Dewey Bertolini's Podcast

OK! You may well be wondering, “Are we really going take an entire message to talk about fasting?”   As you will hear in this PODCAST, Yes! We are indeed! And for some very good reasons.    Just the mention of the word sounds like something out of an ancient Byzantine Orthodox liturgy. Certainly not something relevant to our fast-paced 21st century get-up-and-go, hectic, frenetic lifestyles. Which is precisely the point!   The fact that our lives have indeed become so deliriously fast-paced (Get it? Fast-paced? When talking about fasting? A little pun there.) demands that we build this discipline into our lives.   And just to give you one tantalizing clue as to where we are going with this: Fasting has much more to do with our time than it does with our food. As you will hear me propose in this message, fasting is much more of a time-management issue than it is a food-management issue.   It’s not at all surprising, really, that Jesus followed up His presentation of The Lord’s Prayer with this invitation to fa

It’s one of the most beautiful verses in all of Scripture… which, ironically, may not actually be in the Bible.   But as you will learn in this PODCAST, it really doesn’t matter. Because what Matthew quite possibly did not write, Paul most certainly did.   Paul ascribed glorious praise and power to His sovereign God who quite possibly broke Paul’s heart. His heart broken by a shattered dream, an unfulfilled longing.   Yet through Paul’s resilience, we can and WILL derive much comfort in the face of our own shattered dreams, broken hearts, and unfulfilled longings.   This podcast is for you!   Please remember that depending upon your connection speed and web browser, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to play.     HAPPY LISTENING, and may God richly bless you as you do.

Does your faith ever flicker or falter? Are you ever besieged by doubts, pesky thoughts that call into question God’s love, God’s goodness, God’s presence in your life?   You are not alone, as you are about to hear in this PODCAST.    There is a battle being waged right before our eyes, a battle of good versus evil, a battle of the forces of light against the forces of darkness, a spiritual battle centered squarely upon you… and me.   Which explains the reason why Jesus taught us to pray as He did.   Please note that depending upon your connection speed and web browser, it may take up to 60 seconds for the podcast to begin to play.     HAPPY LISTENING, and please “Share” the link to this podcast with your friends.

As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, it is my sense that far too often in the Christian community at large, we display a woefully naive and underdeveloped understanding of person-to-person forgiveness.   Too many times I get the sense that our default position is to demand of the one who is wronged his or her need to forgive the one who wronged him. While at the same time almost giving a pass to the one who committed the wrong in the first place. As if to say, “Yes, it’s too bad that someone hurt you. But you are obligated to forgive that person, whether they acknowledge the hurt they caused or not.”   I mean, is it not one of the most basic of Christian ethics to say to someone who has been deeply wounded, “You need to forgive the person who wronged you, love the person who wronged you, and be reconciled with the person who wronged you. No matter what”? Whether or not they make any attempt to right the wrong that they committed? Whether or not they repent of the wrong, or even admit their wrong?    A wo

Welcome to this Encore PODCAST. While I am away speaking to a wonderful group of precious college-age students at a place near and dear to my rather sizable heart -- Hartland Christian Camp -- we travel back into the Safe Haven archives for this most insightful lesson. As you are about to hear, Jesus lived and taught in a spiritual climate remarkably similar to our own. You will be AMAZED at the parallels. This will explain to you, so very clearly, why so many "Christians" treat others and behave before others the way they do. The insights taught here helped me to gain a whole new perspective on the world in which I live, and an even deeper respect for Jesus as He navigated the world in which He lived. Please note that depending upon your connection speed and web browser, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play. HAPPY LISTENING!!!

God can sometimes seem so distant. Remote. Removed from the intricate details of our daily lives.   BUT HE’S NOT. As you will discover by listening to this PODCAST.   God is closer to you than you can possibly imagine.   OK, here’s a pop quiz for you. When Jesus wanted to convey to the people He loved in the single most culturally-emphatic way, just how close God is to YOU, what image did Jesus invoke?   You, my friend, are in for quite a surprise.   Please note that depending upon your connection speed and web browser, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to play. But it’s worth the wait!!! ;-)     HAPPY LISTENING.

Welcome to this encore presentation of the introductory PODCAST that launched what was then, back in November of 2012, a brand new and exciting and life-changing series: Jesus in High Definition.  I know my friends in the midwest will laugh at us here in the Pacific Northwest when I say this. But when it snows, oh, around two inches, the city and state virtually shut down. Well, we are into our third straight day of snow, now approaching a full foot. Consequently, there will not be a Safe Haven study tonight. As a result, I will seize the day and take you all the way back to the beginning, to where our study started. Jesus in High Definition, the very first lesson. In this first lesson, we will provide you with an overview of the entire Bible -- think of it as looking at the box-top of a puzzle -- so that we will understand exactly where the individual "pieces" of the Gospels fall within the grand sweep of the biblical drama. By harmonizing the four Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- we have been

If you were ever going to hear just one message on the mysterious and majestic practice we call prayer, let this PODCAST be the one. Finally we come to the crux of the matter regarding this glorious thing we call prayer. So much is going to become so clear in just the next few minutes: Questions about unanswered prayers. Questions about why God even designed this thing called prayer. Questions about the purpose of prayer. Questions about what we ought to pray for, and what we don’t need to pray for.  Why prayer sometimes doesn’t seem to work. Yet why every time we pray biblically, it ALWAYS works. So much to talk about. I am so glad you are here to share in this discussion with us. PLEASE NOTE that depending upon your web browser, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play. HAPPY LISTENING, and may God richly bless you as you listen.

My friends, there is a new day coming! Learn all about it in this week’s PODCAST. Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for the podcast to begin to play. HAPPY LISTENING!!!

Why?  It is THE question that haunts each and every one of us. Why? Why do bad things happen to us? Why doesn’t God answer my prayers? Why did God let this happen? Why doesn’t God just fix this? In this PODCAST, you WILL discover the answer. Please note that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play. Thank you for listening. And please “Share” this podcast with your friends.

In this week’s PODCAST, believe it or not, Jesus answers THE question that has haunted church/ministry leaders for years: Why are they leaving the church in droves? The answer is so obvious, that it is staring us right in the face. And yet, with all of the blogs and books devoted to answering this question (and IMHO missing the point completely), with the gallons of ink that has been spilled on reams of dead-tree paper, how do we miss such an obvious answer? Fact is, in His Sermon on the Mount, in His run-up to what we commonly call The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus definitively answers this singularly significant question: Why are they leaving the church in droves? Please note that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, the podcast may take up to 60 seconds to begin to play. HAPPY LISTENING And if this podcast is a blessing to you, please share the link to this podcast with your friends. God bless you as you listen.

In this PODCAST, you will learn one singularly simple concept which, if you take it to heart, will change your life forever. It is my sense that in contemporary Christian culture in America, we have lost sight of the elegant simplicity spoken of in the New Testament. And consequently, we have lost so much of God’s blessing in the process. So here’s to simplicity, with the hope that your life overflows with God’s bountiful blessing as we together apply this principle to our lives. Please note that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play. HAPPY LISTENING. And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE “Share” the link to this lesson with all of your friends. God bless!

I'll just say this: If you were ever going to listen to one Jesus in HD PODCAST, please, please, please listen to this one. Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it might take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play. If it is a blessing to you, please "Share" the link to the podcast with all of your friends. HAPPY LISTENING!!!

What a glorious night we had at the Safe Haven. We included several of our precious children and young people in a Living Nativity, during which I gave five separate snapshots of Christmas. Think of this PODCAST as five for the price of one. Rather than painting a panoramic portrait, as I try my best to do every week, we instead looked at five different photographs, viewing Christmas from five difference angles. In short, we isolate five aspects of the Christmas story that you might not have considered before. I think you will find this podcast to be a blessing. If you do, PLEASE share the link to this podcast with your friends, with my compliments and my sincere thanks. Please note that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it might take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play. HAPPY LISTENING, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Coming at just the right time, this PODCAST will, if we take Jesus’ words to heart, transform our lives in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine. I offer it to you as a gift of love from my heart to yours.  PLEASE remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for the podcast to begin to play. HAPPY LISTENING. And if it is a blessing in your life, PLEASE share this podcast with your friends.

In this week’s PODCAST, I am going to take a great big risk and tell you a personal story. A story that I have on rare occasions shared with individuals. But this will be the first time I’ve ever told this story in a public setting. I tell this story for a number of reasons.  First, of course, because it goes right to the heart of this podcast’s passage. It illustrates precisely the issue to which Jesus was referring here in Matthew 5:33-37, a subject of monumental importance as far as Jesus’ teaching was concerned. Second, because it gives to you a bit of personal context, a piece of the portrait of my life within which my teaching takes place. Third, because if the old adage is true -- Like pastor, like people -- or as the OT puts it, “Like people, like priest” (Hosea 4:9), then this explains why there has evolved a pandemic of phoniness in our churches. Fourth, because this became a defining moment in my life and ministry. It cemented for me an approach to ministry, an approach to life, for which, ove

The topic of this PODCAST is one of those subjects that touches us all, deeply and profoundly. The ripples of any divorce, every divorce spread their concentric circles far and wide. Which compels us to take a sober look at exactly what Jesus DID SAY HERE in Matthew 5:31-32, as well as -- and perhaps especially -- what Jesus DID NOT SAY HERE. Because once again, this is one of those passages which, when lifted out of its context -- both Scriptural and Cultural -- is so often and so tragically made to say something other than what Jesus intended for it to say. Heaping truck loads of unnecessary grief and guilt upon poor precious people who are just trying by God’s grace to rebuild their broken lives. Trust me! Over the years, having dealt up close and personal with many, many people, I have heard some of the most atrocious applications of this passage. This to the point where emotionally and spiritually fragile individuals, whose lives have just been rocked by their own tragic divorces, now have whatever fr

Well, here we are once again...  Faced with yet another passage (if you can believe it) too often ripped out of its context, twisted into a pretzel, and made to say something other than what Jesus intended it to say. There is an issue addressed in this passage, and in this PODCAST -- a monumentally important issue -- so important that we must understand what this passage means. The fact of the matter is that this issue -- what this passage DOES actually mean -- is so absolutely important that Jesus said something in this passage that He never said anywhere else.  Jesus actually said that we must even stop worshipping God and first fix this issue -- whatever this issue is (I’ll tell you in a moment) -- before we can resume our worship. So the issue, addressed in this passage, must indeed be a vitally important issue, yes? Yes! Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it might take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play. God bless YOU as you listen!

I am SO excited about this PODCAST. Excited because so much is about to become so clear as we look at this together. If you took the entire Sermon on the Mount, and boiled it all down to one singular soundbite, the over-arching theme, its one takeaway… It would be Matthew 5:20, “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” OK. But... What in the world did Jesus mean by that? We are about to find out. And I promise you this. When we do find out, we will be so incredibly encouraged. Please note that depending upon your web browser, it may take up to 60 seconds for the podcast to begin to play. HAPPY LISTENING!!!

This is going to be fun, and oh-so-instructive. This is the kind of a lesson I LOVE to teach. Did you realize that in Matthew 5:18, Jesus made one of the single most dramatic, declarative statements He would ever make? In one sweeping sentence that we explained at length last week, Jesus affirmed the Bible -- every book, chapter, verse, word, letter -- as absolute truth. Through the process of Revelation, whereby God revealed Truth to His writers, and the process of Inspiration, whereby God guided His writers to write down that Truth w/o error, we now hold in our hands a precious book that 2 Timothy 3:16 (CEV) rightly calls “God’s Word.” Revelation. Inspiration. In this PODCAST, we consider together a matter of Interpretation. How to understand the Bible... properly. #WhatDoesItMean???  Because the sad fact is this: By stringing a few unrelated verses together, people can literally make the Bible say anything they want it to say. Anything! And they do. We.Do.Not. We have far too much respect for the B