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“Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.” – Reverend Billy Graham

ABCNews.com reports that

The Rev. Billy Graham’s body will lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda next week, the first time a private citizen has been accorded such recognition since civil rights hero Rosa Parks in 2005.The two-day viewing in Washington on Feb. 28 and March 1 will be part of nine days of mourning for postwar America’s most famous evangelist, who died Wednesday at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99. “America’s Pastor” will be laid to rest March 2 at the foot of a cross-shaped walkway at the worldwide headquarters of his evangelical empire in Charlotte, buried in a simple prison-made plywood coffin next to his wife, Ruth, who died in 2007. His tombstone will read “Preacher of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.” U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday announced the plans to honor Graham at the Capitol, a rite usually accorded presidents and other statesmen. A viewing will also be held at Graham’s Charlotte library on Monday and Tuesday. The North Carolina-born farm boy reached hundreds of millions of listeners around with the world with his rallies — or what he called “crusades” — and his pioneering use of television. More than anyone else, Graham built evangelicalism into a force that rivaled liberal Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in the U.S., and he became a confidant of presidents and other leaders. His coffin was built by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, who typically construct caskets for fellow prisoners who cannot afford one. Graham’s son the Rev. Franklin Graham toured the prison in 2005 and said he was so moved by the simple boxes lined with a mattress pad with a wooden cross nailed to the top that he asked for ones for his mother and father. The funeral at Graham’s Charlotte headquarters will be held in a tent in the main parking lot of the library in tribute to the tent revivals in Los Angeles in 1949 that propelled him to international fame, family spokesman Mark Demoss said.

The impact which Rev. Billy Graham made on this terrestrial ball cannot be overstated.

According to The Billy Graham Library,

In over 55 years of ministry, Billy Graham has preached the Gospel message to more than 215 million people in over 185 countries around the world. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which he founded in 1950, reaches out to millions more each year through radio and television broadcasts, films, literature, training, events, and the Internet.

The biggest accomplishment that any of us can ever hope to achieve is to make a difference for the good in somebody’s life.

Rev. Graham made a difference in the lives of 215 million!

Yesterday morning, as I was watching Fox New’s “America’s Newsroom”, Bill Hemmer sat down for an interview with Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan, the Arch Bishop of the New York Diocese.

Cardinal Dolan made the remark that when you watched Rev. Graham preach at one of his Crusades, there were no teleprompters. There was nothing “fancy”. It was just Rev. Graham and an open Bible.

Cardinal Dolan went on to say that Rev. Graham preached the Word of God from “The Inherent Word of God” in a way which touched the souls of those who were not only at the Crusades, both also those who were watching and listening around the world to his broadcasts on television and radio.

His unashamed love of God and his total devotion to spreading the message that ‘GOD LOVES YOU”! transcended foreign languages and cultures and brought people throughout the world to the knowledge that they “had an advocate in Jesus Christ The Righteous”.

Those of you who may not be a “Christian” are probably saying,

That is all well and good. But, why does this civilian deserve the honor of lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda? What about the “Separation of Church and State”?

Well, first off, please find for me in our Constitution where it calls for the “Separation of Church and State”.

Next, please find a more influential American over the last century than The Reverend Billy Graham.

On September 14, 2001, 3 days after the largest Terrorist Attack ever perpetrated on American Soil, Rev. Graham spoke the following words to a nation in mourning…

This week we watched in horror as planes crashed into the steel and glass of the World Trade Center. Those majestic towers, built on solid foundations, were examples of prosperity and creativity. When damaged, those buildings plummeted to the ground, imploding in upon themselves. Yet, underneath the debris, is a foundation that was not destroyed. Therein lies the truth of that hymn, “How Firm a Foundation.” Yes, our nation has been attacked, buildings destroyed, lives lost. But now we have a choice: whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a nation; or to choose to become stronger through all of this struggle, to rebuild on a solid foundation. And I believe that we are starting to rebuild on that foundation. That foundation is our trust in God. And in that faith, we have the strength to endure something as difficult and as horrendous as what we have experienced this week. This has been a terrible week with many tears. But it also has been a week of great faith. In that hymn, “How Firm a Foundation,” the words say, “Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,/For I am thy God, and will give thee aid;/I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,/Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.” My prayer today is that we will feel the loving arms of God wrapped around us and that as we trust in Him we will know in our hearts that He will never forsake us.

His words helped to bring hope and healing to our nation and they ring out as true today as they were when he spoke them.

To this day, America remains a Majority-Christian Nation, with 70-75% of our population proclaiming Jesus Christ as their Personal Savior.

The only other non-politician to lie in state in our nation’s Capitol was Civil Rights Pioneer, Rosa Parks. Just as she broke down barriers, so did Billy Graham. Just as she fought to free her people from the chains of discrimination, the Rev. Graham fought to free Americans from the shackles of sin which bound us and kept us from a relationship with the One who loves us.

America’s Pastor deserves to be honored as an American Hero and a Warrior for Christ.

Please allow me to end today’s post with the following prayer, written by The Rev. Billy Graham…

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable… We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from sin and Set us free. Amen!’ With the Lord’s help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we once again can be called ‘One nation under God!’ AMEN

Amen.

Until He Comes,

KJ