Ray Family Update from May 2020

Dear Praying Friends,

Before writing this update, I read last month’s update. I do not always do this, but I must confess I had no idea this time last month just how true my sentiments would become in less than thirty days. Last month I wrote, “When the dust settles ‘from the virus,’ we will be left with a far more socialistic country. Sadly, where the Bible is minimized, socialism/communism run rampant. On the other hand, where the Bible is maximized, its light dispels the darkness of socialism/communism. In short, the only answer to our present distress is MORE Bible. It is up to us to change that by ‘holding forth the word of life’ (Philippians 2:16).” Changing that first sentence to read, “When the dust settles from the virus and the riots,” you could sum up my latest thoughts on the situation in our country.

OUR COUNTRY IS UNDER ATTACK and the sad truth is that fear has silenced politicians, police, and preachers. Law abiding citizens were told we were safer at home when we simply wanted to go about normal life as Americans; terrorist groups have been encouraged to take to the streets and riot when it brought about the country’s destruction. All things considered, I do not know whether or not I made the right decision to take our services to online only for a space of time; however, I wholeheartedly believe that the shutdowns and subsequent riots are part of Satan’s plot to destroy this nation. I declare before all that I am sorry to God if I have been part of the problem rather than of the solution.

We did what we thought best with the best information we had available and reluctantly moved our services to online mid-March. Somewhere around the first week of April, the Lord began to stir my heart and increase my courage. We decided it was time to take a step of faith and reopen. After taking some sanitization precautions, we set our faces like a flint and reopened on May 3rd. The next great test of our faith was going to be whether or not to hold this year’s conference. We again decided to walk by faith and we were rewarded with, perhaps, our greatest conference yet. The Lord again stirred my heart to warn our congregation regarding the Satanic war against our nation, and with fear in my heart, I did so and continue to do so. I do not say any of this because I think I am something, but I have learned that God can and should be trusted.

If ever there was a time when we need to stand up and be counted as one of God’s soldiers in this spiritual assault, it is NOW! We ought to be ashamed for getting distracted by worldliness, for loving and coveting money, for complacency, for cowering down in the face of adversity, for doubting when opposed by the educated, and for silence when we should have been preaching Jesus; but we should repent of those things and do right henceforth. Times like these purge pretenders from those who genuinely love God. I want to be counted with the latter.

We are likely too late to save the nation, but that does not mean we could not help a neighbour, family member, or coworker. If you have never held a scripture sign for Jesus, do it now. If you have never knocked on a door for Jesus, do it now. If you have never called a friend to witness for Jesus, do it now. If you have never handed someone a gospel tract, do it now. If you have never read your Bible through, do it now. If you have never faithfully and consistently maintained a prayer life, do it now. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11).