FRESH Official Podcast

Proverbs 15:31,32 To be counted among the wise, you must learn to accept helpful criticism. If you refuse to be corrected, you are only hurting yourself. Listen to criticism, and you will gain understanding.

Ephesians 3:16-19 I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. (MSG)

Colossians 4:5,6 Be wise in the way you act with those who are not believers. Use your time in the best way you can. When you talk, you should always be kind and wise. Then you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should.

1 John 2:15-17 Don’t love this evil world or the things in it. If you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. This is all there is in the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. But none of these comes from the Father. They come from the world. The world is passing away, and all the things that people want in the world are passing away. But whoever does what God wants will live forever.

1 Peter 5:10 Yes, you will suffer for a short time. But after that, God will make everything right. He will make you strong. He will support you and keep you from falling. He is the God who gives all grace. He chose you to share in his glory in Christ. That glory will continue forever.

2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.” (ESV)

Proverbs 12:16 Fools are easily upset, but wise people avoid insulting others.

John 14:1-3 Jesus said, “Don’t be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you. After I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back. Then I will take you with me, so that you can be where I am.

Colossians 1:28 So we continue to tell people about Christ. We use all wisdom to counsel every person and teach every person. We are trying to bring everyone before God as people who have grown to be spiritually mature in Christ.

Psalm 112:5-7 It is good for people to be kind and generous and to be fair in business. Such good people will never fall. They will always be remembered. They will not be afraid of bad news. They are confident because they trust in the LORD.

John 10:30,31 The Father and I are one.” Again the Jews there picked up stones to kill Jesus. But he said to them, “The many wonderful things you have seen me do are from the Father. Which of these good things are you killing me for?”

John 10:29 My Father is the one who gave them to me, and he is greater than all. No one can steal my sheep out of his hand.

John 10:28 I give my sheep eternal life. They will never die, and no one can take them out of my hand.

Hebrews 4:1,2 And we still have the promise that God gave those people. That promise is that we can enter his place of rest. So we should be very careful that none of you fails to get that promise. Yes, the good news about it was told to us just as it was to them. But the message they heard did not help them. They heard it but did not accept it with faith.

Hebrews 4:1 And we still have the promise that God gave those people. That promise is that we can enter his place of rest. So we should be very careful that none of you fails to get that promise.

You don’t often hear people in my position talk about the fact that we get tired. After all, I’m the preacher. I’m supposed to have all the answers. Yeah, right! But we do get tired. Very tired.

And yes, there have been times when exhaustion and weakness have rolled up on my doorstep. Even though I stay fit and healthy, even though I eat healthily, even though I prioritise rest and time with my family, sometimes, it all just swamps you.

The reason I share that is that I want to set you free to some extent in the knowledge that no, it ain’t just you. Tiredness comes in many different forms: physical of course, but also emotional and spiritual. Sometimes it’s a perfect storm – all three at once.

So, you end up feeling week, feeling tired, feeling wholly inadequate to face the world, feeling frankly, like something of a fraud – I call myself a Christian, I trust in God, why isn’t it working? What am I doing wrong?

Open a Bible, read anybody’s story – from Adam and Eve, through to Moses, Abraham, Joseph, David … on to the Apostle Paul in the New Testament and yes, even Jesus – and you’ll discover that tiredness hit them all. Can I repeat that? One hundred percent of those Biblical A-listers experienced exhaustion. So, what to do? Answer? Trust in God:

Jeremiah 31:25 I will give rest and strength to those who are weak and tired.

Charles Spurgeon once said this: “Throw yourself upon God’s faithfulness as you do upon your bed, bringing all your weariness to His dear rest.”

When nothing else works, throw yourself upon God.

That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.

When adversity slaps you in the face (yet again!) how much do you feel like reaching out to God? The answer for many, is not all that much. So we just sit there and stew in our misery as though that’ll fix everything.

Yesterday we chatted about the reality, the powerful reality, the liberating, lifechanging reality that Jesus came to this earth to seek out and to save the lost. Terrible people like Zacchaeus the tax collector of whom He said:

Yes, even this tax collector is one of God’s chosen people. The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.

That’s great news … He’s actually seeking out sinners like you and me so we need never run and hide in our shame, in our fear, in our adversity. In fact, the absolute opposite is true. Writes King David of Israel, a thousand or so years before Jesus walked this earth:

Psalm 86:5,6 My Lord, you are good and merciful. You love all those who call to you for help. LORD, hear my prayer. Listen to my cry for mercy.

In his times of trouble – possibly because he’d been through so many – David’s instinct was to reach out, to cry out to God. To implore Him – listen to my cry for mercy.

You know what? That’s a good instinct. A very good instinct. Because God is a God of grace and mercy, a God of love and forgiveness. It’s who He is. That’s why He sent Jesus to come and seek you out. And that’s why He yearns for you to cry out to Him.

Seek Him out. He wants to be found.  

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

Like it or not, we all secretly keep a ledger in our heads. And each ledger has two sides. The credit side and the debit side; the good things we’ve done and the bad things we’ve done. And in our heart of hearts, we know, absolutely, that God has a keen eye on that ledger.

Of course we shouldn’t think that way. God is a God of grace and of mercy, of love and of forgiveness. And yet, that ledger mentality can be so incredibly difficult to shake, can’t it?

Man, I blew things yesterday God won’t even want to talk with me, let alone bless me. I’d better keep my distance for a while.

And day by day, that distance becomes greater and greater. Little by little a short break from God becomes a yawning chasm so wide and so deep, that you can’t begin to imagine how you’re going to traverse it.

Jesus copped a lot of flak from the religious establishment back in the day for hanging out with prominent sinners like the tax collector Zacchaeus and his mates. These were terrible people, cheating and exploiting their fellow Israelites in cahoots with the occupying Romans. But …

Luke 19:9,10 Jesus said, “Today is the day for this family to be saved from sin. Yes, even this tax collector is one of God’s chosen people. The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”

His point? He came for people just like Zacchaeus, the worst of the worst. He came for people just like you and me. He came to find us, to seek us out and to save us – something that He gave His life for. Jesus.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

It’s nice, isn’t it, when other people value you – who you are, what you’ve done, perhaps even the potential they see in you. That’s nice. But we live in a world where all that’s been taken way, way too far.  Becoming more like Jesus isn’t something that happens overnight, at least it hasn’t for me. How about you?  Right, so now that we’re on the same page, what do we do with that natural desire to be liked, to be thought well of, to receive accolades for how truly wonderful we are?  After all, it’s one thing to be valued by others. It’s another thing entirely to yearn for recognition and rewards. Enter, Jesus:  Philippians 2:7-9 During his life as a man, he humbled himself by being fully obedient to God, even when that caused his death—death on a cross. So God raised him up to the most important place and gave him the name that is greater than any other name.  What that tells me is that the single greatest act of humility in all of history, earned Jesus the greatest possible exaltation and reward. And that principle flows through to the likes of thee and me as well.  As you bump along on your journey with Jesus – albeit some days one step forward, two steps back – you discover that the more you humble yourself, the more you step away from the recognition, reward trap of this world, the more you experience the blessed release of not having to impress; not having to be recognised; not having to win.  And indeed, the more God blesses you in ways that you could never have imagined. Humble yourself.  That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.

I wonder if you, like me, have ever found yourself labouring away, trying your darndest to do good things for God … but it feels, well, so hard. It’s as though God’s not in it and you’re carrying the whole load on your own.

Look, I get it. There are people watching, listening to or reading this, thinking, “Hey, the last thing I’m interested in doing is working for God. Seriously?!” Okay, but wherever you’re at, most of us do want to do what’s good, right? But doing good can be such hard work some days.

The older I get, the less interested I am in labouring away in my own strength. Not when there’s a God with unlimited power, unlimited resources and, what’s more, an unlimited desire to bless us. Why would you want to do it all in your own strength?

Back in the Old Testament, there was a great Prophet, Elijah with an apprentice called Elisha. When it came time for Elijah to go home to God, well … here it is:

2 Kings 2:9 After they crossed the river, Elijah said to Elisha, “What do you want me to do for you before God takes me away from you?” Elisha said, “I ask you for a double share of your spirit on me.”

With a request like that, clearly Elisha didn’t want to do things in his own strength either. And, what he asked for is exactly what he received. When Elijah was taken up, a double helping of the Spirit of God was poured out on him – giving him great power and authority.

#NoteToSelf: Stop labouring in your own strength. Ask for a double helping from God.

That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.