Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

When Paul says we must “all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:10), he does not denigrate what the apostle John says about judgment and agape. John says:

(a) “Everyone who loves [with agape] is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). The obvious implication: if we haven’t learned how to love with agape, we don’t know God. That’s what he says next:

(b) “He who does not love [with agape] does not know God, for God is agape” (vs. 7). Highest equation in the universe!

(c) “In this the love [agape] of God was manifested toward s us, that God has sent His only begotten Son ...” (vs. 9). We learn agape only by long beholding the sacrifice of Christ to the point that we don’t “know anything except Christ and Him crucified” (cf. 1 Cor. 2:2). The heart is won. Now the Lord Jesus wants an entire world church so enlightened by His agape, and so won by heart.

(d) “In this is agape, not that we loved God [with agape], but He loved us [with agape] ...” (vs. 10). His church does not take the initiative; the Bridegroom does that, and she does the responding to Him.

(e) “Agape has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world” (vs. 17). “Keeping the [ten] commandments” is preparation for the final judgment; but according to John, the one supreme question we will be asked as we stand before the Lord Jesus in final judgment will be, “Have you learned how to love (with agape)?”

(f) Paul agrees: “Love [agape] does no ill to a neighbor; therefore love [agape] is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10).

All these many long years, the Bridegroom-to-be has longed for His beloved to “grow up” out of childhood unto “the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). We cannot duplicate the sacrifice of Christ on His cross, but we can learn to appreciate it. If any bridegroom has that from his bride, he will have a happy marriage.

Growing up should be great fun; kids love to do it, even before their time. A world church may appear to be very lethargic; but don’t make a superficial judgment.

The Bridegroom is not finished yet. Keep your heart alert to what He may do.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Does the Bible teach a “balanced” view of righteousness by faith, so salvation is 50 percent by faith and 50 percent by works? If that question is too easy, then is it 99 percent by faith and 1 percent by works?

It appears superficially—on the surface—that the apostle James says it’s 50/50 by both: “ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only” ( 2:24). He seems—superficially—to contradict Paul, for Paul says boldly that “by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: NOT of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8, 9).

When he says emphatically it’s “not of works” he means not even 1 percent. His impassioned Letter to the Galatians is on one side of the perennial debate: “I do not frustrate the grace of God [even 1 percent ‘works’ will frustrate that grace!]: for if righteousness come by law, then Christ is dead in vain” (2:21). There’s no “balance” between righteousness by faith and righteousness by works (Laodicean lukewarmness hot and cold water “balanced;” this confusion is Laodicea’s problem).

The apparent conflict (it troubles many) is resolved as clear as sunlight: salvation is TOTALLY of grace through faith, but the “faith” is not dead; it’s a living faith “which works.” Its fruit: obedience to all the commandments of God (Gal. 5:6). James is not pitting faith against works or vice versa; he pits a living faith against a dead faith. “Faith without works is dead”! Both apostles are totally agreed on that.

In modern language, “law righteousness” can be translated as “egocentric motivation.” Paul points us to Christ’s cross: in His sacrifice, was He motivated even 1 percent by egocentric concern for Himself? His assurance to the believing thief APPEARS to say yes (“Hang on, fellow victim; you and I will be in Paradise today!”). But that was in the morning when the sun was shining; “at the sixth hour there was darkness over all land” including the heart of the Son of God. He cried, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He “poured out His soul unto death,” even the second (Isa. 53:12). Not even 1 percent of an egocentric motivation—totally love for us, none for Himself.

That was agape.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The current excitement about the “Lost Books of the Bible” perplexes many. As time goes on, Satan’s deceptions become ever more puerile. There will “arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matt. 24:24).

The present pseudo “discoveries” (for example, the “bones” of Jesus!) are an alluring temptation to people who want supposed “historical science” added to their faith. These “books” have a common thesis: to destroy confidence in Jesus as the true Christ of the Bible: His divinity and His purity of character. Consider, for example, His alleged sexual liaison with Mary Magdalene—a tale perfectly crafted to justify modern cultural engrossment with sexual immorality and infidelity.

The fundamental misperception that pervades all apostate thinking is natural immortality. This grand deception dredged up from ancient paganism is calculated to destroy the message of the special love of Christ. So cleverly has it been invented that the lethal false doctrine marches right into the once-sacred precincts of what Paul calls the “ temple of God” (2 Thess. 2:4).

If the human soul is naturally immortal, Christ could not have “died for our sins” (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3, 4), for the pagan-papal doctrine destroys the reality of any death that He could die. So blatant is the deception that one has to deny the most obvious of truths to embrace it.

Thus true Christianity squares off against the false on the battlefield of the doctrine of love: when the apostle John declares that highest of truths that “God is love,” he is not declaring that God is the childish self-seeking emotion we humans have assumed is “love”; he is saying that God is agape (1 John 4:8), an entirely different idea.

Agape is a love unheard of in the world apart from the revelation of Christ, a love that dares to go to hell in order to save us (Acts 2:27), that “empties” itself (Phil. 2:5-8), that “pours out [its] soul unto death”(Isa. 53:12), what the Bible calls “the second death” (Rev. 2:11; 20:12-14). It’s a love that “constrains” (motivates) the one who appreciates it, to live “henceforth” not for self, but for the One who went to hell to save us (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

Long before the holy Sabbath was changed, the evil contestant in the great controversy sought to destroy this understanding of agape in the early church (cf. Rev. 2:4). The Protestant Reformation will not be completed until agape is restored and recovered. Its loss is the source of worldwide lukewarmness in the church.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

ear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

“Who is Jesus Christ?”

This simple question has engrossed the minds of sincere theologians and pastors for the better part of several centuries. Whenever it is suggested that He is the Savior of the world, the Savior of every man, severe caution has been expressed: don’t slide into the evil doctrine of Universalism for the Bible is too clear that many will eventually be lost and go into the lake of fire after the second resurrection when they gather around the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-15).

So the idea has prevailed that Jesus Christ cannot be the Savior of every man unless every man first receives and believes Him. It’s only those who “believe in Him” who will not “perish,” John 3:16 says.

A few years back a prominent evangelist declared to young people worldwide that “Jesus wants to be your Best Friend,” but the idea is of course that He can’t be unless you open your heart, etc. (A very thoughtful, enlightened writer once wrote a book entitled Steps to Christ that said that Jesus Christ is already your Best Friend; then the publishers put out an edition for youth that said on the back cover, “Jesus Wants to be Your Best Friend.” This highly popular idea is intended to preserve the necessity of obedience to the law; true, no one persisting in willful disobedience to the ten commandments will be saved eternally; he couldn’t be happy!)

But there is not yet unanimity among theologians and evangelists as to who Jesus Christ is. They cannot embrace strict Calvinism that says He has predestinated some (“like the sand of the sea”?) to be lost eternally, and a few others to be saved eternally. (That idea has to be out.)

Hence an idea that rejects strict Calvinism—Jesus Christ is potentially “the Savior of all men” IF they take the initiative to elect Him to be so. Through the better part of several centuries this idea has prevailed.

But wait a moment. The problem is—therein lies the basic root of the idea that the sinner’s ultimate salvation is due to his own initiative; and there lies the source of the nearly universal lukewarmness that pervades the church in these last days (Rev. 3:14-21).

What the Bible has been saying all along is that Jesus Christ is already the “Savior of the world” (John 4:42), the Savior of “all men”(Rom. 5:18), the sinner’s Best Friend; but those who will be lost at last have chosen to resist and reject Him through unbelief; they have “frustrated the grace of God” (Gal. 2:21). This simple disclosure clarifies the theological conundrum.

The bottom line: repentance at last comes into focus (Rev. 3:19).

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

A California Highway Patrolman shoots herself after leaving a note, “I’m no good.”

If ever a prominent person had reason to think he was no good, it was great King David who committed two monstrous crimes at once in committing adultery and then murdering the lady’s husband and keeping mum about it all for about a year, deceiving everybody in the kingdom. It took a prophet from God to wake him up.

His reaction was not suicide, for he did frankly confess that he felt he deserved death—the real kind, the eternal death of being “cast ... away from Thy presence [of God]; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). What he felt he deserved was what the New Testament speaks of as “the second death.”

The full realization of his true guilt was necessary before his self-respect could be built. No one can think of himself with genuine self-respect unless he knows the full dimension of his unworthiness and guilt—that’s just Reality; and that dimension? Guilt for the crucifixion of Christ. That is the sin of the human race; when the Bible says “all have sinned,” and “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:23; 10), that is what it means. Let’s not try to argue out of it saying, “If I had been there I would not have voted to crucify Him! I’m innocent of that!” You don’t know what you would have done, for “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).

Your true and genuine self-respect that nothing can overthrow is built on that realization and confession. It is a corporate sin that is universal but universally (almost) unrecognized.

What this CHP suicide needed was that corporate realization plus the understanding that Christ’s forgiveness of those who crucified Him extended to her also (Luke 23:34); if your load of unconscious guilt is lifted by that faith and knowledge of truth, it will be impossible for you ever to say to yourself or to anyone else, “I am no good.”

Every baby born into this world comes with a deep conviction of judicial condemnation “in Adam” (Rom. 5:18); but at the same time he also comes into the world under a blanket of the Father’s judicial forgiveness with His verdict of acquittal “in Christ” (same text).

That’s what the Father says about you “in Christ.” But of course you can rebel and refuse to receive the gift. But believing the truth puts a smile on your face forever.

It’s a pity no one told the CHP suicide in time.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Just before His crucifixion, the Son of God made a promise: He will “draw” all men to Himself, that is, will reconcile all men to the Father, He will give all who are thirsty, to drink of the water of life, and He will give all who are hungry to eat of the bread of life, IF ... His people will lift Him up to be seen crucified for all men and crucified by all men (cf. John 12:32, 33).

Christ died for the world, the death that “every man” would die were it not that He gave Himself for every man, and yes, to every man.

All that the fallen Adam did to bring a condemnation upon every man, Christ as our second or “last Adam” did to bring a verdict of acquittal to the same every man. He reversed what Adam did; Adam cursed, Christ blessed; Adam brought us eternal death; Christ brought us eternal life.

Adam brought darkness, Christ brought us light. Adam alienated us all from God, brought us into the world separated from Him; Christ brought us into the world reconciled to Him IF we will receive His message of atonement. (He has already done the reconciling in principle.) He will force no one against his free will, but He says, “Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17).

“Whosoever will.”

That includes every Muslim who “will” let his heart “come.” They may have been taught to deny He died on His cross; but their conscience cannot deny that love for every man in that He died his second death. This truth of life only in Christ is free for all to believe. Those who choose to disbelieve, bring eternal separation upon themselves, while those who believe the News of His love already receive the gift of eternal life in Him.

The much more abounding grace of the Lord is stronger than mistaken information imbibed in childhood and youth; when the angel of Revelation 18 lightens the earth with glory, truth will cut through long held prejudice; God knows how to speak to His “other sheep ... which are not of this fold”(John 10:16), and they will hear His voice and their prejudices will disappear like morning dew. He will have a people who can lift up “Christ and Him crucified” and can reach those hearts.


Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

What message does the Bible tell us to proclaim to Muslims?

(a) “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus [the Messiah] whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

(b) The “true God” [Allah, in Arabic] has revealed Himself as the One who Himself is “love” (1 John 4:8). But the word for love is agape, a different idea than we humans have and understand for love.

(c) Agape is the kind of love that loves our enemies and prays “for those who despitefully use us” (Matt. 5:45). That is the teaching of both the Old and New Testaments.

(d) We humans cannot understand it except as we see it revealed in Christ the Messiah, who “being in the form of God, counted not equality with God something to be grasped but emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a servant [a slave]; and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).

(e) That “death of the cross” involved His taking upon Himself all the evil and sins of the world and dying the death that is “the wages of sin” (Rom. 6:23), which is the real thing—“the second death” in which there is no hope of a resurrection (cf. Rev. 20:12-14). This is what it means that “He poured out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12). This is the true definition of the love (agape) which God says He “is.”

(f) The miracle that confirms the truth of the gospel is that this message of the cross when rightly presented converts selfish, cruel, worldly human hearts and people learn to be unselfish and to love others even as Jesus.

(g) The human heart is melted by the story of this truth of what Christ accomplished on His cross. As the second or “last Adam” He encompasses the whole human race in Himself; when He died, “we all” died with Him and in Him (2 Cor. 5:14); also, we were resurrected “in Him” and that says something to us—that love of Christ “henceforth” motivates us to live “not unto self, but unto Him who died for us and rose again” (vs. 15).

(h) God wants every person to be saved eternally who is willing to let God’s Holy Spirit enter his/her heart; by the Holy Spirit (1 Tim. 2:3-5). Christ is drawing every one to Himself. But we have been given freedom of choice; God refuses to compel anyone. He wants only free-willed disciples.

(i) If one does not resist that powerful grace that is unbounded, he will be drawn all the way in repentance and eternal salvation.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

“Conventional wisdom” says that if you follow Christ, your path is difficult; and if you follow the world, your path is easy.

But the Lord Jesus Himself says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).

And for those who think they have a hard time in trying to follow Jesus or had to suffer opposition and persecution, He adds, “I will put upon you none other burden” (Rev. 2:24). He doesn’t want us to suffer torture!

Granted, He doesn’t force anyone to “take up [a] cross and follow [Him]” (cf. Luke 9:23), but He invites us to choose to follow Him into eternal life in the kingdom of God. He knows that we have inherited from Adam a sinful nature and how sin is contagious and habit forming; He knows that when His Father says that He “so loved the world that He gave” Him to be our Savior that we have an inward battle in learning to “believe in Him” (John 3:16). Unbelief (or dis-belief) is natural for us; we were born that way. We can learn to believe.

The distraught father of the possessed boy in Mark 9 gives us a lesson. When Jesus told him frankly, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes,” he broke down in tears and said, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” (vss. 23, 24). Steeped in your natural unbelief, you can choose to believe. Then you will learn.

A new birth is needed every step of our way, but the Good News is that He loves us so much that He actually makes the path to eternal ruin a “hard” one. This again is contrary to “conventional wisdom” that says it’s easy to just slide down hill into hell. An example of truth is what the Lord Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus as he was indulging his natural hatred of righteousness in persecuting the church. In love for his soul, the Lord confronted him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). It was a miserable life Saul was leading!

The Old Testament also teaches that God loves us so much that He has put obstacles in the downward path to ruin: “Behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns” (Hosea 2:6), “He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass” (Job 19:8), “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9), “He has blocked my way with hewn stone” (Jer. 3:9).

None of these Good News texts says that the Lord forces anyone to be saved against his will; but taken together they assure us that He continually tries His best to direct us into the path of life. Let’s believe Him!

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world (John 4:42). But what does He save the world from? What is salvation? Is it merely a physical resurrection, carrying on the same existence which we now have, with new bodies? Or can we say that salvation is deliverance from the sin that plagues our present life?

And if we have not known what that deliverance from sin is now, will we be able to enjoy any kind of a “resurrection”?

We humans are not “saved” by being delivered utterly from “the flesh,” but by receiving power to rule over the clamors of our “flesh.” The “much more abounding grace of God” actually “teaches” us to “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, [that] we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world” (Titus 2:11, 12). This is to rule over all the evil tendencies and desires of “the flesh” which we have inherited from our fallen head of our human race, Adam. We humans do not develop character by being delivered from the realm of temptation, but by receiving power to conquer all the temptation.

That is salvation.

The Savior does not try to save us in a way that would leave us limp and characterless, by putting us in a place of no temptation; no, He came to us humans just where we are, in the midst of all our temptations. He came in the very flesh such as we have and in that flesh He met all the temptations known to that flesh and conquered every one of them right up to the moment when He cried “It is finished!” on His cross and bowed His head and died.

By means of that conquest, He has brought victory over the flesh to every soul in the world who will open his heart to receive that “faith of Jesus.” Hot-house tree plants that have never been outdoors and never known cold and wind are helpless to endure real life and can never develop into strong trees; the Savior of the world is busy as our great High Priest “saving” a people who will be happy meeting Him face to face when He returns, who will not be ashamed in His personal presence. They must not be surprised that temptations assail them, or that trials them. That is evidence that the High Priest is actually working on their case! Good news!

Let Him work!

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Former U. S. President Jimmy Carter has stirred the ire of the Israelis by what he says in his latest book which speaks in defense of the Palestinians in their conflicts with the State of Israel. Carter is highly respected throughout the world for his devotion to justice and his efforts to help the poor and powerless.

He does not deny the history of the Holocaust as do some voices in the Middle East (it can’t be denied!), but he maintains that suffering the horrors of the Holocaust does not give Israel the moral right to deny justice to the Palestinians, or to destroy their neighbors, like Lebanon.

What has happened de facto is that Israel has virtually become the 51st state of the United States of America, and the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches invoke for her God’s special favor. This has created what Islam regards world-wide as their righteous jihad indignation. The result: a new threatened reign of world terror, Iraq just the precursor.

What does Jesus have to say to us now? Plenty, especially in Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, Daniel and the Revelation, yes, the Bible en toto. We have come to the “last days” of this world; we are in God’s great final Day of Atonement. Jesus likens our current history to the figure of “the sea and the waves roaring,” “distress of nations with perplexity, men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luke 21:25, 26). Our national leaders of both political parties in America are “distressed.” No one knows what to do now to extricate ourselves from our entanglement in Iraq and widespread jihad hatred.

And here in America, the prudent stay where they are so much as possible; the experience of Jet Blue’s recent horror stories of being cooped up in a jetliner for six to ten hours—that’s a miniature hell on earth in the midst of our opulence. Fortunate people today are not those in mansions within gated communities, but humble folk living in the country where they can grow a little food and thus acquire “food and raiment, therewith [to be] content,” as Paul says (1 Tim. 6:6-8).

But not to shut ourselves away from the needs of the multitudes. In vision, John “saw another angel come down from heaven, ... and the earth was lightened with his glory and he cried mightily with a strong voice” proclaiming the pure Good News of “the everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6-12; 18:1-4). That describes God’s people personally proclaiming the message themselves, doing more than playing videos; doors will open everywhere for flesh and blood proclaimers; but they must first themselves understand and appreciate that “everlasting gospel.”

Only those who “hunger and thirst”for it can be filled (Matt. 5:6).

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Does Jesus Christ have the right to have a love affair? He is the divine Son of God to whom “all power is given in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18), myriads of angels in the vast universe of its Milky Way of suns and worlds await His most minute and grandest biddings; and yet He is a lonely Man in heaven. “Home” to Him is earth; His humanity is as complete as is His divinity. His heart is with His struggling ones here below.

No woman on earth is worthy to be the bride of the Son of God; the “one woman” whom He loves is His church. Twenty-seven year old Samuel Stone understood with words that have thrilled countless believers in Jesus: “From heaven He came and sought her / to be His holy Bride; / with His own blood He bought her, / and for her life He died.”

But His search is not ended. The Savior is still seeking a church that loves truth more than loves self or the world. A mysterious oneness operates beneath the surface in the church that the Enemy of Christ cannot fathom. “Elect from every nation, / Yet one o’er all the earth,” His “My people” today await the hearing of that Voice that penetrates the remotest bound of Babylon’s massive confusion. It says, “Come out of her, My people” (Rev. 18:4).

The Bridegroom does the seeking; the Bride-to-be does the responding. Every truth that comes revealed is met by her with whole-hearted acceptance, no matter what the humbling of self may require. Her repentance includes forsaking that alluring “rich-and-increased-with-goods” pride that has made His church too often the object of the world’s merited scorn. The path of true love is never smooth, say the wise ones; and Christ’s bride-to-be is constantly finding new occasions for humbling the corporate heart in painful repentance that becomes joyous the moment it is embraced. She is growing up out of childishness; Christ’s love for her as a Bridegroom rejoices in her growing maturity. Some day (hopefully very soon) she will see herself as the world and as heaven have seen her and will “repent in dust and ashes” for her infidelity to the only One who has ever loved her truly.

She will love the truth that separates her from the world, and will gladly bear its persecution and endure the trials of the last days and will joy in standing loyal to Christ. Her self-respect will be enhanced by her corporate realization that she is the object of the Lord’s conjugal love.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The Bible does not encourage self-esteem, but it does teach a genuine self-respect—the solid kind that all the devils in hell can’t undo.

It’s learned from believing the following story:

At the age of 30, Jesus of Nazareth got the news that John the Baptist was preaching repentance at the Jordan River. He told His mother Mary, “Mother, I’ve got to go. I’m laying down my saws, hammers, chisels, and I’ll never touch them again: I am going on My mission My Father has told me of, that I’ve told you about since I was 12” (Luke 2:49).

John refused to baptize Him. “I am ordained to baptize only people who have repented, and You have no sins to repent of.” Then Jesus told him how He was taking the sins of the whole world upon Himself, making Himself guilty of them all, “made to be sin for us” [2 Cor. 5:21]. “And yes, I have repented of them all.” So John relented.

When Jesus came out of the water dripping wet, He knelt on the Jordan’s banks and prayed such a prayer as the world had never heard before, nor had the angels in heaven. And something wonderful happened: the Father Himself answered Jesus verbally and audibly so the whole world could hear Him (except they didn’t recognize the Voice):

“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). And, you remember, the dove descended, as the visible Holy Spirit.

As the Father put His arms around Jesus before the whole world, He also put His arms around you, and said those same words.

“But I am a sinner,” you say; “He couldn’t do that to me!”

When you go to a shop and buy something for say $10, you exchange your $10 for an article which you believe is equivalent in value. We read that the Father “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son ... ” You are “the world.”

In other words, when the Father thinks of you with all your sins and unworthiness, He thinks of you as of equivalent value; He loves you Two equally (I use a capital T for His sake).

You’ll spend the rest of your life here (and over there) trying to understand that.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Does anybody want the reign of sin to go on and on for decades, even centuries more? The whole world to become a huge Baghdad? Or Darfur?

Jesus Christ has promised to return (John14:1-3, for example). At different times in history, sincere, godly people have set time hoping He would come, but have always thus far been disappointed.

Result: “the love of many [has grown] cold” (cf. Matt. 24:12) and some who used to say they believed in His personal coming have given up the idea altogether; just do what you can to make the present world more livable through science, for example (cf. 2 Peter 3:3ff).

But wait a moment: if we believe that Jesus Christ is a personal Being, the Son of God (and we do!), think how He must feel with this long delay and constant disappointment. He is the Bridegroom in a delayed marriage whose personal “disappointment is beyond description.” His disappointment rather than ours deserves our attention. In fact, it opens up a whole new field of Bible study having to do with His Bride-to-be “making herself ready” for “the marriage of the Lamb” (cf. Rev. 19:7, 8).

Why have all the expectations of the imminence of His second coming been mistaken thus far? That in itself constitutes a “shaking” that increases in intensity as time goes on. Who will stay on board this journey of faith to its end as prophesied in the Bible? Someone inspired likened the end to swinging over a vast chasm hanging on to ropes whose support you cannot see, you can only believe is there because God says so.

It’s nothing that our Lord has not been through: that’s what His cross experience meant to Him. He had not a ray of light shining, not a word of encouragement from anyone; only the hiding of His Father’s face, forsaking Him as though He were the worst sinner in the world. Nothing to hang on to except what the Bible says. Everyone either condemned Him or forsook Him.

He assures us that some will appreciate what His cross meant and “shall endure unto the end” (Matt. 24:12). They are even now being gathered out all over the world. God grant us to be one!

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

ear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Someone says, “I’m not the one breaking up our marriage; it’s my spouse! (And to tell the truth, we’re both to blame!)”

When people asked the apostle Paul what to DO to be saved, he liked to tell them, “BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ ...” (Acts 16:31). He didn’t mean do nothing; but a change of heart is what works, not just outward behavior. The change accompanies an effective prayer for marriage-healing. That healing is what the Author of love and marriage likes to do for us when we ask Him.

What we know for sure:

(a) The Lord wants your marriage to be solid and happy as long as you both shall live. He says He “hates divorce” (Mal. 2:16). Therefore it follows that your prayers for your marriage to be healed are in harmony with God’s will for you, and that means your prayer is being heard for He has promised that whatever prayer we ask that is “according to His will, He heareth us” (1 John 5:14, 15). Big truth!

(b) That means in turn that you and the Lord are together in this; and two out of three are a Majority. Work with Him; stay with Him; be loyal to Him and His truth.

(c) The Bible doesn’t guarantee 100% success, for humans have the power of choice and they can “frustrate the grace of God” (Gal. 2:21; if that must happen, the Lord is as pained as you are). But He also assures us that it’s possible for a believing spouse to win an unbelieving one (see 1 Cor. 7:10-16). Miracles still happen; the greatest is in our own hearts when we “LET this mind be in [us] which was also in Christ Jesus ... “ (Phil. 2:5ff).

(d) The best news in the world today is a change of vision in God’s people—transferring their concern for self to the Lord Jesus from “what can I do to be sure I am saved and I can wear a crown ?” to “how can I help crown Him King of kings and Lord of lords?” The miracle of a new kind of love (agape) is taking over many human hearts.

God’s last days’ message for us all is His “everlasting Good News” (Rev. 14:6-12).

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Recently we talked a bit about how God specially cares for the broken-hearted. We’ve had several letters from those who qualify.

The problem often is a broken marriage, plus a severed closeness to the Savior.

The stores are full of books that tell you what to do; the Bible tells you what to believe:

(a) God has a vested interest in your marriage; He invented the idea in the first place, and it is He who brought the two of you together and made you “one.” If your marriage fails, it is therefore He who will be embarrassed and pained.

(b) Your prayers will become powerful if you can grasp this larger paradigm-shift idea: prayers for Him to be glorified in you take precedence over your own prayer for personal happiness. Tangled thinking becomes clarified. You start walking on air.

(c) Prayer for a spouse becomes more effective because self is now crucified with Christ. You and the Lord Jesus are now united in a common purpose between you—that the Lord’s invention of marriage be honored in your case. Young people watching you will be inspired to build more firm marriages that will actually uplift the world. Don’t despise the idea: you become a “missionary” unconsciously working for the Kingdom of God. Your healed marriage proclaims a magnificent sermon of hope in a hopeless world.

(d) There are tons of practical wisdom and spiritual strength that the Lord would like to impart to you just now, but as Jesus said to His disciples, you can’t absorb it all now (John 16:12); but He is like a teacher who can’t give you the last lessons until you’ve grasped the first ones. Believe that you are a valued pupil in His classroom; He will hear your prayer to heal your marriage, but He will insist on working through you as His agent. It’s not fear that will teach you, but the grace of God will faithfully, persistently “teach” you (cf. Titus 2:11-13). Best “classroom” anyone was ever in!

(e) Yes, a thousand times over, the Lord still works miracles; the greatest of them all may be in your own soul. “Let” Him do it; don’t hinder Him (Phil. 2:4).

(f) He will take your prayers very seriously; don’t back out on what you are praying for. If the slightest adulterous prayer has flitted across your consciousness, pray for heart forgiveness. Healing that brings lasting happiness may hurt for a time, but great and lovely is the peace that you will inherit.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

If there is anyone out there in the great world who feels that the Lord has given him (her) a bitter cup to drink, this mini-message is for you.

The lady’s sad lament (who said He had done that to her), has found its way into God’s Bible: Naomi is responding to the warm greetings of her fellow townspeople in Bethlehem when she returns from decades of exile in a foreign land. They’re asking, Is this beaten-down woman really our beloved sunshine girl of long ago—Naomi? “Don’t call me by my childhood name ‘Delightful,’ she pleads; “call me ‘Bitter’ [Mara], for the Almighty God has made my life bitter.” A very discouraging feeling for anyone’s heart.

Indeed, she has been dealt not a double but a triple blow of heart-rending misfortune. “When I left here, I had plenty [a loving husband and two wonderful sons], but the Lord has brought me back without a thing. ... The Lord Almighty has condemned me and sent me trouble”(Ruth 1:20, 21, GNB).

Here’s a classic case of a sincere soul believing Calvinist predestination; all the nearly endless miles of that weary trudge back from Moab to Bethlehem, Naomi has been thinking of her bitter cup of triple bereavement. Now it looks like the Lord (whose sacred name she has invoked) will snuff her little light out of Israel’s roster. If you have lost husband and sons to death, you in Israel face a bleak future; Naomi’s plight is the saddest we read of in Israel in the Bible.

But wait a moment: she has forgotten something: she has salvaged out of her life-wreckage a daughter-in-law. And she is the one who gets the name of this happiest book in the Bible. Slowly she and Ruth inch their way out of hunger through reaping—the humiliating “business” of the down-and-out woman in Israel.

Just as “the Lord God” brought “an help meet” to Adam (just what he needed), so the same Lord God brought “an help meet” or appropriate for Ruth: a husband in Boaz. But she didn’t go looking for him; the Lord brought the two together.

He didn’t harshly rebuke Naomi for feeling and saying that He had brought all this misfortune on her; but let’s not repeat Naomi’s unbelief. It’s too late in the day to live it all again; the Lord is coming soon, and we want t get ready to be happy when we see Him. It’s time to believe the Lord’s New Covenant promises (Gen. 12:2, 3). No matter who you are, they are made to you, for if you believe in the Son of God you are a child of Abraham and thus “heirs according to the promise”(Gal. 3:29).

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to:

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

If there is anyone out there in the vast regions of earth who has made a mess of his life, who feels he has done everything wrong, rebelled against the Lord, made a fool of himself—this brief message is for him.

There is a man who is distinguished for such and yet made it to the top, to the roster of the super-heroes in sacred history—Hebrews 11. It’s Samson.

Born to be a leader of Israel, given the best of pre-natal heredity and childhood education, he could have been a towering figure of what a man of God can be, but he ended up using his prodigious strength grinding corn for the enemies of Israel like a despised beast of burden.

(a) Manoah and his unnamed wife were given divine instruction on how to give their future child the best prenatal care. His mother was obviously a very intelligent woman whose cool judgment corrected her husband’s unbelieving assumption (Judges 13:2-14). And the child was to be a Nazarite from the womb.

(b) Samson started off wanting to indulge his selfish sexual preference in marrying a pagan girl who “pleases me well”(14:3). His infatuation with this flirtatious girl was a long ways away from genuine love; yet Samson could have learned about true love. Israel’s history (the “Bible” of that day!) told of the pure and happy love of the patriarchs Isaac and Rebekeh, and also the committed love of Jacob for Rachel, and the example of Samson’s own parents’ fidelity. Samson had plenty of good examples which he callously rejected. Those who marry selfishly while disregarding the Lord’s guidance can see a glimpse of themselves here.

(c) Samson’s career as a divinely appointed leader of Israel is a story of self-centered foolishness. The thoughtful people of Israel must have been repeatedly embarrassed; how could his godly parents endure it all?

(d) To cap the story of buffoonery, Samson betrays his divine secret to his paramour (the classic story of a national trustee betraying his nation for an illicit love), who promptly betrays him. You know what happened; the Philistines blinded this man of God, and in exuberation tied him to a plow and set him to grinding corn like a beast.

(e) This at least gave Samson time to think, to ponder, and do what he should have done at first—abhor himself.

(f) Utterly unworthy to have a prayer answered, he finally decides to die with his national enemies. His hair having grown again unnoticed by his captors, he prays for strength to bring down the Temple of Dagon on the huge crowd gathered to gloat over him. The Bible succinctly says that in so doing he fulfilled at last his mission to deliver Israel from slavery; but oh, at what a cost! But he made it into the book of Hebrews ( 11:32).

(g) The point? The dear Lord hears the prayer of a broken-hearted sinner. You.


Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Christ IS the “Savior of the world” (John 4:42) which means that He has given Himself to be your Savior even if you feel so sinful that you don’t deserve to have Him. It was “before the foundation of the world” that the Father did so, “chose” you, “predestinated [you] unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, ... made [you] accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:4-6).

But a very sincere question comes up now:

If we tell people this, won’t they simply go on sinning all the more? Won’t they say, “God is taking me to heaven with all my sins, so what’s the point in obedience to His law? ‘Soul, ... take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry’ (Luke 12:19)”? If we tell people such “good news” as Ephesians and Romans seem to tell us, aren’t we defeating the purpose of all evangelism preaching? Shouldn’t we arouse people to DO something about their soul’s salvation?

(a) If craven fear is the motive we are seeking to arouse, our preaching is Old Covenant in nature, in spite of all the bright lights and pictures we may use. We’ll get “results” that look nice on paper, the photos will be impressive.

(b) If we tell people what Christ actually accomplished on His cross, the message will zero in precisely to the inner heart of every honest soul who listens. Fear will not be the basic motivation aroused; “the love of Christ constrains.” There is a mighty power in that love that does what all the preachers in the world are powerless of themselves to do—truthfully presented it motivates the sinful heart of man to renounce self to be crucified with Christ.

(c) When the sinner finally knows what to believe, he can’t help but “judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead.” The logic appeals. He sees that he would be dead at this moment (in a second death) if that “One” had not died for him; therefore as surely as day follows night, he will refuse “henceforth [to] live unto [himself] but unto Him which died for [him] and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

(d) It’s an idea that will prepare a people for the second coming of Christ. (You can’t get closer to Him than to be crucified with Him.)

(e) In the pure truth of the message itself the power lies latent (Gal. 2:5, 14; Rom. 1:16).

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to:

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Strict Calvinism says that anyone for whom Christ died has to be saved eternally; Christ cannot fail to accomplish all that He set out to do by means of His sacrifice on His cross; therefore Calvinism’s only possible conclusion is that He did not die for those who will eventually be lost. He predestined them to be lost. It’s a scary doctrine, and there’s a lethal logic to it. It’s anything but “good news.” In fact, it’s bad news if you are not among those blessed people in Ephesians one and two who have been given everything wonderful. Many people worry about who they are and whether they’re the favored ones!

But what the Bible says is that God has predestined everyone to be saved; when Christ died “for the world,” He paid the price for everyone’s sin; His “much more abounding grace” extends to everyone; if you’re a human being in this world, Christ is already your Savior whose infinite love is to you personally as if you were the only lost soul on earth. You have freedom of choice and you can despise and reject Him, but that doesn’t alter the fact that He gave Himself for you and to you.

The Ephesians gospel “Good News” is explained elsewhere in the Bible:

(a) We are all born into the world under a blanket of legal condemnation inherited from our sinful head of the human race, Adam.

(b) But thanks to Jesus Christ, we are also born under a legal blanket of vindication in Him. He has become our “last Adam,” our new Head of the human race. He has been made to be sin for everyone, has taken everyone’s full guilt upon Himself, has died the death that would have come upon us all “in Adam” ( Rom. 5:8-18).

(c) That means God is sincere and honest in His purpose formed “before the foundation of the world” to save eternally every member of the human race. He has stacked the cards against no one. Ephesians one is dead right; you don’t have to do something to make Jesus become your Friend and Savior, as so many of us preachers have often said; He already is!

(d) We can choose to live under which ever “blanket” we choose. Live “in Christ” (as you already are in a legal or objective sense), and you are enrolled “in the school of Christ” where the Holy Spirit becomes your “Teacher” to “teach” you to “deny” the clamors of your fallen, sinful nature inherited from Adam. He actually trains you to “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world” (Titus 2:11, 12). He convicts you of sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:7-11), takes you by the hand and leads you all the way into the New Jerusalem (cf. Isa. 41:13). Don’t resist Him any longer! (More tomorrow, the Lord willing.)

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Someone seriously, sincerely asks the question, “Who are the people who are the personal pronouns (“we,” “us,” “our”) in Ephesians one and two? Whoever they are, they are v-e-r-y fortunate for they are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,” they are “chosen ... in Him before the foundation of the world ... [to be] holy and without blame before Him in love,” “predestinated ... unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself,” “accepted in the beloved,” and they “have redemption through His blood,” and “the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

That’s not all; they “have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will, [to] ... be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ” (1:3-12).

There are three possible answers to our question: (1) The first person pronoun people are only believers in the church in Ephesus; (2) or, all believers in Christ in all ages; (3) or, the entire human race, including you and me.

If it’s (1) or (2), it’s the believing in Christ on the part of these people that initiates all these magnificent blessings (except strict Calvinism that says God predestined some to be saved and others to be lost, which we can’t buy). It means either way a re-writing of Ephesians 2:8, 9 which says “by grace you are saved, through faith,” so that we correct Paul to make him say, “by believing you are saved” rather than “by grace you are saved.”

But the way Paul says it, the grace (which by the way is “abounding”) works “through faith.” God’s grace has to come first; our salvation is not due to our own initiative but is wholly due to His initiative. From “before the foundation of the world” it has been His idea, not ours.

All this is “through His blood,” and that is serious (vs. 7): anything that Christ accomplished by the shedding of His blood at the cross must apply equally to every human being because “God so loved the world that He gave ...” All His wonderful planning “from before the foundation of the world” is for everyone; the Samaritans were right when they said Jesus is “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). He has given the gift of salvation to the world, but the world has crucified Him and expelled Him from the planet. You can give someone a gift but if he throws it away, he doesn’t have it. But still you did the giving.

Maybe, the Lord willing, more tomorrow.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.

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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" web page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.