'I am slightly daunted by the implications of becoming a Christian'

Therefore you are unwilling to change your position.

You have a rare and refreshing honesty. That's great. But just before you leave this webspace, perhaps you should ask yourself three questions.

First, are you sure you have understood clearly what you would be rejecting? Being a Christian is not a spare-time hobby like train spotting and building canoes. When a man joins himself to Jesus Christ, it means slightly more than joining a fan club or a political party. So be clear about what you're turning down.

If Christians are right, you would be rejecting a home in heaven. Full and free forgiveness for all your wrongdoing. The chance of a new life beginning inside you, slowly turning you into the You you've always wanted to be but could never make yourself - rebuilding your life the way God intended, giving your a new self-respect and humility, the joy of a mind at peace with itself.

You would be turning your back on a loving Father who has been watching you ever since your birth, waiting for the moment when you would recognize his reality and turn to accept the love he longs to pour upon you. You would be rejecting the most costly, awful, painful sacrifice anybody ever made for anyone else - when you look at the cross of Jesus and say, 'No thanks.'

You would be walking away from your only chance of making sense of the problems and complexities, the unsolved agonizing questions, of this life. And much more besides. Have you really calculated the cost of saying No?

Second question. Is your reason for refusal good enough? You are not saying No because you are intellectually convinced that it is all a load of rubbish. You are not saying No because you have found a better, more adequate philosophy. You're turning away simply because you can't handle anything so big and demanding. Is that really how much you think of yourself?

You are right to see commitment as a big and demanding thing. But you are wrong to think you couldn't make it. Once a person becomes a Christian, all the resources of God start to become real - his peace, his assurance, his ability to resist evil. It's not a matter of struggling forlornly on your own to maintain a Christian stance. It's more like coming home. Walking into a new world where- you suddenly realize - you should have been years before. Finding a new source of stability and a new emotional centre in the reality of a God who shows his love for you in a million ways, and will never let you down or let you go.

So we're not saying, 'Trust yourself! You can make it if you try.' We're saying instead, 'No, quite right, you'd never make it on your own. but you won't be on your own. Trust Jesus, not yourself, and he will give you everything you need.'

And now the final question. What will happen if you do walk away? For Christianity is not an optional extra which you can add on to your lifestyle if you feel so disposed. ('Try Jesus, the great new wonder drug - that's if you're not doing anything this evening, of course.') If Jesus is the only Son of God, and gave his life in a cataclysmic once-for-all event to open up a chance of forgiveness for human beings, then what he offers is unique, vital and indispensable. If you reject it the bottom will drop out of yor future.

Let me predict three things that will happen if you dismiss Jesus Christ. First, the rest of your lie will be an anticlimax. Oh, there will be moments of joy, triumph, achievement. But deep down at the back of it all you'll know you haven't found the big answers yet. And you'll have the nagging memory that once a chance of finding them opened itself up in front of you. And you walked away.

Second, you will gradually lose the ability to respond to Jesus Christ. In my experience, when peopl have come close to commitment and walked awy, it gets harder and harder for them to do anything about it thereafter. 'Now is the accepted time,' urges the Bible. 'Seek the Lord while he may be found! Call on him while he is near!'

Third, you still have the judgement of God to face one day. How tragic to approach this unprotected and unforgiven - when Jesus Christ has done absolutely everything necessary to wipe your record clean in an instant. I don't propose to dwell on the consequences the Bible spell out for those who face the wrath of God. But it would be foolish not to take them seriously.

Think about it. Hard. And if you decide you need to change your mind, click here and take it from there. I hope you will.

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