Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our Reading today titled A Forecaster's

Mistake was written by Tim Gustafsson. At noon on September 21st, 1938, a young meteorologist warned the U.S. Weather Bureau of two fronts

forcing a hurricane northward toward New England. But the chief of forecasting scoffed

at Charles Pierce's prediction. Surely a tropical storm wouldn't strike so far north. Two hours

later, the 1938 New England hurricane

made landfall on Long Island. By 4 p.m., it had reached New England, tossing ships onto land

as homes crumbled into the sea. More than 600 people died. Had the victims received Pierce's

warning, based on solid data and his detailed

maps, they likely would have survived. The concept of knowing whose word to heed has precedent

in Scripture. In Jeremiah's day, God warned his people against false prophets. Do not listen to them, he said. They fill you

with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not far from the mouth of the Lord.

God said of them, if they had stood in my counsel, they would have proclaimed my words to my people.

False prophets are still with us, so-called experts dispense advice while ignoring God altogether or twisting his words to suit their purposes.

But through His word and spirit, God has given us what we need to begin to discern the false

from the true.

As we gauge everything by the truth of His Word, our own words and lives will

increasingly reflect that truth to others.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Jeremiah chapter 23, verses 16 through 22.

This is what the Lord Almighty says. Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you. They fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds,

not far from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me,

the Lord says you will have peace. And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts,

they say, no harm will come to you. But which of them has stood in the counsel of the

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