2 MINUTE WARNING

1 Timothy 3:16 Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

Think about it, He:

Appeared in a body~  God saw man and realized his destiny.  Instead of allowing that destiny, He came down.  Emanuel….”God with us”.  He became an inmate to release us from the prison where we belonged.

Was vindicated by the Spirit~  In His mixing with us, He proved Himself faultless.  He was tempted, tried, accused, blamed, mistreated, and attacked….and it began before He was even born.  In spite of being attacked by the very people He came to save, He remained true to His call:  the salvation of all mankind, bringing them back to Him.

Was seen by angels~  Those very beings who were created by Him, who worshipped Him, who chose Him, had to watch Him in different form.  He made Himself nothing, took on a totally vulnerable state, in front of those who were once below Him.

was preached among the nations~  With no help beyond what we are given on this very day, He changed the world.  He had no military behind Him, no political power, He did not travel far, He wrote no books, and He was killed as a criminal.  Yet, His LOVE overcame all of that that He would be preached among the nations.

Was believed on in the world~  How could we not?  How could we refuse the Living God, who in human form, was pierced for our transgressions?

Was taken up in glory~  Hallelujah!  He would finally be restored to the place He had no reason to leave…..except to offer us a return to glory as His sons.  Praise be to You, Jesus!  We worship Your Holy Name!

(That’s how you forgive by Shane and Shane)

All who call upon You, You will rescue….and forgive

This is why I live

You lived the life I could never live

You died the death O that I deserve

You rose to life and now you live

Let’s all cry out today and say to the Lord, Thank YOU!  This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

https://youtu.be/fIgQEkHELyY

vin·di·cate

1. show somebody to be blameless: to clear somebody or something of blame, guilt, suspicion, or doubt
2. justify somebody or something: to show that somebody or something is justified or correct
3. uphold something: to defend or maintain something such as a cause or rights

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

2,000 years ago a new faith exploded onto the scenes around Jerusalem founded on the life and teachings of a man named Jesus Christ…..My life is based on that man……

But today, I am going to focus on what happened 48 years ago.

48 years ago I was on life support.  I was clinging to my very life and only surviving because of what we call our navel.

It was not only bringing me oxygen, nutrition, antibiotics, and all of the things necessary to life….it was also taking away all of the things that could harm me like toxins, carbon dioxide, and waste.

And the only way this worked was that I was connected to my mom…..she was supplying all of it.

Now, in those 9 months that I was on life support, my mom experienced phenomenal changes:

• Her blood volume increased by 50%
• She grew a new organ
• Her sense of smell was heightened incredibly—even making “normal” things smell terrible
• Her body endured many, many more miraculous changes in order that I might find life
• She endured many things in order that I might have life

Now I know that many would look at the Christian life and say:  “that is crazy”…..but I would respond and say:  the way we were born and came to be is CRAZY.  You see, it is nothing short of a miracle that a baby is even born…..and yet we sometimes, as people, just walk through life and do not recognize how miraculous it truly is.

I think this is probably what Albert Einstein was talking about when he said:  “There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

I choose the latter……but I choose it based on my faith in Jesus—-not Albert Einstein.

So today, let’s ask Jesus what He says about our wonderful moms.

Here is what He says:

• When you honor your mom–It blesses you!  

Ephesians 6:1-3

• Keep your mom’s teachings bound to your heart.

Proverbs 6:20-21

• Think about your mom in all circumstances.

John 19:25-27

I hope that you celebrated your mom yesterday….I hope that you took her out to dinner and gave her flowers and a card and really poured into her.  I hope that you told her that you loved her and made sure she understood how important she is to you and all of those around you………

But if you didn’t, you can do it today.  Because chances are she thinks about you every single day of the year and every hour of the day.

No other relationship shows the commitment of Jesus Christ to come down and free us than that of a mom who cares for her family.

Appreciate it and honor it.

In The Name of the Father and the Son

and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Sometimes we get OVERWHELMED the other way.  Sometimes the weight of life is simply crushing…….it is too much for the soul to bear……

Psalm 34   18The LORD is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

I could not stop crying when my father got sick.  Over the course of many years I saw him deteriorate to the point where he lost his ability to think, to walk, to process, to even swallow.

Alzheimer’s is tough to deal with……..

On his deathbed, I read scripture over my dad as he breathed in his last gasps…..he opened his eyes and looked at all of us and then gazed up at the ceiling in our family room…..it was as if he saw something “beyond”…..I believe that he saw into the spiritual realm before he passed into it.

It was not until a couple of months later, in church, that I found peace…..as we stood in worship I had a picture of my dad—young, vibrant, full of life, and HAPPY……From that moment on……the Lord removed the sting and allowed me to remember him with peace—as if the Lord was saying:  “I got him”.

For those of us who endure pain and suffering I pray this day for peace over you…over your situation…..over your life.  I even offer for you to reach out on this blog that we might all cry out on your behalf for all that hurts…….

Peace, hope, and love to all of you in the mighty Name of Jesus.

https://youtu.be/L5bLvVjJ4MA

In The Name of the Father and the Son

and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

For the sake of this blog, I will refer to this verse as:  OVERWHELMED.  For the Psalmist is OVERWHELMED with God….and His creation.

Psalm 8    1 O LORD , our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory above the heavens.  2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.  3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.  6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;  you put everything under his feet:  7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD , our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Big Daddy Weave sings a song called OVERWHELMED……and I believe it goes very well with this verse.  And it leads me to the subject of today’s Blog Post.

As I sat in church, in the midst of worship.  I remembered another “Do you want to get well?” moment…….this one more personal.

I am a man with two bad knees.  I have had two knee reconstructions….and both knees have been re-injured since.  In the first 3 surgeries the cartilage was so bad that the doctor simply shaved it away.  So when I see an athlete go down with a torn ACL……I am compassionate……I know the rehab it takes and how hard it is to deal with such a severe injury.  My reality is that I deal with this daily.

Not too long ago, one of my knees went out at school…..and I could not get it to line up right.  Without an ACL, your knee dislocates…..and mine seemed to be in a place where it was permanently “out”.

I began to go to a place of discouragement……

In fact…..I had a moment.  I laid down on our couch at home and I began to become OVERWHELMED with discouragement—-I simply laid there with my head in my hands and silently wept……..

How would I work?

How would I be there for my kids?

For my wife?

I was a cripple on a couch…..and I can honestly say that I felt like a man without hope.

My wife…..the greatest person I know…..sensed my despair and came over and began to pray over me……she put her hands on me and began to ask God for His mercy and His strength and His love………

When I got up off of the couch that day…….I was OVERWHELMED with God’s love….encouraged and filled with hope and courage….I would stand and do what I was supposed to do (in the spirit), even though I had no idea how I would do it in the physical (although….my knee did feel better)

That Sunday, I limped into church.  A friend of mine, Brian, was helping me collect and sort offering…….as we did so—I was struck by the fact that he had been talking in front of the church about his desire to pray over, and bring God’s healing, to people.

What did I have to lose?

So I humbled myself and asked him.

My humble servant friend gladly prayed and asked the Lord to bring healing to my knee…..

Since that day—–my knee has not given me one bit of trouble.

So today, I want to proclaim God’s desire to OVERWHELM your issue….whatever it might be.

You know…..sometimes there are mountains in front of us…..mountains that we look at and wonder:  How will I climb that?  How can I possibly get through this?

The enemy can own your world with a thought.

He can take you to a place of no hope.

He can bring you to a place where you do not know how you will do it.

He can fill you with lies and partial truths (even bigger lies) and convince you that you make no difference….that you are broken and ineffective…..that there is no hope.

I think it is easy, when we allow it, to be OVERWHELMED by the words of the enemy.

I think it was important that my wife prayed over me and helped me to become OVERWHELMED with God’s love.

I think that put me in a place where Brian could pray over me and I could be OVERWHELMED with God’s plans and His hope……and His healing touch.

So today……I ask:  Do You Want To Get Well?

My first encouragement would be to tell you to be OVERWHELMED by God’s love.  If you need some help—-ask someone to pray for you.

My second encouragement would be to tell you to be OVERWHELMED with God’s creation and simply who He is……..To be OVERWHELMED with the fact that He has got us….that even in death He has our world totally covered.

After all…….Jesus Christ is our ONLY HOPE.

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiGb14tTaH4

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Coach J

John 5    1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie–the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”  7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”   8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

Do you want to get well?

What?

Why would He ask that?

Did my Savior just ask a dumb question?

Unfortunately, he did not………..

This is an awesome scripture on so many levels…..I love that Jesus healed the sick and performed many miracles.  But I would like to focus on something within the story that I believe God is trying to point out to us……and that is:

The question of whether or not we want to get well.

I don’t think that it is a question for a lame man at a pool…..I think it is a question that each of us must answer……

Do You Want To Get Well?

It is no secret that God warns us of many things……

When asked about adultery, Jesus brought up thought life.

When asked about murder, Jesus brought up anger and being hateful.

When confronted with social issues and hanging out with the “uncool”, Jesus embraced not being cool and hung out with anyone He felt convicted to be with—-not worrying one bit about what others thought of it.

Why these points?

Because I think that small things can lead to big things.  And sometimes we walk into our own sickness…..and we live in it.

How many of us have walked into our own sickness … our own issue  … our own sin … and there we lay—-spiritually crippled and miserable and blaming others for not helping us down when the water is stirred.

Sometimes we must face the fact that we have put ourselves in the very situation that we now live in…..

Crippled

Victimized

Broken

I am sorry if this is a hard word…..but when the Lord asks me to release something—it goes straight into my heart and makes me cry and then I begin to type.  (if this is in your kitchen…..I have to say:  it’s in mine too!)

So many of my issues or problems are simply my inability:

To be patient

To love

To forgive

To give more than what I take

But there is good news…..there is grace for today!  (and tomorrow too!)

He can make us well.

But we must choose to be a participant in our own rescue….we can, in fact, be delivered because we can die to the one thing that we need to……

OURSELVES.

How many times have I looked up and said to the Lord?

“Why don’t you come down here and feel what it is like to be on this earth?”

“Why don’t you go through this pain so you know what it feels like?”

“Why don’t you come and FIX THIS?”

Let me testify on this day——that in the person of Jesus:

He Did.  He Has.  And He Will.

In coaching I have been known to say:  “Get your butt going!”

Now I am going to do it in my BLOG.  The world is dying out there….people need you to live out the call on your life……and it isn’t small….it involves bringing God’s Kingdom into your everyday world.

If you have Jesus…..you can truly do that……He has a plan bigger than anything you could ever do yourself…………

If you haven’t done it…..You can RECEIVE Him……and He can begin that work tonight!

And if you have……but you are crippled and wallowing in the misery that can only be healed by Him……..then I have to ask:

Do You Want To Get Well?

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Paul found Jesus on the road to Damascus in an incredible encounter.  Paul had everything—–he was prestigious, educated, powerful, and respected in the Jewish community while enjoying the privilege of being a Roman citizen.  He was going to Damascus with one thing in mind:  To kill or imprison the followers of Jesus Christ.

But then something radical happened.  Paul found, AND RECEIVED, Jesus.  From that moment on………Paul made a radical change.  He gave up all that he had and became a radical follower of Jesus.

My experience was not the same.  I grew up in the church and I loved Christians and I loved the Christian faith—-I just didn’t always follow it.

For those of us who grew up “Christian” but didn’t find Jesus until later, we should take heed of Paul’s God-breathed words to the town of followers he was writing to:

Galatians 3   1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?

How easy it is to fall into Religion.  Many people tell me:  You are Religious.  I always correct them…..I am NOT RELIGIOUS (at least I hope), but a follower of Jesus.

This verse should serve as a warning for us all:  many of us do not have a great testimony of sin prior to RECEIVING Him.  And because of that, we can often fall back into who we were before…….Religious Hypocrites.

Hypocrite comes from the word:  Stage or Play Actor.  In other words, Jesus called the Pharisees Stage/Play Actors…..Putting on the appearance of virtue or religion.

We never would want the world to see us as saved because we act right.  What we want them to see us is humbled before the Lord because we are saved by grace.

Our message can’t be about our resume.

It can’t be about our great works for the Lord.

It can’t be about how holy or how virtuous we are.

We must be willing to be vulnerable.

I am not sure how else to say it, so here goes:

• Without Jesus, my life would be a wreck.
  • Without Jesus, my marriage would be in shambles.
  • Without Jesus, my finances would be a disaster; He put them together in a slow process starting in 2007.
• Without Jesus, I have no chance in heaven.
• Without Him….we have NOTHING to offer.

The prophet Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 64:6  All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

What?

Yes….he means menstrual rags…..OUR GOOD WORKS ARE LIKE FILTHY RAGS TO GOD.

Lord have mercy on my soul.  I am Yours….and Yours alone…..without YOU….I am NOTHING!

All of us….if we are not constantly seeking His face….are capable of falling back into the corruption that we see each and every day—–and we do it:

When we think we can be holy by following all of the rules.

Repent.  Receive Him.  And Remember WHO YOUR DADDY IS!

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

When my nephew was born, my brother and sister named him Ezekiel–a great Biblical name that I loved…..but I realized that I did not know that much about Ezekiel’s writing—-so I read it and began to read it and speak it over his “Zeke”’s life.

A verse that struck me when I read it was:

Ezekiel 36    26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

At the time, I was just reading a verse in a book and thinking about my nephew…..But reflecting today—-God has put this very thing in my nephew.  He competes with HEART……And, in fact, from the time he was very small….he has been incredibly competitive….

• He HATES to lose
• He always competes at an incredibly high level
• He returns to the “game” to get better daily

Whether it is pole vault or wrestling or football …. or checkers…… He is a competitor who hates to lose and strives to win.

All of us value heart in sports.  It is something that is important to us as we watch or coach or compete.  And we soon realize that as we look for heart

In sports:

• It is impossible to measure heart…..but you can see it.
• It is impossible to see the actual amount of heart a player plays with…..but you can see it.
• It is impossible to compare, between players, who plays with more heart…..but you can see it.

For the last three weeks, I have gotten out of bed and it has been a common theme for me to ask the Lord to soften my heart……In the grind of life, I find myself sometimes becoming hard-hearted.  How do I know that?  I can see it…..and inside my head—I can see it.

The Lord has the answers for us….and as I have said before—He has the answers because He is the Answer:

If you are like me…..and you wander “out of the Spirit” then I encourage you to cry out for the same thing in accordance with Ezekiel 36:6:

Ezekiel 36    26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Ask Him to come and restore and rejuvenate and replenish……Because the Lord’s Word trumps the world 100% of the time……and He will……

Lord~

Come right now …. And put a new heart in me.  Restore me and convict me.  Put compassion in me and put love in me.  Take my iniquities and cast them away that I might have a heart like Yours!  Help me to be who You have called me to be!

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

No one clashed with religion and religious leaders more than Jesus Christ…..and He beat them so decisively in their arguments that they decided that they had to kill Him.

And kill Him they did.  In a brutal murder of an innocent man, they hung Him on a cross between two thieves and humiliated Him in front of all that would come to see…..even some of His friends and family.  The rest of His friends had run off and hid in order to save themselves.

And all of that conflict was rooted in one issue:

What Was The TRUTH?

The pharisees spent all of their time looking for PROOF to convict….and Jesus spent His time loving people in TRUTH.

I heard something in a movie once that convicted me from the moment that I heard it:

In the movie A Few Good Men, lawyer Tom Cruise says to his partner:  “It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what we can prove!”

Isn’t that the world today……the TRUTH does not matter—-only what we CAN PROVE.

I’m not on that train……that repulses me.  And anyone who has been on the side of TRUTH and seen it get crumpled up and thrown in the trash like it did not matter is repulsed by that also.

I think that’s why Jesus said:

John 14:6   Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

You see the world may say:  the TRUTH does not matter—-only what we CAN PROVE.

But Jesus says just the opposite:  What you can prove does not matter—the only thing that matters is the TRUTH.

So if you are struggling with the way things are done….with the way that life is going…..with the actions of your school or your company or your boss or your friend….Just remember:  we live in a world that simply crumbles when the TRUTH is really discovered.  Think about it:  Are we corrupt because of the corruption?……or is there corruption because we are corrupt?

We will never escape the reality that we need a Savior.  We simply can’t stand up under the reality that we are broken.  

And that’s the TRUTH.

Jesus is the only way.

No backup plan.  No exit strategy.  No other path.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

On the very first play of my college career, I was on the kickoff coverage team at the University of Northern Colorado and we were playing in our first home game.  I had never been a “darter” on a kickoff team as I was usually the safety on our kickoff coverage in high school……

Sometimes a little experience really helps……..

At a full tilt sprint to get to the ball I found myself in a train wreck.  I saw a quick speck of a blue helmet out of my left eye and the next thing I knew I was on the ground.  In football terms—-we say a guy gets “ear-holed” when he is hit from the blind side….possibly because of the fact that he is looking out the ear hole of the helmet as he lays on the ground.

I got “ear-holed”.

One of the things I love about the game of football is the accountability piece…..you don’t always win, you don’t always make the tackle, you don’t always win the hits.

The game requires that you get up after getting knocked down.  You can’t play if you aren’t willing to get up and get back in the fight.

And so, on that day in that play, I had to get up after getting drilled.

But that was not the end of it.

The real pain came on Sunday night in Butler-Hancock Hall.  You see, that was when we all (all of the team and coaches) got to watch it as we reviewed game film.

As one of my assistants always says:  “The Eye In The Sky Don’t Lie”

Watching me get knocked down looked a lot worse than I thought it would.  And I had to explain to my coach, in front of my team, why I was not paying attention and doing my job……

It was humiliating.

When I connect what happened that day to this verse:

2 Corinthians 5:10   For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

I am terrified.

And after coaching for many seasons, I have come to know several things:

• We never think we look as bad as it looks on film.
• Our mistakes, when viewed from above, are magnified.
• When someone else looks at our dirt, it is humiliating.

Now…think about those three things on the spiritual level.

And so here we are…..in front of the Lord…….appearing before the Judgment Seat of Christ…..facing the one man in the universe who NEVER sinned.

He was born into the world illegitimate, ignored, mistreated, and accused.

And when He couldn’t be tempted or discouraged or controlled….

They cheated Him and beat Him and accused Him and mocked Him and spit on Him and nailed Him to a cross between two thieves…..

And He still……did not sin.

And so when I stand before Him and let Him “watch my film”—I am terrified.

But that’s the bad news…..Here is the good news:

We can actually be forgiven.  Not kind of forgiven.  Not overlooked.  But welcomed with open arms AS IF WE HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG.

So welcome to the place where the God of the Universe gives you the opportunity to choose your own adventure….you have freedom.  You can choose to stand before that judgment seat and tell Him that it didn’t look THAT BAD.  (Good luck)

Or you can bow down before Him and receive His free gift of grace.

I choose Jesus…….I choose the one who took the nails and auctioned off His own life that I might get a second chance.

And I do it……..every single day I get out of bed.

Please join me in pursuing the greatest prize the world has ever seen……The God of Grace!

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J