Truer words were never spoken. It is an axiom of life. An undeniable reality that is obvious on its face:
You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube.
Now what in the world does toothpaste have to do with Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 10, you ask? Everything, my friends. Everything.
For the fact of the matter is that there are some things in this world of ours which, once they are done, there’s no going back. Which is so ironically true about the passage in this PODCAST.
I suppose on the one hand, one could ask: Then why even discuss this? If indeed it is how it is… If it’s how the game is played today… If it’s how the game has been played for years… If it’s not going to change… Not by you. Not by me. Not by anyone…
Then why even discuss this?
Because on the other hand Matthew 10:8 IS in the Bible. Because Jesus did indeed say this. Because Matthew did indeed include this in his Gospel masterpiece. Because these ARE the words of Jesus. So God obviously WANTS us to discuss this.
So despite the fact that I have no illusions about changing anything, the precious truth contained in this passage is well-worth our consideration and understanding. And the fact is, WE don’t have to play this game the way it’s always been played.
We can play by a whole different set of rules. Rules of Jesus’ own making.
As He sent out His disciples, Jesus clearly and unambiguously told His men six words that are paradigm-shattering in their impact. So let’s talk about these six words: What they meant to His followers then. More to the point, what they mean for us, His followers, today.
Or at least what it ought to mean to us today.
And as we do so, please permit me to speak in this podcast with a distinct tone of wistfulness in my voice and body language as we contemplate together what might have been… What might have been, if only our evangelical world had simply taken these words of Jesus seriously and applied in our churches consistently.
Oh, what might have been…
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God bless you as you listen.
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The day before yesterday, I read a recently released report out of University of Missouri on the subject of Facebook Depression.
Well, as you will hear in this PODCAST, I really didn’t need to read a report about that. I know all-too-well what happens in my own rather sizable soul when I scan my FB newsfeed.
Sometimes I just can’t help but to feel so deeply and compassionately and sadly for many of the challenges so many of my friends are going through, especially as they relate to their issues of health.
I, like so many of you, just want to wave a magical wand and fix everything. But I can’t. Of course, as the cliché goes, I do know Someone (capital “S”) who Can.Fix.Everything.
But what happens when He doesn’t?
Perhaps amplifying my FB depression, this was the week for “I don’t know if I believe in God anymore” messages. Messages sent to me by a few of my friends, unsolicited on my part, each message unrelated to the others, in which their faith is floundering, seriously so. This precisely because they have things broken in lives, significantly so. Yet despite their cries and pleas to the Almighty Who — as that name for God so powerfully suggests — has the power to fix it all. But He didn’t. He doesn’t.
Now what?
What does a person do when, in their moment of greatest need, it appears that God is either…
1. Silent/indifferent/deaf to their pleas, or worse…
2. Appears to be powerless to fix it all?
And so, in the lives of some of my friends, faced with a seemingly silent/indifferent and/or powerless God, their faith in God is in a free-fall.
I say all of that so that you know that I take this podcast’s passage in Matthew 10 Ever.So.Seriously. Tonight’s discussion hits me Ever.So.Personally. And so I will endeavor to bring to this discussion Ever.So.Compassionately the understanding of what it’s like to have one’s faith collapse.
Because it’s simply a fact that, despite the title of the runaway bestseller that just celebrated its 30th anniversary with a rerelease of a 30th Anniversary Edition — the book entitled He Is There and He Is Not Silent — for many of my friends, just when they needed Him the most, from all outward appearances God was NOT there and He was deafeningly silent.
Why so silent?
It all comes down to what you will hear in this podcast.
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As you will hear in this PODCAST, on the night before He went to the cross, Jesus made a series of remarkable statements to His disciples, in the Upper Room, during their final Passover Seder together.
John 13-17, those 5 chapters, are often referred to as Upper Room Discourse. They contain rich and rewarding teaching that we’ll dissect and digest in, oh… 3 years or so when we get there. 😉
There is, however, in that wide swath of Scriptural truth one statement that I want to highlight here, that really sets the stage for this discussion.
In John 14, Jesus said this to His disciple Philip, in front of the other 10 (Judas having left to betray Jesus):
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! (vs. 9)
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!
When we began this study of Jesus in HD, we said then, and I remind you frequently, that we are on a journey of discovery. Over two years ago now, we embarked together on an ongoing quest to discover exactly who Jesus is.
In this statement in John 14, Jesus assured us that as we discover together who Jesus is, we are equalling discovering who God is. And this discovery has been nothing short of EXCITING!!!
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!
What we learn about Jesus, we learn about God.
Jesus’ heart is God’s heart.
What Jesus is like, God is like.
What Jesus thinks is what God thinks.
What would Jesus do is what God would do.
And Oh.What.Pleasant.Surprises we have discovered along the way. Soul-enriching, spirit-reviving surprises, that we have uncovered together.
Surprises about the heart of Jesus; surprises about the heart of God.
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THANK YOU for listening! God bless you as you listen.
She was a footnote in this chapter of the Jesus Story. But she was NEVER a footnote to Jesus.
And neither are you, as you will be reminded in this poignant PODCAST.
If I had to choose one word to describe this woman — and let me assure you, there are many to choose from, such as desperate, fearful, impoverished, unclean, shunned, rejected, lonely, isolated, alone, damaged — If I had to choose one word to describe this woman, the one word I would choose is invisible.
She was indeed invisible. Totally and completely invisible.
She was invisible to her family, her former friends, her neighbors, her faith community… No one gave a thought to, or cared one whit about, this poor precious woman.
Except for Jesus.
If you have ever been tempted to think that Jesus is mean, harsh, angry, impossible to please, time to meet this woman — who will never look at Jesus the same way again.
And neither will you.
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He is truly an unsung hero of the Christmas Story.
Ironically enough, as you will learn in this Christmas-themed PODCAST, his name means “one who listens.”
Are you ready to listen?
Having read the biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus, I have no doubt that you have heard of him. But I would be very much surprised if you knew much about him.
THAT is about to change.
Ready to view the coming of Christ through a slightly different lens? My Yuletide gift to you, in a little more than 30 minutes.
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God bless you as you listen. And have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Ever feel spiritually inferior? Like you don’t measure up? Like you can’t measure up?
Then you are in the right place. This message is for YOU!
In this PODCAST, we bid a fond farewell to the parables.
I cannot put into words how much I have enjoyed our study of each of them. The seven parables of Matthew 13 speak so clearly to us, revealing to us exactly what Jesus said the spiritual climate in the world in which we are now living would be like. With pinpoint accuracy, He said it would be so. And it is.
So somewhat sadly, we turn the page and move immediately into the next phase of Jesus’ ministry.
I do say “immediately” because we read this in Mark 4 (as we harmonize the four Gospels and present Jesus’ life and ministry in chronological order)…
… And I’ve got to tell you, I cannot help but to chuckle when I read this:
“Jesus taught them using parables; privately to His disciples He explained everything. On that same day when evening had come, He said to them, Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.”
#Oh.My.Friends, you have NO IDEA — and there #Is.No.Way that I can adequately convey to you the idea — of JUST how terrified AND terrorized disciples were to hear this.
But I will try.
Now, before I get into all of that, a couple of thoughts… Thoughts that you will hear in this podcast.
Trust me, you are in for a treat. This is one hoot of a story.
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It has become THE doctrinal debate of our time — Is there really a Hell? Needlessly so. Unnecessarily so. With absolutely no reason for this to be a debate.
Jesus’ own words ended this debate, 2000 years ago, courtesy of the Parable of the Dragnet. As you will hear clearly and unambiguously in this PODCAST.
Turns out that the Bible is amazingly straightforward about whether or not there is a Hell; if so, what it is truly like, who will be going there, and why they will be going there.
As I often say, It’s amazing what we learn when we read the Bible. Well, get ready to be amazed.
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God bless you as you listen.
And PLEASE share a link to this podcast with your friends.
An encouraging discussion, certainly to me personally, and hopefully to you, because Jesus’ 2nd parable, The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (the 1st we discussed last week, The Parable of the Farmer Scattering Seeds) is spot-on as far as Jesus predicting with pinpoint accuracy EXACTLY what would be taking place in our contemporary Christian culture and communities today…
…And why!
A thought-provoking portrait upon which you and I need to gaze with insight and understanding.
This is one of those messages that puts so much into its proper perspective. Honestly, I can’t wait for you to hear it.
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Dewey Bertolini 