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Archive for September, 2012

Encourage one another – just as you are doing!

Posted in Helpful things, Special Events on September 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Some dear friends organized a gathering yesterday for many of us who benefit from Bethlehem’s Disability Ministry.  I think about 90 people showed up.  I enjoyed meeting some of the young men in His Works at our North Campus.

It has been a challenging few weeks in our family and I didn’t think I could make it, but God made a way.  When I arrived at the picnic they were being lead in worship through song, and then Kempton Turner took us to 2 Samuel 19.  Pastor John and Kempton agree that 2 Samuel 19:30 is one of the most beautiful sentences in all the Bible:

And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Oh, let him take it all, since my lord the king has come safely home.”  (2 Samuel 19:30 ESV)

It isn’t easy having being one church with three campuses, mostly because we don’t get to see each other.  Yesterday was sweet, and a reminder that God is good to give us friends who encourage us in our faith and seek to build us up.

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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,” says Paul Knight

Posted in Helpful things on September 9, 2012| 5 Comments »

It was a sober Friday evening at our house as Grandpa was back in the hospital.

Paul was goofing around on the piano and I decided to get some video.

Then God gave me this:

The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
The LORD is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed. Psalm 28:7-8

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Two months away – please pray!

Posted in Prayer Requests on September 8, 2012| 1 Comment »

The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability is two months from today, on November 8!

As you think about it, would you pray?

  • For registration; we have plenty of space left and we’d like hundreds more to come.
  • For our speakers as they prepare, travel, and present – John Piper, Nancy Guthrie, Mark Talbot, Greg Lucas
  • For the equipment (live-stream on the web, CART, video for archiving on the web)
  • For God to move on hearts and change lives!

Thank you for joining me in prayer.

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Blessed is he. . . whose hope is in the LORD his God. . .

Posted in Scripture on September 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

As I catch pieces of the political conventions, I am comforted by God’s word and reminders of where my hope really is secure:

Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!
(Psalm 146 ESV)

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God’s gift of Henryk

Posted in commentary, Prayer Requests on September 6, 2012| 2 Comments »

I met a really remarkable young man yesterday.  He’s leading his family through what will likely be the death of his youngest son.

Michael and his wife started a blog to keep their family up to date on how their son was doing.  It has expanded far beyond that inner circle to encourage many, including me.  I highly recommend it.  Here is a taste:

We have death all around us.  However, it is not all that we have around us.  We have grace all around us too.  Like author Paul Tripp says, God, in grace, is using death to lead us to where life can be found.  There would be no way for us to endure this impending physical death without the promise of spiritual life in Christ.  If this life was ultimate, we would be in despair.  But because we have eternal life in Christ and his resurrection we believe that the time Henryk is here is a piece of the thread of his life that will go on into eternity.  We are so blessed to have this time with him.

Please pray for this young couple.  These days are hard in ways that can’t be fully described.  And God is good.

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Why was Paul struck blind?

Posted in Scripture on September 5, 2012| 2 Comments »

I appreciate when my pastors use disability in ways that illuminate what God has done for us.

As he prayed to God on Saturday evening, Pastor Sam referenced Paul’s temporary blindness, and why:

Paul was struck blind so that he could see you.

We know Paul was struck blind by God temporarily on the road to Damascus:  Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. (Acts 9:8 ESV)

So what was Pastor Sam referring to in referencing sight?

. . .that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. . . (Ephesians 1:17-18 ESV)

Until he was visited by Jesus on the road to Damascus (with eyes that worked just fine), he couldn’t see God!  But following his blindness, God gave him what became a significant portion of our Bible.  With God’s help, that Bible helps us to see God!

Some have suggested that Paul had trouble with his vision through the rest of his life: See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. (Galatians 6:11 ESV)

But his heart eyes never appear to have dimmed, sustaining him to the very end:

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8 ESV)

And that’s the kind of vision we should all long to have!

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Good news: God does what he pleases!

Posted in Scripture on September 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
(Psalm 115:1-3 ESV)

For I know that the LORD is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the LORD pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all deeps.
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain
and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
(Psalm 135:5-7 ESV)

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Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Posted in commentary on September 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

63 years ago today my parents married.  My mother reminded me last week that she’s known dad since she was three!

 

Dad needed surgery last week on his heart, so they’ll celebrate today in a hospital.

I had the chance to pray with my dad before his surgery and thanked God for my Psalm 78 father:

He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
(Psalm 78:5-7 ESV)

If you’re curious to meet this man, I’ve written about him before here and here.

I’m grateful to God for the common grace of medical care, but even more grateful for the uncommon grace of being into a home that trusted and trusts God in all circumstances.

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What’s better than a new body?

Posted in Quotes on September 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

During his sermon on sin, Pastor Jason referenced Joni Eareckson Tada and that her excitement about heaven is focused on more than having freedom from her pain and disabilities.

This isn’t exactly what he quoted (I’m sure she’s said it many times in many different ways!), but it is close:

You know a lot of people assume—me being a quadriplegic for 45 years—they’ll assume that I am most looking forward to getting a new body in heaven, and surely I am. It’s going to be a great thing to be relieved of pain…and to be able to walk again, run, jump, dance, kick. But I think what I’m most looking forward to is getting a new heart—a heart free of sin, worry, fear, doubt, anxiety.

Joni Eareckson Tada interview with Karen Gushta, Truth in Action Ministries, June 8, 2012.

Amen, Joni!  We will be free in ways that are completely foreign to us today!

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“Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Posted in Scripture on September 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

During Pastor Sam’s meditation last night to prepare us for communion he recited this verse:

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35:10 ESV)

He added, “it’s not here yet – but it’s coming!”

Thank you and amen, Pastor Sam!

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