Decide to follow Jesus today, and don’t turn back.
SHAUNA: Welcome to Joni Eareckson Tada Sharing Hope. I’m Shauna with a wonderful memory from Joni about Billy Graham.
JONI: And I sure do owe a lot to Ruth and Billy Graham and their team. After Mrs. Graham read the “Joni” book years ago, she gave it to her husband, suggesting that he invite me to speak on one of his crusades. Well, bless his heart, Mr. Graham did just that – it was 1976 when I spoke in the Pontiac Stadium outside Detroit. I had never given my testimony to so many people before. It was the first of many crusades on which I shared my story of Christ and how he helped me overcome my quadriplegia. I remember one crusade in particular, it was 1989 and we were in Budapest, Hungary. Mr. Graham’s team underwrote the train fare of any person with a disability who wanted to come to the downtown sports arena for the crusade. And the stadium track that night was filled with disabled people lying on mattresses, on cots, dragged in on blankets, sitting in rickety old wheelchairs. And that night, thousands opened their hearts to Christ! And there was a special song they sang:
(Joni sings:)
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back, no turning back
Many a times, it was this Gospel song that the choir would sing at these mass-evangelism campaigns. For years, I had sung it as a simple and sincere declaration, and it wasn’t until a coworker shared the history behind these sweet lyrics that I discovered what it actually represented: a radical call to suffer and die with Jesus. Because this little tune dates back to the 1880s, and the lyrics are based on the last words of an Indian man, who along with his family decided to follow Jesus Christ in the middle of the 19th century through the efforts of a Welsh missionary in India. Called to renounce his faith by the village chief, the convert declared, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” And in response to threats to his family, he continued, “Though no one joins me, still I will follow.” His wife was killed, and he was executed while singing, “The cross before me, the world behind me.” That display of faith is reported to have led to the conversion of not only the chief but others in that Indian village. An American hymn editor composed an arrangement, a version that became a regular feature of Billy Graham's evangelistic meetings in America and elsewhere.
“I have decided to follow Jesus.” Yep, it’s a special song. For me especially, because as a quadriplegic I have to choose to commit each day to the Lord – every minute, every ounce of what little strength I have – absolutely everything must be surrendered to Jesus. I have got to say “no” to despair and depression, and “yes” to the cross before me. As Philippians 3 puts it, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings becoming more like him in him death.” And you know what? By the help of his Holy Spirit I can do it and you can too. I’m so grateful that this martyr in India, his words were penned down and put to traditional music, and later to make its way to Northern America. And although most churches don’t sing it anymore, I hope you will, because every day we have to decide to follow Jesus. That’s my prayer and I hope it is yours, too. Oh friend, today may you find strength as you follow the Lord because for those of us who love him, there is no turning back.
SHAUNA: Thanks for listening today to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope.
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