A Different Perspective Official Podcast

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 the universe; it was my way or the highway, if you didn't suit me I'd get rid of you. As a friend, as someone I worked with or if something that I was involved with didn't suit me I'd just walk away. I don't like this, don't like that, no problem, just ditch the people or the organisation or the activity or whatever it was. Then, then I became a Christian and, not some religious nut, not into religion much at all actually. I just started getting involved with Jesus, started attending a Church and what I discovered was, that God wasn't so keen for me to ditch people when they didn't suit me. In fact, more and more, He led me to hang in there with people when they were dead set pains in the neck. Of course, you understand, I'm never a pain in the neck. Fortunately I'm perfect and the world revolves around me. Yeah right! More and more, God grew me in this sense that instead of changing people like socks, instead of changing my circumstances or my situation or my job or whatever, God's plan was actually for me to bloom right where He'd planted me. Can I tell you something? That was a real revelation and it's always a difficult lesson for me to learn and you know why? Because it requires sacrifice, it requires me not just to tolerate other people begrudgingly but it requires me to love them with a good heart. Because, unless I do, I don't bloom, I wither. Have a listen to Psalm 92, beginning at verse 12: The righteous will flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in the Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord, they flourish in the courts of our God. They're planted and then they flourish, the palm tree, the cedar tree. See, they don't go racing around from one place to another, they plant, they get planted, they stay in one spot. Then they flourish, where? In the house of the Lord. What is the house of the Lord? God's people, Gods family and you know what, like any family, they're not always going to get on. No doubt there are times when we do change jobs or careers or Churches or whatever. It's happened a handful of times in my life but you know most of the time, my hunch is God wants to plant us where He wants to plant us and He wants us to flourish, to bloom right where He has planted us. I love that word "flourish". It's such a rich word; it's such an abundant word. So many people spend so much time dreaming about tomorrow and what life would be like if only this or if only that. Isn't that right? But all you and I have today is today and God wants us to flourish in it. "Flourish" means to bud, to sprout, to shoot, to bloom; new growth, flowers, seeds, fruit. Do you get it? "Flourish" is a fabulous word and the way you flourish isn't by racing around here and there. The way you flourish is by putting your roots down. Now you and I are going to flourish differently, we have different gifts. You and I produce different fruits but flourish is exactly what God wants for you and for me. And that means sometimes, He's going to prune us, pruning hurts. Jesus said: I am the true vine, my Father is the vine grower and he removes every branch that bears no fruit but every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes to make it bear more fruit. I just felt to share this with you today. Maybe instead of running away from the things we're struggling with, maybe this year is the year that we trust God and stay just where we are and we flourish. See, running away never works, 99% of the time the real problem's in us, that's why God prunes us and that hurts but when we let Him prune us, all of a sudden we flourish. And that's so rich, so abundant, so satisfying to have love for people who mistreated us. Maybe it's time to stop dreaming, just, just get about the business of flourishing … flourishing right where God has planted us.

Have you ever been exhausted to the core? It's like there's nothing – nothing left on the inside. What we almost need is a new inside. A new life. Some mighty, new spirit within us. Is that even possible? Well, with the new year just beginning it is such an important time for each one of us to decide whether we want this year to be different from the last one; whether somehow we want to break out of the rut that we've been caught up in. But, as we've been observing over these last few days, so often it's not about breaking out of the rut but breaking out of the mould. It's not so much the track we're on, it's the shape we're in. And we've been looking at that from a different perspective. Each one of us has a body, a soul and a spirit. That's who we are and we saw, a couple of days ago that, for some people, well their body's are in such a mess with the wrong foods and not enough exercise and not enough sleep. It doesn't matter what else they do with their lives, they are going to be held back by their bodies. And yesterday we saw that our soul, that our mind, our will and emotions, sometimes we come alive with the disposition of the soul with an attitude that's just plain bad. And so it doesn't matter what else we try to do and change in our lives, we're still carrying around that baggage of bad attitude. Today I want to look at the third part of this complex puzzle that is our human make up – our spirit. Wow, there's more there. Body, soul, I get those two but, but what about the spirit? What does our spirit look like and what does our spirit have to do with their lives, lives we're living and the rut we're perhaps in? I tell you the truth, the notion that, in addition to a body and a soul, that you and I also have a spirit. That's the hardest one for me to come to grips with. I mean the cut and thrust and the busyness of life I can sure come to grips with a body. I can understand that. I can understand a soul. But a spirit? Well it kind of feels a bit esoteric or it's like an invention that some religions made up to justify its existence. Huh, doesn't it feel a bit that way sometimes? What is the human spirit? Where do I go for a definition? Well fortunately God gives us one. Very specific, it's in the Bible, it's in Proverbs, chapter 20, verse 27: The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord searching the innermost parts. Our spirit is the light of God. That word spirit is a Hebrew word, it's Ruach, it means "the Breathe of God". It's that breathe that God puts in us that's from Him. It's that identity that God puts in us that means that you and I are made in His image. The Breathe of God, the Light of God, that spark that lives and searches and dwells in our innermost being. It is the very essence of who you and I are, made in the image of God. You and I have a spirit that is breathed into us from God that shines in us with the light of God. The best way that I've ever come to understand this wonderful mystery is this: in our flesh, in fact in every cell, we have a unique identity, our DNA, the very stuff of life. And that DNA has elements about our fathers DNA and our mothers DNA. It is, in every respect, our unique physical identity. It makes us who we are. It impacts how we think and react and what we're good at and how we look at all those things. That's our physical DNA identity. And in the spiritual realm we have a spiritual identity. That's our spirit breathed into us by God Himself, "Formed by God" it says in Zechariah, chapter 12, verse 1. And the problem with most people on the planet is that they either deny their spirituality altogether or they hand it over to someone else or something else. Spirituality's a big thing. So many people and religions and belief systems and advertising companies talk about the human spirit but when we hand our spirit lives over to someone other than the Living God, we've sold ourselves to the devil. Unless and until my spirit and yours are united with the Spirit of God then we're no more than walking dead. Oh sure we live and breath and we do things, some good things, even some brilliant things but it's our body and our soul that's dominating everything and our spirit lies dormant and corrupted, almost dead within us. Yet each one of us is made in the image of God and yes, each one of us has a spirit but God knows that until our spirit encounters His, it lies dead within. It needs to be made new; it needs to be brought to life. A life that's eternal that begins here and now. Listen to how Ezekiel, the prophet, speaks to words of God about this very thing. Ezekiel, chapter 11, verse 19: I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them. Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 31: Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26: A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you. Three times He says the very same thing and Jesus picks up on this in His beautiful teaching to His disciples just before He's crucified. He says: If you love me, you'll keep my commandments and I will ask my Father and He will give you another advocate, another comforter like me, to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. I will not leave you orphaned. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me and those who love me will be loved by my Father and I will love them and reveal myself to them. Those who love me will keep my word and my Father will love them and we will come to make our home with them. Isn't that fabulous? Whoever doesn't love me doesn't keep my words and the word that you hear is not mine but it's from my Father. I have said these things to you while I am still with you but the advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of all that I have said. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I don't give to you as the world gives, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid. See, see the plan. A few weeks ago we celebrated Christmas. It was a time when we looked at a new birth. Jesus, the Son of God coming into this world, a new life and Jesus Himself said: Unless you are born again, you can't see the Kingdom of Heaven. And what this promise of the Holy Spirit is about is God's Spirit coming to dwell inside each person who believes in Jesus and what the Holy Spirit does for us is what Jesus did for us on the cross. Jesus died for us on the cross and rose again to give us new life and the Spirit of God brings that death and resurrection to life in us. And see, here's the thing that most people miss, they believe in God but they don't let the Spirit of God join with theirs and renew their spirits and bring them new life. That's why Jesus talked about the fact that we had to be born again. Not a label, it's a spiritual reality, a rebirth, a new life and there are so many people walking through life who feel dead on the inside, as though there's no life. There's a reason for that. They haven't allowed the Spirit of God to renew their spirits. They've never met Jesus, the Son of God, on a spiritual level. I can talk with you about this until I am blue in the face but that's nothing compared to actually receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit; meeting the Spirit of God in our actual experience and reality. So if that's something that you want to do then in a moment, I am going to give you the opportunity to do just that, to pray a prayer with me. Lord Jesus, I really am not sure whether I've ever given my life to you but I want to do that today, lock, stock and barrel. Everything I have, everything I am. Every hope, every dream I give to you. Forgive me for all that I've done wrong, I want to turn away from that stuff now and begin my new life, born again from above, in Your forgiveness, in Your grace and filled to overflowing with your Holy Spirit. Lord God, I want to know that I know, that I know, that I know that I'm Yours. I want Your spirit to witness to mine that I am a child of the living God. So I ask you for a new life. I ask you to fill me once and for all with Your Spirit so that I can walk in Your Spirit and live in Your Spirit so that I can have the power to lay down my life for Your sake so that I will be a fruit for Your glory. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

It's funny how we embark on each new year with great expectations of new things – and yet, we never take a look at ourselves. Our attitudes. How we function on the inside. That never changes. So why would anything else change? Have you ever heard this? Dit dit dit, da da da, dit dit dit, you may recognise it, it's Morse code. Dit dit dit is an "s", da da da is an "o" and dit dit dit in an "s" again. SOS - Save Our Souls, Save Our Souls. It's the emergency distress signal when a plane or a ship or a submarine is going down. Save our souls, SOS. "Soul" is a word that's bantered around a lot these days. "This place doesn't have any soul", 'soul music' and in Christian circles, "soul" is a very common word but what exactly is our soul? I mean, what do you and I mean when we use the term 'soul'? It's one of those terms that we use a lot and yet we rarely stop to understand exactly what it is. The apostle Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 23, talks about us having a soul: May the God of peace Himself, sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and your soul and your body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. So, as you and I stand on the threshold of a new year, what's our soul? Is it worth saving? And what does it have to do with our lives and the quality of our lives? Over this week, we're looking at the rut that many of us get into. We have a tendency, this time of year, to think about life and we look at the rut and what we want to do is, we want to change our circumstances, we want to, kind of, run away from some things and ditch some things and improve some things and then our lives will be fine. Problem is that, for many of us, it's not the rut that we're in but the shape that we're in that's the problem. For many of us we're bent out of shape. We've been squeezed into the worlds mould and it doesn't fit so well and so life is uncomfortable and messy. I can run away wherever I like but until I get out of that mould, my life's not going to be transformed, I'm not going to have a new life, nothing's going to change. Yesterday we looked at our bodies. Today we're going to take a look at our souls. So what is our soul? What does God say it is? Well, the Greek word used in the New Testament for soul is actually a word that you and I are quite familiar with. It's the word "psyche". It's who we are and where we experience life. It is indeed the place of life, life itself. The best description I've ever heard is that our soul is our mind, our will and our emotions. It's where we think, where we decide and where we feel. That's our soul. It's that incredible place where we are human beings and it is in our souls that most of our problems in life occur. Yesterday I was talking about the body and the body's really important. The body's the place where the soul lives, it's the physical dimension and you can't separate the two. If my body isn't working properly, it's going to have an impact on my soul. Trauma in the body spills over into the soul. Hormones are the great link between body and soul, you can't separate the two. And if the body isn't being looked after properly then it is going to have a huge impact on our soul - our mind, our will and our emotions – one of the reasons that we really need to look after our body. But today, I want to talk specifically about our souls and the way that we tie ourselves up in a knots, the way we ruin our own lives because when we misuse and abuse our soul, that ends up ruining our lives. Let me explain it this way. If you and I don't look after our posture, the way we sit and stand, if we don't sit straight or walk properly then ultimately, we going to end up being permanently hunched over. If I slouch in front of my computer all day, I'll end up with a sore back and with headache and weakened muscles and it won't be long, another 10 or 15 years, and I'm just going to be living all my life all hunched over. In the same way, it's the same thing with the soul. If I'm constantly angry, unforgiving, proud, lazy, whatever it is, if I keep using my soul the wrong way, my mind, my will, my emotions, that soul is going to end up, well, hunched over, disabled in a sense. The best word I've ever come across to understand that disposition of our souls is our attitude to life. Some people have a great attitude, positive, optimistic, kind, forgiving and others are more like Uncle Scrooge – always angry, nasty, dishonest, always wanting their own way. See how a soul that's caught in that rut is going to ruin our lives? Some people are approaching their lives with a bad attitude; a soul that's hunched over, almost like it's cramped. A mind that's focused on self, a will that's brutal and won't yield and emotions that are all messed up. If I asked you to name three people in your life right now, who have a bad attitude, I bet you could do that in a split second, you just know who they are. And you know something, when we're asked to do that, to name the people we know that have a bad attitude, a stunted soul, we almost never name ourselves in that list. Because we never, for one moment, imagine that it could be us with a bad attitude. But if we're truly honest, brutally honest with ourselves, come on, we would admit that we all have some bad attitudes and those bad attitudes, those wrong and stunted, hunched over dispositions of our souls are ruining our lives. We're all bent out of shape. Some people today, you're caught in a rut and you're thinking, "how do I get out of this rut?" And actually it's the wrong question. We need to look in the mirror and say, "I'm bent out of shape. I need to get that thing sorted out and then I'll be able to see clearly. Then I'll be able to see if I'm on the right track of life." That's why the apostle Paul wrote: Do not be conformed to this world (Don't let it squeeze you into it's mould) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God for your life. See, if we're stuck in the world's mould, in selfish thoughts and critical and angry emotions, all that stuff, that stuff is ruining our lives. Come on, do you need this wake up call today? We're so good at deluding ourselves, thinking it's everyone else's problem. We completely miss the fact that it's our problem. And that's why Paul said, "We need to start thinking differently, we need to have our minds renewed, our thoughts, the way we exercise our will, the way we feel things and start looking at it from Gods perspective through Gods will." He wants us to love, we want to be selfish. In the short term that works, in the long term it ruins our lives. And love's hard you know, it's a painful thing at times but you look back on that sort of love and it's the best thing there is. Well, we can go into this New Year carrying this baggage of a bad attitude and you know what, the New Year's going to be the same as the last, it just is. It is time to unload that baggage and there's only one place I know to do that. To go to Jesus, to ask for His forgiveness and to tell Him, "I need you to change me" and then, to step into a life that lets Him make those changes. So, so often I've heard preaching about Jesus and the cross and forgiveness as though, somehow it's not connected to life, here and now, but it is. See, God wants to transform our lives. Jesus came to set us free from this delusion in our souls that we are at the centre of the universe. From the bad attitudes that have us living a hunched over, stunted life. Jesus said this: If I set you free then you are free indeed. This is what He wants us to be free from. Well!

Sometimes we head off into the new year with great expectations – and yet, we just don't look after ourselves.  Our body.  What we eat.  Exercise.  Sleep.  And so what happens, is that our bodies let us down. One of the things that I notice from time to time is how easy it is to over spiritualise things. There seems to be two opposite ends of the spectrum, two extremes if you like. Over spiritualising and under spiritualising. Some people go about their lives without any real sense of there being a spiritual dimension to things. But there is, it's powerful, it is God's dimension and the devil's dimension too, let's not forget that. We deny the spiritual dimension at our peril. The other extreme though, is to over spiritualise. I've seen that a lot of in my life too. People, who wonderfully, passionately believe in God and yet, they kind of use that as a haven to ignore the physical realities of their lives. For instance, I've visited a lot of Churches over the years and one of the things that I've almost never heard is a sermon on how to look after your body. Truly, people are going through tough times and so they pray and they believe and they pray and they believe and all the time, they're 30 or 40 pounds overweight. Not exercising, not sleeping properly and wondering why their emotions are on some roller coaster ride. Well let's have a little bit of a poke around and have a look at that today, on the program. This week is kind of the start of a new year. It's a great time to have a look at what it means to turn a new page in our lives. So many people are in a rut and what we want to do is, when we're in a rut, we want to change our circumstances when all along, the problem isn't the rut that we're in, it's the mould that we're in. It's not the path that we're travelling, it's the shape that we're in. The apostle Paul knew that. He wrote in Romans, chapter 12, beginning at verse 2: Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God. In other words, don't let the world squeeze you into its mould. Break the mould, get out of it. Let God renew your heart and your mind so that you can figure out what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God for your life. And see, we are complex people, we're physical, we're emotional, we're spiritual. That's what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 23: May the God of peace Himself, sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and your soul and your body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Spirit. Soul. Body. Today I want to have a look at the body. See, many people get touchy about the body. I used to get touchy about my body when I was hugely overweight. See, we live in a society that says you're only beautiful if you're trim, taught and terrific, especially women, right? And then, on the other hand, you have these TV programs and the ads on TV and they say, "Oh look, hang all that, eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want, you're beautiful whoever you are. It's okay to eat anything, it's okay to be overweight" … and on it goes. Let me be really blunt. The body makes a huge difference to how much we enjoy our lives. Our body's important, not because of what other people think, not to measure up to their images of beauty and success, that's not important, let's not even go there. Now, I am who I am. I can't grow any taller, I can't change my face, you know what I mean? This is the wrapping that God gave me but you know something else, this body of mine and this body of yours, our body's a temple and I don't mean that in some "new agey, swami" kind of way. Have a listen to what God has to say about our bodies in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 19: Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you which you have from God and that you are not your own. See, the person who says, "Yeah, I believe in Jesus" – this is what happens. The Spirit of God comes to dwell in us, in my body. I have the very Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, dwelling in me and if you believe in Jesus, so do you. Now if I knew that the Son of God, Jesus, was coming to my place tonight, to have dinner, to visit, you know what, my hunch is I'd make sure the place was clean and tidy, not a mess, don't you think? So why is it that we can believe in Jesus, believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and yet, we keep the place a mess? See, our body is a complex, intricate machine. All the studies on robotics and computers, they haven't come anywhere close to the mechanical and cognitive abilities of human beings. Let alone intelligence and emotion and intuition, all those other uniquely human qualities. And sure we're complex but actually, the body's a very simple thing to look after. We only need three things, the right food, a moderate amount of exercise and a good night's sleep most nights. Now Berni, as I was saying before, I am a naturally overweight person. I naturally eat too much because I love food. I'm naturally not good at exercising; I naturally over work myself and don't get enough sleep. As you can see, I'm not one of these health nuts on the television. I'm not one of these guys that has muscles on their muscles. I'm pretty much your ordinary, everyday kind of guy, who is naturally at the lower end of the health and fitness spectrum. All my life I've struggled with weight. All my life I've tried to run away from exercise. All my life I didn't get enough sleep. Until a while ago, my body was such a wreck and it didn't matter how much I prayed or how much I read my Bible or how much I preached, I was going to have a miserable life and it was going to be a shorter life than it should have been. So, I decided "That's it, no more excuses, it's time to do something about this". It was hard. I had to change my diet, I had to start exercising regularly and I started making sure that most nights, I got a decent night's sleep, 7 to 8 hours. Now, over a few months, I lost 44 pounds or 20 kilos and now, these days, I feel absolutely terrific. I have so much energy, I can do so much more, it's amazing. I wouldn't swap it and I've probably extended my life by a good 5 to 10 to 15 years. People ask me, "How did you do that?" Simple, I took the fats and the sugars out of my diet. I replaced them with vegetables and lean meat and a moderate amount of carbohydrates and I made sure that I walked at least 3 times a week and hey presto. I didn't just lose the weight; I am now maintaining my lower weight. It's that simple. Now, it was hard. It involved sacrifice. But now I don't have the mood swings, now I sleep well at nights. This is not rocket science is it? We can't enjoy our lives when our emotions are being torn apart by a body that's out of shape. This is not about being the skinniest or the best looking or the most muscular or the fittest person on the planet. It's not about fitting into other people's moulds and images of beauty. It's simply about making sure that we take good care of the only body that God is going to give us for living on this earth. Do you see how easy it is to over spiritualise? "Oh, I'll just pray. Oh, I'll just read my Bible." They are good things but if your body is a mess, let me tell you, you're not going to have a fun life. For some of the people listening today, you know what the problems are with the way that you treat your body, you know. And you know the simple things that you need to do to fix that. We're standing on the threshold of a new year, we're standing on the cusp of a new page, a new year with new possibilities and yet, your body's letting you down. Can I ask you to do something? Do not make a New Year's resolution because 99% of them fail. Can I ask you to get down on your knees and pray and decide before God that you're going to clean up His temple this year, that's what you're going to do, forget everything else, get the body back into shape?

At the beginning of a New Year, one of the things that plays on our minds a bit is the notion that we're just caught in the same old rut.  Hmm.  I wonder – well, I wonder what God's take is on that. Well, as we sit here on the threshold of yet another year. I don't know, my hunch is that, for many of us, there are mixed emotions. On the one hand, there's a sense of anticipation, a sense of hope at what the New Year might bring. This is the time of year where so many of us dream of a better life, of a better future, of fresh new possibilities. And yet, as we look back over the last year and the year before that and the year before that, we can see a constancy, almost a monotony of the same old, same old – same old marriage, same old home, same old job, same old people, same old, same old life. And the sense of anticipation, a sense of excitement at the possibilities that a new year might bring, they evaporate in an instant when we think of the same old, same old. Let's face it; most of us are caught in a rut, that same old rut. Like a groove in the old vinyl records, just going round and round and round, in that rut that never seems to end. What we want is a new page, a new book, a new story, a new life. But as we look ahead to the horizon, as far as the eye can see, all we can see is that same old, same old, same old. I want to tell you a story about a friend of mine called Bob. Bob's a great guy; I've known him since I was a teenager. His trade was electronics and he taught apprentices when I was still at high school. One day he decided to become a minister and he did that. It was a big change, for him and his family, and he went off to do his four years of training. Then, over the years, he ministered in one parish after the next. When it came time for him to retire, well he didn't believe in that. He had a heart, for many years, to work as a counsellor, did all the training and in fact, he became a lecturer in this field. So retirement, for him, was moving out of the city where he lived, leaving the parish ministry behind but establishing a counselling practice in a coastal area outside the smoggy, busy city where he lived most of his life, in a beautiful, idyllic beach side location. Sounds fabulous, doesn't it? Beautiful place where he settled and it seemed kind of odd to me because I imagined that the place where counsellors were needed were back in that dirty, busy, grotty city. That place with all it's pressures and demands and commuting. And I asked him about it. I said "Bob, how could you move up to this place, this beautiful coastal, almost resort and become a counsellor and set up a counselling practice?" And he said, "People think just like you. They think that if they leave the busy city with all its pressures and they have their sea change, then all their problems will go away. But" he said, "actually, it's exactly the opposite. They bring all their problems with them and then, they don't have their friends and family around them, as they once did and everything becomes a whole bunch worse." Mmm, see people think that they'll trade their pressure for relaxation, the city for an idyllic beachside location and then, then it will all get better. The truth is though, it's not their location, it's not their circumstances where their problems lie. The problems lie in their hearts, on the inside where they live. Isn't that fascinating? Isn't it fascinating how we think that if only our circumstances or our situation would change, then everything would be better? We look on the outer things but the reality is that the problems are in our hearts. How many times have you and I thought, "If only I could change this one thing in my life, just this one thing, then everything would be better? If only I had just a little bit more money, not a lot, just another 10%, then things wouldn't be so tight. I could afford a few extra things, then life would be sweet. If only my wife or my husband loved me more. If only my kids would behave. If only I could get a new job. If only this, if only that …" No doubt, there are times in our life when we need a change, when we're ready for a change. A new job, even a new career or a move somewhere, those are good things, by and large but they aren't the solutions to the anxieties and the fears that gnaw away at our souls. They're not the answer to all our woes. We can change the circumstances but if we have things going on inside that go unresolved, then we can change whatever we like on the outside but it's not going to make one shred of difference on the inside. So here we stand at the beginning of a new year. Many of us are wishing we weren't in the same old rut still. Many of us are thinking, looking desperately, seeking a new life, to turn over a new page, to start a new story. But so often we look in the wrong places for that when all along we need God to do something in our hearts. In the Old Testament, in Ezekiel, chapter 36, verse 26 it says this: A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove from your body, the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I wonder what would happen if we started looking in the right places. Instead of trying to change this or that, if we started looking at our hearts, at our attitudes, at those things that we really can change? So many wives leave their husbands dissatisfied. They've had enough; they toss the marriage on the scrap heap. "We've grown apart", they'll say. I wonder what would happen if that wife, who right this moment is contemplating divorce, I wonder what would happen if she went to God and said, "God, give me a new heart for this man. Show me how to love him, show me how to reach him. Change my heart for him", I wonder what would happen. There are so many men fighting so many battles in their lives – battles with their wives, battles with their children, battles with their work colleagues. I wonder if that man, who's heading out the door to work tomorrow morning, I wonder how he'd go if he went to God and said, "God, put your peace in my heart. Show me how to have peace. Show me how to be a peacemaker, show me how to stop fighting and competing with everyone." I wonder what that mans life would look like, in a year or two's time. They're just a couple of examples. There are some practical things that we can do to get out of the rut. See, for most of us, the problem isn't the rut, the problem's the mould. It's not the path we're travelling but it's the shape that we're in. The apostle Paul knew that when he wrote this. He said: Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mould. Break the mould, let God renew your heart and your mind so that you can figure out the good and acceptable and perfect will He has for your life. See, for many of us, actually we're not in particularly good shape - our bodies, our souls, our spirits - the three parts of who we are. For many of us, one or other of those needs some help. We get those sorted and all of a sudden, a life that looked like it was in a rut, well you look ahead now and all you can see are possibilities. That's what we're going to be looking at, this week, on the program. Turning a new page, starting a new life, looking at our bodies, our soul and our spirit, from a different perspective.