2 MINUTE WARNING

I can really claim to know nothing.

I am a man covered, even infected, with sin.

• When it is time to say the wrong thing, it comes out of my mouth before I can even think.
• When it is time to worship, I sometimes pout, consumed in my own futile existence.
• When it is time to encourage, I take a shot.
• When it is time to correct, I encourage.
• When it is time to cower, I am the first to hide in fear.
• I am also the first to (as Peter did) pull out the sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest.  I am the first to accuse, to lather someone in guilt, to judge.

And yet … in spite of all these things … I KNOW this with absolute certainty:

I love my wife with all of my heart.

I love my kids more than I could possibly love myself.

And I love my students at school—with all of my heart.

And I love all of them even when I am hard on them.

That LOVE that I feel for them is not my LOVE, it is God’s LOVE.

You see … God LOVES us.  And He doesn’t mess it up.  And He LOVES us in our weakest moment—unconditionally.  And without limit.

As I write this blog tonight, I can not help but think of the greatest verse in the Bible (besides all of the rest of them).

Ezekiel 37 ¹ The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.  ³ He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”  ⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!  ⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”  ⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.  ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.  ⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”  ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

When God wrote this verse through Ezekiel, He intended it for September of 2021.  And He wrote it for you … and for me.

No matter what is broken in your life … Or dead … Or stagnant … He can revive it.  And …

If it is lost, He can find it.

If it is wounded, He can heal it.

If it is doomed, He can save it.

God showed Ezekiel an army coming to life so that you might have hope.  

He showed Him in the spirit so that you might see it in the flesh.  

And He showed him a dead army so that you might breathe His LOVE on an individual, a town, or a nation.  

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

The Ten Commandments

Commandment 3

Exodus 20  And God spoke all these words, saying:  ² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage  …

⁷ “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

A name is a big deal to God.

Peter was The Rock

Paul means small and humble

Abraham means father of many

And the list could go on.

Today, I want to talk about Exodus 20:7.

As we look at the words defined, we see:

Take means Lift Up/Exalt

Name means Reputation

Vain means Worthless

So when we say:

⁷ “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

We could mean:

You shall not LIFT UP the REPUTATION of the Lord as WORTHLESS

I have heard many talk about the words we utter, the phrases that we say, and the things that come out of our mouths.

Today, I want to talk about the reputation of God.  And I want to do it from testimony.

• When I committed to give my dating relationships to the Lord … I met Angie.
• When I committed to God to meet with a man of another race at Promise Keepers, but then asked Him to provide, He gave me Eli.
• When the Lord told Angie and I NOT TO DECLARE bankruptcy but to face our debt, He gave us a plan to recover.
• When the Lord asked me to speak at my father’s funeral, He gave me the strength to do it and actually used it to minister to me.

As I write these lists, I shutter at the fact that I could go all day.

Our God is a miracle worker.

He didn’t just create us.

He didn’t just patiently watch us totally screw up our lives.

He didn’t just save, reteach, and restore.

And He didn’t stop by sending Jesus.

Our God watches us rise in the morning.  He watches us at our best … and He watches us at our worst.

He takes delight in us when we seek Him, and His angels rejoice when we worship Him.

He patiently teaches us when we totally destroy His plan with our cavalier free will decisions … and yet, He continues to offer us free will.

Our God is there in the sunset, and He is present in the hurricane.

Our God is there to give us strength in our brokenness and even carry us when we fall.

How can we even live one day without Him?

He saves us in the small things, and He saves us in the eternity.

He forgives us of our small mistakes, and He covers us from our hideous and ugly countenance.

He sends Jesus to meet us in our issues, and He sends Jesus to carry the sin of the world.

And even though we should no better, I think it is worthwhile for us to be told this commandment—again and again—until it is etched into our very souls.

You shall not LIFT UP the REPUTATION of the Lord as WORTHLESS

You shall not LIFT UP the REPUTATION of the Lord as WORTHLESS

You shall not LIFT UP the REPUTATION of the Lord as WORTHLESS

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

When Jesus showed up on earth 2000 years ago, He had a destiny.  He was destined to be King.  And because of what He did, we are destined to be heirs, sons and daughters, rulers, more than conquerors, leaders, overcomers …

We are destined to be the recipients of what He did.

But who will?

Luke 4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ² where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”  ⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”  ⁵ The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷ If you worship me, it will all be yours.”  ⁸ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”  ⁹ The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you

    to guard you carefully;

¹¹  they will lift you up in their hands,

    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

¹² Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

¹³ When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Who will walk into the destiny that Jesus fought so hard to give us?

Who will?  You will.

But understand this:

• The Enemy Will Always Tell Us To Take The Shortcut-  and we must understand that God’s will is NOT TO BE CUT SHORT.  For just like the man who trains to run the marathon, we must run the race consistently, with toughness, and with a total commitment.
• We Must Take Control Of Our Thoughts-  and as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, we must take every thought captive.
• No One But God Gets To Tell You Who You Are-  God created us, redeemed us, and walks with us.  He, and He alone, holds the keys to eternal life.  And as Philippians 3:20 says–we are citizens of heaven.

Do not waver in your pursuit of God.  

Do not half accept His sacrifice on the cross or the destiny that He set up for you.  

Do not put limitations on His plan for you.

Do not put shame over your mistakes or live in the times that you have fallen short.

Walk into, and accept, the plan that He has given for you.

It is the greatest decision that you will ever make.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Every time I drive by Mile High Stadium, I look at it.  And I think:  “Man, I want to go into that stadium and WIN a football game.”

That elusive state championship.

The Ten Commandments

Commandment 2

Exodus 20  And God spoke all these words:  ² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

³  …… 

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

I cannot deny that that state championship, or that state championship trophy, or the idea that we were champions —- are not idols for me.

Nor can I deny that I haven’t been drawn in on other levels.

Perhaps money.

Perhaps a house or a property or ownership.

Perhaps power, or reputation, or fame.

But all of these can be bundled up and put in the exact same category:  They are objects of worship.  They can be made, in our minds, into IDOLS.

Back to football:

Having pursued championships all of my life, I can distinctly remember what someone told me after winning one.  They said there is a violent celebration and then it doesn’t take long for a new thought:

“What do I do now?”

And isn’t that the question?  “What Do We Do Now?”

As I listened to the song I attached to this blog on Sunday and Monday and today, it is a firm and steady reminder of what we truly need.  And three of the lines draw me in and convict EVERY time I sing them to God:

“I searched the world, but it couldn’t fill me”

“But You came along and put me back together”

“NOTHING is better than You”

Let’s not lie to ourselves or to God.  When we are not in the Spirit we can make things bigger than they are.  And when we make them bigger than they are—they become IDOLS.

But there is a point here.  

• It isn’t to “live a life of DON’T”
• It isn’t to show that God has a bunch of rules that we have to follow.
• It isn’t to lather us in guilt or point us to the flesh.

The point is that we are not happy without the Lord.  We won’t find who we are or who we belong to.  

And if we don’t find and fight to belong to the Lord, we will be unfulfilled and broken.

We simply can’t make it without Him.

Ask His Spirit to fill you daily.

Fight to be in His presence.

Fight to forgive, to pray, to read His word.

Fight to give yourself a chance to be His son … or His daughter.

It is the only thing that truly matters.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

When Moses walked down the mountain with the ten commandments, God had one thing in mind.  Jesus.

The Ten Commandments

Commandment 1

Exodus 20 And God spoke all these words:  ² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  ³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

Before Moses could even walk into camp, the Israelites had broken the first covenant.

Exodus 32  ¹⁹ When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 

The Bible has a resounding theme.

• God forgives and restores.
• People are grateful.
• People forget, relax, and find a new god—which ultimately leads to ruin.

Left to human decision, there is no hope.

We are weak, and distracted, and terrified, and broken.  And we inflict our brokenness on others and break them.

How can we possibly follow even ONE of these commands, or even HALF of a command, or even momentarily FOLLOW what God has asked us to do?

We can’t.

Paul discovered this.

So did Peter.

So did Moses.

And so should all of us.

The covenant of the God of the universe was made with man.  But no man could meet it.

No man but Jesus.

In Jesus we have life.

In Jesus we have hope.

In Jesus we have a covenant that cannot and will not be broken.

As you take inventory of your life today, I want to encourage you.

Not to lather in guilt.

Not to be arrogant or prideful.

Not to have unforgiveness or a lack of gratitude.

I want to encourage you to ask Jesus to come into your heart and make things new.

I want to encourage you to ask His Spirit to come upon you and give you hope.

I want to encourage you to cry out to the Holy God and to, for one moment, to put NO OTHER GODs before you.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Several years ago I was witnessing to my Uncle about Jesus and he “dismissed” me by saying:  “I follow the ten commandments … and that should be good enough.”

Our conversations were not done after his attempt to change the subject.  In fact, the fact that he said that made me even more adamant about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with Him.

Exodus 20 is our first verse about Moses delivering the message to the Hebrew people:

The Ten Commandments

Exodus 20 And God spoke all these words:  ² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

And the commandments follow.  Read Exodus 20.  If not right now, then open it up later and read it.

Because today, I shall go no further than to say this:

When we are angry, murder lives in our heart and we break commandment 6.

When we are filled with lust, we break commandment 7 and commit adultery.

When we choose to rest by partying and vacationing and feeding our flesh, we are breaking the Sabbath and literally starving our very soul, breaking commandment 4.

When we are ungrateful and assuming that someone else has it easier or better than we do, we are coveting and breaking commandment 10.

When we are pursuing money … OR power … OR status —we are worshipping other gods and breaking commandment 1.

Need I go on?

My point is this.  We DON’T follow the 10 Commandments and, in many cases, we don’t even know what they are.

We are lying, lustful, unholy and ungrateful idol worshippers.  We are lost from the word go and utterly helpless to be found anything but guilty.

I think this is why Paul, after being converted by Jesus Himself, said:

Romans 3  ¹¹ “There is no one righteous, not even one;  there is no one who understands;  there is no one who seeks God.   …….. 

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

Our only hope is Jesus.  We have no hope without Him.

I told that to my Uncle and I will tell it to you.

We are bound for the pits of Hell without Jesus.

He, and He alone, holds the keys to eternal life.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

I have a belief that “in the Kingdom EVERYBODY wins”.  In my mind, this is common sense.

In a business deal, both walk away thinking that they got a great deal.

In a church, the pastor is honored and the congregation is blessed.

In a marriage, the couple both gives up all they have for the other—but BOTH feel that they have won.

Can this really be so?

In our world?  Rarely.  And yet—this has to be what God wants.  Isn’t this what God wants?

It seems like Jabez knew this.

1 Chronicles 4 ⁹ Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” ¹⁰ And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.

I carry this verse in this translation in my wallet.  And every time I put it out, I try to pray that my money would bless who I am paying.  That my account AND their account are both blessed.

Times can be hard and life can be hard.  People can struggle to pay bills.  Life can be a tough battle every day.

But God has a different plan.  His plan is to bless us—and we shouldn’t feel bad to ask Him to do just that.

But as we do that, we need to be praying it for others as well.  And we also need to pray that we are not hurting others.  That we, as we live our lives, are actually making the people around us better.

As I listened to this song by Chris Tomlin, it convicted me.

I am so blessed.  God loves me in spite of me.  And the same for you.

Let’s purpose today to be blessed beyond measure.

Let’s purpose today to ask God to enlarge our territory.

And let’s purpose today to be the Jesus that the world needs to see.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

My father was the King of the understatement.  When he said “good job” it usually meant “that was outstanding”.

I am not claiming that God is an understater, but I want to make mention of this important point as I write this blog today.

When God says, it is good—-it means INCREDIBLE or MIRACULOUS or OUT OF THIS WORLD.

So when God says “everything we need” we need consider what that truly means.

2 Peter 1 ³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Peter isn’t just writing this in some book.  He lived it.  His failure at the time of Jesus’ execution is well documented.  Bragging, anger, falling asleep during prayer, and then—–abandoning Jesus.

When Peter realized his mistakes and became REAL—God restored him and restored him immediately.

God doesn’t give freedom to those who are trapped and heading in the wrong direction.  But He gives freedom to those who turn to Him instantaneously.

What direction are you walking?

For some reason, we have the mindset written in our nature that God will take our freedom.  But God does not take our freedom—He gives it to us.  And He gives it to any who will take it.

Ezekiel 36 ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

We are bound by our own situations.  Trapped in our own worlds.  But God is about freedom.  He is about giving us a walking path back to Him.

It is the path to freedom.

Check it out in more detail in Romans 8.

Our walk with God is not about having the perfect life.  It is about seeing things as they truly are—in the Spirit.

Let go of what you can not keep in order to attain what you can not lose.

As I drove to work a few mornings ago, I think Jeremy Camp expressed this in a way that I never could.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_09jF1yK4z4

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Coach J

One of the greatest chapters in the Bible was written by a man who knew what freedom was.  

In a worldly sense, Saul of Tarsus had it all.  Educated.  Respected.  Roman citizenship.  Power.

And yet he dropped it into the trash after an encounter on his way into Syria.

When people make 180 degree turns in life—others take notice.

Some things never change.

And the thing that doesn’t change is this:

Freedom is in the gospel.  It isn’t in money, or power, or education.  Freedom is in Jesus.

Romans 8  ⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 

Paul isn’t just writing this in some book.  He lived it.  He was pursuing, and punishing, and persecuting, Christians.  To make himself feel free, he was attacking those who had found it.

But God doesn’t give freedom to those who are trapped and heading in the wrong direction.  He gives freedom to those who walk to Him.

What direction are you walking?

For some reason, we have the mindset written in our nature that God will take our freedom.  But God does not take our freedom—He gives it to us.  And He gives it to any who will take it.

Ezekiel 36 ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

We are bound by our own situations.  Trapped in our own worlds.  But God is about freedom.  He is about giving us a walking path back to Him.

It is the path to freedom.

Check it out.

Romans 8.

Our walk with God is not about having the perfect life.  It is about seeing things as they truly are—in the Spirit.

Let go of what you can not keep in order to attain what you can not lose.

As I drove to work this morning, I think Jeremy Camp expressed this in a way that I never could.

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