By Frank Pollard
Counting the Cost
Luke 14:28-32
The best thing on TV that night was a Billy Graham Crusade.
That is true of any night there is a Billy Graham Crusade on
television. In his sermon Mr. Graham told of visiting a leader of a
large denomination, a bishop. The bishop said, "I do not really know
that I am saved. Can you tell me how I can know I am right with
God?" Billy Graham said when he left that man's office the bishop
was smiling through tears of joy because he knew he was saved.
Then the great evangelist told how he was asked to visit Dwight
D. Eisenhower in his hospital room in Washington. President Eisen-
hower was spending the last days of his life in that hospital room
and he knew it. He said, "Billy, would you go over with me what I
need to know to be sure I am saved." Mr. Graham said, "I will never
forget leaving that room, looking back at Ike Eisenhower smiling that
winning smile of his because he knew he was right with God."
As Billy Graham told these stories, I was moved. I remembered a
similar experience with someone more important than a bishop or even
Dwight D. Eisenhower. I will never forget the day she looked me in
the eye and said, "Son, can you tell me how I can know that I am
saved?" And I opened the Word of God to my mother and the sweet Holy
Spirit assured her of her salvation.
In this fourteenth chapter of Luke, Christ is teaching how we
can be saved, that is how we can enter the Kingdom of God. He said
the Kingdom of God is like a banquet and the invitation is extended
"come, for everything is now ready" (Luke 14:17). This picture of
the Kingdom of God as a banquet appears in the closing words of the
Bible. John heard a voice say, "write, blessed are those who are
invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9).
All of us are invited. Our salvation is an act of God's grace.
It is freely and totally given by a grace act of the loving God.
Grace means unmerited favor. God offers you e ...
Counting the Cost
Luke 14:28-32
The best thing on TV that night was a Billy Graham Crusade.
That is true of any night there is a Billy Graham Crusade on
television. In his sermon Mr. Graham told of visiting a leader of a
large denomination, a bishop. The bishop said, "I do not really know
that I am saved. Can you tell me how I can know I am right with
God?" Billy Graham said when he left that man's office the bishop
was smiling through tears of joy because he knew he was saved.
Then the great evangelist told how he was asked to visit Dwight
D. Eisenhower in his hospital room in Washington. President Eisen-
hower was spending the last days of his life in that hospital room
and he knew it. He said, "Billy, would you go over with me what I
need to know to be sure I am saved." Mr. Graham said, "I will never
forget leaving that room, looking back at Ike Eisenhower smiling that
winning smile of his because he knew he was right with God."
As Billy Graham told these stories, I was moved. I remembered a
similar experience with someone more important than a bishop or even
Dwight D. Eisenhower. I will never forget the day she looked me in
the eye and said, "Son, can you tell me how I can know that I am
saved?" And I opened the Word of God to my mother and the sweet Holy
Spirit assured her of her salvation.
In this fourteenth chapter of Luke, Christ is teaching how we
can be saved, that is how we can enter the Kingdom of God. He said
the Kingdom of God is like a banquet and the invitation is extended
"come, for everything is now ready" (Luke 14:17). This picture of
the Kingdom of God as a banquet appears in the closing words of the
Bible. John heard a voice say, "write, blessed are those who are
invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9).
All of us are invited. Our salvation is an act of God's grace.
It is freely and totally given by a grace act of the loving God.
Grace means unmerited favor. God offers you e ...
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