Above and Not Below // An Abundant Life in Jesus, Part 5
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
Release Date: 01/10/2025
Forgiving the Really Big Things // Forgive and Forget, Part 5
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
You have a son. He’s out walking one night. A car hits him. Leaves him for dead on the freeway so that a few minutes later, the next car on that dark road kills him. Imagine. This week on a different perspective we've been talking about forgiveness. In a world where we often experience emotional bumps and bruises it turns out that forgiveness is as important to our emotional well being as physical healing is to our bodies. But every now and then in life a tsunami hits, something so incredibly overwhelming that we could have never predicted it or imagined how we would cope. I always thought...
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Forgiving Brings Healing // Forgive and Forget, Part 4
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
How do you get over the hurts of the past? You know, really let go so they don’t hurt anymore. Well, today, we’re going to meet an amazing woman – Lorraine Watson – who has a real story to tell. These days psychologists and psychiatrists talk about the fact that the act of forgiving someone often results in healing. On Monday I talked about some research with some incest survivors. Fifty percent of them were asked to participate in some workshops on forgiveness. The psychologists who conducted the research concluded that the forgiveness resulted in dramatically reduced anxiety and...
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When God Forgave Us // Forgive and Forget, Part 3
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
We all know that we need to forgive people. That’s the theory, But let’s now put the shoe on the other foot and talk about God’s forgiveness. Does He really need to forgive us? Really? Forgiveness is one of those fluffy words that quite often we pay very little attention to. But when you think about it, it’s pretty obvious that without forgiveness, we can’t have effective relationships. Without forgiveness on a daily basis between husband and wife a marriage falls apart. And they do in epidemic proportion. Without forgiving our work colleagues for their shortcomings and...
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Forgiving is Accepting // Forgive and Forget, Part 2
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
Every person we will ever meet, is going to annoy us at some point. Something in their personality will grate, something they do will hurt … so what’s the secret of having a great relationship anyway? It seems that there are really only two types of people in this world: those who love getting up early in the morning and those who don’t, those who love cats and those who hate them. Or, you know what I mean. It seems that different people just come out of different moulds. We have different likes and dislikes, different strengths and weaknesses. And as much as those differences make life...
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Forgiving is Forgetting // Forgive and Forget, Part 1
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
When someone does something wrong – something that hurts us, it’s easy to say, “I forgive you”. But actually living out that forgiveness – what does that look like? In a recent edition, the magazine, Psychology Today, carried an article on forgiveness. In part, the article reports that until recently psychologists regarded forgiveness as the business of the clergy and theologians. But now, mental health experts are subjecting forgiveness to the microscope of scientific scrutiny with no apologies. It goes on to tell of 2 psychologists, Drs. Robert Enright and Suzanne Freedman, working...
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The Year of the Lord's Favour // Why Jesus Came for Me, Part 5
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
Sometimes, life gets so rough and rocky and we think to ourselves, surely, surely it must get better soon. But some people give up hope completely, and just live their lives in a constant state of despair. When we think about God, whoever that is, it’s easy to get a distorted picture. The older we are the more we tend to think of Him as being judgmental, and the younger we are well, younger people, how do they see God? I saw an article published recently that reported younger peoples’ views of God, it was based on a survey that had been conducted nationally in Australia with young people,...
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Let the Oppressed Go Free // Why Jesus Came for Me, Part 4
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
We tend to think of oppression in global geo-political terms. But normal, everyday people experience all sorts of oppression – sometimes, in the most unexpected of ways. Oppression is just a fact of life in this world, we tend to think of it in political and in social terms, on a national or international scale, and it is huge. But oppression happens right at home too, oppression isn’t about nations, it’s about individuals like you and me. To be oppressed means to be down trodden. A husband can oppress his wife, a mother can oppress her child, a boss can oppress their employees, and...
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Sight for the Blind // Why Jesus Came for Me, Part 3
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
Imagine just for a moment that you’re blind and all of a sudden, your sight is restored. What would that be like? How would it feel? As a young man I used to have 20/20 vision but like just about everyone else, when you get to your late 30s and early 40s the old vision gets a bit blurred, and I needed glasses. These days I wouldn’t even think of driving a car or reading a book without the old multifocals. When you think about it, little by little without us even noticing, our vision becomes distorted. It’s like that with glaucoma too, little by little people lose their sight and by the...
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Release to the Captives // Why Jesus Came for Me, Part 2
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
It must be an amazing feeling for a prisoner to be set free after years of incarceration. I wonder when they step out of the prison – what that freedom looks like, tastes like, smells like. I’m not sure if you every saw that movie in the mid 90’s called The Shawshank Redemption with Morgan Freeman. But it’s about two men essentially who find themselves in jail, one played by Morgan Freeman is there because he committed murder, the other one is there because he’s been framed. Anyhow there’s a scene in the movie where the Morgan Freeman character finally gets parole after decades,...
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Good News for the Poor // Why Jesus Came for Me, Part 1
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
Most of us like to watch the news, or listen to it on the radio, or read the newspaper. But really, there’s precious little good news these days. It all seems to be bad news, especially for the poor. But Jesus said that He had good news for the poor. So what did He mean? One of the little rituals that I love to perform every night is to watch the evening news on television. It’s just, I don’t know, my way of unwinding for the day and I guess it’s my way of finding out what’s been going on at home and around the world. But have you noticed whether you watch it on TV or listen to it on...
info_outlineLife can be a grind, and frankly life can get us down. We all know that. And so our view of what life is, and what it should be, becomes all twisted – inside out and upside down. So it’s time to get things right way up again. It’s time to discover what God has to say about the life He wants for you.
This week on the program we’ve kicked off a new series where we’ve been looking at the promise that Jesus made to give us an abundant life. Here it is again in case you missed it earlier in the week. John chapter 10, verse 10:
The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.
It’s a beautiful promise and it’s one that’s always touched my heart. It’s a promise from Jesus that I take seriously. He came so that you and I could have life and not just have life but have it in all its abundance.
Now abundance is an amazing word isn’t it? It means plenty, overflow, a very large quantity of something. But what if I told you that the original Greek word used here for abundance literally means super abundance. More than abundant, over the top abundant, because that’s exactly what it means.
That’s Jesus’ promise and yet the promise is made here as a point of comparison and the promise is the second part of the verse, the first part is about something else, it’s about the thief he’s called here in the story:
The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.
And in fact as we’ve seen earlier this week on the program this whole story where Jesus teaches us that He is the good and true shepherd of us, the sheep, is about the authenticity of who Jesus is as that shepherd versus the sham of the impostors. Question is: why did Jesus make this beautiful promise in such a context?
Well of course the thief in the story is the devil and the original Greek word for the devil is diabolos which is the word from which we get our English word diabolical. It means a slanderer, a false accuser and elsewhere in the New Testament, in Revelations chapter 12 verse 9, the devil is also called the deceiver; someone who tricks people and leads them astray away from the right path or away from the truth into error.
That’s the devil here in this story, a thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy. And so here Jesus presents us with an alternative, the thief or the true Shepherd, the hireling or the true Shepherd. The people who come into the sheepfold, climbing over the walls or the true Shepherd who comes to the front gate.
Now you might say to me, well there’s no real alternative, I don’t want the impostors, I don’t want a thief, I want the real thing, I don’t want someone who steals, kills and destroys, I want Jesus the good Shepherd. I will have the good Shepherd thank you very much, who came to give me a super abundant life.
Of course it’s an obvious choice in the light of Jesus’ parable of the good shepherd here. He means for it to be so obvious because it is obvious. When you stop and think about it the problem is we often don’t stop, we often don’t think about it because the devil doesn’t always come to us looking like a thief, you know with a little black beanie on. Quite to the contrary in fact; 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 14 says:
That satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
Isn’t that true? The whole point of temptation is that it’s seductive. Evil comes to us wrapped in a wrapper that cries out to us, “Open me, come follow me, take me I’m good, I’ll bless you.” The very first deception and temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden was exactly that. Evil was dressed up as having a benefit, that’s why it’s so diabolical, that’s why the devil is a liar and a deceiver.
And so we’re seduced into his lies and all of a sudden we’re in the hands of the thief who comes only to steal, kill and destroy. To rob us of the super abundant life that Jesus came to give us because you know what? He came disguising himself as an angel of light.
Do you see the power of this parable? Do you see what’s going on here? God wants to bless us, God wants to heap His super abundant blessing into our lives but like any father when his children are rebelling He can’t bless us because the blessing would reward the rebellion.
When my children played up sometimes when they were young the tap of dad’s blessing turned off. Sometimes they were punished by removal of a privilege, no internet access for a few months. Why? Was I being mean? No, because I was teaching them right from wrong and the basis of that lesson is that blessing comes when you do right and you lose it when you do wrong. Parents do that because A) they love their children and B) we’re wired to be like that.
One of the very worst things we can do and you see it a lot these days is to continue to bless our children when they are doing wrong. I want you to have a listen to one of the best explanations of the link between obedience and blessing that I’ve found in God’s Word. It comes from Deuteronomy chapter 28 beginning at verse 1. Listen carefully to what God says to His people:
If you only obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all His commandments that I am commanding you today the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord. Blessed shall be your city and blessed shall be your field, blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your livestock both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.
Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed you will be when you come in and blessed you shall be when you go out. The Lord will cause the enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you in seven ways. The Lord will command His blessing upon you in your barns and in all you undertake, He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
The Lord will establish you as His holy people as He has sworn to you if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they will be afraid of you. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity and the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your livestock, the fruit of your ground in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give to you.
The Lord will open for you His rich storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings. You will lend to many nations but you will not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be only at the top and not at the bottom.
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today by diligently observing them and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you today either to the right or to the left following other God’s to serve them.
But if you will not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all His commands and decrees which I am commanding you today then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall be the city. Cursed shall be your field.
And it goes on and lists a whole bunch of curses.
Do you see the causal link between obedience and blessing, disobedience and the removal of that blessing just as in any relationship between parent and child? But the thing that strikes me here is the magnitude of the blessing. Verse 2 of Deuteronomy 28:
All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord.
Don’t you love how the blessings will overtake you? They will be super-abundant just as Jesus said. Verse 13:
The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall only be at the top and not the bottom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today.
Friend, God wants to bless us, super abundantly so that the blessing chases us down the street and overtakes us. Do you get it? But that blessing happens when we are close to the good shepherd, safe in His care. Not when we follow the thief and let him plunder our lives through deception and temptation. Our Dad in heaven truly does want us to be the head and not the tail, to be above and not below. What father wouldn’t want that for his children?