Billy Graham Quotes - Page 2

No clergyman however brilliant, no evangelist no matter how eloquent or compelling, can bring about the revival we need. Only the Holy Spirit can do this.

Every manifestation of evil is the result of basic sin—sin that has remained unchanged since the moment it first entered the human race.

In character-building and in living the Christian life, concentration is important. The [person] who has a general interest in everything usually isn’t too good at anything.

Sometimes . . . we grow homesick for heaven. Many times in the midst of the sin, suffering, and sorrow of this life there is a tug at our soul. That is homesickness coupled with anticipation.

God says that we can learn a great deal about Him just by observing nature. Because He has spoken through His universe, all men are without excuse for not believing in Him. This is why the Psalmist said: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” [Psalm 14:1 KJV].

As humans we have two great spiritual needs. The first is forgiveness, which God has made possible by sending His Son into the world to die for our sins. Our second need, however, is for goodness, which God also made possible by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell within us.

A godlikeness of character is the Christian’s proper heritage in this earthly walk.

In Christ alone there is deliverance from man’s tortured thoughts and freedom from the sordid habits which are destroying so many people. Why does the Bible so clearly denounce drunkenness? Because it is an enemy of human life. Anything that is against a person’s welfare, God is against.

Don’t let the acids of bitterness eat away inside. Learn the secret of trusting Christ in every circumstance.

Discouragement is the opposite of faith. It is Satan’s device to thwart the work of God in your life.

Grief comes with many losses. Whatever its cause, grief will come to all of us.

If we believe in what God made and what God said, we will believe in the One whom God sent.

To take up your cross means to associate yourself with Christ and to share His rejection. It means you take a stand for Christ even though people make fun of you, persecute you—or even kill you!

We have tried to enthrone the false gods of money, fame, and human intelligence; but however we try, the end is always the same: “It is appointed unto men once to die” [Hebrews 9:27 KJV].

I know that many of the things I have said from the Scriptures have offended some, but I cannot afford to tone down the message. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:17, “I have a stewardship entrusted to me” (nasb), and that is to preach the pure and simple Gospel in whatever culture I am in.

Faith isn’t pretending our problems don’t exist, nor is it simply blind optimism. Faith points us beyond our problems to the hope we have in Christ.

Without Him our daily routine would become tiresome and tedious, a drudgery rather than a joy.

Jesus demonstrated the importance of prayer by His own example. His whole ministry was saturated with prayer.

The blood of Christ purchased the church.

[The Holy Spirit] will remain with every believer right to the end. This thought has encouraged me a thousand times in these dark days when satanic forces are at work.

Don’t rebel, but give God the opportunity to change your life and help you over the problems of youth, for they are many.

One of the devil’s methods is to attack everyone . . . He knows that the Word of God is powerful, and he will try to keep you from it.

Daniel and his companions were tempted to forsake their godly heritage but they refused. They even faced a fiery furnace rather than compromise.

There are many who sit in some churches week after week, year after year, without hearing the whole Gospel and knowing what it is to be born again. They hear a gospel which is incomplete, and consequently not good news at all.

In the morning, prayer is the key that opens to usthe treasures of God’s mercies and blessings; in the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under His protection and safeguard.

The devil is alive and kicking. But if you are in Christ and follow the rules of daily Bible study, prayer, and witnessing, he has no power over you.

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.

Truly, the world is in need of moral leadership . . .that teaches the difference between right and wrong and teaches us to forgive one another even as we are forgiven by our Father in heaven.

In our day many people are broad but shallow. Agnosticism, anxiety, and emptiness have gripped much of our world.

Satan has slaughtered, plundered, and bludgeoned his way through the centuries, manifesting himself in every false ideology, sect, and cult.

Sin—plain, old-fashioned sin, the self-same sin which caused Adam’s downfall—is what we are all suffering from today, and it will do us far more harm than good to try to dress it up with a fancy, more attractive label.

The Bible teaches that we have a Christian duty to help our neighbors in their time of need. We are called by God to bring the water of life for both soul and body. God created them both, and His purpose is to redeem them both.

Only God knows the future and that we are to look to Him—not to the stars or the tea leaves or the lines on the palms of our hands—for our confidence in the future.

The first hint of the Gospel comes from Genesis 3:15, this is the first promise of salvation.

To many people, the mention of the blood of Christ is distasteful. However, on [a] visit to Mayo Clinic I noticed that at each reception desk there were pamphlets entitled A Gift of Life, urging people to donate blood.Anyone who has gone through surgery and looked up to seethe bag of blood dripping slowly into his veins,realizes with gratitude the life-giving property of blood.5

Is it not arrogance or narrow-mindedness to claim that there is only one way of salvation or that the way we follow is the right way? I think not. After all, do we fault a pilot for being narrow-minded when he follows the instrument panel [while] landing in a rainstorm? No, we want him to remain narrowly focused!

As a person finds God’s will for his or her life, matters of conscience can be handled with perception from the Holy Spirit.

[God] wants to help you overcome the bitterness and anger that you feel, and He wants to encourage you . . . He knows that anger and depression will never help you deal with your problems—they only make them worse.

We can be convicted of sin—we can pray and confess our sin—we can repent—but the real test is our willingness to obey.

Life is not a matter of dollars and cents, houses and lands, earning capacity and financial achievement. Greed must not be allowed to make man the slave of wealth.

[Young people,] dress as attractively as you can. You are an aristocrat, a child of God.

In some churches today and on some religious television programs, we see the attempt to make Christianity popular and pleasant. We have taken the cross away and substituted cushions.

There are three of you. There is the person you think you are. There is the person others think you are. There is the person God knows you are and can be through Christ.

When confronted with the world’s problems, we Christians say automatically: “Christianity is the answer.” But this is not true! It is the application of Christianity that is the answer.

Sometimes we face “gray areas,” things that aren’t necessarily forbidden by the Bible but still may not belong in our lives.

Double-mindedness means the faculty of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind and accepting both of them. We talk out of both corners of our mouths at once.

I am counting totally and completely on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not on Billy Graham. I am not going to heaven because I’ve read the Bible, nor because I’ve preached to a lot of people. I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did.

God has revealed Himself in the Book called the Bible.

Money represents your time, your energy, your talents, your total personality converted into currency. We usually hold on to it tenaciously, yet it is uncertain in value and we cannot take it into the next world.

The book of Revelation may be difficult and demanding to read, yet it is the only biblical book whose author promises a blessing to those who read it.

We are to feed the new nature on the Word of God constantly, and we are to starve the old nature, which craves the world and the flesh. We are told to “make not provision for the flesh” [Romans 13:14 KJV].

Greed is an unreasonable or all-absorbing desire to acquire things or wealth. One test of greed is that it is never satisfied. Greed is repeatedly condemned in the Bible.

Once for all God made complete and perfect provision for the cure of man’s sins; without the blood of Christ, it is indeed a fatal disease.

There is always the exceptional child, but the average tells us that the child is largely what the home has made him.

I have never met a person who didn’t have problems of some kind. This is why we need one another’s encouragement.

Make it your goal to become more like Christ by refusing to let sin have its way, and pursuing instead that which is pure and good in the sight of God.

God is love” means that He tries constantlyto block your route to destruction.

Instead of giving God His rightful place at the center of our lives, we have substituted the “god” of Self. Only Christ can change our hearts—and through us begin to change our world.

There is nothing which indicates the inspiration of the Scriptures more than the factual and faithful record of men and their failures . . .These records are for our warning and instruction. They show us how sinful man needs God.

I have found in my travels that those who keep heaven in view remain serene and cheerful in the darkest day. Forward-looking Christians remain optimistic and joyful, knowing that Christ someday will rule.