Boot camp has finally come to an end, and what an adventure it has been!

For three months we three lived in a new way, building practical steps into our lives to incorporate the truth He has been giving us. And I am confident that these new aspects will for the most part become permanent staple characteristics of our lives. God is teaching us to live in Rhythm and with purpose toward Him in daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and life spanning commitments. This has taken its effect upon every aspect of life, from financing and work ethics to household maintenance and relationship building to the most inner depths of personal communion with God.

So last night we had a party, with which I think all of us were surprised by the large outcome. We had a great time of seeing familiar church faces as well as some we see less frequently. The fellowship I experienced was only rivaled by the fellowship I saw surrounding me. The evening of fun and snacking was highlighted by a time of prayer over each of us as we move forward into some different directions. Dave McMurray is getting married next month of course, and Dave Hansen and I will be continuing on living together, with the aim of creating and maintaining a similar atmosphere for other single guys to come into, ready to grow together in discipline and live actively as the church to one another and with whomever we may have opportunity.

Chuch Caine had an awesome word for us as he was given an image of Christ greeting each of us in a reception line at the end of this journey we have been on, and slipping each of us a handful of seeds with a hug. He also saw that we have 3 options of what to do with the seeds we have been given. We could seal them in a bag and put them away for safekeeping. We could immediately devour them ourselves. Or we could distribute them among those around us, and cast the remainder out upon the earth. It is the third which I hope each of us has, and which is one of the factors in the mentality which brought me into the boot camp in the first place.

God didn't waste any time last night giving practical circumstance in which to spread seed. Everyone left by about 11 pm, and I went out for a walk with a couple people while my roommates went right to bed. A was sitting at a park with a couple friends when a man, Todd, walked up to us. Todd is 33 and has been homeless for a little less than 2 weeks. He definitely drinks, but was definitely sober-minded as he spoke of his plight and we responded with Christ's infinite love for all us co-hellions who fight Him. He ended up coming home with us, as my friends departed he got to take a much needed shower and find some more comfortable clothes. It broke my heart to see him brought to tears for a love he does not understand and desperately desires but can't or won't comprehend. We prayed many times, and when I went to bed I read from Psalm 4

"In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

As I went to bed he desired to stay up and read, and apparently did so all night long. In the morning my roommates both had opportunity to talk with him, and when I got up later he told me that he hadn't slept all night, because of visions and nightmares that plagued him. I got to spend more time in prayer with him this morning, and put on soft worship music so he could rest while I took a shower. While I was in the shower he got up, took all his belongings, and disappeared. I hope he returns some day.

I am so confused such an intense situation of such gravity as this one. I suddenly feel completely helpless, and all I can do is utter secret prayers for miracles. Perhaps this is the best solution, and I need to simply grow in that role. I get so confused to see those who need so much, seem to see it and the solution, but don't really get it. All I can do is live in prayer and hope that he does, and seek your prayers as well. I do know one thing though. My life should be lived focused on these opportunities. Constantly through those 10 hours of friendship, I kept thinking, "I need to be prepared for this, I should be living with this in mind." Why does anything else become a focus point in my life? I don't know, but I don't like it.

1 Corinthians 12 &13

I would like to turn now to 1 Corinthians 12-13 for a clarification of this love. In chapter 12 we learn much about how a body relation. We are designed to all exist differently; there is no ideal image of a follower of Christ. There is to be beautiful differentiation between members, for different purposefulness. None should consider himself higher or lower based on his difference from another. All have need for one another, and should never take on an attitude which prefers any gifting or personality. He even says that just as the body has parts which should be treated with modesty, so also certain roles should be performed behind the scenes. So we realize that a principle stands in that all men are designed to relate within the body differently, fill different roles, know God differently on a personal level, and do this so “that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” (verse 25)
Chapter 13 is one all too familiar to Christians and others alike. This chapter is one devoted to love, which is most often heard at weddings. It is used to give an example of the intensity of the vows of marriage, and to remind a couple of the commitment and hard work upon which they will embark for the rest of their lives. A marriage is a relationship founded upon love as an action which often goes against all desire, a relationship which mirrors Christ and the church, one defined by sacrifice and submission. It is interesting to see that this passage which we gain so much insight toward this relationship is written after 1 Cor. 12. In fact, after they begin to understand this idea of differing roles in the body and unity through chapter 12, it ends by saying, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.”
This chapter on love which is so readily used to state the intensity of marital love is in fact written to explain the love every Christian should exhibit toward one another. This type of love which we so greatly value and idealize toward marriage is actually one which should fuel our relation toward one another. While marriage is far more intensive in requirement of this love, it is identical to the attitude I should have toward body members. Whatever love attitude I would take on toward my wife should be equally exhibited toward all fellow Christians.

Real love experienced by men and through human relationships is simply an outpouring of God’s love, a dim reflection of a universal human need and longing. That is the crux for beginning to understand the massive difference between what we call love and what true love is. Human love is non-similar to God’s love. It is even a polar opposite in some aspects. They should really be two different words based on how dissimilar they are. Humanity’s greatest longing is for a love it does not know, but nothing within it knows how to create this love. Truly, few ever experience the love they were designed to flourish within. A love built on man is self focused and rewards seeking when it is tested deeply. The only chance for real love to exist is to be wrapped up in God and allow His control and Lordship so that we can reflect a glimpse of Him. Rhett Barbour explained it in this way, “Love is evidence of being united with the Father.”
Love from God, termed reflective love from this point forward, is only available to be distributed when relating to God. A simple analogy for this is that one can only pour water out of a hose when it is connected to a water source. Therefore, a man can only give love if he is getting it, and he can only get it from God, or men connected to God.
Love should be a character trait. We know that God is Love. He does not simply love, He is love. Even if there was no one to love, He would exist as such. We also should be defined by love, not simply loving. It is not simply a purpose toward a specific person, but an attitude about existence which directly alters every perspective. It is evidence of Lordship at the deepest level. God tests our maturity and love for Him by how we love one another, his body (1 John 4:7-8;20).
This reflective love starts as a principle and perspective on existence. From this point it is very quickly made into an often painful practicality in literally every situation. We are told to do all to the glory of God. This means love in every simple, even seemingly non-relational action. I need to figure out how to eat and drink out of love, even when alone. Over time, this will eventually takes on a catholic unification. This means that if Christians are allowing this holy transformation, then the main component of who they are in Christ will also be the asset which makes them readily unified. Picture all Christians placed in a big box, and shaken about, randomly reassigned and surrounded by totally new brothers and sisters. If they are living to embrace love, then this doesn’t even create a hiccup in their capability to co-exist and flourish in building up one another and the kingdom of God. God comes between relationships that are purposed in love (Romans 15:5).
This type of love is not romanticized, but sacrificial. It requires submission to something we do not fully understand and will never be able to completely conform to. Submission is a relinquishing of personal will and preference. It can’t be romantically charged. To be a great man or woman is to be like Christ. To follow Christ’s earthly example is to be characterized by submission and sacrifice. To be a man of God, mirroring Him as a husband and leader requires total sacrifice of self to him and others.
As we increasing in love for one another, God is able to establish blamelessness and holiness in our hearts (1 Thess. 3:12-13). We are purified as we pursue to make God’s love realized in a practicality. This reflective love also holds within it the capability to build characteristics such as faith, hope, joy, and peace in those who are willing to embrace practicing it. 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells us that love is the greatest attribute, greater that faith and hope. If we recognize and wrestle through this truth, then we will begin to grow in these other ways as well; out of His love flows all else. Per example, Faith is realized when we know His love, for He who loves unconditionally and eternally could never steer us wrong, and etc.
We need to love God the same way that we should love one another. Our love is all the more validly poured back on its producer. To have the chief aims of dwelling in love and loving in reflection creates an entirely new relationship to God. This will make Him less confusing for many, encouraging them down out of their ivory towers to enjoy the warm grass and breeze with Him. It will take Him off of the examination tables of the church, who often eagerly seek to understand Him to the point of dissection, forgetting to know Him. Also we cannot simply feel out who He is, but we can love what we do not fully grasp, and gain in understanding through the Spirit and Word. There is much that comes to naught when love is the goal and realization. Intimacy is the ends we have opportunity for here.

Boot Camp Summary
Theory- We can begin to fulfill all biblical and spirit led roles for our lives. This is the only true source of satisfaction in life.
We are designed to live in rhythm. This is the key to creating a lifestyle atmosphere that promotes thriving in spirit led action. Many are led to give their all, but poor focus or lack of balancing factors prevents true long-term effectiveness. This means that people strive toward goals to which they have not been led. It also means that even if they are being led to a goal, living in a way that does not support this in every aspect will cause burnout in the long term. Men give there all to one thing alone until someone tells them to stop or they decide to quit. This is not ideal or effective.
God designed man to live in rhythm. He rested the seventh day. This is a picture of his role for man. Men are designed to tire. It is inherent that men should rest weekly, and God requires that all men find time of rest and enjoyment on a weekly level. None should be thus deprived.
When God created, he made night and day. Until only recently in history, it has remained true to the entire world that the day if for man to act, and by night there is little that can be done. This is a design of natural rhythm.
Because we can see that life is completely designed in rhythms and effectiveness is found in being purposeful in all things, it is only logical that we should begin to build lives that are intensely designed to fulfill goals that God has established for us as humans and individuals. Some of the general goals include worship, work, rest, creation, relation, family, etc.
Boot camp is designed to give young men the opportunity to submit their lives intensely, taking on a like-mindedness with Christ, in order to find this lifestyle that honors him. Submission is the first step toward suffering. Christ is the example for all men, and a man, specifically differing from a woman or child, is called to die daily for Christ and others. We as men need to be living lives in total submission to death of self. Only in honing this in with stable living will we find true manhood and Godly life.

The truth is that Christianity stands in stark opposition to the American mindset. This people has adjusted the depths of Christian perspective over a couple centuries to create a gospel which is only half of its original. We have lost so much of Christ's perspective, and we often accept and preach the opposite!

A good example of this is submission. The only time when submission is spoken of in America is when feminists are talking about how no women should ever have to partake in it. Even in conservative churches the best they can scrounge up is that a wife should submit and a husband love and serve. But what about Christ? I believe I have already spoken on this blog of Christ's submissive nature. From the moment he decided to take on human form he lived in constant submission, and it was through this constant deciding to submit that he experienced all suffering. In the same way, we must submit as an act of reverence to Him and so that we may partake in His suffering. The Bible pretty much requires it for proper living. But we don't really grasp that for the most part.

All this to say, in a short format, that we need to take a look at the Bible apart from any and all tradition. Traditions aren't bad, if they are directed by Scripture. If they are, then that need to be consciously acknowledged for any purpose to be found.

I guess I come to this point through the boot camp, learning so much about what the Bible calles us to in lifestyle. This isn't an area which seems to be addressed very often. We usually talk about what type of person we should be, and even what we shouldn't do, but not about the habitual lifstyle actions we should be forming. More on this later.

God is growing me in a direction that I have never heard of in a church! The only Christian lifestyle it seems similar to is that of the seasoned, passionate, Christ-centered missionary. Christianity in America is not usually lived out as the Bible instigates. Hallelujah for being taught to live more fully human before God!

Disciplship Boot Camp is intense.

I'm just finally getting some time to post about it now that its been in full swing for nearly two weeks.

I'd like to start where we have come to thus far in the journey, with some of the weekly requirements in more detail, as well as some of the highlights thus far.

On weekdays we have a curfew of 11pm, and we are all usually out of bed by at least 6:30am or so. We are beginning to build individual daily rhythms for ourselves, mine includes showering, time studying, prayer time, a slight workout (I use the term very loosely), breakfast, and some free time before I go to work, usually at 10am. Mondays also include Dinner via Dave McMurray's cooking, with confession and prayer for a while afterward. Tuesdays are my days to cook, and whatever comes out of that is followed by a Biblical Manhood class with John Herman. Wednesday is a free evening, thus my ability to write this post. Thursday is Dave Hansen's culinary exhibition, followed by time with the Boot Camp's creator and main schemer, Justin Carabello. This time also includes study and discussion of Elizabeth Elliot's Mark Of A Man, which we are speeding along through. Friday is another night or relative freedoms, and Satuday includes some type of service project, along with the possiblity of Shabbat meal at any willing family's house. Sunday's only requirement is the Gathering service in the evening.

We are also meeting more sporadically with people like Heath Hostetler, who is doing our financial training and budgeting, and April Pryor, who is teaching us more on building a rhythmic lifestyle.

Getting into this Boot Camp full swing has been alot like trying to learn how to drive a new vehicle. We still haven't figured out the tension on the brakes and gas. I was eager to come into submission to Godly leadership coming into this program, so the real point of learning thus far for me has been in finding purpose in things which are plotted out. It is hard for me to find myself sincere in something like a prayer I planned ahead for a scheduled time frame. But I know there is a way to be purposeful in this, so I continue to strive on in this discipline. Also, I have been realizing that I am so focused on the Boot Camp and all the good it gives opportunity for, I am forgetting the Holy Spirit. It is a dangereous thing to become confident in a rhythm. But a rhythm provides a greater depth of purpose, submission, stewardship, and dominion in life. So I consider myself blessed to be wrestling through this paradox so quickly into this process.

All that deep stuff being said, its just been a blast to live so purposefully and with to awesome/hilarious/diverse/Godly guys. Here are some photo's of some of our sweet meals together thus far! Enjoy!

Enjoying Dave Hansen's first meal of Brats and White Chicken Chili with Justin before studying The Mark Of A Man

Dave McMurray learning first hand how to fry up the Trout Heath just caught the other day.