Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Strict Calvinism says that anyone for whom Christ died has to be saved eternally; Christ cannot fail to accomplish all that He set out to do by means of His sacrifice on His cross; therefore Calvinism’s only possible conclusion is that He did not die for those who will eventually be lost. He predestined them to be lost. It’s a scary doctrine, and there’s a lethal logic to it. It’s anything but “good news.” In fact, it’s bad news if you are not among those blessed people in Ephesians one and two who have been given everything wonderful. Many people worry about who they are and whether they’re the favored ones!

But what the Bible says is that God has predestined everyone to be saved; when Christ died “for the world,” He paid the price for everyone’s sin; His “much more abounding grace” extends to everyone; if you’re a human being in this world, Christ is already your Savior whose infinite love is to you personally as if you were the only lost soul on earth. You have freedom of choice and you can despise and reject Him, but that doesn’t alter the fact that He gave Himself for you and to you.

The Ephesians gospel “Good News” is explained elsewhere in the Bible:

(a) We are all born into the world under a blanket of legal condemnation inherited from our sinful head of the human race, Adam.

(b) But thanks to Jesus Christ, we are also born under a legal blanket of vindication in Him. He has become our “last Adam,” our new Head of the human race. He has been made to be sin for everyone, has taken everyone’s full guilt upon Himself, has died the death that would have come upon us all “in Adam” ( Rom. 5:8-18).

(c) That means God is sincere and honest in His purpose formed “before the foundation of the world” to save eternally every member of the human race. He has stacked the cards against no one. Ephesians one is dead right; you don’t have to do something to make Jesus become your Friend and Savior, as so many of us preachers have often said; He already is!

(d) We can choose to live under which ever “blanket” we choose. Live “in Christ” (as you already are in a legal or objective sense), and you are enrolled “in the school of Christ” where the Holy Spirit becomes your “Teacher” to “teach” you to “deny” the clamors of your fallen, sinful nature inherited from Adam. He actually trains you to “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world” (Titus 2:11, 12). He convicts you of sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:7-11), takes you by the hand and leads you all the way into the New Jerusalem (cf. Isa. 41:13). Don’t resist Him any longer! (More 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.

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Someone seriously, sincerely asks the question, “Who are the people who are the personal pronouns (“we,” “us,” “our”) in Ephesians one and two? Whoever they are, they are v-e-r-y fortunate for they are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,” they are “chosen ... in Him before the foundation of the world ... [to be] holy and without blame before Him in love,” “predestinated ... unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself,” “accepted in the beloved,” and they “have redemption through His blood,” and “the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

That’s not all; they “have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will, [to] ... be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ” (1:3-12).

There are three possible answers to our question: (1) The first person pronoun people are only believers in the church in Ephesus; (2) or, all believers in Christ in all ages; (3) or, the entire human race, including you and me.

If it’s (1) or (2), it’s the believing in Christ on the part of these people that initiates all these magnificent blessings (except strict Calvinism that says God predestined some to be saved and others to be lost, which we can’t buy). It means either way a re-writing of Ephesians 2:8, 9 which says “by grace you are saved, through faith,” so that we correct Paul to make him say, “by believing you are saved” rather than “by grace you are saved.”

But the way Paul says it, the grace (which by the way is “abounding”) works “through faith.” God’s grace has to come first; our salvation is not due to our own initiative but is wholly due to His initiative. From “before the foundation of the world” it has been His idea, not ours.

All this is “through His blood,” and that is serious (vs. 7): anything that Christ accomplished by the shedding of His blood at the cross must apply equally to every human being because “God so loved the world that He gave ...” All His wonderful planning “from before the foundation of the world” is for everyone; the Samaritans were right when they said Jesus is “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). He has given the gift of salvation to the world, but the world has crucified Him and expelled Him from the planet. You can give someone a gift but if he throws it away, he doesn’t have it. But still you did the giving.

Maybe, the Lord willing, more tomorrow.

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 read Psalm 69, and it seems to be the lament of a bad man who deserves to be forsaken of God:

(a) He “sinks in deep mire” (vs. 2).

(b) “The floods overflow him” (vs. 2)

(c) He is “weary wth his crying” (vs. 3).

(d) Everybody “hates him” (vs. 4).

(e) He says that the Lord “knows his foolishness” (vs. 5).

(f) He says his “sins are not hidden from” the Lord (vs. 5).

(g) “Shame has covered [his] face” (vs. 7).

(h) He has “become a stranger to [his] brothers” (vs. 8).

(i) He is “the song of the drunkards” (vs. 12).

(j) He expresses the horror of someone about to be punished with everlasting retribution (vss. 13-15).

(k) He knows “reproach, ... shame, ... and dishonor” (vs. 19).


Then suddenly you are shocked: all this is Christ speaking! He is describing how “they gave Me gall for My food, and for My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink” (vs. 21). He “pours” out a holy “indignation” on those who have “persecuted” and “put to grief” the Savior of the world (vss. 24-26). The language fits the end of Judas Iscariot and the chief priests (vs. 28). There is a divine justice: those who have committed the crime of the ages, of all eternity, must bear their guilt. “The humble shall see this and be glad, and you who seek God, your hearts shall live. For the Lord hears the poor, and does not despise His prisoners” (vss, 43, 44).

“God will save” His church, “ Zion and will “rebuild” it (vs. 35). Those who dwell in it forever are those who “love His name” (vs. 36). In other words, don’t leave the church; and don’t abandon your confidence in the triumph of the Lord’s great “Day of Atonement.”

In Psalm 69 we witness firsthand how Christ was “made to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might [become] the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). “Be reconciled to God” (vs. 20).

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":

The Lord has a special love for the Jewish people, according to Paul’s Romans (chapters 9-11). The apostle’s idea is not mere personal national or ethnic pride on his part; it’s theological, that is, he sees the Jews as God’s chosen descendants of Abraham who were called to win the world to reconciliation with God, and thus put an end to the misery that sin has caused to the human race.

But the Jews did what all of us have done—they sinned against God. The divine call to Abraham and his descendants did not abolish the sinful nature that they, along with all of us, inherited from the fallen Adam. That “carnal mind,” says Paul, “is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be” (8:7). In God’s special call to the Jews, He allowed them to demonstrate what that carnal mind can do when it goes off on its own to do what it wants to do—the Jews were left on their own to act out to the full that enmity in that they crucified their God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

No pagan people have ever fallen that low. Jeremiah asks, “Has any other nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit” ( 2:11). They have led the world in “enmity against God” and raised a cross on which they crucified Him in the most public manner possible.

Nevertheless, He has forgiven them, for when their leaders were egging the Romans on, at their bidding, to drive the nails through His wrists and ankle bones, the Messiah prayed, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). That means He has forgiven all the Jews in a corporate or legal sense, or objectively; but they as individuals can never receive the blessing of that forgiveness subjectively until they realize what the sin is (not only was, for it goes on), and open their hearts to receive the gift of repentance which will always lead to confession and recovery of what they threw away.

Paul says that “a remnant” will come to realize the truth and will receive the full gift of repentance (Rom. 11:5; it will be the “repentance of the ages,” one modern writer said once). They will lead out in the last gospel task of lighting the world with the glory of “the everlasting gospel” which will be “the third angel’s message in verity” that those who were called to herald it to the world have refused to do, “just like the Jews” who refused to evangelize their world for their thousands of years.

Thank God that repentance is possible. God has faith in human beings that they will eventually respond appropriately. But why must we delay that wondrous time any longer?

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":

Devout Jews are monotheists; they believe in one true God, the Creator of heaven and earth. They believe their Bible, which is the Old Testament.

They still gather together at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and pray for the coming of their Messiah, believing that He is still due to come.

We would like to tap them on the shoulder, You are wasting your time praying for a Messiah yet to come; the true One has already come in Jesus of Nazareth, whom your ancestors crucified. Just as the Jews pray for a yet-to-come Messiah, so devout Christians pray for God to send “the latter rain” outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The “former rain” was the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost two millennia ago; now “the latter rain” must come as the ancient rains came when the barley harvest had sprouted under what they called “the former rain” and had grown to a certain level of maturity but needed another rainy spell in order to ripen for the farmer’s harvest.

So the Bible promises that in the last days the Father will open the windows of heaven and grant a final gift of the Holy Spirit to prepare all who choose to worship the one true God to be ready for the glorious second coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The biblical illustration is beautifully clear.

When you think of the Bible story, it’s obvious that there is irreverence implicit in praying for “the Messiah” to come when the truth is that He has already come! (It still implies a deep unbelief. Before the end, many devout Jews will recognize this overwhelming truth and experience a corporate repentance in behalf of their race. They will demonstrate it by reading and believing the New Testament and sharing the good news.)

Would there not be the same unbelief in the hearts of Christians begging the Father to send the latter rain of the Holy Spirit if He has already done so, but in blindness and pride they (via their ancestors) had rejected the gift? Prayer is serious business, and Heaven takes it seriously; we need to search and discover the truth how “the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message” that proved to be “the beginning” of the Loud Cry and of its necessarily attendant latter rain. All true-hearted believers in Jesus will respond heartily.

And then recover and proclaim the message.

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":

The greatest drought in the history of ancient Israel prevailed in the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. No rain, not even a drop of dew, fell on the parched land for three years and a half; people were dying everywhere in consequence of the national disaster.

Even the king took his trusted “Cabinet member” Obadiah and with him searched the land for some spots where the royal livestock could forage for a little water and grass in order to survive—national security depended on it (1 Kings 18:5). It was equivalent to our national security crisis if our supplies of gasoline and diesel were to become non-existent.

Likewise, a crisis faces the Lord’s church in the last days if there is no “rain” of the Holy Spirit falling upon it worldwide in copious showers of grace. As many Israelites died in Ahab’s days of drought, so many in modern Israel suffer; lacking Heaven’s true showers of “rain” they fall prey to the clever counterfeits that the Enemy in the great controversy with Christ foists upon them. Youth and teens especially perish spiritually if they are deprived of fresh “bread of life.” Every wind of doctrine is blowing. Jesus’ words are, “If anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand” (Matt. 24:23-25). Common sense is precious.

Most perilous of these deceptions will be the clever invention of a false and counterfeit holy spirit. The truth makes sense: if Satan can invent a false Christ, he can also invent a false holy spirit. In the “time of the end” “knowledge shall be increased” (Dan. 12:4). If we can conceive of a progression of deceptions, each generation witnessing a new development like “alpha” panentheism unfolding on, imagine the almost overwhelming impact of what its “omega” will be!

In Ahab’s day, a true prophet of God named Elijah arose and commanded the king to call a national crisis-convocation at Carmel. The universal deception was unmasked publicly. Every Israelite with an honest heart was undeceived. At last the true Holy Spirit had a voice.

The next item on God’s agenda for today is His sending “Elijah” “before the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” He will lead the honest in the world church into the one true miracle of His much more abounding grace: “turning hearts” in the great Day of Atonement (Mal. 4:5, 6; Dan. 8:14). At last, Christ crucified and risen will be “lifted up” as He said He must be (John 12:32, 33).

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":

Have you ever wanted to stay away from a party for fear you wouldn’t be welcome? Many feel that way about going to God’s “welcome party” for people who will live in His New Jerusalem. They are afraid of Him, innocently so. They would rather not even try to be saved. These people need to realize now that they are welcomed already.

The “welcome” is in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians! It’s spoken by the Lord through His word. He honors His word in the Bible. Jesus told the Jews that He said nothing of Himself, but only what the Father told Him. “I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak” (John 12:49). It was through the Bible, the actual Old Testament that Jesus held in His hands, that the Father spoke to Him. All the wonderful things that Jesus said in His ministry, He garnered from His reading of that Bible!

Likewise, when you let the Father speak to you through the Word, you will know the welcome is yours now as surely as when you hear Him repeat it in that coming glad day when you see Him.

We read in chapter one of Ephesians how the Father has already:

1. “Blessed us [that’s everybody!] with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (The fact that some people refuse the “blessing” doesn’t mean it hasn’t been given to them.)

2. “Predestined us to adoption as sons” (but of course we can refuse).

3. Enjoyed His “good pleasure” in doing this—that’s the “fun” He gets in His plan of redemption. “(God deserves some “pleasure”!)

4. In Christ He has given us “redemption through His blood”—that is, past tense. The blood was shed for everybody; therefore all have been given that redemption, even if many reject it.

5. He has given us “the forgiveness of sins.” The word means separated them from us. (We can be stupid and take our sins back again! They were cast into the depths of the sea like the Titanic resting deep down; but people have retrieved things out of the Titanic.)

6. He gives us as much “wisdom and prudence” as we are willing to receive (let’s not shrug it off as proud “know-it-alls”).

7. “He has made us accepted in the Beloved” (that’s our “welcome!”).

Let’s not stop to question if all this is true for that could be unbelief; He has said it.

[From Ephesians: You’ve Been “Adopted,” by Robert J. Wieland, pp. 47, 48.]

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":

The Divine Obstetrician

“You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:7, 8, NIV).

Surprising as it may seem, the Good News is very good: (a) the Holy Spirit does the new-birth work, and (b) He will do it if you don’t frustrate Him. (People who love Bad News won’t like this.)

That “wind” is forever blowing seeds of heavenly truth into minds and hearts. No one is wise enough to tell where they come from, for the grace of God has been working on human hearts in multitudinous ways ever since time began. What parents have said, friends, songs of praise, Bible messages heard or read, sermons, expressions of true love—all can be ways that the Holy Spirit uses to plant “Good News” ideas in the heart.

These “seeds” may lie there deep, unrecognized for years, but they are certain to germinate because each one has within itself the mysterious principle of eternal life. Each “seed” of Good News truth “is the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16).

Here is another illustration of how the divine word of truth accomplishes its purpose:

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:10, 11, NIV).

Christ’s illustration of the wind blowing “wherever it pleases” is a picture of God’s compassionate concern for every person. As surely as you have felt the wind blowing on your cheek, so surely is the Holy Spirit trying to convert you. “God does not show favoritism” (Acts 10:34, NIV).

It’s exciting, for at times you can almost feel those seeds of truth germinating within your soul like a pregnant woman can feel the baby growing within her. She is thrilled with new life forming. What greater joy to experience something even more wonderful—“I’m being born again!”

[From The Good News Is Better Than You Think, by Robert J. Wieland, pp. 19-21.]

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":

The True Dimension of Christ’s Love For Us

Jesus “tasted” death “for everyone” as He hung on the cross in the darkness. Himself the Blessed One, He was made “a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)” (Gal. 3:13). The feeling of being forsaken by His Father was drinking a bitter cup of sorrow unsweetened by the tiniest taste of hope.

Although Jesus feared death (see Heb. 5:7), it is not right to say that He yielded to this fear. He faced the fear of eternal separation from God, and “for everyone” He felt the total unspeakable horror of its essence. Yet He conquered it totally.

With the deepest reverence, we might say that Christ figuratively went to hell, and then came back. The apostle Peter at Pentecost seems to have recognized that this was the true nature of His sacrifice: “God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24, NIV). The King James Version renders as follows Peter’s quotation from Psalm 16:10: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (“Hell” [Hebrew sheol] here means an eternal grave.) When Christ “poured out his soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12), He felt that His Father had “forsaken” Him forever.

None of us can duplicate Christ’s sacrifice, for that would be impossible. He was the infinite Son of God, and we are mere creatures whose sacrifice (if we could make it) would be meaningless. We can never be co-saviors of ourselves. But we can appreciate His sacrifice for us.

This burns out of our souls our petty little self-centered motivations. Amazed and awed by the agape that led Jesus to His cross, we “pour contempt” on our selfish desires to avoid the punishment of eternal death and win Paradise because of its rewards. Suddenly an entirely new motivation grips our souls—the passion to honor and glorify the One who redeemed us at such infinite cost. It’s saying “Thank You for saving our souls!” In that gratitude, selfish motivations are transcended.

As surely as day follows night, this new motivation expels the root of fear. When faith identifies with Christ, one never again feels alone and bereft, for we have participated by faith in Christ’s death-grapple with the enemy in His awful hours on Calvary. Christ has built the bridge that spans the chasm of eternal death; now we simply cross over it “in Him.”

[From The Good News Is Better Than You Think, by Robert J. Wieland, pp. 53, 54.]

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 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.