August 31, 2026

Dear Friend,

Two ministry trips separated by 56 years¹

My Most Recent Ministry Trip

June’s ministry trip to the Iowa Holiness Association camp meeting has come and gone. So far as I can tell, the trip was blessed in every way I look at it:

• Fellowship:
  Our dear friends, Al & Sue Strickland²

  There were refreshing and encouraging visits during the trip with friends and family. (Hello again to Al & Sue, Cyril & Jan, Brady & Leah, Misty, Keith, Dorian, Colleen & Donny, Dave & Eva, Becky, Ray & Twila Mae, Michael, Kristen & Alyson, and so many others!) And there were many hours of sharing between meetings, over meals, and into [continue reading…]

Copyright © 2007¹

Chapter 13 of the book
Boyhood Memories & Lessons
by
Isaiah Reid

This article is also available in the complete paperback version.

BUT FEW NOW KNOW about log meeting houses in all this central west, yet they were common in the opening of the country. Won­derful meetings have been held in them. Heaven will be richer for the work wrought in these rude places of worship. Grand characters were forged there. There were sound conversions. There were vigorous gospel sermons. The stal­warts of the last generation were spiritually born there, where “the old-time religion” we now sing about was in the full bloom of its glory. What if they had no gothic architecture, chancel win­dows, or carpeted aisles? They had what is infinitely better, actual sal­vation that saved. What if they had no fine turnouts and cushioned pews? They had the fine array of the saints, which was so well pleasing to God. Ah! good old days of simplicity and faith that took hold of God!

The plat of ground on which the church stood was not large. The build­ing was in [continue reading…]

Copyright © 2007¹

Chapter 3 of the book
Boyhood Memories & Lessons
by
Isaiah Reid

This article is also available in the complete paperback version.

THERE ARE OTHER FACTORS than nature around us whose environments have large part in molding and shaping all young life. Parental influence is both pre- and post-natal. Doubtless there are hereditary tendencies in our nature which largely affect us; but greater, perhaps, are the early home life influences. I remember Bishop William Taylor² told us, when speaking of the children born in Africa, that they were not born heathen, though born on heathen soil, and that if they were taken before they had learned the ways of their people, they were no more heathen than our children. This makes but little place for hereditary influence, and places the more weighty bulk of evidence in favor of early life and teachings.

Traveling in review the byways of my early life, I notice there is much in hereditary and early family life that has helped to make me what I am, though it was not until later years I came to any [continue reading…]

7 June 2026

Dear Friend,

“Here’s Your Hat. What’s Your Hurry?”

I don’t know where my dad got the expression, but he frequently would say, “Here’s your hat; what’s your hurry?” if someone had to leave quickly. (And, come to think of it, I heard him say it when he wished someone would leave!)

Like I said, it’s a long trip!

Well, even though I don’t normally wear a hat, I am in a hurry packing to leave tomorrow, June 8th, for a long ministry road trip. When I say long, I mean that Google Maps tells me that I’ll log over 3,500 miles (about 5,600 kilometers) between now and when I get home (around July 2nd). My spirit was uneasy until I postponed a July 1st doctor appointment so that I could extend the trip just a bit. As soon as I did that, I was released in the Spirit to finish planning.

So this short newsletter is mainly a prayer request [continue reading…]

Colin Sterne
an anagram/pseudonym of
H. Ernest Nichol
(1862-1926)

Copyright © 2007¹

Chapter 4 of the book
Boyhood Memories & Lessons
by
Isaiah Reid

This article is also available in the complete paperback version.

COUNTRY AND HOME have their universal impress on the race. Among other well-defined environments that help largely to make us what we are is the home church and its life and in­flu­ence. As the years move me away from life’s first sights, sounds, and im­pres­sions, the old church crops out more and more like the rocks on my na­tive hills.

The old log church was a very primitive affair. It was not a quarter of a mile from the old home, up a little incline to the top of the ridge, and through a strip of old-time forest which the axe had but little marred. The bur­ial of my grandfather was the first gathering of the people ever held at the place. There in the deep, dark woods they laid him to rest, when as yet the trees had kept their silent and solemn guard for long centuries. When I came to know the place, a nice plat of ground had all been nicely cleared off, fenced, sown in grass, and planted with some shrubbery, and was already marked with a number of [continue reading…]

Jim Kerwin
(1952- )

To discover more hymns, visit our growing list of Powerful Poetry.

6 May 2026

Lead on, O King Eternal! The day of march has come!
Henceforth in fields of conquest Thy tents shall be our home.
Through days of preparation Thy grace hath made us strong;
And, now, O King Eternal, we lift our battle song!¹

Dear Friend,

Trip Preparation

Less than five weeks to go…²

My “day of march” is fast approaching for the teaching trip to Iowa in early June. The to-do list is expanding, and the heat of urgency is ratcheting up one degree per day as the five-week time ticks down.

Yes, there is preparation for the actual teaching. (That’s been going on for a few months already.) To the ongoing prayer for this, regular days of fasting have been added. (Heart preparation is the most important factor.) A large “folder” of notes has to be streamlined, trimmed, and distilled into five focused teaching sessions.

But then there’s updating [continue reading…]

Ernest Shurtleff
(1862-1917)

Attributed to
Robert Keene
(18^th Century)
but attributed by some to
George Keith
(1638?-1716)

Charles Wesley
(1707-1788)

Copyright © 2007¹

Chapter 2 of the book
Boyhood Memories & Lessons
by
Isaiah Reid

This article is also available in the complete paperback version.

IT IS HARDLY FAIR to refer all the meaning there is in these words of inspiration to the mineral treasures hid in the hills, or their wealth of timber or pasture, or in their springs, or rugged fastnesses, na­ture’s strong fortifications. “Our fathers worshiped in this moun­tain,” said Jesus.² Always in the heights of the hills has there been a sug­ges­tive­ness in the minds of the races, that as heaven was “on high,” so the heights were nearer to God. It is true also that re­markable events, some of them the most momentous that humanity knows, occurr­ed on these same heights. The second cradling of the race was on Mt. Ararat.³ The Law for God’s whole world was a mountaintop revelation.⁴ Mount Mor­iah was the scene of Abraham’s greatest trial,⁵ and the heaven-ap­point­ed place [continue reading…]

Palm Sunday, March 2026

An Easter Verb

(See image credit below.)¹

Dear Friend,

I’m writing these words on Palm Sunday 2026. And I’m putting off the conclusion of our series on Little Faith and God’s Faith because a word has been impressed on my heart. It’s a Greek word that sneaked up on me during my morning Greek research this past week; but now it’s also an abiding Easter verb for me because of its special association with the Resurrection.

Here’s the background: Oikos (οἶκος) is a very common New Testament noun. It means a house or dwelling or just about any place a person might live; and by simple extension, it also means household, that is, all the people who live in the oikos. There’s a closet full of oikos-related words in the New Testament, some of which come down to us in English, like our word economy (oikonomía / οἰκονομία — management of a household).

A related verb—oikéō / οἰκέω—means to dwell [in a home]. It’s used of a married couple dwelling with each other (1 Corinthians 7:12-13), and of [continue reading…]