Daily Bread

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: What Frustrates the Lord

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

I read where one of God's servants declared that God didn't want a single Israelite to lose his life in the conquest of their Promised Land after their exodus from Egypt. This bold statement rather shocked me, because a whole generation of the children of Israel perished in the wilderness after Kadesh-Barnea, never getting to set foot in the land, and their descendants met with intense opposition thereafter for centuries. Two tribes were finally exiled to Babylon, and ten tribes simply disappeared. It was national disaster of terrible proportions. I determined to look up what the Bible actually says.

It's in Exodus 23:20-33. There I found:

(a) God promised to send "an Angel" before them--obviously Christ Himself.

(b) He would "prepare" the way.

(c) He would be "an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries." In other words, that "Angel" would fight their battles for them.

(d) He would bring Israel into the Promised Land and would "cut off" any opposition.

(e) "He shall bless thy bread and thy water," in other words, wonderfully prosper them economically.

(f) The "Angel" would "take away sickness from the midst of thee," in other words, make Israel a world example of healthful living.

(g) Their population would increase marvelously, indicating that it was not God's will that any cruel or oppressive world empire should arise such as Assyria, Babylon, Greece, or Rome. "I will send My fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come." All their enemies would "turn their backs unto thee."

(h) God would "send hornets before thee" which would drive out the pagans from the land.

(i) God's people would "be increased, and inherit the land" (the apostle Paul correctly understood it meant to be "heir of the world," Rom. 4:13). "I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand."

To a pitifully small extent, these divine promises met some fulfillment; but what frustrated the Lord was the people's constant "unbelief" (Heb. 3:12-19). Throughout their history, they rejected God's New Covenant, and cherished their own Old Covenant--right up to the final denouement at Calvary. Isn't it time now for us to believe His New Covenant?

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 24, 2002.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

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Monday, April 05, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: Something's Being Done Today--Without Fanfare

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The greatest, most important event ever to happen on planet earth was the birth of the "Savior of the world," Jesus, in Bethlehem. Yet it was unheralded in the media of that day except that the angel told a few shepherds, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" (Luke 2:10). The message was proclaimed by a few apostles.

The book of Revelation tells of "another angel fly[ing] in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel [again, good tidings of great joy] to preach to those who dwell on the earth" (14:6, 7). This movement is to come in the last days, and it has come. But be careful--don't wait for the media to plaster this news all over the TV and the Internet. No angel from heaven screams in your ears; the message comes like it came to the humble shepherds, more like "a still, small voice" (1 Kings 19:12). Unless you and I are careful, this new "angel flying in the midst of heaven" can do his job, fly on, and we never know what's happened. The work of God was done after Pentecost without great fanfare; it's being done today likewise, in humble ways. But it is being done.

Jesus describes it: "'I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.' This He said, signifying what death He would die" (John 12:32, 33). In other words, Heaven also has its "media," some kind of organization for getting the word out. Heaven is determined that the Son of God must not die in vain, in secret; humble instruments are to be moved by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the message of "Christ and Him crucified" worldwide. The great ones of earth are again to be surprised at the humble means that God will employ, no great, arrogant men and women. Only those will be employed in this work who have knelt at the cross of Jesus where self (pride!) is crucified with Him.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 24, 2005.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

Friday, April 02, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: Is It Easy or Hard to Be Saved?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The question haunts Christians everywhere: "Is it easy or is it hard to be saved? Are we correctly representing the Lord Jesus if we tell people that following Jesus is the difficult way to choose?" Many people, especially youth, have somehow gained the impression that to be a genuine, true Christian is the hardest thing anybody can do, and for sure Jesus tells us we must "strive to enter through the narrow gate" (Luke 13:24), and we must "compete" as "in athletics" (2 Tim. 2:5), and according to the NKJV in Matthew 7:14 Jesus said His way is "difficult " (the KJV says "narrow," and that is the correct meaning of the Greek word there; it is not "difficult").

On the other hand, Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 that His "yoke is easy," and His "burden is light."

Who are we to believe--those who represent Jesus as telling us His way is "difficult," or those who tell us He says His yoke is easy and His burden light? The two positions are as far apart as the east is from the west.

There is a mountain in the West that had a steep road going up. Model T's had trouble climbing it; they found it "difficult." No one could honestly deny that the road up Pike's Peak was "difficult."

But if someone installed a V-8 engine in the Ford, it could zip up the mountain road with "ease." Is the missing factor our lack of understanding what Paul calls "the truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:5, 14)?

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 9, 2005.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: Adapting Pagan Beliefs into "Christian" Thinking

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Nearly a billion Christian people have been taught the popular idea known as "the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary," a doctrine taught nowhere in the Bible. Sincere but mistaken "Fathers" in early church history thought they could make converts faster from the pagan masses in the Roman Empire if they could adapt the popular pagan beliefs into "Christian" thinking. This was one of them.

The wildly popular winter solstice festival of December 25 became "sanctified" as "Christmas," despite the illogical, irrational denial of Christ's birth being when there were "shepherds abiding in the field [camping, sleeping on the ground], keeping watch over their flocks by night" (Luke 2:8).

The pagan idea of a natural immortality of the human soul was welcomed into the early church despite the obvious contradiction of the great fundamental truth that "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3), which He could not have done if the soul is naturally immortal.

The idea that the mother of Jesus was given the grand exemption of being conceived "immaculate," that is, did not receive the DNA that every human being has received genetically from the head of the human race, this the Roman church welcomed. They refused to believe that she had the normal nature or "flesh" of the fallen Adam, but decreed for her the supernatural gift of a nonexistent sinless flesh or nature. In so doing, they excused her from the battles with temptation to sin that all the rest of us have.

But why take such pains to create this minor non-biblical exemption?

The real purpose: to "create" a "christ" who likewise was exempt from inheriting our DNA from Adam; "he" too as the son of this re-invented "Mary" must be "conceived immaculate." This plastic "savior" looks beautiful in stained glass cathedral windows, but has no heart relationship with human beings, never having been tempted as they are.

Another pagan festival adopted is the spring holiday of Easter. The divinely appointed memorial of Christ's resurrection is not the observance of any day, but it's baptism by being "buried" in the water (Rom. 6:3-5), not "sprinkled"--which again defies logic. Jesus warned that any idea not from the Bible, although taught by any church, is doomed (Matt. 15:9-13).

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 11, 2006.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: Has God Been Experimenting?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

In my copy of the Holy Bible, 944 pages are called "the Old Testament," and 285 pages are called "the New Testament." The word "testament" is the same as "covenant." So 77 percent of the Holy Bible is called "The Old Covenant" and 23 percent is called "the New Covenant." Why this difference?

Are these two "dispensations" in God's plan of saving the world? Many hold to that view. They understand that the New Covenant began with the crucifixion of the Son of God.

But does it make sense that God has been experimenting, that He tried for 4000 years the Old Covenant method and finally decided that it didn't work, and now He is trying a new method? If so, can we really trust Him that He knows what He's doing?

Instead, the Bible is clear that God has always had only one method of saving people. It's called "the everlasting gospel" or "the everlasting covenant" (Rev. 14:6; Heb. 13:20). No, God is infinitely wise; He has not been poking around with trial-and-error experiments. Ever since the Garden of Eden He has had only one plan of salvation--"by grace through faith" (Eph. 2:9). Christ is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8).

Then why the two Covenants?

They are not two methods of salvation; they are two understandings of God's people through the ages, two opposite perceptions of God's plan of salvation, not two "dispensations" that He has used as experiments. The Old Covenant was a "faulty" understanding of His people at Mt. Sinai--God was not to blame for it. He tried His best to get them to understand His glorious "New Covenant" as Abraham understood it and was "justified by faith." But no, they were perverse; they themselves chose the Old Covenant idea. It led them to "bondage" and finally to torture and crucify our Savior (cf. Gal. 4:24). A kindergarten child can easily understand--that it's not really good, is it? (Read Galatians 3 and 4.)

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 12, 2002.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

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Dial Daily Bread: A Personal Anonymous "Diary"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

If you found somebody's lost diary (which was anonymous), and you wanted to return it, you would search for clues in it that could help you, some little details that could narrow it down to identifying the right author.

Well, we have a very personal "diary" in the Bible that appears to be anonymous. It is intensely personal, revealing secrets that people don't usually divulge to anyone, like secret battles with temptation, or anguish and distress at midnight, or anxieties that get you up before dawn. It seems to be written by some very unusual person.

(1) A clue gives it away as a teenager (vs. 9): "Wherewithal shall a young man (nah'or) cleanse his way?" "A 'nah'or' is someone between infancy and adolescence," says Strong's lexicon, pretty well narrowing down our clue to teenage.

(2) Another clue: this teen, whoever he is, has "more understanding" than all the University professors of his day (vs. 99).

(3) Another clue: he even knows more than the Supreme Court justices of his day (vs. 100).

(4) Further, he tells us that he has never set his feet in a path that leads to a sin (vs. 101). I don't know of anyone who could say that except One person.

(5) He is unusual as a boy in that "princes also did sit and speak against me" (vs. 23). He seemed to have a knack for getting "princes" all stirred up against him (vs. 161).

(6) Young as he was, he had lots of "afflictions" (vss. 67, 75, 107). Boys don't usually cry tears that young, but this one did--rivers of them (vss. 136, 145). Which must have meant--he was unusually human, as well as whatever else he was.

(7) Rather than the village handsome athlete, he says he was "small and despised" (vs. 141).

(8) People who loved truth seemed attracted to him (vs. 63), so he was never utterly alone until at the very end of his life when everybody forsook him (Isa. 63:3).

Many artists have tried to picture Jesus as a boy; it will do your soul good to ponder this portrait of Him in Psalm 119.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 22, 2003.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: The Keys of the Kingdom

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Jesus said something both wonderful and terrible when he said to His disciples, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). It was a parallel statement with the one in Matthew, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (16:19).

As authority figures to other people (that is, parents, teachers, preachers/pastors), can we actually open or lock the gates of heaven to people? Jesus says YES! If in a fit of temper a parent tells a child, "You are lazy! You'll never amount to anything!" that child will have to carry that burden all his life unless somehow he finds the true gospel that gives him relief from that "burden." If a preacher/pastor tells his congregation similar Bad News, he can close the gates of heaven against children and youth. We may wonder why they drop out of the "family" when they reach their teens, but that was the reason. In a fit of anger, a husband/wife can tell his/her spouse words that wound forever: "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword" (Prov. 12:18). Sometimes the words are so painful that they are like a barb--it hurts even to draw them out in repentance. You are indeed an authority figure even to your spouse!

But there's another half to that verse: "But the tongue of the wise is health." Yes, don't forget the Good News side to what Jesus said: we can say Good News to children and youth, yes to spouses, words that will be the opening of the gates of the New Jerusalem to their souls. Let us thank God for a new Today wherein we can apply some healing balm to the wounds we have made, and we can tell someone some precious Good News. There is nothing to thank God for more earnestly than that we have another day in which to receive His precious gift of repentance with another opportunity to use those "keys" the right way.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 18, 1998.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: A Precious Morsel of Good News in Galatians

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

One of the most precious morsels of Good News "bread" in Galatians is almost hidden there. It's a message from heaven to encourage your tempted soul. It's Galatians 5:17 (GNB): "What our human nature wants [KJV = "flesh"] is opposed to what the [Holy] Spirit wants, and what the [Holy] Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature ["flesh"] wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do."

The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, but if we read it backwards from what it says, it can be made to tell us Bad News. And that's what has happened with this text. People read it as though it says you cannot do the GOOD things you would like to do because of this constant enmity of the flesh against the Holy Spirit. So they feel doomed to endless defeat, and sincerely believe the Bible agrees with them. "I've been smoking two packs a day for years and I want to quit but I can't! The 'flesh' is too strong!" Or, "I'm an alcoholic; my 'flesh' craves another drink, and the craving is so great I can't help giving in!" Or, "My sexual lust is so strong I can't keep clean! The 'flesh' is master of my life!"

They have Galatians 5:17 exactly backwards! Look at verse 16: "Let the [Holy] Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature." Or better still, the KJV: "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh." It's as if Paul says, "Go for a walk letting the Holy Spirit hold you by the hand and I guarantee you will not give in to those sinful desires of the flesh, because the Holy Spirit, the mighty Third Person of the Godhead, is stronger than your flesh!"

If you see what Paul is telling you in Galatians about what it cost the Son of God to save you from eternal hell, how He died your second death and condemned sin in your flesh (and mine!), even though your flesh tries to entice you to sin, you can't do it, because the Holy Spirit is stronger! Now, THAT'S Good News!

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 17, 1998.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: The Prince of Sufferers from Depression

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

No matter where we turn in the Bible, we meet someone who suffers what we moderns call "depression." The Psalms of David are a prime example. There is one entitled, "Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD" (130:1); that's the powerful name that just saying it humbles one's heart. Then in verse 2, David begs, "Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications." He does not get immediate relief for he adds, "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits" (vs. 5).

David's problem that makes his depression painful is guilt: "If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (vs. 3). The Holy Spirit has been speaking to him, whose first work on David's heart is the conviction of sin, and it's painful. If we trace that conviction to its source, we come to Calvary--where Jesus prays the Father to forgive those who crucify Him. Then we realize that it's us He is praying for! Not the Jews or Romans.

We have two wonders unfolding here: (a) the wonder of God's redeeming love, and (b) David's deep unworthiness that now he realizes. Therefore, "there is forgiveness with You," he says, "that You may be feared" (vs. 4).

The Prince of sufferers from depression is the Lord Jesus Christ; see Him in Gethsemane. His disciples, even Peter, James, John, couldn't even give Him an hour of their precious human time without going to sleep on Him (Matt. 26:36-40). He "began to be sorrowful and deeply depressed" (the KJV says "very heavy"). How "heavy"? "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death." Have you ever been near there?

And we know that Jesus never sinned; therefore we must conclude--to be "depressed" is not of itself sin. It's human, and Jesus the Son of God became human, the Son of man. He took into His soul all the depression that all humans have suffered, cumulative, corporate, and bore it, "even unto death," the final God-forsaken kind of hopeless death when He cried out in those "depths," "My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Kneel with Him in Gethsemane; but you can't endure that death. Even suicide isn't close; He won't let you suffer the second death! Not even share or taste it ever so tiny--without you sharing also with Him His resurrection.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 24, 2006.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: One of the Most Dramatic Moments in the Gospel Story

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Nine of Christ's disciples had failed miserably, and in full view of the crowd. It was severely embarrassing, and the episode as told in Mark 9 is one of the most dramatic moments in the gospel story. We identify with those nine for often we too have failed to help people in distress as we have wanted to do; our prayers have appeared to be unanswered. We have fasted and prayed in behalf of people dying of cancer ... and they have died. We have prayed for alcoholics, and ... they have gone on drinking. We have pleaded for wayward youth, and they have ... still wandered.

Jesus has been glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration--wonderful mini-vacation, visiting with Moses and Elijah. Heavenly light. But now He returns to His daily life of ministry for suffering people. The nine disciples He had left in the valley have prayed for the demon to be cast out of a suffering boy, and to their acute shame, nothing has happened. Jesus told them that their problem was their "unbelief," and that "this kind" of demon problem can be healed only by "prayer and fasting" (vs. 29). We empathize with them. The demons in effect tell us as they told "the seven sons of Sceva," "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?" (Acts 19:14, 15).

A very thoughtful writer has suggested that their "unbelief" was actually a lack of "sympathy" with Jesus in His work. Their faith was not childlike, it was childish. And the question arises: are we today mature enough in our thinking to "sympathize" with Jesus in His heart-burdened work He is doing on this grand Day of Atonement? Or are we infants still absorbed in our natural spiritual egoism, concerned just for our "reward"?

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 16, 2005B.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: Are We to "Wait" and "Occupy" until Jesus Comes?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

A thousand times "yes!" Let's agree that when the Savior of the world died on His cross and proclaimed "It is finished!" He won the great controversy all by Himself.

Yes, yes, He died "instead" of us. Yes, salvation is assured. Yes, He opened the gates of Paradise. Yes, it was all done even before we were born. Yes, yes, we contribute nothing to our own salvation.

But does all that mean that we His people, being "covered" by this celestial Insurance Policy, now have only to "wait" and "occupy until [He] comes"? (Cf. Luke 19:13; that word "occupy" has come to mean make lots of money, enjoy the world, don't lose out, have our fun as though there were no solemn Day of Atonement for us to live in.) Does Christ's dying "instead" of us mean that we have no cross to "share" with Him? He dies 100 percent only "instead" of us? From now on are we simply so many childish digits in the credit column in God's heavenly computer, and we "wait" for the call of the first resurrection? Or is there some serious business before us about getting ready to meet Jesus at His second coming?

Please note: there are four glorious "Hallelujah Choruses" in Revelation 19:1-7 that say something must happen that at last makes possible that "the Lord God omnipotent reigns"! And that something not having happened yet has delayed His "reign" for many, many years, even though He finished His dying "instead" of us. What finally must happen is that "the Lamb's wife" "make herself ready" for the intimacy of the "marriage of the Lamb." What happened on the cross was wonderful indeed, but nobody can (or will) be happy in heaven until those Hallelujah Choruses can be sung, proclaiming a hitherto elusive victory.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 25, 2005.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe 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.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: The Root of All Fear

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

We've come to a time when human armaments no longer can assuage deep fear.

1 John 4:18 says that "perfect love casts out fear," but how does "perfect agape" cast out its root? Mouthing empty words, "Jesus will take care of you!" doesn't satisfy children. They fall asleep at night worrying still. They know many believers in Christ perished.

We fear the economy may collapse, but that's not the root of fear. We fear diseases, like cancer, but again, that's not it. We in the western United States worry about wildfires every summer, but again that's not it. The bottom-line root is the fear of eternal hell, separation forever from light, love, and God. One may not know how to articulate it, but all other fears derive from that one.

The Bible calls its horror the "second death." Unspeakable, unmatched by earthly terrorism, if one could go through it just once and come out the other side, he could be done with that root of fear forever. He could tell the devil, "I've been through it already; nothing can faze me now. I'm immune to fear of any kind because I have already suffered the quintessential fear and survived. No lesser fear can touch that one!" But the problem is, you can't do that and survive.

The Bible is clear: (1) Christ died the equivalent of that "second death," endured 100 percent the torture and horror of hell itself, drained the cup dry.

(2) He is your Substitute--but therein lies a problem: if He is only a vicarious Substitute (the popular variety), the root of fear still gnaws away at your insides. What's true is a shared substitution, where you personally identify with Him. "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20). "If One died for all, then all died" (2 Cor. 5:14). That's more than signing the Insurance Policy kind of faith; this time, unlike Peter, James, and John, you don't go to sleep while Jesus prays in Gethsemane.

You appreciate what He went through. You identify with Him.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 25, 2001.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: The Society of Unanswered Pray-ers

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you been praying for a certain blessing, and the answer seems never to have come? You have been persistent in prayer, as Jesus tells us to do (we "ought always to pray, and not to faint," Luke 18:1), and still the answer has not come. You have asked Him to show you what might be wrong, what might he hindering your prayers (Peter says that if a man doesn't treat his wife right his prayers will be "hindered," 1 Peter 3:7), and God has not told you of anything wrong that might be "hindering" the answer. The Holy Spirit does not convict you of failure to do any known duty, even though you kneel before God and beg Him to notice you and to instruct you. Still you ask Him for that special blessing and it doesn't come.

Welcome to Job's "Club," the Society of Unanswered Pray-ers. You are not alone. The Prime Member is Jesus Himself. He prayed "with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared," but still He had to go to the cross and die (cf Heb. 5:7). The next verse reminds us that "Though He were a Son," yet He had to learn the lessons of life as we do "by the things which He suffered." But for sure He does not want you to duplicate the agony He suffered on the cross, nor even the agony which Job suffered.

There is an answer to your perplexity and disappointment. Let's notice several possibilities: (a) God may be working hard to give you a "yes" answer but He cannot force the will of some person who may be "withstanding" Him; that's what happened about one of Daniel's earnest prayers (cf. 10:13). If that's what's happening, you can be sure that the dear Lord is as merciful to you as He was to Daniel, and He will impress your heart with the conviction of truth. He will save you from discouragement. (b) The answer may be in process. and it just takes more time. This could be true if you are praying for a loved one.

Remember that on the cross Christ accomplished something for "every man," which makes it possible for Him to treat "every man" as though that person has never sinned (see Matt. 5:45)--Christ has already died that person's second death, and therefore He treats him/her just as though that person is going to be saved. This is the meaning of that interesting phrase "legal justification." Now, you do the same; treat that person as though you fully expect that your prayers are already answered, and that person is going to be saved just as you are. Draw a "circle" that includes that person inside. Don't say, "Oh, that person is far from being ready!" The closer you come to Jesus the more of His skill and wisdom you will share, because you will have "the mind of Christ" (Phil. 2:5).

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 20, 2001.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.

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Friday, March 19, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: A Radical Idea About the Bible

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

If you were weak and hungry, it would be ridiculous to think that a teaspoonful of soup would suffice to give you physical energy to live for a day. But if you were sick with the kind of hepatitis I had once (delicious food tasted like sawdust, I had no appetite), you would appreciate a bite of something that tasted so good that it aroused hunger to eat more. That's the purpose of "Dial Daily Bread" e-mails: not to sustain anyone with spiritual energy (two or three minutes couldn't do that!), but it comes with a prayer that it might make someone "hungry."

Jesus was right when He said, "Except you eat, ... you have no life in you," and He was talking about "the bread of life" (John 6:48-53). But multitudes have no "appetite" for the Bible; it's boring, like eating sawdust, and God knows it may not be their fault. The teaching they have heard may often represent the Bible as Bad News, a dose of legalism, a program of works they must do they don't feel they have the strength to do; thus reading the Bible tastes like sawdust. They can't wait until it's over and they can flip to something "interesting" (I know I'm a part of mankind!).

Our heavenly Father is well aware of this problem. He has no end of people in His "hospital" ward who are being kept barely alive by a spiritual intravenous "drip," and He longs to give them a taste of some spiritual food so delicious that they will learn to "hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt. 5:6). Then it will become their passion to "eat" and "drink" Christ in the sense that they will yearn for more of His Word. "I am the bread of life," says Jesus. "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man [or woman] may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man shall eat of this bread, he shall live forever" (John 6:50, 51).

This e-mail "Dial Daily Bread" has a fundamentally radical idea that every page of the Bible has Good News locked in it, if only we can "see" that One who also said that He is the water of life. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." The person who believes on Him becomes a drinking fountain, "as the Scripture has said, Out of his inmost soul will flow rivers of living water" to refresh some other thirsty soul (7:37, 38). If you have "tasted," you're bound to want more; and thus everlasting life begins with blessed eternal hunger and thirst.

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

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: Who's Doing the Holding?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Are you holding on to God's hand? Or is He holding on to your hand? When Jesus says, "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, unless you abide in Me" (John 15:4), does He mean that the "Vine" (which is Himself) does nothing to maintain the connection but leaves that "abiding" to the initiative of the branch? In other words, does your salvation depend on you holding on to God ("abiding in Him"), or to your believing that He is holding on to you?

Or, to put it in even more simple language, does your salvation really depend on your own works? Jesus says something here in John 15 that needs closer attention: "Abide in Me, and I in you." For us to abide in Him requires our own initiative; He will not force us; but He also says, "I abide in you." Does the branch do the abiding in the vine, or does the vine do the abiding in the branch?

Well, the answer is obvious: all the sap and nutriments for the branch come from the vine and its root. The branch cannot live on its own. Life comes from the vine, not vice versa! A little later in John 15, Jesus explains what it means for Him to abide in us: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you desire" (vs. 7). What He says is Good News all the way through. He is the Vine, we are the branches; only our own perverse choice can separate us from Him. The sap is constantly flowing from the root through the Vine to the branch--don't stop it! Don't cut it off.

The missing link of Good News truth is found in Colossians 3:16: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." Jesus had already promised us in John 14:26 that He is giving us the GIFT of the Holy Spirit who will "bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26). In your darkest moment when you cry out "My God, why have You forsaken me?" that Holy Spirit is pressing upon your conscience, your memory, the "word of Christ." Welcome it! Cherish it! Choose to receive it! "Let it abide in you"! Thank God for that "word"! He says, "I the Lord God will hold your right hand" (Isa. 41:13). It's tremendously important to know who is who here--Who does the holding?

Dial Daily Bread: Romans 3:23, 24--What does It Say?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

There is something that the Bible says that is so clear it seems impossible that anyone could misread it: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:23, 24, KJV). Says the NIV: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Says the NEB: "All alike have sinned, and are deprived of the divine splendour, and all are justified by God's free grace alone, through His act of liberation in the person of Christ Jesus." What does it say? Or mean?

The Good News therein is clear:

(1) The same "all" who have sinned (that has to be absolutely everybody, with the sole exception of Jesus), that same "all" who have sinned have also been "justified freely by His grace." NOTE: It does NOT say all are "justified by faith"! The only ones who experience justification by faith are those who believe the Good News.

(2) But "grace" is never merited; it is ALWAYS "free." No way can we limit that "grace" to certain people and exclude others. Therefore all are "justified freely."

(3) This work of justifying "all" has been done "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." "We have redemption through His blood" (Eph. 1:7). The blood was shed for all, not just for some. "Our Saviour Jesus Christ ... gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:13, 14). We cannot limit "the redemption ... in Christ" to some and not allow it for "all." Paul often says that "all are justified freely."

(4) We are "justified by His blood" (Rom. 5:9). The blood was shed for all, for "all we like sheep have gone astray, ... and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). As "He bare the sin of many" [all] so He is said to "justify many" (vss. 12, 11).

Then will everybody automatically be saved eternally in heaven? No, for some (sadly, many!) resist and reject what Christ has already GIVEN them, just like Esau HAD the birthright but he rejected it, sold it, despised it (Gen. 25:34; Heb. 12:16, 17).

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" messages are availalbe 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.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: How Jesus Abolished the Second Death

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Are there contradictions in the Bible? Some people think so; I don't think there are. But sometimes what APPEARS to be a contradiction opens up a vast field of Good News truth that warms the heart. One such apparent contradiction is found in 2 Timothy 1:10 where "our beloved brother Paul" says something that sounds absurd. He says that "our Saviour Jesus Christ ... has abolished death." Past tense, not future tense. At the same time, Paul says, Christ has "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." Also past tense, not future tense.

So, here's our apparent contradiction, a whopper! How can there be a "second death" in the lake of fire if Jesus has "abolished" it? Here's where the reality of the Good News of the gospel shines bright: When "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," He sent Him to die every man's second death (John 3:16-19). Hebrews 2:9 says, "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death [obviously, the second], … that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone."

That is how He abolished the second death. You and I don't have to die that second death! Jesus died it; only if you resist and reject and choose to disbelieve, only then will it be necessary for you to die that death! Don't you want to tell somebody? What a load that News will lift from someone's discouraged heart!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: The Elijah Message for Us (Part 4)

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is there Biblical evidence that Elijah understood and preached the grace of God, that is, righteousness by faith? Or was he stern, hard, lacking compassion? We know this:

1. God sent him (1 Kings 17; 18), and "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

2. His message was preeminently reconciliation of alienated hearts in home and national life (Mal. 4:5, 6). That took "grace unlimited."

3. His prayer on Mt. Carmel was calm, simple, heart-felt, gracious.

4. The people's "heart" was "turned ... back again" (1 Kings 18:37).

5. What did it was God's acceptance of the blood sacrifice that clearly prefigured Christ's sacrifice on His cross (vs. 33). It's not too much to say: Elijah preached to the nation a great sermon on the cross that day.

6. The people responded, believed, humbled their hearts before this divine revelation of the abounding grace and forgiveness of God. But the priests of Baal hardened their hearts against it; in hopeless rejection, they would crucify Christ a thousand times over. This demonstration was in miniature the judgment at the end of the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15). To execute the priests of Baal was the people's choice, their unanimous will. It was clear: their sin was the unpardonable one.

7. The fruit of Elijah's ministry? Genuine reformation and revival. And God translated him! (2 Kings 2:11). Pretty good evidence of grace.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: The Elijah Message for Us (Part 3)

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The last two verses of the Old Testament tell us of the only hope this strife-torn human race has: the coming of "Elijah." God says, "I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord [Jehovah or Yahweh]. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Mal. 4:5, 6).

That will be the most far-reaching reconciliation we have seen since Pentecost. (Think how much the Middle East needs "Elijah"!)

They're not idle words. God has made this promise. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on His cross is the only reconciling agency in existence; therefore it follows that the coming of "Elijah" must be proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ in all His reconciling power. It will be what unbelieving hearts find almost inconceivable: a proclamation of what the Bible calls "the atonement" that will work miracles of grace worldwide. The mention of "fathers" and "children" means the entire human race in all our multi-ethnic, multi-cultural alienations. A blessed unity will be realized as people kneel together at the cross of the Son of God, at last "beholding" or perceiving its full significance.

No, it will not be 100 percent successful. It would be, except for one anti-Elijah-message factor that will intrude: the Battle of Armageddon. Side by side, two movements will develop--on the one hand, a blessed reconciliation ("at-one-ment") of human hearts with each other and with the heavenly Father, and simultaneously on the other hand, the exacerbation of enmity between humans and God (Rom. 8:7): it will be the ultimate polarization of the human race, "the hour of His judgment" (Rev. 14:6, 7). No one will be neutral.

A big job for one "prophet" to accomplish! The already-translated Elijah (2 Kings 2:1, 11) will be "sent" to do the work worldwide as he was sent personally to encourage Christ at His Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-3). (That was a work of reconciliation!) Elijah will have "144,000" to help him (Rev. 14:1-5).

Friday, March 12, 2010

Dial Daily Bread: The Elijah Message for Us (Part 2)

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

There may be a little treasure of truth buried in the story of Elijah that illustrates the kindness and compassion of the Lord. The faithful but lonely prophet has been directed to seek shelter in the home of the widow of Zarepath. He appreciates her hospitality and her faith. But a terrible sickness suddenly takes the life of her young son (1 Kings 17:17, 18).

At first Elijah has brought sunshine and gladness into her widowed life. But now the bereaved mother imagines that the man of God has ministered this grief to her in that his holy presence in her home has brought all her sins into memory and judgment. (Evidently she has had a checkered past--well, who hasn't!) She wails in her anguish, "Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?" (vs. 18).

Elijah takes it personally; he knows he is hated in Israel and Phoenicia, everybody everywhere blames him for this famine. Now it seems that God has humiliated him by bringing this bereavement on this widow. When he takes the dead son from her, he doesn't pray a quiet, unimpassioned prayer as he did later on Carmel; he agonizes his distress. "He cried out to the Lord, 'O Lord my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?'" (vs. 20). A prayer from a broken heart!

In mercy, the Lord answered his prayer of distress and resurrected the child.

Do you suppose that the Lord granted this precious interlude blessing as a way to strengthen the faith of Elijah when he stood alone and friendless before the king, the priests of Baal, and the multitude, on Mt. Carmel? He remembers: the Lord has honored his prayer by raising a dead child to life. Wouldn't that recent memory nerve his spirit and encourage him? Since he had been hidden from the murderous hatred of Israel, no one on Carmel knew of this recent happening in Sidon; Elijah shared this little secret with the Lord. That should be enough to fortify his faith: yes, the fire will fall!