Most of us eat every day, some of us too much because yesterday's food
is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do some
of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all
of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to
live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker, Elle David Harris. Good morning, Good morning, Good morning.
It is Thursday, November sixteen, twenty twenty three. Hello, my
name is El David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
Daily Portion where we give you God's Word every single day, and today is
no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series. God's Mission,
my mission, and our caption for today is the Good Samaritan Story Today.
Oh wait a minute, yes, it's a Good Samaritan Story today. We'll
get into that in just a moment, But first I'd like to say welcome
to you and ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot com,
join our online community, and also let us know where you are in the
world and as a bonus, pick up the Your Daily Portion book at your
Daily Portion dot com. This is a way that we build faith and fellowship.
Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway. Father
and Heaven, thank you for this new day and for getting us so much
closer now to the coming of Jesus and also the coming of Sabbath time.
I pray God that you will help us to be faithful to you to the
degree that we become like the good Samaritan in Jesus name. I pray Amen
and Amen again. Let me just say that God has given us the privilege
if we are his children, we have to make the decision. According to
John chapter one, verse twelve, we make the decision to receive him,
and then we become a children. First. John chapter three, Versus one
through three gives us that kind of a concept. Another passage that comes to
mind is Isaiah chapter fifty six versus one through call it seven. And so
we want to make covenant with God. We want to become his children.
We want to receive all that He has had in his mind concerning us from
before there was a beginning. And therefore, when that is the case,
he identifies with us. He so identifies with people who were once sinners and
now saved by grace through faith, that the Good Samaritan story exists. I'm
not going to go back through it in the sense of detail, but I
will say I will say that the Good Samaritan is a dichotomy, like it's
an oxymoron in the minds of the people of that day, because the Samaritans
were supposed to be like outcasts. They're supposed to be not enough human spiritually
to be saved kind of style, right, And Jesus identifies himself not with
the Levite in the story, not with the priest in the story, who
were supposed to be holy. But they walked by a human that needed help,
simple and clear. Yes, they walked on by because they wanted to
be clean like in air quotes. They walked on by because it was inconvenient
and perhaps dangerous for them to be humane toward the man who was beaten and
left for dead on the road. They were too caught up with their religious
exercises to be exercising their holiness, the holiness that God would have placed in
their bosom if they received it by faith, you see, And so Jesus
had to use an irony in a story to say, people who do my
will, no matter from what nation, kindred type, tribe, tongue,
people, no matter from what ilk. If you want to say, what
strata, no matter from what category that you have placed in your minds separating
humans, any human that does my will is my child. Any human who
is transformed by my spirit and is humane toward others, loving your neighbor as
yourself, that person is my child. Okay. And so in this good
Samaritan story, we have something very interesting. I'll read from the book Desire
of Ages, page five hundred three, and I just put an exclamation point
on this passage. Right The question who is my neighbor is forever answered.
Christ has shown that our neighbor does not mean merely one of the church or
faith to what which we belong. It has no reference to race, color,
or class distinction. Our neighbor is every person who needs our help.
We just pause right there. Our neighbor is everyone who needs our help.
Can I just say that everyone on this planet needs our help one way or
the other. Yes. There can be rich people, wealthy people who've built
legacy generational wealth. There can be people who seem to have everything under control.
They're the most beautiful people you've ever laid eyes on, healthy, strong,
vibrant, right, intelligent, maybe even more intelligent than me, maybe
more intelligent than you in air quotes. But maybe some of those people are
not connected to God. They need you. Now, maybe those individuals who
are who may be connected to God also needs someone as a friend. They
need you. You see, people who don't have as much, who may
be destitute, don't have running water, may not have a roof over their
heads. Of course, obviously they need you. So your neighbor, my
neighbor, is every person who needs my help. And continuing the quote,
our neighbor is every soul who is wounded and bruised by the adversary. I
already preempted myself with that one. That means everybody that the devil has ever
done anything to. Yeah, our neighbor is everyone who is the property of
God. Oh my end of quote. Jesus has claimed us because he created
us. John chapter one, Hebrews chapter one, and other places make it
very clear that Jesus created us, He created you, He created me brothers
and sisters, and therefore he has claimed you as his quote property. But
moreover, he has also given his life for you. He laid down his
life so that you could become holy. He laid down his life so you
would not have to lose your eternity with him. He laid down his life
so you would not need to be addicted to rum or pornography. You did
not have to be abusive to your spouse, You did not have to lie
and steal from your employer like He did all of this for you, so
you didn't have to murder indeed or with your mouth right, so you wouldn't
have to lust or commit adultery indeed or in your heart like he gave his
all so that you could live like Jesus lived, you see, and therefore
it should become now in all of our minds a privilege to just reach out
to the people that God puts into our pathway. We can't save the world,
that's Jesus's work, But we can be a light. Huh. We
can be a light. I think the Bible says, let your light so
shine before people, so when they see your good works, they will glorify
your father, which is in heaven. Right. And so let's look get
some action items with all of what we have said in mind. The first
one comes from Luke chapter ten, Versus thirty three and thirty four. Search
and Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he
saw him, he had compassion on him. Remember we covered this already,
and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine,
and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn
and took care of him. Right, So, when you encounter in individuals
in distress, do not turn a blind eye, don't act like they're not
there. Don't leave it for somebody else to handle. Right, actively seek
to provide help. And we have to ask God, well, in what
way do I assist this individual, whether it's physical, emotional, or financial.
I think we've covered many of the things already. Let's go here to
say that we need to identify and address specific needs. See. God has
not called us to just be reactive. Okay, God, if somebody comes
to me, then I will. I think the Bible says that Jesus came
to seek and to save that which was lost, and so it is not
enough. In fact, in fact, in the Book of Job we see
he was the kind of person who said it was not enough for him to
just wait for people to come to him so he could assist them. He
sought people to be of service to and that is our privilege. The Good
Samaritan story today really is our story if we live according to Godly principle.
Peace. Thanks for joining us listening. Friends, Always remember we cannot live
by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
This has been your daily portion with El David Harris. Make it a
great day. Yeah,