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At first glance, it’s an easy blank to fill in. Jesus told the fishermen sons of Jonah, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”

But let’s put out a little bit further with Him into some different waters and we find that He’s issuing another invitation to go fishing with Him.

After Jesus’ departure from planet Earth, the apostles took up the call to spread Jesus’ good news to the ends of the earth, Paul wrote to the believers living in Corinth an invitation to fish for promises. Better yet, to catch the fulfillment of promises, all the promises God has ever made. 

Promise-fishing with God is very different from any other fishing we’ve ever done. Normally, we cast a rigged line in the water; fish swim up to the baited hook; some consider it while some don’t. Some nibble at the bait and swim away free. Occasionally – very rarely in my experience – a fish takes the bait and gets caught; we’ve caught a fish.

That’s how many of us view the promises God has made. A few may be for me, and a few more could possibly be but it’s unlikely. Some are for someone else in some other time at some other place, but not for me here and now. So schools and schools keep swimming in the ocean of unfulfilled promises; I never catch them. 

Then along comes a nice, big boy and I hook him. What a pleasant surprise (and it’s always a surprise) when I actually catch a fish.

Through Paul, God promises that for those who are in Christ Jesus, every fish in the proverbial promise-ocean we shall catch – every fish in the ocean – every promise made by God. It isn’t a case of possibly catching some, definitely not catching some, and maybe catching a few. We catch every single fish in the entire ocean.

For all the promises of God are Yes, and in [Christ] Amen to the glory of God through us. 2 Cor 1:20

The only equipment needed to catch all these promises of God is faith. Jesus illustrated this principle when speaking to two blind men seeking to have their sight restored.

According to your faith let it be to you. Matt 9:29

But I don’t have that kind of equipment, you say. Not to worry. God even supplies the equipment. 

God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Rom 12:3

There will doubtless be those who’ll try to discourage you from believing such a bold truth. For example, there’s a contemporary assertion that we cannot apply Philippians 4:13 to anything other than Paul’s application of it in his personal situation which we see in the context of that fourth chapter of the letter to the Philippian church. 

I take issue with that argument. I saw a mug someone made that sarcastically read “I can do all things through a verse taken out of context.” My view is that God’s principles can stand in diverse contexts. They are intended to be taken out of one context and applied within another. What we must guard against is distorting the meaning of the Scriptural principle when we apply it to a different set of circumstances. And that’s probably what the creator of the aforementioned mug meant. My point, though, is that my faith allows me to apply God’s promises made to various people throughout the ages to my own life, yet another benefit that being in Christ affords for us. 

So let’s go fishing. God supplies the equipment and guarantees all the fish in the ocean are ours to catch. 

And perhaps the biggest one in the entire ocean is the promise Jesus made to Simon Peter and his brother Andrew. We can catch it for ourselves if we’ll just use the equipment God gave us.

Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men Matthew 4:19

We’re approaching a very significant date in history. October 31^st we wear costumes and enjoy candy, but there’s a lot more to the day’s history than make believe ghosts, goblins, witches and monsters. Halloween, evolved from All Hallows Eve, established in the 700s, began as the eve of the first of three religious holidays: All Hallows Day (hallow meaning holy), All Saints Day and All Souls Day. These were days to commemorate the dead. I, for one, am glad I missed that triduum by a millennium and a couple centuries. 

The representation of the day, though, gets better as history marches along. On that day in 1517, Martin Luther, a monk fed up with superstition and the manipulation of the then church’s clergy of ordinary church people, launched a movement that turned the church upside down – in a good way. 

Luther clarified in courageous confrontational fashion that we are saved by Jesus alone (not by Mary or any other saints) through faith alone (not by works or giving money to the church) as is established in Scripture alone (not by the Pope or the church). Luther’s movement is called The Reformation, a gross misnomer, since the church didn’t reform, but rejected Luther, resulting in history’s biggest church split. But Luther, under great persecution, even risking his life, held to his claims and became the father of the more aptly named Protestant movement. 

More than four hundred years after Luther’s birthing of the new paradigm, a pastor from the U.S. travelled to Germany where he was so impacted by the story of Martin Luther that he changed his name from Michael to Martin Luther. His last name was King and his son, Michael King, Jr. would have his name changed as well. 

Billy Graham called MLK Jr. Michael when the two men of God spoke privately. 

For the entire decade of the 1990s, my wife and I were part of a church in Dunn, NC, called Gospel Tabernacle. Rose Boyd, the church’s discipleship pastor, wearied of seeing symbols of evil exalted every Halloween, established an event she named Lift Jesus Higher. LJH supplied the city’s children with candy, games, prizes and all kinds of fun. Rose transformed the holiday for that city into a festive evening where Jesus was lifted higher than any other name. I guess Rose could be called the Martin Luther of Dunn. Maybe she could change her name to Martina? Actually, Rose fits her better.

This year I intentionally celebrate the Martin Luthers, MLKs and Rose Boyds of history, those God has used to tweak history’s course.
May you have a wonderfully celebratory October 31^st this year, and may you know God’s favor in the sweetest of ways!

Many people are reluctant to believe in Jesus because they don’t understand what it’ll really be like for them as a Christian. First, notice I said reluctant to believe. I say it that way because at some point faith is a choice. So, many don’t believe because they don’t want to. And all who believe have chosen to believe. But that isn’t exactly what this particular blog is about.

I want to address seven Christian-life surprises that, if non-believers knew about, they would decide to believe. These are surprising occurrences for Christians, usually early in their faith walk:

1. Your guilt immediately morphs into peace and freedom. This was the first surprise for me, and a very pleasant one (the only kind God has for His believing children). I believe of all the cancers to the human heart – and there are many – guilt is the most damaging. God knows its power against us and designated His Son as its remedy. As I sat sobbing from the pain of the realization of having sinned lifelong against God and people, He poured into my mind a flood of forgiveness that soothed my pain like oil that healed the guilt-wounds of my heart and left me with the elation of peace, knowing I was free from the consequences I deserved. 

2. What God asks of you He empowers you to perform. People often reject Christ because they think the only earthly things He’ll give them are lifestyle requirements. What He actually gives us is His own Spirit. Hard as it may be to believe, He really does give us the Holy Spirit who remains in us (right in the space of our most inner thinking, feeling and deciding – for life!). The remarkable thing is the way the Spirit offers His power to us from within. He neither takes control nor remains uninvolved. The power of His whispers to our heart are sufficient to persuade us to take right steps and walk in success. There are days of wrestling within ourselves, but His power, although He ever bestows to us the freedom of choice, takes us to victory by battle’s end. The point is that, once believers, we are not the same as before; we have far more working for us than our own efforts. 

3. God’s forgiveness is for all sins – past, present and future. If I thought God would forgive me of past sins, but condemn me for any future ones, I’d be reluctant, too. If anyone challenges you on this point, ask them if God, who calls us to forgive others in open ended, blank check fashion, would not, Himself do what He’s called us to do. Some think we must ask forgiveness for every sin, but I don’t believe our salvation depends upon our catching and confessing every sin we commit. My faith assures me that God forgives me for all my sin, whether known or unknown by me; that the faith to which I invite others. 

4. You are, literally, being made new. I had trouble accepting that for years. Then I realized that it isn’t based on feeling (I often continued to feel terribly tarnished and non-new), nor is the promise based on our performance. The premise for this truth is Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to Heaven where His body is glorified (new). Faith in Him who is new has made us new. Admittedly, this still takes faith to understand, but that doesn’t make it any less real.

5. The same power that loved and forgave you operates naturally in and through you towards others. It’s amazing when you’re wronged as a Christian to find the power to love and forgive. It looks undeniably like the stuff God used for us, and the sense of satisfaction that comes from wielding such power is like nothing we knew before. 

6. The Holy Spirit doesn’t force you to do anything. Understanding this may put you among a minority of Christians because, clearly, not all Christians get it. But to not get this requires a discounting of Paul’s All things are permissible but not all things are beneficial (1 Corinthians 10:23). An understanding of grace (which may be, itself, the greatest of all Christian surprises) frees us from the idea that we now must or we won’t be saved, and clothes us instead with Jesus did and we believe it, so we are surely saved. To this day, after forty years as a Christian, it still surprises me that He is such a gentleman, always whispering rather than yelling, suggesting instead of ordering, yielding control when He could wrest it. What a surprise that the immortal God would conduct Himself in this way as He takes residence in our mortal hearts.

7. You’ll be in a new family that identifies with you like no other can. Now, I’m not saying the church is perfect in its behavior. It’s been commonly experienced and pretty well documented that it’s far from perfect in its treatment of people both inside and outside itself. But that doesn’t invalidate the church’s possession of the most powerful fellowship on earth. The earthly body of believers in Jesus Christ enjoys the deepest sense of kinship on this planet. Countless times I’ve met for the first time a person who is a believer, looked into their eyes, and sensed right down to my heart a lovely, piercing kinship connection that cannot be duplicated by any other commonality than that of faith in the one who saves, fills and defends us. Fellowship can be defined as fellows in a ship. They have a common mission, common challenges and a common destiny. Profound fellowship is what Christians have in the deepest sense. And you can’t understand it until you experience it. It’s yet another surprise in a life of pleasant surprises for believers in Jesus. 

I’m not always sure who my readers are. Do I even have any readers who aren’t yet Christians? I’m not sure. If you don’t yet believe, I hope this will help you cross the threshold of faith in Christ.

If you are a believer, perhaps this can help you as you invite others to believe in Jesus.

This week I celebrate my fortieth birthday. If you know me, you’re shaking your head right now; you know I’m in my sixties.

What I’m celebrating is my spiritual birthday. It was forty years ago that I was born again, when I began new life through faith in Jesus Christ. 

I’ve been reflecting on that week, forty years ago, and I want to share six blessings that have come along with my life of salvation and will come with anyone’s salvation.

1. God appoints the time, place and circumstances to bring us to His salvation. God allowed me to be so rebellious that my life would deteriorate to the point of desperation. My use of drugs and alcohol and life of sexual immorality and lack of integrity led me to a bed in my college dorm room where a demon would attack me in the wee hours of the night. As this evil spirit tried to paralyze and suffocate me, God told me to speak the name Jesus. I did and I saw this enemy imp lose power and flee from me. Little did I know at the time, God knew and planned millennia before that this would be the hour that I would bad-decision myself to a place of spiritual poverty and defeat, so He could come to my rescue and show me His love and power.

2. God reveals Himself by demonstrating His love and power. He revealed His love for me,  not only by rescuing me from an attack, but also by assuring me of His forgiveness and acceptance. The night after the night of the attack I asked God to give me His salvation. I felt nothing at first, so I assumed God was rejecting me, as I had rejected Him so many times before. That caused great anxiety for me. But then, He brought to my mind a horrible picture of the sinful life I’d lived up until then, showing me how unworthy I was to receive His blessings. I can’t explain how He did it, but as He was showing me my sin, He was at the same time letting me know that He was forgiving me for it. 

3. God gives us His own Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who was leading me through the process of conviction and repentance. God, in the ultimate package deal, was giving me His Spirit along with eternal life. Yet, the following night, seven of my dormitory-mates, Christian guys who’d heard of my coming to Christ, visited to tell me about the Holy Spirit. “Now that you’re saved,” they said, “you can ask God to give you the Holy Spirit.” Little did they know, He already had given His Spirit to me. But these guys wanted me to receive the gift of speaking in tongues. I told them I’d love to receive that gift. They prayed for me to receive it and hoped to witness its manifestation, but that evening wasn’t God’s time for that. Two nights later, however, I was home for fall break. When I told my dad I had become a Christian, he had a very positive reaction. For some reason, that surprised me, and I was elated that my father was so proud of me. I went to bed that night so full of joy that, as soon as I lay my head on my pillow, I began to praise God in tongues. But that wasn’t even the most powerful manifestation of the Spirit’s power in me. That Sunday afternoon, I stopped at the home of a girl who attended Wingate University with me to give her a ride back to school. She and I had gone on a date eight days before (this was the night before the night of my struggle with the demon) and on our date we had had sex. When I arrived on that Sunday to pick her up, her family were all gone; she and I were the only ones in her house. I asked if I could help with her luggage and she directed me to her bedroom. Here I was in the bedroom of an attractive girl with whom I’d already had a sexual relationship, and nobody else was home. A still, small voice in my head said put the luggage in the car. There was no inner struggle, just a desire to obey the voice. I grabbed her bags and took them to the trunk of my car. I’m sure the girl was surprised, and as I thought about it more, so was I. That was the power of the Holy Spirit in me. What a difference He was making in my life.

4. God develops a family for us as He develops each individual in His family. The weeks after fall break were filled with new friends, brothers and sisters in Christ with whom I grew in my knowledge of and experience with God. God was bringing revival to that campus, so there were many new believers, like myself, joining the seasoned Christian students to form a strong community of believers there. Our hangout time was usually casual study and discussion of the Bible and praying together. My roommate, Ted, and two friends, Cliff and Beth, made up the nucleus of my life of fellowship. The four of us grew like crazy in our understanding of God and His Word, and the whole community was buzzing with excitement.

5. God prepares us for the way and prepares the way for us. Not aware of it at the time, I know now that God was building a foundation in me to live the life I’ve lived since. Over the years, God has given me a Godly wife with whom I’ve raised our six kids and now enjoy our six grandkids (number seven due any day now). He’s given us many, many ministry opportunities over our thirty-seven years of marriage and He’s provided richly for all our needs and has trusted us with many responsibilities. I often think back on my early spiritual development and can see the wisdom of God at work as He prepped me for my then future, now my past, present and still future. 

6. God reveals His plan in His own good time. One thing I’ve learned is that God controls the timing of things. It isn’t a blessing for Him to reveal His plans to us too far in advance, but that He makes them known to us at exactly the right time, which is usually as they’re being carried out, although sometimes beforehand. But always by His divine wisdom. He’s given us the ability to understand the past better than the future, so we must find contentment in trusting Him with the knowledge and control of our future.

Well happy birthday to me. And my brother Ted! Forty years! And eternity will be our real celebration.

Jerod was miserable. The confinement was bad enough, not being free to go beyond the length of the chain he dragged around the yard. But even worse were the constant entanglements with Mark who was chained to the same stake. If it hadn’t been for Mark, he wouldn’t be there in the first place. Sharing a stake of bondage with the one who’d hurt him made his life a living hell. 

Everyday Mark begged Jerod to set him free. “You hold the key to my freedom. How many times must I say I’m sorry?”

“You don’t deserve freedom, Mark! Why should I free you? I’m the one who deserves to be free.”

Yes, I agree. But please, have mercy on me! I’ll find a way to make it up to you, I promise.”

“So, I free you, remain in the bondage you caused for me, and wait for you to come back for my freedom? I don’t think so.” While Jerod hated that he was tied to Mark this way, the power he held over Mark was a small consolation, at least. 

“You were given the key to my freedom, but I wasn’t given the key to yours,” Mark pleaded, “Rest assured, though, that, once I’m free, I won’t sleep until I convince the judge to set you free.”

Jerod still didn’t trust him. His smooth talking led them to where they were. He wasn’t about to be fooled again.

Mark was relentless in his quest for freedom, so day after day he begged Jerod, sometimes nearly with tears. “I’m truly sorry, my friend. If I could go back and undo it, I would. Won’t you please free me from this bondage? I promise I’ll do everything possible to get you freed.

Jerod had to admit, Mark was wearing him down. He found himself actually considering letting him off the hook. Or, literally, the chain. After all, they’d been friends forever. And isn’t that what friends do, forgive one another?

So, Jerod woke up one morning determined to forgive his friend; he would let Mark go free.

Jerod rose and walked over to the stake to which both men were chained, He took the key out of his pocket, put it into the lock and turned it.

When Jerod turned the key, something amazing happened. Mark’s chain came loose, of course; no surprise there. But so did Jerod’s! 

Aghast with the surprise of his own freedom, Jerod ran and skipped and jumped and danced to the extents of the yard, far beyond where the chain had stopped him before. He looked around and saw Mark doing the same dance and realized he was so caught up in the joy of his own freedom, he hadn’t even thought about Mark. The two men, overjoyed, looked at each other and ran together for a hug that morphed into an arms-interlocking, knees-lifting duet jig, as the friends hop-danced in circles and laughed themselves silly. 

Out of breath, Jerod hugged his old friend Mark and sat down to catch his breath over on the ground next to the stake. All this time, I had no idea that the same turn of the key to unlock Mark’s chain also unlocked mine. How much sooner I would have freed us both had I known this secret.

If you forgive those who sin against you, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. 

(Matthew 6:14)

In the fall of 1974, my parents became homeowners. They, my four siblings and I were ecstatic to be moving into our new house and out of the one we had rented for seven years from my paternal grandparents that was situated behind their house and was accessed by a quarter-mile-long car path. Our new house included five acres of land on Hobbs Road. Five acres isn’t enough land to sustain a family-of-seven farm operation, which was the means of our livelihood. So, my dad began leasing farms on Hobbs Road.

I remember riding in the pickup up and down Hobbs Road for the first several weeks of living in our new house. We were becoming more and more familiar with our new road. We saw our neighbors, the other Hobbs Road residents, the patches of woods, the open fields – some large, some small – and the turns, rises and falls of the country road. With each passing back and forth from the end of the road to our house, we became a little bit more familiar with Hobbs Road.

Soon my dad had leased three different farms on Hobbs Road, all totaling about two-hundred acres. Up until 1980, when my dad bought a three-hundred-acre farm of his own, we tended those three farms and added a few more, making our total operation about five-hundred acres.

These farms were owned by widows of farmers who had passed away after a life of farming their land, except for a couple of them who had retired. 

Over the years, as we tended these farms, going several times each week to the farms and working long days in the various fields up and down our road, we all gained greater detail in our perspective on Hobbs Road. Whereas we had initially driven the road at fifty miles per hour, we were now spending full days and weeks in one plot along the road. Our perspective of Hobbs Road included multiple vantage points as well as an overview of the span of the road since we still drove the speed limit to and from its end once or twice a day.

Because of these experiences, I got to know Hobbs Road in almost every way imaginable. I knew every ditch, field and building; and because I used to jog to the end of the road and back several times weekly (a total of 3.5 miles), I learned every part of the road’s surface as well as every portion of the shoulder of the entire road and every dog at every house. (All dogs in that culture were outside and not confined, since they played the primary role in each home’s security system.)

There weren’t very many things, big or small, about Hobbs Road that I didn’t know.

Learning the Bible can be an intimidating prospect. It’s such a big book and can be difficult to understand, especially when we first start reading it. For that very reason, it was fourteen years after I became a Christian when I finally decided to read through the whole Bible.

Reading through the Bible gave me an overall understanding, but it was a seminar I attended called Walk thru the Old Testament that really helped me build the framework for understanding the Bible. You can see – and participate in – a sample of WTOT with this link.

Around that framework I’ve been able, over the years, to fill in the detailed perspective that I gained in my time of studying short passages of Scripture. In seminary and other programs of study I’ve been able to organize Biblical information and doctrine around various topics. But my most helpful study has been seeking out answers to my points of curiosity, just in my personal devotional study time. Of course, listening to and reading great teachers have also helped me immensely.

All these approaches to studying the Bible (overview, organization, topical study, specific passage study) remind me of getting to know Hobbs Rd. (driving fast, driving slow, running, walking, working, exploring). I can’t say I know the Bible as well as I once knew Hobbs Road, but I’m working on it. 

And I have 3 suggestions for those hungry for Biblical knowledge:

1. Get started. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The Bible is every bit the humongous beast the elephant is. Start eating today.
2. Delve into every part of the Bible and try to organize it in your head as you go. Three blind men each encountered an elephant. One felt the trunk and thought an elephant must be like a snake; another felt the leg and assumed an elephant to be as a tree; the third man felt his belly and thought an elephant must be like a wall. Once they all compared their experiences, they understood the elephant better.
3. Mix up your study. On an African safari, a man found himself amid a herd of elephants; demanding his driver take him out from the herd and to the top of a nearby hill, he stopped, turned, studied the elephants a few moments and said, “Ok, drive me back into the herd.” After repeating the routine of in-the-midst and on-the-hill several times, the man went home having thoroughly experienced the herd of elephants.

Elephants are magnificent creatures. And Hobbs Road has a special place in my heart. But studying and knowing God’s Word is one of the most important endeavors in all of life. May God bless you to grow in your understanding of His powerful Word!

I was part of a team on mission in Ecuador during the first half of September with a Raise and Release Ministries team. It was such an inspiring experience that I want to report on it and recognize those people and situations God used so inspirationally.

Jorge. Jorge lives in Mindo where our team spent a total of ten days. Jorge and his wife, Genesis, have four children and they both serve as leaders in Mindo’s New Jerusalem Baptist Church. A 2021 Raise and Release team baptized Jorge; a 2022 team saw Jorge baptizing other new believers; in 2023, Jorge served on the church’s missions planning team, hosted our team on several days’ events as well as serving as a translator for the team. Jorge makes his living as a tour guide for birding; his vast knowledge of the region’s bird species is very impressive.

Jon. We met seventeen-year-old Jon while he worked as a local farm hand. As we spoke with him, he was at first very shy and would hardly make eye contact with us. Once we got him to open up a bit, he told us that the mafia had coerced him to perform illegal acts for them, held him against his will and, now that he had escaped and reported them to the police and fled from them, was now actively searching for him. He was in grave danger and was understandably terrified. Day one of our knowing Jon we prayed with him and encouraged him to trust God for his safety; that evening, he surrendered his life to Christ in a worship service; on day two, Jon began to display an obvious joy as he participated in fellowship and outreach ministry with our team; on day three, he eloquently and sincerely led the prayer over the team’s evening meal, after which the team noisily cheered him on in his newfound faith and joy. Who knows what we’ll see from Jon on our future visits!

Impact Northwestern Ecuador. The pastors of three local churches in the Northwest region of Ecuador met to establish an organization to help churches in the Northwest region work together in carrying out the Great Commission. Pastors Jonathan Patino, Alirio Chaves and Freddy Arias serve as the founding pastors of this organization and they hope to receive more pastors into the group in the future; Five of our team members had the privilege of joining that initial meeting to offer our support and any insight the Lord might have given through us. The effort was a very impressive gesture that church leaders in our culture could use as a model for inter-church unity and we were very impressed with the passionate hearts and unified vision of those three pastors.

Our missionary team members. Tony Festa is the Raise and Release founder and president. He coordinated our trip and led the boots on the ground. Looking for opportunities to raise up leaders in the ministry, Tony returned to the States with five days remaining for the team to do ministry. He left the controls in the hands of Ben Bahr, a MARSOC Marine Corps trainer and young man of God. Ben led us very well during our last five days of the mission while continuing, himself, to preach to crowds and minister to individuals in Northwest Ecuador.

Marlon & Yolanda Diaz lead a church in Quito where they also have a ministry to clean and clothe the feet of children. On our mission, the Diazes filled the roles of teaching on marriage and ministering to many individuals to trust Jesus for salvation (including the aforementioned Jon) and to meet the other needs of their lives. They also served as spiritual leaders for our team. (Tony called them “wisdom carriers.”) Marlon and Yolanda are one of four ministry partners of Raise and Release.

Justin Huber is a retired lieutenant colonel in the US Marine Corps who now works as an EMT in Louisville, KY, the skills of which served him well in medical clinics we set up, the clinics treating more than one hundred patients over the course of our two-week mission. Justin served as an exemplary, caring, soft-spoken man of God who will doubtless, God be willing, lead teams on mission in the future. His preaching to crowds and ministry to individuals yielded much fruit as some people began a faith walk with Jesus and others grew in the faith they already had. Justin’s proficiency in speaking Spanish also served him and our team very well.

Cyndi Buck is an RN and new author who has an anointing to minister prophetically. We usually found Cyndi talking and praying with people as God showed her specific needs of the people and God led her in how to pray for them. She also played a key role in the medical arm of our mission.

Lindsay Freidhoff is an expert in exercise science and nutrition with a pure heart for God. A mother of five boys and author of the soon-to-be-published Not Perfect. Beautiful., a book on parenting, Lindsay brought a seasoned motherly perspective to our team as she ministered to dozens individually and was part of the medical team.

Yonni Lam is originally from Hong Kong and now resides in Quito. Yonni’s faith, compassion, personal tesimony and language skills position her perfectly to impact Ecuadorians for Jesus, which is exactly what she did as our team member.

Malcolm Jones is a project manager for a large construction company. As a 6 ft. 6in. former college football player, Malcolm’s physical presence may be imposing, but his heart is like that of a child. An effective speaker and minister to small groups and individuals, Malcolm’s spiritual insight and ability to sense specific needs as he prays for people are gifts he brought onto our team.

The husband-wife team of Dr. Javier Acosta and Dr. Grace Fernanda Loayza Ochoa led our medical mission. Their two teenaged kids, Mikki and Andres also served as muti-gifted team members.

It was a pleasure to have my wife, Sharlene Tew, on our team. She’s another of Tony’s “wisdom carriers” and offered leadership skills to assist Ben after Tony’s departure. There’s really nothing she can’t do, so she taught wives on marriage, led people to Christ and offered her business and administrative abilities in helping to meet some of the needs of the people (especially Sonia, whose situation I describe below). 

Our team of interpreters included five Ecuadorians who were more than language translators. All of them are strong, mature believers in Jesus who were contributors to our mission in a spiritual, medical and physical sense. Angie Espinoza is a seasoned ministry leader whose day job is to coordinate interpreters for missionary teams coming into Ecuador. Not limited to merely translating what our team members said, Angie prayed the prayer of salvation with several people, herself. JD Cortez is a young Christian man who has a knack for translating whatever is said in one language into the vernacular of the other language. JD’s sense of humor kept our team in stitches much of the time. Melissa Hellbach is a first-year medical school student with wisdom beyond her years. She is adamant about interpreting the ideas for the listeners, as opposed to merely translating the words. Melissa brought much to the table: language skills, medical training, strong work ethic (pushed herself to serve as normal even when she’d sprained her ankle badly), spiritual insight and leadership acumen. Eduardo is a twenty-three-year-old professional videographer who produced a video for our ministry and then decided he wanted to join our mission team. So he served as an interpreter who also contributed to spiritual and physical ministry to the people in Northwestern Ecuador. 

That rounded out our team of missionaries and interpreters. Let me share about two other Ecuadorians, Sonya and Carlita, to whom we were privileged to minister.

Sonia is a lady whose American husband took their toddler daughter ten years ago, deserting Sonia and fleeing to the U.S. Sharlene has a relationship with an immigration attorney office in North Carolina and with Melissa’s assistance pored over the documents that Sonia had and has now submitted them to the attorney to hopefully help Sonia reunite with her daughter. It was impressive to sit with Sharlene and Melissa and witness the counsel they offered to Soni a. It felt wonderful to offer someone something useful in addition to prayer and spiritual ministry.  Please pray that Sonia will be reunited with her daughter whom she has not seen in person since she was two years old, and is now twelve.

Carlita is a young mother who has suffered rejection and abandonment most of her life. Our team was able to build the frame of a new home for her. Finally able, now, to have her own household, Carlita tearfully told our team, “This is wonderful; nobody has ever helped me this much before.” Please pray that she will receive the funds to complete this home.

The motto of Raise and Release Ministries is to raise up leaders to release the gospel. We believe in releasing people to carry out the life and calling God has given them. This is a refreshing contrast to the missions ministries that want to arrogantly dictate to national Christian leaders that they should do things the way we do in the U.S. It’s also satisfying for missionaries on our teams who are trained and released to minister freely with the gifts and callings that have been given them by God. 

Please join us at from 2:30 to 4:30 on Sunday, October 1^st at Nineteen Restaurant near Hampstead, NC for lunch and an update on the September, 2023 Ecuador trip. Here’s the link:

POST MISSION TRIP LUNCHEON 10/1/2023 @2:30 PM at The Nineteen Restaurant. – ​Raise & Release Ministries (raiseandreleaseministries.org)

The Parable of the Leaven is so short that you hardly notice it’s even a parable. Yet, it’s packed with meaning. 

I’ve heard and read several definitions of parable, but my favorite one is what I consider the Sunday school definition. It’s simply an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

Without Jesus’ announcement that a parable was coming, the first clue that it’s a parable is found in its first six words, The kingdom of Heaven is like…

From there we see the first major word, leaven, which is what we would call yeast. Leaven in this parable is a good thing, not always the case in Scripture; in fact, it at times represents sinfulness. But in this case, it couldn’t symbolize a better reality: the kingdom of God, itself. 

A woman who’s making bread hides the leaven, which is always in small amounts and always effects a relatively large amount of flour or meal, as a key part of the bread-making process.

I think it’s remarkable that she hides it, wording we wouldn’t typically use about baking ingredients. Consider some other Scriptural examples of things hidden: 

• David writes that he has hidden God’s word in his heart so that he might not sin against Him.
• We Christians, ourselves, are hidden with Christ in God.
• All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ.

All these things are valuables hidden by God from some and for others (from and for being important distinctions).

The kingdom of God, represented by the leaven, is the most valuable of all things, and He has hidden it in us for us (again, important words, in and for). 

Sometimes, believers exhaust themselves searching in all the wrong places for God and His answers when all we need to do is look within our own hearts where He has hidden His Spirit for us. 

Our efforts to find God and His kingdom also often prove futile in another way. We didn’t expect Him to choose the people in whom He’s chosen to dwell. It’s surprising to us that He would hide Himself in the poor in spirit, the grieving, the humble. Yet, in the hearts of those kinds of people are the very places we can find Him.

Getting back to the parable, this woman hid the leaven in three measures of meal. This reference to three measures is not about three different places or groups of people; rather, it points to what the number three means: completeness (Father, Son & Spirit; beginning, middle & end; past present & future; solid, liquid & gas; etc.). Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God to the entire world. God so loved the world…it is not His will that any should perish, but that all might be saved…not to condemn the world, but that through Him they might be saved.

There isn’t anyone in the entire world, in its history of generations, in whom God isn’t willing to hide His kingdom. So, let’s be careful whom we’re tempted to overlook as recipients of God’s grace. Surely, we could, ourselves, easily be overlooked.

Please don’t look for God only in the external, but be ready with your best response when He reveals Himself to you right in your most inner self.

The final point Jesus drives home for us in His briefest parable is that what
he launched (and still launches) in the hearts of individuals will eventually manifest on the most massive of scales. His kingdom permeates the entire world. With this parable, Jesus prophesied the global promulgation of the gospel. 

He foretold the ultimate reach of His kingdom. 

And He revealed the process by which He builds His kingdom, not from the outside in – with human armies and earthly palaces through which He would amass subjects – but in the hearts of people who would influence others and, thereby, form the ultimate grassroots movement. 

Just as a transformed life happens through the renewal of the mind, the transformation of the world will result from the kingdom of Heaven being birthed in the individual hearts of millions of people. 

God, please give us eyes to see Your kingdom manifesting in our midst.

Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened. – Matthew 13:33

If you want to be the perfect daddy’s girl, follow these six pieces of advice:

1. Have a special song with your dad. “Hey Baby, Will You Be My Girl” is the best one, but I’m sure others can work. But sing it back and forth with your daddy (and change “girl” to “daddy” when your verse rolls around). Every time you think of it, sing it, and if you’re ever at an event and the song comes on, sing it to each other while dancing and acting crazy (try to embarrass your dad, but don’t feel defeated if he embarrasses you more).

2. If you have a little sister, five years younger than you, be a second mother to her. It’s okay to be a bit on the bossy side, but don’t get too upset if she becomes even bossier than you and demands that you do every little thing for her. Oh, and live near her when you grow up, just in case she still needs you, although, you shouldn’t be hurt if she somehow becomes super independent and doesn’t seem to need much help from anyone. But I know you’ll be there for her anyway, just because you love her and that’s who you are.

3. When you grow up and move out on your own, text your dad one random morning at 6:00 because you two were always the first ones up and you shared a 6 a.m. cup of coffee together every morning. Just text: “I miss you, Daddy.” I promise you he’ll cry that morning and thank God that you’re his daughter. But do this only once. He’s just a man and his soft heart can’t take but just so much of that kind of thing from his daddy’s girl.

4. When you and your dad are planning your mom’s 50^thbirthday party and you’re making a decision about whether to take a slight shortcut or to go over the top, insist on going over the top. Just look at your dad and say, “because that’s what she would do.” It’ll show your dad that you’ve gleaned lessons from your mother, who happens to be the person most committed to excellence that you’ve ever known. And he’ll be even prouder of you, if that’s possible.

5. When you get out in the world and start making your way, become very well known as a hard-working, super organized, creative professional with very high standards. Your daddy will beam every time he tells a friend about how awesome you’re doing.

6. When you turn 30, come home to your daddy because all your siblings will be there to celebrate you because your whole family loves you so very much.

Happy birthday to my daughter, Kristin! I love you, Kwi!

We’re in the season of first days. School is starting for students, faculty, staff and parents.

It got me thinking about the first days I’ve had in my life.

I remember the first day of first grade; it was 1968. I came home and told my parents who my teacher was; it was Mrs. Blevins. My dad was so surprised, “Mrs. Blevins was my first grade teacher, too!” I remember thinking, “She must be really old.” She was younger then than I am now.

I remember my first day of college. I didn’t know what to expect; I was the first in my family to go to college. I was relieved to find that it wasn’t going to overwhelm me; “I’m gonna be able to handle this,” I thought. 

When our oldest child, Tres, began first grade in 1995, I remember driving him to school, walking him in and meeting his teacher, Mrs. Johnson; she turned out to be an amazing first grade teacher.

Our second child, Nate,  began kindergarten with some apprehension. But the man-kiss set him at ease. The man-kiss is the handshake I had with my sons. You just clap your hands, kiss your palm and do a high five. The look that our man-kiss brought to his face set me at ease that morning, too, allowing me to leave him there with peace in my heart. 

Kristin, our next child and first girl, went full speed, fully excited into her first school day. That’s her way; still today Kwi embraces new things easily.

When Jacob, our fourth child, went off to college, my wife, Sharlene, also drove up to help get him settled in; she has this thing about not using shower curtains for bedspreads. And everything having a right place, or something like that.

Well, Sharlene took our two youngest with her, so I found myself for three days in a situation I hadn’t been in for nearly twenty years: alone. Tears came to my face much of the weekend.

Luke and Janna, our two youngest went to big city colleges – one in NY and the other in Boston – making sure they flew far from the nest. I’m not sure how their first days went, but they were surprisingly tough for me, considering I’d had four and five practices to supposedly become better at it.  

I had a really tough first day on a job I took a while back. That night, my boss called to tell me the company wanted me to step down. He explained that they were brokering a shady deal, and my being there would mess that up. I was humiliated. Toughest first day ever for me. After a fitful two hours of sleep, I got up, went into the den and knelt, using the sofa as an altar.  Desperate and utterly humiliated, I cried  out to God and cried literal tears before the Lord; I really needed a job. 

I rose, got my laptop and drafted an email to the company. After finishing the email, I was just about to click Send when my phone vibrated. It was my boss. The shady part of the deal had fallen through, and they wanted me to come back. Even though I had very little respect for this company, I needed a paycheck, plus I knew the company was being sold and the buyer had to be a better company than the seller was, so I went back. The buyer was a much better company, and I still work for them. But, boy, what a first day that was!

The best day of my life was October 12, 1983. It was my first day as a Christian. God had revealed Himself to me the day before, rescuing me from a demonic attack. Seeing how powerful He was and His willingness to use His power for me, I committed my life to Jesus. The sense of peace and joyful bliss was astonishing to me, and He has never left me and never will. 

I long to see more people experience their first day as Christians. In the season of first days, what a wonderful time to experience the first day of salvation in Christ Jesus!

Today is the day of salvation – 2 Corinthians 6:2