Core 300

an excerpt from chapter 2 of “Called to War” by Art Hobba:
Some of us had fathers who were present but abusively so, executing seismic reigns of terror in the souls of both wives and their children. William Manchester, noted biographer and author of The Last Lion, devoted significant text to the painful relationship between Sir Winston Churchill and his father, Randolph. “Randolph actually disliked his son,” he writes at one point where he describes how often the father’s harshness had hurt young Winston as a boy. Churchill later wrote of his childhood:

“[My father] wouldn’t listen to me or consider anything I said. There was no companionship with him possible and I tried so hard and so often. He was so self centered no one else existed for him…He treated me as if I had been a fool; barked at me whenever I questioned him. I owe everything to my mother; to my father, nothing”

It’s not difficult to feel the pain of a broken and rejected heart and unfulfilled dreams of intimacy with his father in Churchill’s words. Best Selling Christian writers like Gordon Macdonald (When Men Think Private Thoughts) and John Eldredge (Wild at Heart, Waking the Dead) have well developed treatises on what is referred to as the “wound” of the father….and many readers have found direction and healing in their messages. If you feel a deep stirring regarding this subject matter, both of these authors, MacDonald in particular, offer deeper discourses to help you explore the landscape of your own unique “wound.” It may be that Father God has a gift of healing for you to discover as you seek Him as your Father.
A few of us have had awesome, fully functional earthly fathers. I have found this to be truly rare in my experience with men and women. Other dads, like mine, were missing key components…their presence…or words of love, affirmation, instruction, and needed correction. These missed deposits or “blessings” created vacuous holes in our souls that later caused some to dredge internal harbors of resentment, often leading to harmful behaviors…all trying to fill the voids. The substantial absence of these pillars of sonship we all so desperately need also has a universal way of alienating us from our Father in Heaven. Like Churchill’s father, we don’t really believe Father God even likes us.
Other well meaning Christians have discovered the truth of serving God…but have never experienced the best part; living close to God as your Father…in His embrace under His constant gaze of love and knowing the confirming inner voice of God as your personal adoptive Father. Paul takes the time to write to two churches this all important distinctive of experiencing live as God’s beloved child:

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:15).
for more informaton on Art’s new book “Called to War,” go to www.calledtowar.com

Thinking on why men are all so attracted, it seems, to loner, quiet, raspy voiced, stare down, black belted heroes with awful social skills. The words of sage-teachers like Henri Nouwen and Thomas Keating stirred me to see these men as the harmful kind of anti hero we too often see on the widescreen and, ultimately, venerate.

Orphan’s all. Batman, Superman, John Connor,  Rocky, any role by John Wayne, Spidey, Jean Val Jean, and of course Jason Bourne. All of these men are/were orphan archetypes, cut off from the nurture of loving parents and thus their own emotions. Yet we also might be tempted to call them authentic Americans as well. Help me firgure this out. Is it possible we have developed a race of men in this country that responded to being rejected by our motherEngland… treated like an unwanted bastard son? The response to this wound was to rebel and declare independence. Just likeChina,Australia,India, and a score of other nations who got the same orphan-wound.

And I wonder how this has impacted our sexuality? fatherhood? marital fidelity?

Far fetched? Take a few moments and compared this orphan-hero to the ultimate father-big brother role model…Jesus Christ. More on the differences in a few.

So Others May Live!  Art Hobba, Founder Core 300

Author of Called to War

Today at my “Rock” the Spirit impressed on me the truth we heard last night in our Core 300 Gideon blows the horn and is filled wth the Holy Spirit.

Can you imagine what would happen when a group of men rise above fear, self doubt and insecurity and embrace and walking in the truth that they are filled with the Spirit of God. That the same resurrection power the raised Christ from the Dead is available to each of them daily. The barriers they could destroy in their wake, the captive that could be set free, the Kingdom work that could be done. (See Acts)

I also made me realize that having been given such an incredible gift and power what will happen when I stand before Christ. The Word says he will test what I built (2 Corinthians), if I do not embrace and follow Christ after being given such a gift. What would it be like to stand before Jesus and say rather than overcome my doubts and use His great power I tried to do things in my power. WOW thought

It reminds me of when I learned about “June Teenth” A brother in Christ told me that in Texas he and his friends always celebrate June Teenth. I asked him what it was and he said during the civil war the emancipation proclamation was made on April 24th. By all the laws of the land the slaves in the south were free on that day. However because of the speed at which the news traveled down to Texas if took until “June Teenth” for the truth to be known. On April 25th as a slave woke up he still acted like a slave however he was technically free but nothing in his life changed that day because he was unaware of the truth. Then the truth came on June Teenth than he could walk and function in that freedom. Jesus said to Pilate I come to testify to the Truth, and The Truth shall set you free. With the gifting of the Holy Spirit as a major truth in our lives how are we walking? Are we walking in the power and light of that truth or are we answering like the slaves on April 25th to the same old masters in our lives.

Brothers and fellow Warriors I encourage you to be filled daily, embrace the power of the gift of the Spirit and hang on for a wild ride with our Incredible Lord Jesus.

John Marsicano

I have some great and close RC friends and a couple of Priests that I fellowship with. There are some areas where we do not go in our fellowship. You might be amazed at the men’s movement and resources available for churches. 2 months ago, …I went to a men’s meeting that starts at 6AM every Thursday and they are in a 3 year program of discipleship with a guy named on DVD. Small groupwork at the tables…good content. If it weren’t for the ‘Our Father’ and ‘Hail Mary’ opening and closing prayer, it could have been a men’s group in a mainstream evangelical church!
Vatican II broke some major barriers and I think we need to reach out to these men somehow. The book I wrote Called to War was intentionally broadened by some of the language I used (for example substituted the word ‘Priest’ several times for Pastor, Parish for Church, etc.
After going undercover to some of their adult training classes, there is a mutually shared bias of Evangelicals vs Catholics and Catholics vs us. Much of which surrounds this issue:
Grace plus evidential good works equals salvation (Official Catholic stance…and yes they do quote the book of James in their argument) and Grace alone equals salvation. What a great dialogue awaits us if we find open hearts in both corners of this debate?
Bottom line…I believe Jesus wants to bless anyone or any gathering of believers as much as that person or group will allow Him to. With over 10,000 denominations and sects out there, how is Christ preparing a Bride without spot or wrinkle if we don’t seek unity where it can be found?

It seems to me that getting down into high praise and worship is more difficult these days. Is it the songs or am I missing something…a shift of some sort? The other day I counted eight “types” of Christ’s that I worship throughout the year:

1. Baby Jesus – Sung by angels and adored by Shepherds

2. The ministering Jesus – As He walked the dusty roads of Judea.

3. The suffering Jesus – Never sinning…in the garden with great drops of blood

4. The crucified Jesus – Impaled and bloody on the cross, crowned with thorns

5. The risen Jesus – Pure yet still pierced and walking through walls

6. The active-Creator Jesus – Still holding all things together by His Word…and willing our individual heartbeats to continue their cadence in our breasts.

7. The exalted and glorified Jesus – Our High Priest making intercession at the right hand of the Father

8. The Warrior-Christ – mounted on the White horse preparing for the ultimate battle

Who is the Jesus we worship most often? Each church gathering will often focus on a ‘Type” of Christ, with Christmas relating to #1 and Good Friday/Easter focusing on #4 and #5. The sermon topic or series may also change the hymn and song choices.

I’d like to challenge your thinking as a man for a moment with this question: “Why do we almost exclusively focus on the historical Jesus when He is currently (present tense) ruling and reigning on His throne in heaven? How much closer are we in real time to His return than we are to His initial ascension?

Jesus critically probed the legal experts of His time by telling them that “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” (Luke 20:38). I understand that Jesus was not dead for long, but in fact He descended into Satan’s lair crushed his head and seized the keys of death and Hell…ascending into the Father presence. Paul bids us often to glorify this exalted Jesus…where He has been stationed as our Intercessor and Head over all things to the Church since.

However, most leaders I talk with are more convinced than ever that we are in the end times. This signifies to me a necessary intrinsic shift of Christ’s role and real estate in heaven. Imagine with me that life on earth is like the last 5 seconds of the NBA finals. We know that if the game is close, a few commercials, 2 fouls and as many time outs are still going to happen before the ending buzzer, but we are also precariously close to the end.

The same is true with Christ’s immanent return. Could He be moving now from his throne of intercession at our Father’s side (Romans 8:34), laying down his prayer shawl and then donning His white war-robe dipped in the blood of the martyrs? What if Gabriel is even now saddling Christ’s majestic white charger with nostrils flared in anticipation of the battle about to commence as he bears his Creator back to earth to usher in the new age of Christ’s conquest and reign?

Why do we not see our Supreme Battle Lord and King of Kings, readying NOW for his entre again into human earthly affairs and worship Him? We need some new worship songs guys! It’s time to suit-up…looking to the sky and worship our War-Lord…the return of the King is at hand!