FRESH Official Podcast

Chances are, you know something of the Easter story. An angry religious mob drags Jesus before Pontius Pilate demanding He be crucified and that the murderer, Barabbas, be set free. That's completely nuts, right? In fact, when you stop and think about it, this is the most outrageous exchange in history. A murderer — Barabbas — goes free. And Jesus, the healer, teacher, miracle-worker is condemned...

As we try to wrap our minds around this whole Easter thing this week, here's the question: What was Pontius Pilate thinking when he set the murderer, the insurrectionist Barabbas free, yet ordered Jesus the Son of God to be crucified? What in the blazes was going on here?  Look, Pilate was no fool. As Roman governor, he was well-versed in judging guilt and innocence. And when Jesus stood before hi...

As each Easter week comes and goes year in, year out, it's so easy to grow numb to the cross of Christ, bloody and brutal though it was. We know the story. Jesus died. He rose again. But have you ever really stopped to feel the injustice of it all? The innocent man, Jesus, was condemned. The guilty man, Barabbas, went free. This is what the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, said to the angry mob abo...

As we roll into yet another Easter week, I wonder, in your scheme of things, how important this whole Easter thing actually is. Though it may come and go in a blur of chocolate, long weekends, and family lunches, if we race past it, we miss the very heartbeat of God. Because Easter is God's way of saying:  You're worth dying for. So, let's begin our week together by taking a step back to look at t...

Hey, welcome to Sunday. If you've joined me through Fresh over this past week, you'll know that I've been banging on about the somewhat depressing subject of … sin. Well, today it's time for some good news. Yep, I've very deliberately used the word "sin" rather than shortcomings, failures or foibles, because that's the word God uses for it. It literally means to miss the mark - and it's something...

If the last few years have taught us anything, it's that disease spreads. Actually, we've known that for rather a long time. If I have a cold and go around coughing and sneezing, those around me are going to catch it too. The Spanish Flu erupted toward the end of World War I, starting in Kansas, USA. Through troop movements and global trade, it reached Europe, Asia, Africa, even remote islands, wi...

The truth is that you can have it all, so to speak - everything that the world deems desirable: safety, wealth, money, power - and yet live the most miserable life imaginable. Hmm. Why is that? In 1972, Richard Nixon became President of the United States in a landslide victory. A brilliant strategist, he opened diplomatic relations with China and oversaw key arms control treaties. Outwardly, he ha...

I wonder what's going on in your heart today. I mean, basically, you're a good person, right? But there's a risk that something is lurking in your heart – some desire that, left unchecked, could seriously ruin your life. There's always that risk, believe you me. During the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre began as a principled advocate for liberty and justice, championing the rights of th...

It's funny how in life things that are so attractive, so tasty, so alluring can in the end be so deadly. I know, that's a cheery start to our short time together today but it's absolutely true. Think of junk food - whatever your favourite variety happens to be. By and large, it's made up of UPFs - Ultra Processed Foods; ingredients that have had their natural goodness manufactured out of them and...

Have you ever wondered how relationships collapse? I mean, how is a once-loving, caring, thriving relationship torn apart resulting in a grief of separation that simply cannot be put into words? Henry VIII of England was once deeply devoted to Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. But driven by lust for Anne Boleyn, an obsession with having a male heir, and prideful defiance of spiritual counsel, h...

Even the most powerful people in the world can be slaves to the evil in their hearts – to their wrong motivations, their wrong desires – and the same is true for the little people… ordinary folk like you and me.   As the first Director of America's Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI), J. Edgar Hoover wielded immense power for nearly five decades. But beneath his polished exterior lay a deep...

One of the things we seem to have lost these days is the ability to disagree with civility. How often do you see politicians tearing one another apart, or those from the LGBTQIA+ lobby vilifying Christians and vice versa? Whatever happened to the ability to debate and disagree respectfully? In 18 th Century England, William Wilberforce led the fight to abolish the slave trade. He was relentless in...

Isn't it amazing how differently people see things - in politics, relationships, the workplace? Now, that can be a good thing. A blending of different perspectives produces better results. But it can also be a flashpoint, right? So, how then do you choose the people you surround yourself with? On the one hand, you don't want a bunch of 'yes men'; a mutual admiration society where everyone's always...

When you see something wrong going on around you, how do you decide between speaking up and staying silent, between calling out the wrong and keeping the peace? It's a tough call, isn't it? Let's say you work in a close-knit office where everyone gets along. One day, you overhear a senior manager mocking a younger coworker's accent behind their back. It's wrong, clearly—but speaking up could damag...

Society's changed rather a lot in just the last fifty years. Things that were once considered to be wrong have now not only become right, but they're flaunted – celebrated, even. And it's being demanded of us that we toe the line, that we not merely accept but enthusiastically embrace that which, deep down, we know to be wrong. Philosopher and social critic, Thomas Mann, was exiled from Nazi Germa...

You and I both know, at least in theory, that every person we meet is going through something. Now, I say 'in theory' because, by and large, we go through our day pretty much focusing only on the stuff we're going through. And believe it or not, that's one of the biggest reasons that conflict begins. I was standing outside a large apartment complex recently looking at all the windows and balconies...

Nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning, value or purpose; that objective moral truth is an unnecessary and unwanted relic of the past; that we should simply eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. With so much of it doing the rounds these days, how well's that going, do you think? Doubtless, you've heard of Noah - that crazy dude who, miles from any ocean, built a massive s...

Man, there's so much going on in the world today; wars and rumours of wars; vitriolically partisan politics; deeply divided societies. And then there's all the stuff we each have going on in our own lives. Executive summary? We live in tumultuous times. It's easy to feel like some hapless cork being tossed around on an angry sea without any ability whatsoever to calm the storm. And so, many people...

A good many people say they believe in Jesus (sort of, I guess), but put off committing their lives to Him and laying down their prideful pursuits to follow Him in humility. Well, yeah, okay … I'll get around to it one day. But that – and here's today's solemn warning –  that turns out to be an eternally fatal error to make. Captain Edward Smith was the seasoned and respected officer in command of...

It's one thing to take pride in your work – you know what I mean, in a good way – but it's quite another to be prideful about your work, your great achievements, the amazingly brilliant things you've done. Back in the 19 th century, William Carey, the "father of modern missions" as he was often called, accomplished extraordinary things in India—translating the Bible into multiple languages and fou...

Without doubt, one of the dumbest things we can ever do is to repeat the same mistake over and over again. Why do we do that?! It didn't work the first fifteen times I tried it, so why not give it another spin, just to see? King Charles I of England repeatedly ignored Parliament, dissolved it multiple times, and governed autocratically. Despite warnings and uprisings, he continued to assert his 'd...

Have you ever felt unloved? Sometimes that feeling is born out of a depth of loneliness and isolation that's simply beyond words. Other times, people just neglect to acknowledge you, to thank you, to celebrate a win with you … leaving you feeling that everyone's just taking you for granted. This feeling of being unloved is a whole lot more common than you may think. Someone recently wrote to me an...

Despite the respectable facades that most people maintain for the benefit of those around them, many are carrying hurts, losses, and regrets that influence their behaviour; which is why people can seem so unpredictable; why they react to even the simplest of things in the most surprising ways. You think you know someone … I mean, you've been dealing with them at work, or in a social setting, or ev...

Have you noticed how unpredictable other people can be? Everything's going along just fine, and then BANG! Something sets them off, they explode. What just happened? It's odd. We only see people on the outside, but everything that really matters to them happens on the inside. And, as we observed together yesterday, a person's inner being, their inner life, their deepest emotions, hurts, secrets re...

We each have two distinct parts to our lives:  the things that we see, do and say – the things that happen to us on the outside – and the things that we think and feel on the inside. Sure, they're connected, but that deep inner life remains largely hidden from the rest of the world. Every now and then our inner life breaks through. Our anger breaks out in harsh words; our love in tenderness. But m...