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Biblical Structure for Change · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. I mean, what if that migraine
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you woke up with today or that persistent stomach ache you've
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been dealing with all week has absolutely nothing to do with
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stress at work? Oh wow, that is a heavy question
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to start with. Right, but what if those
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physical symptoms are actually, you know, the physiological
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check engine light for a spiritual vacuum?
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It sounds totally jarring when you put it like that.
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I mean, we are so conditioned to treat the body and the mind as 2
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completely isolated systems. Yeah, totally separate, like
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compartments. Right.
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But the text we are looking at today argues the exact opposite.
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Well, not exact, but the complete opposite.
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It argues that your biology and your theology are on a collision
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course every single day. It's intense, yeah.
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And that is why we are doing this deep dive today, tailored
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specifically for you, the listener.
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We are opening up Lesson 7 of John C Broger's Self
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confrontation, a Manual for in depth biblical disciple Show a.
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Massive, heavy manual. Oh, it really is, and we're
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asking a core question that basically haunts almost everyone
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who is trying to better themselves.
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How does real structural, permanent change actually happen
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in a human life? Because let's be honest, we have
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all tried the generic self help route.
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Oh, absolutely. The books that tell you to like,
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manifest a better reality or just try harder.
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Or, you know, believe in yourself.
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And the results are almost always exhausting and temporary.
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So temporary. You keep the habit up for what,
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a week? If you're lucky and they are
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temporary because they rely on the assumption that you already
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possess the materials necessary to fix yourself.
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Which is a huge assumption. Right, but Brozier's manual
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takes a drastically different approach.
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It lays out a highly specific blueprint for dismantling old
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habits and constructing a new mindset.
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And it relies exclusively on a scriptural framework to do it.
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It doesn't pull from pop psychology at all.
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Not even a little bit. The anchor point for this entire
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discussion, the baseline for everything, is Ephesians 4.2224.
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OK, let me just read that section so we have it fresh in
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our minds. Go for it.
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It says that in reference to your former manner of life, you
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lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance
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with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the
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spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which in the
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likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and
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holiness of the truth. So look at those verbs.
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Lay aside the old, renew the mind, put on the new.
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Those three actions basically set the agenda for everything
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we're going to look at today. They really do.
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But before we get to the actual mechanics of how to lay aside
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the old self, we really have to deal with a massive
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prerequisite. Right, the elephant in the room.
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Exactly. I mean precisely that the text
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makes a stark claim about where the ability to change actually
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originates. Because if we are not using the
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generic self help method of, you know, trying harder, what is the
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actual engine driving this change?
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The manual asserts that true, lasting change is initiated
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exclusively through the regenerating work of the Holy
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Spirit. Exclusively.
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That's a strong word. Very strong without salvation,
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without becoming an entirely new creation, you possess 0 capacity
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to genuinely alter your nature. None at all.
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None. Broger points to John 3.5 to 6
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where Jesus explains the absolute necessity of being born
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of the Spirit. He also brings in Titus 3.5,
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which details the washing of regeneration.
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So to put it bluntly, behavior modification is kind of a scam.
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A total Stam. At least, you know, in the
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context of eternal structural change.
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I mean, sure, you can force yourself to act nicer for a
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week. You could bite your tongue when
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you want to yell at someone in traffic.
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Right, you can manage the symptoms.
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Yeah, but that is just painting over Rust.
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The underlying structural integrity is still totally
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compromised. That is a highly accurate way to
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view it. Trying to change your actions
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without a new nature is. It's like trying to rewrite a
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software program using a broken keyboard.
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Oh, that's a good way to put it. The inputs are fundamentally
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flawed from the start, so the manual stresses that you must be
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a new creation in Christ as the starting point.
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Or ground floor. Right, only after the Holy
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Spirit regenerates the heart are you actually capable of making
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biblical changes in your thoughts, your words, and your
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actions. But OK, this brings up an
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interesting tension that I saw in the text.
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The manual notes that effective biblical change is a continuous
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process. Yes, Principle 27.
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Right Principle 27. It points to Romans 5.6 to 9 to
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show that the debt of sin was paid at the cross.
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The old self was crucified, but the daily reality of
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sanctification, of actually acting like a new creation, is
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ongoing. So here is my pushback.
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Bring it. If the Holy Spirit is the one
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doing the regenerating, if this requires divine intervention
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from top to bottom, why am I still struggling?
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That is the big question. Why does the manual play such
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heavy responsibility on the believer to become a doer of the
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word as mentioned in James One? Why is the burden on me to do
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the heavy lifting of changing my habits?
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Well, it is the classic tension between divine enablement and
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human obedience. OK, untack that.
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You see this heavily in Broker's use of James One, Which calls
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the believer to take action. He also references John 15.4 to
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5. You know the analogy of the vine
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and the branches. Oh right.
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Jesus says the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it
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abides in the vine, The SAP, the life force, the energy that all
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flows directly from the vine. It doesn't generate its own
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life. Right, but the branch is still
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the thing producing the fruit. It's the mechanism.
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So the distinction is really about capability versus
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execution. Spot on.
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Before the regenerating work of the spirit, I am just a slave to
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my own desires. I do not even have the option to
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genuinely please God. I'm dead in the water.
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Completely dead. But once that regeneration
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happens, the chains are cut. I am free, but being free means
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I now have the terrifying responsibility of choosing my
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master every single day. Yes, that is it.
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You are no longer forced to obey your old nature, but the old
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nature still yells at you. Oh.
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Yells loudly. It really does.
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It still tries to give you orders.
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So the continuous process of change is waking up every day
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and consciously deciding to ignore the screaming of the old
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self. And instead yield to the
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strength provided by the Holy Spirit.
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Exactly. OK, let's say I accept that
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premise. The engine is the Holy Spirit.
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The chains are cut. I am genuinely capable of
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change. OK.
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But then Monday morning hits. I spill coffee all over my
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shirt, I am late for a massive meeting, and I snap at my
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spouse. We've all been there, right?
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How does this manual translate the grand theology of
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regeneration into the gritty reality of a Tuesday afternoon?
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Well, this is where we get into the core mechanics of the whole
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book. Brozier lays out a highly
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practical 2 step process for daily living.
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The put offs and the put ONS, right?
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Principle 28 says that to put off an old habit, you must first
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accurately identify it. You cannot fix a flaw you refuse
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to look at. That makes sense.
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The manual instructs you to use the Bible as a diagnostic mirror
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to actually judge your own life. So it's about identifying the
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rot. Identifying the rat.
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You cannot just vaguely say, oh, I need to be a better person.
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That does nothing. Vague goals lead to vague
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results. You have to look at the text,
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look at your reaction to the spilled coffee and say that was
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sinful anger. Yes, you have to name it
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specifically. But identifying it is only the
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first step. The manual says that once you
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name it, it requires repentance, confession, and immediate
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abandonment. An immediate abandonment.
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That is key. You do not negotiate A ceasefire
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with a bad habit. You don't slowly taper off.
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No, you do not try to slowly taper off your anger or your
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gossip over a six month period like it's a diet.
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Proverbs 28.13 makes it clear he who conceals his transgressions
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will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will
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find compassion. You confess it as a violation of
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God's standard and you drop it. You drop it completely.
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But OK, if I just drop the bad habit, I have created a massive
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void. Yes, you have.
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This is what fascinates me about the manuals approach.
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It introduces what we could call the law of replacement.
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I like that term. Stopping a bad habit is
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insufficient. It is like taking off mud soaked
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clothes. You cannot just stand there in
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the freezing cold you'd. Freeze to death.
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Right, you have to actively put on a clean, warm jacket.
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That is a perfect analogy. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the
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human heart operates on the exact same principle.
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So if you just stop. If you simply stop doing a bad
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thing, you leave an empty space in your life, your schedule, and
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your mental energy. And something is going to fill
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it. Always that space will
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inevitably be filled, usually by the old habit just rushing back
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in, or by a new, more subtle flaw taking its place.
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It makes me think of writing software.
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OK, how so? Well, say you have a legacy
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operating system full of bugs. Yeah, you cannot just go in and
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delete a line of code that runs a core routine.
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Let's say the routine for how to handle stress.
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Right, because the system needs to know what to do.
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If you just delete that bad code, the whole system crashes.
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The next time stress occurs, you have to write a new clean line
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of code to replace it. The bad habit is the corrupted
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code. Yes, you always write a new
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routine. That is a brilliant way to frame
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it. The system requires an
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instruction. If you leave a blank space, it
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just defaults to the old corrupted backup.
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Which is why we always fall back into the same ruts.
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Precisely. The manual gives very specific
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scriptural examples from Ephesians 4 to demonstrate this
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whole replacement protocol. Let's run through these examples
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because they show just how aggressive this replacement
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needs to be. Yeah, let's do it.
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The first one is falsehood. The put off is lying.
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So what is the new line of code? Ephesians 4.25 says to lay aside
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falsehood and speak the truth. OK, speak the truth.
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Right. The replacement for lying is not
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silence. If you have a habit of
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stretching the truth to make yourself look better at work,
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you do not just take a vow of silence during meetings.
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Just sit there with your mouth shut.
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No, you actively look for opportunities to speak what is
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factually, transparently true. Even if it makes you look
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average. You have to practice the
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opposite action. Next is stealing.
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The put off is obvious. Don't steal.
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Right. But the replacement, according
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to Ephesians 4.28, is working with your own hands so that you
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will have something to share with one who has need.
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Which is a massive paradigm shift.
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It really is the opposite of a thief is not just someone who
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stops taking things. No, the opposite of a thief is a
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philanthropist. Wow.
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Yeah, you shift your entire economic worldview from being a
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consumer who drains resources to a producer who provides
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resources. It requires a total
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reorientation of your motives. You are no longer looking at
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people and asking what can I get from them?
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Which is the each mindset? Right, you are now asking what
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can I give to them? That completely flips the
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script. It really does.
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The next example is unwholesome speech.
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Ephesians 4.29 commands us to let no unwholesome word proceed
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from our mouths. Oh, no gossiping, No tearing
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people down. Exactly, and the put on is to
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use edifying speech that fits the need of the moment to give
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grace to those. Who here?
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Imagine how this alters office dynamics for family dinners.
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Oh, drastically. If your default setting is
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sarcasm, complaining, or, you know, cutting people down
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disguised as, I'm just joking. Just a joke, right?
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You have to stop, but you cannot just sit there silently stewing
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while everyone else talks. No, you have to actively scan
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the room, find a way to build someone up and speak words of
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grace. You have to inject life into the
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conversation. The final example from Ephesians
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4 tackles bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and
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malice. That is quite the list.
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It is a toxic cocktail. And the replacement for that
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entire toxic cocktail is kindness, tender heartedness,
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and forgiveness. But implementing these
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replacements guarantees massive internal friction.
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The manual even warns about this.
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Yes, it brings in Galatians 5.1 Sam.
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For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the
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spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one
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another. Total War.
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Total War. When someone insults you, your
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old code demands retaliation. The new code demands
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forgiveness. And the moment of conflict
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between those two sets of instructions is just agonizing.
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It is, but Brodger points out that that friction is the
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sensation of genuine change happening.
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If there's no friction, you probably aren't changing.
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So we have these paired actions. Put off lying, put on truth, put
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off stealing, put on giving. A direct 1 to 1 swap.
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Right, but there was a fascinating anomaly in the text
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that caught my eye sometimes. There was no specific put off
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attached to a command. The manual lists a whole series
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of stand alone put ONS. Yes, these deal with what
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theologians often call sins of omission.
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OK, explain. That we are conditioned to think
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of sin purely as a positive action, like doing something
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wrong, breaking a rule. Act of rebellion, right?
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But James 4.17 states therefore to one who knows the right thing
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to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
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So failing to do the good you were commanded to do is just as
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damaging as actively doing the bad you are forbidden to do.
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Precisely. We might be completely ignorant
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of God's will in an area, or just, you know, lazy,
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complacent. Exactly.
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The manual lists several of these stand alone positive
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commands. Matthew 28 making disciples.
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Colossians 3. Doing all things in the name of
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the Lord Jesus. Ephesians 6.
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Putting on the full armor of God First Thessalonians 5.
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Rejoicing, always praying without ceasing, giving thanks
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and everything. I actually admit when I first
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read that list I felt exhausted. It is a lot to take in.
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Doesn't dumping a massive checklist of standalone positive
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actions risk overwhelming the listener?
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I mean, doesn't this turn spiritual growth into a crushing
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rigid checklist where you are just trying to hit your quota of
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rejoicing for the day? If you approach it as a way to
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earn God's favor, yes, it would absolutely be a crushing burden.
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It would be legalism. Complete legalism, but we
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established in the beginning that the debt is already paid.
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These actions are the fruit of a saved life, not the root.
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The root is regeneration. Right.
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Functionally, these stand alone actions act as a protective
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shield. OK, break that down for me.
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How does the mechanics of that shield work?
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How does praying without ceasing protect me?
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Think about the physics of human attention.
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Your mind has a finite amount of processing power at any given
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moment. True if you are actively obeying
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the command to give thanks and everything.
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If you're actively scanning your frustrating day for reasons to
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be grateful to God, how much processing power is actually
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left to run the routine of bitterness?
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Very little. You literally can't run both at
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full capacity. Exactly, If you are aggressively
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engaged in making disciples, pouring your energy into helping
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another person grow, how much free time do you have to indulge
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in selfish ambition or self pity?
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It is a crowding out effect. Yes, you are saturating the
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calendar and the mind with so much constructive obedience that
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the old self simply cannot find an empty room to set up shop.
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You are leaving no oxygen for the old habits to breathe.
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They just suffocate. But what happens when someone
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refuses to do this? Well what if a person hears all
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this about put offs, put ONS and standalone commands and says no
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thanks. I prefer a living for myself.
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I want to hold onto my anger. I want to keep my selfish
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habits. It doesn't end well.
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The manual transitions into a terrifying diagnostic of what
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self focus actually produces. It really does.
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Brochure makes a direct, unflinching connection between
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focusing on self and total systemic collapse.
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Systemic collapse. He lists a cascade of mental
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results that occur when you refuse to direct your thoughts
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toward pleasing the Lord. The list is brutal.
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I'm going to read some of it. Hatred, rebellion, resentment,
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selfishness, jealousy, fear, pride, lust, anger, doubt,
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anxiety, and deceitfulness. It's a heavy list.
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And he ties every single one to specific scriptures.
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First John 3.15 for hatred, Philippians 4.6 to 7 for
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anxiety. He is painting a picture of just
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total internal misery. And he notes that this internal
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misery never stays internal. It always leaks out.
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Right, it spills over. It leaks into unbiblical speech
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and actions, lying, hostility disputes, and eventually severe
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external sins. But the most striking claim he
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makes is the connection between these internal thoughts and
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physical breakdown. This is the part that totally
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stopped me in my tracks. I bet he lists bodily damage
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resulting from these unbiblical thoughts.
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Heart malfunction, migraine headaches, high blood pressure
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ulcers, insomnia, stomach disorders, kidney disease, and
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venereal diseases. It's quite the medical chart.
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I need to push back hard on this.
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I figured you would. Are we supposed to read this as
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a direct 1:00 to 1:00? One medical diagnosis?
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If someone has a stomach ulcer, is this manual claiming they are
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definitely harboring unconfessed sin?
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Are we blaming every illness on a lack of spiritual discipline?
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That's a vital question. We have to look very carefully
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at Brosier's phrasing here. OK, what does he actually say?
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He says these unbiblical actions may result in bodily damage.
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He is not making a blanket universal statement that every
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physical ailment is a direct punishment for a specific sin.
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OK, so it's not a direct formula every time, right?
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We live in a fallen world where bodies naturally breakdown,
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people get sick. However, he is drawing a
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profound, I mean a deeply significant theological and
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physiological link pointing heavily to Psalm 32.
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Let's dig into Psalm 32. Prime example.
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David is writing about a period in his life where he was
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covering up his own sin, refusing to confess it.
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The Bathsheba situation. Probably, yeah, he writes.
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When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my
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groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was
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heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away, as
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with the fever heat of summer. That is not a metaphor.
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You don't think so? No.
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David is describing literal physical distress caused by
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spiritual rebellion. Brosier is illustrating that
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human beings are deeply integrated creatures.
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Integrated. You are not just a soul driving
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a meat suit. Your biology and your spirit are
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hopelessly intertwined. So think about the Physiology of
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maintaining a lie. OK, Yeah.
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If you were covering up a massive failure at work or
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hiding an affair, you are constantly monitoring what you
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said to whom. You're managing multiple
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realities. Right.
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You are making sure stories align.
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You are dreading every single phone call, your sympathetic
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nervous system is locked in fight or flight mode for weeks
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or months on end, and your. Body is flooded with cortisol
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and adrenaline. The biological result of that
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sustained spiritual rebellion is massive.
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It wears down the machine. It tears it apart.
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If you are consumed by hostility, your blood pressure
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will rise. If you are paralyzed by anxiety,
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your sleep cycle is destroyed. Which leads to chronic insomnia,
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which. Wrecks your immune system and
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your stomach lining. So Roger's not playing doctor.
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He is pointing out a structural reality.
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Choosing to hold on to the old self is a literal assault on
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your own physical well-being. Absolutely.
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Focusing entirely on pleasing yourself ironically destroys
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yourself. The refusal to change is fatal
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on multiple levels. It really is.
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This brings us to a harsh practical reality though.
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Even if I understand the mind body connection, even if I have
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the Holy Spirit as the engine, failure is just inevitable.
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We are. Still in the flesh.
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Right, I am going to mess up the put offs and put ONS, yeah.
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How does the manual instruct us to handle those inevitable
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missteps? The manual has a specific
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section called Prayer and Action, and it leads with a
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statement that will offend a lot of modern sensibilities.
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Oh, let's hear it, it says prayer alone will not bring
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about the fullness of God's plan for your life.
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Prayer alone will not bring about the fullness of God's
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plan. Wow.
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Yeah, we are so trained to think that prayer is the ultimate and
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only required response to any problem.
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Just pray about it. I'll keep you in my prayer,
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right? But this says that's not enough.
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Prayer is essential. It is the first action you must
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take. But if it is the only action you
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take, you are violating the very commands you are praying about.
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It is like a man drowning in a lake.
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OK, someone throws him a life preserver.
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He stares at the life preserver, refuses to grab it, and prays
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fervently that God will save him from drowning.
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It's absurd, right? The prayer is useless if you
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refuse to engage the mechanism of rescue provided.
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It's like a farmer praying for a harvest but refusing to plant
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seeds. Exactly.
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You cannot just pray that God will take away your anger and
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then make 0 effort to put off angry reactions and put on
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kindness. You have to actually do the
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work. You have to participate in the
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process Action must follow communication.
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So when failure happens, when I give in to the anger or the
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anxiety, what is the precise protocol for recovery outlined
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in the text? Brochure lays out a clear 2
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directional path for biblical restoration.
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The first direction is vertical. OK, vertical.
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Between me and God, yes. You must acknowledge and repent
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of your sins to God. He points to 1st John 1.9.
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to
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forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
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unrighteousness. So that vertical confession
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restores unhindered communication with God.
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That's step one, But the protocol does not stop with a
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private, silent prayer. Which what we all want it to be.
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Because it's easier. No, the second direction is
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horizontal. You must confess your sin to
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those against whom you have sinned.
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The horizontal direction between me and people.
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Right, he cites James 5.16 confess your sins to one another
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and this is driven by the command in Matthew 5.2324 where
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Jesus says that if you are presenting your offering at the
21:49
altar and remember your brother has something against you.
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You leave the offering. You leave it, You go be
21:54
reconciled to your brother first, then come back to the
21:56
altar. That is incredibly
21:58
confrontational to human pride it.
21:59
Crushes pride. It is so much easier to sit
22:03
alone in my room, quietly ask God to forgive me for snapping
22:06
at my Co worker, and then walk into the office the next day
22:09
pretending nothing happened. Just smooth it over, right?
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Why is this public relational confession so critical to the
22:17
process of change? Well, the manual highlights 3
22:20
specific results of this horizontal confession.
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First, it acknowledges God's lordship.
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How so? You are submitting to his method
22:29
of reconciliation, not your preferred method of sweeping it
22:32
under the rug. You're doing it his way.
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OK, that makes sense. Second, it encourages harmonious
22:37
relationships. You cannot have genuine,
22:39
unhindered fellowship with someone if there is unconfessed
22:42
sin sitting in the room between you.
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It just breeds resentment. Always and the 3rd result.
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Yeah, what's the third? It demonstrates the reality of
22:49
Jesus Christ to outside observers.
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As a witness. Think about it in a world where
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everyone justifies their behavior, deflects blame, and
22:57
refuses to admit fault. Everyone just gets defensive.
23:00
Right. So watching a Christian humble
23:03
themselves, look someone in the eye, admit they were totally
23:06
wrong and ask for forgiveness, that is a shocking witness.
23:09
It really is countercultural. It proves that a new nature is
23:12
actually at work. But recovering from failure is
23:15
brutal work. To prevent this constant cycle
23:18
of failure and recovery, the manual provides a concrete
23:21
methodology for fortifying the mind.
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Yes, the section on renewing your mind establishes the
23:27
parameters of the battlefield. The battlefield of the mind.
23:29
It warns that Satan, the enemy will continually and repeatedly
23:33
appeal to yourself oriented feelings and desires.
23:36
He targets your desire for comfort and self justification.
23:40
And the only viable defense against that is a dedicated life
23:43
of obedience to God's Word. That's Shield.
23:46
The text maps out five specific ways, 5 distinct inputs that you
23:50
must use to interact with scripture to develop a resilient
23:53
Christ like mind. Let's walk through these because
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this is how you actually write the new code we talked about
23:58
earlier. Perfect.
23:59
The first input is to hear the word.
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Romans 10.17. Faith comes from hearing and
24:05
hearing by the word of Christ. OK, practically, what does that
24:08
mean? Practically, this means placing
24:10
yourself under the faithful preaching and teaching of
24:12
Scripture. You need external voices
24:14
proclaiming the truth to you. You cannot be an island you.
24:17
Can't just isolate yourself with a Bible and a podcast.
24:20
You need the church. Exactly.
24:23
The second input is to read the word First.
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Timothy 4.13 speaks to giving attention to the public reading
24:30
of Scripture. This is the daily discipline of
24:33
actually running your eyes over the text.
24:36
Just getting familiar with what it says.
24:37
Right baseline literacy. The third is to study the word.
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Which is different from reading. Very different.
24:43
Second Timothy 2.15 commands the believer to be diligent to
24:47
present yourself a proof to God accurately handling the word of
24:51
truth. So reading is like checking the
24:53
weather forecast? Yeah, studying is understanding
24:56
the meteorological pressures causing using the storm.
24:59
You investigate principles, you trace doctrines, you learn the
25:02
context. That's a great analogy.
25:04
You're digging into the why and the how.
25:06
The 4th input is to memorize the word.
25:09
Memorization that feels so old school.
25:11
It does, but look at Psalm 119.11.
25:15
Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin
25:18
against you. Treasured in the heart.
25:20
The manual suggests reviewing memory verse cards throughout
25:23
the day. It is about having the precise
25:25
replacement code instantly available in your brain the
25:28
moment the temptation hits, rather than having to go find a
25:31
Bible to look it. Up, because when the anger
25:33
flares up, you don't have 5 minutes to go grab your Bible
25:37
off the night stand. By then the damage is done.
25:39
You need the code loaded in RAM ready to execute.
25:43
OK, the 5th and final input is to meditate on the word.
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Joshua 1.8 says This book of the law shall not depart from your
25:50
mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.
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The pinnacle of the five inputs. I want to stop here and really
25:56
press into this because the lines between studying and
25:59
meditating often blur for people.
26:02
They do get confused a lot. If studying is analyzing the
26:05
nutritional label on an apple, what is meditating?
26:08
Meditating is eating the apple and letting your digestive
26:11
system turn it into actual kinetic energy.
26:13
Or taking it internal. Yes.
26:16
When you study a passage on anger, you might look up the
26:18
original Greek root words. You might read commentaries on
26:22
the historical context. Gathering facts.
26:25
That is intellectual comprehension.
26:27
Meditation is taking that comprehended truth, turning it
26:30
over in your mind and forcing it against the specific contours of
26:34
your life. You ask the brutal questions.
26:38
How does this verse about anger indict the way I spoke to my
26:41
kids an hour ago? Yes, you ask, what specific
26:45
change must I make today in my tone of voice to align with this
26:49
text? So meditation moves the
26:51
information from abstract theology into a direct personal
26:54
application for the very specific sins you were trying to
26:57
put off. Exactly.
26:59
Berger says that by diligently executing these five inputs,
27:02
hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating, you
27:06
provide the necessary conditions for the Word of Christ to dwell
27:08
abundantly within you. And as you continually practice
27:11
this, especially in known areas of weakness, the spirit of your
27:14
mind is renewed. The code gets rewritten.
27:17
But Brochure refuses to let this remain A theoretical exercise.
27:20
Oh, he brings down the hammer at the end.
27:22
He does. The manual closes with a highly
27:24
aggressive seven day homework challenge.
27:27
The study guide for Daily Devotion requires the reader to
27:30
actively execute these principles in real time.
27:33
It moves from the classroom to the laboratory.
27:35
The core of this homework is a daily log.
27:38
You are instructed to carry a worksheet with you throughout
27:40
the day, and you must identify at least five specific incidents
27:44
where your core problem manifests. 5 incidents a day.
27:49
The instruction is blunt. Begin to identify at least 5
27:52
incidents in which you recognize the problem that God wants you
27:55
to work on. Think about the psychological
27:57
shock value of this exercise. It's.
27:59
Massive. We are brilliant at minimizing
28:01
our own flaws. We justify our explosive anger
28:05
as righteous indignation. Or we justify our vicious gossip
28:09
as just processing. Right, I'm just venting, but
28:12
writing down 5 failures a day forces you to see the raw data
28:16
of your own disobedience it. Strips away all the excuses.
28:19
The manual explicitly tells you to identify the logs in your own
28:23
eye, referencing Matthew 7. It completely shatters the
28:27
illusion that you are basically a good person who only
28:31
occasionally slips up. It forces absolute honesty.
28:34
You do this logging for six days straight, accumulating data on
28:38
your own failures 6. Days of logging your worst
28:41
moment. Yeah, and then day 7 introduces
28:44
pattern recognition. The instructions for day seven
28:47
say to look at the list and circle the activities,
28:50
situations, locations or people that appear at least twice.
28:54
You are hunting for your triggers.
28:56
Analyzing the data right? If you review your logs and
28:58
realize that four out of the last five times you engaged in
29:02
unwholesome speech you were in the break room with a specific
29:05
Co worker. You have identified a
29:06
battleground. If your incidents of anger
29:08
consistently happened during the evening commute, you have mapped
29:11
out the enemy's territory. And once you know the triggers
29:14
for the old self, you are no longer a passive victim.
29:18
You can proactively prepare the put ONS.
29:20
You get ahead of the strike. If you know the commute makes
29:22
you furious, you do not just get in the car and hope for the
29:25
best. Because hoping doesn't work.
29:27
Right, You get in the car already meditating on verses
29:30
about patients. You load the new software
29:33
routine before the system is even stressed.
29:35
That is the ultimate application of a renewed mind, and the
29:39
manual gives a final, sobering warning about this process.
29:43
What's the warning? If you consistently fail, if you
29:47
keep logging the same failures and never see progress, you are
29:50
instructed to go back and audit your 5 inputs.
29:54
Audit the supply. Line.
29:55
Are you actually hearing, reading, studying, memorizing,
29:58
and meditating? Because if you are consistently
30:01
failing, there is a breakdown in your supply line.
30:03
You are trying to fight a war with an empty rifle.
30:06
Wow. Let's synthesize this entire
30:08
blueprint. It's a lot to pull together.
30:10
We started by asking how real change happens.
30:12
The answer this manual provides is comprehensive.
30:15
To say the least. Change is not a self help
30:17
project, it requires the Holy Spirit as the engine.
30:20
The total baseline. It demands aggressive
30:22
replacement. You cannot just stop bad habits.
30:26
You must overwrite them with active righteous deeds.
30:28
You have to put on the new clothes.
30:30
It requires constant discipline intake of scripture to rewrite
30:34
the minds default responses, and it requires immediate,
30:38
humiliating confession to God and to others when you
30:42
inevitably stumble. It is a total system overhaul.
30:45
It addresses the supernatural origin of change, the daily
30:48
gritty mechanics of habits, the severe physiological damage of
30:52
refusing to change, and the practical steps for recovery.
30:56
We began by talking about the X-ray machine.
30:58
When it comes to human behavior, the water is usually muddy.
31:01
Very muddy. This manual clears the water.
31:04
It provides the X-ray, it shows you exactly what the old
31:07
corrupted code looks like, and it hands you the precise
31:09
scriptural syntax required to write the new code.
31:12
You're not just guessing anymore.
31:13
And that leads to a highly practical challenge based on the
31:16
text. Leave us with it.
31:17
Consider your very next moment of frustration today.
31:20
For you, the listener, it might be a rude e-mail, a difficult
31:23
conversation, or just a delay in your plans.
31:26
Something that spikes your blood pressure.
31:27
Right, according to the framework we have examined, that
31:30
moment is not a random annoyance, it is a live,
31:33
measurable diagnostic test. It is the moment the code runs.
31:37
Exactly. Will you let the old system
31:39
crash or will you execute the new routine?
31:41
Which self will you put on?