BILLY GRAHAM is a N/A group. It is a CLOSED group. BILLY GRAHAM has 0 members. So people rank it like a Tiny group. You can find this group by searching 2424293057 on Google, Bing or Yahoo. We last updated on 2015-03-25 19:03:49.
WELCOME to the Billy Graham Facebook Group!
Now please click on "Invite People to Join," and invite all of your friends. Lets make this group the largest on Facebook to honor Dr. Graham. This is a group developed to support and honor one of the greatest known evangelist in our lifetime. He dedicated over 50 years of his life to the ministry and remains to be one of the most loved preacher and respected evangelist of all times. Please feel free to post pictures, comment on the wall, begin a discussion and invite others to join this group.
PLEASE DO NOT post anything if it does not relate to Billy Graham or the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, all other posts will be removed by the administrators of the group.
__________________________________________
A LITTLE KNOWN FACT
You may say "others are more significant and I will never get a chance, but one never know when God will call us to greatness." READ ON. . .
Angel Martinez
By Ted Elmore
Should anyone question the success of Texas Baptists' mission efforts, look no further than the 10 most influential Texas Baptists of the 20th century. In that list is Angel Martinez, who in his personal testimony referred to himself as a "little shoe shine boy from San Antonio."
Martinez was converted in a Baptist mission in San Antonio in July 1935 at the age of 13 and preached his first sermon in September of the same year. At the conclusion of that message, every member of his family except his father was converted to Christ.
There was little if any doubt that God had called and
ANGEL MARTINEZ
Gifted Angel Martinez as an evangelist.
He saw the wisdom of preparing to be an evangelist by receiving a solid education. He graduated from Baylor University in 1945 and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1949. He conducted 51 revival meetings as a seminary student.
His reputation spread beyond the seminary campus in Louisville, Ky. In those years, a committee from Los Angeles contacted him about a citywide crusade. Martinez politely thanked them, but refused, saying God had called him as a local-church evangelist, not as a crusade evangelist. The committee then went to their second choice, Billy Graham. The rest is history.
It is a mark of greatness and security in the Lord when one can say to a great opportunity, "That is not what God has called me to do."
One of Martinez's trademarks was his colorful dress. Walter K. Ayres told the story of his own call to ministry in an Angel Martinez revival meeting. Ayers, a former University of Arkansas football player, walked forward in blue jeans and T-shirt and said, "Dr. Martinez, God has called me to be an evangelist too!" According to Ayers, Martinez replied, "Always look sharp, young man. Always look sharp!"
Martinez offered insightful advice to a young evangelist about 15 years ago: "Prepare one new sermon each week, whether you preach it or not. The evangelist must stay homiletically fresh."
He always ended his message by giving the same invitation, almost word for word. "No matter what I preach, I always tell people how to be saved." He always shared the gospel.
Martinez's ministry spanned 60 years. At age 73, God called him home to heaven.
When he led inquirers in the "sinner's prayer," he would say, "If you prayed that little prayer with me, I will see you in heaven."
Conservative estimates are that Martinez will see more than 500,000 who prayed that little prayer with him somewhere in a revival meeting mostly in a Southern Baptist church, many in Texas.
We are admonished in Scripture to not despise the day of small beginnings. Would any in that little mission in San Antonio in 1935 have dreamed how God would use a 13-year-old Hispanic teenager? No wonder Texas Baptists said Angel Martinez was among their Top 10!
Ted Elmore is associate director of evangelism for the Baptist General Convention of Texas