Dial Daily Bread: Do You Feel You Are Praying for Nothing?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

There are many dear people who are confused and even discouraged because it seems their prayers are not answered. As far as they know, they are "keeping [God's] commandments" and their "heart does not condemn [them]"--two basic requirements if our prayers are to be heard and answered (see 1 John 3:21, 22). Further, as far as they know what they are asking the Lord to give them is "according to His will," and therefore the promise in 1 John 5:14, 15, means their prayers should be answered. But it seems they are not. They feel they are praying for nothing.

Jesus tells us that if we see Him, we have seen the Father because He has come to reveal the Father to us (John14:7). There is one special incident in the life of Jesus that may be an explanation why our prayers are sometimes apparently ignored. It involves the character of the Father.

He had led His disciples to the verge of the border between Israel and "the region of Tyre and Sidon." There a pagan woman came to Him crying, "O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed" (see Matt. 15:21-28). Surely if anyone's prayer could be "according to the will of God," this one would be! But Matthew reports that He just walked on as though He hadn't even heard her (maybe this has happened to you). So she begged one after the other of the disciples either to heal her daughter or to intercede with Jesus to persuade Him to be nice to her. So they came to Him and begged Him to send the woman off. "She cries out after us."

Jesus didn't do what they asked, but He did reply to the woman, Sorry, I can't help you. "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." You are not an Israelite, so I can't help you. Sounds cruel!

She didn't get angry and leave (that would have been fatal for her). But she threw herself down in His path and pleaded, "Lord, help me!" Then He said something to her that would (I think) have utterly discouraged me: "It is not good [doesn't make sense] to take the children's bread and to throw it to the little dogs." I fear I would have jumped up and stormed off angry. "He called me a dog!"

But she held on. She had wit and a ready tongue: "True, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table."

Jesus couldn't take any more; His heart of compassion and love had been moved for this woman from the very beginning. He had staged this encounter for the education of His disciples who really did think that non-Jews were "dogs." Now He broke down as He told her, perhaps with His own tears, "'O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.' And her daughter was made whole from that very hour."

Yes, sometimes Jesus appears to be hard and unmerciful; hang on. You must believe He is who He is. You must be convinced of His character.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 18, 2004.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daiy Bread: The Essence of the New Covenant

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

How can you learn to understand and believe the New Covenant? Your happiness for now and forever depends on it. Yes! Didn't Jesus say, "God so loved ... that He gave, ... that whoever believes in Him should not perish ..."? To believe in Him means to believe that He Himself is Good News--the essence of the New Covenant.

Confusion about the Two Covenants is cleared up as sunshine clears away fog by noting one question: Who makes the promise?

If we make the promise to God, immediately it's Old Covenant.

It's Peter promising that he will never deny Christ, and then doing it before the rooster crowed next morning. It's "all the people" promising at Mount Sinai, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do!" (Gen. 19:8) and then bowing down to a golden calf in a few days. The problem is simple: we humans don't keep our promises; in fact, we can't, because we have no righteousness of our own.

Someone may say, "What's wrong with making good promises to God even if you do break them?" Several things: God Himself has never asked you to do so; and further, Paul says that making and breaking promises to God brings you into spiritual "bondage" (Gal. 4:24). It was the beginning of centuries of sad Israelite history that finally led them into the "bondage" of foreign captivity and then at the end, to crucify their Messiah. Those who think that the Old and New Covenants are the same thing are confusing liberty with slavery!

When God makes the promise, there you have the New Covenant.

And believing His promise is liberty, not slavery. He always keeps His promise. "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). You may say, "That's such Good News--I can hardly believe He will ever do that for me!" Sarah couldn't believe it either, until she repented of her unbelief (Heb. 11:11). You can repent, too. That's the Good News!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 4, 2002.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: The "Secret of the Cross"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

How can we "save" our children and youth "from this perverse generation" (Acts 2:40)? The floodgates of moral filth are open; evil cascades upon them.

One Bible chapter suggests two apparently opposite remedies: "Knowing ... the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (2 Cor. 5:10, 11). The idea seems to be--more fire-and-brimstone preaching and teaching. Does it work? Well, it seems to get them into the baptismal pool, but does "sanctified terrorism" hold these children and youth when temptation shall come in like a flood (Isa. 28:18, 19)? They face terrific peer pressure plus the drives of their own sensual nature.

The same chapter gives an alternative motivation: "The love [agape] of Christ constrains us ..." or motivates us to total consecration to the One who died for us and rose again (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). In fact, Paul devotes much more time to developing this motivation than to his brief mention of "terror." He goes so far as to present a Savior who "was made to be sin for us" (vs. 21), in other words, who was forced to be immersed in all the moral filth of the entire human race, who suffered the most awful peer pressure and had to resist the most powerful inner urges as He "resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin"--all "without sin" (see vss. 16-6:1; Heb. 4:15; 12:4). Read it: it's all "grace much more abounding." Don't despise it!

When we read that it's "the terror of the Lord that persuades" us, do we correctly see what Paul said? The word translated "terror" is phobos in the Greek; it's not a New Testament word for raw, mind-numbing terror. The honest truth is that God does not want to terrorize children and youth. He is too wise; He knows that terror cauterizes and hardens hearts. That word means a mingled awe and reverence that solemnizes the heart of a child and youth. A wise author once said, "Share with [your children] the secret of the cross." Will it work? Nothing else will!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 6, 1999.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Does It Make Any Difference What One Believes?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Nearly the first lie Satan ever told us was about who man is: "You will not surely die" (Gen. 3:4). And Eve believed him; and nearly the whole world believes him--that man is naturally immortal, that he exists somewhere in consciousness after death. That's why Spiritualism flourishes--in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, even in large segments of Christianity.

Many imagine they find support for it in the Bible: the witch of Endor bringing up "Samuel" (1 Samuel 28), Christ's parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), and the supposed eternal conscious torment of the lost. Does it make any real practical difference what one believes, so long as you try to live a good life? Yes!

(1) If the lost are tortured forever under God's rule, He becomes a cruel tyrant beyond imagination. You can't be truly "reconciled to God" if in the back of your mind you cherish this evaluation of His character.

(2) False natural immortality destroys the truth of the cross of Christ, leaving an empty symbol without meaning. If His death was merely graduating to a higher, more pleasant life, then He did not truly die the equivalent of the second death, nor did He pay the penalty for our sins. "The wages of sin is death," not eternal life in a new sphere. He could not "pour out His soul unto death, " nor "empty Himself" as Isaiah 53:12 and Phil. 2:5-8 (New American Standard Bible) tell us. Instead, He withheld His most precious Thing--His own "life." And that would mean He could not be the Lamb who was slain, and who redeemed us by His blood (Rev. 5:9).

(3) And unless He is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" by an infinite sacrifice (John 1:29), we can't learn to hate sin and love righteousness. Aside from the Lamb's revelation of agapeon His cross, practical "Christian" living is reduced to veneer and lukewarmness.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 18, 2001.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: The Joyous Labor of Helping Someone Else

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you ever been angry with God? For any reason? You prayed for something that you felt you needed, maybe healing, maybe happiness in marriage, maybe for a child, maybe for an honest job--and your prayer wasn't answered. Seemed like Heaven was closed to you.

This is a common problem many people have; and some just turn their backs on the Lord. "If He doesn't care enough for me to help me, I'm through with Him!" But that's not the solution! Let's try to help a bit:

(1) God never promised He would be your lowly servant, to come and go at your request.

(2) He never promised that His children would be exempt from suffering, disappointment, pain. If He did "exempt" them, people would profess to follow Him who only wanted material benefit. Heaven would get crammed with hypocrites.

(3) Though He hasn't promised you "exemption" from what all human beings have to endure, He has unequivocally promised to give you grace (an inner peace) to endure your pain, sorrow, disappointment, in a way that honors your Savior.

(4) That endurance (Rom. 5:1-5) immediately admits you to the privileged inner circle of those who are "partakers of Christ's sufferings" (1 Peter 4:13).

(5) Bearing your suffering (whatever kind) in that spirit then qualifies you to be a member of the Lord's University Teaching Staff where you are given the joyous labor of helping someone else in his or her suffering.

A Christian psychiatrist told me that a humble lay member who has genuine faith and sanctified understanding, can help a needy person as much as a psychiatrist can. (I didn't say that--he did.) See Exodus 19:4-6; if Israel had been willing to believe the New Covenant, they would have become a "kingdom of priests" (psychiatrists).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 18, 1997.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Is Prayer Really Necessary?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

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

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

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

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

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 28, 2000.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Jesus Is Seeking to Save Us, Not Seeking an Excuse to Condemn Us

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Revelation 3:5: "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels."

Can you imagine a more thrilling honor than for Jesus Himself to take your name upon His lips, to confess you as His holy child before the Father in heaven and before the millions of loyal angels? In the Judgment which is now in session (see Rev. 14:6, 7), our text says there will be a time when all the assembled hosts of heaven will look at each of us alone and scrutinize our individual lives.

Will they see all our mistakes, all the shameful things that we hope will never come to light? Jesus knows that it was not our true purpose to do all those ugly things. We have been captives of sin. When we believe in Christ and begin to hate sin, "it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Rom. 7:17). "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). He will cleanse them with His blood.

Remember that Jesus is seeking to save us. He is not seeking an excuse to condemn us. He wants us in His Kingdom, not out. At this moment, the Holy Spirit is drawing each one to Christ, and imparting to us His heavenly grace so that we may "overcome" if we will cease resisting Him and yield to His grace. He will draw us all the way. Our real battle is to trust God, to believe that He loves us--sinners, unthankful, impure, mean persons, that we know ourselves to be. "Overcoming" is overcoming doubt that God accepts us individually and personally. "This is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith" (1 John 5:4).

If you believe Him, you will overcome. No one who appreciates the love of Jesus can possibly continue living in sin. "The love of Christ constrains us" (2 Cor. 5:14).

It is well to think often about that moment soon to come (no one knows how soon) when Jesus will take our names on His lips and say, "Father, this is My true child; he trusts Me, and I cannot abandon him! I died for him, and I must have him in My kingdom!" And when Satan whispers to you that you are too great a sinner, that you must give up hope, remind him of what Jesus said of the greatest sinner on earth, "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). Claim that promise, and come!

Another Look at the Judgment

The reality of a pre-Advent or "investigative" judgment is so clearly taught here that another look is in order. Some who contend against such a judgment say it is unnecessary because "the Lord knows them that are His." It is true that the Lord's omniscient knowledge makes such a judgment unnecessary from His point of view. An investigative judgment is not a time for the Lord to decide whom to save. Rather, it is a time for Him to defend the decisions He has already made, and to convince the world and the universe that He is just and righteous in making them.

Further, Christ's seven promises (in chapter 3) "to him who overcomes" show that a superficial "once-saved-always-saved" assumption is spiritual arrogance. It is a misunderstanding of Scripture to say that when a sinner initially professes faith in Christ that he has already come into judgment in the sense of a final acquittal. In a purely legal sense this is true; and it is true so far as God's desire and intent are concerned; but if a believer turns from his faith and resists the ministry of the Holy Spirit in overcoming, he frustrates the grace of Christ and chooses that his name be blotted from the Book of Life.

This passage reveals a heavenly investigation of every man's character to determine if he has in fact continuedto believe toward the goal of overcoming. The present tense of the verb in John 3:16 also emphasizes this continuity: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever keeps on believing in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." 

--Robert J. Wieland

From: The Gospel in Revelation, pp. 16-17, 185-186 (1989).
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Encouragement From Jacob

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Suppose you have lived most of your life under the Old Covenant and now only in later years you have discovered the New Covenant. You can glean some encouragement from Jacob.

His family gave him the terrible name of "Supplanter" at his birth, the name he had to go by. He lived up to it when he tricked his brother Esau into selling him the birthright for a meal of his tasty stew; then he had to flee for his life. At Bethel the Lord gave him a wonderful New Covenant promise (Gen. 28:13-15). Jacob spent decades doubting that the Lord could bless him that much. His future father-in-law, Laban, in turn tricked him in his heart-felt love for Rachel (you can love someone truly while still under the Old Covenant!), giving him Leah instead on the wedding night after his seven years of hard labor; now seven years more to have Rachel, the one he truly loved. Endless heartaches.

Finally, in later life, Jacob finds himself wrestling with an Angel in the dark, struggling, he thought, for his life. When dawn began to break, the Angel (Christ) said, "Let Me go!" but Jacob, quick to seize what he saw as his initiative, said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!" (meaning, deliver me from this Old Covenant soul-bondage). The Angel was caught; He couldn't wriggle free from Jacob's grasp. Whereupon He changed Jacob's name: "Your name [is] Israel [Prince with God], for you have struggled with God ... and have prevailed"! (32:26-28).

There's no way to get that name of Israel except by fighting that same battle of faith--believing God's promise "in Christ" in spite of doubts you think are from God! One thoughtful writer suggests that while they were wrestling, the Angel asked him how could He bless him? Wasn't he too unworthy? We say it reverently, we have to "overcome" what even appears to be God's will against us! To secure the name "Israel," we must triumph over Him! Remember, the elite Israel "club" is limited only by unbelief.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 13, 2006.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: What Does It Mean to Be a True Christian Today?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

A terrific battle is being fought behind the scenes for the very soul of Christ's church. What does it mean to be a true Christian today? How can we honor Him in this period of world history? The answer is in the Bible teaching of the cosmic Day of Atonement, the "cleansing of the sanctuary" typified by the ancient Hebrew Yom Kippur. That was the only day in the year when God's people were required to fast. Why? Was God angry with them? No, it was the day for a final reconciliation with Him (the word "atonement" means at-one-with), the day when the last vestige of buried, unrealized alienation from God was to be healed.

That alienation is the result of sin: "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). We don't realize the depth of that "enmity" ("do not know that [we] are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked," Rev. 3:17). The ancient Levitical day of atonement was only a kindergarten lesson: "on that day the [high] priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16:30).

The real Day of Atonement is now, accomplishing a work of atonement never before fully achieved for the body of God's people. As most of an iceberg is hidden beneath the sea, so most of our sin is hidden from our consciousness, buried, so that we invariably are self-deceived about our real character before God, not ready for the final issues in "the great controversy between Christ and Satan."

Hence God has provided a special opportunity of preparation known as the Day of Atonement, the real thing, not the kindergarten edition of long ago. It's the time Jesus spoke of: "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day [of final judgment] come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, ... [prepare] to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:34-36).

That final atonement, final reconciliation with Christ, is a time for closer sympathy with Him; impossible unless there is also a closer sympathy with humanity that Christ took upon Himself. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ..." (Phil. 2:5).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 16, 2009.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: "Sighing and Crying" Positively Reaches Out to Bless Others

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

We have long seen in "the signs of the times" the evidences that indicate the end is near, the coming of the Lord "draws near" (Luke 21:28). Those "signs" were the dark day, the falling of the stars, the increase of knowledge, "perilous times in the last days" (2 Tim. 3:1), etc.

But are there "signs" that through spiritual maturity the Lord is preparing a people for the final crisis? Here is where the possibility exists that "the latter rain may be falling on hearts all around us" and we may be ignorant of the reality. Scripture warns us not to "despise the day of small things" (Zech. 4:10), and that the latter rain may come like the dew, not necessarily like a cloudburst or gulley-washer. At least, its beginning.

We are right now walking on the enchanted ground that Pilgrim walked through in Pilgrim's Progress, where the temptation to go to sleep is almost overwhelming. The economy is great, cars are getting more luxurious and more powerful; entertainment was never so widespread; and the church is doing great.

But could it be that there are sincere and enlightened souls maybe seated next to you in church who are pinpointed in Ezekiel 9:4 as those who "sigh and cry for all the abominations [being] done in the midst of Jerusalem"? It is only they who finally receive a " mark," "the seal of God." An angel is commanded to "kill" all those who do not "sigh and cry"! Sounds terrible, but there it is. All the rest end up ultimately taking the mark of the beast.

That passage in Ezekiel has been cited so often to strengthen "holier than thou" self-righteousness that it is seldom thought of today. But it does not encourage judging the person next to you in church as though you are more holy because you "sigh and cry" and he or she is not serious-minded.

Those who sigh and cry negatively fall into the trap of self-righteousness; but those who sigh and cry positively realize that they are no better than anybody else by nature. They have no goodness of their own; their hearts (and eyes) are melted by the love of Christ and the realization that they are indebted to Him 100 percent.

"Sighing and crying" positively reaches out in humble contrition to bless others concerned more for the honor of Christ than because of our own personal fear for security, or for hope of reward.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 5, 1999.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Those Who Love the New Covenant Never Persecute Others!

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What motivates good, sincere people to persecute others who differ from them in religious conviction? The opposition can take cruel forms. Wars have been fought over religion. The United States was "conceived" by a desire to escape religious persecution (said Abraham Lincoln).

Thank God that now we don't throw theological opponents into prison or burn them at the stake, but we malign them, seek to destroy reputations, slam doors against them, misrepresent them. What's back of this strange phenomenon of unrighteous indignation that blazes forth against someone who differs from us in biblical interpretation?

The answer is--our obsession with the Old Covenant. History is clear: those who love the New Covenant never persecute others! Paul himself was a fanatical follower of the Old Covenant who couldn't stand to watch the New Covenant apostles proclaim gospel Good News. He thought their message destroyed his keep-the-law theology. He misunderstood them--their gospel was the only way anyone truly could become a "doer of the law," but he felt he had to "punish them often in every synagogue; ... and being exceedingly enraged against them, ... persecuted them even to foreign cities" (Acts 26:11). His zeal for the Old Covenant even led to murder. All, supposedly "righteous"! (And highly popular.)

When finally he discovered the New Covenant, he saw something he had never seen before: Ishmael, the son of the Old Covenant Hagar, "persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit," that is, Isaac. "Even so it is now," he added (Gal. 4:29). That brought him to his knees--in his frenzy against the apostles he saw he was acting out the role of Ishmael!

"Even so it is now"! Old Covenant obsession is spiritual poison. If it doesn't outright kill your devotion to Jesus and His church, it weakens it so it becomes "lukewarm." Many Christian youth lose their way because they have been taught Old Covenant concepts under the guise of "Christian education" in church or school. Lord, please help our blindness!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 9, 2002.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: God Wants Every Teen to Hear His Promise

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

I wish when I was a teenager I had understood that God's great promises (in Gen. 12:2, 3) to Abraham were to me also. Nobody told me! My whole life would have been different. All that God promised Abraham was precisely what worried me. (Teens seem to be the most worried people on earth.) I wanted to be "a great nation," that is, I wanted to be "somebody." I didn't want to be a "zero" in humanity. I wanted to live for a purpose, to amount to something. Was I sinful? Of course I was! But the desire to be "somebody" is also God-given; and He wants every teen to hear His promise, "I will make you somebody important!"

I also needed to hear Him tell me, "I will bless you." That would have lifted a load of fear from my heart. And yes, I wanted to hear Him tell me that He would make my name "great" in some meaningful way--if only to some one girl or woman who would become my wife. I didn't want to be a glob of jelly, a "blah" young man. I wanted to be "some one" in those eyes of hers!

And yes, sinful though I was, I did indeed dream of God doing for me what He promised to do for Abraham, "And you shall be a blessing." From early years I dreamed of becoming a missionary somewhere. I didn't know how, but I wanted to be a useful person in God's great plan for the world. I would have been so happy if I had known that all along God was promising me these wonderful things He promised Abraham.

All seven of those fantastic promises in Genesis would have rejoiced my young heart if only I had known that God was telling me all that! I would have stood taller and walked more sprightly had I known. I would have studied better, developed my abilities more efficiently.

And best of all, if I could have known that God was promising me that someday I would fellowship with Christ in "all the families of the earth [being] blessed," that by His grace I would be an agent He would use in some small but meaningful way to convey that "blessing" everywhere I would go--the New Covenant would have made all the difference in my thinking and my life.

Now, how about passing on those New Covenant promises to some child or teenager?

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 2, 2003.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: The Bible is Clear--We Are Living “In the Last Days”

Dear Friends of “Dial Daily Bread,”

The Bible is crystal clear: we are living "in the last days" (2 Tim. 3:1); "the time of the end" (Dan. 12:4); the time for us to "endure" until then (Matt. 24:13); the time when we are to "watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming" (vs. 42); the time when we are to "take heed to [our]selves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on [us] unexpectedly" (Luke 21:34). The "time of the end" is "today" (Heb. 3:13).

We are living in the very time described in Revelation 14:8 and 18:1-4 when "the present truth" (2 Peter 1:12) shouts in our ears that "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen," the very time when God calls to everyone whose heart has been stirred by the sacrifice of Christ on His cross, "'Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins.'" You simply can't enjoy the opulence and arrogant pride of "that great city" if you appreciate the atonement of Christ. You have seen "the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up" and have seen yourself as "unclean" in that light which streams from the cross (Isa. 6:1-5). If you are dallying in "Babylon," you are miserable. You want out.

What it boils down to is that we are living in that unique time of "the day of atonement." It's not the one literal day of the year that Jews observe as "Yom Kippur;" it's the grand original, the antitypical, cosmic, real "Day of Atonement" that was prefigured in the Israelite sanctuary services of long ago. Now is the grand time that the angel described to Daniel as "then the sanctuary shall be cleansed" (8:14). It has come on time after the 2300 "days," 2300 literal years, which the angel singled out as "the appointed time" to bring us to this "time of the end" (11:35; 12:4). It's the important time when Daniel said, "the wise shall understand" (12:10). It's the same time that Jesus spoke of, "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." It's a time to be awake for joy (Luke 21:36).

Around the world there are millions who are waking up; they believe that those 2300 years have expired as Daniel said. They see that the world is now in the ongoing fulfillment of Revelation 14, and has been ever since the early part of the 19th century (since 1844, to be exact, for the Bible prophecies are exact). This is the time when the great angel proclaims "to every ... tongue, and people, ... 'the hour of [God's] judgment has come'" (vss. 6, 7), the time for the greatest joy the world has ever known.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 5, 2004.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: "Through the Lord's Mercies We Are Not Consumed"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

You wake up the morning after, wishing, Oh God, that it were just a nightmare, a Hollywood horror movie! And then it sinks in, it [9/11] was real. The world is different now. Those who pay to watch horror movies have gotten their money's worth--for free. Oh that horror movies could forever end--if we watch them we place ourselves in the biblical judgment of those who "love violence" (Psalm 11:5). The holy prophet pleads with us, don't look (Isa. 33:15), nor let our children see it.

But now the world's children have seen it, in undreamed-of horror. "We" were those running down the canyon streets to escape the falling fiery debris; "we" were no better than they; we corporately identified with them.

Only one event in history can match it in emotional impact--the 486 B.C. burning of Solomon's holy temple and the wanton destruction of "our" precious Holy City by the Babylonians. Think of yourself as one of "God's chosen people" transfixed by watching what you always thought was impossible. Where was "He who keeps Israel [who] shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalm 121:4)? Why did He let this "impossible" judgment happen?

The other passage of Scripture that suddenly comes into focus is what we never thought would be real in our lifetime: the sudden destruction "in one day" of "that great city" of Revelation 18 when it falls into the sea like a giant millstone. "Alas, alas, that great city!" (9-16).

Not only is American pride humbled, but so is that of the whole world that has gloried in "Babylon's riches" symbolized by glittering giant skyscrapers. An appropriate Bible chapter to read today is chapter 3 of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, written after the destruction of Jerusalem: "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed. ... He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. ... Let us search and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord" (22-40).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 14, 2001.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: God Will Know How to Grip the World's Attention!

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

There is a promise (or prophecy) tucked away in an obscure corner of the Bible that people don't seem to talk about, but nevertheless it's there awaiting the future.

It's about the last-days' events that will startle the world when God's people humble their hearts and lay self aside and let the Holy Spirit teach and guide them--that is, when the corporate "self" of the church is "crucified with Christ," and He only exalted.

The Lord doesn't dare let this prophecy be fulfilled so long as His church would become proud or arrogant because of it, for it is something that would startle the world more than anything else imaginable; so much so that thoughtful people just say it's impossible.

It's what John the Revelator "saw": "Something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory [had gotten the victory, King James Version] over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God" (15:2).

Multitudes who love the Bible and "tremble at [the Lord's] word" (Isa. 66:2; "tremble" with excitement) recognize (a) that the "beast" of Revelation 13:1-8 is Romanism; and (b) "the mark of the beast" is its claim to have the authority to abolish and change the holy law of God that says "the seventh day" is the Lord's holy Sabbath, instituting the first day instead; and (c) that the "image" of the beast is that segment of professed Protestantism that has abandoned "protesting" and has adopted the essential nature of Romanism.

But (666)? "The number of his name"? That is the Roman Catholic headquarters of Romanism, the heart of the papacy, the Curia. And the inspired prophecy declares that there will be some from this group who will respond positively to the "light" of that "other angel" of Revelation 18 whose message will "illuminate" the earth with "glory," a final message of justification by faith that will startle the world and will call every honest-hearted soul now in "Babylon" to "come out of her, My people" (vs. 4).

Does the Lord Jesus Christ Himself personally want this glorious denouement of Bible prophecy to take place now in "this generation"? Yes!

When the collective or corporate "self" of "the remnant church" (Rev. 12:17) has received the "atonement" and is reconciled to Him, the earth will be "lightened." God will know how to grip the world's attention!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 30, 2007.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: Does New Covenant Faith Make a Difference?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Does New Covenant faith make a discernable difference in our daily life? Can we see the change for the better? Yes, a thousand times! Let's look:

1. If one will simply accept and believe those seven New Covenant promises that God makes to every believing child of Abraham (in Genesis 12:2, 3), his or her self-respect will be lifted immeasurably. Not self-esteem, but self-respect. (There's a world of difference.)

2. Self-esteem is praise or flattery of one's self ("I'm handsome!" or "I'm beautiful!" or "I'm better than someone else!"). It's not good.

3. But self-respect is solid appreciation for the "price" that Jesus paid for your redemption from hell itself. It grows within you the longer you live; it never becomes passé. Faith is well defined as a heart-appreciation for the self-sacrificing love (agape) of the Son of God.

4. Thus New Covenant faith causes you to hold your head high, to lift your sagging shoulders, to open wider your drooping eyes; it's all "in Christ," and therefore it's the actual beginning of eternal life.

5. It's not only "I believe." It's also the prayer, "Help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24), an ongoing blessing the longer you live.

6. It's the Holy Spirit not only doing His first work for you, according to Jesus in John 16:8, which is convicting you of sin; it's the Holy Spirit doing His second work for you, convicting you of righteousness; and yes, His third work also, convicting you that through the faith of Jesus which you have received, Satan is "cast out" of your heart and your life (vss. 10, 11).

You are overcoming! There's no greater joy in life.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 4, 2008.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: God is Agape--He Gives Everyone Freedom to Choose

Dear Friends of “Dial Daily Bread,”

Who is Jesus? The Eleven disciples were still not too sure when the despised Samaritans were ahead of them in understanding: they confessed, triumphantly, “He is the Savior of the world”! (John 4:42).

But how could they say that when it is so obvious that still even today, 2000 years later, the majority of earth’s inhabitants on planet earth do not recognize Him as their Savior?

The answer is in Romans 5:15-18. In a judicial, not literal, sense Christ saved “all men.”

By His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus made it possible for the Father to treat every man as though he had not sinned, to send His rain and His sun on both the righteous and the wicked alike (Matt. 5:45). Christ bore in His own body, in His soul, the guilt of the whole world: “He poured out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12), like you turn a bottle upside down to drain out every drop. That is why Paul says in Philippians 2:5-8 that He “emptied Himself” for us (vs. 7, New American Standard Bible). He died our second death.

But this truth is not the heresy of Universalism; although Christ on His cross died for the sins of the whole world, in no way does that mean that He will force “every man” to enter into the New Jerusalem. Because God IS agape, He gives everyone freedom to choose.

Fast forward to Revelation 20 to the story of the Great White Throne, verses 12-14. As the books of record are opened, every one will see clearly what is the extent of his sin, how he has crucified “afresh” the Lord of glory and put Him to an open shame (cf. Heb. 6:6). Each will see himself at last to be the “Esau” of the Old Testament, how he has sold his birthright, which he had, for a mess of pottage (cf. Gen. 25:34). Each will prefer the Lake of Fire to the pain of looking into the face of the Savior.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 2, 2008.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."

Dial Daily Bread: What Will Give Power to God's Last Days' Message?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When some Gentiles from Greece invited Jesus to come (probably) to Athens, He responded with His memorable words about a grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying and then bearing "much grain" (John 12:20-24). But He must remain steadfast knowing that he would suffer in Jerusalem and die there for the world. He made a great promise: "'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," that is, on His cross (vss. 32, 33).

That big "IF" and the universal promise of "drawing all" meets its fulfillment in Revelation 18:1-4. "Another angel" will finally "come down from heaven, having great authority" (that "drawing" will be some people "lifting up Christ on His cross" as He has never before been "lifted up"). To "draw all" does not necessarily mean to win all. "All" will sense His drawing but not all will respond favorably; many will resist.

"Precious ones" are to be called forth from "Babylon," and a compelling power will move the honest in heart. God will restrain unbelieving relatives and friends so that it will be impossible for them to hinder those who feel the work of the Spirit of God upon them. The last call will be carried even to the most downtrodden of humanity, and the gospel message will close with power and strength. Servants of God will be endowed with power from on high to declare, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen," and souls scattered everywhere will answer the call.

What will give power to the message? Lifting up "Christ and Him crucified" in a clearer way than any movie or drama could portray. Why hasn't Revelation 18 yet been fulfilled? We can't lift up Christ crucified while we also lift up self un-crucified. But the Holy Spirit will solve that problem (see Zech. 12:10). There is Good News before us.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 15, 2004.
Copyright © 2018 by "Dial Daily Bread."