30 September 2025
Dear Friend,
This concept of “little faith” is important enough that the Apostle Matthew seems to have made up this special word—oligópistos (ol·ig·OP·is·tos)—to describe the condition Jesus was pointing out. The word doesn’t seem to appear in pre-New Testament Greek.Sincere, godly Christian lawyers—is that an oxymoron? No, there are many, as it turns out! The first two with whom I ever interacted were in the city where I was saved, first pastored, and came to spiritual maturity—Costa Mesa, California. I can’t even remember the reason we had to seek them out, but I do remember their names. Norm Juggert, the principal of the firm, was the son-in-law of a saintly Lutheran pastor named Andy Anderson. But it was Norm’s partner whose name keeps coming back to me in my current season of prayer and meditation, because of the way he introduced himself: “Hi, I’m Kenneth Yee. Yee, you know, as in ‘YE of little faith.’” (Hey, his memory trick worked. Fifty years later, I still recall his name!)
Much of my focus before the Lord lately has been to know why we aren’t seeing more healings when we pray. And I’ve come to suspect that it’s because my last name, too, is “Yee,” and I’m a “little-faith.” If you’ll allow me, starting with this newsletter and over the next few months, I’d like to share a mini-Bible-devotional series about how I’m being led to change my thinking and prayer and actions.
Olígos: “An ice cream cone costs 15¢, but all I gots is 13¢, and that’s too few.” This mnemonic image is the copyrighted brain-child of my Regent University Greek professor, Dr. J. Lyle Story, whose textbook and course—Greek to Me—proved to be an entertaining, enjoyable, and effective way to remember vocabulary and paradigms. After 35 years, this little dejected boy is still the first thing that pops into my mind when I encounter the word olígos (ὀλίγος) in my Greek reading.Our starting point is the Greek adjective oligópistos (ὀλιγόπιστος), meaning of little faith. Like many New Testament Greek words, it’s a compound of two words, in this case olígos (ὀλίγος) and pístis (πίστις). Pístis is our eventual destination. It’s the noun translated as faith in the New Testament; but we’ll set pístis aside for now.
Ah, but then there’s the adjective olígos—little, slight, few, short (in size or quantity), and (my personal favorite) puny. Prepend that to pistis and you get oligópistos: puny-faithed! It’s a special word which the Apostle Matthew puts in the mouth of Jesus at some key points:
- Jesus lovingly uses the word to cajole and challenge the crowds. “Look around and see how God provides for His creation. Don’t you think He’ll provide for you, you Puny-Faiths?” (Matthew 6:28-32, esp. v. 30 ∥ Luke 12:27-28)
- When the disciples found themselves in a swamped and sinking boat, or without bread, Jesus spoke the truth to them: “You are Puny-Faiths” (Matthew 8:26; 16:8).
- The word isn’t always plural. When Peter stepped out of the boat in his human faith (Matthew 14:29-30), for a few steps he was treading on water before he was barely treading water, crying out to Jesus. As Jesus pulled Mr. Impetuous out of the waves, his question was this: “Mr. Puny-Faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).
Ah, the frustrated Yee family—I think we’ve all been members at some point. But we love Jesus and we want to be men and women of faith, not puny-faiths.
Jesus gives some guidance on how to make the transition from puny-faith to real faith in Matthew 17:19-20. In their debriefing over their failure to deliver the demon-possessed boy (Matthew 17:14-18), the disciples ask, “Why could we not drive it out?” Matthew puts the noun form of our special Greek word—oligopistía (ὀλιγοπιστία)—in Jesus’ mouth: “Because of your Little-Faithed-ness.” Then He begins to share with them about “mustard-seed faith”; and I wonder if what Jesus meant by that hasn’t eluded us. That’s what we’ll explore in the next newsletter, and we’ll make progress as we look to the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Ministry Trip News
Newly added to the schedule:
I have accepted the invitation to return again as the Bible teacher at the Iowa Holiness Association Camp Meeting, June 14-19, 2026, after a five-year hiatus. I’m looking forward to fellowshipping with friends in the American Midwest during the round trip. (But please see the related prayer request at the newsletter’s end.) I may even know the theme of that week’s teaching, which is a bit unusual; the Lord doesn’t usually make that clear this far in advance.
Postponed:
The October 2025 missions trip to Coatepeq, Vera Cruz, México has been postponed until the spring, due to medical complications suffered by both of the resident missionaries involved. More on this trip as dates become available.
Uncertain:
For reasons I don’t yet understand (and perhaps don’t need to know yet), I haven’t had release from the Lord to schedule any other Latin American trips for the remainder of the year. While the cause(s) for the “travel hold” might leave me curious, I’m content to wait in the peace of God. But I may be able to tell you about a February trip (no, not México!) in the next newsletter…
Publishing Progress… and a Plea
The paperback is finally available!
Paperback release: Oct. 31After a ten-year “pause” on the project, we are blessed to report that the paperback version of Thomas Cook’s New Testament Holiness is finally available. In fact, our first batch of copies just arrived ten days ago. Special for the occasion, Denise and I have also updated the ten-year-old e-book version of the book. If, like King David, you’ve ever prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (and really wanted God to answer!), then this plain-and-simple primer on sanctification is a must-read. I’m so glad Pastor Percy Gutteridge recommended it to me over fifty years ago!
Speaking of Brother Percy: We can’t yet report that our final-proofreading work on the paperback edition of his The Holy Spirit and His Emblems is complete. (Sometimes it seems that our lives are a series of interruptions that have been interrupted by other interrupted interruptions!) But we are at last beginning to apply our textual and typographical corrections to the final print-copy master (and, retroactively, to the existing e-book version). There’s still hope that the paperback edition of Emblems will be available by the end of October.
A Plea for Volunteers:
Our writing ministry could use four kinds of help: reviewers, transcribers, a prayer team, and a launch team. Let me share about the first category this month, and save the rest for upcoming newsletters.
Reviewers: If you have read anything from Finest of the Wheat Teaching Fellowship’s “catalog” of e-books, e-booklets, and paperbacks, and you feel it’s worthwhile sharing, posting a review for that title on Amazon would be a big help. Would you buy a book from an unknown author on Amazon if there were no reviews? Me neither! We’re a small fish in a big ocean of books. But it’s in our hearts that what the Lord has given us to share would reach as many hungry souls as possible. Honest reviews help others to say, “Hmm. Maybe I’ll give that title a try.”
And if you feel a… what shall I call it?… a “Holy Ghost tug” at your heart to help as a reviewer, hit “reply” on this newsletter to let me know.
Motor-vated Prayer Request
If Horace Greeley (of “Go west, young man, go west” fame) were to alter his advice, I guess he’d have to say, “Go northwest, old guy, go northwest.” (Map from Google Maps)I’ll keep this month’s prayer-request list very simple and practical. I mentioned above my joyful acceptance of an invitation to speak at the IHA Camp Meeting next June. That’s a 2,400-mile (~3,850-km) round trip (give or take, with no side trips). Our current car… well, it’s 25 years old, a feisty but tottering “great-grandma” by automotive standards.
There are many days when we’re not certain our car will survive the 16-mile round trip to church or the 22-mile round trip to WalMart. (Yes, really!) We’ve laid out some serious money for car repairs during this year. And living in rural Florida, as we do, we have to do a fair amount of driving on sandy, unpaved, sometimes “washboard-y” roads—and that’s no way to treat an “old lady.”
We’re not in a financial situation that allows us to consider a car loan. We have what others might consider a “down payment” for a car; but in our case, it’d have to be the entire payment. As such, it might not buy us anything better or newer than what we already have.
I’m not asking for donations, but something better. Please agree with us in prayer that the Lord would provide us a reliable, safe, economical vehicle of His choosing. We don’t need “new” or “pretty” or “fancy.” Thanks!
May the Lord continue to bless you for the love, support, prayers, and encouragements you send our way!
Much love in Jesus,
Jim
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