Greg Laurie: A New Beginning

In this episode, we revisit a classic Veteran’s Day interview between Pastor Greg Laurie and Captain Scotty Smiley. They discuss Scotty’s service as an Army Ranger and his experience as the Army’s first active-duty, blind officer. On April 6, 2005, Scotty lost his eyesight when a suicide car bomber blew himself up thirty meters in front of Scotty’s IAV Stryker vehicle. Shrapnel blew through Scotty’s eyes, leaving him blinded and temporarily paralyzed. He woke up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center a week later. Through questioning his faith, Scotty made a decision to forgive and rebuild his life and continue to serve in the Army, becoming the first blind active-duty officer in military history. Listen in for an amazing testimony. Learn more about his story at hopeunseen.com. It’s important that we take the time to remember and honor our military veterans. It’s because of their selfless service and sacrifice that we live in a free country today. --- Learn more about Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries at harvest.org. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before COVID, few of us had ever been subjected to a quarantine. But that experience effectively isolated us in a bubble. In a spiritual sense, sometimes believers are constantly isolated from the world in a self-imposed quarantine. We don’t want to be OF the world so we try not to be IN the world. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how that neglects one of our most important responsibilities. It’s the kick off of a new series in Acts called The Upside-Down Life. Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org. A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether you’re an electrician or a chef, an auto mechanic or a roofer, chances are you served some sort of apprenticeship. You learned the trade from someone with a few years under his or her tool belt. Well, the Lord has a similar plan for how believers can pass knowledge from older to younger. And today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie shares the kinds of precepts that we should be passing on. If you missed the first 14 precepts in this thoughtful message, get a replay by checking out the three previous episodes! Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org. A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a certain wisdom that comes from growing older, from learning some of the lessons of life. There’s even more wisdom that comes when we embrace God’s Word as our pattern of living. And today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie looks to the Bible for practical principles we can put to use. If you missed some of the principles he’s already covered, we invite you to catch up by listening to the previous two programs! Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org. A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No one ever teaches us how to worry. Our parents don’t sit us down and say, “Okay, kids, I want you to put your head in your hands, look really discouraged, and stress out on something you can’t change.” No, we pretty much picked it up on our own. Well, today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us lay down that which we’ve picked up. He’ll offer up some practical precepts in a message called What I Would Tell My Younger Self. Insight for everyone, particularly young people. Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org. A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you noticed how our perspective changes in life? Some of us hated certain vegetables when we were kids. And now? Well, we may still hate those vegetables, but that’s not the point! The point is our perspective changes. Right? We eat vegetables because they’re good for us. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us realize that a changing perspective is good evidence that we’re maturing. And today we’ll see how we can embrace and enhance that maturing process.  Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org. A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s easy for us to fall into discontentment, especially when comparing ourselves to others. King Saul was this way, forgetting his blessings and giving a home to envy and unhappiness. Thankfully, there’s a cure, and Pastor Jonathan’s sharing it in this special Sunday message! Notes We want to live the way we want to live, but we want to also secure our place in Heaven, meaning people will live like a devil, and then hope to die like a saint. People who live their lives for God and are obedient and submissive to His Word, and are grounded in the community of the church, are among the happiest, balanced, most content, and vigorous in this life. When we sin, we are choosing our will and desire for our life, not God’s. Discontentment is not something that only plagued people in Saul’s day; it plagues people today as well! “The roots of them are in all of us, the only way to keep them from growing up rank is to think less of our reputation and more of our duty, to count it a very small matter what men think of us, and the all-important matter what God thinks.” —Alexander McClaren “If you will take care of your depth, God will take care of your breadth. If you will take care of your character, God will take care of your reputation.” —Greg Laurie Practice Contentment. Celebrate the Success of Others. Rejoice, Always! Scripture Referenced 1 Timothy 6:6–10 (ESV) 1 Samuel 18:3–4 (ESV) 1 Thessalonians 5:15–18 (ESV) --- Learn more about Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries at harvest.org. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen in to today’s daily devotion from Pastor Greg Laurie. To get Pastor Greg’s devotions delivered to your inbox, just go to harvest.org/devo. --- “The instructions of the LORD are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.” —Psalm 19:7  Not long ago I read about a personal trainer who was in perfect shape. He ate the right foods and loved to exercise. But most of his clients were overweight, and he couldn’t really relate to what they were going through. To better understand their struggles, he decided to intentionally gain 70 pounds. He started by changing his diet. Instead of his usual healthy food, he ate fattening foods. It was exhilarating to him because at first there was no difference in his body. He still looked good. But then he started to notice some changes. First to go were his abs. Then he started getting flabby. He found that his blood pressure was going up, and he was tired all the time. He felt lethargic and depressed. To me this is a picture of what it’s like in the Christian life when we start going in the wrong direction spiritually. Instead of nourishing ourselves with the message of God's Word, we fill our lives with spiritual junk food. We all have those moments when we stumble, when we trip up, when we make the wrong decision, when we think that wrong thought and need to repent. When this happens, we need a spiritual reboot. We need to be revived and refreshed. The Bible tells us, “The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7 NLT). If you want to be a growing Christian, if you want to produce spiritual fruit, then you need to be a Bible studying Christian. As believers, we are either progressing or regressing. We are either going forward or going backward. And the moment we stop our forward momentum is the moment we begin our backward regression. --- Learn more about Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries at harvest.org. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People sometimes ask, can Christians do this or that? It’s often a sneaky way of asking, “How much can I get away with and still be a Christian?” Pastor Greg Laurie would say that’s the wrong question to ask. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, he points out that we should be asking: how much can I do for God, given all He's done for me? How can I make myself most useful as I wait for that great day when Jesus returns to take us home? That's our focus in our final study in Daniel. Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org. A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do you do while you’re on-hold? Do you hum along with that on-hold music? Do you tap your pencil, or daydream a little? Few of us enjoy waiting. But we’re all in a waiting mode right now as we anticipate the return of Christ. But today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the Lord doesn’t want us to kill time, He wants us to bring light and life to those around us. Maybe we’re not waiting on God. Maybe He’s waiting for us to invite more into the Kingdom. Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org. A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.