Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Monday, April fourteen,
twenty twenty five. 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 how to Study God's Bible Prophecy or how
to study Bible Prophecy. Before we get into that, I'd
like to just say welcome to you and ask you
to go over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please
join our online community. You'll see a red button there.
I want you to click that button and also also
please let us know where you are in the world.
At your Daily Portion dot com. This is one of
the ways 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 giving us this day.
Thank you for loving us so much that you have
made us the apple of your eye. Help us to
live like we are the apple of your eye. In
Jesus' name, I pray Amen and Amen again. I don't
recall if I said what our caption was for today,
but it is the beautiful bride. That's who we are.
And when you think of a bride and you think
of your connection with God, do you see yourself as beautiful?
That's the question, and brothers, don't overprocess like, don't overthink it.
The question is simply, do you see yourself as a
beautiful bride in God's eyes? We're talking about the body
of believers. And if we can't come up with a
very clear and distinct answer, there may be a challenge.
And how we believe God forgives us there may be
a challenge, And how we believe that God is able
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You see, our beauty
comes from God because God's intention from before there was
a beginning was for us to live with him forever.
You see, sometimes when we are talking about our connection
with God, we forget, we forget how much He has
done to deliver us from our sins. You see, sometimes
we think of the thing that we did yesterday or
just five minutes ago, right before the broadcast, we were
thinking something that we shouldn't and we're trying to reconcile
our connection with God and say, well, all of our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags, or the judgment is coming
and we think of that as condemnation, or we think
of all kinds of ways to sort of separate ourselves
from God and then say things like, well, I'm only human.
But God has given us the antidote, like he has
given us his covering. He has spread his banner over us,
which is love. And we see a story in the
Book of Ezekiel, chapter sixteen, which we will drill just
a little bit to understand some aspects of God's love. Okay,
and so in Ezekiel chapter sixteen, really most of the
chapter we see the initial state of God's people. We
see the initial state, and the Bible reads and as
for your birth, on the day that you were born,
your cord was not cut or where you were not
washed with water. So we see our selves as an
a baby in this situation, as as as despicable as
it is for someone to abandon their baby. That is
how we are seen in this story. There is no
basic care provided. The helpless condition of our humanity is
seen here. It still says, like the text says, that
we are covered in blood like we had our mother
leave us. And this insight will teach us that God
found us. Okay, I don't want to go just back
into Israel back in the day, but God found his
people when no one else saw us as beautiful. She
was rejected. God's people was rejected as among children. And
then we see in verses six and seven. And when
I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood,
I said, live. You see the abandoned babies left for dead. Ah.
The abandoned baby is already seen as rejected and cast out.
But we see God's mercy in this situation, and he
initiates the rescue. He didn't wait for the baby to say,
please come help me. He initiates the rescue. He provides
life and growth, and he shows transforming power. Yes, And
so then we see the covenant and beautification. We see
we're abandoned, We see that we are helpless. We see
that we need a savior, We need someone to love
us and to give us the ability to live. And
now we see God's beautification plan in verses eight through fourteen,
and basically it says, I spread the corner of my
garment over you, and you became mine. And that spreading
of the garment means that he covered our nakedness. Remember
Adam and Eve when they sinned, they were naked and ashamed.
And so the Bible says Adam said he hid himself,
who told you were naked? Adam, did you eat from
the tree that I commanded that you sh shouldn't eat?
And so when we sin against God, it's like we
are committing adultery. It's like we have become a harlot.
And now we are caught red handed in the very
act of adultery, and we feel bare and naked. And
God is saying that when he is coming after us
in covenantal language and beautification, that he is going to
cover all of our sins. He's going to cover our
nakedness and shame and establish a covenant with us. Remember,
I will make a covenant with the House of Israel.
After those days, I will write my laws in their
hearts and on their minds, and they will be my people.
This is what God is telling us, and then he
gives us royal adornments. The Bible says, her beauty was
perfect through My splendor, which I bestowed upon her in
verse fourteen. And so the true source of our beauty
is God. You see, when I asked you what you
thought about yourselves as believers, I was really wanting you
to bring yourself up under His banner and see yourself
in that covenant, and see yourself in God's beautification plan.
Because the source of our real and true beauty is God.
In verse thirteen of Ezekiel chapter sixteen, the Bible says,
you grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. So God's
bride is beautiful, not because of anything she has done.
Nothing that we do is what makes us beautiful, not
because of anything that we can think of, but because
God has showered his favor on us. And of course
there is a danger part. There is a danger part
in verse fifteen, but you trust it in your own beauty.
This is how this adulterous reality happens when God's people
start to do things our own way and lean to
our own understanding and look for another way to do
things in a way that is really not what God
had planned. And so we, in our pride are led
to spiritual corruption. So when God, God's creation assumed that
their beauty is their own. Remember Lucifer, he was lifted
up because of his beauty. He saw his reflection and
how dazzling and beautiful that he was, and somehow he
became proud. And so this is a warning, like a
warning not to go the way of Lucifer, warning not
to go the way of God's people when they had
turned from him in the Old Testament in particular. Yes,
and so we know that God has a purpose for us,
it says in verse fourteen, perfect through the splendor that
I had bestowed upon you. We were created to reflect
the goodness and glory of God. Our purpose is reflection.
Our purpose as the bride of Christ is reflection of
his beauty, reflection of his righteousness, not our own good works,
reflection of His greatness, not our own greatness. And when
we have that kind of a connection with God. We
are the beautiful bride that he saw from before he
put us in our mother's womb, He's womb we saw.
He saw us. He knew that we would be called
to the nations to make sure that others could be
brought into right relationship with Him. Isn't she lovely? When
God is speaking of you, he says, yes, you are
the apple of his eye, a beautiful bride. Peace.
Speaker 1: 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,