Precious in His Sight // You Are To Die For, Part 3
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
Release Date: 04/09/2025
A Certain Hope for Tomorrow // A Life Eternal, Part 5
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
Life without hope for tomorrow is sad and dark and lonely. If God is God, if He really loves us, then surely, He’d want us to have hope for the future. Wouldn’t He? Have you ever been in a place where you’ve lost all hope? Hope as it turns out is a precious, precious commodity. We all need things in our lives to look forward to; to hope in – the deep sense that we have a future; we know where we are going. When there’s no future, it’s tragic; when you lose all hope, well, it feels like life’s over. And that’s the problem with death, we all die at some point. Some die young,...
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Living a Resurrected Life Today // A Life Eternal, Part 4
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
If Jesus really rose from the dead all that time ago, if it really happened….well, what does it mean to us today? What’s the relevance? What’s the point? This week on the program we are taking a bit of a look at this whole "resurrection" thing, because on the one hand it’s so central to everything that Jesus talked about, and everything that Christians believe. But on the other hand, well, it can be hard to relate to that. I mean, how does it fit into real life today? I’m not sure where you are in terms of believing in Jesus and in particular in His resurrection. But let’s assume...
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Did It Really Happen? // A Life Eternal, Part 3
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
There’s not a serious historian alive today who doesn’t acknowledge the life and death of Jesus Christ. But the resurrection…..well that’s another thing entirely. Did it really happen? Over this week on the program, we are looking at and exploring the whole question of Jesus’ resurrection. It can seem fanciful and even irrelevant, something that may or may not have happened a couple of thousand years ago and let’s face it – Jesus was crucified and then they said He’s alive. I mean, it’s pretty hard to believe, you know. What’s the proof, what’s the evidence? I mean, if we...
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They Should Have Known // A Life Eternal, Part 2
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
It turns out that coming to grips with the resurrection of Jesus wasn’t easy for the disciples. And to tell you the truth, it can be difficult to come to grips with it here and now as well. They say that there are two absolute certainties in life – death and taxes. Well, let’s leave taxes for another day – that leaves death. One day, you and I will breathe our last breath on this planet, that’s pretty much certain, despite all the hopes and dreams and plans that we have for next week and next year and the next decade, most of us simply don’t know when that moment will come, when we...
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A Crazy Morning // A Life Eternal, Part 1
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
So what was it like that first Easter morning? He’s alive. Is He? I don’t know. The others say they’ve seen Him. Hmm. What do you think? Let me paint you a picture. Just the other day, someone that you loved passed away. You really admired and trusted this person. I mean, you'd seen him in operation and now they're gone! It's a shock! It shouldn't have happened! They're so young and so full of promise ... had a future. And now, that person is gone. Take some time to come to grasp to that – the shock and the sadness, and the deep sense of loss and even anger. We go through so many...
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A Dead Loss // Easter Without Chocolate, Part 5
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
People talk about “the real meaning of Easter”. OK. So for some people, Easter’s more than chocolates, eggs, bunnies and a long weekend. But – well, how do you react to the real meaning of Easter? This week we've been looking at Easter which is not surprising since it’s Good Friday today. Jesus, in his last week, spent a good amount of his time encouraging his disciples, here was a man under an enormous pressure, heading to a gruesome death and yet His main concern was on encouraging those twelve men, one of whom would betray Him. But of course on what we now...
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On the Cross // Easter Without Chocolate, Part 4
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
You see people wearing gold crosses on chains all the time. Even earrings. But on that first Easter – what really happened on that cross. I mean, what did Jesus actually go through? It's almost Easter and this week on the program we've been taking a bit of a look at the goings on in the week leading up to the first Easter. There's been nothing about chocolate or eggs or bunnies. Nothing’s wrong with any of those things, they just don't fit into any of the events that first Easter. Today I thought it would be interesting just to have a look at the real physical suffering of Jesus....
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Betrayal and Rejection // Easter Without Chocolate, Part 3
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
When you see the way someone reacts in difficult circumstances, under pressure, when they’re betrayed and rejected – then you discover what they’re really like. So how did Jesus react? One of the hardest things in life is when we're betrayed and rejected. Basically, we all want relationships of trust, and basically, we all want to be liked, okay some more than others but it's a pretty natural thing, isn't it? What we'd really like is for our life to cruise along with great relationships, people we can depend on, people who like us. But it's not always like that, so often there's...
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Hang In There // Easter Without Chocolate, Part 2
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
That week leading up to the very first Easter was a torrid time for Jesus. Imagine the stress and the pressure. So it’s interesting to see how He spent those few days. Let me paint a scenario for a moment. You're dying and you know it and the time is drawing near, you only have a few days, perhaps just a few final hours with the people who mean the most to you. You know something; you know that when you're gone they're going to go through some really tough times, trials, fears, persecution. In those final days and hours what would you talk to them about? I mean, you have a short...
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Going Away - You Know Where // Easter Without Chocolate, Part 1
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
That week leading up to the very first Easter was a torrid time for Jesus. Imagine the stress and the pressure. So it’s interesting to see how He spent those few days. Easter means different things to different people. Chocolate, of course there's chocolate, eggs, bunny's, a long weekend, a chance for a bit of a breather and that’s great. We have a funny way though of reinventing holidays, there's something so amazing about Easter, Gods Easter and since we're right now in the week leading up to Easter I thought why don't we have a look at that week leading up to that very first...
info_outlineWe live in a time of mass production. Commodities are just churned out. People are ….just a commodity. But not in God’s eyes…..that’s what makes Easter so, well….special.
I sometime think about the times when Jesus was training to be a carpenter in his Dad’s carpenter shop. The wooden things that he made, we don’t really know but probably chairs and tables and doors and door frames, even coffins I guess. It’s ironic that ultimately he was nailed to two bits of wood.
I can’t imagine he ever turned out any shoddy work, I can’t imagine he ever made a table that wasn’t straight or level or a chair that wasn’t solid or a door that didn’t fit into the door jam. Well, what if he applied the same level of perfection to you and me? What if when we were created he was there? And what does that do to our view of Easter?
Yesterday and again today, we are looking at Psalm 139 because it’s about God’s motivations behind Easter. Psalm 139 is to me like a door into God’s heart, to see what was going on inside when He dreamt up this whole Easter thing. We had a look at the first part yesterday and we saw that God knows us so intimately and He’s on the journey of life with us, not way off at a distance, not disinterested but right in the middle of it with us.
Everywhere we go, even when it’s dark and stormy and painful His light shines in the middle of all of that. That’s huge, to know that God is walking every step of the way with us, there’s nowhere we can go and be alone or apart from God, if we go to heaven he’s there, if we go to hell he’s there if we fly to the farthest ends to the earth he’s still there.
But how is it that God knows us so well? I mean sometimes we don’t even know ourselves that well, do we? We can’t explain why we do what we do or why we reacted to something the way we did, I mean you and I are pretty complex creatures; there is so many layers to our personality and who we are. Some things are so deep inside us that we can’t ever really understand them ourselves or even talk about them. How does God know? Well, the Psalmist in Psalm 139 goes on to explain that to us, and we’re going to read that right now. We’re reading from Psalm 139 beginning at verse 13:
For you God, you created my innermost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb, God I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are so wonderful I know that full well. My frame wasn’t hidden from you when I was made in that secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my unformed substance. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
This is one of the most precious passages in the Bible to me, as we look back on our lives what we see is a mixture of wonderful and desperate, beautiful and ugly, we’ve done some brilliant things and we done some really, really stupid things, there are great highs and there are dark valleys. But when you and I were conceived God was there, our innermost parts, who we are, our DNA blueprint, the way that we’d look and sound and all our gifts and abilities and strengths and weaknesses, all that complexity He created our innermost being.
He knit us together in our mother’s womb; you and I are handcrafted by God, one of a kind, distinctive, completely, utterly amazingly, beautifully, wondrously made. Separate and different from every other person who ever lived, and every person who ever will live, intricately woven, each strand of DNA laid down according to His plan. And not only that God wasn’t in control just of who we are but of everything that would ever happen to us. Look at this again:
All the days ordained for me, all the days set apart for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
That’s why I so despair when I meet people who waste away there lives worrying and complaining about their lot. Yeah some people have better lives that others, some people seem to get all the breaks and the benefits and the blessings and other people seem to get handed difficult and painful lives, just like Jesus, just like the Apostle Paul.
I was just talking, having a cup of coffee just recently with a couple and we were talking about just this, how come God does something mighty and powerful in this persons life and this other person God takes years to do what He’s going to do? I don’t know! But it’s about God’s plan, about God’s glory. There’s a wonderful poem call The Weaver, you may have heard me read it once before, have a listen, it’s beautiful:
My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me.
I cannot choose the colours as He weaveth steadily,
Sometimes He chooses dark threads and I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reasons why
The dark threads were as needful in the weaver’s skilful hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He hath planned.
You and I are exactly what He made us to be, you and I are living the life that He planned for us. But you know sometimes we don’t open ourselves to His plan. Sometimes we shut God out and we wonder why life is going badly.
Easter’s coming, Easter is rolling around the corner and Easter is the time when we look at that Cross and we know that Jesus Christ came to die for you and me, maybe you’ve never ever accepted Jesus and put your faith in Him and what He did for you on the Cross. If you haven’t now is the time to do it, let’s just pray, you might want to pray this prayer with me.
Father,
I thank you for what Jesus did for me on the cross, I believe that He is the Son of God, I believe He died for me, I believe He rose again. Father, I want to live my life in that knowledge, I give you everything I am, I give you everything I have, I’m sorry for all the things I’ve done wrong and I’ve put those at the feet of the cross right now. Father, forgive me through Jesus Christ, I want to be called a Christian, I want to follow Jesus and live my life for Him. Lord I don’t know what that means, I don’t know how that will play itself out, I don’t know what your plans are but Lord I want to live my life for the glory of Jesus Christ and today I lay my life down for Him so that in Him I cant take it up again, a new life, a fresh life. Thank you Father that I am forgiven because I believe in Jesus, thank you Father that I have an eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
You and I are what He made us to be, when we put our faith in Him we live the most incredible joy and when we see the beauty of God’s plan hand crafted by Him to live the life that He laid out before time began we get some sense of what was going on in His heart when He came up with this plan of Easter.