Discipling By Jesus

What happens when two friends try to bridge the gap between cosmic hope and personal hurt—without losing either?

In this deeply introspective follow-up to Composting Kingdom Soul, Robby and Ernie return to explore the fragile terrain between understanding and being understood. As Robby unpacks his passion for regenerative creation care and the revelation of the “sons of God” from Romans 8:18–21, Ernie confesses the ache of feeling unseen—like soil passed over in pursuit of the sky.

What unfolds is less a debate and more a relational tilling—turning over frustrations, fears, and hopes in search of something richer than agreement: connection.

In this conversation:

• Robby reflects on Romans 8 and the groaning of creation.
• Ernie shares his fear of being treated like an object to be used rather than a person to be loved.
• Together they ask:
   Is our hope truly in Christ in us—or in the ideas we love most?

Raw, rambling, and redemptive—this is a podcast about becoming before convincing.

Scriptural Anchors:

• Romans 8:18–21 – The creation groans, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed
• Genesis 1:28 – The original call to be fruitful, multiply, and steward
• Colossians 1:27 – Christ in you, the hope of glory
• John 17:22–23 – That they may be one, as we are one
• 1 Corinthians 8:1–13 – On food sacrificed to idols and the conscience
• Philippians 2:5–8 – Christ emptied himself
• John 15:1–5 – Abide in me and bear much fruit

Listen if you’re wrestling with the tension between loving the world… and loving the people right in front of you.

What if the key to spiritual renewal lies not in striving, but in composting? In their usual raw and winding dialogue, Robby Butler and Ernest Prabhakar meander through standing desks, soil microbes, regenerative agriculture, Gethsemane, and K-pop Demon Hunters — only to find themselves circling back to a single question:

> What does it really mean to be a son of God?

This episode is less an argument and more a practice — an honest attempt to listen, stumble, abide, and occasionally forget, in order to remember what matters most. It’s about letting ideas die so that something deeper can grow. Along the way, we wrestle with:

• The tension between restoration and redemption
• The challenge of incarnating truth rather than merely proclaiming it
• The surprising theology of soil, sabbatical, and suffering
• And the spiritual art of abiding through disagreement

Come for the theology of topsoil. Stay for the tear-streaked wonder of abiding love.

“We cannot drag people into the Kingdom with our big ideas. We must incarnate into their soil — forget even the idea — and trust God to resurrect it when the time is right.”

Listen, reflect, and consider: What if the soil of your soul is already healing — not despite the silence, but because of it?

What if God’s love for you feels both deeply comforting and unbearably demanding? 

In this raw, unscripted spiritual dialogue, Ernie and Robby wrestle with the paradoxes of grace, obedience, and intimacy. From Africa to Gethsemane, marriage to mentorship, they explore how to move from a scarcity mindset to an abundance worldview—where God is not distant and demanding but present and empowering.

This isn’t a teaching. It’s a showing. A revealing. A dismantling of armor.

Whether you’re a disciple-maker, spiritual entrepreneur, or someone learning to hear and experience God in the midst of responsibility and relational struggle—this conversation invites you to be seen, undone, and transformed.

Listen if you’ve ever asked:

• Can I be fully loved and still be called to suffer?
• How do I help others know God without pushing them or protecting myself?
• What does it mean to die to self in the context of love?

This episode may not answer your questions—but it just might give you permission to ask better ones.

Are you feeling the burnout of Christian "hustle"? Tired of trying to measure up with spiritual KPIs and performance metrics? What if the spiritual life wasn't about complexity and heroic effort, but something radically simpler?

In this episode, we explore a profound truth being rediscovered: that the optimal strategy for divine integration isn't performance or production, but **presence** -- centered around sustained attention and continual abiding in Christ. Drawing inspiration from breakthrough AI models, the sources propose that **abiding is the core protocol of the Kingdom**, defined as **continuous spiritual self-attention to the indwelling Christ**, maintaining **relational proximity**.

This isn't about transactional prayer or rule-based systems. It's about the simple, ongoing recursive application of attention that radically decentralizes effort and re-centralizes relationship. The spiritual life becomes emergent, not engineered.

We'll challenge the "Great Temptation" of effectiveness without intimacy, results without relationship, and remember that the Word became flesh, not code or scale. Just as Transformers outperform by attending to what matters, disciples become effective by abiding in Who matters. The greatest act of faith is not effort, but remaining.

Tune in as we unpack how **"Attention Is All He Needs"** might just be the key to unlocking a simpler, more fruitful, and radically different way of being Christian. Discover why abiding is hypothesized to be the optimal strategy for everything you need and want from God.

What if the thing you fear most isn’t disobeying God—but losing your current relationship with Him?

In this raw and reflective conversation, Ernie and Robby dive deep into the paradox of obedience that disrupts rather than reinforces our spiritual comfort zones. From marriage tension to spiritual calling, they wrestle with what it means to follow God into places that don’t feel safe—but may lead to deeper union.

Key themes:

• Obedience as an act of intimacy, not performance
• Why we fear letting go of even good experiences of God
• The cross as a portal to unexpected communion
• How marriage and calling often surface our hidden attachments

Choice Quotes:

“The goal of obedience isn’t compliance—it’s communion.”

“I realized I wasn’t afraid of disobeying God. I was afraid of losing the relationship I already had with Him.”

“Disruptive grace shows up when God asks you to risk your comfort with Him… in order to know Him more.”

Listen if:

You’re navigating a season of spiritual tension, relational challenge, or disruptive invitation—and want to press in without falling apart.

In this episode, we dive deep into the tension between seeking knowledge and seeking connection with Jesus. Robby Butler shares his journey of once hearing God’s voice clearly, then slowly drifting into a culture that emphasized scripture over relationship. We explore how Christian tradition, Bible memorization, and even well-intentioned teaching can sometimes obscure the living voice of God. This is a raw, personal conversation about recovering intimacy with Jesus—and learning to pursue connection over control.

Tune in for an honest, heartfelt dialogue about what it means to actually hear from God in a world obsessed with knowing about Him.

In this episode, we explore a fresh way of dealing with tension—both the kind we wrestle with internally and the kind that shows up in our relationships. Instead of trying to fix others or push our beliefs, we talk about the power of recognizing our own false identities and inviting healing from the inside out.

Rooted in the way of Jesus, this approach calls us to lead with compassion, not control. We also dig into how important it is to fully experience before we explain—letting raw emotions speak before we label them.

Along the way, we touch on the deep connections between personal, relational, and social struggles, and how validation—simply acknowledging someone’s reach for connection—can be a profound act of love.

In this intimate, spirit-led conversation, Ernie and Robby reconnect after a season apart to reflect on the quiet work of God in their lives. Wrestling with relational tensions, spiritual growth, and cultural dislocation, they gently explore how Christ invites us into a new way of being—one that prioritizes connection over separation.

This unscripted episode sets the tone for a potential new season of their journey: revisiting old wounds, honoring past lessons, and stepping into a shared vulnerability rooted in love, presence, and identity in Jesus. Along the way, they ask brave questions about marriage, church, community, and the sometimes hidden ways healing begins.

Whether this becomes a full season or remains a sacred conversation between friends, it’s a soft launch into something new—and possibly, something holy.

See also:  Interpreting “One New Humanity” Through a Diaphoric Lens

Tune in for an episode exploring a powerful new concept drawn from the heart of divine reality! We'll delve into Diaphoris: The Ecstatic Agony of Divine Glory.

While classic theology speaks of perichoresis – the beautiful, ancient word for the mutual indwelling and interpenetration of the Trinity – we'll unpack something more dynamic, more painful, and more creative.

Starting with Jesus' prayer in John 17, we'll see that the glory He gives is not about uniformity or comfort, but a oneness mirrored in the Trinity that is a communion of distinction.

This isn't just a present dance, but a movement, a journey. We introduce diaphoris (from dia, "through/apart," and phorēin, "to bear") as the sacred dynamic where difference is borne, crossed, and ultimately reconciled, generating deeper communion.

Diaphoris speaks not just of interrelation, but of the journey to it. It names the agonizing ecstasy of love willing to be torn to embrace, capturing the rhythm of the Cross. Glory is framed not as stability, but as movement: separation creating space for love, otherness inviting encounter, suffering opening the way to deeper union. Christ is glorified not despite, but through, being lifted up, torn apart, and returned.

This dynamic echoes across creation, from cells dividing to cultures diverging, and is seen in the Church scattering and gathering, fractured yet drawn into reconciled communion. It's a fractal, cruciform process where difference becomes the womb of deeper unity. John 17 is an invitation to become a people shaped by this dynamic glory. We are called to live diaphorically: bearing difference with grace, enduring separation in hope, and embracing tension as the birthplace of communion.

Join us as we explore this path of glory, the living oneness of the Godhead, and the prayer of Christ still echoing and reconciling. This is where love does not collapse difference, but transfigures it.

Did Christ Die to Cause or Transmit Forgiveness?

Are we misunderstanding the Cross? Many preach that the Father had to be persuaded to forgive us, requiring Christ's death as appeasement for divine wrath. But what if this reverses the gospel? This episode explores the perspective of Athanasius of Alexandria, who argued that God's forgiveness was already inherent. He viewed the Incarnation and Crucifixion not as a response to divine wrath, but as a healing and restoration of human nature corrupted by sin. Discover why Athanasius saw the Cross as a surgical intervention to mend humanity's brokenness, leading to union with the divine and ontological transformation, rather than a legal transaction. Learn why he called us to embrace the scandalous mercy of God, recognizing the Cross as an expression of love aimed at human sanctification and communion. Tune in to understand why Athanasius insisted, "The Problem Was Never With the Father" and that in Christ crucified, we see the heart of the Father made visible.