The January 2009 Billy Graham TV Special is now airing, but you won’t be able to check your local listings for this TV special. It’s airing mostly on Christian satellite or cable networks like INSP, Daystar and FaithTV, and not your local stations.
The focus of the special is less on preaching the gospel and more on raising support for the urgent work of spreading the gospel that has defined the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for more than 50 years. That approach probably explains why they’re not airing this special on local stations but instead targeting Christians more likely to support the effort.
In a clip from the 1996 Christmas Special, Billy Graham reflects on the joys of Christmas and wishes your family a happy Christmas:
“Ruth and I have treasured these moments spent with family and friends each year at Christmas as we gather together and celebrate how the Christmas message can bring peace to a fragile world. Certainly we’re all praying that you will have a blessed and happy Christmas.”
It sounds like a detective thriller, but it’s really just the story of the innkeeper who was too busy to notice a woman about to give birth and missed the very first Christmas. Billy Graham tells this story in the 1979 Christmas Special.
He finishes by asking if we’ll be like the innkeeper:
“We in America have so much, but we are preoccupied with our own comforts and our own desires. And I have to ask you, are you going to make this same mistake and just give Jesus the stable compartment of your life? I’m asking you to let him be born this Christmas in the central places of your heart and life.”
You can watch the original Billy Graham Christmas Special from 1952 online. The TV special is less than 15 minutes long and includes some awkward decorating, a song from George Beverly Shea, a [questionable] history of the Christmas tree from Cliff Barrows and a sermon from Billy Graham:
“Jesus Christ did not come for the purpose of being born in order that we might have a great holiday. Jesus Christ came for the purpose of dying! That was his mission. He looked over the battlements of heaven centuries ago and saw this world lost and doomed and separated from God. And he said, ‘I’m going to save that world.’”
That’s probably a subdued sermon for 1952, but it still has some fiery, finger-wagging moments (skip ahead to 5:34 to hear Billy’s sermon).
"I'm counting totally and completely on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not on Billy Graham. I'm not going to heaven because I've read the Bible, nor because I've preached to a lot of people. I'm going to heaven because of what Christ did." Learn more about Jesus > >
The January 2009 Billy Graham TV Special is now airing, but you won’t be able to check your local listings for this TV special. It’s airing mostly on Christian satellite or cable networks like INSP, Daystar and FaithTV, and not your local stations.
You can watch the original 
