Opportunity Lost
"Almost you persuade me to be a Christian."1
When Mahatma Gandhi was attending university in London, he became almost convinced of the validity of Christianity, seeing it as possibly the one true supernatural religion.
After graduation, he continued to seek evidence that would persuade him to become a committed Christian. When he accepted employment in East Africa, and lived with a family who were members of an evangelical Christian church, he believed this would be his greatest source of evidence for the Christian faith.
Gandhi lived with this family for seven months, but after seeing their causal attitude towards God, hearing them complain about making sacrifices for Christ, and becoming acutely aware of their religious apathy, he became disillusioned.
"No," he concluded, "Christianity is not the one true, supernatural religion I had hoped to find. A good religion, but just one more of the many religions in the world."
While the circumstances were vastly different between King Agrippa who heard Paul's testimony and rejected it, Gandhi, too, was almost persuaded to become a Christian, but didn’t become one because of a Christian's very poor testimony.
May God grant that that may never be true of me. Every day I seek to pray the following prayer: (Can I challenge you to do the same?)
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, I'm available today. Please make me usable and help me to be an effective witness and be 'as Jesus' in some way to every life I touch today. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."
NOTE: If you are not sure you are a real Christian, please don't be like King Agrippa or Gandhi and miss the opportunity to receive God's forgiveness for all your sins and his gift of eternal life. For help click on: http://tinyurl.com/8glq9.
1. Acts 26:28.
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