As you will hear in this PODCAST, the exact same question that I asked of a couple of hundred of the best high school students you’d ever want to meet. Here’s my question:
Do you want to live your life in the midst of God’s blessing?
If your answer to that question is “Yes,” THIS is what God’s blessing means; THIS is what a God-blessed life looks like.
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If you have ever wondered how I present the Gospel to a camp filled with some pretty precious High School students, you can hear it for yourself in this bonus PODCAST.
This message was delivered just one month ago at Hartland Christian Camp. Please join them and me at the foot of the cross, listening to Jesus’ final seven sayings from that cross.
THIS is what a gentle Jesus sounds like, even while He’s dying—for you and for me.
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As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, it is one of the most, if not the-most-blessed, doctrines in all of the Bible.
So naturally, theologians have to come along and muddy it all up to the point where today it is MUBAR:
Messed Up Beyond All Recognition.
I’m talking about the blessed doctrine of—fancy name—imminence. As in the imminent return of Jesus. As in the clear and (as you will hear in mere moments) unambiguous Bible teaching that Jesus could return at any time. As in the glorious truth that nothing needs to happen to precede Jesus’ return.
The “blessed hope” for which we do hope, every single day.
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“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity” (Romans 12:2 JBP).
Never was the need for Paul’s plea more evident than in what you are about to hear here in this PODCAST.
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As you will hear in this PODCAST, Peter will write this extraordinary sentence:
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
Trials, I will remind you, that cost Peter’s readers everything.
How did they do it? How was it possible for them—How is it possible for us?—to rejoice when they/we are experiencing the crushing weight of heavy-hearted emotion?
You are only 45 minutes away from knowing the answer.
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I am coming off of an exhilarating week with the BEST high school students you’d ever want to meet.
In this PODCAST, you will hear my opening night message at Hartland Christian Camp. Believing that “openness begets openness,” I get very open, very real, very fast—with them, and now with you.
May my words be a blessing.
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Think of it. As you will hear in this encore PODCAST…
(An encore because I am speaking at one of my all-time favorite places in the world, Hartland Christian Camp)…
Promptly at 3 PM…
Exactly at That.Very.Moment when Jesus breathed His last…
Precisely to the second when Jesus exclaimed, “It is finished. Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit”…
This happened:
“Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
Do you have any idea what that means? It will take the remainder of this discussion for us even to begin to understand What.That.Means.
Why did God tear the veil?
It was obviously God who ripped it. No human hand could possibly tear it. That veil was an elaborately woven fabric that stood 60 feet high, equal in height to a seven-story building. No one could tear that curtain. Only God could tear that curtain.
Which only amplifies the question, Why?
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As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, the time has come for us to have a sensible discussion about an issue that has been grossly misunderstood, and consequently grievously mis-taught, in far too many Christian settings. All of this causing so much harm spiritually, mentally, and emotionally to so many.
Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Oh, my dear friends, get ready to be set free!
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As you are about to hear this PODCAST, it was a night that Peter would never, ever forget.
Nor should we.
For embedded within the events of this night is a blessedly-enduring word of hope and assurance. Hope and assurance for you. Hope and assurance for me. And certainly hope and assurance for someone or someones whom you and I deeply love.
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As you will hear in this PODCAST, after his customary-yet-warm greeting, Peter could have begun his first foray into his rather short-lived, two-letter, dual-epistle-writing career with these words:
“And just when you thought all was lost…”
Because for Peter’s original readers, All.Was.Lost!
For these now-“scattered abroad exiles” had just been forcibly removed from their homes, had their lives permanently disrupted, and their families dramatically displaced.
Many-if-not-most of them were barely holding on, more surviving than thriving. Precious people precariously perched on the precipice of the abyss of uncertainty, just trying to make it through yet-another threatening day.
All of that to say that Peter could have begun this First Epistle of Peter with the words,
“And just when you thought all was lost…”
Because that was how they felt.
Just.Like.Some.of.Us.
Our challenges may not actually be as dire as theirs. But it sure feels that way some days, doesn’t it? Like we’re just barely hanging on? Like we’re more surviving than thriving? Like we’re maybe one step away from giving up?
“And just when you thought all was lost…”
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Gifts of Gratitude: If interested in expressing your gratitude in this biblical, tangible way--by giving a gift directly to me, OR giving a gift to a friend or loved-one-in-need in my name--please click on the Gifts of Gratitude tab at the top of this page. Thank you!!!
Dewey Bertolini 