Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The Apostle Paul was not a better person than we are, nor more heroic. He simply saw something that made all his sacrifices easy:

• He saw that he would be in a hopeless grave if that “One” had not died in his place.

• He saw that even his next breath he owed to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

• He saw himself a slave bought by love, responding to the blood shed there.

• He saw that nothing he possessed he could count as really his.

He could have sung Isaac Watts’ hymn:

When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a tribute far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my life, my soul, my all.


As easily as the believing Israelites were healed of their fatal snake bites, so easily does the new birth occur in the heart of anyone who “sees” the cross like Paul saw it.

Of course, he did not see it literally—he was not one of the original Twelve. He saw it by faith, and his experience is therefore an encouragement to us who also have never seen it literally. What he saw by faith seems to have made a more profound impression on him than the actual event made on those apostles who did see it. None of them seems to have caught its meaning as vividly as Paul did. That means something special for us who never saw the physical happening as did the Eleven (a thousand movies can’t portray it!). We are especially fortunate because that same faith-inspired devotion can be ours. Because of faith, Paul has to be better news than the other apostles! Faith has far sharper discernment than our physical eyes.

[From The Good News Is Better Than You Think, by Robert J. Wieland, pp. 26, 27.]

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

A Fabulous Discovery

The wonderful Bible truth is that God takes the initiative in saving us. He is not, as many conceive of Him, standing back, His divine arms folded in disinterested concern while we wallow in our misery. He is not saying, “Well, I did My part long ago; it’s up to you now. You must take the initiative. If you want to be saved, come and work hard at it. If it seems hard to you, you just don’t have what it takes to get to heaven.”

No. A thousand times No! But many feel that way about God. And some shy and timid ones think God has plenty of good people ready to take my place—He doesn’t need me, and I’m not really sure He even wants me.

In contrast, Paul helps us see the divine initiative at work for us: “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4).

Today’s English Version says He “is trying to lead you to repent.” The goodness of God is actually taking you by the hand and leading you toward repentance as surely as a fireman tries to lead a victim out of the smoke and haze of a burning building. If you don’t stubbornly resist, you will be led all the way to heaven. Astounding as it may seem, that’s the message.

Sometimes we pray agonizingly for some wayward loved one, assuming we have to beg the Lord to wake up and please do something. The idea is that He is divinely indifferent until we touch His pity somehow. But the goodness of God is already working, leading your loved one to repentance. The trouble is that we often thwart what He is trying to do because we haven’t understood that goodness, mercy, and forbearance of the Lord in their true dimensions. We’re horrified to realize it, but we pile stumbling blocks in our loved one’s way to heaven. We don’t realize how the selfishness and inconsistencies they see in us block their access to God, or shadow their concepts of His character.

And it is true, not everybody repents. Why? Some “despise” this goodness of God. Stubborn, they break away from that leading. Let’s grasp this tremendous insight! The sinner may resist this love, he may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist he will be drawn to Jesus. A knowledge of the plan of salvation will lead him to the foot of the cross in repentance for his sins.

[From The Good News Is Better Than You Think, by Robert J. Wieland, pp. 64, 65.]

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

A Beautiful Example of God’s Evangelistic Wisdom

It’s found in Galatians 4:1-5 where we see that He treats unbelievers not as outsiders or as wolves to be shot down as soon as possible, but as wandering sons or lost sheep that haven’t yet found their way home.

The figure is that of a child of the wealthy estate owner who runs about barefoot, bossed by slaves; but when he comes of age, he becomes lord of the estate. “Even so we ... were children ... in bondage ... But when the fullness of the time had come, ... we ... receive[d] the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:3-5).

Happy is the spouse who believes enough in Good News to draw a circle that takes in the unbelieving one, assuming that he or she is a child of God “in minority” on the way to realizing and confessing that sonship or daughtership in God’s good time. That’s cooperating with God in working miracles!

New Testament forgiveness, whether given by God or by a believing spouse, implies the idea of being loosed from the sin, of actually sending it away. The Greek word is aphesi, which means literally “bearing away.” The truly forgiven person is free from the sin, and won’t do it again ever.

The Only Way Anyone Can Learn to Forgive

No one can forgive an erring spouse unless he has first experienced Christ’s forgiving grace toward himself. If God invented sex and marriage, He also invented the redemption that centers in the cross. Miracles don’t happen unless there is a sense of the tremendous “giving for” that was involved in God’s forgiveness, an appreciation of the cost expended at Calvary:

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love [agape], just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 4:32; 5:1, NIV).

In olden times, marriages were happy according as the two parties believed that God had brought them together, rather than their own mutual chemical or social attractions for each other. Their love for each other was rooted in their primary faith in God’s leading. When they had the horse before the cart, their faith in each other grew into happy, permanent love.

Isaac, for example, never laid eyes on Rebekah until his father’s servant brought her to him from Mesopotamia and was told how she was God’s choice for him. His faith concurred with God’s leading, and we read that “he loved her.” In fact, Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage is one of the happiest recorded in the Bible (see Gen. 24:66, 67).

You may have heard the story of the man in Acres of Diamonds who looked all over the world for treasure, only to discover the precious gems in his own backyard. The grass on the other side of the fence may not be as green as it is on your side already.

[From The Good News Is Better Than You Think, by Robert J. Wieland, pp. 123-125.]

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

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 2007, 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.”

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.
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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

God has given us the book of Hebrews as a treasure of truth. It’s more soul-satisfying to read than the daily newspaper, and if you understand what it’s about, more interesting. It connects us directly with our Great High Priest who is just now conducting His closing work of preparing a people to stand through the final scenes of earthly time.

But it frightens some good-hearted people because its theme throughout is being “made perfect.” “I don’t see how I can ever become perfect,” they say. And they turn away.

But wait a moment: think again. The theme of Hebrews is NOT making yourself “perfect.” In fact, that’s not your business; that precisely is the work of your Great High Priest. There’s been a misunderstanding foisted upon God’s people, to make them think that the Father is holding up the second coming of Christ until “we” accomplish this impossible goal. The theme of Hebrews is for “us” to LET our High Priest make His people perfect; He will do it if they don’t resist and hinder Him in what He wants to do.

For example, note 7:25: “He is able to save them perfectly who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Who does it? He; not we. Or, 11:40, the idea is to be “made perfect,” not make yourself perfect. And 13:20, 21, the same Father who “brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, ... through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you ...” Who does it? Our Father.

Or Philippians 2:5-8: “LET this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ...” If you and I will take down the bars that shut the door of our hearts and LET the Holy Spirit bring in that “mind,” the great High Priest can have His way. The Father’s “gifts” are given “for the perfecting of the saints, ... for building up the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith ... unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, ... no more children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:11-14). Let Him labor on!

The great cosmic controversy between Christ and Satan hinges on whether the great High Priest can demonstrate that His “gospel [is] the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). Must His people always stumble and fail as did ancient Israel? It’s not a crisis of doing “works,” but a crisis of faith, believing—which faith then works all the good works motivated by love (agape).

The missing link is stated twice in Hebrews: “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus” (3:1). “Consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself ...” (12:3). The word means a long, contemplative look at (a) His sacrifice on His cross, and (b) His resurrection High Priestly ministry that makes effective what He accomplished on His cross.

Yes, “behold the Lamb of God” is the idea (John 1:29).

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are honest-hearted people scattered in all cultures and kinds of religious faith who will gladly open their hearts to Jesus when they hear His message clearly. He says, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16).

That’s the grand final ingathering of souls that Revelation 18:1-4 speaks of—when a message lightens the earth with glory, and God’s people now in “Babylon” hear the Voice from heaven that says with authority, “Come out of her, My people.” That Voice has been nearly silenced through a period of three centuries, but “the Scripture cannot be broken” and God’s word must be fulfilled (John 10:35). The Voice will yet be heard. Isaiah describes the Loud Cry ingathering: “‘Lift up your eyes, look around and see; all these gather together and come to you. As I live, ‘ says the LORD, ‘you shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament. ...’” (Isa. 49:18).

Jesus pleads with His Father that these “other sheep” become one, that is, united ( 17:21). Now they are scattered; some keep the seventh day, many keep the first; what will bring them into “one”? They will come there, before the Lord Jesus returns, as He promised.

What will bring them into one?

It will be the cross on which the Lord was crucified; they will understand in unison what He accomplished. Today, they are divided in that vision: some see that the cross was meant only to make an offer to the world, that Christ’s sacrifice does us no good unless and until we decide to believe and receive the offer.

Others believe that all the good we have ever known is the purchase of that sacrifice; that it proclaims that Jesus became our “last Adam,” reversed the judicial condemnation that the first Adam put on the human race, and by virtue of His sacrifice Christ pronounced on “all men” a “judicial ... verdict of acquittal”(Rom. 5:16, REB); that He “tasted death for every man” Heb. 2:9); that He earned the title “Savior of the world” (John 4:42); that He gave Himself to “every man” and will save every soul who will let Him do so and will stop resisting Him.

As time goes on, the Holy Spirit will deepen convictions of truth in people’s hearts; and truth always unites—it never divides honest people.

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are some who seem to have a good time all the time, always upbeat, cheerful. They are the ones that Solomon described when he said, “He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast” (Prov. 15:15, KJV). Life is an endless picnic for them. Like King Midas of old, everything they touch seems to turn to gold, every day is like Disney fun.

Just let them “Remember now [their] Creator in the days of [their] youth,” the One who has given them their picnic (Eccl. 12:1). Their Creator is the same One as their Savior who says of us all, “I am come that they might have life, and that they my have it more abundantly” (John 10:10); there’s where your picnic has come from.

The towering truth of the Bible proclaims that our common life is the purchase of the death of the Son of God; “the Lord [the Father] has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” No one could have his picnic unless the Son of God had borne a corresponding weight of grief to balance it out; “He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, ... wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and by His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:4-6). There is a divine, universal balance sheet; every laugh, every smile, has been purchased for the world’s billions by the self-sacrifice of the One who went to hell that we might enjoy our heaven.

One thoughtful person awoke to this realization and declared with enthusiasm that every loaf of bread is stamped with the cross of Christ; never one, saint or sinner, eats his daily food (even at McDonalds!) but he partakes anew of the Lord’s Supper—often doing what Paul says never do—“whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27). Our common luncheon table is “the table of the Lord”! We’ve been just too blind to realize what life is all about.

When someone does something wonderful for us, we say “Thank you.” There is an appropriate reciprocal consecration: Christ has consecrated Himself for us so we can live; now it is appropriate that we consecrate ourselves, this life He has given us, to His service—the motivation being a response to His love.

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Our local phonebook lists many specialty physicians. Each takes long extra training in the one branch of medicine for which he/she is uniquely qualified.

If Jesus had a place in our phonebook He would be listed as specializing in brokenheartedness. That is the one branch of heart-illness in which He is supremely qualified by experience. He is the only person in our 6000+ years who has experienced to the full the anguish of being totally “forsaken” by the Father (cf. Matt. 27:46; true! no one else has ever yet died the second death!). That death-pang of anguish on the cross was His extra training in His Physician-specialty!

“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart” (Psalm 34:18). The problem is, they don’t realize it; to them, He seems billions of miles away.

But there is only one spot where they can realize that nearness—on His cross with Him. Come, there.

“A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise,” and “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit” (51:17). The brokenness is in contrition, sorrow for sin, not fear for the punishment but pain for having caused suffering to the Son of God. That repentance is precious gift from God!

Christ’s expertise in being a Physician to the brokenhearted is told in Psalm 147:3: “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” It’s not merely superficial comfort that He offers, to get you by with a band-aid for another dark and dreary day; He heals that brokenness. From the deep inside, He makes you smile again.

Jesus announced His Physician-specialty in the Sabbath worship service in His home town of Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath Me to preach the gospel [Good News] to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives [slaves], and recovering of sight to the blind [an Optician supreme], to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18).

Time’s up; maybe more about His blessed specialty tomorrow, the Lord willing.

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.
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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Many thoughtful, sincere people worldwide who reverence the Bible are convinced that the world has come to the “time of the end,” the “last days,” and that Jesus’ promise to come again is overdue in timing. The world desperately needs Him to come as “King of kings and Lord of lords.” The anguish and pain worldwide are enormous, many suffer miserably while the wealthy revel in selfish pleasure. It’s “the days of Noah” redivivus.

The Bible abounds in promises of Heaven pouring out on earth a final revelation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that came initially at Pentecost. We are told to “pray for the latter rain” of the Spirit. A number of movements have arisen in which large masses of people have made this prayer their combined concern.

This particular writer remembers the “Victorious Life” revivals of the 1920’s and 1930’s. They were interdenominational. In particular, one church expected a period of 40 years’ “wandering in the wilderness” to reach its end in 1928. The revivals extended into the 1930’s and were snuffed out in the rise of Nazism and a cruel war greater than any history had recorded.

The bloodbath was utterly horrible; may it never be repeated!

Then the war was finally over; now came wonderful economic prosperity, and another movement to petition Heaven for that long delayed gift of “the latter rain.” This writer and his wife were sent to Uganda and Kenya as missionaries. We thought the Lord was returning soon as He has promised in John 14:1-3.

Is the Lord reticent to grant the gift He has promised? No, it cannot be; Jesus told us that He is more willing to grant the outpouring of His Holy Spirit than parents are to give their children good gifts (Luke 11:13).

But are they ready to recognize, and to receive His blessings, and are they ready and competent to distinguish between the genuine gift and the very clever counterfeits which the world’s great “false christ” will foist upon us?

And are we sure that we have an informed understanding of what a genuine gift of the latter rain of the Holy Spirit really is?

Heaven has not been dilatory, nor reticent to respond. Google may not help in the research, but there has been a tremendously important history of the “latter rain.”

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Two thousand years ago God’s people were expecting their long-awaited Messiah to appear. But when He came as a Baby in Bethlehem, they did not recognize Him, and the leaders of the true church of that day led the people to murder Him.

Now God’s people are expecting a great blessing to come from heaven, that is, the long-promised “latter rain,” the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will “lighten the earth with glory” (Rev. 18:1-4). It will be a message that will prepare God’s people for the second coming of Jesus.

Not everyone on earth will be converted for many will reject, as many rejected Jesus long ago; but the message will seek out honest hearts everywhere who will respond. The Lord will be honored. Some will come from places that will seem unlikely to those who have been in the way a long time; the message of the “everlasting gospel” will be presented so clearly and powerfully that Christ will be uplifted as the crucified Son of God. He not only died for the world in a vague corporate sense but He also died for each individual soul. And each who permits his heart to be moved by the “love of Christ [that] constrains us” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15) will be sanctified by the message that will be finally full-blown.

The watching universe will be amazed at the transformations that the pure, true gospel will accomplish, as Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). But Satan’s cleverness has confused “the truth of the gospel” even as “certain men [who] came from James” (the early leader of the church in Paul’s day) confused even Peter and Barnabas (Gal. 2:6, 12-14). The story of that stumbling on the part of the early leaders of the church is not well known (cf. Gal. 2:1-13). Paul was right! And his Romans is “the clearest gospel of all.”

This often neglected story of human fallibility encourages us to study “the truth of the gospel” (vss. 5, 14) directly for ourselves. Even in modern times, sincere, converted leaders can err and can mislead people, even the “faithful” such as Barnabas long ago. There is no prayer that Heaven is more eager to answer than the prayer of an honest heart who wants to understand truth! The Lord would rather empty heaven of angels, sending them all down here to help one soul, rather than allow that soul to become misled.

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Children are very important people who need Good News, not Bad. Jesus is very severe with people who abuse children spiritually—that is, pastors, or parents, or teachers who tell them Bad News instead of the pure, true “gospel” that He commanded us to tell everybody (Mark 15:16; Matt. 18:6).

When it’s our turn to tell the Children’s Story in the church service, we must beg Him to help us do it right, to tell them something that will turn their little feet toward the kingdom of God, and not vice versa.

Sometimes I like to make it into a game that a child can play with me. If one volunteers, I tell him/her that all I want him to do is to go for a walk with me down the aisle of the church, and he/she hold on to my hand. That’s all!

So, the trusting child, smiling a bit sheepishly, stands with me there in front of everybody, and tremulously holds my hand. Whereupon I take off in top gear down the aisle with the child left there behind, not having taken a step, because of course there was no hanging on.

Then, after “berating” the child for not holding on to my hand as I told him/her to do, I say, “Now let’s try it again; and this time instead of you holding on to my hand as we go for a walk, let me hold you by the hand. Then we take off and I hold on tight.

Then I make my point: being saved in God’s kingdom does not depend on you holding on to God’s hand, because you and I and all of us are too weak to hang on. But it depends on us believing that He is holding tight to our hand.

He says so: “I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you’” (Isa. 41:13).

The idea is not that we must take the initiative in our salvation and start the process going; we must believe that His love for us takes the initiative; it’s an important point that must not be twisted or distorted. It’s “God [who] so loved the world that He gave ...” It’s not we who persuaded Him to love us! You and He are crossing this busy street of worldly traffic and you are the little child. “Father” is not going to let you run across on your own. He is going to hold you tight by His hand. (True, if you are perverse, you can wriggle yourself out of His hand; a child can do that, and get hit by the traffic.)

You don’t want to do that, do you? Respond to His constant gripping of your hand.

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

As a thoughtful boy of 12 in 1928 this writer obeyed his Sunday School teacher and proceeded to memorize the Ten Commandments. This in the most prestigious church in our little town of some 2000, where the bank president was a member (daughter also 12 played the piano beautifully, accompanied the boy while he played violin). The church was to him imposing—Gothic windows, a robed choir, a Doctor of Divinity pastor, and a real pipe organ (in those days they didn’t make imitations; it shook the walls with the bass, and this boy loved it).

He was puzzled by the “seventh day” language of the 4th commandment when he glanced at the calendar and saw how Sunday is the first. Next Sunday his question was turned aside—not only do our Presbyterian, but also the Baptist and Methodist churches keep Sunday. Must be true. My father, reared a Lutheran and a strict Calvinist, would not buy a gallon of gas on Sunday, nor would he let me ride my bike around town (hoping for a glimpse of the bank president’s daughter) on Sunday afternoon.

This writer’s brother (older by six years) told him why the discrepancy between the “seventh ” and first-days: the Roman Catholic Church was responsible. News! Whereupon this lad made a decision that he would keep the Bible day, not knowing there was another congregation that did. (He had learned about Martin Luther from his Protestant father.)

Along with the Sabbath insight came the knowledge of the “soon return of Jesus,” with fascinating things in Daniel and Revelation that made sense, and baptism in a lake with membership in a tiny little church that worshipped every Saturday. (The bank president’s daughter thought he was crazy walking through town to church on Saturdays. Other high school friends, including the principal, thought so too.)

Now in 2007 lots of time has gone by; still Jesus has not returned.

Am I disappointed that “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:11-13) hasn’t materialized—yet? Of course. But I remember how Jesus lost His crowd in John 6:66ff. and suffered rejection. I get my Bible down and read again the evidence. And again, I choose to follow Him.

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

We caught just a few minutes of the History Channel while eating lunch. It was about the Colosseum in ancient Rome, that pagan temple to cruelty and the vain amusement of the masses. They would flock there day after day to watch gladiators fight each other to the death and ravenously hungry lions kill and eat Christians. It was Disneyland gone horribly wild and cruel, and it was our TV violence live.

Two poignant facts stood out:

(a) This enormous structure built after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. was financed by the treasures of the Jewish Temple which Rome had taken as the spoils of their expensive war.

(b) The laborers who built the structure were largely Jewish slaves captured in that last siege.

This was historical and theological irony that caused immense rejoicing in Satan’s kingdom of darkness.

Think of it: up until the Savior had pronounced the woes upon the Pharisees in Matthew 23:13ff., the Temple had been the divinely recognized “house of God” on earth for the true church of that time. The Jews who rejected Jesus thought their wonderful Temple would stand forever, but He told His disciples that “not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matt. 24:2). The destruction of Jerusalem, and Solomon’s Temple in 586 B.C., was terrible, but this of 70 A.D. was the most frightful humiliation any nation in history had ever experienced. All so unnecessary!

And now the rejectors of Jesus toil as slaves to build it, while their looted Temple supplies the cost of building the most horrible “temple” Satan has ever had on earth. Thus the Enemy gloats over his hatred of what was formerly the true “church” on earth.

A prominent speaker at a huge assembly of serious-minded Christian youth (General Youth Conference) recently declared openly that World Wars I and II need never have cursed this earth but for the unbelief and hard-heartedness of God’s professed people who “just like the Jews” rejected glorious truth that “the Lord in His great mercy sent” them—truth that was an emblem of Christ Himself.

Rather than give Satan an advantage in creating another “Colosseum” as precious time going by, would it not be better for us to humble our hearts before the Lord in repentance?

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.
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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are two widely different kinds of people, and both are beloved of God: (a) those who skip through life with endless light-heartedness: “He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast,” or otherwise translated, “He who has a cheerful disposition enjoys a lifelong picnic” (cf. Prov. 15:15, KJV). It seems the Lord crowns such a person with sunlit favor. Some of us are tempted to envy their constant upbeat smile and ready chuckles. They have their work to do for the Lord.

(b) But there are others for whom life seems an endless discipline from the Lord. The Psalmist concedes that “God is good to Israel [the good people], to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. ... All day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning” (Psalm 73:1, 2, 14). The Bible is clear that the Lord loves them, too: “Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” The apparently severe discipline “yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:6, 11).

Has the Lord given us the liberty to choose whether we want (a) or (b)? If so, we’d all go for (a). But probably all of “Israel” (the good people) experience a mixture of the two with the pain of discipline tempered by occasional sunlit days that are a relief from the dark, stormy ones. As the Psalmist said above, “God is good . ...” “The Lord ... will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not ... punished us according to our iniquities. ... The Lord pities those who fear [reverence] Him, ... for He remembers that we are dust.” If we will believe that truth, then we will “bless the Lord, O my soul!” (Psalm 103:8-14, 22).

But there is a special category of people beyond (a) or (b) that none of us knows quite how to classify just yet. They “rejoice to the extent that [they] partake of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13), which is a specially intimate “fellowship” with the Son of God (Phil. 3:10; 2 Cor. 1:7). Let’s not try to sugarcoat the experience. Frankly, it is “NOT joyful for the present, but grievous” (Heb. 12:11). If you can watch Baghdad’s current history (and the world’s!) through the eyes of Jesus, you won’t likely be joking around very much; you’ll be pretty serious. You’ll actually be sitting “in heavenly places in Christ” which may not be as much fun as we have always thought, but that’s what the coveted “adoption” entails (cf. Eph. 1:3, 5). Revelation 3:21 tells it clearly: if you are in fellowship with Christ you’ll be sharing with Him executive authority in closing the great controversy with Satan. The “government will be upon His shoulder”(Isa. 9:6), but you’ll be sharing its weight with Him. You will be working “with Him,” on His side, “called, and chosen, and faithful”(cf. Rev. 17:14), helping lift His burden.

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

It’s one of the biggest “IF’s” in the Bible and it makes us wonder why the Lord let it get in there: “IF any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).

Have you ever met anyone who had all the wisdom he/she needs? It seems we all lack it, even the great King Solomon, said to have been the wisest man who ever lived. He so “lacked wisdom” that like a fool he fell into that awful “deep pit” of “the mouth of strange women” whom the Lord never intended him to marry; “he who is abhorred of the Lord will fall there,” he himself had said (Prov. 22:14, KJV). Those women led him to ruin.

The apostle James encourages you to receive this priceless gift of wisdom:

(1) If you have been delivered from arrogance and you realize your emptiness of wisdom, thank God for this clear evidence that the Lord does not “abhor” you. Remember, He can love you dearly and at the same time “abhor” your spiritual stupidity. A good dose of feeling how much the Lord “abhors” one can be a tremendous blessing.

(2) The call to “any of you” means that the Lord puts all of us, educated and not, on a level in His sight: work yourself almost to death getting a dozen doctoral degrees and you can still remain a fool. If you are someone who has never had the chance to get “higher education” (there are still a few such people in the world), please don’t despair and think of yourself as handicapped. There’s a story in our precious book of Ecclesiastes about a “poor ... man” who was nevertheless “wise “ who saved a city from almost certain conquest (but nobody ever thought to thank him; yet he “lives” in genuine fame, 9:13-15).

(3) You wisdom-needing soul, be happy: the Lord does not bawl you out and make you feel like two cents because you “lack wisdom.” He gives it to you “liberally and without reproach.” Oh, I love that! No berating, no torrent of reproach. He respects you as well as loves you! His affection for you is not that of yours for your dog. He honors you! He is constantly trying to build your self-respect.

(4) He is training you to sing a beautiful solo: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit [if He has saved you from fornication or adultery, sing the Hallelujah chorus], out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth” that “many” will rejoice to hear (Psalm 40:1-3, KJV).

Be happy! You are “blessed” (Matt. 5:3).

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 page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The pure gospel gives a deep peace that grows in a heart that has been delivered from the subliminal fear that shadows us all our lives.

But sometimes an inner volcano erupts from the murky depths of our unknown selves, a rage or bitterness that we thought was as extinct as Vesuvius. Deep emotional fires that may go back to our infancy, like the child who comes to realize that he is an accident in this world, wasn’t wanted. The unwanted child may wonder, “Where was God when all this happened?”

Parents may not realize that they are destroying the self-respect of the child through endless fault-finding. We can carry a crushing load of guilt and alienation when it’s not our fault at all. And there are traumas of rejection that can devastate out adult lives like the death of a spouse or worse, a divorce. It covers us with a never-ending blanket of emotional rejection.

Does the gospel have some Good News for us that’s practical?

Yes! Justification by faith! It gives you peace with God as though you had never sinned, and as though no one else had ever sinned against you. You have truly laid it all on Christ, including all the mysterious secrets beyond even you.

We can forgive parents—maybe after they’re long gone, remembering that they didn’t know how to handle their problems. This healing through corporate repentance is ministered by the great High Priest, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15). He is so infinite that He gives you His full attention as though you were the only patient He has.

You have a job. Step one: believe the Good News truth about Him. Step two: do what the Holy Spirit then tells you to do—He will hold your hand while you do it.

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 page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

I get them all the time—letters informing me that it’s a mistake to say that the Lord loves people so much that He makes it “hard” for them to be lost; and that it’s wrong to tell them that Jesus says His yoke makes it “easy” for people to be saved.

They invariably distort reality and leave out the giant IF that’s always there: it’s hard to be lost and it’s easy to be saved IF you understand and believe how good the Good News is. What it boils down to is this: God actually loves sinners and He wants them to be saved (John 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:3, 4). He doesn’t sit back and wish vainly; He gets busy and does something for each individual sinner besides merely giving a Book of instructions; He sends His Holy Spirit to work on them individually and personally 24/7 in a never-ending conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11). The last of those three is a conviction that Satan has been “judged,” that is, condemned and “cast out” as a hindrance to your being eternally saved. Christ is in the business of being the Savior of all who will permit Him and not reject Him. Understanding Him is what’s important.

The gospel is not a theological conundrum that only those in the ivory towers of a university can put together; neither is it merely the nursery song, “Jesus loves me/This I know ...” that leaves you seeking as a panacea for your boredom the empty pleasures of this world. The true story of Jesus and His justification by faith is so intensely interesting that if you’ve even begun to understand it, your heart is captured forever. (A lady in her 90’s told us in Bible class last Sabbath, she is so excited with life that she can hardly wait for the sun to come up each new morning so she can do something else for people.)

It sounds wild but it’s true: when you “taste and see” what the Lord’s “everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6, 7) is all about, the silly TV that you once reveled in for entertainment becomes a bore; you feel like retching. “O how I love Your law; it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97; the word “law” is not a fanatical legalism; it’s that perfect statement of eternal truth that “converts” your human soul; Psalm 19:7). Far from being a cold list of rules, “the law of the Lord” becomes your 24/7 obsession of joy “henceforth” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14-21).

The ancient pagans had a saying, “‘What will you have?’ quoth the gods; pay for it, and take it!” You and I this morning stand on the threshold of life; what will you have? Eternal life? You don’t “pay” for it, it’s too expensive, you can’t; but you can believe and take it from Him who did pay an expensive price for it—His own eternal life.

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Daniel said that in the time of the end “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (12:4). For many years our forefather evangelists explained this prophecy as fulfilled with Model T’s running almost everywhere; today, we cite space travel, computers, and now itelephones for $699.

But while scientific and technical knowledge keeps quadrupling, the “knowledge” that God’s people have of the gospel of justification is also being “increased” through the blessing of the Holy Spirit. In the days of the Waldenses, they understood as much as they could; Luther and Calvin were agents for greater light; then the Wesleys and Arminianism pressed in with greater light; then came the great Second Advent Awakening followed by the “present truth” of the sanctuary and the great cosmic Day of Atonement.

Those who were preparing to “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:4, 5) gladly welcomed each new glimpse of truth the Holy Spirit gave them.

But no new truth will contradict truth previously known; “the path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:18, KJV). If at any point as truth unfolds like a rose bud unfolds, we reject the new revelation of truth, we in fact reject Christ at that point, for He says, “I am the ... truth” (John 14:6). Therefore it is impossible to reject any truth without rejecting Him!

A massive problem rises with the story of the “angel of the church of the Laodiceans,” the last great church just before the return of Jesus. It knows no “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (cf. Matt. 5:6), for it asserts of itself, I am “rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”(Rev. 3:17). If you had lived in the days of Luther and had rejected the message God sent by him, you would very likely have severed your connection with the true Holy Spirit. It would have been very dangerous to do so. The same with the Wesleys.

And now today? The great “present truth” of now is that message which is to “lighten the earth with glory.” The new light will not cancel or contradict any light that has shone in the past; but it will be to the message of Luther’s and Calvin’s day what a sleek now V-8 is to a Model T—or ox-cart.

Beware that you don’t separate yourself from the sure leading of the Holy Spirit.

It still involves bearing a cross.

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 page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The Lord Jesus commanded us to “go into all the world and proclaim the Good News to every creature” (Mark 16:16). But can we make it too good?

God Himself is a Specialist in devising what is Good News; in fact, it is He who invented it. And it is He who made it Good, like it is.

But can we take a cue from Him and then on our own devise a version of it that is more good (that is, better good news) than He has invented for us?

If so, are we in danger of giving people a false hope so that they will someday end up at the Pearly Gates and find they can’t get it?

(a) John 3:16 says that the pre-requisite for eternal life is to “believe,” that is, to have or to exercise, faith. God has given us no right to tack anything else on.

(b) Therefore we must learn what is faith.

(c) It’s “heart-work” as one writer often says (cf. Rom. 10:10). Thus it’s the end of arrogance, pride, love of self.

(d) The miracle can happen only as we l-o-o-k at Christ on His cross like the Israelites looked at the serpent of brass on Moses’ pole. It’s to contemplate Him, sense what it cost Him to save this hell-bent world and how He actually went to hell for us rather than see us be lost; it’s not a “work” that you do, no list of pre-requisites. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should not perish ” (John 3:14). There it is simple and clear: (1) He is “lifted up,” (2) you see Him, (3) you “believe.”

(e) “Henceforth” you are “constrained” by the love revealed there (agape) to live not for your own selfish pleasure, not for your lust, but for Him. People use a long word for that—sanctification; but it’s simply living for Him as a bride lives for her bridegroom—a new center of reference for one’s life.

(f) Jesus says that to resist the “constraint” of that love is “hard,” the most difficult life we can live (cf. Acts 26:14; 2 Cor. 5:14-21).

(g) He also says that to let that constraint move you to such a life is the easiest life you can live “henceforth” (cf. Matt. 11:28-30).

No need for us to invent a version of “good news” more good than that one! The ticket for entrance into the Pearly Gates is the capacity to enjoy the life there is there forever.

“Come”!

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

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

If you watched the President of the United States last night, you saw a man deeply distressed. He’s a human being with human limitations; his counselors likewise don’t know how to advise him. Whether you’re “red” or “blue” you don’t want to torture a political opponent. We don’t want to indulge in man’s inhumanity toward man, for that’s the spirit itself of Baghdad.

In war and politics there is little room for the kind of love that the Bible says is agape. But in a Christian culture some of it does get through, thank God. Some pundits are comparing our current President’s baffled perplexity with that of Lincoln in our Civil War, but his steadfastness was not stubbornness or arrogance. He was under some divine mandate to preserve the nation which in God’s providence should make possible the free proclamation of the gospel to the world. Now today there is still a divine mandate.

God’s people may be poor and unknown in the world (the Roman Empire rulers didn’t notice Jesus, either), but if they love (with agape), they will have influence. A “remnant” that is truly reconciled to God in this grand Day of Atonement will be agents whom the Lord will employ in some way. They will fulfill the role of those “four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth” that hateful violence shall not break loose until “the servants of our God [are] sealed” (Rev. 7:1-3). That “seal of God” is even now being placed on those “144,000,” a mystic symbolic number whose prayers are in tune with Heaven.

“Democracy” in a Muslim culture is not effective progress. Multiplying “smoke out of the bottomless pit” in a “democratic” plurality doesn’t “lighten the earth with [the] glory” that God wants to happen (cf. Rev. 9:1-3; 18:1-4). But what God does want to happen is that the pure gospel, free of Babylonian confusion, shall penetrate to the consciousness of the warring multitudes of earth. Including those in the Middle East.

The “four angels” symbolize people on earth who pray to that end, with agape. Join them!

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 page resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" phone message is available 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.