2 MINUTE WARNING

Paul found Jesus on the road to Damascus in an incredible encounter.  Paul had everything—–he was prestigious, educated, powerful, and respected in the Jewish community while enjoying the privilege of being a Roman citizen.  He was going to Damascus with one thing in mind:  To kill or imprison the followers of Jesus Christ.

But then something radical happened.  Paul found, AND RECEIVED, Jesus.  From that moment on………Paul made a radical change.  He gave up all that he had and became a radical follower of Jesus.

My experience was not the same.  I grew up in the church and I loved Christians and I loved the Christian faith—-I just didn’t always follow it.

For those of us who grew up “Christian” but didn’t find Jesus until later, we should take heed of Paul’s God-breathed words to the town of followers he was writing to:

Galatians 3   1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?

How easy it is to fall into Religion.  Many people tell me:  You are Religious.  I always correct them…..I am NOT RELIGIOUS (at least I hope), but a follower of Jesus.

This verse should serve as a warning for us all:  many of us do not have a great testimony of sin prior to RECEIVING Him.  And because of that, we can often fall back into who we were before…….Religious Hypocrites.

Hypocrite comes from the word:  Stage or Play Actor.  In other words, Jesus called the Pharisees Stage/Play Actors…..Putting on the appearance of virtue or religion.

We never would want the world to see us as saved because we act right.  What we want them to see us is humbled before the Lord because we are saved by grace.

Our message can’t be about our resume.

It can’t be about our great works for the Lord.

It can’t be about how holy or how virtuous we are.

We must be willing to be vulnerable.

I am not sure how else to say it, so here goes:

• Without Jesus, my life would be a wreck.
  • Without Jesus, my marriage would be in shambles.
  • Without Jesus, my finances would be a disaster; He put them together in a slow process starting in 2007.
• Without Jesus, I have no chance in heaven.
• Without Him….we have NOTHING to offer.

The prophet Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 64:6  All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

What?

Yes….he means menstrual rags…..OUR GOOD WORKS ARE LIKE FILTHY RAGS TO GOD.

Lord have mercy on my soul.  I am Yours….and Yours alone…..without YOU….I am NOTHING!

All of us….if we are not constantly seeking His face….are capable of falling back into the corruption that we see each and every day—–and we do it:

When we think we can be holy by following all of the rules.

Repent.  Receive Him.  And Remember WHO YOUR DADDY IS!

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

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Coach J

When my nephew was born, my brother and sister named him Ezekiel–a great Biblical name that I loved…..but I realized that I did not know that much about Ezekiel’s writing—-so I read it and began to read it and speak it over his “Zeke”’s life.

A verse that struck me when I read it was:

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.

At the time, I was just reading a verse in a book and thinking about my nephew…..But reflecting today—-God has put this very thing in my nephew.  He competes with HEART……And, in fact, from the time he was very small….he has been incredibly competitive….

• He HATES to lose
• He always competes at an incredibly high level
• He returns to the “game” to get better daily

Whether it is pole vault or wrestling or football …. or checkers…… He is a competitor who hates to lose and strives to win.

All of us value heart in sports.  It is something that is important to us as we watch or coach or compete.  And we soon realize that as we look for heart

In sports:

• It is impossible to measure heart…..but you can see it.
• It is impossible to see the actual amount of heart a player plays with…..but you can see it.
• It is impossible to compare, between players, who plays with more heart…..but you can see it.

For the last three weeks, I have gotten out of bed and it has been a common theme for me to ask the Lord to soften my heart……In the grind of life, I find myself sometimes becoming hard-hearted.  How do I know that?  I can see it…..and inside my head—I can see it.

The Lord has the answers for us….and as I have said before—He has the answers because He is the Answer:

If you are like me…..and you wander “out of the Spirit” then I encourage you to cry out for the same thing in accordance with Ezekiel 36:6:

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.

Ask Him to come and restore and rejuvenate and replenish……Because the Lord’s Word trumps the world 100% of the time……and He will……

Lord~

Come right now …. And put a new heart in me.  Restore me and convict me.  Put compassion in me and put love in me.  Take my iniquities and cast them away that I might have a heart like Yours!  Help me to be who You have called me to be!

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

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Coach J

No one clashed with religion and religious leaders more than Jesus Christ…..and He beat them so decisively in their arguments that they decided that they had to kill Him.

And kill Him they did.  In a brutal murder of an innocent man, they hung Him on a cross between two thieves and humiliated Him in front of all that would come to see…..even some of His friends and family.  The rest of His friends had run off and hid in order to save themselves.

And all of that conflict was rooted in one issue:

What Was The TRUTH?

The pharisees spent all of their time looking for PROOF to convict….and Jesus spent His time loving people in TRUTH.

I heard something in a movie once that convicted me from the moment that I heard it:

In the movie A Few Good Men, lawyer Tom Cruise says to his partner:  “It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what we can prove!”

Isn’t that the world today……the TRUTH does not matter—-only what we CAN PROVE.

I’m not on that train……that repulses me.  And anyone who has been on the side of TRUTH and seen it get crumpled up and thrown in the trash like it did not matter is repulsed by that also.

I think that’s why Jesus said:

John 14:6   Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

You see the world may say:  the TRUTH does not matter—-only what we CAN PROVE.

But Jesus says just the opposite:  What you can prove does not matter—the only thing that matters is the TRUTH.

So if you are struggling with the way things are done….with the way that life is going…..with the actions of your school or your company or your boss or your friend….Just remember:  we live in a world that simply crumbles when the TRUTH is really discovered.  Think about it:  Are we corrupt because of the corruption?……or is there corruption because we are corrupt?

We will never escape the reality that we need a Savior.  We simply can’t stand up under the reality that we are broken.  

And that’s the TRUTH.

Jesus is the only way.

No backup plan.  No exit strategy.  No other path.

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

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Coach J

On the very first play of my college career, I was on the kickoff coverage team at the University of Northern Colorado and we were playing in our first home game.  I had never been a “darter” on a kickoff team as I was usually the safety on our kickoff coverage in high school……

Sometimes a little experience really helps……..

At a full tilt sprint to get to the ball I found myself in a train wreck.  I saw a quick speck of a blue helmet out of my left eye and the next thing I knew I was on the ground.  In football terms—-we say a guy gets “ear-holed” when he is hit from the blind side….possibly because of the fact that he is looking out the ear hole of the helmet as he lays on the ground.

I got “ear-holed”.

One of the things I love about the game of football is the accountability piece…..you don’t always win, you don’t always make the tackle, you don’t always win the hits.

The game requires that you get up after getting knocked down.  You can’t play if you aren’t willing to get up and get back in the fight.

And so, on that day in that play, I had to get up after getting drilled.

But that was not the end of it.

The real pain came on Sunday night in Butler-Hancock Hall.  You see, that was when we all (all of the team and coaches) got to watch it as we reviewed game film.

As one of my assistants always says:  “The Eye In The Sky Don’t Lie”

Watching me get knocked down looked a lot worse than I thought it would.  And I had to explain to my coach, in front of my team, why I was not paying attention and doing my job……

It was humiliating.

When I connect what happened that day to this verse:

2 Corinthians 5:10   For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

I am terrified.

And after coaching for many seasons, I have come to know several things:

• We never think we look as bad as it looks on film.
• Our mistakes, when viewed from above, are magnified.
• When someone else looks at our dirt, it is humiliating.

Now…think about those three things on the spiritual level.

And so here we are…..in front of the Lord…….appearing before the Judgment Seat of Christ…..facing the one man in the universe who NEVER sinned.

He was born into the world illegitimate, ignored, mistreated, and accused.

And when He couldn’t be tempted or discouraged or controlled….

They cheated Him and beat Him and accused Him and mocked Him and spit on Him and nailed Him to a cross between two thieves…..

And He still……did not sin.

And so when I stand before Him and let Him “watch my film”—I am terrified.

But that’s the bad news…..Here is the good news:

We can actually be forgiven.  Not kind of forgiven.  Not overlooked.  But welcomed with open arms AS IF WE HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG.

So welcome to the place where the God of the Universe gives you the opportunity to choose your own adventure….you have freedom.  You can choose to stand before that judgment seat and tell Him that it didn’t look THAT BAD.  (Good luck)

Or you can bow down before Him and receive His free gift of grace.

I choose Jesus…….I choose the one who took the nails and auctioned off His own life that I might get a second chance.

And I do it……..every single day I get out of bed.

Please join me in pursuing the greatest prize the world has ever seen……The God of Grace!

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

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Coach J

I made the correction on 29 The Destiny Of Man…..it should have been Psalm 139…….Sorry!

A good friend of mine pulled three consecutive all-nighters finishing a project at work.  The work was done on time, under great pressure, and for his extra effort his bosses were very happy with him.

Six weeks later, when another project was in need of completion……he noticed something…..His superiors had now come to expect him to do “whatever it took” to finish the job.  He was expected now to do the very same thing again.

“What have you done for me lately?” is the sign of the times, and we see it in every arena.

I identify with what David was experiencing in 1 Samuel:

1 Samuel 30  6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.

How disloyal can people be?  David had done so much……and now he was worrying about being stoned by the people who he had so valiantly lead.

But the key verse in this is the last sentence:  “But David found strength in the Lord his God.”

We live in a world without loyalty.

That is why it is at the top of my list when looking at others and how close they are to me:  Where do they stand when I am at my worst?

My wife is at her best when I am down.  So are my best friends.  So are my children.  What a blessing it is to have family and friends that have your back……

But more important is that verse:  “But David found strength in the Lord his God.”

Can you find strength in the Lord your God?

I encourage you to seek Him as your first option.

He is the strength and the wisdom you need.

His hand is the one that can steady you.

His anointing will help you make the right decisions and say the right things.

His love is your fuel to help others.

I think Philippians 4:13 says it best:

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

So when you run into setbacks and discouragements…..find your strength in the only source that can never let you down.  

Put your hope in Him.

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

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Coach J

I was watching a show on Netflix and the biologist who was following the salmon run said:  “Imagine living out the purpose of your existence perfectly?”

Salmon have it figured out.  They are born in the protective gravel of a river bed, eat the sack they are born in in order to survive in the protection of the rocks, grow slowly as they lose their camouflage, and migrate to the ocean when they are large enough to fend for themselves.  Their life-cycle is, like many animals, miraculous.

Think about it…..these salmon survive in the gravel bottom of a river, grow, change camoflage, change their systems so that they can survive in salt water, migrate to the ocean, grow for 3-4 years, develop the ability to reproduce, and then…….migrate 900 miles and climb 7000 feet so they can reproduce.

How do they know where to go?

How is it that their body changes to live in saltwater and their mind knows to swim to the ocean?

How do they know what to do AFTER they mature to be ready to reproduce?

They are, to put it simply, designed to thrive and survive.

So are we.…..whether we believe it or not.

Psalm 139  14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

I encourage you to read the entire chapter–Psalm 139.  God tells us who we are….and how we are to relate to him.  The salmon already know……and so should we.  For today, let’s just focus on knowing that we are

• Fearfully and wonderfully made
• Built to worship and take awe in the God that designed us
• Designed to live out our existence in a miraculous way

Looking at salmon….I am utterly amazed.  Their lives, as individuals and as a species, are incredible.  Their ability to adapt.  Their ability to know what to do.  Their tenacity and effort in returning to their birthplace….the entire life cycle is incredible.

And so it is with us.

Just like the salmon, we have been given the ability to adapt….our eyes refocus and see.  Our minds can learn.  Our hearts beat harder when we work harder and slow down when we rest.  Just like the salmon, we have an incredible spirit within us that fights and strives.

But ultimately the similarities stop.  Unlike the salmon, we have an inner sense that seems to know right from wrong.  Unlike the salmon, man has fallen out of his nature and lost his way.  We have NOT lived out the purpose of our existence perfectly…..we have failed.

Enter Jesus.  The perfecter of our lives and the author of our story.

2000 years ago He made the migration to earth, carried out His assignment perfectly, and migrated that great distance so that we could be born into the Kingdom.

Where we fall short in our purpose, He fulfills it perfectly.

In Him…….we get to be the miracle.

Do not underestimate the power of God working through the hearts of people.  God put something inside of us that sets us apart from His creation.  For we are fearfully and wonderfully made…..what we see in the creation can not measure up to what has the chance to grow within us.

Because with Jesus—we have a chance to change not only our destiny…but to plant that seed in others.

Father, ignite in me the fire that you destined to be in the hearts of all men.  Let me be a servant to Your Kingdom.  Thy Kingdom come.  Thy Will be done.  On earth as it is in Heaven.

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

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Coach J

3On the floor in the shower of my high school locker room I sat on the floor and began to become filled with the one thing that I could not afford to have:  FEAR.

I am not sure exactly what I was afraid of……but the feeling had consumed me to the core.  Back then, not many people knew what a torn ACL and torn meniscus even meant–so I was the kid who was limping in practice and in games trying to finish the season for my hero who was my coach–my dad.  And because I did not understand the severity of my injury, the only thing I knew was my knee hurt so bad that I was not sure I could finish the playoff game……I simply knew that I would never measure up….that I was a failure….that I should have been ashamed of myself and my colossal failure as a football player, a man, and as a son.

The enemy will always appear and do his best work when we are about to do something important.  It is hard to fathom, but his greatest work is done in trying to prevent us from trying to do something that might bring us joy or exhileration or success.

I thank God for our wrestling coach at that time……he walked into the locker room and saw me…..and offered me something I had not truly done before anything important:  PRAYER.

In my desperate state I accepted and we walked outside.

He took me in his arms and began to cry out to the Lord….and, to be honest, I do not know exactly what words proceeded to come from his mouth—but I will NEVER FORGET what happened in that moment:

• Fear, Shame, and Failure all left me instantaneously
• A feeling of love came over me that I will not ever be able to describe….and with it came hope and anticipation
• I was ready to play a football game

I had always testified before that moment that “God did not care about who won football games”.  But since that moment I have learned something different and that is:  never start ANY sentence with GOD DOES NOT CARE….

GOD CARES.  He cares about you and He cares about your hopes and dreams.  He cares about your life and He cares about your day.  He cares about the big things….and He cares about the little things.

He cares.

If you have ever had a dream or an aspiration or a hope….He cares about it.  And He wants to walk with you as you dream big and walk through this life with Him.

As you walk through your day and deal with what you deal with…..remember that He came down.  He came down here to walk this path—not as a King—but as a nobody.  And He was treated as such.  He did that so that when you look to the sky and proclaim “why?” you can be doing it to a God who has walked in your shoes.

On this day–I encourage you–to ask Him into your world.  Invite Him to come and be with you as you walk and face what we all face….the fear of failure.

I can testify that not only did He come 2000 years ago and die on a cross…..He came 30 years ago and walked out to a football field with me……and I walked that day and for four games—with HOPE and LOVE and COURAGE and FEARLESSNESS.  God put LIFE on me and in me.  And I love Him with all that I am.

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

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Coach J

When someone has the option to retreat, it is often an easy choice.  In 1519, as the Conquistadores made their way into Veracruz, Captain Hernan Cortes knew this.  There is a story that Cortes, in front of his men, burned the ships because he did not want his men to have an exit strategy, a backup plan, an easy way to retreat…….  (The reality is that Cortes did SINK a couple of ships and execute a couple of men to keep his men from defecting to Cuba….that he actually sunk the ships rather than burn them)

I still, however, have enjoyed the idea of this concept:  Burn The Ships.  This is because there are times when the worst thing that we can have is a backup plan.

The followers of Jesus, as He approached the cross, had a backup plan.

They were afraid.

They ran.

They betrayed.

They denied.

They doubted.

And when it came time to stand up….they disappeared.

We all have this very option….to simply retreat.

And all of us do it.

No, it might not be blatant like actually abandoning the Son of God in His hour of greatest need….but we do it…..and, we all know it.

So what happened to those followers not too long after that?

They went from afraid to absolutely bold………..and as a result a new FAITH was born 2000 years ago…..and it was different than anything the world had ever seen.

• This FAITH inspired religious people to get rid of their rituals and traditions and things that they had been doing WITHOUT failure for thousands of years.
• This FAITH crossed cultural, political, ethnic, and every other kind of man-made boundary imaginable.  People who had previously HATED each other began to come together and work together.
• This FAITH included women.  In fact, the story of Jesus’ resurrection was based on the testimony of two women……which at that time that was not even permissible in court.

This FAITH only depended on one thing:  The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and His establishment of the scriptures before Him……the world would never be the same again.

This FAITH was also based on Burning The Ships.

Men died to get us these scriptures.

And one of the men who wrote them (Paul) was a man who gave up all he had—his life’s work and training and privileges and status—in order to follow this Jesus.

So what are you going to do about that?

When John wrote Revelation he could no longer see Jesus in the flesh but had to write based on his spiritual visions and dreams…..One of the things that he wrote is a direct quote from Jesus.  And he wrote it to the Church in Laodicea:

Revelation 3  “15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!16So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

God is so awesome….the aquifer that fed the Laodiceans was luke warm.  It was not cold water and it was not hot.  And He uses that aquifer to show a city, and a people, how He feels about us standing with a foot in “both yards”.  I for one do not want Jesus to be disappointed……

I want to be a guy who will Burn The Ships.

I want to be a follower who pursues and is not thinking about my backup plan…..but pursuing in a sense where I am all in.

How will I do this?  How will we do this?

My answer is simple:  I have no idea.

But with God …. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.

Father–Unite Your people in love….and give us the strength and courage and hope and love ….. to carry out the plan you have in our lives!

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

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Coach J

My personal conviction is that all Bible beginners should start with the book of John.  He is the eyewitness to Jesus who watched as He died on the cross and met Him after He rose from the dead.

John begins his account in John 1 with one of the most compelling chapters in the Bible, and he starts it with “In the beginning…..”.  I do not believe that this is a coincidence.  I think that John is testifying to Genesis and to all of the Old Testament by using these three words.  And he goes on with these powerful words:

John 1  10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– 13children born not of natural descent,F3 nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,F4 who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

“To those who would receive Him…..”

An invitation to all of us.  It requires no status.  No resume.  No power.  No specific race.  There is no requirement for what you must do.  There are no rituals.  There is no hidden agenda.  It is very simple:  Invite Him into your heart and RECEIVE Him.

If you have ever felt disregarded or ignored, underappreciated or overlooked, unreceived or unrecognized, then you stand in the company of the King of the Universe……and He knows exactly how it feels because He has lived it out in the very flesh that we live in.  He sees us from on high, He loves us beyond our knowing, and He recognizes us.  I believe that one of the reasons that God had John write this is because He wanted to tell us that He knows how it feels to walk into a situation and not be RECOGNIZED.

The scriptures told of His coming and described Him with great specifics.  Those who pressed in knew that the King would be from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) that He would declare Himself King on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9) that He would be pierced for our transgressions (Isaiah 53).   David even gave specifics about His crucifixion in the 22nd Psalm as He wrote about His betrayal, His being mocked, His clothes being gambled over.

But Jesus came willingly and yet had to endure that those who held the position of showing Him to the people DID NOT RECOGNIZE HIM.  How greatly that must have hurt Him.  You see, it wasn’t those nails that held Him to that cross, it was His love.  And those who were supposed to love Him as He came to pay the debt did not choose to recognize or acknowledge Him.

This story fascinates me:

• God shows up in the flesh as predicted by the scriptures.
• He knows He is there to be crucified and punished in our place–but comes anyway.
• The guys who He came to reveal Himself to don’t even recognize Him as Savior, get jealous, and promote His execution.
• The friends who are there with Him, watch His miracles, and see Him as the Son of God…..run off when He gets taken into custody and has to go through the hardest trial of His life.

…….but it is backed up, consistently, by the rest of the Bible.  Story after story of men messing up things that they should of been able to do.  And then God fixing it and putting His perfection over it.

This man Jesus……He is awesome—-and that is why I chose Him to be my Lord and My Savior.  He is MY ONLY HOPE.

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

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Coach J