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#12/ 16-July-1999

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

     ----- http://www.peterwade.com/ -----

IN THIS ISSUE...
1. At the Positive Words site
2. Songs I Remember
3. Positive Words for Today
4. Searchlights from the Word
5. Humor

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1. NEW AT THE POSITIVE WORDS SITE
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JESUS CHRIST AT HOME by A. J. Gordon
   If you see a person publicly who wins your interest
and affection, your instinctive wish is that you might
meet him privately, and have an interview with him at his
home. 
   Here were two persons who saw Jesus, for the first
time, so far as we know, as He was walking past, when
that wonderful announcement was made, "Behold the Lamb of
God!" Instantly, they started to follow Him. To the
question what they were seeking, they answered, "Where
dwellest Thou?" We would like to see Thee at home. We
would like to converse with Thee in the privacy and
freedom of Thine own house. "Come and see," is the
Master's gracious reply; and, accepting the invitation,
they came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that
day.
   This experience of the earliest disciples of Jesus is
the experience of the latest. To see Christ with the look
of faith is not enough; we want to talk with Him in the
intercourse of love. To look upon Him as the Lamb of God
that takes away our sins, is not sufficient; we wish to
know Him as the friend of sinners, to sit at His table,
and to listen to the gracious words that proceed out of
His mouth. And this privilege is granted just as readily
as the other. 
< http://www.peterwade.com/articles/gordaj/athome.shtml >

QUIET TALKS ABOUT THE HEALING CHRIST by S.D. Gordon
   We've added the preface and the last 2 chapters: The
Human Side Of Healing And Health and God's School
Of Suffering: Can We Hasten Graduation Day?
   Health is more than healing. There's more of it. 
It calls for more of the Creator's power. It means 
more to a man. And it will be the means of greater 
spiritual blessing if things are as they were meant 
to be. 
< http://peterwade.com/articles/gordsd/healsdg6.shtml >

IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THIS by Norman Grubb 
   [This lengthy article is a follow-on to "The Exchanged
Life" by J. Hudson Taylor, which we featured in our last
update. When you see the full impact of Christ in you, it
is really this simple. Until you do, it will look quite
complicated!]
   While I was having lunch with a pastor of a large
denomination, he mentioned that their main differences
"are between theology and anthropology. We all have some
agreements on our understanding of God," he said, "but
many disagreements on our understanding of man." ...
   I have to start, however, with theology, for I have
no understanding of man except in his relationship to
God. I understand that God is the One Person in the
Universe. Besides Him there is no other. He IS Power,
Peace, Joy. Christ IS the Way, Truth, Life. He is made
unto us Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification. His name
is "I AM", not "I HAVE". Finally He is declared as "All
in all" (I Corinthians 15:28). So He can only manifest
Himself in all these and a hundred other characteristics
by being Himself expressed in infinite variety of forms,
not a Giver, but an Is-er. [Too large to email!]
< http://www.peterwade.com/articles/other/easycont.shtml >

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2. SONGS I REMEMBER
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We so quickly and so often see God's blessing on other
people's lives that we forget all the things that our
loving heavenly Father has done for us personally. When
we get discouraged or overwhelmed by the pressures of
this life, the best antidote is to read God's Word (such
as Ephesians 1:3) and thank Him for all He's done for
us... in other words, count our blessings!
   The writer of the following hymn was a Methodist lay
preacher who wrote more than 5,000 hymn lyrics. A
successful businessman in the shipping industry, he later
was an administrator for a large insurance company in New
Jersey. His name: Johnson Oatman, Jnr, 1856-1922. I
remember singing this in Sunday School.

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings--name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

   Count your blessings--name them one by one,
   Count your blessings--see what God has done!
   Count your blessings--name them one by one,
   Count your blessings--see what God has done!

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings--every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold,
Count your many blessings--money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.

So amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged. God is over all.
Count your many blessings--angels with attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

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3. A POSITIVE WORD FOR TODAY
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                  HOW MUCH BLESSING?

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with
every spiritual blessing in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). 
 
   The tense of the Greek for the phrase "who has
blessed us" is not past tense but aorist, that is,
indefinite as to time. While this work was accomplished
in the past when Christ died and rose from the dead, it
is still active in the present and will continue to be
evident in the future. In a prize competition the winner
may be awarded, for example, one thousand dollars per
month for life. The amount the winner finally receives
is indefinite. "He blesses us with all spiritual
blessing."
   Now admittedly there are some days when I do not look
like it, there are also some days when I do not act like
it, but that does not change the truth. I am blessed
with all spiritual blessings.
   Ephesians continues to describe this completeness in
chapters one, two and three, and comes to a glorious
climax in chapter three, verse nineteen, when it
declares, "...and to know this love that surpasses
knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all
the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19). That is
completeness! And also Ephesians 1:23 "...which is his
body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every
way."
   God has done a wonderful thing for those of us who
believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead
and confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9). 
It's nothing that Peter Wade can do, or Billy Graham, or
Oral Roberts; it is something God has done for you. 
(From "You Are A New Creation", Chapter 1, adapted by 
Hildy Matthews.)

AFFIRMATION: I am beginning to understand the fullness
of God and His complete blessing to me.

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4. SEARCHLIGHTS FROM THE WORD
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G. Campbell Morgan was a well-known preacher and writer
from the turn of the century. In this spot each issue we
reproduce a comment from one verse in every chapter of
the Bible. We continue with the so-called "Prison
Epistles" of Paul: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
Philemon.

"That the fellowship of thy faith may become effectual" 
(Philemon 6).
   
That was the burden of Paul's prayer for Philemon; and
in sending Onesimus back to him, he was creating a new
opportunity for his realization of that very thing.
Philemon had faith, as Paul had already said, and it was
a double faith, "toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all
the saints." That faith necessarily placed him in the
realm of fellowship, and that was also two-sided:
fellowship with the Lord Jesus, and fellowship with all
the saints. 
   Such was his faith, his conviction, that to which he
had yielded himself. Such was his fellowship, his vital
relationship, the good thing which was in him. Paul's
prayer for him was that it might be effectual; that is,
effective. Faith and fellowship are at once made valuable
and vindicated as they are active. 
   While a number of names are found in this letter,
three stand out prominently, those of Paul, Philemon, and
Onesimus. They share a common faith; they are members of
one fellowship. The circumstances were such as to give
the fellowship of their faith an opportunity for action;
that is, to become effectual. It was so in the case of
Paul, as he sent Onesimus back to his master, even though
he would have been serviceable to himself in his prison.
It was so in the case of Onesimus, in that he went back
to the master whom he had wronged in running away from
him. The letter was written that it might be so in the
case of Philemon as he received Onesimus, "no longer as a
servant... but a brother beloved." 

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5. HUMOR
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Each issue includes some of the best pieces we have seen
since our last issue. So here we go...

CHILDHOOD OF THE ANCIENTS

Hard? You don't know what hard is, boy:
When I was your age we got up in pitch dark,
and walked five miles to school and ten miles back,
uphill both ways, and all we had for lunch
was a cold sweet potato and dry cornbread.
And when we got back home your grandma made us
chop cotton, slop the hogs, then milk chickens
before supper, and all we had to eat
was chicken-fried pine straw and redeye gravy.
Maybe some turnip greens, Maybe some collards.
But what do you know? Shoot, you've always had
hot food plopped in front of you, like magic.
for you, it's all ice cream and soda pop.

KEEP SMILING:

In a classroom pupils were asked to always write in
silence. One day the teacher dozed off and was awakened
by some of the pupils making noise.  To cover her
embarrassment she said, "It was always my wish to meet
the scholar Plato and, a while ago, I did see him in my
dream."
  The next day a pupil dozed off while listening to the
teacher's long lecture. Upon seeing the sleeping child,
the teacher woke him up and rebuked him. "Why are you
sleeping during the lecture?" The pupil answered, "I also
went to see the scholar Plato." The teacher asked, "And
what did Plato say?", to which the pupil replied, "Plato
said he did not meet with you yesterday."

A friend of mine and her husband were on vacation. They
visited a Church on Sunday. The pews in this older church
were in those little, box-like enclosures that have a
"gate" entry to each one.
  My friend likes to sit close to the front. So they
entered a pew in the second row.
  Shortly after settling into the pew, an usher came up
to them, tapped lightly on the gate, and said, "This pew
is saved."
  Her husband replied, "So are WE!"

Little Johnny watched, fascinated, as his mother
smoothed cold cream on her face.
  "Why do you do that, mommy?" he asked.
  "To make myself beautiful," she replied as she began
to remove the cream with a tissue.
  "What's the matter," asked little Johnny.  "Giving up?"

Most of us were taught that a preposition is not a good
word with which to end a sentence.  A small boy, home
sick with a cold, managed to come up with a sentence that
ends with five of them in a row: "Mom, what did you bring
that book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?"

A Sunday School teacher asked her class why Joseph and
Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem.
  A  small child replied: "They couldn't get a baby-
sitter."

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION NOTICE:

  "When you exit this vehicle, please be sure to lower
your head and watch your step.  If you fail to do so,
please lower your voice and watch your language.  Thank
you."

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THANKS for reading Positive Words. Please share it
with a friend!
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(c) 1999 Peter Wade
http://www.peterwade.com/