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 Monday, July one, twenty twenty four. Hello,
my name is Elle David Harris. I am your host, and this is
your Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day, even on
the days that I forget what day it is, and today is no exception.
We are continuing in our new lesson study series on the Book of Mark,
and our caption for today is a second Chance, a second Chance.
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.
Please join our online community, pick up the Your Daily Portion book and
let us know where you are in the world at your Daily Portion dot com.
This is a way that we continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's
go ahead and pray and then we will get underway. Father in heaven,
thank you for this day. Thank you for loving us enough to give us
chances. Thank you for not giving up on us. Thank you for your
holiness. Please give your holiness to us in Jesus name. I pray,
Amen and Amen again a second chance. Now that is the caption for today.
But let me just ask you a question, because I know we have
all of these cliches and sayings and idioms and stuff, right. I know
that people say God is a god of second chances. Is that something you
believe that God is a god of second chances? I'm just pausing for a
moment so you can type it in the chat. Okay, those on the
radio, you just answer it as you see fit. Okay, well,
listen, I understand what we mean by that. But if God were a
god of second chances, then we would be gone like this would be it,
Like we would have been at the end of the end of the line,
the end of our ropes, like that's it, because that would mean
it's like the second chance and that's it. And after the second chance,
well you have to just get it right. And that's it. And I
know I'm being technical, but I want us to really be thoughtful of the
blessing that God is to us, because He has extended hundreds and thousands and
tens of thousands of chances to us in order to give us an opportunity even
when sometimes we reject it. And it's like, God, why are you
so good to us to give us an opportunity to live according to His principles,
to live holy, holy lives? After we have made bad decision after
bad decision, we've allowed ourselves to be addicted to all kinds of behaviors and
substances. We have allowed ourselves to be addicted to our own reflections, like
what we see and create on social media about ourselves. Some of us have
learned to worship and burn incense to that false image, like some of us
have learned to worship and bow down and burn incense to the false image we
have created of our spirituality that's not even close to the standard that God would
have for us. Because we're so proud, some of us, I'm saying,
and so I'm thankful today I just want to start with a gratefulness,
opportunity for all of us to say, thank you God for giving us chance
after chance after chance. But God, please teach us not to take you
for granted, not to take you lightly, as if you're always going to
be like that toward us. No matter what we do, we can just
keep falling down and getting up, falling down, getting up. No,
I know that at some point, at some point, it will be enough.
And so teach us, Father, to do what we are to do.
Teach us how to experience you in the fullness as we should, and
then live holy lives. Thank you for being a God of so many chances.
But we don't deliberately. I hope we don't take you for granted.
And so now we read from the Book of Acts, the Bible Book of
Acts from chapter fifteen, verses thirty six through thirty nine, and the Bible
reads and some days after Paul said, unto Barnabas, let us go again
and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached. Thank God.
So they were being pastoral, they were being protective. They were ready to
feed the flock, not just baptize the flock, not just teach the flock
and then just leave the flock. No, the people that God entrusted to
their care in all of these places, these men now are going to pour
into them and see how they do verse thirty seven. And Barnabas determined to
take with them John, whose surname was Mark. Now we know that John
Mark is the same person who is who has been attributed to writing the Bible
Book of Mark. Okay, and so his name is surname was Mark.
His last name was Mark verse thirty eight. But Paul thought not good to
take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphilia and went not with
them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them that they
departed asunder one from another. So Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto Cyprus.
What happened at the end, Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto Cyprus. And
so what we see now are two, let's call it two men of God.
Were more than two, but two men of God. In this case
we're talking about Paul and Barnabas. Okay, Paul and Barnabas, so two
men of God who do the work like they do the mission of God,
and they are really just knocking down doors that separate people from holiness. And
together they run. Thank God, John Mark has given the opportunity as well.
He's a part of the squad. And well, John Mark, as
we read yesterday, allowed discouragement, allowed fear and some other things to put
him like out of the fight, like this dude ran, he ran.
And so now Paul is saying, let's go, let's go do some more
work and and and Barnabas is like, okay, cool, bring bring John
Mark. And he's like, oh no, no, no. Paul is
like nope, I'm not bringing him with me. And so now you can
imagine the back and forth because two men of God are now like hold up.
One is saying, bring him, the other is saying no. The
one who's saying no is saying because I see how he moves and I need
I need somebody solid, like I need a real soldier on this team.
And Barnabas is like, no, but we can work with him, we
can work with him and John's and Paul is like, brother, not,
now, I gotta go. We need to work. We need to work,
not work with him. We need to go feed these sheep. Like
when we have spiritual battles, if you want to say, we need the
strongest soldiers on the battlefield. And so the Bible does teach us that because
God is good, and you want to say, well, how good is
he? He's so good that Barnabas took Mark. Barnabas took Mark under his
wing because likely his spiritual behavior style was more accommodating to working with people who
needed a little bit of extra help. Okay, And so I want you
to determine which kind of mission airy are you, Like what kind of worker
are you? Are you the one that's full steam ahead like lion, tigers
and bears don't cause you to flinch. You're like Paul, no matter what
if you're shipwrecked, if you have a disease, like if you have food
or you don't have food, You're running forward no matter what. Or you
like Barnabas, who may be like that in a way, but he can
understand like if people start to lose a little bit of focus, that he's
willing to work with those individuals along the way, like what kind of leader
are you? And so from the Seventh Day Adventists Bible commentary on verse thirty
seven. Determined. Determined is what we're looking at. The textual evidence attests,
so the reading was minded or desired. Undoubtedly it was Barnabas's family relationship
with John Mark. Oh wait a minute, so john Mark and Barnabas are
closer than we knew. Their family relationship that led him to wish to take
the young man. Now we know he was younger once more on a missionary
tour to give him an opportunity to show his fitness for service. Doubtless he
recognized as Paul did not, circumstances that at least in part excused John Mark's
former turning back from the arduous task. Paul the earnest and courageous warrior for
Christ. Anyone who had so acted seemed, in the Lord's own words,
not fit for the Kingdom of God, and was in need of discipline of
rejection, at least for a time to fit himself for further work. Very
interesting discussion. This is real life stuff. We'll talk about how this thing
really pans out on another day of the Lord Sphaar's life. But we see
that God is a god of multiple chances, and john Mark got his 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,