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 220 - The Uniqueness of Christianity
Witness how faith, love and compassion transformed the lives of a group of national pastors in Central Asia, who discovered Jesus and the power of salvation through grace. Marvel at the profound influence of Christian men's demeanour towards women and the sheer joy of Christian music that played a pivotal role in their journey towards faith. Tune in as we dissect the impact of legalism on spiritual joy and explore the liberating essence of biblical liberty under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to reveal what is truly unique about Christianity.
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. As 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, do you remember the time you and I taught SSTS in one of those central Asian countries that ended with the word Stan?
Speaker 1:Sure do. We had a group of national pastors who were meeting each other from around the country for the first time. Their country had experienced a severe civil war some years earlier between rival adherents to the same religion. A organizing host could not find a translator in their language, so he had to hire a professional Russian-speaking woman to translate. Since the participants all understood Russian, let's call her Svetlana.
Speaker 2:But Svetlana was not a Christian. We will tell you more about what happened to her later, but during the first class, when we said to the participants tell us your name and how long you've been a follower of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:They went around the room saying things like I became a Christian nine years ago. I became a Christian five years ago. I became a Christ follower seven years ago. Nine five seven. Then I asked none of you have been a Christian longer than nine years. What happened here ten years ago that has caused you to become a follower of Jesus Christ? Then the host pastor told us that some ten years earlier, there was a conflict between two branches of the same religion and over 50,000 people were killed.
Speaker 1:I remember you and I were surprised because the Western media had been quite silent about this conflict quote over there in Central Asia somewhere. So we had heard very little about this civil war.
Speaker 2:That's when we asked them what were the factors that caused you to become a follower of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, even though you could be arrested or imprisoned for converting to Christianity? Their first response was love. Jesus teaches love and compassion. They were amazed that Christ teaches us to love one another, not hate and kill one another, and they saw that the followers of Jesus had love for their family, love for their neighbors, even love for their enemies.
Speaker 1:That was a huge factor. They quoted one of the warring religious leaders who reportedly said yes, those Christians have love, but they are foolish. They give us, their enemies the banana and then we kill them.
Speaker 2:That action of Christians loving and forgiving and feeding their enemies rather than killing their enemies made an impact on these people who chose to become Christians. A second factor was forgiveness. Jesus showed us how to forgive our enemies. These pastors and leaders were attracted to faith in Christ by the teachings of the Bible on forgiveness, even the examples they saw in Christians around them who were willing to forgive those who hated them, excluded them, insulted them and rejected them. The key verse was Luke 23,34, where Jesus, an innocent man, while nailed to the cross by his enemies, said Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. These brothers had seen thousands die rather than forgive their enemies. They saw that the foundation of evil is lies, deceit, anger and hatred. Only God's forgiveness can break that cycle and free us from guilt.
Speaker 1:It caused them to wonder about the Christian teaching that God is love. It made them curious to want to know more about the God that Christians worship.
Speaker 2:A third factor was the biblical teaching that salvation was by God's grace alone, period, freely offered, freely accepted, by faith alone. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Other religions teach that to be right with God and earn his favor, you must do something to earn your salvation. You must follow some rule or ritual or law to be right with their God. For example, you must worship their God every full moon, or worship him on Fridays or Saturdays or after sundown, or five times a day, or facing in a certain direction or from a specific city or a holy river, or by lighting certain candles, or sitting in a certain position in silence, or with noisy music or with drugs, or wake up everyone at 4 am with a megaphone to come and worship him or her or whoever it is.
Speaker 2:Pablo, the brothers and sisters in Christ sitting in the room with us were overflowing with joy that there was nothing we can do to earn our salvation, as Scripture says. For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Okay, how many is that now? Love, compassion, forgiveness grace.
Speaker 1:I well remember that one of their attractions to Jesus Christ and the Christian faith was their observation of the way Christian men treated women.
Speaker 2:That was a huge factor. They saw Christian women as loved by their husbands, not slaves to just wash dishes and have sex. They felt that Christian women were treated as equals with their husbands, Love, respected, encouraged and significant and the big thing was that Christian women were free and welcome to worship together with their husbands and children at the same time, in the same place, not segregated off like second-class citizens with some contagious disease and they loved Christian music.
Speaker 2:I wish I could remember all the words they used to describe Christian music joyful, energetic, peaceful, focused on worshiping.
Speaker 1:God. The attraction these folks in Central Asia had to Christian music was also the way the words of worship and praise ministered to their spirit through the harmony, melody and rhythm of the songs.
Speaker 2:Agreed. Christian music does have harmony, melody, rhythm and joy. One can almost discern the health of a Christian congregation by listening to their music and singing. It may be reflecting a limited level of spiritual energy by the congregation.
Speaker 1:Some were their other characteristics that they mentioned.
Speaker 2:We also noted that they appreciated the liberty Christians had in Christ compared to the legalism they faced in their previous religion. Jesus said you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Legalism drains the spiritual energy of joy from your soul. It is all about performance, Doing, doing, doing, always being measured by others for how often you prayed, how much you gave, how many you did. Legalism is external, performance-based, under observation by others. Liberty is internal, biblically-based, under the control of the Holy.
Speaker 1:Spirit. Liberty must be based on the truth, and Jesus said he was the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker 2:Right on Pablo. Truth is absolute. Truth is not plural. Today, people talk about my truth and your truth as though whatever you choose to believe is true for you. This is heresy. The Bible is the Word of God, the true truth, absolute, unchanging truth. God wrote the Bible through men to whom he spoke over a period of one thousand years.
Speaker 2:I had a friend who said we're all going to the same place, so it doesn't matter what we call ourselves or what truth we believe. My response was not in my books. Why do you say that, he asked. Well, my friend, I am going to be in heaven with Jesus Christ because Jesus rose from the dead and has the power to raise me from the dead. His response was I don't want to be raised from the dead For sure. Then we are not going to the same place. What you believe sounds like syncretism. What's that, he asked? Syncretism says that all paths lead up the mountain to the same God, but these Christians we met in Central Asia had found the way in Jesus Christ, that he was the truth and came to give us the life.
Speaker 2:Some religions worship the cow, some eat the cow. Some religions say cover your head. Some say shave your head. Some religions say kill your enemies. Some say eat your enemies. Some religions make their followers worship on a full moon. Others must worship on a certain day of the week or after sundown, or five times a day, facing in a certain direction or only on one specific place. We are not all worshiping the same God. Our God and Savior, jesus of Nazareth tells us love your enemies. If they are hungry, feed them. If thirsty, give them drink. Our God and the other gods are diametrically opposed. Jesus of Nazareth is not the same God other folks are worshiping. The Christian faith is not a religion, it is a relationship. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The early Christians were called followers of the way.
Speaker 1:Right. We did not know for sure whether Svetlana was a Jesus follower, but she translated for us the stories she heard about how each participant became a Christian.
Speaker 2:Svetlana did not own a Bible and had limited Bible knowledge. If I said, read Galatians 2.20 in Russian, she would whisper to us what's a. Galatian. We had to prearrange all Bible readings a day ahead so Svetlana could practice reading in a Russian Bible.
Speaker 1:You and I both had a stomach flu and were sick during this conference. The participants had a great time of fellowship and singing and prayer together, but I remember that we both felt the conference was less than successful until years later, in one of the other stands, we were training trainers from eight countries.
Speaker 2:A sharp looking young man approached us from one of the country groups and said Hi Paul, hi Jim, you do not know me, but you know my mother, your mother. We have somewhat startled because we were new to every person in the room. Yes, my mother's name is Svetlana Svetlana. We both asked in shock how is she? Well, he began my mother came home from your conference and said she learned more about the Bible in one week, translating for you guys, than she had learned in her entire life. So she went out and bought a Russian Bible and began reading it. She decided to follow Jesus. Then she read the Bible to us and our entire family became followers of Jesus Christ when they wanted some young men from our language group to be trained to teach your SSTS course entitled Standing Strong Through the Storm.
Speaker 2:I was selected. And here I am. Wow, were we humbled. The trip that we thought went wrong turned into an amazing blessing. So to our list of what makes Christianity unique, we must add one more thing we have a loving God of grace who is meticulously sovereign in His timing.
Speaker 1:What a great ending to the story, jim Praise God. A story of God's timing and God's sovereignty to work through even an illness and a difficulty to achieve His eternal plans. He works all things after the counsel of His own will. Perhaps there is one man listening today who is saying, hey, you guys make sense. I've decided to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and obey Him and serve Him until I see Him face to face. Then we can say some day Thank you, jesus, for allowing us to do these programs on men alive. Use them to help men come to faith in Jesus Christ and be with you for all eternity. Let us know what God is doing in your life. Send us an email note to menaliveintogodcom and go visit our website at goteachglobalcom for more resources. Until next time, I'm Paulist Brooks with Dr Jim Cunningham, encouraging you to become a follower of Jesus transformed into His character.
