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Archive for April, 2012

Two additional benefits for attendees of Desiring God’s Conference: God’s Good Design in Disability

Posted in Special Events on April 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Immediately following Pastor John at the November 8 conference, The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability, Krista Horning, author of Just the Way I Am, God’s Good Design in Disability will share a brief testimony with the audience.

Bible pours out of this young woman and her life is a testimony to the goodness of God.  It would not surprise me if her ten minutes are the highlight of the day for many people.

The other benefit is that Bethlehem’s Disability Ministry will be sponsoring a time for networking, information sharing and informal conversation immediately following the close of the conference and into the evening.  Opportunities to hear about other disability ministries, for people with common issues to be introduced to each other, and even addressing difficult theological questions are part of the plans for the evening for those who can stay.  It would also not surprise me if this gathering was the highlight of the day for many people!

More details are coming as we get closer to the conference, including opportunities for volunteering.

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Why a conference on disability and the Bible?

Posted in News on April 9, 2012| 5 Comments »

Desiring God is sponsoring a conference on November 8, The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability.  I hope you will consider coming!

The easy answer as to why a conference on disability and the Bible is that God has a lot to say on the subject in his book – for his glory and for our good – and that it impacts a lot of people – more than 1 billion people around the world.

It will be like none I’ve experienced or seen, but one I’ve longed to see for quite some time.  The emphasis will be on God’s sovereignty over disability, suffering and even death.

It will be full of Bible.  Each of the speakers takes God’s word very seriously for the sake of their own joy.

If you’ve ever searched for sermons or conference messages on disability and the Bible, you already know there’s a lot of bad stuff out there.  It will be good to have more edifying, God-centered materials available and accessible to people searching for the truth.

And with this conference, Desiring God and Bethlehem are getting into the stream that is growing on this issue of disability in ways that make my heart beat faster in anticipation about what God might be doing.

So, I hope you will come!

And if you would, please pray for me as I prepare a series of blog postings for the Desiring God blog.  I want to encourage people who normally would pass on this subject of disability to see that this conference is also for them.

That isn’t a complaint (thanks be to God for changing my heart on that one! I didn’t work very hard to kill the sin of bitterness for a long time). There are many people who do not see this as important for their churches simply because they don’t see it every day like we do.  But just from demographics alone, we know that every pastor and church leader will eventually have families like ours in front of them.  

I want them to be ready and full of anticipation about what God might be pleased to do when he brings those who are different because of disability into their churches.  Maybe some will even be called to do incredible things for the sake of those this culture believes should not exist at all.

So I would be grateful for your prayers for my writing, and for the Holy Spirit to do a marvelous work in bringing many to Bethlehem’s North Campus this fall!

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Because Jesus rose, “we will see him and touch him and marvel at him forever!”

Posted in Quotes on April 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

A glad word on the risen Christ from Pastor John!  Paragraph formatting and emphasis in bold are mine.

The risen Christ who reigns in heaven today and intercedes for us with the Father is a rejected stone! He has flesh and bones! He is one of us. And this truth contains good news for now and good news for later. For now it means this:

We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15–16)

For he too is a rejected stone with pierced hands and flesh and bone!

But not only that. This truth is also good news for the future.

Get every ethereal, ghost-like conception of the coming kingdom out of your head. The God-man is not going to rule over invisible spirits and ghosts. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies.”

We will eat broiled fish in the kingdom! We will hold it in our physical hands and stand on our feet.

And there will be no more wheel chairs or crutches or cancer or paralysis or leukemia or allergies or arthritis any more.

For we will bear the image of the Son of God, and we will see him and touch him and marvel at him forever and ever, because the divine stone which is now at the head of the corner is the very same human stone that was once rejected.

From The Marvelous Rising of a Rejected Stone delivered by Pastor John Piper, March 30, 1986

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Satan rightly sings his song of accusation. But he forgot the refrain!

Posted in Sermons on April 7, 2012| 1 Comment »

The song is Embracing Accusation by Shane and Shane.

The sermon clip in this video came from Pastor John’s sermon, Command of God: The Obedience of Faith delivered December 3, 2006.

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An amazing portrayal of Good Friday

Posted in commentary on April 6, 2012| 1 Comment »

Much thanks to Igniter Media for posting The Last Painting.

The Last Painting can also be accessed by clicking here.

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Here we go! Desiring God Conference – The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability

Posted in News, Special Events on April 5, 2012| 4 Comments »

I was grabbing lunch and checked twitter and there it was: the first announcement of Desiring God’s disability conference on November 8.

And tears immediately came to my eyes, and prayers of gratitude.

I’ll have a lot more to say about it later.

The next three days should be focused on our Jesus and what he did in obedience to the Father that resulted in extraordinary, unbelievable, unimaginable good for us!   Sunday is coming!

In the meantime, I hope you will join me in praying for this conference and for your own participation in it.

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Have no doubt, Jesus understands your sorrow

Posted in Scripture on April 5, 2012| 3 Comments »

Surely he has borne our griefs
   and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
  smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
     and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
     yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
     and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
     by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
     make many to be accounted righteous,
     and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
     and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
     because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:4-12

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Jesus knows everything, including the mind of a boy with autism

Posted in Quotes on April 4, 2012| 3 Comments »

April is National Autism Awareness Month. 

Out of all of our son’s multiple disabilities, autism reigns over them all in terms of complicating his life, and ours.  The blindness, the seizures, the eating and sleeping issues – everything – would be easier if he could communicate with us and we with him.

But there is hope.  Jesus is never caught by surprise:

There is no one who perplexes Jesus. No thought or action is unintelligible to him. He knows its origin and end. The most convoluted psychotic and the most abstruse genius are open and laid bare to his understanding. He understands every motion of every mind.

John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, p. 52.

 

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This is what love looks like

Posted in commentary on April 3, 2012| 1 Comment »

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:16 ESV)

This fellow is Bob Horning.  The little girl belongs to Kempton and Caryn Turner.  Bob and Mary were taking care of the Turner children on Saturday.

It does not appear to be a duty for either Bob or Carysse, does it!  Yet Bob is fully attending to his duties as protector and caretaker.  Carysse was fully attending to her duties of being cared for!

Bob and Mary’s oldest child, Krista, was born with many complications due to her disabilities.  Kempton and Caryn’s oldest child, Christian, was born prematurely and also lives with many complications from his disabilities.  So it is safe to say that disability brought these families together.

And then Jesus knit together their hearts.

Most of the parents I know (including me) who unexpectedly entered this life of disability never imagined that this life could also include the joys of affection and friendship – particularly when those joys come because of disability, not in spite of it.  Yet the experience of deep sorrow also opens the way for hearts to connect in unusual, joy-filled ways.

And the rest of us get to see a glimpse in a little girl happily attending church with two people who love her very much while her parents are away.

God is always doing 10,000 more things than we can begin to see or imagine, for his glory and for our good.

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We are not the first generation who needed to protect the babies with disabilities

Posted in Quotes on April 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Infanticide may be widespread in a society or happen only occasionally, but it has few, if any, exceptions with one class of infants, that is, deformed infants.

Laila Williamson as quoted in Infanticide and the Handicapped Newborn, edited by Dennis Horan and Melinda Delahoyde, p. 3.

As you can see, one thing has changed significantly in the 30 years since this book was written.  We rarely speak of infants as ‘deformed’ any longer, and the word handicapped has also been replaced by other words.

But the war against our babies with disabilities continues, just as it has for centuries. We must persevere.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9 ESV)

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