Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 18 – No. 1616 April 16, 2016
Thought for the week: "God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage." – Unknown
A cartoon in the New Yorker showed a father scowling over a very bad report card while his little by stood by, asking, "What do you think it is, Dad? Heredity or environment?"
Source: Let Me Illustrate, Albert P. Stauderman, P.117
Coach John Wooden chalked up a string of victories while he coached the famed University of California at Los Angeles basketball team. I once heard him say, "Nobody is defeated until he starts blaming somebody else. My advice is: 'Don't fix the blame: fix the problem.'"
4. "10,000 People Disappointed in You" – Whitney Houston
by Mitchell Dillon
Whitney Houston, in an interview with Diane Sawyer in 2002, discussed the pain and frustration she experienced in her failed comeback attempt. At one point in the interview she turned to Ms. Sawyer and asked, "Have you ever heard the sound of 10,000 people disappointed in you?"
Hailed as perhaps the greatest vocalist of all time, Whitney Houston once stood atop the music industry as the unchallenged queen of pop. The greatness of her talent was met by an equally magnanimous outpouring of love from millions of fans the world over. But when her abuse of drugs and other related habits finally robbed her of that "golden voice," the cheers turned to jeers.
She had risen to the pinnacle of admiration like few others, only to have it all melt away as soon as her flaws were revealed. The rejection left her confidence wavering from the resonating sound of her fans' disapproval. Even so, in that same interview, Ms. Houston declared emphatically, "I know this—Jesus loves me!" It was a declaration she would assert repeatedly, even at the occasion of her final public appearance the night before she died.
Despite her flaws and self-doubt, there was one thing she did not question: the love of Jesus. What a critical realization, one which highlights the important distinction between the love of the world and the love of God. The former is fickle and fleeting; the latter is sure and eternal.
If an adored star like Whitney Houston could suffer the pain of this world's fickle love, don't think it won't treat you the same—or worse!
The sad truth is we must conceal our flaws if we hope to hang on to the love of this world. But not so with the love of God! His love is felt most strongly when we lead off with them!
"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16).
A cartoon greeting card showed a picture of five frogs sitting on a log.
There was a caption which asked, "If there were five frogs on a log, and one decides to jump, how many would be left on the log?"
A fold in the cartoon formed a pocket from which the curious could draw out the card containing the answer. It read, "Five would be left. Deciding to jump is not the same as jumping."
By Joy P. Gage, When Parents Cry, p. 101. The Pastor's Story File, October 2005.
More often than we like, most of us face choices that can have serious and lasting impact on our lives. Do we go along with the crowd? Do we tell someone off, quit a job, or end a relationship? Unfortunately, these decisions are not preceded by a drum roll warning us that the stakes are high. Even worse, we often don't have a lot of time to figure out what to do.
It's no surprise that most bad decisions—the ones that mess up our lives—are made impulsively or without sufficient reflection.
Ancient proverbs tell us to "count to ten when you're angry" or "think ahead." But anger and lack of pre-planning are only two factors that can impede excellent decision making. Fatigue, fear, frustration, stress, impatience, and emotions also create obstacles to wise choices.
Just as we learned to look both ways before we cross the street, we can learn to analyze every important decision-making situation to allow us to arrive at conclusions that are both effective and ethical.
Each decision, therefore, should start with a stop—a forced moment of reflection to help us clarify our goal, evaluate the completeness and credibility of our information, and devise an alternate strategy, if necessary, to achieve the best possible result. Stopping also allows us to muster our moral willpower to overcome temptations and emotions that could lead to a rash, foolish, or ill-considered decision.
While it's great to have a day or two to sleep on a problem, or even a few hours, many situations don't afford us that luxury. But a pause of even a few seconds can often be enough.
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"1
Pastor Ron Clarke from Tasmania, Australia, wrote: "One evening at dusk I was looking out of my window towards the sea when a huge flock of birds appeared, almost like a black cloud—there must have been thousands. They were traveling from west to east parallel with the coast. Then suddenly it happened. Not a few of them, not some of them, but every single one of them instantly changed direction and flew on a different course.
"We human beings think we have perfected communication. But those birds didn't have two-way radio yet they knew precisely at what split second in time to change course and in what direction to fly.
"These birds, Shearwaters or Mutton Birds, live on the islands in Bass Strait off the north coast of Tasmania. Every year these birds migrate to the North Pacific and spend summer around the Aleutians. As the northern winter approaches, the Shearwaters fly back to their annual breeding ground on the Tasmanian islands and will go to the same nest and, give or take a day or two for adverse weather conditions en route, will arrive on that same nest on a given day."
Think, too, of a million billion other marvels that surround us every day on the earth below and in the heavens above.
Did these all happen by chance? Or is there a Master Designer of the entire universe and all that is therein? For me it would take a whole lot more faith (or presumption) to believe that everything in the universe happened by chance.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank You for the marvels of your creation. I choose to believe that You are the Great Creator who created all things great and small—including all mankind—and I thank You that You love us devotedly one and all. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus's name, amen."
Note: See "Marvels of Creation" at: www.actsweb.org/marvels_creation.php
1. Psalm 8:3-9 (NIV).
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