If you were to look back on how (if at all) you've changed as a person over, say, the last five or ten years, would you be able to conclude that you're a markedly better person today than you were back then?

What does it mean to be a better person? Perhaps that selfishness has given way to generosity, pride to humility, anger to kindness. You have greater empathy for others; you help them, forgiving them, even when they don't deserve it. You smile more than you frown.

That's a tall order, wouldn't you say? And as much as we might work on becoming a "better person" – whatever that means to you – it's difficult to change entrenched attitudes and behaviours. It's almost like having a serious illness and trying to heal yourself instead of going to a doctor.

There is another way, of course; that Way is Jesus, allowing the great Physician to be the healer in your heart. Here's how the Apostle Paul puts it:

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And our faces are not covered. We all show the Lord's glory, and we are being changed to be like him. This change in us brings more and more glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Billy Graham expounds on that with this piece of wisdom: "Only God can give us selfless love for others, as the Holy Spirit changes us from within. This is one reason we must receive Christ, for apart from His Spirit we can never be freed from the chains of selfishness, jealousy and indifference. Will others see Christ's love in your life today?"

Let Jesus transform you from the inside out.

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

When a mother understood God’s sacrificial love of God for herself, she understood why she could trust her son to God.

When you're travelling through the dark days in life – it's one thing for someone to say to us "Don't worry God will come through in the end." But it's another thing entirely, when we discover the refuge of the Lord.

I want you to imagine that you're out one night walking along a dark and lonely street and all of a sudden you see some drunk and unruly men coming towards you, they're swearing and they look to be wielding knives. You take a quick look around and there's not another soul in this street and just then you see a house to your left, you look in the window and you see a family sitting down to dinner. What do you do? I know what I'd be doing, I'd duck in, I'd knock on their front door as quickly as I could and I'd ask them if I could just step inside until those men disappear, wouldn't you?

Now there's a name for that, it's called, "seeking refuge". It's not a sign of weakness, it doesn't mean that somehow we're a loser, it just means that in that dark and dangerous place we just need somewhere that's safe; we need a refuge. The problem is that in this world, when we're going through difficult times in dark places, so often it doesn't seem to be a refuge to be found.

Refuge is a word that appears over and over and over again right through the Bible. In fact just in the Psalms it's used 48 times and of those, 46 times "refuge" is talking about God himself. Have a listen to just a few, Psalm 36, verse 7:

How priceless God is your unfailing love. Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Psalm 62, verses 7 and 8:

My salvation and my honour depend on God. He is my mighty rock and my refuge. Trust in Him all times O people, pour out your hearts to Him for God is our refuge.

And in Psalm 119, verse 114:

You are my refuge and my shield O God; I have put my hope in your word.

Now I'd like to spend a bit of time looking at this, this "refuge" thing today because when we're going through tough times in dark and dangerous places, a refuge is exactly what we need.

Over these last two weeks on the program we've been working our way through a series in, just around Psalm 34 called, "Dark Night, Bright Light". This psalm is written by King David with the wisdom of hindsight. Having been through lots and lots of dark and dangerous places, here in this Psalm David praises God because what he discovered is at the end of them all God showed up and delivered him; God came through. No matter how grim or how dark or how dangerous it appeared. That's great stuff and if you have some time, can I really encourage you to get aside and have a really good read of this short psalm, Psalm 34.

But it's one thing for David to pen Psalm 34 and tell us his experience and say, "you know what I discovered? I discovered God delivered me every time." That's cool David, that's really great but it's so easy for us to respond to that and say, "well that's fine for you Davo; brilliant. Glad that God came through for you but right now I'm in a dark place and I'm petrified and the fact that God showed up for you doesn't help me much." That's a pretty natural human response.

When we send out an S.O.S. to God it may well be that God will come through some time but what about the mean time? Well, have a listen to the end of this psalm of David's, Psalm 34.

We're just going to read the last few verses, verses 19 to 22 because in the very last verse God answers that question for us. Let's have a read:

The afflictions of a righteous man are many but the Lord delivers us from them all. He protects all his bones, not one of them will broken. Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems His servants; no-one will be condemned who takes

Have you ever found yourself thinking, "Those people over there, man, they're behaving so badly. I'm so glad I'm not like them"? At which point, a sense of moral superiority rises up in your heart. You just know that you're better than them.

Many object to Christianity because they've seen Christians act in ways that contradict Jesus' teachings—judgmental attitudes, scandals, greed, racism, abuse, political power-plays.

That disconnect between belief and behaviour leads them to conclude: "If Christians don't live like Christ, why should I take their faith seriously?"

Historically and still today, moral failures in the Church—from corrupt leaders to everyday hypocrisy—undermine the Gospel's credibility.

They're not merely rejecting doctrine; they're reacting to what they perceive as spiritual fraud, echoing Gandhi's famous line: "I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

So the real issue is trust. If the Church doesn't reflect the love, humility, and integrity of Jesus, why believe its message? And humility is at the very heart of the Gospel. Before He was crucified …

John 13:3-5 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (ESV)

The difference between Jesus and religion is that religion shames you for having dirty feet. Jesus kneels down to wash them.

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

Real faith doesn’t begin with an argument but with humility, listening and meeting people where they are.

It's tough when bad things happen to good people – especially when we see good things happening to bad people – God what is going on here? Why are you letting this happen to me?

There are times in life when bad things happen to good people and perhaps you're someone who believes in Jesus and you've been living your life the best way you know how and just day after day walking with Him and all of a sudden – whamo! Something happens! The sky turns dark and all of a sudden you're in one of those dark, black times that we can go through in life.

A time of loss or pain or sickness or whatever it is and you kind of look around and think, "What is going on here God? I mean I know I'm not perfect but everyday I just get up and I just do my best and I walk with You; now this!"

My hunch is that there are a few people who relate to what I just talked about and so I want to deal with that today because when bad things happen to good people it's such a shock and it seems so unfair especially when we take a look around and we see that there's a whole bunch of good things happening to some really bad people out there that we know. What is going on God?

King David, as I've said over these last couple of weeks, is a man who went through a lot of dark times. You read about his life and sure he made some mistakes but right from the beginning God had him picked as a man after His own heart and yet he lived through so many dark and difficult times, scary times, on the run for his life. Battles with enemies that it looked like he was going to lose and God showed up just at the last minute.

You take a look at his life and if you weigh his life, kind of on our human scale of justice you'd probably come to the conclusion that, well David wasn't perfect but he was definitely one of the good guys. He tried with all his might to honour God even though some days he blew it big time. And I'm sure if David looked at his life he'd come up with the same conclusion and yet this man went through so many difficult things, so many dark and lonely times. Times when people criticised him, times when he was in fear of his life, times when he felt that God had deserted him.

So God, what's going on? Why is that? I mean this guy was a good guy, how come bad things happen to good people? Now I'm not sure I can answer all those questions, God is God and He decides those things but as we walk through Psalm 34, which is what we've been doing over the last couple of weeks, it's a Psalm where David looks back on those dark times with the benefit of hindsight. Let me share with you David's own wisdom, this is what he writes is Psalm 34, verses 15 to 19. It says that:

Eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them from them all.

Well David doesn't even bother with the "why" question does he? When we're hit with those dark times the first question we utter is, "Why me God; why me?" Right, and the second one is, "How long is this going to go on for God; how long?" Well David doesn't carry on with any of that. He looks back, he accepts the sovereignty of God and after all he's been through in his life, he draws this obvious conclusion. Verse 19 of Psalm 34:

Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers us from them all.

In other words; stuff happens, it just does. Jesus kind of put it this way, He said:

Your Father in heaven causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good and He sends his rains on the rig

Adversity tends to elicit one of two very different responses: we either become bitter or better. And please note, as similar as those words sound – bitter or better – they're mutually exclusive. Bitter, or better, one or the other. Never both. So … which will it be?

John Bunyan and George Fox were both imprisoned in 17th-century England for preaching without the permission of the Church of England. Bunyan, a Baptist, used prison as a place to draw near to God, writing The Pilgrim's Progress, which went on to become a Christian classic. His suffering softened him for the better.

Fox, founder of the Quakers, also endured harsh treatment but grew bitter and combative, isolating himself even from his allies. Both faced injustice. One surrendered his pain to God, which bore lasting fruit. The other, though sincere, became resentful. His suffering hardened him.

The same persecution elicited two very different responses – one better, the other bitter. It revealed what ruled in each man's heart.

It turns out that the same pot of boiling water will soften a potato and harden an egg. It's not so much about your circumstances, but what you're made of.

So, what are you made of? Who or what rules your soul? For King David of Israel, during one of his many times of distress, the answer was clear:

Psalm 62:1-2 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. (ESV)

When God reigns in your heart His Spirit stills your soul, enabling you to wait with quiet confidence knowing that He is your rock, your salvation, your fortress. When God reigns in your heart, you will not be shaken!

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

The Bible tells stories of great faith long ago—but stories like Hannah’s—and yours are still being written right now.

Adversity, though a fact of life, is never a welcome visitor. I get that. And yet, when it does strike, painful though it may be, it likely represents one of the greatest opportunities that God will ever hand you.

Esther Ahn Kim was a Korean Christian imprisoned by the Japanese in the 1930s for refusing to bow down to a Shinto shrine. Realising what was coming, she spent months fasting, praying and memorising Scripture.

In prison, she endured beatings, hunger and disease—yet described God's presence as her daily strength. She later wrote, "My suffering became the gateway to knowing Him more deeply." Isolated and mistreated, she met God in intimate, glorious ways that changed her forever.

King David of Israel was another who three thousand years earlier discovered the same thing through his terrible trials, writing this reflection:

Psalm 27:4-5 One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. (NIV)

Why is it then, that in their darkest hour, many seem not to be able to find time to spend with God? Canadian author Richard Blackaby said this: "If you think you're too busy to spend time with God, your view of God is much too low and your view of yourself is much too high."

Spend time in God's presence. Gaze upon His beauty. And in your darkest moments, remember … this is likely the greatest opportunity He'll ever hand you.

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