Rockies from WikiTravel

I am officially fixated on “The Trip”. “What trip?” you ask. Well, each summer, for the past 30+ years, I have taken a backpacking trip into the beautiful Colorado Rockies. You could say that those mountains and the trips that I have taken into them each year have become part of me. In fact, a pretty big part. They have even become part of what has defined me as a man, the fabric of my masculinity. It is in those mountains that I almost lost my life at 12 years of age. It is in those mountains that I heard God call me into the ministry. It is in those mountains that I have spent some of the best times of my life, with my favorite people. It is tough to describe unless it has happened to you, but I actually feel a pulling inside of me to do this. A yearning, or an appointment with destiny that is inherent. As I get older, the trip gets more and more difficult for my aging body. Anyone who has backpacked knows that it is physically very taxing and there is probably a reason that mountain men didn’t live to be too old. But, in spite of the pains and difficulties associated with my pilgrimage, I return year after year. You could almost say that it is my yearly reckoning with both the unsafe and the beautiful. The altitude, animals that could eat you, lightning and harsh elements make it unsafe; but the starkness of color, the sounds and the artistic brilliance of the coordination of sound and color that one finds in the Rockies, scream of incomparable beauty. So incomparable that there is an allure about it that has fostered in me an addiction. I can hear God there. I can hear myself think there. Maybe it’s because 11,000 feet is closer to Heaven. No, I don’t really believe that it’s because of the altitude that it’s closer to Heaven, but I do believe that it is. Well, I have to go and teach some college students, so I will have to explain to you next time why, when I am on The Trip that I am closer to Heaven. Blessings to you and have a great day.

Jeff Voth, caveman

War Room by
Evan Dawson

I want to attend to some business that is long overdue and that is to point you towards a resource that stands in a class of its own, the book War Room. War Room, by Evan Dawson and the team at Third Option Men is simply one of the most down to earth and useful tools for both individuals and groups of men that I have come across is my 28 years of full-time ministry. There are many tools that focus upon either the individual, or the group. War Room is applicable to both and that is why I like it so much. In fact, there are really 3 reasons that I like War Room and they are as follows. They also happen to be the titles of the 3 books contained in War Room (yes, it’s 3 books in one!!!):

#1- War Room will help a man Prepare: Book 1- Prepare is written to help the individual be ready for the battle in which he will engage as a man in today’s culture. Evan Dawson uses military metaphors like being in a fox-hole, getting locked and loaded and boot-camp, in an effort to attract men and relate to the battle in which they all find themselves. There are all kinds of practical ideas in Book 1, my personal favorite is what Evan calls “doing hard things”. He calls and equips men to be prepared to do the difficult things associated with being a man. We all need this kind of help, don’t we? War Room is a great help here.

#2- War Room will help a man Engage: Book 2- Book 2 is a 52 week devotional that is designed to help a man walk out that for which he has been prepared. The beauty of this book? It is packed with short, scripture based and edgy devotional thoughts that will be applicable to every man. These weekly lessons are powerful and have been helpful to me personally as well as the men with whom I do life. We have used War Room and the follow up Engage Manual in our weekly Cavetime as we practice Stone #4. My personal favorite weekly devotion is one entitled “Strength of Hate”. This short, but powerful word, challenges men to hate those things in their life’s that aren’t leading them towards Christlikeness. This study hit me between the eyes.

#3- War Room will help a man do Reconnaissance: Book 3- Book 3 is a manual geared towards helping an individual, or maybe a pastor, who wants to start a grass-roots atypical men’s ministry. Evan and the Third Option Team are quick to point out that they are not proponents of the old way of building a men’s program. They are about real, raw and relational. The kind of stuff that happens in fox-holes. The beauty of book 3 is that it provides simple steps to pursue and build long-lasting relational men’s movements in a church, community, or a home. My favorite suggestion provided in Book 3 is entitled “Top 6 Ways to Rock a Men’s Group”. This is a section devoted to 6 ways for a guy or group of guys to get something started that will impact their world. My favorite “Way” is #5 and it is entitled “Give a Damn!!!”.What a great admonition. And the explanation of how to give a damn does not disappoint.

I want to strongly encourage you to go to www.thirdoptionmen.org, check out all of the great stuff on the site and then go to their resource page and purchase several copies of this great resource. Like I said, it will go as a powerful compliment to your daily Cavetime.

Jeff Voth, caveman

Close-Assault from Farrowpulicelaw

Men in our culture are under assault. There are enemies all around, and attacks can come at any moment, from any direction. Defining the war and identifying our faceless enemies are the first steps to mounting a counter-offensive. Our understanding of manhood has been purposely distorted because we have allowed all of the wrong people to define us. We often don’t know who we are, or how we are supposed to behave. If we don‖t provide the answers, modern society will do it for us. It is time for Christian men to carry the Banner of Manhood, take back the territory we have unwittingly conceded, and secure the Biblical model of the mas-culine gender for our generation.

Sometimes the assault seems difficult to grasp, like the way men are portrayed in the media. Dr. James Macnamara, (Australian professor of public communication) in his paper Men in Media, says this:

“… research reported in this paper shows that mass media are engaged in an active campaign of manufacturing con-tempt for men and traditional male identities in modern societies through representations that they portray … Highly negative views of men and male identity provide little by way of positive role models for boys to find out what it means to be a man and gives boys little basis for self-esteem … In the current environment where there is an identified lack of positive male role models in the physical world through absentee fathers in many families, and a shortage of male teachers, the lack of positive role models in the media and presence of overwhelmingly negative im-ages should be of concern … Ultimately such portrayals could lead to negative social and even financial costs for society in areas such as male health, rising suicide rates and family disintegration. The idealized image of the metrosex-ual (the softened and effeminate male)—largely a creation of the media—only further adds to the confusion being felt particularly by boys trying to find their identity in the mod-ern world.’

Not only are the mass media actively assaulting men, but there is a severe lack of male role models in families, schools, and the lives of many children. Confused boys and girls mean confused men and women. Society is largely missing positive male images. I have tried for days to refute my thesis here and I simply cannot. While you may be able to think of one or two positive male images, they are certainly few and far between. Please prove me wrong!!!

Show Up
by Jeff Voth

Show up, make it,
gotta get there, can’t fake it.

The Cave’s callin’,
a whisper in the dawn,
it’s morning,
I yawn.

Can’t get up,
more sleep.
Start to fall, gotta sleep,
hear the call, to be a Wall.

To be a wall, for my people,
They need cover, I gotta make it,
to be a wall, I can’t just fake it.

Gotta get there and pray,
show up and stay,
get some stones,
be a wall in my home.

Let’s be Renaissance men and write some God inspired poems and Psalms. Be a wall today my brothers. See you next time, in the cave.

Jeff Voth, caveman

Jonathan Warns by Eikonik

I am in the process of finishing my book Cavetime: The Escape and I just wrote a section of a chapter dealing with the assault that the enemy waged against David and his friendship with Jonathan, King Saul’s son. This relationship has been hijacked in the last several years by some who would try and make it sexually perverted, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, our friend David had some  issues, but they weren’t with same sex attraction, that fact has been well chronicled, and the chronicle’s name was Bathsheba. When people don’t understand something and have not experienced it themselves, they try and explain it away or pervert it and this is what some have tried to do with Jonathan and David. The truth of the matter is, that theirs was the deepest type of masculine bond, the type that places the will and plan of God at its core and focus. I want to give you a brief excerpt from the book about this relationship between these two and I pray that you find this with a group of brothers yourself:

Assaulted Friendship

” The place he escaped to was where his best friend Jonathan (Saul’s son) lived, and together they worked out a plan to see whether or not it might be safe for David to come to dinner again. Maybe it could all be better again and maybe Samuel had gotten through to Saul and rid him of his demons. Maybe this was all a bad dream. He also probably missed his young wife…

12 Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the LORD, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13 But if my father intends to harm you, may the LORD deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace.  (1 Samuel 20:12-13)

However, Saul, being a vexed and paranoid monarch, was still as insanely angry and jealous as ever, lashing out violently at his own faithful son in accusatory fashion. Jonathan therefore angrily stormed away from the dinner table, signaled to his friend David that his life was still in danger and that he should run for the hills.

34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David…42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town. (1 Samuel 20:34 & 42)

Our twice fallen rock star was now falling again as the relationship between he and the person on this earth with whom he was closest was now under assault as well. He officially had no humans on the planet to help him and offer security. What lesson can be learned from this assault? One of the most powerful lessons that I see here is that the enemy fears healthy and deep relationships between bands of brothers, intent on serving God together. Jonathan and David were desirous of God’s purposes being done through them and their family and they were willing to risk their lives for it. These guys were walls to their people and to each other and were living out Role #3 in powerful fashion. They understood the force of community and especially healthy masculine community. They were willing to lay down their lives for each other and elevate the other to the status of king.

In fact, Jonathan showed the depth of his commitment to God’s will being done in their lives by giving David his robe and his weapons. As the king’s son, the throne would have been his and David should have been giving these things to him, I am sure that Jonathan had heard of the ceremony that occurred years ago as Samuel had anointed his friend. Men who will be walls individually are powerful, but when the synergy of two or three brothers is in effect, kingdoms can be set in motion and that is what happened between these brothers. There was man’s plan and then there was God’s plan and the community found between these two men helped to usher in God’s plan.

The words that describe their commitment in these texts speaks of a depth of brotherhood that most men never experience and the devil fears and fights with all his might. The devil hates men operating in Role #3 and fears these types of masculine relationships because of what is described as these two men being “one in spirit”. What an amazing kinship.

Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt. (1 Samuel 18:1b-4)

Their oneness is described later in the text in these terms…

16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD call David’s enemies to account.” 17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself. (1 Samuel 20:16-17)

The reason that this “oneness” is so fear inspiring to the enemy, is because God is one. The Godhead is made up of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and when men are one in spirit they are unstoppable. They become like the Spartan Phalanx and are impenetrable, moving and striking as one unit. The day that he left would be the last time that he would see his friend and several years later, upon hearing of Jonathan’s death, the rock star would write and sing one of the saddest laments on record for his troops and all who would hear it. The last line describes the power of Role #3 and the depths to which healthy masculine community can reach…

26 I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women. (2 Samuel 1:26)

So, when David left his kindred spirit Jonathan, he was truly alone and devoid of all human security, friendship and help…and God was still with him.”

I pray that this encouraged you today and I am so excited about this book and the Cavetime movement. Please pray for us as we release the first 3 songs on the Cavetime CD on 1/17 as well as a video teaser on Youtube and FB. Now, go out and do something responsible today, like sit at Bass Pro and watch them feed the fish. Until next time,

See you in the cave,

Jeff Voth, caveman