Saturdays with Billy by Donald J. Wilton & Billy Graham’s Pastor

Author:Donald J. Wilton & Billy Graham’s Pastor [Wilton, Don & Pastor, Billy Graham’s]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2021-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

12

Billy’s Beginnings

I have found that when I present the simple message of the gospel of Jesus Christ with authority, quoting the very Word of God—He takes that message and drives it supernaturally into the human heart.

BILLY GRAHAM

It was not long after he gave his life to Christ that young Billy and his friends T. W. and Grady Wilson began participating in a local church revival. Mr. Graham was convinced the Lord wasted no time in calling him into the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. His “school of learning” included a brief stop at Bob Jones University and a quick transfer to Florida Bible Institute. “God had a plan for me,” he said, “even though I was not fully aware of the plan at the time!” As far as the evangelist was concerned, those who were “called according to His purpose” were simply in the hands of a loving God (Romans 8:28). Billy considered his early life and humble beginnings to be significant in the shaping of his life and testimony. The series of happenings that led him to realize the extent of God’s call in his life remained with him all the way through his life.

On many occasions he would remark, “You cannot make these things up.” Perhaps few happenings were dearer to him than his time in Florida. John Minder, the school’s dean, invited the youthful Billy Graham to accompany him to a conference center. The pastor responsible for the meeting had asked Minder to preach one Sunday evening at his church, but Minder had a better idea. He would ask Billy to preach. Without much knowledge and certainly in fear and trembling, Billy Graham did just that! He added, “Glad they didn’t have recordings of those messages—I am not sure if I knew what I was saying or where I was in the Bible!”

This early beginning was the very time at which God spoke to the heart of Billy Graham. He fought and wrestled with the call of God for over a year. Finally, he yielded to the voice of the Lord. Facedown on a golf course, he cried out, “O God, if You want me to serve You, I will!” It was 1938, and Billy Graham was barely twenty. Later he wrote these words in his autobiography: “From that night in 1938 on, my purpose and objectives in life were set. I knew that I would be a preacher of the Gospel.”7

God still had a lot of training for him to go through. There was his time at Wheaton College and his accompanying endeavors as pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle, which was started by students of Wheaton in a nearby lodge—as well as his ministry (with Ruth) as pastor of the Western Springs Baptist Church in Western Springs, Illinois.

No one could match the significance of his beautiful Ruth. Having grown up in China as the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. L. Nelson Bell, Ruth was “the most precious gift” God could ever have given to Billy.

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