God says that you are enough and condemnation-free in Jesus.

Life has many a turning point. One moment, you can be in the depths of despair. The next, you can be filled with a joy unspeakable. And it's the promise of precisely such a turning point that we're going to revel in together today.

Before becoming one of history's great men of faith, George Müller was a thief, liar, and drunkard—even imprisoned as a young man. But in 1825, at a low point of spiritual emptiness, he reluctantly attended a Bible study. That night, something broke within him. He later wrote, "I was in great distress. But when I saw that Christ died for my sins, joy filled my soul as never before."

In one moment: despair. The next: joy unspeakable. Müller went on to care for over 10,000 orphans without ever soliciting funds, trusting only in the God who had lifted him from the pit.

Such was the promise to God, to His people Israel, when they were about to enter a time of great suffering:

Isaiah 12:3-4 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. (NRSV)

And that's the promise for anyone who, like George Müller, turns their life over to Jesus. With great joy, you'll forever be drawing living water from the depths of your relationship with Him. And then, spontaneously, worship will be on your lips so that without reservation, you'll long to tell others about His great love for them.

From trial to testimony; from worship to mission.

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

So many people aren't happy with who they are. But – well, what if God is? What if God looks at you and is the most delighted Dad in the universe? And what if we saw ourselves the way He does?

As I look around at people, big, small, black, white, young, old … what I see is an awful lot of people who aren't happy with their lot in life. And as you talk to them, what it often comes down to is not that they're not happy with their lot and the things that are going on –although that's sometimes part of it – but something much deeper going on. Because more often than not, they're not happy with who they are.

Yesterday on the program we chatted about the fact, that often, that's because we feel we don't measure up to what the world expects of us but today, I'd like to go even deeper than that again. Let me ask you, forgetting everything that goes on around you, when you're alone in a quiet room, completely alone, do you like who you are? Are you excited about who you are… your potential? Do you enjoy your own company? Or are you one of these people who can't stand to see themselves in a photograph or in a mirror?

Every now and then I think to myself, "it's time to get right in your face about something", and today's one of those days. I mean, I don't mean to shove anything down your throat, that's never my intention but I don't know, I just feel that today it's time to really challenge you about how you see yourself. I'm someone who for many, many years, in fact the first 36 years of my life, appeared to be so confident on the outside. I have to tell you, everyone who ever met me thought to themselves, 'this guy is so confident'. But on the inside, which after all is where we live and where we feel and where we laugh and where we cry, I wasn't happy with who I was. People would never have guessed it, because in my confidence I used to roll over the top of them. I'm not talking about the things that we do but who we actually are. As a woman by the name of Joyce Meyer says, "It's not our do that I'm talking about but our who." I didn't like my "who", I didn't like myself and you know the more I tried to pump myself up in my own eyes and in the eyes of others, somehow the lower I sank in my own estimation.

Don't get me wrong, I mean I'm blessed, I have a good IQ, I love communicating, I'm good at that … but, I don't know, I just never liked myself and do you know when that changed? For me, it was the day, the very day that I gave myself over, my whole life, every hope and every dream, everything to Jesus Christ. From that moment onward on a bright sunny day on the 15th of October, 1995, under a gum tree outside a Church in my home town, age 36, I knew I was okay. Like I said – I'm not here to shove anything down your throat – I'm just telling you how it was for me.

I've thought a lot about this and I thought why did it happen like that? It's one of those things that changed in an instant for me, why? This is such a deep thing. My own self-image had been plaguing me for years and years. How could it change in an instant? So far as I can see, there's only one answer because on that day I felt accepted and I felt loved in a whole new way, at a whole different level.

Different people believe different things. That's the way the world is. So – whatever you believe – let me ask you this? Does your belief system, does your faith – whatever that is – make you feel loved and accepted? Does it bring healing to that deep, nagging suspicion that you're not good enough? Does it bring you into a place where you are truly happy and content with who you are?

I never used to be able to look at myself in a photo without cringing. I recently had a photo shoot, something I have to do from time to time, to get some images to use on websites and in the back of my books, that sort of thing. And when the photos came back, I looked at them and I was really happy with what I saw. I'm never go

What is emotional immaturity—and what can I do about it?

Some of the events this world is going through at the moment seem … well, apocalyptic. Hey, perhaps some of the things going on in your life feel apocalyptic too. And yet, in the midst of it all, we each woke up this morning to face yet another day.

The concept of the apocalypse kind of speaks to the end times, the destruction of creation. And with the tectonic upheavals in the global order right now, who knows?

But the original Greek word - apokalypsis - actually means a revelation, an unveiling, a disclosure of hidden truths. So, I wonder, what's God trying to tell you and me about the unsettling events taking place in our own lives?

As you turn that over in your mind, here's a powerful word of encouragement from Jesus Himself, as He was answering the apocalyptic questions of His disciples back in the day:

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. (ESV)

Sometimes it feels as though the very ground beneath your feet is shaking; things you've taken for granted are crumbling; that which you've always held to be true suddenly seems questionable.

When you're in that place, my prayer for you is this: That you would remember what Jesus said when His disciples confronted Him with the big questions they faced:

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

He loves you. He died to save you from your sins. He rose again to give you a new life. And one day, He's coming to take you home to be with Him forever.

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

Everyone and everything seems to want to tell us who we should be and how we should live. It's like the world is trying to squeeze us into its mould. The problem is – we don't fit.

It never ceases to amaze me how the rest of the world wants to kind of squeeze us into its own mould. It tells us that we'll only be happy if we buy this particular product. We're only really right if we agree with the things that other people think. We're only really valuable if we're wealthy and attractive. We've only really succeeded if we have all those things that everybody else wants, but never really makes them happy.

Have you ever tried to put on someone else's prescription glasses? It just doesn't work does it? In fact it can end up making you feel sick and dizzy, because those glasses weren't made for you, they were made for someone else and that someone else is different to you. And have you ever tried on someone else's clothes? You know someone else who is obviously quite a different shape to you. Well they're not going to fit too well are they? Have you ever tried to do someone else's job, I mean, someone who has quite different skills to you? Well we're not going to be able to do too well at that are we? So why is it that the world wants to keep squeezing us into its mold, remaking us in its image instead of letting us, encouraging us to be who we are? Blind Freddy can see it just ain't going to work.

Last week and this week on the program we're chatting about "Discovering Your Destiny". And it's pretty obvious that you and I are not going to fulfil our destinies, if we keep trying to dance to someone else's tune. Pretty obvious isn't it? So why is it that so many of us care so much about what other people think? Why is it that so many of us keep wanting to please others to the point where their expectations rob us of our identity and our destiny?

When I was growing up, I always felt so different. I was never any good at sport, running and jumping and ball co-ordination, it's just not me and yet I grew up in Australia which is a sports mad society where we idolise and worship our sports superstars. The teachers and the other kids made me feel like a complete failure. On top of that I have a very high IQ; I mean I'm academically very strong. Other kids may not have been, so they'd ridiculed me for being a geek. I was a veracious learner, I love learning. Imagine how the other kids reacted to that, particularly since I was no good at sport. Instead I was a musician, give me a piano and I can make it sing, I love playing but you couldn't get any farther away from sport so that made things even worse.

Now I can see what was going on – the world was trying to squeeze me into its mould, instead of encouraging me to be who I was meant to be. So I grew up with this really uncomfortable feeling that I just didn't fit, I was different and you know we all like to fit in, we all like to be liked especially when we're young.

That's my story and I'm sure you have your own story and my hunch is, to a greater or lesser degree, we all have this sense that somehow we don't quite fit and when we don't fit, the world tells us, 'you're no good, you don't measure up. There must be something wrong with you,' and we carry around this burden. Some people carry it round all their lives.

Low self-esteem is going around in plague proportions and this is what it's all about, "I don't fit". Have you ever asked yourself, what exactly you don't fit into?' Here it is – you don't fit into someone else's mould, into what other people say or think you should be, what perhaps you think you should be when you look at all those beautiful people whose whole persona seems to scream out at you, "you should be like me."

I don't know what it is but we all want people to be like us, to have the same outlook, to agree with us, to behave in the same way. Wouldn't life be a whole lot easier if we were all t

Ever wondered where God is?

So, twenty years ago, would you have guessed where your life would be at today? For most of us, the answer's a clear no, because things take unexpected turns, don't they? Life's brought us to a place now that we could never have anticipated.

And with all the ups and downs you've experienced, doubtless there have been times when things just didn't make sense. Why did that happen? How can that be right? How did I get myself into this situation?

Decades ago, when my hopes and dreams lay shattered before me, I was definitely asking those questions. And back then, I could never have predicted that I'd be here with you, doing what I'm doing. But along the way, this is what I've discovered:

Psalm 18:30 This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. (ESV)

My journey's been messy; yours no doubt too. But looking back on it, I can see that God's way - what He chose for me when I'd made a hash of things, how He dealt with me, the course He charted for me when I finally came to my senses and handed Him the reins - has been flawless; completely beyond reproach.

His promises, His wisdom, His power have been tested in my cauldron of experience to the point where I can say without equivocation that His Word is true.

And no matter what I had to go through (and some of it was ugly, some of it was painful, some of it I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy) He protected me; He became my refuge; He brought me safely to this point to be with you. Because that's who God is … for me, and for you.

And that's His Word. Fresh … for you … today.

Truth: We can't change the past. We may well want to, but we can't and yet, it's amazing how many people are gripped by the hurts and failures from their past. Jesus came to set us free – maybe it's time for you to break with the power of the past.

The bad things that happened to us in the past have an incredible ability to destroy our lives. As I just said – it's a two-part destruction, because those past ruin our today's and rob us of our tomorrows. So we can't enjoy today … and we can't look forward to tomorrow. Do you see the tragedy of that?

And the past is a funny thing, because it's actually gone. We can never turn back time. We can never change what's been done. We can never unsay something that we regret having said, or undo something we regret having done … so in one sense we have no control over the past. But here's the scary thing - the things of the past end up controlling so many people. Stand back from that, think about that for a moment, and it just doesn't make any sense that something that's gone, something that can't be redone or undone, should have such a devastating effect.

But you see it over and over again in peoples' lives. The mistakes our parents made can end up being imprinted on our characters. The abuse that some people have suffered, the rejection, the hurts, the ridicule … all those things can limit us by stunting our growth. And try we will, too often we just can't shake them off and so … they end up ruining our today's and robbing us of our tomorrows.

Fortunately though, God has a plan, God wants us to be the person he meant us to be and HE wants us to live the lives that He always planned for us to live.

We're talking this week on the program about Discovering Your Destiny. Hmm – it's easy to react by saying … "Well, yeah but what does that mean? I look at my life and any notion that there might be a God out there who wants to bless me and set me free and give me a great life – no, that's crazy! That's just no possible."

I've often shared my own stories on the program because I'm not speaking here out of some dry text book, I'm speaking out of a transformed life. I am being the me I was meant to be. I am living the life I was always meant to be living. But you know, it wasn't always like that.

Anyway, today I'd like to share someone else's story, a woman who was caught in adultery with a man, a man who wasn't her husband - at a time when that sort of thing carried some incredibly severe penalties in 1st century Israel. We fine her story in John's Gospel, Chapter 8 if you'd like to have a read later. Here's what it says:

Jesus went up to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts; where all the people gathered around him and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought up a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The Law of Moses commands us to stone such a woman to death, now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus; Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away, one at a time, the older ones first until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and said, "Woman, where are they? Has no one stayed to condemn you?" "No one sir." She answered, "Then neither do I condemn you." Jesus declared, "Go now and leave your life of sin."

This is one of the most powerful

When all is said and done, what we hope for is to get through to the other side of our struggles, perhaps with a few bumps and bruises, but basically intact so that we can breathe that deep sigh of relief, "I made it!" Am I right?

When you're in the middle of those struggles, though, it often feels like you're not going to make it. And what in the blazes is God up to, anyhow? Why isn't He stepping in? Why doesn't He just put His cosmic finger on the scales and tip them in my favour?

Perhaps the answer lies in something that the Apostle Paul wrote to his protégé, Timothy, in the New Testament:

2 Timothy 2:3-6 As a good soldier of Christ Jesus, accept your share of the troubles we have. A soldier wants to please his commanding officer, so he does not spend any time on activities that are not a part of his duty. Athletes in a race must obey all the rules to win. The farmer who works hard deserves the first part of the harvest.

Life with God isn't a free pass on all your struggles; it's a blessed and powerful partnership with Him on the way through. It's been said that if you ask God to win a marathon, he'll send you a pair of shoes, not a medal.

Because His way is to equip us, not spoil us; to prepare us, not to bypass the process. He gives what we need to endure — not shortcuts, but strength.

So … as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, accept your share of the troubles we have.

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