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Archive for June, 2011

Tell of his salvation from day to day

Posted in commentary, Sermons on June 10, 2011| 1 Comment »

I’ve been very grateful in his sermons on John 9 that Pastor John has pointed out that it can be years before we see God’s purposeful hand in disability, even as Christians.  I have found that personally helpful and I have heard from others who agree.

Isn’t it amazing that each kind of story about God’s call on people’s lives has its own way of making much of God!

  • My heart sings when a brand-new dad is holding on to the promises of God and trusting that God is still for him.
  • I rejoice at stories similar to mine – a time of intense anger and bitterness toward God, and God turning hearts around.
  • I marvel at the perseverance of saints, sometimes praying for decades for family members or friends before God moves to make spiritually blind eyes to see and dead hearts to beat.

I love truly heroic stories of God-centered people who, from the beginning to the end of their lives, are faithful to God and persevere in the most difficult of circumstances.  God is glorified in those lives!

But that isn’t my story, obviously – and God is still glorified!

I’m glad God gets glory that way.  There is definitely no mistaking that God is the primary and decisive actor!  That he alone is good – and strong.  That he gives the gift of being clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ through absolutely no merit on the part of the recipient – in fact, the receiver is constantly pushing him away until God moves to make blind eyes see.

Please, tell your story to somebody today.

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
Psalm 96:1-3

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Enjoy this Jesus with me!

Posted in Sermons on June 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been enjoying, again, how Pastor John helps me see Jesus more clearly through his sermon on John 9, The Works of God and the Worship of Jesus.

And I’ve been lingering over two verses from the past two sermons, along with two verses from John 5:

He saw a man blind from birth.  John 9:1b

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him. .  . John 9:35a

When Jesus saw him lying there (an ‘invalid’ for 38 years) . . . John 5:6a

Afterward Jesus found him (now healed!) in the temple. . . John 5:14a.

Jesus sees us.  Jesus finds us.

Jesus saves us!

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Pray for Pastors Experiencing Disability

Posted in Prayer Requests on June 8, 2011| 2 Comments »

Several times in the past week I’ve either interacted with or heard about pastors who are experiencing disability in their families.  Whether experiencing disability in themselves or in a family member, those pastors live in even more of a fish-bowl than most people.

My struggles, discouragement and disappointment related to disability happen in the relative anonymity of the pews.

Our pastors living with disability in themselves or a family member are in the spotlight all the time, with the added responsibility of helping and leading their people through this issue.  I know God will supply every need, and that particular need just feels so heavy today.

Let us persist in prayer for them and their families and their churches.

And an email now and then letting them know of your prayers and affection might be helpful, too!

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Courageous – and gifted

Posted in Sermons on June 7, 2011| 1 Comment »

Pastor John’s second sermon on John 9 has been posted, The Works of God and the Worship of Jesus.

It is rich!

I nearly laughed out loud with delight when he made the connection between Nicodemus and the man-born-blind’s parents – what a wonderful, surprising, helpful insight (yes, that is an intentional teaser to encourage you to listen to it!).

Pastor John also pointed out the newly-sighted man’s courage in the face of questions and suspicion.  It is remarkable how this man responded!

It is particularly remarkable because he would not have been educated to develop skills of argumentation and logic.  Yet it appears he not only understood where arguments were going but how to respond for greatest impact.  The man has gifts to go along with his boldness!

It is a reminder to me that access to church is not our end goal for our disability ministry.  Access is a good thing, of course!  But it also includes preparing people to use the gifts God has given them to proclaim his name throughout the world.  All people, those who live with blindness or mobility issues or behavioral disorders or severe cognitive impairment or whatever else God has purposed for his glory and for our good.

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Just a reminder about who first saw the man born blind.

Posted in Sermons on June 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

A good reminder about Jesus from David Platt, author of Radical.

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Thank you to our volunteers!

Posted in commentary, Prayer Requests on June 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Pastor John rightfully mentioned Brenda Fischer, the Disability Ministry Coordinator at Bethlehem, during his sermon on John 9:1-4.  She is a tremendous gift to Bethlehem and to dozens of families like ours!

And she is the first to say that the only reason it happens is because God gives her strength and God gives her volunteers.

Today marks the end of Sunday School for the year, and it seems appropriate to make a special thank you to all the volunteers who have served families like mine this past year.

In her most recent article in Bethlehem’s Family Discipleship newsletter, Forgetting the Label to the Glory of God, Brenda notes that we had 46 one-on-one aides this past year!  That is an extraordinary provision from God!  I only know a few of those volunteers, but the ones I have met all say the same thing:  I’m the one experiencing the blessing.

No, we still aren’t able to serve everyone; the need for more volunteers continues and I expect will increase.  But I can remember when we didn’t have ANY volunteers.

So, let us raise a prayer of thanksgiving for what God is already doing here and in many churches who are rising in their understanding of the God-granted dignity and value of people with disabilities.  And let us not stop asking for even more – more families, more people with disabilities, more volunteers, more connections, more wisdom, more capacities.  And most of all, more of God and the joy that comes from treasuring him above all things!

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“He is a miracle waiting to happen” – John MacArthur

Posted in commentary, Scripture, Sermons on June 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I like John MacArthur a great deal and have learned much from him.  But I was not really reading for insight and new understanding as I recently went over his first sermon on John 9:1-12.  I was getting rather grumpy about the whole thing as I found more things with which to disagree – poor word choice here, bad example there.

God kindly let a few paragraphs of Pastor MacArthur’s sermon just blow me away and show me what was going on in my own heart!  Emphases in bold are mine:

Sovereign grace dominates this whole miracle. It isn’t this man running to Jesus saying, “Oh! Oh! Oh! Heal me, heal me!” No, Jesus saw him, and see that’s the way sovereign grace is, isn’t it? It’s Christ seeking us. We could not see Him except He saw us. We are blind, we’re absolutely blind. We have no capacity to see God. We have no capacity to see Jesus Christ. We are incapacitated, we are stone blind, spiritually speaking. We can’t see. . .

He’s not blind because of sin, this man is a prepared vessel, he is a miracle waiting to happen. Kind of exciting, isn’t it? He was born blind for one reason, so God’s glory could be seen in this healing by Jesus Christ. That’s why He was born blind…for the glory of God…sometimes is why suffering comes. . .

Even affliction can be for the glory of God. All these things can happen for the glory of God and this was a prepared vessel, a miracle waiting to happen. This was a blind beggar sitting at a gate waiting for the time planned in eternity past that Jesus would pass by and manifest His glory by touching his eyes so he could see. Fantastic truth. . .

And you know what happens when Christ turns on the lights in your soul? All of a sudden truth becomes recognizable, doesn’t it? You know the truth. All of a sudden love is seen, peace is beheld, glory is fully expressed. God becomes visible in the sense of focus. Christ becomes real. The eye of faith sees and understands and the light dawns. And to this blind beggar He gave both, physical sight and spiritual sight.

Why did He do it? What was the purpose? The purpose of it was for the glory of God. 

John MacArthur, Jesus Opens Blind Eyes, December 13, 1970.

I still would have preferred he handled some things differently – but he certainly hit the central theme in a helpful way!  I’m grateful God didn’t let me go through this entire sermon with a grumbling spirit, but let truth shine very brightly to drive my self-righteous, darkness-enjoying, man-centered sin away.

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“You can deal with the unexpected with joy.” Paul Tripp

Posted in Quotes on June 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I have been really helped by many things Paul Tripp has written, and have enjoyed his presentations at Desiring God and Children Desiring God.  Lately, I think I have been most helped by how he uses Twitter.  He and Pastor John pack a lot into those 140 characters!

I don’t think Paul Tripp is writing his enewsletter any longer, but I found this helpful from 2010 (emphases in bold are mine):

Are there places where you’re crying for the grace of God and you’re not realizing that you’re getting it? But it’s not the grace of relief and it’s not the grace of release; it’s the boiling grace of personal transformation. Again, God will take you where you do not want to go in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own. In those unexpected moments, don’t run away from your Lord, run to him. You are not being forsaken you are being loved.

What does all this really mean? Well here it is! You can look mystery in the face and have hope. You can live in the middle of a life that you don’t really understand, that you can’t really figure out and you can rest. You can deal with the unexpected with joy. You can accept mystery; and you can do it because you can look through the clouds of mystery and see a God of love who is actually near when he seems far.

He’s actually active when he seems passive; who is doing something very good right in the middle of when things seem that they’re going very badly. Are there places when you just can’t figure out what God is doing? Are there places where it feels that he’s not near? Where right now in your everyday experience are you dealing with the unexpected? God is at work in your life. He hasn’t turned His back on you. You see, you can accept mystery because in the middle of the unexpected there is love and grace and help to be found. God is right smack dab in the middle of your unexpected moment and he is up to something very, very good.

Paul David Tripp, Survival Skill 3: Accept Mystery, August 2010

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“Enquire of Jesus himself!” C. H. Spurgeon

Posted in Quotes, Scripture on June 2, 2011| 2 Comments »

I’ve only read one sermon that Spurgeon did on John 9, the accounting of the man born blind who would be healed, and it is on this text:

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him (the formerly blind man) out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

May we never forget that the greatest thing Jesus did for the man comes near the end of John 9, not at the beginning – Jesus fully revealed himself!  And the man WORSHIPPED because he could now ‘see’ Jesus for who he really is!

Spurgeon provides some great advice from that text:

When you are seeking Christ, ask Christ to reveal himself to you, for there is nobody who can reveal Christ as Christ can reveal himself by is blessed Spirit.

And, next, when you are confessing your faith, confess it to Christ himself. Say, as this man did, “Lord, I believe.” Say to your minister, or to your mother, or to your friends, “I believe;” but take, care, above all the rest, that you say, “Lord, I believe.”

And, lastly, when you are worshipping, worship Christ himself: “He worshipped HIM,” and no one else. Take care that your reverence and adoration are not given, in any degree, to the church, or to any person in it, or to any priest, or minister, or anything created or made; but worship God, and God in Christ Jesus; and the Lord bless you, beloved, for his name’s sake! Amen.

Charles H. Spurgeon, A Pressed Man Yielding to Christ, delivered October 12, 1882.

The only thing I would add, and which Spurgeon makes clear throughout his preaching and writing, is that God has given us a precious book that talks a lot about our Jesus.  We can read it and study it and ponder it – and ask Jesus to send his spirit to help us to have eyes to see what is really, joyfully, eternally there.

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A word for when we don’t feel like listening to God

Posted in Quotes on June 1, 2011| 4 Comments »

There are times we feel so weary and disheartened that we don’t feel up for listening. But whatever the particulars, our essential problem is deafness to God’s voice. We become absorbed in the world of our own experiences, thoughts, feelings, and opinions. The early church used a wonderful phrase to capture the essential inward turning nature of sinfulness: curvitas in se. We curve in on ourselves. Sin’s curvitas in se pointedly turns away from God. When you or others suffer, you experience or witness the strength of this incurving tendency. It’s hard not to be self-preoccupied.

God willingly keeps talking. Listen to how near he sounds in this hymn (How Firm a Foundation). The Lifegiver willingly gives ears to hear. The incurving can be reversed. Psalms cry out rather than turning in. Jesus is a most excellent teacher. In the extremity of his agony, there was no curvitas in se. He heard God’s voice and remembered. He turned towards God in neediness, generosity, and trust: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” He turned towards people in practical love: “Today you will be with me in paradise. Behold your son. Behold your mother.” He gave voice to honest experience of his ordeal: “I am thirsty. It is finished.”

This is the Jesus to whom we have fled for refuge. This most careful and thoughtful of listeners walked ahead of us. He deals gently with our ignorance and waywardness. He now willingly walks with us, fully aware of our temptations to be forgetful, distracted, and inattentive. He addresses the biggest problem first. That’s why this hymn speaks in the first person. The words of new life first create ears that listen.

David Powlison, “God’s Grace in Your Sufferings” in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor, p. 155.

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