Book Review: Living in God's Love

Apologies for this post not going live sooner...

Title: Living in God's Love

Author: Billy Graham

Illustrations: black and white photos

Publisher: Putnam / Penguin

Date: 2005

ISBN: 0-399-15346-2

Length: 125 pages

Quote: “You have been born into a human family, but when you are born again, you are born into God's family. I'm asking you tonight to come and be born into God's family.”

This is a souvenir book, containing the text of sermons preached during the Billy Graham Crusade in New York City, June 2005. The late Billy Graham had been evangelizing New York City since 1957 and had been persuaded to admit that the 2005 Crusade would probably be his last one.

Apart from that...Living in God's Love contains the basic evangelical Christian message. God is perfect. Sinful humanity is separated from God by our moral imperfection. God so loved the world that God became incarnate as Jesus, the only sinless man who ever lived, and died as a sacrifice for our sins. If we repent and ask God's forgiveness, our sins can be forgiven.

This is not all that Billy Graham said to the world for fifty years, nor was he the only one saying it, but it is the message for which Graham has been best known.

The 2005 Crusade was indeed a memorable event. Not only did Billy Graham preach “probably the last” of forty-eight years of sermons; George Beverly Shea sang “probably the last” of forty-eight years of gospel songs (at least in New York City). Anyone who was impressed by the sheer longevity of these gentlemen would have wanted to be there—if only “by way of radio, television, or the Internet,” as a local minister said while introducing Graham's Friday night sermon. For those who weren't there, this book would be an excellent gift.

Is there anyone to whom I would not recommend this book, aside of course from the people who already own copies? Yes. Please don't use this book to needle Christian-phobics. It's too good a book to be used that way. I recommend a different strategy to Christians who are concerned about the souls of Christian-phobics. Christian-phobics tend to be people who have known more hypocrites than real Christians. Give them the experience of knowing a real Christian. It just might “blow their minds,” and then as their minds slowly reassembled themselves they just might lose their phobias and ask for copies of memorable Christian books.