Life is hard but we make it harder. Learn God’s way for ordering our lives that doesn’t depend on our own willpower.

I've always loved technology … each new thing seems to offer so much potential to the human race. And yet, I wonder, have we gone too far? Have we allowed it to rob us of living life to the full?

A man buys the latest virtual reality headset, boasting the most vivid worlds imaginable. He spends hours each day in its glow, wandering neon streets, conquering digital empires. But in his obsession, he forgets to open the curtains.

One day, the power goes out. He tears off the headset. The room reeks of stale air. The blinds are caked in dust. And when he pulls them open, sunlight pours in, dazzling his eyes. It's warmer, richer, more real than anything the headset could ever have given him.

1 John 1:7 We should live in the light, where God is. If we live in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood sacrifice of Jesus, God's Son, washes away every sin and makes us clean.

How sad is it that so many wander in the imitative half-light of this world when the light of God's love shines so brightly, if only they'd open the curtains to see? That's precisely what I did for the first 36 years of my life.

And yet, now forgiven by Jesus' sacrifice on that Cross, my life is richer, it has more meaning, more joy, more peace than anything this world alone could ever have offered me.

Friend, there is so much more to life than the glittering trinkets of this world that so readily steal our gaze. Some people live their whole lives in pixels when the sun of God's truth is just outside. Live in the light.

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

There's a great swindle, a great con going on in our society – and in part, we're all being conned. It goes like this – if you look after numero uno – everything else will be fine. We know it doesn't work, but somehow we still want to believe it.

Today … today we're starting a new series that, I have to warn you, the devil does not want you to hear. In fact he'll do anything he can to keep you away from what we're going to be talking about over these coming few days and in fact next week as well. Why? Because if we let loose in our hearts and our lives, the thing that we're going to be talking about, it is going to mess up his game plan for your life and for mine, big time.

Well, what are we going to talk about? The subject is this, Breaking Free from the Power of Sin. That's the name of the series: Breaking Free from the Power of Sin. See, I have this crazy notion that God means, for you and me, to live not just a good life, not just a great life but an utterly sensational life. What I don't mean is that each one of us should live in a mansion with 2 Merc's in the garage.

What I don't mean is that everything in life will go well, always healthy, live to a ripe old age. It doesn't work. Life's not like that. But what I do mean is that, come what may, God means for us to live a life of joy and peace and fulfilment and contentment. The question is; how do you get that life? Problem is there's a big con being perpetrated in this world today.

The big con of this world is that what you do is you earn, you spend, you buy. That'll give you all those things. The big con is that you look after number 1 and everything else will be fine. You and I know it doesn't work. We know that it's a big con but it's a big con that we really, really, really want to swallow, hook, line and sinker And then some joker comes along and talks about sin and you think, "Well you have got to be kidding me. We're not in medieval times, we're not in the 1950's. This is the 21st century. Sin? Oh please, what planet are you living on?"

What does sin conjure up in your mind? Some old-fashioned, moralising, finger-pointing, self-righteousness. That might have worked in the dim dark ages but don't try that religion stuff on me today buddy! Sin, how gullible do you think I am? Crimson clad clergy pointing their bony fingers at me. Get out of here! Hmm, you might wonder, how is it that Berni can articulate this position so passionately? And well, the answer is this: it's one that I held for most of my life.

Religion's a bunch of rules; I don't need a bunch of rules. Sin is an old-fashioned concept, that's it, buzz off! And yet, if we were completely honest with ourselves, each one of us would admit we do things and we think things and we say things that hurt us, that ruin our lives. What we don't often realise is how much they ruin our lives. Ever asked yourself exactly what sin is? Is it an out dated concept or is it real. And does it have consequences. And is it the thing that's robbing me of a full and satisfying life?

Sin is one of the most frequently used words in the Bible, 486 times – 486. There is kind of various concepts but at the heart of it is this notion that God is perfect and that we've rebelled against God and we've broken His law and that will bring punishment. That's the kind of "sin" thing in a nutshell and I guess that's it for many people.

You mention sin and that's what it conjures up; rules, religion, moralising and who needs that? Rebellion against God, well it is that, it's all of those things. But I don't know, my hunch is, giving where we are today maybe that's not the best place to start to really understand what sin means because we've been conned.

See, I used to go scuba diving when I was younger and what you discover when you want to go scuba diving is we were made to float, we weren't made to sink. You jump in the ocean or any body of

A pilot trying to land her plane in a terrible storm has a choice to make. Amidst the violent turbulence, the zero visibility and the unquestionable danger, she can either trust her instruments to guide her to the landing strip, or panic and lose direction. The best choice? Pretty obvious, isn't it?!

Perhaps you, like me, profess a faith in Jesus, believing (as the Bible says) that the glory of God fills the whole earth. But storms happen. The daily grind grinds you down, at which point, just like our hypothetical pilot, you have a choice to make … one which is far from hypothetical, one which in all honesty will set the course of the rest of your life.

Isaiah 6:1,3 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a very high and wonderful throne. His long robe filled the Temple. Seraph angels stood around him. … The angels were calling to each other, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD All-Powerful. His Glory fills the whole earth."

King Uzziah had been a strong, long-reigning king. His death (around 740 BC) marked a time of national uncertainty. This vision comes to the Prophet Isaiah at a time of leadership vacuum and spiritual decline in Judah. He's granted a vision of the true King — not dead, but reigning.
I saw Adonai, translated as sovereign, exalted master. And where did Isaiah see Him? High and lifted up, His robe filling the temple, angels surrounding Him.

And friend, that's the reality still. Will you trust that truth to lead you home, or panic and lose direction? The best choice? It's obvious, right? For His glory fills the whole earth.

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

Obedience is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, societies depend on it for good order, well-being, and basic safety. On the other, as we saw yesterday in discussing the 1994 Rwandan genocide, blind obedience can have devastating consequences.

Mitsuo Fuchida was the commander of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, killing thousands and drawing the Americans into WWII. After the war, bitter and disillusioned, he encountered a story that stopped him cold: a young Christian woman, Peggy Covell, had cared for Japanese POWs with love — even though Japanese soldiers had executed her missionary parents.

She obeyed Christ's command to love her enemies — a command that Fuchida found utterly incomprehensible. What she did and how she did it shattered him. So he read the Bible. He wrestled with Jesus' words. And eventually, he gave his life to Christ, spending the rest of his days preaching the gospel — including to his former enemies.

All that, because one obscure young woman, against every human instinct, obeyed Christ's command - love your enemy. Writes the psalmist …

Psalm 119:93 I will never forget your commands, because through them you gave me new life.

Many consider God's commands in His Word, the Bible, to be outdated, inconvenient and, at times, utterly incomprehensible. How can you possibly love your enemies?

And yet it's been demonstrated time and time and time again, that when we hunker down and obey Him against all odds, against what every fibre of our being is screaming at us, a newness of life breaks out and ripples across the waters.

Never forget His commands, because through them He will give you a new life.

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

Is it possible to fall in love again when feelings fade? One woman’s story shows how God changes the heart first—and how that transformation can restore love and bring new life.

It's difficult, these days, to know what to believe anymore, isn't it? Much of what used to be trusted journalism has descended into spin and propaganda - for the left, for the right, for people peddling their pet perspectives. On top of which, social media algorithms feed us more and more of what we consume, drawing many inexorably into the vortex of conspiracy theories.

Back during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, the media played a devastating role in inciting and amplifying violence. State-backed radio, television and print media broadcast and printed hate propaganda, dehumanising Tutsis as "cockroaches" and openly calling for their extermination.

It coordinated attacks, revealed hiding places, and encouraged ordinary citizens to kill. Rather than merely reflecting tensions, the media actively fuelled genocide, turning words into weapons. People believed them and acted upon them, demonstrating the terrifying power of propaganda when wielded without moral restraint or truth, costing close to a million lives in just 100 days.

Three millennia ago, wise old King Solomon wrote this:

Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan. (NIV)

It's been said that 'the people' generally get the governments they deserve. I don't know, but whatever governmental system you live under (and not everyone gets to choose) be careful, very careful, of who you support, what you choose to believe or reject, and what you choose to say.

Because so far as it's up to us, our job is to help the righteous into authority so the people may rejoice … not blindly to regurgitate the propaganda that fills our news and social media feeds.

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

The vow people make when they get married is to be with their soul mate until the end. And yet almost half of all marriages fail. So, given those human frailties, sometimes we expect God to desert us too – but it just doesn't work that way.

I'm someone who, by and large, enjoys their own company; I don't need a lot of people around me. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy being with people but I don't need a lot of company, if that makes sense. Even so, you and I are made to be with people and the worst thing in the world is when we find ourselves completely alone. Oh we can be surrounded by a crowd; sure, we can be in the middle of a huge crowd and yet, still be completely alone.

I've been there a few times in my life and it is the most awful feeling, to feel cut off from everyone; having nobody that you can share with or connect with or be with. But the reality is that, every now and then in life, we can find ourselves in that place and it's chillingly cold and lonely. That's because we're social creatures, we're just made to be with other people, to connect with people. That's why most people end up married, to fulfil the desire for a soul mate.

When I set out on a journey with God, when I first accepted Him, Jesus as my saviour, I was always afraid that I'd lose Him. It was a feeling that, for a long time, didn't go away, sometimes I'd experience the joy of His presence and other times, it felt like He'd left me and those times were times of panic. The reality is, I didn't understand who He is; His nature and His promises.

Over these last couple of weeks we've been looking at the promises we can depend on, promises from God. It's so important to know that no matter what we're going through or what the world's throwing at us or how we're feeling, the promises that God makes in His word are rock solid. You know don't you that our feelings, our emotions, they go up and down depending on our hormones or how tired we are or our circumstances or just the natural ebb and flow of our emotions.

On top of that there's a spiritual dimension. Make no mistake about it, the devil is alive and well, he knows that the joy of the Lord is my strength and he'll do everything he can to rob me of that joy. He thinks if he can rob me of my joy, he'll rob me of my strength.

Last week on the program we looked at God's promises, that He does have a plan for our lives, that He'll provide for us, that He'll comfort us and protect us and forgive us and this week we've been looking at some of the promises about His character. Who He is, that He's slow to anger, that He's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, that He's able and willing to help us. Today, we're going to finish off this series of ten programs called, "Promises I Can Depend On" with a final promise that He will always be with us.

There was a time in Israel's history, they'd been led out of slavery in Egypt through the Red Sea, they'd spent 40 years in the Exodus, led by Moses in the desert and Moses had died and they're about to cross over into the Promised Land. You can read about it at the end of the book of Deuteronomy and at the beginning of the book of Joshua in the Old Testament.

It was a trying time because Moses, their leader of 40+ years was dead, they're about to cross over the Jordan River into this Promised Land and they know they're going to have to fight battle after battle after battle, war after war, to take the Promised Land. It was a scary time and three times God makes this one particular promise to them. Let me read them to you, Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 6. He says:

Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified because of them (these people in the land) for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Two verses later, Deuteronomy 31:8:

The Lord Himself goes before you

When life goes wrong, your first instinct reveals more than you think. Here’s what it looks like to turn toward God in your hardest moments instead of pulling away.