Deck of Death

7 PAX showed up this morning.  The Mount welcomed the Ghost Flag back.  It was good to see that even with a little bit of rain, the men of The Mount shrug off the option to fartsack and got better.

The workout went like this.

Warm Up (in cadence)

SSH x13

ATT x12

Humpy’s x12

Little Arm Circles x10 with a hold followed by Reverse Arm Circles x10

Warm up done and we moseyed to the best block pile in the Hickory area.  Each PAX grabbed one block for the “Deck of Death.” The idea was each suit was an exercise and the number or face card represented the reps.

Clubs were Block Curls; Spades were Squats; Hearts were Block Overhead Press; and Diamonds were Trap Pulls.  In order to add some additional exercises, I modified.  Any card drawn 2 – 7 that was a club or spade, the PAX performed Merkins.  Any card drawn 2 – 7 that was a heart or diamond, the PAX performed LBC’s.  All total the PAX completed 27 Merkins, 23 LBC’s (I lost one of the cards – 4 of hearts), and 77 each of Curls, Squats, Block Overhead Press, and Trap Pulls.  Once we made it through the deck we put the blocks up.  We did a Bataan Death March back to the flag.  Just enough time for everyone’s new favorite Ab exercise – Asheville Abs.  Short Sale had the honor of cutting the deck of cards and choosing our reps.  Thanks goodness he drew a 6.  Patti Mayo stepped up and led us in Asheville Abs.

COT and WOD.  WOD was about God’s grace.  Billy Graham was asked about God’s grace and this was his reply.  God’s grace, quite simply, is God’s mercy and goodness toward us. Some have called it “God’s unmerited or undeserved favor”–and that is what it is: God’s mercy and goodness to us, even though we don’t deserve it.

If it weren’t for God’s grace, you and I wouldn’t be able to live for even one more minute. God’s grace sustains us every moment of the day, and without His grace we couldn’t even exist. We think we have control of our lives–but if it weren’t for God’s grace, we wouldn’t even be alive.

Why is this? The reason is because we deserve nothing but judgment and death. We have ignored God and turned our backs on Him and refused to live the way He wants us to–so why should He even bother with us? The Bible warns, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). And yet in spite of our sin and rebellion, God still loves us and sustains us by His grace. Don’t ever take His grace for granted!

But God’s grace is seen in a far greater way in Christ. We deserve to die for our sins–but in His grace, God sent His Son into the world to die in our place. Now in His grace He freely offers us the gift of salvation through faith in Christ. The Bible says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

It was great to lead these guys this morning.