what you want to do, when you want to do it." – Zig Ziglar
"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." – Thomas Edison
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." – Dalai Lama
"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy." – Norman Vincent Peale
"Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later." – Og Mandino
A Jewish rabbi and a Catholic priest met at the town's annual picnic. Old friends, they began their usual banter.
"This baked ham is really delicious," the priest teased the rabbi. "You really ought to try it. I know it's against your religion, but I can't understand why such a wonderful food should be forbidden! You don't know what you're missing. You just haven't lived until you've tried Mrs. Hall's prized Virginia Baked Ham. Tell me, Rabbi, when are you going to break down and try it?"
The rabbi looked at the priest with a big grin, and said, "At your wedding."
Today'sTHOT: I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.
A young doctor decided to go to India although his friends tried to discourage him. "You will be helpless against the suffering in that huge nation," they said. "You'll just be swallowed up in the mass of humanity. What can you do about their epidemics, wars, famines, floods?"
But the young doctor had only one answer: "When it is dark about me, I do not curse the darkness. I just light my candle."
The difference between justice and mercy is dramatically shown in an incident attributed to Napoleon.
A young soldier had been found guilty of sleeping while on sentry duty and had been sentenced to death. His distraught mother finally got an interview with Napoleon to plead for her son. He was her only child; he was young; he had an otherwise blameless record.
"Yet he endangered the entire army by his action," said Napoleon. "Justice demands that he should die."
"True, sire," responded the woman, "But I plead not for justice but for mercy."
"Very well then," answered Napoleon, "I will have mercy."
– Source: Let Me Illustrate, Albert P. Stauderman. P. 119.
Fritz Kreisler once coveted a beautiful Guarnerius violin. He heard its lovely tone and offered all he possessed for it, but found it had already been sold to a collector. "That divine voice doomed to silence under a glass case in a collector's museum was a gragedy that rent my heart," Kreisler wrote. The violinist kept on the trail of the owner, pleading and threatening.
Finally the collector took the violin out of its locked case, handed it to Kreisler, and said, "Play."
Kreisler tuned the instrument and played as if his life depended on it. Moved by the performance, the collector said, "I have no right to it. Keep it. Take it out into the world and let it be heard."
Isn't that what we're told to do with the good news of God's love? Take it out into the world and let it be heard!
– Source: Let Me Illustrate, Albert P. Stauderman. P. 121.
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.
"You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."1
One reason we don't get some prayers answered is because we are praying the wrong prayer. Not necessarily because of a wrong motive, but because we focus our prayer on the symptom and not on the cause of the problem or illness.
There's a well-known hymn that says, "O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer." We could also sing, "O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not pray the right prayer."
For example, if I have a stomach ulcer or a headache, I tend to ask God to heal my ulcer or my headache. This is what I mean by focusing our prayer on the symptom. While some ulcers have a biological cause, some are caused not by what I eat but by what is eating me, and then what I eat aggravates the problem. I've never had an ulcer and rarely have a headache, but when I do have a headache, it's usually because I am either mad about something or am under a lot of stress.
If I am going to ask God for healing, I need to admit not only the symptom, but also ask Him to give me the insight to see, and the courage to face, anything in my life that is causing my illness, and then ask Him for the help to resolve it.
It is unrealistic to ask God to heal my symptoms if I fail to face and deal with the causes. If He did, He would be irresponsible. It is possible, however, to exchange one symptom for another because if we don't deal with the cause of our problem, in time it will come out another way--probably a worse way.
I recall hearing one man claim that the moment he became a Christian, God delivered him from his alcoholism. He may have quit his drinking but it was rather obvious that he was now (or still) a rage-aholic, which quite possibly was a cause behind his alcoholism.
This principle applies not only to physical ills but to many other problems as well. I learned this lesson the hard way. After many years trying to resolve a frustrating situation I was in, I begged God to give me the courage to face the truth of what I was contributing to the problem. Within two weeks I saw what an enabler I had been for so long. Once I saw the truth, I knew exactly what I needed to do, which in the doing resolved my part of the problem.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, with every problem, illness, conflict, and challenge I face, help me to pray the right prayer and see any cause behind my sickness or problem and what I am contributing to my situation. Help me to resolve whatever cause there might be so that I will clear the way for Your deliverance, healing, and freedom. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus's name, amen."
1. James 4:2-3 (NIV).
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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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