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.”