Phil,
God post.  How long ago was tthis?
Vinny
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 1:23 PM
Subject: The Farm


> The Power Of The Gospel
>
> By Phil Scovell
>
>
>
>
>     My youngest son and I flew to Charlotte, North Carolina to
> spend the weekend with my oldest son.  The next day.
>
>     The first thing we did was go to the Billy Graham Library
> which had more than just a profound effect upon me it impacted me
> spiritually.  I first noticed it went we approached the
> buildings, walking down the walk ways, but I didn't say anything
> until we were leaving.  What did I notice?  I'll explain later.
>
>     The library is built to look like the farm upon which Billy
> Graham was raised.  The original house is there, moved from about
> three miles distance, and about 90 percent of the house was
> reconstructed from the original.  It also has many of the original
> tables, chairs, and other things needed to house a family.  On the
> Library grounds, There is also a silo, and the area is constructed
> to resemble a farm house in a wooded area.  You enter a barn like
> structure, check in at a desk, and soon join a tour.  No, it is
> free, just like salvation.
>
>     Your first stop is a mechanically constructed cow.  A
> recording comes on and she tells a little of what it was like back
> in the days Billy was growing up on the farm, milking cows,
> feeding the animals, working the fields and typical farm chores.
> The cows mouth, eyes, and tail move as she talks briefly about how
> life began for Billy Graham.  In the background, are chirping
> birds, chickens, and pigs that occasionally make their sounds from
> various parts of the barn.
>
>     From that point, you move through various rooms with various
> themes that are characteristic of the life and times of Billy
> Graham.  A greeter is at each room to offer some brief
> instructions, such as, the nature of the room, and what you are
> about to here.  Nearly every room has audio and video tapes which
> start playing so even for a blind person, it is pretty informative
> without additional sighted assistance.  People from the recordings
> are sharing how God changed their lives through the Gospel
> preached by a man who was  nothing more than a young farm boy at
> heart.  This included his mother, his wife, Ruth, of whom Billy
> always said Ruth was the finest Christian he ever knew in his
> life, his son, and many others testifying what it was like to have
> personally known Billy Graham and how Jesus had come into their
> heart and life and changed them through his preaching ministry all
> around the world.
>
>     For me, it was like walking back into the history of my life.
> Room after room, and sound recordings and television productions
> of past Billy Graham crusades that began playing, reminded me
> time and time again of my own life.  The presidents he knew and
> prayed with in the White House, the movie stars, and other famous
> people are all documented with pictures and magazine and newspaper
> clippings throughout the library.
>
>     Each room progresses through various stages of his life, the
> times in which he ministered, and the world events that were
> occurring.  I was able to identify with nearly all of these
> various events due to my age growing up as a child during most of
> those earlier events and later, of course, as I entered adulthood.
> This created a very personal spiritual atmosphere for me because
> many references were made to Billy Graham and how his ministry
> flourished especially in 1957 when he began his television
> broadcasts in black and white all over the country and soon all
> over the world.
>
>     It was in late 1957 that my dad and I sat at home alone one
> evening and watched a Billy Graham crusade broadcast on our TV.  I
> well remember this man, and his strong voice, described in simple
> terms the suffering of Jesus as he died upon the cross for my
> sins.  He even suggested that due to the horrible beatings Jesus
> took from the soldiers and the Roman cat of nine tails, his back
> and sides lay in ripped open tatters of skin.  He suggested,
> although not mentioned in the Bible, that perhaps buzzards, or
> vultures, may have landed on the arms of the cross to pick away at
> the lose skin hanging from our Savior's torn body.  Later that
> night, since mom and my baby sister were gone over night to a camp
> out at a nearby lake with the teenage girls from our church, my
> dad and I lay in the darkness.  I was afraid to be alone upstairs
> so dad had said I could bunk with him that night.  "Dad?" I said.
>
>     "What," he answered in the darkness.
>
>     "Who was the preacher on the TV talking about tonight?"
>
>     "He was," dad replied, "talking about Jesus.  You know, the
> man who died on the cross for our sins you have heard about in
> Sunday school?"
>
>     "Yes," I said quietly.  "I remember the stories.  This is
> the same man from the stories I hear at church in Sunday school?"
>
>     "It sure is the same man, son.  Why?"
>
>     "Well, what did the preacher mean tonight?" and I commented
> on the vultures possibly picking the skin fragments off our Lord's
> wrecked and tortured and ripped body.
>
>     Dad explained how Jesus was stripped of his clothing in front
> of everybody, and tortured by the soldiers by beating Jesus,
> punching Him and slapping him in the face over and over again,
> ripping his beard out, flesh and all, his back being literally
> torn open with a whip made to tear the skin of His back and sides,
> he described the extreme bloodiness of the torture, the crown of
> thorns they pounded down upon his head, the spike sized nails they
> used to drive into His hands and feet on to the heavy wooden cross
> and then lifted Him up into the air for all to see.  My dad
> explained what hung on the cross did not even look like a human
> being by the time they got done beating and torturing him.
>
>     I felt sorry for this man in my own way.  "Why, daddy?" I
> asked.  "Why did this happen to Jesus."
>
>     "Son, He did it for us.  We all have sinned.  We are actually
> born sinners.  We can't go to Heaven as the sinners we are born
> but Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and on the third day,
> rose from the grave.  He is now in Heaven."
>
>     "I remember all that now from Sunday school, dad, but what
> can I do?  I would like to do something for Jesus for all He did
> for me on that cross the preacher talked about tonight."
>
>     My father, a preacher himself, told me I could do something
> for Jesus and for myself.  "All you have to do is pray, say that
> you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins, realize His
> blood can cleanse you, and that you believe He died and was buried
> for three days and then was resurrected.  Then just ask Jesus into
> your heart to save you.  Could you do that?"
>
>     "I can't remember everything to say but I would like to pray,
> dad.  I want to be with Jesus in Heaven."
>
>     Switching on a bed lamp, we got out of bed and got on our
> knees next to the bed.  Dad said, "Just say these words after me,
> Philip, and I'll help you say the words.  Ok?"
>
>     "Ok, daddy."
>
>     The bedroom felt different, somehow, like somebody was in
> their with us.
>
>     Repeating words similar to what I write now, my father prayed
> and I echoed, "Dear Lord Jesus, I'm just a little boy.  I don't
> understand everything but I believe Jesus died on the cross for my
> sins.  I believe His blood was shed for my sins.  I cannot save
> myself and go to Heaven without your help.  Forgive me of all my
> sins and I believe you died and rose the third day for me.  Come
> into my heart and save me.  In Jesus name, Amen."
>
>     It didn't take very long and what we prayed was way simpler
> than I just wrote just now but I often have people ask me, after
> being born again for over 50 years, did it work?  The answer is
> simple.  Yes.  I told my mom the next day that it felt as if a
> wind blew into the bedroom and blew right through my body.  I saw
> dirty and black mud washing right out of my body as the wind blew
> it all away.  Then, when it stopped, I felt clean like I had taken
> a bath inside and out."  That feeling, by the way, has never left
> me in all these many decades of walking with the Lord and all of
> this due to a man on television preaching a simple message about
> Jesus Christ who died and suffered for our sins."  My life has
> never been the same.
>
>     So, you see, walking through the library, hearing the various
> testimonies, and hearing various clips of Billy Graham as he
> preached from year to year until modern times, had more than just
> a little effect upon me personally.
>
>     The tour itself inside the library ended in a small chapel
> where we all sat and listen and watched on a screen as Billy
> Graham preached a short five minute message of the Gospel and how
> to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior right then and there if
> you had not done so before.  They passed out cards with the
> Gospel and showed you what to pray in order to be born again.
> Then they asked you to sign it to indicate if you were born again
> or if you have just prayed and asked Christ into your life.  There
> is no way on earth that any person could have gotten through that
> tour, especially in the chapel at the end, and say to God some day
> at the Great White Throne judgment, "But Lord, I never heard you
> died for my sins."
>
>     Leaving the building, we walked down to where his wife, Ruth,
> is buried in the prayer garden and then we walked back to our car.
>
>     Walking to the library and away from it, speakers are
> strategically and masterfully placed which are continually playing
> soft Christian music.  The uniqueness of this was how the speakers
> were placed and balanced.  You never once walked out of sound and
> into more sound but instead, you felt as if the entire time, and
> every place you walked on the grounds of the library, that you
> were being bathed in pleasant soft music.  It was as close to
> sensing the presence of the Holy Spirit you will ever experience
> but more than that, the whole place, inside and out, God as my
> witness, felt as if you were walking in the presence of God and
> the peace and presence of the Holy Spirit.  I found myself
> blinking back tears the entire time we were on the grounds.  I cry
> even now just thinking about the man who preached so down to earth
> that even a little five year old boy got the message so he could
> do something for Jesus because Jesus had suffered so much for him
> to go to Heaven.
>
> "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
> saved," (Romans 10:13).
>
> Are you?
>
>
> It Sounds Like God To Me.
> www.SafePlaceFellowship.com