Ronnie Raven- Reaching a Milestone

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Go to natinakolov.com and get registered today for the Holy Land Tour. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, The Russian Nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. My guest today is no stranger to the Man Up show. We have had him on before, and it's great to welcome him back because there's a special, special day. He hit a milestone in ministry, and that's what I want to talk about today. Welcome back to the show, Ronnie Dean Raven, aka The Preaching Machine. Welcome, Ronnie, to the Man Up show. Welcome back.

Thank you, champ. We're so excited and filled with the power and spirit of the Holy Ghost. If the rapture takes place while we're making this broadcast, I will make the first 10 feet on my own. Well, I hear that.

I am, as scripture says, eagerly awaiting his return as well. But until then, until that happens, you know, we're going to talk about this milestone that you have recently reached. And before we get there, though, let's talk about a little bit for our listeners.

Now, some may have heard you in the past, but we get a lot of brand new listeners to the show. And so there may be some who don't know who The Preaching Machine is, aka also The Raven, coming to us from the great state of Missouri, the Show-Me State. Hey, Ronnie, why do they call Missouri the Show-Me State?

Any idea? Well, it was back, there's several stories, champ, but it was back in the Civil War and they come to the conclusion that between slavery and non-slavery and what the war was all about, you got to show me. So that's where the details really begin. And the old timers had pictures, the Show-Me State then had a picture of a donkey. So, you know, we're kind of like, the old timers say we're stubborn and you've got to show me. And they just wanted to prove that the Civil War was worth fighting for and what the conclusion was. OK, so so it goes back to the Civil War days.

And so then it just kind of kind of stuck. So the people of Missouri. So I guess you still for the people of Missouri still have to prove anything and everything to them. Is that kind of? Pretty much, champ. Back in that day, during the Civil War, Missouri was part of, I mean, they fought on both sides, but Missouri was part of some other states that were called Know-Nothings. Know-Nothings. You had to prove it to them.

You had to bring the plate to the table. Well, I think, and of course, I'm no wrestling historian, but all that said, it seems like there in a number of different states, there were actually people that fought on either side and in some cases and even family, right? There was even some brothers who were on opposing sides, from what I remember.

That's true, champ. Yeah. And we're right on the line there.

Kentucky, Tennessee, you know, joined Missouri. And so we was right on the line. All I know is, and I say this truthfully, the good guys won. I hear you.

And man was set free. Thank you, Lord. And so, Ronnie, so you live in the great state of Missouri. And for our listeners, tell them what town you're in and tell a little bit about your family. We live in Farmington. Been here 20 years. It's an hour's drive from St. Louis, an hour and 15 minutes from Popper Bluff and Arkansas, just a few more minutes down the road. I'm really from Cherryville and Davisville.

I graduated from Cherryville High School, which is between Steelville, Missouri and Salem, Missouri. And my ancestors, the Heddies, were all preachers. I made the 10-point star. There was 10 lively and very active in the ministry at one time. And I became the 10-point star. Then my brother Jerry made that an 11-point star. So a lot of ministry history in your family.

Correct. My grandmother, Mary Ann Heady, she's a cousin to the famous country and western singer, Perlin Husky, and used to take care of him when he was smaller. Her maiden name was White. She also was a minister. And back in that day, believe me, women preachers weren't all that popular at that time.

And I'm not condoning that at all. If you're called to preach and have the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon you, that's what you're supposed to do. God even anointed a donkey in the Old Testament and a rooster in the New Testament.

So his anointing breaks and destroys every yoke. But she was quite a preacher. And almost every time she ministered to him, sinners got saved.

Almost every sermon. Wow. So she had quite a history. She had quite a history. You have quite a history. And now I know, but our listeners don't. You have some children and grandchildren.

Tell us about them. Yes, my son, Ronnie Dean II, he pastors two churches in Arndale, Missouri. On Sunday morning at 9, he's at the Methodist Church, which is referred to as the Old Brick Church.

And then he walks two blocks, and then he pastors at 1015 at the Nazarene Church. Plus, he's a high school teacher in Potosie, Missouri. And my brother Jerry preaches as well in the family. And my grandson, DX, whose name is Dake Xavier, was named after Finis Dennings Dake of the Dake Bible. He and my uncle, Floyd E. Heady, were personal friends.

He knew my grandfather as well, but he was closer to Floyd E. Heady, my uncle. In fact, my uncle Floyd Heady in Indiana preached Finis Dennings Dake's mother's funeral. And he was one of the very first ones back in the 60s to start selling the Dake Bible. It wasn't, they weren't to be found at that time in a Bible bookstore. And four of those brothers all preached, and then they had kids that preached. But my son and his son, my grandson, and my brother are all preaching right now. That's amazing.

The generational lineage continues on. And I know you have a daughter that lives up on the northeast. Yes, in Maine. In fact, she was just here and left after seven days. We took her to the airport Saturday. And her and Scotty, her husband, Pastor Shift, is a full gospel church in Windom, Maine.

And they just take your top camp. In fact, she brought out a bunch of things that had happened and how you preached and your following up there in Maine. And they dearly love you. Well, I always enjoy going up to the great state of Maine.

I think they call that the Granite State, I think. Don't quote me on that, or you may know. Okay.

But, okay. And so Darla Belle and Scotty and Ronnie and who else? Well, Raven, you know, my granddaughter.

And she dearly loves this camp. As far as I know, on my dad's side, there was two preachers. And both of them, there's a 10 all together named Benjamin Franklin. That was their names.

And it was 10 all together. Of course, they named their kids Benjamin Franklin, but they all went by Benny. But there was two preachers on my dad's side. But when I started preaching, I was the original on my dad's side as far as him and my family.

Okay. And so we've talked about two of your children. Do you have more than two?

Yes, I have Fabian Dion, which, you know, dearly loves you as well. And my son Ronnie, he was always his favorite wrestler. So when we brought you in to Toney Point at the campground, we had two o'clock services there. It was a revival center. He was there several times. And he was just in ecstasy.

He goes, Dad, I can't believe it. And then he pastored in Park Hills, Missouri for a while. And me and you did services there as well. And then I've got a daughter, Janie, Courtney Jane. She's like a nurse practitioner.

And she works in the Cape Girardeau area where Rush Limbo was born and raised. And then my baby son is Spencer. He's 27. He's the baby. He's the little one of the family, so to speak. Yeah, well, yeah.

He's a head taller than me, but so to speak. Right. That's how it seems like to always work out somehow. And then how many grandkids total? Eight. Eight grandkids. So that's that's amazing.

And so there's action. So there's wrestling fans in Missouri, Ronnie? Oh, my, wrestling at the Chase, you know, Chase Park Plaza down on Kings Highway in St. Louis. Sam Mushnick and eight time champion, Harley Race.

They did a whole lot of promotions and brought in the wrestlers. And Lou Thesz lived there in St. Louis. That was his home. Well, that's a legendary. It goes way back to him. That's a legendary name right there. Lou Thesz. And for those listening out there, if you're not familiar with who Lou Thesz is, I'd encourage you to Google him or research him.

Yeah, he's legendary. And and I know over the years, I mean, as we've talked and of course, we got to know each other about 25 years ago through Harley Race. Isn't that correct?

That's right. Through an event that I was I guess I was speaking at or making an appearance for Harley, I believe. Well, it was Friday night at the Aunt Louis house.

It's on Lafayette and Jefferson. Legendary. And Harley had a wrestling event. He and I and Ravenstar Productions put it on. And there was close to 2000 there. And me and you preached during the intermission in the middle of the rain. And then that was Friday night.

Then Sunday afternoon at two, you preached there at the campgrounds, Stony Point campgrounds. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

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Go to www.koloff.net and donate today. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com in between Potosi, Missouri, and Park Hills, Missouri. And that's how it all got started right there. And it's like Elijah and Elisha when they met, you know, who could tell what God had in store for them.

And man, it's amazing how God wrote the script and got everything, every plate on the table for us. 23 years or 25 years, we've been preaching and doing tag team dual sermons everywhere and just, I couldn't have a greater highlight in my whole life. Well, all thanks to the Harley race and, and, and then, yeah, and it's been an amazing journey. I know we've done quite a lot of things, certainly together. And of course, you have made a great impact. You know, even, even aside from me being with you, I know for those who don't know, I mean, there's a legendary name.

So it's not just been wrestling or, or wrestling as some of us like to like to call it. I mean, you, you connected up with a famous Harlem Globetrotter, Meadowlark Lemon as well, right? And, and you've done, you know, there's so many different celebrities and athletes and people that the Lord's brought across your path that you had the privilege, right, of ministering with. You've gone over the Olympics, you've ministered at the Olympics, right in London.

And I think where else to London and Brazil as well. So what, what was, do you have a favorite memory from ministering with Meadowlark Lemon, the famous Globetrotter and, or at one of the Olympics? Ministering with, I called him Lark. He called me Raven. We, we was together in over 300 events in five years. And he, I tell everybody that me and Meadowlark was cousins.

Lark and Raven are cousins and I'm the white sheep of the family. I love that. He wouldn't have that. He said, he goes, machine, I want to be the one that says that. And that he was, he loved that. And we met Tommy La Russa, the Cardinal manager.

They live close together out there near Phoenix. And we was at the Chase Park Plaza and he come up and pecked on the window. Me and Meadowlark was getting ready to go have three services that day.

It was Sunday. And so I got out and hugged him and still I was so honored to meet him and bragged on that six game of the Cardinals against the Texas. And so Meadowlark looked right at Tony La Russa. He goes, this is my cousin Raven. And Tony La Russa goes, yeah, I can see the resemblance. I see the resemblance. Yeah. Meadowlark.

We were five minutes getting back to normal. That I'm sure I have no doubt. That's, that's awesome. And what about a favorite memory from the Olympics, either in London or down in Rio de Janeiro? The one in London.

This is amazing. Both our precious friends, Frank Shelton, Frankie Boy. We were scheduled to preach.

It was over 1,500 people in this church. And we were going to tag team. Well, about two minutes before they introduced us, Frank goes, preaching machine, God's dealing with me that you need to preach by yourself. And I said, are you sure, Frank? He said, yes.

So I preached, and when I gave the altar call, a Muslim high priest who had been causing trouble in that church, come up for salvation. Of course, I didn't know it right at that moment, but I mean, his eyes were glazed. In fact, I was leery.

I didn't know exactly what direction was going to take right then. And he started breaking down. He got about six feet from me and started crying and weeping. And the pastor come to me and said, preaching machine, he's a high priest, Muslim. And he's been causing trouble here. And we think he's demon possessed. And I went and embraced him and started praying with him. And his countenance changed. He gloriously got saved and is now a pillar in that church.

And I just don't know if anything is going to be a greater highlight than that. We preached to tons of people on the internet, the BBC, and live. I preach at least three times every day for three weeks.

But that was amazing, champ. And he gloriously got saved. Well, me and Frank had a picture taken with him. And I commended Frank somehow or another. God just wanted me to preach. And Frank was so obedient and willing to pass up that great opportunity and just put my plate on the table by myself. Well, that's certainly an illustration in humility. One, obedience.

Number two. Oh, yeah. And then just the miracle working God that we serve that nobody, nobody for those listening out there, just with that story right there, realize nobody's unreachable. I mean, Jesus, right? Jesus came to say, I was just reading my devotional this morning before we came on air, you know, that Jesus came to save the lost. And, you know, that anyone and everyone, you know, God's heart, right? John 3 16. He sacrificed his own son. He loved the world, right? That no one, no one should be beyond approach and reach. And so that's a great story.

And, well, Ronnie, you, yeah, go ahead. Well, he looked like a wild man when he come up. But within a matter of two minutes, he looked angelical. And another highlight in London, I preached three times at Kingsway Christian Center. They got 25,000 members, and they start at seven o'clock on Sunday, and their church will only see 5000.

So they have five services. And I so enjoyed that it was so real and the people were so faithful to God. And I just enjoyed that very much. Well, that's just a few examples of how you have placed your life into the hands of God and been willing to be a faithful servant to him. And, you know, I said at the top of the show, you know, they wanted to bring you on because you had hit a milestone in ministry. And of course, you recently celebrated a birthday, but that's not the milestone on which I'm referring to, referring to. But for those who don't know, so you've been in ministry for well over 50 years. And of course, we heard earlier all of the amazing history of your family and the family tree. And there's no telling, Ronnie, how many lives your family has impacted for the Kingdom of God and his glory. But recently you reached a new milestone. Tell our listeners what happened recently. I will be honored to.

It's a real thrill, champ. January the 8th, 1967, in Berryman, Missouri, at the Assembly of God Church, I preached my first sermon. Christmas Day, December 25th, 1966, I entered the ministry and the ministry entered me. And then a couple weeks later, January the 8th, 1967, I preached my first sermon.

October 30th, 2022, I preached sermon number 10,000. And it was so amazing, champ. I didn't tell the people at Eminence Missouri First Assembly of God that I was preaching my 10,000th sermon.

But I told them immediately afterwards. And it was so amazing, champ. My first sermon back in January of 1967, I preached about Christ being greater than Samson. And the sermon's title was, I Am He the Greatest One. And I gave examples of how great Samson was, even at his death. Well then, I spoke about Jesus, Mary's baby, God's lamb, the angel's darling, heaven's wonder, hell's dread, the many-crowned writer of the apocalypse, the branch and brazen laborer of the tabernacle, the son of the blessed, the son of God, the king of kings and Lord of lords, the prince of glory. And I spoke of how great Jesus was and compared Samson's greatness even in death, how great Jesus was in death, and then in his glorious resurrection. Well, 54 years later, I preached sermon number 10,000, and this time I preached greater than Solomon is here, and how great Solomon was, and then I climaxed with how great Jesus is.

When death stung Solomon, he didn't come back to challenge death or to haunt anybody. But when Jesus died a greater than Solomon, they couldn't keep him dead. And he resurrected from the dead, and God coughed in Greek, he sneezed in Latin, clapped his hand, creation trembled, stopped his feet, and time stood still. He said, son, 72 hours ago you died on a Roman cross, you became the victim of a Roman cross. Today you're the victor over a Jewish grave, and he handcuffed the lightning, and he put thunder in jail. The son of the living God put the machinery of death in reverse and said, because I lived, you shall live also.

So my first sermon was saying how great Jesus was, my 10,000th sermon, I was still telling everybody how great Jesus is. Hey, thank you for tuning into the Man Up show today. God bless you, have an amazing day. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts.

May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to Koloff.net and donate today. Hi, Nikita Koloff.

Be sure to check out the Man Up show, now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network, check out your local listings, or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. Nikita Koloff here.

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