Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Almost all Christian churches are talking about the second coming of Christ, and the possibility of the imminent end of the world. Yes, it does make good sense to talk about preparing for such an event! People living on the Atlantic Seaboard, for example, are urged to prepare for hurricanes. Can't we apply good sense to preparing for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ?
There are many pastors and theologians who tell us that there is no special preparation--just live a good life and do the best you can and you'll be ready either to die or to meet Jesus and be translated when He comes.
But even a child can see that there is something special involved: there is a final exam coming, a great test that Revelation 13 says is "the mark of the beast" that in one final issue will divide the sheep from the goats forever. The "mark of the beast" will involve "great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Matt. 24:24). Never in history have God's people met such a test! Jesus said, "Ye shall be hated of all nations for My name's sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another" (vss. 9, 10). In other words, many who now profess to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will then turn traitor and accept the mark of the beast. And Paul sobers us even more when he warns us, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12). Peter was cocksure he would never "fall," but a girl in or barely out of her teens overthrew him.
The Good News is that there is an alternative to the mark of the beast: the seal of God (Rev. 7:1-4). That involves a special work of purification of the heart: "When [Christ] shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 3:2, 3). On this great cosmic Day of Atonement, that precisely is the work of the great High Priest. Don't stop Him, don't resist Him. Cooperate with Him!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 31, 1998.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
When you think about it, you marvel: whenever Jesus worked a miracle to give people food or drink, He always needed the willing cooperation of some human beings. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee, He needed the help of the servants to go get the wine jars and fill them with water. Then He chose not to wave His hand and suddenly fill all the guests’ glasses with supernatural wine. Instead, working behind the scenes with the servants, He gave the party wine.
In the two miracles of feeding the thousands, it’s interesting that in each instance He waited for the cooperation of the disciples before He could feed the multitudes. In the case of the “four thousand” (Matt. 15:32-39), when He expressed His compassion on the people being so hungry that they might collapse on their journeys home, He first asked the disciples, “How many loaves do you have?” Apparently they scurried off to inquire and came back, “Seven, and a few little fish.” Very well, now He can do something; “He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples [He needs them to be the waiters!] and the disciples gave to the multitude.”
In feeding the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44; John 6:5-14), again He was dependent on the little boy’s gift of his “five barley loaves and two fishes” (obviously the lunch his mother had made for him; he was so enthralled listening to Jesus he forgot to eat it). The lesson seems clear: although Jesus could “create” bread from nothing as He created the world in the beginning, now the rules in the great controversy require that He be dependent on willing human cooperation for something to begin with!
Astounding as the truth may be, the Savior actually needs you! Perk up, lift up your drooping head; you are important in His great plan for the world.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 1, 2005.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The word "gospel" is a common one bandied about by almost everyone. It has come to cover all kinds of ideas.
But what the apostles actually preached is the only valid, authentic idea. What they said must be read in their own context, fully, not partially read and distorted to a wrong definition of that word.
Paul said that a correct understanding of the word "gospel," if it is believed, "is the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16). It converted very "difficult" people when Paul preached it (1 Cor. 6:9, 10).
What happened at Corinth under Paul's preaching will happen again on a worldwide scale in the proclamation of the Loud Cry of Revelation 18. So, let us inquire--what was the "gospel" Paul preached there?
He tells us: "When I came to you, [it] was not with excellence of speech or of wisdom, … I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). I used to wonder: was that a fanatical, monomaniacal trip he was on: preaching boring sermons?
If so, why did the people crowd in to hear him, and then embrace his "gospel" with "power"? There's an answer: there is something in "the truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:5, 14) of the cross that triumphs over all the imitation, false "gospels" Satan can invent.
"Christ crucified" meant infinitely more than anything the world's great thinkers could come up with: the apostles' idea was that He died the world's second death. That was an idea no one had ever thought of at that time; no one had imagined that there was a love anywhere in the universe so great as that.
Even today, among the vast concourse of professed Christians, there are precious few who conceive of such an idea; and Muslims have not thought of it, or Hindus, or anyone. Even Jews have had great trouble embracing the idea. But it moved hearts and motivated people to take up their cross and follow Him "whithersoever" He led.
What about you?
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 1, 2007.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Someone asked a thought-provoking question: what does it mean to be "in Christ"?
Says Paul: "We judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died" (2 Cor. 5:14). Were we "in Christ" when He died on the cross? Does that mean we go 50/50 with Him in saving ourselves? Paul adds, "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20), "buried with Him through baptism into death" (Rom. 6:4), "united together in the likeness of His death," "crucified with Him," "died with Christ," so that we are "alive to God in Christ Jesus" (vss. 5-11).
The "together" idea seems clear. As humans we are all "in Adam," that is, when he sinned in Eden "we" sinned so that "in Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22). But likewise, "even so, in Christ shall all be made alive." There has to be a legal framework of the gospel--Christ our "second Adam."
But here's another statement that many overlook. Right next to the "crucified with Christ" statement Paul reminds the Galatians: "Before [your] eyes Jesus Christ hath been set forth, crucified among you" (3:1). We "behold" Him so vividly that we identify with Him. A bond is established, we are "united" with Him. We empathize with Him; we realize that it is we who deserve to be crucified. "In Him" we kneel in Gethsemane with Him, intimately together. We are not like careless children who have no solemn appreciation of what it cost Him to save us. When a child suffers agony, does not a parent suffer too? A parent enters into his child, as it were, feels with him, "identifies."
Christ on His cross dies our second death; what the word "faith" means is that we identify with Him, as though we are inside His own soul. We "reckon" ourselves "dead" with Him, says Paul (Rom. 6:11). It is clear in Ephesians 1: "in Him we have redemption through His blood" (vs. 7), not a heartless exchange as when we sign an insurance policy, but a heartfelt identity as a Bride forever identifies with her Bridegroom (Rev. 19:7, 8). Christ's command to "abide in Me" expresses that closeness of intimacy. But please note: ALL OF THIS IS BY FAITH ALONE, NOT AN IOTA OF MERIT ATTACHED THERETO. Our identity with Him is totally heart-appreciation, not 1/99, in no way self-salvation even .00000000001 percent.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 22, 1999.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
We are often embarrassed for each other, and for our heroes. Even Abraham Lincoln had some warts; and of course our Bible heroes almost all had some faults, like David with his Bathsheba and Peter with his denial of Christ. But have you ever been embarrassed for God? Is there any skeleton in His history-closet that we are afraid to bring out in the open?
There are people who ask us solemnly, "How can you worship a God who destroyed the world in a flood? Who ordered genocide for the Canaanites? Who burned up Sodom and Gomorrah for what is common behavior of today? Who ordered stoning for a man who gathered firewood on Sabbath?"
I am nobody to try to defend God in a court case. But if He needs a character witness before the jury of modern man, I would want to offer my tiny effort in His defense:
(1) The antediluvians, fresh from the Garden of Eden, were "all ... corrupt" to the point of making any survival on planet earth impossible for all future generations (Gen. 6:12, 13). They became devils in human form which are always worse than devils in angelic form. God gave them an evangelistic campaign of 120 years; they rejected His grace. From love for you and me, God was forced to start again.
(2) Likewise, the Canaanites were a cancer on the human race that was spreading to the world's lymph nodes. God gave them four hundred years of constant Holy Spirit ministry, but they did despite to His Spirit of grace. From love for the human race, God was forced to dispossess them and allow a people to take their place through whom He purposed to send a Savior, who was to be a blessing "to all families of the earth."
(3) The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a story of almost incredible grace. God would have spared the city if only "ten righteous" people could have been found in it. No other God ("god") would have been so compassionate when life or death was involved, even though they were like anthrax to the world. They too did despite to the Spirit of grace.
(4) And the man gathering firewood? There's more to the story than the brief details tell us. Read it in Numbers 15:32-36, and see what you think.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 19, 1999.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Christianity is in a contest with the great non-Christian religions of humanity--Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, paganism. Which system of belief can capture the good will and devotion of the human race?
Christianity has the disadvantage of a serious scandal: it is fractured into nearly innumerable sects, philosophies, and denominations. Hence the constant effort to reunite them all into "one church." The Roman Church professes to be the best equipped to accomplish this objective; during the Middle Ages it "was given" the supreme power of the state to enforce conformity to its version of "one body, … one faith, one baptism" (see Eph. 4:4, 5), even to the point of imprisonment and sentence to martyred death of those who conscientiously dissented.
There are basically two versions of Christianity that center in two views of Christ, the Founder of Christianity. The two contrasting views clash in public contest as far back as the time of ancient Iraq's Babylon. There was the then-popular idea of divinity "whose dwelling is not with flesh" (Dan. 2:11). This concept of "God" was confronted with the opposing view supported in principle by the prophet Daniel that "the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them" (see Rev. 21:3). Daniel believed the biblical concept of divinity, who enters the stream of humanity in the form of an incarnated Savior whose "name [is] Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matt. 1:23).
So the world has to decide: who is the true Christ? The One who has taken upon His sinless nature our sinful nature, who became truly human, one with us, "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15), living a righteous life in sinful flesh, saving humanity from sin instead of in it, condemning sin in our sinful flesh (see Rom. 8:3, 4), dying humanity's "second death" and justifying the fallen human race in Himself? Or is the true christ "the christ" of the great Immaculate Conception dogma that cancels his descent from the fallen Adam, that provides him an "exemption" from the DNA inheritance of "all men," that excuses him from our temptations in the flesh, that separates him from us?
On this clear-cut distinction hinges the great final issue that will confront humanity.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 22, 2004.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
It took an earthquake to alert the man to ask the question: "What must I do to be saved?" (He was on the verge of suicide, for "he … was about to kill himself," but Paul had told him not to do it, Acts 16:25-30.) (There's a "health reform" message embedded here--value the life God gave you, stop any unhealthful practice; let your mind be clear so you can understand the voice of God; stop shortening your life.)
Many "evangelists" will try to answer the man's question of what to "do to be saved." Paul's immediate answer was, "'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved'" (vs. 31; that's the inspired answer!).
But what does it mean to "believe"?
(1) It's something you "do" with the heart (Rom. 10:10). Your choice is involved.
(2) It's not a terrorism ultimatum; it's a heart-appreciation of the love involved in the text, "God so loved that He gave ..." (John 3:16-18).
(3) Ponder that "love." Let it in. It "casts out fear" (Rom. 5:5; 1 John 4:18).
(4) There's a better motivation for serving the Lord than terror of the Lake of Fire, and it involves that love (2 Cor. 5:14-21).
(5) But believing also includes doing, for you "come to Me," says Jesus (Matt. 11:18-30).
(6) You can't "come" unless you humble your proud heart, for He is "meek and lowly in heart," He adds. That repels or attracts you.
(7) "He who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6). You simply must believe that He is already your Friend, and also your Savior from the second death (2:9).
(8) You join the believing thief who is crucified with Jesus, and pray, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom" (Luke 23:42).
(9) "You mean I must 'join' riff-raff people, like that thief?" Yes, that's where we all belong (Rom. 3:23). The only other alternative is to join the other thief who was also crucified with Jesus.
We cannot evade making this choice. The whole world will eventually stand with the one or the other, and this will be included in the mark of the beast or seal of God choice all will make (Rev. 13:15-17; 6:1-4). Let's permit the Savior to "draw" us (John 12:32, 33)! Don't resist Him.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 28, 2006.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Some people are not easy to love, but we're told to love our enemies (Luke 6:35). How can we love someone who is ornery, difficult, sandpapery--unpleasant to be around?
Maybe a better way to ask the question is, How can we learn to LIKE such a person? Or does God expect us to?
It's not make-believe we want; this is no job for a movie actor. We don't want empty pretense, just acting nice and proper to someone's face when deep in your gut you detest him isn't being like Jesus.
A good example to think about is Mary Magdalene--possessed by "seven devils" (Mark 16:9). A woman so "possessed" could be more ornery than a man so possessed. In her case we know that Jesus reasoned from cause to effect; He understood why she was so horrible. He understood the secret irritant that she had experienced. Therefore He knew that her being mean and bitter was not what she really wanted to be deep down. In fact, she had lost control and was actually saying and doing things that she herself detested. That's what it means to be "possessed." The devil--no, seven devils--had made her a captive.
You probably would have a hard time finding anyone more difficult to be near than Mary Magdalene. When Jesus met her, He understood that someone had treated her very unfairly, had driven her to desperation, had overwhelmed her with a temptation to be resentful that she could not handle. Jesus actually put Himself in her place (that's what He has done for each of us). In fact, when He had been baptized by John the Baptist He had truly taken our guilt upon Himself, took the experience of repentance in our behalf. In this simple process of becoming one of us, Jesus found the key to unlock Mary's prison door. And in so doing He transformed her into a lovable person!
Maybe that's a key that you and I need to discover.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 24, 2003.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Ask anyone and they’ll tell you they'd rather live under the New Covenant than under the Old. But what does that mean? What practical, day-by-day benefit or difference can it be?
The New Covenant impinges on you directly, personally, individually. It’s the promises that the Lord God made to Abraham and his children to give them everything--the sky if you please: the whole earth for “an everlasting possession,” plus the everlasting life to go along with it, plus the righteousness necessary to inhabit the new earth (2 Peter 3:13). And on top of it all, meanwhile, the happiest life possible here and now while you await the coming of Christ and His new earth.
All seven of God’s promises to Abraham are yours (Gen. 12:2, 3). And best of them all, the promise to make you to BE a blessing to other people as long as you live and wherever you go (“thou shalt BE a blessing, ... and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”). Yes, that’s promised to you.
It’s the full spectrum of the 23rd Psalm placed as a gift directly at your feet, as though it was written especially for you. Henceforth you “shall not want.” “No good thing will [the Lord] withhold from [you].” Beyond your wildest dreams, “the Lord will give grace and glory” (Psalm 84:11; read the entire psalm, it’s “amiable” news).
You were born with a natural proclivity to DIS-believe all this Good News (I assume you were born on planet Earth). At best, you were born a descendant of Abraham and Sarah, both of whom spent the greater part of their lives in disbelief of the New Covenant and in submission to the Old Covenant (Abraham took Hagar, and Sarah was bitter all those years until she finally repented and became pregnant with Isaac).
Probably you’ve spent years walking in the shadows of doubt. And now it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done to believe all those promises wholeheartedly. (That’s the only hard thing about being saved eternally--learning to believe like Abraham did.) But thank God you have a new day; you can CHOOSE to believe, and pray with the distraught father of Mark 9, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” (vs. 24). God will never despise that prayer!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 9, 2004.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
-------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
What is THE top news story for today? Every morning when you log on to your computer, you get a glimpse of what your Internet browser considers the most important or most spectacular news item of the day (or it's the biggest headline in your morning paper). But back of it all, what does that heavenly Father of us all, the God who says He is "love" (agape), tell us is the great News behind the news? Answer: the central message of the Book of Revelation, "the everlasting gospel" being proclaimed to every "nation, kindred, tongue, and people" (14:6, 7). And what is the purpose of this most highly acclaimed activity? To prepare people for the most climactic event of all history--the second coming of Jesus (vss. 15, 16).
Is this message getting through to the people of the world, or is it being buried under an overwhelming mass of confusion published by the media, or even by a similar mass of confusion known as "organized religion"?
The answer does not depend on mere human observation, for even the New York Times doesn't know what is "all the news that's fit to print." Jesus said, "The kingdom of God cometh not by observation" (Luke 17:20). In His day, what served as "the media" tried to ignore the greatest News of all time, but the Holy Spirit was working quietly, surely, in what Jesus was doing. So today, the "everlasting gospel" proclaimed by those three angels of Revelation 14 is getting through in different ways.
The best way to know for sure is to consider the character of God Himself--He is "love" (agape); that is, He will not permit the final, cataclysmic events of earth's history ("the seven last plagues," Rev. 16) to come, until people have had a reasonable chance to prepare. And that means, they must hear the message of Good News, of His "much more abounding grace." You can't believe that "God is love" (agape) if you think He has gone to sleep. You must recognize that every angel in heaven is intensely active, moving upon the hearts of human beings everywhere.
God's "office" in heaven is the central command post of the vast worldwide war between Christ and Satan, as real as the war between them when Jesus was here on earth 2000 years ago. It will not be recognized "by observation," but it's the most real newsworthy happening today. Read about it in Revelation 14-19; let the same Holy Spirit that inspired the Book speak to your heart in its pages.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 25, 1999.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Look at all the people in the world who don't know who they are! The gospel enables you to look at them in a new way. Even those who do not acknowledge God at all are enjoying life because Christ gave it to them, in Himself. They don't know it, but they would be dead at this very moment if He had not given His life for them. He is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Christ says He gave Himself "for the life of the world" (John 6:51). In verse 33 He says He "giveth life unto the world." And, according to a wise writer, verse 53 says that all these people who don't know about Jesus and His sacrifice, even the atheists, are eating the Lord's Supper without realizing it: "Never one, saint or sinner, eats his daily food, but he is nourished by the body and the blood of Christ."
Is this why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that "henceforth [he] knows no one according to the flesh" (vs. 16)? He looks at people in a new way! He has just said in verses 14 and 15 that when Christ died for all, that means that when He died, "all died." They may not know it, but it's still true. For you and me to know something doesn't make it true; it was true before we knew it! Every one of these people out in the world is enjoying what he enjoys of life totally as the result of Christ's sacrifice for him--even his mashed potatoes and gravy today!
Paul's point in 2 Corinthians 5 is that it's time these people know Who they have to thank for all these blessings! So he says, "God has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation" (vs. 18). In other words, we are to tell people who they are--they are people already redeemed from the grave by His sacrifice; at this moment, they belong in the grave, but they are alive because of Him.
Now, says Paul, "Be ye reconciled to God"! Believe it! Say "Thank You Lord for saving my soul!" And when you understand it and believe it, you simply cannot go on living for yourself, but now you're constrained to live unto Him who died for you and rose again.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 7, 1997.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
What does it mean in these last days to become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?
(1) You believe God is, and that He rewards your devotion and hears your prayers; that He is your heavenly Father, that He loves you so much He gave His dearest treasure to become your Savior--His only Son; and that He stays with you forever through the on-going gift of the Holy Spirit.
(2) You have begun an eternity-filled and growing heart-appreciation of the love that led Jesus Christ to die your second death on His cross; that love has begun to "constrain" you to live "henceforth" unto Him and not for "self."
(3) Your baptism is a sign to the world that you turn away from its ways and sinful pleasures; you have now taken up your cross to follow Jesus.
(4) You believe that the One who died for you was resurrected and now lives forever as your personal High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, your Attorney on your side, defending you from the attacks of Satan.
(5) You have begun to love the Bible as God's personal word to you; and you ask Him to deepen that love and confidence from now on forever.
(6) You have begun to love God's law, His ten commandments as ten promises of victory over temptation Satan may bring against you; you love obedience to the fourth, keeping holy His blessed seventh-day Sabbath as a precious gift from Him.
(7) The "blessed hope" you cherish is the imminent personal, literal, visible second coming of Jesus and you want to help others also to get ready.
(8) You thank the Lord for the "gifts" He has given to His "body" on earth, the church--one of which is the living gift of prophecy, evidence of His on-going love.
(9) Since His church is His "body" on earth, you want to remain forever one of its loyal members, supporting it with tithes and offerings returned to the Lord.
(10) You believe that your physical body is the "temple" the Holy Spirit dwells in; you choose to keep it in health and purity, for it was purchased by the sacrifice of Christ.
(11) You ask to be baptized by being buried in the water as a declaration to the world that you are now "crucified with Christ" and you are risen with Him to a new life.
(12) You seek fellowship in that "church" that Revelation singles out as "the remnant" which "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
(13) You are happy forever "in Christ" living under His new covenant of grace.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 10, 2007.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The Muslim and the Bible ideas of prayer to God are poles apart. Nothing in the Bible prescribes a rigid regime of bowing five times a day toward any place on earth. The prophet Daniel opened his windows toward Jerusalem and "kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God," but it was under special circumstances (6:10); and David says, "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud" (Psalm 55:17). But the Bible imposes on us no such detailed physical exercise. Rather, it teaches us, "Thank God without ceasing," and "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 2:13; 5:17). Jesus says, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch ... abide[s] in the vine" (John 15:4).
Abiding thus in Christ means a heart-union with Him that keeps one always in an attitude of prayer. This is the direct result of understanding that the character of God is "love," or agape. "Abide in Christ" and immediately your heart responds to God as your true Father. When the Father threw His arms around His Son at His baptism in the River Jordan and said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17), He threw His arms around the human race at the same time and "adopted" us "in Christ."
Paul said, "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, ... having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, ... to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:3-6). Understand this, believe it, and lo, something happens in your soul: you "have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15). Therefore, "because ye are sons [and daughters], God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:6). "Abba" is the heart cry of a child; if you find that cry in your heart, rejoice. The Spirit says you have been "adopted."
This is worlds beyond groveling before a demanding Deity. Jesus says that prayer is a secret fellowship with His Father. He even says that praying "in the corners of the streets" is hypocrisy (Matt. 6:5). "When you pray, go into your closet and shut your door" is the idea (vs. 6), and for sure, lift your heart to God as to "our Father in heaven."
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 5, 2002.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
You'd think it would be the easiest thing in the world to do--just believe, "God loves me." Actually, it's hard to believe, maybe the hardest step we've ever had to take.
People much wiser than I am say so. Paul says, "The carnal [natural] mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). And yes, everybody has the problem for he also says that the whole world is alienated from God for he begs everybody, "Be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20). He adds, there is "not one" of us who "understands," who is naturally "at one" with God; we've every one of us strayed out of the path (Rom. 3:11-12). The father in Mark 9 burst into tears, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief" (vs. 24). He is us.
We're afraid to pray, "Lord, take charge of my life," for we think He will lead us where we won't be happy. Don't kid yourself into thinking you're naturally better than all the rest of us; you and I need to be changed from the inside out so we can be "reconciled to God." Then and only then can we pray without being a hypocrite, "Lord, please take charge of my life." You won't be afraid to let Him hold you by your hand as He has promised, "I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not" (Isa. 41:13).
A very wise writer once wrote that we hesitate to consecrate ourselves to Him because we fear the consequences of a total surrender to Him. Deep down inside, there lurks that inarticulate idea that our Savior is Mr. Kill-joy. Ever since we were born some people have unconsciously taught us that--they didn't mean to do it but they did.
What to do? Take a day off for prayer. But if you think you're too busy, you can't, then take an hour. Yes, give Him an hour--alone. An hour, not five minutes. Kneel. Read a Psalm of David. Ask, seek, find. An hour--alone. Wait for Him.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 3, 2002.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
"Does God forgive sins before we commit them?" Sounds like a crazy question to ask. The very idea sounds like it comes from some nut. Can your State Police give you a "Not guilty" verdict before you even get a ticket for speeding? Is God handing out what amounts to advance permission for all kinds of sin ahead of time? (Like the famous Tetzel's "Indulgences" in the time of Luther?)
Of course, the answer is no.
But there may be solid truth that is getting denied here in this discussion. And thoughtful followers of Jesus do not want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. (a) We know Christ died for the world, not just for the good people in it (of whom there are none; John 3:16; 6:51). (b) We know that He died the second death that is due to "every man" (Heb. 2:9). (c) Thus He has paid the penalty that the law demands for every sin (Rom. 6:23). (d) We know the Father has adopted the human race in Christ (Eph. 1:3-6). (e) We know Christ has reversed the "condemnation" that "all men" receive from Adam with "justification unto life" for the same "all men" (Rom. 5:15-18; the New English Bible translates it as "a judicial verdict of acquittal" for "all men"). (f) This is why He can send His rain on both the just and the unjust and can treat "all men" as though they had never sinned when in fact they have (Matt. 5:45). (g) We know that grace is unmerited favor, and that God has "freely" justified "all" by that grace (Rom. 3:23, 24).
This is "the baby." Don't throw it out. It's the atonement.
The "bathwater" is the wild idea that this amounts to breaking down the law. Paul says, No: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law" (vs. 31). The realization that the Son of God has died your second death, has paid the full price for your soul's eternal salvation, has even gone to hell for you in "emptying Himself" (Phil. 2:5-8), captures your heart forever; and the new covenant promise is therein fulfilled because God's holy law is forever written in your heart. Death before disobedience is your forever choice!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 19, 2001.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Quarrels and contention come because of our love of self, says the apostle James (4:1-3). Whether it's a marital, family, neighborly, or even theological quarrel, we feel the pressing desire to justify ourselves by our defense of what we did or said, shielding ourselves from accusation.
How infantile we can become!
But thank God, there is a growing-up process now taking place. We have come to Daniel's "time of the end" (11:35, 12:4). It's not only a time when "signs" in heaven and earth proclaim that the coming of the Lord draws nigh (James 5:8), but it's a time for spiritual growth in preparation for meeting the Lord of glory face to face at His second coming. A blessed time!
The preparation process is the experience of "justification by faith." We don't seek to justify ourselves; we wait upon the Lord to do it for us, in other words, we wait for justification-by-faith. That's the meaning of David's telling us, "Wait on the Lord, … wait, I say, on the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass" (37:5). It will take Him some time, but oh, it's so much better than our fighting our way to "justification" on our own and winning our quarrel (we think)! "He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday" (vs. 6). "Wait patiently for Him" (vs .7).
In this "time of the end" there is also the final cosmic Day of Atonement, the time for the special work of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. It's the ministry of the Savior as High Priest in preparing a people to stand in the final moments of time. "In your patience you possess your souls," says the Savior, speaking of this time (Luke 21:19); but patience is impossible unless there is faith--unless we believe "the truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:5).
Whether you're a teen or a centenarian, this is "present truth" (2 Peter 1:12).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 22, 2006.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There is a Bible teaching not generally admitted by most Christian churches: "The Pre-Advent Judgment." It is a subject that sets apart as unique the Christian people who believe this teaching (also known as "The Investigative Judgment"). Scholars of different churches have labeled it an "extra-biblical teaching."
This derogatory label has of course been embarrassing for a people who really want to believe "the Bible and the Bible only."
That is my personal ideal of faith; I have long been impressed by Isaiah 26:2, 3, "Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in. You [Lord] will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You."
However, it is impossible for anyone to believe in a "pre-Advent judgment" unless he also believes in the resurrection from the dead as the Bible presents it. When someone who believes in Jesus dies, he "sleeps in Jesus" until "the first resurrection" (1Thess. 4:16, 17; Rev. 20:5).
Then, as surely as 2 + 2 = 4, there must be some kind of judgment before that resurrection at the second coming of Jesus to determine who of those multitudes who are in the grave shall be the privileged ones to be called from their sleep by the awakening voice of Jesus, and who shall be left to sleep on for the 1000 years until the second resurrection [of damnation] pictured in Revelation 20:5, 7-10.
To this simple-minded reader of the Bible, the words of Jesus establish the truth of some kind of a judgment that must take place before the second coming of Jesus: "Those who are counted worthy to attain ... the resurrection from the dead, ... can [not] die anymore, ... being sons of the resurrection" (Luke 20:35, 36). To those who will be living when Jesus returns, He says they too will experience the pre-Advent judgment, "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy ... to stand before the Son of Man" (21:36).
Does it make sense to you? If so, "pray always."
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 2, 2006.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Do you feel harassed and burdened with all the things you have to do? You may be young enough to carry on without collapsing, or you may feel that you simply must have a pill now and then to get through the day. And yes, you do try to squeeze in some Bible reading or something from "the Lord's messenger," but then, the more you read the more guilty you feel for not getting everything done that is "duty."
Well, here's a little tidbit from the Lord Jesus Himself that's different: "To you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, ... who have not known the depths of Satan, ... I will put upon you no other burden" (Rev. 2:24). This shows that the Lord Jesus knows what it's like to be human and heavily laden. I don't understand too well the particular context in "Thyatira" that called forth this compassionate little remark, but you have the full right to think of Jesus as being sympathetic to you.
You may have thought of the Holy Spirit as constantly convicting you of sin (John 16:8--that's true! But it's also "comfort," 14:16!), prodding you always to work harder, to do more, to pray more, to study your Bible more, to pray more, to pay more tithe, give more offerings, go on more missionary journeys, get up earlier, diet more, and you feel exhausted spiritually as well as physically. Is it the Lord's will for you?
Stop and think a moment: the Lord Jesus promises He will put a limit on the "burdens" HE will lay upon you. He even insists that HIS "burden is light." And the closer you let Him get to you, His yoke becomes more "easy" (Matt. 11:28-30). Your lifelong entanglement with a works program may incline you to think this is heresy; but it's a side of Jesus you need to realize. He's your "Lord," yes; but He's also your Friend.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 19, 2005.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
["Dial Daily Bread," September 14, 2001.]
You wake up the morning after, wishing, Oh God, that it were just a nightmare, a Hollywood horror movie! And then it sinks in, it was real. The world is different now. Those who pay to watch horror movies have gotten their money's worth--for free. Oh that horror movies could forever end--if we watch them we place ourselves in the biblical judgment of those who "love violence" (Psalm 11:5). The holy prophet pleads with us, don't look (Isa. 33:15), nor let our children see it.
But now the world's children HAVE seen it, in undreamed-of horror. "We" were those running down the canyon streets to escape the falling fiery debris; "we" were no better than they; we corporately identified with them.
Only one event in history can match it in emotional impact--the 486 B.C. burning of Solomon's holy temple and the wanton destruction of "our" precious Holy City by the Babylonians. Think of yourself as one of "God's chosen people" transfixed by watching what you always thought was impossible. Where was He "that keepeth Israel [who] shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalm 121:4)? Why did He let this "impossible" judgment happen?
The other passage of Scripture that suddenly comes into focus is what we never thought would be real in our lifetime: the sudden destruction "in one day" of "that great city" of Revelation 18 when it falls into the sea like a giant millstone. "Alas, alas, that great city!" (9-16).
Not only is American pride humbled, but so is that of the whole world that has gloried in "Babylon's riches" symbolized by glittering giant skyscrapers. An appropriate Bible chapter to read today is chapter 3 of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, written after the destruction of Jerusalem: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. ... He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. ... Let us search and try our ways, and turn again unto the Lord" (22-40).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 14, 2001.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Someone wrote asking for "a clear definition of faith and of 'agape' also." This was my answer:
(1) Agape is a different kind of love than any we know by nature. It never comes through the DNA; we're never born with it. One exception: Jesus, for "God is agape (1 John 4:8, and He was God in human flesh).
(2) It must be installed in the human heart like a radio is installed in a car (see Rom. 5:5).
(3) It's a love that is eternal, not fragile like our loves (1 Cor. 13:8).
(4) It's the love that would prefer to go to hell and be lost forever rather than let us perish (Heb. 2:9; that "death" He "tasted" is the second one; Rev. 2:11).
(5) The death that Christ died was the death under the "curse of God" (Gal. 3:13; compare Deut. 21:22, 23; that's why the Sanhedrin wanted Pilate to crucify Him, not merely stab Him with a sword or cut His head off).
(6) Therefore hell is the measure of agape; that's how far it went to save us.
(7) Popular "Christianity" cannot grasp this for they believe in natural immortality.
(8) Therefore God gives us a special mission: to proclaim what happened on the cross.
(9) When an honest heart "comprehends" this (see Eph. 3:14-21), one is moved by it, he appreciates what it cost the Son of God to save us. That heart-appreciation is the New Testament definition of faith (see Gal. 5:6; Luke 7:50). The stony heart is melted. (Read the hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.")
(10) The agape of Christ motivates the believer to live "henceforth" not for self, but unto the One who died thus for us (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). No end to sacrifices gladly borne! It's the only remedy for self-love.
(11) That means a totally new motivation that replaces the popular fear or hope-of-reward motivation.
(12) Which means living now under the new covenant.
(13) This is the essence of "the everlasting gospel" of Rev. 14:6-12 and 18:1-4. Human hearts "receive the atonement," that is, total reconciliation with God (Rom. 5:11).
(14) And you can't be "reconciled to God" and not at the same time be reconciled to His holy law.
(15) So, at last one lives a life of true obedience to all of His commandments (Rev. 14:12).
Does this make sense?
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 10, 2001.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Does the great God of heaven, the Creator of the cosmos, care about "time"? Isaiah 57 says that He is "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy" (vs. 15). Can anyone who "fills" eternity care about us down here who are immersed in the limitations of time? Care about us who get anxious because of delay?
To put the question in a different way, Does He care WHEN the second coming of Christ will take place? Or does Jesus have His own way of looking at "time" so that when He tells us "Behold, I come quickly" He actually means something wholly outside our perimeters of consciousness? As one writer to a respected church paper said, could it mean another 400 years before He comes? Has God used the words "quickly" and "soon" with a meaning totally different from what we humans can understand? If a father tells a little child, "I am coming home soon," when he means 50 years, is that not being deceptive?
(1) The Son of God stepped down low, relinquishing His prerogatives of divinity (but not His divinity!) and became one of us, "Emmanuel, … God with us." So, "in Christ," He has subjected Himself to the limitations of time, for our sake.
(2) He gave us the holy Sabbath, which is "time" set apart for sanctification. He "blessed and sanctified it." Yes, He that "inhabiteth eternity" is immersed in time!
(3) He has given us certain specific time prophecies in Daniel and the Revelation that make eminent good sense.
(4) Christ Himself is more desirous, I might say anxious, for "the marriage of the Lamb" to come, than we are. Christ in His glorified state is still human as well as divine, "with [us] always." He is an eager Bridegroom longing for the marriage day to come! In divine/human impatience, He finds it hard to "wait."
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 27, 2001.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
To un-subscribe click on this link: Unsubscribe me from this list
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The Bible records the faith-journeys that God’s people take--some on “cloud nine” in joy, and others down in the “depths” where they are in despair and long for death (cf. Psalm 130).
There’s nothing we need to say to encourage those on cloud nine; they’ve already attained; fellowship with Christ there is very nice if you’ve already arrived.
But Christ Himself is not yet on cloud nine; He is still fellowshipping with the others: “To this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite heart, and trembles at My word” (Isa. 66:2). “Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him [also, KJV] who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble [thank God for that!], and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made’” (57:15, 16).
When we look to the Lord and we see the slightest frown on His face toward us, we feel like lying down and dying. Moses said, “We have been consumed by your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before You. … All our days are passed away in Your wrath; we finish our years like a sigh” (Psalm 90:7-9). That’s as far as Moses can go.
But Isaiah has that gleam of immense comfort for us: the dear Lord knows how frail we are, how easily we slide into those “depths” when we “cry to you, O Lord” (Psalm 130:1). To “revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” is to save them from even wanting to die.
Our Lord and Savior went through that experience, for Psalm 40 is a Messianic psalm: this therefore is Jesus speaking: “I waited patiently (Heb, waited and waited and waited) for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay [the mud hole!] and set My feet upon a rock, and established My steps. He has put a new song in My mouth--praise to our God; many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord” (vss.1-3).
Think how marvelously the Father fulfilled that promise to young Jesus: “many,” yes, the “multitudes” at the Sermon on the Mount, the world itself, has “seen it and ... will trust in the Lord.”
Not one tear you have shed is wasted; not one heartache was in vain. The Father regards you as being as precious to Him as His own Son; “many” will find the pure gospel of truth in your experience!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 13, 2007.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Someone has asked that we document from responsible leaders of both Calvinism and Arminianism wherein they differ in their views of righteousness by faith.
The two ideas are distinctly different. Both try to understand what the Bible has to say about justification by faith but neither fully understands; and when God can find a church that believes the full truth, it will proclaim it so clearly that the Holy Spirit will bless as He blessed the apostles after Pentecost, to lighten the earth with the message.
Calvinism holds that whatever is God’s sovereign will must be fulfilled “on earth as it is in heaven” (to quote part of the Lord’s prayer). From this comes the idea that Christ must not be allowed to die for anyone in vain, so God must therefore predestinate some people to be saved eternally and nothing can alter that predestination. Calvinism would be right if it recognized that the Lord has predestinated everyone to be saved.
But many will at last be lost; therefore the strict Calvinist conclusion has to follow--that Christ did not die for the lost.
Arminianism arose as a protest: Christ must be allowed to offer salvation to all men, but He must have some resource to back up that offer. It follows that He must have died for all men; but that sacrifice does no one any good so far as salvation is concerned unless he first believes.
But this raises a problem: the salvation of those who believe therefore ultimately depends on their own initiative in believing. Thus in the end the idea is there, underground in every person’s “experience,” that he has had a vital part in his own salvation. The unconscious connection then inevitably produces lukewarmness in the world church. “Thou knowest not,” says Jesus (Rev. 3:17); if we believe we helped save ourselves, pride is inevitable.
Until this is resolved, generation after generation who anticipate the “soon” return of Christ go into their graves short of realizing the “blessed hope” of seeing Jesus return (John 14:1-3).
About 120 years ago two young men came up with a clearer understanding: Christ did die for “all men;” He did redeem “all men;” He gave the gift, not merely offered salvation, to “all men” in the same way that Esau’s birthright was his; no one could take it from him. And no one can be lost unless like Esau he has “despised” and “sold” what Christ has given him (Rom. 5:15-18; Heb. 12:16, 17). This truth puts an end to lukewarmness forever. Your soul is “constrained” by the love (agape) of Christ, for self is now “crucified with Him” (Gal. 2:20). And gladly so, no weepy regrets for what is given up for Him; the surrender is joyous.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 4, 2007.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
What's the use of getting up early to pray if your sins have broken your connection with God?
That's the problem that brought Jesus to this world, in order to solve it. He is our Savior FROM sin. He welcomes sinners to come, just as they are. "But the Bible says that the Lord is seeking people 'whose heart is perfect toward Him,' and I am not perfect!" (2 Chron. 16:9), someone says. That's the very reason why He invites you to come have a visit with Him, so you can talk to Him and He can communicate with you in response. In fact, the people whom He especially invites for such a reasoning session with Him are those whose "sins [are] as scarlet, ... red like crimson," for He says, "Come now, and let us reason together" (Isa. 1:18).
But someone objects, "The more I pray, the more sinful I feel myself to be!" Hold on, don't run away: that is how it should be, for the first work the Holy Spirit does when He comes to anyone is to "reprove ... of sin" (John 16:8). The truth is, that's a happy experience for you, for it is first-hand experiential evidence that God loves you individually, personally. That same passage in Isaiah that speaks of the Lord inviting us to come for a reasoning session with Him tells us what our problem is. We are "sick," like having a spiritual cancer: "Your head is already covered with wounds, and your heart and mind are sick. From head to foot there is not a healthy spot in your body" (vss. 5, 6, GNB).
That cannot be Bad News if you believe the Good News that you have a Physician "nigh at hand." If we never know our true condition, we are like the symphony orchestra conductor who collapsed in a heart attack on the podium before a vast crowd of concertgoers and died in the midst of his orchestra--we need the Holy Spirit to tell us the truth about our spiritual health before it's too late.
"But it's painful for me to hear my Heavenly Physician tell me the truth about my heart!" That's because you don't stay on your knees long enough for Him to heal you. You rush away to some "busy-ness" before you give the Great Physician time to heal your heart wounded with sin. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, you say "Amen!" You confess He is telling the truth; "I acknowledge my transgressions. ... Blot out all my iniquities, ... take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation" (Psalm 51:3-12).
Let Him do it! Don't resist Him!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 24, 2001.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Someone asked, "What's the difference between eating with faith and eating with unbelief? How can that make any difference in your health? So far as one's health is concerned, only physical factors make any difference, like the quality or quantity of the food eaten, or maybe eating too fast!"
Well, maybe we are not wise enough to explain it, but we accept the simple fact that the Bible states in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30: "Whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. … For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep."
The Good News Bible renders it, "That is why many of you are sick and weak, and several have died." In the Greek, the word "that" is not present, so that verse 28 reads in the original: "Let a person examine himself or herself, and so eat bread and drink of a cup." The "examining" has to do with "discerning" the Source of the food and drink we consume--the sacrifice of Christ. If we eat like arrogant pagans do, wolfing down our food in a spirit of pride ("I earned this! I deserve it!"), or in commercial haste ("Gotta hurry so I can make some more money!"), are we not degrading ourselves to the level of an animal that gobbles up its food with no awareness of Deity?
The Lord's Supper teaches the lesson that all of our food and drink is the purchase of His broken body and spilled blood; thus every meal becomes as a sacrament. Verses 23-27 say, Jesus "took a piece of bread, gave thanks to God, broke it, and said, 'This is My body, which is [broken] for you. Do this in memory of Me. ... This cup is God's new covenant, sealed with My blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in memory of Me.' This means that every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. It follows that if anyone eats the Lord's bread or drinks from His cup in a way that dishonors Him, he is guilty of sin against the Lord's body and blood."
"Guilty"?! What does that have to do with one's own personal health? Can't one be "guilty" and healthy at the same time? Paul says he thinks not. And David agrees. There is a distinct correlation between "forgetting not all [God's] benefits," having "all thine iniquities forgiven," and the healing "of all thy diseases." Enjoy your gourmet food, says David in Psalm 103, as you "bless the Lord, O my soul," realizing with deep gratitude that by His cross He "redeemeth thy life from destruction," and then "thy youth is renewed like the eagle's" (vss. 2-5).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 16, 1999.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
-----------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Jesus says things that are so backward from conventional wisdom! In Matthew 5:6 He says that the really happy people are those who are always starving for hunger and famished for a drink of water, whereas "we" in this world are always ducking in to a McDonalds or a Taco Bell for a snack, or better still, to a gourmet restaurant. And if we're home, then the fridge door is always being opened. It's good to be HUNGRY??!! Is Jesus kidding?
No, He makes sense. In a purely physical sense what He says is true, for a large proportion of Americans are overweight, and it might do them good health-wise to be fairly hungry all the time. But of course His primary meaning has to do with a soul hunger "for righteousness" (which can take care of the physical problem also).
If you drag yourself to Sabbath School and church, sit through a boring class, and endure a meaningless sermon and can't wait until sundown so you can go shopping at the mall or watch TV, Jesus says you simply are not a "happy" person (the word "blessed" means "happy"). You are alienated from where life and happiness exist. If you can keep on living Sabbath after Sabbath for months and years and feel no inner urge to LEARN what Daniel and Revelation mean, or what is justification by faith, or what really did happen on Christ's cross, or what He's doing in cleansing His sanctuary, you may FEEL ever so "rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing," when in reality you are the most "wretched" and "naked" of all God's people in the last two millennia, your new car and plush house notwithstanding (see Rev. 3:14-21).
You may think many of your prayers go unanswered (and maybe they do if you ask for the wrong things), but here's one that God will delight in answering: ask Him to teach you how to feel the sharp pangs of being "hungry and thirsty for righteousness" (there's only one kind--by faith). Beg Him to give you a famished feeling deep inside that will drive you to learn truth that's really important and soul-satisfying--a never-ending "hunger and thirst." Yes, and you'll then be truly "blessed" or "happy." It'll be better than winning the Lottery.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 23, 2000.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
