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2 MINUTE WARNING

WITH DOUG JOHNSON

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486 God Intended It For Good

One of the greatest verses in the Bible is Genesis 50:20.

After getting sold into slavery, falsely accused, thrown into prison, and then promoted to Governor of Egypt, Joseph’s life comes full circle.

And the grace of God falls onto his brothers in an incredible way as he tells them:

Genesis 50 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

In an incredible story of what God does…redemption…Joseph’s life saves an estimated 70 Israelites and a million people.  And Joseph’s ability to move past what happened and forgive is incredibly significant.

Slavery.  Slander.  Prison.  When we get in a tough situation, a trial, or we are simply trying to fight through things, we must ask?

Where Is My Focus?

When David walked up on the Goliath situation, he heard from everyone about the giant.  Goliath.  Goliath.  Goliath.  But David was not focused on Goliath, nor the weapons that they used to fight.  He was focused on God.  And God gave David a weapon that was far greater than what Goliath had.  The sling that God had him use to fight wolves and lions was far greater than anything Goliath could bring.

Where Is My Focus?  It should be on God … not the giant.  Because God has the weapons we need to defeat the giant.

What Will You Get There?

Hope … and Faith.  Hebrews 11 says that Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what you do not see.  Hope is one of the most important things we can have.  When our hope is not there, our thoughts go in the wrong direction.  But hope gives us the motivation to get up and walk, to move forward, to begin to dream.

What Will You Get There?  Hope … And Faith Is Being Sure Of What You Hope For.

God is bigger than the walls in front of us.

He is bigger than our failures and our mistakes.

He is bigger than our mortality.

Jesus Christ became one of us so that we could know that He has walked in our shoes, that He has been tempted, and that He has experienced loss.

And we can hold on to this promise … that what was intended to harm us God can use for good.

WALK in the covering of Jesus … His love never fails.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

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485 Jesus Has A Way Out

Much like the Israelites in the Old Testament, I find myself searching and wrestling with the foes of life.

Fear.

Temptation.

Doubt.

Anger.

All of the ploys of the enemy that God tells us to overcome are worthy obstacles.

But God … God always has a way out.

And we must never forget that the simple answer is the ONLY answer.

Jesus Has A Way Out.

And perhaps Jeremiah says it best:

Jeremiah 29 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 

Jesus is the way out.

He has plans to prosper you.

He has no plans to harm you.

He wants to give you hope and a future.

And, truly, we will find Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts.

What a word.

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

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484 I Am My Father’s Child

What does God truly think of me?

This is the question that all of must eventually answer.

And our response to it transcends all that we are … 

Because if we know this answer, it changes everything …

It changes our behavior.

It changes our outlook.

It changes our hope.

And it changes our destiny.

I think Zephaniah says it best:

Zephaniah 3 17 The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” 

He takes GREAT DELIGHT IN US.

He REJOICES OVER US.

He QUIETS US WITH HIS LOVE.

He is WITH US … Everywhere that we go.

As I listened to the words to this song in my car two nights ago, it cut me to the core.

Thank You … Jesus.

Only You could love us like this.

You are our only hope.

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

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483 The Bible Is Not A Boot

As I drove home from a meeting with an incredible man today, I was convicted in my car and I believe God put this thought on my heart:  

“The Bible IS NOT a boot.”

Amen.

The Bible should never be used to kick someone, to hurt someone, to drive a point home.

It is NOT OUR PLACE.

I am saved by the grace of a God who loves me too much to let me die in the midst of my sin … and my sin is great.

Thankfully I say to you … “My God is not done with me yet!”

Wow, that feels so good to say:

“My God is NOT DONE with me yet!”

In a world of darkness and evil and falling short, I am the greatest of these … the pride, and unforgiveness, and impurity, and vengeance, and hard-heartedness that can well up in me is beyond description.  And it is destructive.  And yet, I can find it, and identify it, in me.  In God’s love letter written to all of us, for this day, on January 28, 2025, Paul said it best:

1 Timothy 1 15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The Bible Is NOT A Boot.

Because if it were, I would be getting kicked in the face right now by a God who could kick me a good distance.  But that is not His way.  And as I meditate on that verse above today, I am so grateful.  For I am “the Chief of sinners” and I would be happy to argue with Paul about it.

And chances are … you are “the Chief of sinners” too.

And so what does God tell us to do?

How are we to introduce others to Jesus?

How can we properly communicate this gospel?

Here are a few thoughts:

The Bible is a Message Of Reconciliation:

2 Corinthians 5 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 

20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

The Bible is a message of love:

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.

The Bible is a message of our need to have a Savior:

Romans 8 1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 

The Bible is a lot of things.

It is a book of instruction.

It is a book of wisdom.

It is a book of history.

It is a book of LOVE and GRACE and FORGIVENESS …

It is a book about Jesus.

There are a lot of ways to describe it.

But one thing that it is not:  The Bible Is NOT A Boot

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

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482 I Am Going To Be Better

I am stealing today’s message from Tre Sills.  Tre is a local pastor and convicted our FCA group today with an important message.

There is a good chance today that many of us have failed on some of our “I am going to be better” convictions that we made at the beginning of 2025.

I know this idea resonates with me because I live in a world of:  “I am going to be better”

The reality is that it is God that makes us better.  God and God alone.

After all, when we meet Jesus in the quiet place and surrender to what He has for us, He does a new thing inside of each of us:

2 Corinthians 5 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 

It is God, and God alone, who makes us better.  And sometimes He does it one layer at a time.  He comes and ministers to our inner self and begins to do a work on us, and in us.  HE, and HE alone, can do that work.

Paul continues with his encouragement, telling us almost the opposite of “I am going to be better” by telling us:

18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 

20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

Thank You Jesus!

In a world with the wrong kind of accountability, God can show up.  He can show up for me … and for you.

And when He shows up it is to remind us that we are not who we are by our own works … but that we are created in His image and that He can actually work on us from the inside to make us like Him.

He shows up to remind us that His plan is to also do this for others … to reconcile them with Him.

Man doesn’t fix marriages, or companies, or countries, or neighborhoods.  Our president doesn’t decide if we have a life.  Our mayor doesn’t change our life from bad to good.  And our enemies certainly won’t bring out our best.

No.

It is Jesus.

It is the Jesus who spoke the words of life to Lazarus and the woman at the well.  And it is this Jesus who ministered to Roman soldiers, and pharisees who would listen, and leppers who were outcast, and Kings … It is this Jesus who showed up at the temple to tip over tables and send a message to the establishment:  “Not on my watch!”

And it is this Jesus that can fix me … and you.

And we would do wise to do what the Samaritan woman did.  To go into “our place” and tell people:  “Come and meet the man who told me everything I ever knew” (John 4).

After all, if we want to fix _ ….. Whatever it might be ……

We need the Author of the “ministry of reconciliation” and not anything else.

Because He is the only One that can do it in the way that will bring hope.

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

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481 Hope AND A Future

As I turned on Chris Tomlin this morning, I was taken aback.  What a song … and what a moment … a whole crowd crying out to Jesus.  His mighty hand on our lives is ALL THAT WE HAVE.

Perhaps you might listen to it as you read this word?

Let me say this again:  He is ALL THAT WE HAVE.

The verse on my heart yesterday and today is no cliche’.  It’s not a guide … or a map … or some lucky word.

God is not lucky.  He is not our rabbit’s foot.  And He isn’t passively waiting for us to “get through it”.  Our God, in all forms, is all about being for us.

Jeremiah 29 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 

The choices He gives us have lead to our demise.  They lead to Adam’s demise and EVERYONE else’s.  But this is not a mistake.  Without a choice, without our ability to say yes or to say no, there can be no love.

Our trials are not on Him.  They are not Him trying to test us or to punish us or to paint us into a corner.  Our trials are the result of choice and the sin we live in.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.

And for us to think that the world will somehow fill us is a lie from the pits of hell.

And to this conundrum there is no human answer:  We have made a mess.

And when we fall into that mess it is, simply, what happens.  And so it goes.

Thank God for the gospel.

When we wallow and sit in our hole with no hope … Here comes Jesus.  And He comes in the form of the Holy Spirit or another believer who would dare tell us what we sometimes won’t hear from God.

He has a plan

He wants to bless us … and give us a future

He wants us to thrive

This is not easy … but we must FIGHT both for ourselves and for each other.  When the mountain before us is too big …

We must ask God to resurrect HOPE inside of us, get up, and walk forward.

This is not easy.

It requires us to stand up and to move forward.

It might require us to change our situation.

We might have to change our mindset.

It might be an act of faith that God is simply moving us to a new season of life.

“For I know the plans I have for you,”

But whatever it is, we must grab on to this Jeremiah 29 word and get up.

If you are in this place, cry out for HOPE, because HOPE is the rocket fuel for Faith, and Faith is the rocket fuel for walking up that mountain that we see in front of us.

Because without Him, we can never ascend.

And ascending to worship Jesus is the only thing that can truly make us whole again.

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

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480 Honesty, Entitlement, And Responsibility

All of us have choices before us.  And as we make those choices we must understand that we are being watched by God Almighty … and when God watches us, He knows not only what we did but what we were thinking when we did it.

I have read Genesis 4 many times.  Today, as I read it, I am convicted by three things:  Honesty, Entitlement, and Responsibility.

Genesis 4 2 … Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord . 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.  So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.  9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 

Cain’s offering was not good enough.  And it was not received.  In that moment, he had a choice to make.  This situation made me wonder:  How often have I laid down an offering thinking that it was “all I had” when in reality, it was not.  How often has my sacrifice been no sacrifice at all?  If God is honest with us … we must be honest with ourselves.  And if we are to be honest, we must know that what we give God does not amount to very much.  He tells us in Isaiah 64 that even our good works are like “dirty rags”.  The Honesty required in the Bible is something that is very difficult.  We must be honest with … OURSELVES.

Genesis 4 also contains Entitlement.  And God was merciful with Cain … even trying to warn him.  But Cain thought that he was somehow entitled to something more.  And because of that, he was taken captive by sin to the point of murder.  The reality is that Cain was not Entitled to anything … and neither are we.  We are sitting ducks for Hell that bring nothing before God.  And He owes us nothing.  He chooses to offer us a chance to have Him.

My last thought from Genesis 4 is that of Responsibility.  Cain’s very question:  “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is easily answered.  Yes.  Yes you are your brother’s keeper.  This means that if your enemy hurts you, if your friend overlooks you, if your trusted colleague makes you look bad … no matter the situation … you are the keeper.  Not just of the person … but of the gospel.  What Jesus did, and what God did in sending Him, can not be brought down to the level of our individual grievances.  Ever.  And so … YES … YOU are your brother’s keeper.  ALWAYS.

This gospel is the ticket to eternal life.

It is a scandalous event that allows us to know God in spite of our unpayable debt.

It is the hope of the world … and it is our only hope.

Jesus’ blood is the key.  The cost He paid is beyond anything we could ever come up with.  It is not to be undervalued or overlooked.  And it certainly can’t be compared to anything that any man has done …

But isn’t that the reason that we needed Him to show up some 2000 years ago?

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

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479 The Heart Of The Gospel

In the last post, I talked about the Heart Of His Ministry, and today I would like to address the Heart Of The Gospel.

At no time in history is this message more important than today.

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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 

And so it is.

God loves the world.

God loves you.

And God has no condemnation for those who believe in Him.

How can this be rejected?

It is the only thing we really need to step forward.

We trade our mortality for an eternal existence to be lived out today.

I often wonder …

How will I afford that?

How can I get through this …. ?

Where am I going next?

What is in store for my kids in their future?

The reality is that all of these questions do not matter compared to the one that really does … and that is:

WHO do you believe in for your eternal existence?

And once you answer that you can build your day, and your life, around it.

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

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478 The Heart Of His Ministry

John opens up his book with “In the beginning … ” and I thought that the book of John was an appropriate way to “begin” 2025.

I have an admiration for defense attorneys, and lawyers in general, as they stand for the law.  Our country was set up to protect the innocent and to make sure we bring accountability to those who break the law, and we are in a constant battle find that.  In our legal system, we can only make this work with Jesus.  The law, and the legal system, without Jesus, will never work.  And when Pilate asked Jesus “What Is Truth?” he brought up the most important aspect of our system.  The Truth.  Without Jesus, who is The Truth, our system is broken.

Jesus opened His public ministry with two important and noteworthy events.

  • The Miracle at Cana
  • The Temple Riot at Passover

Jesus treated a poor man’s wedding feast like it was the most important event of the year

John 2 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” 9 They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

And then Jesus started a “one man riot” at a formal religious festivity.

John 2 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area … he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”

To me, these two events signify some things that we should never, ever forget:

  1.  He Wants You To Have Enough.

In your finances, in your efforts, and in all the things that you strive for, you can be certain that Jesus is for you and wants you to have all that you need.  I can’t help but wonder, as I write this, that this is very much a two way street.  If it is true for us, it is true for others.  If he wants you to have enough … He wants others to also have enough.  And sometimes … it is our responsibility to make sure that this happens.

  1.  He Wants You To Be Treated Fairly.

The Passover was, and is, about God.  It is about how God SAVED the Hebrew people from not just slavery, but slaughter.  It is about the blood of the lamb and the future of a people who would worship Him.  I have to think that Jesus was MOST UPSET at the misrepresentation of God … the ripping off of people in the name of guilt so that they could “be right” with Him.  God makes us right with Him.  Only God.  And He wants us to be treated fairly as we pursue Him … and He wants us to take no credit for it, to take no benefit from it, and to take no praises for what God, and God alone, deserves the praises for … to Him be the glory.

  1.  Sometimes Only The Servants See The Miracle.

The servants who filled the heavy water jars surely saw the miracle.  Water, the very water that they got out of the river, was wine.  Bury your face in the worship of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords … and let Him show you the mighty works of His hand.

2025 is a year of changes.  It is a year of exposure.  It is a year of new beginnings.

But more than anything else … it is a year to proclaim that there is one, and only one, King.

And He doesn’t share His throne with anyone.

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

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