Billy Graham is a man who has lived a life of integrity. And he’s done it in a highly public setting too. A Legacy Of Faith is a collection of quotes from this wise man. You can read my full book review by clicking here, but below are a few quotes I especially liked.
“We are not here by chance. God put us here for a purpose, and our lives are never fulfilled and complete until His purpose becomes the foundation and center of our lives.”
“Unless the soul is fed and exercised daily, it becomes weak and shriveled. It remains discontented, confused, restless.”
“Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength.”
“Everybody needs some friends around him who will say, ‘You are wrong!’ And that includes me. I really value the friendship of people who’ll just tell it to me like it is.”
“Although Christians do not always agree … what is most needed in the church today is for us to show an unbelieving world that we love one another.”
“satan would like nothing better than to have us stop our ministry and start answering critics, tracking down wretched lies and malicious stories. By God’s grace I shall continue to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and not stoop to mudslinging, name-calling, and petty little fights over nonessentials.”
“Like it or not, money is an essential part of any ministry, and safeguards must be put in place to avoid abuses or misunderstandings and to handle all finances with integrity and openness.”
“Preaching… involves us in a spiritual battle with the forces of evil. I am always deeply conscious that I am absolutely helpless and that only the Holy Spirit can penetrate the minds and hearts of those who are without Christ.”
“All of us in Christian ministry need to live and work with integrity. By integrity, I mean the moral value that makes people the same on the inside as they are on the outside—with no discrepancy between what they say and what they do, between their walk and their talk.”
“As long as there is one man in the world who hates another man because of the color of his skin or the shape of his nose or for some other reason, you have the possibility of war—as long as you have men in the world greedy for power, there is potential conflict. I believe that the Gospel of Christ is the only power in the world that can transform the heart of man and make it love instead of hate.”
“Suffering is part of the human condition, and it comes to us all. The key is how we react to it, either turning away from God in anger and bitterness or growing closer to Him in trust and confidence.” (On enduring Parkinson’s disease)
“I’m not a great man. I just have a great message.”
“The Psalms teach you how to get along with God; Proverbs teaches you how to get along with people.”
“Every day I have to renew my heart before God and ask for His grace and strength. I take time each day in the morning and evening to read passages of Scripture and ask the Lord to speak to me through them—apart from any preparations of sermon material.”
“When wealth is lost, nothing is lost. When health is lost, something is lost. When character is lost, everything is lost.”
“Hot heads and cold hearts never solved anything.”
“I was called by God to do this, and I don’t read anyplace in the Bible where any of His servants retired.”
I don’t think anyone who has studied the New Testament would argue that Paul was a premier pastor, evangelist and missionary. In his farewell address to the elders from Ephesus, Paul used his life as an example—“you know how I lived the whole time I was with you” (Acts 20:18).
Craig T. Owens 