Dewey Bertolini's Podcast

The Apostle Paul died a very troubled man. As did Peter. As did John. As did Jude. Know why? They shared the same concern.   The identically same concern that Jesus addressed rather pointedly here in this PODCAST.   Rather than speak for Apostles Paul, Peter, John, and Pastor Jude, I’ll let them speak for themselves. And as you hear them, please know that they are speaking to us.   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.   If it is a blessing, PLEASE “Share” with all of your friends.     God bless you as you listen.

Sometimes things really are as simple as they sound.    As you will hear in this PODCAST, this little truism was never more true than it is of Jesus’ words here at the tail end of the Sermon on the Mount.   And believe it or not, Jesus swerved right into the middle of what has become a tragic distortion of our beliefs, especially among a younger generation of pastors and the churches that they lead.   It’s time for us to recalibrate our theology, in order for our beliefs to fall in line with what Jesus taught.   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.     HAPPY LISTENING!

My friends, get ready to grow some goosebumps as you listen to this PODCAST.   Consider this your very own personalized tour, with me as your humble tour guide, as together we travel the storied streets of the Via Dolorosa. A short walk riddled with “Ah Ha” moments, too many to count!   Enjoy.   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. God bless you as you do!

I am away from my beloved Safe Haven family, helping to lead another Study Tour in Israel.   While I am away, please enjoy this Encore PODCAST.   The cards were unfairly stacked against her. By anyone’s definition, she was a total loser. This woman was by anyone’s standard the quintessential poster-child of the societal outcast.   She lived on the fringes, neglected, or even worse, forgotten by everyone.   Forgotten by everyone, that is, but Jesus.   This one encounter, between Jesus and this notorious woman, changed her life forever.   It might just change yours.   Please note that with some web browsers, it might take up to 60 seconds for the podcast to begin to play.

It is, without a doubt, my absolute favorite spot in all of Israel. Which, given my love for the land and its people, is quite a remarkable statement.   In this PODCAST, you will hear where it is, and why it is.   Here’s a clue: It’s the Apostle Peter’s favorite spot too.   Please remember 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, and please “Share” this podcast with your family and friends.

Welcome to a Passover Seder. In this PODCAST, we will give you an overview of this blessed event, celebrated by our Jewish friends all around the world.   In this presentation, we will place a particular emphasis on the many pictures of Jesus painted through the symbols, blessings, foods, and other traditions included in a Passover Seder.   Nothing could be more appropriate for our consideration, especially during this time of year.   This presentation was recorded on Good Friday night. You will be amazed at the clarity, the high definition, in which these images of Jesus emerge throughout this celebration.   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.     God bless you as you listen. Please “Share” the link to this podcast with your family and friends.

Let me begin this PODCAST with a little bit of Bible trivia. Fun little factoids to tickle your fancy:   You may know that there are 66 books in the Bible.   But did you know that there are 1189 chapters and a grand total of 31,102 verses (KJV)?    Well, on the surface, these #’s might make it seem like a daunting task to even begin to understand Bible.   I mean, where do you start?   Well, my friends. That’s why I am here. Think of me as the lubricant that makes the machinery of your life run smooth.   Lest you find those #’s to be somewhat dispiriting, what if I told you that we could summarize the entire Bible in only 3 verses? 3 verses that tell the tale?   Want to know what they are?    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!

Welcome in this PODCAST to one of the most ignored and blatantly disobeyed passages in all of Bible to the needless/unspeakable hurt of so many of us.   May I tonight bare my soul as Jesus bared His?   Believe it or not, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed what was then, what is today, an all-too-common spiritual practice of unconscionable spiritual abuses. Abuses that were taking place in so many of the synagogues of Jesus’ day, and in so many churches today.   For the sake of our souls, we MUST understand what Spiritual is, why it happens, whether or not it is or has happened to us, and how to guard against it.   Honestly, if people would simply take Jesus’ words to heart, that in and of itself would absolutely transform our Christian experiences #For.The.Better. And frankly, it’s not that hard to do.   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.   If it is a blessing, PLEASE “Share” this podcast link with a

You talk about a passage that hits us right where we live. This is it. You’re about to hear one explained in this PODCAST!    The operative word in this passage? Jesus said it three times: “Worry!” As in, “Do not worry!”   I can even summarize Jesus’ message even more concisely than that. How about just one word? “Relax.”   Jesus assured the precious people on that hillside that day (and us!) that when it comes to the pressures and problems of life, they and we CAN Relax! As if to say, “I’ve got your back. I’ve got it covered. I can handle it. I will handle it.”   His message, as explained in this podcast, reverberates with a blazing bright message of hope and encouragement.   Allow Jesus to dispel your dark clouds of worry, and to replace them with His matchless peace.   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.   Happy listening. And PLEASE “Share” the link to this podcast with all of your friends.     God ble

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.