It was and is a great idea....in my opinion anyway....as I just received a sturdy 11 1/2 by 5 flier from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association....where you can tear along perforated lines to makes three small gospel tracts. One has John 3:16 and John 10:10 on it....one has Romans 3:23....and one has John 14:6. Surely there were tens of thousands of these sent out....with tens of thousands of postal workers having to handle it.
The Jersey and Delaware and Maryland beaches are the primary destinations for most people in the Philadelphia area. You can easily tell this by all the Eagles jerseys....but Pittsburghers own Myrtle and Hilton Head. So to you folks heading down I-77....when passing through Charlotte....take the Billy Graham Parkway....and spend a couple of hours at the Billy Graham Library. It's only about a mile or so down the road....and have lunch while you are there....for it will start your vacation on the right note....or clear your mind of all the beach noise on the way home.
It was over thirty years ago when I started this tradition with our son....and I kept it up even after he has been out of the house for fourteen years. I'm not a white sand on an isolated island type of person....I'm more of a boardwalk type of guy....with people....no two faces alike....greasy fries....fudge....bumper cars....and beach t-shirt shops every twenty or thirty yards. And it is in one of those stores that I head first to buy a couple of those little bottles with sand and tiny seashells....or a treasure map....or a shark's tooth in it. My son and I would empty half of the sand out if necessary and add a gospel tract of some kind....head to the surf and throw the bottles in. Later on....(I've been doing these posts for almost sixteen years now)....I would put a Bible verse and the url for for these posts inside. Hey....it's practically nothing....but then again....it isn't....nothing.
When Zerubbabel began in earnest to build the second temple....the younger generation rejoiced....but the older generation could only see how small it was in comparison to the first temple that they once knew....and some of them cried....but Zechariah admonished them...."For who has despised the day of small things?" (4:10)
Well the ministry in these posts is about as insignificant as you can get. If there is a video of a dog sliding along a kitchen floor it'll get about a million more views than I will in this post.....but that's not my concern....for God gave Billy Graham a thousand talents....I just got one....but I'm trying to double it! So here is my pitch....if these posts cause you to consider things that you have never considered...would you consider....(is that too many 'considers for one sentence? How about four?)....would you consider passing this url on?
Addendum: How many times have we heard the admonition....if just every Christian would vote? Here is something more to the heart of the problem to think about....depending on where one lives....I would imagine that we hear a siren....(ambulance or fire or police)....a couple of times every day at least. What is our response. Well....I would think that usually we try to have patience until the annoying sounds ends? Someone is in trouble....but to us it is an annoying sound. I have never heard a pastor stop in his sermon to pray as the community fire alarm sounds or an ambulance speeds by. I'm not bringing this up to say....we must do this and we must do that....but rather to encourage us to examine whether we may have....as an entire church in this world....forgotten why we are even on this earth....and forgotten the power of prayer?
