This week a mighty warrior left this earth!  He was not a warrior in the traditional sense.  He never served in the Armed Services, illness prevented it, but he served as a warrior in the Kingdom and his service has eternal consequences!

However, Billy Graham was not born a warrior.  Warriors are made and every warrior in the Kingdom has a starting point.  Consider this lineage:

From Moody to Graham

Sunday School teacher Edward Kimball helped lead Dwight L. Moody to Christ;

• J. Wilbur Chapman was converted at a Dwight L. Moody evangelistic meeting;
• Billy Sunday was converted at a Chapman meeting;
• Mordecai Ham was converted at Billy Sunday meeting;
• and Billy Graham was converted at a Ham meeting.

Billy Graham came to Jesus because of the faithfulness of a dry good salesman to teach Sunday School and share the gospel.  I am sure that Edward Kimball had no idea about the chain of events that would be set in motion, but from his sharing of the Gospel with Dwight L. Moody would come some of the greatest evangelism of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Through these men millions came to Christ.

This week the last of these men went home.  He crossed the finish line at 99 years old having preached 417 Crusades in 185 countries.  An estimated 3 million people came to Christ under his preaching.  I am sure Kimball, Moody, Chapman, Sunday and Ham met him at the finish line and escorted him to the Savior that they all loved so dearly.  I am sure that millions turned out to say “thank you” to him for being faithful to share the gospel because for them it had eternal significance. I would have loved to witness his homecoming!

In the absence of these great men, I find myself looking around to see who God will raise up to take their place, to take the Gospel to the masses.  In the words of Clara from War Room, I find myself praying “Raise them up Lord, raise them up”!  But I am also keenly aware that we need to be faithful to share the Gospel whenever we have the opportunity because we don’t know who will be the next Dwight L. Moody or Billy Graham.  Any opportunity we have to speak of Him has eternal significance not just for the one, but perhaps for millions!

“Raise them up Lord, raise them up”!

Shirley Chupp

Lean into Jesus Ministries

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