Dial Daily Bread: The Boy Dedicated to His Father's "Business"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When the little Boy of 12 watched His first Passover at Jerusalem, He wondered what it meant. He had to reason it out through His inspired mind and conclude that it meant that Someone sinless must come and be sacrificed as the Lamb of God. What's amazing is that this teenage Boy did not fight the conviction that He was called to die as the "Lamb of God"!

We know He accepted the call, because the first words we have from His lips were what He said to His mother when she later found Him in the Temple, "Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" (Luke 2:49). That 12-year-old Boy was dedicated! He was the first of many who have out-thought their parents, and yes, their pastors, in understanding the leading of the Holy Spirit. That "Boy" stayed dedicated to His Father's "business" until He "set His face" to go to Jerusalem to be crucified (see Luke 9:51).

There are in the world today many teens who likewise hear and respond to the call of the Holy Spirit to dedicate themselves to the Lord Jesus. The nation's religious leaders in the Temple in Jerusalem had no idea what was happening up in Nazareth in Galilee, while this Teen was growing up and while He was working as a carpenter. The Holy Spirit was teaching Him.

So there are youth today, some as young as 12, who are thinking very seriously, and responding to the Holy Spirit very deeply. They may be 144,000 in number!

Let them ponder that Youth of 12. He does not impose upon them the heavy burdens of Old Covenant living; He invites them to fellowship with Himself in joyous New Covenant freedom. Theirs will be the once-forever joy of proclaiming the message that will lighten the earth with glory (Rev. 18:1-4).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 24, 2007.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: "Lifted Up" for All to See

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Some Europeans who came looking for Jesus found Him in a pensive mood a few days before Calvary. Their invitation to Him to come to Europe and escape the horror before Him in Jerusalem was a severe temptation, and drew from Him a sober statement of the kind of death He knew He was to die: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone." If I accept your invitation to escape My cross, I will be the grain of wheat laid up on a shelf "alone" and useless, side by side with your Greek philosophers. "But if it dies, it produces much grain" (John 12:24).

If I go through with what My Father has appointed Me to do--die the second death on a cross--then I will fulfill My mission and the hopes of the Sychar Samaritans as "the Savior of the world" (John 4:42; any death on a cross involved the irredeemable "curse" of God--Gal. 3:13; Deut. 21:23). "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. … What shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour?'" (John 12:25, 27). His answer to that question: No!

Then His mind went forward to our day when our world is locked in the futility of self-seeking. "'And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.' This He said, signifying by what death He would die" (John 12:32-33). Thus He described the light that will "lighten the earth with glory" in the work of that "other angel" whose final message will call out of Babylon all of God's people scattered around the world (Rev. 18:1-4).

His being "lifted up" for all to see, to "comprehend" (cf. Eph. 3:18, 19), will be the full revelation of the significance of "what death He would die"--all men's "second death" (cf. Rev. 2:11; 20:6). The world will then be terror-stricken, but His final message will not be terror-driven. It will not be a me-first, but a Christ-first message--an at-last full revelation of the love (agape) intrinsic in His much more abounding grace. It will "constrain" every honest heart to self-less devotion to the One who died for us (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 12, 2005.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: The Day When Everything Got Straightened Out

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Life today should be solemnly exciting--more than at any time in 6000 years: this is the cosmic, grand "Day of Atonement." It's the antitype of ancient Israel's one Day of days when the nation was in such heart-stopping excitement that they ate nothing all day. They (and God, too!) were on trial in an awe-inspiring Day of Judgment. But now the real thing is going on.

In Israel, it was the one Day of the year when everything got straightened out and all questions were answered. At Day's end, the nation was in heart-oneness with God. In miniature, "the great controversy" between Christ and Satan was finished. Sin and sinners were no more. The entire nation was clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beat throughout. Life and light and gladness flowed from the Lord. To Israel, all things in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy declared that God is love--on that one grand day of the year, the Day of Atonement.

Now the message from our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, is this: "be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20). "Atonement" is not obscure Latin, Greek, or Hebrew--it's pure simple Anglo-Saxon, "be at-one-with God." It's time for your doubts to be resolved, those deep feelings that He has not been fair with you. It's time to join that distraught father in Mark 9 who cried with tears when everything seemed against him, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). It's time for "Jacob" the Supplanter to wrestle with God and get a new name, "Israel."

But can we shake ourselves by our shoulders and just do it--reconcile ourselves to Him? It means a change of mind, which actually is repentance. But do we have a "self-start button" to press for "repenting ourselves"? Acts 5:31 says it's a "gift" from our "Prince and Savior." A "gift" is not what you work for.

Which reminds us: the Israelites never "cleansed" their own sanctuary: the high priest alone always did it. It wasn't a works-trip for them. Yes, bitter as this pill may be for do-it-yourself legalists: we have to let Him do it for us and in us on this cosmic Day of Atonement. He takes the initiative and we cooperate "through faith."

So stop resisting the blessed Holy Spirit. Your High Priest loves you more than you ever dreamed He does. To understand, "behold" and "comprehend" what happened on His cross.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 7, 2003.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Why Have an Investigative Judgment?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

If a ship sinks into the depths of the sea, is it gone forever? Many like to quote Micah 7:19 that says, when we confess our sins, the Lord promises to cast them into the depths of the sea. They ask, "Then why have an investigative judgment?"

But we have a problem here. Back in Micah's day, if a ship sank into the ocean, it was gone forever; but now, no longer. It's great business diving into wrecks on the ocean floor. Even the Titanic has been disturbed in its resting place in the North Atlantic where it has lain since that April night in 1912.

No, casting our sins into the depths of the ocean as an eternal resting place might not be the end of them. When God recreates the earth anew, He will also clean up the oceans. Heaven won't be what we want if the eternal ocean floor is forever littered with wrecks that remind us of this earth's sinful, cruel past, any more than if wrecked cars and burned out buildings will still cover the surface of the earth made new.

Some day the hidden secrets of every "shipwreck" will be revealed. So, sins that are hidden, even from our knowledge, must be revealed. And for those who are ready for Jesus to return, that means that it must all come out in the open beforehand in a judgment before He returns.

But that's not Bad News; it's Good News, ... because the deeper the knowledge of your sins, the deeper your heart appreciation of His grace. And no one can be happy when Jesus returns unless we have learned that lesson!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 27, 1997.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Transformed From the Inside Out

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

To have faith is not merely to trust the Lord like you trust the bank or the insurance company. You can do that and still remain as selfish as you were before, because such trust is a self-centered concern. The John 3:16 idea of faith solves the problem and lifts our naturally self-centered hearts out of a dark cave into the sunlight: faith is a heart-melting appreciation of what it cost the Son of God to save us.

We know this from several texts that tell us what faith is. Those two things that God did in John 3:16 are: (a) He so loved the world that He (b) gave His only begotten Son. Those two trigger (c): we believe. The (a) and the (b) come before the (c)! If your heart says "Thanks!" for (a) and (b), then you've already begun (c). But just begun, for one's selfish heart only begins to come alive; you grow; the hardness is melted day by day. And that kind of faith "works through love" (agape). Your motives and your conduct are transformed from the inside out. Don't get discouraged if progress seems slow. The Holy Spirit is working!

In other words, faith couldn't even exist unless first of all there was the revelation of that love at the cross (agape). All of this is just another way of saying that salvation is by grace, "not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph. 2:9).

If faith "works through love" (Gal. 5:6), then there is no end to the good works that it will continually motivate us to do. Here is the victory over every kind of evil the devil tempts us to do. No addict is beyond the Savior's reach. Stop carrying a load of guilt. Faith is itself a change of heart. It reconciles an alienated, selfish heart to God; and since no one can be reconciled to His holy law, such faith immediately makes the believer become obedient to all ten of the joyous commandments of God. The love of Christ supplies an infinitely powerful motivation.

From then on, it's not a matter of "what do I have to do in order to be saved?" but "how can I say Thank You enough for saving my soul from hell itself?" It's an entirely new situation, for "behold, all things have become new," for "all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:17, 18).

--Robert J. Wieland

From: The Nearness of Your Savior, pp. 15-18 (2001).
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Does It Hurt God for Us to Think Evil of Him?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What difference does it make to God what we think inside of us? Why would God even care what we think? What difference could our private thoughts make to Him?

We can ask another question: What difference does it make to you what your neighbor may think about you? If you are a hard, harsh, arrogant person, probably, nothing. But if you are a kind, considerate, loving person, it would surely burden you to know that your neighbor sees you as bad, selfish, or unjust, even if he doesn't gossip about you to others. Just the knowledge that in his mind he cherishes these evil thoughts about you must burden you.

Does it hurt God for us to think evil of Him? It must, because "the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7), and enmity is incipient murder, says John: "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). If you were God could you "rest" knowing that there are people who would crucify You all over again? (If He were to come as Christ came 2000 years ago?)

Yes, God longs for "rest," which since sin began on this planet, He has never been able to do. He is burdened 24/7. And He cannot rest until the great controversy between Satan and Himself has come to an end.

We are now living in the grand cosmic Day of Atonement, of which the ancient Levitical Yom Kippur was a symbol. God so loves the world already that He gave His only Son for us, proving that He is reconciled to us; what remains to be done is for us to be reconciled to Him.

Don't resist or stop the Holy Spirit from ministering that final reconciliation to you. He speaks, "Be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:18-20). To find out how He does it, read the rest of the chapter. Let Him turn your attention to what happened on the cross when "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (vs. 21).

God's heart doesn't need to be changed toward you, but yours needs to be changed toward Him. On this cosmic Day of Atonement, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. Don't "resist our Lord in His office work."

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 6, 2003.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: The Solution to God's Biggest Problem

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

God has a huge problem on His hands--sin. It has ruined this world and is getting worse ("lawlessness will abound," Matt. 24:12). Just look at any morning's news. Unless that "cancer" of sin can be overcome and defeated, it will ruin the entire universe. This is what "the great controversy between Christ and Satan" is all about.

The sacrifice of Christ 2000 years ago was wonderful; His sacrifice was complete. But not until the problem of sin can be solved and eradicated from the world and the universe, will the atonement (becoming "one" with God) be complete. Sinners are at "enmity" with Him, and He cannot solve the problem just by "zapping" them. To force them would only make the problem worse. Yes, God does have a problem! And He cannot rest until that "cancer" in His universe is overcome.

God needs some people to cooperate with Him, because His Son has become "Immanuel, God with us." He became human as well as divine; His heart is with us in this world. Those people who must help Him are called "the church." It is the place where God must demonstrate to the world and to the universe that His "gospel ... is the power of God to salvation" (Rom. 1:16). In other words, it eradicates sin from its last refuge--the human heart. This demonstration constitutes the final judgment of the cross of Christ that will forever defeat sin.

The "cleansing" of the sanctuary in heaven requires first the cleansing of the hearts of His people on earth--the stage where the drama is being played out. The "books" in heaven cannot tell a lie. But His church on earth is "lukewarm," a spiritual sickness produced by heart alienation from Christ, love of self, and love of the world. There is God's biggest problem!

The solution? Something called "the message of Christ's righteousness," a truth rooted in the cleansing of the sanctuary, "the third angel's message in verity" (see Rev. 14:6-12). "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 29, 2001.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: A Tiny Example of the Lord's Goodness

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

 

Psalm 103 is our beloved "Day of Atonement" song of reconciliation with the Lord. It begins and ends with "Bless the Lord, O my soul." The word "bless" obviously means "to make happy." So the psalm tells us how to make the Lord Himself to be happy.

Does He need any help? That's a nice life work for any of us!

The way to make Him happy is to be happy ourselves "in Christ" in these last days of the Savior's ministry as our great High Priest. The psalm's high point is: (1) He "forgives all your iniquities," and parallel to that, (2) He "heals all your diseases" (vs. 3). We must walk softly here, for there are sick people whose sins have all been forgiven, and sometimes they even die. But wait a moment: are we really sure that all of our unknown sins have been forgiven in the true sense of the word, that is, taken away--not just pardoned?

That "blotting out of sins" is distinct from the pardoning of sins. This is the special work of Daniel's "cleansing of the sanctuary" (8:14). This work cannot be accomplished in heaven until first of all the sins have been forgiven, blotted out, in and from the hearts of those who "follow the Lamb wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:4, 5). They are that special group known as the 144,000. (Don't be afraid that there won't be "room" for you; the "room" depends on the width and length and depth and height of your faith, which is a heart appreciation of the love [agape] of Christ, Eph. 3:17-19.)

Part of the happiness the Lord wants us to know is that our mouth is satisfied "with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's" (Psalm 103:5). Is such dietary pleasure health-inducing? It says so. It's re-educating our taste to be "reconciled" (there's "atonement" again!) to enjoy the foods that God has created to be "received with thanksgiving" (1 Tim. 4:4).

Day of Atonement living includes that re-educating of our diet. To list all those delicious foods is impossible. How can you doubt there is a loving Creator who created them all in six days when you consider alone the annual progression of fruits through the year, from the earliest strawberries in spring, through summer peaches, then pears, to those delicious persimmons in late autumn! Just a tiny example of the Lord's goodness. Yes, "bless the Lord, O my soul"! He heals diseases, and enjoying foods He has created is one way.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 3, 2006.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: The Greatest Sin of All the Ages

Dear Friends of “Dial Daily Bread,”

What brought ancient Israel’s ruin? She refused to accept her Messiah’s message, which exposed a deeper level of guilt than she had previously realized. The Jews of Christ’s day were not by nature more evil than any other generation; it was simply theirs to act out to the full the same enmity against God that all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam have always had by nature. The divine Son of God came to them on a mission of mercy. As our natural “carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7), they simply demonstrated this fact visibly in the murder of their divine Visitor. Those who crucified the Savior hold up a mirror wherein we can see ourselves.

Laodicea’s repentance will go down to the deepest roots of this natural “enmity against God.” This deeper phase of repentance is repenting of sins that we may not have personally committed, but which we would have committed if we had the opportunity. The root of all sin, its common denominator, is the crucifixion of Christ.

“Opportunity” has come to others in the form of temptations through circumstances we ourselves may not have encountered. None of us can endure the full consciousness of what we would do if under sufficient pressure—terrorism, for example. (The enforcement of the “mark of the beast” will surely provide the ultimate “opportunity.”) But our potential sin is already recorded in “the books of heaven.”

Only the full work of the Holy Spirit can bring to us the full conviction of the reality of sin; but in these last days when sins must be “blotted out” as well as pardoned, this is His blessed work. No buried bacteria or virus of sin can be translated into God’s eternal kingdom.

The Laodicean call to repentance is the essence of the message of Christ’s righteousness. Whatever sins other people are guilty of, they obviously had the “opportunity” of committing them; somehow the temptations were overpowering to them. The deeper insight the Holy Spirit brings to us is that we are by nature no better than others. Christ’s righteousness is 100 percent imputed to us; we don’t have even one percent that is ours by nature. When Scripture says that “all have sinned,” it means, as The New English Bible translates it, “all alike have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). Digging down to get the roots out—this is now “present truth.”

There is no way that we can appreciate the heights of Christ’s glorious righteousness until we are willing to recognize the depths of our own sinfulness. For this reason, to see our own potential for sin is inexpressibly good news!

--Robert J. Wieland

From: "As Many As I Love": Christ's Call to Laodicea, 1986.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: The Last Lesson Christ Learned Before He Closed His Eyes in Death

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is it possible that the Lord Jesus Himself could have learned a needed lesson during the last hour of His earthly life? We know that although He was the divine, eternal Son of God, in His humanity He had laid aside all the prerogatives of His divinity. He had to learn as we must learn. Now in His last hour He hangs on a Roman cross apparently forsaken by God. Everything possible is against Him. His grand mission seems utterly defeated; the most abject shame has overtaken Him. He screams in hellish agony, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Does He have one more lesson yet to learn before He can close His eyes in death? The sun is getting low in the western sky; Sabbath has not yet come. Is His work of faith not yet fully done?

Yes, He has something yet to learn--one more lesson that He and we must learn: when someone has actually "become sin," has so sinned that He (or you or I!) has actually become guilty of all the sins that have ever been committed since the world began, if that person will pray to God, God will not despise His prayer!

"The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:6), that is, no one in all world history was more "sinful" than was Jesus when He was "made ... to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21, King James Version). You can't become more sinful than to be made sin! With that horrendous load of our world guilt on His soul, Jesus cries out in despair, "Why have You forsaken Me?"

But what was the lesson He learned? "[The Lord] has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him, He heard" (Psalm 22:24, the psalm that Jesus prayed on His cross). And now, as He comes to His last hour of earthly life, He sings special music as Star Performer before the grandest convocation ever gathered: "My praise shall be of You in the great congregation; ... Let your heart live forever! All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord" (vss. 25-27). He dies our second death, but we shall live forever! He learns that God has not forsaken Him (nor us who will pray)--and never has.

You who wonder if God has given up on you, learn this last lesson that the Son of God learned.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 24, 2003.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Prayer is Also Listening to Him--Don't Miss the Blessing

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The simplest and most basic lesson on how to pray is in the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:6, but it may be that we haven't learned it very well. Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father "which is in secret" (King James Version). The idea is that we are to believe that the Father loves us just as much as does the Son. The command, "Be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20), means to be reconciled to the Father through the Son. The initial response of any heart that believes the Good News of the gospel is to "cry out, 'Abba, Father'" (Rom. 8:15), which is reconciliation. When you believe in Jesus, immediately your heart turns to the Father just as a little child who can say only one word so far, "Ba-ba," which is that Hebrew word "Baba."

But sometimes we have earthly fathers who have so distorted the image of father that we sense an emotional barrier between us and the Father who is God. So we pray differently: "Dear Jesus, ... " For some reason we teach the little children to pray, "Dear Jesus," in our Sabbath Schools and church schools. The idea is unconsciously encouraged even when we don't intend to teach it--the Father is Someone distant, mysterious, unfathomable, too austere for us to relate to Him comfortably.

That is exactly the problem that Jesus wants to heal. He said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). So here we have the old problem of unbelief staring us in the face; will we believe that the Father is our truest best Friend? Will we choose to respond to Him as a child responds to a loving father? If since childhood we have been alienated from the emotional idea of "father" being our best friend forever, will we now choose to "come out of Babylon," for that is part of the problem--confusion of heart. Will we consent to be "reconciled" to Him?

We must learn to pray in a meaningful way. Often we suppose it's our little mini-lecture we give Him in our prayer, with our list of requisitions. Then when we're done with that, we say "amen" and jump up and run off. Or if it's our "good night" prayer, we say "amen" and climb into bed and go to sleep. We have "said our prayers," fulfilled our obligation.

But wait a moment: prayer is also listening to Him. Just kneeling, quiet, attentive, waiting. Don't miss the blessing.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 17, 2004.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Patrick the Myth and the Real Patrick

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Saint Patrick parades will be big news this week, and everybody will be wearing something green. But this legendary figure who converted the Irish to Christianity and drove out all the snakes from Ireland--who was he? There is Patrick the Myth, a man who never existed; and the Real Patrick, the man described in authentic history. It may surprise you who he was:

(1) He knew nothing of submission to the pope of Rome; he taught the simple non-Roman Christianity of the four gospels and the Epistles of Paul, James, and John.

(2) Thus, his faith was that of a Protestant long before Luther or Calvin.

(3) He observed the seventh-day Sabbath as the true Lord's Day, and taught its observance. He opposed celibacy.

(4) He established schools where youth were taught to read and obey the Bible, and not the traditions of the Ante-Nicene or Post-Nicene "Fathers."

(5) He made Ireland to be a missionary center whence preachers were sent to all of Europe to proclaim the faith of the apostles in contrast to that of Rome. He was free and independent of any control from Italy.

(6) He had no regard for relics or consecrated staffs.

(7) He erected no idols or statues of Mary or saints.

The Patrick of legend has replaced the true one. It is surprising to many people that all during the Dark Ages there were true Christians who maintained their freedom from Rome, often driven from their homes to live in the mountains, to endure constant efforts to overthrow their faith and even fight for their lives. When the Church of Rome promoted Sunday-keeping, these minority Christians maintained the observance of the same seventh-day Sabbath as did the apostles. In fact, history records that up to the sixth or seventh centuries, most Christians in Europe observed the seventh-day Sabbath. And God will again have a people worldwide who do so (Rev. 12:17; 14:6-12).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 16, 2003.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Jesus Says He Is Seeking Lost Sinners, Not Vice Versa

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Does God's Word contradict itself? Jesus devotes an entire chapter (Luke 15) to say that He is seeking lost sinners, not vice versa. But there are passages in the Old Testament that seem to contradict Him, implying He hides, awaiting the sinner's choice to seek and find Him.

Jesus actually sought out people to heal and resurrect. For example, there was the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:13ff.); the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda (5:2-9; Jesus asked him if He could heal him!). Note His fervent appeals seeking the hearts of the leaders of the Jews (5:17ff.); and there's the bereaved widow of Nain whose funeral for her son He interrupts and raises him (Luke 7:11ff.). None of these came to Him seeking Him; He went to them seeking them. Jesus said His Father even is seeking our fellowship as though He is lonely without us. (He is! It hurts Him when we leave Him; John 4:23.)

But the Old Testament has commandments to seek and find Him, as though He hides from us. For example: "Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice; seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger" (Zeph. 2:3). And, "Thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: ... 'Seek Me and live, lest He break out like fire ...'" to burn you up or send a tsunami to wash you away (see the threats in Amos 5:4, 6).

And there is Jeremiah 29: "You will seek Me, and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart" (vs. 13). If we read the context we will see that the Lord is not contradicting what Jesus said: the people have come home after 70 years of captivity-exile; at last they are tired of idolatry and Baal worship and are now eager to come to the Lord. It is not a command; it's simple future tense. It's not a threat. In close context, the prophet tells them that the joy of New Covenant living will come instead of Old Covenant fear (31:31-34).

Amos has to speak to Old Covenant-minded people with the only appeal he knows at the time--fear. The Northern Kingdom of Israel has deeply apostatized and are soon to be exiled permanently, lost to history (722 B.C.).

But now at last here comes Jesus of Nazareth "to give light to those who sit in darkness" (Luke 1:79). He is the New Covenant. He seeks the lost sheep "until He finds it." And then comes Paul: the entire Old Testament is a "schoolmaster" (disciplinarian) that leads us back to where Abraham was, to be "justified by faith" (Gal. 3:22-25).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 8, 2007.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Must We Seek and Find God, or Is It the Other Way Around?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When studying about the character of God, there are two aspects we need to consider: (a) is He Someone we must seek and find? Or (b) is He Someone seeking and finding us?

How we think of Him is important to our present earthly happiness, and to our eternal destiny, because if (a) is the truth, we don't know where to go to seek and find Him, which means, ultimately, we are lost.

All pagan religions are built on the premise of (a); and to many Christian people, especially children and youth, the idea is ingrained in us that God is like a doctor in his office--we can't conceive of one with his bag of medicines going door to door, knocking, "Anybody sick here, can I help?" He stays in his office! You've got to go and find him.

The Bible revelation of the character of God is (b): Jesus says, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). His parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (Luke 15:3-32) are clear; even the story of the prodigal son emphasizes the seeking love of the father--the lost son would never have said, "I will arise and go to my father," unless the seeking love of the father had drawn him (cf. John 12:32, 33).

Our children and youth must not be given the idea that God is like a doctor deep in his inner sanctum private office, hard to find! The seeking love of the Father and the self-emptying love of Christ must be made plain early and through their teen years. An outward profession based on fear is empty; it's the heart that must be won by the truth of His love.

But doesn't the Bible say, "Seek the Lord while He may be found"? Yes, but it adds immediately, "Call upon Him while He is near" (Isa. 55:6). The Hebrew word "seek" is dharash (Strong, 1875, "inquire of, make inquisition"). There are two words for "seek": baqash (Strong, 1245) which is Saul seeking his father's lost donkeys (1 Sam. 9:3). King Saul asks his servants to "seek" (baqash) him a pagan witch, "that [he] may go to her and inquire of her" (dharash) (1 Sam. 28:7). So, Isaiah 55:6 really says, "Inquire of the Lord while He is near." The Bible idea is the nearness of the Savior, not His farness!

The Lord has taken the initiative in loving and seeking you! Now, respond.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 7, 2007.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: The Same Voice That Spoke to Jesus From the Bible Speaks to You

Dear Friends of “Dial Daily Bread,”

Let's say a word in behalf of those who sincerely want to follow Jesus yet meet setbacks, discouragements, frustrations, and disappointments. It seems their prayers go nowhere. Could it be that perhaps God has not accepted them? They must stand Outside, watching the party going on Inside; if God has accepted them as members of His family, why are they tormented by doubts and fears?

Here is great Good News for them: Jesus had precisely the same problem! His was an up and down experience. The "up" was His baptism, the brightest, sunniest day of His life, for He heard this Voice from Heaven, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). Who wouldn't be in a state of blissfulness forever after hearing that? But then, says Mark, immediately came the "down." He felt Himself "led up ... into the wilderness" of heart-rending temptation to doubt.

An awful temptation almost overthrew Jesus right after that glorious baptism. Was He indeed the Father's "beloved Son"? "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." He was in agony, not only from physical hunger and weakness (when for all of us temptation is most fierce), but also spiritually.

The tempter wrung His soul with plausible Bad News logic and rationale: if You really are the Son of God, how could You be alone, bereft of friends and help in this desert with wild animals all around You, hungry, emaciated, forsaken? If You really are the Son of God, prove it! Take a bungee jump off the temple pinnacle--settle it forever in Your soul when You see God rescues You! Forget this hallucination that You are the Messiah; You never heard a real Voice at Your baptism, You only thought You did. Join the crowd, the world; otherwise You'll never amount to anything! (Matt. 4:1-11).

Finally, on His cross that barbed and poisoned arrow tip was shot at Him again: "If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." Prove it by doing something no crucified criminal has ever been able to do! Easy, if You are the Son of God! How can You otherwise expect us to believe You? That moment was His lowest "down." But He wasn't "out." He chose to believe the Word. That Voice at His baptism was nothing more than a direct quotation from the Bible words of the Old Testament (Psalm 2:7; Isa. 42:1).

You hear that same Voice speaking to you in the Bible. Do like Jesus did--make a choice to believe it.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 14, 1999.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: One Little Word That Turned the World Upside Down

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

It's fantastic that one little word could turn the world upside down. Yes, the world was once powerfully shaken by a little band of men from Palestine who carried news embodied in one rather obscure word. Their terrified enemies in Thessalonica confessed its impact: "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too" (Acts 17:6). The dynamite-laden messengers: Christ's apostles, especially Paul and his colleague John.

The word that performed this mighty feat was one little known in the ancient Greco-Roman world--a Greek term, agape. It meant "love," but it was revolutionary. It came to carry a spiritual wallop that overwhelmed people's minds, catalyzing humanity into two camps, one for and the other against the heavenly idea.

Those that were for it were transformed overnight into recklessly joyous followers of Jesus, ready to lose property, go to prison, or even to die a tortured death for Him. Those catalyzed against it as quickly became cruel, bloodthirsty persecutors of those who saw light in the new concept of love. None who heard the news could ever sit on the fence.

The mysterious explosive in this spiritual bomb was a radically different idea than had been dreamed of by the world's philosophers or ethics teachers. It was a new invention that took friend and foe alike by surprise.

It wasn't that the ancients had no idea of love; they talked about it plenty. In fact, the Greeks had three or four words for love (our modern languages usually have only one). But the kind of love that came to be expressed in agape mercilessly exposed all other ideas of love as either non-love or anti-love.

All of a sudden mankind came to realize that what they'd been calling "love" was actually veneered selfishness. The human psyche was stripped naked by the new revelation. If you welcomed the spiritual revolution, you got clothed with agape yourself; if not, having your robes of supposed goodness ripped off turned you into a raving enemy of the new faith. And no one could turn the clock back, for agape was an idea for which its fullness of time had come.

When John took his pen to write his famous equation "God is love" (1 John 4:8), he had to choose between the several Greek words. The common, everyday one--eros--packed a powerful punch on its own. Something mysterious and powerful, eros was thought to be the source of all life. It swept like a torrent from a broken dam over all obstacles of human will and wisdom, a tide of emotion common to all humanity. If a mother loved her child, her love was eros, thought to be noble and pure. Likewise, the dependent love of children for their parents and the common love of friends for each other. Further, the mutual love of man and woman was a profoundly mysterious drive.

As the apostles fanned out telling their story, the cross became the world's moment of truth. In that lightning flash of revelation, every man saw himself judged. The cross became the final definition of love; and that's why that word agape turned the world upside down. Let it turn your life upside down!

-- Robert J. Wieland

From: The Word That Turned the World Upside Down, 2001.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Let's Draw Near to the Most Holy Apartment

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

In order to understand the sanctuary service, two New Testament books about it must have their say: Hebrews and Revelation. The theme of Hebrews is "perfection of character," to become like Jesus. It's not "perfectionism," the heresy of flesh-perfection, but it is the clear message of overcoming self and temptation "as [Christ] also overcame" (Rev. 3:21). It will produce real flesh and blood people, sinners by nature, who appreciate how Christ "condemned sin" in "the likeness of [our] sinful flesh" (see Rom. 8:3).

Romans does not mention the sanctuary; but the idea of learning to say "No!" to temptation is there (Rom. 8:3, 4, etc.; it's also in Titus 2:12, see New International Version). Hebrews says, let's get out of the cradle roll, and "leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection" (Heb. 6:1). Christ as High Priest is "able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him" (7:25). And the new covenant completely supersedes the old (8:6-13).

The "conscience" of those who believe in Jesus is to be "purged," a deep work never before fully accomplished until the grand Day of Atonement (9:14, 22, 23, 26). Let's draw near to the Most Holy Apartment, "our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" (10:22). All who have died in the past must wait until "God [provides] something better for us" (11:40), which is that "the God of peace ... [will] make you complete [perfect, King James Version] in every good work to do His will, working in you" (13:20, 21).

And Revelation completes the picture of what happens when the door into the Most Holy Apartment is flung open (Rev. 11:19). A great work is done by heavenly agencies never previously accomplished: a "body" of people learn to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes," stand on Mount Zion singing "a new song" that no one else in history could learn--a people "in [whose] mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God" (14:3-5). Thus Christ can complete His work as High Priest and return as "KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS" (19:16). Let's cooperate with Him!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 28, 2001.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Immortality--Yours for the Asking

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

God has strewn the freeway to hell with all kinds of obstacles. One wise author put it this way: "All along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on. God's love has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves."

More than this, by the Holy Spirit the Savior is sitting beside each of us as we travel down that freeway in the wrong direction, constantly nudging us to get into the right lane and take that blessed exit ramp to life eternal. His job is specifically to be a parakletos, "one called to the side of" us, and constantly "convict" us of "sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). He will never tire of His job or leave us to our perverse ways unless we beat Him off persistently and determinedly. He cannot deny us freedom of choice.

And what about realigning that road to heaven in order to meet His competition? The Lord Himself assures us that His way is "easy," while the road to hell is hard (see Matt. 11:30; Acts 26:14). The Savior invites us to yoke up with Him (Matt. 11:29) on the way, and it is He who bears the weight and does the pulling. That more than compensates for any supposed uphill difficulties! The "strait" gate and "narrow" way (7:14) does not mean a hard way. There is just not room for the sins that would destroy us.

The old song says something true:

"I saw the Holy City beside the tideless sea.
The light of God was on its streets,
      its gates were opened wide,
And all who would might enter,
      and no one was denied."

In other words, immortality is yours for the asking. God gives it to everyone. All we have to do is say Yes--to accept the gift of salvation.

But remember, the Lord will not force Himself on anyone who doesn't like Him and doesn't want Him around; He is too much a gentleman to do so. If He forced everyone to be saved many would be miserable in an environment where the prevailing spirit is heartfelt gratitude to the Lamb for His sacrifice in redeeming the world. If by accident one rebel found himself there he would head for the nearest exit. The lost are not shut out of heaven by God, but by their own unfitness for its companionship. God's love is forced to let them have what they want.

God's love for every individual is more intense than that of a devoted mother for each of her children. She does not divide her love between them; each gets the whole of it. And if one is lost she grieves. John the Revelator says that when the Lamb had "opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven" (Rev. 8:1), which can mean the silence of God's infinite personal grief for those who have insisted on choosing the way of self-destruction.

--Robert J. Wieland

From: These Times, 1983.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: If You Must Look Through Tears, Remember that God is Your "Abba, Father"

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 your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth" (Eccl. 11:9). Boys should be having fun. But Joseph at the age of 17 or 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 upon 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. 12:5-8).

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 "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.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: What the Father Has Done for "All Men"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you ever wanted to stay away from a party for fear you wouldn't be welcome? Many feel that way about going to God's "welcome party" for people who will live in His New Jerusalem. They are afraid of Him, innocently so. They would rather not even try to be saved. These people need to realize now that they are welcomed already.

The "welcome" is in Paul's letter to the Ephesians! It's spoken by the Lord through His word. He honors His word in the Bible. Jesus told the Jews that He said nothing of Himself, but only what the Father told Him. "I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak" (John 12:49). It was through the Bible, the actual Old Testament that Jesus held in His hands, that the Father spoke to Him. All the wonderful things that Jesus said in His ministry, He garnered from His reading of that Bible!

Likewise, when you let the Father speak to you through the Word, you will know the welcome is yours now as surely as when you hear Him repeat it in that coming glad day when you see Him.

We read in chapter one of Ephesians how the Father has already:

1. "Blessed us [that's everybody!] with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." (The fact that some people refuse the "blessing" doesn't mean it hasn't been given to them.)

2. "Predestined us to adoption as sons" (but of course we can refuse).

3. Enjoyed His "good pleasure" in doing this--that's the "fun" He gets in His plan of redemption. (God deserves some "pleasure"!)

4. In Christ He has given us "redemption through His blood"--that is, past tense. The blood was shed for everybody; therefore all have been given that redemption, even if many reject it.

5. He has given us "the forgiveness of sins." The word means separated them from us. (We can be stupid and take our sins back again! They were cast into the depths of the sea like the Titanic resting deep down; but people have retrieved things out of the Titanic.)

6. He gives us as much "wisdom and prudence" as we are willing to receive (let's not shrug it off as proud "know-it-alls").

7. "He has made us accepted in the Beloved" (that's our "welcome!").

Let's not stop to question if all this is true for that could be unbelief; He has said it.

--Robert J. Wieland

From: Ephesians: You've Been "Adopted," 2005.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: On His Cross, Christ Built Something Out of Nothing

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is there anywhere a human heart that by nature doesn't have a storm inside? If you are perfectly at-one-with God, you belong in Heaven. Well, at least, it's your job to help those billions who by nature share the universal human problem of alienation from God. "Why has He allowed me to suffer? Why me ... to endure injustice? Is God fair?" One may piously exude all the self-righteous phrases while deep inside unanswered questions destroy our "peace with God" (Rom. 5:1).

Here's a shocker: the closer you come to Jesus Christ, the more you will realize your problem to be. Come very close to Him, and you will "taste" the depth of the darkness He experienced on His cross when He cried out, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

If one has never grown up out of innocent childhood, he may never think or feel on that level; but Jesus did. "Why doesn't God do something?" is the heart-cry of the person who dares to think, not only about his own tiny little problems, but about the millions suffering from disasters and wars. And why do the poor have to suffer? And why must the innocent suffer so? "My God, My God, why have You forsaken our world?"

Back again to the cross on Calvary: in that total darkness, while He hung there in that deepest perplexity and despair, He made a choice--to believe that His Father was good even though everything was shouting in His ears that His Father was unjust. In total darkness, in the vastness of empty heart-broken space, He built a great bridge between alienated humanity and God. It's called the Atonement, the at-one-ment. If His Father has forsaken Him, He will not forsake His Father.

On His cross He built something out of nothing like He had created a universe out of nothing. At any cost, He will believe Good News. He will create Good News. You don't have to build that Bridge; all you have to do is believe that He built it.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 15, 1998.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: "Make Intercession" for Us--What Does It Mean?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What does it mean that Jesus as our High Priest has to "make intercession" for us before the Father (Heb. 7:25)? The word "intercession" implies that somebody is not happy and has to be interceded with on our behalf. Christ is "at the right hand of God," Paul says, "who also makes intercession for us" (Rom. 8:34). John adds his insight when he compares Christ to "an Advocate with the Father," the word "advocate" being parakletos in the Greek (1 John 2:1). Vine says the word "was used in a court of justice to denote a legal assistant, counsel for the defense, who pleads another's cause."

In other words, Jesus is a defense lawyer pleading a case "with the Father," John says. It seems that the Father is the Judge and that we are on trial before Him, and that we would lose our case if it weren't for Jesus being there in our behalf. This is 100 percent true; we would indeed lose out if it were not for our divine Lawyer working on our side.

But who is He "pleading," "interceding" with? Who needs to be "persuaded" to accept us? Does it make sense to say it's the Father? Wasn't it He who took the initiative to "so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son" for us? How could He be against us, needing Jesus to "intercede" for us? Does the Father have a club behind His back, about to let us have it, and then Jesus steps up and says, "Look, Father, at the wounds in My hands. Please be nice to these people!"? No, that doesn't make sense. The Father loves us just as much as the Son loves us! Then who is Jesus interceding with?

Is He interceding with the devil? Will he or his angels ever be persuaded to be nice to us? Hardly! Then who has to be persuaded to "accept" us, to stop condemning us? The good angels? No, they are "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for" us, not against us (Heb. 1:14).

Then who is left who needs to be "persuaded," interceded with to accept us, except we ourselves? We are the ones who need to hold our head high, to join Paul in being "persuaded" that nothing will ever "separate us from the love of God" (Rom. 8:38, 39).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 4, 2003.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."