Dial Daily Bread: Revelation's Picture of "Our Brethren"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What does the Bible says about the "great controversy between Christ ands Satan"? This conflict leads up to the final Battle of Armageddon. It's more portentous than the world conflict with Al Qaeda.

On its outcome hangs the destiny of this planet. The victory of Christ over Satan in Gethsemane and on His cross exposed Satan's true character to the unfallen universe so that "the great dragon ... was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him," says John. "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, ... and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ" (Rev. 12:9, 10). In other words, so far as heaven is concerned, Christ has won the great war.

But as to the inhabitants of this planet, "the great controversy" goes on until "our brethren" can be described, "they overcame him [the dragon] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony" (vss. 10, 11). This is not an "insurance policy" kind of relationship with the Lamb--you pay your premium ("I accept Christ!"), and now He "covers" for you in a "vicarious substitution" way, as the insurance company "covers" your loss if your house burns down. You don't trouble your head--they "cover" for you.

Revelation pictures "our brethren" in a far more intimate relationship with the Lamb than the popular egocentric concern, "I'm okay, I'm covered, I'm saved! I'll sit back, relax, and 'occupy until [He] comes.'"

The sanctuary service which illustrates this "great controversy" tells us that now is the cosmic Day of Atonement--time for total experiential one-ness with Christ "through faith." His people become "partakers of the divine nature," they experience "I am crucified with Christ," they "comprehend" the grand dimensions of His love (agape), they "overcome even as [Christ] overcame," they "grow up into Him" "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." It's as a bride intimately "at one-ment" with her husband. They sense the heart-burden that Jesus carries. This is more than "vicarious substitution." It's realizing a "shared substitution," an intimate one-ness with the Lamb through faith. Do you see this as "Good News"?

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Let All Who Are Saved at Last Tremble

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The old Spiritual asks, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord? ... Oh, sometimes, it causes me to tremble, tremble ..." Yes, but not through pre-incarnation, but because the cross of Christ is an eternal reality.

The accident of birth does not excuse me from involvement. As one writer said, the arms of the cross reach from paradise lost to paradise regained. And when I read the old, old story, "it causes me to tremble," for I wonder what I would have done when Mary washed Jesus' feet with her tears. A wise businessman present said it was a crazy waste of money, and he fomented "indignation" among the others of the Twelve, and "they" too loyally said "amen!" to his hard-hearted condemnation of this apparently fanatical woman. She had broken her alabaster flask of "very precious" ointment and "wasted" it!

He was a keen-minded church administrator, knew how to get things done, the only savvy Jew among eleven backwater Galileans. It was a classic case of group-think, of committee or church board solidarity. "I tremble," because I fear I would have joined them in this man's logical, reasonable criticism (Matt. 26:8). I was born with a naturally "hard," worldly heart. "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" asks Jeremiah (Lam. 1:12), and I could easily have been among those to whom it was "nothing," stony hearted in the presence of the greatest love of eternity.

I too naturally want to be savvy, not to appear soft; I'm embarrassed if tears come to my eyes and I choke up. I am by nature a sitting duck for siding with Judas Iscariot in his "indignation" against a flagrant "waste" of "very precious" resources. Poor Judas! He was unprepared (and so were they all!) for an unexpected confrontation with pure unadulterated AGAPE-love. The volcano in his heart erupted with anti-love emotion, and the former disciple betrayed himself for what he actually was all along--a closet sympathizer with Lucifer who was the original anti-love, hard-hearted rejecter of the cross of Christ, for self is always crucified thereon. "No cross for me, no crucifixion of self!" crowed Lucifer, and therewith became Satan, the "adversary." And now here was one of the Twelve echoing his same heart-sentiment, with the Eleven so blinded that they could do nothing but say "Amen!" Yes, "I tremble."

Let all who are saved at last "tremble," for we have all come within a millimeter of eternal disaster.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: No Longer the Flower Girl at the Wedding

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Someone may ask, what really is "Day-of-Atonement-living?" What's so special about living "in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound" (Rev. 10:7)? Well, "another mighty angel comes down from heaven, ... a rainbow upon His head, and His face ... as it were the sun, and His feet as pillars of fire; and He [has] in His hand a little book open [Daniel]; and He ... [cries] with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth, ... and swears by Him that liveth for ever and ever, ... that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God [shall] be finished," (1-7). It's that last statement! No, it's not fear-motivated living; it's solemn, holy awe. Something's going on that makes your spine tingle.

"But isn't that the same 'at-one-with-God' living that Jesus, His apostles, and all the holy prophets have called for in past millennia?" Yes, precisely! BUT this is the first "time" in world history that God HAS a people, a corporate "body" on earth, not just a scattered insignificant, uncoordinated "few," who truly "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth" (Rev. 14:4). Now at last that Lamb of God "sees of the travail of His soul, and [is] satisfied" (see Isa. 53:11). Now at last Paul's heart-melting prayer is answered: Christ HAS a people on earth, a church, a "body," who are "rooted and grounded in AGAPE ... able to comprehend" something that no such "body" of saints has ever fully grasped--"the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of that "love of Christ which passeth knowledge." At last, they are "filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3:14-21). At last, ready for Christ's coming!

"But won't that make Satan angry in his 'great controversy with Christ'? Why disturb him so?" Yes, precisely! But it will prove to the world and the great universe that Satan's strangle-hold on this planet is broken; he has been defeated; sin has been "condemned" in fallen, sinful flesh; Christ's enemy has lost his last great battle; the war is over. All heaven rings with the triumphant anthem: "Let us be glad and rejoice, ... for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife [His Bride] hath made herself ready" (Rev .19:7). At last she's grown up--no longer the flower girl at the wedding. She's at last found something more important than "her" own little toys. She's found a Husband to love, not her dolls.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: What Is "Day of Atonement" Living

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What does it mean to live while that great "seventh angel" of Revelation 11 blows his "trumpet" (vss. 15-19)? What is "Day of Atonement" living? What is so different about it and living on any ordinary "day"?

The day of atonement for Israel of old was what Jews today regard as "Yom Kippur," a solemn "day" different than any other of the year (Lev. 23:27-32). It was a kindergarten lesson, a sandbox child's view, of the cosmic Day of Atonement in which we live today, a time of being completely reconciled to God (the word "atonement" means "at-one-with"). It's the opposite of being scared of God; it's living totally, fearlessly, in harmony with Him.

It's NOT wearing hairshirts or walking on hot coals or starving yourself (Hinduism has been specially designed as a gross counterfeit of it). It's NOT being ascetic, going off in the desert to be a nun or a monk (the Dark Ages idea was a total distortion of it). It's NOT the karma idea of piling up "good works" to make up for all the bad things you've done. It's NOT fear-motivated living; it IS love-motivated living. It's totally being at-one with Jesus, of living in heart-union with Him. It's NOT fanaticism or dour self-torture. It's NOT singing sad hymns all the time.

So, what IS Day of Atonement living? It's "growing up" out of spiritual infancy "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13), and loving every moment of it! It's a mature "comprehension" of His thinking, His feelings, His aspirations (3:14-21). It's identifying with Him to the point of being "in Him," of looking at the world as He looks at the world and being supremely happy in that identity.

Yes, since time began there have always been "some few in every generation" who have "grown up" out of the kindergarten sandbox idea of worshiping God and have been at-one with Him, like Enoch who "walked with God," and Moses, whose heart was so in tune with Him that he was willing to have his name blotted out of the Book of Life rather than see Israel go down the drain (cf. Heb. 11:5; Ex. 32:31, 32).

But now on this cosmic Day of Atonement, this "antitypical" one, God has a worldwide corporate "body" of people so unitedly "at-one" with Him that they become a Bride to Christ who "has made herself ready" for "the marriage of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:7). Every moment of every day becomes an exciting adventure "with Him."

Dial Daily Bread: The Sacrificial Love of a Humble Child

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

We've been privileged today to listen to someone tell again the familiar story of Jesus feeding the 5000 as it is told in John 6:2-14.

(a) Although He was the divine Son of God, Jesus was powerless to "feed" that hungry multitude in Galilee until that "lad" started the proceedings by GIVING his lunch that his mother had prepared for him. It involved some really sacrificial love on the part of someone. This time a humble child.

(b) We never read that Jesus snapped His fingers and produced bread for hungry people, "bread" produced out of nothing.

(c) He had to begin with some "bread" that someone out of love had GIVEN, "bread" given through sacrificial love.

(d) Then He could add His blessings to it.

(e) Every blessing that Jesus does for the world is involved in cooperation with Him in His ministry for the world.

His self-sacrificial ministry is shared with us!

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: A Change in Nature From the Inside Out

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

It was my hap today to be in a group that watched a documentary on life in the Serengeti Plain of East Africa and in the Kruger Park in South Africa.

Of course it was interesting; but it was also very sad. To a great extent, the "Africa" story is the predation of the strong over the weak; come sundown and darkness over the African plains, and there is predation, cruel and blood-thirsty.

It's always the strong over the weak, merciless and cruel.

An exception is the giraffe; they are gentle to everybody and are not predators over anybody; their strictly vegetarian diet doubtless has much to do with their gentleness and their "live and let live" philosophy of life; but they are the exceptions in the African plains.

But there is a change coming: the Lord has promised that He will create "new heavens and a new earth" and "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain" (Isaiah 65:25). The Lord's "holy mountain" is the "new heavens and new earth" that He will create (vs. 17).

There will come a great change over wolves and lions: "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock. ... They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord" (65:25).

That's a great change to come over the lion! A change in his very nature from the inside out.

There will be no lion present in the new earth that the Lord will create that has not had his very nature changed in this way!

And there is good news of righteousness by faith in this story of the change in the lion's nature: it will be the Lord Jesus who changes the nature of the lion! Yes, although the lion is not capable of understanding theology, he will demonstrate for all the world to see, this change in the lion's basic nature from the inside out!

Our fallen, sinful nature that is "enmity against God" (Romans 8:7) is to be changed now, today, through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Stewardship

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is there a better word than "stewardship" in describing our relationship to Jesus in His work of proclaiming the gospel "to every creature"?

Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark16:15).

(a) That command of Jesus requires that we support those who "go."

(b) That means, first of all, the giving of tithe--one tenth of our "increase" that the Lord gives us.

(c) It's not a legalistic assessment upon us; it's fellowship with Jesus in His work. It's working together with the Lord Jesus in His work of proclaiming the gospel "to every creature" "in all the world."

(d) That's the work that the Lord Jesus loves. A "steward" is someone who cares for property; the word "stewardship" can be understood to imply a legalistic connection with the Lord Jesus in His work of proclaiming the gospel to "every creature."

(e) But it's almost infinitely beyond that; you never get to really know someone until you get down working with him in digging the ditch; "stewardship" rightly understood is getting down in the ditch digging with the Lord Jesus; sharing His heart burden for the world.

(f) Jesus said "Go ye ..." and that requires that we support those who give their lives to "go."

(g) This particular writer tonight is one who obeyed the call "Go ye" in 1945, to Uganda in East Africa, to proclaim the third angel's message in verity to the people there.

(h) Now this writer is unable to "go" physically, but his heart is still there in East Africa.

(i) Your "going" may not be to Africa or any such romantic place overseas, but it may mean next door; or it may mean, teaching "the everlasting gospel" instead of legalism to children or youth in your local Sabbath School.

(j) If our hearts can be "enlarged" to comprehend the "breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of the love [agape] of Christ in the true gospel (cf. Ephesians 3:14-21; Psalm 119:32), the Holy Spirit will take over our ministry and our teaching; and everything we do for the Lord Jesus will bear eternal fruit.

(k) That will be a happy "stewardship," both for now and for eternity.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Hope for Troubled Hearts

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

I have a friend who needs a job so he can make enough money to live on. I know nothing of his past; I just know that he is praying to find a job so he can earn money to live on--not get rich, just l-i-v-e.

He is not alone in today's economic world.

And his fear of want and hunger may well become far more common in future, than it is now among us.

I am not a multi-billionaire, and if I were one, I would not know how to use the money.

But I know that the Lord Jesus IS a multi-billionaire; but He is far too wise to dish out money recklessly; He loves people too much to do that.

There may be some reading this mini-message who themselves can remember times when they were actually hungry, for want of necessary money; especially students who have tried to work their way through missionary college education. This writer was privileged to minister some years in East Africa where many aspiring students long to find a way to work their way through missionary college.

The word of the Lord is always hope-inspiring. For example, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto Him and were lightened [the heavy burden was lifted!]. ... This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles."

And it's not just that "poor man" [who was David]; "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about [all] them that fear Him, and delivereth them." (Psalm 34:6, 7).

May this mini-message bring hope to many troubled hearts!

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Lifted Out of the "Horrible Pit"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is human life ever cheap? Hitler thought so, and many people are tempted to think of themselves as useless, of no value.

But the Son of God in the highest place in God's great universe humbled Himself and came down to become one of us, and in so doing He invested all human beings as being of infinite value in Himself.

Because the Lord Jesus Christ became one of us, He adopted us in Himself:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, ... having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, ... He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:3-6).

The "us" is every human being, no matter how sinful or unworthy; He has taken the initiative to lift us up out of the "horrible pit" in which this world in sin has fallen; without asking us first, He has chosen to "adopt" us "in Himself."

It has already been done, and no one can undo it; but we do have the freedom of choice to refuse it.

The gift has been given, and even though through sinful rebellion we refuse to receive it, still it has been GIVEN.

In the end, in the final judgment, our sinful record of itself will not keep us out of heaven and eternal life because in Christ God has forgiven us and accepted us.

We can be lost only through sinful unbelief to refuse to believe how good the "good news" of the gospel is.

"But don't we have to work, in order to be saved?" someone may ask.

Our duty is to believe. But we need to understand what it means to "believe."

To "believe" is to let our sinful human heart learn to appreciate the "breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (Eph. 3:14-19).

In short, to do what John the Baptist calls us to do, "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Graduation Time

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

It's graduation time for many young people. What do we give them?

Seriously, without wanting to be trite, what do they need more than the gospel as Good News for their hungry young hearts? Whether or not you give them fun gifts and treat them like they deserve some great reward (which graduates don't deserve--they need to acquire a sense of responsibility), they will get the fun they want, and it will sooner or later leave them hungrier than ever for something satisfying for their starved souls.

Try to find some books (or maybe CDs or DVDs?) that will not be mere "baby food" and boring, but something that will stimulate their thinking and awaken them spiritually.

Selecting the right gift will be more of a task for you than finding a gadget to buy for them.

Contemplate first the value of a young person knowing what is "the everlasting gospel," or what Revelation 14 describes as "the third angel's message" (let me add, "in verity"). Knowing the truth is a tremendous blessing to a young mind, for Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Free from the entrapments of deception; free from despair (depression is severe among young people); free from dead-end living for self. I cannot describe the blessing that reading one good book did for me when I was in my late teens or early 20's.

I'll recommend it herewith: it's a verse-by-verse study of Paul's Letter to the Galatians that I personally found not only interesting, but have treasured as inspiring to me in a life-long way: THE GLAD TIDINGS by E. J. Waggoner. Would your young person find it as helpful as I did when I was young? Well, I'm not all-wise by any means; all I can say is that it was and is the clearest, most winsome presentation of the genuine GOOD NEWS I have ever found.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Afraid of the Judgment?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Should you and I be afraid of the judgment? Is it like a final exam that students face, the kind where they cram the night before and come to it trembling with fear? There is a judgment that comes before Christ returns--otherwise He could not bring His reward with Him to give every man according as his work has been (Rev. 22:12). And before there can be a resurrection, there must be an "accounting," which is a judgment to determine who is "accounted worthy" to come up in that most glorious of blessings--the first resurrection (Luke 20:35). But can we know anything about when that pre-Advent judgment is to take place? Does the 2300 days prophecy of Daniel 8:14 make any sense?

(1) The Day of Atonement in the Hebrew sanctuary service was an object lesson of that final pre-Advent judgment.

(2) The Lord did not intend that its purpose should be to condemn Israel or the people, but "on that day shall the [high] priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16:30).

(3) That precisely is the purpose of the investigative judgment--not to condemn God's people, but to cleanse them so they can meet Jesus in person when He returns.

(4) There is sin, conscious and unconscious, that must be discovered, repented of, "overcome" (Rev. 3:21), so that those who follow the great High Priest in His closing work of Atonement may not be consumed by the brightness of Jesus' coming. That's going to be a serious moment!

(5) The High Priest doesn't want to condemn you; He wants to vindicate you--that's the only judgment He wants to make in your case.

(6) Don't stop Him, don't hinder His on-going work!

(7) The Septuagint translators of Daniel 8:14, 150 years B.C., clearly saw in the 2300 day prophecy a reference to the Day of Atonement; and long before there were any people known as Seventh-day Adventists, Christian scholars saw that 1844 was the terminus of that prophecy.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: The Business Jesus Is In

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

How can you know if God is pleased with you? You know He loves you because the Bible says He loves the world, that is, He loves everybody; but is He happy, pleased, with you personally?

We can't evade what Jesus Says--in the final judgment He will be forced to tell "many" people who expect Him to congratulate them, "I never knew you!" (Matt. 7:22, 23). He loved those people, yes; but He was never one with them. The same picture emerges in the Book of Revelation when He feels forced to tell "the angel of the church of the Laodiceans," "You make Me so sick at My stomach I feel like throwing up!" (3:16; that's what the literal Greek says--cf. Peterson's The Message rendition). The people so addressed have been naive, thinking that "all is well" with them, feeling "rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing" and naked in public (vs. 17). They were so self-deceived they thought Jesus was pleased with them.

If there is anything we want to avoid, it's ending up in that naive condition. What can we do?

(1) Pray David's Psalm 51, realizing that we have no innate goodness of our own. It's only the grace of Christ that has saved us from whatever sins somebody else may be guilty of (that's the reality of corporate guilt). The ones the Lord is pleased with are those of Isaiah 66:2, "To this man will I look; even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word."

(2) The Lord doesn't go around behind your back, hiding reality from you. Have a frank visit with Him and ask Him straight out, "Lord, are You pleased with me?" You know He loves you for He loves everybody; but what you want to know is, "Lord do you KNOW me? Am I 'this man' to whom you 'look'?"

Stay on your knees; He will receive you and He will answer your prayer. In fact, that's the precise business that Jesus is in just now!

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: "Glorying" Not a "Work"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Let's look again at what Paul says about "glorying" in the cross of Jesus:

(a) He says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14):

(b) This "glorying" was not a "work." It had no merit for him, in itself.

(c) It was his heart reaction, his heart-appreciation for what it cost the Son of God to save us.

(d) Herein we see the Bible definition of what faith is, the definition that transcends that of the learned tomes:

(e) Faith is a heart-appreciation of the love [agape] that drove the Son of God to His cross to die our second death for us.

(f) As with Paul, such "glorying" has no merit in it for us!

(g) We can never work our way into heaven; only by His "much more abounding grace" Christ will save us to eternal life.

(h) We would be utterly miserable living forever in the New Jerusalem if our hearts were still worldly, devoted to righteousness by works.

(i) Therefore, because the Bible says that "God is love" (1 John 4:8), He would never imprison any of us in the New Jerusalem where we would be miserable nursing our self-righteousness.

(j) The gates of the New Jerusalem, like the arms of Jesus, are open wide, and all who will may enter and no one will be denied; but no one will want to enter who is still devoted to the principle of righteousness by works.

(k) Therefore it is that the Lord will give everyone what he/she really wants above all else.

(l) And it follows that no one will perish at last in the second death who does not want to.

(m) Thank you, dear Lord, that you are agape-love!

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

Dial Daily Bread: To "Glory" in the Cross"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

To "glory" in something is to think of it night and day, to be obsessed with it, to love it with all your heart. It may be a new dress, or a new house, or a new car; it's on your mind all the time.

"Our beloved brother Paul" (cf. 2 Peter 3:15) "gloried" in the cross of Jesus. He said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14).

He was obsessed with an understanding of the love that drove the Son of God to go to hell in order to save us; that heart appreciation for him surmounted every other love of his life.

He saw therein a love that is stronger than death, a love that is as wide as eternity; the Son of God became one of us, became "man," and died the second death of every human being who has ever come into the world.

Yours, included.

In Hindu terms, He paid and exhausted the karma of every human being.

He lifted from every human heart the burden of our guilt.

Let's go to our knees, and thank Him!

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.