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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