2 MINUTE WARNING

The Christmas story is hard for some to fathom.

And it was no different 2000 years ago.

Mark 6 he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. ³ “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

All of us must decide if this is an ancient story or the very thing that we need … Our only hope.

To me, Jesus is Our Only Hope.

It was hard to fathom when He told me to pull off at the exit as I was driving to California … but when I met the man with no legs trying to change his tire —- I understood.

It was hard to fathom when He told my wife and I NOT TO DECLARE BANKRUPCY IN 2008, but when we came to the other side many years later—- I understood.

It was hard to fathom when He told me to speak at my father’s funeral in 2010.  But when He used that very action to heal me —- I understood.

I think Einstein must have struggled with this also.  When he said:  “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  He, too, had to have been thinking about the divine, the miraculous.

So what do you think?

Read before and beyond this Mark 6 verse.

Ask God to convict you.  To show you.

The reason that they asked is the very reason that you should.

When this Christianity became a thing 2000 years ago it was just that …

The men and women who knew Him, and walked with Him, and watched Him preach, and saw Him do miracles, and watched Him rise from the dead …

They Became The Champions Of A New Faith

It Became Their Single Minded View

Their New Hope

And It Was Based On That Question:

Isn’t He This The Carpenter?

YES.  YES.  THIS Is The Carpenter.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Jesus tells us:  “In this world you will have trouble … but take heart, I have overcome the world.”

And He has.

But in the writings of Mark, even the most obedient and loyal disciples found themselves in a storm.

Mark 4 ³⁵ That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 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.

⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Sometimes I am guilty of asking God, “why me?”

Sometimes WHEN I am walking in the right direction, I feel punished.  But God isn’t at our beck and call.  And, thankfully, He doesn’t bless us when we do well and curse us when we don’t.

The reality is that we will walk into, and be overwhelmed by, storms.

And the storms challenge us in every way … especially when we let them.

True, we can not control the storm itself.

But we can control the way we react to it.

Take the disciples … they became overcome with fear, and even doubted their ability to get to the other side.

But Jesus had told them:  “Let’s go to the other side”

So they knew they were going there with a man who had already proven Himself.  And the fact that He was sleeping was not inspiring to them — but it should have been.

Jesus isn’t sleeping through your storm.  He isn’t callous to it.  And He isn’t punishing you.

The reality is this:

1.  Jesus’ promises to you and over you and about you aren’t voided because of the storm.  NEVER let the situation overwhelm the Promise.  Because it is in His PROMISES that you have hope!
2.  Jesus doesn’t speak to the storm until they speak to Him.  Often times we tell everyone else about our issues — but not Him.  Remember— God is a gentleman.  He doesn’t get involved in affairs that He is not invited to.  Call on Him to speak to your storm.
3.  After He calmed it — then they were even more afraid.  And all of us should have a healthy fear for the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah”.  I am afraid of many things.  But I have to remind myself:  “He owns the cattle on a thousand hills” — He is quick to forgive and easy to call on.  In His hand is my destiny and the destiny of all.  He Is Worthy of my praise … And yours.

I pray for you today.

And I ask that you pray for me.

We don’t always need rescuing from our storms.  But we ALWAYS need rescuing from ourselves … and others.

He is up for the task.

And He is the keeper of our eternities.

May He bless you … and keep you … and make His face to shine upon you.  May you find favor in His presence … and worship … in SPIRIT and IN TRUTH.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

At some point you have to decide where your line is.

In other words … where is too far too far?

And each of us must consult with God and make a stand.

For three men in a “not so different scenario” than what we face today—they had decided.

Enough was enough.

God was God.

And sooner or later I must decide Who I stand with and who I stand for.

So Who do you stand for?

I stand for Jesus.

I stand for celebrating His rule over my life.

I stand for doing what He says above what others might say.

And when I feel weary about doing so, I read their story.

Daniel 3 ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

The gospel of Jesus stands much like the behavior of these three men.

As I stood in worship today, God put these things on my heart.  Today, I will keep it simple and leave you with these thoughts:

1. Know What You Stand For.  There is so much that will test you and push you, and a wise friend once told me to ask, “is this the mountain that I am willing to die on?”  So many times, I have decided that it was not.  And God has clearly told me:  if it is not—-move on and never worry about it again.  But then there is the other.  There is the Shadrach Meshach and Abednego moment—and it is where we MUST stand, where we MUST be willing to fight and stand up.  To know what you stand for is driven by one simple things:  WHO you stand for.  Jesus has given you life—and He IS the way and the truth and the life.
2. Honor And Conviction.  The reaction to Nebuchadnezzar is communicated with honor and conviction and it is much like what Jesus said to men who would be kicked out of the temple on His behalf.  As men exited the temple, they were given a full on slap across the mouth, as both an insult and as physical punishment, on their way out the door.  Jesus told them to not only take one — but two slaps in the face.  I personally LOVE this about Jesus.  It says, “I will honor you, but I am so committed to what I am standing for that I will take double the punishment.”  Honor AND Conviction.
3. Worship The Miracle WORKER, Not The Miracle.  As Jesus was confronted to be trapped, He called out men for looking for “signs”.  Matthew 16  “⁴A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.”  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego made it clear—-”even if He doesn’t … “  Perhaps the greatest three words in this scripture … They stood for God alone—no matter what it cost.

God covers us in grace.

He is slow to anger QUICK to love.  He is the only friend you can ever, truly, trust.

So I will end this blog with this.

The world may be coming unraveled.  We may be losing our convictions and our morals.  Greed may rule the day.  The lust of the flesh might be strong.  But God’s grace is great enough for all of it.

MOVE ON and MOVE FORWARD.

As the New England Patriots walked away from a brutal pummeling at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs, they moved on.  The famous phrase came about:

“We are on to Cincinnati”

If you go on Youtube and play that phrase, you can see exactly what that means.

At the end of the day, this is the gospel for all of us.  It is turning the page on all that was lost, or ruined, or hurtful, and it is truly moving on.  It is taking the pieces of our broken past and letting God paint a masterpiece with our lousy art work …

And becoming victorious.  As you watch this video, it isn’t that entertaining.  But moving on and moving forward lead that team to a Super Bowl Championship.  Being able to move on … and move forward is what God gives to all of us … every day.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

As I sat in my quiet time this weekend, I had questions in my heart that I felt no one could answer.

• The world is fighting the Corona Virus and the response to the Corona Virus.
• Two people close to me have gotten the virus, yet I am still more worried about how officials respond to the virus than the virus itself.
• The news outlets are so biased that they would not dare criticize the agenda that they are pushing.  Who is truly giving us the truth?

So I simply wrote down:

Who Can We Trust?

What Do I Do?

Where Do I Belong?

When Will The Chaos End?

Why Are We Facing All Of This?

As I finished writing the last question, God began to work me over, and my conviction to turn to Him, to trust in Him, and to worship Him became greater than ever.

I also became filled with joy.

I know what He wants me to do.

And though I don’t know the outcome of where I am going, I think it is only fair to say that that is a blessing!  Because knowing the outcome is not only not what we need —- it isn’t what we want either.

John 2:25 says that Jesus withdrew from men because “He knew what was in men … “  In other words, He withdrew from men because He knew that He could find no encouragement there.

I encourage you to do the same.

To draw encouragement from the world right now would be like trying to quench your thirst by eating 5 saltine crackers.  It will leave you longing for more and make the problem worse.

So what are we to do?

What?

At the risk of sounding like a simpleton, I leave you with this.

Colossians 3 ²³  Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men

Jesus mentions throughout scripture that we are not to build on things that do not last…

To build our houses on solid ground

To not seek to gain the whole world

To seek Him and His Kingdom above all things

He is the Way

And the Truth

And the Life

And whoever comes to Him shall never be thirsty again … Shall find the living water … Has an entrance into heaven … Will have a home and a place to belong and someone who believes in them

So work hard … And work hard for His glory … For His glory alone.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

To the men who sat in the temple courts and robbed the innocent blind, Jesus was the enemy.  He had ruined their gig and called them out in front of everyone.

To the soldier, Jesus was a terrorist rebel, a man who could stir up the masses.  To the soldier, he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to confront Him.  His message … made sense.

To the religious leader, Jesus was ruining their position in the temple.  He was making people “think” and claiming that everyone was valued.  He was treating women as important and giving value to the lowest of the low.  He was exposing the religious leaders, and He knew what they were thinking.  Some of them questioned whether they were truly men of God or simply benefitting from their position …

To Jonah, Jesus was TOO compassionate.

Jonah 10 ¹ But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. ² He prayed to the LORD , “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. ³ Now, O LORD , take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

But the question today … is who is HE to YOU?

To me,

He is a marriage and family saver.

He tells me what I need to do, not what I want to do.

He is my only hope when I am down.

He is my ONE when I jump for joy.

When I wonder what everyone is saying about me, He reminds me what HE says about me.

In my darkest moments, He has showed up with power and rescued my soul.

I have seen Him heal.

I have seen Him redeem.

I have seen Him give life.

I invite you, this very day, to let Him be your everything.  To let Him truly come and know you and know every offensive way in you.

To let Him have what you are holding onto….

Because what you are holding onto is not worth anything without Him.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Ezekiel 37  ⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded.  And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet-a vast army.

There are two ways to read this and to understand it.

Some read this as an Old Testament scripture, as an old manuscript telling us a fairy tale from the past.  It is a poem, a religious text, a story that we can read to our kids that is slowly becoming less and less important.

But I don’t think this is what it is at all.

I think this scripture is wise beyond and beyond our comprehension.

In my area of the world, the mountains are on fire.

People are sick.

The lack of honor for people of high position is sometimes hard to understand.

We are knowledgeable, but wisdom is fading.

It is almost as if … we have forgotten about the very thing that we need  …

What I want to say today is this:

We have proof.

We have proof that we do not measure up and that we can not count on people to make things right.

We have proof that our very lives are fragile and that those around us, no matter how healthy, are fragile also.

We have proof that money will not buy us out of trouble, buy us into happiness, or buy us protection.

We have proof that man will jack things up, that governments will fail, that systems and processes meant to work (no matter how foolproof) will fail.

We have proof.

If you ever have sat and thought “why won’t this work?” then you know what I am talking about … and believe me, I have sat in frustration and openly spoken:  “Why won’t this work?”

The Bible says that we are fallen.

The Bible says that we are sinners.

The Bible says that we are “a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow” …. that we are “dust in the wind”.

It says that governments fail.

It says that the world will burn.

It says that the there will be plagues, and death.

But what else does it say?

It says that He … is the Alpha and the Omega.

That He … is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

That He … bore our sins on a cross that we might be saved.

That He … would restore what WE lose and put things back together.

Ezekiel saw what God could do.

He saw that He could give life to dead bones.

He saw that He could raise up an army from a graveyard.

He saw that He was the Lord of lords and King of kings.

I have said it before and I will say it again.

Jesus is not one of our answers.

He is The Answer.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

You are unable to do it on your own.

Why would I say that?

The answer is simple:  Because you are UNABLE to do it on your own.

You are a sitting duck for hell, born into death, and with no hope in front of you.

The reality is simple.  You are born BROKEN.

In the book of Romans, the man who spent his entire life getting “right” with God found that he was NOT RIGHT.  In fact, in trying to get right with God, he had become God’s enemy.  Paul later wrote:

Romans 3  ¹⁰ As it is written:

   “There is no one righteous, not even one;

Romans 3  ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

But, in the spirit of the impossible, you are given an OFFER.  And that offer is given in patience.  It is given in free will and choice.  You DON’T HAVE to accept it.

To me, this offer is unfathomable.  The King of the world WAITS outside of your door for YOU to invite Him to come in.  Imagine the most powerful man on earth WAITING for you.  Imagine the President positioning himself in a place where he could be available to you 24-7 but refusing to impose upon you.

Our God refuses to mess with our freedom to live.

Revelation 3  ²⁰ 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.

What you do with that offer is totally and completely UP TO YOU.  You can reject it.  You can think about it.  You accept it—either now, or tomorrow, or whenever you want to.  But the offer is for you to accept.  It is a gift that only you can receive.  It is individual–for you and you alone.

If you choose to RECEIVE this offer, your eternity changes.  You become a new being.

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– 

Psalm 139  ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

John 3  ⁵ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

If you choose to receive His offer, you are given a NEW LIFE.  And that life won’t be perfect.  But He asks for all of you.  ALL OF YOU.

Hebrews 10  ¹⁴ because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

This BORN acronym is not perfect.  And it isn’t perfect because you are not perfect.  You will mess it up, and misrepresent Him, and make Him look bad.  I am not sure why He chose you, because there is a great chance that you will tarnish His image and all that He has done.

But He chooses anyway?

What do you choose?

I encourage you to be BORN again.

BROKEN

OFFER

RECEIVE

NEW LIFE

Say the prayer with me:

“Jesus, I am broken.  And I am broken in a way that I can not be fixed.

But I invite You.  I need You.  I am unable to do it without You.

Come and know me.  Search my heart.  Wash a new life over me and change my heart.  Begin to change even my hopes and my dreams.  Put hope on me.  Give me purpose and a reason to live.

Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you—MAKE ME ONE of Your hired hands!

I receive You and all the good that is in you.

I leave my life of sin and will purpose to worship YOU, and YOU ALONE.

Give me a NEW LIFE, a NEW HEART, a NEW OUTLOOK, and a NEW FOCUS.  Put to death my olf self, and all the stuff that hung on to that.  And give me a new life.  Birth me into a new kingdom, into YOUR KINGDOM.  That I might worship You in Spirit and in Truth.

Amen.

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