Podcasts about Power Unlimited

Professor of Political Science at the University of Canterbury Anne-Marie Brady is a specialist on the Chinese Communist Party. We met in Prague at the GLOBSEC Forum 2026 and in this episode of The Global Agora we discuss the life and political endeavors of Chinese Communist leader Xi Jinping. Does he prefer Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump? Could he stop the Russian war against Ukraine if he wanted to? And is Xi Jinping's domestic political power unlimited? Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

God's Word is packed full of power … power unlimited … to transform your life. But one of the biggest problems people have with the Bible is understanding it. Making sense of it. Knowing where it comes from, and where what they're reading today fits into the big picture. Well, I think it's time we did something about that.   About the Bible – Old and New We've all heard of those word association tests that psychologists use. You know, they say 'black', you say 'white'; they say 'rabbit' and you say 'carrot'; day/night; God/mmm love; devil/mmm evil; Bible/hmm … Bible? How do you respond to that? Stuffy, old, irrelevant? Well, different people will have some different views but actually in Australia where I live, the Bible is one of the least trusted of all historical documents. Over the last week and a bit on the program we've been talking about the incredible power that we unlock, when we read the Bible. But this thing that we call "the Bible", it's a big book, it's massive and it can be daunting. So today I thought it might be useful just to have a look to see what this Bible is exactly. I want to share with you a secret, it's sad but true. I never read a book cover to cover until I was in my early twenties. I managed to get through school and university and did pretty well I might add, without ever reading a book from beginning to end. I remember at university, in first year English, we studied the book Wuthering Heights which absolutely bored me to tears, I'm sorry and I never opened the book once. There are companies that publish crib notes, you know the summary of the book and a summary of what's in it and a summary of what some of the critics say, so I just quickly read those, crib notes, wrote essays and did, by and large, reasonably well. And I never, ever liked libraries either. You know how libraries have this kind of dusty, dank smell; all of them are the same. Every library on the planet has the same smell. I thought about it for a while, I thought 'Berni, why don't you like libraries? Why did it take you so long to read books?' The answer I guess has two parts. Firstly, libraries for me always felt really big and inaccessible. They have tens of thousands of books and in the old days when I was at university, they had card systems for accessing, for finding things, I mean these days they have computers. The old card systems had what they call the Dewey Classification system and finding anything just took so incredibly long. And secondly, when you did find the stuff, there was always so much of it, there was so much time involved to, I don't know, look through all those books and research them. I mean, some people are natural book worms, well I'm not. I still frankly don't like libraries. I'm sorry if you're a librarian, I just don't like libraries. I haven't darkened the doorstep of one since I finished my last degree quite a few years ago now. You know something; I think for a lot of people the Bible is exactly like that. It feels big and inaccessible. There are many, many people who wouldn't mind having a read but, for goodness sakes, where do you start? Well today let's break it down a bit, let's make it a bit more accessible. I remember when I started Bible College only a few months after becoming a Christian, everyone took for granted that we knew about the Bible. The reality was, I didn't and my hunch is, I wasn't alone. Let's unpack it a bit, let's demystify it a bit. All of a sudden you know it becomes a whole bunch more accessible. The thing that we call the Bible is made up of 66 different books written by different people over somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 years. That's the kind of period over which the Bible was written. And it wasn't just written by different people but at different times and the last book was written, well almost 2,000 years ago. There are essentially two parts to the Bible, this was complete news to me when I first opened it, the Old Testament and the New Testament, and when I started at Bible College I didn't know which one was which. The Old Testament, well the Old Testament is God's story and the story of how He interacted with and engaged with His chosen people, the Israelites. The Old Testament is written completely B.C., before Christ, before Jesus came to be on earth with us here. What Christians call the Old Testament is in fact exactly the same as the Jewish Hebrew scriptures, Jews still use those same scriptures today, Christians call it the Old Testament. It's written mostly in the original language of Hebrew, the language of the Jews. Now there's small parts of books like Daniel which is written in a language called Aramaic which is the language that Jesus actually spoke but by and large, the Old Testament was originally written in the language of Hebrew. And what we have today, the thing that we call the Old Testament is an English translation of that. Now there are lots of funny name books, Deuteronomy and Judges and Chronicles and there's Ezekiel, there are 39 separate books and there are kind of 4 main parts of the Old Testament. The first 5 books, Genesis to Deuteronomy, are the Jewish or Hebrew Law, the Torah. And then you go Joshua through Ezra and Nehemiah and that's kind of the history of what God did and how His people responded. And then after that are the wisdom books, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and Lamentations. And the rest of the books in the Old Testament are written by men called Prophets. Men whom God called to call His people back to Him. That's the Old Testament, it's a story of God engaging with Gods people. And the New Testament is 27 books. Now, it was mostly written in the language of Greek. The first 4 books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are gospel accounts, they're the historical account of Jesus' life and His ministry. And the next book, the book of Acts is the story of the first 20 or so years of the Church after Jesus rose again to be with His Father. Then there's a whole bunch of letters called Epistles from people like Peter and John and Paul, written to Churches that they were involved in or in some cases, to individuals. This may be old hat to some, but I know to many, just a simple understanding of the basic structure of the Bible is going to be a real help. I know that when I was a new Christian, no one ever bothered to explain it to me – I wish they had. Now some people might be saying to themselves, that's all well and good, but how accurate is the Bible. Because before the printing press was ever invented by Gutenberg in 1450, the Bible – there's this massive thing, the Old Testament and New Testament – was transcribed over and over by hand by people called Scribes who copied them by hand. It's hard to imagine. But these days, there's a science called Textual Criticism. It studies whether any errors crept into the Bible as it was copied through all these generations manuscripts. And what it tells us, is that having studied thousands of manuscripts, the levels of accuracy are remarkable. I mean it's a science, people have done it. There are very, very few words or sentences where there is any doubt what was originally written. And blessedly these days, this thing called the Bible has been translated into easy to read, contemporary versions. No more thee's and thou's – great, modern day, accurate, easy to understand translations. And did you know that in the Bible, over half of the 66 books, over half, you can read in half and hour or less. Now look, in a few minutes we can't hope to do anything but scrape the surface. Today we've just talked about some basic factual stuff. No-one really taught me this stuff. I remember becoming a Christian and going and sitting in a Church and people just teach from the Bible which is wonderful but no-one ever explained to me that it was 66 books written by a whole bunch of people over different periods of time. That some of it was stories and history and some of it was letters and some of it was poetry. But when you simplify and demystify all that stuff, it turns out that it's just a wonderful book. And with the many contemporary translations, it's much, much easier to read than I ever thought. As I started to read the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament, I was completely blown away by this amazing Jesus. Who would have thought … the Bible.   Getting Practical – Useful Resources I have to tell you, that thing they call the Bible was a real problem for me. I mean, first coming to grips with the fact that it is what it says that it is, the Word of God but then, just getting into it. It's made up of 66 separate books written over about 1,500 years in different times, in different places and different cultures. So there are words and names and places and concepts and ways of thinking … well, we're not always familiar with them. We're continuing in our series 'Power Unlimited' – because that's what Go's Word brings into our lives so today, we're going to get down and really practical on just how to get into the Bible because unless we do, we're going to miss out on much of the power that God wants to pour into our lives. Over the years I've discovered a few very simple helps or resources that have made such a difference in making sense of God's Word. You see, it turns out there's a whole bunch of people much smarter than me who have done some great research and put the information together in such easy usable ways and all their work makes getting into God's Word, the Bible, so much easier for the likes of you and me. Today I just want to share some of those resources with you. I remember twenty or so years ago, just after I became a Christian, I started attending a tiny little Baptist Church in the southern suburbs of Sydney. A little place called Oyster Bay. Our pastor, Phil, was a passionate and gifted Bible teacher and that man has had a huge impact on my life. Now as well as Sunday services, the Church used to have these little home Bible studies and we'd meet one night a week in someone's house. In our small group, five of us would gather together. And at the time, the particular little home fellowship that I'd joined, was studying the Old Testament book of Hosea. So we'd lob in there each Wednesday evening, we'd have a cup of tea and some fellowship and then we'd sit down and do a Bible study together. And right through that book, over and over and over again, Hosea talks about Ephraim – that word is mentioned 29 times by Hosea. So I remember asking these people, most of them had been Christians for a good many years, "Okay, who or what is this Ephraim thing?" I mean, Hosea kept talking about it and so it seemed to be quite central to what he was saying. But you know something, no-one could tell me who or what Ephraim was. Now it turns out the Ephraim was one of the tribes of Israel, Ephraim was one of Joseph's sons and there's a whole history around this tribe and how they rebelled against God, but we didn't know that in that Bible study so a lot of what God was saying to us, through this amazing, powerful book of Hosea, well it was frankly lost on us. And that sort of thing happens a lot more than you might think. Consider the story of the Good Samaritan. It loses its whole meaning if we don't understand the Samaritans and who they were and what the Jews thought of them. Now when Jesus told that story to the assembled masses they all knew the Samaritan story but we don't, it's not natural to us. And there are names and places and concepts and ways of thinking in the Bible that are foreign to us, because we're separated from them by time and culture. It might have made sense to the people back then but not to us now. And unless we understand those things, we miss out on the richness, on the gravity, on the power of what God is trying to say to us. I remember coming to grips with the Jewish system of blood sacrifice in the Old Testament. Now I kind of think about blood sacrifice and it's pretty ghastly to me here and now, but it's something I really had to understand to understand what Jesus did for me on the Cross. So I decided I was going to find out, not just skim the surface, not read through a story and have them talk about Ephraim or Samaria or all these other things I didn't know about and miss out on what God was trying to say to me through the story. Now these accounts were written such a long time ago and God has preserved them and kept them accurate for us here and now but there is indeed a gap of culture and time in history that we have to bridge to understand completely what's happening in what's been written. I mean after all if the Bible is God's Word and if God is speaking to us through it, I decided I needed to know what He was saying. And surprisingly, that's not as difficult as I thought it would be. Right now, I'm going to talk about a handful of really simple resources that made absolutely the world of difference. The first one was my Bible, a simple English translation, not the King James with the 'thees' and 'thou arts', there are so many good contemporary language translations available to you and me today. The New International Version or the NIV as it's called, is really popular. I happen to use the New Revised Standard Version (the NRSV). There's a translation called The Message which is really in here and now language. The Contemporary English Version (CEV). The New English Translation (NET). Which one is the best one? The one you're going to read. You can get a thing called A Study Bible, it's got not just the words of the Bible, but it's also got a huge amount of resources packed into it. It explains the meanings of different words, there are notes and maps and cross references. They're really good, they don't cost a whole bunch more than a Bible with just the Bible words. So if you want to do more than just skim across the surface, it's really good to have one of those – a Study Bible. Check them out. One of the most helpful features in a Study Bible is a summary of each book: who wrote it, when, to whom and why because context is so important isn't it? Before I read Ephesians I read four or five paragraphs in my Study Bible which explain the context and all of a sudden the book of Ephesians made a whole bunch more sense to me. A Study Bible is a really worthwhile investment and it's not much more than an ordinary Bible. You can get one from a Christian bookshop or you can buy one online. I happen to have an electronic one these days on my tablet device. The second resource is my Bible dictionary. Now I happen to purchase a Bible dictionary called the Holman Bible Dictionary, years ago – it's just one, single volume. You can get Bible dictionaries that are 25 volumes, mine is just one volume and it has pictures. So when I was reading and it talked about the Temple in the Bible, I could go to my Bible dictionary and look at it and see a picture and plans and explaining the different parts. So I'm able to read a few paragraphs in just a few minutes, and I'm there, I understand what the writers saying about the Temple, about the Holy of Holies, wow! When the Bible talks about Ephraim I look it up, half a column, three minutes, I know who or what Ephraim is. The story of the Good Samaritan; who were the Samaritans? What was their relationship to the Jews? Ah! That's what Jesus meant by the story of the Good Samaritan. And lastly, the third resource was a Bible timeline. It's one of these things you can fold out and it's about four pages wide that show the chronology of the Bible. You read about King David, when was he king? Who was King before him? Who was King after him? What else was going on? Which prophets were writing when David was alive? And all of a sudden you put the whole Bible thing in time sequence, that's huge. And just to top things off, let me tell you about two stunning websites. The first is biblegateway.com where you can compare different Bible translations. The second is studylight.org, it has Bible dictionaries online, the meanings of Greek and Hebrew words, and so many more great resources. All free. So let me ask you? Do you take Jesus seriously? If you do then we need to take the Bible seriously. And for just a small investment on your part in just a few simple resources, they pay such huge dividends in hearing and understanding what God is saying to us today through His Word.   Listen and Learn If you spend anytime with me here on the program one of the things you will know is that I'm really passionate about God and what He has to say. Not in a religious sort of a way but in a Jesus sort of way. The thing that really strikes me about Jesus when you read about Him, is how plain and matter of fact He was about sharing with people who God is and what His plans are. Over these last couple of weeks on the program we've been looking at what it means to lay hold of God's power unlimited, God's resurrection power that's available to you, as you open His Word the Bible and listen to what He has to say. The Bible is God speaking to us and He means to challenge us and stretch us and encourage us and bless us through His Word. One of the ways that many people get God's Word into them is by listening to people speak. Radio programs like this or on television and of course, if you attend a Church. But how can preaching and teaching be a part of really getting God's Word into us? Over these last twenty years or so, the time that I've been a Christian, I've seen two things. On the one hand I have been so blessed by some really good teaching and on the other hand I've seen some pretty bad stuff too. In my very first Church, a little Baptist Church, our pastor's name was Phil Littlejohn. Now Phil was a gifted teacher, he just had this ability to open God's Word and speak God stuff into my heart. I learned later this is a real gifting, different people have different gifts and abilities given to them by God and teaching is one of them. Jesus had that, I mean time and time again when He opened His mouth people were amazed because He spoke with a plainness and a power and an authority that they hadn't heard before. And you know something, He didn't always tell them things they wanted to hear. "Love your enemy." "Take up your cross and follow me." "Lose your life for my sake and you'll gain your life." It's not exactly good marketing, I mean the spin merchants would not have let Him get up and speak like that today. I've spent quite a bit of time looking at how Jesus preached. It's real, it's powerful. It's balanced on the one hand and radical on the other and it sort of, well, it cuts through all the selfish rubbish we go on with, right to the heart of what God wants to talk about. And my prayer is that when I discharge my gifting to teach in my own way, I'll always try to teach like He did. But you know I've also sat in Churches over the years and listened to preachers drone on with dry and theoretical, completely cerebral stuff, that's not relevant to my life. On more than one occasion I've walked out after church and two hours later I ask myself "Do I remember what he talked about?" And the answer is, "No, not really." Or you listen to other speakers and there are lots of words and they're very entertaining and they make people laugh and they tickle their ears with great stories and things they want to hear and they yell and people slap them on the back afterwards, 'praise the Lord' but I've been to some of those too and well, I felt like I'd been at the Lord's table to be fed but I left hungry and empty. The flip side of that is that with some other preachers, I can remember years later what they were talking about, years later in difficult circumstances God seems to bring into my heart the words they spoke to me. Preaching and teaching is one of the ways that God gets His Word into us. You see it right through the Bible; He uses men and women to speak to others, to teach them. I mean the Samaritan woman at the well; she went and told people about Jesus. Paul and Peter and all the other guys that went out preaching. The question is, how do you get the most out of that? How does preaching and teaching play a part in us reading our Bible and unlocking the power unlimited that God has for us? Well, here are just some of my observations. I see people come into a Church on a Sunday and listen to the preacher and they don't take any notes and they don't bring their Bible and they don't follow what the preacher's saying in their Bible. I take my Bible with me, I open my Bible and I read what the preacher is talking about. People can speak all the words that they like, everything that they say, they can crack jokes and have great stories – the most important thing is God's Word, the most important thing is what God is saying. And secondly I take some notes. I mean you can't even get through kindergarten on a half an hour a week without taking notes. You know, if we take God seriously, if we want to follow Jesus and really take that seriously, you know something, we've got to take learning seriously. Do you know what a disciple is? A disciple is literally "a learner", that's what the word disciple means, to be a learner. And thirdly, the thing I do when I've listened to some really good preaching, is I spend some time afterwards in God's Word reading it for myself. Sometimes it's not until you get home and you pray it through and you spend some time in that passage and maybe looking at some other related ones, that God really drops it into your spirit. I mean, years ago I heard a preacher teaching on a profound passage: 1 Peter 5:6,7: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt you in due time. Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you. Now I've learnt so much from what God taught me through that preacher in this passage but I've learned just as much and maybe even more from pondering and praying over this scripture and looking at other related passages. Learning in my heart – that's when I humble myself, when I get off my little tin pot throne and just walk each day faithfully with God. He's the one who later opens the doors; He's the one that's got an eternity ready for me. I've looked at this whole thing of preaching, and listened to some incredibly sermons and some dreadful ones too, I've come to the conclusion that there are two types of preaching; dead and alive. Dead preaching is full of words, it's boring and dry or maybe it's hyped up and frothy and bubbly but at the end of the day, there's no eternal food there because God's Word is not being preached in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's only God's Word by the power of the Spirit that can change us. I can't change you, I can't say things in my own strength that will change your life, but if I'm speaking God's stuff, if the Holy Spirit somehow takes God's stuff and puts it into your heart, that's when change happens and only God can do that. This is how the Apostle Paul put it: 1 Cor 2:1-5: When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God Can I encourage you to be discerning as to what you listen to? Go and listen to the preachers who are proclaiming God's Word in the power of the Holy Spirit.. Go and have a read about how Jesus preached in the Gospels Matthew or Mark or Luke or John, the first four books of the New Testament. It's edgy and profound and real and dealing with the hard issues, and find yourself some preachers like that. Not ones that just entertain and tickle your ears with things you want to hear. The ones that open up God's Word and say, 'Well, what's God saying to us today?' and then take what they said home, open your Bible there where they left off and go and lay hold of God's power unlimited for you, for your life.

They say that following Jesus isn't easy. Because following Jesus means swimming against the tide of popular opinion. Following Jesus means, all too often … in fact most of the time … going in the opposite direction. That's why we need power … power unlimited … to follow Jesus.   WARNING: The Countercultural Christ Over the last couple of weeks on the program, we've been talking about the unlimited power that's available to you and me through God's Word. It seems like a bit of a crazy notion, this idea that you can find incredible power, unlimited power in a book. But the Bible, well … the Bible isn't just a book. It's the living Word of the living God and when God speaks, amazing things happen. This is what the Bible says about the Bible – two key verses that change everything about how we look at God's Word: Hebrews 4:12: Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 2 Tim 3:16-17: All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. It never ceases to amaze me how people who call themselves Christians think that they can live their lives in peace and joy and power and service … by never, ever opening the Bible. By never, ever drinking in the living, active Word of God that helps us discern the intentions of our hearts. Because let's face it, it's in our heart that we deceive ourselves. It's in our heart that we conceive sin and give birth to it. And so we do need teaching, we do need reproof and correction and training in righteousness in order to be proficient and equipped for every good work. What I've discovered in my life is that there are fundamental flaws and weaknesses in my personality, that, try as I might, I am powerless to change. And yet, when I let God's Word wash through my heart, when I allow the Holy Spirit to write God's Word on my heart, He does things that I could never do, He unleashes power … power unlimited … to do the things I cannot do. That's what happens when we listen to God through His Word. Because God calls into existence the things that do not yet exist (Romans 4:17). Think about it, how did God create the universe? God said "Let there be light and there was light." (Genesis 1:4) God said "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters. (Gen 1:6) God said "Let dry land appear" and it was so (Gen 1:9) God said … God said … God said … and so the universe was created. In other words God spoke the whole universe, the trillions of stars, the great lights, all the creatures and plants on the earth … God said … and it was so. That's the power of God's Word. And if that isn't power unlimited, I don't know what is. But … there always seems to be a "but" doesn't there? … but you and I, all too often, we want that power for all the wrong reasons. We want it to make our lives better, rather than to empower us to sacrifice our lives for Christ's sake. We want it to get ahead, to overcome this, to get that … rather than to take our Cross and follow Jesus. I said at the beginning of the program that Jesus said that following Him would be hard. Here it is: Matthew 16:24-26: Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life. Let me ask you plainly, quietly but very honestly: Why do you want God's power, God's unlimited power, in your life? Is it in order to change the difficult circumstances, the difficult people the things out there, the things around you that are causing you grief? Or is it in order that God would change you, to empower you, to enable you to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth? Is it that the Holy Spirit would give you the power to take up your Cross and lay down your life, to potentially lose it all, for Christ's sake? This whole series of messages Power Unlimited, comes with a warning. Don't try this at home, unless you're prepared to lose it all because this wild, untamed, Jesus, is radically counter-cultural and He's calling His followers to a radical, counter-cultural life. A life that could cost you, will cost you, everything. Have a listen to these couple of encounters that Jesus had with the religious establishment. It's worth taking a few moments to see how Jesus upset the prevailing culture of His day: Matthew 12:1-8: At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, "Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?" so that they might accuse him. He said to them, "Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. Do you get it? This is what got Him killed. This is why they crucified Him … because He shone light where there was darkness; because He brought truth where there were lies … and that upset people. Have you noticed how vitriolic people, society, culture becomes when you stand up for the rights of the unborn child, or when you speak with love of the wonder of God's plan for marriage to be a sublime union between one man and one woman, or when you pull back from the filthy jokes that people tell at work? Have you noticed that? Or have you noticed about the "dangerous religious teachings" in schools that people talk about these days in the news … when it was Christians who are responsible for taking education far and wide across this globe, founding schools, founding hospitals, caring for the needy. Have you noticed? Jesus isn't calling you to an easy life my friend, make no mistake about it. You follow Jesus and you are going to upset people, and they will come against you like nothing else on earth. And what you're going to need the power for, is to make it through in love, to continue shining the light of God's love into this earth, despite the opposition, the persecution, the difficult people, the difficult circumstances. As Adrian Pass wrote: You're going to need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow. And yet, when we get God's Word into us, the promise of Jesus, the Son of God Himself, is this: John 15:7-8: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. Did you get that? If the Word of God abides in you, dwells in you, has say in you, and if you abide in Jesus – you can ask for whatever you wish – whatever – and it will be done for you. There it is. Power unlimited. But not to do the things that you want, because once God's Word abides in you, you'll be asking for the things that He wants. Let your will be done on this earth … as it is in heaven. Power unlimited.   Laying hold of Power A few years ago now, I had the opportunity to speak with a group of high school students at the opening of their college and senior campus. The subject of my presentation was this: 'How to Get More out of Your Parents'. I just remember that when I was at high school, speakers at those functions were so boring. I wanted to grab their attention and it certainly did that. A few of the parents, I have to tell you, were listening pretty closely as well but the heart of the presentation was this. Our parents, at least the greatest majority of them, are hard wired to bless us, but one of the things teenagers do, I know I did, is rebel against them and that stops the flow of parental blessing dead in its tracks. I shared some insights with these young men and women about how, in a very practical way, they can respond to their parents' love at the same time as growing up, to get that relationship and that blessing flowing again. You could see some lights going on as they came to grips with how to respond to their parents. It turns out, our relationship with God is no different. Over the last little while on the program, we've been working our way through a series of messages called, 'Power Unlimited'. Over the last twenty or so years I've spent a lot of time studying God's Word, the 66 different books in the Bible and so I've had the chance to mull it all over. And whilst I know I've really just scratched the surface, the more I think about it, the Bible appears to me to be about 4 things. Who God is, God's will and purpose for us, who you and I are in his heart and fourthly, the thing I want to talk about today is, how we can respond to God. And as it turns out, that's the key to laying hold of the unlimited power that He has for us. Now some people think that all the Bible has to offer, is a bunch of rules and regulations. But as I've read my way through the Bible, what I've discovered is that, how we can respond to God isn't the main thing, it kind of drops out of all the other three; it's a natural consequence of who God is, His will and purpose, who I am and as we get our hearts around those things, well for me at least, my heart just wanted to explode and respond to Him. We're going to unpack this last one today because you know something; it's not a rules and regulations thing. I don't stay faithful to my wife because I have to, I do, but that's not why I stay faithful to her. I stay faithful to her because I want to; it's my response to her love and to our promise to one another. Not a difficult thing to do at all, because she loves me and one of the ways that I respond to that love is through my faithfulness to her. It's the same deal with God but you know something, it's not good enough to know that we ought to respond or even that we want to respond, we need to know how to respond. So often in marriages the husband wants to show love to the wife and the wife wants to show love to the husband, but they're actually two very different people and they don't know how. A lot of marriages fall apart simply because people don't know how to love one another. We were talking about teenagers earlier; nobody ever explained to me what was going on when I was growing up. You know, we start with a total dependence on our parents, we're a baby, we have breast milk, we're in nappies and progressively we grow to be independent of them. It's a natural thing to grow up and become an adult and to be independent of your parents. Jesus quoted the Old Testament, he said: Matthew 19:5 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they'll become one flesh. In those teenage years, we're kind of almost adults but not really, we're still dependant on our parents financially. We're still under their authority and discipline; we still live in their home. Those awkward in–between years are times when a lot of people rebel against their parents in all sorts of ways. You know the teenage roll of the eyes, "I know it all and what would my parents know". We continually do things parents ask us not to and we yet do them anyway. We leave the empty coke can on the sink or the underwear on the floor in the bathroom, whatever it is that a teenager does that drives their parents nuts, it's almost like if they know that it drives their parents nuts, they'll do it more. I did that. We establish a pattern of behaviour that's rebellious and so you get into a rut that you don't know how to get out of. In the short time we spent together, these young people and I, I just gave them some practical advice on how to honour their parents so that the blessing will flow to them. You know something; I think it's the same in our relationship with God. It's the little things we do or we don't do. The way we think, the way we behave, the way we hold onto things and the pride and the selfishness. We can understand God's love, perhaps we even understand what Jesus did on the cross for us but unless we know how to respond to that, we may not respond properly. And sometimes we know but we just can't bring ourselves to respond. The Apostle John explained how to love God: 1 John 5:3 This is love for God, to obey His commandments and His commands aren't burdensome because everyone born of God overcomes the world." Here's what a regular pattern of Bible reading and prayer has done for me: it's changed me progressively. Just when I'm going through a tough time in a relationship I read something like this, 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love but perfect love drives out all fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears isn't made perfect in love, we love because God first loved us. If anyone says 'I love God' yet hates his brother, he's a liar because anyone who doesn't love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he hasn't seen and he has given us this command, "Whoever loves God must also love his brother. You know, when you're going through a tough relationship and you want to rip someone's head off, you pick up your Bible and you read that, you go "God's speaking to me about how I should respond to His love." Just when I'm struggling with this or that, I turn the next page and He speaks to me right into that struggle, right into that need, right into that "I want to go my way" and God says, "but if you want to respond to my love, this is my way. It's a much narrower path, it's a much more difficult path, but these are my ways and my ways are not always your ways, my thoughts are not always your thoughts". His quiet, still voice speaks into our heart with a power and gentleness and calls us in His direction, not our own and for me it's always been that God's spoken to me in a way that my heart just wants to receive what He says. In a way that nobody else could speak and He does that through His Word, the Bible. He speaks in a way that changes me, that fills me and equips me and prepares me and encourages me. When I read God's word I'm not just a better preacher, I'm a better husband, I'm a better father, I'm a better work colleague. God teaches me how to respond. Now I have to tell you, this is still very much a work in progress and others no doubt are much further down the track than I am but that's not the point. Like a surgeon He's taking out the cancers, the cancers of sin, reconstructing, repairing, healing, encouraging. That's what happens when we go to Him and listen to what He has to say. He teaches us and shows us how to respond when we spend time in His Word – He just does! That's why there is such incredible power in the living Word of the living God.   Two ways of Living You see to me one of the hardest thing about living my life for Jesus is having to be different from the rest of the world. You see, we are social creatures. God made us that way and so we all liked to be liked and be accepted. By and large, we don't like conflicts, we ... we don't like to ridiculed or scorned. And I am not saying to be a Christian you have to be an oddball or an idiot. Jesus was neither of those, but there times when we have to go in the opposite direction. There are times when we have to be different. And those times are never very comfortable. Some Christians try to have a foot in each camp, they laugh at the dirty jokes and swear like a trooper at work. And then they lift their hands in worship in church on Sundays. It ... it never lasts too long. It's too hard to have a foot in both camps. You can't be a dog with two masters. When one says, "come" and the other says, "stay", which one are you going to obey? How are you going to remain true to yourself? To many of Christ's follower, it comes as something of a surprise that their faith ends up resulting in a clash of cultures. It comes as a surprise that following Jesus, this radical countercultural Jesus leads to persecution. In my country, in my city, questions of family and marriage and sexuality are big issues at the moment. Any Christians who stand up and says, "Excuse me, that is not what God wants for our nation. That's ... That's not where we should be headed", is a narrow-minded conservative big head. And anyhow, "Didn't Jesus love and accept everyone?" Let's take a quick look at just one story of the Book of Acts, just one of many where persecution fell on Jesus's disciple. Act 5:17 onwards: Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in the name of Jesus, yet here you are, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus up, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill the disciples. That point comes for each and every person who believes in Jesus. At some point, we need to make a decision, which way am I going to live. For myself? Taking the easy way, going with the flow? Or for God and others? Standing as those disciples did - well, by this time they were apostles. One sent out by Jesus to proclaim the Good News of the Risen Christ. Standing like that takes courage, it takes power. I don't know about you, but that is the sort of courage and power that I don't have within myself. And yet, God's word - the bible is full of power. Power unlimited, resurrection power, Holy Spirit power that will fill you with every verse that you read. As you read, receive and respond to God's word. Your live is going to be remarkably transformed. As you digest the bread of life, the word of God, the Holy Spirit is gonna turn that immeasurably great power in you. That's his promise! The very same power that raise Jesus from the dead - the resurrection power that you need to live you live for Christ. And the Christians that ignores God's word, the ones that leaves their bible up on the shelves gathering dust, those Christians will be powerless to live the new life that Jesus came to give them. So, which way you live? The old way or the new way? It's up to you.

God is so profoundly different to anyone or anything that this world has to offer. His ways are so different to our ways, and unless and until we have a personal encounter with the risen Christ, unless and until we encounter Jesus in our own, personal experience, our lives simply cannot be transformed.   Who Exactly is God? Who or what is God? When you go out and ask different people and what you discover is that they have a picture of God in their heads that doesn't always have a whole bunch to do with who God actually is. It's almost like we reconstruct Him in our own image, to suit ourselves, to suit our own agendas, but let me ask you something, if God is God wouldn't it be worthwhile kind of figuring out exactly who He is? IF God has the power, is the power, to transform our lives, shouldn't we get to know Him? I mean, who is He really and how do you and I relate to Him? What if God is awesome and powerful and loving and kind and we spend the rest of our lives missing out on all that because we never really went after Him to discover who He really is? So how do we discover who God really is? This week on the program we're setting about laying hold of God's power to completely and utterly transform our lives. And the place that we discover that power, the place that God the Holy Spirit has made available for us to lay hold of that power – is His Word, the Bible. I mean reading the Bible was something I would never have done in a million years. What do you think I am, some wacky fundamentalist? But you know something, reading the Bible for myself has completely and utterly transformed my life. It didn't stunt me, it opened me up. It didn't narrow my mind; it opened me up to the wonder and the possibilities of life with God, to the power that God wants to unleash in my life. Over the last twenty or so years I guess I've spent a lot of time in that Book, in fact its 66 different books. I've had the chance to study and to learn and to think and to mull it all over and truly, in those twenty odd years I've really only scratched the surface. But the more I think about it, the Bible is basically about four things: Who God is, what He's like and how He reacts to things. What God's will and purposes are, what His plan is. Where my life is headed. It's about who I am, made in His image but how does He see me? Who did He make me to be? And … how I can respond to God. Some people think this last one, number four, is all that the Bible has to offer; just rules and regulations … but you know, as you read it for yourself, how to respond to God is quite simply not the main thing, it just kind of drops out at the end, it's the natural consequence of the first three. Those four things again are: who God is, what His will and purposes are, who you and I are in His eyes and how we can respond. That's what the Bible contains, it's real and it's practical, it's about life, it's awesome and it's exciting and it contains power … power unlimited to transform you, to transform your life, to heal you, to bless you, to empower you. Today I just want to look at the first one of those; who God is. I mean if God is God, shouldn't we figure out who He is? Who He says He is? Where better to do that, to search Him out, than that great love letter that He's written to you and to me, the Bible. It makes sense, doesn't it? When I first laid eyes on my wife Jacqui, when I first saw her from a distance, I was speaking at a Church and she was sitting in that congregation. As far as I was concerned, she was just another face in the crowd and had I never sought her out, I would never have come to know her and to have a relationship with her. So, I did seek her out and she responded to that. In a sense, picking up the Bible is seeking God out, it's the same thing, He responds. It's not a dead book written by men thousands of years ago. It's the living, active word of God and His promise is that when we pick it up, the Holy Spirit, God Himself, will bring it to life in our hearts. God promised that He would pour His Spirit out on all flesh and that He would write His words onto our heart. By far, the greatest reason for reading the Bible, is to encounter God Himself, to discover who He is, and how He sees things; what He's like and what He's up to. You see, it's easy to read this story or that in the Bible and say, "Well that was a story about King David" or "That one over there, that's the story about Moses or Peter or Paul". But so often in the pages of this great and mighty book, the great unseen player is God Himself and as I read every story, every verse, I keep asking myself, "What does this tell me about God Himself? What's He up to in this story?" Let's take just one example, it's a short story. God makes a promise to this man called Abram who is childless. You know, Abram's an old man, his wife Sarai is an old woman, they're childless and yet God has called them to go from their home on this huge journey. God's promised them children, a multitude of children, but it's never happened. It's gone on for years and years and years. Abraham's out of his comfort zone, he's on this long, uncomfortable journey and he's frustrated and this is what happens. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." But the word of the Lord came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6) It's really easy to read this story and imagine that it's a story all about Abram. But the real question that we should be asking is What does this short little story, tell us about God? Here's Abram. He's frustrated, he's waiting for a breakthrough that's not coming. He's trying to believe in God, but it's hard. I wonder if that sounds at all familiar to you? And it's going on for years and years and years and he and his wife are old and it's just absolutely impossible. But along comes God and He does this kind of gentle and kind and wondrous and patient thing with Abraham, He takes him outside to gaze up into this beautiful masterpiece called the Milky Way. Have you ever looked up at the stars away from the smog and the lights of a big city at night? It's incredible how many stars are up there and in the middle of Abram's frustration, God says 'Abram, look … look at this! This is how many descendants you're going to have. My promise will actually happen". And if you read the rest of this story, Abraham ultimately has a son, with his wife Sarah, called Isaac. He never saw all these offspring happen, he never saw the rest of the promise fulfilled in his life time, but here is this good and gracious and powerful God who takes a man in the middle of his frustration and just speaks lovingly to him. It's a story about God do you get it? It's a story about how God treats those who He loves when they're at the end of their tether. the Bible is full of those stories. You pick it up and you read them and wow, you discover who God really is. Do you see the power in that? Do you see how know God, and how in our small, limited way, coming to understand Him can make such a powerful difference to us, when we're lost and frustrated and clinging onto a promise … but only just? People often say to me, "Berni, you seem to be so enthusiastic about God." Can I tell you why? Because over the last couple of decades I've discovered Him in the pages of the Bible and discovered what He says about Himself there and those things have ended up being etched onto my heart, so that I can experience Him in my life. I can't help but be enthusiastic and you know, I can't help but wonder, where would my life be? Where would I be, if I hadn't laid hold of this power … power unlimited in the living Word of God?   What are His Plans and Purposes for Me? You know one of the most common things that we all experience at some point or other in our lives, is this dilemma, this crisis if you will, of, well where is my life headed? I think it's because somehow we're hardwired to have hope for the future, to be able to look forward to a good future, to have a sense of significance, to make our mark in this world. Where is my life headed? … can become a question of quite some desperation. And for our lives to be headed in the right direction we need a few things to come together. The way we live, the things that we can control, and the things that go on around us, the ones we can't control. That's not easy. It's almost an impossible juggling act. But … what if God has a plan? What if He has a purpose in the things that we've been travelling through? What if there's meaning behind it all, and He does want to do amazing things and He does want to be involved in the choices we make today? What if? Wouldn't you want to tap into that? I mean, wouldn't you want to know? Wouldn't you want Him to speak those plans and purposes gently into your heart and let them make a difference for you, here and now? Just think … what a powerful way that would be to live. Yesterday we saw that the biggest thing that we can get out of the Bible is discovering God Himself, who He is, what He's like, how does He react to different situations and things? To me that is the greatest prize of them all, God Himself, getting to know Him, having a wonderful, rich relationship that just gets deeper and deeper as time goes by. Today I want to look at the second thing that I think the Bible is about, God's plans and God's purposes, both the big picture and specifically for you and me. The big picture is so important. What's Gods big plan? What's He up to? A friend and colleague of mine, Dr Graham Pratt, he and I were speaking a few years ago at an IT conference in Singapore. We were talking over coffee about some technology thing and he said to me, "Berni, context is so important, in fact in understanding something, context is almost everything." I'll never forget it, it's a pearl of wisdom. We want to know where our lives are headed, my life, my little piece of the puzzle, right? If we want to do that we need to understand the big picture; God's great plan as well as His specific plans and purposes for our lives. You know, when I read the Bible, the stories and the things that happened a long time ago, somehow God's plan for my life becomes so crystal clear. For me, life was just a 'here and now' thing. It was about wealth and career. In reality, it was empty, hollow, directionless. Where was it headed? What was the point? But when I encountered Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, when I started listening to Him by reading the Bible, I began to get a handle on God's big picture. A big picture that's best summed up in something that God says over and over again: I will be your God and you will be my people. (Exodus 6:7) From the beginning to the end of the Bible, you see God saying that and explaining it and sending Jesus so that it could happen. They're not just words on a page. This is the very heartbeat of God to call us back to Himself, to call us back home, here and now and for all eternity, despite our rebellion, despite the fact that we rejected Him, despite all our mistakes; to give us a new life, an eternal life that's not about rules and regulations but a relationship with Him. And right through the whole Bible you see Him engaging with people and drawing them closer, people just like you and me, people in their weaknesses and their failures and yet He loves them and touches them and reaches out to them. Okay, we see His anger too sometimes, you see God getting angry and yet despite that He still reaches out to people from in the midst of His anger and that's where we discover His grace and we see Jesus dying on a cross for you and me. As we read those stories over and over again, His heartbeat touches ours, His desire touches us, His grace wraps itself around us and through us. I've only just started to wrap my heart around that as I've spent twenty odd years listening to Him, hearing His words and His stories and His heartbeat in the pages of that wondrous book – the Bible. You know, you open the Bible and you read the story of Jesus dying on the cross and crying out: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) And from the pages of that book we hear God crying out to you and me, here and now; "Don't you realise how much I love you". And you know, as well as this big picture of God's engagement of all humanity and His plans for humanity as a whole, the thing that, for me, so often leaps off the pages of His word are His specific plans for me. Sometimes we think that 'Well, you know, God's stopped talking. God had the prophets in the Old Testament and He had Jesus in the New Testament and He had some Apostles in the New Testament … but that was back then. Today though, here and now God's stopped talking'. But when we're travelling through times that are uncertain, when we want to give up, when we're in a relationship or in a thing we thought God had called us into but now we're not sure, we need God to speak. I cannot tell you the number of times, in the early days, that I wanted to give up on this ministry of Christianityworks that I'm involved in. I can't begin to tell you. It all looked so impossible, it all looked so hopeless. How could this guy from the IT industry ever do this thing called 'sharing Gods love with people through the media'? It was incongruous but as I look back on it now, that regular habit of spending time in Gods word, day after day, is how He touched me and whispered in my heart 'just keep going'. That's what happens, you read God's word and you discover power … power unlimited … power to keep going with God's plan for your life. That's what happens. Just when I was rock bottom I remember one time, reading this: My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2,3) Another time, just when I was wondering whether or not to step out in faith by growing the ministry into Africa when we clearly didn't have the resources to do so, I opened up to the next chapter and read about Peter stepping out of the boat. He didn't wait for the storm to stop. No, he stepped out in the middle of the storm and walked on the water towards Jesus. Just when I was feeling so incredibly inadequate one tome, I read about how Peter and all the other disciples deserted Jesus when He was being tried and crucified. And yet Jesus still went on to use them to start this thing He called "the church". The Bible is full of this stuff and somehow God, through His Spirit, takes those stories and connects them with our lives and in our hearts we just know that God is speaking to us. There have been so many times when just when I needed a gentle touch from God … then I read about how He healed the leper or the blind person or the lame man. The Bible is full of God's promises and plans and purposes. And when we establish a regular habit of just spending some time in there with Him, His Spirit writes His promises and plans and purposes on our hearts with indelible ink, in a way that no person, no man or woman, no situation, no trial can ever rub them off. God Himself brings His word to life and that changes everything. So often I wonder where I'd be if I hadn't established a regular habit of reading Gods word. You know, it just doesn't bear thinking about.   Who Am I, Really? One of the things that many people ponder in life is this question, "Who am I?" We have so many pictures and images of who we should be thrust under our noses each day … and yet none of them ring true, so we end up feeling a bit like refugees, lost. The media and the advertisers, they want to define success for us. They want to tell us what it means to be open-minded. They want to tell us what we should aspire to. They want to tell us what a happy, well adjusted family looks like, and what beauty looks like and what we have to achieve, who we have to be, what we have to look like, to be successful. They tell us if we don't look like this, we haven't made it, but we will if we buy their product and I don't know about you, but I can get so lost in that maze because my life never quite looks like those images of success that they wave under my nose. And we compare ourselves with other people, people who look successful and so often we come to the conclusion that we aren't. And so that question, "Who am I?" rattles around in that empty, hollow void inside. Who am I? Have you ever been to one of those fairs, you know where they have Ferris wheels and merry-go-rounds and amusements and sideshows? And in side-show alley, they have those distorted mirrors. You know, you walk in front of one and you look all tall and skinny or short and fat or all wobbly and wavy. They're good fun for a little while, about a minute or two. But imagine, imagine if our mirrors at home were like that, all distorted … not good. I remember when I was working as an IT consultant one of the clients I used to work for, the front door of their offices had this glass that was a perfect distortion of me. It just made me look a bit slimmer and a bit taller, you know I could have stood in front of that door all day and looked at myself. We'd like to have a mirror like that at home, wouldn't we? Or would we? My hunch is, whenever we get a distorted image of ourselves, of who we are, that's not a good thing even if we happen to like the distorted image better than the real one. For example, the distorted image that society puts up that you can be whoever you want to be, it's all up to you, it's all out there, just go and be whoever you want to be. I'm 5 foot, 9 inches or 174 cm tall, so it doesn't matter how much I want to be a basketball player, I'm never going to be a basketball player. In fact there are some things in life that I am decidedly not good at. If I try to be those things, it would be a bad fit. Maybe that's why so many people aren't happy, because they're trying to do jobs or be someone that they're quite simply not cut out to be. Aspiring to something that we're never going to be any good at is one of the worst things that we can do in the world. I wonder if that's why there are so many people, who literally hate their jobs. I was looking at a recent 'job satisfaction' survey on the internet. Have a listen to these stats: 45% of workers say that they're either satisfied or extremely satisfied with their jobs. You know what that means? That means that 55%, or over half, aren't. Of those 45% who said they were happy, less than half again, in fact only 20% said that they felt really passionate about their jobs. That means that 80% of people don't feel passionate about their jobs and 33%, fully a third believed they'd reached a dead end in their careers, there was no hope for a future. 21% were eager to change careers. I think that these statistics are a tragedy. The vast majority of people aren't passionate about what they do every day. So many people aren't enjoying their lives. But …. let's look at the flipside of that coin. There's a whole bunch of people wandering around in life, believing with every fibre of their being, that they're worthless. 'Oh, I'm only a stay at home mum. I'm only a clerk. I'm not as smart or as good looking or as talented or as successful or as wealthy or whatever as the next person.' So many people and advertisers and product manufacturers and self styled guru's out there want to tell us who we should be and how we get there and if we aren't we need to get onto their program. Amidst all of that, here's a question, who am I? Who are you? In the cosmos, in the scheme of things, how do you define your worth and who you actually are? And if you're living your life that way, then you are living a powerless life. A life that will, ultimately, count for nothing. In a very real sense, that was the life that I was living, until I discovered what God said about me. How God sees me. What His view of me from Heaven's balcony looks like. And that's something that you find in the Bible over and over again. I want to set you a challenge today, to read Ephesians Chapters 1 to 3 – only a few pages – and to write down all the things that just those three chapters say about you. Let me just give you the first few: You are a saint, grace and peace are yours, you are already blessed with every spiritual blessing, you were chosen before the creation of the world, predestined, adopted into God's family, redeemed, forgiven, God's grace is being lavished on you, wisdom and understanding are yours, God's will is made known to you … and we haven't even arrived yet, at the tenth verse of the first chapter. Do you get it? The Bible presents a radically different view of who you are. The Bible tells you who God says you are. So instead of believing the distorted images that the world reflects back at you, you can see, a crystal clear, accurate representation of who you are. As one of my Bible College lecturers, Dr Barry Chant, often used to say – you and I need to ditch our self image, and develop a faith image, by discovering and believing what God says about you. Because when you know who you really are, who you are in Christ, you will have laid hold of the power to be who God made you to be. It's a power that will completely and utterly and radically transform your life. You see God is no other pedlar of good philosophies or belief systems; He's not some distorted mirror of low self–esteem or unrealistic stereotypes. If God is truly God, if God made you and me, how does He see us? The answer to that question tells us who we really are. And not knowing who we are is like trying to navigate your place from A to B, with an inaccurate map. Blind Freddy can see that that's no way to live life. I come back again, to the many people I speak to about the problems that they're experiencing in life. When I ask them … how often do you read your Bible, they invariably tell me, in a low voice, with obvious embarrassment … Well, not very often. Okay then, so when was the last time you opened your Bible and spent just five minutes listening to what God wants to tell you? The answer? For many it's months and even years ago. Who am I? If that's a question that you want the answer to, a question let me say that you want the right answer to, if you want an accurate map for your life, then the only place that you're going to find it is in God's Word. Because when we come to His word, the Bible with questions like "Who am I?", His Spirit breathes those truths into our hearts. I can't do that for you, only you can do that with Him, only He can do that for you and that stuff is the stuff that's in the Bible because all of us who are led by God's spirit are children of God. So let me take you back to that challenge. Open your Bible, go to Ephesians Chapters 1 to 3 in the New Testament. Read them. And write down everything that you find in those few sort pages that tell you who you are. I found thirty statements about my identity. Let's see how many you can find. Right them down, ponder them, believe them … and tell me then if you don't find power unlimited to live your life.

Too many Christians, in fact, way too many Christians, are living lives that fall so far short of the life that Jesus promised. When Jesus promised power, they instead end up living a powerless life. I wonder if you know anyone like that. Resurrection Power I wonder if this scenario sounds at all familiar to you. At some stage, way back when, you decided to believe in Jesus. Perhaps you, like me, can remember the day that you took that step. Or maybe like many people I know, you can't remember a time when you didn't believe in Jesus. So you've believed … and believed … and believed … and somehow life doesn't seem to get any better. You seem to have the same challenges, successes, failures … whatever, as all the other people you know who don't believe in Jesus. In fact, often times, they seem to be living a better life than you are and on top of that, they're not wracked by guilt the way you are, because by not believing in Jesus, they don't have to worry about the idea of temptation, or falling short of God's ideals, or any of that stuff. Does that sounded all familiar? Sadly, it's de rigour for many a Christian. Most Christians in fact. The Christian life doesn't seem all it's cracked up to be. Wasn't it Jesus who said: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) So where is that abundant life (the original Greek word used there actually means super-abundant!) Where is this super-abundant life that Jesus promised us? Why is everything so difficult? Why is it that I'm not filled with the joy and the excitement that I first felt when I gave my life to Jesus? Can I tell you, I speak to a lot of people, all around the world, who come to me with basically that scenario; basically that same story. Here it is in a nutshell: I know that my life isn't what it's meant to be in Christ. I know that. But I don't know why. I don't know what to do about it. And that's why today we're kicking off a brand new series of messages called "Power Unlimited". Because the thing that's lacking in the lives of these people – perhaps in your life too – is the power to live the life that Jesus promised us. The devil comes along and whispers in our ear You're not good enough for God. And actually He's right. That's exactly what the Apostle Paul says of himself (and remember God called him to write almost half of the books of the New Testament). For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. (Romans 7:14-21) So Paul, as it turns out, has exactly the same problem that you and I have. But happily, he doesn't give up, because the old Paul, God bless him, also has the answer. The only answer that has the power to make a difference: Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:24) You see I have some very good news for you today. Listen carefully so you don't miss it: God has already placed within you all the power that you need, to live the super-abundant life that Jesus died and rose again to give you. God has already made the resurrection power, the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead, available to you, here and now, to live the super-abundant life that Jesus came to give you. I know, I know … you don't believe me. Good, you shouldn't believe me, it's not within my purview to grant you that power. But will you believe what God says in the Bible: I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:17-22) Do you see? Paul's prayer for the Ephesians is that they would discover the immeasurable greatness of God's power for us who believe … the very same power that raised Christ from the dead. Each year we celebrate Easter, the death on the Cross (which receives most of the focus) and the resurrection (which frankly, we don't focus on as much). But this resurrection is the evidence of the immeasurably great power that is available to you and me, so that we can live a new life. The life that Jesus promised. As Bible teacher Casey Treat once said … we need to stop praying for power, and start praying with power, the power that we already have. One of my Bible college lecturers from years ago, Dr Barry Chant, once said that if he were to transliterate the original Greek words used there for immeasurably great power, it would sound something like this: hyperballistic, megathonic, dynamic power! Do you get it? Do you realise the immeasurable greatness of God's power that He has placed at your disposal to live your life for Christ? Hello, wake-up! And the purpose of this power, the whole point of this power, is to enable us to live the new life, the born-again life, the resurrection life, the super-abundant life, that Jesus came to give us. Yet so many Christians, most Christians, fail to live that life for one reason and one reason alone. Because they don't lay hold of that power. We live on a spiritual battlefield. The Apostle Paul puts it this way: … our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:12-17) No I'm an old soldier from way back. And I can tell you that as I look at each of the elements of that spiritual armour that Paul lists there, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes, the shield the helmet, each of them those is a defensive piece of armour. Defence is important to protect yourself, but you don't win a war by defending. To win, you have to attack. And the only offensive weapon in that list is … what? The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God! That's the only attack weapon in the spiritual armoury that God has given you. And the truth is that most Christians leave it in its scabbard. They leave the sword of the Spirit at home, and then they wonder why the devil keeps on winning! And that … that's something we're going to talking about in the rest of the series.   The Power to Change As you can imagine, I speak with a lot of people. People who respond to this radio program, people I meet in my travels, people who've hear me speak and want to know how to apply it to their lives. And most people, come to me with a problem. This is working in my life … and I just don't know why. That isn't working in my life … and I don't know what to do about it. I want to follow Jesus … but Satan keeps on winning as he tempts me with this sin or that sin. Over and over again, I hear the same thing, the same question, the same problem, the same frustration in people's voices. Why isn't my life all that Jesus promised it would be?! It's a question that plagues many a Christ follower. It causes many to fall by the wayside. It causes many people to live a life that falls so far short of all that it could be in Christ. To my way of thinking, this is one of the greatest tragedies playing itself out in the Kingdom of God today. And just like many of the lifestyle and diet related illnesses that are killing people across the globe, this is a sickness that is completely avoidable. Here is what I see happening in God's Kingdom, amongst God's people. The societies in which we live are moving further and further away from God. Look at the United States. A country of religious freedom, founded by the pilgrims, who came to the land to have the freedom to worship God. A nation who, on its dollar bill, has the words "In God we trust". And now, a country, where it's illegal to pray at school, illegal for an officer in the military to share his faith or a Bible with a soldier, a country where four in ten unborn children are 'terminated' – that's a genocide of around 1.2 million children each year. I'm not just picking on the US of A … it's happening right around the globe. Societies founded on Christian love, as they become more secular, are shifting further and further away from God. And they're behaving as though this is progress. It's progress to allow one man to marry another man, or a woman to marry another woman. It's progress to allow a woman to choose whether or not to kill her unborn child. It's progress for women not to respect their husbands and men not to cherish their wives. And anybody who stands in the way of this so-called "progress" is a narrow-minded, conservative bigot. And these sweeping changes are sweeping many a Christian along them. Christians en masse are forsaking a life based on God's Word, for a life based on the world's ways. And not just individual Christians, but preachers, Bible teachers, churches and denominations. And then we wonder why things aren't going so well for us in our lives. Really?! Back to the Bible International based in Lincoln Nebraska, is a ministry that I have been closely involved with now for a good many years. They in fact founded the ministry of Christianityworks that I now lead here in Australia, way back in 1957. Part of Back to the Bible is the Centre for Bible Engagement, which has conducted extensive research around the world on the impact in the lives of men and woman, who are engaged with God's Word on a regular basis. Remember, the Bible itself says that there is incredible power to defeat Satan, in God's Word: … our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:12-17) The only offensive weapon in our spiritual armour given to us by God is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. All the other parts of the armour are defensive, which is good, but you don't win a battle by going on the defence. You have to go on the offence, you have to attack the enemy to defeat him. And the one tool, the one weapon that God has given us to do that, is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. So the Centre for Bible Engagement researched the spiritual lives of more than 100,000 people 21 countries, ranging from ages of eight to 80 years. They began with this question: What is it, of all the things that Christians do, that is the most powerful predictor of spiritual growth? When you think about it, Christians do a lot of things to express their faith. They go to church, they pray, the listen to sermons, they attend home groups, they give, they serve … and many more things. The Centre of Bible Engagement's research project wanted to find out which ones of those had the most impact in the life of a Christian. That's not a bad question to ask through a large, scientifically constituted, statistically valid, international research project. That's not a bad question to ask, for anyone who wants to lay hold the super–abundant life that Jesus promised (John 10:10) to give us. The conclusions of this research was as follows (and I quote from their report): The findings consistently show that engaging in the Bible four or more days a week is the single most powerful predictor of spiritual growth – and they defined spiritual growth as becoming less of the person I was before I committed my life to Jesus and more like Christ in my thoughts, words and deeds. In fact, I know Arnie Cole, the President of Back to the Bible pretty well. His background is as a professional researcher and statistician. And he said to me that statistically speaking, the correlation between engaging with God's Word, the Bible four times a week or more and spiritual growth, is stronger than the correlation between smoking and lung cancer. Just think about that. What powerful evidence of the importance of receiving, reflecting on and responding to God's Word having a powerful impact in changing our lives. Making the changes that we ourselves have been powerless to change. Let me come back to the Apostle Paul's reflection on this whole question of the power to change: Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:24) The answer is that only God can give us the power to change, the resurrection power to be able to live the born-again, new, super-abundant life that Jesus came to give us. What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:1-4) Do you see? God's plan is for you to walk in the newness of life, the resurrection life made available to you through the Cross and the Empty tomb. And the power to live that life is something that you will find in the Word of God, as the Spirit of God breathes His Word into your heart: All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (1 Tim 3:16,17) That's where you'll find the power to change – power unlimited. In God's Word. So … you have to ask yourself, why do so many Christians ignore their Bibles?!   Not Just a Theory Lesson Discovering the power to change in God's Word isn't just a theory lesson. It's real. I remember one time in the early days of my involvement in this ministry of Christianityworks that produces these radio messages, just when I was rock bottom, reading this: My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-3) Another time, just when I was wondering whether or not to step out in faith by growing the ministry into Africa when we clearly didn't have the resources to do so, I opened up to the next chapter and read about Peter stepping out of the boat. He didn't wait for the storm to stop. No, he stepped out in the middle of the storm and walked on the water towards Jesus. Just when I was feeling so incredibly inadequate one tome, I read about how Peter and all the other disciples deserted Jesus when He was being tried and crucified. And yet Jesus still went on to use them to start this thing He called "the church". The Bible is full of this stuff and somehow God, through His Spirit, takes those stories and connects them with our lives and in our hearts we just know that God is speaking to us. There have been so many times when just when I needed a gentle touch from God … then I read about how He healed the leper or the blind person or the lame man. The Bible is full of God's promises and plans and purposes. And when we establish a regular habit of just spending some time in there with Him, His Spirit writes His promises and plans and purposes on our hearts with indelible ink, in a way that no person, no man or woman, no situation, no trial can ever rub them off. God Himself brings His word to life and that changes everything. So often I wonder where I'd be if I hadn't established a regular habit of reading Gods word. You know, it just doesn't bear thinking about. You see God is no pedlar of good philosophies or belief systems; He's not some distorted mirror of low self–esteem or unrealistic stereotypes. God wants to make a real difference – in my life and in yours. The problem is that there are so many things out there, ways of living, ways of thinking, fads, things to buy, places to go … all of them promise a great life. All of them promise something that they simply cannot deliver. You and I, we both know that we have flaws and weaknesses. As much as we wish we didn't, we just do. And you and I both know that we have people in our lives, situations in our lives, problems in our lives … mountains in our lives, that we just cannot overcome. And as much as we wish we didn't, we just do. It's the way things are. Well … right in the middle of all of those, God wants to make a difference. And He does that as we listen to Him, as we listen to His truth, as we take it into our hearts and let Him work powerfully in us and through us by His Spirit and His Word. That research I was talking about earlier in the program – the research by the Centre of Bible engagement which scientifically and statistically proved that frequent engagement with God's Word makes a powerful difference in our lives … that shouldn't be any surprise to us. Because God's Word is living and active, sharper than any two- edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) And neither should the opposite be any surprise to us – that people who don't engage regularly with God's Word are going to live powerless lives where temptation, the enemy, people and circumstances constantly overwhelm them. Does any of that surprise you … really?

Wat als je favoriete gamesite stiekem is verkocht aan een Maltees gokbedrijf, de redactie is vervangen door AI, en er nu goklinks tussen je oude recensies staan? Dat is precies wat er gebeurt met Power Unlimited, Gamer.nl en andere Nederlandse gamesites. Bastiaan Vroegop en Marcel Vroegrijk werkten jarenlang voor die sites — tot ze het niet meer konden rijmen met hun geweten. Samen met zeven andere journalisten richtten ze Unpause op: een onafhankelijke gamesite zonder adverteerders, zonder algoritmedruk, en gefinancierd door lezers. In deze aflevering vertellen ze hoe de Nederlandse gamejournalistiek systematisch is uitgehold door gokbedrijven, waarom oude verdienmodellen niet meer werken, en hoe ze met Unpause een alternatief bouwen. Daarnaast duikt Bastiaan in zijn undercover-onderzoek naar Roblox-communities waarin kinderen in een virtueel Leeuwarden politie en boefje spelen — en via Discord in aanraking komen met antisemitisme en complottheorieën. Over Bastiaan Vroegop Bastiaan Vroegop is onderzoeks- en gamejournalist bij Dagblad van het Noorden en Leeuwarder Courant, en medeoprichter van Unpause. Hij schreef eerder voor NRC, NU.nl, Bright, Power Unlimited en Gamer.nl, en maakt de podcast Spelkost. Hij heeft een eigen Wikipedia-pagina, maar zijn zoontje is nog steeds niet op het Jeugdjournaal geweest. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/basvroegop/ Bluesky: @basvroegop Website: https://www.unpause.nl Over Marcel Vroegrijk Marcel Vroegrijk is gamejournalist met ruim twintig jaar ervaring, en medeoprichter van Unpause. Hij schreef voor Gamer.nl, Vice, Android Planet, Power Unlimited en was eerder betrokken bij Laadscherm. Marcel heeft een halve arm vol game-tattoos. LinkedIn: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/marcelvroegrijk Website: https://www.unpause.nl In deze aflevering 0:00:00 Hoe Maltese gokbedrijven Nederlandse gamesites opkopen en vullen met AI0:05:00 De truc met “e-gaming”: hoe gokken zich verschuilt achter het woord gamen0:08:00 Waarom negen journalisten opstapten en Unpause begonnen0:15:30 Is gamejournalistiek überhaupt nog levensvatbaar?0:23:00 Geen reviews, geen wedloop: hoe Unpause het anders doet0:27:00 Betalen voor journalistiek: het model van Unpause en de eerste groei0:35:00 De zoektocht naar hun doelgroep: de dertiger die minder gamet maar meer wil lezen0:42:00 Sponsor: Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland — Tech Control0:44:00 De pitch aan lezers: waarom zou je betalen voor een gamesite?0:51:30 Laadscherm, Bashers en het DNA van Unpause1:02:20 Roblox-Leeuwarden: undercover in communities waar kinderen politie spelen1:09:15 20.000 games op Steam: hoe vind je de pareltjes nog?1:17:30 Wanneer komt GTA 6 uit? (spoiler: niet op pc) Genoemd in deze aflevering Unpause Power Unlimited (PU) Gamer.nl PlaySense Aftermath Roblox & Discord Spelkost Jason Schreier Click-Out Media Kansspelautoriteit SCHiM LVNL Tech Control Tips van de tafel Bastiaan: Lees zijn onderzoeksverhaal over Roblox-communities in het Dagblad van het Noorden. En check Spelkost, zijn podcast — nu met een Dungeons & Dragons-seizoen.Marcel: Ga naar unpause.nl en reageer op artikelen. “Ik hoef niet gevolgd te worden, maar reageer vooral.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scoor hier jouw kaarten voor de Gamekings 25th anniversary party in Alkmaar!Na een weekend dat regelmatig best fris aanvoelde, maar soms in het zonnetje goed te doen was, zijn we bij de maandag aangekomen. Een verschijnsel dat zich elke week voordoet. Je kunt er de klok op gelijk zetten. Hetzelfde geldt voor de nieuwe editie van Brievenmaandag. De rubriek waarin we wekelijks de vragen van de community beantwoorden. Vandaag zit het trio Boris, Jasper en JJ achter de desk. Klaar om jullie een vermakelijk en informatief uur te bezorgen. De drie beantwoorden onder andere vragen over de mogelijke komst van Half-Life 3, een ban bij Battlefield 6 terwijl je niks misdaan hebt en hét moment dat je jezelf een gamer mocht noemen. De antwoorden op al deze vragen en meer krijg je in de aflevering van Brievenmaandag van maandag 26 januari 2026.Gaat Half-Life 3 nu wel of niet uitkomen?Een andere kijker vraagt zich af hoe het nu verder moet met het Nederlandse game-media landschap? Na het verdwijnen van het merk Power Unlimited, blijft er weinig meer over. Is het daarom dubbel zo belangrijk dat Gamekings blijft bestaan? Of is de oude media niet meer van deze tijd?Gaat Elden Ring op den duur leuker worden?Een prangende vraag die wij deze week ontvingen, was van een community member die Elden Ring heeft gekocht, maar er niet echt in kan komen. Niet omdat de game te moeilijk is, het kan hem niet uitdagend genoeg zijn, maar omdat hij de wereld leeg en saai vindt aanvoelen. Hij vraagt zich af of de vibe verderop in de game gaat veranderen? Of is dit wat het is en kun je stellen dat het spel niet voor hem gemaakt is? De antwoorden op deze vraag en vele anderen zie en hoor je in deze video.

In Side Quest #369 bespreken we de verkoop van Power Unlimited met Power Unlimited legende Maarten Blonk. Wat betekent het verlies van het merk voor hem? En, wat zijn de fijne herinneringen die hij heeft aan het merk? Maarten vertelt ons ook over zijn avonturen op de CES, Nick heeft Fallout 76 gespeeld en Fallout gekeken en het was lekker chaotisch maar mega gezellig!(00:00:00): Intro(00:01:44): Hoe is het met Maarten(00:04:20) Het einde van Power Unlimited en Maarten zijn ervaringen(00:27:50) Hoe is het met Sjaak(00:28:31) Hoe is het met Tom(00:34:18) Destiny was toch een fantastische game(00:35:30) Summit (verhalen van Maarten)(00:38:30) Heroes of the Storm herinneringen ophalen(00:40:00) Verhaaltje van Maarten(00:43:40) One Piece Prerelease spelen bij Sven(00:46:39) Fallout 76 is nu gewoon leuk(00:52:55) OSRS moet ook nog gespeeld worden(01:01:30) Sjaak heeft Control geprobeerd(01:05:49) IGN Maarten op Twitch(01:08:10) The Witcher in Concert Prijsvraag(01:11:50) Mooie vragen van onze luisteraars(01:18:01) Maarten was op CES en neemt bijzondere laptops mee(01:30:00) Stranger Things Docu maakt het erger(01:37:10) Nog een keer over One Battle After Another(01:39:30) Harry Potter niet kijken, maar Game of Thrones wel(01:42:20) His&Hers is meer dan prima op Netflix(01:45:00) Synden en The Bridge(01:50:38) Fallout seizoen 2 is erg goed(01:53:00) The Last of Us spelen of kijken?(01:54:10) Nog meer Fallout(01:58:00) Nog even over PU en cornball momentje(01:59:00) Gaat Nick GTA6 spelen?(02:01:40) Doei!

Het is een gekke aflevering. We voorspellen Nintendo's complete jaar en gaan volledig van de rails, maar hebben het ook over het afscheid van Power Unlimited. Dank voor alle begripvolle reacties, en veel plezier met de aflevering.Kom bij onze Discord. Via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠deze link⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠kan je met ons en andere luisteraars kletsen over games, deals, nieuws en meer.Wil je zelf ook een vraag insturen of heb je iets leuks om te melden? Dat kan! Stuur een mailtje naar bonuslevelcast@gmail.com (of bonuslevelkast@gmail.com of bonuslevelqast@gmail.com) en wellicht hoor je jezelf terug in de volgende aflevering!

Welkom bij een verse aflevering van Gamekings Daily. In deze gaming vodcast praten twee hosts over de laatste ontwikkelingen in de wereld die videogames heet. In deze editie schuift Huey bij JJ aan om te praten over een aantal game-related onderwerpen. Het tweede deel van deze vodcast zal gericht zijn op internationaal game-nieuws. Maar we ontkwamen er niet aan om ook het nieuws dat het merk Power Unlimited en de bijbehorende website PU.nl is verkocht, te bespreken. Deels omdat er zo veel onduidelijk is en deels omdat onze roots bij de PU ligt. JJ neemt in het begin, enigszins gepikeerd, het woord tot de kijkers. Je hoort snel genoeg waarom. Verder praten de twee over een aantal games die van de PlayStation naar de Xbox lijken te komen. Dit en meer zie je in de Gamekings Daily van donderdag 15 januari 2026.Wordt PU.nl straks net als PlaySense.nl een promotie site voor online gokken?Het nieuws over de verkoop van het merk Power Unlimited en de bijbehorende website PU.nl sloeg woensdag in als een bom. Power Unlimited is in het verleden wel vaker verkocht, maar deze overname was zo vaag dat JJ er als oud-redacteur tientallen appjes en belletjes over kreeg. Immers, er werd door de oude eigenaar en de redactieleden niet duidelijk gemaakt wie de nieuwe eigenaar was en wat er met de website zou gebeuren. JJ vindt echter dat je als fan van de brand het recht hebt om te weten wat er met je favo site is gebeurd. De site blijft immers bestaan. Waar word je straks naar toe geleid. JJ belde in het rond, sprak wat mensen en vertelt in deze editie zijn verhaal en visie op het gebeuren.Returnal en Spider Man Remastered naar de Xbox?In de GK Daily van woensdag bespraken we een tweetal games die van de Xbox naar PlayStation worden overgezet. Het gaat om Avowed en mogelijk Fable. Nu is het naar verluidt de beurt aan PlayStation om een aantal van hun titels richting de console van Microsoft te zenden. Om welke games gaat het? En met welke AAAA game is Eidos bezig en wat houden de letters AAAA in? Je krijgt de antwoorden in deze video.

Dit is het laatste wat we doen onder de vlag van Power Unlimited, want na vandaag, na deze podcast, heeft Power Unlimited een nieuwe eigenaar en wij als redactie gaan niet mee.Sorry, wat? Ja, dat is precies wat ik dacht toen ik dit nieuws hoorde. Want merken wisselen wel vaker van eigenaar en dan klap je in een ander kantoor je laptop open. Prima. Alleen de nieuwe eigenaar heeft Power Unlimited overgenomen zonder de mensen, de redacteuren, het hart van Power Unlimited. En dat betekent dat wij het hoofdstuk Power Unlimited hier moeten afsluiten.Power Unlimited gaat door, wij gaan door, alleen gaan we beide een andere richting op. Belangrijk om te weten is dat alle social kanalen die nu de naam Power Unlimited dragen bij ons blijven. Dus YouTube, InstaGram, TikTok, Spotify, FaceBook, Twitch, Discord en alle andere platformen waarop we actief zijn, blijven wij voorzien van onze content, alleen dan onder een andere naam. Hiervoor hoef je niks te doen. Als je die platformen volgt, verandert alleen de naam voor je, voor de rest niks.En het magazine dan? Nou, we hebben een licentie om het Power Unlimited Magazine te kunnen blijven maken en dat gaan we dus ook doen. Die blijf je gewoon in zijn huidige vorm ontvangen als abonnee. Pak je hem op in de winkel? Ook daar ligt hij nog steeds. Daarnaast zijn we al ver met het bouwen van een nieuw platform om je ook op het web te kunnen voorzien. Daarover later meer.Maar goed, in deze laatste Power Unlimited Podcast hoor je hier veel meer over en sluiten we het voor ons af. Zie je aan de andere kant, baklap.00:00 Afscheid van Power Unlimited00:50 De situatie06:40 Het merk Power Unlimited13:45 Hoe denkt Jacco erover?17:50 Het magazine blijft bestaan!26:15 De nieuwe website?28:25 Toekomst van het magazine35:25 Simon zijn Halo-avonturen (reguliere content)43:15 PlayStation 2-games47:50 Sneeuwplezier50:35 De programma's van nu57:00 Martin op CES01:13:25 Hoe nu verder?01:17:45 Outro

Welkom in 2026! Waar we vorige week vooruitkeken op de games die we dit jaar kunnen verwachten, gaan we deze keer week in speculatiemodus. Tijd voor wilde voorspellingen waar we later lachend op terug kunnen kijken… omdat alles natuurlijk compleet fout blijkt te zijn! Zo denkt Simon dat Fable gecanceld wordt, is Ron ervan overtuigd dat Half-Life 3 dit jaar eindelijk uitkomt en hoopt Jacco op een stortvloed aan Pokémon-ports. Benieuwd naar alle voorspellingen die absoluut zeker gaan uitkomen? Check dan snel de aflevering, baklap!00:00 Intro01:05 Ron zijn kerst- en podcastverhalen10:00 Simon zijn (feest?)dagen12:35 Gay Unlimited20:00 Uitleg van de voorspellingen21:40 Ron voorspelling 1: GTA 6 gaat positief zijn voor de industrie 28:45 Simon voorspelling 1: GTA komt niet uit dit jaar30:30 Jacco voorspelling 1: GTA 6 wordt 100 euro33:10 Simon voorspelling 2: Fable wordt gecanceld42:15 Jacco voorspelling 2: Het jaar van de Pokémon-classics!46:35 Ron voorspelling 2: Ubisoft brengt 3 remakes uit57:55 Simon voorspelling 3: Een onaangekondigde game wordt de TGA-verrassing01:02:35 Jacco voorspelling 3: Horizon Hunters komt dit jaar uit01:07:55 Ron voorspelling 3: Half-Life 3 komt dit jaar uit01:14:35 Laatste voorspellingen01:19:45 Simon zijn magazinemededeling01:24:45 Outro

Gelukkig nieuwjaar! Waar we in de vorige aflevering vooral terugkeken op het afgelopen jaar, kijken we in deze special juist vooruit. Welke games verschijnen er dit jaar en waar zijn we het meest enthousiast over? Martin en Simon stellen een top 10 samen, maar dat blijkt makkelijker gezegd dan gedaan… Benieuwd welke games erin zijn beland? Check dan snel de aflevering, baklap!00:00 Intro00:50 Hoe was kerst?04:15 2026-gameslijst04:45 Grand Theft Auto 608:00 De games!09:40 Fatal Frame en geestverhalen14:55 Terug naar de games17:50 Ace Combat 8 en straaljagerverhalen22:50 Opnieuw terug naar de games29:15 Samuels top 3 2026-games34:40 Replaced36:15 Opnieuw terug naar de games (again)45:40 ONTOS en vergeten games48:55 Tomb Raider52:40 Nog meer vergeten games56:00 De genomineerde59:45 Florians top 3 2026-games01:05:05 Terug naar de genomineerde01:14:00 De 10 titels01:23:10 De officiële 2026 top 10!01:26:15 Outro

Daar is 'ie dan: onze jaarlijkse podcast-kerstspecial! Martin en Simon pakken groots uit en hebben niemand minder dan Cody en Jacco uitgenodigd om samen de feestdagen in te luiden. Alsof dat nog niet genoeg is, maken ook Samuel en Florian nog een cameo! In deze bijna vier uur durende kerstknaller blikken de jongens terug op het volledige gamejaar én delen ze natuurlijk ieders persoonlijke top 10 favoriete games van het jaar. Dus pak een warme drank, nestel je op de bank en geniet van deze bomvolle kerstspecial. Fijne kerst en heel veel luisterplezier, baklap!00:00 Intro (BEGIN REGULIER PUP-GEBRABBEL)02:30 Tragisch nieuws08:40 Eerst nog even brieven16:20 En wat sponsorpraat21:20 Jacco #10: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (BEGIN KERSTSPECIAL)24:35 Martin #10: Absolum27:25 Simons to-play games31:55 Simon #10: Silent Hill F33:20 Cody #10: Split Fiction35:00 Januari40:00 Februari40:40 Cody #9: Assassin's Creed Shadows44:00 Jacco #9 & Cody #8: Pokémon Legends Z-A49:20 Simon #9: Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 257:10 Martin #9: Hollow Knight Silksong01:02:55 Maart01:15:50 Samuels top 301:19:45 April01:24:15 Martin #8: Arc Raiders01:31:45 Simon & Jacco #8: Avowed01:40:10 Mei01:45:15 Jacco #7: Metroid Prime 4 Beyond01:52:20 Simon #7 & Cody #4: Arc Raiders01:54:10 Cody #7: Borderlands 401:57:15 Martin #7: Death Stranding 2 On the Beach01:59:50 Juni02:03:35 Cody #6 & Jacco #4: Mario Kart World02:07:20 Simon #6 & Cody #5: Clair Obscur Expedition 3302:16:30 Jacco #6: Assassin's Creed Shadows02:18:40 Martin #6: Blue Prince02:23:30 Juli02:26:10 Jacco #5: Dispatch02:31:20 Simon #5: Sektori02:34:30 Martin #5: Mario Kart World02:36:50 Augustus02:40:50 Martin #4: Hades 202:43:15 Simon #4: Against the Storm02:50:25 Florians top 302:53:40 September02:54:30 Cody & Jacco #3: Donkey Kong Bananza03:03:00 Simon #3: Hades 203:06:20 Martin #3: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle03:08:50 Oktober03:09:40 Martin #2: Ball x Pit03:11:15 Simon #2 & #1: Blue Prince en Death Stranding 2 On the Beach03:16:15 Simons laatste woorden03:18:20 Jacco #2: Clair Obscur Expedition 3303:25:30 Cody #2: Hollow Knight Silksong03:28:15 November & December03:32:40 Martin #1: Battlefield 603:35:50 Jacco #1: Hollow Knight Silksong03:40:45 Cody #1: Hades 203:45:30 Outro

Jetlag Martin en Simon Griepmans staan weer paraat voor een nieuwe PUP, want zelfs in minder verse tijden: the show must go on! Zo gaan ze het uitgebreid hebben over Martin zijn avonturen in Dubai en vooral over zijn ontmoeting met de bedenker van Tetris, laat Marathon weer van zich horen en uiteraard wat ze gaan spelen deze kerstperiode. Dus waar wacht je nog op? Check snel de aflevering, baklap!00:00 Intro00:45 Het serieblok (Pluribus, Black Bird etc.)05:10 Hunted10:55 Tetris-avonturen in Dubai23:40 Simon krijgt weer 'fanmail'28:20 GAMES! 30:10 Marathon33:15 Supreme Experiment36:15 Simon zijn relatie met Halo38:20 Terug naar Marathon45:05 Verandering in de gamesjournalistiek56:55 Wat gaan we spelen in de kerst?01:04:10 Werkfrustraties01:08:20 Outro

En daar zijn we dan, met onze tweede PUP van de week! En het is niet zomaar een PUP, maar een Game Awards Special! Jacco en Simon nemen jou mee door de grootste aankondigingen, hebben een sterke mening over de winnaars en noemen hun favoriete titels van de show! Wat waren die van jou? Laat het weten in de comments, baklap!00:00 Intro01:05 De beste TGA?07:10 Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve13:30 Tomb Raider-games27:30 Control: Resonant35:15 Divinity41:55 Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic46:35 Resident Evil: Requiem52:20 Saros55:55 Mega Man: Dual Override57:30 Lords of the Fallen 201:03:55 Gang of Dragon01:06:15 De awards en show01:16:30 Phantom Blade Zero01:18:10 No Law en Ontos01:20:10 Order of the Sinking Star01:22:00 Highguard en The Forest 301:26:50 Simon zijn ‘comment' (Outro)

Wat? Deze aflevering is te vroeg? Dat klopt! Met The Game Awards voor de deur komen er deze week niet één, maar twéé podcasts online! En om jullie genoeg tijd te geven om ze beide te beluisteren, gaat de eerste twee dagen eerder dan gepland online. En met TGA in aantocht wordt er deze aflevering uiteraard volop gespeculeerd over wat we dit jaar gaan zien: is het een nieuwe Tomb Raider? God of War? Of toch Half-Life 3? Ook schuift Jacco vandaag weer aan, en je weet wat dat betekent: Martin en Simon gaan weer keihard door hem heen praten! Benieuwd hoe lang Jacco dit nog trekt? Check dan snel de aflevering, baklap!00:00 Intro02:30 Random geleuter (SO naar 2K Dennis)06:10 Metroid Prime 4 Beyond11:40 Parasite Eve18:15 Silver Pines23:20 Inhoudsopgave25:05 TGA: Het standbeeld33:45 TGA: Tomb Raider43:45 TGA: Speculatie ronde50:15 TGA: Half-Life 352:50 Sektori01:04:20 Fan interacties01:09:15 Jacco 'Hollywood' Peek: Fallout Seizoen 201:21:50 Jacco 'Hollywood' Peek: De Tatta's 301:29:05 Simons Arc Raiders Warstories 437 (Outro)

This week, Lock and special guest Simon Zijlemans, Editor-in-Chief of Power Unlimited, join Brad to discuss Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Half-Life 2, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and more! Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. 0:00:00 - Intro0:13:52 - Metroid Prime 4 Beyond0:33:21 - Half-Life 20:55:24 - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword1:20:08 - Sort it Out/Keep it Up1:45:29 - Game Recommendation1:46:53 - Parasite Eve2:03:57 - Hogwarts Legacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Een nieuwe week, een nieuwe route aan zijsporen die genomen kunnen worden! Naast de gebruikelijke stapel aan onzinverhalen die je van ons gewend bent, is Simon diep in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond gedoken en heeft daar een aardige mening over klaarstaan, is Martin weer terug te vinden in Fortnite na de grote release van Chapter 7 en kunnen we de wekelijkse Warstories uit Arc Raiders niet vergeten! Ga er dus lekker voor zitten en laat deze podcast je oren in druipen, baklap!00:00 Intro00:35 Updates uit de muziekindustrie06:25 Excuses van Simon10:00 Metroi… Simon zijn podcast-droom23:35 Metroid Prime 4 Beyond38:00 Peter ter Haar is back (Brief 1)44:35 Vunzig Rijksmuseum-verhaal (Brief 2)54:35 Fortnite Chapter 759:00 Arc Raiders Warstories deel 27401:09:25 Stranger Things seizoen 501:13:45 Het cijfer 8801:18:15 Laatste zijsporen01:27:55 Outro

BAM! De boys zijn vers terug van Comic Con de studio ingedoken om hun laatste avonturen op de beurs, Metroid Prime 4-bevindingen en swingers-app-updates met jullie te delen! Zo is Jacco aangeschoven om onder andere te praten over zijn interview met Nathan Drake himself: Nolan North, vertelt Simon wat zijn ‘Pleasure Delay'-game is en vertelt Martin over het nieuwste item in de PUshop: de PU PlayStation Repair Kit! Benieuwd naar wat dit allemaal inhoudt? Check dan snel de aflevering, baklap!00:00 Intro00:50 Swingers-app update04:35 Heroes Dutch Comic Con08:40 Stalkman11:25 Nolan North-interview (Nathan Drake etc.)15:50 Wie is er jarig?18:40 YoPost dilemma21:15 Hoe werken The Game Awards? (Brief 1)24:35 Random brieven26:45 'Pleasure Delay' (Brief 2)32:00 Metroid Prime 4-preview47:05 PU Playstation Kit51:10 Het serieblok (Far Cry, Fallout etc.)58:00 Outro

Ik wil alvast mijn excuses aanbieden — niet voor de wansmaak van Simon qua series en films (dat verdient z'n eigen aflevering), maar omdat de jongens blijkbaar vergeten waren hun Ritalin in te nemen. De NS zou jaloers zijn op het aantal zijsporen dat in deze aflevering gepakt wordt. We gaan namelijk alle kanten op: van meningen over elke mogelijke sport tot klachten en abonnementen. Gelukkig komen er ook wat game-onderwerpen voorbij, zoals de Game Awards-nominaties en natuurlijk Simon zijn wekelijkse Arc Raiders Warstories! Ben je dus benieuwd naar de 101 onderwerpen die langskomen? Check 'm dan snel, baklap!00:00 Intro01:35 Simon zijn bios-ervaring06:25 Simon zijn restaurant-ervaring14:15 Het Rijksmuseum17:55 Het hockeyleven24:05 Welke game? (Brief 1)28:05 F1 en meer sportgebrabbel35:50 GOTY.. Toch promotiepraat (Brief 2)43:55 Jonko man & Nostalgie-games (Brief 3 & 4)52:00 Abonnementen-uitroeiing55:30 Wansmaak-Simon01:00:10 Terug naar de abonnementen uitroeiing01:04:00 Kleine Podcasttip (Op zoek naar Marlotte)01:09:35 PU op Heroes Dutch Comic Con01:11:45 Cadeaus01:14:20 Random E3-verhalen01:19:35 The Game Awards Nominaties01:38:00 New Arc Raiders Warstories dropped01:44:20 Outro

Zelfs wanneer de files roet in het eten willen gooien: the show must go on! En wat voor een show!: Niet alleen de nieuwe hardware van Steam werd gister onthuld — zoals de Steam Machine en de Frame — ook draait de geruchtenmolen weer op volle toeren met nieuws over Half-Life 3! En natuurlijk kunnen we het grootste nieuws van vorige week niet negeren: het uitstel van GTA 6! Dus klap die oortjes open, leun lekker achterover en geniet van de rit, baklap!00:00 Intro00:25 Wegmisbruikers04:35 Voetballen met de Bever09:55 Verantwoord gamen14:30 De Steam Machine (en Half-Life 3)31:00 Post!32:10 GTA 6 uitgesteld38:50 Arc Raiders-Warstories50:15 Martin aan de VR en roadtrip-games56:45 Rip quiz58:45 Live Tetris op Comic Con / Outro

Deze week zijn Martin en Simon weer fris terug de studio ingedoken om jouw dag te voorzien van hun gebruikelijke onzin. Van vervloekte huizen en groepsapps vol swingers tot aan Duitsers bedriegen in Arc Raiders en van Apple Podcasts gekickt worden... Het gebruikelijke dus! Check het snel, baklap!00:00 Intro02:55 Halloween-verhalen10:05 Leuk, zo'n groepsapp16:20 Battlefield Redsec (Again)23:40 Nostalgietrip (Brief 1)28:25 Simons vervloekte huis34:05 Apple Podcasts drama (Brief 2)35:40 Martin de Helpdesk (Brief 3)39:45 De Simpsons in Fortnite41:45 Arc Raiders-avonturen55:20 Tech-flitsronde57:00 Silver Pines-Interview59:25 Pupquiz01:06:45 Outro

BAM! De meest verse Pupcast ooit is opgenomen! Deze week schuift er eindelijk weer een gast aan, en het is niemand minder dan Samuel! Martin en Simon verhoren hem over waar hij nu mee bezig is, zijn mening over moeilijke games en wat hij vindt van Ron zijn Ninja Gaiden 4-review. Ook bespreken ze de engste games ooit en worden er machtig mooie verhalen verteld over het slagveld in Battlefield Redsec! Snel kijken dus, baklap!00:00 Intro00:40 Samuel is terug!03:45 Hoe gaat het met Martin?06:35 En met Simon?10:45 Wat is jouw engste game? (Brief 1)13:20 Het wekelijkse Simon-zijspoor15:45 Terug naar de engste games21:50 Het nieuwe magazine!30:10 Veer in Simon zijn socialmedia-reet34:40 Moeilijke games (Brief 2)40:30 Battlefield Redsec (Battle Royale)50:50 De Ninja Gaiden 4-discussie01:02:25 South of Midnight en Cronos: The New Dawn01:10:35 Pupquiz01:25:20 Outro

Ik zie het al: PUP-time! Martin en Simon zijn terug en net niet bij elkaar op schoot gekropen voor de opnames van deze kersverse podcast! Ze gaan het namelijk weer hebben over Kraven, maar er komen ook interessantere onderwerpen aan bod, zoals Rons review van Ninja Gaiden 4, Simons tijd met Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 en natuurlijk: het stemmen voor The Game Awards van ome Geoff! Benieuwd waar wij op hebben gestemd (spoiler: dat mogen we niet zeggen)? Check dan snel de aflevering, baklap!00:00 Intro01:00 Dit kan je winnen!03:15 Simon zijn bitterzoete vakantie08:20 Community-meet-ups11:05 Brief 1 gaat over...14:10 Roblox en opvoeding21:50 Absolum28:00 Ninja Gaiden 438:00 Ball x Pit (en Ducks Ahoy)50:35 Stemmen voor The Game Awards53:35 PU Magazine op 1!55:00 Het film- en serieblok01:06:50 Hades 2 en Final Fantasy Tactics01:16:55 Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 201:27:05 De Pupqu... Toch een zijspoor01:28:25 De Pupquiz01:35:30 Outro

Een nieuwe week, een nieuwe Pupcast! Aangezien het een drukke week was en ene Simon Zijlemans zo nodig met vakantie moest, zijn de jongens weer ouderwets thuis achter de camera gekropen om jou bij te praten over hun laatste avonturen in gaming. Zo zit Martin vuistdiep in Battlefield 6, gaat Simon nog steeds ontzettend goed op Silent Hill F en worden er advocaten ingeschakeld voor de grootste vorm van plagiaat! Benieuwd waar dat over gaat? Check dan snel de aflevering, baklap!00:00 Intro03:15 Nieuwe magazine-teaser09:05 Rip cavia12:40 Lofzang Deluxe (Brief 1)22:25 Playsense: The Living Dead (Brief 2)30:00 Brief speciaal voor Simon (Brief 3)31:30 Battlefield 639:30 De vrouw des huizes40:45 Revanche van de kunstenaar (Bonusbrief)47:40 Het zondagochtendincident51:15 Silent Hill F01:02:45 Simon overgehaald door de community01:04:15 PUPquiz01:14:00 Outro

Deze week hebben we niet één, maar twéé gasten in de aanbieding! Tobias Smeets en Merijn Scholte-Albers zijn namelijk bij Martin en Simon aangeschoven om alles te vertellen over hun nieuwste film: Straf! Ook duiken ze dieper in hun verleden, waaronder: Mastermovies, eerdere samenwerkingen met PU via Baklap TV en – uiteraard – wat ze van Kraven the Hunter vonden. Daarnaast komen er weer genoeg games voorbij, zoals Battlefield 6, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 en Silent Hill F! Check het dus snel, baklap!00:00 Intro00:30 Special Guests!03:10 Merijns muziek in games06:25 Straf13:00 Mastermovies-invloeden17:20 Achter de schermen22:40 Nederlandse films30:05 Goeie komediefilms35:05 Improvisatie37:20 GA HEM CHECKEN!38:35 Toch nog even Kraven the Hunter41:00 Deel 2 Intro41:55 Yo!Post!-oproep43:15 Bedreiging opnames46:10 Simon zit er weer naast (Brief 1)49:10 Het inwendige probleem (Brief 2)01:00:55 Hades 2 (again)01:07:35 Battlefield 6 vs. Call of Duty: Black Ops 701:17:30 Teaser voor het volgende magazine01:21:40 Simon over Silent Hill F01:26:35 PUPquiz01:35:50 Het wekelijkse zijspoor01:36:25 Outro

Na een heftige week waarin Kraven the Hunter nog steeds op herhaling aan staat, zijn Martin en Simon terug de studio ingedoken om het uiteraard over hun favoriete hobby te hebben: videogames! Zo is Simon in Silent Hill F gedoken en bestempelt hij het uiteraard nu al als een van de beste games ooit (nou ja, in zijn top 40 dan). Martin komt maar niet verder in Hades 2, in het nieuwe magazine staan opvallende verhalen zoals onder andere een terugkerende Tjeerd en een ontroerde Skate, en we staan stil bij nog een grote gamesite van Nederlandse bodem die verdwijnt: Playsen se. Genoeg spreekvoer dus, baklap!00:00 Intro01:35 Ghost of Yotei-gekte05:45 Nostalgische Simon07:35 De jeugd over de PUP11:35 Terug naar de brief van vorige week14:10 Metacoola is back (Brief 1)17:30 RIP Playsense en de toekomst van gamesites24:45 Flightstick voor PS5 (Brief 2)25:55 Spotify-reactie-snack26:35 Het nieuwe magazine (Brief 3)31:20 Tjeerd is terug!34:10 Skate's Borderlands 4-review35:55 Het notificatiesysteem (Brief 4)36:55 Martins Hades II-ervaring46:45 Simon over Silent Hill F57:15 Simon en Martin in het nieuws01:06:40 Martins nieuwe ambities01:13:30 Opgroeien van het merk PU01:14:55 Simons speciale mededeling01:16:00 Terug naar het belangrijke onderwerp01:19:35 De PUPquiz01:26:45 Outr… toch terug naar het magazine01:31:00 Out… toch weer boomerpraat01:33:30 Outro

Poah, Martin en Simon stonden te trappelen om weer samen de studio in te duiken om te praten over het laatste gamenieuws en de nieuwste releases. En dat snap je wel na zo'n week, toch? Niet alleen was er een bomvolle State of Play, ook is vanaf vandaag Hades 2 uit én is het embargo van Ghost of Yotei verlopen! Benieuwd naar het cijfer, welke game Simon nu weer de beste game ooit noemt of wat Martin van Wolverine vond? Check dan snel de aflevering, baklap!

Poah, dat was me toch een Nintendo Direct! Maar was iedereen daar wel zo over te spreken? Martin en Simon hebben Jacco weer van stal getrokken om samen de gehele Direct door te nemen en te kijken welke trailers in de smaak vielen en welke overduidelijk niet... Ook is er weer een Hollow Knight: Silksong-praatuur, een kijkje achter de schermen bij PU en een kleine preview van Sonic Racing Crossworlds! Benieuwd wat wij er van vonden? Check dan snel de podcast, baklap!

Martin en Simon zijn weer bij elkaar aangeschoven om hun wekelijkse orakel te doen over al het laatste nieuws, releases en vooral hun avonturen! Zo beantwoorden ze weer een hoop brieven, kijken ze terug op oude klassiekers, vertelt Martin over zijn avontuur in Berlijn en gaan ze allebei los over Hollow Knight: Silksong — maar wel om heel verschillende redenen... Check het snel, baklap!

Een nieuwe week, een nieuwe podcast! Martin en Simon (of is het Simon en Martin?) zijn deze week samen de studio ingesprongen, omdat ze toch wel graag tijd met elkaar doorbrengen. Naast games als 007: First Light, Mafia: The Old Country en Hollow Knight: Silksong worden er ook wat meer 'normale' onderwerpen besproken, zoals dronken worden in Center Parcs, Gamescom uitgezet worden en geslachtsgemeenschap in een gamewinkel. Hoe we op deze zeer normale onderwerpen terechtkomen? Dan moet je de aflevering checken, baklap!

Deze week zijn Jacco en Simon weer terug in de studio na de veel te hete Gamescom-aflevering van vorige week! Gelukkig hebben ze Florian meegenomen om nog even na te sudderen over wat de jongens allemaal hebben gespeeld en gezien. Daarnaast worden de geruchten over Forza Horizon 6 in Japan besproken, komt de Metal Gear Solid Delta-review nog even langs en wordt uiteraard ook de releasedatum van Hollow Knight: Silksong meegenomen. Check het, baklap!

BAM! Een PUP live vanaf Gamescom! Martin, Simon en Jacco zijn voor jullie plezier in de volle zon gaan zitten om al hun avonturen op de beurs te delen, en de nieuwste games die ze mochten uitproberen, zoals Resident Evil: Requiem, Hollow Knight: Silksong en Kirby Air Riders. Ook wordt natuurlijk Opening Night Live nog even besproken, en Simon laat zijn woede blijken over de niet ontvangen uitnodiging voor Martins afgelopen verjaardag. Jetzt geht los, baklap!

In deel twee van de Cryptocast deze week duiken we in de wereld van crypto games. Het is een jaar geleden dat we dit onderwerp bespraken en sindsdien is er veel gebeurd. Te gast is Samuel Hubner Casado, gamejournalist die al jarenlang schrijft voor Power Unlimited en inmiddels ook voor verschillende cryptobedrijven actief was. Hij vertelt hoe hij ooit met crypto in aanraking kwam, waarom hij na meer dan tien jaar bij Power Unlimited tijdelijk stopte en welk soort games hem zelf het meest aanspreken. Het gesprek gaat al snel richting de eerste crypto games die indruk maakten. Daarbij komen zowel de voordelen als de nadelen van web3-gaming aan bod. Nieuwe spelers krijgen bijvoorbeeld de mogelijkheid om daadwerkelijk eigenaar te zijn van digitale bezittingen, terwijl het nadeel vaak is dat de beloftes groot zijn maar de uitvoering beperkt blijft. Een concreet voorbeeld daarvan is Rebel Cars, een game die we vorig jaar al bespraken. Een andere opvallende titel van het afgelopen jaar is Hamster Combat, dat veel aandacht trok met de belofte om spelers financieel te belonen. De vraag blijft hoe goed die beloftes uiteindelijk zijn ingelost. Samuel vertelt ook over zijn favoriet StrayShot, een web3-shooter die opvalt door zijn blockchain-integratie. De game is nog volop in ontwikkeling, maar laat zien hoe traditionele gameplay gecombineerd kan worden met digitale eigendom. Ondertussen staan bij DappRadar de grootste titels van het moment vermeld, met World of Dypians als nummer één. Daarmee komen ook de grote uitgevers aan bod. Ubisoft lanceerde enkele jaren geleden Ubisoft Quartz, maar dat project werd geen succes. Square Enix introduceerde eind 2023 Symbiogenesis, maar trok daar inmiddels alweer de stekker uit. Het sentiment onder gamers blijkt nog steeds kritisch, en de vraag is of de markt al klaar is voor web3-integraties. Tot slot gaat het gesprek over de onderliggende platforms. Veel games bouwen op Ethereum of Solana, maar ook gespecialiseerde bedrijven als Immutable en Skale Labs spelen een belangrijke rol. Immutable is inmiddels uitgegroeid tot de grootste naam in dit segment, terwijl Skale Labs zich met een eigen layer-1-oplossing profileert. De conclusie een jaar na de vorige aflevering blijft dat er veel ontwikkeling is, maar dat de grootste doorbraken nog moeten komen. Gast Samuel Hubner Casado Co-host Wouter Hoes Links Crypto games podcast vorig jaar Host Meindert Schut Redactie Wouter HoesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mogen we jou even onderbreken terwijl je lekker aan het sudderen bent in de zon? Mooi, dan kunnen Martin en Simon jou weer de oren van je kop kletsen over het laatste nieuws, releases en andere ongein die ze de afgelopen week hebben uitgespookt! Deze keer maakt niemand minder dan Graddus zijn debuut in de Power Unlimited Podcast! Ook hij is de laatste tijd weer volop aan het gamen en maakt regelmatig een trip voor het magazine. Verder gaan de jongens in op hun avonturen in Battlefield 6, de Heretic + Hexen Remaster en affaires in de community! Dus je kunt lekker blijven sudderen, maar dan met een heerlijk podcastje in je oortjes, baklap!

Martin is (opnieuw) terug van vakantie, Jacco vervangt een zieke Simon en Jeffrey (Egbert) is in de studio. Verrassingen alom! Naast het bespreken van wat iedereen aan het spelen is en de pupquiz, wordt er ook gepraat over de commotie rondom Royalistiq, Tim Hofman en de BOOS-aflevering, hoe je het beste contact op kunt nemen met PU en heeft iedereen iets speciaals meegenomen voor een soort 'breng-je-speelgoed-mee-naar-school-dag'. Benieuwd wat ze hebben meegenomen? Check dan snel deze PUP, Baklap!

Huh, wat is dat? Een extra Pup-Special voor je bakkes! Vandaag ontvangen Simon en Dwayne de Communications Director van Warhorse Studios, Tobias Stolz-Zwilling! Hij vertelt over het ontstaan van de studio, de grote veranderingen net voor de lancering van Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 en hoe hij kijkt naar de GOTY's in een jaar vol bangers. Dus benieuwd naar de ontwikkeling van een van de beste games van dit jaar? Check het dan snel, baklap!

De zomer draait op volle toeren, maar daar hebben wij geen weet van (behalve Martin)! Dus de Power Unlimited Podcast wordt ook deze week weer warm voor je oren geserveerd. Deze week schuift Dwayne aan bij Jacco en Simon om te praten over zijn trip naar Polen voor Cronos: The New Dawn, wat leidt tot een discussie over survival-horrorgames. We gaan het uiteraard ook hebben over Sony die Tencent in de rechtbank uitdaagt, re-reviews en een blok over trading card games! Weer genoeg luistervoer voor je oren dus, baklap!

Welkom bij weer een verse Power Unlimited Podcast voor je bolle bakkes! Martin is even lekker op vakantie, maar daarom is Jacco weer aangeschoven naast Simon om hem te vergezellen. Samen horen ze niemand minder dan Danny Froger uit over zijn liefde voor Final Fantasy! Naast het grote Final Fantasy-blok hebben ze het ook over BBQ's, Simons trip naar CD Projekt RED en alle nieuwe gamereleases waar de jongens nog tot in den treure mee bezig zijn. Klik dus snel op dat play-knoppie, baklap!

Bada bing, bada boom! Een gloednieuwe Power Unlimited Podcast voor je oortjes! In deze aflevering heeft Jacco het uitgebreid over de nieuwste gamereleases, zoals Donkey Kong Bananza en Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4. Ook stoort Florian zich volledig op de grote tv-discussie die losbarst, en heeft Martin — zoals altijd — weer de meest belachelijke nieuwe tech voor je meegenomen. Benieuwd wat dat is? Check dan snel de aflevering, baklap!

We zijn weer terug in de studio om een verse podcast voor je af te leveren! Niet alleen is Martin terug op de redactie, ook hebben we deze keer twéé gasten! Niemand minder dan Samuel en Florian zijn aangeschoven als dynamisch duo om hun nieuwste verhalen met jullie te delen. Zo bespreken ze de première van Superman, het initiatief Stop Killing Games, de Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4-remake, én Samuels recent ontdekte gamegenre: de Neuro Shooter! Benieuwd wat dat genre precies inhoudt? Snel kijken dan, baklap!

Een nieuwe week, een nieuwe podcastaflevering! Martin is terug van vakantie en eindelijk herenigd met medehost Simon. Daarnaast heeft hij Ron opgehaald uit Thailand, zodat ook hij weer kan aanschuiven. Het grootste deel van deze aflevering staat helaas in het teken van het slechte nieuws vanuit Microsoft: de ontslagronde. Toch komt Death Stranding 2 nog even kort voorbij, worden er nostalgische verhalen gedeeld, en is er een bijzonder chaotische PUPquiz... Veel plezier met de oormassage, baklap!

Wat? Een déjà vu? Nee, je ziet het goed! Cody is weer aangeschoven deze week, dit keer als wisselspeler voor Ron, maar dat mag de pret zeker niet drukken! Ook houdt Jacco nog steeds de stoel warm voor Martin en is Simon zoals elke week weer van de partij. Nu het eerste halfjaar bijna voorbij is, blikken de jongens terug op de potentiële GOTY's die langskwamen, maar wordt er ook vooruitgeblikt op de kansmakers uit de tweede helft van het jaar! Lekker smullen dus, baklap!

De eerste Power Unlimited Podcast-special is een feit! En welke game kan die beter aftrappen dan Death Stranding 2: On the Beach! Jacco verhoort Simon en Lars over hun ervaringen met het reviewen van deze bijzondere game en gaan natuurlijk dieper in op het verhaal (spoilervrij!), gameplay, soundtrack en meer! Benieuwd naar Lars zijn review? Check de link hieronder! Benieuwd naar Simon zijn review? Check het magazine van deze maand, baklap!

Martin mag dan wel op vakantie zijn, maar de show must go on! Daarom neemt Jacco plaats naast Simon, en hebben ze niemand minder dan Cody teruggevraagd om te orakelen over alles wat met gaming te maken heeft. Zo geeft hij een grote lofzang over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, vertelt Simon waarom hij FBC: Firebreak zo kut vindt, en deelt Jacco zijn eerste hands-on ervaring met Borderlands 4! Dus zet dat podcastje aan en geniet van meer dan anderhalf uur aan slap geouwehoer over games, baklap!

Dat waren ze dan: alle presentaties (tot Gamescom) van deze Gamezomer, en Martin, Simon en Dwayne hebben er wel wat over te zeggen. Dwayne is ook te gast om te vertellen over zijn SEGA-perstrip en maakt daar meteen de vraag mee los: wat is de kutste perstrip die je ooit hebt gedaan? Ook wordt Mario Kart World nog even de hemel in geprezen en trapt Simon Mediamarkt de grond in. Gooi die voetjes achterover, pak wat te eten en drinken en geniet van deze nieuwe PUP, baklap!

Wow, die State of Play was een goede aftrap van de gamezomer! Of niet? Michel Musters is speciaal bij Martin en Simon aangeschoven om te speculeren over welke games we nog meer kunnen gaan zien tijdens onder andere Summer Game Fest en de Xbox Games Showcase. Zo heeft hij niet alleen sterke aanwijzingen voor Hollow Knight: Silksong, maar gaat Simon ook nog een tijdje lauw over de mogelijkheid dat Halo naar de PlayStation 5 komt, en heeft Martin een uitgesproken mening over de State of Play van gisteren! Welke games we dus gaan zien? Check snel deze voorspellingsaflevering, baklap!

Zo, daar is-ie alweer: aflevering 2 van de Power Unlimited Podcast! Na alle feedback op de eerste aflevering zorgvuldig te hebben bestudeerd (bedankt daarvoor!), hebben we wat aanpassingen gedaan. Maar natuurlijk gaan we gewoon door met waar we goed in zijn: slap ouwehoeren over games! Deze week is Samuel aangeschoven om zijn ervaringen te delen over Elden Ring: Nightreign en Doom: The Dark Ages, gaat Simon nog steeds helemaal los over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 en heeft Martin een appeltje te schillen met Roblox! Dus ga er lekker voor zitten (of liggen, of staan — doe vooral wat je wilt) en masseer die oorschelpen weer even met dit gamervoer, baklap!

Power Unlimited ep.771 Master storyteller and linguist Joseph Carrabis (was/could be/might have been) weaves wildly imaginative stories. With a sharp sense of humor, he creates multi-dimensional characters, reaching beyond the boundaries of the laws of physics by combining advanced mathematics, quantum physics, cybernetics, and neuroscience. Outside of writing, Joseph spends his time with his wife, Susan, reading, listening to and playing music, and walking his dog. He runs a monthly forum, Roundtable 360º, with creatives discussing their journeys. His work has appeared previously on Tall Tale TV.   Contact info for Joseph Carrabis Website - https://josephcarrabis.com/ Amazon - http://nlb.pub/amazon   More TTTV stories by Joseph Carrabis https://talltaletv.com/tag/joseph-carrabis/   ---- Listen Elsewhere ---- YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/TallTaleTV Website: http://www.TallTaleTV.com   ---- Story Submission ---- Got a short story you'd like to submit? Submission guidelines can be found at http://www.TallTaleTV.com   ---- About Tall Tale TV ---- Hi there! My name is Chris Herron and I'm an audiobook narrator. In 2015, I suffered from poor Type 1 diabetes control which lead me to become legally blind for almost a year. The doctors didn't give me much hope, predicting an 80% chance that I would never see again. But I refused to give up and changed my lifestyle drastically. Through sheer willpower (and an amazing eye surgeon) I beat the odds and regained my vision. During that difficult time, I couldn't read or write, which was devastating as they had always been a source of comfort for me since childhood. However, my wife took me to the local library where she read out the titles of audiobooks to me. I selected some of my favorite books, such as the Disc World series, Name of the Wind, Harry Potter, and more, and the audiobooks brought these stories to life in a way I had never experienced before. They helped me through the darkest period of my life and I fell in love with audiobooks. Once I regained my vision, I decided to pursue a career as an audiobook narrator instead of a writer. That's why I created Tall Tale TV, to support aspiring authors in the writing communities that I had grown to love before my ordeal. My goal was to help them promote their work by providing a promotional audio short story that showcases their writing skills to readers. They say the strongest form of advertising is word of mouth, so I offer a platform for readers to share these videos and help spread the word about these talented writers. Please consider sharing these stories with your friends and family to support these amazing authors. Thank you!   ---- legal ---- All stories on Tall Tale TV have been submitted in accordance with the terms of service provided on http://www.talltaletv.com or obtained with permission by the author. All images used on Tall Tale TV are either original or Royalty and Attribution free. Most stock images used are provided by http://www.pixabay.com , https://www.canstockphoto.com/ or created using AI. Image attribution will be declared only when required by the copyright owner. Common Affiliates are: Amazon, Smashwords