William R. Bright - founder and chancellor, International Christian Leadership University; founder and president, Campus Crusade for Christ International; recognized as one of the most influential and accomplished Christian leaders in the world.

 It's a great honor and privilege for me to be with you today, and especially to be introduced by one of my favorites, Ed Meese. Ed, you'll remember the day in 1982 when I asked President Reagan to declare the year of the Bible. You were there at that meeting, and you'll remember he did. And great blessings resulted from that.

I was reading even a few minutes ago his proclamation on the importance of the Bible. He's one of our greatest presidents in history. He believed the Bible and emphasized it in his messages and his life. That same Bible has been outlawed from the classrooms of America. Tragic. And the results are obvious.

It's a privilege to bring to your attention this morning a couple of books which I've written, The Coming Revival and The Secret to that Coming Revival, both of which are available to you with my compliments. Also in the back of your room, "Your Five Duties as a Christian Citizen." Everyone needs to know these basic things. Ralph Reed and others distribute these, I understand, by the billions, but you're welcome to duplicate them wherever you wish. I believe if the Christians and the people who love God in a different tradition could be mobilized, we could recapture our nation for the Lord Jesus.

Will you bow with me for prayer? Holy Father, in the name of your risen Son whom we adore, we lay before you this message and ask that you will speak to each heart according to your own perfect plan. And we ask it for your glory and praise in His dear name. Amen.

The story is told of a man who was very fond of the famous Southern Civil War general Robert E. Lee. There was a statue of Lee in the park near his home, where he lived with his wife and five-year-old lad, David. Every day they'd take a stroll through the park and stop in front of the statue, General Robert E. Lee riding his beautiful horse, Traveler. And the father would say to his little lad, "Say good morning to General Lee." The little lad would wave his hand dutifully, "Good morning, General Lee," and they'd walk on through the park talking as fathers and sons talk.

The days, the weeks, the months passed. It was a ritual. Every morning as they walked through the park they'd stop in front of the statue. Here sat this great general, Robert E. Lee, riding his horse, Traveler.

And one day as the little lad said, "Good morning, General Lee," and they were walking home through the park, he turned to his father and said, "Daddy, who is that man riding General Lee?"

I say that to illustrate one of the great tragedies of the centuries. There is humor but, more important, a message.

It was on the night of our Lord's birth outside that little village of Bethlehem when the shepherds, alarmed by the dazzling star, the angelic choir, were fearful. The angel appeared to them and said, "Don't be afraid. I bring you the most joyful news ever announced. The Savior, the Messiah, the Lord was born tonight in Bethlehem."

I was a pagan all of my youth, high school, college, graduate school, and while professor at Oklahoma State University extension. Then, when I was a businessman in Hollywood, I heard the most joyful news ever announced with ears that could understand. My saintly mother had prayed for me and lived the Godly life, but she did not know how to communicate her faith.

When I received Christ, I became very concerned that we were doing a poor job of communicating this joyful news. And the Holy Spirit impressed me to do a film on the life of Jesus. It took 33 years before it became reality, but now as some of you know it's been viewed by over 750,000,000 in 217 countries and 355 languages. And God has continued to use that film. If you haven't seen it I'll be glad to send you a complimentary copy.

As a new believer, I fell in love with Jesus Christ. As Rich DeVos said last night, I owe everything to my Lord, Jesus Christ. I say the same. This nation as you know was dedicated to Him by our founding fathers. George Washington, for example, spent time every morning on his knees reading his Bible and praying. At the end of the day, again on his knees reading the Bible and praying. He and others -- Patrick Henry and Madison, and Monroe, and Adams -- dedicated this country to Christ. And of course, going further back, Columbus, he claimed it for Christ. He was an ambassador, a missionary for Christ.

So when I became a Christian I began to learn all these things I didn't know as a pagan, a nonbeliever. And I became excited, so much so that I decided I'd go to seminary and learn everything I could about Christ and the Bible and our Christian heritage.

At Princeton in the Fuller Theological Seminary I crammed a three-year course into five years. I studied while running my business in Hollywood. And by this time I'd become a deacon in the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, where Christ became a reality to me.

Now for over 50 years I've loved and tried to live for Him. I've dedicated my life to helping fulfill what He came to the world to do 2,000 years ago, which was to seek and save the lost.

In fact, when I proposed to Vonette I was still very active in business and had great ambitions. Both of us were very materialistic. I made a commitment to her that when we were married we'd travel the world, we'd enjoy the good life, we would live in Bel Air, which is one of the prestigious places in southern California, and we'd just have a ball. And maybe we'd go to church and other things, but I didn't realize that God had something better.

As we had been married for a couple of years, Christ became more and more real to us. One day we decided to sign a contract with Jesus. She signed a contract in one room of our home in the Hollywood hills, and I another, saying, in the words of the apostle Paul, "Lord, we want to be your slaves." I'd never heard of that being done before, but it made a lot of sense. As a businessman I'd signed a lot of contracts, but this was to be the most important I would ever sign for in the surrender of all that we owned or ever would own, all of our rights to the one who created us, the one who guides our steps, who knows even the number of hairs of our head. We said to Him, "Lord, whatever you want us to do, wherever you want us to go, from now on we're yours."

A couple of nights later, while I was studying for a final exam in seminary, about midnight, God impressed me, in a very dramatic way, that I was to spend the rest of my life not in business but serving him. I was to help take his message of love and forgiveness to the world.

I've tried to be faithful to that heavenly vision for 45 years. There's nothing else that really matters to me. My beloved wife shares that vision.

We moved that fall of 1951 to UCLA and began the work. And now the staff numbers 13,000 full-time and 101,000 trained workers all over the world. We've seen God do some incredible things; to Him be all the praise.

But in the last few years I have become gravely, gravely concerned about the tragic results of the infamous Supreme Court rulings in 1962 and '63 declaring God outlawed from the schools, no prayer, no Bible reading, and in 1973 the legalized murder of babies. I have kept a focus on the Great Commission, that's where I live. That dominates my thinking day and night. I try to evaluate everything I do every day, including this message and this meeting, in light of the Great Commission. How can I take the gospel to more people, along with my associates and those millions who we train? Because everyone needs to be aware of this most joyful news.

The Bible says God has liberated the believer out of the darkness and gloom of Satan's kingdom and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son, who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins. So I think of people who are in Christ's kingdom and Satan's kingdom. The ultimate result of Satan's kingdom is hell, and the ultimate destiny of those in Christ's kingdom is heaven.

And it's important to me that everybody have a chance to say yes to God's love and receive forgiveness in Christ. Some say no, but largely because they do not understand.

Can you imagine anyone saying no to the love of God if they really understood it? Can you imagine anyone saying no to forgiveness of sin and removal of guilt if they really understood? Can you imagine anyone saying no to peace of heart and peace of mind if they really understood? Would anyone say no to eternal life if they really understood?

I've had 50 years to experiment. My conviction is people say no rather to test. People say no because they don't understand God's love. The teaching of the classroom today is so confusing men would doubt that God had any plan for us at all. Men have built a straw man and they have sought, as they take action against their own conception of God, to destroy that straw man.

An avalanche of evil began dramatically after the 1962-63 ruling. You can graph that; it's almost incredible. You can trace it to the day the Supreme Court insulted God. You can understand that when you read Deuteronomy, chapters 8 and 28, where God says to the people of Israel through Moses, "I'm leading you into this wonderful promised land, the land of milk and honey. But beware that in your plenty when you arrive there that you do not forget the Lord your God and begin to disobey him. For when you become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very great, and your silver and gold has multiplied, that is the time to watch out that you do not become proud and forget the Lord your God who brought you out of your slavery in the land of Egypt. If you forget about the Lord your God and worship other gods instead and follow evil ways, you shall certainly perish, just as the Lord has caused other nations in the past to perish. That will be your fate, too, if you do not obey the Lord your God. So always remember that it is the Lord who gave you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill his promise to your ancestors."

You and I are here today in this, the most wonderful God-blessed country of the centuries, because of the dedication of our founding fathers and those who were part of their preceding commitment. We are blessed.

But the average American does not understand why our country is falling apart. They do not understand that God has withdrawn his blessing from us. We have declared officially, "We don't need you anymore." We've insulted Him. And thus He has reserved himself, drawn back his blessings. He is still with us; He has not left us and deserted us. But He is giving us a little taste of what our nation is going to experience if we continue to pursue this course.

For example, as a new believer, I heard a missionary speak on the urgency of taking the gospel of Christ to the world in 1947. And this great missionary, Dr. Oswald Smith from Toronto, Canada, challenged about a thousand of us young college and post-college singles to adopt a country for which we would pray, and as God led we would go there, we'd give money, we would do whatever was necessary to reach that country for Christ.

After prayer, I put my name on the Soviet Union in 1947. So I've been praying for the Soviet Union all these years and had the privilege of visiting it there at the invitation, can you believe, of the Communist government.

They issued an invitation at the request of the churches in 1978 during the height of the Cold War. And there I saw firsthand, that great country, with all of its vast cultural and natural resources, a country that was in prison. I felt that wherever I went, though, I was treated like a king. They invited me as at the same time they invited Billy Graham to Hungary for the same purpose, during the days of the neutron bomb and the B-1 bomber controversies. They were hoping, I assume, that I would say something in their favor.

Everywhere I went, eight cities, I met with the peace committees. They would ask me questions, hoping that I would say the right things for their benefit. And I simply said to them, I'm an ambassador of the King of kings and the Prince of peace. I'm for peace, but on His terms. And after a bit of discussion, the conversations usually shifted and we'd talk about other things.

Among other things they said, "We don't like the idea of you Christians smuggling Bibles into our country." And I said, "Fine, why don't you print them in the Soviet Union?"

They said, "We don't have enough paper." I said "I'll be glad to buy the paper and ship it in." And they said, "We'll take it under advisement."

But I love the Russian people, not the government. I've made many trips there. We've had the opportunity to present the gospel to literally tens of millions, 150 million probably at one time; at a couple of Easter sunrise services, etc., etc.; on their nationwide television and so forth.

 But I think of that vast, vast country, so blessed of God. Nine hundred years of Christianity, and then 72 years where they violated God's laws. No Bible, no God. Now what you see there is a basket case -- economically, politically, socially, spiritually; in every way it's a basket case.

Contrast.

When I first went to South Korea in the early sixties, they were recovering from that devastation of a tragic war. Oxcart was the major means of transportation. The Koreans were beasts of burden. I'd see them walk down the roads with heavy, heavy burdens. They worked hard, eighteen hours a day or more was not unusual.

I've been there on many, many occasions. The Korean people are very dear to me. One of my first honorary doctorates came from the National University of Korea because we had helped them establish ministries on the campuses.

On one occasion, I was honored when about 25 presidents of their prestigious universities came together for a dinner in my honor. Every one of them was a believer. And every one of them had studied at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, or other prestigious university of the West. They loved Christ. They had survived all the temptations of socialism and communism, because they saw firsthand the inherent evils of it.

Those universities and schools in Korea are far more healthy than any of our institutions in the United States. In fact, I thought as I sat there that evening, this would be impossible in the United States. I know a lot of Christian college presidents. Most of them are heads of Christian schools. A few are presidents of very prestigious secular schools, but most of them are closet Christians.

I think of one great U.S. university which I visited some time ago. Through a series of tragic experiences, the president had become a believer. I went to ask him if he would be kind enough to write out his testimony. "I'll distribute it all over the world," I said, because the president of that university would have access anywhere in the world. But he was very, very uncomfortable with the suggestion, so I didn't press it.

I asked one of his colleagues who is a believer, whom I'd introduced to the Lord earlier, "Why would he be so hesitant?" And he replied, "You realize if he were to do what you asked him to do he would be ridden off this campus on a rail, tarred and feathered. He would not be able to stay here more than a few days if the word got out."

That's the spirit of the campus. Yesterday someone here said that the number one enemy of our society today is the university campus. That's a very strong statement, but some of us who know the inner workings of the secular university, who have seen what's going on, would have to agree with that.

It's a tragic moment when one realizes that the first 119 colleges and universities in America were established as Christian schools for the express purpose of perpetuating the Christian message and to train ministers for the gospel. Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale -- all those great schools and many, many more.

Today the official stance could be described as being militantly antagonistic to everything our founding fathers proposed.

The Bible in the founding years, for 170-some years, was the major textbook from kindergarten through university. But no longer. And as a result we're experiencing, I believe, the greatest crisis America's ever experienced in history, greater than the Civil War, the Revolutionary War or any other period.

I sense the situation across the world and here in the United States; the liberal leftists are in control. They're in control of everything: media, government, education. And unless there is something different from what we're now experiencing, they will continue to be.

What is the answer? Abraham Lincoln was faced with a similar crisis during the Civil War. And he issued a proclamation calling America to fast and pray. Time won't allow for me to read all of it. May I read a portion of it?

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven," Lincoln writes. "We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We've grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We've forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. We have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become self-sufficient and no longer feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray to the God that made us."

Now if that was true during Lincoln's time, it's a hundred times more tragic and difficult today.

"Now, therefore," he continues, "in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday the 30th day of April, 1863 as the national day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion."

What point am I trying to make? I believe the only hope for America is a massive return to the God of our founding fathers, the God of the Bible, the true God.

 He has been insulted. And now it's time that we come to Him in brokenness of spirit and humbly acknowledge, even as President Lincoln called the people of America in 1863 to humble ourselves officially before God. Whether or not the President or the Supreme Court or others are involved, we by the millions can reach out to God, and He will hear our prayers.

We have a promise of God which he gave to Solomon centuries ago. Solomon was preparing to dedicate the temple, and he was concerned. "What's going to happen if the people of Israel turn away from you, Lord?" And God answered him in a dream. "If my people who are called by my name," He said, "will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land."

For 50 years I've given my life, as I mentioned earlier, to the fulfillment of the Great Commission and to aggressive evangelism. You'll be interested to know that the committee which granted me the Templeton Prize is made up mostly of people of other religions: Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, I think a couple of Christians among them. Former President George Bush is on that committee. But I'm still in awe that I should be chosen because everyone knows what I stand for. And I'm humbled. And I can only say God did it, and to him be the praise.

It was in 1994 that I became increasingly burdened for our country and for the nations of earth. We know there is no human institution, or no human leader, who can guide us out of this chaos, this quagmire. We're faced with a hopeless task. Education can't. Government can't; it's largely controlled by those who are enemies of the gospel. The media can't; they could but they do not. They have great potential for good as well as evil. The homes of America, the foundation of our republic, can't; they are disintegrating rapidly because of divorce.

So there's only one answer: God can help us. It was with that feeling in the early part of '94 that God began to press me to fast and pray for 40 days for our country. I've fasted on scores of occasions, hundreds of occasions over the years previously, but never 40 days. I've fasted for up to four weeks but never, never anything quite like this.

So I began to call around to some of my Christian friends, pastors and others. I said, "Do you have any counsel for me? Do you know anyone who's fasted 40 days?" I couldn't find anyone in America.

I went to the president of a large hospital chain, a dear friend. He has thousands of doctors who attend their patients. I said, "Could you find a doctor who could help me? I don't want to be foolish." At that time I was 73. My body's the temple of God; I don't want to be stupid. I wanted to be cautious about how I entered into this fast. And he said, "I'll find you someone." A few days later this doctor called. He said, "I've been assigned to help you with your 40-day fast." He said, "I don't know anything about fasting. I've never fasted." And I said, "Thank you very much."

I heard of a fellow and actually met him briefly, an 85-year-old Christian doctor and a very knowledgeable nutritionist. And I thought, "Well, he will know." I called him and said, "Here's my plan. God has led me to fast. I just want a little counsel." He said, "Don't do it." He said, "I fasted two days once. It almost killed me."

So I shared it with some friends. And thanks to my precious wife, who did not object though I think she was very skeptical, I began on July 5th, '94 the greatest adventure, literally, of any 40 days of my life. Every day, excitement and terror. Close to the King of the universe, the God of creation. I've never known such intimacy except in rare moments when he gave me the vision for Campus Crusade for Christ.

I prayed all these days, day after day, "Lord, heal our land, heal our land, save us from our anti-Christian views. Bring back the Bible to our nation." About the third week God gave me the impression, a strong impression, that he was going to send a great revival that would not only sweep America but the entire world. I'm a Presbyterian. We don't get involved in prophecies that much. But I only tell you, that's what God told me.

On the 29th day, I was reading from Second Chronicles. Ahaz, the king of Judah, was a wicked king. He closed the temple, nailed it shut and built temples to idols. He sacrificed and burnt incense at the idols' shrines on the hills and under every green tree. The scripture says that because of that God sent a great discipline to the people. That is why the Lord God allowed the king of Syria to defeat Ahaz and deport large numbers of his people to Damascus. Because of his evil ways, God sent his discipline upon Judah.

But then his son became king at the age of 25. The first thing he did was clean up the synagogue, clean up the temple.

On the 29th day of my fast, as I was reading the passage where it says Hezekiah wrote a letter. And the Holy Spirit said to me, "Write a letter to all the Christian leaders whom you know. Invite them to come to Orlando and fast and pray with you."

Now, how would you respond if you got a letter to fast and pray? Most of you would say, "I don't know how to fast" because most Christians don't in America. And I didn't know if maybe two or three of my friends would show up. But would you believe God sent 650? And we met for an evening, a day and a half-day, and God was with us in this incredible way.

Chuck Colson says it was the greatest experience of his life, that he'd never be the same. Shirley Dobson, chairman of the National Day of Prayer, wife of Jim Dobson, said almost the identical words. And all of us could've said that. We were there enveloped in a bubble of His grace.

Can you imagine if there is a God in heaven, and there is, and He loves us, and He does, and He's offended when we disobey him but He's pleased when we come to him in repentance. Can you imagine why He blessed us?

Well, out of that came another time of fasting with prayer, in Los Angeles. Almost 4,000 came there. And again, it was one of those dramatic times. Can you believe we met at nine in the morning till nine at night on Friday? No breaks. The speakers would speak for five minutes, introduce themselves. No flowery introductions; they introduced themselves. My name is Bill Bright, I'm with Campus Crusade for Christ, and God has given me this message for you. They'd speak five minutes, then we'd pray 15. Then someone else would come and say my name is so-and-so and here's what God has led me to do.

Well again, God met with us. Another one was scheduled under the same banner. These two were held officially for the body of Christ, but Campus Crusade paid all the bills. We gave leadership, saying to the other groups, "Please come." This is not for the Crusade; this is for the body of Christ.

But now Mission America, which represents, more than any other group, the vast majority of Christians in America -- Southern Baptists, National Association of Evangelicals and many other groups, probably 150,000 churches involved -- they have taken up this burden because all the leaders had been involved in the first two.

I believe we can change our nation. I believe we can be restored to our Biblical heritage. And I believe the greatest thing that I can do personally to help fulfill the vision God gave me in 1951 is to help take the gospel to everybody on planet Earth. And we have a plan for that.

We've divided the world into 5,000 regions representing five thousand million-population target areas. We have the Jesus film. And we're working millions of Christians from hundreds of mission groups. We're linking arms in partnership, committed to finish the task by the end of the year 2000. It's never been done since our Lord gave the command. But we have all that we need to finish the task if we're willing to make the sacrifices.

I was moved deeply when I was reminded of what it cost our founding fathers. Many of them gave their lives and their fortunes because they were viewed as traitors by the English because they betrayed their citizenship.

God has impressed upon us that we should do everything. That's the reason I wrote many years ago the "Five Duties of Christian Citizens." We must do everything we can to elect Godly people to office, from precinct to White House.

Wherever I go I encourage Christians to get involved, pray, register, find out everything you can about the candidates. Help promote people with Godly, Biblical views and who have a demonstrated record of integrity.

You know you can profess to be a Christian to get votes and live like the devil. We want people who have a proven record of integrity. We should stand with them, with our pocketbooks as well as our prayers.

And I commend the freshman and sophomore congressmen; some are involved in a Bible class there which I helped to start, through the Christian Embassy, 20 years ago.

 We applaud what you're doing. Never give up. Hold to the principle. Be faithful to what God has instilled in your heart to do.

I was asked when I received the Templeton Prize, "What are you going to do with the money?" It's a million, several hundred thousand dollars. I'm not sure of the exact amount. It's given to me, seven hundred thousand pounds sterling. None of it's going into my pocket anyway, because I've dedicated it to the training of Christians. As our country was founded, there was a movement of God. And the whole Constitution was dramatically influenced by that revival.

Later in the 1800s there was another visit from heaven prior to the Civil War. That prepared America for that incredible holocaust of destruction of 500,000 of our choicest men. It was a tragic moment in our history. I think back with shame on that unfortunate war. And yet those fighting for the abolition of slavery were willing to pay that price. And now we marvel, we wonder, how could anybody believe in slavery?

The day is going to come when our children will say, "How could anybody allow the murder of unborn babies?" But only revival will make that possible.

Later, in 1885, another visit from heaven, around the turn of the century. There was a great movement of God in Wales which spread across Europe and to the United States, and with it came great blessing. Tens of millions of people were involved. Prayer meetings would be called and hundreds would show up, in some cases thousands of people would show up. Their lives were changed. The police didn't have that much to do. Crime was dramatically reduced. Some time ago I met a man by the name of Dr. Julio Ribald. God had given him the courage to move to Cali, Colombia. We became friends when I was speaking in Panama to a group of leaders from all over Latin America concerning their communications ministry, similar to what we call the National Religious Broadcasters. I learned that he had fasted 40 days. He was a doctor of nutrition. We became good friends because I'm always watching my diet (and some of you would say, not very closely). But this man came to our first and second fasting gatherings. I asked him to speak because he's one of the two other men I knew in the world who have fasted 40 days, the second being my beloved friend in Korea, our director there since 1958.

I could tell you what God has done in Korea, in contrast to what has happened in Russia. The church has grown from a million in the 1960s to 11 million today. It influences every facet of government. I was in Seoul the other day. One of my associates took me to see the President, who is an elder of a church. He said to the man who was with me, Dr. Kim, who discipled my daughter, not my son-in-law.

Well, that's what's going on in Korea. The economy is robust.

We used to be where Korea is. Now we're rapidly becoming like Russia. We will one day become a basket case unless we repent, unless we turn back to God.

So my answer to that is that I can do more to help fulfill the Great Commission, to promote evangelism around the world through calling and training millions of Christians and others who wish to join us to fast and pray. I trust you'll be among those.

You don't need to start on a 40-day fast. It may kill you. You can start on a one-meal-a-week, or one-meal-a-day and build up, strengthen your fasting muscles. But if you want to be a part of bringing the blessing of heaven back to this great nation, and if you want to be a part of something that is the most revolutionary power available to man, begin to fast and pray for revival in America and the world. Pray that the gospel, which is so life transforming, will go to the ends of the earth.

I remember one of the things that impressed me most as a new believer. My pastor, Dr. Louis Evans, Sr., was telling how a famous psychologist from Harvard had done a study. One out of two marriages at that time, in 1945, ended in a divorce. But where both husband and wife were Christians and read the Bible and prayed together every day, it was one out of 1,015. That's what Christ does. He changes lives.

Let me just close with this quick illustration. I was in Hollywood for a big banquet, a thousand famous names in that great ballroom. I was seated beside the daughter of one of the founders of the Hollywood industry, the wife of a famous star. On the other side was a man who'd been famous for 45 years or so. No more than a couple of minutes and she began to tell me how miserable she was. She had nothing to live for, she told me. She was worth millions. She carried one of the most famous names in Hollywood, known all over the world. Lived in a palatial mansion. But she said, "My little dog died yesterday, and I don't have anything else to live for. I'm thinking of committing suicide."

I pulled from my pocket a little booklet some of you know about called "The Four Spiritual Laws," which had been printed in 200 languages, at least a billion five hundred million copies. And I just read it to her. She said, "Oh, that's my answer. May I have this?" I was happy when I left her, to know she had found something that she had been looking for.

I turned to the man on my left. He was drunk. He was about to fall off his seat, he was so drunk. But he told me he was on his way after the banquet to M.C. a nationwide radio-television broadcast. I began to try to make conversation and talked about my work with college students. He became very impatient. He said, "Don't waste your time on students. They're just a bunch of hotheaded radicals." He said, "Why doesn't somebody work with older people?" Then he began to cry and said, "Why doesn't somebody work with people like me? I need help." And I'm grateful to say he found help.

Two nights later, I was in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. The warden had asked me to come. Our staff had worked with their inmates for years. When I entered the meeting place, about 150 men there, several of the men leaped out of their chairs. They came and embraced and said, "We love you, God used you to bring us to Christ," and so forth. "And we're glad we're in prison." Can you believe that? "We're glad we're in prison because if we hadn't come here we wouldn't know God. We might be dead."

I was very excited about that. They gave testimony, one after another. Here was a man who'd murdered five people. Oh, he was repentant for that, of course, but his face was radiant. God had forgiven him. He was full of joy. He talked about how happy he was that he was in prison, that he'd found Christ in prison. He would never be free according to the terms of his imprisonment, but he was glad he was there.

And one after the other said similar testimonies. It suddenly occurred to me, "Here I am in prison." Several doors had clink-clanked, shut behind me. I was talking to men who are incarcerated for life. It was a high-security penitentiary, mostly murderers and others there for very serious crimes. And these men were happy. They were rejoicing. But in Hollywood, where people are free, have everything your heart might desire, they were actually in bondage. The people in prison were free. Christ set them free. And the people in Hollywood were in bondage who did not know Christ, and most didn't. We know that on the basis of their lifestyle and otherwise.

So I've come to the bottom line, the action point. When you go home, take this book with you. There aren't a lot of books on fasting. A friend of mine wrote a book on discipline; he said there was no book written on fasting from 1854 to 1964. I wrote this because the Lord impressed me to do so. It's yours as my gift.

Begin to ask God how you can be a part, not just giving money, and I encourage you to do that, but not just in organizing to help elect the right people to government offices, precinct to the White House. Begin to ask God, the one to whom this nation was dedicated, for His favor and blessing to come once again to this great nation.

God bless you all.