Our Briggs Chapel family lost a bighearted servant this past Saturday night. My brother and friend, Bill Briggs, is no longer physically with us, but his acts of kindness has left a beautiful trail of goodness and mercy, and these reflections of Jesus will continue to follow after him. Why? He followed hard after Jesus, his Shepherd and King, and he has left each of us with a flowing spring of sweet memories and special moments of his gracious love, gentle leadership and glad hearted legacy for each of us to rejoice over and remember.

His passing has shocked us all... and we appreciate your prayers for his precious and heartbroken wife, children, mom, family, church family and community. Bill filled such a significant place in all our lives and played a major part of so much in our church and community. He loved passionately and deeply, wanting nothing but the best for everyone and he proved it by his acts of kindness.

We rejoice for him, but we grieve the aftermath of his passing. Bill was not a perfect man, but he cast his imperfections upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He had a Boaz spirit and didn’t think twice about bearing the burden of everyone else. Not that he felt like he could solve the burden or fix the problem but that they needed a friend to help them carry their load. He was willing to lose, if that meant Jesus could gain from him helping someone else with their burden. It took a toll on his physical body, in the here and now... but Jesus has been laying aside his treasures for the sweet by and by. He knew He was worth it. So don’t weep for my dear friend Bill Briggs... he’s more alive today than he’s ever been. As Jesus told those in His day, “God is not the God of the dead, He’s the God the living” (Mark 12:27).

Jesus was constantly glorified in his life, and He has been, and will be magnified through Bill’s death. For we have this steadfast hope and settled assurance... absent from the body, means we are present with the Lord of glory and grace. And through the pain and hurt we can’t help but glory in God’s redeeming grace and goodness, revealed and received through the irreplaceable life and sacrifice and death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We love the Briggs family and so glad to join them in the good fight of faith. We wouldn’t want to journey through the easy and hard, the good and the bad, and the bright and dark times of life, with any other fellowship family. And because we have peace with God, through Jesus, we can now serve each other with the peace from God and walk through the unknown and difficulties of life with the peace of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)

We have experienced what Gabriel revealed to Daniel... “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). Bill, like the stars, stood out in the darkness. His light, on the dark days of life, helped so many navigate the right path, with the right people, to the right Person, again and again, as he faithfully turned and pointed them to His Lord and King. He was a champion of grace, dangerously strong for the truth upon this earth and he didn’t mind looking or sounding like a fool if it was for Jesus.