The following was just a preface to an older post that I brought back on July 7th, so I'm now writing a preface to a former preface. I came across a small stack of Billy Graham's latest and probably last..and in my opinion best book... Where I Am... discounted from the normal discounted price at Ollie's Bargain Outlet. I stamped specialdogg.blogspot.com in inside the cover and I'll look for appropriated places to leave them.
The 1980s and half way into the 1990s were rather remarkable for the publication of some solid and intellectual Christian books. We were thinking back then. We have since given up thinking for rallies. This book is Billy Graham folks. It's 98 years of accumulated wisdom....but hey we don't really value that old grey beard stuff anymore do we? We're not going to get the warnings from our pulpits folks, that's why I highlight books like Where I Am so often.
Should the Lord not take Billy Graham within the next 18 months....and should He....the Lord of Glory.....not return within the next 18 months.....Billy Graham will reach his 100th birthday.This is very significant because Reverend Graham dominated the religious life of not only America but much of the world over the past 60 some odd years. I'm not usually at a lack for words but describing the impact of the crusades and the accompanying television and radio broadcasts would take a lot of words and I would probably mess it up anyway.
His methods were not the soundest and I think that he would admit that the statistics on people who remained committed from his crusades were disappointing, but the shear volume of gospel messages....and he did preach a wonderfully sound gospel message...the shear volume of them in person and on television and radio makes him the most significant evangelist in the last 100 years.
Sometimes, as you most certainly know, one doesn't value something as it should be valued until it is gone. America, and the world, is without this great evangelist today. Yes, his ministry lives on and probably thrives, and Franklin Graham is a potent force for truth and the gospel in the world, but no longer can Americans turn on the television and surf the channels only to alight upon a Billy Graham crusade and thereby hear the gospel of Jesus Christ!. No longer can an entire metropolitan area be immersed in preparations for a coming crusade.
Pulpit to pulpit our preaching in America is weak. Liberalism has destroyed whole denominations and the rest have gotten caught up in either an easy-believism gospel, a health and wealth distortion of the gospel or a CEO type growth mentality where the gospel has to be watered down or people will not stay. Well that sentence probably raised the hairs on the neck of some but believe me there are many pastors out there who say the same thing and lament the condition of the church today.
The 1980s and half way into the 1990s were rather remarkable for the publication of some solid and intellectual Christian books. We were thinking back then. We have since given up thinking for rallies. This book is Billy Graham folks. It's 98 years of accumulated wisdom....but hey we don't really value that old grey beard stuff anymore do we? We're not going to get the warnings from our pulpits folks, that's why I highlight books like Where I Am so often.
Should the Lord not take Billy Graham within the next 18 months....and should He....the Lord of Glory.....not return within the next 18 months.....Billy Graham will reach his 100th birthday.This is very significant because Reverend Graham dominated the religious life of not only America but much of the world over the past 60 some odd years. I'm not usually at a lack for words but describing the impact of the crusades and the accompanying television and radio broadcasts would take a lot of words and I would probably mess it up anyway.
His methods were not the soundest and I think that he would admit that the statistics on people who remained committed from his crusades were disappointing, but the shear volume of gospel messages....and he did preach a wonderfully sound gospel message...the shear volume of them in person and on television and radio makes him the most significant evangelist in the last 100 years.
Sometimes, as you most certainly know, one doesn't value something as it should be valued until it is gone. America, and the world, is without this great evangelist today. Yes, his ministry lives on and probably thrives, and Franklin Graham is a potent force for truth and the gospel in the world, but no longer can Americans turn on the television and surf the channels only to alight upon a Billy Graham crusade and thereby hear the gospel of Jesus Christ!. No longer can an entire metropolitan area be immersed in preparations for a coming crusade.
Pulpit to pulpit our preaching in America is weak. Liberalism has destroyed whole denominations and the rest have gotten caught up in either an easy-believism gospel, a health and wealth distortion of the gospel or a CEO type growth mentality where the gospel has to be watered down or people will not stay. Well that sentence probably raised the hairs on the neck of some but believe me there are many pastors out there who say the same thing and lament the condition of the church today.
So we don't have Billy Graham....our preaching is weak.....we have essentially no news media....our educational system drives our children away from God.....our entertainments are the most powerful drug in distorting reality....and science....more accurately technology....is constructing a world that you wouldn't want to live in if you knew where it was going.
