Daily Bread

Monday, May 14, 2012

A Message God Sends, and a Clever Counterfeit

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

How can one tell the difference between a genuine "Elijah" message that God sends, and a clever counterfeit? When God fulfills His promise to send "Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" (Mal. 4:5), there will be very certain evidences:

(1) The message will be as unpopular as Elijah's was in his day. The news of what Elijah said to King Ahab about "no rain" flew throughout the kingdom like word goes on the Web today. Many far and near will condemn it while at the same time the message will "go" far and near.

(2) The message will be uncomfortable to those who love sin and worldliness, because it will be inspired by a Visitor, the Holy Spirit, whose first work is to "convict ... of sin" (John 16:8, NKJV).

(3) Elijah's message will proclaim full religious freedom. To those in Israel who wanted to worship Baal, Elijah gave the ultimate in opportunity. Risking his life on Mt. Carmel, he invited the 450 prophets of Baal to do their thing before everybody. Gave them full access to every advantage the media of the day could afford. It was a full, unhindered demonstration of Baal worship. It follows that in these last days, the true Christ will give full liberty to "Baal" to do his thing--publicity, swollen budgets. Let the people have a big dose, so they can get sick of it on their own. There might even be something to that proportion of 450 to 1. When the final showdown comes, as it was on Mt. Carmel, we read that when the storm at last begins to blow, multitudes of what we have thought were true disciples will be like "dry leaves," like in Jesus' day when "many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him" (John 6:66).

(4) "Elijah" will have a positive message, as he had on Mt. Carmel. He didn't spend his precious time railing against Baal worship, but re-built the broken down altar of the true God, and called on the people to see what happens when His worship is restored.

(5) The fruit of Elijah's message? A national repentance: "When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God" (1 Kings 18:39). As in John the Baptist's fulfillment of the Elijah message, so the message that comes "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" will "make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:17).

It appears that "the third angel's message in verity" (Rev. 14:1-12) and the "Elijah message" are the same: repentance permeating the "body of Christ."

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 19, 2001.

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.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Greatest Mother of All Time

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

She is the greatest mother of all time--and I don't refer to Eve. She is the mother to whom the angel Gabriel announced, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women" (Luke 1:28).

Most people interpret the "highly favoured" to mean that the virgin Mary was a beautiful Hollywood super-star. But the Bible makes plain that "favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth [reverences] the Lord, she shall be praised" (Prov. 31:30). For an angel to tell Mary that she was "highly favoured" of the Lord did not mean cosmetics, but "the hidden adorning of the heart," a beautiful spirit (see 1 Peter 3:3, 4).

Mary herself discloses that she had a problem involving humiliation for she sings in her poem that the Lord "hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden" (Luke 1:48; the Greek word is translated "humiliation" in Acts 8:33, and as "vile" in Phil. 3:21). Mary evidently knew sorrow and rejection, even as her Son was "despised and rejected of men" (Isa. 53:3).

At last, Joseph married her to be the stepmother to at least six motherless children, four boys and no one knows how many girls (Matt. 13:55, 56). The aged Simeon predicted that a sword as big as Goliath's would pierce her soul (Luke 2:35; "romphaia," LXX). No mother in all history has ever been called to endure the terrible pain that Mary went through, even though it is probable that many pagan mothers in the Roman Empire were forced to watch their sons being crucified; but none was forced to watch the Son whom she knew to be the Son of God, crucified! The sight tore at her soul, for with His death she thought she saw the death of all mankind.

In our few moments devoted to Mother's Day, can we learn a lesson from this story? Yes, those words, "The Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women," are God's Mother's Day message to every mother in the world who will simply believe the Good News. Why? Her Son is "the Saviour of the world" (John 4:42), and that includes YOU. God has a special regard for EVERY struggling mother; and her prayers have a special place at His throne.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 9, 1998.

Friday, May 11, 2012

God's Ideal for His Church

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

There is a connection between 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and Acts 18:1-17. Two outstanding details there are intriguing: (1) the fierce hatred of the Jews who heard Paul preach in Corinth and (2) Paul's plea for the Corinthian church members to be in total, perfect theological harmony.

(1) Paul proclaimed Jesus with the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Honest hearts were deeply impressed, and moved, as he presented the cross of Christ and told of what the Son of God accomplished for the human race. But the unbelieving Jews had hearts like stone and were totally unimpressed by the evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit; "they opposed themselves, and blasphemed." (The Greek word means "stupid talk.") Their legalistic hearts were impervious to all reasonable, logical evidence of gospel truth. This fantastic phenomenon is evident even today as again hard hearts refuse "most precious" Good News.

(2) Paul's plea for the church members to "speak [teach] the same thing, that there be no divisions," that they "be perfectly joined together in the same mind" is not idle talk. This is God's ideal for His church, and a little known prediction in an out-of-date book entitled Historical Sketches (p. 124) states categorically that such blessed heart- and mind-unity will be realized in the church before Jesus returns: "They will see eye to eye in all matters of religious belief. They will speak [teach] the same things."

Did you catch that? That's Good News! But hard hearts will never know it!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 3, 1998.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Where Are You?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

There are Christians who are content with the blessings of life that they believe the Lord has granted them. They appreciate their knowledge of God and of His truth. They love their fellowship in their church. They are thankful for their knowledge of the gospel, the hope they have in this dark world, the meaning that their faith has brought into their lives. They also appreciate the economic plentitude that they are privileged to enjoy. And they look forward to the second coming of Jesus and are content to leave the time of His coming to His inscrutable providences; they do not try to define the word "near" with reference to the second advent. They are not concerned whether "near" means in their lifetime or in some future generation. There is always the first resurrection they look forward to. Thanking God, they feel rich and increased with goods. Satisfied.

Then there are other Christians who are deeply concerned about that word "near." Their hearts are burdened for the pain and sorrow that is so widespread, and ever more so, in our world. They are constantly burdened with the last prayer of the Bible, its very last words, "Even so, come Lord Jesus"! They cannot be truly happy until He does come. They want to "hasten" His coming in any way the Lord can permit them to help. They feel deeply concerned if somehow His people have delayed His coming and thus inadvertently have prolonged the suffering of many people worldwide. They know a deep consciousness that the suffering of unfortunate people is felt by Christ even today, and they sympathize with Him in the burden He must feel. These people sense in a particular way a "constraint" of the love of Christ, moving them to dedicate their entire lives to ministry of some kind through the leading of the Holy Spirit. If Disneyworld depended on them for economic sustenance, it would fold; they want to give of what money they have, to world missions. They want to follow the Lamb (the crucified Christ) wherever He goes.

Where are you?

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 7, 2005.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Identifying Closely With "the Lamb"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

For ages, millions have died trusting in Christ as their Substitute. For the most part, their idea of substitution has been "vicarious." Christ stands in place of them, instead of them, as an insurance company stands instead of you, in place of you, when you suffer a loss.

Or, as a lawyer who stands before the judge in place of you, instead of you, in a court case. Now, in this Day of Atonement, God's idea of substitution is a clearer one, a "shared" one. It's not that "vicarious" substitution in any sense is wrong; but the closer God's people come to the Savior, the clearer is their vision of His substitution.

For example, in the Day of Atonement they "sing as it were a new song before the throne," a song that no other group in history could sing (Rev. 14:1-5). This indicates a new experience in relating to Christ, a new and dearer understanding of Him. Further, they "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth," indicating a new experience that means a closer identity with Him as the crucified One and as their High Priest.

It can't be a righteousness by works experience that is "new," for legalism can never inspire a body of God's people to follow Christ so closely in His closing High Priestly ministry. It must be a righteousness by faith experience that is "new." The goal is changed from merely preparing a body of people to die and then come up in the first resurrection (a wonderful goal that requires the miracle of regeneration). But the "new song" that is sung prepares a body of people for translation at the second coming of Jesus. Thus it closes His ministry as High Priest, and inaugurates what leads to His coronation as King of kings.

How do these people identify so closely with "the Lamb"? It's not a fanatical "me-first-to-be-among-the-144,000" idea. Personal reward is the last thing on their minds. By mature faith they "grow up into Him," "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:15, 13). Identifying with Him.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 27, 2001.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

A Square Meal of Righteousness

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The spiritual blessings you received yesterday are wonderful; but you need a fresh infilling today. We're not a bus running on a tank of fuel; we're the old-fashioned streetcar that ran by a constant touch with the "third rail."

Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11). But that's what we forget so easily to make sure we have.

It's not merely human forgetfulness: there is sin in this forgetting. It's a lack of appetite for heavenly bread. And that means we yearn for what this world provides; we're in serious malnourishment. Skin and bones ends in death. Jesus said, "You must work, not for this perishable food, but for the food that lasts, the food of eternal life" (John 6:27, NEB).

Think of the Lord as our Chef (He is!). When someone cooks up something nice for the family, he/she is pleased when they express appreciation. Oh, that rare appetite for heavenly food! The problem is that "the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7), and that means a distaste for heavenly bread.

But "blessed [happy] are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matt. 5:6). The glory comes next: "They shall be filled." Oh, the joy of having a square meal of righteousness. Make sure that you have it.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 9, 2008.

Monday, May 07, 2012

Wrestling With Controversy

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Going back in history almost all the way to Pentecost, history tells how the true believers in Jesus wrestled with controversy in their midst over what the gospel means. The controversy erupted before the first general conference of the church was called in Jerusalem, in Acts 15:6ff.

There were aberrant views advanced by "certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed" (vs. 5). These were not apostates; this was not the beginning of the great "falling away" Paul predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4; these were faithful, honest people who did not fully understand at that time "the truth of the gospel" (cf. Gal. 2:5, 14). Their zeal for the law was confused. The faithful and true leadership of the church had to humble their souls and declare that "certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls" (vs. 24). The error threatened to become a lethal heresy, but thank God, was healed at the beginning by prompt action for the right.

The fact that these wrong ideas were promulgated by people endorsed by the one true church leadership required rectification; thank God that at that time church leadership was ready to make the wrong right. The acknowledged leader of the general conference of Acts 15 humbled himself, bit the dust, confessed the truth, and gave the world church of the day a solid and bold leadership in the right because he submitted to self being crucified with Christ.

The fact that he had to admit being confused did not lessen the confidence the people placed in him, but resulted in strengthening the church.

But that was not the end of the problem. The controversy erupted again in a meeting years later. Paul relates what happened: "When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face [and] the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that [even] Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. … When I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I … [rebuked] Peter before them all" (Gal. 2:11-14).

Paul was not one of the original Twelve, but he was "a chosen vessel" of the Lord.

Are there "dissimulations" and "dissemblings" in the true church today? In this year of our Lord, we have come almost to the point where such are too late for the day. The judgment is soon to be completed; it's too late for any of us to be confused. There will be 144,000 on the right side. Let's walk softly before the Lord and "take time to be holy," to study, to understand "the truth of the gospel."

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 4, 2007.

Friday, May 04, 2012

A Word that Blew People's Minds

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What does the Bible mean when it says that "God is love"? I love strawberries. Is that God? Hollywood has movies that glorify something they call "love," which in reality is "barnyard" morality. Is that what God is? People love someone today, get divorced tomorrow, and hate each other; is that what God is like?

Our English language (and every one on earth) has only one word for "love," but the Greeks had more than one. The word that John uses in 1 John 4:8 isagape, a word that was little known to the ancient Greeks in New Testament times. But the apostles took that word and injected into it a meaning that blew people's minds. It turned the world upside down--that one little word, because of the tremendous meaning in it.

It's the kind of love that is never transmitted inherently by genes and chromosomes. It has to be imported from outside this planet, from heaven itself, and installed in the human heart (Rom. 5:5). Once therein, it becomes explosive, and finds expression in loving others with the same kind of love "the Father hath bestowed on us" (1 John 3:1).

Agape is: (1) a love that loves bad, ugly, mean people, even our enemies (Rom. 5:8; Matt. 5:43-48). "Impossible!"? Yes, of yourself. (2) It does not depend on the value of its object (we have none), but it creates value in its object. Read Genesis 12:2 and see what God "made" of Abraham. (3)Agape seeks the lost sheep, not vice versa (Luke 15:1-10). There is no story of a lost sheep that must go looking for its shepherd, but there is one about a Good Shepherd who went looking for His lost sheep--that's you and me. (4)Agape is the love that stepped down lower and lower (Phil. 2:5-8) until that last step, "the death of the cross," the death that involved the curse of God (Gal. 3:13), yes, the second death. It's the kind of love that sacrificed everything for us. Went to hell, in order to find us.

It's the real thing; the devil has made imitations, but there is the genuine: it's utterly beyond us to synthesize. All we can do is "look" and wonder. And when we stop to look, we begin to "comprehend" a little of what it means (Eph. 3:14-21). And then eternal life begins.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 8, 1998.

Seminar Invitation

Seminar Invitation

Now on Internet Radio (24/7)

cavespringsministries.org

Appreciating the

THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS

Through the 1888 Message Perspective (part 1)

(Chapter 1, continued)

MAY 19, 2012

Sabbath afternoon (beginning 2:15 p.m. CT, USA)

An 1888 message oriented sermon will be delivered during
the regular Worship Service.

CAVE SPRINGS HOME, PEGRAM, TENNESSEE

(Off Interstate 40 westbound from Nashville, exit 192–turn right, then left on
Hwy 70, 1-1/2 miles to Cave Springs Road, two rights and follow the signs.)

Speaker & Bible Study Leader

Chaplain Craig Barnes

Sabbath Dinner and Light Supper

Plant-based meals will be served at Cave Springs Home
on a donation basis. Please E-mail or call (leave a message)
to reserve a meal ticket.

BOOK SALE (After Sunset)

Lodging

• Available on site

• Commercial lodging available in the nearby town of Belleview

FOR RESERVATIONS: Phone: (615) 646-6962 E-mail:cjmb1888@gmail.com

Note: Internet radio live coverage starts between 11:15 and 11:30 a.m. every Sabbath; at 2:15 p.m. on seminar days (central time, USA).

Stay tuned all day for additional sermons and programming.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

A Prayer That WILL Be Answered

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

You can only learn to love when you believe yourself to be beloved. That is, when your sense of insecurity has been replaced by the assurance that you are firmly enfolded in the arms of Somebody Important. Only then can you dare to let yourself be vulnerable and exposed by loving someone else.

That's why the Bible is so clear on this controversial issue of salvation--that it's "by grace, through faith," specifically "not of works" (Eph. 2:8, 9). In other words, shocking as it may seem, salvation depends on your believing that God loves you, because only if you believe that, can it be possible for you to learn how to love. And learning how to love is the one pre-requisite for entering heaven: "He that loveth not knoweth not God. … He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God" (1 John 4:8, 16). All of our talk about "keeping the commandments" breaks down to nothing if we haven't learned how to love, for "to love, then, is to obey the whole Law" (Rom. 13:10, GNB). If we think that through, we end up realizing that we shall be asked one great question at last: "Have you learned how to love?" All of our great "works" will count for zero.

To glibly quote John 3:16, "God so loved the world" is not enough until your soul can grasp that God has so loved you, yes, and so loves you now, that He gave and has given Something Wonderful for you to believe, that is, to appreciate the gift that was and is still given for you.

To tell the truth, your soul (and my soul, too) is too small to grasp what's involved. My little cup can't drain the ocean dry. But I can let my little cup be full, little as it is. I can kneel and confess my nakedness of soul, how little I know how to love, how unloving I am by nature, and I can ask God in humility, "Please, Father in heaven, open these blind eyes to see Your love for me.

Please be merciful to me in my unlovingness, and teach me like a beginner the ABCs of love."

Then comes the answer: Look! Look! "Behold the Lamb of God" (John 1:29). He has been "lifted up" as on a "flagpole" (Num. 21:8, Peterson), so simply look, let your little soul be stretched outsize to "comprehend" what it cost Him to die on His cross. Ask to be permitted to begin to appreciate the grand dimensions of that love, to see what He accomplished. Maybe I should add--it's a dangerous prayer to pray because it will be answered. It'll mean a new you.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 7, 2002.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Can We Make the Lord Happy--Or Unhappy?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Can we lowly, unworthy mortals do anything that can have an effect on the Lord, the Ruler of the universe, to make Him happy or unhappy?

We read that when King David, the anointed ruler of God's people Israel, had committed a double crime of adultery and then murder to cover it up, but "the thing that David had done displeased the Lord" (2 Sam. 11:27). When we read the entire story we see how the displeasure of the Lord was realized in the terrible disasters that befell David's house; not that God did them all directly, but He was forced to withdraw His former blessings on David. But the fact that God was "displeased" with David did not mean that now God hated him or cursed him forever. David had plenty of troubles thereafter, but the Lord still loved the poor sinner.

David's two penitential psalms make clear that he knew that he had come within a tiny fraction of losing his soul forever: "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me," David pleads with anguished tears (Psalm 51:11). Also, David's Psalm 32 is the prayer that every one of us sinners can pray over and over again when we remember that a wise writer has said that the books of heaven record the sins that we would commit if we had had the opportunity.

That means that it is our privilege to pray the Lord to forgive that long, long list of sins that we would have committed if we had had the opportunity! That is "corporate repentance," repenting of sins that we may not have actually done in the flesh but which we would have done if the Lord had not held us by the hand and kept us from diving into that deep, bottomless hole (cf. Prov. 22:14).

No matter how you or any of us looks back onto his life, we can humbly thank the Savior that He has held us by the hand in times of peril. For myself, I look back to my teenage years and just humbly thank the Lord for saving me from utter ruin. I could never have become a minister of the gospel if He had not saved me. I think over and over of Isaiah 54:17: "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord." Yes! Whatever "righteousness" there ever was at any time, it was "of the Lord"! Just the mercy and much more abounding grace of the Lord Jesus (cf. Rom. 5:20).

Eternity will not be long enough for me to praise Him!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 6, 2008.

Monday, April 30, 2012

A New Motivation That Never Ends

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you ever noticed that the Bible spends more time talking about what God has done for the world, than telling what we must do for Him?

For example, there's John 3:16: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Big, big gift!

But it doesn't go on giving a list of things we must now do for Him. It simply says, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish"--himself (the verb form admits the idea of we sinners perishing--ourselves, that is, going on in a process which is in one sense mass suicide, self-perishing).

After all that tremendous giving on His part, God simply asks us to appreciate what He has done, to let our hearts "behold" the grand dimensions of the love He has given us (cf. Eph. 3:18). "Look!" "Ponder." "Measure." "Consider." "Stop and think so you can appreciate to the point of broken-heartedness." All the good works possible, follow.

Then Psalm 51 comes into the picture; instead of being like the Pharisee who thanks God that he isn't as bad as "this publican," instead of thanking Him that you haven't done as badly as King David--committed adultery and murder, etc.; instead of that pride, you receive from the Holy Spirit the gift of conviction of sin, corporate sin; you realize that the sin of someone else would be your sin but for the grace of Christ. You realize at last that you are no better than King David at heart; you have no righteousness of your own.

If Jesus, the divine Son of God could be "made to be sin for us who knew no sin" (that is, as He hung on His cross, He bore the corporate guilt of all the sin of the whole world), then surely we can bear the corporate guilt of the sin of King David: we may now have a closer link with Jesus who bore the corporate guilt of us all.

And, dear friend: a closer link with Jesus means a closer link with eternal life. Don't despise the gift of corporate repentance. Esau did, and he "sold" his precious "birthright."

When the love (agape) of Christ can "constrain" us (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14, 15), then there is no end to the works of righteousness that love will constrain us to do for the Lord. But that is not motivated by a desire for reward in heaven nor is it motivated by a fear of hell: God Himself is agape, and "agape casts out fear" (1 John 4:8, 18). It's a new motivation that never ends.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 10, 2008.