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, January
twenty six, twenty twenty six. 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 uniting Heaven and Earth, christ in
Philippians and Colossians, and our caption for today is Light
in a Dark World, Light in a Dark World. Before
we get into that, I'd like to say welcome to
you and ask you to please go over to your
Daily Portion dot com, please join our online community, pick
up the Your Daily Portion Life application guide, and please
please please click that contribute or donation button and 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
and Heaven, thank you for giving us this new day,
and I ask you to please make us lights, make
us holy in Jesus name, I pray, Amen, and a
man again light excuse me in a dark world. This
is very good because some of us feel like we
have no direction. We need to find clarity. Well, one
of the things that we need to know in that case,
like is that we are lights in the dark world.
If you need clarity, nothing beats confusion better than clarity.
God has already said to every last one of us
that we are to be or shine as lights in
this wicked and perverse generation. And some people are like, well,
how that's a different discussion. But the fact is that
if we accept this calling and submit our will to God,
he will open up our understanding day after day. So
keep seeking him, keep seeking Him, and maybe we'll put
out a newsletter sometime in the near future for those
who who sign up at Your Daily Portion dot com.
So we can we can learn more and more together? Okay,
so let's go ahead with our lesson number one. Lessen
number one. God calls his people to shine, but here
is the caveat without complaint or contention, because unity increases
the brightness of our witness, my God. Let's read from
Philippians chapter two. This is good Philippians chapter two, verses
fourteen and fifteen, where the Bible reads, do all things
without murmurings and disputings. Remember the first generation of individuals
coming out of Egypt. Huh during the exodus. Yeah, they
almost all of them were murmurers. Almost all of those millions,
almost all of them murmured, and many of them disputed.
And yeah, only two of the people of all of
those millions actually went into the promised land of the
adults of twenty years and above you see, or above
twenty years and so it continues that ye may be
blameless and harmless, among whom ye shine as lights in
the world. Can I say it in another version, do
everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be
blameless and pure, shining like stars in the world. That blamelessness. Ah,
I'm not sorry to break it to you that blamelessness
means without defect, without defect, And you're like, ah, now
you've made it complicated. No, I didn't make it complicated.
I simplified it for you. To be blameless and without
defect means to surrender our will to God and say, God,
now you know good and well that my character cannot
stand up to that standard. Neither can I stop murmuring
or disputing on my own. So would you do a
miracle for me? Oh? Wait a minute, Jesus already told
us the pathway to that miracle. He said to nick Amus,
you must be born again. And when we are born again,
then we have the covering of Jesus Christ, and that
makes us blameless without spot. Oh I think I read
that somewhere without wrinkle or any such thing, and without
defect defect? Did I say defect? I've never heard it
that way. Defect. And so the action step in that
case is to choose one. If you have these one
recurring complaint today? Are you always complaining about a pain
or an ache in your body? I understand we have those,
But do you complain about it or do you talk
to God about it? Is it something else? Is it
because of some interpersonal thing where you have to interact
with people, and these people get under your skin some way,
and you're like, this one always this, that one, always that.
If that's your complaint or God, why do you have
me in this situation? Why don't you have me in
that situation? Look how long I've been praying about this situation.
So whatever it is, choose one of those you know
what it is, recurring complaint today and replace it with
a spoken word of gratitude. Verbalize it. Be more interested
in showing gratitude than you are in complaining. And if
you're like, I don't think I complain, I just tell
the truth. Look up the word complain, and then come
back to me and let me know what you find.
Let's go to lesson number two, and that's coming in
from the Book of Psalms, chapter one hundred and one,
Verse three. Purity of mind and life protects our witness
in a world darkened by distorted values. All you have
to do is go outside, or interact in social media
or watch the news, and you will see that people
have a distorted they have distorted values, no core values
these days. Okay I'm exaggerating, but it seems like it ah,
very few core values and a lot of other stuff
that is dark. And so the Bible reads, I will
set no wicked thing before my eyes. I will not
even consider doing what is dishonest and so and so
God wants us to have purity that is unmixed with evil.
He wants us to be innocent of all evil. Okay, again,
some of you feel like you're drowning because I just
said that again, perfect obedience at all times. Oh wait
a minute, somebody else is feeling like you're drowning. Listen,
It's never been about you. It has never been about me.
If I had the time I talked to you about
when I first got baptized, and for the first two
years it was like a honeymoon. It was incredible in
a way that at least for my feelings right, my emotions. Wow,
and I'm learning so much. And then after that I
was able to see more clearly my character flaws, and
I went I sunk into a deep depression because I
did not first understand. I did not first understand that
surrender to God is the antidote. I did not first
understand what the new birth experience really looked like. And
so when I saw those flaws. As I got closer
to God, instead of being able to immediately shift my
gaze or my perspective or attention, I started to look
more inwardly because I'm hyper analytical. Hah. That judge stood
up in my brain. And therefore, since I didn't submit
in that moment, I did not shift my focus to God.
I did not learn to appreciate the righteousness of Christ
and his power unto salvation to everyone that believes. Then
I got depressed. Well, the truth is, I don't have
to worry about that today, because that pure and unmixed
with innocence comes only from the righteousness of Christ. And
He will invest and put mind the mindset of Jesus
in my life and in yours as well. And so
the action step is to remove one source of unclean
or spiritually dulling influence. You're reading, you're listening to, you're watching.
Remove that today. Remove one today, and thank God as
he begins to or continues to purify your mind and
our lesson Number three for today is hold fast to
the word of life that keeps us from conforming to
the world and ensures our labor is not in vain.
And so today go ahead and memorize. Memorize a Bible
text today that strengthens your resolve to hold fast to
the truth that is in Christ Jesus, make it a
great day. 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.