Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A Prayer for a Sleepless Night

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
How could you pray the Lord's Prayer all night long if you were sleepless?

(a) It's a complete prayer; it encompasses the entire plan of salvation.

(b) It includes the triumphant close of the great controversy between Christ and Satan--"thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

(c) That includes the healing of the wound that Lucifer's rebellion and Adam and Eve's sin in joining with the great rebel, have caused.

(d) Praying the Lord's Prayer constantly reminds you and me of the privilege we have of a part in bringing the great controversy to a close.

(e) In fact, when we pray the Lord's Prayer on a sleepless night, we find we can't wait until morning so we can get back to work to do what we can to help in the great crisis now going on.

(f) Our part in the "great controversy" may be small; but the Lord does not "despise the day of small things" (Zech. 4:10).

(g) The Lord delights in blessing teenage David when he faces the giant Goliath, with a mere slingshot.

(h) He delights in blessing you when you share a new covenant truth with someone discouraged and confused.

(i) That helps fulfill the Lord's Prayer which says, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."

--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 16, 2008.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Something Significant Is Happening

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Something significant is happening around the world: possibly millions of church members are studying "The Two Covenants" (the old covenant versus the new covenant). Is God asking them to sign their names to a contract that contains a series of promises entitled "My Covenant," promising that "I will study the Bible, pray daily, share with others, serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and prepare for His soon coming"? All very good things to do! But could it be possible that God is asking us to believe His promises to us, His covenant with us, rather than our making promises to Him?

According to the Bible, the new covenant has always been God's unilateral promise to His people (see Gen. 12:1-3); and the old covenant has been the people's promise to God to do everything right (see Ex. 19:4-8). The question that is stirring minds is this: what is the correct, effective way to realize all those four good things (studying the Bible "each day," praying, sharing, serving the Lord faithfully)? Not just for a week or two while the emotional adrenalin is prompting us, but forever and ever? Will the old covenant effect a lasting "revival and reformation"?

History says No. King Hezekiah in Jerusalem led the nation in a powerful old covenant "revival and reformation," doing everything just exactly right according to the law (2 Kings 18 to 20). Wonderful! But it all fell apart in the succeeding reign of his son, Manasseh (chapter 21). Then Hezekiah's grandson Josiah came to the throne (chapter 22-23:30). Again, another old covenant revival and reformation, wonderful. But that all fell apart with the death of King Josiah, and from then on it was downhill all the way to national ruin (2 Chron. 36).

The caveat "by God's grace and enabling power" doesn't change the nature of old covenant promises which produce spiritual bondage (Gal. 4:24); it's still a faith-and-works experience instead of a faith-which-works experience (see Gal. 5:6). What's the real problem? We can't keep our promises! And when we break them, then discouragement sets in.

Let's believe, dwell upon, cherish, remember, God's promises to us in His new covenant! Then "agape never fails" (1 Cor. 13:8).

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 10, 1999.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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Monday, November 28, 2011

Why the Two Covenants?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
In my copy of the Holy Bible, 944 pages are called "the Old Testament," and 285 pages are called "the New Testament." The word "testament" is the same as "covenant." So 77 percent of the Holy Bible is called "The Old Covenant" and 23 percent is called "the New Covenant." Why this difference?

Are these two "dispensations" in God's plan of saving the world? Many hold to that view. They understand that the New Covenant began with the crucifixion of the Son of God.

But does it make sense that God has been experimenting, that He tried for 4000 years the Old Covenant method and finally decided that it didn't work, and now He is trying a new method? If so, can we really trust Him that He knows what He's doing?

Instead, the Bible is clear that God has always had only one method of saving people. It's called "the everlasting gospel" or "the everlasting covenant" (Rev. 14:6; Heb. 13:20). No, God is infinitely wise; He has not been poking around with trial-and-error experiments. Ever since the Garden of Eden He has had only one plan of salvation--"by grace through faith" (Eph. 2:8). Christ is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8).

Then why the two Covenants?

They are not two methods of salvation; they are two understandings of God's people through the ages, two opposite perceptions of God's plan of salvation, not two "dispensations" that He has used as experiments. The Old Covenant was a "faulty" understanding of His people at Mt. Sinai--God was not to blame for it. He tried His best to get them to understand His glorious "New Covenant" as Abraham understood it and was "justified by faith." But no, they were perverse; they themselves chose the Old Covenant idea. It led them to "bondage" and finally to torture and crucify our Savior (cf. Gal. 4:24). That's not really good, is it? (Read Galatians 3 and 4.) A kindergarten child can easily understand.

--Robert J. Wieland


From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 5, 2007.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

A Child of God

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Do you know how to tell if you are indeed a child of God and not a child of what John says is "the wicked one" (1 John 2:13, 14)? The right answer will spell either great happiness or despair.
Well, Paul gives us a simple litmus test whereby we can tell. It's in Romans 8:15, 16: "You received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." That word "abba" is the Hebrew for "father," the simplest syllable a baby of any language utters, "ba-ba." You may never have uttered a formal prayer, but if in the depths of your heart your soul cries out in your distress or agony, "Father ... , Father ... please help me!" then you have the witness of the Holy Spirit that you are a child of God.

But you say, "How can that be?! I'm a sinner! I have guilt!" Well, don't forget that the scribes and Pharisees accused Christ, "This man receiveth sinners!" (Luke 15:2). In fact, sinners are the only people that Jesus does "receive." You may not yet be a perfect "child of God," but if your heart cries out "Father!" then this Heavenly Father simply cannot turn away from such a cry. "What man [father] is there among you who if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ... If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father give good things to them who ask Him?" (Matt. 7:9, 11). Did your father starve you if you didn't behave?

You may object, "YES, my earthly father was a meanie and I hate the word!" (I have met such people.) Never mind; dig down a little deeper and you will discover that when you were a baby, a child, your heart yearned for "abba, Father!" even if you did not realize the pleasure of fulfillment then. And your heart is still the same today. That's your deepest longing. Your heart is bursting to let those words come out. Let them come! Say them! Believe the Good News even if you don't feel like it. Choose to believe! There is the difference between happiness and despair. You will "overcome the wicked one."

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 21, 1998.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

The "Unspeakable Gift"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Too many of our celebrated holidays are of pagan origin and bear those marks even today; but one is free of it--Thanksgiving.

But even that one last touch of national gratitude to God is marred now by the designation "Turkey Day," so the Day is marked by indulgence of appetite. A popular Bible text for Thanksgiving Day sermons is, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift" (2 Cor. 9:15).
The one gift above all gifts He has given us is this: "God so loved the world that He gave …" It was all that He had in the gift, not the loan, not the mere offer, of His Son (John 3:16). The Son of God is now the Son of man; He is eternally a member of our human race; but that wasn't far enough for the Father to "give." He went further in pouring out the "gift."

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

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

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

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

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 19, 2007.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Let's Not Overlook History

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Does it bother you to hear Thanksgiving Day referred to as "Turkey Day"? And to watch what was once a serious week of national thanksgiving to Heaven metamorphose into an extended sales pitch for Christmas profits?

Heaven is not far away; God is a personal heavenly Father who is concerned. He gave an infinite Gift to humanity, in His Son. He loves us as individuals but He also keeps an account with nations and with empires (we have now become an empire). Empires have always been held responsible in judgment according to the light and advantages that Heaven has given them. The godlessness that now pervades this nation could not be judged so seriously were it not a post-Christian phenomenon.

Although our Thanksgiving Day was not officially set aside until by President Lincoln, there were calls to national prayer and thanksgiving even in the time of President Washington. The nation was conceived and nurtured in a culture that was significantly permeated with the godly fear that dominates the King James Bible. That's where our Constitutional principles of liberty originated.
What is the future for such a nation that has lowered itself to become post-Christian, post-godly fear? Militarily the world's most sophisticated and powerful, could it see itself mirrored in "the fall of Babylon" chapter of Revelation 18? It's a very healthy experience to re-read that solemn chapter and to note that it is actually the poetry of Jeremiah chapters 50 and 51 virtually rewritten in its modern application.

Let's not overlook history. Upon us "the ends of the world are come" (1 Cor. 10:11). Jefferson's separation of church and state is right, but the state still desperately needs a church that is spiritually sensitive to, and repentant before God. Parallel with the Gotterdammerung of Revelation 18 is Christ's earnest call to "the angel of the church of the Laodiceans" of chapter 3. It's time to be alert.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 28, 2003.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

A Bridegroom Longing for His Wedding Day

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The Angel of Revelation 10 is a Great One, standing with one foot on the earth and one foot on the sea, swearing a solemn oath that there should "be delay no longer." He is no less than Christ Himself; He is tired of waiting, waiting. He is fully divine, from eternity; but now He is also human. And He wants the problem of sin to be solved forever. He says that when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, it will be.

In fact, in a certain solemn sense God cannot "rest" until the misery caused by sin is finished. The thought that since He is infinite, Christ doesn't care how long the "delay" continues, is not true. His is the eagerness of a Bridegroom longing for the wedding day to come. Christ is still human and will be for all eternity; but like we are, He is now subject to time. The Bride-to-be has put Him off long enough. He is tired of delay.

But how long must He wait? Centuries more? What will bring about the change that will enable the reluctant Bride-to-be to "make herself ready"?

Not force; no bridegroom can have a happy marriage if he forces the girl to marry him. If she has misunderstood him and put him off due to a mistaken judgment herself, and if the bridegroom truly loves her, then there must come on her part a repentance. In this case of the divine Bridegroom, the Bride-to-be has indeed misjudged Him and has delayed the marriage due to her unbelief. The only possible conclusion therefore is a repentance on her part.

And this is precisely what He calls for in His message to the "angel of the church of the Laodiceans": "be zealous therefore, and repent" (Rev 3:19). Her response will trigger enthusiastic rejoicing in heaven beyond imagination--four Hallelujah choruses (19:1-6), for "the mystery of God" has at last met resolution. There has been at last a paradigm shift in understanding and motivation unheard of for 6000 years: the Bride has grown up out of her childish doll-playing, egocentric concerns. At last she can think of Him, feel for Him, share with Him His concern. And He is happy--at last.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 21, 2011.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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Monday, November 21, 2011

"Father of the Faithful"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Someone has wisely told me I must not leave Abraham's story without seeing him through his grand final victory. It is true that he had failed miserably in his (and Sarah's) unbelief that let them fall into the Old Covenant. While God had given them the New Covenant promise of having a "child of promise" (Isaac), they had disbelieved and assumed they must "work," themselves, to help fulfill it--hence, Hagar and Ishmael. (Paul says they ARE the Old Covenant! See Gal. 4:22-25.)

Finally, after decades of heart-bitterness even while they were having daily family worship and doing their Sabbath-keeping, Sarah allowed her unbelieving heart to be melted in repentance (see Heb. 11:11). Let the gynecologists argue it out: her new and different feelings about God made it possible for her to get pregnant, and "by faith Sarah received strength to conceive." All this time, they were "one flesh" and so Abraham shared the repentance with her.

Isaac came, well named--"laughter." Grew to be a most delightful teen, the joy of their hearts.
Then the bomb, when Abraham was old and weak: the same voice of God that had made the promises now told him to offer the beloved son as a sacrifice on a hill to be known as Calvary (Gen. 22:1, 2). The years of bonding went further than if he'd been told to do this when Isaac was a baby. Sarah couldn't take it. Father roused Isaac, left without telling her goodbye (vs. 3).
That 3-day safari was the longest and saddest Abraham had ever taken. But when puzzled Isaac quizzed him, he expressed no Old Covenant despair as we would do probably. Instead: "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb."

A shining tribute to "Christian education": Isaac then joined in the willingness of the sacrifice. He had learned to believe the New Covenant promises.
Note: Abraham didn't actually kill Isaac with his knife--but he made the full commitment to make the sacrifice. "You have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me," said God" (vs. 12). It reflected Christ's cross. Christ didn't go into the literal Lake of Fire, but He made the full commitment, and thus He died the equivalent of our second death. (Let's say "Thank You!")
Now Abraham has finally earned his title, "father of the faithful."

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 23, 2006.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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Sunday, November 20, 2011

"Faith Working Through Love"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"


When He was among us personally, did Jesus praise anybody? In His parables, yes, He represented the Lord as saying "Well done, good and faithful servant" to some people, but do we have a record that He actually said that to any human among His contemporaries? He said something nice about the poor lady who gave her "two mites" to the offering in the Temple, that she had "cast in more than they all" because "she ... hath cast in all the living that she had" (Luke 21:2-4). But He said this behind her back, as it were. He told Peter that he was "blessed" because he boldly confessed his faith that Jesus is the "Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16, 17). But He seemed very reticent to praise people lest they become vain. That was love!

A notable exception seems to be Mary Magdalene. In her presence, He defended her before Simon and the disciples saying, "She has done a good work for Me," the word in the original meaning "exquisite" (Mark 14:6). He also said, "She has done what she could" (vs. 8). A classic understatement, for it meant that she had done all she could. He had declared that she had "faith," for it had saved her (Luke 7:50); now He added this, that her faith had "worked" to the nth degree, being a picture for us of what Paul meant in Galatians 5:6 about "faith working through love." Faith is not genuine unless it does "work." A battery is dead unless it sparks.

The final judgment (that we have all dreaded) is not whether we have a "battery," but whether it's alive. God has given to every one "the measure of faith" (Rom. 12:3); that's not the last question--but, is that faith alive and working? Cross the poles of a live battery and it will almost knock you down, even though a dead battery looks exactly the same as a live one.

So let's not waste good breath praying, "Lord, give me some faith!" because He already has given it. And it's probably a waste of breath praying Him to charge our "battery" unless we "plug it in." The Lord is a wonderful Savior, but we must cooperate with Him; there is something sensible we must do.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 25, 2004.

Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

A special Daily Bread About a portion of Galatians

A special Daily Bread:


Lesson 8: "From Slaves to Heirs"

Who are the legitimate children of God who stand to gain the inheritance promised to their father Abraham? Are the children only Abraham's circumcised descendants or are they the children of "faith"? This is the burning question in Galatians.
Paul's unequivocal answer is that "the children of God" are those who identify with the crucified Messiah, Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:26). These are the true Jews--whether they have Jewish blood coursing through them or Gentile blood.
The true children of God are identified through baptism into Christ. The outward form of baptism is a heart-expression of having "put on Christ" (vs. 27). In other words, like a garment which fully envelops the body so that the person is no longer seen. It is only Christ that is seen in the baptized individual. There is no respect of persons with God, nor with those who are the children of God. It is only the character of Christ that counts, which is by faith of Jesus Christ (vs. 28).
There is only one Descendant of Abraham who is elected for salvation and that is Christ (vs. 29). He stands to inherit God's promise to Abraham. We come into the inheritance through identification with Christ by baptism.
One of the "big ideas" of "adoption" in the 1888 message is found right here in Galatians. It explodes in people's hearts like sticks of spiritual dynamite. Paul uses the illustration of a little barefoot boy who runs around the great estate of a wealthy rancher who has slaves. The slaves boss the little boy around and tell him when to go home, etc. And he obeys them (Gal. 4:1). But the amazing thing is that this child is the son of the great owner himself! Now, says Paul, when that little boy grows up, he becomes the owner and then he bosses the slaves around!
As long as we don't know who we are, don't know our true identity, all the devils in hell can torment us and boss us around; but when you are ready to believe that "in Christ" you are adopted as a son or daughter and you are indeed the lord of the estate, your spiritual or psychological servitude is at an end.
So you and I have been subject to the tyranny of the "elements of the world," evil spirits, until we hear and receive the Good News that God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem us (vss. 3, 4).
What's the point? God does not regard unconverted people as wolves to be shot down as soon as possible; no, but He regards them as sheep, not in the fold to be sure, but still sheep--lost sheep. They need to be converted, to be born again, yes; but all the while God considers them to be heirs to His estate because He sent forth His Son to be "made of a woman" as we are all "made of a woman." He has adopted the human race "in Christ."
You are not to think of yourself as an outsider, says Paul. Because of Christ's sacrifice, you are now "in the family," adopted (Eph. 1:5), loved all the while as the prodigal son was loved. But you didn't know it; you felt ostracized, estranged, alienated, lost, rejected; but God did not regard you as estranged or alienated. He reconciled you to Himself "in Christ." Now, says Paul, "be ye reconciled to God."
Servants do not stand to gain the inheritance, only sons (Gal. 4:7). A servant is under an old covenant compulsion to promise to do everything just right. It's that self-centered motivation that hopes to gain a reward. But the "self" has then become the "god" (with a little "g").
For "many" ignorance of God is bliss. They feel that being completely self-sufficient and self-directed is ultimate freedom. The reality of human nature is that there is no end to the depravity to which the sinful nature can tempt a person and lead them into inextricable bondage. Self is a cruel barbaric idol.
To know the self-sacrificing God at the heart of the universe and see Him as mankind's best friend and then to turn one's back completely on agape is sheer madness. The "beggarly elements" which Paul has alluded to as "the elements of the earth" are the tribal deities of the heathen Galatians that were thought to oversee the nations on behalf of God (vs. 9). They are "weak" in that they are merely figments of the imagination. When push-comes-to-shove they only motivate out of fear.
The real danger here of the Galatians yielding to the Pharisaic believers on the point of circumcision for salvation is that by putting it within the power of man to do something for his salvation, there is no end to the "idols," both old and new, that the human heart may create as necessary for salvation. The door is now open for them in forsaking Christ to return to their former manner of pagan beliefs and practices.
"How turn ye again?" Paul asked the Galatians. They had been heathens converted to Christ. And now they were returning to heathenism. They were not returning to the practices of Judaism. Judaism had not been their ancestral worship.
Modern interpreters almost invariably impose an anti-sabbath bias upon verse 10: "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years." However, the Galatian backsliders were not returning to seventh-day Sabbath-keeping from which they had come. They were actually forsaking the Sabbath rest. They were exchanging the rest of Christ in the Sabbath for calendrical observances connected with their former pagan worship of their ancestral deities (Deut. 18:10).
Our status as the children of God is compared to the "adoption" process. It is both a legal adoption and a receiving of the adoption. God has legally adopted the entire alienated race as His "sons." In order "to redeem them that were under the law [everyone]" (Gal. 4:5) "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law" (vs. 4). God paid an infinite price ["redeem"] to legally reach the hearts of estranged sinners.
The word "made" is pregnant with enormous meaning. The Father sent the Son of God and made Him the Son of man through Mary. Jesus was made through his parentage with the same DNA we all are made of when we come into the world. "In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren. ... In that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted" (Heb. 2:17, 18).
Jesus was made with an "ego" that suffered the same tension and conflict of what one ought to do, being "under the law," as is fallen man. "I [My ego] can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: ... I seek not mine own will, but [the conflict is implicit] the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30). Here is the acute, agonizing temptedness of sinlessness (Heb. 4:15). No compromise with Christ's perfect sinlessness is inherent in this understanding of Galatians 4:4. Never once, in thought, word, or deed, did Christ yield to the desperate clamor of self.
All of the legal matters with respect to the law have been cleared up by Christ's death for all. The adoption papers of sinner-aliens have been signed and ratified by the crucified One. He is the Heavenly Parent who has adopted the race of sinners. Such divine love appeals to estranged sinners to "receive the adoption" (vs. 5).
The evidence by which you may know that you have "received" the adoption is if you can call your Heavenly Father, "Daddy." It's the Holy Spirit who initiates such terms of endearment (vs. 6).
--Paul E. Penno
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Monday, November 14, 2011

How Does Christ Win the Final Battle?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
What is the grand climax of the book of Revelation? Not Bad News, but Good News!
True, the terrible fall of "Babylon" and the unthinkable "seven last plagues" figure largely. But they are eclipsed by the glorious triumph of that Lamb of God. He is "King of kings and Lord of lords," who rides on that "white horse," and who has "eyes as a flame of fire, and on His head many crowns; and a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself," whose "vesture is dipped in blood, ... and the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him upon white horses" (Rev. 19:11-4).

He wins the great war of eternity in His final battle with the "dragon," the Enemy who invented sin in heaven when his name was Lucifer, son of the morning, who made himself become "that serpent of old, ... the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world" (2:9).

And how does Christ win this final battle?

Revelation 19 discloses His triumph: He wins the heart and the hand of a difficult-to-win "woman." She finally surrenders her repentant soul to become His Bride. "The marriage of the Lamb" is the occasion for the rejoicing of the inhabitants of heaven, as Heaven has never rejoiced in past eternity. John hears "as it were the voice of a great multitude, ... the Lord God Omnipotent reigns." Christ is now triumphant! "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give Him glory," are the lyrics of four grand Hallelujah Choruses that ring through the reaches of infinitude, "for the marriage of the Lamb has come [at last!], and His wife has made herself ready"(vss. 6-9). Invitations to the wedding banquet are right now being accepted, and ... [sadly some] rejected. The celebration is on! Come!

No novel ever written is as thrilling as this love story finally played out to its climax.

--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 7, 2005.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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