There's a line from the Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway movie Three Days Of The Condor that's pertinent to the following post. Redford who plays a CIA employee is asked who he is by Dunaway who he forced at gunpoint to accompany him to escape some men that are trying to kill him. She's the hostage and he tells her that he works for the CIA. Thinking that he's a spy of some sort she asks him what he does. He responds, as anyone would remember who saw this film... "I read books." That's it...he reads books....any books...anything he can find he reads. He's an analyst of sorts for the CIA who just reads and reads as he looks for clues....or any patterns that enemies may have put into a book in code form. The plot of the film is that he does indeed find an intriguing pattern and reports it. The real cloak and dagger people find out that he's on to them and that's where the action begins!
I know a little bit about this kind of stuff. I had a Top Secret clearance in the Army and I once heard it described that we, the part of the army that I was in, were basically military hired hands for the NSA. I think it's an accurate assessment for we...listened...to anything that we could and if it was important then we sent it onwards and upwards. Well, there's another tie to me and this post. I'm retired and now all I do is read....and write of course. I have seven books to my right that I started and have bookmarks in and I bought another today at Barnes And Noble. It's an addiction....and I admit that I love it.
So back to this post. With all these books next to me that need to be finished I picked up and reread for the second time Billy Graham's latest and probably last book Where I am, Heaven, Eternity, And Our Life Beyond....it's that encouraging. The following post from July of 2016 was my mini-review of Billy Graham's book and I have since brought the post back a few times trying to encourage my readers to read it... for it's a book for the day and the age that we live in.
Oh, there's a third tie-in....when I was in collage a girl came up to me and said that I looked like Robert Redford. Now when I remind my wife of this...which is about once a year...for the last forty years...she rolls her eyes and sticks her finger down her throat...but hey...I'm not lying... I'm just recounting! And I probably should add that what with my beard and the hair and all....and Jeremiah Johnson being the movie that was out....
I Led Three Lives
A blurb on the back of the book reads this way..."When I die, tell others that I've gone to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ-that's where I am." Those last three words are the title of Billy Graham's Where I Am... subtitled Heaven, Eternity, And Our Life Beyond...his latest, and as he himself describes it, his last book.
There was a television series that ran from 1953 to 1956 titled I Led three Lives. It was narrated by a man who, as Wikipedia describes it, was..."a white-collar worker, (had a) secret life as a Communist agent and...even more secret life as an FBI operative helping foil Communist plots." It amazes me that I can remember watching this on television for I could have been no older than six! As a sixty-six year old blue collar union worker (retired), husband, father, and Christian, I have lived three lives also.
My youth was normal in many ways. Sports, girls and beer occupied the majority of my free time. I wore God on a chain around my neck. Today, as a Christian, I often mentally and physically visit the places of my youth because to me it has always been...'once a friend...always a friend'...and until I hear of our "common salvation" I will continue to take the opportunity to pray for that someone that I knew personally.
I led the life of an evangelical in my middle years. I was born again....born anew....from above....and I desired to tell as many people as possible of a merciful savior, the wonders of the Bible, and the majesties of Jesus Christ. I led the life of a pilgrim, had left the city of destruction, fell face first in the slough of despond, entered through a wicket gate, had my burden fall off at the foot of the cross on Calvary, ran into Giant Despair a few times, stumbled and took wrong turns at times, and lived and worked in Vanity Fair, but could not see the Celestial City nor even the river before it.
I see that river today in my later years, the third part of my life, and can faintly hear the rejoicing emanating from the beautiful city beyond the river; this simply because the more one walks toward the light, the less one can hear the barkers and minstrels of Vanity Fair.
My descriptions are but feeble attempts I'm sure, so I plead with you to obtain a copy of Billy Graham's book for he has walked much farther than I and he sent this epistle of sorts back for our encouragement...and with a strong warning, for it is obvious that he had met multitudes of people in his pilgrimage, many of whom gave woeful testimony of their self-destruction.
Reverend Graham's ministry began in 1947. His book Where I Am, was published in 2015, sixty-eight years later. He seemed to write it as a last will and testament....with no holds barred. He has nearly seventy years of experience with presidents and kings, and movie stars and the working man to draw from. His outlook changed somewhat over the years. He, like Solomon from Ecclesiastes, looks back upon this life and can not only see more clearly the vanity but feel its heat and smell it odorous perfumes.
Billy Graham's vision and hearing are impaired at his advanced age but his spiritual senses have only heightened. This book is in no way a theological treatise nor is it devotional or biography. It is more of a letter to the churches...a report on the enemy territory that he has passed through...with each and every book of the Bible visited for directions. Billy Graham stands at that river today...he turns and calls out to us for possibly the last time, both rejoicing and warning. Take advantage of his experiences friends...listen to this elder brother...for God may have prepared him specifically for this book!
I know a little bit about this kind of stuff. I had a Top Secret clearance in the Army and I once heard it described that we, the part of the army that I was in, were basically military hired hands for the NSA. I think it's an accurate assessment for we...listened...to anything that we could and if it was important then we sent it onwards and upwards. Well, there's another tie to me and this post. I'm retired and now all I do is read....and write of course. I have seven books to my right that I started and have bookmarks in and I bought another today at Barnes And Noble. It's an addiction....and I admit that I love it.
So back to this post. With all these books next to me that need to be finished I picked up and reread for the second time Billy Graham's latest and probably last book Where I am, Heaven, Eternity, And Our Life Beyond....it's that encouraging. The following post from July of 2016 was my mini-review of Billy Graham's book and I have since brought the post back a few times trying to encourage my readers to read it... for it's a book for the day and the age that we live in.
Oh, there's a third tie-in....when I was in collage a girl came up to me and said that I looked like Robert Redford. Now when I remind my wife of this...which is about once a year...for the last forty years...she rolls her eyes and sticks her finger down her throat...but hey...I'm not lying... I'm just recounting! And I probably should add that what with my beard and the hair and all....and Jeremiah Johnson being the movie that was out....
I Led Three Lives
A blurb on the back of the book reads this way..."When I die, tell others that I've gone to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ-that's where I am." Those last three words are the title of Billy Graham's Where I Am... subtitled Heaven, Eternity, And Our Life Beyond...his latest, and as he himself describes it, his last book.
There was a television series that ran from 1953 to 1956 titled I Led three Lives. It was narrated by a man who, as Wikipedia describes it, was..."a white-collar worker, (had a) secret life as a Communist agent and...even more secret life as an FBI operative helping foil Communist plots." It amazes me that I can remember watching this on television for I could have been no older than six! As a sixty-six year old blue collar union worker (retired), husband, father, and Christian, I have lived three lives also.
My youth was normal in many ways. Sports, girls and beer occupied the majority of my free time. I wore God on a chain around my neck. Today, as a Christian, I often mentally and physically visit the places of my youth because to me it has always been...'once a friend...always a friend'...and until I hear of our "common salvation" I will continue to take the opportunity to pray for that someone that I knew personally.
I led the life of an evangelical in my middle years. I was born again....born anew....from above....and I desired to tell as many people as possible of a merciful savior, the wonders of the Bible, and the majesties of Jesus Christ. I led the life of a pilgrim, had left the city of destruction, fell face first in the slough of despond, entered through a wicket gate, had my burden fall off at the foot of the cross on Calvary, ran into Giant Despair a few times, stumbled and took wrong turns at times, and lived and worked in Vanity Fair, but could not see the Celestial City nor even the river before it.
I see that river today in my later years, the third part of my life, and can faintly hear the rejoicing emanating from the beautiful city beyond the river; this simply because the more one walks toward the light, the less one can hear the barkers and minstrels of Vanity Fair.
My descriptions are but feeble attempts I'm sure, so I plead with you to obtain a copy of Billy Graham's book for he has walked much farther than I and he sent this epistle of sorts back for our encouragement...and with a strong warning, for it is obvious that he had met multitudes of people in his pilgrimage, many of whom gave woeful testimony of their self-destruction.
Reverend Graham's ministry began in 1947. His book Where I Am, was published in 2015, sixty-eight years later. He seemed to write it as a last will and testament....with no holds barred. He has nearly seventy years of experience with presidents and kings, and movie stars and the working man to draw from. His outlook changed somewhat over the years. He, like Solomon from Ecclesiastes, looks back upon this life and can not only see more clearly the vanity but feel its heat and smell it odorous perfumes.
Billy Graham's vision and hearing are impaired at his advanced age but his spiritual senses have only heightened. This book is in no way a theological treatise nor is it devotional or biography. It is more of a letter to the churches...a report on the enemy territory that he has passed through...with each and every book of the Bible visited for directions. Billy Graham stands at that river today...he turns and calls out to us for possibly the last time, both rejoicing and warning. Take advantage of his experiences friends...listen to this elder brother...for God may have prepared him specifically for this book!
