Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The climax of the book of Revelation is not the reward that the saints will receive for their self-sacrifice in following Jesus, but the reward that Christ will receive for His great sacrifice.

It is a grand paradigm shift in thinking for us to get our minds off praying about our reward (“Lord, please be sure to save me and my loved ones”), and begin to think of Christ and the reward that He deserves.

Isaiah speaks of Him, “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (53:11). It’s like little children finally growing up so they can be mature and think of the “travail” of their mother in bearing them and of their parents in caring for them.

God’s people cannot remain children forever. “Let us go on to full growth, “ to “maturity” (Heb. 6:2), to the possibility, yes, to the blessing of being able to think of Him rather than always thinking of ourselves. This is the interesting turn that the story in Song of Solomon 5:2ff takes when the bride-to-be, warm and snug in bed on this cold rainy night can change her thinking from how much fun it is to snuggle under the covers, and begins to be able to think of her true Lover out there in the rain “knocking” on her door.

The famous “Laodicean message” that we have all memorized by now has its setting in that little story, for Jesus concludes His last days message with a quotation from that story: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev. 3:20; taken from the LXX). The original story tells how she finally repents and gets up to let Him in; how long she left Him out there “knocking” it doesn’t say; but when she got to her side of the door, she found him “gone.” (In our case it’s well over a century.)

We cannot always serve as the flower girl at the wedding, “the marriage of the Lamb” (cf. Rev. 19:7, 8). God’s people in a corporate sense must become the “wife” at the wedding.

And that must be the ability to appreciate “the travail” that the Bridegroom has gone through. With no trace of extremism, the remnant will learn to proclaim “nothing ... except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

All that the little flower girl at the wedding cares about is the refreshments; the bride has begun to enter into the Bridegroom’s thinking and to feel for him (at least, let’s hope so; else there can not be a happy marriage!). Those who have never learned to appreciate “the travail” of the Savior cannot be happy in His personal presence. Which is the practical truth of shutting oneself out of heaven by one’s unfitness for its companionship. Let’s use our last few moments of time in learning to understand.

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

ear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

In my copy of the Holy Bible, 944 pages are called “the Old Testament,” and 285 pages are called “the New Testament.” The word “testament” is the same as “covenant.” So 77 percent of the Holy Bible is called “The Old Covenant” and 23 percent is called “the New Covenant.” Why this difference?

Are these two “dispensations” in God’s plan of saving the world? Many hold to that view. They understand that the New Covenant began with the crucifixion of the Son of God.

But does it make sense that God has been experimenting, that He tried for 4000 years the Old Covenant method and finally decided that it didn’t work, and now He is trying a new method? If so, can we really trust Him that He knows what He’s doing?

Instead, the Bible is clear that God has always had only one method of saving people. It’s called “the everlasting gospel” or “the everlasting covenant” (Rev. 14:6; Heb. 13:20). No, God is infinitely wise; He has not been poking around with trial-and-error experiments. Ever since the Garden of Eden He has had only one plan of salvation—“by grace through faith” (Eph. 2:9). Christ is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).

Then why the two Covenants?

They are not two methods of salvation; they are two understandings of God’s people through the ages, two opposite perceptions of God’s plan of salvation, not two “dispensations” that He has used as experiments. The Old Covenant was a “faulty” understanding of His people at Mt. Sinai—God was not to blame for it. He tried His best to get them to understand His glorious “New Covenant” as Abraham understood it and was “justified by faith.” But no, they were perverse; they themselves chose the Old Covenant idea. It led them to “bondage” and finally to torture and crucify our Savior (cf. Gal. 4:24). That’s not really good, is it? (Read Gal. 3 and 4.) A kindergarten child can easily understand.

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.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

A wise man said, “Peace is such a precious jewel that I would give anything for it except truth.”

The Lord Jesus Christ has not promised us peace in this world of sin: “I came not to send peace, but a sword,” He declares (Matt. 10:34).

There is a group of people all around the world who are symbolized by the expression “who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:4, 5). They are following Him just now—in “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people” (14:6).

Christ was “despised and rejected of men” (Isa. 53:5); these “144,000” will have known that heart-breaking experience, too. He was a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;” and they will taste that pain also.

The home town where Jesus grew up “despised and rejected” Him, tried to kill Him before His time when He announced to them that He was the Messiah (Luke 4:28-30). The “144,000” will today know a similar pain of rejection. In fact, Jesus tells us to beware “when all men speak well of you” (6:26)—that’s not the time to “rejoice.”

Even in the church itself there are sorrows and pains for those who will hold to truth when it is unpopular.

But the “144,000” will not be dejected people; the pain can be intense but “yea, though [they] walk through the valley of the shadow of death, [they] will fear no evil, for [the Lord] is with [them]” (cf. Psalm 23:4). His presence always brings joy (which is deeper than pleasure).

It’s when loved ones and family, yes—spouse or loved one, “despise and reject” you that the pain is most white-hot intense to endure. You get just a bit of a taste of how the Lord Jesus felt when in the darkness of the cross He cried out, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning”(Psalm 30:5, KJV). The hour of comfort may come while we are still in this life; or it may not come until after the Lord returns; but in the darkest hour “Thou anointest my head with oil.” We who are living have not yet known martyrdom, but history is clear: those who have perished in the flames have sung hymns of joy—because the personal presence of Christ was with them.

Those who endure false accusations even in the true remnant church of Bible prophecy (Rev. 12:17; 14:12) can “rejoice and be exceeding glad, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you,” says Jesus (Matt. 5:12). Those words are not only a command to “rejoice,” but they are also a promise: you will!

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 like a gigantic earthquake so powerful that it changes the landscape everywhere: it’s a new direction in thinking in people who believe the Bible and who appreciate the love of Christ. What seems to be a new idea for multitudes.

To grasp it we need to go back to the pathetic story in the Song of Solomon 5:2ff.

The Lover (that is, the Bridegroom-to-be) has been on a safari and has returned to his beloved, to be with her. It is evening, and she has already gone to bed and is in that half-way state between awake and drifting off to sleep. It’s raining, according to the text, and the Lover is wet, cold, hungry, longing to be with her.

The Hebrew text says that He not only knocked on her door; He banged on it in His eagerness. (Jesus’ words in Revelation 3:20 are a direct quotation, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” but not from the Hebrew Masoretic text but from the Septuagint, ancient Greek translation.)

The girl (the Bride-to-be) hears him, but she is indifferent. She repulses Him; she has gone to all the trouble to get ready for bed, she does not want Him to disturb her. “I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet: how shall I defile them?” (In some developing areas of the world, people still live in mud houses with cow-dung floors; the last thing you do when you go to bed is to sit and wash your feet; then gathering them into bed you stay there until morning; no telling what is running around the floor at night.)

To her, too bad; her Bridegroom-to-be is a nuisance tonight. No opening the door for Him tonight.

What can He do but turn away sorrowfully, deeply pained to be so repulsed. He loves her; and she has in the past told Him she loves Him, but now she has gone back on that profession of acceptance; she no longer believes in Him, at least for now.

Why this sudden heart-rejection?

Finally, as she lies there, her conscience begins to prick her; she stops thinking only of her own selfish comfort snug in bed on a cold rainy night and she begins to think of Him out in the cold, alone, hungry; this paradigm shift in thinking and in feeling rouses her and she gets up belatedly to go and open the door for Him. But when she does, He has gone. Gone, for over a century.

Is this an inspired story of Jesus and His church which He “loves”? Could it be, that He is heart-broken with 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.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

A young lady from Japan joined us in our home for Sabbath evening family worship. We were reading Isaiah 53:4, 5.

She was particularly impressed with the present tense of the verb: “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we ARE healed.” She marveled that our healing takes place now, not just at some future time.

The Lord Jesus is the world’s “great Physician.” There is no one on earth who has not at some time in some way been “healed” by the Lord Jesus.

Everyone owes Him profound gratitude, the kind that so appreciates His own sacrifice of love that he is “constrained,” motivated, to live “henceforth” for Him and not for self (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

The REV translates it vividly: “It was our affliction He was bearing, our pain He endured, while we thought of Him as smitten by God, struck down by disease and misery. But He was pierced for our transgression, crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement He bore restored us to health and by His wounds we are healed.”

Never has anybody been sick, wounded, injured except that a corresponding pain had to be endured by the Son of God. There had to be a perfect balance in order to pay for your and my health.

It’s the blessed truth that long ago became distorted in Hinduism in their doctrine of karma. The faith of Jesus would heal and restore the darkness in Hinduism: the perfect karma has been offered for every human soul because Hebrews 2:9 says that “by the grace of God [Jesus] should taste death for every man,” not what we call “death,” which is but a “sleep,” but the real thing—the death that is the end of all for eternity.

Our Japanese friend rejoices in how the pure gospel of Jesus has shown in Japan and found her there. Even if you may be on your deathbed, rejoice that Christ is your Great Physician who heals you and resurrects you. You “rest” in 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":

Have you ever wondered how the Eleven disciples felt when one of their number, Judas Iscariot, betrayed Jesus? They also felt betrayed.

They had never suspected that one of their number, the most talented of them all, the one who everybody felt would surely become the prime minister of the new “kingdom” Jesus was setting up, went over to the side of the scribes and Pharisees.

And think how elated the scribes and Pharisees were that they had captured Judas Iscariot!

We have long known that into the seasons of all who remain faithful and true to the end there will come times of trial and keen disappointment, like Elijah running away from Queen Jezebel who threatened to kill him. The final issue that comes into the open just before the very last days will be that of the seal of God versus the mark of the beast.

Congregations that have always ostensibly been loyal to “the seal of God” (cf. Rev. 7:1-4) will be tried severely when the popular mark of the beast is enforced; some, in fact we understand many, formerly loyal congregants, will become turncoats and will engage in persecuting their former brethren.

Those loyal to the “seal of God” will sense what it means to be “betrayed”!

Jesus was betrayed, and those closest to Him will share His experience.

In mercy to His disciples, the Lord Jesus had permitted them to go through a preview experience in John 6 when He had preached about the bread of life. “Many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more,” and Jesus sorrowfully turned to the Twelve and asked, “Do you also want to go away?” They responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? ... We have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (vss. 66-69); but even then Jesus knew who Judas Iscariot was! (vss. 70, 71).

It’s in similar mercy to our souls that Jesus permits us to go through the sad experiences of “betrayals,” in preparation for the final issue when it comes (and it may be very near). It will be like a great dam bursting when the water gushes down sweeping everything (almost!) in its path; but none need be swept along if we have prepared. Our roots now can be sunk deep down into the truth and by the grace of Christ we can stand.

But we must study, we must know the truth for ourselves. Hours spent in pleasure and TV watching must become hours spent in pursuing the truth so we know it for ourselves first hand, not because some guru has told it to us. “Happy” are those who are hungry and thirsty to learn, to know, to understand (Matt. 5:6, GNB).

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.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

We couldn’t get enough of the 23rd Psalm even though we had spent the week studying it. Questions came up in our discussion:

“Can anybody in the world repeat the 23rd Psalm and claim that the Lord is [his] Shepherd?” Or “Is saying that a reserved privilege only for people who have done things right?”

Or, in stronger language—can sinful people who have wasted their lives in evil-doing, say that “the Lord is my Shepherd” and make that claim?

There is nothing in the Psalm that says, Warning! Don’t say this unless ... !

In our discussion we remembered that Jesus said, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ...” (Matt. 11:28). “All you.” No restriction.

The problem with saying that the Lord is your Shepherd is that you immediately obligate yourself to follow where the Good Shepherd leads you! His destination is “home,” His Father’s house, where you will be welcome for the coming, no matter who you have been.

Just believing and saying that “the Lord is your Shepherd” will strengthen your faith because you realize that you do not deserve the blessings that are wrapped up in that blessed psalm. Immediately you will sense that they are conferred on you undeservedly and are given to you through the much more abounding grace of the Shepherd of your soul; and that is step one toward salvation in eternal life.

Your self-pride is washed away in the tears of repentance; just simply realizing how unlimited is your debt of gratitude becomes a step toward Christ. “He who comes to God must (1) believe that He is, and (2) that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

YES! Memorizing and everyday repeating the 23rd Psalm is eating the “bread of life” and drinking the “water of life. It reminds your sinful, worldly heart of the kindness of the Lord to you. Your heart is melted; faith begins to grow; you begin to “comprehend [appreciate] what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love [agape] of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:18, 19). That last step can be nothing short of translation at the second coming of the Lord Jesus.

Of course you never stop with one Psalm; your hunger and thirst have been activated; they have been there all along as you “dwelt” in the world, but now they have been aroused from dormancy and you become aware that you want to know more and more. Eternal life has begun! The Holy Spirit says, “Welcome!”

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 Bible Lesson this week touches on the story of Hosea, the prophet who was divinely called to ministry, but whose wife whom he loved went sour on him.

Devout people wrestle with the story: when we read that “the Lord said to Hosea: ‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry ...’”(1:2) did the poor man know then that her character was bad? Or did he find himself in love with a woman who appeared to be of good character but later went bad on him?

It always seems difficult to believe that the Lord would tell him “‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery’” (3:1). God reads the heart, which we can’t do so well.

Normally we would expect that a young pastor who is being led by the Lord will guard his affections and keep them from being fixed on a woman of unfaithful character who would ruin his pastoral ministry. You don’t permit a woman to come between you and the Lord to whom you have given your heart to serve; but this story is different: the Lord actually gave Hosea love for this unfaithful woman because He said, ”‘Go again, love” that woman!

One sage tells us, “Love is a precious gift which we receive from Jesus.” Hosea has received an expensive gift from the Lord—a love that he cannot forget. Gomer was his first love, obviously; he was forever captive to her.

This is the way pure love is: “Love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame.

“Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house it would be utterly despised” (S.S. 8:6, 7).

Hosea’s captivity to Gomer illustrates Christ’s love for a corporate body of humanity which is His church whom He loves expensively. He is captive to “her.” The superficial and callous and hard-hearted look upon a lost “love” is just like getting another car; Christ can’t do that. He can’t dump that one church whom He loves and go “marry” another, even though “she” has been callously indifferent to Him, has actually “insulted” Him, and has broken His heart. He is captive to the same love that Hosea was captive to.

The surest way to understand the Hosea story is to read it in the light of its great antitype—the love of Christ for His church. Then it becomes poignant.

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.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

They are all around us—young people who need help whom you and I can if we only know what to say.

It’s not a psychological injection they need; that soon wears off and they’re in worse need than they were. They need more powerful, more lasting help. They feel that they are “born losers,” and often a little inquiry discloses that their parents are often split-ups.

These alienated youth have deep needs; if you can save even one such life, you have not lived in vain.

But don’t turn around now and be a “born loser” yourself: “physician, heal thyself” is always thrown at us. We have an inward battle ourselves to wage, and neither you nor I have any merit to make ourselves be a success.

What these youth need is the plain, simple, Bible truth of the New Covenant to take the place of the Old Covenant that has been drilled into them in places where the Lord has wanted them to get the New—that is, in church and Bible classes. Know the joy of the New, and you are in that group Jesus says “believe in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37, 38); those “rivers” are simple New Covenant gospel truth. A thousand times better than a psychological injection, which Satan gleefully exploits because their prayer becomes “Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down” (Psalm 102:10). The higher they are temporarily “lifted up” the more painful is the “cast down” experience.

The New Covenant is (1) the seven promises God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:2, 3. (2) You are Abraham’s “descendant” by faith because (3) your heart cries out to God as “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15, 16), which (4) proves that He has “adopted” you, stumbling and staggering and unworthy as you may feel yourself to be; (5) you’re in the “family,” and the Savior has promised and sworn that He will “in no wise cast [you] out” (John 6:37).

Now in this light, tell your young, perplexed friend that the 23rd Psalm becomes his/her daily song. Memorize it and repeat it each night just before you fall asleep (the “day” begins at sundown! That’s a lesson the Bible has been trying to teach us on its very first page, Gen. 1:5, etc.). We can’t say that one prayer is more important than another, but the good night prayer underlies the good morning prayer. Yes, drift off to sleep “in the Lord.” Best beginning for a happy new day.

Let that “river of living water” flow from your heart to your young friend. Guaranteed: it will refresh him/her.

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":

Untoward circumstances (like the loss of an appropriate map) forced us to take refuge for the night in a casino hotel. Masses of people gambling! We couldn’t wait to get out and get home.

We saw the sad faces of wives who come only to accompany their husbands on their addiction sprees. Some spouses are so addicted that they lose their family bank account, their cars, even their houses. We heard the shouts of triumph when one in a party strikes a win and gets a little something, which then encourages them all to gamble all the more furiously.

In some places houses of gambling are legal, as also are houses of prostitution. People who love the Bible used to call the casinos “gambling hells.” Lots of electric lights; the place is as bright at 2 a.m. as at noonday (but God designed the darkness of night to be a blessing).

Some who would like to help God run His “economy” think it would be good for Him to strike these houses of ill with lightning bolts of His wrath; if this were their sure punishment, the world would learn to be “righteous,” right? Up in our tenth floor room we naturally hoped and prayed that no lightning bolt would strike our sin-loving hotel—that’s not the way God runs things.

Ever since the Son of God died for the sins of the world, He has treated everybody alike, the good and the bad. He holds no chip on His shoulder against anyone, no matter who. “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). All this is the fruit of that great sacrifice of the cross, which reversed the “condemnation” the fallen Adam brought on the world. Our fallen father Adam brought on us a “judicial verdict of “condemnation,” but our Lord Jesus has brought upon us all a “judicial verdict of acquittal” (Rom. 5:15-18, NEB). Those masses who seek selfish, sensual pleasure do not know that they are riding piggy back on the benefits Christ has given the world by virtue of His sacrifice of Himself. “I am come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” refers not only to the gift (not merely offer) of eternal life He has given the world (but many reject it); “all men” are eternally and infinitely in debt to the Son of God, whether or not they realize it, for their daily temporal benefits of life. (It’s time that we learn to say “Thank You!”)

“The truth of the gospel” (cf. Gal. 2:5, 9) is the good news of that indebtedness; honest hearts will recognize and confess it. The honest gamblers who at last understand will renounce their self-worship and honor their Lord “henceforth” because this “love of Christ” will “constrain” them to do so.

But maybe there’s a secret of an effective appeal from Mt. Sinai that will win more hearts; ... if the Lord wills, tomorrow?

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.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Is the divine Son of God still also a human being? We read that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father ...” (John 1:1, 14).

Yes, we believe.

Now can we ask a question: is this divine Son of God still with us as a human Being?

If the answer is Yes (and we believe it is!), can we ask another question: does He know human impatience for His “marriage of the Lamb [to] come”? Doesn’t any bridegroom who truly loves the “woman” committed to him long for the wedding day to come? (Assuming of course that he hasn’t already moved in with her in violation of God’s commandments, taking prematurely what God has not yet given him in holy, public marriage.)

Can we say that Jesus has no feeling of urgency for His marriage to come?

Does He truly love that “corporate woman” with a desire to be “one” with “her”?

If the answer is yes, is He beginning to be impatient with those who are hindering it, “frustrating the grace of God” (cf. Gal. 2:21)? They are shying away from the “honeymoon” which of course must come, the time of intimacy together?

Before the Lord Jesus can come in the clouds of heaven in fulfillment of His promise in John 14:1-3, the grand end time events of earth’s history must first come, including the close of human probation and the time when the “corporate woman” of His choice must “dwell in the sight of a holy God without a Mediator” and endure as “seeing Him who is invisible”(Heb. 11:27).

The answer to all these questions is “Yes!” And yes, the Lord Jesus Christ, still human as well as eternally divine, wants those final events to be now: He is tired of the anguish and suffering of the “have-nots” in the world as well as of the useless vanity and pure selfish pleasure of its “haves.” He longs to answer every prayer for relief from pain.

If you “know” Him, in your intimacy with Him you can clearly sense that divine-human impatience, that longing which He cannot hide any longer. If we are following the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev. 14:4), we will participate in that impatience, too.

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":

Is the divine Son of God still also a human being? We read that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father ...” (John 1:1, 14).

Yes, we believe.

Now can we ask a question: is this divine Son of God still with us as a human Being?

If the answer is Yes (and we believe it is!), can we ask another question: does He know human impatience for His “marriage of the Lamb [to] come”? Doesn’t any bridegroom who truly loves the “woman” committed to him long for the wedding day to come? (Assuming of course that he hasn’t already moved in with her in violation of God’s commandments, taking prematurely what God has not yet given him in holy, public marriage.)

Can we say that Jesus has no feeling of urgency for His marriage to come?

Does He truly love that “corporate woman” with a desire to be “one” with “her”?

If the answer is yes, is He beginning to be impatient with those who are hindering it, “frustrating the grace of God” (cf. Gal. 2:21)? They are shying away from the “honeymoon” which of course must come, the time of intimacy together?

Before the Lord Jesus can come in the clouds of heaven in fulfillment of His promise in John 14:1-3, the grand end time events of earth’s history must first come, including the close of human probation and the time when the “corporate woman” of His choice must “dwell in the sight of a holy God without a Mediator” and endure as “seeing Him who is invisible”(Heb. 11:27).

The answer to all these questions is “Yes!” And yes, the Lord Jesus Christ, still human as well as eternally divine, wants those final events to be now: He is tired of the anguish and suffering of the “have-nots” in the world as well as of the useless vanity and pure selfish pleasure of its “haves.” He longs to answer every prayer for relief from pain.

If you “know” Him, in your intimacy with Him you can clearly sense that divine-human impatience, that longing which He cannot hide any longer. If we are following the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev. 14:4), we will participate in that impatience, too.

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.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Suppose a husband and wife are both church members, even “missionaries,” but they can’t be happy together: the first question they usually ask is, What can we do in order to learn to be happy together, to save our marriage from collapsing?

They are both ever so sincere. You meet them both individually, they are the loveliest people on earth, the nicest neighbors you can imagine.

But together they’re in an unending lovers’ quarrel. It’s not what they need to DO but what they need to LEARN and BELIEVE.

Now suppose you are a third party who loves them both as friends and fellow believers in Christ: how can you help them? Granted, of course, you “pray” for them; but you are so helpless in just “praying.”

Then you remember the New Covenant promise the Lord, the God of Abraham, has made to you as a “descendant of Abraham” by faith”: everywhere you go throughout the earth, throughout your whole life, “You shall be a blessing” (read it in the original, Genesis 12:2). That means the Lord intends that you as a third party will be a healing agent to these two quarrelers. (And that introduces you to some deep thinking: do you believe the New Covenant? Yes, you do: you “believe” but then immediately you pray, “Help my unbelief,” Mark 9:24.)

And then you remember what Jesus promised on that “last day ... of the Feast” of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, when He “stood and cried out, ...’If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37, 38). A parallel promise to the one in Genesis 12!

The Lord is perfectly capable of healing this troubled marriage; He longs to do so. Now, when your soul is deeply humbled before Him, your prayer enables Him to do what otherwise He is not able to do: yes, His omnipotence is hindered by our heart-unbelief and self-sufficiency. Now, broken-hearted, humbled but repentant sinners have a tremendous, special advantage: they are the ones who have been “grant[ed] to sit with [Him] on [His] throne” because they are “overcom[ing]” (Rev. 3:21). You can’t get closer to Him than that!

And around the world there are “144,000” who are overcoming.

P. S. Let’s not get hung up on a literal or symbolic number.

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":

What do you do when everything has gone against you, and it seems that every evil angel is seeking to discourage you?

Our Sabbath School Lessons this new quarter are about that problem; and those who follow Jesus “wherever the Lamb goes” (cf. Rev. 14:1-5) will all know experiences like that. As surely as the Lord Jesus loves us individually, personally, and intimately, so surely does Satan hate those who respond to Christ’s love. So don’t be surprised, Peter says, if such troubles come to you (see 1 Peter 4:12-17).

Instinctively your heart cries out, “O Father, Father ... !”

And right there you have the grandest encouragement under heaven: that is proof that the Father has already adopted you as His child! Yes, turn to Romans 8:14-16:

Verse 14: who only is being “led by the Holy Spirit;” only those who are “the sons of God.”

Verse 15: you have already received by faith the “Spirit of adoption.”

That is why when troubles and disappointments and heartache come upon you, your first response is to cry out “Father, Father ... !”

Now Paul says, when you cry out “Abba, Father,” that is your assurance that He has adopted you!

In the original language, “Abba” is the cry of a baby; our baby cries, “Baba,” meaning “father.” The “ba” syllable is a universal baby-cry; no other consonant is so easy for a baby to utter with the “a” sound than “b,” and “a” is also the easiest vowel to mouth.

If when trouble comes, your first reaction is to blame someone else, stop right now and humble your heart before the Lord and ask Him to convert you (He will!). According to that passage from Paul’s Romans 8, you don’t have to compose an involved prayer: just say “Baba, Abba, Father ... !”

The cry of your heart is a prayer in itself, and the Holy Spirit will take, Paul says, and fill in the blanks that your tongue can’t yet utter; but nonetheless, your guardian angel carries all the news to all the heavenly host that you are now an adopted child of God the Father.

Yes, lift up your head. No moping around, from now on.

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.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

When we come to our day’s end and we’re about to get in bed, we kneel to pray.

On our knees, we are quiet, subdued, in the presence of “our heavenly Father.” We think back: have I honored my Savior today? Have I done and said what He would have done and said in my place?

Maybe when we gave something to help someone today, now we wish we had been more generous. When we said “Good morning” to someone, now we wish we had paused just a moment to look that person in the eye and truly pray for him a GOOD morning, the beginning of an eternity of “goodness” which David said “shall follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6); now we wish we had shared that “goodness” more liberally.

When we had contact today with someone discouraged, defeated, enmeshed in Old Covenant despair, we wish now that we had known how to inject into our little conversation some saving, some vital truth of the New Covenant gospel, that would have “made [him] free” (John 8:32).

Yes, we wish that we had had that “truth” at our mental fingertips as Jesus always had something to say that was life giving!

Well, He made a magnificent, tremendous, life-changing promise at the last Feast of Tabernacles He attended: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his inmost heart will flow rivers of living water” (cf. John 7:37, 38).

When we lay our head on our pillow and think just a moment before drifting off in sleep, we may not be “alive” enough to “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matt. 5:6). (The only truly happy people in the world are they!) But we do sense a yearning for some “bread” for our own starved souls; we can’t help but pray another little prayer before going to sleep, “Father, forgive for wasting some time this precious day in watching useless TV or reading that vain novel. Please give me grace to be so hungry for the bread of life that nothing else can satisfy me!”

The Lord has solemnly promised, “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:27). Thank Him a thousand times for that promise. Now believe it and trust in Him.

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":

There is a promise (or prophecy) tucked away in an obscure corner of the Bible that people don’t seem to talk about, but nevertheless it’s there awaiting the future.

It’s about the last-days events that will startle the world when God’s people humble their hearts and lay self aside and let the Holy Spirit teach and guide them—that is, when the corporate “self” of the church is “crucified with Christ,” and He only exalted.

The Lord doesn’t dare let this prophecy be fulfilled so long as His church would become proud or arrogant because of it, for it is something that would startle the world more than anything else imaginable; so much so that thoughtful people just say it’s impossible.

It’s what John the Revelator “saw”: “Something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory [had gotten the victory, KJV] over the beast, over his image, and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of gold” (15:2).

Multitudes who love the Bible and “tremble at [the Lord’s] word”(Isa. 66:2; “tremble” with excitement] recognize (a) that the “beast” of Revelation 13:1-8 is Romanism; and (b) “the mark of the beast” is its arrogant claim to have the authority to abolish and change the holy law of God that says “the seventh day” is the Lord's holy Sabbath, instituting the first day instead; and (c) that the “image” of the beast is that segment of professed Protestantism that has abandoned “protesting” and has adopted the essential nature of Romanism.

But “d”? “The number of his name”?

That is the Roman Catholic headquarters of Romanism, the heart of the papacy, the Curia.

And the inspired prophecy declares that there will be some from this group who will respond positively to the “light” of that “other angel” of Revelation 18 whose message will “illuminate” the earth with “glory,” a final message of justification by faith that will startle the word and will call every honest-hearted soul now in “Babylon” to “come, out of her, My people” (18:4).

Does the Lord Jesus Christ Himself personally want this glorious denouement of Bible prophecy to take place now in “this generation”? Yes!

When the collective or corporate “self” of “the remnant church” (12:17) has received the “atonement” and is reconciled to Him, the earth will be “lightened.” God will know how to grip the world’s attention!

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/

To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: <dailybread@1888message.org>

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" 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.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Our on-going Bible lessons assure us that hardships and trials and disappointments are a necessary but effective preparation for the coming of Jesus.

If that is so, many in Southern California are getting a real boost in their spiritual life because hardships and trials are falling all over them as they return to life again after the cataclysmic fires. Even some of those whose houses somehow were spared the flames return to find no electricity and no water. Life has been disrupted.

The traumas are enormous. One lesson seems to be apparent to everyone, Christian or non-Christian: this world is not our home; and the finest house that money can build is nothing more than “a tent” or “tabernacle” in realistic biblical thinking. The media attention this past week has been focused on the palatial mansions consumed like matchsticks.

“What shall a man be profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Jesus asks (Matt. 16:26).

One little girl lived in a house at the end of the road and the neighbors hardly knew they were there. Let’s call her “Mary.” Every night Mary would pray to Jesus (her daddy taught her to pray, thank God), “Dear Jesus, please bless the animals in our forest, the chipmunks, the squirrels, the deer, and keep them safe.”

Whether their modest little home survived, we do not know; but He did answer her prayer.

The deer, for example, the moment they sniff smoke, test the wind to see where it is coming from, and the Lord has already given them legs that can run, and they do. With all the media literature flowing from Southern California, there have been no reports of wild animals overtaken by the flames.

The original copies of the Bible texts had no pictures, of course; but divinely inspired words paint vivid pictures like the one in Psalm 145 of the great God, the heavenly Father of us all, the Ruler of the universe, kneeling with His hands holding some nuts for the wild animals to come and eat out of His hand (vss. 14-16). This is a “picture” that captures children’s attention forever.

Yes, the Bible was written for children!

And those who remember that they are still children at heart understand it best.

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":

Does the mighty Holy Spirit, the third Person of the infinite Godhead, the “Comforter” whom Jesus promised would come and sit down beside us and never leave us (“Parakletos”),—does that mighty Power who is greater than the world itself, ... does He concern Himself with the trivialities of our mundane day-to-day living?

Specifically, does He concern Himself with our deadly addictions to unhealthful food?

As the Comforter, He is the Friend who “sticketh closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24); it’s difficult to drive Him away for He is loathe to abandon anyone. The Holy Spirit is a Person who can be grieved away but if He must leave us it is in unutterable grief to Himself.

Slavery to appetite begins in childhood, often with candy or ice cream being given as a reward or “comfort” food; the innocent child thus learns a terrible lie—that “comfort” comes not from the Holy Spirit but from sweets.

We say that the addict cannot smoke another cigarette or take another drink or indulge again in drugs, without the Holy Spirit pleading with him (her) personally, “No, don’t do this!” The addict has deafened his ears and just doesn’t “hear” the appeal. But the love of the Savior is real, nonetheless, seeking to save us from ourselves. He tries and tries.

The addict is the Prodigal Son sitting in the pigsty day after day; he cannot forget the prodigal love of the father. Blessed is the hour when he stands up, stomps his feet, chooses to hate the pigsty, and declares, “I will arise and go to my Father ...”

He will say “No! No!” to this selfish appetite that has become a part of his being, and he will say “Yes! Yes!” to the true Comforter of his soul! (Cf. Luke 15:18).

“Oh, it’s so difficult,” self says; and yes, the Prodigal Son can’t do it without a Savior who “set His face to go to Jerusalem” to His cross (Luke 9:51), to die there the world’s second death. Christ was human as well as divine; the internal struggle was so intense at that moment that He summoned all His strength of will to begin that journey that He knew must end in the goodbye-forever-second-death. Every sinner in the world must re-enact that hour of utter commitment of soul; “the love (agape) of Christ constraineth us,” not craven fear, but a heart appreciation of the price which the Son of God had to endure so He could save us from hell itself. Jesus had to “overcome” in that act when He “set His face.”

We too “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” in the choice to “overcome even as [He] overcame” (Rev. 3:21). Don’t get childishly obsessed with your “reward.” Think of your blessed grown-up fellowship with Him.

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.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The dear Lord has been leading His people in preparation for their role in the last days. Just before His crucifixion, He assured them His going “away” would not mean they would be deprived of His holy presence, for He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” The word in the original language means the One called to come and sit down beside you and never leave you—the Holy Spirit. Jesus also said, “He will guide you into all truth. And He added, “I will come to you” (John 16:7, 13).

Thoughtful people in all ages have believed that this promise was partially fulfilled in the gift of “the Revelation of Jesus Christ.” That last book of the Bible has raised up a people who are unique in that they are designated as “the remnant ... who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ,” again, as “the saints who keep the commandments of God.” They are not legalists for they keep “the faith of Jesus” (14:12).

The symbolic language of Revelation is a blessing; the full knowledge of what the book tells us would be greater than the Encyclopedia Britannica could hold, but a special angel is designated as the one who “signifies” the truth in the book (cf. 1:1), whose job is to make the precious truth so simple and clear that even a child can understand, as a kind of divinely inspired cartoon.

One precious “key” to unlock its truth has been the year-day principle in understanding the prophecies of Revelation and of Daniel. In God’s symbolic language of prophecy, a symbolic “day” means a year of literal time. This truth was clarified and established in the chapter that Revelation devotes to the rise of Islam—chapter 9.

In 1838 a thoughtful Methodist pastor put the idea to a severe test. In Revelation 9:15 God designated the linear time for the Islamic Ottoman Empire to remain independent and powerful is “an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year.” Litch studied Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and history, and concluded that understood as symbolic day-for-a-year language, the Ottoman Turks should voluntarily surrender their independence on August 11, 1840—two years in the future. A “day” = a year; a “month” = 30 years; a “year” = 360 years; an hour = 1/24th of a literal year, that is 15 literal days. Total: 391 years and 15 days, stretching from July 27, 1449, to August 11, 1840.

He was brave and courageous to make the prediction; there was a remarkable fulfillment of the prophecy. It stunned Christians and even atheists, many of whom were converted. And forever established the year-day principle of understanding Daniel and Revelation.

Read Revelation 1:1-3 again. And thank God.

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":

Can you think a moment and envision God in the way that Psalm 145 does? (The Book of Psalms is where our intimate closeness to the King of the Universe is emphasized; you and I may be the most lowly inhabitants of this globe, yet we remember that “the Lord thinketh on me” (Psalm 40:17, KJV).

You are delighted when a friend tells you he/she has been thinking about you—with good will.

Well, it is solid truth that the Lord, infinite though He is, busy as He is keeping the Milky Way running smoothly, takes time to devote His thought processes to you and me individually, with good will (cf. Luke 2:14). “In Christ” the infinite Father is as close to you and me, unworthy as we are, as if we were the only inhabitants of this “desert island” of earth.

Yes, we must as the most rudimentary lesson of heaven’s kindergarten, believe two magnificent things: “he that comes to God must believe (a) that He is, and (2) that He is a rewarder of those who diligntly seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). He has reconciled us who are in heart at “enmity with God” (Rom. 8:7), but at the same time we must let go this enmity we have: now “be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:19).

Here is how Psalm 145 pictures God: (it’s like He puts pictures in His Bible like we put pictures in our books): here is the mighty God kneeling down like you kneel down with some nuts in your hand to entice a fawn or chipmunk to come and eat them out of your hand. “The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and you give them their food in due season. The LORD ... opens [His] hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing” (vs. 16). This includes the squirrels and the birds, and the bears, and all.

But that’s not all that is in this “picture.” Read more: “The LORD upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down” (vs. 14). “All,” yes; if we will let Him do it.

Don’t be ashamed to kneel before Him so the entire universe sees you; let everybody on earth and in heaven see that you are “bowed down.” When He does that, He puts “a new song” in your soul, “even praise to our God: many shall see it, and ... trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:3).

That’s His substitute for an anti-depressant drug, or the psychiatrist’s chair.

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.