Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 12 18 2025 Cling to God

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12 18 2025 Cling to God · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

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  Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too much,
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  Speaker 1: because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy for
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  Speaker 1: today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect yesterday's
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  Speaker 1: portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
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  Speaker 1: us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going
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  Speaker 1: to change all of that. Let's experience God's words today
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  Speaker 1: and receive the power we need to live healthy, vibrant lives.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host, author speaker,
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  Speaker 1: Elle David Harris.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Thursday, December eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El David Harris.
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  Speaker 2: I am your host, and this is your Daily Portion
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  Speaker 2: where we give you God's word every single day, and
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  Speaker 2: today is no exception. We are continuing in our lesson
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  Speaker 2: study series Lessons of Faith from Joshua, and our caption
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  Speaker 2: for today is Cling to God. Cling to God. Before
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  Speaker 2: we get into that, i'd like to say welcome to
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  Speaker 2: everyone joining us, especially those joining us for the very
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  Speaker 2: first time. Please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
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  Speaker 2: Please join our online community. Pick up your Daily Portion
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  Speaker 2: Life application guide. The new one is out for quarter
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  Speaker 2: one twenty twenty six. Get that one as well. And also,
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  Speaker 2: please please, if you are inclined by God, please go
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  Speaker 2: ahead and click that donate button at your daily portion.
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  Speaker 2: This is one of the ways we continue to build
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  Speaker 2: faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and then
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  Speaker 2: we will get underway. Father, We thank you for giving
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  Speaker 2: us this new day and the privilege that you have
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  Speaker 2: entrusted to us to open your word and to connect
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  Speaker 2: with you in a real way. Please help us to
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  Speaker 2: do that, connect with you and live with you eternally.
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  Speaker 2: In Jesus name, I pray, Amen and Amen again. So
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  Speaker 2: let me just share this news flash with you. We
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  Speaker 2: cannot abstain our way into connection with God. We cannot
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  Speaker 2: abstain our way into eternal, eternal bliss with God. Yeah, okay,
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  Speaker 2: so listen. When I first wanted, at least as I
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  Speaker 2: could tell, I wanted to be connected to God when
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  Speaker 2: I was in university, I think it was my first year.
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  Speaker 2: I said, you know what, I'm going to stop listening
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  Speaker 2: to this certain kind of music. I'm going to stop
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  Speaker 2: going to these certain places, and I'm going to stop
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  Speaker 2: having these certain kinds of relations with the opposite sex. Right,
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to stop those things. And then I will
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  Speaker 2: have I will have a right connection with God. Well, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that didn't work out, and I was ashamed when I
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  Speaker 2: started listening to the music again and started going back
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  Speaker 2: to those same places and started having the kinds of
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  Speaker 2: relations I shouldn't have had with the opposit sex, and
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  Speaker 2: I was so I don't know if I was ashamed.
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  Speaker 2: I think I was. I felt read, I felt defeated.
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  Speaker 2: I felt defeated, and and because I'm a man of
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  Speaker 2: my word, even when I was young, I was a
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  Speaker 2: man of my word, and I fell short of my
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  Speaker 2: word and I just kind of did I was hiding,
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  Speaker 2: like I can't believe I did that. Well that was
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  Speaker 2: because I just really intentionally thought I could abstain my
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  Speaker 2: way into the Kingdom. To make a long story short
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  Speaker 2: years later, God really he found me and transformed my life.
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  Speaker 2: And I realized that clinging to God is the key
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  Speaker 2: not abstaining from all of the things that we shouldn't do.
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  Speaker 2: And really, really and truly those three categories of things
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  Speaker 2: I shouldn't have done. I was on the right track intellectually,
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  Speaker 2: but there was no way that that method or that
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  Speaker 2: strategy would actually connect me with God. And so we
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  Speaker 2: cling to God not only abstain from the things in
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  Speaker 2: air quotes. Right, So let's go ahead and begin with
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  Speaker 2: a quote from John Nevians Andrews, reviewing Herald article dated
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  Speaker 2: January five, eighteen sixty nine. You're noticing that I'm using
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  Speaker 2: pioneers as we study, and that's for good reason. And
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  Speaker 2: it reads to cling to God is to wait a minute,
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  Speaker 2: love him above all else. So if you were to
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  Speaker 2: evaluate your relationship with God, evaluate your quote religion. Is
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  Speaker 2: it that you love you cling to God and love
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  Speaker 2: him above all else. Let me continue the quote. This
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  Speaker 2: love is shown not by profession, meaning back then they
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  Speaker 2: used to use profession like profession of faith, that is
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  Speaker 2: to confess and say, and you're purporting that you fill
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  Speaker 2: in the blank. It's not by profession or professing that
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  Speaker 2: you but by steadfast obedience and devoted service. Interesting, let
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  Speaker 2: me go go to one in the book The Acts
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  Speaker 2: of the Apostles, page five hundred fifty one. Supreme love
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  Speaker 2: to God and unselfish love to one another. I think
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  Speaker 2: that's the two great commandments. Love for God, love for humanity.
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  Speaker 2: This is the best gift the Father can be stolen.
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  Speaker 2: By this love. We reveal our connection with Heaven. So
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  Speaker 2: a revelation of the connection of a connection, a revelation
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  Speaker 2: of connection with God is the two great commandments, love
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  Speaker 2: for God and love for humanity. So we're not trying
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  Speaker 2: to love God and trying to love humans and trying
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  Speaker 2: not to do this and trying not to do that,
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  Speaker 2: and then hoping that that will somehow give us brownie
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  Speaker 2: points or our bonus at the end of the year
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  Speaker 2: at our job of trying to be holy. No, those
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  Speaker 2: are a manifestation of our connection with God. Cling to God,
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  Speaker 2: our first lesson for today, is a daily choice of
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  Speaker 2: loyal love. Clinging to God is a daily choice of
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  Speaker 2: loyal love. Coming in from Deuteronomy, chapter four and verse four,
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  Speaker 2: the Bible reads, but ye that did cleave unto the
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  Speaker 2: Lord your God, are alive every one of you this day.
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  Speaker 2: And so the Hebrew word in that text that means
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  Speaker 2: to cleave the bach it means to cling, stick to,
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  Speaker 2: hold fast, and pursue closely. Are you pursuing God? Are
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  Speaker 2: you clinging to? Are you adhering to? Are you running
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  Speaker 2: after God? He said he would run after you and
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  Speaker 2: overtake you with blessings if you're one of his children.
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  Speaker 2: And so this word describes covenant, lofe loyalty. It's like
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  Speaker 2: a marriage covenant as in Genesis chapter two and verse
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  Speaker 2: twenty four and Ruth's devotion to Naomi as in Ruth
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  Speaker 2: chapter one and verse fourteen. Joshua reminded God's people that survival, identity,
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  Speaker 2: and spiritual purity depended on clinging to God. What does
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  Speaker 2: it mean? Cling means to stick, to hold fast, to
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  Speaker 2: pursue closely? Are you pursuing God closely? Running after God? Huh?
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  Speaker 2: He ran after you to find you. Yeah, So it
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  Speaker 2: depended upon clinging to God, not merely avoiding idols. I
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  Speaker 2: think I gave you that lesson already. Faithfulness is proactive love,
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  Speaker 2: not avoidance or abstinence. In the eighteen hundreds and the
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  Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds at Ellen used to say abstemiousness. Where it
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  Speaker 2: came to diet, people were trying to get healthy by
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  Speaker 2: stopping to eat this and stopping to eat that, and
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  Speaker 2: thought that that would do it. But they were finding
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  Speaker 2: themselves in malnutrition because they weren't choosing the right things
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  Speaker 2: to eat. But I digress. So our action step is
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  Speaker 2: speak a personal commitment to God. Today, Lord, I cling
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  Speaker 2: to you, keep my heart close to yours. Lesson number
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  Speaker 2: two as we come to a swift close love for
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  Speaker 2: God can be commanded. Can be commanded because it is
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  Speaker 2: a choice of devotion. The Bible reads in Joshua, chapter
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  Speaker 2: twenty three and verse eleven, take good Heed, therefore unto yourselves,
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  Speaker 2: that ye love the Lord your God. And in this case,
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  Speaker 2: the word for love is ahavah. It means deep affection, commitment, loyalty,
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  Speaker 2: and devotion. Are you deeply do you have deep affection
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  Speaker 2: for God God? Are you loyal to God? Are you
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  Speaker 2: committed to him? Do you find yourself being devoted? Love
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  Speaker 2: cannot be forced emotionally. Some people try it, but it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't work. It can, however, be commanded as a covenantal decision.
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  Speaker 2: God calls his people to choose devotion because of who
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  Speaker 2: he is and what he has done. So this love
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  Speaker 2: in the scripture is not an emotional kind of love.
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  Speaker 2: It's allegiance and loyalty. It's a heartfelt, heart directed obedience.
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  Speaker 2: So practice intentional devotion and love. Set aside time today
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  Speaker 2: to express love to God through praise, gratitude, or obedience.
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  Speaker 1: Theatre dating us listening friends, Always remember we cannot live
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  Speaker 1: by bread alone, but by every word that comes from
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  Speaker 1: the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion
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  Speaker 1: with El David Harris. Make it a great day, Yeah,