Blog, Podcast, YouTube, and Books by Ray Burns
Approximate Reading Time: 4 minutesThere are books that we remember encouraging us. Others may open our minds to a new way to consider the world. Then there are the rare few that so completely shake us that we are forever changed. I don’t have many books that fit the last category, but the book “Gospel Treason” by Brad Bigney […]
Gospel Treason (book recommendation) Read More »
Approximate Reading Time: 5 minutesFalling in love has become a strange thing. We can spend years drawing someone’s name in notebooks, feeling our heart pound when their name appears on our phone, and fantasizing about spending a lifetime together. For some, that love doesn’t last. Almost without warning our love for them stops growing, begins fading, and in time
You Can’t Make God Love You More Read More »
Approximate Reading Time: 8 minutes(This article also includes a podcast discussion. Click the play button below, or subscribe and listen on your Apple or Google podcast app.) Context is important when reading the Bible (as we’ve discussed in my 3 step guide for understanding the Bible). Without knowing why something is being said, we’ll often misunderstand what is being
What Does It Mean to Be a Lukewarm Christian? Read More »
Approximate Reading Time: 4 minutes(This article also includes a podcast discussion. Click the play button below, or subscribe and listen on your Apple or Google podcast app.) We live in a world full of people seeking truth. All religions, including atheism and agnosticism, are an attempt to explain the world we see and where we fit into it. They
What Do They Believe – Introduction Read More »
Approximate Reading Time: 5 minutesA consistent prayer life is a tough discipline to maintain. If you’re like me, it’s easy to pray earnestly for a day or two, then move to shorter prayers just to get through it, then go days without speaking to God for more than a moment. For people like us, the Prayer Mate app can
Prayer Mate (app suggestion) Read More »
Approximate Reading Time: 4 minutesChristians are supposed to have it all together. With the Holy Spirit making us more and more like our savior, our call to “Be holy as God is holy” should be attainable. Yet the closer we get to God, the more we see how willfully we sin and how incapable we are of being holy.
Your Weakness Isn’t Failure Read More »
Approximate Reading Time: 6 minutes(This article also includes a podcast discussion. Click the play button below, or subscribe and listen on your Apple or Google podcast app.) If you believe in a deity of any sort, you are no longer considered a rational person. Your opinions are tainted by your ludicrous insistence that some magical being created everything, giving
Do Christians Need to Choose Between Science and God? Read More »
Approximate Reading Time: 6 minutesWriters in the English-speaking world love having codified rules for writing. Those rules give us an absolute way of writing something correctly. Even if you don’t know the all the rules you can usually tell when someone is breaking them! Yet if you’re exposed to Christian writers long enough, you may notice they don’t always
Capitalizing God’s Pronouns Read More »
Approximate Reading Time: 3 minutesParents, let’s be honest for a moment. Our kids have some catchy music available to them, but nothing is worse than finding ourselves humming “The Wheels on the Bus” around other adults. I want to introduce you to some kids’ music that they can sing throughout the day, and it will actually help them and
Seeds Family Worship (music recommendation) Read More »
Approximate Reading Time: 6 minutesTraditions tend to get a pass when we grow up with them. As Christians, we’re called to live in the world without being part of it (John 15:19), which often means not jumping off a bridge just because our friends are doing it. Is Easter, with its mix of Easter bunnies and a risen savior,
Is Easter a Pagan Holiday? Read More »