Ray Family Update from April 2017

While studying, I came across the above verse. It is a small portion of David’s 105th psalm. This psalm was delivered by David to Asaph for the purpose of thanking the LORD (1 Chronicles 16:7). In the midst of all the noise today, God hears very little glorying in His holy name. As a result, we have lost our joy. I wonder if our hearts would be moved to glory in Him if we fully understood that thanking, worshipping, and praising the Lord actually brought us personal returns. Yet, I assume selfish desires never moved anybody to praise and adore the Lord. Nevertheless, I sure wish I did not let myself get so consumed by life’s haphazard schedule that I failed to simply glory in who and what God is. He is certainly worthy of our time and attention!

The past month has been a bit of a whirlwind. We were privileged to see some of our friends from Michigan at Victory Baptist Church in Hartland. The people and pastor of this church are dear friends who love the Lord and we enjoy seeing them very much. We praise the Lord that some of these folks are coming to visit us in June for our annual conference. We also saw the completion of the Spring Semester of Antioch Baptist Bible Institute. We had a good number of students this semester and are already hearing from others who plan to attend in the Fall Semester (beginning August 21st).

We are using the summer break to push forward on a good number of projects. The first to be completed is the children’s book on Josiah. Additionally, we expect to complete the fourth devotional book and nearly complete the book on Matthew chapter 24. It is also my hope that I will have completed the bulk of my role as an editor for the songbook. Once these projects are complete, I will be able to take these three major projects and condense them to one. We have already written the first (rough) draft for the second children’s book and hope to get started on the art work for this project once the first is complete. I would also ask that you pray with us for wisdom concerning the printing of some of these books. I have some tough decisions to make on the fourth devotion book. As much as I would like to print it in bulk like the previous books, the demand is just not there. I truly want to follow the Lord’s leading!