Author: Rich Gorecki

Do you want authentic friendships?

October 22, 2021 No Comments

This week’s weekend wisdom comes from Wire for Men, a twice-weekly devotional to help men to connect with God, to choose God, right in the middle of their busyness. As you will read, Justin Camp, who started Gather Ministries uses the story of David and Jonathan who had a friendship bond that many guys would like and need. I wrote previously about their friendship in my series on GBs in the Bible (that’s GodBuddies for those who are new to my blog). Check out Justin’s devotional below by clicking on the picture below. Brother, Do you long for a friend who’ll stick closer than a brother? Someone who’ll stand with you all the way to the end? When I think of those kinds of friendships, David and Jonathan from the Bible come to mind. Those guys had a bond like few others. They were willing to help each other in their darkest moments. Give

MANual Lessons: Paul’s Letter to the Colossians

October 18, 2021 No Comments

Another of the Apostle Paul’s letters to early churches was one to the people in Colossae. As you read this next post in my year-long journey through The MANual, my NIV Bible for Men, you will find similarities to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, probably because it was written about the same time. However, the book of Colossians does have a different emphasis. About Colossae The Bible does not record Paul ever visiting Colossae (also spelled ‘Colosse’), a city in the western Asia Minor region named Phrygia in modern Turkey. Colossae was about 100 miles from Ephesus along a Roman road that connected other destinations in the province, such as Hierapolis and Laodicea. Colossae’s chief export was unique wool called collossinus that was likely colored purple. It was also blessed with rich mineral deposits. The general area around Colossae was prone to frequent earthquakes. During the latter part of Emperor

MANual Lessons: Paul’s “Joyful” Letter to the Philippians

October 11, 2021 No Comments

The Apostle Paul wrote several letters to churches he visited during his three missionary journeys. My year-long journey through an NIV Bible for Men called The MANual, now brings us to another letter Paul wrote from prison; the letter to the Philippians. As I previously explained in Paul’s Unity Letter to the Ephesians, modern copies of the New Testament generally order Paul’s epistles according to the number of lines of Greek in the original texts. Other scholars posit that Paul’s letters are grouped together to emphasize his imprisonment. Similar to Ephesians, Paul’s letter to the Philippians comes from a prison cell in Rome. While not written during the happiest of circumstances, scholars consider it Paul’s “joy letter” for the Christian life. Joy > Happiness Everyone wants to be happy. We chase this elusive ideal: a life-long pursuit; spending money, collecting material things, and searching for new experiences. But happiness depends on