What Would Jesus Do?

As hard as things were when blog 259 was released, they have gotten worse.

Where will we turn…and who will we turn to?

Jesus said:  I am the Way and the Truth and the Life

Nothing is more true than that.

He is our Way.

He is our Truth.

He is our Life.

And so I encourage you to pray for unity in this country, to be unity in this country, and to live out the call of scandalous love that He has given to each of us.

As people question me about whether we will return to football in the fall, I can only say that I do not know.

But I have thought about why it is absolutely imperative that we do.

In football …

In our locker room …

We have had a great mix of black and white and hispanic …

A mix of democrat and republican and independent …

A mix of tall and short and skinny and stout …

A mix of rich and poor and hurting and prospering …

A mixture as diverse as the world we live in.

But our greatest mixture?  A mixture of love, and loyalty, and togetherness.

A mixture of “I got your back” and “you can do it” and “I love you”.

As I walk and pray around the field before the game and ask God to cover us in love—I believe that He answers that prayer.  And He has never not answered that prayer—WE ARE ALWAYS … COVERED IN LOVE.

For all the pressure to perform and competition and nervousness that we face … something is always greater.

The love that we have for each other.

It is God’s love — Agape Love.  The Love that sacrifices and gives and selflessly devotes to something that is bigger.

It is the Love of Jesus as well as I can see it.

In a polarizing and political time, He broke the mold.

He hung out with a Samaritan woman at the well even though it did not look good to His squad.

He called out religious leaders even though it did not look good to His people.

He ate with a tax collector even though it made Him look like a hypocrite.

He allowed the town harlet to cry and wash His feet even though it made Him look suspect.

He showed ALL OF US how we should be as His followers—willing to WALK WITH, EAT WITH, AND TALK WITH people who might not be in our circle—with people who might be considered enemies.

One of my good friends always says:  “I can show you easier than I can tell you.”  And Jesus did just that:

• He showed us that by meeting with a Samaritan, that He cared nothing for the Jewish belief that they were not to talk to Samaritans.
• He showed us that by calling out a religious leader that He cared nothing about His religious position or perception.  That He just cared about what was true.
• He showed us that by eating with a tax collector (that everyone else hated) that He did not care about cool or popular or political—just leading a man to go the right way.
• He showed us that by allowing the woman to cry at His feet He was seeking to DO THE RIGHT THING over LOOKING LIKE He was doing the right thing.

What Would Jesus Do?

I think we all need to ask this question.

My brother and I can have some loud arguments.  It might even sound like hatred to those who might observe.  But I can assure you that it is not.  Our LOVE for each other is so far above our opinions that there is no room for opinions to chip away at that love.  Because our opinions, at the end of the day, hold NOTHING on our love for each other—and they NEVER WILL.

Spread the love.  We need a lot of it these days.  But God in Jesus?  He has an everlasting supply.

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.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgHfJq5uN_M

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Coach J

2000 years ago, in a political climate as nasty as we could ever imagine, He came to be.

A dark-skinned, illegitimate, son of a carpenter… He would escape an assassination attempt on His life only due to the warning of a regal prophet and obedient parents.

And none of His qualities would be extraordinary.

None, except for His heart, His character, His obedience …

For being sent to a foreign land is tough.

But being sent there at the resistance of the very people you have come to save — that is impossible.

John 1–  “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.”

And His first (noticed) public appearance was riotous, violent protest in the middle of the Passover Feast.  (John 2)

Yes …

My Hero, the One who I look to for all guidance, was in a protest.

A One Man Protest.  A Violent Protest.  And He was intimidating.

This is not a call for violence.

It is a call for surrender.

When despair shows up, it is a tidal wave.  It sucks us under and there is not even vision of where the surface even is.  And in our hopelessness, we tend to make terrible decisions.

But HOPE can also show up.  And it can be more overwhelming.  And it is not a feeling, or a distant dream.  It is a person.  And that person is Jesus Christ.

If despair is a tidal wave, then HOPE the person is a TSUNAMI.

Romans 5 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The radical move of Jesus TO FORGIVE is the most important single event in human history.

It is the hope of the nations and of individual man.

It is the hope for our country, of all countries.

It is the only thing that can truly save all of us—any of us.

As we repent

And pray

And cry out for mercy

Let us pray for the broken

Let us have faith in the power of the Living God

Let us worship and glorify like at no time in human history

The world is in dire need of a Savior, a King, a Lion, and a Lamb.  It is in need of a Redeemer, a Counselor, a Friend.

Let’s make sure we look to the One True God, because the gods we look to now can only make it worse.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmGnz2xoseI

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Coach J

I have seen and watched a lot of horrible things.

But, without question, the worst thing I have ever laid eyes on was the last minutes of George Floyd’s life.

Murdered.  In broad daylight.  As he, and those around him, begged for mercy and pleaded for his life.

In the midst of a national macro crisis—we get an awful picture of what is going on at the micro (or personal) level.

What has happened?  How did we get here?  And where is God in this?  I have been asking these questions all day today, holding back the tears as I think about that horrible video from Minnesota.  As I asked these questions, I felt convicted to start with the last one:

Where Is God In This?

The answer to this is a simple one word answer.  UNINVITED.  He…our only hope…is UNINVITED.

He is not here because He is not invited to be here.  

Revelation 3:20 states it very simply:  “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.”  Our God is a gentleman.  He does not go where He is not invited.  He has given us freedom to accept or to reject, to invite or deny, to live—or to die.

And reject we have.

And it has brought us to this point.

• Politicians are yelling and blaming and advancing agendas.
• Big business and big government are growing exponentially and some have completely forgotten about the little guy.
• Violence and disrespect have grown to an all-time high.
• The evil and darkness that are being shared, viewed, and callously enjoyed in our social media and entertainment is literally destroying our moral conviction.
• All of us—all of us—must be willing to police ourselves to discern and assign both evil and good.  The prophet Isaiah warns us about this very thing in chapter 5 verse 20.  “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

Today…take a minute (or 10 minutes–or an HOUR) to cry out to your Lord.

Let’s all invite Him back.  To be a part of our schools, our families, our communities, and our government.

Let’s make a point to honor His Name.

Let’s make a point to pray in gratitude for our police officers who do it right, for our big businesses who do actually care for the little guy, for our government officials who do care about people more than political gain.

Let’s make a point to understand that MOST Americans are on the same team.  While we might disagree on policies and political affiliations, we should be able to find common ground on:

• Violence not being okay.
• Police brutality not being okay.
• Looting and burning not being okay.
• Attacking someone because of their race not being okay.

For we are the land of the free, the home of the brave.  We have employed a government for the people by the people and of the people.  And we are ONE Nation, UNDER God.

QUESTION:  When we get away from these founding principles, what happens?

ANSWER:  What we have now.

Repent.

Convince others to do the same.

Seek His face.  Turn from wickedness.  Ask for forgiveness.  Realize that He, and He alone, holds the keys to eternal life.  Pray in humility.

And when you are done…

Do it again.

Because without Jesus, we have no country, no hope, and no future.

2 Chronicles 7 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkT6U0K1jLs

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

As my good friend opened up his son’s broken I-Phone to pull out the battery, the 30 year engineer proclaimed to me:

“It is amazing how complicated this phone is…but it doesn’t touch a simple cell.”

The “simple cell” to which he was referring to is the ones that make up our bodies.

More complicated in structure than a city, they are the building blocks of life.

And that is really it, isn’t it?  You either believe that those simple cells came to be through random process…or through organized design.

I am of the mindset of the latter.

Psalm 139  14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

Take a minute today to think about at your thumb, the structure of your eye, the inner workings of your nervous system.

And then think about that verse.

When God says, in Genesis, that it was good, we should perhaps think about what that truly means.

Because His “good” is our INCREDIBLY FULFILLING, EXHILARATING, AND MIRACULOUS.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

In my mind, there is not a more important verse in the Bible than John 1.  John 1 is where I start everything…..and, after all, John’s first three words are just like Genesis:

In…          The…          Beginning…

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 men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

2000 years ago an uneducated fisherman would drop everything and follow Jesus.

He then wrote the most convicting book that I have ever read—the book of John.

This is not just a far-fetched word from 2000 years ago that we can read even as a history book—

It is an example of what God wants to do with YOU.

• John constantly referred to himself as “the disciple who Jesus loved”…just like YOU.
• John discovered that “the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it”…and if you look around, so have YOU.
• John stood at the foot of the cross and had to be convicted to go even farther into his radical pursuit of Jesus…so can YOU.

John’s writings are poetic and inspiring…AND they also speak to the common man…like me…and YOU.

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– 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Our NUMBER ONE GOAL should be to RECEIVE HIM…and to give that to everyone else…

The world is dying.

And it is not because of COVID-19.

But there is a new hope…and His Name is Jesus.

He…and He alone…is the hope of the world.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

In one day Paul changed his entire life.

Educated.

Rich.

Popular.

Adored.

Privileged.

Entitled.

We might even say…worshipped.

But on the road into Syria, in pursuit of anyone who would follow Christ, and full of rage—Paul had the encounter of a lifetime.

Acts 9  3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

6 “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

When Jesus transforms a life, miracles happen:  

• Sinners are granted a ticket to heaven.  
• We become perfect.  
• We become children of the Father.

Given the fact that Paul went from killer to friend, it took a while for people to believe that he had changed teams.

But convince them he did.

And it wasn’t hard to see.  On the earthly level, he lost all of those things that defined him:

His education, his money, his popularity and adoration, his privilege, his entitlement…all were thrown away.

When we allow Jesus to COME INTO OUR LIVES and change our worldly pursuit to a pursuit of Him, we become miraculous world changers.

Don’t be afraid to lose something that you can’t keep to gain something that you can’t lose.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Have you ever wondered if you have gotten so far off course that you might have actually ruined God’s will for your life?

The story of Moses should remind us all that God’s plan is God’s plan—and you responding to Him—no matter how late you might be, can not stop it.

Moses was the perfect candidate to rescue the Hebrew slaves:

• He WAS a Hebrew
• He WAS in the palace in a position of prominence
• He WAS in a position to influence the Pharaoh and to gather support and friendship of the ruling class

It was the position to rescue the slaves and to answer the cries of the Hebrews.

Until it wasn’t.

In a fit of rage, Moses murdered an Egyptian soldier and set his life on a course that could no longer carry out the very thing that he was destined to do.

And so he fled to the wilderness to live out his days and run from the very thing that he was destined to do.

Exodus 3  4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey-the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

The LORD does not call the equipped.  He equips the called.

This is not to say that God can’t use talents—He can and He does.

But He also uses weaknesses.

This is quite a concept.  But in the mind of the follower—it brings freedom.

You see–if God can’t use you in your strengths–then He will use you in your weaknesses.

If God can’t set up the perfect plan for you to walk out your calling, then He will use the imperfect plan of your life.

And if God can’t find someone WITHOUT SIN, He will send Jesus to represent the broken.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

What Will You Do With The Mantle That God Has Given You?

You might ask:  What mantle?  What would I do?  How can I possibly do anything?

Forget about the fish story…The greatest miracle in the book of Jonah is the conversion of a city of barbarians.

Jonah 3  1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city-a visit required three days. 4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:  Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”  10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

Jonah’s ability to speak and carry God’s message must have been something to see…To convert a city of unteachable, treacherous, evil people?

The reality is the same for all of us and we all have something to learn from this:

• Our gifts are not about us.  They are God-given and He wants us to use them for His glory.
• The gospel message is for everyone.  It is for the King and the peasant.  It is for the rule-follower and the rule-breaker.  It is for ALL.  And Jesus showed it in His ministry again and again.
• Our lives are a test.  Rick Warren says that our lives are a test, a trust, and a temporary assignment.

What has God given you?

What does He want you to do with the remainder of your days?

It is truly not HOW MANY DAYS YOU HAVE, but HOW YOU USE THEM.

This is not about piling an assignment on to your plate.

It is not about God ruining your mighty plans for what you thought this life might be.

And it is not about you being a slave to the Lord.

The reality is this:  When God gets a hold of your soul, there is no better life for you than to do just what He has called you to.  All that He might have for them is what is best for you.

Jesus hung on that cross willingly—for you.

He went before the enemy, into the pit of Hell, so that He could remove—you.

And He will stand before the Father and plead for the soul of the broken—you.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Fear Is A Liar by Zach Williams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5LNfj2F5qI

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Coach J