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A Different Perspective Official Podcast

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Written by: Berni Dymet
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 God has a habit of wanting to speak right into the circumstances that we're travelling through here and now; the very issues that we each face in our everyday lives. Everything from dealing with difficult people … to discovering how God speaks to us; from overcoming stress … to discovering your God-given gifts and walking in the calling that God has placed on your life And that's what these daily 10 minute A Different Perspective messages are all about.Christianityworks Christianity Ministry & Evangelism Spirituality
Episodes
  • A Fresh Start For Your Soul // Spring Cleaning Your Life, Part 5

    A Fresh Start For Your Soul // Spring Cleaning Your Life, Part 5
    Jan 16 2026
    How often have we all tried to change something in our lives – something on the outside – only to discover that the problem goes far deeper than that. It's a problem on the inside. It's just great to catch up with you again today with a different perspective on life. The soul is something that seems to get quite a lot of attention these days. Body and soul, soul food, resting the soul, soul journey. They are all phrases that get bandied around. Different people try to find rest for their souls in different ways; creating peaceful rooms in their homes, playing relaxing music; shutting out the noise and the clamour and the stress of the world out there. Now that's all well and good, but what if all that noise and the clamour and the stress, what if that stuff doesn't live out there. What if it's actually a problem deep inside? Then maybe it's time, time to spring clean our souls. This week on A Different Perspective, I know it's not spring, I know you don't have to write and let us know it's not spring, but I thought that at the beginning of the year it would be wonderful to talk about spring cleaning our lives. Looking forward to the year and saying, "What is some of the rubbish I can leave behind?" And over the week so far we have looked at spring cleaning where we live, our home, our finances and getting those right. Spring cleaning our priorities and getting some balance back in our lives. Spring cleaning our relationships we looked at yesterday and getting rid of some of the poisonous people in our lives; dealing with some of the difficult issues and hanging around with some of the people worth hanging around. But they are all on the outside. Today I would like to finish up with looking at the inside the soul, the deep, the deep part of us. The danger is that we focus just on the things on the outside, the externalities. Now they do have an impact. A messy house is going to be depressing. Debt is going to put a weight on our shoulders. If we have the wrong priorities we are going to have a lack of balance in our lives. If we have some wrong relationships, ultimately that's going to tear us apart. So they do have an impact. But if we just try and change those things, the outside, we can spend a lot of time and effort just to discover that there is something wrong in the inside, in our hearts, in our souls. You know that deep place that we live, that place that we laugh and where we cry, where we have fun and we feel sadness. That place. Jesus actually only had a go at people when he was walking on this earth about two issues. One of them was a lack of faith. The other one which we will look at today was hypocrisy. He detested hypocrisy. And when you think about it, hypocrisy is when what is happening inside us is not consistent with what is happening outside. Hypocrisy is when the outside doesn't match up with the inside and we say one thing and do another. And in particular Jesus really detested religious hypocrisy. He said: Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad. Because a tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers. He said to these religious hypocrites: How can you speak about good things when you are evil, because out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. I tell you on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word that you utter. Because by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. He doesn't mince his words, Jesus, when it comes to hypocrisy and there is some insight. He talks about a tree and He says, "Look a tree that has good fruit is actually a good tree inside. And a tree that has bad fruit is actually a bad tree inside." He was yelling at these religious hypocrites who are telling the people one thing and then doing another themselves. Now you and I both know people who bear bad fruit.You can see it in their lives. We know them at work, we know them in our social lives, sometimes we know them at home. It doesn't matter how much bravado they use, doesn't matter how much they rationalise it and they brush it aside, you see some of the bad fruit and you have to say, "That is actually a bad tree." And to be really honest, sometimes you and I bear bad fruit. If you and I have anger in our hearts, or malice, or envy, or hurts form the past, and c'mon guys if you are eying off every woman that walks past you down the street. Doesn't matter how we dress them up or rationalise them, they are still there. I used to live in our house that used to back onto a really busy road, a noisy road. And after about six to twelve months we didn't notice the noise on the road. I know my aunty who lives in a house just near a railway line, we can be visiting here and having a cup of tea, and this loud train rattles by and we'll look at the noise and she doesn't even...
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    10 mins
  • A Fresh Start For Your Relationships // Spring Cleaning Your Life, Part 4

    A Fresh Start For Your Relationships // Spring Cleaning Your Life, Part 4
    Jan 15 2026
    As we contemplate the year ahead, we can't think for too long without thinking about our relationships. The good ones. The mediocre ones. And, the downright destructive and hurtful ones too. It's just so good to be with you again today, looking forward together at the year that lies ahead. And as we think about that year, all the good things and the difficult things that are going to come our way, it is hard to think for more than a few minutes without turning our attention to relationships. Have you ever though about how many relationships you have? Relationships ranging from absolutely crucial to distant; fantastic to fiasco; blessing to bust. And those relationships it turns out have a huge impact in the quality and the effectiveness of the lives that we lead. So what if we looked across all those relationships and looked at the ones that are causing us grief and did something about them. What impact would that have on our lives this year? This week on A Different Perspective we're looking at spring cleaning our lives. Over the week so far we have look at spring cleaning our homes, our finances, our priorities. If you have missed any of those you can listen to them again online at our website www.Christianityworks.com . There are different sorts of people in our lives and one of the groups of people that we have in our lives are what I have called "Poisonous" people. People who drag us down. People who criticise and abuse and compromise. Recently my wife Jacqui and I met a couple. Here was this married woman behaving improperly without setting appropriate boundaries. It was so easy for us to have friendships and relationships with people who are "Poisonous" people. There is a great picture of the apostle Paul on the island of Malta. You can read about it in the 28th chapter in the book of Acts in the New Testament. He is picking up some wood and a viper, a snake, bites him on the hand and starts pumping poison into him. And he shakes it off and throws it into the fire. We all know people like that. People who when we are around them they pump poison into our spirits. I would contend that part of having a healthy life is looking at some of those relationships that in fact we shouldn't even be in. Some of the sorts of people that are so bad for us we need to just say, "I am not just going have a relationship with this person." You might be listening and say, "But that's not a very Christian attitude to have." I would like to point to you what Jesus said to the disciples when he sent them out. You can read about it in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 10 verse 14. He said "Look, go into these towns and tell them about the good news. Tell them about Me. If they don't listen shake the dust of your feet and go into the next town." Sometimes there are people in our lives (and in our hearts we know who they are) we are having friendships and relationships with that are just dragging us down. Is it time to spring clean those. Maybe those people are really close, maybe they are husband or wife. Maybe someone is being hard on us and it is hurting us. Well this is my husband or this is my wife, I just can't leave them. I would agree. It's not time to trash a marriage or our children. That is not what I am talking about. But in that case I just wonder whether it is time to deal with the issues. To try and figure out what I am doing wrong in this relationship. Honestly. Half the time bad relationships come back to what I am doing not what the other person is doing to us. And also dealing with issues. If someone is always angry with us, if someone is always criticising us, or if someone is always whinging, sure let's love them. Let's encourage them, let's be there for them, but let's speak the truth in love. But if you are having a tough day and if you just feel like grumbling, and you're with me, I will empathise with you, I will counsel you, I will listen to you. I will love you. But I tell you what there is one thing I will not do. I will not sit down and grumble with you. And I won't let you ruin my life. Sometimes we need to confront issues. Because if we let poisonous people continue to pump poison into us, eventually it is going to hurt us. The second group of people I would like to talk about is distant people. There are sometimes people we should be close to, our family, maybe and older parent, maybe an older brother and sister that have grown up. Maybe our kids. You know, kids go from being a kid to being a teenager and somewhere along the line there as most teenagers do, they close their lives off. And we end up feeding them, clothing them, driving them, disciplining them but sometimes we don't have a relationship with them. It's not an easy time having teenagers in our family. And parents have a kind of different set of standards and kids want to do… you know what it's like. You've been there. What do you do about people that are distant to us that we should be close to? What can we do to spring clean ...
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    10 mins
  • A Fresh Start For Your Priorities // Spring Cleaning Your Life, Part 3

    A Fresh Start For Your Priorities // Spring Cleaning Your Life, Part 3
    Jan 14 2026
    Balance – if only we could get some balance back into our lives. It can be tough can't it? But the way we spend our time – well it comes from the priorities we set – deliberately, or unknowingly. It's just great that you can join me again today. I was driving along in my car just the other day. And I drove past a newsagent. You know how they have the newspaper headlines on the signs outside the store? One of the headlines said this ... "Money or family". Ouch! That really hits a raw nerve with a lot of people. Balancing work and family. Just after that I ended up having breakfast with a man visiting from another city and during the breakfast he received a phone call from his son's teacher. There was a problem with his young teenager. You could see it on his face, as he talked. The tension, the feeling of being torn between being away from work and spending time with his family. He travels a lot you see. The balance can be so hard to get right. Maybe we need to spring clean our priorities? This week on ADP we are looking at spring cleaning our lives. I know it's now spring, but it is kinda the beginning of the year and we are looking forward to all the good things that could be happening this year. And I just wonder if it's not a good time to look at some of the rubbish, some of the baggage that we carry around and say, "Why don't I have a spring clean. Why don't I get ride of some of this stuff, so that I'm not carrying its weight around all during next year." Today I would like to talk about spring cleaning our priorities. So many people are looking for a miracle from God. I wish God would do this, I wish God would do that. If there is a God why does he let this happen in my life. And yet they are not dong their bit in managing the basics, the mundane things that God leaves up to us. They want to feel good about themselves yet their house is a pig sty. They wonder why when they walk in they feel depressed. They want to be a real giver and help the poor, but their finances are a disaster. Today I would like to look at getting some balance into our lives. "But Berni you don't understand, I don't set my priorities, I have all these other things going on". Don't give me that. We can claim to be a victim of our circumstances. Or instead we can come to grips with this basic reality. My priorities in life are mine. And your priorities in life are yours. When our life gets out of balance, it's because of the way that we are prioritising what we do. It's the setting of our priorities that dictates how we spend our time. After all, my diary is mine, I am the one that puts meetings and work and things into my diary. And you diary is yours. And we can claim to be victims, but the answer is it is up to us. "But Berni you don't understand, my boss expects me to work long hours and to do this and to do that". Well maybe you need to educate your boss. Maybe it's time to draw some boundaries and some lines and say, "Well you know, I have to have sustainable life. I have to spend time with my teenagers. I have to spend time with my wife or my husband". And if your boss can't be educated maybe it's time to find a different job. "No, no you don't understand, I have a huge mortgage; I have this house that I am paying off. I need the money… I have to … " Do you need the big house? Do you need the big mortgage? You know we look at all these things in our lives and this is a given, the house is a given, the mortgage is a given, the job is a given. Maybe it is time to change jobs. Maybe it is time to take control and set priorities and say, "My family is important to me. My kids are important to me, and maybe if I take a different job and earn a little bit less money, and maybe live in a house that is a bit smaller or closer to work, maybe I will have more time." Maybe it is time to re jig the priorities. "Ah but there is so many people that need my help you know". Maybe it is time to learn to say, "No". Maybe it's time to ask God, "What do you want me to do? What have you got me doing, what are you doing?" it is interesting how Jesus said, and you can read this in John's gospel chapter 4 verse 19, Jesus said: Truly I tell you, the Son only does what He see's the Father doing. There were so many things that Jesus could have done when He was walking on the Earth, there was so many people He could have helped but He just listened to God. He listened to his Father talking to Him in His spirit. And He went and did the things that God was already doing. I see so many people, running around doing dead works. Things in their lives that God never planned for them. God never anointed them to do, and yet they're racing around doing them. And wondering why they're getting burned out. Now there are times when we have to work long and hard and it can be tough. When I took over the helm of this ministry, Christianityworks here in Australia, the ministry needed some serious work. There were some issues and they needed a lot of...
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    10 mins
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