The bad things that come at us out of the blue often feel so incredibly unfair. Life throws something at you, I mean something that really hurts, and you think to yourself, "What the … why me?" So, the last time something bad happened to you, what impact did it have on your life?

After surviving the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, Captain William Bligh returned to England a hero—but he never let go of the humiliation. Convinced he'd been wronged, he became increasingly authoritarian and bitter.

Given another command in the Australian colony of New South Wales, his harsh, domineering leadership sparked yet another revolt—the Rum Rebellion—the only successful armed takeover of an Australian government in history.

Bligh's brilliance as a navigator was overshadowed by his obsessive need to defend his reputation. Instead of learning from the mutiny, he nursed his wounds, alienated his allies, and allowed his unresolved bitterness to define his life.

Bitterness is an all-too-natural response to pain. In the short term, sure, it's entirely completely understandable. But when we allow it to fester in our hearts, it'll destroy us. Which is why …

2 Timothy 1:7 The Spirit God gave us does not make us afraid. His Spirit is a source of power and love and self-control

Look, when bad stuff happens, you can either become bitter or better. It's that simple. And God wants to make you better, not just healing the gaping wound of pain, but transforming you through the very Presence of His Spirit within you, replacing the fear, the bitterness, the negativity with His power, His love, His ability for you to exercise the most incredible self-control.

That's what the Holy Spirit would do for you. But it's your choice. Bitter, or better.

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

Healthy couples constantly make and accept bids to connect.

Guilt over past mistakes has a habit of clouding our judgment in moving forward. Many a life has been ruined through unredeemed guilt. Sound familiar?

Ludwig Tessnow was a German carpenter convicted of murdering two young boys in 1901. Earlier, in 1898, two similar murders had occurred, but although a strong suspect, he escaped justice due to a lack of evidence. Tessnow lived under deep internal torment, becoming increasingly isolated and erratic. Haunted by guilt but too ashamed to confess the initial murders, he tried to bury his past in secrecy and denial.

When forensic science caught up with him, his role in the second set of murders in 1901 was exposed. But Tessnow never sought redemption, and his regret never led to repentance—only despair.

There you have it: the soul-crushing weight of unredeemed guilt. But here's what God said to His people, Israel, through the Prophet:

Isaiah 1:18 I, the LORD, am the one speaking to you. Come, let's discuss this. Even if your sins are as dark as red dye, that stain can be removed and you will be as pure as wool that is as white as snow.

That captures the very heart of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ: God's grace through Jesus' death on that Cross to pay the price His justice demands for our sin, redeems our past and empowers us to move forward.

He doesn't ignore our sin. No, through His mercy in Christ, when we ask for God's forgiveness through Jesus, He forgives us completely, once and for all.

So, will you ask? Because your next move matters way more than your last mistake.

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

When we make a change – a real change for the better in our lives, it involves in effect dying to the old things and living in the new things. But try as we will, sometimes we can still be wrapped up in the old.

I don't know if you've ever watched one of those old black and white westerns on TV, I grew up with them. There were the baddies and the goodies and then there was that ubiquitous wanted poster, you know the one that said "Wanted. Dead or Alive."

Now if we really want to live life to the full, to live out our destiny, to be the me we were meant to be then we have to figure out what we're alive to and what we're dead to because so often, things that look like they'll bring us life end up poisoning us and the things that we think are too much trouble, too hard, they're the ones that bring us life. It's true in sport, it's true in work, it's true in life itself.

When I was age 36, about 12 years ago now, I knew I wasn't being the 'me' I was meant to be. I had a lot of potential but somehow never seemed to fulfil it, always it seemed to allude my grasp. I was running an Information Technology Consulting business and we had some really clever people, we were really good at what we did. But the business never quite seemed to blossom the way it should have. It did eventually after I gave my life to Jesus.

In that process of change, letting go of my old ways and taking hold of the new ones, I had to figure out that I was going to be dead to some old things and alive to some new ones. I had to believe what God had to say about me and take hold of his new life that he'd given me. I had to die to some things. To sin. In Romans chapter 6, verse 2 it says:

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace might increase? By no means! We are dead to sin, how can we live in it any longer. The past. If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, old things have passed away and look, everything is new.

I had to die to myself and my selfishness. For we know that our old self was crucified with Jesus so that our sin might be done away with so that we're no longer slaves to sin because anyone who has died is freed from sin, to the law, the whole rule based attitude to religion. For sin shall not be a master because you aren't bound by the law anymore but you're walking in God's grace. So my brothers you are dead to the law through the body of Christ and dead to be dead to the devil. Now I don't know whether you believe the devil exists, I do because Jesus did but I'm dead to him because God has rescued me from the dominion of darkness and brought me to the kingdom of light.

We have to start believing what God has to say about all this stuff, about sin, about dying to the past, about dying to ourselves, about doing away with rule based religion, about dying to the devil. I had so much sin in my life, there was so much stuff there I didn't know where to begin. Self, I was so full of myself, an ego the size of a small planet and my past was full of so many hurts and mistakes. And I was so prone to sort of a dreary, legalistic, rule bound approach to religion. You know we have been transferred. Jesus paid a huge price.

A great story told by Nicky Gumble who does the Alpha course. (If you've ever been involved, it's a great course to do.) And Nicky Gumble talks about the European footballers. You know when they get transferred from one team to another team a huge amount of money changes hands in transfer fees, millions of pounds are paid to transfer a footballer from one team to another team. But once the footballers gone to the new team, he plays for them. He wears their colours. He goes to their training sessions. If the old coach from the old team rang him up and said, "Where are you for training?" He would say, "Well, I've transferred to a new team. I go to the new team's training now."

When we make a change – a real change fo

The Bible has always contained God's plan for thriving.

If only we could take back the hurtful things we've said over the years and replace them with words of kindness and understanding. Think about it. How different would some of your relationships, even your life itself, be if you hadn't said some of those things, hmm?

We've all done it. We all regret it. We all wish we could take it back. But we can't. What we can do is try to understand why we said those hurtful things, what caused us to blurt them out in the first place, and behave differently next time. First, though, let's state the blindingly, glimpsingly obvious:

Proverbs 15:4 A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. (ESV)

The phrase "gentle tongue" literally refers to a healing tongue in the original Hebrew language. Imagine always approaching difficult situations with words that heal and build people up, rather than tearing them down.

But perverseness - literally, twisted or corrupt speech, lies, slander, cruelty and the like - breaks the spirit, it crushes people, wounds them, demoralises them.

Typically, we do that because we ourselves are hurting. When your heart's aching, how capable are you of speaking lovingly to others? Not very, right?

Truth: When the heart is wounded or inflamed, the tongue often follows in destructive ways. God's Word consistently links the condition of our heart to the words that we speak, and urges restraint, wisdom, and silence when emotions are raw

So, some gentle wisdom: don't trust your tongue when your heart's bitter or broken. Be silent until you heal, because a gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit

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

It's one thing to believe in Jesus and to believe in eternal life – but there are people walking around who believe that stuff, yet somehow they're not quite living the life that He promised us for here and now.

You know, I reckon if there is a God, I mean if God is God then he is going to want us to live life to the full. I mean outrageously, abundantly to the full. Not a two out of ten, not a seven out of ten, a minimum of ten out of ten and then some. That doesn't mean there won't be ups and downs, there always will be. But I don't know, my hunch is he'd want us to live a life of outrageous joy right here through the ups and the downs.

But I know so many people, people who believe in Jesus and people who don't, who seem to be living a two or a five or a seven out of ten kind of life always with this nagging sense of destiny that there's something more for them but never really get in close to that. Me? I want to be the 'me' I was meant to be, how about you?

And yet there's an amazing portrait of that kind of half-life, not really complete life, in the Bible. Yesterday we looked at the story of Lazarus, that he was dying, he was a good mate of Jesus, they came to tell Jesus "Lazarus is about to kick to bucket." And Jesus waits a few days before he goes to Lazarus. And do you know what everyone says when he gets there? "Jesus, how come you didn't get here sooner? You could have healed him." I mean they'd seen Jesus do healing stuff.

It's a bit like us, we look at Jesus sometimes and God and we look at the mess we have in life and we say, "God, how can you dish this up to me? Why didn't you come earlier? You could have made it better".

Jesus said to the people, "You know something, I'm glad I didn't get there because God is about to make a point and to do something you don't expect". Everyone wanted Jesus to have fixed the problem before Lazarus died but Jesus said to his disciples, "Lazarus is dead and for your sake I'm glad I wasn't there so that you might believe. Come on, let's go to him." So no-one could see it.

Jesus was saying it to Martha, his sister. He said, "Your brother will rise again." And Martha said, "I know he'll rise in the resurrection on the last day." So she doesn't get it, she's happy to believe in "pie in the sky when you die" not "steak on the plate while you wait". Let's pick up the story and just read the story, if you have a Bible you can go to it, it's John chapter 11 and it begins at verse 38:

Jesus was deeply moved when he came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone" he said. "But Lord," said Martha the sister of Lazarus, "By this time there's a bad odour, I mean he's been dead for four days." And Jesus said, "Didn't I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God."

I love that, "If you believed you would see the glory of God."

So they took away the stone and then Jesus looked up and said, "Father I thank You that you heard me, I always knew that You would but I'm saying this for the benefit of the people around me, they might believe that You sent me." And when he said this Jesus said in a loud voice, "Lazarus come on out!" The dead man came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth was around his face and Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Jesus was deeply moved. I mean, he loved Lazarus, He cared for him. He was a good mate. He wept for him. So it's not some publicity stunt but it's a tender encounter and people were thinking, 'well, what's Jesus doing? He can't do this I mean Lazarus is dead, Lazarus is on the nose'. I reckon we have to be careful about telling God what He can't do, about putting God in this little box. Imagining somehow that he could never bring Lazarus back to life, imagining somehow he could never really bring

Have you ever felt worthless as you looked around at what all those other people were achieving and compared it with your own miserable, rotten existence? Perhaps that's overstating it a tad, but isn't that how we sometimes see ourselves, as completely worthless in the scheme of things?

As worthlessness goes, I think you'll agree that nothing on planet Earth could be more useless than bird poo. But in the 19th century, bird droppings—guano—became white gold. Rich in nitrogen, it was a miracle fertiliser fuelling global agriculture.

Peru's guano islands drew international attention, prompting the U.S. to pass the Guano Islands Act in 1856, allowing Americans to claim guano-rich territories. Spain seized the Chincha Islands in Peru in 1864, sparking a war.

A decade later, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia clashed in the War of the Pacific, again over nitrate-rich guano territory. All this, not about oil or gold, but bird poo—the most unlikely resource that shaped empires, fuelled conflict, and fed the world.

There's an even greater battle raging today, over something that perhaps you may consider to be a bit on the worthless side, too. Said Jesus of Satan and Himself …

John 10:10-11 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (ESV)

As Charles Spurgeon once said, "Ponder how valuable your soul must be for Satan to pursue it tirelessly and the King of kings to lay down His own life for it." Worthless? Not on your life!

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

Scars are reminders of pain we've endured— moments we'd often rather forget. But here's something extraordinary: Jesus has scars too.

You know, it can sometimes be easier to believe in eternal life, than the fact that God wants to give us a rich, abundant life here and now. What do you think?

It's great to be with you again this week and we continue on with a series that I've called, "Discover Your Destiny". Can I ask you something? Are you really living life to the full? I mean really. So many people are struggling to discover their destiny and okay, maybe life's chugging along okay but we all have a sense that, well somehow I have a destiny, a life I'm supposed to live, a "me" I'm meant to be.

Now I don't apologise for the fact that over the last couple of weeks we've been unpacking that from A Different Perspective, from God's perspective. I just passionately believe that He so wants each one of us to discover when we have a relationship with Him, a real relationship you know, that all of a sudden we can be the "me" we were meant to be. To, in a sense, die to the old me and rise as a new one.

Now I love how Jesus tackled that when his good friend Lazarus upped and died on him. It's a powerful story the story of Lazarus. It's about a real man who died and whom Jesus bought back to life again. Now there's something in that story, I always like to look at what Jesus did and say, "What does it tell me about Him? What does it tell me about God? What does it tell me about God's attitude?" And it does tell us what he means for us here and now today.

For me the story of Lazarus has had a powerful impact on my life, day to day. Now there are two parts to the story, we'll look at the first half today and the next one tomorrow on the program. So let's have a bit of a read, if you have a Bible you can grab it. John, chapter 11 is where you'll find this story:

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Now this Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who previously poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sister sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love, Lazarus, is sick."

When he heard this Jesus said, "The sickness won't end in death. No, it's for Gods glory so that Gods Son might be glorified through it." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick he stayed where he was for two more days then he said to his disciples, "Well okay, let's get up and go to Judea."

"But Jesus," they said, "A short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you and yet you're going back." And Jesus answered, "Aren't there twelve hours of daylight in a day? A man who walks by day won't stumble for he sees the worlds light; it's when he walks by night that he stumbles for he has no light."

After he said this he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep but I'm going there to wake him up again." Now his disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps he'll get better." Jesus had been speaking of his death but the disciples thought he meant that Lazarus was just asleep. So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead and for your sake I'm glad I wasn't there so that you may believe but let us go to him."

An interesting story, Lazarus a good mate of Jesus is dying. Jesus could have prevented it, he could have gone there and healed Lazarus, I mean that's why they sent for him, everyone had seen Jesus do this healing stuff but he didn't go because God was going to use this to make a point, a point I think at a couple of levels. The first level is purely to attest to who Jesus is, the power of Jesus because as we'll see tomorrow, ultimately Jesus brings Lazarus back to life again but I think there's a second point, a deeper point, a point that speaks to you and me, here and now. That God is in the business of bringing