Good morning,
Last week was quite a week when it comes to talking about world peace. Just the day before Billy Graham’s funeral, on the other side of the world from us, was a powerful man standing in an awesome hall full of faithful followers. The man was angry because many people in the world were not listening to his threats of a nuclear war if any nation tried to threaten them. He warned these nations, “Listen now, I’m not bluffing.” He said, “NATO defenses are completely useless.” He then went on to tell his audience that their country now had such powerful weapons and such advanced rockets that no other country in the world could stop them from attacking them. Among all the other things that he said was the warning that if anyone tried to attack them, "It will trigger an immediate answer with all the consequences stemming from it. No one should have any doubts about it.” Having said that he then said, "We aren't threatening anyone, we aren't going to attack anyone, we aren't going to take anything from anyone," he said. "The growing Russian military power will guarantee global peace.” It seems that he felt that their power would be so overwhelming that all the other countries of the world would have to do what Russia would tell them to do. While all of his followers were clapping and celebrating, the Bible tells us that the God who created the Earth was listening to him and would laugh at his man made plans.(Psalm 2:1-5)
The very next day, here in America, a large group of people were sitting just outside an old farm house on a windy day under a metal roof waiting to say good-by to an old preacher who had just died at 99. He was carried out in a simple wooden casket made by criminals who had built it out of love for him. Billy Graham was a man who knew that he was weak and sinful like everyone around him, but he also knew that he had trusted Jesus as his Savior and Lord. Billy knew that God had called him to share the truth of God’s love and salvation with anyone in the world who would listen to what God gave him to say. During the years that this saved sinner traveled to over 185 different countries, God used him to speak to well over 215 million people who came to listen to what God had to say to them. Billy told them all that Jesus was willing to give anyone who would confess that they were sinners and would ask him to save them, eternal life that began in time and would go on through eternity.(John 3:16, Romans 5:2) Billy’s siblings and his children told stories of his personal life, that he lived what he taught. Musicians and the congregation sang his favorite songs and fellow ministers from around the world told of this man’s life built on the truth of what God had said. Listening in the front row were our country’s President and Vice President and and their wives as well as people from all over the world watching on television and Youtube. What Billy told us from his Bible was now a reality more wonderful than our human words could explain. I am sure that if Billy were still here he would say with Paul, “The Bible Says” I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.(Rom.15:13) Dear Lord, please help us to remember that no power on earth can take our salvation and our peace away from us because we belong to your great eternal family as well.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.
Roy Wisner
