November...to Remember!

Dear Body of Christ!

This is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it! How about you? Is that your sentiments regarding the day and the opportunity that the Lord Jesus has given you to live and represent Him as lights to a darkened world?

Today I had the awesome opportunity to be with Him. Think about it! I had audience with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords on this day. If someone had the occasion to sit and talk to the Governor of their respective state or the President of this Nations or even a dignitary from a foreign land—they would be exuberant about their meeting!

But, I didn’t have to go through a middle-man for my meeting. I didn’t have to jockey for position and hope to fit into His otherwise busy schedule. He didn’t put me off, interrupt my sentences or even rush me through the meeting. He seemed content on just listening attentively to my heart as I spoke with Him. It was as though He was just gazing at me with His loving eyes and hanging on every word that I spoke—equally as satisfied with merely listening to me as He was in speaking to me. What a day!

Hebrews 4:15-16 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

This is indeed a great day! This is a day specifically designed and filled with opportunities to love Him, seek Him, fellowship with Him and to take the fruit and testimony of that relationship out to where others have yet to know and experience what I have been privileged to know for many years.

This is also a joyous day for another monumental reason in my life. It was twenty years ago today that this same precious Jesus blessed me with my wife, Melanie! We were just two nineteen year old in love with each other and in love with Jesus who refused to hear the woeful declarations of the naysayers who prophe-lied that we would never make it a year let alone two or three! Where are they now? Divorced or miserable in a relationship not founded on Jesus? Perhaps, but I hope not.

God has so graced us over the years and has truly given to me a great jewel to stand with me through many difficulties and perils and who is yet poised to stand with me in many more in the coming years.

Many thought that we were crazy then---now many more do! They are absolutely correct! We are unapologetically crazy about Jesus and one another!

Then that brings us to Raven Ministries! I certainly did not intend for it to be the afterthought of this message, but in reality Raven Ministries is merely the product of the other two relationships described above.

Raven Ministries is our effort to demonstrate something that can most accurately illustrate to the unregenerate what it means to be loved beyond measure. Raven Ministries endeavors to be the embodiment of how a precious, loving God came down from His throne in Heaven and did not merely speak of love and compassion, but actively demonstrated it in everything that He said and did.

Raven Ministries is our labor of love in “fleshing out” what it means to lay down ones own hopes, dreams and ambitions for the benefit of others without even the guarantee of a thank you in return. Raven is our way of say that no person is too far gone, no distant too far to travel, no place to bad to go, and no life too messed up to me redeemed. That is what He says to us to me, so that is what we say to them. Raven is not a church, Raven desires to be The Church: a Bride adorned for her bridegroom.

Secondly, my twenty year honor of being given the blessed opportunity to live out my love for Jesus in front of a person who knows every intimate detail of my life is what Raven is all about.

Ephesians 5:25-28 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”

He gave me Melanie that He might provide me a glimpse of how He sees and loves the people that He created. Melanie is to me what this world was to Jesus. While seeing a creation encumbered by limitations, frailty and imperfections—all He could focus upon was a love that covered a multitude of sins and drove Him to lay down His very life that His dearly beloved might have life and have it more abundantly.

Raven Ministries is to Melanie and I the offspring of lives more dedicated to being righteous than in being right. We certainly do not pretend to know everything or to do everything “right” in many people’s eyes, but if we are going to “miss it” then we will miss it on the side of righteousness.

I have never in twenty years of marriage had to question Melanie’s dedication or fidelity to me as her husband, not has she had to question mine for her. To betray the trust of one another would be the equivalent of turning away from Jesus and worshipping idols.

Ephesians 5:31-32 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery-- but I am talking about Christ and the church.”

This revelation is the one of the primary basis for what Raven stands for and does! Just as meaningless “lip service” would prove to be the death knell of a marriage, so is “spiritual lip service” in regards to the Christian walk. If my dear bride where hungry, she would never have to beg for a piece of bread---I would traverse land and sea to see that she was fed.

If my dear bride where in distress, my response would never be for here to return to the palatial confines of some sterilized environment---I would rush to her side through the desperation and destruction of whatever circumstance had befallen her. Her will, her condition, her attitude would be of little consequence in determining my course of action. Her value to me is the preestablished premise on which all subsequent actions follow.

So ought the vision and application of the vision of Raven (and the Church of the Living God) be in regards to the great mission (and commission) that has been placed before us.

Things are truly happening at break-neck speed concerning the work that Jesus has entrusted us with.

I stated at our National Gathering of Raven Ministries in Amarillo, Texas last month that our vision was to see Raven Teams operating in (50) US cities and on (5) continents in the next (5) years. That may very well prove to be an underestimation when it is all said and done.

I just received a call from a dear pastor friend in North Carolina who said, “I was noticing from the website that you don’t have a chapter representing the Carolinas. We would like to start one.” That is just typical of the inquiries that we field on a regular basis from people who desire to see lives—and as a result cities and nations—transformed by the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can get detailed information and see pictures of the many things happening around the Nation by visiting our various Raven Websites.

The main site is: www.BigGrace.com and this has basic information concerning the ministry.

The site with regular updates and announcements is www.ravenoutreach.blogspot.com and on this page (the right hand side) you will find links to our teams across America. Take a few minutes to go and read about how God is shaping communities through people willing to be His hands and feet.

Also, I am launching a new blog www.ravens-bread.blogspot.com this week that will have regular teaching and observations concerning the Word of God and the work of the ministry. Many of the things that I share with our leaders concerning things that God has revealed in His Word as well as practical teaching from the Word will be found on that site.

I will be on the road ministering beginning next week:

Next Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) I will be traveling to minister at the “Accelerated Impact Conference on Evangelism” hosted by our friends, Bobby & Cheryl Sullivan. The conference is being held in London, Ontario Canada and I am scheduled to speak 4-5 times at this conference. Pastor Terry Shuff of Raven Midwest will be joining me on this trip.

Upon returning home, I will then be heading to Austin, Texas where I’ll connect with Pastor Alex Hill and travel to meet up with Pastor Meredith Lindsey in Fairfield, Texas on Dec. 2nd for a meeting there and then I’ll be preaching on Sunday morning and evening at a church in Austin the following day before returning back to Daytona Beach on the 4th of December.

Going, flying and driving to these places to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry” is an expensive, yet essential task. You know that we are missionaries for all intents and purposes and rely solely on our faith in Christ and in the generosity of those that share in our commitment to seeing souls saved for the provision to go and do these things for the Kingdom.

If you feel so inclined to assist in offsetting some of this month’s expenses, we would be highly blessed and appreciative of anything that you could do. You offering can be mailed to us at :

Raven Ministries
P.O. Box 1897
Daytona Beach, FL 32115

Or you can give securely through our PayPal account with your credit/debit card or a checking account. go to www.ravenoutreach.blogspot.com and click the "Make A Donation" button and follow the simple instructions.

May the Lord Jesus bless you mightily for all that you do in regards to His Kingdom!

Pastor Troy D. Bohn