From Depression To A Real Relationship With Jesus

Welcome And Jeff’s Story Setup

Chaplain Terry 0:04

Okay. Well, I'm gonna start over just in case we missed it. My guest today is my guest today is Jeff Dalton. He grew up struggling with depression and low self-esteem. We stopped at three items that he really were concerned and affected him. Jesus wants our raw mess, pain, and mental health. You can't heal what you acknowledge. And the first time and he was rejected three times. And the second time the message that it didn't belong. And then the third mess, the third message was bipolar position. Aren't you glad I'm not a doctor?

Jeff Dalton 0:53

Well, I'm even more glad you're not acting like one. Unfortunately, that's the problem. The pastors and preachers, they act like they're experts, then they spew stuff that isn't good and stuff like that.

Chaplain Terry 1:08

Yeah, uh and a lot of people, you know, uh if if you I'm moving around, that's my Parkinson's kicking in. A lot of people they they put you in a little box, they put you in a little cage, and you're defined as that. And uh I'm big on words and getting words is what what would get you out of the box, also.

Jeff Dalton 1:30

Yeah.

Chaplain Terry 1:30

So go ahead and pick up where number number one was.

Jeff Dalton 1:43

He can handle yeah, he he really does, because if you read the Bible and look at the Old and New Testament, God oftentimes just asks for one thing from us, and that is our heart.

Jesus Wants Your Honest Heart

Jeff Dalton 2:00

That's it. Not our religious performance, but our heart. Not um a polished version of ourselves, but our heart. Because in the heart is who we really are, and that's our character as well. And God desires, and Jesus desires a real relationship. Well, part of having a real relationship is you gotta have honesty. If there's lines, that relationship's gonna fall apart, and you're not gonna be able to have one. So that's also why God, you know, Jesus, He wants us to be real with them. You know, He wants us to tell them what's going on in our minds or thoughts that we're having or what we're feeling. You know, it can be depression, anxiety, sadness, grief, anger, doubt, even, whatever, and be able to communicate that to him. Um, and then when that happens, I guess it goes into the second point, you can't heal what you don't acknowledge. And that's so true, too. Where Jesus wants to then heal us. And oftentimes I know in the church we think of healing as someone praying a powerful prayer and stuff like that. And yeah, sometimes that happens, but sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes Jesus wants to be more involved because in Isaiah 9 6, Jesus called many things. One of them is he's called his mighty counselor. And a counselor, if you go see a counselor, they'll listen to you, but then they'll do something more. They'll start asking you questions, like how you how why are you feeling this way? Um, what's causing you to feel this way? What's something in the environment that's causing you to feel this way? And what they're doing is they're pulling things out of you and they're getting to the root of the problem. And Jesus does the same thing if we let him, if we after we tell him how we're feeling, we need to just listen then for him to ask questions or reveal things to us. Like maybe this is why you're you're going to your hurting or sad. You know, maybe you're in a relationship where every time you get together, they speak negativity over your life. Therefore, you probably need to change the parameters of that relationship, or maybe even get rid of it and stuff. And the thing is, it's like I like garden. And it's like when you see a weed, you just keep digging and digging and digging until you get to the root of the weed, then you pull it out. If you do that, it won't go back. But if you're constantly pulling out weeds every time you see one left and right, the problem is they're gonna go back really quick. You're gonna be in the same place that you were and stuff, yeah. So, yeah, that's what I mean.

Chaplain Terry 5:06

I just think about you give you can't give what you don't, you can't get healed what you don't know. Man's a three-part being, he's a spirit first, yeah. He has a soul, that spirit has a soul, and he lives in a body. Yeah, well, the body, if you want to see yourself, look in the mirror. If you want to see what you look like on the inside, look at your thoughts and actions and your words.

You Can’t Heal What You Deny

Chaplain Terry 5:30

Yes. And then if you want to see what God sees you look like, look at your spirit, man. Yes, and then so many times we have just discounted the soul, so to speak, the man's spirit, as being some kind of ghostly floating around.

Jeff Dalton 5:48

Yeah.

Chaplain Terry 5:50

That you can't see. The things that are eternal are what you can't see. Right. The uh the things that are uh last are just a little while are things you can see and feel and touch. This world was made by things you could not see, right? And the more and God's word is especially, and so consequently, the more God's word you know, the more you'll see. Not physically that will happen, not physically. God's not down here looking at your facial expressions, he's looking at Jesus through through you. Or through Jesus, he's looking at you. Jesus is the head, we're the body, but we're the unseen body, the body of Christ. Well, anyway, uh we're talking about people form these little images when they see you. You don't see words, you see images. If I say dog, you don't see D-O-G, you see a dog, probably your dog or somebody. If I say black dog, well, we change it. Well, then if we want those words to be cemented and concrete where they mean something and state something, we can't see dog, we see the image. So what we do, we put a frame around it, yeah. And that frame keeps that word from being changed. You have a door frame, you know, you have an airframe for the airplane, uh, things like that. So we we have a frame, and then we look at Hebrews, the words were frame, the worlds were framed by God, and by the spoken word. What spoken word was that? Jesus. That's that's the word that got it all going. So, anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to cut in on you there. That's true, yeah. The three truths. The first one was Jesus values the people whose society and the worldly church devalues. Yes. Oh, yeah, let's look at Israel. Just look at Israel. We you know, we the Jews are really if you want proof that God exists, the Jewish nation is proof. They go there. Uh Jesus' second was Jesus' definition of success is being faithful. That's it. I asked the Lord one time, what could I do to really please you? And he got really quiet. And I said, Well, tell me what can I do to really please you? Believe in me. And that's what he said. Yeah. Amen. Yeah. I thought I I thought he was going to tell me to fast or go without or do this or go around and look sorrowful all the time, or go around and try to look holy all the time.

Jeff Dalton 8:46

Uh you know, we're not sitting there because that's what Jesus um told the people. You know, the people said, We want to work. You know, what what what should we do? And Jesus said, Well, the work God requires is you believe in the one he sent. That's it. And in belief back then, we kind of get we we misunderstand a little bit, us people today, because we think belief or even faith is intellectual. And it's not. Back then, it was so much more. Believe is you receive, you know, you take in. It's kind of like, you know, if a UPS comes knocking on your door and you open it and they have a package. Well, it's not good enough if you just look at the package and that's it. Believe it's there. You gotta receive it as well. You know, you gotta take it inside of your home as well to receive the package. That's the same thing with belief, is just receiving Jesus into your life every single day and stuff.

Chaplain Terry 9:52

I'm gonna see if I can switch them. Who's talking? Oh yeah. Sometimes you just don't know which button to push. Yeah. Two things you two things you never want to hear a pilot say. Hold my beer, hold my beer and watch this. And I wonder what this button

Words Shape Identity And Faith

Chaplain Terry 10:20

does.

Jeff Dalton 10:21

Yeah, not good.

Chaplain Terry 10:24

Uh the thing that we do, you know, we said faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Yes. So what would we do? We go read the word. We read it, and read it, and read it, and read it. And they wonder why we don't have any faith, our faith isn't grown. Because it you speak it, faith comes by hearing. Yes. And what you what the measure you hear, is the measure it'll be dealt out. Yes. Out of the abundance of the heart, the inner man, the man you can't see. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Well, when you speak the words of God, God gives uh oh John 6 33, I think it is. He spoke the words of God, therefore God gave him his spirit without measure. He wants the spirit without measure, speak the words of God, speak to the problem, speak to the mountain. Yes, you know, talk, talk to the mountain, don't whine and complain about it. Oh God, you know, I'm I'm so beaten and pushed down and trodden through the heat and the cold and at the end of the road, there's God. Well, my God's not at that kind of road. My God's at a heavenly, heavenly road. You know, it just well, tell me about December 25th, 2025, where you hit rock bottom. Yes.

Jeff Dalton 11:45

Well, uh in December, um, I'm polished my book, Specials of the Heart, poems, and devotionals. And I took out a Facebook ad for one week to promote it, sell it. Um and after a week, um, I didn't sell a thing. And that's when everything just came apart. I had enough. And I just did a video about it, and I said, well, I've come to the conclusion that either God doesn't exist or that God's against me. And that's all I really said. And I turned off the camera, and it's like the lights went out. Um, and the reason why I said I said that God's against me, because you know, I've I've tried to start a business three times and I've failed. Tried doing stocks, failed. Um, wanted to be a traveling preacher, failed. Didn't become one. So I'm like, you know, I feel like God's against me because he's not blessing me. Because a lot of times we equate God's blessing with his pleasure, if God's pleased. Yeah. And so then that's why I thought that, or he just doesn't exist and stuff. But then a few weeks later, I started thinking about Jesus again. And for 38 years, I've dabbled into science of history, um, culture, Jewish culture, and ancient history, archaeology, stuff like that. So I know enough where um there's a lot of evidences that God does exist and the Bible is reliable. And and a lot of, well, a good number of atheist historians believe that Jesus actually existed, he was a real person. So I start thinking about Jesus again. And then there's two claims that he made in in John. One of them is in John 14, 6, where Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, meaning absolute truth, not just his truth, and the life or life giver. And no one can get to the Father or God except through him. That's a big claim. No one else has ever made that. Um, number two, in John chapter 8, this is about identity. Because they were talking about identity, and Jesus finally said, before Abraham was born, Abraham was in the in Genesis, he's really old and stuff. Before Abraham was born, I am. Now here's the thing. Now it's true that people say that, well, Jesus never claimed to be God, never said he was God. Well, yeah, they're right. He never did. He went one step further. He got specific. He said, I am, he's God's name. The name that God gave Moses back in Exodus.

Chaplain Terry 15:07

Yes.

Jeff Dalton 15:08

When Moses asked God, um, would I go to Pharaoh to set demand that he set the Israelites free? Who shall I say send me? And God said, Tell them I am that I am sent to you. And I am is the the creator, the king of the universe, the creator of you, and me, I am. And the second thing about that, when Jesus said that, the reaction of the people, some of them were religious leaders who

Faithfulness Over Performance

Jeff Dalton 15:40

knew the old testament. Then what did they do? Picked up stones to stone him. Why? Because he committed blasphemy. In other words, he claimed they knew, understood, he claimed to be God. Yes, and knowing what I know, I cannot intellectually with honesty dismiss those two claims. I just can't, yeah, I just can't do it.

Chaplain Terry 16:06

In the Hebrew, well, in the Greek, where it says that you're of your father, the devil, because he was they were speaking. They said that because you have an accent. The accent he had was not Eastern Jerusalem or Western Jerusalem. The accent he had was the accent of God. That's what they that's what they yeah, that blew him away. That was the accent that he said you guys don't recognize. Wouldn't you imagine telling that to your pastor? If you're right. I wouldn't, I don't know that I'd recommend it anyway. Uh the other thing, you know, we do a lot of times, we we say we give it to the Lord and we take it back. And we we give it to the Lord again, we take it back. And people say it's it's God uh it's got a uh God of second chances, you better believe He is. Third, fourth, fifth. Yeah. However many however many times you want to go.

Jeff Dalton 17:09

As long as there's anything like that.

Chaplain Terry 17:12

Okay. I'm sorry about that. That's all right. I'm still trying to get it.

Jeff Dalton 17:22

Yeah.

Chaplain Terry 17:32

Excuse me. I'm an old man. When I was a kid, the Dead Sea was just getting sick. I'm an old man, and computers and buttons don't work very good with me. I have an instrument rated license for flying airplanes, but I had to give that up because of Parkinson's.

Jeff Dalton 17:49

Oh wow.

Chaplain Terry 17:50

But I had a hard time getting my instrument rating because of PCs and automation and stuff now. The GPS are great. Let's pick back up here. We're talking about giving things to the Lord. Yes. You know, uh, I'm gonna give up this for the Lord, I'm gonna give up that for the Lord. The Lord gave up his heavenly seat in heaven, his place in heaven, and came down to where he was 100% God and 100% man.

Jeff Dalton 18:16

Yes.

Chaplain Terry 18:16

Now granted, he's the son of God, absolutely. But he did it correctly, and he did it thoroughly, and so every sin, disease, everything is conquered. Well, if Brother Terry, if that's the case, how come this didn't happen? How come that didn't happen? You know, I I was I've been saved for over 2,000 years, but only found out about it about 50 years ago. As like having a cold, you know, the Lord, the Lord heals me of the flu, but my body has to catch up to it, and your body with all your habits and and quirks and stuff will keep you from catching up to where the spirit is. Uh in January you broke free. A performative Christianity. I like that. That's a good and entered into a more loving-honous conversion relationship. Was there something that happened that brought that about?

Jeff Dalton 19:15

Oh, yeah. Um, I started reading the gospels again because they're about Jesus, and it was like the blinders just came flying off. And one thing that I found was the parable of the talents and the gospel of Matthew, and it's really, and you know, I I've read this story a hundred times, but you know, Jesus finally opened up my eyes, and I guess I was maybe ready to see that's why. But it's interesting that story because you know, basically, uh uh the master hands three of his servants some money. One of them ten, one of them, I'm sorry, one of them five, one of them two, one of them one.

Chaplain Terry 20:04

Yeah.

Jeff Dalton 20:04

And then he leaves. So the one with the five goes out, and vast gains five more talents, ten. The other one goes out, invest gains two more, four. The last one decides he's gonna take that one talent and bury it in the sink, not do anything with it whatsoever. The master comes back, goes to the person with the five, so well, what'd you do? And the person was excited. You gave me five, I gained five more. Now,

Rock Bottom And Jesus’ Claims

Jeff Dalton 20:40

here's the interesting part. The master did not praise the that one with how much they produced. He didn't, didn't even mention it. All he said was, good, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few. I'm gonna give you more responsibility. Then he goes down to second person. Second person excited, said the same thing. Look at what I produced. I produced two more. The master praised him the same way. You've been faithful. Good job. The the the last one you did one, master said, What'd you do? The the one said, I was afraid, I hit it. And the master said, You lazy servant. Yep, and and took away his talent. So, to me, that shows me that Jesus is concerned with my faithfulness, not how much I produce. And there's other scripture verses as well, you know, that that really show that. Jesus does not care about the numbers, doesn't care about how many followers you have, how many views, how big of a church, how much money your business is bringing in. All he cares about is being. Faithful. So that set me free from performative Christianity, which is all about what you can produce, what you can produce, what you can do, what you can do.

Chaplain Terry 22:12

Um, as a chaplain, we go to meetings, yeah. We baptize this many people, we bap we sign this many people up. Now they have to have church record to understand that. Yeah, but yeah, no, no, he accepts me just as I am. Yes, but he makes me what he wants me to be in Christ. Amen. And you know, he who knew no sin was made to be sin for me, that I might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Yeah, say what you want, but I have a right standing before the Father in a court of law and in heaven. Now go and you go and you go in respectfully, you don't go in there commanding him to do anything. Right. You're the servant, you know.

Jeff Dalton 22:54

Right, yeah, yeah. We we we get that twisted a lot.

Chaplain Terry 22:59

Yeah, just say this or do that. And then God's gonna he has to do this, he has to do that. He doesn't have to do anything. No, he doesn't, and it's by the grace of God that he didn't he hadn't gave up on us already. Yeah, no. I was preaching a sermon one Sunday morning, and in the middle of my sermon, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, When you pray, how do I hear you? I don't know. You got some kind of phone system up there or something, you know. I don't really know. He says, Well, when I talk to you, how do you hear me? Well, that's easy. You hear me, I hear you in my heart. He said, That's the same way I hear you through the heart of Christ. Yeah. Well, you have any I sort of enjoyed this. You have any how's your book doing now? Is it doing better? Is it doing around? It's not okay.

Jeff Dalton 24:00

Well, I think one of the reasons is I thought about 10 copies, which I'm happy about that, and mainly from family and friends. Um, some strangers have bought it though, and left reviews and stuff, and I'm saying that's really changing them and changing their view of Jesus and stuff like that. So that's really encouraging. Um, but I've been mainly doing podcasts, being a guest on podcasts, and a lot of them are from African country countries in Africa. And a lot of them aren't Christian, aren't Christian podcasts. They don't um like advertised like that. But a lot of them are Chris Christian hopes. And when they see my story, they're like, hey, can you share an um special about performative Christianity versus relational Christianity and stuff like that? Now I'm getting on more American podcasts who who are Christian. You know, they have a Christian audience and stuff. So hopefully my book will start selling.

Speaker 2 25:07

Does your book have a link that you want to give out?

Jeff Dalton 25:10

Yes, and it's on Amazon.

Chaplain Terry 25:13

Uh-huh.

Jeff Dalton 25:13

Great. It's it's on Amazon. You can click that. You can get a digital copy as soon as you buy it. You can download it on your phone, tablet, or computer. And what my book really does is helps people be honest with Jesus. Because my poetry is very honest, very raw and stuff. And then it has devotionals like Bible verses and stuff, which really shows the heart of God, God's perspective, what God really thinks and feels about us and stuff like that. I think too my book on my website, expressionofheart.com.

Chaplain Terry 25:56

That's neat. That's neat. All right. I didn't mean to interrupt you. Go ahead.

Jeff Dalton 26:00

That's okay.

Chaplain Terry 26:01

Okay.

Jeff Dalton 26:01

And the third thing is my book will show people that it's actually okay. And that well, that God wants us to be honest

The Cross As A Value Statement

Jeff Dalton 26:10

and real with them as well.

Chaplain Terry 26:12

Yeah. Oh yeah. One time I was complaining to the Lord about my wife. She done something I didn't want her to do, or it made me mad. I was complaining, and he interrupted me and he said, You know, I didn't give her to you so that you could riddle beriddle her and and talk down to her. I gave her to you because she'll make you the best man you can be. I like that. Yeah. And I happen to be your father-in-law. Yeah.

Jeff Dalton 26:42

Amen. Yeah. That's a good idea.

Chaplain Terry 26:46

So my book, my book is uh is coming out tomorrow. Uh it'll be it's called Something to Think About. But I I deal a lot of Africa, Indonesia, uh, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Yeah, I get a lot I get a lot of hits and stuff off from over there, which I'm glad to do. Was there anything else you'd like to leave us before we wind this up?

Jeff Dalton 27:14

Um, I I mean I just wanna well I want to let your viewers know, let you guys know that the cross is a sign of value. It's a value statement.

Chaplain Terry 27:31

It's a big buck sign.

Jeff Dalton 27:33

It is, and here's what I mean by that. Let's say you're at home and you're holding a penny and you lose the penny, you're not gonna think much about it, right? Or at all. But then you're at home and you're holding on to a 24 karat diamond ring, and you lose it. What are you gonna do? You're gonna tear your house up looking for it. You're gonna spend all your time, all your energy, you're gonna be flipping cushions to look for that diamond ring. Well, think about this: Jesus, who was in heaven, enjoying the comforts, the riches, the perfection of heaven, came down to earth 2,000 years ago to a broken down, cold, sinful world, took on human flesh that was frail, could get sick, could get tired. Taught for about three and a half years, got rejected constantly, then willingly let himself be nailed to a cross. And while on the cross dying, he was paying the penalty for your sin and my sin, right, that we could not pay, because good works can't get us into heaven, because we were we're guilty, and Jesus took our guilt, and then Jesus died on the cross because the ultimate penalty for sin is death, or Romans says the wages of sin or the paycheck for sin is death, that's what we earn for sin, death, but Jesus earned it for us. Then three days later, Jesus rose from the dead.

Chaplain Terry 29:30

Left the sin in hell.

Jeff Dalton 29:31

Yes, he did. Yes, he did. That is so neat, and now Jesus, and the reason why Jesus did this, so he could be with you and I forever in heaven, so we can have a personal, personal, one-on-one. You don't need a mediator, honest, you can be real with him, he's gonna be real with you, loving relationship with him, with your creator. That is value. So if anyone feels like they're worthless, like they're no good, like they're a reject, look at the cross, look at the cross. Jesus did this for you because he values you just the way you are, because he made you.

Chaplain Terry 30:17

Yeah, when I look at that cross, God's arithmetic is add and multiply. The devil's is subtract and divide. Yes. Well, Jeff, I've enjoyed this. Me too, folks. This has been Jeff Dalton, Terry Warner, the the chaplain's corner.net's my

Closing Blessing And Farewell

Chaplain Terry 30:40

podcast. And Jeff's uh tell me again, expressions.

Speaker 30:45

"Expressions of the Heart", Go to Amazon to find.

Chaplain Terry 30:49

Yes. And you're not gonna go wrong by getting the word in all kinds of forms. You're you know, by the word. Quit reading the junk, quit reading the news, quit listening to it. For with the measure you listen to it, it it'll be dealt to you again. You don't, you know, t today's news will be tomorrow's bird cage cover. Well, thank you, Jeff. I enjoyed it. Friend, you have a blessed day in Jesus' name. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and give you peace. The Lord look down upon you and give you riches and glory and honor in Christ Jesus. In Jesus' name. Amen.