Daily Bread

Monday, September 23, 2013

Why Do People Who Love Truth Feel Motivated to Tell It?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Abel told his brother Cain the truth in kind, loving words; the latter rose up and murdered him. For six millennia (and more), unnumbered Abels have told unnumbered Cains the truth in the same kind, loving words, and have been hated for it. For nearly 1260 years of the Dark Ages, millions of Christians who loved truth were persecuted by millions more professed Christians who were Cain redivivus.

Why do people who love truth feel motivated to tell it? The Holy Spirit impels those who love truth to "cry aloud, spare not, ... and shew [God's true] people their transgression, and ... their sins" (Isa. 58:1). Until now, those who thus respond to the Spirit are resented. And we are all either Abels or Cains at heart.

Imagine yourself in Jerusalem in the mid-first century A.D. The most "spiritual" members of your "church" are "the devout and honourable women," the "good works" people (history says they gave pain killers to the crucified wretches, works of motherly kindness). But they oppose Paul's preaching about their "despised and rejected" Messiah and "expel" him (Acts 13:49, 50). Paul proclaims Christ with kind, loving words, tears in his voice, but he can't help bringing in "Christ and Him crucified."

Would you in sanctified common sense tell him, "Say less on that disturbing aspect of our message and tell it to these 'devout and honourable' people in a more palatable way. Paul, be a little more 'serpent-wise, but harmless as a dove.' Maybe you could win more that way; the cross is offensive. Why make these 'devout' ones so uncomfortable?" Would you?

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 11, 2005.

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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.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Have You Ever Lost Your Temper?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you ever lost your temper in a momentary trial of your patience? Well, poor Moses did. And it wasn't when he was a young man. The tragic mistake came in his old age. Now Moses may not have felt "old age" like people do today for we read that at the time of his death at the age of 120 "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated" (Deut. 34:7).

But it was at the end, not the beginning, of Israel's 40 years of wandering for their unbelief that Moses' patience gave way. Maybe his physical and mental stamina was a bit weakened by then. The "straw that broke the camel's back" in his case was the cynical cry of the rebellious people, blaming him for lack of water. "Listen, you rebels!" he cried out. "Must we fetch you water out of this rock?" (Num. 20:10). Then in his fit of temper, he struck the rock twice with his rod instead of once, thus destroying the accuracy of the ceremony which symbolized the death of Christ.

What Moses had done was to teach that Christ must die twice for the sins of the world, and he took to himself (Moses did) the glory for producing water out of a dry rock. God loved Moses; the man was very special. But his public sin of losing his temper made it impossible for Moses to lead Israel at last into their Promised Land. "Because ye believed me not, ... ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them" (vss. 10-12).

It's not only old people, but young people too have this same test of impatience. It seems severe for the Lord to sentence Moses to die for such an apparently "innocent" sin of momentary impatience. But Moses must be a teacher for succeeding generations as well; no matter how high we have been in the favor of God, a sin of impatience is serious. But the root of their sin was not merely being angry (even God sometimes is angry, and several times Moses experienced "righteous indignation"). The problem, said the Lord, was Moses' unbelief. "Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, ..." the Lord said to both Moses and Aaron.

It is impossible for you and me to lose our temper so long as we believe the word of the Lord! Whatever the trial that tempts you to impatience, a choice to believe the promises of God will every time deliver you from sin.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 17, 2000.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Joy That's Free, Just for the Believing

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you learned to appreciate, to enjoy, to welcome, the holy Sabbath day each week? If so, you have also begun to appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ, because His presence is in the holy Sabbath. And that's Good News! To love the Sabbath, not only because it is a day of physical rest from the week's hard work and stress, but because--well, let's look at a beautiful hymn that crystallizes the joy of the Sabbath: "O day of rest and gladness, O day of joy and light." Yes, one day in the hectic week of cares, of pure joy!

"O balm of care and sadness, most beautiful most bright." Here we have a metaphor--the Sabbath is like soothing ointment for a wound. "Thou art a port protected from storms that round us rise." Have you ever been in a wild storm at sea with the ship tossing dangerously, and then felt the unutterable joy of gliding into a quiet harbor? "Thou art ... a garden intersected with streams of paradise," says the poet Christopher Wordsworth, further. And then, "Thou art a cooling fountain in life's dry, dreary sand; [and] from thee, like Pisgah's mountain, we view our promised land."

That's a reference to the lofty top of what is also spoken of in the Bible as Mt. Nebo, where the Lord led Moses to view the glories of the Promised Land before he went to sleep in the arms of God. From Mt. Pisgah today you can see far south to the Dead Sea as far as En-geddi, to the north as far as the snow-covered peak of Mt. Hermon, and to the west to encompass what was in Moses' day the land the Lord gave to Israel. And so, on each holy Sabbath day it is yours and my privilege to catch a glimpse of brighter scenes to come, another poet says, to feel the thrill deep in our souls of a joyous eternal life "in Christ" our Life-giver.

Don't miss out on this joy; it's free, just for the believing. "Remember" it all through the week!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 29, 1998.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

An Alternative to Being "Under the Law"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

A man wrote of his experience as a youth when he would read the Bible every day simply because he enjoyed it. He had a Good News Bible, and was attracted to it. Then he went away to college and got in with a group of earnest-minded people who emphasized discipline. "Have you had your 'quiet time' with the Lord?" they would ask him frequently. "Are you maintaining your devotions?"

He got so he dreaded to hear the questions. Now, reading the Bible and praying had passed from a pleasant experience to a burden, an obligation imposed upon him with dreaded consequences if he slipped up. Now his "Christian" experience had become a list of "shoulds": you "should" pray more, you "should" read your Bible more, you "should" do this or do that more.

What happened? He tried to think it through and concluded that he was in the spiritual condition that Paul describes as "under the law" (Rom. 6:14, 15). He was trying to do all the right things for the wrong reason. The joy was gone.

The "world" is much with us; we are enmeshed in countless activities and it seems the busy days fly by and we drop exhausted into bed at night and remember, "Oh, I forgot to pray, or I forgot to read my Bible, today! Now what's going to happen to me?!" That's what it's like to be "under the law," under the gun, if you please.

Yes, you're busy; but when you drop into bed at night do you suddenly reproach yourself, "Oh, I forgot to eat breakfast this morning! I've been too busy to eat lunch! And there was no time to eat supper! And I haven't even had a snack for a week!"? I doubt it; you have a built-in device called "hunger" that pretty well makes that impossible, at least for very long.

There's an alternative to being "under the law"--being "under grace" (6:14), under a new motivation imposed upon you by a heart-appreciation of God's loving and His giving that you might not "perish" (John 3:16). And THAT produces a "hunger and thirst for righteousness" that simply will NOT go unsatisfied for long! (Matt. 5:6).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 27, 1998.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Greatest Love-and-Reconciliation-Building Ministry on Earth

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Queen Jezebel outright hated the prophet Elijah, but King Ahab probably feared him more than hated him. She was a non-Israelite; her hatred was that of the wicked world against Christ. Ahab was capable of feeling guilty for his fear. The mass of the people were bewildered; not one (with the possible exception of Obadiah who hid some of the Lord's servants in a cave) had the courage to stand with the holy prophet of the Lord. Everybody except Elijah trembled on Mt. Carmel. The air was charged with tension.

Well might we all tremble today as we inexorably approach our rendezvous at our last-days "Mt. Carmel." It will be a preview of the last day of Judgment, when the apostle John says we shall all be judged by the one indispensable question: "Have you learned how to love (with agape)?" (Yes, read 1 John 4:8: "He who does not love [with agape] does not know God.") The newly-sent "Elijah's" mission will be teaching God's people how to love: "He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Mal. 4:5, 6). That's his primary task, not administering lethal judgment.

Elijah's mission will be the greatest love-and-reconciliation-building ministry ever performed on earth since Pentecost. Satan can perform physical miracles (he is a very qualified orthopedic or cardiac surgeon), but reconciling alienated human hearts is a greater miracle. A five by-pass in the operating theater may not bring husband and wife together again. Only "Elijah" can do that; but that's what he has come to accomplish, and if we condemn him like Jezebel and Ahab did and stubbornly disregard the fire that falls at "Elijah's" prayer, then mustcome the "Brook Kidron" (1 Kings 18:40).

Elijah was very patient for 3-1/2 years; then came Carmel and the end of patience forever. God is infinite, but His patience is not. Let the one who trembles find comfort in Psalm 130. What makes one really "fear" is the awareness of His forgiveness!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 31, 2006.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

A Message That Will "Lighten the Earth With Glory"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The Bible specializes in Good News which is "the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16). There is power in the word itself, as there is in the seed that sprouts. Those who wait for the second coming of Christ will demonstrate that power so fully that their message will "lighten the earth with glory." The message itself, not their personalities nor any goodness in themselves, will call believers to "come out of Babylon, My people," and honest-hearted people will respond to the "voice" from heaven (see Rev. 18:1-4). Nothing will be able to hold them back from stepping out boldly to honor Christ in the closing work of the gospel.

The message will be proclaimed not just by one or two super-gurus, but by a multitude of voices all over the earth. God can use people trained in literary institutions provided self is humbled and crucified with Christ so their ministry draws listeners to Jesus and not to themselves, but often self has gotten in the way and marred the picture. Baal worship has delayed the finishing of God's work in the earth--the worship of self disguised as the worship of Christ. In the last great work as the truth is proclaimed powerfully, God will use humble people who are called from "the plow" as Elisha was called (1 Kings 19:19).

What will bring about this great development? The Bible is clear: the experience of justification by faith, which is the same as the experience of righteousness by faith. The faith itself will "work by love," the love of Christ (Gal. 5:6), not our own love. There will be no self-righteousness in this wonderful work that lightens the earth with glory. When self is laid aside, gets out of the way, the cross of Christ can be uplifted clearly, because self will be "crucified with Him." Then He will "draw all unto [Himself]" (John 12:32).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 12, 2005.

Monday, September 16, 2013

What's So Different About "Day of Atonement" Living?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What does it mean to live while that great "seventh angel" of Revelation 11 blows his "trumpet" (vss. 15-19)? What is "Day of Atonement" living? What is so different about it and living on any ordinary "day"?

The day of atonement for Israel of old was what Jews today regard as "Yom Kippur," a day just observed by Jews around the world. This is a solemn "day," different than any other of the year (Lev. 23:27-32). It was a kindergarten lesson, a sandbox child's view, of the cosmic Day of Atonement in which we live today, a time of being completely reconciled to God (the word "atonement" means "at-one-with"). It's the opposite of being scared of God; it's living totally, fearlessly, in harmony with Him.

It's NOT wearing hairshirts or walking on hot coals or starving yourself (Hinduism has been specially designed as a gross counterfeit of it). It's NOT being ascetic, going off in the desert to be a nun or a monk (the Dark Ages idea was a total distortion of it). It's NOT the karma idea of piling up "good works" to make up for all the bad things you've done. It's NOT fear-motivated living; it IS love-motivated living. It's totally being at-one with Jesus, of living in heart-union with Him. It's NOT fanaticism or dour self-torture. It's NOT singing sad hymns all the time.

So, what IS Day of Atonement living? It's "growing up" out of spiritual infancy "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13), and loving every moment of it! It's a mature "comprehension" of His thinking, His feelings, His aspirations (3:14-21). It's identifying with Him to the point of being "in Him," of looking at the world as He looks at the world and being supremely happy in that identity.

Yes, since time began there have always been "some few in every generation" who have "grown up" out of the kindergarten sandbox idea of worshiping God and have been at-one with Him, like Enoch who "walked with God," and Moses, whose heart was so in tune with Him that he was willing to have his name blotted out of the Book of Life rather than see Israel go down the drain (cf. Heb. 11:5; Ex. 32:31, 32).

But now on this cosmic Day of Atonement, this "antitypical" one, God has a worldwide corporate "body" of people so unitedly "at-one" with Him that they become a Bride to Christ who "has made herself ready" for "the marriage of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:7). Every moment of every day becomes an exciting adventure "with Him."

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 7, 2001.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Does God Need Someone to Defend Him?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Can you conceive of the possibility that God may need someone to defend Him? That He could use a human being for that purpose?

Goliath was an arrogant, blaspheming Philistine giant who not only defied the armies of Israel but also for weeks publicly defied and blasphemed "the God of the whole earth." Israel and its army were not the primary issue; Goliath was challenging God's existence and His authority to choose and to bless a nation through whom must come the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Will God suffer this insult in silence, slinking away as it were, leaving Goliath to win the day?

God cannot strike Goliath with a lightning thunderbolt because He does not want to force a subservient worship based on fear. Goliath may himself be a big bully, but God cannot win the day by being a Bigger Bully. He can roar from heaven with a loud voice and frighten Goliath and the Philistines, but again that is not His way of doing things. Actually, as in the days of Job, God needs a human being to defend Him, because the battle is not "with sword and spear" (1 Sam. 17:45). Someone must speak up to maintain God's honor.

Enter into the arena the stripling, David, clad only in his shepherd's garb and armed only with a slingshot and a few pebbles. David was not principally a partisan contestant for national greatness; he had an understanding of God's character of love and of the sacrifice of Christ for the world. He spoke publicly in defense of the plan of salvation itself. To demonstrate for all time to come how God works in cooperation with man, He blessed David's skillful aim of a pebble from his slingshot, which caught the giant between his eyes, blinded and stunned him. Picture this lad jumping on the giant's prostrate belly, wresting from its scabbard his huge sword to use it on him before the giant recovers. A teenager has learned to appreciate the character of God, to trust Him, willing to face eternal death for His honor.

Can you conceive of 144,000 giant "Goliaths" blaspheming God in these last days? And 144,000 "Davids" challenging and conquering them? Get in training today.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 26, 1999.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Time for Christ to Be Known in Truth Among Muslims

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Our Muslim friends like to say that "Allah is great!" According to the first chapter of the Qur'an, they speak of Him as being "beneficent, Lord of the worlds, the merciful owner of the Day of Judgment." When they know they are about to die (that is, for example, suicide-bombers), they love to repeat that phrase, "Allah is great!"

But the Bible says that God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator, is far greater than the Muslims understand "Allah" to be. God is our Father, who loves the world so much that He gave His only Son, who sent Him to die for us. The God who is revealed in the Holy Bible is more than being "Lord of the worlds," He is the Savior of the worlds!

He is the Author of life, and yet He is also the Conqueror of death. He is the One who has defeated Satan. The Bible describes the true God as the One who Himself "is love," that is, "God is agape." The Quran knows nothing of a God who is love--the kind of love that led the Son of God actually to go to hell in order to "save the world." He died what the Bible calls "the second death" (Rev. 2:11). That is a death that is eternal; it is hell itself. Isaiah 53 says He "poured out His soul unto death," like you empty a bottle of its last drop. When one dies hoping for a resurrection, the Bible says that is not "death," it is only "sleep." Death, the real thing, is death forever; it is forfeiting all the joys of life itself, forever. It's hard to imagine how terrible hell is--the utter defeat of all that you are, it includes eternal shame and disgrace.

And that precisely is what Christ chose to endure in our behalf! Peter says that the Father would not leave Him in hell (Acts 2:25-27), but raised Him up. But the resurrection of Christ does not weaken the extent of His love for us. "Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8). And Galatians 3:13 tells us that the death of the cross involved "the curse of God." Christ "was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21).

Love that dies our second death for us, that takes our hell upon Himself--that is the measure of the true "beneficence" of God, His true "mercy." This is what qualifies Him to be truly "the Lord of the worlds, Owner of the Day of Judgment."

The time has come for Christ to become "King of kings, Lord of lords," and be known among the Muslims for what He is in truth--"the Savior of the world" (John 4:42).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 1, 2002.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Paul's "Big Ideas"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

From the very beginning of the early days of Christianity, there have been conflicts about how good the Good News is. The Letter to the Galatians is evidence. The early converts from the Jews had to wrestle against a deep mind-set idea that no one could be saved except Jews, that Gentiles were automatically excluded from the benefits of Christ's sacrifice.

Remember how Peter had to overcome that prejudice in Acts 10:28 when he was sent to Cornelius? And how "certain [ones] came from James" to Galatia to enforce the ideas at the Jerusalem headquarters of the Christian church that Gentiles must first become ceremonial-law Jews (see Gal. 2:11-21)? How Peter "and the other Jews dissembled" when they "withdrew and separated" themselves from Paul and his Gentile converts to the gospel?

Deeply laid prejudices seemed almost ineradicable. The "faithful" Jewish Christians just felt in their bones that the gates of the New Jerusalem had to be shut against Gentiles, that Christ was Messiah and Savior only to themselves, that their work as apostles was to go to all the Jews in the Diaspora scattered around the world.

But Paul's mind had been enlightened with a far brighter view of how good the Good News is! "God ... will have all men to be saved," the Messiah is already "the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe," He has "abolished death [the second!] and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel," and has become the new or second Adam for the entire human race and has given, not merely offered, the "gift" of salvation to "all men" just as Adam gave "condemnation" to them.

These "big ideas" (all from Paul) stretched the minds and hearts of the early Jewish Christians, and they still challenge our thinking today. Does the Son of God merely "offer" justification to "all men" with the initiative in their hands, or has He on His own initiative given it freely by grace as a "gift" to "all men"? Does He open the gates of the New Jerusalem to "all men" so that in the end the only ones who are outside are those who themselves refuse by unbelief to enter? Could the Good News be that good??

--Robert J. Wieland

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

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Does It Hurt God for Us to Think Evil of Him?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What difference does it make to God what we think inside of us? Why would God even care what we think? What difference could our private thoughts make to Him?

We can ask another question: What difference does it make to you what your neighbor may think about you? If you are a hard, harsh, arrogant person, probably, nothing. But if you are a kind, considerate, loving person, it would surely burden you to know that your neighbor sees you as bad, selfish, or unjust, even if he doesn't gossip about you to others. Just the knowledge that in his mind he cherishes these evil thoughts about you must burden you.

Does it hurt God for us to think evil of Him? It must, because "the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7), and enmity is incipient murder, says John: "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). If you were God could you "rest" knowing that there are people who would crucify You all over again? (If He were to come as Christ came 2000 years ago?)

Yes, God longs for "rest," which since sin began on this planet, He has never been able to do. He is burdened 24/7. And He cannot rest until the great controversy between Satan and Himself has come to an end.

We are now living in the grand cosmic Day of Atonement, of which the ancient Levitical Yom Kippur was a symbol. God so loves the world already that He gave His only Son for us, proving that He is reconciled to us; what remains to be done is for us to be reconciled to Him.

Don't resist or stop the Holy Spirit from ministering that final reconciliation to you. He speaks, "Be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:18-20). To find out how He does it, read the rest of the chapter. Let Him turn your attention to what happened on the cross when "He was made to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (vs. 21).

God's heart doesn't need to be changed toward you, but yours needs to be changed toward Him. On this cosmic Day of Atonement, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. Don't "resist our Lord in His office work."

--Robert J. Wieland

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

Monday, September 09, 2013

The Great Promise in John 16:13

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

All the wonderful promises that Jesus made before His death must and will be fulfilled. But there is one GREAT promise that has not yet been fulfilled, and many Christians think it never will be. They are wrong! He will not fail.

That great promise is in John 16:13: “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.” We usually think of the Holy Spirit as giving us happy feelings or of giving great power in witnessing and producing baptisms; we think that understanding “all truth” is of lesser importance. But over 200 times the Bible speaks of the importance of truth. In ordinary life, law courts, juries, judges, seek constantly to know the truth. Jesus says that it is so important that “the truth shall make you free” (8:32).

In His same promise that the Holy Spirit will guide us “into all truth” Jesus promised, “He will show you things to come.” The wording is very similar to the opening of the Book of Revelation, “the revelation ... of things which must shortly come to pass” (1:1). The Book of Revelation was the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise! And yet Christian people go in all different directions in understanding what Revelation is saying!

Likewise, there is confusion in understanding Daniel’s prophecies; yet God commanded the angel, “Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision,” and later the angel said to him, “I will show thee the truth” (8:16; 11:2). Paul spoke of his message as “the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5). There is as much division in understanding that as there is in understanding Daniel and the Revelation!

What can bring about a unity and clarity of understanding these important truths? Surely when that great fourth angel of Revelation 18:1-4 begins to “lighten the earth with glory,” the message that calls every sincere person “out of Babylon” will be a message of pure, unadulterated truth. We pray daily for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. An excellent place to begin finding the answer to that prayer is in honest, sincere, and humble listening to the Bible to permit it to tell us what the truth is in all these controverted areas. Jesus did not promise, “The Holy Spirit will TRY to lead you into all truth,” or “He wishes He could lead you into all truth.” No, He said He WILL do so.

As surely as you read this, so surely is the Holy Spirit right now “leading” us into the truth that will bind us together in loving harmony of belief. Let’s listen to Him!

--Robert J. Wieland

From the “Dial Daily Bread” Archive: March 18, 2000.

Saturday, September 07, 2013

Can We Actually Open or Lock the Gates of Heaven?

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Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

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

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

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

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 18, 1998.

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

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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, September 06, 2013

Have You Ever Felt Unworthy Even to Pray?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you ever felt unworthy to have your prayers answered? Unworthy even to pray? There was a lady in Matthew 15 whose experience will encourage you. She was a Gentile in Palestine where the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles was strained.

She had a child "vexed with a devil" (vss. 21-28). She knew that the Jews considered her ethnic group as "dogs." She saw Jesus and His disciples as being the princes of the realm; she and her daughter were unworthy paupers, born to be that way. Dogs are what they are, they can't graduate. But she had some faith in Jesus as "the Son of David," the Messiah. So she asked, that is, prayed, that He would deliver her child from the vexation of the devil.

Jesus acted strangely indifferent: "He answered her not a word" (vs. 23; have you ever prayed and got not a word back in answer?). Then she pathetically appealed to His disciples, "Do something for me!" But they walked on arrogantly, asking Jesus to discourage her. "Send her away; for she crieth after us." Then Jesus said something that sounded very hard to the lady: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." In other words, I can't answer your prayer; you are just a Gentile! Only the princes of the realm can have their requests granted, not the paupers!

But the lady wouldn't give up (a good lesson, right there!). She flung herself at His feet so He couldn't move (reminiscent of Jacob holding on to the Angel so He couldn't leave). "Lord, help me!" Desperation in her voice and eyes. Then Jesus was most uncharacteristic: He threw her a put-down that makes me tremble; what would I have done in her place? "It is not proper to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs" (vs. 26). By this time, would I have given up and gone home? Not this lady: "Truth, Lord." I agree; I don't try to argue; I am a dog. "Yet the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the family table!" She is on her knees in front of Him, the cold-hearted Twelve watching. She is matching Him with sublime repartee. A female Gentile/Jacob wrestling with the Angel!

And what did the Lord do? He invited her, Come up, sit at the table, you are no dog. Your faith proves that you belong there with greater right than so-called sons and daughters of Abraham: "O woman, great is thy faith" (vs. 28). We know nothing of her life experience. Maybe the daughter was illegitimate. But "this Man receiveth sinners" (Luke 15:2). Not only did she have "faith," she had some sanctified wit. Come to Him today; remind Him that unworthy as you may be, He will respect your faith (John 6:37).

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 29, 1999.

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

How Can a Rejected Savior Function as Prince of Peace?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Does Jesus Christ worry? Is He concerned about what happens on earth, and does He care about the enormous human suffering that wars bring to so many people?

The Bible reveals Him as being fully human as well as divine, for His name is "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matt. 1:23). Isaiah pictures Him as concerned, for "in all their [our] affliction He was [is] afflicted" (63:9). He complains of us, "Thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities" (43:24).

When He ministered among us in person, "Jesus wept" (John 11:35) in sympathy with a family who mourned the death of a loved one (Lazarus), but also obviously in heart sympathy with that generation who were doomed to suffer the horrors of the Roman war that brought national ruin four decades later. There was nothing that Jesus could do to avert it because His own people were rejecting Him, and in a matter of days would expel Him from the world through crucifixion. But how can a rejected Savior function effectively as Prince of Peace?

When Jesus wept, it was in heart sympathy with all who suffer on earth. For sure, He is not happy for the agonies of many thousands.

Galatians 4:4 reveals Christ as intimately involved with us: "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." He was "made" to be something that He was not; He had to be "made under" the same sense of suffering, of yearning, of longing, that all of us are "under." This is because He was "sent" to "redeem them that [are] under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (vs. 5).

But is He helpless, as we are? No, in a world of intrigue and cruelty, He has organized an "underground" (as C. S. Lewis put it). Those who believe in Him are a part of this "great controversy between Christ and Satan."

For now we are to appreciate His intimate involvement with humanity, so we can grow in our intimate involvement with Him. We can know no comfort greater than that.

--Robert J. Wieland

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 16, 2003.

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

The Call of the Holy Spirit

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

This is not flattering news; and some might just not like it: we are ALL the famous "Prodigal Son" of Jesus' parable in Luke 15. Some might grudgingly admit that much, but the blockbuster truth is this; his pigsty is our natural habitat.

A pigsty is not a nice place to live; and this sinful, rebellious world is not a nice "home" for any of us. The living Word which has power within it says, "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:2). That's the same as a "mind transplant." A wise writer summed up the matter by saying that anything, good as it may be, that causes us to "forget God" is the path of death.

The remedy: a "mind transplant." Pretty heavy surgery.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). Yes, the word means "purpose," but that's what our word "mind" really means: "I have a mind to do this or that ..."

The Lord Jesus, working through the Holy Spirit is trying to give us that "transplant" if we will not resist and oppose Him. "LET this mind be in you ..." The entire ministry of eternal salvation is a LET it happen work of the Lord who accomplished the salvation of the world when He died our second death on His cross; but the world (to date) has chosen not to LET Him do it. So, there is "a great controversy" between Christ and Satan raging in every human heart.

Even when we think at last we have attained, there comes the call of the Holy Spirit, "LET this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ..." In "Pilgrim's Progress" John Bunyan wisely wrote that at the very gate of the New Jerusalem there is a tunnel that goes down to hell. "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12).

--Robert J. Wieland

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