“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12
Evangelist Billy Graham is making his “final call to America to turn to God” this week as he and his family celebrate his 95th birthday.
His son, the Rev. Franklin Graham, says hundreds of thousands of Christians have been praying for friends, neighbors and relatives to join them in watching the broadcast and hear Billy Graham’s invitation to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
In Asheville, meanwhile, 800 people are expected to attend the elder Graham’s birthday party, including Christian singer Michael W. Smith, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and real estate mogul Donald Trump.
Graham is calling people in the United States and Canada to repentance as part of the “My Hope with Billy Graham” evangelistic outreach.
Unlike his famous stadium crusades over the past six decades, Graham is asking Christians to invite family, friends and neighbors to their homes to watch the “Living Room Crusade” on their televisions, tablets or smartphones as part of a massive grassroots effort to ignite a spiritual awakening in North America.
In what is expected to be the largest undertaking in its 60-plus year history, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association hopes to mobilize millions of Christians.
Graham wondered what his wife would think of America today – noting millions of babies have since been aborted and “self-centered indulgence, pride and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.”
“My heart aches for America and its deceived people,” wrote Graham, who has preached to more people – 2.2 billion – than any other Protestant in history and has provided spiritual counsel to every president from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush. He received Barack Obama in his home in 2010.
“The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance. In Jonah’s day, Nineveh was the lone world superpower – wealthy, unconcerned and self-centered. When the prophet Jonah finally traveled to Nineveh and proclaimed God’s warning, people heard and repented. I believe the same thing can happen once again, this time in our nation.”
