Billy Graham Quotes - Page 13

Following Christ has been made too easy. It is easy to follow Him when our world is safe and comfortable . . .but when that world shatters, only a secure faith will sustain us.

Learn to keep close to [Jesus], to listen to His voice, and follow Him.

Man’s nature and destiny are revealed in the Scriptures.

Science, they say, can tap the brain of man and alter his desires. But the Bible, which has withstood the ravages of time . . . says that we are possessed of a sinful, fallen nature which wars against us.

Our worldly wisdom has made us calloused and hard. Our natural wisdom, as the Scriptures teach, comes not from God, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish.

In taking our human nature upon Himself, [Jesus] showed us what we might become, what God intended us to be.

Man cannot control himself, and if he will not be controlled by Jesus Christ, then he will be controlled by Satan.

You cannot argue with [Satan], for he is the greatest debater of all time.

The devil is alive and kicking. But if you are in Christ and follow the rules of daily Bible study, prayer, and witnessing, he has no power over you.

Satan is the illusive manipulator. He prances and dances and drinks in the adulation of his worshippers as he glimmers and shimmers, displaying all that glitters and all that attracts the shallowness of man.

Satan is masterful at using just enough of God’s truth to capture a person’s attention and then mix it with his devious potion that will lead [believers] astray.

Satan is both a fashion designer and an interior designer. He first appeals to the eye and then shouts, “Gotcha!” Then he goes to work on the “inside job.

The architect of popular culture is none other than Satan. He is the chief designer and chief marketer, and he has been branding worldliness since the beginning of time. His methods are shifty and constantly in motion, changing fads and trends to keep the world running in circles, trying to keep up with the latest and greatest.

If you don’t take your stand for Christ, you will be on the wrong side, and someday when it is too late, you’ll cry out, “I’ve taken the wrong stand!” You’ll be in the devil’s trap! You can’t lick the devil.

If your heart is not attuned to God, it will become a catch basin for every device of the devil. Yes, Satan is at work in our world. The Bible is my authority.

Satan is real and is opposed to everything God is doing.

The cross was designed to defeat Satan, who by deception had obtained squatters’ rights to the title of the earth.

Satan didn’t lose any of his beguiling ways when he became the fallen prince. He took his charm, his subtleties, and his clever plots to use on us.

Satan exalted himself above God and endeavored to get man to doubt the reliability of God’s Word.

Satan is the master of the ultimate double-talk and sophistry. He calls evil good and continues to confuse men with his cleverly disguised untruths.

Satan perverts everything good by mimicking and mocking the real thing.

Never forget: Satan’s goal is to turn us away from God.

Salvation is free! God puts no price tag on the Gift of gifts.

Our lives are to be characterized by patience, for it is important in developing the mature, stable character which God wants to produce in His people.

Salvation is not just repairing the original self. It is a new self created of God in righteousness and true holiness.

[God] holds in His omnipotent hand the priceless, precious, eternal gift of salvation, and He bids you to take it without money and without price.

Is it not arrogance or narrow-mindedness to claim that there is only one way of salvation or that the way we follow is the right way? I think not. After all, do we fault a pilot for being narrow-minded when he follows the instrument panel [while] landing in a rainstorm? No, we want him to remain narrowly focused!

Man stands on the brink of hell. The forces building up in our world are so overwhelming that man everywhere is beginning to cry out in desperation: “What must I do to be saved?

Millions today want salvation, but on their own terms. They want to come their own way, and so we have hundreds of schemes and plans devised by men to regain paradise.

Man has rejected the revelation of the Bible concerning the true and living God of his fathers, and he has substituted gods of his own making. In actuality modern man has decided to dethrone God and enthrone himself in all of his nuclear glory.

There may have been a time when pride was the very center of your life. You had ambitious thoughts of yourself, your powers, desires, and aims; but now that will begin to change . . . you have been born again.

Pride consists not in wanting to be rich, but in wanting to be richer than your neighbor. It is not in wanting to be noticed but in wanting to be the most noticed. It is not in wanting to have things but in wanting more things than others.

The destructive power of pride is that it countenances nothing higher than itself. Because of an inherent fault in our nature, man’s bias is on the side of error. In our willful desire to live independently of God, we have severed the lifeline that flows from the source of all life.

We must not build up ourselves at the expense of others.

Pride always puts [self] above others—and cuts [itself] off from them as a result. No one likes an arrogant, prideful person.

Pride flees when we compare ourselves to God instead of [to] other people.

One of the ironies of human nature is that it often has a way of rejecting the best and accepting the worst.

Acknowledge that there is a defect in human nature, a built-in waywardness that comes from man’s rebellion against God.

Man is a rebel, and a rebel is naturally in confusion. He is in conflict with every other rebel. For a rebel by his very nature is selfish. He is seeking his own good and not the good of others.

Some people have said that man has improved . . . [and] that if Christ came back today, He would not be crucified but would be given a glorious reception. Christ does come to us every day in the form of Bibles that we do not read, in the form of churches that we do not attend, in the form of human need that we pass by. I am convinced that if Christ came back today, He would be crucified more quickly than He was two thousand years ago. Sin never improves. Human nature has not changed.

The deepest problems of the human race are spiritual in nature. They are rooted in man’s refusal to seek God’s way for his life. The problem is the human heart, which God alone can change.

Flesh is the Bible’s word for unperfected human nature. Leaving off the “h” and spelling it in reverse, we have the word self. Flesh is the self-life: it is what we are when we are left to our own devices.

The Christian . . . way of daily living must be distinct from the world. While some will think you “peculiar,” do not let this disturb you, for just as many others will secretly admire you for your stand. It is possible you will be persecuted by jokes and be misunderstood . . .but if you accept this with patience and in the spirit of love, God can use this very thing to help you win some of your friends [to Christ].

Patience includes perseverance—the ability to bear up under weariness, strain, and persecution when doing the work of the Lord.

Patience graciously, compassionately and with understanding, judges the faults of others without unjust criticism.

God allows difficulties, inconveniences, trials, and even suffering to come our way for a specific purpose: They help develop the right attitude for the growth of patience.

Patience is part of true Christlikeness, something we so often admire in others without demanding it of ourselves.

Patience in our lives springs from God’s power based upon our willingness to learn it.

We have some of the finest civil rights laws in the world, but they have not solved our racial problems. Why? Because we need a change of heart and attitude, Jesus said, “You must be born again” [John 3:7].

The human race has the power right now to destroy itself. Jesus Christ is going to save us from ourselves.

There is only one possible solution to the race problem and that is a vital personal experience with Jesus Christ on the part of [all] races.

God prescribes the remedy for the ills of the human race. That remedy is personal faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. The remedy is to be born again.

In Christ the middle wall of partition has been broken down. There is no Jew, no Gentile—no black, white, yellow, or red. We could be one great brotherhood in Jesus Christ. However, until we come to recognize Him as the Prince of Peace and receive His love in our hearts, the racial tensions will increase, racial demands will become more militant, and a great deal of blood will be shed. The race problem could become another flame out of control!

I had not been preaching long before I decided that I would never preach to another segregated audience in any situation over which we had control. This was long before the Supreme Court decision of 1954. I felt this was the Christian position and I could do no other.

Patience . . . speaks of a person’s steadfastness under provocation . . .enduring ill-treatment without anger or thought of retaliation or revenge.

Only God can break down the national and racial barriers that divide men today. Only God can supply that love that we must have for our fellowman. We will never build brotherhood of man upon earth until we are believers in Christ Jesus.

Down through the ages man’s heart has remained unchanged. Whatever the color of his skin, whatever his cultural or ethnic background, he needs the Gospel of Christ.

Ancient historians tell us that one of the symptoms of a declining civilization is a desexualization of the human race, with men becoming more effeminate and women becoming more masculine, not only in physical [appearance] but in their basic characters.

The closer the people of all races get to Christ and His cross, the closer they will get to one another.

Here is the judgment toward which every person outside [of] Christ is headed. The date has already been set by God. All men of all races and nationalities, both past and present, will be there. You may make and break appointments in this life—but this is one appointment you will keep.

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