KyKingdomKum

When I was in prison, one of the most impactful things I ever heard was simple: “If you change your thinking, you can change your life.” It didn’t sound religious. It didn’t sound spiritual. But it struck something deep in me. At the time, I didn’t have language for why it resonated so strongly. I just knew it was true. Something about that statement carried hope—not condemnation. It implied possibility. Agency. A future that wasn’t locked behind my past. Years later, I realized I had already heard that message before. Jesus said the same thing. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Growing up in church, I never heard that as good news. I heard it as a warning. Get your life together. Clean yourself up. God is angry, judgment is close, and you’re running out of time. “Repent” was framed as fear management. A threat wrapped in religious language. But that interpretation never sat right with me—especially when I looked at the life and ministry of Jesus. Because everywhere ...

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” That opening line in Genesis is familiar—almost too familiar. We read it quickly, eager to get to what comes next. But if we slow down, something important emerges almost immediately. After creation, the text tells us: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Creation had already happened. But formation had not yet been completed. What follows is not chaos or correction—it is process . God speaks. He separates. He orders. He fills. And He does so patiently, deliberately, until the work reaches its intended end: man made in the image of God . Only then does God rest. Created… then formed There has long been speculation about what may have happened between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Some assume catastrophe. Others assume judgment. But the text itself does not require disruption to explain formlessness. It simply reveals a pattern : God creates,...

I’ve come to believe that religion can sometimes blind us—not to the existence of God, but to His intention. Not because religion is evil, but because it often replaces knowing God with explaining Him. And explanation, when it stands in the place of revelation, can keep us from seeing who He actually is. Before commandments. Before sacrifice. Before sin-management systems. There was Genesis chapter 1. And Genesis 1 is before religion. It is simply what God did—and in doing so, it reveals who He is. God creates. God speaks. God blesses. God gives. He gives dominion. He gives fruitfulness. He gives authority. He gives the earth itself to man. And He does all of this knowing exactly who man is. That matters. God did not give creation to man because man had proven himself trustworthy. He gave it because God is trustworthy . Creation itself was an act of grace—bestowed before performance, obedience, or failure ever entered the picture. This is why something God says later through the proph...