Daily Bread: November 2007

Friday, November 30, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The world is spiritually dark no matter where you look, but the bright light of Jesus shines: “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels ... that He by the grace of God might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9).

Here is a brilliant revelation of salvation through “much more abounding grace” (cf. Rom. 5:21). Satan may try to foist on us enormous, impenetrable darkness, but here the light shines beautifully: “Jesus tasted [the second] death for everyone.”

No matter who you are or where you are sitting in your darkness of despair, this simple but brief revelation of truth is like a shaft of lightning on midnight darkness. Christ has already died your second death! That’s the biggest truth you will ever confront.

That’s what Hebrews 2:9 says, a million highly trained theologians to the contrary notwithstanding.

Note what Hebrews 2:9 does NOT say: By the grace of God Jesus offered to taste your second death IF you first do something to please Him.

No! The Bible is clear: “God so loved the world, that He gave [not merely offered to give!] His only begotten Son” (John 3:16); the Father actually GAVE His Son to you as your Savior; and He “tasted [your second] death” when He “tasted” it for “everyone.”

Now, simply believe this real, solid truth. Of course, that does not mean that He will force you against your will to enter the New Jerusalem; along with the gift of Himself to you He has given you the freedom of your own choice to refuse the gift of Himself as your Savior, if you want to make that choice (it will break His heart if you do).

Only one text comes to mind as soon as we say that: “But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation” (Heb. 6:9).

A heart appreciation of what Christ suffered for you when He “tasted” your second death will motivate you “henceforth” to live unto His glory forever. You will never tire of saying “Thank You!” This faith delivers you forever from that “fear of death” which has kept you “in bondage all [your] life.”

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Why is there so much opposition when truth is proclaimed, even sometimes in the church?

For example, Bible teaching is clear as sunlight that the New Covenant is the “better promises” of God, and the Old Covenant is the worthless promises of the people (cf. Heb. 8:8-10): yet Old Covenant ideas keep cropping up, and there is tension and suspicion where there should be pleasant fellowship and harmony among the people of God (“Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”! Psalm 133:1).

Like the prophet Jeremiah who was hounded and cursed in Jerusalem by God’s own people until he longed for a place in the wilderness where he could cry and cry (“Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night ... in the wilderness ...” (Jer. 9:1, 2); people who love the truths of the Bible weep today. Jeremiah was not a psychopath; the truth is that his opposing people were at war with God Himself. After Jeremiah’s death, the Jews began to recognize how he was the greatest of the prophets whom God had sent to them; yet they made his life a hell on earth for him.

The Son of God came one Sabbath day to a congregation of God’s true people in the town of Nazareth, and told them He was the true Messiah their people had looked for, for millennia. Result? The people of God who “kept” the holy Sabbath tried to kill Him (cf. Luke 4:16-29).

The common people “heard Him gladly” but the higher you went in the hierarchy of the true church of that day, the more bitter was the hatred that the meek and gentle Jesus provoked (Matt. 12:37; John 1:11).

A delegation from the intellectual capital of the then world came to invite Jesus to come and teach them in Greece. The temptation for Him was enormous—get away from this bitter prejudice where he could go and teach receptive people; but He chose to stay and go to His cross and be crucified by the leaders of God’s people (cf. John 12:20-27).

He has told us not to be surprised by the painful opposition coming sometimes from God’s true people in the last days. As Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), so He prays today.

And the prayer will be answered: God does forgive His people for opposing and rejecting the beginning of the latter rain and the loud cry; but He will also be very severe. He gives any generation only one chance to accept or reject “the beginning” of that rare and most precious gift of the latter rain. Let no idle word escape our hearts from now on!

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Bible prophecy is clear: we have come to Daniel’s “time of the end” ( 11:35; 12:4), to the “last days” Paul describes (2 Tim. 3:1), to when “then shall the end come” that Jesus speaks of (Matt. 24:14).

Yes, “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was” (Dan. 12:1). But it will also be a time of lighting “the earth with ... glory” such as has never been because God will prepare a people all over the world to stand at Christ’s second coming. It will be the time when God’s people shall be delivered from fear. The righteousness of Christ will clothe them, and so clothed, they cannot be afraid any more than Christ was afraid when He was among us and faced the raging tempest (Matt. 8:26), or the wild men of the Gadarenes (vs. 28).

Deliverance from fear “in Christ” will be a glorious blessing; but even now we can learn to receive such deliverance from fear.

This is accomplished through understanding how close Christ is to us, says Hebrews 2:9-15: “We see Jesus, ... that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. ... Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy [paralyze, Greek] ... the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Note: eventually, Christ will destroy Satan; but for now, He paralyzes [Greek, makes ineffective] the one who has “the power of death.” We are “the children” who “partake of flesh and blood” now; and we do have a mortal enemy; but Christ has “shot” our enemy with a tranquilizer that paralyzes him, so we do not need to be afraid of him.

The common excuse that we give for falling into sin is a false one, “the devil made me do it.” The devil cannot force us to do one wrong thing! Temptation to sin may be fierce but the much more abounding grace of Christ is far stronger. The key truth involved here in learning to overcome fear is that in His incarnation Christ “took part of the same ... flesh and blood” that we have received from our fallen “head,” Adam. Thus we realize that we are united with Christ; His faith becomes ours; His fearlessness also becomes ours. There is no need to fear a paralyzed enemy!

Over and over the Lord tells us, “Don’t be afraid!” In fact (and I speak softly and reverently) it’s a sin to be afraid; it implies that there is unbelief buried or woven into our so-called “faith.” And unbelief is the sin of the ages, the last sin to be overcome on planet earth.

But we can overcome it! And we must overcome it, and for all those who “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (cf. Rev. 14:1-6—God will have such a people!) there is that blessed gift of freedom from fear.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

If you have ever been in despair, be encouraged, the apostle Paul himself was there too. It was in Romans 7 when he cried out, “‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?’”

Then imagine his delight when he gets into the joy of Romans 8: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

“No condemnation” means release from what the fallen Adam left to us—our inner sense of a verdict of divine judgment which has hung over us all our lives. Although these feelings of psychic wrong and maladjustment were deep and penetrating, “the law of the Spirit of life” has gone even deeper and is therefore more far reaching. A new principle delivers from the craven sense of fear. Guilt and moral disorder have enslaved us even from infancy.

No psychiatrist can accomplish such a catharsis of the human soul. It heals. Wrongs and anxieties that even our parents were helpless to relieve find inner cleansing. David speaks of the process: “When my father and my mother forsake me [that is, where they must leave off], then the Lord will take me up” (Psalm 27:10; my dear mother had to “leave” me when I was two! “The Lord” has taken the place of my mother; He alone has understood me).

Here’s a breathtaking bit of good good-news: “he who takes God for the portion of his inheritance, has a power working in him for righteousness as much stronger than the power of inherited tendencies to evil, as our heavenly Father is greater than our earthly parents” (E. J. Waggoner).

God the Father solved our problems by “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3, 4).

The word “likeness” means identical, the same as. Christ who was fully God now became fully man. He built a divine-human bridge that spanned the gulf of alienation that sin had made between us and God. Its foundations reach all the way to the deepest root within us of sinful alienation.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, November 26, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Someone unknown to us writes asking us to pray that God will send “THE man into [her] life” that God has called to be a father to her baby. She quotes extensively from Steps to Christ, and we can only pray that the Lord in His mercy and grace will help her to believe its message and save her from making a tragic mistake now.

God has promised to write His holy law in our human hearts; that law says “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and the prohibition includes the sin of fornication.

When we believe the Preamble to the Ten Commandments which says that the LORD has “brought us out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, “ the apparently stern Ten Commandments become ten precious promises (cf. Ex. 20:2, 12). That Preamble is the statement of the Lord’s forgiving gift of justification (cf. Rom. 3:21-26; 5:15-18).

Any mother anywhere in the world needs the LORD God to be with her, to guide her in raising her baby, whether she is married to a man or not, and whoever that “man” may be. Even if he is the best man in the world, she needs to be guided by the Lord; and if she has no husband, she still must “know the Lord,” and she can know Him.

Here’s what it means to “know” Him (the wisdom is in Jeremiah 9:23, 24):

(1) “Let not the wise person (the masculine pronoun is not in the Hebrew) glory in his [her] wisdom,

(2) let not the mighty person glory in his [her] might,

(3) let not the rich person glory in his/her riches,

(4) But let him [or her] who glories glory in this, that he [she] understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.

(5) For in these I delight, says the LORD.”

A single mother who “knows” this by faith, believing this truth about the love, forgiveness and goodness of the LORD, will know His blessing in raising her child.

“Any man,” whoever, can be a very poor substitute for the LORD. But the Lord gives Himself to anyone who seeks Him in faith.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

When the little Boy of 12 watched His first Passover at Jerusalem, He wondered what it meant. No one could explain it to Him. He had to reason it out through His inspired mind and conclude that it meant that Someone sinless must come and be sacrificed as the Lamb of God.

What’s amazing is that this teenage Boy did not fight the conviction that He was called to die as the “Lamb of God”!

We know He accepted the call, because the first words we have from His lips were what He said to His mother when she later found Him in the Temple, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). That 12 year old Boy was dedicated! He was the first of many who have out-thought their parents, and yes, their pastors, in understanding the leading of the Holy Spirit.

That “Boy” stayed dedicated to His Father’s “business” until He “set His face” to go to Jerusalem to be crucified (see Luke 9:51).

There are in the world today many teens who likewise hear and respond to the call of the Holy Spirit to dedicate themselves to the Lord Jesus. The nation’s religious leaders in the Temple in Jerusalem had no idea what was happening up in Nazareth in Galilee, while this Teen was growing up and while He was working as a carpenter. The Holy Spirit was teaching Him.

So there are youth today, some as young as 12, who are thinking very seriously, and responding to the Holy Spirit very deeply. They may be 144,000 in number!

Let them ponder that Youth of 12. He does not impose upon them the heavy burdens of Old Covenant living; He invites them to fellowship with Himself in joyous New Covenant freedom. Theirs will be the once-forever joy of proclaiming the message that will lighten the earth with glory (Rev. 18:1-4).

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The apostle Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit when he cried out, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” He was talking about “the exceeding grace of God in you,” the believers in Macedonia, and their giving themselves to “the gospel of Christ” (2 Cor. 9:13-15). What was that “unspeakable gift”?

(1) “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (Jon 3:16). Not a loan, not an offer in some kind of mutual bargain struck between the two—God and man; nothing in any way temporary, exalting human merit.

(2) It was a permanent abandonment of the “high and holy place” Christ held in the vast government of God (cf. Isa. 57:15). He “emptied Himself” is the way Paul describes His condescension (Phil. 2:5-7). It was a progressive turning Himself inside out, in seven steps:

(3) First, the giving up of all His heavenly prerogatives (vs. 6).

(4) Then, “being found in fashion as a man” (a remarkable description of how He came to realize in His humanity who He was and what He had done with Himself thus far—perhaps at the age of 12?), “He humbled Himself” still further.

(5) When He witnessed His first Passover, the Holy Spirit impressed upon His soul the conviction: He was that real “Lamb of God”! And that Boy of 12 surrendered Himself to be just that, for He told His parents, “I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). Here was no Teenager resisting and fighting Duty, but One surrendered to it!

(6) Witnessing the bloodshed of the innocent lamb, He knew what His commitment entailed: from that day the Cross was His destiny, freely embraced. He “became obedient” to it.

(7) Paul described it as “even the death of the cross,” which everybody in that day understood to be the death that involved “the curse” of God (cf. Gal. 3:13; Deut. 21:22, 23). Scripture is clear: His enemies who watched Him die assumed that God had cursed Him and He was lost forever; even He Himself confessed it! (Matt. 27:46).

Does your heart offer “thanksgiving”?

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Where I happen to live on the face of planet earth, there is a measure of political peace. The highways are comparatively safe; grocery stores are open; there is a measure of that “good will” that the angels sang about over the hills of Bethlehem at the birth of the Messiah.

On this particular early Thanksgiving morning, the almost full moon shines brightly ... not only over my little landscape, but over Baghdad, too; and media reports that filter through say there is a measure of stability returning to that land of horror. Since the “surge,” say the reports, there is some renewed activity in the streets, and people are beginning to emerge.

Could there be a modicum of peace returning in Iraq?

Could Sunnis and Shiites be tiring of strife? We pray the answer is yes.

If so, it is because of what the LORD God said to the Serpent in the Garden of Eden long ago: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. ...” (Gen. 3:15). Default on planet earth is a measure of war between good and evil, between Christ and Satan, which is heart enmity against violence; because of what the LORD said, peace cannot help but break out at last. People just get tired of fighting, they yearn for peace from the Lord.

But if so, it is also because of Bible prophecy: as surely as the continued division of Europe into the iron and clay of the great image of Daniel 2, so is the prophecy of an open door for the proclamation of the fourth angel’s message of Revelation 18:1-4. The same LORD God of Eden is determined today that people get a chance to hear His message of grace that must lighten the earth with glory. Not all will accept, but all must be given the opportunity, and that will require that the “four angels” hold back the four winds of strife. God is not asleep!

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are places in the Bible that sound embarrassing for God because they seem to say that He has sinned; at least, He felt terribly as though He had sinned. For example, we read that the Father has “made [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Imagine the best person on earth becomes overwhelmed with the pollution of filthy, sinful guilt, he feels kicked out of all decent society; He has to stay outside in the darkness and watch the happy party going on inside with Himself thrown out, yet He knows that He belongs inside! He has suffered the grossest injustice of eternity and there is no help for Him.

A sinless Person “made to be sin”! Imagine the most horrible place to find yourself—we can’t name it; and think of Yourself thrown there with no sweet relief of death possible for you, forever. You are the hated One of all eternity; “made to be sin ... !”

There are passages in the Psalms that are clearly Messianic but confess such sin, such as this: “Innumerable evils have surrounded Me: My iniquities have overtaken Me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of My head, therefore My heart fails Me” (Psalm 40:12). The context is clearly talking about the Messiah.

“Made to be sin for us who knew no sin”! Felt the pollution and horror with all the sentient feeling of divinity imprisoned in humanity—felt it to be His never-ending hell. We quote it in deep reverence: He was in that one spot in the wide universe that is “hell” itself (Acts 2:27). The Father had forsaken Him!

And all this in the full surrender of His own volition in the primeval past eternity when divine Father and Son clasped hands, made the covenant to “give” and to be “given” for the sin of the word.

Our shriveled up hearts and dwarfed minds need to be stretched to comprehend what it cost the Father and the Son to save us.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

It was only yesterday that we were discussing here what is that “unspeakable gift” for which our hearts cry out to the Father, “Thanks!”

We saw that the angels and the “twenty-four elders” who praise the Lord unendingly are not fanatics (Rev. 4:8-11); when we come to “comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of “the love [agape] of Christ which passes knowledge,” we can’t help doing the same.

We even went so far yesterday as to suggest that there is salvation in comprehending, choosing, expressing, that “thanksgiving”! It’s the only appropriate response to the love Christ poured out on His cross. It’s exceedingly close to a true definition of what faith is.

Now today comes the Sacramento Bee with a front-page article saying “Thanks is Good Therapy.” A university psychologist, Robert A. Emmons, says that “even when the odds are against you, having gratitude can bring many emotional—and physical—benefits. Gratitude, he said, is not something to be kept tucked away until the holiday season.”

He tells of a 56 year old pharmacist undergoing treatment for lung cancer who has learned to be grateful for even one more day given him; the physician sees what he believes is renewed life given the sick man because of his gratitude for even a little life.

How much greater is the life-giving value of faith in Christ if such faith is understood as a mind-stretching, soul-stretching heart appreciation of what it cost Him to save us! Involved intimately in that heart experience is the conviction pressed upon us by the Holy Spirit that it was our heart “enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7) that brought Him to His cross. You will feel like telling Him “Thank You!” forever.

Do I dare say it—it’s better to tell Him that today than to wait to tell it to Him in the blessed hereafter. Why? Because telling Him now changes you and saves you for being happy in the blessed hereafter! It delivers you from Old to New Covenant living.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Too many of our celebrated holidays are of pagan origin and bear those marks even today; but one is free of it—Thanksgiving.

But even that one last touch of national gratitude to God is marred now by the designation “Turkey Day,” so the Day is marked by indulgence of appetite. A popular Bible text for Thanksgiving Day sermons is, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15).

The one gift above all gifts He has given us is this: “God so loved the world that He gave ...” It was all that He had in the gift, not the loan, not the mere offer, of His Son (John 3:16). The Son of God is now the Son of man; He is eternally a member of our human race; but that wasn’t far enough for the Father to “give.” He went further in pouring out the “gift.”

The Father gave Him to take seven steps in stepping down lower, itemized in Philippians 2:5-8: [1] He abandoned His high heavenly position; [2] He suffered the loss of His pure reputation, He Himself was covered with disgrace; [3] He took the lowest level of social honor; [4] He became One “made in the likeness” of fallen man (Rom. 8:3, 4); [5] He took a nose dive below that—[6] humbled Himself as low as a human being could go so He could “taste death for every person,” [7] which had to be the most horrible death one could know, “even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).

“Thanks” for that, says Paul!

But that was not far enough down, as most people understand it: the death which He died was far more than the physical, social agony of His cross. It was what the Bible calls “the second death,” the death in which there is no hope of a resurrection (that was the death that Christ saved us from!). He carried with Him that hope of a resurrection all His life, up until when He was “made to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), when He cried out in most bitter agony, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?”(Matt. 27:46). That point there was where the “giving” was the greatest; it was a gift for eternity, an infinite gift.

Contemplating that gift of His love has a subduing effect upon the human soul; no one can be the same after his heart grasps that!

If the idea can be translated and the consciousness of its “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” can be grasped, there is salvation in the very thanksgiving, as there is salvation in faith. Such thanksgiving is close to what faith is! The human heart is moved forever. Those heavenly beings who are still humans (the “24 elders,” see Rev. 4:4; 5:9) never cease to give their thanks; neither will you, once you grasp what that “unspeakable gift” entails.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Several times our California governor has spoken compassionately of the more than a thousand home owners whose homes have burned in this dreadful conflagration. He remarks that he sympathizes with people who have struggled and worked and saved and sacrificed in order to buy a house that they can live in. And then “in one hour, it’s gone,” he says.

For these many people owning a home was their lifetime dream.

While these disasters come, let us remember that our heavenly Father still loves us; and our Savior is working night and day as our High Priest to attract our attention to building a house that cannot burn.

Paul speaks of that in these words: “You are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. ...

“If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw; each one’s work will become manifest: for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward; if anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss.”

But let’s pause here in reading this dramatic promise. Paul goes on:

“Yet he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire ...” (1 Cor. 3:9-15). Imagine a homeowner in San Diego coming back and finding his house in ashes, only the concrete slab intact. That is “loss” to “suffer.” No more showing his friends how nice his house is.

But if he is a sane, happy man, he will indeed rejoice that he himself has been “saved through fire.”

To be happy, think of yourself as owning nothing more of this earth’s goods than a pile of ashes. Then thank the loving Savior that you still have your life.

And then be happy forever singing the 23rd Psalm: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Remember that Jesus died penniless on His cross. For sure He doesn’t want you to be penniless; but He wants you to appreciate what you do have as a gift from Him and receive His gift of happiness which is not dependent on this world’s goods, which can go up “in one hour” (read Rev. 18:17).

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Massive prayers are being offered worldwide for the Lord to “open the windows of heaven” and pour out the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon the “remnant” of Revelation 12:17.

The Lord Jesus has promised to give that most precious gift; the problem is, will we recognize the gift when it comes?

Jesus explained the gift clearly: “And when He is come, He will reprove [convict] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”(John 16:8). Jesus promised that “if I depart, I will send Him unto you” as the One called to come and sit down beside you and never leave you [Paracletos].

One Christian lady whose heart was right with the Lord and whom He blessed abundantly, would pray, “Lord, show me the worst of my case!” When the Lord does that for us, it puts us on a level with Isaiah in chapter 6 when he cried out, “Woe is me! for I am undone, ... for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (vs. 5).

To show one “the worst” of his “case” is not rubbing our nose in the dirt; the Lord does not want to humiliate us, to destroy us by crushing all sense of self-respect. Self-respect is a healthful conviction (it’s self-esteem that we need to guard against; the two can be confused easily).

Remember, that when Isaiah saw self as “undone,” he was experiencing what it means to be “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20), and that meant that he was resurrected with Him too (Rom. 6:4, 5).

The more Elijah prayed after the exhilarating experience of Mt. Carmel the smaller he saw himself to be and was then prepared to experience and endure the “rain” (1 Kings 18:41-46).

We may think that it’s no fun to be “crucified.” But would you disdain, refuse, to be the believing, repentant thief on the cross “crucified with Christ”? He heard the words spoken to him in assurance, “Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with Me in paradise”! He died in that full assurance; not a bad experience for anyone! For him, that was being “full of the Holy Spirit.” And the end of his soul-winning ministry is not yet. (I can’t wait to see the Lord Jesus give him his “reward” in the judgment day, for I myself will be one of the “stars in his crown.”)

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

To all of you who live out there somewhere in the world that is not Southern California, be thankful if your house is not in the path of conflagration. Be thankful if you can get some sleep through the night without worrying if the fire racing down the mountain is headed for you.

Be thankful to God if the air you can breathe is not lethal for your lungs. Thank Him profoundly if when you turn the faucet pure water comes out; be thankful if there are disciplined police who guard you from criminals—oh, there are so many blessings that you may have taken for granted all your life.

The dear Lord and Father of us all has not sent these tragic disasters that we call “natural,” but for sure He has permitted them because love for our souls demands that He remind us that this world is not our home. Says the apostle who was inspired by the Holy Spirit, “We know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens “(2 Cor. 5:1).

The most palatial movie star mansion you could buy in Malibu is described here as only a “tent.” The sooner you and I can realize this, the happier we can be.

Two truths emerge bright and clear:

(1) The most secure dwelling we can imagine on earth that money can buy is ethereal. You can’t count on anything. Heart-rending are the stories that the media serve us almost daily of people who had “everything going their way,” and then an all of a sudden car crash, or a cancer diagnosis, interferes, and they are reduced to nothing but fear and anguish.

(2) But Paul’s use of the pronoun “we” and “our” doesn’t mean only the Corinthians he happens to be writing to, but it’s we now, everybody. By virtue of the sacrifice of the infinite Son of God in His love for the world, “we” worthy or not (the right word is “unworthy”), “have a building from God, a house not made with hands.”

This means that Christ has become the cosmic Savior of the world, “the Savior of all men, specially of those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:10). He has given “all men” the gift of a reversal of the judicial condemnation that came upon us all “in Adam”; He is the world’s Savior, but He cannot force His salvation on those who refuse it.

Now, unworthy as you know yourself to be, grab hold of the gift He has placed in your hands and don’t let it slip through.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, November 19, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

We were reading the words of that wise author in Ministry of Healing, page 452, “If we should come to the close of life with our work undone, it would be an eternal loss.”

Sober thought!

“AN eternal loss”: it doesn’t necessarily say a TOTAL eternal loss.

The apostle Paul can help us here:

It is true that each of us has a life work that we are called to do, and if we come to our end of life with that work neglected, it will be a tragedy: it will be like planting a crop and reaping no harvest. “He who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. ... If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, [or] wood hay, straw, each one’s work will become manifest: for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:8-15).

Do we have a right to say that if anyone’s life work is a total loss, he can still be saved?

Yes, says Paul; but he will be like someone in our recent California forest fires—he will escape with only the clothes on his back; everything else just ashes.

What the Lord wants your life work to be only He can tell you; what we know for sure is that He wants you to be happy when you meet Him face to face. When we come up to the One who sits on the Great White Throne before “whose face the earth and the heaven [flee] away” (Rev. 20:11; yes we must “all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,” 2 Cor. 5:10), we will see the cross of Christ looming high “above the throne.” Yes, the cross is higher than the throne! It’s something that even the Father bows to! In that moment, we will see our life as it should have been.

If you are still short of your death-bed, kneel and plead with Him to help you surrender to the “constraint” of that love (agape) of Christ. Don’t try to “earn” a reward, but truly “believe” in Him so the fountain of living water may flow out of your empty heart to bless others (cf. John 7:37, 38).

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

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":

This daily mini-Bible study likes to concentrate on happy subjects, and find good things to say about discouraging topics. But we’re struggling to find something good to say about the calamity in Southern California.

Imagine—over 350,000 people evacuated from their homes (according to the governor)! Imagine what “evacuation” means—how do you “evacuate” without getting on the freeway to get out, and can you imagine 350,000 people clogging the freeways? They can be one vast parking lot.

I used to live in the San Diego area; I never dreamed I would see things like this before the Bible’s “seven last plagues” of Revelation 16.

Can we find some good news? Yes:

(1) Innumerable acts of kindness are being done by people, even strangers; the Holy Spirit has not yet been withdrawn completely from the earth!

(2) There is evidence of the love of God still active; in wrath He has remembered mercy (Hab. 3:2).

(3) In the disasters described by the prophet Ezekiel his “woes” usually ended with the promise, “and thou shalt know that I am the LORD” (35:9, for example, KJV).

(4) It’s ALWAYS, yes, always, good news to learn to “know the LORD.” Even the final “lake of fire” at the end of the millennium (the 1000 years of Revelation 20:11-15), demonstrates the mercy of the Lord. The lost will say “Thank You” for that “Lake” rather than exist forever in tortured consciousness of their own utter self-condemnation. They will “welcome destruction,” says a very wise writer.

(5) Is God sending these terrible disasters? Is San Diego more wicked than other great cities, thus deserves them? This same question was asked Jesus after a local disaster: “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than other Galileans, because they suffered such things?” He answered: “I tell you, no, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:2). Jesus didn’t bring that disaster but He brought good out of it, for all the world to learn.

(6) There is precious good news in this remark of Jesus: it’s possible for all of us to “repent” because repentance is a universal gift that the Holy Spirit tries to give us (if we will believe and receive the gift; John 16:8).

(7) This painful disaster, with world TV and news coverage, educates us all in a happy lesson about Reality; it’s another proof of God’s love: “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out [when we “evacuate” we won’t even carry our papers with us]. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 Tim 6:7, 8). Precious contentment! Enjoy it today.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Someone deeply perturbed has written in spiritual distress. She was reared in a strict church long ago that preached high standards; she became discouraged, thinking that she could never measure up to those requirements for salvation, so she left the church.

Then in the providence of God, she discovered that the gospel is good news of what the Lord Jesus has done for us, that His love for us is active, not passive, that He will hold us by the hand rather than leave us to hang on in our own strength, in short, she found that “it is easier to be saved than it is to be lost,” that resisting the Holy Spirit is itself is hard work.

The good news of the gospel encouraged her, so she came back to church.

Then she discovered the book Ministry of Healing, page 452, where we read that “the struggle for conquest over self, for holiness and heaven, is a lifelong struggle. Without continual effort and constant activity, there can be no advancement in the divine life, no attainment of the victor’s crown. ... The way of return can be gained only by hard fighting, inch by inch, hour by hour. We cannot be off guard even for a moment ... Should we come to the close of life with our work undone, it would be an eternal loss.”

Yes, it sounds scary, even while we know that it has to be common-sense-true that there is no “vacation” release from following Jesus and bearing His cross. Jesus “said to them all, If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). What appears “difficult” is closeness to Jesus; and His yoke is “easy.”

Then why this plunge back into the icy waters of apparent discouragement? It’s not discouragement: listen:

All this wonderfully high standard is absolutely true: but “it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). The Lord Jesus as our Savior motivates us by His love to keep His commandments. If the Preamble is joined to the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1), reminding us that Christ has delivered us from Egyptian dark bondage, then the Ten apparently difficult commandments become Ten wonderful promises.

Sister; don’t turn your back on the good news of what Christ has done for us; thank Him, cherish it. The good news is better than you think; no standards are lowered; instead, the grace of Christ is multiplied “much more” than sin has abounded (Rom. 5:21).

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception has the appearance of being a teaching sublimely beautiful; but it hides Jesus from our view.

So completely does it hide Him, that multitudes have no idea who Jesus is, while they think they know Him.

This incorrect idea severs the link that binds the Virgin Mary to humanity because it declares that when the fetus of the Virgin Mary was in the womb of her mother, God worked a miracle (the Bible says nothing about this!) that broke the DNA or genetic link that has bound every person on earth to our father Adam.

Thus in one stroke this “dogma” denies the fundamental truth of the Bible that says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. ...” (John 3:16). Thus it says in effect that God did not give Him to us; God kept Him back by breaking this genetic link to humanity. The Virgin Mary is thus some kind of a new creature that God made, but who was separate from humanity.

If that’s all there were to this “dogma” of Immaculate Conception, the human race might not feel bad because of it: it would simply be that here’s one woman different from any other woman. That’s all.

But wait a moment:

The problem is that this “dogma” also means that her Son, Jesus Christ, has been separated from humanity by having that DNA or genetic link broken; thus He is not a human being at all. He too is some new creature that God created independent of a genetic link to humanity.

Thus it says that He doesn’t know how you feel deep down; He cannot be tempted “like” as you are tempted. This dogma denies multitudes of Bible statements that tell us how close Jesus is to all of us, how real He is.

Don’t let anyone or any organization, no matter how powerful or wealthy it might be, rob you of the Savior whom you need, and who rightfully has been given to you, and is yours.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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: <dailybread@1888message.org>

------------------------------------------------------------------------