Category: Basic Training

My next post in this series, New Year; New Types of Friends describes how much time it takes for men to make friends as an adult. I will reference a study about the amount of time needed to make a casual friend and how long it takes to move through the deepening stages of friendship. I also explain some differences between male and female friendships and provide guidelines for how to get started. You can catch up on my earlier posts in this series at these links:  The Philosophy of Friendship about how brotherly love (philia) adds emotional depth to your friendships, which makes it a “friendship for the good.”  The History of Friendship explains that friends served utilitarian, companionship, erotic, and spiritual purposes over time. Knowing these differences helps you determine the value of a small group of deeper, authentic friendships.  The Psychology of Friendship describes why many men

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