MEN ALIVE: Jim Cunningham & Paul Estabrooks' Podcast
Programs to help men become transformed to the image (character) of Jesus Christ.
MEN ALIVE: Jim Cunningham & Paul Estabrooks' Podcast
MEN ALIVE 207 - Life, Learning, and Rabbits
Ready for a journey to the heart of life, learning, and truth? Come along as we spend time with Dr. Jim Cunningham, a noted adult education consultant, director of Go Teach Global, and author of the book, Men Alive. Together, we explore the essence of life, the importance of our relationships with God and each other, and the stories of two handicapped people who've touched countless lives despite their personal struggles. Tap into your God-given capacity to learn and see how faith offers an escape from cultural darkness, enabling us to find freedom in Christ.
Welcome to Men Alive, a biblical journey to help us conform to the image of Jesus Christ. I'm your host, paul Estabrooks. Our teacher is my longtime friend, dr Jim Cunningham, consultant in adult education, director of Go Teach Global and author of the book Men Alive.
Speaker 2:Pablo, I recently came across a presentation I gave some 40 years ago when I was teaching education students at a Christian university. I chose the title Reflections on Life Learning and Rabbits.
Speaker 1:Rabbits. Okay, I'll nibble. Where are we going with this one?
Speaker 2:My presentation identified nine things to which I was committed 40 years ago as a Christian educator. I am committed to them today, including my view about rabbits. Here they are 1. I am committed to life. Life is enjoying every breath I am permitted to breathe on God's created earth. Life is this moment, today, here, now, growing to experience a love for the Lord, my God, with all my heart and soul and mind, while the Holy Spirit helps me become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. As Scripture says, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Life has no replay button. Life is relational vertically to God, horizontally to man. Life is motion. In Him we live and move and have our being Observing people.
Speaker 2:Moving is one of life's greatest amazements. Finding someone right with a pen, or compete in a marathon, or climb a set of stairs, paint a classic with a brush in mouth or operate their wheelchair their movement ploys laughter. Energy is transformed from stillness to motion. To move is to be alive. Some of the most amazing people on earth deal with handicaps. Consider Nick Fuyichich, an Australian American born without arms or legs, who has become a world-renowned speaker. Or consider Johnny Erickson, tata At the age of 17, she dove into unknown water, broke her neck and began a lifetime sitting in her wheelchair as a quadriplegic. Yet Nick and Johnny have traveled more miles and encouraged more people than most humans on the planet. Like Nick and Johnny, paul and I believe in abundant, eternal, fulfilling life that exceeds philosophical frameworks. To live is to have hope. Hope to learn and, if necessary, to relearn. To do that is action, to know, that is knowledge and to be, that is character. These are the key motivators for learning, action, knowledge and character development.
Speaker 1:I agree, jim, life is growth If we have breath and a beating heart. We have a new day to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, to know the truth, to be fully set free in Christ and understand God's grace in a new way, to experience that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Speaker 2:Here's my second one. I'm committed to helping men become fully alive through faith in Jesus Christ. Women, meaning male and female, is an eternal rational being made in the image of God, albeit marred in his image by Adam's disobedience to God's eternal plan. Man thinks reasons and makes wise or foolish decisions. Man is morally responsible for his actions. Man is more than matter in motion or a ghost in the machine. As such, everyone has an innate, god-given capacity to learn. Third, I am committed to lifelong learning, for myself and as a facilitator to help others learn.
Speaker 2:I believe that learning, especially learning about truth, should continue to the day of one's death. Learning the light of God's truth found in nature, scripture and Jesus Christ, when internalized, brings release from our cultural darkness. Scripture says you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Fourth, I am committed to helping learners know God, know themselves and have right, peaceful relationships with God and man. I desire to be a man of peace, with a peace within that passes all understanding. What a blessing to hear someone say when you walk into a room, here comes the peacemaker. God is, god made and God revealed his plan to man. God intended from the beginning to make man in his image, full of grace and truth. I am not the first nor the wisest man to think about helping others learn, but I desire to formulate ideas in a way that encourages people to love God with all their heart and soul and mind. Fifth, I am committed to teachers being a model example for learners.
Speaker 2:Teachers need sufficient knowledge of their subject and awareness of their learners' needs to gain the attention, respect and confidence of each learner. A teacher should be able to motivate the learner by either creating a stimulating environment for learning or capturing teachable moments emerging from daily routines. The lifestyle of the teacher often carries more long range impact than the facts of the lesson. It is primarily who we are as teachers, what we say and do, that will remain long after the content of the lesson has evaporated. John the Baptist identified our Lord Jesus Christ as full of grace and truth. Jesus added to it and said Learn from me, for he was gentle and humble. Full of grace, full of truth, gentle and humble. Paul, your new book is entitled Living Like a Lamb among 21st Century Wolves Balancing Grace and Truth. Let's tell listeners how to get a comment.
Speaker 1:You are listening to Men Alive with Dr Jim Cunningham of Go Teach Global. I'm Paul Osterbrooks and my new book is titled Living Like a Lamb among 21st Century Wolves. Subtitle Balancing Grace and Truth. You can order it on Amazon or at Castle Key Books. Key is spelled Q-U-A-Y, castle Key two words books. Now back to Dr Jim's list of nine things to which he is committed. Number 6.
Speaker 2:I am committed to the eternal value of each person to influence history. Teachers create history in the life of each learner. History is one man who affects the lives of others, one act that directs the destiny of countries. One day that influences the future for centuries. As we said, life has no replay button. History is an essence One man, one act, one day, recorded for eternal evaluation. Once a learner desires to learn, the upward limits of the mind's capacity to learn are beyond man's ability to measure. Thank you.
Speaker 2:7. I am committed to biblical morality for all mankind. I believe that a value-free learning encounter is a myth. Every person entering a classroom, as a teacher or a learner, has preconceived values that continually impinge upon their thoughts and attitudes, words, actions and lifestyle. The question is not whether morality will be taught in a classroom, but whose morality will be taught. The moral principles of the Bible are trans-cultural Thou shalt love thy neighbor as yourself is a worldwide, cross-cultural human survival absolute. I can teach biblical principles without apology, for they are universal principles of life, survival, growth, health, joy, peace and love needed by all human beings made in the image of God. The Ten Commandments alone, if taught and obeyed, would revolutionize our worldview.
Speaker 2:8. I am committed to learners being wise in the things that are good, but innocent of the things which are evil. Romans 16-19. Satan's lie to Adam and Eve was that they could disobey God, do their own thing and be as God's knowing good and evil. God graciously intended from the beginning to keep man free from experiencing evil. I denounce that one must experience evil to understand good. That is a lie.
Speaker 2:9. I am committed to absolute truth. When I married my wife Rita, I was asked by the minister do you forsake all others? I said I do. That ended all comparative shopping. The search was complete. Likewise, god, the Creator, god of love, loved me so much he sent His only begotten Son that if I, jim Cunningham, and you, the listener, wherever you are, accept Jesus Christ, we will not be cut off from God but have everlasting life. I accept God as truth.
Speaker 2:Life is the knowledge of the truth. To love truth should cause one to walk humbly and fear the Lord. Knowledge alone can puff up and produce the greatest of all hindrances to learning, called pride. Pride says I am unwilling to try again. I am unwilling to understand, to think a new thought, to submit, to listen, to obey and to be set free. Learning requires humility for, I must admit, I need to know the truth.
Speaker 2:I am a realist. I read non-fiction, I write non-fiction. While I admire literary craftsmen who can sculpture the life-changing impact of truth through fiction, I admire those who write truths gained from studying God's Word. It appears to me that the most important things I have learned or absorbed as part of my inner being have been integrated through the discipline of obedience and suffering. For me, submission is a lifelong challenge. While Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, our Messiah, scripture says he learned obedience through the things which he suffered. He learned obedience to the will of God, obedience to the Word of God, by submission both to the will and the Word of God. God, in His grace, may be willing to allow us to suffer, to walk down our own path, to bear the consequences of our actions, so that we will come to Him in a right relationship of trust, obedience and submission.
Speaker 1:Jim, my brother, before we run out of time we better get to the part about the rabbits.
Speaker 2:Thanks, pablo. Here's a lesson I learned from my maternal grandfather. He was an avid hunter. Think of a hunter out with his dogs tracking a raccoon. The raccoon is up ahead, alive, real, and has a unique scent. But then across the raccoon's tracks runs a rabbit. The scent of that rabbit is fresher and the hunting dog sometimes gets distracted and follows the fresh rabbit trail instead of tracking the coon. That's what our spiritual enemy likes to do to us. Across God's eternal plan, the adversary runs like a rabbit, placing a new, fresh, enticing scent. Not that he seeks to distract us with immoral or obscene plans, but to just have us think thoughts that are almost good, plan ideas that are almost acceptable and dream dreams that are almost perfect.
Speaker 2:Biblical obedience involves tracking the steps of Christ that were left for us in the Scriptures. Following the fragrance of Christ means staying on the trail of truth while avoiding the rabid tracks of error. Let's agree to be committed to life, to helping men become fully alive, to lifelong learning, to knowing God, to being a model example to the next generation, to the eternal value of each person, to biblical morality, to be innocent of what is evil and to view the Bible as absolute truth. Our desire is to give biblical hope and encouragement to men to become committed to love Jesus Christ and to serve Him, whatever the cost, until we see Him face to face.
Speaker 1:There you have it, men. Dr Jim's thoughts on life learning and rabbits. Send Dr Jim your comments and questions at menaliveantogodcom Menaliveantogod. One word at gmailcom and be sure to visit our website to find many helpful resources. Go to goteachglobalcom. Until next time, I'm Paul Osterbrooks, on behalf of Dr Jim Cunningham, encouraging you to be men, alive, a fully committed follower and disciple of Jesus Christ, without rabbit-track distractions.
