Ray and Carol Keen

Today's Song!

“The Best Investment, Part Two” – ‘Worriers, take note. Instead of worrying we should put God first in everything we do and say, trusting in the Lord to provide for all our needs. His kingdom is what we should desire, and his righteousness is something we all need! As we invest ourselves in the kingdom of God his righteousness becomes a regular part of our lives. What a blessing it is to have God’s righteousness, and what a great investment this is! And that? Well, there’s your return! And it’s a great return, believe you me! But there are other ways we can invest our lives in the Lord, too; such as using our time to tell others about Jesus. We should always be willing to tell everyone we meet about Jesus our Lord and how much he loves all of us. What’s more, we can invest our efforts in helping people. How?

By doing kind deeds for those in need. We know that we’re supposed to “Be kind to one another.” as Ephesians 4:32 says, and it’s an awesome way to show the love of the Lord to people! And we can invest our hearts! We can grow in our love for the Lord more each and every day that we live! This will make us better Christians! We can invest our thoughts by thinking the right way; you know, by thinking just like Jesus thinks! “We have the mind of Christ.” 1st Corinthians 2:16. Because we have the mind of Christ Jesus at work in us we’re able to think like he thinks! It really comes down to this: We need to invest all of who and what we are in Jesus! It’s the way we’re supposed to live our lives. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.” Romans 12:1.

We’re to present ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice with nothing held back! We really shouldn’t try to hold back anything, because it all belongs to him in the first place! We’re supposed to invest our whole self, with nothing held back. That’s a full 100% of us. Nothing less will do! And we don’t need to worry about all these other things like some people do. They can be worriers if they want to. We don’t have to be worriers and we shouldn’t worry, anyway. We’ve got the rock-solid power of God in Christ Jesus, and our confidence is built on no less than this: we can trust in him any time and any place! We need to trust that God will take care of us no matter what happens and this faith will bring his blessing and favor into our lives. I said, blessing and favor will be ours to have as we invest more of our lives in Jesus. It’s truly the best investment we can ever make, both for now and for all of eternity!’ – God bless you and keep you. – In the love of our Lord, Rev. Ray and Carol, 6/19/2026.

Today's Quote!

“The Best Investment, Part One” - ‘When we accept Jesus as our Savior we begin a lifetime of investment with him. We invest both in our lives as they are today and in our future lives that we’ll have when we get to the portals of glory! I want to go there, how about you? Yes, I believe we all want to go there one day. It goes without saying that to make it there we need to constantly invest in our relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord. “Keep on storing up treasures for yourselves in heaven. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:20-21. Storing up treasures in Heaven? Yes, and that for all of eternity, hallelujah! A deep, abiding love for the Lord in our heart is the singularly most important part of the investment process.

That love? The all-encompassing down deep in our heart love for the Lord? It helps us to keep storing up those treasures in Heaven. Our love for the Lord is helping us to invest in our ‘here and now’ and in our future at one and the same time! And oh, that investment! It’s glorious! These treasures that we’re storing up in Heaven are all of the good investments we’re making with the Lord, both for while we’re here on earth and throughout eternity, too. It’s very important to have a good return on our investment, right? After all, if left to our own devices we might end up investing in the wrong things Such as? Sometimes we worry about all the wrong things, like how we’ll live and what we’ll wear and where we’ll get food.

Yet those who are saved should never have to worry about these things at all. Just trust in God! “Take not thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or What shall we drink? Or How will we be clothed? Your heavenly Father know that you have need of all these things.” Matthew 6:31-32. That sounds really good, Pastor Ray. But how do we put it into action? Matthew 6:33 has the answer. It says,” Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” The Lord’s saying, ‘Put me first in everything. Seek my will for your life. Seek the kingdom itself and I’ll take care of you.’ I take this to mean that we shouldn’t ever worry about any of those things at all! He’ll take care of us!’ – To be continued. – God bless you and keep you. – In the love of our Lord, Rev. Ray and Carol, 6/17/2026.

“Demonstrative Love” –‘ God’s mercy, grace and love are all expressed abundantly in the greatest gift he could ever give us; His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord! Even though we're sinners he loves us so much that- well, let's let the verse speak for itself: "But God commended his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. What love; what precious love! While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He died to take away our sins. It's the ultimate demonstration of God's love for us. This is love that's both superb and sublime. It's beyond any love we've ever known; even beyond our comprehension of what love is or should be. It's never ending. His thoughts are centered in the love he feels and that love leads him to help us.

Jesus is our refuge and source of strength. Everything we might do or would ever go through requires his help. I’ll say it again; we need his help for everything! "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me." Psalm 138:8. It’s at the top of his list; he makes all things perfect for us! "I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performs all things for me." Psalm 57:2. Whatever we need him to do he'll do it. Nothing’s too big, nothing’s too small, all of what we go through is on his mind. What concerns us concerns him. When we need help he's there and he's able and he'll bring it to pass, whatever it might be! He’s all about helpfulness. So should we be. His love demonstrated to others should be our main concern.

As we return his love through how we live and the way we conduct ourselves, being loving and kind to others is part of it all. Now if we'll only find some creative ways to show how much we love him. That’s right, I mean return the love to him! This love can grow and grow and grow all through our lives! We’re sharing this most gracious love we’ve received with others even as we demonstrate our love for him with them. It’s demonstrative love, for sure; the kind that isn’t just a ‘catch phrase’ but a way of life that can only improve all our lives, and that on a daily basis. Who wouldn’t want this? Who among us doesn’t need it? We all do! Therefore, we should always pursue demonstrative love, proving our love through our deeds and how we live!’ – God bless you and keep you. – In the love of our Lord, Rev. Ray and Carol, 6/15/2026.