In extreme times, the Body of Christ can't afford to be passive and polite. Drawing from the latest Smart Edit newsletter, Brian Del Turco explores holy provocation—the biblical call to sharpen one another toward love and good deeds. Discover why speaking truth in love isn't optional, how Millennials and Gen Z are driving a Bible reading resurgence, the power of Micah 7:8's declaration over chaos ("When I fall, I will arise"), and the Japanese principle of Kaizen applied to spiritual growth. This isn't about being comfortable—it's about being sharpened, not softened, to meet this moment. Subscribe to the Smart Edit newsletter at jesussmart.com/smartedit for weekly kingdom insights.

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See the full episode transcript below.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Sharpened, Not Softened: Meeting This Moment

Welcome to the podcast. This is Brian Del Turco, Jesus Smart X, episode 365, and we have something a little different today. I'm pulling from the latest Smart Edit newsletter—a few elements that I produce.

And if you're not subscribed yet, I really hope you will be. The Smart Edit exists to spark our development in Christ. It's not just content and ideas to consider, but truth and reality to live in. It's free, it's weekly, five minutes to grow, and you can subscribe at jesussmart.com/smartedit.

Before we get to that, I want to mention something remarkable. According to Edison Research's Share of Ear Study, we have hit a historic tipping point. Americans now spend more of their spoken-word listening time with podcasts than with traditional talk radio. Podcasts are at roughly 40% of spoken-word audio time, and it edges out AM/FM talk radio at 39%. That's an inflection point.

To give you a point of reference, back in 2015, AM/FM talk radio held 75% of spoken-word listening versus podcasting at only 10%. But by quarter four 2025, it flipped for the first time—39% radio, 40% podcasts. We're living in a podcasting revolution. I'm grateful you're part of it here with Jesus Smart X.

If you missed last week's episode, episode 364, "Grease the Groove: Spiritual Strength Training for Extreme Times," go back and catch that. We explored how micro spiritual workouts throughout your day can build resilient, responsive faith and a strong spirit. I'm seeking to employ this protocol in my own days. There's edges that need attention in my life, and I've got to stop thinking that I need huge blocks of time to address this in prayer. This concept of greasing the groove, which comes from athletics, can be applied to anything.

Holy Provocation: Sharpened for This Time

As I mentioned, this episode is a little different. We're pulling from the newsletter, featuring some elements there. Here's the first element: Holy Provocation—Sharpened for This Time.

The body of Christ was never really meant to be passive nor polite. Now, kindness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. There's no doubt about that. But you can be kind, discerning, resolute, and impactful at the same time.

There's a couple verses in the New Testament which specifically address this—Hebrews 10:24-25. The kingdom calls us to provoke one another toward love and good deeds that we're meant to walk in. And this New Testament word for "provoke" carries the sense of stirring up, urging somebody on, exciting somebody toward action.

Now, here's the question for me, for you: Are we open to being a kingdom provocateur? Or are we just going to ride the pews, be passive, be kind and polite, and not in a godly way agitate for change and transformation which meets this hour?

It's not intentional offense, though I'm going to be honest—some may be offended because when they're challenged, what it is is a holy push toward leveling up. Did you happen to see the intensity of the gold medal hockey game, men's hockey game in the Olympics? The United States defeated Canada in overtime. You can be assured that those teammates do not coddle one another to experience that level of winning. They sharpen each other. Excellence was demanded because the winning mission required it.

And there are edges in your life, in my life, that we need to win on, that we need to reconcile and bring for the kingdom. Maybe it's getting out of debt so we can be freed up with space and time to help facilitate our kingdom contribution. It could be anything though. Proverbs 27:17 says, "Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another." There's a proverb which says that faithful are the wounds of a friend.

→ Read the enhanced show notes at jesussmart.com/365

In the Old Testament, Joel the prophet prophesied that there would be a time—and we're in that time now—when God would pour out His Spirit and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Prophecy does more than speak words. It reveals the heart of God. It can reveal the condition of the church, the pulse of society, certainly the condition of our hearts. In a real sense, prophecy, or having a prophetic point of view and having the trust between members in the body of Christ where giftings can be employed—it's getting closer to God's point of view on something. And that's what we want. That's what leads us to more fruitful, successful, impactful prayer and even prayer-born action steps.

But too often our—I'm putting it in air quotes now—"Churchianity" tends to default to and drift toward comfort, institutional self-protection, hopefully not, but sometimes leadership ambition which begins to eclipse really what Jesus is building, or fear of disapproval.

Paul said in Ephesians 4:15 that we can speak the truth in love, and as we do, we will grow to become in every respect—this is the actual verse in the NIV—we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is Christ.

We love the church. Christ is building her. But love does not compromise. Love sacrifices. It calls upward. When did we begin to think that love is love but it's never based in reality or truth? Real love is based in ultimate reality, and it has the highest good in view.

Here's what I can't seem to escape, and that's this: the thought that if we're going to meet this hour that we are in, if we're going to be faithful, we're going to have to harden ourselves a little bit and begin to more progressively walk worthy of the calling of Christ together as members of the body of Christ.

There's no reason why in a godly way, spouses cannot challenge each other. Friends, members in the church, that tight band of believers that you run with, maybe that project team that you're leading—there's simply no reason. And we just need to become more secure, more about excellence, more about the ambition of Christ Himself, and just not feel that we have to get into some kind of safe space and that we can never be confronted or can never confront or challenge.

Your voice matters. Your courage matters. And your willingness to receive challenge from others matters too. So here's the call to action: Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where your voice can awaken, encourage, and strengthen others, and where your voice—and my voice, I'm looking in the mirror—where we need to receive right-sizing, correction, or sharpening. It's going to help us. It's going to elevate our kingdom game, if we can put it that way.

There's another related Smart Edit newsletter called "The Proximity Effect"—the importance of drawing near to the right people and the effect that they have on you and that you have on them.

Signals and Shifts

We have a section in this most recent newsletter which we call Signals and Shifts. I'll just briefly touch on a few of the points here. An encouraging point is that Millennials and Gen Z are driving a Bible reading comeback. According to Barna, weekly Bible engagement among U.S. adults has rebounded to 42%, and that is—listen—a 12-point jump from its 15-year low back in 2024.

So from 2024 it jumped 12 points. That's now up to 42%. This has been documented by numerous reporting and research. There is a Bible reading resurgence going on, and we think that this is indicative of people searching for meaning.

Another point we have in this Signals and Shifts section is Jonathan Cahn issues a warning that the dragon of Revelation 12 is rising. He says the dragon is a mega figure, but we need to remember that victory is meant to be the natural state of authentic Christ followers. You can chase that link there.

Another link: 25 tips that save money from a resource called the Penny Hoarder. This section, Signals and Shifts—quick hits where faith, culture, and global currents intersect—we try to curate some resourcing there that helps you see things in a new way, pray in a new way, act with kingdom clarity in a new way.

→ See the enhanced show notes at jesussmart.com/365

Enemy, Don't Rejoice Too Soon

We also have another inspirational piece in this newsletter called "Enemy, Don't Rejoice Too Soon." I don't know if you have an enemy or if you feel like you have an enemy or something's going on and you can't quite figure it out. Well, I kind of feel that often. I didn't have a great night last night. I had some insomnia, and sometimes I don't know—I've got to get the courage to get out of bed and pray at 3 a.m. instead of just laying there.

But it says in Micah 7:8, "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise." What a confession. It goes on: "When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me." What a verse. Micah 7:8, well worthy of memorizing and praying and confessing.

So the idea here in this little feature is: Don't get comfortable just yet, O enemy, because the story isn't over. You may feel chaos right now. And you know in Genesis 1:2, the earth was formless, it was void. Darkness was on the face of the deep. The Hebrew language there conveys a meaning of chaos and sterility and just breakdown. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Now we know there is chaos in the macro in the world today—wars, geopolitical realignment going on. We're still suffering the aftershocks of the pandemic. Economic instability. There's exposure going on in society, exposure going on in the church, cultural upheaval. Nations are shifting. The church is being refined and judged.

There may also be chaos in the micro of your life. And I predict that there is. It's my belief that what goes on in the macro often filters down into the micro of our lives. And God is working at both levels. There may be setbacks, personal setbacks, or closed doors, or unseen battles. You carry battles that nobody knows about.

But here's what this segment wants to encourage: The dawning of Genesis reveals the pattern. Genesis 1:2, and then beginning with verse 3 and following, the Holy Spirit hovers. Then the decreed word comes over chaos and brings—let's use the New Testament word—cosmos. From chaos to cosmos. Cosmos is order, design, beauty.

It may be a right-sizing in your life, a realignment, sort of a breaking down of the vessel and then a rebuilding and reshaping on the potter's wheel into something more beautiful, more capacity. But we see this pattern in early Genesis: Holy Spirit hovering, and then the decreed word, the redesigning word from the Father coming over our chaos and bringing cosmos.

And we can pray this over the church, and we can pray this over our countries. As it says in Micah 7:8, you may fall, but you will rise. There may be chaos, but God speaks over you. And the church itself may be disrupted and purified but will rise in greater clarity and power as we, as the members of the church, rise.

So, enemy, don't rejoice too soon. We can pray simply something like this: "Holy Spirit, hover over my personal world"—and now here you can just insert an issue in the blank space—"And Father, decree Your redesigning word over me. I receive it."

Kaizen: Continuous Improvement

We have a very small feature called Kaizen, the Japanese word. Kaizen is a Japanese term often translated "continuous improvement." And the concept of Kaizen is an absolute refusal to settle into the plateau of what we could call arrested development.

Where does this come from? Well, it comes from Japan, and it's rooted in Japan's remarkably efficient manufacturing culture, especially post-World War II. And the principle of Kaizen applies just as powerfully to other areas of life—writing, music, athletics, art, our own spiritual development, business, and more. It means continuous improvement. How can I improve this continuously?

Here's a great verse in Colossians 3:10 which I think echoes this and mirrors it and really is a core value in the Jesus ethic, in the kingdom culture: "Put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him."

See, our new nature that we receive, that is awakened at our born-again experience, is not static—it's dynamic, and it's constantly being renewed. We could say that the principle of Kaizen is at play. Continuous renewal. And what is the benchmark? Christ Himself. So what about continuous refinement and development in Christ's kingdom? Kaizen. I love that.

Three Types of Eating

Finally, in today's episode, let's just feature one more element in the newsletter. Recently we like to feature elements that are related to wellness and to optimizing our bodies and our psychology as well as our spirit. This one has to do with eating. It's very interesting to me. There's actually a field called nutrition psychology. Nutrition psychology identifies three primary eating behaviors: homeostatic eating, hedonic eating, and emotional eating.

Let's briefly define each.

Homeostatic eating is our normal, natural biological hunger. Our body requires energy to think clearly, to work diligently, to serve faithfully, carry out our calling. When blood sugar drops and true hunger signals in our body arise—and a lot of this is hormonal—eating restores our strength and our capacity. That's homeostatic eating.

Hedonic eating—what does that word sound like? Hedonic. Well, it comes from hedonism. But hedonism is not just negative. The pursuit of pleasure can also be a positive thing. Hedonic eating is pleasure-driven. There's nothing wrong with pleasure in eating—taste, enjoyment, the brain's reward system. In moderation, hedonic eating is good. Shared meals are beautiful. Celebration, enjoyment. Pleasure is not the enemy. Here's the enemy: excess.

And Philippians 3:19 says that it's possible to make your stomach your god. So we just need to understand this. Homeostatic eating is our baseline. Hedonic eating is good in measure from time to time, episodic, but not a controlling factor.

Let's talk about the third one: emotional eating. What we do with emotional eating is we're actually trying—food is becoming a substitute. We're attempting to regulate our mood in some way. Stress, boredom—I mean, do you ever get bored late at night and want to eat half a gallon of ice cream? Loneliness, fatigue can drive the choice rather than real hunger.

I know if I can stop eating at 7 p.m.—and I'm horribly inconsistent with this—I win the day. It's no problem for me to eat well throughout the day until 7 o'clock. Seven o'clock is my temptation zone. If I can just get to bed without eating after 7 p.m., I can lose weight, I sleep better, I feel better the next day, my body chemistry is better, my sugar levels better. All of the major markers are better if we can stop eating at 7 o'clock.

But really, emotional eating is a pattern. It's similar to smoking. It's a coping mechanism. Excessive drinking. It soothes us temporarily, but it does not really strengthen us. And over a lifetime and over years, it hurts us. There's a link to an article there on emotional eating and how to stop it.

Here's what the Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God."

There is a theology of food. Food is stewardship. When we eat to the glory of God, are we eating primarily for strength and longevity and mission, or something else?

→ Enhanced show notes at jesussmart.com/365

Closing

Well, that is just several main features in this most recent newsletter. Formation, growth, and development happen when a renewed mind turns into obedience. That's what we're really after.

So we are after ideas and content in the newsletter, not just for content's sake or to just consume content and use that as a feel-good substitute for actual change. It is being challenged, being stirred up, sharpening our thinking.

And if this episode has done that for you, please consider sharing it with someone you think would value it. That personal connection is powerful. And with podcasts now surpassing traditional talk radio in spoken-word listening, you're part of a movement that's really transformational. It's reshaping how people receive content and truth. We just want to use this influence well.

And seriously, if you're not subscribed to the Smart Edit newsletter yet, I would love for you to get on the list. Your email is confidential. It'll never be shared, it'll never be sold. Every week I'm curating kingdom insights. I was just praying the other day, "Lord, just give me the ideas, give me the content. Bring to me what You want to be shared." Signals and shifts in our culture, globally, even practical wisdom, stimulation toward growth. It's free, it's weekly. It really takes you about five minutes to work through it, and I think it will sharpen us. You can subscribe at jesussmart.com/smartedit.

The full show notes and the transcript for this episode will be at jesussmart.com/365. As always, we remind ourselves that Jesus is brilliant. The future belongs to Him. So does the present. He knows how this life works best right now. It's a witness to Him, to His superior reality, and to His kingdom which is coming in its fullness. And as we continue to walk with Him, we will catch His brilliance in unique ways right where we are at right now.

I'm grateful to walk it out with you, and I'll catch you next time.

Hey there, my friend.

Welcome to the podcast.

This is Brian Del Turco, Jesus Smart X the podcast episode 365 and we have something a little different today.

It's a little bit different.

I'm pulling from the latest Smart Edit newsletter, a few elements from that newsletter that I produce.

And if you're not subscribed yet, I really hope you will be.

I think you need to be.

The Smart Edit exists to spark our development in Christ.

It's not just, you know, content and ideas to consider, but truth and reality to live in.

It's free, it's weekly, five minutes to grow, and you can subscribe@jesussmart.com SmartEdit we're doing this episode today, what could be called Direct to Drive.

I'm not going to be doing any editing.

It's just a time management issue this week and workflow.

But Direct to Drive and so no music except, etc.

But I think you're going to enjoy the content.

There's some powerful elements in this newsletter.

Before we get to that, I want to mention a news item, something that's really remarkable.

According to Edison Research's Share of Ear Study okay, Edison Research Share of Ear Study we have hit a historic tipping point.

Americans in America now.

Americans now spend more of their spoken word listening time with podcasts than with traditional talk radio.

Podcasts are at roughly 40% of spoken word audio time, I guess on a monthly basis.

And it edges out AM FM talk radio at 39%.

That's an inflection point.

It's been tracking towards this and now it's officially flipped.

One expert I was listening to recently thinks that trend is just going to continue to give you a point of reference.

39% radio, 40% podcast.

We're living in a podcasting revolution.

That's really what it's what what this is saying.

I'm grateful you're part of it here with Jesus Smart Ex.

And if you know of friends or contacts, relatives, enemies, anybody, anybody, put it on your pet.

Put some earbuds in your pet headphones.

Hey, let's, let's get the message to everybody.

Go ahead and would appreciate it if you would share about either this episode or the podcast in general, or any specific episode that you enjoy and think adds a lot of value.

Jesus Smart X the Podcast if you missed Last Week's episode, episode 364.

It's called Grease the Groove.

Spiritual Strength training for Extreme times.

Go back and catch that.

We explored how micro spiritual workouts throughout your day can build a resilient, responsive faith and a strong spirit.

I think it's excellent.

I'm seeking to employ this protocol in my own days.

There's edges that need attention in my life, and I got to stop thinking that, hey, I need huge blocks of time to address this in prayer.

That can happen.

But I think we need to really start greasing the groove with these micro prayers, micro blocks of time.

You know, scripture intake, prayer, meditation, journaling, other things that we can do, anything.

This concept of greasing the groove, which comes from athletics, can be applied to anything, and it is being applied to everything today.

So, as I mentioned, this episode is

a little bit different.

We're pulling from the newsletter featuring some.

Some elements there, and I think you're going to enjoy this.

Here's the first element.

It's called holy provocation sharpened for this time.

You see, what I began to think about is the body of Christ was never really meant to be passive nor polite.

Now, kindness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

There's no doubt about that.

But you can be kind, discerning, resolute, and impactful at the same time.

There's a couple verses in the New Testament which actually specifically address this.

Hebrews 10, 24 and 25.

The kingdom calls us to provoke one another toward love and good deeds that were meant to walk in.

And this New Testament word for provoke means it carries the sense of stirring up, urging somebody on, exciting somebody toward action.

Now, here's the question for me, for you.

Are we open to being a kingdom provocateur?

A provocateur?

Or are we just going to ride the pews, be passive, be kind and polite, and not in a godly way, agitate for change, change and transformation which meets this hour.

It's not intentional offense, though I'm going to be honest.

Some may be offended because they, you know, when they're challenged, what it is is a holy push toward leveling up.

Did you happen to see the intensity of the gold medal hockey game, men's hockey game in the Olympics?

The United States defeated Canada in overtime.

You can be assured that those teammates do not coddle one another to experience that level of winning.

They sharpen each other.

Excellence was demanded because the winning mission required it.

And there are edges in your life, in my life, that we need to win on, that we need to reconcile and bring for the kingdom.

Maybe it's getting out of debt so we can be freed up with space and time to help facilitate our kingdom contribution that we bring to the table.

It could be anything though.

I think there's a proverb which says that faithful are the wounds of a friend.

You know, in the Old Testament, Joel, the prophet Joel prophesied that there would be a time, and we're in that time now when God would pour out his spirit and your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

Prophecy does more than speak words.

It reveals the heart of God.

It can reveal the condition of the church, the pulse of society, certainly the

condition of our hearts.

In a real sense.

Prophecy, or having a prophetic point of view and having the trust between members in the body of Christ giftings can be employed.

It's getting closer, prophecy is getting closer to God's point of view on something.

And that's what, that's what we want.

That's what leads us to more fruitful,

successful, impactful prayer and even prayer born action steps.

But too often our quote, I'm putting it in air quotes now, an audio only podcast, but I'm telling you air quotes.

Okay, Churchianity,

what it tends to default

to and drift toward is comfort, institutional self protection, hopefully not, but sometimes leadership, ambition, which begins to eclipse really what Jesus is building or fear of disapproval.

Paul said in Ephesians 4:15 that we can speak the truth in love, and as we do, we will grow to become in every respect.

This is the actual verse in the niv.

We will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ.

We love the church, Christ is building her.

But love does not compromise love, sacrifices, it calls upward.

When did we begin to think that love is love?

But it's never based in reality or truth.

Real love is based in ultimate reality and it has the highest good in view.

And here's what I, if I'm going to be honest with you, here's what

I just can't seem to escape and that's this.

The thought that if we're going to meet this hour that we are in, if we're going to be faithful, we're going to have to harden ourselves a little bit and begin to more progressively walk worthy of the calling of Christ together as members of the body of Christ.

There's no reason why in a godly way, spouses cannot challenge each other.

Friends, members in the church, that tight band of believers that you run with, maybe that project team that you're leading, you know, there's, there's simply no reason.

And we just need to become more secure, more about excellence, more about the ambition of Christ himself and just not feel that we have to get into some kind of safe space and that we can never be confronted or can never confront or challenge.

Your voice matters, your courage matters.

And your willingness to receive challenge from others matters too.

So this is one of the features

in the newsletter, the longest one.

We'll get to several more here, but here's the call to action for this feature.

Go ahead and feel free to ask the Holy Spirit to show you where your voice can awaken, encourage and strengthen others, and where your voice and my voice, I'm looking in the mirror where we need to receive, right?

Sizing, correction or sharpening, it's going to help us.

It's going to elevate our Kingdom game, if we can put it that way.

There's another related smart edit newsletter called the Proximity Effect, the main feature in that newsletter.

And that's the importance of drawing near to the right people and the effect that they have on you and that you have on them.

So this feature is what we call

a Kingdom dynamic feature or sort of the big idea of each newsletter issue.

And that's it.

I hope you find that actually inspiring.

Holy Provocation sharpened for this time.

We have a section in this most recent newsletter which we call Signals and Shifts.

And I'll just briefly touch on a few of the points here that we feature there.

And there's links you can chase in this section.

An encouraging point is that Millennials and Gen Z are driving a Bible reading comeback.

That's now up to 42%.

And this has been documented by numerous reporting and research.

There is a Bible reading resurgence going on and we think that this is indicative of people are searching for meaning.

Okay, Another point we have in this

Signals and Shifts section is Jonathan Cahn issues a warning that the dragon of Revelation 12 is rising.

He says the dragon is a mega figure, but we need to remember that victory is meant to be the natural state of authentic Christ followers.

But you can chase that link there.

So signal and shifts, we have something there.

Another link, 25 tips that save money from a resource called the Penny Hoarder.

My wife's name is Penny.

It's not her website, but the penny Hoarder.

My wife's not a penny hoarder, she's a penny spender.

But anyway, 25 tips that save Money and this this section signals and ships quick hits where faith, culture and global

currents intersect and we try to curate

some resourcing there that see things in

a new way, pray in a new

way, act with kingdom clarity in a new way.

So that's a feature in the newsletter.

Hey, we also have another inspirational piece in this newsletter called Enemy.

Don't rejoice too soon.

I don't know if you have an enemy or if you feel like you have an enemy or something's going on and you can't quite figure it out and you don't know where it's coming from and you suspect spiritually or even practically, there is, there is an enemy to my life.

Well, I kind of feel that often.

I didn't have a great night last night.

I had some insomnia and I sometimes, I don't know, I got to get the courage to get out of bed and pray at 3am instead of just laying there.

But you know, it says in Micah 7, 8, do not rejoice over me, my enemy.

When I fall, I will arise.

What a confession.

It goes on.

When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

Ha.

What a verse.

Micah 7, 8.

Well, worthy of memorizing and praying and confessing.

Do not rejoice over me, my enemy.

When I fall, I will arise.

When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

And so the idea here in this, in this little feature is don't get comfortable just yet, O enemy, because the story isn't over.

You may feel chaos right now.

And you know in Genesis 1:2, the earth was formless, it was void.

Darkness was on the face of the deep.

The Hebrew language there conveys a meaning of chaos and sterility and just breakdown.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

It says, now we know there is chaos in the macro in the world today, right?

Wars.

We have geopolitical realignment going on.

We're still suffering the aftershocks of the pandemic.

Economic instability.

There's exposure going on in society, exposure going on in the church, cultural upheaval.

Nations are shifting.

The church is being refined and judged.

There may also be chaos in the micro of your life.

And I predict that there is.

It's my belief that what goes on in the macro often filters down into the micro of our lives.

And God is working at both levels.

You know, there may be setbacks, personal setbacks, or closed doors, or unseen battles.

You carry battles that nobody knows about.

But here's what this segment wants to encourage.

The dawning of Genesis reveals the pattern.

Genesis 1, 2.

And then beginning with verse 3 and following, the Holy Spirit hovers.

Then the decreed word comes over chaos and brings, let's use the New Testament word, cosmos, from chaos to cosmos.

Cosmos is order, design, beauty.

It may be a right sizing in your life, a realignment, sort of a breaking down of the vessel, and then a rebuilding and reshaping on the potter's will into something more beautiful, more capacity.

But we see this pattern in early Genesis.

Holy Spirit hovering.

And then the decreed word, the redesigning word from the Father coming over our chaos and bringing cosmos.

And we can pray this over the church, and we can pray this over our countries, as it says in Micah 7, 8, you may fall, but you will rise.

There may be chaos, but God speaks over you.

And the church itself may be disrupted and purified, but will rise in greater clarity and power as we, as the members of the church, rise.

So, enemy, don't rejoice too soon.

That's a little feature in the newsletter, this most recent one, and we can pray simply something like this, Holy Spirit, hover over my personal world.

And now here you can just insert an issue in the blank space.

And then Father, decree your redesigning word over me.

I receive it.

So, enemy, don't rejoice too soon.

We have a very small feature called kaizen, the Japanese word, and I'll get to that in just a second.

Right after that, we're going to be talking about three different forms of eating.

Are you eating to fill your body, feed your pleasure, or soothe your stress?

But kaizen, just a short bit here,

is a Japanese term.

It's often translated continuous improvement.

And what it is, the concept of kaizen is a absolute refusal to settle into the plateau of what we could call arrested development.

Where does this come from?

Well, it comes from Japan, as I mentioned, and it's rooted in Japan's remarkably efficient manufacturing culture, especially Post World War II, as that began to develop.

And the principle of kaizen applies just as powerfully to other areas of life, like anything writing, music, athletics, art, our own spiritual development business and more.

It means continuous improvement.

How can I improve this continuously?

You know what's wrong about it?

That I can improve what's right about it, that I Need to add, and here's a great verse in Colossians 3:10, which I think echoes this and mirrors it and really is a core value in the Jesus ethic in the kingdom culture.

Colossians 3:10.

Put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

See, our new nature that we receive, that is awakened at our born again experience is not static, it's dynamic and it's constantly being renewed.

We could say that the principle of Kaizen is at play.

Continuous renewal.

And what is the benchmark?

What is our benchmark?

Christ himself.

So what about continuous refinement and development in Christ's kingdom?

Kaizen?

I love that.

And now, finally, in today's episode, let's just feature one more element in the newsletter.

Recently we like to feature elements that are related to wellness and to optimizing our bodies and our psychology as well as our spirit.

This one has to do with eating.

It's very interesting to me.

There's actually a field called nutrition psychology.

I didn't know this.

Nutrition psychology identifies three primary eating behaviors.

Okay, we're just going to touch on these.

Homeostatic eating, hedonic eating, and emotional eating.

Okay, let's just briefly, briefly define each.

Each one of these three homeostatic eating is our normal, natural biological hunger.

Our body requires energy, right?

To think clearly, to work diligently, to serve, faithfully carry out our calling.

When blood sugar drops and true hunger signals in our body arise, and a lot of this is hormonal eating restores our strength and our capacity.

That's homeostatic eating.

Hedonic eating.

What does that word sound like?

Hedonic?

Well, it comes from hedonism.

But hedonism is not just negative.

The pursuit of pleasure can also be a positive thing.

And that's how it's being used here.

Hedonic eating is pleasure driven.

There's nothing wrong with pleasure in eating.

You know, taste, enjoyment, the brain's reward system in moderation.

Hedonic eating is good.

You know, shared meals are beautiful.

Celebration, enjoyment.

Pleasure is not the enemy.

Here's, here's, here's the enemy.

Excess.

And Philippians 3:19 says that it's possible to make your stomach your God.

Okay, so we just need to understand this.

Homeostatic eating is our baseline.

Hedonic eating is good in measure from time to time.

Epistolic.

Right.

But not a controlling factor.

Let's talk about the third one, emotional eating.

What we do with emotional eating is we are actually trying.

Food is Becoming a substitute.

It's becoming a substitute.

We're attempting to regulate our mood in some way, like stress, boredom.

I mean, do you ever get bored late at night and want to eat half a gallon of ice cream?

I mean, loneliness fatigue can drive the choice rather than real hunger.

You know, I know if I can stop eating at 7 and I'm horribly inconsistent with this, I win the day.

It's no problem for me to eat well throughout the day until 7 o'.

Clock.

7 o' clock is my temptation zone.

If I can just get to bed without eating after 7pm, I can lose weight, I sleep better, I feel better the next day, my body chemistry is better, my, you know, my sugar levels better.

All of the major markers are better if we can stop eating at 7 o'.

Clock.

But you know, really emotional eating is a pattern.

It's similar to smoking.

You know, it's a coping mechanism.

Excessive drinking, it soothes us temporarily, but it does not really strengthen us.

And over a lifetime and over years, it hurts us.

So there's a link to an article there on emotional eating.

How to stop it.

Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to

the glory of God.

There is a theology of food.

Okay?

Food is stewardship.

When we eat to the glory of God, are we eating primarily for strength and longevity and mission or something else?

All right, excellent.

Well, that is just a.

You know, several main features in this most recent newsletter, Excuse me, and formation,

growth and development happen when a renewed

mind turns into obedience.

That's what we're really after.

So we are after ideas and content in the newsletter, not just for content sake or to just, you know, consume content and use that as a feel good substitute for actual change.

It is being challenged, being stirred up, sharpening our thinking.

And if this episode has done that, done this for you, please consider sharing it with someone you think would value it.

That personal connection is powerful.

And with podcasts now surpassing traditional talk radio in spoken word listening, you're part of a movement that's really transformational.

It's reshaping how people receive content and truth.

And we just want to use this influence.

And seriously, if you're not subscribed to the Smart Edit newsletter yet, I would love for you to get on the list.

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It'll never be shared, it'll never be sold.

Nothing of that nature.

Every week I'm curating Kingdom Insights.

I was just praying the other day, Lord just give me the ideas, give me the content.

Bring to me what you want to be shared.

We're curating these things.

Signals and shifts in our culture, globally, even practical wisdom, stimulation toward growth.

It's free, it's weekly.

It really takes you about five minutes to work through it and I think it will sharpen sharpen us.

You can subscribe@jesuss smart.com smart edit now.

The full show notes and the transcript for this episode will be@jesussmart.com 365 as always, we remind ourselves that Jesus is brilliant.

The future belongs to Him.

So does the present.

He knows how this life works best right now.

It's a witness to him, to his superior reality and to his kingdom which is coming in its in its fullness.

And as we continue to walk with him, we will catch his brilliance in unique ways right where we are at right now.

I'm grateful to walk it out with you and I'll catch you next time.