Ronnie McBrayer

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 dedicated in Jerusalem, marking the location of Jesus' death and resurrection. That church - with its strange and tormented history - is a pretty good representation of Christianity at its most honest and nitty-gritty. I think it is a good metaphor for the institution itself, and that it can also speak to our individual, personal faith..."

"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 country, already a full third of population has no memory of the events of September 11, 2001. Solemn commemoration grows more important, the intentional act of holding people in the common memory."

"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 the only God that I will ever believe in.” - Woody Guthrie

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 drop is no way to live at all. I’m just an early alert system: Storms are bound to come. Most of them blow over in a day or two, and we are no more worse off for the wear. But some storms are life-altering, faith-testing, soul-crushing disasters. They break us. They lash and torment us in ways that the outside weather never could. Where do you turn in the midst of one of these land-falling hurricanes? How do you survive the darkest thundering days and the endless, sleepless nights? What do you do in a storm?" (Part 1 of 2.)

"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 to the woman at the well, “springs of living water” that will never go dry. The water flowing from the presence of God is the people of God, sent out to refresh and resurrect a dead and parched world."

"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 the one who has blessed us with this opportunity. Let us remove all politics and nationalism from the church; and concentrate on following the words and way of Jesus - no matter what else might happen in our community or in our nation."