A Message From Billy Graham

My Heart Aches for America

By Billy Graham

“Some years ago, my wife, Ruth, was reading the draft of a book I was writing. When she finished a section describing the terrible downward spiral of our nation’s moral standards and the idolatry of worshiping false gods such as technology and sex, she startled me by exclaiming, “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
She was probably thinking of a passage in Ezekiel where God tells why He brought those cities to ruin. “Now this was the sin of … Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen” (Ezekiel 16:49–50, NIV).
I wonder what Ruth would think of America if she were alive today. In the years since she made that remark, millions of babies have been aborted and our nation seems largely unconcerned. Self-centered indulgence, pride, and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.
Just a few weeks ago in a prominent city in the South, Christian chaplains who serve the police department were ordered to no longer mention the Name of Jesus in prayer. It was reported that during a recent police-sponsored event, the only person allowed to pray was someone who addressed “the being in the room.” Similar scenarios are now commonplace in towns across America. Our society strives to avoid any possibility of offending anyone—except God.
Yet the farther we get from God, the more the world spirals out of control. 
My heart aches for America and its deceived people. The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance. In Jonah’s day, Nineveh was the lone world superpower—wealthy, unconcerned, and self-centered. When the Prophet Jonah finally traveled to Nineveh and proclaimed God’s warning, people heard and repented.
I believe the same thing can happen once again, this time in our nation.”

source: http://www.billygraham.orgarticlepage.asp?articleid=8813

Sin in the Camp

“Israel has sinned and broken my covenant!  They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me.  And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings…I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for destruction.  Joshua 7:11,12 (NIV)

After the battle of Jericho, God told Israel to set apart the things made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron for Him.  One man, Achan, disobeyed and his disobedience brought judgment on Israel.  They were soundly defeated at Ai, a battle they should have easily won, because God was angry with them.

In our churches today, the pews are full of people who are sinning against God.  They may be cheating on their spouse or planning to divorce them.  Maybe they have lied or gossiped about someone and brought dishonor to that person. Perhaps a young couple is living together outside of marriage.  Or It could be one of those “little sins” that we hardly think is worth mentioning.  But, any sin, in God’s eyes, is serious. In 1 Corinthians 5:6 Paul says, Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast…”  In other words, get rid of sin or it will spread through the whole church. Why, then, do we look the other way when we see people, who call themselves Christians, openly sinning with no thought of repentance? God turned His back on the nation of Israel because of one man’s sin.  Do we really think He doesn’t notice? Maybe God has left our church and we don’t even know it!

Safely Saved or Radically Forgiven?

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.  Do you realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” 2 Corinthians 13:5 (NIV)

So—what if you examine yourself and find that you are safely saved?  You are saved from hell and going to heaven, and that (and your sporadic church attendance) seems to be the only difference between you and your neighbor who is lost.  You own a Bible, but don’t read it.  You know you should pray, but you’d rather watch TV or spend hours on the computer.  You work hard for your money and all that you own, and you jealously guard it.  Your free time belongs to you and is for your enjoyment. Church is a place where you go to drink coffee, eat donuts, joke with your friends, sleep through the sermon and then go home and take a nap.

Or—are you radically forgiven?  You can’t understand how a holy God could sacrifice His only Son so that you could call Him Father.  You love God’s Word because it is a way to get to know your Father better.  It is living and active in your life—it changes the way your see yourself and the world God created.  When you think about the salvation God has provided for you, you want to share it with others.  Prayer is time spent with your Father, and you want to keep that appointment with God every day, no matter how busy you may be.  You realize that everything you have--your money, your time, and your special gifts, came from God and belong to God.  You want to serve Him out of a thankful heart, and glorify Him in all you do and say.  You are no longer the master—you are the servant.

You see, the gospel message is not just about being saved from hell. It’s about Christ coming to live His life in and through you—your body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit.  You have the power that raised Christ from the dead, living inside you. You are no longer a slave to sin but have victory over it.  It changes you and everything about you!

The Kinder, Gentler Church

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  Matthew 10:34 (NIV)

 

What is being preached in our churches today?  Is it the full counsel of God or do we prefer a kinder, gentler approach to delivering His Word? No one wants to hear that they are miserable sinners who deserve the wrath of God, and only the blood of Jesus can save them. It’s much more pleasant to hear that God loves them and has a plan for their life.  There’s nothing wrong with that message—it’s a good message.  But it’s not the whole story.  There are two sides to every coin.  If people don’t understand what their salvation cost God the Father and His Son, they’re not hearing the whole story. If people hear that all they have to do is ask Jesus into their heart to be saved, how does that prepare them to become His disciples?  One might think that they have no further obligation other than to say a prayer and attend church when it’s convenient. Jesus saves—that’s great! What about our part of the bargain? What about the fact that God's Word says we are not our own, we were bought with a price?  That we are to be holy, for He is holy?  That we are to love Jesus more than anyone or anything—including our family, our possessions, even our life?  Those are hard teachings but Jesus didn’t sugar coat the Truth and neither should we.  I think this is why our churches are so weak today—people are not being told to do the hard things.  In the end, it leaves the church with nothing but baby believers who are not challenged to grow in their faith.  Worse yet, they are being robbed of the promise of abundant life. The abundant life is not about “having it all”. 

“He who loses his life for my sake will find it.” 

Taking the Church's Temperature

“My house will be called a house of prayer.”  Matthew 21:13. (NIV)

Vance Havner (1901-1986) was a popular revivalist who boldly proclaimed the word of God for seventy-three years.  The following excerpt is from the book When God Breaks Through: Sermons on Revival by Vance Havner.

“I think prayer is the thermometer of a church.  What a church is on Wednesday night is what it is, not what it is on Sunday morning.  You can’t tell much about a church on Sunday morning.  You’ve got the morning glories and all the rest of them.  But it’s Wednesday night when you can find out what a church is like—how many people care enough to come to pray.”

If prayer is the measure of a church’s temperature, I think we are in trouble.  God says He wants His house to be a house of prayer--not preaching, not programs, not fellowship. We are very busy doing things, neglecting that which is most important.  Prayer should be the very heartbeat of our churches—but today, there is barely a pulse. In Revelation, Jesus describes the church at Sardis saying, “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”  They were doing things that gave the appearance of life, but they were really on life-support.  What was His advice to them?  “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent.”

God said, “My house will be called a house of prayer.”

How Does God See the Church Today?

Is It This?

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’  But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.  Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.  So be earnest, and repent.”  Revelation 3:15-18 (NIV)

Or This?

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”  2 Timothy 4:3

Or This?

“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” Isaiah 29:13

Or This?

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.” Acts 2:42-44 

Is This How God Sees America?

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” 

“Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.  Amen.”

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.  Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”  Romans 1: 21-32 (NIV)

A Call for Fasting and Prayer

“Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly.  Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the LORD.” 

Joel 1:14 (NIV)

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven.  We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity.  We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.  But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!  It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

April 30, 1863

President Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation

For a National Day of Fasting and Prayer

When God Visited America--Part Two

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”  Psalm 33:12 (NIV)

In order for something to be revived, it must be dead, or close to it.  Revival is a temporary state—it can only be sustained by a spirit of repentance and a desire to see God’s glory.  Eventually, people are lulled back to sleep.  So it was in the early 1800’s.  The brutality of the Revolutionary War and the energy it took to establish a new country, had taken its toll.  Consumption of alcohol had increased substantially (about 4-5 times what it is today) and moral decay had set in. Hardly a church could be found in the new territories that were being settled.  Many feared that America could not survive. Once again, God came down, as His people began to wake up and cry out to Him.  The Second Great Awakening came in waves, from 1800-1850, and the effects were far-reaching.  Not only were people returning to God in astounding numbers, schools were started (no public education existed), colleges and universities founded, hospitals were built, as well as shelters for the poor, and foreign missionary societies were begun.  Several men were instrumental in waking America from its slumber—Francis Asbury and Charles Finney are well known, but Timothy Dwight’s story caught my attention because it is so applicable to today.  As President of Yale College, he brought waves of revival to that campus, at a time when almost all students mocked Christianity and its values. The revival spread to Dartmouth and Princeton Colleges, as well. The largest revival came 14 years after his death in 1831.  I encourage you to read about these astounding events and the people who cooperated with God to bring them about.  As hopeless as our world seems today, nothing is impossible for God!

When God Visited America

“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.  You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.” Isaiah 64:4-5 (NIV)

It began in the year 1734.  The Puritan’s longing for a place to establish a society built on Christian ideals had not materialized. By the early 1700’s, drunkenness, immorality, and every vice imaginable had taken over the American colonies. Public officials were corrupt and churches were weak and ineffective. Jonathan Edwards, a powerful preacher who was used mightily by God, notes that two young people in his town died suddenly, causing many to wonder about their eternal destiny.  In addition to this, a young woman, described as one of the greatest “company keepers” in town was dramatically saved.  Her changed life had a profound effect on the community.  Add to these events the fervent prayer of a few faithful pastors and church people and you have a recipe for revival.  God visited America in a series of revivals that transformed our nation.  He used men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Charles and John Wesley to carry His message of repentance to the people. During the peak of the Awakening, 1740-1742, between 25,000-50,000 people were converted out of a population of 300,000!  Nothing is too difficult for God!

God of the Second Chance

“Turn to me now, while there is time.  Give me your hearts.  Come with fasting, weeping and mourning.  Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.  Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.  He is eager to relent and not punish.”  Joel 2:12-13 (NLT)

We have an amazing God.  No matter how disobedient Israel was, no matter how many times they turned from Him to worship other gods, no matter how evil and corrupt their leaders were, God still called out to them to return to Him, even as he was about to send calamity on the nation.  The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the very God we call “Father” today.  Pray that we will not take His mercy and compassion for granted.  Just as with Israel, there will be consequences if we do not return to Him in sincere repentance.  Verse 14 says, “Who knows?  Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse.”

The Future

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”  2Timothy 3:1-4 (NIV)

What does the future hold for our children and grandchildren if there is no revival?  The verses from 2 Timothy are a description of what it will be like in the days before Jesus’ return.  It sounds like today. If Jesus comes back tomorrow, are we ready?  Are our families ready? Can God bring revival to His people one more time?  I believe the answer is yes.  But we must do our part every day, realizing that the time is short:

• Humble ourselves
• Pray
• Seek God’s face
• Turn from our wicked ways

Are you willing?