Ryan's Ramblings

Friends, The past seven months, I’ve been working on a book for men. 𝑩𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚: 𝑨 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝑼𝒔𝒆 It’s a 52-week devotional for men who want to walk with Jesus and live the life He came to give. Men who want to be ready for God’s use—set apart, available and holy—becoming the kind…

He will wipe every tear from their eyes… —Revelation 21:4, NIV Not long ago, I tore up my shoulder—muscles, ligaments, even chipped a little piece of bone. The pain was bad enough, but what surprised me most was what came next: the bruising. It wasn’t on the outside—it was bleeding on the inside of my arm,…

by Ryan M. Roberts Where Jesus walked, they followed; But not all the way. “Where I go now, you can’t.  But later . . . ” Was all He would say. After midday prayers, Peter’s words rang out, “No matter what or where or who; You are mine, and I am yours, I will die…

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb… — Matthew 27:59–60, NIV I remember helping my kids move into their new homes. Boxes were everywhere. Furniture was carefully being set in place. You could feel it—this mattered. They had worked for it, planned for it,…

Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.—2 Kings 6:17, NIV My wife and I recently spent a week at Disneyland with our family—our adult children and our nine-month-old granddaughter, Annie. I used to be the guy who questioned taking babies to Disney. All that walking. All those lines. All that effort for someone…

“…we shall be saved by His life.” — Romans 5:10, NKJV I remember when I was a new Christ follower—a teenager, wide-eyed and still trying to figure out what it all meant. An evangelist came to our church for a week of meetings. He was animated and engaging, the kind of preacher who could startle…

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life?” —Frodo, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Twelve years ago, my family stepped off a plane from Seoul and walked back into our house in Boise, Idaho. Everything looked the same—the walls, the neighborhood, even the familiar smell of home—but…

“Who do you say that I am?” — Matthew 16:15, NIV Jesus asks a piercing question. We live in an age of endless questions — even in the life of the church, where questions about origins, authorship, history, science, genre, and intent abound. Seven days or billions of years?What version of the Bible is right?Which…

“Wise men still seek Him.” It’s on mugs and bumper stickers, framed in gold at Christmastime. It’s noble. Calm. Almost decorative. But seeking did not begin in Bethlehem. It began in a garden. After Adam and Eve stitched fig leaves together and hid among the trees, the Lord God walked in the cool of the…

“My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.”
 — Isaiah 26:9, NIV I still remember the day I found gold. I was out with my uncle doing some exploring — hunting fossils, turning…