Daily Archives: October 3, 2026

Turning Point

Turning Point; David Jeremiah – Seasons Change: Autumn

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To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1

Recommended Reading: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

As Anne gazed at the glory of autumn in Anne of Green Gables, she couldn’t contain her delight. “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers,” she said.

When God created the world, He built seasons into the rotation. We experience them differently depending on where we live, but most of us recognize summer and winter, springtime and harvest (see Genesis 8:22).

In the Lord’s brilliant design, the shifting of the seasons also represents the cycle of our lives. What season of life are you in? If you look closely, you’ll find it’s beautiful. God does all things well. When He leads us through the seasons, two things happen. We grow in our maturity, and He grows more precious to us every day.

Look around you today and find some beautiful spot to rest your eyes—and praise the Lord. Look within you today, and find some sweet blessing to rest your heart—and praise the Lord.

It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November…. The world looks like something God had just imagined for his own pleasure, doesn’t it?
Anne of Green Gables

 

 

 

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – Compassionate Understanding

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[Our high priest] has been tempted . . . just as we are—yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15

Today’s Scripture

Hebrews 4:14-16

Listen to Today’s Devotion

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Today’s Devotion

My father-in-law was a gunner in a bomber over Europe during World War II. His plane was shot down and he was captured, spending several months as a prisoner of war. Jim rarely spoke of the experience, but those who knew him before the war said that he’d been a happy-go-lucky young man with a beaming smile. His war experiences turned him into a moody, withdrawn person.

Trying to understand his experience, I read Masters of the Air, Donald Miller’s description of the air war over Europe. Miller helped me grasp the physical and psychological price paid by these airmen. His book increased my compassion for my father-in-law.

The writer of Hebrews wrote of our “great high priest” (4:14)—Jesus Himself—who did much more than merely gain understanding of our struggles. He lived among us, learning how we feel in every situation. Hebrews tells us, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (v. 15). Think of it! Jesus knows what we endure. He’s been tempted just as we are.

Learning to have a heart of compassion like Jesus is a great way to show His love to those who need Him. May God give us, by His Holy Spirit, an understanding heart that reaches out to others in love and mercy.

Reflect & Pray

Who do you struggle to have compassion for? How can you develop a more understanding heart?

Dear Father, please forgive me for being harsh with others. Teach me the grace of compassion so they might see Your love in me.

Today’s Insights

The letter to the Hebrews explains what Jesus did for us, but to better appreciate that, it’s important to understand the system of sacrifice instituted in Leviticus (4:1–7:10). In Hebrews, the writer affirms the humanity of Christ who, though fully God, “had to be made like [humans], fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God” (2:17). The writer explains, “If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood . . . why was there still need for another priest to come?” (7:11). Jesus’ humanity and His divine nature enable Him to “empathize” with us in “our weaknesses” (4:15) and to redeem us once for all from our sins. Because He empathizes with us, we can seek His help as we reach out to those around us. In the process, we point them to Christ, our once-for-all sacrifice.

For further study, read: Who Is Your Neighbor?

 

 

http://www.odb.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Are you “doomscrolling” or “bloomscrolling”?

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One of the occupational hazards of my work is that I spend much of my day engaging with news and cultural issues, much of which is more discouraging than encouraging. Such “doomscrolling” is so common that it was one of the Oxford English Dictionary’s words of the year in 2020.

But constantly consuming bad news causes the amygdala in our brain to sense danger, alerting our hypothalamus to tell our sympathetic nervous system to activate our fight-or-flight response. This causes our body’s adrenal glands to release stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which contribute to high blood pressure and impair cognitive abilities such as concentration, decision-making, and emotional regulation.

This reaction reinforces negative thoughts and feelings, increases anxiety and depression, leads to mental fatigue, impairs concentration, and reduces productivity. Nausea, headaches, muscle tension, neck and shoulder pain, and difficulty sleeping often result as well.

In other words, doomscrolling is bad.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Are you “doomscrolling” or “bloomscrolling”? →

Greg Laurie

Harvest Ministries; Greg Laurie – Casting Doubt

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 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?’ 

—Genesis 3:1

Scripture:

Genesis 3:1 

Shortly before he died, the comedian W. C. Fields was spotted flipping through the pages of a Bible. When someone asked what he was doing, Fields replied, “Looking for loopholes.”

In the same way, I think the devil has been acquainting himself with the Bible for a long time, looking for loopholes. In the Garden of Eden, he misrepresented what God had said to fit his agenda. The devil took God’s words to Adam, which invited Adam to eat from every tree in the Garden—with one exception—and twisted them into a prohibition designed to cast doubt on God’s goodness.

The devil said to Eve, in effect, “If God really loved you, He would let you eat from any tree you want. But because He said that you can’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He clearly doesn’t love you.”

The actual verse goes like this: “The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1 NLT).

You’ll notice that the devil’s first recorded words to Eve—indeed, his first recorded words in the entire Bible—end with a question mark: “Did God really say . . . ?” They are designed to cast doubt on God’s love. The devil was quoting God, but he completely twisted what God said.

He did the same thing when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. “Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, “He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone”’” (Matthew 4:5–6 NLT). The devil was quoting Psalm 91:11–12, though he left out not just part of the original text, but also the context of the passage.

Notice that with Eve, he questioned God’s Word. He didn’t deny that God had spoken. He simply questioned whether God had really said what Eve thought He had said. That’s what the devil will do with God’s Word. He will misquote it. He will mischaracterize it. He will distort it. And he will plant seeds of doubt in our minds so that we question it.

The way to counter his strategies is found in Psalm 119:11: “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (NLT). The better we know God’s Word, the more deeply we embed it in our lives, the harder it is for our enemy to use it against us.

Reflection question: What would hiding God’s Word in your heart look like in your life? Discuss this with believers like you on Harvest Discipleship!

 

 

 

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

Days of Praise

Days of Praise – Following the Mark

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by Henry M. Morris III, D.Min.

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13–14)

Paul called his personal achievements (Philippians 3:4–6) as valuable as dung (v. 8), rejecting his own righteousness (v. 9). Now he is focused on reaching the “high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” He is well aware that he has not already attained God’s ultimate design for him, nor is he perfect in any sense of what he will become, but he intends to follow after and be “apprehended” of the Lord Jesus (Philippians 3:12).

To begin with, Paul knows that he must forget “those things which are behind”—not only his rather stellar reputation and achievements, but especially the awful conditions of being “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Those terrible conditions were done away with when Paul (and those of us who are twice-born) were created after God “in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).

Now, having been apprehended of Christ and forgetting those things that were part of our old lives, we can “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (our text). Like for an athlete, the prize is gained only by those who win, not by those who run “uncertainly” (1 Corinthians 9:24, 26).

Thus, we cannot win if we have “two masters” (Luke 16:13), nor can we please “him who has chosen” us if we entangle ourselves with the affairs of this life (2 Timothy 2:4). May God keep us focused on the prize. HMM III

 

 

 

https://www.icr.org/articles/type/6

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Expect God to Move

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Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

Mark 11:13-14 (NIV)

One of the Bible stories that can be confusing to people is the story of the fig tree. They wonder why Jesus cursed it to the point that it withered and dried up. I think the reason is simple: It wasn’t doing what God designed it to do. Because it had leaves, it should have had fruit too.

The day after Jesus cursed the tree, He and His disciples passed it again, and the disciples were shocked to see that it had died. Seeing their shock, Jesus told them, Have faith in God (Mark 11:22 NIV). He then went on in Mark 11:23–24 to talk about the sheer power of faith.

As believers, we can choose to respond to what God says the way the disciples responded when Jesus spoke to the fig tree, and we can be surprised when His Word actually comes to pass. Or, we can be filled with faith. When we read God’s Word or hear His voice, we can immediately begin expecting it to happen.

Fill your mind today with thoughts of faith and confidence in God, not with thoughts of doubting Him, questioning Him, or wondering if He means what He says.

Believe God’s Word and keep believing it until you see Him fulfill His promises.

Prayer of the Day: Father, may I never be surprised when what You say actually happens. May I live looking for You to move and expecting You to do what You say You will do. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Today in the Word

Today in the Word – Moody Bible Institute – The First Farmer

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Read Genesis 4:1–12

Our family enjoys going to the Art Institute of Chicago to appreciate great paintings and sculptures. In one gallery hangs Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930), an iconic representation of a farming couple. A dour-looking man grips his pitchfork, while a similarly unsmiling woman looks into the distance.

The first farmer in the Bible, as you may know, was Cain. Technically, it was probably Adam and Eve, laboring obediently in the Garden of Eden before the Fall, but Cain is the first person specifically identified as a farmer. He “worked the soil” while his brother Abel cared for livestock (v. 2). When Cain brought an offering of the “fruits of the soil,” however, God “did not look with favor on it” (v. 5). Abel gave from the “firstborn” of his flocks (v. 4), which honored the Lord (Heb. 11:4). There’s no indication in the text that there was anything wrong with the content of Cain’s offering, which points to his attitude and lack of faith as the problem. This is confirmed by his angry response to Abel’s acceptance and his own rejection. He was so angry, in fact, that he was considering premeditated murder. No wonder the apostle John later wrote that Cain “belonged to the evil one” (1 John 3:12).

God hadn’t punished Cain at that point, only rejected his offering. He also mercifully gave him a direct warning to resist the temptation he was contemplating (vv. 6–7). Cain murdered his brother anyway (v. 8). Part of God’s judgment evokes the curse on Adam: “When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you” (v. 12). When Cain and his descendants thus became wandering nomads, they, ironically, probably had to become shepherds to survive.

Go Deeper

What might we learn from the Cain and Abel narrative? What strategies do we use to fight against or resist temptation?

Pray with Us

Each of us struggles with temptation in many ways. We are grateful, Lord, that You do not abandon us, and faithfully “provide a way out” (1 Cor. 10:13). Help us always seek You in our time of need.

When you work the ground, it will no longer yield crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.Genesis 4:12

 

 

 

https://www.moodybible.org/