Can I ask, what relevance does all this "Jesus" stuff have for your life, here in the 21st century? I mean, amidst your day-to-day, the things that occupy you, the joys, the struggles, what relevance can a rabbi of 2,000 years ago possibly have?

The day-to-day does consume us, doesn't it? I have to get through this, I have to keep going with that, I have to achieve what I've set out to achieve - bringing up children, eking out an existence, carving out a career.

But all that getting through, keeping going, achieving - all of it - will one day come to an end … perhaps more abruptly than any of us would care to imagine. And whilst Jesus has made an incredible difference in my life, and I know He can make an amazing difference in yours, when it's all over, then what?

Come on, I'm asking you seriously amidst the pressures of your day-to-day, then what?

Philippians 2:8-11 He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (NRSV)

Friend, Jesus laid His life down for you. No matter what you have pressing in on you, He is the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, and one day, He will reign over all. He came for you.

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

Englishman George Clark was a 19th-century career criminal who ran one of London's most violent street gangs. Hardened by poverty and crime, he'd spent years in and out of prison.

During one of his incarcerations, Clark was given a Bible by a prison chaplain. At first, he mocked it. But then he came across this verse:

Romans 5:8 But Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and by this God showed how much he loves us.

It broke through. As a gang leader and repeat offender, he'd been judged, written off, and hardened by a life of violence and rejection. He believed that love had to be earned—and that he was far beyond deserving it.

But here was a truth that shattered that preconception: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Not after he cleaned up his act. Not if he reformed. But while he was at his worst—Christ loved him enough to die for him.

That kind of grace was radical. Undeserved. Disarming. It exposed his sin, yes—but more importantly, it revealed a love that refused to abandon him. That's what pierced his heart. That's what broke the cycle of violence. That's what set him free.

Clark gave his life to Christ, left the gang life behind, and went on to become a missionary to prisoners and street kids—the very people he'd once led astray. His life became living proof that no one is beyond the reach of God's love.

It's not fear, not guilt, not rules that truly transform a person — it's the overwhelming love and kindness of God, shown most fully in Christ. The very same love that George Clark discovered in that prison cell is the love that God has for you. He loves you at your worst.

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

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Other people can be so incredibly frustrating, can't they?Why can't they see it my way? Why don't they get it? What's the matter with them? Keep carrying on like that, and you become a bitter and twisted individual, let me tell you.

Before I became a Christian, my favourite saying used to be this: It's so hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys.

Okay, have a chuckle. But you dig a bit deeper, and it drips with hypocrisy, especially when coming from someone who claims to follow Christ. Why? Because it's about a sense of superiority, a contempt for others, a blame-shifting attitude — all things that Jesus consistently rebuked.

So even when I finally gave my life over to Him, it was still a journey of many years to genuinely let go of that stinking attitude.

And God's very clear on this. You can't live in that sort of arrogance yet claim to know His love. And look around, this 'surrounded by turkeys' attitude is destroying the world in which we live.

The solution? Well, here it is:

Galatians 6:2-3 Help each other with your troubles. When you do this, you are obeying the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to do this, you are only fooling yourself.

It's the complete opposite of self-righteous arrogance, isn't it? In fact, you and I, we never look more like Jesus to this world than when we humble ourselves to help others in the midst of our troubles; than when we love our enemies; than when we step in to bind their wounds.

And if you think you're too important to do that, you're only fooling yourself.

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

Fathers in three countries had no model for good fatherhood—until a radio broadcast brought them the one Father who could teach them.

If there's one thing that history's demonstrated time and again, it's that just because something is accepted by the majority, just because it represents the prevailing wisdom of the day, doesn't mean that it's true or right. Majority support doesn't magically transform a lie into truth.

In the mid-1800s, Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that doctors who washed their hands with antiseptics drastically reduced the number of deaths from childbed fever. But prevailing medical wisdom rejected germ theory.

His peers mocked him, clung to tradition, refused to change. Even Semmelweis himself, though he'd stumbled onto the truth, didn't fully understand it. As rejection mounted, he became bitter and unstable, eventually dying in an asylum—ironically of sepsis.

Had the medical world embraced even a sliver of biblical wisdom—like Numbers 19 or Leviticus 15, where cleanliness laws reflect God's care for physical hygiene—they could have spared countless lives, and Semmelweis his torment.

Still today, by far the majority reject God's truth. Even Christians find some of what Jesus had to say inconvenient, unpalatable or both. And in this, the devil delights, finding his entry point to wreak havoc in our lives. Which is why Jesus said this to those who believed in Him:

John 8:31-32 "If you continue to accept and obey my teaching, you are really my followers. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

The best defence, the only defence, against the untruths of our day, the lies of the devil himself, is truth. And if you fill your mind with God's truth, you simply won't have room for Satan's lies.

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

Some people look at themselves in the mirror and think – Ahhh, what a wreck! What could God ever do with me? But what if He doesn't see you the way you do? What if, actually, He has this amazing plan?

Yesterday on the program we were talking about the fact that it can be a lot easier to believe in something like the resurrection of Jesus or eternal life than to believe that God could or would step into a particular situation or problem and help us right here and now let alone that he'd step into who we are and deal with some of the rubbish that's going on inside us. How could God take a beaten-up old wreck like me, me for goodness sake, and do anything with me?

I want to be the "me" I was meant to be but it all just seems impossible. And you know, so many people have that problem, I had that problem. It's only now that as I look back on almost twelve years of walking every day with Him I can see how patiently he's restored me back to what I was meant to be. He means to make us into a new creation, to throw out the rubbish, to keep the good stuff and restore us back to his original plan.

There's a beautiful poem by Myra Brooks-Welsh I'd like to share with you today. It's called The Touch of the Master's Hand, maybe you've heard it before maybe you haven't but it's really worth listening to. Here it is:

much time on the old violin but he held it up with a smile. "What am I bidding good folks?" He cried. "Who'll start the bidding for me? A dollar, a dollar then two, only two? Two dollars and who'll make it three?

Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going for three." But no, from the room far back a grey haired man came forward and picked up the bow. Then wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the loosened strings he played a melody pure and sweet as carolling angels sing.

The music ceased and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low said, "What am I bid for the old violin?" And he held it up with a bow. "A thousand dollars? Who'll make it two? Two thousand and who'll make it three? Three thousand once, three thousand twice and going and gone." Said he.

The people cheered but some of them cried, "We don't quite understand, what changed its worth?" And swift came the reply, "The touch of the masters hand." And many a man with life out of tune and battered and scarred with sin is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd much like the old violin.

A mess of pottage, a glass of wine, a game and he travels on. He's going once, going twice, he's going and almost gone. But the master comes and the foolish crowd never can quite understand. The worth of a soul and the change that is rort by the touch of the Master's hand.

It's just incredible to me how easily we put ourselves on the scrap heap. How easily other people put us on the scrap heap.

Life throws some horrid things at us, I'm 48 years old now, I've been through a marriage breakdown and a divorce as I said yesterday. Twelve years ago, that's where I came to faith in Christ in the middle of all of that. And when you're experiencing deep rejection you have this sense of worthlessness. It was like I lost everything, all my hopes, all my dreams, all my future, I was just like that dusty old violin. Truly.

People don't expect the guy on the radio to talk about himself like that but that's how it was. I just couldn't see beyond tomorrow. I couldn't see how I could ever be useful again. Or achieve anything again. Or become the me I was meant to be. Who the heck was that anyway? But there's something you have to realise about a dusty old violin, it's still a violin. Maybe it's neglected, maybe it's disused, maybe it's a bit out of tune, maybe it doesn't look mu

It takes two people to make a cycle. It takes one person to break it. Find out how.

Believing in Jesus is a step of faith. Plain and simple. Believing that He can and will make a difference to our lives – well that's a step of faith too. And sometimes – it can be a huge step.

Over these last few weeks we've been talking about being the "me" we were each meant to be, and do you know, we all want that. We all want to somehow grow into who we are meant to be and to realise our destiny. And maybe over these last few weeks you've been tuning in and out and something inside you is just shouting, "YES! YES! That's what I want."

But … There's always a but. "But surely God would never do this for me. Nothing's ever going to change in my life. Okay He raised Lazarus from the dead. Okay He raised Jesus from the dead. That was a couple of thousand years ago. Okay God can do anything He wants but you know something, I just don't think He'd do it for me." That's the crutch, isn't it?

It's amazing. People can believe in a whole bunch of things. We can believe that God could forgive us. We can believe that Jesus rose from the dead. We can believe that we have eternal life. In a sense they're all easy because they can seem a long way off. But when we look at the very real issues and problems of life sometimes they're really big and ugly.

Believing that God can intervene and make things better well, because these problems and issues are so close and sometimes when they're so close they look so big and God feels so far away, believing that God can make a difference. That can be a lot harder. Believing that he can deal with those yucky bits inside us, that can be even harder.

I was an incredibly tough, self-centred businessman. I used to eat wimps for breakfast, you know. So when it came to believing all those other things about God and Jesus and stuff I knew straight away there was some tough things for me to deal with. And on top of it all I was going through a marriage breakdown and divorce. You think, 'surely not Berni'. Absolutely, that's when I came to faith in Jesus twelve years ago. That's life, That's my reality.

I was listening the other day just to a high-profile businessman who I know really well and he was talking about his life. He took a company from nine million to over half a billion in turn over a few years ago. Everyone looked at him and thought, 'what a super star, what a corporate hero this man is'. But in secret he had his head down over a toilet bowl and he was coughing up blood because that's what the pressure was doing to him on the inside and he almost lost his marriage.

The crazy thing you and I do, we all are prone to it. We look at outward signs of success. God, God looks at our hearts. He looks at the stuff that's going on on the inside and I love that about Him. You know something, if he isn't in the business of fixing those things, whatever they are (and yours and mine are bound to be different mind you,) then what's the point? I mean if God isn't going to make a difference, if it doesn't work, what's the point? You know something, when we're in the middle of those things it's so hard, it's so incredibly hard to believe that he could ever come along and make a difference. You know what I mean or is it just me?

The apostle Paul was writing to the Ephesian Church and he was busting to help them with exactly that, this is what he wrote almost two thousand years ago. He writes:

I pray also that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened so that you would know the hope to which God's called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Jesus when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above any rule on earth.

You see, Paul's saying here as you get to know God better, my prayer for you is that you would know that the same p