Why the Story Must Be Told

The outlook doesn't look good, at least to the undiscerning eye. Immorality is flooding our society, violent crime is on the rise, storms are intensifying, churches are drying up and dying, heresy is rampant in a way that has never been known before. Everywhere you look the vile is winning and God's people are being beaten back.
But are they?
Let me remind the children of God of a couple simple but vital truths: we are on the winning side and this is not our home. We serve the One who wrote the last chapter of the book and we know how its going to end. We may not understand how the end will come but we know what the end will be.
What does that have to do with writing?
Just this. Along with the unrestrained sin there is also a spiritual attack against Christians such as America has never seen before. Such an attack would not have been conceivable just three decades ago. Now it has become the norm.
Bottom line: Christians need encouragement. They need to know that its alright to be a Christian in a world that is hostile toward our faith. They need to know that old fashioned values and Biblical marriage are great and that they still work.
They need to know that being sold out to Jesus Christ doesn't make them a mindless automotron as the world would have us believe but that the Bible still stands as God's truth.
My wife and I tried to watch a couple of movies over the last week and the outcome was predictable: I wish I had spent the time writing. Why do we spend money to fill our minds with the things that our God hates? Why do we support people who don't even respect us enough to keep profanity out of their movies. Why do we go and listen to actors use our God's name in vain and throw it in our face like we don't matter. Why do we allow them to force a lifestyle on us that our God find abominable?
Back to the subject of writing. These are the reasons that I write. To offer people something worth filling their minds and time with. To offer an alternative to filth and show an example of Christian living.
Not long ago I picked up a Clancy book thinking that a good war story would be fun to read. It wasn't long that the book found its place back on the shelf. I don't want to hear foul language from my television and I sure don't want to read it in a book. Why is it so important to writers and movie producers to inject that in their story-lines? I am convinced that it costs them much in the long run. There are still thousands and I would like to think millions that will turn it off or close the book rather than be subjected to that.
Thank God for Decker, Wick, Peretti, Jenkins, Blackstock, Eason, Kingsbury, Alcorn, and the many others that I could list. They create stories worth reading and offer something that hopefully will encourage some to seek Jesus. They give hope to the discouraged and a boost to the weak.
All I can say is thank you and I pray that I can be found faithful enough to join your ranks.
Let the story be told.