Bart's Blog

  by Bart Denny What follows is the sermon I intended to preach at Pathway - A Wesleyan Church on November 30, 2025, the first Sunday of Advent, when we would have lit the "Hope" candle on the Advent wreath if heavy snowfall had not preempted our service. This is the first message in a series titled He Came Down: The Wonder of God's Nearness. He Came Down... to Deliver Exodus 3:1-15 Introduction Have you ever walked through a season when you felt… unseen? When you wondered, “Does anyone know what I’m carrying? Does anyone understand? Is anyone even listening when I pray?” As we step into Advent, we need this reminder: Advent tells us we are not forgotten. Advent isn’t about people climbing their way to God. It’s the story of a God who comes down into the very places where we are — the ordinary, the unnoticed, the overlooked. And that’s why we’re not beginning this Advent series where you might expect. Instead of Bethlehem or Nazareth, we’re starting in the wilderness of ...

Have you ever gotten one of those emails that look legitimate—same logo, same colors, same tone—but something feels off? Then you check the sender’s address and realize the name is misspelled by one letter. Instant relief: Whew… glad I didn’t fall for that. That’s what deception does. It doesn’t scream a lie. It whispers a twist. In Genesis 3, we meet the very first twist—and that whisper still echoes in our world, our culture, and our internal battles. The devil’s most effective weapon has never been force; it’s deception. But Scripture shows us how to recognize it, resist it, and walk in God’s truth. Let’s take a closer look at the oldest lie ever told. The First Whisper: “Did God Really Say…?” Genesis places us in a perfect garden filled with yeses and one protective boundary. Into that goodness slithers the Serpent—crafty, subtle, shrewd. He begins with a question: “Did God really say…?” He doesn’t argue. He doesn’t threaten. He simply reframes God as restrictive. ...

by Bart Denny Whether you are a professional mechanic or a shade-tree tinkerer, you have probably met that bolt. You know the one. You start with a regular wrench. No movement. You grab a longer handle. Your knuckles get scraped, your patience wears thin, and if you are honest, your vocabulary gets “creative.” So you reach for the Liquid Wrench. Then the torch. Then the breaker bar. Still nothing. Finally, you call the neighbor with the impact wrench. Same bolt, same rust, same stuck threads. One burst from the impact, and what resisted you for an hour breaks loose in a second. The difference was not you trying harder. The difference was authority . A different kind of power was applied. A lot of life feels like that bolt. Maybe it is an addiction, anger, bitterness, lust, or unforgiveness that will not budge. Maybe your “stuck bolt” is more internal: anxiety that will not let go, depression that will not lift, bitterness that has hardened into a way of life. The Bible c...

Based on Judges 13 Have you ever looked back on a difficult season of your life and realized— God was at work the whole time ? You didn’t see it in real time, but later, you could trace His fingerprints over every detail. I’ve lived through that. When I was preparing to retire from the Navy, I thought I had my next steps all mapped out. We’d bought a home in Tampa, planning to sell it at a profit and move back to Michigan. Job recruiters were calling. Everything looked smooth. Then—everything stopped. The calls stopped. The housing market crashed. The house we thought had plenty of equity suddenly wasn’t worth what we owed. It felt like God slammed the door shut. But in that disappointment, He redirected me. While working at the air base, I enrolled in seminary. A few years later, I joined the staff at our church, and eventually, I became pastor of a small congregation that needed revitalization. What I thought would be a two-year plan turned into fifteen. Only in hindsight did...