To the men who sat in the temple courts and robbed the innocent blind, Jesus was the enemy.  He had ruined their gig and called them out in front of everyone.

To the soldier, Jesus was a terrorist rebel, a man who could stir up the masses.  To the soldier, he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to confront Him.  His message … made sense.

To the religious leader, Jesus was ruining their position in the temple.  He was making people “think” and claiming that everyone was valued.  He was treating women as important and giving value to the lowest of the low.  He was exposing the religious leaders, and He knew what they were thinking.  Some of them questioned whether they were truly men of God or simply benefitting from their position …

To Jonah, Jesus was TOO compassionate.

Jonah 10 ¹ But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. ² He prayed to the LORD , “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. ³ Now, O LORD , take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

But the question today … is who is HE to YOU?

To me,

He is a marriage and family saver.

He tells me what I need to do, not what I want to do.

He is my only hope when I am down.

He is my ONE when I jump for joy.

When I wonder what everyone is saying about me, He reminds me what HE says about me.

In my darkest moments, He has showed up with power and rescued my soul.

I have seen Him heal.

I have seen Him redeem.

I have seen Him give life.

I invite you, this very day, to let Him be your everything.  To let Him truly come and know you and know every offensive way in you.

To let Him have what you are holding onto….

Because what you are holding onto is not worth anything without Him.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Ezekiel 37  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 from the four winds, O breath, 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.

There are two ways to read this and to understand it.

Some read this as an Old Testament scripture, as an old manuscript telling us a fairy tale from the past.  It is a poem, a religious text, a story that we can read to our kids that is slowly becoming less and less important.

But I don’t think this is what it is at all.

I think this scripture is wise beyond and beyond our comprehension.

In my area of the world, the mountains are on fire.

People are sick.

The lack of honor for people of high position is sometimes hard to understand.

We are knowledgeable, but wisdom is fading.

It is almost as if … we have forgotten about the very thing that we need  …

What I want to say today is this:

We have proof.

We have proof that we do not measure up and that we can not count on people to make things right.

We have proof that our very lives are fragile and that those around us, no matter how healthy, are fragile also.

We have proof that money will not buy us out of trouble, buy us into happiness, or buy us protection.

We have proof that man will jack things up, that governments will fail, that systems and processes meant to work (no matter how foolproof) will fail.

We have proof.

If you ever have sat and thought “why won’t this work?” then you know what I am talking about … and believe me, I have sat in frustration and openly spoken:  “Why won’t this work?”

The Bible says that we are fallen.

The Bible says that we are sinners.

The Bible says that we are “a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow” …. that we are “dust in the wind”.

It says that governments fail.

It says that the world will burn.

It says that the there will be plagues, and death.

But what else does it say?

It says that He … is the Alpha and the Omega.

That He … is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

That He … bore our sins on a cross that we might be saved.

That He … would restore what WE lose and put things back together.

Ezekiel saw what God could do.

He saw that He could give life to dead bones.

He saw that He could raise up an army from a graveyard.

He saw that He was the Lord of lords and King of kings.

I have said it before and I will say it again.

Jesus is not one of our answers.

He is The Answer.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

You are unable to do it on your own.

Why would I say that?

The answer is simple:  Because you are UNABLE to do it on your own.

You are a sitting duck for hell, born into death, and with no hope in front of you.

The reality is simple.  You are born BROKEN.

In the book of Romans, the man who spent his entire life getting “right” with God found that he was NOT RIGHT.  In fact, in trying to get right with God, he had become God’s enemy.  Paul later wrote:

Romans 3  ¹⁰ As it is written:

   “There is no one righteous, not even one;

Romans 3  ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

But, in the spirit of the impossible, you are given an OFFER.  And that offer is given in patience.  It is given in free will and choice.  You DON’T HAVE to accept it.

To me, this offer is unfathomable.  The King of the world WAITS outside of your door for YOU to invite Him to come in.  Imagine the most powerful man on earth WAITING for you.  Imagine the President positioning himself in a place where he could be available to you 24-7 but refusing to impose upon you.

Our God refuses to mess with our freedom to live.

Revelation 3  ²⁰ Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

What you do with that offer is totally and completely UP TO YOU.  You can reject it.  You can think about it.  You accept it—either now, or tomorrow, or whenever you want to.  But the offer is for you to accept.  It is a gift that only you can receive.  It is individual–for you and you alone.

If you choose to RECEIVE this offer, your eternity changes.  You become a new being.

John 1  ¹² Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– 

Psalm 139  ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

John 3  ⁵ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

If you choose to receive His offer, you are given a NEW LIFE.  And that life won’t be perfect.  But He asks for all of you.  ALL OF YOU.

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

This BORN acronym is not perfect.  And it isn’t perfect because you are not perfect.  You will mess it up, and misrepresent Him, and make Him look bad.  I am not sure why He chose you, because there is a great chance that you will tarnish His image and all that He has done.

But He chooses anyway?

What do you choose?

I encourage you to be BORN again.

BROKEN

OFFER

RECEIVE

NEW LIFE

Say the prayer with me:

“Jesus, I am broken.  And I am broken in a way that I can not be fixed.

But I invite You.  I need You.  I am unable to do it without You.

Come and know me.  Search my heart.  Wash a new life over me and change my heart.  Begin to change even my hopes and my dreams.  Put hope on me.  Give me purpose and a reason to live.

Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you—MAKE ME ONE of Your hired hands!

I receive You and all the good that is in you.

I leave my life of sin and will purpose to worship YOU, and YOU ALONE.

Give me a NEW LIFE, a NEW HEART, a NEW OUTLOOK, and a NEW FOCUS.  Put to death my olf self, and all the stuff that hung on to that.  And give me a new life.  Birth me into a new kingdom, into YOUR KINGDOM.  That I might worship You in Spirit and in Truth.

Amen.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Two days ago I called a friend.  He was not well.  He had Covid-19 and answered from his hospital room.  After a short conversation, some prayer, and some well wishes I left him to his battle in his quarantined room.

As I was driving, this song came on the radio:

See A Victory – Elevation Worship

I think God wants my friend to know this.

In fact, I think He wants all of us to know this.

When we deal with every day life, we are to “be the hammer”.  But the reality, I believe for all of us, is that we sometimes end up feeling “like the nail”.  And anyone who is honest about it knows that this is simply the reality that we all live in.  YES…we have days that God puts so much joy in us that we are simply overwhelmed.  But SOME days … SOME days we are in the eye of the storm—battling against what seems like insurmountable odds.  We are not to live in “the curse of Adam”, but the reality is that the world is drenched in it.  And when we truly spend our time with sleeves rolled up, there will be times where we will be worn out, exasperated, and sometimes even broken.

And so today, let’s get back to the simplicity of the gospel.

And let’s stay here as long as we need to in order for God to drench is in the FACT that He will win, He will reign, and He will save.

Mark 15 ³⁸ The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

Jesus died.  And the curtain that separated us from God was snapped like a twig.  There would be NOTHING that could separate us from God.  NOTHING.

The gospel is simple.  And it is the best deal we will ever get … which is I am shocked at how society has watered it down, and ignored it, and taken it for granted, and made it into something that it is not.

Jesus went to the cross willingly.

And He took on the sins of the world without hesitation.

And He faced the disloyalty of men He knew and men He trusted.

And when He hung in utter agony as they mocked His existence, He continued to minister … to His mother, to His friends, to the men who hung beside Him, and to the very Roman soldiers who beat Him.

This wasn’t an act of sacrifice with no reward.

The reward was our freedom.

The reward was so we could see victory.

Worship this very day.  Receive your victory.  It is none other than the One who took the nails for you.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

The following testimony is recalled to the best of my recollection.  Accurate in spirit, some of the details might be off by small amounts.

On July 19, 2008, I stood in the driveway of my wife’s dream home and sold her kitchen table and chairs for $20.  We were gutting our dream house because we knew that 3800 square feet of house stuff would not fit into a 1400 square foot townhouse.

Three days later, on her birthday, we moved out of our house and stuffed a garage full of stuff that we would never unpack.

We packed into the townhouse and begin to slowly dig our way out of over a million dollars debt.  Financially, we had nothing to show for it.  We were broke.  And broken.

Things were not easy.  But, with God, they were good.

And He absolutely used circumstances to teach us, to refine us, to draw us together.

In October of 2016 as I walked through the beautiful home that we now live in, my eyes filled with tears.

God had worked … no matter how foolish I had been—He had worked MANY things together for good.

I had been such a fool.  But God had been wise.

I had squandered all that He had given me.  But He found a way to restore what was lost.

I had been angry, and impatient, and quick to decide.  He had been merciful, and patient, and right on time.

God had shown me that He, not I, was the King of my Universe.

Not a universe that He lorded over me, but a universe with a King who would dare come and live the trials that I faced every day.

He … was the God of all creation.

Don’t be hasty to discount yourself.

Or quick to give up.

Or constrained by guilt.

Don’t lose hope because you messed up and now live in “the bed that you have made”.

Think about Rahab.

She was used by men.

Defiled.

Broken.

Without hope.

But God …..

What a cool phrase:  “But God … ” 

Usually when we use the word “but” it is followed by something negative:

“You did a great job, but …”

“I loved your song, but …”

“Great job on your paper, but …”

… and so on …

But when you use the phrase “but God” it is immediately followed by something encouraging, and hope-driven, and logic-defying.

Rahab was used by men, defiled, broken, and without hope … but God saw something He LOVED in her, and he decided to use her.

When God decides to use you, it is not at all like when people use you.

It is incredible.  And miraculous.  And beyond your sin, your talent, and your small vision.

And I would tell you today that He wants to use you.

That very phrase is scary because most of us have been, at one time or another, sold out or tricked or used in a way that made us feel emptied or without hope.

But God doesn’t want to use you to empty you.  He wants to use you to bless you.

And you should not be afraid.

Joshua 2 ¹ Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

God does everything with purpose.  In this text, He chose to use the names of the men who looked at the city as “the spies”, but goes ahead and uses Rahab’s name specifically.  Why?

I don’t know the answer.

There are many things that I do not know the answer to.

But I know the Answer.

And that Answer is Jesus Christ.

He is the One who pours mercy on us when we deserve judgement and punishment.

He is the One who takes the blame for the very things that WE DID.

He is the One who came to earth, stood on the hill, and defied the enemy and all of his evil plans.  In doing this, He would pay for His actions with His life.

I don’t know if any of this blog writing makes any sense at all tonight, but as I began to write, this song came on.  And I simply sat kneeled down on the sink and wrote this as a tribute to Him … and all the good that He has done.

I hope it brings Him honor.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

The greatest follower of God in scripture (besides all the others) had a theory.

He reasoned:  “How can I stop?”

And so he didn’t.

The ruling class surrounding Daniel could not stand him.  Why?  Because God got a hold of Daniel—and Daniel had found his only answer — and that was the Answer.

And so when they tried to bully Daniel out of his high position, he was not phased.  He was unwavering.

When His life was threatened if he dared pray to God … He went ahead and prayed.  After all, how could he stop?

Daniel 6 ¹⁰ Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. ¹¹ Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.

To read the rest of the story, go read Daniel 6.

But that is not the point here.

The point here is that Daniel knew who he was.

And Daniel knew what, and more importantly Who, he stood for.

Our God is irresistible.  He is amazing.  He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and is no respecter of men.

He won’t condemn you for failing, but he also isn’t going to look at your resume and say:  “Wow!  You have truly impressed me!”

No.

Our God has made a decision.

He has decided to join us.  To partner with us.  To walk with us.

And when Daniel found out that God would truly be his friend, for eternity, he pursued Him.

After all …

How Could He Stop?

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

What do we say when we hit rock bottom?

In a world where we are free to choose, we are certainly going to run into the issues that arise from bad choices.  

And so what do we do?

Who do we run to?

Job certainly had some wisdom.  In the midst of horrendous circumstances, he knew what to say:

Job 1 ²⁰ At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship ²¹ and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

and naked I will depart.

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;

may the name of the LORD be praised.”

But even Job found trouble finding good reason not to question God.  And he did.  And God answered Job in the clearest of terms:

Job 38  ¹ Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:

² “Who is this that darkens my counsel

with words without knowledge?

³ Brace yourself like a man; I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?  Tell me, if you understand.

⁵ Who marked off its dimensions?  Surely you know!  Who stretched a measuring line across it?

I have no intention to be an expert on Job, or any scripture for that matter.  I just want to make reference to our need to question God and what His response might be.

In a moment of sadness, I wrote the words:

“Why don’t you come down here and feel what it feels like to live in this world?”

And as I pondered my question, His answer was clear: He Did.  He Did come down to feel what it feels like.  He did come live in this world to experience the pains and frustrations and pain that we might face.  He did come down to face off with SATAN, and SIN, and DEATH.  And He markedly defeated ALL THREE in the face of disloyalty and discrimination and pain.

And so I ask you … who will you run to?

As I listened to this beautiful song by:  7eventh Time Down I thought of all the things that you and I face.  Life is not always easy.  Sometimes it feels like we are in a battle with Hope, a battle with Faith, a battle with Love.

I want to encourage you today, to seek WHO God is and NOT WHAT God is.

If we seek WHAT HE IS, we might not find ourselves in a place where we can leave our low situation.

But if we were to seek WHO HE IS, we just might get to see the beauty of WHO HE REALLY IS.

HE … is the One who stood in YOUR place and stood trial for sin.

HE … is the One who was taken to the desert and harrassed by the devil that He might defeat him for YOU.

HE … is the One who died that you might have victory over death.

And HE … is the One who told Paul:  “Why are you persecuting me?”

When Paul changed His mindset to WHO He would run to instead of WHAT He would run to, His life changed.  And it changed radically.

Because WHO He is … is so much more that WHAT He is.

When David cried out to God, it was an invitation:

Psalm 139 ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

I have often wondered if God does not come know us unless we invite Him.  Revelation 3 says that He stands at the door and knocks and only comes in if we invite Him.

So today … Invite Him.  Invite Him to know you, to search you, to find offensive ways in you.  To lead you in the way everlasting.

And as you do, you are setting the stage for WHO you will run to.

I’ll race you there.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Abraham had everything.  And yet, his faith had his perspective right where it needed to be.  He knew that without God—he had nothing.

And so he left a life of comfort in pursuit of a life that was utterly unknown.

He showed incredible faith.

We can learn a lot from this attitude.

You see … when we have God with us — it changes everything.  It fills us with hope, and love, and toughness.  He makes our lives truly rich—beyond our own desires.

And Abraham knew this.

He knew that God was going to give him the greatest thing he could ever want.

God was going to give him friendship.

We spend much of our lives toiling.  Accomplishing.  Conquering.  Acquiring.  But with all of those things we get their partners in crime:

Fearing.

Coveting.

Doubting.

And much more.

God has more for us.

He has life.

Not just for now.

But an even better one later.

I think sometimes we need to just stop.  And worship.  And bask in His glory.

So look forward.  And look up.  And find your place in eternity.

In the hands of the Mighty God. 

Hebrews 11 ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Stay away from trying to look perfect.

It is a recipe for destruction.

Do what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it, and for WHO you are supposed to do it.

David had obeyed his parents.

He had faithfully defended sheep from the most dangerous predators.

He had honored his dad and brought food to his brothers. 

David had defeated a giant.

But in the aftermath of his heroism, he had forgotten Who had brought him to the place of honor. 

2 Samuel 11  2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her  …

This was not one moment of weakness.

David should have been with his army, but he remained in Jerusalem.

He should have been looking to the heavens for all of his successes; but he took the credit.

And after adultery, murder, and dishonor … David paid an incredible price.  And so did those who were involved.

Stay away from trying to look perfect.

And ask God to do a good work in you.

Because He is faithful to do just that.

David writes a wonderful prayer to God after much pain.

Psalm 51 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

What a wonderful prayer.

And I leave you today with this to think about:

We can pray that prayer today …

Begging God to keep us on the right path

Or we can pray it later …

And beg Him to clean up the mess

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J