Bob & Gracie Ekblad

Resurrection Hope at the End of History

The Kingdom of Lesotho is a high, mountains country surrounded by the country of South Africa. Last Sunday we returned from teaching our Certificate in Holistic Liberation to a group of 30 African pastors and church leaders there. What a joy to participate in strengthening people called to make disciples of Jesus!

The clean air and cool weather were a welcome respite from the sweltering heat of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the week before. People’s eagerness to learn was visible in their lively discussion and seemingly untirable attention span.

Our five-day course was called “Word on the Street: transformational Bible study, prophetic mission & peacemaking.” Much of the course involved carefully studying Scriptures often read to justify violence– in the light of Jesus’ redemptive suffering and overcoming of evil and death on the cross.

Together we sought to better understand difficult stories like death of the firstborn (Exodus 12), the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19), the stoning of Achan (Joshua 7), the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter (Judges 11) and the rape of Tamar (2 Sam 13). We read these stories with Jesus as our teacher (“on-the-Road-to- Emmaus” style). We asked:

“How do these Old Testament stories from the Law and the Prophets bear witness to Jesus’ suffering as the Christ (Israel’s Messiah) (Lk 24:26)?

Reading about the death of firstborn of Egypt and on the eve of the Israelite slaves’ departure from Egypt was especially moving. Exodus 12 describes the first Passover, not as a sacrifice of a lamb to God, but as food to be eaten for the liberation journey.

Each household was to slaughter a lamb, roasting and eating it along with unleavened bread. They were instructed to eat the Passover dressed and ready to flee slavery—staff in hand, sandals on, and bags packed.

We acted out the Passover story—which always helps people see things differently.

One of the pastors playing an Israelite slave in Egypt, slaughtered and cooked up an imaginary lamb, and then applied imaginary blood to the sides and top of a wooden pallet which we’d placed upright to represent the family’s front door. Other volunteers playing his wife and children gathered around him inside the house.

We noted that the lamb’s blood was not to be poured out on an altar to God—but applied to the door posts and header over the door—to cover the family so the destroyer would “pass over.”

We read from Exodus 13 how the lamb was also God’s provision to redeem the firstborn of each household. In Israel’s ancient sacrificial system, the first of the harvest, and firstborn animals were devoted to the Lord in recognition that the earth and everything is it belongs to the Creator (Ps 24), who we need to protect and liberate us.

The death of Egypt’s firstborn results from the Egyptian’s failure to recognize this, and from their gods’ inability to save them. And the death of only the firstborn, suggests God’s claim on all Egypt (and the whole world). The “great cry” of the Egyptian oppressors (Ex 12:30) echoed the cry of their enslaved (Ex 3:7,9)—pushing them to release their captives, God’s people– showing God’s commitment to justice and liberation.

We looked together how on the night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest he celebrated Passover as God’s lamb– and also God’s firstborn son. We noted that Jesus didn’t offer himself to God, because God didn’t need a sacrifice. Jesus freely offered himself to us: “Take and eat, this is my body” (or Luke’s version: “This is my body which is given for you). Jesus offers his disciples the cup, Jesus says: “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many [not for God] for forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:27-28).

Jesus had prepared his disciples (and us) for this. On two occasions he’d told them:

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify him, and on the third day he will be raised up” (Mt 20:18-19).

Nowhere does Jesus describe himself a a sacrifice to God in the Gospel accounts– contrary to common assumptions. God didn’t need his Son to die for human sins. Humans did. Judas “delivers” Jesus to the chief priests and scribes. They in turn “hand him over” to the Gentiles—the Roman colonizers, who “mock, scourge and crucify.” The only positive action is God’s: “and on the third day he will be raised up” [by God]. But Jesus has already given himself to his disciples—stand-ins for us all.

Actually, the disciples, the Jewish chief priests and scribes, and the Gentile Roman colonizers together “sacrifice” Israel’s Messiah unknowingly to themselves (and to us)— Jews and non-Jews alike. The Jewish religious leaders unknowingly give their Messiah to the nations– for our and their salvation! It is God himself “who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son”—to us! And Jesus knowingly and willingly gave himself up to us. It is we, not God who need God’s lamb, Jesus for our salvation! This revelation deeply impacted us all.

Reading Matthew’s Gospel account of the crucifixion and resurrection this weekend gives me a burst of hope. After the worst has happened to Jesus, his dead body was buried in a cave, sealed by the Romans—who stationed soldiers to guard it. As a deliberate tactic to undermine faith, the Jewish religious leaders started a rumor that his disciples had taken his body away. But then came an earthquake, and Jesus was raised!

Jesus meets his disciples back in Galilee where it all began. Though some worshipped him and other doubted, he sent them with the commission to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They were commissioned to teach new believers throughout the world to observe everything Jesus commanded. Doing this very thing is the purpose of life according to Jesus’ final words!

The people in Lesotho were delighted by this study, and grew from day to day in their interest in reading the Bible carefully, expecting “Good News.” Out of this group we identified five future trainers—one of whom joined our team this past week to teach the final five-day training in Solwezi, Zambia (near the border with DRC).

Teaching humble, eager learners in the DRC and Lesotho, and then hearing reports from our African team who taught 140 pastors and church leaders in Zambia last week brings us hope and joy—an essential antidote to the helplessness and despair before all the current bad news of Israel and Trump’s war against Iran and Lebanon, ICE raids of immigrant communities across the USA and other horrible events.

Jesus’ answer to the disciple’s question before his ascension is a needed reminder of what our priorities must be in these threatening, “end of history” times. In the face of rising authoritarianism, threats of nuclear war and economic uncertainty Jesus’ words invite us to re-set our priorities.

“It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8).

“As you go, make disciples…” says Jesus, in his final words in Matthew’s Gospel.

If you would like to contribute to upcoming trainings in Malawi, Mozambique (April), Cameroon, Gabon and DRC (May) and Benin (July) we welcome (and need) you can give online here, or through sending a check to Tierra Nueva (Attn: The People’s Seminary), PO Box 410, Burlington, WA 98233, USA.

UK donations can be given through our account at Stewardship. Click here to set up your sign-in details.

Check out my podcast: Disciple: Word, Spirit, Justice, Witness on Spotify or Apple

Some good news from Africa: Experiencing Jesus’ Kingdom in the DRC

In the midst of daily bombardments in the Middle East and devastating news reports, we’re finding reasons to hope in some hard places in Africa. Gracie and I just completed the first of two five-day trainings here in Kinshasa, DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). We felt called here for many years– but the connections were never quite right until now. 
 
Our first impressions were that things are quite grim and dire. Right away we were struck by the heat– 92 degrees F (33 C)- with 80% humidity– and then there’s the air pollution from so many vehicles ground to a near halt plus heaps of burning plastics and toxic garbage.
 
Right away, we experienced the famous “embouteillages” (traffic jams)– which are like nothing we’ve seen anywhere. It makes Seattle bumper-to-bumper rush hour look like paradise (well not quite). 
 
Here there are masses of people, walking, carrying loads, on motorcycles piled with people squeezing between big trucks and every manner of dented and battered vehicle. You’d never see even one car in the US or Western Europe like most every car or truck in the DRC. There are 18.5 million people living in Kinshasa– and the DRC has a total of around 200 million.
 
The infrastructure is so messed up– due in part to the fact that there is a war going on in the eastern Congo. It took us over three hours to travel from the airport to the site of our training– which with normal traffic would only take 20 minutes. 
 
We learned from our hosts that a bus driver’s strike was scheduled to begin the first day of our training, which meant than instead of the 150-200 who’d signed up, only 60 were able to attend the entire five days. Most of those 60 people walked (some of them for two to three hours) to the Course—in the sweltering heat.
 
The particants traveled in the sweltering heat by foot (some of them for two to three hours), on the back of motorcycle taxis, or in three-wheeled vehicles called bajajis or tuk-tuks. They came eager to learn, expressing their enthusiasm through lots of comments and questions and vibrant acapella worship (see video below). 
 
Our teaching was done in French, by our team including Gracie and I, Vera, who grew up in France, but whose family is from Cameroon and Nigeria, and Viviane, who is from Mauritius.

Contextual Bible study is core to our trainings. In settings where people are used to listening to preachers and teachers but are rarely invited  to share their own ideas or questions, we seek to model a way of teaching that engages people’s participation and empowers them to discover for themselves the liberating messages in Scripture. Bibliodramas are especially effective at helping people see and experience the meaning of Biblical texts.

In the story of Jesus crossing to the other side of the Sea of Galilee with his disciples (Mark 4:35-41), we discover a shocking contrast between disciples and the demoniac whom they encounter on “the other side.”

I invite twelve people to come forward to represent Jesus’ disciples- and ask for a volunteer to play Jesus and another the Gerasene demoniac. I have the twelve disciples form two lines of six, and to face each other, then ask people to imagine they are the boat and the floor at the front is the sea. I place a chair between the two lines of six people and ask the man playing Jesus to take a seat in the boat.

We read the text about how as they cross the sea, a storm arises, and strong wind and waves threaten to capsize the boat—while Jesus remains fast asleep. Gracie waves a big scarf over the boat and makes sounds of wind. As we read on, I ask one of the disciples to speak out: “Master, don’t you care that we are perishing?” As we read on, the guy playing Jesus stands and asks:

“Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  

“Why am I?” I ask myself.

He then rebukes the wind and the waves, modeling a kind of authority that is foreign to us—and Gracie stops waving the scarf and making wind sounds. As we read on, the people playing the disciples look astonished and one of them reads:

“Who is this, that even the wind and waves obey him?”

I ask the audience how the disciples see Jesus. What image do they have of him? We notice together that they call him “teacher,” and they are not sure if he cares whether they drown. Once he calms the storm they still don’t know who he is, asking “who is this?”

“Would pastors here in Congo baptize people like Jesus’ unbelieving disciples?” I ask.  

“Would you baptize people who only saw Jesus as a teacher, and didn’t know who he is (God’s Son, the Christ, God in human flesh)?”

Some of the people looked shocked and others laughed and shook their heads– realizing Jesus has chosen people who are full of fear when adversity comes. He even describes them as having “no faith.”

I’d asked Viviane, one of our teachers from Mauritius to play the tormented demoniac living in the tombs. She was sitting in the corner to the right, and was now ready to spring into action. I had a volunteer read Mark 5:1 and invited the disciples and Jesus to move across the sea towards the “shore” on the right side of the room. Once they land, Viviane jumps out of her chair and runs towards Jesus, bowing before him and crying out:

“What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God, do not torment me!”

We look together at how this man who’d been living in the tombs, who no one could restrain, who was self-harming and crying out night and day, knew Jesus’ identity and showed his allegiance far more than the disciples—but he still needed liberation.

After I taught about how the people were colonized by the Roman Empire, and how the demons are named “Legion” (referring to a Roman military unit), I asked whether there are people in the DRC who were oppressed by evil spirits associated with colonization. Seeing past Belgian colonizers and current mineral extraction by modern-day equivalents to Legion seemed to visibly bolster people’s confidence in the relevance of Scripture for now.

The man tells Jesus to stop tormenting him because Jesus was telling the evil spirits to leave him. We realized together how painful it is for people to be freed from the deep spiritual oppression from colonialism- contributing to self-hatred, violence, passivity, poverty, dependency. 

That Jesus casts the colonizing spirits into pigs shows he’s willing to commit an act of sabotage against a parasitic war economy to save even one man, inviting further reflection on what that means for us now.

We were deeply encouraged by people’s heartfelt appreciation for our teaching and are receiving more and more invites. We are currently in Lesotho, and preparing to send two teams to teach all next week in Solwezi, Zambia and in Malawi and Mozambique in April.

We’ve been preparing to offer more trainings in Francophone Africa,where grass-roots church leaders often lack theological/ministry formation. We now have six French-speaking teachers involved and have already completed trainings in Paris, Switzerland, Morocco, Burundi and Benin with hopes of training more trainers so can we expand our reach. 

I shared with one of our hosts, Lucien, the director of the Campus Pour Christ in DRC, a dream I had about six years back. In the dream, an African man came to me and said: “Venez à Gabon!” (Come to Gabon). I told him I was sad to say that I’d never responded to this dream. He told me that maybe I never asked God “when?”

“I have a close colleague who leads a ministry in Gabon who I’m sure would want to host this training,” he said. “I will connect you!”

Over the next few days Lucien connected me with ministry leaders who want to host our Certificate in Holistic Liberation in Gabon, Chad and Cameroon. 

Meanwhile our previous hosts in Burundi have invited us to offer our training in anew area of Burundi, and to include a “trainer of trainers” course to equip more teachers. We are also scheduled to offer back-to-back modules in Benin the last two weeks of July.

We are in serious need of around $30,000 to offer nine five-day trainings to over 1500 participants. We welcome contributions towards course expenses online here, or through sending a check to Tierra Nueva (Attn: The People’s Seminary), PO Box 410, Burlington, WA 98233, USA.

UK donations can be given through our account at Stewardship. Click here to set up your sign-in details.

Please hold us and our African trainers and the course participants in your prayers this next week as we complete our final course in Lesotho, as people travel long distances daily and teach in Solwezi, Zambia. Check out the video below to experience the joy of worship in the DRC.

Check out my podcast: Disciple: Word, Spirit, Justice, Witness on Spotify or Apple

Una clave sorprendente para la intercesión: Primero, recibir de Jesús– Roberto Ekblad

Este miércoles, en nuestro estudio bíblico semanal de Tierra Nueva, experimentamos una sorprendente nueva comprensión de Marcos 7:24-30. En esta difícil historia, Jesús da una respuesta impactante a la mujer sirofenicia, quien le pide que expulse un espíritu inmundo de su hija.

Primero, Jesús se dirige a la región de Tiro, en el actual Líbano, a 19 kilómetros de la frontera con Israel, una ciudad que recientemente ha sido blanco de ataques aéreos israelíes. Jesús entró en una casa allí para alejarse de la multitud. Marcos especifica que «no quería que nadie lo supiera; sin embargo, no pudo pasar desapercibido» (Mc 7:24).

Una mujer cuya hija pequeña tenía un espíritu inmundo, de alguna manera, se entera de su presencia y «al instante vino y se postró a sus pies» (Mc 7:25).

Marcos especifica que esta mujer era gentil de raza sirofenicia. Por lo tanto, no era considerada parte del pueblo de Dios —los hijos de Israel—, sino más bien una forastera religiosa y social, e impura. Su hija tenía un espíritu inmundo.

Aunque el primer milagro de Jesús en este Evangelio es expulsar un espíritu inmundo (Mc 1:23-26), el beneficiario es un asistente a una sinagoga judía. Más tarde, Jesús envía a sus discípulos a expulsar espíritus inmundos en las aldeas de Galilea (Mc 6:6-7), pero no se menciona que este ministerio fuera solo para judíos.

A sus pies, la mujer gentil “le pedía constantemente a Jesús que expulsara al demonio de su hija” (Mc 7:26). Entonces, ¿por qué Jesús no respondió de inmediato y liberó a su hija?

Como padre, puedo identificarme con la desesperación de esta mujer por ver a su hija liberada. Todos los padres presentes en nuestro estudio bíblico hemos vivido momentos de desesperación, en los que habíamos orado continuamente por nuestros hijos. Estaríamos dispuestos a hacer cualquier cosa, incluso postrarnos a los pies de Jesús si él estuviera aquí. Al leer juntos la respuesta de Jesús, nos sentimos perdidos, incapaces de comprender, durante mucho tiempo.

“Le dijo: “Deja que los hijos se sacien primero, porque no está bien quitarles el pan a los hijos y echárselo a los perros”.

¿Por qué Jesús se muestra tan cruel con esta pobre mujer desesperada? Como personas involucradas en un ministerio que aboga y ora por muchas personas desesperadas, nos sentimos deseosos de salir en su defensa, de desafiar a Jesús. Me encuentro deseando defender a esta mujer y a su hija, convencido de que tienen derecho a la ayuda de Jesús.

Después de todo, Jesús vino como luz para quienes estaban en tinieblas, incluyendo a los de la “Galilea de los gentiles” (Mt 4:12-16). Vino a predicar el Evangelio a los pobres, a proclamar la libertad a los cautivos (Lc 4:18). ¡Ella y su hija ciertamente están incluidas en estas categorías! Entonces, ¿por qué Jesús las excluye y se refiere a ellas como “perros”?

Omi, quien supervisa una casa de recuperación para hombres, menciona que cree que “los perros eran una categoría de personas consideradas impuras por los judíos religiosos porque no profesaban la fe”. Hoy en día, las personas que luchan contra las adicciones se identifican literalmente como “limpias” o “sucias” según si están en recuperación activa o no.

Carol, una mujer blanca de unos 80 años, que perdió a una niña de 10 años y medio y a un niño de 13 años y medio con 18 meses de diferencia a causa de una enfermedad nerviosa degenerativa (NLD), levanta la vista de su Biblia y comenta: “Parece importante que llame a Jesús Señor”.

Emmanual, un hombre que ha asistido a Tierra Nueva durante veinte años, de repente dice: “¡Lo tengo!”. Como hombre negro del centro de Chicago, veterano de la guerra de Irak y alcohólico recuperado, su fe vibrante, nacida de un sufrimiento indescriptible, le otorga una perspectiva única sobre las Escrituras y una autoridad especial, así que todos escuchamos mientras explica.

“Esta mujer dice: “¡Sí, Señor!”. ¡¿Verdad?! Se dirige a él como Dios, lo que de repente la convierte en una de las niñas que recibe el pan primero.

Carol, examinando las notas de su Biblia de estudio a través de sus gafas, nos cuenta que esta es la única vez en el Evangelio de Marcos donde alguien se dirige a Jesús como “Señor” (kurios, la traducción griega del nombre de Dios en el Antiguo Testamento). ¡Más tarde confirmo que es así!

La intuición de Emmanuel y el descubrimiento de Carol cambian repentinamente la conversación, y nos emocionamos. Mientras la mujer abogaba por su hija, Jesús quiere darle algo. Quiere una relación con ella, ¡y con nosotros! Si bien su presencia intercediendo a sus pies por su hija afligida finalmente sería atendida, el hecho de que ella vea a Jesús tal como es, allí en la casa donde intenta esconderse, capta su atención.

Y sus siguientes palabras a Jesús me llaman la atención: “Hasta los perros comen debajo de la mesa las migajas de los hijos” (Mc 7:28).

No hay atisbo de derecho en la respuesta de esta mujer gentil. Más bien, está de acuerdo con Jesús, a pesar de mis protestas, y se humilla sin resistencia, comparándose con un perro que come las migajas de los niños que han caído debajo de la mesa.

Filemón de Gaza escribe hermosamente sobre la humildad de esta mujer en su comentario al Evangelio de Marcos.

“Humillada, aceptó el insulto con gran humildad, tan grande que se consideró más honrada que humillada”

Responding to the blaspheming of Jesus’ name — Bob Ekblad

I’m deeply troubled by the extreme harm done to the name of Jesus, and to the faithful witness of Jesus’ followers over centuries and especially now. When those claiming to be Christian endorse or justify unjust leaders, governments and laws, or are silent in the face of violence, lies and corruption, many are rightly outraged– and the Apostle Paul’s words are tragically confirmed:

“For the name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of you,” just as it is written” (Rm 2:24).

Paul writes this in response to the offensive actions of fellow Jews, who were claiming faithfulness to God while transgressing core teachings of Scripture. This verse comes at the end of prophetic exposé of the spiral of evil that results from “suppressing the truth in unrighteousness” (Rm 1:18-32).

As the world looks on at Israel’s injustices and extreme retributive violence against people living in Gaza and the West Bank it makes the God they claim to worship look cruel or impotent. The image of God reflected by Israel’s killing of 75,000 Palestinians (many of whom were women and children) in response to Hamas’ killing of 1,200 Israelis and the taking of hostages couldn’t be farther from the God of grace and love who promised to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham’s descendants (Gn 12:3).

But God’s name being blasphemed “because of you” equally applies to Christians, the non-Jewish beneficiaries of God’s blessing through Abraham’s descendant— God’s people through conversion!

Blaspheme (blasphemeo in Greek) is defined as speaking in such a way as to harm or injure reputation, and is synonymous with revile, defame or malign.

I have witnessed Jesus’ name and the Christian faith maligned, defamed, blasphemed as a direct result of North American Christians supporting oppressive leaders and policies. For 46 years we lived and ministered amongst poor and marginalized people in countries and communities directly harmed by US policy.

We have seen harm done to people on the margins in the USA due to our sorely inadequate response to mental health disorders, addiction and homelessness and our harsh penal system. Conservative Christians have voted in politicians committed to cutting funding to programs that help the poorest and most marginalized people, and punishing more severely those who need special treatment.

As White Americans who identify as Jesus followers ministering most of our lives among people who fit in the category of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), we have had to differentiate Jesus and ourselves from the negative counter-witness of Christians caught up in partisan politics, racial and national identity and defending their own rights.

We witnessed firsthand the evils of US support of oppressive governments while living in Honduras through the 1980s. It was painful for us to see many American Christians supporting the Reagan and Bush Administrations, who were directly linked to death squads and oppressive militaries that terrorized and killed or disappeared hundreds of thousands in Central America (Approx. 200,000 in Guatemala, 80,000 in El Salvador, 44,000 in Nicaragua, hundreds in Honduras).

Public Christian agreement with US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and more recent support of Israel’s war in Gaza and the harsh treatment of immigrants have compelled us to clarify continually that Jesus’ way has nothing to do with oppression, violence, deportation, war and any kind of injustice.

This has often put us at odds with fellow Christians, who at best may be acting in ignorance. Now, with so many Christians either overtly supporting the Trump Administration and Maga agenda, or remaining silent, the name of Jesus, and Christian witness is being trashed, maligned, blasphemed against more than I’ve seen in my lifetime. This grieves me deeply.

God’s people in exile now

Now when Paul is referring to God’s name being blasphemed, he’s citing the prophet Isaiah’s words, which provide background that is highly relevant to what’s happening today.

Isaiah addresses the people of God living in exile under Babylonian captivity. Throughout Isaiah 1-39 the prophet warns God’s people still in the land that they will be weakened by allegiance to false gods– to the point that they are vulnerable to being carried off into exile, where they’d be subjugated— which is exactly what happened.

“Those who rule over them howl, and my name is continually blasphemed all day long,” the Lord laments through the prophet Isaiah (Is 52:5).

Today, idolatry among those who claim to follow Jesus has resulted in them/us being carried off into exile by the powers. Idolatry, (which looks like allegiance, over-valuing, undue loyalty, and even worship) is widespread in America now, including amongst Christians. It is visible in the overvaluing of money, self, nation, laws, party, flag, race, news media, politicians, democracy, and even values like religious freedom. People are captured by these false gods, carried away into a kind of servitude that we often fail to recognize.

Many people feed almost continuously on news media that supports their biases. Sounds like idolatry to me! The amount of attention and the faith put into television personalities and social influencers is astounding. I witnessed this up close as my own parents watched Fox News and other right-wing influencers almost continuously in the later years, making any kind of effective change in their thinking through conversation almost impossible.

When we have little to no direct proximity to people suffering injustices (immigrants, the homeless, incarcerated, the addicted and the poor), it is much harder to discern the veracity of news reports about these people.

Out of ignorance many people approve of horrific injustices, and blind allegiance to their authority sources. This is deeply offensive to victims, their advocates and to God.

How can anyone claiming to follow Jesus possibly support the harsh treatment of immigrants and their advocates in the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) actions across the United States? How can anyone calling themself a Christian identify with leaders who are so obviously filled with pride, denying truth, falsely accusing their adversaries, elevating violence, threatening destruction, and profiting through shameless corruption?

When we are captive to highly-crafted propaganda, and feed on outright lies presented brilliantly as the truth, we become increasingly closed to viewpoints or news that challenge our assumptions. If our viewpoints are seriously challenged, we may not want to risk breaking with our social network for fear of losing friends. If we are church or ministry leaders, we may be tempted to remain silent to avoid losing church members or donors. We choose slavery over freedom, allowing ourselves to be carried into exile which is called freedom. But this is nothing new.

In the name of Jesus, the Crusaders killed, European colonizers seized land and subjugated peoples, slave-traders and slave-holders enslaved Africans, and settlers killed and took land from Native peoples.

When people who call themselves Christians side with the rich and powerful, justifying violence and injustice– great harm is done. The idolatry of nation, money, whiteness, political and military power, and other powers by Christians cause people who are hurt by these forces to blaspheme the name of Jesus.

As we teach and minister around the world, we meet fellow Christians in country after country, carrying the burden of having to respond to a widespread rejection of Jesus. Many people reject Christianity as “the White man’s religion,” having been harmed by grave injustices and harsh attitudes perpetuated by leaders and policies that Christians have supported. It is time for people of faith to publicly disassociate from unjust leaders, and pledge total allegiance to Jesus and his Kingdom.

The prophet Ezekiel describes God’s extreme displeasure at idolatry and its effects with direct, hard-hitting words.

“Therefore I poured out my wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols” (Ez 36:18).

This prophetic critique serves as a strong warning of coming judgment, where people become aware of their wrongdoing, setting the context for a new way forward.

Isaiah lifts up the role of the peacemaker and proclaimer of good news among those carried off into exile.

“How lovely on the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Is 52:7).

No president, no country, no currency, no market, no billionaire reigns! The One and only God reigns. This higher, invisible reality must be announced. And we must invite people to confess and renounce idolatry and leave our places of exile—our bondage to the powers. Isaiah writes:

“The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God,” a text that is fulfilled in Jesus as he is lifted up on the cross (Jn 12:32).

A call for a new exodus

“Depart, depart, go out from there, touch nothing unclean; Go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves,” cries Isaiah (Is 52:11).

Isaiah here uses language from the Exodus, where God’s people literally left the land of slavery. While physically leaving your country, church or social network may be necessary, this call most certainly refers to spiritual and emotional separation– and whatever purifying yourself means.

The prophet Ezekiel develops the call to purification further and deeper in Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel speaks of idolatry as defilement, using the language of clean-unclean. Citing the Lord, Ezekiel writes:

“When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord; yet they have come out of his land’” (Ez 36:20).

Exile is place to which you’ve been carried away by powers you’ve served, which have enslaved you– perhaps unknowingly. Finding yourself “outside the land” is coming to recognize your alienation, your estrangement– the “land” symbolizing the place where God has called you. Conversion involves leaving your enslavement to the powers– and returning to God and to your highest calling.

Ezekiel describes how God will vindicate himself as we receive his purifying presence—offering hope in these times of accelerating darkness and chaos.

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances” (Ez 36:25-27).

May we leave behind the false ways and become more serious seekers of the truth– informing ourselves through serious journalism and study. May we seek authentic relationship with those whom society demonizes or scapegoats, the stigmatized and rejected. May we consider afresh Jesus, who identified as God’s own Son, but was rejected by his own people and executed by the Roman Empire. May we choose to follow him more diligently, paying close attention to his teaching and practice so it will inform our own. May we seek to maintain communication with Christians we disagree with– challenging them, and allowing ourselves to be challenged.

I’m asking myself how I can leave my place of exile– whatever keeps me in the dark or enslaved in any way. I’m trying to follow Jesus out of America and into the Kingdom of God—the only place of true freedom. May the Holy Spirit give you eyes to see what that looks like for you, and the faith and courage to act accordingly.

Responding to US actions against Venezuela (and Greenland)

The following is a talk I gave Saturday, January 17, 2026 at a protest rally “Hands off Venezuela” in Bellingham, Washington.

My name is Bob Ekblad. I’m a theologian and pastor, co-founder and director of Tierra Nueva—a ministry based in the Skagit Valley. We started in 1994 as a ministry serving farmworkers and jail inmates after living amongst the poor in Central America throughout the 1980s. We are committed to accompanying people affected by immigration, addiction and incarceration. My wife and I and colleagues pastor a faith community in Burlington, and offer trainings around the world through The People’s Seminary– equipping people to serve society’s most vulnerable.

I want to remind us now that we gather this afternoon on the ancestral homeland of the Coastal Salish peoples. In the 1830s European settlers started arriving here– many of whom were direct descendants of English colonizers (like my mother’s relatives, whose ancestry goer back to the original 13 British ruled colonies). While they were seeking religious freedom, economic opportunity, and political liberty— many were doing this at the expense of native peoples—taking land, breaking treaties, committing genocide—building wealth off the backs of oppressed people.

Other Americans did this at the expense of African slaves—used and abused to build the new imperial state. The current “Christian nationalist” & Maga lie that USA is an originally “christian” or “god-ordained” nation, and that the current administration is in any way making it Great (or Christian) again—must be denounced as demonstrably false. Our actual history from the beginning has been marked by outright dispossession, exploitation & imperial domination.

Before the European-origin settlers arrived here there were over 125 tribes and 50 languages and dialects spoken within the borders of this territory later named “Washington State.”   This state was named after the first president of a colonial power gone rogue—who himself was a slave holder. 123 of the 317 enslaved people living at his plantation in Mount Vernon, Virginia in 1799, were owned by George Washington himself!  All of this is a sobering backdrop for today’s protest of the USA’s attacks on Venezuela.

US intervention in Venezuela is nothing new.  My wife and I lived in Guatemala in 1980-81, and Honduras from 1982-88, witnessing firsthand the devastating effects of US intervention in Nicaragua, El Salvador & Honduras, the subsequent imposition of NAFTA—all of which led to a mass migration of war & economic refugees to the US. But before that there was the CIA-involved coup of democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 to defend United Fruit Company holdings, and the US establishment of military dictatorships responsible for genocide. And then there’s the CIA’s deposing elected president Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, Panama, Grenada… the list goes on and on.

What we see now in Venezuela reflects an even more brazen, shameless interventionism. with the recent extrajudicial killings of fishermen & the open admission by Trump that we’ve invaded to take their oil. These actions are more overtly imperialistic than usual. Extrajudicial killings of fishermen, seizing of oil fields…

Since Sept 2, 2025 there have been 32 US drone strikes on Venezuelan fishing boats, killing of at least 115 people in the Caribbean and eastern pacific. These killings have been justified as acts of self-defense against a purported invasion of the US by “narco-terrorist” vessels carrying drugs—though no proof has been given. Some of the drones used in this “war on cartels” have been shot from planes that are unmarked–  a war crime called “perfidy” under international humanitarian law (IHL).

Then on January 3, 2026 the US armed forces conducted strikes on Venezuela— capturing Nicolas Maduro and his wife and bringing them to the US to face justice for drug trafficking. Admittedly Maduro is a complete thug who has stolen elections, committing untold human rights abuses against his people—leading to some 5 million fleeing the country. So there’s little to no sympathy for him.

However, Trump’s December 1, 2025 presidential pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez– who was serving 45 years in a US prison after a US federal jury convicted him of conspiring to traffic more than 400 tons of US bound cocaine through Honduras shows the lie of the US’s claimed motive.

Trump brazenly declared his true motive: the taking by force Venezuela’s oil fields, and has seized six oil tankers, this week even declaring himself “President of Venezuela.”

This kind of blatant intervention in the affairs of a sovereign nation is an ugly repetition of past interventions in Latin America and around the world.

The bypassing of Venezuela (and other countries) own democratic process, the seizing of natural resources & threats to take over whole countries like Greenland is completely unacceptable and must be denounced. Donald Trump and his Administration are not above the law. Though officials may try to justify and defend themselves- before God & the world they stand guilty.

I have been asked to speak today from my particular faith perspective. I ask you to bear with me as I try to describe why I think this is so totally against everything Jesus represents—as the one I and many believe is Israel’s Messiah (though he would not have supported Israel’s invasion of Gaza and actions in the West Bank) & the world’s Savior.

My belief in a Creator God includes my conviction that the earth belongs to God, and has been given to share with its many peoples & creatures. It is not our right to take by force and violence. Might does not make right.

Genesis 1 states clearly that God created each and every human being in God’s image & likeness–  placing everyone on equal footing (from billionaires to those labeled “criminal aliens.”

Recently when a group of our Tierra Nueva faith community met for a Bible study, we workshopped a faith-based response to US intervention in Venezuela.  We read together the ten commandments (which self-avowed Christians like Hegseth, Rubio and many Maga devotees claim to cherish. We identified seven of the ten commandments that we considered broken by recent US actions. Here they are:

  • Fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy (it was Saturday, January 3 when US Special Forces invaded Venezuela and abducted Maduro.
  • Sixth commandment: Thou shalt not kill has been transgressed—with the killing of over 115 fishermen through drone strikes and another 100 Venezuelans when Maduro was seized.
  • Eighth commandment: “Thou shalt not steal,” – action underway with the seizing of Venezuelan oil tankers and oil expropriated.
  • Ninth commandment: “You shall not falsely accuse your neighbor” – Fishermen accused without proof of trafficking drugs into the US…
  • Tenth commandment:  “Thou shall not covert you neighbor’s house…or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (including oil fields!).
  • The first commandment has been violated & is regularly violated by this administration, which is: “You shall have no other gods before Me”— President Trump declared on Wednesday evening that his power as commander in chief is constrained only by, (in his words) “my own morality, my own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me, and that’s very good.”  “Not international law?” another journalist followed up. Trump replied: “I don’t need international law”– placing himself like god above the world (not under god, international law…).
  • The second commandment could also be seen as transgressed: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them.”  America itself is an idol- and the ideology “Make America Great Again” the ultimate transgression—and blatant refusal to embrace the truth that all humans of every tribe, nation on earth are equally made in the image of God- the Creator.

I believe that Jesus embodies the image of God, visibly showing the world what it looks like to be an empowered, love-filled human being in this world. Those who seek to follow him are called to act like him. I’ve personally been drawn to follow Jesus after reading of his actions and teaching in the Gospels of the NT.

In story after story I’ve been moved by Jesus’ embrace of the excluded, his compassion for the poor, oppressed and sick—and his calling of humble people to join him in his mission— “on earth as in heaven.”—a new earth which we can bring about now– without oppression, war, class divisions, exclusion, sickness and death.

  • Jesus encapsulated the whole OT tradition (ten commandments & prophets) as “loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (and not money, nation, party, flag…) and your neighbor as youself.
  • Jesus embodied and proclaimed “good news to the poor,” “freedom to the prisoners,” sight to the blind, liberation to the oppressed.” His teachings are powerful, and if practiced bring justice, mercy, and holistic liberation.
  • Jesus taught that whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave” (Mt 20:26-28).
  • He openly sided with the excluded, treating them with the highest honor & respect—defending them against the powerful of his day.
  • Jesus never justified Roman imperial domination—but brought healing and empowerment from the bottom up. He was executed by the Romans through crucifixion— the death penalty of that time.
  • Jesus followers believe he defeated the worst sanction the empire could use—death itself, through his resurrection.
  • Baptism is about symbolic death and resurrection so we can live fearlessly now—advancing this new realm of love and justice.

While Venezuela’s president stole their last election and was an authoritarian dictator whose demise many people celebrate, Jesus says something that totally relates to the US’s recents actions against Venezuela.

“Do not judge lest you be judged… Cast the log out of your own eye, so you can see clearly to cast the speck out of your brother/sister’s eye” (Mt 7:1-5).

For the US President to practice this would mean facing squarely his own crimes & sins, including his own arrogant authoritarianism—casting them from himself and his administration—before he can ever see clearly anything in anyone (Maduro, Iranian leadership…). For the American public to practice this could mean casting our own sovereign from office through impeachment or elections, making him/them face justice– before we look across the Caribbean (or anywhere)— to challenge foreign heads of state.

In conclusion, we are in no way a Christian nation. At best we can become kind of representative democracy, informing ourselves and working together to establish a system of checks and balances, promoting actions that defend people’s human rights in our own country and in places like Venezuela, Iran, Sudan and beyond. May we work for justice and peace on behalf of society and the world’s most vulnerable.

The current administration is engaged in one anti-Christ action after another. May we humbly confess our historical & current crimes and change course—opposing the taking of Greenland, Gaza’s annexation, ICE’s terrorizing of immigrant communities, and whatever else brings harm. May we treat our own vulnerable populations around us with the utmost respect—making sure we are acting locally as we think globally.

God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble– In 2026? When?

I’ve been encouraged lately by verses like James 4:6, which states two truths— the first of which is not so visible these days: 1) “God opposes to the proud, 2) and gives grace to the humble.” Since I believe I am currently witnessing firsthand God giving grace to the humble, I am encouraged to believe that the proud will not prevail. God’s movement in history to finally raise up the poor is a victory I embrace by faith as I seek to identify and participate in the movement Jesus’ kingdom now.

Grace given to the humble

My Zambian friend Boyd is a humble, soft-spoken man who is full of a quality of grace that seems given by God. Now 54 years old, he and his wife Gloria have five children. A Bishop of a Pentecostal denomination, he oversees some 20 pastors and has personally established 13 churches in impoverished urban neighborhoods and rural villages near the Southern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He also teaches with us through The People’s Seminary.

Boyd is not paid to pastor his pastors and parishioners. Like most African faith leaders, Boyd farms for a living. His life is one of hard manual labor and humble pastoral accompaniment of the poor, born of a love that he says came into him when he was adopted by a pastor after he and his siblings became orphaned when he was twelve.

He describes a hard upbringing marked by his parent’s divorce. When his mother moved far away, he was raised by his father who died when he was twelve. Relatives took everything that belonged to their dad, leaving him and his four siblings with nothing. It was then that a humble pastor took them into his home.

“When the family of my dad rejected us, this man, Bishop Sinkala, took me as his own,” recounts Boyd. There were many other children he took– making it twenty who lived in his small home.

“He was always smiling, full of joy. I knew he was passing through struggles. He showed me that love which I didn’t find from my family. I experienced this love from him. He was always talking about Jesus. Sometimes there was no food in the house. He was always joyful. “The Lord will provide for us,” Bishop Sinkala said. “And the Lord always did. This man always gave me food when I was hungry, paid for my clothes, and helped me go back to school, paying for my school fees and transport. That love that I experienced from him led me to want to follow Jesus when I was 13,” Boyd tells me on a WhatsApp call.

By age twenty Boyd felt called to help others come to know and receive the love of God. He was drawn to go from house-to-house, and rode his bicycle to remote villages to gather people to hear the message of Jesus. He started churches in remote areas where he saw the greatest need.

“I know what I have been through and I want to share this love with many,” he tells me. People in rural areas need the word of God, they need Jesus. They have no light. When I bring the projector to show the Jesus film, they come. It brings me joy.”

Now Boyd and his wife still have four children at home: Blessing 19, Promise 15, Shakinah 13 and Melchizedek 7. They have taken in an additional six children- including some neighbors and relatives. They have a room for the boys, a room for the girls, their own room, and two rooms full of 370 chickens!

We first became aware of his home-based chicken farm when he and his wife invited to a meal on our second visit to Zambia. While eating fried chicken in his living room with our team we could hear peeping and smell chicken manure. He gave us a tour of his house, showing us two large bedrooms full of chickens.

He shared how he’s used the money to help some of the neighborhood children and children of his pastors cover their school fees. He used money from the sale of chickens to pay for 1000 cinderblocks to build one of his churches and to help his oldest daughter Catherine go to medical school. Last month 340 of his latest brood of 370 chickens died when floodwaters filled his home, requiring them now to seek new housing on higher ground (see video below). Boyd tells me he’s not worried.

“I am confident that God will provide,” he says with a smile. “These experiences are a school where we learn—like the children of Israel were taught by God in the wilderness.” Boyd is experiencing firsthand Psalm 25:9, “He leads the humble in justice, and he teaches the humble his way.”

He plants corn and other crops to feed his family. He’s won the trust of hundreds of church leaders from many denominations, which was evident when he hosted our first Zambian Certificate in Holistic Liberation that 400 pastors attended. Each evening after full days of teaching, Boyd took us to preach and minister to the churches he started.

These churches are humble structures with walls sometime made of adobe, and other times much simpler frames with plastic bags to keep out the wind. Several of the churches did not yet have roofs—as in Prayer Tower pictured below.

While Boyd and his people are certainly the meek who Jesus speaks about in the Beatitudes, they are not yet visibly inheriting the earth. They are experiencing provision, training and growth in their families and faith communities. They certainly look like they are in line to be beneficiaries of the promise of Psalm 37:11 “But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.”

God opposes the proud

In contrast, God’s opposition to the proud is less visible in these dark times here in the USA and elsewhere. The rich and powerful are amassing riches at an accelerated rate. Powerful political leaders appear to be getting away with levels of deception, corruption, lawlessness, killing, and abuse of power like I’ve never seen.

It seems we are now witnessing firsthand Psalm 73 incarnate at the highest levels of government and business.

“I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; the garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue parades through the earth” (Psalm 73:3-9).

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has expressed repeatedly his belief that naked power, lethal force is good and necessary. In his speech before top military officials in September 2025, he boasted:

“We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement…. “Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department.”

Over the past month the Trump Administration has launched drone attacks against fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela that have killed over 100 people and seized oil tankers. This week the US military then attacked Venezuela, taking its President Maduro and his wife by force to face criminal charges in New York. This was followed by declarations that the US will run Venezuela and seize its oil. Shortly after President Trump threatened to attack Columbia and boasted of taking Greenland for the US. This was followed by the brutal killing of a woman by an ICE agent during raids following a massive deployment of federal agents in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

One of President Trump’s tops aides, Stephen Miller responded to Jake Tapper of CNN this Monday regarding events in Venezuela and threats against Greenland with a statement that goes directly against the prophet Zechariah famous words in Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but my Spirit” says the Lord of hosts.” Said Miller:

“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

As a child I memorized Proverbs 16:18, which I still know by heart according the King James Version: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Wouldn’t this verse alone cause anyone claiming to take the Jewish and Christian Scriptures seriously to stop supporting prideful and haughty leaders?! I took to heart the strong warning in this proverb, which reminded me to be vigilant over my heart. Alerted to devastating consequences of pride and a haughty spirit – “destruction” and “a fall,” I found myself noticing it to such an extent that it often kept me from trusting anyone seemed prideful of haughty.

This verse alone serves as a basis for discernment as to whether anyone should pursue making America great again. National pride, racial pride, or any kind of pride and boasting is a set up for destruction and a fall. How could people who claim to follow Jesus of Nazareth ever follow celebrities or politicians who are blatantly prideful and haughty?

Psalm 73 ends with declarations regarding the fate of the powerful that should make anyone aligned with them jump ship, not remain silent and resist by aligning more fully with Jesus now:

Surely you set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!” (Ps 73:18-19).

The promise of Scripture is that God “scatters those who are proud in the thoughts of their heart, brings down rulers from their thrones and exalts those who are humble (Lk 1:51-52). This has already begun with the exaltation of Jesus, raised from the dead and seated in the heavenly realm. Jesus’ defeat of death on the cross and exaltation is our assurance that the meek and humble of the earth will follow.

I see signs of God’s raising up the humble in the witness of people like Bishop Boyd in Zambia. His plans this year include starting anew his chicken-raising project, increasing his small goat herd of seven to 150 so he can build still more faith communities. He is welcoming us to teach the second module of our Certificate in Holistic Liberation to 200 pastors in NW Zambia at the end of March. He will himself teach courses with us to humble pastors and church leaders in Malawi and Mozambique in April.

Boyd is like many other humble Jesus followers actively advancing King Jesus’ kingdom under the radar of empire. This is a victorious kingdom that cannot be stopped, which will advance until final victory upon Jesus’ return. This is my hope in 2026 and beyond.

If you would like to contribute to helping Bishop Boyd’s chicken-raising project and training of pastors you can make a donation in the following ways:

Go to www.tierra-nueva.org and click on “Donate” (https://www.tierra-nueva.org/donate). There you will find a dropdown menu where you can designate your gift. All gifts from US donors are tax deductible. You can also mail a check to:

New Earth-Tierra Nueva
PO Box 410
Burlington, WA 98233

If you live in the UK you can give through our account at Stewardship. Click here to set up your sign-in details.

Check out Bob’s most recent podcast “Disciple: Word, Spirit, Justice, Witness” below– “What does it look like to live by faith?”

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Joining Jesus in his mission to raise up the poor and needy

“Who is like the Lord our God, enthroned on high, who humbles himself to see” all of us here on the earth?” (Ps 113:5-6).  “He raises the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap, making them sit with princes” (Ps 113:7-8).  Jesus embodies this humbling of himself and compassionate way of seeing. He invites us as his disciples to join him.

Paul invites us to “have this attitude in yourselves which was in Christ Jesus, who though in the form of God he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-8).

What does it look like for us to join Jesus in humbling himself and raising up the poor and needy? We can start by trying to consciously notice who we notice. We can take another deliberate step by asking Jesus who he wants to raise up, how we can initiate contact, and where to go from there.  As we do this, we enter a process of mutual transformation alongside whomever we’re drawn to.

As we approach a person we remember to treat them with the highest respect—not offering a fix, pressuring them to do anything or even a suggestion of any kind of a solution.

Attunement to our own anxiety and consciously receiving the love and peace of Christ for ourselves helps us pass on that love and peace as we talk or sit with someone. Sitting with people in their pain, listening to them, refusing judgement or any agreement with self-accusation will establish trust.

When a person trusts us enough to share their story, we hear details that begin to give us a picture of their lives that will change ours. Lately I’ve been seeing many who fit in the category of poor and needy stuck in a low place, seemingly blocked from being lifted up.

Often the poor and needy are themselves rescuers who have been used and even preyed upon by people they’ve tried to help. Other times they’ve been the objects of countless rescue efforts. Some have been abandoned repeatedly as unredeemable. Their failures to rescue others (or be rescued) have left them feeling like failures. Many are stuck in emotionally anguish, suffering psychological and physical pain born of deprivation, abuse and other traumatic events. Many people turn to alcohol and drugs to ease their pain, which has led to incarceration, homelessness and criminal lifestyles.

People often feel unworthy of being lifted up by anyone, including God, because they blame themselves for their failures. They may feel shame for sacrifices they’ve made for others that were not acknowledged or successful—or for other people’s failed sacrifices.

They may have internalized guilt, blame and shame that have gone so deep, resulting in low self-esteem and even self-hatred, sometimes leading to self-harm, overdose and suicide attempts.  As we hear people’s life stories, we may begin to see our own story with new eyes.

We may find that people are punishing themselves, refusing God’s elevation. As we encounter people in these states, we may see that we ourselves are in a similar place, rescuing others as a kind of subconscious penance, a way to feel better about ourselves– rather than from a place of truly knowing God’s unconditional love and acceptance.

We may find that we identify with people’s refusal to let Jesus raise them up—because we too are refusing this for ourselves. We feel more comfortable being down with those who are down—as we subconsciously believe this is what we deserve. This may be why we are drawn to the poor and needy—because we identify with them. We too are poor and needy. Are we too in need of Jesus to raise us up?

We may come to see that we, like those we seek to raise up, are out to save others. We may learn that we do this out of a kind of rescuer identity that we learned in our family of origin—and not always (or rarely) because Jesus sent us. Will we let him save us and send us? Or do we feel too uncomfortable on the receiving end of Jesus’ saving love? Maybe we are afraid to let him love us into a new identify that we are not familiar with, that we feel we don’t deserve.

Are we afraid of elevation? Many people don’t want to be seen as better. Some of us already feel like people see us as better than them. We may wonder whether certain people think we secretly think that we are better than them—  and some may not be able to imagine that we see them as equal or better.

And then there is survivor guilt.  We feel we must now work hard helping others at risk, in order to justify our own existence. Some of us may think: “To the one who has been given much, much is required.”  We cannot rest. We drive ourselves to the point of burnout, exhaustion, ill health, death…

People (myself included) are often more comfortable being down and staying down– afraid to let themselves be loved, forgiven, and elevated.  We come to see that the poor and needy struggle to receive God’s powerful, unconditional love. But we see too that we ourselves have the same problem! As we seek to lift someone up who is resisting our love, we come to see that we too need to receive Jesus’ love for ourselves. In fact, if we don’t, we will have nothing to give.

We encounter people who do not seem to want to be lifted up, as it would mean leaving their comfort zone— a place with others like themselves where they have a sort of community. Or a place of co-dependency where they are used, rejected, stomped on, and in other ways mistreated—which strangely they may feel they deserve.

As we serve and encounter resistance, we see that we need to invite certain people to flee their downtrodden state. But when we see them resisting, we wonder whether they maybe haven’t yet bottomed out—to the point of saying:

“I’m done!— with sacrificing myself (often for others) as my core identity to the point of self-harm.  Now I finally surrender to Jesus and accept his unconditional acceptance!”

People who are downtrodden need to hear how and why they are beloved, valued, and precious in God’s sight just as they are. This message will be more believable if it is delivered by someone who has deeply received it and believed it for themselves!  The messenger must themself receive a message inspired by the Creator—who alone knows the messenger and the receiver fully. It is only the Spirit who can reveal a life-giving message that is tailor-made for each person.

“For to us God revealed through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among people knows the [thoughts] of a person except the spirit of the person which is in him/her?” (1 Cor 2:11).

When our message is inspired by the Holy Spirit, it will more easily be received through faith by the hearer.

This message must be embodied by someone who shows God’s love through physical presence and other concrete acts of service, advocacy and words. Through our respectful, dignifying presence people can experience their belovedness.

When someone chooses to trust us, to open their heart and receive from us, something sacred happens. We experience what Jesus tells his disciples: “The one who receives you receives me, and the one who receives me receives him who sent me” (Mt 10:40). This experience of mediating the Divine Presence is what we are created for. But as John the Baptist was not himself the light, but bore witness to the Light (Jn 1:7-8), we too are not the Savior. We point away from ourselves to Jesus, to whom people can directly connect with themselves.

Another person’s faith cannot be sustained if it is only placed in us, our church or organization.  We cannot be there for people 24/7. Human saviors will always be inadequate—creating unsustainable dependency that finally disappoints.  The living, resurrected God—Jesus, is who they (we) need. He alone can bring them up and out of their darkness and chaos into a new place where they can experience the fullness of life.

Being raised up by Jesus happens when we open ourselves to letting him love us 100%, forgive us for all our offenses, receive his offer of unconditional acceptance, and accept the Holy Spirit to comfort, empower and guide us into our truest vocations as active participants in his mission. We can step into his movement now, which includes a promise of provision and eternal security as we seek first his kingdom and righteousness. We are offered continuous spiritual formation as he continues to teach through his Word and Spirit.

Let us join Jesus in his raising up the poor and needy, which starts by letting him elevate us!  As we surrender to God’s love may we learn to love ourselves as God loves and cares for us— mind, body and spirit. Let’s seek a lifestyle that models what we hope for those we seek to raise up: Getting enough rest and exercise, eating well, spiritual practices and study that sustain us, and even going on vacations!

Jesus wants you and me to join him in his mission—a global mission that involves making disciples who will continue the work of raising up the poor and needy.  As you abide in his love you will have the strength to endure—to bear fruit for his kingdom, entering into his eternal joy.

God’s action in history elevates the poor and brings down the powerful: A reflection on Psalm 113

In these times when billionaires are visibly amassing wealth, politicians are bowing before their powerful shot callers, the world’s most vulnerable people and creatures are under assault, Psalm 113 tells us of the higher, unstoppable reality of the Creator’s agenda, which we are invited to contemplate and join.

Praise is called for, to the Master of the universe, in the face of impending darkness.

“Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever.  From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations; his glory is above the heavens” (Ps 113:1-4).

The Psalmist then offers surprising reasons for this call to worship, asking:

“Who is like the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high?”  (v. 5).

We don’t yet know if anyone is like the Lord— until we read the next very un-demigod-like description (quite unlike modern day authoritarians!) of God in the second half of the question:

“Who humbles himself to behold the things in the heavens and in the earth.”

The God here, called Lord (the divine name in Hebrew, YHWH) is “enthroned on high”—that is, in the place of the highest governing power. Yet this God humbles himself—something unheard of for a powerful sovereign—and especially for God (the way many view God).

The Hebrew verb shaphal is sometimes translated here “he stoops down”- which portrays someone who is still standing above (enthroned in heaven), bending forward. I wonder whether translators choose “stoop” because “humbling himself” when applied to God may have seemed to some as going too far, sounding even scandalous. Yet the meaning also includes “being abased” and “low,” and a related word applied to geography. Shephelah means “lowlands”— inviting us to contemplate a truly humble God.

God goes low, humbling himself “to see”– the best translation of the underlying Hebrew raah. And what does God see when God comes low?

There’s no mention of God seeing “the things”—which is added into many translations. The Psalm in fact literally reads “to see in the heavens and in the earth.” The “in” can be translated “in,” “inside,” or “within”—inviting us to contemplate God seeing quite deeply, even intimately.  Who God sees shows God’s lowliness, which becomes clearer in the next line.

“He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap” (v. 7).  God sees the poor and needy—the victims of our racial and class divisions, violence and oppression. God’s seeing involves direct action—as God is looking towards the new heavens and the new earth. Do we see who God sees? Are we joining God in this proximity to the lowly?

God sees the poor in the dust and does not leave them there. God raises the poor up and out of their deprivation. God lifts the needy up and away from the ash heap. The term “raise up” in the Greek version of Psalm 113 means “to get up” (Mt 9:6,25; 17:7), and to be raised from the dead (Mt 11:5; 17:23; 20:19). God lifts up the needy, and the verb used in the Greek  version, anuphoo, means “to lift up, be extolled, made tall.” God raises and lifts up “to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.”

This is hard to understand— as this movement is the opposite of what we now see accelerating in our world. These days the rich and powerful are distancing themselves further and further from the poor and marginalized— whom they often exploit, oppress and scapegoat. Here in this vision of the new heaven and new earth, the poor and needy “sit with” and not “work under” or “for” the princes/rulers—and they are not incarcerated or deported by them!

Here in the Greek version, “princes” designates non-human powers, as in Ephesians 6—which states that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against “rulers” (archon).

God’s work here is to raise up the poor and needy and make them sit with princes, erasing the historic distance by bringing equality. Mary’s radical song when pregnant with Jesus, the “Magnificat,” appropriates Psalm 113 and Hannah’s song (1 Sam 2), announcing judgment of the powers. She prophesies God’s scattering of the proud, bringing down rulers, reversing the fortunes of the rich–  and lifting up the humble to an even higher place, and filling the hungry.

“He [God} has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed” (Lk 1:52-53).

The Psalmist calls God’s people to worship the God who is unlike any god. This God humbles himself to see, and to raise up the poor and needy— inviting us to do likewise. We are now called to resist the movement of human history around us in confident hope in God’s final victory, in alignment with Jesus and his kingdom.

We are invited to see as Jesus sees, who upon “seeing the people, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9:37).

We are invited to hear with Jesus’ disciples his call, and to respond: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beg the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest” (Mt 10:37-38).

Black Lives Still Really Matter! Spotlight on Sudan

The news media keeps our attention on issues of varied importance, while chronically focussing less attention on mass killings and starvation fueled by US companies and allies that affect people considered of lesser value– such as Black (Sub-Saharan) Africans.

Currently a genocide is underway in Sudan that goes largely unreported by the mainstream media. An estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people have been killed since the conflict began on April 15, 2023. More than fourteen million have been displaced (see this).

The RSF rebel group responsible for the worst atrocities is covertly backed by UAE (United Arab Emirates), who claim they are only offering humanitarian aid. But reputable reports show that the UAE is working with the rebel group responsible for mass killings, who control gold mines that interest the rich and powerful (have you noticed what’s happening with the price of gold?!). See this article and this one.

US defense contractors have been largely supplying the UAE, especially since President Trump and his tech billionaire partners met with Arab leaders and agreed to sell the UAE $1.4 billion worth of military aircraft and equipment (read this).

Recent mainstream articles emphasize the UAE’s supplying the Sudan rebel group with Chinese drones (which is the case), obscuring the fact that US companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies Corp. Boeing and General Atomics have been enriching themselves. May we keep our eyes and ears open so we can pray and act intelligently for the preservation of life– exposing injustices and advocating for victims, as the Spirit guides.

Below is a appeal written by our dear friend Jennie Telfer, whose Sudanese husband Malik’s family is directly affected by the civil war. Please prayerfully consider Jennie’s appeal.

Dear Friends,

With the news coming out of Sudan, it’s been a long and emotional week. So, I’ll lament a bit below… if you’ll bear with me.

El Fasher is a city in Sudan which has been under siege by the Rapid Support Forces for over 500 days. The siege was so severe that people were starving to death. The US and many European nations decided to reduce their humanitarian aid and development funding this year (image with details attached) – while increasing their military budgets. Funds that were used to keep alive the malnourished – preventing the war-induced, man-made famine in Sudan from killing more people – all dried up earlier in the year.

El Fasher fell to the RSF last weekend – two days after the Sudanese Army retreated, abandoning the civilians to a genocidal militia. The RSF moved in and, as expected, have been killing civilians en masse – including over 400 people at a MATERNITY hospital. The blood and piles of bodies are visible in satellite images. Cell networks have all been shut down, but using starlink access, the RSF has been uploading terrible videos of their war crimes. Before the war broke in 2023, El Fasher was a city of over 1 million people. At the time it fell to the RSF, there were an estimated 220,000 people there. We have no idea how many souls were lost to the RSF slaughter.

This is personal ~ Malik’s family is living in locations under occupation or siege by the RSF… all suffering from the man-made famine of this war… three pregnant sisters… lots of young nephews and nieces whose growth is being stunted by malnutrition and whose lives are all still at risk by this genocidal militia.

The RSF’s violence is backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE- aka, Dubai, Abu Dhabi) – who has been providing weapons and trafficking foreign soldiers to fight for the RSF since the beginning of the war. The UAE is trying to exploit the natural resources of Sudan- stripping Sudan of its natural wealth at the cost of Sudanese lives. Despite US and UN intelligence verifying that the UAE is backing the RSF with weapons – and despite the US designating the RSF violence as genocide – the US and Canada continue to sell weapon systems to the UAE. US weapons and Canadian armored vehicles (produced by Streit Group) are being used in Sudan. I can’t adequately express the devastation in knowing my government and my tax dollars are contributing to the destruction of our family there.

To add insult to injury, the US and Canada are shut off to any Sudanese refugees. The Canadian government veils its racist refugee resettlement by imposing bureaucratic delays for Sudanese (I keep hearing of Sudanese people dying while waiting for the Canadian government to respond to their requests to take refugee with their own families in Canada); the US does not veil its racism at all – putting a blanket travel ban on any Sudanese visa applicants while reducing refugee numbers by 94% and prioritizing the 7,500 refugee spots now available for White South Africans. The racism and the complicity in Sudanese death is too much.

I have a few requests for you:
1 – Please keep your eyes on Sudan, bear witness to their suffering, and pray for them.
2 – Please ask your friends and faith communities to pray for peace in Sudan, too. Please do so openly and publicly.
3 – If you have any extra funds, please share with grassroots groups trying to pick up the pieces dropped when our governments stopped sharing with the world’s hungry. Here are a few groups needing emergency help: www.tinyurl.com/SudanFamine
4 – Take action to boycott the UAE, tell our governments to stop sending weapons to the UAE, encourage an arms embargo on Sudan, and protest racist refugee resettlement policies. Click here.

Sincerely grateful to any of you who don’t look away,

Jennie 김수정
Mobilizer & Conflict Transformation Trainer
Peace Catalyst International

The People’s Seminary is breaking new ground in Malawi and Mozambique

Today our African teaching team of seven began a training for 180 pastors and church leaders in a remote region of Mozambique. The five-day course is taking place under the shade of a huge Mukina tree– with temperatures reaching 107 degrees F (42 C). 

 The photo above reminds us of The People’s Seminary’s origins in Honduras– where courses took place under huge mango trees. We even called it “Universidad Bajo Los Mangos” (photo below). 

Then and now we were impacted by Scriptures like Luke 4:42, telling how Jesus left towns and went into the wilderness, where the crowds searched for him. Jesus taught ordinary people outdoors, where they spent most of their time– on mountains, along the road, by the seashore. This inspires us.In Honduras we trained and sent out local people as trainers– something which we are now also doing in Africa.

Why Africa? We never imagined that we would leave Central America at the height of our work there. But the political climate in the 80s made it impossible for us to stay. Then there was a huge exodus of Hondurans in search of work in the US. At the same time the African harvest became plentiful, and the workers are…still few.

What a joy to hear reports of people who eagerly attend our five-day module 1 training: “Identity, Liberation, Healing, and Mission.”

Pastor Uritta, one of our teachers from Zimbabwe (pictured with a black purse) reports:

“We had a good number of audience who were so engaged in the teachings and were participating in the discussions contributing and asking questions. We desire to see leaders gain knowledge, being healed and being transformed so that they lead healthy churches.”Six of our teachers made their way to Malawi and now Mozambique from three countries. Boyd and Christopher took the two-day bus journey from Ndola, Zambia. Richard, Elizabeth and Uritta came by bus from Gueru, Zimbabwe. Colleen came the furthest by plane from Cape Town. There they joined our hosts Kelvin and team to offer the first week of training in Malawi.

Last week 200 pastors and church leaders met under tents in a rural village to receive the teaching over five days. Uritta, who taught on healing from father and mother wounds, ministry protocol, and praying for healing and deliverance writes:

“The seminar was impactful and inspiring. I was so overjoyed seeing people’s lives touched and impacted. The atmosphere was great and the team spirit was amazing.The team members were excellent in their presentations which l learned so much from and grew spiritually, deepening my faith as well.”

The People’s Seminary provided a 200-page manual translated from English into Chichewa for each participant (pictured with Kelvin below).We are shocked and saddened to hear that most of these pastors do not have a Bible in their language (or any language). In our last training in Malawi we were able to purchase and distribute 200 Bibles to the participants. We would like to be able to purchase 380 Chichewa language Bibles from the Malawi Bible Society at $10 each to distribute to these new course participants in Malawi and Mozambique. 

In the meantime we continue to teach with the manuals, using Bibliodramas– inviting response and praying for people during ministry times.

Elizabeth teaching with Mozambican translatorWe are now preparing to offer our Certificate in Holistic Liberation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, and to offer Module 2 in Lesotho, Benin, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique in 2026.

We welcome contributions towards Bibles or course expenses online here, or through sending a check to Tierra Nueva (Attn: The People’s Seminary), PO Box 410, Burlington, WA 98233, USA.

UK donations can be given through our account at Stewardship. Click here to set up your sign-in details.

Please hold our African trainers and the course participants in your prayers this week as they travel long distances daily and teach in sweltering heat. 

Consider signing up for a self-paced Certificate in Holistic Liberation, which involves watching weekly videos, following a manual and meeting online on the first Monday of each month (10:00-11:30am PST) with participants from around the world (scholarships available). Check it out and sign up here.

Check out my podcast “Disciple: Word, Spirit, Justice, Witness” on Apple or Spotify.