*The blogs will live in the Classroom, so you can access them whenever you'd like. I will still post them to the main page, as well. This seems like an odd way to begin, but I was eating lunch earlier and I had a thought emerge, “I forgot to pray.” And honestly, in the recent past, I hadn’t really prayed before eating by myself. I would always pray before family meals, and eventually meals with just my wife and I, and there have been a few occasions where I would pray before. And to pause here, you may be a more mature Christian and say, “You should be praying before every meal, regardless of if you are alone or not.” I agree, but understand I didn’t think of it, but now I do. It sparks the interest to investigate further and see what has changed. It is also not lost on me from a higher viewpoint, this is sanctification. The cool thing, though, is that this is sanctification before my own eyes, and that is neat. I’ll get to the investigating in about two minutes, but I want to go back to lunch (because it was delicious). I am there, eating my heated up, pre-prepped (by another person, thank you Clean Eatz) grass-fed burger with red potatoes and a fantastic dipping sauce, and the Holy Spirit clearly reminds me to pray. Less of my thought popping up in my head, and more of a wind of illumination cross my mind by osmosis. And my immediate reaction was to say, “Oh! Yes Lord, forgive me.” And what’s weird, dude, is as I’m writing that it sounds rather pious. I mean, I say “dude” a lot, and am very much a person of the modern times (not in the ways of the world, per se, but cultural), so speaking to my Lord so saintly would seem out of character, maybe, but it was what my heart blurted out. And here is where the gratitude enters. As I prayed, I remembered something my seminary table mate said last night. In discussing the ways we deny our limitations, as limited creatures, of course, he mentioned that the Lord gives us daily bread and we don’t bat an eye to truly thank him. Because of the accessibility of food, it just seems like getting whatever we want to eat is just what we do. We don’t stop to think about how it got to us. Outside of the Lord’s Prayer, and blessing our food, I don’t believe we often sit there and think deeply that this food showed up to nourish us, like a momma bird flying in and feeding its baby, seemingly out of nowhere. We didn’t cultivate the land, plant the seeds, nurture the plant, and pick the food. We exchange money for it, and here it comes.

Guys, I was pondering this last night as I was reading one of my books for my seminary course. This is what I wrote down, and I thought I'd share it with y'all: We long for a return to the garden. We can even experience it through a seemingly fogged glass, but we cannot see fully through it just yet. Our sin, and our emotions tied to a false belief of how we are experience life, keeps us far from it. Our longings, though, turn to action, and that action we take can bring us success in whatever it is the Lord has blessed us with, letting us almost smell the air of Eden; this creates in us a joy and epace we can barely grasp, like a floundering fish caught during starvation. It's at this point we swell with pride, and say, "it is I who did this magnificent thing!" and forget to thank God for what we've experienced, those longings finally satiated, that we are thrust from our temporary encounter with the garden, and are brought back to the glass, our faces pressed tightly as if only we could just taste and see again, perhaps our loneliness, anger, depression, anxiety, pain, sorry, etc. will finally go away. Oh, how we needed saving from this. Initial thoughts?

I just finished reading Words of Life by Timothy Ward. It's an academic theological book I had to read to for seminary, and it prompted some incredible thoughts and understandings I wanted to share. One being: The human authors of the Bible and God's "speech act" through them. The first thing we must grasp is that the Bible is indeed God's Word. When he speaks, he acts. When we are reading the Bible, we are experiencing his presence by way of his action through the written word. Just as if I wrote you a letter, as you read it, you aren't just reading words on a paper, you are reading what I have written, therefore part of me is in the letter itself. We can struggle with the idea of humans being the ones who were the physical authors of the Bible and the Bible also being the infallible and the inerrant Word of God, but when we understand that the Holy Spirit has not only spoken through these men as they penned the Word, the Spirit has also been shaping them for that moment their entire lives. We are no different. We were meant for each moment. Our entire lives have been shaped by the Spirit as believers in Christ, for God knew before the foundation of the Earth that we would be his. Therefore, our lives have been orchestrated through our own actions by way of the Spirit to form us into who we are. We are continuously being shaped by the Spirit when we are in Christ, so know that every millimeter of life lived is orchestrated by God for you to become more and more like is his Son, Jesus, through sanctification. What are y'all's thoughts on this? I'd love to hear!

"Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful." I want to prompt the questions with this verse (and there's many more) about the nature of the Christian man. We tend to focus so much on the masculine endeavors of our nature: toughness, leadership, endurance, etc.. Yet we miss the boat with these gentler qualities. Now, the dudes in this group, I believe, seek after these things listed in scripture, but where does our desire to be the warrior live? How do we navigate our strength? How can we be truly meek, having the ability to be dangerous, yet utilize self-control in everything? I'd love to hear your thoughts, fellas!

This morning, I was reading Psalm 1 and in verse 2-3 we get a solid picture of who we are called to be as men. "Instead, his delight is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." Psalm 2-3 I'd love to explore that passage with y'all. The line, "Whatever he does prospers," is powerful, man. As men, I think we hear, "his delight is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night," and we feel like - "my freedom as a man is taken away because I have to obey and think about obeying constantly." That couldn't be farther from the truth. We hear, "Discipline Equals Freedom," and we get fired up about that because a Seal Commander tells us this ideology. But when the Psalmist gives us instruction on how to prosper in this life, we're like, "meh, I'll figure out another way." Discipline is obeying the Lord's instruction, and allowing His Word to seep into our hearts and minds, so that whatever we do, it will be steered by the wisdom of our Heavenly Father. Pretty sick, right? What do y'all think about this? What does it mean to prosper? What about "bearing fruit in its season?" - What does that look like for men?