Daily Bread: July 2012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Welcome to Job's "Club"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you been praying for a certain blessing, and the answer seems never to have come? You have been persistent in prayer, as Jesus tells us to do (we "ought always to pray, and not to faint," Luke 18:1), and still the answer has not come. You have asked Him to show you what might be wrong, what might he hindering your prayers (Peter says that if a man doesn't treat his wife right his prayers will be "hindered," 1 Peter 3:7), and God has not told you of anything wrong that might be "hindering" the answer. The Holy Spirit does not convict you of failure to do any known duty, even though you kneel before God and beg Him to notice you and to instruct you. Still you ask Him for that special blessing and it doesn't come.

Welcome to Job's "Club," the Society of Unanswered Pray-ers. You are not alone. The Prime Member is Jesus Himself. He prayed "with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared," but still He had to go to the cross and die (cf Heb. 5:7). The next verse reminds us that "Though He were a Son," yet He had to learn the lessons of life as we do "by the things which He suffered."

But for sure He does not want you to duplicate the agony He suffered on the cross, nor even the agony which Job suffered. There is an answer to your perplexity and disappointment. Let's notice several possibilities:

(a) God may be working hard to give you a "yes" answer but He cannot force the will of some person who may be "withstanding" Him; that's what happened about one of Daniel's earnest prayers (cf 10:13). If that's what's happening, you can be sure that the dear Lord is as merciful to you as He was to Daniel, and He will impress your heart with the conviction of truth. He will save you from discouragement.

(b) The answer may be in process, and it just takes more time. This could be true if you are praying for a loved one. Remember that on the cross Christ accomplished something for "every man," which makes it possible for Him to treat "every man" as though that person has never sinned (see Matt. 5:45)--Christ has already died that person's second death, and therefore He treats him/her just as though that person is going to be saved. This is the meaning of that interesting phrase "legal justification." Now, you do the same; treat that person as though you fully expect that your prayers are already answered, and that person is going to be saved just as you are. Draw a "circle" that includes that person inside. Don't say, "Oh, that person is far from being ready!"

The closer you come to Jesus the more of His skill and wisdom you will share, because you will have "the mind of Christ" (Phil. 2:5).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 20, 2001.

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Monday, July 30, 2012

The Ultimate Demonstration of Agape

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Does the Bible teach a "balanced" view of righteousness by faith, so salvation is 50 percent by faith and 50 percent by works? If that question is too easy, then is it 99 percent by faith and 1 percent by works?

It appears superficially--on the surface--that the apostle James says it's 50/50 by both: "ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (2:24). He seems--superficially--to contradict Paul, for Paul says boldly that "by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: NOT of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9).

When he says emphatically it's "not of works" he means not even 1 percent. His impassioned Letter to the Galatians is on one side of the perennial debate: "I do not frustrate the grace of God [even 1 percent 'works' will frustrate that grace!]: for if righteousness come by law, then Christ is dead in vain" (2:21). There's no "balance" between righteousness by faith and righteousness by works (Laodicean lukewarmness, hot and cold water "balanced"; this confusion is Laodicea's problem).

The apparent conflict (it troubles many) is resolved as clear as sunlight: salvation is TOTALLY of grace through faith, but the "faith" is not dead; it's a living faith "which works." Its fruit: obedience to all the commandments of God (Gal. 5:6). James is not pitting faith against works or vice versa; he pits a living faith against a dead faith. "Faith without works is dead"! Both apostles are totally agreed on that.

In modern language, "law righteousness" can be translated as "egocentric motivation." Paul points us to Christ's cross: in His sacrifice, was He motivated even 1 percent by egocentric concern for Himself? His assurance to the believing thief APPEARS to say yes ("Hang on, fellow victim; you and I will be in Paradise today!"). But that was in the morning when the sun was shining; "at the sixth hour there was darkness over all land," including the heart of the Son of God. He cried, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He "poured out His soul unto death," even the second (Isa. 53:12). Not even 1 percent of an egocentric motivation--totally love for us, none for Himself. That was agape.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 14, 2003.

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Friday, July 27, 2012

What We Now Live For

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

There's a prayer that Jesus prayed that you and I can pray, and we'll be happier for praying it. It was just before He worked the greatest miracle of His ministry--when He raised the dead Lazarus to life again. He wanted to be sure that the Father would hear Him, for everything depended on this prayer being heard and answered. "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me" (John 11:41, 42). We can know this, too.

No "voice from heaven" came this time to reassure Him; the heavens were as silent as before. He staked His entire ministry on His publicly expressed confidence that the Heavenly Father would honor Him before the people and before the world by granting His request. He poured out His soul in that loud voice when He commanded the dead man inside the tomb: "Lazarus, come forth!" And you know what happened: Lazarus did.

Whether Jesus in His human nature needed the personal encouragement that an answered prayer could bring Him we do not know; but you and I need the assurance that when we pray, the Father hears us. When He commanded the dead man to "come forth," He spoke as our Representative. "Most assuredly, I say to you whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. ... Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (16:23, 24).

He is not making empty promises; obviously He intends that we know what He means when He says to "ask in My name." All egocentric motivation has become outgrown so that we are caught up in His motivation, not ours; we are "in Him." We have "overcome" our childish prayers for a crown and now are concerned that the Lamb receive His reward. We want "the Lamb's wife" to "make herself ready" so that "the marriage of the Lamb" may be no longer delayed century after century (cf. Rev. 19:7, 8). What we now live for is to have a tiny part in crowning Him "King of kings and Lord of lords." Thus our "joy" becomes "full."

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 30, 2005.

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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.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

What Does It Mean to Praise the Lord?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What does it mean to praise the Lord, and why does the Bible talk endlessly about praising Him? For example, Psalm 150: "Praise Him according to His excellent greatness" (cf. vss. 1-6; and numerous other psalms).

What does our praise do for Him? It cannot be that He exists on the endless flattery of unnumbered sycophants; He is not vain! Psalm 22:3 says, "You are holy, enthronedupon the praises of Israel" (Hebrew).

Are we enjoined to praise Him endlessly because of His mighty power as Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Author of life? Islam says, yes; prostrate yourself before Allah five times a day. Be physically reminded externally to do so. But the Bible goes further.

The LORD of the Bible, the God of Israel and also "the Lord of all the earth" (Zech. 6:5), is indeed the Almighty who holds the nations as dust in His hands and they are counted as "less than nothing" (Isa. 40:15-17); but is that the reason why we praise Him so much?

No, there is a far greater reason that Islam does not discern--yet. It fuels the multitudinous calls in the Bible to "praise ye the Lord."

The LORD of the Bible is the One whose love motivated Him, drove Him to "taste" the second death of this lost world. He "tasted death" for every one of its doomed inhabitants (Heb. 2:9). It was eternal death that He tasted, hell itself. That's the measure of His love.

Understand that breadth and length and depth and height of His love (cf. Eph. 3:18, 19), and you too can never stop singing His praise. But that reason is way beyond Islam at the present time to grasp.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 30, 2007.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

A Two-way Communication Street

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What do you think of a man in the best of health and vitality just lying down and dying? That was Moses at 120. "His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." Peterson renders it, "His eyesight was sharp; he still walked with a spring in his step" (Deut. 34:7).

Even though God said Moses couldn't cross Jordan, He was good to His old servant, gave him a grand video show of His people's land in all its pristine beauty. Then a video of world history down to the second coming of Jesus and the creation of a new earth. Then the tired man simply lay down and went to sleep; God enfolded him in His everlasting arms, and that was it until the Angel awakened him in a special resurrection (vs. 5; Jude 9).

To be so healthy at 120 catches our interest. Moses must have been careful of his diet, counted his calories, made sure he had nutritional balance, etc. Zipporah his wife must have been a super health-cook. And yes, he must have watched his exercise program.

True! We know Moses ate manna for the last 40 years of his life. You couldn't get a better diet even today with all our nutritional expertise. And the Lord was constantly calling Moses to climb up mountains. Great health reform living. It pays. Better than any medical treatment, it stops disease.

But maybe there's another reason why Moses retained his physical and mental vitality so long. He knew how to pray; he actually communed with God as a man talks with a friend "face to face" (Deut. 34:10). "My servant Moses ... has the run of my entire house; I speak to him intimately, in person, in plain talk without riddles" (Num. 12:7, 8, Peterson).

Communion is a two-way communication street; you empty your heart before God as to your closest friend. (That means also, you don't share tidbits of gossip with anyone else!) You spill all your beans of sin before Him in secret prayer. Your soul is naked in His presence. Welcome His agape into your sinful heart; "in Christ" God shares Himself with you. Not to give you a special diploma, but simply to make you be a blessing to someone else who is "weary."

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 30, 2002.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Mean Business When You Pray

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

That all-night prayer meeting in Acts 12 was very effective, because in answer to the united prayers of those people in Mary's home (the mother of Mark), the apostle Peter was released by an angel from prison and certain death. But now some questions arise:

If those people had not prayed, would the Father of our Lord Jesus have NOT sent an angel to set Peter free? What is God like? Would He have sat on His throne up in heaven and casually permitted Peter to be killed the next day as King Herod Agrippa wanted to do? Did God need those earnest-with-fasting-all-night prayers to arouse Him to do something that otherwise He would not have thought to do, or even want to do? Do our prayers arouse Him to do nice things that otherwise He would not do? Why is prayer important? Is it really necessary? Suppose those people had all gone home nonchalantly and had a good night's sleep (like Peter sleeping in prison--he wasn't praying all night!), would God have done nothing? Millions of people are seeking the answer to these questions.

The Bible has it: (1) The rulership of this world is in the hands of Satan--Adam sold out to him. (2) Therefore this world is Satan's territory, by vote of its inhabitants, who crucified God's Son and thus expelled Him from the planet. (3) God cannot legally intervene any more than the ruler of one nation can intervene in another's internal affairs. (4) But God can legally intervene if His people, praying in the name of Jesus His Son, intercede with Him against Satan. (5) Probably God could have saved James if His people had prayed for him! (6) We must not entertain a false view of God's character; He wants to intervene in our behalf! (7) It's only fair that God have the privilege of seeing that we mean business in our prayers.

That's the reason for Christ's parable in Luke 18:1-7 about the widow who wore out the unjust judge with her constant begging for justice. Christ's idea was not to represent the Father as being like him, but to urge us to make certain we mean business when we pray, and not be like a child who doesn't really know or remember what he is asking for.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 28, 2000.

Monday, July 23, 2012

The News That Catalyzed Humanity

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The biggest, most important word in any language is the word l-o-v-e.

But it's not the ordinary word of every-day language: it's the word that the inspired apostle John used when he said that "God is love," not that God's characteristic is love, or that part of Him is love; no, John wrote that "God IS love" (1 John 4:8).

John wrote that "God is agape." It's the word that turned the world upside down when the magistrates of the city of Thessalonica complained that "these [men] that have turned the world upside down are come hither also" (Acts 17:6).

Not that two puny men could do that; what they were preaching was so powerful that the message did it; and the message was encapsulated in that word agape. It was a totally radical idea: true love, the real thing, is a love that loves bad people, ugly people, mean people, yes, your enemies.

It's probably impossible for us to imagine what happened before the day of radio or TV or any flashing electronic news that encircles the world in a moment. The news that startled people went out worldwide: when Jesus of Nazareth was being crucified, He prayed for the men doing it: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). The one Gentile author of one of the Gospels was impressed to tell this detail, which none the Jews, Matthew, Mark, or John, recorded. The news went around the world by word of mouth. Never in the history of Roman crucifixions (which were many) had a crucified victim of this unspeakable cruelty prayed for his murderers. This was NEWS!

People talked about it everywhere. The News catalyzed humanity: there were those who despised the divine Victim; there were others whose hearts were deeply impressed and solemnized. Like the honest-hearted centurion that Luke has to tell us about, they said, "Truly this was a righteous man" (vs. 47).

In the end of time the world will again be lightened with a message that turns it upside down, a message that grips some hearts and reconciles them to God and to His holy law; and that goads others to enforce the "mark of the beast" against them. This will be the message of a fourth angel of Revelation 18:1-4 that brings to a triumphant conclusion the work of Christ's gospel; the message of the three angels of chapter 14 doesn't accomplish that great work; it can't.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 16, 2008.

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Friday, July 20, 2012

The Power of "Much More Abounding Grace"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Who is stronger--Christ, or the angel who fell from heaven--Satan?

Which is stronger, light or darkness?

Which is stronger, love (agape), or hatred? Which is stronger, that "much more abounding grace" of the Lord Jesus (Rom. 5:20, 21), or the power of our evil appetites and habits and obsessions and addictions?

Which is stronger: the power of death (that held Jesus Christ captive in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea), or the resurrection power of the Father that raised Him up after three days?

We can't say it often enough: that much more abounding grace is stronger than all the power of sin the devil can invent. In fact, there is in that grace "much more" power! "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."

Let's not try to serve God with anything less than that full power of that much more abounding grace that is revealed in Christ. That grace of Christ is the enemy of sin; it condemns it, defeats it, conquers it, annihilates it, so that we might be free indeed. Then the grace of God will be manifested in us in "newness of life" (6:4). That grace "reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

Then we discover something precious: it is easy to be saved and it is hard to be lost, when we begin to appreciate that much more abounding grace! We must not conclude that the upward path is the "hard path" and the downward path is the "easy one;" it's the opposite. All the way that leads to hell there are impediments and obstacles to hinder us in that way; God is constantly trying to tell us this. It's like we are driving on the freeway, you're at the wheel (because you are the boss), but the Holy Spirit is sitting beside you in the front seat. He is saying, Don't stay on this freeway to hell; take this exit to the kingdom of God! That's what Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would do when He gave Him the name "Parakletos," the One called to sit down beside you and never leave you (John 16:7, 8; "para" = beside you; "kletos" = called).

Don't misunderstand. You DO have something to do: it's to make the constant choice to let the Holy Spirit guide you. But please remember, you are not your Savior yourself: you let the Lord save you. It is you who turns the wheel on to the blessed Exit coming up that leads to eternal life. But He guided you to do it; and you praise the Lord forever and ever.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 27, 2007.

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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.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Remembering Brings Joy

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The Lord loves to "turn the captivity" of people who have suffered, and bring them out of the painful shadows of rejection into the bright sunlight of His favor.

Take Joseph for example. We think of the text that says "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth" (Eccl. 11:9). Boys should be full of fun. But Joseph at the age of 17 or maybe 18 is crying his eyes out one night in an agony worse almost than death--he has just been sold as a slave to some hard-hearted Midianites. A life of torture is before him, when he had thought that God's favor was on him.

And those who sold him? His fellow church-members, his ten brothers in the faith. No, they are more than that--they are the church leadership of his day, for they were all older than he, the heirs of the glorious promises God made to Abraham's descendants. Condemned to Egyptian slavery, Joseph appears to be God-forsaken, and he feels like it except for the little glimmer of faith he has.

His slavery goes from bad to worse and he ends up in a dark Egyptian prison. At least 12 or 13 years of this “chastisement” discipline go on; the Lord must have loved him enormously, for "whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives" (Heb. 12:5-9).

The Lord gave Joseph a little sunlight when he was made prime minister of the realm of Egypt and he realized that his painful suffering had prepared him to become the famine "savior" of the Middle East civilization of his day.

But still the years of soul captivity dragged on; his constant temptation was to think that the prophetic dreams of his boyhood were a deception; no one can suffer a deep, private pain more agonizing than the fear that the Lord truly has betrayed your trust. You can’t talk to anyone about it. Not until his ten brothers come and kneel before him in fulfillment of his prophetic childhood dream is Joseph finally led out into the bright sunshine of the heavenly Father's vindication.

There are little Josephs all over the world today, people whose faith is tried to the utmost (it seems to them) when everything seems to shout at them that God has forgotten them. In some cases as in the life of the prophet Jeremiah, the pain goes on and on until death is the final release from it (then the Jews realized that he had been the prince of prophets).

If you must look through tears, remember that "God is love"--your "Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15-17) who has adopted you into His family. Remembering brings joy.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 12, 2007.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Christ--A Divine-Human Bridge

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

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

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

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

No psychiatrist can accomplish such a catharsis of the human soul. It heals. Wrongs and anxieties that even our parents were helpless to relieve find inner cleansing. David speaks of the process: "When my father and my mother forsake me [that is, where they must leave off], then the Lord will take me up" (Psalm 27:10).

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

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

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

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 26, 2007.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

God's Promise Is Always Solid

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

One of the strangest anomalies of history is the fate of Israel held in Egyptian slavery. That was something that was not supposed to be! How could it ever have happened?

The Lord told Abraham that his descendants "shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; … and afterward shall they come out with great substance" (Gen. 15:13, 14). Yes, they were to be slaves all that time! But was it the Lord's will for them?

The Lord had made those seven glorious New Covenant promises to Abraham (Gen. 12:2, 3) which applied not only to him, but to his descendants after him ("Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. ... The covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect," Gal. 4:16, 17). God's promise is always firm and solid!

Why then should Israel be slaves in Egypt? Jeremiah was shown that it should never have been: "Is Israel a servant? Is he a home-born slave? Why is he plundered?" (Jer. 2:14; the Good News Bible renders it, "Israel is not a slave, he was not born into slavery"!).

There can be only one answer: Abraham's descendants forgot the New Covenant promises that God had made to their father Abraham. Even the patriarch had had trouble believing how good the Good News is when he agreed to take that second wife, Hagar, and thus to doubt and disbelieve the Lord's promises that "in Isaac shall thy seed be called"!

Have you forgotten them? Then confess that you are in that distraught father's place when he begged Jesus, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). That should have been Israel's prayer all during those 430 years! Let it be yours now.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 8, 2006.

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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.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Lukewarmness and Old Covenant Thinking

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Most Christian church members will admit that the church as an institution is "lukewarm." Jesus Himself says so in Revelation 3:14-21; and we can't argue otherwise. The joyous abandon of devotion to Christ that characterized the apostolic church seems lacking. The more luxurious and imposing are the church buildings, cathedrals, or institutions we build, the less there seems to be of that fervent yet humble zeal.

As we study into what the Bible says about the New Covenant versus the Old, the question pops up: is there a relationship between this widespread lukewarmness and the Old Covenant kind of Christian thinking?

Is it possible for any church in any age of history, anywhere in the world, to be "lukewarm" and at the same time be living under the New Covenant? Is this what Christ died to accomplish--to raise up a professed Christian church that is half and half in its devotion to its Savior?

You can't read very far in the New Testament without being confronted by a painful truth: spiritual lukewarmness is inconsistent with understanding and believing the New Covenant. Wherever we see such half-and-half devotion, we can know we are in an area of spiritual experience dominated by Old Covenant ideas. They may have their roots beneath the surface of our consciousness, but still our lukewarmness is an embarrassment to Jesus, two thousand years past Pentecost. And it's the height of arrogance for us to boast that we are "rich and increased with goods" in our understanding of the gospel when Old Covenant principles still bedevil our thinking.

Old Covenant "Christian" living is highly popular, but it's difficult for Jesus to explain to the holy angels how His people can be content to go on generation after generation, century after century, so spiritually naive, so self-satisfied. In His message to the leadership of His church in the last days, He confesses that this lukewarmness perpetuated so long makes Him feel like throwing up (see Rev. 3:16, 17). He is suffering the pain of acute nausea; should not our concern be, not for self, but for His healing?

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 21, 2003.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Fellowship With the Prophets

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Jesus told us not only to be glad, but rejoice with exultation when people lie about us and ridicule us and malign us, for His sake (Matt. 5:11, 12). Why? He gives two reasons: (1) We have (present tense) a great reward in heaven, and (2) we have fellowship with the prophets of old who were persecuted. But how can that be? They are dead! How can you fellowship with someone who's dead?

Not through Spiritualism, no! But you can appreciate the experiences that the prophets like Jeremiah or John the Baptist went through. In a very real sense, through the Bible you develop a rapport with them, you identify with them. You actually make their acquaintance in such a way that when you do finally enter the gates of the New Jerusalem, they will seem to you like old friends. And better still, when they meet you, they will look in your face and see the development of character that will cause them to say to you, "Oh, YOU understand! YOU know what I went through! Let's sit down and talk, for we have something in common!" You will feel like you are a prince in the kingdom of heaven, and when Jesus gives out the awards to those who have suffered for His sake, you will be standing right there side by side with Jeremiah or John the Baptist, or Paul, and you will feel right at home like you belong there, as one of the inner circle. What a thrill!

That "great reward" that Jesus spoke of is not only a thing of the future; He made plain that it is present tense. You have that consciousness of fellowship even now, that you belong in their company, that you are "accepted" in such truly high society! Condemned on this earth, but honored by heaven! And that gives you a deep sense of humbleness, yes; but also a holy joy at the realization that you are not entering heaven like a dog with its tail between its legs, merely surviving, merely existing there; but as a prince and princess of the Realm! Take heart for all this Good News!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 7, 1998.

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Thursday, July 12, 2012

The Only Hope the World Has Ever Had

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Did the early apostles expect the second coming of Christ in their lifetime, as we expect it today? If the answer is "Yes," then how can we be sure that our "blessed hope" in His soon return is not another 2000 years too early, as was theirs?

Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians gives the impression that he expected Christ's return in his lifetime. And that's what the people got from it. But Paul immediately writes back to straighten them out. No, he says, he didn't mean that; they misunderstood him (Paul did not apologize for misleading them!). He made himself clear in his Second Letter: "We beseech you, ... that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand" (2 Thess. 2:1, 2). Thank God we have his reply to them, so it can straighten us out, too.

Paul goes on to tell them that Christ cannot return until the prophecies of Daniel have been fulfilled in history when "that man of sin" (Daniel's little horn) has done his evil work. He reminds them that when he was with them he had taught them about that "man of sin." This does not mean that Paul had a clear understanding of all of Daniel's prophecies; but he knew enough to know that the great controversy between Christ and Satan must run its course, or the end could not come. A far-off mountain on a very clear day looks close.

The second coming of Christ is the only hope the world has ever had. Only then can the dead be resurrected to eternal life. Naturally, God's people through the ages have always cherished this "blessed hope." But now we know that the prophecies about the 1260, and the 2300, years, and many details, have been fulfilled. The signs of Christ's soon return have almost been fulfilled. Thus we know that His return is "even at the doors" (Matt. 24:33, 34). "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" Yes, but not for our sakes alone--many are suffering.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 9, 2002.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The Bible Is Clear--How Close He Has Come

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The Bible is clear that the divine Son of God, whom the Father gave to the world, became a man. His name is "Immanuel, … 'God with us'" (Matt. 1:23, NKJV).

But we humans have not as yet been clear in our understanding of how close He has come. He came "in the flesh" (1 John 4:2), which means "closer than a brother" (Prov. 18:24), "in all points tempted as we are [tried, tested]" (Heb. 4:15, Rotherham, 20th Century).

What "we" as the fallen human race have been slow to grasp is that His taking our fallen sinful nature upon His holy, sinless nature meant that He became a "man," the Greek word that means a male. And a "man" loves a "woman" and wants to be one with her; the "woman" whom Jesus loves in His humanity is more than a woman--she is the church (cf. Eph. 5:25). What we can't seem to grasp is how He loves her as a man loves the one woman out of billions whom his heart is devoted to with conjugal love. "Many waters cannot quench" such love; it's "strong as death" (S. of S. 8:6, 7). But "she" has been unfaithful!

If a woman loves a man who forsakes her, it is painful for her; but if a pure man loves a woman who forsakes him, there is a special lonely pain there that our Savior can understand in a unique way. He has suffered the same pain in an enormously greater way. Nowhere does the Bible say that it's not good for a woman to be alone; but the Lord said, "It is not good that the man should be alone" (Gen. 2:18, KJV).

The story of Hosea (1:2) gives us a tiny glimpse into reality: it's clear that he loved Gomer as a good man finds it in his heart to love one woman only; read the story in the book of his heartbreak. Then try to understand Jesus as He is today. (And don't forget Revelation 19:7, 8.)

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 4, 2005.