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WITandWISDOM(tm) - May 5, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "Education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education." - Martin Luther King, Jr. Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2004, http://www.actsweb.org/subscribe.php ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28, NIV). "The year was 1920. The scene was the examining board for selecting missionaries. Standing before the board was a young man named Oswald J. Smith. One dream dominated his heart. He wanted to be a missionary. Over and over again, he prayed, 'Lord, I want to go as a missionary for you. Open a door of service for me.' Now, at last, his prayer would be answered. "When the examination was over, the board turned Oswald Smith down. He did not meet their qualifications. He failed the test. Oswald Smith had set his direction, but now life gave him a detour. What would he do? As Oswald Smith prayed, God planted another idea in his heart. If he could not go as a missionary, he would build a church which could send out missionaries. And that is what he did. Oswald Smith pastored The People's Church in Toronto, Canada, which sent out more missionaries than any other church at that time. Oswald Smith brought God into the situation, and God transformed his detour into a main thoroughfare of service." - By Brian L. Harbour, Rising Above the Crowd. Cited on http://www.bible.org/ Years later Oswald J. Smith had a dynamic impact on my life that changed the course of my life and ministry. Thirty-five years ago when I was the South Australian director of Youth for Christ, I helped organize a week of meetings with Oswald Smith in the city of Adelaide. In one service Smith preached on the power of the printed page. Now I've never heard God speak to me audibly but that night I felt like I was hit with a big "whamo" from God. I felt tremendously challenged about getting into literature (even though I never wanted to be a writer) and walked out of that meeting telling God that "some day I would do something about literature but right now I am too busy with my high school ministry!" What a dumb thing to tell God! Two weeks later my high-school ministry collapsed. For something to do I wrote the gospel message I had been teaching in the classrooms, printed it, and mailed it to several hundred high school student leaders from some 50 high schools in the greater Adelaide area. Nobody was more amazed than I when I received numerous responses. I've been writing and publishing gospel literature ever since--for the first three decades in printed form and for the last few years via email and the web. And what was that first message I wrote, printed, and mailed to those high-school students? It was, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian ... without having to be religious." More than three million copies of this message have been printed and distributed. Multiplied thousands more have read it on the web and responded to it. It has also been translated into several languages. - You can see a copy by clicking on this link http://tinyurl.com/8glq9 So ... when God puts a detour in your path, you will never know what results it may produce. And I am only one person among thousands that were impacted by the ministry of Oswald J. Smith--and multiplied thousands have been impacted by ACTS literature and writing ministry. Written and © Copyright by Richard (Dick) Innes Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2004, http://www.actsweb.org/subscribe.php ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: When word got around that the Carlisle Indians had an outstanding track team, Harold Anson Bruce, coach of the powerful Lafayette College team, invited "Pop" Warner's athletes to a dual meet on Alumni Day. Reluctantly, he agreed to pay a large guarantee. The meet was sold out. But when Bruce when to greet the visitors, he was disconcerted to find only a few young men getting off the train with Warner. "Where are your Indians?" Bruce demanded. "I've got enough," answered Warner. "How many?" "Five." "But, Pop, I've got a team of forty-six; it's an eleven-event program. This is a disaster. You haven't a chance." "Wanna bet?" asked Warner. Jim Thorpe won the high jump, the broad jump, the pole vault, the shot put, and the low hurdles, and was second in the 100. Two others ran first and second in the half-mile, the mile, and the two-mile; another won the quarter-mile, and the fifth the high hurdles. Carlisle won 71-31. Submitted by Lorraine ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: A burglar, needing money to pay his income taxes, decided to burgle the safe in a store. On the safe door he was very pleased to find a note reading: "Please don't use dynamite. The safe is not locked. Just turn the knob." He did so. Instantly a heavy sandbag fell on him, the entire premises were floodlighted, and alarms started clanging. As the police carried him out on a stretcher, he was heard moaning: "My confidence in human nature has been rudely shaken." ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: During Abraham Lincoln's campaign for the presidency, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat named Valentine Tapley from Pike County, Missouri, swore that he would never shave again if Abe were elected. Tapley kept his word and his chin whiskers went unshorn from November 1860 until he died in 1910, attaining a length of twelve feet six inches. From Missouri Facts: http://www.50states.com/facts/mo.htm Submitted by Lorraine |