The apostle Peter writes,

Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7)

This is strange at first glance. How does caring for your wife connect to having unhindered prayers?

Here’s Wayne Grudem’s challenging commentary:

So concerned is God that Christian husbands live in an understanding and loving way with their wives, that he “interrupts” his relationship with them when they are not doing so. No Christian husband should presume to think that any spiritual good will be accomplished by his life without an effective ministry of prayer. And no husband may expect an effective prayer life unless he lives with his wife “in an understanding way, bestowing honour” on her. To take the time to develop and maintain a good marriage is God’s will; it is serving God; it is a spiritual activity pleasing in his sight.” (1 Peter, 146)

Christian husbands shouldn’t feel that time given to their wives is “time away from the real ministry.” Time invested with our wives is time well spent. It’s God’s will—“a spiritual activity pleasing in his sight.”

On November 25th, the oldest member of Bethlehem who is still walking the earth turns 100. Irene Peterson attended Bethlehem for over 90 years. Only recently did she move to be near her daughter Joan in Washington, D.C. Joan says what Irene misses most is the body at Bethlehem.

We miss you too, Irene.

Some people get crotchety when they get old. But Joan says, “Mother is mellowing and aging well. Her neighbor calls their home Finishing School; she is finishing well!” Though her loss of hearing makes conversing difficult, word has it that the staff and fellow residents of Ingleside at Rock Creek love her. “Her quiet appreciative ways are winsome!”...

Read the rest of the article.

Thanks to all of you who participated in last week's giveaway for subscribers. Copies of This Momentary Marriage will be sent out to 125 of you this week.

(We'd list all the winners, but we'd have to get everyone's permission first, so you'll just have to trust me that the books are being sent.)

I wish we could have given everyone who wrote in a free copy, but we've done the next best thing by pricing it affordably. You can purchase This Momentary Marriage for only $6.49.

You may also be interested in the Marriage gift set that we have on special right now. It includes a copy of This Momentary Marriage, as well as John Piper's new book of poetry Velvet Steel and the CD set of his sermon series on marriage, "Marriage, Christ, and Covenant: One Flesh for the Glory of God."

Thanks again for reading and subscribing. Hopefully, we'll do another giveaway soon.

Good children’s books are profitable for adults. C. S. Lewis put it like this:

I was therefore writing “for children” only in the sense that I excluded what I thought they would not like or understand; not in the sense of writing what I intended to be below adult attention. I may of course have been deceived, but the principle at least saves one from being patronizing. I never wrote down to anyone; and whether the opinion condemns or acquits my own work, it certainly is my opinion that a book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then.

This weeks sermon: "Behold the Lamb of God"

Like a great root—one that protrudes above the ground a few feet out from the tree trunk—John the Baptist appears at the outset of the Gospel of John and then falls to the background.

He is a bridge between the Old Testament and the New. He is prominent at the beginning of Jesus' story because he is part of the deep roots of the Gospel in previous Scripture.

Jesus didn't appear on the scene of history without historical preparation. God had been at work in Israel for two thousand years—and even before that—putting in place a historical backdrop that would make Jesus life and ministry more intelligible.

The highpoint of what John the Baptist proclaims about Jesus is that he is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." In this announcement are two shocking truths:

1. Jesus, the Messiah, will be slaughtered like a lamb and
2. he will open up the way of salvation not to Jews only but to the whole world.
   

Regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity, or status, those who embrace Jesus as their Lamb and their Lord will be sheltered from the otherwise inescapable wrath to come.

A vague bad feeling that you are a crummy person is not the same as conviction for sin. Feeling rotten is not the same as repentance.

This morning I began to pray, and felt unworthy to be talking to the Creator of the universe. It was a vague sense of unworthiness. So I told him so. Now what?

Nothing changed until I began to get specific about my sins. Crummy feelings can be useful if they lead to conviction for sins. Vague feelings of being a bad person are not very helpful. The fog of unworthiness needs to take shape into clear dark pillars of disobedience. Then you can point to them and repent and ask for forgiveness and take aim to blow them up.

So I began to call to mind the commands I frequently break. These are the ones that came to mind.

• Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Not 95%, 100%. (Matthew 22:37)
• Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Be as eager for things to go well for him as you are for things to go well for you. (Matthew 22:39)
• Do all things without grumbling. No grumbling—inside or outside. (Philippians 2:14)
• Cast all your anxieties on him—so you are not being weighed down by it anymore. (1 Peter 5:7)
• Only say things that give grace to others—especially those closest to you. (Ephesians 4:29)
• Redeem the time. Don’t fritter or dawdle. (Ephesians 5:16)
• Set your mind on things that are above. Connect all your thoughts to Christ. (Colossians 3:2)
• Do not return evil for evil—like when your wife or daughter says something you don’t like. (1 Thessalonians 5:15)
• Rejoice always, and again I say rejoice. Always. If sorrowful, keep rejoicing. (Philippians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 6:10)
• Give thanks in all circumstances. All. All. All. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

So much for any pretensions to great holiness! I’m undone.

But now it is specific. I look it in the eye. I’m not whining about feeling crummy. I’m apologizing to Christ for not keeping all that he commanded. I’m broken and I’m angry at my sin. I want to kill it, not me. I’m not suicidal. I’m a sin hater and a sin murderer (“Put to death what is earthly in you” Colossians 3:5. “Put to death the deeds of the body” Romans 3:18.)

In this conflict, I hear the promise, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9). Peace rises. Prayer feels possible and right and powerful again.

Brian Gault was born in Northern Ireland in 1960 with no arms due to the “completely safe” drug prescribed for his mother’s morning sickness. I’ve just finished reading his autobiography, Look, No Hands.

At Bethlehem Baptist's Disability Ministry blog, you can read about some of the impact of the book on me.

Update: The contest is now closed. Books are being sent to the winners. 

Remember to subscribe to the DG blog by email or RSS before Monday if you want a chance to win This Momentary Marriage.

Whether you subscribed a second ago or have been reading for a long time, just let us know you're a subscriber by responding to this post, and you'll be entered into the drawing.

We originally said we'd give away 100 of these books, but let's make it 125, so everyone's chances are a little better.

Thanks for reading!

Registration is now open for our 2009 pastors conference:

Commending Christ: The Pastor, the Church, and the Perishing

Topic: Evangelism—telling the gospel

When: February 2-4, 2009

Where: Minneapolis, MN

Who:

• Mark Dever
• Matt Chandler
• Michael Oh
• John Piper (on George Whitefield)
  
  
• Hundreds of other pastors from around the world
• And, we hope, you

Why

John Piper on this year's conference:

People are born again through hearing the gospel....

And what is the gospel? Basically this: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.... that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-4).

Telling this old story is the means God has ordained for people to be born again. This strikes me as simply amazing. Words coming out of our mouths about events in history are the way God brings about the stupendous, supernatural miracle of the new birth....

I am eager to be together with you and to worship and pray and think and discuss these great matters. I hope you will come.

How much: $110 until December 31 (or $100/person for groups of 5 or more)

Register online.

Or call 888-346-4700, 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. CT, Monday - Friday.

There is no hope for God’s people unless God causes them to return from their sliding and leaping into sin and unbelief.

The book of Lamentations is the bleakest book in the Bible. God himself had decimated the apple of his eye.

• “The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.” (4:11)
• “He has killed all who were delightful in our eyes.” (2:4)
• “The Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.” (1:5)

So how does the book end?

It ends with the only hope there is:

Cause us to return, O Lord, that we may return! (Lamentations 5:21).

That is my only hope, and your only hope.

Jesus said to Peter,

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. (Luke 22:31-32)

Not if you return. But when you return.

Christ Jesus is the one who...is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Romans 8:34)

He will cause us to return. Therefore “to him who is able to keep you from falling...be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25).

Last week, John Piper spoke on the biblical foundations for Bethlehem College and Seminary under the title "The Earth Is the Lord's: The Supremacy of Christ in Christian Learning."

This message may be helpful not only to those interested in this particular school but also, more generally, to those involved in education at any level.

Piper sums up the goals of Bethlehem College and Seminary like this:

We aim to enable and to motivate the student to

• observe his subject matter accurately and thoroughly;
• understand clearly what he has observed;
• evaluate fairly what he has understood by deciding what is true and valuable;
• feel intensely according to the value of what he has evaluated;
• apply wisely and helpfully in life what he understands and feels; and
• express in speech, writing, and deeds what he has seen, understood, felt and applied in such a way that its accuracy, clarity, truth, value, and helpfulness can be known and enjoyed by others.

The armies of Moab, Ammon, and Edom were on the move. Destination: Jerusalem. They were relatives of the Israelites; Moab and Ammon were descended from Lot and Edom from Esau. But this was no family reunion. This was a slaughter in the making.

These three nations bordered Israel and Judah on the east and south. And since the reigns of David and Solomon, they had off-and-on been subject to the kings of Israel, paying a tribute tax and providing forced labor for Israel.

But it had been over 60 years since Solomon’s death and Israel had split into two kingdoms. Their strength was divided. And the northern kingdom was weakened from its battles with Syria. The time was ripe. If they joined forces now, they could crush the army of Judah and plunder king Jehoshaphat’s wealth. After that, maybe the northern kingdom.

Jehoshaphat caught wind of the impending attack. It didn’t take a Pythagoras to do the math. His army was like a sandcastle facing a large wave about to break right on it. The kingdom of Judah would be swept away unless he got some very strong help.

Now, forget for the moment that you know the fairytale-like ending to the story. What would it have been like to be Jehoshaphat? A brutal death for himself and everyone he loves. Tens of thousands of his people were bearing down on him. Everyone was looking to him to do something to save them. Imagine the pressure.

Jehoshaphat really did trust the Lord and believed his promises. He did believe God could rescue Judah. He wanted to honor God by his trust. And, in this case, he didn’t have many alternatives. Sometimes that is a great mercy.

He must have remembered his father Asa’s mistake. As a younger king Asa had cried out to the Lord for deliverance when his small army faced one million Ethiopian soldiers and God had miraculously answered him. But in later years he abandoned that trust and forged an alliance with Syria. And God disciplined him severely for it.

So Jehoshaphat gathered the people of Judah in Jerusalem for a fast. They stood before the temple, and the king, in an act of great leadership, pleaded their case before the Lord and then said this:

“We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. (2 Chronicles 20:12)

Isn’t that a beautiful confession? It is so child-like in its humility and faith. It is, in fact, another Old Testament picture of the gospel. We are powerless to save ourselves. But when we look to God and call on him for deliverance from the impending judgment, he brings about a salvation beyond our wildest imagination.

The reason God orchestrated Jehoshaphat’s predicament is the same as his design in the tribulations and crises in our lives: he want us to increasingly find freedom from fear.  

You see, real freedom is not the liberty to do what we want, or even the absence of distress. Real freedom is the deep-seated confidence that God really will provide everything we need. The person who believes this is the freest of all persons on earth, because no matter what situation they find themselves in, they have nothing to fear. 

But the only way for sinners like us with a bent toward unbelief in God to find this kind of freedom is by experiencing repeatedly God’s delivering power and his faithfulness. That’s why we are to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds (James 1:2). They are making us free.

There are a lot of temptations to fear right now: political change, economic calamity, natural disasters, all on top of personal hardships. If you're feeling the wight of these things, you may be helped by the message, “Fear Not, I Am With You, I Am Your God.” In this sermon, John Piper unpacks Isaiah 41:1-13, one of his favorite texts, and gives us what he calls “the key to overcoming fear.” Remember that all these difficult things are working together for your good and for your ultimate freedom and joy.

God answered Jehoshaphat’s faith-filled prayer in a spectacular way. He threw the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites into confusion and they slaughtered one another. Jehoshaphat and his choir-led army never had to lift a sword. And it took them three days to carry the plunder back home.

God’s word to us through this story in all the crises we face is this: “Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15).

Jesus is concerned to give assurance to those of us who would read the Gospel of John in the 21st century.

For example, he prays for us in John 17:20, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” In other words, Jesus foresaw that after his departure everyone who would become a Christian would do so not by seeing his physical body but through “the word” of the eyewitnesses. This is possible because an eyewitness like John wrote the Gospel of John.

Another example is the way Jesus responded to Thomas who needed to see Jesus’ wounds in order to believe he was really raised from the dead...

Read the rest of the article.

Update: The contest is now closed. Books are being sent to the winners. 

We're giving away 100 copies of This Momentary Marriage to 100 of our readers.

If you're a subscriber to the DG blog, let us know by responding to this post. Please include your name and the address you'd want the book shipped to if your name is drawn.

(Yes, we'd be happy to send them internationally, so everyone can participate.)

On Monday, we'll randomly select 100 readers and send them each a copy of this new book on marriage.

Sign up by RSS or email if you want to be entered but aren't a subscriber yet.

(If you keep hearing about RSS, and have no idea what it is, then you may be interested in a tutorial on how to use Google Reader that I wrote awhile back. Follow the directions in that article, and you should be using RSS within 10 minutes.)

I thank God today for the service and the sacrifice of 24.5 million veterans in America.

Today is Veteran’s Day. Formerly it was Armistice Day because on November 11, 1918 in a railway carriage in Compiengne Forest in France the Armistice with Germany was signed that ended World War I where 116,516 American soldiers died.

There are 9.5 million veterans older than 65. 2.3 million are black. 1.1 million are Hispanic. 276,000 are Asian.

When soldiers came to John the Baptist and asked, “What shall we do”—meaning, “How shall we respond to your call to repent?”, John answered, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages” (Luke 3:14).

From this we learn that repentance did not demand ceasing to be a soldier. The tensions between being a follower of Jesus as a soldier are essentially the same as the tensions of being a follower of Jesus in all the other authority structures of society that God ordains for the stability of the world (like business, education, government, and family).

There have been agonizing choices the veterans have had to make. May they (and we all) turn to the cross of Christ for the final resolution of what we have done. I am thankful they embraced the risk.

I’ll start by telling you plainly that I want you to take advantage of our Christmas Special and get a case of Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. Here’s why:

This helpful little book says things like:

Jesus himself - and all that God is for us in him - is our great reward, nothing less.

And,

Jesus will show us the way to heaven whether we can stomach it or not.

And again,

When we see Jesus for who he really is, we savor him…we delight in him as true and beautiful and satisfying.

I love this book because it gives me fresh words to use when I tell people why I love Jesus Christ. I love this book because it imparts a fresh passion for Jesus to those that read it. My joy in God is increased when I see others begin to rejoice in God. I’m a Christian Hedonist. That’s why I’m a spreader.

So get a case and spread the word—Christmas is only about Jesus Christ.

*               *               *

Offer Details

• Cases of Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ are available for a suggested donation of $68 to those who agree to give the books away for free.
• Each case contains 48 books. (The donation covers $1 per book and $20 for shipping.)
• If you can afford more—great! If you can’t afford $68, then we will accept whatever you can afford.
• This offer is good through December 16, 2008 or while our supply lasts, whichever comes first.
• We’re only taking these donations by phone, so call us at 1.888.346.4700 between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Central Time, Monday - Friday.

This week's sermon: "From His Fullness We Have All Received, Grace Upon Grace"

Moses is unique. No one in the Old Testament, other than God himself, commands respect like Moses. Exodus 33:11 says that God spoke to Moses "as a man speaks to his friend."

Moses alone knew God well enough to venture the audacious request, "Please show me your glory." God's answer was that, yes, he would cause his goodness to pass before Moses but, no, Moses could not see his face, only his back. The fullness of time had not yet come. It was not yet God's will to reveal himself in fullness. Not yet.

But the day came. God's eternal Word—God's own self and God's own fellow—became flesh in Jesus. And in doing so, God was overcoming the darkness in our world and the darkness in our souls.

Those who by grace are born of God have seen God's glory in Jesus—the glory Moses asked to see but wasn't permitted. Seeing the glory of Jesus means seeing the very glory of God. As Jesus himself says, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

It was a backwater German town called Eisleben on November 10, 1483—today marks 525 years.

There Martin Luther had his inauspicious beginning. He was born a poor boy, son of a coal miner. And by a strange providence, Luther died in the same town 62 years later on February 18, 1546, even though he spent barely any of his life there.

In the intervening 6 decades, the world changed—and Luther, under God, was the chief catalyst.

The pope excommunicated Luther in January of 1521, making him a marked man. For the last 25 years of his life, he lived with the awareness that each day could be his last. He often expressed surprise that he was still alive.

To the right is a 1526 painting by Lucas Cranach, which may be the most authentic portrait we have of Luther. And, so that you can join us in celebrating Luther’s 525th, below is a timeline of his life, highlighting some of the most significant events of his 62 years.

Thank God for Luther—simultaneously righteous and sinful.

Timeline of Luther’s Life 

1483, November 10 - Born to Hans and Margaretta Luther in Eisleben
1484, Summer - Luther family moves to Mansfeld
1501, May - Enters university at Erfurt (age 17)
1502, September 29 - Receives Bachelor of Arts (age 18)
1505, January 7 - Receives Master of Arts (age 21)
1505, July 2 - Vows to become a monk
1505, July 17 - Enters the monastery in Erfurt
1507, May 2 - Celebrates his first mass as a priest (age 23)
1510, November - Journeys to Rome and is disturbed by its corruption (age 26)
1511, April - Transferred to Wittenberg to teach at the university
1512, October 19 - Receives his Doctor of Theology (age 28)
1517, October 31 - Posts his 95 theses (age 33)
1518, April 26 - Defends his theology at Heidelberg
1519, July - Debates prominent theologian John Eck at Leipzig
1520 - Publishes Address to German Nobility, Babylonian Captivity, and Freedom of the Christian; breach with Rome now irreparable
1521, January - Excommunicated by the pope (age 37)
1521, April 18 - Gives “Here I stand” response to the emperor at the Diet of Worms
1521, May - Kidnapped and hidden at Wartburg to preserve his life; begins translating the New Testament into German
1522, March - Returns to Wittenberg to lead the Reformation
1522, September - Publishes his German New Testament
1524, November 30 - Writes that he has no intention to marry
1525, June 13 - Marries escaped nun Katherine von Bora (age 41)
1525, December - Responds to Erasmus’ Freedom of the Will with The Bondage of the Will (which J. I. Packer calls “the greatest piece to come from Luther’s pen”)
1527, Summer - Composes “A Mighty Fortress” during a season of sickness and deep depression
1529, October - Meets Zwingli at Marburg and is unable to come to agreement on the Lord’s Supper
1534 - Publishes the complete German Bible (age 50)
1546, February 18 - Dies while traveling in Eisleben (age 62)

Annie Lou Henry
May 23, 1898 - November 9, 1980

Twenty-eight years ago today—five months after we began at Bethlehem—my father’s mother died down in Georgia. For a couple of years she had been having small strokes that kept her more and more confined to her home and then her bed.

During one visit, I sat with her and learned a lesson that helped prepare me for ministry and my own life.

This woman was my grandmother, who had always been part of my life. Though college-educated, she had survived the depression by scratching a living from the Georgia red clay, alongside her husband and children. She outlived her husband (Walter Raleigh Henry, Sr.) by 30 years. She buried one child and raised nine others. She now had so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren that she and God were probably the only ones who knew the number without lengthy calculation.

She had known God’s faithfulness through many kinds of heartbreak and pain and struggle. It was obvious to everyone who knew her that she trusted him for every breath of her life.

One time, one of her daughters told me that Grandmother prayed every day by name for each of her children, their spouses, and their children and grandchildren. Knowing her, I believed that. Aunt Rachel told me that Grandmother had sensed from God an assurance that all of the descendants she knew would be with her in heaven some day. Time will tell whether that is true, but the story is a strong testimony to her faith in God and her closeness to him.

Now this giant in my life—this shrunken 91-year-old giant—lay in bed and wondered if she were really a Christian.  Surely, she thought, if my faith were true and strong, God wouldn’t have let me come to this—too sick and weak to get out of bed. Maybe, she thought, my whole life has been a lie.

I was aghast. How could she say such things? I hardly knew what to say, but I assured her that her life told me a different story. I tried to point her back to the God she had always told me about, the God in her favorite passage of Scripture—the passage all of us grandchildren had memorized whether or not we wanted to, because we heard it so often from Grandmother:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of  the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)

Here is the lesson I learned that day. Though Satan is never stronger than Jesus, he may seem stronger when we become weaker. When we are weak and sick and old, we may be the most vulnerable of any other time in our lives. And considering that our enemy is wily as a serpent waiting for an opportune moment to strike, perhaps the saints who have remained the strongest throughout life face the greatest temptation when finally they are weak. 

I write about Grandmother today for 3 reasons:

1. Every one of us is older than we used to be, and as more time passes, we will probably become weaker. We need to be on guard against the sneaky lies of our enemy.
2. We know or will know someone who needs encouragement when life closes in and he or she loses sight of the God who has been known well and trusted deeply until now.
3. As someone we love draws closer to death, we must never give up praying that God preserve faith strong to the end.

And I—now a grandmother myself—urge you to hide this assurance in your heart:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

C. S. Lewis:

Did you ever meet, or hear of, anyone who was converted from skepticism to a "liberal" or "demythologized" Christianity? I think that when unbelievers come in at all, they come in a good deal further. (Letters To Malcolm, 119)

One of the great fears of my life as a boy growing up in Greenville, South Carolina is that Billy Graham would die. Today he is 90 years old. Thank you, Lord, that you answered my boyish prayers. Happy birthday, Billy. Here’s to your life!

Billy Graham was born on November 7, 1918 in North Carolina. In 1934, under the preaching of evangelist Mordecai Ham, Billy was converted to Christ. Which means that Mordecai Ham is one of the most influential preachers of the 20th century.

Billy attended Bob Jones University in Cleveland, Tennessee for one year and spent three and a half years at Florida Bible Institute in Tampa. In March of 1938 he was called to preach:

One night in March, 1938, Billy Graham returned from his walk and reached the 18th green immediately before the school’s front door. “The trees were loaded with Spanish moss, and in the moonlight it was like a fairyland.” He sat on the edge of the green, looking up at the moon and stars, aware of a warm breeze from the south. The tension snapped. “I remember getting on my knees and saying, ‘God, if you want me to preach, I will do it.’ Tears streamed down my cheeks as I made this great surrender to become an ambassador for Jesus Christ.” (John Pollock, Billy Graham, 17)

In the summer vacation of 1937 he had asked Emily Cavanaugh to marry him. In May of 1938, she said no.

Billy was ordained in 1939. The first time he gave his own “altar call” he was at a little church on the Gulf Coast and there were 100 people present. Thirty-two young men and women came forward (Pollock, 22).

In the fall of 1940, he entered Wheaton College. He met Ruth Bell in the lobby of Williston Hall.

Ruth told Billy that she was unsure after all. She feared that her desire to be his wife denied a clear missionary call, unless he were bound for Tibet. “He went and prayed about the mission field, and he just had no leading whatsoever. Finally he said, ‘Well, do you think God brought us together?’ - and I had to admit I felt God had.” Billy pointed out that the husband is head of the wife: “The Lord leads me and you follow.” Ruth agreed, in faith. (Pollock, 26)

They were married August 13, 1943.

In August, 1949, his faith in the Bible was put to the test. It came to a climax at a student conference in the San Bernardino mountains of California. Charles Templeton had asked questions about the Bible’s truthfulness that Billy could not answer.

Billy went out in the forest and wandered up the mountain, praying as he walked, “Lord, what shall I do? What shall be the direction of my life?”

He had reached what he believed to be a crisis.

He saw that intellect alone could not resolve the question of authority. You must go beyond intellect. He thought of the faith used constantly in daily life: he did not know how a train or plane or car worked, but he rode them.... Was it only in things of the spirit that such faith was wrong?

“So I went back and I got my Bible, and I went out in the moonlight. And I got to a stump and put the Bible on the stump, and I knelt down, and I said, 'Oh, God; I cannot prove certain things. I cannot answer some of the questions Chuck is raising and some of the other people are raising, but I accept this book by faith as the Word of God.’” (Pollock, 53)

That next month came the decisive turning point in Billy’s global evangelism, the L. A. Crusade. Overnight he became a nationally known figure. One year later, Newsweek called him “America’s greatest living evangelist” (May 1, 1950).

He never lost the unshakable conviction that God had called him sovereignly to the work of evangelism and that he owed everything to God’s initiative.

“With all my heart as I look back on my life, [I believe] I was chosen to do this particular work [of evangelizing] as a man might have been chosen to go into East Harlem and work there, or to the slums of London like General Booth was. I believe that God in his sovereignty - I have no other answer for this - sheer sovereignty, chose me to do this work and prepared me in his own way.” (Christopher Catherwood, Five Evangelical Leaders, 234)

For all the technology he employed, he relied profoundly on the Holy Spirit in the work of evangelism.

He told students in 1964 at Harvard Divinity School… “I used to think that in evangelism I had to do it all, but now I approach evangelism with a totally different attitude. I approach it with complete relaxation. First of all, I don’t believe that any man can come to Christ unless the Holy Spirit has prepared his heart. Secondly, I don’t believe any man can come to Christ unless God drives him. My job is to proclaim the message. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to do the work, period.” (Catherwood, 230)

When it was not yet the politically correct thing to do he was an advocate for racial integration and respect.

In 1972, Graham accepted an invitation to speak in Durban and Johannesburg provided that the audiences were racially integrated. The South African government disliked this and only reluctantly agreed…. Howard Jones recalls [Martin Luther] King telling Graham, “Your crusades have done more to help race relations than anything else I know.” (Catherwood, 209)

He is famous for saying that he preached too much and studied too little.

One of my great regrets is that I have not studied enough. I wish I had studied more and preached less. People have pressured me into speaking to groups when I should have been studying and preparing. Donald Barnhouse said that if he knew the Lord was coming in three years, he would spend two of them studying and one preaching. I’m trying to make it up. (Christianity Today, September 23, 1977)

This is especially ironic in view of Pollock’s 1966 description of Billy’s habits of study:

Beyond all else Billy Graham studies the Bible, the supreme authority for his belief and action. Every day he reads five Psalms, covering the psalter in a month, and one chapter of Proverbs, the book that “shows us how to relate our own lives to our fellow men.” He reads through a Gospel each week, using commentaries and modern translations, and constantly returns to the Acts of the Apostles. He annotates throughout the Bible. “Sometimes His word makes such an impact on me that I have to put the Bible down and walk around for a few moments to catch my breath.” He learns great stretches by heart…. (Pollock, 248)

All of this was saturated with prayer. “I have so many decisions to make each day, and so many problems, that I have to pray all the time” (Pollock, 248).

Surely John Pollock is right that “Prayer and Bible reading, inextricably intertwined, are the tap roots of Billy Graham’s character and of his message” (248).

A Faith Worth Sharing by C. John Miller—his friends called him Jack—is the best resource I’ve found on gospel-telling. It is his deathbed narration of “a lifetime of conversations about Christ.”

Reading Jack is a great way to seek fresh evangelistic grace this holiday season and to be encouraged and equipped to speak the gospel to friends, family, and neighbors.

An Ordinary Jack

What makes A Faith Worth Sharing unique and memorable is its narrative format and ordinary author. It’s inspiring to read stories of how an average Jack began to share his faith as a new Christian and continued to do so in simple but significant ways during his lifetime. Jack is honest about the many mistakes he made, and he shares many lessons he learned the hard way...

Read the rest of the article.

The Gospel Coalition has recently updated their website. The site is really excellent and I encourage you to check it out.

Here are some of the things you might find most helpful there:

• It brings together content from more than 50 pastors and teachers, including D.A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, C.J. Mahaney, and John Piper.
• You can browse all of the resources by media type (audio, video, text), author/speaker, topic, and resource category (sermons, questions answered, conference messages, online books, articles, and interviews).
• There is a lot of great video content.
• All issues of the Themelios theological journal.
• They have a really sharp and helpful blog aggregator.

These things just scratch the surface. What an amazing gift to have several thousand sermons and resources brought together into this single, usable interface.