Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 11 21 2023 Refugees and Immigrants

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11 21 2023 Refugees and Immigrants · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

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  Most of us eat every day, some of us too much because yesterday's food
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  is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do some
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  of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
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  us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change all
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  of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to
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  live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
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  author speaker, Elle David Harris. Good morning, Good morning, Good morning.
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  It is Tuesday, November twenty one, twenty twenty three. Hello,
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  my name is Elle David Harris. I am your host, and this is
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  your Daily Portion where we give you God's Word every single day, and today
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  is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series. God's mission,
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  my mission, and our caption for today is refugees and Immigrants. That's
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  refugees and immigrants. We'll get into that in just a moment, but first
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  I'd like to say thank you and welcome to everyone joining us, especially those
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  joining us for the very first time. I'm asking you to please go over
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  to your Daily Portion dot com, join our online community, and also let
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  us know where you are in the world, so we can see how you
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  are spreading the gospel because so many of you are cooking, share, share,
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  share, share, share and telling people that matter to you. Yes,
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  and also pick up the Your Daily Portion book at your Daily Portion dot
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  com. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway.
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  Father and Heaven. Thank you for giving us this new day and for the
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  privilege we have to be your children. Please help us to live like your
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  children. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen and Amen again. Refugees
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  and immigrants. Now, for those who are on social media, YouTube,
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  and on podcast land, you can respond to me here. Right, you
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  can put it in a comment or a review or whatever you need to do.
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  By show of hands. Let me see your virtual hand is going to
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  be a one. Right, if you have ever been a refugee or an
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  immigrant, type of one in the chat. If you have been an immigrant
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  or refuge go ahead and type of one in the chat. Yes, okay,
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  I used to be, and well, I guess I can't say used
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  to be. I am an immigrant in the country that I live now.
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  Yes, I'm now a citizen, but I am an immigrant. Right and
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  many of you are as well. Many of you have had to seek asylum
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  and refuge because of all kinds of political or other kinds of challenges in your
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  particular countries, and have gone to many different countries around the world so that
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  you could be safe. And so this is a discussion that really becomes practical
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  almost at the outset, because we know what it's like to move from a
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  country to another country for some reason or another. And so we're going to
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  look at various stories in the Bible in these few minutes that we have to
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  see if we can learn any spiritual lessons from their experiences. Let's begin with
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  Jesus in the Book of Matthew, chapter two and verse thirteen. That's the
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  Book of Matthew, chapter two, and I will read verse thirteen, and
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  the Bible reads and when they were departed, behold the Angel of the Lord
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  appeareth unto Joseph in a dream. So this is Joseph who was espoused too,
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  or whose spouse was to be Mary, the mother of Jesus. Right,
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  So the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying,
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  arise, take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt,
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  And so just really easily here we see that this family Jesus included as a
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  baby became call them refugees and immigrants, refugees into Egypt, and so reflect
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  on the story of Jesus's early life as a refugee and use this as motivation
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  to empathize, empathize with, and aid modern day refugees. Can we keep
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  it as simple as that? Can you imagine if Jesus were kicked out of
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  Egypt somehow and his family. Can you imagine if somehow it was not a
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  place of refuge for them and something terrible happened as a result, where would
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  we be today? Where would we be today? And so we can empathize
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  if we have the experience of being a refugee or an immigrant. We can
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  see in the story of Jesus's early life how that it was of benefit because
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  remember the king was destroying children at the time, and God protected Jesus from
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  that destruction so that you and I could be saved. Jesus needed to come
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  here and to complete his mission, and if he dies prematurely, then that
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  mission would not be accomplished. Okay, So let's just go very simple there.
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  Now we go to the Book of Deuteronomy. The Book of Deuteronomy sorry,
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  chapter ten and verse nineteen, and the Bible reads love ye, therefore
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  the stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Okay,
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  love immigrants as yourself. Do you remember when we read in Matthew chapter twenty
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  two, when the question of the commandments comes up, what is the greatest
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  commandment? The first and great commandment is the love the Lord or God with
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  everything that you are, everything that you have. And the second, miraculously,
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  yes, is like unto it, namely this love the Lord your God
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  with all that you have. I mean. The second is like unto it,
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  namely this love your neighbor as yourself. Yes. And we said that
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  to love our neighbors is to love everyone in need. Who is our neighbor,
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  everyone who is in need. We went through that story in detail.
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  And so now we say, there are people who become immigrants in countries,
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  and during that time as they're transitioning in I have experienced that I have done
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  this. There are certain things that we need when we make a transition into
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  a country. There are things about the society we may not fully understand.
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  There may be a way that we have to deal with with all kinds of
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  things, like from getting our normal everyday needs met to how we live in
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  my case, switching to on the left side of the road and the right
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  side of the vehicle you see, and so many other things. Of course,
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  I'm starting with the very simple, so we can easily identify with that
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  Ah. But people who are moving into other countries, who may be going
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  into countries where the language is different, the culture is completely different, the
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  living situations is different, how things are delivered to the home, like water
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  and electricity and all kinds of other things. It's different. We need to
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  learn to love people who were not from where we happen to be living or
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  domiciled, and then we are also fulfilling the law. Let me read it
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  again, Love ye, therefore the stranger, For ye were strangers in the
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  land of Egypt. God was speaking to his people. Treat immigrants and refugees
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  with the same kindness, respect, and love that you would want for yourself
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  were you in their position. Remember having to keep safe a yellow book,
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  a small little book about the size of an index card, actually smaller than
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  an index card. And it said alien, and it said I was an
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  alien into this country that I am living today. Okay, Let's go to
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  Psalm's chapter the Book of Psalms, chapter one hundred and forty six and verse
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  nine. Okay, and the Bible reads, the Lord preserveth the strangers.
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  He relieveth the fatherless and the widow. Some people as one of my neighbors.
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  He's a distant neighbor way down the hill. I remember during a recent
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  war he and his wife had Actually, his wife is from the place where
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  the war was happening, and she needed a special kind of healthcare, and
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  in her country it was more readily available, especially because she's from that country,
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  and well, something broke out over there was so terrible, and the
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  family was not only stuck in the country during the war, but they were
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  trying to flee to another country. It was a harrowing experience. And the
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  people in those neighboring countries, some of them supported the displaced, supported the
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  displaced. Can you imagine you go there for health care and then you have
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  to leave suddenly, and you're hoping that the neighboring country or the bordering country
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  will accept you. So we need to consider supporting organizations and community programs dedicated
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  to providing relief to refugees, orphans and widows. I think we've learned a
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  lot today. Every wonderful day. Peace. Thanks for joining us listening.
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  Friends. Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word
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  that comes from the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion with
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  El David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,