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 Wednesday, November one, 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. Still dealing with excuses, uncomfortable
confrontations, comfort uncomfortable confrontations. 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. That's where you can
ask your questions or give your comments. You'll notice if you are joining recently
that yeah, I don't have much to say unless you have something to say,
because I speak to you every day on radio, television, podcast,
internet and all kinds of stuff shortwave radio, and so what I am doing
is positioning you to ask the questions and have the discussion, and then I
can also join in with you, because you know, again I've made the
first step. It's now time for you to engage in that way and we
can build faith and fellowship again together at your daily portion dot com. Let's
go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway. Father and Heaven,
thank you for giving us this privilege to open up your word again and
to examine our own hearts, examine ourselves and realize that we do make up
stuff. We have excuses of all kinds for not doing your work. Please
help us not to be cherishing our comfort and avoiding conflict when you throw us
into the kind of mission that Jesus did in Jesus name, I pray,
Amen and amen again. Uncomfortable confrontations. Let me just start with the best
thing I can say here. Jesus. Jesus confronted sin and sinners. Yeah,
there were Pharisees, sadducees. There were people who were bound to other
kinds of sins. The women at the well, Nicodemus and I could go
on, people who were not necessarily connected to God right, and Jesus demonstrated
that when the confrontation was necessary, he went straight to it. So many
things I could say, but let me just go into the story of Jonah
again. Jesus demonstrated that when confrontation was necessary, he went right to it.
He said, I didn't come to bring peace, but I came to
bring a sword to set at variance people in your family, your friendship,
core, your co workers. And that has to do with if someone is
comfortable in sin and God is calling them out of sin, calling them out
of sin, and you are living in holiness, there is going to be
a conflict. There will be a confrontation. And the outcome, the desired
outcome, really is for people to repent and to turn toward God, not
for us to be peaceful. One on the other end unholy and the other
holy. Now, God wants us to find common ground in holiness. That's
the ultimate goal, Okay. And so what we're going to do, as
we always do, is look at some action steps. Let's go first now
to Jonah chapter four and verse one. Jonah chapter four and verse one,
and the Bible reads, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
Why was he displeased because God was merciful because God did not immediately destroy
Ninevah. Because what he felt like that God's what God didn't do made his
reputation look poor, like he was a false prophet. What was Jonah's real
problem? Like he had an emotional response based on how he knew that or
thought that God would behave, how he would act, how he would rule,
and he didn't really like what God's method was to be honest, like
he felt like his method was the best way to just go opposite of what
God told to do because of what he knew in his own mind God would
do ultimately. And it's like pause, like, don't try to position yourself
as a God. Let God be God and serve him. Okay. And
so our action step really is assess our emotional responses to seeing God's grace extended
to those that we see we deem with our broken eyes undeserving when God extends
his mercy to that person who was just convicted for murder and the conviction was
was true. When God shows mercy to him or her, then we should
not be thinking, but why would God show mercy? Show mercy? Look
at what they have done? Huh. When God does things that we don't
expect or that we don't agree with, then we should examine and assess our
emotional responses to that and say, God, why am I so unholy?
Why am I having this visceral respect? Why am I not aligned with you?
Why do I not agree with you? And then we want to ensure
that our desires do indeed align with God's heart for all people. Yeah,
okay, let's go to our second our second point here from the Book of
Jonah, chapter four and verse ten, and the Bible reads, and the
Lord said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor
did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished
in a night. Of course, God used something in nature in order to
get Jonah's attention about his priorities. His priorities right, And so the action
step is for us to evaluate where we place our compassion. Are we more
compassionate on filling the blank? Make sure that it is. It is directed
towards people and their spiritual condition rather than our own comfort and conveniences. Oh
my, I need some rest. Oh my, how many times do I
need to speak to these people? They're not listening to me. Oh my,
it's uncomfortable to me to confront these situations because they're not going to listen
to me. They're tired of me. I get this negative consequence or outcome
whenever I do what you say. I think Jeremiah had to contend with that,
and he lived a life that was very interesting, and when he would
speak the words of God as God commanded, there were times that it was
inconvenient and the outcomes weren't what he wanted. And he said, I'm not
going to do this anymore. I'm not speaking in his name anymore. And
he said, when he tried to do that, ha, he tried to
do that. The Bible says that it was like fire shut up in his
bones. So God got to his man, and thankfully, thankfully, Jeremiah
got back into the fight. Yep. And here's the third one, the
third one from Jonah, chapter four and verse eleven, and the Bible reads,
and should I not petite Nineveh, that great city in which there are
more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand
from their left. And so we have to actively work against our prejudices Ah
by seeking to view people through God's vision, God's eyesight, the lenses that
God has, aligning our compassion with his love. Seeing people as God sees
them, that's a big deal. That's a big deal. We have so
many reasons why we see in view people as we do. But God is
saying, it's through the prism of love. Notice I said prism. Yes,
a prism is seen clearly through light. The light of God's love should
be the measure of our compassion, the measure of our commitment to leading people
to life versus the death that they have chosen. Real quick, let's go
with the last one from Jonah, chapter three and verse ten. When God
saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented
of the disaster that he had said he would do unto them, and he
did it. Not. What we want to do is to promote and celebrate
God's mercy, affirming that it is available to every kind of person, regardless
of their past actions or what the society perceives about them. Yeah. Uncomfortable
confrontations another terrible excuse for avoiding God's word. Have a wonderful day, 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,