Ronnie McBrayer

This is Part 5 of Ronnie's latest series of talks entitled: "Simplify. Simplify." Ronnie talks about the "success" in this talk, a visit with Jesus and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), Martha the struggling and suffering perfectionist. In a talk that became deeply personal, Ronnie said: "The more quiet and more still we become - the more we are able to know and experience the love of Christ. His perfect love is the only cure for our perfectionism. How I wish for myself, and for us all, that we can begin to understand that, while it is still called, 'today.'" 

Part 6: "When in Rome..." (Paul's Arrest and Journey to Italy)

No single individual outside of Jesus of Nazareth has been more influential within Christianity than Paul the Apostle. After his radical conversion he became the church’s most zealous missionary. Without his travels and letters, Christianity would be much different than the version we have inherited today. Join Ronnie as he leads this eight-part study on “The Life and Writings of Paul the Apostle.” 

This is Part 4 of Ronnie's latest series of talks entitled: "Simplify. Simplify." Ronnie talks about the "seasons of life" in this talk (Psalm 90), specifically two seasons, the two halves of life. In the first half, we are striving. We are working on our edifice, our image, the container of life. We seek accomplishment. We seek our people, our place. We have much to prove; demonstrating to ourselves, to our parents, to our peers, to the culture - that we are worthy. The second half of life is about substance and the depth of the inner life. Now, it is about the content of my soul - not just the container around that soul. One turns to what really matters. Carl Jung, who coined this  idea of first and second half living sums it up thusly: “The first half of life is devoted to all that is outward, to the ego; the second half is about going inward and letting go of your pride.”

Part 5: The Third Time Is The Charm (Paul's Third Missionary Journey)

No single individual outside of Jesus of Nazareth has been more influential within Christianity than Paul the Apostle. After his radical conversion he became the church’s most zealous missionary. Without his travels and letters, Christianity would be much different than the version we have inherited today. Join Ronnie as he leads this eight-part study on “The Life and Writings of Paul the Apostle.” 

This is Part 3 of Ronnie's latest series of talks entitled: "Simplify. Simplify." This episode is about simplifying our "stuff." From the podcast: "If you would serve God well, follow Jesus sincerely, and live a true life of freedom, you will do so without the enslavement of this ugly, false god known as Mammon. This isn’t a shame-inducing strategy by Jesus to make us feel bad about our decisions. It is the God’s honest truth. These are competing gods moving in two different directions, and Jesus is trying to set us free from depending upon this money-oriented greedy world, to pursue a life and treasure of far greater value." 

Part 4: A European Entryway

No single individual outside of Jesus of Nazareth has been more influential within Christianity than Paul the Apostle. After his radical conversion he became the church’s most zealous missionary. Without his travels and letters, Christianity would be much different than the version we have inherited today. Join Ronnie as he leads this eight-part study on “The Life and Writings of Paul the Apostle.” 

This is Part 2 of Ronnie's latest series of talks entitled: "Simplify. Simplify." Ronnie takes on faith, church, and all the accoutrements that keep us from simplifying our spirituality. Turning to the Great Commandment in Mark 12, Ronnie says, "Love is the solution for calcified, legalistic, short-sighted, institutionally-obsessed religion. Love is the cure for the compartmentalization of our faith - where we can choose greed, or xenophobia, or racism, or rank nationalism over decency, compassion, and justice. Love is the counterbalance to how we like to exclude others. Love is the way to reverse our corporate failures to find consensus in the face of our most pressing challenges, and the way to craft solutions for the common good. Love is the rebuke to we strict religionists who would rather be pious than gracious or kind."

Part 3: The Barnabas Connection

No single individual outside of Jesus of Nazareth has been more influential within Christianity than Paul the Apostle. After his radical conversion he became the church’s most zealous missionary. Without his travels and letters, Christianity would be much different than the version we have inherited today. Join Ronnie as he leads this eight-part study on “The Life and Writings of Paul the Apostle.” 

This in an introduction (from Psalm 46) to a series Ronnie is introducing for this late winter and spring (2023), entitled: "Simplify. Simplify." Ronnie says, "This series isn’t about cleaning out your garage, your closet, or that junk drawer of yours. A little, maybe, but not exclusively. It’s about untangling your life. Decluttering your spirituality and your faith. It’s about traveling light and easy. It’s about paring away all that is unnecessary. It’s about reducing the items on your to-do list. It’s about playing small-ball on a field you can actually cover. It’s about staying afloat, as Thoreau said, "in this chopping sea of civilized life, the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items: Simplify. Simplify."

Part 2: From Damascus to the Desert

No single individual outside of Jesus of Nazareth has been more influential within Christianity than Paul the Apostle. After his radical conversion he became the church’s most zealous missionary. Without his travels and letters, Christianity would be much different than the version we have inherited today. Join Ronnie as he leads this eight-part study on “The Life and Writings of Paul the Apostle.”