These letters began as words to Ray, a brother and friend. They explore what it means to live from Christ, who is already our life, and to express that shared life with one another.
Read the newest letters · Choose a letter by theme
Latest Three Letters
The Blessing of Remaining
Christ Himself is the treasure within the silence: the eternal fellowship of the Father and the Son, deeper than loss and beyond explanation.
The One Thing, Brother
A quiet reflection on the Son’s eternal communion with the Father becoming the inward reality of prayer, suffering, and abiding.
Dear Ray: The One Thing
A personal letter to Ray about remaining in Christ amid ordinary demands, distraction, and spiritual dryness.
Begin Here
Why I’m Writing These Letters — The opening letter on friendship, humility, and living from Christ Himself.
New here? Meet the writer or explore Words in These Letters for brief explanations of terms such as Zoe (divine life) and abiding.
Find a Letter for This Moment
You do not need to read everything in order. Begin with the question closest to your own experience, and follow the letters at your own pace. When an older title speaks of leaving, returning, or beginning again, I mean changes in attention and dependence within the union already ours in Christ.
When you wonder whether you will see what you have hoped for
What We May Never See considers Abraham, Joseph, David, Moses, and Daniel—and the possibility of carrying something precious without being given its completion within our lifetime.
When Christian life feels like another burden
Begin with When I Leave the Source, then read The Difficulty of Beginning Again. Finish with Must You Become Like Us to Belong?—on the freedom to belong without performing.
When you long for quieter prayer
Begin with The Quiet Turning of the Heart. Continue with One Thought, One Hope, One Calling, then What I Remember from Santa Barbara—a glimpse of life shared with others.
When you wonder what spiritual growth really means
Begin with The Vision That Never Cooks. Continue with We Know Because We Are Living It, then Remembering Forward—on hope within our unfinished lives.
When you need care or wonder where you belong
Begin with When We Are the Ones Who Need Care, on the same Christ living in the member who gives and the member who receives. Continue with When Our Care Is Rejected, on bringing our hurt to Christ and receiving His life where our care has left us wounded. Then read Must You Become Like Us to Belong? and What I Remember from Santa Barbara for a glimpse of Zoe flowing among the members.
When you feel spiritually dry
Begin with The Blessing of Remaining, on Christ’s communion with the Father continuing within suffering and silence. Read The One Thing, Brother for a reflection on that eternal fellowship as the reality of abiding. Continue with When You Feel Nothing, then If Zoe Is Never Allowed to Triumph.
When disagreement takes over
Begin with When Brothers Disagree and Nobody Wins. Continue with Who Corrects the Person Who Says, “The Spirit Led Me”?, then The Cross Reaches the Critic, Too. Let the question reach our own need to prevail.
When gifted people leave little room for others
Begin with The Quiet Member We Never Learned to Hear, then When No One Takes Charge. Continue with Religion Follows You Home, on the religious self we can carry into a new setting.
All Dear Ray Letters
Read the published letters below, beginning with the newest.
When Brothers Disagree and Nobody Wins
A Dear Ray letter on disagreement within the body: allowing the cross to touch our need to win so that Christ’s life can find expression.
The Table Before the Meeting
Memories of Santa Barbara and Isla Vista, and a call for meals and ordinary fellowship to express the shared life already ours in Christ.
The Cross Reaches the Critic, Too
Seeing religion’s failures does not free the critic from pride. A letter on the cross reaching our need to be right so that Christ may be expressed.
Money Without a Religious Empire
Generosity without buildings, platforms, or institutional ambition: a letter on Zoe expressed through practical care, freedom, and honest stewardship.
When You Feel Nothing
Christ remains our life when spiritual feelings fade. A Dear Ray letter on dryness, weakness, and abiding within the union already ours.
Can We Let a Gathering End?
A meeting can end without ending our union in Christ. A letter on releasing religious arrangements while continuing to receive and care for one another.
Dear Ray: Cross the River and Gain Christ
Dear Ray, God’s entire purpose for us is to impart His own life—Zoe—into our being and transform us into the image of His Son. This calling overturns everything we naturally…
What Life Is Supplying Our Defense of Life?
A letter on abortion, vulnerable lives, and the life supplying our response. Will we allow Zoe to become our actual living through listening, practical care, and love that remains when…
What Kind of God Are We Claiming to Represent?
A letter examining claims of Christian politics in the light of Jesus Christ—and asking whether Zoe reaches our loyalties, our use of power, and our care for vulnerable people.
Zoe Has No Political Allegiance
A letter on political allegiance, the confusion of party identity with Christian faithfulness, and Christ as the sole source of our shared life.
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