When an NFL player hits a crisis, it must be very hard to pull out of it. The quarterback, in particular, is in the eye of the storm. Surrounded by hostile grown men whose primary purpose is to bring pressure and physicality, the quarterback must face the hurricane and deliver in the biggest moments.
CJ Stroud is the new generation of men who “walk into the lions den”. And he seems to know who he is and who he belongs to. In every interview that I have seen, he thanks God through Jesus and plays for something bigger. Bless him for representing.
The reason he is in those interviews, in my opinion, is that he has adopted another character trait that Jesus recommends:
“Seeing It Before It Is”
Some would call it Faith. I call it FAITH AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL.
And Jesus knew this faith and taught this faith.
Matthew 1613 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
Jesus saw Peter.
He saw the plans of the enemy.
He saw the sins of men.
He saw the future.
Jesus chose Peter to build the church before he was worthy to be even a member.
And He sees what lies in front of you.
That’s a leader that makes the best NFL quarterback look like a Pop Warner back up.
And it is who we should be following as we navigate a rocky future. Jesus Sees It Before It Is … He is worthy of my devotion and surrender. He is the Christ … the Son of the Living God. All praise and honor and worship to the God who loves us too much to let us go.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Yesterday, I had the honor to speak at Valdean Peppler’s funeral. If you are a family member and want a copy of the Grave side service or Eulogy, you can find it here. For the blog, just read on.
When Valdean Peppler started a conversation with her friend Elaine she would always say: “Elaine, today we are one day closer to paradise.” On March 20, 2024 she left our earth to do just that. She looked forward to her entrance into heaven and even told my wife in the months before she died that she had dreamed of a new house that was being built for her and that all the streets were Bible names.
I have a hard time contemplating this whole scenario. But Valdean … she did not. And when her son Glen Junior reached out to her dear friend Elaine to let her know that she had passed away, Elaine shouted with joy! They had both prepared themselves for this moment.
And her life represented that:
Well into her life, Valdean found a freedom in rediscovering the offer of 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.”
From the moment she accepted that word, and Him, Valdean’s life was changed forever.
She could not stop reading her Bible. She lived a life of purpose. And she became an Agent.
A Change Agent
A Travel Agent
A Prayer Agent
Valdean was Change Agent
Upon hearing that a strip club was going to open on Main Street in Longmont, Valdean and her small group began to pray. They prayed that the Boardwalk would not open. Not too long after that, not only was there no Boardwalk, there was a Lord’s Walk. The Lord’s Walk Christian Book Store was not so much a business…it was a beacon, a family run and influenced place to be encouraged, prayed for, and ministered to. The Lord’s Walk changed a city. Valdean was blessed by having family help her run the business, but more than that, she was blessed to influence thousands of people.
Valdean was a Travel Agent
Those of us who knew Valdean heard “Travel with Angels” every time we left her. It was not just a saying. Never would this be more vital then a Glenn Junior accident. Driving too fast, he veered across highway 287, hit a telephone pole, and ricocheted into an enormous tree. He ended up waking up in the passenger seat and the tree had pushed the steering wheel completely through the driver’s seat. Some would say that not wearing a seatbelt saved his life. More would say that God did.
Valdean was also a Prayer Agent
Any Time Someone Needed Prayer, or counsel, or advice, or encouragement, Valdean was a Beacon of Wisdom. It wasn’t just her gift, it was her willingness to cry out to God in prayer and request … she activated God to help her … and others.
This didn’t apply to just big things, it applied to ALL things. Over 30 years ago, Valdean was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. It was a grim situation. When Valdean heard that her heart was failing and nothing could be done, she simply “prayed and spoke” Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Her heart began to improve and her granddaughter Leissa awoke one morning to hear her grandma screaming as her doctor told her “your condition is supposed to be degenerative but by all intents and purposes you had a perfectly normal echocardiogram.
I have always asked: “Why in some cases does God seem show up and not in others?” I do not know, and Valdean did not know either. But she celebrated the victories and kept her faith in the defeats. She chose to give all glory to God and I know that He was blessed by her worship through the good … and the bad.
I will leave you with this:
Jesus is real.
His house is real.
His love is real.
And He has prepared a place for us…..as John says in John 1: “To those who would receive Him, to those who would call on His Name, He gives the right to become children of God”
And it is never, ever, too late to live a life of purpose.
It can start today.
And all it takes is discovering, OR rediscovering, the offer of 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.
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Matthew 16 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
This is Peter. And this Peter is the guy who promised loyalty and ran. This is the Peter who denied even knowing Jesus, the guy who swore just to make that point crystal clear. This is the guy who fell asleep in Jesus’ darkest hour.
A rock?
Not even a pebble.
But our view of the gospel is always tainted.
We choose to be judged by what we intended to do …
But we judge others by what they did.
But the reality of the universe is really very simple.
God says we will be judged in EVERY WAY. And the reality is that even a person will say: “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
And so here we are …
On the road to Hell.
Enter Jesus.
Full of grace and truth.
Healing the sick. Raising the dead.
Putting His hands on the unclean.
Standing up for the broken.
But above all of that … He is calling up those who are not equipped — like Peter.
And He is calling you too.
So bring your broken self to the foot of the cross.
Accept His grace.
And go give away His love.
That’s enough for today … and the reality is … It Is Enough For A Lifetime.
“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.
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I love reading this verse. It is challenging to our culture in 2024 in so many ways:
Luke 16 1 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 ” ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ” ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.
Many people view heaven and wonder: “What is the cost of admission?”
What is the cost of admission?
We are short on our accounts and when the payment is due we will not have enough to pay it.
And then there is Jesus. He shows up and cancels the debt for us and our entrance goes from impossible to certain.
This is a message to the believer and the unbeliever.
It is easy for a follower to say that “I have been doing this for years and because of that, I am going to the front of the line.”
It is easy for a newcomer to say, “I am not worthy.” Or “I will go to the back of the line because I am not good enough.”
But this is not what Jesus says:
He says: Welcome. Enjoy your promotion. Welcome to the family.
When we are in we are in. And we are in because Jesus decided to pay the price of admission.
This message is not a good one to the individual who can buy everything or influence everything or overpower everything. There will be no money great enough, no influence great enough, and certainly nothing powerful enough to push our God around.
I mean: He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
He equips shepherd boys with rocks to take down giants.
He shuts the mouths of lions.
And He will certainly stand in front of an army and be undaunted.
The concept of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah ruling over us excites me as much as it humbles me.
And He did, unequivocally, pay the price for our admission … and yours.
So when you sit in worship today … THANK HIM for that.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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This is a long message … but I implore you to read it and listen to the song at the end!
Genesis 37 5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
In one conversation, Joseph set his life on a different course.
When you approach older brothers and make statements like this, you are showing yourself to be arrogant, entitled, pompous, ungrateful, clueless, … just to name a few …
And not long after this, he was enslaved, falsely accused, and thrown into prison.
Reading the story, it is by God’s protection alone that he lived through the incident with Potifer’s wife.
But that is not what this is about.
This blog is about YOU and it is about YOUR DREAMS.
It is about knocking the baggage off of your life and reclaiming what you have lost …
It is about you fighting to get back in the driver’s seat while at the same time allowing God to be the driver.
It is about us facing the realities in front of us. It is true, when we enter into this world, we start with two strikes against us.
Strike One is talked about in Revelation 12:10B, and it relates to the Accuser. Day and night, he releases accusation after accusation that do nothing but condemn us.
Strike Two is that those accusations, for the most part, are true. We are guilty as charged in most cases. And, the reality is, we have nothing on this earth to defend ourself from those serious charges.
It is about us not letting the story end here. Just like Joseph, our actions have been a viable part of our destination at the prison cell. We are there for good reason. But we are not there to stay. We are there to be released by what Jesus said in John 3:16. We are there so that we can truly understand the freedom that He is granting.
God convicted me this last weekend about one of the greatest stories in the Bible, and I never would have connected it to Genesis 37, but I was happy to see the connection.
Matthew 25 14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 ” ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Jesus is challenging us to stand up and dream again. But He is challenging us to give these dreams away even as we pursue them.
He is challenging us to be Kingdom builders … to not bury our talents … to not view Him in our world but as He is … to GIVE OUR LIVES FULLY AWAY.
If we don’t use our talents to bless other people, not only will it cost them, it will cost us too.
If we bury our abilities, not only will they die, but we will to.
If we want to be more fruitful, we must aspire to be more faithful.
I believe that these are biblical truths that we must truly try to find in all that we are aspiring to do … and in them … we will have life.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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I know that this is a simple phrase, but with God it is an amazing thing.
Revelation 3 8 … See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
God knows our deeds. But He has given us an offer. “Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The message that is trying to take over is that Jesus allows us to think and do whatever we want. Nothing could be a bigger lie.
The Truth is: God offers us a way out from our sin by Loving Him, by being Born Again, by Surrendering to Him.
The devil doesn’t want us to do that so he has gone open season on standards. While we will never meet the standard I will say this: Everyone I know who ATTACKS Standards and the way people think has not surrendered to God. They would know better. He is the Lion from the Tribe of Judah and He is the one who tore up the temple.
And so I go back to the above verse. He knows our deeds. Even so, He has placed before us an Open Door that no one can shut. You should choose to walk through it. And when you do, you get three things.
He Knows You. Revelation 3 8 I know your deeds. Even though you are broken and full of hideous sin—He accepts you. The one who KNOWS YOU BEST is the one who LOVES YOU MOST.
He Calls You To Overcome. Revelation 3 21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne. He isn’t asking us to overcome, He is COMMANDING us to overcome. Stand up, Be accountable, and walk out the call.
You are a son or a daughter. Galatians 3 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. This is the greatest deal that you will ever get. BECAUSE Jesus died and paid for your sin, you get to be a son or daughter of the King. All the rights. All the privileges. All the blessings. You will never get a better deal than this.
God has placed before you:
An open door … And no one can shut it.
Stand up and walk through it.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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1 Samuel 306 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
It didn’t take David very long to lose the support of people. The very people that he had rescued were turning on him discussing executing him! This, to me, is unfathomable and yet it makes perfect sense. People want all of it. We are never satisfied with what we have … we always want more. And, we probably don’t see it until we have been on the side where David sat in this verse.
Thank God … this is not the end of David’s story, or ours.
Our God is on an eternal quest to Recover What The Enemy Has Stolen.
And He has done so from the beginning, and on our behalf.
But how can this be done? How can you make a covenant when someone continually and consistently breaks it?
God knows.
In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with a sleeping Abram. And why not? You can not “cut a covenant” when the person that you cut it with can not and will not meet up to his end of the bargain. So God cut a blood covenant with man through the only One strong enough to keep it.
God cut His blood covenant with man through Jesus.
And Jesus lived up to His end of the deal by dying on His end of the deal.
By His blood we are healed.
By His life we have life.
By His resurrection we can have eternal life.
By His perfection we can be sons … and daughters.
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. (John 3:16)
The enemy will always try to steal from us. Sometimes he will win the battle. Most of the time, he will lose. And He can not win the war. The battle belongs to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
And it is on Him that I stake my life.
He … is MORE than enough.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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And today, I found yet another reason as we sat and talked about mental health as a group of coaches.
Why are we seemingly dealing with this MORE today than at any time in history? Why is it a bigger deal now than it was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago? What can we do for these amazing kids that we get to coach?
As we sat and discussed, I simply had no answers. But my reality is simple: When I have NO answers it pushes me to turn to THE Answer. And, He, is THE Answer.
As I reflected, I was drawn to what Paul said and so I looked it up and found it in Romans 7.
Romans 714 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Paul was VERY, VERY intelligent. A politician and a lawyer who discovered Jesus—Paul underwent a transformation of Biblical proportions. And he wrote this God-inspired verse for us on this very day.
This verse is not an excuse for us to live at the lowest common denominator.
It isn’t an accusation to put us into a guilt-inspired tailspin.
And it isn’t a “Well, why would I try anything then if I can’t succeed at any of it?” verse.
Paul is letting us all know the reality of our situation:
We aren’t the center of the world or the universe
We aren’t the most important person at our company, or in our family, or on our team
We aren’t the superstar NFL player that crowds gather to see … and those NFL guys aren’t either.
We ARE broken, and we fall short, and we are full of things that make us broken. It is PART of us. And even in that state, we don’t even see most of the things that others could point out to us without hesitation.
We are broken and we fall short of the Glory of God. Period.
And this can’t be fixed by self help guru, a pill, money, or an enormous amount of work.
It CAN ONLY BE FIXED by Jesus.
It CAN ONLY BE FIXED by our confession that we “don’t measure up”.
It CAN ONLY BE FIXED by a Father who loves us too much to leave us the way we are.
Thank You so much Jesus
When I arose today, I felt so much that was heavy in front of me
And I thought of that quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us”
If by “what lies within us” he meant Jesus–Amen.
And if he didn’t–I could not disagree with him more.
We are sitting ducks for Hell without Jesus Christ and what He did not the cross.
Gavel Down. End of story.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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But His choice to spread the gospel was even more radical.
Could Jesus have planned to have a demon possessed crazy (blog 447) and a town prostitute (this blog, 448) to take His good news to the world?
The fact that they did, the fact that the gospel even survived, and the fact that He predicted His death and resurrection say that it was much deeper than we could even surmise.
In the middle of daytime heat, in a place “inconvenient” to where the disciples might have chosen to go, Jesus began changing the world.
And his methods were radical.
As the disciples attempted to steer Him in the wrong direction, He told them:
John 4 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Our pursuit of Jesus often includes are thoughts as to what He is and who He is.
But who He is runs contrary to all that we sometimes think.
We think that His conversation with the woman at the well was necessary for Him to save “them”. But what we can not fathom was that it was necessary to save us.
WE are the broken ones. ALL of us.
John 439 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
The gospel of Jesus has the ability to enrage the rich, the privileged, the well-behaved, and the reliable. And this is because in our very narrow vision of who we are, we believe that we are somehow worthy.
But the reality is that we are not worthy.
The reality is that He has made us worthy.
In reality, we are no different than the woman or even the crazy man from the graveyard.
We are so in need of His everlasting grace.
Without it, we are sitting ducks for Hell.
Growing up, my beautiful daughter Jenna would listen to Lauren Daigle. I grew to love her music because Jenna did. And her words in this song could not be more true.
Thank You, Jesus. How Can It Be?
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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2 MINUTE WARNING 