I recorded a new prayer for us to join in together this week from Beloved Prayers. I also want to share with you tonight a video I received this week of a secret baptism in Bangladesh. It felt appropriate with the prayer for this week. It’s based on Colossians 3:3, “For you died, and your life is now hidden in Messiah in God.” These words are often thought of as.. Read More
I wondered tonight if it might be of interest to share with you a journal entry I made during part of the process of finishing the writing of Beloved Prayers this summer. (The whole book took me five years.) Do you ever struggle to keep your attention focused when you come to prayer? This was only one such occasion for me. August, 2020: A strange thing just happened.Jealousy, while writing.. Read More
Hello, want to imagine we are somewhere beneath an open sky? Maybe you are reading this at the end of the day we have come to call The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted (IDOP), or maybe the morning after. I’m glad we have this day, but I also know the ease of which the evening comes and thoughts of the day fade away—this is often good. As is.. Read More
“Raynna’s heart isn’t just to capture pretty words on a page but to lift our souls from one level of prayer to an altogether other level. I have personally experienced that elevation of soul when she prays, and I know you will.” -Jay Myers, Creator of The Martyrs’ Cross At first glance, this little prayer book may look like a book of prayers to pray for the persecuted body of.. Read More
by Jay Myers Dear Friends, today I’m grateful to share with you the heart of my husband and the artist behind The Martyrs’ Cross, Jay Myers. In the Biblical calendar, this weekend marks both Shavuot and Pentecost, it’s the perfect time to ponder and seek the Father to enter our world, to become enfleshed. Our hope is that these truths wash over you and nourish you wherever this finds you.. Read More
Hello Friends! We are in the days of the Biblical month of Iyar, the days that are counted from the feast of Passover to the feast of Shavuot. (This can be studied in Leviticus 23) Every year these “days between” are of counting. This is done as a way of expectation and preparation, fifty days, seven weeks. The sages compare these days to being like a Bride preparing herself for.. Read More
Hello family, Sorry if you received our last mailing this morning (it was from months ago). Today, I was actually trying to send out a very different note! I’ve made a mistake, plenty, but today -two- I am ready to fix: Hi, my name is Raynna, and I’m the writer behind The Martyrs’ Cross. I took a break from writing here several months ago in hopes that it would help.. Read More
Belonging—it’s been on my mind recently. The way the word longing is in the midst of it. The way we respond—and don’t—when an invitation to belong comes our way. We want it, we want to belong, but…when the wholeness of the risk involved comes into view, we often hesitate, if not freeze. Paul spoke of belonging and counting the gain and even the loss of everything (including belonging) as nothing.. Read More
In all our glory or shame, our joy, pain, and even our apathy: “prayer” is the place of being known and knowing the great I Am. A most holy place has been built within us, with as much detail as Solomon’s colonnade. What is True Simply by being, a fabric of life-song weaves in perfect unison with our daily duties, our jobs, our relationships—all of our lives, all the work.. Read More
Christmas Greetings Dear Martyrs’ Cross Family! I keep thinking lately about the Scripture that says, “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2) Considering what it was the teacher was saying, I realized I used to confuse this thought with the idea.. Read More