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…

“… Christ in you, the hope of glory” – Colossians 1:27 The thatched roof crackled under the weight of the men who clawed about furiously to create an opening. Inside, Jesus stood surrounded with barely any space to move. The crowds encompassed the house, peering through windows, listening from nearby walls. The men were determined, they needed their paralyzed friend to get to Jesus, and they stopped at nothing. Soon, a portion of the roof collapsed in a heap of dust, and the men lowered their friend on a stretcher directly in front of Jesus. What they knew in their mind about Jesus had gone to their heart. When faith…