Happy Birthday – once or twice?

By Helen Jesze, 1st April 2016

”But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his Name”

John 1, 12 New American Standard Bible

H​arold Hill, an American ex­NASA scientist came to speak three consecutive years in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, when we lived there. The publisher of his German books (“How to live like a King’s Kid” and others) arranged some of the meetings and my husband, George, arranged the other speaking tours. Telling how God delivered him from an alcoholic engineer and scientist jet­set life, his style was very humorous, and we had many great experiences with him.

Sometimes Harold would look out over the audience with one of his ‘glory grins’, and begin his talk with “How many King’s Kids do we have here tonight? Oh, quite a few. How many of you know that you have been born twice?” Hands shot up all over the room.

Then he went on, “How many of you don’t know that you’ve been born ​once​?! ­­ Ah, caught you that time! You weren’t listening well, were you?!” Everybody laughed except those few who, with rueful faces, knew they had been caught napping.

I was thinking of this the other day, when it was the anniversary of ​my first ​birth­day, 15​th March. Because I was to be born at home, Douglas, my big brother, was sent off to stay with Grandma and Grandad, for a lively 8 year old might get in the way! Little Alan had died as a baby with whooping-­cough, and Douglas, hoping that another boy would now take his place, gave a half­-a-­crown coin to Grandad, “For the new little brother!”.

Unfortunately, one of the other sort came along – ​a sister​! “O well,” he said, “then I’ll bring her up ​tough​!” I don’t know if he asked for his half­-a-­crown back! I was quite a tom­boy, my favourite games being climbing trees, riding an old bicycle with my blue cape flying out in the wind behind me pretending to be a highwayman or a cowboy and many other things which I won’t bore you with!

But one ‘game’ I must tell you about. My parents Harry and Muriel Graham, were both born ­again Christians and I had heard many stories of answers to prayer and God’s help to them. How many years before, Grandma, dying with Tuberculosis, saw Jesus walk into her room, stand at the foot of the bed and stretch out his arms to her. Thinking he was coming to take her to Heaven, she sat up and cried, ”Yes, Lord!” But Jesus stretched out his hand and said, “No, not yet!” He immediately disappeared, but in that instant, God gave her two new lungs and Grandma lived to be over 90 years​old.

Going regularly to Sunday ­School and Sunshine Corner (a Christian children’s club) I began to love this Jesus I heard so much about. When I was 6 years old, my father became the pastor of a pioneer church and we had meetings on Sunday evenings in a rented church hall. This brings me to the ‘game’ (although to me it was not a game, but something very real) I wanted to tell you about, which was that I would gather some of my little friends, sit them on the door­step, and ‘preach’ to them what my father had preached about the Sunday before. The garden­ shed was our little chapel, and if anyone wanted to ‘get saved’, give their heart to the Lord, we went in there among the flowerpots and sacks to pray!

Yes, I loved this Jesus, but it was not until one Sunday night when I was 9 years old, that I saw clearly for the first time that I, myself, needed to ‘get saved’. ​A young ​Bible­ School student came that night and I do not know what he preached about, but afterwards I realized that I could not look back on a day, a time when I had definitely ​asked him into my life. ​I had been telling ​others, but perhaps I had been thinking that I would be let into Heaven because my parents were born ­again Christians. I had never robbed a Bank, had never killed anyone or done anything that people might say is a BIG sin. Yet I knew that ​my ​goodness ​would never reach to God’s standard and this was the right way.

So up to the front I went that night, and took this Jesus as my own ​personal ​Saviour. From that day forward, ​I knew ​that he was in my heart, and although I have often not been faithful, he has proved ​his ​faithfulness to me countless times during the many years we have walked together.

Somebody said, ”GOD HAS NO GRANDCHILDREN” and that’s true. He only has ​children ​who are born into his family by accepting his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. A very learned Pharisee, named Nicodemus, came to visit Jesus one night, asking him a question. Jesus did not give a definite answer to this, but said, ​“…I tell you, that unless a person is born again (anew, from above), he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with, and experience) the kingdom of God. “ The Amplified Bible

This was new to Nicodemus. He thought: Why, that’s impossible​! How can a man be born when he is old? ​Can his mother give birth to him again?! ​Jesus explained that there is a physical birth and a spiritual birth, and everyone needs to be born anew by the Spirit of God. It is not enough to only be born physically. There are millions of people today who may think they are a Christian, who may be church­goers, who even love this Jesus, but can never remember a day when they actually asked him into their own life, when they were born­ again. ​You may be one of those people, like I was, hearing a lot about Jesus yet never ​knowing him​.

I would urge you today to make sure that you belong to him, that you know without a shadow of a doubt that when you stand at Heaven’s gate one day, because you have taken Jesus into your life, he will open that gate to you and you will be allowed to go in. The blood of Jesus which he shed for us applied to our hearts is our ‘passport’ for that heavenly country; our good works, our giving to charity, our church attendance and trying to be good will not count on that day.

With another birthday milestone just passed, I thank God for the gift of Life he has given to me, physically and spiritually. Many will lose their life today, the world over, whether by sickness, old age, accident or terrorist activity. On Easter Sunday 2016 those thousands of Christians gathered in a park in Pakistan celebrating the resurrection of their Saviour did not know they would be the victims of terrorist attacks that very day. Some have already joined the throng of martyrs, others are fighting for their lives from horrific injuries.

But God has been so good to us and saved our life many times. With his help, let us not waste it but use however many years we have left – few or many ­­ for his glory, and to fulfil the plan and blueprint he has mapped out for us!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of Life, and for putting us into this wonderful, beautiful world you made. Thank you for the many years that you have brought us through, and for every person who has helped us in some way, made some input into our life, enriched and blessed us, influenced us for good.

Thank you for those who told us about the Second Birth, showed us how to experience this, and how to live the Christian life. May our lives count for you! Fill us with the power of your Holy Spirit again, right now, we pray. In the Name of Jesus Christ, your Son! Amen.

Me as a mischievous 8 year old, with my handsome brother, Douglas​!