Leah Ramirez

09/05/2026

We got up early and it was worth it! Colorado Springs celebrated its 50th year of lift-offs. Absolutely amazing to be able to get this close to all the action. We love our city!

09/05/2026

I keep thinking about how often Jesus taught by giving people something to see.

A vine and branches. A shepherd and sheep. Seed falling into soil. A house built on rock. Bread. Water. Light.

He could have explained everything in abstract theological language, but so often He gave us a picture instead.

I think that matters more than we realize.

Take the vine and the branches. If I really let that image sit with me, it begins to undo a lot of the ways I have thought about the Christian life. A branch is not trying to get closer to the vine. It is not working to become connected. It is not producing fruit independently and then bringing it back to the vine as proof that it is doing well.

The branch lives because it is joined to the vine.

That is such a different starting place.

So much striving grows out of a picture of separation. We imagine Jesus over there and ourselves over here, and then we spend our lives trying to bridge the gap. But Jesus gives us another picture entirely. “I am the vine; you are the branches.”

Union first. Fruit comes from there.

I think sometimes we need to stop asking only, “What does this verse mean?” and also ask, “What is Jesus showing me here?”

Some truths need to be seen before they can really begin to rearrange the way we live.

09/04/2026

Took a pic before I got lost on this trail AGAIN! Made it home and drinking water. It was hot out there.

09/04/2026

A lot of us learned how to pursue God by doing more.

Pray more. Fast more. Serve more. Press in harder. Believe for breakthrough.

And many of those things are beautiful.

But it is possible to spend years sincerely following Jesus while still living as though the deepest things He accomplished are waiting on us to finish them.

That is one of the reasons Chris Berglund and I created Behold School.

Our first twelve-week track, ABIDE — The Gospel From Which We Live, begins September 14. We are going deep into Romans 5–8, the finished work of Christ, union with Him, life in the Spirit, Chris’s teaching on Jesus according to the order of Melchizedek, and the Apostolic Architecture material we are developing together.

We want to dismantle the striving underneath so much of our Christian life and become rooted in what God has already accomplished in Christ.

A few quick things people keep asking:

Yes, it is fully online.
No, 4–6 hours a week does not mean 4–6 hours of Zoom. Most of the work happens on your own schedule.
Every other Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. MT, we’ll gather online for prayer and discussion.
On the alternating weeks, students meet in smaller Formation Groups with multiple scheduling options.

If you have been thinking about joining us, this is the time to take a serious look.

https://the-gathering.us/behold-school

ABIDE — The Gospel From Which We Live
12 weeks · Fully online · Begins September 14

09/03/2026

I really believe some of the deepest freedom we experience in Christ begins when the way we see God finally comes into agreement with the gospel.

That is one of the reasons Chris Berglund and I are starting Behold School.

Our first twelve-week track is going to live in Romans 5–8. We are going to take our time with what Paul says about what Christ accomplished, our union with Him, freedom from condemnation, life in the Spirit, the end of the old humanity, and what it means to actually live from our place in Christ.

I don’t want this to be another class where we simply collect more information about God. I want us to stay with these passages long enough for the truth to begin changing the way we see Him and the way we see ourselves.

Some of us have read Romans 5–8 for years and still live as though there is distance to overcome, condemnation to escape, or something left for us to accomplish before God can fully receive us.

I think these chapters have something much better to say.

Behold School is online, so you can join us from wherever you are and walk through this with people from across the nation who are hungry to know Christ more deeply and see the gospel more clearly.

We begin September 14, and I would love for you to join us for these twelve weeks. If there are people in your life who need to see the gospel more clearly, invite them to come with you.

https://the-gathering.us/behold-school

09/02/2026

The gospel is not that Jesus came to make you more religious.

He came to deal with the thing you could never fix.

In Christ, sin was judged, death was defeated, the old humanity was brought to the cross, and a new creation was opened to us. He did not simply forgive you and leave you standing outside. He brought you near, made you alive with Him, and gave you access to the Father.

The good news is not that God is waiting for you to find your way back.

In Christ, He already came for you.

09/01/2026

I keep coming back to this question: What if some of the things we are trying to overcome in our Christian life are rooted in what we still believe about God, ourselves, and the gospel?

That is a big part of why Chris Berglund and I are starting Behold School.

Our first twelve-week track is going to live in Romans 5–8. We are going to slow down and stay with the gospel long enough to really see what Paul is saying about what Christ accomplished, our union with Him, the end of the old humanity, life in the Spirit, freedom from condemnation, and what it means to live as sons and daughters of God.

I don’t want this to be another class where we collect more information. I want us to give these truths time to get all the way down into the way we actually see God and ourselves.

There are passages many of us have read for years that are far more radical than we have allowed them to be.

If you have been hungry to understand the finished work of Christ more deeply, or if you know people who have spent years loving Jesus while still living under fear, striving, shame, or a sense of distance from God, I would love for you to walk through this with us.

We begin September 14.

You can learn more and join us at:

Join Behold School for ABIDE, a 12-week online formation journey through Romans 5–8, union with Christ, Scripture immersion, and Jesus as Priest-King in the order of Melchizedek.

08/31/2026

I’ve been thinking a lot about how easy it is to believe something theologically without actually seeing ourselves inside of what we say we believe.

Paul says in Ephesians 2 that God made us alive with Christ, raised us with Christ, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places. I’ve read those words for years, but lately I’ve been asking myself whether I actually allow them to shape the way I see my life with God.

I am here, in Colorado Springs, living a very normal embodied life. But according to Scripture, there is another truth about my location. I am also seated in Christ in the heavenly realm. I don’t picture myself there in order to make something happen spiritually. I see myself there because God says that is where He has placed me in Christ.

That distinction has become really important to me.

So much of our Christian language can still carry an assumption of distance. We talk about trying to get into God’s presence, trying to get closer, trying to reach Him, trying to get heaven to open. But what if the gospel is asking us to begin somewhere entirely different? What if Christ has already closed the distance, and much of our formation is learning to live from what He has already done?

Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father… your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I keep thinking about those words together with Ephesians 2. Jesus teaches us to call His Father our Father, and He teaches us to care about what is true in heaven becoming visible here. Then Paul tells us that we have already been seated with Christ there.

Maybe the Christian life is not primarily about trying to get from here to there. Maybe it is learning to live here from where grace has already placed us in Christ.

And maybe this is part of what beholding is. We stay with what God has revealed long enough for the truth to challenge all the old pictures we still carry about Him and ourselves. We are not imagining something into existence. We are allowing revelation to teach us how to see.

Some truths are too large to read once and move past. I think “seated with Christ” may be one of them.

08/29/2026

These people make my life an absolute joy! So, so love them. And loved this conversation!

08/28/2026

The cross is not the moment God finally decided whether He could forgive humanity.

At the cross, God was in Christ, coming all the way into our humanity and meeting us in the place of our fear, confusion, hostility, and distance.

And there, while we were still misunderstanding Him, Jesus said:

“Father, forgive them.”

That is what I keep coming back to.

The cross reveals the heart of God, but it also reveals the actual breach between us. We had become so convinced that God was against us that when He came near, we could not recognize Him. We treated Him like an enemy.

And still, He did not become ours.

So if you have been reluctant to come home to God because you are afraid of what He thinks of you, look again at the cross.

He is not waiting for you to convince Him to love you.

He is already convinced.

The cross is God trying to convince you.

Come home! Just come home.