Why I Believe in Creating Excellent Moral Fiction (post outline)

1. There’s A Spirit Behind All Media

• the devil was kicked out of Heaven and his job was music (media)
• that’s the main way he gets into the hearts and minds of both adults and children
• you can clearly see what kind of spirit is behind the majority of media
• what’s the spirit behind your media?
• I want the a good, clean, God-honoring spirit behind everything I do. I want the Holy Spirit to direct it all.

2. I Want Everything I Do to Point to the One Who Gave Me the Gift to Do It

• they’ll know we are His disciples by the love we have for each other
• the whole world is watching us. We’re the only Bible most of them will ever read.
• The stuff we post, the way we live our lives, what we say, what we do; whether we want to or not, we’re representing the Kingdom of Heaven through our lives.
• I want everything about me—including my writings—to scream “I’m His”.

3. I Want Everything I Do to Point to Him With Excellency, Never Trash or Cheesiness

• If we’re pointing to Jesus, what are we pointing to Him with? Trash or excellency?
• there’s a clear line between the way children of the Most High God do things and the way the world does things
• Christians should never be putting out second-rate, cheesy, corny stuff. If we’re pointing to Jesus, we need to point to Him with the very best.
• Never cheesiness, corniness, lame things; take time to study the skill or craft, and do it well, to the best of your ability

4. When We Honor God, God Honors Us

• God doesn’t see our efforts to lift His Name up and ignore them.
• If God sees on of His children giving 100% of their talent into something that impacts others for Him and gives Him glory? You bet your bottom dollar He’s going to take them places they never dreamed possible.
• I experienced this with The Goodbye — wasn’t trying to be popular, only trying to touch someone’s life, and now it’s at half a million views, making me hundreds of dollars in ad revenue, and hundreds of people have given their hearts to Jesus through it

5. Moral Doesn’t Mean Perfect or Full of Unjustified Prudery

• if your characters are sinless, perfect little angels, the majority of the time your story will convey no power. And readers will get fed up with your impossibly perfect human being and chunk your book through the window.
• definition of moral — concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character
• Moral books don’t include inappropriate scenes or dialog. That’s not only lame trash, but it’s wickedness.
• I have plenty of imperfect characters. Violent womanizers, ex-seductresses, mercenaries, assassins, characters with serious anger issues, larcenists, you name it. But I don’t pass those things off as godly or acceptable. Sin is wicked, wrong, and will send you to hell. I use my sinful characters and who they are to create powerful, relatable (I don’t know how many of my audience can relate to assassins but you get my point XD), relevant stories of how bittersweet and empty sin is and how merciful and loving God is; how He sent Jesus to save us from sin so we don’t have to submit to its power. You can’t do that with an unbelievably perfect character (not to mention totally flawless characters are unrealistic because every human has character flaws they need to work on).

Conclusion

Do you believe in creating excellent moral fiction? Why do you believe that way? What would you add? Share your thoughts below and share and repost to accelerate a generation of God-honoring, excellent media creators!