Franklin Graham is in Alabama this weekend for the Greater Birmingham Festival of Hope. It kicked off Friday with powerful worship and a heartfelt Gospel message that moved many to make the most important decision of their lives.
Cheryl Burns drove past Bartow Arena more than once Friday, hours before she had to be at the downtown Birmingham, Alabama, venue. She prayed each time she passed it.
“I knew something great would happen in here tonight,” she said.
And she was right.
“Do you know how good I feel inside?” she asked later in the night, standing on the arena floor with hundreds buzzing around the stands behind her. “I’m bubbling inside. I got to come down here and talk to someone about God.”
Cheryl joined dozens of counselors Friday for the first night of the Greater Birmingham Festival of Hope with Franklin Graham. The event was a couple of years in the making, but worth the wait. Some locals were speechless—in a good way—as they watched people stream down the aisles to come forward and claim Christ as their Lord.
Nearly 5,000 people filled the arena, with over 13,000 watching the live stream online from 91 countries. All heard a message from Franklin Graham about spiritual blindness as he used anecdotes from his own life.
As a pilot, he said, there are times he can’t see clearly out the window and has to rely on the instruments in front of him.
“There’s some of you here tonight (who) have been flying through life blind,” he said, adding that if you don’t change direction, you could destroy your life.
He shared about his son’s friend, Scotty Smiley, who his son met at West Point military academy. Smiley lost his eyesight in a military attack overseas and went from questioning God to telling anyone who will listen about the great things He’s done in his life.
“Scotty has something inside of him. Scotty has Jesus Christ,” Franklin Graham said.
Regardless of your circumstances, he said, you can have a new life, a new perspective: “Only Christ can remove the spiritual blindness.”
When Franklin Graham invited people forward, a young woman was one of the first up front, her face red from crying. She turned out to be the same woman Burns beamed about 10 minutes later after walking the woman through rededicating her life to Christ and encouraging her in her marriage. By the end, the pair were hugging as the young woman smiled through tears of joy and relief.
Fellow counselor Jim Hollon was also excited to share his faith with someone.
“I’ve been a Christian over 40 years and I know I need to do it,” he said about sharing Christ.
Hollon talked to a man who said he’s in a recovery program and has been going to church. It was there someone encouraged him to attend the Festival. The man ended up coming forward in total surrender, giving his life to Christ, ready not only for a physical change but a heart change.
That’s something Franklin Graham said he knows all about.
Growing up in a Christian home, he told the crowd, “I thought I was safe,” that his family’s faith would sort of roll over to him without any life changes on his part.
“I didn’t want God to be the controller of my life. I wanted to control it myself,” he said.
But as an adult, he realized he had to make his faith his own and personally ask Christ into his life.
Using the example of Bartimaeus from Mark 10:46-52, Franklin Graham said all this blind man had to do was call out to Jesus for healing and believe Jesus could make him whole.
Jesus can do the same for people today, he told the audience.
“(Jesus) will stand still tonight and He will hear your prayer.”
You can have the joy of Jesus Christ in your life, too. Find out more.
