You’re Invited!

“When Abram heard that his relative [Lot] had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan.” (Genesis 14:14 NIV)

This story is always intriguing in that I ask, where did these men come from, and what constitutes ‘trained’? In Genesis 14 we are hardly into the narrative of Scripture but from Adam’s time it appears that hundreds, if not thousands of years have gone by. Ur of the Chaldees (the Chaldeans, later known as the Babylonians) is no small city of the then civilized world and Abraham, (or Abram as he was known then before he heads off to Canaan) was a native of ancient Chaldean society.

So what did guys do way back then before there was football, and no hunting and fishing regulations to get in the way of some decent elk jerky or smoked trout? From the verse above, it appears some of what they did was they trained one another to defend what was theirs, primarily; and to attack, when the need arose.

This verse (and the account in which we find it) made me think differently of Abraham. I used to see him as this lone ranger sort but from what I read, he was anything but – pick on Abram’s kin, and you gots to take on the whole fam damily…

What about you, o man of faith – whatchu got goin’ on these days… another football game, another distraction? What about training? What about the men or boys in your family, or in your church? Anything happening there?

I’ve always dreamed of being a part of Team Three Eighteen. I’m not sure how many men the 318 took on when Abe decided to go after their attackers, but I know it was way more than three hundred-eighteen and from what I read, Abraham's 318 kicked butt.

This is your invitation to become a part of Three Eighteen, the blog; and think about where God has placed you these days and consider what He may be trying to teach you or train you. The only way believin' guys are gonna survive as men is if we submit to the training of God and find our place in the army of God when the going gets rough and tough. I hope we can initially catch up with 318 guys but ultimately begin Three Eighteen groups in our homes, or in our churches and certainly in our communities.

To begin, there’ll be a regular posted thought for you to think about and along the way you might hear from another person or two or three (male and female) and we might ask you sometime to give us some of your input and insight. Bottom line, the battle is raging and we can either take ground or give it – the choice is ours. Stay tuned in…let’s hang together and fight for all that’s right.