No major problems

     

My wife, Bobbi, and I have long been inspired by Bible talks given by Jill Briscoe to audiences of several hundred people, and by her sermons and published articles. We felt especially privileged to entertain her once in our home in Waverley, Johannesburg, and never tired of her admiration for her husband’s approach to life. She threatened to engrave on his tombstone: “Here lies Stuart Briscoe: He didn’t anticipate any major problems.”

    But, joking apart, Stuart and Jill readily admitted that problems have to be met, and the [Bible] Word says how it is to be done: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). Every problem, large or small,  is to be seen in its proper perspective, and dealt with as [that] verse states.

Stuart passed on in August. Wisconsin friends will tell us what’s been engraved on his tombstone, but those of us whose lives have been enriched by his sermons and books during his thirty years as pastor of the Elmbrook church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, have long since grasped his message.

        He reached thousands of people every Sunday, and gave them mind-stretching exercises in 40 books, including The Fullness of Christ, Spirit Life, and his commentary on the Bible book of Philippians, Bound for Joy—in which he reminds us that Paul wrote this remarkable letter in prison.

Briscoe points out: “We all have our prisons of one kind or another.  But whatever [our] own prison may be, like Paul, [we] too can find the way of joy in Christ.”

That joy includes a firm grasp of the principles of, say, sharing, which Briscoe describes as “a response  of loving obedience motivated by the goodness of God.” He goes further: “Sharing is not related to personal inclination or applied pressure, but to the grace of God.”

He also reminds us that in our busy, pragmatic society one of the scarcest commodities is quiet stillness. “So God has to intervene sometimes and lay some aloneness or neglect or uncertainty on us so that we can get things into proper perspective again.” As the Psalmist put it: “Be still, and know that I am God”(46:10).

And I’ve been greatly helped in regaining that stillness by spending time among the pages and audio recordings left for us by Stuart Briscoe!