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, March two,
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 Rooted and Growing in Christ.
Rooted and Growing in Christ. Before we get into this,
I'd like to welcome everyone joining us, especially those joining
us for the very first time. I want you to
go over to your Daily Portion. Please your Daily Portion
dot com. Please join our online community. Pick up the
your Daily Portion Life application Guide. Please contribute. We are
a listener and viewer supported ministry. So much going on here,
and 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 pray, Father, we thank you for this day.
Teach us that growth is non negotiable, that you created
us for growth, and help us, Father to yield to
the process and grow and grace. And in the knowledge
of our our savior, Father, we thank you in Jesus' name.
I pray, Amen and day men again rooted and growing
in Christ. And so it is not lost on me
that we are living in the last days. Do you
believe that we are near to the coming of Jesus Christ?
Please type in the chat do you believe that we
are living in the time like where Jesus will soon come.
I'm not talking about the way that my parents' parents
talked about it in the forties and thirties. I'm not
talking about that in the nineteen thirties or forties. I'm
not talking about that. I'm talking about do you believe
that Jesus is right upon us? Like soon we will
look into the eastern sky and see Jesus coming. Well,
I do, I do. And one of the things, one
of the blessings, is that the Church, the Church of God,
God's people, are in the shaking time, the shaking time.
And I know that people have interesting perspectives on that,
but let me just say that the shaking time is
for us to settle into the truth. Some of you
work in construction, and so you know what it's like
to not just tamp down earth, but to cause it
to vibrate and settle it down so that whatever you're
building has a firm footing. And so I'm grateful that
we are in the time to settle into the truth
and to remember, as the lesson writer pointed us to Colossians,
chapter two and verse six, as you therefore have received Christ,
Jesus the Lord. So walk in him like don't forget
about it. Don't go away from the basis of your
faith that you started with. Like he who began a
good work in you is able to keep you, and
so we or to complete it. We don't want to
start with Jesus and then end up in the flesh.
Start with Jesus, end up with our own human ingenuity.
We start with Jesus and then continue to walk in Jesus,
rooted and growing in Christ. Let's go ahead and begin
with our lesson number one. Then from the same passage
I just read, salvation begins and continues. Get this with
a person. Yes, I don't know that believers have done
a good job at communicating this with people. Sometimes we
say that our journey or our salvation begins with a
Bible class. Sometimes we say and inadvertently misguide people to
say that it begins with a process, which is baptism
by immersion immersion. And I agree that baptism by immersion
is essential to be baptized by the water and by
the Holy Ghost. But we need to understand that salvation
doesn't begin with the Ten Commandments law which I fully
embrace and espouse even in twenty twenty six. Salvation begins
with a person. It's Jesus Christ. We receive Jesus Christ,
and then we receive his power to walk like him.
And so Paul makes salvation relational and ongoing. So the
longer we are connected with Jesus, then the more secure
we are in terms of salvation. If we are disconnected
from Jesus the person that relational experience, then we are
at risk of being lost. We remain connected to the
person Jesus Christ. We receive Christ himself, not boy, not
ideas about him. I need to just pause right here.
We're so good Christian Heese speaking people, but I'm saying
and for those of you who are just getting acquainted
with God, please just can you hold on for a second,
give me a second to speak to the people who've
been around a long time, like I've been in the
way a long time, Like we used to hear the
church people say right yeah, to get out of the way.
Get out of the way, Get out of the way.
Because sometimes our focus is communicating ideas about Him. Our
prayer meetings have become preach meetings, preach and intelligence meetings
when God wants us to connect with him, Like, how
did our prayer meetings turn into preach meetings? How is
it that we pray for five to ten minutes and
preach for thirty minutes. That's not prayer meeting, that's preach
meeting with a prayer bonus, you understand, Because our connection
with Him seems to be waning in a way to
where we are comfortable ideating about him, conceptualizing about him,
referencing him as if he's not in the room with us.
You ever talk about somebody behind their backs in front
of their face, as if they're not even there, and
you're like, yeah, so and so feeling the neck blank
blank name that's right there, and just talking about the
person that's like hello, hello, like I'm right here, I'm
listening to you, and so Paul is taking a shot
at that. The same way we begin our Christian journey
is the way we continue daily dependence replaces self direction.
Christianity that shifts from trust to Christ trust, excuse me,
Christianity that shifts from trust in Christ to confidence in
methods and systems or traditions or churches quietly loses its power.
We talk a lot about creeping compromise, what people need
to not have on their faces, what people need to
not wear, what things we don't need dangling on our
bodies or poked into holes that we created on our bodies.
And listen, I understand, like no disrespect, Like I get it,
I get it. But how come we don't? We don't.
It's a blind spot that we put our confidence in
methods and systems and traditions and organizations instead of Christ,
who is the head of all of these things if
they if those things are godly. If your methods are godly,
then God is the head of that. Your systems, if
they're godly, then He is the head of that. Like
if your traditions are godly, then He's the head of that.
If your church organization and its structure are godly, then
Christ is the head of that. And so we thank
God for that, but don't replace Christ with the things.
And so the action step is to begin today by
consciously placing one decision under Christ's lordship through prayer and
studying the scriptures before you act. Our second lesson is
from Colossians chapter two and verse seven. As we come
to a swift close root to and built up in Him,
and established in the faith as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. So we are rooted in faith,
and that produces stability and growth. So Paul uses a
plant metaphor to describe spiritual life. Roots develop below the
surface before they grow visibly, and so a believer grounded
in Christ draws nourishment from Him, nourishment from the scriptures,
so that he or she will have the resilience to
grow no matter what pressure comes. Stability doesn't come from appearance,
but from depth of our connection with God. 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,