Ronnie McBrayer

"The easiest path to take in regard to our world is to simply curse the darkness. It is to 'rage, rage against the dying of the light.' We would make the world go away by damning it all to hell on the one hand - or by force - attempting to shape it into our image on the other. But the only way to make the world as we know it to go away is by changing it; and the only way to change it is by loving...

Put your phone down. Step away from the screen. Turn down the noise. Because your technology is making you stupid.  It's also killing your spirit. Here is a talk by Ronnie sure to give you something to think about, and hopefully you will do exactly that. Listen, then sit; think; be still. 

"You can't get there from here!" It's a common expression, not only accurate about travel, but also life. In this episode Ronnie talks about finding a way forward - by means of trusting a sure guide - instead of stubbornly trusting one's self. Based on Proverbs 3, Part 2 of 2.

"You can't get there from here!" It's a common expression, not only accurate about travel, but also life. In this episode Ronnie talks about finding a way forward - by means of trusting a sure guide - instead of stubbornly trusting one's self. Based on Psalm 32, Part 1 of 2.

Ronnie delivered this recent talk at A Simple Faith, a "re-run" of a story he has told many times - but this is the first time it has been captured on audio for further distribution. It is the tale of Roger Williams, America's earliest champion of religious liberty. His experience, convictions, and life form a story more timely than ever. From the talk: "If you think that government should enforce...

Do you love someone who struggles with mental illness...addiction? Ronnie addresses both of these In this episode, and speaks of "going home" as returning to the true God-given, Christ-seen self. This talk just might be for you.

Could it be that scientists, philosophers, theologians, and spiritual seeker are chasing after the same "Wondrous More" that religion calls God? This is Ronnie's talk for "Trinity Sunday, 2022."

Crickets...Christ...and Canadians? Listen in to this episode to see what these have in common. This is Ronnie's talk for Ascension Sunday, 2022.

Ronnie is back after a vacation to Colorado! This talk is about embracing the unexpected and "going with the Spirit" and wildness of life instead of holding to preconceived expectations. Enjoy!

This talk was delivered just days after Ronnie's mother's death and before the mass shooting in Texas. May all who listen find some comfort from these words.

In the conclusion of his series on the cross of Jesus, Ronnie speaks to the suffering of God and how that suffering is an act of solidarity with all who face injustice, pain, and inexplicable hurts. Ronnie says: "To speak of a God who cannot suffer is to speak of a God who cannot sympathize or understand. To believe in a God who is indifferent and unaffected, is to believe in a God who is deaf, bl...

"Our Lord Jesus Christ, through His transcendent love, became what we are, that we might become what he is." So said the Church Fathers, and so says Ronnie in this 9th installation of his series on the Cross of Jesus. The cross must mean something for today, Ronnie says, as we "don't have to die to get in on it." 

In Episode 8 of Ronnie's series on the Cross of Jesus, Ronnie addresses "everything that is wrong with the world" (An overly ambitious statement, he admits). But he also address the solution, as the cross is a way of God saying: "I know you need to offload the burden of simply being a human, of being that unique species, the only one on the planet committed to revenge. I know you are capable of en...

"Everyone into the DeLorean!" And with that, like Marty McFly going "Back to the Future," Ronnie takes listeners back in time to the ancient roots of our faith, exploring the sacrificial system of the Hebrew people. Why the strange rituals? What was all this blood about? What happened on the Day of Atonement? What is a scapegoat? These are questions that Ronnie answers and then applies to our unde...

Ronnie takes on a view of the cross now known as "Penal Substitution." While honoring the image of Jesus as a substitute and sacrifice for sin (more about that will be forthcoming in this series), Ronnie outright rejects the idea of a furious, Puritan-like God whose murderous anger must be assuaged only by blood. Adapting a a line from Jonathan Edwards, Ronnie says, "Not for one more minute longer...

In episode five of "Crosswords: How the Cross of Jesus Reveals the Love of God," Ronnie talks about the importance and impact of an overlooked view of the cross called, "Moral Exemplar." Ronnie describes it like this: "The death of Jesus  was such an act of loving sacrifice, such a far-reaching, world-transforming, relationship-changing event - that if  understood even remotely - then Jesus’ examp...

Ronnie's continuing exploration of the cross of Jesus arrives at what scholars call, "Christus Victor;" summarized best by Irenaeus, who was born not long after the first Apostles died, said: “[in Jesus] God came to Earth that he might kill sin, deprive death of its power, restore life and freedom to all humanity, and raise a monument of victory.” But this is not a stuffy, theological lecture. Ron...

In his third installment of "Crosswords: How the Cross of Jesus Reveals the Love of God," Ronnie reaches for the oldest image Christian faith used to understand the death of Jesus. From the oldest Gospel, the words of Jesus himself: "The Son of Man did not come to be served. He came to serve others and to give his life as a ransom .” Ronnie explores how the cross "works" as a ransom, liberating us...

This is Ronnie's second installment of a series on the Cross of Jesus. It could be sub-titled, "Love and Scandal." Using provocative, contemporary examples, Ronnie talks about the "foolishness of the cross." From the talk: "Could you for a minute get your mind around the fact that a military and political prisoner, taken in the land of our enemies, and executed by the world’s superpower, is the ho...

In what promises to be a thought-provoking, belief-behind series of talks, Ronnie has launched a series on the meaning behind the Cross of Jesus. In this introductory talk, Ronnie points to Divine Love as the energizing force behind the "sacrifice of Jesus." Ronnie says, "Jesus did not come to save us from God - but to show us who God is. So, whatever happened on that hill outside Jerusalem  all t...

In this conclusion of a two-part talk from Luke 4, Ronnie says: "We live in such an entitled, selfish, self-centered society, that when we begin to broach the subjects of concern and care for others, patient assistance, breaking the cycles of poverty and violence, intervening to help the 'least of these,' of intentionally taking sides with the weak - the very crux of what Christianity looks like w...

In this first of two talks from Luke 4, Ronnie says: "When Jesus comes  preaching about 'releasing the captives' and 'setting the oppressed free' and 'God’s good favor' coming to us, it is good news...so long as it us. But when come come to understand that Jesus' intent is to spread his grace to 'them," - not just 'us' - all those people we have spent our lifetimes being suspicious of, if not outr...

After an interruption from a Covid outbreak at home, Ronnie is backwash his fifth year of podcasts! This talk, taking its title from Jackson Browne, is an appeal to look and see, to stop and listen, as God speaks to us in the Creation around us. Ronnie asks, "Have we grown so world-weary and tired that we have lost our vision? Have we grown so cynical and soured by the awfulness of what we humans...

With what a listener called one of the "most provocative, thoughtful messages I've heard from him over the years," Ronnie talks about moving on - into the new year to come. Based on Isaiah 65, he encourages listeners to believe that "the ones who have been harmed, hurt, and battered in the past, are the very ones who will rebuild a future." Things may never go back to the way they were, but things...

WWHD? What Would Hilda Do? Synthesizing the final Sunday of Advent with a remembrance of his dear friend Hilda McDonald, Ronnie plots a path to personal peace in spite of these chaotic times.