“那美好的仗我已经打过了,当跑的路我已经跑尽了,所信的道我已经守住了.”
【提后4:7】
[kjv] I have fought a good fight,I have finished my course,I have kept the faith
2 Timothy 4:7
US evangelist Billy Graham - one of the most influential preachers of the 20th Century - has died aged 99.
He died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, a spokesman for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said.
He was an early crusader for civil rights
At a time of racial segregation in the US, Graham said he would not speak before segregated audiences in the 1950s, and often spoke of the need for inclusion.
At one event in Tennessee in 1953, he moved ropes that divided black and white members of his audience.
"Christianity is not a white man's religion and don't let anyone tell you it's white or black," he told an audience in South Africa in 1973. "Christ belongs to all people."
Graham was also a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr, and once paid his bail when King was arrested at a demonstration in 1960.
Critics, however, argue that Graham did not push for legislative action, but for voluntary change, and that his support of Southern Baptist ministers could be interpreted as an endorsement of segregation.
It was important to reach out to strangers
In 1992, Graham became the first foreign religious leader to visit North Korea, where he met its ruler, Kim Il-sung. He returned two years later.
The family has close ties to the country - Graham's late wife Ruth, whose parents were missionaries, spent 3 years in Pyongyang in the 1930s. She said that her time there constituted "some of the most memorable years of my life".
The visit, which saw Graham speak about his faith before a university audience, took place with the approval of President George H Bush.
"I want to go as their friend," Graham said beforehand. "I want to see some of the positive things there, come out and report on them, because there has been so much negativism about North Korea."
The visit echoed others that Graham took as an unofficial US representative to countries that did not have warm ties with the US at that time. In 1984, he underwent a 12-day trip to the Soviet Union, even meeting Kremlin officials
It's possible to find hope in the darkest of moments
Speaking at the Washington National Cathedral three days after the 11 September attacks, Graham said he was struggling to find answers.
"I have been asked hundreds of times why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I do not know the answer," he said, adding that the disaster was "a lesson about our need for each other".
"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."
Graham and his wife, Ruth, pay a visit in 1988 to Ruth's birthplace in Huaiyin, Jiangsu province,China. Ruth lived in China from the first 17 years of her life, where her father was a missionary surgeon from 1916 to 1941.
Everyone could be saved - even a dictator
Jiang shakes hands with Graham prior to a November 1997 lunch event in Beverly Hills, Calif.
"My job is to try to win every person to Christ, especially persons that would have influence for Christ in our society," an optimistic Graham said .
He regretted his involvement in politics
For decades, Graham was a fixture of the White House and acted as an unofficial counsellor to presidents - Time journalist Nancy Gibbs once wrote that "he came with the office like the draperies".
While he tended to steer clear of endorsing candidates, he ended up becoming close friends with a number of presidents, in particular Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
Graham's relationship with Nixon even went as far as him advising the president on what action to take in Vietnam. He later supported Nixon throughout his scandals, but went on to denounce him.
In a 2011 interview with Christianity Today, Graham said he wished he had not become as involved in politics.
"I'm grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to," he said. "But looking back I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn't do that now."
Welcome Home
Bill Graham -------------The man people called God's Ambassador
