In episode 204 of the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, host Greg Ryan shares a heartfelt devotional sparked by the recent death of his father. He recounts the funeral, his brother’s sermon, and his own struggle to find words of comfort. Greg turns to Psalm 139, describing it as God’s love letter that reassures him of divine foreknowledge and personal value. He reflects on God’s sovereignty, emphasizing that a perfect, loving God does not cause death but knows it beforehand, and warns against blaming God for suffering. Throughout, Greg weaves everyday gratitude—illustrated by a flat‑tire anecdote—into his theology, urging listeners to cultivate thankfulness. He repeatedly calls listeners to engage deeply with Scripture, especially Psalm 139 and the Gospel of John, and to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance. The episode concludes with a prayer for listeners to confess Jesus as Lord, find comfort in God’s word, and embrace the hope of eternity.
Welcome to episode 204, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
Welcome to episode 204. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if you have been with me for a while, you will know that this podcast, this whole reason for being for me here, is to just demonstrate to you a flawed or imperfect man following after a perfect example. As I go through the Bible, as I read it, and as I walk through my daily life, And if you've been following me, if this is your first time, thank you and welcome aboard. But I'm just going to talk to the people that have been here for a minute. I just want to say, as life has gotten in the way of me doing my podcast, I want to thank you for continuing to come by. And I know my uploads have been a little bit sporadic. I go back to the fact that I should have had 2 or 3 weeks in the tank, but right now I am recording these episodes as they're happening on the day. So I'm going to get back ahead of myself a minute, but right now it is Tuesday when I'm doing this, and I should have already had it uploaded. But if you listen to the previous episode, my dad had just passed away and we had his funeral yesterday, and I just kind of wanted to reflect a little bit about what was going on in my life. And I just kind of want to give you a scripture that I've been hanging on to. My brother, who is a Southern Baptist preacher, he did a great job with the service. I tried to talk I kind of fumbled through it a little bit. I just wanted to give honor to my father and my mother. I could not speak at my mom's when she passed away in '14, but I just wanted to get up there and honor my dad and just say some words just to encourage his kids and my kids and all the grandkids and my wife. I just want to encourage people that, you know, he's a great guy and that you don't have to be perfect to still be a dad. And he did the best he could with what he had. Again, I want to one more time say thank you, Dad, for doing what you've done. And I know I'll see you again. But I want to go to Psalm 139, and I've told you that we probably need to be reading that. And I call this God winking at me when God kind of brings his scripture up. We've talked about— in fact, you can go back a couple, 2, 3 episodes or a week or so And I told you that 139 was kind of God's love letter to you and I. We needed to read that every day for a week or two. And I have been taking my own medicine or advice, and I was reading it. But you know, when, when you're kind of in a fog, you don't really remember everything that you've said. My brother who was struggling, you know, we all were struggling with Dad's death because I mean, he was healthy and no one was expecting it. And I mean, not to say that we thought he was going to live forever, but you know what I mean. We weren't ready for him to go, and he really wasn't ready to go. Anyway, all of that said, you know, he was asking God and he was trying to figure out, you know, how to get some comfort out of all this. And he read this scripture: My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. And I just find that, and again, I call that God winking at me. And all these coincidences in my life, they just kind of keep lining up with the word of God. And if you've ever wondered why I follow after Jesus and I try to hear how God's speaking to me, when you're trying to find comfort and and you say in the word, and then God speaks the word back to you. I mean, it's pretty amazing. And if you are not involved in this, and if you are not in his word, this is, this is your soapbox moment. We have multiple of these on every episode, but this is— you need to be in the word of God. God speaks to me through his word. He comforts me through his word. He teaches me. He informs me of things coming and of things that have happened. God is awesome, and he uses the word. And I know you may not understand it— I don't understand it all— but it is cool to be in the word of God and then have somebody speak the word of God back to you, just like the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. And it was really nice to hear my brother say that this was the scripture that gave him the comfort And this was the scripture that I told you a week or so ago. I don't even know which episode it was that we need to be into Psalm 139 and read it straight for a week or two. This is my God. This is how he does not micromanage our world, but he does know the end from the beginning. That's one of God's way— the kingdom of God is God's way of doing things, and he sees the end from the beginning. So he saw the day. None of this catches God. None of this catches God by surprise. And he saw the end from the beginning. He saw my dad before he was born. He knew the days that were written. And if he hadn't died in the hospital, he probably would have got hit in the head. My brother said, you know, and that, you know, I never even thought about this, but he may have been got hit in the head in the temple with a golf ball. We'd have been just as sad. He'd have been just as in heaven. God does not kill anybody. The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and destroy. So I'm not saying that God killed him, but this is how I kind of, in my mind, and then this sovereignty of God thing, and people get all wrapped up thinking the sovereignty of God, and I've talked about it before, but we get a little bit to where we start blaming God for things that's not his fault. And a perfect and loving God is not going to take anybody out just because. I mean, it's just— that's not how he operates. A loving and perfect God, he watches over his kids. He knows what's going to happen, and he comforts us. And none of us are getting out of this thing alive. And that's why I jump up and down, and that's why we preach the gospel here, because eternity is forever. And heaven and hell are real, and you want to pick heaven. You don't want to stand before God and have given God the finger all your life and then stand before him and say, "Oh, you were real. I'm sorry." Well, it may be in the book that I'm reading, it's going to be a little bit late. You need to bow the knee on this side because all, every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I'm praying that as you listen to these words, that you will confess Jesus as Lord on this side. And I'm here to tell you that my dad did. We had multiple conversations. I know that he's in heaven. I know my mom's in heaven. So there's, there's some comfort there. And if you've ever lost a loved one, I mean, it's just difficult. It's just hard to wrap your mind around this, just the finality of it, and picking up the phone to call them and know you can't call them and You know you're never going to hear their voice. I mean, if you've got a recording, you can hear their voice, but you're never going to have them respond to a question again. If you've lost anybody, and if you haven't, just keep praying and keep making sure that everybody in your family and your friends, you've at least visited with them about it. I'm telling you, when you get to a funeral home, that's not the right time to start asking questions. And I pray you would get a sense of urgency. In a funeral, and death kind of refocus you, there's a lot of things going around in my life, that a lot of things were going on. This was not a, quote, opportune time or a good timing. I was talking to my wife this morning, and it's amazing. I mean, we had a flat tire in our driveway, and you know, you want to jump up and down and get all upset because you got a flat tire. And this wasn't today. I mean, I'm just talking in general. This happened in the past. And you just think about, you know, if you're going to have a flat tire, What better place to have a flat tire than in your driveway, unless you're having it right there at the tire shop? I guess the tire shop's the best place to have a flat tire. The second best place is to have one in your driveway. And so you just kind of look at that, and I thank God. I said, God, I'm not worthy of all this goodness. And I'm sitting there looking at a flat tire, thanking God for my flat tire, but I wasn't thanking him for the flat. I was thanking him that I had a flat tire in my driveway where I could fix the flat tire in my driveway and take it and get it fixed. It wasn't on the side of an interstate, and it wasn't on a, you know, a cliff or anything like that. It was wonderful to be thankful. I mean, it's just being grateful, having gratitude, and having a thankful heart. I just want to encourage you that as I'm just sitting through this and I'm still maybe a little bit raw in my feelings, And I, you know, and I'm not a touchy-feely guy. I mean, I do love my wife, I love my kids, I, you know, I love doing this podcast, all of that. And I love God, you know, I mean, all of that. But I'm just a regular guy. I mean, I, I miss a lot of things. I'm not attentive to detail. I'm just a regular guy just walking through this life just like you. But what I'm doing and what I want to encourage you to do is get into the word of God. I'm telling you, it gives you comfort. The Holy Spirit is there. He has comforted us. I can point to 4 or 5 different things that he did in this week where he comforted all of Dad's kids, all of us, all of our grandkids. God is real. God is wonderful, and God loves you. You are God's favorite. And I just want to encourage you, if you're on the fence about this God thing, I, I just want to pray that you would dig into his word. Start in the book of John, the Gospel of John, and just ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Holy Spirit, if there's anything that you want me to know, let me know as I read this book. And if you've been saved and you've stayed— stepped away from the Word of God, I want to encourage you. This— maybe you're here just to hear me say, hey, get in the Word. I'm telling you, it changes my life daily. It changes my life every year. I can't explain it. It's just a growing process. And I think that's why he talks about the seed. And how it grows in a garden. You can't plant a seed today and have the fruit tomorrow. There is a process, and you have just got to trust the Kingdom of God process, that you've got to plant it, you've got to prepare the soil. And I'm not going to go into the Kingdom of God teaching right now. I just want to encourage you that it's going to take some time. But, you know, I've— I heard a saying, and I'm sure you probably heard this, that the best time to plant a tree— let's say the best time to to plant a pecan tree is 25 years ago, but the second best time to plant that pecan tree is today. Don't worry about what you didn't do 25 years ago. The thing that you can do today. And next episode, I'm gonna talk about one more thing that I kind of have in my mind that I wanna share with you. And then I don't know that we're gonna move on. I'm just gonna see what God wants to do with all of this. But I just, right now, I just, I think I wanna sign off, but I just wanna thank you for being a part of my life. I wanna thank you for being a part of this episode. And I just wanna pray. God, I thank you so much for your Holy Spirit. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you that you can comfort me with words on a page. It's amazing, but it is living, it's alive, and it does me good. And I pray that the person listening to this episode that will be encouraged by what you do with me, that you're not a respecter of persons, and that if you will encourage me through your word, you will encourage them too. And God, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you on the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
