Have you ever felt like a fraud? It's rather disquieting, knowing that who people think you are isn't who you really are; that they'd be horrified to know the doubts, the dark thoughts, swilling around inside you.

Twentieth-century American Ferdinand Waldo Demara became known as the "Great Impostor", posing as a monk, psychologist, prison warden, and even a naval surgeon — all without qualifications. During the Korean War, he performed major surgeries aboard a Canadian warship by memorising medical textbooks the night before.

Publicly, he was praised as a heroic doctor saving lives. But behind the scenes, it was all a lie. He said he wanted to "serve humanity," yet he consistently deceived institutions and individuals, often endangering lives. His charm masked a deep dishonesty. Though he claimed noble intentions, his life became a study in false righteousness — appearing good, but built on fraud. Prays the psalmist …

Psalm 119:29-32 Don't let me live a lie. Guide me with your teachings. I have chosen to be loyal to you. I respect your laws. I follow your rules closely, LORD. Don't let me be put to shame. I do my best to follow your commands, because you are the one who gives me the desire.

"Following rules" isn't the most popular thing in the world these days. And yet, the more you let the Word of God impact you, the more you allow His goodness to be your guide, let me tell you, the less of a fraud you end up being. And in the end, it ain't all that difficult because, more and more, God is the one who gives you that desire.

Don't live a lie.

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

It's great that God is God. But is He willing to step in and help? Is He able to step in and help? I mean – when it really counts. Well, let's meet some people who can answer those questions firsthand.

Do you recognise these words?

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman! Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare hands and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for the Great Metropolitan newspaper, fights the never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.

I don't know about you but I grew up watching superman every afternoon after school on our old black and white television. There was something, something awesome about this Superman who was able to do all these super human things, things that I couldn't do. As I look back on it now, it was kind of a comfort, something that I wanted to be part of, in this "superman" thing, this man of steel. He was so strong, so invincible, awesome to a young boy growing up.

Superman, in that series, was played by a man called George Reeves. They recorded 104 episodes in the series between 1952 and 1957. It went from black and white to colour in 1954 but between 1.30am and 2.00am on the 16th of June 1959, Superman, George Reeves was dead. Just 3 months and 1 day after I was born. Little did I know, as a young boy watching these re-runs, that this hero of mine, superman was already dead.

What happened? Well they found George Reeves dead, lying across his bed, naked and face up with his feet on the floor. The position was attributed to Reeves sitting on the edge of the bed when he shot himself after which time his body fell back on the bed and the 9m Lugar pistol fell between his feet on the ground. The front page headline of the New York Post that day read: TV SUPERMAN KILLS HIMSELF.

What's my point? Well, I think that we all want to believe in some power for good that's bigger and stronger than us, some overall power for good that we can absolutely depend upon like, well like superman. But ultimately, most of us come to the conclusion that there's no such thing. Superman was a sham; superman shot himself. There can't ever be such a power. Even God, look at all the dumb and horrible and criminal things that have been done in the name of God over the centuries. People claim this and that about God but well, what does God claim about God? What does the evidence say? Is He just another sham like superman or is there something there?

Over these last couple of weeks on the program we've been doing a series that I've called 'Promises I Can Depend On' and the question is, is God just like superman, when we grow up you discover it was a kids fantasy at best, a sham at worst? Or is there something more?

Even in the days when I was running away from God, which has been most of my life, the one thing that always spoke in my heart about Him was when I managed to get away from the lights and the smog of the city in which I lived and at night I'd wander out and look up at the stars, the milky way, millions of stars – awesome!

Actually they're just a handful of the stars, there's a trillion in the milky way but so far we know of a trillion, trillion. I could never look on that awesome sight without somehow knowing, in my heart, that God was God and He was the most mighty and powerful force for good, beyond anything that I could ever have imagined.

Maybe that's what prompted the apostle Paul to write this to his friends in Rome:

Ever since the creation of the world, Gods eternal power and divine nature, invisible t

Learn why chasing what others think, rather than what God says, leads to ruin.

It's a fact of life that the true nature of prominent people's character is frequently misrepresented in the media. There's their public persona –  who the media spins them to be for good or bad – and then there's who they really are. And in a world where disinformation has become de rigueur, who really knows?

That's not, by any means, a new problem. When Jesus landed on the scene back in the 1st Century, He caused quite a stir. As a consequence, there was an awful lot of confusion about who He truly was.

Matthew 16:13-16 Jesus went to the area of Caesarea Philippi. He said to his followers, "Who do people say I am?" They answered, "Some people say you are John the Baptizer. Others say you are Elijah. And some say you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Then Jesus said to his followers, "And who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Now, Caesarea Philippi was a pagan region known for its worship of any number of deities. It provides a powerful backdrop, in the shadow of idols and Rome's imperial rule, for Jesus to ask the ultimate question, Who do you say I am?

People had all sorts of messianic expectations — prophet, revolutionary, miracle worker. But Jesus probes deeper to draw out His disciples' personal convictions, not hearsay.

Peter's answer - You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God - isn't merely intellectual. As Jesus Himself later affirms, it's Spirit-revealed truth. True faith is a gift and a revelation. In today's culture of conflicting voices and false gods, set against the dark backdrop of decaying morality and ever-growing divisiveness, true faith is built on this confession: that Jesus is the Saviour of the world. The only Saviour of the world.

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

Trustworthy people – people who stick by you through thick and thin can be few and far between. God on the other hand – He has an abundance – an abundance of steadfast love and faithfulness.

Yesterday on the program we started talking about trust, people we can trust. And God, can we actually trust Him? It's a big question, let's say God's all powerful, let's say He can actually do anything He wants to do. Well that could be bad news instead of good news if what He wants to do is punish us every time we take a step out of line, if He's just a nasty old piano teacher that wraps you over your knuckles with a ruler every time you play a wrong note, that is definitely not good news and what we looked at yesterday is this promise from God about himself, this is what He says. It comes from the book of Exodus chapter 34:

The Lord your God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Keeping His steadfast love for the 1,000th generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

That's interesting, this promise of being slow to anger appears quite a few times and it's always accompanied by these words; not only is He slow to anger but He is "...abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."

And it's that steadfast love that we're going to take a look at today, it's that steadfast love that's the flip side of the coin that has the "slow to anger" on the front of it.

I was talking to a young person recently and he's gone to take up an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic. A young boy, who had struggled at school, wasn't academic but he was great with his hands. Anyhow he takes up this apprenticeship and what he discovered was that his employers were great trainers, they really invested in him and he learned a lot but every now and then the boss would explode, lash out at his staff, get angry at the smallest thing.

Do you see the conflict? On the one hand the boss invests a lot in these apprentices, He's in it for the long haul. He takes them through thick and thin. And yet, on the other hand, the guy's got a short fuse and he's not slow to anger. And that places immediate conflict in the minds of these apprentices. In his anger he would lash out and say stupid things like, 'I'm going to sack you and get rid of you' and rob them of their sense of security even though he never intended to get rid of them, even though his history was actually going the distance with his apprentices.

The conflict arises in the apprentices mind and heart because being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love are two sides of the one coin. One is a part of the other, you can't really be abounding in steadfast love and yet have a short fuse.

"Steadfast" is not a word that we use that much these days but it's a great word. It means, "rock solid", it means "unfailing", it means "something that will stand fast through the storms", something you can absolutely rely on, on the bad days as well as the good days.

Now I want to go back and look at the circumstances that this promise was given. It was given to Moses who was heading up Israel at the time and they'd just come out of Egypt. He'd brought them through the Red Sea, they'd seen amazing miracles done to the Pharaoh and to the Egyptians and the parting of the Red Sea and then it came crashing down on the Egyptians and destroyed the Egyptian army. Amazing stuff and yet, the moment they get to the other side, the moment they find themselves in the desert, what do they do? They start to grumble.

Anyway Moses goes up to Mt Sinai and he received from God two tablets – not pills, tablets – stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. But while he's up there the people down in the valley, are making an idol, a golden calf. That's an offence to God 'cause they go and worship this other thing instead of worshipping

You may be one honest “no” away from greater peace.

According to surveys, somewhere between half and three-quarters of all people pray in times of personal crisis - be they believers or not. What does that tell you?

Personally, I've seen too many powerful answers to prayer to leave things until I hit a crisis - not to mention the peace and joy that come from praying.

But from time to time we all face crises that have us shaking in our boots, that break our hearts and send tears rolling down our cheeks. But

in the midst of all that, for me and for countless others who've put their trust in this Jesus who died and rose again for them, there's an exquisite peace amidst the storm that comes from knowing that come what may … God is with us. Here it is, as King David prays:

Psalm 56:8-9 You know I am very upset. You know how much I have cried. Surely you have kept an account of all my tears. I know that when l call for help, my enemies will turn and run. I know that because God is with me!

Emotional turmoil, yet faith. Tears, yet confidence. Renowned nineteenth-century English preacher Charles Spurgeon knew deep suffering and depression, and yet clung fiercely to God's nearness: "I have learned," he said, "to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages."

That's raw. Honest. He doesn't deny the wave — the pain, the tears — but he sees in that very suffering the hand of a faithful God drawing him nearer. No matter your turmoil, your tears, your pain … God is with you!

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

All too often these days, people fly off the handle. We're under pressure, all this stuff happening – so we just react. But there's a promise of God that runs in completely the opposite direction to that.

It's amazing these days how quick people are to fly off the handle. Just recently on the evening news I was listening to reports of a man in his fifties who murdered his wife and his two grandchildren with an axe. What drives people to do that? And it's not just axe murderers, you look around there's road rage, there's supermarket rage, people are under so much pressure they just snap. And there seems to be precious little grace and tolerance in this world.

You know maybe, maybe I sound a bit pessimistic but so much of our interactions with other people is moving away from the gentle pace of close relationships to the frenetic pace of a transaction orientated world; from the quiet chat with the owner of the corner store just down the end of the street to the "beep, beep, beep" of the bar code scanner at the supermarket.

And as we're squeezed into this battery hen cage, our expectation is that, that other people become just like us, that the anger and the tension and the pressure, well that's just the norm, it's the way things are. People are angry and the more we live our lives in that reality the more our image of God changes – well surely He must be angry too.

Over the years I have sadly been a person who possesses a short fuse. It's something that finds its roots in my personality. I'm a "goal" orientated "outcome" orientated person who always wants to do my very best. In fact you could say that I've had to be delivered of being a perfectionist. Nothing wrong with that until the arrogance of perfectionism creeps in. Something that Gods really had to deal with me in is this whole issue of rolling over the top of people and it's not been easy for me to let that go.

See the upside of having a personality like that is you get things done. The down side is you do roll over people, bang, bang, bang, quick decisions, quick actions, get it done, leave a trail of destruction of broken relationships in my path. That was the pattern of my life before coming to faith in Jesus Christ 13 years ago and as I said, it's the main thing that God's had to deal with me, to take me from the arrogance to humility, from hatred to love, from perfectionism to compassion.

Been a big journey, it's a journey that continues. So given that, it's really easy for me to think of God as well, being like me, as being a grumpy old man with a big stick. The more we get to know Him the more we realise how far we fall short of who He is and the more we depend of His grace. I think that's the way it's meant to be but you know something, it's not meant to be a guilt trip. I know I fall short of the glory of God and if He's some grumpy old man with a stick, there's no good news in that. It's bad news. And yes, God is a God of judgement; yes, one day there will be a day of reckoning and yet, every day I fall short in some way, every day I stuff something up and if I think of God as being this old grumpy man with a big stick, well holy good night! What sort of life is that going to be.

It's kind of weird; Proverbs chapter 1 beginning at verse 7 says this:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

But that doesn't mean we spend the rest of our lives running scared under some sort of campaign of fear and tyranny from God. In fact it's meant to be the exact opposite. God is a God of grace, I am forgiven freely, you are forgiven freely because Jesus paid that price for you and me on the cross. All we have to do is to believe that. It's the same for you as it is for me but believing is tough if we still harbour this secret "grumpy old man with a big stick" image of God.

This week a

Even the most powerful people look for answers in the wrong places. Find out why the stars will never give you what only God can.

Is it just me, or is the world becoming more cut-throat? How often do you see large lending institutions portray themselves with warm, fluffy, family-oriented images in their advertising in order to attract new customers? But then, the first time someone's struggling to make their repayments, they sell their house from underneath them. And hey, it's not just the banks.

Okay, a hypothetical … let's imagine a cutthroat industry — say, tech finance — where everyone's playing the angles. Interest rates are dynamic, contracts are airtight, and the fine print is where the real profits lie.

But there's one firm that operates differently. Quietly. Doesn't spike rates on vulnerable clients. Doesn't squeeze the little guy. Instead, it offers fair terms. Extends grace. Eats the occasional loss. Builds trust.

The other guys laugh and say, "Nice guys finish bankrupt." Then comes the crash. Markets nose-dive. Credit dries up. Clients default. And the sharks? They panic. Everyone's out for themselves — suing, ghosting, collapsing.

But here's the twist: that one firm? The one that showed mercy? It's the one clients run towards. Because in the dark, people remember who had the light.

Psalm 112:4-5 Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice. (NIV)

Sure, sometimes things are tough, and the temptation always is to play things to your own advantage: To tell the odd white lie. To be economical with the truth with the intention to deceive. Why not? Who's going to notice?

But whatever your space, whatever your gig happens to be, conduct your affairs with justice because …good will come to those who are generous and lend freely

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