Archive for the ‘ Jesus ’ Category

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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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 12/21/2014

Find the source of wisdom through the thoughts at Proverbial Thought!

Second week in a row with a fresh poem! I wrote this yesterday while driving across the USA to see family and friends … or, more chronologically, friends and family.

It is shorter, but it rhymes and is a quick reminder of who Christ is.

Son of …

Son of God, from up above,
You are worthy of praise and love.
Son of David, from his bloodline,
You are Lord and King divine.
Son of Man, from Adam’s seed,
You are our example and greatest need!

2014
12/20
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 12/07/2014

Change your understanding and find wisdom at Proverbial Thought!

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2, ESV

 

you          me

Let us change,             and
(written with Kendra Page)

 

Let us change the world,

you and me,

with the help of God

for His Glory.

Let us change a life,

you and me,

by sharing His Love

with somebody.

Let us change our hearts,

you and me,

and focus back on the One

Who set us free

Let us change our thoughts,

you and me,

and rid them of anger, lust,

envy and greed.

Let us change our actions,

you and me,

by standing strong for God,

not being lazy.

Let us change our minds,

you and me,

by realizing God

is all we need.

2014
12/07
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Hands and feet
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 11/02/2014

Find the beauty in God’s Word at Proverbial Thought.

Almost exactly seven years ago today (two days ago, actually) I met a young woman who inspired this poem.

You may have already figured out I am talking about my wife. The mushy part of the story is that I knew the moment I looked into her eyes that she would be my wife. I could also detect what I came to see over the coming days. Her truest beauty came from the One living inside of her.

 

   more than skin deep

 

beauty that is more than skin deep

because of a deep love of God

if she only knew just how deep

the Father wants her to feel His love

her heart cries out for justice

in a world full of pain and grief

her soul cries out for the Lord Jesus

to put her troubled soul at ease

it has not been enough just to say

God had one Son Whom He sent

through His life lived and then paid

she knows she has a Perfect Friend

this love that so emanates

from her Savior working in Heaven

flows out as she emulates

the Lord Who is the Perfect One

this beauty that goes beyond skin deep

comes from the love of her Savior

it makes the inside soul and mind and body

a holy temple dedicated to the Lord

though on the outside her beauty is great

you need to see what she has inside

the love of her God so permeates

that you can see in her Jesus Christ

so walk with her and see this life

see the love that is so complete

and that this love from Jesus Christ

makes her beauty more than skin deep

2014
11/02
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 08/31/2014

You need wisdom. Find a taste over at Proverbial Thought!

The message is simple: God is all we need. Everyone. And to make sure we found and filled that need, He came to us.

What did He have to say?

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17, ESV)

“Come to me, all who burden and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

people need

 

do not be deceived

by what people need

whether a cup of coffee

or that bag of weed

or maybe to see

that we will speak

with people in need

or the guy on wall street

God is able to free

through a simple creed

“Repent. Come to Me.

Let me be what you need!”

2014
08/31
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Some Final Thoughts About Momma Klem

My mom said to get the Wisdom of God, so start with some of the thoughts found at Proverbial Thought!

Last week, Jesus gave my mom a great big hug and took her Home, one day after her 53rd birthday. The amazing thing is how much joy and love for God was experienced and expressed throughout her final days.

It is hard to stay upset when someone on her way out stresses the importance of our Lord being glorified in the middle of everything.

It was my honor this past Saturday to share about my mom at her Celebration of Life service. I am sharing it with you … plus the last bit I knew I would not be able to say in that moment!

I remember telling my parents when I was a child that I wanted to be just like them when I grew up … only better.

When I first became a Christian, my mom was afraid I had joined a cult, but she could not deny the change in my life.

James 4:6 says, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” My mom’s response was “Well, I guess I’ll never get grace!”

However, she had a lot of questions, and within a year of my coming to Christ, my parents did to. But mom just asked more questions. As [Pastors] Todd and Scott  can attest, she always had questions. Sometimes there were full arguments over Scripture and Christian life. She would often come to me, call me, or message me in some fashion asking if she was sinning for doubting and questioning so many things that came her way.

First, I would remind her that many people doubted, including the Apostle Thomas, and He is a pillar of the Church! And I would always respond with 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Test everything; hold onto the good.”

Back to James 4, in verses 7-8, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

As a new Christian, I often wondered why more people would not help out as much as I did as a new believer. When my parents finally started following Jesus, there was no stopping them! Ask anyone: they dived in head first, helping out everywhere they could.

But my mom had compassion and love for others. She had raised me to not judge anyone, not for any reason, no matter what they looked like, no matter what they acted like. She certainly lived out 1 Samuel 16:7, which says “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Many of you here know how true this is. How many co-workers, youth, and others did she reach with her love and compassion? She very easily lived out 1 Corinthians 9:22, I will just read it: “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” She struggled through her doubts so that with compassion and love she could help others struggle through their doubts that others might be saved.

She learned to live out James 4:9, to “[become] wretched and mourn and weep. [And to] Let [her] laughter be turned to mourning and [her] joy to gloom” so that others would come to know the same Savior she knows.

And as verse 10 says, she learned to “Humble [herself] before the Lord, and [she is exalted].” I think needing to be moved to a larger hospital room to fit all of the guests, and the people sitting here and lining the halls attests to, she has been exalted. And for all of us who know Jesus, we will one Glorious Day see her again.

[What I would have said, but had written down]

My parents have been through many fires and trials in life, and they have grown to live Jude, verses 20-23, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.“

My parents have made it very difficult to do life better than them. I just look forward to that Glorious Day when we all get to reunite with our Lord and remember all of our stories together.

2014
08/19
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 08/17/2014

Help wisdom remain strong in you and go to Proverbial Thought!

For too long there has been a common theme in all of Christendom. I liken to World War II in this way:

Winning converts to Christ without discipleship is like the Allies taking Normandy Beach and declaring the war won.

What we have effectively done is convince thousands, millions, or even billions over the decades and centuries that they are saved from their sins only to let them continue living in their sin and ignorance.

Have we given these people false hope?

Do you have false hope?

“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
Luke 11:24-26, ESV

Church, let us not only win over but raise up new Christians in the power and knowledge of Christ!

Christian, commit your whole life, every little part, every big thing, your sins and your joys to Christ!

 

letting them back in

we cast out our demons
and invite Christ in
our lives become clean
and He reigns supreme

but why do we do it
why bring back the spirits
why give up on Christ
and re ruin our lives

why do we let them in
to fall back into sin
we can see through the lies
yet they multiply

letting them back in
undoing what Christ began
why do we let them in
Christ

my Lord

start again

2014
08/17
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Play-Doh Heart

Find solid wisdom through the thoughts at Proverbial Thought!

There are some things in this world that are rock solid and others that are softer, more pliable.

Something that should never be seen as pliable is Truth. While some things may not be black and white, set in stone (such as one person thinking the weather is beautiful while another thinks it is horrible) most truths are firm (such as the weather is overcast and rainy).

One truth that is never negotiable, no matter how much someone may want it to be, is that God is real and sovereign, and Jesus Christ is His Son who died for the sins of the world.

On the other hand, there are some things that are just better the softer they are: some cookies and cake, gelatin (without being melted, of course), your seat on an airplane, water after you have been pushed from the side of the pool, Play-Doh, and on and on.

Something that should always be pliable is your heart and mind. While you hold firm to certain truths, you should always be willing to always learn, always love, and always seeking after truth. Just as Play-Doh is soft, pliable, and even fun to shape and mold, so must our hearts be in this world of pain, injustice, and competing attentions.

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
1 Peter 3:8

Here is the thing: you must entrust your Play-Doh heart to the Rock of Salvation. Only in His hands can it be properly and lovingly formed for the greatest good.

Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind.
Psalm 26:2

On our own, we will only have some fun, waste some time, and forget to put the lid back on at the end of the day. Then our Play-Doh hearts become hard. In hardness they either become brittle or useless … or both.

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
    the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
8     do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
    as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the test
    and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
    and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
    and they have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
    “They shall not enter my rest.”

Psalm 95, ESV

2014
08/12
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 08/03/2014

Be at the forefront of wisdom by gaining some at Proverbial Thought!

How important is Christ in your life?

Would you rather ride in the back of the bus with all of your friends where the Bus Driver will not overhear your conversations or see what you are doing?

Or would you rather run to His sports car and cry out “SHOTGUN!” to be the person sitting in the front seat next to Him?

It may seem like a simple analogy, but seriously think about it.

Many of us probably are thinking, “Of course I want to be in the sports car!” The only issue is that most of us remain in our thinking as junior high students sitting in the back of the school bus. We long for the days of high school (or Secondary school) when we are old enough to drive or at least own a sports car. Some of us assume we can just go take the car, but in reality we have no idea how to operate it. Some of us remain convinced there is no way the owner of a sports car would have anything to do with us, so we never try for our shot at riding shotgun.

The amazing thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ is that He has made the offer to every single person to come along on the ride of a lifetime (and beyond). We are all poor junior high students riding the public school bus wishing for better things, and Jesus is just waiting for us to run over calling “SHOTGUN!”

They other amazing thing is that we can all ride shotgun … everyday. If we just trust in Him.

 

i call SHOTGUN                            

 

when it comes to life

i want to call shotgun

i want to be right up front

while moving for the Son

when it comes to riding shotgun

with the Lord Jesus Christ

any person can call it

                                      in fact

it should be called in every life

2014
08/03
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What Kind of Follower Are You?

Follow the call of wisdom and head to Proverbial Thought!

Jesus said to many people, “Follow me.”

When He said it to Matthew (Matthew 9:9), we read that Matthew pulled out his smart phone, opened his Facebook app, found “Jesus of Nazareth”, and clicked “Add Friend”. Then he switched to the Twitter app, found @JesusofNazarethMessiah, and clicked “Follow”.

And the world was changed forever! @MatthewLevi and his 11 closest friends re-tweeted and shared everything @JesusofNazarethMessiah tweeted and posted, and lives were changed as all of their followers re-tweeted and shared everything again and again.

Then they all went out for a cup of over-priced coffee to talk about it.

. . .

Or maybe it happened differently? Maybe Jesus expects more from those who follow Him?

Is it enough to follow @JesusofNazareth on Twitter? Is it enough to “Like” or “Friend” Jesus Christ on Facebook? (For the record, I do these!)

Perhaps Jesus expects more of us. Perhaps being a Christian calls for a greater commitment than clicking “Like” or “Follow”.

Perhaps Jesus expects us to change our entire lifestyle and literally follow Him: become like Him, think like Him, walk in His footsteps.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Matthew 16:24-28, ESV

2014
07/29
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