Daily Bread

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The suicide bombers are still at work in the Middle East, the
insurgents still creating mayhem in Iraq, but now the stories are off
the front page and inside. All thoughtful people have pondered another
quiet terror troubling our souls: the possibilities of ending up like
Terri Schiavo--maybe before even getting old. The life insurance
companies have been keeping rather quiet; their money isn’t what we
would want most.

But there is a Life Insurance Policy not only offered us but urged upon
us, yes, even given to us for the “receiving” (look at the “receive” in
Rom. 5:17). The most precious New Covenant is the out and out promise
of God that “thou shalt BE a blessing” as well as receive a blessing
from Him (Gen. 12:1-3). In other words, to the one who like Abraham
“gets out of [his] country, and from [his] father’s house, unto a land
that [God] will shew [him],” in other words gets out of “Babylon,”
God’s solemn promise is that he/she will always bring happiness to
someone else. Giving it will be much more fun that getting it!

A vegetable like existence in immortality is not the goal; to “BE a
blessing” requires an active mind and a warm heart plus a knowledge of
God as the Giver of Good News for every human soul (Ashley Smith had
some for the murderer who burst into her apartment). Abraham believed
those New Covenant promises in Genesis 12; now as a child of Abraham,
you have inherited them. That means you are a stream of living water or
at least a rivulet of it, however tiny; the little fountain deep in
your inmost soul will never run dry (see John 7:37-39). And the command
of Jesus to His disciples is to you; of those whom He will always send
to you, He says, “They need not depart; give YE them to eat” (Matt.
14:16). He will multiply the “bread” in your very hands! But you must
eat it first; start studying that Word today.

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Friday, August 22, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

A thousand times “yes!” Let’s agree that when the Savior of the world
died on His cross and proclaimed “It is finished!” He won the great
controversy all by Himself.

Yes, yes, He died “instead” of us. Yes, salvation is assured. Yes, He
opened the gates of Paradise. Yes, it was all done even before we were
born. Yes, yes, we contribute nothing to our own salvation.

But does all that mean that we His people, being “covered” by this
celestial Insurance Policy, now have only to “wait” and “occupy until
[He] comes”? (Cf. Luke 19:13; that word “occupy” has come to mean make
lots of money, enjoy the world, don’t lose out, have our fun as though
there were no solemn Day of Atonement for us to live in). Does Christ’s
dying “instead” of us mean that we have no cross to “share” with Him?
He dies 100% only “instead” of us? From now on are we simply so many
childish digits in the credit column in God’s heavenly computer, and we
“wait” for the call of the first resurrection? Or is there some serious
business before us about getting ready to meet Jesus at His second
coming?

Please note: there are four glorious “Hallelujah Choruses” in
Revelation 19:1-7 that say something must happen that at last makes
possible that “the Lord God omnipotent reigns”! And that something not
having happened yet has delayed His “reign” for many, many years, even
though He finished His dying “instead” of us. What finally must happen
is that “the Lamb’s wife” “make herself ready” for the intimacy of the
“marriage of the Lamb.” What happened on the cross was wonderful
indeed, but nobody can (or will) be happy in heaven until those
Hallelujah Choruses can be sung, proclaiming a hitherto elusive
victory.

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

Monday, August 18, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Have you ever tried to drive a car when the emergency brake was on? If
so, you understand what it’s like to keep praying for the Lord to
give you spiritual victories while you keep breaking His holy laws of
health.

Selfish indulging appetite is sometimes described as the “first
sin” in Eden; it’s pathetic even today, almost everywhere in the world. You
may pray ever so earnestly for the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind and
heart, and He may be totally willing to answer your prayer, but He is
hindered against His will from making His answer clear to you. He would
love to pour out upon you a heart-warming spiritual blessing, but if
you are over-eating or indulging an intemperate use of desserts or
sweets, your mind will certainly be clogged.

An excess of milk and sugar products tends to stupefy the mind, and the
poor Holy Spirit is just frustrated in His earnest efforts to bless
you. All He can do is to remind you of what the Lord Jesus says to you
and me: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down
[overcharged, KJV], . . . and that day come upon you unexpectedly”
(Luke 21:34).

Jesus said that the very first work of the Holy Spirit is to bring us a
“conviction of sin” (John 16:8). If cigarettes are your problem, He
will not let you indulge without reminding you, “This is wrong!” Or
if alcohol is your problem, He will not let you take the glass to your
lips without convicting you that it is sin.

Does He also convict us when we’re tempted to eat too much? O Lord,
forgive us for the many times we have trampled on the Holy Spirit!
Forgive us for our foolishness! Now let us thank God that we have
another day of probation; choose to respond to Him today. Let the Holy
Spirit tell us what to do and what not to do. Choose to die before you
beat back the Holy Spirit. Yes!

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Dial Daily Bread

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Someone writes asking that we make clear what Young’s LITERAL
TRANSLATION of Romans 5:15-19 means, especially his use of the word
“constitutes.” It’s in verses 18, 19, instead of the word
“made” as in the King James Version. Here’s what Young renders Paul as saying:
“So, then, as through one offense to all men it is to condemnation, so also
through one declaration of ‘Righteous’ it is to all men to
justification of life; for as through the disobedience of the one man
[Adam], the many [all men] were CONSTITUTED sinners: so also through
the obedience of the One [Christ], shall the many [the same all men] be

CONSTITUTED righteous” (Young’s LITERAL, vss 18, 19).

The sin of Adam did not MAKE “all men” to be actual sinners--that
would be “original sin.” Adam’s fatherhood has not forced anyone to
sin! (It could be that the KJV rendering as “made” has led some to think the
Bible does teach original sin; but Young’s “Literal” makes clear
that we still have freedom of choice. Thank God!)

But it is true that “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:10), except Christ.
But He took upon Himself the DNA descent from Adam, yet He proves that
inheriting a sinful nature does not force one necessarily to be a
sinner in character. Christ was tempted like as we are tempted, but He
said “No!” to every temptation (Heb. 4:15; Titus 2:11, NIV).
Adam’s sin CONSTITUTED “all men” under the legal condemnation of sin. Jesus
“took” it upon Himself, so He could die.

Likewise, according to Young’s “Literal,” the cross of Christ did
not MAKE the same “all men” to be experientially “righteous.” It
CONSTITUTED them “righteous” in a legal sense so the Father could
send His rain on the just and the unjust alike--so He could treat every
person as though he had not sinned. Some call this a “second
probation.” But God means what He says: no one can keep you out of
heaven, except your own perverse choice.

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

When I was young, grey-haired pastors would tell me that the most
important subject I could think about is my own personal salvation. But
is there a more important, greater issue to think about than this
self-centered one?

What led Christ to His cross was not such a self-centered motivation.
As we ponder Scripture clues here and there we begin to discern that He
was tempted as all of us humans are tempted--to seek self-preservation;
but a new motivation engrossed His soul. He was concerned not for
Himself, but for the preservation of the universe of God which had been
challenged by the greatest created being of all eternity--Lucifer, who
by rebellion became Satan (Rev. 12:7-10). Satan’s new invention was
the motivation of self-seeking. Our first parents yielded to it, and
therefore every human being descended from Adam has been naturally
self-centered by nature.

The great battle that Jesus fought in Gethsemane and on His cross was
“Not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). In order to say His
amen to that prayer, He had to surrender His own life, yes, His own
eternal life. Jesus repeatedly assures us that in His becoming one with
us, He took on His soul a “self” as we all have a self to contend
with (John 5:30; 6:38; Luke 9:23; Rom. 15:3, etc.). But the love (agape)
that He was as God, as the Son of God (1John 4:8), confronted this
“self” which He had taken upon Himself, and He denied self and all
self-centered motivation. He denied His own human will.

“Easy” for Him? A zillion times, No! He wept blood as He struggled
in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). And as a “most precious” gift, He has
given us a new motivation for following Him--not just to get a reward for
ourselves in heaven, nor just to save our own little souls, but a new
capacity to sense a concern for Him. The success of His great
controversy with Satan absorbs us. It’s as a bride feels in her soul
a new concern--for the husband who has won her love (Rev. 19:7, 8). This
“growth in grace” is “present truth”(2 Peter 3:18).

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Friday, August 08, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

All through Bible history and through the history of Christianity,
those who seek to follow Jesus have been opposed, ridiculed,
persecuted. Always, the believer who would be faithful must “take up
his cross” in order to follow the true Christ (Luke 9:23).
Elijah was opposed by the government of the Israelite nation; the
opposition of the king and the queen was so terrible that he was
denounced as Public Enemy # One.

The same persecution was seen in King Saul’s bitter hatred of David,
the youth whom the Lord had “anointed” to replace him as future
king.

Then Jeremiah had to spend his entire lifetime enduring the persecution
inflicted on him by the successive kings and leaders of Judah following
the death of good king Josiah.

At first the official leadership of the nation of Israel was favorable
to the message of John the Baptist, but later what they considered
objective evidence made them conclude they were forced to criticize,
then oppose, then reject, and finally crucify, the Man whom God had
sent as their Messiah. It was the popular thing to do--shout “crucify
Him!” (John 19:15).

Must we still today “take up [our] cross” in order to be faithful
to Him? Yes!

But does that mean that life must be a dreary enduring of sadness and
loneliness? No, the promise of Jesus has particular reference to life
today. He said: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world” (Matt. 28:20). As He walked with the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace
(Dan. 3:25), so He has pledged Himself to suffer and endure with His
faithful disciples today.

And in every confrontation with Satanic falsehood, Jesus wins the
victory.

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Thursday, August 07, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Sometimes the most wonderful gift can be wrapped unattractively. That
is true of certain “Bible doctrines” that outwardly appear boring
or even burdensome, but which are marvelous blessings. One is the Bible
doctrine of the Sabbath; in His mercy God asks us to “remember” it,
to keep it holy (that’s all, to keep holy what He has already made
holy!). And Satan wants to make that blessed “remembrance” to appear
burdensome.

Another “doctrine” that appears dry as dust (it used to be that way
to me!) is the Two Covenants, an idea that only high-tech theologians
wrangle about in their ivory towers. And the Bible Commentaries were no
help. It seemed that God was experimenting on Israel, trying this or
that method to save them, and since the old covenant was one of His
experiments that went bad, He had to think up another method, the new
covenant. But that created a REAL problem: if God Himself has not been
sure what to do to save us, how can I be sure of anything?

Then the light broke through the clouds, when I read a little book
entitled The Glad Tidings, a verse-by-verse study of Galatians. To me
it was intensely interesting. God always has had only one way of saving
people; He was not experimenting with different ways; the new covenant
was always His way; but the people are the ones who tried to invent a
different way to get to heaven--they came up with the old covenant
idea. The simple, sunlight truth is that God is too wise ever to try to
make bargains with sinners (don’t forget, “saints” are sinners by
nature), because He knows they can not fulfill their part of the
bargain.

His new covenant is not a “contract” wherein both parties, God and
the sinner, strike a bargain agreement. It’s always His own simple,
straight-forward promise to save the sinner by the sacrifice of
Himself; and the sinner’s proper response is not to promise to DO
this or that, but to believe, appreciate, God’s promise--just as Abraham
believed. And there is where the trouble lies: Abraham’s descendants
at Mt. Sinai did not have his faith. So they contrived a different
response to God’s new covenant promise: they promised to obey (which
promise they broke in a matter of days; Ex. 19:8; 32:1-8).

So, get under the new covenant today! Believe God’s promises to you,
and that faith will produce the obedience that has worried you, as it
did for Abraham.

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Dial Daily Bread

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Sometimes we humans fret endlessly about how to understand a passage of
the Bible when attention to the actual original text would clear up our
disputes. Robert Young, author of the famous “Concordance,” also
gave us a good “Literal Translation of the Bible.” One of the Bible
passages that unfortunately splits almost any church or classroom is Romans
5:15-19. The “Literal” version is hard for us to read because it is
so stiffly accurate, but it is accurate. Let’s see if it may help us
now.

The original language often uses the article “the” where we don’t
use it in English. When Paul speaks of “the death,” or “the grace,”
or “the gift,” he means universal death, universal grace, or a universal
gift--as distinguished from personal, individual death, grace, gift,
etc. (In English we could capitalize each word to make it clear.) Thus:

“15. But not as the offence so also is the free [universal] gift;
for, if by the offence of the one [Adam, the first head of the human race],
the many did die [the universal ‘many’ is everybody], much more did
the [universal] grace of God, and the [universal] free gift in grace of the
one man Jesus Christ, abound to the many [all men];
“16. And not as through one who did sin is the [universal] free gift,
for the [universal] judgment indeed is of one to condemnation, but the
[universal] gift is of many offences to a declaration of
‘Righteous.’
“17. For if by the offence of the one [the father of the human race]
the [universal] death did reign through the one [Adam], much more those
who the abundance of the [universal] grace and of the [universal] free
gift of the [Christ’s] righteousness are RECEIVING, [they] shall
reign in life through the One [the universal Savior]--Jesus Christ.
“18. So then, as through one offence to all men it is to
condemnation, so also through one declaration of ‘Righteous’ it is to all men to
justification of life;
“19. For as through the disobedience of the one man [the universal
head of our race, Adam] the many [all men] were CONSTITUTED sinners [not
MADE sinners]; so also through the obedience of the One [Christ, the
new Head of the human race], shall the many [all men] be CONSTITUTED
[not MADE] righteous. . . . Where the [universal] sin did abound, the
[universal] grace did over-abound.”

Thank you, Robert Young.

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Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

What is THE top news story for today? Every morning when you log on
with your computer, you get a glimpse of what your e-mail server
considers the most important or most spectacular news item of the day
(or it’s the biggest headline in your morning paper). But back of it
all, what does that heavenly Father of us all, the God who says He is
“love” (agape), tell us is the great News behind the news? Answer:
the central message of the Book of Revelation: “the everlasting gospel”
being “proclaimed to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people”
(14:6, 7). And what is the purpose of this most highly acclaimed activity? To
prepare people for the most climactic event of all history--the second
coming  of Jesus (vss. 15, 16).

Is this message getting through to the people of the world, or is it
being buried under an overwhelming mass of confusion published by the
media, or even by a similar mass of confusion known as “organized
religion”?

The answer does not depend on mere human observation, for even the New
York Times doesn’t know what is “all the news that’s fit to
print.”  Jesus said, “The kingdom of God cometh not by observation” (Luke 17:20). In His day, what served as “the media” tried to ignore the greatest News of all time, but the Holy Spirit was working quietly,
surely, in what Jesus was doing. So today, the “everlasting gospel”
proclaimed by those three angels of Revelation 14 is getting through in
different ways.

The best way to know for sure is to consider the character of God
Himself--He is “love” (agape); that is, He will not permit the
final, cataclysmic events of earth’s history (“the seven last plagues,”
Rev. 16) to come, until people have had a reasonable chance to prepare. And
that means, they must hear the message of Good News, of His “much
more abounding grace.” You can’t believe that “God is love” (agape)
if you think He has gone to sleep. You must recognize that every angel in
heaven is intensely active, moving upon the hearts of human beings everywhere. God’s “office” in heaven is the central command post of the vast worldwide war between Christ and Satan, as real as the war between
them when Jesus was here on earth 2000 years ago. It will not be
recognized “by observation,” but it’s the most real newsworthy
happening today. Read about it in Revelation 14-19; let the same Holy Spirit that inspired the Book speak to your heart in its pages.

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Monday, August 04, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There need be no confusion or perplexity about the meaning of
justification by faith. It's a simple matter to go to the original
language the apostle used when writing his soul-stirring words in
Romans: "justification" is the same word he used for "righteousness."
That opens up a world of understanding. When Paul speaks of
justification by faith he means righteousness by faith--in other words,

right living by faith. Justification by faith is worlds beyond a
verbal, legal pronouncement of acquittal from guilt which makes no
change in a person's heart and character.

The legal pronouncement was made when Christ cried out at His
crucifixion, "It is finished!" He had completed the work the Father had
given Him to do (John 17:4). He had earned His title, "The Saviour of
the world" (John 4:42), "The Lord [had] laid on Him the iniquity of us
all" (Isa. 53:6). He had now proven His role to be the new Head of the
human race, the second Adam. He had died the second death of "every
man" (Heb. 2:9), paid the final penalty for every sin of humanity.

That is why Christ in a purely legal sense pronounces the "judicial . .. verdict of acquittal" on "all men" (Rom. 5:15-18; compare NEB). But
justification by faith is conversion, a change of heart, an experience
of reconciliation to God. And since no one can be reconciled to God
unless he is also reconciled to God's holy law, justification by faith
means a new life of obedience to God’s law, not motivated by fear but
by love (agape). Love is the most severe taskmaster in the universe,
but in the light of the cross of Christ, the most reasonable because it
leads to self being crucified with Christ.

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Friday, August 01, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The Lord has good things to say to those who are brokenhearted:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath ... sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted ...” (Isa. 61:1).

When Jesus came, He fulfilled that promise for He taught us, “Blessed [happy, is the meaning] are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:1-4).

A person who has been brokenhearted thinks differently, he speaks differently, and if he sings, thank God (!), sings differently.

The only ones who will share in that glorious experience that only the Lord can give of being “comforted” with His heavenly comfort, are those who “mourn,” who have been brokenhearted.

There are dear people who have been bitterly disappointed in love; the comfort comes in the realization that Jesus has had that experience.

Isaiah says that “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (53:3). That language fits the experience of being “despised and rejected” by someone whom you dearly love—which story the annals of divorce abound in.

There is no bitterness of disappointment in love that Jesus, our Savior, has not known. He has been “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

There is a conclusion: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (vs. 16).

If you feel like a steamroller has rolled over you, come; if you fear that love will forever be a bitter experience, come; if you feel desperately alone in the world (or in the church!), come to Him, pour out your soul before Him.

And let Him bear the burden “henceforth” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

TIME magazine has often promoted the Roman Catholic view of Mary the
mother of Jesus as a co-redemptrix, an assistant “Savior of the
world,” one to whom people should pray, an intermediary between people and
Jesus. This is not a biblical view.

But TIME’s feature article for Easter this year explores a rather new
Protestant study of the biblical Mary as one qualified to be understood
as a teacher, an apostle of the faith of Jesus. She has been neglected
as an over-reaction against the idolatrous Roman view.

She appears first in the Bible as one who “believed” in the
ultimate sense--no resisting the word of the angel Gabriel, although she must
have known well that her public role as an unwed mother would invite
scorn. She would submit to the will of God. Long before Jesus took up
His cross for us, she took up her cross in believing the word and the
call of God. (Luke 1:38, 45).

Next she appears as one who had loved the Bible, for her extemporaneous
poem of thanksgiving (46-55) is drenched with biblical allusions. Her
Son was to inherit our human nature, the DNA line to the fallen Adam to
be unbroken, but His mother was to be one who could teach Him in His
infancy to read and believe the Bible. He applied Himself so zealously
that He grew as “the word made flesh” (John 1:14). He was her
Savior as well as ours.

Mary never preached a sermon that we know was recorded, but she left a
brilliant one in its terseness: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do
it” (John 2:5). That’s enough for a good Sabbath message. She had to be a
very positive feminine personality.

All biblical evidence points to her as an older woman, a step-mother to
at least six children of Joseph from a previous marriage (Matt. 13:55,
56; 12:47). That role certainly required a saint!

Mary’s corporate fellowship with her Son dying on His cross as she
watched Him in motherly fidelity is evidence that we can identify with
Him on His cross--something that the Bible says is “faith.” We are
“baptized INTO His death” (Rom. 6:3). It’s time that we understand it
maturely!

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

We have long pondered the wonderful time when the earth will be
lightened with the glory of the final “most precious message” of
the gospel (Rev. 18). We have known that the Bible says it will be a
“short work” (Rom. 9:28).

Now we have a little illustration of how “short” may be the way the
Lord may choose to work. Alone, 26 year old Ashley Smith near Atlanta
found herself suddenly confronted with a wild murderer who made her his
captive. Frightened of course, her knowledge of the gospel enabled her
to recover her faith in Christ and banish her natural fear. She
realized that this crazed man with his gun, Brian Nichols, was still a
human being for whom the Lord Jesus had given Himself, as well as He
had given Himself for her. She was enabled to sense a concern for him!
She talked to him calmly about his soul. Yes, he had brought upon
himself now the guilt of multiple murders, but Jesus Christ was still
his Savior awaiting Brian’s repentance. She conveyed that truth to
the desperate man.

The murderer was hungry, so she fried some eggs for a breakfast for
him. Looking him in the eye as one soul saved by the grace of Christ
speaking to another who had been saved by the same sacrifice, she
persuaded him to do the right thing, and give himself up. The grace of
God enabled her to trust the criminal’s sincerity, which meant her
life was saved and so was his. Let us pray that as he spends his life in
prison, his soul will be saved.

The front page news story has thrilled the nation. The version of the
gospel message that is being touted worldwide in these few days since
the story happened is that of Pastor Rick Warren’s book, THE
PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE. It had gripped Ashley Smith’s heart. By yielding
to a conviction of truth that she was able to understand, she became a
spokesperson for the gospel as she understood it, gaining suddenly an
audience greater than probably all the public evangelists in the world
combined.

The lesson for us: let’s study what is “the truth of the gospel”
as it is “in Christ,” receiving that agape that “casts out fear,” and
thus be ready always to witness for Him (Gal. 2:5; Eph. 4:15; 1 John 4:18).
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

We have all heard the horrifying stories of people with Alzheimer’s
saying and doing things that we could not imagine them saying or doing
when they were normal and well. A friend of ours when he developed
Alzheimer’s threatened to kill his wife and had to be locked up, and
yet we knew him always as a genuine Christian. And we all have known of

people who when they have a stroke, act in a bizarre, ornery way, when
we have known them previously as being gentle Christians. Sometimes
when under an anesthetic or drug, decent people have been known to use
language that is indecent.

These remarks on “Dial Daily Bread” are not intended to question
the sincerity of these people’s conversion to Christianity. But this
phenomenon of evil words or acts coming out involuntarily raises the
issue of Bible sanctification. Paul prays for us a total sanctification
in 1 Thess. 5:23: “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I
pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What does Paul mean? Obviously, the initial experience of conversion or
of justification by faith, is good in itself; but it must deepen and
extend throughout the mind and heart until there is no hidden portion
that is left unaffected, uncleansed. This is why sanctification is a
daily work of the Holy Spirit, requiring a daily surrender to Him,
until every nook or cranny of the heart is exposed to the merciless
light that shines from the cross of Christ, and every egocentric
motivation is made painfully distinct, so it can be repented of. A
person may die with that process of being sanctified “wholly” still
uncompleted; and we trust that person’s soul with the Lord’s mercy
in the final judgment. But how could any of us “stand” in the final
“great day of the Lord” when Jesus returns if there are sinful dark secrets
of evil still left in the heart not yet “sanctified wholly”?

Wouldn’t that bring shame on our Savior, like a good Christian
threatening to kill his wife, or saying indecent words? Thank God we
have a new day, TODAY--a new opportunity to be sanctified!

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Monday, July 28, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Something momentous about the truth of justification by faith developed in the latter years of the 19th century. Fresh insights into this glorious truth came through two young ordained ministers who thought
through something that apparently no one else had clearly grasped. They
simply combined Paul’s idea of justification by faith with the truth
that we are now living in the great final cosmic Day of Atonement. The
world’s High Priest, Jesus Christ, had begun His last work of fully
reconciling alienated human hearts to God.

It was an antitypical work in the Most Holy Apartment of the heavenly
sanctuary that fulfilled the type in the ancient high priest’s work
when he entered the second apartment of the earthly tabernacle (see
Hebrews 9). Now Christ’s objective was not merely preparing people to
die and come up in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6); now His work
prepares a people to meet their Lord in person at His second coming
(see 1 Thess. 4:16, 17), and be translated. Now every buried root of
enmity against God (Rom. 8:7) is to be cleansed. Only when the heart is
cleansed can we be in total oneness with the Lord. Only then can it be
said in all truth that “here are they that keep the commandments of
God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12).  Christ’s righteousness
is not merely legally imputed; now it is fully imparted.

This most precious message had within it the promise of fulfilling the
prophecy of the message that must “lighten the earth with glory.”
The reason was that it brought to parched human hearts what was in fact
long-awaited “showers from heaven of the latter rain.” There was
power in that message of justification by faith that delivered from the love
of self. Those who believed treated their richest gain as loss and
poured contempt on all their pride. This was refreshing to see in
ministers. It was the greatest sign of the nearness of the end. 

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Sunday, July 27, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are sincere people who are scared almost out of their wits by reading Hebrews 6:4-6. The passage says: “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”

It is indeed serious business! The Father was happy to hear the prayer of Jesus, to forgive us for crucifying His Son when we did it “not knowing what [we] do.” But if we do it again in full knowledge of what we are doing, that’s it; no more repentance. But many sincere people misread the text and bring darkness upon themselves. They realize that since they were originally converted they have backslid, and they assume that now God has turned against them. But the text doesn’t say that. It does not say that God will not forgive, again and again; it merely says that those who crucify Christ afresh are refusing to accept the gift of repentance. You can be forgiven for any sin that you repent of. That gift of repentance is yours for the taking.

The Greek text uses the present tense: the problem is a willful, ongoing process of re-crucifying Christ “afresh,” on and on, that is, refusing to repent. If you can read these words; if you see ever so tiny a ray of light shining somewhere, do not give up; tell your dear heavenly Father that you want to repent; ask Him to give you the precious gift; receive it; accept it. And rejoice in His pardoning love. Then go right to work to help somebody else with a word of Good News. Happiness is yours!

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

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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

It so happens that I have neither a cat nor a dog just now, so the quail have made my back yard their home. They feel safe. It’s interesting to watch the submission of the little quail to their parents’ leading. The Lord Jesus tells us that the infinite Father in heaven cares about even them: “One of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father [caring]. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many” little birds (Matt. 10:29-31).

Did the infinite Father in heaven care about the Lord Jesus? He said plaintively, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). Did “we” care?

It’s a terrible feeling to be a grown man and have not even a square inch you can call your own “nest,” nor the means to provide one or rent one. You can feel so utterly alone.

So did Jesus, when He was among us. Yet He was 100 per cent human; He felt His aloneness—not physically so much as the constant realization that His closest friends, the disciples, were spiritually “strangers.” I have often felt so ashamed for them (and at the same time felt their shame is mine for I am as corporately guilty as they were)—not one of them came up to the cross where He was hanging in agony, and gave Him even a drink of water! Nor was even one of them able to share the burden on His heart.

We cannot say that the Father really forsook Him when He screamed in agony, “My Father, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46) but the Father was forced to appear to forsake Him and to leave Him to feel the utter aloneness and condemnation that sin has brought on the human race.

The “condemnation” we have all received from our fallen “father Adam” has always been only judicial. No human in 6000+ years has ever endured it actually—except Jesus only.

On your knees, thank Him that He has not left you alone; let your worldly, egocentric heart be warmed by the realization of His “much more abounding grace” that saves you from eternal aloneness, and gives you a place in His eternal kingdom of sunlit fellowship (cf. Rom. 5:20).

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Friday, July 25, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

King Hezekiah was one of the best men who ever lived. He did everything just right. The Bible says nothing evil about him.

In his days, he led the nation to celebrate the finest Passover they had observed in centuries.

There is not the slightest whiff of evidence that he will not find a place in the Lord’s eternal kingdom, when the resurrection occurs at the second coming of Christ (“the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first,” 1 Thess. 4:16).

But when he is resurrected, he will have to learn about the history that followed him. Revelation 21:4 does not say that there will be no tears on the resurrection morning—there won’t be any tears in the earth made new.

When Hezekiah was only 49, the Lord sent him a message by the prophet Isaiah that he should “set [his] his house in order,” for the time had come in the Lord’s infinite wisdom that he should die (2 Kings 20:1).

But this time the good king rebelled against the Lord’s will, set his face against the wall to cry; he told the Lord that it’s not fair—he’s been a good king, etc. So the Lord added 15 years for him to live.

During that added space of grace, he sired a son, Manasseh, who became the worst king the nation had ever had. Hezekiah would have been wise when the Lord said, “The time has come for you to die,” if he had said, “Amen, Lord! I trust You. Thy will be done”(see the story in Isaiah 38:1-3).

The word of the Lord, even if it comes with disappointment, is always the word of love that the Lord has for us. May He give us of His much more abounding grace to believe it.

If, for that grace, He extends our life, may we use it for His glory. Then we will be happy in the resurrection morning.

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.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There is absolutely nothing easier that a human being can do than to look at something. Eternal salvation requires that one thing—to LOOK. There it is, plainly taught in the Bible—”LOOK unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 45:22). The Hebrew word means to turn the face toward. Perhaps you have noticed how often the word BEHOLD occurs in the Bible—hundreds of times. When the poisonous snake would bite the Israelite, all he had to do was to BEHOLD the snake Moses lifted up on a pole. John says, “BEHOLD, what manner of love (agape) the Father hath bestowed upon us” (1 John 3:1). It’s as though God keeps saying to us, “See, look, watch what I’ve done!”

Christianity is a religion of look and live, behold and be saved. But is it possible that people won’t look, see, watch, or consider? Is God doing something wonderful that won’t get the world’s attention? Wouldn’t it be terrible if the Son of God is sacrificed on a cross and most people never even bother to LOOK? But let’s remember—God knows how to get the world’s attention!

(1) Paul says, “Have they [the world’s population] not heard? Yes, verily ... “ (Rom. 10:18). And John says that Christ is “the Light that lighteth every person who comes into the world” (1:9).

(2) In these last days a special message, never previously so clear, is to lighten the earth with glory, not just a candle flickering in an obscure way (Rev. 18:1-4). Revelation shows how that message will be an unveiling of Christ as the Lamb of God—the crucified Son of God, whose cross is the revelation of the agape of the Father that we are to BEHOLD. That message will arrest the attention of the world.

(3) What about those who refuse now to LOOK and live? In the final judgment all will see that cross and each individual will see the part he had in crucifying the Lord of glory. And that final looking will be torture to the lost—more awful than any physical pain of fire could be. Why not LOOK now?

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

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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are times when everything has seemed to go wrong, and deep, dark disappointment overwhelms us.

The temptation is fierce—for us to think that the Lord has forsaken us.

But He has promised solemnly, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).

The Father was forced to withdraw His beams of light from His only Son while He hung on His cross. Jesus screamed in agony, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father never truly forsook His only Son dying on His cross; but He was forced to permit Jesus to feel totally forsaken, so that we should never have to feel that way!

To feel totally forsaken by the Lord is a terrible experience; and for one to believe it, would be a sin, for He has promised never to “leave us nor forsake us.” Yes, to disbelieve what the Lord has promised would be a sin which we would want to repent of immediately.

To be tempted is not itself sin; thus, it is not a sin to feel forsaken by the Lord. The sin comes when we believe Satan’s lie to disbelieve what God has promised.

What Satan wants is to break our hold on the Lord and thus to separate our souls from Him. Satan wants to drag us out into the cold dark emptiness of hell—which is eternal forsakenness by the Lord.

Jesus has saved us from that—forever. Now make your heart choice to believe that truth; pray with the distraught father in Mark 9, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” (vs. 24). You can never perish while you cling to that desperate prayer.

Why does the Lord permit you to go through this desperate experience?

So you can from now on work side by side with Him to help other people who are so tempted. There are many! And He needs you to work with Him! The only “voice” He has is your voice; the only “hands” He has are yours.

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

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

As we come nearer to the end, a change comes in the “Christian experience” of God’s people. Their deepest heart concern ceases to be that of saving their own souls, to a concern for the glory of Christ in the closing hours of the “great controversy between Christ and Satan.” (When I was a boy, some silver-haired elders in the church told me that the greatest question is that of my own soul’s salvation.)

These people of God in the last days turn away from their previous concern for their own salvation to a concern for Another—that He emerge victorious from the “battle” He is in.

This change in “Christian experience” can be described in the terms the Lord Jesus uses in John 15: “Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you” (vs. 15).

As we come closer to the end, these “friends” concern is for that “battle” that Christ is in, and not for self.

This change in “Christian experience” orientation can also be described as graduating out of the Old Covenant “Christian experience” into the New. It’s coming out of the shadows into the bright sunlight of “present truth” (a term in 2 Peter 1:12).

The “present truth” is New Covenant living, not Old.

This change is also passing from Revelation 18 into Revelation 19 where we find those four grand Hallelujah Choruses, each greater than Handel’s (vss. 1-17). It can at last be said that “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready” (19:6, 7). At last!

Although the Lord is “omnipotent,” He cannot force the nuptials. It cannot be said that He “reigneth” until her nuptial devotion to Him as to a divine Husband is real. Thus there is a “woman” whose marital devotion He can only wait, and wait, to see. The good news that rejoices one’s heart is that this change in spiritual growth is actually taking place. Don’t be left behind!

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There are many who are bewildered. They do not know where they are going, and they are afraid.

The message of the Bible is just what they need. There are two things that the Lord says they must do—not some difficult to-do thing, but something to believe:

(1) “He that cometh to God must believe that He is ...” (Heb. 11:6, first part).

That’s the “work” you must do! Not something to “do” that is beyond you to accomplish, but a simple step in choosing to believe that God is, He exists. You may be an atheist, but you can take this step by choosing to believe. You must! And you can, for it’s only simple truth.

The atheist may say, “That’s too difficult!” No, it’s the easiest thing any human can “do”—to believe God exists. Just look at the world around you, from the tiniest leaf (that no human can ever “make”) to the unnumbered worlds in the Milky Way.

(2) Step number two, what you MUST believe: “that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (second part).

Step number one is that of the “deist,” the person who believes that some mysterious power made the universe and then walked off and left it to care for itself. That kind of “faith” is not good enough.

No one can truly believe in “God” without recognizing that “God IS love [agape]” (1 John 4:8). And right there we go to the cross on which the Son of God died the second death of every human.

The truth is all one package, complete; you can’t select and choose.

Difficult? No; listen to John the Baptist: he says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world “ (John 1:29). “Behold” means to take a l-o-n-g look; stay on your knees with your “closet” door closed as Jesus says to do in Matthew 6:6: “When thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” He is the same “Father” who notices when a little sparrow falls in the forest floor (Matt. 10:29). Believe, appreciate, revel, in the truth that that same heavenly Father notices you personally.

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Sunday, July 20, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

When the Lord Jesus saves a man, He doesn’t expect the man to help save himself, because he can’t. Jesus Christ is a Savior 100 percent.

But He does expect the sinner to cooperate with Him.

Psalm 130 expresses the cry of any who knows he is lost: “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. ... If Thou Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (vss. 1, 3).

The answer of course is ... no one.

But then comes the comforting word: “But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared [reverenced]” (vs. 4).

The Psalmist experienced the down-and-out despair of feeling lost, but only a taste of what Jesus experienced on the cross when He cried out in despair, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father did not answer His Son, because Christ must be left to experience to the full this lethal despair; if He had not experienced it for us, we would have to experience it, and therein is eternal death. Jesus felt as if the Father had truly forsaken Him forever!

If sinful man were left to experience to the full this lethal despair, he would not be able to “cry” unto the Lord; no human soul has ever in the 6000+ years of earth’s history had to experience that total despair except the Lord Jesus. It kills ... forever.

Some may object, “Suicides experience it!” Not so, really; they always had the option left them to “cry unto the Lord.” And the Lord was ready to hear for Jesus promised, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Any time, no matter how sinful.

If the Lord has permitted you to experience Psalm 130, be happy. In knowing Him, you will know that “with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (vss. 7, 8).

There are the 144,000 of Revelation 14:1-6; they who “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:1-5)!

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

A wise writer wrote a stupendous statement: “The books of heaven record the sins that we would commit if we had the opportunity.”

This at first sounds like bad news; the Lord must have a tremendous lot against us: but no, that’s not the meaning of the statement. It is really very good news.

Proverbs 28:13 says that “whoso confesseth and foraketh [his sins] shall have mercy.” Wonderful! That “mercy” is what we all need so much.

But how can you “confess” and “forsake” your sins if you don’t know what they are? That’s why the Holy Spirit is so full of mercy when He convicts us of our sins; Jesus says that is His first work:

“When He [the Comforter, the Holy Spirit] is come, He will convict the world of sin” (John 16:8). Thank God!

The Holy Spirit is a Person; He loves us just as much as the Father loves us, just as much as the Son who gave Himself for us, loves us.

Tell Him, “Thank You!” What to do is simple:

(1) The moment He convicts you of sin, that moment “confess” it; don’t wait. Tell the Lord, “It’s true! I dare not try to deny it!”

(2) And then, that moment, forsake that sin. If it is something that is dear to your heart, forsake it; do exactly what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He cried out to His Father, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39).

(3) The Lord never asks you to do anything difficult on your own, by yourself: always you are invited to do it with Jesus; you are never left on your own, alone! You are joined to the Son of God by a “yoke” that binds the two of you together.

(4) And He says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). The greatest, the most joyous adventure, any human can have!

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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The fact that we mentioned “the second death” has stirred up some interest on the Internet.

The Bible is clear that man is by nature mortal; the doctrine of the immortality of the soul has been adopted from Roman paganism; the Bible teaches a more comforting truth: death is a sleep in which we rest until the resurrection morning. When Lazarus died, the Lord Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth” (John 11:11), “but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead” (vss. 12-14).

This comforting truth is taught throughout the Bible. The “sleep” of death is awakened by the coming of Jesus in the resurrection: “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:15-18).

Those who have trained themselves to be unhappy in the Lord’s holy kingdom will sleep on until at the end of the 1000 years of Revelation 20. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (vs. 6). The fact that “God IS love [agape]” is taught throughout Scripture; He will never force people who have spent their lifetime seeking the sinful pleasures of the fallen, evil world, would be miserable to live in the New Jerusalem: the Lord will simply give them what they want—to be eternally separated from the “face” of the One who is their Savior who loved them so much that He died the second death so that they might share eternity with Him. The doctrine of the “second death” is a part of the doctrine that God IS love [agape]. Everywhere we look, that is the theme of the Bible.

When our eyes are opened and we finally comprehend this truth, His love [agape] “constrains us” to live “henceforth” unto Him who so “loved us and gave Himself for us” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

Maybe more tomorrow, the Lord willing.

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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Our Savior “condemned sin in the flesh,” the fallen, sinful flesh that all of us have inherited from our fallen father, Adam. In so doing, Christ has saved the human race!

He forever outlawed sin in the vast universe of God by defeating it in its last lair. Sin has no “home,” no refuge now, in the vast universe of God!

Sin does not reside in things; it resides in human hearts. Satan as the fallen Lucifer had tempted the other worlds to join him in rebellion, but they refused. (Temptation is not sin; what’s sin, is giving in.) Only our first parents, Adam and Eve, believed the fallen Lucifer’s lies against God.

No way could Christ have defeated sin if the dogma of the “Immaculate Conception” were true: if in His incarnation Christ had taken upon Himself the unfallen, sinless nature of Adam in the Garden, sin would have been forever enshrined and crowned in our human flesh and then Satan would have forever won the great controversy between Christ and Satan.

Doubtless there are many sincere people who have never thought this through; they don’t realize that their dogma proclaimed in 1854, and required of all to believe. is a stroke of victory in favor of the enemy in the great controversy.

In mercy to the remnant church (and the world), “the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people” 120 years ago that told the saving truth in a clear way so simple that a child could understand. Christ took on His sinless nature our fallen, sinful nature, so that He might save the human race from sin. “Tempted in all points like as we are [tempted], yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15), He has delivered the whole human race from captivity to sin.

Most do not understand it, or believe it; but nonetheless it is true.

And the Lord has promised in Revelation 18:1-4 that the full beautiful truth will yet “lighten the earth with glory.” He wanted the Seventh-day Adventist Church to enjoy that glorious experience 120 years ago, but the grey-haired elders said No! (not 100% of them, but the vast majority so that the blessing was indeed “kept away” from our people and “from the world”; cf. Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235).

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

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Has the Lord in His great mercy saved you from falling into the deep pit of adultery?

If you can say yes, you can sing and praise the Lord for now and forever.

Adultery brings a great burden of sorrow on the Lord Himself, to say nothing of the pain it brings on us and all whom we are connected with. The Lord in no uncertain language says He “hates” it:

“The Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou has dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. ... Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that He hateth putting away... Take heed ... , that ye deal not treacherously” (Mal. 2:14-16).

“But doesn’t the Lord forgive?”

Ah yes, but the New Testament word for “forgive” means to “take away the sin,” so that now the sin is forever hated.

It’s impossible for anyone to break the seventh of the ten commandments until he has first broken the first six; therefore, it’s impossible to repent of breaking the seventh commandment until one goes back to the beginning and genuinely, maybe painfully, repents of breaking those six. This genuine, blessed work that is a precious gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:31) means a complete overhaul of one’s character, like you overhaul the broken engine of a diesel truck.

But the Lord is merciful; He is also thorough; He cleanses the heart. Titus 2:11-14 is full of good news: (a) “the grace of God” has brought salvation to “all men.” (b) That “grace” “teaches” us to say “No!” to “worldly lusts”; it’s not that we help save ourselves, but our firm choice to say “No!” to them is cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

(c) The motivating power of this repentance is believing, appreciating the truth that Christ “gave Himself for us” (vs. 14); the “gift” of Himself was total—He “poured out His soul unto death,” even the second death, for us (Isa. 53:12).

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Monday, July 14, 2008

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

An old English verb in the King James Version is “quicken,” which means “make alive.” “The Son quickeneth whom He will” (John 5:21). The Holy Spirit “quickens” (6:63).

God “quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17).

That is the mind and the thinking of the Lord; to Him all things that will someday be, He considers as already being.

This writer is in bereavement for the loss of a beloved wife, Grace, of 66 years of happy marriage; but the good news in that Romans verse is that the Lord will “quicken” her and He sees her as already resurrected and glorified.

We can have the mind of Christ by faith; and thus enjoy peace and confidence in a bright and happy future ... “in Christ.”

She used to ask, “Can’t we take a vacation and go somewhere, like other people do?”

Well, I wanted to do so, as her husband; but there seemed always to be some problem, some meetings coming up that we had to go to, some writing deadline to be met.

Now comes that word “quicken”: the Lord has promised to “quicken” us both and He says, “Trust in the Lord and do good; ... Depend upon the Lord, and He will grant you your heart’s desire” (Psalm 37:3, 4).

A little later the Psalmist testifies, “I waited, waited for the Lord, and He bent down to me and heard my cry; He brought me up out of the muddy pit, out of the mire and the clay; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm footing; and on my lips He put a new song, a song of praise to our God” (40:1-3).

You want happiness? There’s your path to it.

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