Tullian Tchividjian - Do I Know God?: Finding Certainty in Lifes Most Important Relationship

The book you now hold in your hand contains the message I have spent more than sixty years of my life proclaiming. From my first book, Peace with God, published in 1953, to my most recent book, The Journey, I have sought to help people understand how they can truly know God.

As I near the end of my life in this world, it has been my earnest prayer that God would raise up a new generation of voices committed to proclaiming the good news that, in the person of Jesus Christ, God came into this fallen world to rescue sinners from their sin, turning slaves into sons. This book, written by my grandson Tullian Tchividjian, is an answer to my prayer. God has raised up Tullian for such a time as this, to boldly proclaim to the next generation that there is nothing more important than knowing God.

As you will come to find out in these pages, Tullian struggled significantly as a young man before God brought him to this sobering conclusion. Even though Tullian was raised in a loving Christian home, he determined to walk away from all God had given him. After years of searching for satisfaction and certainty apart from God, God answered our prayer by opening Tullians eyes and helping him to see that only a relationship with God can quench our thirst for contentment.

Almost overnight my wife and I saw a radical change in Tullian. His God-driven pursuit of truth was infectious to us all. He spent the next seven years of his life in college and seminary, studying the Bible, philosophy, our culture, church history, theology, and biblical languages. He has taken the advice of my friend John Stott to be a man of double listeninglistening to both the questions of the world and the answers of the Word.

His unique combination of life experience and theological ability makes him a biblically wise counselor for his generation. A dynamic preacher and an accomplished church planter, Tullian here puts his thinking down on paper. He makes his case clearly, compellingly, andmost importantbiblically.

My prayer for you, the reader, is that you will listen carefully to what my grandson says here. Apart from the Bible, this may be the most important book you could ever read, because it will help you answer the most important question you could ever ask: Do I know God?

Billy Graham

The Hope of Certainty

I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

A POSTLE P AUL (2 T IMOTHY 1:12)

I t was the week after Christmas, and the office was quiet. Most of our staff at New City Church were either out of town or at home with family. Id taken the week off too, but one morning I stopped by my office to pick up some books. A few minutes after I arrived, someone walked through the front door. His name was Mike. He and his family had been attending New City for a while. Holidays or not, Mike had a question that couldnt wait.

He slumped down in the chair next to the window. He confessed hed been sitting in the parking lot for more than an hour debating whether he should walk in and talk to me. He had finally mustered the courage to come inside to ask me a single question: How do I know if I know God?

As we talked, it became clear that the question had been eating at Mike for at least a yearever since Id preached a sermon on Matthew 7. Thats the chapter where Jesus warns there will be many who go through life thinking they know God, only to hear chilling words when they meet him in eternity: I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness (verse 23).