John 8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.  Now what do you say?”6  They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

As I was driving in my car, I became deeply convicted to write about:  The Rules of Accusation…..

As I pulled this verse up and began to read it, I have many questions:

#1.  Where is the man she was caught in adultery with?

#2.  Why were the pharisees USING this to trap Jesus?

#3.  What does “Go now and leave your life of sin” mean?

As I have spoken before, I am not an expert on scripture.  I have not been schooled to preach…or teach…or to even write this blog.

I am simply a man who is broken by sin who found the greatest thing in the world—A TREASURE.  And that TREASURE is JESUS.

He has changed me, and will continue change me, from the inside out.

And He has a lot of work to do.

So to write about this today is going to be hard for me……because as I type the words to the page it is going to “call me out” as much as it might you…..

You see, as a coach, I have always prided myself in “holding people accountable”.

But here is our reality….and it is a reality that we must all face:

• Jesus does not look at who we are, He looks at who we can be
• Jesus doesn’t see our sin—–He sees us as His kid
• Jesus promotes us when he should punish us
• Jesus doesn’t keep track of items, He doesn’t have a list, and He isn’t looking to zing us and catch us and humiliate us and punish us.

Accusations—-they are from the enemy.  Satan—-he is the king of accusation. And he is the king of accusation because there is so much wrong with it…..

Look at this story…..look at John 8.  My questions are simply opportunities to point at accusation and see it for what it truly is:

• Accusation plays favorites-  Notice, they “caught her in adultery”….that means they caught THEM in adultery.  So what happened to him? They want to stone her but let him go? What so he can go do it again?  That is hideous.

• Accusation is a vehicle to promote political gain- The story of the accusers is not about dealing with sin.  The pharisees want to KILL a woman to TRAP Jesus.  And then later they kill Jesus. Never did they stop to look and realize that they were HUNTING God Himself.  They continued to lie, manipulate, and accuse until they had carried out there awful plan.

• Accusation does not lead to testimony- I will bet money that the lady who walked away from this incident TOLD EVERYONE ABOUT WHO SHE WAS AND WHAT SHE DID.  Wow! She testified about Jesus by bringing up the very thing that she was going to get stoned for.

So what are The Rules of Accusation?

They are simple.

Don’t do it.

You belong to a Man who refused to do it…..and He was perfect in every way—and He chose not to accuse.

If He didn’t do it, we shouldn’t either.

We serve a God who truly has our back.  He truly is our Lord and our redeemer.

He truly IS.

Raise your hands this very day and worship the God who refuses to accuse you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR5IoWH9OiI

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

I have nothing more to say than:

Sometimes you just need to STOP…..and WORSHIP.

Sometimes we are guilty of allowing the enemy to think that he has won….

I am sure that Mary Magdalene felt defeated.

Jesus had rescued her from her life of sin and she had fully committed to following Him….and yet–they crucified Him.

So she went to the grave to take care of His body–and He wasn’t there:

John 20  14“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”  Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”  16Jesus said to her, “Mary.”  She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).  17Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”  18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

The enemy has not, and will not, win.

Our bodies will break down.

Our time will run out.

Our end in the flesh is certain.

But we are eternal souls trapped in a finite body….and one day we will be free of them forever.

Hallelujah Our God Reigns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR5IoWH9OiI

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Let’s face up to the facts today.

We don’t have much to offer the Living God.

He is Infinite, Patient, Full of Love, and Perfect.

We…..are disloyal, absent minded, full of sin, and without hope.

What could we possibly offer Him?

Lamentations 3 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  23 They are new every morning;  great is your faithfulness.

God is faithful…and His compassions never fail…they are NEW every morning.

Thank God for God.

Every morning He starts over with us.

A couple of weeks ago I got a text from my daughter from college….as I read it in the morning before school–I wept.  It truly melted my heart. I couldn’t help but think about all the mistakes I had made—and yet she was showing me gratitude and honor….it made my day.

As I thought about God, I thought about that very thing.  Unlike me, He has nothing to regret or second guess about anything He has given us…He has been the perfect parent….even though we have NOT BEEN the easiest of children.

So tell Him how good He truly is….show Him gratitude and honor and worship and awe…..  It will MAKE HIS DAY.

For no matter where you have been or what you have done…..His love is new every morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gSugruC1jQ&t=0s&index=31&list=PLos3S5nRDkEYdNd9y8SvOdW8PN4-hScwD

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Reading about Jesus has often confused me.  He would do something incredible and then right after…He would do something that could be perceived to be …. CRAZY.

I think this is why the author Josh McDowell made the bold claim that He was either a lunatic, a liar, or the risen Lord.

The one thing that is clear is that Jesus was not playing around:

Matthew 8  18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Was Jesus really saying:  “If you want to follow me, there will not even be time to bury your own father.”

What?

Jesus is not callous or inconsiderate or out of touch.

He just knows what’s best….for everyone.

I know that in my life I wrestled with the idea of speaking at my dad’s funeral…….and I wrestled with it because I had felt the Lord PROMPTING me to do just that.  And we was PROMPTING me while I was wrestling with my dad’s sickness.

For days and weeks, I fought with the Lord about it.  

How could He know what I was dealing with and why would He ask me to do such a thing?

But God knows what He was doing.  And if I have learned anything over the years, I have learned this:  God asks me to do things as much for me as He does for others……

He ministers to ME in the things He asks me to do.

And so He did with my dad.  As I struggled through the utter despair of saying goodbye to the man who was my greatest hero, He began to do a new thing in me to bring me out of the pit.

And He used EVERYTHING, including the things that I despised, to bring me back to a place of peace.

Thank you Lord for loving me when I don’t have the strength to even love myself.

Now back to the Matthew verse.

God knows your direction is everything.

He knows that if you walk in the wrong direction that you will not end up in the right place….

And so He changed the man’s road map.

Going to bury his father was going to lead the man (in Matthew 8) away from Jesus…..

And, after all, our destinies are made up of choices, and when heading in the wrong direction, we can end up A LONG WAY FROM WHERE WE WANT TO GO.

All of us need to remember that small steps in the wrong direction can lead us so far from a good place.

But God….

But God died on that cross to set a new thing in action…..He wanted to give us a direction that would lead to life….

And life with Him is the only life there is.

So no “but firsts” to God…

No telling Him that you will do it….But first let me……

No.

Just follow.

It will be the best decision you have ever made.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

David had done the unthinkable…..he had taken another man’s wife for his own…..and then covered it up with murder.

At the greatest moment of his life—-he had forgotten about the Lord.  And his life was unraveling……..and it was unraveling because he had forgotten who had made him who he was.

I saw a sign that read:  “If God gave you everything that you asked for would the world be any different than it is today?”

OUCH.

Sometimes our greatest enemy ….. is ourselves.

And David……he had fully allowed his pride, his self-worship, his power, and money, and lust….to lead him (and another family) into a terrible place.

But David had Nathan.  And true friends are going to tell us the truth even when we don’t want to hear it…..

2 Samuel 12 4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!”

I think that David wrote the following as he struggled, and rightly so, with who he was:

Psalm 51  10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

There is no greater goal then to be aligned with the King of the universe.  Alignment with Him changes everything about each day that we live…..and it is the very thing that saves us from the very thing we really need rescue from…..OURSELVES.

Do you need a friend to come and tell you the honest truth?

Whether you do or not I will leave you with this…….

Without the Lord your life can go to empty incredibly fast.

It can deteriorate and crumble in the blink of an eye.

But God…….

God has known this….and He has planned for this…..and He has given you an exit strategy.

Leave your plans and your visions and your worldly goals in the rearview mirror and find a new map.

Because God has something for you that is better than anything you could ever attain on your own accord…….

HIS PRESENCE OVER YOUR LIFE

Pray for it.  Ask for it. Seek it.  In Him you have your greatest treasure….And as Peter said:  “Lord, where will I go? You, and You alone, hold 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

He was absolutely certain that he was following the right god….until he wasn’t.

On the way into Damascus, Syria…..Paul was planning on taking yet another step towards exterminating the scum of the earth…..Christians.  And he was doing a great job.

Educated.

Rich.

A Citizen of Rome.

Respected.

Feared.

Popular.

The world was at his fingertips.  He had the respect of the Jews and the respect of the Romans.

He was living the good life.

And then it happened.

Paul had an encounter with the King of the Universe:  Jesus Christ.

The gospel that I have claimed can not be false….there are too many holes in the arguments against it.

Discovered by women,

Championed by the lower class,

and Carried by people who gave their lives….

The gospel of Jesus is just so SOLID that I can’t turn away from it……and Your options are not very good outside of the one that He gives……and when Paul found that out he tossed all of his earthly privileges in the garbage and COMPLETELY CHANGED TEAMS…….

Because he wanted…..

To Follow The Right God.

Paul found out he was not only not doing right by God…..he found out he was actually an ENEMY of God.

And this is true of all of us……when we are not born into being a child of the King….we are an enemy.

Romans 5  8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We all need to take account of who we are and where we are going…..Paul found out that he was correct in his path as far as getting to Damascus……But when he looked at where he was going with God…..it was the wrong way.

The word REPENT has to do with turning, with changing direction……

And we all need to check our own direction from time to time…………and make sure that we are headed toward something we can live with……..

When Paul found out where he was going…..he through it all away and started rewriting the book……

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

At the exact time when He was prophesied to be there….He showed up:

John 1  29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

When there was a problem with the heart of all man and people were desperate……..He showed up.

In a time when no one had hope to stand up to a tyrannical government……..He showed up.

And when the debt came due—and we did not have the money to pay it……..He showed up then too:

John 19 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

And when He said “It is Finished” —- what He really said was that it was “paid in full”.  PAID IN FULL.  He showed up and paid the bill.

This isn’t just words in a book.  

This is an eternal promise and a move to set your existence in stone.

When He shows up everything changes:

The enemy doesn’t own you

Death can’t keep you

Your eternal destiny is set

Your family line is written

Your punishment is taken

Your shortfalls are forgotten

And it goes on and on and on.

And it’s not just for your eternal destiny although that should be enough.

It is for the now.

At a moment in my life when I was completely broke……. and broken….I cried out and asked Him for help……

Not surprisingly…….He showed up.

And that is my testimony today……He Will Show Up.

So don’t be afraid to cry out and ask.

Ask Him for a lot….and give Him all you have in doing so……Because His timing is perfect……and He is going to be there right when you need Him.

He Will Show Up

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

It is easy to follow the crowd.

It is easy to take the path of least resistance.

It is easy to be mediocre.

But God has called us to greater things….even in our times where we think we are not needed.

I am sure that David, as he watched over the sheep, wondered if he would ever do anything meaningful.

But the reality was that God was training him to take down a giant ….. And he didn’t even know it.

The world will tell you many things:

1. You Only Live Once
2. You Are An Accident That Is The Result Of Some Cosmic Explosion
3. You Don’t Matter

But the reality is this:  You DO Matter

And what you do:  It Matters

Take that responsibility seriously-

What You Do Matters

So Be A Leader

What does that look like in your personal life?….I don’t know.  But the Lord—He KNOWS. And He will lead you.

A good friend of mine who I respect VERY MUCH….had this read at his wedding:

Psalm  1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.

I see this verse written all over his life—and I always have.

I think it is because the Lord has put so much honor on him because the Lord knows that he will carry it.

And he does……..

He does not follow counsel from evil men

He does not mock people

He does not condone, or entertain, or water down….sin

And he is very committed to being right with the Lord

Is he perfect?  No.

But he does inspire me to do the one thing that all of us should try to do:

He inspires me to be a better man.

So I challenge you today…

Be A Leader

Ask God to show you what that means specifically to your life.

And then go and do your best.  Because when God impacted my friend He changed his life…..

And God working in his life has inspired me—-to be a better man.

So….Be A Leader…..because you never know who is watching.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J