The preacher

"Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God."

-- The Rev. Billy Graham

The tributes continue to come in for the Rev. Billy Graham, 99, who died Wednesday.

A charismatic preacher, counselor and friend to a dozen presidents, Graham spoke to more than 215 million people directly through his crusades and spread the Gospel in 185 countries.

"He was a man of God," said his eldest son, the Rev. Franklin Graham, during an interview Thursday on NBC.

"The Billy Graham that the world saw on television or saw on the big screen was the same man we saw at home. He wasn't two people. He spent his life telling people about heaven, how to get to heaven. He wrote books on heaven. Now he's in heaven. And he would want me to tell everybody watching that if you put your faith and trust in God's son, Jesus Christ, you can be there, too.

"And so my father's there. And he would wish everybody confess their sins and repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That would be what he would want everybody to know this morning."

Franklin Graham went on to talk about his father's humility and how he never sought out attention.

"It was just God," he said. "God for some reason touched my father and used my father."

That humility was on display throughout his life but never more evident than when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989.

Graham, who joked that he felt a bit lonely as the only clergyman on the walk, told a crowd why he accepted the honor.

"When people walk by here and some kid yells out, 'Who in the world was Billy Graham. What rock group did he play for?' They'll be answered and say, 'No, he was a preacher of the Gospel.' And they might explain the Gospel to them. And many people may find Christ in that."

Billy Graham never missed an opportunity to share the Gospel of Christ, regularly reciting the seminal verse of Scripture -- John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life."

The Billy Graham Association produced a short video honoring its namesake in November to celebrate the evangelist's 99th birthday. The tributes then, as they are now, get to the core of the man and his faith in Jesus.

"He was intentional about his life. He was intentional about his calling. He never veered off from his calling," country singer Ricky Skaggs said.

Still the most powerful part of the video is the simple message Graham shared -- probably millions of times before but with the same conviction as ever.

"I've been praying that we might have a spiritual awakening," Graham said. And with that, he encouraged Christians with these words of wisdom:

1) "We do everything we can to follow in the steps of Jesus. We are to live a life in which we love one another. We help one another. We live according to what Jesus lived."

2) "You read his Word every day. The Bible."

3) "Go to your knees and pray until you and God are intimate friends."

Franklin Graham asked his father after his mother Ruth died what he would like to have etched on his tombstone. The answer: Preacher.

That is the legacy of Billy Graham. Humble in spirit. Confident in the message of Jesus Christ.

At the end of each sermon, Graham would give way to musicians who would lead the crowd in singing the old hymn, "Just as I Am." It would seem fitting that this column end with those lyrics.

Just as I am, without one plea,

but that thy blood was shed for me,

and that thou bidd'st me come to thee,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not

to rid my soul of one dark blot,

to thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, though tossed about

with many a conflict, many a doubt,

fightings and fears within, without,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, thou wilt receive,

wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;

because thy promise I believe,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.