His powerful words and the conviction they carried touched countless hearts and minds. Bill Clinton said in a statement, “Hillary and I are saddened by the passing of our friend Billy Graham, one of the most important religious leaders in American history. Barack Obama tweeted, “Billy Graham was a humble servant who prayed for so many - and who, with wisdom and grace, gave hope and guidance to generations of Americans.” He was one of the towering figures of the last 100 years - an American hero whose life and leadership truly earned him the title ‘God’s Ambassador.'” Donald Trump said in a statement, “Billy’s acceptance of Jesus Christ around his seventeenth birthday not only changed his life - it changed our country and the world. presidents to pay tribute to Graham following his death: And I rejoice that he is now in the company of God, whom he loved so much and served so well.”Īmong other U.S. “We knew that his life was a gift from the Almighty. “Those of us who were blessed to know Billy Graham benefited from his deep convictions and personal example, his wisdom and humility, his grace and purity of heart,” Bush wrote. 11, 2001, and the occasion Graham mediated a theological dispute between Bush and his mother, then-First Lady Barbara Bush. “He had inscribed it and included a reference to Philippians 1:6: ‘And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.'”īush recounted several additional memories of Graham as well, including the evangelist’s message at the National Cathedral three days after terrorists attacked the U.S. It was a copy of the Living Bible,” Bush wrote. “Shortly after we got back to Texas, a package from Billy arrived.
His thoughtful explanation made the soil less hard, the brambles less thick. It was a profound concept, one I did not fully grasp that day. “He told me about one of the Bible’s most fundamental lessons: One should strive to be better, but we’re all sinners who earn God’s love not through our good deeds, but through His grace. “I mentioned something I’d been thinking about for a while - that reading the Bible might help make me a better person,” Bush wrote. Capitol Wednesday and Thursday followed by a private funeral and burial Friday in Charlotte.īush, America’s 43rd president, wrote of the 1985 instance when Graham invited him on a walk around the Bush family estate in Maine and their conversation turned to spiritual matters. Admirers lined the four-hour motorcade route to pay tribute, according to media reports. 24 motorcade transported Graham’s body from a training center operated by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Ashville, N.C., to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., where a viewing is occurring Monday and Tuesday. 21 at age 99, following 80 years of ministry that included personal relationships with every U.S. That strength came from love I had felt from my earliest days and from faith I didn’t fully discover until my later years.” But in 1986, at 40, I finally found the strength to quit. I couldn’t have given up alcohol on my own.
“His care and his teachings were the real beginning of my faith walk - and the start of the end of my drinking. “God’s work within me began in earnest with Billy’s outreach,” Bush wrote in the Journal Feb. Bush paid tribute to the late evangelist in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing, “He changed my life.” Capitol Rotunda, former President George W. (BP) - With Billy Graham’s body scheduled to lie in honor this week in the U.S.