Jill Briscoe is the founder of Just Between Us, a magazine of encouragement equipping women for a life of faith. A native of Liverpool, England, Jill is the author of over 40 books, has ministered extensively on every continent teaching and encouraging, and served on the boards of World Relief and Christianity Today. Together with her husband, Stuart, they serve as ministers-at-large with Elmbrook Church and can be heard regularly on Telling the Truth, their worldwide media ministry. They reside in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and have three grown children and 13 grandchildren.

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What you believe is all tied up with who you believe!

Years ago I spoke to a young European woman who was into all the Western philosophies. Astrology seemed to be the favorite.

It was just before Christmas and she asked me what I believed and why I believed it. She confided she was looking for a reason for which to live and to die. “I want so badly to know what to believe,” she said. She hadn’t found the answer.

“It’s not what but who,” I said. She looked at me inquiringly.

I reminded her of the Christmas story and how astrologers – philosophers from Persia – traveled hundreds of miles to kneel at a crib of a poor baby boy.

“Why would such important religious teachers from another culture bow the knee to a baby born in a stable?” I asked her. She shook her head. “Because of whothey believed Him to be,” I answered. “When you find out who that baby is, you’ll find what to believe and what you are looking for. He will tell you the true truth. If He is God, then we can trust and believe what He said.”

Then I explained, “That’s why I’m a convinced Christian. What I believe has credibility because of who said it. If Jesus is God, what He said is truth. It’s trustworthy.”

When my youngest son, Pete, was in grade school, he loved words and had a great sense of drama – even in those days! I found him in a corner of his room writing hard.

“What are you writing?” I asked.

“A book,” he answered without looking up.

“A book? What about?”

“About God.”

“Why?”

“So people will read it and know about Him.”

These many years later, Pete has finished his book, Belief Matters!

Pete understands this generation of adults. Not because he’s learned how to talk to them, but because he’s one of them. Pete challenges the myth that it’s okay to believe whatever you want to believe if you believe it in sincerity.

As Pete explains, a sincere belief can be sincerely wrong. Pete says, “Unless we know what is true about God, our distorted beliefs will cripple our experience.”

Understanding what you believe is more crucial than ever, especially in these times. We need to know why we believe, but more importantly in who because Belief Matters!

Jill Briscoe