The Invitation/ Prepared/ On Way to Perfection

All Aboard the Cruiser: Disciple

Lk 24:34 April 1, 1993

The Journey of A Disciple
by Stuart and Jill Briscoe
Published by Regal Books
Ventura, CA. 93006;
1987; 163 pp.
Review by Roy Gardenier

Far Away places with strange sounding names
Far Away over the sea.
Those Far Away places
With their strange sounding names are calling, calling me.

Ready for a winter cruise? Had enough of the cold, the snow and the ice? Longing for some color other than sun-splattered, blinding white; drab brown; dirty gray and monotonous dark green under dead lead skies? Well, the brilliant sun-drenched Mediterranean vibrant with varying shades of blue-green and pleasing pastels, the exotic names, the excitement of a journey; the enchantment of a distant port of call as well as enthralling vistas from new and unexpected perspectives – all these are beckoning to you, dear reader, from the pages and photographs in this unique and distinctive little volume of Christian literature.

I’ll probably wax even more lyrical and get positively euphoric about the wonderful Biblical themes of grace and prayer, of total surrender and submission to our Lord Jesus Christ that are so capably and interestingly treated by the co-authors. But I have to be up front and warn you that, as good as it is I do have a complaint about this book. My annoyance, and it is really only that, is not with the perfectly planned layout or format. It displays twelve superb photographs, uses actual geographic locations familiar to most Bible readers to study important subjects like the call to discipleship; the commitment that it involves; the cost that is required; and, discipleship characteristics gleaned from the Sermon on the Mount – a very special analysis of the Beatitudes. For me, personally, this book is a truly sentimental journey that fully redeems the foundational concept of discipleship for those of us who saw the notion so severely maligned during the distortion of the “Submission heresy” that flourished in the early 1970’s. I have no criticism of the authors either. Stuart Briscoe is an able captain who pilots the reader through Scriptural themes and the sites associated with them beginning at Corinth and ends in modern Jerusalem. Stuart’s wife, Jill, is an engaging and enlightening tour guide introducing the reader to ancient Corinth.

She deftly describes the distinction between the three different types of love that the early Greeks labeled Eros, philos, and agape. She returns in section three of the book to produce a poignant chapter on the ancient tabernacle at Shiloh and the saintly Hannah, mother of Samuel, Israel’s last judge and first prophet. Leaving the geographical location behind, Jill Briscoe conducts a spiritual search of Hannah’s soul that begins in bitterness of spirit, develops into yieldedness to God and ends in such rejoicing in the Lord that her canticle echoes down the centuries reverberating in the exalted praise of Mary’s Magnificat: “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

The reader could pause at any port or venue mentioned in this short, but excellent, book and, like the other Mary who sat at the feet of the Lord, listen intently to what these two talented writers have to say about “Him whom my soul loveth” and about some of His true disciples who are past, present, and yet to come. They clearly show that true followers of Jesus testify in their own personal way, their own time and place that far beyond and way above the most exotic locales and adventurous excursions that can be experienced and enjoyed on “this terrestrial ball” the least inviting but the most satisfying witness is: “To live is Christ and to die is gain”!

My wife and I collaborated in hunting down this book in hopes that I’d find something to write about regarding Easter and the Resurrection. I wasn’t at all disappointed when I saw that two chapters focus in on the central doctrine, the basic belief of all Christians: “The Lord is risen indeed!” Luke 24:34 A significant stop on this “journey of a disciple” is the Damascus Gate located on the north side of the old walled city of Jerusalem. From there the author looks up the ancient Roman road that Saul of Tarsus, full of self-righteousness and religious zeal, stormed along in a fury of determination to eradicate what he thought was a heretical sect. Instead he was gifted with such a blinding, glorious vision of the Resurrected Christ that not only his thoughts, ideas and beliefs were completely turned around, but this charismatic encounter was so indelibly etched upon his whole being that he surrendered all the dominions of his heart to the Lord of Life. From that historic moment on, the converted Pharisee’s ongoing response to the ever-living Jesus was: “Lord what will you have me to do?”

We see this same person in later years, now known as the Apostle Paul, addressing a group called the Areopagites who met on Mars Hill in Athens. He is all alone, lonely, in need of killing some time. This tentmaker from Tarsus; this scholar from Jerusalem is definitely out of place in the cultural capital of the then known civilized world. Out of place or not; in season or out of season Paul boldly and clearly testified to the One True God, “the man He has appointed” and as Paul told the equally sophisticated Romans: “..declared to be the Son of God with power … by the resurrection from the dead” Romans 1:4. May we become disciples, journeying through life, debtors to both Greeks and Barbarians because of our indebtedness to the Risen Lord who tasted death for us that we may enjoy the continuing Easter experience of the Resurrected Life.

Oh, I had a complaint. I almost forgot.

It’s the book’s binding. The binding doesn’t hold; at least on the copy I purchased. The pages separate from the inside. I’m afraid they’ll come out individually and get dog-eared, mangled or even lost. Too bad, for such an otherwise sumptuous feast, but even with the chintzy binding, there is a kind of cruise ship quality about this minor flaw. Call me Pollyanna but the thought crossed my mind that the loose pages themselves tend to separate in tiers somewhat like the succulent, beefy slices of a steamship roast.

Bon Voyage to every dear disciple, and Happy, Happy Easter to you all!