ON CHRISTIANITY

DEAR REV. GRAHAM: My girlfriend keeps bugging me about going to church with her, but to be honest, I don’t feel any need for religion, and neither do most of my friends. It would be hypocritical for me to pretend otherwise, wouldn’t it?

  • N.K.

DEAR N.K.: Yes, it probably would be hypocritical for you to claim you were interested in God or wanted to go to church, if it wasn’t really true. Some of Jesus’ strongest words were directed at those who claimed to follow God, but denied it by the way they lived.

But have you ever asked yourself exactly why you aren’t interested in God? I don’t know how you’d answer this; you may not even have given it much thought. I’ve found that people give all sorts of reasons for their indifference (or even hostility) toward God - their family background, an unhappy experience with a church, confusion over what it means to be a Christian, questions no one seems able to answer, and so forth. Perhaps some of these would be on your list.

But the real reason most people aren’t interested in God is because they want to be free to run their own lives, and they know they’ll have to change the way they live if they take Christ seriously. Like the rebellious subjects in one of Jesus’ parables, they declare, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14, NKJV). Is this true of you?

Be grateful for your friend’s concern for you, and don’t continue to turn your back on God. Instead, be open to what God wants to do in your life. He put you here for a reason, and life’s greatest joy comes from knowing Christ and discovering His purpose for you. You’ll never regret it.

Write to Billy Graham in care of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, N.C. 28201 or visit the website at billygraham.org

Style, Pages 24 on 02/18/2014

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