#713 The Claymore Battle Plan Introduction! Getting To The Heart of Things

The world is loud, confusing, and relentless and it is shaping men into spectators. We refuse that. We start with a sharper claim: the battle isn’t mainly political, personal, or psychological. It’s spiritual. Drawing from Ephesians 6, we talk about what it means to fight “not against flesh and blood,” and why misidentifying the enemy wrecks marriages, families, and your interior life.

This is the Introductory Episode from the Claymore Battle Plan Handbook! Join us in this year-long journey!

St Catherine of Siena said that if you “Become Who You Are" that you would set the world on fire!

St Athanasius an early Church Father and Doctor of the Church said that the Son of God became man so that we might become like God!

I’d take a wild guess but most of us are just a bit “disconnected” from the Divine life that these saints are pointing us too. 

Yet St JPll said that there is an “echo” of this story, this divine life that we are created for inscribed in each human heart and if we put on the proper lens we can get in touch with this ECHO within us in such a way  we have that aha moment! 

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Transcript

Opening Prayer And Wake-Up Call

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. I don't know if you've been following, but I hope you have. Nick Shirley. Nick Shirley is this courageous young guy. He's amazing. Twenty-four years old, doing what no one else has done, exposing this incredible corruption in Minnesota, nine billion dollars worth of it there. Now he's off to California and other places. And there's other courageous men and women of all ages, like Dr. Peter McCullough, who helped expose the COVID fraud, Robert Kennedy Jr. now fighting for our physical health. They're standing up for you, fighting corruption, lies, evil, and forces are pushing against them, but they have the courage to stand up anyway. And they need all of us, all of you to wake up and join them. Follow my post on X if you're not following that kind of stuff. I don't do a ton of posting there, but I put those in because and I like to allude to them and refer to them. I'll bring up one uh short video clip today. And St. Paul says in Ephesians 6, and this is so important to get a hold uh uh a handle on, the forces against you. This is a spiritual battle. In Ephesians 6, St. Paul writes this we are not contending against flesh and blood, against just men and women out there, right? We are contending against spiritual powers, the world rulers of this present darkness against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. He's just saying, hey, when you look out into the world, you see uh people doing evil, etc. But there's a there's a there's an evil force that's behind them. This took me a long time to understand. You know, I growing up and just like you are now, I uh I saw so much sin, so much corruption. It's and it's only accelerated and gotten worse. Almost all the evil in the world is committed by human beings who cooperate with Satan and the demonic, with the powers, principalities of the world. This is so important to know in all aspects of your life, especially in relationships. One of the most important things I ever learned, for example, is that my marriage, when it started to seem like it was unraveling many, many years ago when my children were small, and evil had me and my wife just where it wanted us. It was almost like a force that we couldn't do anything about. Just more fighting, fighting, fighting, and finally you say we're gotta separate. And then I learned something so important. I learned that my wife was not the enemy. The enemy, Satan, demonic, is the enemy. You see, almost all the evil again in the world is manifested even in our relationships through things we say and do when we cooperate with evil. How many divorces, how much family dysfunction that maybe you grew up with and experienced happens because people don't understand this. It wasn't until I began each day on my knees in prayer that my life began to turn around. And I learned that Jesus didn't come to manage my sins, but with power, the power of mercy and love. And it's the only power in the universe, the only power in the universe that has defeated sin and death and could give that power, that mercy and love to you. This is why step one in the Claymore battle plan is to get your heart back and begin each day on your knees before you look at the phone. Always begin today that practice, that Claymore 10-minute morning ritual. You can get that, you could just download that, right? From the this is on our website. It'll be in the in the uh show notes. Download that website. And this is a six-page overview. This gives you the structure. And of course, the Claymore Battle Plan Handbook gives you the content to fill in that structure. And on the podcast, we just share these ideas and stay in communication with you. So, step one, get your heart back. Knees before the phone, always begin practicing that 10-minute morning ritual you'll find in the outline. Number two, to understand the large story. Read and meditate on one act, fifty-two acts in here, one for each week of the year from the Claymore Battle Plan Handbook and discuss that with a friend. See, speaking of that larger story, let me ask you this, just to put this in context for you. Did any of you create the universe? You know, put the stars up in the sky, separate the land from the sea? Any of you author the meaning and purpose into all the things that we see and don't see really in this larger story? So there was a moment in time in human history at a particular place in the cosmos that you were literally exploded into life and took your place upon the stage we call life, and that you are an eternal being. And as a man, there are three core things that you're going to find when you set about to discover exactly what this world is all about and who you are within it. That life is an adventure, that life is a battle, and it has to do with beauty, especially the beauty of love. As you set about your adventure of discovery, meaning and purpose, you'll find that nature, so important to get out of nature. It's going to provide clues. The beauty of nature, small beauty, always leads you to big beauty, the author, the creator himself. Books help you to do that. You don't the way you grew up and your families help you to do that. But some things are held within your heart already. For instance, the desire for love, for happiness, fulfillment, that's within us. This is not just more information. This story flows within us. That's why it's so important to get connected to it. And you will learn some things because they have been or will be revealed to you through people that you meet and to God Himself, the book of Revelation. If you pay attention, you're going to discover you were not born into a neutral zone the day you exploded on the stage, but you're in a battle. It's between two opposing forces. Both seek you out. Both want your heart, one to destroy it and want to save it. The Claymore Militus Christi, so that means soldiers for Christ in Latin, is here to not only share your adventure with you, but and to join you on the battlefields, but to help you understand that battle, you know, between good and evil, love and lust, truth and lies, and fight for beauty, especially the beauty of love, against the forces that would profane it. In that battle, and this is where our name, uh the Claymore Become Who You Are podcast came from, you have the saints and the mystics that you meet. It's amazing. Saint Catherine of Siena, this incredibly uh uh this incredible mystic on with the stigmata, beautiful sister of mine who I've gotten to know and has been a good support to me personally through these years, it's amazing. She wrote that if you become who you are and understood who you are, and you become who you are, that you would literally set the world on fire. Saint Athanasis, who was an early church father and a doctor of the church, said the Son of God became man so that we might become my God, right? Jesus comes down to restore what we had from the beginning. You're going to learn all that on this journey. You know, I take a wild guess at this, but most of the world, most of what we see out there are a bit disconnected from this divine life that these saints are pointing us to. Yet Saint John Paul II said that there's an echo of the story, this divine life that we're created for, inscribed in each human heart. And if we put on the proper lens, if we can get in touch with this echo within us in such a way, we have this aha moment. This is the genius of John Paul II's life and work and teaching, communicated to his theology, the body, and other ways, but he's bringing this revealed truth down to us. This shows us what? That this is not about more information. This is what we're doing today, what we're doing on this podcast with Claymore, it's just not more information. This is an actual journey, and it's a journey that's that's in us already, in our DNA. It's the way we're created. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, Jesus said. Another way to say this is that the deepest burning, yearning desires of our heart to love and to be loved and to know the truth combined with our live experience of life up until this point. And then those things, your heart, your lived experience of life, come into contact with the gospel, the good news in such a way you have that aha moment. That moment when your life takes on a whole new meaning and helps you answer those big questions that our whole culture is so confused about today. Who am I? What's my identity? What's the meaning and purpose of my life? Why were we created male and female? What's our beauty of our sexuality all about? How do I find happiness, fulfillment, peace here on earth, and love that satisfies forever? So buckle up. Today I'm gonna begin this journey here with it, and this is the introductory episode to the Claymore Battle Plan Handbook. We're gonna go through 52 acts, one act every week. Hopefully, I get them up every Friday. If I'm traveling, etc., etc. Hopefully I'll have time during the week to record it and get it up on Friday. I want you to remember to do something. I have an info uh email, info at jp2renew.org. It's in the show notes. That I get that email. And uh email your questions, your concern, you know, and I'll and I'll read them. You know, some sometimes I'll I'll uh I'll do a live one, but a lot of times I'm working on different projects and record them, but I want to uh interact always. Uh and uh and so email me questions, comments, things good, bad, and different in your life, what's going on, and how that this Claymore Battle Plan Handbook and uh this journey we're on together has affected you, affected people in your life. Okay, I want to go to a clip of Jared Hudson. Jared Hudson is a former former Navy SEAL, a man's man who clearly knows the battlefield of war as a military campaign with the Navy SEALs, and he understands that war that we're talking about fought on the battlefield of a man's heart. He's running for Senate uh uh in the state of Alabama. And in this clip, he fearlessly states the obvious. What's the obvious? Pay attention to this and uh and think about that.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

The most important thing about Jared Hudson is that I'm a born-again believer in the person of Jesus Christ. The one thing that we have to do when we're uh talking in political season, you know, in Alabama is explain what that means because everybody's a Christian during political season in Alabama, right? Uh Jesus is my Lord and Savior. I believe he's God incarnate, he came to this world, he lived a perfect life, died, rose again on the third day for my sins and yours and through him, we're set free. And if anybody that's listening to this believes the same that I believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior, they're called to share him unashamedly with the world around him because our world needs Jesus desperately. Uh you're called to share him unashamedly with the world around you, no matter what your platform is, politics, business, family, share him. If you don't believe what I believe, ask God to reveal himself to you, it will be in the person of Jesus Christ. And that's the most important thing about Jared Hudson because it's the only thing about Jared Hudson that's eternal. I can go out here and die this evening, and everything else in my life is gone. But who I am in the person of Jesus Christ remains. And so that's why we start off with that is the most important thing about me.

Not A Podcast A Campaign

The Age Of Confusion And Collapse

The Three-Step Claymore Battle Plan

Brotherhood Mission And Ripple Effect

Start Act One And Get Equipped

Final Charge Take Heart

SPEAKER_01 12:03

That's a man's man. That's a man's man. Um what's the obvious thing that he said there? That we're eternal beings. This life is but a a clip of a video, and it has eternal consequences. I mean, if you really look at your life, you just barely touch down here and boom, you're off. So in the opener to the to the Claymore battle plan, we hear, and it's right here, again, this the outline, the battle plan outline. You can download again, you know, just go to our website, boom, hit it. You can read it right there. But in the right on the front of it, right on the front of here, here's John Paul II telling you, hey, you're you're coming into the story, bridge the gap. He said here, he and he's talking to young people, pay attention. Your life is not an endless series of open doors. Listen to your heart, go inside. Do not stay on the surface of things, but go to the heart of things, and when the time is right, have the courage to decide. Have the courage to decide. How are you gonna live your life? Take a deep breath and think about that for a second, huh? Welcome to the Become Who You Are podcast. This is a mission, a brotherhood, a battle plan for young men in a world at war. I'm your host, Jack Rigard, and this is where the fight begins. This becomes a weekly series. Uh I've I've done some intro work before, so you can go back and listen. But before you we go further, you need to understand this. This is not just a podcast you're listening to and you move on from. This is a campaign. And in this campaign, each week for a year, we're going to be moving through the Claymore battle plan one act at a time. Make sure you get this, huh? Today's the introduction uh introduction, but this is a call to understand your heart in the battlefield. If you're serious about this, don't stand on the sidelines. It's time to get up, like John Paul said. Go to the heart of things. Get the Claymore Battle Plan Handbook. You can order it on our website. There's also a link on our website to Amazon, or just go right to Amazon and get that book. Either way, visit Claymore Militas Christie dot com, download that battle plan outline or read it right there. It'll give you again the structure that we're in and also give you that 10-minute uh morning Claymore morning ritual. Then you got to walk it, you gotta live it. It's gonna change your life. This is a guided formation system, a brotherhood, too, that you don't want to do alone. Battle Plan uh outline that I was just talking to gives you the structure. The battle plan handbook provides the content. The podcast is just a voice. It gives you some momentum, a connection with you. Find somebody to share this with because two things will happen. You're getting your heart back, and then you're going out into the world and sharing this. This is where the beauty comes from. It's the two great commandments, you know, to love God, take him into your heart. Even if you don't understand this right now, God will reveal, just like Jared Hudson just said, uh God will reveal himself to you. And um, and and that brotherhood also adds accountability. Uh the newsletter, make sure you sign up. When you go to the um our website, make sure you sign up because we want you want to get those those uh emails, and you it'll have news in there. It'll talk about the gatherings that we're doing, and and uh maybe you can join us for some of those gatherings so that we can all meet one another. That's important too. This is a moment when you should decide right now. Step one, you know, after this, go to the website, order the book, download the outline, or read it right on the website. Make sure you're on our email. You you have a community and connection, which is important too. But this is important for you. This is your battle too. You have to rise up. Don't wait for me or anybody else to do this thing. You step into the story. You know, we are living, as the introduction to the book says, in a age of confusion and collapse. You know, every day the ear hums with noise, false promises, counterfeit truths, distorted versions of love, freedom, and identity. The world tells you pleasure is your purpose, truth is whatever you feel like, you can invent yourself, and then you can call that freedom. But deep down you know something's wrong with that. Because even in the chaos, something deeper is stirring, isn't it? I see it, you see it, I feel it, you feel it. And yet that restlessness, that ache, that hunger for something more. You're tired of shallow answers, tired of cheap imitations of meaning, and somewhere inside you sense it, don't you? You were made for something greater, and you're right, you were. This is why the Claymore Battle Plan was born. It was forged at the intersection of these two realities, the darkness of our age and the unquenchable light of divine truth. It comes from what I've seen, the assault on human dignity, the human heart, the distortion of love, the destruction of innocence. But it also comes from something else. I saw these young men and around me rising up, men who refused to stay asleep, men who were ready to fight, but they didn't always know why. And so he said, We gotta journey with them. They they've grown up in this toxic culture, and so at the heart of this mission stands a spiritual giant, John Paul II. He said, Young people, you know that your life has meaning to the extent that it's given away to others. He was a philosopher, a shepherd, a warrior. He lived through the darkness of Nazism, the oppression of communism. Two systems he said built on the same lie, that man can live without God. And he saw clearly, when God is removed, the sense of God is even removed. Man himself is diminished, man loses the sense of who he is. See, a world without God becomes a world against man. And yet John Paul didn't despair either those saints and mystics I'm talking about. He gave the world the command that still echoes today, be not afraid. And he believed in you, he believed in us. He believed that every young man is called to greatness, to rediscover his dignity, his mission, his capacity for heroic love, his vision, what he called the theology of the body, reveals something the world's forgotten. You were made for union and communion for love. You were made to be a gift, to receive that gift and be a gift. You were made for greatness. And now it's your turn. The claymore, the claymore sword that's on everything, right? To under to realize that this is a battle and it's a two-edged sword, one that goes on a battlefield of your heart, one so that you can go out into the world. That's what I have behind me. It's not a weapon of violence, but a weapon of truth. It's a double-edged sword, sharp enough to cut through lies, strong enough to defend what's good. This is the ancient call, to become Militus Christi, a soldier for Christ. Because this battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of darkness, against confusion, against lies, against everything that seeks to destroy who you are. So here's the battle plan. There's three steps. They're simple, but not easy. One, the first one is to reclaim the dignity of the human person, your own human heart. Number one, you gotta fight that on that battlefield. Then you gotta understand what love is, what our sexuality is, what marriage and the family, that's what marriage and the family are. This is connected to Christ and the church. And then we have to go out and take that like a ripple effect and rebuild the culture and the nation if you're gonna have a future here. Make no mistake though, every one of these battles begins on your heart. And that's where this one begins too. And here's what you need to understand the solution to the chaos around you is not just out there. It's not a politician, it's not just in a program, it's not in waiting for someone else to step forward. It's in you. Every man listening to this right now holds within him the potential to push back the darkness in his corner of the world. So don't be overwhelmed and don't become apathetic. This is what happens when you live on the surface of things and you hear so much you become apathetic. You allow things from the material world to pull you into it, huh? Porn and addiction and all this kind of stuff. This is exactly what the culture wants. It wants men to feel powerless and do nothing. You're called to become a catalyst, though, a catalyst for truth, for goodness, for beauty, for love. So where do you begin? Where do you begin? On the battlefield of your heart. You got to get your own house in order, your habits, your thoughts, your prayer life, your disciplines. Win that battle first, but then you don't stop there because this is not just about you. If you just stop there, you know, you you'll never find the happiness because we're made for love. And that doesn't mean just sexual uh uh marital love. That means love for your neighbor to go out and do good things, to change the culture, to change the nation for the good. And there's an urgency now. You gotta pay attention. Who is God putting on your in your path right now? And you know, Claymore Militus, Christy, you're not here by accident. But then you've got to share this with with with a friend, make them a brother. So we're journeying together. It's going to be millions of heroes waking up all across the country right now. A man who's searching just like you, look for them, spot them. Even while you're on your journey right now, you're going to see. You just share the handbook with them, QA after each act, and you're going to find out that there's a lot of people like you in the world. You're not alone. So walk together. Invite them to share in this journey with you. Because this mission spreads the way all real change happens through human relationships, not AI, not just digital stuff. We can come digitally, we can use that, but this is about relationships, person to person, from one man to another, from your heart to the next person's heart you meet. And with God's grace, that ripple begins to move out quietly at first, then powerfully, until it starts changing the world around you in ways you never expected. So remember this life is an adventure. We have to discover who what life is about and who we are. And it's going to be a battle. And it's fought first on the battlefield of the heart, and then we see what happens when we bring good or evil into the world. And in the end, it's always about beauty and especially the beauty of love. This isn't a theory, it's a way of life. It's about formation, fraternity with one another, prayer, mission. And it's a year-long journey with the Claymore Battle Plan Handbook. One step at a time, one week at a time, one decision at a time. But right away, it'll start to empower you and give you confidence to move about the world. You'll see, God will put people in your life. This is a brotherhood, too. So always be thinking about and looking around and seeing who's wounded, who's hurt. You know, find another person, walk together, fight together. This that then then they'll bring other people in. You see, this is how this works. Just and watch, watch for God to bring this awe and wonder into your life. This movements for the bold, for men who still believe the truth matters, for those who feel something burning inside them, even if you can't name it yet, for those who are done being spectators in a culture that's falling apart all around them. John Paul II once said, God is entrusting you with this task at once difficult and uplifting, of building a civilization of love. Can you imagine in this crazy world of evil? If this stirs something in you, don't let it fade. This is not a one-time message. This is a weekly campaign. Start here with this introductory episode, but then begin reading Act One and read it before the next podcast comes on. And send me some questions, and we'll talk about those. Visit Claymore Militus Christie.com and get your copy of the Claymore Battle Plan Handbook. Get one for yourself and then get a second one for the person God's going to be placing in your path, because this was never meant to be lived alone. So challenge. Begin tomorrow morning on your knees before you look at that phone. The 10-minute Claymore morning ritual. Watch a couple of my latest podcasts if you want to go deeper while you're waiting for the handbook to come. But on our website, there's a number of videos on there in a number of um articles that I had written for different publications that are speaking about all this stuff. I guarantee you, if you do that, knees before the phone, read one act out of the handbook for 40 days, you will experience a change. So buckle up, take the Claymore sword, enter the battle with courage and humility, and remember the words of your true commander, Jesus Christ Himself. In the world you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. This is the Become Who You Are podcast. And remember, this begins in your heart, but it was never meant to stay there. The question is, will you step forward, become a soldier of Christ? Hey, God bless you. Talk to you again soon, everybody. Bye bye.