Ronnie McBrayer

"You cannot judge or condemn someone into the kingdom of God. The second that manipulation, coercion, intimidation, or threat enters a spiritual conversation, it is the spirit of fear that prevails - not the Spirit of Christ. To quote John : 'There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Fear is crippling. A fearful life - fear of death, fear of judgment - is one not yet fully...

There's no such thing as "just a story;" not when it comes to the parables of Jesus. Martin Buber could have been describing Jesus when he said, "I must say it once again: I am only a storyteller. I have no teaching. I only point to something…I take he or she who listens to me by the hand and I lead them to a window. I open the window and point to what is outside. I have nothing to teach, only sto...

In this continuation of his series on Matthew 13 entitled, "Until Kingdom Comes," Ronnie takes up Jesus' explanation of the Parable of the Sower/Soils. He says, "Not everyone will hear the good news of the kingdom of God; not everyone who hears it will respond; not everyone who responds will stick with it.  Our job as sowers of the seed is to do just that: Sow the seed. We don’t judge. We don’t fi...

This is the first in a series of talks on the parables of Matthew 13. Jesus' message in these stories is about the kingdom of God, and how each of us can open our hearts, eyes, and ears to this message. In Jesus' words: “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

An encounter with Jesus and a song by Hank Williams combines to challenge us all: While we find it much easier to critique and manage the lives of others, our true responsibility is deeply personal and deeply focused; to follow the particular path Christ has for each of us, and to "mind our own business."

"On this day in history, September 13th: Hadrian began construction on a great wall across the north of England (122)...Michelangelo began carving the statue, 'David' (1501)...Army physician Walter Reed was born (1851)...so was Bill Monroe (1911)...Nintendo released a game called 'Super Mario Brothers (1985). And on this day in history in the year 335, The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was dedicate...

"It is the evaporation of common memory, what a society experiences over time, say a time span of 25 years.  When a tragedy is new, the wound fresh; everyone knows, everyone remembers. But as time goes on, evaporation makes the remembrance pool smaller and smaller until one day, only the outline remains of those who once knew, experienced, and swam in the waters of what had happened. In our own co...

"Love is all energy, all strength, all health, all beauty, and all good work, well done. Love is the thinker of every good thought. Love ties all things together. Love makes all things one. Love is all there be. The books of the Holy Bible never say but one time just exactly what God is, but in three little words it pours out a hundred million college educations and says, ‘God Is Love.’ Love is th...

On a hot August Sunday 19 years ago, the fledging congregation known as "A Simple Faith" met for the first time. The 20th year begins here.

This is Ronnie's conclusion (Part 2 of 2) entitled: What To Do In A Storm, based on Acts 27.

"A storm is coming. You can count on it. And how I wish the coming storm was just thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening; just a little wind and rain. But the storm I’m talking about is more severe than that. I’m talking about personal, sometimes private storms. I’m not a pessimist. I’m not trying to make you feel bad or make you afraid; to live coiled up, waiting for the next shoe to...

"Ezekiel’s dream of the future has come true. Not with the construction of some highly advanced cathedral for God with an artesian well, but with the construction of a people, of temples not made with human hands. God no longer lives in a temple. God doesn’t live in a  church. God hasn’t been cornered by any religion. God has made a home within you and me. We have inside of us, as in Jesus’ words...

"Water, water, everywhere...and not a drop to drink." So cried the Ancient Mariner. "Worry, worry, everywhere" seems to be the cry today. This is Ronnie's look at Philippians 4, heeding the wisdom of the Apostle Paul who instructed early Christians to, "not worry about anything, but to pray about everything." 

"You might ask, 'What is wrong with a little flag waving or a pledge to the nation of our birth?' Nothing! But to center American nationalism in the church is to marginalize the Lordship of Jesus. It demands that God share his place of supremacy with the flag. It fools us into calling this Empire, 'home.' It tricks us into worshipping the blessing of living where we live, rather than worshipping t...

Ronnie concludes his series from the Psalms (while connecting these with more contemporary songs), with this episode entitled, "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen." Using Psalm 86, the African-American spiritual, and the insights of Viktor Frankl, this talk challenges the listener to wisely "choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

I know this is not the most pleasant subject for many people. But in the last words of President McKinley, "We are all going. We are all going." So long as death is way down the road, at some far and distant juncture that remains out of sight, it can remain out of mind. But we have no such promises. There are no guarantees that our end is decades or years in the future.  Allison Arieff says: “It i...

Bob Marley...The Book of Psalms...Meister Eckhart...John Oatman Jr. What do all of these have in common? Gratitude. It's the best way to live your life.

I have no way to prove this, but I suspect that more people know the song "How Great Thou Art" than know the Psalm upon which it is based - Psalm 8. I venture to guess that more people have heard this song in the last 75 years than have read the book of Psalms. And I think that’s just fine! Because, the song - “How Great Thou Art” -, remains faithful to the text.   Times have changed. Understandin...

Ronnie's continuing exploration of Psalms from the Revised Common Lectionary arrives at Psalm 104, with an ode to the Psalmists and contemporary artist, Fernando Ortega. Ronnie urges listeners to rediscover God's good creation by saying: "We are more fixated on looking through tiny digital windows on the world than living in and enjoying God’s actual, created world - a world that will remain more...

What do Stan Jones, King David, the Apache Tribe, the Canaanites, Baal, and Yahweh have in common? You'll have to listen to find out more. My latest talk from Psalm 68.

"God protects us from death and keeps us steady. Our God, you tested us, just as silver is tested. You trapped us in a net and gave us heavy burdens. You sent war chariots to crush our skulls. We traveled through fire and through floods but you brought us to a land of plenty” (Psalm 66 8-12). This is really a mixed bag here, isn't it? Praising God for God’s protection and care; and then acknowledg...

When it comes to people who have truly suffered, who have endured so much trouble, they must have something extraordinary that sustains them. It must be something solid. Something stronger than anything else. Something that doesn’t move, that doesn’t wash away. Surely, their feet have found a rock upon which to stand, a fortress in which to retreat. Surely, there is a love that carries them, buoys...

"Take in the scope of this ancient proverb: 'A rolling stone gathers no moss.' It emerged in  ancient Antioch, was rediscovered during the European Renaissance, beloved in the peat moss bogs of the Scot-Irish, and institutionalized by the royalty of blues, country, and rock and roll music. And sure as sunrise, there was no moss on the stone that covered the entrance to Jesus’ grave. It rolled away...

"Seventy percent of your body is water. Seventy percent of all you ingest is water. Seventy percent of this planet is water. Water is everywhere and in everything. Water is what each of us are made of, and water sustains us. Water sustains everything in our world. That's not hard too understand - because it is our reality. Is it then so hard to understand that Christ is in all and hold all things...

JB Phillips coined the phrase, "God-In-A-Box." What did he mean? We have tamed God. We think we own or control God. Just look how God works through the religious machinery we have built, after all. God is reduced to a wafer in the hands of a priest; a doctrinal statement; the rules and expectations of a particular denomination or church. But God is wilder and larger than any restriction humans mig...