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 Weakness Becomes a Pattern
A letter on how a leader’s limitations can become inherited standards, and how shepherding can help others recognize and follow Christ within.
A Prayer I Am Only Beginning to Learn
A personal letter on becoming quiet within our union with Christ and living from the divine life already ours. Prayer as communion, without making silence another spiritual achievement.
The Source Is Everything
An overcomer is a person in whom Zoe—the life of God—is being lived. A letter on Christ as our source, abiding, and His corporate expression in the one new man.
We Know Because We Are Living It
How do we know we are living in Christ? A personal letter on peace arising from our present participation in His life, faith as Zoe functioning within us, and maturity…
Must You Become Like Us to Belong?
When we welcome someone into church life, are we receiving a person who belongs to Christ—or waiting for that person to become like us? A letter on culture, fellowship, and…
Remembering Forward
Perhaps God sees the completed person while we live through the unfolding. A short letter on eternity, our unfinished lives, and the hope of becoming fully who we are in…
One Thought, One Hope, One Calling
One thought, one hope, one calling—to abide in Christ and allow Zoe full access. A reminder to my own heart to remain within the love of the Father and the…
When I Leave the Source
I can write about abiding while relying on myself. A personal letter about misplaced attention and dependence—and Christ, whose life remains ours.
The Quiet Turning of the Heart
When distractions arise, we can gently turn our attention to Christ already within us. Our union remains; we are learning to live from His life.
Politics Outside the Gates
Politics can draw us from abiding in Christ into the old creation’s urgent judgments. A letter about the vine, the wrong tree, and living in the new creation.
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