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 Sabbath, January eighteen,
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. This is lesson number four, God's Love and
Justice under the caption God is passionate and compare passionate. Oh,
I can't wait to get into that. God is passionate
and 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 please 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 and Heaven.
Thank you for this new Sabbath morning, and for the
privilege you have given to us to consider your word together.
Thank you for all of the sisters and brothers around
the world who are here with you and we are
worshiping together. I pray that you will transform our lives,
make us more compassionate, help us to be passionate about
the right things. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen and
Amen again. God is passionate and compassionate. And so of
course I put dot dot dot or ellipsis and said,
well what about me? Am I passionate? Am I compassionate?
Is it true that I am in touch with my emotions?
But I am not ruled by them. I am passionate
and compassionate. Like, are there people that I can see
who have needs? And my heart is drawn out to them?
And I'm talking to God and saying, God, what can
I do to be of service? Am I passionate and compassionate,
And so the lesson writer uses for a memory text
Isaiah chapter forty nine and verse fifteen, which reads, I
can a woman forget her nursing child? See there is
there's compassion there. There's compassion there a woman who is
fully connected to her child, that baby that she carried,
whether all the way to full term or if they
became early, but now is here ready to take from
the mother's breast milk. She is showing compassion. Okay, can
a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget,
And so God is saying that, of course she will
have compassion. But she is a human after all, Like
there are times that humans lose our passion and compassion,
or we're passionate about the wrong things, and we disconnect
from other humans. There are times that this happens, And
so the Bible says, surely they may forget, Yet I
will not forget you. And so God is now using
one of the tenderest and most committed relationships that is
in the scriptures, are in the life of every human.
Like the connection between I mean a mother and her
new child is the stellar example of compassion and care.
You understand selflessness. I know there are humans that make mistakes.
I'm not getting into that today, but God is saying
even with that, I'm telling you that I have even
more compassion for you than the mommy has for that baby.
And so you need to think about it, think about
it very clearly, and say, but God, how can I
be like this? Well, we're going to go through some
Bible passages. You can read what the lesson writer posits
there when you have an opportunity, but we're going to
go through some Bible passages to really think about this deeply. So,
emotions do reflect God's nature. And I'm not talking about emotionalism.
I'm not talking about being out of control with your emotions.
I'm saying that God has given us emotions and that
is a reflection of His nature. And the Bible says
in Genesis, chapter one and verse twenty seven. So God
created humankind in his own image, in the image of God.
Created he him, male and female created He them. So
we were created in the image of God. We have emotions. Therefore,
our emotions come from God. Part of the image of
God is our emotions. You see where this is going. Okay,
so we'll just pause right there. We'll pause right there now.
In Psalm eighty six and verse fifteen, the Bible reads,
but Thou, o Lord, art full of compassion. You see,
if we're created in the image of God and we
have emotions, that means that He's given us these emotions,
and he must also have them. But he is in
control of his okay, we can be in control of ours. Okay.
But it says that he is full of compassion. This
means that we can be full of compasis. I know
that we see all kinds of creepy evil stuff in
the news these days, and some of us have experienced
this by our caregivers so called, by people who thought
that they or said that they had romantic interests in us,
and they did all kind of evil against us without compassion.
Women have been abused by their husbands, and men have
been abused by their wives. You see, children have been
mistreated and even trafficked. God forbid, And the Bible is
telling us that is not the nature of God. He
has compassion, and he's gracious. Continuing in the passage, he's
long suffering. That means that he is patient and he
is plenteous in mercy and truth. So since we have
gotten our emotions from God, then now we see what
that looks like, at least in this one example. So
throughout the Bible, God expresses emotions such as love and anger, compassion,
suggesting that emotions are not only natural, but vital and
as an as an aspect of relational dynamics. So relationships
sometimes require each one or some of those particular emotions.
And so we continue now from the Book of Proverbs,
chapter fourteen and verse twenty nine. The Bible reads, he
that is slow to wrath, we're talking about anger and
the manifestation of our anger, that that leaps out from us,
and it seeks reprisals and retribution, and sometimes it disrespects people. Right,
he that is slow to be that way, slow to wrath,
is of great understanding. But he that is hasty of
spirit exalted folly. Let me read it in another version.
The one who is slow to anger has great understanding,
but the one who has a quick temper exults fully.
So if you want to be foolish, then let your
temper just go. If you want to be seen as
not having any understanding, then let your anger just go.
You see. So the Bible is telling us that the
ones who are pausing and are slowing down through submission
to God and his will slowing our wrath. We believe
and understand God. Okay, let's continue. Let's continue to John
chapter eleven and verse thirty five. This is the shortest
passage of scripture, and it's referencingen referencing Christ. The Bible says,
Jesus wept. Jesus wept at a time when his emotions
were high because he saw that his children did not believe.
He saw that his children thought that Lazarus being sick
and then die was the end of the story. Even
though Jesus is right there and he's weeping because they
are distraught, even though the one who is the resurrection
and the life is right there in front of them.
Jesus wept. There are times that we will weep. There
are times that we will have joy. There are times
that we will have indignation, illustrating that experiencing and expressing
emotions are natural and integral to full human existence. You see.
So God is passionate, He is compassionate, but he gives
us self control and gives us the charge to be
compassionate toward other people. 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,