I want to make this clear, it is the Gospel that is supposed to be offensive, not us. The Bible clearly tells us of its offensiveness 1 Peter 2:8, Galatians 5:11, and Romans 9:33. But why?

The gospel informs people, amongst other things, the following…

• You are a sinner by nature and choice.  (Romans 3:10-18)
• You are under the wrath of an almighty God. (Romans 1:18 ; Romans 2:5)
• You can’t fix yourself. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
• Your best efforts to do good are more stinky than a pile of poo and filthy menstual rags.
• You cannot know God via any other means or religions outside of Christ, everything else is damnable. (John 14:6)

If you are preaching a gospel that’s not offending, THEN YOU ARE NOT PREACHING THE RIGHT GOSPEL. The results of gospel preaching will always be drastic. It will either result in radical life change for someone else or anger and persecution towards the one who proclaims it.

Now, let’s not forget that the benefits of the gospel are things like salvation, eternity with God, unity with God, deepest satisfaction and joy, personal holiness, freedom from sin, and a life that brings glory to God.

The delusion of many Christians today is that they can tell people about the benefits of the gospel without ever talking about the offensive parts. That’s world-class nonsense, and any attempt to coax people to faith by dangling just the blessings of the Gospel in front of them is just the old “Jesus-will-improve-your-life” lie. He didn’t come to improve your life. He came to save your life. And for you to receive a new one, you must understand that you need to give up your old one. To pretend otherwise is an affront to the gospel. To pretend otherwise while sharing the Gospel is to idly stand by while your friends and loved ones go to hell.

See, we must be offended by the Gospel in the hopes that we’ll be jolted from the sleepiness of satisfaction of our current sinful, broken state. The offense of the Gospel must wake us up to the depravity that exists between us and God. The offensive truth of the Gospel is that we are in such a sinful state as to be offensive to God. The offensive truth of the Gospel is that we are spiritually dead before God and there is absolutely nothing we can do about this ourselves. The offensive truth of the Gospel is that we, by ourselves, are without hope.  The truth of the Gospel is that God sent His Son, Jesus, as a living sacrifice to wash us of our sins. Acceptance of this offensive truth is the only way that we can be made righteous before God. Refusal of this gift leads to hell, where you will be eternally under the wrath of God, forever.

Yes, the Gospel is offensive.

When I Became a Man spoken word video. To challenge and inspire men to put the games away, and be the powerful men of God he’s called us to be. Follow me as I follow Christ.

Add to this their terrible customer service, endless emails and up sales and a laundry list of other complaints, I’m pulling all 23 of my domains from GoDaddy before the start of the new year. I’ve decided after reading a few articles over on Lifehacker to switch to NameCheap.com, who is offering a discount right now using the code “SOPASucks” to get domain name transfers for $6.99.

Besides the fact that SOPA is a terrible bill in congress right now, GoDaddy’s service has been TERRIBLE for the last couple of years now. I’m personally tired of the endless up sales at check out, the poor customer support, and their prices aren’t even cheap anymore.

I’d also recommend you check out this guide from Lifehacker if you are interested in jumping ship. How to Jump Ship from GoDaddy

(Update 2: Gizmodo is reporting that GoDaddy is purposefully delaying the transfer of domains. I started transfers on the 23rd and they still haven’t moved to NameCheap yet.)

If you decide to challenge this big wall you had better come prepared. El Capitan takes on average 4-6 days for the average climbing party to make it to the top all while hauling 100lbs of gear, food and water for each member.

To get up the sheer massive wall of El Capitan you have over 70 established routes to choose from all with varying levels of difficultly. With most greater than a 5-9 / 5-10. (Basically means expreinced climbers only.)

But you will encounter many challenges along the way. It’s very easy to get off route or be under prepared or for a storm to approach and ruin your ascent.

In life we need to always be aware of where we are on the path we’re heading. It’s like a route up a mountain. If we get off course, we need to be willing to stop and reevaluate. And sometimes we need to be willing to quit and go back down to try again another day.

I’ve known a lot of people who will continue along with the wrong course of action just because in their minds “Only losers quit” or “Quitting is admitting failure”. These people will ruin their financial lives and personal relationships all because of a poor notion of failure.

When you’re climbing, and you are off course and a lighting storm rolls in, you don’t say. I’m going to do this no matter what. Nothing can stop me.

That’s exactly how your ass will end up dead or needing to be air lifted out of the park with every bone in your body broken.

If you’ve been heading down a path in life that isn’t getting you to where you want to be, maybe it is time to quit and turn around. Perhaps you’ve simply wondered off course. Or maybe you chose the wrong route to begin with. There is no shame in quitting and starting over.

I’ll share with you my personal and current experiences. As some of my older readers know, at around age 23 I became involved in Amway. It really instilled an entrepreneurial spirit and desire for a better life in me. But along the way I began to realize this was a flawed system and it was not going to take me to where I wanted to be.  In fact, I believed it would take me further from where I wanted to be.

So simply put, I QUIT.

After that I tried a few different businesses, that where not successful, until my most recent business. I got into the business of web development, web design, branding and social media marketing.

This has been successful. But over the past 5 months I’ve really been looking at my business overall and reflecting internally at myself and how I feel about things.

The truth is, I’m successful in this, but not fully satisfied. Looking over the average income potential of a web developer and freelancer in this field, I also don’t think this business is going to help me get to where I want to be with my life financially.

So I’ve started down the mountain. What’s at the top is how I want to live. Getting there requires a new course of action. One which I’ve now found. And oddly enough, it found me, I wasn’t exactly looking for it.

There is nothing wrong with realizing it’s time to quit your current endeavor.

It seems as though there are plenty of articles about quitting your job to pursue something else. But I wanted to share some guidance I’ve learned when it’s time to quit that something else and move on to the next something else.

Life happens and things don’t turn out the way we expect. No where you want to go and choose a new route, or reevaluate what went wrong. Maybe you where simply under prepared. Or maybe you just got off course and all you need to do is climb down a few ledges and proceed again.

If you’re stuck in something like Amyway and are afraid to get out, don’t give into the hype of “Only weak people quit” or “Quitting is for losers”.

That is bunk and complete garbage. Some of the greatest and wealthiest men of our time have known when to throw in the towel.

Stupid people continue along their marry way with something when they know they should quit.

Quitting is sometimes the quickest way to victory btw. Ask anyone whose quit smoking or quit a bad habit.

Just saying.

These are in no particular order:

1. Get 8–9 hours of sleep a night.
2. Lose weight.
3. Get outside.
4. Eat lean.
5. Walk faster.
6. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
7. Take naps.
8. Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
9. Exercise regularly.
10. Stop watching or reading the news.
11. Avoid negative people.
12. Surround yourself with high-energy people.
13. Avoid sugar and white carbs (potatoes, bread, etc.)
14. Say positive things
15. Breathe more deeply.
16. Stop complaining.
17. Clean/Organize your house (dunno about you, but once I get going, I’m motivated)
18. Organize your desk.
19. Write out your goals with actions steps
20. Do 25 jumping jacks.

When you’re feeling slow or in a rut, what do you do to boost your energy level?

Ok, I did see some fat guys, but they where all huffing and puffing at the trail head. Trust me, there are no fat guys in the back country or half way up Mt. Moran in Wyoming!

How I got here

2009 was a great year for me. I got completely debt free and traveled the better half of the country with some great friends. I learned to get outside my comfort zone and experience new things. That year I also got engaged and married to my wife, JorDanee. It was the year I launched my business, MK3Y.  Lastly it was the year in which my healthy lifestyle took a dramatic turn for the worse.

My business involves the internet, and that means sitting on my butt in front of my computer. (I know, a standing desk right? Did that, lasted 4 months before I went back to sitting.)  When you are trying to get any business off the ground it requires a lot of work and plenty of late nights.

To help fuel my creativity and stay focused during all those hours, I relied on my favorite beverage: MOUNTAIN DEW, and when that wasn’t enough, I turned to the brand’s engery product, AMP! I even put a mini-fridge in my office right next to my  desk and then proceeded to load it with soda and beer. Hey, there was some water in there sometimes!

Let me show you what one year of sitting on your butt and drinking tons of soda while eating junk food does to you. On the left you have me at the start of my awesome 2009 road trip with some of my good friends. I’m thin and handsome! Oh yeah! By the time I went on vacation in 2010 to celebrate 1 yr of successful marriage, well… just call me porky. Oink Oink Oink.

My wife has been working hard too. She’s finishing up her Masters in Middle East Politics, Terrorism and Homeland Defense (I married up folks, she’s uber smart). As you can already imagine, being a student and staying up late writing papers into the wee hours of the morning while working part-time hasn’t been good for her health either. Especially when you have a husband who brings home stashes of Red Bull, Mountain Dew and other sugary beverages of goodness!

Not to mention my idea to the end of a romantic evening is always ICE CREAM!

Where I am today

It’s been a year now since I’ve done anything remotely wild or adventurous. I’ve been itching to get out on the road again. With my wife about to finish up that Masters in May,  I decided that we’d take an epic road trip this summer out West, which brings me back to the problem at hand. If we’re going to go on an awesome adventure, we’re going to need to get into better shape. Especially since parts of our trip will involve sleeping on Mt. Moran in the Grand Tetons, backpacking Yellowstone, climbing in Glacier National Park, backpacking in the Grand Canyon and and bicycling Zion National Park. I can tell you, if nothing changes between then and now, I won’t be doing any of those things.

So a week ago, after I announced our trip, my wife challenged me to a bet to see who could lose the most weight by Feb 15th. Neither one of us had a game plan or any action steps.

It was kind of a silly bet, but it got me thinking a lot about my life motto which is to live life intentionally. I am intentionally making myself fat every time I eat crap or drink 4 Mountain Dews in one sitting. It’s time to get intentional about my weight and fitness.

While poking around the internet looking for ideas for weight loss and workouts, I came across Nerd Fitness. In particular one article stood out to me: “The Beginner’s Guide to the Paleo Diet“. Now this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this diet. I first heard about it a few years back, and again last year on Tim Ferris blog after I read his book the Four Hour Work Week.

I hate counting calories! And this seemed like just the type of lifestyle change I was looking for. Something to push me.

So I showed the article to my wife hoping that she would join me in this, and we made the decision to make our fitness a priority in our lives. We sat down and started game planning.

Enter The Paleo Diet

You’re probably thinking, what the hell is the Paleo diet?

Our ancient ancestors where hunter gathers until a few thousand years ago, when humans discovered farming. We changed from hunter-gathers into farmers.  We settled down, built roads and cities and eventually the double quarter pounder with cheese.

( *Note, if you’re a christian just note these interesting tid-bits. Adam and Eve lived in God’s produce isle before being kicked out. Then they had to gather food, and they weren’t allowed to eat meat till much later in the bible. )

The problem is our bodies weren’t designed for all the grains and processed foods we are consuming. Instead of only eating lean meats, vegetables and seasonal fruits, we’ve become a species “dependent” upon grains – bread, pasta, rice, corn, and so on.  The FDA continues to recommend 6-11 servings of grains a day, and the folks are still getting fatter.

Just think about how much food is made from corn based products, or how many things have flour in them.

Ok, so how does the diet work then?

We’ll it’s pretty straight forward, and I’ll explain it briefly. I’m paraphrasing some sources here, and I plan on posting an in-depth article about the diet after my 28 days are over.

Here’s the basic premise of the diet we’re following.

Back in the day we ate what we could hunt or find – meats, fish, nuts, leafy greens, regional veggies, some tubers and roots, occasional berries or seasonal fruits, and seeds.

So that’s what you eat. Plain and simple.

No grains, no dairy, and NO PROCESSED FOODS

Okay, so if we cut out the grains, almost all processed foods, and dairy, you’re left with only things that occur naturally:

• Meat
• Fowl
• Fish
• Eggs
• Vegetables
• Oils
• Fruits
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Tubers

Salmon and asparagus, grilled chicken with steamed broccoli, scrambled eggs and bacon with a few slices of apple in the morning and so on. Pick anything off the list and eat it.

Technically the challenge starts tomorrow, but we started today already. Look what I had for breakfast, 2 scramble organic eggs, two slices of bacon and 1/3 cup of craisins.

YUM! And yes I eat at my desk.

Our Plan of Attack

• We emptied out our refrigerator and our pantry of everything else and went shopping for healthier foods that fall in those categories.
• We also set for ourselves some serious fitness goals for the next 28 days. I purchased a cheapo calendar to put up and labeled each day with a fitness goal to be completed.
• We’ll both be doing some serious cardio and strength training during the next 28 days. I chose to do cardio and strength 6 days a week. My competitive wife chose to do cardio all 28 days and strength training 6 days a week, alternating upper and lower body every day.
• JorDanee and I also signed up to MyFitnessPal.com to keep track of what we are eating and our weight loss progress.
• I wrote this blog, and the world knows my challenge.
• I plan to post publicly our progress at the end of each week.
• I’ll write one final article about the diet, what we did, and how much progress we made at the end of the 28 days.
• And most importantly, I emptied out my fridge of soda.

Your Turn

Have you tried the Paleo diet? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

I’d also like to issue a challenge. Join my wife and I on this 28 day fitness challenge! Just post below to let us know your intentions.

Comment away!

I am writing to the single woman out there.

Men please hear my thoughts and pay close attention.

I was searching youtube tonight looking at marriage proposals online.  I can’t believe how many horrible proposals that I had to sit through to get to a seldom few good ones.  After seeing so many worthless proposals I have come to the conclusion that our fatherless jackass generation has bread a slew of uncreative, pathetic, gimps who think marriage is all about themselves.  And the worst part of it is that all the girls said yes.  What the heck is going on?  Ladies you deserve more!  Way more!

Ladies, getting married is the largest decision of your life!  You will have to look at that guy for 80 years, so make sure you say yes to a guy that loves your heart and who has a larger vision for your lives than watching football this Sunday.

The whole idea of a proposal is this.  A man humbly and vulnerably gets down on one knee and gives the woman all the power in the world.  He asks “will you marry me?”  He empowers her to answer this question:  ”Am I man enough, to provide everything that you need, to love and protect you for the rest of your life?  Will you be willing to come under my authority and be my wife?”  It is her decision whether the union will be made.  She makes the final decision.  A yes means that she wants to join this man in life, to become one flesh with him, to honor and respect him, and to submit to his Godly leadership for the rest of her life.  So many christian woman settle for a really nice guy instead of a truly powerful and courageous man.  This saddens me, and I am sure that it saddens God.

There are three essential things that should be in a marriage proposal! If any of the following three things are not there when your man asks you the Big Question than say “NO”.  I am adamant about these three things for two reasons.  One, you deserve them, and two you don’t want to spend the rest of your life telling the story of your lame proposal by your wuss bag man.  If you do have an inkling that your man could grow a pair, offer you the life that you deserve, and you believe that God wants you to marry him despite his weak proposal you should gently say “no” and then give him another chance at it so you don’t have to be embarrassed every time someone asks you how you were proposed too.  Just send him to this blog about proposing or have him call me and I will set him strait.

All three of these things should be within your standard for saying yes to your man’s proposal:

1.) Intentionality - The proposal must be intentional. I can’t tell you how many proposals that I have heard where the guy put no thought whatsoever into putting together a plan on how he was going to propose.  I have talked with women who didn’t even get a proposal, they just went to the Jewelry store together and picked a ring out.  Don’t be a control freak woman, let your man propose the old fashion way.  If you want to have a legacy behind you then you must pick a man who seeks to live intentionally.  A man should only ever need to propose to one girl in his life so he should have plenty of time to think about how he is going to do it.  It is his responsibility to keep his elaborate plans a secret.  The level of his intentionality will determine his ability to keep you from ever guessing.  It’s one of those things that should be thought through weeks or even months in advance.  Don’t accept a random moment proposal.  You are worth the planning.

I still have the 10,000 square feet of blue tarp. And would love to sell them to another romantic chap.

2.) Captivation – The proposal should be tailored to fit who you are. It should show that he understands you and what captures your heart.  If the mission of his life is pursuing you, then he had better be able to capture your heart.  In other words he shouldn’t be popping the question at his local gun club unless you are Laura Croft and carry big weapons on your hips.  There are lots of different women out there.  Some of you love tea parties, some love restaurants, almost all of you love gardens and sun sets, some love mountains.  Some of you love a broadway show and city lights, while a few of you love to bow hunt, or climb shear granite at night with a head lamp on.  My fiance loves to sky dive.  No really that’s what she loves!  Most of you like romantic places such as secluded waterfalls, while others would prefer being at a Phillies game over having a few bugs in their hair after a hike. Either way  every single one of you deserve an intentional proposal that is tailored to fit who you are.  I recommend finding a man with at a least a little creativity in him however if he doesn’t have any then have the conversation with him about how you would love to be proposed too.  Tell him about the dreams being charmed by prince that you have had since you were ten.  No girl wants to be proposed to in a hotel room or at the local bar.

Every woman longs to know that they are beautiful.  She is always asking the question “am I lovely?” Unfortunately every woman has been told that they are not beautiful from their youth.  A man must pursue into vulnerable places of the heart to rescue a woman’s identity back.  A proposal should climax this battle and be the crescendo of answering her question.  She should know beyond a doubt that her beauty has taken his breath away.  A proposal must speak to this core question in the woman.  She must know that her beauty has inspired his courage, and that his arising strength will be powerful enough for her before she vulnerably opens herself and surrenders unto him.  Every woman is captivating and if you are being proposed to and you don’t feel like you are worth a fight for than you should say “NO”.  If you feel beautiful beyond belief, and feel as though this man will pursue for the rest of your life you should tell him how much of a man he is and say “YES”.

3.) Sacrifice – It should hurt a lot. Not to you of course, it should hurt him.  The sacrifice should be obvious and remarkable to everyone.  There is a growing movement away from proposing to a girl with a diamond ring.  This is unfortunate because way too many guys are getting off the hook.  Every woman deserves a diamond.  If the man can’t afford one than he will have to work hard and save his money.  It’s not about the diamond it’s size or or it’s value, it’s about the level of sacrifice.  The investment.  In other words if a guy asks you to marry him who makes $40,000 a year and drops 4K on a diamond then you should say yes.  However if a guy makes a million in a year and gets down on his knee with the same diamond you should say “NO”.  Women, don’t settle for less sacrifice than you are worth.  Again, ITS NOT ABOUT THE SIZE OR VALUE OF THE RING.  I’m not saying you should get out your loupe and check if your diamond has inclusions or not.  You will know in your heart if your man has sacrificed in the totality of the proposal. A proposal needs to be an act of immense sacrifice.  You don’t want to submit to a man who is not going to sacrifice daily for you. The Bible says that just Like Christ died for the Church so should your husband sacrifice for you.  Good proposals normally cost two to three months worth of income and the same amount of planning.

It doesn't matter the size as long as it's more than he can afford.

These three requirements, (Intentionality, Captivating, Sacrifice) can be used to grade proposals that you hear.  I recommend grading proposals in your head so that you begin to have a feel for what you will need to say yes too.   The more thought that you put into this the less likely you will be saying yes to a wimpy man in a bar with a $150 K-Mart ring.  If you feel like you don’t deserve such a level of sacrifice than say “YES”.  Anything less than that than say “NO”.

Women, God has amazing plans for your life.  And for most of you His plan will include being married for longer than you are single.  Walk closely with Jesus and let Him lead you to the man for you.  Don’t waste your time dating posers but rather enjoy your time walking with Jesus as a single woman and let HIm provide you with everything that you need.  It is important that you find a guy who is in love with God and wants to serve Him with his life.  Look for a man who you can submit too who won’t be like a tyrant over you.  If your man has Christ at the center of his life, everything that I presented will come easy for him.

I would love to hear your stories of good or bad proposals, or your thoughts on all that I have said about proposing.  All and all I hope that my actions and words have raised the bar a bit.

Joe Baker

Joe is also the founder of Live Offensively for God Ministries and likes to challenge students to take a stand for their faith by being missionaries in their schools. He has spent his last three summers criss-crossing the entire country’s Christian music festivals, touring with eight teenagers who he teaches to climb 1,000 foot walls and equips them to change the world.  His controversial t-shirt line has gained quite a bit of attention and has encouraged and emboldened thousands of young modern day activists and evangelists to take a stand for their faith.

In 2008 Joe founded a nation wide pro-life movement called Cup cakes for life!

Joe also recently launched another pro-life campaign called “Save the Storks” that seeks to persuade every abortion minded mother to choose life and to share with them the good news of Jesus.

Please Comment and share!

As a Christian, I don’t feel like I spend enough time with God’s creation, or enough time just appreciating it. When was the last time you looked up at the stars? For that matter, are you able to even see the stars where you live?

The writer of Psalm 19 exclaims, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” And in Psalm 97:6, “The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory.” When we stand outside on a dark and starry night and look up into the heavens, we are able to say, “How glorious is God—how magnificent is He!”

I feel Christians, especially Christian men, need to take time to get back to the wilderness. A quick look in Genesis will reveal that Adam was first created in the Wilderness then placed in the Garden to tend to it. The Wilderness is a part of every man. I have felt most at peace and close to God when I took time to enjoy and be in the creation.

That’s why my wife and I have decided to add more of it to our lives. We’re planning to take an epic cross-country tour of the West and hit up some of the major national parks. I’m also hoping that this time will be used to strengthen our marriage, our abilities to work together and communicate, and our connection with God and each other.

So now that you’ve got a little background on the reason for the trip, here are the details.

Our Destination Plans

• Grove, OK < Visit some family
• Rapid City, SD (Black Hills, Keystone, Mt Rushmore) < attending a friends wedding, doing some exploring
• Devils Tower, WY < Half a day spent here, great climbing though.
• Grand Tetons National Park, WY
• Yellowstone National Park, WY
• Glacier National Park, MT
• Yosemite National Park, CA
• Grand Canyon, AZ
• Colorado Springs < We might be moving here after the trip, so we thought we’d check it out. If you know a good micro-brewery-restaurants here, tell me!

At this time I haven’t determined the amount of time to be spent at each of the major parks. I know we’ll probably do all the touristy stuff at Yellowstone and Yosemite. Maybe try some back country backpacking in the Grand Tetons. I’d like to rent a romantic cabin for two nights in Glacier National park, and maybe do a 2 day hike while in Glacier. I know my wife has her sights set on horseback riding, so that’s something else I’ve got to figure into this plan. Perhaps at the Grand Canyon?

Lot’s of things to see and do on this trip. And I plan on keeping an active blog of all our travels during this trip.

Our time frame is looking to be in June, and we expect to be gone 30-45 days. (And for anyone planning to rob us, you’ll be out of luck as we are planning to move to another state after this trip, and have decided to sell everything, and put the rest in an undisclosed location.)

Naturally, a trip this size requires a lot of planning and preparation.

It does not however require as much money as some think. I know some of you reading this might think that “You can’t do something like this without tons of cash, or until your retire!” But I have a question for you, what mountain are you going to hike at age 70? Seriously? The time to do this stuff is now, while you are young, and if you’re in your 30′s and you haven’t done this, you should be doing it.

… But wait, you say you have children, and traveling or adventuring with them is much more difficult. Well, here is a website for you: http://www.adventureparents.com Clearly these awesome parents figured out how it can be done! Come time for us to have children, we’ll be doing it as well!

I challenge you, if this is on your heart, make it happen in your life. Your life will be greatly enriched.

So here are my tips for adventure travel with low income.

1. The first rule is don’t travel like tourists! No Hotels. No eating every meal at restaurants. No loading up on snacks and soda at every pit stop. This tip alone will save you tons of cash.
2. Camp and couch surf. Sleep at rest stops. Shop for food at WalMart, and use Mennonite Your Way (We’re not mennonites, but these wonderful people are willing to let you sleep on their floor or couch.) There are dozens of alternative ideas instead of spending $80-100 dollars a night.
3. Get a Cash Back Rewards Card, especially for the gas pump!
4. Spend $80 for the National Parks pass and avoid entrance fees, rather than paying $20 per park, $80 gets you into all the national parks.
5. PLAN AHEAD, good planning can save money!

That is what we are doing, and it can be done.

Expect more updates to follow!