Daily Bread

Saturday, June 07, 2014

One of the Greatest Treasures of All Time

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

One of the greatest treasures of all time is more valuable than the gold in King Tut's pyramid tomb, and for most Christian people it remains unexcavated: the Book of Hebrews. The reason its message is almost unknown is that sincere translators have unwittingly twisted one of its central truths that in effect cover up its message to modern readers.

Chapter 1 proves Christ is divine, eternally pre-existent; His name is "God" (vs. 8). Chapter 2 proves Christ is fully human, "in all things ... made like unto his brethren," "partakers of flesh and blood" as are all the fallen children of Adam, so that by means of this education He might be fitted to be "a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God" (2:17, 14; 4:15; 5:8, 9).

So far, good; all is clear. Chapters 7-10 emphasize how the Levitical priesthood and sanctuary ministry failed miserably in that they could not "year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." But the useless ritual went on continually for centuries! (10:1, 2). Therefore there must be an entirely new priesthood, that of Christ Himself, and the old must cease for its failure. But the old was a type, a pattern, a kindergarten lesson, to illustrate the nature of the new priesthood, that resembled the new as a shadow represents the object that created it.

And here is where the translation difficulties begin. Chapter 9:1-10 details a significant feature of the "shadow" Levitical ministry: there were two phases to the high priest's ancient ministry: every day in the year he would go into the first apartment where the seven golden candlesticks were and the table where twelve freshly baked loaves of bread were displayed every Sabbath morning, there to minister forgiveness to repentant sinners (but they kept on sinning!). But once a year he would enter into the second apartment where the golden ark was with the two tables of stone with the Ten Commandments written thereon by the finger of God. That second-apartment ministry was to "cleanse" the sanctuary and put an end to on-going sinning. But it never worked!

So, says Hebrews, there must be a second apartment ministry of the great High Priest in the true heavenly sanctuary, to solve forever this on-going sin in the lives of His people. The problem: most translations confuse the two apartments, which in Greek are ta hagia and hagia hagion. At His ascension, Christ entered ta hagia; at a period before His second coming, He leaves ta hagia and enters hagia hagion, there to complete His work of preparing a people for His second coming. Read Hebrews with this in mind: it will come alive for you.

--Robert J. Wieland

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

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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, June 06, 2014

New Covenant Living--A Picnic?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

We have a choice: we can live under the old covenant (the popular way it has been for millennia), or under the new. And if we choose to live under the new covenant, all will go well with us; right?

If we are driving, all the lights will turn green for us; the boss will give us a raise; our spouse will smile sweetly at us; our investments will prosper. Right?

Jesus surely lived under the new covenant, but He also died under it; from His boyhood He met constant opposition and turmoil that led Him eventually to the cross. No, new covenant living is not a picnic.

As a student in the "school of Christ" you are under serious, loving discipline (Heb. 12:5-10). Some setbacks and disappointments may be good for you in the long run. But the Lord tempers our trials, giving each of us the benefit of infinite wisdom. To each of us is given the "measure of faith" that makes life where His providence has placed us a thing of quiet, steady joy.

Even Jesus in His incarnation endured discipline. We read that "He [learned] obedience by the things which He suffered" (5:8). You will someday thank the Lord Jesus for permitting certain disappointments to come to you; your present happiness can be greatly enhanced by anticipating this through your confidence in His faithfulness. The joy of the future can become yours in the present through faith.

The first message Jesus gave to the assembled disciples after His resurrection was, "Peace be unto you" (John 20:19). This is no vain compliment; peace of heart is what you long for and He gives it to you today. "My peace Igive to you," and that is in the midst of tribulation (see 14:27). The peace comes with your believing the new covenant promises, all seven of them in Genesis 12:2, 3.

You may have to pray the prayer of Mark 9:24: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." A wise writer assures us that we can never perish while we pray that prayer. Every little prayer you pray, making that choice, makes you stronger in the Lord.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 15, 2006.

Thursday, June 05, 2014

A Book That Is "Dynamite"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Paul's Letter to the Galatians is as fresh as if he wrote it this morning. To "walk in the Spirit" is to believe that God is holding on to your hand, not vice versa (5:16-25). But the common idea is that you've got to hold on tight to God's hand or you'll be lost. Get it straight: you must believe He is holding on to your hand! (Isa. 41:10, 13).

We cannot truly help someone else unless we can put ourselves in his place ("there but for the grace of God go I"). That's the basic principle of corporate guilt and corporate repentance (6:1-6). The final mark of the beast will be "persecution for the cross of Christ." "The truth of the gospel" as it is in Galatians will therefore be part of the final "loud cry" message that will lighten the earth with glory (6:12, 13; Rev. 18:1-4).

To understand and believe this gospel of the cross delivers one from captivity to worldliness in all its forms. The malls and new car showrooms all will lose their charm for you if, like the Galatians who heard Paul preach, you "see" Christ crucified for you (3:1; 6:14).

"The third angel's message in verity" is the full liberating truth of the new covenant (4:16-31). Salvation by faith cannot be understood unless faith is understood as that which "works by love [agape]" (5:1-6). Proclaiming "the truth of the gospel," the kind that lays the glory of man in the dust, always brings persecution on its proclaimer (5:11, 12). Genuine liberty inherent in true faith never produces license. It produces the glorious liberty inherent in self-control (5:13, 14). Just as light is stronger than darkness, love is stronger than hatred, grace is stronger than sin, so the Holy Spirit is stronger than the "flesh" with all its sinful addictions.

Therefore, if one understands and believes Paul's "truth of the gospel," he finds it easy to be saved and hard to be lost (5:16-18; compare Matt. 11:28-30; Acts 26:14). This is shocking to most Christians, but it is what Galatians says. This book is dynamite! Let Paul have his say, and people will love it or hate it. Nobody can sit on the fence after understanding Galatians.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 15, 2000.

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Living Under the New Covenant--What Does That Mean?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Ask anyone and they'll tell you they'd rather live under the New Covenant than under the Old. But what does that mean? What practical, day-by-day benefit or difference can it be?

The New Covenant impinges on you directly, personally, individually. It's the promises that the Lord God made to Abraham and his children to give them everything--the sky if you please: the whole earth for "an everlasting possession," plus the everlasting life to go along with it, plus the righteousness necessary to inhabit the new earth (2 Peter 3:13). And on top of it all, meanwhile, the happiest life possible here and now while you await the coming of Christ and His new earth.

All seven of God's promises to Abraham are yours (Gen. 12:2, 3). And best of them all, the promise to make you tobe a blessing to other people as long as you live and wherever you go ("thou shalt be a blessing, ... and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed"). Yes, that's promised to you.

It's the full spectrum of the 23rd Psalm placed as a gift directly at your feet, as though it was written especially for you. Henceforth you "shall not want." "No good thing will [the Lord] withhold from [you]." Beyond your wildest dreams, "the Lord will give grace and glory" (Psalm 84:11; read the entire psalm, it's "amiable" news).

You were born with a natural proclivity to dis-believe all this Good News (I assume you were born on planet Earth). At best, you were born a descendant of Abraham and Sarah, both of whom spent the greater part of their lives in disbelief of the New Covenant and in submission to the Old Covenant (Abraham took Hagar, and Sarah was bitter all those years until she finally repented and became pregnant with Isaac).

Probably you've spent years walking in the shadows of doubt. And now it's the hardest thing you've ever done to believe all those promises wholeheartedly. (That's the only hard thing about being saved eternally--learning to believe like Abraham did.) But thank God you have a new day; you can choose to believe, and pray with the distraught father of Mark 9, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief" (vs. 24). God will never despise that prayer!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 9, 2004.

Monday, June 02, 2014

A Truth Worth Living For

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The Samaritans were right when they declared Jesus of Nazareth to be “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). He is not just the Savior of the Jews. They discerned that it is He who “gives life to the world” (John 6:33).

The Father “laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). He has “tasted death for every man” (Heb. 2:9). He is a cosmic Savior, “the last Adam” who is the true “Father” of the human race having taken over the lordship of the world from the first Adam (see 1 Cor. 15:21, 22).

Thus Christ has reversed the evil that the first Adam brought on the entire human race (Rom. 5:15-18). The Samaritans at the village Sychar knew nothing of what Romans and Hebrews were later to declare, but they were dead right in their conclusion about who Jesus is. (And they didn’t ask any theologians!)

If the Samaritans were right (and they were!), then Christ also is the world’s great “High Priest” that Hebrews talks about so much (2:17, 3:1, 4:14, etc.), not just the high priest of the Jews or of the professing Christians.

And if so (and it is true!), then the great antitypical Day of Atonement is the world’s Day of Atonement! The news should be trumpeted everywhere.

According to Revelation 18:1-4, it will be—when the “earth [is] lightened” with the glory of the good news. The Enemy can not succeed forever in keeping that truth of the fourth angel’s message “from the world.” The Lord Christ is to be “crowned King of kings and Lord of lords” and His “angel” knows how to get the attention of the world.

And all this glorious good news need not await another century; all the Lord needs is a people who will not further oppose the message, but whom He will be safe to put on the stage for the intense scrutiny of the world (and of the universe!), a people in whom He and His truth can be glorified, a people who have “grown up” out of their spiritual infancy to become “the Lamb’s wife” (Eph. 4:15; Rev. 19:7, 8).

Isn’t that a truth worth living for, worth giving your all for?

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 29, 2007.

Friday, May 30, 2014

A New Covenant Psalm

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you ever thought of the 23rd Psalm as a New Covenant psalm? David is not asking for anything, he is not worried about anything; he is simply declaring how wonderful the Lord is to him. There is no bargaining with the Lord, no attempt to make a tit-for-tat agreement with Him. The Lord is his Shepherd; he will never “want” for anything. As a loving Shepherd, the Lord will make him to lie down in green pastures, will lead him beside “still waters,” will heal him, “restore” his soul, will lead him in “paths of righteousness,” in other words will lead him in such a way that when life is over and David looks back, he will see that everything that has happened to him was the best, even though at the time he couldn’t see how.

That’s like the fantastic promises the Lord made to Abraham in Genesis 12:2, 3. (In Galatians 3:15-17 and in Romans 4:13 Paul says that those promises were the New Covenant.) Abraham did not bargain with the Lord, strike an agreement with Him, do a tit-for-tat “contract.” The Lord simply promised Abraham the sky, out and out; no strings attached (read it--it’s astonishing). Abraham’s part of the “contract” (if you want to call it that) was his melted-heart response, “I believe.” The lesson is clear: it’s what the Bible has been trying to tell us all along: righteousness comes through believing God’s promises!

David believed, that “even though he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is with Him.” Even in his last extremity, the Lord “anoints his head with oil and his cup runs over,” and therefore “goodness and mercy will follow him all the days of his life.” Good News for you today!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 22, 2004.

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.--Robert J. Wieland

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Agape Revealed

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The gospel of Jesus Christ is totally different than any other religion that has ever existed on earth. In fact, all other religions are in some way counterfeits of the original religion revealed by the one true God. The counterfeits all have one common denominator principle: you win the favor of God (or of the gods) by your works, by your obedience, by the good things that you do or that you sacrifice.

In contrast, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a revelation of what God has done and is doing for us, and worship therefore consists of simply beholding, contemplating, understanding, appreciating the character of this one true God. "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," God says (Isa. 45:22). The serpent is lifted up on a pole so that the stricken Israelites could simply look and be healed (Num. 21:9). John says, "Behold, what manner of love (agape) the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1).

People criticize such a religion--you just look and you're saved?! That's silly! But yes, that's indeed what the Bible teaches. Paul says that just by looking, sinners are changed, converted: "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory ... by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18). You can imagine how Satan hates such a religion as that!

But what is it that we are to look at, to behold? The answer is: the cross of Christ. Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14, 15). There is where the agape is revealed for us to "behold." Paul says it is our privilege to "comprehend" the amazing dimensions of that agape (Eph. 3:14-21).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 6, 1998.

Monday, May 26, 2014

One of the Greatest Mysteries in the Bible

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

One of the strangest mysteries in the Bible is where we find Jesus blaming people of His day for a crime that someone else committed 800 years earlier. If someone were to blame me for starting World War I, for example, I would take offense because I wasn't even born when it started. How could Jesus, the Righteous One, be so apparently unfair?

The problem is in Matthew 23:35. Jesus is preaching His last sermon in the glorious Temple. Some may say that He was deliberately inviting His own death by laying out before the leaders their sins just as they were. (Why not be more political and soften up His words?) Then Jesus tells these august pastors of the flock that "YOU slew Zacharias ... between the temple and the altar." The story goes that the blood of this martyr stained the stones in the pavement forever! (See 2 Chronicles 24:20, 21.)

Can't you imagine those scribes and Pharisees responding in indignation, "Why do You blame US for a crime committed 800 years before we were born? How unfair can You be?"

But like He always did, Jesus told the truth. The same awful sin that King Joash and the leaders of his day committed when they stoned Zechariah right there in the holy Temple, these religious leaders were already nursing in their hearts--for within a few hours they would crucify the Son of God. So, in a corporate sense, they were guilty also of the murder of Zacharias!

The record of your sin is not like your electric light bill--you pay only for what you use; as sinners by nature we are truly guilty of all the sin ever committed--just give us enough time and opportunity. It wasn't only the Romans and the Pharisees who crucified Christ; "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" Yes, in a corporate sense.

Christ prayed for corporate forgiveness to be given to them all, "for they know not what they do." Thank Him, and receive it.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 10, 2001.

Monday, May 19, 2014

A Growing-up Process Now Taking Place

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Quarrels and contention come because of our love of self, says the apostle James (4:1-3). Whether it's a marital, family, neighborly, or even a theological quarrel, we feel the pressing desire to justify ourselves by our defense of what we did or said, shielding ourselves from accusation.

How infantile we can become! But thank God, there is a growing-up process now taking place. We have come to Daniel's "time of the end" (11:35, 12:4). It's not only a time when "signs" in heaven and earth proclaim that the coming of the Lord draws nigh (James 5:8), but it's a time for spiritual growth in preparation for meeting the Lord of glory face to face at His second coming. A blessed time!

The preparation process is the experience of "justification by faith." We don't seek to justify ourselves; we wait upon the Lord to do it for us, in other words, we wait for justification by faith. That's the meaning of David's telling us, "Waiton the Lord, .. wait, I say, on the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass" (37:5). It will take Him some time, but oh, it's so much better than our fighting our way to "justification" on our own and winning our quarrel (we think)! "He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday" (vs. 6). "Wait patiently for Him" (vs. 7).

In this "time of the end" there is also the final cosmic Day of Atonement, the time for the special work of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. It's the ministry of the Savior as High Priest in preparing a people to stand in the final moments of time. "In your patience you possess your souls," says the Savior, speaking of this time (Luke 21:19); but patience is impossible unless there is faith--unless we believe "the truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:5).

Whether you're a teen or a centenarian, this is "present truth" (2 Peter 1:12).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 22, 2006.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Believe as Your "Father Abraham" Did

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Some days the sun shines bright, others it's cloudy and gloomy. Was it so with Jesus?

Yes! Matthew says of Him at Gethsemane, "He began to be sorrowful and very heavy" (Matt. 26:37, 38). Even earlier when the Greeks came to Him, He said, "Now is My soul troubled" (John 12:27).

Has God provided for such a time in our personal experience? Yes! He has given us His new covenant to replace our old covenant; it's His own one-sided, unilateral promises which He made to Abraham His "friend" and to his descendants. If, like Abraham, you respond to God's call, "come out of [Babylon], My people," you are a descendant of Abraham "in Christ," and all those promises are made to you (2 Chron. 20:7; Rev. 14:8; 18:1-4; Rom. 4:1, 16, 17, etc.). What are those new covenant promises?

1. He will make of you a "great" person "in Christ." Yes!

2. He will "bless" you "in Christ." Yes!

3. He will actually make your "name great," which means, "He will give you the desires of your heart" "in Christ" (cf. Psalm 37:4). True!

4. He will deliver you from being a "nobody," so you will "be a blessing" wherever you go, "in Christ." Wonderful, but true!

5. He will "bless those who bless you," "in Christ." Amazing.

6. He will not bless those who don't bless you. Again, very true!

7. You will help bring salvation to the world (all taken from Gen. 12:2, 3).

Now, "believe" the Lord your God as your "father Abraham" did!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 15, 2005.

Friday, May 16, 2014

The Only Way to Perceive Grace

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What difference does it make whether Christ died our "first death" (what the Bible says is "sleep") or the "second death" (of the "Lake of Fire")? He has given us a ticket to heaven; isn't that enough for us to understand? We have the Life Insurance Policy; what more is needed? Why stretch our minds and hearts any further? For thousands of years this idea has never come up. Why is it so important now?"

We have come to a time in world history when "sin [has] abounded" more and more; grace therefore must abound "much more" or we shall end up with the "mark of the beast."

That "grace" is not a "hocus-pocus" legal maneuver beyond our range of knowledge. Much more abounding grace speaks to the heart and meets the increasing demands of modern temptation to abounding sin. 2 Corinthians 8:9 tells us that we can perceive "grace" only by understanding the sacrifice of Christ, how far He went in becoming "poor" that we "through His poverty might be rich." He went the full length of the second death! If past generations did not fully understand it, that does not excuse us for failure.

There is a "breadth, and length, and depth, and height" in the love that motivated Christ to His cross that "children" can grasp only as they "grow up into Christ in all things, ... from whom the whole body [of the church is] fitly joined together" (Eph 3:17, 18; 4:15, 16). If we choose to remain infantile when it's time to "grow up," we ourselves cancel that "ticket to heaven" that He gave us. Now it's grow up or die on the vine. We are living in the "time of the end."

Yes, it's true that Charles Wesley in the 1700s prayed "Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise" while he still believed in the papal doctrine of natural immortality. But now it's impossible to "sing" understandably about that cross if we believe in that false doctrine. There's lots of growing up that's on God's agenda for us now.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 10, 2001.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

A Prayer Pleasing to the Lord

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

A great awakening occurred in the early part of the 19th century in both America and Europe. It concerned the Bible books of Daniel and Revelation. Simultaneously in many lands, there came a spontaneous conviction expressed in print that these two books were no longer "sealed." They could be understood!

Joseph Wolff, a Jewish boy with an inquiring mind, heard his elders lamenting that "Israel" had been punished for her sins. He asked, "What sins?" "Our fathers killed the prophets!"

Then a Christian neighbor of the Wolffs told the lad, "Son, the reason the Jews are oppressed is that your forefathers rejected and murdered their true Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth! If you will simply read Isaiah 53, you will see the truth!"

The boy went home, read it, and saw it. Then he simply asked his father what it meant, and the father sternly rebuked him--he "must never again ask that question!" That exchange led him to become a Christian, and he grew up to become a missionary to many parts of the Middle East. What he discovered in the Bible was that we are living in "the time of the end," and Jesus wants to come soon. Daniel and Revelation made sense!

Foremost in all of these widely separated yet phenomenal awakenings was the question, "What is the truth? What does the Bible really teach?"

The work of these pioneers as well as of Luther and Calvin and the Wesleys, must go on to full development in preparing a people for the return of Jesus. And again today, the important question is: what does the Bible really say? Confusion again reigns in Christendom as it did long ago. If your church is like the average, very likely there is confusion and dissent there, too. But no prayer is more pleasing to the Lord to hear than your cry for understanding of the truth, based on your willingness to study and learn. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," said Jesus (John 8:32).

It's a sin in a time of crisis not to be hungry and thirsty for righteousness, which is truth (cf. Matt. 5:6). We must each inquire and study for himself, even if we discover that truth is unpopular!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 14, 2004.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Cherish the Faith of the "Son of David"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you ever done or said something foolish, even stupid, and you feared it might hurt someone else? And you hesitated to pray because you knew the fault was totally yours?

The dear Lord has hidden in His word something that is a blessing to you in this particular circumstance.

David has been anointed by Samuel with the assurance that God would lead him to become king of Israel. But everything has gone against him. He knows King Saul is "the anointed of the Lord," by God's choice. But Saul has been violently opposing David, forcing him to hide in caves like a runaway criminal.

David has endured these trials for years, and prayed earnestly. But finally the strain proves too great even for his faith. In 1 Samuel 27 he gives in to unbelief: "And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in the coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand" (vs. 1).

Sorry, David; that was raw unbelief. The great progenitor of the Messiah has stumbled. His faith was not perfect when he sought refuge among the enemies of God's people.

David made friends with Achish, their king. Then the problem became critical when Achish, determined to conquer Israel, "said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men" (28:1).

David is now in a terrible predicament. How can he refuse to help Achish who has apparently saved his life? And how can he, anointed to someday be king of Israel, join in a war against his own people? If you have fought against your own people how can you someday become their shepherd?

We don't have any special psalm that expressed David's desperate prayer this time. Psalm 34 is his prayer the first time he fled to Achish. But perhaps he found it difficult to pray this second time, when his mistake of unbelief landed him in the middle of the army attacking Israel, bent on killing "the anointed of the Lord."

But note how the dear Lord saved David out of this impossible trap: "The princes of the Philistines" didn't trust him and protested to Achish, "Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him [Ziklag], and let him not go down with us to battle" (1 Sam. 29:3, 4). Had not these pagan "princes" delivered him, David could never have become king of Israel!

Yes, the Lord saves His people out of their stupid mistakes even when their faith falters. And don't say that David was more important than you; God's concern is the same for you. Cherish the faith of "the Son of David." He "lived" in David's psalms; you do the same.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 6, 2003.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The Insight in This Story Will Help Children

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The lady's prayers were just not being answered. It's a strange story to be in the Bible: Jesus just walked on as though He hadn't heard her. The Bible plainly says, "He answered her not a word" (Matt. 15:21-28). That doesn't sound natural for Him, does it?

We love miracle stories of answered prayer, and we tell them to our children hoping they will inspire them to believe. But sometimes children's prayers apparently don't get answered; we don't know how many are perplexed by miracle stories. Youth often end up discouraged and "lukewarm." First, we should never tell a story that we don't know for sure is true. The monks in the Middle Ages told the people "pious tales." Secondly, we should tell the children this story of the lady whose prayer Jesus didn't answer, and why He didn't respond to her. The insight in this story will help them.

He happened to have come to where she lived; she had heard of Him and believed He was the Messiah. So, as He was walking along the road, she came up to Him. Her prayer was simple and utterly sincere: "'Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David. My daughter is severely demon-possessed.'"

He walked on as though He had never heard her! Then she began badgering the disciples; would they please intercede with Him to pay her some attention, like many discouraged people who appeal to the saints for help. They were annoyed; she was a Gentile. They "urged Him, 'Send her away, for she cries out after us.'" They too paid her no attention.

He did respond, in her hearing: "'I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'" Gentiles are outside My ministry. Goodbye, please, it seemed He said.

But the lady wouldn't give up. She plunked herself down in front of Him, and begged, "'Lord, help me!'" Because she believed He was "the Son of David," she also believed there was another side to Him. Then He said something that must have hurt: "'It's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.'" I think I would have given up and gone home angry. Me, a dog?! But she had wit as well as faith: "'True, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table!" When a woman lawyer goes after you, your facade can crumble. She was smart, and she was right.

Jesus all along had wanted to help her. He had staged His attitude as a lesson to His disciples, not to despise Gentiles, or women. Her prayer was answered, her daughter delivered, because she believed in His character of love, and she persisted. A good story!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 11, 2004.

Monday, May 12, 2014

How Much Does God Love You, Personally?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

How much does God love you, personally? Your happiness (here and forever) depends on how you believe it. None of us was born already believing; we all have had to learn how to believe; and for that we need the Good News in the Bible. Winning the lottery is not the way to learn that God loves you; everything of human happiness you've been given can take wings and fly away.

You may say that "God so loving the world that He gave His only begotten Son" sounds too far away--2000 years ago. But the Bible reveals His ongoing love for you. For example:

(1) Your Savior takes you by the arm to lead you "in the paths of righteousness." He actually takes you by your hand and says, Come, let's go to happiness! He loves you like a father loves a little son who is just learning to walk. Read it in Hosea 11:3, 4: "I taught Ephraim [My people] also to go, taking them by their arms; ... I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love." No, He doesn't force you; but He does everything possible short of it. If you don't refuse, He will be to you the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23.

(2) Isaiah says that He actually takes you by the hand to lead you to heaven: "I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee" (41:10, 13).

(3) If you make a mistake and take a wrong path in your blindness or foolishness, He does not forsake you. He will do for you what He did for Saul of Tarsus who was hell-bent on taking the wrong path. The Lord put obstacles in his path to make the wrong way seem like kicking against the goads (see Acts 26:14). Yes, the Lord made it "hard" for Saul to be lost! Isn't that personal love?

(4) And the Savior continually reminds you that He has made His "yoke ... easy, and [His] burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30).

You believe it, or you dis-believe it; but if you are having trouble believing it, He "helps [your] unbelief" if you will let Him (Mark 9:24). In fact, ask Him to; you can never perish if you pray that prayer.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 20, 2002.