Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
People sometimes have asked, "What's the purpose of Dial Daily Bread?" It's a miniscule ministry that offers a tiny tidbit of the Bread of Life, a snack on a toothpick like you get in the supermarket when they offer you a taste of some gourmet food they hope you'll like and buy. It's an hors d'oeuvre intended to entice you to come to the seven-course dinner the Holy Spirit has already prepared for you. It's a taste for the tip of your tongue that is offered with a prayer that it may introduce you to the real "Lord's Supper" and make you feel welcome and hungry to gather about His board.
If you are a normal human being, very likely you are spiritually starved, and consequently weak. You have an off-again, on-again prayer life. You hardly dare to claim the "blessedness" that says, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt. 5:6) because you don't feel the "hunger and thirst." You don't really enjoy prayer or Bible study; at best it's broccoli or spinach, not dessert. You find it hard getting up in time for a spiritual "breakfast." And that seven-course "dinner" frankly frightens you--and possibly seems boring.
Dial Daily Bread is obsessed with the idea that the meaning of the word "everlasting gospel" is GOOD News, not Bad News; that the Bread of Life is delicious, not nauseating; that the Lord's salvation is a joy, not a wearisome burden; that happy Heaven begins now today; that the Heavenly Father is your Friend, not a Kill-joy; that walking with Jesus is more pleasant than dancing with the world. (I wanted to say "more fun" because that's actually what the word "pleasure" in the Bible means, but I know some sincere Christian people shy away from the word "fun.")
But the phrase "the pleasure of the Lord" (Isa 53:10) means that the Lord actually has fun saving people, and "at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Psalm 16:11) means "fun for evermore," of course the kind you never get bored with.
Whoever you are, unworthy as you may feel, sinful as you know yourself to be, the Holy Spirit has prepared a banquet for you and welcomes you. Take some time today to enjoy it; Dial Daily Bread is only a taste to whet your appetite.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 16, 1999.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The Bible tells the history correctly: when Adam "fell" into sin, he had someone who helped him fall--it was his wife, Eve. But the Bible does not lay a burden of guilt upon her alone. No way!
Our beloved brother Paul was not anti-feminist; he was simply a faithful servant of the Lord. He reviews the history of the fall of Adam, and reminds us, "Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. ..." (1 Tim. 2:13-15).
On the surface, it sounds like a debit for "woman"; but wait a moment; don't misunderstand: "The fall of man" was the work of BOTH Adam and his wife Eve; they share the debit.
BUT the dear Lord has assigned to woman a very special blessing, which we celebrate by our Mother's Day. It's to woman whom the Lord has granted the special privilege of being the first teacher we all have ever known; she is the one who wins our heart in infancy; it's a special privilege that the dear Lord has granted to her, worldwide.
She is the "teacher of the human race," teaching us in simplicity and tenderness; winning our estranged human hearts in infancy at our very beginning.
The dear heavenly Father has granted to her this inestimable privilege of being the first one really to teach us and to guide our infant steps; it may have been "the woman" in Eden who enticed Adam into sin; but that debit in history is vastly overcome and reversed by the privilege that "woman" has been given her of the Lord--to be the teacher of the human race in infancy!
Thank Jesus for His tender fidelity in giving to "woman" this glorious privilege.
We honor "her" on Mother's Day; and not only that, we thank the dear Lord for giving "her" to us!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 9, 2009.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
John Ernest Bode was as faithful and sincere as a pastor could be when he wrote the poem that has become popular in Protestant church hymnals around the world--"O Jesus, I Have promised to serve Thee to the end, be Thou forever with me, my Master and my friend."
Pastor Bode wanted to lift the spiritual experience of his church, and through them the moral tone of their town of Castle Camps near Cambridge, England, a worthy goal for any pastor.
In 1866 he has three teenage children, a daughter and two sons, who are to be confirmed Sunday morning in the Church of England. Teen temptations were as alluring then as they are now; thus he wrote, "O let me feel Thee near me; the world is ever near! I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear. My foes are ever near me, around me and within, but Jesus, draw Thou nearer, and shield my soul from sin." If my teen children will only promise from the depths of their hearts that they will be faithful to keep God's commandments, he thought, they will be faithful to Him. Thus this hymn.
Yes, Pastor Bode was faithful to the light as he knew it. But the advancing Protestant Reformation had not as yet discovered the old covenant confusion that lurks in this popular idea of making promises to God to be faithful to Him.
The principle is clear: the value of promises depends on the righteous fidelity of the Promisor: If the Promisor is God, be thankful and rejoice in His promise, for it will never fail; but if the promisor is a fallible sinful mortal, the promises are empty, for Scripture maintains that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
We only set our clock back when we make these vain promises to God. Abraham experienced his sad foray into the old covenant when he married his second wife Hagar; finally he overcame by believing God's new covenant promises (cf. Gen. 12:2, 3; 15:6).
At Mt. Sinai 430 years later God sought to renew His new covenant promises to Israel, newly released from Egyptian slavery (cf. Ex. 19:5), but they were absorbed in the ideas of Pastor Bode's hymn and made their vain promises to keep God's law (vs. 8). Result: the "bondage" that Paul explains in Galatians 4:24 always follows absorption in the old covenant.
Pastor Bode's hymn is still beautiful and now effective when we sing it in its true wording, "O Jesus, I Have Chosen ..."
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 3, 2008.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
If you sense that your heart is dry as dust, like the valley of dry bones Ezekiel saw, and you want to come alive, the answer is to see what Paul saw in his Letter to the Galatians. He mentions one word 21 times--evidently it must be the most important idea he has. You MUST understand it! That word is "faith."
Now the most astute Bible student in the world is Satan himself; he fears the Bible. If people can learn to understand and love it, Satan knows his hold on them is broken. He does not like this Letter to the Galatians. So he has done his best to confuse the idea of faith. He doesn't mind if Paul talks about it here 21 times and 39 times in Romans, and you read it for 100 years so long as you don't know what Paul means by the word "faith."
The key definition is found in chapter 3, where Paul links the experience of faith with the crucifixion of Christ (vss. 1, 2). He calls it "the hearing of faith," the listening, the experience of understanding, perceiving, appreciating. Paul sees the cross as not only a legalistic maneuver on God's part to satisfy the judicial claims of the broken law (it is that, for the law demands punishment). But Paul sees far more in the crucifixion of Christ than that.
The idea behind all those 21 uses of the word "faith" is a heart-melting, heart-humbling, awe-inspiring appreciation for what led the Son of God to sacrifice Himself for us. There were many Roman crucifixions that went on all the time, but this was different. Paul was awe-struck that the infinite, divine Son of God had been murdered by humanity, and yet it was love for us that led Him to surrender to humanity's bitter hatred like that. Christ was ascending the throne of His people's hearts by the avenue of crucified love. Life can no longer be the same for Paul. He cries out, "I am crucified with Christ!" From now on, "the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (2:20; 6:14). That is what Paul means by his word "faith."
Unless your human heart is made of stone, it will be captivated by such love, and such faith will be yours.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 11, 1998.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There is probably no one who doesn't want the church to be truly awake, repentant, and alive with the joy of the Lord. We know that someday it will be (after there is a great shaking, after "Elijah" has come and done his work).
But is there anyone ready to take all the sins of the church, known and hidden, upon him/herself, realizing that apart from the grace of the Savior he would be guilty of them all? Or does each one of us feel that that would be impossible; we could never fall that low. "We've been brought up right!"
If such an insightful person could be found, someone who wouldn't be praying, "Lord, aren't they awful! Please save them!" that would be a practical, corporate repentance that would do a world of good.
Someone came to the true church one time who found it in a terrible spiritual condition; yes, He must have prayed for that church; but He did something much more--He repented in the behalf of that church. He took all their sins upon Himself as though He were guilty of them all. So intimate and real was this "taking" that He "was made to be sin for [them] that [they] might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). He put Himself in each person's place, knowing all the details from their conception on. He felt each person's weakness as though it were His own. He felt the shame of his defeats, and the tearful longings for peace with God.
It was on His cross that He was "made to be sin for us, who knew no sin." It was a horrible experience of "knowing"--hell itself. He felt in His soul that He was lost forever. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a victor. "He was numbered with the transgressors" (Isa. 53:12). "He made His grave with the wicked" (vs. 9), the kind of grave that has no end to it; and He did something that no other person in 6000 years has been able to do: He felt to the full the horror of it. (Anyone else would pass out long before.)
Thank God, He has disciples who are even now learning from Him.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 10, 2006.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Many who are studying the story of Elijah misread that Elijah walked into Ahab's office and told him there would be no rain nor dew until the Lord chose to send it. But the Bible says that the prophet told the king, "There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to MY word" (1 Kings 17:1). Several translations agree.
It's no big deal, but the Hebrew says "my word." And in the New Testament, James agrees. He tells how the famine was Elijah's idea: Elijah "prayed most earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months" (5:17). Elijah loved Israel and saw they were going down to utter destruction unless something should happen to wake them up. His love for Israel was actually a love for the plan of redemption, for God had chosen Israel to be His missionary nation to the world. Elijah's love for Israel was the same kind as God's love for them--a love mixed with discipline. It seems that God had entrusted the fate of the nation in Elijah's hands.
The lesson for us is that again in the close of time God entrusts into His people's hands in partnership with Him the bringing to a close the great controversy that has raged so long:
"To the one who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with My Father on His throne" (Rev. 3:21). That's not just for snapshots to be taken; that's to share with Him executive authority for bringing an end to the great controversy that has raged for so long. There will be thousands of "Elijah's" all around the world (cf. Mal. 4:5, 6; maybe 144,000?), whose hearts have at last become totally reconciled (at-one-with) Him in His ministry and in His plan of salvation.
Respect yourself as He respects you; you're somebody important! You have something to live for.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 15, 2007.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
It's a tiny little verse in the Bible but it opens up a vast infinitude of blessings for fallen, mortal humanity:
"We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man"(Heb. 2:9, KJV).
(a) Jesus was "made" to be something He was not--lower even than the angels. Here again we see His condescension.
(b) He became human specifically for the purpose of dying (you became human for the specific purpose of living eternally!). From Babyhood He faced His cross; He lived His life in its shadow. You have lived your life in the unshadowed sunlight of God's smile of delight with you.
(c) We "see" Him in the Word: behold the Christ of the Bible! The picture is clear.
(d) We can know Him more intimately through seeing Him in the Word than if we were walking the paths of the Holy Land with Him.
(e) He was "crowned" with the most unique "glory and honour"--the privilege of dying the death of every person on earth.
(f) But that "death" is not the restful sleep that death is, according to the Bible.
(g) It's the real thing--the utter horror of the "second death"(cf. Rev. 2:11; 20:14).
(h) That description of the second death includes more than an eternal sleep (people often think that is something to be desired) --
(i) No, that "second death" is a final judgment of total condemnation from the open books of record--every cell of one's being is on fire with self-destroying torture.
(j) It's the horror that Jesus endured when He cried out to His Father on His cross, "My God, why have You forsaken me?"
(k) It's what the lost will feel in that final hour.
(l) It's more than a momentary anguish: it is the essence of the eternal horror of hell--the absence of God forever.
(m) The choice of His to accept it for our sake is what the Bible means by the word "love" (agape).
(n) Yes, while He was hanging on His cross, the Son of God could "not see through the portals of the tomb" to see His upcoming resurrection! He could see nothing but an eternal hell stretching out before Him. But He endured it, "despising the shame" (Heb. 12:2).
Ponder that love; "behold" it. You'll never be the same.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 2, 2008.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There is a special person in the Bible that we wish we knew more about--a lady who appears on the stage for a brief moment and then disappears forever. She is a persecuted, rejected, disgraced queen--Vashti (Esther 1). Her husband turned against her with a vengeance, even using her as a tool to spread his male chauvinism "throughout all his empire, (for it [was] great)" (vs. 20). Vashti had no way to counter the injustice that was done to her; apparently suffering in silence ever afterwards. Macho men ruled the vast Persian empire; women were things to be handled at selfish will.
Throughout history, women have suffered, and in some cultures even today they are oppressed just because they are female. In the Bible (the word of God) woman is described as "the weaker vessel" (1 Peter 3:7), but not in any sense an inferior one. Complete equality before God is what Scripture says they deserve (Gal. 3:28, 29). The quality that denotes them as "the weaker vessel" becomes a test of judgment for men; God watches to see if a man regards woman as He intends, giving her the "honour" that He has assigned her. Even in this life, God judges the "macho man" who arrogantly rules over woman, for his "prayers [are] hindered" (1 Peter 3:7).
Think of it! Here's a "good," moral, upright man who prays and prays and nothing happens; he doesn't know what's going on behind the scenes that "hinders" his prayers from being heard and answered. God has had to tell the angels, "Don't pay attention to that man's prayers; he has a hard heart that doesn't appreciate that women are 'heirs together of the grace of life' deserving special 'honour.' Wait until his heart is melted and he accepts the 'knowledge' that he lacks." God is patient with such a man; but he MUST learn.
Meanwhile, what can a persecuted woman do? (1) Let the dear Holy Spirit give her that sparkling jewelry of "the hidden man of the heart, ... even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1 Peter 3:1-4). (2) But love doesn't dictate one's being a doormat to be walked over. Verses 5 and 6 say that "devout woman of the past ... placed their hope in God, ... not afraid of anything" (GNB). (3) Love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), so that the woman who believes the gospel is set free to be the wonderful person that God created and redeemed her to be--a fearless and therefore happy saint.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 28, 2001.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Before He ascended to heaven, Jesus made a promise that we hang on to: "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:1-3). World population desperately clings to that as their only hope.
The second coming of Christ is not bad news even to those who say they don't believe in Him, for many, when they finally hear the gospel presented clearly, will believe. They've been waiting for it all their lives. And for those who finally steel their hearts and souls against it, they'll be glad that their hell is now at an end. Christ is always only "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people," as the angels originally said (Luke 2:10).
The coming last days' events have terrorized many who say they long for Christ to come again, but they cannot bear the bad news that has given so many youth their nightmares and frightened them out of the church. The "mark of the beast," for example, enforced by a death penalty as Revelation 13:15 predicts: it's not God's intention that our lives be shadowed by that heavy cloud of apprehension. Those who have come to understand "the everlasting gospel" of 14:6, 7, "the third angel's message in verity," walk into that crisis with "the joy of the Lord" on their faces. It will be the greatest soul-winning thrill they have ever known because at last the glorious days Isaiah predicted in chapters 49 and 60 will be happening all around them. (God will never let Isaiah come to nothing!)
Fear? Those who believe in Jesus won't know it, no matter how precarious their situations may seem to be. They have at last learned what the love is that is agape, which "casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). It does it! At long last they have looked at the uplifted cross on which the Son of God died the world's second death; they have "comprehended with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge." Super-astounding as the truth may be, they are "filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:17-19). How could the desperate rantings of a frustrated devil with his empty "mark of the beast" threats disturb their peace now?
They are not enduring these trials "alone"! "Lo, I am with you always" is ringing in their souls' ears. "Yea, though [they] walk through the valley of the shadow of death, [they] will fear no evil, for [the Lord] is with [them]" (Psalm 23:4).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 24, 2007.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Seminar Reminder: "Dial Daily Bread" would like to remind you about the seminar Sabbath, April 30, at Cave Springs Home, Pegram Tennessee. Everyone is cordially invited to attend this special study on "Appreciating the Book of Hebrews Through the 1888 Message Perspective. For more information, please contact: cjmb@comcast.net, or phone (615) 646-6962.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you ever been so angry, so bitterly so, that if you had had a gun in your hand you would have used it? And then afterwards, you just gave a sigh of relief--"Thank God, I didn't have one!"
Can you remember being involved in a sexual temptation so alluring, so powerful, that it almost swept you off your feet? And if it had overpowered you, it would have led you into a terrible tragedy of heartbreak?
If so, you can begin to appreciate Isaiah 54:17 which says: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OF ME, saith the Lord."
When your heart got back to beating normally, you realized that it wasn't your own goodness that saved you from disaster; the dear Lord intervened and rescued you from making a fool of yourself. (Perhaps you are reading this in prison; in the first instance, you did have a gun; and now you have to pay. Or perhaps in that alluring sexual temptation, you did give in and you have suffered ever since. But there is still something to thank the Lord for: He has preserved your life and your soul through His forgiveness. The possibility for repentance is an enormous enrichment of grace. For everything you have short of Hades, say thanks.)
We all have the same genetic endowment of a sinful nature inherited from our fallen father Adam. Unless a Savior saves us from indulging it, we are forced to end up kneeling side by side with King Saul whose conscience forced him to confess: "Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly" (1 Sam. 26:21). You can't find words to tell the Lord thanks for saving you from that! This should encourage you to know and believe that you are indeed His child. Thankful, yes, but also humbled.
When you DO understand Isaiah 54:17, you will know that there is no sin in the book beyond your capacity for becoming guilty of it--apart from a divine Savior. Now you can walk on air until He comes in the clouds of heaven.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 6, 2004.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
If you wish that you knew how to pray a prayer that would be answered by Heaven 100% in the affirmative, here are a few examples:
"Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). Read the context of the prayer; the man was absolutely desperate; he confessed the truth of his latent unbelief that he knew was deep in his heart. He was on the verge of losing everything, for Jesus had told him plainly that "if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (vs. 23). The man didn't know how to believe! He felt he couldn't because three-fourths of the pastors and evangelists of his day also were helpless to lead him to genuine faith (it's pathetic even today when a sincere soul seeks the Lord but finds the majority of pastoral leadership simply mocks your heart cries). And yet the distraught man chose to believe when he did not feel like believing and saw no evidence that believing would do any good. That is an inspired pattern of genuine "Christian experience"! Linger on it; it's pregnant with good news.
Another prayer that will surely be answered in the affirmative is this: "God, be merciful to me, the sinner" (Luke 18:13, margin). The article is in the original Greek; the man was saying, Lord, of the two of us praying here, I know that this great man here is more worthy than I am; of the two of us, please answer his prayer. But Lord, I am so unworthy in contrast. All I can pray is, please be merciful to me, the one who is most unworthy, THE sinner.
You have a divinely inspired assurance that the man's prayer was answered in the affirmative for eternity (vs. 14). He could become the happiest man in heaven when he arises in the first resurrection!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 3, 2007.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Daniel's prophecies are plain. Jesus urges us to "read" them and "understand" them (Matt. 24:15). As clear as sunlight is the one about the "cleansing of the sanctuary" (8:13, 14): "unto 2300 days: then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Obviously that's "the true sanctuary [tabernacle, tent] which the Lord pitched, and not man" at His office in heaven (Heb. 8:2). And it's equally obvious that the "cleansing" of the heavenly sanctuary cannot be done until first the hearts of God's people on earth are cleansed.
Therefore it follows as surely as day follows night that the great High Priest is working through the Holy Spirit to minister much more abounding grace to enable them to "overcome even as [Christ] overcame" (Rev. 3:20). Again it's obvious--that is, to overcome sin in the fallen, sinful flesh or nature which they have inherited from the fallen Adam, "even as" the Savior "condemned sin" in that same "likeness of sinful flesh" in which the Father "sent" Him to save the world (Rom. 8:3). And of course verse 4 follows verse 3, so there the Holy Spirit announces to the world the glorious results of the Plan of Redemption finally demonstrated beyond dispute: "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us."
The word for "righteousness" there is special--dikaiomata, which means Christ's righteousness finally lived out in the "flesh" of those who believe in Jesus. In other words, in plain and simple language, it's righteousness "imparted," not merely "imputed" in a legal sense. Babylon's "gospel" of justification by faith goes as far as "imputing" legally Christ's righteousness (dikaiosune) to those who believe; but their actually living it out in the flesh isn't possible (says Babylon) until they are glorified at the coming of Jesus, and their sinful nature is finally zapped by replacing it with a sinless nature. In other words, Babylon's gospel is clear: you can't overcome SIN as long as you are still in your fallen, sinful flesh. Only Christ "condemned sin" in that sinful flesh; you can't.
But the biblical gospel of justification by faith proclaims better good news: "the Savior of the world" saves His people FROM sinning while still in this world with the fallen nature of Adam. They too "condemn sin" in that flesh. How? By receiving, opening the heart to, "the faith OF Jesus" (Gal. 2:16; 3:22).
And the last link in the good news story: that same dikaiomata (imparted, not merely legally-imputed righteousness) is seen in the wedding garment worn by the bride of Christ at the long-delayed "marriage of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:7, 8). That's happening now, not tomorrow.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 19, 2006.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Many of you have inquired about Elder Wieland. His health is good and he lives close to his family in the "Bay area" of northern California. His 95th birthday will be May 1, and if you would like to send him a birthday greeting, please send it to this address (dailybread@1888message.org), or reply to this "Dial Daily Bread." A book of your messages will be given to him on April 30.
Sincerely,
Carol Kawamoto
For "Dial Daily Bread"
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
We can never forget that the Lord Jesus is one of us; He is the divine Son of God, with all the attributes of divinity; but at the same time He is the Son of man, one with us for eternity. He "took" on His unfallen, divine nature our fallen, sinful nature. He loves us dearly, as His own.
Now, does the Lord Jesus, being divine, have a sense of time as we humans have? Is one of our days like a thousand years to Him, or vice versa? So, could it be that He doesn't care how much longer time goes on?
Well, He says clearly that there will be an "end of the world"! When His disciples asked Him, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matt. 24:3), He answered their question directly, thereby making the statement that time will NOT go on ad infinitum.
And being one of us, forever human with us as well as divine forever, Jesus shares with us our weariness with the on-and-on passage of sinful, painful time with all the suffering there is in the world. Isaiah 63 describes His feelings: "In all their affliction, He was [is] afflicted" (vs. 9). There is no pain that any of us on earth feel that He does not have to share with us.
YES! A thousand times over, Jesus wants this reign of sin and suffering to end in the glad establishment of His everlasting kingdom on the earth made new.
And there is another reason why He wants the end to come soon: the end of sin and suffering will usher in the glorious "marriage of the Lamb." As a Bridegroom, He longs for His wedding to come.
The reason? He is in love with the church as a man loves a woman; no one person could be the Bride of the infinite Son of God; but when He left His throne and His status as the infinite Son of God to come down here to save this fallen race of humans, His love for us was more than your love for your pets; when you love your dog, you have not become a dog. But He became one of us whom He loved; He joined our family.
And the reason why we want Him to come soon is not because we are hungry for our "reward" and we have these acquisitive feelings for the joys of heaven; we want the divine Son of God to receive His reward!
Why this special love for Him?
Why does this desire for Him to receive His reward transcend our desire for our own reward? There has to be a special reason why we, so naturally egocentric as we are, will be able to realize this unusually non-egocentric desire for Him. We have come to understand that when He "poured out His soul unto death" for us (Isa. 53:12), it was the second, not the first that He experienced. It was saying "Goodbye!" to life forever--the embracing of the darkness of hell in His love for us.
There are not enough words to tell it.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 30, 2008.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you ever been despised and rejected by someone important in your life, whom you deeply loved? You remember the pain was wrenching.
Can we conceive of Jesus Christ experiencing that? On an infinitely grander scale? For millennia our human souls have been concerned for our own salvation; in my youth I remember sincere, grey-haired ordained elders declaring to me that the most important issue in life is the salvation of our own souls. This is almost universally accepted as the essence of orthodoxy. "Evangelism" is crafted on that premise. But there's a more important issue.
In undertaking the salvation of this world, Jesus took our humanity upon Himself; He knows how we can love; the "one" so deeply loved by Him as His bride-to-be is His church.
Has He known the bitterness of unrequited love, as we can know it--only on a cosmic scale? Can the companionship of multitudes of holy angels compensate for what His heart yearns for in the absence of His church's response to His love?
The pain of Calvary was for only a few hours (we think); indeed, it was intense. But the Hosea-like pain of extended nuptial alienation is Calvary's pain extended.
Christ declares Himself as endlessly "knocking on the door" of His Beloved (Rev. 3:20), waiting for a "certain one" (tis, Gr.) to respond as a satisfaction to His own lonely divine-human soul. He is still the One "despised and rejected." He wants to be with His people on earth even though earth rejected and expelled Him; heaven is simply no longer "home" for Him.
On this grand Day of Atonement, a change has come: the most important question in life is now for us to honor and vindicate Him. He deserves His reward; it is He who must be "crowned," no longer we who seek that honor.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 15, 2006.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
How did Jesus die? The Muslims say He died broken and defeated, and some Christians apparently agree. Yes, He experienced the unspeakable horror that His Father had forsaken Him forever: "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He was as low in despair as a common sinner. For One who had always lived in the sunshine of His Father's acceptance, this indeed was hell.
Yes, never was a human face so contorted with agony, "His visage ... so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men" (Isa. 52:14). The horror of an eternal hell of darkness, separation from God, from life, from heaven, from His fellow mankind, produced such mental and spiritual agony that He hardly felt the physical pain of the Roman crucifixion. Never had any human (or divine One) felt the full burden of the world's total accumulated guilt.
Yes, the death on the cross was pure, unmitigated hell. Neither Matthew, Mark, Luke, nor John give us a hint of any light penetrating that darkness, other than the repentant thief's prayer. All they say is, "They crucified Him," which meant--a Roman crucifixion. Hell itself.
But wait a moment. Scholars agree that Psalm 22 is a transcript of the prayer that Jesus prayed on His cross, from the moment the darkness enveloped the land (and His soul!) to when He breathed His last.
There in the middle of verse 21, the Holy Spirit reveals that a glorious change came: "Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the wild, treacherous African buffalo" (margin). In His last extremity, feeling tossed on those vicious horns, the darkness of His soul is lifted. "You have heard Me!" You have not forsaken Me! You have answered My cry! My faith has penetrated this impenetrable darkness of hell. I have triumphed! The great controversy with Satan is won!
From then on Psalm 22 is a paean of praise. His soul is filled with delight--not in anticipating His own resurrection and return to glory, no. He is dying the second death "for every man" (Heb. 2:9), the death in which there is no personal glory, no egocentric hope. But what makes Him so happy is that He has won the victory for us: "YOUR heart shall live for ever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord" (vss. 26, 27).
Psalm 22 closes with a glorious cry of eternal victory--one Hebrew word that proclaims, "It is finished." A light like the sun shines in His face. From His broken, crucified human larynx, like a trumpet comes His shout of victory that shakes heaven and earth. Then He bowed His head, and died. The Victor of eternity.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 27, 2004.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Paul tells us, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" (2 Cor. 13:5). So, let's take a little self-help quiz. Maybe we can anticipate the final judgment in a sober, healthy way (it would indeed be a good idea):
(1) If you had been living in Noah's day, would you have faced the ridicule of the crowd and walked up the gangplank into his ark, all alone?
(2) If you had been living in Abraham's day, would you have left your family and kindred in Mesopotamia, and followed him in his visionary journey to a land that he (and you) had not seen, in response to God's call?
(3) If you had been living in Elijah's day, when he stood on Mount Carmel facing an angry king of Israel and 450 leaders of the popular religion of the day, would you have stepped out from the crowd and joined him when he stood there alone? (Not one did!)
(4) If you had been living in Jeremiah's day when King Jehoiakim and the princes, the priests, and "all the people" wanted to execute him as a traitor to the nation, would you have been brave enough to defend him before them all? (Read Jeremiah 26!)
(5) When King Zedekiah had him thrown into the dungeon, and put down that muddy deep well, would you have risked your life to pull him out like the black man, Ebedmelech, did? (Read Jeremiah 38.)
(6) If you had gathered on the plain of Dura with the multitudes before Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, when the symphony orchestra struck up the national anthem, would you have bowed also to avoid going into the burning fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
(7) If you had been there that Friday morning before breakfast, gathered before Pilate, when the multitude shouted, "Crucify Him!" would you have told His Excellency the Governor, "Sir, if you crucify this Man, you crucify me, too!"
Were you there, whey they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, ... tremble!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive:
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Many of the Psalms of David are intensely interesting because they are prophetic of the life experience of "the Son of David"--Jesus. Sometimes today's tabloid newspapers get hold of scraps of news that the sedate papers don't tell us; they are called "scoops." The Psalms of David have "scoops" about the personal life of Jesus that the four New Testament gospels don't tell us. One is Psalm 22 that tells us of His secret prayer He uttered while He was hanging on His cross; another is Psalm 69, likewise. The Holy Spirit inspired David to write these Psalms that enable us to "see" Jesus like He was our next-door neighbor. They help us realize how human He was as well as divine (His name is "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us," Matt. 1:23).
Reading Psalm 55 in Peterson's The Message has become a revelation: it tells about Judas Iscariot! Here we have intimate glimpses of Jesus wrestling with a pain almost unbearable. He has come to save His own people, and their leaders hate Him and make His days keenly painful. John's Gospel does tell us of the deep underground hatred that Jesus had to contend with in Jerusalem, that broke His heart; but Psalm 55 opens a window into how Jesus felt when one of His close Twelve secretly sided with the scribes and Pharisees, and day by day was preparing to betray Him. "Get Me out of here on dove wings; I want some peace and quiet," we hear Jesus praying (vs. 6). "This isn't the neighborhood bully mocking Me--I could take that. ... It's you! My best friend! ... And this My best friend, betrayed his best friends [the Eleven]. ... His words, which were music to My ears, turned to daggers in My heart" (vss. 12-14).
Did Jesus love Judas? Of course; He loved all Twelve. Was this cancer of disloyalty and betrayal growing within the Twelve, painful for Jesus? Of course! Christ's divine foreknowledge did not lessen the pain of His human suffering. You can be sure that today as your High Priest Jesus feels the pain you know when someone close to you turns against you! He "lived" in the Book of Psalms; you must do so, too.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 22, 2003.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
When we talk about "child evangelism," what do we mean? Merely persuading children to profess to be Christians? Nominal church members? Go through the rite of baptism? Have their names on a record book? The temptations to life-hypocrisy today are enormous.
Jesus was a child of 12 when He witnessed His first Passover. Like all children, He wondered what the killing of the Passover lamb meant. No one could help Him, not even His mother. But His sinless mind was gradually able to grasp the truth--the blood of billions of Passover lambs could not wash away even one human sin. He sensed the meaning of Psalm 40:6-8, "Lo, I come ... to do Thy will, O My God." Someone holy, undefiled, must give Himself to be "the Lamb of God."
Through His young human soul there surged a great desire: "O Father, let Me be the world's 'Passover Lamb'!" From that moment, the divine/human Messiah in His childhood grew to be absorbed in "[His] Father's business" (Luke 2:49). John the Baptist caught Christ's total consecration at the age of 30 when he cried out, "Behold the Lamb of God!" (John 1:29).
The age of 12 is still very significant. The Holy Spirit today is often forced to by-pass older people because they quickly become full of themselves and stay that way; children are sensitive to the call of heaven to give themselves to the One who gave Himself for them--if only someone can be humble enough to step aside and let Christ be revealed to them.
May God give you and me the grace to reveal Him as He is in His agape love, to children.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 30, 2005.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
