Infidel for Christ

This month I have another video recommendation. It is a 45-minute secular documentary about Mosab Hassan Yousef, a young Palestinian man who has believed in the Lord Jesus. The documentary is encouraging for several reasons.

First, if anyone would seem to be born disadvantaged to believe in Jesus, Mosab Yousef was that person. He was raised under the influence of a father who is one of the founders of Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group that governs the Gaza portion of the Palestinian Territories and is devoted to the destruction of Israel. Mosab was at one time the leader of the radical Islamic Youth Movement of Hamas. But when he heard some truth about Jesus, his heart yielded to the Spirit. It demonstrates that anyone can believe in Jesus, regardless of their background, even those steeped in anti-Christian culture.

Laugh, then Cry

Since last month’s e-teaching, God’s Regrets, was such a mind-stretcher, I thought it might be good to start the year off with something less cerebral. So below are two, two-minute videos, produced by the always-sardonic Onion News Network. I don’t recommend everything they produce, but these two videos offer a thought-provoking commentary on our culture as it relates to the rest of the world. It will take four minutes of your time. I’ll say no more.

Pastoring with Less Pain, Part 2 of 2

When pastors gather, they sometimes joke that if it weren’t for people, pastoring would be a great profession. Indeed, people are the reason that pastoring is sometimes so painful. However, as I contended in June’s E-teaching, Pastoring with Less Pain, Part 1 of 2, if you are a sincere disciple-making pastor, then you know that pastoring genuine sheep—those who want to be discipled and truly follow Jesus—is an absolute delight. Thus I did my best to encourage pastors to purge their churches of goats by preaching the truth. And if that doesn’t clear them all out, then biblical excommunication is in order. (And excommunication is biblical, of course.)

Most pastors, however, find the idea of excommunication to be a frightful proposition, and understandably so. Can you imagine what would happen in most churches if the pastor excommunicated someone, even attempting to do it quietly? Most likely it would result in gossip, strife, and a potential church split. If the pastor publicly explained his reason for the excommunication, he could well be accused of being insensitive, dictatorial, or face a lawsuit for defamation of character. Even though Jesus gave very clear instructions to all His followers regarding excommunication and shunning—instructions that are reinforced in the New Testament epistles—actually following those instructions seems like a way to open Pandora’s Box.

Pastoring with Less Pain, Part 1 of 2

Note: Like April’s e-teaching, Dear Pastor, Will You Repent With Me?, this month’s is also directed primarily to pastors, but even those who are not pastors could, I hope, benefit from reading it. Please understand that a major part of our ministry is to pastors around the world, and we’re reaching tens of thousands of them in numerous nations. This is a great burden on my heart, and I can’t help it! — David

I’ve been thinking about a conversation I had not long ago with a friend who is a pastor. He shared his pain regarding some people who had recently left his church. At one time they had been loyal, enthusiastic supporters of his ministry. But their departure was anything but that. Now they were speaking ill of him to others, and it had become ugly.

It wasn’t the first time he had experienced what pastors sometimes refer to as “the Judas syndrome.” And if past experience teaches anything, it wouldn’t be the last time.

An Inconvenient Truth

Provocative communicator Tony Campolo has been known to begin sermons with the following words:

I have three things I want to tell you. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 children died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition.

Second, most of you don’t give a sh**.

Then, after a pause to allow some inward reaction to his first two statements, Tony drops the bomb:

What is even worse is that you are more upset that I used the word sh** than you are that 30,000 children died last night.

It’s Time to Try Pond #2!

Dear Friends,

Last month I received a letter from an enthusiastic reader who told me that he has been downloading the first chapters of my evangelistic book, Forgive Me for Waiting so Long to Tell You This, printing them, and leaving them in the men’s bathroom stalls where he works. He said they are being read, and no negative comments so far!

Lessons from Children

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:1-6).

Jesus’ disciples did not ask the question, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” from a purely academic concern. They were all personally interested, hoping to be great in the soon-coming kingdom. It was obvious to them that they had a winning candidate in Jesus, and they believed it wouldn’t be long before He would be ruling the world. Opportunity was knocking for those with ambition!

Only Eunuchs Never Struggle With Lust

A number of the responses I received from last month’s e-teaching, Can a Christian Have a Demon?, were from men who told me their stories of enduring ‘deliverance ministry’ to expel the ‘demon of lust.’ In every case, they spoke of the ultimate failure of those sessions, and how they had to learn to overcome lust by self-discipline. Lust is such a common struggle among Christian men that I’ve decided to devote an e-teaching to the subject. I hope it is helpful. And to all the women who intend to ignore the ‘For Men Only!’ warning, I hope this will at least help you to better understand men. But don’t expect any help from me to understand yourself. I don’t understand women! — David

All genuine Christian men desire to be lust-free. To overcome lust, however, it is essential to understand what it is. To understand what it is, it often helps to consider what it is not. So let’s begin with that.

First, lust is not sexual desire. Sexual desire is God-given and thus pure. It is nothing to be ashamed of, any more than the desire for food is shameful. Allow me to elaborate.

The Day Jesus Lied?

It is always pure joy to discover more people who are focusing on the substance of what following Jesus is supposed to be all about—loving God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. These two commandments are what Jesus said are most important and what encapsulate all the rest (see Matt. 22:36-40). Being a Christian is all about love-relationships, lived out in self-denying servanthood towards God and others. There is no truth that is so simple yet so profound. People who respond to the gospel become lovers. As we will explore in this month’s e-teaching, the two greatest commandments are inextricably linked to salvation itself. So we begin with a portion of Scripture that has had many of us scratching our heads.

Luke tells us in his Gospel that Jesus was once “put to the test” by a man who was an expert in the Law of Moses, a lawyer, as they were called. He asked, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). Convinced that he knew the answer to his question, the lawyer wanted to see if Jesus would answer correctly.

Straining Out Gnats

Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:19, emphasis added).

Jesus obviously believed that there were lesser commandments, as revealed in the quote above. He therefore must have also believed that there were greater commandments.