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Here we are again, thanking you for allowing us in your space to think about God's positive Word. October is Anniversary month for our web ministry! Its 22 years since we launched our web site in 1995. The site started with just one page, an article titled "How to Walk on Water." It is still online blessing people and we've reproduced an extract at the close of this issue.
I remember the launch quite well. It went live the first weekend of the month, and on Monday I flew to the U.S. for a month of meetings right across the country. I told people everywhere about the site, and most had not heard about the Internet. Three years later I returned for a family camp, and web addresses were on every billboard and it seemed just about everyone now knew about the Web.
So rejoice with us for God's goodness, and enjoy this issue too!
And by June 2017 it had doubled to 3,885 M users, 51.7% of the world's population!
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Man Shall Not Live by Krispy Kremes® Alone
by Peter Wade
"Peter, you'd better explain yourself." Well, I can better paraphrase the text as "Man shall not live by Praise and Worship alone." I want to emphasize the truth as applicable to today's expression of the church. In fact, you could replace any object and the truth that follows would still be valid.
The quote is based on the words Jesus found in both Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 -- "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (ESV). And Jesus was quoting from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 8:3, so the truth has been applicable for millenniums! The Message Bible reads, "It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God's mouth."
So why mention Praise and Worship? I'm not against that trend, and there are some good songs that have emerged from the thousands, like "Shout to the Lord" and "Hear I Am, Lord." What does concern me is the time balance between Praise and Worship and the teaching of God's Word. I've been in churches where a 15-20 minute message was only heard after more than an hour's worth of spectator worship, and it obviously was not the highlight of the occasion. A cold snack on Sunday morning is not enough to get believers through another seven days!
After I had written the first draft of this article, I read an interesting statement in an article "Are Worship Songs an Idol in Modern Churches?" The author wrote, "I enjoy them. I like singing them. But when it comes to worship, I feel like we tend to worship them... I'm calling worship leaders to more of the real thing. Maybe we need to lead less worship and learn how to read our Bibles again." -- David Santistevan (a worship pastor, in Ministry Today Report, October 6, 2017). Two amens to that, David!
 It has been and always will be that without the Word of God taught faithfully and believed implicitly humans have no foundation for victorious living in a hostile world. This is true from the Garden of Eden onwards. In the temptation of Eve, Satan said, "Has God said?..." He was questioning the integrity of God's Word and to this day people still question it or do not totally believe it.
The first part of the verse in the heading of this news-letter reads, "Your words were found, and I ate them..." -- "they were as welcome to him as food is to a hungry man; he cheerfully received them, treasured them up in his memory, digested them in his mind, and carefully retained them" (John Gill).
Jesus taught his disciples that "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. " (John 6:63b). The rapid growth of the early church was because the apostles "spoke the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31); "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word" (Acts 8:4). "The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord" (Acts 12:24). There is hardly any mention of singing songs in Acts but many records of God's Word being preached, believed, and acted upon.
This is why E.W. Kenyon wrote: "Here are some facts about the Word these men preached. It ruled their private lives. It was magnified. It increased; it grew, a living Power. It multiplied. Men were mastered by the Word. Men proclaimed the Word. Men gathered to hear the Word... The Word alone gave faith. The Word alone gave the New Birth. The Word alone gave healing. The Word alone bound the disciples together. That spoken Word that we see in the Book of Acts was the manna of God for the recreated human spirit. It still is." (from Advanced Bible Studies, Lesson 27).
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready" (I Corinthians 3:2). The writer to the Hebrews penned, "You have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God [the ABCs]. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature" (Hebrews 5:11b-14a).
What do we see from all this? The Word was central in the early church. While it had not started to be written down until near the end of the Book of Acts, the disciples faithfully and boldly proclaimed what Jesus had taught, they majored on the resurrection of Jesus, and they ministered by the authority of his name. We now have the complete "New Testament" but the Word is no longer central to most churches or most believers.
To survive the coming storm, we will need to absolutely know that Christ is in us and we are in him, not the latest worship song. Start reinforcing these truths into your minds by reading, studying and understanding God's precious and powerful Word. "By your words I can see where I'm going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path" (Psalm 119:105 MSG). -- Peter Wade. |
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EXPLORING GOD'S AMAZING WORD is an 176 page paperback book by Peter Wade with 18 Bible studies on positive living in Christ. It includes the article "How to Walk on Water" (see below), completely revised by the author in 2010. The title of the book is new but it is actually the third revised and updated version of these great truths.
Other chapters include: The Word Still Works, Jesus and His Bible, Our Superlative God, Its A Package Deal, A Father and His Family, Free From Condemnation, and many more.
Check out the full description on our online bookstore.
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How to Walk on Water
by Peter Wade
In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 14, we have the record of Peter and Jesus walking on the water. I think it's about time that somebody stood up for Peter. He happens to be my namesake, a wonderful name, but most people make such disparaging remarks about Peter as a result of this incident here. They say that Peter failed to come through with the goods when he could have done so. But I'm going to suggest a slightly different viewpoint regarding Peter, on the basis of this record.
"But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit [or as the Greek text has it, "a ghost" or "phantom"] and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind [was] boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt [hesitate]? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God" (Matthew 14:24-33).
 I don't like the way people say that Peter didn't do too well here because he started to sink. So what! At least he started to walk. And why shouldn't we put as much emphasis on the fact that he started to walk as on the fact that he started to sink? The truth I want you to see first of all is that the will of God was known when Jesus said to Peter, "Come" (verse 29). Once the will of God is made plain, you will never be put to shame by walking on it. You will never be put to shame by putting into practice what God wills, absolutely never. In the Book of Romans, chapter 10, it says that "Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed" (verse 11), or "shall not be put to shame" as some of the modern translations have it. You will never be put to shame for believing the will of God. Absolutely never.
I want to tell you also that you will never be put in a place of embarrassment, because God is a gentleman every time. People might try to engineer you into a situation of embarrassment, but God will never embarrass you. God has never asked anybody to swing from the chandeliers. That's right, I cannot find it in the Word anywhere. God has never told me in the Word to roll all over the floor either, but some people do this! God has not told me in the Bible to do it, so I'm just stubborn enough not to do it. God is a God of order, God is a respectable God, and God wants the best for His people. You can't tell me that the best thing in life is to roll all over the floor and to swing from the chandeliers. I'm not saying that we shouldn't get excited, but the limitation of the Word seems to be that there is no request from God to do any of these things.
So the first thing we have to do is to establish the will of God, and once that is established without a shadow of a doubt, then you will have no problem walking on the basis of God's will. Now I'm not suggesting that we go down to the sea or the local river and practise walking on water tomorrow. I do not believe that God, in this day and age, the Church age, the age of the Holy Spirit, expects us to walk on water. There would hardly be a reason for us to do so. God has given us a gift that is sufficient for all our needs and this spiritual equipment enables us to handle any and every situation that we will ever run across. In the normal course of our lives I cannot think of any situation where we would ever need to walk on water. However, I do want to make plain the principle that made it possible for Peter to do this.
The principles that made all the miracles possible in the Word of God are the principles that you and I must apply if we are going to enjoy the blessing of God. "And he [Jesus] said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus" (verse 29). Now I'm going to vote for Peter every time, because of the fact that he got out and walked. If you are going to set the stage for a miracle in your life, once you have established God's will, the next thing you must do is to act.
 In fact, let me put it this way: once you have established God's will, it's your move (to use a chess term). Man makes the first move in the operation of the power of God. God's will is signed, sealed, and settled in His Word. Man must make the first move. Peter could have sat there in the boat along with the other "unbelieving" believers right through the storm. It is those disciples with cold feet and a yellow streak who stayed in the boat that should be criticized, not Peter. Peter at least got up and operated his believing. So you must make the first move, and Peter made that move.
Jesus said, "Come". So what did Peter need to do? Go to the side of the boat and put his foot over, right? Peter had to make the first move; he could have sat there for ever and would never have walked on the water. I'm sure it is God's will for me to share what I know of His Word with you in this way. I'm sure it is God's will, but what am I going to do about it? I don't just sit and pray, "Okay Lord, let them have it." No, He wants me to exercise the ability that I have, He wants me to make the first move. And if you are going to "walk on water" or show forth any blessing from God, then once you have found out the will of God, you make the first move.
Man makes the first move, "and when Peter came down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus." Now that takes believing. Believing is an action word, to believe is an action. You receive nothing unless you believe. You don't receive and then say, "Now I believe." Anybody can accept something when he or she already has it! You must believe and then you receive. Notice it says that Peter "walked on the water." He did it!
[Read the complete article online and comment there]
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