Faith and Focus

When I was writing my review about Billy Graham, I thought a lot about Graham’s focus.  I think he has got the message that his God is great to the public loud and clear throughout his career.  A man who was recruited by Graham to sing for his ministry is George Beverly Shea.  From what I could find out, the man turned 99 this year and is still traveling and singing for the Lord.

That’s not what I remember him for, though.  What I remember is his beautiful voice resounding through our house as my mom played his records, 33 1/3 for those who know what those were, on our stereo.  Those songs ministered to my soul before I ever came to saving faith.  I know they ministered to my mom, and ours are not the only hearts he reached.  Billy Graham, on his  website, BGEA, says this about Shea’s music:

A man came very reluctantly to [an evangelistic] meeting and was very vocal in his scorn of all that was taking place. When Bev Shea got up to sing, he made yet another wisecrack. But halfway through Bev’s song, ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,’ the man became serious. As Bev quietly sang the words, ‘He’s got the tiny little baby in His hands,’ the man bowed his head. At the invitation, he came forward to open his heart to Christ, later telling his counselor that his child was at home seriously ill and that it was Bev’s song that had touched his heart.

It is certain that George Beverly Shea has, through his music, pointed people to the Lord just as Billy Graham did through his preaching.  I don’t know God has in store for me in this, the second half of my life, but I pray that my life can speak for God just as theirs has.  I don’t know what it sounds like when the angels sing praises to God in heaven, but when I meet my mother there, I am wondering if any of them will sound like George Beverly Shea.  In my heart, when I think of heaven, his voice is the one I hear singing “How Great Thou Art.“

For more Spiritual Sundays, go here.

Book Review:Billy-the Untold Story of a Young Billy Graham…

I’ve always liked Billy Graham. I am one of the only people I know, in my age group of people anyway, who actually used to watch his televised crusades.  I have to admit that a large draw for me was George Beverly Shea’s singing, but I am sure that Graham’s sermons planted part of the seeds that resulted in my having faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  Unlike some other evangelists, I have never seen Graham portrayed in a negative light.  That’s why I was eager to review a book about him, to find out more about the man who is the evangelist. I got that chance with Billy, written by William Paul McKay and Ken Abraham and published by Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Billy starts in 1934, the year that Billy Graham was sixteen.  It portrays a happy young man whose greatest wish was to be a baseball player.  Raised in a Christian family, Billy had some cynical views about evangelists.  Nevertheless, he showed up to hear  Dr. Mordecai Ham and ended up committing  his life to the Lord, beginning a journey from a farm in North Carolina that led him to be known throughout the world.

Much of Billy parallels the development of his ministry with that of former evangelist Charles Templeton.   He worked with Graham at Youth for Christ International. The book tells of Templeton’s being interviewed in Toronto by a reporter who wants some “dirt” on Billy Graham.  As she interviewed Templeton, she found, not dirt, but much about the way the Lord opened doors for Billy to put him in the right place and with the right people so his ministry could grow.

Graham sought to lead people to Jesus Christ, and he thought that Charles Templeton did as well.  What he could not know was that his friend had suffered a crisis of faith which caused him to turn away from Christianity.  As Templeton revealed what he had been feeling, Graham told him he was having a crisis of faith. If he passed, he’d be given greater responsibility in God’s kingdom.  For Billy, it was all about God.  He said,”When I try to preach, to tell the people what Billy Graham thinks, it falls flat.  But when I simply preach the Word of God, it has power and lives are changed.“  Templeton was unconvinced and the friends then parted ways, but not before he told Billy that his faith signified the death of his intellect.  What he did not know was that Graham struggled with faith versus skepticism and science just like he did.  In Graham’s case, though, it was faith that won.

This book was written in a style that reminds me more of a fictional story than a biography.  I could tell that it was researched, though, and I thought that the use of Templeton to reveal Billy’s life was interesting, mostly because the reporter who interviewed him was looking for something about Graham to exploit and, even though it was clear that Templeton was jealous of his friend’s rise to fame, there was nothing there to exploit.  What was there was the story of a man who believed in Jesus as his Lord and Savior and wanted to lead others to believe that as well.  It was the story of this man that kept me reading.

Billy has been made into a movie, and I found it interesting that most of the Graham family would not endorse it.  I read here that some of them feel the film did “not focus enough on Graham’s passion for preaching and Christian ministry.”  The story that I read, though, although not challenging, clearly portrayed a man who sought to point people toward his Lord and Savior and has devoted most of his ninety years to that end.  If that’s not passion, I don’t know what is.

Gratitude Journal Day 11

Today I am thankful:

1) that our church has a men’s ministry that provides the hubby with support both spiritually and personally.

2) that there is no shortage of food on the shelves when I shop for groceries.  I may not like the prices, but the food is there.

3) that there is no shortage of food on my shelves.  The hubby and I eat far differently than we used to, and I think that retirement has gotten us back in the habit of shopping frugally like we did when we were young.  Not only in food, but in most areas of my life, I wonder if I know what it is to do without a need.  I was raised by a mom who, as a child of the Depression, believed in the WWII saying, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”    During WWII, things like sugar, coffee, gas, shoes, meat, fish, flour, and canned goods were rationed.  I wonder what my mom and dad went without.  They never really talked about it.  I found a lesson plan that asked kids to list ten things they would do without to help our country.  I don’t think most kids could list ten, and I don’t know that I can, either.  Makes you think–a LOT–about the difference between wants and needs.