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, December
twenty eight, 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 beginning with lesson
number one in our new Lesson study series, God's Love
and Justice, and our caption for today is God Loves Freely.
God Loves freely. Before we get into that, I'd like
to say welcome to everyone joining us, especially those joining
us for the very first time. I am so happy
we did an exceptional time, had an exceptional time in
the Book of Mark, and then in John and now
we get to see God's love and justice balanced. Before
we begin, I'd like to say, please go over to
your Daily Portion dot com. I'm asking you to let
us know where you are in the world. Also join
our online community. But this is our second quarter of
releasing the Your Daily Portion Life Application Guide. It goes
with this lesson study, Okay, So pick that up at
the appropriate time. You can download it or you can
get it in paperback. And I'm asking you to do
that because sometimes we don't know how to apply, we
don't know how to apply the truths that we see.
We will do it in four key areas every single day.
I'm not going to go through the guide every day,
but I'll give you a taste of it today as
the Lord gives us strength. But make sure at the
appropriate time you do get that guide because it goes
right with the lesson. Okay. So let's go ahead and
pray and then we will get underway. Father in Heaven,
thank you for this day and for giving us the
privilege to come together on this Sabbath morning and to
not just consider your word, but live live by the
truths of your word. And I pray that today you
will teach us how to love you and embrace your love,
embrace your justice in Jesus' name, I pray, Amen, and
a man again. God loves freely. Now on my lesson,
I actually underscored the words, but then I added the
word me, and it reads like this, God loves me freely.
And I would encourage you to do the same thing,
because sometimes in a passive way, we say Jesus loves
Jesus loves you brother, Jesus loves you, sister, or we
might sing the song Jesus loves me. This I know,
for the Bible tells me so little ones to him belong.
They are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me.
And then somehow our intellect or our random negative thoughts
about ourselves or who knows what else, will not apply
it to me. Not this time, God, not this time.
I don't really know if you love me, because when
I pray, you don't answer my prayers. And it's like,
did he answer your prayer and just say no? And
you didn't believe in his sovereignty to be able to
say no. Because no is the best for his will
and the best for your good. So Jesus loves me freely.
And then I wrote in my lesson yes and read
letters exclamation points. Celebrate that. Celebrate the fact that God
loves you. Fill in your name here, like God loves me.
Celebrate that. There are times that his love, His love
gives me. The things that I like, like the things
that get me all have butterflies in my stomach. And
I love exactly what He has done or not done.
But then there are times that I need chiding correction.
There are times that when I ask for patients, then
things that are challenging come my way, and I have
to build the patience muscle. God loves me. Celebrate that.
And so now we read from the book of Hoseiah Hoseiah,
Chapter fourteen and verse four. I will heal their backsliding.
I will love them freely from my anger has turned
away from him. You see, there are times that people relapse.
God's people relapse. We re degenerate, we go backwards. Sometimes
God's people go backwards, not because we have to, not
because after all, we're on only human. But some people
who have tasted of the heavenly gift of God sometimes
turned back like Lot's wife, and because God loves them.
God loves us. There are times that there is a
there are there's chastisement that comes with that. I wish
I had the time to deal with that, But he
said that that he will heal that that that backsliding spirit,
that thing that makes you want to go backward, that
thing that says when we were we were in Egypt,
it was better for us, even though we were enslaved.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: When I was in that relationship I should never have
been into. But at least I had some pleasure. Ah,
I want to go back to that. No, at least
when I was drinking that rum or smoking that weed, Like,
at least in those times I could, I could forget
about my troubles for that moment, and I felt like
I was more in control of my life. But now
the stress is beyond me, and it's like no, no, no, no,
I will heal that spirit that causes you to think
that before you connected with God, it was better that somehow,
that degenerating spirit, that degenerative spirit that breaks down, like
somehow you believe that that is is better, Like when
you were watching those things just to take your mind away,
those movies that have nothing to do with building your character,
those movies that actually tend away from God and you
you somehow find solace in that or in the discussion
that makes you just feel better about yourself because somebody's
just an echo chamber and just telling you only good
stuff rather than helping you and say, hey, brother, hey sister,
like this is an area that you want to be
on the lookout for, you understand. So sometimes I need
that kind of healing. We're looking at the balance of
God's love and his righteousness or justice.
Speaker 1: Ha.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I need that kind of what people call tough love.
But we're talking about tough love from God's perspective, not humans.
And so Peter, Peter, Yeah, I have to put myself
in the story of Peter, as he had denied Jesus.
He had denied Jesus three times and even to the
point of cursing, saying bad word so that the young
woman would disassociate Peter from Jesus. He was distancing himself
from Jesus because Jesus was holy. But Jesus was about
to be murdered on a cross, and he was like,
oh no, no, no, no, don't put me in that
because I'm not trying to go on that cross. Oh no, no, no, no, no,
I was not with Jesus. Big bad word alert, bit
bad word alert. So so I want to prove that
I don't have nothing to do with Jesus. And of
course Jesus, having told him this already, their sets of
eyes met in Jesus just went on and did what
he promised he would do to save us from our sins.
And now Peter, feeling dejected, feeling the reality of his degeneration,
feeling the reality of his backsliding, like Peter feeling the
relapse in his soul, is now sorrowful. But there comes
a point after Jesus is raised, after he takes his
life back up again, he goes to Peter. He sends
a message to him first, but then he goes to Peter,
and then he he asks him some serious questions. You see,
when Jesus was on the cross, see, Peter was denying
him before the cross, and while Jesus was on the cross,
he felt forsaken like Peter. James and John left Jesus
when they should have been praying for him in the
garden of Gethsemite they were sleeping. And now Jesus is
taking that feeling of separation to the cross and the
Father is not shining his light on Jesus to where
Jesus can discern it, and he feels like he is
being forsaken by his father. But now that Jesus has
done what he said he was going to do, he's
forsaken by the disciples, forsaken by Peter. He feels he's
not but he feels forsaken by God, our father, and
he gives his life, and now he has to overcome Jesus,
overcome that sense of those feelings of abandonment. How does
love figure into this equation? He comes back, he gives
his life and then takes it back again, and he
asks Peter do you love me? Three times he asks
Peter do you love me? And Peter in frustration. Finally,
finally he submits his whole mind to God and say yes,
I love you. I do love you. And Jesus says, well,
if you love me, I need you to feed feed
my sheep. This is a relationship principle that tends toward God.
You see, God loves me freely, so I have the
privilege to love him too.
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,