Who are we instead?

No this isn't some review of an old Jars of Clay album, but it was inspired by the title of it.  Some of you don't have a clue who Jars of Clay is, anyway.  That's what Google and YouTube are for.  Go find out!  

Anyway, who are we instead?  

The question is deep.  It inspires other questions and begs for an answer.  

What were we meant to be? 

We (men and women) were created as a part of God's perfect plan.  He set out to make us in His image, as told in the first chapter of Genesis.  He created us to have dominion over His creation, the Earth and all that was in it.  

But, who are we instead?

The Bible tells us, that man faltered.  Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sinning against Him.  They set aside love and respect for God, for the opportunity, or so they thought, to be like Him.  Satan thought he'd accomplished something major.  He caused God's prized creation to doubt God and turn against Him!  

But, who are we instead? 

Instead of permanently being lost to sin, God restored His covenant with man in the nation of Israel.  He set guides for them in the laws of the Old Testament and led them through slavery, the desert, terrible rulers and tyrants, the good, the bad, the ugly, and captivity.  

But, who are we instead? 

The Israelites were, at times, ungrateful people who thought they could accomplish things on their own.  They turned their backs on God, time after time, and failed to see the power He was displaying in their lives.  

But, who are we instead?

We are worthy of great sacrifice.  Even after everything the Israelites did, even after much of the world had rejected God, He sent His son to the Earth.  This son was specifically sent to be a sacrifice for the salvation of the entire world.  When Jesus came, He was a game changer. The old way of doing things went out the window and a new way was born.  The one, true God laid down his life as a sacrifice for our sin.  He put himself in our place to atone for what had been done. 

But, who are we instead?

We are a prideful people, who cant relinquish enough control in order to let God control our lives.  We want to be the god of our life.  We are glory hogs.  We crave the spotlight, we are hungry for everything the world gives us.  

But, who are we instead?

The Bible tells us we are a redeemed people and that those who have been redeemed also have the task of pointing others to the light of Jesus Christ.  We are the hands and the feet of Jesus Christ.  We are the bearers of the Good News. 

We are heirs to the Kingdom of God. 

How do we get this way? 

It starts, by admitting who we are.  God doesn't call you, and tell you to fix yourself before you come, he asks your to come as you are and to bring all you baggage and let Him handle it.  All He asks is for repentance, not just a "I'm sorry," but an "I apologize, and I will change.  The God of the universe, who made the galaxy and the ocean and everything in them and can call them all by name, wants you reach out to Him!

If you are curious as to what all this means, by all means e-mail me.  coachk6262@gmail.com

I would love to hear from you!  

He's Late

Over the last few weeks I've been hearing a lot of sermons and devotionals on Lazarus, as in dead then alive again Lazarus.  

Let's start with a summarization of the story... (John 11)

Jesus had just crossed over the Jordan back to where John the Baptist had baptized many people.  Jesus was hanging out with the disciples and word was sent to Him that his friend, Lazarus, was sick.  

In fact, the words that were used are, "Lord, the one you love is sick."  What that shows us is that Lazarus is one of Jesus' good friends.  Of course, this Lazarus is the brother of Mary, the young lady who would later wash Jesus' feet with her hair and perfume.  Anyway, these were close friends of Jesus.  Jesus even talked about how this sickness would not end in death, but that it was for God's glory and for Jesus, Himsef to be glorified.  So, Jesus stayed where he was.  In the human mind, this is simply incomprehensible.  Why would you wait to see your sick friend? Somebody you love.  

Jesus waits two days and then goes to Bethany, where Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, lived.  

When Jesus decides to head to Bethany, He tells the disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep, and that He was going to wake him up.  The disciples are known for missing out on Jesus' cryptic messages. Of course, we have 20/20 vision, we know the end game, they didn't.  So they conclude, "if he sleeps, he'll get better."  So then Jesus tells them straight up, Lazarus is dead.  He also foreshadows that He's about to do something awesome, not just by saying He's going to wake him up, but Jesus tells the disciples that He's about to give them reason to believe.  

When Jesus gets to Bethany, we learn Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days!  Martha basically heads Jesus and tells Him that if He'd come sooner her brother wouldn't be dead.  Jesus flat out tells her that her brother is going to live again! 

Now put yourself in Martha's shoes.  As good of friends as you are with Jesus, you've got to be thinking He may be a little crazy.  You would have seen Lazarus sealed up in the tomb, there was no coming back.  However, God got involved!  

Isn't it amazing?!? Just when we think all hope is lost, that nothing is ever going to go our way, we can lean on God and trust His promises to work everything it for His glory!  That is exactly what happens here with Lazarus.

So Jesus asks to be taken to the grave. Now remember, Jesus already said this sickness would not end in death.  Now, at this point, Mary had come to Jesus as well and it seems as if He'd been moved by the emotions of the family, because John tells us, that Jesus wept.  Now, what does that show us?  Well, to put it simply, God cares about you and what you're going through!  The Bible tells us that we are God's children and friends, so how much does God care for you! 

Jesus then asks the stone to be rolled away.  Martha worries about the smell.  Jesus prays and thanks God for hearing him.  Jesus kept telling the people of this story, that if they believed they would see the glory of God.  

Then, Jesus calls Lazarus out.  Now, if you've seen Son of God, you see they portray it as Jesus walking into the tomb and breathing life into Lazarus.  However, the Bible doesn't mention any of that.  The Bible leads us to believe Jesus was standing outside. 

We know that the power of God is strong.  There are numerous examples in the power of God coming through His words!  The creation of the world, for one, and even if you look into when Jesus was being arrested in the garden, He spoke the words "I am," and the soldiers hit the ground!  

Needless to say, all Jesus has to do is speak.  That's what he does!  Jesus says, "Lazarus, come out!"  So when the Creator of the universe tells you to come out, what are you going to do?  Lazarus wakes up from the dead and walks out of the tomb.  

This is a landmark point in the ministry of Jesus.  Up to this point, the Jewish religious leaders had explained away all the other miracles of Jesus.  However, now they begin to plot to take Him out.  They also plot to take out Lazarus.  Why?  Well, Lazarus proves the power of Jesus!  

What does all this have in applying to our lives? 

John Piper put it this way regarding Lazarus, "Revealing my glory to you is better than you escaping death the first time."  In other words, Jesus could have come to Lazarus immediately and healed him of his sickness.  However, the glory that was revealed through raising Lazarus from the dead was worth more than Lazarus' healing.  God had a bigger, better plan!

So where are you? Are you in the middle of sickness or struggle?  Does you feel like God is "late" on what's going on in your life?  

God has a plan.  It may not be comfortable for us, but His timing is perfect.  Everything He's doing is for His glory!  We are for His glory! Follow Him through your struggles and His glory will be revealed!  

You're sick and waiting, but He's just waiting to raise you!

The Opponent's Playbook

In football, you do everything you can to gain an advantage over the other team.  Coaches move around the country, when you face their old team you use their knowledge.  

For example, if the receivers coach at OU leaves and become the receivers coach at UT, then the UT defense has a chance to be really effective, because they may know some things!  

Add that to the fact that coaches spend hours breaking down film on their opponent.  Many teams look at the tendencies of the other team in certain situations and hope to exploit them for their advantage.  

In the Christian life, we have a scouting report, if you will.  Stay with me here.  The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:13, that "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind."  Also, our "coach" knows every single play Satan throws at us.  

In fact, our coach, God, is the Creator of the entire universe, which means he created the other team's coach, Satan.  We essentially have his entire playbook.  

Remember in the Waterboy when Coch Beaulieu from U of L stole the playbook from Coach Klein? Well, we've been fighting Satan so long, we don't have to steal his playbook, it's so obvious we've already gotten it figured out!  Everything he has to throw at us, we've seen before! 

The Creator of the universe has been fighting this battle against Satan for a long time. We have a book that shows us exactly who the devil is and what his favorite tactics are.  We know his tendencies and what he's going to do!  

You may be saying, what are you talking about?  Well, look here:

“And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 NIV

Satan and his demons disguise themselves as angels of light and deceive  many!  Even if you're a believer, Satan will come after you.  He may even come after you harder because of whose you are!  You belong to the Creator, the Almighty God, and if Satan can make you unproductive, he thinks he's scored a victory.

In football, we like to take advantage of weaknesses of teams.  We also look for players we may be able to target and exploit!  Some of you now think I'm some kind of monster. No, it's just our job to do our best to win and if we find weakness in a defensive front, we go after it.

Satan is the same way.  He looks at our lives and tries to exploit our weaknesses. The way we combat that on the football field is to strengthen our weakness, or give them some back up.  If we have a nose guard who isn't our strongest player, we will surround him with some better players to help him.  God does it the same way.  First of all, you've got God on your side.  In your weakness, He is strong.  The Bible says His power is made perfect in our weakness!  Then, there are times that God will surround you with mentors or other believers to help build you up.  

Satan also tends to use the tactic of filling our head with lies.  He likes to tell us how we aren't worthy or we will never be able to do anything.  He might go as far as to tel us God cannot use us.  Well, folks, NEWSFLASH...the devil is a liar! 

If you are one of God's children, you're a part of His perfect plan.  He will use you according to His good and perfect will.  

I just heard TD Jakes say, we should rejoice when the devil comes after us.  Why? Well, then we know we are being used by God! The devil is going to attack the ones he knows are pivotal to God's plan, and for every believer that is in a relationship with Christ and who is living their life in that way, he's going to come after you because he knows God is using you! 

Lean on the knowledge of your Head Coch, God, and give Him everything you've got! 

Counter the Culture

I saved this picture to my phone the other night and every time I look at it, it reminds me of the old Lecrae song, Rebel.

There's a line in the song that talks about Jesus being counter cultural.  It also speaks to Jesus being a renegade outlaw.  These lines are all true.  We wouldn't think of it that way, because I don't think we were ever taught to see what society and the Hebrew religion were like in the time of Jesus.

Under the old covenant, Jewish people were under a system of laws.  It was a list of do's and don'ts, not unlike the ones we, from time to time place on ourselves.  The Pharisees were folks that had all that down to a "T".  They were comfortable with the path they were headed down, and weren't looking for a detour.  Their's was also a religion of privilege and exclusivity.  They made it that way, God did not intend for this to be the way, but He knew the need for Christ to come and introduce something all new.  

So enter Jesus Christ.  He was a young man, "causing trouble" for the religious leaders in Israel.  He was not only healing people, but healing them on the Sabbath.  He was driving out demons.  He was changing their system of works, to a relationship of love.  He definitely redefines the society of that time.  

Why did he do this?

Because God told him to, and because the legalistic nature of the Jews at the time was out of hand.  However, God laid out a new covenant, this time with the entire world, much to the dismay of the temple leaders.  They knew Jesus was trouble, He was reaching people like they'd never been able to do, not that it seems like they were trying.

The ironic things is, Jesus was what they'd been waiting for.  For many years, they looked for a Messiah.  This Messiah had long been prophesied about, and it was the national consensus that he's come as a warrior and free the Israeites from Roman rule.

However...

Here's this Jesus dude and He's fulfilling prophecy after prophecy, yet He's telling them to love their enemies.  He taught that you didn't need a priest to go through God, that normal, everyday people had 24/7access to Him!  He said He was the Son of God!  

Jesus did everything He could to convince the word of who He was, aside from take away their free will.  I'd venture to say, many of this guys would donanything for a chance to believe in God.  

Jesus went against the grain, therefore, that is what we are called to do.  

Jesus loved everybody, but he encouraged them to change their lifestyles.  He didn't stone the woman caught in adultery, he commanded her to "go now and leave your life of sin..." When he healed the man at the pool he told him to "stop sinning..." So we are called to love everyone, yet not indulge their sins.  That is a point that eats at a lot of people, including myself.  Jesus called people on the carpet, and that's what we are called to do.  He spoke the Truth in love, so we should do the same.

So that means everybody, we've got to love each other enough to be accountable! 

Surround yourself with people you can do that for and people who will be that for you! 

I've tried to pattern myself after Jesus.  I try to be different.  In His power, I want to shirk the stereotype of football coaches.  I fail from time to time, but I lean on Jesus to give me the power to be His mirror image! 

"I'm not perfect, but I'm workin'!"

Bless Me

Have you ever asked God to bless you like He's done others? 

Last night after the football game I listened to a TD Jakes podcast where he briefly mentioned the expectations we have for God to bless us like he has done others.  

When we read stories from the Bible or hear about the way God has blessed others, we tend to expect God to do the same thing with us.  

So, let's look at a Biblical example.

Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and God did a lot of, as Jakes says, "showing out."  God parted the Red Sea for the entire nation to pass through safely, produced water from a rock, before they even left Egypt God brought plagues on all of Egypt, and many other amazing miracles. 

Then Moses dies and Joshua is now the leader of the nation.  So God tells Joshua that the nation is about to cross the Jordan River and he's going to allow them to walk across on dry land.  The most interesting thing about the story is that God tells Joshua that they'll have to step out in to the water.  All Moses had to do was stretch out his staff over the water.  However, Joshua had to get out into the water before it pulled up on itself.  Also, the big thing here is that God used this miracle to show the nation of Israel that He was with Joshua just as he was with Moses.  This is just an illustration that God is with us as He was with those who've gone before us, but we can't always expect it to be the same circumstances.

So real life application time...

Unless it is your first time reading, you know that Jenn and I have been attempting to get pregnant and/or adopt for some time now, with no results.  As I listened to TD Jakes the other night, it kind of punched me in the gut.  I think that I've been sitting here looking at my friends and other people who are being blessed with beautiful children and pregnancies all the time.  Then I wonder what God thinks he's doing, and I get so upset about it.  Here's the deal, God is doing something! He has shown Jenn and I His power and His love through ALL of the things we are going through.  He may not necessarily being doing it in the way we think He should or the way He has done for others.

But here's what I know!

God is still with us just like he is with others.  He's going to show and has shown His power in awesome ways! We just seem to be having to step out in the water to see it.  

My God Ain't No Folklore (and I'm not worried about my grammar!)

We all have heard a fairy tale or two in our lives.  Cinderella, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk, and many others.

Some would say there is an entire book of fairy tales called the Bible.  Sometimes things can be hard to believe.  Here are some examples:

      -a man building a boat large enough for 2 of every animal on earth and his family

      -an entire nation crossing a body water which had been split and the floor of it was dry land 

     -a giant of a man being defeated by one kid and a slingshot

     -the walls of a city being destroyed because somebody played a trumpet

     -a man being carried to heaven in a chariot

     -bears coming out of the woods and mauling children

     -two men rising from the dead, one after 4 days and the other after 3

Point made.  To a first time reader, this all may seem inconceivable.  However, they all have a recurring theme.  The entire Bible has a recurring theme.  The Creator of the universe, Jehovah God, is involved in every single story.  

Well, Coach, how can you be so sure that God is real? 

God's existence is every where we look.  It's evidenced in the air we breathe.  The air of Earth has just the right amount of compounds to interact with the systems in our bodies to be healthy for us.  Tell me, God's not in that.  The human body and brain are so complex, we, being humans, don't even understand all of it.  Tell me, there's not a designer of it.  It didn't all happen by chance. 

If God is a fairy tale, then the assumption would be that we are just here because of some cosmic luck.  

God is real!  Everything in the Bible happened!  Everyday is evidence of God's existence.  He crafted the sunrise, the way the flowers blow in the wind, and  your ability to roll out of bed each and every day. 

Why does this matter?

The real God, THE Creator, wants a relationship with you!  What does it take from you? Do you need to spruce up your life? NO!  He wants you just as you are!  Come to Him, He wants the best for you.  Is a relationship with Him going to make your life easy? By no means! If anything, you'll face some adversity bear by our decision. However, my friends, this is the most important decision you could make in your life.  

God loves you, He's for you, He's not dead, and He's 100% real!!!!

Sweet Victory

The toughest thing about a football game is the outcome.  Win or lose, it's sometimes difficult.  

You think I'm crazy, but the deal with winning is, during the season, there's always another game next week, until you reach the championship, but then even that victory doesn't last forever. 

Losing is the toughest part of the entire process.  I'm not a good loser at all.  You prepare,sports-wise, for a period of time to defeat the next opponent.  When that opponent bests you, you're supposed to let it go.  Sometimes it's hard to swallow, but the season rolls on.  

Even when you break football down to a play, there's victory and loss in a play that is hard to overcome.

The great thing is, through a sport like football, you learn how to handle adversity.  I tell my athletes all the time how much they're being prepared by this sport for their lives. 

When I was their age, I didn't understand what my coach told me either.  However, now looking back, my participation in this amazing sport prepared me for the ups and downs of life.  

In life, as in football, you don't have time to let the losses get you down.  You get the opportunity to bounce up really quickly.  Life goes on, and the season goes on.  With the exception of the end of your season, or your life, there's always a chance to make up for what you failed at earlier! 

That is the beauty of the grace of God!  I know that even in my weakness, He is strong!  Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 1, the weakness of God is still stronger than any man! 

The only difference in the "game" we play as followers of Christ is we have the same opponent every time.  In HS football, you have ten different opponents to prepare for. 

 In the Christian life, we have one opponent, Satan, and we know his trick plays and audibles and schemes.

Football coaches jump at the chance to know how the opponent will react to certain things.  We watch for tendencies and scout teams to know exactly what they do and when they do.  It's truly an amazing sight, when a group of coaches discovers what other teams do and can tell when they're going to!

The great thing is, Satan has been scouted and we know what's going on.   We've got the game plan, he essentially has given up his own plan because he is so extremely obvious.  Usually anything that is good for Christ-followers, or anything that affects them, is what he's shooting for.  

The beautiful thing is, even though he may win a battle here or there, he loses the war!  You're going to stumble and you're going to fall, but you've got to get back up!

The same goes for football.  No team is completely perfect.  There's not a football team out there that has never lost a game in their history.  There are perfect seasons, but never a perfect history.  

I'm not trying to be "gloom and doom," because here is the main point I'm trying to make:  even at your weakest and worst, if you're life is in Christ, you're stronger than you've ever been.  

Christian Hip Hop artist, Trip Lee, has penned a great song on this very subject.  Long story short, he suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome.  Trip is in his mid-20s and at some points, his pain is so much that he has to be bedridden.  In his song, "Sweet Victory," Trip chronicles his disease and how he perserveers through it!  

Believe me, it is difficult to see the victory in the struggle.  Sometimes it's so dark in whatever you're in, that it is hard to see the light.  I promise you though, the light is there! God is there!  All you've got to do is call His name!  

So, all this to say, even when all the hope is out of it, we will still experience victory if we have given our lives over to Christ! That's the beauty of the Christian life, at my weakest, God is strong! 

WORK

In our society today, not everyone knows the value of hard work.  We live in a world of instant gratification.  If I don't feel like cooking (which is exactly what happened tonight), I have the ability to get in the car and go to the nearest drive-thru and get my food within five minutes.

The same thing applies with anything.  We look to get rich quick schemes for money.  We expect more for less.  For some things we use the excuse that we are too busy.  Here's the deal, we sell ourselves short.  

God created us by working.  He spent six days forming everything on this earth into existence then He rested, which shows it was work! 

"And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating He had done." Genesis 2:3

He then uses writers in the Bible to encourage us to work.  

"The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied."  Proverbs 13:4 

God created us to work! 

"The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."  Genesis 2:15

This shows the value God places on not only physical labor, but mental and emotional labor as well.

It is just like football and other sports. The top notch players put the necessary work in to make the difference in a game.  If you don't put on the work, then the proverb above becomes true.

Being lazy gets you nowhere, in life, in your relationship with Christ, in relationships or in sports. You have to be willing to put in the work. Whether it's getting up early to read your Bible and spend time with God or being in a constant mindset of prayer and community with Him, it's hard work!  

The most important thing to remember is:

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if working for the Lord..." Colossians 3:23

So go out and do! Refuse to be lazy! Work diligently for something! 

Endure

What do we do about the trials we go through?

My train of thought today is going to take a foundation from James 1.  

James was writing to the groups of Jewish believers who'd been scattered following the Persecution.  

He, of course, knew the trials that all these believers had been facing, yet doesn't open his writing with any kind of melancholy, pouting attitude.  In fact it's the opposite.  He tells them, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds..." (James 1:2).  As believers in Jesus Christ, we will face many difficulties.  

What James speaks on in the first chapter, namely perseverance, reminds me of a scene from the latest Batman trilogy. 

Bruce Wayne and Alfred are discussing the current state of Gotham and what Batman means to Gotham. 

Here's the conversation:

Bruce:  "People are dying Alfred, what would you have me do?"

Alfred:  "Endure, Master Wayne.  Take it. They'll hate you for it, but that's the point of Batman, he can be the outcast.  He can make the choice that no one else can make. The right choice."

This is at a crucial time in The Dark Knight as The Joker is on a rampage and Bruce Wayne is at an impasse.  Does he continue to be Batman or does he just quit? 

I think those earlier believers may have been in a similar situation.  They had just been scattered by the Persecution. This wasn't a movie, people were actually dying!   So many times, the early Christians faced a way out.  If they would only denounce Christ, they'd be set free and would live.  Most of them made the choice to not turn on Jesus.  That's the exact type choice Alfred is talking about.

As Christians, particularly in the current age, we have to choose the right choice.  We will be hated for it, Jesus told us that (Matthew 24:9) and so did Paul (2 Timothy 3:12).  When we choose to stand beside our faith instead of falling in line with the politically correct society, we will see exactly what Jesus and Paul talked about.  We have seen it in the last few weeks!  With all that is happening in our country, Christians are being put down and slighted more than ever.

I promise you this, it is nothing no other Christian has ever seen.  In our day and age, Christians in other countries face more extreme persecutions than we can dream of.  We are indeed blessed to be Christians in America, but I feel our comfort zone is wearing thin and we will soon see a lot more persecution for our beliefs.  We just think it is bad now.

What would that do to our faith?  If we were to face intense persecution?  I'd hope we could be able to be strong, but I am afraid that our current standing of faith is not strong enough.

Many of us, myself included, are what I like to call "comfort Christians."  We post Bible verses on Facebook and Instagram, we go to church most Sundays, and we try our best to live the Christian life.  When the rubber meets the road though, who are we?  When we face a tough decision, do we seek God's guidance or do we do what WE think is best?  When we are out with fellow believers or even non-believers are we reflecting Jesus?  These are questions, at one time or another, I have asked myself.

What I am saying here is, we need to strengthen our relationship with God!

How do we do that?  We seek Him.  The only way I get to know more about Jennifer is studying her, in a sense.  I ask questions, I watch her, and I pay attention to the details.  It is the exact same way with God.  He has given us the ultimate love letter, the Bible, this is how we get to know Him.  How does He want us to treat others?  It is in the Bible!  How does he feel about the issues of life? It is in the Bible!  God revealed things to the authors of the books of the Bible that He knew would be issues of our day, they can be addressed with the Bible!

Will the world ascribe to what we say is Biblical?  Not always, but does that mean we stop believing it?  No!  We live our lives in such a way that the world starts to believe it!!!

All these social issues that go against what the Bible says is truth, how do you handle it?  By showing love, not hate.  That is another subject for another day, but we have to know that we will not show anybody who Christ is by hating them.

What does all this have to do with endurance?  Everything.

I started writing this post on June 25 from an airplane on the way to Baltimore.  Little did I know the decision that would be made the next day while I was touring DC.  We are going to need endurance in the coming days, weeks, months, and years.  God is going to work everything out for good, but He never said that meant an easy path for us.

When you stand on your beliefs about marriage you will face opposition.  Endure.  When you express your opinion that a man is a man from birth to death and has no right to change that, you'll be considered a bigot or crazy.  Endure.  One day, when you choose to serve God and no one else, you'll likely stare death in the face.  Endure.

Until the day Jesus breaks open the Eastern sky to come back.  Endure.

Why Football?

What makes football so great?  Why do I consider it so important? What drew me to the game so much that I would use it as a basis for a career?

For me, football has been a lifelong love.  

Don't get it twisted.  I love God with all my heart and life, I love Jennifer more than words can express, I love my family and friends, then there's football.  

I guess the story starts with being a young boy and going to HHS football games with my parents.  Even more so from throwing a small football with my Peepaw in his living room every chance I could!  Moves along to the posters that hung on my bedroom wall through my wary years.  One was of Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith and the other was of the O-Line from the Cowboys including Mark Tuenai and Nate Newton.  When I was a kid, the Cowboys were truly America's Team.  I was also a fan of the Texas Longhorns.  

I can remember watching the 1995 Sugar Bowl on TV and being extremely disappointed in the Longhorn loss.  That may have been the first time that I put real emotion into football.  

The fire was fueled when I entered 8th grade and was able to actually play the game I grew up watching.  I got the privilege  to learn the game from many  great coaches.  I played football for five years and then my playing days were over.  When I got to college I spent every Saturday I could posted in front of a TV watching whatever college game I could find. 

Throughout my teenage years, I get God's calling on my life to enter ministry.  I didn't know at the time that my ministry wouldn't be you're garden variety ministry.  

My senior year in HS, I began to notice the impact that coaches had on my life and the lives of my friends.  I believe God was sending me signals way back then.  However, I pursued a career in vocational ministry in my first year at ETBU.  After some prayer and a change of major, I began the road to a career in teaching and coaching.  

I went without hands on interaction with the game for about 7 or 8 years.  During this time I finished college and worked at ETBU for a length of time before I got the call from HISD.  

So here I am, where God has me and where he is using me.  I would never have seen anything without God informing me to!  

All that to say...Why Football? 

For one, because of the impact the game has on the lives of young men. Secondly, the pure competition of the game. Third, the combination of mental and physical that football demands.  One of my favorite parts of coaching is outsmarting the other sideline when I can, it doesn't always happen!  Football is such a metaphor for life, that's another reason it's so great.  There are ups and downs and many things do not go your way. That's how life is, it is a remake adjustments and fix the wrongs and work on the things that makes us better type deal!  

So in a world that can sometimes misconstrue football or attempt to get rid of it all together, I stand beside it and its importance to our society.  

Football was hear long before I was born and will be hear long after I die, but it is an amazing picture of God's plan for us.

God is in the role of a Head Coach.  He makes the game plan, assign the positions, and even call the penalties.  What we have to do is work with our HC to execute the gameplay likes he wants.  

If this is a team you're interested in joining, God's team, please e-mail me (coachk6262@gmail.com) or holler at me somehow and I will gladly introduce you! 

Why are People Leaving the Church?

I do not claim to be a church expert or an expert in what goes on in the church.  I am however a Christ-follower and a church member and so I can give perspective on this subject.

Our pastor spoke a couple of Sundays ago and used a statement that he has used a number of times and that I have heard in other places as well, people ages 18-29 are leaving the church in droves.  I can say from personal experience that this is true.  It is also an alarming statement.

The question posed by many church members and pastors is, "why are so many people leaving the church so quickly?"

The answer can be found by looking at ourselves.  A church self-inventory, if you will.

First of all, let's look at the original purpose of the church in the Bible.

•  "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to   prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.  All   the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold their property and                     possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the           temple courts.  They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,             praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.  And the Lord added to their number daily         those who were being saved."   Acts 2:42-47

First off, the church was established as a place of teaching.  We are to go to church and surround ourselves with other believers, in order to establish a base and strengthen our faith.  What would be the purpose of that?  For God to get glory!  Through our faith being strengthened, we grow closer to God and then we begin to reflect Him through our lives and therefore He receives glory!  Secondly, the church exists for the fellowship of believers.  God works in that fellowship and establishes an attitude of sacrificial love.  In the early church, they met in their homes and gave each other what was needed.  That means they gave other members who were struggling a little help.  It wasn't like they had the Fortune 500 businessman or someone else hoarding their money, they gave to each other as needs arose.  They spent time together beyond a Sunday morning!  Notice the passage says EVERY DAY.  They spent time together.  They got along.  Did they have worries and busy lives?  I am sure!  First off, they faced constant persecution!  Beyond that, they all had families and other responsibilities, but the church and the mission of Jesus Christ came first!

Today, I feel like we, the church as a whole, have moved far away from what this early church was.  The original church stood to be a beacon to the world of Christ!  Today, I feel as though much of the church has become a "country club" or "department store" of sorts with the mission of accommodating members and soothing them.  I say all this as one of the poster children of this whole kind of movement.  I am as guilty of partaking in all of this, and soon, I will make a list where I will be just as guilty of every point as any other member of the church.

As "American" Christians, I think we have pushed ourselves even further away from our purpose.  I feel as though we hunker down in our churches and avoid what we should be doing.  While our mission should be spreading the gospel to anyone who will hear, we shy away from doing it.  We produce plays and programs and musicals, so that we don't have to get one-on-one with someone and share our faith!

So, where else are we falling short?  I've compiled a list of points which, I feel has been a part of the encouragement of the mass exodus from the church!

• We are not undignified in our worship.
• David celebrated before the Lord.  He did so HALF-NAKED! (2 Samuel 6) That is certainly an undignified approach to worship.  We should do the same.  We struggle to hold up our hands or actually worship because we worry what someone is going to say.  If we followed David's true example, we would manage to be people after God's heart!
• We don't show unconditional love.  We allow and "celebrate" our pet sins, but shun others.
• God looks beyond every sin and every shortcoming we have and loves us all the same.  He doesn't keep a ranked list of sins and doesn't put one child before the other.  We have not adopted this same mindset.  We shun many, while accommodating others.  We have created a ranking system for sin and portray that to the world, but that's not God's design.  No, we are not to make concession for any sin!  The business man who cheats on his taxes is just as sinful as the teenager who is having sex with his girlfriend.  The guy who's addicted to pornography is just as sinful as the homosexual.  There is no difference in any of us!  We have all fallen short of God's glory and we cannot save ourselves!  Only God can save us!  However, here is the deal!  If we seek God's forgiveness, leave our sin behind us, and never turn back to it, we are on the right track!  It is when we return to our sin of any type that we are wrong.
• We treat church like a recharge station.
• "I've had a rough week, I need to go to church for a recharge."  If I didn't charge my cell phone every day, it wouldn't be of any use to me.  The same goes for my life.  If I don't "charge" by spending time in the Word and with the Lord, then my life is of no use!
• We have adopted the attitude of our society. 
• Our society is "ME-centered".  Everything is done for what I can get out of it.  I need a church that has the best sound system, a Starbucks, a valet service, and a pastor who will speak just enough truth to suit me, not the pastor that let's God speak and pierces my heart to the core.  Kalon, you're being extreme.  Maybe, but probably not!  Like I said before, the early church met in houses in the community! I guarantee there wasn't some amazing rock n' roll worship band or the richest coffee this side of Colombia!  
• We're stiff.
• We have our assigned seats.  Church has to be out at 11:30 so we can go eat and get our nap in.  How dare that Worship Pastor go "off-bulletin" and sing a song that wasn't on the powerpoint!  That person is raising their hands, they must be nutty.  Oh no, look at what that kid is wearing to church!  All these statements are things I know happen in churches across our country.  Mainly because of my next point.
• We don't really do what Jesus would do.
• In Luke 4, Jesus tells us his purpose.  "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."  
• We don't trust the message of the Gospel.
• We feel like we have to dress up the most powerful message in the history of the World and repackage it with cute ribbon and bows.  Here's the deal:  God is it!  Everything we need is in Him!  Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, He brought sight to the blind, made the lame walk, raised the dead, then died a brutal death on a cross, was buried, and rose from the dead three days later; and the thing is He did it for each and every human ever!  That narrative doesn't need a make over!  It doesn't need cute packaging!  It works on its own! We have to trust it!
• We don't have concern for the lost. 
• We are so content with our weekly refill of God on Sundays, we fail to see the tragedy that surrounds us.  Our family, friends, coworkers, and the whole world who do not have a personal relationship with Christ have one thing waiting for them, an eternity in Hell.  Hell is real and we should be concerned with the souls of the people around us!  If we had the cure for cancer, wouldn't we share it??

So why would people leave?  Why aren't people coming?  

We are not different!  

Why would people want to join anything where they can continue to do what they do, but with guilt?

We have to revamp our churches and our lives to exude our relationship with Jesus Christ!  We need to get ourselves back to the church from Acts 2:42-47!  That is why America is in the toilet!  We have hidden out in our buildings and peeked out the window!  We should have been out putting the powerful love of Jesus Christ to work!  We must strive to love as Jesus did.  

We've got to stop trying to fix everything and speak the Gospel and stand back! Let God do His work!

Heartache I've Never Felt Before

Not too many days ago, I wrote a post about how excited we were about adopting and how everything had fallen into place.  Little did I know, Jenn and I were going to be rocked to the core.

If you know me, you know I have a huge heart and can at times show my emotions well.  That goes for everything, my excitement can sometimes be "over the top."  When I'm coaching this is the most evident.  Anyway, when I fully devote myself to things, my passion is always evident.

Of course, if you read my previous post, you see that I was fully devoted to this little girl who wasn't even born yet.  Jenn and I had chosen a name, received tons of donations and gifts, had the room all setup, and our families had begun to be excited.

I know what you're thinking, "Kalon, you knew the possibility of not receiving this child," and yes I did, but the events leading up to this weekend led us to believe this was about 85% sure.  

Now, let's get to Friday night about 10:30.  Jenn got a phone call from our contact person, our bridge between us and the birth mother.  Her reaction immediately told me that something wasn't right.  Long story short, the birth mother wasn't sure what she wanted to do.  So we waited, then at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon, we got the call that she decided to keep the baby.

We were in our car on the way back from getting sno-balls, in order to distract ourselves from worry as we waited for news.  When Jenn's phone rang, we knew it was news.  She put her dad (who thankfully helped us through the entire process, we are so thankful) on speaker and he informed us that he'd heard from the case worker at the hospital and that the birth mother was going to keep the baby and attempt to raise her.

I pulled into our garage, Jenn got out of the car, and I just sat there.  A thousand emotions running through my brain.  A thousand thoughts racing through my mind.  But no words.  I couldn't say anything.  Strangely, I walked into our bathroom and leaned up against the window and cried.  I came as close to wailing as I've ever gotten.  There's no word to describe the loss I felt at that moment.

Now go back to Friday at lunch.  I usually spend my lunch break listening to music or podcasts.  Friday for some reason, orchestrated by God obviously, I listened to the following podcast.

That is exactly what I needed to hear, however, I didn't know it yet.  

The passage Judah used was Psalm 130. 

Judah speaks about how we see the songwriter at an end.  He's wondering if God is still hearing him.  In just the first verse we see that.  Jenn and I both experienced that Saturday.  I don't think we thought God wasn't listening, our question get more like "God, do you know what you're doing?"  I can remember growing up, I never understood that I could ask questions like that.  It wasn't that I was told not to, but felt as though when something happened, God would be upset if I questioned His ways.  I know now, that it's healthy to wonder what's going on and God is not going to smite me for asking Him a question.  

Moving on, I had spent most of the early morning hours of Saturday reading through the Psalms.  I was kind of scrambling to prepare my mind and my heart.  When we got that call though, for a second, nothing was making me feel any better.  

We cried and cried and cried.  We received texts and calls all day.  Jenn, who hadn't slept Friday night/Saturday morning, went to bed to take a nap.  I am not a napper, so I laid on the couch and watched TV.  

I read the Bible, I looked at quotes, and googled "when the birth mother decides to keep the baby." 

There was a phrase that kept ringing in my head.  Something Judah said in the podcast. 

I knew that God had a plan.  I still have no idea where we are headed next, but I know a few things:

A) God is in complete control of Mine and Jenn's future and any kids he chooses to bless us with

B) There is a child out there for Jenn and I.  There's a child that will need a mother and a father who will love them with all their hearts, and they'll find that in us.  

C) All your support, financial or otherwise, will still go to fund our adoption journey.  I kept telling Jenn throughout Friday night and Saturday, "this isn't over." It's not!  We will still pursue the avenue of adoption, even if we are blessed with our own kid.

D) That little girl and her mother need your prayers too.  Jenn wrote in her blog yesterday that maybe that's what all this was for.  Maybe that little girl and her mother need all these hundreds of people praying for them.  

So yeah, I experienced heartache that I've never felt.  And no, it's not all completely better.  To steal from Jenn, yesterday was better than the day before, and today is better than yesterday, then tomorrow will be better.  

I know He hears me.  I know He's faithful.   I know this pain will not last.  I know I'm not the only one. 

Thank you all for the love and support you have shown Jenn and I over the last five weeks or so.  Please be reminded, this is not the end of our journey...it's only the beginning! 

"Everything's Going to Be O.K."

***Ironically, I started to write this post hours before we got the disappointing news that our adoption had fallen through. Not to mention days before our drive through a tornado! Little did I know I'd find myself wanting to use the old line "Everything will be okay," but my experiences and feelings told me otherwise.***

Do we invest in false hope? When bad things happen do we try to just make ourselves feel better by saying "everything will be okay."  I may be crazy for writing about this, but hopefully by the end it will all make sense.

Jenn and I were watching an episode of the Duggars the other night and they did a flashback to when their youngest daughter, Josie, was born. There were many complications with the birth and the last part of the flashback was Jim leaning down to his wife and saying, "Everything will be okay." 

I had Jenn pause the TV and I asked her if something bad was to happen, is that what she'd want me to say.  I was happy to hear that her response was no.

My biggest argument against using this expression in a time of great distress or problem is that I simply do not know if everything will turn out okay.  

Now, God works all things for our good, that is what we are told in the Bible and that is what we see!  However, as a human, if bad things happen to me, naturally things won't be okay! 

Case in point, this past week has given me two great examples of this common misconception.  

Last Friday, when we got the call that the baby had been born and the mother was having second thoughts, we were completely devastated. Of course, if you're a regular reader, you've seen that story so I will spare the details.  What info want to point out here is that things weren't okay, and they're not okay now.  We hurt!  We cried!  We were at a loss!   Everything was not okay and it wasn't going to be.  Did that change that God had a plan? Not at all! 

Fast forward to Monday evening as Jenn and I drove through an EF-2 tornado!  As we were driving down the road, would it have made either of us feel better to hear that everything would be okay?  No way. In the middle of the situation, everything was not okay! We were in the middle of a tornado! I didn't know if our car would be smashed by a tree or taken up in the funnel!  In the long run, everything was okay and we survived, but in the middle of the event, we couldn't see that.

That's where we differ from God.  He sees the big picture!  He saw the exact events of our first shot at adoption and He knew the outcome, nothing surprises Him.  He knew we'd be leaving Royal Nail Salon at the moment we did and we would be driving through that tornado on East Main.

God knew the impact our experiences would have on us and on the people we come in contact with.  When the worst thing you can imagine happens, God knows the end game.  We know the end game from a universe perspective of we study and read His Word.

The one thing I can truly tell you with all certainty is that all the struggles in life will turn out okay in the end.  

I've totally turned this post on a dime, but there's a method to my madness.  The Bible describes to us the end of time in Revelation.  John tells us of the things that he saw. All these events, lead to the upcoming victory of our Lord.  Here's your short answer version:  God wins. 

It's kind of like when a buddy of mine from college would TiVo live sporting events. I do not practice such a feat, mainly because I know it will be spoiled anyway.  

Basically, we've got the TiVo version of life!  No matter what happens, no matter how much we feel like we are down by, we know that by the time the proverbial buzzer buzzes, we will win!  

Now, this doesn't mean we go through life without putting forth effort!  And, that's where this all ties together.  God doesn't stand us on the sideline and tell us everything's going to work out for our good just for us to sit on the side and chill.   We've still got to live life with a fervor and action-oriented attitude.  

So no, everything won't always be okay.  Your life will go some places that will suck and you'll be hurt and you may cry.  You may even fight the battle of depression. Does that mean everything's okay? Heck no! 

What does mean everything is okay is that God is beside you! He's not going to let you face more than you and Him through you can beat!

  In the end, He wins no matter what the score is right now! 

Adoption: God's Plan

What a wild and crazy few weeks it has been...

Where do I start? 

Well, a few weeks ago, Jenn and I were laying in bed recapping the day and just talking which is our normal routine before going to sleep.  She mentions that she'd been talking to a friend and that this friend knew of a girl who was wanting to put her baby up for adoption.

Now, let me interject here.  I was not and never have been an opponent of adoption, however, I never thought it would be for me.  I had my own plans of how my life would work out. I saw Jenn and I celebrating about 3 years of marriage or so and then getting pregnant with a little boy and then sometime later with a little girl.  

But we all know...

So there's that.  The day before Jenn and I talked I read an article written by former MLB pitcher Kurt Schilling, which shook me.

He wrote of a story he'd heard before. The story was about a man who was caught at home in a flood.  The flood waters were rising and on TV, the man heard messages from the news stations to evacuate now.  The man thought in his mind, "I'll be okay, God will take care of me."  The waters continued to rise and the man moved out onto the roof of his house, because the water was that high. A man passed by in a boat and stopped to help the other man.  He said, "Get in the boat! The water is rising, you're gonna drowned!"  To which the focus of our story said, "God will take care of me, you go ahead."  The water had now risen to his neck and a helicopter hovered above and dropped a rope.  The man hollered up to the helicopter pilot, "God will take care of me, you go ahead!"  The water finally rose above the man's head and he drowned.  When the man arrived in Heaven, he asked God, "Why didn't you help me?" So God answered,"What else did you need? I sent warnings, a boat, and a helicopter!"  

It's a quirky little story, but when Jenn mentioned the adoption, my heart was immediately pierced with the lesson of the story. As I said, I've never seen adoption as being an avenue for me.  From day one, Jenn has wanted to adopt  even beyond having our own kids.  When we started to struggle to get pregnant, Jenn kept mentioning adoption.  I would always just say God had a plan and He would work it out.  Totally attempting to avoid adoption.  

But like I said God had a plan...

In an instant, I knew this was the path God had set out for us at this point in our lives.  In had a great peace about it, and was ready to pursue.  It's amazing how God works.  

My faith tank was full at this point, but I'm human and I would soon run real low, and nearly run out.  

When we set out, I knew nothing about the adoption process.  I needed very much to familiarize myself with the process.  So, I started to research.  I began to notice, adoption is costly, very costly! 

So I lost a little fuel out of my tank.  

We knew we needed a lawyer, at first we had one lined up, but that fell through. We had to find one and I knew lawyers weren't cheap.  

So we start researching fundraising ideas.  We had already set up a GoFundMe.  Then I stumbled upon Booster.  The coolest fundraiser idea ever. 

On Booster, you design a shirt and then you advertise it and sell it, in an attempt to raise money for whatever cause you may have.  So we sit down and design this very simple shirt:

White is the color for adoption.  John 14:18 says "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." Those are red letter words in the Bible, folks!  Jesus said that! So we added the State of Texas, because that's where we are from and we are adopting from Texas, along with the word Love, because that's what we plan to do to this little girl!  

Anyway, I knew that these fundraisers would take a couple of weeks or so, and at first we were told the baby would be here the first week of May.

  Insert my freak out here. 

I immediately start to stress about money, because I knew we needed something to give the lawyer from the beginning.  Also, I forgot to mention, every adoption-related loan, you had to have a completed home study and all that good stuff.  So I knew two things, we wouldn't have time to do a home study and we didn't have enough money to get this done.  

I spent a day at school, stressing and being in a terrible mood and just brooding over this whole thing.  I get home and walk in the house and completely breakdown.  

I'm not going to lie, I cry.  I cried at my wedding, I tear up at emotional points in good movies and TV shows, and when things get completely out of my control I may lose it from time to time.  This is a time I did.  I sat at our dining room table and could not help myself.  I want this to work so bad, not just for me, but for this little girl. One thing in our country that is broken is the way we treat children in the system, but that's another story for another day.  

So, I chill out and go over and sit on the couch, when I get a text message saying to "call me."  I call the person and we talk for a second and they offer to help us get a loan to be able to pay for the legal fees and all that.  God has a plan, I'm telling you! 

So, here we are waiting on baby Austyn Grace to make her grand entrance.  All our family, friends, and coworkers are on pins and needles waiting for her to come!  

We've seen the mighty hand of God outstretched over our journey.  We've had an unbelievable amount of love outpoured on us by our extended network.  We set a goal with Booster for 100 shirts and we ended up selling 110! Our GoFundMe was successful!  We've had a ton of baby clothes and toys and all that given to us by a ton of people.  Needless to say, we are so blessed by all of your generosity! 

So that's where we are, eagerly awaiting the arrival of our baby girl!  

Stay tuned, should be an interesting blog starting when I become a daddy! 

My Thoughts on Heavenly Tourism

DISCLAIMER:  I am in no way attempting to belittle or refute the work of God in the following narrative. I am simply looking to compare to a man's experience to scripture. I also do not condemn this man for his book, nor do I condemn those who place stock in it. I just ask that you read all the way through. 

John Piper says it so much more eloquently than I could, "If books go beyond scripture, I doubt their claims."

I am extremely inquisitive. More like a fact checker on most occasions. I gained the nickname 'Mr. Google' from my friends in college for how quick I was to check things that I heard. It is important to note Here, I do not believe everything I read online! Ha! 

This is a subject that has been heavy on my heart for sometime and particularly this week leading up to the guest speaker at church. 

Sunday morning, I heard the testimony of a man who was in a wreck in 1989. He was pronounced dead at the scene and after an hour and a half breathed another breath.  The power of prayer oozes from this story because of a pastor who stopped and prayed over Don Piper and how many around the world prayed for this pastor who was in this horrific accident.  There's no intellectual explanation for his reviving other than that God, Himself allowed Him to live again.  I fully believe Don Piper's story is life changing and the miracle of his healing can bring others to the realization that they need Jesus.  

There's just a piece of the story I can't overlook.  

It's a story that has become what many put into the category of "heavenly tourism."  There are many books and stories of those who have seen Heaven.  Each experience is different.  

In Don's book, he highlights his heavenly experience over two chapters.  He spends one chapter discussing his interactions in Heaven and then the music of Heaven.  

As far as the way Don described Heaven during his testimony, he is right along with scripture. The description of the gate of pearl and there being no sun or moon. The twelve gates of heaven and so on. All this is found in John's account of Heaven in Revelation.  More on John later.  I do take issue with the fact that he claims his loved ones met him at the gates of heaven.  I take issue with this first, because of the fact that our main purpose in Heaven will be to worship our Savior and our God and we will have amazing ways of doing that. We will have fellowship other believers, but our main purpose will be relishing in the glory of the Lord!

I feel as though we have placed the meeting of our loved ones in Heaven above the entrance into the presence of God.  So much so, that many people today are so focused on seeing their loved ones that they forget what we will be in heaven for.  

The Bible speaks to our being caught up with Jesus one day and have reunion with other believers.  Paul speaks of this in 1 Thessalonians.  So we do know that we will meet up with our loved ones, but scripture does not mention any sort of waiting at the gates for us.  

It's hard for me to believe that Heaven is a "carrot on a stick" to motivate me to work for God.  The glory of God is my main purpose in life as a Christ-follower.  When I speak to people about Jesus, I'm not attempting to get them "fire insurance."  I pray that when I have kids and they come to the stage of their life where they accept Christ into their life and enter into a relationship with Him, that they are not just doing it to stay out of Hell.  While that is a great thing to do, to look forward to our heavenly reward, that is not our primary purpose.

Also, Don mentions the music of heaven.  Again, while the majority of his claims align with scripture, there is one misstep. In his book, Don mentions that in Heaven he heard no mention of the sacrifice of Jesus in the songs and worship of the citizens of Heaven.  We are informed in Revelation chapter 5 of the singing of the phrase, "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain..."  So if there is no singing of the sacrifice of Christ, why does the Bible mention it.

Now following the service this morning, I managed to find a PDF version of the book, 90 Minutes in Heaven, and quickly read through the book.  The majority of the book centers on his recovery and his opportunity to use this car accident and subsequent miracle of God.  I am thankful that the majority of the book is centered there, but the fact that he uses the heaven experience so much as part of his speaking, keeps me stumbling.  

The firm fact that no one in the Bible had been to Heaven and given an account.  Lazarus died and was raised. However, he never gives account of his experience.   There were Biblical accounts of visions of Heaven, the most vivid picture is painted by John in Revelation.  

The Bible addresses the issue of whether or not people have seen heaven and come back.

First off, in Proverbs, there's a question posed:

  "Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Whose hands have gathered up the wind? Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is the name of his son? Surely you know! (Proverbs 30:4 NIV)"

Then, Jesus gives the answer in the Gospel of John:

    "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. (John 3:13 NIV)"

Also, Paul, addresses this same issue.

"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. (2 Corinthians 12:2-4 NIV)"

So here's my thought process on this whole situation.

I don't doubt for one second the miracle that God performed when Don Piper awoke from death on the Trinity Bridge outside Huntsville.  My issue lies with his trip to heaven. My issue also lies with the young man who's experience is told in Heaven is for Real.  I do not hold any stock in any of these books which do not align with the word of God.  To quote John MacArthur, " For anyone who truly believes the Biblical record, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that these modern testimonies with their relentless self-focus and the relatively scant attention they pay to the Glory of God are simply untrue." 

There were four visions of Heaven in the Bible.  Notice, that I said visions.  God revealed the nature of heaven to four men: Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, and John.  Each man's account is not very detailed, but the man focus of each account is not personal, it is the Glory of God which fills Heaven.  That's where I struggle with the accounts of the "heavenly tourists," none of the narratives that I have researched spend more than a little time on the Glory of God and the centerpiece of Heaven, Jesus!  

In conclusion, to my brothers and sisters, take the evangelistic material you choose to read and check it against scripture.  Take what speakers and evangelists say and check it against scripture. Heck, check the things I've said against scripture, I urge you! If any of it doesn't line up with scripture, take it lightly. Your ultimate weapon is the sword of truth, USE IT! 

Feel free to comment or message me! 

Hosea and Gomer

Hosea is one of those hidden gems in the Bible.  It is an interesting book and such a great story.  It gives a great picture of love and forgiveness and what God has available for us.

The story starts off with God telling Hosea to marry a prostitute. Now, straight out of the gate, I'm thinking "DO WHAT?!?"  But the beauty of this will be at the end of the story.  Hosea follows God's command and goes and marries Gomer.  

Gomer bore three children. All were named to display the attitude of the Lord towards Israel at this time.  However, in the end of Chapter 1, we see that God's intention is forgiveness.  Although He calls Israel "Lo-Ammi" (not my people), in the next breath, He says that they'll be called "children of the living God." So here we see the end of the story. But the beauty is the story doesn't just end there with a spoiler-alert.

God goes on to describe the punishment that awaits Israel. Particularly not being considered God's people and all the empty pursuits they will chase after that apart from God, will not bring them any satisfaction.  But then, He promises to "allure her" and to "speak tenderly to her" and that he will turn trouble in to hope (Hosea 2:15 mentions the Valley of Achor and Achor means trouble).  God can take anything we are going through and use if for His glory and our good!

God then commands Hosea to go and reconcile with his wife, who has gone back into prostitution.

THIS IS THE BEAUTY OF THIS STORY!!!!

Gomer is an adulteress.  Hosea still goes in and finds her.  In a sermon on this topic, Judah Smith points out what this must have been like for Hosea.  Imagine where he has to go to find her.  Who he has to encounter.  What his eyes have to see.  So he goes in and buys Gomer.  For lack of a better comparison, Gomer is already his wife, he essentially already has possession of her.  He still goes and gives fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and lethek of barley for her.  He takes her back home!  Just as Jesus did for us.  This happened years before Jesus came and did this for the entire human race, but it is such a vivid picture of what was to come!  Hosea tells Gomer that she will not be a prostitute any longer and that she can not be with any man.  God expects the same of us, to be completely devoted to Him and Him alone!

To finish out the book, the history of the relationship of Israel and God is explained.  The future is also seen.  If there is repentance, there will be healing and blessing.  God will come through if we only repent of our sins.

We are essentially prostituting ourselves out to our sinful desires.  It is an extreme way to see it, but it is exactly what we do.  We sell our souls (which belong to God) to sin, work, drugs, sex, sports, money, and so much more.  The great thing is, in the midst of our wallowing in the things of the world, God has come through all of it and found us.  He paid a price for us even though we were His to begin with!

God loves you and He's paid for you.  He's waiting for you to be faithful to Him!

The Only God That Got Up!

Everyone worships something.  People worship statues, ideas, money, animals, activities, and other people.  These things are gods to these people.

Some peoples gods are made up.  Others, were real people who came up with a religion all their own.

 I am here to tell you, I worship and serve the God.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He's the only God.  Out of all the others, He is the only one to come through on His promises.  He's the only one who has died, then been resurrected three days later.  He's the only one to completely raise the dead and heal the sick.  He's the only God who you don't have to jump through hoops for to follow.  All He asks of you is to come to Him.  He's the only GOD!

I think that around this time of year, we focus on the crucifixion and the death of Christ, and then we give a little play to the resurrection, then we move on.  The greatest part of our relationship with Christ and our religion is that He was raised from the dead just like He said He would!

In Matthew 16, Jesus predicts all the happenings of what we have come to call Passion Week.  The 21st verse in Matthew 16 talks about how Jesus told His disciples that He would go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the chief priests and elders and then that He would die and be raised on the third day.

In John, Jesus uses symbolism, but tell the Jews, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days."  They did not understand that He was talking about His own body.  They would soon destroy Him and everything about Him, and then He would rise again.

Buddha and Mohammed cannot say that.  Buddhists, Muslims, and any other religion you can think of can go to the tomb of their leader and he's still there!  When you go to the tomb, where they laid Jesus of Nazareth, today, you will see an empty one! He's gone!  He got up!

Sometimes I think, as Christians, we focus so much on the cross and the suffering of Jesus, that we forget to relish in the fact that He didn't stay dead!   When they pierced His side and the blood and water flowed out, it showed that He was dead.  He had taken on every sin that would ever be committed and was nailed to a cross and suffered between two criminals.  Before that, He was beaten to a bloody pulp.  The Romans were not the type to play when it came to disciplining who they thought to be criminals.

The cross wasn't what it is to us.  We put it everywhere.  Many of us wear it on our clothes, as a necklace, or put it on pictures or up in our house.  We've, honestly, dulled the depth and the meaning of the cross.  It was a gruesome death.  Coupled with the way He was beaten and scourged, it was worse than we could ever imagine.  But He did it for us.  He did it for the worst we have within us.  All our sins and everything we have ever done wrong in our lives, He did it for that.

So there I go, leaving the subject of the resurrection to emphasize the cross.

The resurrection is the cornerstone of the Christian faith.  Without the resurrection, Jesus would have been just another guy who said some things about doing good and told good stories.  He would have still had a following and I am sure still would have been the foundation of a religion of the world.  The great thing is, there was a resurrection!  We don't have to worry with the could have or would have, we got the is!

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul explains what the resurrection means for our faith.  Adam started off the entire cycle with sin in the Garden of Eden.  The cycle rolled from Adam to Abraham to David and on down the line.  Man had no way out of the cycle of sin but divine intervention.  God sent Jesus to earth to take on the punishment for all that sin, then to defeat death.  With His resurrection, Jesus defeated the death caused to us by our sin problem.

If we accept Christ, our death debt of sin is paid and we receive eternal life.  If it wasn't for Him coming up out of the tomb, then that would all be nothing.  With Jesus' resurrection, He set forth in motion the future resurrection of every Christian who dies.  We will one day come up out of the grave just like Jesus did!

Paul says it like this, "For as in Adam, all men die, so in Christ all will be made alive."  All we have to do is ask to be made alive by Christ.

Paul then goes into a symbol that is a great way to view the resurrection of believers.

When we die, we are put into the ground and we await the second coming of Christ.  At that second coming, will we be raised in the body we were in?  NO!  That body will be all kinds of decomposed and rotten.  Paul puts it in terms of seeds, "What you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, just a seed...The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown in a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:36, 42-44)

So there you have it.  We look at that same example with the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

Jesus was raised to fulfill a promise of salvation.

His resurrection is the crux of the salvation we receive!

So let me close with a little paraphrase of my own of Matthew 28:6.

"He ain't here! He did what He said He was gonna do!"

What Happens After The Victory...

Ever have a victory and then the bottom falls out of your heart for no reason? Or have you ever had God do something great in your life, then been scared out of your wits at the next step? Ever feel like you're the only one serving God?  

I'm willing to bet, you answered one of those questions with a yes. 

So, where is this headed today?  Well, no doubt if you've been in church for a day, you've heard the story of Elijah.  

Elijah was a prophet of God during a turbulent time. The King of Israel, Ahab was a sinful king who, who along with many other things, married a woman named Jezebel and began to worship her god, Baal.  Ahab built a temple to Baal in Samaria and according to 1 Kings 16, "did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than any of the Kings of Israel before him."  Ahab was not a good dude, and neither was his wife.

Anyway, Elijah prophesies that there will be a great drought over the land, no doubt because of the terrible way that Ahab is ruling Israel.  Elijah then goes to a brook where he is fed by ravens.  He then moves on, when the brook dries up, as the Lord commanded him, to a widow who's son eventually dies and Elijah prays and God heals him.  

God then tells Elijah to go before the king, Ahab.  Meanwhile, Ahab's wife is killing off the prophets of God. Obadiah, who was the palace administrator, and a believer, had hidden away one hundred of the Lord's prophets in caves this whole time.

Obadiah then meets up with Elijah and soon informs Ahab that Elijah was back. So he does, then Ahab meets up with Elijah.  

At this point, Elijah basically puts Ahab on blast for all the wrongs he's committed and what his family has done on not following the commands of God.

Then Elijah issues a challenge to the prophets of Baal.  A bout between Yahweh, the God of Israel and Baal. Live from Mount Carmel.  

Long story short, the prophets of Baal do everything short of killing themselves, to get Baal to rain down fire on their sacrifice.  Elijah soaks his sacrifice in water and makes a water trench around it, then prays to God to rain down fire from Heaven. God does and Elijah then kills the over 500 prophets of Baal.

Ahab went home and told Jezebel all that had happened.  Jezebel then essentially places a bounty on Elijah's head.  

Elijah then runs away and begs for the Lord to take his life.  He was then fed by the Lord and traveled to a mountain called Horeb, which was the mountain of God.  Elijah then retreated into a cave for the night.

Elijah then has a miniature pity party for himself after God asked what he was doing.  He thinks he's the only one left, the only one who has been zealous for the Lord.  I can tell you, I've been there!  You feel like it's just you and God, sometimes you feel completely alone.

But right here, God shows Elijah something.

A mighty wind blew, but God was not in the wind.  Then there was an earthquake, God wasn't in that.  Then a fire, but God wasn't there.  Then a gentle whisper came and God was in the whisper and gave Elijah another chance to tell what is going on.  Yet again, Elijah has another pity party.

God then instructs Elijah on some men who are to be anointed as king, then who will be his successor as prophet.  God then makes a huge point to Elijah.

"Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him." 1 Kings 19:18

I feel like God is showing two things here. 

1) Even when we feel like everything is stacked against us, God has a plan.  There is nothing that surprises Him and He always cares for His children.  

2) No matter how bad it gets, no matter who walks away, God doesn't leave us!  He also has so many more like us as a part of His plan.  

There's not a need for us to sulk and have our own pity parties.  God has everything under control.  We may never see everything that's going to happen come to fruition, but we have to have faith that God will fulfill the promises He made to us.  

Just like He did for Abraham, who followed in faith.  He didn't see his descendants number the stars in the sky or the sands on the seashore, but he still had faith.

When we win, but turn the corner to another disaster and we wonder where God went...

He's standing right there waiting.