My original topic was going to be about how many of the sayings and phrases you might have grown up with or sometimes hear on a daily basis have their roots in the bible, like “A leopard can’t change his spots” and “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”.
And even though I found many of them as I was searching on the internet, I ran across some other religious quotes and ultimately a list of quotes from the Reverend Billy Graham.
But as I read his quotes, I became impressed with his wit, his insight and his wisdom. So I’m going to share some of them with you today.
There is almost something magical in the ability to condense one’s thoughts on a subject to a handful of words and structure them so that the meaning comes out loud and clear.
A good quote says it all and leaves the commentary for someone else.
Many times a short message or saying has more impact and is remembered longer than if the speaker had spent much more time elaborating on the topic and over-explaining the concept. In this day of sound bites and 15 second commercials, the witty quotation should fit right in.
So I invite you to listen to my short commentary on some interesting quotes and then maybe find your own wisdom in them.
Did you ever wonder what heaven will be like? Who will be there, how it will all lay out, if everything that we hope for will be there? What do you think about this quote from Billy Graham?
“God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there”
God’s knows us better than we know ourselves and we can be assured He’ll fulfill all our needs, even ones we might not have remembered or thought about.
God’s plan has no shortcomings or mistakes. It takes everything into account and we just have to trust that everything, down to the last detail will be just right.
God’s kingdom is the ultimate five-star hotel. And we all have our reservations booked in advance.
Here’s another quote.
“There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.”
This is a simple restatement and explanation of one of the most misquoted biblical phrases ever. You hear “Money is the root of all evil” instead of the proper words “The love of money is the root of all evil”.
When you cut off the beginning three words, it kind of changes the meaning of the quote, doesn’t it?
It makes it appear that having money is evil, even if that money came about through hard work, dedication and sacrifice. I believe God wants us to succeed, wants us to work hard, to do great things, to quote an Army slogan “To be all that we can be”, and if money comes as a result of that success, to use it in good ways.
“There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.”
Not surprisingly, Mr. Graham has a few quotes about money. Two more are…
“Give me five minutes with a person's checkbook, and I will tell you where their heart is.”
I’ve heard that a person’s true character can always be seen when they receive a lot of money, like winning the lottery or becoming rich and famous in a short period of time. How they act and what they spend it on reveals a lot about the person.
Do they go on shopping sprees and buy cars, jewelry, boats, houses and other things that they probably don’t need. Do they become arrogant, condescending, distrustful or aloof with others that don’t possess their new-found wealth?
Or do they use their money for worthy causes, donate to charities, set up endowments or trust funds for others and use the money in ways that can benefit society in some manner. Do they become more generous, happier, more concerned about people in general and a nicer person to deal with and be around?
Their personality and beliefs didn’t change when the money arrived. The money just allowed their inner nature and beliefs to emerge and reveal themselves.
I think if you realize that money has no real intrinsic value, that the value of it only comes out in how it is put to use, you’ll see the validity and wisdom of these two quotes.
Listen to this one:
“I just want to lobby for God.”
Even though lobbyists are not particularly held in high esteem outside of
Just seven simple words to use as a guide for your everyday life… “I just want to lobby for God”.
Wouldn’t it blow you away if you asked a young person what they wanted to do with their life and they answered “I just want to lobby for God”? Wouldn’t that reinforce your belief in this country and make you feel better about its future? It would for me.
So what’s important in life? Here’s an important quote by Reverend Graham on the subject.
Somebody still thinks character is important. In fact, more important than your wealth or your health. And I think that’s a good thing.
I guess that’s because you can have your health taken away from you by forces you can’t control, like getting in an accident. Or you can lose your wealth by these same uncontrollable forces, like being laid off or having your business hit hard economic times. But your character, you have to relinquish that on your own.
Oh, you may have your reputation attacked unfairly, be judged guilty by association or be a victim of circumstances but if you never cross the line, if you do what’s right in God’s eyes you’ll always have your character.
What is prayer? I’m not sure Reverend Graham’s explanation of prayer would go over big in Roman Catholic circles but I find it intriguing. He says;
“Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.”
Simple and straightforward. It’s an explanation that a five year old could understand and be comfortable with. And isn’t that exactly what prayer is, a conversation between you and God?
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Where’s the response from God? We’re the ones that do most of the talking during prayer and I think I might be a little freaked out if God answered me using a voice. But God does hear our prayers and He does answer them, just not always in ways and at times that we expect.
It is a two-way conversation. We just don’t always hear the answer.
We know that Christianity has its skeptics and even its opponents. I’m sure that some of us in this congregation have even been challenged about our beliefs and about God? And I’m also sure Billy Graham has been challenged about God during his travels and his talks. I think the following quote may have come from one such challenge. Billy once said:
“I can tell you God is alive because I talked to him this morning”
How would the person respond to that? What do you say? I would think it would almost be a conversation ender. But if Billy Graham defines prayer as a two-way conversation with God, he’s completely justified and rational in his answer. He did talk with him this morning.
Now I don’t think the atheist would find God and get converted after hearing this answer but I would love to be a fly on the wall just to see their reaction!
And do you think he ever got tired of that question and came up with this quote as his pat response?
“My home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world.”
This reminds me of an old poster I had as a teenager that said “Life is a journey, not a destination”. If you journey through life with faith in Christ, your destination is already secure.
This message is so laid back and understated; it had to be said in the late 60’s or early 70’s. And if it had come from another source except Billy Graham, it probably would have been popular.
“My home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world.”
“The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course”
That’s because God has priorities too. And He knows what’s important in the long run, not what may seem important to us at the moment. What we envision as important doesn’t always measure up to what God knows is important in our lives.
Now I know some of you golfers may disagree with me about the importance of the game. And with all due respect to you avid golfers in the congregation, your golf game is not a priority to God.
At least, not here on earth. I don’t want the golfers to despair, though. In fact, I want to paraphrase the first quote I used in today’s sermon. All golfers repeat after me…
“God will prepare everything
For our perfect happiness in heaven
And if it takes me having
a perfect round of golf
I believe he’ll make it happen.”
“A real Christian is a person who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip”
Do we have any real Christians in the congregation today?
No matter how hard we try, we are still imperfect and have parts of our lives that we would rather not be made public. But as Christians, we must strive to become more Christ-like each day and if we fall short any given day, or week, or month, or longer we know we are still accepted for who we are in god’s eyes.
Everyone is a work in progress and Billy Graham knows this but it’s a nice light-hearted quote that shows us how far we all have to go.
Think about this statement.
‘Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has.’
Think about when humans at their best. When do compassion, love, self-sacrifice and all the best attributes in people shine through?
Although we hope for our nation’s comfort and prosperity, work towards our own personal comfort and prosperity, the best of mankind emerges in times of turmoil, disaster and war.
Why do we always seem to need a crisis before we love our neighbors as ourselves, before we do unto others as we would have them do unto us?
Maybe adversity is necessary for us to grow as Christians. Maybe it’s needed to allow us to shine through and enrich the world. After all, didn’t the very best of Jesus Christ come out when he faced his greatest adversity on the cross?
I wanted to think of a clever way to introduce or describe the next Billy Graham quote but I just couldn’t come up with anything that did it justice. It immediately struck a chord with me the first time I read it and it’s my favorite Billy Graham quote. I think its also moving up the charts and may break into my top ten of all time.
“You're born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there's a loophole.”
Light-hearted and humorous, these words show both confidence and reassurance in equal measures. It says everything about Christianity and yet it could also be the opening statement to a never ending discussion about our fundamental beliefs.
I’ll leave you with one final quote from Reverend Graham to think about. It goes:
“I've read the last page of the Bible. It's all going to turn out all right.”
AMEN.