#37/ 15-Jul-2001

          P O S I T I V E     W O R D S
               Editor: Peter Wade

       ----- http://www.peterwade.com/ -----
 ... the realities of in Christ and Christ in you!
      ----- http://www.inChristRadio.net/ -----

IN THIS ISSUE...
        1. New at Our Site
        2. Positive Words for Today
        3. Searchlights from the Word

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1.   n e w   a t   o u r   s i t e
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PRAYER by Walter Lanyon
Here is an article that will challenge you about the most basic
of Christian practices.
   "In an amusing article which appeared in the London Express,
George Bernard Shaw says: 'Lots of people pray for me; and I have
never been any worse for it. The only valid argument against the
practice is the... one that God knows his own business without
any prompting.'
   Is prayer, then, a futile thing? Certainly anyone who
acknowledges the fact that there is a God will likewise grant Him
the intelligence to run His universe without any prompting, and
also will allow that it is reasonable to believe that no amount
of begging or beseeching is going to make him alter His plans.
   Yet we are admonished to 'pray without ceasing,' but we are
also told how to pray and how not to pray. 'Be not like the
heathen with vain repetitions.' Words will not accomplish
anything. Prayer must be something deeper and finer than telling
God what He is and what He should do. Prayer is a conscious
recognition of the eternality of good, here and now.
   Any prayer that beseeches and begs God to do a thing is an
open acknowledgment that the Creator has forgotten or overlooked
something that is very necessary of accomplishment. The more we
beg God to be good, the more we show forth our ignorance of His
eternal nature."
   Read the whole article online at...
[ http://www.peterwade.com/articles/other/praylany.shtml ]

ACTUAL UNION WITH CHRIST
(Continuing the series by A.T. Pierson, published in 1896.)
   Probably the most important article you will read this month.
In fact, save it to your hard disk or print it out, so you can
read it two or three times!
   "Here we touch the point in this great argument where the
believer's union with Christ actually affects his daily life, and
effects the one grand result, definite holy living. This is a
distinct advance on any previous step or stage of the argument.
We reach here the supreme point of application. The judicial
union shows us how God construes our relation to Christ as one
with him before the Law; the vital presents that oneness as
implying also a sharing of His Life, and its Spirit of power; the
practical union teaches how we are construe our union with Him as
to the confidence it inspires.
   And, now, all that has been said its grand application: what
is to be the actual effect on my life?... As in the previous
section the great word was 'reckon', in this, the great word is
'yield'... And so claim, possess, enjoy, the full gift of eternal
life."
   Don't miss this fourth chapter this month --
[ http://www.peterwade.com/articles/pierson/union04.shtml ]

NOW ON AIR!
Listen to In Christ Radio.net 24 hours, 7 days a week. There are
teachings on In Christ and Christ In from several teachers, plus
music and quotes, all to inspire and motivate you. Check out the
web site < http://www.inchristradio.net/ > and listen in to
the broadcast.

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2.   p o s i t i v e   w o r d s   f o r   t o d a y
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                 WHAT IS AT HAND?

"As surely as the Lord your God lives," she replied, "I don't
have any bread--only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil
in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a
meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it--and die" (I Kings
17:12).

One of the vital keys to understanding the miracles of supply in
the Bible is that most began with what was at hand. When Elijah
encouraged the widow to give him a cake to eat during the three-
year famine, the widow replied that she had nothing to offer him.
   When she obeyed the word of Elijah to give out of what she
had, "the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not
run dry" (verse 16) until the famine was over, which some
scholars believed did not happen until one year later.
   When Elisha was helping another widow with a supply problem in
II Kings 4:1-7, it is recorded that she said "Your servant has
nothing here at all, except a little oil" (verse 2).  When she
obeyed the word of Elisha, that pot of oil did not run dry until
every pot she could borrow from the village had been filled.
Later, Elisha took twenty loaves of barley and some full ears of
corn, and fed one hundred men in another time of famine (II Kings
4:42-44).
   Jesus first commanded that the waterpots be filled with water
before He turned the water into wine (John 2:1-11), and it is
well known that in the feeding of the 5000 men plus women and
children Jesus began with five loaves and two fishes (Matthew
14:15-21).  Later, when Jesus fed the 4000 He began with seven
loaves and a few little fishes (Matthew 15:32-38).
   The principle involved in these records is that miracles of
supply begin with what is at hand. (From "You Are A New
Creation", Chapter 5, by Peter Wade, adapted by Hildy Matthews.)
   AFFIRMATION: I am developing a miracle consciousness for the
supply of my every need. I watch the old limiting situations
disappear as I learn to live in the abundant and inexhaustible
flow of the life of God. Today I proclaim "The Lord provides",
and I look for signs of God at work supplying all my needs.

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3.   s e a r c h l i g h t s   f r o m   t h e   W o r d
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G. Campbell Morgan was a well-known preacher and writer of over
60 books from the first half of the 20th century. In this spot
each issue we reproduce a comment from one verse in every chapter
of the Bible. We continue with Paul's first letter to Timothy.

"If any provideth not for his own, and specially his own
household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an
unbeliever" (I Timothy 5:8)

Paul was instructing Timothy as to the duty of the Church in the
matter of caring for the poor of the flock, especially in the
case of such as were widows. That the Church has such a
responsibility he made perfectly clear, but he also showed with
care how it ought to be safeguarded. Throughout the whole
teaching, it is evident that the Apostle considered that in all
such matters responsibility first lay with the family (see verses
4 and 16). In our verse this conception finds central and general
expression, and nothing could be clearer or more positive.
   The statement is characterized by that sane, practical
commonsense which is everywhere discoverable in Paul's outlook on
life. A man's very first responsibility is that of his own, his
own household. No call on him must be allowed to take precedence
of that, not even that of the work of the Church, and certainly
not that of his own pleasures. To neglect to make such provision
is to deny the faith, for the faith is that of the way of love in
all its most practical bearings. The believer who does so is
worse than an unbeliever, for common human instincts, apart from
the teaching of Christ, will prompt a pagan to care for his own
flesh and blood. 
   All this is very commonplace, but it is of the utmost
importance; for Christianity is the transfiguration of the
commonplace, and in proportion as it enables a man to realize all
human obligations on the highest level, he is thereby recommend-
ing it to others. In a word like this, there is serious rebuke
for some, and there is much of comfort for others. The family is
God's first circle of society, and it is man's first sphere of
responsibility.

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(c) 2001 Peter Wade
http://www.peterwade.com/
http://www.inChristRadio.net/