Rediscovering Faith

Rev. Evan Ryder
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Join us as we dive into Scripture and faith through a fresh lens, offering thought-provoking discussions and new perspectives on God’s Word. This podcast invites you to rethink, rediscover, and deepen your spiritual journey, with every episode designed to spark reflection and transformation.

  1. 2d ago

    A Story Worth Sharing

    Send us your questions and reflections! How has God’s saving grace changed the direction of your story—and who might need to hear about it? In Episode 5 of Week 3 of The Journey, Pastor Evan Ryder concludes this week’s exploration of saving grace through Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:17–24. The son was lost, but grace found him. He was far from home, but grace awakened him. He was covered in the evidence of the distant country, but grace embraced him. He believed he had lost his identity as a son, but grace restored him. Now he has a story worth sharing. A Christian testimony is not primarily a story about how bad we once were or how good we have become. It is a story about what Jesus has done. The power of our testimony does not depend upon having a dramatic past or a spectacular conversion. Its power is found in the grace of the Father who welcomes lost people home. If Jesus has forgiven you, freed you from shame, restored hope, changed your desires, softened your heart, healed a relationship, or taught you to walk in a new direction, you have a story. Saving grace does not look identical in every life because sin damages people in different ways. But grace always begins restoring what sin has broken. When we share those stories, we help other people imagine what the grace of God could do in their lives. In this episode: • What makes a Christian testimony powerful • Why your story does not need to be dramatic • How to share your testimony without glorifying your past • Why wisdom and privacy still matter • How stories of transformation give others hope • How gratitude becomes a witness to God’s grace For today’s Travel Log exercise, imagine yourself in the setting of Luke 15. The Father has run toward you, embraced you, and welcomed you home. Write a letter thanking Him for His forgiveness, love, and restoring grace. Then share your encounter with God’s saving grace with a trusted parent, pastor, Christian friend, or mature believer. Simply tell them where you were, how God’s grace met you, and what Jesus is changing in your life. Today’s question: How has God’s saving grace changed the direction of my story—and who might need to hear about it? Your story does not have to make you look impressive. It only needs to point toward the goodness of your Father. Rediscovering Faith is a Christian podcast hosted by Pastor Evan Ryder that helps listeners grow closer to Jesus through biblical teaching, personal reflection, practical discipleship, and prayer. Scripture: Luke 15:17–24 Series: The Journey Week 3: Saving Grace Episode 5: “A Story Worth Sharing”

  2. 3d ago

    The Father Runs Toward You

    Send us your questions and reflections! What will you find when you turn toward God and begin coming home? In Episode 4 of Week 3 of The Journey, Pastor Evan Ryder explores one of the most beautiful moments in Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son. While the lost son is still a long way from home, his father sees him, is moved with compassion, runs toward him, embraces him, and welcomes him home. The son is moving toward the father—but the father is already moving toward him. This is the heart of saving grace. We do not have to clean ourselves up, repair all the damage, or prove that we are worthy before coming to God. Romans 5:8 tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Before we began looking for the road home, God’s grace was already reaching toward us. The father does not deny the seriousness of his son’s choices. Grace tells the truth about sin. But the father also refuses to allow the son’s failure to have the final word about his identity. The son returns hoping to survive as a servant; the father restores him to belonging as a son. The robe, ring, sandals, embrace, and celebration all communicate the restoring work of grace. Saving grace does more than forgive our past. It restores our relationship with God, heals the identity damaged by sin and shame, and teaches us to live as God’s sons and daughters. In this episode: • What the father’s response reveals about God • Why we do not have to earn our way home • How grace holds truth and compassion together • The difference between forgiveness and full restoration • How shame distorts our identity • What it means to receive salvation as a gift Today’s Travel Log questions: As you imagine the father embracing his returning son, what words of love do you hear your heavenly Father speaking over you? Have you accepted God’s saving grace? If so, what about your journey with God makes more sense now? Some of us find it easier to confess our sin than to receive the Father’s love. But the compass is pointing home—and when we turn toward the Father, we discover that He has already come running toward us. Rediscovering Faith is a Christian podcast hosted by Pastor Evan Ryder that helps listeners grow closer to Jesus through biblical teaching, personal reflection, practical discipleship, and prayer. Scripture: Luke 15:17–24; Romans 5:8 Series: The Journey Week 3: Saving Grace Episode 4: “The Father Runs Toward You”

  3. 4d ago

    The Journey Home

    Send us your questions and reflections! Recognizing that you are lost is important—but eventually, you have to get up and begin the journey home. In Episode 3 of Week 3 of The Journey, Pastor Evan Ryder continues exploring Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:17–24. After coming to his senses and recognizing how far he has wandered, the lost son makes a life-changing decision: “I will get up and go to my father.” This is the turning point of his story—and it gives us a powerful picture of biblical repentance. Repentance is more than feeling guilty, regretting the consequences of our choices, or recognizing that we have traveled in the wrong direction. Repentance is a response to God’s grace that produces a change of direction. The son does not remain in the pigpen thinking about how lost he is. He gets up and begins walking toward home. Shame tells us that we are hopeless and should remain hidden. Saving grace tells us to acknowledge the truth—and then get up. The Father’s mercy is greater than our sin. In this Christian devotional, you will be invited to enter the story personally by rewriting Luke 15:17–24 in the first person. Where the passage says “he,” write “I.” Allow the son’s recognition to become your confession, his decision to become your decision, and his journey home to reveal the direction God is calling you to travel. In this episode: • Why recognition must become action • The difference between shame and repentance • Why repentance is more than feeling guilty • How saving grace enables us to turn toward God • What it means to trust the Father’s mercy • How to take one practical step toward home Today’s Travel Log question: What would it mean for me to get up and take one step toward the Father today? Your next step may be an honest prayer, confessing something you have hidden, asking for forgiveness, contacting a trusted Christian friend, or surrendering an area you have tried to control. You do not have to complete the entire journey today. By God’s grace, you can get up and begin. Rediscovering Faith is a Christian podcast hosted by Pastor Evan Ryder that helps listeners grow closer to Jesus through biblical teaching, personal reflection, practical discipleship, and prayer. Scripture: Luke 15:17–24 Series: The Journey Week 3: Saving Grace Episode 3: “The Journey Home”

  4. 5d ago

    Finding Truth North

    Send us your questions and reflections! How can you follow the right directions if you don’t know which way is north? In Episode 2 of Week 3 of The Journey, Pastor Evan Ryder continues exploring Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:17–24. Once the lost son comes to his senses, he must take a difficult but necessary step: he must admit that he is lost. The son believed that leaving his father would bring freedom, satisfaction, and independence. Instead, his journey led him into hunger, isolation, and bondage. Returning home required more than regretting the consequences of his choices. He had to stop defending his brokenness, acknowledge that he had been traveling in the wrong direction, and turn toward his father. This is the heart of repentance. Repentance is more than feeling guilty or sorry. It is a change of direction made possible by God’s grace. Saving grace helps us tell the truth about where sin has taken us, points us toward Jesus, and establishes true north in our lives. Using the image of a compass, this Christian devotional explores why even a detailed map cannot help us if we are facing the wrong direction. In the same way, the teachings of Jesus may seem confusing—or even foolish—until God’s grace reorients our hearts. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:18, the message of the cross may appear foolish to those who are being destroyed, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God. The way of Jesus often challenges the direction of the world. Jesus teaches us to surrender, serve, forgive, love our enemies, and trust God rather than making our own satisfaction the highest goal of life. When saving grace establishes true north, the map begins to make sense. In this episode: • Why admitting we are lost is necessary • How sin distorts our sense of direction • The biblical meaning of repentance • Why repentance is a response to God’s grace • How the cross reorients our understanding of life • Why the way of Jesus can appear foolish • How saving grace points us back toward God Today’s Travel Log question: Where in your life have you become lost and found yourself in need of the compass of God’s saving grace to point you back toward God? Is there an attitude, relationship, habit, or choice you have been defending even though it is pulling you away from God? God does not reveal our disorientation to shame or condemn us. His grace shows us where we are so He can lead us home. Rediscovering Faith is a Christian podcast hosted by Pastor Evan Ryder that helps listeners grow closer to Jesus through biblical teaching, personal reflection, practical discipleship, and prayer. This season, The Journey, explores the journey of God’s grace—including prevenient grace, saving grace, and sanctifying grace—and what it means to follow Jesus one step at a time. Scripture: Luke 15:17–24; 1 Corinthians 1:18 Series: The Journey Week 3: Saving Grace Episode 2: “Finding True North”

  5. 6d ago

    When You Come to Your Senses

    Send us your questions and reflections! What happens when you suddenly realize you are lost? In Episode 1 of Week 3 of The Journey, Pastor Evan Ryder explores Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:17–24 and the moment the lost son “came to his senses.” After searching for freedom far from his father, the son discovers that what looked like independence had become bondage—and what promised satisfaction had left him empty. Sin does more than produce guilt. It disorients us. It convinces us that south is north, that isolation is independence, and that life can be found apart from the God who gave us life. When that disorientation becomes familiar, we may even begin defending the very things that are hurting us. But God’s saving grace meets us while we are lost. Using the image of a compass, this Christian devotional explores how saving grace awakens us to the truth, reorients our lives toward God, and invites us to begin the journey home. Repentance is not something we accomplish without God’s help—it is itself a response made possible by grace. Even the moment when the son recognizes his condition is evidence that grace is already at work. And when the son finally turns toward home, he discovers something even greater: the Father is already moving toward him. God’s saving grace does more than show us the way home. It welcomes us home, restores our identity, and begins making us whole. In this episode: • What sin does to our sense of direction • Why “coming to our senses” is a work of grace • How saving grace functions like a compass • The relationship between grace, repentance, and salvation • What the Father’s embrace reveals about the heart of God • How to recognize God’s invitation to come home Today’s Travel Log question: What similarities do you see between a compass and God’s saving grace? Where has sin caused disorientation in your life? How might God’s grace be helping you see your situation more clearly? Is the Father inviting you to get up, turn around, and begin walking toward home? Rediscovering Faith is a Christian podcast hosted by Pastor Evan Ryder that helps listeners grow closer to Jesus through biblical teaching, personal reflection, practical discipleship, and prayer. This season, The Journey, explores the journey of God’s grace—including prevenient grace, saving grace, and sanctifying grace—and what it means to follow Jesus one step at a time. Scripture: Luke 15:17–24 Series: The Journey Week 3: Saving Grace Episode 1: “When You Come to Your Senses”

  6. Sep 25

    Grace Was Already There

    Send us your questions and reflections! What if God is already working in someone’s life before you ever enter their story? In this episode of Rediscovering Faith, Pastor Evan Ryder concludes this week’s journey through seeking grace by returning to Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. When Peter enters the home of Cornelius, he discovers a room filled with people who are already waiting to hear what God has given him to say. Then something extraordinary happens. While Peter is still speaking about Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes upon everyone listening. Peter has not finished his sermon, issued an invitation, or explained everything that should happen next. God moves before Peter can complete his message. Grace was already there. God had been present in the prayers and generosity of Cornelius. Grace had awakened his spiritual hunger and prepared him to hear the gospel. God sent the vision, arranged the meeting, gathered the household, and prepared Peter to cross a boundary he would never have crossed on his own. Peter had an important role. He needed to listen, obey, enter the house, and proclaim the good news about Jesus. But Peter did not manufacture the spiritual moment. He participated in something God had already begun. This leads to an important truth for Christian discipleship and evangelism: We do not take Jesus into places where Jesus is absent. We follow Jesus into places where grace is already working. Christians sometimes carry enormous pressure when sharing their faith. We may believe we need the perfect words, convincing answers, or the ability to create the right emotional atmosphere. Acts 10 presents a different picture. God is the One who seeks. God is the One who awakens. God is the One who draws people toward himself. The Holy Spirit is already active before we arrive. Our responsibility is to listen for God’s direction and faithfully join the work he has already begun. We remain present, love genuinely, tell the truth about Jesus, and trust the Holy Spirit to accomplish what only God can do. Peter’s experience also warns us against deciding who is beyond the reach of grace. Peter could have viewed Cornelius only as a Gentile, a Roman soldier, or someone outside the boundaries of God’s people. God saw a man whose heart was being awakened. We may look at someone’s beliefs, behavior, reputation, or past and assume they will never respond to Jesus. But God may already be stirring questions they have not expressed, awakening a hunger they do not understand, and placing landmarks of grace along their road. In this Christian devotional episode, we explore: • How God’s prevenient grace prepared Cornelius before Peter arrived • Why the Holy Spirit interrupted Peter’s sermon in Acts 10 • What Peter learned about God’s love crossing cultural and religious boundaries • Why Christians do not have to manufacture spiritual moments • How seeking grace changes our understanding of evangelism • Why no person is beyond the reach of God’s grace • How to recognize where God may already be working in another person’s life • What it means to become a landmark of grace in someone else’s journey Jeremiah 31:3 says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” This week, we have considered grace as a map. God’s grace gives us direction, places landmarks along the road, calls us personally by name, and enables us to respond. Now we discover that grace also sends us outward to help others recognize the road that leads home. As you listen, reflect on these questions: What examples of God’s seeking grace in your life make you most thankful? Who prayed for you, listened to you, showed you kindness, or helped you recognize the love of Jesus? Where might God’s grace already be working in the people around you? Could God be inviting you to become a landmark of grace in someone else’s journey? Perhaps someone needs your encouragement. Someone may need you to listen patiently to their questions, pray with them, share how Jesus has changed your life, or simply demonstrate God’s love through an act of compassion. You may not know everything God is doing in that person’s life. Peter did not know either. He simply followed Jesus into the place where grace was already at work. This episode is part of “The Journey,” a Rediscovering Faith series about following Jesus on the journey of grace. Whether you are exploring Christianity, growing as a disciple, or learning how to share your faith, you are invited to trust that God is already moving through the world ahead of you. The God who sought you is also seeking them. The grace that awakened you is still at work. Where might Jesus be inviting you to join him today? If this episode encourages you, share it with someone who needs to know that God is already active in their story. Follow Rediscovering Faith for biblical teaching, Christian encouragement, Wesleyan-Holiness theology, and practical guidance for following Jesus.

  7. Sep 24

    The Next Turn is Yours

    Send us your questions and reflections! What is the next step God is inviting you to take? God’s grace always makes the first move. It seeks us, awakens us, and draws us toward a restored relationship with God. But grace also brings us to moments when we must decide how we will respond. In this episode of Rediscovering Faith, Pastor Evan Ryder explores the relationship between God’s seeking grace and our response through the story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. A map can show us the correct road. A navigation system can tell us when our turn is approaching. But neither one will turn the steering wheel for us. Eventually, we must decide whether we will follow the directions. That is where both Cornelius and Peter find themselves. Cornelius is a Roman centurion whose heart has already been awakened by God’s prevenient grace. He prays regularly, gives generously, and desires to know God more fully. When an angel tells him to send men to Joppa to find Simon Peter, Cornelius does not know what Peter will say or how the story will end. He only knows the next step—and he takes it. At the same time, God is preparing Peter through a vision that challenges his assumptions about what is clean and unclean. Then the Holy Spirit tells him that three men are looking for him: “Get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.” Peter does not yet understand the complete meaning of the vision. He does not know what will happen in Cornelius’s home. He simply knows that God is asking him to welcome the messengers and travel with them. Cornelius must send for Peter. Peter must go with the messengers. Cornelius must be willing to hear the truth. Peter must be willing to cross a boundary he would not have crossed on his own. God is drawing both men, but neither can remain a passive observer. Grace calls each of them to respond. This is an essential part of the Wesleyan understanding of grace. God always acts first. We cannot save ourselves, earn God’s favor, or find our way home through our own goodness. Even our ability to recognize our need for God is made possible by grace. But God’s grace does not force us into a relationship with him. Grace awakens us, draws us, frees us, and enables us to respond. God invites us to say yes. Our response does not earn grace—it is made possible by grace. When we say yes to God, we are responding to the God who has already been reaching toward us. Sometimes we imagine that responding to God must involve a dramatic spiritual experience or a complete understanding of everything he is doing. More often, God simply shows us the next turn: Pray. Open the Bible. Ask the question. Tell the truth. Seek forgiveness. Walk into the church. Have the conversation. Release the resentment. Admit that you need help. Trust Jesus with the part of your life you have been trying to control. We may want God to reveal the entire journey before we take a single step. Cornelius, however, did not know what Peter would say when he sent for him. Peter did not fully understand his vision when he welcomed the messengers. They obeyed the direction they had received. Then the next part of the map became clear. In this Christian devotional episode, we explore: • How prevenient grace makes our response to God possible • Why grace does not eliminate human freedom • What Peter and Cornelius teach us about obedience • How God may lead us before we understand the entire plan • Why responding to grace does not mean earning grace • How God’s guidance sometimes challenges our assumptions and boundaries • What to do when you know the next step but cannot see the entire road • How God responds when we hesitate, resist, or make a wrong turn Jeremiah 31:3 says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” God’s everlasting love does not disappear when we miss a turn. His unfailing kindness does not vanish when we struggle to trust his direction. Grace continues reaching toward us, confronting us, awakening us, and inviting us to respond again. Like a navigation system recalculating after a wrong turn, God’s grace continues calling us toward home. The comparison is not perfect, but it reminds us that God does not abandon us when we hesitate or wander. Perhaps you sense God drawing you today, but you do not understand the entire journey. You may have questions about Christianity, the Bible, or what following Jesus will require. You may feel convicted about an area of your life but remain uncertain about what will happen if you surrender it to God. You do not need to see the entire map to take the next turn. You only need to respond to the grace God is giving you now. As you listen, consider these questions: How have you responded to God’s seeking grace? How are you choosing to respond today? What is the next turn God is asking you to take? This episode is part of “The Journey,” a Rediscovering Faith series about following Jesus on the journey of grace. Whether you are exploring Christianity, returning to faith, discerning God’s direction, or growing as a disciple of Jesus, you are invited to trust the One who holds the map. Take the next step. Make the next turn. Say yes to the grace that is already drawing you home. If this episode encourages you, share it with someone who is discerning their next step with God. Follow Rediscovering Faith for biblical teaching, Christian encouragement, Wesleyan-Holiness theology, and practical guidance for following Jesus.

  8. Sep 23

    Your Name is on the Map

    Send us your questions and reflections! Do you believe God loves you personally—or only that God loves people in general? It is possible to believe that God loves the world while quietly wondering whether his love truly includes us. We may believe that God loves our family, our friends, and the people sitting beside us in church, yet struggle to receive his love for ourselves. In this episode of Rediscovering Faith, Pastor Evan Ryder explores the deeply personal nature of God’s prevenient grace through Jeremiah 31:3 and Romans 5:8. Jeremiah 31:3 says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” These words do not describe a distant or impersonal love. God’s everlasting love reaches real people in real places—including people who are broken, wandering, ashamed, uncertain, or afraid that they have disappointed him too many times. Think about the large maps you might find in a shopping center, theme park, or unfamiliar city. The map may show every road, entrance, store, and important landmark, but one symbol makes all that information useful: “You are here.” Until you locate yourself on the map, it can be difficult to know which direction to travel. Something similar happens in our relationship with God. We may understand Christian teaching and know what the Bible says about grace. We may believe that Jesus died for the world. But eventually, we must locate ourselves within that good news. God’s love is not merely for humanity in general. God’s love is for you. Many of us attach conditions to that truth: God loves me when I behave well. God loves me when I remain faithful. God loves me when I pray consistently. God loves me when I avoid disappointing him. God will love me when I finally become the person I know I should be. When we think this way, we turn God’s love into a destination we hope to reach after making ourselves worthy. Jeremiah, however, presents God’s love as the place where the journey begins. Before you took your first step toward God, you were loved. Before you understood the gospel, you were loved. Before you knew which direction to travel, you were loved. Even when you wandered down the wrong road, God’s grace continued reaching toward you. Romans 5:8 declares: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus did not wait for us to become righteous, repair our lives, or find the correct road. While we were still lost in sin, God moved toward us. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God acted to heal our broken relationship with him and make reconciliation possible. The cross is the ultimate demonstration that God’s love is more than an abstract theological idea. God entered our brokenness and gave himself for us. In the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition, we call this prevenient grace, or seeking grace. It is the grace that reaches us before conversion, awakens us to our need for God, and enables us to respond to his invitation. God’s prevenient grace was present before your first sincere prayer. It was working through the questions that stirred your heart, the people who showed you compassion, and the conviction that helped you recognize you were traveling in the wrong direction. God was drawing you because God loved you. Not a future, improved version of you. You. The person you are right now. God loves you enough to meet you exactly where you are, and he loves you too much to leave you there. His love does not excuse sin or pretend that every road leads to life. His love seeks us in our brokenness and draws us toward healing, holiness, and new life in Jesus. In this Christian devotional episode, we explore: • Why receiving God’s love personally can be difficult • What Jeremiah 31:3 teaches about God’s everlasting love • How Romans 5:8 reveals grace moving toward us while we are still sinners • What prevenient grace means in Wesleyan-Holiness theology • Why God’s love is the beginning of the journey—not its reward • How guilt, shame, failure, and painful experiences can distort our understanding of God • Why God’s conviction and correction flow from love • What changes when we believe God’s everlasting love is truly for us As a spiritual exercise, place your name at the beginning of Jeremiah’s promise: “[Your name], I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Then reflect on these questions: What do you feel when you imagine God speaking those words directly to you? Is it easy or difficult for you to believe that God loves you personally? What would change if you truly believed that God’s love came before your response? You know your failures, doubts, wounds, and regrets—but God knows your story even more completely than you do. He did not offer you his love without knowing the truth. Nothing about you surprises him or causes him to reconsider his invitation. The gospel is not that you have finally made yourself lovable. The gospel is that God has loved you with an everlasting love and has acted through Jesus Christ to bring you home. You do not have to earn your place on the map. You are already there. Wherever “here” may be for you today, God’s unfailing love is reaching toward you. This episode is part of “The Journey,” a Rediscovering Faith series about following Jesus on the journey of grace. Whether you are exploring Christianity, returning to faith, wrestling with shame, or growing as a disciple of Jesus, you are invited to receive the love of the God who knows you fully, calls you personally, and draws you toward new life. If this episode encourages you, share it with someone who needs to hear that God’s everlasting love includes them. Follow Rediscovering Faith for biblical teaching, Christian encouragement, Wesleyan-Holiness theology, and practical guidance for following Jesus.

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Join us as we dive into Scripture and faith through a fresh lens, offering thought-provoking discussions and new perspectives on God’s Word. This podcast invites you to rethink, rediscover, and deepen your spiritual journey, with every episode designed to spark reflection and transformation.

Information

  • Creator
    Rev. Evan Ryder
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    266
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Rediscovering Faith
  • Show Website
    Rediscovering Faith