Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There are encouraging promises in the Bible. One assures us that in the final proclamation ("the everlasting gospel" in the three angels' messages of Revelation 14:6-12), the Holy Spirit will be poured out in such fullness that He will convict people in the highest echelons of world leadership. Some will be motivated to step out fearlessly and identify with the despised "remnant" who "keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (cf. Rev. 15:2, 3; 12:17). The gospel commission will not be finished with a whimper but with a blaze of glory.
Isaiah 49 is a wonderful treatise on these glorious days as finally the pure truth of the gospel is understood and proclaimed. The Lord says, "I will say to the prisoners, 'Go free!' and to those who are in darkness, 'Come out to the light!' ... I will make a highway across the mountains and prepare a road for My people to travel. ... Look around and see what is happening! ... Kings will be like fathers to you; queens will be like mothers. They will bow low before you and honor you; ... I will fight against whoever fights you, and I will rescue your children" (vss. 9, 11, 18, 23, 25, Good News Bible).
Under that proclamation of "the everlasting gospel," agencies that have held people back are powerless to keep them from stepping out for the Lord--like employment that threatens dismissal because of the holy Sabbath, or friends or family; truth is more precious than all besides. Honorable people honor the Lord. Some in the very highest levels of the Roman Curia will respond, according to the Revelation 15:2 prophecy.
Abraham was a wealthy, distinguished man in his day. If God Himself preached the "gospel" to him (Gal. 3:8), it must have been "Christ and Him crucified," for that alone is the gospel (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). Jesus said that "Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56). It was not craven fear of hell that motivated him to leave his comfortable home in the great city of Ur and live in tents the rest of his life; it was a glimpse of the abounding grace of the Lord.
Yes, in the story of the offering of Isaac in Genesis 22, Abraham saw the "width and length and depth and height" of the love (agape) of Christ (Eph. 4: 17-19); that's what nerved and moved him to shine as "the father of all those who believe" (Rom. 4:11).
The same vision will move us today, and also many in time to come! Agape is a far more effective motivation than any kind of fear the old covenant can generate.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 9, 2007.
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