Billy Graham Quotes - Page 7

In earlier periods of history, adolescence was virtually unknown . . . Today, the span between childhood and adulthood may extend over ten years. Deferred adulthood is synonymous with deferred responsibility.

You can have religion but not know Christ. It’s having Christ that counts.

Today our world is mad in its obsession with pleasure, sex, and money. Its ear is too dull to hear the truth. Most men’s eyes are blind. They do not want to see. They do not want to hear. They hurry to their doom.

Don’t let hatred control you, no matter what others do that causes [anger]. You would only become guilty of the same sin that afflicts them, and nothing would be solved.

The Word of God hidden in the heart is a stubborn voice to suppress.

The Greek word used in the New Testament to designate a sorcerer or a person who practiced occult magic is “pharmakeus,” or one who mixed drugs and used them to induce spells . . .Such practices are included in the list of “acts of the sinful nature” in Galatians 5:19–21 that God will judge.

Just as the Bible is God’s written Word, so Jesus is God’s living Word.

Your salvation depends on what [Christ] has done for you, not on what you do for Him. It isn’t your hold on God that saves you; it’s His hold on you.

You should no more allow sinful imaginations to accumulate in your mind and soul than you would let garbage collect in your living room.

At the bitter end of an era of liberation—women’s lib, kids’ lib, animal lib, and everything-but-ethics lib—America has apparently been liberated from its moral foundations. But for too many, the good life has become a living hell.

There are many bibles of different religions; there is the Mohammedan Koran, the Buddhist Canon of Sacred Scripture, the Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta, and the Brahman Veda . . . they all begin with some flashes of true light, and end in utter darkness. Even the most casual observer soon discovers that the Bible is radically different. It is the only Book that offers redemption to us and points the way out of our dilemma.

If we don’t know who we are, we’ll never know how we ought to live.

Scripture makes it clear that our first love is always to be for our Lord.

A Christian funeral should be a coronation ceremony, a statement to the world about eternal life.

It is vitally important for local church leaders to keep in touch with the spiritual state of their members, to discuss their level of biblical knowledge, and to teach them how to study God’s Word and pray.

Many Christians want the benefits of their belief, but they hesitate at the cost of discipleship.

Nothing made by the hand of man has ever been so beautiful as starlight on the water or moonlight on the snow. And the same hand that made trees and fields and flowers, the seas and hills, the clouds and sky, has been making a home for us called heaven.

There are those who have made their fortunes on other people’s misfortune. The Bible never promised that life would be fair.

End your journey well. Don’t waste your life, and don’t be satisfied with anything less than God’s plan.

None of us deserves God’s love. All of us deserve His righteous judgment and wrath (John 3:18, 36; Romans 3:9–12). It is easy to think of an evil and depraved man like Adolf Hitler deserving divine judgment . . .But think of the kind and good people that you know . . .They too will be lost if they refuse and neglect God’s offer of mercy and forgiveness. God’s judgment applies to them too.

Some of the strongest warnings about judgment in the Bible come from the lips of Jesus.

The facade of grief may be indifference, preoccupation, anger, cheerfulness, or any variety of emotions. But if we try to understand it, we may learn how to cope with it.

God is sending forth His message of love, but you must tune in. You must be willing to listen and to receive His message and then to obey it.

The Scripture teaches that popularity with the world means death. Satan’s most effective tool is conformity and compromise. He is aware that one man standing in the midst of a pagan peoplecan move more people in the direction of God than thousands of insipid professors of religion.

We don’t live in an ideal world, but in a world dominated by sinful, selfish desires.

Spiritually, we have wandered far from the faith of our fathers . . . no nation which relegates the Bible to the background, which disregards the love of God and flouts the claims of the Man of Galilee, can long survive.

It often takes a tragedy to open our hearts, minds, and wills to the truth of God’s Word.

Some people have a warped idea of living the Christian life. Seeing talented, successful Christians, they attempt to imitate them. For them, the grass on the other side of the fence is always greener. But when they discover that their own gifts are different or their contributions are more modest (or even invisible), they collapse in discouragement and overlook genuine opportunities that are open to them. They have forgotten that they are here to serve Christ, not themselves.

Although the testimony of my mother’s life helped mold me and taught me how to live, the testimony of her last years and her death gave me insight into how to die.

The Bible is the textbook of revelation.In God’s great classroom there are three textbooks—one called nature, one called conscience, and one named Scripture. In the written textbook of revelation—the Bible—God speaks through words.

Man cannot control himself, and if he will not be controlled by Jesus Christ, then he will be controlled by Satan.

Right is right, and wrong is wrong, in small things as well as in big things.

Do your work with honesty and integrity, and don’t compromise God’s moral standards. It may be difficult, but it’s far better to do right than to do wrong. God is with you, and He will not abandon you.

We relegate God to our spare time—but end up never having any spare time! Jesus said, “Seek first his kingdom” [Matthew 6:33 NIV].

What right does any church have even attempting to approve of lifestyles or certain acts for which God prescribed the death penalty in the Old Testament?

The Spirit goes ahead of us when we witness— preparing the way, giving us the words, and granting us courage.

God’s goal isn’t just to remove the bad things in our lives; He wants to replace them with good things. His plan is to remake us from within, by His Holy Spirit.

God prescribes the remedy for the ills of the human race. That remedy is personal faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. The remedy is to be born again.

God has given us a message that is not only for past times and this time, but for all time.

You cannot pray for someone and hate them at the same time.

Life and death is not a do-it-yourself project.

You and I, God’s ambassadors, are called to sound the warning, to call sinners to repentance, to point the way to peace with God and the hope that is in Christ.

Our generation has become well versed in Christian terminology but is remiss in the actual practice of Christ’s principles and teachings. Hence, our greatest need today is not more Christianity but more true Christians.

There are countless opportunities to comfort others, not only in the loss of a loved one, but also in the daily distress that so often creeps into our lives.

God gives us a glimpse of what heaven will be like for the believer. It will have the characteristics of a happy home, a holy city, a glorious garden, and a beautiful bride. This staggers the imagination!

We need to be on guard against greed . . . above all we need to make sure our lives are centered in Christ and not things.

The greatest barrier to knowing God’s will is simply that we want to run our own lives. Our problem is that a battle is going on in our hearts—a battle between our wills and God’s will.

A baby isn’t meant to stay a baby forever, and neither is a new Christian.

God gave the Bible to us because He wants us to know Him and love Him and serve Him. Most of all, He gave it to us so we can become more like Christ.

Envy and greed always—always—exact a terrible price. I have never met an envious or greedy person who was at peace.

God never leads us to do anything that is contrary to the Bible.

One of the great joys of my life has been to travel around the world and meet thousands of Christians in every country.

We have glamorized vice and minimized virtue. We have played down gentleness, manners, and morals—while we have played up rudeness, savagery, and vice . . . and the philosophy of “might is right.

Great crowds followed our Lord . . . as He healed the sick, raised the dead, and fed the hungry. However, the moment He started talking about the cross . . . “many . . . no longer followed him” (John 6:66 NIV).

The self-life manifests itself in self-indulgences, such as self-love, self-will, self-seeking, self-pride . . . It takes self-denial to turn off the television and spend [time] in prayer . . . and read the Scriptures . . .the only object in life is that Christ may be honored.

God wants us to know His will and He reveals it to us both through the Bible and through the guidance of His Holy Spirit. Seek God’s will when you pray, and He will help you know it.

Getting to know God and being able to call on Him is the most important step in storing up for the storms.

The world’s sewage system threatens to contaminate the stream of Christian thought. Satan will contest every hour you spend in Bible reading or prayer.

Worship leader George Beverly Shea kidded Billy Graham that the latter would be unemployed in Heaven -- while Shea would still have a job leading worship.

The Bible teaches that our homes should be hospitable and that those who come in and out of our homes should sense the presence of Christ.