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 twenty three, 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. Our caption for today is Greater Love, Greater Love. We'll
get into that in just a moment 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 definitely let us know where you are in
the world. We continue to build, build faith and fellowship, getting a
little tongue tied there and yes, so please go over again to 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 new day and
for the privilege we have to open your word again. Please teach us the
kind of love that transforms our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray,
Amen and Amen again, greater Love. We're going to begin our discussion today
by reading from the Book of John. Let's go to the Book of John
chapter fifteen, and I'll read beginning at verse seven. John chapter fifteen,
beginning at verse seven, and we're talking about the love of God toward us.
Okay, and the Bible reads, if ye abide in Me and my
words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall
be done to you. So God is showing us that he is not only
interested, but he is motivated to answer our prayers because of Jesus Christ right
his love for us. God gave us his only begotten son. We're going
to actually talk about that later on in the week that he gave or is
it next week? I forgot, but anyway, yeah, I digress.
He is saying that I love you so much that I gave you all of
heaven in one gift. And as a result of my gift of love to
you, that is Jesus Christ. Now I am quick to answer your prayers.
And when I say he is quick to answer our prayers, I'm saying
that God's intent always is to glorify himself and to give us the benefit of
connection with him. And watch this verse eight. Here in is my Father
glorified, right, Jesus speaking that ye bear much fruit. The discussion prior
to these verses is about fruitfulness in God and being connected to Christ. Okay,
And as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you,
continue ye in my love. Now we know the level of love that God
has toward us. If you want to know the level, look at how
much the Father loves the son. Huh. Look at what the sacrifice of
the Son has done for us. Here we go verse eight. Again,
herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit? So shall ye
be my disciples. Verse nine, As the Father hath loved me, so
have I loved you, continue in my love. If ye keep my commandments,
ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my father's
come amendments and abide in his love. So we know that the measure of
love is how Jesus kept the commandments. The measure of love is how we
allow Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to keep the commandments through us.
Well, what are the commandments about? Remember from Matthew chapter twenty two,
we see that love for God with all of our hearts and everything else,
that we are yes and love our neighbors as ourselves. On these two principles
of love hang all the law and the prophets. Okay, so we got
that very clear. Well, what else does this look like? What else
does this look like? Let's keep reading verse eleven. These things have I
spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you. God wants us to
be joyful brothers and sisters, and that your joy might be full. This
is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. So
Jesus's love is in sh structional. Jesus's love is transformational. If we want
to know what God is like, if we want to have the kind of
love that can transform us from unholy sinners into holy saints, we need look
no further than Jesus, and to submit to him. Let's keep going.
Well, we need a little bit more understanding God. Well, here it
goes verse thirteen. Greater love hath no man than this. Then a man
laid down his life for his friends verse fourteen and final, Ye are my
friends, if ye do what I command you. And so God demonstrated his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Christ died for the
ungodly. Christ died for us, not after we performed, well, not
after we said, God, look at what I have done. Now you
own me know, at our worst point in life, the worst that a
human can do was motivation, motivation for God to save us through Jesus Christ.
You see, that's the whole point of salvation. We cannot help ourselves.
His mercy is unmerited, his favor is unmerited. We cannot go to
God and ask him for a paycheck because of a job well done. No,
So, at the worst, and when we needed him most, when
we had no strength, Christ died for us. Now what does that mean?
Well, let me read you a quick story from the Lesson. One
missionary family served six years in Trinidad and Tobago. The first three years they
lived in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim community. Many Hindus explained that Christians refuse
their invitation to the annual Thanksgiving service. One day, these Christians attended a
Thanksgiving service of a new Hindu friend. They did this following Jesus' exam people,
he visited his friends when they invited him to special celebrations. Did you
get that he visited with his friends when they invited him? Keep going?
In fact, Hinduism teaches that visitors or friends bring blessings to the home of
the host. Now let me just say here, as a lesson writer says,
let's make an attempt to bring us to begin making a friend this week
by being a blessing, by being a blessing to someone else. Now,
let's do some have some action items again. Let's read again verse thirteen.
Greater love hath no man than this than to lay down one's life for his
friends. God wants us to live sacrificially. He wants us to practice self
less love. Reflect on areas in your life where you can embody this sacrificial
love, whether through time, resources, acts of service, just showing your
friends that you care. So many ways that you can do that. I
can do that. Also, here's another one, the missionary family. As
from this study, the missionary family attended a Thanksgiving service. Sometimes we need
to engage cross cultural celebrations. And I know that you're going to read a
lot into it. Some people are going to read a lot into it.
Notice what I am not saying. I am not saying that we turn our
backs on God. Like, this is not what this study is about.
We're talking about showing simple acts of love and kindness, building community relationships,
seeking guidance from God. About building friendships. We need to pray together and
ask God for his help. He knows that everyone in our minds aren't people
that we know deeply, like we don't even know our own mindset, But
he knows them. He knows our friendship core like he knows strangers. He
knows the people that can be friends, He become our friends. He knows
what they need, He knows what we have to offer. He knows what
we need. And so whereas we don't know our own minds right, our
own minds are desperately wicked, who can know it? That's what the prophet
asked God. But he knows all of our minds, and he knows what
it takes to connect us. Commit to daily prayers, asking for guidance and
fostering genuine relationships. That's what Jesus did. He built genuine relationships in order
to lead people to Heaven. 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,