A Different Perspective Official Podcast

We chug, chug, chug through life – and pretty soon, we're running on empty.  And then we try filling up with all sorts of different things.  But running on the wrong fuel can have disastrous consequences. In a world that's hungry for some sort of authentic spiritual reality. It just blows me away that God has a plan. He's always had a plan, that plan is to pour His Spirit out on us, His Holy Spiri...

The biggest thing that keeps us from drawing close to God is the fear of condemnation.  He's perfect and I'm not - so I'm in trouble.  Makes sense.  But fortunately, God's grace isn't logical. The biggest fear I ever had of getting close to God was the fear of judgement and condemnation. I didn't understand what Holy meant but I understood that if God was God then He was holy and He was good and H...

The only way we really get to know someone is to live with them. Problem is that today, that can just mean shacking up. But God has a plan to make His home in us – and it's so much more than what the world has to offer. The only way really to know someone is to live with them in the same house, day after day, year after year. Boy meets girl and they get engaged, they get married and on their honey...

Jesus said some strange things.  Just before He was crucified He said to His disciples – 'You know something it's good for you that I'm going away.'  Really? What was that all about? When life is parched and dry, empty and hollow Jesus has a plan. That plan is to pour fresh living water into us, deep, deep inside. His plan is to fill us to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. Sounds all religious doe...

So many people live out a spiritually parched existence and all along God has a plan – a plan of power, a plan of peace, a plan of intimacy, a plan……of abundant life. His name is the Holy Spirit. Sometimes life can feel, well, parched and dry. We can be doing all the right things – living life, being a parent, working, whatever it is we do – but it's as though we're giving out all the time and not...

We live in a crazy, chaotic and confusing world. I mean, if you were God, how would you keep a track of it all? Would you even bother? And when it comes to the little problems, even the big problems, in the lives of people like you and me, well, where would you find the time and the energy to deal with those? I'm so excited to be with you again today. Here we are at the end of another week. I don'...

It's easy to look at some people and even at ourselves quite frankly and think, if God were going to use anyone for good it wouldn't be that one. It could never be me! Funny how quickly we are to underestimate what God can do, through bog ordinary people like you and me. Most of us would agree that war is a horrible, ugly thing. So, what motivates people to join the armed forces? I spent ten years...

Being a mother would have to be one of the toughest jobs going around. And mums often feel that they go unnoticed, that nobody values their enormous sacrifice. Today we're going to meet a faithful mother, who, as it turned out, ended up having a huge impact in this world. Of all the jobs someone could have in life, have you ever wondered what would be the toughest one? I've had a chance to think a...

You and I are, well, we're us. But in 100 years' time, if we're lucky we'll be an unknown name on a family tree somewhere.  Nothing to make us stand out from the crowd. Probably, in a hundred years' time, we'll be completely forgotten. Or will we? Have you ever looked at your family tree? I have. My dad gave me a huge piece of paper with our family tree, going right back to the 1700's to a Duchess...

So let me ask you a question. If God is God, does He speak? I mean, does He speak here and now to people like you and me? Interesting thought. Does He? It is great to be with you in a new week and look at life again from a different perspective. We live in a world of superstars. We suffer from celebrity syndrome. Many of the people we admire and aspire to, well, they're in the media, on TV in news...

It's a harsh, cruel world out there, isn't it? And sometimes it seems that we live in a world devoid of encouragement. Some days, it feels as though all the encouragers that God ever created, have been wiped off the face of the earth. Completely extinct. And then you meet one. Wow! Thank God for the encouragers in this world. Amen? We've been looking this week at being a little person used by a bi...

Every now and then you meet someone who just has this knack of serving you in the most incredible way. They're not some great superstar but this wonderful, silent, servant. We all, absolutely love that quiet achiever. Every now and then in life you meet a person, someone who has a particular gift to serve you. You can probably think of just a handful of people in your life, who, you know, just ser...

We're all different, aren't we? Each of us with different strengths and weaknesses. The problem is though, that we can spend so much of our time comparing ourselves with the next guy that we lose perspective on our own gifts and abilities. One of the things we tend to do a lot is to compare ourselves with other people. We live in an age of superstar syndrome. It's sweeping the globe and frankly, i...

Now just imagine that you're a refugee from a war-ravaged African nation, your country is a mess, people are dying and you're on the run in a jungle from rebel fighters and from forced conscription as a teenager. What could you ever make out of your life under those circumstances? Superstar syndrome is something that touches just about every corner of the globe. You know larger than life media per...

The world is full of superstars - sports stars, soapy stars, rock stars, influencers. Have you noticed? Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but what happens when this whole superstar syndrome starts messing with our own self-esteem? We live in an era of superstars – men and women who have been pumped up by the media until they are larger than life. Whether sports stars or singers turned lingerie...

When it comes to sharing Jesus with others, we can sometimes think – one day, one day God'll use me in a big way … one day – and yet all the time, right at this moment, the people around us are headed for a Christless eternity. Right at this moment, there are people aching out there, people who desperately need to encounter Jesus. C S Lewis was a great author and in his book The Screwtape Letters...

We all hate people ramming their opinions, their beliefs down our throats, don't we?  So, how can we share our faith in Jesus with others, without giving them that same experience? Good question. To quote a comedian who used to make me really laugh a few years back. "You know what I hate? You know what I really, really hate?" I hate it when people shove their beliefs and their doctrines down my th...

Sometimes, we can be a bit shy about sharing our faith in Jesus with others, because, well frankly, our own lives aren't looking so flash right now.  So, when life isn't going along just the way you'd hoped, when perhaps you yourself are wondering what He's up to, how do you share Jesus with others? You know sharing Jesus with others can feel like a tough gig sometimes. Especially when our own liv...

One of the things that stops a lot of people from sharing Jesus with others is a fear that they don't know what to say.  And yet they manage to communicate okay in every other part of their lives.  So what exactly is going on here? Well ... you know ... one of the hardest things I've found about sharing Jesus with other people is, well ... finding the right words. What do you say? Where do you sta...

Sometimes, we're afraid to share our faith in Jesus with others, because, well, we look at society and think to ourselves – they don't want Jesus, they don't want to hear this stuff – when all along, there's a deep spiritual yearning happening out there, right now, in the hearts of so many. It's interesting you know as we look around at people and society as a whole these days that there's a spiri...

Okay – so you want to tell someone about Jesus.  But how?  Where do you begin? What do you say?  Do you know enough?  All questions that we might ask ourselves. But how would Jesus tell people about Jesus? Or should we just leave it to the experts? Let me ask you a question, if you had to get up at a barbecue with some dozen or so of your friends or work colleagues, people who may not know Jesus a...

One of the things that can stop us from telling other people about Jesus, is well, there are so many of them. The task is overwhelming. Where do I start?  Too hard – I'll just leave it to the experts. For me, being someone who has come to know Jesus is just the most awesome thing in my life and has been for the last decade and a half. But for a good many years the notion that I have some role to p...

It's one thing to tell people about Jesus. It's another thing entirely to bear His family resemblance – to look like Him. To love like Him. To forgive like Him. Yet the first thing that people see of Jesus – is actually, the way we live our lives. If there's one thing the world hates, it's a hypocrite. Particularly a religious one. And you know something, I think that's fair enough. Whether it's i...

When it comes to leading our friends and loved ones to Jesus, so often we end up frustrated. Because it's not easy. They just don't seem to get it. How can I find a different way of explaining this – it's so obvious to me. But, if only we truly comprehended the power of praying for the lost. Most of us would have had the experience of having to put together everything from a bike to some complex b...

We all know that Jesus has called us to tell other people about Him.  So what's holding us back?  Uncertainty?  Fear?  Embarrassment?  What? Why are so many of the people who call themselves by His name – Christians – afraid to tell others about Jesus? There's more than one thing that makes being a Christian different from being, say, a practicing Jew or a Buddhist or a Hindu. But one thing that d...