Daily Bread: May 2005

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

There’s a prayer that Jesus prayed that you and I can pray, and we’ll
be happier for praying it. It was just before He worked the greatest
miracle of His ministry--when He raised the dead Lazarus to life
again. He wanted to be sure that the Father would hear Him, for
everything depended on this prayer being heard and answered. “Father,
I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear
Me” (John 11:41, 42). We can know this, too.

No “voice from heaven” came this time to reassure Him; the heavens
were as silent as before. He staked His entire ministry on His
publicly expressed confidence that the Heavenly Father would honor Him
before the people and before the world by granting His request. He
poured out His soul in that loud voice when He commanded the dead man
inside the tomb: “Lazarus, come forth!” And you know what happened:
Lazarus did.

Whether Jesus in His human nature needed the personal encouragement
that an answered prayer could bring Him we do not know; but you and I
need the assurance that when we pray, the Father hears us. When He
commanded the dead man to “come forth,” He spoke as our
Representative. “Most assuredly, I say to you whatever you ask the
Father in My name He will give you. . . . Ask, and you will receive,
that your joy may be full” (16:23, 24).

He is not making empty promises; obviously He intends that we know
what He means when He says to “ask in My name.” All egocentric
motivation has become outgrown so that we are caught up in His
motivation, not ours; we are “in Him.” We have “overcome” our childish
prayers for a crown and now are concerned that the Lamb receive His
reward. We want “the Lamb’s wife” to “make herself ready” so that “the
marriage of the Lamb” may be no longer delayed century after century
(cf. Rev. 19:7, 8). What we now live for is to have a tiny part in
crowning Him “King of kings and Lord of lords.” Thus our “joy” becomes
“full.”

reconciliation with God, oneness of heart with Christ.

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Friday, May 27, 2005

Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

George Washington was one of the 10 top wealthiest people in the
Thirteen Colonies. But ominous intimations of the coming Civil War
were in his lavish life-style, as depicted by David McCullough in his
recent NEWSWEEK article--he enjoyed his luxurious life at Mt. Vernon
thanks to a retinue of slaves.

A later president was forced by conscience to confess that the
national sin of slavery must be visited by divine national judgment
(cf. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address). The horror of the Civil War
could not be averted. Washington and Lincoln are the two most highly
respected presidents in our national history; but the “father” of our
nation lived when the sin of slavery was not on the public conscience.
But it was still sin.

The Holy Spirit brings to “the world” the conviction of sin (John
16:8). It was therefore He who convicted this nation of the sin of
slavery--an expensive “conviction” in terms of suffering and lives
lost, 1861-65. Now, is He convicting the world of sin today?

Compared to how most people in the world have to live, we live a
lavish life-style. It’s not sin to enjoy this; the sin comes if we
fail to confess that none of this wealth is ours. It’s only in trust
to use it for the good of others. We are living in the world’s final
Day of Atonement, the time when at last the human race must account
for the rejection and murder of the Son of God. Lincoln saw divine
judgment in the Civil War; but there is also divine conviction of
righteousness (John 16:8-10). Today is our day for “atonement,”
reconciliation with God, oneness of heart with Christ.

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Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Does the United States of America play a role in the drama of Bible
prophecy? A recent issue of NEWSWEEK tells the story of George
Washington, authored by Pulitzer-winning David McCulough. He calls
“1776” and the Revolutionary War a “miracle.” The Christmas Battle of
Trenton is an example; the rag-tag army Washington commanded (he too
was virtually an amateur) could never have won “our” independence
without some blessings of “Providence.”

The 1260 years “given” to papal oppression are detailed in Daniel and
Revelation and also in Christ’s Mt. Olivet discourse (Matt. 24; Mark
13; Luke 21). Mark says Christ pinpointed a special time “in those
days, after that tribulation” when “the sun shall be darkened” (vs.
24). The worst of the persecutions tapered off after the Lisbon
earthquake of 1755; the great Dark Day came in 1780; and in that
period Washington comes on stage determined to help found a republic
governed without a king and securing freedom for a church without a
pope, separate from state control.

As surely as the Papacy is identified in those 1260 years which were
“given” to the “beast,” so this nation is then portrayed. It was 13
helpless colonies in a wilderness continent, rising to become the
dominant world power. It first exhibits its mild character of a “lamb”
(Rev. 13:11). “Our fathers brought forth on this continent a new
nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal.” This is how the world saw this nation up
through World War II. But eventually it is depicted in Revelation
13:11 as shedding that “lamb-like” character and speaking “as a
dragon.” This “national apostasy” is consequent on the “fall of
Babylon” (14:8) for that “fall” is responsible for the moral breakdown
that plagues society today. (Time’s up; dial tomorrow).

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Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Eternal life is promised to everyone who “believes” in Jesus: “If
anyone keeps My word He shall never see death,” He said (John 8:51).
“He who hears My word, and believes on Him who sent Me, has
everlasting life” (5:24).

But what does it mean to “believe” in Him? The Bible warns us of a
massive counterfeit of “believing” in these last days (Matt. 24:23,
24, for example):

(a) Genuine believing has to do with the Father GIVING His Son for the
world (“God so loved the world that He GAVE . . .” (John 3:16). (b) He
GAVE, not LENT Him. (c) That means a totality of giving and an
eternity in its duration. (d) It also means an appreciation of His
dying for us because the only way we can “believe” is by seeing Him
“lifted up” as Moses “lifted up” a snake on a pole “in the wilderness”
(vss. 14, 15). (e) That directs us to the kind of death that Jesus
died--on a cross (12:32, 33).

(f) Therefore, “believing” in Jesus means a heart-appreciation of the
Father’s giving Him and of Christ’s giving Himself in dying for us our
“second death” which we had earned for ourselves (cf. Heb. 2:9, Rev.
2:11). (g) Such “believing” transforms the believer. (h) It is a
genuine new birth because the love of self is “crucified with Christ”
(Gal. 2:20).

Genuine believing in Jesus means therefore that there is a well of
“rivers of living water” springing up from within the depths of the
heart of every true “believer” in Him (John 7: 37, 38). That’s what it
means to believe in Jesus! You are a channel through which that “water
of life” flows to thirsty people. We must ask seriously, Do I truly
“believe” in Him? Lord, help my unbelief!

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Monday, May 23, 2005

Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

The greatest “evangelism” of all time was what happened at Pentecost.
It was not emotionalism, and what brought the deep conviction of truth
on people’s hearts was not the miracle of the apostles’ speaking
foreign languages--a “sign and wonder” indeed, but not the real thing
that did it: the apostles proclaimed what had happened when the Son of
God died on His cross.

They didn’t “mince words,” or say it daintily; “YOU murdered the
Prince of life, the Son of God!” They laid the guilt of the ages upon
the souls of those Jews and Gentiles. There was no political making
friends and influencing people, no attempt to make the message
palatable, to “win” the top leaders by psychology. It was the most
direct super-confrontation that has ever been between lowly people and
religious society leadership (read it in Acts 2:23, 36; 4:10; 5:30,
etc.).

Ordinary people like the apostles could never have galvanized
themselves to tell it like they did had it not been for the 10 days of
repentance they spent beforehand. They had knelt very low in
self-humiliation; what fools they had been! The Holy Spirit had 11 men
in whom self had been “crucified with Christ.” This made it possible
for the Son of God to be exalted in them.

Why was it the prototype of all genuine “evangelism”? What Jesus had
said a short time earlier happened: “On the last and most important
day of the festival [Feast of Tabernacles] Jesus stood up and said in
a loud voice, ‘Whoever is thirsty should come to Me and drink. As the
scripture says [S.S. 4:15] “Whoever believes in Me, streams of
life-giving water will pour out from his heart.” Jesus said this about
the [Holy] Spirit” (John 7:37-39). That was the “former rain.”

The “latter rain” (which is still future) will be a re-play.

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Saturday, May 21, 2005

Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

It’s a love story that had a tragic ending, but there is Good News in
it that will be a blessing to us today. It’s Genesis 29:17 to 35:19.

Rachel was a lovely girl. The Bible waxes eloquent in describing her
charm, her beauty. Jacob fell in love with her; she was his one true
love, the “sweet mystery” that made his life happy in spite of all the
troubles that befell him. But as a husband, it seems that Jacob
unwittingly became the occasion of her early death. When it came time
for the family to separate from her father’s household, Rachel “stole”
her father’s TERAPHIM, that is, his “gods” or images, or talismans
that were supposed to possess magic powers (Laban wasn’t totally clear
of idolatry, and neither was poor Rachel).

Next we find Laban angrily demanding a search warrant to find out who
“stole” his precious “gods.” Jacob doesn’t know what Rachel has done;
angrily, in a fit of recklessness, he tries to prove his innocence by
sentencing to death anyone in his family who has done this thing:
“with whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live” (31:32).
Rachel has them hidden under her person and asks her father, please
excuse me for not getting up, “for the custom of women is upon me.” So
she got to keep the “gods.” But now she has to keep something else:
the knowledge of her husband’s sentence to death. He was an authority
figure to her. A little later she is having a hard time in childbirth;
something has weighed upon her soul, and as she was dying she wanted
to name her child, “Be-noni, Son of my sorrow” (35:18). She had
treasured in her soul a sentence of death from her husband! She had
needed to hear the Good News of confessing her sin, her idolatry, her
unbelief in the goodness of her heavenly Father and of her true
Husband, Christ, and finding in Him release from the curse imposed by
her husband.

The Good News in this tragic story is that you and I need no longer
live under the shadow of anyone’s curse. Christ “was made a curse for
us” (Gal. 3:13).

</x-tad-bigger>

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Friday, May 20, 2005

Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>As we face the tumultuous events of the
last days of earth’s history, our Savior feels for us. He says, “Let
not your heart be troubled” (John 14:1). “I will fear no evil, for You
are with me,” says Psalm 23:4. What the Bible says is don’t give your
permission for your heart to “be troubled.” Choose to trust Him by
setting your will on His side; Satan cannot terrify you without
somewhere you give him your permission! Make your choice to believe.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” decides David in
31:1. We want practical, common sense counsel on how to control our
emotions in time of trouble. “Come unto Me,” says the Savior (Matt.
11:28). Saturate your soul with the story of His cross. The TV comedy
tells you to laugh your fears away but it’s a lie; we’re living in the
great Day of Atonement when peace of heart comes through
serious-minded fasting and prayer. But genuine faith always lifts up
the heart with a joy that actually triumphs over your emotions. Your
soul sings, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I
would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm
27:13). Let your soul feast on the psalms that tell of Jesus’
struggles with the temptation to be afraid and to doubt (22, 40,
69--many). He overcame!

Immense Good News is yet to flood the world with light even though
evil is everywhere, for “another angel” comes with “great authority,
and the earth [is to be] illuminated with his glory” (Rev. 18:1). His
message will be “Christ and Him crucified” for Jesus said that when He
“is lifted up” (that is, on His cross), He “will draw all men unto
[Himself]” (John 12:32). Not all will let themselves be “drawn” but
all will sense the drawing. You do, don’t you?

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Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Have you ever thought that Jesus was tempted to regard Himself as a
total failure? As His name was “Emmanuel, . . . God with us” (Matt.
1:23), He took upon His divine nature our complete human nature which
involved the full extent of our temptability. That means that “in all
points [He was] tempted like as we are tempted,” but thank God, “yet
without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

Satan wrung His soul with that awful feeling on His cross that He had
been mistaken about Himself. It was a nameless horror that prompted
His shriek, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). He had
to listen to the people taunting Him, “If You are the Son of God, come
down from the cross”! (40, 42). That was a cruel suggestion for He
could not help but realize that His career had ended with the most
ignominious failure any human could experience--death as a criminal!
His faith was stretched.

In fact, more than once in His life and ministry, Isaiah 49:4 had been
fulfilled in His experience: “Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I
have spent My strength for nothing and in vain.’” And this fierce
temptation comes just as the Father assures Him through the Holy
Spirit, “‘You are My servant, . . . in whom I will be glorified.’” He
gives Himself to His Father: “‘Surely My just reward is with the Lord,
and My work with My God’” (vss. 3, 4).

Even on the cross before He took His last breath, Jesus’ hope was
restored by faith: “The Lord formed Me from the womb, . . . I shall be
glorious in the eyes of the Lord, . . . [to be His] salvation to the
ends of the earth” (5, 6). Though tempted to despair, Jesus ended His
life in glorious triumph by faith.

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Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

</x-tad-bigger>[Several of you have written asking why you have not
received "Dial Daily Bread" for several days. Unfortunately, our ISP,
which we had used for several years, informed us that we could no
longer send to our lists of several hundred addresses. We received no
prior warning, therefore could not let you know. We still need to work
out some "bugs" with the new list server, but hopefully you are again
receiving the daily devotionals.--Carol Kawamoto]

<x-tad-bigger>

</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>Nine of Christ’s disciples had failed
miserably, and in full view of the crowd. It was severely
embarrassing, and the episode as told in Mark 9 is one of the most
dramatic moments in the gospel story. We identify with those nine for
often we too have failed to help people in distress as we have wanted
to do; our prayers have appeared to be unanswered. We have fasted and
prayed in behalf of people dying of cancer . . . and they have died.
We have prayed for alcoholics, and . . . they have gone on drinking.
We have pleaded for wayward youth, and they have . . . still wandered.

Jesus has been glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration--wonderful
mini-vacation, visiting with Moses and Elijah. Heavenly light. But now
He returns to His daily life of ministry for suffering people. The
nine disciples He had left in the valley have prayed for the demon to
be cast out of a suffering boy, and to their acute shame, nothing has
happened. Jesus told them that their problem was their “unbelief,” and
that “this kind” of demon problem can be healed only by “prayer and
fasting” (vs. 20). We empathize with them. The demons in effect tell
us as they told “the seven sons of Sceva,” “Jesus I know, and Paul I
know, but who are you?” (Acts 19:15).

A very thoughtful writer has suggested that their “unbelief” was
actually a lack of “sympathy” with Jesus in His work. Their faith was
not childlike, it was childish. And the question arises: are we today
in 2005 A.D. mature enough in our thinking to “sympathize” with Jesus
in His heart-burdened work He is doing on this grand Day of Atonement?
Or are we infants still absorbed in our natural spiritual egoism,
concerned just for our “reward”?

</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>

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Monday, May 16, 2005

Dial Daily Bread

<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>The angels of heaven are begging the
inhabitants of earth to read the book of Revelation (see 1:1-3).

As we come to the end-time, the sounding of “the seventh angel’s”
trumpet, John the prophet sees “lightnings” and hears “voices, and
thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail”--the most awful
spiritual “storm” in earth’s 6000 years (11:15-19).

Next he sees the panoramic history of God’s true church through the
ages, focusing on their final witness of truth to the world (12:1-17).

Then he sees the monstrous deception of a counterfeit “christ” and its
imitation gospel that leads “all that dwell upon the earth” to worship
this power except those “whose names are . . . written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain” (13:1-8). The world is being catalyzed into
two camps.

Next the prophet sees a savage burst of persecuting frenzy wherein
multitudes who think themselves following that “Lamb” will repeat the
essence of His original unjust crucifixion, on His people (13:11-17).

Then the prophet sees the raising up of a group of “144,000” who share
a corporate oneness “in Christ” and bring the world to a final
up-or-down vote on identifying the true Christ (14:1-15). It will also
involve distinguishing the true Holy Spirit from its extremely clever
opposite number (18:2, 3). We’re just about there now. Living now is
serious business.

</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>

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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Dial Daily Bread

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":

Could it ever be that something good that God Himself
gives can turn into something bad?

The answer is yes, and an example is the manna that God gave the
people of Israel in their 40 years of wilderness wandering. From its
description that we read in Numbers 11, it was an appetizing and
nourishing food. Scholars variously describe the language as cakes
“fried in good oil.” “as food newly baked,” or like “wafers made with
honey.” Perhaps it was like delicious freshly baked bread; evidently
it could be prepared in a variety of ways as a well balanced diet, and
for a healthy appetite it was always appetizing. The Psalmist
describes it as “angel’s food” (78:25). Since God gave it to them, it
was undeniably “good.”

But the people had to eat it on the very day that it “fell” on the
daily dew each morning. Moses told them, “This is the bread which the
Lord has given you to eat. . . . Let no one leave any of it till
morning. . . . But some of them left part of it until morning, and it
bred worms and stank” (Ex. 16:15, 20). Something very good became very
bad! It had to be eaten when God gave it. The reason: it was very
nutritious, like whole-grain flour attracts bugs.

The manna is a symbol of the spiritual nourishment the Holy Spirit
gives us day by day if we are willing to “eat” it. It’s Bible truth,
“fresh” each morning (Isa. 50:4, 5). The hungry soul finds things “new
and old” in God’s word that constantly invigorate him (Matt. 13:52).
We are told to “bless the Lord”--in other words, make Him happy (Psalm
103:1, for example). How do you make a chef happy? You tell him his
meal was super-delicious.

Now, ask the Lord for a second helping; tell Him you’re hungry. That
will make Him happy! There’s nothing He loves more than to feed hungry
people and watch them enjoy His cuisine. Eat His “manna” today. Learn
to love it. Don’t lay it aside until tomorrow!

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":

What should people who believe in Jesus do if they are
unjustly excommunicated from the fellowship of their church where they
have served faithfully? Let’s assume they have upheld the authentic
teachings of their particular denomination and that their
“conversation” (1 Peter 3:16, KJV, behavior) has been exemplary; how
should they behave?

They have the inspiring example of Jesus: He was excommunicated by the
legal body of the people who at that time constituted the true church
of God in the world--His representatives.

(1) Through the Holy Spirit God inspired four eye-witnesses of this
unjust and illegal proceedings to write four books that detail the
story of His trial and condemnation. They are the Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John. These four books have been widely circulated around the
world and they justify Jesus.

(2) At His trial, when “one of the officers” slapped Him in the face
“with the palm of his hand,” Jesus surprises us: He protests this
unfair act instead of turning His cheek to ask the cruel man to do it
over again (John 18:22). But after He protests, He meekly endures the
high priest refusing to defend His solemn rights under Moses’ law.

(3) The Son of God prays for those who murder Him (Luke 23:34)--the
ultimate length of wrongful excommunication (the heartfelt intent of
the act, 1 John 3:15).

(4) Up until the veil of the temple is rent in two when Jesus actually
dies on His cross, the Jewish “church” remains the true church of that
time (Matt. 23:38; 27:51); Jesus gives an example of submission to
injustice within it. He inspires us today to endure.

(5) Paul considers it an honor to experience “the fellowship of
[Christ’s] sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” (Phil.
3:10). Christ won’t forsake us!

(6) This confidence will keep people sweet and gentle under all kinds
of provocation.

(7) Thus they will be privileged to bring honor to their Savior. He
actually needs them!