This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.
So, how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey. We are glad to have you with us.
This is a big week in Christianity.
Well, every week should be a big week in Christianity, but this is traditionally thought of a big week. It's Holy Week. And you may have heard it called something else, but that's what it's called in some circles. Right? And I have a question for you guys because I really don't know the answer.
Right. And so we're on the air on Saturdays, right? And so you have Maundy, Thursday, which if you don't know what that is, you can look it up. And so you have that. Feet Washington Thursday, please.
Feet Washing Thursday, Monday, Thursday. Right. Then you have Good Friday. Then you have Easter. What is Saturday called?
I don't know that it has a name. I actually saw a thing earlier that said it was Holy Saturday. It was. Um My train derailed.
Sorry, guys. Yeah, I could see it derailing as I was watching you. See, I took a left-hand turn. That's all smoke rolling. For me, it's very symbolic.
Symbolic. Thank you. Gosh, brain does not want to work today. Of life, really. Because I mean, imagine how the disciples felt in that time.
They were. Completely destroyed the person that they thought was going to be their king. in a in a different way than they thought he wa that he really was. was in the grave. Yep.
Yeah, I th I think we should call it Lost Saturday.
Well, Separation Saturday, I think. Because that's, no, but that's exactly what's happening, though. Jesus is separated from God at that time, and. And You know, the three days, I think the significance is that one day this happened, the death and then the resurrection. You had to have some interim where they would have said, Oh, it was just the same way he was never really dead.
So but it's that really that separation that took truly The way the Bible explains it, he's separated from the Father at that time. Saturday was almost. But not yet. Yeah.
Okay. I'm still going with the last Saturday. You guys could. Good thing Sunday is coming. Yeah.
No, I'm fine. I think those were all good. You all did well. Thank you very much. We passed.
You're exactly right. In tribute to our friend Robby. Andy, you have the The topic, I mean, you it was kind of a shared topic, but you articulated it as the best. If you can do it now, that would be amazing.
Well, I had to pull it out of you because what I offered, you rejected at first. Then you said, How about something in Easter? But then I was like, Okay, whatever, I'll throw something out there.
So just in the vein of Masculine Journey, what I put out was You know, how we have seen both death and resurrection in our masculine journey. You know, I think there's a been a lot of life that's come to me, but some things had to die. And that's a scriptural principle. Unless the cornwheat dies and falls to the ground, it can't come back to life. Um So anyway, there's that whole idea and then really just the thought of We've had some mixed feeling in this discussion about what Easter has meant in the organized church.
And personally. And it's not always good and there is a lot of Um People not Worshiping authentically.
Well, it's about a bunny leaving Easter eggs. There's that, and there's a lot to do, and there's. About how you dress and what hats you wear, and a variety of things that really aren't about the gospel, but I truly believe. You know, we were talking and I agree that we should celebrate resurrection every day. But with that being said, I do believe I've personally benefited from it when I really got serious about God in my late 20s.
It was around Easter time when I really just realized I needed him. And then I started I think I went to Well, I went to a church that did a play here in Winston that really impacted the area. Called Behold Him, and it ran for many years, and so many people were saved. They would do follow-ups for people that visited and saw many salvations. But the event itself, I truly you know, just experienced God and I'd never seen anything like it.
And I have a clip about that later. But not to get into it too much, but we're really talking about those aspects of death and resurrection in your own personal life and then how you You know how you celebrate the death and resurrection year by year. Or another way to say what Easter means to you. Exactly. Yes, yeah.
Too bad we don't have the video. Exactly right. Thank you. Too bad we don't have the video tonight because Harold has his Easter apparel on. He looks very Easter.
And Art has his Easter bonnet, which we can't really see. You know, it's got cat on it.
So, yeah. Yeah, Harold's looking so pastel. I've been hiding Easter eggs on him. Yeah, he looks like an Easter egg. He does.
He does. I think Easter eggs are slightly bigger. I'm just saying. I'm not really sure. Anyway, on to our first clip.
Darren, you have the first clip of the evening if you want to share that with us.
Well, so, yeah, let's start with the comic relief. You know, so. The resurrection and the crucifixion have both been a big part of my life and Um I remember hearing this preached all my life as a kid. and it was always pretty simple. And and very true.
But But simple um Sombre. And joyful at the same time. I mean, you know, it was. Later on in life, when I started getting involved in ministry. and different things, I began to see a different side of Easter.
And I would see one day a year. That A pastor. A committee Mm-hmm. A Board. decided we're we're going all in on this day.
And While there's nothing inherently wrong with that, right? I mean, I'm all for going all in on a day to reach people for Jesus, but. in that they kind of forgot often that it's not about pressure. It's not about legalism. It's not about how good you perform.
It's not about any of those things. It's about. You know, the resurrection of Christ that makes grace possible for all of us. And so I began to see something that looked a little bit more Fake. in reality.
And that and that hurt my heart. And so this Clip comes from Meet the Parents, and it's a guy that. He thinks he's trying to be authentic. Um He knows he's not, but he's trying to fool somebody. And so you can play the clip.
Yeah, he's been asked to pray, right? Right. So we'll pick it up there. Greg, would you like to say Grace? Oh, uh, well, uh, Greg's Jewish dad.
You know that. You're telling me Jews don't pray, honey? Don't wait. Unless you have some objection. No, no, no, no.
No, I'd love to. Pam, come on. It's not like I'm a rabbi or something. I said, Grace, in many. A dinner table.
Okay. Oh Dear God Thank you. You are such a good God. to us a a kind and gentle and Accommodating. God And we thank you, O sweet, sweet Lord of hosts For the Schmorgesboard, you have so aptly lain at our table this day and each day.
By day Day by day by day. Oh. Dear Lord, Three things. We pray. Yeah.
To love thee more dearly. To see thee More clearly. True. follow thee more nearly. day by day.
By day. Amen. Amen. Oh, Greg, that was lovely. Thank you, Craig.
That was interesting too. And so the whole point there is: look, you may be called on to do something special this weekend. and it may feel odd to you. Don't pose. Just be authentic.
And um and hopefully the people you're doing it with are also not posing as, you know, I mean, I picture I mean, I was a pastor for a number of years, and you know, my wife and kids and I would be on our way to church trying to kill each other, you know, and then we get to church, and everybody's happy. You know, and so. No, you know, I mean, Jesus didn't die for that. He died for some authentic. love, grace, real change.
Real resurrection. That sort of thing. You can join Darren on his new podcast, The Dark Side of Easter. I've been trying to think of a name, and I think you nailed it. Can you imagine the color of eggs he uses?
Yeah, black, gray. Kids probably never found their eggs because they were. Yeah.
Yeah, it it's it's such a double-edged sword because churches want to attract people But but sometimes they put on events that they're not gonna be able to replicate. the rest of the year, so the people that do come on Easter or Christmas see something that's not who they are. on a weekly basis, so they set an expectation that's different than what they deliver. the rest of the time. And, you know, it y you love their heart.
And but maybe the execution isn't always the best? Yeah, and if and if you're willing to sacrifice people in the production of that event. Right. That's where we need to Need a little bit of crucifixion. We need to crucify that spirit.
But yeah, I mean, I love doing. big things. Mm-hmm. It's fine. Let's just Not abuse people in the process.
Or that is Yeah. Harold, I want to go to you kind of early in the show. What's Easter meant to you, means to you, death, resurrection, any of those things that we've talked about?
Well, I think that one good way to to visualize the Easters. Period. is to look at the condition of Christ on Friday. And then compare that. with Christ on Sunday morning.
He he was brutally Battered We have no idea what he looked like. But when you read the description of the whips that they were using w with bone and or metal. embedded into the strips of leather. that just ripped chunks of flesh off. Oh, I mean I'm an old guy.
I'm I'm within arm's reach of being 85. I can remember how my legs stung What about mama? used the switch on on my bare legs as a As a kid that had mistreated somebody or done something wrong.
Well Harold, let's pick up with uh as we come back. And you can finish telling that. Go to masconjourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp the weekend before Thanksgiving. We'll talk to you after the break. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and 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. You know, I think I was 13 maybe in my first camp. I'm now 28. You know, these look a lot different from when they looked back then. Back then, it was a lot more finding direction, and it's still finding direction, but it's also being reminded of what that direction was and where did you lose it along the way?
Let's reclaim that and take it into your next step. You know, talking about being fathered, I had a good dad, I had a great dad, and a lot of things were great. And, you know, you had your faults like anyone else, but I think I always told myself, I don't necessarily need God's love because I'm okay. And that's what God's been working on with me for this camp: hey, yeah, you do. You're not going to make it without me.
And He's really just shown that He delights in me, and I am the apple of His eye. And just really being able to feel that this camp has been a lot different from anything I felt. Register today at mascularjourney.org. I don't know. World, shine on me.
Love is the end. Let it shine. Shine on us all. Set us free. Love is the end.
Welcome back to Masculine Journey. Andy, that was your bump. Actually, it wasn't, but I was going to say that's kind of growing on me.
Well, thank you. It uh I I was trying to think of a clip for this show and and I was struggling, even tried to use ChatGPT to help me find a clip. I know, I know, you know, you you're gonna use the evil AI for something good. I mean, that works out. But I couldn't really find anything and and I kept having this song run through my head.
Love is the answer. And I haven't heard it in a long time. And I knew one of them, either England Dan or John Ford Coley, who sang that, died this last week. And so that may have been on my mind. But I said, Oh, that's interesting.
I want to go listen to that song. And so part of that chorus is Light of the World, Shine on Me. Love is the answer. Shine on us all, set us free Love is the answer. And that's what Easter really is.
Right. He's the light of the world. He set us free. and He shines on us continually. And so that little twenty seconds, it's actually the best part of the song, but it you know, it's a song about love, but uh that was from the, I guess, probably late seventies, early eighties when that song was pretty popular.
But uh anyway, that's what that was. But we had left. Harold was talking about the brutalness of uh Friday, not this past Friday, and and he could have been there, so we don't know. He may have seen it in person. But you know, uh no, of uh What'd they call it?
Good Friday. Of Good Friday, the brutalness of Good Friday, and then you were going to compare it to Sunday. Yeah.
Uh we often I think the image that too many people have of Christ is limited To those Italian painters that had ideas of Jesus being a Renaissance man. rather than what he really was. But talking about the switches on my legs, we. experience pain. But when I stop and think about what he went through I just cannot imagine How Bad.
He had to be hurting. I mean, yes, he was divine. But he was human. And if he was going to be human, he was going to hurt just like we would hurt. in a similar circumstance.
So when I think about him as he was on late Friday afternoon. And then I compare that with how he was on Sunday morning. That's like us. the way we are before We were saved. And then after we're saved.
that we go through that cleansing process. and we change from something that nobody wants to be around to something that's attractive. When done the right way. That's right.
So that to me is a lot of what Easter is. It's not. colored eggs and chocolate candy and stuff like that. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just not the meaning. Thank you, Harold.
That was very good. You know, I'm going to go to Corey here in a second, but. I've only watched the the uh Mel Gibson Passion of the Christ twice. Once when it was in theaters, and then once when my boys, well, I guess three times when both of the boys were asking about. That we watched it, and I made him read the four accounts of that story in the gospel.
Um I think I'm gonna make myself watch it this year. It's not that it's not good, it's just so incredibly brutal. But I think it's important to your point, Harold, that we remember that. remember the the depths that he went to For nothing that he did. to cover the things that we have done and do.
It it really makes you wonder just how low. Humans can go. Uh the How how's it how you can inflict pain like that on another person is just beyond me. Yeah.
Yeah, Corey, for you, Easter, what's any any of the questions we have?
So To me. It's the power of the death of old and the the resurrection of new. Old self dies and the new is born Who you were before is completely gone. And In my opinion, I think we can have that a lot of times in our lives. Uh matter of fact.
Um um confident in saying I think I'm pretty much in a silent Saturday myself right now at this time of my life. Um Because the old way of thinking about myself has has died. And I'm slowly resurrecting into a new way of thinking about myself and and rediscovering again for I don't know the millionth time my identity in Christ and and my relationship with God as His Son. Yeah.
But I wanted to touch on what you said about his beating the beating that it showed in the passion. I actually saw a video the guy said uh Jesus would have loved for it to have been that easy. That what the Bible actually describes versus what that movie showed. was like you know a splinter to what he actually went through. Um So and and that's something that I can't imagine.
And then to think that that was done for me Like he took that Willingly. Knowing that there's nothing I can do to repay him for that, that's. insanity to me. And what choice do I have other than to follow a God that would do that for me? Yeah, I think Francis Chan wrote a book called Crazy Love, right?
I mean crazy how much he loves us, how much he wanted to give this to us. And you know, physically it was bad. And that's a representation, something you can see in your mind. It's hard for us to understand what it really felt like for him to be separated from the Father, though. That's where Jesus really got.
Yeah.
Uh you know Um Why have you forsaken me? Is what he said. He had always felt the Father's presence, and he was no longer feeling it. And then all the. All the shame that we feel, he t says they took our shame and stuff, all that was put on him too, and you can't really physically see that, but it happened.
The the weight of the sin of the world or the the physical beating that he took. was Probably, you know, a thumb prick. to the weight of the sin of humanity. Mm-hmm. Yeah, agreed.
Grant, you had something you wanted to add? Yeah.
Uh on Easter? It's not not publicized enough in the in the world. Yeah.
I'm glad I'm going to go out tonight and start putting some things out for people to see. Absolutely. Absolutely. We uh Outside of here, one of the things I I help with is a food pantry. um, over the over in Kernersville.
And so there's a great company in North Carolina called Mount Air. And it's chicken processing. facility and they do uh part of their giving they give give meals to thousands. And so at Thanksgiving, they give away literally thousands of meals, and it's a chicken and a bunch of fixings and things that go with it. And last year at Thanksgiving, we were we were picked as one of the places they would donate them to, and we got ninety boxes and those things were gone.
I mean, there was a line of people, you know, and we didn't have enough for everybody. It was going so quick. This time we only got we got picked for their Easter boxes and we got 60. And in the same time frame, we gave away 27. You know, and it just really let me know the impact of, you know, okay, what people see as Thanksgiving and the importance of it.
in the world and we're talking about free food to people that need it. that they didn't even show up to get free food whether they believed in Easter or or not, you know, that only twenty seven people came out at To pick up boxes.
Now we're able to give those away today as we were open, and again on Saturday to people in need. But it was really just it People just gloss over Easter, to your point, Grant, that Yeah, that they don't really even think about the impact unless you are a Christian.
Well, I guess they wouldn't have the c the perspective or the concept. Yeah.
You guys are all shaking your head, but they can't see that on the air. I would like to think that maybe people thought, you know what? Yeah, I know they're giving that away, but It's Easter. And I wanna You know, respect somebody that might need it more than I or something along those lines. But it is.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. And We we can publicize it all over the place. Um And yet every week. is Easter um for the resurrected Christ and the resurrected by the Christ. which is us, which is why Paul kind of says don't lift any one day above another.
And that's the point he's making. It's not that he hates Easter. It's that he's saying, look, every day. when you are redeemed by the blood of Christ. is your resurrection day.
Mm-hmm. Well yeah, you're supposed to kill off the old man every day and become continue to become more the new creation in Christ. Danny, welcome back. We have missed you in studio, by the way. We didn't do that early on to welcome you back.
It's awesome to see you here. It's good to be here. I had to get directions back to the studio. I forgot. Yeah, they wouldn't let you in 'cause they didn't recognize you.
Who are you? Yeah, yeah. There's about half of you coming back here. Literally. I was just thinking that, you know.
Yeah, at Christmas, you know, nobody's intimidated by a baby in a manger. But at Easter you're dangerously close. to the to why we call ourselves Christians. And you're so dangerously close to the truth. People avoid that because.
You're talking about. This is you know, you've got all these other religions with martyrs But Jesus wasn't a martyr. He came back on Sunday. Right. And so, you know, people have a hard time dealing with that.
I mean, even even within the church, people have a hard time dealing with that.
Well, the enemy's so good about, you know, with Christians, uh, it can become a shame fest. Look at what he had to go through for me. Right, and there's there's truth in that. But as soon as we take it into condemnation, that's not what Jesus intended with that. No.
It was to free us. There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ. Right, but the enemy is so good at getting us to go there that even this which should be an amazing remembrance. You know, even if you only did it once a year, okay, it's an amazing remembrance, but it can be tainted by the one that's evil and hates you and hates your heart. Or hiding it.
Yeah.
Anybody else have a thought as our music plays? If not, I'll just kind of ramble on countlessly as we end up rambling. Is there anything different? No, it's every week. Yeah, it's pretty much on Ramblon.
We do have a boot camp coming up, and ta-da-ta-da, it is on our website. You can go register. Go to masculine journey. That's the best little horn toot I can do. Go to masculinejourney.org.
Well, not the best, but probably the most appropriate. MasculineJourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp. It's November, the weekend before Thanksgiving, whatever that is, Thursday through Sunday, masculinejourney.org. We will talk with you next week.
