An Awesome Thought // You Are To Die For, Part 4
A Different Perspective Official Podcast
Release Date: 04/10/2025
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_outlineIt’s easy to take the whole Easter thing and say, “Yeah I get it” – so we put it in a nice, convenient little box on the shelf marked “Easter”. But Easter isn’t like that – it never was.
Can you believe it, Easter is rolling around yet again, and it’s so easy for us to take the whole Easter thing and say yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. So we put it in a nice convenient little box on the shelf marked “Easter” and we just walk by it and we ignore it. But you know Easter isn’t like that, Easter was never meant to be like that, just skate through and we have a long weekend and we forget about it, yet Easter is the most decisive thing that God’s ever done.
Jesus His Son, sent to die for us on a cross and rise again, that’s what it's all about, you and I in God’s sight are “to die for” He wants us so much, He wants an eternal relationship so much that He would allow His Son to die on a cross for us. How sad is it if we just skate on through and we don’t give it a second thought?
Easter is the time when God sent His Son to die for us, to solve a problem and we’re going to look at that problem, it has a name, it’s called “sin”. A lot of people don’t like that term, a lot of people think it’s old fashioned, God doesn’t and we’re going to look at that problem next week. But the thing that just, I don’t know, oozes out of Easter for me is how much God loves us and we’ve been seeing that through a Psalm this week on the program, Psalm 139, that we’ve been taking a look at. It’s a psalm that speaks so much about, well, about God’s heat, God’s motivation behind Easter, He’s incredible love. Just have a listen:
Father God I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are 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 pass. How precious to me are your thoughts oh God, how vast is the sum of them, were I to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I wake I’m still with you.
The person writing this psalm, we don’t fully know who it was, is just so awestruck, so blown away by how much God loves him, how much God loves you and me. We can praise Him because we are wondrously made, because He was there, He saw our unformed substance in our mother’s womb.
I’ll never be able to understand how He feels about me and how He feels about you. God’s love is so huge, it’s so vast, it’s so incomprehensible, one day you and I will stand before God, one day we’ll see Him for who He is, one day we’ll look on His face. And the Bible says that we will know everything but I just can’t imagine that because He loves us so much and you know when He created you and me individually, wondrously, perfectly, handcrafted … us … yeah, you and me, intricately woven together in our mother’s wombs, that was the most amazing act of grace.
Because He knew we’d reject Him, He always knew that and He always knew that to bring us back to Him, to save us from ourselves and what we deserve He would have to send His Son Jesus to die on that cross for you and me. You and I, our rebellion, our sin was never a surprise to Him, He always knew, and yet still he created us, still He planned every day of our lives even before any of those days existed at all. No wonder the Psalmist writes:
How weighty are your thoughts to me Oh God, how vast is the sum of them, I try and count them but they’re more than the sand on the beach.
I come to the end and I’m still with you because behind Easter is the most amazing act of grace. Not just that Jesus came to suffer and die to pay for our failure but that God always knew that He would have to do that and He created us anyway.
Can I encourage you never, ever, to put Easter in some convenient measured little box, never, ever to consign Easter to some head knowledge thing but like the psalmist be blown away by God’s love, be gob smacked, be in awe and wonder at the fact that He created us anyway and He was there when we were being formed.
He handcrafted our DNA, every breath you take, every step, every hilltop, every valley, every twist and turn, every thing that we have to suffer and bear, live it in the awe and wonder at who God is and how much He loves us. Life takes on a completely new vibrancy and colour, it doesn’t matter how much we have to suffer and how much we weep and how many tears we cry, we know that God had a plan for you and me, not just who we are but for the lives that we’re going to live, that He’s given us.
And for you to walk in the wonder and the awe of the completely unattainable knowledge of His for you in Jesus Christ we’ll look at more at how that love plays itself out through the Easter story over the next couple of weeks. But you know unless we’re completely lost in the wonder of His plan and His love Easter becomes just another long weekend. You and I we are “to die for” in God’s sight.
That is what Easter is all about. God’s word is so awesome and I pray that you’re blessed as you hear God’s word and challenged by the sheer magnitude of God’s love.
I often think that when it comes to the things of God, you know the head is to the heart what our mouth is to our stomach. when we eat we put food in our mouths right, and we chew for a while … but if you want to satisfy our hunger we have to swallow it. Then it goes deep inside somewhere hidden and all those inner parts that God created, they suck the goodness out of the food. And that’s what feeds us, that’s what gives us strength, that’s where the food becomes a part of us.
And you know it’s the same with God’s word, sure we take it in through our heads, but if we just leave it there well that’s like chewing food but never swallowing it. As we spend time in God’s word here in Psalm 139 over this coming week, line by line, just pondering and praying and asking God, “Lord what are you saying to me?” That’s when it drops into our hearts, that’s when God takes His word and nourishes us and sustains us and grows us, that’s how we get fed.
Please, please do not leave it there, do something for me, this week grab a Bible open it up at Psalm 139, spend some time in there with God, just quietly on your own. And the Holy Spirit will feed your soul deep, deep inside, in a way that’ll surprise you and startle you.
He’ll bring His word to life in you and you know something? When we know in our hearts the unknowable love of God in Jesus Christ, it changes us. It changes our lives and that’s His plan, that’s what He wants for us heading into Easter. God paid an enormous price for us to know His love, that is what Easter is all about.