Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Are you desperately longing to experience joy as you encounter trials today? God wants to give you joy, not in your circumstances, but in Him, even as you endure hard things. That's today on Telling the Truth.

But first, the generosity of friends like you keeps broadcasts like this one going out around the world so you and others can experience life through the biblical teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. As thanks for your gift today, we'll send you Powerful and Effective Prayer, a newly curated collection of messages from Stuart and Jill that will give you timeless wisdom on the subject of prayer and help you build a more consistent and inspired prayer life.

But this is the last week of this offer, so call today to request yours. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill Briscoe with her message, Rejoicing in God.

Jill Briscoe: There are many, many reasons, not least something happening to one of our children. These people had seen their infants who were not able to make that terrible journey from Jerusalem to Babylon just literally picked up by the soldiers and killed against the stones. When you've seen something like that, it takes a long, long time to work through the grief.

Where's the joy? The joy is in God, not in the joy of what's happened. I have been with people who have seen that and worse not too long ago. I don't know if we've hung up our harp on the grief tree. Wait on the Lord, and even as you rock back and forth just nursing your sorrow, He'll give you something to sing in a minor key.

But it's how you respond to this particular situation that the Babylonians are watching. Make no doubt about that. When I was lying in a hospital bed unsaved and the girl next to me was very, very sick, I was the Babylonian. She was the Israelite. I watched her. There's a verse in a hymn in England and it says, "Look, they are waiting, looking at you, furtively watching all that you do." I furtively watched all that believer was doing because I wanted to know what made her tick and what made her sing. Because even though she was desperately ill and in pain, she sang a song.

I don't know if any of you remember a lady called Carmen Collins. She was an artist. She drew beautiful roses and flowers and things. She was a dear, dear friend to me. She was an aunt to my children. She was a neighbor. She was one of the first neighbors I met when I came here. She was not a believer then. She came to faith in the women's Bible study. Six women in my home, that's where it all started, and one of them was Carmen Collins. She became a good friend to me.

I well remember the day that she got cancer or was diagnosed, and I well remember sitting looking at her thinking, no, I won't believe it. I cannot believe this thing has got a way on her and there's no hope and no help. That was the situation. She came and heard our speaker speaking on Daniel, who was in a foreign land. But Daniel sang a song. Daniel loved the Babylonians who had emasculated him. He was a eunuch at their hands.

He was a young man. He was taken as a prince and given to Nebuchadnezzar as one of his aides. What did he do? He loved young Nebuchadnezzar, who was probably about his own age. He started to try and win him to Christ. He witnessed to him. He interpreted his dreams. He told him about the God of heaven, and Nebuchadnezzar was converted to Jehovah. Very dramatic story, read about it in Daniel chapter four. Daniel set himself through the reign of three kings to love the Babylonians, to stand up for his God, and to sing them a song.

After that sermon, Carmen wrote me a beautiful letter. I can't read all of it to you, but she just said this. "I just wanted you to know I'm doing well," and she was busy dying. "And just continue to pray ceaselessly. I feel as Daniel, I am in a strange land with this cancer. I've existed in a healthy land for so many years and it's all so new to me. But I'm learning so much through it, not only about the medical part, but the spiritual as well. It goes on and on and on, and I continue to absorb all that God has to teach me as if I were a sponge. I am still sitting at His knee and oh joy, it's all right. Oh joy, it's all right."

I remember Carmen calling Stuart and me into her house ten days before she died. She had just come back from the hospital. She said the doctors given me about two weeks. She said, "Stuart, I want you to do the funeral. Jill, I want you to write a poem and give it." I looked at her aghast. I said, "I can't do that. How can I do that?" But then how could I not?

So that night God gave me some words that somehow I managed to use at the funeral. But the thing about it was, she said, "I want you to come back on Sunday because I have called in my entire family." She called them all in. I think there were over 35 people. Some came in from Germany. She put them all up in hotels all around the house, and then she had them in at half-hour intervals on their own because she wanted to talk to every single one of them about the great day.

That's what she wanted to talk to them about. I said to her, "What's this great day?" She said, "The day I die. The day I die. I want to tell every one of them about the great day." And she did. 35 or over, I don't know. Then she decided she'd have a photo. So she put them all in her bedroom, all over the bed, and sat there in the middle of them and she had a photo.

If you could see this photo, I have it. She has this smile. She had a gorgeous, she was a most beautiful woman, absolutely gorgeous woman. This smile on her face, you would have thought that she was celebrating her daughter's wedding or something or other. All the relatives are standing there absolutely stunned. What is all this about?

But I tell you that girl went to heaven in a fiery chariot. She did. She just took off. It was absolutely incredible. On the day of her memorial service, the funeral home was festooned with every piece of art she had ever painted. We took it all from her house in her studio and we just decorated that funeral parlor. Right in front of the pulpit, we put her big piece, this gorgeous rose, this huge great canvas. I told them in my poem about how Carmen was watching Jesus paint a rose and all the things that He was doing for her. It was a very joyous funeral, incredible. Carmen Collins did not hang up her harp on a grief tree. She refused.

Well, what about the gripe tree? Are you a complaining sort of person? The Bible says when I complained, my spirit was overwhelmed. Do you gripe a lot? Do you grumble? I think Christians are grumbling lot. I really do. Not just Christians obviously, Babylonians grumble as well, but Christians grumble. Nothing's right. I don't know what they're grumbling about to tell you the truth. I have no idea.

But you'll always find something to grumble about. What God says, don't hang up your harp on the grumble tree. Oh Jerusalem, if only I was in Jerusalem. Some of you are saying, if only I hadn't moved from south up to Milwaukee, and some of you are saying, oh if I was only somewhere else. If only I could move house, if only I could move job, if only I could move friends. There's all these gripes inside us and you lose your joy. If you wait on the Lord, remember the content of contentment is Christ. You'll find that He'll settle you down and you will be content with such things as you have. For He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Guest (Male): We hope you're encouraged by Jill's powerful message today on Telling the Truth. This broadcast is possible because of our generous friends like you who give to keep this program on air and online. When you support Telling the Truth, you help make it possible for God's truth to reach more people all over the world. Like Ada from Pennsylvania. She wrote to us recently to share this. "Your messages are pertinent, encouraging, challenging, and convicting, spurring on Christian growth. Thank you." No, thank you, Ada.

Do you ever feel like your prayers are bouncing off the walls instead of landing in the presence of God? Or do you pray more out of obligation than relationship? Maybe you recognize a lack of passion in your voice even as you pray and you're left wondering, does God even hear my prayers or will He answer them? We'd love to help lead you toward a more inspired and vibrant prayer life by sending you a newly curated collection of messages from Stuart and Jill called Powerful and Effective Prayer.

This one-of-a-kind resource, available through the end of this week only, is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life in Christ through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth. Your support enables countless people across the globe to stand strong in the unchanging truth of Scripture, and we're so grateful for friends like you. So request Powerful and Effective Prayer when you call to give. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. All right, let's rejoin Jill for more of today's message.

Jill Briscoe: I was in Seattle and I preached three times in the biggest church there on Sunday morning. It was absolutely wonderful. We commissioned a family to go to India, to the border of Nepal to do medical work. He was a young doctor. She was a young, vibrant young wife. They had adopted a Korean child who was their eldest and an adopted American child who was the next, and then they had one of their own.

They are taking this very unusual, wonderful family, those three little children up to the north of India, which is not a place that you would want to go, I can assure you. They are going to give their lives up there to do the thing that God has called them to do. It was very moving, and it was wonderful because they commissioned them at each of the services.

He talked about the 12 suitcases they were taking, just two apiece or whatever it was. The congregation had bought them the suitcases and they'd helped them with all these things. It reminded me very much of the ten suitcases we had brought here because the church asked us to sell everything up and just come with two suitcases apiece.

I talked to the young man in between services. I said, was it hard to sell up and do this? He said, well, it wasn't too hard. I remember doing the same thing. You know, you sell so much and you give so much and then you still have half a house full of junk you can't sell or give. It's incredible. Try it. Moving house is one thing, but selling it all up and giving it away and putting it into a suitcase is another. We had one suitcase for our clothes and one for anything else we could get in the suitcase, just pushing and shoving all the things that were very special that we did want to bring.

And yet you know, as that young couple gave testimony, the joy was absolutely incredible. Here he is, he's a specialist. He could stay here and he could make all the money in the world and their children could have all that America has to offer. But they're going because God has called them. And yet there was this spirit of contentment about it.

I thought, if only more people could hear a song like this and see, because everybody's after contentment thinking that things are going to give it them, right? A new this or a new that or the latest the other. And that's not going to do it at all.

What about the grudge tree? Maybe you've hung up your harp on the grudge tree. The Edomites were their brothers, you see. They were related to Israel. The day Jerusalem fell, they helped. They went into the houses and they said, I'll show you where there's an Israelite hiding under the bed, dragged them out and got them executed. Then they stood and cheered. "Yay, Babylonians, go, go, go." And then they just took over everything. They lived in the Israelite's house.

These were the Edomites, and that's what's got to them here in Psalm 137. "Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did." It was our brothers. That was the cry I heard in Croatia over and over again when the Serbians who they'd lived with for 500 years, their brothers, intermarried, had businesses with, turned against them.

It was our brothers. It wasn't the fact that they had done what they did. It was the sense of betrayal because this was family. There is a special pain when somebody in the family turns against you. There is a special pain when somebody betrays you that is the family, right? And you can lose your joy right there.

What about the guy tree, the relationship tree? When these people arrived, they were sort of divorced from all the rules and regulations. But the rabbis that had been taken away with them tried to get this going, and there were rules for their relationships. There were rules to their marriages. They had arranged marriages. They were not supposed to marry a Babylonian, for example.

They were not supposed to marry outside of Israel, and even though they were in captivity, these rules and regulations were still kept going. You know, there's one place that people lose their joy and some of us lose our joy, and that's in a wrong relationship. It might not be that the Babylonian in question isn't a very nice Babylonian and a very kind Babylonian. I find that some Babylonians are a lot nicer than some Israelites.

And yet, however nice and however lovely, you are not supposed to marry outside of Israel. You're not even supposed to marry a nice Babylonian, however nice. You can lose your joy right there. In Corinthians seven, Paul says consider staying single. When I was talking to the singles conference, I posed that. Consider staying single.

I didn't get a very good response. How could you ask us to do that, Jill? I'm not, God is, perhaps. Consider staying single for the sake of the kingdom. There are some eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom's sake who have made themselves eunuchs. There are some single people who say, I think God's calling me to the boondocks or to a dangerous situation. I don't think it's appropriate that I get married and take my wife and children in there. I'll do it because I believe that's what God wants me to do.

I think of Amy Carmichael who had the chance to get married and was moving in that direction. The head of a mission, she fell in love with him and he fell in love with her. But he was called to Africa and she was called to India. In the end, she wrote and said, it isn't a question of it being right and it isn't a question of it being wrong. God has something different for both of us. God has something different for both of us.

Consider being single. That's what Isaiah was teaching the people. Consider being single for the Lord's sake. And if not, make sure you have an arranged marriage, arranged by Him. This way you won't lose your joy. Don't dare to arrange it yourself. We had a visit from a doctor friend of ours from India. He doesn't have an arranged marriage himself, his parents did. But I asked him about the arranged marriages back in India.

He said, well, most of my friends have them. When I went to speak there, they asked me to go and do family life seminars right across India. I was just about to do my first and somebody said, has anybody told you that all the people here have arranged marriages? I said, no, nobody bothered telling me that. I looked at this material that I have brought and of course, it went out the window. It was totally unsuitable. It didn't even relate.

Plus the fact that I didn't really understand about arranged marriages and what it was all about. I do now. I think when you get old enough to have teenagers, you wish you were living in a country like that and you could do the arranging. At least that's what I felt. Not too bad an idea at all, and it isn't too bad an idea.

I said to him the other day, what's good about it? He said, well, one good thing is that you go into it without any expectations. He said you have such unrealistic expectations here for relationships because it's born of the Hollywood love image that you get from your soap operas. And so there are so many expectations, and then you're disappointed. Unrealistic expectations.

And so we talked about this. But you know God would arrange marriage, I believe it. He wants to do that if we dare to let Him. If we dare to let Him, make a list of everything you desire. Get on your knees, take that list, and let it fall into the hands of Jesus and leave it to Him. Let Him arrange it or rearrange it and say no, we won't have a marriage. Consider staying single.

And if God should gift you with a regenerate family, and He has gifted you with a regenerate family, make sure you realize that as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Realize as it says in Corinthians that there is a gift of a regenerate family and there is a gift of singleness. Singleness is a gift just as surely as marriage is a gift. And you'll lose your joy if as Paul says you want the gift that He hasn't given you at this particular time. I mean it's very rude if somebody gives you a gift to throw it back in His face and say I don't want it. And yet that's what most of us do. What we need to do is to wait on the Lord and leave it with Him.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Jill Briscoe today on Telling the Truth. We'll get back for the conclusion of our message in just a moment. But first, "I'll pray for you. Just pray about it. Prayer changes things." You've probably heard statements like these from other Christians or said them yourself. But if you ask most believers how prayer works, the answers are likely to be all over the map. So how does God want to use prayer in our lives? Is He listening to every single request? And can prayer really make a difference?

To help answer questions like these, we've put together Stuart and Jill's five-message teaching series, Powerful and Effective Prayer. This collection of messages can help you uncover the secret to a more vibrant prayer life, one where you lose yourself in the presence of God and have confidence that your prayers are rising, making a difference. You'll gain wisdom and insight on prayer from Stuart and Jill's decades of ministry.

Powerful and Effective Prayer comes as our thanks for your gift to help more people fix their eyes on eternity through the truths of God's Word shared through Telling the Truth. This is the final week of this offer though, so be sure to request your copy when you give a gift today. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill to wrap up today's message.

Jill Briscoe: The last one I have chance to tell you about, it's the geriatric tree. I have to do this because you see Isaiah was old. He was old, and yet he was going, he was going, he was going. Stuart and I just separated out the letters we got from our friends who are old, really old. We kept them in a pile and I'm going to read them through this year because they are the most dynamic, fantastic letters. I cannot tell you.

Some of our people that we've spent our lives with, some of the leaders of the mission, some of the people that we worked with in England are in their 70s, 80s, and one is in their 90s. They are still trucking round this world for Jesus. One of them's on a cane and one's in a wheelchair and it doesn't make any difference. They are incredibly full of the joy of the Lord and they are dying with their boots on. It is so exciting to be around people like that. People like Isaiah. And it gets harder, just physically harder to run and not be weary and walk and not faint.

I stayed with a friend of mine who runs Christa Ministries. They invited me to go. He has many ministries in Christa. But one of them is managed care for older people. He has a thousand beds in these beautiful homes, and the women and men are all at different stages. Some are managed, you know what I mean, some are under total care, some are looking after themselves, and some are just like a little flat and they can have their family there and everything else. So they're all at different stages.

While I was there, he opened the newest home and I went over it as well as everything else. It was fabulous. He sat down next to this little lady because they'd had this party to open it. All the big knobs were there. So he sits down to this little new resident and he said, "Hello. Do you know who I am?" And she said, "No, but if you ask at the desk, they'll tell you." I nearly fell off my chair. I thought that was hysterical. I wish you'd seen his face.

I said she thinks you don't know who you are and you better go and find out. He said to me, I want you to come and meet Mrs. So-and-so and I want you to meet so-and-so. These are veteran Christians. They have spent all their life in the Seattle area or in California or somewhere. They've been heads of missions or missionaries, and many, many Christian believers are finding their way into this Christian settlement for their last days.

Just having a cup of tea with a few of these believers, they just had a Bible study and they were going to their art class and something else, I don't know. But I tell you, I sat there and they sang me a song. They sang me a song. It was a song of hope. They told me about how they were waiting on the Lord and what God had said to them and they'd just done this little Bible reading. It was just such a joy.

And I thought, what a picture. The eagle is a symbol of age. They say the eagle never dies. Under the wings of their lives is the spirit of God and they're still doing it. They're soaring up above their problems. They are running and they're not being weary. They are walking and they are not fainting.

I can certainly testify to the power of the spirit of God when I am absolutely exhausted and I have to get up once more and give out. I just sit there like I did on the third time yesterday and I said, Lord, I am spent, but just do it again. Do it again. It was incredible just the wind of the spirit just took me. It's all true. It is all, all true if you depend, if you hang your weakness on His strength, if you just call, appropriate the power of the spirit, then He comes and He energizes. And you run and you're not weary and you walk and you're not faint. So I don't know where you lost your joy. May I respectfully suggest you put up your hand, take down your harp, and start singing a song.

Guest (Male): Thank you for that, Jill. We hope today's message encouraged you. Before we go, remember that through the end of this week only, when you give today to help keep Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one going out, we'll send you Powerful and Effective Prayer, a newly curated collection of five messages from Stuart and Jill that can help you start moving from a mundane prayer life to one that's rich and vibrant. This offer ends soon, so be sure to request your copy when you give a gift today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. We're glad you joined us today. Come back next time and experience life right here on Telling the Truth.