Grace, Truth & Boldness with Muslim Neighbors! - Episode #12 Summary of the episode: In this episode of The E.A.R. Podcast, host Brandon Queen is joined by Timothy Harris, author of Loving Your Muslim Neighbor, to explore deep and challenging topics from chapters 33-35 of the book. The conversation focuses on three key areas: balancing grace and truth in evangelism, reflecting Christ’s love in interactions with Muslim neighbors, and the importance of speaking out about faith rather than staying silent. The first segment discusses how being overly forceful in evangelism can push people away. Timothy emphasizes the importance of meeting people with grace and compassion, just as Jesus did with the woman caught in adultery. In the second segment, they dive into how Christians can reflect Christ’s love through respect and humility and explore the complexities of addressing difficult political topics like the Israeli/Palestinian conflict with compassion. Lastly, the episode tackles the challenge of staying bold in sharing the gospel, with Timothy urging Christians to resist the temptation to remain silent about their faith out of fear of offending others. Throughout the conversation, Timothy shares practical insights on servant evangelism, listening to the Holy Spirit, and building trust through love. The episode challenges listeners to live out their faith boldly and compassionately in a world of differing beliefs. Meet the Guest: Timothy and Miriam speak in churches everywhere to educate, equip, and energize Christians to gain God’s heart for Muslim people and to love them. Chapters: 00:00 - CPC Ad 00:57 - Introduction 2:06 - Can We Both Be Right About What We Believe? 17:44 - Do You Look Different to Muslim People? 33:05 - I Love You Too Much to Be Silent Please listen to Episode #1 of this season to learn more about Timothy and Miriam Harris. Calls to action: Please check out their website, www.lovingyourmuslimneighbor.com. You can also purchase a copy of the book from the website and follow along during this season! To connect with Timothy and Miriam Harris, email them at [email protected]. Note: This podcast is part of the Christian Podcast Community. You can click here to access more episodes and similar podcasts. Works Cited: Cover Art: Brandon Queen | Bible Translations – English Standard Version (unless stated/noted in the interview) | Quotes: authentic from the host and guest (unless stated/pointed out during the podcast) | Song: Turkish Beat - Music by: Muzaproduction from Pixabay --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elderqueen/support --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elderqueen/support
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The Ear, Evangelical and Reformed, Christian Podcast. Welcome to The Ear, the Evangelical and Reformed, a Christian podcast that urges you to think deeper and draws you closer to God through faith. Through powerful sermons, teaching segments, and discussions, The Ear hopes to give you a different perspective on secular topics from a Christian worldview. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Please welcome your host, Brandon Queen.
Well, welcome back to another episode of the Ear podcast. I'm your host, Brandon Queen. And today we're joined by a special guest, a good friend of mine, Timothy Harris. And we're diving right back into some powerful, challenging topics based on his book, Loving Your Muslim Neighbor. Now, if you have a copy of this book, we will be in chapters 33 to 35 of the book.
And we've been studying this for quite some time and we are making our way to the end. So these chapters bring up questions that really force us to reflect on how we live out our faith in today's world. So, Timothy, it is great to have you back with us, brother.
Thank you so much, Brandon. It's just a pleasure to be here. It's a real honor. And I'm looking forward to digging into your questions tonight.
Awesome. Awesome. Well, picking up on our last episode, you talked about a guy a few episodes back about a guy, you know, wanting to hit you and how you ended up just hugging him and just diffusing, you know, that situation. So we're going to start off with the first segment of our conversation today, and it's going to be chapter 33, which is titled, Can we both be right about what we believe?
So let's start off with. this chapter okay now we live in a world that is full of different beliefs and these questions come up a lot especially in our interactions with people of other faiths backgrounds such as muslims in a political world you know we have this thing where absolute truth is no longer truth it's your truth and my truth And nobody can refute my truth or I can't refute your truth.
So, Timothy, with that, let me ask you this. Have you seen examples of Christians being too forceful in evangelism?
Absolutely. I mean, here's what we see, Brandon. We see that most believers, they want to share their faith with those who don't yet follow Jesus. And we kind of see that it's like two pendulum, two ends of a pendulum swinging. It's all one way or another. It's either, it seems like what we see with people is it's all truth and very little or no grace.
So these are the Christians that kind of let their evangelism actually get in the way of their kindness and friendship and service to Muslims. They're just so forceful. And they really view Muslim people as projects or targets. Wow. Yeah, they unnaturally just force their evangelism, and they never build a real sincere relationship with them. But we also see people, Brandon, do the opposite.
So the first example kind of is all truth and little or no grace. But the other thing we see in some believers— as they evangelize, and now we're talking mostly as it relates to Muslims, is they're on the opposite end of the spectrum, or as the pendulum swings, they are all grace, but little or no truth.
And what I mean by that is that they let their kindness and friendship and service to Muslims get in the way of their evangelism. So they rightfully and humbly love and serve Muslim people, but they never get around them. to any kind of real or serious faith discussions for fear that they will lose the relationship.
So we see people on both kind of ends of that spectrum, or as I said, the pendulum swings too wide, too broadly either way. Instead of the balance of Jesus in John 1, 14, grace and truth, just the balance of grace and truth.
Awesome. That is a perfect example of how I've seen people push their way through. And I've seen it with not Christians sharing with Muslims. I've just seen it with, you know, people on the street corners. And look, I respect the street preachers and some of them, you know, they do it for the right reason. They do it to bring about God's grace and also the truth.
But then I see some that are just out there to harass people. And they end up pushing people away and they forget about the balance that the gospel is supposed to bring.
Yeah, perfect. Well, could I could I just share briefly two short stories of what I've seen of Christians perhaps being too forceful in evangelism? Would that be OK?
Oh, gosh, yes.
OK, well, one example was. Where we live, like where most folks do these days in the US, we have an influx of refugees. And after 2021, when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, it was a terrible tragedy what happened. So we know that just countless thousands of Afghans were trying to get out of that country. And quite a number came to our city where we live in the Midwest.
And I was blessed to befriend, through an English class, three pilots, actually. They were in the Afghan Air Force and they came here. And so I was able to befriend them and show them kindness. And one night I set up a dinner with a friend of mine that grew up as a Muslim in Iran. but has become a believer, been a believer now for a few decades.
And because he speaks Farsi and they speak Dari and these languages are similar, he could communicate with them. So we all five went out to eat and to get to the end of the story quickly, he was kind to them that night, but he was just too forceful. He, He really, I feel like he pushed too hard.
And Brandon, what happened after that was when I would send text messages or try to call the leader of those three Afghan pilots, he would never respond again to me.
Wow.
Wouldn't answer a text or WhatsApp message or a phone call. And it was just heartbreaking because it just immediately just cut off the relationship, not just with him, but also the other two. And so that's one example. Another example is that we have a dear friend from the Middle East. He is an Arab Christian. And we have some refugees in our area that are from North Africa.
And so we, Miriam and I, have been befriending them. It's been amazing, Brandon, though. the friendship that we've had with them, and we've gotten so close. Nice. Some of them call us their parents. It's just so beautiful. And we have shared good news of Jesus with them. We've tried to hit that balance of grace and truth. Well, we had a visitor come from the Middle East. He is a dear friend.
We've known him for years, since 2012. And we just thought it'd be great if he shared the gospel with two of these refugee men, their brothers, and he could do it in Arabic. So we thought that would be so much better for them in their heart language. And so he shared one night after a large meal they hosted us, he shared about 45 minutes.
And I was watching the body language of my North African Muslim friends, and it wasn't good, Brandon. They were Yeah, they just looked very uneasy, very uncomfortable. Well, about two weeks later, I was at their home once again, and they said to me, Tim, listen, there's something we really want to talk to you about. I said, sure, you guys know I want to talk to you about anything.
Let's have an honest conversation. I want to be friends. You know where I'm coming from. And they said, listen, your friend who came, we really liked him. but he pressured us to make a decision that day to become Christians. And we want you to know right now, we will never leave Islam. We will never leave our religion. We will never become Christians.
And if you think that being kind to us or helping us through all these months will make us a Christian, we just want you to know right now, it won't work. It's not happening. It's off the table. And so, yeah. So now thank God, thank God, unlike the other situation, the Lord really redeemed this in a precious and beautiful way.
I was able to respond to them and said, listen, you guys know that Miriam and I love you. And we want you to be assured that we will love you whether you ever believe what we believe or not. But I'm going to tell you, and I said a lot of other things, but Brandon, here's how I closed. I said, listen, I will never pressure you to believe what I believe, but I will pray for it every day.
And it was really neat. It just by then we expressed so much honesty back and forth. that one of the brothers when he heard me say that he just burst out laughing like you know he was just saying that's what i would expect of you so so sometimes you know in our eagerness and our in our you know we share too much too fast or too hard And so that's one side, again, of that pendulum swing.
But honestly, just as I just share this final comment about that, Brandon, we've seen more people befriend Muslims, and we've met them through Zoom calls and other things, conferences, and we'll ask them, hey, how's it going as you're sharing the good news of Jesus with your Muslim friends? And they'll say, well, we just haven't gotten around to it yet.
I'll say, well, how long have you known them? Well, two years, three years. And so, you know, boy, that's the other end of the whole spectrum, right? They're so worried about offending and losing the friendship. They never share gospel truth. So it's got to be grace and truth, that perfect balance that only Jesus, you know, had beautifully and perfectly. But we want to aspire to it.
Right. So my question would be, do you focus more on truth or grace?
Are you asking me that, I think, as a personal question or for anyone?
Well, for anyone. I mean, if we're going to be training future missionaries, what would you focus on more, truth or grace or both? And what would be the consequence of doing either or?
Well, absolutely, I would say both, grace and truth. I mean, the consequence of all truth with little or no grace is
really turns off anyone i mean because they're they just feel like you're viewing them as a target you know um like the old westerns a notch on your belt or something they they don't feel loved and so why are they going to want something from a person that doesn't show them love and kindness and respect and so yeah i mean um and and so but then as we keep saying just
Some folks, man, they just hang out with Muslims and they do so much with them. But, oh, my goodness, they've never once shared a Bible verse. They've never shared the principles of what Christianity is. And so, yeah. And so grace and truth, it's got to be both. And we really encourage people, hey, let your Muslim friend know early in the relationship you're a follower of Jesus.
And I have often, Brandon, I've often asked Muslims very early in the relationship, I'll say, hey, one thing I love about you guys is that you talk about faith so freely. And so could I just ask you, would you mind telling me in your faith as a Muslim, what does Islam teach about how we can go to heaven? Or they call it paradise. And so I just respectfully listen.
And then I say, would it be okay if I now shared with you what the Bible says about how we can go to heaven, how we can be made right with God and have our sins forgiven? And usually they're very open to that once we've listened to them. And you can do that early in the relationship.
Hmm. It's good to know. Very good to know. So I want to read something from the book that I found to be a good point. And it's on page 167 and it's under the heading that says Grace and Truth. And the bullet point says this. We need to offer relationship, respect, kindness, service, humility and love in our outreach to Muslims.
All of this balanced by sharing the truth claims of Jesus and inviting Muslim people into faith discussions and commitment to follow him. That is the perfect example. And I mean, look, Jesus gives us this balance of grace with truth. OK, now he shows us how to how to be graceful and to share the truth. But then he shows us how to be balanced with grace, with grace, with truth.
And and only like when we talk about that. Something that comes to mind for me is the conversation he had with the Samaritan woman at the well. He didn't ignore her sin, but he showed her immersed kindness first. Okay. He greeted her with kindness first to draw her in. And then Jesus gives us that blueprint of how to engage with people based on his word.
Yeah, perfect, brother. Just, you know, one more scripture maybe that I can add to. Well, I love how you shared that about Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well. And one verse I think that fits this whole conversation we're having about the balance in evangelism of grace and truth is a verse that you and I have talked about before.
But just in case some listeners are coming into this episode and didn't hear us talk about this Paul said to the Thessalonian people, the people of the ancient city of Thessalonica in Greece, he said in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 8, we were pleased to give you Not only the gospel, but also our own lives as well. Boy, is that not I mean, is that not grace and truth? That's just a perfect balance.
Oh, amen. Absolutely. I love that. You know, we have to be balanced with our application because let's be real. If we're going to do any type of evangelism, people are watching us. They're watching us. Everything that we do, they watch us. So if I stumble, they're watching that and they're going to they're going to want to see how how is he going to recover from his fall and so forth and so on.
Yeah. Yeah. Amen.
All right. So let's move into segment two, which would be chapter 34. And the title of that one is, Do You Look Different to Muslim People? So with that being said, Timothy, what do you think this means in the context of how we as Christians should present ourselves in our daily lives? And I just alluded to it.
Yeah, you sure did. I mean, I think... you know one of the things that um you and i haven't talked about uh for quite a long time in my own personal life is that um one year ago i had a stroke and um it was a very hard experience emotionally and then i was on a sabbatical that was also very difficult but the because i just was dealing with so much stuff that god was bringing up and
And Brandon, I think one of the main things he was bringing up was, you know, it's like Jesus saying to Peter, you know, when he's restoring him in the gospel after Peter's failed him, he says, you know, Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? And during this time after the stroke, he was just showing me that I loved so many things more than him. Good things, missions, ministry, evangelism.
But I was loving them more than him and more than spending time with him. And so my answer to this question, how should we present ourselves in our daily lives? I think that we will present ourselves in direct correlation to how much time we spend with Jesus.
Amen.
Yeah, because he's the light of the world. And if you hang out with him as a lesser light, you know, as we talk about in chapter 34, people will see it and they'll say there's something different about you. And you will get that that first Peter, you know, how he says, be ready to give an answer for those who ask you about the hope that's within you, because they're going to ask a question.
What what is it about you? Why? You seem different than the normal people I see and interact with. And so I think the context about how we present ourselves in daily lives is really being so full of Jesus that it just comes out. It has to come out.
Amen. Absolutely. Absolutely agree. That's a big amen. But now here's a tough question that is often avoided. And obviously, this is a practical question for for the listeners, but you can answer it to me if you choose to. You know, does your church take a position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? And if so, have you heard your pastor or others talk about it?
And the reason why I bring that question up. It's because you have innocent people from a worldly perspective, not a biblical perspective. You have innocent people on the Israeli side. You have innocent people on the Palestinian side. And I can tell you right now, I have no issues against that.
palestine or the palestinian people my issue is with the terrorist groups that pop up within and then you know use the people of that land to commit evil uh harms toward other nations and stuff so you know that that question you know does your church take a position because that actually sets the precedent of how a person will interact with a person of the muslim faith
It also sets the precedent of how a person will act to a Jewish person. All right. And when we're talking about folks that are going into the mission field, our hearts have to be for all people, no matter what. And we have to be able to pray. We have to be able to share the truth, share grace with people, even if they're different from us or even if they want to kill us. It's plain and simple.
amen yeah so you asked a question that um the whole thing about does your church take a position on that israeli palestinian conflict and man is this a hot button thing now right yeah wow as we are talking you know with we just had the one year anniversary of the terrible uh october 7 you know hamas going into israel and killing people and taking so many hostage and
It's just been a year of bloodshed since then. And now, of course, with, you know, with Israel and Hezbollah. So it's a mess. It's a sad mess. But basically the way, you know, this chapter was titled, Do You Look Different to Muslim People? And I gave two stories of when Miriam and I were in Palestine, in the West Bank of Israel. And we met two different people who just said, you look different.
There's something, what is it about you? As we went into their homes and we were able to really share. And so then the segue came about because I thought, you know, people reading our book are going to interact, of course, with Muslims. And some of them are going to ask the question, what do you think about this conflict? And so here's what we say to people in general.
We say if you're dealing with a Muslim person and they ask you the question, I mean, whose side are you on? Are you pro-Israel? Are you for us? Are you for Palestinian people? Are you for Muslims? Who are you for? And here's our answer, and it's right out of the book. I'm just going to read it. We are so sorry for all of the suffering of the Palestinian people, and we pray for them.
And so, Brandon, you'll notice quickly, I didn't take, I didn't say anything. I didn't take any position about Israel in my answer, either positive or negative, because maybe the Muslim was looking for me to just kind of hooked me with something, but I didn't even mention them. I simply commented just ever so briefly on the suffering of the Palestinian people.
And I'll tell you, brother, in so many conversations, this has always satisfied our Muslim friends and acquaintances. And they so often respond with some degree of surprise by expressing a very thankful, God bless you. And then it just closes the matter.
And so, yeah, I don't you know, as far as the church taking a position, I mean, I'll tell you, I'll tell you and your listeners, this is kind of a tough one, but it's going to be difficult for you to reach out to Muslim people. If you have a whole lot of stuff, for example, on your Facebook or your Instagram or your TikTok or whatever, that's that's just pro-Israel.
And I don't want your listeners to misunderstand and think that I'm anti-Israel or especially anti-Jewish. I don't want any of your listeners to get that idea. But if any Muslim thinks that you care only about the Jewish people and not the Palestinian people, they're not going to be very likely to listen to you share the gospel.
And so, yeah, just you can be so wise, I think, by giving that answer to a Muslim. We're just so sorry for the suffering of the Palestinian people, and we pray for them. And, yeah, just leave it there, and they will be blessed, and they will be thankful because their image of most Christians is that we are – total Zionists.
And I want to be careful even in using that word, but I'll define it this way. This is how they would see what Zionism means. It means that Israel as a nation can never do anything wrong. Everything they do is right, and everything they do is justified. And so they feel like that Christians will endorse whatever they do, no matter what.
Yeah. And that is so important for us to know that, Timothy. You know, in any discussion, especially such complex issues like this, compassion and grace has to lead the way.
Oh, man.
It has to.
You know, I think. Go ahead. Well, I just let me just throw in something real fast, brother. I'm sorry. I think that I want your listeners to just think about, you know, as far as. Zionism believing, some people believe, Zionists believe that everything Israel does is right, and we have to support them, national Israel, no matter what.
But if you just read the Old Testament, just read through the prophets, especially like right now, I'm just rereading, I'm reading again through Jeremiah. My goodness, God certainly never said everything Israel did or Judah did was right. In fact, just the opposite happened.
And he allowed both parts of Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, both of them to be taken into captivity and exile. And so he absolutely did not think everything they did was right. And I think that we need to keep that in mind as we think about national Israel today.
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think in preparing for these kinds of conversations, it does require us to focus more on the people involved than the politics.
Oh, that's good.
Yeah.
Oh, that's so good, man. You hit it.
Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, we get caught up in, you know, political politics and a person's policies, which don't take this the wrong way. It is very important, especially as a Christian that is participating in a civic duty movement. That we're called to participate in. You know, we have to keep the people involved in mind.
They have to be at the front of our prayers more than the policies of a person that's running for a particular office.
Oh, man. Yeah, brother, you preach it and I'll turn the pages. I love I love the alliteration you use there. We need to care more about people.
than about uh politics and policies right and i don't want i don't want people to take this the wrong way you know as to say that i'm i'm for certain things that are against the bible you know i'm not going to mention them but no that's not what i'm saying what i'm right you know what i'm saying is christ came so that we could live we being the people that accepted him as Lord and Savior.
And then he gave us that great commission and told us to go and to teach all nations and to baptize them. So that means that the people that we're preaching and teaching to and the people that we're reaching out to in other nations, they have to be at the forefront of our prayers and not the politics.
Oh, yeah, man. And really, I mean, what did Jesus tell us in a verse that most believers have known you know, since they first came into the kingdom was Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom of God, right?
And so, man, in this, you know, crazy election cycle again, it's just a temptation for believers to kind of fall prey to seeking first the kingdom of America and how we best think America should go forward.
Instead of keeping in mind, no matter who wins this presidential election and all the other, you know, Senate and House and the state races, no matter what, we're still going to be about the kingdom of God. We still have to put our head down, live for Jesus, be lights in the world and share the good news, you know, with grace and truth.
Yeah, I just it reminds me of Proverbs 8 chapter. I'm sorry, Proverbs 8 verses 14 to 16. It reminds me of that passage where it says that, you know, basically God is the one that's sovereign over all authorities on Earth. And we have to put that trust back in God's hand. It's not ours. It is.
So with all of that being said, what do you think is the best way to prepare for a possible encounter where this might come up, where, you know, the topic of Israel versus Palestine or whatever? What is the best way to prepare for that encounter?
Well, man, I think you said it. I think it's to care. You said we need to think and care more about people than we do about politics and policy. So I think that we need to prepare ourselves when a question like that is asked to look in the eyes of that Muslim person who's asking us
And through our eyes, our tone of voice, our facial expression, our body language, everything says to them, because of Jesus, I care about you. And so that just comes out of us. And then again, our answer, I think we can just prepare to again tell people, I mean, if a Jewish person is asking you,
You know, you can say we are so sorry for all the suffering of the Jewish people and we pray for them. You don't with them. You don't need to bring up the Palestinians because it's a hot button for them. And if the Muslim asks you, you know, you just change the word. We're so sorry for all the suffering of the Palestinian people and we pray for them.
And so that way you're not immediately, you know, choosing sides. You're not. You're just showing love for that person and the group they identify with.
Yeah, I love it. I love it. So that moves into segment three. And this is chapter 35 in the book, if you have the book. And that one is titled, I love you too much to be silent. And this chapter really challenges us to resist the temptation to stay quiet about our faith.
Now, Timothy, when you're talking to people from different faiths, like the Muslims, like your book is about, do you have a mindset from the onset to get them to the gospel? Like, how do you what's your mindset when dealing with people from different faiths?
Yeah, well, first of all, man, I love those words. It's so great, right? I hope our listeners really caught that, have a mindset from the onset to get to the gospel. Yes, I think that I kind of alluded to that earlier. I think that's so important. I mean, once again, it's that balance. You don't view the Muslim person as a target, right?
So that you're just, you know, you're just trying to think as a target, and you're just trying to shove the gospel into every conversation. It's like, you know, what is it, the square peg in the round hole? You're trying to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. You're trying to look for opportunities, as we talked about.
in a different chapter, you're looking for opportunities, not excuses to share the gospel. But yes, I think that we just need to have a heart, that we have a mindset from the onset to get to the gospel as soon as we're able with a Muslim person, but yet to do it, well, once again, we go back to the verse in 1 Peter 3, With gentleness and with respect.
Amen.
Yes. So again, we just keep coming back to grace and truth, right? That balance in our presentation.
Yeah, I love that. And it gives us a way to really put Christ on display because at the end of the day, that's who we're preaching about. That's who we're teaching about. That is the person that we're trying to bring those that are not of the faith. We're trying to bring them to Christ. We're not trying to bring them to ourselves.
Amen. Oh, man. Brother, I am so glad you said that because... Yeah, I mean, your goal in a relationship with a Muslim person isn't to get them to like you. I mean, your ultimate goal is for them to see Jesus. Amen. And we've had Muslim people say to us, you know, man, you're such a good person, or you would be such a good Muslim.
But when they tell us you're such a good person, man, we want to quickly respond, Brandon, by saying, hey, I thank you for that, but I just want you to know that if you see anything good in me, it's because I invited Jesus to come and live inside me. And really, he kind of invaded my heart. And then I asked him to stay there. And so what you're seeing is Jesus.
I mean, you know, here's a kind of a little humorous story. One of our refugees here in town that we've been reaching out to and gotten so dear in our friendship with him, Again, he calls us his parents. He was driving in an Uber one day, not long after he got here and he was working. He hadn't saved enough money to buy a car yet.
He was driving in an Uber, and some kind of huge bird, I don't know what kind of bird it was, was about to hit the windshield, just coming right at the windshield of this Uber where our North African Muslim refugee friend was sitting. He was riding in that car.
And all of a sudden, the Uber driver, as he saw that bird, giant bird, whatever it was about to hit the car, he yelled, Jesus, just with a real, you know, cry. He wasn't swearing. He was truly crying out, you know, for help from the Lord. And so this is so cool. Our friend, again, this North African refugee Muslim friend said to the driver, do you know my friend Timothy?
Because he was linking Jesus and Timothy. And the driver had such a cool answer. He said, I don't know Tim, but I know Jesus.
Wow.
And so, you know, brother, I love that because, I mean, so much more and more and more, this Muslim friend said, is linking us with jesus not being good people yeah yeah i love i just oh that's what that's what we have wanted so much
That that's amazing is, you know, they're calling on Jesus's name and they may not realize that when they do that, he responds. And it's our job to help them understand that when we call and all of those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ will be saved.
Amen. Amen.
And it's our job to help them to understand that. And we don't have to be theologians to do it. We don't have to be ordained to do it. We're already ordained once we accept Christ as Lord and Savior.
Amen, brother. Amen. I love how you preach on here, man. It's so good. I'm blessed.
I'll be trying.
Yeah, you're you're you're not just trying, you're succeeding.
So based on the previous question, so how can we resist the temptation to be silent about our faith, especially when the culture around us tells us to keep our religion private?
Yeah, well, I think, you know, I think a lot of it is it goes back to what we alluded to earlier. It's It's how much do you love Jesus? Because when you do, when you love anything, it comes out of you. I mean, you don't have to be an extrovert like me to witness to people, whether it's a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu or your neighbor next door or somebody at work or school.
You just need to love Jesus so much that and be so excited about him, like like revelation. Right. Jesus talks about to the. the churches in Revelation, the beginning chapters, you know, he says, some of you are, you know, you're just lukewarm. And others, he say, you do so much for me, but you've left your first love. I don't sense that you love me like you once did.
And so, yeah, I just think that when we love him, it's hard to be silent. And also, I think that we need to ask God to have the kind of passion that, for example, the Apostle Paul did. When he brings up in chapters 9 through 11, he's talking about election and everything. But even though he believes in election, he says his heart just burns and he's in agony. for people.
And he speaks specifically there about his own people, the Jewish people. But we can say it about anybody, that his heart just burns for people to know the truth. And he's in agony because they don't. And I think if we ask, you know, God, like we love that old, old song called Hosanna. And in Hosanna, it has that line, Break our hearts for what breaks yours.
Yeah.
Yeah. And so I think I think that's, you know, I mean, it always goes back to our heart. How do we resist the temptation to be silent about our faith? Well, Ask God to change your heart, give to give you a passion for him and a passion for the lost.
Amen. That is so true. You know, and as we come to a close, we we have to understand grace, truth and boldness.
Hmm.
Whenever we accept Christ and we invite Christ to live in our hearts, there is no way that neither you or I or anyone that has called upon the name of Jesus Christ can be silent. We are a people that are made to shout from the mountaintops how good our Jesus Christ is and what he has done for us. And I can't be silent because the people I encounter and I befriend, I don't want them to go to hell.
I want to see them on the other side when I make it there, too. And I'm not I'm I'm a dirty old sinner. I am not perfect. But the fact that I have Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I know that I can make it to the other side because of my faith and belief in Christ.
So, and he will keep you. Amen. He's our keeper, right? He, yeah. And brother, you just said some words there that really moved me when you said, I don't want people I know to be in hell. And it just kind of, man, it just kind of, yeah, just about brings tears to my eyes. And I, and, and, you know, brother, I just feel like so few churches today, uh,
And so few preachers on TV or radio mention hell and seem to have any concern about hell. And so many people, you know, I'm an older person, but so many younger people now, they literally don't believe in it.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, I mean, even people who say, young people who say, That they're followers of Jesus. They claim to be Christians, but they don't believe in a terrible place called hell. And so Jesus did, and we must, we just must.
Yeah, absolutely. But anyway, Timothy, thank you so much for joining me today. You have brought a lot of powerful insight to these difficult questions. And as we wrap up, I want to encourage the listeners to take these challenges seriously. Think about how we're engaging with the people around us. Are we showing grace and truth? Are you speaking up when you need to?
And are you staying silent out of fear? That's all I have today of this episode of The Ear Podcast. And as always, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. Until next time, keep loving, keep encouraging and keep proclaiming the gospel with grace and truth.
God bless you all. You have reached the end of yet another episode from the ear. We hope that God's word remains on the ears of the listeners. We pray that this podcast would urge you to go forth and spread his good news to the world. Thank you for tuning in. Please don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. See you at the next episode. God bless you and may his glory shine upon you.