Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

TIME magazine has often promoted the Roman Catholic view of Mary the
mother of Jesus as a co-redemptrix, an assistant “Savior of the
world,” one to whom people should pray, an intermediary between people and
Jesus. This is not a biblical view.

But TIME’s feature article for Easter this year explores a rather new
Protestant study of the biblical Mary as one qualified to be understood
as a teacher, an apostle of the faith of Jesus. She has been neglected
as an over-reaction against the idolatrous Roman view.

She appears first in the Bible as one who “believed” in the
ultimate sense--no resisting the word of the angel Gabriel, although she must
have known well that her public role as an unwed mother would invite
scorn. She would submit to the will of God. Long before Jesus took up
His cross for us, she took up her cross in believing the word and the
call of God. (Luke 1:38, 45).

Next she appears as one who had loved the Bible, for her extemporaneous
poem of thanksgiving (46-55) is drenched with biblical allusions. Her
Son was to inherit our human nature, the DNA line to the fallen Adam to
be unbroken, but His mother was to be one who could teach Him in His
infancy to read and believe the Bible. He applied Himself so zealously
that He grew as “the word made flesh” (John 1:14). He was her
Savior as well as ours.

Mary never preached a sermon that we know was recorded, but she left a
brilliant one in its terseness: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do
it” (John 2:5). That’s enough for a good Sabbath message. She had to be a
very positive feminine personality.

All biblical evidence points to her as an older woman, a step-mother to
at least six children of Joseph from a previous marriage (Matt. 13:55,
56; 12:47). That role certainly required a saint!

Mary’s corporate fellowship with her Son dying on His cross as she
watched Him in motherly fidelity is evidence that we can identify with
Him on His cross--something that the Bible says is “faith.” We are
“baptized INTO His death” (Rom. 6:3). It’s time that we understand it
maturely!

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

We have long pondered the wonderful time when the earth will be
lightened with the glory of the final “most precious message” of
the gospel (Rev. 18). We have known that the Bible says it will be a
“short work” (Rom. 9:28).

Now we have a little illustration of how “short” may be the way the
Lord may choose to work. Alone, 26 year old Ashley Smith near Atlanta
found herself suddenly confronted with a wild murderer who made her his
captive. Frightened of course, her knowledge of the gospel enabled her
to recover her faith in Christ and banish her natural fear. She
realized that this crazed man with his gun, Brian Nichols, was still a
human being for whom the Lord Jesus had given Himself, as well as He
had given Himself for her. She was enabled to sense a concern for him!
She talked to him calmly about his soul. Yes, he had brought upon
himself now the guilt of multiple murders, but Jesus Christ was still
his Savior awaiting Brian’s repentance. She conveyed that truth to
the desperate man.

The murderer was hungry, so she fried some eggs for a breakfast for
him. Looking him in the eye as one soul saved by the grace of Christ
speaking to another who had been saved by the same sacrifice, she
persuaded him to do the right thing, and give himself up. The grace of
God enabled her to trust the criminal’s sincerity, which meant her
life was saved and so was his. Let us pray that as he spends his life in
prison, his soul will be saved.

The front page news story has thrilled the nation. The version of the
gospel message that is being touted worldwide in these few days since
the story happened is that of Pastor Rick Warren’s book, THE
PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE. It had gripped Ashley Smith’s heart. By yielding
to a conviction of truth that she was able to understand, she became a
spokesperson for the gospel as she understood it, gaining suddenly an
audience greater than probably all the public evangelists in the world
combined.

The lesson for us: let’s study what is “the truth of the gospel”
as it is “in Christ,” receiving that agape that “casts out fear,” and
thus be ready always to witness for Him (Gal. 2:5; Eph. 4:15; 1 John 4:18).
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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

We have all heard the horrifying stories of people with Alzheimer’s
saying and doing things that we could not imagine them saying or doing
when they were normal and well. A friend of ours when he developed
Alzheimer’s threatened to kill his wife and had to be locked up, and
yet we knew him always as a genuine Christian. And we all have known of

people who when they have a stroke, act in a bizarre, ornery way, when
we have known them previously as being gentle Christians. Sometimes
when under an anesthetic or drug, decent people have been known to use
language that is indecent.

These remarks on “Dial Daily Bread” are not intended to question
the sincerity of these people’s conversion to Christianity. But this
phenomenon of evil words or acts coming out involuntarily raises the
issue of Bible sanctification. Paul prays for us a total sanctification
in 1 Thess. 5:23: “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I
pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What does Paul mean? Obviously, the initial experience of conversion or
of justification by faith, is good in itself; but it must deepen and
extend throughout the mind and heart until there is no hidden portion
that is left unaffected, uncleansed. This is why sanctification is a
daily work of the Holy Spirit, requiring a daily surrender to Him,
until every nook or cranny of the heart is exposed to the merciless
light that shines from the cross of Christ, and every egocentric
motivation is made painfully distinct, so it can be repented of. A
person may die with that process of being sanctified “wholly” still
uncompleted; and we trust that person’s soul with the Lord’s mercy
in the final judgment. But how could any of us “stand” in the final
“great day of the Lord” when Jesus returns if there are sinful dark secrets
of evil still left in the heart not yet “sanctified wholly”?

Wouldn’t that bring shame on our Savior, like a good Christian
threatening to kill his wife, or saying indecent words? Thank God we
have a new day, TODAY--a new opportunity to be sanctified!

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Something momentous about the truth of justification by faith developed in the latter years of the 19th century. Fresh insights into this glorious truth came through two young ordained ministers who thought
through something that apparently no one else had clearly grasped. They
simply combined Paul’s idea of justification by faith with the truth
that we are now living in the great final cosmic Day of Atonement. The
world’s High Priest, Jesus Christ, had begun His last work of fully
reconciling alienated human hearts to God.

It was an antitypical work in the Most Holy Apartment of the heavenly
sanctuary that fulfilled the type in the ancient high priest’s work
when he entered the second apartment of the earthly tabernacle (see
Hebrews 9). Now Christ’s objective was not merely preparing people to
die and come up in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6); now His work
prepares a people to meet their Lord in person at His second coming
(see 1 Thess. 4:16, 17), and be translated. Now every buried root of
enmity against God (Rom. 8:7) is to be cleansed. Only when the heart is
cleansed can we be in total oneness with the Lord. Only then can it be
said in all truth that “here are they that keep the commandments of
God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12).  Christ’s righteousness
is not merely legally imputed; now it is fully imparted.

This most precious message had within it the promise of fulfilling the
prophecy of the message that must “lighten the earth with glory.”
The reason was that it brought to parched human hearts what was in fact
long-awaited “showers from heaven of the latter rain.” There was
power in that message of justification by faith that delivered from the love
of self. Those who believed treated their richest gain as loss and
poured contempt on all their pride. This was refreshing to see in
ministers. It was the greatest sign of the nearness of the end. 

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are sincere people who are scared almost out of their wits by reading Hebrews 6:4-6. The passage says: “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”

It is indeed serious business! The Father was happy to hear the prayer of Jesus, to forgive us for crucifying His Son when we did it “not knowing what [we] do.” But if we do it again in full knowledge of what we are doing, that’s it; no more repentance. But many sincere people misread the text and bring darkness upon themselves. They realize that since they were originally converted they have backslid, and they assume that now God has turned against them. But the text doesn’t say that. It does not say that God will not forgive, again and again; it merely says that those who crucify Christ afresh are refusing to accept the gift of repentance. You can be forgiven for any sin that you repent of. That gift of repentance is yours for the taking.

The Greek text uses the present tense: the problem is a willful, ongoing process of re-crucifying Christ “afresh,” on and on, that is, refusing to repent. If you can read these words; if you see ever so tiny a ray of light shining somewhere, do not give up; tell your dear heavenly Father that you want to repent; ask Him to give you the precious gift; receive it; accept it. And rejoice in His pardoning love. Then go right to work to help somebody else with a word of Good News. Happiness is yours!

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

It so happens that I have neither a cat nor a dog just now, so the quail have made my back yard their home. They feel safe. It’s interesting to watch the submission of the little quail to their parents’ leading. The Lord Jesus tells us that the infinite Father in heaven cares about even them: “One of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father [caring]. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many” little birds (Matt. 10:29-31).

Did the infinite Father in heaven care about the Lord Jesus? He said plaintively, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). Did “we” care?

It’s a terrible feeling to be a grown man and have not even a square inch you can call your own “nest,” nor the means to provide one or rent one. You can feel so utterly alone.

So did Jesus, when He was among us. Yet He was 100 per cent human; He felt His aloneness—not physically so much as the constant realization that His closest friends, the disciples, were spiritually “strangers.” I have often felt so ashamed for them (and at the same time felt their shame is mine for I am as corporately guilty as they were)—not one of them came up to the cross where He was hanging in agony, and gave Him even a drink of water! Nor was even one of them able to share the burden on His heart.

We cannot say that the Father really forsook Him when He screamed in agony, “My Father, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46) but the Father was forced to appear to forsake Him and to leave Him to feel the utter aloneness and condemnation that sin has brought on the human race.

The “condemnation” we have all received from our fallen “father Adam” has always been only judicial. No human in 6000+ years has ever endured it actually—except Jesus only.

On your knees, thank Him that He has not left you alone; let your worldly, egocentric heart be warmed by the realization of His “much more abounding grace” that saves you from eternal aloneness, and gives you a place in His eternal kingdom of sunlit fellowship (cf. Rom. 5:20).

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

King Hezekiah was one of the best men who ever lived. He did everything just right. The Bible says nothing evil about him.

In his days, he led the nation to celebrate the finest Passover they had observed in centuries.

There is not the slightest whiff of evidence that he will not find a place in the Lord’s eternal kingdom, when the resurrection occurs at the second coming of Christ (“the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first,” 1 Thess. 4:16).

But when he is resurrected, he will have to learn about the history that followed him. Revelation 21:4 does not say that there will be no tears on the resurrection morning—there won’t be any tears in the earth made new.

When Hezekiah was only 49, the Lord sent him a message by the prophet Isaiah that he should “set [his] his house in order,” for the time had come in the Lord’s infinite wisdom that he should die (2 Kings 20:1).

But this time the good king rebelled against the Lord’s will, set his face against the wall to cry; he told the Lord that it’s not fair—he’s been a good king, etc. So the Lord added 15 years for him to live.

During that added space of grace, he sired a son, Manasseh, who became the worst king the nation had ever had. Hezekiah would have been wise when the Lord said, “The time has come for you to die,” if he had said, “Amen, Lord! I trust You. Thy will be done”(see the story in Isaiah 38:1-3).

The word of the Lord, even if it comes with disappointment, is always the word of love that the Lord has for us. May He give us of His much more abounding grace to believe it.

If, for that grace, He extends our life, may we use it for His glory. Then we will be happy in the resurrection morning.

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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":

There is absolutely nothing easier that a human being can do than to look at something. Eternal salvation requires that one thing—to LOOK. There it is, plainly taught in the Bible—”LOOK unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 45:22). The Hebrew word means to turn the face toward. Perhaps you have noticed how often the word BEHOLD occurs in the Bible—hundreds of times. When the poisonous snake would bite the Israelite, all he had to do was to BEHOLD the snake Moses lifted up on a pole. John says, “BEHOLD, what manner of love (agape) the Father hath bestowed upon us” (1 John 3:1). It’s as though God keeps saying to us, “See, look, watch what I’ve done!”

Christianity is a religion of look and live, behold and be saved. But is it possible that people won’t look, see, watch, or consider? Is God doing something wonderful that won’t get the world’s attention? Wouldn’t it be terrible if the Son of God is sacrificed on a cross and most people never even bother to LOOK? But let’s remember—God knows how to get the world’s attention!

(1) Paul says, “Have they [the world’s population] not heard? Yes, verily ... “ (Rom. 10:18). And John says that Christ is “the Light that lighteth every person who comes into the world” (1:9).

(2) In these last days a special message, never previously so clear, is to lighten the earth with glory, not just a candle flickering in an obscure way (Rev. 18:1-4). Revelation shows how that message will be an unveiling of Christ as the Lamb of God—the crucified Son of God, whose cross is the revelation of the agape of the Father that we are to BEHOLD. That message will arrest the attention of the world.

(3) What about those who refuse now to LOOK and live? In the final judgment all will see that cross and each individual will see the part he had in crucifying the Lord of glory. And that final looking will be torture to the lost—more awful than any physical pain of fire could be. Why not LOOK now?

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are times when everything has seemed to go wrong, and deep, dark disappointment overwhelms us.

The temptation is fierce—for us to think that the Lord has forsaken us.

But He has promised solemnly, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).

The Father was forced to withdraw His beams of light from His only Son while He hung on His cross. Jesus screamed in agony, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father never truly forsook His only Son dying on His cross; but He was forced to permit Jesus to feel totally forsaken, so that we should never have to feel that way!

To feel totally forsaken by the Lord is a terrible experience; and for one to believe it, would be a sin, for He has promised never to “leave us nor forsake us.” Yes, to disbelieve what the Lord has promised would be a sin which we would want to repent of immediately.

To be tempted is not itself sin; thus, it is not a sin to feel forsaken by the Lord. The sin comes when we believe Satan’s lie to disbelieve what God has promised.

What Satan wants is to break our hold on the Lord and thus to separate our souls from Him. Satan wants to drag us out into the cold dark emptiness of hell—which is eternal forsakenness by the Lord.

Jesus has saved us from that—forever. Now make your heart choice to believe that truth; pray with the distraught father in Mark 9, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” (vs. 24). You can never perish while you cling to that desperate prayer.

Why does the Lord permit you to go through this desperate experience?

So you can from now on work side by side with Him to help other people who are so tempted. There are many! And He needs you to work with Him! The only “voice” He has is your voice; the only “hands” He has are yours.

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

As we come nearer to the end, a change comes in the “Christian experience” of God’s people. Their deepest heart concern ceases to be that of saving their own souls, to a concern for the glory of Christ in the closing hours of the “great controversy between Christ and Satan.” (When I was a boy, some silver-haired elders in the church told me that the greatest question is that of my own soul’s salvation.)

These people of God in the last days turn away from their previous concern for their own salvation to a concern for Another—that He emerge victorious from the “battle” He is in.

This change in “Christian experience” can be described in the terms the Lord Jesus uses in John 15: “Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you” (vs. 15).

As we come closer to the end, these “friends” concern is for that “battle” that Christ is in, and not for self.

This change in “Christian experience” orientation can also be described as graduating out of the Old Covenant “Christian experience” into the New. It’s coming out of the shadows into the bright sunlight of “present truth” (a term in 2 Peter 1:12).

The “present truth” is New Covenant living, not Old.

This change is also passing from Revelation 18 into Revelation 19 where we find those four grand Hallelujah Choruses, each greater than Handel’s (vss. 1-17). It can at last be said that “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready” (19:6, 7). At last!

Although the Lord is “omnipotent,” He cannot force the nuptials. It cannot be said that He “reigneth” until her nuptial devotion to Him as to a divine Husband is real. Thus there is a “woman” whose marital devotion He can only wait, and wait, to see. The good news that rejoices one’s heart is that this change in spiritual growth is actually taking place. Don’t be left behind!

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are many who are bewildered. They do not know where they are going, and they are afraid.

The message of the Bible is just what they need. There are two things that the Lord says they must do—not some difficult to-do thing, but something to believe:

(1) “He that cometh to God must believe that He is ...” (Heb. 11:6, first part).

That’s the “work” you must do! Not something to “do” that is beyond you to accomplish, but a simple step in choosing to believe that God is, He exists. You may be an atheist, but you can take this step by choosing to believe. You must! And you can, for it’s only simple truth.

The atheist may say, “That’s too difficult!” No, it’s the easiest thing any human can “do”—to believe God exists. Just look at the world around you, from the tiniest leaf (that no human can ever “make”) to the unnumbered worlds in the Milky Way.

(2) Step number two, what you MUST believe: “that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (second part).

Step number one is that of the “deist,” the person who believes that some mysterious power made the universe and then walked off and left it to care for itself. That kind of “faith” is not good enough.

No one can truly believe in “God” without recognizing that “God IS love [agape]” (1 John 4:8). And right there we go to the cross on which the Son of God died the second death of every human.

The truth is all one package, complete; you can’t select and choose.

Difficult? No; listen to John the Baptist: he says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world “ (John 1:29). “Behold” means to take a l-o-n-g look; stay on your knees with your “closet” door closed as Jesus says to do in Matthew 6:6: “When thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” He is the same “Father” who notices when a little sparrow falls in the forest floor (Matt. 10:29). Believe, appreciate, revel, in the truth that that same heavenly Father notices you personally.

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

When the Lord Jesus saves a man, He doesn’t expect the man to help save himself, because he can’t. Jesus Christ is a Savior 100 percent.

But He does expect the sinner to cooperate with Him.

Psalm 130 expresses the cry of any who knows he is lost: “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. ... If Thou Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (vss. 1, 3).

The answer of course is ... no one.

But then comes the comforting word: “But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared [reverenced]” (vs. 4).

The Psalmist experienced the down-and-out despair of feeling lost, but only a taste of what Jesus experienced on the cross when He cried out in despair, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father did not answer His Son, because Christ must be left to experience to the full this lethal despair; if He had not experienced it for us, we would have to experience it, and therein is eternal death. Jesus felt as if the Father had truly forsaken Him forever!

If sinful man were left to experience to the full this lethal despair, he would not be able to “cry” unto the Lord; no human soul has ever in the 6000+ years of earth’s history had to experience that total despair except the Lord Jesus. It kills ... forever.

Some may object, “Suicides experience it!” Not so, really; they always had the option left them to “cry unto the Lord.” And the Lord was ready to hear for Jesus promised, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Any time, no matter how sinful.

If the Lord has permitted you to experience Psalm 130, be happy. In knowing Him, you will know that “with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (vss. 7, 8).

There are the 144,000 of Revelation 14:1-6; they who “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:1-5)!

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

A wise writer wrote a stupendous statement: “The books of heaven record the sins that we would commit if we had the opportunity.”

This at first sounds like bad news; the Lord must have a tremendous lot against us: but no, that’s not the meaning of the statement. It is really very good news.

Proverbs 28:13 says that “whoso confesseth and foraketh [his sins] shall have mercy.” Wonderful! That “mercy” is what we all need so much.

But how can you “confess” and “forsake” your sins if you don’t know what they are? That’s why the Holy Spirit is so full of mercy when He convicts us of our sins; Jesus says that is His first work:

“When He [the Comforter, the Holy Spirit] is come, He will convict the world of sin” (John 16:8). Thank God!

The Holy Spirit is a Person; He loves us just as much as the Father loves us, just as much as the Son who gave Himself for us, loves us.

Tell Him, “Thank You!” What to do is simple:

(1) The moment He convicts you of sin, that moment “confess” it; don’t wait. Tell the Lord, “It’s true! I dare not try to deny it!”

(2) And then, that moment, forsake that sin. If it is something that is dear to your heart, forsake it; do exactly what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He cried out to His Father, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39).

(3) The Lord never asks you to do anything difficult on your own, by yourself: always you are invited to do it with Jesus; you are never left on your own, alone! You are joined to the Son of God by a “yoke” that binds the two of you together.

(4) And He says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). The greatest, the most joyous adventure, any human can have!

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The fact that we mentioned “the second death” has stirred up some interest on the Internet.

The Bible is clear that man is by nature mortal; the doctrine of the immortality of the soul has been adopted from Roman paganism; the Bible teaches a more comforting truth: death is a sleep in which we rest until the resurrection morning. When Lazarus died, the Lord Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth” (John 11:11), “but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead” (vss. 12-14).

This comforting truth is taught throughout the Bible. The “sleep” of death is awakened by the coming of Jesus in the resurrection: “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:15-18).

Those who have trained themselves to be unhappy in the Lord’s holy kingdom will sleep on until at the end of the 1000 years of Revelation 20. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (vs. 6). The fact that “God IS love [agape]” is taught throughout Scripture; He will never force people who have spent their lifetime seeking the sinful pleasures of the fallen, evil world, would be miserable to live in the New Jerusalem: the Lord will simply give them what they want—to be eternally separated from the “face” of the One who is their Savior who loved them so much that He died the second death so that they might share eternity with Him. The doctrine of the “second death” is a part of the doctrine that God IS love [agape]. Everywhere we look, that is the theme of the Bible.

When our eyes are opened and we finally comprehend this truth, His love [agape] “constrains us” to live “henceforth” unto Him who so “loved us and gave Himself for us” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

Maybe more tomorrow, the Lord willing.

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Our Savior “condemned sin in the flesh,” the fallen, sinful flesh that all of us have inherited from our fallen father, Adam. In so doing, Christ has saved the human race!

He forever outlawed sin in the vast universe of God by defeating it in its last lair. Sin has no “home,” no refuge now, in the vast universe of God!

Sin does not reside in things; it resides in human hearts. Satan as the fallen Lucifer had tempted the other worlds to join him in rebellion, but they refused. (Temptation is not sin; what’s sin, is giving in.) Only our first parents, Adam and Eve, believed the fallen Lucifer’s lies against God.

No way could Christ have defeated sin if the dogma of the “Immaculate Conception” were true: if in His incarnation Christ had taken upon Himself the unfallen, sinless nature of Adam in the Garden, sin would have been forever enshrined and crowned in our human flesh and then Satan would have forever won the great controversy between Christ and Satan.

Doubtless there are many sincere people who have never thought this through; they don’t realize that their dogma proclaimed in 1854, and required of all to believe. is a stroke of victory in favor of the enemy in the great controversy.

In mercy to the remnant church (and the world), “the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people” 120 years ago that told the saving truth in a clear way so simple that a child could understand. Christ took on His sinless nature our fallen, sinful nature, so that He might save the human race from sin. “Tempted in all points like as we are [tempted], yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15), He has delivered the whole human race from captivity to sin.

Most do not understand it, or believe it; but nonetheless it is true.

And the Lord has promised in Revelation 18:1-4 that the full beautiful truth will yet “lighten the earth with glory.” He wanted the Seventh-day Adventist Church to enjoy that glorious experience 120 years ago, but the grey-haired elders said No! (not 100% of them, but the vast majority so that the blessing was indeed “kept away” from our people and “from the world”; cf. Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235).

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Has the Lord in His great mercy saved you from falling into the deep pit of adultery?

If you can say yes, you can sing and praise the Lord for now and forever.

Adultery brings a great burden of sorrow on the Lord Himself, to say nothing of the pain it brings on us and all whom we are connected with. The Lord in no uncertain language says He “hates” it:

“The Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou has dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. ... Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that He hateth putting away... Take heed ... , that ye deal not treacherously” (Mal. 2:14-16).

“But doesn’t the Lord forgive?”

Ah yes, but the New Testament word for “forgive” means to “take away the sin,” so that now the sin is forever hated.

It’s impossible for anyone to break the seventh of the ten commandments until he has first broken the first six; therefore, it’s impossible to repent of breaking the seventh commandment until one goes back to the beginning and genuinely, maybe painfully, repents of breaking those six. This genuine, blessed work that is a precious gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:31) means a complete overhaul of one’s character, like you overhaul the broken engine of a diesel truck.

But the Lord is merciful; He is also thorough; He cleanses the heart. Titus 2:11-14 is full of good news: (a) “the grace of God” has brought salvation to “all men.” (b) That “grace” “teaches” us to say “No!” to “worldly lusts”; it’s not that we help save ourselves, but our firm choice to say “No!” to them is cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

(c) The motivating power of this repentance is believing, appreciating the truth that Christ “gave Himself for us” (vs. 14); the “gift” of Himself was total—He “poured out His soul unto death,” even the second death, for us (Isa. 53:12).

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

An old English verb in the King James Version is “quicken,” which means “make alive.” “The Son quickeneth whom He will” (John 5:21). The Holy Spirit “quickens” (6:63).

God “quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17).

That is the mind and the thinking of the Lord; to Him all things that will someday be, He considers as already being.

This writer is in bereavement for the loss of a beloved wife, Grace, of 66 years of happy marriage; but the good news in that Romans verse is that the Lord will “quicken” her and He sees her as already resurrected and glorified.

We can have the mind of Christ by faith; and thus enjoy peace and confidence in a bright and happy future ... “in Christ.”

She used to ask, “Can’t we take a vacation and go somewhere, like other people do?”

Well, I wanted to do so, as her husband; but there seemed always to be some problem, some meetings coming up that we had to go to, some writing deadline to be met.

Now comes that word “quicken”: the Lord has promised to “quicken” us both and He says, “Trust in the Lord and do good; ... Depend upon the Lord, and He will grant you your heart’s desire” (Psalm 37:3, 4).

A little later the Psalmist testifies, “I waited, waited for the Lord, and He bent down to me and heard my cry; He brought me up out of the muddy pit, out of the mire and the clay; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm footing; and on my lips He put a new song, a song of praise to our God” (40:1-3).

You want happiness? There’s your path to it.

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The New Covenant truths were the central issues in the 1888 message story. Young Waggoner had been gifted by the Lord with an understanding that far surpassed that of his silver-haired elder brethren. Ellen White declared that the Lord had done this for him. She said, “Since I made the statement last Sabbath that the view of the covenants as it had been taught by Brother [E. J.] Waggoner was truth, it seems that great relief has come to many minds” (Letter to Uriah Smith 59, 1890).

Old Covenant thinking on the part of sincere Christians who want to follow Jesus “genders to bondage” (Gal. 4:24). It’s tragic that they do not realize that the Old Covenant ideas that have enslaved their thinking are a counterfeit of the pure, true gospel. They wonder why their “Christian experience” is so disappointing; they do not know the truth of the New Covenant. They assume therefore that the gospel is impotent, when they have inherited only a distorted view of it.

The Old Covenant was formally endorsed by the leaders of Israel at Mt. Sinai when they got together and voted to respond to the Lord’s Good News Gospel declaration of what He would do for them, “All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do” (Ex. 19:8; in a matter of days they were worshipping a golden calf!).

The Lord never asked them to make that promise! When the Lord in Genesis 15:6 called Abraham out of his tent to count the stars of the Milky Way and declared to him as a divine promise, “So shall thy seed be,” He did not ask the patriarch to make any promise in return! Abraham’s job was to believe His divine promise.

God’s promise was one-sided. And when Abraham did believe, the Lord graciously “counted it to him for righteousness” (15:6). That’s what He does for all of us; our promises to Him are vain.

Worse, because the Lord does not call for such vain promises, the whole system is lethal, producing “bondage.”

Now, let us walk in the bright sunshine of the New Covenant promises of God.

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There is no end of people in the world today who want to be converted; but they feel that it is beyond them to be as happy in the Lord as they want to be. They would give anything if they could be at peace with God, and possess in their hearts the love for other people that they feel it is their duty to have.

The burden of d-u-t-y lies heavy on their hearts; they go to sleep at night with deep fear just beneath the surface, and wake up next morning with the same burden there.

The church should come to their aid immediately; but too often the church does not understand what they need—a knowledge of the New Covenant.

One hundred twenty years ago the dear Lord “in His great mercy” sent a “most precious message” that contained the liberating New Covenant truths.

If you b-e-l-i-e-v-e in Jesus, ... that is, if your heart has understood the truth about Him—that the death He died on His cross was not just a week-end of sleep, ... but that He died your second death, you can begin to comprehend the breadth, and depth, and length, and height of His love (agape) as you never saw it before (cf. Eph. 3:18, 19).

Jesus was probably very tired when they nailed Him to His cross; the Ladies Aid Society of Jerusalem would usually offer crucified victims a sponge soaked with narcotics; and they offered it to Jesus.

But He turned His head and refused to drink it (Luke 23:36; Matt. 27:34); He must keep His mind clear to endure the pain of His Father’s rejection of Him; He must endure the curse that sin brings in the end. Isaiah says, “He hath poured out His soul unto death” (53:12).

Read that whole chapter, on your knees, slowly, alone; then thank Him, that He took your second death and died it for you.

Then thank Him again, ... and again. You will never be the same.

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Number Three of the “Ten Truths That Make the 1888 Message Unique”:

There are two things that we MUST believe when we come to Christ:

“Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe [1] that He is, and [2] that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

To believe that God IS, in a mechanical way as the Creator (instead of godless evolution), is a good beginning for any human soul coming to conversion. But it is just the beginning; the next step is to believe that He hears and answers your prayer, that He rewards those who open their hearts to Him, that He is a God of love.

And this is what you learn from the cross of Christ: the Father permitted Christ to be treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves! Here the love [agape] is demonstrated.

When we put this together, we see the next great truth: It is easy to be saved and it is hard to be lost IF we understand how good the Gospel good news is!

And this is shocking to us.

Satan has conditioned us all to accept the idea that following Jesus is a hard way to live; we have to give up so many pleasurable things in order to follow Jesus, is the idea.

But it is backwards from the truth. We don’t give up anything valuable when we come to Him; all we give up is JUNK.

But Satan has taught us to believe that junk is what makes us happy.

When Saul of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus in his hate-filled odyssey against the Christians, the Lord met him and gave him a grain of truth: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). Saul was ruining himself in his enmity against Christ: he would have come down with some terrible disease if he had gone on.

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Number Two of the “Ten Truths That Make the 1888 Message Unique” is the revelation of the High Priestly ministry of Christ in His heavenly sanctuary:

He is working 24 hours a day seven days a week in a special work that impinges on every person in the world: He is drawing “all men” to repentance.

This is evident in Romans 2:4: “Despises thou the riches of [Christ’s] goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”

There was the lady who went to church every Sabbath and prayer meeting, asking the church to pray for her husband who was not a Sabbath-keeper nor was he converted.

Then one Sabbath morning he came down the steps before breakfast dressed in his good suit, instead of to go to work. She was shocked.

“What does this mean, darling?” she asked. “I am going to church with you and the children!”

“But darling, if you lose your job because of the Sabbath, how will we make the car payments, and the house payments, and pay for our vacation?”

Husband stopped halfway down the steps; never said a word; went back up and put on his work clothes, and that was the end. All this while the Holy Spirit had been leading him to repentance; but now she blew it by unbelief.

Jesus promised us, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matt. 21:22). The un-believing heart is “at enmity” with God even before we pray.

The Lord willing, more tomorrow.

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Dial Daily Bread has been on safari this weekend! We were invited to a church in Los Angeles where we were not to preach our own sermon (which the people would soon forget, anyway), but to present the actual “most precious message” which “the Lord in His great mercy sent to His people” 120 years ago.

It was the message that the Lord intended should “lighten the earth with glory” as Revelation 18:1-4 says it must come.

Scholars have distilled the message into ten basic “good news” capsules which we will present for the next few days:

Number One: Christ has already accomplished something for every human being. He died the “second death” of everyone and thus actually elected “all men” to be saved. But this is not Universalism, for men have the power to resist and reject what Christ has given them. Esau is the example: he was born a few minutes before his twin, Jacob, and thus inherited the precious “birthright;” but when he grew up, he abandoned it, sold it “for a mess of pottage” (a gourmet meal that he was hungry for!), and never stopped crying in despair ever afterwards for he could never get it back.

The Lord wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3, 4), but not everyone will let Him save them. They repeat Esau’s deadly sin—they throw away what Christ has given them, yes, given them, not merely offered them.

In the final judgment at the end of the 1000 years millennium, the lost will be resurrected in the “second resurrection” to face their final judgment; then it will be seen clearly that He gave them salvation but they threw it away.

Cherish the gift that the Lord has given you!

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There is a strange expression in Psalm 90:7: “We have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified.” If God is “angry” with us, and His “wrath” hangs over us, we are indeed terrified and can’t help being so. (It can be a deep, slow anxiety based on terror).

We long for love, for good will, for someone important to us to be pleased with us. You long for some person you love to smile upon you, to know he/she truly loves you. Such love is the “sweet mystery of life.” Disappointment in love is painful, sometimes lifelong, an entire life shadowed; deep dark secrets of pain are cherished.

David knew that the most wonderful woman in the world could never bring him the happiness that a glimpse of the smiling face of God could give him: “There are many who say, ‘Who will show us any good?’ Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart” (Psalm 4:6, 7).

A false or distorted gospel clouds that otherwise smiling face of God. For example, a successful evangelist wrote to me that he believes a cloud of condemnation hangs over the head of every person in the world who has not chosen to “accept Christ.” Yes, millions believe this; and no wonder they live sad lives. But the Bible teaches that the “condemnation” that came upon “all men” “in Adam” was reversed by the second Adam for the same “all men” (Rom. 5:15-18).

Galatians 3:13 tells us that the “curse” (same as the “condemnation”!) that was due to come upon us came upon Christ instead, for He “was made to be a curse for us.” That “curse” or “condemnation” was the sentence of death, not mere “sleep,” but the real thing. If you feel that God is holding that over your head, you can’t help but feel miserable! But Hebrews 2:9 says that Christ died that “death” for “every man.” 2 Corinthians 5:19 says quite clearly that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.”

Your job is to believe the simple word of God; He is not imputing your trespasses to you! He imputed them to Christ instead; He bore them, He has already set you free from them. That’s why He can send His rain on both the just and the unjust! Yes, the truth is that you and I are by nature sinners; BUT because of the sacrifice of Christ He treats us as though we were innocent! This is not effervescent emotion; it is solid truth.

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