A Visit With Bill Bright During His Last Days (Part 2) - Bill Bright

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A Visit With Bill Bright During His Last Days (Part 1) - Bill Bright
A Visit With Bill Bright During His Last Days (Part 2) - Bill Bright
A Visit With Bill Bright During His Last Days (Part 3) - Bill Bright

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Finish the Race

Day 2 of 3

Guest: Bill Bright

From the series: Reflections of Life: A Personal Visit With Bill Bright

Bob: There is a problem within the church today. According to Dr. Bill Bright, there are a lot of people who say they love God when many of them don't really know Him.

Bill: The average person has a superficial view of God, and you can't love someone you don't know, you can't trust someone you don't know, you can't obey someone you don't know. So the most important thing is to find out who God is, discover His character, and just love, trust, and obey Him.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Thursday, February 20th. Our host is the Executive Director of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. Today – a conversation with a man who has spent his life introducing people to their Creator.

And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Thursday edition. You've been asked a number of times by people that question – if you could have dinner with any four people, living or dead, who would you invite to your dinner party and probably stopped and considered that question and thought about the Apostle Paul or about King David or whoever you might choose to be at your dinner party.

I would imagine that there would be many listeners who, when asked that question, would have on their list, the opportunity to invite Bill and Vonette Bright to that dinner party and just to be able to interact with them about a life of faithfulness to Christ that God has honored in a remarkable way.

Dennis: You know, when I was a young man starting out right after college, I had no idea how Bill Bright's life would impact mine initially, from a distance. But here in the last dozen or so years, I've had the opportunity to have many, many meals with Bill, to have personal time with him, and you and I had the opportunity to fly down to Orlando and sit in their living room and just have a sweet chat with an 81-year-old man who is suffering from a very serious illness …

Bob: … he's got a pulmonary fibrosis …

Dennis: … right – that has taken away 60 percent of his lungs' capacity, and, Bob, you and I both left those interviews, which we started on yesterday's broadcast, and if you missed it, I would encourage you to call and get the tapes and get the entire interview, because it's a great reminder from a man who has lived his life well, about what is really important. And one of the things I wanted to ask him about and interview him about was the subject of money, because there's a lot of great stories about how Bill Bright personally has approached money and his own personal wealth, which he doesn't have a lot of personal wealth.

Bob: In spite of the fact that he has written a number of books and at one point was handed a check for $1 million.

Dennis: Right, he won the Templeton Award and gave that money immediately and invested it in Campus Crusade for Christ for the purpose of prayer and fasting.

Bob: In fact, I think he talks about that in the section of the interview we're going to hear today, because you did quiz him about the issue of wealth and how we handle our money and, in fact, that's where we'll pick things up today. This is Part 2 of an interview done recently with the former president and founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, Dr. Bill Bright.

Dennis: You have rubbed shoulders with people who have had enormous wealth in your 81 years of life. You've been a part of seeing people invest literally tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars in the kingdom work. What advice would you have for the man, the couple, who really want to use their lives and their wealth for the glory of God?

Bill: Well, first of all, wealth is a gift of God. It all belongs to Him. At best, we are stewards. There is no one who could say, "Look, I've accumulated this vast fortune. I did it with my own ability." Everything is a gift, even the breath which we breathe, and I'm on oxygen 24 hours a day, so I appreciate breath as a gift of God.

But anyone who thinks that they are responsible for their vast wealth is not thinking logically. There are many, many factors that contribute to vast wealth, and so I say to men and women of wealth – live a good life. Enjoy yourself, but you should not be extravagant and don't destroy your grandchildren by leaving them large sums of money. Take care of sending them to college or whatever they may need but be sure you do not spoil your children and your grandchildren and future heirs by leaving a trust that will cause them to be lethargic, complacent, and never develop the skills which you've developed because you had to.

Remember, it's all God's money, and you're going to be held accountable in a very real way when you get to heaven, if you make it, and if your money and your wealth and your material possessions are your god, you won't make it.

Bob: Have you seen people leave money to children or grandchildren and that lethargic complacency that you're talking about – have you seen those who were destroyed by …

Bill: … absolutely, absolutely. I think of a tragic situation – a couple came to me one day. They had worked hard together. They had built a fortune. They had one daughter, and she married an atheist who hated God, and they said, "What are we going to do with that money?" I said, "Whatever you do, don't leave it to your daughter and your grandchi...