The Untold Story Of A Young Billy Graham Order Printed Copy
- Author: William Paul Mckay
- Size: 2.02MB | 425 pages
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About the Book
"The Untold Story of a Young Billy Graham" by William Paul McKay is a biography that explores the early years of the renowned preacher, from his childhood in rural North Carolina to his rise as a prominent evangelist. The book sheds light on Graham's personal struggles, his faith journey, and the defining moments that shaped his extraordinary life and ministry.
St. Patrick
St. Patrick, (flourished 5th century, Britain and Ireland; feast day March 17), patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland and probably responsible in part for the Christianization of the Picts and Anglo-Saxons. He is known only from two short works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Letter to Coroticus, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians.
Patrick was born in Britain of a Romanized family. At age 16 he was torn by Irish raiders from the villa of his father, Calpurnius, a deacon and minor local official, and carried into slavery in Ireland. He spent six bleak years there as a herdsman, during which he turned with fervour to his faith. Upon dreaming that the ship in which he was to escape was ready, he fled his master and found passage to Britain. There he came near to starvation and suffered a second brief captivity before he was reunited with his family. Thereafter, he may have paid a short visit to the Continent.
The best known passage in the Confessio tells of a dream, after his return to Britain, in which one Victoricus delivered him a letter headed âThe Voice of the Irish.â As he read it, he seemed to hear a certain company of Irish beseeching him to walk once more among them. âDeeply moved,â he says, âI could read no more.â Nevertheless, because of the shortcomings of his education, he was reluctant for a long time to respond to the call. Even on the eve of reembarkation for Ireland he was beset by doubts of his fitness for the task. Once in the field, however, his hesitations vanished. Utterly confident in the Lord, he journeyed far and wide, baptizing and confirming with untiring zeal. In diplomatic fashion he brought gifts to a kinglet here and a lawgiver there but accepted none from any. On at least one occasion, he was cast into chains. On another, he addressed with lyrical pathos a last farewell to his converts who had been slain or kidnapped by the soldiers of Coroticus.
Careful to deal fairly with the non-Christian Irish, he nevertheless lived in constant danger of martyrdom. The evocation of such incidents of what he called his âlaborious episcopateâ was his reply to a charge, to his great grief endorsed by his ecclesiastical superiors in Britain, that he had originally sought office for the sake of office. In point of fact, he was a most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped âidols and unclean thingsâ had become âthe people of God.â
The phenomenal success of Patrickâs mission is not, however, the full measure of his personality. Since his writings have come to be better understood, it is increasingly recognized that, despite their occasional incoherence, they mirror a truth and a simplicity of the rarest quality. Not since St. Augustine of Hippo had any religious diarist bared his inmost soul as Patrick did in his writings. As D.A. Binchy, the most austerely critical of Patrician (i.e., of Patrick) scholars, put it, âThe moral and spiritual greatness of the man shines through every stumbling sentence of his ârusticâ Latin.â
It is not possible to say with any assurance when Patrick was born. There are, however, a number of pointers to his missionary career having lain within the second half of the 5th century. In the Coroticus letter, his mention of the Franks as still âheathenâ indicates that the letter must have been written between 451, the date generally accepted as that of the Franksâ irruption into Gaul as far as the Somme River, and 496, when they were baptized en masse. Patrick, who speaks of himself as having evangelized heathen Ireland, is not to be confused with Palladius, sent by Pope Celestine I in 431 as âfirst bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.â
Toward the end of his life, he retired to Saul, where he may have written his Confessio. It is said that an angel conveyed to him that he was to die at Saul, the site of his first church, despite his wishes to die within the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland. His last rites were administered by St. Tussach (also spelled Tassach or Tassac).
Legends
Before the end of the 7th century, Patrick had become a legendary figure, and the legends have continued to grow. One of these would have it that he drove the snakes of Ireland into the sea to their destruction. Patrick himself wrote that he raised people from the dead, and a 12th-century hagiography places this number at 33 men, some of whom are said to have been deceased for many years. He also reportedly prayed for the provision of food for hungry sailors traveling by land through a desolate area, and a herd of swine miraculously appeared.
Another legend, probably the most popular, is that of the shamrock, which has him explain the concept of the Holy Trinity, three persons in one God, to an unbeliever by showing him the three-leaved plant with one stalk. Traditionally, Irishmen have worn shamrocks, the national flower of Ireland, in their lapels on St. Patrickâs Day, March 17.
lord, all i have is yours
Jesusâs encounter with the rich young man has always unsettled me. Iâm an American. Iâm as middle-class as Americans go, which means I live in a level of affluence and abundance unknown by most of my co-inhabitants of this world today, and by a far, far lower percentage of people in history. In global and historical terms, I am that man. The most disturbing thing about the young man is that he seemed so familiar with his affluence-shaped religious and cultural assumptions that he didnât realize how out of touch with spiritual reality he was. I doubt that many around him discerned how out of touch he was. From the very brief glimpses of him we catch in the synoptics, and by Jesusâs response to him in Markâs account, this man doesnât seem to match the arrogant rich oppressor  we envision when we read James 5:4â6. Those around him might have assumed his prosperity was Godâs affirmative blessing. After all, this man was spiritually  earnest â running to Jesus and kneeling before him to ask him if there was more he needed to do to be saved (Mark 10:17). He had all the appearance of piety  â having kept (or believed he did) the commandments Jesus listed since he was young (Mark 10:19â20). And he was sincere  â Mark records that âJesus, looking at him, loved himâ (Mark 10:21). He was all these things, yet he lacked the kind of faith that saves. Spiritually earnest, sincere, apparently pious â perhaps more than most around him. Isnât that what faith looks like? No, not necessarily. Faith looks like trusting . And when it comes to what we really believe, trusting looks like treasuring . For when itâs all on the line for us, we always trust in what we truly treasure. Show Me What I Trust The most loving thing Jesus could do for this earnest, sincere young man was show him the god he trusted: âYou lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow meâ (Mark 10:21). Then the man saw his real god, and he walked away from Jesusâs incredible invitation âsorrowful.â Why? âHe had great possessionsâ  (Mark 10:22). This led to Jesusâs devastating observation: And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, âHow difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! . . . It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.â (Mark 10:23â25) When it was all on the line for the young man, he trusted his wealth , his possessions , more than God. His wealth was his god, and that kept him from entering the kingdom. The thing is, he didnât see this until he really had to choose. Do you find that disconcerting? The disciples did: âThen who can be saved?â (Mark 10:26). As an affluent American living in the midst of unprecedented historical abundance, I do. I donât trust my faith self-assessment (1 Corinthians 4:3). I can trust only Godâs assessment (1 Corinthians 4:4). And since faith is really proven genuine only when it is tried (1 Peter 1:6â7; James 1:2â4; 2 Corinthians 13:5), we must be willing, like the young man, to say to Jesus, Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23â24) And if Jesus doesnât call us to leave our abundance, but to continue living faithfully in it â if we are to really trust God and not our abundance â then we need the faith to abound. Faith to Abound Paul said he had learned to be content in whatever situation he found himself: I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:12â13) If given the choice, most of us likely would prefer to be given the faith to abound rather than the faith to be brought low. I think thatâs because we arenât fully cognizant of the dangerous nature of material prosperity. Paul meant it when he said it requires Godâs strength to âface plenty.â âAbundanceâ (prosperity) and âneedâ (scarcity) are very different circumstances. They both  require faith in order to handle them in ways that glorify God. But they demand the exercising of different sets of faith muscles. Scarcity requires faith muscles for trusting God in a place of needy desperation. Prosperity requires faith muscles for trusting God in place of bountiful material security. Exercising faith in scarcity is not easy by any means. Most of us fear scarcity more than prosperity because the threat is clearly seen. But ironically, thatâs one reason it can be easier to exercise faith in scarcity than in prosperity. Because in scarcity, our need is clear and our options are typically few. We feel desperate for God to provide for us and so we are driven to seek him â to exercise our faith. But exercising faith in prosperity is different. Itâs a more complex and deceptive spiritual and psychological environment. It requires that we truly trust â truly treasure  â God when we donât feel desperate for his provision, when we feel materially secure, when nothing external is demanding that we feel urgency. When we have lots of options that look innocuous and we can spend precious time and money on all sorts of pursuits and enjoyments. This environment is so dangerous that Jesus warns it is harder for people in it to enter Godâs kingdom than for a camel to climb through the eye of a needle. Test yourself. When have you sought God most earnestly: in need or abundance? When God Is Our Option Christians have always found it harder to voluntarily give away security than to desperately plead for it. It requires different faith muscles to trust God in divesting ourselves of prosperity for his sake than to trust God to meet our scarcity for his sake. In some ways, it takes greater faith to trust God when you have other options than when he is our only option. Thatâs why the laborers are so few when the harvest is so plenty (Luke 10:2). Few want to face worldly need in order to experience kingdom plenty. It makes the kind of faith that saints like George MĂźller and Hudson Taylor exercised so remarkable. Yes, they trusted in God in scarcity. But what made this all the more remarkable was that they could have raised money in other legitimate ways to support their work and avoid many of those needy moments. But they voluntarily  chose (which is different from being circumstantially forced) to place themselves in a position of desperation to demonstrate that God exists and rewards those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6). They, like Paul, learned the secret of facing abundance and need: fully trusting God, their Treasure. Whatever It Takes We Christians who live in abundance need to heed the story of the rich young man. We need him to unnerve us. For the whole history of the church bears witness to the general trend that the wealthier she grows, the more corrupt, indulgent, and apathetic she grows. And the less urgent over lost souls she feels. Itâs harder for people in our environment to be real Christians than for camels to pass through a needleâs eye. But Jesus does not leave us without great hope. He announces, âWith man [handling material abundance faithfully] is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with Godâ (Mark 10:27). So, let us run to Jesus â who has power to do what is impossible for us â kneel before him, and plead: Whatever it takes, Lord, help me to truly trust you as my greatest treasure. I would rather lose my material security and gain the kingdom than gain the world and lose my soul. All I have is yours â my life, my family, my time, my money, my possessions, my future â and I will steward them as you wish, even if it means losing them (Philippians 3:8). And I invite you to search my heart and put my faith to the test.