2 MINUTE WARNING

As I awoke this morning, I could not help to think of where I stand before God.

Without Jesus … GUILTY.

GUILTY AS CHARGED.

For me to sit and write this blog and call myself a righteous man on my own accord is simply a lie.

I am guilty.

I have exaggerated.  I have had corrupt thoughts.  I have sinned in action.  My anger has taken control of me.

Without Jesus’ action to save me 2000 years ago, I am a sitting duck for Hell.

And so are you.

1 Corinthians 6 ⁹ Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 

But God moved.  Jesus moved.  And a man (Jesus) with no earthly power radically convicted His closest followers to bring us the Word that we read today.

After Peter denied, and ran, he chose to be crucified UPSIDE DOWN rather than take the same position of his Lord—Jesus.

Followers of Jesus were burned as candles under Nero.

Paul threw his life in the trash after an encounter with Jesus on the road into Syria.

And all of them did this that we might stand and be followers of the only thing that can truly rescue us.

As Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn in half.

It was torn in half to let you know that NOTHING, NOTHING, would ever be able to separate you from God if you chose to follow Him.

NOTHING.

Follow Him today.

Worship Him in gratitude.

Give up your pride.

Follow Him without remorse or hesitation.

Matt Maher is such a “simple” artist.  I love to sing with him as he expresses what all of us truly need:  

As this song says:  “Come Awake!”

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

In early 2009, my wife Angie and I made a crucial decision.

We were broke.

We were living in 2 bedroom townhouse in Commerce City.

We were over a million dollars in debt.

But we made the best decision that we could ever make.

We decided to have another precious child.

At the beginning of our marriage, God had convicted my wife to read a book called the Full Quiver.  She shared verses from that book with me and talked with me about what she felt God was leading us to do.

And I was ALL IN.

So, when things got tough, I told her that God was convicting me that we should continue with our plan.  I reasoned that God still wanted to bless us even though we were broke, and “at the bottom”.

And did He ever.

Justine “Carissa” Johnson was born on December 18, 2009.

And my fear of her never getting any attention was quickly squashed.  She was loved on by 6 of us in ways that none of our other children came close to.

As I tell others:  “Thank God … for God”

When we were pregnant with Carissa, everyone thought we were crazy.  And we were.  We were following Jesus with passion—actually believing what His word says, and what our Bible following friends were saying, and what prayer lead us to do.

Our parents disagreed with us.

Our siblings disagreed with us.

And our friends?  I would love to go back now and hear their perspectives.

We disagreed on where life should go.

And that begs the question:

Since When Is AGREEMENT A Requirement For Coexistence?

It ISN’T.

AND ANYONE WHO PUSHES FOR IT IS EITHER EVIL or unknowingly on the side of evil.

How could anyone follow God and possibly agree with what is being pushed by the world?

This is not a feel good message that I am writing today.

It is a challenge to all of us.

Our goal is not to agree and jump in with the latest and greatest technology, or theory, or worldview.

Just the opposite.

Our goal is to agree with God, and God alone.  Popular or not.

Our goal is to “cast our lots” with the living Messiah.  The One who loves all people WAY MORE THAN ANY HUMAN.

Our goal is to please God … and God alone.

Jesus was crystal clear about this.  And if any speech got Jesus killed, it was the one He spoke in Luke 16.

Luke 16 ¹³ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 

When our lives are over, there will only be ONE AGREEMENT that will matter—the AGREEMENT we made with God.

Never let someone bully you into changing the way you think by calling YOU a bully.  This, in today’s age, is the root of many evil things.

     It takes God totally out of the equation.

     It allows SOMEONE ELSE to change YOUR morals.

     It is complete and utter manipulation.

This is exactly what a man named Adolf Hitler did.

He convinced people that he was the one being pushed around.

And then, before anyone could blink, he was moving through Europe and exterminating anyone who opposed him and anyone who didn’t fit his view of the perfect race.

This … is the game plan of Satan.

And so I declare what Joshua did;

Joshua 25 ¹⁵ But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

And I declare this because the One who hung on that cross loves me, and my family, way more than any person could.

And, thank God, He also 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

Mark 4 ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” ³⁹ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

Sleeping in the boat, Jesus chose His rest when He could get it.

But He always showed up for the fight.

And He always won.

We need to remember that if storms came for Jesus, they will surely come for us.

1 Peter 5 ⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

Peter warns us about “your enemy the devil”.  And we must take heed.  He is no joke.

But we must also remember that we have Jesus.

My wife Angie is always aware … and anointed.  She rises at night to pray.  She senses when storms are near.  And she stands in the gap for everyone around her.

Her word today was amazing and out of the very mouth of God.  As Christians, we need to calm the waters.  The storms will come.  And the enemy will always try to weaken our faith.  But as she prayed today about resting and resetting, I was convicted to use those as our encouragement.

How do we survive the storm?  We apply the 3 R’s:

Rest.  Nothing is more important than getting our rest.  We can rest in the Lord, and, yes, there will be seasons when He calls us to rise.  But we must also be willing to rest in the front of the boat just as Jesus did.  One of the ten commandments?  Rest and worship on the Sabbath.  Rest.

Reset.  In scripture, Jesus often left the others and went to be alone.  And we must do the same.  We must go, and be alone, and get into scripture.  NOTHING refines and renews like the Word of God.  Read it.  Memorize it.  Speak It.  Live It.

Resist.  Stand up to any and all things that are out of alignment with God and God’s word.  No one will win who turns his back on the Living God.  NO ONE.

Rest.  Reset.  Resist.  Repeat.

Do not give up.

Do not grow weary.

Do not relent.

This earth, and all of its people, belong to the Lord.

We don’t make our own rules.

We don’t redefine truth.

We don’t get to decide that there is no right or wrong.

The only thing we get to do is to proclaim Jesus as King.

In the end, this is the only thing that will matter.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

As a coach, it is easy to find your team “going through the motions”.  They are doing all the right things, and saying all the right things, and the coaches are coaching all the right things, but the team does not look right.

While it is difficult to see this going on, I think that we can all identify that this is not only an issue for teams, it is an issue for people.

We get in routines.

We ENDURE seasons of life.

We go from one activity to another without really stopping to see what is really going on.

I think that this, at least in one sense, is going on in Haggai 1.

Haggai 1 ⁵ Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. ⁶ You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

Think about it.  Because God gives us terrific advice throughout the Bible.  And as I talked to my FCA group on Friday, I warned them that the reason that God warns us or encourages us or commands us is because the issues he warns about are hard to follow.

Do Not Be Afraid.

Do Not Covet.

Do Not Give False Testimony.

These things seem so easy to follow.  And yet, we fear, we covet, we exaggerate.  And when we do, we walk in utter misery.  Because God has not designed us to get by.  He has wired us to be CONNECTED to Him and using that connection to help others to CONNECT to Him.

And in Haggai, God gives us a simple word that can change our world:

“Give Careful Thought To Your Ways”

That is a good word.

Because when we give careful thought to our ways, we can avoid, as He says in Haggai:

• Working for something that never harvests
• Eating but remaining hungry
• Drinking but always being thirsty
• Earning money that is spent before we collect it

God is so good.

He sees the end from the beginning and gives us a game plan on how to walk through this life without losing our way.

And yet, we lose our way.

I want to challenge you to Give Careful Thought To Your Ways.

To find God in the relationships that you build

To find Him in your daily work

To honor Him with what you eat and what you drink

To follow Him with your money

And to remind yourself who you are and how you can thrive:

There is no victory without God

There is no party that fills us up

No amount of money that can fulfill us

No way of life that works

When Solomon decided that he was lost, he went for it ALL.

Ecclesiastes 2 ¹⁰ I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;  I refused my heart no pleasure.

And when he was done corrupting himself he was broken, and empty.

This is because we were not built to fill ourselves with whatever our hearts desire.

We were built to follow the Living God.

Give Careful Thought To Your Ways.

Listen to the words of Jesus:

Mark 8 ³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

And never, ever, forget that you were bought at a price and put here to do one, and only one, thing:

Love … And Worship … God

What flows out of that is something that we will never regret.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

“Lord, help me be more like your servant Daniel.

Fill me with his:

Wisdom.  Discipline.  Commitment.  Anointing.

Allow me to unwaveringly commit to you and to carry out the call that you have given me.  Help me to sway people BECAUSE of what you do inside of me.”

Daniel had won over the King.  He was wise.  He could interpret dreams.  He was the guy you wanted giving you information if you had all the power.  And because of this, many men were very jealous of him.  And so they influenced the king to pass a law that there would be no praying to God.  The law was passed and the document was signed.

Daniel 6 ¹⁰ Now when Daniel learned that the document was signed, he entered his house (and in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and offering praise before his God, just as he had been doing previously. 

This is not a cute story.  It is a testimony to a believer’s faith in God.  And I love the line:  “just as he had been doing previously.”

Daniel’s world was God.  And, because of God, he had a gift that men and women do not have.  He had God in him and on him.

I often ask God what to do in various situations, seeking Him to lead me at the fork in the road.

But as I read this this morning, I realize that Daniel probably did not look at the fork in the road.  He looked at the vehicle he was riding on—as God was his transportation.

Before you make your FIRST decision today.

Before you even GET ON THE ROAD.

Before you worry about the laws of man and the worries of this world.

Kneel and pray before the God of Wonders and ask Him to be your driver.

When you do this, the only Lion you need to worry about is the one in charge of the Tribe of Judah.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

In the spring of 1990, I had come to a crossroads.

Falsely accused and undone, I had become obsessed with proving my innocence.  On a spring afternoon, after an unsuccessful meeting with a district attorney about a bogus “dine and dash” charge, I was focused on a confrontation with my accusers at their place of business.

I was angry and bitter and solely focused on Proving My  Innocence.

Something stopped me that day and instead of a confrontation that surely would have landed me in more trouble than I was already in, I ended up going up to Flagstaff Mountain to look over Boulder and reflect on where I was.

I can remember that after coming back to my house, my friend who was in the same situation told me:

“Look, my friends know I didn’t do it.  My family knows I didn’t do it.  And God knows that I didn’t do it.  After that, I don’t care.”

A pretty good perspective.

And, to be fair, what God knows is the ONLY perspective.

It is … the only thing that matters.

And the reality for each of us is this:

We can try with all that we are but we will never be able to:  Prove Our Innocence.

I heard a pastor once say that we:

• Judge others by their ACTIONS.  (Justice)
• Judge ourselves by our INTENTIONS.  (Mercy)

We don’t care what the other’s motives are if they have hurt us.  But when we mess up, we want others to know that we did not mean to do it.

This is so true of me.  I want to have a different rule applied to me while applying a harsh standard to someone else.

It is the ultimate HYPOCRISY.

And thinking about this—I can not deny that many times my motives are not right either.

If I were put on trial for being guilty by the standards of God—I AM GUILTY.

God knew this about all of us.  Jesus knew this about all of us.  And that is why we are so desperately in need of the gospel that Jesus offers.  It is … Our ONLY Hope.

When Nicodemus met Jesus at night He knew this.  He knew that Jesus was right but wasn’t quite sure how to go about “changing teams”.  And when Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be “born again” Nicodemus was confused, but enlightened.  He knew that at his core, he was guilty and that he must have a spiritual miracle to make it right.

Are you born again?  Because Jesus offer to Nicodemus is the same offer that He is giving to you.  And this is why the greatest verse in the Bible (besides all of the other ones) is John 3:16.

John 3 ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

God gives us many options.  He offers chance after chance.  He even meets people at night, as He did with Nicodemus, so that they can fully know their options without the pressure of others.

But there is no riding the fence.  There is no “Proving Our Innocence”.  We are guilty as charged and beyond the hope of man.

But God SO LOVED …

We are blessed to be able to surrender.

Follow Jesus. 

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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

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Coach J

Even the most courageous will hide in the cave from time to time, trying to find a means of escape from the enemy.  It is a simple reality of the world we live in.

David sat in the cave and begged God to rescue him.

Psalm 142 ⁶ Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.  ⁷ Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.  Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

I want to encourage you.

There will be times where you will simply stand alone and try to defeat an enemy that might be insurmountable.  And in fact, the evil that we face in this world is a worthy adversary.

But we must never forget.

There is a reason that Jesus showed up 2000 years ago.

There is a reason that He had a price tag placed over His head before He was born and before He was old enough to defend Himself.

And there is a reason that men tried to kill Him for His entire ministry.

He is the Adversary to the adversary.

He infiltrates the in infiltrator.

He is the conqueror of death and all that we fear.

And … “by His stripes, we are healed.”

As Jesus faces the things that terrify us today, He does not shudder.

The battle has been fought.  2000 years ago, as Jesus prayed on Gethsemane, He was preparing to face an incredible enemy without the power of God.  Emptied of His weapons and the very things He needed for battle, He instead was preparing to be a Lamb lead to slaughter.  No defenses.  No fear from the enemy.  No hope for the trial that He was about to walk into.

Luke 22  ⁴⁴ And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

But the tools that were taken from Him are here for us to use.  Jesus is no longer the Lamb.  He is the Lion.  And we must be bold and cry out to God to come and fill us with His spirit.  We must be filled with the same spirit that filled David as he came out of the cave.

Psalm 23 ⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me;

So … come out of the cave.  Walk in confidence.

Fear your God, not your trial.

And never forget that what is behind (God) you is greater than the foe in front of you.

He is, after all, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Sooner or Later.

Sooner or Later we are all going to have to make a choice.

And my choices are made based on what I observe and the information I gather.

The question that I have for you today is simple:

Is there common ground between Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics, An Eyewitness Testimony, and the history written by the Jewish historian Josephus?

I believe that there is.  And I believe that there always will be.  I believe that they all point us to Jesus of Nazareth.

Peter tells us in his book:

1 Peter 3 ¹⁵ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

And this is something that I am always excited to do.  ALWAYS.  And because of this, I have clumsily constructed an acronym that I will use to do just that:

POWER

And I like this because I believe that there is POWER in my God.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND TESTIMONY

An encounter outside of a locker room

OBSERVATION AND ORDER

Every System in the universe is moving to maximum disorder or is already in it.  (Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics is connected to this)

WISDOM AND PRINCIPLES

Leadership.  Money.  Raising Children.  Psychology.  The advice in the Bible is second to none.

EVIDENCE

We know that a man named Jesus existed and was executed.  (Josephus wrote about Him–calling Him a magician who was executed.)

We know that a new religion erupted out of Jerusalem and that people claimed that He had risen from the dead.

REVELATION OF SCRIPTURE

When Jesus proclaimed “my God my God why have you forsaken me?”  He was quoting the 22nd Psalm.  When David wrote the 22nd Psalm, crucifixion did not exist not did he know anything about Jesus or what was going on.  Read it.  And read the 300 other prophetic scriptures that tell the story of Jesus hundreds of years before He existed.

Sooner or Later we have to do something with this information.  What do I recommend?  I recommend the book of John.  To me, it is the start of the Bible and the greatest book ever written.

A Fisherman … With minimal education … Encounters the Messiah … And writes a Literary Classic

John 1 ¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  ⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.  ⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

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

“To ALL who would receive Him He gives the right to become children of God”.

Sooner or Later?  I have voted on Sooner.

As soon as I can.

As soon as I go to sleep and rise up.

As soon as my feet hit the ground.

As soon as I make a decision.

I want to make sure that I have RECEIVED HIM.

He is the greatest choice and the first choice, He is the light in the darkness and the hope of the lost.  He is the way that I want to go and the truth that I want to listen to.

He … is the one that I want to follow …

For all the days of my life and for all of my eternity.

Thank you John for writing about Him … And thank you MORE TO JESUS for showing up and rescuing me from my greatest adversary … myself.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

We are in a crisis.  And I have felt it for some time now.  

The political divide is growing.

We are filled with information but seem to lack the knowledge of how to use it.

And fear rules the day.

We are in a Crisis … of Character.

In some cases, Biblical values are not only ignored — they are challenged as evil.

But they are not evil.  They are the game plan for a good life.

And why wouldn’t they be?

Do Not Steal.

Do Not Lie.

Do Not Commit Adultery.

Honor Your Mother and Your Father.

They are the foundations for a good house, a good community, a good nation.

And Jesus?  The absolute key.  Not part of the solution—the ONLY solution.

The verse that is on my heart for such a time as this is Genesis 6:8.

Genesis 6 ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Some look at scripture and find a critical eye on the people described.  I know that I used to.  But it is just the opposite now.

My life is a story board of failure and stupidity.  It is a notebook full of disobedience, pride, selfishness, and failure.

But that is just the point.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

How do we find favor in the eyes of the Lord?

Jesus.

And, at the end of the day, that is what I want my line to be:

“But Doug found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

I know that this will not be accomplished by looking at my resume because He knows my list that no one sees.

I know that this will not be accomplished by looking at my good deeds because there are simply not enough.

And I know that this will not be accomplished by ANYTHING that I have done.  Just the opposite …

God loves us.

And our only hope is that we have some semblance of …

LOVING HIM BACK.

If this prayer has some snippet of truth—say it today:

LORD, THANK YOU FOR LOVING ME FIRST.  I LOVE YOU BACK.

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