Anne Graham Lotz - Her Pursuit to Know God

so it seems like lineage dynasties are particularly prevalent among artists showbiz people and in religious families our next speaker is and grahame lots and it's nice to meet you this is the second of Billy Graham's five children and well I'll let her tell you her own story thank you very much thank you and I appreciate very much Moses the attention that you're giving women at idea city I'm a woman who's broken quite a few glass ceilings and I just appreciate very much what I feel is your applause of women in places of influence and it's very interesting for me to be here and in trying to think of what I would say I'm just going to tell you my story and I hope that it relates to some of you and I was thinking this morning and actually it's just about this time three years ago at this moment on this day that my beloved mother was buried and and I was so thankful at that moment that I had a foundation that I had established and on which I had built my life that was stable and secure and would carry me through something like that the death of a someone who has perhaps more precious to me than anyone else other than or at least outside my family and and so I was thinking several years ago we remodeled our house and then we did I had the contractor come in and he went underneath the house and he came out and he said mrs. lot you have to rebuild your foundation before you can build on top of it because the foundation is a week that it's not stable and it's not secure so I had to rebuild the foundation of the house and I think that probably is an illustration of what sometimes we need to do in our lives because we're busy building our lives than not realizing perhaps at the foundation on which we're building is weak that when the storms of life come death disease divorce problems pressures pain our foundation won't hold up and so when I was on I was born and raised of course in a home where Jesus Christ was believed then he was obeyed he was served and was loved so grateful bets my parents faith was authentic not just something you saw in public but what you saw in private behind closed doors and so early on when I was a young girl and I was watching a film about the life of Jesus on television and when it came to the scene of the cross when Jesus was crucified I became very convinced that he died for my sin and that's my sin had separated me from God and I told God that I was sorry and I asked him to forgive me wasn't amnesty that he offered me it was absolute absolution of guilt atonement for sin forgiveness and I asked him if he would apply the death of Jesus to my sin so that's the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross would apply to me asked him to forgive me and come into my life and I believe that he did and right there I laid the foundation for my life the foundation of my life is laid in Jesus Christ where I believe is the Living Word of God and my Bible which I believe is the written word of God and so I established that Foundation which was a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus and I learned about him and grew to know him as I read my Bible when I was a teenager and I don't know what triggered this but it occurred to me one day that when I stood before God I had thought up into that time when I stood before God I would just tell him who my daddy is and who my mother was and somehow I would get credit for being associated with him and it occurred to me when I stand before God I will give an account to him from my life Who I am what I've done or haven't done and and so I decided when I was a teenager before God and I told him to sin prayer that I wanted to live a life of significance I wanted to live a life that counted I wanted to live a life that would benefit and impact the people of my generation and so I just offered my life for service just to make myself available to him it was several years later at the age of 26 I found myself married with three children five three and ten months old and because of just the busyness of young motherhood I had neglected God and I had established a relationship with him I was trying to pursue that it's just in the business of life there was no time to be disciplined in talking to him in prayer hearing what he had to say through reading my Bible and so I had neglected that and I was I know I described it as being homesick for God and so one thing led to another I began a Bible class in our city that I taught just because I wanted to be in it nobody else would teach it so I taught it so I could be in it 500 ladies showed up to be in the class also and I started at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis the first book and it wasn't too long before I came to the biography of Abraham and Abraham of course is one of the greatest people that's ever lived in human history some people think he's perhaps the greatest other than Jesus Christ he's considered the found or the father of three world religions today Judaism Christianity and Islam and yet when I began his biography I thought unities rather a very ordinary man and he lived in urn of the Chaldeans which is in the modern-day Iraq Iran and and he was raised in a home of idolatry where they had many religions and many gods and and he just seemed rather ordinary and except that I think there must have been the Bible doesn't tell us but something of a stirring in his spirits and maybe he saw the migratory habits of the birds and maybe saw birth of a human baby or the Sun come up every morning and go down every evening and I think within him there was something there's got to be someone out there greater than what I know and I would assume it was a stirring in his spirit because the Bible says God leaned out of heaven and just spoke into his life and said Abraham if you'll follow me in a life of obedient faith then I'm going to bless you I'll use you to be a blessing I'll give you descendants like the stars of the sky I'll give you this land and in the end you'll have a descendants that will be in essence the Messiah the one who would bring people back into a right relationship a reconciled relationship with their creator and Abraham that's everything behind and he followed God one step at a time one day at a time choice by choice by choice for all of his life in a life of obedient faith he made many mistakes he failed he lied he committed adultery so he wasn't perfect but he never quits he just pursued a relationship with God and at the end of his life when I finished that Barger if I was reading and I thought you know Abraham at the end of your life God promised you this land but you had to buy a cave in which to bury your wife you don't have any land and he promised you descendants like the stars of the sky and basically you just have one son and Abraham have you just made a fool of yourself have you just wasted your life if you have all these unfulfilled promises of God and then it occurred to me what Abraham had at the end of his life was a relationship with God that God three times in the Bible said was a friendship and you know if I told you the Queen of England was my friend you could laugh but if she walked in here and said an Lots is my friend that's impressive and Abraham didn't say God is my friend God said Abraham is my friend so 34 years ago when I finished the biography of Abraham I decided that's what I wanted my life's goal is to know God better today than I did yesterday better tomorrow than I do today I'm obsessed not with politics or ethics although I found them very interesting I'm obsessed with knowing God and I believe God has invited me to know him not in religion a denomination or organization an institution he has invited me to know him in a personal permanent love relationship you talk about being amazed and you talk about being wondering at something so magnificent and so I started 34 years ago just on that I had established my foundation when I came to the cross of Jesus Christ and confessed my sin asked him to forgive me I believe God accepted that and brought me into his family but it was when I did the biography of Abraham it's like he walked off the pages of my Bible into my life and I thought that's what I wanted and so I began to pursue God just reading my Bible every day spending time talking to him in prayer doing what he said which I believe at that point was raising my children and teaching that Bible class I did that for 12 years I never missed a week's class because I wanted everything God had for me found out left the class turned it over to somebody else they're now 10 classes of equal-sized we have thousands of people in my city in the scripture reading the Bible pursuing a relationship with God because of that but I went out into the world I got invitations from all over the world to tell people what God had to say through his word you don't have to receive what he says you don't have to believe it I'm just there to tell you what the Bible says in a way that would help you relate what he says to your life and then after 12 years of traveling the world because of situations in my life I felt desperate I wanted a fresh encounter with Jesus I wanted a fresh touch from heaven and I didn't want to quit what I was doing or take drugs or alcohol in a way to escape I didn't want a vacation didn't even want a miracle I just wanted a fresh encounter with Jesus and my heart's cry was just giving me Jesus and I went back to the Gospel of John and the Bible studied the biography of Jesus now I believe God gave it to me but then he opened my eyes and said of and grandmas could have a desperate hearts cry for a fresh encounter with Jesus Christ and maybe other people do too and so 10 years ago I began what we call just give me Jesus arena events for women we were at the Air Canada Centre not too long ago packed it out with women who are coming for a fresh encounter with Jesus Christ and I believe many thousands of those women found Jesus in a fresh way and so I've just been on a pursuit to know God I want to know him and fullness I don't want him just tacked on to my life you know like on Sunday I go to church or when I'm with a group I just you know behave one way I want him to saturate my life I want him to fill my life and so I want to grow in that relationship with him until one day my faith becomes sight and I want to tell you something as I have gone I don't know him as well as I want to as one day I hope to know him but I know him better than I did when I started 34 years ago and my relationship with God gives me a deep peace in my heart so when the world's unraveling and volcanoes are erupting and earthquakes or shattering things and diseases and Wars and terrorist threats there's a deep peace in my heart like a river that goes through everything because I know God is in control I have joy in my life that's not dependent on circumstances and right now my husband is quite a bit older than I am diabetes is blown up in his face he's gone blind in one eye he's on kidney dialysis yes three shunts in his heart and I'm watching this world-class athlete had won the national championship in basketball when he was in college and watching him just deteriorate physically very difficult to see someone you love going through hardships like that my son when he was 28 was diagnosed with life-threatening cancer went through surgery follow-up radiation that was baddest divorce four years ago and we saw his life's dreams shattered and and other things that I've been through difficult things but but underneath there's none of the peace that I know God is in control but there's a joy that's not resting in my circumstances or in my family but just in my relationship with God and I can have that joy regardless of the world that's collapsing around me and I also have hope and I know it's not a hope so it's a confidence that one day God is going to set everything right that all of this is taking place in my life and I believe in the world for a divine purpose that God has a purpose in mind because I believe that there is a one true Living God and I believe he's the creator of the heavens and earth and everything within them I believe that Jesus Christ is His only Son that does not mean Jesus is God jr. it means that he is God fully God he is fully God and fully man God in the flesh I believe Jesus was born of a virgin God was his physical father I believe that he died on the cross to make atonement for my sin I believe that when I put my faith in Jesus I'm absolved of my guilt I'm forgiven of any of us in all of us in past present future and reconciled with God made right with him heaven is my birthright I have the right to heaven because I am now the father's child I believe Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb on the third day he rose up from the dead I believe he ascended into heaven where he is even now in his man's physical body praying for me and getting ready he's preparing heaven for me and one day he will come back to this earth to reign and rule and so I know that in the end of God's story which we call history in the end of human history good will win out over hate and love will win out over hate and hope will win out over despair and peace will win out over war and God is going to make it all right because I believe the end of God's story the end of human history is Jesus Christ so the chief Cornerstone of my life is Jesus and if I can just give you one verse of scripture and then I'm going to I'll leave you just finally with this one verse of scripture that I call the North Star of the Bible if you align your life with this you can find your way home and it's this that God so loved the world that means you and that means me that means everybody so inclusive God loves the whole world that he sent his own son Jesus Christ the down the cross is that sacrifice for your sin and whosoever believes in him that means anybody everybody whoever you might be whoever would believe in him and put their faith in Jesus would not perish in a life of emptiness and meaninglessness and end up when you step into eternity being separated forever from him but you would have eternal life and eternal life is not just going to heaven when you die eternal life is having a personal permanent love relationship with God right here and right now so the goal of my life is to know God in a relationship that one day he would acknowledge as a friendship and so I look forward when my faith becomes light and I step into eternity I want to see that glad recognition on his face and I want to hear his welcome and I'm so glad you've come home you're my friend so that's my story and I don't know what your is this but I know my story has many parts and pieces to it that would relate to anyone here and I do know that God loves you and that he offers you not just amnesty reconciliation forgiveness through the person of Jesus Christ so Moses thank you very much for the opportunity to share my story with you today and I'm going to be around today I would love to entertain questions or get into dialogue with you but thank you thank you and I did want to ask you a question and I not to be argumentative but I was shocked to find out that the Southern Baptist Convention right I've got the name right yes I don't know what you're going to say well that they've issued a kind of ruling that prevents you from being the pastor of the church because you lemon well the Southern Baptist you know that's one thing Moses that I'm trying to emphasize and what I just shared that um I don't believe that God has called me to a church denomination or organization he's called me to himself and so what the Southern Baptists say is just to nevermind to me because I'm on a journey to pursue God I want to be what he wants me to be I want to follow him I want to fulfill this purpose for my life I believe God has a purpose for Anne Graham Lotz and I want to fulfill that purpose I know Southern Baptist Convention can for that purpose you

Channel: ideacity

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Rating: 4.8085108 out of 5

Keywords: with, zoomer, form, obsession, religion, moses, world, City, washington, raleigh, larry, king, anne, 2010, live, CBC, magnificent, christ, angel, Idea, times, minutes, ministries, church, graham, today, billy, 60, god, hour, idea, jesus, znaimer, strouwmboulopoulos, davos, show, reverend, economic, york, pray, george, city, new, post, belief, scripture, lotz, media, president, christian, evangelists

Id: 7EXoucN9tWE

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 29 2010