Fitness. Fellowship. Faith.
WARMUP:
THE THANG:
MARY:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
COT:
Speak No Evil. Someone said: “There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, it doesn’t behoove any of us to speak evil of the rest of us.” Each of us is a mixture of good and evil. We each have a dark side and we each have a bright side. Certain situations can bring out the good or the bad in each of us. I have often said, “Where did that come from?” I don’t usually say that when I have done something heroically beautiful. Because of this mixture of the good and bad within us, we should be very careful about judging others. Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, had a sign on the wall of his dining room which read, “He who has an unkind word to say about another is not welcome at this table.” We all need a sign like that posted somewhere in our home or office.
Acts 5:1-11
This story isn’t about generosity, it is about lying.
As a young man, I was an avid liar. Never to particularly malicious ends, but always self serving. In spite of warnings about tangled webs, I found myself to be a pretty handy spider. I was lucky enough to have a watershed moment when I was young where I was discovered in a relatively serious lie with nowhere to retreat. This didn’t come close to curing me, but it did strike the first light of awareness. Since, I have given special attention to trying to work on this flaw.
The lie sits deep in the heart of sin itself. Lying, in its essence, is the act of twisting my view of reality to serve my own purposes, functionally placing myself in the seat of God. Every lie, whether of commission or omission, begins with a lie to yourself. A lie is always in conflict with relationship because it intentionally creates a discontinuity between my understanding of reality and yours. How can I possibly remain in relationship with someone with whom I do not share the same reality?
However, I don’t think that abhorring a lie means that I should speak all truth to all people. Most of us have probably witnessed first-hand a vicious personal attack levied from the perceived moral high ground of “I’m just being honest.” Truth, like all goods, must be constantly tempered by that highest good, love. We must also be cautious about the burden of truth that we lay upon others. God, in his wisdom, does not reveal to us the fullness of His Truth because He knows that we are too weak to bear it. Likewise, it is sometimes better for us to moderate, but this is very tricky business. Certainly there are truths that are not helpful for a child. But I must be very cautious of my motives. Am I really protecting them, or am I really protecting me?
What we can be certain of is that if I intend to conform myself to a man who calls himself the way, the truth and the light, every lie is a nonconformity.
The Scene
F3 Welcome + Disclaimer
Warm-o-Rama
The Thang
Heavy Day @ The Project
(1) Intro to Sandy Warm Up
(Take sandbags on the move to the bench and B post to the right)
(2) Sandy Strength
(3) Around Town With Sandy
(4) American Indian Run with The Twins
Mary
ATMs
SWS
COT (Circle of Trust)
Count Off
Name o Rama
Word — Forg3 2023
https://f3knoxville.com/forg3-2023-registration-is-live/
We are rolling out our first F3 Knoxville men’s retreat this fall – Forg3! Forg3 was created with F3 men in mind – to strengthen the bonds we have with each other and our Creator, over the course of a weekend retreat.
Forge (v.) – to shape and mold into a new condition, by heating in a fire / to move forward gradually and steadily.
Forg3 (n.) – an invigorating 40-hour weekend retreat to challenge and encourage F3 men in their pursuit of high impact manhood. You can expect to engage with other men in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd F sessions, to better understand who you are, whose you are, and the High Impact Man God has called you to be. You’ll have opportunities throughout the weekend to seek adventure, to rest, and to sharpen iron with other F3 men physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.
If you love adventure of the heart, mind, body, and soul – Forg3 is for you. Forg3 was created for F3 men, by F3 men, as a way to engage together for a purposeful and relationally-driven weekend to step further into the men God has called us to be.
Here are the fast facts about Forg3 2023:
THE SCENE: Perfect June morning, 60s and no rain
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Projectivators, tempo squats, Hairy rockettes, tempo merkins, mountain climbers
THA-THANG:
START A TIMER – 40 minutes
10-round escalator, as follows:
Round 1: Burpees x 5
Round 2: 1 + Squat Thrusters with CMU x 10
Round 3: 1-2 + CMU Bicep Curls x 15
Round 4: 1-3 + Merkins x 20
Round 5: 1-4 + Little Baby Crunches (LBCs) x 25
Round 6: 1-5 + Lunges x 30 (15 each leg)
Round 7: 1-6 + Carolina Dry Docks x 35
Round 8: 1-7 + Mountain Climbers x 40 (two-count)
Round 9: 1-8 + Goblet Squats with CMU x 45
Round 10: 1-9 + American Hammer with CMU x 50 (single-count)
If you finish before time is up, start back at Round 1 and do a 2nd (or 3rd…) set!
MARY:
No time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Headshot as well.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Confession
When I reflect on the struggles of the church today, one of the main points I see against us is the tendency that church people have for attempting to project righteousness in spite of their internal condition. My experience with many different faith paths is that, at least in my part of the world, we train one another to “look right” but not much to BE right. We are good at saying churchy sounding things and picking churchy sounding activities, but in every case I have ever gotten a look into, behind that picture there was brokenness and turmoil. Why? I propose that we have lost a key piece of the ancient faith, confession.
There are few activities more trying and painful and difficult and, consequently, developmental than confessing my personal faults. Confessing to the Lord is a great start, but if you really want to get serious, you need to speak to another human being. Confession is the spiritual equivalent of the physical training we did today. NOBODY wants to do it, but those who do are easy to spot.
Want to learn empathy? Turn your eyes inward and gaze on your own failings, and you will find yourself much more understanding of others. Want to learn humility? Learn to see your own sins. Want to deepen your relationship with God? Give Him a few minutes each day to show him the things where you know you failed, then let him show you some places you didn’t realize you failed, and end by dwelling in His unbounded forgiveness. This is one of the most powerful, fulfilling and empowering forms of prayer. You don’t even realize how weighed down you are by your guilt until you let it go.
Speaking of guilt, let me mention that there is a little cultural defense the enemy has put in place against this life giving practice. It’s the idea that somehow it is morbid and unhealthy to dwell on your own faults. Like all effective lies, it isn’t entirely false. There are some people who struggle with an obsession with their own failings. But that isn’t most of us. Most of us could stand to spend a little more time. Second, this is not exactly the same thing. The unhealthy version of fault dwelling must be underpinned by the lack of experience with forgiveness. When you approach God with your faults, you must always do so with the image of Jesus in your mind, bleeding and dying upon the cross, and yet asking for his Father to forgive the ones who did it to him. He will make the same appeal for you is only you ask, and you will be forgiven.
MOLESKIN:
It actually didn’t go terribly long. Quick warmup, blocks on hand, explained and got right to it.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence July 8th @ Shamrock, F3 in the nude – July 29th @ The Cove at Concord Park