Posts Tagged ‘ Friend ’

Double-Baker’s-Dozen Re-Birthday

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!

VerseD: John 15:13

No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13, CSB

Christ has freed us, and He has freed us from sin by His own blood and from the terror of God by calling us friends.

VerseD: Proverbs 17:17

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a difficult time.

Proverbs 17:17, CSB

Because Christ has come, we are made new, able and willing to love and help others. Because Christ is coming again, we help make the world new by helping others find His love and carrying each other through difficult times by His power and grace.

Versed: Isaiah 43:12-13

“I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God. Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?”

Isaiah 43:12-13, ESV

The only thing we have to declare is that there is only the one, true God, who alone offers salvation through His Son. He draws us to Himself by the Holy Spirit, and His calling is forever!

Versed: Isaiah 43:11

I, I am the Lord,
    and besides me there is no savior.

Isaiah 43:11, ESV

There is only one way to eternal life with our Creator, the only God, and that is through God the Son and by the filling of the Holy Spirit. Believe in the One who alone calls us and is worthy of worship, and let us proclaim Him to the world.

Versed: Isaiah 43:10

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”

Isaiah 43:10, ESV

There is only one, true God, and He has redeemed and restored us to right relationship with Him through the Son, and He calls us to declare this truth to the world by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Versed: Isaiah 43:8-9

Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true.

Isaiah 43:8-9, ESV

Our God as restored us and redeemed us. Though we have been spiritually blind and deaf, He calls to us through the gospel that we might hear Him and the truth of the cross. We then share this truth with the world.

VerseD: Isaiah 43:1

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

‭Isaiah 43:1, ESV‬

God has restored us to relationship with Himself, those of us who believe in Jesus as Savior and God are called His the redeemed and Hos friends. We may not be born descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but we are made His chosen people in Christ.

VerseD: Proverbs 17:17

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs‬ ‭17:17‬, ‭ESV‬

The Light of the world came to us and died and rose again to show us we are friends and be ome His brothers and sisters when we believe in Him. He then shines through us to love in the same sacrificial way for others.

VerseD: 1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John‬ ‭4:7‬, ‭ESV‬

God came to us to show us how to love, and, when we believe, He calls us friends and brothers. Let us love His Church to show we love Him.