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 â€" No. 3317 August 31, 2017
SPECIAL NOTE
Dear Subscribers,
My apologies for the technical problems we have had with sending out our Weekend Encounter. Due to ill health (and my age -- 84) this will be our last issue of Weekend Encounter. I appreciate your faithful subscription and support for all the years we have been publishing Weekend Encounter. May God richly bless and reward you in His own abundant way. Sincerely in Christ, Dick.
Thought for the week: "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ." â€" Blaise Pascal
"A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing." â€" Martin Luther
"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain thingsâ€"to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals." â€" Sir Edmund Hillary
"The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudices." â€" Clint Eastwood
"It matters not what a person is born, but (whom) they choose to be." â€" J. K. Rowling,
"A human being is happiest and most successful when dedicated to a cause outside his own individual, selfish satisfaction." â€" Benjamin Spock
"The person all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty little package." â€" Unknown
"He who throws mud loses ground." â€" Unknown
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." â€" Mark Twain
• The District Duperintendent will be meeting with
the church bored.
• As soon as the weather clears up, the men will have
a goof outing.
• Fifth Sinday is Lent.
• Thank you, dead friends.
• Diana and Don request your presents at their wedding.
• Lent is a period for preparing for Holy Weed and Easter.
• Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget all His benefits.
• For the word of God is quick and powerful ... piercing
even to the
dividing asunder of soup and spirit.
• Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peach
to men.
• Definition: Persons who are shut-in during bath
weather.
• Bring one dozen coolies wrapped for Christmas.
• Volunteers are needed to spit up food.
• Head Deacon and Dead Deaconess
• We pray that our people will jumble themselves.
Dr. James Dobson's experience at the public school system was from 1960-1963. At the final year, he had to say goodbye to 25 to 30 teary-eyed kids. One young lady whom he said goodbye to in 1963 called him in 1975. Julie had grown up. James remembered her as a seventh grader with a crisis of confidence in herself. Her Latin heritage embarrassed her and she was overweight. She had only one friend, and this friend had moved away the following year. She and Dr. Dobson talked on the phone about the good ole days.
"Where do you go to church?" she asked. He told her, and she asked if she could visit. He told her she could, and the next week she came. In the coming months, she became a Christian.
A few months after her initial visit, Dobson asked her, "Julie, I want to ask you a question. Will you tell me why you went to so much trouble to obtain my unlisted number and call me last fall.?"
"Because when I was a seventh-grade student in junior high school, you were the only person in my life who acted like you respected and believed in me, and I wanted to know your God."
An elderly man lay dying in his bed. In death's agony, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies wafting up the stairs. He gathered his remaining strength, and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands.
With labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven: There, spread out on the kitchen table, were literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies. Was it heaven? Or was it merely one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?
Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table. His aged and withered hand made its way to a cookie at the edge of the table, when his wife suddenly smacked it with a spatula.
"Stay out of those," she said. "They're for the funeral."
She's not the only person to save something for a funeral that should have been shared long before. It often seems a shame that flowers are sent at a funeral rather than beforehand when they could truly be enjoyed. Many of the comments made at a funeral reflect the realization that we didn't express our feelings adequately to those we love while they were alive: "What a wonderful friend she was. I never told her how much I appreciated what she meant to me!" "I hope he realizes how much I loved him!"
If someone means something special to you, don't save it for the funeral. Share it with them now!
"Therefore comfort one another and edify one another, just as you are doing" (I Thessalonians 5:11).
Thought for the Day by Alan Smith,
Helen Street Church of Christ Fayetteville, NC www.tftd-online.com
"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again."
Almost a decade ago, General Charles C. Krulak, Commandant of the Marine Corps, spoke of character and courage in a speech at Pepperdine University. His insights were timeless and profound.
"Success has always demanded…character," he said. "Those who can reach…within themselves and draw upon an inner strength, fortified by strong values, always carry the day against those of lesser character. Moral cowards never win."
He wasn't talking about only battlefield courage but the kind needed by all of us as we face ethical challenges in our daily lives. He urged his audience to make moral courage a habit so they'll "be ready for the greater tests of character."
His conclusion was especially eloquent: "When the test of your character and moral courage comesâ€"regardless of the noise and confusion around youâ€"there will be a moment of inner silence in which you must decide what to do. Your character will be defined by your decision...and it is yours and yours alone to make. When that moment comes, think of this poem called 'The Eagle and the Wolf'":
There is a great battle
That rages inside me.
One side is a soaring eagle.
Everything the eagle stands for
Is good and true and beautiful.
It soars above the clouds.
Even though it dips down into the valleys,
It lays its eggs on the mountaintops.
The other side of me is a howling wolf.
And that raging, howling wolf
Represents the worst that is in me.
He eats upon my downfalls
And justifies himself by
his presence in the pack.
Who wins this great battle?
The one I feed.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
According to an article in Today in the Word, "In the spring of 1981 a young man was flown into desolate northern Alaska to photograph the natural beauty and mysteries of the tundra. He took along 500 rolls of film, several firearms, and 1,400 pounds of provisions.
"As the months passed, the words in his diary changed from wonder and fascination into a nightmare. In August he wrote, 'I think I should have used more foresight about arranging my departure. I'll soon find out.' In November he died in a nameless valley, by a nameless lake, 225 miles northeast of Fairbanks. An investigation revealed that though he had carefully planned his trip, he had made no provision to be flown out."1
Difficult to imagine isn't it? How could anyone be so foolish or even forgetful? He made every provision for his journey except how to get home! Unbelievable!
"How tragic," we say. And yet, how many of us make every provision for life here on earth but no preparation for our departure? God has warned us in his Word, the Bible, that there is life after death ... after which is God's judgment. And as he warned the nation of Israel to prepare to meet God,2 he warns us to do the same. We need to do this today. After death it is too late. As God's Word also says, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."3
And how do we prepare to meet God? By confessing our sins to God and accepting his Son, Jesus, as our personal Lord and Savior. Doing this is getting our "passport to Eternity in Heaven." Whatever you do, don't leave earth without it! To help you do this click on the God's Invitation link at: http://tinyurl.com/6k49w
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to make certain that I don't leave this life without making preparation for life beyond death. Help me to accept your provision. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
Time ...
We enter it at birth,
We pass through it in life,
We exit it at death.
It is our preparation ...
for eternity.
1. Today in the Word, March 24/98
2. Amos 4:12.
3. Hebrews 9:27
Daily Encounter, a free weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 200,000+ subscribers. Scores of letters from around the world have come from readers saying how much they are being helped by this brief, practical devotional.
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.
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
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." â€" 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 Witnessingâ€"A Handbook for Effective Christian
Communications
1. Bible concordance and Bible helps 2. E-Word Today for a daily Bible reading
3. To find your ZIP+4 Area Code in the U.S.A.
4. How to find and write to your U.S. Representative
5. ASK ... Smart answers fast
6. Send a FREE greeting card for all occasions
7. To check the weather in your area
8. Hoax Web Sites
9. Plus many more sources of helpful information
"Because the world is hungry,
go with bread.
Because the world is filled with strife,
go with peace.
Because the world is filled with deceptions and lies,
go with truth.
Because the world would die without,
go with the love of God."
ACTS International
PO Box 73545
San Clemente, CA 92673-0119
U.S.A.
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.
