19 minute read
18
from Spring 2020
All the Way Home
Jill Briscoe is still walking in obedience and finishing strong. by Shelly Esser with Danae Templeton
PHOTO CREDIT: WAYDE PERONTO
Ask Jill Briscoe to talk about her more than 60 years of walking with the Lord and ministry, and her blue eyes sparkle.
She has countless stories of adventures in every corner of the earth, dangerous places she has walked into simply because God told her to go, so what choice did she have? She’s flown millions of miles even though she’s afraid to fly—and she’s never stopped walking in obedience despite her fears. Raised during World War II, Jill came to Christ as a college student while at Cambridge. She could never have dreamed of all God had in store for her. Looking at Jill, you would never imagine she’s struggled with paralyzing fear her entire life because of all she’s accomplished, but she’ll be the first to tell you that it’s only because she’s “done it afraid” that she’s done it at all!
Born and raised in Liverpool, England, Jill’s proper British accent may be what first endears people to her, but it’s her sold-out passion for Christ that leaves people saying that after they’ve been with Jill they just want to be with Jesus. From the moment she speaks, you want to listen. Today, at 84, Jill has lived a lot of life. God has taken her on such an incredible journey—and it’s all the result of her faithful life-long surrender to His call. To many, through her speaking, books, Just Between Us magazine, Telling the Truth media ministry, or personal contact, Jill has become a hero, a mentor, and a friend, but she’s the first to tell you that she’s just an ordinary woman old and gray. She enthusiastically says, “I want to keep on so I can share the wisdom God has taught me through the years and continue to spread His Word far and wide, for as long as He wants me to.”
Jill wants Jesus more than anything. Year after year, she has given Christ her all and has picked up her cross and followed Him all over the world because she loves people and the Lord she loves so passionately has told her to go. Always, she’s wanted to make a difference in the world—whether ministering to teens and street kids in Liverpool England, to women in America, missionaries and pastors’ wives at home and abroad, women on death row, or millennials on college campuses—so she continues to go where God leads her. A verse God gave Jill through two different women is coming to fruition in Jill’s latter years, “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come” (Ps. 71:18). JBU recently had the privilege of sitting down with Jill, the founder of Just Between Us, to talk about her amazing life and how much she desires to simply be faithful to the finish.
JBU: Where did you first get your “call” to ministry? Jill: I got saved! That’s “the call” for every disciple of Jesus. Matthew 28:19-20 says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” That’s what we’re all supposed to be doing. The mission field is between our own two feet wherever we are today. My story is simple. I’ve stayed where I was put, gone where I was sent, and it has led me literally around the world. It won’t be easy. You know that because Jesus said to take up our cross and take it with us. We have to die to what we want and be obedient. Just say yes!
JBU: How do you hear the voice of God so you can be obedient? Jill: It often starts with a simple prayer: “Lord, what do you want me to do today?” So often it takes me too long to come to the Lord and just ask Him to speak to me. That involves listening which is hard. Would I hear His voice? Would He speak to me in a thought? How would I know it was His voice and not just my imagination? I have learned we hear God’s voice through His Word and by applying commands or principles in the Scriptures to our present problems or questions for guidance. What is more important than us speaking to God or Him speaking to us? Get up and meet Him early. Read His Word first thing. “Savior let me hear your call. Then make me ready to obey Thy commands.”
Obedience has always been the key to my Christian life, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. I would have never left our England with Stuart and the kids to emigrate to the U.S., and beyond.
19 just between us SPRING 2020
JBU: Some people may be surprised that you make New Year’s resolutions. Jill: At the beginning of the year, I start praying, “Lord give me a word or an idea from You.” This past year, as clear as day, I got this picture of my cell phone and my Bible. I realized I had become addicted to my phone. I’ve always put it next to my bed along with my quiet time material. I began to realize, however, that the first thing I reached for in the morning was no longer my Bible but my phone, so I literally moved it to a different place so I wouldn’t be tempted. Out of habit, just last week without realizing it, I found myself putting it next to me again. I want the discipline and the hunger to pick up God’s Word first, not my phone. I want to be ready to hear God’s voice and I can’t do that if I’m letting other things, like my phone, become more important.
JBU: You’ve been frightened most of your life haven’t you? Jill: Yes, I’ve always been a very fearful person. Maybe it’s because of the bombing every night as a little girl in war-torn England. So how does somebody like me walk into difficulties and danger? Scared. I’ve gone scared and I’ve stayed scared. People often ask me, “Doesn’t God give you peace in those moments?” No, He gives me courage.
JBU: How do you trust God when He asks you to do things you don’t think you can do? Jill: You step out and do it scared rather than not doing it at all, because it’s what God is asking of you! God has said to me, “Jill, will you go on without the courage for me?” I can do that. Anyone can do it scared. Just decide— yes—I will do this because it’s the right thing to do. In those moments, I’ve had to leave my emotions outside and take my will by the hand and take the step of obedience. After obedience, I find the courage was waiting for me.
JBU: Are we all called to participate in some type of ministry or service? Jill: Disciples of Jesus are all called to serve. Ministry is loving people, helping people, serving people, and sharing the gospel with people. It goes on all over the world and on all seven continents. Old people and young people. Black people and white people. Wealthy people and poor people. Sick people and healthy people. Ministry is a “full-time 24-four hour thing.” An “I can’t wait to get going in the morning thing.” An “I don’t have time to sleep thing.” An “I can’t believe I have the privilege of doing this thing.” It’s “a hard thing, “a glorious thing,” a stretch, a reach, a “pulling you in every direction thing.” It is exhausting and exhilarating, an emptying of yourself and a “filling up to overflowing thing.” Ministry is an act of the Holy Spirit, a spiritual art that is for all of us—those of us who have grown up in the church and those of us who have come to Christ from outside the church. So don’t say, “But I don’t have any opportunity to serve. I have no training.” Start by asking God to show you the hundreds of opportunities that are right between your own two feet every day of your life from now on.
JBU: Tell us about a ministry trip God used to turn your fear into faith. Jill: Years ago, Stuart and I were asked to a Wycliffe translation ministry base to speak at a conference where two missionaries in that country had just been kidnapped. Wycliffe had to bring all their translators and families from around the country to the base for safety as a result.
Stuart said, “Jill, I’ll be going. It will probably be easier if you don’t come with me, but if God is telling you to come then you must come and not stay home. Find out what God wants you to do.” I had two months to decide. I agonized. Even after reading a pile of stuff on the courage of famous people, I still couldn’t decide. But somewhere in the pile, I came across this little quote, “Courage is fear that’s said it’s prayers.” And I thought, “I can do that.” I can say my prayers, telling God about my apprehension. I decided if God wanted me to go, He would supply the strength. It’s being willing to do the right thing frightened out of your mind, if necessary because He’s asked you to.
That trip was one of the scariest trips I’ve ever taken in my life. The only guard the base had was kidnapped two weeks prior to our arrival. Because we had to go through a path in the forest to get to the conference, a guy picked us up and brought us back and forth on a bike. The entire time, I did it frightened, but I’m so glad I went. Ten years later, we were in Japan. A man picked us up from the airport and said, “Do you remember me? I was the guy who picked you up on my bike at the Wycliffe conference. That week changed my life and that’s why I’m here devoting my life to missions.” God was so good to show me the fruit from that terrifying trip and step of obedience. I told the Lord when I got back, “I’m just a fearful person and will be until I get to heaven.” But I decided then that I would no longer let fear rule my life. I wanted to fear God more than I feared anything else. For me, fearing God meant that I would not disobey Him.
JBU: How does God empower us to keep the faith and finish strong? Jill: We need to keep putting our roots down deep by God’s River of life—His Holy Spirit. Life in the Spirit necessitates that you draw on His power and be refreshed by the Living Water of the Holy Spirit. It’s His Spirit who appoints, assists, and anoints us to face the faces of those to whom He sends us.
We have to keep our eyes on Him because there will be enough faces to intimidate us, enough circumstances to discourage us, and enough insecurity for us to protest. To all of our whining, God will calmly say as He said to Jeremiah, “You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you…I have put my words in your mouth” (Jer. 1:7, 9). Calling, commissioning, and communicating will busy us with kingdom work and fulfill us. As we are careful to mind our minds as God minds our hearts, His work will be accomplished. If things are right when we are on our knees, they will be right when we are on our feet!
In those moments when we’re fighting our fears and whatever else holds us back, when we come unstuck and start to get God and life mixed up— when we want to lay down our cross—His compassions never fail. They will be “new every morning,” and great will be His faithfulness (Lam. 3:23). JBU: How do we know what it is He wants us to finish? Jill: I look at Jesus. At the end of three years of His ministry, He could say He finished the work the Father had given Him to do, even though there seemed like there was still so much work left undone. It’s not a question of having time to do all the things you want to do for Him, but of having the time to do all the things the Father wants you to do for Him! When those things are done, He will open the door, and we can come home, but not before. As Psalm 139:16 says: “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” God has written down that number for each of our lives.
JBU: What is the key to making it “all the way home”? Jill: To do my part. So, what is our part? It is first and foremost to carry my cross and not anyone else’s. And to live with a sense of “calling.” When we can look up to heaven and say with understanding, “I want Your plan in my life,” not mine, and we commit to a relationship with God that takes first place before all other relationships, then we will have begun to do our part. That relationship leads us to know the things He has in mind for us day by day! To finish strong—all the way home—we must nurture our relationship with Him, listen to His voice, and then obey!
JBU: Have you ever struggled with staying where you’re put until you’re done? Jill: Of course. Especially on a trip a few years back to India. It was one of the hardest trips I’ve ever taken. There was a lot of unrest and killing and the town, Arisa, was on fire. A pastor and his wife and their nine-year-old son were on their knees being told to recant their faith. We were teaching young women and men at a Bible college who didn’t know whether their parents were dead or alive in a nearby town, or if they had been able to run into the forest to safety. The police were brought in to keep things “safe.” At that point, I had had it. I was done. I knew I was done but I sort of didn’t want God to know (laughs). I was finally going to be going home—home to the kids, grandkids, and my safe free land—forever.
A week later, when it was safe to go home, Stuart was teaching one of his last sessions on taking up our cross. I thought, “Lord, I think I’ve done my part and done pretty well, it’s their turn now.” I bowed my head. I don’t get visions but I often get pictures in my mind. The Lord was on the steps of my soul and we began a conversation. “Jill, what do you see?” “I see a wall and a cross against it.” “Is that your cross?” “Yes. I’m done.” “I see that. Jill, who do you expect to carry it home for you? Then: ‘All the way home, Jill. All the way home. All the way home!’”
The Lord said it to Peter, He said it to the first 12, and He’s said it to every simple, single, normal, ordinary person—including me—all the way home. Take up your cross, Jill. Die to your hopes and your dreams. Die to your ambitions. Die to everything else but Me. So I picked up my cross and told God again that I will go where I’m sent, stay where I’m put, giving it everything I’ve got, and will walk it all the way home until I see Him face to face.
Shelly Esser has been the editor of Just Between Us for the last 30 years.
Shaken, drained, discouraged, sickly Tired and troubled and depressed, Glad the time of serving over, Now I could go home and rest.
Soon I could return to family “Yes,” tomorrow I’d be gone, Sitting in the last hot meeting, I tuned in to what went on.
Listened to my husband preaching, My, it was a great last talk, All about the call of Jesus, All about our life’s “faith walk.”
What a great word for the students! Hoped “they’d” listened, yield their hearts, They were young, their lives before them, Now their turn to do their part.
Time for prayers of dedication, I was tired, so late at night, Shut my eyes and wished it over, When a picture sprang to sight!
Saw a cross alone, discarded Lain at rest against a wall, Who’d lain down such holy symbol? Who’d abandoned life’s “faith call”?
Then a voice so dear – familiar, Asked a question – pierced me through, Who is it that you’re expecting Carrying it home for you?
How could I lay down that crossbeam? How to think that no one saw? Who did I expect to lift it, Carry it to heaven’s door?
21 just between us SPRING 2020 Spoke His voice so quiet – but clearly then: “All the way home, Jill; all the way, all the way home!” ~Jill Briscoe
21 just between us SPRING 2020
F I N D I N G G O D F A I T H F U L I N A L L O U R UNKNOWNS
How God interrupts the everydayness of our lives. by Jane Rubietta
just between us SPRING 2020 22 Most of us live an everyday, normal, very average existence. We experience disappointment, grief, laughter, love, surprise, and loss. We plug along, mind our own business, perhaps excessively, then in the middle of our tepid tedium, our world shifts. God speaks into the long run-on sentence of our life. Just so, God interrupted the everydayness of Abraham’s life with a simple command: “Go.”
Abraham had never heard from this God. We have no record of his family carrying a gilt-edged family Bible from Ur, no ledger of family offerings or prayers. Nothing.
Seriously? God just said, “You’ve never heard of me; no one sang you lullabies about me. No ‘Kum Bah Yah’ around the campfire. Leave everything—your country, relatives, father’s household, the life you’ve been living. Everything that you base your identity upon.”
If Abraham had a track record of God’s calling or provision or faithfulness, going might have made sense. He could have said, “Okay. This worked before. I’ll take this calculated risk, based on what I already know.”
Except he didn’t already know anything about this God. Start your engines, here comes the miracle.
Maybe the amazing feature of the finding and calling of
Abram is that God found and called. But it’s bigger than one man’s life from four thousand years ago. This miracle is about us too.
The God of the universe, who created heaven and earth, who broke apart the endless night with light and hung the stars in the sky, the moon for a nightlight, and the sun to brighten the day—this God speaks into our ordinary lives. Every day is an invitation to leave yesterday behind. To “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household, to the land I will show you” (Gen. 12:1).
God not only speaks. God makes promises to us. It’s almost laughable, it’s so undeserved and so unnecessary. Did God need to reach out to us?
The great God of heaven, the Creator of the universe, calls us from our insignificance and anonymity into relationship, into covenant, into meaning and purpose.
This puzzle piece fits perfectly into the hole in our soul, that deep crevasse of endless emptiness. It answers completely an unutterable ache we experience, or try to avoid or satiate with substitutes—a longing for relationship, for meaning, for something bigger than our day-to-day plodding steps that go nowhere but in circles of insignificance. A longing for freedom from all the bondage of our past, our mistakes, even our hasbeen/almost-were success stories.
This sense of futility and obscurity groans within us all. God’s voice penetrates our walled-in existence, transcending all the humdrum days of our lives.
Still, how many cold nights did Abram lie wide awake under the night sky, chew his lip, and wonder, “Am I on the right path?” How often, in the heat of the day with its blinding glare of sun, did he squint and ask, “Really? Is this right?” How many times did he repeat God’s words, “Go to the land I will show you?”
As many times as necessary to keep the wheels turning forward, to keep from returning to the people, the gods, the life he’d left behind. God said: “I will show you.”
That’s a promise. Not an “I might” or “If I am in the mood.” Not, “If I can remember the route or find the map or care on that particular day.” God said, “I will show you.” A promise is only as good as the one who makes it. We trust our bank, and our bank fails. We trust our economy, and it collapses. We trust our leaders, and they slip into a moral black hole. We trust our parents or spouse or friends, and they disappoint us. But if God promised, then doesn’t that change everything? God is the bank that never fails. God is the economy that never collapses and the leader who never slips.
But to imagine that we’ve never likewise been disappointed by the way God answered us, or didn’t answer us, would make us blithe liars. Or at least, people who rarely reflect on the difference between hope and reality. Or on the difference between what we believe to be true and our daily experience. Just to be clear: at no time does what we think about God or what we experience of God change who God actually is.
T R AV E L I N G MERCY
Dear One Here’s the deal: I called you. I promised I will be faithful. What part of that Don’t you believe? And who has hurt you So much that it is difficult To believe me Or to trust me Or to follow me? I am faithful And I will be faithful, And I will not— Repeat I will not— Abandon you On the trail. So come with me, Follow me, To the land I will show you.
