Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) spoke at the dedication of the Rev. Billy Graham statue in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
Full transcript of the speech:
Good morning. It is absolutely my honor to be here. This day is a decade in the making.
And it would not have been possible without the teamwork of fellow members of the North Carolina delegation. So, thank you.
I want to thank them for their commitment to honor one of North Carolina’s favorite sons.
The legacy of Reverend Billy Graham is based on a simple message of creation, fall, redemption, and our ultimate Hope set forth in Scripture.
He took this message of hope in Christ to more than 185 nations, to more than 200 million people in-person, and to more than two billion people through radio and television broadcasts.
Now, I was one of those two billion who would watch him on TV as a young kid.
When I was young, I remember loving to watch Billy Graham. And for two reasons…
One, it was the Good News of Jesus Christ winsomely presented.
And two, if he was on TV, my parents would let me stay up late.
You know, to this day, anytime I hear the hymn Just As I Am, I want to get up and walk forward.
More people heard the Good News of Jesus from Billy Graham than any man in our history.
That incredible legacy didn’t start with him. Because – as with many great things – it started in the prayers of prior generations, including his parents, his in-laws, and it was enriched by the love of his wonderful wife, Ruth.
And this legacy continues on through his children and through his grandchildren.
For the North Carolinians here today, it is our great honor to have had Billy Graham and his family call our state home.
He was raised on a small farm in what has now grown into a big city.
He and Ruth could have lived anywhere, but they made North Carolina home.
They raised their family there, and they put our state at the heart of a global ministry.
And so as we honor his memory in the U.S. Capitol today, let us never forget the Bible that he preached, the souls that were saved, and the lives that were transformed – enough lives to affect the course of nations.
It is our hope that as we lawmakers, as we come and go, and as visitors pass by the statue of Billy Graham, that we are reminded of his ministry and what he preached… so often emphasizing two verses in the Gospel of John, etched on either side of this beautiful statue.
The first, as we know, from the Book of John, chapter three, verse 16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
And in John 14:6 when Jesus declares, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.”
His point was this, and I quote it in his words in his final crusade in 2005.
He said, “I have one message—that Jesus Christ came, he died on a cross, he rose again, and he asked us to repent of our sins and receive him by faith as Lord and Savior, and if we do, we have forgiveness of all of our sins.”
Friends, God’s grace is undeserved, but through Christ it is freely given, and it is by trusting in Christ’s sacrifice that we are saved.
If you’ve not made that decision for yourself, I hope, I pray, that you will.
Friends, it is by the power of His Spirit in a transformed life that we have the power to love one another, and the power to make America – and the world – a better place.
May God Bless the life and legacy of the Reverend William Franklin Graham Jr., and may God forever Bless the United States of America.
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