Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 8 – No. 3506 September 02, 2006
Thought for the week: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." – Jim Elliott
"One half of our problems come from wanting our own way. The other half come from getting it." – Unknown
"The question for each of us to settle is not what we would do if we had the means, time, influence and educational advantages, but what we will do with the things we have." – Hamilton Wright Mabee
"The twin killers of success are impatience and greed." – Jim Rohn
"G. K. Chesterton famously said something to this effect: When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing—they believe in anything." – Chuck Colson
"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work." – Peter Drucker
"We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us...how we can take it, what we can do with it...and that is what really counts in the end." – Joseph Fort Newton
"Confession Without Repentance Is a Game." – Unknown
"If anything terrifies me, I must try to conquer it." – Francis Charles Chichester, yachtsman, aviator
Centuries ago wine was stored in leather wineskins rather than bottles. Animal skins were dried and cured until the leather could be shaped into containers to hold the wine. When the wineskins were new, they were soft and pliable, but as the aged, they often lost their elasticity; they wouldn't give anymore. They would become hardened and set, and they couldn't expand. If a person poured new wine in an old wineskin, the container would burst, and the wine would be lost.
Interestingly, when Jesus wanted to encourage his followers to enlarge their visions, he reminded them. "You can't put new wine into old wineskins." Jesus was saying that you cannot have a larger life with restricted attitudes. That lesson is still relevant today. We are set in our ways, bound by our perspectives, and stuck in our thinking [and sometimes in the traditions of men]. God is trying to do something new, but unless we're willing to change, unless we're willing to expand and enlarge our vision, we'll miss his opportunities for us.
– Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now—
7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential.
Cited in parabLes, etc., July 2005
A periodical called The War Cry [published by the Salvation Army] carried a story about a tenant farmer who had worked hard for many years to improve the production of the land he leased.
Then something happened that caused him to become very bitter. When it was time to renew his lease, the owner told him he was going to sell the farm to his son who was getting married. The tenant made several generous offers to buy it himself, hoping the man's decision would be reversed, but it was in vain. As the day drew near for the farmer to vacate his home, his weeks of angry brooding finally got the best of him. He gathered seeds from some of the peskiest and most noxious weeds he could find. Then he spent many hours scattering them on the clean, fertile soil of the farm, along with a lot of trash and rocks he had collected. To his dismay, the very next morning the owner informed him that plans for his son's wedding had fallen through and that he would be happy to renew the lease. He couldn't understand why the farmer exclaimed in agonizing tones, "Oh, what a fool I've been!"
THOUGHT: That man sowed good seed in fertile ground for many years, and reaped great crops. In a moment of anger, prefaced by several weeks of bitterness, he sowed bad seed. No doubt, for years after, he had to reap that crop as well.
In the quiet of the night, an elderly woman named Millicent often could be heard praying aloud by the man in the next apartment—a professed atheist. It so happened that because of a computer error, her pension checks had been delayed for several months. With no money to replenish the cupboard, her food supply ran out and, after she had eaten the last slice of bread, she knelt down and prayed in a loud voice, "Oh Lord, please let there be food for tomorrow ... even if it is just a loaf of bread."
Hearing her prayer through the paper-thin wall, the man in the next apartment decided to mock her faith. He took a loaf of bread, laid it at her door, rang the bell and then hurried back to his apartment.
He arrived just in time to hear Millicent's prayer of thanksgiving, "Oh Lord, I thank you for the gift of bread. I knew you wouldn't fail me."
With a triumphant grin on his face, he went back to Millicent's door, rang the bell and said to her, "You silly woman! You think God answered your prayer. Well, I'm the one who brought you that loaf of bread." Millicent replied, "Praise the Lord. He always helps me in my needs—even if he has to use the devil to answer my prayers."
There's no doubt that our character has a profound effect on our future. What we must remember, however, is not merely how powerful character is in influencing our destiny, but how powerful we are in shaping our own character and, therefore, our own destiny. Character may determine our fate, but character is not determined by fate.
It's a common mistake to think of character as something that is fully formed and fixed very early in life. It calls to mind old maxims like "A leopard can't change its spots" and "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." This perspective that our character is "etched in stone" is supported by a great deal of modern psychology emphasizing self-acceptance. As Popeye says, "I am what I am." The hidden message is: Don't expect me to be more, better or different.
Ultimately, these views of humanity totally undervalue the lifelong potential for growth that comes with the power of reflection and choice. How depressing it would be to believe that we can't choose to be better—more honest, more respectful, more responsible and more caring. None of us should give up the personal quest to improve our character. Not because we're bad—we don't have to be sick to get better—but because we're not as good as we could be.
There are so many things in life we can't control—whether we're beautiful or smart, whether we had good parents or bad, whether we grew up with affirmation or negation. It's uplifting to remember that nothing but moral will power is needed to make us better.
No, it isn't easy. But if we strive to become more aware of the habits of heart and mind that drive our conduct, we can begin to place new emphasis on our higher values so that we become what we want our children to think we are.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
A friend of mine has trouble with Japanese bonsai trees because she sees tiny trees with great potential inhibited because they have been purposely root bound by man. Others have trouble seeing animals and birds trapped in cages for the same reason. For example, how do eagles feel in zoos? Do these magnificent birds, created to soar to the heights of mountaintops, get frustrated? "Probably." Are they fulfilled? I seriously doubt it.
Too many of us who were created to reach our total God-given human and spiritual potential and to fulfill God's noble purpose for our life, are trapped in a cage of our own or of another's making. We fail to resolve the problems in our life that hold us back. We fail to come to terms with the destructive habits in our life. True, we may have been wounded in the past, but God wants us to be healed, to be free to fly, to soar to the heights of all that he has for us.
We have a choice, we can scratch in the dirt with the turkeys or we can rise up to follow Christ and fly with the eagles to the heights that God planned and envisioned for us to reach. That choice is ours.
As the Bible says, "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily trips and entangles us, so we are free to run the race that is before us."1 "But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."2
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to find my wings and learn to fly with the eagles to the heights you have planned for me to reach. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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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
Books by Bestseller and Popular Authors: The Miracle of Kindness His Needs, Her Needs by Willard F. Harley, Jr.
has topped the charts as the best marriage
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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
Damaged Emotions by David Seamands Healing of the Memories by David Seamands...
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