Rays Personal Testimony

[robby.morales]

Dear BT Family:

I've caught bits and pieces of Rays testimony in his audio teachings but am curious if he has a written record of it somewhere.

Grace,

Robby

[Dave in Tenn]

Robby, I don't believe there's anything like what you are describing on the website.  Some knew Ray very well...others personally, but not as well, and most of us only 'know' him through his writing and teaching and perhaps an encounter or three.

How do you view it, pieced together?  What can you gather from what he shared here and there?

[robby.morales]

Hi Dave:

Thanks for the response. So far I have gathered the following:

Ray was wealthy at one time. Sounded like he made money in a multi-level marketing organization.

Ray and his wife had one child;  a son who died.

Ray was married to a woman of German decent.  She prepared meals for the study group when Ray would teach. Incidentally,  where is she today?

Ray suffered from gout

Ray loved cats and dogs

Ray was involved in the World Wide Church of God.

Like I said, pieces.  :-) if there is anything more I can learn it would be appreciated.

Thanks again Dave. :-)

[John from Kentucky]

Ray was a roofer.

Ray started as a roofer's helper and advanced from there.

Just think if Ray had really applied himself and earned a Doctor of Theology degree from a top rate divinity school, how so much greater scriptural understanding he would have had.

[Ian 155]

perhaps sharing what you know of Ray  (those that spent time with him)  may encourage Robbie and others

he was more than a roofer

[cjwood]

he was wayyyyyy more than a roofer.  he was a man of God who loved God.  and His Son.  and His Word.

claudia

[arion]

Just think if Ray had really applied himself and earned a Doctor of Theology degree from a top rate divinity school, how so much greater scriptural understanding he would have had.

Then Doctor Kennedy should of been one of the most astute and learned theologians that ever graced the halls of Christendom and as Ray had said the man had no clue what the gospel was.  If Ray had been accepted at such a school he wouldn't of made it very far.  They wouldn't of been able to answer his questions or contend with the wisdom God gave him and they would of tossed him out on his ear in short order. 

And thinking about it very few of the Apostles were learned men either as far as religious matters goes.  There was Paul but that was about it.  It seems that God delights in taking the nothings and nobodies of this world and gives them wisdom and understanding that confounds the wise.  A theologian would be tempted to boast about his learning and knowledge and use that to lord it over others.  OTOH a man like Ray knows that what he has he got from God....as he certainly knows he didn't get it from book learning.  That is one of the reasons I appreciated what God did with Ray.  If God can use Ray then he can use the rest of us nothings as well.

[John from Kentucky]

Ray said that some people have this kind of personality, others have that kind of personality, and some have no personality.

   I knew my post would reveal some with a lack of personality (humor).


Jesus was a carpenter.

Peter was a fisherman.

Paul was a tentmaker.

Ray was a roofer.


Ray was in good company and some people need to lighten up.

[Dennis Vogel]

It's nice to learn about Ray but it's not about him, it's about what he taught.

Ray attended Ambassador College (Worldwide Church of God) and had congregations right after he graduated.

They fired him after he learned they were not teaching the truth and he taught what he believed (early 1980's). Then he became a roofer.

We started this site in September, 2000.

[lilitalienboi16]

Ray said that some people have this kind of personality, others have that kind of personality, and some have no personality.

   I knew my post would reveal some with a lack of personality (humor).


Jesus was a carpenter.

Peter was a fisherman.

Paul was a tentmaker.

Ray was a roofer.


Ray was in good company and some people need to lighten up.

Wasn't Luke a physician? I thought one of the apostles was a Physician? Obviously Christ was the greatest physician of them all but I mean in the human-normal-kind-of-person way

[robby.morales]

It may be important to better understand my motivation for asking about Rays testimony. What he taught is the reason I marvel at the providence of God. However, the value of knowing what kind of person he was in this life is not lost on me. When I think of Ray, I see a broken vessel delivering the truth of God armored in the authority of God.  But I want to know what kind of man he was. How did he treat his wife? What do his close friends say of him?

Paul spoke of his testimony-- what he was and what Christ  made him to be and it didn't take away from what he taught. To the contrary.

If I am not to know about my brother until the next age, so be it.  I do not stay in the fellowship because Ray was my personal friend-- I never knew the man. I stay because the undeniable truth spoken through the foolisness of preaching holds me to account.

I have searched my conscious and it is clear: I want to know more about him because I still mourn the loss of the man and yet rejoice in the truth he championed.

[Dave in Tenn]

Funny you mention Paul.  I see a lot of similarity between the two constitutionally.  I didn't really "like" Ray at first just from reading.  I thought he was too brusk and "loud", even though I had never heard him speak.  I didn't even know there were audios and videos for weeks (maybe months?) after I'd found the site.  And when I did, I didn't have broadband connection back then, so I wasn't able to much more than stream a few seconds or a minute of the video--just enough to see what he looked like and his 'manner'.  I could get the audio after a long period of downloading and was able to hear that, in person, he was much more 'temperate' than he 'appeared' in text.  From what I can gather from the epistles, this is pretty much what some people thought of Paul--'hard letters', 'soft in person'.  And some people didn't like one or the other about him.

So I completely agree with Dennis...and I experienced that.  It wasn't about "Ray" in the beginning, but what he taught.  It still isn't, even though I "like" him now. 

Just to add to your 'list'.  Ray apparently, after leaving the church, spent some time "in the world" (for lack of a better term).  This is why I 'trust' him above any other reason.  I don't have much in common with people who have never sinned.

I only met him in person briefly, in Nashville '08.  I agree with comments made by others in my shoes (not knowing him personally well over a period of time) that he was a gentleman and had a servant's heart without showiness--a real person, and genuine human being.  I also remember that he was in pain the entire conference--a good example for me when I'm not quite 'naturally' up to par.

[lareli]

Paul, And all the prophets and apostles and Ray too.. Were all just sign posts pointing to the only one who deserves our praise.

John the Baptist had to explain this to his disciples.

[rickylittleton]

Just to add my 2 cents in, I can remember so many personal conversations Ray and I had when we were dealing and suffering the effects of cancer and some of the side effects of some of the medicens. He and I cried together, and conforded and laugh to and en courrage :)d each other together. And Lord knows I miss him so much. Love for you all; Timothy

[ez2u]

after reading ( for several days, continually) his web site.  I email Ray it was amazing, he wrote me back and we had a little time of talking back and forth in the emails to each other.  He was a loving  man  that cared about people really care.  then his health really went down hill but Ray was very courageous and continued his work. Studying, writing and sharing, his pain levels were way off the wall.  He was always seeking for the truth in the scriptures'  fervently.  His wife is a wonderful woman and still lives in Mobile AL.  He gave freely the treasures he work very hard to receive from the Word. He was an ordinary  man that had a big appetite for Gods Truth.  some people might think am wrong to call Ray ordinary but Jesus isn't ordinary not Ray  Jesus used Ray.

[microlink]

It's nice to learn about Ray but it's not about him, it's about what he taught.

Ray attended Ambassador College (Worldwide Church of God) and had congregations right after he graduated.

They fired him after he learned they were not teaching the truth and he taught what he believed (early 1980's). Then he became a roofer.

We started this site in September, 2000.

Thanks Dennis. Good comments. As you know I was a long tome member of the WCG.

[CEO]

Hi

Greatest man of God I have ever met.

Askseeknock

Charles O

[cjwood]

hi robby.  perhaps you could send ray's wife a personal message to see what she says.  she is a member of the forum however she doesn't post.  her name is manuela smith. 

claudia

[Rene]

hi robby.  perhaps you could send ray's wife a personal message to see what she says.  she is a member of the forum however she doesn't post.  her name is manuela smith. 

claudia

Manuela is no longer a member of the forum so Robby cannot PM her.

[Extol]

In the first audio from the 2007 Nashville conference, Ray talks about his journey from Ambassador College to BibleTruths. There are not a lot of specific details, but it is interesting to hear part of his story. It's roughly from 9:40 to the 19:00 minute mark:

http://bible-truths.com/audio/Nashville07_1.mp3