Yes, Pat,

He isn't preaching much these days due to his age and health but he hasn't
died yet.

Phil.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pat Ferguson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 12:44 PM
Subject: Re: The Farm


> Phil, You always write with such great enthoosiasm.
>
> Is Billy Graham still alive?
>
> Thanks for sharing.
>
> Pat Ferguson
>
>
>
>
> At 03:23 PM 7/24/2008, you wrote:
> >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
> >
> >
> >
> >
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