FRESH Official Podcast

Our capacity for self-delusion, for being led by the nose by this conspiracy theory or that radical dogma, is remarkable. Just look around. Amidst the swill of social media, many are being sucked into the deep vortex of delusion. Imagine you meet someone who's convinced that the earth is flat or that aeroplanes spray chemicals to control people's minds. So you patiently sit with them, showing them...

The combined talent of the more than eight billion people walking the planet right now is truly staggering. And yet what proportion of that talent goes to waste, simply because the world doesn't value or acknowledge it? Think about it. The loss of all that talent to the collective human enterprise is mind-blowing! So many people have been damaged by the rough and tumble of life in a world where ev...

We live in a world that loves to hand out medals and awards - in school, academia, sport, entertainment … you name it. So each year, like clockwork, Hollywood rolls out the red carpet for the Academy Awards; the Oscars, as they're known — a night drenched in glitz and glamour. Flashing cameras, glittering gowns, tailored tuxedos, and million-dollar smiles line the stage where the world's biggest s...

In the affluent West where I live, when there's a tragedy in another Western nation – a school shooting, a train accident, a terrorist incident –  it's all over the news. But the wars and terrorism raging in Africa never get a mention, despite the suffering and carnage. Most have never even heard of the plight of the dispossessed and the stateless, like the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. Why is tha...

We all know that feeling: waiting for the "perfect time" before we act. But life doesn't work that way. Opportunities slip by while we hesitate and before long, the moment's passed altogether. Taking the first step into something new is daunting. Equally, taking the thousandth step in something that's been dragging on for an eternity is exhausting. Wherever you are on your journey, procrastination...

We live in a world addicted to grand gestures. Social media loves it — the dramatic donation, the public apology, the grand act of kindness. But behind the spotlight, it's the small, quiet choices that matter most. The truth is: obedience doesn't trend, it transforms. So, imagine that a young man saves for months to buy his mother a beautiful gift. But when he gives it to her, she smiles and says,...

Your journey from this point through to the end of your life still holds a good many opportunities to walk away from your eternity with God, as the world tries to dupe you into believing that it's all about the here and now; that heaven and hell are merely a figment of your imagination. Here's the plain truth, a truth that I believe with every fibre of my being. God is all-loving, but also just. W...

You don't have to look far to see it—people are desperate for something real. We're drowning in headlines, chasing dopamine hits on our screens, and yet lying awake at night with an ache in our souls. The false promise of joy is what leads so many people to go looking for it in all the wrong places … which goes a long way to explaining our obsession with our smartphones, hoping for yet another dop...

Achieving lasting change in your life ain't easy. You want to ditch some bad habit and replace it with a good one, but what a struggle that can be. Yep, producing lasting fruit in your life - good fruit - is quite the challenge! Fruit's a great way to understand the good things we want to cultivate in our lives. Because we know, inherently, that fruit is good. I mean, strawberries, raspberries, an...

What are the things, the experiences, the possessions, the aspirations, that you value most? Come on, what are they? Now, let me ask you - and please be brutally honest with yourself here - do they actually fulfil you? Are they delivering what you'd hoped they would … or not? Francis of Assisi was born into incredible wealth and privilege - luxury, fine clothes, banquets, influence. But after bein...

Joy - deep, abiding joy - is simply the most wondrous thing. Not happiness. Happiness ebbs and flows depending on your circumstances. Joy, on the other hand, sticks with you through all your ups and downs. With all my heart, I know that God wants you to live in His deep, abiding joy … for every minute of every day for the rest of your life. And that joy isn't something you conjure up on your own;...

The burdens of life can, at times, be rather heavy. And the longer you carry them, the heavier they become; sapping you of your strength; robbing you of your joy. Is that really how you want to live? Humans have been using camels as beasts of burden for nearly three thousand years. There's a reason for that. A camel can carry around 450 kilograms or a thousand pounds across the desert — not becaus...

Life's journey has more twists and turns than a rollercoaster at midnight. Take a wrong turn … and you'll go hurtling off the rails. On average, we make around 500 conscious decisions a day. So in an average human lifetime, we'll make over 13 million conscious decisions. Let's assume that 95% of those are inconsequential, and although they can have a cumulative effect (I'm sure you'll agree that 1...

You know what they say: an overnight success generally takes around twenty years. I know, I know. We wish it weren't true, and yet we know that it is! In 1994, a complete nobody by the name of Jeff Bezos began with a small online bookstore in his garage, armed with a dream far bigger than he had any right to dream. While others looked for quick profits, he kept his eyes fixed on the horizon. He re...

Since the very beginning, whispering secrets and untruths about others has been one of the greatest temptations of humanity. That snake in the Garden of Eden kicked it off by twisting the truth about God to lead Adam and Eve into the first act of human rebellion against their Creator.   Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, was targeted by courtiers and political rivals who resented her...

You hear people talk about their calling, and it sounds oh-so noble. But a calling, inevitably, has a cost. It involves laying down your own desires in the service of others. And that is noble indeed. Some like to flaunt their works for all to see. Sir Nicholas Winton was not one of those. In 1938, he cancelled a ski holiday to help a friend working with refugees in Czechoslovakia. Seeing the Nazi...

As crazy ideas go, Jesus' idea of feeding a crowd of five thousand with two small fish and five loaves of bread is right up there … wouldn't you agree? I mean … what was He thinking? Gladys Aylward had little formal education, almost no money, and so, was rejected by countless missionary societies. But with barely enough for a one-way train ticket she set out alone to China, trusting God to use wh...

We each tend to have a somewhat malleable relationship with the notion of justice. When we're on the receiving end of an injustice, man, we want justice done! But what about when others suffer an injustice? Then how much do we really care? Many global industries, from fast fashion to electronics, are linked to forced labour, child exploitation, and trafficking. If we truly care about justice for o...

Life's full of problems and yet, given the world we live in today, perhaps we've become all too accustomed to finding instant solutions. So, when you're faced with a problem that you just can't seem to get through, what do you do? During the early 20th century, much of physics was dominated by Newtonian assumptions. Many accepted them as unquestionable "facts," but Albert Einstein trained his mind...

Opportunities for taking shortcuts abound in this life. We can choose, multiple times every day, either to take the easy route out of expediency, or the longer one to do what's right; to cave in to evil, or to struggle through for good. I wonder, when was the last time you cut corners; when you caved to something less than good? In the first century BC, amidst the chaos of the late Roman Republic,...

Our capacity for denial of the obvious is amazing. We can be presented with irrefutable evidence that something exists and yet, based on our experience, our particular worldview, our version of the truth, still deny that which is as plain as day. I recently met a man who, with every fibre of his being, believes that the world is flat. I mean, he was absolutely genuine. Wow! But did you know that t...

The word "pleasure" can have both positive and negative connotations depending on the sort of pleasure we're talking about. But have you ever wondered whether God takes pleasure in anything, and if so, in what? There's a verse that, each time I read it, completely blows my mind. Here it is: Psalm 149:4 For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation. (ESV) How do you...

To a lesser or greater degree, those who profess a faith in Jesus Christ will invariably suffer. For some, that may merely involve scorn or ridicule. But for countless others down through the centuries, it's cost them their lives. In the 16 th Century, Anne Askew, a young English poet and Protestant reformer, was arrested and tortured for rejecting Catholicism. Offered freedom if she recanted she...

At the core of your being, let me ask you, what do you believe? Do you believe in the power of the Good News of Jesus to save you from your sin? Or is that a difficult, even impossible thing for you to believe? What … do you … believe? If all that feels a tad "in your face", I get it. And yet, I make no apology for it. Because sometimes I feel the need to be direct in cutting through the clutter,...

We live in a world intent on rejecting Christ; rejecting the notion that there is a God of love and justice in heaven; rejecting this fanciful idea that He'd do anything so dramatic as to send His Son into this world, to die for us on a cross so that our sins might be forgiven, and to rise again to give us the gift of eternal life. Oh, in part, Jesus may still be tolerated, but not obeyed. For man...