Daily Bread  -  February, 2007

by Robert J. Wieland

Former U. S. President Jimmy Carter has stirred the ire of the Israelis by what he says in his latest book which speaks in defense of the Palestinians in their conflicts with the State of Israel. Carter is highly respected throughout the world for his devotion to justice and his efforts to help the poor and powerless.

He does not deny the history of the Holocaust as do some voices in the Middle East (it can’t be denied!), but he maintains that suffering the horrors of the Holocaust does not give Israel the moral right to deny justice to the Palestinians, or to destroy their neighbors, like Lebanon.

What has happened de facto is that Israel has virtually become the 51st state of the United States of America, and the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches invoke for her God’s special favor. This has created what Islam regards world-wide as their righteous jihad indignation. The result: a new threatened reign of world terror, Iraq just the precursor.

What does Jesus have to say to us now? Plenty, especially in Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, Daniel and the Revelation, yes, the Bible en toto. We have come to the “last days” of this world; we are in God’s great final Day of Atonement. Jesus likens our current history to the figure of “the sea and the waves roaring,” “distress of nations with perplexity, men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luke 21:25, 26). Our national leaders of both political parties in America are “distressed.” No one knows what to do now to extricate ourselves from our entanglement in Iraq and widespread jihad hatred.

And here in America, the prudent stay where they are so much as possible; the experience of Jet Blue’s recent horror stories of being cooped up in a jetliner for six to ten hours—that’s a miniature hell on earth in the midst of our opulence. Fortunate people today are not those in mansions within gated communities, but humble folk living in the country where they can grow a little food and thus acquire “food and raiment, therewith [to be] content,” as Paul says (1 Tim. 6:6-8).

But not to shut ourselves away from the needs of the multitudes. In vision, John “saw another angel come down from heaven, ... and the earth was lightened with his glory and he cried mightily with a strong voice” proclaiming the pure Good News of “the everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6-12; 18:1-4). That describes God’s people personally proclaiming the message themselves, doing more than playing videos; doors will open everywhere for flesh and blood proclaimers; but they must first themselves understand and appreciate that “everlasting gospel.”

Only those who “hunger and thirst”for it can be filled (Matt. 5:6).

Does Jesus Christ have the right to have a love affair? He is the divine Son of God to whom “all power is given in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18), myriads of angels in the vast universe of its Milky Way of suns and worlds await His most minute and grandest biddings; and yet He is a lonely Man in heaven. “Home” to Him is earth; His humanity is as complete as is His divinity. His heart is with His struggling ones here below.

No woman on earth is worthy to be the bride of the Son of God; the “one woman” whom He loves is His church. Twenty-seven year old Samuel Stone understood with words that have thrilled countless believers in Jesus: “From heaven He came and sought her / to be His holy Bride; / with His own blood He bought her, / and for her life He died.”

But His search is not ended. The Savior is still seeking a church that loves truth more than loves self or the world. A mysterious oneness operates beneath the surface in the church that the Enemy of Christ cannot fathom. “Elect from every nation, / Yet one o’er all the earth,” His “My people” today await the hearing of that Voice that penetrates the remotest bound of Babylon’s massive confusion. It says, “Come out of her, My people” (Rev. 18:4).

The Bridegroom does the seeking; the Bride-to-be does the responding. Every truth that comes revealed is met by her with whole-hearted acceptance, no matter what the humbling of self may require. Her repentance includes forsaking that alluring “rich-and-increased-with-goods” pride that has made His church too often the object of the world’s merited scorn. The path of true love is never smooth, say the wise ones; and Christ’s bride-to-be is constantly finding new occasions for humbling the corporate heart in painful repentance that becomes joyous the moment it is embraced. She is growing up out of childishness; Christ’s love for her as a Bridegroom rejoices in her growing maturity. Some day (hopefully very soon) she will see herself as the world and as heaven have seen her and will “repent in dust and ashes” for her infidelity to the only One who has ever loved her truly.

She will love the truth that separates her from the world, and will gladly bear its persecution and endure the trials of the last days and will joy in standing loyal to Christ. Her self-respect will be enhanced by her corporate realization that she is the object of the Lord’s conjugal love.

The Bible does not encourage self-esteem, but it does teach a genuine self-respect—the solid kind that all the devils in hell can’t undo.

It’s learned from believing the following story:

At the age of 30, Jesus of Nazareth got the news that John the Baptist was preaching repentance at the Jordan River. He told His mother Mary, “Mother, I’ve got to go. I’m laying down my saws, hammers, chisels, and I’ll never touch them again: I am going on My mission My Father has told me of, that I’ve told you about since I was 12” (Luke 2:49).

John refused to baptize Him. “I am ordained to baptize only people who have repented, and You have no sins to repent of.” Then Jesus told him how He was taking the sins of the whole world upon Himself, making Himself guilty of them all, “made to be sin for us” [2 Cor. 5:21]. “And yes, I have repented of them all.” So John relented.

When Jesus came out of the water dripping wet, He knelt on the Jordan’s banks and prayed such a prayer as the world had never heard before, nor had the angels in heaven. And something wonderful happened: the Father Himself answered Jesus verbally and audibly so the whole world could hear Him (except they didn’t recognize the Voice):

“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). And, you remember, the dove descended, as the visible Holy Spirit.

As the Father put His arms around Jesus before the whole world, He also put His arms around you, and said those same words.

“But I am a sinner,” you say; “He couldn’t do that to me!”

When you go to a shop and buy something for say $10, you exchange your $10 for an article which you believe is equivalent in value. We read that the Father “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son ... ” You are “the world.”

In other words, when the Father thinks of you with all your sins and unworthiness, He thinks of you as of equivalent value; He loves you Two equally (I use a capital T for His sake).

You’ll spend the rest of your life here (and over there) trying to understand that.

Does anybody want the reign of sin to go on and on for decades, even centuries more? The whole world to become a huge Baghdad? Or Darfur?

Jesus Christ has promised to return (John14:1-3, for example). At different times in history, sincere, godly people have set time hoping He would come, but have always thus far been disappointed.

Result: “the love of many [has grown] cold” (cf. Matt. 24:12) and some who used to say they believed in His personal coming have given up the idea altogether; just do what you can to make the present world more livable through science, for example (cf. 2 Peter 3:3ff).

But wait a moment: if we believe that Jesus Christ is a personal Being, the Son of God (and we do!), think how He must feel with this long delay and constant disappointment. He is the Bridegroom in a delayed marriage whose personal “disappointment is beyond description.” His disappointment rather than ours deserves our attention. In fact, it opens up a whole new field of Bible study having to do with His Bride-to-be “making herself ready” for “the marriage of the Lamb” (cf. Rev. 19:7, 8).

Why have all the expectations of the imminence of His second coming been mistaken thus far? That in itself constitutes a “shaking” that increases in intensity as time goes on. Who will stay on board this journey of faith to its end as prophesied in the Bible? Someone inspired likened the end to swinging over a vast chasm hanging on to ropes whose support you cannot see, you can only believe is there because God says so.

It’s nothing that our Lord has not been through: that’s what His cross experience meant to Him. He had not a ray of light shining, not a word of encouragement from anyone; only the hiding of His Father’s face, forsaking Him as though He were the worst sinner in the world. Nothing to hang on to except what the Bible says. Everyone either condemned Him or forsook Him.

He assures us that some will appreciate what His cross meant and “shall endure unto the end” (Matt. 24:12). They are even now being gathered out all over the world. God grant us to be one!

Someone says, “I’m not the one breaking up our marriage; it’s my spouse! (And to tell the truth, we’re both to blame!)”

When people asked the apostle Paul what to DO to be saved, he liked to tell them, “BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ ...” (Acts 16:31). He didn’t mean do nothing; but a change of heart is what works, not just outward behavior. The change accompanies an effective prayer for marriage-healing. That healing is what the Author of love and marriage likes to do for us when we ask Him.

What we know for sure:

(a) The Lord wants your marriage to be solid and happy as long as you both shall live. He says He “hates divorce” (Mal. 2:16). Therefore it follows that your prayers for your marriage to be healed are in harmony with God’s will for you, and that means your prayer is being heard for He has promised that whatever prayer we ask that is “according to His will, He heareth us” (1 John 5:14, 15). Big truth!

 

(b) That means in turn that you and the Lord are together in this; and two out of three are a Majority. Work with Him; stay with Him; be loyal to Him and His truth.

 

(c) The Bible doesn’t guarantee 100% success, for humans have the power of choice and they can “frustrate the grace of God” (Gal. 2:21; if that must happen, the Lord is as pained as you are). But He also assures us that it’s possible for a believing spouse to win an unbelieving one (see 1 Cor. 7:10-16). Miracles still happen; the greatest is in our own hearts when we “LET this mind be in [us] which was also in Christ Jesus ... “ (Phil. 2:5ff).

 

(d) The best news in the world today is a change of vision in God’s people—transferring their concern for self to the Lord Jesus from “what can I do to be sure I am saved and I can wear a crown ?” to “how can I help crown Him King of kings and Lord of lords?” The miracle of a new kind of love (agape) is taking over many human hearts.

God’s last days’ message for us all is His “everlasting Good News” (Rev. 14:6-12).

Recently we talked a bit about how God specially cares for the broken-hearted. We’ve had several letters from those who qualify.

The problem often is a broken marriage, plus a severed closeness to the Savior.

The stores are full of books that tell you what to do; the Bible tells you what to believe:

(a) God has a vested interest in your marriage; He invented the idea in the first place, and it is He who brought the two of you together and made you “one.” If your marriage fails, it is therefore He who will be embarrassed and pained.

 

(b) Your prayers will become powerful if you can grasp this larger paradigm-shift idea: prayers for Him to be glorified in you take precedence over your own prayer for personal happiness. Tangled thinking becomes clarified. You start walking on air.

 

(c) Prayer for a spouse becomes more effective because self is now crucified with Christ. You and the Lord Jesus are now united in a common purpose between you—that the Lord’s invention of marriage be honored in your case. Young people watching you will be inspired to build more firm marriages that will actually uplift the world. Don’t despise the idea: you become a “missionary” unconsciously working for the Kingdom of God. Your healed marriage proclaims a magnificent sermon of hope in a hopeless world.

 

(d) There are tons of practical wisdom and spiritual strength that the Lord would like to impart to you just now, but as Jesus said to His disciples, you can’t absorb it all now (John 16:12); but He is like a teacher who can’t give you the last lessons until you’ve grasped the first ones. Believe that you are a valued pupil in His classroom; He will hear your prayer to heal your marriage, but He will insist on working through you as His agent. It’s not fear that will teach you, but the grace of God will faithfully, persistently “teach” you (cf. Titus 2:11-13). Best “classroom” anyone was ever in!

 

(e) Yes, a thousand times over, the Lord still works miracles; the greatest of them all may be in your own soul. “Let” Him do it; don’t hinder Him (Phil. 2:4).

 

(f) He will take your prayers very seriously; don’t back out on what you are praying for. If the slightest adulterous prayer has flitted across your consciousness, pray for heart forgiveness. Healing that brings lasting happiness may hurt for a time, but great and lovely is the peace that you will inherit.

If there is anyone out there in the great world who feels that the Lord has given him (her) a bitter cup to drink, this mini-message is for you.

The lady’s sad lament (who said He had done that to her), has found its way into God’s Bible: Naomi is responding to the warm greetings of her fellow townspeople in Bethlehem when she returns from decades of exile in a foreign land. They’re asking, Is this beaten-down woman really our beloved sunshine girl of long ago—Naomi? “Don’t call me by my childhood name ‘Delightful,’ she pleads; “call me ‘Bitter’ [Mara], for the Almighty God has made my life bitter.” A very discouraging feeling for anyone’s heart.

Indeed, she has been dealt not a double but a triple blow of heart-rending misfortune. “When I left here, I had plenty [a loving husband and two wonderful sons], but the Lord has brought me back without a thing. ... The Lord Almighty has condemned me and sent me trouble”(Ruth 1:20, 21, GNB).

Here’s a classic case of a sincere soul believing Calvinist predestination; all the nearly endless miles of that weary trudge back from Moab to Bethlehem, Naomi has been thinking of her bitter cup of triple bereavement. Now it looks like the Lord (whose sacred name she has invoked) will snuff her little light out of Israel’s roster. If you have lost husband and sons to death, you in Israel face a bleak future; Naomi’s plight is the saddest we read of in Israel in the Bible.

But wait a moment: she has forgotten something: she has salvaged out of her life-wreckage a daughter-in-law. And she is the one who gets the name of this happiest book in the Bible. Slowly she and Ruth inch their way out of hunger through reaping—the humiliating “business” of the down-and-out woman in Israel.

Just as “the Lord God” brought “an help meet” to Adam (just what he needed), so the same Lord God brought “an help meet” or appropriate for Ruth: a husband in Boaz. But she didn’t go looking for him; the Lord brought the two together.

He didn’t harshly rebuke Naomi for feeling and saying that He had brought all this misfortune on her; but let’s not repeat Naomi’s unbelief. It’s too late in the day to live it all again; the Lord is coming soon, and we want t get ready to be happy when we see Him. It’s time to believe the Lord’s New Covenant promises (Gen. 12:2, 3). No matter who you are, they are made to you, for if you believe in the Son of God you are a child of Abraham and thus “heirs according to the promise”(Gal. 3:29).

If there is anyone out there in the vast regions of earth who has made a mess of his life, who feels he has done everything wrong, rebelled against the Lord, made a fool of himself—this brief message is for him.

There is a man who is distinguished for such and yet made it to the top, to the roster of the super-heroes in sacred history—Hebrews 11. It’s Samson.

Born to be a leader of Israel, given the best of pre-natal heredity and childhood education, he could have been a towering figure of what a man of God can be, but he ended up using his prodigious strength grinding corn for the enemies of Israel like a despised beast of burden.

(a) Manoah and his unnamed wife were given divine instruction on how to give their future child the best prenatal care. His mother was obviously a very intelligent woman whose cool judgment corrected her husband’s unbelieving assumption (Judges 13:2-14). And the child was to be a Nazarite from the womb.

 

(b) Samson started off wanting to indulge his selfish sexual preference in marrying a pagan girl who “pleases me well”(14:3). His infatuation with this flirtatious girl was a long ways away from genuine love; yet Samson could have learned about true love. Israel’s history (the “Bible” of that day!) told of the pure and happy love of the patriarchs Isaac and Rebekeh, and also the committed love of Jacob for Rachel, and the example of Samson’s own parents’ fidelity. Samson had plenty of good examples which he callously rejected. Those who marry selfishly while disregarding the Lord’s guidance can see a glimpse of themselves here.

 

(c) Samson’s career as a divinely appointed leader of Israel is a story of self-centered foolishness. The thoughtful people of Israel must have been repeatedly embarrassed; how could his godly parents endure it all?

 

(d) To cap the story of buffoonery, Samson betrays his divine secret to his paramour (the classic story of a national trustee betraying his nation for an illicit love), who promptly betrays him. You know what happened; the Philistines blinded this man of God, and in exuberation tied him to a plow and set him to grinding corn like a beast.

 

(e) This at least gave Samson time to think, to ponder, and do what he should have done at first—abhor himself.

 

(f) Utterly unworthy to have a prayer answered, he finally decides to die with his national enemies. His hair having grown again unnoticed by his captors, he prays for strength to bring down the Temple of Dagon on the huge crowd gathered to gloat over him. The Bible succinctly says that in so doing he fulfilled at last his mission to deliver Israel from slavery; but oh, at what a cost! But he made it into the book of Hebrews ( 11:32).

 

(g) The point? The dear Lord hears the prayer of a broken-hearted sinner. You.

Christ IS the “Savior of the world” (John 4:42) which means that He has given Himself to be your Savior even if you feel so sinful that you don’t deserve to have Him. It was “before the foundation of the world” that the Father did so, “chose” you, “predestinated [you] unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, ... made [you] accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:4-6).

But a very sincere question comes up now:

If we tell people this, won’t they simply go on sinning all the more? Won’t they say, “God is taking me to heaven with all my sins, so what’s the point in obedience to His law? ‘Soul, ... take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry’ (Luke 12:19)”? If we tell people such “good news” as Ephesians and Romans seem to tell us, aren’t we defeating the purpose of all evangelism preaching? Shouldn’t we arouse people to DO something about their soul’s salvation?

(a) If craven fear is the motive we are seeking to arouse, our preaching is Old Covenant in nature, in spite of all the bright lights and pictures we may use. We’ll get “results” that look nice on paper, the photos will be impressive.

 

(b) If we tell people what Christ actually accomplished on His cross, the message will zero in precisely to the inner heart of every honest soul who listens. Fear will not be the basic motivation aroused; “the love of Christ constrains.” There is a mighty power in that love that does what all the preachers in the world are powerless of themselves to do—truthfully presented it motivates the sinful heart of man to renounce self to be crucified with Christ.

 

(c) When the sinner finally knows what to believe, he can’t help but “judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead.” The logic appeals. He sees that he would be dead at this moment (in a second death) if that “One” had not died for him; therefore as surely as day follows night, he will refuse “henceforth [to] live unto [himself] but unto Him which died for [him] and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

 

(d) It’s an idea that will prepare a people for the second coming of Christ. (You can’t get closer to Him than to be crucified with Him.)

 

(e) In the pure truth of the message itself the power lies latent (Gal. 2:5, 14; Rom. 1:16).

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe, the Lord willing, more tomorrow.

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

(a) He “sinks in deep mire” (vs. 2).

(b) “The floods overflow him” (vs. 2)

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

(d) Everybody “hates him” (vs. 4).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then recover and proclaim the message.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

The Divine Obstetrician

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The True Dimension of Christ’s Love For Us

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Apostle Paul was not a better person than we are, nor more heroic. He simply saw something that made all his sacrifices easy:

• He saw that he would be in a hopeless grave if that “One” had not died in his place.

• He saw that even his next breath he owed to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

• He saw himself a slave bought by love, responding to the blood shed there.

• He saw that nothing he possessed he could count as really his.

He could have sung Isaac Watts’ hymn:

When I survey the wondrous cross,

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a tribute far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my life, my soul, my all.

As easily as the believing Israelites were healed of their fatal snake bites, so easily does the new birth occur in the heart of anyone who “sees” the cross like Paul saw it.

Of course, he did not see it literally—he was not one of the original Twelve. He saw it by faith, and his experience is therefore an encouragement to us who also have never seen it literally. What he saw by faith seems to have made a more profound impression on him than the actual event made on those apostles who did see it. None of them seems to have caught its meaning as vividly as Paul did. That means something special for us who never saw the physical happening as did the Eleven (a thousand movies can’t portray it!). We are especially fortunate because that same faith-inspired devotion can be ours. Because of faith, Paul has to be better news than the other apostles! Faith has far sharper discernment than our physical eyes.

[From The Good News Is Better Than You Think, by Robert J. Wieland, pp. 26, 27.]

A Fabulous Discovery

The wonderful Bible truth is that God takes the initiative in saving us. He is not, as many conceive of Him, standing back, His divine arms folded in disinterested concern while we wallow in our misery. He is not saying, “Well, I did My part long ago; it’s up to you now. You must take the initiative. If you want to be saved, come and work hard at it. If it seems hard to you, you just don’t have what it takes to get to heaven.”

No. A thousand times No! But many feel that way about God. And some shy and timid ones think God has plenty of good people ready to take my place—He doesn’t need me, and I’m not really sure He even wants me.

In contrast, Paul helps us see the divine initiative at work for us: “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4).

Today’s English Version says He “is trying to lead you to repent.” The goodness of God is actually taking you by the hand and leading you toward repentance as surely as a fireman tries to lead a victim out of the smoke and haze of a burning building. If you don’t stubbornly resist, you will be led all the way to heaven. Astounding as it may seem, that’s the message.

Sometimes we pray agonizingly for some wayward loved one, assuming we have to beg the Lord to wake up and please do something. The idea is that He is divinely indifferent until we touch His pity somehow. But the goodness of God is already working, leading your loved one to repentance. The trouble is that we often thwart what He is trying to do because we haven’t understood that goodness, mercy, and forbearance of the Lord in their true dimensions. We’re horrified to realize it, but we pile stumbling blocks in our loved one’s way to heaven. We don’t realize how the selfishness and inconsistencies they see in us block their access to God, or shadow their concepts of His character.

And it is true, not everybody repents. Why? Some “despise” this goodness of God. Stubborn, they break away from that leading. Let’s grasp this tremendous insight! The sinner may resist this love, he may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist he will be drawn to Jesus. A knowledge of the plan of salvation will lead him to the foot of the cross in repentance for his sins.

[From The Good News Is Better Than You Think, by Robert J. Wieland, pp. 64, 65.]

A Beautiful Example of God’s Evangelistic Wisdom

It’s found in Galatians 4:1-5 where we see that He treats unbelievers not as outsiders or as wolves to be shot down as soon as possible, but as wandering sons or lost sheep that haven’t yet found their way home.

The figure is that of a child of the wealthy estate owner who runs about barefoot, bossed by slaves; but when he comes of age, he becomes lord of the estate. “Even so we ... were children ... in bondage ... But when the fullness of the time had come, ... we ... receive[d] the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:3-5).

Happy is the spouse who believes enough in Good News to draw a circle that takes in the unbelieving one, assuming that he or she is a child of God “in minority” on the way to realizing and confessing that sonship or daughtership in God’s good time. That’s cooperating with God in working miracles!

New Testament forgiveness, whether given by God or by a believing spouse, implies the idea of being loosed from the sin, of actually sending it away. The Greek word is aphesi, which means literally “bearing away.” The truly forgiven person is free from the sin, and won’t do it again ever.

The Only Way Anyone Can Learn to Forgive

No one can forgive an erring spouse unless he has first experienced Christ’s forgiving grace toward himself. If God invented sex and marriage, He also invented the redemption that centers in the cross. Miracles don’t happen unless there is a sense of the tremendous “giving for” that was involved in God’s forgiveness, an appreciation of the cost expended at Calvary:

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love [agape], just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 4:32; 5:1, NIV).

In olden times, marriages were happy according as the two parties believed that God had brought them together, rather than their own mutual chemical or social attractions for each other. Their love for each other was rooted in their primary faith in God’s leading. When they had the horse before the cart, their faith in each other grew into happy, permanent love.

Isaac, for example, never laid eyes on Rebekah until his father’s servant brought her to him from Mesopotamia and was told how she was God’s choice for him. His faith concurred with God’s leading, and we read that “he loved her.” In fact, Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage is one of the happiest recorded in the Bible (see Gen. 24:66, 67).

You may have heard the story of the man in Acres of Diamonds who looked all over the world for treasure, only to discover the precious gems in his own backyard. The grass on the other side of the fence may not be as green as it is on your side already.

[From The Good News Is Better Than You Think, by Robert J. Wieland, pp. 123-125.]

Going back in history almost all the way to Pentecost, history tells how the true believers in Jesus wrestled with controversy in their midst over what the gospel means. The controversy erupted before the first general conference of the church was called in Jerusalem, in Acts 15:6ff.

There were aberrant views advanced by “certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed” (vs. 5). These were not apostates; this was not the beginning of the great “falling away” Paul predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4; these were faithful, honest people who did not fully understand at that time “the truth of the gospel” (cf. Gal. 2:5, 14). Their zeal for the law was confused. The faithful and true leadership of the church had to humble their souls and declare that “certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls” (vs. 24). The error threatened to become a lethal heresy, but thank God, was healed at the beginning by prompt action for the right.

The fact that these wrong ideas were promulgated by people endorsed by the one true church leadership required rectification; thank God that at that time church leadership was ready to make the wrong right. The acknowledged leader of the general conference of Acts 15 humbled himself, bit the dust, confessed the truth, and gave the world church of the day a solid and bold leadership in the right because he submitted to self being crucified with Christ.

The fact that he had to admit being confused did not lessen the confidence the people placed in him, but resulted in strengthening the church.

But that was not the end of the problem. The controversy erupted again in a meeting years later. Paul relates what happened: “When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face [and] the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that [even] Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. .... When I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I ... [rebuked] Peter before them all” (Gal. 2:11-14).

Paul was not one of the original Twelve, but he was “a chosen vessel” of the Lord.

Are there “dissimulations” and “dissemblings” in the true church today? In this year of our Lord 2007, we have come almost to the point where such are too late for the day. The judgment is soon to be completed; it’s too late for any of us to be confused. There will be 144,000 on the right side. Let’s walk softly before the Lord and “take time to be holy,” to study, to understand “the truth of the gospel.”

God has given us the book of Hebrews as a treasure of truth. It’s more soul-satisfying to read than the daily newspaper, and if you understand what it’s about, more interesting. It connects us directly with our Great High Priest who is just now conducting His closing work of preparing a people to stand through the final scenes of earthly time.

But it frightens some good-hearted people because its theme throughout is