Archive for the ‘ Holidays ’ Category
I preached again!
This will be at least every other week going forward, just so you know. I am officially on pastoral staff at Paulden Christian Fellowship with Pastor Paul Trout.
Below is the video and my PowerPoint.
Here is the Sunrise Service from the home of one of the members of Paulden Christian Fellowship.
Pastor Paul Trout and his wife Kitty led the music. I (Daniel Klem) gave the message.
There are no notes, and the video is of the sunrise. The rest is audio.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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 face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Genesis 1:1-3, ESV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5, ESV
On this day 26 years ago, at 6:46 PM CST, I bent my knee to Jesus as Lord and Savior. (If you do a search on this site for “birthday”, you will see the various explanations.)
I like to call it my Re-Birthday, as we call faith in Christ being born again. This comes from John 3 and 1 Peter 1. I encourage everyone to remember their own re-birthday (and if you aren’t sure/can’t remember, just claim your baptism day or your birthday.)
I also like to bake some sort of cake and then serve it to others as a way to teach self-sacrifice and becoming a servant to all as our shared salvation is celebrated.
Sometimes it’s messy, or we’re still a little crisp on the sides, but we have a sweet salvation.
This year, I am still helping teach Christian Worldview and Intro to Philosophy courses with 270 students (+46 for a CWV class I am covering for 2 weeks for a friend who had surgery) who were all born after this momentous day in my life. (I am also taking classes with fellow seminarians who also were mostly [not 2 of about 100] born after this date!) It is also in April that I am set to finally graduate with my M.Div.
There is a good probability I will be serving at a new congregation this year, but (as of today) it is still purely in God’s hands.
It is a little weird to think that I have been a Christian so long, especially having come to Christ as a teenager and now working with teens and 20-somethings as a youth pastor and college instructor.
God is so good.
Also, it is my mother-in-law’s birthday, so join me in wishing her a happy and blessed day! If not for her, I would not have my wife!
Also also, it is my friend Fletcher’s birthday. We met in seminary. He’s a TheoBro of the highest order.
God bless you, and remember that Jesus Christ is the reason we live and move and breathe and have meaning and being!
Be excellent and party on!
Quite a bit of this, I admit, I just copied and pasted! I changed and added what was needed.
Did you know more stuff happened this year? (*extreme sarcasm)
On some positive notes, my Youth Group managed to have a lot of fun this year, especially in the fall semester as we went through the Gospel of Mark and discussed missionaries of today and history. There was also a major focus on evangelism training this year. I also stepped down as youth pastor in mid-December, rounding out 7.5 years. More than likely, more news is to come on the ministry front.
The Instructional Assistant (one step below professor, but I still teach … but mostly grade work and keep students on task) for Christian Worldview at Grand Canyon University job continues proving fruitful in many ways, and I added PHI-101 to my list of classes. A major fruit is that I personally have gotten to lead several people to faith in Christ and help others grow deeper in their faith, as well as helping some who had been antagonistic to religion in general and Christianity in particular be more open-minded. That is pretty cool. A negative this year has been the amount of AI usage in writing. (The CWV textbook was apparently written by such authors as Wes Anderson, Edward B. Adams from 40 years ago, and several people who were not Christians until very recently.)
I had another full year in seminary, including taking biblical Greek. Unlike many seminarians who get super-academic and feel the need to give their hearers “all the information” and then find themselves getting pulled out of the devotional side of Bible reading and discipleship, I actually found my love for ministry deepening and my teachings getting more pastoral and *gasp* fun! Even more than last year, to the point that some people were getting excited about my excitement. God is so good! I also am set to graduate with my M.Div. in April!
There were new controversies (the biggest probably being Michael Tait of Newsboys/DC Talk fame having his dramatic fall), Christian persecution increased globally (the biggest being Nigeria’s violence and assassination of Charlie Kirk), and many wars and rumors of wars and even newfound peace.
Overall, we had a good year in our house.
And God is still good and in control.
This next year will definitely be … 2026.
In any event, may you receive an abundance of bunches of blessings this year. And though life may take some effort to trudge through, fall on the promises of God, this year and always.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.Numbers 6:24-26, ESV
In His Love,
Daniel
We all like to talk about the Magi who came from the east to greet the newborn king of Israel. I wonder how many of us think about this star as a prophetic fulfillment.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1–2, ESV)
We are pretty sure that these “wise men” may have been of the school of practitioners trained originally by Daniel while Israel was in exile. It makes so much sense that they would have been looking for such signs. It does make one wonder why they would think to look for a star?
I wonder if the original Hebrew audience of Matthew would have thought about a previous “wise man” who first spoke of this star.
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
and knows the knowledge of the Most High,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
falling down with his eyes uncovered:
I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel (Numbers 24:15–17, ESV)
Some foreigners came to worship a king because of a star they saw rise. A foreign prophet was used by God to prophesy a star that would rise.
The prophecy was made as Israel was approaching the Promised Land. The prophecy was fulfilled when the True Israel was approaching His creation.
The first foreigner joined in trying to kill God’s people. The next foreigners helped avoid the attempt to kill the Son of God (for a time.)
This is a good reminder that Israel struggles (there is a pun here) with knowing who their Lord is, but others see Him for who He is, even of they deny Him.
Let us be wiser than all these, even the wise men from the east and especially those who see truth and deny it.
Let us receive the King of kings who has come to bring us life and peace and is coming again.
Merry Christmas and the Lord’s blessings of eternal life and wisdom on you.
14 years ago, I wrote a series of Christmas devotional thoughts. For my church for 2023, I edited those and made a short, 6-day devotional booklet. I recently saw the need for a couple of edits, so I did that.
I am once again putting it here for your downloading pleasure.
It is a simple, fun yet still serious look at how some people responded to Christ’s birth 2000 years ago with some added application for today.
I pray you enjoy and are blessed by it.
Merry Christmas!
We were recently at a friends’ house, and their three-year-old came running up to me, declaring loudly, “Thank You Day is coming!” He was speaking of the upcoming (today, as of this posting) holiday in the United States of America, Thanksgiving.
We are not merely thankful for what we have in this life. We should be thankful to someone, namely God.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, ESV)
May we be thankful to our God for all the blessings He gives us, praising His name and seeking His will and glory, and praising and thanking Him most for new life in Christ.
Today is a special day in my life.
This weekend is the 40th anniversary of the day that Marty McFly traveled through time for the first time. (My favorite movie. 😉)
I also enjoy many other great stories about time travel and such, one of those being Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” books and other media. Even though he was writing as an atheist who thought religion should be done away with, he was very witty and wrote well.
Within this story we discover that the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is 42. (The question being discovered is part of the plot of the series.)
And it is special to me because I get to joke around that I am now the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.
However, I am aware of the greater truth:
John 14:6, CSB
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.John 14:15-17, CSB
“If you love me, you will keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.”
I am not really the answer, but I have the answer living within me.
The Creator of Life, the Universe, and Everything lives in me and gives me life amd truth, and I must be ready to share this answer with all people.
Matthew 28:18-20, CSB
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”1 Peter 3:15, CSB
but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
So the women were terrified and bowed down to the ground. “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” asked the men. “He is not here, but he has risen! Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee“
Luke 24:5-6, CSB
Christ is risen. He was dead and buried, but He is not there anymore. Our God and Savior lives.
One of the funniest moments of the 2003 film “Elf” was Buddy the Elf seeing a feral raccoon, spreading out his arms, and asking, “Does someone need a hug?” (It did not go well.)
Something I like to tell people is that on January 9, 2000, Jesus hugged me in welcome to His Family. On July 26, 2000, I finally returned the hug.
It is nice to think about receiving a comforting hug when life feels overwhelming, things are generally crazy, or having just gone through a horrible situation.
It is also nice to look back through the Bible and see how God has been there for His people:
In the Exodus, God said He rescued Israel with a mighty hand and outstretched arm (Exodus 6:6; Deuteronomy 4:34, 5:15, 7:19; Psalm 136:12).
Within Israel and their Exile, God welcomes those who come to Him humbly and for His glory (1 Kings 8:41-43; 2 Chronicles 6:32-33; Ezekiel 20:34).
We can see how God has been taking care of His people, yes even under judgment at times.
What is the most comforting is that God came to us to take the punishment we deserve for disobedience. He promised to do this when He spoke with Abraham 4,000 years ago (Genesis 15), and there are so many places that it is laid out in the Hebrew Scriptures (such as Genesis 22, Psalm 22, and Daniel 9:26).
Good Friday is good, because we see the Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who saw all the sinfulness of this world, come to us in the midst of our fear, pain, and anxiety. The one who stretched out His arm with His might hands came to comfort us with those strong arms and hands.
So, on that terrible Friday 2,000 years ago, Jesus opened His arms for us. We are the feral raccoons, rooting around in garbage and attacking the God who loves us. He took the punishment we deserved, holding back God’s wrath for those of us who will believe.
Yet this same God who took on His own wrath, with those same strong, mighty, scarred arms, reaches out to us to hold us and comfort us.
When we look at the cross, we see God opening His arms to us.
a simple man of God 