Nearing Home by Billy Graham (best book club books for discussion txt) 📗

see her doctors, therapists, or caregivers because, as she says to our mutual friends, “If I were not in this wheelchair, I would not have the privilege to tell them about Jesus.”

STANDING STRONG

A young purple-leaf plum tree seemed the perfect choice: its color matched the other landscaping, and a neighbor in my community thought it would grow to shade the hot eastern corner of her home. She was wrong. Five years after planting it, the tree was stunted. It was frequently sick—attacked by insects and struck with blights—and worse, it would lean until its branches touched the ground in any strong wind. No matter how she staked it, it would not stand tall against the elements. She complained about this to a friend, so he examined the tree and identified the problem—it had never taken root. Planted close to a downspout, the tree never needed to stretch its roots beyond its infant root ball to find water. It eventually would die.

Contrast this tree with the maple sapling planted on the edge of her property the same spring. A bare-root plant, the sapling was forced to reach up for sun and out for water. Five years later, it was taller than the stunted plum tree and healthy. The Christian life should look like the life cycle of that maple sapling. After our roots of faith are planted in the fertile ground of truth, we should grow strong as we understand God’s Word, draw close to the Holy Spirit, talk to God daily in prayer, and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As we drink from the springs of life, our roots will grow deeper when we are serving Christ. Only with a deep root system can we endure the storms of life and prepare the next generations to follow in our footsteps.

NEARING HOME WITH A MATURE FAITH

Strengthening our spiritual roots begins with God’s Word. Many have said that when they were young, they were too busy to read the Bible and memorize Scripture. Before they realized it, they had grown old and could not commit Bible verses to memory because their memories failed them. That may be true for some, but not for everyone. Many of us remember what we want to remember.

A wonderful friend of ours, Robert Morgan, wrote a little book recently about Bible memorization and states, “Our minds are vaults especially designed to stockpile the seeds of God’s Word.” In his book, he tells the story of an eighty-nine-year-old woman in his church who said, “Oh, Pastor Morgan, I’m so glad you are having us memorize [Bible] verses. I’ve already gotten started on them. It’s going to help me keep my mind fresh and young!”3 It made me smile to realize that she would keep her mind fresh and young . . . she had not allowed it to get old. There is no better deposit to make in the human mind and heart than to fill them with the treasures found in the Word of God.

We see the results of committing God’s Word to memory in the lives of Simeon and Anna, who witnessed the presentation of the Child Jesus at the Temple (Luke 2:27). Because they knew the ancient Old Testament prophecies and believed by faith that a Savior would be born in Israel, the Holy Spirit revealed the Christ Child to them in their old age. Simeon, an old man who did not want to die before knowing the Savior had come into the world, took Jesus in his arms and blessed Him, saying, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples” (Luke 2:29–31 NKJV). Anna, “a widow of about eighty-four years . . . served God with fastings and prayers night and day . . . and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption” (Luke 2:37–38 NKJV). In the story of Simeon and Anna, we see these gifts of God’s Word, the Holy Spirit, prayer, fellowship, and service all working together to bring about remarkable blessings, and it all started with having their hearts and minds saturated with God’s Word.

My heart is always moved when I read in Scripture of the faith of the elderly. Are the truths of God nourishing your root system? We may retire from our careers, but we must never retire from being filled with the abundant gifts from God that bring hope and satisfaction.

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THEN AND NOW

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

—2 CORINTHIANS 5:1

The last chapter in life can be the best.

—VANCE HAVNER

We never know at what stage, or age, we are living the last chapter of life. Some do not survive birth. Others are taken in their youth. Many are snatched from this earth in the prime of life.

I never thought I would outlive my wife of sixty-three years, my dear Ruth, who passed from this life of uncertainty to the place she was assured to see—the beautiful shores of Heaven and the blessed face of the Master she lived for and served. One of my saddest moments was when Ruth preceded me in death. I watched her suffer with dignity, with feisty humor, and with a gentle spirit ready to meet our Lord. She taught me so much about the last chapter of life. Knowing where she is, the One she is with, and the fact that I will be there with her soon are of monumental comfort to me.

When I preached my last stadium crusade in New York’s Flushing Meadows in 2005, I certainly did not dream that I would be living without Ruth two short years later. I truly believed that my declining health would not sustain many more years of life. In spite of the fact that we were