Archive for the ‘ Birthday ’ Category

The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

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.)

Today happens to be my birthday.

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.

2025
10/26
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A Quarter-Century Re-Birthday

On this day 25 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 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 get to start Christian Worldview and Intro to Philosophy courses (as one of the instructors) with 245 students who were all born after this momentous day in my life. Tomorrow I am with fellow seminarians who also were mostly born after this date! (2 are about my age and from Africa. We actually have about 30 students from Malawi [majority from here], Kenya [Gama is the one who invited me to his home and is about my age], Ghana [the other person about my age], and Sierra Leone.)

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 hughest 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!

2025
01/09
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Score of 2 … or 2.5

I don’t normally make a big deal about this particular day of the year. I prefer to dwell on January 9, the day I became a believer in Jesus as my Savior.

What is special of this day?

Well, on October 26, 1983, I was born.

As I turn two score years old, it occurred to me that this year I will have spent two and half times longer as a Christian than not as a Christian. I was 16 years in the spiritual wilderness when I first bent my knee and confessed Jesus as Lord. This coming year, I celebrate 24 years walking as a disciple of Jesus in the Promise.

I may have completed 40 revolutions about our Sun, but I await eternity wrapped in the love of The Son.

And I am thankful for our God’s love and grace, for all the gifts He has given, especially for eternal life. (And a loving, God-fearing wife who helps me grow and stay on the straight-and-narrow. And I await greeting my mother once more in His presence.)

‭‭yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Habakkuk‬ ‭3:18‬, ‭ESV‬‬
2023
10/26
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Another Re-Birth Celebration

On this day 23 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 am super involved with the spreading of the faith and growing others in their faith, whether as one of the pastors at church, leading Bible studies, or teaching Christian Worldview to college students (and others in many other ways).

Care to join me? 😉

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!

God bless you, and remember that Jesus Christ is the reason we live and move and breathe and have meaning!

2023
01/09
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Re-Birth Celebration

On this day 22 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.

A great thing this year is that my Re-Birthday falls on Sunday, which means it is a true Re-Birthday and I get to be with the Church and worship our Lord today!

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!

God bless you, and remember that Jesus Christ is the reason we live and move and breathe and have meaning!

2022
01/09
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A Faith Old Enough to Drink?

Today is my wonderful mother-in-law’s birthday.

Also, it is what I call my Re-birthday.

21 years ago today, in a small Nazarene church in Bloomington, IL, at 6:46 pm CST, I realized that I believed the Gospel message. Jesus got a firm hold of me, and that is when everything began to change for me.

And I celebrate with a cake.

Why?

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Luke 15:7, 10, 24

Just like the song says, this wretch was lost and dead, but now I am found and alive. This calls for celebration!

Being as I am now re-21, and I mentioned drinking in the title:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
Luke 5:37‭-‬39 ESV

I am not who I was 21 years ago. I am not who I was 10 years ago. I have grown and learned much in Christ. I have been made new to carry the New Covenant of our Lord into our world as I commune with Him by His Holy Spirit.

Therefore, let us celebrate our common salvation and share this faith with our fallen world!

2021
01/09
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Another Re-Birthday

On this day 19 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.

Something that excites me this year is that my Re-Birthday falls on Wednesday, which means I get to teach the youth about our Lord today!

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!

God bless you, and remember that Jesus Christ is the reason we live and move and breathe and have meaning!

2019
01/09
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Re-17 but not 17 Again

​WIN_20160109_11_45_22_Pro.jpg

Today is my amazing mother-in-law’s birthday.

Also, it is what I call my Re-birthday.

17 years ago today, in a small Nazarene church in Bloomington, IL, I realized that I believed the Gospel message. Jesus got a firm hold of me, and that is when everything began to change for me. It took about six more months for it to really mean something to me, but the change was evident even then. (Ask my parents, who, at the time, were annoyed with my sudden music choices and leaving radios on around the house.)

The point of all of this, then, is that Jesus is Lord. And the picture above shows that I celebrate by baking a cake, and I serve it to others.

Why?

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Luke 15:7, 10, 24

Just like the song says, this wretch was lost and dead, but now I am found and alive. This calls for celebration!

Therefore, I finish with the full reason for this post by quoting Jude (3):

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Let us celebrate our common salvation and share this faith with our fallen world!

 

2017
01/09
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My Soul’s Quinceañera? (My 15th Re-Birthday)

For starters, I know that a Quinceañera is a celebration for young Latinas becoming women at the age of 15!

In reply, I refer you Paul’s words in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

That being said …

Fifteen years ago today, at 6:47 pm (CST), the Holy Spirit got a hold of me, and to the glory of the Father I knelt down for the first time to make that blessed confession (see Matthew 16:15-16):

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” [Daniel M. Klem] replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Has your soul been wrapped in the arms of the Savior?

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
John 3:3-21, ESV

2015
01/09
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Re-Hello World!

It was three years ago today that this little blog was started!

Can you believe it! I mean, Really?!

A big thank you to all who have come along side me by following, commenting on, and sharing my blog. An extra thank you for those of you who have helped me write my blog and encouraged me in my writing, especially the great men (and a young woman!) at Proverbial Thought!

To see how it all started, you can go here, and for Proverbial Thought here and here (the second link being my first posting).

Praise God for my being so consistent, the relationships formed and strengthened, and for all that has come that glorifies His Name through this blog!

2014
01/18
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