Ray Family Update from August 2020

Dear Praying Friends,

I recently saw a post where an individual admonished churchgoers to pray for their pastors citing that the men serving in this capacity have never pastored during a pandemic. While prayer is coveted and the assessment is true, it is only a small portion of the weight pastors are carrying right now. In addition to a pandemic, we are competing for people’s attention in an election year where many in our country are hoping for a civil war. All things considered, this is a perfect storm for depressing and discouraging the masses. If ever there was a time we, as believers, needed to sever the connection between our walk with God and the circumstances of life, it is now!!!

In spite of all that is going on in the world, we are doing our best to stay busy for and encouraged in the Lord. We certainly do not want to be flippant concerning the present times, but we cannot allow them to keep us from the Lord’s work, nor can we allow them to handicap us spiritually and emotionally. As such, we press on with our church services, experiencing good attendance; with our public ministry, having between thirty and forty saints out each week; and with our Bible Institute, having just over twenty registered students this semester. We count all of this to be a gift of God’s grace and a direct answer to prayer.

Much like many other preachers I have heard from, I went through a space of time where my faith waned in regards to how people would respond and get engaged with church and church functions. I prayed for God to help us to avoid the dip that I expected, but I just was not sure how it would go. To be honest, I still find myself expecting a delayed fear and hesitancy. Should someone in our midst get sick, we may very well see this happen. To this point, the Lord has graciously protected us; and our church people have responded, faithfully participating in every way possible. Thank God and thank you saints at Antioch.

One thing is for sure, the need for Bible-believing churches and saints to be faithful has not diminished. The work before is just as great, if not greater than it was before the virus arrived on our shores. If we have learned anything, it is that we cannot take anything for granted. Along these lines, it recently came into my heart to sit down and think about, to the best of my ability, what the Lord would have me to do for Him in whatever time I have left on this earth. Many people have created such lists, often called a bucket list, from the angle of considering experiences they would like to have before death. Sitting down, considering, and compiling a ministry bucket list was both a challenging and convicting concept. Looking back, I fear I have not accomplished all that I would like to have accomplished. Looking forward, the work is daunting and seemingly unaccomplishable.

Ultimately, my sufficiency is of God (2 Corinthians 3:5) and my times are in His hand (Psalm 31:15). I would rather, however, have aimed high in the Lord’s work and come short than to have aimed low and hit my mark. Along these lines, my mentor and pastor advised, “Always be planning for twenty years down the road, but do well what you are doing today.” I do not claim to have mastered either, but with the Lord’s help I hope to keep moving forward on both fronts. In that spirit, my pastor also admonished me, “When things get tough, grit your teeth and keep going. If you will remain faithful to the Lord and His work, He will remain faithful to you and will show you the way through to the right way.”