Posts Tagged ‘ Jesus ’

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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Prepare Your Heart – Advent Week 3

Continue preparing your heart for wisdom by reading the thoughts over at Proverbial Thought!

It is now the second week of Advent! (See the last two weeks’ devotional thought here and here.)

Again, Advent is a time to remember our Lord’s first coming as we look forward to His imminent return.

So, let us prepare hearts for encountering the Lord!

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old“

. . .

“for my eyes have seen your salvation
    that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.”
Luke 1:68-70, 2:30-32, ESV

The first part of the quote is from Zechariah, John the Baptist’s dad, at John’s birth. The second part of the quote was said by Simeon, an old and devout man, when he saw the baby Jesus at the Temple.

These two men knew that the Lord’s salvation was at hand. If you read all of chapters one and two of Luke, you can see that even they did not understand His plan of salvation. They were on the right track, but they were not aware of how things would unfold.

The Lord had come, Emmanuel, God with us, and he brought salvation. It was first brought to Israel, the Jews in Jerusalem in particular, and then it spread to “all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) over the past 2,000 years.

What most everyone then did not know was that first the Lord would bring spiritual salvation, the forgiveness of sins and the repairing of the relationship with God and humanity; the physical redemption from all enemies is still to come.

Let us remember that salvation has come, but we await our salvation from the pain and evil of this world (see Romans 8). We do not understand fully how it will all happen, but we know Jesus will return!

May we not get caught up in the knowledge we have and miss the signs of His coming. May we remember that we are not home yet, and we await our coming Savior. May we bring as many as we can to all of this knowledge of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father!

2014
12/16
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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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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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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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Rediscovering “Rediscovering God with Downhere”

Rediscover wisdom at Proverbial Thought!

Three years and nine days ago I heard a song for the first time that I greatly enjoyed, so I shared it on my blog.

As I have been finishing my first summer as a Seminarian, I am officially beginning my teaching career (in Special Education with children with Autism), and I have had a jam-packed summer of travels, work prep, and simply getting things done.

It has been a little exhausting!

Therefore, I think it is a great time to bring back this song as a good reminder to myself, other seminarians, and all those who tend to work too hard and sometimes forget or neglect time with God (like pastors and other ministry leaders, teachers, and just about anyone else in Western culture). This is “Let Me Rediscover You” by the band Downhere (no longer together, but the lead singer of this song is now “Freddie Mercury” for the Queen cover band Queen Extravaganza).

Just listen to the lyrics and focus on God for about four minutes!

Let Me Rediscover You

Your spirit hovers over my waters
Your love burns longer than the sun
The skies of thunder echo your wonder
Your praises can’t be over-sung

The whole Universe is witness
To only a part of what you’ve done

So let me rediscover you
And breathe in me your life anew
Tell me of the God I never knew
Oh, let me rediscover you

You see my weakness, my pride, my blindness
You wield your power through them all
Of all the mysteries, still, the greatest to me
Is that you’re faithful when I fall

How can I say I know you
When what I know is still so small?

Let me rediscover you
And breathe in me your life anew
Tell me of the God I never knew
And let me rediscover you

Let me cry “holy, holy, holy”
(holy, holy, holy)
Let me awaken to your majesty
(waken to your majesty)
And see a glimmer of your glory
Let me abide in you

Let me rediscover you
And by your grace I’ll follow through
Reveal to me the God I thought I knew

Let me rediscover you
And breathe in me your life anew
Tell me of the God I never knew
And let me rediscover you

Oh, let me rediscover you
Tell me of the God I never knew
Jesus, let me rediscover you.

2014
07/22
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Mythic Jesus?

Find truth in myth by finding wisdom in proverbs over at Proverbial Thought!

My wife and I have been in a class at Phoenix Seminary for the past two months, and this class is “Technology in Ministry”.

Mythbusters from Flickr via Wylio

© 2008 grace, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

One of the first ideas introduced to us is the idea of technology becoming mythic. This idea is that once a technology is introduced it relatively quickly seems to have always been with us, usually within a generation.

Think about it: what would life be like without the wheel? What would life be like without light bulbs or refrigerators or running water? What would life be like without the internet or cell phones?

And to drive that last part home, cell phones are less than 20 years old (affordable, small, portable, able to fit in a pocket), yet almost every people group on the planet has cell phones. I personally witnessed it in the mountains of Morocco, and a friend has seen them in the mountainous regions of China where there is almost no other modern technology.

Children born in the past decade will have no experience in a world without the internet or touchscreens. For this children, touchscreens and the internet are mythic. They have always been here.

Other things become mythic, too.

When we hear the word “myth” we automatically jump to the same conclusion as C.S. Lewis before he converted to Christianity: myths are lies and fancy.

What J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson showed him, however, is that myths are always based on some element of truth.

The ancient myths most likely were derived from actual people and events in history, but over time they became embellished and twisted. They are not lies, but they are stories that lost their way.

In other words, myths are simply stories. Some contain more truth than others.

Over centuries and even millennia, many stories of human history, stories that pointed to the truth of God, were embellished and twisted. Many people assume there could not have been a global flood. It just seems so outrageous. Yet, virtually every ancient culture around the world had flood stories that are eerily similar, stories that may have been embellished and twisted here and there.

But because these stories have always been with us, we just disregard them as mythic.

But what if a myth was shared that was not embellished or twisted? I mean, it always happens, especially in an age of instant gratification in which people share a story before having all of the facts and the story gets blown out of proportion and people get hurt (like the woman who sued McDonald’s over hot coffee).

Our stories quickly become mythic. There is truth, and it is possible to find that truth.

The thing that Tolkien and Dyson helped Lewis to see is that the myth of Jesus Christ is a true myth.

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
2 Peter 1:16, ESV

 

2014
07/15
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 06/29/2014

Get to know wisdom better through some of the words at Proverbial Thought.

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Genesis 5:21-24, ESV

 

And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.
2 Kings 2:11-12, ESV

 

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:51-58, ESV

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:17, ESV

 

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Revelation 22:20, ESV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

how deeply can we know You

how far in love can we go

is it possible on earth

is it possible to walk with You

can we see Your face here

can we touch Your hands

if we walk within truth

if we strive to be with You

will Your glory be seen now

will Your presence fully be here

what is the depth we can go

what length can we travel

are You closer than we think

are You just waiting on us

2014
06/29
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Weekend Words & Sunday Stanzas – 06/22/2014

Give your weary mind some refreshing wisdom from Proverbial Thought!

Perhaps you are struggling through something.

Maybe you have lost a loved one.

Maybe you have suffered through addiction.

Maybe you have suffered through prolonged illness.

Maybe you have received the news of disease or illness.

Maybe you deal with bullying.

Maybe you come out of abuse.

Maybe you live with depression, fear, or hatred.

As trite and cliché as it may sound, Jesus is the truest answer and ultimate Healer for all that burdens our weary souls.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30, ESV

Healing may not come immediately. Physical healing may never come in this life. But trust in the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and you will find hope and peace. It may not come fully until the next life, but His resurrection proves His promises are true. We may suffer now, but we have the promise of eternal rest and peace.

 

as dawn breaks

on the weary soul

as dawn breaks on the weary soul

awakening the stillness of God

what the weary traveler has sown

will be reaped in the precious blood

as new light pours over this one

and eyes are opened for the first time

those eyes see the image of the Son

and see through the power of that Christ

as dawn illuminates this person

becoming more aware of deep filth

this weary one comes undone

and gives in to the Higher Will

as dawn breaks on the weary soul

and this weary one awakens to love

and realizes it is okay to let go

it is finally known that God is more than enough

2014
06/22
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