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Most of us eat every day,
some of us too much because yesterday's food

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is not enough to supply energy for
today's needs. Why then, do some

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of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly
manna, the word of God to keep

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us through today's challenges. On this
program, we are going to change all

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of that. Let's experience God's words
today and receive the power we need to

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live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome
to your Daily Portion with your host,

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author speaker, Elle David Harris.
Good morning, good morning, good morning.

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It is Wednesday, November one,
twenty twenty three. Hello, my

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name is El David Harris. I
am your host, and this is your

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Daily Portion where we give you God's
Word every single day, and today is

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no exception. We are continuing in
our Lesson study series, God's Mission,

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my mission, and our caption for
today. Still dealing with excuses, uncomfortable

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confrontations, comfort uncomfortable confrontations. We'll
get into that in just a moment,

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but first I'd like to say welcome
to you and ask you to go over

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to your Daily Portion dot com join
our online community. That's where you can

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ask your questions or give your comments. You'll notice if you are joining recently

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that yeah, I don't have much
to say unless you have something to say,

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because I speak to you every day
on radio, television, podcast,

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internet and all kinds of stuff shortwave
radio, and so what I am doing

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is positioning you to ask the questions
and have the discussion, and then I

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can also join in with you,
because you know, again I've made the

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first step. It's now time for
you to engage in that way and we

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can build faith and fellowship again together
at your daily portion dot com. Let's

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go ahead and pray, and then
we will get underway. Father and Heaven,

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thank you for giving us this privilege
to open up your word again and

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to examine our own hearts, examine
ourselves and realize that we do make up

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stuff. We have excuses of all
kinds for not doing your work. Please

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help us not to be cherishing our
comfort and avoiding conflict when you throw us

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into the kind of mission that Jesus
did in Jesus name, I pray,

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Amen and amen again. Uncomfortable confrontations. Let me just start with the best

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thing I can say here. Jesus. Jesus confronted sin and sinners. Yeah,

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there were Pharisees, sadducees. There
were people who were bound to other

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kinds of sins. The women at
the well, Nicodemus and I could go

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on, people who were not necessarily
connected to God right, and Jesus demonstrated

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that when the confrontation was necessary,
he went straight to it. So many

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things I could say, but let
me just go into the story of Jonah

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again. Jesus demonstrated that when confrontation
was necessary, he went right to it.

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He said, I didn't come to
bring peace, but I came to

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bring a sword to set at variance
people in your family, your friendship,

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core, your co workers. And
that has to do with if someone is

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comfortable in sin and God is calling
them out of sin, calling them out

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of sin, and you are living
in holiness, there is going to be

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a conflict. There will be a
confrontation. And the outcome, the desired

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outcome, really is for people to
repent and to turn toward God, not

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for us to be peaceful. One
on the other end unholy and the other

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holy. Now, God wants us
to find common ground in holiness. That's

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the ultimate goal, Okay. And
so what we're going to do, as

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we always do, is look at
some action steps. Let's go first now

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to Jonah chapter four and verse one. Jonah chapter four and verse one,

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and the Bible reads, but it
displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

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Why was he displeased because God was
merciful because God did not immediately destroy

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Ninevah. Because what he felt like
that God's what God didn't do made his

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reputation look poor, like he was
a false prophet. What was Jonah's real

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problem? Like he had an emotional
response based on how he knew that or

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thought that God would behave, how
he would act, how he would rule,

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and he didn't really like what God's
method was to be honest, like

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he felt like his method was the
best way to just go opposite of what

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God told to do because of what
he knew in his own mind God would

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do ultimately. And it's like pause, like, don't try to position yourself

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as a God. Let God be
God and serve him. Okay. And

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so our action step really is assess
our emotional responses to seeing God's grace extended

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to those that we see we deem
with our broken eyes undeserving when God extends

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his mercy to that person who was
just convicted for murder and the conviction was

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was true. When God shows mercy
to him or her, then we should

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not be thinking, but why would
God show mercy? Show mercy? Look

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at what they have done? Huh. When God does things that we don't

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expect or that we don't agree with, then we should examine and assess our

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emotional responses to that and say,
God, why am I so unholy?

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Why am I having this visceral respect? Why am I not aligned with you?

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Why do I not agree with you? And then we want to ensure

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that our desires do indeed align with
God's heart for all people. Yeah,

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okay, let's go to our second
our second point here from the Book of

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Jonah, chapter four and verse ten, and the Bible reads, and the

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Lord said, you pity the plant
for which you did not labor, nor

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did you make it grow, which
came into being in a night and perished

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in a night. Of course,
God used something in nature in order to

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get Jonah's attention about his priorities.
His priorities right, And so the action

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step is for us to evaluate where
we place our compassion. Are we more

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compassionate on filling the blank? Make
sure that it is. It is directed

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towards people and their spiritual condition rather
than our own comfort and conveniences. Oh

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my, I need some rest.
Oh my, how many times do I

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need to speak to these people?
They're not listening to me. Oh my,

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it's uncomfortable to me to confront these
situations because they're not going to listen

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to me. They're tired of me. I get this negative consequence or outcome

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whenever I do what you say.
I think Jeremiah had to contend with that,

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and he lived a life that was
very interesting, and when he would

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speak the words of God as God
commanded, there were times that it was

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inconvenient and the outcomes weren't what he
wanted. And he said, I'm not

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going to do this anymore. I'm
not speaking in his name anymore. And

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he said, when he tried to
do that, ha, he tried to

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do that. The Bible says that
it was like fire shut up in his

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bones. So God got to his
man, and thankfully, thankfully, Jeremiah

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got back into the fight. Yep. And here's the third one, the

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third one from Jonah, chapter four
and verse eleven, and the Bible reads,

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and should I not petite Nineveh,
that great city in which there are

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more than one hundred and twenty thousand
persons who do not know their right hand

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from their left. And so we
have to actively work against our prejudices Ah

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by seeking to view people through God's
vision, God's eyesight, the lenses that

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God has, aligning our compassion with
his love. Seeing people as God sees

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them, that's a big deal.
That's a big deal. We have so

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many reasons why we see in view
people as we do. But God is

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saying, it's through the prism of
love. Notice I said prism. Yes,

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a prism is seen clearly through light. The light of God's love should

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be the measure of our compassion,
the measure of our commitment to leading people

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to life versus the death that they
have chosen. Real quick, let's go

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with the last one from Jonah,
chapter three and verse ten. When God

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saw what they did, how they
turned from their evil way, God relented

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of the disaster that he had said
he would do unto them, and he

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did it. Not. What we
want to do is to promote and celebrate

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God's mercy, affirming that it is
available to every kind of person, regardless

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of their past actions or what the
society perceives about them. Yeah. Uncomfortable

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confrontations another terrible excuse for avoiding God's
word. Have a wonderful day, peace.

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Thanks for joining us listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot live by

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bread alone, but by every word
that comes from the mouth of God.

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This has been your daily portion with
El David Harris. Make it a great

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day. Yeah,