Nancy
THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS
In 1969 or 1970, at the age of thirteen or fourteen, I read a book written by Billy Graham. As I read that book, I came to know Christ. The presence of God was so real that I knew without a doubt He was all He said He was. Unfortunately, I took a very wrong path in later years, becoming mixed up in the homosexual world, and I identified myself as a lesbian for nearly twenty-two years, until April 2000.
When it became clear to me that this life was simply not working, I again turned to a book by Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness—with some skepticism, but needing answers and relief from my pain. I sat down to read that book, and the presence of God was again so strong that I knew I had come back to Him. I was filled with the love of Christ that night, and I rededicated my life to Him. I have now walked out of the lesbian-identified life and have remained alcohol-free for more than seven years and smoke-free for more than four years. I owe Billy Graham so much for his faithfulness to write and say the words given to him by God. God bless Billy Graham and all of his family!
I WAS A SUNDAY-ONLY CHRISTIAN
The year was 1985 and I was twenty-six years old. I had a husband, two children, and a nice home. But something was missing. I was raised Catholic and did not understand what a “personal relationship” with Christ meant. Someone gave me the book Peace with God. The question that Mr. Graham posed in his book was, “If you died today, would you go to heaven?” I didn’t know for sure. I had been a Sunday-only Christian for many years. I prayed the sinner’s prayer at the end of the book, accepted Christ in my life, and put Him on the throne of my heart. Immediately, my life began to change for the better! Praise God, and thank you, Mr. Graham, for that book. I truly have peace with God.
TOUCHED BY YOUR BOOKS
I am a disabled forty-four-year-old man, who has been a Christian since 1996 when I went to a Promise Keepers rally in Kansas City. Because I was disabled, out of work, and not receiving Social Security or any kind of disability payment yet, when I became a Christian I had a hard time getting things to read so I could grow.
I found the Billy Graham website and the Billy Graham Classics on TBN. These were really great for me as I was not raised in a Christian atmosphere and had not watched Mr. Graham at all when I was a kid. Not only did I continue to grow because of the Classics, but I got the free mailings from your organization, and I even sent you a letter asking for some of your past books for free (and you actually sent me three or four of these).
Together with Dr. Kennedy, your ministries have really helped me continue to grow when I wasn’t able to make it to church, and I really want to thank you for that. In the past, I read my Christian books on and off, but now I have a real thirst for them and I am so glad I built up my library. Thank you all so much for your help. I really wanted to see Dr. Graham in one of his last crusades when he was in Kansas City, but I wasn’t able to go because I was hurting, and it really got me down. Mostly, I just wanted to say thank you so much!
William
INSPIRED TO REACH OUT TO OTHERS
Dear Mr. Graham, I was reading your book Just As I Am and was so moved by it that I signed on to help with the Harvest crusades this year. What a blessing that was. You inspire me to reach out to others so that they might know the Lord the way I do. I truly love the Lord our God with all my heart and soul. Thank you so much for all your good work.
Kathy
IT WAS A DARK NIGHT!
I had been feeling blue for a while. I was having serious financial problems and was just feeling lonely, very lonely. I was at my wits’ end, and praying wasn’t helping anymore. I felt abondoned by God. That night, there was a Billy Graham crusade on TV, and I called the prayer line. A girl answered and talked to me extensively. Through my tears, I kept her on the phone for a good forty minutes. Afterward, I felt better, but nothing changed. Then I started receiving books and pamphlets in the mail, and I read them with an open heart. Soon, I got the job I was praying for, and I won an amazing trip—which lifted my spirits and made God’s presence felt again in my life. I am not out of financial trouble yet, and I am still lonely, but I am not crippled by it. I have renewed my faith in God, and He helps me through every day. Come next spring, with the Lord’s help, I will be on my way to financial recovery.
REACHED THROUGH ONE OF DR. GRAHAM’S BOOKS
Dearest Dr. Billy Graham, while reading your book World Aflame, I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. It happened in the summer after my high school graduation, in the midst of preparations for leaving home to attend university. Apprehensions of the unknown challenges and temptations with which I would be faced in that environment, far from home, put me on a path to resolve my long-held, and mostly unvoiced, doubts and misgivings about my faith.
Dr. Graham, while viewing your telecasts and listening to your radio broadcasts throughout my growing-up years, I was convicted about my disconnectedness from God. But since I had joined our small country church at a time when several other ten-year-old classmates were doing so, I was reluctant to now “out” myself as a fake Christian. Nor did I have confidence that the pastor or anyone in the church would understand or know how to deal with my dilemma.
Consequently, I suffered through many verses of “Just As I Am” during your telecasts. This silent agony lasted until that summer evening in my bedroom as I read your book.
I encountered the book providentially. While riding in the auto of a work supervisor, I spotted the words Billy Graham Evangelistic Association on the mailing label of a package lying in the seat between us. As I curiously fingered it, my supervisor suggested, “Would you like to borrow that book?” A voracious reader, I eagerly assented. And what a godsend the book was!
I had always wondered why I was so privileged to have been born in the Bible Belt of the United States and to have heard the Gospel all my life. Other world religions offered a path to God, too. In your book, you wrote that the world religion founder, Buddha, for example, on his deathbed indicated to his followers that he was still searching for the truth. You reiterated Jesus’ words, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” I had known this passage since childhood. But at that time, the power of those words impacted me such that I was compelled to cry out to God with honest desperation about my lostness. No more, “If I’m not saved, save me,” which I would silently utter at times whenever I heard guidance about receiving salvation.
There in my bedroom, Christ met me, revealing Himself as my loving and welcoming Savior, putting an end to my anguish and infusing me immediately with His peace. Best of all, it did not fade—instead my assurance grew.
Thank you, Billy Graham, for your giving to the Lord. You pointed me to Jesus Christ through effective methods of communication and faithful ministry. And thanks to those out there who supported the BGEA, through finanancial gifts, volunteerism, and prayer.
Elizabeth
THANK YOU, BILLY!
I first attended one of your crusades in New York City, in 1957 or 1958. This kind of set the tone for me as I always read your “Faith” article in the newspaper, which answers questions from people about many difficult situations that are bothering them. Your explanations using Bible passages as a basis are so honest, sincere, thought-provoking, and filled with the wisdom of Solomon, that they must be helping people all over the world. Since 2002, when your devotional book Hope for Each Day came out, I consider the day incomplete if I have not read it.
Ron
INSPIRED BY BILLY GRAHAM’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Dear Billy Graham, thank you for loving God and letting all of us see that. Your dedication to God has had a great impact on me through your autobiography. I read it along with my Bible each day and then began watching your crusades that are broadcast on Saturday evenings here in New Jersey. Your devotion and ministry have helped me reclaim my interest in serving God through ministry. I began preaching when I was fourteen, and I won many souls for God, but I left
the ministry when I was twenty-four. I am now forty-three, and your godly influence has helped me return to God with a fervor and devotion that is truly phenomenal; the Lord has also opened doors for a return to the ministry.
Thank you for loving God and helping all of us with your clear and concise presentation of the Gospel. You could have done many other things in life, but you chose to obey God, and the fruit of your obedience will fill heaven with a myriad of thankful souls.
LOVE SAVED ME
One day back in 2002, I was awake in my bed late at night. I was watching TV, and Billy Graham came on preaching about Jesus. I was so moved by what he said that I made a decision right then and there to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior, even though I was as messed up as any person could be. I’d had a problem with drugs on and off since I was thirteen years old. I am now forty-three. Brother Billy offered a book for free, called Peace with God. I was moved to order the book, so I did. Right then, I felt as if God had begun a good work in me, and He is well able to see it to full completion. I began to watch a Christian television network and learn more about my Lord and how I am supposed to live. I started reading the New Testament, and God started moving in my life. Now God is still moving in my life, and every day I get to spend with the Lord is my privilege. I give Him praise and glory, for today I am truly free. Today I thank the Lord for Billy and Ruth Graham for bringing me to the Lord. Love saved me.
Donna
MY ANSWER
When I was fifteen, a friend gave me a box of books that I promptly put away in the top of my closet. A few years later, I was searching for a change in my life. I found in that box a book by Billy Graham called My Answer. I was looking for an answer, so I started reading the letters that people had written to Billy Graham and his responses. On page fifty-seven, I read about a teenager who, like me, wanted to change. I took Billy Graham’s advice to heart about reading the Gospel of John and a chapter of Proverbs each day. It wasn’t too long before I knelt and prayed to be saved. More than thirty years ago, my life was changed forever.
THE JOURNEY
My name is Becky, and I would like to say how very much I love Mr. Graham. He saved me from giving up on Jesus.
It was about two years ago, when I was going through a bad bout of depression. All I did was cry and pray to God to just take me home. I was one step from suicide. Then the Lord performed a miracle. I went to the hospital for a sore shoulder, after a fall on the ice, and they discovered I had a broken neck, the same type of break that Christopher Reeve had. They told me that it had been broken for a while and that it was almost completely healed. It was being held together by one ligament; one sneeze could have killed me. I was told flat out that there was no medical reason for me to be alive … but I am. The night before surgery, as I was signing papers for guardianship of my children, I decided that I did want to live and be a better person. God wanted me here for something, and I didn’t want to let Him down. The surgery was a success, and I went home to recover.
I was then told by my company that they were not going to hold my job for me while I recovered. I could not collect disability, unemployment, or welfare, I had only $600 a month to live on, and the bills just kept coming. Added to that now was an astronomical hospital bill, because I had no insurance. I was grateful to God for saving my life, but maybe the things I had done in the past were too much. I didn’t feel like I was worth it. Why did He save me?
I was at Walmart one day (to get the pain pills I couldn’t afford), and I happened to go to the book section while I waited. There I found a book called The Journey, by Billy Graham. I had always known who Billy Graham was but had never paid that much attention to him. The book called to me. I picked it up, knowing I couldn’t afford it, opened it up, and read a passage. Mr. Graham told me that no matter what I had done or who I was, God loved me and wanted to be a part of my life. He wanted to be on this journey with me. I cried as I read it and am crying now as I remember. I bought the book and read it in two days. It was like he had written it just for me. Everything he said was my life. I laughed and cried, and at that time I gave my life to Christ.
I now get anything I can that has to do with Mr. Graham. I watch his crusades on TBN and absolutely give him the credit for making me see that even when times are hard, God loves me and will never leave my side. I am still over my head in debt, but the Lord pointed me to a new job, and people see the change in me. I always give first credit to God for saving me, but He also put me in front of that book and led me to one of my most favorite people in the world. I would not be the Christian I am today if not for Mr. Graham. I am reading The Journey for the fourth time. I read it whenever I get discouraged, and I have given copies to others to help them find the answers they need. It is by far the best book, next to the Bible (which I have also read!) that I will ever read. I just want to say that the song “Thank You, Billy Graham” says it all. Thank you, Mr. Graham, for saving my eternal life! I look forward to giving you a huge hug in heaven! I love you!
A CAREER CRIMINAL SAVED FROM THE PIT
I was a career criminal for nineteen of my first twenty-nine years. A drug addict, thief, and drug dealer. On Christmas Eve 2006, I found myself in the same hole (a solitary confinement cell) I had been in two years prior to that, on my way back to the same prison for the same senseless crimes (drug dealing). All alone again, I wanted to die, but I knew I couldn’t kill myself, so I started praying and reading Peace With God by the great Dr. Graham. I had known about God and even believed that Christ was His Son, but I had never known the Gospel or about having a relationship with Him. On Christmas Day, I got down on my knees and gave my life to Him, and I have never been the same. After that, I have watched every TV crusade that Dr. Graham and his ministry has played on TV, and read many of his books. I love Billy Graham and his ministry—they changed my life!
THE MAN WHO WOULD WAIT
Billy’s writings have often been pivotal in my development as a Christian. I recall such books as The Holy Spirit, World Aflame, and Approaching Hoofbeats. I would always be eager to view telecasts throughout the year from various venues and featuring interesting celebrity testimonies. Billy’s sermons were short, illustrative, current, sincere, and convicting. Ever the gentleman with his message, he would close, fold his arms, and tell the people that he would wait for them to respond. This same quiet and courtesy was always the style of Jesus. The waiting moments for me were always filled with awe.
Doug
Thank You, Billy Graham … for Reaching Me with Your Movies
TIME TO RUN
One would think that because I was a churched Sunday school kid, I would know Jesus. I knew about Jesus as a person in history, but I had no idea that he wanted to be my Savior and have a relationship with me. I was lost.
Thank you, Billy Graham, for coming to our city by way of film! The year was 1973, and tickets were available at church to view Time To Run. I didn’t know what we would see, but I took a carload of seekers.
The family in the film was experiencing conflicts in their relationships. I could really relate to that. There was a young girl in the film who knew and loved Jesus. I wanted what she had. My heart was open to your preaching that night. There was a call to come to the front of the theater. My heart was pounding: Should I go? What would my sister-in-law think if I got up and went? Well, I was going anyway!
When I got to the front of the theater, my sister-in-law was down there also! There were people there to pray with us and give us literature. Late that night, I read the little book that showed how God is holy and I am a sinner. I am separated from God by my sin. But Jesus, on the cross, closed the gap and made a way for me to come to a holy God. I prayed and I trusted in Jesus to take my sin away, and He did! All the weight of that sin was lifted off my shoulders, and I had amazing peace. Glory to God! The song of my heart was “Nearer, Draw Me Nearer, Precious Lord,” and that is just what Jesus did and continues to do in my life.
Thank you also, Billy, for sending your bo
ok Peace with God. I had many questions, and it was so amazing how God brought books and people and Bible studies to help me. I know that God sent you by way of film to Reading, Pennsylvania, back in 1973, because I so desperately needed to receive Jesus as my Savior. Less than five years later, my husband also received Jesus as his Savior. He says in his testimony that he saw and knew that I was not the same. The Holy Spirit was at work inside of me. Praise to God! The gift of life goes on. Thank you, Billy Graham, for being faithful to God’s call. God bless you!
HE IS REAL
For thirty-two years, I was in the world and of it. I always thought I was a good guy because I wasn’t as bad as others. My parents took me to a small United Methodist Church during my school years, but I never really heard the good news of the Gospel. I was bound in sin, but I didn’t know it. I was enjoying life but not content within. I was always looking for that job that would make everything all right. It never happened.
Several times, I caught the Billy Graham crusade on television. Billy, you always made sense to me, and God was speaking through you. In 1973, my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer, and it left me depressed. During his illness, my wife, Pat, and I went to Shea’s Cinema West to see the movie Time to Run. Your preaching in the film led me to go forward that night with my wife to receive Jesus into my heart. We were led in the sinner’s prayer—and bang, something went off inside of me. I’ve not been the same since.
Thank You, Billy Graham Page 8