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.
Speaker 2: The power we need to live healthy, vibrant lives.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host, author speaker,
Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 3: It is Tuesday, February twenty four, twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Hello, my name is El David Harris.
Speaker 3: 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 God's Eternal Plan, God's
Eternal Plan. Before we get into that, 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 if you've not already done so. Also pick
up the Your Daily Portion Life application guide, and there
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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, Thank you for this day and the
opportunity to open up your word again. And I pray
that we will align ourselves with your eternal plan for
us and the universe. In Jesus' name, I pray Amen
and a man again. You know, because God has given
us such so much of his attention and focus. I
almost forgot that there was a universe beyond planet Earth.
And even while I'm praying, I'm thinking, okay, and I'm
self focused, meaning human focus. But listen, God's eternal plan
for the entire of his creation is that one pulse
of love reverberate through all of creation at all times.
We are the renegade planet. We are the place where
Sin now lives. This is the po box or post
office box for Sin. You want to find out where
Sin is? Okay, it's on planet Earth. Po Box Earth
six seven sixty seven. And then you understand, like, so
what God wants is for sin no longer to abound,
that the enemy and all of his cohorts no longer
be here where where God has to destroy them full stop.
Like there's no real soft way to go around this.
There's no diplomacy here. It's over because the enemy has
made his decision and his cohorts and then God forbid,
there are human beings that continue to ally themselves with
him and then on planet Earth, on planet Earth, like,
as far as you are concerned, I'm talking about the
ones who are listening and viewing right now.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 3: God's eternal plan has always been that you live with
Him forever and ever.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no hostility, no enmity. God has always intended for
us to be with him forever and ever. And so well,
how do we get there? Well through submission. We continue
to submit ourselves to God. And one thing about Paul,
when you look at him and these two let Philippians
and Colossians, Yeah, he's locked up. He is in prison,
but the word is not bound. The word is not
locked up. While Paul, as the Lesson writer says, was
in his confinement in these you know, like Philippians, Ephesians, Phileman.
They were also written, so he's he's bound, but not
the word is not bound. After his release, God inspired
him to write the important councils found in first Timothy
and Titus. Then, during his final imprisonment, like this dude
kept getting locked up in a Roman jail, he wrote
two Timothy.
Speaker 2: In short.
Speaker 3: These final years provided Paul the opportunity to write a
significant portion of the New Testament, which probably also included
and I'm going to remove probably which included Hebrews. I
understand by the writer said probably because commentators, you know,
that's how they speak. But he wrote Hebrews. We have
all evidence points to Paul. Okay, so and so is
the Word of God free to move in your life?
Is the Word of God free to move through your life?
Or do you catch it on the way in and
not allow it to go out?
Speaker 2: What do I mean? Like?
Speaker 3: When people see you, are you a living, moving, breathing
epistle that they can read and say.
Speaker 2: Wow, this is what God is like?
Speaker 3: Are you a living, moving letter from God and say, well,
this is what God thinks of me in a positive way?
This is God's plan for me in a positive way.
That's the question. That's the question. And so and so
we begin now with listen number one. Considering God's eternal plan.
It comes in from Colossian chapter one and verse twenty four. Colossians,
Chapter one and verse twenty four. Now I rejoice in
my sufferings for you, and I complete what is lacking
in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body, that
is the Church. Okay, and so the lesson is suffering
for Christ is purposeful, not accidental or incidental. Paul doesn't
mean that Christ's sacrifice was incomplete, so let's not get
that twisted. He's not saying he's a vice Christ. I
understand that there are some folks that are in certain
religious positions that believe that they are vice Christ. That
is not true. So Paul is not saying that the
atonement was finished at the cross. At one min we
were made at one with God like peace was settled
right there. And we understand that Jesus came, he picked
up his life again on the Sunday morning, he continued
in his heavenly ministry and now ever live it to
make intercession for us so we can be cleansed ultimately
from all and righteousness, but own was sealed at the cross.
All we need to do is continue to surrender our
will to him. What remains is the lived out cost
of the Gospel ministry in a fallen world. We live
this thing now so others can see the light that
shines through us. Let your light so shine before men
that they when these humans see your good works, they
will glorify your Father, which is in heaven. And so
Paul's suffering participates in the mission of Christ. Of course,
we're not saying that somehow he earns anything. We earn
anything through sufferings. We don't flagellate. I don't know if
you've ever seen that where people would flage like beat themselves,
or you know, do these wearisome pilgrimages upsteps on their
knees to show that they somehow can suffer for Christ.
That's not what we're talking about, okay. And so sometimes
we go through pressure and distress and tribulation. Paul's afflictions
were the inevitable pressure that comes from advancing the Gospel
in enemy territory hostile territory. Faithfulness carries a cost, and
so the action step is not to go generate some
punishment for yourself or look for trouble and feel like
you can you can.
Speaker 2: You can earn.
Speaker 3: Something from God by bumping into all kinds of trouble. No,
but when obedience brings difficulty in real life, we're not
looking for trouble. We're not creating trouble. We're not creating
a time of trouble before the time.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: But when obedience brings difficulty, resists interpreting hardship as failure
just because you're going through something and it's consistent, this
stuff keeps happening. You're going through something for Christ's sake.
Don't don't just choose to interpret that as as failure.
Suffering is a part of the package until God comes
and releases us from all of that. Lessen number two
coming in from two Timothy, chapter two and verse nine.
But God's message, or but the word of God is
not bound. I said that a little bit earlier. No
matter what the suffering is, if you will suffer for
Christ's sake, but you are yielded it to His will,
the word cannot be stopped. Sometimes the suffering is the
is the what spreads the word of God. Paul's confinement
did not halt God's plan, it directed it in a
different way. Some of the most influential writings emerged from
him during suffering. We trust God no matter what, We're
looking forward for his eternal plan.
Speaker 2: 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 l David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,