Yesterday at 12:01 marked the start of free agency for the players of the National Football League.  This is a time that is marked with excitement for some and nervousness for others.  A time when careers will take off and others will come to an end.  This year is like no other in NFL history since this is the first year in a long time that there is no salary cap.  That means that teams are free to spend as much or as little as they want in order to build their team.

Because of the significance of this time in history there are some 200 players that thought they were going to be free agents. This means they would have the ability to sign with another club, but due to the end of the collective barganing agreement they are no longer able to become free agents.  They are restricted free agents which means a team that now wants them must give the current team that the player is on compensation in order to sign them to a contract.  A lot of verbage I know, basically 200 players should be free to sign with another team are locked into their current team.

Why am I telling you this?  Because many of us are walking around during this unprecedented time in history and we are spiritual free agents who have the ability to sign with another team, but because the world has been lying to us we are stuck with our current team.  We think that we are free, but  in reality we are under contract with the wrong team.  Unlike in the NFL where there are 32 teams in which a player could sign with, in life there are only two teams; team Jesus and the devils team.  How do I know which team I am on?

Romans 6:16 Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive His approval. (NLT)

Jesus has provided the necessary compensation to buy our freedom.  All we have to do now is choose to be on His team.  And the contract that He will give us is worth more than all that the devil could ever offer us and more.

Sorry that this blog is two days late for those of you faithful blog fans.  Let me warn you this blog will be longer than I normally like to write, so hang in there with me.

This week I had a God moment.  Have you ever had a God moment? You know one of those moments in your life where you have been at the end of your rope, a time when all things around you seem to be crumbling and you don’t know what to do.  A time when you are starting to lose all hope and you have to make a decision and you don’t know which one is right.  You would rather just run and hide and avoid the situation all together, but you know that you can’t.  Then God shows up.  Well He doesn’t really show up, because He has been there the entire time, but you see Him at work and all you can do is say, Wow….. You are truly amazing God.

For me that happend yesterday morning, which was the last day of our PAO (Professional Athletes Outreach) Conference in Dallas TX.  I am the Director of NFL Programs for PAO and so I am in charge of just about every detail that has to do with the conference.  This year was the biggest conference in PAO history with some 450 attendees.  So we knew that the devil was prowling. 

The conference started off phenomenal.  People were coming up to my wife Yannette and I and telling us how awesome the conference was going.  Then after two days, Satan reared his ugly head and I had to make a decision with my President and CEO, Steve Stenstrom.  That decision was going to determine the rest of the conference and it was a hard decision to make, but we did it.  Immediately there was pushback for the decision that was made.  So after many hours of counseling with folks and putting out fires all over the building, I finally laid down for four agonizing hours of sleep only to wake up with lots of doubts in my head and the pit in my stomach.  Did we make the right decision?  What are we going to do this morning?  What if….

Then God did what only He could have done; what He always does. He worked it all out for our good and His glory.  Its funny, I spent so many hours worrying and questioning, and yet the entire time God knew exactly what was going to take place.  The only thing we had to do with the outcome of the program was nothing.  We just prayed and trusted God.  Sure we did have to make some though choices, but nothing worth having comes cheap or easy. 

So if I can leave you with one thing it would be this; Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

Every year Pastor, Author and teacher Ed Young Jr. hosts a pastors conference in Dallas TX called C-3.  The highlight of the entire conference for me was on Friday, where we got a double dose of Bishop T.D. Jakes.  The Bishop talked about Thomas called the Twin who was absent from the upper room when Jesus visited the disciples after His crucifixion.

The Bishop encouraged us all to deal with the Twin that is inside of us, because we all have two sides to our personalities.  The ideal you, or the person you claim to be and the real you.  The one that everyone sees at work, church or out in the community.  The real you is the one that Jesus is most interested in.  Because the real you is the only one that can take you to the places you hope to be.

Then Bishop said this, “You cannot be powerful in public and a failure in private.  God will not bless the ideal you, He will only bless the real you.”  So we must get our twin in check.  Then he said, “you cannot profess with your ideal what you don’t posses in the real.”  In other words you cannot profess to be free, if the real you is really in bondage.

Here is the good news that Bishop Jakes ended with, Jesus came back for the twin.  (John 20:24-29)  He could have decided to say, tough luck Thomas, you should have been there, but instead He came back for Thomas and He is coming back for you too.  Are you ready?  (Romans 10:9-10)

Every year once football season is officially over I always go through a period of mourning.  I love the game of football and really enjoy watching it now that I am purely just a fan.  One of the shows I will miss the most is Monday Night Countdown with Chris Berman.  He and the group of Veteran NFL players commentate on the games that were played and the match ups that are coming.  One of the segments of Monday Night Countdown that I really love is one called C’mon Man!  During this period, the guys each pick a play from the previous week where someone did something so stupid that all you can say is C’mon Man!

Well during Super Bowl week in Miami there were tons of professional athletes in town and a few of them said or did something that would be worthy of a top five C’mon Man!  One of which was a comment made by Adam “Packman” Jones, who is currently serving a year suspension from the NFL for some off the field criminal behavior.  Packman was being interviewed from his Dallas home before the super bowl and said, “Man what does Goodell want me to do, straight up gank someone?  Put a bullet through some dude’s earhole?  Because I am willing to do whatever it takes.  Just say a name and the man is dead before you put the phone down, I want to play so bad.”  C’mon Man!

Goodell who is the commissioner of the NFL and the ultimate decision maker on whether or not Adam is going to be allowed to play in the NFL again said, “I will be glad to meet with Jones before camp begins in order to discuss his future.”  He also stressed that Jones should please not kill him.  Now I’m sure Packman said this as a joke.  At least I hope he did, but this is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard someone say who is in his position.

The first scripture that comes to mind is Matthew 12:34 For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  Meaning what is truly in a persons heart comes out of his mouth.  This is important because Adam will appear before Commissioner Goodell and tell him how sorry he is and how he has learned his lesson, but his words in the interview last week will totally contradict what he will be saying to the Commiss.  We must all learn to watch what we say, but sometimes like Packman we just can’t help ourselves, because what we say is usually just who we truly are.

Recently I read the touching story of a 42 year old single mother named Denise Anderson who lost her only son Corey Shea  who was serving in Iraq.  Anderson said she raised Shea alone with little money, but they had a whole lot of love.  Mrs. Anderson decided to have her son Corey buried in a military cemetery saying, “he deserves to be buried honorably with his fellow soldiers.”Corey passed away in November of 2008 and his mother says she still visits his grave a couple times a week.  Denise says, “all I want is to be with my son for all of eternity.”  What is the problem you might ask?   Denise is not allowed to be buried with her son in the military cemetery.  That is reserved for spouses and children of military veterans.  Mrs. Anderson says, since Corey died before he had a chance to get married or have children that she doesn’t want her son to be alone.  That is why she requested the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs to make an exception to her case to which she was denied.This is sad on so many accounts.  Just a couple of thoughts.  First, because our bodies go into the ground and our souls go to another place, Corey is no longer in that cemetery.  Second, Corey is not alone, that I can guarantee.  Finally, even if Mrs. Anderson was granted permission to be buried with her son Corey’s body, I still don’t believe she would have peace.True peace can only come from God, who gave us His son Jesus to become our peace. (Ephesians 2:14)  Jesus says He will give us this peace, but it can only come from being in a commited relationship with Him.  (John 14:27)  So I grieve with Mrs. Anderson, but I pray that she will find the only peace that will comfort her soul before her days are done on this earth.

Here is a picture of R&B Singer Chris Brown who is posing here with fashion designer John Paul Gaultier during Paris fashion week.  Chris, who pleaded guilty to felony assault charges after he attached his then girlfriend Rhianna the night before the grammys, recently appeared in public crying and telling the world and Rhianna how sorry he was.  Sure looks like he is sorry huh?

Not only does this show no class at all, one could argue that it proves he wasn’t truly sorry.  Let me rephrase that, he might have been sorry, but it was more sorry I got caught, rather than sorry I hurt you.  How can you say that Don, stop judging people!  Doesn’t the bible say we shouldn’t judge?  Well yes, however, the bible also says that there are two types of sorrow; worldly sorrow and Godly sorrow.  How do we know the difference?

2 Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  If you read (v.8-12) Paul basically explains that if we are truly sorry for the bad things we have done, then we would have a repentive attitude. This means we would turn away from any behavior that remotely resembles our old behavior that we say we are sorry for.  But if our actions after the incident look vaguely familar to our old actions, then we show that we are not truly sorry.  We are more ashamed that we got caught.

Now you be the judge on whether or not Chris Brown feels ashamed for what he did.

One of MTV’s popular new shows is called The Hills.  One of the main stars is Heidi Montag.  Heidi has recently come under fire because she reportedly had 10 plastic surgery procedures in one day that lasted 10 hours.  The Hills star on one program admitted that she was obsessed with plastic surgery and then refuted her claims in another interview.

In case you are interested here is a list of her procedures; a mini brow lift; botox in her forehead and frown area; a nose job revision; fat injections in her cheeks, nasolabial folds and lips; a chin reduction; neck liposuction; ear pinning; a breast augmentation revision; liposuction on her waist, hips and inner and outer thighs; and buttock augmentation.  Wow!

Not only did the 23 year old reality star get caught saying two different things, she also made herself look really ignorant with some comments made on Good Morning America.  When asked what she would say to young girls who look at her on the magazine covers and on TV?  Montag said, “my main messge is that beauty is really within.  I’m in a different industry than they are.  I have to do things that are going to make me happy at the end of the day.”

External beauty fades away and no amount of plastic surgery is going to make her truly happy.  Nothing in this world that is temorary can make a person truly happy.  Of coarse they all make great promises to fulfill us, but in the end they will always come up short on delivery. 

1 John 2:15  Do not love the world or the things of the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  (16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The Reverend Tim Jones is a priest in the Church of St. Lawrence in York, which is 220 miles north of London.  Rev. Jones made one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever heard.  He said, “The commandment, Thou salt not kill is not written in stone.”  You see Rev. believes that sometimes its acceptable for desperate people to shoplift, as long as they “do it at large national chain stores rather than small family businesses.” 

The church of England has sent out a rebuke against the reverend and said it in no way supports those claims that its ever ok to steal.  But our man Rev. Jones has diarrhea of the mouth.  He stands by his comments adding, “Shop lifting can be justified if a person is in real need and not greedy and does not take more than they need to get by.”  Common man… 

If its ok to break that one, then how can we defend not breaking any of the other ones?  I have heard clergy say some dumb things, but are you serious?  Many folks today want to hand pick the commands that they follow.  The Apostle Paul told young Timothy not to be surprised by this.  In 2 Timothy 4:3 He says, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears; they will heap up for themselves teachers, (v.4) and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

We cannot hand pick the parts of the bible that we like and discard the rest.  It is either the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, or its not.  There is no grey area with the Lord!

Westboro Baptist Church located in Topeka Kansas is lead by the controversial Fred Phelps. If you don’t know, Westboro Baptist is the church famous for its provocative signs like, “God Hates Fags!”  There latest one is “God Hates Lady Gaga!”  The popular pop singer is performing in St. Louis and Fred Phelps and his followers have decided that they are going to protest her concert in January, and urge other believers to join them.

I couldn’t believe the story so I did some research.  Reports show that Westboro church spends more than $250,000 a year picketing and protesting.  This group doesn’t just think that God hates fags and Lady Gaga, they also called the Reverend Billy Graham a “hell-bound false prophet.”  Wow!

We have all heard the phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner.”  What does that really mean?  In 1 John 4:7 John tells us that we are to “love one another, for love is of God.”  (v.8) goes on to say, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  Now here is the million dollar question.  Does what Westboro Baptist Church is doing, sound like love to you?

Forget about that passage for a moment, maybe John is telling us to only love those who are like us, NOT!  But for arguments sake lets try another one.  Colossians 4:5 says, “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.”  (v.6) Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

God is the only judge, and I have a hard time saying to someone who Christ died for, that His Father hates them.  God sent Jesus to die on the cross for all of us.  That is the greatest act of love ever displayed.  God hates sin, not sinners.  Whose really the false prophet? 

I love Krispy Kreme dougnuts.  Everytime I am in a city that has one there is nothing that stops me from getting a dozen “hot-now’s.”  I believe that they are the next best thing since sliced bread.  I would eat a dozen everyday if I could.  But here’s the problem.  Each one of those tasty little delights has 200 calories.  Since, I believe it is a sin to eat any less than six at one time, that means I am consuming 1200 calories everytime I have Krispy Kreme.  Wow!

But here’s the kicker, I continue to eat them even though I know that they are bad for me.  I justify eating so many, because I am in pretty good shape and I know that after I indulge, I am going to punish my body the next day by doing some extra cardio in the gym. 

Today, there are a lot of people in the church who have a Krispy Kreme mentality when it comes to the sin in their lives.  They are involved in behavior that is totally against God’s will, and they know that they are doing wrong, but they justify their actions.  Many figure they are a good person, and they will make up for their sins by going to church or giving money or reading their bible that week.  As if they are doing God a favor.

I want to encourage everyone to turn over a new leaf.  Make 2010 a year that we get rid of the old ways of sin that bring us down and put on the new ways that will lead to life and peace.  Peter encourages us “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” (1 Peter 1:14-15)

Oh buy the way, I have not plan to stop eating Krispy Kreme Dougnuts, unless God himself comes to me in a vision and personally tells me to stop.