Guest Voices

My Grandmother, Ruth Graham

An interviewer recently asked me what trends I see among younger Christians today that encourage me. I remarked that one of the things which I find tremendously encouraging is the groundswell of interest in theology among young adults. What’s unique, however, about this movement is that it has not only a strong intellectual dimension to it, but a strong emotional dimension to it as well. These young adults are not simply thinking deeply about God, they are feeling deeply for God. They are properly blending precept and passion, depth and delight, gravity and gladness, truth and love. They understand well the connection between thinking and feeling as it concerns our knowledge of God—and how indispensable God-centered emotion is in our relationship to God. Jonathan Edwards used to say that people not only need to hear about the holiness and majesty of God, but even more importantly, they need to sense his holiness, they need to feel his majesty. These young adults are “getting it,” and I couldn’t be happier.

One example of someone who understood this better than anyone I know was my grandmother, Ruth Bell Graham, who recently passed away at the age of 87. Her capacity to blend thinking and feeling regarding her relationship to God remains unsurpassed, in my biased opinion. To illustrate this for you I’d like to share an excerpt from my new book "Do I Know God?"

“When I pulled up to their modest log cabin, my heart started to race. I’ve been visiting my grandparents at their mountain home just outside Asheville, North Carolina, my whole life. But spending time in the home of Billy and Ruth Graham continues to be a powerful experience for me. My grandparents have been walking with God for more than seventy years, and they know him better than anyone else I know. Their simple, single-hearted devotion to their Lord saturates virtually everything they say and do. Every time I spend a few days with them, I leave with a renewed passion to know God the way they do.

I walked through the front door and immediately made my way back to their bedroom, where I knew they were waiting for me. My grandfather sat in a chair next to Tai Tai (it’s what I call my grandmother), who was sitting up in bed. Neither of them gets around well anymore, so they spend most of their days together in their bedroom reading, talking, and praying. When I walked into the bedroom, their faces lit up. After giving them both a hug and kiss, I sat down next to Tai Tai. They asked me about Kim, the kids, and the church. I asked them how they were doing.
As we talked, I noticed a large three-ring binder next to my grandmother. The open page contained eight or ten words in extremely large print. I asked her what it was. She told me that because her vision is so bad now, she had asked her assistant to type up all 150 psalms in big, bold letters and put them in three-ring binders. She pointed to her shelf, where there were at least ten more binders containing the rest of the psalms. Every day she sat in bed, incapable of moving on her own, meditating on and memorizing those psalms.

That image, testifying to her passion for God, affected me profoundly. My grandmother was in her late eighties, with severe physical limitations, but she pursued fellowship with God with every last bit of energy she possessed. Because of her lifelong thirst for God, I consider Tai Tai to be one of the greatest Christians I’ve ever known.”

After I kissed my grandmother good night and went to bed, I couldn’t fall asleep. I lay there thinking and praying, “Oh God, I want to desire you the way Tai Tai desires you. I want to experience the same holy passion for you that is so evident in her.”

Tullian Tchividjian is senior pastor of New City Presbyterian Church in Coconut Creek, Fla., and author of "Do I Know God? Finding Certainty in Life’s Most Important Relationship."
Reprinted with permission of Multnomah Books, a division of Random House Inc.

By Tullian Tchividjian |  August 22, 2007; 2:07 PM ET
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To the skeptics: When you've experienced the peace, the joy, and the wonder of the all elusive creator of the universe pulling the curtains back from which he seems to perpetually hide, and can comment firsthand on what Christianity truly is all about, then your input will mean something. Until then, you speak about something from outside looking in, and through an extremely distorted piece of glass. You're always welcome to enter, but this requires the one thing most of you don't have: humility. And that's exactly the way it was designed. Peace.

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Your grandparents have been a huge inspiration for me in the past. I heard your grandfather preach at Wembley, Earls Court and Norwich and have read many of his and your grandmother's books.

However, your mother's divorce and re-marriage has been a real stumbling block to many in the UK as have the divorces and re-marriages of your Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ned, which seem to have no scriptural basis. Sadly your Uncle Franklin's views on Islam and support of Bush's so called "War on Terror" seem more motivated by American materialism rather than the Christian gospsel.

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Tullian,

Press on, keep preaching, don't listen to the hecklers. God Bless you, keep on praying those Sabbath-Eve prayers you blogged on at Between Two Worlds. You are serving the Savior, and HE is worthy. Thank you for sharing you passion for Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again!!

Ed

Posted by: Ed in Eastpointe, MI | August 27, 2007 4:51 PM
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FRED:

W consulted the devil before attacking Iraq. Pat Robertson got him help from the devil to get him elected. Now the whole country is going to hell.

The devil is so busy he can hardly keep up. He pays well. Look at the fortune he paid Billy Graham to lead the country to him.

Religion is just a con game. http://www.hoax-buster.org has proof beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt the bible is a hoax. Thank God for that.

Posted by: Anonymous | August 23, 2007 7:32 AM
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And Billy Graham consulted Bush to obey god to invade Iraq. Depressing! What an inspiring path to follow for all of us! Intellectual coma-patients.

Posted by: Fred | August 23, 2007 5:27 AM
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For Tullian only,

Some information about the flaws in the foundations of contemporary religions for the young Christian adults to peruse:

1. Abraham founder/father of three major religions was probably a mythical character. If he was real, he was at best a combination of at least three men. 1.5 million Conservative Jews and their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT.

2. Jesus, the illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter possibly suffering from hallucinations, has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth. Analyses of his life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists)via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian/Jewish/Pagan sects.

The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed, plagiarized and/or improved from those that came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the OT and John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics

3. Mohammed, an illiterate, hallucinating Arab, also had embellishing/hallucinating scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the Koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.

This agenda continues as shown by the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers , the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers , the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani koranics, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases and the Filipino koranics. And the financial supporters of these "crazies"?? The Third Axis of Evil aka the Islamic state of Iran and also the "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

4. Luther, Calvin, Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley et al, founders of Christian-based religions, also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingy thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).

5. Hinduism (from an online Hindu site) - "Hinduism cannot be described as an organized religion. It is not founded by any individual. Hinduism is God centred and therefore one can call Hinduism as founded by God, because the answer to the question ‘Who is behind the eternal principles and who makes them work?’ will have to be ‘Cosmic power, Divine power, God’"
The caste/laborer system and cow worship are problems when saying a fair and rational God founded Hinduism."

6. Buddhism- "Buddhism began in India about 500 years before the birth of Christ. The people living at that time had become disillusioned with certain beliefs of Hinduism including the caste system, which had grown extremely complex. The number of outcasts (those who did not belong to any particular caste) was continuing to grow."

"However, in Buddhism, like so many other religions, fanciful stories arose concerning events in the life of the founder, Siddhartha Gautama (fifth century B.C.):"

Archaeological discoveries have proved, beyond a doubt, his historical character, but apart from the legends we know very little about the circumstances of his life.

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/BUDDHISM/SIDD.HTM

Bottom line: There are many good ways of living but be aware of the hallucinations/embellishments and myths surrounding the founders of said rules of life.


See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesus for an analysis of Jesus' life to include his illiteracy.


Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | August 22, 2007 10:41 PM
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Is there the slightest chance the supernatural being Moses made the deal with was not God? If IT was not God then Who was IT? There are supernatural beings and then there are supernatural beings. Caution advised.

http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul is the other side of the story. Faith is like a trial with only one side of the case ever presented to the jury thus verdict assured. Have a look at the other side and ponder the possibilities.

If that was Devil Moses made the deal with one can only imagine how God feels about people worshiping, honoring, adoring, glorifying and making sacrifices to Him. Well, there is the case of Lucifer, what God did about Him and those who followed Him to guide us. Does Devil want you to even hear the other side of the story?

Posted by: BGone | August 22, 2007 5:08 PM
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How fortunate you are to have such a legacy! I am a first generation Christian and long to leave behind the fragrance of Christ. Thank you for sharing your heart with us.

Posted by: michele | August 22, 2007 3:02 PM
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