Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Yes, we must study and learn the message of Romans and Galatians--what Christ accomplished for us by His sacrifice on the cross, the Good News of the atonement, what is the New Covenant, how to overcome sin--yes, all that is super-important.
But this is an out-and-out plea that we "read" and "understand" the books of Daniel and the Revelation. "You don't have time? Too much of the world swirling about your feet?" Well, we must face the truth: anybody who wants seriously to live in the new earth and not "perish," must become educated in order to enjoy the privilege (John 3:16; you can't "believe" unless you grasp some truth).
You could never be happy living in the same world where the resurrected Jesus is unless you come to understand Him personally. The new earth won't be big enough to hold both you and Jesus if you are strangers to each other. And you'd be miserable among His people if you have educated yourself only for the things of this world--not the next.
You do have time; drop your obsession with that world swirling about your feet, and "set your mind on things above" (Col. 3:2). The angel told Daniel that "from the first day that you set your heart [mind] to understand, and to humble yourself before your God," he came to help him (10:12). Self-denial is indeed the pathway, but it becomes an easy one once we kneel down and watch the Son of God die on His cross. It's that simple, that easy; "I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself" (John 12:32).
The book of Revelation is "the testimony of Jesus Christ" (1:2). It's where He exposes His heart. Put those two texts together and we have the truth: today around the world Jesus is "drawing" people to study and understand the book of Revelation! And Daniel is the "little book open" that underlies Revelation (Rev. 10:2), which Jesus especially wants us to understand with Revelation (Matt. 24:15). Thank God!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 19, 2004.
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