Oh, if you saw the everlasting crowns of My saints in heaven, if you saw in how great joy and glory they are who sometimes seemed to be despised in the world, you would soon humble yourself low to the ground, and you would rather be subject to all men than to have authority over one person.
You would not desire to have happiness and pleasure in this world, but rather to bear with tribulation and pain, and you would account it a great gain to be considered as nothing among the people.
Oh, if these things tasted sweet to you and deeply pierced your heart, you would not dare once to complain of any manner of trouble that should befall you.
Are not all painful things and most grievous labors gladly to be endured for joy everlasting? Yes, truly. It is no little thing to win or lose the kingdom of heaven.
Thomas a Kempis, “How All Grievous Things in This Life Are Gladly to be Suffered for Winning the Life That Is to Come” in The Imitation of Christ, p. 173.
Archive for August, 2011
How all grievous things in this life are to be gladly suffered – Thomas a Kempis
Posted in Quotes on August 10, 2011| 2 Comments »
Bridging the church/university gap
Posted in commentary on August 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I read “Five Ways to Make God Known at Work” on the Desiring God blog after I posted yesterday about the gap between what is being discussed in the university and what is being read in our churches. I was helped by the spirit of that blog posting for three different audiences:
- Faithful, Bible-saturated men and women who teach and administer in our universities
These faithful men and women who teach and administer in our universities have an impact beyond their intellectual engagement with ideas. I worked at a small college for several years, and those who comported themselves with integrity and kindness had far greater influence on the students and staff than those who were the ‘best’ in their fields.
- Pastors who faithfully point people to God
The pastors who attended the seminar last week will never have the time to engage every bad idea out there. And I don’t think we should add an additional burden by expecting them to do so. A pastor’s charge is to preach the word and shepherd his people. Pastor John frequently works in references to disability into his sermons, but only when it is appropriate.
The one thing he always does is point me to God. And I need that far more than I need him unpacking an argument about personhood from the pulpit.
- The people living in the reality of the ideas being discussed in our universities and in scholarly journals, usually without the credentials to participate in the academic discussion
I doubt I would have much interest in the philosophical discussion of what makes up a person if I didn’t have my son – and discovered there are people defining personhood in ways that would not include him. I don’t have the academic credentials to be taken seriously, but I do have the credibility of being his dad.
So, I think at least one of the ways the church/university gap is addressed is when all three groups work together:
- Pastors, preach the word and point people to God.
- University faculty and administrators, behave in ways that make God look glorious, including when you are addressing evil prettied up in academic language.
- Lay people, point out the consequences of evil ideas. We don’t need academic credentials to point out when the emperor has no clothes. Aborting unborn babies with disabilities and defining some human beings as non-persons are two areas that demand response.
It also raises up praises to God for the incredible gift of Bethlehem College and Seminary. The coursework is rigorous and we should expect nothing less. The seminarians are being entrusted with God’s word! Someday some of them may be pastors of college or university faculty who work in hostile environments where extraordinarily evil ideas are being discussed as having merit, like abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. They need to know that God is glorious and will help them when their reputations and livelihoods are at stake.
May God be pleased to use those pastors, faculty and lay people to finally put an end to such evil.
How will we bridge the gap between the academy and the church?
Posted in Book Commentary, commentary on August 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »
My heart sank as I read over the recommended reading list from one of the speakers at a seminar last week. I was familiar with most of the authors and many of the books on that list, and there were few I could commend as being faithful to the Bible or helpful in building up the faith.
But I had forgotten where I was. This was an academic discussion on a university campus. The rules are different.
During her presentation, the seminar speaker pointed out the basic problem with many of those books on her list. It was refreshing. And it did not diminish these books’ importance in the subject area. Competent academic engagement with the subject requires one to be familiar with the arguments presented in those books.
Thus, “recommended” meant something different than commending them as being edifying or helpful.
I compared her list to the list Brenda Fischer has put together for the library at Bethlehem. Not one book or resource appeared on both lists.
I wonder how we can bridge this gap. Ideas discussed within colleges and universities have a tremendous impact on the culture. The church needs to be engaged.
What do you think? I’ll share some of my thoughts tomorrow, Lord willing.
J.C. Ryle on the benefits of sickness
Posted in Quotes on August 7, 2011| 2 Comments »
Another principal responsibility which sickness requires of you, is that of “living a life that is constantly ready to bear it patiently.” Sickness is no doubt a trying thing to flesh and blood. To feel our nerves weakened–to be obliged to sit still and be cut off from all our usual pastimes–to see our plans destroyed and our purposes disappointed–to endure long hours and days, and nights of weariness and pain–all this is a severe strain on poor sinful human nature. Is it any wonder that irritability and impatience are brought out by disease! Surely in such a dying world as this we should study patience.
How will we learn to bear sickness patiently, when it is our turn to suffer sickness? We must lay up stores of grace in the time of health. We must seek for the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit over our undisciplined tempers and personalities. We must make a real business of our prayers, and regularly ask for strength to endure God’s will as well as to do it. Such strength is to be had for the asking: “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” [John 14:14]
I cannot think it needless to dwell on this point. I believe the passive graces of Christianity receive far less notice than they deserve. Peace, gentleness, faithfulness, patience, are all mentioned in the Word of God as fruits of the Spirit. They are passive graces which especially glorify God. They often make men think, who normally despise the active side of the Christian character. Never do these graces shine so brightly as they do in the sick room. They enable many a sick person to preach a silent sermon, which those around him never forget. Would your beautify the doctrine you profess? Would you make your Christianity beautiful in the eyes of others? Then take the suggestion that I give you this day. Store up a reserve of patience for the day of sickness that is sure to come. Then, though your sickness does not end in death, it will be for the “God’s glory.” [John 11:4]
Jesus is fully satisfying
Posted in Quotes on August 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Dianne and I have been enjoying Nancy Guthrie’s Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow. At the end of each chapter she imagines Jesus talking to us, using scripture as the basis for the narrative she creates.
I particularly appreciated this picture of sweet dependence on Jesus:
When you pray, pray like this: “Give us today the food we need for today.” And then come to me asking again tomorrow. You see, I want you to learn to depend on me on a daily basis. While the world celebrates independence, I bless dependence. . .
You will never find me lacking when you come to me. As you learn to depend on me more and more, and as you discover over and over again that I can be enough for you, you will begin to rest in my provision for you. You’ll have less fear about whether or not I will show up tomorrow with what you need. You’ll discover how blessed it is to hunger and thirst for me, and find me fully satisfying.
Adapted from Matthew 6:11; 2 Corinthians 1:9; Exodus 16:4; John 6:32-35; Matthew 4:4; 5:6; 6:32-33.
Nancy Guthrie, Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow, p. 121.
If this is truly a race, there is another way to win
Posted in News on August 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »
In the New York Times article, A Father’s Search for a Drug for Down Syndrome, Dr. Costa, the father of a young woman with Down syndrome and a cutting-edge researcher on treatment possibilities, talks about his fears for people with Down syndrome and for his research (emphases in bold are mine):
But the effects of that revolution on Down research may yet be cut short. A competing set of scientists are on the cusp of achieving an entirely different kind of medical response to Down syndrome: rather than treat it, they promise to prevent it. They have developed noninvasive, prenatal blood tests which would allow for routine testing for Down syndrome in the first trimester of a pregnancy, raising the specter that many more parents would terminate an affected pregnancy. Some predict that one of the new tests could be available to the public within the year.
Costa, like others working on drug treatments, fears that the imminent approval of those tests might undercut support for treatment research, and even raises the possibility that children like Tyche will be among the last of a generation to be born with Down syndrome.
“It’s like we’re in a race against the people who are promoting those early screening methods,” Costa, who is 48, told me. “These tests are going to be quite accessible. At that point, one would expect a precipitous drop in the rate of birth of children with Down syndrome. If we’re not quick enough to offer alternatives, this field might collapse.”
Dr. Costa should not have to live with that fear! Knowledge about a child with Down syndrome in the womb is not the problem; our response to information most certainly is. But a documented 90% rate of abortion when unborn children are found to have Down syndrome is good reason for Dr. Costa to fear.
Even more chilling, he believes that funding for research into treatment options for Down syndrome is limited because new prenatal diagnostic options will soon be available:
But Costa points to a falloff in the financing of Down-syndrome research since the prenatal tests have been in development. Although it’s difficult to compare the numbers, money from the National Institutes of Health dropped to $16 million in 2007 from $23 million in 2003, before creeping back up to $22 million in 2011. That’s far less than the $68 million slated for cystic fibrosis, which affects an estimated 30,000 people in the United States, at most one-tenth of the 300,000 to 400,000 people who have Down.
“The geneticists expect Down syndrome to disappear,” Costa says, “so why fund treatments?”
I don’t know if his assertion is correct or not. It is possible that this area of research isn’t that highly regarded, or that other areas of research are considered of higher priority. There are always multiple reasons for why certain things are funded and others are not.
But I fear he could be right. After all, why fund research if eventually there aren’t any more people living with Down syndrome?
God’s church, however, can stand against this slaughter and denigration of people with Down syndrome. Just Tuesday I heard a dad announce that his baby with Down syndrome is expected in three weeks. It was the strong pro-life stand of his church that gave him the conviction that he should and would welcome this baby into his family.
May every church and all of God’s people rise and do the same!
A new resource and humble pie
Posted in commentary, News on August 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »
New Resource:
Nancy Guthrie’s interview with Scott Anderson is now available. Dianne and I have deeply appreciated Nancy’s God-centered, clear-eyed look at sorrow and the sovereignty of God in her books, conference messages, website, and now this interview that was conducted last Thursday. Dianne and I watched it live and look forward to watching it again.
Humble Pie:
On Monday I commented on a study that concluded that Internet Explorer users were ‘dumb.’
Well, I got fooled! It was a hoax.
This quote on the hoax sums up nicely how I behaved:
“I think most people just assumed that the research’s findings were dubious or unscientific, but it turned out the website was a sham too,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Web security firm Sophos.
Yes, that was me – making those same assumptions but not questioning the website itself. And I got taken in so easily.
Thankfully, God never gets taken in, ever. He sees everything, knows everything, and brings glory to his name through everything.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
keeping watch on the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3
And knowing us more intimately than we know ourselves, including how sinful we are, he loves us!
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:10-12
So, I was fooled and a little embarrassed. But even these things can ultimately be used to bring glory to God and lead to this great conclusion!
The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad. Psalm 126:3
Pausing to reflect on one of God’s purposes in my son’s disabilities
Posted in commentary on August 3, 2011| 8 Comments »
There is one human being on the planet who Paul trusts without question. It isn’t me and isn’t his mother.
His younger sister, Hannah, is known as ‘she-who-can-do-no-wrong’ when it comes to Paul.
It is her birthday today. I now have two teenagers living under my roof.
We had another example of Paul’s regard for her just last week. She got him to take a pill. In 16 years he hasn’t taken a pill, and she got him to take a pill! We used to joke about how his tongue was the strongest, most flexible muscle in his body because he could figure out a way to get anything with any texture out of his mouth rather than down his throat.
And she got him to take a pill! It was a big deal in our household.
All because he trusts her and she refuses to give up on things like that. She also showed me a better way to wrap the bandage that protects his hand last week. She knows things.
She doesn’t see the big deal about her affections for him and his affections for her. She has frequently, without asking, taken care of all his personal needs.
Her friends all know about Paul and he is welcome to be around when her friends visit. They also don’t seem to think disability is that big of a deal.
Yes, I expect that one of God’s purposes in Paul’s disabilities is to prepare Hannah for something in her future. But I see evidences of things he’s doing right now. As I write this, I think another of his purposes in my son’s disabilities is granting me the joy of watching my daughter’s sacrificial love toward her brother.
Indeed, God has richly blessed me.
Evidence of God’s grace – in the NY Times
Posted in News on August 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I stumbled across this article, A Father’s Search for a Drug for Down Syndrome, and was struck by how incredible the human body really is.
There is no discussion of God or faith anywhere in it, and a few small evidences that the father probably doesn’t have any sort of theistic worldview.
But God is most definitely in it! Like this sample of God’s grace to a baby and her scientist father:
“From that day, we bonded immediately,” he told me during one of our many talks over the last year. “All I could think is, She’s my baby, she’s a lovely girl and what can I do to help her? Obviously I was a physician and a neuroscientist who studies the brain. Here was this new life in front of me and holding my finger and looking straight in my eyes. How could I not think in terms of helping that kid?”
I see God’s hand in that simple declaration. This father might believe it was self-evident. But many people think exactly the opposite, even some parents.
I’m not endorsing the drug treatment; too much is unknown. And there are some very hard things presented in this article as well. My first response was to write on those issues.
But I think today I will just invite you to read this while looking for God’s fingerprints.
We’ll tackle the harder issues later.
All conference audio and video for The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability are now available at Desiring God!
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Gendercide and disability are intimately related
Posted in commentary, News on August 11, 2011| 1 Comment »
Two weeks ago Pastor John pointed to the horrific consequences of preference for boy babies combined with diagnostic tools in areas of the world with broad access to abortion and little regard for unborn girls. The term that is emerging to describe this destruction of unborn girls is gendercide.
On Tuesday the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) released their study, Noninvasive Fetal Sex Determination Using Cell-Free Fetal DNA.
To summarize, JAMA determined there is a high degree of accuracy with few risks in tests that allow women to know the sex of their child very early in their pregnancies.
Generally, people of all convictions on abortion see the ethical (and occasionally moral) problems with such tests. Some who support abortion rights for any reason say this is an unfortunate consequence of that ‘right,’ but that right trumps the problem of sex selection. Others who support abortion find the idea of abortion for reasons of sex selection to be as repugnant as any pro-life supporter.
For some reason, when disability is part of the discussion, those ethical and moral problems seem to diminish.
For example:
Dr. Caplan could so easily understand ‘ending a pregnancy’ (or, more precisely, killing a baby) with a genetic problem, but believes doctors shouldn’t even offer the test for purposes of sex selection.
But how long will that be the case? Our culture currently finds it abhorrent, but we’ve seen other issues change over time.
If we have one reason for the strong to determine who lives and who doesn’t, why not have several reasons? How is the choice to have all boys or all girls or one of each morally different than choosing not to allow an unborn baby with disabilities to live?
Yes, I know there are people who argue that disability has its own set of inherent problems that uniquely justify abortion – suffering, diminished quality of life, etc. The reduced ‘quality of life’ argument just falls to pieces when we actually ask people about how they perceive the quality of their lives – and individuals with disabilities and their families report it is often a very good life indeed. And can any parent guarantee their child without disabilities won’t suffer?
Again I will emphasize that the tests are not the problem. There are couples who know they are carriers of certain kinds of genetic abnormalities related to the sex of the child. In some cases there are prenatal treatments for those conditions. That is a really good reason to get the test – to help the baby get a good start in life.
All life is valuable. When tests are used appropriately, children and their parents benefit. Let us prepare the next generation right now for how to live in this complex soup of possibilities – that God is always good, he is always right, he is sovereign over all things, and he will help you do hard things for his glory and for your joy. Even the hard things the world and your own flesh tell you to avoid, he will help you persevere.
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