Sins of the Body

by Terry Muck

Publishers:

Christianity Today; Word

, 1989

Overview

The temptation we can’t entirely flee.

Sex—it attracts us and frightens us. Its highly-charged force has potential for great good or great harm. Mishandling sexual situations has caused Christian leaders to lose their ministries. Sex-related problems also confront pastors with confounding counseling situations. How to minister to casualties of the sexual revolution?

This book addresses these twin challenges of ministry: maintaining personal purity while maintaining close human contact, and offering a compassionate, healing touch to those who struggle because sex has been misused.

Editor Terry Muck has pulled together the candid, yet redemptive, stories of people who have faced the subtlest and most powerful sexual situations. Each chapter offers tested insight from those who have learned to walk wisely and minister effectively.

This is the nineteenth volume of THE LEADERSHIP LIBRARY, a continuing series from LEADERSHIP, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Other volumes in the series include Well-Intentioned Dragons, Preaching to Convince, and The Healthy Hectic Home.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Lust, I read somewhere, is the craving for salt by a man who is dying of thirst.” (Page 22)

“Psychologists use the term ‘cognitive dissonance’ to describe the battle inside a person who believes one way and acts another.” (Page 51)

“I learned quickly that lust, like physical sex, points in only one direction. You cannot go back to a lower level and stay satisfied. Always you want more.” (Page 24)

“Repentance, says C. S. Lewis, ‘is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose; it is simply a description of what going back is like.’” (Page 39)

“I now view my pilgrimage differently. I believe God was with me at each stage of my struggle with lust. It wasn’t that I had to climb toward a state of repentance to earn God’s approval; that would be a religion of works. Rather, God was present with me even as I fled from him. At the moment when I was most aware of my own inadequacy and failure, at that moment I was probably closest to God. That is a religion of grace.” (Page 53)

Product Details

• Title: Sins of the Body
• Editor: Terry C. Muck
• Publisher: CTi; Word
• Publication Date: 1989

About Terry Muck

Terry Muck is dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism and professor of Mission and World Religion. He began teaching at Asbury Theological Seminary in 2000. He received a BA from Bethel College; a MDiv from Bethel Theological Seminary; a MBA from National College of Education; and a PhD from Northwestern University. Muck is a frequent preacher and speaker at churches, primarily addressing the relationship of Christianity and Christians to the world’s religions. He has published 10 books, including his most recent Christianity Encounters the World Religions.