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______________________________________ If you enjoy this free email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of many! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, join the thousands of HeartTouchers.com readers around the world by sending a blank e-mail to: HeartTouchers-subscribe@myinjesus.com Visit our inspirational web site and read all the past stories in our archives at: http://www.HeartTouchers.com Be sure to check out our brand new inspirational list just for teenagers! Heart4Teens.com To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: Heart4Teens-subscribe@myinjesus.com or visit: http://www.Heart4Teens.com This weekly list contains Heart-touching stories, quotes, links to uplifting web sites, and humor geared towards the teenage crowd. However, parents of teens, grandparents, college students, youth pastors, teachers, coaches, and anyone who just can't read enough inspirational stories will also benefit! What are you waiting for?! Subscribe today to receive your weekly encouragement! _________________________________________ Reading Books, Changing Lives! For those of you who would like to purchase the books from the HeartTouchers.com bookstore via your credit card, you can now do so! You can now order a number of different autographed best-selling inspirational books for the same price you would get them in the store, the shipping to you is paid for, and you are helping change the lives of teenagers and those they come in contact with! And best of all, every penny from the book sales are going to youth ministry to help pay for a life-changing winter retreat and a missions trip to Guatemala this summer! http://www.HeartTouchers.com/books _________________________________________
By Rubel Shelly
It is easy for me to pray for this country's leaders, institutions, and citizens. We are a nation of freedom, noble principles, and decent people. Our principles and people work incessantly to right our society's wrongs. Racism, arrogance, greed are still with us. So are the constant reforms we seek via social justice projects, the checks-and-balances of a political system that seeks broad citizen participation, and national and personal generosity far surpassing that of any other nation. The majority of the world envies America and would love to be here -- even those who burn our flag, protest our policies, or call us "the Great Satan." They know full well that they and their children would have opportunities here they can never have in their places of poverty, oppression, and meager hope. I am a world citizen, and I owe it to the people of Iraq, North Korea, and every other country to see them as my neighbors. Their lives are as valuable as ours. Their rights are as precious. Their autonomy as worthy of respect. We have an obligation to one another. We must share Planet Earth and its limited resources. We must not be blind to one another in crisis times. We owe it to one another to respect our differences. And on occasion we are obliged to protect and liberate persons who are vulnerable to tyrants such as Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Osama bin Laden, or Saddam Hussein. For the lack of unanimous sentiment on how to oppose certain evils, we are not entitled to avert our eyes, pretend not to see what is staring us in the face, and leave oppressed people to suffer. That would not only be cowardice but a vile failure to love our neighbors. I am a kingdom citizen, and my ultimate loyalty is to the kingdom of God and his righteousness. God alone has answers to our imponderables. He alone sees the end from the beginning. He alone can bring righteousness out of chaos and make the desert of the human heart bloom with fruits of peace and joy and love. In this time of crisis for America and the world, let us pray for the establishment of a just peace. Let us obey the biblical mandate to pray not only for ourselves and our country's leaders but for our enemies as well. And may our essential and controlling sentiment be that of King David: "Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God" (Psalm 20:7, NRSV).
Write Rubel and let him know what you thought of his article! (c) 2003 Rubel Shelly. Used by permission. Visit: http://www.faithmatters.com to read more of Rubel's writing or to sign up for his weekly column: FAX of Life. _________ Rubel Shelly has preached for the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville since 1978. During that time, he has also taught at David Lipscomb University and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is the author of more than 20 books, including several which have been translated into languages such as Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Russian. He is married to the former Myra Shappley, and they are the parents of three children: Mrs. David (Michelle) Arms, Tim, and Tom.
Thought For The Day: "Failures want pleasing methods, successes want pleasing results."--Earl Nightingale
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." --Hebrews 12:11
"Remember everyone's favorite color."
"If there be any truer measure of a person than by what he does, it must be by what he gives." --Robert South
"How can you write if you can't cry?" --Ring Lardner
"Athletes who fail tend to be cynical. They believe their coaches are not leading them properly they are not willing to be impressed or inspired. This is expected of the phony, the snobbish, the pseudo-intellectual, but it dooms an athlete when the coach tries to inspire him and he just sits there saying this is a lot of nonsense. The good athlete does not ridicule the capacities and ideas of the coach...He responds!"
"Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?" --Steven Wright
MICHAEL T. POWERS "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 The copyrights to the stories that appear in HeartTouchers.com are owned by the authors and are used with their permission. We refuse to run stories without the author's permission and contact info listed after the story. We also refuse to publish stories listed as "author unknown." (All of which violates Copyright Law and the rights of the authors.) This e-mail may be forwarded in its entirety, but please do not cut and paste the stories to be used elsewhere unless you have contacted and been given permission by the individual writer. Thank you so much for honoring the rights of those writers who graciously share their stories with us! __________________________________________ Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business Dear Michael, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for the beautiful video you made for me! It was so special to see both of my parents in tears as they watched their children grow up in pictures before their eyes! I loved the way you made Estania's part set aside from the rest--that was the part that really got them! The music was beautiful. My mom kept blubbering, "What song is that?" I don't know how you did such a beautiful job with the video in such a short time. I really appreciate your doing it so quickly. You have a wonderful gift, and I thank God that you are using it to create such sentimental memories. I hope that I can find my niche like that in an area that I love. Your video gave us one of our most lasting Christmas memories! I hope yours was filled with moments to be treasured forever! Love, Trisha Silverhill, AL Let me make you a video from your photos! Check out my video production business by visiting: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery/ Would you like to see your story in HeartTouchers.com? Writer's guidelines can be found on our Web site here: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/guidelines/ ___________________________________________ Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you? http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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