Posts Tagged ‘military’

Message to Coaches

Posted: April 26, 2026 in Insights
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As a player, Coach, and/or official for over half of a century, I have learned many things…far too many to go into here in this short commentary. As a Christian and believer and follower of Jesus Christ who coaches as well as being a former player and official, the choice to place priority where it should be placed is THE most important thing we can do…period.

Below is an excerpt from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost For His Highest devotional from April 24:

“ We (referring to Christian workers and the church) have a commercialized view – we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet, our work begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God”.

The devo wraps up with: “Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced His words with an ‘if’, never with a forceful or dogmatic statement – ‘You must.’ Discipleship carries with it an option.”

If you want to know what our jobs are as coaches…there it is it, right there. Sports are the vehicle…the means…that takes us on this journey of discipleship. Sports are not the destination. Our goal should be to develop young men and women of God who love and follow Jesus who are ________ (enter your sport) players. Not __________players who are young men and women of God who love and follow Jesus. There is a difference. The difference is in the priority and focus. If the sport comes first, we are missing it.

Too many athletes, and parents too unfortunately, place priority on the sport and the outcome of that sport. The fact is, if we understand and grasp on to the reality that God loves His kids and wants us to have the desires of our hearts but wants us to desire a relationship with Him, follow Him, and give our lives to Him, trust Him with our hopes and dreams, do our best at what we do for Him because we love Him, and put Him as the priority and not the sport, we will begin to understand His heart. If we will do that…put Him as the priority and not the sport…we may or may not have or achieve the success we desire. We will get infinitely more. What we receive from God are the byproducts of our relationship with God…not the reason for it.

However, the focus is up to us and does not reside solely in the rituals and traditions we, as people, create or follow. In other words, if you are at a baseball, basketball, tennis, soccer, or volleyball tournament, track meet, race, etc…on a Sunday morning and not able to be at church or corporate worship, create church and corporate worship where you are and with those around you. That’s just not for Sundays. It is for every day. Jesus, in His earthly ministry, met people where they were. He went to them. He still does that today. He meets us where we are.

Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28 verses 19-20 to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them with the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…” He said GO to where the people are…GO to where people live, work, play. Of course, do not neglect the opportunity to worship corporately, with other believers. However, Jesus did most of His best work, changing lives, restoring hearts, healing minds, bodies, and souls outside the church as outside the brick and mortar was where the needs resided…where the lost, the sick, the broken resided. That is still true today.

And, “…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…” – disciple them. Saving a soul, changing a heart, those are the job of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. He is the only one who can. Our job is to walk along side, teach, model, encourage, love, and mentor…in other words, disciple…those He places in our spheres of influence. It begins with Him, then with us. We cannot teach what we do not understand. We cannot model what we do not do ourselves.

I have seen lives change and God do unbelievable heart surgery and restoration more outside the church than inside. I have seen Him show up on ballfields, courts, pool decks, and trails, in bars, yards, at concerts, on the street, you name it. I have seen it happen more outside the brick and mortar than inside. That is neither a coincidence nor a happenstance. It is reality and truth.

As coaches, we have been entrusted with a significant role with significant influence and opportunity. With that influence and opportunity come significant responsibility. Trust me. We will influence our players, their families, and others all around us. We can, and will, either lead them to someone, THE One, or away from someone. There is no third option. Don’t believe me? See John 14:6. He is the only way. It is 100% our choice. Like it or not, accept it or not, we will be held accountable for how we influence.

Until next time…

Coach, out.

Road Trip 2014: What’s Under the Hood?

Posted: May 15, 2014 in Articles, Servant Warrior Radio Message
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SWM logo final 4-2012 Hello, May. Wow…summer is almost here. I know you’re pumped! Before I get started, I would like to remind you that this month we honor some very, very  important people: Mothers ( Mother’s Day – May 11th) and those military personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country (Memorial Day  –  May 26th). I cannot road picthink of two groups of people who deserve our thanks more. So to mothers everywhere, we  say “Thanks, Mom. We love you. You’re the best.” And to the families of and in memory of those men and women  who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure our freedom and way of life, with humble adoration and the utmost    respect, “Thank you.”

Now…let’s get on with it. We are continuing the Road Trip 2014 Series this month with “What’s Under the Hood?”  I think you’re going to like it…relate to it…maybe even experience a little uneasiness as it just may hit a bit too close to home. Hey…just sharing the Truth. It’s all good…and well worth the time.

And away we go! Let me set it up for you. You and couple of buddies emerge from the local gas and guzzle with some large cups of coffee…or Mountain Dew… headed back to your monster crew cab man machine that resides next to the pump that just delivered way too much gas to your ride. You guys climb back in and get back onto the interstate. A mile or so up the road you get the fortune of getting stuck behind a beat up, two-toned, primered, late 60’s model Camaro that, from the outside, looked to be lucky to be holding together and certainly didn’t appear to be interstate worthy…not to mention it was being driven by an elderly gentleman. Of course, conversation in the truck between you and your buddies ensued that was not necessarily favorable to the machine or the driver a hundred feet or so ahead of you. Now, in an attempt to get out of your way, the older gentleman and his Camaro found themselves pulling in front of a jet black, tricked out, and super nice Mustang convertible with the top down and the 30 something who is driving, and from the way he was going at it on his cell was obviously making the business deal of his life, clearly felt as though the nice gentleman who just pulled in front of him didn’t share his sense of urgency. Unfortunately, the traffic was such that would not allow the Stang to pass the ‘Maro. So…the young buck almost found himself in the trunk of the old guy’s car a few times as he was clearly agitated.

Now, you and your buddies are watching this unfold and likely have some mixed feelings about it…some sympathy for the older gent and empathy with the young stud. Hang with me…it’s about to get good. The young guy gets the opportunity to go around the older gentleman but instead of passing him and going about his day, he feels Camaro the need to express his agitation about being held up. So, he pulls in front of the Camaro and slows down causing the  older gentleman to have to put on his brakes. The young guy revs his little rocket a few times in front of the old guy as if  to say…”Look at this machine…and look at yours. Who are you to pull in front of ME and slow ME down?”

At that  moment, you see the back end of the Camaro lower a bit and you hear the unbelievable and deafening growl of  power as  the two toned bondo and duct taped Camaro jets past the little sports car like it was sitting still. Of course, the  young  man was to have nothing of that. He revved his ride to its max but the little 4 cylinder the young man was  sporting in his  tricked out Stang just didn’t have the umph…to keep up with the seasoned hot rodder. Not to mention  the Mustang was  in need of a tune up and oil change.  His car looked super sweet on the outside but seriously lacked  fortitude on the  inside. Come to find out, the old guy in the Camaro just finished restoring the powerhouse 500HP V8 engine on his 1969 ZL1 Camaro. Even if the kid had a Shelby Cobra, he wasn’t going to catch him. But you would have  never guessed  the Camaro had that kind of engine from looking at it.

I got to tell you, I am big fan of the Star Wars movies…not so much of the new ones but definitely of the original 3 and especially the first one, episode IV: A New Beginning. One of the best quotes in the entire movie, and there were a few good ones, came from Han Solo, of course played by Harrison Ford, when he responded to Luke Skywalker’s “observation and comment” of Solo’s ship the Millennium Falcon…it’s classic!: “She’s not much to look at…but she has it where it counts, kid.” I dig that quote and have used it often myself. Yes…I’m dating myself. But that’s ok. They don’t make good movies like that anymore. But that’s a subject for another day.

“Not much to look at but has it where it counts, kid.” How many times have we heard that the heart, not the outer appearance, of a person is what is important to God? All throughout scripture, God makes it very clear that what is on the inside counts much more than what is on the outside. Think about when Samuel passed the news that David, the youngster and not one of his older more outwardly appealing brothers, would be king of Israel… What did God say? “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV).

More for our conversation here was Christ’s admonishment of the Pharisee he was dining with, as told in Luke 11 and Matthew 23, regarding the vast difference between his and the other Pharisees’ outward appearance and… “what was under the hood.” Jesus said in Matthew 23:26-28, “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Too often we are more concerned with how we look to others than how we look to God. And I am going to go ahead and make a bunch of people mad but too often, our churches and those inside look, using our story from the interstate, more like the beautiful than the bondoed. Which one would you say you are? Which one would others say you are? And we wonder why our words and our actions don’t impact others…at least not in the way God would want. Here’s the harsh reality folks: People can see through the façade of playing the part of “Christian”. More times than I would like to admit I have heard the word “hypocrite” associated with Christians and the church. I have heard that both inside and outside the church. Of course, not every church body or group of believers is this way…too many are. You’ve seen them…visited them. Let’s start focusing on what God sees as important. He clearly tells us that if we clean up the inside…the outside will also be clean. If we are going to impact the lives of others for His kingdom, we must adopt an inside out focus rather than an outside in.

We’ll continue the Road Trip 2014 series next month. Until then…Keep it Real…Radical…Relentless…Relevant. Rock On…& Armor Up!

Make sure to visit the Servant Warrior® Ministries’ site and check out all of the awesome things that are going on… SWM Brand Family 2-20-14 for linkedin

Spiritual Warfare: Tracking the Enemy

Posted: May 1, 2013 in Articles, Servant Warrior Radio Message
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Hello, May. It’s great to see you. I’d love to visit but we’ve got an enemy to track. Oorah!

This is the fourth installment of the Spiritual Warfare series headquartered in Ephesians 6:10-18 on how the very familiar “Armor of God” passage mirrors the mission of a Marine Corps Rifle Squad which is – to locate, close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver and repel the enemy’s assault by fire and close combat.

This month, we’re talking about locating, closing with, and destroying the enemy by fire and maneuver. The “fire” we use are the weapons of God mentioned in Ephesians 6…The Sword of the Spirit – God’s Word…and prayer. But what about “locate and close with”? Well…I can tell you one thing. If we want to locate the enemy…we have to go where he is. Guess what…we don’t have to go far. In fact, go anywhere…watch almost anything…and we’ll find evil and/or the handiwork of Satan. In fact, there are very few places that we will go and not “find the enemy prowling around like a lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8). To locate the enemy…go to where he is. And where is that? The world.

Now…I know it can be a powder keg subject, but there is no reason for us to avoid the things…the people…the evil of the world. In fact, I think it’s an awesome opportunity to say…”We will not back down or retreat…but will be in the world…not of it…and take the fight to the enemy with the weapons of God and power of Jesus in our camp!” Can I get an Amen?!
us-soldier-silhouette-desert-sunriseNow, I’m going to give you four reasons why it is not Biblical to avoid the things…the people…the evil of the world:

  1. We, Christians, are called to be “light”. Jesus, in His sermon on the mount, said, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16) If the world is a dark place, I can’t think of anywhere better to let our light shine. Can you?
  2. We are commanded to “GO”. Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:19 to, “…go and make disciples of all nations…”  You can’t “GO” if you’re staying put. Expecting people to come to you is not “GOING”. To “GO” means to meet people where they are…both literally and figuratively.
  3. We are called to be “in the world…not of it.” Jesus, praying for His disciples, said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17:16.
  4. We are protected. After Jesus ate with His disciples the final time, He prayed for them…and for us. Here is part of His prayer out of John 17:11-16: “…Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it…” If the Savior of the world prays for His Father to protect His disciples, and us, from the evil one, I have full confidence that we have absolutely nothing to worry about. We can go boldly into any situation, circumstance, or environment…fully armored in His protection…with His weapons…and proclaim the name of Jesus and show a life that is being lived for Him. And all of God’s people shouted, “Amen!”

So…until next time, keep it Real…Radical…Relentless…Relevant…and every day…Armor Up!

Please take time this Memorial Day to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We’re grateful to them all. Semper Fi.

The above article can be seen in the May edition of Power Source Magazine or viewed HERE.