A STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
Billy Graham has set a standard of excellence for evangelistic crusades. He has taught me that preaching an evangelistic message is only the beginning. If new converts are to grow in Christ, they must be received into Christian fellowship and discipled by Bible-believing churches. This means that the evangelist must develop a relationship with, and enlist the cooperation of, local ministries. I still use the discipleship training manual I received when I was a counselor supervisor at a Graham crusade. Billy always cared about the new converts’ growth and life even after the crusade was long over. Thank you, Billy.
THANK YOU, BILLY!
I just finished watching one of your telecasts from 1985. The crusade messages then are just as meaningful in today’s world! I’ve not had a chance to see or hear you in person, but I would have loved the opportunity. I try to catch as many past crusades as I can find on my local cable channel. The messages are always very helpful in my life. As a result, I have requested and gotten many books from BGEA, for which I will always be grateful. I often read them and then pass them along to others to enjoy. You have led an incredible life, and millions around the world have been saved because of the sacrifices you have made of your time, talents, and resources. God has raised you up to be a mighty spokesperson in our time. You are the one minister of God who has never disappointed me. So many others have ended up proving to have led unspiritual lives (even in my own church), but you are a real exception to that. Thank you for your message … keep on proclaiming it, because the world is in desperate need of our Savior. Thank you so much for your ministry and your example. You, Ruth, and your entire family have been such an inspiration! Thank you, Billy. You have changed my life with your ministry.
PASSING DOWN THE BATON
What an amazing journey you’ve had. I remember, as a toddler, watching some of your crusades on television. I knew your name but didn’t really understand how your work would affect me. I now see that you were an instrument of God to spread the Gospel, and an example to young Christians of how to impact the culture. I thank you on behalf of my generation for being obedient to the calling of God to the ministry and for passing down the baton.
Leo
A PASTOR’S VIEW
I had the privilege of serving as a pastor and counselor supervisor at the 1987 Denver crusade, my first time to see Dr. Graham in person. The first night, being on the field near the stage, where Dr. Graham was giving instructions to those who had responded to the invitation, was one of the most inspiring moments of my life. I saw scores and scores of people all around me, many of them weeping, as they gave their hearts to Christ. Dr. Graham, thank you for your simple obedience to Christ’s call—your life has been, and continues to be, an inspiration to me personally and to the call on my life, which now takes me to Africa to train African pastors.
AN EXAMPLE OF GOD’S LOVE AND FORGIVENESS
Dr. Graham, thank you for being an unchanging, constant, humble servant of God, and an example of God’s love and forgiveness in a world void of it. My family rededicated our lives to Christ in your Seattle crusade in the 1980s, and most memorable forever to me is that I had the honor of singing in the choir.
I often watched your TV crusades for the simple comfort they brought, knowing you were always there with the same unwavering message to us all. The earth is a much better place because of you, and heaven’s population greater than ever.
Thank you for everything. I can’t wait to see you in heaven and talk to you.
GOD CALLED ME BY RADIO
My story of how Billy Graham’s ministry affected my life is simple. I came to the Lord during 1967, at the age of fifteen, while listening to the weekly radio broadcasts of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Several years prior to that, our family—living in Calgary, Alberta, at the time—had drifted from the church, following the death of my younger brother (a protracted medical event that tested my parents’ beliefs beyond their faith at the time). God definitely had His hand on my life, as the Holy Spirit later convicted me and drew me back to Him. It was providential; I had made a crystal radio from a kit, and listened to it on Sunday evenings as I went to sleep. God reached me through radio programs during that period, and I remember Billy Graham’s ministry in particular as influential in my becoming a Christian. I have been a fond supporter ever since. Billy Graham has always struck me as a man of real integrity, uncompromising in his humility, in spite of the high profile God gave his Christian ministry. He has served God faithfully and sacrificially over the years, with a simple, consistent message and altar-call format in his crusades. My greeting to Dr. Graham and his family is one of respect and appreciation.
HOW A CHRISTIAN IS SUPPOSED TO LIVE
I’ve watched Billy Graham all my life and have learned from him how a Christian is supposed to live and how a person is supposed to love God and family. Thanks for showing the masses and leading by example. Thank you, Billy!
IMPACT IN MY LIFE AND MINISTRY
I thank God for Dr. Billy Graham, for his concern to preach the Gospel with simplicity, authority, and clarity. I happened to read his messages in Decision magazine and heard his sermons through the Hour of Decision radio programmes, and then later through electronic media. His messages motivated me to keep my evangelistic ministry focused without diluting the theology or deviating from presenting the Gospel with simplicity and clarity. Dr. Graham’s life and ministry influenced me and my ministry to the extent that I strongly believe that the preaching of the Cross is the power of God unto salvation. His ministry taught me to appeal for a verdict whenever I preach the Gospel. I thank God for the impact of Dr. Graham in my life and ministry.
THANK YOU, BILLY GRAM-HAM!
When our youngest daughter was only six, she knew who you were. Just learning to read, she called you “Billy Gram-ham.” Many smiles and many miles later, you remain Billy Gram-ham in our family.
Thank you for being on TV in the early 1970s, when I knelt and prayed and waited expectantly for your literature, which included a Bible. Having been raised Catholic, I had no idea what a Bible should be like, and (can I say this?) I was a little disappointed! But thank God, and thank you for having a BGEA table at a small fair in Florida a couple of years later. The only thing I remember about that night is purchasing a lovely black leather Bible. I still have it thirty-four years later—tattered and torn and no longer so black and shiny—but it has been a lifeline.
Though you won’t accept much credit, you also have been a “strong rope of hope” when it felt like all hell was breaking loose and I didn’t know what I believed or if I could hold on. Many times you would come to mind, bringing a sense of stability and peace. Thank you for the 1969 crusade at Madison Square Garden. (I saw the rerun tonight, and your gift of preaching is still nourishment to eyes, ears, heart, soul, and spirit.)
Thank you for being you. Please just let us love you. Though you don’t seem to think you deserve all this attention … trust that we’ve heard you give God all the credit over these many years. But Mr. Graham, you are one of the closest things we have of showing the reality of that scripture, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Thank you, Billy Gram-ham for stepping aside as God showed himself strong through you, being the best example of Christ walking this earth in this generation.
BILLY GRAHAM PRAYS
It was a rainy, foggy night in Nashville, Tennessee, when two youth workers were heading back to their hotel after leading seminars at a youth convention. As they passed by the building called The Parthenon which sits high on a hill overlooking the city, they noticed someone who appeared to be a homeless man sitting on the steps of that impressive building. His raincoat was pulled up high and his head was buried in his arms. He looked so pathetic that the two young men stopped their car, ran up the steps, and said to this pitiful figure, “Mister, you don’t have to sit out here in this drizzle. We’d like to take you to the hotel where we are staying and pay for a room for you to have a good night’s
sleep.”
The man looked up and when the young men saw his face, they recognized that it was Billy Graham. Billy was conducting a crusade in Nashville, and there he was at 11:30 at night, sitting in the rain, praying over the city. Billy said, “Thank you, but I want to stay here a little longer, and I really do have a place to stay tonight. Thank you for your kindness,” and he went back to praying. Those two young men walked down the steps, got into their car, and before they drove away one said to the other, “So that’s what he’s all about. Here we thought he was just a great preacher, but his power comes through prayer.”
Tony Campolo
Thank You, Billy Graham … for Your Classic Crusades
SAVED ON THE FORTY YARD LINE
I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior at Alamo Stadium in June 1968. I remember it as if it were yesterday. My knees were on the forty yard line when Christ came into my heart. Thank you, Billy, for sharing Christ with me. You have made a difference in my life. I was seventeen years old at the time. I am now fifty-six and have been working in full-time Christian service for twenty-eight years. Following Christ was the most important decision I ever made. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to give you hope and a future.” God bless you, Billy Graham, for touching my life. By the way, I was watching Billy Graham Classics on TV the other night and I saw the crusade in San Antonio. I was blessed to see myself walking forward during the invitation and accepting Christ.
THANK YOU, BILLY GRAHAM
A crusade was held in Miami Beach back in the late 1960s or early ’70s. Our entire family attended, and it was such a privilege and blessing for us. I am now eighty-seven years old, a widow, and reside in a retirement community. I no longer attend Sunday church services but instead record the Graham Classic shows during the week and watch them on Sunday mornings. This gives me the opportunity to worship along with these inspirational programs, for which I am truly grateful. Thank you, Billy Graham!
BILLY CLASSICS
I am the mother of two boys, ten and seven, and a military wife to a soldier deployed in Afghanistan. I am currently living in Georgia and watch the TBN and CBN networks every day. I was watching a crusade in black-and-white (that, right there, was fascinating) and saw a young and handsome Rev. Billy Graham. I have always enjoyed the times when I have seen glimpses of his preaching.
Tonight, I was flipping numbly through the channels and found Rev. Graham preaching to thousands of people of Florida who had gone to hear him. Well, I stopped and let my ears hear. He spoke of real conversion, of how many “Christians” have never really converted.
I was thirteen years old when I gave my life to Christ in a small church in the Bronx. I have lived my life “my way,” married my husband at twenty, and after our first son was born, went off to experience the military life. I had a good ol’ time “doing my thang,” which often involved my slipping away and leaving the church until the next deployment. I have done this now for ten years. Today, in watching the crusade, I truly converted. It was not a loud wail or a sudden change. In fact, I feel no different, but I believe what Rev. Graham said that I must humble myself, confess my sins (which include breaking all of the Ten Commandments), and accept Christ into my heart. God knows it isn’t easy for me to change my ways, yet He will help me by giving me the strength I need to say no to sin.
Well, this is my thank you … I love you … God bless you and all your lovely family.
JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT
In March 2002, I was sitting on my couch in Fort Lauderdale, on an ordinary Saturday night. As I was channel surfing, I ran across your Billy Graham Classic on TV. I was mesmerized by your words, and you forever grabbed my heart. The Lord used you as His vessel that night to forever change me, and I gave my life to Christ and entered His Lamb’s Book of Life. As a result, I was baptized in the Gulf of Mexico in October 2003.
I now reside in Louisville, where the Lord has placed me to minister to my unsaved family and plant seeds in their hearts. As I minister here in this place, I am forever indebted to you. God be with you, and I pray that I will attend your great harvest of revival in November 2013. Thank you, Dr. Graham, for your faithfulness to advance the Gospel all over the world. The greatest thing is that I will be able to sit and have a conversation with you in the Kingdom, where we will reign for eternity with our great King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be His holy name!
ONE OF MY FONDEST CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
One of my fondest childhood memories was when all the family would stop and gather around the TV set (it was in black-and-white then) to listen to Billy Graham bring us the Word of God. (I grew up in the 1950s.) My parents and our family loved the televised messages … it gave us all such great encouragement.
My parents and two of my brothers have now gone on to be with the Lord. In 1998, my mother came down with Alzheimer’s. That was the same year I lost my dad, and also one of my brothers. But, as usual, Dr. Graham would have a word of hope and encouragement for us. God used you in so many ways to help us keep our eyes on Jesus. In our area, we receive the Classic Billy Graham crusades. What a word of hope and encouragement those have been, as well as bringing back those fond childhood memories of when the family was all together.
Thank you, Dr. Graham, for your faithfulness in preaching God’s Word and for giving us hope when we went through some very dark days. To your family, I want to say, thank you for sharing Billy with us. He is truly America’s pastor. Thank you, Billy, for teaching me how to love Jesus. May God always richly bless you!
Linda
I ONCE WAS LOST, BUT NOW AM FOUND …
I have battled depression all my life. I had parents who told me I was a loser and useless despite my almost perfect grades and outwardly perfect existence. I always longed for love, friendship, acceptance, and just a sense that I mattered in this world. I was “raised Catholic” and made all my sacraments, because that’s what all the other children in my school did; but after those rituals were over, I never attended church other than for a wedding or a funeral. I was never taught about God or His love or salvation or anything of that nature, other than the punishment I would receive if I “continued to be bad.”
I rebelled in my teens and early twenties, as most children do—drinking, partying, and the like—wandering through this world, wondering why I was still here on earth if no one wanted me around. Sure I had good grades in college, but I had been through a bout with cancer when I was eighteen, had eloped the same year, and two years later was left for dead on the hospital steps with my “I told you so” parents picking me up. I was the prodigal daughter they didn’t want to welcome back home with open arms—just with hate and condemnation and finger pointing. Finally, in the middle of the night one night, I decided that if no one wanted me around, and if there was no real purpose for me here other than to be used, abused, and taken advantage of, then I didn’t want any part of this world and figured hell couldn’t be much worse than what I dealt with on a daily basis by living.
With tears in my eyes and a sense of complete hopelessness and uselessness—that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be good enough for anyone—I got up from my parents’ couch planning to go and drive off a bridge, knowing that no one would notice I was even gone. As I got up off the couch, I stepped on the remote and it turned the channel to TBN, which had a Billy Graham Classic on. I can’t remember specifically every word Billy Graham was saying, but I do remember him saying, “God loves you, just as you are, right now.” And I thought to myself, No, no one loves me. And he just talked so convincingly about love, hope, and forgiveness, and I thought to myself, If this man can give up everything to tell all these people this message, then maybe God has a purpose for me, too. As I watched all those people come forward to accept Christ, my heart went forward with them. The next day, I went into a local Christian church, newly bought $5 Bible in hand, and said that I had just accepted Christ. Now what?
That was several years
ago, and I am now getting ready to graduate from college. I am cancer free and engaged to a wonderful, godly man. I am also a teacher at a Christian church, where I work with the children’s ministry, and I am the chapter leader of Bound4LIFE New Jersey, a Christian organization committed to taking an intercessory stand to end abortion and bring revival to America. I have found joy, peace, forgiveness—and, most of all, a knowledge that I do matter in this world and that God does have a plan for me, as his daughter, and has a seat prepared for me in His eternal Kingdom. Thank you, Billy, for answering His call so that all of us around the world could come to hear it and answer it as well. God bless you always!
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES—KEEP THEM COMING
When the Internet was first starting and my pastor was very ill, I e-mailed numerous places for prayer. The BGEA was one of the few places that e-mailed back to express prayer, and even e-mailed back later to check on my pastor’s progress. And when he went to heaven, they sent yet another message of symapathy and care. That means a great deal. How genuine and real this ministry is. We love the Billy Graham Classic crusade rebroadcast specials on Saturday night on TBN. What a great idea. Please keep up the great work. You have a great reward of loved ones you’ve never met here on earth but will consider you family in heaven.
Thank You, Billy Graham Page 11