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, March
twenty one, 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 God's Love and Justice, and our caption
for today is be compassionate. Be Compassionate. We'll get into
that in just a moment, but first I'd like to
say welcome to you and ask you to go over
to your Daily Portion dot com. Please join our online community.
Please pick up the Your Daily Portion Companion Guide, the
Life Application Guide. It goes right with our quarterly and
also 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 new
day and for the opportunity that we have to pray
and to open up our minds to you. Teach us
to have the kind of compassion that you have, the
kind that you would approve of. In Jesus name, I pray,
Amen and Amen again. So we're gonna go ahead and
begin by reading out of the book The Desire of Ages,
page two hundred and eighty six, and then I will
share some principles with you, okay. And so it reads
the spies dared not answer Christ and the presence of
the Multitude for fear of involving themselves in difficulty. They
knew that he had spoken the truth. And so the
first question I need to ask all of us is,
when God is speaking the truth to us and we
know it, will we do it? Will we live according
to the truth that he is speaking, or will we
do something else? That's something that we need to think about.
Rather than violate their traditions. Oh, they would leave a
man to suffer. Wait a minute, what they would leave
him to suffer while they would relieve a brute beast
talking about a real life animal because of the loss
to the owner if it were neglected. Thus, greater care
was shown to an animal more so than a man
who is made in the image of God. This illustrates
the working of all false religions, all false religions. I
want you to think it through. Am I living according
to the principles of false religion where I prioritize things, beasts,
other things outside of who God is and what He
would have me to above him. Okay, let's keep going.
They originate in man's desire to exalt himself above God,
but they result in degrading humans below the animal or
the brute. Every religion that wars against the sovereignty of
God defrauds man of the glory which was his at creation,
and it is to be restored in Him in Christ.
Every false religion teaches its adherents to be careless of
human needs, sufferings, and rights. The Gospel places a high
value upon humanity as the purchase of the blood of Christ,
and it teaches a tender regard for the wants of
the woes of humans. The Lord says, I will make
a man more precious than fine gold, meaning humans, people,
men and women, even a man than the golden wedge
of o fear. And then, of course Jesus turned. When
he turned upon the Pharisees with the question whether it
is lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or
to do evil, to save life or to kill, he
confronted them with their own wicked purposes. They were hunting
his life with bitter hatred, while he was saving life
and bringing happiness to multitudes. Was it better to slay
on the Sabbath, as they were planning to do, than
to heal the afflicted as he had done? Was it
more righteous to murder in the heart upon God's holy
day than love to all people, which finds expression in
deeds of mercy? Oh my, so much to say, so
little time. Let's jump in with two feet into the scriptures.
So we're gonna go with the first principle that true
and godly religion values humans lives. Again. Back to Isaiah
chapter thirteen, and I'll read verse twelve from another another
another version. I will make human beings more scarce than
pure or more valued than pure gold, and people more
valued than the gold from ofear. So God values you
more than precious metals, He values you more than precious stones.
He values you more than anything that is created on
planet Earth or anywhere else in the universe for that matter,
You human beings, brothers and sisters, We human beings are
of such value that, of course God sent his only
begotten son so that we can be saved. And guess
what Jesus became as one of us in order to
save us. So we see the value there. False religion
shows a mix up in priorities. And really that's an
understatement from Matthew, chapter twenty three and verse twenty three.
Woe unto you we read this, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
You would pay tithe of mint and ninus, Annis and
cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy,
and faith. And so the priority gets shifted, flipped upside down,
turned inside out, you see. And so we talked about
that principle the other day. And so here are some
contrasts between God's kind of religion, true religion, that is
undefiled that takes care of people in every way that
we can. That is the second and great commandment. And
of course we prioritize God above all, and then to
be pure as we await the coming of Jesus Christ.
And so the contrast is between pure religion that's undefiled
and the kind of religions that we make up. Okay,
and so here are the contrasts. Sometimes these false religions
will prioritize even animals above humans. I wish I had
the time to really drill into this, but you have
seen people do some really weird things in defense of
animals over and above human beings. Then false religion values property,
oh people. True religion values humans as God's image bearers. Ooh,
I like that image bearers. We bear the image of God.
We represent God, and therefore we are valued above all
of his creation. Okay. Number two, there is ritual versus mercy.
False religion emphasizes rules over compassion. I didn't say that
we shouldn't have rules. In fact, I do love rules.
I love laws. I love to have a standard to follow.
I love for an objective measure to be in place
so i'll know if I'm on the right track. I
like that kind of thing. But false religion actually emphasizes
all of what I just said, structure, rules, protocols, all
of that stuff above compassion for humans. True religion shows
practical love, hands and feet of God down on planet
Earth to do what God would do if he were
physically located on this planet. Number three self folk's exaltation
versus service. False religion seeks to exalt self above God.
True religion serves others in humanity and then, of course
treatment of rights. False religion careless of human needs and rights.
True religion upholds human dignity and worth or value and
then purpose and result. False religion degrades humanity. True religion
restores God's image. If you are being abused spiritually, I
just want to shoot right there. Since we're ending here,
then that is a degrading kind of a religion. But
God restores his image in us. 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,