Why Lost People Won't Listen to Christians

I'm writing an article for On Mission Magazine about Why Lost People Won't Listen to Christians and I need your help. The article is about the current culture and how as Christians we must understand where non-Christians are coming from.

Two questions: Why won't lost people listen to Christians? How can Christians tell God's story in a way that will make the most impact in today's culture?

Mere Christians

We are “mere” Christians, are we not? Thanks to C.S. Lewis, the man on my mind this afternoon, we can effectively coin the answer we need the most right now. Lewis was a man who lived "Mere Christianity" beautifully authentically. Today his books speak as strong as they did in the 40's and 50's. His writing resonates with the postmodern culture because he would fit truth in a story. A man whose legacy penetrates the culture long after he leaves this world.

How Are We Missing It?

I've often wondered lately if there is a need for a deeper muse about Christian sexuality. That there’s more to the story than what’s being told. Do you agree? Why do you think the younger generations and twentysomethings tend to buck what God says about sex? Presentation? Culture Saturation?

Sex, love, beauty and relationships can be better understood and so much more esteemed. In God’s world they are gifts to be cherished, not mountains to climb. We are prized with a treasure.

A gift isn’t given to someone to be misused, is it? It’s meant to be valued and appreciated.

This is a spiritual war.

We are placed in a war, where we have to fight to stay alive. And sex is one of Satan’s greatest tools.

But there is healing and hope and a revolutionary life we’re called to live, the life role we desire to play, the adventure we’re meant to take. All we’re used to is a backdrop message of don’ts. Now, we want something real. We want viable answers to our curious and perplexing questions. We want to have a real, honest conversation about life and love.

• Life is a journey. The destination is left in God’s hands.
• Life is a walk. The results are left in God’s hands.
• Life is an adventure. The mundane and boring are left in God’s hands to be challenged.
• Life is a revolution. The make it through the day type will be captured by the enemy.
• Life is about the heart. The moment you shut down the heart, you stop living.

You get the gist of it. There’s just more to purity than abstinence. How come the young people I talk don't understand it like this?

Emerging Generations and Sex

When I talk to the emerging generations about sex, what resonates with them most is this: God gets it – he actually understands the world they live in and the fierce temptation they face every single day. Lives are being changed when they understand that God does not think of them as a nuisance if they struggle with something so deeply and often. That He knows them and the very world they live in. He understands it. He gets it. And he wants to help them...to be their friend, their guide, their heavenly force. And let me tell you, when this is understood, a new confidence is born, a new relationship is formed. This is not something we’ve seen before, something that breeds a religious notch on their journey. This is something that explodes like a human tidal wave. The kind we believe God has destined for every human being, a transformation our hearts long to experience.

What do you think?

Following God with Our Sexuality

It seems that the central difficulty is determining how we live our lives.

Sometimes, we uncover an answer...but sometimes we don’t. Why is that? Sometimes, we fall on our face, while other times we figure it all out. How is that? That a deep desire for what’s good and what’s right can be replaced by intense desires to do the complete opposite – what is wrong. Maybe, just maybe, this problem doesn’t have to do with what we’re taught, but rather by what’s caught and understood. Maybe, there’s something to be said by what’s clearly understood, by what’s clearly happening to us. Allow me to share with you, then, an excerpt, from the book Amber and I are working on. Simple, yet deep-seated questions, that we all have faced one time or another...

We live in a world, don’t we, that is plastered with sexual images, one that has a constant power to manilpulate our minds and poison our hearts? So...what can we possibly do? How do we counteract such a powerful force? Do we need a doctor, or do we need a guide? Do we need a discourse, or do we need hope that sticks? Sure, everyone desires to have the adventure of romance, but the adventure of sex calls too, doesn’t it? So the question is: Is it possible to maintain a holiness in the midst of what seems unavoidable?

This generation, more than ever, is crying out for some real life answers to the tough issues that inhabit their lives every single day they waken to. Allow me to propose another question: What would it look like if high school and college students, and twentysomethings alike, embraced the reality that purity is only a single subset of our real desire to please our Heavenly Father?

What would it look like if they caught on to a piece of God they’ve never seen before, a part of his being that says, “You can follow Me with your sexuality, just like you can with every other part of our life.”

Carlos Santana on Religion...

"Spirituality is saying, "May the heavens open up and angels bless everyone with a deep awareness of his own light." Religion is saying that only Jesus got the light, you're full of $%&@ , and you are in the dark. They are the only ones that got it, and you've gotta go through them to get it. Man, in this life the only thing that's holy is your relationship with your heart, your family, and the air you breathe."

-USA Weekend

Sex and TV Study

Haven't announced here yet, about the new book I am writing on the sex, love and relationships arena. And for now, I don't plan on sitting on a soapbox too much about how plastered our culture is with sex, sex, sex. It surely is, so much, that I don't have to sell and convince people that it really is a powerful force to go up against. I'm arrowing deep down for the heart, and will share about it soon. However, if you haven't seen it yet, today on every front page of most every newspaper in the country is fixated on how much sex there is on TV...

"Sex Scenes on TV nearly Doubled" Chicago Sun Times

"What's on TV, More Sex, a Study Finds" Orlando Sentinel

"Television more sexed than ever, a study finds" Washington Post

"Sex and the Tube: It's a happy Marriage" New York Daily News

...and 386 more newspapers across the country.

Thank You Donald Miller

Words began to flow when I read ole Donald Miller. I am inspired. I am lifted. I feel more whole.

Sure, there’s a bit of envy in the way he writes. He’s darn good. But I remember to remember that there are always people who go before us to inspire. The more people there are who can write like this man, the better off we are. It just means there will be better writers and more people inspired, a better planet, indeed. Because of him, I am a freer thinker and a better writer.

He’s books are one of the very few that I actually read every word and thirst for more. Just picked up his latest, Through Painted Deserts, and I am truly amazed, once again. .

If You Could Do Anything With Your Life

My newfound friend Margaret Feinberg, who is an excellent and accomplished writer was speaking at a event in Dallas called Fusion. While there she asked her audience the following question: If you could do anything with your life, assuming that time and money were no object, what would you choose to do?

Check out the answers at margaretfeinberg.blogspot.com... I was shellshocked by how many said they would write. You know, when I read that it hit me how many people have told me that they'd love to write too. I get asked all the time about my journey in writing. My answer is always simple: I just did it because God told me to and he backed me up. That's it. Sure, I've had to pay a price for it, but it's worth it because I love doing it and he's guiding me.

My charge to people is to go for it! And don't depend on a publisher for crying out loud. Writers are prophets, not puppets. I'm just getting started but my faith muscle has grown a lot in a year. Someone told me one time he thinks the evangelists of the 21st century will be writers. We have so much baggage as a religion, we will have to build our platform through writing.

Can you imagine the kind of material God could put out there if more people would just go for it?