Billy Graham Died And We Fashioned A Golden-Haired Calf To Worship

               Nine years ago today....November 7, 2013....Billy Graham gave what became known as his last message. You can Google it easily if you wish. A friend was over our house the other day....he stops over about twice a month....and we talk about our Savior. He is 78 years old....six years older than me. We have known each other for at least forty years....and I'm being truthful here....when we talk it is as if it was forty years ago. It's not a 78 year old and a 72 year old talking. That is what our blessed Christian faith does to a person....the teeth may still fall out....and the hairline recede....but our hearts do not age....the heart of man I'm referring to here.
               If one is born again....the second life....the eternal life....the true life....does not slowly fade away as the years and decades pass....its eyesight improves....and it doesn't begin to really hope until the physical body ages....when it gets close enough to actually see the river and the Celestial City beyond it. That is but one thing that being born again does. I probably meet many born again people in the course of a week or a month....but I really wouldn't know....for they do not act like it. It's difficult to get them to actually talk about their Savior as if He is real and their salvation is real. I talked to a born again person yesterday....who talks like a born again person. I couldn't have kept them quiet if I wanted. These occasions though are few and far between.
               We have....in evangelicalism....settled for second best. Our pulpits have let us do that....if fact they encouraged us. Do I seem peculiar to you? I certainly hope so....for we are not a peculiar people anymore....we are not set apart....and we are a threat to no one's confidence or well-laid plans. We fit in just about everywhere.....a Trump rally....an NFL game....an Elton John concert....or a pickleball tournament. Billy Graham died....and it's like Moses on the mountain....where he and Joshua could hear the sounds in the camp....a celebration....over a golden calf....only today it's a golden-haired calf.