Men: fight your way back to Eden!
The Good King is a brotherhood of men who are committed to embodying the love of Jesus in the world, to walk in truth, and to live in union with God.
At the time of this writing there are 30 men in The Good King. If this blog post resonates with you, join us here.
Our community is hosted on a platform called Skool, where we have a discussion forum, online classroom, and a shared calendar for our group events.
In the classroom I host “The Way of The Good King”, a total of 7 courses that I’ve developed to help men discover their true identity and reconnect with their faith in a vibrant and powerful way. The course is a year long journey of masculine initiation in Christ, moving through the six steps of masculine maturity: sonship, being an apprentice, becoming a warrior, a lover, and sage, and maturing into the king.
The course materials lead men to walk out the love of Christ in a way that transforms their hearts, their families, and their marriages as they practice embodying the way of Jesus and unite themselves to the Father in Christ.
We participate in quests (challenges) to hone our skills in areas like financial leadership, intimacy in marriage, fitness, and leadership at work and more.
We aim to take radical responsibility for every part of our life and to transform our lives through the power of God’s Spirit living in us.
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One of the core teachings in the Foundations course is learning how to recognize the subconscious patterns that shape our lives. Thought patterns, mindsets, habits, beliefs, daily habits that shape the quality of our relationships and our experience of life at the deepest level.
We evaluate these patterns in the light of love - “does this lead to flourishing in my life?” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
We seek the “life abundant” that Jesus promised his followers. (John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.)
We desire to be apprenticed to Jesus in every part of our life, seeking first the Kingdom of God. (Matthew 6:33)
In doing so, we make contact with reality in a way that heals our mental, physical, and spiritual health. Jesus said in John 8:31-32 that if we follow his teachings we would experience reality in a way that liberates us. (John 8:31-32 – "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.")
There is much about modern masculinity that falls short of the glory of God, and we are seeking to live in such a way that God’s glory shines out from us in an undeniable way. (2 Corinthians 3:18 – "And we all… are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.")
I love to see this happening to the men in our group.
On our weekly group calls, men share what they’re learning in the practical day-to-day living out of sacrificial love. They’re seeing evidence that there is something remarkable - truly glorious - that happens when they surrender their will to the higher will of God and embody His loving consciousness in their marriage, family, workplace, and community. (John 15:13)
In short, we are seeing the kingdom of God on Earth as Jesus taught us to pray. (Matthew 6:10 – "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.")
As heaven and earth come together in Jesus, heaven and earth come together in each of us who live in union with the Father through the Spirit of his son Jesus.
We are joined together with him in the Spirit to transform the modern hellscape of fear, shame, lack, and meaningless-ness into the reality of the kingdom of Heaven on earth. (Colossians 1:19-20 – "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things… by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.")
We are ministers of reconciliation, putting our lives and everything in it in proper relationship to each other and to that which is highest: God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19 – "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.")
We no longer consent to being shaped by that which is profane and worthless. (Romans 12:2 – "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.")
We don’t waste our attention and our life force on the pathetic, the puerile, and the pitiful, but we recruit it and harness it in the restoration of all that is good and true. (Philippians 4:8 – "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable… think about such things.")
We don’t seek an earthly king to save us, we don’t long for the leeks and onions of our slavery in Egypt, and we don’t blame anyone or complain about the challenges we face.
We have no king but Christ.
We do not fear death, because we experience the reality of God and we know in our bones that our first breath in the next life will be an even greater revelation of the love that we know now. (1 Corinthians 13:12 – "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.")
We are increasingly filled with power and full of glory, the glory of the One that does not fade away.
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Men: leave behind the things that lead to your death. (Romans 6:23)
Leave behind shame and condemnation. (Romans 8:1)
Step into the truth of who God made you to be. (Ephesians 2:10 – "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.")
Stop playing small. (Matthew 5:14-16 – "You are the light of the world… let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.")
You were made for nothing less than ecstatic union with God, ruling and reigning in love with Him. (Revelation 3:21 – "To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.")
The curse of sin is broken in Jesus. (Galatians 3:13 – "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.")
You are no longer cut off from Eden. (Revelation 22:2 – "On each side of the river stood the tree of life… and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.")
The flaming swords that barred you from the Garden of Paradise that God made you for - those flaming swords are destroyed through Christ. (Genesis 3:24 – "He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life"; Hebrews 10:19-20 – "We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.")
This image generated by Dall-E. (I will always call out any AI generated content that I share here). I couldn’t find any stock photography that really worked here, lol.)
Men: this is the adventure of your life! (1 Timothy 6:12 – "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.")
Wake up and see that you are in a love story, in the midst of a great battlefield. (Ephesians 6:12 – "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.")
You find yourself in a foxhole far to the East of Eden. (Genesis 3:24 – "He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.")
Mortars are exploding all around you. Enemy snipers are waiting to pick you off. (1 Peter 5:8)
The enemy wants to destroy YOU because YOU are an image of God, you are the light of the world. (Genesis 1:27; Matthew 5:14)
The enemy knows that if you find your way back to the Tree of Life in the Garden (which is union with God), then he has lost you forever. (Revelation 2:7 – "To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.")
One of the most beautiful parts of the Biblical story for me is that from Genesis to Revelation, the garden is transformed into a city: the City of God. (Revelation 21:2 – "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.")
Our older brother Jesus has already stormed the gates of hell that stand between you and Eden, and has broken their assault. (Romans 8:29; Matthew 16:18)
The enemy is already defeated. (Colossians 2:15 – "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.")
Get up, get with the brothers by your side, and fight your way back to Eden! (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Eat generously of the tree of Life! (Revelation 22:14 – "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.")
Use your gifts, talents, strength and skills to participate with God in His building of the City of God. (1 Corinthians 12:7)
There is much to do! (John 9:4)
Put on your armor, pick up your weapon, link up with the brothers, and let’s freaking go! (Ephesians 6:13-17)
To FREEEEDOMMMM! (Galatians 5:1)
