February 21, 2018: Today, Billy Graham dies at age 99. Many may mourn that the greatest Christian Evangelist in our lifetime has died. But I can assure you that although his body has died, his soul and spirit has passed on into glory to be with Jesus.
Instead on reporting on his death, let us celebrate his life with the story of the power of one as told by Dave Earley and David Wheeler.
Never Underestimate the Power of One
One Samaritan woman testified to her town, and many believed in Jesus.
One man, Noah, built a boat that saved the human race.
One man, Moses, stood up to Pharaoh and delivered the Hebrews from Egypt.
One woman, Deborah, delivered Israel from the Canaanite oppression.
One man, David, defeated the Philistines when he killed their champion, Goliath.
One woman, Ester, had the courage to approach the king and see her nation spared from extermination.
One man, Peter, preached a sermon that led 3,000 to be saved.
One salesman and Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball, led a young man named Dwight to Christ. Dwight Moody became a blazing evangelist who it is said, led one million souls to Christ in his short lifetime.[1]
Wilbur Chapman received the assurance of his salvation after talking with Moody and went on to become a noted evangelist himself. The drunken baseball player Billy Sunday was an assistant to Chapman before becoming the most famous evangelist of his day. One of the fruits of Sunday’s ministry was the forming of a group of Christian businessmen in Charlotte, North Carolina. This group brought the evangelist Mordecai Ham to Charlotte in 1934. A tall awkward youth named Billy Graham was converted during those meetings.[2] According to his staff, as of 1993, more than 2.5 million people had “stepped forward at his crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior.”[3]Millions of souls trace their spiritual lineage back to the influence of one man, a simple Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball.
Someone said, “To the world you may just be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” To this we might add, to you they may seem like just one lost soul, but to God that might be a soul who can shake the whole world.[4]
(Never Underestimate the Power of One quoted from Evangelism Is, 2010).
It is estimated that over 215 million people have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Billy Graham’s ministry through his live stadium crusades in over 185 countries.
Bibliography
Earley, Dave, and David Wheeler. Evangelism Is: How to Share Jesus with Passion and Confidence. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2010.
[1] W.R. Moody, The Life of Dwight L. Moody, by His Son (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1900), taken from back cover.
[2] http://www.wheatonedu/bgc/archives/faq/13.htm.
[3] “God’s Billy Pulpit,” Time, November 15, 1993, http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979573,00.htm.
[4] Dave Earley and David Wheeler, Evangelism Is (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2010), 133-134.
The Lantern & Shield Times LLC.
Marketplace Evangelism Today 