Friday, January 12, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
This Week Has Been AWESOME!
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Dear Friends & Servants of Jesus,
What a year! That is the best way for me to describe the year 2006 as we prepare for and expect even greater things concerning the Kingdom of God in the coming year. As we enter into to a brand-new year of spiritual opportunities the one thing that I sense within my own heart and mind is a greater Kingdom Motivation.
The difference in having a Kingdom Motivation verses some other type of motivation—is that when you are Kingdom Minded or Kingdom Motivated, everything that you do for Jesus is done with your eyes squarely fixed upon eternity. In the success and excess driven culture of modern Christianity, much of what is done is motivated by temporal goals: Bigger buildings, Grander programs, Loftier Reputations, and More people than the congregation down the street.
I believe that we are standing on the threshold of eternity, and that the things that so many resources are being squandered and wasted on, will soon be consumed. To be Kingdom Motivated is to focus on the things that are eternal: Souls. Raven Ministries International and our teams across this nation have one goal in mind for the coming year– Win More To Heaven in 2007!
Never before in the eleven year history of this ministry have we seen such clear manifestation of our purpose to “Restore A Vision & Evangelize Nations”. On any given week there will be multiple teams out in the streets of cities from coast to coast; feeding the hungry and ministering to the homeless, sharing the Gospel with people of all ages, races and social status, impacting neighborhoods, and training and discipling others to do the same.
Oftentimes in the ministry we finish out years with regret concerning things that went undone or not feeling a sense of accomplishment in the task that had been set before us. But, I must say that 2006 (while very tough at times) was a year that I can look back upon with great delight in all that we were able to see Jesus do in Raven.
I am blessed to be able to give you this type of year-end and New Year report. Your prayers, encouragement, and financial support have not failed to bear fruit. We have raised up many new leaders, planted ministry in sever new cities, seen tens of thousands fed and ministered to, and have witnessed the mercy and grace of Christ save the souls of thousands. We have taken the Gospel into other countries and continents with spectacular results!
You have been a HUGE part of all of this and our expectations for the New Year of opportunity the Holy Spirit has given us is off the charts! May God bless, strengthen, and anoint you mightily in His service in 2007. You have invested in eternity and the Lord has seen your sacrifice.
2 Corinthians 9:6 “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”
Let’s Get Busy for the Kingdom of God in 2007!
Much Love & Blessings,
Pastor Troy & The Dream Team!
JANUARY: Pastor Troy & the New Orleans Team hit the streets of the Big Easy in what appears to be the largest non-Mardi Gras crowd they have ever seen in the French Quarter. The run into “Kelly” who quickly runs up to Pastor Troy and declares that she has given up tarot card reading and is now working in a restaurant in the area. (They had been ministering to her for years to be set free) Pastor Troy & Pastor Terry join Pastor Rudy and the West Coast Team in Santa Rosa, California where the team has been ministering weekly in a gang and drug infested neighborhood. Pastor Terry & Pastor Russ Clifford (The Living Well) lead three young me to Jesus that day: Jose, Edgar, and Sergio. These young men had been involved in local gang activity. Pastor Troy & Pastor Alex visit and minister in Churches in: California, Texas, and Louisiana in preparation for the upcoming Mardi Gras Outreach
FEBRUARY: Pastor Troy joins Pastor Terry in Indiana to minister at area churches and to promote the Mardi Gras Outreach. Raven Street Church begins conducting services under a tent at a local outreach center where Pastor Troy & Pastor Todd minister each Sunday morning and various other times during the week. Teams continue to hit the streets with Raven West Coast, Raven Mid West, and Raven New Orleans each weekend. Mardi Gras Outreach brings together over 120 Raven Team Members to New Orleans for the first Mardi Gras following Hurricane Katrina. They stay in a converted warehouse in the devastated eastern New Orleans. On Saturday of the outreach the teams distributes food and supplies to thousands of local residence who have lined up as far as the eye can see. All are given food, water and needed supplies and many come to know Christ as well
MARCH: Pastor Alex launches Raven Austin and begins working with local churches and leading streets teams into such places as the famous 6th Street. Pastor Troy visits Pastor Meredith in Texas and the preliminary plans for Raven Fairfield are birthed. Pastor Rudy continues leading teams into the Tenderloin area of San Francisco which is the home to thousands of homeless and heroin addicts. Pastor Troy, Pastor Todd, Pastor Don, Pastor Thomas & Billy McInroy continue their spiritual assault on the French Quarter and Bourbon Street in New Orleans seeing phenomenal harvest out in the streets. Raven West Coast ups their weekly food distribution to 500 families in the Papago Court and Apple Valley neighborhoods and Toni continues ministry to the homeless and drug addicted in the Gurneville area as well. Raven Midwest takes teams into Chicago regularly and ministers in the Lower Whacker section under the city.
APRIL: Pastor Troy and Melanie make preliminary prayer trip to Daytona Beach and immediately see harvest as they pray for and minister to “Dewey” as he falls to his knees and begins to weep as the Spirit of God falls upon him. The Raven Southwest chapter is launched in Albuquerque under the leadership of Pastor Brandon Romero. Detroit, Michigan becomes the next major US city impacted by our teams commitment to take the Gospel to the streets of the Nation as Pastor Terry and the Midwest team invade a local housing project.
MAY: Pastor Bobby Chance of Streetwise Ministry joins Pastor Troy in leading the first annual Boot Camp in the Big Apple outreach to New York City. Pastor Terry & Eileen make trip to join Pastor Rudy and the West Coast Team for outreach where they have added the Roseland neighborhood and are now taking preparing 700 bags of groceries! The Raven Midwest Team is blessed with a much needed 15 passenger van. Pastor Troy visits Pastor Sam Croghan in Pennsylvania where plans for Raven East Coast are made and they make a ministry trip into Baltimore.
JUNE: Pastor Troy and Melanie relocate ministry headquarters to Daytona Beach. Pastor Todd assumes responsibilities of Raven Street Church in New Orleans, ministering each Sunday at the tent and Pastor Don Eskine assumes leadership of Raven New Orleans team. Myrza Tow, Pastor Troy’s grandmother, celebrates her 100th Birthday. She was born during the Asuza Street Revival of 1906. Pastor Troy joins the Raven West Coast team and Streetwise Ministry for an outreach to Los Angeles’ Skid Row– where 25,000 homeless reside each night. Pastor Troy joins Pastor Russ Clifford at the Living Well Church in Santa Rosa, CA for the Raven School of Evangelism. Pastor Troy baptizes Pastor Rudy in the frigid and shark infested waters just north of San Francisco. The BEACH REACH to Daytona Beach begins.
JULY: Beach Reach with Pastor Frank Gresham and the Jesus Centre is in full swing over the 4th of July holiday as a team of fifty hits the sand and the streets. Pastor Troy is joined by his daughter, Kayla, as they minister at the Pepsi 400 where over 200,000 people have gathered for this NASCAR event. Pastor Troy and Melanie travel to join Pastor Terry of Midwest and minister on the streets of Chicago, the Washington Garden Housing Projects in Elkhart, Indiana and preach at Word of Truth Church and The Crossing in Goshen, Indiana with Pastor Mike Lechlitner while in town. Raven West Coast now ministering to 1,000 families each week—having begin a year earlier with less than 20 bags of groceries from their own cupboards!
AUGUST: Pastor Todd & Christy leave New Orleans to plant RAVEN POST (Texas). Pastor Alex joins Pastor Troy in New Orleans for the Bourbon Street Blitz Outreach and Pastor Troy preaches at Faith Christian with friend, Pastor Steven Smith and also conducts tent service while in New Orleans. The official launch of Raven East Coast. Pastor Troy travels to Amsterdam, Holland and ministers for a week in the infamous Red Light District, seeing God move mightily. Jose Ayala, one of the teenagers that Pastor Terry led to Christ in January 2006, is murdered in his Northern California neighborhood. He was only sixteen years old. Pastor Don Eskine assumes the responsibility of the Raven Street Church under the tent in New Orleans. He and Pastor Thomas continue leading teams into the French Quarter. Pastor Terry & Eileen visit Daytona Beach and assist in starting the Saturday Night Food & Faith Ministry that attracts dozens of youth and college aged kids each week for food, prayer and ministry.
SEPTEMBER: Raven East Coast conducts first major outreach in York, Pennsylvania. Pastor Sam & Lucy are joined by Pastor Alex (Raven Austin), and Pastor Terry and a team from Raven Midwest. Pastor Rudy conducts weekly Raven Gathering Services in his home for Raven West Coast. They also announce that over 150,000 pounds of food have been distributed in Sonoma County over the Summer! The team travels to Los Angeles’ for their second Skid Row outreach of the year. Pastor Meredith Lindsey and Bro Jim Snead join Pastor Troy & Mel for a week of mentoring and outreach in Daytona Beach. Raven Fairfield (Tx) prepares to officially launch. Pastor Alex & Holly begin work with Horizon Church in Austin, leading teams into the streets of the city for evangelism.
OCTOBER: The First International Gathering of RAVEN’s is held in Amarillo, Texas will members from coast to coast participating. The opening night banquet saw over 225 in attendance! Five men are ordained into the ministry during the conference: Pastor Lance Prathaftakis (who is also named to replace Pastor Terry as MidWest director upon his move), Pastor Johnnie Thomason (Dir. Of Raven Amarillo), Pastor Brandon Romero (Dir. Raven Southwest), Pastor Rudy Gonzalez (Dir. Raven West Coast), Pastor Meredith Lindsey (Dir. Raven Fairfield). Pastor Meredith also hosts a ground-breaking, multi-racial outreach in Fairfield. Pastor Don & Sabrina stand against the New Orleans VooDoo Fest, Pastor Sam & Lucy ministered at the “Back to the Future” outreach in Westminister, and MidWest reached Benton Harbor, MI for Jesus.
NOVEMBER: Pastor Todd & Christy of Raven Post began training and dsicipling local team for ministry and graduate first class in early December. Pastor Troy & Pastor Terry travel to Ontario, Canada to minister at the Accelerated Impact Conference on Evangelism and lead street teams in outreach near Western Ontario University in London, Ontario. The RAVEN NATION live webcast begins airing each Tuesday night at 9:00 PM (EST). Pastor Johnnie Thomason hosts his first Raven Amarillo meeting at Amarillo Christian Fellowship to bring the local bodies together to promote unity in reaching their City for Jesus. Pastor Troy ministers at two of the Crossing alternative schools in Goshen, and South Bend, Indiana. Pastor Meredith host a City-Wide Thanksgiving Outreach in Fairfield, before flying to NYC where he is met by a team led by Pastor Sam (East Coast) to witness and hand out Bibles in Times Square on Black Friday.
DECEMBER: Pastor Rudy joined Pastor Bobby Chance and a team of over 100 for the Happy Birthday Jesus outreach in Tijuana, Mexico where they distributed over 4,000 toys to needy children in the city and those who live in the local dump. 3,000 of the toys were gathered by Maddie and CeCe Gonzales of raven West Coast! Other teams conducting outreaches during the Christmas holidays were: Raven East Coast, Raven Post, and Raven Mid West. These teams everything from toys, to clothes and food for the homeless, to ministry to needy family—to lots of Jesus! Pastor Troy joined Pastor Alex in Austin for a weekend of ministry at Horizon Church and we were blessed to be able to raise the funds to purchase a bus for the Raven Texas teams that will be utilized to transport their teams to New Orleans in February.
This has been an incredible year---yet 2007 promises to be an even more glorious year for the Kingdom of God! While we rejoice greatly in the events and testimonies of 2006, they are thousands more awaiting us in this New Year!
With the mandate to “Take His Gospel to all the World” there are financial challenges and goals that must be met. We are dependant upon the Holy Spirit to speak into the hearts of friends, family & the Body of Christ to stand with us in this area. Would you consider doing one of two things today? 1) Make a sacrificial gift to enable the ministry to reach into the places that God has called us to 2) Consider becoming a monthly supporter of Raven Ministries’ ongoing mission to share the love and transforming power of Christ around the Nation...and beyond.
We’re needing a miracle in regards to several areas of ministry right now (including) another van. The two that we are currently using have tons of miles (both are going on 10 years old) and are just wearing out. I’ll leave it at that and just ask you to pray and consider what you might feel led to do in this glorious New Year!
Blessing,
Pastor Troy
YOU CAN GIVE SECURELY ONLINE BY CLICKING THE DONATION ICON ON THIS WEBSITE
Monday, January 01, 2007
Langinappe: A Little Extra Mercy!
Let’s Take The Time To Look for Mercy!
Living in the City of New Orleans for about three years, I would hear and see the term langinappe (pronounced lon-yop) regularly. I soon asked, and found out that it was a Cajun word meaning, “a little something extra.”I want to deposit a little something extra in you today from the Word of God as we spend the next week seeking Him, His will, fresh vision, anointing and the miraculous for 2007.
I kind of see the Book of Jude as “a little something extra” as it relates to the Word of God. Here we have just short letter (only one chapter and twenty-five verses comprise this epistle) that is so rich (like good Cajun food) and truly serves to cause me to “lick my spiritual lips” as I “taste and see that He is good.” (Ps 34:8)
Jude 1:21 says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
I want to give you a quick little word study that, hopefully, you will find both interesting and useful to your walk with the Lord and in your life of seeking and serving Jesus daily.
Jude writes in verse (21) of this letter to “Keep yourself” in the love of God. I find this interesting in light of other verses of scripture that say things like:
Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
If I am told to keep myself in the love of God, then how is it that Paul told the Church at Rome that none of these things could remove or separate us from this love? Is it my responsibility to keep and maintain my position in His love? Is being in the love of God contingent upon something that I can say or do? Well, the answer to that is, “Yes & No.”
While the love of God has been extended to all (John 3:16), even the lost and unregenerate, and the love of God is “shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5)—what Jude is talking about here is not the positional agape love, but rather the relational agape love. These are very similar and sometimes indistinguishable from one another, but within each aspect of these manifestations of “love” is a uniquely valuable truth and application that the other does not as readily display.
Jude 1:21 says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God…”
This keep is the Greek word tereo which means “to attend to, carefully guard, and to keep oneself in the state of.”
So, Jude is saying, “Listen to me! You have got to come to the place where you carefully stand guard over the love of God in your life. Be attentive! Don’t grow cold or lazy in it. You have got to endeavor to keep yourself in the state of being that He brought you to in faith.”
How many times have you found yourself guilty of the same indictment levied against the Church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4 “I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”
It could be rendered: “You have not guarded it! You have not maintained a careful attentiveness over the place that I have graciously brought you to! I have this against you.”
That forsaken is used elsewhere in the New Testament to describe divorce! Have you filed for spiritual divorce from the Bridegroom (Jesus)? Or maybe you have just considered it legal separation!
Have you found yourself lazy, complacent or altogether reckless in regards to your relationship with God? Has this reckless and precarious attitude affected your prayer life; your dedication to the study of God’s Word or your responsibility to share your faith with others?
If so, then you have got to “get yourself back on guard” and this is the time and season to do just that! While your actions will not change the positional status of God’s unfailing love towards you—it will adversely impact your relational status with Him.
Now, having said that, look at this admonition to “Keep yourselves in the love of God” in comparison to what Jude says just three verses later:
Jude 1:24 “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
What is this? First he instructs us to “keep ourselves” and now he says that “(Jesus) is able to keep you from falling.” If these seem contradictory to you on the surface—then let’s peel back the veneer to look a little deeper into what he is telling them in this letter. Langinappe
In verse (21) he is speaking of the tereo type of “keeping” (to attend to, carefully guard, and to keep oneself in the state of), but in verse (24) he utilizes a different word altogether. This “keep” is the Greek word phulasso which means:
“To protect or to preserve another from being impaired by something”
Because we have entered into covenant with Christ through the New Birth—we have become partners in this relationship. Throughout the Word of God, the marriage covenant is utilized as a type of relationship that we have with Jesus as believers.
As we, His bride, submit ourselves to Him (Eph 5:22) through the tereo or guarding of that relationship, we experience the benefit of the phulasso or being guarded by Him in the relationship!
John 15:10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.”
To “abide” is to “have relational expectancy” not “positional expectancy.” When I am obedient to this covenant relationship with Jesus then I reap the inherent benefit of being kept in His love!
Because we are spiritually married to the Lord, we (by virtue of that covenant) are “in His house”, this is the positional place. But if that is the extent of our relationship with Him—then it becomes like living in a house and being in a marriage where there is absolutely no reciprocating love towards one another.
It becomes a “you live your life and I will live my life” and we’ll just stay together for the “sake of the children” type of relationship. THAT is not what He intended for His bride (you and I). We must endeavor to abide in this relational expectancy that accompanies the tereo “keep(ing) of ourselves in the love of God.”
My “keeping” - “to attending to, carefully guarding, and to keeping myself in the state of” ensures the full benefit of His “keeping” - “To protect or to preserve another from being impaired by something.”
Seasons of fasting, prayer, intercession and consecration unto the Lord should get us refocused and recommitted to our relationship with Jesus. Think of these times like “renewing your vows” to the Lord!
Jude 1:21 says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
Once I get the revelation and make the application of what it means and what it takes to “keep myself in His love” then I have positioned or established myself to:
“look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus.”
Several years ago, while I was still pastoring in Texas, I found myself praying and seeking God in my study. This was a time not unlike any other time of prayer and preparation.
I spent a time of worship and adoration. I asked Him to examine my heart. I did an inventory of my thoughts or attitudes towards others and asked the Lord Jesus to forgive me as I forgave others. For all intents and purposes, things were very typical and ordinary…until the Holy Spirit spoke something to my heart the truly changed the way that I thought!
This may seem simple or even elementary to you, but for me, it became the catalyst for the way that I see and do the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He very gently said to me, “On the day of judgment, would you be willing to receive from Me, only as much mercy as you have demonstrated to others?”
Immediately, Matthew 5:7 came to mind, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”
He was revealing to me, that mercy is measured back, commensurate to how it is meted out!
Luke 6:36-38 “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful…give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
We have all heard people use this scripture (out of context) in relationship to finances, but seldom (if ever) in the proper context of love and mercy!
He isn’t asking us to do mercy, He is asking us to be mercy! I don’t want it to be a passing activity that I engage myself in. I want it to be the outflow of the person of Christ made manifest through my life because I have established myself and kept myself (relationally) in His love!
I want to measure out a full measure of mercy-- that a full measure might be measured out to me on that day. I want to find myself in the tireless pursuit of the mercy of God!
There are two questions that must be asked in regards to this:
1) What is mercy?
2) What is the means of obtaining it?
Mercy, by definition, is to have or to demonstrate compassion towards someone else. This compassion takes on various looks and manifestations in relationship to the need of the recipient.
Mercy for the hungry is something to eat.
Mercy for the homeless is a place to sleep.
Mercy for the broken is to be comforted.
Mercy for the bound and oppressed is deliverance.
Regardless of how mercy is manifested, there is one thing for certain; It is this mercy or compassion that moves Jesus!
Matthew 9:36 “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”
If I want God to “move on my behalf” during my times of prayer and fasting and seeking His face—then I have got to learn to move in the realm that moves Him! That realm is mercy!
Now for the second question: How is mercy released into the life of the believer?
Proverbs 28:13 “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
Another translation reads,
“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”
If you are “looking for mercy” then you look no further than the other side of repentance! During this season of consecration, we have many (including ourselves) that are crying out to God to move beyond the “missed marks” (sin) and find victory over every bondage, weakness, infirmity, stronghold, and struggle.
We know that taking these things to Him with a sincere and repentant heart is part of our tereo or means “to attend to, carefully guard, and to keep oneself in the state of” relational love and benefit of the Lord Jesus.
Our confession and subsequent forsaking of the things that would serve to impede the progress of our relationship with Him and the ensuing victory are the keys to finding the mercy of God that we have been looking for!
Humility is the measuring cup for the merciful.
Hebrews 4:15-16 “For we do not have a high priest (Jesus) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Conclusion: Saints, lets stand guard and be found carefully attending to our relationship with Jesus so that we can rest in the assurance that another (Jesus) will protect and preserve us from being impeded by anything (or anyone) that would keep us from the mercy of God that causes Him to move on our behalf for every need and situation that we may find ourselves in.
Langinappe, a little something extra!
Blessings,
Pastor Troy D. Bohn
