Why do so many lives look successful on the outside, yet feel empty inside?

Respect doesn't come automatically through your position or title. No, respect is something that's earned over time, through consistently trustworthy behaviour.

If you think about the people you respect, without doubt, one of their enduring qualities is that you can depend on them. What you see is what you get. What they say is what they'll do. In other words, they keep their word. They follow through. They deliver.

Might I ask you today, are you such a person? Do you come through on your promises? Writes King David of Israel, three thousand years ago:

Psalm 15:1-2,4 LORD, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart … who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind. (NIV)

You don't have to spend all that long reading God's Word to discover that He Himself is a promise-keeper, and He expects us to be the same. Keeping your word is more than good manners—it's a reflection of who you are, and indeed, of your relationship with God.

You and I, we love being around people who keep their word. We love being around people who follow through on their promises. And why wouldn't we? Those people are people whom we can trust; a trust that's built up as, time after time, they keep their word – even when it costs them something, even when it hurts them.

So in a world where talk is cheap, don't overpromise and underdeliver. Keep your word … every time.

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

So often – we can be looking for a miracle – and yet we forget to manage the mundane. We want God to bless our lives – yet the house is a pig sty and we wonder why we're depressed.

It's just great to catch up with you again, this year. There is something intensely satisfying about being clean. You know, you come home you're hot and you're and you're sweaty and you get in the shower, clean. Fantastic. Or your hair is growing so long. It's just driving you nuts. And when you get it cut you feel a million dollars. You with me?

And I guess the same is true of your homes. When they are a mess it's kind of depressing. But when you put in the effort, clean the place up. Well, it makes a difference to how we feel about ourselves. So what about your place right now. How messy, or tidy or clean or dirty is it? Hmm …

My wife Jacqui, my daughter Melissa and I, live in a small semi detached terrace house, right in one of the inner city suburbs of Sydney. Now it's a lovely suburb. But the house is very small, the block of land is very small, there is no off street car parking so we have to park our car on the street.

When we bought it, it was a nasty little place. It was built in 1876 and had a very small, very plain layout, and the kitchen was just the most disgusting place. But since then we have renovated the house, and now we live in a well designed, nicely finished home.

It's not big, but it is very comfortable and it's lovely. It's a pleasure to live in. And when the renovation was done, there was fresh paint, and clean surfaces and new floorboards, and it was really nice. But even after the renovation as time goes by, as we live life in a house, it gets messy and dirty.

Have you ever notice that? I call it the pollution principle. Life causes waste and mess. It's true in a whole bunch of different parts of our lives. It's true with our bodies, we breathe in oxygen and we breathe out the waste product carbon dioxide. We perspire, we urinate. We, you know, produce waste products.

It's true in our home…that bottom draw in the fridge, under the fridge, the washing machine, the dust on the side of the side board. The garbage bins, the toilets, if we don't get rid of the waste and clean up, it just builds up. And ruin our lives.

Imagine if we never threw the rubbish out. It's true with cities and the pollution, and the smog and the congestion. It's true in our relationships, even in good relationships. There is static sometimes, there is a by-product of something that really is rubbish, in a lot of relationships.

So there is this type of pollution principle that applies throughout our lives. That normal, everyday lives, even good living creates rubbish, it creates waste it creates by products that we have to get rid of.

So why are we talking about rubbish. Well this week on A Different Perspective we are looking at "Spring cleaning our lives. "I know, I know it's not spring. But here we are the beginning of the year, and I just wonder if it isn't time to look at our lives, at different parts of our lives. And think about leaving the rubbish behind.

So this week on a different perspective we are going to be looking at spring cleaning our home, our finances, our priorities, our relationships and on Friday our souls. This whole pollution principle, how do we get rid of the pollution, how do we get rid of the rubbish. And I think a good place to start is the home because it makes a difference to the quality of our lives.

Having a nice home, is something that we all really aspire to. Whether we live in a really big expensive suburb or whether we live in a more modest place. We still like to make our surroundings as nice as we can. But the reality is that so many people live in a mess.

I don't know if you remember that comedy, that sit com in the 1970's called "The odd couple". But it was about two men who were living together. Felix Unger played by Ton

When you're on the receiving end of someone's anger, whether it's justified or not, whether it involves retribution or not, it's simply not pleasant, is it? It robs you of any peace or joy that you may have had 

So let me ask you today: Does God get angry with us? Not just with people in general, but with you, with me? This isn't merely a theoretical question. It's real. Here's what King David of Israel wrote on that very subject:

Psalm 30:4-5 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment; his favour is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. (NRSV)

So, it seems that God does indeed get angry with His people. And though for you, for me, for anyone who believes in Jesus, we know that Christ bore God's punishment for our sin on that Cross, our sin still has short-term and (if we'll allow it to) long-term ramifications.

But as Charles Spurgeon put it, "God's anger isn't like our anger. He's slow to anger and swift to bless. His wrath is always just, never petty or unpredictable."

Look, sometimes you and I are going to mess things up, to fall short, to (as God puts it) sin. Whilst He is slow to anger, sometimes we will make Him angry. And yet … His anger lasts for a little while, but then his kindness brings life.

Please, if you've messed up, turn back to Him. Ask for forgiveness in Jesus' mighty name. For though weeping may linger for the night, joy comes with the morning!

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

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Emotional and spiritual dryness afflicts us all from time to time. It's not pleasant – we'd dearly like to avoid it ever happening again. But provided those times don't go on for too long, they're not terminal. We will get through them.

It's the same physiologically when you don't get enough water. Yes, you're thirsty, you crave a drink, but provided it doesn't go on for too long, you'll be fine. Yet, what if it does go on for too long? What then?

Firstly, your mouth dries out, your lips become cracked, and pretty soon your blood volume (which is mostly water) decreases. Your blood thickens, your circulation slows, all of which strains your heart.

Pretty soon, brain function declines, kidney function deteriorates, your body overheats … and on it goes, until organ failure sets in and you're on your way out the door, so to speak. All for a lack of water.

Jesus met a Samaritan woman by a well and, using this whole thirsting thing as a spiritual metaphor, He says this to her:

John 4:13-15 "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But anyone who drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. The water I give people will be like a spring flowing inside them. It will bring them eternal life."

Jesus' point here is that when we come to Him, when we enter into a rich, dynamic relationship with Him, we need never be emotionally or spiritually thirsty or dry again. The water that Jesus gives, His Holy Spirit, is living water, flowing water, water that brings eternal life. Turn to Him.

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

God’s spirit enables us to understand spiritual truth when we stop to listen.

These days, wealthy people pay a great deal to go on so-called 'ecotours' – luxury experiences of remote wildernesses, in pursuit of thrills and spills that ordinary folk could never afford. But honestly, I've spent more than enough time in wildernesses of my own over the years to last me a lifetime 

Yep, wilderness journeys are de rigueur in the lives that we each lead in this imperfect world – be they physical, emotional, spiritual, or a cocktail of all three.

Yesterday, if you were able to join me, we met German adventurer Henno Martin, who, during WWII while lost in one of the world's driest deserts, the Namib in southwestern Africa, found himself close to death for lack of water. But when he prayed, God opened the heavens with a massive downpour that saved his life. He made it. He survived. Awesome!

But let me tell you something: When you find yourself parched in your own wilderness, sure, God wants to help you survive. So, like Martin, pray. You won't regret it.

But He wants to do more – way more – than merely help you survive. He wants you to thrive. Says God to His people …

Isaiah 41:18-20 I will make rivers flow on dry hills. I will make springs of water flow through the valleys. I will change the desert into a lake filled with water. There will be springs of water in that dry land. I will make trees grow in the desert. There will be cedar, acacias, olive trees, cypress, fir trees, and pines. I will do this so that people will see it and know who did it.

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

A lot of people spend a lot of their time imagining how good life would be, if only this…or if only that. In fact, you can spend your whole life living that way. Until finally, you wake up and realise, you were supposed to bloom where you've been planted.

This week, as we've been standing on the threshold of yet another New Year, we've been taking a look at the newness that God brings when we decide to have a real relationship with Him. We're made up of body, soul and spirit, you and I. Not in three nice little separate boxes but instead, each one's so tightly coupled with the others to make up who we are.

And where religion fails time and time again to meet the needs of the whole person, a real relationship with God, the God who created us in the very first place, created us in His image to have a deep and wondrous relationship with Him, that deep relationship brings real refreshing. And this time of year, I think that's important. In fact, I think its important 365 days a year but especially as we look forward to this New Year.

Do you know, there's one thing that I think that we get wrong sometimes. We imagine somehow that "refreshing" – that a new start – comes when our circumstances change. "I know, things would get better if only I could get rid of this person out of my life. If only I could change jobs or find a decent wife or husband, or get that pay increase that I really need, then things will be better."

But sometimes, in fact, often times that's not the case at all. We've seen that on the programs over this week. Sometimes what God really means is for us to bloom right where we've been planted.

I want to share a story with you today because this whole idea of running away from the things we don't like in our lives isn't something I'm up on my little pulpit preaching to you about. It's something that we all go through, me included, and learning this lesson of blooming right where we're planted, for me at least, it's never been an easy one to learn … probably because I grew up in the very first disposable generation – the first generation whose parents could take a pill not to have us; the first generation where packaging and cups and plates and knives and forks and spoons and all sorts of stuff became disposable.

I grew up in the generation where people stopped darning their socks. Instead we just throw them out now and buy new ones. I grew up in the generation where people started, on mass, disposing of their marriages, the one relationship that's meant to last a lifetime. I grew up in the generation where, instead of holding down the same job for a lifetime, people began to move jobs every two or three years. I grew up in the generation where, in fact, not just jobs were changed but it's quite common now for people to change their careers.

And I'm also a product of this society in which I've grown up, a society that's moved away from the permanent to the transient; from commitment to variety; from valuing loyalty to valuing adaptability.

We value different things, we can do different things. Technologies that cost a fortune a few years ago have become commodities today. I remember my first transistor radio – all my Christmases had come at once! Wow! Today, we're taught to change our mobile phones about as often as we change our clothes.

Technologies have become adaptable; when we change our moods we can have different coloured covers for our mobile phones. Even one card that's out there on the market that comes with different coloured panels so you can change them when your mood changes. Can you believe that? 'What I want, when I want it'. That's what we're taught and the more we swallow that stuff, the more it becomes a part of us.

So back to the story I wanted to tell you before I started rabbiting on. Before I became a Christian I used to go through relationships like changing socks. See, here was the deal. I was at the centre of t