Report from “Ricky” William Shanks in Gainesville GA
Email: [email protected]; 4565 Persian Trail; Gainesville, GA 30507; Phones: 843-725-9283 cell

Website: AnswersFromTheBible.ORG - Dial A Bible Study: 770-835-4000 (Ext. 3 for Spanish.) Gainesville church (GCOC.org) meeting address is 2815 Wallace Rd. Gainesville GA 30507.

May 2024

Well, what can I say? Praise the Lord! He has opened the door and we rejoice. The efforts from UNG and also from parents have brought souls into God’s harvest. Top left (Merlin in red who obeyed last month) invited Raul to set up a study with me. Raul was careful, prepared and studious with every study we had at Chick Fil A. He visited services and the last study he asked to be immersed into Christ. Another UNG student top right, Sebastian also meeting with me at another CFA wanted to commit his life to the Lord at first of May. His 2 jobs are distracting him some already but still eager to learn.

From the local saints families. Above on left is Ben Arteaga the oldest of 2 boys while visiting a close by Spanish worship service, Bill Perkins had the honor to help Ben begin his journey to an eternity in our Savior’s service. His parents are wonderful servants. They began their journey 7 years ago. Middle bottom Jason Kean had thrill to birth his youngest 2 into Christ kingdom this month. And Danielle asked her dad (John Johnson) to immerse her into Christ.

Each of these were separate events and disconnected from the others and each choosing to commit their own lives in service to God. We are so thankful and yet understanding we must nurture all these new in Christ to maturity and help them to grow to where they can feed themselves and be ambassadors for Christ. The flock is excited and we rejoice with the heavenly host. I’ve shared in past reports about what we try to do with those new in Christ. There may be more added soon. If so it is to God’s glory as HE GIVES THE INCREASE. In Him, Ricky

APRIL/MAY 2024 REPORT ON
THE WORK IN CORRIGAN, TEXAS [email protected]

Dear Brethren,

281-756-7957

ROBERT RAIF
171 CALDWELL ST

LIVINGSTON, TX 77351

We pray for you every night. We pray for your health and well-being, but more so for your strength in the Lord. Satan is always prowling around, and it seems we hear each month of one of our brethren being devoured by him.

Concerning the local work, I continue to study with Curtis each Monday at 9. Then I go visiting in the area. One Pentecostal fellow says I am the first preacher to visit his home - - including his own pastor. And he says I know more Bible than his preacher does. But he likes the way they worship. I’m hoping he will see the light one day.

Johnny McFarland knocked doors with me last year. We were getting ready to start two months ago, and then the rains hit about every time we were going out. Then a month ago we started, but he had a wreck and has been slow mending. I will send another flyer out in July and go, whether he is able to go or not.

We are finishing up the book of Numbers in our classes at the meeting house. It is amazing what lessons we learn again there about faithfulness to the Lord. We also learn about many being called, but few entering the promised land. I’ve been preaching on Evidences concerning the existence of God, the inspiration of the Bible, and Jesus as the Son of God, resurrected from the dead.

Concerning the prison work, we finally have a date set for our class! Lord willing, we will begin on July 11, depending on if there is a lockdown. One occurs this time every year. We’re looking forward to getting back in and seeing if there will be more open doors like we had before the Covid hit. The class will meet 7:30 - 9:30 every Thursday. I’ll leave the house at 6 and get back around 11, and Nancy won’t even know I’ve been gone.

Speaking of Nancy, she declines a little more each year (as we all do). She usually can’t get up until noon. She can do very little, but simply take care of herself. I don’t ever cook except at suppertime, and then it is very simple and quick. She doesn’t get out except to go to worship when she can and to the doctors. But

she always encourages me to go and teach a class or get a class started, to go to the prison, to knock doors, to go visit so-and-so, or to write a letter. She always says she will be alright - - now go! She has always been a strong encouragement in my going to preach and going to reach the lost.

Concerning our brethren in the Philippines and Zimbabwe, the time of the year has started for typhoons in the Philippines and drought in Zimbabwe. These brethren are hurting even more now. We are rich in the USA! Let us also be rich in good works (I Tim 6:18) and let us remember the poor (Gal. 2:10).

Brethren, I am ever so grateful for your support that allows me to go each day and teach others. As I said above, I thank God each night for you all. We are co-workers in spreading the truth. The San Angelo church has had to quit supporting me the $700 per month, but the good brethren in Dalhart have increased their support by $250. We are thankful to them. Any other help would be appreciated.

In Him who saves, Robert Raif

(Read on for more information on the benevolent work to those overseas.)

Below is the TOTAL aid sent out for the two months of April and May. Over $12,000 was sent. Some aid is for the support of preachers - - to provide food and the cost of travelling to evangelize. The number in the left column is amount of benevolence to faithful Christians, and the second number is for the preachers’ support. They also need Bibles and songbooks. If you want to give just for a specific thing, like Bibles, I will make sure it will go for that.

Benevolence Support Again, the following sums are not just for one month, but two months of money sent!

Zimbabwe
600 300 600 300 500

Uganda
900 300

Kenya
400 400

Philippines
200 400

Kudakwashe Bangure. (Four congregations.) He is an untiring worker. Brighton Makurudza.
Bibles and songbooks.

Kule Bisathu.

John Ositu.

Glenn Fiesta.

400         400
200         200
200         200
800         0
1200

Nicaragua
800 600 200

Rosendo Gumpad. Andy Dappas.
Felipe Jr Tan Tula. Zurdan & Fe Baliog. Meds for various saints

Jose Ruiz Efrain Valdez

400 Manny Pader.

500 500
800 1000 Jimmy Domingo.

Simeon Vargas.

It would be wonderful if you would become a co-worker with one of these preachers and send $50 or $100 each month on your own and get to know these good men. If you are on Facebook Messenger, you can talk with them for free! See them and their families face-to-face, and their house and the congregations they work with. I can put you in touch with men who have been validated by one or two well-known preachers. You could go to Walmart, Brookshire Brothers, CVS, or elsewhere and send through them, using Western Union or Moneygram. All you have to do is give them the man’s name and what country he lives in. He will send you a report, but also he will send you pictures all the time of where he is visiting and the baptisms that come as a result. If you want to help with a building, food, songbooks, Bibles, or preacher support, and don’t want to handle it on your own, then you can send the money to me and I will send the whole amount to them. I would simply be your messenger as in 2 Cor. 8:23. Brethren many times want to give to charitable institutions and they wonder who to trust. There is no better way to give than to give and have a share in spreading the gospel to the lost!

God-speed!

Jars of Clay

Reading:  2 Corinthians 4:7-15
    
    Given how glorious the gospel is, it is shocking that God would entrust it to weak and flawed human beings.  “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us”(2 Cor 4:7).  A great treasure is encased in a fragile container when the gospel is placed in human hands.  Yet our weakness serves to remind us that “the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us,” a lesson we struggle to learn.  Paul then speaks to his apostolic work:  “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies”(2 Cor 4:8-10).  At every turn Paul’s weakness is exposed, but he is never quite defeated.  There is the constant looming specter of death, but even death connects us to Jesus and points toward his resurrection life.

    All of this serves to embolden Paul’s work.  “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence”(2 Cor 4:13-14).  Paul reveals his deep motivations for his preaching.  It stems from faith rather than obligation.  He speaks because he knows that God will raise him just as he raised Jesus; he speaks because he knows that God will reunite Paul, the Corinthians, and all believers in the presence of Jesus.  

     “Jars of clay” shines a spotlight on our human frailties.  While we are often tempted to downplay our struggles, distract ourselves from the fact that we will die, and focus on our successes, there is tremendous value in acknowledging that we are weak.  Our weaknesses are not reasons for despair, but constant reminders that “the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”   

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One Thing to Think About:  What situations am I facing where I need to speak from my conviction?

One Thing to Pray For:  A heart to increase God’s glory rather than my own
 

Let There Be Light

Reading:  2 Corinthians 4:1-6
    
    Paul declares that the glory of the gospel message buoys him through the difficulties he faces as he preaches it.  “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart”(2 Cor 4:1).  He will say much more later about the hardships he has endured (2 Cor 4:8-12, 16-18; 7:5; 11:23-30), but here he stresses that his work is too important to be derailed.  Yet he anticipates that some will take his statements about the “veil” on the hearts of unbelieving Jews (2 Cor 3:15) as if he is obscuring some part of the gospel.  “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.  We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.  And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing”(2 Cor 4:2-3).  The gospel is far too important for Paul to tweak or hide parts of it.  

     The veil—the stubborn determination some (even Jews) have not to believe in Jesus—does not come from Paul.  “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”(2 Cor 4:4).  Their blinding is Satan’s work; as they refuse to turn to the Lord (2 Cor 3:16), they continue to be hardened.  But Christians are different:  we see both the truth and glory of Jesus.  “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”(2 Cor 4:6).  Just as God once declared “Let there be light,” so now he has opened our eyes to see the full-force glory of Jesus.  The veil is removed and God’s plan and greatness are clear.

     Bible authors frequently use light as a metaphor for truth, righteousness, goodness, and knowledge.  Before we knew Jesus, we could glimpse these things occasionally, but never with their full force.  Now God has declared “let there be light” in our hearts, allowing us to understand and experience his awesomeness.

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One Thing to Think About:  Why is it so important to preach the gospel honestly and sincerely?

One Thing to Pray For:  God’s light to shine in my heart
 

The Spirit and Freedom

Reading:  2 Corinthians 3:12-18
    
    Paul insists that Christian hope promises greater glory than Moses alone.  This has some other effects:  “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end”(2 Cor 3:12-13).  Moses veils his face so that the Israelites will not be blinded by the way his skin shines, yet Paul sees a deeper meaning.  Moses could not be bold and let them see the full dazzling brilliance of God’s glory.  This veiling continues.  “For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.  Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.  But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed”(2 Cor 3:14-16).  Paul, himself a Jew, asserts that Jews cannot see the full glory of the Mosaic law until they come to Jesus.  By remaining under Moses’ Law, they remain enslaved to condemnation.

    Christians are not so.  “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”(2 Cor 3:17).  Following Jesus means following the Spirit, not the Law (see v. 6).  This means that there is “freedom” from basing our hope on our own perfect law-keeping and the resulting condemnation.  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another”(2 Cor 3:18).  Now we see clearly (no veils), beholding Jesus’ glory, and are remade into someone more like him.  Now we are bold (v. 12).  Now we are free.  

    “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”  Many Jewish Christians in the New Testament write that the Law of Moses was a restrictive and difficult master (Acts 15:10, Gal 4:1-5, Rom 7).  God wants to set us free.  The goal of freedom is not to eliminate rules, but to escape condemnation, slavery, and death due to sin.  The Spirit does this in a way that no amount of rules or works could do—by empowering us to resist sin (Rom 8:13) and making us into the image of his Son (Rom 8:29, Gal 5:22-23).

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One Thing to Think About:  What are some ways I have seen the Holy Spirit transforming me?

One Thing to Pray For:  The freedom God’s Spirit brings