Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
To receive the email edition of Weekend Encounter (without charge) click on the Subscribe button.
Privacy policy: We do not sell or rent subscriber's e-mail
addresses to anyone. We value your privacy.
Global Communications Outreach:
Learn how to be a missionary right from your own home and have a vital part in worldwide gospel outreach by becoming an ACTS People Power for Jesus Partner. Click HERE There is no charge.
Vol. 19 – No. 1117 March 16, 2017
Thought for the week: "Commitment doesn't guarantee success, but lack of commitment guarantees you'll fall far short of your potential." – Denis Waitley
"Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We will not know unless we begin." – Howard Zinn
"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." – George Bernard Shaw
"A leader, once convinced that a particular course of action is the right one, must be undaunted when the going gets tough." – Ronald Reagan
"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." – Vince Lombardi
"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he [or she] is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be." – Abraham Maslow
"The world is full of thorns and thistles. It's all in how you grasp them." – Arnold Glasgow
"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." – Dale Carnegie
The organist wanted to make an impression on the visiting clergyman with her
musical accomplishment. She wrote a note to the old sexton who had been a
little slack in his work of pumping enough air for the organ, and handed it
to him just before the service started. But, making a natural mistake, the
sexton passed the note on to the visiting clergyman, who opened it and read:
"Keep blowing away until I give the signal to stop."
Max: You bet! I want to teach millions! I want to fill the Rose Bowl! I want all of the world to know your saving power! I dream of the day....
God: That's great. Max. In fact, I can use you today after church.
Max: Super! How about some radio and TV work or ... or ... or an engagement to speak to Congress?
God: Well, that's not exactly what I had in mind. See that fellow sitting next to you?
Max: Yes.
God: He needs a ride home.
Max (quietly): What?
God: He needs a ride home. And while you're at it, one of the older ladies sitting near you is worried about getting a refrigerator moved. Why don't you drop by this afternoon and....
The young man had lost his job and didn't know which way to turn. So he went to see the old preacher. Pacing about the preacher's study, the young man ranted about his problem. Finally he clenched his fist and shouted, "I've begged God to say something to help me. Tell me, Preacher, why doesn't God answer?"
The old preacher, who sat across the room, spoke something in reply—something so hushed it was indistinguishable. The young man stepped across the room. "What did you say?" he asked.
The preacher repeated himself, but again in a tone as soft as a whisper. So the young man moved closer until he was leaning on the preacher's chair.
"Sorry," he said. "I still didn't hear you."
With their heads bent together, the old preacher spoke once more. "God sometimes whispers," he said, "so we will move closer to hear Him."
Every Friday afternoon, a mathematician goes down to the bar, sits in the second-to-last seat, turns to the last seat, which is empty, and asks a girl who isn't there if he can buy her a drink.
The bartender, who is used to weird university types, always shrugs but keeps quiet. But when Valentine's Day arrives, and the mathematician makes a particularly heart-wrenching plea into empty space, curiosity gets the better of the bartender, and he says, "I apologize for my stupid question, but surely you know there is NEVER a woman sitting in that last stool. Why do you persist in asking out empty space?"
The mathematician replies, "Well, according to quantum physics, empty space is never truly empty. Virtual particles come into existence and vanish all the time. You never know when the proper wave function will collapse and a girl might suddenly appear there."
The bartender raises his eyebrows. "Really? Interesting. But couldn't you just ask one of the girls who comes here every Friday if you could buy HER a drink? Never know—she might say yes."
The mathematician laughs. "Yeah, right—how likely is THAT to happen?"
BUZZARD: If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.
BAT: The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.
BUMBLEBEE: A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.
PEOPLE In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones" (Proverbs 17:22, NIV).
Science has finally caught up with these words in the Bible that King Solomon wrote some 3,000 years ago.
The following report is from The Week magazine: "Laughter is good for your health—and now scientists know why. Researchers at the University of Maryland found that when 20 healthy volunteers smiled and guffawed while watching the comedy, Kingpin, their blood flow increased by 22 percent, about the same increase caused by aerobic exercise. But when volunteers watched tension-filled scenes from Saving Private Ryan, their blood flow decreased 35 percent.
"The researchers say that laughing apparently causes the endothelium, the tissue that lines blood vessels, to expand, which increases blood flow. Laughter may also improve arterial heath by reducing mental stress, which constricts vessels and cuts blood flow. A healthy lifestyle—researcher Michael Miller tells New Scientist—would include 30 minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of hearty laughter each day."1
It's a pity that so many totally ignore God's directives for healthier, happier living. If we would live by the principles as found in his Word, the Bible, we would not only live healthier and happier lives, but our relationships would improve out of sight. We can't improve on God's plan. The wisest thing is to get in on it.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for the principles given in your Word so that I can know how to live a healthier and happier life, and in so living greatly enhance my relationships. So help me God to live. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. The Week magazine, March 25, 2005. Cited on Parables, Etc., April 2005
Daily Encounter, a free weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 35,000+ subscribers. Scores of letters from around the world have come from readers saying how much they are being helped by this brief, practical devotional.
Over 9 million e-mail Daily, Weekend and Prayer Encounters are delivered to subscribers every year!
NOTE: Some ISPs (especially AOL) now use e-mail filtering software that allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or 'approved' list. Please be sure to add acts@actsweb.org to yours so you won't miss any issue of Daily Encounter.
9. Receive E-mail Edition of Weekend Encounter ... Free
NOTE: Some ISPs (especially AOL) now use e-mail filtering software that allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or 'approved' list. Please be sure to add acts@actsweb.org to yours so you won't miss any issue of Weekend Encounter.
One of ACTS greatest needs is Prayer Partners to stand with us as we seek to share the gospel with millions of people around the world through E-mail and the Internet and to win the lost to Jesus. If you would like to be an ACTS Prayer Partner, please subscribe to the Prayer Encounter list. Approximately two prayer reports are emailed monthly. Thank you.
If you have a special prayer request please submit it to David Clark at: www.responda.co.uk/prayer.php. David is not on the ACTS staff but is offering this as a service to Daily and Weekend Encounter readers.
Helpers Needed: If you can help David pray for prayer requests, please could you go to: www.responda.co.uk/member.php
Weekend Encounter and Daily Encounter are just two of the ways the nonprofit organization, ACTS International, is working to improve the spiritual and emotional life of many thousands of people around the world.
Every weekday Daily Encounter is going to 35,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to 9,000+ subscribers worldwide—many of whom are in places where it is forbidden to spread the Christian gospel and message. Plus we reach several hundred thousand more every week through our advertising. As a result every day we are seeing an average of 5-6 salvation responses from around the world—over 2100 in the past 15 months!
If you find value in the free Weekend Encounter and/or Daily Encounter, we hope you will be comfortable donating at least $26. That's only 50 cents a week for an entire year (tax-deductible in the U.S.). You can donate in one of the following ways:
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
1. To donate FREE (to you) food for the hungry
2. For FREE Bible concordance and Bible helps
3. FREE: New Hope Crisis Counseling with trained
lay/volunteer counselors. www.newhopenow.org 4. E-Word Today for a daily Bible reading
5. To find your ZIP+4 Area Code in the U.S.A.
6. How to find and write to your U.S. Representative
7. ASK Jeeves ... your questions answered fast
8. Send a FREE greeting card for all occasions
9. To check the weather in your area
10. Hoax Web Sites
11. Plus many more sources of helpful information
