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Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too

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much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy

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for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect

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

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keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are

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going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words

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today and receive the power we need to live healthy,

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vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,

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author speaker, Elle David Harris.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning, good morning, it is Sunday. It's

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March sixteen, twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El

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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,

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and today is no exception. We are continuing in our

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Lesson study series, God's Love and Justice, and our caption

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for today is the two Greatest Commandments. I've been waiting

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to get to that Two Greatest Commandments. We'll get into

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that in just a moment, but first I'd like to

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say welcome to you and ask you to go over

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to your Daily Portion dot com. Please join our online community.

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Please please pick up the Your Daily Portion companion guide.

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This will determine whether we continue into the next quarter

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with it. Okay, and also please let us know where

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you are in the world at your Daily Portion dot com.

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This is one of the ways that we continue to

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build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and

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then we will get underway. Father, we do thank you

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this day for giving us your holy spirit. Thank you

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for giving us the opportunity to hear from you. How

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you see the commandments that you have given to us.

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Please help us to live those principles in Jesus name.

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I pray Amen and Amen again, the two greatest commandments. Okay.

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And so I'm going to read just a paragraph from

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the lesson writer and then go right into the scriptures

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to reflect on what we might do individually and corporately

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to advance God's love and justice in our world. It

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is appropriate to begin by focusing on what God has

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commanded us. And this is apropos. This is appropriate because

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I did say to you that judgment and justice in

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the scriptures almost all of the time, not one hundred

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percent of the time, actually means righteousness. So where you

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see judgment or justice is righteousness. Of course, we could

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get technical about it, and I understand why you would

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want to do that if you understand these texts. However,

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if that's the case, and God's justice is in question,

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then the righteousness is measured by what standard? How do

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we know what is just or righteous? Of course we

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need the commandments for this. The Commandments, the ten Commandments

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are a transcript of God's character, okay, if we were

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to make it simple, a transcript of God's character. And

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they are understood in two very clear principles. And now

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we go to the Bible Book of Matthew, chapter twenty two,

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and I will read beginning at verse thirty four Matthew

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chapter twenty two, and I'll read beginning at verse thirty four,

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and the Bible reads, But when the Pharisees had heard

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that he had put the Sadducees to silence. Of course,

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there's this argument about whether there is or is not

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a resurrection right, and so they're arguing about that. They

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are gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer,

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asked him a question, tempting him, saying, Master, which is

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the great commandment in the law. And Jesus said, unto him,

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thou shalt love thy God, with all thy heart, and

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with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This

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is the first and great commandment, and the second is

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like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

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On these two hang all the law and the prophets.

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And so the first four commandments have to do with

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loving God with everything we have and everything that we are.

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The final six commandments have to do with loving God

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and humanity. I know sometimes people make it seem as

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if the final six only have to do with loving humans.

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But we cannot love God without loving humans for real,

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for real, we can't actually love humans without loving without

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loving God. Okay, and so, but you can see the

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relational element where humans are concerned in the final six.

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Love for God, love for other human beings. This is

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how it's broken down. But I do like the transition

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here after Jesus talks to them about or really teaches

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them about the commandment, that is to love God with everything.

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Let me ask you a question. Is it a miracle

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or is it easy? Is it something that just happens

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because we make a decision to love God. I'm saying,

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of course it's a miracle, because we were born hostile

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toward God, born in sin, shapen in iniquity. Okay, So

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I want you to keep that in mind. As he

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makes the transition, he says, the second is like unto it.

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And then of course he says what we said already.

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So in the same way that it is miraculous that

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we need power outside of ourselves to love God, we

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need that same power. It is miraculous to love ourselves.

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And you're like, Dave, you just made a mistake. Did

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you hear what you just said? I heard what I

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just said? Because the Bible says that we are to

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love our neighbors as ourselves. Well, the problem is that

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too few people love God enough to value ourselves according

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to his principles. This is why we sometimes say bad words.

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This is why we entertain ourselves with things that actually

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rip down our characters, which were to be patterned after

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the character of God. This is why there's so much

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in the news about all kinds of creepy, crazy, nasty

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things that people in the entertainment and political scenes are

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doing to people and have cameras running, and all kinds

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of drugs and alcohol moving in people's lives. Because human

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beings naturally disrespect God and disrespect ourselves. But if we

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experience the miracle of grace. Somebody put grace in the chat.

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If we experience the miracle of grace, then we begin

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to love God miraculously, and by extension, we are able

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to love ourselves. This means now we can love our

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neighbor in the way that fulfills that second and great commandment.

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That is like unto the first. I hope that made sense.

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I hope it made sense. And so really, Jesus revealed

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the vertical relationship the love of God as primary, also

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the horizontal relationship among people, and it's equally essential. All

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other commandments flow from these two commandments. Love is the

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foundation of all true obedience. I said true obedience. Some

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people say that you can keep the law all you want,

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but it doesn't mean that you whatever are going to

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be saved. And it's just like pause. That means that

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you don't understand the law. You can attempt to do

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it and outwardly maybe perform some things that seem like

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it's law keeping, but in reality, if a person is

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actually keeping the law of God, it is only because

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the law of the New Covenant is in our lives.

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I will write my laws in your hearts and on

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your minds, so that you can actually do the commandments.

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If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And

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so there is no true commandment keeper that does not

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love God. There is no true quote me. There is

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no true commandment keeper that does not love God. Everybody

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else is a fraud. Everybody else is attempting to keep

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the law. But true law keepers are those who love God.

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I wish I had the time to really get into

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the final chapter Matthew Chapter nineteen, verses sixteen through twenty three,

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But of course we want to see the intersection of

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that principle in those passages from the lesson we see

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from the book Desire of Ages, page five hundred and twenty.

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Christ made the only terms which could place ruler where

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he would perfect a Christian character. His words were words

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of wisdom, though they appeared severe and exacting, and accepting

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and obeying them was the ruler's only hope of salvation

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and the same as the reality for us. Make it

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a great day, peace. Thanks for joining us listening.

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Speaker 1: Friends, Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but

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by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

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This has been your daily portion with El David Harris.

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Make it a great day. Yeah,