Billy Graham has presented the gospel face to face to more people than any than anyone else in history. I’ve been a pastor for over 22 years and have always been inspired by Billy Graham. I remember chartering buses to take people to hear Billy Graham when he came to San Antonio in 1997. We weren’t sure how we were going to pay for it, but by faith we decided to put out a bucket at the front of each bus for people to make a donation. We had more than enough money to cover our expenses. The Crusade was incredible. What I saw was a very humble man who gave a very simple message. There was nothing homiletically impressive about his presentation, but when the altar call went out… people came forward! I was reminded of what Paul said to the Corinthians…
1 Corinthians 2:1–5
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
This past November (2013) I watched what a lot of people were calling Billy Graham’s last sermon in the nationally televised special simply entitled, “The Cross.” He was 95 years of age! Again, I was touched by the simplicity and power of the message that I had to read what a lot of people are calling his last book, “The Reason for My Hope.”
Again, I was moved not by the complexities of the material… but rather the simplicity. The book is an EASY read and EVANGELISTIC in nature. Yet, the book does a really good job capturing the basics of the faith in a very relevant way.
The chapters are:
- Rescued for Something
- The Great Redemption
- Sin is In
- The Price of Victory
- Where is Jesus?
- Defining Christianity in a Designer World
- No Hope of Happy Hour in Hell
- He is Coming Back
Each chapter was illustrated with many relevant examples. I found myself filing away a lot of them to use later. I read the Kindle edition and it was nice to be able to click the “NOTES,” and be able to open the “HYPERLINKS,” directly to the cited reference.
This book will appeal to people of all different levels of spiritual growth and serves as a type of “last will and testimony” of a great man of God.
I received the eBook version of this book free of charge in exchange for a nonbiased honest review of its contents.