2 MINUTE WARNING

When Paul walked into Damascus to kill Christians and encountered Jesus–the transformation was immediate and it was  radical.  The man became a champion for the gospel of Jesus Christ and his past MOTIVATED him to redeem his future.  He had been playing for the WRONG TEAM and once he found Jesus He became exactly the opposite of who he was before the meeting.

So why should it be any different for any of us?

When we are in the flesh—we are playing for the wrong team.

When we are in the wrong mindset—our perspective of things is totally jacked up—-and it is jacked up because we are not putting our eyes on the right thing.

My word for you today is simple:  Get Your Eyes Up!  Because if your eyes are up, you will have a chance to see what the truth truly is…….

And when your eyes are down…….you can be a sitting duck for Hell.

Genesis 28:12 is a reference to a dream/vision of Jacob and we commonly refer to it as Jacob’s Ladder…….a picture of angels ascending and descending from heaven to earth on a stairway.

What makes it special is then when Jesus talks about it later:

John 1 51 He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Jesus is now at the beginning of His ministry and tells Nathanael and Philip that “He is Jacob’s Ladder”.

Jesus was a radical man—telling people He…..is the ladder into heaven, telling others that He…..is the Living Water, telling others that they must eat…..His flesh or have no part with Him…….No one understood and then……He rose from the dead…….and His followers became radical followers.  The Spirit transformed them…..and He can transform us…….

So today I tell you:  Get your eyes up.  Get your eyes up on the One…..who IS the ladder into heaven.  Get your eyes up away from your sin and all the things that you have done to wreck your life and maybe even the lives of others.  Get your eyes up away from all the things that are destroying us and begin to set your gaze on the King of the universe!

God has a plan….and He sent His Son who sold His life to buy us into righteousness and shed His blood to seal it.

Jesus died that we may have life and raise the standard of living……He gave us the power to be forgiven and redeemed and transformed.

So if you have been like Paul and playing for the WRONG TEAM, then maybe you need to have a meeting with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And if you have had your eyes down….then maybe it is time that you get your eyes UP—-and look at the Son of Man.  Because He is the Ladder….and on Him angels travel in and out of the heavens…….and in Him—we can capture eternal life and begin walking in it today.

He has called us all to a higher purpose.  So let’s start acting like the children of the Living God…..because, in Jesus, that is EXACTLY WHO WE ARE!

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

The gospel ultimately and repeatedly comes down to a principle that we can never repeat enough:  Forgiving someone who does not deserve it as a result of total and absolute unconditional LOVE.

And for those of us who have received that—-that we would never forget it and continue to walk in that lavished grace for all of our days—-repeatedly and unconditionally giving it to others.

If you are like me—you are in constant need of a reminder.

And so I remind you today what God is constantly telling me:

I Am Not Done With You Yet.

Romans 7 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Paul is asking the same question that I ask when faced with thr reality of my works in the flesh….and he gets the same answer that I get:  Jesus.

Jesus will rescue him and He will rescue me.

On his way to Damascus, in pursuit of those who loved Jesus, Paul found Jesus.  And when he found Jesus, he found life itself.

So today…..as I face up to my failures as a husband, as a parent, as a man……I can reintroduce myself to the gospel that saved me because Jesus saved me.  I can reintroduce myself to the reality of what Jesus is going to someday tell Satan.  He is going to tell him:  I have got him.  He is mine.  And I paid for his debt IN FULL.  And when I did it….I paid for ALL of it.

You see….if Jesus forgives any of our sins—He forgives all of our sins.

So as you face the reality of the fact that you are not good enough remember this:

The gospel ultimately and repeatedly comes down to a principle that we can never repeat enough:  Forgiving someone who does not deserve it as a result of total and absolute unconditional LOVE.  Jesus bought you at a great price…..and He is not done with you yet.

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

When you stand in two yards, you must never forget where to ground yourself……..

This word was on my heart as I drove across town several days ago and it has been hard for me to put it into words.

One of my friends calls “standing in two yards” duplicity.

But I think a more common use of the term would be:

Two Faced.

Being Two Faced is not what any of us wants to be called….and yet, it is probably inevitable—and that is why I wanted to address it.

The Bible makes it clear that we are aliens……and when I first read it I wondered why it would say that…….

I think that Jeremiah sums it up the best:

Jeremiah 17  9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?

How can this be?  I have often felt that the term:  Follow Your Heart….. was a great way to express to someone to pursue their passions and live out their dreams….

But the reality is that we must be keenly aware that our hearts can mislead us.  They can lead us into situations and places where we are sure to find pitfalls and traps…..

I am constantly asking Jesus to come into my heart that I might not be lead by my emotions or my selfish desires or my ingrained opinions (of which I have many)……

And I encourage you this day to do the same.

Step away from your political views and PRAY.

Step away from your cultural background and PRAY.

Step away from the way you “always do it” or the way your family always did it and PRAY.

We do not go and get delivered and saved by Jesus so that we can be the same……..We go and meet Him so we can be transformed into the people that He has called us to be.

And sometimes He does that INSTANTLY…..and sometimes He does it as we walk out our lives in humble submission to Him.

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

When you stand in two yards, you must never forget where to ground yourself.

Life is not easy.  We have many forces pulling us in many different directions and there never seems to be enough resources.

I know for me it comes down to running low on time, running low on money, or running low on energy.

For most of us, we simply will never have enough of any of those to truly do what our minds set out to do.

The enemy will continually try to draw our attention away from the ONE VERY THING that we must do.

I think this is what Jesus is talking about in Luke 17:

Luke 17  11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him–and he was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

How many of us have found Jesus and truly been freed from something…….and then we walk right back to the very place where we became sick—forgetting to RUN BACK AND FALL AT HIS FEET AND THANK HIM?

Jesus did not deliver us so that we could go back and forget who we are or where we came from….He delivered us so that we could live a life that is overflowing with gratitude and humility……

I urge you today to remember:  Who’s Your Daddy?

Remember the place where you used to live and the mindset you used to have…..

Are you like the other 90% in Jesus story?  Have you been washed or delivered or saved and wondered right back ‘out of the yard’ to the very life that crippled you?

Go back to the Lord and go to His feet.

As I have been grappling with this write up a song came on the radio and convicted me all the more…….

Casting Crowns:  Lifesong

“Empty hands held high

Such small sacrifice

When not joined with my life

I sing in vain tonight …. “

I think this is why Jesus mentions the “foreigner” and gives him favor…..

We are so locked in with who WE ARE and what we have given the Lord…….but our reality is that when we get in THAT mindset we must truly look at what we have given to the Lord.  NONE of us can say that we give Him, really, anything.  When we hold our hands high in worship—-it only means that we are giving Him what is in our hands……NOTHING.

The Bible says that we all fall short…..that none of us is worthy.

ALL of us are in dire need of Jesus.

ALL of us have nothing to offer the Lord beyond our hearts.

ALL of us are absolutely lost without Him.

So let’s carry that mindset with us into our lives.

Let’s carry that gratitude into our lives.

And let’s NEVER forget to return to the Savior every chance we get and throw ourselves at His feet in His honor.

Lord–

You are our Daddy.  You are our only hope.  You are the One who holds the keys to eternal life……….Lord, we are lost without You!

Lord, Yours is the Kingdom.  Yours is the Power.  Yours is the Glory.  Forever and ever and ever.

Amen.

https://youtu.be/U4OnZUfzlHU

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

I have often wondered what the final survey of my life will truly look like……..

If I were to be truly honest with myself, I would have to recognize that a lot of my life has been lived based on my circumstances.  When things have been great, I have been happy.  When they have gone poorly, I have been upset.  Much like a roller coaster ride, I have had ups and downs and in-betweens….when you live like this—-circumstances control your life.

I have also tried to change my circumstances by working and working and working…..putting a continuous effort into being better than my situation….outworking it.  In that world, my mentality was to let nothing hold me back—–my intent was to work my way into exactly the situation that I wanted……when you live like this—-work controls your life.

As I look at Luke 16, I think these two options are exactly what Jesus is talking about when He refers to beggar and digger.

Luke 16  1 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg–   

The beggar is in wait for someone to bail him out of his situation.  His outcome for the day is completely dependent on what OTHERS do in his world.  He lives life in a good place or he lives life in a place where he can blame others.  No one helped me do this…No one was there for me when this happened.  No one is kind.  It is a tough place to live.

The digger works his way through all things.  Constantly fighting and rarely “tuning his tools”.  Nothing can stop him from succeeding because he will work until he finds it.  He lives in a place of slavery—and he is, in fact, a slave to himself.  It is……also……a tough place to live.

What could possibly be the other option?

It is to be a steward.  A steward is appointed to look after someone else’s property.  And what he does with that property will be someday called to account.  He will report to the owner on not only what he did do….but what he didn’t do……

Imagine telling the owner of a property that it was actually his fault that you ran down the value and broke his equipment.  Imagine telling him that the value of his estate has gone down while he was gone and that it is, in fact, his fault.

It would be equally unwise to tell him that you had done EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER to hold things together—-but that it was still worth nothing.  That his million dollar estate was now worth …… $12,000.  To stand before him and say that you worked yourself to the bone to please him is simply patronizing…….the owner would not buy that either.

But what if you lived the way Jesus suggests?

What if you actually let go and truly became a STEWARD of what He has given you.

Throughout scripture Jesus says things like:  

• He who wants to keep His life must lose it
• He who is last will be first
• In order to have a part with me you must eat my flesh and drink my blood
• I am the way and the truth and the life

Our reality is that we simply can not manage the estate that is given to us.  Nor will we be able to blame others for the condition of our property should we choose to do it that way.  And not only so—-we would never dare stand before the living God and convince Him that we were able to do it all ourselves.  That our resume is somehow good enough to impress Him and make Him super proud of us.

And so Jesus gives us a third option.  And that option is to let go of all of it and start living like it is a gift.

Our life is not ours to have in the first place.

Our spouse was given to us by God and He asks us to care for them as His representative.

Our job is an opportunity to bring His Kingdom to others.

Our money is to be used to show others that He loves them to.

In fact, as you look at that above paragraph, we need to take all of those words OUR and replace them with HIS.  He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and He owns our lives.  He has given us so much to keep track of and instead of asking for me….we need to ask Him how to better manage what He has so graciously given us.

So today I want to challenge you……

Do you want to be a beggar…..constantly looking for someone else to blame and begging for someone to come and change your position so that you can find happiness?

Do you want to be a digger…….working your way to the top so that you can get denied and then work harder to make your way to the top.  Digging from dusk to dawn with all the effort under the sun?

Or do you want to be steward…..A son of the greatest Daddy you could ever want.  Blessed and forgiven and hopeful……..free and loving and gifted……..grateful and energetic and alive……..

I don’t know the answers to all the questions…..I just know that ANSWER.

I don’t understand all of the mysteries of His word…..I just know that His Word comes alive in my life.

I don’t know the right thing to do even in my next moment…..I just know that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and that the earth is His footstool.

So I am casting my lot this very day with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

For He……..is the only hope I have.

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

I was intrigued by a show on TV called Undercover Boss….A company owner would go “in disguise” and see what was truly happening at his businesses when people thought that no one was watching…..

In some cases, people would be fired.  In other cases, people would be reprimanded.  But more often than I might have thought, the boss caught his employees being loyal, hard-working, and even incredible.

On one particular episode, the boss discovered the awful conditions that he truly put an employee into each and every day….and he was shocked that the employee worked incredibly hard to do exactly what was required of him.

In many of the shows, the employees told the “undercover boss” how hard it truly was to work in his very company.

Many of us experience this.  We are sometimes put in hard situations and wonder if our superiors truly know what they are putting us through.

It is at this point that I bring up the incredible story of the gospel….

And the reality that someday we are going to stand before a perfect God and give an account.

On that fateful day….we will be able to say a lot of things.

We will be able to say that life was tough.

We will be able to say that the temptations we crumbled to were very hard to avoid.

We will be able to say that we really tried.

But here is what we won’t be able to say:

• We won’t be able to say to Him that He doesn’t know what it’s like to be in our shoes.
• We won’t be able to say that He put us in conditions that no one could have handled.
• We won’t be able to say that He had no idea what we had to go through.

Born illegitimate, His father married His mom only after a radical encounter with an angel.

Before He could even speak, a powerful boss put a hit on Him.  Slaughtering kids His age in an attempt to wipe away His very existence.

As He grew, He would be the subject of being an unimportant peasant trying to succeed under a governmental rule that would intimidate, bully, and execute anyone who would even question their policies.  He would also be the subject of a religious hierarchy where He would never be respected due to His race, His status, and His career.

In spite of this, He would find favor.  He would convict and deliver.  He would heal and redeem.  He would flourish and be wise beyond His years.

Though He would have no political power, no money, and no military influence…He would somehow find a way to challenge unjust authority, to provide for those in need, and to influence powerful leaders.  He actually had rapport with many…..and those who challenged Him were humiliated and rebuked…..

And yet…..in spite of all of this……He would arrive unrecognized among a people who should have seen Him coming.  He would be betrayed, denied, and abandoned by the very people He had saved.  He would be given one of the most unfair trials a person could face, beaten within an inch of His life before anyone even could find He had done wrong, and sentenced to execution in order to free a political insurgent due to the fear of a man who wanted to get through an ugly situation without any incident.

And so…..He was mocked, beaten, and executed between two thieves in about the most gruesome way that you could kill someone.

And why on earth did He do that?  I will tell you why….He was doing it because He was the best leader of all time.

When Pilate was not even taking responsibility for himself, Jesus was taking responsibility for ALL OF US.

When Pilate was afraid of what things looked like, Jesus was staring fear in the face and standing up to the most incredible evil the world has ever known KNOWING THAT HE WAS GOING TO LOSE THE FIGHT.

When Pilate was asking “what is truth?”, Jesus was being THE TRUTH.

When Pilate was being arrogant, Jesus was being HUMBLE.

When Pilate was worrying about what others would think, Jesus was only worrying about what ONE PERSON WOULD THINK:

YOU.

And that’s because You were the very intent of the cross.  He wanted to come down and show you that He knows what it is like to be here.  He knows what it is like to have pain and betrayal and a lack of recognition.  He knows what it is like to be poor, to be illegitimate, to be in the wrong clique.  He knows what is like to be betrayed and abandoned and doubted.

So take your chances with what you might want to say then when you face Him if you want to….because He has given you the freedom to do WHATEVER YOU WANT.

But I choose LIFE.

I CHOOSE TRUTH.

I CHOOSE THE KINGDOM AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, THE KING OF THE KINGDOM.

HE IS THE LORD OF LORDS AND THE KING OF KINGS.

THE EARTH IS HIS FOOTSTOOL AND EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Pontius Pilate is our next topic representative for leadership.

But that being said—we are going to reference him in a “what NOT to do” type of way.

For our discussion today, we will be using the passages from various scriptures from John 18-19.

Again, I encourage you to READ IT!  I am not a religious scholar or an expert—-just a guy who loves Jesus and has opinions on what he reads.

John 18

29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” 30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.” 31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” 32 “But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.  33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” 34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”  35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” 37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.  Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” 38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him……

John 19

6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”  But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” 7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” ……. 12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” ….. 16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

So what can we learn from Pilate?  Here is why I believe that Pilate failed as a leader:

• He Had No Moral Compass.  In his first conversation with Jesus Pilate asks:  What Is Truth?  This is the question that many people now ask.  And to be honest, we have lost our desire to have the TRUTH.  But the TRUTH is everything.  And it should dictate what we believe, what we do, and how we control our mindset.
• The Popular Belief Swayed His Opinion.  In these two chapters Pilate repeatedly says:  “I Find No Basis For Charges Against This Man” and yet….He gets crucified.  Evil will grow in our world if people are not willing to stand up to evil before it gets out of control (Think:  Adolf Hitler).  Today’s world seems to attack peace-loving citizens rather than truly defending acts of hideous intention.
• He Acted In Fear.  The enemy’s number one tactic against all of us seems to be to convince us that we can not survive if we stand up.  Pilate actually set a man free who caused a rebellion because he feared….a rebellion.  Fear makes us make irrational decisions…..and there is a reason that God tells us 365 times  “Do Not Be Afraid” in the Bible.
• He Acted In Arrogance.  Do You Refuse To Talk To Me?  How often do we think that we are actually more important than we are….nothing ruins a great team like one of it’s members thinking he or she is irreplaceable.
• He Tried Not To Take Responsibility.  Pilate “washed his hands” of the very thing that he was in charge of.

I hesitate to stop this writing here…..because without the Jesus part of leadership this is incomplete.  But the bottom line is this:

All of us need to take a big look inside and rid ourselves of the character traits that lead to bad leadership…..

Because the world needs all of us to be a lot more like Jesus and a lot less like Pilate.

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

I am a Bronco fan and the Broncos did something on March 12, 2014 that made me very excited.

They signed one of the best football players in the history of the NFL—DeMarcus Ware.  I was a great fan of his—-and it was not because of his talent.  It was because of his character.  He played through pain.  He was unselfish.  He was a first-class individual in all that I had observed about him.

Those beliefs of mine were verified when I had a chance to visit the Broncos facility, meet coaches and players, and watch a practice.  When we entered the weight room, he was in there rehabilitating an injury.  After finishing two sets of his exercise as we were walking through, he came over to say hi to us.  He introduced himself to all of us and then voluntarily took pictures and talked to both me and my players.

As we walked away, the guy who was giving us the tour told me:  “He is that nice ALL THE TIME.”

It did not stop there.  DeMarcus was a great teammate…..and I looked into stories of how he personally invested in the other guys to push them to be better—-not only as players—-but as people.  The team that won Super Bowl 50 was a great TEAM….and I know that one of the reasons that the Broncos were a great team was because they had great leadership.  The story is told that he gave the pre-game speech the night before that big game—-and that it was an incredible motivational talk….and that the Broncos—coaches, players, and staff—-all wanted to win the championship for him.

How did he have so many who wanted to do it for him?

I believe it was because of Jesus.  I had heard that DeMarcus was a follower and that He walked out his faith.  And when Jesus gets a hold of someone, they are never the same.

You see, Jesus gives us the best leadership manual we could ever use….and that’s the Bible.  And His life is testimony to how you lead….

Let’s start with His talk to the disciples in Mark:

Mark 10

42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus was a team player.  And when He lead, He was all in.  And He was all in on this very principle:  Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all…..  

Jesus put His money where His mouth was not too long after this…..taking responsibility for all man’s sins and calling His people home.

The rise of Christianity in Jerusalem could not come from one man with no political or military power–and Jesus knew this.  So He put it all on the line and did it for us.

After His great actions of love—–His disciples grew and moved in ways never seen in history.  A new faith started.  And it started because the men who knew Him became radical followers and summoned His Spirit to come on them and all who met with them.

Do you want to be a great leader?

Then be a servant.  Be a slave of all.  Be the person who goes first to do the things that no one wants to do.

Ask God to put something in you that can show the world how much you truly love them.

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

A friend of mine who is a doctor said something when we were talking at a party that instantly caught my attention.  He was explaining something about the human body in great detail and then went on to say that some things could only be explained by the “God factor”…..that they were “infinitely” complicated.  

I have often thought about this very principle…..just the idea that we, in society, sometimes claim to know much more that what we really know.

The reality is…..the MORE we know about things—the more we realize how inadequate we truly are.

Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute and probably even kill people who were firing up a movement….and that movement was centered around a man named Jesus Christ.  In the middle of his journey—God showed up.  And when God shows up—our worlds get turned upside down.

And so Paul became the very thing that he was hunting……….  He became a champion for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What strikes me is not what he took on…..but what he gave up.

He gave up years of education.

He gave up elite status.

He gave up privileges that he could enjoy as a citizen.

He gave up a wealthy lifestyle.

He gave up a life of comfort to live a life of purpose.

He tossed his life, as he knew it, in the trash and became a mouthpiece to tell the world about Jesus.

And in his writings in Romans, he casts out a warning to all of us about thinking that we have it all figured out….

Romans 1

22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles…….. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.

Paul is issuing a warning…and it is a warning not only to a specific issue….but to the idea that we all, if we are not careful, can blend in with our culture rather than be salt and light in a dark world.  I have thought about this very principal a lot:

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of God for a lie…..

How many times have I thought that I knew it all and exchanged a God-given truth for something that simply was not true?

Paul was living that lie….As he walked to Damascus he was strongly convicted that he was serving God by getting rid of the Jesus-followers……but the journey did not end the way that it started.  Paul became a converted, radical, Jesus follower……

What if we all need that type of conversion and transformation?

What if Jesus has a greater plan for us than what we ever thought He could do?

What if we have listened, in some area, to the lies of the world….and professed to be wise only to find out we had exchanged the glory of God for a lie?

God’s Word is so rich.

His impact on our life is so powerful.

His saving grace is so unmistakable.

What if He got a hold of all of us the way that He did Paul?

I would have to think that the world would be radically different!  Please join me in striving to pursue a Savior who loves us too much to leave us the way we are!

Lord, come right now.  Come and meet with us and come and transform us.

If there are roots of worldly things that have been planted in us that are not true and do not belong….then rid us of those things.  If there are mindsets or spiritual lies or family curses that have disallowed us from seeing the truth….rid us of them right now in the Name of Jesus.  Father….do not allow darkness to sway us from light.  Show us the way and convict us in it through Your Word, through our prayers, and through our Godly friendships.  Let no incorrect or false teaching sway us away from connecting to you in mighty and miraculous ways.

You….and You alone….Hold 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