Search

2 MINUTE WARNING

WITH DOUG JOHNSON

Open Search

531 Planting And Uprooting Part 1

As I prayed on Christmas Day, I asked God to do a new thing in me that was ABOLUTELY SPECIFIC to my daily life and struggles. And today, I find myself asking for even more.

This is rooted in a scripture that my daughter gave me on Christmas day:

Jeremiah 1 9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth.  10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” 

I am asking God to Plant, and to Uproot, SPECIFIC things in my life, and I would encourage you to do the same.  I have no idea if this verse was meant to specifically call out what we are talking about today … but today I am convicted to talk about these two ideas specific to our individual walks … and I am convicted that those who will allow God to do this in their lives will be blessed by God’s hand—so here goes.

We are not perfect.  We are perfect in Christ but not perfect on our own accord—even after we receive Him, and to think that we are is to sin greatly.

God is calling us to be better.

He is calling us to mature.

He is calling us to change.

And He is calling us to reinvent ourselves.

He is calling us to Hebrews 10:14.

Hebrews 10 14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.  

Jeremiah spends 24 chapters in his book warning Israel about the enemy from the North.  He warns them about the injustice that is living in the community.  He warns about a judgment that is coming.  And also gives a message of hope.

These warnings should be heeded today:

Our enemy to the north is no longer Babylon—it is Satan.

Our warning is to be humble and listen—and recognize that we can be deceived.

Our hope is Jesus.

As you cry out to God today, and as you enter into the new year, be aware of this.

God wants us to be aware of our enemy.

God wants us to be humble and to listen.

And God wants us to put our hope in Jesus.

For me, there are specific things that He has called me to Plant and to Uproot.

For you?  I would bet He has much the same.

Go to your knees and find out.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

0

530 Salt And Light Part 3

When Jesus spoke to the world, He made the most incredible offer … “that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

He offered us eternity.

And when He offered us eternity—He offered ALL of us eternity.

And then He said this:

Matthew 16 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. 

As I sit in awe of God this lovely morning, I can’t help but think of how much I have reflected on this verse and the following verse in Isaiah chapter 61.  And I am amazed at the God of all creation.  Not at the idea of the sunset or the movement of the oceans.  Not at the beautiful skies that greet us as we wake up or the incredible mountains to the west.  Not the singing of the birds or the unmatched loyalty of a mother’s love.  I am amazed at the decision … the decision to be “God with us”.  Our God is many things, but today He is Immanuel.  He is the God who walked these dusty roads, interacted with these people, and worked these long days in the heat. 

He did not take the easy road or make any excuses.

He did not exalt Himself or gain power or forget what the common man would walk through.

He lived the life of a servant.

And His first sermon told us a few things:

Isaiah 61 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me …

… to bind up the brokenhearted, 

… to proclaim freedom for the captives 

… from darkness for the prisoners,  

… 2 … to comfort all who mourn,  

… 3 … to bestow on them a crown of beauty 

And how would his people respond?

Isaiah 61 4 They will rebuild … and restore the places long devastated; 

… they will renew … 

6 … You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. 

We are Salt … and Light.

We are the hope of nations and the hope of the broken.

We are the ones who are to carry the banner of Jesus.

We are the blessed family of the risen king.

“For God so loved the world that He

gave His one and only Son”

Reflect on these things on this Christmas day.

Your life is redeemed.

Your weaknesses are forgotten … buried.

Your shame is covered.

Your honor is given.

Your life is … important.

I love these videos … because they beam with excitement, and life, and absolute passion and love of life and the God who so freely gave it to us.

Be blessed today.

And by all means let your light shine like a city on a hill so that all can see!

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

0

529 Salt And Light Part 2

When Jesus spoke to the world, He made the most incredible offer … “that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

He offered us eternity.

And when He offered us eternity—He offered ALL of us eternity.

And then He said this:

Matthew 16 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. 

At the heart of this is the simplest of messages:

Illuminate

Brighten

Give Hope

Give Opportunity

How can we truly do this?  How can we truly be in the world but not of the world?  This challenge is almost impossible.

And yet, the God who did the impossible is asking that of us.

Jesus went to His execution sight and carried the very tool that they would use for His demise.

He was abandoned by His troop of loyal followers.

The men who put Him to death mocked Him and gambled over His clothing.

And at His end, He uttered the phrase, “it is paid in full”.

As we approach Christmas … We are celebrating His life and His death and, most importantly, His victory over death that we might live.

In this song, I can not get over the line:

When All Was Lost He Crossed Eternity

The King Of Life Was On The Move

His death on the cross was not just a passive “I surrender” move.  It was a power play to gain control of the entire universe.  And He played His cards without hesitation.

As we move towards Christmas, let us remember:

  • He paid an unpayable debt … for us
  • He defeated an unbeatable enemy … for us
  • He has prepared us a table of food … for us 
  • He has adopted the world as sons and daughters … for us
  • He has set up a Royal Priesthood … for us

These are not small miracles.  They are miracles on top of miracles on top of miracles.

And our response to this is to stand on the highest hill … to proclaim:

“For God so loved the world that He

gave His one and only Son”

Because … In Him–we have life.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

0

528 Salt And Light Part 1

When Jesus spoke to the world, He made the most incredible offer … “that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

He offered us eternity.

And when He offered us eternity—He offered ALL of us eternity.

And then He said this:

Matthew 16 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. 

At the heart of this is the simplest of messages:

Stand Up

Distinguish Yourself

Share The Treasure With Others

It is a simple message really.

And yet … in a broken world … it is almost impossible.

The Gospel, in its purest form, TRANSFORMS.

It changes the very atmosphere.

At a Broncos game on January 3, 2016, Peyton Manning jogged onto the field at Mile High Stadium.  I did not see him enter the game—but I didn’t need to—the stadium literally came to life to the point where I asked “what is going on?”  You could feel the entire crowd in a “dead” stadium “come to life”.

And this transformation is nothing compared to what Jesus can do.

His offer is to save us.

And then for us to make sure that everyone else hears the offer.

We are to TRANSFORM.  

We are to let His light shine.  

We are to make sure that the world hears this incredible message.

“For God so loved the world that He

gave His one and only Son”

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

0

527 Wanting From Man

Many of our hopes and dreams are rooted in something good, they truly are, but they aren’t rooted in something that has life.

We seek first the kingdom, but the kingdom that we live in has nothing for us … nothing that can fill us … nothing that will bring us life.

And so it brings us to Solomon, who strongly professed that “life is meaningless”.  And he did so after winning at all the things that many of us strive to acquire.

MEANINGLESS

I love the gospel, because you can always start out with the truth but find your way onto the Greater Truth.  And the Greater Truth is this:

We need to spend less time Wanting From Man and ALL of our time Needing From God.  Because Needing From God gives us ALL THAT WE COULD HOPE FOR while Wanting From Man leaves us with MEANINGLESS.

As I pondered this this morning, I asked the question, “What does God think of me?  What does He truly believe about me?”

And here are just a few of those things:

  • He SO LOVES ME.  John 3:16 says that He LOVES ME SO MUCH that He traded His son for me.
  • He rejoices over me.  Zephaniah 3 says that He is so happy about me that the heavens rejoice with singing.
  • He has adopted me as His son.  (Ephesians 1).
  • He has paid off my unpayable debt.  (John 19:30).
  • I am royalty.  (1 Peter 2:9).
  • He renews His love for me every morning.  (Lamentations 3).
  • He has prepared “a place” for me.  And this place is better than any place that I could even fathom. (John 14:3).
  • I am MORE than a conqueror.  (Romans 8:37).

In Luke 24, an Angel asked Mary Magdalene and the other women who entered Jesus’ tomb “why do you look for the living among the dead?” and I often have to ask myself the same question.  Why am I looking for confirmation, affirmation, or encouragement from a spirit who wants to steal, kill, and destroy?  And, truly, most of the time that is what we seek.  The reality is that God has something greater for us—and He actually will propel us to be better than what we seek to be by feeding an insatiable appetite.

Walking into Syria, Paul realized what he was … a broken man who had everything the world had to offer.  His pursuit of education, popularity, privilege … they had filled his carnal desires and emptied out his very soul.  And so he made a great decision, he pursued, and filled, his need for God.

The risen Savior has something for us … and it is better than anything that we could ever want.

So don’t spend your time trying to get filled up in the world and then going to God questioning why it isn’t working … Get filled by the Spirit … then go into the world.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

0

526 The Alpha Male

“Even If He Doesn’t” … When three men stood before certain death they uttered this response.

And the “He” that they referred to was the Alpha Male … the TRUE Alpha Male.  The self proclaimed Alpha AND Omega.  The one TRUE God.

Daniel 3 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  

3 men.

A blazing furnace.

A threat.

An easy way out.

And yet, they chose to stand.

And The Alpha Male?  Without Him, we have a wonderful Christmas story.  We have bulletin boards filled with a nice idea of our perception of the gospel.  And we have peace at a Sunday morning service.  But with him?  We have EVERYTHING.  And this EVERYTHING is the VERY THING that we seek but can never attain without Him.  We have the hope of nations.  We have Hope … And a Future.  We have protection … and someone who truly has our back.  Without Him … we have NOTHING.  But with Him?  We have the greatest gift on planet earth.

Obviously the Alpha Male that I am referring to … is Jesus.

As I sing All Hail King Jesus … I am so convicted of this.  And for this reason I can’t stop listening to it, singing with it, raising my hands to heaven as I worship Him in the midst of it.

Jesus stared in the face of the bleakest situation in the history of the world.  And He gave all that He had that we might have life.

We must never, ever, ever, forget this.

Because Jesus, as He hung on that cross, chose not to forget you.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

As you play this song this morning—I encourage you to play it and contemplate the lyrics … so convicting.  Take a moment this day to worship … and to cry out in Spirit and Truth.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

0

525 I Know The Answer

Our life changes when we can say these four words:

I Know The Answer

It is a simple phrase really.

But it is powerful to the core.

John 1 48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

In one powerful moment, Nathanael discovered who he was.

And not too long after that, a rejected and broken woman who was despised by an entire town converted it … and she did so by saying: “come and meet the man who told me everything I ever knew.”

Both of these found the answer.  And both of them could say:

I Know The Answer

This is not a cliche.

It is not a line that will get you through the next hour, or shift, or week.

It is a lifestyle.

And just as many would profess to have a lifestyle that they want all of us to adopt, or accept, or even worship, this lifestyle will actually bring life … and peace … and joy … and hope.

David was despised for dancing before the Lord … but he knew the Answer.

John the Baptist was shunned by most men, but he did not care because he knew the Answer.

Paul changed teams in the middle of a winning streak.  He went from the worldly winning team to the worldly losing team–because on a trip into Syria he met the Answer.

Peter talked, and bragged, and jockeyed for position, and made promises that he couldn’t keep.  But then he became an unstoppable force in never backing down.  Why?  Because he had found the Answer.

And so it happened.  And it happens today.  The world has no understanding or description or comprehension of the radical life changes that certainly happen to people that find the Answer.

As you listen to this song today, ask God to change your heart.

Find … the Answer.

Because something powerful happens when you can say … 

I Know The Answer

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

0

524 Give Me Faith

When Jesus walked into the synagogue and read this scripture it was the beginning of the end for His life on this planet:

Isaiah 61 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

And so, in Luke 4:21, He shut the scroll and declared that HE, yes HE, was the very messiah.

Such a powerful testimony that He is our Savior.

And yet, He wasn’t just talking to THEM.  He is also talking to US!  He is the sovereign Lord for us!  In 2025 … we need to recognize and invite this.  THIS is what we need more than anything else.  We need Him to come and bind up the brokenhearted and fulfill every single thing that He is destined to do.

Think about what He wants!  It is mind boggling when you think about it.

He wants you to be a mighty warrior.

Judges 6 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

He wants to rewrite your story.

Hebrews 12 20 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author, and Perfecter of our Faith.

He wants you to have healthy thinking.

Proverbs 23 7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he

He wants you to WALK OUT your faith.

James 2 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? … 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

He wants you to have a faith that can move mountains.

Mark 11 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’

I am not sure what I think of all of this.  But I am in awe of the guy who willingly gave His life 2000 years ago … AND His word … AND this Holy Spirit that is putting tears in my eyes this morning … AND I am also in awe of this God, this Father, who watches from on high and loves me so much even though I don’t deserve it!

I think this Elevation Worship song sums it up, doesn’t it?

Lord Jesus, (as the lyrics say) “GIVE ME FAITH, to trust what YOU SAY, that YOU ARE GOOD, and YOUR LOVE IS GREAT”.

Jesus, Holy Spirit, Father God, I beg you:

Give Me Faith

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

0

523 Battle Cry Of The Ages

Sometimes what we do is not good enough.

Let me rephrase:  What We Do Will NEVER Be Good Enough.

We won’t measure up.

And to make things worse, we have an enemy who has been kicked out of the Kingdom who stands atop a hill and accuses us—day AND night.  He calls out our inequities, lies to us, and presents a case for why we should be condemned.

We are sitting ducks for Hell.

And yet … 

Matthew 28 5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

Acts 2 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 

God demonstrates His own love for us in this … While we were still sinners … Christ died for us.  (Romans 5:8)

And so we cry out to Jesus, submit to Him, and again look for what we can do … But as we look throughout scripture we find that we are not able to move forward without Him.  And our reality is that moving forward ONLY HAPPENS AS A RESULT OF HIM:

(Paul converts others FROM PRISON!!)  

Philippians 1 12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard …

(Paul is more effective ON THE RUN)  

2 Corinthians 11 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  25 Three times I was beaten … I was pelted with stones … three times … shipwrecked

… 26 … in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country …

(Moses simply receives instructions from God) 

Exodus 34 29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai … that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses … the skin of his face shone … 

(David is a sitting duck … but not with God)  

Psalm 23 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

(Joshua reduces an army and storms a fortress with words)  

Joshua 6 20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed … 21 They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it …

What we do does not always matter.

This is a hard pill to swallow … and the hope of nations.

God does what we cannot.

And sometimes … when we are our weakest, God is moving at His greatest clip.

So what can we do? … NOTHING—Other than bow down … worship … and proclaim His holy Name. Because shouting to the Lord might very well be … The Battle Cry For The Ages.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑