Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 8 – No. 2906 July 22, 2006
Thought for the week: "Sympathy has been defined as two hearts tugging on one load." – Michael Josephson
"You will regret many things in life but you will never regret being too kind or too fair." – Brian Tracy
"Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you." – Warren Buffett
"How you see yourself is the way you'll end up being." – Kenneth Cole
"Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can read." – Mark Twain
"One person with a commitment is worth a hundred who only have an interest." – Mary Crowley
"By loving the unlovable, You [God] made me lovable." – Saint Augustine
"Faith in order, which is the basis of science, cannot reasonably be separated from faith in an Ordainer, which is the basis of religion." – Asa Gra
History tells of a statue that was erected to celebrate the victory of the Grecian games. It so aroused the envious hatred of the rivals that one of them sneaked out at night to topple the statue. He found it so heavy he had to put quite an effort into rocking it back and forth. When he finally got it to topple it fell the wrong way and crushed him to death. This is the way of bitter envy.
The highly successful businessman and devoted Christian, J. C. Penny, once spoke these words: "If I could get a message over to the youth of this country it would be that success in life does not depend upon genius. Any young man of ordinary intelligence, who is not afraid of work, should succeed in spite of the obstacles and handicaps, if he plays the game fairly and squarely and keeps everlasting at it. The possibilities before one are measured by the determination that is within one."
J. Wilbur Chapman, perhaps the finest evangelist the Presbyterian church has
known, once told in a message that he had just heard of a father who came
into the bedroom where his young son lay dying. The boy had been ill for so
long that his body was badly wasted. It was painful for him even to lie on
the bed. As the father entered, the boy said, "Daddy, lift me up for a
moment."
The father put his hands under the emaciated body and raised his
son just a little off the bed. "Lift me higher," he said, "Daddy, lift me
higher."
The father lifted him up until he held him above his head. When he took him down, the boy was dead. It would seem as if that father had actually lifted his son into the very arms of Christ.
When Dr. Chapman
concluded the service, a man came up to him with tears in his eyes and
said, "Dr. Chapman, it happened just as you said. I went into his room. My
minister was with me, I lifted him up, and his weak voice came back to me in
whispers saying, "Higher, Daddy, higher." When I took him down, he had gone.
But, sir, I had lifted him into the arms of Christ long before, for when he was a very small boy I taught him of a Savior's love, and told him what it means to be a Christian."
In his autobiography, Breaking Barriers, syndicated columnist Carl Rowan tells about a teacher [Frances Thompson] who greatly influenced his life. Rowan relates: Miss Thompson reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a piece of paper containing a quote attributed to Chicago architect Daniel Burnham. I listened intently as she read: "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans, aim high in hope and work. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us."
More than 30 years later, I gave a speech in which I said that Frances Thompson had given me a desperately needed belief in myself. A newspaper printed the story, and someone mailed the clipping to my beloved teacher.
She wrote me: "You have no idea what that newspaper story meant to me. For years, I endured my brother's arguments that I had wasted my life ... that I should have married and had a family. When I read that you gave me credit for helping to launch a marvelous career, I put the clipping in front of my brother. After he'd read it, I said, 'You see, I didn't really waste my life, did I?'"
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Jesus in Mark 2:17).
Of the two kinds of sinners in Jesus' day, whom did he prefer to mix with? The honest ones-those who admitted their sins, weaknesses, and failures.
As long as I deny my own reality (sins, weakness, failures, and my dark side) I cannot truly relate to other people. As Richard C. Halverson, former chaplain of the U.S. Senate wrote in one of his weekly letters:
"Only sinners can relate. Sinners enjoy authentic fellowship. Saints don't! People who pose as saints aren't free to remove their masks. Under pressure to project conventional piety, they are unable to open up and share themselves.
"Upholding the traditional religious image, they remain invulnerable in human relationships because they dare not expose their real selves. They major in propositions rather than persons ... share their victories but never their failures. Meeting head to head instead of heart to heart, protecting themselves against discovery, they ricochet against each other like marbles.
"The authentic saint is oblivious to his sainthood, deeply aware of his unworthiness, sensitive to his failure, confesses he is a sinner, which makes possible true fellowship. Sinners acknowledge their inadequacy, lean heavily on God's grace, and identify quickly with need in others.
"Recognizing all men are sinners, unwilling to hide from the truth, they share their weaknesses, confess their sin to one another, and do not fear vulnerability. They come together like grapes, crushed and fragrant, dependent upon each other, and God."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to see and acknowledge all my sins, weaknesses, failures, character flaws, and broken parts so I can bring them all to you for your healing. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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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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