Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 18 – No. 2116 May 21, 2016
Thought for the week: "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again." – Stephen Grellet
"Pray towards heaven but row towards the shore." – Unknown
"Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead, tell your storm how big your God is." – Unknown
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off your bow-lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." – Mark Twain
"Compassion puts love into action." – Unknown
"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." – Maya Angelou
"Your attitude is either the lock on, or the key to the door of success." – Denis Waitley
"Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it." – David Starr Jordan
There was a very gracious lady who was mailing an old family Bible to her brother in another part of the country. "Is there anything breakable in here?" asked the postal clerk. "Only the Ten Commandments," answered the lady.
To those who see with loving eyes, life is beautiful. To those who speak with tender voices, life is peaceful. To those who help with gentle hands, life is full. And to those who care with compassionate hearts, life is good beyond all measure.
I once was in a situation similar to the person in your Daily Encounter article, "When Your Boss Is a Jerk." I couldn't tolerate my boss's "high and mighty" ways and her treatment of me. I finally decided something had to be done. I had prayed about it and finally decided to pray for my boss. I began to pray for God to give my boss some of my blessings. I started with one blessing and it nearly choked me. The second day I gave her two of my blessings and it was a little easier. I kept increasing it daily until I got up to ten. I continued praying for her and then I noticed a change in me. It didn't change her but it changed me and my attitude. We never became friends but when she left our work place we at least parted on friendly terms.
In a NAZI concentration camp, prisoners were forced to work in a vile, stinking factory to convert waste and garbage into a fuel additive for the Nazi war machine.
One day an attack by Allied aircraft leveled the factory. The next day the prison guards herded several hundred inmates to one end of the remains. A Nazi officer ordered them to shovel sand into carts and push it to the other end of the plant. The next day they received orders to move the sand back. And so it went, day after day, hauling the same pile of sand back and forth.
The pressure mounted until, finally, one older man started sobbing uncontrollably. Another screamed, and they beat him into silence. A three-year veteran of the camp broke into a run toward an electrified fence, which killed him. Dozens of prisoners went mad and ran during the days that followed. The guards shot the ones not electrocuted by the fence.
THOUGHT: We can handle almost any kind of suffering as long as we believe it has purpose. Even especially cruel imprisonment and work to help and enemy can be tolerated if they are for a purpose. But remove purpose and suffering is intolerable.
1. "There is purpose to suffering" (Patrick M. Morley, Four Consoling Truths About Suffering, The Seven Seasons of a Man's Life, 248-249). Cited on KneEmail.
Mignon McLaughlin tells us, "People are made of flesh and blood and a miracle fiber called courage."
Courage comes in two forms: physical courage and moral courage. Physical courage is demonstrated by acts of bravery where personal harm is risked to protect others or preserve cherished principles. It's the kind of courage that wins medals and monuments.Moral courage may seem less grand but it is more important because it's needed more often.
Moral courage is the engine of integrity. It is our inner voice that coaxes, prods, and inspires us to meet our responsibilities and live up to our principles when doing so may cost us dearly.
It takes moral courage to be honest at the risk of ridicule, rejection, or retaliation, or when doing so may jeopardize our income or career. It takes courage to own up to our mistakes when doing so may get us in trouble or thwart our ambitions. It even takes courage to stand tough with our kids when doing so may cost us their affection.
Like a personal coach, moral courage pushes and prods us to be our best selves. It urges us to get up when we'd rather stay in bed, go to work when we'd rather go fishing, tell the truth when a lie would make our life so much easier, keep a costly promise and put the interest of others above our own.
The voice of moral courage is also our critical companion during troubling times; it provides us with the strength to cope with and overcome adversity and persevere when we want to quit or just rest.
At unexpected and unwelcome times, we all will be forced to deal with the loss of loved ones, personal illnesses and injuries, betrayed friendships, and personal failures. These are the trials and tribulations of a normal life, but, without moral courage, they can rob us of the will and confidence to find new roads to happiness and fulfillment
Moral courage is essential not only for a virtuous life, but a happy one. Without courage, our fears and failures confine us like a barbed wire fence.
The voice of moral courage is always there, but sometimes it is drowned out by the drumbeat of our fears and doubts. We need to learn to listen for the voice. The more we call on it and listen to it and trust it, the stronger it becomes.
"Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. You are the LORD God."1
How easy it is to take God's blessings and provisions for granted. I've lived in Southern California for several years and have experienced earthquakes which shook the good old terra firma I was standing on. I've seen ravaging fires that destroyed scores of homes, riots that destroyed scores of properties, and floods and mud slides that also caused great losses.
Southern California is little more than converted desert and what amazes me is where all the water comes from to meet the needs of some twenty-plus million people! I've lived through several years of drought and still there was enough water. Most of the water comes from the most marvelous water storage system ever created, and it's not from the many man-made dams and reservoirs, as wonderful and as necessary as these are. It's from the snow that stores water for many months of the year and releases it basically as it is needed. If it weren't for the magnificent mountains and the amazing supply of snow, Southern California would still be little more than a desert.
It also amazes me how so many people complain about rainy days when we get good rains in such a dry and thirsty land—rains that fill up the rivers, dams, and reservoirs and store billions of gallons of water in the form of snow over thousands of square miles of rugged mountains—rains that keep us alive!
All God has to do is turn off the sky's faucet or blot out the sun for long enough and every living thing would die.
As the Levites said, truly God gives life to everything.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank You for all the incredible blessings You provide for all of us all of the time. May I be ever mindful of these and thankful to You for theaw. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."
1. Nehemiah 9:5-7 (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
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