TheJkinz • Josh Kinney

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of The One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” – 1 Peter 2:9 Her clothes were filthy. It was clear she’d been living on the streets for quite some time. Disheveled, leaving a trail of foul stench, she made her way through the church doors, empty-handed. Bright, warm lights of chandeliers against old brick walls glowed as a beacon on that rainy night in Baltimore. The close-knit neighborhood had never seen this particular woman, and of all nights for her to show up…

The dream I had nearly a year ago came to the forefront of my mind. In it, the Lord handed me a stone and with His fingers, wrote a new name on my forehead. There was no mirror so I couldn’t read it. Only He knew the name. At the meeting behind the church, I held a pebble and smoothed in around in my palm. “On this rock I will build My church,” Jesus said to Peter. I zoned out, the discussion muffled by my own thoughts and memories. I remembered all the stones I threw in the river with a prayer written on them, as a means of symbolically…

He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity Job 36:15 ‘If need be.‘ That is how Peter describes being grieved by various trials. Sometimes, if not often, God thinks it is good, right, and needed, to endure such stretching, to work out His Son in us who believe. This ‘chastening‘ can be painful, yet wounds that break us down, crucify, expose us, and bring us closer to Christ become wounds we are paradoxically thankful for. I have been mulling over the line between grace and tolerance, hurt and pride… what I perceive to be complicated in my adult mind has a simple childlike answer: to…