Too much has happened since my last post to fully catch you up on the transitions. The short of it is that at the same time that I launched into homeschooling my children, my family sold our beautiful home in Wake Forest and lived in transition for a while in that beautiful small town for a while, and then we packed up and moved to the most oxymoronic city in the South—Austin, Texas.

I grew up in church, but no one taught me *how* to read the Bible until I was an adult. Now, my mind has opened to incredible deep truths in scripture that I would have otherwise missed.

Much of what we get out of the scriptures has to do with how we begin our reading. Most of us in the south have thick, leather-bound study Bibles with tiny little reference notes and scholarly introductions we never read or—if we do—it’s because we are distracted during a sermon that lost us at “hello.”

Being an avid reader and a literary scholar, there is one thing I have learned about myself that is true for not all—but most. We don’t really retain what we read until we have to regurgitate it, and because most of us are not Bible teachers or scholars, this rarely applies to the content in those tiny print introductions inserted into our study Bibles (I feel like I just heard a hundred Bible scholars gasp… sorry guys).

In this article, I share a little about the irony of growing up right down the street from a seminary but not being very Bible-literate myself, and I provide a free resource to help you get started reading any given passage in the Bible with the right context in mind.

Read the full article here: https://reagankathrynreynolds.com/2021/07/20/lets-talk-about-reading-the-bible-in-context-and-why-you-should-stop-being-a-lazy-reader/

Get your free Bible Reading Guide to Establish a Contextual Framework here: https://mcusercontent.com/a433f72b7334ec2a88b25ee11/files/ca89b9ff-e211-2495-e929-e467fbee1e29/Contextual_Framework_1_.pdf

Being an avid reader and a literary scholar, there is one thing I have learned about myself that is true for not all—but most. We don’t really retain what we read until we have to regurgitate it, and because most of us are not Bible teachers or scholars, this rarely applies to the content in those tiny print introductions inserted into our study Bibles (I feel like I just heard a hundred Bible scholars gasp… sorry guys).

Although those few minutes of gathering context can feel like a timewarp to your fifth grade English class, it is worth it and it doesn’t take too much time to complete. Luckily for us, there are in fact many Bible scholars who have done the work for us… we just have to engage with it and I would argue that we must do so before we attempt to extract the applicable meaning of the scriptures to our lives (and, especially, to the lives of others).

Give this a try. Pick a book of the Bible that’s not too intimidating or one you don’t really know much about (say, the book of Job or the letter of Jude) and use the Bible Reading Guide to Establish a Contextual Framework, take 15 minutes to learn the basic context of that book… and then read the first chapter. What about the context changes or informs your perspective?

Read the article and access the free Bible Reading Guide to Establish a Contextual Framework here: https://reagankathrynreynolds.com/2021/07/20/lets-talk-about-reading-the-bible-in-context-and-why-you-should-stop-being-a-lazy-reader/

I may be wrong, but I have a nagging suspicion that most Christian individuals living in the bible belt are passive readers of their Bibles. They may read a portion of scripture every day, but––likely––they are under some sort of compulsion to do so (whether real or imagined), and that compulsion starts them off in the direction of passive readership of God’s holy word.

There are a lot of reasons to remain a passive reader––none of them good, in my opinion. But there is one good reason to become active in your reading of the gospel—active readership will fuel a life burning with passion for walking the narrow path with Jesus. What could be more exciting than that?

Read article here: https://reagankathrynreynolds.com/2021/07/15/passive-vs-active-reading-of-scripture-ignite-a-passion-for-the-bible/

Encouragement to seek God through my personal experiences with Him and my observations of His work around me provided me with the confidence to proclaim the presence of a God I knew loved me. Even in my wayward college years, I never questioned the existence of God because I had experienced Him––I heard His voice, I saw His perfection in creation, and I observed His movement in the world in both charismatic and private encounters.

I knew God.

Growing up, it wasn’t God I questioned.

It was Jesus.

As I was taught Christianity, Jesus was kind of this hand-wavy thing over on the side of an all-powerful miraculous God. I knew about Jesus. I believed He was a real person in history––but I was not completely confident in His divinity.

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Read this article here: https://reagankathrynreynolds.com/2021/07/11/scripture-as-authority-my-search-for-a-solid-foundation/

experience with EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy or post-traumatic stress disorder. I am excited–albeit a bit nervous–to share with you my own experiences, as I have already witnessed how my own testimony of healing has poured hope into those who may also be suffering from various mental and emotional trials. I am nervous because in the following testimony I am vulnerable, and who isn't a little nervous when vulnerable?

You can read along here: https://reagankathrynreynolds.com/2021/06/17/jesus-emdr-therapy-a-testimony-of-healing-from-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/

Visit www.reagan-reynolds.com for more

I reflect on the trustworthy character of God when it feels like our prayers are not being answered.

What is it about suffering that causes people to scatter? Many times, when a person walks through a season of suffering, the response is an energetic burst of movement away from that person–a human diaspora initiated by tremors of reality echoing the pain of our universal human condition. Do you need proof? Ask almost anyone who is a member of a church and has experienced a divorce. In this article I suggest five ways you can move in closer to those who suffer.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://reagankathrynreynolds.wordpress.com/2021/06/23/five-ways-to-mourn-with-those-who-mourn-or-how-to-not-be-a-person-who-scatters/

A reflection on a time when the emphasis on miracles as preached in some local churches disappointed, followed by a prayer for the weary soul today.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://reagankathrynreynolds.wordpress.com/2021/06/08/when-prayers-for-miracles-disappoint-followed-by-a-prayer-for-the-weary-soul/