Introduction to the Revised Edition:
by the author, Tom Bisset. Writing the history
of an organization in which you have a part is both easy and difficult. It's
easy because you know the story. You were there for most of it. What is more,
you can ask the participants themselves when you are unclear about certain
facts. But it is also difficult because you are emotionally involved. In this
case, my involvement is doubled because I am also related to the central
figures in the story who are Peter (my uncle) and John (my father). One's first
instinct is to make it perfect, to take readers down a one-way street that is
straight and smooth. But in real life, all stories have bumps and potholes in
them. And, in real life, people are not perfect. Peter and John were not
perfect saints. They were people with short comings like everyone else. This
book is simply the account of two men with special gifts whom God called and
used in a remarkable way. In one sense, their lives were ordinary. They lived
as others did, eating, working and living with their families and fulfilling
their ministries as others have done. The truth is, they never thought of
themselves as extraordinary people and certainly never as stars or Christian
notables. But in another sense, their lives were extraordinary. Peter and John
were noteworthy men, and it would take blindfolds not to see it. It will become
evident fairly quickly as you read this book that God's hand was uniquely upon
them, guiding their steps and providing for the ministry to which he had called
them. I lived and worked my entire adult life with Peter and John. One thing I
know with certainty is that they took none of the praise for what they accomplished.
Yes, they did it; they made it happen. But they were also well aware that
ultimately, "it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for His
good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13) For, "He who calls you is faithful,
who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24). It is worth noting that when
I first proposed writing this history of the Fellowship, both my father and my
uncle resisted the idea. They had questions about doing something that might
draw special attention to them or make them appear larger than life. It took a
year or more of gentle prodding before they both agreed to the project. Without
question, God gave Peter and John special gifts that helped them reach higher
and wider than most. Yet the bedrock of their lives and ministry was their
intense, unyielding desire to serve God and do his will. They put their hands
to the plow and never looked back. Men of greater abilities have accomplished
less because they lacked this simple but fierce determination. Revising Every
Day With Jesus was both a blessing and a challenge for me. It was wonderful to
relive those happy days and bring the story up to date. However, I did not
realize how difficult it would be to merge the old and the new from beginning
to end in a relatively straight line. I also knew that past and present tense
verbs would pose a continuing challenge from beginning to end. I even flirted
briefly with a misguided idea about doing an end run around that difficulty
which I recount briefly in the Intermission chapter. The best I can say is that
the revised edition, however oddly juxtaposed at times, is quite readable. I
believe, as well, that adding short, first-person biographies by people who
were themselves part of the story gives this updated version of Every Day With
Jesus a personal feel that I downplayed in the first edition. Now, here it is:
the interesting and inspiring account of what God accomplished through Peter
and John Bisset within the context of the Peter and John Radio Fellowship.