Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘commentary’ Category

Another reason why I pray for Bethlehem College and Seminary

Posted in commentary on October 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I recently reviewed some articles in Disabilities Studies Quarterly, “the first journal in the field of disability studies.”  Their search engine took me immediately to interesting articles on theology and the Bible.

Interesting, but entirely unhelpful if I want to actually gain some understanding of the Bible.  The need to be smart and credentialed is a powerful encouragement for pride-filled people (like me) to come up with novel interpretations of the Bible and creative characterizations for who God is.  But it doesn’t actually help me know a whole lot about the Bible or God.

Another thought struck me as I was reading through this journal: these folks aren’t tethered to the Bible, but they want to be tethered to something.  Several articles quote Bible verses (frequently not many), but all of the articles had numerous footnotes and references to other scholars.  A few quoted some of the old church fathers, but only when those church fathers either supported a more post-modern opinion on a narrow subject, or were clearly ‘wrong’ about something.

Their confidence in God’s word, however, was small.  Submission to the Bible as having authority was entirely missing.

Please, pray for Bethlehem College and Seminary and its students, faculty and administration.  May they always embrace God as their highest treasure and worthy of their best intellectual engagement.  And may they never treat the Bible cavalierly or assume their finite wisdom is greater than the wisdom of God.

Read Full Post »

Unspeakable cruelty. Unending hope.

Posted in commentary, News on October 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The news from Philadelphia is a nightmare for any parent with a child with a severe cognitive impairment.

Three people were arrested in Philadelphia for imprisoning and neglecting four adults with cognitive impairments.  The three people are accused of locking these disabled adults in a subbasement of a building, without lights or access to a toilet.

The cruelty is breathtaking.

My oldest son is even more vulnerable than those four adults.  He will always be vulnerable.  I read stories like that and fear about the future rises – what will happen when I can’t take care of him any longer?

As God orchestrates things, on Tuesday evening I was in the church affiliated with my children’s school and passed by that church’s regular Tuesday night gathering of adults with special needs, most of them with cognitive disabilities.

But I didn’t watch the participants much; I watched their leaders and volunteers.

They were happy and engaged.  I observed for just a few minutes, but I didn’t see anyone exhibiting anything but delight – no impatient body language, no outward signs of reluctant obligation, no syrupy, overly-cheerful infantile voices.  The worship leader was WORSHIPPING.  And those adults who could, were worshipping with him.

I don’t know anything about that group – maybe they were all family members or paid staff and this was just how they spend every-other Tuesday with their disabled church members.

But in contrast to that horrific news story, I was watching the body minister to and be ministered by adults with cognitive disabilities in some special, God-honoring ways.

My son might outlive me; we have no idea what Paul’s lifespan is and no doctor has ever even offered a guess.  But he won’t outlive the one who created him. He will always have a perfect Father to care for him.  That doesn’t mean evil won’t ever touch him.  But it does mean God knows what he is doing for his glory and my son’s eternal good.

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” Deuteronomy 32:4

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

I like to think my few minutes on Tuesday night was a gift for me, a reminder from God that he loves his church with a white-hot, all-encompassing, joyful passion that will never fade.  And my boy is part of that Church.

Read Full Post »

“And now I wear your righteousness!”

Posted in commentary on October 17, 2011| 2 Comments »

Dianne and I were both touched by a particular hymn on Sunday.  Dianne suggested it might comfort others:

Not What My Hands Have Done, original words by Horatius Bonar and modern music by Aaron Keyes.

The author, Horatius Bonar, wrote the original words in 1861.  He and his wife lost five children, all young.

Aaron Keyes wrote the music we heard on Sunday.

May God use it to gladden your heart in what he has done for you!

 

Read Full Post »

God can heal me. Why doesn’t he?

Posted in commentary, Special Events on October 15, 2011| 1 Comment »

Thank you to Justin Taylor for pointing to this lecture by D.A. Carson.

Last year, D.A. Carson gave a lecture in California, How Could a Good God Allow Suffering.  Dr. Carson has written several dozen books, including God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story and How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil.  I recommend them both.

And I recommend this lecture embedded below.  But if you only have five minutes, go to the 1 hour and 27 minute mark of the video to watch his answer to this question: I’ve been living with major physical pain and I know God can heal me and His will is for me to be healed.  Why won’t he or why doesn’t He?

Read Full Post »

“Adoption is about taking on risk as cross-bearing love.” Russell Moore

Posted in commentary, Quotes on October 13, 2011| 12 Comments »

Recently, Brenda Fischer, our coordinator for the disability ministry at Bethlehem, sent me statistics on the numbers of children with disabilities God has brought to Bethlehem.  She ended with this statement:

At Bethlehem we have a disproportionately high number of the last three mostly because of so many adopted children in our church body.

The ‘last three’ she is referencing are fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and reactive attachment disorder.

Each of those disabilities carries heavy, lifelong burdens on the children and families.

And they are coming to our church because families are pursuing the good of others in obedience to Christ.  Families are intentionally taking the risk that their adopted child will have a significant disability which could change the entire family.

So I particularly appreciated Dr. Russell Moore’s blog post from yesterday, Don’t Adopt! 

Anyone even remotely familier with him or his book, Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches, would immediately recognize that he’s trying to say something important through that provocative title.  And he delivered:

Love of any kind brings risk, and, in a fallen world, brings hurt. Simeon tells our Lord’s mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, that a sword would pierce her heart. That’s true, in some sense, for every mother, every father. Even beyond that, every adoption, every orphan, represents a tragedy. Someone was killed, someone left, someone was impoverished, or someone was diseased. Wrapped up in each situation is some kind of hurt, and all that accompanies that. That’s the reason there really is no adoption that is not a “special needs” adoption; you just might not know on the front end what those special needs are. . . 

We need a battalion of Christians ready to adopt, foster, and minister to orphans. But that means we need Christians ready to care for real orphans, with all the brokenness and risk that comes with it. We need Christians who can reflect the adopting power of the gospel, which didn’t seek out a boutique nursery but a household of ex-orphans who were found wallowing in our own blood, with Satan’s genes in our bloodstreams.

Yes and amen!

So, if a church is serious about adoption, it will either already be serious about disability in the lives of its members or it will soon need to become serious about it.  And every church should be serious about adoption, because we know that God is:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:3-6 ESV).

Read Full Post »

Wilberforce – “If ever there was a good man and happy man on earth, he was one.”

Posted in commentary, Special Events on October 12, 2011| Leave a Comment »

William Wilberforce is famous for his tireless, decades-long campaign against slavery.  But did you know he was happy?

The poet Robert Southey said, “I never saw any other man who seemed to enjoy such a perpetual serenity and sunshine of spirit. In conversing with him, you feel assured that there is no guile in him; that if ever there was a good man and happy man on earth, he was one.”  In 1881 Dorothy Wordsworth wrote, “Though shattered in constitution and feeble in body he is as lively and animated as in the days of his youth.” His sense of humor and delight in all that was good was vigorous and unmistakable. In 1824 John Russell gave a speech in the Commons with such wit that Wilberforce “collapsed in helpless laughter.”  John Piper, Peculiar Doctrines, Public Morals and the Political Welfare, 2002 Desiring God Pastors Conference.

And he truly was ‘shattered in constitution and feeble in body’ (paragraph format and text in bold are mine):

On top of this family burden came the death of his daughter Barbara. In the autumn of 1821, at 32, she was diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis). She died five days after Christmas. Wilberforce wrote to a friend, “Oh my dear Friend, it is in such seasons as these that the value of the promises of the Word of God are ascertained both by the dying and the attendant relatives. . . . The assured persuasion of Barbara’s happiness has taken away the sting of death.”

He sounds strong, but the blow shook his remaining strength, and in March of 1822, he wrote to his son, “I am confined by a new malady, the Gout.”

The word “new” in that letter signals that Wilberforce labored under some other extraordinary physical handicaps that made his long perseverance political life all the more remarkable.

He wrote in 1788 that his eyes were so bad “[I can scarcely] see how to direct my pen. . .” In later years he frequently mentioned the “peculiar complaint of my eyes,” that he could not see well enough to read or write during the first hours of the day. John Piper, Peculiar Doctrines, Public Morals and the Political Welfare, 2002 Desiring God Pastors Conference.

Happy, and disabled?  How?

The main burden of Wilberforce’s book, A Practical View of Christianity, is to show that true Christianity, which consists in these new, indomitable spiritual affections for Christ, is rooted in the great doctrines of the Bible about Sin and Christ and Faith. “Let him then who would abound and grow in this Christian principle, be much conversant with the great doctrines of the Gospel.” More specifically, he says:

If we would . . . rejoice in [Christ] as triumphantly as the first Christians did; we must learn, like them to repose our entire trust in him and to adopt the language of the apostle, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ’ [Galatians 6:14], “who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” [1 Corinthians 1:30].  John Piper, Peculiar Doctrines, Public Morals and the Political Welfare, 2002 Desiring God Pastors Conference.

Thank you, Pastor John, for this wonderful, helpful biography of William Wilberforce. And thanks be to God for creating such a happy man as Wilberforce who, though experiencing extraordinary personal and physical pain, always looked to Jesus and had a constant, unending supply of joy as he battled evil his entire life.

May we happily do the same in our own time.

Read Full Post »

Looking deeper into the Word has benefits

Posted in commentary, Scripture on October 11, 2011| 1 Comment »

The journals I review on disability and theology are frequently disappointing because the authors don’t work very hard at understanding the scriptures.

Pastor John recently gave a chapel talk on that very subject, pointing out that laziness is frequently a better explanation for the conclusions people come to rather than ‘courageous’ insight.

But one writer, the parent of two children with disabilities, posted an article in The Journal of Religion, Disability and Health that produced some interesting insights because she worked harder to see and understand what God may be doing in a particularly difficult text: Leviticus 21:16-23.

Entitled Disability as Enacted Parable, Jennifer Cox concludes this about the Biblical text (paragraph format is mine):

People with disabilities are not different from people without disabilities in that each desires meaning and purpose in his or her life.  Many, no doubt, seek to make sense of the difficulties they face as a person with a disability.

If disability can be understood as having a positive purpose in Leviticus 21:16-23 there is no reason that disability cannot have a positive purpose in the present.

Many people with disabilities may be understood as living out an enacted parable that “speaks” a word from God to the world. Such a “word” would have far more impact when lived out in the life of a person with a disability than a word that is simply spoken.

Jennifer Anne Cox, “Disability as Enacted Parable” in The Journal of Religion, Disability and Health, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2011, p. 252.

I agree with that conclusion!  My son has no spoken spiritual language, but God is glorified in his life in some really unexpected and unusual ways.  God has used him, and others with disabilities of all kinds, to have impact on my life and the life of the church.

I didn’t agree with everything in the Cox article, but I appreciated her engagement with the Word itself, and how it took her to an interesting, positive conclusion about God’s work in the world through disability.

Ironically, in the same issue of that journal, another writer dismisses Leviticus 21:16-23 in a few sentences, even indicting God at several points.  I know doing things like that can ‘feel’ courageous, but the contrast with the Cox article simply made this other writer look lazy.  This same writer also dismisses passages like Mark 2 (the healing of the paralytic) with a single sentence.  Why this is considered good scholarship is a little bewildering.

So, the discipline that Jennifer Cox brought was not because of her editors.  But, Lord willing, maybe that contrast will be noticed by others who will then be encouraged to dig deeper, question their own biases and motives (rather than easily and quickly believe they can understand God’s motives), and pray for discernment and insight.

Read Full Post »

“Behind the law of heredity is the Law giver.” A.W. Pink

Posted in commentary, Quotes on October 10, 2011| 1 Comment »

Daniel (my middle son) and I walked up to the local seminary library on Saturday to check out the recent edition of a quarterly journal on religion and disability that is unavailable online.  Let’s just say that most of what we found wasn’t that helpful.  Generally the articles aren’t helpful for just two reasons: scripture doesn’t have any authority (if it is referred to at all); and God’s love is defined by human desires and ‘wisdom.’  The glory of God is rarely even considered!

On the other hand, A.W. Pink is usually helpful and God-centered!  I found this in the Bethlehem library on Sunday:

“And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? Or who maketh the (mute) or deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?” (Exodus 4:11)  It seems evident from this that, in the previous verse, Moses was referring to some impediment in his speech.  In reply, the Lord tells him that He was responsible for that. The force of what Jehovah said here seems to be this: As all the physical senses, and the perfections of them, are from the Creator, so are the imperfections of them according to His sovereign pleasure. Behind the law of heredity is the Law giver, regulating it as He deems best.

A.W. Pink, Gleanings in Exodus, p. 38.

“As He (the omnipotent, omniscient, loving, wise, just creator and sustainer of all things) deems best ” – now there’s reason for hope, comfort and joy!

Read Full Post »

Abortion and the Unborn Child in International Law – the San Jose Articles

Posted in commentary, News on October 9, 2011| 1 Comment »

A group of lawyers, ethicists, and government officials from a number of countries came together to respond to a growing effort by United Nations committees and officials to force nations to increase access to abortion.

This group has created and released the San Jose Articles to respond to this pro-abortion effort.

It hasn’t gotten a great deal of press, and it should.

In the press conference at the United Nations, the signatories of the San Jose Articles pointed out that there is no United Nations resolution that demands an increase in abortion access.  Yet, some UN officials have behaved as if there is:

Asked to specify what United Nations treaties and officials had recently pointed to a right to abortion under international law, Mr. Ruse said that a few weeks ago, the Special Rapporteur on Health and the High Commissioner for Human Rights had made statements to that effect.  In addition, Kosovo, Timor-Leste, Kenya and other nations that had signed United Nations treaties were increasingly being told that they must legally uphold abortion rights based on non-discrimination, public-health and reproductive-health grounds.  Mr. Rees added that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) were also promoting abortion rights.  (Press conference on launch of San Jose Articles, 10/6/2011)

This is important – no such ‘right to abortion’ exists under international law, yet the United Nations has officials claiming it does and those officials are bullying smaller countries and governments.

In their own words, why they felt the need to respond:

Why the San Jose Articles?

It is now commonplace that people around the world are told there is a new international right to abortion.

Those who receive this message are people who have the power to change abortion laws; parliamentarians, lawyers, judges and others.

Those delivering this message are influential and believable people; UN personnel, human rights lawyers, judges and others.

The assertion they make is false. No UN treaty makes abortion an international human right.

Even so, the assertion is gaining traction around the world. The high court of Colombia changed their country’s abortion laws based on this false assertion. More are considering such a change.

The purpose of the San Jose Articles is to provide expert testimony that no such right exists. The San Jose Articles were prepared an a group of 31 experts in international law, international relations, international organizations, public health, science/medicine and government. The signers include law professors,  philosophers, Parliamentarians, Ambassadors, human rights lawyers, and delegates to the UN General Assembly.

The purpose of the San Jose Articles is also to demonstrate that the unborn child is already protected in human rights instruments and that governments should begin protecting the unborn child by using international law.

We hope that experts around the world will place a copy of the San Jose Articles on their desks and that the next time they hear this false assertion they share this expert testimony.

It is also our hope that the San Jose Articles will begin to appear in law review articles, in Parliamentary resolutions and in the debate of the UN General Assembly.

Finally, it is our fervent hope that governments will begin to utilize their right to refer to existing international law to protect the unborn child from abortion.

Those who make the false assertion that there is new international right to abortion have had the microphone too long.

The San Jose Articles take that microphone away.

Read Full Post »

God just continues to pour out hope through his Word!

Posted in commentary, Scripture on October 6, 2011| 1 Comment »

Reading through the Bible isn’t like reading other books.  I have a certain anticipation about what God might reveal.  Some days that takes work.

And then some days God simply says – enjoy!

I don’t have anything new or insightful in what follows.  I just soaked in God’s goodness in Ephesians 3:7-21 and invite you to do the same.  Here’s a little of what I saw:

  1. His free gift of grace.
  2. The fact that he created all things – like a little boy with multiple disabilities
  3. We have access to the Lord of all the universe!
  4. He strengthens us.
  5. He is doing things beyond what we ask – or even think!

There’s more to enjoy, and I’ve included the full text below.

Yes, “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!”

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

(Ephesians 3:7-21 ESV)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »