This is the Truth Network. of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the Masculine Journey. The Masculine Journey starts here now. Welcome to the Masculine Journey, and it's just a Masculine Journey tradition that the man who picks the topic doesn't come to show, which would happen to be Sam this week, which is why you have me as the host, but I love doing it. I love coming back from boot camp.
I love the topic, right?
So Andy, describe Sam's topic that he picked so beautifully.
So we did come off of boot camp. You may have heard our interview with the campers from the boot camp, I think, last week. But when we come back, you know, I think there's a lot on our hearts of what we experienced, what we saw, and just what God did. and we like to share what God did and how it impacted our hearts and how he sends us. I think Corey mentioned sometimes you come off kind of high from boot camp, and hopefully this rekindles that a little bit, too, of bringing back the thoughts because, you know, boot camp I think is an attitude in your heart to maintain, and the memories are what kind of sustains you, I think.
Yeah, it's faith, right? Yeah. Faith builder. Yeah. And so fun.
we have a couple of what I would call freshmen, you know, somewhat freshmen. The one of them is on his way to being a sophomore. I think, personally, he's very sophomoric. Anyway, I do have two dear friends that are fresh off boot camp with the opportunity to share something that they had. And so, Bill, you actually got a clip to work with that touched your heart at boot camp.
Yeah, it's from the butterfly circus um will the character in the movie clip is limbless meaning he has no arms no legs and it just struck me he felt as if he had no purpose he had no uh he felt like he was all alone like a lot of men out there right now they feel alone and they feel like they gotta do the battle by themselves. And boot camp kind of shows you that there's a band of brothers out there that will be warriors with you through your struggles. And what I enjoyed most about Will in the clip was how he found a purpose and how God just uses everyone, no matter what you think of as a disability or something that's not visibly right with you. And Will ends up being the star of the show. And it's just amazing to me how God can work in anyone's life, take you from the dark depths of the valley and put you up on the mountaintop where most of us would love to be.
so it's just it's just a cool clip of how god just uses us uh if we allow him to so yeah absolutely and at this point in the movie it's called the butterfly circus and will was in a freak show right and he heard a you know barker call out over him many many times what is fixed to be repeated here and so yeah he is he has hitched a ride with a butterfly circus he doesn't yet really understand why and and he's trying to figure out his role and his purpose uh when the ringmaster decides to speak this over him so here we go Splendid, isn't it? The way they move, full of strength, color and race. They're astounding. But you, cursed from birth. A man, if you can call him that, who God himself turned his back upon.
Stop it! Why would you say that? Because you believe it. But if you could only see the beauty that can come from Ashen. Are they different from me?
Yes, you do have an advantage. The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph. I think it's incredible what we believe is what we become in that statement in the clip. And Satan has lies to trip us up, help us not to fulfill our purpose. and it's so cool that the ringmaster obviously is the Holy Spirit or God saying, you can do it.
You don't accomplish what you want because you believe you can't. And then he ends up being the star of the show. It's incredible. The first words he said was grace, and I think of God's grace and mercy on all of us. And so it's just a beautiful picture of the truth of God.
And sometimes we just – we believe the lies and we need to rebuke it. We need to rebuke it. The ringmaster says at the end there, you had an advantage. The greater the struggle, the more glorious, the triumph. and we never see that while it's going on.
And unless you have a band of brothers at a boot camp or sitting around a studio like this you feeling that in one way or another almost always in some area of your life And unless you got guys around you that are saying, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's a big struggle. You're right, that's a big struggle. But man, the triumph that can come out of that is going to be awesome. You pictured Danny at boot camp, right? Yeah.
Who wouldn't see that after what he'd been through the last year to stand up with the joy, to stand up and share. And based on what I saw in the reviews on the camp, more people were impacted by Danny because he did have that advantage. He had the greater of the struggle of the camp, Jim. Yeah, he should have been in heaven by now. But one of the things biblically that is a truism that most of us ignore is what you're alluding to.
Our biggest struggles, which we usually are complaining through and upset about and are trying to pray away, are when God grows us the most. It has been for my life. Might as well. I can look back at the worst times of my life, the ones that I hated the most, where I literally said, God, why don't you just kill me? Why don't you just take me out?
I'm tired of this. And it was out of those things that I eventually got some healing and understood those things. And now out of that, I have the ability to love on other men and or, you know, Sheila and I get to do that with couples as well. And it's only because we've been there that we understand how to minister to those people now. And there's biblical precedence.
Every character in the Bible went through something. I mean, whether it's Jonah, whether it's Joseph, whether it's Paul. David. David?
So speaking of great struggles, Corey, you've had some. Yeah. One of the hardest things for me is really, and it's, I think my first boot camp that I ever went to, it was something that God was really trying to press in. And this time he was trying to press it any further is being a son because I grew up an only child to a single mom and didn't have any sort of father in the home. Any father figure I knew was not really there.
My grandfather was probably the closest to a father figure that I had. A very stoic man. didn't show emotion. I remember him showing emotion one time.
So yeah, that's been a huge struggle for me growing up is knowing what it means to have a dad, knowing what it means to have a father, to be a son. And that's one thing that has really affected me in terms of where does my value come from? Where does my worth come from? Because I've been looking for it all over work you know with eve with you know hobbies etc you name it um so one of my favorite things about the boot camp period is just what is god trying to work on and one of the things that i love to do the most is the covenant of silence time I don't want to use the word forced because it's not forced. Dedicated.
It's dedicated because it's hard for us to do in our day-to-day lives, especially me working as much as I do. Having that time that is dedicated to going and spending quiet time in the woods with nothing around you, no distractions, with the Father is life-changing. And you may not feel it in the moment. You may not feel it 10 minutes after. You might not feel it 10 days after, but it makes an impact.
And that's probably one of my favorite things, and I'm going to try to squeeze this in. One of my favorite clips that I always think about is in Remember the Titans when Blue is talking about, yeah, we came together at camp, but we get back here and the world tells us we don't want to. the world tells us it doesn't want us to be together. And that's exactly what I was talking about with Andy is you kind of come off of that high and the world starts creeping back in saying, it wasn't really that much. You didn't get that much out of it.
You didn't really learn what you think you did. You were just there. It was an emotional experience, but that's why we take notes, right? And that's why my notes that I took are still sitting on my desk. And I saw the picture, too, that you sent right after.
That was very impressive. But that's why we continue this song with the Band of Brothers and welcome guys to the camp, I mean, to the show after camp and stuff. And staying connected to us, I think that's a big part, not to us, but to a Band of Brothers, and you have one built in here. But I hear you because I used to live from camp to camp, and those times were some tough times because at that time, I was separated and didn't want to go to church by myself. I've admitted this on the radio a few times.
I sit there, the clips make your heart come alive, and I would watch movies on Sunday, and my heart would come alive more with that because it was getting to my heart, which I had killed for many years. And it brought it back alive. But anyway, the point is that boot camp really, you're not, they're there to open your heart, but not necessarily sustain you. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and it gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there.
I got away from Christ and suffered an overdose, and he took my memory at that time. I didn't know where I was, who was who, what I was doing. and so he showed me a little bit of his power there, letting me know that without him I nothing I don got nothing and I will be nothing So I decided to come back and just right now for the first time like I been through a lot of things like as you see me tattoos all over and everything, I've been through a war.
So for the first time in my life on this camp, I've been able to feel that peace in my heart. I haven't seen my family in over eight years now, But I actually can say today that I'm okay with it. God is with me and he's been dealing with my heart on a way that I never experienced it before. And I'm just thankful and grateful. Register today at MasculineJourney.org.
I am the doctor. I am the Lord. It's my inheritance. I'm a child of God.
So when the liar starts mowing off I'll sing in confidence my adoption song So Corey, that was your song that you picked. Tell us how that touched you at boot camp.
So I've heard that song I don't know how many times. It's been on my Spotify playlist for quite a while now. and I've heard it countless times. And during the last Covenant of Silence on Sunday before we left, I'm walking through the woods. It's completely quiet, and the lyrics to that song just come into my heart out of nowhere, and I'm like, okay, what song is this?
I can't remember the song. And I'm singing them out loud to myself, and suddenly I remember. I just I open Spotify and I pull it up and it's like adoption song wait a second wait a second hold on okay so I hit play and I'm standing there on a fallen tree in the middle of the woods hands raised tears running down my face and this song is playing and I'm like this is what he's saying his son you're adopted you're mine you're my son and And I knew, I said, we got to play this. We got to play this because this is so much power in understanding because every single lyric was like, this is the truth. I rebuked the lie that I'm not good enough because that's been a struggle all my life is I'm not good enough.
But the one who made the stars says I am. Amen. They also made you. Yeah, and I like that part about when he starts running his mouth because the enemy does start running his mouth. And that's – but if you truly believe you're adopted, it doesn't really matter.
It kind of goes away. But I really appreciate you throwing that out there. We played that, you know, there at the end.
So, Jim, you know, along this covenant silence idea, you know, your clip spoke right at that whole idea.
Well, just make your point. I don't have to.
Well, and the point's already been touched on. To me, the most, and I've got a couple of dozen boot camps in my past, and the most important time, even though I love the fellowship and the food's often excellent, the most important time is the time I'll spend alone with God. And the clip I have is a conversation with God, and I don't know if that's where you were going with, hey, Jim, but usually I'm surprised when I'm picked out there. Sam's real good at that, coming out of left field. But this clip is a guy that doesn't really know God, but he's got his prayer beads, and he's talking to him, And this is an important part of that entire movie, which is pretty silly but wonderful.
What do you want me to do? I want you to pray, son. Go ahead. Use them. Lord, feed the hungry And bring peace to All of mankind How's that?
Great If you want to be Miss America Now come on What do you really care about? Grace Grace, you want her back? No. I want her to be happy. No matter what that means, I want her to find someone who will treat her with all the love she deserved from me.
I want her to meet someone who will see her always, as I do now. Through your eyes.
Now that's a prayer. And in the movie, that is a face-to-face prayer, because Bruce happens to be dead at that moment. But that is the time that we spent. And you touched on the fact this is one of the rare times that any of us just get out, and that's the sole purpose of our time is to go out and speak to God. And even being on staff and having done this a thousand times, I really covet that time.
And one of the things I loved about this, grace is the woman he loves, but what do I really care about is grace and mercy. and that comes through Jesus Christ and knowing him as our personal Savior, brother and friend. Yeah, and I, you know, the clip is a phenomenal clip from a standpoint of boot camp in that the original Bruce that goes to pray is posing. I mean, and therein lies our problem. We're praying to God like what we want him to hear.
I sure this is what you want to hear so this is what I going to pray But God cuts through the pose right And the same thing of the idea of what we talk about at camp is that it one thing to be a poser amongst all you guys but it's another thing, a horrible thing, to pose in your relationship with God because you think it's what he wants. What he really wants is the real Jim. He wants the real Andy. He wants the real Corey. One of the things I love about this movie is that's one of the best gods in movies there is because he's got a sense of humor.
He lets you know when you're not pleasing him in a very real way. And a lot of people say, oh, it's a sacrilegious movie. Bruce Almighty is terrible. No, it was wonderful. God was in it.
What's funny to me is that when we are stuck in our pose with God, we know we can't pose with God, right? And yet, we have to do something. You know, I mean, it's either come clean and talk to God authentically and allow him to speak into you authentically or pose. or there's the third option, which is just don't go. Don't pray.
Don't have devotional time. Just stay away. Just don't move into that because if I move into that, then now I'm going to be confronted by my own conscience or should I say the Holy Spirit who lives within me even when I'm not feeling like I should be in the presence of God. And when you are in a place where you're posing with the world, it's almost automatic you pose with God. But you don't really want to go to him, as you're pointing out.
You don't because you know you aren't being real with anybody, including yourself and him.
So Corey brought up, and so did Bill, this idea of sonship. and so that being our sonship guru right here with us, Andy, that would bring us to your idea here.
So the adoption song that Corey brought up, I've talked about the orphan spirit and really where that came in in my life. When my dad leaving me, I was an adolescent, and then I had a stepfather that didn't handle my heart really well. But just this idea of being fathered and what that looks like, I've mentioned it many times. Morgan does such a great job from the Wild at Heart team that explains this to me, what is an available father, where I didn't have an available father at one of the most important times. This idea of sonship becoming a father being available, to not only come and have fellowship with you, which is so important, and helped me through the stages of my sonship, but to father me in stuff like spiritual warfare.
And this is an example of it.
Now, I think we played this before boot camp. This is a little bit smaller clip. It's from the Patriot. It's when William Wallace's, I think, second son was killed, and he's going after the Patriot. The Patriot.
I say that every time. I get Mel's stories mixed up. I'm sorry, this is a patriot. This is Benjamin Martin going after his oldest son that they've captured after killing his second son. And when he's doing it, it's by himself, and he's got his boys, and they're going to battle with him.
And he's explaining it. But as you listen to it, you can hear him fathering the sons in battle and the impact. But you can tell that there's a relationship that's very deep there to where these kids have heard this before, but he's reinforcing it and just giving guidance for it. It's a good spot. Boys, listen to me.
I'll fire first. I want you two to start with the officers and work your way down. Can you tell the difference? Yes, father. Yes, father.
Good. Samuel, after your first shot, I want you to reload for your brother Nathan.
Now, if anything should happen to me, I want you to drop your weapons and I want you to run as quickly as you can.
Now you hide in the brush, make your way home, get your brother and your sisters and you take them to your Aunt Charlotte's. Understood? What did I tell you fellas about shooting? Aim small, miss small. Aim small, miss small.
boys Samuel steady yeah just that final word steady but to aim small miss small I mean I use that point from the spiritual warfare about really focusing in on the agreements that you've made we a lot of times when stuff going blowing up in our lives we look at it as a whole but usually it's something small like an agreement we've made that's impacting all this big world.
So aim small, miss small. And, you know, um, Corey, just to your point of, of, of adoption and stuff is this is like the next step you've been adopted, but the father wants to go into spiritual warfare and teach us through that. That's one of the things we walk through.
So, you know, it took me a while to really see it that way. And I kind of treated some of these wild hard aspects independently, but they're all linked. And he can, you know, when you get away and you're by yourself, those things that he's spoken into you in a group still apply to you as an individual. Yeah, that's a beautiful thing that when you cut the clip, you brought the breathing in at the beginning because the sons are following the father. In other words, we follow God.
We're not the star of the show. He is. and so the sons are following their father they're breathing hard as we were hoping that you'll see what a joy it is to be amongst Abandoned Brothers to follow God and take his lead. Of course we've got another boot camp coming up in November the week before Thanksgiving we want to give you plenty of chance to plan for that it's actually an advanced boot camp and so if you've been to a boot camp before how exciting is that? We're going to be in Royston, Georgia again in November thanks for listening we will talk to you next week money oh
