Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There is something important going on behind the scenes that the devil is determined you should not know about: the final work of Christ as Great High Priest on this cosmic Day of Atonement. That's the News behind all news. God has devoted the entire books of Hebrews and Revelation to its importance.
For those who appreciate Christ's role as High Priest in the final cleansing of the sanctuary, He is ministering a special preparation of character for them to be ready for the final events on earth. Says Hebrews:
"He is able to save them to the uttermost [perfectly] that come unto God by Him; "let us go on to full growth;" "unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation;" "we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, ... let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace;" "God [has] provided some better thing for us, that they [past heroes] without us should not be made perfect;" "the God of peace ... make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight" (7:25; 6:1; 9:28; 4:14, 16; 11:40; 13:20, 21). Note, all this is what He does, not what we do!
Says Revelation: "the harvest of the earth is ripe." "I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him 144,000, ... without fault before the throne of God;" "another angel came out of the temple, crying, ... Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe" (14:15, 1, 5, 15).
This work of the great High Priest is going on steadily behind the scenes. You won't see it in the newspapers, TIME, NBC, ABC, or CNN. It's a work as unpretentious as the birth in Bethlehem (if TIME had been published then, their "Man of the Year" would not have been that Baby). Today, the Holy Spirit will take you by the hand and say, "Come, let's get ready; don't hinder the great High Priest in His closing work of atonement, let Him 'constrain' you by His agape to live not for self but unto His glory" (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). "Receive not the grace of God in vain" (6:1).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
Daily Bread - Readings about life and the Word of God.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: One Thing Christ Will Not Do
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Probably the most beloved of Christmas hymns is Phillips Brooks' "O Little Town of Bethlehem." A precious gem of inspired poetry, it is within itself an evangelistic sermon, groping to reach our human hearts. Hymns have always been an important part of true worship all through our "Christian era" and even as far back as the time of ancient Israel. (Our Bible Book of Psalms was the Hebrew hymnbook.) Brooks was a powerful preacher in the "cultural oases" of Philadelphia and Boston, so greatly loved that his early death in 1893 was mourned more widely only by the death of Abraham Lincoln. The beautiful melody composed especially for this poem was an inspirational idea that came one Christmas Eve during sleep to Lewis Redner, Brooks' organist. The hymn is a perfect "marriage" of words and music. It must be sung reverently. If prayer must always be thoughtfully expressed, so hymns likewise should be thoughtfully sung, otherwise we bring upon ourselves Christ's rebuke for "vain repetition," a pseudo-worship He will not accept.
Brilliant as he was, Phillips Brooks did not in his day fully understand the gospel of righteousness by faith. There is embedded in his hymn a flaw that can have a painful effect upon our spiritual journey. His last stanza becomes a prayer, "O Holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend to us, we pray." Good, so far; but then Brooks prays, "Cast out our sin, and enter in ..." And there we pause: Christ is indeed an Almighty Savior, but there is one thing He will not do-- He will not cast out our sin. That is our job! He will come in to abide with us, yes, thank God; but as our Guest, it's not His job to throw out the garbage. "The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself," says one wise writer (The Desire of Ages, p. 466). Over and over Scripture tells us that the power of choice is ours to exercise. WE "cast out" the sin and then HE "enters in."
Let us sing the hymn correctly: "Forgive our sin and enter in, Be born in us today." And then finally to bring Philips Brooks' lyric into full Bible harmony let us sing, "We hear the holy angels The great glad tidings tell." The word "Christmas" is not in the Bible, neither the idea of observing any day for Christ's birth (He wisely never revealed to us the day). All through the year we are to "hear the holy angels The great glad tidings tell; Oh, come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel!"
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
Probably the most beloved of Christmas hymns is Phillips Brooks' "O Little Town of Bethlehem." A precious gem of inspired poetry, it is within itself an evangelistic sermon, groping to reach our human hearts. Hymns have always been an important part of true worship all through our "Christian era" and even as far back as the time of ancient Israel. (Our Bible Book of Psalms was the Hebrew hymnbook.) Brooks was a powerful preacher in the "cultural oases" of Philadelphia and Boston, so greatly loved that his early death in 1893 was mourned more widely only by the death of Abraham Lincoln. The beautiful melody composed especially for this poem was an inspirational idea that came one Christmas Eve during sleep to Lewis Redner, Brooks' organist. The hymn is a perfect "marriage" of words and music. It must be sung reverently. If prayer must always be thoughtfully expressed, so hymns likewise should be thoughtfully sung, otherwise we bring upon ourselves Christ's rebuke for "vain repetition," a pseudo-worship He will not accept.
Brilliant as he was, Phillips Brooks did not in his day fully understand the gospel of righteousness by faith. There is embedded in his hymn a flaw that can have a painful effect upon our spiritual journey. His last stanza becomes a prayer, "O Holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend to us, we pray." Good, so far; but then Brooks prays, "Cast out our sin, and enter in ..." And there we pause: Christ is indeed an Almighty Savior, but there is one thing He will not do-- He will not cast out our sin. That is our job! He will come in to abide with us, yes, thank God; but as our Guest, it's not His job to throw out the garbage. "The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself," says one wise writer (The Desire of Ages, p. 466). Over and over Scripture tells us that the power of choice is ours to exercise. WE "cast out" the sin and then HE "enters in."
Let us sing the hymn correctly: "Forgive our sin and enter in, Be born in us today." And then finally to bring Philips Brooks' lyric into full Bible harmony let us sing, "We hear the holy angels The great glad tidings tell." The word "Christmas" is not in the Bible, neither the idea of observing any day for Christ's birth (He wisely never revealed to us the day). All through the year we are to "hear the holy angels The great glad tidings tell; Oh, come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel!"
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: The "Hallelujah" Chorus--Get Ready to Hear It Again
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Amidst the tinsel and glitter, the wild materialistic frenzy of "Christmas," there is a little refuge of sober, quiet peace: the annual performances almost everywhere of Handel's Messiah. When we used to perform it in Nairobi, Kenya, Hindus and Muslims would join Christians at the great cathedral to revel in its sheer musical grandeur. "O pause beside the weary way, / And hear the angels sing" is its appeal to us all.
Its lyrics strictly Bible and nothing else, Messiah conveys gospel through the grandest musical language ever "spoken." Millions this Season will again hear "Behold the Lamb of God!" and "Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs, and Carried Our Sorrows," and the contralto aria, "He was Despised and Rejected of Men, a Man of Sorrows and Acquainted With Grief." Each aria, recitative, or chorus is an inspired gem. Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, all have their grand works of literature, but has any of them given the world such a gift? Does atheism? Or paganism?
When I have watched non-Christians in Kenya come to hear Messiah year after year, I have wondered if I am seeing a partial fulfillment of what David said in Psalm 19, "How clearly the sky reveals God's glory! ... It shows what He has done! ... No speech or words are used, no sound is heard; yet their voice goes out to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth" (vss. 1-4, GNB). "Speech," "words," "sound" are all employed in Messiah; to deaf ears it may "say" no more than what Tchaikovsky or Mozart "say," but some human hearts are touched by the portrayal there of the gospel finale of the great controversy between Christ and Satan when the choir and orchestra perform the "Hallelujah" Chorus, and the final numbers, "Worthy is the Lamb" and the "Amen"--one little word constituting the lyrics for what must be the most thrilling choral anthem ever composed. Higher and higher rises that one-word message--your heart must be stone if you are not moved. Listen! Get ready to hear it again at the end of the real Millennium.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
Amidst the tinsel and glitter, the wild materialistic frenzy of "Christmas," there is a little refuge of sober, quiet peace: the annual performances almost everywhere of Handel's Messiah. When we used to perform it in Nairobi, Kenya, Hindus and Muslims would join Christians at the great cathedral to revel in its sheer musical grandeur. "O pause beside the weary way, / And hear the angels sing" is its appeal to us all.
Its lyrics strictly Bible and nothing else, Messiah conveys gospel through the grandest musical language ever "spoken." Millions this Season will again hear "Behold the Lamb of God!" and "Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs, and Carried Our Sorrows," and the contralto aria, "He was Despised and Rejected of Men, a Man of Sorrows and Acquainted With Grief." Each aria, recitative, or chorus is an inspired gem. Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, all have their grand works of literature, but has any of them given the world such a gift? Does atheism? Or paganism?
When I have watched non-Christians in Kenya come to hear Messiah year after year, I have wondered if I am seeing a partial fulfillment of what David said in Psalm 19, "How clearly the sky reveals God's glory! ... It shows what He has done! ... No speech or words are used, no sound is heard; yet their voice goes out to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth" (vss. 1-4, GNB). "Speech," "words," "sound" are all employed in Messiah; to deaf ears it may "say" no more than what Tchaikovsky or Mozart "say," but some human hearts are touched by the portrayal there of the gospel finale of the great controversy between Christ and Satan when the choir and orchestra perform the "Hallelujah" Chorus, and the final numbers, "Worthy is the Lamb" and the "Amen"--one little word constituting the lyrics for what must be the most thrilling choral anthem ever composed. Higher and higher rises that one-word message--your heart must be stone if you are not moved. Listen! Get ready to hear it again at the end of the real Millennium.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
Dial Daily Bread: The New Covenant and Peace in the Middle East
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The New Covenant has often been misunderstood for centuries. For example, #1, the on-going Israeli/Palestinian conflict is an outgrowth of this confusion. When God promised Abraham and his descendants the great blessings of the New Covenant, it was "through Isaac" that the blessings should flow. But the New Testament makes plain that Abraham's descendants through "Isaac" are not the fleshly ones, but those who have the faith of Abraham: "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed [sperm, DNA] of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed" (Rom. 9:6-8). This means that neither the Israelis as literal descendants of Abraham nor the Arabs as assumed descendants of Ishmael, are entitled to the land.
Again, #2, both sides in the conflict could recognize that "the land" that Abraham's descendants should inherit is not a tiny territory in the Middle East, but vastly more land: speaking of Abraham, "the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed [DNA, literal], through the law, but through the righteousness of faith" (Rom. 4:13).
#3, as individuals we all become Abraham's "seed" through faith in Christ: "There is neither Jew, nor Greek, ... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:28, 29). Our only claim to life is by the grace of Christ.
If the Israeli and Palestinian leaders could sit down together and study an open Bible with believing hearts, they could work out peace and justice without bloodshed and violence. Neither side has a valid biblical claim to the land; both can thank God for life "in Christ." The truth of the New Covenant would open the doors to peace and security.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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The New Covenant has often been misunderstood for centuries. For example, #1, the on-going Israeli/Palestinian conflict is an outgrowth of this confusion. When God promised Abraham and his descendants the great blessings of the New Covenant, it was "through Isaac" that the blessings should flow. But the New Testament makes plain that Abraham's descendants through "Isaac" are not the fleshly ones, but those who have the faith of Abraham: "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed [sperm, DNA] of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed" (Rom. 9:6-8). This means that neither the Israelis as literal descendants of Abraham nor the Arabs as assumed descendants of Ishmael, are entitled to the land.
Again, #2, both sides in the conflict could recognize that "the land" that Abraham's descendants should inherit is not a tiny territory in the Middle East, but vastly more land: speaking of Abraham, "the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed [DNA, literal], through the law, but through the righteousness of faith" (Rom. 4:13).
#3, as individuals we all become Abraham's "seed" through faith in Christ: "There is neither Jew, nor Greek, ... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:28, 29). Our only claim to life is by the grace of Christ.
If the Israeli and Palestinian leaders could sit down together and study an open Bible with believing hearts, they could work out peace and justice without bloodshed and violence. Neither side has a valid biblical claim to the land; both can thank God for life "in Christ." The truth of the New Covenant would open the doors to peace and security.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Friday, December 25, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Encouragement From Jacob
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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Suppose you have lived most of your life under the Old Covenant and now only in later years you have discovered the New. You can glean some encouragement from Jacob.
His family gave him the terrible name of “Supplanter” at his birth, the name he had to go by. He lived up to it when he tricked his brother Esau into selling him the birthright for a meal of his tasty stew; then he had to flee for his life. At Bethel the Lord gave him a wonderful New Covenant promise (Gen. 28:13-15). Jacob spent decades doubting that the Lord could bless him that much. His future father-in-law, Laban, in turn tricked him in his heart-felt love for Rachel (you can love someone truly while still under the Old Covenant!), giving him Leah instead on the wedding night after his seven years of hard labor; now seven years more to have Rachel, the one he truly loved. Endless heartaches.
Finally, in later life, Jacob finds himself wrestling with an Angel in the dark, struggling, he thought, for his life. When dawn began to break, the Angel (Christ) said “Let Me go!” but Jacob, quick to seize what he saw as his initiative, said, “I will not let You go, except You bless me” (meaning, deliver me from this Old Covenant soul-bondage). The Angel was caught; He couldn’t wriggle free from Jacob’s grasp. Whereupon He changed Jacob’s name: “Your name [is] Israel [Prince with God], for you have struggled with God ... and have prevailed”! (32:26-28).
There’s no way to get that name of Israel except by fighting that same battle of faith--believing God’s promise “in Christ” in spite of doubts you think are from God! One thoughtful writer suggests that while they were wrestling, the Angel asked him how could He bless him? Wasn’t he too unworthy? We say it reverently, we have to “overcome” what even appears to be God’s will against us! To secure the name “Israel,” we must triumph over Him! Remember, the elite Israel Club is limited only by unbelief.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Dial Daily Bread: What Are the "Exceedingly Great and Precious Promises"?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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It's all very good to believe what Peter says about "receiving" and believing the "exceedingly great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:4), but what are the "promises" themselves? They must be understood and "received" into the heart; then they go to work and deliver the most sinful, polluted, selfish worldly heart so that we become actual "partakers of the divine nature."
Well, let's start with John 3:16: BELIEVE, appreciate, comprehend, the love that the Father gave in giving Christ to us forever. "Whosoever believes in Him" will not commit spiritual and material suicide (that word "perish" is in the middle voice of the Greek verb! I am indebted to a dear friend for this insight that somehow escaped me for all these many years). New Covenant!
Then look at the seven grand promises God made to Abraham under the New Covenant (Gen. 12:2, 3). You are his child by faith (Gal. 3:9). Therefore they are all promises God makes to you. BELIEVE them. (Someone will tell you that you must work hard in order for them to come true; let subtle Old Covenant thinking become New Covenant: the love [agape] of Christ will "constrain" you to work hard with no thought of reaping your reward.)
Then take a look at the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13). Jesus invites anyone in the world, even the most terrible sinner, to pray that prayer. The New Covenant goes to work because the one who will "cry out, Abba, Father!" receives "the Spirit of adoption" (Rom. 8:15). You can't pray "our Father" without your heart being melted!
Then take a look at the 23rd Psalm. Anybody in the world, even the most hardened sinner, can pray sincerely, "The Lord is my Shepherd," and his stony heart will be broken in contrition. The New Covenant Psalm "works." The word itself has power (Rom. 1:16).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: The Message of the Latter Rain and the Loud Cry
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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The difference between the New Covenant and the Old is simply the difference between salvation by faith and salvation by works. When God makes a promise, there is life in the promise itself. This is astounding news to many: believing a promise of God changes your heart?! The Bible answer is YES! There "have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4).
There are the glorious fruits of salvation in that one statement. (1) "Through" the promises themselves we become converted. (2) Through the promises we "escape corruption"--isn't that our practical problem of daily living? Yes, by believing these "great and precious promises" we prepare for translation at the second coming of Christ.
It's not by works. But that doesn't mean that the good works are not there--they are there as the result of believing those "promises"! The Bible speaks of "receiving the promises" (Heb. 11:13, 17). That is the same as believing them. Such "receiving" God's promises delivers men and women and youth from addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, pornography, the allure of fornication and adultery, drugs (yes!), for we read, "Having these promises [receiving them], beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1).
Thus the New Covenant is the message of the latter rain and the Loud Cry that lightens the earth with glory.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Dial Daily Bread: Confused About the Old and New Covenants?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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To be confused between the Old and New Covenants is not necessary. The New is God's one-sided promise to write His holy law on human hearts. The Old, the vain promise of the people at Mt. Sinai to obey perfectly.
The New is, "Believe and live." The Old, "Obey and live."
The New says that salvation is totally by God's grace through faith. The Old says salvation is by faith yes, but it's also by our good works.
The New is a heart-appreciation of the love (agape) which constrains to perfect heart obedience (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). The Old is egocentric "trust" motivated by hope of reward or by fear of punishment.
The New Covenant is everlasting; the Old is dispensational.
The New produces "under grace" motivation; the Old, "under law."
The New is represented by the miracle birth of Isaac; the Old by the lustful birth of Ishmael.
The New is seen in free-Sarah's pregnancy "by promise"; the Old, in slave-Hagar's pregnancy.
The New is justification entirely of grace; the Old is justification by obedience.
The New is righteousness by a faith "which works"; the Old is righteousness by "sanctified" works; we help save ourselves.
The New wants Christ to return for His honor and vindication; the Old, for our own reward, "so we can go home to glory."
[More on the Covenants tomorrow.]
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: "There is Sunshine in My Soul Today"
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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We've had a dark, gloomy, rainy day here in northern California; the very best of people have times when the soul is in gloom and tempted to fear. Even our Lord Jesus knew what it's like to pray and to get no answer and to wonder why (see Psalm 22:1, 2). Hebrews 4:15 says that He "was in all points tempted like as we are." But let's note carefully: to be tempted to think that God is hard and won't listen and answer your prayer is not of itself sin; but to give in to the temptation and do what Job's wife tried to get him to do ("curse God, and die!")--that's sin (Job 2:9).
And yes, we must remember the warning that there are some prayers that God does not want to hear, for example, "He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination " (Prov. 28:9). That is true and it has frightened many people who have been overcome by temptation. But the transitive verb is what explains this apparently difficult text for sinners to understand: to "turn away [your] ear from hearing the law" is an act of deliberate rebellion, of despising the law of the Lord, of consciously, deliberately rejecting Him. The law of the Lord is "the perfect law of liberty" (James 1:25); therefore to deliberately turn away one's ear from it is to signal that he wants servitude, not "liberty," and wants to be banished from God, and God will give him what he wants!
But that's not you if you sincerely want deliverance from sin. The Lord Jesus assures you, "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). All Heaven is telling you to "come": "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let him who hears say 'Come.' And let him who thirsts come. And whoever wills, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17). We pass on the invitation!
Even very long ago, the prophet said, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Joel 2:32). That's the gospel invitation, speaking of these dangerous last days when people's hearts are "failing them for fear." Even if you feel under a burden of guilt, you are to come just as you are. Don't wait to try to fix yourself up first. Confess your unworthiness, your guilt, your fear. "Low at His feet lay your burden of carefulness," says the hymn; "High on His heart He will bear it for thee. Mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness, Trust for your trembling, and hope for our fear."
A dark, rainy day is just the time to re-read what make up the Lord's New Covenant promises to Abraham, your "father" in the faith (Gen. 12:2, 3). Those promises are yours if you will let the Lord Jesus give you some faith from His supply, for He gives "each one a measure (metron, Greek) of faith" (Rom. 12:3). Then you will sing the glad song, "There is sunshine in my soul today, more glorious and bright than glows in any earthly sky."
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Dial Daily Bread: What Are God's New Covenant Promises?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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Some days the sun shines bright, others it's cloudy and gloomy. Was it so with Jesus?
Yes! Matthew says of Him at Gethsemane, "He began to be sorrowful and very heavy" (Matt. 26:37, 38). Even earlier when the Greeks came to Him, He said, "Now is My soul troubled" (John 12:27).
Has God provided for such a time in our personal experience? Yes! He has given us His new covenant to replace our old covenant; it's His own one-sided, unilateral promises which He made to Abraham His "friend" and to his descendants. If, like Abraham, you respond to God's call, "come out of [Babylon], My people," you are a descendant of Abraham "in Christ," and all those promises are made to you (2 Chron. 20:7; Rev. 14:8; 18:1-4; Rom. 4:1, 16, 17, etc.). What are those new covenant promises?
1. He will make of you a "great" person "in Christ." Yes!
2. He will "bless" you "in Christ." Yes!
3. He will actually make your "name great," which means, "He will give you the desires of your heart" "in Christ" (cf. Psalm 37:4). True!
4. He will deliver you from being a cipher, so you will "be a blessing" wherever you go, "in Christ." Wonderful, but true!
5. He will "bless those who bless you," "in Christ." Amazing.
6. He will not bless those who don't bless you. Again, very true!
7. You will help bring salvation to the world (all taken from Gen. 12:2, 3). Now, "believe" the Lord your God as your "father Abraham" did!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: How "Near" Is "Near"
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There are Christians who are content with the blessings of life that they believe the Lord has granted them. They appreciate their knowledge of God and of His truth. They love their fellowship in their church. They are thankful for their knowledge of the gospel, the hope they have in this dark world, the meaning that their faith has brought into their lives. They also appreciate the economic plentitude that they are privileged to enjoy. And they look forward to the second coming of Jesus and are content to leave the time of His coming to His inscrutable providences; they do not try to define the word “near” with reference to the second advent. They are not concerned whether “near” means in their lifetime or in some future generation. There is always the first resurrection they look forward to. Thanking God, they feel rich and increased with goods. Satisfied.
Then there are other Christians who are deeply concerned about that word “near.” Their hearts are burdened for the pain and sorrow that is so widespread, and ever more so, in our world. They are constantly burdened with the last prayer of the Bible, its very last words, “Even so, come Lord Jesus”! They cannot be truly happy until He does come. They want to “hasten” His coming in any way the Lord can permit them to help. They feel deeply concerned if somehow His people have delayed His coming and thus inadvertently have prolonged the suffering of many people worldwide. They know a deep consciousness that the suffering of unfortunate people is felt by Christ even today, and they sympathize with Him in the burden He must feel.
These people sense in a particular way a “constraint” of the love of Christ, moving them to dedicate their entire lives to ministry of some kind through the leading of the Holy Spirit. If Disneyland depended on them for economic sustenance, it would fold; they want to give of what money they have to world missions. They want to follow the Lamb (the crucified Christ) wherever He goes. Where are you?
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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There are Christians who are content with the blessings of life that they believe the Lord has granted them. They appreciate their knowledge of God and of His truth. They love their fellowship in their church. They are thankful for their knowledge of the gospel, the hope they have in this dark world, the meaning that their faith has brought into their lives. They also appreciate the economic plentitude that they are privileged to enjoy. And they look forward to the second coming of Jesus and are content to leave the time of His coming to His inscrutable providences; they do not try to define the word “near” with reference to the second advent. They are not concerned whether “near” means in their lifetime or in some future generation. There is always the first resurrection they look forward to. Thanking God, they feel rich and increased with goods. Satisfied.
Then there are other Christians who are deeply concerned about that word “near.” Their hearts are burdened for the pain and sorrow that is so widespread, and ever more so, in our world. They are constantly burdened with the last prayer of the Bible, its very last words, “Even so, come Lord Jesus”! They cannot be truly happy until He does come. They want to “hasten” His coming in any way the Lord can permit them to help. They feel deeply concerned if somehow His people have delayed His coming and thus inadvertently have prolonged the suffering of many people worldwide. They know a deep consciousness that the suffering of unfortunate people is felt by Christ even today, and they sympathize with Him in the burden He must feel.
These people sense in a particular way a “constraint” of the love of Christ, moving them to dedicate their entire lives to ministry of some kind through the leading of the Holy Spirit. If Disneyland depended on them for economic sustenance, it would fold; they want to give of what money they have to world missions. They want to follow the Lamb (the crucified Christ) wherever He goes. Where are you?
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: "144,000" Elijahs
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
How can you distinguish between faith and presumption? Between "obeying the voice of the LORD" and fanaticism? Everything depends on the answer, because if you don't have "faith," you will "perish" (John 3:16).
Noah had it, building a boat on dry land "at the word of the LORD." Abraham had it, leaving his Beverly Hills home in Ur of the Chaldees to live in a tent the rest of his life. David had it, a mere stripling armed with a slingshot and five pebbles facing "in the name of the LORD" the well-armored Goliath. Elijah had it, drenching with water the altar on Mt. Carmel, facing certain death at the hands of Ahab if the Lord let him down with no fire to consume his sacrifice. Was Elijah a man like Arnold Schwarzenegger, a man of great physical stature and personality, or was he a shy, retiring, trembling human like you and I are? I'd like to see a video actually shot on location on Mt. Carmel, but the best we have is what the Bible says about him, and that is that he was like you and me: "Elijah was the same kind of person as we are" (James 5:17). Tempted to be afraid to stand alone? Yes!
The faith of Elijah is a million miles away from presumption; he trembled a long time before the LORD, knelt to pray about the situation, day after day, year after year until finally the Lord strengthened his conviction to distinguish between Baal and Jehovah (precious few in Israel had that discernment!), and then courage enough to go to Ahab and give him the Lord's ultimatum--take your choice, O king: Baal worship and famine, or repentance and God's blessing. And all during those 3-1/2 years he had to "pray earnestly" (James 5:17) continually every day or he could never have taken the stand he did on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18). There were "7000" who had "not bowed the knee to Baal," yet not one had the courage to stand up when Elijah made his challenge, Who is on the Lord's side?! "The people answered him not a word" (vs. 21). Blessed be the "7000," yet all apparently still had some cowardice deep in their souls!
Revelation tells us "144,000" Elijahs will each "bloom" alone where he/she is "planted," in the last days. O Lord, give us discernment to distinguish between fanaticism and faith, and then courage to stand for the right though the heavens fall!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
How can you distinguish between faith and presumption? Between "obeying the voice of the LORD" and fanaticism? Everything depends on the answer, because if you don't have "faith," you will "perish" (John 3:16).
Noah had it, building a boat on dry land "at the word of the LORD." Abraham had it, leaving his Beverly Hills home in Ur of the Chaldees to live in a tent the rest of his life. David had it, a mere stripling armed with a slingshot and five pebbles facing "in the name of the LORD" the well-armored Goliath. Elijah had it, drenching with water the altar on Mt. Carmel, facing certain death at the hands of Ahab if the Lord let him down with no fire to consume his sacrifice. Was Elijah a man like Arnold Schwarzenegger, a man of great physical stature and personality, or was he a shy, retiring, trembling human like you and I are? I'd like to see a video actually shot on location on Mt. Carmel, but the best we have is what the Bible says about him, and that is that he was like you and me: "Elijah was the same kind of person as we are" (James 5:17). Tempted to be afraid to stand alone? Yes!
The faith of Elijah is a million miles away from presumption; he trembled a long time before the LORD, knelt to pray about the situation, day after day, year after year until finally the Lord strengthened his conviction to distinguish between Baal and Jehovah (precious few in Israel had that discernment!), and then courage enough to go to Ahab and give him the Lord's ultimatum--take your choice, O king: Baal worship and famine, or repentance and God's blessing. And all during those 3-1/2 years he had to "pray earnestly" (James 5:17) continually every day or he could never have taken the stand he did on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18). There were "7000" who had "not bowed the knee to Baal," yet not one had the courage to stand up when Elijah made his challenge, Who is on the Lord's side?! "The people answered him not a word" (vs. 21). Blessed be the "7000," yet all apparently still had some cowardice deep in their souls!
Revelation tells us "144,000" Elijahs will each "bloom" alone where he/she is "planted," in the last days. O Lord, give us discernment to distinguish between fanaticism and faith, and then courage to stand for the right though the heavens fall!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: "Oh, Lord, Not THAT Gift!"
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
God is ready to give us a precious gift that we will later be very happy to have received, but which we shy away from because the gift comes wrapped up unattractively, like in plain paper or even in gunny sacks. We even cry out, "Oh, Lord, not THAT gift!" And it's our privilege to refuse the "gift," but if we do we suffer eternal loss, even if we are saved at last in God's kingdom.
That gift is the Lord's "chastening" brought to view in Hebrews 12:5-11: "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." Doesn't sound like fun, does it? "If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." That would be really Bad News, wouldn't it? God agrees that His chastisement is not Disneyland pleasure, for "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous."
The time when tears are all wiped away will be in the New Earth after the "great controversy" is finished; but now as long as Jesus knows tears, the closer you get to Him the more you will sympathize with Him. And there is a holy joy in such sunshine through rain. Fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and highest honor that Heaven can bestow on you. The Lord's "chastening" always brings a later blessing: "Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." No, you don't earn heaven by enduring "chastening." There is no virtue in being a glutton for punishment. But the "joy" spoken of here that comes "afterward" is especially comforting because the "afterward" is not merely by-and-by pie-in-the-sky in eternity, but right now in this life.
The Lord's "chastening" which He gives you this very morning in love, for instance, prepares you to comfort someone else later in the same day "by the comfort wherewith [you yourself] are comforted of God" (2 Cor. 1:4). So, none of the Lord's chastening is ever in vain; the "afterward" may be only a few hours! What joy! To realize at day's end that you have been a pipe through which the water of life has flowed to some disheartened soul! The "price" you paid for that privilege? A little "fellowship with Christ in His sufferings." So, "despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him."
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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God is ready to give us a precious gift that we will later be very happy to have received, but which we shy away from because the gift comes wrapped up unattractively, like in plain paper or even in gunny sacks. We even cry out, "Oh, Lord, not THAT gift!" And it's our privilege to refuse the "gift," but if we do we suffer eternal loss, even if we are saved at last in God's kingdom.
That gift is the Lord's "chastening" brought to view in Hebrews 12:5-11: "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." Doesn't sound like fun, does it? "If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." That would be really Bad News, wouldn't it? God agrees that His chastisement is not Disneyland pleasure, for "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous."
The time when tears are all wiped away will be in the New Earth after the "great controversy" is finished; but now as long as Jesus knows tears, the closer you get to Him the more you will sympathize with Him. And there is a holy joy in such sunshine through rain. Fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and highest honor that Heaven can bestow on you. The Lord's "chastening" always brings a later blessing: "Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." No, you don't earn heaven by enduring "chastening." There is no virtue in being a glutton for punishment. But the "joy" spoken of here that comes "afterward" is especially comforting because the "afterward" is not merely by-and-by pie-in-the-sky in eternity, but right now in this life.
The Lord's "chastening" which He gives you this very morning in love, for instance, prepares you to comfort someone else later in the same day "by the comfort wherewith [you yourself] are comforted of God" (2 Cor. 1:4). So, none of the Lord's chastening is ever in vain; the "afterward" may be only a few hours! What joy! To realize at day's end that you have been a pipe through which the water of life has flowed to some disheartened soul! The "price" you paid for that privilege? A little "fellowship with Christ in His sufferings." So, "despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him."
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: A People Will Be Ready!
Jesus promised in John 14:1-3, "I will come again." And He clearly explained in Matthew 24 that His coming will be personal and literal, and He will resurrect the "dead in Christ." 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 tells us that those who will be resurrected are "the dead in Christ" who have chosen to abide in Him. So, the question makes real sense: "What kind of special preparation will those people make who go through the final time of trouble, overcome the mark of the beast, stand on the sea of glass "without fault" (Rev. 14:1-5), and actually welcome Christ at His second coming?"
The Bible is full of Good News, but here is where it is finally focused on its greatest brilliance: (1) First comes what appears on the surface to be intense bad news--the Holy Spirit will shine that Light into the darkened chambers of the human heart until every secret, previously unknown sin is mercilessly exposed. God's people will be painfully aware of its deep existence that they had never before fully realized. Every last vestige of spiritual pride will be laid in the dust. The superficial saying, "I'm OK you're OK," will be shattered by the realization that no one of us is one whit better or more righteous OF OURSELVES, than anybody else in the world. The sin of somebody else will be seen to be OUR sin, but for the grace of Christ. At last, those who believe in Christ will realize what God said through Isaiah long ago, "Their righteousness is of Me" (54:17), not of themselves.
And what will be the crowning sin in which they at last realize they share guilt? The crucifixion of Christ. Zechariah 12:10 says, "they shall look upon Me whom THEY have pierced." Each will see himself/herself at the cross! (2) Then comes the Good News: "There shall be a fountain opened" for cleansing that will flow in unprecedented glory (13:1). Grace will abound "much more," corresponding to the "much more" conviction of sin that God's people will experience. The final negative will be matched by the final Positive. A PEOPLE WILL BE READY!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
The Bible is full of Good News, but here is where it is finally focused on its greatest brilliance: (1) First comes what appears on the surface to be intense bad news--the Holy Spirit will shine that Light into the darkened chambers of the human heart until every secret, previously unknown sin is mercilessly exposed. God's people will be painfully aware of its deep existence that they had never before fully realized. Every last vestige of spiritual pride will be laid in the dust. The superficial saying, "I'm OK you're OK," will be shattered by the realization that no one of us is one whit better or more righteous OF OURSELVES, than anybody else in the world. The sin of somebody else will be seen to be OUR sin, but for the grace of Christ. At last, those who believe in Christ will realize what God said through Isaiah long ago, "Their righteousness is of Me" (54:17), not of themselves.
And what will be the crowning sin in which they at last realize they share guilt? The crucifixion of Christ. Zechariah 12:10 says, "they shall look upon Me whom THEY have pierced." Each will see himself/herself at the cross! (2) Then comes the Good News: "There shall be a fountain opened" for cleansing that will flow in unprecedented glory (13:1). Grace will abound "much more," corresponding to the "much more" conviction of sin that God's people will experience. The final negative will be matched by the final Positive. A PEOPLE WILL BE READY!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
Dial Daily Bread: "Preparing a Place for You"
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
"What is Jesus doing now?" The world doesn't care. Many Christians don't seem to. But nothing in heaven or earth is more important! And whatever He is doing requires the (a) understanding and (b) cooperation of those who believe in Him.
The common idea is that He is a Construction Contractor building palaces or "mansions" for those who arrive in heaven (a childish reading of John 14:2). But "preparing a place for you" is a far bigger idea than a celestial construction activity. Hebrews 9 and 10 describe His High Priestly ministry as cleansing the hearts of His people, "putting away sin," "purging the conscience," preparing a people to "receive the promise of eternal inheritance," "purifying" hearts and minds and lips, to "make the comers thereunto perfect," to render obsolete any "conscience" or "remembrance of sins," to "take away sins," to "perfect forever them that are sanctified," to write His "laws into their hearts ... [which are] sprinkled from an evil conscience," to "provoke [motivate] unto love and good works," to "believe to the saving of the soul." Big job! First, He naturally wants His people to understand why what He is doing is so incomparably important, and second, He would appreciate our cooperation because He can accomplish nothing without it. Not that you in any sense become your co-savior as the Pope wants to elevate Mary to become (cooperation doesn't save you!), but cooperation means you stop interposing a rebellious will to counteract what He is seeking constantly to do for you!
In other words, through His Vicar (the Holy Spirit) Christ as High Priest is constantly pressing upon His people the conviction of sin buried deeper than they had imagined it to be; and when the conviction is welcomed and the sin is gladly surrendered and put away, the heart is more closely reconciled to Him. This process is called "atonement," or becoming at-one-with God. In Romans 5:11 it is "receiving the atonement" or "reconciliation." Thus the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary is a "final atonement."
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
"What is Jesus doing now?" The world doesn't care. Many Christians don't seem to. But nothing in heaven or earth is more important! And whatever He is doing requires the (a) understanding and (b) cooperation of those who believe in Him.
The common idea is that He is a Construction Contractor building palaces or "mansions" for those who arrive in heaven (a childish reading of John 14:2). But "preparing a place for you" is a far bigger idea than a celestial construction activity. Hebrews 9 and 10 describe His High Priestly ministry as cleansing the hearts of His people, "putting away sin," "purging the conscience," preparing a people to "receive the promise of eternal inheritance," "purifying" hearts and minds and lips, to "make the comers thereunto perfect," to render obsolete any "conscience" or "remembrance of sins," to "take away sins," to "perfect forever them that are sanctified," to write His "laws into their hearts ... [which are] sprinkled from an evil conscience," to "provoke [motivate] unto love and good works," to "believe to the saving of the soul." Big job! First, He naturally wants His people to understand why what He is doing is so incomparably important, and second, He would appreciate our cooperation because He can accomplish nothing without it. Not that you in any sense become your co-savior as the Pope wants to elevate Mary to become (cooperation doesn't save you!), but cooperation means you stop interposing a rebellious will to counteract what He is seeking constantly to do for you!
In other words, through His Vicar (the Holy Spirit) Christ as High Priest is constantly pressing upon His people the conviction of sin buried deeper than they had imagined it to be; and when the conviction is welcomed and the sin is gladly surrendered and put away, the heart is more closely reconciled to Him. This process is called "atonement," or becoming at-one-with God. In Romans 5:11 it is "receiving the atonement" or "reconciliation." Thus the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary is a "final atonement."
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: The Real Day of Atonement is Now
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
A terrific battle is being fought behind the scenes for the very soul of Christ's church. What does it mean to be a true Christian today? How can we honor Him in this period of world history? The answer is in the Bible teaching of the cosmic Day of Atonement, the "cleansing of the sanctuary" typified by the ancient Hebrew Yom Kippur. That was the only day in the year when God's people were required to fast. Why? Was God angry with them? No! It was the day for a final reconciliation with Him (the word "atonement?" means at one with), the day when the last vestige of buried, unrealized alienation from God was to be healed.
That alienation is the result of sin: "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom 8:7). We don't realize the depth of that "enmity" ("thou knowest not that thou are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked," Rev. 3:17). The ancient Levitical day of atonement was only a play-school kindergarten lesson: "on that day shall the [high] priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16:30).
The real Day of Atonement is now, accomplishing a work of atonement never before fully achieved for the body of God's people. As most of an iceberg is hidden beneath the sea, so most of our sin is hidden from our consciousness, buried, so that we invariably are self-deceived about our real character before God, not ready for the final issues in "the great controversy between Christ and Satan." Hence God has provided a special opportunity of preparation known as the Day of Atonement, the real thing, not the kindergarten edition of long ago. It's the time Jesus spoke of: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day [of final judgment] come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore ... [prepare] to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:34-36).
That final atonement, final reconciliation with Christ, is a time for closer sympathy with Him; impossible unless there is also a closer sympathy with humanity that Christ took upon Himself. (There is an ecological dimension). One thoughtful writer has said, "Live simply so that others may simply live." "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ..." (Phil. 2:5).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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A terrific battle is being fought behind the scenes for the very soul of Christ's church. What does it mean to be a true Christian today? How can we honor Him in this period of world history? The answer is in the Bible teaching of the cosmic Day of Atonement, the "cleansing of the sanctuary" typified by the ancient Hebrew Yom Kippur. That was the only day in the year when God's people were required to fast. Why? Was God angry with them? No! It was the day for a final reconciliation with Him (the word "atonement?" means at one with), the day when the last vestige of buried, unrealized alienation from God was to be healed.
That alienation is the result of sin: "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom 8:7). We don't realize the depth of that "enmity" ("thou knowest not that thou are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked," Rev. 3:17). The ancient Levitical day of atonement was only a play-school kindergarten lesson: "on that day shall the [high] priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16:30).
The real Day of Atonement is now, accomplishing a work of atonement never before fully achieved for the body of God's people. As most of an iceberg is hidden beneath the sea, so most of our sin is hidden from our consciousness, buried, so that we invariably are self-deceived about our real character before God, not ready for the final issues in "the great controversy between Christ and Satan." Hence God has provided a special opportunity of preparation known as the Day of Atonement, the real thing, not the kindergarten edition of long ago. It's the time Jesus spoke of: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day [of final judgment] come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore ... [prepare] to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:34-36).
That final atonement, final reconciliation with Christ, is a time for closer sympathy with Him; impossible unless there is also a closer sympathy with humanity that Christ took upon Himself. (There is an ecological dimension). One thoughtful writer has said, "Live simply so that others may simply live." "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ..." (Phil. 2:5).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Is the Bible Outdated as a Book?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Is the Bible as a book (composed of pages bound as a "biblos") destined to become out-dated and supplanted by computerized versions? Does our heavenly Father still regard the Bible (as a book) His message to the human race? We hear it said often that reading books is going out of date. "People just don't read anymore! They watch movies and videos."
The last words of John's Gospel speak of "books that should be written" about Jesus as the divine Son of God (21:25, KJV). He commended the practice of "searching the Scriptures," meaning the books or scrolls they possessed (5:39). He rebuked those who did not study and believe "the Scriptures," saying, "You ... err" (Matt. 22:29). On the day He was resurrected He gave a Bible study to two of His disciples, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:25-27). He upheld actual Bible study.
We have no reason to doubt that He has the same burden of heart for us today--that we read, study, learn, what His Holy Spirit has inspired prophets and apostles to write "for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Cor. 10:11, NKJV).
The vast proportion of inhabitants of the earth still are not computer or Internet literate. And of those who are, they still love real books. What you take to bed to read before you go to sleep is a book. What you take to church or Sabbath School is a literal Book (with exceptions among Internet buffs). The ease of finding things in the Bible through flipping pages cannot be bettered, and for sure the practice of marking salient passages for future reference is efficient. Your Bible becomes your own intimately personal "word of God." Fits you better than your shoes do. (Write in your margins dates and places where the Holy Spirit was very close to you!)
A prayer the Father loves to hear and answer is the request that the Holy Spirit "make known" His words to you (Prov. 1:23). Plead that He give you "a hunger and thirst for righteousness"(Matt. 5:6)--that's the way of "happiness" (which is what it means to be "blessed"). And you'll be surprised how often the Lord will open doors for you to share treasures of truth you have discovered in your personal reading of the Bible. One thing, please: be modest about them; don't drive sincere people away by being proud.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
Is the Bible as a book (composed of pages bound as a "biblos") destined to become out-dated and supplanted by computerized versions? Does our heavenly Father still regard the Bible (as a book) His message to the human race? We hear it said often that reading books is going out of date. "People just don't read anymore! They watch movies and videos."
The last words of John's Gospel speak of "books that should be written" about Jesus as the divine Son of God (21:25, KJV). He commended the practice of "searching the Scriptures," meaning the books or scrolls they possessed (5:39). He rebuked those who did not study and believe "the Scriptures," saying, "You ... err" (Matt. 22:29). On the day He was resurrected He gave a Bible study to two of His disciples, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:25-27). He upheld actual Bible study.
We have no reason to doubt that He has the same burden of heart for us today--that we read, study, learn, what His Holy Spirit has inspired prophets and apostles to write "for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Cor. 10:11, NKJV).
The vast proportion of inhabitants of the earth still are not computer or Internet literate. And of those who are, they still love real books. What you take to bed to read before you go to sleep is a book. What you take to church or Sabbath School is a literal Book (with exceptions among Internet buffs). The ease of finding things in the Bible through flipping pages cannot be bettered, and for sure the practice of marking salient passages for future reference is efficient. Your Bible becomes your own intimately personal "word of God." Fits you better than your shoes do. (Write in your margins dates and places where the Holy Spirit was very close to you!)
A prayer the Father loves to hear and answer is the request that the Holy Spirit "make known" His words to you (Prov. 1:23). Plead that He give you "a hunger and thirst for righteousness"(Matt. 5:6)--that's the way of "happiness" (which is what it means to be "blessed"). And you'll be surprised how often the Lord will open doors for you to share treasures of truth you have discovered in your personal reading of the Bible. One thing, please: be modest about them; don't drive sincere people away by being proud.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: How Does God Proclaim His Love?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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Have you ever heard of a husband who "loves" his wife and children but never tells them so, never demonstrates it? Let's say he defends himself: he provides food, clothing, rent; shouldn't they get the point? Why should he say, "I love you"? Or act like he does?
God says in the Bible that He "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). And Paul seems to say that thoughtful people should get the message simply because through nature "God hath shewed it unto them, ... so that they are without excuse" (Rom. 1:19, 20). Is that enough? If God expects a loving husband to demonstrate his love and say so, shouldn't He also tell the world about His love? Is it enough for Him to allow "nature" (whatever that is!) to tell it and then in the Judgment Day say, "You 'are without excuse' if you didn't understand! Too bad for you!"? Have the people gotten the message of His love in devastating hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes? And billions in their hunger and poverty?
You will probably agree that God wants to tell the world about His love in a clearer way than through "nature," that is, He wants to tell them through the proclamation of the gospel.
But that raises the question, Why doesn't He send literal angels to tell it? Why entrust the message of His love to His church, which is all too often sleepy, worldly, "lukewarm"? Fact: "the world is dark with misapprehension of God." It needs to understand what His love means, what happened on the cross, what it cost the Son of God to "save the world." Doing "good works" is wonderful--that's the duty of all Christians. But the Red Cross is also doing those good works! (Thank God! there's plenty of room for more.) Shouldn't there be a church, a "body" of Christ that is "lighting the earth with glory" (Revelation 18) in proclaiming the cross so clearly that every candid soul can sense the motivation that the love of Christ "constrains" in us? Or should we fold our hands and expect "nature" or the "angels" to do it?
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Dial Daily Bread: "Behold" the Lamb of God
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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Imagine this host of people coming out of Egypt, walking through wilderness to a fabulous Promised Land, their trek under the direct leadership of God Himself, a loving, kind Savior. He has just delivered them from slavery as real as any from which President Lincoln emancipated slaves in our Civil War. Can you imagine the slaves who were emancipated by Lincoln complaining bitterly against him? No, but the people of Israel complained against their Great Emancipator and Deliverer! Not because He hated them but because He loved them, their Savior permitted poisonous snakes to attack them, to teach them the Gospel. All they had to do to be healed was to look to a Savior symbolized by the poisonous snake itself lifted up high on a pole. The story is in Numbers 21:5-9. And Jesus told Nicodemus that that snake represented Himself (John 3:14). Christ "was made to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). It's the same as what John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). There is healing, there is salvation, in looking. How does it work?
Well, (1) the sin of the Israelites was the same as our sin--"the carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). It's alienation from God, bitterness against Him (you say you don't have it by nature? think again!). If you're human, you need healing! And the sin is deep: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Or, "Deep is a man's mind, deeper than all else, on evil bent; who can fathom it?" (Jer. 17:9, KJV, Moffatt). This alienation from God goes down to one's toes, embedded in every cell of one's being, it's nature itself that you were born with.
(2) The Lamb of God whom you and I are to "behold," look at earnestly, was "made to be" just THAT for us! If it wasn't in the Bible, "Christian" people would stone me for saying that Jesus is represented as a snake lifted up on a pole! Why didn't God tell Moses to make a lamb of brass and put it up on a pole so the people bitten by snakes could look at it? Ponder that, for there is saving truth there--somewhere.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Deliverance From Lukewarmness
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Lukewarmness is halfway between being cold in devotion to Christ and being hot. It is a spiritual disease in the last days' church that is the most difficult problem God has ever had to deal with. It makes Christ nauseated, because He knows what it cost Him to save us. As the last-days' church is positioned on the very verge of the final crisis in the controversy with Satan, for us to be blah in our response to Him is like someone being an adult with only the mind of a child. It's like a bride coming to the wedding when her heart is divided about her love for the prospective bridegroom, "blah" about it, says "yes" half-heartedly. If the heavenly Bridegroom were to go on with "the marriage of the Lamb" with only that half-hearted "I do" from His people, that would be keen embarrassment for Him for eternity! So, what can He do?
Whip them into shape? That won't work, any more than for a bridegroom to force his bride to say "I do." Increase His offers of great reward? That would be like marrying a man for his money. Well, Jesus won't stoop to encouraging that. Fear of hell or hope of reward in heaven--these two motivations have failed.
There is only one possible solution: win the heart-felt love of His people that will forever deliver them from lukewarmness. Appreciating His agape-love at His cross, realizing what it cost Him to save us--this alone can heal this terrible disease of lukewarmness. Satan will try to prevent such a revelation of agape as long as possible; but Zecharaiah 12:10-13:1 tells us that the revelation will come. The latter rain of the Holy Spirit, so long anticipated and prayed for, will be a repentance deeper than any other in history. Heaven will "pour upon the house of David ["the angel of the church of the Laodiceans"], and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem [the people], the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced" at the cross, and they shall experience the repentance that heals lukewarmness forever. Good News!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Lukewarmness is halfway between being cold in devotion to Christ and being hot. It is a spiritual disease in the last days' church that is the most difficult problem God has ever had to deal with. It makes Christ nauseated, because He knows what it cost Him to save us. As the last-days' church is positioned on the very verge of the final crisis in the controversy with Satan, for us to be blah in our response to Him is like someone being an adult with only the mind of a child. It's like a bride coming to the wedding when her heart is divided about her love for the prospective bridegroom, "blah" about it, says "yes" half-heartedly. If the heavenly Bridegroom were to go on with "the marriage of the Lamb" with only that half-hearted "I do" from His people, that would be keen embarrassment for Him for eternity! So, what can He do?
Whip them into shape? That won't work, any more than for a bridegroom to force his bride to say "I do." Increase His offers of great reward? That would be like marrying a man for his money. Well, Jesus won't stoop to encouraging that. Fear of hell or hope of reward in heaven--these two motivations have failed.
There is only one possible solution: win the heart-felt love of His people that will forever deliver them from lukewarmness. Appreciating His agape-love at His cross, realizing what it cost Him to save us--this alone can heal this terrible disease of lukewarmness. Satan will try to prevent such a revelation of agape as long as possible; but Zecharaiah 12:10-13:1 tells us that the revelation will come. The latter rain of the Holy Spirit, so long anticipated and prayed for, will be a repentance deeper than any other in history. Heaven will "pour upon the house of David ["the angel of the church of the Laodiceans"], and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem [the people], the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced" at the cross, and they shall experience the repentance that heals lukewarmness forever. Good News!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: "Thanks Be to God for His Unspeakable Gift"
Thanksgiving is traditionally the day for eating turkey and maybe other unhealthful foods, sometimes even to excess, and then saying we are thankful for it all. But the person who has begun to glimpse the reality of the Gospel as good news better than we have thought, will find something else crowding out mere thanksgiving for material blessings: a deep sense of gratitude for Christ dying our second death for us.
It's something we mortals think very little about. The Gospel as Good News evokes from honest human hearts a profound sense of gratitude. But such a sense is impossible unless we appreciate the value of what we have received, or what it cost the Savior to procure it for us. Sometimes explorers have noted that very primitive people have no sense of gratitude. They simply take what is given them with no show of saying thanks. They just do not realize obligation until they become educated. Our preoccupation with material blessings at this season of the year is the direct result of our not understanding what it cost the Savior to redeem us:
(1) We say it with reverence--He died our second death (Rev. 2:11; Isa. 53:12). And His human nature suffered as did His divine nature. His sweating drops of blood in Gethsemane bears witness to the soul-agony He went through. And the hatred and ingratitude of those He came to save did not make His burden any lighter.
(2) He gave Himself forever to the human race. How would you like to give your entire life to living in a leper colony in the African jungle--never to come home again? That is infinitely inadequate to portray the eternal sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
(3) With His blood He bought the life and happiness of every human being, even of those who do not believe and who hate Him. He has made it possible for the wicked to enjoy life (if enjoy they can!). His grace is given, not merely offered, to every person. So, more clearly than we can realize, "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!" (2 Cor. 9:15).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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It's something we mortals think very little about. The Gospel as Good News evokes from honest human hearts a profound sense of gratitude. But such a sense is impossible unless we appreciate the value of what we have received, or what it cost the Savior to procure it for us. Sometimes explorers have noted that very primitive people have no sense of gratitude. They simply take what is given them with no show of saying thanks. They just do not realize obligation until they become educated. Our preoccupation with material blessings at this season of the year is the direct result of our not understanding what it cost the Savior to redeem us:
(1) We say it with reverence--He died our second death (Rev. 2:11; Isa. 53:12). And His human nature suffered as did His divine nature. His sweating drops of blood in Gethsemane bears witness to the soul-agony He went through. And the hatred and ingratitude of those He came to save did not make His burden any lighter.
(2) He gave Himself forever to the human race. How would you like to give your entire life to living in a leper colony in the African jungle--never to come home again? That is infinitely inadequate to portray the eternal sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
(3) With His blood He bought the life and happiness of every human being, even of those who do not believe and who hate Him. He has made it possible for the wicked to enjoy life (if enjoy they can!). His grace is given, not merely offered, to every person. So, more clearly than we can realize, "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!" (2 Cor. 9:15).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Thursday, December 03, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Thanksgiving Day 365 Times a Year
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Suppose you were hungry, homeless, sleeping under a bridge or in a cardboard box; could you celebrate Thanksgiving? Most of us tell how we say thanks for nice homes, cars, food, good jobs, friends, fun. Can those who have none of this have Thanksgiving? Don't say yes if only the Red Cross, ADRA, or Salvation Army gives them a turkey dinner. That lasts only one day, then back under the bridge again.
There's a Bible Thanksgiving that gets lost in the normal celebrations: thanksgiving that you don't have to die the second death; thanksgiving that you have actually been given eternal life "in Christ." That refuge under a bridge may be very uncomfortable, but it's your privilege to rejoice that "in Christ" you have already been redeemed from hell itself. The Son of God also was homeless, had nowhere to lay His head, He says; but He was resurrected to eternal life, and "in Him" you too inherit the same. Welcome to sharing your living space with Him!
It's astounding, but its Bible truth: you have already been "elected" to eternal life "in Christ." Not that you deserve the gift for which you celebrate such transcendent Thanksgiving; Paul says, "by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any one should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9; when it says "not of works" it means not of your own volition). Face reality: if Christ had not died for you, you would most certainly have been eternally lost. But He did die for you, and rose again; the "you" in Ephesians 1 and 2 is the "you" of the entire human race. All have been redeemed. Your seat at the heavenly banquet has your place card on it with your name.
Now, don't blow everything by choosing to disbelieve this gospel truth. Yes, you can be lost, and many will be; but not because they weren't elected or got overlooked. John 3:16-19 says the problem was only unbelief. Believing the Good News will give you a Thanksgiving Day 365 times a year; and I believe such faith will enable you to find a way out from under that bridge.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Suppose you were hungry, homeless, sleeping under a bridge or in a cardboard box; could you celebrate Thanksgiving? Most of us tell how we say thanks for nice homes, cars, food, good jobs, friends, fun. Can those who have none of this have Thanksgiving? Don't say yes if only the Red Cross, ADRA, or Salvation Army gives them a turkey dinner. That lasts only one day, then back under the bridge again.
There's a Bible Thanksgiving that gets lost in the normal celebrations: thanksgiving that you don't have to die the second death; thanksgiving that you have actually been given eternal life "in Christ." That refuge under a bridge may be very uncomfortable, but it's your privilege to rejoice that "in Christ" you have already been redeemed from hell itself. The Son of God also was homeless, had nowhere to lay His head, He says; but He was resurrected to eternal life, and "in Him" you too inherit the same. Welcome to sharing your living space with Him!
It's astounding, but its Bible truth: you have already been "elected" to eternal life "in Christ." Not that you deserve the gift for which you celebrate such transcendent Thanksgiving; Paul says, "by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any one should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9; when it says "not of works" it means not of your own volition). Face reality: if Christ had not died for you, you would most certainly have been eternally lost. But He did die for you, and rose again; the "you" in Ephesians 1 and 2 is the "you" of the entire human race. All have been redeemed. Your seat at the heavenly banquet has your place card on it with your name.
Now, don't blow everything by choosing to disbelieve this gospel truth. Yes, you can be lost, and many will be; but not because they weren't elected or got overlooked. John 3:16-19 says the problem was only unbelief. Believing the Good News will give you a Thanksgiving Day 365 times a year; and I believe such faith will enable you to find a way out from under that bridge.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: A Lot of Growing Up on God's Agenda for Us Now
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Some thoughtful person asks, "What difference does it make whether Christ died our 'first death' (what the Bible says is 'sleep') or the 'second death' (of the 'Lake of Fire')? He has given us a ticket to heaven; isn't that enough for us to understand? We have the Life Insurance Policy; what more is needed? Why stretch our minds and hearts any further? For thousands of years this idea has never come up. Why is it so important now?"
(1) We have come to a time in world history when "sin [has] abounded" more and more; grace therefore must abound "much more" or we shall end up with the "mark of the beast."
(2) That "grace" is not a hokus-pokus legal maneuver beyond our range of knowledge. Much more abounding grace speaks to the heart and meets the increasing demands of modern temptation to abounding sin. 2 Corinthians 8:9 tells us that we can perceive "grace" only by understanding the sacrifice of Christ, how far He went in becoming "poor" that we "through His poverty might be rich." He went the full length of the second death! If past generations did not fully understand it, that does not excuse us for failure.
(3) There is a "breadth, and length, and depth, and height" in the love that motivated Christ to His cross that "children" can grasp only as they "grow up into Christ in all things, ... from whom the whole body [of the church is] fitly joined together" (Eph 3:17, 18; 4:15, 16). If we choose to remain infantile when it's time to "grow up," we ourselves cancel that "ticket to heaven" that He gave us. Now it's grow up or die on the vine. We are living in the "time of the end."
(4) Yes, it's true that Charles Wesley in the 1700s prayed "Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise" while he still believed in the papal doctrine of natural immortality. But now it's impossible to "sing" understandably about that cross if we believe in that false doctrine. There's lots of growing up that's on God's agenda for us now.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Some thoughtful person asks, "What difference does it make whether Christ died our 'first death' (what the Bible says is 'sleep') or the 'second death' (of the 'Lake of Fire')? He has given us a ticket to heaven; isn't that enough for us to understand? We have the Life Insurance Policy; what more is needed? Why stretch our minds and hearts any further? For thousands of years this idea has never come up. Why is it so important now?"
(1) We have come to a time in world history when "sin [has] abounded" more and more; grace therefore must abound "much more" or we shall end up with the "mark of the beast."
(2) That "grace" is not a hokus-pokus legal maneuver beyond our range of knowledge. Much more abounding grace speaks to the heart and meets the increasing demands of modern temptation to abounding sin. 2 Corinthians 8:9 tells us that we can perceive "grace" only by understanding the sacrifice of Christ, how far He went in becoming "poor" that we "through His poverty might be rich." He went the full length of the second death! If past generations did not fully understand it, that does not excuse us for failure.
(3) There is a "breadth, and length, and depth, and height" in the love that motivated Christ to His cross that "children" can grasp only as they "grow up into Christ in all things, ... from whom the whole body [of the church is] fitly joined together" (Eph 3:17, 18; 4:15, 16). If we choose to remain infantile when it's time to "grow up," we ourselves cancel that "ticket to heaven" that He gave us. Now it's grow up or die on the vine. We are living in the "time of the end."
(4) Yes, it's true that Charles Wesley in the 1700s prayed "Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise" while he still believed in the papal doctrine of natural immortality. But now it's impossible to "sing" understandably about that cross if we believe in that false doctrine. There's lots of growing up that's on God's agenda for us now.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Monday, November 23, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Said or Done Something Wrong? Now What Do You Do?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Suppose you have done something or said something that is wrong and you know it. You feel burdened; the joy of life is gone. Now it's a dark and cloudy day. What do you do?
Well, first of all, welcome to the worldwide club of people who know they are sinners. Maybe you didn't know you had the capability of doing or saying what you did that is wrong. The truth is, there is no end to our capability for sin. A wise writer says that when Jesus was hanging on His cross, He realized how bad a person can become. That is why He cried out, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" If our Saviour were to let go of our hand, we could fall, fall, fall. There's no end to the depth we would go. Remember, your salvation does not depend on you holding on to His hand; it depends on your believing that He is holding on to your hand. So, what do you do now?
You find a chance as soon as possible to get on your knees before the Saviour (not some earthly priest, or psychiatrist please!), and you confess your sin to Him. The whole thing; with no attempt to justify yourself or any plea bargaining. Tell Him that you are Peter sinking in the waves in the storm on Galilee, and you join him in crying out, "Lord, save me or I perish!"
Secondly, you ask Him to forgive you your sin.
Thirdly, you believe what He says in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
Fourth, you believe what else He says there, "and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The true forgiveness kit comes complete with a brand-new attachment--a new hatred for the sin itself. That little gift that comes in the package is not based on fear, but heart-sorrow for wounding the Savior. It is a new evidence to you personally of a miracle. So, from now on, any doubt that He loves you personally is washed away by this new personal miracle--utterly impossible for "sinful you" unless the Holy Spirit has worked in your heart. You don't naturally hate sin; naturally, you love it; so this newly implanted hatred for the sin is personal evidence for you that Christ is risen from the dead, He's alive, and He is your High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Yes, that is Good News.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Suppose you have done something or said something that is wrong and you know it. You feel burdened; the joy of life is gone. Now it's a dark and cloudy day. What do you do?
Well, first of all, welcome to the worldwide club of people who know they are sinners. Maybe you didn't know you had the capability of doing or saying what you did that is wrong. The truth is, there is no end to our capability for sin. A wise writer says that when Jesus was hanging on His cross, He realized how bad a person can become. That is why He cried out, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" If our Saviour were to let go of our hand, we could fall, fall, fall. There's no end to the depth we would go. Remember, your salvation does not depend on you holding on to His hand; it depends on your believing that He is holding on to your hand. So, what do you do now?
You find a chance as soon as possible to get on your knees before the Saviour (not some earthly priest, or psychiatrist please!), and you confess your sin to Him. The whole thing; with no attempt to justify yourself or any plea bargaining. Tell Him that you are Peter sinking in the waves in the storm on Galilee, and you join him in crying out, "Lord, save me or I perish!"
Secondly, you ask Him to forgive you your sin.
Thirdly, you believe what He says in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
Fourth, you believe what else He says there, "and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The true forgiveness kit comes complete with a brand-new attachment--a new hatred for the sin itself. That little gift that comes in the package is not based on fear, but heart-sorrow for wounding the Savior. It is a new evidence to you personally of a miracle. So, from now on, any doubt that He loves you personally is washed away by this new personal miracle--utterly impossible for "sinful you" unless the Holy Spirit has worked in your heart. You don't naturally hate sin; naturally, you love it; so this newly implanted hatred for the sin is personal evidence for you that Christ is risen from the dead, He's alive, and He is your High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Yes, that is Good News.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Sunday, November 22, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Assurance of Salvation (part 2)
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
How can we have a secure "assurance of salvation"? The apostle John likes to nail things down, to "know" this or that for sure. Some two dozen times in his First Letter he says we can "know" that we "know" the truth. Half of those times he uses the word ginosko, which means to be informed, to gain the knowledge of. The other half he uses the word eido which means to know by perception of truth, or shall we say, by common sense. He has "written unto you ... that ye may know (eido) that ye have eternal life" (5:13).
How can spiritual common sense give us this "assurance"? The answer is in verse 11: "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16), not merely offered to give Him. Some five or six times in Romans 5 Paul emphasizes that God has given us the "free gift" that has reversed the "condemnation" that came upon the human race "in Adam," and as John says, that gift is "in Christ." The Father gave Christ to the world, that He might already be "the Saviour of the world," "the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe" (John 4:42; 1 Tim. 4:10).
What it boils down to is this: salvation is due to God's initiative; damnation can be due only to our own initiative in choosing not to "believe" the truth. As surely as Esau had the birthright, so surely you have eternal life in Christ. He gave Himself for you and to you. He not only offered to give you the gift of eternal life so that your salvation would depend on your own initiative; He actually gave you the gift so that in eternity you would never have any reason to "boast" that you took the initiative. It's 100% "by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God [there's that word again!]: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9).
Although Esau had the birthright, he chose to "despise" it and "sold" it for a trifle of worldly pleasure (Gen. 25:34: Heb. 12:16). "He that believeth not" takes the initiative in his being lost at last (John 3:18, 19), "despises" what God has given him "in Christ." Cherish your assurance in Christ, but don't be cocksure in yourself. You can trust Him but you can't trust yourself. You can very easily do something stupid. Look both ways before you cross the street.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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How can we have a secure "assurance of salvation"? The apostle John likes to nail things down, to "know" this or that for sure. Some two dozen times in his First Letter he says we can "know" that we "know" the truth. Half of those times he uses the word ginosko, which means to be informed, to gain the knowledge of. The other half he uses the word eido which means to know by perception of truth, or shall we say, by common sense. He has "written unto you ... that ye may know (eido) that ye have eternal life" (5:13).
How can spiritual common sense give us this "assurance"? The answer is in verse 11: "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16), not merely offered to give Him. Some five or six times in Romans 5 Paul emphasizes that God has given us the "free gift" that has reversed the "condemnation" that came upon the human race "in Adam," and as John says, that gift is "in Christ." The Father gave Christ to the world, that He might already be "the Saviour of the world," "the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe" (John 4:42; 1 Tim. 4:10).
What it boils down to is this: salvation is due to God's initiative; damnation can be due only to our own initiative in choosing not to "believe" the truth. As surely as Esau had the birthright, so surely you have eternal life in Christ. He gave Himself for you and to you. He not only offered to give you the gift of eternal life so that your salvation would depend on your own initiative; He actually gave you the gift so that in eternity you would never have any reason to "boast" that you took the initiative. It's 100% "by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God [there's that word again!]: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9).
Although Esau had the birthright, he chose to "despise" it and "sold" it for a trifle of worldly pleasure (Gen. 25:34: Heb. 12:16). "He that believeth not" takes the initiative in his being lost at last (John 3:18, 19), "despises" what God has given him "in Christ." Cherish your assurance in Christ, but don't be cocksure in yourself. You can trust Him but you can't trust yourself. You can very easily do something stupid. Look both ways before you cross the street.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Friday, November 20, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Assurance of Salvation (part 1)
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
"Assurance of salvation" is a topic widely discussed. HOW can one have it? Or, CAN one really have it? What's the difference between a sober "assurance of salvation" and a "cocksureness of salvation"? (Webster's New World College Dictionary defines the latter as "self-confident in a stubborn or overbearing way.") Matthew reports Jesus at least twice warning us against "cocksureness of salvation": "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not ... done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me." Those on His "left hand" will protest at last, "Lord, when ... did [we] not minister unto thee? ... These shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt. 7:22, 23; 25:41-46). They were self-confident, self-deceived up until the tragic last moment! So, should we forever be worrying about our personal eternal destiny?
On the other hand, John says, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life. ... We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5:13, 19). On the surface, this seems contradictory, doesn't it? If you are a student in school constantly getting D's or F's, you don't have much enthusiasm for doing better, do you? Many tell us that you can't be a happy Christian unless you have the "assurance of salvation." Yet Jesus Himself warns us, Don't be stubbornly self-confident, "cocksure." The stakes are high; Jesus is right. "Many," even multitudes, who profess to be His followers will end up bitterly disappointed when it's too late to change their self-confident "cocksureness" into a rock-solid, genuine "assurance of salvation."
Simple common sense would suggest that while we must have a sober confidence without which happiness is impossible, we must also "give diligence to make [our] calling and election sure" (see 2 Peter 1:10). To look both ways before you cross a busy city street is not being fear-ridden; it's healthy. Can we have a "healthy" assurance? Is Bible teaching self-consistent? Where is sanctified spiritual common sense? Let's search for it tomorrow.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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"Assurance of salvation" is a topic widely discussed. HOW can one have it? Or, CAN one really have it? What's the difference between a sober "assurance of salvation" and a "cocksureness of salvation"? (Webster's New World College Dictionary defines the latter as "self-confident in a stubborn or overbearing way.") Matthew reports Jesus at least twice warning us against "cocksureness of salvation": "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not ... done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me." Those on His "left hand" will protest at last, "Lord, when ... did [we] not minister unto thee? ... These shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt. 7:22, 23; 25:41-46). They were self-confident, self-deceived up until the tragic last moment! So, should we forever be worrying about our personal eternal destiny?
On the other hand, John says, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life. ... We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5:13, 19). On the surface, this seems contradictory, doesn't it? If you are a student in school constantly getting D's or F's, you don't have much enthusiasm for doing better, do you? Many tell us that you can't be a happy Christian unless you have the "assurance of salvation." Yet Jesus Himself warns us, Don't be stubbornly self-confident, "cocksure." The stakes are high; Jesus is right. "Many," even multitudes, who profess to be His followers will end up bitterly disappointed when it's too late to change their self-confident "cocksureness" into a rock-solid, genuine "assurance of salvation."
Simple common sense would suggest that while we must have a sober confidence without which happiness is impossible, we must also "give diligence to make [our] calling and election sure" (see 2 Peter 1:10). To look both ways before you cross a busy city street is not being fear-ridden; it's healthy. Can we have a "healthy" assurance? Is Bible teaching self-consistent? Where is sanctified spiritual common sense? Let's search for it tomorrow.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: A Foundation for Faith in Christ's Second Coming
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Although we are thankful for rain here in northern California, the clouds last night and early this morning obscured the predicted "strong showing" of the annual Leonid meteor shower. On November 13, 1833 it was wildly spectacular, so much so that many observers thought the Day of Judgment had come. They knew what Jesus had said in Matthew 24:29: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days [the horrid persecutions of the Dark Ages, fresh in memory] shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven." Revelation also tells of the same thing: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; ... and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind" (6:12, 13).
Christian people of different churches saw the fulfillment of these prophecies: the worst earthquake of known history took place in Europe on November 1, 1755; people still living witnessed in New England the [to them] mysterious "Dark Day" of May 19, 1780; and people still living after that saw this "falling of the stars" in 1833--all in one generation. And, on top of all that excitement, a simultaneous interest aroused all over the world in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation.
Science and history now debunk those miraculous events: there have been other great earthquakes; the "dark day" was caused by forest fires; and the falling of the stars was merely the cosmic debris of a comet that whacks us every 33 years. Those people were naive, says science. But wait a moment: those events were spectacular. The seven seals of Revelation did make sense; to those people in their context those events did fulfill the prophecies in a remarkable way; the result was not fanaticism, but sober, disciplined study of the Bible and reformation of life, and a phenomenal worldwide interest in the second coming of Christ. God used an almost incredible succession of natural events to arouse multitudes to serious spiritual revival.
Now today, we don't need a meteor shower or an earthquake to wake us up. Any sober person can realize that the end of the world must be near. But the history of those "signs" laid the foundation for faith in the second coming of Christ. It makes sense.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Although we are thankful for rain here in northern California, the clouds last night and early this morning obscured the predicted "strong showing" of the annual Leonid meteor shower. On November 13, 1833 it was wildly spectacular, so much so that many observers thought the Day of Judgment had come. They knew what Jesus had said in Matthew 24:29: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days [the horrid persecutions of the Dark Ages, fresh in memory] shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven." Revelation also tells of the same thing: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; ... and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind" (6:12, 13).
Christian people of different churches saw the fulfillment of these prophecies: the worst earthquake of known history took place in Europe on November 1, 1755; people still living witnessed in New England the [to them] mysterious "Dark Day" of May 19, 1780; and people still living after that saw this "falling of the stars" in 1833--all in one generation. And, on top of all that excitement, a simultaneous interest aroused all over the world in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation.
Science and history now debunk those miraculous events: there have been other great earthquakes; the "dark day" was caused by forest fires; and the falling of the stars was merely the cosmic debris of a comet that whacks us every 33 years. Those people were naive, says science. But wait a moment: those events were spectacular. The seven seals of Revelation did make sense; to those people in their context those events did fulfill the prophecies in a remarkable way; the result was not fanaticism, but sober, disciplined study of the Bible and reformation of life, and a phenomenal worldwide interest in the second coming of Christ. God used an almost incredible succession of natural events to arouse multitudes to serious spiritual revival.
Now today, we don't need a meteor shower or an earthquake to wake us up. Any sober person can realize that the end of the world must be near. But the history of those "signs" laid the foundation for faith in the second coming of Christ. It makes sense.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Satan and John 3:16
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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We've all heard how sly, cunning, and evil Satan is. Have you known how he has tried to suck the life out of the greatest verse in the Bible? John 3:16 has enough dynamite truth in it to save any sinner, but if its meaning is devalued, its effect on the human heart is weakened.
What kind of a sacrifice did the Father make when He "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son"? There is a time-honored doctrine often labeled as "orthodox" that denies that God ever had a Son before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that He became a "Father" only at that time. The idea is that God simply agreed for a Twin, or a fellow Committee Member, to come to earth and be sacrificed. Gracious, yes, generous even; but ... a sacrifice?
When it comes to thinking about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the "Godhead" is so great that my brain is like a little pea in trying to understand it. But God is trying to say something to me. According to John 3:16, Christ was always the Son of God, even from all eternity: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (John 1:1, 2, 14).
There was never a "time" in eternity when the Son of God was not! The Muslims say we teach that God had a "wife" of some sorts; No. God has tried to tell us something beyond words: Christ was not "begotten" as we beget children--the word in the Bible does not mean that. It means only beloved One. The Father's love for His Son was the infinite Antitype of our human love for a child, and God has permitted us unworthy humans to have the experience of parenthood in order that we might understand just a trifle the heart-rending agony in the infinite Father's heart when it came time to "give His only begotten Son." The sacrifice was made in eternity, and it was and is infinite. John 3:16 does make sense; and a pea-size brain and heart like mine can at least begin to appreciate it.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Dial Daily Bread: What Can We Say to Help Discouraged Youth?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
We read in Psalm 14:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Christian teachers are surprised that sometimes they meet discouraged youth reared in good homes who say they wonder if there is a God, who are not sure of His existence. In other words, such a youth is tempted to be a fool. But is it always his fault? There are many who say they are atheists, or agnostics (those who just don't know). What can we say to help them?
Some, doubtless, are just wickedly rebellious against everything about God; they are determined to be finally-choosing adherents of God's enemy, Satan. But there must also be others, perhaps many, whose atheism or agnosticism is the result of being taught a false conception of God. They are not rebelling against God Himself, but against a distortion of His character. For example, the so-called "Christian" doctrine of an eternal burning hell in which God roasts and tortures lost human souls in eternal, conscious torment, has caused many people to say, "If God is a sadist more relentlessly cruel than Hitler or Stalin, then I want nothing to do with Him! How could a decent person want to torture even an animal like that?" People who have been so misled need our sympathy, and prayer that somehow we might be given wisdom and an opportunity to tell them the truth about God's character of love. He will not save everybody against his will, but He will not torture the lost endlessly.
But what about those who in deep disappointment at apparently unanswered prayers can't understand why God seems so unconcerned about their suffering? If you're in that category, then you too have been TEMPTED to be a fool! Remember, temptation is not itself sin. What you need is the Atonement-reconciliation with God, the ABC's of the gospel. Don't be offended to realize that you, a wonderful Christian, still need MORE of the atonement! In this great antitypical Day of Atonement, you and I need a "Final" atonement, or reconciliation. The Good News? There is a great High Priest administering it--now. Don't hinder Him!
[If you would like to receive a little four-page paper by Robert J. Wieland entitled, "The A-B-C's of the Gospel," please reply to this message with "ABCs" in the header or body of the message.]
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
We read in Psalm 14:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Christian teachers are surprised that sometimes they meet discouraged youth reared in good homes who say they wonder if there is a God, who are not sure of His existence. In other words, such a youth is tempted to be a fool. But is it always his fault? There are many who say they are atheists, or agnostics (those who just don't know). What can we say to help them?
Some, doubtless, are just wickedly rebellious against everything about God; they are determined to be finally-choosing adherents of God's enemy, Satan. But there must also be others, perhaps many, whose atheism or agnosticism is the result of being taught a false conception of God. They are not rebelling against God Himself, but against a distortion of His character. For example, the so-called "Christian" doctrine of an eternal burning hell in which God roasts and tortures lost human souls in eternal, conscious torment, has caused many people to say, "If God is a sadist more relentlessly cruel than Hitler or Stalin, then I want nothing to do with Him! How could a decent person want to torture even an animal like that?" People who have been so misled need our sympathy, and prayer that somehow we might be given wisdom and an opportunity to tell them the truth about God's character of love. He will not save everybody against his will, but He will not torture the lost endlessly.
But what about those who in deep disappointment at apparently unanswered prayers can't understand why God seems so unconcerned about their suffering? If you're in that category, then you too have been TEMPTED to be a fool! Remember, temptation is not itself sin. What you need is the Atonement-reconciliation with God, the ABC's of the gospel. Don't be offended to realize that you, a wonderful Christian, still need MORE of the atonement! In this great antitypical Day of Atonement, you and I need a "Final" atonement, or reconciliation. The Good News? There is a great High Priest administering it--now. Don't hinder Him!
[If you would like to receive a little four-page paper by Robert J. Wieland entitled, "The A-B-C's of the Gospel," please reply to this message with "ABCs" in the header or body of the message.]
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Monday, November 16, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: A Titanic War Between Two "Spirits"
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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When we wake up each new morning, we face bewilderment and confusion all over the earth. We humans cover the earth like little ants running around when you disturb them, and yet we humans are the family of God. We are created in His image; the glorious Creator of the vast universe left His high and holy place and became one of us. We are not "ants," we are sons and daughters of God "in Him." We are fellow-saints with Him engaged in the greatest struggle that has ever been waged in the universe--the controversy between Christ and Satan. We are not spectators at the arena; we are players on the field.
What's happening around us is the closing scene of this titanic war between two "spirits"--the One designated in the Bible as "Holy," and "the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience" who is inspired by "the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world" (Eph. 2:2; Rev. 12:9).
How can "the whole world" be deceived? Jesus says that so terrible will be the deception that it will come "on the face of the whole earth" like "a snare" (Luke 21:35). It's happening now. But thank God, not everyone will be deceived.
Think what it was like when Jesus was born; the masses knew the inspired prophecies of the Old Testament or at least had ready access to them if they didn't want to be deceived, yet how many recognized the Messiah when He came as a humble Baby in Bethlehem? Some did, but only a few.
So today; there is for sure "a remnant" (Rom. 9:27); "few that be saved" (Luke 13:23), who have learned the lesson of Bethlehem, who "walk softly" (1 Kings 21:27), who respond to "the still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12), that calls them in God's word, who choose to believe every truth that the Holy Spirit teaches as "He guides you into all truth" (John 16:13), who "follow the Lamb [the crucified Christ] wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:4, 5), who are "with Him" as He takes His final stand in the struggle of the nations of earth (Rev. 17:14) , who identify with "the Lamb" so closely that they penetrate His thinking and His feelings as a bride penetrates her husband's deepest yearnings.
Amid earth's clash of arms and the din of its endless traffic, LISTEN.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Dial Daily Bread: The Greatest "Evangelism" of All Time
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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The greatest "evangelism" of all time was what happened at Pentecost. It was not emotionalism, and what brought the deep conviction of truth on people's hearts was not the miracle of the apostles' speaking foreign languages--a "sign and wonder" indeed, but not the real thing that did it: the apostles proclaimed what had happened when the Son of God died on His cross.
They didn't "mince words," or say it daintily; "YOU murdered the Prince of life, the Son of God!" They laid the guilt of the ages upon the souls of those Jews and Gentiles. There was no political making friends and influencing people, no attempt to make the message palatable, to "win" the top leaders by psychology. It was the most direct super-confrontation that has ever been between lowly people and religious society leadership (read it in Acts 2:23, 36; 4:10; 5:30, etc.).
Ordinary people like the apostles could never have galvanized themselves to tell it like they did had it not been for the 10 days of repentance they spent beforehand. They had knelt very low in self-humiliation; what fools they had been! The Holy Spirit had 11 men in whom self had been "crucified with Christ." This made it possible for the Son of God to be exalted in them.
Why was it the prototype of all genuine "evangelism"? What Jesus had said a short time earlier happened: "On the last and most important day of the festival [Feast of Tabernacles] Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, 'Whoever is thirsty should come to Me and drink. As the scripture says [S.S. 4:15] "Whoever believes in Me, streams of life-giving water will pour out from his heart." Jesus said this about the [Holy] Spirit" (John 7:37-39). That was the "former rain."
The "latter rain" (which is still future) will be a re-play.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
Friday, November 13, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: The Unpardonable Sin
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The fear of the unpardonable sin has distressed many sincere people. It discourages some and keeps them away from the joyous eternal life that the Lord wants them to experience.
They are told repeatedly that the unpardonable sin is continued, persistent sinning, to the point that they can no longer hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit. But almost everybody in the world can realize that he/she has indeed sinned in one way or another, persistently, continually.
We must look again at the context of what Jesus Himself said about the unpardonable sin; it's in Matthew 12:22-37:
(a) Jesus healed someone demon-possessed. "All the multitudes were amazed" and wondered positively if Jesus might be the long-awaited Messiah (as we today wonder if our long-awaited "Elijah" may have already begun his work of "turning hearts"). But "the Pharisees … said, 'This fellow … casts out demons ... by the ruler of the demons,'" Satan himself. They reacted negatively to the nth degree.
(b) This had already happened earlier, in 9:34; these leaders of the one true church of that day had already attributed the work of Jesus to Satan (which is the unpardonable sin) but now Jesus has given them another chance to repent; but they have repeated that awful sin. Jesus then goes on to tell the Pharisees that "if I cast out devils by the [Holy] Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" and you didn't know it, or recognize the blessing!
(c) These church leaders went on and on in their way until they felt driven to cry out in Pilate's presence "Crucify Him"! (It makes one want to hesitate before accepting any job as church pastor or leader--it's a frightfully dangerous place to be in unless we walk "softly" as King Ahab did when he repented, 1 Kings 21:27-29.)
(d) The way Matthew (ch. 12) and Luke (ch. 11) tell the story about the Pharisees, the people would have been willing to believe the truth and repent, but their church leaders hindered them and "in a great degree" blocked the way.
(e) This action of the Pharisees was the Unpardonable Sin. Let's not repeat it. But if you fear and tremble, there's hope! Thank God.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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The fear of the unpardonable sin has distressed many sincere people. It discourages some and keeps them away from the joyous eternal life that the Lord wants them to experience.
They are told repeatedly that the unpardonable sin is continued, persistent sinning, to the point that they can no longer hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit. But almost everybody in the world can realize that he/she has indeed sinned in one way or another, persistently, continually.
We must look again at the context of what Jesus Himself said about the unpardonable sin; it's in Matthew 12:22-37:
(a) Jesus healed someone demon-possessed. "All the multitudes were amazed" and wondered positively if Jesus might be the long-awaited Messiah (as we today wonder if our long-awaited "Elijah" may have already begun his work of "turning hearts"). But "the Pharisees … said, 'This fellow … casts out demons ... by the ruler of the demons,'" Satan himself. They reacted negatively to the nth degree.
(b) This had already happened earlier, in 9:34; these leaders of the one true church of that day had already attributed the work of Jesus to Satan (which is the unpardonable sin) but now Jesus has given them another chance to repent; but they have repeated that awful sin. Jesus then goes on to tell the Pharisees that "if I cast out devils by the [Holy] Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" and you didn't know it, or recognize the blessing!
(c) These church leaders went on and on in their way until they felt driven to cry out in Pilate's presence "Crucify Him"! (It makes one want to hesitate before accepting any job as church pastor or leader--it's a frightfully dangerous place to be in unless we walk "softly" as King Ahab did when he repented, 1 Kings 21:27-29.)
(d) The way Matthew (ch. 12) and Luke (ch. 11) tell the story about the Pharisees, the people would have been willing to believe the truth and repent, but their church leaders hindered them and "in a great degree" blocked the way.
(e) This action of the Pharisees was the Unpardonable Sin. Let's not repeat it. But if you fear and tremble, there's hope! Thank God.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Get Under the New Covenant
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Sometimes the most wonderful gift can be wrapped unattractively. That is true of certain "Bible doctrines" that outwardly appear boring or even burdensome, but which are marvelous blessings. One is the Bible doctrine of the Sabbath; in His mercy God asks us to "remember" it, to keep it holy (that's all, to keep holy what He has already made holy!). And Satan wants to make that blessed "remembrance" to appear burdensome.
Another "doctrine" that appears dry as dust (it used to be that way to me!) is the Two Covenants, an idea that only high-tech theologians wrangle about in their ivory towers. And the Bible Commentaries were no help. It seemed that God was experimenting on Israel, trying this or that method to save them, and since the old covenant was one of His experiments that went bad, He had to think up another method, the new covenant. But that created a REAL problem: if God Himself has not been sure what to do to save us, how can I be sure of anything?
Then the light broke through the clouds, when I read a little book entitled The Glad Tidings, a verse-by-verse study of Galatians. To me it was intensely interesting. God always has had only one way of saving people; He was not experimenting with different ways; the new covenant was always His way; but the people are the ones who tried to invent a different way to get to heaven--they came up with the old covenant idea. The simple, sunlight truth is that God is too wise ever to try to make bargains with sinners (don't forget, "saints" are sinners by nature) because He knows they cannot fulfill their part of the bargain. His new covenant is not a "contract" wherein both parties, God and the sinner, strike a bargain agreement. It's always His own simple, straight-forward promise to save the sinner by the sacrifice of Himself; and the sinner's proper response is not to promise to DO this or that, but to believe, appreciate, God's promise--just as Abraham believed.
And there is where the trouble lies: Abraham's descendants at Mount Sinai did not have his faith. So they contrived a different response to God's new covenant promise: they promised to obey (which promise they broke in a matter of days; Ex. 19:8; 32:1-8). So, get under the new covenant today! Believe God's promises to you, and that faith will produce the obedience that has worried you, as it did Abraham.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes the most wonderful gift can be wrapped unattractively. That is true of certain "Bible doctrines" that outwardly appear boring or even burdensome, but which are marvelous blessings. One is the Bible doctrine of the Sabbath; in His mercy God asks us to "remember" it, to keep it holy (that's all, to keep holy what He has already made holy!). And Satan wants to make that blessed "remembrance" to appear burdensome.
Another "doctrine" that appears dry as dust (it used to be that way to me!) is the Two Covenants, an idea that only high-tech theologians wrangle about in their ivory towers. And the Bible Commentaries were no help. It seemed that God was experimenting on Israel, trying this or that method to save them, and since the old covenant was one of His experiments that went bad, He had to think up another method, the new covenant. But that created a REAL problem: if God Himself has not been sure what to do to save us, how can I be sure of anything?
Then the light broke through the clouds, when I read a little book entitled The Glad Tidings, a verse-by-verse study of Galatians. To me it was intensely interesting. God always has had only one way of saving people; He was not experimenting with different ways; the new covenant was always His way; but the people are the ones who tried to invent a different way to get to heaven--they came up with the old covenant idea. The simple, sunlight truth is that God is too wise ever to try to make bargains with sinners (don't forget, "saints" are sinners by nature) because He knows they cannot fulfill their part of the bargain. His new covenant is not a "contract" wherein both parties, God and the sinner, strike a bargain agreement. It's always His own simple, straight-forward promise to save the sinner by the sacrifice of Himself; and the sinner's proper response is not to promise to DO this or that, but to believe, appreciate, God's promise--just as Abraham believed.
And there is where the trouble lies: Abraham's descendants at Mount Sinai did not have his faith. So they contrived a different response to God's new covenant promise: they promised to obey (which promise they broke in a matter of days; Ex. 19:8; 32:1-8). So, get under the new covenant today! Believe God's promises to you, and that faith will produce the obedience that has worried you, as it did Abraham.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: King Asa's "Perfect Heart" (part 2)
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
How could "good" King Asa have a "perfect heart" and still lose his temper, throw God's true prophet into jail, oppress his people, and end up rebelling against God in his old age? Kind of scary for anyone who thinks he/she is okay (story is in 2 Chron. 15, 16).
But the Bible makes the problem clear. There were two main words for "perfect" in Hebrew as our Bibles translate them. King Asa's heart was shalem (the root related to "Jerusalem," city of peace). The idea in the word is to be at peace, no inner conflict, live in good conscience, not going contrary to your own sense of duty. Asa's "perfect heart" was totally dedicated to Old Covenant ideas inherited from Mount Sinai.
The other Hebrew word for "perfect" is tawmim, meaning absolutely complete, right (related to tawmid, "continual," perpetual," "daily"). Thus tawmim meant morally perfect, not just living up to all the light you have or according to your own conscience (which can be enlightened or not). It really means perfect. Abraham's faith vs Mount Sinai.
King Asa's heart was not tawmim, but shalem. He did all the Old Covenant good he could think of. He did not violate his conscience. He followed his own inner sense of duty. Thus he could reason that God blesses the kingdom if they obey His laws perfectly. Therefore, you people, line up, promise to obey, toe the mark; anyone who doesn't join our "revival and reformation" gets killed (2 Chron. 15:13). And yes, the Lord blessed. Yes, He rewards you if you pay tithe; but what's your motivation--Old or New Covenant?
Asa's "perfect heart" meant that he lived up to Israel's Old Covenant ideas right to the letter. A wise writer says the Old Covenant was "obey and live." The New Covenant is "believe and live." How many more decades must we be confused about the two?
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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How could "good" King Asa have a "perfect heart" and still lose his temper, throw God's true prophet into jail, oppress his people, and end up rebelling against God in his old age? Kind of scary for anyone who thinks he/she is okay (story is in 2 Chron. 15, 16).
But the Bible makes the problem clear. There were two main words for "perfect" in Hebrew as our Bibles translate them. King Asa's heart was shalem (the root related to "Jerusalem," city of peace). The idea in the word is to be at peace, no inner conflict, live in good conscience, not going contrary to your own sense of duty. Asa's "perfect heart" was totally dedicated to Old Covenant ideas inherited from Mount Sinai.
The other Hebrew word for "perfect" is tawmim, meaning absolutely complete, right (related to tawmid, "continual," perpetual," "daily"). Thus tawmim meant morally perfect, not just living up to all the light you have or according to your own conscience (which can be enlightened or not). It really means perfect. Abraham's faith vs Mount Sinai.
King Asa's heart was not tawmim, but shalem. He did all the Old Covenant good he could think of. He did not violate his conscience. He followed his own inner sense of duty. Thus he could reason that God blesses the kingdom if they obey His laws perfectly. Therefore, you people, line up, promise to obey, toe the mark; anyone who doesn't join our "revival and reformation" gets killed (2 Chron. 15:13). And yes, the Lord blessed. Yes, He rewards you if you pay tithe; but what's your motivation--Old or New Covenant?
Asa's "perfect heart" meant that he lived up to Israel's Old Covenant ideas right to the letter. A wise writer says the Old Covenant was "obey and live." The New Covenant is "believe and live." How many more decades must we be confused about the two?
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: King Asa's "Perfect Heart" (part 1)
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you ever read the intensely interesting story of King Asa? He gets lost in the hoopla of David and Solomon. What's unique about his story is that on the surface he appears to contradict the Bible truth of righteousness by faith. His reign appears to prove the doctrine of salvation by works; it's the Old Covenant glorified, salvation by obedience. It appears on the surface to prove that Laodicea is right and the True Witness is wrong. The story appears to support the widely popular doctrine of salvation by obedience under the terms of the Old Covenant--it's right here in the Bible! Mount Sinai supremely successful.
Read it: 2 Chronicles 15, 16. The nation enjoyed wonderful security and prosperity. But did you notice that Asa and the people were so strongly committed to the Old Covenant that they decreed "death, whether small or great, whether man or woman," to anyone who didn't join in? Yes, for sure that secured "obedience," right to the letter (15:12, 13)!
This wonderful Old Covenant rule brought blessings for 35 years (vs. 19). Then "perfect" King Asa did "foolishly" and forsook the Lord (16:9). Hanani, an inspired prophet, rightly rebuked him; then good King Asa lost his temper and threw him into prison, and began oppressing his people (vss. 7-10). He ended his reign stubbornly refusing to humble his heart before the Lord when affliction came on him (vs. 12). "Perfect heart"?
Our problem comes in 15:17: "Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days." How can you have a "perfect heart," then lose your temper at the Spirit of Prophecy, jail the Lord's true prophet, "oppress" your people, then turn your back on the Lord in your old age? Is it really true that righteousness is not by faith? That you can have faith and still go on sinning? Many worldwide believe so, and here's proof, they say. How can we understand this? Our time's up. Maybe we can look at it tomorrow.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Have you ever read the intensely interesting story of King Asa? He gets lost in the hoopla of David and Solomon. What's unique about his story is that on the surface he appears to contradict the Bible truth of righteousness by faith. His reign appears to prove the doctrine of salvation by works; it's the Old Covenant glorified, salvation by obedience. It appears on the surface to prove that Laodicea is right and the True Witness is wrong. The story appears to support the widely popular doctrine of salvation by obedience under the terms of the Old Covenant--it's right here in the Bible! Mount Sinai supremely successful.
Read it: 2 Chronicles 15, 16. The nation enjoyed wonderful security and prosperity. But did you notice that Asa and the people were so strongly committed to the Old Covenant that they decreed "death, whether small or great, whether man or woman," to anyone who didn't join in? Yes, for sure that secured "obedience," right to the letter (15:12, 13)!
This wonderful Old Covenant rule brought blessings for 35 years (vs. 19). Then "perfect" King Asa did "foolishly" and forsook the Lord (16:9). Hanani, an inspired prophet, rightly rebuked him; then good King Asa lost his temper and threw him into prison, and began oppressing his people (vss. 7-10). He ended his reign stubbornly refusing to humble his heart before the Lord when affliction came on him (vs. 12). "Perfect heart"?
Our problem comes in 15:17: "Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days." How can you have a "perfect heart," then lose your temper at the Spirit of Prophecy, jail the Lord's true prophet, "oppress" your people, then turn your back on the Lord in your old age? Is it really true that righteousness is not by faith? That you can have faith and still go on sinning? Many worldwide believe so, and here's proof, they say. How can we understand this? Our time's up. Maybe we can look at it tomorrow.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Monday, November 09, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: A New Day
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
A new day is before you. You are tired of being selfish, world-loving, absorbed in your own pleasure. Night after night you go to bed feeling vaguely condemned for not having accomplished anything that God can be pleased about. You hate yourself for wasting precious time on TV, or reading novels, or wandering aimlessly in the mall. What's happening to you?
The Lord Himself is being merciful to you for He is giving you your own personal taste of what Isaiah had in his chapter 6 epiphany. You are realizing, "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a [person] of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" (vs. 5). This vague feeling of unease is not without meaning. The Holy Spirit of God is interacting with you. Heaven has come down to you; you are important in God's sight. He actually loves you as an individual so much that He will not permit you to be content in alienation from Him, and in alienation from your fellow human beings.
What's happening to you is the direct fulfillment of what Jesus promised: He would pray to the Father for you, and the Father is answering His prayer by sending you "another Helper, ... even the [Holy] Spirit of truth" (John 14:16, 17). You have first-hand evidence of His personal interest in you; Heaven has stopped to look at you, to notice you! He is fulfilling His first work: "And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin ... : of sin, because they do not believe in Me" (16:8, 9). To be worldly, to live for self, is sin!
You are worried because you do not see "fruit" in your life; there are no "works" that prove that you are useful in God's "economy."
Turn to Isaiah 50:4, 5. And when you read the personal pronoun "Me," believe that it is YOU whom the Lord "awakens ... morning by morning, ... to hear as the learned." "… that [YOU] should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary." You have no idea who that "weary one" is whom you will meet somewhere today. Suddenly, life has become interesting, challenging, thrilling, yes, you are on an adventure with the Holy Spirit. Knowing full well that you are "undone," that you don't know how to speak that "word in season" to anyone, you simply cast yourself on the mercy of the Lord. And you go forth.
Then tonight, kneel by your bedside and ask Him how the day went. I think you will be praising Him.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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A new day is before you. You are tired of being selfish, world-loving, absorbed in your own pleasure. Night after night you go to bed feeling vaguely condemned for not having accomplished anything that God can be pleased about. You hate yourself for wasting precious time on TV, or reading novels, or wandering aimlessly in the mall. What's happening to you?
The Lord Himself is being merciful to you for He is giving you your own personal taste of what Isaiah had in his chapter 6 epiphany. You are realizing, "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a [person] of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" (vs. 5). This vague feeling of unease is not without meaning. The Holy Spirit of God is interacting with you. Heaven has come down to you; you are important in God's sight. He actually loves you as an individual so much that He will not permit you to be content in alienation from Him, and in alienation from your fellow human beings.
What's happening to you is the direct fulfillment of what Jesus promised: He would pray to the Father for you, and the Father is answering His prayer by sending you "another Helper, ... even the [Holy] Spirit of truth" (John 14:16, 17). You have first-hand evidence of His personal interest in you; Heaven has stopped to look at you, to notice you! He is fulfilling His first work: "And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin ... : of sin, because they do not believe in Me" (16:8, 9). To be worldly, to live for self, is sin!
You are worried because you do not see "fruit" in your life; there are no "works" that prove that you are useful in God's "economy."
Turn to Isaiah 50:4, 5. And when you read the personal pronoun "Me," believe that it is YOU whom the Lord "awakens ... morning by morning, ... to hear as the learned." "… that [YOU] should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary." You have no idea who that "weary one" is whom you will meet somewhere today. Suddenly, life has become interesting, challenging, thrilling, yes, you are on an adventure with the Holy Spirit. Knowing full well that you are "undone," that you don't know how to speak that "word in season" to anyone, you simply cast yourself on the mercy of the Lord. And you go forth.
Then tonight, kneel by your bedside and ask Him how the day went. I think you will be praising Him.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Does God Answer When We "Dial" His "Office"?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
What do you do when you dial a number and you hear it ring and ring, and no one answers? Hang up. That's what's natural for us to do when we "dial" God's "office" in prayer, and no one seems to answer.
The Bible is replete with stories of people who have "dialed" His "office" and said no one answered. And in every case they were tempted to hang up. Job immediately comes to mind. He said: "Why won't God give me what I ask? Why won't He answer my prayer?" (6:8, GNB). "If He lets me speak, I can't believe He would listen to me" (9:16). "There was a time when God answered my prayers. ...Why do You avoid me? Why do You treat me like an enemy? ... I want God to see my tears and hear my prayer" (12:4, 13:24, 16:20). Not only did it seem that God "avoided" him; but the more he prayed the more it seemed that God was getting angry with him; his troubles were getting worse. His dear wife of many years even advised him to forget about God; stop praying, and give up and die (2:9).
Then we remember Jeremiah. At one time he even resigned his job as prophet: "Lord, You have deceived me, and I was deceived. ... 'I will forget the Lord, and no longer speak in His name'" (20:7, 9). David was "the Lord's anointed" but often it seemed that God had forgotten him. Then we come to the best Man who ever walked this earth, the One who was sinless, and we hear Him cry in His dense darkness of soul while on the cross: "My God, why did You abandon Me?"
Yes, every one who "follows the Lamb wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:4) has to go through that same experience sometime of feeling forsaken, but nevertheless choosing to believe and trust in the darkness. Faith ultimately must rest, not on sight, but on confidence in God's character. Only then will it be possible to "enter into the joy of your Lord," and feel comfortable sitting with Him on His throne (Rev. 3:21).
Don't hang up. Believe Him in the dark.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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What do you do when you dial a number and you hear it ring and ring, and no one answers? Hang up. That's what's natural for us to do when we "dial" God's "office" in prayer, and no one seems to answer.
The Bible is replete with stories of people who have "dialed" His "office" and said no one answered. And in every case they were tempted to hang up. Job immediately comes to mind. He said: "Why won't God give me what I ask? Why won't He answer my prayer?" (6:8, GNB). "If He lets me speak, I can't believe He would listen to me" (9:16). "There was a time when God answered my prayers. ...Why do You avoid me? Why do You treat me like an enemy? ... I want God to see my tears and hear my prayer" (12:4, 13:24, 16:20). Not only did it seem that God "avoided" him; but the more he prayed the more it seemed that God was getting angry with him; his troubles were getting worse. His dear wife of many years even advised him to forget about God; stop praying, and give up and die (2:9).
Then we remember Jeremiah. At one time he even resigned his job as prophet: "Lord, You have deceived me, and I was deceived. ... 'I will forget the Lord, and no longer speak in His name'" (20:7, 9). David was "the Lord's anointed" but often it seemed that God had forgotten him. Then we come to the best Man who ever walked this earth, the One who was sinless, and we hear Him cry in His dense darkness of soul while on the cross: "My God, why did You abandon Me?"
Yes, every one who "follows the Lamb wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:4) has to go through that same experience sometime of feeling forsaken, but nevertheless choosing to believe and trust in the darkness. Faith ultimately must rest, not on sight, but on confidence in God's character. Only then will it be possible to "enter into the joy of your Lord," and feel comfortable sitting with Him on His throne (Rev. 3:21).
Don't hang up. Believe Him in the dark.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Sunday, November 08, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Now's the Time to Pray the Lord's Prayer
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Suppose you don't know what to do, you don't even know how to pray. You can kneel, but you don't even know what words to use.
Now's the time to pray the Lord's Prayer. It's just inside the New Testament. Put it into the first person singular:
"My Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name" (Matt. 6:9; Jesus said, "In this manner, ... pray." No matter who you are, or how unworthy you are, you are given the right to walk in past all the holy angels to the throne of God with these words). Save me from bringing disgrace on Your name.
"Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (vs. 10; let me do or say something today that is right).
"Give me this day my daily bread" (vs. 11; and the inexpressible joy of being satisfied with what my portion is of either the temporal or spiritual kind. Thank You for my portion!)
"And forgive me my debts," (vs. 12a; that is—my sins). This credit card debt is a constant load I can't carry; oh, to breathe free again! Please teach me to say no next time I go to the mall; and yes, to say no to self all day.
"As I forgive my debtors" (vs. 12b; that means I practice self-denial until I pay my credit card balance; at the same time I pay my debt of forgiveness to those who have wronged me personally and painfully. It hurts, but yes, I do).
"And do not lead me into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one" (vs. 13a; any temptation to any sin is greater than I have the strength to endure, of myself. Thanks that at last I know the truth).
"For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen" (vs. 13b; thanks that at last I realize it's not mine).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Suppose you don't know what to do, you don't even know how to pray. You can kneel, but you don't even know what words to use.
Now's the time to pray the Lord's Prayer. It's just inside the New Testament. Put it into the first person singular:
"My Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name" (Matt. 6:9; Jesus said, "In this manner, ... pray." No matter who you are, or how unworthy you are, you are given the right to walk in past all the holy angels to the throne of God with these words). Save me from bringing disgrace on Your name.
"Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (vs. 10; let me do or say something today that is right).
"Give me this day my daily bread" (vs. 11; and the inexpressible joy of being satisfied with what my portion is of either the temporal or spiritual kind. Thank You for my portion!)
"And forgive me my debts," (vs. 12a; that is—my sins). This credit card debt is a constant load I can't carry; oh, to breathe free again! Please teach me to say no next time I go to the mall; and yes, to say no to self all day.
"As I forgive my debtors" (vs. 12b; that means I practice self-denial until I pay my credit card balance; at the same time I pay my debt of forgiveness to those who have wronged me personally and painfully. It hurts, but yes, I do).
"And do not lead me into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one" (vs. 13a; any temptation to any sin is greater than I have the strength to endure, of myself. Thanks that at last I know the truth).
"For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen" (vs. 13b; thanks that at last I realize it's not mine).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Justification by Faith--Simple!
Ordinary people like you and me get stumped by big biblical words like "justification by faith." "Can't you make it simple?" someone asks. Well, it's in the Bible, and therefore God must want us to understand. Don't throw up your hands in despair, "It's beyond me! Might as well flip on the TV, that's easier than trying to study." But in fact, it's all as simple as 2 + 2 = 4 if you want to understand what God is saying, enough to ask Him in sincerity to teach you. He welcomes pray-ers (people who ask Him!) who don't have doctoral degrees! And there's good reason to want to understand because the final test of the mark of the beast versus the seal of God may well center in some issue like this.
(1) This has to do with the simple understandings of the heart, not intricate head-knowledge: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. 10:10).
(2) It is healing the heart-alienation from God that is natural to all of us ("the carnal mind is enmity against God," Rom. 8:7). Healing that human enmity is the greatest problem God has ever faced. He can create worlds and fling Milky Ways into space easier than changing cold, worldly, self-loving human hearts to be at-one-with Him.
(3) What the Bible is saying is that nothing but the sight of blood can melt that icy hardness of the human heart: "We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Rom. 5:10).
(4) That means simply "justification by faith": "much more then, being now justified by his blood, ..." (vs. 9).
(5) We alienated humans must see Somebody's blood flowing and realize that it was we who shed it. Whose blood? Of the Son of God!
(6) If there's an ounce of honesty in our souls, the result is in verse 11: "We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the at-one-ment."
(7) We "survey the wondrous cross /On which the Prince of glory died, / [and] My richest gain I count but loss / And pour contempt on all my pride." That's justification by faith. Simple.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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(1) This has to do with the simple understandings of the heart, not intricate head-knowledge: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. 10:10).
(2) It is healing the heart-alienation from God that is natural to all of us ("the carnal mind is enmity against God," Rom. 8:7). Healing that human enmity is the greatest problem God has ever faced. He can create worlds and fling Milky Ways into space easier than changing cold, worldly, self-loving human hearts to be at-one-with Him.
(3) What the Bible is saying is that nothing but the sight of blood can melt that icy hardness of the human heart: "We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Rom. 5:10).
(4) That means simply "justification by faith": "much more then, being now justified by his blood, ..." (vs. 9).
(5) We alienated humans must see Somebody's blood flowing and realize that it was we who shed it. Whose blood? Of the Son of God!
(6) If there's an ounce of honesty in our souls, the result is in verse 11: "We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the at-one-ment."
(7) We "survey the wondrous cross /On which the Prince of glory died, / [and] My richest gain I count but loss / And pour contempt on all my pride." That's justification by faith. Simple.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Can We Learn From the Past?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you ever wished you had had the courage to speak up for truth when you didn't? What's written in the Bible is there "for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" (1 Cor. 10:11). Can we learn from those who in the past failed?
* Do you repent for letting Eve cajole you into eating the forbidden fruit when you knew better (she didn't!)? (Gen. 3:6; are you better than Adam?)
* ... for not standing up alone and publicly defending Noah when he was persecuted while he was building the ark alone? We're being tested today! (7:1; Matt. 24:37-39).
* ... for not believing and defending the inspired Joseph when his ten brothers hated him? (Joseph did have some real faults, hooks on which to hang doubts; Gen. 37:5-8).
* ... for not standing with Caleb and Joshua when "all the congregation bade stone them with stones"? Were you ready to be stoned with the two? (cf. Num. 14:10).
* ... for not standing up for David, telling King Saul "you're wrong for hunting David like you do. He's a prophet!"? (1 Sam. 23:9-15; the court were loyal to Saul).
* ... for not supporting Jeremiah in his dungeon when Kings Jehoiakim and Zedekiah "shut him up" and the national leaders wanted to kill him? (38:1-13).
* ... for not confessing publicly you too believe in Jesus of Nazareth when the Jewish national leaders "took up stones to cast at Him"? (John 8:59).
* ... for being a believing "chief ruler" too cowardly to confess Jesus publicly when "the Pharisees" said anybody who does "should be put out of the synagogue"? (John 12:42).
* ... for not speaking up for Jesus when you wanted to warm yourself by the fire, and this girl was taunting you; it's so hard to take ridicule from her, isn't it? (Matt. 26:69-75).
Thank God He gives us a new day today, a new opportunity to repent and overcome!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Have you ever wished you had had the courage to speak up for truth when you didn't? What's written in the Bible is there "for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" (1 Cor. 10:11). Can we learn from those who in the past failed?
* Do you repent for letting Eve cajole you into eating the forbidden fruit when you knew better (she didn't!)? (Gen. 3:6; are you better than Adam?)
* ... for not standing up alone and publicly defending Noah when he was persecuted while he was building the ark alone? We're being tested today! (7:1; Matt. 24:37-39).
* ... for not believing and defending the inspired Joseph when his ten brothers hated him? (Joseph did have some real faults, hooks on which to hang doubts; Gen. 37:5-8).
* ... for not standing with Caleb and Joshua when "all the congregation bade stone them with stones"? Were you ready to be stoned with the two? (cf. Num. 14:10).
* ... for not standing up for David, telling King Saul "you're wrong for hunting David like you do. He's a prophet!"? (1 Sam. 23:9-15; the court were loyal to Saul).
* ... for not supporting Jeremiah in his dungeon when Kings Jehoiakim and Zedekiah "shut him up" and the national leaders wanted to kill him? (38:1-13).
* ... for not confessing publicly you too believe in Jesus of Nazareth when the Jewish national leaders "took up stones to cast at Him"? (John 8:59).
* ... for being a believing "chief ruler" too cowardly to confess Jesus publicly when "the Pharisees" said anybody who does "should be put out of the synagogue"? (John 12:42).
* ... for not speaking up for Jesus when you wanted to warm yourself by the fire, and this girl was taunting you; it's so hard to take ridicule from her, isn't it? (Matt. 26:69-75).
Thank God He gives us a new day today, a new opportunity to repent and overcome!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Behold the Lamb of God
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Really good people keep asking the same question the Pharisees asked long ago, "What shall we DO, that we might work the works of God?" (John 6:28). Israel were obsessed with that idea for they promised God, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will DO" (Ex. 19:8). That promise at Mount Sinai was the "old covenant," and it bound Israel to legalism through most of their history until finally they crucified their Messiah.
But God has always had a better way--the "new covenant," which is not the promise of the people but the one-sided promise of God, not a contract, or a "bargain" He makes with us. He promises to write His law in our hearts, and our part is to believe His promise. But the old covenant/new covenant tension still exists today, and the inherent legalism in the immensely popular old covenant discourages and perplexes multitudes, both in and out of the church.
Instead of our concentrating on what we must DO, God asks us to look and see what He has done and is doing. He taught this lesson to the people in the wilderness--"when he [the one bitten by a serpent] beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Num. 21:9). Jesus said that "serpent" represented Himself (exactly backward, we would think!), and our continual "perishing" will come to an end if we "behold" Him as a "serpent lifted up" (John 3:14, 15)--a Savior "made to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21).
"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," He says (Isa. 45:22). John the Baptist agrees, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Jesus says, "If I be lifted up [for all people to see Me] ... I will draw all unto Me" (12:32). Paul saw his mission, to turn people's ears into eyes and "to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery" (Eph. 3:9). John says, "Behold what manner of agape" (1 John 3:1--that's a refreshing sight to see!). Even Pontius Pilate preaches one unforgettable sermon: "Behold the man!" (John 19:5).
Here's Good News: "a great reformatory movement" is coming, for God "will pour upon [His people and leaders] ... the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced" (Zech. 12:10). Behold that sight and you can never be the same lukewarm person!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Really good people keep asking the same question the Pharisees asked long ago, "What shall we DO, that we might work the works of God?" (John 6:28). Israel were obsessed with that idea for they promised God, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will DO" (Ex. 19:8). That promise at Mount Sinai was the "old covenant," and it bound Israel to legalism through most of their history until finally they crucified their Messiah.
But God has always had a better way--the "new covenant," which is not the promise of the people but the one-sided promise of God, not a contract, or a "bargain" He makes with us. He promises to write His law in our hearts, and our part is to believe His promise. But the old covenant/new covenant tension still exists today, and the inherent legalism in the immensely popular old covenant discourages and perplexes multitudes, both in and out of the church.
Instead of our concentrating on what we must DO, God asks us to look and see what He has done and is doing. He taught this lesson to the people in the wilderness--"when he [the one bitten by a serpent] beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Num. 21:9). Jesus said that "serpent" represented Himself (exactly backward, we would think!), and our continual "perishing" will come to an end if we "behold" Him as a "serpent lifted up" (John 3:14, 15)--a Savior "made to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21).
"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," He says (Isa. 45:22). John the Baptist agrees, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Jesus says, "If I be lifted up [for all people to see Me] ... I will draw all unto Me" (12:32). Paul saw his mission, to turn people's ears into eyes and "to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery" (Eph. 3:9). John says, "Behold what manner of agape" (1 John 3:1--that's a refreshing sight to see!). Even Pontius Pilate preaches one unforgettable sermon: "Behold the man!" (John 19:5).
Here's Good News: "a great reformatory movement" is coming, for God "will pour upon [His people and leaders] ... the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced" (Zech. 12:10). Behold that sight and you can never be the same lukewarm person!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Dial Daily Bread: Feeling Incompetent as a Witness for Jesus?
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
"I'd love to help somebody else but I don't know what to say!" If you bewail your incompetence as a "witness" for Jesus, welcome to the many who yearn to live for a purpose. They dread meeting Jesus at last with empty arms, a useless life. Let me try to encourage you:
(1) There is a prayer that Jesus HAS to answer, HAS to respond to; He can never say no. It's that of the man in Luke 11 who wakes his neighbor in the middle of the night banging on his door, "Lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him" (vss. 5-13). That's the prayer of the empty pantry, "asking to give" to someone else. You're not asking the Lord to give YOU something; you're asking Him to give you bread for somebody else. That prayer goes priority to the throne, and is always answered.
(2) It's the idea that permeates the "cry" of Jesus in John 7:37-39: "He who believes on Me, as the Scripture has said [Song of Solomon, that is], 'Out of his inmost soul will flow rivers of living water.'" If that "living water" is not flowing out of my own heart to refresh somebody else, it must mean that I don't "believe" on Him! Everyone who "believes" has the well of living water. Is unbelief the problem?
(3) Well, welcome again to the special "club" of fortunate people if you have begun to realize that your basic problem is that of ancient Israel--unbelief. Now you're ready to pray the prayer that can NEVER be denied: "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." Go kneel down beside the anxious father whose child is devil possessed (Mark 9:24). You can NEVER perish if you pray that prayer!
(4) You must FEEL, must realize, must confess, must know forever, your weakness before you CAN be "strong" (2 Cor. 12:8-10). Under heaven there is no substitute for the "broken and contrite heart" which God, fortunately different than we are, "will not despise" (Psalm 51:17).
(5) Yes, this means much less TV and novel-reading, and more hungering and thirsting for "righteousness." Kneel and tell the Lord your plate is empty; wait before Him, "wait, I say, on the Lord" (Psalm 27:13, 14). Don't rush off in a spin; give Him a chance. WAIT. Unbelief drains out of one's soul in a tiny drip. WAIT.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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"I'd love to help somebody else but I don't know what to say!" If you bewail your incompetence as a "witness" for Jesus, welcome to the many who yearn to live for a purpose. They dread meeting Jesus at last with empty arms, a useless life. Let me try to encourage you:
(1) There is a prayer that Jesus HAS to answer, HAS to respond to; He can never say no. It's that of the man in Luke 11 who wakes his neighbor in the middle of the night banging on his door, "Lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him" (vss. 5-13). That's the prayer of the empty pantry, "asking to give" to someone else. You're not asking the Lord to give YOU something; you're asking Him to give you bread for somebody else. That prayer goes priority to the throne, and is always answered.
(2) It's the idea that permeates the "cry" of Jesus in John 7:37-39: "He who believes on Me, as the Scripture has said [Song of Solomon, that is], 'Out of his inmost soul will flow rivers of living water.'" If that "living water" is not flowing out of my own heart to refresh somebody else, it must mean that I don't "believe" on Him! Everyone who "believes" has the well of living water. Is unbelief the problem?
(3) Well, welcome again to the special "club" of fortunate people if you have begun to realize that your basic problem is that of ancient Israel--unbelief. Now you're ready to pray the prayer that can NEVER be denied: "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." Go kneel down beside the anxious father whose child is devil possessed (Mark 9:24). You can NEVER perish if you pray that prayer!
(4) You must FEEL, must realize, must confess, must know forever, your weakness before you CAN be "strong" (2 Cor. 12:8-10). Under heaven there is no substitute for the "broken and contrite heart" which God, fortunately different than we are, "will not despise" (Psalm 51:17).
(5) Yes, this means much less TV and novel-reading, and more hungering and thirsting for "righteousness." Kneel and tell the Lord your plate is empty; wait before Him, "wait, I say, on the Lord" (Psalm 27:13, 14). Don't rush off in a spin; give Him a chance. WAIT. Unbelief drains out of one's soul in a tiny drip. WAIT.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Dial Daily Bread: Can Anything Good Be Said for Halloween?
Can anything good be said for Halloween?
Not really, except to confess the honest truth that it is purest paganism that has wormed its way into the supposedly Christian faith of many millions.
So the question resolves itself into a simpler one: can anything good be said for paganism itself? The Bible offers the repeated comment that paganism imported into the supposedly Christian church is "Babylon" from which the sincere follower of Jesus Christ is sternly commanded forthwith to "come out!" (Rev. 14:8; 18:1-4).
But let's use sanctified common sense in the process: just to come down hard on Halloween alone and neglect the real significance of paganism entrenched in professed Christian thought is to repeat the whole sad apostasy from its beginning.
The story takes us to Daniel, the one book of the Old Testament that Jesus earnestly urges us to "read" and "understand" (Matt. 24:15). In chapters 8:11-13; 11:31, and 12:11, 12 paganism figures as impacting itself on the captive people of God taken to a 70-year exile in ancient Babylon.
As one who spent years in a missionary "exile" in eastern Uganda, this writer can testify: the endless night-time pagan singing and dancing and drum-beating are a continual harassment when you have to be a next-door neighbor. There is evidence in Daniel that the Israelites in captivity in literal Babylon had an idiom for what endlessly surrounded them: "the continual in transgression."
The literal Hebrew is: ha tamid be pesha, the word tamid being translated as "daily," and ha as the article, "the." It occurs those five times in Daniel, and nowhere else in Scripture in that way.
The Hebrew verb in 8:11-13 is rum, which does not mean primarily "take away" but "lift up," "exalt." The Catholic and Protestant Christians who lived through the end of the 1260 years of papal oppression in 1798 A.D. recognized "the daily" as paganism which became exalted in the early apostasy of much professed Christianity. The result has been described as "baptized paganism." The classic volume, The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan, describes the process as "paganism incorporated" into Christianity (p. 50).
For interested readers, Dial Daily Bread has a little paper on the subject, "Have We Followed Cunningly Devised Fables?" which can be obtained by e-mail. Hit your reply button, and ask for "Fables."
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Not really, except to confess the honest truth that it is purest paganism that has wormed its way into the supposedly Christian faith of many millions.
So the question resolves itself into a simpler one: can anything good be said for paganism itself? The Bible offers the repeated comment that paganism imported into the supposedly Christian church is "Babylon" from which the sincere follower of Jesus Christ is sternly commanded forthwith to "come out!" (Rev. 14:8; 18:1-4).
But let's use sanctified common sense in the process: just to come down hard on Halloween alone and neglect the real significance of paganism entrenched in professed Christian thought is to repeat the whole sad apostasy from its beginning.
The story takes us to Daniel, the one book of the Old Testament that Jesus earnestly urges us to "read" and "understand" (Matt. 24:15). In chapters 8:11-13; 11:31, and 12:11, 12 paganism figures as impacting itself on the captive people of God taken to a 70-year exile in ancient Babylon.
As one who spent years in a missionary "exile" in eastern Uganda, this writer can testify: the endless night-time pagan singing and dancing and drum-beating are a continual harassment when you have to be a next-door neighbor. There is evidence in Daniel that the Israelites in captivity in literal Babylon had an idiom for what endlessly surrounded them: "the continual in transgression."
The literal Hebrew is: ha tamid be pesha, the word tamid being translated as "daily," and ha as the article, "the." It occurs those five times in Daniel, and nowhere else in Scripture in that way.
The Hebrew verb in 8:11-13 is rum, which does not mean primarily "take away" but "lift up," "exalt." The Catholic and Protestant Christians who lived through the end of the 1260 years of papal oppression in 1798 A.D. recognized "the daily" as paganism which became exalted in the early apostasy of much professed Christianity. The result has been described as "baptized paganism." The classic volume, The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan, describes the process as "paganism incorporated" into Christianity (p. 50).
For interested readers, Dial Daily Bread has a little paper on the subject, "Have We Followed Cunningly Devised Fables?" which can be obtained by e-mail. Hit your reply button, and ask for "Fables."
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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