The Lion Still Has a Roar

Billy Graham stated in his New Orleans crusade this past weekend that he has preached his last sermon. [reported in CitizenLink]

With frail and failing health, this 87 year old spiritual giant mounted the platform and stood behind a pulpit for the first time in nine months to declare the saving gospel of Jesus Christ one last time. Graham noted: “Jesus is no security against storms, but He is a perfect security in the storm.”

Dr. Graham went on to say that the lesson of Katrina is "that there is more to life than material things. There's a moral and spiritual strength that's needed not only in New Orleans and the 9th Ward, but everywhere," he said. "We're living in a very tumultuous time," marked by the violence of hurricanes and war in Iraq, he said. "If ever a country needed to turn to God, it's now."

Dr. Graham had held a month long crusade in the old Pelican Stadium in New Orleans in 1954. His son, Franklin, signed the same pulpit his father and other team members had signed over a half century ago.

Prior to the preaching weekend, Billy and Franklin Graham had toured Katrina ravaged areas in New Orleans and had stopped in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, which was flooded by up to 10 feet of water after Hurricane Katrina.

Spokesman Larry Ross said while the veteran evangelist is not planning any more appearances, the details of Graham's future are up to God. "I think he felt invigorated to be back in the pulpit," he said. "Obviously, he needs to be assisted to get up to the pulpit, but once he's in the pulpit, it's obvious the lion still has a roar."

I thank God the way he has used Dr. Graham and hope another lion will rise in American evangelicalism to roar the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ with as much dignity, authority and appeal that Dr. Graham has mustered in these past decades.