The world appears to be sharply divided between authoritarian regimes on the one hand and so-called liberal democracies on the other. Yet there's a growing grey area in the middle where censorship is eroding the basic human right of free speech.

A recent UK government report on "Faith and Belief in Modern Britain" states that "Christianity is the one faith that is still considered acceptable to mock or deride publicly." An Open Doors report on Western Europe found that 30% to 40% of young Christians admit to self-censoring their faith out of fear of ridicule or professional repercussions.

France last year recorded over a thousand anti-Christian acts, including church arsons, desecrations and assaults. Canadian activist Chris Elston, known as "Billboard Chris", was arrested in Australia for standing quietly in a public mall wearing a placard stating, "Children cannot consent to puberty blockers."

Persecution is on the rise. You can feel it. You can see it. So, what are we to do? Writes Paul the Apostle in the 1st Century AD:

2 Thessalonians 3:2-3 And pray that we will be protected from crooked and evil people. Not everyone believes in the Lord, you know. But the Lord is faithful. He will give you strength and protect you from the Evil One.

Wherever you live, whatever system of government you live under, however this rising tide of persecution is playing itself out in your neck of the woods, don't be surprised. Not everyone believes in the Lord, you know.

Don't be perturbed, don't be afraid, because the Lord is faithful. He will give you strength and protect you from the Evil One.

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

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Elon Musk is, without doubt, a polarising figure. But he's also a visionary of staggering brilliance. He's reshaped entire industries—from motor vehicles to space travel—with relentless innovation. He dreams of colonising Mars, merging minds with machines, extending human life, ultimately casting humanity as its own saviour.

But in his soaring ambition, Musk sidesteps the Creator. God's become unnecessary in his gospel of progress, where ultimate hope lies in human innovation, not grace. And he's by no means alone.

Let's face it, the majority of the human race has rejected the one true God, who sent Jesus His Son to be our Saviour by dying on that Cross to pay for our sins, and rising again to give us a whole new life for all eternity. Like the builders of the Tower of Babel, humanity reaches for the heavens without bowing to heaven's King.

So, how will it all end? Are the Elon Musks of this world correct? Is science really the answer? Can humanity really become its own saviour?

Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD will be the King of the whole world. At that time all people will worship him as the only LORD with only one name.

Make no mistake. Our lives are coming to an end. This whole world is heading inexorably toward its ultimate, apocalyptic end. And on that day, all the science, all the human brilliance and endeavour in the world won't save us. On that day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

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

Every person gets angry. What you do with it makes all the difference.

We've all heard it said that pride comes before the fall. And it does! If you've ever allowed your pride to get the better of you, then you, like me, know through bitter experience that eventually you fall flat on your face.

General George Custer was a flamboyant and ambitious U.S. Army officer in the 19th century. Known for his bravado and overconfidence, he consistently overestimated his military genius. In 1876, during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, he dismissed warnings and underestimated the strength and resolve of the Native American forces.

Driven by pride and a thirst for glory, he split his forces and launched a reckless assault, believing victory was certain. Instead, his entire detachment was wiped out. His self-deception led not only to his own demise but to the needless loss of all his men.

Yep, pride definitely comes before the fall. So …

Romans 12:3 … Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. (NIV)

The reason that pride comes before the fall is that an ego that goes unchecked leads us into reckless decisions. So the answer here, according to God, is actually to check your ego at the door, to get a grip, to get real about your unique abilities and limitations. Don't overestimate. Don't overreach.

We're all different, so pride plays itself out differently in each of us. So, don't think of yourself more highly than you should, but instead think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the faith God's given you.

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

I passionately believe that God has the most amazing plan for your life and mine. In His heart He conceived us and with His hands – He made us who we are. And He wants us to be the person He made us to be.

Over these last couple of weeks on the program we've just been spending some time discovering your destiny. Survey after survey tells us that 75% of people don't enjoy their work. I wonder how many of those are trying to do a job they just weren't cut out to do, it's just not them.

And yet it's not hard to see how different we each are. Some people are great working with children for instance. Me? That would drive me crazy – all that noise and running around. No. Not me. Other people are great with their hands – they seem to be able to turn all these pieces of wood into a house somehow – I wouldn't know where to begin.

Some people are great at sports and athletics – hmmm I love to stay fit, but I can't throw and catch and kick all that well. It's as plain as the nose on your face and mine that people are all made to be different. And what is such a tragedy – we've talked a little bit about this already so far this week – is people trying to do things that they're just not cut out to do.

A child at school who is great at creative writing – but terrible at mathematics. So – what do we do? We make them work harder at their mathematics, instead of encouraging them to go with the creative writing thing that we're good at. Of course, we all have to do a few things that we're not good at from time to time, but if we end up majoring in those things, it's a disaster. When I left school I was accepted into a medicine degree – I would have made a terrible doctor, and a law degree – and same with being a lawyer because the law is all about detail and I'm not into detail.

So – pardon me for saying so, but blind Freddie can see that we have all been made differently. I'm a fairly unemotional person – it's not that I don't care about people. I do, deeply, I'm just not an emotional person. I'm not into hugs and kisses from people the way others are. I don't tend to feel other people's pain, instead I want to do things that help them not feel the pain. That's how I'm wired. And it took me a long time – a very long time – to get comfortable inside my skin, to get comfortable with who I am, and stop trying to be like other people are.

I think it was Oscar Wilde who said – Be yourself, Everybody else is already taken. Pretty good thought that.

Okay baby is born right, what does it grow up to be? It grows into who it already is, let me explain. A little baby gets born, it can't even go to the toilet on its own, it can't feed itself, it can't protect itself – in fact it can't do anything pretty much except eat, sleep, scream and dirty it's nappy. So …is it any less a human being than you and me? Well, no of course not, this little bubs is just in an early stage of life and just like we all did, it goes through all stages. It begins to recognise and smile at its parents and the psyche develops and it grows an awareness and it crawls and walks and it becomes a toddler and it goes to school and becomes a teenager and then an adult, it's a natural progression.

What is it that influences who that little baby becomes when it grows up? Well two things, firstly its natural disposition, its abilities, who God made that child to be and secondly, the things that happen along the way. Now some of those things along the way are positive, some of those things like the good parents who love you and good teachers at school. Those things develop the child's natural abilities, but some of the things that happen rob the person, rob the child, give it a wrong impression of itself.

You see bad things will always happen to good people, they do, they always have and they always will. But if we know who we are and if we let God into our lives to be with us, to develop us, to care for us, to nurture us, th

How do you handle rejection? Your sense of identity can make you more resilient when rejections come! 

So many people compare themselves with others and come to the conclusion – Well, I'm not much good for anything. But each one of us has a gift. An ability. Something that's just ….well, us!

Now I don't know if you've ever lived in a house where someone's learning the violin but those first few years were diabolical – the screeching and the out of tune, and its all so loud. It was just awful. Now Corrie became a great pianist and violinist but the first few years were ugly let me tell you. And of course my clarinet playing was just fabulous right from the beginning!!

The point is though when we first try something often we're not good at it. We have to persist for a while to discover whether it's our gig or not. But I wonder if that isn't why so many people are wandering around the world with this notion that they're not good at anything.

I think we all have a sense of wanting to fulfil our destiny, doing the things we're meant to do, achieving the things we're meant to achieve and being the person we're meant to be. But the more I talk to people the more I discover how many aren't happy with who they are. These two weeks, ten programs are not some kind of systematic ten steps to happiness thing, just some stories and some anecdotes and things to stimulate our thinking, get us with Gods' plan for who he made us to be.

I spent a good many years of my life comparing myself with other people, here's how it goes. You look at all the people you know and you pick all their good points up, 'he's athletic and good looking, and she's really intelligent, and he's caring, and she's so perceptive about people, boy he's got such great hand-eye co-ordination, that couple over there everyone seems to like them. He is such a good cook, she has her house so tidy, they have such well behaved kids.'

You see what's going on here, we construct some super human unreality which is a composite of the very best points of everyone we know and then when we don't live up to that, all of a sudden, 'Ah, I'm a failure'. Never mind that everybody we know is good a some things and not at others, never mind that each one of those people has weaknesses as well as strengths. We tend to construct an unrealistic image of who we should be and then we spend a lifetime, fuelled by the advertising industry - with all these images of success - we spend a lifetime trying to live up to something that no-one can ever be or live.

I wonder if we did a stock take of our strengths and weaknesses maybe sit down with a few people who really know us well whether we would look at that and go, "That's not a bad plus and minus ledger, you know, okay there are some things here I'm not very good at but actually there's one or two things here, oh, that's really my gig, that's my shtick, that's what I do."

I mean my strengths are, I have a high IQ it's just the way God made me, I'm a communicator and a story teller and I tend to handle conflict pretty well. I mean I spent 20 years as an objective advisor, as a consultant. I tend to be outcome focused so I deliver things on time. So I've got some things on the positive side of my ledger but I've got weaknesses too like I'm not good at a whole bunch of administrative detail. I'm not as perceptive about other people as I could be, and in my rush to deliver an outcome I can have a tendency to roll over the top of people. I'm not someone to have lots and lots of people around me all the time; I tend to feel crowded.

You see the picture? We're a bundle, a composite of assets and not liabilities, but things we may not be so good at. The thing that I've discovered is I need to play to my strengths and team up with people whose strengths plug the gaps of my weaknesses and vice versa. Not everyone else has my strengths, that's why I'm useful in a team. The Apostle Paul in Romans, chapter 12 wrote this he said:

"By the grace given to me let me say this to you, don't think of you

Today is one of those bad news-good news days. We all face bad news in our lives but honestly, the worst news we can ever be confronted with is that there is a God in heaven, and that He judges each of us according to our deeds.

Depending on where you sit, that may seem like a joke or it could absolutely terrify you. I'm in the latter camp because I believe with all my heart that there is a God in heaven and that He does judge us. Here's why I believe that:

Jeremiah 17:10 I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve. (NIV)

That's not just bad news, it's terrifying. Look, if there is a God, you'd want Him to be just, right? So many people get away with so much in this world. Ultimately, you want them to receive their just desserts. And that's exactly what God's saying here. He searches every heart, He examines every mind - yours, mine and everyone else's. He sees everything we do.

And we both know that in the court of His justice, given the dark things that've swilled round in our hearts, the terrible things we've thought about and done, it's not going to end well for us. That's a terrifying prospect. We're all doomed.

But this God of justice is also the God of love. And that's why He sent Jesus to take our place, bearing the punishment our deeds deserve. On the cross, Jesus was treated according to our deeds, so that we might be treated according to His perfect righteousness. 

That's the good news. Put all your trust in Jesus, and you will be saved.

Because that's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.