Daily Bread: September 2012

Friday, September 28, 2012

The Final Ministry of the Lamb of God

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What practical down-to-earth difference does it make in one's daily living what he believes about Christ? Is He ministering as High Priest in the Most Holy Apartment of the heavenly sanctuary (the second), or is He still absorbed in His first apartment work? Where is He?

A Christian writer with keen perception says it means everything. It's either getting ensnared in Satan's clever last-days counterfeit, or getting involved with Christ's genuine work of preparing a people to receive the seal of God versus the mark of the beast. The latter will become an extremely subtle imitation. The issue will end up either (a) bowing down to the false "christ" in the final test, or (b) bowing before the true Christ. You don't want an angel taking a snapshot of you kneeling to the devil--knowingly or unknowingly!

In other words, those who finally decide to receive the alluring "mark of the beast" are even now day by day preparing. Apparently insignificant "self" choices today build up a massive case ending in a judgment of intense ultimate self-condemnation.

Likewise, those who finally choose to receive what Revelation calls "the seal of God," "let this mind be in [them], which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). They choose this way of thinking now, day by day. They "let the word of Christ dwell in [them] richly in all wisdom" (Col. 3:16). They choose moment after moment to let the Holy Spirit hold them by the hand as they "walk in the Spirit" (see Gal. 5:16; Isa. 41:10, 13).

It's simply choosing to surrender one's natural selfish alienation from God in order to "be ye reconciled" to Him. It all comes through the final ministry of the Lamb of God, your true High Priest (forget those earthly "priests" who have no connection with Him).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 25, 2002.

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Welcome to Joy!

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When the New Testament speaks of "the flesh," it's the sinful nature we all have--the source of our temptations. It's not the world outside of us that tempts us--it's the world inside of us. If you live a hermit in the desert, the "flesh" within still tempts.

Paul explains the only way it can be handled: "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Gal. 5:24). Millions want to know how they can do that.

It's not some "work" to DO. And to pray, "God, please crucify my flesh!," is not the way, like clicking a computer button. The way is simple, but the believing (faith) does take time.

Paul prays for us in Ephesians 3:14-21, not that we might DO some wonderful work, but that we might SEE something wonderful: that you "may be able to comprehend ... what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love (agape) of Christ," which of course is displayed only at His cross. If an angel had videoed the crucifixion, it might fill the theaters, but that would not help; we "see" it, "comprehend" it, with the eyes of faith. It takes "a thoughtful hour."

On your knees, alone with your heavenly Father, with the Bible open before you. "See" the cross therein. Psalm 22 was put there for this purpose; also Psalm 69. Yes, David wrote them both, but it's Jesus Himself talking from His cross! Read them in several translations, if you can. Read them slowly, no hurried impatience. God inspired both so that you might identify with your Savior, and begin to sense those grand dimensions of a love that no preacher can adequately portray. It will be better than any movie or video (they usually distort the truth, anyway).

"Comprehend" what happened there, "see" it, and Galatians 6:14 will come alive for you: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I [am crucified] unto the world."

How does it work? "I am crucified with Christ ..." (Gal. 2:20; "self"). "The world" will have no more impact on you now than it had on the repentant thief who also was crucified with Him. And you will share what he had--he was the happiest man who has ever lived, for he heard those words, "You will be with Me in Paradise." "In Christ," you rule the flesh; you are its boss. Like Him, you "condemn sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3, 4). Take charge; choose. Welcome to joy!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 29, 2003.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Bridging the Gap Through Space

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Are we stretching the truth too far to say that God personally loves each of us individually even more than our earthly father has loved us when we were little? Your heart-answer "yes" or "no" will determine your happiness here and hereafter.

When we read the four Gospels we see that the great burden on Jesus' heart was to teach us that His Father in heaven is our Father, too. It's in Matthew alone no less than 41 times! And His interest in us is so complete that when He cares when even a little bird falls to the ground, Jesus adds, "You are worth much more than many sparrows!" (10:31, GNB).

In other words, your heavenly Father is intensely interested in your personal happiness, and His personal attention is as focused as if you were the only human walking the earth!

Satan tells you, "No, you're not even a digit in His computer! One dot in seven billion?" And right here rages a "great controversy" within your own heart: will you believe what Jesus says, or what the devil wants you to believe?

"But I'm not that important," you object. Now you can realize what Paul means when he says, "Fight the good fight of faith!" (1 Tim. 6:12). You don't really believe John 3:16 unless you believe the Father loves you personally so much that He gave His only Son for YOU as if there were not another lost soul. (He is different than we are--He is infinite.)

One of our problems is the emotional block that we have from our infancy; seldom (if ever!) is there a father who adequately interprets to his little child what that love of the heavenly Father is like.

Now it's our job to learn how to "believe" John 3:16: to bridge this gap through space by choosing to believe that the Father of our Lord Jesus is "OUR FATHER WHCH ART IN HEAVEN," intimately close and caring. Welcome to happiness eternal--a gift given by grace received through faith (Eph. 2:8, 9)!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 26, 2003.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

That Lesson of the Cross

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Young people can hardly imagine that they will ever get old, or that they will die. They feel immortal. And they are by nature sinners like everybody else, and feel like their life belongs to them. So they are naturally selfish, like all of us are. But they may be deliriously happy in their selfishness as long as things go their way. Thoughts of self-sacrifice, of giving their lives in God's service, are unwelcome.

But there must come a time when that delirious exuberance is spent, and then the misery of feeble old age takes over. And if you haven't learned in your youth how to surrender your own will to God in the same way that Jesus surrendered His own will to His Father, then you find it a very difficult lesson to learn, and you are bitterly unhappy. Solomon says quite wisely, "Remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, 'I don't enjoy life.' That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you. ... Then your arms ... will tremble, and your legs, now strong, will grow weak. ... Your eyes too dim to see clearly. ... You will barely be able to hear ... music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep. ... You will hardly be able to drag yourself along, and all desire will be gone" (Eccl. 12:1-4, GNB).

If you are young, "rejoice ... in thy youth, ... but know that ... God will bring thee into judgment" (Eccl. 11:9, KJV). Be sober; learn the lesson of the cross; make a conscious choice to let self be crucified with Jesus and pray His prayer, "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39).

And if you are old and you realize you have never truly prayed that prayer, thank God for every moment of consciousness yet granted to you and plead with Him earnestly to teach you that lesson of the cross.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 21, 1997.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Heaven's Final Call

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The Bible is revered by both Muslims and Christians, the latter accepting it as the inspired Word of God. Its clear teaching is that for more than the past century and a half we have been living in the cosmic Day of Atonement, the grand original of which the ancient Israelite day of atonement was a type or symbol. Theirs was the most solemn day of their year, the only one when the Lord commanded His people to fast. The day of atonement was an object lesson of the final Day of Judgment; ordinary pursuits were to be laid aside; it was to be kept as a holy sabbath, a day of heart-searching, of repentance, a day on which at last the people as a corporate body or nation were to become fully "at-one" with God.

In this way it was an object lesson of what it means for us today to become "at-one" with God in a heart-preparation for the second coming of Christ, not merely for death but for meeting Jesus in person: translation (Heb. 11:5). The "fast" that was required of Israel on that typical day of atonement symbolized the simple, self-denying Christian life appropriate for us today. Every meal we eat becomes "a sacrament." "Baruch the son of Neriah" lived when his world was falling apart, as ours is today. God asked him, "Seekest thou great things for thyself?" The world around you is collapsing, "evil" is "coming upon all flesh." Be thankful I give you the simple gift of life as a "prey"--forget seeking "great things" more than Jesus had (Jer. 45).

In Isaiah 22:12-14 the Lord is disappointed when His people disregard His call to humble repentance: "the Lord God of hosts call[ed] to weeping, and to mourning," but the response of His people was partying, feasting, fun-seeking, as though He had never spoken. Then He said: "Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die." The Day of Atonement brings Heaven's final call; to disregard it becomes the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 12:31, 32.

Why is this so serious? Because Jesus, the world's Good Shepherd, feels the agony of the millions who suffer today. To refuse to live in sympathy with Him in His concern for them is to refuse to be "at-one" with Him. The Day of Atonement is what has been lacking in the kind of "Christianity" that Muslims have known about. There is light yet to "lighten the earth with glory" (Rev. 18:1-4). It will illuminate Day of Atonement truths now neglected. Many will respond.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 26, 2004.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

A Blaze of Gospel Glory

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is God concerned about European politics, culture, life? Yes, if Daniel and Revelation are understood with common sense. There are three main basic understandings: (1) Preterist, which means the prophecies were all fulfilled millennia ago, forget them; (2) Futurist, they'll all be fulfilled beyond history, forget them for now; and (3) Historicist, they have been, are being, and will be fulfilled within history--common sense. Wake up, pay attention! DDB is all for #3.

According to #3, both Daniel and Revelation depict European history since the time of the apostle John as an intellectual stage on which the great controversy between Christ and Satan is being played out, two principles at deadly war: the law of self-renouncing love (agape) versus the "law" of me-first devotion to self. Satan supports the latter.

Within history, the former was making great headway in Europe through the zealous devotion of the early Christian church; it appeared on the way to "conquer" the world for Christ's principle of love (agape). No more wars, no exploitation of the poor; liberty and justice for all; Christ has redeemed the world; pure Christianity will fulfill God's promise to Abraham, "in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3), "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9).

The Enemy of Christ was alarmed; both Daniel and Revelation penetrated, discerned, his evil strategy: get within the Christian Church, corrupt it from within, destroy liberty of conscience, join church and state; create oppression, give rulers a perverted idea of the "divine right of kings"; attempt an "ethnic cleansing" of that little remnant of people who faithfully follow Jesus and believe the Bible.

Thus came the 1260 years of the Dark Ages when millions were slaughtered for their faith under the tyranny of "the beast" of Revelation 13 and "the little horn" of Daniel 7 (identical; the infamous Spanish Inquisition was an example of the persecution foretold). But Daniel says there would finally come a "time of the end" when that horrible persecution should cease, a nation would arise with twin principles of religious and civil liberty ("two horns like a lamb," Rev. 13:11), and again the glorious pure gospel of Good News must be proclaimed to all the world (Rev. 14), ending with a blaze of gospel glory (Rev. 18). If #3 above is correct, we are right now on the verge of Revelation 18. Good News? Yes!
--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 23, 1999.
Copyright © 2012 by "Dial Daily Bread."

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

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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.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Time to Be Alert! No Time to Sleep!

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

In Bible imagery, rain is usually a blessing. There is "the latter rain" which comes at just the right time to ripen a thirsty crop for harvest. But think of a farmer worried about his crop in Israel long ago. Early rain was a blessing that made the seed sprout. The barley matured to a certain place in plant growth that seemed to promise a rich harvest this year; but now the growth is stunted. Drought came at just the wrong time. An enormous crop that never matures for harvest is an agricultural disaster. The farmer doesn't have modern irrigation; he is dependent on rain from heaven.

You can imagine the distress in the family, the earnest prayers going up day by day for the Lord to send the long-awaited "latter rain." It must come from Him!

In the Bible, this describes the condition of the Lord's church in the last days. The enormity in the size of acreage that the farmer has planted in barley is not good news unless the crop gets that most precious latter rain at the right time. Diligent labor is effort wasted if it doesn't result in a harvest of mature grain ripe for the sickle.

Jesus teaches that "the harvest is the end of the world" (Matt. 13:39). But there are two harvests--character develops in two kinds of people: those ready to meet the Lord at His return; and those whose rebellion against Him has also matured (Rev. 14:16-20). A "sickle" is used in both harvests, one by Jesus coming in glory, the other by some other "angel" whose "sharp sickle" reaps a harvest cast into the "great winepress of the wrath of God." There must be two kinds of "latter rain." Time to be alert! No time to sleep!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 3, 2005.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Only Way to Be Happy in This World

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

"Dial Daily Bread" would like to remind you of the seminar that began today (Sept. 19) and will continue through Sabbath in Hailey, Idaho. (We refer you to the notice sent out Sept. 12 that lists dates, times, and topics.) Each meeting is being video-taped and will be posted on YouTube; search for Stephen McCandless.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Of all the billions of people who have lived on planet earth in the past 6000 plus years, only One has died what the Bible says is "the second death" (you will find it mentioned in Revelation 2:11 and 20:14).

That One is Jesus.

If He had not died our world's "second death," He would not have the right to accept the plaudits of the Samaritans who said He is " the Savior of the world" (John 4:42). By dying our "second death," Jesus has earned the right to save us in His eternal kingdom, for "the wages of sin is death," and that's the real thing--the second (Rom. 6:23).

The idea that Jesus just went to sleep for a weekend is infinitely far from the truth. It has to be true that anyone who suffers the awful physical pain of crucifixion would want to be able to sleep for a weekend--it is so terrible. But that is not what Jesus did!

When He was on His cross, He screamed in agony, "My God why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). That rejection by His Father was worse than all the agony of physical crucifixion; He was dying the world's second death, enduring the condemnation of the Father for the sin of the world (He was "made to be sin for us, who knew no sin," 2 Cor. 5:21).

He bought all our sins with His blood; we have no right to keep them any longer! He bought all our souls with His blood--we don't belong to ourselves any longer.

It's just simple honesty that we give ourselves and all we have to Him; and that is the only way to be happy in this world in the midst of all the trials that we have.

That is the message of 2 Corinthians 5:20, 21--"be reconciled to God." Don't any longer be on the outs with Him. Be "one" with Him.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 11, 2008.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

God's One Huge Problem in His Universe

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Does God have problems He has to solve? Are any of them difficult for Him, as problems are for us? He has one huge one--the rebellion of sin in His universe. You may say, "He is infinite, omnipotent; He can just zap His enemies and His problems are solved!"

But wait a moment: He can't do that unless He rules as a divine Autocrat, and in the process becomes "Satan" redivivus. For example, His people Israel were being cruelly enslaved in Egypt. How can He deliver them? Zap the Egyptians? No; He must go through a long, wearying process of sending ten plagues on Pharaoh; He must carry world opinion with Him. Most of all, God must make it clear to His own people Israel that He alone is their Savior, their Deliverer, or their hearts can never be truly reconciled to Him.

If they retain any sense of self-salvation, sin will still rule in their hearts. Even 1 percent of salvation by their own works will nullify the power of His Gospel as surely as 1 percent of arsenic mixed into a good dinner will spoil it.

But that lethal "1 percent" (or more!) got mixed in at Mount Sinai when the people themselves wanted to invent the Old Covenant: "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Ex. 19:8). We helped You deliver us from Egyptian slavery! Even if we didn't, we WILL do our part in this "bargain," this "deal," this transaction of Your Covenant. We'll sign on the dotted line! You can count on us, Lord!

All through Israel's long history this Old Covenant mentality predominated. After each revival and reformation it finally drove them to reject and crucify their Savior.

Now, does God have a problem with His church? The prophecies of Daniel, of Revelation, of Jesus in Matthew 24, of Paul in Acts 20 and 2 Thessalonians 2, all tell us "Yes!" The great Enemy who misled ancient Israel is still active. "Take heed that no man deceive you," says Jesus (Matt. 24:4). "After my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock"; "There [shall] come a falling away, ... and that man of sin be revealed, ... who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God," says Paul (Acts 20:29; 2 Thess. 2:3, 4).

And again, the issue is self-righteousness. Theologians feel they must worm in that principle of salvation by works, in some way. They just can't have a Savior doing ALL the saving! Can you?

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 5, 2003.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Core Issue of the Great Cosmic Controversy

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Daniel is the one Old Testament books that Jesus specifically singles out as urgently requiring our attention (Matt. 24:15); and Revelation is the one New Testament book that Jesus likewise singles out (Rev. 1:1-3). We can’t understand what’s going on in the world around us without this “light” focused from heaven in these two special books!

The two are complementary, each explains the other. It’s amazing how hundreds of millions of Christians blithely disregard both! But both are easy to understand--user-friendly, so much so that a child can understand with only a little careful thinking.

Both describe in detail how a great “falling away” (apostasy) would seek to hi-jack the world Christian church with an enormous counterfeit religious organization that “opposes and exalts [itself] above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. ... The mystery of lawlessness ... with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who ... did not receive the love of the truth, ... strong delusion, that they should believe the lie” (2 Thess. 2:3-12). It’s the core issue of the great cosmic controversy.

The identity of this massive deception is not cloaked in foggy uncertainty: the Holy Spirit is clear and unequivocal in pinpointing this church power in history as the grand religious successor of the paganism of the ancient Roman Empire (Dan. 7:7, 8, 20-25)--the Papacy. Revelation 18 pictures its coming total expose. “Come out of [Babylon], My people” (vs. 4). Be alert.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 3, 2005.

Monday, September 17, 2012

The Pure "Truth of the Gospel" Will Emerge

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

For hundreds of years reverent-minded Bible scholars have recognized that Revelation 9 presents the story of Islam. It is "the smoke out of the bottomless pit" (vss. 2, 3). It has darkened the bright sunshine of the pure gospel of Christ.

But professed Christianity has also not let much more of the pure gospel sunlight get through. The Crusades were not a proud chapter in our history.

The coming of the Messiah to Israel and to the world was to be the world's best good news; the truth of the gospel of Christ was to lighten the earth with glory. The coming of Christianity was to "go forth conquering and to conquer," symbolized by the rider on the white horse of 6:2. The pure gospel of Christ was so clear, so powerful, that it would sweep through the world and demonstrate its character as what Paul says, "the power of God unto salvation to all who believe" (Rom. 1:16). The Messiah was to save the world, and devout Jews for many years had looked forward to this glorious climax of all human history.

But then the prophet Daniel was given a vision in which he saw an evil power arise that would pervert that pure gospel of Christ, and to his amazement and horror it would become a greater curse to the world than paganism had been. The story is in chapter 8. The great cosmic controversy between Christ and Satan was won by Christ on His cross in a legal sense, assuring us of its final triumph; Satan knows that he is already a conquered foe. But he is fighting with mad desperation in his hatred of Christ, trying to keep people in deception, and thus keep them from being reconciled to God.

The enemy's masterpiece has been to introduce into Christianity the key doctrines of paganism, which Muslims have from their beginning seized upon as their cause célèbre to justify them in rejecting the gospel truths of the cross of Christ and of His atonement.

Still, it's not too late to seek like a Good Shepherd seeking His lost sheep, for honest souls among Muslims who will respond to the pure gospel (what Paul says is "the truth of the gospel," Gal. 2:5, 14). Foremost among anti-evangelism obstacles are the mistruths of double predestination, idolatry and image veneration, and justification by works, and all confusion regarding what Christ accomplished for the world. The cross of Christ is the focal point of Satan's subtle enmity. God's promise is that in these last days the pure "truth of the gospel" will emerge from the darkness of misapprehension of God--and accomplish what the apostles did after Pentecost.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 7, 2007.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Saturday, September 15, 2012

At Last, He Alone Is Honored

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When the Apostle Paul became zealous and wrote his "epistles" to the Romans, the Galatians, the Ephesians, Timothy, et al., was he slipping over the 50/50 line of "balance" between faith and works? Did God raise up the Apostle James to write his "epistle" in an effort to put the brakes on Paul?

It's not difficult to understand this problem. If we let James have his say we see that he is in no way opposing Paul. He is simply saying that genuine faith produces works of obedience to God's law (James 2:14). It's not faith AND works. James is exactly in harmony with what Paul says when he writes that what's important is "faith WHICH works" (Gal. 5:6).

Oh, may the dear Lord deliver us from our Old Covenant mindset of self: what's important in these last days is not saving our own poor little souls and getting a crown to put on our own little heads, but crowning the Son of God to be King of kings and Lord of lords. We are not mere spectators sitting on the bleachers watching the great controversy being fought to a close; we are down in the arena fighting "with Him" (Rev. 17:14).

Yes, we want to be saved, of course; but on this great Day of Atonement we have grown out of our childish concern for the ice cream and cake at the "marriage of the Lamb" and we have grown up to sense the concern of the Bride at the wedding. She is not thinking now of herself as she once did in her childhood, but of her Bridegroom. We can't set the clock back nor can we hinder it telling the time of day.

Faith has come to be seen as a heart-appreciation of His love (agape); the egocentric kind of "faith" is transcended and that love of Christ constrains us "henceforth" to think and to live "unto Him who died for us and rose again," and not unto ourselves (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). At last, self is crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20; 6:14), and He alone is honored.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 15, 2006.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Ten Promises--If Correctly Understood

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

By nature we all have a love/hate relationship with God's Ten Commandment law. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). As descendants of the fallen Adam, with his sinful nature, that is our natural condition--"enmity" against the pure, holy law. Don't let anyone kid himself that he/she was born with a sinless nature. We all need to be converted. But there is also a sense in which we fallen humans have a love affair with the law, because God promised in the Garden of Eden that He would implant in every human heart an "enmity" against sin and its author, the "serpent." This is true of every human being, for Christ is the "Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9).

God doesn't keep His purposes to Himself, He is not shy to say what He believes. "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:3, 4). So, this love/hate relationship is true of everybody and all adds up: "That which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I" (Rom. 7:15). What an unhappy tension! The reason why God did not leave us in a 100 percent hate relationship is because He loved us.

The law of God in the Ten Commandments has often been misunderstood, even misquoted. Most printings of it in charts leaves out the indispensable preamble: "I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Ex. 20:2). Before we come to even commandment #1, He gives us Good News. He does not say, "I would like to deliver you out of bondage, IF ... IF" No! He says, "I have [past tense] brought you out of bondage." And there we have the Gospel proclaimed to us before the law is given!

Christ has already done what God promised in the Garden of Eden He would do--He has trampled the serpent on the head. "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3, 4). All this Good News is included in the preamble to the Ten Commandments, which is why a wise writer said long ago that they are ten promises, if we correctly understand them.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 21, 1999.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Let Jesus Draw You Closer to Himself

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Since the terrible 9/11 when terrorists destroyed the Trade Towers, it is generally understood that long-held Constitutional liberties are steadily being curtailed. Thoughtful people who reverence the truths of Revelation 13 increasingly warn us that the time of trouble looms just before us. In the war on terrorism can be heard the roar of a lamb-like, peace-loving "beast" that has been cruelly attacked and is finally aroused to roar "as a dragon."

Is it possible that due to all-too-common human error some of this rage against terrorists can be directed against peaceful people whose religious beliefs are popularly judged as "extremist"?

Is it possible that a healthy proclamation of "Christian faith" that is thoroughly Bible-based can be labeled as "hate literature"?

Is it possible that religious prejudices that ran riot in the 1260 years of the Dark Ages can be revived?

Yes, what Jesus said in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 is clear: loyalty to Him will be termed disloyalty to earthly governments. There is a cosmic Enemy at work in "the great controversy between Christ and Satan" who wants to bring about the silencing of God's last Good News message to the world.

Yes, the ominous prophecies of Revelation 13 will be fulfilled.

But wait a moment: something else will be fulfilled. Don't let yourself forget that Revelation 14 follows Revelation 13. A message is to sound clearly and powerfully all over the world, a message of "everlasting Good News" such as the world has never heard proclaimed in clarity and power. The earth is to be "lightened" with the glory of the message in its end-time realities. The powerful truths of justification by faith will come to the fore and take center stage in contrast to the helpless vanities proclaimed by "Babylon."

Revelation 14 is now in process of fulfillment, but Revelation 18 is still "in a great degree" future, rendered so by the unbelief of God's people in the past. Jesus says emphatically, "Let not your heart be troubled" (John 14:1-3).

Welcome every opportunity to spread abroad a most precious message that must yet lighten the earth with glory. Don't let fear engulf your thinking. Let Jesus draw you closer to Himself. He is not afraid!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 4, 2003.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

So Simple a Child Can Grasp It

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Every beautiful truth that God teaches us in His Bible has been twisted and distorted by the master enemy, Satan. His clever deceptions have even been injected into the teaching of God's New Covenant.

The truth as the Bible teaches it is so simple that a child can easily grasp it. When God Himself makes a "covenant," it is always a simple, straightforward promise on His part. No gimmicks, no small print, no "bargains" struck, no "ifs" that can be used to get Him off the hook so He can wriggle out of keeping His promise. In fact, when God makes a "covenant," He goes the second mile and swears an oath that puts His own life and His throne in pawn if He doesn't do what He promises (see Gen. 15:7-18; Heb. 6:13-20). That promise of God was made to Abraham, and confirmed by His solemn oath. God would give him the whole earth for "an everlasting possession" together with the righteousness necessary to inherit it.

When the Lord promised Abraham, He stipulated no "bargain" or "transaction" terms. It was a give-and-take relationship--God would do all the giving, and Abraham would do all the taking. And how did he "take" the blessing? Totally by faith. "[Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen 15:6; remember, we are Abraham's "children").

But for nearly 4000 years both Abraham and his descendants have twisted and distorted this simple good news. Abraham proposed to God that he help Him out of His difficulty by adopting Eliezer, a slave, to be his "heir" (15:2-4). God said No! Then Sarah, embittered because she couldn't get pregnant, proposed that she help God out of His difficulty by adopting a slave-girl's son from Abraham as her own (16:1-4). Again God said No! (17:1-19). The Lord insisted that everything would be His doing--100 percent.

And here is where the battle has raged these four millennia. We are all "born in sin," inheriting a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5; Rom. 7:14-17). It's easy NOT to believe. Faith humbles our hearts! The result? We ourselves have invented the "old covenant," our promises to God. Somehow we feel that we MUST help save ourselves!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 3, 2003.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Relief From Fear

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Since that September 11 of 2001 there has been a search for relief from fear--the kind Jesus says will grip humanity when "men's hearts [are] failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth" (Luke 21:26). The bottom-line root of all fear, even beneath the conscious surface, is that of being "forsaken" of God, of being lost, of "hell" itself, what the Bible calls the ultimate "curse of the law" (Gal. 3:13).

It's our universal problem. But, as the Son of God, Christ has endured and conquered that same fear, delivering us from it, "being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." (There is a quote from Deuteronomy 21:23, where Moses said that anyone who ends up on a tree is "accursed of God.") Jesus was utterly sinless, but He "was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21).

His sufferings on the cross were not merely physical pain. In total reality (no mind-numbing anesthetic) the Son of God, divine yet human, felt the ultimate horror: "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" That's why Peter said He went to hell to save us (Acts 2:31). No greater pain of soul was possible. He suffered 100 percent "the wages of sin, [which] is death," the real kind (Rom. 6:23). Faith is a heart-identity with Him ("I am crucified with Christ," Gal. 2:20); we become corporately one with Him by faith. His concerns become ours; His experience becomes ours by oneness of heart with Him. Thus we "receive the reconciliation" (Rom. 5:11).

That strange "honeymoon" of Luke 12:36, 37 perplexes us, but we read further: "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7). Sinful human beings learn to believe, to "overcome … even as [He] also overcame" (Rev. 3:21). They identify with Him as a bride identifies with her bridegroom, become "one" with Him in heart. "Love [agape] casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18). So, in all the Bad News of September 11 we found an avenue to Good News.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 29, 2001.