Monthly Archives: June 2009

Encourage One Another

Leave a comment

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”1

King Duncan writes about Larry Doby who was one of baseball’s finest hitters. He is well known by baseball fans because he was the first African-American to play for an American League team. “The year was 1947. Doby was a promising rookie for the Cleveland Indians but he didn’t look very promising his first time at bat. He was tense and nervous. He swung at three pitches, missed each of them, and struck out badly. He didn’t get within a foot of the ball. Slowly he walked to the dugout with his head down. He sat on the very end of the bench and rested his head in his hands.

“A player by the name of Joe Gordon was on that same Cleveland team. Joe was an outstanding second baseman. He batted right after Doby. Gordon had a good record batting against the pitcher who was on the mound that day. But something quite extraordinary was about to happen. Joe Gordon went up to the plate and missed three pitches in a row—each of them by at least two feet. He walked slowly to the end of the bench and sat down next to Larry Doby. Then Joe Gordon slowly put his head in his hands.

“Did Joe Gordon strike out that day deliberately? We will never know. However it is interesting to note that every time Larry Doby went out on the field from that day on, he first picked up Joe Gordon’s glove and tossed it to him.”2

One would suspect that Joe Gordon probably did strike out deliberately. Good for him if he did. Sad to say there are some people in the church who are threatened by anyone who might be able to do something better than they can do or gain a little more recognition, so they underhandedly seek to block them at every turn. Think of how the religious people of Jesus’ day treated him? They were so green with envy, they eventually had him crucified.

But thank God for the “Joe Gordons” who have the gift of encouragement and exercise it generously! Let’s all encourage someone today. It could make a great difference in their life—perhaps for eternity.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for the many people who have encouraged me along the way … have cheered me on when I was dragging my feet … and lifted me up when I have fallen. Please help me to do the same for others. And above all, thank you for your unfailing faithfulness to and everlasting love for me, even when I have been at my worst. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV).

2. King Duncan www.sermons.com

<:))))><

Too Important Not to Share

Leave a comment

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things.”1

“Do you remember the Mercedes TV commercial a few years ago that showed a Mercedes crashing into a concrete wall during a safety test? An engineer in a white lab coat walks over after the crash and kneels down to examine the damage, which is minimal. A reporter then asks the engineer about Mercedes’ energy absorbing car body. After the engineer tells all about the unique design the reporter asks him why Mercedes doesn’t enforce their patent on the design, a design evidently copied by several other companies because of its success.

“The engineer then replied matter-of-factly, ‘Because some things in life are too important not to share.’ How true this is. There are many things in life that fall into this ‘too important not to share category.’ Advances in science, in medicine, in technology. But all of these pale in importance to that of sharing our faith.”2

As Billy Graham said, “I am convinced the greatest act of love we can ever perform for people is to tell them about God’s love for them in Christ.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, I come to you with all my fears, insecurities, and weaknesses but I’m available. Please use me today to be ‘as Christ’ to someone in need and help me in a loving way to share an appropriate word about you and my Christian faith. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Romans 10:15 (NKJV).

2. Rev. Steve Jackson, Sermon: “Come and See.”

NOTE: To have a vital role in God’s plan to reach the world with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, please consider joining the People Power for Jesus group. See www.actsweb.org/people_power.

<:))))><

Just Do It

Leave a comment

“You are to go into all the world and preach [communicate] the good news to everyone everywhere.”1

One writer pointed out that there is a scene in “Winnie the Pooh” that goes something like the following:

Pooh: “Did you fall into the river, Eeyore?”

Eeyore: “Silly of me, wasn’t it?”

Pooh: “Is the river uncomfortable this morning?”

Eeyore: “Well, yes, the dampness you know.”

Pooh: “You really ought to be more careful!”

Eeyore: “Thanks for the advice.”

Pooh: “I think you’re sinking.”

Eeyore: “Pooh, if it’s not too much trouble, would you mind rescuing me?”

How sad when people all around us, among other things, are lost without Christ and we discuss outreach, form outreach committees, conduct seminars on outreach, read books about outreach, and do everything in the church except outreach.

Somebody else said, “If you see a poisonous snake in your kitchen, just kill it. Don’t appoint a committee on snakes!” Just kill it—or at least remove it to a safe place!

And as Meg Stawinski says in her book, Confessions of a Supermarket Evangelist, about a church she used to attend, as you exited the church parking lot there was a sign that read: “You are now entering the mission field.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, every day please help me to be ‘as Christ’ in some way to every life I touch—no matter where I am—and always be prepared to share a timely word about you as opportunity presents itself. And grant that our home will always be a house of blessing to all who enter in. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Jesus in the Gospel of Mark 16:15 (TLB … NLT)

NOTE: To have a vital role in God’s plan to reach the world with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, please consider joining the People Power for Jesus group. See www.actsweb.org/people_power.

<:))))><

Finding Direction

Leave a comment

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight [direct your path].”1

A NASA official involved in space exploration was talking to a reporter about humans landing on Mars. The reporter was concerned about how they would be able to return to earth.

“That involves a highly complex plan,” the space official said. “It begins with the words, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven.’”

Jokes aside, the reality is that most people pray at some time or another. Even those who rarely pray often do when they are in trouble. How much wiser it is to daily commit, surrender, and trust our life to God and seek his guidance in all that we are and do—at all times.

Sometimes it’s hard to see how God is directing or making our path straight—especially when we’re going through a series of rough times. In time, however, when we have daily committed, surrendered, and trusted our life to God and look back, we can see how God has led us all the way. It is true, all things do work together for good to those who love God2—even if it is eventually!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that when I commit and trust my life to you, depend on you for wisdom and guidance, and acknowledge you in every area of my life, you have promised to direct my path and make my way straight. For this I am truly thankful. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV).

2. See Romans 8:28.

<:))))><

Another Serenity Prayer

Leave a comment

“You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”1

Truth. Perhaps the most powerful principle in the world. Without access to it there is no freedom, no deliverance, no inner healing, and no eternal life.

On the other hand, denial is one of the most destructive habits or sins we can commit. For instance, to the degree that I have not found freedom in any area of my life I am still in denial. There is some truth I am avoiding. Denial is a killer of close relationships, a destroyer of families and individual lives, and causes many and varied physical, emotional and spiritual ills.

I certainly don’t agree with everything that M. Scott Peck says but I do agree with the following statement of his: “Emotional sickness is avoiding reality [truth] at any cost. Emotional health is facing reality at any cost.” That’s just rephrasing what Jesus said: “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

The following prayer by Billy Joe Vaughn sums it up very well in the following suggested prayer for today:

“Dear God, grant me the ability to reject the things about me that are not true, the humility to accept the things that are, and the discernment to know the difference. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Jesus in John 8:32 (NIV).

<:))))><

Strength out of Weakness

Leave a comment

“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it [my problem] away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”1

In his book, Confidence, Alan Loy McGinnis talks about a famous study entitled “Cradles of Eminence” by Victor and Mildred Goertzel, in which the family backgrounds of 300 highly successful people were studied. Many of the names of those in the study were well known to most of us—including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Albert Schweitzer, Gandhi, Einstein, and Freud, all of whom were brilliant in their fields of expertise.

The results of this study are both surprising and encouraging for many of us who came from a less-than-desirable home life. For example: “Three-quarters of the children were troubled either by poverty, by a broken home, or by rejecting, over- possessive or dominating parents.

“Seventy-four of 85 writers of fiction or drama and 16 of the 20 poets came from homes where, as children, they saw tense psychological drama played out by their parents.

“Physical handicaps such as blindness, deafness, or crippled limbs characterized over one-quarter of the sample.”

These people who had confidence in their abilities and put them to creative use all have had more weaknesses and handicaps than many who have a lack of confidence because of low self-esteem. So, what made the difference? Probably by compensating for their weaknesses they excelled in other areas.

One man reported, “What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.” The speaker who stammered until his death was W. Somerset Maugham, as he looked back on his life at age 86.

“By then he had become a world-renowned author of more than 20 books, 30 plays, and scores of essays and short stories.”

Speaking personally, I too came from a psychologically distraught, dysfunctional family. What made the difference for me was a deep sense of God’s call and my faith in and commitment to Jesus Christ (with a lot of hard work and growth). However, I tremble to think where I would have ended up had it not been for my Christian faith and practice.

It’s not what we have or don’t have that matters in life but what we do with what we have—and what we do about facing and resolving our issues. It is very important that we don’t allow our past to determine our future and that we use what we have to the best of our ability.

As another has wisely said, “I may have been a victim in the past but if I remain a victim, I am now a willing volunteer.” And another, “Hope for the future gives us power in the present!” No matter what our background, when we commit and trust our lives daily to God, we can and do have hope for the future. It’s up to us what we do in the present to resolve our past and to become what God wants us to be in the future.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to see all that you envision for me to become and do and that, with your help, I can become and do. Help me to realize that I don’t have to allow my past to determine my future, and help me to face and resolve every issue in my past that might be holding me back in any way. And above all, I thank you that when I daily commit and trust my life to you, you can help me to turn my weaknesses into strengths. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 (NIV).

<:))))><

Costly Success

Leave a comment

“Then He [Jesus] spoke a parable to them, saying: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, “What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?” So he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?” So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.’”1

Alan Smith tells about a wrestler, Yussif, the Terrible Turk, “a 350-pound wrestling champion in Europe a couple of generations ago. After he won the European championship, he sailed to the United States to wrestle the American champion, whose name was Strangler Lewis—a little fellow by comparison who weighed just a shade over 200 pounds.

“Although he wasn’t very big, Strangler had a simple plan for defeating his opponents and it had never failed to work. He’d put his massive arm around the neck of his opponent and cut off the oxygen. Many an opponent had passed out in the ring with Strangler Lewis.

“The problem when he fought Yussif the Turk was that Yussif didn’t have a neck. His body went from his head to his massive shoulders. Lewis could never get his hold and it wasn’t long that the Turk flipped Lewis to the mat and pinned him. After winning the championship, the Turk demanded all five thousand dollars in gold. After he wrapped the championship belt around his vast waist, he stuffed the gold into the belt, and boarded the next ship back to Europe. He was a success! He had captured America’s glory and her gold!

“He set sail on the SS Bourgogne. Halfway across the Atlantic, a storm struck and the ship began to sink. Yussif went over the side with his gold still strapped around his body. The added weight was too much for the Turk and he sank like an anvil before they could get him into a lifeboat. He was never seen again.”2

“What a fool,” we say, but how many of us in reality (especially we in the West) spend so much of our lives investing in the pursuit of possessions and grasp onto them until our dying day?

As Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep in order to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, deliver me from the vain pursuit and grasping of material possessions, and help me to realize that my life does not consist in the abundance of things I possess, but in my love of, and in my service to you through serving others. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Luke 12:16-21 (NIV).

2. Contributed by Alan Smith, www.TFTD-online.com.

<:))))><

Happy Father’s Day

Leave a comment

“Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.”1

As a result of teaching in many seminars and facilitating small recovery groups over the years, I have met and talked to scores of both men and women who grew up feeling their father was emotionally absent. Consequently they struggled with a deep father wound caused by the feeling that they had never been affirmed by their fathers. I felt the same way for many years.

Having spent considerable time working to resolve my own father wound, I wrote my version of the classic poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling several years ago for my two sons who are now adults.

To Be a Man

When you can rise above your

fears to conquer every challenge

that comes to those who dare

to climb the highest heights;

When you can keep on getting up each

time you’ve failed or been knocked down;

When you can see your greatest strength

lies in your faith and gentleness,

your greatest courage in admitting

your faults, and with God’s help

strive to overcome them;

When you can accept responsibility

for resolving all your hurts and break

the chain from generations past;

When you can know and show a father’s

love and feel with all your heart;

When you can love yourself, others

and God more than earthly gain,

or fame and recognition, you will,

my son, be then a man—

and indeed a great man at that.*

© Dick Innes

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me as a father (and/or mother) to affirm my children emotionally so that they will know in the depths of their being that they are truly loved by me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Alternate prayer: Or if you are an adult child suffering from a father wound: “Dear God, please help me to find the help I need to find healing of my father wound and (if needed), to understand and forgive my father who, no doubt, was never affirmed by his father. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

*This poem beautifully presented is available online …

Non-Framed at: http://tinyurl.com/2pz9a8

Note: For additional help read the article, “The Healing of a Man’s Father Wound” at: http://tinyurl.com/9dse4

Also see the book, Healing for the Father Wound by H. Norman Wright at: http://tinyurl.com/32scsv

1. (Colossians 3:21 (NLT).

<:))))><

Lest I Make a Mistake

Leave a comment

“For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again….”1

Many years ago, in much younger days, I used to work in construction. On a construction site in which I was in charge I made what to me was a whopping error and was scared to death to tell my boss. Fortunately for me when I did tell him, he simply said, “Dick, the man who never made a mistake never made anything!”

What a relief it was to know my “error” was forgiven! Then we set about to correct my mistake.

I think it was Robert Schuller who said, “A high jumper never knows how high he can jump until he reaches a failure point.” That’s a good point, for we too will never know how high we can reach in fulfilling our personal goals until we also reach a failure point.

In fact, we probably learn a lot more through our failures than we do through our successes. The important thing when we fail is to get up, learn from our mistake, and go on to achieve better things. As another has said, “Not failure, but low aim is crime.”

I appreciate the words of the poet who said,

I would rather stumble a thousand times

Attempting to reach a goal,

Than to sit in a crowd

In my weather-proof shroud,

A shriveled and self-satisfied soul.

I would rather be doing and daring

All of my error-filled days,

Than watching and waiting, and dying

Snug in my perfect ways.

I would rather wonder and blunder,

Stumbling blindly ahead,

Than for safety’s sake

Lest I make a mistake

Be sure, be safe, be dead.2

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to see your plan and purpose for my life, and with your help, make a total commitment to fulfilling it. Help me to learn from my mistakes and never give up. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Proverbs 24:16 (NIV).

2. Author Unknown

<:))))><

Seeds of Opportunity

Leave a comment

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”1

One of the most asked questions from Daily Encounter readers has to do with suffering and why God allows it. Recently one reader asked the question, “Why doesn’t Jesus return to end all the evil that is in today’s world?” At a more personal level, others ask, why does God allow me and my family to go through so many problems?

I suppose all of us have asked the same question at one time or another. I certainly have and my answer is, I don’t know. I’m sure my parent’s generation asked the same question especially during the days of Hitler, World War II, and Stalin. However, had Jesus returned before I was born, I probably wouldn’t have been born, nor would I be given a home in Heaven, nor would I have the wonderful privilege of publishing the gospel and reaching so many others with God’s message of eternal salvation.

The fact is that every generation has gone through suffering of one kind or another and only God knows when Jesus will return to end it all. The point is that we need to realize that evil happens because we live in a broken and sin-full world, the results and effects of which affect us all. The other thing is that God wants us to use our pain to draw us closer to him and help us to grow and become healthier and more mature persons. We also know that God wants everyone in the world to be given the opportunity to hear the gospel before Jesus comes again.

Also, it helps to remember that “no matter how disappointed you are feeling or how much you are hurting, know that every heartache and loss has within it the seeds of opportunity. Hidden within each disappointment is a pearl of great price that, when found, will totally dwarf your problem. The greatest success stories are written by people who, against seemingly overwhelming and often insurmountable odds, have accepted their trials and turned them into opportunities for personal growth and stepping stones on their pathway to success. With God’s help you can do the same. Trust him and choose friends who will empower you to do so.”2

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to use every trial and problem that comes into my life to draw me closer to you and to help me grow towards becoming the person you want me to be. Also, please help me to be an effective witness for you and to be a part of your plan in reaching every one in my world and beyond with the gospel by being ‘as Jesus’ in some way to every life I touch, and by being ready to share the gospel with every opportunity that presents itself. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. James 1:2-4 (NIV).

2. From How to Mend a Broken Heart, by Dick Innes. Available on sale at: http://www.actscom.com/store.

<:))))><