Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

As a thoughtful boy of 12 in 1928 this writer obeyed his Sunday School teacher and proceeded to memorize the Ten Commandments. This in the most prestigious church in our little town of some 2000, where the bank president was a member (daughter also 12 played the piano beautifully, accompanied the boy while he played violin). The church was to him imposing—Gothic windows, a robed choir, a Doctor of Divinity pastor, and a real pipe organ (in those days they didn’t make imitations; it shook the walls with the bass, and this boy loved it).

He was puzzled by the “seventh day” language of the 4th commandment when he glanced at the calendar and saw how Sunday is the first. Next Sunday his question was turned aside—not only do our Presbyterian, but also the Baptist and Methodist churches keep Sunday. Must be true. My father, reared a Lutheran and a strict Calvinist, would not buy a gallon of gas on Sunday, nor would he let me ride my bike around town (hoping for a glimpse of the bank president’s daughter) on Sunday afternoon.

This writer’s brother (older by six years) told him why the discrepancy between the “seventh ” and first-days: the Roman Catholic Church was responsible. News! Whereupon this lad made a decision that he would keep the Bible day, not knowing there was another congregation that did. (He had learned about Martin Luther from his Protestant father.)

Along with the Sabbath insight came the knowledge of the “soon return of Jesus,” with fascinating things in Daniel and Revelation that made sense, and baptism in a lake with membership in a tiny little church that worshipped every Saturday. (The bank president’s daughter thought he was crazy walking through town to church on Saturdays. Other high school friends, including the principal, thought so too.)

Now in 2007 lots of time has gone by; still Jesus has not returned.

Am I disappointed that “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:11-13) hasn’t materialized—yet? Of course. But I remember how Jesus lost His crowd in John 6:66ff. and suffered rejection. I get my Bible down and read again the evidence. And again, I choose to follow Him.

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

We caught just a few minutes of the History Channel while eating lunch. It was about the Colosseum in ancient Rome, that pagan temple to cruelty and the vain amusement of the masses. They would flock there day after day to watch gladiators fight each other to the death and ravenously hungry lions kill and eat Christians. It was Disneyland gone horribly wild and cruel, and it was our TV violence live.

Two poignant facts stood out:

(a) This enormous structure built after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. was financed by the treasures of the Jewish Temple which Rome had taken as the spoils of their expensive war.

(b) The laborers who built the structure were largely Jewish slaves captured in that last siege.

This was historical and theological irony that caused immense rejoicing in Satan’s kingdom of darkness.

Think of it: up until the Savior had pronounced the woes upon the Pharisees in Matthew 23:13ff., the Temple had been the divinely recognized “house of God” on earth for the true church of that time. The Jews who rejected Jesus thought their wonderful Temple would stand forever, but He told His disciples that “not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matt. 24:2). The destruction of Jerusalem, and Solomon’s Temple in 586 B.C., was terrible, but this of 70 A.D. was the most frightful humiliation any nation in history had ever experienced. All so unnecessary!

And now the rejectors of Jesus toil as slaves to build it, while their looted Temple supplies the cost of building the most horrible “temple” Satan has ever had on earth. Thus the Enemy gloats over his hatred of what was formerly the true “church” on earth.

A prominent speaker at a huge assembly of serious-minded Christian youth (General Youth Conference) recently declared openly that World Wars I and II need never have cursed this earth but for the unbelief and hard-heartedness of God’s professed people who “just like the Jews” rejected glorious truth that “the Lord in His great mercy sent” them—truth that was an emblem of Christ Himself.

Rather than give Satan an advantage in creating another “Colosseum” as precious time going by, would it not be better for us to humble our hearts before the Lord in repentance?

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are two widely different kinds of people, and both are beloved of God: (a) those who skip through life with endless light-heartedness: “He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast,” or otherwise translated, “He who has a cheerful disposition enjoys a lifelong picnic” (cf. Prov. 15:15, KJV). It seems the Lord crowns such a person with sunlit favor. Some of us are tempted to envy their constant upbeat smile and ready chuckles. They have their work to do for the Lord.

(b) But there are others for whom life seems an endless discipline from the Lord. The Psalmist concedes that “God is good to Israel [the good people], to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. ... All day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning” (Psalm 73:1, 2, 14). The Bible is clear that the Lord loves them, too: “Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” The apparently severe discipline “yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:6, 11).

Has the Lord given us the liberty to choose whether we want (a) or (b)? If so, we’d all go for (a). But probably all of “Israel” (the good people) experience a mixture of the two with the pain of discipline tempered by occasional sunlit days that are a relief from the dark, stormy ones. As the Psalmist said above, “God is good . ...” “The Lord ... will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not ... punished us according to our iniquities. ... The Lord pities those who fear [reverence] Him, ... for He remembers that we are dust.” If we will believe that truth, then we will “bless the Lord, O my soul!” (Psalm 103:8-14, 22).

But there is a special category of people beyond (a) or (b) that none of us knows quite how to classify just yet. They “rejoice to the extent that [they] partake of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13), which is a specially intimate “fellowship” with the Son of God (Phil. 3:10; 2 Cor. 1:7). Let’s not try to sugarcoat the experience. Frankly, it is “NOT joyful for the present, but grievous” (Heb. 12:11). If you can watch Baghdad’s current history (and the world’s!) through the eyes of Jesus, you won’t likely be joking around very much; you’ll be pretty serious. You’ll actually be sitting “in heavenly places in Christ” which may not be as much fun as we have always thought, but that’s what the coveted “adoption” entails (cf. Eph. 1:3, 5). Revelation 3:21 tells it clearly: if you are in fellowship with Christ you’ll be sharing with Him executive authority in closing the great controversy with Satan. The “government will be upon His shoulder”(Isa. 9:6), but you’ll be sharing its weight with Him. You will be working “with Him,” on His side, “called, and chosen, and faithful”(cf. Rev. 17:14), helping lift His burden.

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

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

It’s one of the biggest “IF’s” in the Bible and it makes us wonder why the Lord let it get in there: “IF any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).

Have you ever met anyone who had all the wisdom he/she needs? It seems we all lack it, even the great King Solomon, said to have been the wisest man who ever lived. He so “lacked wisdom” that like a fool he fell into that awful “deep pit” of “the mouth of strange women” whom the Lord never intended him to marry; “he who is abhorred of the Lord will fall there,” he himself had said (Prov. 22:14, KJV). Those women led him to ruin.

The apostle James encourages you to receive this priceless gift of wisdom:

(1) If you have been delivered from arrogance and you realize your emptiness of wisdom, thank God for this clear evidence that the Lord does not “abhor” you. Remember, He can love you dearly and at the same time “abhor” your spiritual stupidity. A good dose of feeling how much the Lord “abhors” one can be a tremendous blessing.

(2) The call to “any of you” means that the Lord puts all of us, educated and not, on a level in His sight: work yourself almost to death getting a dozen doctoral degrees and you can still remain a fool. If you are someone who has never had the chance to get “higher education” (there are still a few such people in the world), please don’t despair and think of yourself as handicapped. There’s a story in our precious book of Ecclesiastes about a “poor ... man” who was nevertheless “wise “ who saved a city from almost certain conquest (but nobody ever thought to thank him; yet he “lives” in genuine fame, 9:13-15).

(3) You wisdom-needing soul, be happy: the Lord does not bawl you out and make you feel like two cents because you “lack wisdom.” He gives it to you “liberally and without reproach.” Oh, I love that! No berating, no torrent of reproach. He respects you as well as loves you! His affection for you is not that of yours for your dog. He honors you! He is constantly trying to build your self-respect.

(4) He is training you to sing a beautiful solo: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit [if He has saved you from fornication or adultery, sing the Hallelujah chorus], out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth” that “many” will rejoice to hear (Psalm 40:1-3, KJV).

Be happy! You are “blessed” (Matt. 5:3).

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

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The pure gospel gives a deep peace that grows in a heart that has been delivered from the subliminal fear that shadows us all our lives.

But sometimes an inner volcano erupts from the murky depths of our unknown selves, a rage or bitterness that we thought was as extinct as Vesuvius. Deep emotional fires that may go back to our infancy, like the child who comes to realize that he is an accident in this world, wasn’t wanted. The unwanted child may wonder, “Where was God when all this happened?”

Parents may not realize that they are destroying the self-respect of the child through endless fault-finding. We can carry a crushing load of guilt and alienation when it’s not our fault at all. And there are traumas of rejection that can devastate out adult lives like the death of a spouse or worse, a divorce. It covers us with a never-ending blanket of emotional rejection.

Does the gospel have some Good News for us that’s practical?

Yes! Justification by faith! It gives you peace with God as though you had never sinned, and as though no one else had ever sinned against you. You have truly laid it all on Christ, including all the mysterious secrets beyond even you.

We can forgive parents—maybe after they’re long gone, remembering that they didn’t know how to handle their problems. This healing through corporate repentance is ministered by the great High Priest, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15). He is so infinite that He gives you His full attention as though you were the only patient He has.

You have a job. Step one: believe the Good News truth about Him. Step two: do what the Holy Spirit then tells you to do—He will hold your hand while you do it.

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

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to:

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

I get them all the time—letters informing me that it’s a mistake to say that the Lord loves people so much that He makes it “hard” for them to be lost; and that it’s wrong to tell them that Jesus says His yoke makes it “easy” for people to be saved.

They invariably distort reality and leave out the giant IF that’s always there: it’s hard to be lost and it’s easy to be saved IF you understand and believe how good the Good News is. What it boils down to is this: God actually loves sinners and He wants them to be saved (John 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:3, 4). He doesn’t sit back and wish vainly; He gets busy and does something for each individual sinner besides merely giving a Book of instructions; He sends His Holy Spirit to work on them individually and personally 24/7 in a never-ending conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11). The last of those three is a conviction that Satan has been “judged,” that is, condemned and “cast out” as a hindrance to your being eternally saved. Christ is in the business of being the Savior of all who will permit Him and not reject Him. Understanding Him is what’s important.

The gospel is not a theological conundrum that only those in the ivory towers of a university can put together; neither is it merely the nursery song, “Jesus loves me/This I know ...” that leaves you seeking as a panacea for your boredom the empty pleasures of this world. The true story of Jesus and His justification by faith is so intensely interesting that if you’ve even begun to understand it, your heart is captured forever. (A lady in her 90’s told us in Bible class last Sabbath, she is so excited with life that she can hardly wait for the sun to come up each new morning so she can do something else for people.)

It sounds wild but it’s true: when you “taste and see” what the Lord’s “everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6, 7) is all about, the silly TV that you once reveled in for entertainment becomes a bore; you feel like retching. “O how I love Your law; it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97; the word “law” is not a fanatical legalism; it’s that perfect statement of eternal truth that “converts” your human soul; Psalm 19:7). Far from being a cold list of rules, “the law of the Lord” becomes your 24/7 obsession of joy “henceforth” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14-21).

The ancient pagans had a saying, “‘What will you have?’ quoth the gods; pay for it, and take it!” You and I this morning stand on the threshold of life; what will you have? Eternal life? You don’t “pay” for it, it’s too expensive, you can’t; but you can believe and take it from Him who did pay an expensive price for it—His own eternal life.

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

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to:

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Daniel said that in the time of the end “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (12:4). For many years our forefather evangelists explained this prophecy as fulfilled with Model T’s running almost everywhere; today, we cite space travel, computers, and now itelephones for $699.

But while scientific and technical knowledge keeps quadrupling, the “knowledge” that God’s people have of the gospel of justification is also being “increased” through the blessing of the Holy Spirit. In the days of the Waldenses, they understood as much as they could; Luther and Calvin were agents for greater light; then the Wesleys and Arminianism pressed in with greater light; then came the great Second Advent Awakening followed by the “present truth” of the sanctuary and the great cosmic Day of Atonement.

Those who were preparing to “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:4, 5) gladly welcomed each new glimpse of truth the Holy Spirit gave them.

But no new truth will contradict truth previously known; “the path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:18, KJV). If at any point as truth unfolds like a rose bud unfolds, we reject the new revelation of truth, we in fact reject Christ at that point, for He says, “I am the ... truth” (John 14:6). Therefore it is impossible to reject any truth without rejecting Him!

A massive problem rises with the story of the “angel of the church of the Laodiceans,” the last great church just before the return of Jesus. It knows no “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (cf. Matt. 5:6), for it asserts of itself, I am “rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”(Rev. 3:17). If you had lived in the days of Luther and had rejected the message God sent by him, you would very likely have severed your connection with the true Holy Spirit. It would have been very dangerous to do so. The same with the Wesleys.

And now today? The great “present truth” of now is that message which is to “lighten the earth with glory.” The new light will not cancel or contradict any light that has shone in the past; but it will be to the message of Luther’s and Calvin’s day what a sleek now V-8 is to a Model T—or ox-cart.

Beware that you don’t separate yourself from the sure leading of the Holy Spirit.

It still involves bearing a cross.

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

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The Lord Jesus commanded us to “go into all the world and proclaim the Good News to every creature” (Mark 16:16). But can we make it too good?

God Himself is a Specialist in devising what is Good News; in fact, it is He who invented it. And it is He who made it Good, like it is.

But can we take a cue from Him and then on our own devise a version of it that is more good (that is, better good news) than He has invented for us?

If so, are we in danger of giving people a false hope so that they will someday end up at the Pearly Gates and find they can’t get it?

(a) John 3:16 says that the pre-requisite for eternal life is to “believe,” that is, to have or to exercise, faith. God has given us no right to tack anything else on.

(b) Therefore we must learn what is faith.

(c) It’s “heart-work” as one writer often says (cf. Rom. 10:10). Thus it’s the end of arrogance, pride, love of self.

(d) The miracle can happen only as we l-o-o-k at Christ on His cross like the Israelites looked at the serpent of brass on Moses’ pole. It’s to contemplate Him, sense what it cost Him to save this hell-bent world and how He actually went to hell for us rather than see us be lost; it’s not a “work” that you do, no list of pre-requisites. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should not perish ” (John 3:14). There it is simple and clear: (1) He is “lifted up,” (2) you see Him, (3) you “believe.”

(e) “Henceforth” you are “constrained” by the love revealed there (agape) to live not for your own selfish pleasure, not for your lust, but for Him. People use a long word for that—sanctification; but it’s simply living for Him as a bride lives for her bridegroom—a new center of reference for one’s life.

(f) Jesus says that to resist the “constraint” of that love is “hard,” the most difficult life we can live (cf. Acts 26:14; 2 Cor. 5:14-21).

(g) He also says that to let that constraint move you to such a life is the easiest life you can live “henceforth” (cf. Matt. 11:28-30).

No need for us to invent a version of “good news” more good than that one! The ticket for entrance into the Pearly Gates is the capacity to enjoy the life there is there forever.

“Come”!

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

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

If you watched the President of the United States last night, you saw a man deeply distressed. He’s a human being with human limitations; his counselors likewise don’t know how to advise him. Whether you’re “red” or “blue” you don’t want to torture a political opponent. We don’t want to indulge in man’s inhumanity toward man, for that’s the spirit itself of Baghdad.

In war and politics there is little room for the kind of love that the Bible says is agape. But in a Christian culture some of it does get through, thank God. Some pundits are comparing our current President’s baffled perplexity with that of Lincoln in our Civil War, but his steadfastness was not stubbornness or arrogance. He was under some divine mandate to preserve the nation which in God’s providence should make possible the free proclamation of the gospel to the world. Now today there is still a divine mandate.

God’s people may be poor and unknown in the world (the Roman Empire rulers didn’t notice Jesus, either), but if they love (with agape), they will have influence. A “remnant” that is truly reconciled to God in this grand Day of Atonement will be agents whom the Lord will employ in some way. They will fulfill the role of those “four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth” that hateful violence shall not break loose until “the servants of our God [are] sealed” (Rev. 7:1-3). That “seal of God” is even now being placed on those “144,000,” a mystic symbolic number whose prayers are in tune with Heaven.

“Democracy” in a Muslim culture is not effective progress. Multiplying “smoke out of the bottomless pit” in a “democratic” plurality doesn’t “lighten the earth with [the] glory” that God wants to happen (cf. Rev. 9:1-3; 18:1-4). But what God does want to happen is that the pure gospel, free of Babylonian confusion, shall penetrate to the consciousness of the warring multitudes of earth. Including those in the Middle East.

The “four angels” symbolize people on earth who pray to that end, with agape. Join them!

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

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to:

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.