F3 Knoxville

Forgiveness on the 50th

THE SCENE: Wintery Mix

Workout Date: 1 Feb 2023
QIC: Hound Dog

WARM-O-RAMA:
Simple warm-up. Arm circles. Cherry pickers. Merkins. Etc
THA-THANG:
Workout was 50’s for my 50th birthday

  • mosey to coupon pile/stop for 50 side straddle hop
    50: Curls, tricep ext, thrusters, shoulder press, squats, lat pulls, etc
  • Each exercise separated by 50 yards run
  • Mosey up hill – 50 squats and lat bar pulls

MARY:
none
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA 

14


CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
MOLESKIN:
We discussed the many references to the number 50 in the Old Testament and the importance of the number 50. God would spare Sodom for 50 righteous, the ark was 50 cubits deep, Haman’s pike was 50 cubits high. The Pentecost occurred 50 days from Passover and represented 3,000 being saved as opposed to 3,000 dying at the giving of the law.
But the 50 that was on my mind today was the 50 year jubilee. It represented a complete forgiveness of debt, return of land, return to family, etc. God punished His people and banished them to Babylon in part because of a failure to respect the 7 year jubilees. 50/ Jubilee is a good reminder on my 50th to forgive myself and others completely as I have been forgiven in Christ.

.ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Press On Toward The Goal

THE SCENE: 31 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

cherry picker, rocking chair, ‘merkins
THA-THANG:
Mohammed Ali, when asked how many reps he could do of an exercise, he said he had no idea – he doesn’t really count. He just goes until he is exhausted and then does an additional set. We didn’t do that…but we did a mini version!

  • Mosey to small rock pile.
  • Shoulder as many as possible your own for 1 min (front raises, lateral, overhead clap) followed by 5 reps together each time.
  • Mosey to coupon pile (with drop 2x burpee / 2 lines)
  • Coupon pile exercises (Each is max out for 1 minute and then do 5x together)
      • (merkins, coupon press, overhead and/or skull crushers)
      • Rows, bicep
      • Squats, calf raises
  • Between each major muscle group: Mosey to hill and Bear crawl up hill w/1 burpee @ top
  • Mosey to flag with 2x burpee drop off lines again

MARY: no time…finished @ 6:15

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 present: Guardrail, Erector, 5K, Booster, Wheelchair, Butter Knife, Dart Gun, Footsie, Wanderer, Sty, Gump, Commission, Pool Boy, sos, Mailbox, Spotter, hound dog
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Philippians 3:13-14, “Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Janus, the Roman God for which January was named, had two faces: one looked forward to the new year and one looked backward to the past year. This morning I related that I am not big on resolutions because most people give up on them by “ditch day,” January 17th. Nevertheless, I do believe in the power of goals. After all, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time!

Personal confession: even though I lost about 45 pounds over the last couple years, I put back 10 -15 this year off of a sweet tooth and lazy habits. I hit F3 3x week, but as they say, “you can’t outrun your fork.” How does the weight come back on like that? Slowly…1 pound at a time!

So we have to be diligent. And like physical weight, we might be carrying a few extra spiritual pounds into 2021 too. Ghandi said that the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. Bad habits come on slowly, day by day. We might have a secret sin or a burden we aren’t willing to unload. How do we overcome? Do what we can, give ourselves over completely, and hand more of our lives over to God each day.

They say that elephants are trained by securing their leg against something strong enough when they are young so that when they are old they remember that they cannot break free. Then, a mere rope and tiny tent peg in the ground is enough to keep them in place. We must break free of the thought that we can do ONLY 20 or 30 or 50 reps. By maxing out in a minute and then “adding 5,” we learned we are capable of more than we thought…or at least I did!

Thanks for letting me lead again…and hope you’re sore tomorrow…’cause I already can’t lift my arms 🙂

Here Am I, Send Me!

THE SCENE: High 30’s with the wind chill.
WARM-O-RAMA:
Warm-up: Cherry pickers, baby arm circles, side straddle hop, merkins, etc., ~5 min.
THA-THANG:

  • We began with weighted shoulder exercises, front, side, seal & overhead claps (15 each).
  • Brief mosey on the scenic route around shops, 2nd entrance of Pellissippi where we did Gores and planks.
  • Mosey to guardrail derkins, calf raises, & dips.
  • Mosey to coupons (along the way, we did duck walk as well as 2 lines of alternating burpees, lunges, jump squats, etc.)
  • Coupons: 30 each: curls, back/lat, shoulder tap planks, tricep, thrusters, with various coupon-core exercises mixed in.
  • Run up hill to 3 pull-up / hold Gore alternate, followed by Rifle carry coupon.
  • Mosey back with various exercises along the way.

MARY:
Various core exercises (Imperial walkers, pickle pounder, etc)
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
12 HIMs, 1 FNG: Butterfly. Wanderer, Wheelchair, Survivor Survivor, Almost, Guardrail, mailbox, spotter, Pool Boy, Butter Knife, Footsie, Hound Dog, Butterfly
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I teach at the Southeast Institute of Biblical Studies, a 2-year, tuition-free school. Men who graduate receive a Bachelor of Biblical Studies, having completed an intense program. This year I taught Hebrew grammar/vocab, Research & Development, and am currently teaching the 2nd year students Prophets I. Prophets I is Isaiah, Jeremiah, & Lamentations.

Our word this morning was from Isaiah 6, specifically, a favorite of mine, and one that reminds us of our calling as men. It is my prayer that each Christian would undergo what I call, “an Isaiah 6 moment.”

As Isaiah stands before the throne of God, he sees God’s holiness and his own wretchedness. Seraphim call out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah is undone…ruined, a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.

Yet, God prepares and uses him anyway. A burning coal is touched to his lips, not to harm him, but to purify him. In like manner of Christian baptism, we are buried into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, not to harm us, but to cleanse us and begin a new life of service as those who have received the forgiveness of sins.

Isaiah then overhears a conversation among God and the heavenly host, “Who will go for Us?” Isaiah responds, “Here am I, send me.” Because of what God has done for him, there is no other response to be uttered. Perhaps, as we age, we lose the zeal of hands shooting up like they did in a grade school class, “pick me, I know the answer!” or a sports team, “put me in coach!”

God, in fact, gives Isaiah his commission, to go and preach a terrible and difficult message. Isaiah, understandably, asks, “Lord, how long?” God responds that his commission will continue until the cities are devastated and without inhabitant…until God has removed men from the land.

Isaiah received a tough ministry. Thankfully, we aren’t living in the days of the Assyrian conquest and the Babylonian destruction. Nevertheless, we live in strange times: COVID, election uncertainty, civil unrest, moral decay…and it’s only November!

We are called, though, to understand a spiritual message and receive Isaiah’s example. Whether it is in my faith, my family, my job, F3, or any area of my life, I should see that God is looking for “a few good men” to stand and deliver. We aren’t promised easy; yet, we are challenged to faithfully deliver His message.

Who will go? Do we understand what God has done for us? And how does that make me respond? You? As for me, “pick me; put me in coach; Here am I, Send me.”

Sharing The Victory

THE SCENE: ~62 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Brief warm-up: Cherry Pickers, arm circles (up/down), overhead clap, tempo squats. Mosey to coupon area while doing drop-off burpees.
THA-THANG:
2 Man teams. See chart below.

Man 1 does 30 merkins, tricep ext, curls, Russian twists, thrusters, and 24 burpees, bent rows, back lunges, and shoulder taps.

Man 2 is holding exercises while his partner is pushing their team stone forward a parking space at each victory. His holds alternate: plank, Al Gore, and holding coupon Overhead.

Both men run to the wall/stairs while one runs up the stairs and does (we changed the bar hold to 3 pull-ups), the other is holding upside down against the wall.

Then both men run back to the coupons, change positions, and start round 2.

3 pull up Wall Invert
24 shoulder tap Overhead Hold
24 Back Lunges Al Gore
24 Bent Rows Plank
24 Burpees Overhead Hold
30 Thrusters Al Gore
30 Twists Plank
30 Curls Overhead Hold
30 Tricep Ext Al Gore
30 ‘merkins Plank

We got 2 rounds in and finished by running (the long/scenic route) with drop-off burpees again.

MARY:
finished right no time so no additional time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
14 present: Butter Knife, 5K, Erector, Dart Gun, Wheelchair, Survivor, Ralph, Wanderer, Kenjo, Guardrail, Gump, Spotter, Judge Judy, Hound Dog,
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
We did groups of 30 and 24 in the exercise to work in a word from 1 Samuel 30:24.

In 1 Samuel 30, David and his men come back to Ziklag only to find that the Amalekites have destroyed everything, taken their families and possessions, and run off. David and his men wept and then asked the Lord, if they should follow and if they would catch them. The Lord says “yes” to both questions. So they take off to save their families.
Along the way, they go down from 600 to 400 because 200 of the men are too exhausted to keep up. They are running for days without food or water. They finally catch up with the Amalekites, who are partying and thinking they escaped. David and his men slaughter the enemy, retrieve their families and possessions, and go home.
As they are returning, men who are called “wicked and worthless,” who were among those who went into battle, said that the two hundred who stayed with the baggage should get nothing because they did not go to battle.
David corrects this, saying, “You must not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us” (23). He continues, “For as his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike” (24).

So…the message:

I see a number of lessons we can draw from this as men:

  1. Are there people in your life who are in the “background” or “behind the scenes” of your victories. Because you know the stuff is protected and well maintained, you have the confidence to run off to battle. As men, we tend to have a “to the victor goes the spoils” mentality. Be sure to reflect on, and honor, and share with others.
  2. Our victories come from the Lord. It is written down that the men were “wicked and worthless” who thought otherwise. They concentrated on their own strength and victory. Rather, look to the Lord who strengthens us.
  3. Is there someone today, who you can encourage? Support staff? Mentor/teacher? Spouse? We can all “share the spoils” by letting someone know that we appreciate how they “watch over the baggage” so we can do our jobs.
  4. We should be sure to recognize that all good things come from the Lord, and we all benefit from Jesus sharing with us in His victory. We are to have this same attitude in us and share with others as He gave so freely to us.

MOLESKIN:
It wasn’t a perfect example by any means, but as one man seemed to be doing the work of hard exercise and moving the stones, while the other stayed “at base,” doing the easier exercise, there was a potential for resentment. But when we swapped, we saw that the “base” work was hard too!

Thanks for helping me have a great VQ! 🙂

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
not sure of any announcements and there were no FNG’s