It’s time for a distraction from the 2016 Presidential election. In truth, over the last several months it has been a challenge for me, and I’m sure for many other Christians, to keep separate American politics and the Kingdom of God. This is not a unique temptation to Christians in 2016. Even the great evangelist Rev. Billy Graham needed reminding a time or two that American politics is not a means to Americans’ salvation.
You might have heard the story of Billy Graham and his wife Ruth dinning with President Lyndon B. Johnson. Somehow the conversation switched from moral and spiritual growth to politics. When Billy started to give President Johnson political advice, Ruth gave her husband a swift kick under the table. The conversation shifted back to moral clarity. As soon as Ruth left the room, as Graham tells it in his autobiography Just As I Am, President Johnson said, “All right, now what do you really think?” Billy, tumbling to temptation, pointed out who he thought Johnson should choose as his running mate.
Biographer Hanspeter Nuesch wrote in his book, Ruth & Billy Graham: The Legacy of a Couple, that when Billy was pressured to run for president, Ruth replied, “In that case, I would divorce you, and the Americans would never elect a divorced person president.” We don’t know if Billy would have seriously considered a presidential run, but his wife’s reality check ensured there was no confusion between evangelism and politics.
Years later Time magazine declared, “Moral authorities have come and gone, but Graham has endured, his honor intact despite his proximity to the shattering temptations of power.” Ruth’s loving accountability—and the Holy Spirit’s conviction—certainly played an important role in keeping her husband’s integrity intact in a tempting world of politics and power.
As stated above, it’s time for a heartening distraction or reality check, if you will, that can’t be found on the 24-hour news cycle. To offer us all encouragement in a dispiriting election season, here are 10 quotes by Billy and Ruth Graham on living out faith in a tempting world:
1.) “Temptation and testing (or a trial) are two sides of the same coin. Satan uses an occasion or a person to tempt us to fall; God uses the same to try us and make us stronger.” –Ruth Graham
2.) “Man has always been dexterous at confusing evil with good. That was Adam’s and Eve’s problem, and it is our problem today. If evil were not made to appear attractive, there would be no such thing as temptation.” –Billy Graham
3.) “Worship and worry cannot live in the same heart; they are mutually exclusive.” –Ruth Graham
4.) “Suppose you could gain everything in the whole world, and lost your soul. Was it worth it?” –Billy Graham
5.) “Take all away. I am content to know Such love is mine—for life is all too brief to grieve for pleasures brining only grief; Give me but You; it is enough just so.” –Ruth Graham
6.) “We are the Bibles the world is reading; we are the creeds the world is needing; we are the sermons the world is heeding.” –Billy Graham
7.) “Down through the years, I turned to the Bible and found in it all that I needed” –Ruth Graham
8.) “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” –Billy Graham
9.) “Just pray for a tough hide and a tender heart.” –Ruth Graham
10.) “My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.” –Billy Graham
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