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Archive for December, 2010

“It is a joy to serve the Christians here. . .”

Posted in Prayer Requests, Quotes on December 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

One of the families we love most in this world live in Southeast Asia serving a people group that has very few resources for learning about God.  Their most recent communication closed with this line:

It is a joy to serve the Christians here and be moved by their faith in poverty and oppression. And it is a joy to wait expectantly for God to advance his Kingdom among the (people) of (this region).

What does this have to do with disability?  Almost everything.  Where God’s Kingdom has advanced, people with disabilities tend to be treated much better than before.

Of course it is true that churches in the United States frequently don’t deal with disability well.  And many mainline denominations have capitulated to the evil of abortion, which is resulting in the slaughter of our pre-born children with disabilities.

But we should never overlook that over the centuries, it has been Christians who have moved to serve vulnerable people, including people with disabilities, when others would not.  Hospitals, schools and orphanages all over the world have their origins in Christian people coming together, called by God, and desiring to serve out of affections for God and a new love for people they would have previously dismissed or disdained.

So please pause and pray for those, like our friends, who are laboring in areas where Jesus isn’t known that the Kingdom of God would advance and many more would see clearly that those God has created to live with disability are equal members of Christ’s church, even indispensable.

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Is the best part of heaven being free from sickness and disability?

Posted in Quotes on December 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

From Joni Eareckson Tada, who has lived with her disability for more than four decades, on what she looks most forward to in heaven:

I can’t wait to be clothed in righteousness.  Without a trace of sin.  True, it will be wonderful to stand, stretch, and reach to the sky, but it will be more wonderful to offer praise that is pure.  I won’t be crippled by distractions.  Disabled by insincerity. I won’t be handicapped by a ho-hum halfheartedness.  My heart will join with yours and bubble over with effervescent adoration.  We will finally be able to fellowship fully with the Father and the Son.

For me, this will be the best part of heaven.

Joni Eareckson Tada, Heaven: Your Real Home, p. 41.

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Thank you, Pastor Tom Eckblad, for showing us what ‘as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ looks like

Posted in commentary, Quotes on December 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Pastor Tom Eckblad has served as pastor for counseling at Bethlehem since 2003, and now he is moving on to other ministries.

We have benefited directly from the extraordinary gifts God gave to Pastor Tom, particularly in our darkest days with cancer in 2004.

He has known significant suffering in his life as well.

Pastor Sam wrote about Pastor Tom in this week’s Bethlehem Star, the weekly newsletter of Bethlehem Baptist Church.   There were some great encouragements offered, particularly for someone like me who is tempted to grumble.

Here is an excerpt from Pastor Sam’s article:

In their fleeting years among us at Bethlehem, we have seen them (Pastor Tom and his wife, Jeanie) face such difficulties as a broken leg from a slip on Minnesota ice, Jeanie’s eye problems, Tom’s adventure with Parkinson’s, and a grandchild born with serious disadvantages. And yet I have never heard Tom complain or grumble.

I asked Tom about this.

“Sam, Christians are realists. We admit pain. We suffer. When a mother gives birth, she doesn’t pretend like it doesn’t hurt. And yet, we are not to grumble or complain. How can we admit that there is pain in this life, especially when we are facing it at the moment, and yet do so without murmuring against God?”

His answer was immediate and came right out of Romans 8: “We groan with all creation (verse 22) yet we know that God is working it all together for the good of those who love him (verse 28).” There is a way to groan without complaining, to suffer with thanksgiving.

Thank you, Tom and Jeanie!  May God bless the next phase of your ministry, for his glory and for the joy of everyone you serve.

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“Unconfused in a multiplicity exceeding number, and unwearied through eternity!” – Samuel Ogden

Posted in Quotes, Scripture on December 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Weariness.  It seems to be a theme of disability.  The unrelenting nature of disability wears us out.

And the systems designed to ‘help’ frequently add to the burden – meetings and tests and consultations and more tests and new therapies and changes in diets and ‘make sure everything is done on time in order to exact specifications.’ And don’t forget about the other children.

Weary, confused, discouraged.  Gather any group of parents who have children with disabilities and you will hear those thoughts spoken over and over.

This quote in an essay on prayer written in the 1700s by a preacher I had never heard of stuck in a strange book sitting on my shelf came as a huge encouragement to me:

That He inspects the whole and every part of His universe every moment, and orders it according to the counsels of His infinite wisdom and goodness, by His omnipotent will; whose thought is power; and His acts ten thousand times quicker than the light; unconfused in a multiplicity exceeding number, and unwearied through eternity!

How much comfort and encouragement to all good and devout persons are contained in this thought!  That almighty God, as he hath His eye continually upon them, so He is employed in directing, or doing what is best for them.  Thus may they be sure, indeed, that “all things work together for their good.”  They may have the comfort of understanding all the promises of God’s protection, in their natural, full, and perfect sense, not spoiled by that philosophy which is vain deceit.  The Lord is truly their Shepherd; not leaving them to chance or fate, but watching over them Himself, and therefore can they lack nothing.

Dr. Samuel Ogden, On Prayer, in Half-Hours with the Best Authors by Charles Knight, 1888, pp. 135-136.

Is that biblical? Consider Psalm 121:

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

 

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Hope in accreditation guidelines on disability accommodations? No.

Posted in commentary, Quotes on December 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Seminaries exist to turn out leaders for our churches, colleges and seminaries.  Those of us interested in disability ministry have a stake in who those seminaries turn out as leaders.

On Tuesday Justin Taylor had a great post quoting John Frame on the problem and the future of theological education and scholarship. The final sentence he quoted was this:

And to do that, they (evangelical colleges and seminaries) may have to cut themselves off from the present-day accreditation system.

One of the commenters pointed out that there are many variables in accreditation:

Most people do not know what the accreditation process is or how it works, but it involves far more than curricula or content. Things like number of students per faculty member, research tools and seminars, and even access for physically handicapped students (emphasis mine) all go into the accreditation process.

That commenter is absolutely right.  The Association of Theological Schools has a policy statement that includes guidelines on disability and theological education (pages 29-31).  It doesn’t take long to read.

It is a nice, safe, statement.  It is also deathly boring, without any specific reference to the Bible, and condescending to local churches.  I’ve read almost the same statements prepared by governmental bodies (minus the ‘religious’ language, of course), denominations, and social service agencies.

But my greatest concern is that an accrediting body for seminaries believes that information is sufficient to change people’s hearts and attitudes towards those living with disabilities.  ‘Awareness’ and ‘experience’ drive this change according to these guidelines – not the Word of God, deep conviction about sin, or prayer.

I am all for awareness and seminary students being in relationship with those who live with disabilities.  A few weeks ago Pastor David Michael and I spoke to the first-year Bethlehem Seminary students, and I focused on the topic of disability and invited their personal engagement with the disability ministry at church.

But awareness and experience with disability did nothing to change my attitude about people with disabilities – my darkest days in terms of attitude about disability were the first years living with my son.  You can’t get more aware than that.  Nor was I lead out of my bitterness and hardness of heart through awareness.  Rather, it was God’s people pursuing my good, frequently using the Word of God, and then God calling me from darkness to light.

So, I pray that Bethlehem College and Seminary finds ways to include disability as part of the students’ learning and experiences.  But never at the expense of deepening engagement with and affections for God and his Word.  That’s where our real hope for change in attitude and behavior towards those living with disabilities lies for these future leaders of the church.

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“Oh!” they say, “we seem to go from affliction to affliction.” C.H. Spurgeon

Posted in Quotes, Scripture on December 15, 2010| 2 Comments »

We’re still trying to figure out Paul’s ‘episodes’ that look like seizures but aren’t.  On Tuesday he had an MRI.

These visits never go quite according to plan.  We had about a 90 minute delay to get a question answered before they could proceed.  And his primary nurse just wasn’t as skilled as she seemed to think she was.

In other words, lots of room for a grumbling heart.

In the middle of our waiting, Dianne mentioned a devotional she had heard based on Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening that had encouraged her. So I pulled out my phone and looked it up.   Tuesday’s devotional was on Psalm 84:7 and included this paragraph:

Those with anxious spirits trouble themselves about the future. “Oh!” they say, “we seem to go from affliction to affliction.” Very true, O you of little faith; but don’t forget that you also go from strength to strength. You will never find a bundle of affliction that doesn’t have God’s sufficient grace at the very center.

The desire to fight my sin was re-engaged. And gratitude to God for his Word and for a faithful wife commenced.

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Is there any meaning to this suffering?

Posted in Book Commentary on December 14, 2010| 1 Comment »

The stresses of life, the interruptions, the disappointments, the conflicts, the physical ailments, the losses – all of these may well be the very lens through which we see the meaning of God’s Word as never before.  Paradoxically, the pain of life may open us to the Word that becomes the pathway to joy.

John Piper, When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy, p. 135.

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What if you don’t know how to give good gifts to your children?

Posted in commentary, Scripture on December 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

“What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:11-13

Years ago a mother of young children commented to Dianne, “you are so fortunate your son doesn’t beg for everything he sees at the store!” It was one of those statements that I’m sure that mother regrets saying.  I know I regret her saying it.

It was also kinda true. Paul only asks for things he knows; he isn’t enticed by advertisements, store displays or fliers.   And that isn’t all bad.

But sometimes it would be nice if he could ask for and anticipate receiving a gift from his family.

We include Paul in everything we can in our family, even things we probably shouldn’t for the sake of other people.  Opening presents is one of those things we enjoy doing together.  But Paul literally doesn’t ask for anything he doesn’t already have.  And of the things he has, he really only asks for a small subset of those things.

So, every year every member of the family, including extended family, has to think especially hard about Paul.  And we have to be prepared that the gifts he receives may not ever be appreciated or used.  Actually that’s a good thing:  freely we love our Paul and want to give him good gifts.  His response shouldn’t (and doesn’t) change that.

I know, of course, that he is given the daily gifts of a loving family, inclusive church, and access to health care – all of which make him a very rich young man.

But I take even greater comfort that God knows what Paul really needs – and will enjoy – even when I have no clue.

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For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’ – Job 37:5-6

Posted in Scripture on December 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

We had a little snow fall in the Twin Cities on Saturday – more than foot as a I write this.

No surprise to God; he brought it:

Elihu speaking to Job: God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour (Job 37:5-6).

Let us remember the awesome power and glory of God, infinitely greater than any wind or snow or anything else he has created.  And we should celebrate how remarkable it is that he remembers we are dust, eager to show us compassion (Psalm 103:13-14).

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Why is the Bible so thick? Because there are so many different needs that you have!

Posted in Quotes, Sermons on December 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

[Addition on Saturday morning: if the video link below isn’t working, you can access it through this page.]

Pastor John on the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, including the story of the moment he faced prostate cancer.

There is so much that is quotable in those 6+ minutes:

“He will give you what you need.”

“To that God be glory, forever and ever.”

“Don’t try to be strong in your own strength.  It will not be there when you need it.”

Amen, Pastor John!

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