Daily Bread: August 2013

Thursday, August 29, 2013

A Clear-cut Message in the Bible

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

There is a clear-cut message in the Bible where the Lord reminds us that He is still in control of all the events of this world; and He says that if His people will do what He says and proclaim the Good News message that He wants them to proclaim, He will hold back world distress and war. The idea is that the devil can't wait to unleash another world war, but God has promised that He will send "four angels" to "hold" the "four winds" from letting loose with their universal cyclone of human hatred and passion:

"I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying 'Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads'" (Rev. 7:1-3).

By using symbolic language in Revelation, God can say an immense amount in a few words. "Four winds" throughout the Bible are a symbol of universal distress and violence; an "angel" is a symbol of a message to be proclaimed; the "sea" is a symbol of world population; God's "seal" is a symbol of a message that prepares a people to be ready for the second coming of Jesus (John 14:1-3).

Only if that "another angel" can proclaim his message and the "four winds" can be calmed down, can people be able to listen to what God has to say. Lord, please strengthen the grip of those "four angels"! And wake your people up!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 17, 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.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A "Bulletin" From Heaven's Media Office

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is it possible that our Enemy, Satan, could be pulling a fast one on us while we are asleep as Christians?

Just as Jeremiah's detractors begged him with the request, "Is there any word from the Lord?" so we would love to get some direct e-mail message from Christ, some fresh, up-to-the-minute "bulletin" from Heaven's media office.

Well, we have it in Luke 21--a message as appropriate now as any could be in this cosmic Day of Atonement: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting [excess], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day [of last opportunity to save our souls] come upon you unawares" (vs. 34).

It is phenomenal how in a time of world terror never so pervasive, our temptations to indulge in a "Vanity Fair" life are so insistent. The more distressing the news of widespread human misery, the more alluring are the solicitations that appeal to our native-born covetousness. Not only big cities like New York and London have their giant temple-like retail stores, but the "big box" stores like Walmart have come even to our small towns. The malls are our new cathedrals of architectural grandeur and heart-worship.

We have metamorphosed into that "certain rich man" whose "ground brought forth plentifully" so that he had to build a "greater [barn to] bestow all ... [his] goods" (Luke 12:16-18). One of America's big businesses now is storage places where all the "stuff" you can't crowd into your garage, you "bestow all [your] goods" there. And we say to ourselves, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry" (vs. 19). That's where we are, and that's who we are.

But wait a moment: we're living in the final period of Christ's ministry in the Most Holy part of the heavenly sanctuary; all heaven is concerned that a people, a corporate body of saints, be prepared for the close of probation; yet never in 6000 years of human history has "the ground of a certain rich man [you and I] brought forth [so] plentifully." Is there a certain clever master intelligence behind this phenomenon? Maybe you can find some missionary work to do in the grand architecture of the mall; but if not, that's no place to spend hours worshipping. Not since Christ began the last phase of His heavenly ministry.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 9, 2004.

Monday, August 26, 2013

The Prayer of Moses

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The prayer of Moses in Psalm 90 is uncannily appropriate to God's people today. Moses was "exiled" in Midian, living among what might be called lukewarm "church members in good and regular standing," for the Midianites worshipped the true God and prided themselves on being descendants of Abraham through Keturah (Gen. 25:1, 2); but they were not absorbed in the mission of Israel as Moses was. They weren't concerned (as Moses was) night and day about the salvation of the world, the coming of the Messiah, and those seven grand promises that God had made to Abraham in Genesis 12:2, 3 and how God had said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," not "in Keturah's descendants" (Gen. 21:12).

Even Moses' own wife, Zipporah, being a Midianite, apparently did not fully share her husband's dreams, for we never hear from her, no "song of Zipporah" as we hear the "song of Miriam" (Ex. 15:21). The parents of Moses had instilled into him the destiny of delivering Israel from slavery and settling them in the Promised Land so they could fulfill Heaven's gospel plans for the world. And now Moses' life work is in ruins; he is a failure, a mere sheepherder. It seems to him that Israel is doomed to be forever a race of slaves, and the world will never be "lightened" with the glory of the gospel entrusted to Israel.

Now today: modern "Israel" is lukewarm as were the Midianites (Rev. 3:14-17); few carry the heart-burden of a people being prepared for the actual second coming of Christ; few are concerned to understand what is the message that Revelation says must "lighten the earth with glory" so that a Voice from heaven can speak to every honest-hearted soul in "Babylon."

Few are concerned as Moses in Midian was concerned--about the triumph of "the great controversy between Christ and Satan," the honor and vindication of the Son of God. Most are content with the popular philosophy (as they understand it) to "occupy till I come" in the enjoyment of continued material prosperity and a mere token support of God's work. But Moses in Midian prays night and day for the deliverance of Israel; the burden of a lost world is on his heart.

What kind of "burden" do you carry?

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 30, 2001.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Fanatic About the Cross of Christ

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Can we be a fanatic about the cross of Christ? Say too much about it? Harp on it to the exclusion of other themes? Get obsessed about His sacrifice?

If you had been a member of Paul's congregation in Corinth, you would have heard him preach Sabbath after Sabbath for a year and a half on much the same theme; you could have even predicted what his sermon would be about--"Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). Were the young people bored?

Corinthians were a motley crowd of mostly immoral people. According to Strabo the historian, 1000 slave girls were temple prostitutes. "To Corintianize" meant to be a slave to sex. It was in everything--advertising, social life, commerce. How was Paul to reach people so saturated with it?

He had just come from a largely unsuccessful evangelistic campaign in Athens. Now he "determined to know nothing among" the Corinthians except the sacrifice of the Son of God. There was a steady focus on the "breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of the love (agape) of Christ that was demonstrated at the cross. Fanaticism? No. It was sober, clear-headed thinking on Paul's part.

All people except two (Enoch and Elijah) have died the first death--a "sleep." Christ's death was different. It's bad enough to die "despised and rejected of men" (Isa. 53:3); but He had to die feeling despised and rejected of God (Matt. 27:46), a cumulative, corporate, total death embracing all humanity, a divine-human consciousness of all the guilt of every person. That killed Him, "made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). We cannot encompass it; all we can do is to be prayed for by the apostle Paul that we might "comprehend" it "with all saints" and not be left out (Eph. 3:14-19).

When we meet Jesus face to face (as we shall, for certain) we don't want the embarrassment of not having wanted to "know Him," to have evaded "fellowship with Him in His sufferings" (Phil. 3:10). To share with Paul what it means to be "crucified with Christ"--that will be glory.

--Robert J. Wieland

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

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

What It Means to Follow Jesus

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When Jesus called His Twelve and ordained them, He called them to a solemn privilege: they were to take "bread" from His hands and fan out through the crowd of hungry people and feed them. The bread was never their own; they had never baked it. It was always second-hand bread. They were only the passers-on of bread that had been miraculously multiplied by Jesus.

The same Savior has called you to be His servant to pass on "bread" to some hungry person. This is what it means to follow Jesus. You are never an originator of saving truth, you are never a smart theologian. The less smart it is obvious that you are of yourself, the more the Lord can be honored by your ministry. The people need to know that the "bread" you are passing on is not yours, but His. "Bread" is Good News that nourishes a famished soul.

When Jesus fed the 5,000 in John 6:9-13, apparently He Himself didn't serve anyone; "He distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to" the people. No angel was permitted to touch that bread, as the one who fed Elijah in the desert--this job is special now for the Twelve. They are to be intermediaries between the Savior and the people. Their job is enjoyable! The people smile at them and thank them profusely for what they don't deserve thanks for. (They must remember that and never take an ounce of credit for themselves.)

And do you suppose the Twelve sneaked a bite themselves now and then, to taste if it was good? (There was always plenty, and they were hungry too.) Their first-hand testimony, "It's delicious!," was also enjoyable to give.

Our "bread" to share today is "the everlasting gospel" (Rev. 14:6, 7).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 24, 2005.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The Clever Invention of a False Holy Spirit

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The greatest drought in the history of ancient Israel prevailed in the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. No rain, not even a drop of dew, fell on the parched land for three years and a half; people were dying everywhere in consequence of the national disaster.

Even the king took his trusted "Cabinet member" Obadiah and with him and searched the land for some spots where the royal livestock could forage for a little water and grass in order to survive--national security depended on it (1 Kings 18:5). It was equivalent to our national security crisis if our supplies of gasoline and diesel were to become non-existent.

Likewise, a crisis faces the Lord's church in the last days if there is no "rain" of the Holy Spirit falling upon it worldwide in copious showers of grace. As many Israelites died in Ahab's days of drought, so many in modern Israel suffer; lacking Heaven's true showers of "rain" they fall prey to the clever counterfeits that the Enemy in the great controversy with Christ foists upon them. Youth and teens especially perish spiritually if they are deprived of fresh "bread of life." Every wind of doctrine is blowing. Jesus' words are, "If anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand" (Matt. 24:23-25). Common sense is precious.

Most perilous of these deceptions will be the clever invention of a false and counterfeit holy spirit. The truth makes sense: if Satan can invent a false christ, he can also invent a false holy spirit. In the "time of the end" "knowledge shall be increased" (Dan. 12:4). If we can conceive of a progression of deceptions, each generation witnessing a new development like "alpha" panentheism unfolding, imagine the almost overwhelming impact of what its "omega" will be!

In Ahab's day, a true prophet of God named Elijah arose and commanded the king to call a national crisis-convocation at Carmel. The universal deception was unmasked publicly. Every Israelite with an honest heart was undeceived. At last the true Holy Spirit had a voice.

The next item on God's agenda for today is His sending "Elijah" "before the great and dreadful day of the LORD." He will lead the honest in the world church into the one true miracle of His much more abounding grace: "turning hearts" in the great Day of Atonement (Mal. 4:5, 6; Dan. 8:14). At last, Christ crucified and risen will be "lifted up" as He said He must be (John 12:32, 33).

--Robert J. Wieland

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

Monday, August 19, 2013

No Higher Honor Possible for Anyone

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The Lord has always blessed us with special people "of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do" (1 Chron. 12:32). The New English Bible says, "skilled in reading the signs of the times."

God forbid that any of us should be so vain as to imagine that we are they when in fact we are "less than the least of all saints" (but even Paul felt that was what he was; Eph. 3:8)!

But what would the present-day "children of Issachar" say that "Israel ought to do"?

Clearly: tell the world what is that most precious message that "God commanded" should be proclaimed in "every church" and then given to the world. It's the message of "Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:1, 2) that Revelation 18:1-4 says must lighten the earth with glory: "I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory." When he cries, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen," he calls on those whose hearts are honest to "come out of her, My people."

When the honest-hearted hear that call, nothing will be able to stop them coming out--not family, friends, business. It will be the same call that came to Abraham when he was in Ur.

The Lord's prayer that we are to pray continually is, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10). Through that inspired prayer this glorious goal will be our heart-burden continually, for by the much more abounding grace of Jesus, we are reconciled to His Father.

But His "kingdom" can't come until the message of the "kingdom" lightens the earth with glory. He has no other way to lighten the earth with the glory of His message except through His people. When you pray the Lord's prayer, you demonstrate that you have been adopted as His child. No higher honor is possible for anyone!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 27, 2008.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Can Fear Produce a Lasting Revival?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Fear is becoming heightened, and it is true that natural and man-made disasters are becoming more frequent; wickedness in high places is more publicized, and morality in general is discredited. The "signs" are unmistakable--"get ready," the end is near! But can fear and egocentric concern produce the revival and reformation that are needed? All through sacred history we read how fear never produced lasting revivals. What does work?

The answer: the gospel. The reason? It reaches human hearts; it motivates as fear can never do. A wise writer said long ago that when Christ approaches, He walks on a path of velvet lest His footsteps awaken fears when only the message of His love can motivate truly.

We are at present in a little "tarrying time" when each of us is being tested to see how deep and thorough is our heart-appreciation of that much more abounding grace of Christ. Nothing short of that will enable any of us to endure the trials that all of us know will surely come before the end. In the time of the great cosmic Day of Atonement, God's people must have a far clearer understanding of the gospel than any previous generation have ever been able to comprehend. This does not mean that God has withheld from previous generations that clearer understanding--He has never withheld it from anyone. The truth is simply that no previous generation were ever able to comprehend it.

You don't withhold from a flower girl at the Wedding the privilege of being a bride; she is just not ready for it. But the time must come when she grows up. Ephesians 4:14-16 tells us that the growing up process is "speaking the truth in love [agape]," turning aside from "every [false] wind of doctrine." The Good News is that the heavenly High Priest is more than ready to "shed abroad in our hearts" that precious gift of agape (Rom. 5:5). And the agape will cast out fear (1 John 4:18).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 7, 1999.
Copyright © 2013 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Friday, August 16, 2013

Did Jesus Say Anything Special About War?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Did Jesus have anything special to say to us about war? We dread the violence, the slaughter of civilians and of combatants. We don't want even to watch it on our TV screens. Yes, Jesus spoke of this time. Worldwide, millions of "hearts" are "failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." There is "distress of nations, with perplexity" (Luke 21:26, 25). Rampant fear!

But listen, as we look at Christ's Good News agenda for this world: (1) He says: "This gospel [Good News] of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14). Watch for it!

(2) This is explained further in Revelation 14, pinpointing this same "time of the end": "I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." He is "followed" by two more angels also proclaiming the same "gospel" (vss. 6-12).

(3) Before the "end" can "come," the fairness and mercy of God must send a fourth angel "having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory." He "cries mightily with a strong voice" (18:1-4). Yes, look long and earnestly at this inspired picture of coming happier events. That "everlasting gospel" is the full-blown truth of justification by faith.

(4) But God must have cooperation from His people. Just proclaiming a "wimpish" counterfeit gospel gives Satan opportunity to wreak havoc again like in World Wars I and II--both, horrors unnecessary but for "our" unbelief. Only if we proclaim a mature "everlasting gospel" which "seals" those who believe (a first in human history!) can God's "four angels" succeed in holding back the "four winds" of war that otherwise must "blow" (see Rev. 7:1-3).

Something serious is brewing; may the Holy Spirit help us stay awake.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 24, 2003.

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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Good News You Can Tell Anyone

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Millions are studying about how we should witness more, how it is our duty to do so, and what we must do, possibly resulting in guilt for not doing more.

But there is a bright spot: Christ's death was complete for the whole world--for every human being. As a wise writer has said, "The atonement for a lost world was ... exceedingly abundant to reach every soul that God had created. It could not be restricted so as not to exceed the number who would accept the great Gift. ... There [is] enough and to spare."

Thank God for this truth that Christ accomplished something for every human soul. He died for the world. You can tell anyone, "Christ died for you; He paid the price for your sins; He died your second death; there is no reason under heaven why you must die the second death--He died it for you! What He accomplished is a blessed gift, it's far more than an 'offer' that depends on your goodness."

There are many in the world who will respond when the message is told them clearly and simply so they can understand. The bottleneck right now is our own failure to understand how good the Good News really is!

Jesus made one of His most profound statements when He said that if anyone truly believes in Him, he or she will become a source of the Good News. In His deepest soul will flow a well of living water. You won't be consuming precious time lamenting how little you have done; you won't be dreading the final judgment day because you haven't done more. The "truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:5) will captivate your interest and your enthusiasm; it will flow out from you to others without your realizing what's happening.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 19, 2004.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

How Can "the Whole Earth" Be Deceived?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When we wake up each new morning, we face bewilderment and confusion all over the earth. We humans cover the earth like little ants running around when you disturb them, and yet we humans are the family of God. We are created in His image; the glorious Creator of the vast universe left His high and holy place and became one of us. We are not "ants," we are sons and daughters of God "in Him." We are fellow-saints with Him engaged in the greatest struggle that has ever been waged in the universe--the controversy between Christ and Satan. We are not spectators at the arena; we are players on the field.

What's happening around us is the closing scene of this titanic war between two "spirits"--the One designated in the Bible as "Holy," and "the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience" who is inspired by "the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world" (Eph. 2:2; Rev. 12:9).

How can "the whole world" be deceived? Jesus says that so terrible will be the deception that it will come "on the face of the whole earth" like "a snare" (Luke 21:35). It's happening now. But thank God, not everyone will be deceived.

Think what it was like when Jesus was born; the masses knew the inspired prophecies of the Old Testament or at least had ready access to them if they didn't want to be deceived, yet how many recognized the Messiah when He came as a humble Baby in Bethlehem? Some did, but only a few.

So today; there is for sure "a remnant" (Rom. 9:27); "few that be saved" (Luke 13:23), who have learned the lesson of Bethlehem, who "walk softly" (1 Kings 21:27), who respond to "the still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12), that calls them in God's word, who choose to believe every truth that the Holy Spirit teaches as "He guides you into all truth" (John 16:13), who "follow the Lamb [the crucified Christ] wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:4, 5), who are "with Him" as He takes His final stand in the struggle of the nations of earth (Rev. 17:14), who identify with "the Lamb" so closely that they penetrate His thinking and His feelings as a bride penetrates her husband's deepest yearnings.

Amid earth's clash of arms and the din of its endless traffic, LISTEN.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 12, 2004.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Our Only Hope

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

In focusing our study on the humanity of the Son of God, nothing detracts in the least from His divinity. We "behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and in so doing will "behold" Him as the One whose "name [is] Immanuel, which is translated, 'God with us'" (Matt. 1:23).

In order for us humans to "behold" Him, we must see Him as He has revealed Himself to us. That is, He is "the Word [which] became flesh and dwelt among us." It is there that we "behold His glory" (John 1:14). "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given" (Isa. 9:6). "The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us," says a thoughtful writer. And Jesus Himself tells us to look, and look, and look to Him in His humanity, for only thus can we perceive Him in His divinity.

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14). To "believe" in Him is the same as to choose to "behold" Him. That was the only hope for the Israelites in the wilderness bitten by the poisonous serpents--to "behold" that serpent on the pole that Moses had made at the command of God, representing Christ.

Yes, our very life itself, our salvation, depends on "beholding" Him in His humanity, which veils His divinity. No one can spend too much time "beholding the Lamb of God" there. In Hebrews one we "behold" Him in His pre-incarnation divinity, as "God" (vs. 8); but the inspired author says we don't "see" Him clearly until we "see Him" "made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, ... that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone" (2:9). We must see Him in His humanity.

The chapter goes on to focus our view intensely on Him as One who "likewise took part" of the same "flesh and blood" that we have, so that "in all things He had to be made like His brethren" (vss. 14-17). Only so, as He has "suffered, being tempted, [is He] able to aid [us] who are tempted" (vs. 18). As we "behold" Him thus, are we becoming fanatical? A million times, no! Why, He is our only hope!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 20, 2005.

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.

Monday, August 12, 2013

A Deep Humbling of Hearts

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The time is coming soon when the Good News of Christ's salvation is to be proclaimed to all ethnic branches of humanity (Matt. 24:14). The climax is Revelation 18: "another angel" is to "come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth [will be] lightened with his glory" (vs. 1).

Jesus explained how this is to be, in John 12:32, 33: "And I, IF I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [people] unto Me. This He said, signifying what death He would die." That IF is pivotal. The blessed work of "lightening the earth with glory" is the same as lifting Christ up as the crucified One. Proclaiming Him on His cross is the only way that the earth can be lightened!

The great Protestant Reformation of the 16th century came close to doing it, but it fell short, woefully so. By and large the Reformers embraced the pagan/papal doctrine of natural immortality of the human soul. The truth is not a trivial theological quirk; if one embraces the idea of natural immortality his vision of the cross is clouded with confusion, no matter how many crucifixes he looks at. He cannot comprehend the kind of death the Son of God experienced; in fact, he cannot believe that Christ truly died. The cross is robbed of its genuine reality, which is that Christ "tasted death for every man" (Heb. 2:9), that is, the second death.

And then as a natural result, the one who believes in natural immortality is prevented from "comprehending" the "breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (agape; Eph. 3:17-19). The false doctrine of the nature of man has vitiated the sacrifice of the Savior and prevents His being "lifted up" so as to "draw all people unto" Himself.

The Lord in His great mercy has sent to His people this most precious truth that reveals Christ uplifted on His cross in all His glory. It's not a psychological gimmick acquired by mastering techniques of "soul-winning." We cannot "evangelize" unless self is "crucified with Christ," buried "with Him" (Rom. 6:3-6). A wise person once said there will be deep humbling of hearts before God on the part of all who remain faithful and true to the end.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 24, 2003.

Friday, August 09, 2013

Why Delay Any Longer?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The Lord has a special love for the Jewish people, according to Paul's Romans (chapters 9-11). The apostle's idea is not mere personal national or ethnic pride on his part; it's theological, that is, he sees the Jews as God's chosen descendants of Abraham who were called to win the world to reconciliation with God, and thus put an end to the misery that sin has caused to the human race.

But the Jews did what all of us have done--they sinned against God. The divine call to Abraham and his descendants did not abolish the sinful nature that they, along with all of us, inherited from the fallen Adam. That "carnal mind," says Paul, "is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (8:7). In God's special call to the Jews, He allowed them to demonstrate what that carnal mind can do when it goes off on its own to do what it wants to do--the Jews were left on their own to act out to the full that enmity in that they crucified their God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

No pagan people have ever fallen that low. Jeremiah asks, "Has a[ny other] nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit" (2:11). They have led the world in "enmity against God" and raised a cross on which they crucified Him in the most public manner possible.

Nevertheless, He has forgiven them, for when their leaders were egging the Romans on, at their bidding, to drive the nails through His wrists and ankle bones, the Messiah prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34). That means He has forgiven all the Jews in a corporate or legal sense, or objectively; but they as individuals can never receive the blessing of that forgiveness subjectively until they realize what the sin is (not onlywas, for it goes on), and open their hearts to receive the gift of repentance which will always lead to confession and recovery of what they threw away.

Paul says that "a remnant" will come to realize the truth and will receive the full gift of repentance (Rom. 11:5; it will be the "repentance of the ages," one modern writer said once). They will lead out in the last gospel task of lighting the world with the glory of "the everlasting gospel" which will be "the third angel's message in verity" that those who were called to herald it to the world have refused to do, "just like the Jews" who refused to evangelize their world for their thousands of years.

God that repentance is possible. God has faith in human beings that they will eventually respond appropriately. But why must we delay that wondrous time any longer?

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 14, 2007.

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Caught Up in a Whirlwind of Duties?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is anybody out there who gets caught up unavoidably in a whirlwind of duties, work, appointments, obligations, so demanding and so pressing that you just couldn't find time for prayer and Bible study between crawling out of bed wearily in the morning and falling asleep exhausted late at night? And all these heavy burdens are not because we are trying to make payments on a boat or a new Lexus or ranch house, but simple duties that decency has imposed on us.

We have a family to take care of, righteous obligations that a person of good character must perform. And while we are being thus driven ragged, God keeps sitting on His throne serene, never too much to do, never knows what it is to be in a hurry, plenty of secretaries and aides surrounding Him to do and go at His beck and call, while He frowns and scolds because we haven't "taken time" to pray and study. And so the guilt builds up, and that is added to all the other burdens that stern duty has laid on us, burdens we cannot avoid if we are to function as husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, employees, yes, as church leaders. Sigh!

Can we find somewhere some Good News that may help us endure? Especially regarding the guilt problem. (If you are one who sits serene, untroubled, unhurried, finishing your day's work at 4:30, with a bevy of secretaries and aides, tune out; you don't need this.)

Let's begin at the end first: Our heavenly Father is not frowning and scolding us because we are (or think we are) unavoidably busy. He has sent His Son to save us, not to condemn us (John 3:17; 12:47). Busy as we are, the Good Shepherd doesn't lose patience with us; He keeps seeking us (Luke 15:1-5). Unless we believe this, our hearts get hardened and we find ourselves alienated from Him. Next, in the midst of our most busy busyness, the Holy Spirit gets through with conviction, for He is "the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9).

Say Yes to His every conviction, to every ray of light that shines through the worldly gloom; in other words, welcome Him. Guaranteed: He will show you a way and a nook of time to get a meal of nourishing spiritual food for your soul. (The test will come to see if you really want it, or are just playing games.) Lastly, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8). Remember it all week long, and then rest spiritually.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 27, 1999.