Posted on Wednesday,

How to Overcome Cotton Candy Christianity

Growing up I was aimless, self-reliant, and far from God. But along the way, everything changed for me.

As we begin talking about how we avoid Cotton Candy Christianity and raising a generation of “Almost Christians,” I want to share some of my journey because I think it could make all the difference for you as well.

When I became a follower of Jesus Christ as a junior in High School, I was finally home. Coming from a broken family, I was now able to begin healing in many ways through God’s perfect love and acceptance.

But of all of the gracious gifts God has given me, the one that has most profoundly changed the trajectory of my life is this truth: God desires and deserves our best thinking.

As Christians our thinking matters to God. Yes our emotions and relationships matter to God as do our acts of kindness and serving others. But none of that replaces this foundational part of Christian discipleship–our minds matter.

[Tweet “”To live well we must think well.””]

And it is the failure to grasp this key insight–more than any other–that has lead to the “almost Christianity” we are experiencing today.

When defining the Greatest commandment, Jesus framed it this way:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” – Luke 10:27

To live well we must think well. All of our actions flow from what we believe about reality—including our thoughts about God and our neighbor.

[Tweet “”God desires and deserves our best thinking.””]

C.S. Lewis is no fan of Cotton Candy Christianity:

“God is no founder of intellectual slackers than any other slackers. If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are embarking on something which will take the whole of you, brains and all.” – C.S. Lewis

We can’t just feel. We have to think. We need to take Christianity seriously again.

We must embrace God’s calling to think well and love Him with all of our minds.

You can do this. Now’s the time. Are you ready?

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Article: Is something more true because it’s in the Bible?

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Posted on Tuesday,

Cotton Candy Christianity

I’ll never forget the first time I encountered cotton candy.

There it was in all of its colorful and sugary glory at an amusement park. The attendant was circling the bowl to make this humongous ball of cotton candy. My mouth was watering. It looked amazing!

And then…I bit into it. And there was literally nothing to it! It had no substance. It evaporated in my mouth. I was so disappointed!

To this day, I’ve never bought another cotton candy for myself (yes, I did give in and buy it for our kids once, but they quickly realized their snack dollars were better spent elsewhere!).

Lesson learned. Appearances can be deceiving!

The more I reflect on it, the more I think that’s what’s going on with much of what is called ‘Christianity’ today. It looks really good and uses the right buzz words but then there’s nothing to it. Not much substance and it simply evaporates.

A Generation of Almost Christians

We are raising a generation of almost Christians. I think that explains some of the numbers we are seeing when it comes to youth. Yes, some students do walk away from the faith (about 50% disengage from their faith during the college years and many don’t appear to be coming back). But honestly, some never really had a substantial faith to begin with–that was there’s anyway. They didn’t own it.

Kenda Dean, author of Almost Christian observes:

“A significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that it is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition. It is not so much that U.S. Christianity is being secularized. Rather, more subtly, Christianity is either degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a different religious faith.”

I see this first hand when I work with students and parents. And this breaks my heart.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be almost Christian.

God has called us to more than Cotton Candy Christianity.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2

This year let’s do something about that together. Let’s pray. Let’s dream. Let’s think. And then let’s act.

[Tweet “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be almost Christian.”]

In the days ahead we will be talking about how to do that.

Your Turn: What do you dream for this year when you think about your spiritual growth?

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A quick response to the “who are you to judge” objection.

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Posted on Tuesday,

Why You Should Have Faith In The Bible (VIDEO)

Can the Bible be trusted anymore? Recently I was interviewed for CBN (along with Josh McDowell and Darrell Bock) on the reliability of the Bible in an age of skepticism. Here is a short segment that aired on the 700 club based on my latest book Questioning the Bible: 11 Major Challenges to the Bible’s Authority. I hope you find it encouraging and helpful!

You can watch the rest of my CBN interview videos on the reliability of the Bible and learn more about recent exciting archaeological discoveries here.

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Do you want more confidence in defending the reliability and authority of the Bible? – CLICK HERE

Quick Read: Why Christians Need Apologetics

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Posted on Wednesday,

Archaeologists Have Discovered Seal of Biblical King Hezekiah

It is remarkable how often you hear the (false) claim that the Bible is historically unreliable. While it’s true we haven’t found everything the Bible mentions, we have found quite a lot!

In fact, did you know that all the major biblical cities and geographical features have been located? And to date, over 60 biblical figures in the Old Testament have been identified? I go into more details here about this, but there is solid historical and archeological evidence when it comes to the Bible (Check out this cool animated video).

This latest discovery is just another layer of evidence:

“Israeli archaeologists have discovered a mark from the seal of biblical King Hezekiah, who helped build Jerusalem into an ancient metropolis.

The circular inscription, on a piece of clay less than a centimeter (0.4 inches) long, may very well have been made by the king himself, said Eilat Mazar of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University who directed the excavation where it was uncovered.

Hezekiah ruled around 700 BC and was described in the Bible as a daring monarch – “There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him” (II Kings 18:5) – who was dedicated to eliminating idoltary in his kingdom.

“This is the first time that a seal impression of an Israelite or Judean king has ever come to light in a scientific archaeological excavation,” Mazar said.” (Read More)

As Christians we can be confident that is our faith is not blind. It is well placed!

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If you enjoyed this article, check out Is the Old Testament Reliable? (A Short Summary)

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Posted on Friday,

Dallas Willard on Tolerance and Love

“Tolerance has suffered a great deal recently in our religious and political and educational areas. And tolerance, because truth has been pulled away from it, has slipped over into the idea that everything is equally right. No longer is tolerance a matter of saying, “I disagree with you and I believe you’re wrong, but I accept you and I extend to you the right to be wrong.” That’s not enough. We’re now in the situation where everyone must be equally right, where you cannot claim that people are wrong and still love them.” – Dallas Willard