The Barbarian Project

Elastic

Every time you push your limits, whenever you do a difficult thing or attempt something risky you stretch yourself. Your Character is developed, your trust in God deepens and your self confidence grows.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about ‘being stretched’ it makes me think of elastic - famous for its ability to return to its original size and shape after being stretched.

We all have stuff we need God’s help to deal with. We all hit difficulties in our relationships, times of pressure at work and disappointment with our failings. When challenges come our way we try to act like elastic. We stretch just enough to deal with the difficulty and then try and return to our original shape as quickly as possible.

But God never designed us to act like elastic. God uses challenges to grow us into bigger, more capable people. Learn to embrace the things that stretch you. Allow yourself to stretch beyond what is comfortable – until the very fabric of your character begins to tear. If you are not afraid to feel the tears caused by stretching, I think that you will make a discovery: you will stop acting like elastic and start responding more like muscle tissue. With each tear you will grow back bigger and stronger than you’ve ever been before, and it will be impossible for you to return to the size and shape that you once were.

Truth

Truth from Freedom Church.

What do women want from their men?

Having been married for 22 years to Chris, one of the Barbarians, I have learnt so much from being married to this man!! I married him when I was 24 and at that time I had really low self worth and esteem. Chris probably spent the first 15 years of our married life unpicking the rubbish that I had accepted about myself and building me to the women I am today, confident and someone who can honestly say that “I like Myself”.

So many women carry around baggage about themselves; their looks, their failings, so many unfair, untrue things. When you get married the Bible says you become one, that’s true of our rubbish and baggage too. Chris was part of God’s solution, God’s plan for me to find fullness and freedom.

So this valentines day what could you give your wife that’s worth so much more than chocolates and last a whole lot longer?

Affirmation …

She needs complimenting, she needs to feel valued and she needs affirming. Its not about her needing to firm her body top to toe but you needing to affirm her top to toe.

Attention …

She also wants attention and to be listened to.

Fun …

Don’t let life get boring, be creative. The occasional bunch of flowers (yes I know in your opinion they are a waste of money because they die in a few days, but she will love them!!).

Leadership …

Your women wants a man with vision. She wants someone who leads, someone who knows where he is going not a hesitator but a decision maker.

Forgiveness …

Your woman wants someone who loves and forgives and loves again.

For the single men

I believe a large majority of the single men in this country today have forgotten how to relate to the female sex. Is this because they are confused about their own identity as a man? Is it because pornography is so accessible and certain parts of the media world see women as sexual objects rather than fellow human beings? Is it because they are not confident about what women want. Well whatever the reason I can assure you if you treat a women with respect, as someone who has something to say and you listen to her, and you look beyond the physical appearance to the beauty within, then you will be on the right path to understanding something of women want.

Love love love

All around are cards, chocolates, presents … you either love it or well don’t. Valentines day! I always thought it wasn’t that big a deal but then I found out that something like over a billion Valentine cards are sent each year. After Christmas it’s the single largest ‘seasonal card sending’ occasion. Check this out. I found out that children between ages 6 to 10 exchange more than 650 million Valentines cards with teachers, classmates and family members, that’s crazy!

Amongst my random google hopping for facts I came across the story of the Taj Mahal. It’s something I’ve heard about before but forgotten. For years I didn’t know that the Taj Mahal was actually a symbol of love. It was built in memory of Emperor Shah Jahan’s dead wife. His love for her was so great that he wanted to build the most beautiful and significant thing to remember her by.

It took 22 years to build and the labour of 20,000 workers. It spreads over 42 acres and is one of the wonders of the world. It’s amazing that one of the most pinnacle pieces of human engineering and design was motivated by love. Not surprising but we miss that the world we live in longs for love, longs to love and be loved. Not by some soppy card which goes in the bin but by commitment, sacrifice, depth and beauty.

The great wall of China, the Colosseum and pyramids all in this group we call ‘the wonders of the world’ attracting the eye and the mind. We’re intrigued by their purpose, what they stand for. All of them are marks of a kingdom, of power or division yet alongside in equal place is a symbol of love.

We know that in truth the greatest symbolic act of love was Jesus. I guess the challenge is what are we building are lives to look like in reflection of his love for us and ours for him. Would we sacrifice land, time, labour, finance, priorities to strive for the best most awe inspiring lives to show the world of our great God. Or does our love for God reflect a miniscule urge in the corner of a room, out of sight out of mind as you carry on with everyday life.

‘What the world needs now is love sweet love’ This valentines day we urge men to love the women in their lives with their all. Spoil her, treat her, make her feel the way she deserves to feel. Yet more than that we’re calling you to love your world with passion, aggression, defiance, determination, commitment and sacrifice. The cross is not a symbol of minimal cost its one of complete cost motivated by love in the purest form.

Live in that love. Live for that love. Live by that love and let your life be the greatest wonder of the world that generations would remember.

New creation, not circumcision

Have you ever seen those guys driving their modified hot-hatches? You know the ones I mean; huge bolt-on spoilers, big fat noisy exhaust systems, massive alloys, re-tuned engine. It looks the part, it sounds the part, it may even be pretty quick, but underneath all those adjustments… underneath, it’s still just a Vauxhall Corsa.

But Ferrari … breath-taking! It’s a thing of beauty, skilfully designed, poised, balanced, and frighteningly powerful. It is completely as it was always designed to be. It isn’t pretending, it has never been anything other than a Ferrari.

How do you view yourself? Just a rusty old hot hatch with a few shiny bits bolted on where God has tried to improve you? When you give your life to Christ, God does not tinker with the old model, He makes you completely new!

Scripture tells us “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5 v 17.) In another verse Paul says this “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.” (Gal 6 v 15)

God doesn’t make minor adjustments that make you appear like you’ve got it together. You are a completely new model. The old has gone, and the new has come! God has set you free to be the thing of beautiful power that he designed you to be. It’s time to see yourself as you really are; that you are capable of things beyond your wildest dreams.

Being married to a barbarian

I am a woman who has the privilege of being married to a Barbarian man. And actually, I think that I’m probably married to the best kind of Barbarian too, one who is constantly looking for opportunities to grow and improve himself.

To be honest, before I got married I wasn’t all that excited about the thought of living with a boy. In my mind they were loud, sweaty, and not always easy to agree with. Then I got married … and found out that all these things are true.

But when I think about it, I realise that I wouldn’t really want anything else.

My husband is loud because he is passionate, consumed by a desire to praise God, and will not allow anything to keep him quiet. He is (occasionally) sweaty because he does not sit back and observe, but gets involved in this life and all the opportunities that come his way. And we don’t always agree on everything. But he challenges me everyday to be more, to be better, to be all that I was created to be.

My man is strong, secure, and motivated by an undiluted love for God. Which means that our marriage is strong, secure, and has God at the centre. And it is such an exciting, fulfilling, refreshing way to live. His strength means that I am supported, his security means that I am released, and his love for God equips him to lead our home.

When you live with a man like that, you can’t help but grow closer to God.

So my advice to all men out there is to take up the Barbarian call, no hesitations – and women, if you’re going to be married, make sure you’re married to a Barbarian.

Wake up

So when you’re fasto what’s your worst trait? Is it uncontrollable gas? Maybe your snore like an elephant keeping your loved ones and the neighbours awake?! Perhaps you do what I do and‘accidentally’ steal the blanket … Did you know on average you swallow around 8 spiders every year, maybe the source of your bad breath? Did you know your wife actually snores louder than you,, she just waits for you to drop off then she can blame you. The longest someone went without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes … crazy.

Random.

Anyway sleep is not just for lazy one’s of us, we all need it to rest and to recover. Sleep depravation can have some shocking effects even mental illness and hallucinations. God talks about resting, taking time out, he even told us to put a day aside for it. However there’s another realm that God talks about sleep. He says that some of us are sleeping. Zonked. Out of it.

Whatever do when your catch your ZZZs you’re certainly not doing anything other than sleeping. You’re not achieving anything apart from a few bodily functions. If you think about this in a, and I hesitate to use this word, but a‘spiritual’ sense is your life and your walk with God worth nothing more than some worthless maybe even offensive bodily functions. Are you only good for what everyone else does because you’ve gone to bed, put to sleep the passion and dreams of your youth.

Eph 5 is an incredible verse, one I think for the church, especially the UK church. Wake up oh sleep and rise from the dead’. Christian men everywhere are asleep, snoring away unaware of their circumstance. You see when we’re asleep we’re vulnerable, we’re inactive, we’re incomplete. God will show us how to rest, look after us but he never desired for us to live a life of lethargy. So I challenge you to WAKE UP.

Wake up to the world around you, it’s groans and pains. Wake up to the needs of your family you miss so easily as their drowned out by the noise of the TV or worries from work. Wake up to what Jesus did for you and start living a life that showed like you might really believe in it. Wake up to the power and purpose that lies within you, awaken your heart.

This may only be a prayer, a desperate cry of a desperate heart, but it’s a cry that’s always heard. You see as we wake‘wake up oh sleeper and rise from the dead and Christ will shine upon you’ Jesus responds. Whatever your hearts desire, whatever that tug you feel in that place you’ve always struggled if you would just face goliath maybe God would deliver you. Don’t put on your armour of pride, retreat to your palace of comfort and feast on apathy because it’ll always leave you hungry.

Blindfolds

Matchstick moments

On March 30th 1926, on a rural Swedish farm, Ingvar Kamprad was born. Around the age of 11, he started to sell matches from the basket that hung from his bicycle handlebars. An unconventional pastime for an 11 year old but one Ingvar found successful. He would buy bulk boxes from the nearby city of Stockholm and then sell them individually. As the matchstick business flourished, he branched out, selling seeds, pens and Christmas decorations.

On March 11th 2009, Forbes Magazine published its annual list of The World’s Richest People. Ingvar Kamprad, as founder of flat-pack giant IKEA, sits at No 5 with a net worth of $22 billion. He started the business when he was just 17.

What began with matchsticks now makes him millions. A decision, a venture that transformed the young Swede’s life.

This Barbarian Project is a matchstick. Why should you spend time on this website, commit to a lifestyle change, give your life to a Code? There are a hundreds of other demands on your time and energy that appear much more significant.

Because matchsticks can not only make millions. They also start fires. They are catalysts for the passionate element that consumes, transforms and is impossible to tame.

So, here comes the inevitable question. What are your matchsticks? What unique fire have you been called to bring, what does your divine spark look like when it is allowed to truly burn?

Barbarians are Men of Passion.

Barbarians are Men of Fire.

Blog?

Such a funny concept you know this‘blog’ thing, but a great one at the same time. You know a place where an average Jo can be become an internet hero. It’s usually either for outrageous statements, hilarious quips or maybe even the quality of what they’re saying. No matter why or how, this whole blog phenomena is incredible.

We’ve set one up with a really specific vision. We don’t want it to point back at us, as if we are some perfect individuals, rather we want it to point you to Him. This blog is so that you can realise there are normal, average,‘nothing special about me’ blokes living incredible, dynamic and powerful lives. Jesus didn’t die on the cross for some life of compromise or for half measure he died to give us life and life in ALL it’s fullness, if only we’d realise what true fullness meant. It doesn’t mean religiousness or ritual. It doesn’t mean tradition for the sake of another. It doesn’t mean‘when you feel like it’ or when you’ve been nagged to breaking point. It doesn’t mean‘easy’ or‘given on a plate’.

Grace is free but the life it requires of us in light of a true understanding of it will cost you everything. Fullness is found in commitment, sacrifice, obedience, aggression, passion, determination, thoughtfulness, patience and self control. This blog is here to inspire you in any one of these areas. We hope the words of us average guys might be a lifeline to you as they once were to us.