Joseph Stowell[i] tells a story about a conversation he had with Billy Graham who was eighty at the time. He and his wife were seated next to Dr. Graham, at a dinner for the staff and board of Billy’s organization. As the meal was finishing he leaned over and asked Billy the question he had hoped to ask all evening and described it this way:
“Wondering what he would say about his highest joys in life, I asked, ‘Of all your experiences in ministry, what have you enjoyed most?’ Then (thinking I might help him out a little), I quickly added, ‘Was it your time spent with presidents and heads of state? Or was it…’ Before I could finish my next sentence, Billy swept his hand across the tablecloth, as if to push my suggestions onto the floor. ‘None of that,’ he said. ‘By far the greatest joy of my life has been my fellowship with Jesus. Hearing Him speak to me, having Him guide me, sensing His presence with me and His power through me. This has been the highest pleasure of my life!’
It was spontaneous, unscripted, and clearly unrehearsed. There wasn’t even a pause. With a life full of stellar experiences and worldwide fame behind him, it was simply Jesus who was on his mind and on his heart. His lifelong experience with Jesus had made its mark, and Billy was satisfied.”
I grieve for our loss of a great man of God. An era has ended, but the same Spirit that filled and empowered Billy Graham, fills and empowers me and everyone who has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Thus begins the sweet adventure into the depths of knowing Him more fully, more intimately, and sensing His presence day after day, year after year. It is simply Jesus becoming more real in me and through me.
Imagine all the people in heaven who are greeting Billy right now, and imagine his joy when he looked into the eyes of Jesus. I know there was instant recognition and a continuation of the conversation he was having with Him before he breathed his last, picking up where he left off. Well done, good and faithful servant.
[i] Stowell, J. (2002). Simply Jesus. Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc.
Monthly Archives: February 2018
Brush of Glory
There are places and times when the hungry soul is so staggered by God’s majesty that she feels His beauty deep in her bones. It changes her from the inside out, her face shining with the brightness of His face, her life becoming more and more beautiful as she becomes more and more like the One she adores.
My frail earthen vessel is filled with the transcendent Glory of the Eternal Majesty. The core of my innermost being contains the uncontainable God. He chose this vessel as a personal dwelling for His Name and inscribed Yahweh upon it. He is both infinitely beyond my highest thoughts and infinitely closer than the marrow in my bones. Such is the deepest mystery of heaven and earth.
“…the absolute glory of God is revealed in Jesus as absolute love, and we can only be brushed by it. Nevertheless, we are made for that which is too big for us. We are made for God, and nothing less will ever satisfy us.”[1] So, my soul longs to know Him more and trust His love for me.
In my pursuit of knowing the shining One within, I come face-to-face with Jesus Christ, the image and glory of Yahweh. Even when my surroundings are dull or grievous, He floods this clay vessel with an intensity that would burn the eyeballs out of my head but is sweet to the eyes of my heart.
A brush of His glory is overpowering, overwhelming and undoing. Even a fleeting glimpse of the blinding trail of His passing glory reduces my intellect to speechless wonder and buckles my knees. The proclamation of His Name – His ever present utter goodness and tender compassion – shakes the foundation of my very soul. My mind falls dumb and my mouth cannot express where my spirit soars, carried into the heights and depths of the incomprehensible uncreated limitless One.
So, I’m drawn into the secret grotto of my soul where He has written His Name, and stand in the light of His glory. Sometimes I stumble into the secret place half awake and distracted, but He shows up every time bathing me in His light even if my mind is dark with self-preoccupation. And it still changes me.
LORD, show me Your glory, take me into the secret grottos of Your mystery. I ask for this grace and deserve none. But I cannot resist Your tug upon my heart and the ache you have put in my bones. I yearn to see Your unseen beauty and know the unknowable…to be ravished by unquenchable love and brushed by Your glory.
[1] Manning, B. (2000). Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin’s Path to God. New York: HarperCollins.