Church (ekklesia) Gk: … is a Military word. Believers are Recruited, Assembled for Training, and Deployed into Action.

One thing I want to say up front. While I helped bring Forge Tribe together, this is the first time I’m actually walking through this content in real time. I’m not ahead of it. I’m being exposed to it the same way you are. The story of Cyrus stood out in a way I didn’t expect. Cyrus was a Persian king, not part of Israel, yet God names him in Scripture and uses him to restore Jerusalem and send the Jewish people back from exile. That’s not random. It shows a level of continuity and intentionality in the Bible that’s hard to ignore. God isn’t just working inside one group of people. He is orchestrating history itself, using whoever He chooses to move His story forward. That shifted how I see things. It makes me think about how often God is working through people and situations that don’t look obviously spiritual, but are still part of something much bigger than we can see. As the week moved into the life of Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount, what stuck with me was how direct He is about the heart. Not just behavior, but what’s underneath it. It made it clear that this isn’t about meeting a standard. It’s about something deeper that none of us can fix on our own. That tension between wanting to live rightly and recognizing that I can’t produce righteousness on my own kept coming up for me. But Day 35 was what brought everything into focus. I was sitting there holding my third son, a newborn, while reading it, and that changed how I saw it. Most of the language around the table, the bread, the cup, the covenant feels heavy and layered. It’s easy to understand it intellectually but still feel a distance from it. What connected for me was something simple. My son can only receive. He doesn’t contribute anything. He depends completely on what’s given to him. And it made me realize how difficult that posture is for me. Most of my life has been built around figuring things out, carrying responsibility, and making things happen. That instinct has served me, but it also shapes how I approach God.

The one that keeps coming up is this: How do you surrender… and still build, provide, and take full responsibility for your life? I don’t think surrender means doing less. I don’t think it means stepping back and saying “God’s got it” while you coast. That doesn’t hold up in the real world. If you build something poorly and it fails, that’s on you. That’s not “God’s will,” that’s lack of execution. At the same time, I’m realizing there’s a difference between responsibility and control. I can be fully responsible for my effort, my decisions, my leadership, and still not be in control of every outcome. That’s where surrender actually starts to make sense. It’s not letting go of action. It’s letting go of the belief that I’m the one holding everything together. Another theme that hit me was how quickly I can build things to feel secure. The Tower of Babel, Pharaoh, the golden calf… it’s the same pattern. When things feel uncertain or when I don’t want to wait, there’s a pull to build something I can control. Not out of rebellion, but out of capability. That’s the more subtle danger. And then the Red Sea reflection made me realize something else. I don’t feel fear stepping forward right now. I’ve been taking risks, moving fast, building, and it’s been working. But what they stepped into wasn’t calculated. It wasn’t something they understood. It only worked if God held it together.That’s a different level of faith. So I’m not trying to pretend I’m struggling with fear. I’m trying to stay honest about a different question: Am I building with God… or just successfully on my own? And if everything shifted tomorrow, would I still be steady? The way I’m starting to think about it is this: Work hard. Build. Take responsibility.But don’t let the outcome define you or own you. Surrender doesn’t remove remove responsibility. It removes the weight of thinking you control everything. Curious what’s been sticking with you guys in this stretch. Please share.

Before you step fully into the Crucible, we want you to understand the heart behind it. These disciplines are not about earning God’s love, proving your strength, or performing for anyone. They are tools—simple, intentional practices that help retrain your attention, your appetites, and your trust. They create space for God to meet you in prayer, in your body, and in brotherhood. In this video, we walk through each discipline one by one and explain why we practice them. The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is formation. Go into this encouraged. You are not trying to achieve something—you are learning to slow down, strip away distraction, and rely more fully on Christ. Watch with an open heart. This is training, and you are not walking it alone.

My name is Alexei! I’ve joined the forge tribe not understanding fully what is coning ahead! I’m very interested and thankful for the opportunity!