“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. Matthew 7:24-25 (NLT)
This week our world lost an amazing person; Rev. Billy Graham was/is a man respected and honored throughout the world. As an evangelist Rev. Graham preached more than 400 crusades in 178 countries to more than 2.15 million people in person (and numberless others through radio, TV, print media, Internet and more). In the history of our world, no one has touched more lives with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ than Billy Graham, and hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people are following the Lord today because of his ministry and the ministry of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
"Billy Frank" as he was called by family and friends, grew up on a dairy farm near Charlotte, NC. His parents were devout followers of Christ, but Billy showed little interest in the Lord early on. When he was 15, the churches of Charlotte hosted a city-wide tent revival with evangelist Mordecai Ham. Billy hadn't planned on attending the meetings but a friend offered to let young Billy drive his truck to pick up kids for the crusade. During the week, Billy heard the gospel and responded in repentance and faith. Soon he felt the call to preach and left Charlotte to gain an education with stops at Bob Jones University, the Florida Bible Institute and finally graduating from Wheaton College.
In 1945 Billy was hired as an evangelist for a fledgling ministry, Youth for Christ. He joined fellow evangelist Chuck Templeton, traveling the country and eastern Europe preaching the gospel at revivals and crusades on college campuses. Templeton was an excellent communicator and some believe, a more effective evangelist than Graham. But as time went on, Templeton began to experience doubts about the gospel and questions about the authority of Scripture. Templeton would eventually leave the ministry and the faith for a career in broadcasting, but his doubts and questions began to affect Billy as well. Graham began to struggle in his faith and preaching.
In 1949, a few weeks prior to a scheduled crusade in Los Angeles, Graham was staying at the Forest Home Christian Camp in the Big Bear area of Southern California. He would take walks in the woods and mountains praying yet struggling with his faith. Finally, one day while Graham was in the woods, he laid his Bible on a tree stump, fell to his knees and cried out to God and committed himself to preaching the Bible as the infallible word of God. He acknowledged there were some things in the Bible he did not understand, but he would accept them by faith and build his life and ministry on the authority of God's word.
The rest, as they say, is history. His 1949 Los Angeles Crusade launched Graham into the national spotlight. A tent revival that was scheduled to run three weeks lasted eight weeks. More than 350,000 people attended and more than 3,000 made professions of faith in Christ, including Stuart Hamblen, an entertainer and radio personality. Hamblen told of his conversion on his radio program and it caught the attention of William Randolph Hearst, newspaper tycoon who sent news of Graham's crusade across the nation. It was also during this crusade that Olympian and former prisoner of war Louis Zamperini came to Christ (watch the movie "Unbroken" to learn Louis' story). Graham would go on to found the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to further spread the good news of the gospel of Christ. Billy Graham's work and ministry will continue for many more years to come.
Billy Graham made a crucial decision in 1949, to build his life and ministry by faith on the word of God. And because of that decision his "house" still stands and will be standing for generations to come. God's word is true and powerful ... are you building your life on His word?
