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 Friday, September sixth,
twenty twenty four. 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 through the Book of Mark and this is
lesson number ten. Concluding Lesson number ten. Our caption for
today is preparation. Preparation. We'll get into that in just
a moment, but first 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 book 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. We'll get into our
prayer now, Father, thank you for this day, for giving
us this time of preparation, preparation day and the time
to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ. Father, Please
give us your Holy Spirit and teach us what it
really means to be ready, ready for when Jesus does come,
and how we are looking forward to the day. In
Jesus name, I pray Amen and damen again. Preparation. How
do you prepare for something that's important to you? When
I say when I say preparation for something that is
important to you, I need you to really put it
in that context, because, frankly, there are few people who
are preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ as if
it is important. I'm talking about like preparing for a
baby to come into your home, preparing for a surgery
that you have to go into, preparing for graduation, preparing
for defending your dissertation. If you are in a PhD program,
you see preparing for vacation on a cruise ship like
that's my favorite type of vacation. Like, what would I
do financially to prepare for that? What do I do
in terms of my household, my home, physical home location?
If I'm going to be away for a period of time,
how do I prepare my stuff, my luggage, our family?
You see what I mean? Preparing to purchase a home?
How do we prepare to purchase a home? And so forth?
I think you get the point. And so the things
that we consider to be important we prepare a certain way. Okay,
do you believe that the coming of Jesus Christ is important?
And it seems like a silly question, but now that
we think about it, like if I do believe this,
how do I actually live and prepare? Then it begins
to make sense. Okay, and so let me begin by
reading right out of the book Desire of Ages, page
six hundred and thirty four, and it reads, because we
know not the exact time of this of his coming,
we are commanded to watch. Okay, so we're starting to
get some strategies. Blessed are the servants whom the Lord,
when he cometh, shall find watching. That's coming from Luke,
chapter twelve, verse thirty seven. Those who watch for the
Lord's coming are not waiting in idle expectancy. Right, so
we're on alert when we're not idle. Okay, we're getting
so where the expectation of Christ's coming is to make
men fear the Lord, or make humans to respect the
Lord and fear his judgments upon transgression, Oh, it is
to awaken them to the great sin of rejecting his
offers of mercy. So now we're starting to see that
we should be accepting and grateful for and acting upon
Jesus's acts of mercy as we prepare. Okay, those who
are watching for the Lord are purifying their souls by
obedience to the truth. Okay. With vigilant watching, they contribute,
I mean combine, earnest working. Because they know that the
Lord is at the door, their zeal is quickened to
cooperate with the divine intelligences to work for the salvation
of souls. So we are helpful to people who also
need to be saved. You have a brother, you have
a sister, you have a cousin, you have another relative.
People with whom you exercise, people with whom you work,
People that you regularly encounter in the market or in
the taxi or in other transportation. Public transport or in
social media. People that you know and have experiences with.
These individuals need Christ. Well, what part will you play
in helping them to experience Christ so they can be saved.
Let me keep going, Let me keep going. These are
the faithful and wise servants who give to the Lord's
household their portion of meat in due season. They are
declaring the truth that is now specially applicable in the
last days. We do have truths that will help us
get through the last days. Some things that people, including
some of God's people, are ignoring, like when God says
to remember the Sabbath day. Some people have forgotten when
God says that the judgment is come and that the
times are serious. But some people have pushed off certain
aspects of the judgment as into the future, when some
aspects of the judgment are happening today. There's a three
phase aspect of judgment in the Bible as God teaches it,
and we are firmly, firmly coming to a swift close
in that first phase of judgment. I wish I had
the time. They are declaring the truth that is specially applicable,
as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses each declared the truth
for his time. So will Christ's servants now give the
special warning for their generation. So, knowing the times in
which we live, and recognizing that we are God's or
we are to act as God's hands and feet in
our generation, our voices need to match the message that
God is giving. That we know that this is a
part of the preparation assisting others to become acquainted with
and hopefully become friends of God, so that they too
can join the band of people, band of believers who
are preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ. And so
we will look at a few steps. I did mention
some as we were reading here in text. By the way,
that's the end of the quote. I will read now
from First John chapter three, How are you preparing, brothers
and sisters? Go ahead and type it in the chat
First John chapter three, verses two and three. The Bible says, beloved,
now are we the children of God. And it does
not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
when he shall appear, we shall be like him, or
we shall see him as he is. And every man,
every person that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself,
even as he is pure. So we know now that
righteousness or living according to God's principles and purity preparatory
preparatory for the coming. If we have sins on our sin,
record things that we have done throughout the day that
we know that God is not pleased with, then we
go to Him and honestly talk to him about it
and say, God, will you give me godly sorrow for sin?
Will give me the power to turn my back on
those sins? Will you teach me how to do your will?
And then on top of that we are honest with
him and tell the truth, agree with him, tell the
truth about how we have gone astray in those particular things,
and be specific. Okay, so live in righteousness and of
course purity. Also we have, as we've already read, and
I won't read the passage, but you can read it
also in Matthew chapter twenty four, verse forty two, that
we need to be watchful. We need to be watchful,
stay vigilant and watchful. And now we move on to
Luke chapter twenty one, verse thirty six. I'll read it
again in a different way. Watch ye therefore, and pray always.
Now we have another element, pray always that ye may
be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall
come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
So we maintain a strong prayer life. We connect with
God knowing that we are on the very edge of
time and we're anticipating God's arrival. We're looking forward to
the day. But God is teaching us that we can
have this relationship of prayer as we prepare for the
coming of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
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,