Beyond Religion

When relationship replaces religion

The difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. About leaving fear behind and discovering that love was the point all along.

Fear

Grace

Mediation

Friendship

Transaction

Relationship

Institution

Presence

2025

If I Could Sit With My Seventeen-Year-Old Self

The young man beside me doesn't know who I am. He's seventeen. Restless. Confused. Searching for something he can't put into words. I remember him well. Because he was me.

The young man beside me doesn't know who I am. He's seventeen. Restless. Confused. Trying to act tougher than he feels. Searching for something he can't put int…

2025

What My Grandchildren Are Really Inheriting

Young Rick asked what I'd leave my grandchildren. I didn't answer right away — because for most of my life, I would have answered that question differently. God quietly changed my definition of wealth.

"Grandpa..."…

2025

Why I Stopped Trying to Fix People

Young Rick told me I don't argue anymore. I told him I finally figured out what my job wasn't. People rarely change because someone tells them they should. They change when something inside them becomes ready.

"Grandpa..."…

2025

Every System Produces Exactly What It Was Designed to Produce

I spent most of my life seeing it. I just didn't have a name for it. Every system faithfully produces what it was designed to produce. The difficult part is that most of us don't see the system — we only see the results.

"Grandpa..."…

2025

Who Are You, Grandpa?

Young Rick finally asked the question that had been waiting since the beginning. I smiled — not because the answer was simple, but because it took a lifetime to discover.

The sun is beginning to set. Young Rick and I have been talking for what feels like hours. Maybe days. Maybe seventy years. Neither of us is in a hurry anymore.…

2025

God Can't Be Contained in a Book

Young Rick held his Bible and asked why I keep saying God can't be contained in a book. Because that's exactly what this book has been trying to teach me. The Bible was never meant to replace God — it was meant to introduce you to Him.

"Grandpa..."…

2025

The Difference Between Information and Understanding

Information never changed me. You can know everything about forgiveness and still refuse to forgive. The difference between information and understanding is the difference between filling your mind and slowly transforming your life.

"Grandpa..."…

2025

I Started Looking at the Fruit

As a little boy, I watched people — some filled a room with peace, others with fear. I realized everything in life is producing something. If you want to change the harvest, you have to understand the seed.

"Grandpa..."…

2025

When Certainty Became Trust

Young Rick asked if I was afraid to ask too many questions. I was terrified. But I discovered something better than certainty — trust. Certainty depends on having all the answers. Trust depends on knowing the One you're walking with, even when you don't.

"Grandpa..."…

1982

The Wine and the Wineskin

You cannot mix the wine of a raw, experiential faith with the rigid structures of institutional religion without something tearing. I sat in the pews projecting confidence while using scripture as a shield to cover the absolute terror of failing.

To try and find some semblance of stability in my failing marriage, I agreed to compromise and enter traditional church settings with my wife. She had grown up …

1990

The Fear Factory

The church camps we sent my son to were a factory of intense fear and control. They drove into him that he was not worthy, not loved unless he performed perfectly. That systematic abuse broke his relationship with God.

During those years, his mother was always pushing for the kids to attend church camps, and we would scrape together the money to send him to two or three of the…

2006

The Melt of Hell

Holding my grandchildren, I realized: there is nothing they could do that would make me send them to be tortured for eternity. If I, a broken man, possess that much love — how much greater must the Father's love be? The fear-based Hell melted out of my theology in that moment.

Looking down into the eyes of those innocent, precious little grandchildren, I experienced a depth of unconditional love that I didn't know the human heart was …

2015

Beyond the Cross

The church stopped walking far too early. The story doesn't end at the crucifixion. The cross was simply a threshold. When you look beyond it, you don't see an angry judge — you see an unfolding reality of wisdom and overwhelming grace.

In traditional religion, the cross is treated as the ultimate, grim destination — a horrific event where an angry God had to turn His face away from Jesus in di…

2024

What If We've Been Asking the Wrong Questions About the End Times?

For years I heard people ask who the Antichrist is, what the mark is, how close are we to the end. I've come to believe those may not be the most important questions. The better question is: what is God trying to reveal?

For years, I heard people ask:…

2024

What If the Mark of the Beast Is About More Than a Chip?

For decades, people have searched for a technology — a barcode, a chip, a digital currency. But what if the mark is deeper than the technology? What if the battle has always been over our attention?

One of the greatest fears people have about the mark of the beast comes from a single idea.…

2012

Who Is Between Me and You?

A piercing voice echoed through the center of my being, asking a single question that changed everything: 'Who is between Me and you?' I looked at the pulpit and the answer hit me like a physical blow.

For decades, I had tried my absolute best to play by the strict rules of organized religion. I had given my money, my time, and my physical sweat to nail the sh…