Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 18 – No. 1606 April 20, 2016
Thought for the week: "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." – J. K. Rowling
"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." – General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
"Time is the ultimate equal opportunity employer." – Denis Waitley
"If you are not working on your ideas each day, you're working on someone else's." – Marjorie Blanchard
"Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier." – Charles F. Kettering
"Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!" – Anneliese Marie Frank, German Jewish Refugee
"Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery." – Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. President
"You must have long-term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures." – Charles C. Noble
A nearsighted minister glanced at the note that Mrs. Jones had sent to him by an usher.
The note read: Bill Jones having gone to sea, his wife desires the prayers of the congregation for his safety.
Failing to observe the punctuation, he startled his audience by announcing: Bill Jones, having gone to see his wife, desires the prayers of the congregation for his safety.
Slow me down, LORD
Ease the pounding of my heart
by the quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace with a vision
of the eternal reach of time.
Give me, amid the confusion of the day
the calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves and
muscles with the soothing music of the
singing streams that live in my memory.
Help me to know the magical, restoring
power of sleep.
Teach me the art of taking minute vacations,
of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat
with a friend, to pat a dog, to read a few
lines from a good book.
Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to
send my roots deep into the soil of life's
enduring values that I may grow
toward the stars of my greater destiny.
A thirty-eight-year-old scrubwoman would go to the movies and sigh, "If only I had her looks." She would listen to a singer and moan, "If only I had her voice." Then one day someone gave her a copy of the book, The Magic of Believing. She stopped comparing herself with actresses and singers. She stopped crying about what she didn't have and started concentrating on what she did have. She took inventory of herself and remembered that in high school she had a reputation for being the funniest girl around. She began to turn her liabilities into assets.
A few years ago Phyllis Diller made over $1 million in one year. She wasn't good looking and she had a scratchy voice, but she could make people laugh.
Some years ago a little boy was given a priceless possession: his deceased grandfather's gold pocket watch. How he treasured it! But one day, while playing at his father's ice plant, he lost the watch amidst all the ice and sawdust.
He searched and scratched, becoming frantic, but no watch. Then he suddenly realized what to do. He stopped scurrying around and became very still. In the silence, he heard the watch ticking.
Tony and Tracy were newlyweds when they went to a friend's wedding. Tony drank too heavily and when a seductive former girlfriend grabbed and kissed him on the lips, Tony kissed her back in a totally inappropriate way. Tracy was furious.
The next day Tony was full of remorse. He apologized, sent flowers, pledged his absolute fidelity and begged for forgiveness. Finally, Tracy agreed to forgive him.
Yet in the following months she repeatedly referred to the incident. Finally, Tony protested, "Look, I admitted I was wrong and I've done everything I could to make amends. You said you'd forgiven me. Why do you keep rubbing my nose in it?"
Tracy said, "I have forgiven you but I haven't forgotten what you did and I don't want you to forget it either."
Clearly, Tracy hadn't really forgiven Tony and she was using her husband's indiscretion as power over him.
True forgiveness involves more than saying the words. It involves "letting go" in a way that frees both parties from grudges and guilt. The phrase "forgive and forget" is often used because without forgetting there is no true forgiveness.
"Forgetting" doesn't mean that we don't remember an incident. It means that we voluntarily let go of our right to punish an offender, that we fully and unconditionally release the wrongdoer from further penalty as if a moral debt has been cancelled.
When a relationship has been damaged by a hurtful act, the victim can choose to hold on to righteous anger and pain or let those things go so that the wound can heal and the relationship can flourish. In the end, holding on to a grudge could do more damage to Tracy's marriage than Tony's indecent kiss.
Forgiveness doesn't come naturally and it isn't easy, but it's both generous and wise.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset."1
I don't know why God required Moses to keep his hands raised when the ancient Israelites were in battle against the Amalekites—unless it was to acknowledge Israel's total dependence on God. Whatever the reason, it was a smart move to get a helping hand from Aaron and Hur, as Moses never could have made it by himself, and a great lesson for all of us because none of us can get through life without a helping hand from others.
I believe it was Paul Harvey who made the following comment: "We have always tended to revere the airplane pilot who did it alone and the country doctor who never left the bedside.... Such a spirit of independence served us well and caused us all to grow tall. But we'd never have made it to the moon without a spirit of interdependence. And we'd never have eradicated typhoid and smallpox and polio without cooperative effort. We've found that no person alone can fetch oil from beneath the ocean. We've found that we are becoming increasingly interdependent—not only in our country, but also all around the world.... On the steep slope ahead, holding hands is necessary."2
And in the quiet of our home and among friends holding hands is also necessary.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me never to be slow to offer a helping hand to a friend in need, and never too proud to ask for help when I need a helping hand. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."
1. Exodus 17:11-12 (NIV).
2. Paul Harvey, Cited on Kneemail, www.oakhillcoc.org/
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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
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