Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 12 20 2025 Choose This Day!

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12 20 2025 Choose This Day! · 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 Sabbath, December
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  Speaker 2: twenty 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 in our final week.
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  Speaker 2: This is lesson number thirteen, our final week in our
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  Speaker 2: lesson study series, Lessons of Faith from Joshua, and today
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  Speaker 2: caption is choose this day, Choose this day. Before we
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  Speaker 2: get into that, I'd like to just 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 and let us know where
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  Speaker 2: you are in the world at your Daily Portion dot com.
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  Speaker 2: This is one of the ways that we continue to
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  Speaker 2: build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray. Father,
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  Speaker 2: we thank you for this Sabbath morning, and I'm asking
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  Speaker 2: you to teach us to make a decision right now,
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  Speaker 2: a decision to serve you. In Jesus's name, I pray
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  Speaker 2: Amen and Amen again. Let me just say that the
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  Speaker 2: majority of humans statistically have brain freeze. I'm talking about
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  Speaker 2: all over the world in twenty twenty five, we're approaching
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. The majority of humans around the world
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  Speaker 2: are very given our servant or service oriented. Some of
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  Speaker 2: them are just stuck and frozen. Humans stuck and frozen.
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  Speaker 2: When we should be making a decision, we're reactive. We're
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  Speaker 2: waiting for instruction rather than sometimes making a solid decision.
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  Speaker 2: And what God is saying to us today is that
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  Speaker 2: we need to choose whom we will serve. Are we
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  Speaker 2: going to serve God or not? It's simple. It's a
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  Speaker 2: simple decision, and we need to make it right now.
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  Speaker 2: You're like, okay, okay, all right, let's go into our
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  Speaker 2: lesson number one to make sense of what I just said. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: and so lesson number one for today is covenant. Faithfulness
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  Speaker 2: requires an informed choice. Now, the Bible reads here as
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  Speaker 2: we read what Joshua said in chapter twenty four and
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  Speaker 2: verse fifteen, and if it seems evil to you to
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  Speaker 2: serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day. If you
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  Speaker 2: have a problem with what God has been saying, you
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  Speaker 2: have a problem with the way God has led us,
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  Speaker 2: then today is your choice. You have to choose. Choose
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  Speaker 2: this day whom ye will serve. And guess what Joshua
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  Speaker 2: did after that. He led by example. He said, today
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  Speaker 2: I'm choosing with my house that we're going to serve
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  Speaker 2: the Lord. Let me say it in another translation, New
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  Speaker 2: English translation, choose for yourselves today whom you will worship.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes we don't like the word serve and service. I
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  Speaker 2: just don't have the time to deal with why that
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  Speaker 2: is the case. And then he says, but as for
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  Speaker 2: me and my family, that's the decision that we have
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  Speaker 2: made in the household of Harris in twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: we will worship the Lord, okay. And so the Hebrew
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  Speaker 2: word for for this term for commitment is intention and
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  Speaker 2: to prefer with commitment to choose bahar. That means we
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  Speaker 2: prefer with commitment and to select with intention. I said
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  Speaker 2: something about in our lesson, I said something about making
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  Speaker 2: an informed decision. Yeah, so we know what we need
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  Speaker 2: to know about God. We know that he is good,
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  Speaker 2: Blessed be his name. We know that he is loving
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  Speaker 2: and kind. We know that he will in no wise
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  Speaker 2: clear the guilty. We know that he has mercy for
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  Speaker 2: thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments.
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  Speaker 2: But again that love and hate, love and fear cannot coexist.
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  Speaker 2: And so when we are with him, we are against fear.
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  Speaker 2: We are against hate, we are against self aggrandizement. We're
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  Speaker 2: against putting self above God God. Yeah, so today we
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  Speaker 2: are in an informed way making a commitment. We're preferring
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  Speaker 2: with commitment, preferring whom God, preferring to worship God. We're
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  Speaker 2: selecting God with intention. He selected us with intention. For
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  Speaker 2: God so loved the world that he gave his only
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  Speaker 2: begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him would not perish
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  Speaker 2: but have everlasting life. Intentionally, he has adopted us into
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  Speaker 2: his family, or as the Bible says, we are adopted
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  Speaker 2: through the beloved or in the beloved. And so Joshua's
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  Speaker 2: final message called God's people to a decisive personal choice.
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  Speaker 2: Covenant loyalty is not inherited or automatic. I want Josiah
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  Speaker 2: to make the same decision that I've made. I want
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  Speaker 2: him to make the same decision that Simone has made.
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  Speaker 2: And he has the best privilege or opportunity to do
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  Speaker 2: so because he's seen it lived out in living color
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  Speaker 2: in his own household. But it is ultimately his decision
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  Speaker 2: to make. It's a decision made consciously, repeatedly, and gratefully
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  Speaker 2: in response to God's saving acts. Did you get that
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  Speaker 2: last part, that part about about repeatedly and consciously. So
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  Speaker 2: we're not when we say yes to God. We're not
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  Speaker 2: putting handcuffs somehow, We're not somehow enslaved to Him, like
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  Speaker 2: we are not indentured servants or longer termed servants in
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  Speaker 2: the sense of we can't leave. Like we can make
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  Speaker 2: a decision today to serve God and later today choose
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  Speaker 2: to serve outside of the will of God. That is
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  Speaker 2: our choice because God, because God is love, then love
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  Speaker 2: requires the ability for us to choose. And so today
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  Speaker 2: the action step for this point is to declare your commitment.
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  Speaker 2: It could go something like this, Today I choose the Lord,
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  Speaker 2: and I want you to say it aloud. Like, say
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  Speaker 2: it aloud and write it somewhere visible today so that
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  Speaker 2: when there is a road rage potential incident today, I
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  Speaker 2: choose the Lord. If you're in the airport and somebody
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  Speaker 2: does something ridiculous and you really feel like you're getting
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  Speaker 2: upset today, I choose the Lord. Are you seeing what
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  Speaker 2: I'm saying? When your boss asks you or commands you
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  Speaker 2: to do something that's outside of your the terms of
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  Speaker 2: your contract, and he or she has a habit of
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  Speaker 2: doing that, and you have sort of pushed back a
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  Speaker 2: little bit many times, and it seems that they're not
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  Speaker 2: getting the membled today, I'm choosing the Lord. H When
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  Speaker 2: your spouse seems to have lost his or her mind,
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  Speaker 2: your child seems to us have lost his or her
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  Speaker 2: mind today, I have you see what I mean. This
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  Speaker 2: is why we need to make the decision, and then
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  Speaker 2: sometimes we even need to look back at it in
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  Speaker 2: a visible way. Listen Number two. Remembering God's faithfulness fuels
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  Speaker 2: present obedience. In the Bible reads in Genesis chapter seventeen
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  Speaker 2: and verse eight. And I will give unto thee and
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  Speaker 2: to thy seed. After thee the land, I will be
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  Speaker 2: their God. I will give you, I will give your legacy,
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  Speaker 2: and it will be that I'll give you the land,
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  Speaker 2: but I'll also be your God. Now. The Hebrew word
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  Speaker 2: for remember to remember you throughout the Covenant text is
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  Speaker 2: a car's a car excuse me, meaning to recall with purpose,
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  Speaker 2: to bring to mind for action. And so in Joshua
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  Speaker 2: twenty four he recites God's faithful acts from Abraham to
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  Speaker 2: the conquest to motivate God's people toward renewed loyalty. Obedience
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  Speaker 2: grows when believers remember how God has led us. How
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  Speaker 2: many times have I said throughout this quarter, we have
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  Speaker 2: nothing to fear for the future, except we forget how
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  Speaker 2: God has led us in the past. So forgetfulness leads
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  Speaker 2: to compromise. Remembrance strengthens our faith and devotion. So the
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  Speaker 2: action step in this regard is to write down three
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  Speaker 2: ways God has led you just this week. If you
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  Speaker 2: have to spread it out over the month, go for it.
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  Speaker 2: If you need to do it over the last six months,
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  Speaker 2: do it. Let gratitude shape your obedience today, and our
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  Speaker 2: final is Finishing faithfully requires daily allegiance to God. Like
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  Speaker 2: this is one of those things. It doesn't happen overnight,
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  Speaker 2: it happens over the span of our experience with God.
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  Speaker 2: Make it a great Sabbath. Thanks for joining us listening.
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  Speaker 1: Friends. Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but
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  Speaker 1: by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
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  Speaker 1: This has been your daily portion with El David Harris.
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  Speaker 1: Make it a great day. Yeah.