Month: October 2019 (Page 1 of 12)

The previous day and dare lead to no other conclusion that this. Thankfully, it’s a conclusion you can live with—today, tomorrow, and forever.

Jesus has come “to seek and to save” you (Luke 19:10). Everything you’ve failed at and haven’t been able to do, every minute you’ve wasted trying to fix things your own way—all of it can be forgiven and made right by putting your life into the hands of the One who first gave it to you.

Maybe you’ve never done this.  Then today is your day.  “Now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Maybe you did it years ago, but you’ve wandered far from your spiritual roots.  Then “repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).  Even if you’ve already made Christ your way of life and have never stopped walking in fellowship with Him, the following Scriptures will be a grateful reminder of all He’s done for you.

The Bible says we are sinful from birth, from the moment we arrive.  “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).  “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isaiah 64:6).  It’s not as though God sends innocent people to hell.

We deserve it.  We simply can’t be good enough to live with a pure and holy God.

However, “God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him” (I John 4:9).  “Although He existed in the form of god, [He] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant…He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).  “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (I Peter 2:24).  By His death, He made invalid the very idea that you are unloved and devalued.  If you ever feel that way, you’re not looking at the cross.  He proved His love for you there.

Love like this cannot be fully understood.  “One will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8).

Nor can love like this be earned.  “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).  “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

But it must be received.  “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

And when you have received this new life and love as your own, you are free to love in ways you’ve never been capable before.

“This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers…This is His command; to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us” (I John 3:16, 23 NIV).  “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I John 4:8).

He was willing to love you even though you didn’t deserve it, even when you didn’t love back.  He was able to see all your flaws and imperfections and still choose to love you.  His love made the greatest sacrifice to meet your greatest need.  As a result, you are able (by His grace) to walk in the fullness and blessing of His love.  Now and forever.

This means you now share this same love with your spouse.  You can love even when you’re not loved in return.  You can see all their flaws and imperfections and still choose to love.  And though you can’t meet their needs the way God can, you can become His instrument to meet the needs of your spouse.  As result, he or she can walk in the fullness and blessing of your love.  Now and till death.

True love is found in Christ alone.  And after you have received His gift of new life by accepting His death in your place and His forgiveness for your sins, you are finally ready to live the dare.

While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

–Romans 5:6

Today’s Dare

Dare to take God at His Word.  Dare to trust Jesus Christ for salvation.  Dare to pray “Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner.  But You have shown Your love for me by dying to forgive my sins, and You have proven Your power to save me from death by Your resurrection.  Lord, change my heart, and save me by Your grace.”

Write about what this experience has been like for you.  Even if you are only renewing your commitment to receive and express His love, what has He shown you today?

Pledge: done

Disclaimer: We’re all idiots for showing up in the drizzle

Warm Up: Frankenstein Walks x20 (Holding bricks forward like Frankenstein), Bat Wings WITH BRICKS

Dead Hang to 300 Squats: Mosey to playground, pair up, 1 PAX dead hangs to failure while the other performs squats, switch back and forth until 300 squats completed.

Serpentine Fence Traverse: All PAX form a line at the start of the split rail fence. One after the other switch between going over then under from post to post.

Wax On, Wax Off 13s: What does Halloween have to do with Karate Kid? Mosey to bank parking lot. Take two bricks in plank or bear crawl position, complete 12 Wax On, Wax Off (as if waxing the asphalt) exercises, run to end of parking lot with bricks and complete 1 Lurker Lateral Lunge holding bricks head high (or higher for greater challenge), run back and do 11 Wax On, Wax Off then 2 Lurker Lateral Lunges and so forth OYO
(This movement was harder and took longer than planned…perhaps 7s would have been better, but 13 sounded cool for in keeping with the Halloween theme)

Boo-urpees/Spearthrow: Mosey down Riverwood to Martha Rivers Way. 5 Boo-urpees, spear throw (signs dressed up as ghosts) with 5 boo-urpee penalty. (Ran overtime due to wax on/off and had to cut this short. Would have like to do way more boo-urpees…)

Announcements: Christmastown 5k, Start training for BRR Ruck or Run

Scripture: Luke 13:30 And behold, they are last that shall be first; and they are first that shall be last.
The F3 connection here is how we pick up the 6. The first, in this case, will be the last.

Name-O-Rama: Fun with Bricks

YHC Signed up to Q Starkville this evening and this is how it whent down.

Warm Up
10 Man makers, 20 Big Boys, 30 Squats.
4x
Then We Did several Exercises while Lunging in some fashion between each court.
The tunes were great and the tales of the P200 from Tater Hole were Fantastic.
We repeated Back and forth through the tennis courts and then back to do a few more sets of the above.

Time:

C.O.T.

The Bed Pan is FUll

As men who are part of F3, we are all looking to accelerate in Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith. Truly accelerating and improving yourself isn’t easy, but one the best things you can do to grow and improve is to set goals. If you are looking to accelerate and improve your 1st F – Fitness – I have an opportunity for you.

Set a goal to run in the Palmetto 200! Then, let me know you are going to run it and mark your calendars to join vans full of HIMs from Gastonia as we make the journey from Columbia, SC to Charleston, SC on March 27-28, 2020! It is as simple as that.
If you’re unaware, the Palmetto 200 is a 200 mile relay race from Columbia, SC to Charleston, SC (see link at the bottom of the page for more info). We will be participating as a 12-man relay team, which means you will have 11 other High Impact Men to help with this journey. Each team member will run 3 separate legs that can range from 2.5 – 10 miles. You may be saying “10 miles!!!” Most legs are actually around the 3-6 mile range and we will work with you to get an assignment you can handle.
You can do it and you have 5 months to prepare! Let me say that again, YOU CAN DO IT! The sore legs and suffering are worth it though to spend good quality time with your friends and push each other past what you thought you could do! You’ll laugh. You’ll hurt. You’ll laugh some more. You’ll have stories and memories that will last a lifetime. While my friends were running in the Tuna last weekend, I was stuck at home reading tweets and Slack posts, wishing I was there! So, I’m in for this one!

Now, the major announcement portion of the program! We already have several commits so far. Dark Helmet will be running with Gastonia! That’s right, F3 Nation’s Q of Culture will be joining us on the P200! Why, you may ask, is he running with us? Well that’s because Huckleberry has also committed to running the P200. Seriously, those are 2 HUGE commits! Several other vets including Broke, Medicine Woman, Breaker Breaker, Allen Tate and YHC will also be running. How much more motivation do you need?

Message me on Slack or Groupme (or text me at 7042805388) and let me know if you want to participate AND let me know if you are a Hard Commit (HC) or Soft Commit (SC). I will consider you a SC unless you specifically tell me you are an HC! I need HCs by Dec 3 to get the teams registered. It will cost $131.50 each to enter the race (12 man team, $1575/team). That includes a $100 discount per team on registration through December 15 (hence, the 12/3 deadline). I’ll be collecting registration money in early December. Depending on who is on your team and what the group decides, you may need to plan to chip in on van rental and 1-2 nights in a hotel.

If you have questions, reach out to me. If you want to know more about how relays work in general or hear about other’s experiences on a relay, ask at a workout. Chances are someone at your workout has participated in one at some point.

Here’s the link I promised: https://www.malakseries.com/palmetto-200

With all that said, let’s get to it fellas!

-Montross

The Love Dare starts with a secret.  And though it’s been an unspoken element throughout each day, you’ve likely grown more and more suspicious of it all the time.  Now that you’re this far, it’s a secret you’re discovering for yourself, even if you haven’t exactly known how to put it into words.

The secret is this:  you cannot manufacture unconditional love (oragape love) out of your own heart.  It’s impossible.  It’s beyond your capabilities.  It’s beyond all our capabilities.

You may have demonstrated kindness and unselfishness in some form, and you may have learned to be more thoughtful and considerate.  But sincerely loving someone unselfishly and unconditionally is another matter altogether.

So how can you do it?  Like it or not, agape love isn’t something you can do.  It’s something only God can do.  But because of His great love for you—and His love for your spouse—He chooses to express His love through you.

Still, you may not believe that.  You may be convinced that with enough hard work and commitment, you can muster up unconditional, long-term, sacrificial love from your own heart. You want to believe it’s in you.

But how many times has your love failed to keep you from lying, from lusting, from overreacting, from thinking evil of this person you’ve vowed before God to love for the rest of your life.

How many times has your love proven incapable of controlling your anger?  How many times has your love motivated you to forgive or brought about a peaceable end to an ongoing argument?

It’s this failure that exposes mankind’s sinful condition.  We’ve all fallen short of God’s commands (Romans 3:23).  We’ve all demonstrated selfishness, hatred, and pride.  And unless something is done to cleanse us of these ungodly attributes, we will stand before God guilty as charged (Romans 6:23).  That’s why if you’re not right with God, you can’t truly love your spouse because He is the Source of that love.

You can’t give what you don’t have.  You can’t call up inner reserves and resources that aren’t there to be summoned.  In the same way that you can’t give away a million dollars if you don’t have it to start with, you cannot pay out love in greater measure than you own.  You can try, but you will fail.

So the hard news is this:  love that is able to withstand every pressure is out of your reach, as long as you’re only looking within yourself to find it.  You need someone who can give you that kind of love.

“Love is from God” (I John 4:7).  And only those who have allowed Him into their heart through faith in His Son, Jesus—only those who have received the Spirit of Christ through belief in His death and resurrection—are able to tap into love’s real power. “Apart from me,” Jesus said, “you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

But He also said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). God has promised through Christ to dwell in your heart through faith so that you can “know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19 NKJV).

When you surrender yourself to Christ, His power can work through you.  Even at your very best, you are not able to live up to God’s standards.  But He “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Ephesians 3:20). That’s how you love your spouse.

So, this unsettling secret—as defeating as it may feel—has a happy ending for those who will stop resisting and will receive the love God has for them.  This means that the love He has “poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5) is always available, every time we choose to submit to it.

You simply won’t be able to do it without Him.

Perhaps you’ve never given our heart to Christ, but you sense Him drawing you today.  You may be realizing for the first time that you, too, have broken God’s commands, and that your guilt will keep you from knowing Him.  But Scripture says that if you repent by turning away from your sin and turning to God, He is willing to forgive you because of the sacrifice his Son made on the cross.  He is pursuing you, not to enslave you but to free you, so you can receive His love and forgiveness.  Then you can share it with the one you’ve been called most specifically to love.

Perhaps you’re already a believer, but you would admit that you have walked away from fellowship with God.  You’re not in the Word, you’re not in prayer, maybe you’re not even in church anymore.  The love you used to feel coursing through your veins has dwindled into apathy.

The truth is, you can’t live without Him and you can’t love without Him.  But there is no telling what He could do in your marriage if you put your trust in Him.

Let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

–I John 4:7

Today’s Dare

Look back over the dares from the previous days.  Were there some that seemed impossible to you?  Have you realized your need for God to change your heart and to give you the ability to love?  Ask Him to show you where you stand with Him, and ask for the strength and grace to settle your eternal destination.

The light rain and mist didn’t stop 3 HIMs from getting some werk this morning. Some ran, some rucked. It was great to see Roundup and Hacksaw out there this morning!

YHC took us out in prayer

Keep an eye out for a P200 pre-blast in the next few days.

-Montross

I’m sure that something like this already exists, but the unicorn as I named it was simply because I wrote this beatdown down on some of my daughter’s unicorn paper.  Being a dad is awesome… I digress.  This thing kinda sucked.  Oh and someone, HIPAA, decided sleep is not important and put out a call for an EC ruck to leave at 4:30…I did not make that, but Watts Up and I did make the 5 o’clock loop with HIPAA.  We got in close to 2 miles (HIPAA 4).  The Unicorn:

Starting line:  (kettlebell was carried to each line with the jumps) 5 Broad jumps to line 2 where we did 20 Squats and 10 Burpees…5 Broad jumps to next line, 20 Squats, 20 Curls, 10 Burpees…5 Broad jumps to next line…20 Squats, 20 curls, 20 upright rows, 10 Burpees…5 Broad jumps to next line…20 Squats, 20 Curls, 20 Upright rows, 20 Cam Newtons, 10 Burpees…5 Broad jumps to next line…you guessed it…20 Squats, 20 Curls, 20 Upright rows, 20 Cam Newtons, 20 Chest press, and…10 Burpees…  We did an Outhouse inspired Indian (Kettlebell over your head carry) walk around the parking lot and then ended with PAX choice Mary.  Awesome job today men.

Announcements:  Chili cook off, Christmas town 5K,

Prayer Requests:  DryRub’s Step Dad and Son’s sinus surgery, WattsUp’s Son

YHC took us out…Honor to lead

Planning for this beatdown began a little later than I would have like for it to have begun, but the weather was a factor.  I had heard that it was going to be “pouring” this particular morning and those that know me, know that I really don’t like working out in the rain.  With that said, I tailored the beatdown under the awning, in the dry…  Here ‘s what we did not to get wet, but ened up getting wet anyway haha.

Pledge

Disclaimer, No FNGs

Warm up:  20 SSH IC, 10 Grasspickers (I never pick this, but I did the day that Whoopee graces us with his presence I truly had this written down…he doesn’t believe in the grasshopper!!!, 15 Imperial Walkers IC, 20 Merkins OYO.

Station work:  DRY…AMRAP 1 minute (tabatas or something like that I’m informed)

Dips, One arm Kettlebell Swings, Curls with alternating grips through the rounds, Cam Newtons, Lateral Clean and Press, Incline Merkins or Durkins, Step-ups, Squat and Press…

We did a bunch of rounds of this and ended with some Mary, PAX choice

Great work men!!! Nice to see Bandit, Goose, and Hunk-a-junk out this morning

Prayer requests:  WattsUp’s son, Timeframes family

YHC took us out

It was a morning to get out and get some work done. We heard stories from Sparky’s awesome half marathon run. There were  some stories YHC didn’t care to hear, but that is Folsom. No filters…

The Thang

• Mosey around lower lot and met up and the amphitheater
  • Moroccan night clubs as we wait for Sparky to catch up
  • 15 Australian Mountain Climbers
  • 15 Rocky Balboas
  • 15 Hip Slappers
  • 15 Dips
• Mosey to baseball field lot
  • 5 Squats and adding 5 more at each parking spot the length of the lot
  • Lunge walk back
• Mosey to soccer field
  • 5 Bobby Hurley’s and adding five at each parking spot
• Mosey to Intersection
  • Nur up hill
  • Karaoke to the light post
• Mosey to flag
  • 15 LBC’s
  • 15 Big Boys
  • Monkey Humpers as the early guys leave
• Mosey back down to lower lot
  • Stopping along the way for some Hillbilly Squats, LBC’s. Big Boys,  and a variety of other exercises
• Mosey around the lower lot and back to base.
• 22 for the Troops

We finished up with COT and prayers for the PAX. Prayer to all spoken and unspoken needs and we spoke of all the challenges out there.  Do them they will nothing but benefit you.

Big Pappy