Daily Bread

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Pulling in Tandem With the Holy Spirit

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

It has been wisely said that it is God's purpose to give us in answer to prayer that which otherwise He would not, could not, give. In other words, prayer can become critically important.

Think of it in relation to someone being saved at last, or lost. John says clearly that "if we ask anything according to [God's] will, He hears us." Let's say that's (A). Now (B) follows: "And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him" (1 John 5:14, 15). Thank the Lord!

But now (C) comes into focus: "If anyone sees his brother [or sister] sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He [God] will give him [the one praying] life for those who commit sin not leading to death" (vs. 16).

But there's a (D) also: "There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death" (vss. 16, 17). Apparently some people are simply determined to be lost; they have made up their minds; and you waste your time and effort to pray for them.

But wait: how can you be sure? Apparently the answer comes in the Lord's giving you "life" for that person you are praying for. You are praying for so-and-so; the Lord purposes to answer your prayer THROUGH YOU. He will give YOU "life" for that person! Someone's asleep in the snow freezing; you give him YOUR warmth. Or he's starving; YOU give him food. Or he needs a drink, YOU give it to him--you don't wait for some distant angel.

The point is: God takes your cooperation very seriously! And if that's true, then you need to take your part very seriously! Prayer is not mindless child's play. It's pulling in tandem with the Holy Spirit.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 21, 2004.

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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.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Managers of the Lord's Wealth

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Do you like to help poor people? Jesus said in Mark 14:7 that as long as time lasts, there will be poor people all around us. In the final judgment day, we will be very much embarrassed if we have not helped them. In fact, Jesus' parable in Matthew 25 hinges our eternal destiny on how we have treated the poor. He says that He will tell each person, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (vs. 40). In other words, Jesus identified Himself with poor, needy people.

Psalm 41:1-3 has a very valuable promise: "Happy are those who are concerned for the poor; the Lord will help them when they are in trouble. The Lord will protect them and preserve their lives; He will make them happy in the land; He will not abandon them to the power of their enemies. The Lord will help them when they are sick and will restore them to health" (TEV).

Note the word "concerned" does not mean flipping a coin to a poor person now and then, and responding grudgingly to an appeal for help. It means a constant state of the heart, a constant feeling of concern for the needs of others, a habitual desire to help. The Lord notices when that kind of concern fills our hearts and He responds by helping us when we are in need. And note verse 2: He will make us happy, and will not abandon us to those who would harm us. And verse 3: This is especially precious--the Lord will help us when we are sick and restore us to health. All because we have a habitual concern for poor people!

Well, there are many poor people in the world today and one wonders what to do to help them. One doesn't like to pour water down the drain; some people are poor because they waste what they have. In the long run, what poor people need most of all is a true knowledge of the pure gospel of Christ. Only at the cross of Christ can they learn the secret of true self-respect. Let's remember that nothing that we possess is really our own--we are just managers of the Lord's wealth!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: 1994 Phone Message.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Love Fully Revealed at the Cross

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When God promised to send us "Elijah the prophet" just before the second coming of Christ ("the great and dreadful day of the Lord"), his message is not to be a thunder and lightning denunciation of mankind reminiscent of his slaying the 450 prophets of Baal at the Kishon River (1 Kings 18:40). Rather, "Elijah's" message will perform the most effective reconciliation of alienated peoples the world has ever known: "he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" (Mal. 4:6). That is the last message of much more abounding grace this world will hear--that of the fourth great "angel" in Revelation 18 that "lightens the earth with glory" (vss. 1-4).

Only one Bible message can close the great gospel commission with such glorious success--the lifting up of Christ on His cross as He predicted: "'When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Me.' (In saying this He indicated the kind of death He was going to suffer)" (John 12:32, 33, TEV).

The message of the three great angels of Revelation 14 appears superficially to be the most terrorizing ever proclaimed, the scariest fear possible for human hearts (whoever takes the "mark of the beast" "shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, ... poured out [full strength] into the cup of His indignation: ... tormented with fire and brimstone ... in the presence of the Lamb ... for ever and ever: ... no rest day nor night," etc. (vss. 9-11). Could any message be more blood-curdling?

But wait a moment: it's introduced as "the everlasting gospel" of Good News (vss. 6, 7). Look more closely! It's the last effective call: "Be reconciled to God"! (2 Cor. 5:19, 20). How? By His love at last fully revealed at His cross (vss. 14, 15)!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 24, 2005.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Happiness Is Staying Close to Him

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

"The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God; nor indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). And "the carnal mind" is what every human has who has not subjected his "mind" to the "faith of Jesus." Disturbing thought: we are all at war with God and with His holy law or we are by choice "crucified with Christ" with "the world ... crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 2:20; 6:14). It's either/or; no fence to sit on.

And "enmity" has murder automatically wrapped up within it, for "whoever hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). The ancient Jewish leaders were possessed of that same carnal mind that was "enmity" against Jesus Christ. And indeed, the "nor-indeed-can-be" applied to them. They felt they just had to yield to an ongoing rush of evil emotion that drove them to crucify Him. Their hatred of Him just had to blossom out in His murder!

In the last days (which are just upon us!) that same "enmity against God" will reveal itself in "all who dwell on the earth ... whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). But this time the Son of God is not present physically in person as He was two millennia ago; therefore that pent-up "rage against God" will burst forth against those who are loyal to Christ in the closing scenes of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. Jesus told us, "You will be hated by all for My name's sake. ... A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. ... Do not fear them" (Matt. 10:22, 24, 26).

Some wonderful people are tempted to wish they could "sleep" before the coming of "the time of trouble," and get to heaven escaping this trauma. Be careful! Do you wish yourself "above [your] Teacher, ... above [your] Master"? Happiness is staying close to Him!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 8, 2005.

Monday, January 09, 2012

"How to Speak a Word in Season"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Millions of youth in many lands are so confused and disoriented by the social collapse that is enveloping our modern world, that they have no hope of living long. "I'm going nowhere" is their philosophy of life. Often brought up in one-parent families in ghettos, they have been deprived of a healthy sense of self-respect, and hardly know the meaning of the word "love." From babyhood they are merely tolerated, their very existence often resented. This is especially true in the economically depressed urban areas. They hardly view themselves as human beings, and hope is all but extinguished in their souls.

But they often have keen intelligence, and they are indeed human beings in whom has shown that "Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). How does that Light shine into such darkened hearts and souls? God has many ways to shine it, because His Holy Spirit has not yet forsaken this sinful earth. If Jesus were here in person as when He was with us 2000 years ago, walking the streets of our inner cities, He would discern where there is in some human face the slight evidence of a hunger and thirst for righteousness, as when He talked with the woman at Jacob's well in Samaria. And He would know exactly what to say to awaken hope, to fan into flame that tiny spark of yearning for salvation. He would "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary" because He would have "wakened morning by morning ... to hear [from His Father the wisdom to know] as the learned" (Isa. 50:4).

No, you and I are not Jesus; but we can learn from Him "how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." It takes more than Seminary training! That "word" will not be legalism, a recital of things the discouraged soul must "do." There will be News of what God has done; assurance that although the person despises himself or herself, God respects him or her, and has already put His arms around them in love, already "made [him or her] accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6).

It's a Big Idea to say to someone who seems hopelessly lost, but we have been expressly commanded to "preach Big Ideas" to any person whom the Lord brings into our orbit of influence. O Lord! (1) Please prepare us, and (2) give us the opportunity. Amen.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 8, 1999.

Saturday, January 07, 2012

"Make Intercession" for Us--What Does It Mean?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What does it mean that Jesus as our High Priest has to "make intercession" for us before the Father (Heb. 7:25)? The word "intercession" implies that somebody is not happy and has to be interceded with on our behalf. Christ "is at the right hand of God," Paul says, "who also maketh intercession for us" (Rom. 8:34). John adds his insight when he compares Christ to "an advocate with the Father," the word "advocate" being parakletos in the Greek (1 John 2:1). Vine says the word "was used in a court of justice to denote a legal assistant, counsel for the defense, who pleads another's cause."

In other words, Jesus is a defense lawyer pleading a case "with the Father," John says. It seems that the Father is the Judge and that we are on trial before Him, and that we would lose our case if it weren't for Jesus being there in our behalf. This is 100 percent true; we would indeed lose out if it were not for our divine Lawyer working on our side.

But who is He "pleading," "interceding" with? Who needs to be "persuaded" to accept us? Does it make sense to say it's the Father? Wasn't it He who took the initiative to "so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son" for us? How could He be against us, needing Jesus to "intercede" for us? Does the Father have a club behind His back, about to let us have it, and then Jesus steps up and says, "Look, Father, at the wounds in My hands, etc. Please be nice to these people!"? No, that doesn't make sense. The Father loves us just as much as the Son loves us! Then who is Jesus interceding with?

Is He interceding with the devil? Will he or his angels ever be persuaded to be nice to us? Hardly! Then who has to be persuaded to "accept" us, to stop condemning us? The good angels? No, they are "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister FOR" us, not against us (Heb. 1:14).

Then who is left who needs to be "persuaded," interceded with to "accept" us, except we ourselves? We are the ones who need to hold our head high, to join Paul in being "persuaded" that nothing will ever "separate us from the love of God" (Rom. 8:38, 39).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 4, 2003.

Friday, January 06, 2012

The Most Glorious Life in the Universe

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

It's a strange but delightful promise the Son of God makes to us--that He will dwell with us, live with us, share our abode with us: He "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). Imagine living in such "places"!

You and I may live in shacks in Shantytown--but the Lord Jesus says He will live with us there, share our humble abode, partake of our lowly hospitality as our permanent Guest. His holy presence with us makes our shack become a Palace. It is transformed into a "heavenly place," the loftiest abode in the universe.

Never again are we to be lonely; life each new day becomes a fresh, glorious adventure, for we never can anticipate the new and unimagined joy that becomes ours, dwelling with Jesus in a divine intimacy.

Even Jesus Himself shares with us the unimaginable joy of living in "heavenly places," for in verse 20 we read that the Father "raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the [same] heavenly places."

In the case of Jesus there is a super magnificent heavenly joy involved, for Jesus was "dead," and no one can ever appreciate life like someone whowas "dead"--the only such Man so far is Jesus, and now it's we also through living faith in Him.

Our brother and fellow-believer in Christ, the beloved apostle Paul, has a glimpse of what it all means. He has a unique insight: he sees us as having been "dead," but he also sees our present life therefore as being a "resurrection" from death. Interesting insight!

This transforms life for us: it makes our present "boring," ordinary existence to be transformed into magnificent resurrection life.

If this is a new idea to you--thinking of your present life as a resurrection life already having exited from death--don't thank me for it; I am nobody, I could never have thought of it--thank the Lord. Your eternal life "in Christ" has already begun; you may yet go to sleep a bit; but if your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life, nothing can ever take it out (aside from your own choice, which, God forbid!).

"I am come," says Jesus, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). That's your life today; it transforms what you thought was your mere existence into the most glorious life in all of the universe--life with Christ, its Creator, its Sustainer, and the Savior of it all.

And there's no end to it, ever!

Get on your knees, thank Him that it's true. And then rise, to serve Him gladly forever.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 3, 2008.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Dedicated to a Special Group of People

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

This mini-Bible study is dedicated to a special group of people who are heavily tempted sometimes to doubt that the Lord cares for them: they are people who once knew abounding good health, but who have become infirm so they cannot do what they used to do.

Sometimes this change has come about simply because of old age; but it's still painful to endure. But the Lord has taken pains to remind those who are old that He still loves them and cares for them: the Lord inspired the Psalmist to write his prayer, "Cast me not off in the time of old age” (Psalm 71:9). The Lord would not have inspired the poet to write those words unless He had wanted to make especially clear His promise that He will not forget, neglect, overlook, or cast you off when you become old and infirm. They, of all people, must "hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Heb. 3:6). It is their privilege to honor the Lord Jesus even when they become very old; and He will grant them the confidence, the assurance, that they are being faithful. This will make life interesting and worthwhile even to the last hour.

Why one person must go through an accident or serious illness and not another person, is not a question the Lord wants us to mull over; He loves all alike and He loves each of us in a special way. If you have had to endure special trials but you have chosen to cherish the faith of Jesus, remember: the holy, sinless Son of God endured the hiding of His Father's faith and screams, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46).

When you meet Jesus personally (as you surely will, 2 Cor. 5:10!), you and He will have a special tête-à-tête; you will see that look in His eyes of recognition that you will know is infinitely reserved for you especially. Through all eternity you will cherish that special look. And oh how you will rejoice forever, singing "a new song” that no one else can sing as beautifully as you can.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 21, 2008.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

The Last Great Trials of Faith

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Why is it that sometimes God doesn't answer His "phone" when sincere people call Him in prayer? Why did God let poor Job go through that horrible experience when He Himself had to admit that Job was "a perfect and an upright man" (1:8)? Why did He let David for ten long years be hunted in the wilderness like a wild animal when he was "the anointed of the Lord"? Why, when Jeremiah gave himself for service, did God let him suffer a lifetime of anguish (no restitution ever, like Job had!)? Is God fair?

Well, let's try: (1) Job was honored to fight alone in the arena like a gladiator, given the job of defending God in His great controversy with Satan. Stupendous: a human being entrusted with that enormous responsibility--defending God! If Job had done what his dear wife said, "Curse God and die!" he would have proved that Satan is right, and forced God into profound embarrassment before the world and the universe. A terrible battle, but God had no choice: let him go it alone, apparently forsaken. (And the "church" of that day, his three friends, made his hell worse.) Job was a forerunner of Christ, a tremendous honor.

(2) There had to be a "David" so that when the Son of God became the Son of man He could also be "the son of David." David had to go through his experiences of feeling forsaken by God so that Christ could later read his psalms and be strengthened thereby. David "the anointed one" was also a forerunner of Christ. The price? Pain and suffering; but it was worth it.

(3) Jeremiah is now honored as "the greatest of the prophets"; he will have the honor throughout eternity.

(4) God must have "144,000" to honor Him likewise in the last great trials of faith (Rev. 7:1-4; 14:1-5). If He has only 143,999, His word will fail and He will be embarrassed in the great controversy with Satan. Perhaps you are that last one who is so important. Hang on.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 29, 2000.

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Tuesday, January 03, 2012

The Godhead--A Truth Beyond Our Understanding

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Millions of Muslims are prejudiced against Christianity because they think Christians believe in three gods because of the commonly understood doctrine of the "Trinity." The Bible is clear: "The Lord our God is one LORD" (Deut. 6:4). When you pray, you pray to one God, not three gods. But the Bible is also clear that God is the Father, God is the Son, and God is the Holy Spirit, and the three are One. Jesus taught us to pray to "our Father which art in heaven," in Jesus' name; and He promised He would send the Holy Spirit to abide with us forever (Matt. 7:9; John 14:16-18).

The Godhead is a truth beyond human ability to understand, although sincere Christian people have been baffled by the "mystery" for hundreds of years. Has Christ always been the "Son of God," or did He become so only at His birth in Bethlehem? A prominent Evangelical pastor maintains that the Sonship began at Christ's incarnation. But the Bible is clear--the Son of God has ALWAYS been the Son of God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (that's the correct translation of John 1:1).

A little understood truth may help us to understand how to proclaim the Godhead to Muslims and Jews: "God is agape" (1 John 4:8). Note the present tense; God has always from eternity been "agape." And agape must have an object to love, even from eternity; therefore the Son had to be there to be loved even from eternity. The literal translation of Colossians 1:13 says that the Father "has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His agape."

We are not to try to understand the word "Son" in the light of our human father/son relationships, but vice versa. For God to have a Son does not mean that the Father is "older" than the Son; it means that they are of the same essence. And if God is agape, then the Son is agape; and that is why He voluntarily made Himself subordinate to the Father, although they are equal in nature. One cannot understand John 3:16 except that Christ has been the Son of God from all eternity; and thus the love of the Father is revealed in its grandeur: He sacrificed His only Son, even to the second death, for us--yes, for you. Great, grand, mind-boggling truths that we cannot fathom, but we can choose to "believe."

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 9, 1999.

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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, January 02, 2012

Helping Lift the Burden Jesus Carries on His Heart

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Some who read "Dial Daily Bread" struggle to put bread on the table and pay the rent, and put shoes on the children's feet. Having experienced poverty, I would not lay another straw on the burden they carry. Others who read these messages lay awake at night wondering what to do with the money the Lord has entrusted to them. I would like to encourage them to believe that the dear Lord will hear their prayer for wisdom to know what to do with it. Surprisingly, of the billions of dollars Americans give to charity annually, they donate more than half of it during the last 45 days of the year, mainly from Christmas to New Year's Eve. Motivated by different concerns, they want to end the year having done what is right.

Justification by faith is not a cerebral, theological exercise; it's the joy of living. And part of the joy of living is the joy of giving. Yes, actually learning to enjoy giving more than getting. Why and how? Because in true justification by faith you come to realize that you own nothing that can rightfully be called yours. You don't need a preacher to pound it into your ears that you are a steward, an estate-manager. You see that on His cross Christ took what was yours (your grave) and gave you what was His (eternal life). Yes, He redeemed you from hell itself!

Simply believe this truth of justification, and you are set free from those terrible tentacles of "covetousness," which is selfishness, the desire to acquire and to keep. Get on your knees, and ask the Lord where and how to give, rather, to pass on, what He has permitted to pass through your unworthy hands. Give, not because you hope it's an investment that will pay off in "treasure in heaven" for you or because you want to receive (Matt. 6:20); give because you want to help lift the burden that Jesus carries on His heart by lifting someone else's burden that He feels. Just for the joy of helping. Yes, He will guide you to give wisely, not unwisely.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 30, 1997.

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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.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Do New Year's Resolutions Bring Happiness?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

New Year's Day is traditionally the time for resolutions. "I will do better in this or that way during this new year!" And in practice, these New Year resolutions usually fail before even February comes.

A wise writer has said, "Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. ... The knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you" (Steps to Christ, p. 47). Such promises and resolutions made to God are the famous Old Covenant. The children of Israel made the Old Covenant at Mt. Sinai when they responded to God's promise by saying, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Ex. 19:8).

Sounds good, doesn't it? And some dear people understand the Lord as approving of their making the Old Covenant when He later said, "I have heard the voice of the words of this people, ... They have well said all that they have spoken" (Deut. 5:28). This is often interpreted as the Lord's enthusiastic approval of their Old Covenant promise. But those who take this position don't read far enough. In the next verse the Lord sighs, "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me [reverence Me], and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them." Paul says that the Old Covenant "gendereth to bondage," just as Steps to Christ says (Gal. 4:24). That "bondage" brings darkness into your soul, even though you try ever so hard to be good.

No, your New Year's resolutions will not bring you victory and happiness. The Lord does not ask you to make promises to Him; He asks only that you believe His promises to you. His promise is the New Covenant; and for us to believe His promise is what makes Him happy. And in the end it makes us happy, too.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 2, 1998.

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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.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Rescued by a Love Totally Outside of Us

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Since childhood we have all heard of the Good Shepherd who leaves His "ninety and nine" on that wild stormy night and seeks His one lost sheep "until He find it" (Luke 15:4-6). Its salvation depends entirely on the initiative of the Shepherd. The lost animal knows it's lost, but cannot "arise and go" on its own to find salvation. So, the Lord Jesus Christ "seeks" it. The lost sheep is you and I who are rescued by a love totally outside of us.

And we remember the lost coin, how the lady turns her house upside down until she finds that precious piece of silver. The coin is different from the sheep; it doesn't know it's lost. It represents you and me who were "dead in trespasses and sins, [who] walked according to the course of this world, ... fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, ... children of wrath" (Eph. 2:1-3). But Someone found us, buried in the dust and trash of this dark world, unconscious of our condition.

But how does this common theme of God seeking and finding us work out in practical day-by-day living? Does the idea encourage us to be spiritually lazy, doing nothing?

The Prodigal Son story seems on the superficial surface to contradict God's love seeking us, rather than vice versa. The lost son seems to take the initiative in his own salvation. "I will arise and go," he says to himself, and gets up out of the pigsty and goes--on his own (Luke 15:18). Like cars, he has a self-starter. The Father does NOT come seeking him, to "find" him. Forever after the boy can congratulate himself: "Yes, I was lost; but I found my way back! I'm saved because I 'sought' and 'found' salvation. I exerted the effort. I forced myself to take step after step. I did it. I'm saved by grace, but I'm also saved by my own obedience."

But wait a moment, Mr. Prodigal Son, Mr. Laodicean, not so fast. This parable illustrates how the Holy Spirit seeks and saves us lost ones. It was He who gave the boy sitting with the pigs the conviction that his Father loved him. The Holy Spirit inspired him with the motivation, because as the Comforter whom Jesus promised to send us, He, not self, convicted the boy of "sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, ... because the prince of this world is condemned" (John 16:7-11).

Yes, we're "home," but only because the Good Shepherd sought and found us, and His Holy Spirit did not abandon us. By grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. And it's specifically and emphatically "not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9).

So, Mr. Laodicean, be humble; you're not rich and increased with goods.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 10, 2003.

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