Billy Graham Quotes - Page 24

Where students talk about being independent and on their own, you will find them practicing the most rigid conformity in dress, in speech, in moral attitudes, and in thinking. Sometimes they follow fashion at the expense of integrity. They dread to be alone. They do not want to stand out or be different. They want to conform. After they graduate from college, many of these young people want nothing more than a good job with a big firm, and a home somewhere in suburbia. But they don’t find security.

A good marriage is not “made in heaven,” but on earth. Love is a fragile commodity which needs to be cultivated and nourished constantly.

Our voices, our service, and our abilities are to be employed, primarily, for the glory of God.

Do you really want happiness? Then you will have to pay the price of humbling yourself at the foot of the cross and receiving Christ as Savior.

It is unbelief that shuts the door to heaven and opens it to hell. It is unbelief that rejects the Word of God and refuses Christ as Savior. It is unbelief that causes men to turn a deaf ear to the Gospel.

Prayer by itself is like a diet without protein! Prayer is important to our spiritual growth— but of even greater importance is God’s Word, the Bible.

Your future does not hinge on the world situation, however grim it might become. It depends on what happened 2,000 years ago at the cross and your acceptance or rejection of the Prince of Peace.

Sin is often, if not always, the perversion of something good. In the midst of all our sinning, though, God is willing to forgive us, change us,and give us a new power to overcome that sin.

God urges us to bring our concerns to Him—not just petitions about our own needs, but also intercessions for others. [The apostle] Paul said . . . “Brothers, pray for us” [1 Thessalonians 5:25 NIV].

Jesus expects one hundred percent surrender, and when that is accomplished He rewards a thousandfold.

There are two masters, and you have to choose which master you are going to serve.

If we are to have our prayers answered, we must give God the glory.

The influence of sin touches the innocent as well as the guilty.

Popularity and adulation are far more dangerous for the Christian than persecution. It is easy when all goes smoothly to lose our sense of balance and perspective.

There are so many professing Christians who are walking hand in hand with the world that you cannot tell the difference between the Christian and the unbeliever. This should never be.

When you truly love someone, you want to please and honor them by the way you act. How you treat someone shows whether or not you really care about them.

The same conditions that prevailed in Rome prevail in our society. Before Rome fell, her standards were abandoned, the family disintegrated, divorce prevailed, immorality was rampant, and faith was at a low ebb.

Christ needs people today who are made of martyr stuff! Dare to take a strong, uncompromised stand for Him.

It is no accident that the words discipline and disciple resemble each other in the English language. The most common word in the Gospels for a Christian is disciple.

Every law that God has given has been for man’s benefit. If man breaks it, he is not only rebelling against God; he is hurting himself.

Christ did not die by accident. He died voluntarily in our place.

Satan will thrash about in one last burst of evil,hoping to capture as many souls as possible before his inevitable end.

Prayer is not an option but a necessity.

During all my years as an evangelist,my message has always been the Gospel of Christ.It is not a Western religion, nor is it a message of one culture or political system . , .it is a message of life and hope for all the world.

The heart symbolizes the center of our moral, spiritual, and intellectual life. It is the seat of our conscience and life.

In our desire to make Christ known and to increase the influence of the church, we are many times prone to think that Christians and the church can be made popular with the unbelieving world. This is a grave mistake on the part of the church.

The Bible warns us against greed and selfishness, it does encourage frugality and thrift.

Without the resurrection, the cross is meaningless.

When something brings profit or pleasure to us, we are inclined to call evil good, even if we know it is dead wrong.

In Christ the middle wall of partition has been broken down. There is no Jew, no Gentile—no black, white, yellow, or red. We could be one great brotherhood in Jesus Christ. However, until we come to recognize Him as the Prince of Peace and receive His love in our hearts, the racial tensions will increase, racial demands will become more militant, and a great deal of blood will be shed. The race problem could become another flame out of control!

My visits to Hungary over the past twelve years absolutely fixed my conviction that God’s Holy Spirit was releasing a spiritual force in that part of the world that was bound to challenge the atheistic philosophy that had dominated nations in that region for decades.

It is important to realize that a person with the gift of discernment can often tell the difference between what is of God and what is not. Such a person can often point out false teachings or false teachers—he has an almost uncanny ability to perceivehypocrisy, shallowness, deceit, or phoniness.

We are told in Scripture that there will be signs pointing toward the return of the Lord.I believe that we see those signs in the world today. I believe that the coming of the Lord is near.

Satan’s first appearance in the Bible included an attack on a marriage—trying to divide Adam and Eve. His tactics have not changed. He wants our marriages to flounder and fail, because he knows that few things will discourage us more.

Grief which is not dealt with properly can cause us to lose our perspective on life.

God has not promised to bless my thoughts, but He has promised to bless His Word.

Faith in Christ is voluntary. A person cannot be coerced, bribed, or tricked into trusting Jesus. God will not force His way into your life. The Holy Spirit will do everything possible to disturb you, draw you, love you—but finally it is your personal decision.

In my years of global travels, I have seen a world in pain . . . Without God’s guidance, our response to suffering is a futile attempt to find solutions to conditions that cannot be solved.

Remember that “where God guides, He provides. Where He leads, He supplies all needs.

What is the most difficult word for young people to pronounce? It’s the word no. When we say no [to what is against God], He will help us to stand by it. He will give us courage.

Some people have said that man has improved . . . [and] that if Christ came back today, He would not be crucified but would be given a glorious reception. Christ does come to us every day in the form of Bibles that we do not read, in the form of churches that we do not attend, in the form of human need that we pass by. I am convinced that if Christ came back today, He would be crucified more quickly than He was two thousand years ago. Sin never improves. Human nature has not changed.

Conscience is our wisest counselor and teacher, our most faithful and most patient friend.

An unbelieving world may say otherwise, but so-called “sexual liberation” is actually sexual slavery—slavery to our own lusts.

[Multitudes] have never been born again. They will go into eternity lost—while thinking they are saved because they belong to the church, or were baptized.

Everybody has a little bit of Watergate in him.

Many Christians would prefer to hear “What a great guy” from the crowd rather than “Well done, good and faithful servant” from the Master [Matthew 25:23].

If I stick to the Bible and preach the principles and the teachings of the Bible, and quote the Bible, it has an impact of its own.

The destiny of your own soul is in your own hands by the choice you make.

Each generation becomes more addicted to the sedatives of life, to dull the pain of living.

In some churches and religious television programs, we see an effort to make Christianity popular and always positive. This may be a comfortable cushion for those who find the hard facts too difficult.

Death is not a trip, but a destination.

It doesn’t take great wealth or social influence to be faithful, but it does take obedience and endurance.

Patience includes perseverance—the ability to bear up under weariness, strain, and persecution when doing the work of the Lord.

The serious student of the Bible cannot dismiss homosexual behavior simply as an alternate lifestyle. Nor can it be argued that homosexuals were “born this way” or that such behavior is an illness.

I must ask myself, “Billy Graham, are you prepared to meet the Master at any moment?” Yes, I am—but not because I have preached or tried to help people, but solely because I am trusting Christ as my Lord and Savior. Stop right now and ask yourself that question.

If God were to eradicate all evil from this planet, He would have to eradicate all evil men. Who would be exempt? “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [Romans 3:23 NIV].God would rather transform the evil man than eradicate him.

Almost nothing is as complex as the human personality, and no simple formula will ever cover every situation or every relationship.

Every destructive emotion bears its own harvest, but anger’s fruit is the most bitter of all.

All around you are people whose lives are filled with trouble and sorrow, and they need your compassion and encouragement.

Something distinguishes Christianity from all the religions of the world. Not only does it carry the truth of the redemption, by the death of our Savior for our sins on the cross, but it carries the fact that Christ rose again.