Billy Graham

Do I Surrender All?

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment 
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Romans 12:1 NLT

I love the way that one of my friends opens in prayer at our men’s meeting, saying, “Thank you God for another day that was never promised.” I love it because it reminds me that as I begin my day it is a gift that God has freely given. Whether I am sick or well, able to pay the bills or looking at an overdraft message from the bank, the hours that lie ahead are evidence of God’s grace. I love that prayer because it reminds me of the Hymn, “I Surrender All,”. Full surrender, or as today’s verse says, giving our bodies as a living sacrifice, is the perfect response to God’s grace. It tells us that rather than using our day however we please, an “I surrender all” attitude, is the only way to truly worship God, But to be honest, there are days when I couldn’t sing words like, “worldly pleasures all forsaken,” or, “I will ever love and TRUST Him.” because I like to reserve something for myself. Instead of trusting the hand of God, I rush around trying to do things on my own. Or I decide that there are a few worldly pleasures that I deserve and when the Holy Spirit convicts me by speaking in His still small voice, I turn down the volume and plow ahead with my own plans. But God in His great mercy and faithfulness has a way of getting our attention when we stray. Just like sheep who wander far from home and get tangled up in thorns or stuck at the bottom of a pit, we discover that our way was not so great after all and that maybe God was right. What a blessing that when we have fallen, we have a Good Shepherd. Though He has been seeking us all along, He has had to wait for us to stop our struggling, and surrender to His will, Then He begins to untangle us from the mess we made. In surrender we make the amazing discovery that once we give up our demand to be large and in charge, Jesus begins His work of restoration and healing. His plans and calling are far better than anything we could think or imagine, but He awaits our surrender to Him, as He surrendered Himself for us.

I love the fact that Billy Graham called this hymn one of his favorites, because during the time when he attended what today is called, Trinity Bible College, not far from where we live, Judson De Venter, who wrote the hymn, often preached at the school. The full surrender that God had planned for Billy Graham, continues to impact the lives of millions of people around the globe. We will probably never gain a worldwide reputation as Billy Graham did, but when we release our grip on our desires, our homes and even our finances, God will begin to use them in ways far beyond anything we could imagine, as a blessing in the lives of others and then lead us into a deeper walk with Him.

All to Jesus I surrender
All to him I freely give
I will ever love and trust him,
In his presence daily live
I surrender all - I surrender all
All to thee, my blessed Savior - I surrender all
Judson Van De Venter 1896

Happiness Through Meekness

/ pastorpete51 / 5 Comments

One of the central reasons for our recent travels was to attend our first cousin’s reunion. The last time many of us had seen each other was at our grandmother’s funeral in 1996, so to say it had been a while is certainly an understatement. As our adult lives were lived out hundreds of miles apart, we had gradually given up on ever getting together until my sister in cahoots with my cousin Katrina began lobbying to get us together. Before arriving at the restaurant for the first night of our reunion, my cousin Doug, who of all my cousins I knew the least, messaged me that he had something to give me privately after dinner. How surprised I was when he led me to his car and presented me with a small bag. “I think these belonged to our great grandmother and I figured you might like to have them.” Doug said.

On opening the bag, I found three aging hard cover books. by Billy Graham. “Wow, thanks Doug.” I said. “This is really amazing. “

“Yeah, and even better.” he added. “They are all signed by Billy Graham!” (Though it turned out only two of the three was signed.) Of course, I profusely thanked Doug, but somewhat forgot them until after returning home. While I was unpacking, I gently looked to find a good spot on the book shelf for these aging first edition books, but was so intrigued with the one named, “The Secret of Happiness.” that I took it out and began to read. What I thought was a rather innocuous subject about Christian happiness, actually turned out to be a wonderful exposition on the beatitudes and how they related to our modern age. Now you might think that a book written in 1955 would be terribly dated and have little to do with our 21st century culture. But I was surprised to discover that many of the same issues facing society back in the era of the idealized ’50’s were quite the same as today. This morning, I came across a paragraph from a chapter on Meekness that I found shockingly relevant to our headlines in August of 2025.

” This reversion to barbarism now effects whole areas of our social life. Neighbors quarrel with neighbors. Fighting is a major problem in our schools and the “gang wars” of the teenagers have come to present a serious menace in our cities. Fathers and mothers wrangle and bicker. Homes are disintegrating. High government officials in Washington engage in name-calling and in heated dispute, not at all in keeping with the dignity of their office.

Why and how has this savagery crept into our social life? It is because we have forgotten Jesus’s words, ‘ Happy are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ ” *

* Billy Graham, “The Secret of Happiness,” Doubleday and Co. 1955