Ronnie McBrayer
Ronnie McBrayer is a storyteller, a scribbler and a seeker, and the author of "Leaving Religion, Following Jesus," plus several other books. He writes and speaks about life, faith, and Christ-centered spirituality. Visit his website at www.ronniemcbrayer.net.
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| Pause and Enjoy The Beauty Around Us | |
| There were mating woodpeckers, soaring hawks riding the warm updrafts from the valley below, and the most wonderful rock formations along the ridge above our heads. | |
| 07:59 May 11, 2013 PST | |
| Do You Want to Be Happy? It's Time to Simplify Your Life | |
| The most deeply spiritual thing that some of us could do is have a garage sale. Purge our calendars. Resign from a few of our many activities. | |
| 17:27 May 6, 2013 PST | |
| Pray and Just Hang On | |
| We are often jostled from the security of our raft, forced to scream out of desperation for a rope or lifeline of rescue. We struggle and fight just to keep our noses above the water line. | |
| 07:49 Apr 30, 2013 PST | |
| Really Walking Tall | |
| Buford the Bull stormed into the fray, 'Walking Tall' as the movie made recounting his life told it, fearlessly hauling in moonshiners, closing down brothels, and jailing prominent members of the Dixie Mafia and State Line Mob in his county jail. | |
| 20:05 Apr 25, 2013 PST | |
| 'Now' is Our Greatest Moment! | |
| There is a Zen parable about a man who surprised a sleeping tiger while walking through the jungle. The ferocious animal pursued the man, causing him t | |
| 17:41 Apr 22, 2013 PST | |
| Living Life One Swing At a Time | |
| We quit chasing the runs and watching the scoreboard, hoping and praying the tide will turn as we trust the rhythm of God's grace and play the game in front us. One day, one pitch, and one swing at a time. | |
| 16:17 Apr 19, 2013 PST | |
| Jesus Repairs The Broken Places of Our Lives | |
| So the excavation has begun in earnest, and will continue for the foreseeable future. For years now I have lived in the Florida sand and never had a problem with frozen pipes. Never. | |
| 07:07 Apr 12, 2013 PST | |
| Glory of God Will Leak Out Over The Entire World Amid Brokenness | |
| He doesn't harm us. He doesn't cause evil. But he sure can use what has harmed us, and what is intended for evil against us, what cracks, dents, and breaks us - to transform us and change the world. | |
| 11:31 Apr 5, 2013 PST | |
| Jesus Crouches to Wash Our Dirty Feet | |
| Not to be missed in all this activity is the Thursday of Holy Week, referred to as Maundy Thursday. 'Maundy,' like so many Christian traditions, comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning 'commandment.' | |
| 08:13 Mar 26, 2013 PST | |
| No Grief, No Glory | |
| Of course, not everyone accepts their troubles as the means to something great. We can look at what life has dealt us and be angry, bitter, mad-at-the-world, frustrated with ourselves, and bearing a grudge against everyone from God to the mailman. | |
| 16:32 Mar 22, 2013 PST | |
| God's Grace and Healing Will Lighten One's Burden | |
| If we are going to remain well, we can't go back. Life, redemption, wholeness, and healing: These are waiting for us only as we move forward. | |
| 06:17 Mar 19, 2013 PST | |
| Jesus Came to Get Heaven Inside of People | |
| Rather, Jesus' message was that the rule of God had been brought to bear in the present world: 'God has moved into the neighborhood,' to use Eugene Peterson's vivid phrase. Jesus did not come to live in your heart like an imaginary friend. | |
| 08:37 Mar 8, 2013 PST | |
| Is Faith Built on The Bible? | |
| Our faith isn't built on the Bible. It is built on a Person. There is only one foundation for Christian faith (the Bible says as much!), and that foundation is Jesus Christ. | |
| 10:49 Mar 5, 2013 PST | |
| Have a Little Chutzpah | |
| There were four rabbis who had a series of ongoing theological arguments, and three were always in alignment against the fourth. | |
| 18:26 Feb 21, 2013 PST | |
| Putting the Pieces Together | |
| When the workers are finished with their projects, whatever they may be, those projects are handed over with little knowledge of how they all fit together, or how these pieces contribute to the final product. | |
| 19:01 Feb 18, 2013 PST | |
| Love Never Fails | |
| Money, short as it is for everyone, I elected to fix the dryer myself or at least attempt to fix it and to do so posthaste, as there was no time to squander. | |
| 04:57 Feb 15, 2013 PST | |
| Figuring Out Who is 'In' and Who is 'Out' is Just Too Much Work! | |
| With this story, Jesus has dug his fingers into a very sore spot for we who are religious people. We preach grace, but we don't always practice it. We talk about God's mercy, but we don't always want the people who need it most to get in on it. | |
| 07:47 Feb 12, 2013 PST | |
| You're Going to Lose Your Marbles | |
| Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.' I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. | |
| 20:03 Feb 7, 2013 PST | |
| God's Love Welcomes All Who Will Come | |
| This belief was put to the test during the racial violence and upheaval of the 1960s. One of Will's best friends, a seminary student and Civil Rights worker named Jonathan Daniels, was shot and killed by an Alabama sheriff. | |
| 09:16 Feb 5, 2013 PST | |
| Is Faith Minimum Protection From Suffering? | |
| Who among us have never pelted heaven with our questions and doubts: Where is God now? Why doesn't he intervene? Why is he ignoring me? How could he let this happen to me? | |
| 07:18 Feb 1, 2013 PST | |
| Answering the Call | |
| Mexico, Central America, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf: Scotty and Karen traversed the globe for nearly twenty years in faithful service, raising their children, aiding indigenous people groups, and living out the love and witness of Christ. | |
| 17:24 Jan 28, 2013 PST | |
| Is There An Exact Formula for Finding 'God's Will'? | |
| I don't think there is an exact formula for finding God's will. And every situation is so personal, no formula would hold up any way. Besides, the hang-up for most of us is not in the making of a decision. | |
| 09:01 Jan 25, 2013 PST | |
| Empty Your Pockets First Before Judging Others | |
| 'Judging' does not prevent us from having and sharing opinions. It doesn't mean we can't give a verbal witness to our faith. But it does mean we refuse - absolutely refuse - to condemn others. | |
| 12:22 Jan 22, 2013 PST | |
| Monkeys...and Mercy | |
| Gary Hamel tells about a science experiment involving four monkeys in a room. In the center of the room, researchers had placed a tall pole with a bunch of bananas suspended at the top. | |
| 18:34 Jan 17, 2013 PST | |
| Some Assembly Required | |
| When UPS brings it to your door or you find the item you're looking for in the store, it's not ready to go like you saw in the online catalog or the advertisement in Sunday's paper. 'Some assembly required,' the tag on the box says. | |
| 14:28 Jan 15, 2013 PST | |
| A Little More Light...A Lot More Direction | |
| Tolstoy never held a flashlight, I am sure, but we have and can understand the analogy that way: To remain a rule-keeper, is to remain under a street light. | |
| 22:13 Jan 10, 2013 PST | |
| It's Time | |
| It's time for you to shine. Any dreams that were unfulfilled? Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Now is the time for you to make those dreams come true. | |
| 12:34 Jan 7, 2013 PST | |
| Get Out!!! | |
| Here is one of the many things that make churches peculiar: The most heated arguments in the church were not over our location or theology or future plans. No, the worst controversies I ever endured were over our style of worship. | |
| 12:10 Dec 31, 2012 PST | |
| What's So Amazing About 'Regrets'? | |
| What does God want to do with our regrets? He does not want them to be the end of us. Where we fall, and a part of us dies, that is where God can bring new life to flourish and grow - life like we never thought possible. | |
| 08:53 Dec 27, 2012 PST | |
| The World Needs a Real, Unconditional, Healing Love of God | |
| God loves us, not because we are good; not because we are loveable; not because of what we can do for him or for others; and not because of the way we make him feel. He loves us because he is actually, truly, really that good. | |
| 07:02 Dec 17, 2012 PST | |
| New Life After a Storm | |
| David Garrett, who has been called the David Beckham of classical music, was playing with the London Philharmonic before he was ten years old. | |
| 11:32 Dec 14, 2012 PST | |
| No Substitute for the Real Thing | |
| The little boy would go down to the surf, scoop up handfuls of the salty water, and quickly carry it back to the hole and dump it in. The boy did this repeatedly. | |
| 16:50 Dec 9, 2012 PST | |
| Love Conquers All in Streets of Berlin | |
| They believe in Love, and the eternal truth that love conquers all, in the human heart, in the streets of Berlin, and eventually this world, when the kingdoms of earth are transformed and renewed into the kingdom of God. | |
| 06:51 Dec 7, 2012 PST | |
| More Than Having it All | |
| The human heart needs something to pursue. To chase after the higher and better, to possess that for which we long and love is a crucial part of our nature. | |
| 18:41 Dec 1, 2012 PST | |
| God: Man's Best Friend | |
| My friends' new pet is a rescued dog who must have suffered a terrible life of abuse before his adoption. Chowder won't let me or any other male for that matter, get near him. | |
| 14:34 Nov 29, 2012 PST | |
| No Status-Striving in The Ways of God | |
| The Carmelites certainly lent themselves to her pursuit. The Carmelites demanded strict obedience, continuous prayers, long periods of fasting and silence, vows of isolation and poverty, and overall a severe approach to spirituality. | |
| 08:10 Nov 27, 2012 PST | |
| Thank You...One More Time | |
| Grethel Thomas was a Georgia mountain farmer who was part of the church I once pastored. His wife and daughter were actually a part of the church. Grethel stayed out on the edge. We saw him on occasion, but not much. | |
| 18:26 Nov 23, 2012 PST | |
| Love Produces Thanksgiving | |
| It keeps going and keeps us going. It endures forever, and for that, we are forever grateful. We are not alone. We are not abandoned. We are not forgotten. God is with us. We are loved. | |
| 04:58 Nov 20, 2012 PST | |
| Twenty Years From Right Now | |
| Is twenty years really a lifetime? No, it's not the 77.7 years of average US life expectancy, but when you are young it is a long time. Twenty years is time enough to complete your primary, secondary, and advanced education. | |
| 12:26 Nov 19, 2012 PST | |
| Religous People Work Very Hard for God | |
| It's been my experience that we religious people work very hard, often killing ourselves for God, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Why? I believe it is because we do not believe that God is love or that he really loves us. | |
| 12:01 Nov 13, 2012 PST | |
| Taking a Truly Compassionate Approach Matters Most | |
| People were getting off of the airport shuttles in droves, wearing everything from Mardi Gras beads and rainbow wigs to pinstripe suits and night gowns. | |
| 08:22 Nov 9, 2012 PST | |
| Help With the Missing Pieces | |
| I love puzzles. Crosswords, brainteasers, and search-a-words to be sure, but nothing beats an old fashioned jigsaw puzzle with about gazillion pieces spilling out of the box. | |
| 13:09 Nov 6, 2012 PST | |
| Some Things Are Better Left Alone | |
| The rattlesnake was very old, yet, there was enough life left in the serpent to speak to the young Cherokee: 'Please,' he said, 'take me to the top of the mountain. I hope to see the sunset one last time before I die.' | |
| 11:10 Nov 5, 2012 PST | |
| Humans Must Thrive in Community, Not in Dogged Isolation | |
| Yet, this heresy is alive and well, even in our houses of worship. Places that should be blossoming gardens of communion and family-ship are rampant with the weeds of stubborn, self-reliance, and spit-in-the-wind individuality. | |
| 08:53 Nov 5, 2012 PST | |
| Is God Heaven's Booger Man? | |
| But we cannot make the Booger Man of our imagination reconcile with the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. For Jesus did not come to condemn us or frighten us with rules and retribution. He came to give us a better way to live. | |
| 07:07 Nov 4, 2012 PST | |
| Why Living a Simple Life Matters | |
| It has to be simpler than this. Maybe we can trade in our locomotive for a bicycle. We can't go as fast, and we can't carry as much baggage, but maybe that is exactly the point. | |
| 08:43 Nov 2, 2012 PST | |
| Set a Pace for Marathon of Life | |
| No, it is their mother who must coach them when it comes to improving their weekly time. What with her little collection of 5K trophies and ribbons (continually they mock me), she's best qualified for showing them the way. | |
| 10:24 Nov 1, 2012 PST | |
| Finding Balance in Hustle and Bustle of Life | |
| So we are on this always-turning-merry-go-round where happily she launches out to quarry each week's garage sales, and I am perpetually, and sometimes bitterly, cleaning out our own garage. | |
| 05:59 Oct 31, 2012 PST | |
| For The Long Haul | |
| I didn't like this sort of exhortation. I was, after all, a teenager being told how big a sinner I was, but didn't feel like I had gotten to sin very much yet. I hadn't got to do much of anything! | |
| 13:11 Oct 29, 2012 PST | |
| The World Needs Churches and Communities of Faith | |
| My friend Rob Nash makes the point that the Catholic Church was never stronger than in the late 1400s, to early 1500s, dominating all of Europe. | |
| 07:35 Oct 26, 2012 PST | |
| Is The Gospel a 'Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free' Card? | |
| Now, hold your fire (and your fiery emails); I'm not saying there are no pearly gates or that there is no heavenly dimension to the gospel. I'm just saying there is more to it than that. | |
| 10:01 Oct 25, 2012 PST | |
| Is God Re-Creating The World? | |
| What if it were possible for us to travel back in time some hundred or so years? What if we could do that, and upon meeting our not so distant ancestors, we said to them, 'We are here to reveal the future! | |
| 20:03 Oct 24, 2012 PST | |
| Letting Go of 'Pickled Limbs' in The Past | |
| Is there a way to get well, to stop the pain? I think so. The greater part of the pain and regret we carry around with us (or what mocks us from the shelf) is the result of not accepting this truth about ourselves: | |
| 12:48 Oct 23, 2012 PST | |
| Good All The Time | |
| Personally, I don't appreciate very much of this unsolicited counsel (I don't know many who do). Yes, when we need advice we should seek it, and we should all bend listening ears to those people we genuinely trust and respect. | |
| 05:02 Oct 23, 2012 PST | |
| Why Do The Godly Suffer? | |
| Our faith informs us that one day God will set all things right. He will exercise complete justice and mercy, and the 'knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth like the waters cover the sea.' | |
| 07:47 Oct 22, 2012 PST | |
| Aren't We All Brothers and Sisters? | |
| All three are brothers. Our two oldest children are only six months apart. It has been the equivalent of raising twins, but the two couldn't be more different. | |
| 07:59 Oct 21, 2012 PST | |
| Jesus Searches for The Lost Sheep | |
| Who were these 'notorious sinners?' No one knows for sure. They were likely a collection of social outcasts and the ones your mother warned you to stay away from. | |
| 12:46 Oct 19, 2012 PST | |
| Taking a 'Stand' Really Matters | |
| I used to own one of these checklists. It was well-worn and dog-eared from being pulled from my pocket to hold up against others. | |
| 17:30 Oct 16, 2012 PST | |
| How Love and Service Works | |
| Stepping off of the sidewalk; tipping a hat in respect; visiting a little, poor, sick black boy in a slum hospital; handing over a few worn books to a hungry reader: Who knew what an impact these small acts of kindness would have on our world? | |
| 07:52 Oct 16, 2012 PST | |
| Change is Inevitable | |
| Our move is a migration of several hundred miles to be closer to aging parents/grandparents. They need a little more help these days, and we are happy to lend a hand. | |
| 12:28 Oct 13, 2012 PST | |
| Why Won't Some People Go to Church? | |
| Imagine you are seated in church on Sunday morning. It is your church, the one you have attended for many years. It is a good Sunday as far as worship services go. You were tempted to play golf or sleep in, but there you are as faithful as ever. | |
| 07:39 Oct 12, 2012 PST | |
| God Offers Grace Best! | |
| We all fail. We all disappoint. We all have moments - sometimes multiple moments - when the crowd peddles by us. And we sit there exhausted, used up, in over our heads. In those moments Christ comes to us. | |
| 05:29 Oct 11, 2012 PST | |
| Keep Your Shirt On; God Will Speak | |
| God doesn't really talk to people, does he? And those mystical types who routinely say things like, 'God spoke to me' or 'I heard God say,' are we to take them seriously, or should they be scheduled for a mental health examination? | |
| 04:50 Oct 10, 2012 PST | |
| God's Grace Fills Emptiness of The Hearts | |
| It is no wonder that Jesus said, 'God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him.' He said this, not to glorify poverty, but to show that the only receptacle for God's grace is a vacant human heart. | |
| 09:18 Oct 9, 2012 PST | |
| Is 'Entire Bible' The Foundation of Faith? | |
| Once after having a similar discussion, a listener came to me with the news that I had to believe everything in the Bible - the entire corpus of the church's theology - to become a Christian. So I asked this dear person a question: 'When did you c | |
| 09:42 Oct 8, 2012 PST | |
| Sometimes Showing Up Is Enough | |
| Michael is aged, fragile and weak, and yet after cancer, a heart attack, a quadruple bypass surgery, a stroke, and two-packs-a-day, he's still not dead. | |
| 12:35 Oct 7, 2012 PST | |
| We Can't Forget, but We Can Forgive | |
| The answer to this pain is not in the forgetting. The answer is in the forgiving. I don't use the word 'forgiving' or 'forgiveness' glibly, because forgiveness isn't easy. | |
| 06:39 Oct 7, 2012 PST | |
| Jesus Came to Earth to Initiate a Way of Life | |
| Jesus came to initiate a way of life, a new way to live, that knocks the props out from beneath everything else we have ever known. | |
| 10:06 Oct 5, 2012 PST | |
| Church Must Be a Place of Welcome | |
| This welcome is far more substantial than saying 'hello,' shaking hands, or sharing coffee and doughnuts in the fellowship hall (another questionable description of a church building). | |
| 08:45 Oct 3, 2012 PST | |
| 'Family' is a Messy Business | |
| The truth is, 'family' is a messy business, and it doesn't really matter much whose family it is. They are all dysfunctional - all of them - and the dysfunction is measured only by degrees. | |
| 09:05 Oct 2, 2012 PST | |
| God Has a 'Yes' Face | |
| Another traveler - one on foot - watched this group navigate the waters. Finally, needing to get to the other side himself, this man asked the President to take him across. Jefferson quickly agreed and the two made it safely to the other side. | |
| 08:34 Oct 1, 2012 PST | |
| Football Becoming a Religion in United States | |
| Why? Well, there are timeouts to be taken, consultations on the sidelines that stop the clock, instant replay reviews by the officials, and of course the huddle. | |
| 06:18 Sep 29, 2012 PST | |
| Don't Define Your Neighbor...Love Them | |
| A religious leader came to Jesus with a question. 'If loving God and loving my neighbor is the totality of religious and spiritual requirement, then tell me Jesus, who is my neighbor?' | |
| 14:47 Sep 28, 2012 PST | |
| What is Wrong With The World? | |
| When Chesterton was at his peak of popularity and wit, a London paper, The Times, solicited responses from its readership by asking this question: 'What is wrong with the world?' You can imagine the result. | |
| 04:52 Sep 28, 2012 PST | |
| Christians Becoming Spiritually Obese | |
| To lament that you can't get spiritually 'fed' is like complaining of starvation while standing in line at the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. We're not hungry. We aren't getting rid of what we have been given. | |
| 07:53 Sep 27, 2012 PST | |
| Why Kim Il-Sung Turned Away From Christ? | |
| The 'Great Leader' answered that question with these words: 'Many people believed that they would go to Heaven...and Jesus would save them from their misery on Earth; faith in Christ would give them a better life... | |
| 04:56 Sep 25, 2012 PST | |
| An Apple Pie Can Change The World | |
| This poor woman looked at him, dumbstruck. To relieve the tension she turned to his wife: 'What about you, dear? Would you join me for church next week?' | |
| 07:23 Sep 21, 2012 PST | |
| Bible is Like Healing Physician That Encourages Us to Be Better | |
| The examination, the lab results, the endless questionnaires, the rubber-gloved poking and prodding: These all have a way of pointing to the truth of how the patient has lived his or her life. | |
| 11:14 Sep 18, 2012 PST | |
| Sometimes Life Throws Us Bigger Projects Than Anticipated | |
| Sometime in the distant past a water leak - undisclosed by the previous owners and undiscovered by the home inspectors - had rotted the bathroom floor. When I started painting, I discovered it. | |
| 04:46 Sep 17, 2012 PST | |
| Your Laundry Is On The Line | |
| Yes, it is now possible for one to come clean via the internet, be pardoned by instant message, or to do penance just as soon as God answers his email. Just fill out the proper online form and wait for forgiveness to arrive in your inbox. | |
| 18:31 Sep 15, 2012 PST | |
| Some Fears Aren't All They are Cracked Up to Be | |
| The power we have been given and the love we have been shown flows from the Providence who is larger than our fears, and when we live in Him, nothing can shake us. | |
| 14:37 Sep 14, 2012 PST | |
| Love and Music: Use It or Lose It | |
| See, the top five world record prices paid for any musical instrument are for Stradivarius violins. For example, in 2006, Christie's auctioned a Stradivarius called 'The Hammer' for a record $3.5 million. | |
| 07:46 Sep 13, 2012 PST | |
| Never Point a Finger At Those You Consider Sinners | |
| I left that Hollywood church thinking that it would have been better to give the revival budget to this biker's ministry rather than spending it on some flamboyant evangelist with a bouffant hair-do and expensive cuff links. | |
| 05:17 Sep 11, 2012 PST | |
| God Loves The Dumbos of The World! | |
| For more than thirty years this man had kept sober after throwing away most of his teenage years and young adulthood on a half-dozen legal and illegal substances. | |
| 06:57 Sep 9, 2012 PST | |
| Love in a Grocery Bag | |
| When I was a child my family lived hand to mouth. We were loved and we were cared for, but the cupboards were often bare. We ate a lot of Hamburger Helper in those days, with only the Helper. | |
| 08:48 Sep 7, 2012 PST | |
| Forgiveness a Miracle Performed By God Himself | |
| Some concepts are almost impossible to define; words like hope, love, happiness, or faith. And while these are terms we are all familiar with - we use these words every day - we sometimes struggle to say what they really mean. | |
| 05:14 Sep 4, 2012 PST | |
| Jesus Never Said 'Be Religious!' But Simply 'Follow Me' | |
| With our religious tendencies most of us approach our problems (and problems in our world) with this same eagerness and ignorance. We disassemble everything, knowing that something is seriously wrong. | |
| 14:00 Aug 31, 2012 PST | |
| Do We Really Know Our Bibles? | |
| All these, more often than not, turn the Bible into a checklist or a spiritual encyclopedia that just contains facts. We end up with a lot of information, but end up in danger of missing the point. Foy you see, the Bible is not the end. | |
| 13:58 Aug 30, 2012 PST | |
| Step Into The Water | |
| I was the first person in my church and immediate family to be baptized in an indoor baptistery. We borrowed the sanctuary of another church for the event, and most of the old-timers were sure it was an act of high sacrilege. | |
| 18:08 Aug 28, 2012 PST | |
| You Have to Keep The Faith | |
| When the ancients spoke of faith, they used a word that described a signature on a contract or a title deed. Faith was the oath that lay beneath such a document. | |
| 14:36 Aug 26, 2012 PST | |
| Hating The Haters | |
| Several years ago, on the courthouse steps of the town in which I lived, there was a rally. A homosexual couple in our community was seeking to become foster parents. You can imagine the kickback that erupted in a small Southern town. | |
| 06:14 Aug 25, 2012 PST | |
| Doubt Enough for Me | |
| Though millions have come, there's still room for one. Yes, there's room at the cross for you. I have sung it many times. The words apply to more than hard-core believers. | |
| 18:12 Aug 21, 2012 PST | |
| Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? | |
| There are nearly 300 major religious groups in the world today, and we Christians, well, there are more than 30,000 distinct variations of us. The numbers and varieties of clock styles don't even come close. | |
| 06:56 Aug 20, 2012 PST | |
| Sometimes Safety Can Go Too Far | |
| I took my sons to the park a few days ago to enjoy a new playground installed by the city fathers, apparently with the help of a team of safety experts and a host of litigation-preventing-attorneys. | |
| 06:07 Aug 18, 2012 PST | |
| Can We Learn to Trust God? | |
| My friends have a new dog. His name is Chowder. Chowder is a black and white globe of fuzz and fun with one ear that points due north and another that falls like a floppy patch over his right eye. | |
| 08:07 Aug 15, 2012 PST | |
| The Entire Universe Cannot Contain God | |
| There is a story told about a meeting between Augustine, the early church father, and a little boy on a beach. At the time, Augustine was writing his book on the Trinity and was walking along the seashore, deep in prayer and thought. | |
| 05:40 Aug 15, 2012 PST | |
| God and Glochids | |
| Our game ended with that last catch. For the next 30 minutes Blayze soaked in a tub of hot water while I sat beside him with a flashlight, a pair of tweezers, and a bottle of Peroxide, pulling out glochids until I lost count. | |
| 13:40 Aug 13, 2012 PST | |
| There is Electricity in the Air | |
| The combination of these things (the low ceiling, shag carpet, ghosts of former pastors, and dry gas heat) caused the house to be so sufficiently charged with static, it could set off an electroscope. | |
| 12:50 Aug 11, 2012 PST | |
| Jesus Comes to The World With a Humble Heart | |
| Finding that the profession suited him, Buford entered the race for Sheriff of McNairy County, Tenn., and in 1964 he was duly elected. | |
| 05:22 Aug 9, 2012 PST | |
| Jesus Won't Stop Looking for His Lost Sheep | |
| When her work overwhelms her she does what is natural. She turns to faith, spirituality, a search for deeper meaning in all the misery surrounding her. | |
| 14:50 Aug 6, 2012 PST | |
| Enter to Worship...Leave to Serve | |
| Moses and Elijah, the great Lawgiver and great Prophet of the past, joined Jesus on that hillside as a booming Voice from heaven said, 'This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him. Listen to him.' | |
| 09:25 Aug 6, 2012 PST | |
| Why Do People Follow Jesus? | |
| What made the difference in those who stayed with Christ and those who did not? It's hard to say. But one thing is certain, those who follow Jesus for a lifetime are those who have seen and experienced him for themselves. | |
| 21:25 Aug 4, 2012 PST | |
| Sacred Cows | |
| Ronnie McBrayer says those who serve will be served, those who choose to be last shall be first, and those who humble themselves as servants will be exalted | |
| 17:50 Aug 3, 2012 PST | |
| Toxic Words Wound Hearts of Children | |
| A friend of mine recently attended her own son's game. And this time, harsh words were not coming from the stands. They were spewing from the coach's box. The coach lost his composure and control over his tongue. | |
| 08:07 Aug 1, 2012 PST | |
| Getting to The Bottom of It | |
| The outer doll of my Babushka set was, entertainingly, Boris Yeltsin. His likeness had a dopey little smile and rumpled hair as if he had been drinking too much vodka, accurately portrayed I fear. | |
| 10:03 Jul 30, 2012 PST | |
| The Wiles and Woolies | |
| When my family moved into our new home I promised my wife I would clean up the backyard. The yard wasn't dirty; it was just unruly. | |
| 07:47 Jul 30, 2012 PST | |
| Pain Can Lead to Something Extraordinarily Beautiful | |
| One of those career choices was the Christian pastorate. 'God has sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor,' Vincent wrote to his brother while still a young man in his twenties. | |
| 08:29 Jul 28, 2012 PST | |
| Is King James Version of The Bible The Only 'Real' Bible? | |
| My pastors taught me that 'the Authorized 1611 King James Version of the Bible is the only Bible, and all other versions are perversions of God's Word.' | |
| 08:17 Jul 25, 2012 PST | |
| Pig Pens and Band-Aids | |
| 'Love thy neighbor' is wonderful as a heavenly theory. But it is hell on wheels to practice. Oh, it sounds good, but when you start thinking about the implications of what this means, it is hard to swallow. | |
| 16:39 Jul 22, 2012 PST | |
| Sometimes Love Comes From The Most Unlikely of Neighbors | |
| A man was going from Indianapolis, Indiana, to Louisville, Kentucky, when along the way he had a flat tire. Stranded on the side of the road, he was robbed, his car was stripped, he was shot, and left for dead. | |
| 12:54 Jul 21, 2012 PST | |
| The Big Ten, Bigger Trouble, and Bigger Grace | |
| My nephew was found by his mother crouching in the garage howling in inconsolable grief. What could move a ten-year-old to such emotion? He had discovered the Ten Commandments, and his tears were not the product of joy; they were produced by fear. | |
| 06:22 Jul 20, 2012 PST | |
| A Parent's Love Cannot Be Measured | |
| Those of you who are parents have probably said something like the following to your children: 'There is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you.' If we haven't spoken those words to a child, many of us have heard them from our own mom or d | |
| 08:29 Jul 18, 2012 PST | |
| Is Mankind in Need of Redemption? | |
| Daryl showed up at my friend's home carrying about thirty extra pounds and the weight of the world on his shoulders. Daryl was there to fix the malfunctioning cable. | |
| 18:52 Jul 13, 2012 PST | |
| How To Handle a Hammer | |
| This does not mean Jesus was an industrial contractor responsible for the construction of super-structures. He was more like the village handy man, someone to call when you needed to get a project done. | |
| 14:27 Jul 13, 2012 PST | |
| God's Grace is Bigger Than The 'Doomsday' Scare | |
| Some time ago I read that doomsday shelters are making a big comeback. Now, I've never been in one of these safe havens, but I am told they were all the rage fifty years ago. | |
| 05:57 Jul 13, 2012 PST | |
| Christians Need a Spiritual Renaissance | |
| W. Ann Reynolds once said, 'Anyone who says you cannot see a thought simply doesn't know art.' For those creative persons who have ever held a brush, camera, pencil, or script in their hand, they know this to be true. | |
| 11:08 Jul 10, 2012 PST | |
| 'Just Who Do You Think You Are?' | |
| Businessmen on vacation were lap-topping the wireless internet with the same ferociousness as they drank their double espressos. Teenage girls were chatting and texting up the proverbial storm over their cell phones. | |
| 06:38 Jul 9, 2012 PST | |
| Better to Lose the World | |
| 'When I needed them most, they didn't respond. When I spoke, they didn't listen...The pain and hurt the church has caused is deep and lasting.' Those words could fall from the lips of many a former church-goer. | |
| 08:58 Jul 7, 2012 PST | |
| Will Faith and Hope Be Sufficient to Face The Storm? | |
| The National Weather Service in releasing its hurricane predictions for this year is expecting an 'active to extremely active' hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin. | |
| 07:19 Jul 6, 2012 PST | |
| The Bible Tells Mankind to 'Draw Near to God' | |
| An old man and an old woman who had been married for many years were driving to church. They fell in behind another car being driven by a young man. Sitting beside the young man was a young woman, obviously his girlfriend. | |
| 07:47 Jul 5, 2012 PST | |
| Quit Chasing the Runs | |
| Bubba Ray played first base. Seriously, that was his name. His birth certificate might have read 'Keith' Ray, but no one called him by that name - no one except his mama. We all called him Bubba. | |
| 04:33 Jul 3, 2012 PST | |
| Mortgaging the Ministry | |
| Welcome to Stonebridge Community Church, a 25,000 square feet, multi-million dollar facility in the absolute middle of no where. You could fit more people inside the sanctuary than are on its town's tax rolls. | |
| 16:57 Jul 1, 2012 PST | |
| Is US Replacing 'The Jesus Way' With The American Way? | |
| Ronnie McBrayer's Keeping the Faith, 6/29 about the Colony that became the seedbed for the nation whose birthday we celebrate... | |
| 12:03 Jun 30, 2012 PST | |
| Is Bible More Than 'Just a Bunch of Stories'? | |
| 'I don't read that article by Ronnie McBrayer,' I heard a critic say not long ago; a critic who did not know I was within earshot. 'He thinks the Bible is just a bunch of stories.' | |
| 15:27 Jun 27, 2012 PST | |
| Is God Too Good to Be True? | |
| He is six to fifteen feet tall. He weighs in excess of five hundred pounds. He is covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair. He is reported to have a strong, unpleasant smell. | |
| 07:37 Jun 25, 2012 PST | |
| Will Forgiveness and Love Extinguish The Fires of Hell? | |
| Maybe the only thing more extraordinary than Lal Shahbaz's wide-reaching travels and popularity are the many mythological stories that have been attached to him over the centuries. | |
| 22:08 Jun 23, 2012 PST | |
| Is a Pierced Ego Good Medicine for The Soul? | |
| Sometimes everything comes together perfectly: In life, at home, even in church. I had one of those perfect Sunday mornings not long ago. | |
| 17:20 Jun 22, 2012 PST | |
| 'McDonaldization' Also Overtakes Contemporary Spirituality | |
| I am saying this: Churches should cease in their efforts to build spiritual shopping malls and focus instead on helping people become committed followers of Jesus. This may reduce our attendance numbers and the financial bottom line, | |
| 09:11 Jun 21, 2012 PST | |
| True Worship of God Embodies 'Sincerity' and 'Genuineness' | |
| Jesus said the worship demanded by God is worship that is 'in spirit and in truth.' Now there is a phrase worth taking some time with: Spirit and truth. | |
| 09:51 Jun 19, 2012 PST | |
| Time Flies, But Kids Don't Care | |
| Ronnie McBrayer discovers even his kids care more about big box stores than living history. | |
| 20:43 Jun 17, 2012 PST | |
| Is Matrimonial Extravagance a Escalating Trend? | |
| Last year when Kate Middleton walked down the aisle of Westminster Abbey to marry Prince William Duke of Cambridge, it marked the apex of one of the most expensive weddings in history. | |
| 21:29 Jun 16, 2012 PST | |
| That Living Jacob | |
| His name was Jacob, and he lived up to his name. 'Jacob' means 'heel grabber,' or 'one who causes others to stumble.' Not very flattering. | |
| 07:01 Jun 11, 2012 PST | |
| The Kudzu Conspiracy | |
| Ronnie McBrayer's Keeping the Faith for June 9 | |
| 08:07 Jun 9, 2012 PST | |
| You Are Welcome | |
| Seekers are not vilified, targeted, pursued, or argued with. They are simply invited into radical hospitality where questions and exploration are not only tolerated, but encouraged and expected. | |
| 15:27 Jun 7, 2012 PST | |
| Promises Kept: Lasting Love | |
| When I met him in the fall of 2005, Joshua Burton was seventy-five years old. On a walker, slowed by age, his caramel skin calloused by years of hard work, he still had the light of life in his eyes. | |
| 15:05 Jun 5, 2012 PST | |
| Cracked Pots | |
| There is an Eastern Indian folk-tale about a water bearer who had two water pots. Each pot hung on the end of a long pole which the water bearer carried across his neck and shoulders. | |
| 09:13 Jun 5, 2012 PST | |
| Is Human Emptiness The Only Receptacle for Grace of God? | |
| Sheldon 'Shel' Silverstein had one of the more extraordinary literary, music, and art careers you will ever read about, though many people will not recognize his name or his face. | |
| 19:32 May 20, 2012 PST | |
| Sometimes Heroes Need a Hero | |
| Ronnie McBrayer's Keeping the Faith column. Deals with Alzheimer's. | |
| 18:27 May 18, 2012 PST | |
| God's Love Can Heal The Pickled Pain of The Past | |
| 'If our past and memory banks can contain it, God's love can overcome it...' | |
| 18:08 Feb 15, 2011 PST | |
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