Why Graham is a Christian

I was brought up in a non-Christian home: my parents neither taught me anything about any religion nor encouraged me to go to church or Sunday School. When I was junior school age, a leaflet came through the door at home advertising a youth club cum Bible class (called "Covenanters"), and my parents had no objection to my taking part. Of course, it was the youth club activities that first appealed to me, but the organisation ran on the basis of: if you do not come to the Bible class on Sunday morning, you do not come to the activity during the week.

However, on the first Sunday I became thrilled with the Bible. My Mum dug out for me the one that she had used as a child and I remember reading some of the shorter books of the Bible by myself, although a lot of it did not mean much to me at the time. Often I did not fit in with the social youth activities (I have never liked sports), and had I not taken to the Bible classes I am sure that I would have soon dropped out of "Covenanters".

With no firm Bible backing at home, I rather jumped to the conclusion that since I was a respectable person who went to Bible class nearly every Sunday, I would certainly go to heaven. It was when I went to a Covenanter youth camp at the age of eleven with games and activities during the day and solid Bible teaching each evening that I came to the realisation that God did not see me as a respectable person and I did not qualify to go to heaven. I sought personal help from the main Bible teacher at the camp, prayed with him, and Jesus became my Lord and Saviour.

I do not know where I would be if I did not have Jesus. I am not a strong-willed character, and Jesus has given me something to live for. Since I became a Christian I have gone through grammar school, university, a good number of years of full time employment, bought my own home, and have got married. I have always prayed that my Lord would guide me through these things, and what is of greatest encouragement to me is when I see His providence (evidence of His working in my life).

Encouragements

I have been through ups and downs. At times I have suffered serious discouragement and wondered whether I really was on the right road with Jesus. Equally, I have seen great answers to prayer. Starting full time employment seemed very daunting: my first job was away from home (around 300 miles away!), and I had to set up home and work out how to pay the bills without university or parents to help me. Most of all, I prayed that the Lord would lead me to an active evangelical church, since I needed a firm spiritual grounding in a new place where I had to make a new set of friends. The Lord clearly led me into a fairly small but very active church in which there was plenty of opportunity to develop mentally and spiritually. I became particularly involved in youth activities there, but found so many other opportunities to actively involved that some weeks it seemed like I was there every evening.

When my employer closed down after eight years in that first job, I found it traumatic but surprisingly not discouraging. I prayed that the Lord would lead me to a new job and trusted Him that He knew what He was doing. After twelve weeks of unemployment He led me to Staffordshire, to a new church, and eventually to a wife.

A providential answer to prayer The way God led me to my wife is one of the most striking examples of His work in my life. I have always been very actively involved in the work of the church, but I was increasingly feeling the lack of personal support and felt very much one on my own. I had been praying for a partner for a number of years, but at times wondering whether the Lord really wanted me to remain a life-long batchelor. It came to a head around the start of 1995, and I was determined to make something happen. It was my intention to register with a Christian dating agency, but I was inclined to share this with the leadership of my church before I did something that could affect my future commitment to the church. So one Sunday evening I approached one of our deacons, Bryan, and asked if we could talk in confidence. He was going to take me aside to one of the rooms in the church building, but then asked if we could talk at the house of Jackie, one of the other members of the church, as he had previously arranged to go there after the evening service. I agreed, and shared my intention with Bryan at Jackie's house. He considered my move to be sensible, but seeing as we were at Jackie's house, I shared my problem with her also. A few days later she put me in touch with Dylys, a colleague at her place of work who belonged to another church in the area (Dylys and I had never met before, nor had either of us had any association with the other's church). Dylys and I courted for six months and then got engaged. So under normal circumstances I would not have confided with Jackie, but the Lord ordered things so that it happened naturally, and Jackie was the link between myself and my future wife!

A miraculous answer to prayer Then I was amazed with an answer to prayer that I never expected, in 2004. In May, we went away for a week's holiday in Scotland, and the weather was wonderful. The previous May, I had had a digital camera for my birthday, and it was certainly encouraging us to take a lot more pictures. But on the Thursday of that holiday, I turned the camera on to take a picture, the lens piece automatically moved out as it should, and I dropped the camera! It obviously landed on the extended lens piece: when I picked the camera up, the lens piece was jammed at an angle, it would not budge, and the display showed a terse error code. Delicate electronics, precision lens, ... goodbye, camera :-(. Dylys pointed out to me that, unlike the previous couple of days when we had gone for long walks, we had forgotten to pray for safety on the walk. Was the Lord pulling me up for being over-confident? It was also obvious that I had got out of the habit of putting my hand through the wrist strap whenever I used the camera: the accident could not have happened if I had taken the precaution, another sign of foolish self-confidence. We did a long walk that day, and I was bitterly disappointed not to be able to take any pictures. Back at home, I got in touch with a local camera shop, and then an official Canon repair centre. The cost of repair was not economic: it was more attractive to replace the camera. The prospect of a newer model with more megapixels was no consolation for the monetary outlay. I did the research and identified the model that we would go for. But with the old camera written off, I felt I had nothing to lose by attempting to straighten the jammed lens with a hammer. I first got down on my knees and prayed to the Lord that He might bless what seemed to me a very silly effort: you cannot repair delicate electronic equipment with a hammer. And if the lens piece is not in perfect position, how could the camera take reasonable pictures? I had to strike the camera several times before the lens piece budged, and then indeed, it looked reasonably straight. I pressed the power button, and the lens piece moved; I turned the camera off and the lens piece retracted, and the covers closed. Getting a little excited now, I wandered around the house and the garden taking several pictures. They all looked good on the display of the camera. And loading them onto the computer I could see that they were as good as the camera had ever taken. Oh, me of little faith! I was down on my knees again: thank you Lord, for answering this prayer, for saving us the cost of a new camera, when I hardly believed You would do this for me.

But don't all religions lead to God?

I believe not. Jesus Christ is my Saviour. We have His work and His teaching recorded for us in the scriptures, which I believe to be an accurate record. In it

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me". (John 14:6, NIV)

which shows that Jesus Himself teaches Christianity to be the exclusive way to God. I gather that most religions rely, at least to some extent, upon our good works outweighing our bad in order to be saved. Christianity is different:

All of us have become like one who is unclean, 
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; 
we all shrivel up like a leaf, 
and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6, NIV)

so even relatively good people are not good enough for God. But the Apostle Paul says:

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9, NIV)

So as a Christian I believe that it is faith in Jesus' work that saves me, and nothing else. Of course I must do good works: to do otherwise would be to make a mockery of Christ who has saved me from my sins, but it does not contribute to my salvation.

But is scripture really an accurate record?

We have every reason to believe so. Jesus' ministry in this world took place at the time of the Roman Empire, an age in which many records both Christian and non-Christian were written and have been preserved for us. Contemporary historians back up much of what is in scripture: we know that Jesus was a remarkable man who died on a cross. Either He spoke the truth or He was a madman. The latter option is not credible.