The Journey Home (Bill Bright)

from an email in November 2004

In keeping with my tradition I have compiled some quotes... quite a few actually (sorry its so long).. from the book I have just finished reading. If any of you are not familiar with the life of Dr. Bill Bright after reading this summary I’m sure you will be encouraged and challenged!
Bill Bright was born October 19, 1921 (pretty close to my birthday eh! :) and before he died, at 81 years of age, of pulmonary fibrosis on July 19, 2003 he wrote numerous books, began the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ and wrote this autobiography. I hope his life and testimony encourage you as much as it did me!

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“When I asked him how I could pray for him, his unhesitating question would be this, ‘Bob, pray that I will never leave my first love.’ His footprints even to the end lead to his first love. I said, ‘Bill, what’s the best thing that’s happened to you today?’ He said, ‘I had a great phone call.’ I said, ‘Bill, who was it?’ He said it was the President. I said, ‘Bill, that’s incredible.’ With a pause and a slight chuckle he said, ‘It was, it was an honor, but Bob, when you are preparing to meet Who I’m going to meet, even a call from the President fades by comparison.’”
- Dr. Robert E. Reccord (President, North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention)

“I’ll never forget him sitting at that table when all of us were talking with these bright, profound theological thoughts, and Bill Bright was saying, ‘I just want to stand before the Lord someday and not have failed to lead every single person I could to Christ.’ That’s courage. That’s Bill Bright. That’s the essence of the man. He had selflessness, which ought to be emulated by every single Christian servant and worker. He never put himself first.”
- Charles W. Colson (Founder, Prison Fellowship Ministries)

“I think Bill Bright was one of the most focused people I ever knew. He had one goal in life, to share the good news of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible, and by every means possible. His vision, his single-mindedness and his dedication were a constant example to me and to countless others whose lives he touched across the world. He loved everybody, and I learned a great deal from him. Many times Bill would call me on the phone or come to see me just to encourage me in the work of the Lord. He always left me with a Scripture verse, and I knew he was always praying for me... The Great Commission has never been rescinded and the spiritual needs of the world have never been greater. May the memory of Bill’s life challenge each of us to a deeper dedication to Christ and a greater zeal to spread His word to the ends of this earth as long as God gives us life.”
- Billy Graham (World-Renowned Evangelist and Author)

“Bill Bright’s faith and desire to share Christ was so much on the forefront of his mind; he was so captivated by hiss calling to reach others for Christ that it became contagious. You simply couldn’t be around Bill without walking away with a greater desire to share Christ. Many people, including myself, so often think of evangelism as a task to accomplish. But Bill never looked at it that way. To Bill, evangelism was just a way of life.”
- Josh McDowell (Author of the bestseller Evidence That Demands a Verdict)

“Bill Bright believed in a big God, so he had big dreams and took big risks. God honoured that faith over and over again. So much of Saddleback’s ministry was shaped by the personal influence of my dear, dear friend, Bill Bright. Bill taught me that complete obedience, dependent faith, and simple tools can change the world. Millions of people now have faith in Christ because of The Four Spiritual Laws, the Jesus film, and The Spirit-filled Life booklet. In the early years of Saddleback, Bill was one of the few Christian leaders who understood our strategy, and I will always be grateful for his loving support and how he believed in me when I was just a kid. Bill Bright, along with Billy Graham, was one of the two Giants for God who towered over the 20th Century.”
- Rick Warren (Pastor of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life)

“Although the board of directors of Focus on the Family, to whom I am accountable, established a firm policy many years ago that prohibited my agreeing to write forewords and endorsements, this request had to be seen as an exception. Indeed, Bill’s life was exceptional in every regard. He was giant among men. There is no one I admired and loved more than Dr. Bright, who was perhaps the most influential Christian leader to live since the first century A.D. His passion for worldwide evangelism resulted in literally millions of people coming to personal relationships with Jesus Christ.”
- Dr. James C. Dobson (Founder and Chairman, Focus on the Family)
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God does heal. Physicians and surgeons can help.... Faced with cancer these men sought healing and it came. But not everyone is healed with extended life on this earth. Why is that? Why do some receive healing and others die? Our sovereign God has the answer in His will and His timing, and I trust Him. His ways are perfect.”

George Washington, the victorious general of the American Revolutionary War, the father of our country, and our first president, is my favourite person in all of history apart from biblical characters. He knew our Lord Jesus and always seemed to rise to the call of duty. During my first visit to Mount Vernon, his beautiful home on the Potomac, the guide took me to his bedroom and motioned to a chair at the end of his bed. Washington knelt there for an hour every morning and evening to read his Bible and pray. As he lay dying, he ordered that a tablet over the door of his tomb be inscribed with the promise of Jesus in John 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Washington’s last words were to his physician: “Doctor, I have been dying a long time; my breath cannot last long – but I am not afraid to die.”

Some may deride my life as that of “another Bible-thumper”. I do not thump the Bible; I rather let it thump me.

If we do not rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us and also saturate ourselves with God’s truth – His holy, inspired, inerrant truth – then our holy life will not fly.

His holy Word has never failed me and never will.

Abraham Lincoln stated, “I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this Book.”

God walks with us through pain rather than protects us from it.

We are, after all, Christians, Christ-ones, and if there is not some crisis between us and the anti-God world system, then we really should be surprised.

Most Christians do not know or fully realize that the adversary of our lives is Satan and that his main tool is our flesh, our old nature. Let us name the scoundrel within – it is the self, the ego. The old self rebels against God and will twist and turn anything and anyone to try to preserve itself.

Since I opened my life to the living Lord in 1945, I have been in love with Him. But let there be no mistaking it, I love Him not because I think it is a good idea and the right thing to do. No, my best motives are not worthy of His love. I love Him because He first loved me, and He still does love me, and He will love me forever and ever.

Many people say, “I’ve never heard God speak.” Could it be they are so busy and the world they are in is so loud, they simply cannot hear God? As I write this, I am in a room with a television, a radio, a telephone, a fan, a CD player, and a DVD player. Guess what? None of them is on.

Set goals so big that unless God helps you, you will be a miserable failure.

I am all for being culturally sensitive and doing things wisely, decently, and orderly. But the church can get so caught up in man-centered managing and political correctness that it forgets to envision what God can do. Our main duty as believers is to proclaim the good news of Jesus through evangelism and discipleship.

Whether you have twenty years left, ten years, one year, one month, one day, or just one hour, there is something very important God wants you to do that can add to His kingdom and your blessing. He has called you to this hour. He has prepared you for this task. This is your destiny.

But as long as I am here, as long as I have breath, I will serve the Lord.

There is no such thing as a disobedient, happy Christian; and there is no such thing as an unhappy, obedient Christian.

The empty tomb destroys religions and glorifies Jesus of Nazareth as the Creator-God and Saviour of the world.

After the close of World War II, Konrad Adenauer, the chancellor of a new Germany, was asked the question: “Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?” Adenauer said, “I believe it is the only hope for mankind.”

I found we need not be timid where the Scripture is bold.

All our journeys here on earth are only trails leading to our real home, heaven. Charles Spurgeon once prayed, “May we live here like strangers and make the world not a house, but an inn, in which we sup and lodge, expecting to be on our journey tomorrow.”

I was never personally motivated by fear of hell, but I came to realize that I had not given hell the proper emphasis, as did our Lord Jesus. He spoke more of hell than of heaven, and that should be reason enough for His followers to be candid about the awful option. I do not believe God sends people to hell. It is a place, Jesus said, that was created for the devil and his angels. The unforgiven sins of people will send them to hell. As theologian Wayne Grudem puts it, “The devil’s characteristic has been to originate sin and tempt others to sin,” and that sin, without Christ’s saving grace, will cause us to be residents of hell.

The Bible refers to hell 167 times. But never forget, there is a cross at the entrance to hell. The only way a person can go there is to push the cross aside and deliberately reject God’s love and forgiveness.

It has been my privilege in these dying days to pray with three nurses, one doctor, and four aides as they prayed receiving Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord.

Enthralled in the presence of the living Lord and Saviour, we can expect to engage in the most glorious worship service of all time. No one has any sense of an “order of service”. No one is conscious of any worship “style”. The Father has set matters in order. The Son is the focus of all eyes. The Spirit prompts the singing of songs. From the lips of sinners saved by amazing grace, from followers of all the ages, come Hosannas to the King of kind and Lord of lords, seated at the right hand of the Father.