Boot Camp Activities After Hours

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Coming to you from an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina. Masculine Journey After Hours, a time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast. So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here now.

Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. We're talking this week about prepping for boot camp, and we'll get into the topic a little bit down the road. But just wanted to open the show and let you know we're in an entrenched barricade, protected. Darrell Bock We're talking-ing to one another. Chris Hughes Talking-ing. Darrell Bock Yeah. Chris Hughes Did I talk? Darrell Bock Yeah, you sit behind this mic, you say all kinds of stuff.

But no, we're glad to have you with us. We are getting ready for boot camp. We've been talking a little bit about just talking with the God when we're at boot camp.

But I'll let Sam set that up a little bit more. Like I said earlier on the other show, Robby submitted the topic and conveniently went out of town. So we're trying to mop up for it now. Chris Hughes Yeah, I think you're just trying to say we're talking it up. Darrell Bock That's it. Chris Hughes Yeah, yeah. We're talking about God. Yeah, so we're talking about God. Darrell Bock God probably does talk in three syllable words when it's two. Chris Hughes He could, you know. That's true.

Darrell Bock As long as he don't do seven syllables. Chris Hughes We're talking about the covenant of silence times primarily, although God can speak whenever God chooses to speak and does. But at boot camp, he tends to utilize the covenant of silence times and the times that he's kind of come after our heart and the stories that we share of the words that he shared with us.

And that's kind of what we're talking through today. Darrell Bock Yeah, I think the biggest thing from, I mean, there's so much that happens, the community, the talks and how God touches our hearts. But when it's all said and done, the communication and the connection with God is really what we're there for. You know, that is the purpose. And to hear him talk and just to be in a position to where you got somebody who believes that people, like-minded people around you that believe you can hear from God and can assist in that.

So hopefully we position you in that. It's God that talks. We're just trying to give you an avenue to hear him. And so, Jim, why don't you set up the first clip? Jim Lovell This clip is from a movie called Conversations with God. And it is a injured psychologically, not physically, fellow that came back from a war episode that's sort of losing his faith. And he gets an invitation from God to interview him.

And he doesn't believe it, but this is their first get together. And this is a reporter talking to God. Jim Lovell How old are you? Darrell Bock Time is different for me than it is for you. I exist outside of time. After all, I created time. Jim Lovell Right.

Where do you come from? Darrell Bock Well, I think this interview would be more productive if we don't waste time on questions to which you already know the answer. Jim Lovell Okay, moving on. Darrell Bock Well, I'm not being different. I just think you, of all people, should know why my answers might be confusing.

If the nature of God were obvious, well, look at the world around you, and you will see that it is not. Jim Lovell So we struggle here on earth to know you, but I assume you know all the questions and all the answers? Darrell Bock Of course.

Does that make you feel uncomfortable? Jim Lovell But then you know the answer to that question, too, right? Darrell Bock But a divine perspective is not required. Jim Lovell You try to see this from my point of view.

This is not an easy process. Darrell Bock No, I get it. Knowing all the questions and all the answers must make human conversation kind of difficult. Jim Lovell Well, no one likes to know it all. Darrell Bock Right. You said you, of all people, a few moments ago, you said you, of all people, should know why my answers might be a little confusing.

What do you mean by that? Why me, of all people? Jim Lovell Well, you have a degree in religious studies and a degree in journalism from Loyola University, where you graduated the top of the class.

You started working at the Herald and their online division right out of college, where you write about matters of faith and theology. So you memorized my online bio. And I also know about your marriage.

Excuse me? Darrell Bock I know about your marriage. Jim Lovell Oh.

You had me going for a second. Darrell Bock I did, didn't I? Jim Lovell You're waiting for me to ask.

Darrell Bock Ask what? Jim Lovell For proof. Jim Lovell Proof that you are who you say you are. Darrell Bock Proof.

Jim Lovell Well, tell me, when you pray, do you ask for proof that God is listening? Darrell Bock No, of course not. Jim Lovell And this is your lucky day.

Darrell Bock How so? Jim Lovell I'm here answering your questions. Darrell Bock The banter between him and God appeals to me, because it, you know, I often have tried to have those kind of conversations with God, and every once in a while they're entertained. But it is usually He's speaking to me when I'm not expecting it. One of the wonderful things about the covenants of silence is that's when I'm going out seeking Him to hear from Him. And most often when I do that it's reading the Bible, but I've had some unique experiences with the covenants of silence. One I shared a couple weeks ago, and that was literally in a closet at the boot camp in Colorado when God pointed out to me in a very short comment of saying, Why are you angry with us? That I was struggling with the death of my father from six years earlier. And I immediately knew that was God, and it was out of left field, because if you'd asked me I would have said, I'm not angry with God.

But that was a relieving experience. The ones that have been more common is when we've had the new name. In my first new name it was sort of like Robby's experience.

You know, I said, Oh, come on God. I've been called that most or much of my life, and that was General Giant. So I pushed it away initially, and then we talked about it, and it did sit home with me. And I actually still have a lot of, a few people know it, but I guess everybody does it now.

It's on the radio. But it's one that I am still called fairly commonly, and I'm comfortable with that. And I had one that, that one I sort of expected, because it was something I'd heard.

But the most recent, well, not the most recent, but one of the more recent ones, like I said, he talks to me then. I wasn't looking for an answer. I was outside, and it was pretty chilly. This was one of our late fall ones, and I was ready to go hit the rack, because it was the last talk of the night. And I love astronomy, and I was looking at different things and identifying them, and I was mainly going with constellations. And then I looked at the moon, and I, just in my brain, and again hadn't heard anything from God, I said, I guess that's waxing gibbous. And immediately God said, that's it. And again, I kind of, now that's not it. But I had been struggling at that time with getting older and feeling less useful in life. And I finally did a little, okay, I'm going to look it up if that's waning gibbous. I know that's all my head, but if it's waxing, that did sound like God. And it was, and that had an impact on my life. And he only speaks to us not when we're necessarily wanting him to speak to us.

He will when we need it, and that's been my experience. Cool. Did that pick up the whole show?

I've never heard anybody get a name like that before, but you know, that's awesome. You sure it wasn't waxing on? Yes, I'm pretty sure that wasn't it.

More of a waxing off kind of thing. Yeah, we'll get to Rodney's clip here in a second. But no, I think that's cool though, because we talked about this earlier about how God speaks to us uniquely. And Jim being the dictionary and encyclopedia reader that he is, it's very appropriate for him to get that. If I would have gotten that, that would have said, no, that's probably from the enemy. Because I don't know what it is.

I don't know what relates. But I mean, it's just, it's just God being God. I think we all are unique. He speaks to us individually. He knew he knows how he how he created us. And he knows how the, you know, the creation is going to receive certain words. He knows your conscience. He created it.

So he knows how to come in and make sure he provokes something in you that is unique from him. Right. Yep. So since we're talking about waxing on, we'll let you set up your clip. Yeah, because it's Karate Kid, so everybody knows wax on, wax off, sand to floor. Sand to floor. I was, went to bed last night, still hadn't figured out, okay, Lord, how do we talk?

What clip should I do? And, you know, that's, it's just a perfect example of, you know, talking to God for me how it kind of normally happens. It's just a conversational kind of thing where I'm just like, I'm praying and kind of just talking out loud and trying to get my thoughts together.

And knowing nowhere where I'm going to go, I'm like, I have nothing for this show. I really don't know how you and I communicate, Lord. I, you know, he's like, well, think about it. And I'm like, okay, well, we just, oh, like we are right now, just kind of talking, just kind of thinking through things. And he often just helps me to clarify things that need to be clarified. And instead of, you know, being authoritative or having anything specific, it's just kind of a intimacy. But then he starts to remind me, well, what about all those times when you had no idea about what you were, what we were doing, and then later on you're like, oh, I learned years later or months later or days later or something that was before that, oh, I can remember back to something that I was thinking and I was working through and now I'm getting answers later on. So it's, with God, it's kind of like for me, it's in hindsight. I don't always know it at the time, but then later on I can see he's working. Small things he does for me is just reminds me of things during the day that I'm just like, I'm lost, I don't know what I'm thinking about.

Or he'll put somebody on my heart and I'm like, oh, yes, I need to pray, things like that that I just really give a lot of thanks for, because it's like, oh, thank you, Lord, for all those small things. But the Karate Kid clip is where Miyagi has been having Daniel-san do all the chores, and Daniel-san thinks, okay, I'm wasting my time here, I'm cutting out, I'm done doing all your work. And so Miyagi has to stop him and tell him, no, you really are learning some things. So he goes through, you'll hear a bunch of yelling. What he's doing is he's teaching him that all these moves that I've done with your hands and stuff are now muscle memory for you to be able to defend yourself, and he'll go through that at the end of the clip. But first you get Daniel-san rejecting him, and then when he walks away after this, he's walking away doing things with his hands like, oh, man, I've learned something.

I actually know some karate without ever even being taught karate in his mind. Hey, hey, how come you didn't tell me you were going fishing? You're not here when I go.

Well, maybe I wouldn't want her to go, you ever think of that? You karate training. I'm what?

I'm beating you, slave is what I'm beating, man. Now we made a deal here. So?

So? So you're supposed to teach and I'm supposed to learn, remember? For four days I've been busting my ass every one I think. You learn plenty. I learn plenty. I learn how to sand your decks, maybe. I wash your car, paint your house, paint your fence, I learn plenty, right?

Not everything is the same. Oh, I'm going home, man. Daniel-san, Daniel-san, sand the floor. How did you do that?

Sure. Sand the floor. Sand the floor. Sand the floor.

Big sucker. Sand the floor. Sand the floor. Now show me wax on, wax off.

Hey. Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off, hey. Wax on, hey. Wax off, hey.

Concentrate. Look at my eye. Look at hand.

Thumb inside. Wax on, hey. Wax off, hey. Wax on, hey. Wax off, hey. Wax on, wax off.

Show me paint the fence. Up, down. Up, down. Up, down. Other side. Look eye.

Always look eye. Show me paint the house. Say, say.

Black list. Say, say. Say, say.

Show me wax on, wax off. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Show me paint the fence. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Show me side of faith. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Show me sand the floor. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Look eye. Always look eye.

Come back tomorrow. And a part of that, always look eye. Always look at me. Always keep your eyes on Jesus, right Peter?

That's what we need to do or we're going to fall in the water. So, I've been reading 2 Corinthians recently and so this just kind of popped out when I was thinking about this clip and how he talks to me and I was like, oh, I went back and found it. So it was 2 Corinthians 4 and 16 through 18. Therefore, we do not lose heart, but through our outer man, though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being removed day by day. For momentarily, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison. While we look at things which are seen, we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Things like that just help me to perspective things with God because if I don't, I'm thinking here now today I want it now and I'm in the world and I've got to get out of the world to get into eternality. And when I can do that, things are much better that, okay, I'm not going to get everything I want and need today. I love this clip.

It has so many different things. So every once in a while, you've got to get like when he goes, show! And it's like, okay, God will scream at me every once in a while to get my attention with things, right? It's like, it will happen because I need it.

I need to be shaken up. And just going through everything with him, focusing on Jesus, because it's so hard to be obedient and faithful and trusting when the reward is coming. And it's far off. You can't see it. And that's where he said the other night, that's why they call it faith, Rodney.

So stuff like that. Darrell Bock We're too used to microwaves and remote controls. Mark Bailey Very much so. And it's just great to be able to sit back and let things work out in his eternal mind instead of mine. Darrell Bock What's cool is while Jim's coming on, that was my daily reading today. I'm in Second Corinthians, too.

That's cool. Jim Love One of the things you said about time hit me. And I heard this once, and it really helps me get more of an eternal perspective versus the temporal, where we're looking at the big picture instead of the little picture. And it was a cute little saying, but I repeat it often and often see people have the light bulb go on. It's when we get to eternity, we're going to look back on our lifetime, doesn't matter whether it was 10 years or 100 years.

It's going to be like it's going to be like one bad night in a cheap motel. And if we can remember that this is the beginning of our lives, and our lives are going to go on eternally, then a lot of the little stuff that gets at us in life is going to go away. And God does want to be silent at times so we can show our faith. So when you're not hearing from him, it's not the time to freak out. It's the time that he's trusting you to go forward with what he last told you.

Darrell Bock Yeah. I think there's a saying that you can have a relationship with God or you can understand what's going on, but you can't have both. And another way to put it is, and this comes from the Wild Heart team, that they say this quite often.

Some European philosopher basically that said we have to live life forward but understand it backward. And I think that's what you were talking about. But that, even in that, I mean, whenever you talk about people hearing from God, you know, we talk about Elijah in the cave or whatever and the storm came by and the wind blowing and all. But God came in a still small voice. And sometimes with all the noise in this world, it's hard to trust that voice. But as you follow that voice and you hear it more and more, it leads you down to then you can look back and say, yeah, I was following the right voice. Darrell Bock And it's tough sometimes to remember that God does speak our language.

What you were kind of talking about, Rodney, is that he does speak to me and I understand. And that clip reminded me of a story. I took karate when I was like 12. It was a six-week class. And in my mind, after six weeks, I was going to take Bruce Lee's place.

I was going to be that good. And when it didn't happen, it was so disappointing. And but, you know, that is the mentality, the discipline of working through something and very rarely does anything worth having, especially spiritually, come without discipline and heartache. Absolutely. Because I don't understand what's going on.

And this should have happened two days ago. James talks about the trying of our faith. And, you know, that does show there's a lot of people, if they don't get what they want, they move on. Well, and that's not what God's about necessarily.

Darrell Bock You can't be more than an overcomer if you never overcome. John 1027 My sheep hear my voice, we know that part. And I know them. And they follow me.

I know them as something I didn't really pick up on. I know them how to speak to them. It's what we were talking about earlier. He knows how to communicate with us as individuals.

I thought that was cool. Darrell Bock And like with the sheep, who are pretty dumb animals, one of the things that I've all, when I know I've heard from God is when I've heard the same thing three or four or five times. Because he will keep repeating it until I get it.

But we do sometimes make assumptions that, okay, I prayed about that God didn't answer me. So, yep, he's not listening. Sam, you got anything on that? No.

I pulled the same main on that there, then I guess surprise attack. But don't you have another clip? I do. I do. I'm getting ready to get to it.

Just wanted to make sure you didn't have anything on that. But my clip comes from Braveheart. And I'm going to try to do this without telling you the whole clip because I'm bad about giving too much information. Rodney gave you a run for your money on that tonight. Oh, he did good. I think so. Thanks.

Anytime. But I used Braveheart last week. Braveheart to me is, you know, it is the boot camp movie.

If there was one to distill boot camp, it was it is Braveheart. But this is on this on really the focus is on the son, the son loses his dad in battle. He has this uncle that's kind of a eerie, weird kind of guy coming in to kind of take him with him and be his guardian. But there's something that really important happens. He William has a dream, William Wallace, in Braveheart has a dream. And his father says something to that dream.

And it kind of is the essence of his life after that. So I'm gonna play it and talk about it. We'll come back. We'll stay here tonight. Tomorrow, you'll come home with me. I don't want to leave.

You didn't want your father to die either. But it happened that the priest give a poetic benediction. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. It was in Latin. You don't speak Latin.

Well, that's something we shall have to remedy, isn't it? The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord cause his light to shine on thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Your heart is free.

Have the courage to follow it. What are they doing? Saying goodbye in their own way.

Playing out loud tunes on out loud pipes. So that clip to me, it took me a while, a few boot camps. You know, I think probably the most dynamic time I heard from God at a boot camp was when I got my new name. But out of that, I had an identity from that. And God had given it to me. And I sensed that it was the Father that had done that, had given me my name. And then I just really started feeling the impression of the Father coming after me and healing some wounds, you know, orphan spirit that God got from kind of my dad disappearing in a critical part of my life in my adolescence. And we had a guy that was part of the ministry that did an excellent talk on sonship, Todd Clark.

And I'd always heard that. And just the accumulation of things and part of the series of things you go through as you go through this process of the masculine journey, I got to the point to where I really wanted to know the Father. And, you know, it was out of those boot camps.

I don't know if there was a single thing that I heard at a boot camp. It was a compilation of, I'd heard this message over and over, but I really began to realize that I needed to lean into it. And I sensed the Father leading me into it. And I've told about travels that I had where I just was like, I felt like God, the Father, and he and I went on an adventure together. And there's some really cool times in that. But there's so much stuff that I've learned from that, that has allowed me to step in just like I get the counsel I would from an earthly father, I feel like I am really getting that from God himself.

But it all goes back to hearing from him at a boot camp. Again, the talks are great, they set things up, but then it's those times out in the woods, and then going forward after that. Darrell Bock Yeah, it's nice sometimes when you're listening to a talk that there's a prompt in there, but yet you're on to the next thing. And it's like, okay, you got something in a note. And then you go out and you get to read over your notes a little bit as to what you took, because what's nice sometimes is not just what they say, but what it means to you, what you heard.

That's because there's, if you look at everybody's notebook, they're going to have something a little bit different down for what happened. And I always love to have the scriptures down, because then that's something that's a nice prompt. If you go out and read through the scriptures that were presented and go back and look at them in full and get some context and go before and after them, things of that nature, God will use that. And the next thing you know, you're having that conversational intimacy again, where you're talking with God, and you're like, oh, this is where I'm supposed to go?

Darrell Bock Yeah. Oh, you wanted to go one place. Jim says it perfectly in one of our little promos now. I wanted one thing, God wanted another, and he was right, you know, and that's where I should go. And it's nice when you can have that, and then you can share if you want to share with your brothers or hear what others are sharing from their time. And it's a really great time to commune with God.

Darrell Bock Awesome. Come hear from God. Come let him be your father. Come to our next boot camp.

It's March 31 through April 3. We'd love to have you there. Go to masculinejourney.org. Jim Bock One of the things that's been a true joy to me is having my sons go with me to boot camps and watching them get an understanding that I wished I would have had at their age. It took me several years, and I'm still probably learning it a little bit as we go, but watching them get a good foothold into manhood and understanding what's important, what their role is, and how to stay away from the enemy, to receive healing and restoration in a way that you love on others. Register today at masculinejourney.org. This is the Truth Network.