Daily Bread

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

God’s solemn promise to “send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” intrigues the people of God worldwide (Mal. 4:4, 5). What will “Elijah” specialize in? Beheading “prophets of Baal”? (We have some, even many, says a widely respected author.) Undoubtedly, yes; but Malachi says no, “Elijah” will specialize in “turning” hearts that have been alienated from one another and from God. This is clearly stated in the original Elijah’s prayer before all the people gathered at Mt. Carmel: “Hear me, O LORD [Jehovah, clearly distinguished from Baal], hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the LORD God, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again” (1 Kings 18:37, KJV).

“Turning hearts” is reconciliation, and nothing but the proclamation of the love [agape] of Christ can “constrain” a modern alienated, worldly heart that is infatuated with the world’s pleasures and cars and houses and dress and entertainment, yet wants to get ready for the second coming of Christ. All the dire warnings of beheadings to come cannot “turn the heart.” The new “Elijah’s” message must therefore be “Christ and Him crucified” (1 Çor. 2:1, 2). Unthinkable as it may be, this will anger the new “Ahab and Jezebel.” But “Elijah” will again demand that everyone come out of the closet; the good news is now that those “7000” hiding in the closet will this time have the courage to take their stand with him (on Mt. Carmel not one dared say a word of support). And all together, God’s numerous “Elijahs” will proclaim a message that will “lighten the earth with glory.”

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, March 06, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

I have often thought, if I could only hear a Voice from heaven declaring unto me, “This is My beloved son in whom I am well pleased” and I could see the face of Jesus actually smiling upon me, I think I could be happy enduring any trial or disappointment. When we long for some human face to smile upon us, what we really want deep down is to see the smile of the Son of God.

But we are so conscious of our shortcomings, our failures, yes, our sins, so that we endure unhappy days. Clouds cover the sunlight we seek. In these last days of God’s great antitypical Day of Atonement, the Lord wants us to understand more clearly how good is the Good News of His “everlasting gospel” that is to be “preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people” (Rev. 14:6, 7). And Revelation describes a further message which will “lighten the earth with glory” which obviously will make the gospel truth crystal clear to every heart that’s willing to listen to truth (18:1-4).

But you don’t have to worry and wish you could hear that assurance spoken from heaven to you. When Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan and came out of the water, the Holy Spirit like a dove came down upon Him and the Voice spoke from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). But the Father was putting His arms around you too! The Bible makes it clear that when the Father accepted His Son, He accepted us “in Him.” When He “gave His only begotten Son” for us, He bought us with that Price; which means that he loves us identically as He loves His Son (cf. Eph. 1:6).

You may think that is hard to believe. Now think a moment: suppose you go to a shop and you pay say $20 for a certain item that you think is a good value. By doing what you did, you are declaring that you love that item equally with your love for the $20 you gave for it. The Father loves you as much as He loves His Son! He is “well pleased” with the purchase He has made. In Christ you are one of Abraham’s descendants, and the seven promises God made to him in Genesis 12:2, 3 are made equally to you!

Those promises and that declaration are the New Covenant to your soul. When you come to the end of your way, the only regret you will have is that you didn’t believe them as wholeheartedly as you should! Jesus believed the assurance given Him that day of His baptism; that’s why He succeeded in overcoming all of Satan’s temptations to Him in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). Get the point? That kind of faith is your victory, too. You get that faith from Him. Open your heart to receive the gift.

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Sunday, March 05, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

A pastor friend writes inquiring if I had ever heard of the story of “the Roman gospel.” It seems that history reports that when a Roman army conquered a city, the news that was taken to its inhabitants was “the gospel.” The news was “good” in that the people were told that they were now Roman citizens with all the rights and privileges thereto. This “good news” applied to all in the city. The only exceptions were those who might refuse to become Roman citizens and opposed the “news,” whereupon they became subject to instant death by the sword.

Whether this is historically true I do not know (maybe someone out there who knows can inform me please).

But there is therein something that reminds us of a shade of genuine “gospel” good news. Christ has prevailed in the “great controversy” with Satan and has conquered the world. All who will believe the good news become citizens of God’s eternal kingdom with all the rights and privileges thereto including of course eternal life. But there is no compulsion to receive the “news.” Those who wish to disbelieve and reject it may do so. But those who do reject willingly subject themselves to the death that the Bible calls “the second death”—they “perish.”

Throughout the history of the world, God’s character of love has shone clearly, for “God is love” (agape). He wants all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4) and if He can have His way all will be saved but He can not force anyone. Christ is known as “the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe” (4:10). Because of Christ’s sacrifice of Himself for the world, the Father can treat these “all men” as though they were righteous, sending His rain and sunshine on good and bad alike (Matt. 5:45) and keeping His door open as long as anyone still has that freedom of choice. Those who “believe” are those for whom John 3:16 was written.

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The story of Jesus is the story of the great controversy between God and Satan. The Enemy hounded Him every day of His life on earth as the Son of God incarnate. No human being has ever been so hated, treated so despicably, as was Jesus. His pain was not only during those few hours when He was nailed to the cross; it began with His boyhood. As a Boy of 12 He surrendered His soul to death on the cross when He said to Mary and Joseph, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). They should have known, but even His mother could not understand Him; and as His mother she had to endure the pain of a sword thrust through her heart as no other mother in history has ever had to endure (cf. vs. 35).

On and on through His 33-1/2 years of sojourn among us Jesus in His sensitive human nature has had to endure the opposition of human beings inspired by the murderous hatred of Satan. Finally in His last hour of human breath He must endure what no other human has endured—the sense of the horrible condemnation of the “curse” of God. “My God, My God,” He cries in mortal anguish as death encircles His soul, “why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). He cannot even cry “My Father”! The loving Father has turned His back on Him, abandoned Him to be humiliated by the world, all are against Him, God allows Him to hang naked between heaven and earth. He cannot even pray to the heavenly Father to whom He gave us permission to pray! (Moses said you can’t pray if you’re on a tree, Deut. 21:22, 23).

When He told His disciples in Gethsemane, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (26:38), He meant the real thing—not the sweetness of our desired sleep. He was “pouring out His soul unto [the] death” that is, the eternal curse of the Ruler of the universe (cf. Isa. 53:12). Darkness, loneliness forever! Peter says He endured the pangs of hell itself—the second death (Acts 2:27). Here is the “width and length and depth and height” of the “love [agape].... which passes knowledge.” Jesus has been forced to wait for 6000 years to find a church, a corporate body of believers, who appreciate it in a sense adequate to enable them to “lighten the earth” with the glory of its message. The lukewarmness of His last-days’ church (Rev. 3:14-21) is the biggest problem He has had in these millennia.

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

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Friday, March 03, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

For some weeks, millions of Christians around the world have been studying about happiness in the Christian home. This weekend they are studying about a somber aspect of so-called “Christian” homes: oppression and abuse in the family. The Lesson frankly states that it is possible that “home” can become a hell on earth—if some members are arrogant torturers of others in the family. There is no hope for these abusers but to “fall on the Rock and be broken” (cf. Matt. 21:42-44), which means a total crucifixion of self “with Christ” on His cross (Gal. 2:20; Luke 9:23). He or she must come to the place where Job was when he said, “I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (42:6). A total, forever experience.

But what is the hope for the abused? One true answer: “fellowship with Christ” in His sufferings. He was abused; now your mind is lifted above your own suffering to realize that you are being honored to experience an always-to-be-appreciated closeness to Him (see 1 Peter 1:6-13; 2 Cor. 1:3-7; Phil. 3:10). And remember, Jesus does not call you to be a doormat; you will not be proud but you will respect yourself as someone purchased with His blood (cf. Rom. 12:3). Jesus says twice in John 14, don’t be afraid; “let not your heart be troubled” (vss. 1, 27). In other words, your heart cannot be “troubled” unless you choose to let Satan terrify you. It is possible that the abused as well as the abuser has repentance to experience! Thank God that the Holy Spirit gives it as a gift (Acts 5:31)!

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

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Sincere Christian people who love the Bible, whose hearts are moved by the love of Christ demonstrated at His cross, wonder at Islam. What is it? What is the secret of its immense appeal to over a billion people? It’s the second religion in the world, Hinduism lagging behind with only 881 million (statistics from Islam for Dummies by Malcolm Clark). Is it a God-ordained religion gone awry?

There is a Judeo-Christian Bible translated into Arabic in which the ordinary word for “God” is “Allah.” But is the Muslim “Allah” the same heavenly Father to whom Jesus directs us to pray? His Son tells us, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:44, 45). Humble our hearts before Him as we may want to do, we find it difficult to see that spirit actuating those bloodthirsty mobs who riot in their streets chanting jihad and “death to Denmark” or America—because of those silly cartoons. Why does God permit Islam to be such a thorn in the flesh of the so-called Christian West?

As the second religion in the world statistically, does it merit mention in the Bible? Reverent-minded Bible scholars for centuries have said yes. Islam is the “star fallen from heaven to the earth” and the “smoke.... out of the [bottomless] pit like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit” in Revelation 9:1-21. “Fallen from heaven”!

The Revelation context is important: the “seven trumpets” have sounded the proclamations of truth that professed Christianity has also “fallen” so that God must declare at last, “Babylon the great is fallen” (Rev. 18:2). The simple, clear Biblical truths that once “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6) have been perverted by the impregnation of paganism into Christian teaching. God permitted Islam to arise in its beginning as a protest against this spiritual “fall of Babylon”—Christians venerating images, for example. The phenomenon of “post-Christian” culture today has afforded Islam another “jihad” fodder to fuel the original zeal that lured the Middle East and North Africa from Christianity to Islam. Even Billy Graham said that God must apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah for the immorality that so-called “Christian” “democracy” tolerates. The jihad enthusiasts shout, “We don’t want what you have!”

The God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not asleep. Now let’s stay awake in these tough times and “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth”(Rev. 14:4, KJV).

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

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Thursday, March 02, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Is the Holy Spirit being withdrawn from the earth? He was involved in the creation of the world when “the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2, NKJV); all through ancient times “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21; and at Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection of Christ, the Holy Spirit was poured out in fullness upon the apostles of Christ (Acts 2:4). Ever since, those who have opened their hearts to welcome Him have basked in the bright sunshine of His presence and wherever people have “proclaimed liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants” (Lev. 25:10), there have been security, prosperity and happiness. Those blessings are a measure, a portion, of receiving the Holy Spirit of God. Is that blessed era coming to an end?

We see the hate-filled faces of mobs rioting where you dare not show a Western face in case you be mistaken for a Dane; it’s difficult to see the Holy Spirit actuating those mobs. Some Muslims are fortunate enough to live in lands where Christian patriots of past generations gave their blood to establish civil and religious liberty. They may now feel a constraint that hinders them from giving loose rein to resentful feelings they may have against freedom of the press; that is an evidence that the Holy Spirit is still “hovering over the face” of the land restraining the mayhem that would come if He were fully withdrawn.

History demonstrates what happens in highly cultured lands where the Holy Spirit is so repressed that He is withdrawn—the French Revolution, for example, and the land of the Holocaust. Recent news tells how Roman Catholics are reacting forcefully against cartoonists who they think have desecrated the Virgin Mary. Economic pressure is a prelude to future threatening those who will then insist on still believing in civil and religious freedom. Be thankful for your present blessings of the Holy Spirit; He is the reason you can drive home in comparative safety.

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

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Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The man had been a bachelor until late in life; then he met the woman of his dreams. She responded and the two seemed as happy as twenty-year-olds. They were married in a civil ceremony.

Then she came down with cancer. C. S. Lewis was devastated; but then some good news—the cancer went into remission and once again they felt they had discovered Paradise. Now they were married by a Church of England priest. It seemed that God smiled on them; but again the cancer returned and Joy died.

Says one author: “Lewis experienced a devastating sense of distance from God,.... ‘the dark night of the soul.’ Lewis wrote: ‘But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double-bolting on the inside After that, silence.’.... The danger was not that Lewis would become an atheist. Instead, he wrote: ‘The real danger is coming to believe such dreadful things about Him’” (Art Lindsley, Case for Christ, pp. 60, 61, Inter-Varsity Press, 2005).

Before you condemn Lewis, take a good honest look at our own Judeo-Christian Bible: numerous of our Psalms express the same desperate feelings (88, 22, 69, for example; and of course Job). The greatest Psalmist of all eternity once cried out, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). But what Lewis could not understand was that Christ endured that soul agony so that we might never have to endure it; but his soul was darkened by the belief he had inherited of the immortality of the soul. That doctrine derived from ancient paganism but taught in the Christian church had darkened his view of the cross of Christ. Hundreds of millions now suffer likewise. God has called a people to tell the truth about the cross, what happened there. It’s what Malachi says “Elijah” will proclaim to our darkened world—reconciliation of soul with God and with one another (4:4, 5).

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

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Thursday, February 23, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Could it be possible that someone could sin as soon as he has been born? Psalm 58:3 suggests that we descendants of the fallen Adam “go astray as soon as [we] be born.” The Bible tells of one prominent individual who his relatives understood actually sinned while he was in the act of being born; in fact there is also a suggestion that he sinned while still in the womb! Of Rebekeh’s being pregnant with Esau and Jacob, we read: “The children struggled within her.... And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold there were twins in her womb..... They called [the first’s] name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob” (which we are told means “supplanter,” someone trying to grasp what God has not given him; Gen. 25:22-26, KJV).

We may say that this character-name was given the poor child on flimsy evidence, but he had to carry it almost all his life. The name was understood to be prophetic. He lived it out, even grabbed the birthright from Esau by what we would consider unfair means—taking advantage of the man’s indulged appetite. The problem: Jacob wanted to grab something before God gave it to him.

The story of how Jacob finally “overcame” in his trial of faith in his “night of wrestling” illuminates our future. Jeremiah 30:5-7 (NIV) describes how the people of God—all who overcome—will experience most severe testing of their faith. The great event all over the world near the close of human probation will be “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” “Every strong man.... like a woman in labor, every face turned deathly pale.... How awful that day will be! None will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it” as Jacob himself was saved out of his “night of wrestling.” Severe trial but still “good news.”

The “wrestling” in prayer must begin now, for it is a life experience, not a 24-hour triumph some time far in the future.

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

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Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

It was a memorable Presidents’ Day weekend as we sought to remember our two most prominent February-born presidents. One devoted his life to establishing the Union of the states that formed the American republic; the other devoted his life to preserving its Union.

Both cherished a sober reverence for the Deity and sensed His leading in the crises of American history. Both in their most enlightened moments understood the Deity to be the Father of humanity’s Lord Jesus Christ who is the Savior of the world, and they sensed that the Godhead comprised the heavenly Father, the Son, and what was then termed the Holy Ghost, one God, one Lord. Both presidents were Protestant in their religious conviction; but both firmly believed that Providence was leading the new nation into complete religious liberty, a separation of church and state. Evidence indicates that both presidents wanted the “church” to be faithful to its duty to proclaim reverence for the holy law of God, to proclaim what they dimly conceived to be a righteousness by faith, the best they could understand at that time. Both of our revered February presidents were Protestant by deep conviction, both wanted Europe’s devotion to the papacy to remain foreign to these shores; both sensed therein a threat to the security and prosperity of this nation.

The news from the media on Presidents’ Day weekend was disturbing: deep, bitter, and bloody conflict between Islam and the West; a victory of Hamas in Palestine that threatens to undo the “progress” that we have gained in Iraq; deep and bitter divisions in our own political homeland; ominous evidences of moral corruption “in high places.”

And yet among those who cherish the special message of Daniel and Revelation there are also divisions and perplexities: as we await Heaven’s outpouring of the “latter rain” (the same Holy Spirit of which Pentecost was the “former rain”), how can we distinguish between a premature counterfeit “outpouring” and the genuine to follow? It’s time to be sober, to think clearly, to walk softly.

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

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Monday, February 20, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Daniel’s prophecies are plain. Jesus urges us to “read” them and “understand” them (Matt. 24:15). As clear as sunlight is the one about the “cleansing of the sanctuary” (8:13, 14): “unto 2300 days: then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Obviously that’s “the true sanctuary [tabernacle, tent] which the Lord pitched, and not man” at His office in heaven (Heb. 8:2). And it’s equally obvious that the “cleansing” of the heavenly sanctuary cannot be done until first the hearts of God’s people on earth are cleansed. Therefore it follows as surely as day follows night that the great High Priest is working through the Holy Spirit to minister much more abounding grace to enable them to “overcome even as [Christ] overcame” (Rev. 3:20). Again it’s obvious—that’s to overcome sin in the fallen, sinful flesh or nature which they have inherited from the fallen Adam, “even as” the Savior “condemned sin” in that same “likeness of sinful flesh” in which the Father “sent” Him to save the world (Rom. 8:3). And of course verse 4 follows verse 3, so there the Holy Spirit announces to the world the glorious results of the Plan of Redemption finally demonstrated beyond dispute: “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.”

The word for “righteousness” there is special—DIKAIOMATA, which means Christ’s righteousness finally lived out in the “flesh” of those who believe in Jesus. In other words, in plain and simple language, it’s righteousness “imparted,” not merely “imputed” in a legal sense. Babylon’s “gospel” of justification by faith goes as far as “imputing” legally Christ’s righteousness (DIKAIOSUNE) to those who believe; but their actually living it out in the flesh isn’t possible (says Babylon) until they are glorified at the coming of Jesus and their sinful nature is finally zapped by replacing it with a sinless nature. In other words, Babylon’s gospel is clear: you can’t overcome SIN as long as you are still in your fallen, sinful flesh. Only Christ “condemned sin” in that sinful flesh; you can’t.

But the biblical gospel of justification by faith proclaims better good news: “the Savior of the world” saves His people FROM sinning while still in this world with the fallen nature of Adam. They too “condemn sin” in that flesh. How? By receiving, opening the heart to, “the faith OF Jesus” (Gal. 2:16; 3:22).

And the last link in the good news story: that same DIKAIOMATA (imparted, not merely-legally-imputed righteousness) is seen in the wedding garment worn by the bride of Christ at the long-delayed “marriage of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:7, 8). That’s happening now, not tomorrow.

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

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Sunday, February 19, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Most of the Song of Solomon (S. S.) is joyous, upbeat love. How could two people be more deliriously happy with each other?

But there is one of the “songs” that is sung in the minor key. It has been said that the path of true love is never smooth. The love of these two is strained to near the breaking point in the drama of chapter five. (As we study we must remember that the “two” are Christ and His bride-to-be; their path to the “marriage of the Lamb” has been rocky!)

It’s not the Bridegroom who has been fickle; sorry, it’s the “girl.” He has “chosen” her, “elected” her; His love has been steady. Their courtship has led them to the point of commitment, what we would call “the engagement.” He is “ready” for “the marriage,” long delayed. In chapter five He has come to her in a time of world history when He especially needs her to stand by His side as a “help meet.” There is a denouement to the crisis of the ages when the Lamb of God who rides His white horse into the final battle of time needs His bride, His one true church, to cooperate with Him as only nuptial love can do. But is her love nuptial? Sadly, no; the story tells how she callously enjoys her selfish comfort, leaving Him knocking, knocking, vainly on her door.

The story is told in S. S. 5:2-7. Finally she realizes she has repulsed Him and belatedly gets up to let Him in, only to discover that His divine patience after years of delay, has been strained too far; and He is “gone.” The story of her search for Him in the dark streets of the city is pathetic. Decades of prayer and fasting for a renewal of “the latter rain” and “the loud cry” power have not as yet healed the wound in the relationship.

But.... He still loves “her.” Why not choose a new “bride”? Revelation 19 says the same one will repent and “make herself ready,” because His love is not fickle. That, incidentally, is our only hope.

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

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Friday, February 17, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

It’s something that Jesus didn’t just “say” quietly to the Twelve. He “stood and cried in a loud voice” that everyone attending that “last and greatest day of the Feast” could hear, a message that was bursting forth from His soul. And it was a quotation from the Song of Solomon (S. S.) that said what He wanted to say, which He dignified by calling “THE Scripture.”

If you’re thirsty, He said, “come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37, 38; S. S. 4:15; NIV, KJV). This is not a mere profession of “accepting Christ” like you enroll in an insurance policy; this is a thirsty soul famishing of inward dryness eagerly drinking every drop of spiritual moisture in a clearer grasp of gospel truth than he has ever before understood. The dry “gospel” has become life itself. Thus “believing” is defined: it’s not head knowledge, but the yearning in Jesus’ soul now transplanted into your soul. You now actually love the Bible with the enthusiasm of your former worldly addictions—sports, dress, money, pleasure, appetite. You, poor little uneducated, untrained soul that you are, you have become a bubbling spring of fresh water of life. Everyone who rubs up against you in life is refreshed somehow by something you have said about “the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5, 14). Your heart has become a treasure store of gospel truth. You have become one of those “144,000” whose passion is to “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:5).

This becomes a clearer definition of what it means to “believe.” It’s self-humbling; you want to pray that although “I believe,” yet “help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). You’re hesitant now to boast of your so-called “faith.” Like Moses, you’re not even aware that your face is shining (cf. Ex. 34:29).

This is “evangelism” in God’s design. It’s ordinary people not necessarily “trained in literary institutions” who bubble over humbly with pure gospel truth that has satisfied their own soul thirst.

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

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Thursday, February 16, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

This week around the world millions of Christians are studying a strange, unlikely book in the Bible: the Song of Solomon (S. S.). They are discovering, for one thing, that it’s quoted extensively in the New Testament, especially by Jesus! This removes the lingering doubts that maybe its sexual content slipped into the Bible by mistake. Yes, the book is to be read reverently!

Its alluring glimpses of a Paradise of sexual love are not bad to imagine because the message gets across unmistakably that it’s Jesus Himself who is the Lover yearning to become fully one with His Bride in a “consummation.”

Paul cites S. S. when he speaks of Christ’s goal for the church that it be “without spot” (Eph. 5:27; S. S. 4:7; we have a ways to go!).

Jesus quotes the Greek version (the Septuagint) in His message to the leadership of the last of the seven churches when He tells of knocking, knocking, “at the door” (Rev. 3:20). But the source in S. S. turns out to be a sad vignette. It describes the young woman who is loved so dearly as selfishly snuggling warm in bed on a cold rainy night while her poor Lover is barred at her door, forced to keep knocking while He remains outside, lonely, cold, hungry, wet, and obviously the One whose disappointment is beyond description (S. S. 5:2-6).

But Christ’s most delightful quote is in John 7:37, 38 where He frankly identifies S. S. as “THE Scripture” and clarifies forever what true “evangelism” means according to His view. “Evangelism” is the accepted name for doing what Jesus commanded when He said “Go ye to all the world and proclaim the gospel.” It’s interesting to see what S. S. says about that (4:15). But our time limit is expired; this must be tomorrow if the Lord gives us another day.

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

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Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Cal Thomas writes a syndicated column in which yesterday he seriously appealed to the leadership of the Christian community. “What is it with evangelical Christians that so many of them need a cause beyond the commission they’ve been given?.... Evangelicals should pursue.... higher virtues instead of settling for the lower life of politics..... Let them return to the eternal message that has been given them to share with a world that needs it now more than ever. That is a message which ‘cleans up’ the inside of the hearts of men and women......”

Thanks to this messenger from the Tribune Media Services! He may not realize that he echoes the message of the man who the Lord says He will send “before [His] great and dreadful day,” “the prophet Elijah” (Mal. 4:5, 6). The prophet was famous for lopping off the heads of 450 “prophets of Baal” at the “brook Kishon” (1 Kings 18:40), so that we’re all rather afraid of his return. We read that John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy for the people of Christ’s day (Matt. 11:12-15); but that was not the “great and dreadful day of the Lord,” which will be only at the second coming of Christ. That means that “Elijah” as a message is due any day now at some new “Mt. Carmel.” And just as the scribes and Pharisees failed to recognize “him” in John the Baptist long ago, so today “we” stand in mortal danger of getting mixed up with the “450” who are immersed in Baal worship and don’t realize where they are in God’s sight.

In the last analysis, “Baal worship” was and is the worship of self disguised as the worship of Christ, so it can be and often is an unconscious lapse.

But “Elijah” is not yearning to chop heads off. Read the prophecy in Malachi: he comes to “turn.... hearts” in a blessed Day of Atonement reconciliation, a healing of alienation of heart from God, and also from one another. This is the message this newspaper columnist recognizes must be proclaimed to the world. “Elijah” will do it, for God has promised. Let’s not resist him as Jezebel and Ahab did!

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

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Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

St. Valentines Day—a pagan festival imported into Christianity. But therein lies an important insight into living real life.

The original pagan god involved was Eros (Greek) and Cupid (Latin). To this day Cupid is often pictured as a cherub shooting arrows from his bow, the idea being that if he strikes a couple, they are programmed to fall in love. Very nice.

The “love” with which they fall in love is, of course, eros, which is love based on the goodness or the beauty of its object. It is said that all the world loves a couple who are in love. But the eros-love that Cupid shoots in his arrow is not a lasting love unless the other love, agape, takes its place. Only agape love “never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8).

Cupid may do very well shooting his arrows to lead couples to fall in love, but the problem is that he can also shoot arrows to cause them to fall out of love again. Broken hearts and bitter lives can follow.

Through Satan’s deceptive wiles, youth imagine that the love that is agape is a spoil-fun kind, and they instinctively shy away. “Falling in love is MY business!” they say. But let’s not forget that if the Son of God, the Savior, gave Himself for us, He bought us and redeemed us from the kind of death that is eternal; His utterly self-sacrificing love deserves His having what He paid for—your affections. When youth recognize that eternal truth that shines in the cross of Christ, they will outwit Cupid. Their love will be purified from that bitter enemy of love—selfishness. Their love will be incomparably delightful. The love they will know together will be a fabric woven stronger than any loom on earth can weave. Their love will be that described in the Song of Solomon: “Love is powerful as death.... No flood can drown it” (8:6, 7, GNB).

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

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Monday, February 13, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Our book for group Bible study asked a pointed question: “If you knew someone severely tempted to engage in illicit sex, what would you say to help that person?” Peter says we should “be ready always to give,.... a reason of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15); so I volunteered. I would read three texts that are not only good advice but powerful HEART-CHANGING good news:

(1) “God [sent] His own Son in the LIKEness of sinful flesh, on accoout of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law [KJV] might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:3, 4). That word “rightousness” is not the word that means Christ’s righteousness imputed legally, but it’s the imparted gift that has become your character. In other words, you connect with a Christ who is real—He took YOUR fallen, sinful flesh but conquered that same temptation in the very flesh that you have, where you are now.

(2) Christ “was in all points tempted LIKE as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15, KJV). The word LIKE means tempted to break all ten of the commandments, “yet without sin.” If there is one that He never knew the temptation to break, we have no Savior NOW from that sin; such an idea leaves Him imprisoned in the stained glass windows of the cathedral.

(3) If you LET the Holy Spirit hold you, and don’t wriggle your hand away from Him, He will not let you fall into either fornication or adultery, no matter how alluring the temptation: Galatians 5:16, 17.

Read closely: “the things that you wish” (“the things that ye would,” KJV) are the bad things your sinful nature prompts you to do. Most people read that backwards, thinking you can’t do the good things you want to do even if the Holy Spirit is leading you—isn’t that horrible bad news? Read what it says: let the Holy Spirit hold you by the hand and you CAN’T give in to the “flesh” because the Holy Spirit is striving against it. Who is stronger? Your flesh or the Holy Spirit?

The Gospel is better good news than we have thought.

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

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Sunday, February 12, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The new editors of the National Geographic Magazine are daring to step out from the traditional editorial matrix of our prestigious journal. They have published an issue devoted to healthful living—somewhat out of their “geographic” interests—in which they featured the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Loma Linda University. It has been founded to promote the principles of “wholism,” enhancing the combined physical and spiritual interests of humanity.

Now the editors are making a foray into an interest shockingly new to our staid National Geographic—investigating the conflicting views of humanity on the book of Revelation in the Bible, and “prophecy” in general. This weekend they have sent a film crew to a leading Seventh-day Adventist Church in Sacramento to watch a pastor-evangelist’s take on Bible prophecy. They are, we understand, simultaneously inquiring of other proponents of conflicting prophetic interpretations.

Three leading views engage their attention: (1) The “preterist,” which holds that the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation had their fulfillment millennia ago; therefore they interest only grey-headed history buffs. (2) “Futurist,” the view that places their fulfillment some time in the dim future at the end of human history. Likewise, the impact on the people’s thinking is to shelve Daniel and Revelation into conjecture. And (3), the one the Geographic films in Sacramento this week,—the “historicist,” the view that sees these prophecies fulfilled throughout history, leading up to a grand climax at the second coming of the Savior of the world. And that time is now.

The Lord Jesus Christ urges you and me to give our assiduous attention to both Daniel and Revelation (Matt. 24:15; Rev. 1:1-3). The most stupendous events of world history are upon us. No time now to get drunk and sleep. “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning,” says Someone who loves us dearly (Luke 12:35).

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

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Saturday, February 11, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

This weekend, millions of Christians around the world are studying frankly and openly what the Bible says about the terrible results of fornication and adultery. The problem is more than the wrath of God because of the transgression of His holy law; it’s the pain which it brings to Him. One Christian writer says, “Fornication causes more suffering in America than theft, and perjury and random violence combined..... Fornication is an evil far greater than modern society likes to acknowledge. It is sad that even churches are unwilling to give this sin the attention it so richly deserves” (Reo M. Christensen, Spectrum, Vol. 24, No. 2, p. 64).

Much unhappiness in marriages can be traced to this beginning.

The true Christ of the Bible is a Savior FROM sin, not in it. The Christ who belongs in stained glass windows is far removed from experiencing our temptations. He is not the Christ of the Bible. The Father sent the true Christ “in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” (Rom. 8:3, 4). He was “in all points tempted like as we are tempted, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). That is our flesh, He was made to be. The glorious truth is that the Son of God as the Savior of the world saved the human race from sin; brought us “out of the house of bondage” to sin (Ex. 20:2), and in condemning sin in our fallen, sinful flesh, He forever conquered the problem of sin in the one place where sin had taken its last refuge in God’s universe. All that the universe of God awaits is for God’s people on earth to appreciate His accomplishment. Its Good News is “the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). It’s not the lack of works that holds up Christ’s final victory; it’s the lack of faith on the part of God’s people. The real thing.

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

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Friday, February 10, 2006

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

It’s backward from current wisdom, but it’s the words of Jesus: “Blessed [happy] are those who mourn” (Matt. 5:4, NIV). Why and how can people who are sad be so truly happy?

It’s not only old people who “mourn.” There are also young people who swim upstream against the current and dare to think soberly. They are not relaxed at the giddy parties; they are burdened with the reality of the world. They may not know the reason for their sobriety, but they are unconsciously aware that we are living in the solemn time of earth’s history known as the great Day of Atonement when God Himself is on trial before the universe and its fate is in the balance. Will the leader of the Great Rebellion win the final battle of the “great controversy”? Even teens can see that a mysterious evil is permeating our world.

But that’s old news; what’s disturbing are its all too visible inroads into the “body of Christ,” His church. Thoughtful youth are perturbed. They can’t help it; they’re sober.

We heard a pastor declare recently that raucous, uncontrollable laughter is a sign that one has received the Holy Spirit. Well, here’s a different idea: “It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools. Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools” (Eccl. 7:5, 6). God made us so we can laugh; but the reason truly happy people can be so sober is that they are uncomfortably aware that a false and counterfeit “holy spirit” is enveloping the world and seeking to capture the church. It’s the most lethal danger the church faces during these 2000 years since Christ established it. He is concerned; so should we be concerned. Blessed are those who mourn with Him—positively. He is at work; so should we be.

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

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