What spiritual disciplines may help us break our destructive relational patterns faster? Written CovenantsSubmission (not necessarily to our wives)JournalingTwo Bonus disciplines (not mentioned on the podcast). Solitude ("three days")Courts of Heaven (12-Step Worksheet)

Is "relational connection" more important than "operational effectiveness"?Is our real challenge NOT that we prioritize God over people, but work over love?Can we demonstrate love without relying on either words or works?

How has our left-brained thinking damaged our marriages? What can Jesus do about it?

Bridging the gap between Intimacy and Impact with Incarnation, aka "procreation" 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.Philippians 3:10-12

What is it that truly troubles our heart?Is this disturbance actually from God, to provoke us to flee religious compliance and carnal indulgence in favor of ecstatic union with the Trinity? John 14

How do we sustainably enter into God's rest?  Is it by only doing what we see God doing? Hebrews 4

What if the real war is not between "biblical" and "secular" culture, but "left-brain" WEIRD versus "right-brain" Traditional -- with neither actually on God's side?

Healing from “Childhood Emotional Neglect” (CEN) Childhood Emotional Neglect (as a child or teen) results in emotional disconnect and lack of emotional intelligence. In a marriage, one or both spouses may need healing from CENSpouses who need healing will often exhibit these 10 characteristics… Misread each other's feelings.Avoid discussing difficult topics to avoid conflict.Be unable to argue productively.Focus on logistics rather than feelings.Not confide in each other.React inappropriately...

Are we lying to ourselves?Will listening better to our Others help us find the truth? * I Told Me So: Self-Deception and the Christian Life* Living Fearless - Jamie Winship Coming up on Feb 14: VaLENTine Men's Study

How do we prove to the world that we don't need the same things they want? Warning: spoiler alert for Crazy Rich Asians. “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” ‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭See also 12/2 Tri-Quatrain: Choose to Lose

What if the true opposition to the gospel is hidden inside our own implicit assumptions about reality? Identifying and confronting our emotional distress is essential for identifying our lack of alignment with the Father’s will. For you, I believe that taking up *your* cross would require you to actively pursue becoming aware of and confronting the roots of your emotional distress, because you have become addicted to a superficial yielding that does not result in emotional catharsis or true...

Does Jesus -- unlike Pharisees and philosophers -- require His disciples to sacrifice our "digital abstraction of self" in order to confront the emotional distress that lurks beneath? My impression, partly from the poem you shared but which I suspect is a gross misunderstanding on my part, is that you think that Jesus is demanding that we daily re-live the emotional distress of facing the death of our self.Your impression is essentially correct, though perhaps not _quite_ as bad as you...

During most of the gospels, the disciples wanted a king who would destroy their enemies rather than a savior who would destroy their sin. My Christ-less failure mode is trying to destroy your sin instead of [before] confronting my own. Luke 9:18-26 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” 23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to...

Is a relationship with God about obeying His will or enjoying His presence? Or something else entirely?

Should our highest value be allowing God to rewrite our values? Can externalizing our eternal values enable us to maintain integrity while being fully emotional present for others?

What does it mean to love our community the way Christ does his friends? The Opposite Of Addiction Is Not Sobriety – It Is Human Connection Anthem: Follow The Way Of Christ (Becoming “Foot-Washers”) John 15:13: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  Matthew 16:23: Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 5:11: Blessed are...

What is needed to keep growing us all closer to Jesus? Our strategy (ultimate goal) is to love (hesed) the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength (particularly via loving our families as our selves). Our tactics include various spiritual disciplines (tools and tasks). Operational Discipleship is ensuring we accomplish the right objectives (management), which is what aligns tasks (execution) with goals (leadership).  The paradigmatic verse for this...

What does Christ think about good and evil? Is anyone more evil than "you"? https://biblehub.com/luke/11-13.htm If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

"Productive Vulnerability" as the narrative protocol to both unmask our own self-deception and reveal the power of Christ. This is the redemptive alternative to either withdrawal or control(as a way to cope with the dysphoria from encountering our mutual brokenness). Withdrawal and control can be effective in reducing short-term pain,but fail to confront the underlying brokennessand are thus toxic to the authenticity required for healthy long-term relationships. See also: Faith in two...

Is working through "brokenness" (versus information or skill) our greatest challenge? Ernie struggles with broken audio to explain the joy of sharing/healing our brokenness (aka sin) with Jesus. Poetry reading: 8/8 Tri-Limerick: Don’t Look Down https://2transform.us/dbj/ The only real answer is Jesus. The only real problem is Sin. The only real work is the Cross. In the end, we only have Him.

What happens when the law meant to unite us ends up diving us? Is God calling us to shift from Jehu to Elisha?

# Ernie Not wanting to incarnate into other peoples dysfunction Do I want to heal people from their brokenness so that I can identify with them? VS Am I willing to identify with people in their brokenness so that God can heal us # Robby Jesus, how do I grow closer to You in such a way that Your Spirit most deeply shapes what I want and what I pursue? A common tension -- between pursuing the mission and caring for the members -- reflects the feelings among my own family that I “don’t care...

How do we balance the tension between: Performance: getting the job done Conformance: getting along Precisely by confronting those areas where we are unable to hold that tension,in order to experience Christ's transformation https://biblehub.com/luke/9-23.htm Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

# Decenter Civilization  - Civilization as we know it is endemically (widely? intrinsically?) corrupt- This corruption is manifest in individuals caught up in a systemic web of toxic incentives- We can't go back to "innocent" societies of autonomous villages- God wants us to seek something better What should be our response?- our goal- our role- our soul ## Systemic Corruption 1. Societies become (imperial) civilizations to provide more of a scarce public good (typically military security vs...