You talk about Christian chat up lines and you get a bucket load of comments, and then you talk about the achievements of Christ's death from the perspective of someone who doesn't believe He rose again and Johnny Cash and you get nothing. I really do despair sometimes.
Speaking of despair (and that ladies and gentlemen, is what writers call a smooth transition), one thing I no longer despair of (at least not as much as I used to) is the level of actual genuine good music in Christian rock bands. After hearing the exciting news earlier this week that Rees (previously of Steve) was playing with a band again (albeit only temporarily it seems), yet more exciting musical goodness came in the form of Verra Cruz. I wasn't expecting much, but they were very, very good. Highlights included the first song, and the last four songs, especially the third from last song, which was played on a slide guitary type thing and sounded absolutely awesome. I'd like to say they were the best live band I've seen in ages, but I saw The Zutons last week. Still. Verra Cruz == Good!
And purely for the sake of google. it's Verra Cruz not Vera Cruz. Vera Cruz bad. Not Vera Cruz.
(book) The Amber Spyglass
Yes that's good; but how can a person be convinced that they need the cure, if they don't even accept that they have the disease?! People just don't understand how big a deal sin is, they say "yeah so what?"
And for: "Simply trying to prove that people are sinners and need Jesus wonít wash, in my experience."
Most of Bible takes that approach doesn't it :P
i used to read the bible, though only to get a jammy dodger at the end of the 'bible club' during lunchtimes.
David = wins Joke of day.
thankyou, thankyou. was that 'slide guitar thing' a lap steel perchance?
Yes, yes it was. He played slide with a harmonica at one point. Oh and i got flintstone sweets for remembering verses
Sweeties & remembering Bible stuff always went together in sunday school...
Filthy tabs!!!
'Simply trying to prove that people are sinners and need Jesus wonít wash, in my experience.'
I seem to find when speaking to young people is that they maintain that they aren't perfect. As well as that, increasingly in lessons we do here it seems that when we ask if anyone thinks they deserve to go to heaven they say 'no, but if God loves me he'll let me in anyway'.
So I think I'm just going to state that everyone disobeys God and leave it at that. I think more focus will have to be on why God can't just let them into heaven. So the atonement (except I imagine I'm not going to use that word) will feature fairly heavily. That's the way I see it anyway. Thanks for the advice though everyone.
Mark such a wise guy you are!! nice site!
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Wood
About you talk: Do you know any non-Christians who read the site?
I deliberately held back, meself. Personally, I've always found these things helpful:
1. You don't need to argue whether it happened these days. That's not the point. It's actually unprovable historically either way. People are open these days to all sorts of wild ideas. Arguing scientifically will only alienate people.
2. I think that I'd concentrate first on the meaning of the Cross APART from the Atonement, and then bring that in as the climax of a talk. Simply trying to prove that people are sinners and need Jesus won't wash, in my experience.
So what you do, is talk about the symbology of it. Our understanding of the Cross doesn't end with the Atonement, it begins with it: what you have to try and get across is that Jesus' death and resurrection (NEVER make the mistake of talking about one without the other) is a marvellous story - it shows how that God can be present in even the darkest, most horrific things, and can be there in the greatest, most wonderful things too. The Passion/Resurrection narratve shows the absolute best and worst of all human life in all its agony and triumph, and then, even more than that, that even the worst things can be turned into something good. The resurrection story is about beauty from horror, healing from pain, and life from death.
Talk about how one would find this truth - that God can be present and real in all of life - and then bring in the why. I'd talk in terms of the human condition, and how by adopting it, and redeeming it, Jesus took upon himself all of its worst aspects (don't use the word, but it's "sin" we're talking about here) and transformed them, allowing us to benefit from that.
Alternatively, you could probably write a better talk yourself. :)