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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Tell your pastors to come with you!

Posted in News, Special Events on May 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Desiring God’s conference on disability is only six months away!

Yes, I know, the entire summer is still before us.  But I also know it will take time for some of you to convince your church leadership that this conference is for them as well.

And this may sound funny since I attend and am very grateful for my ‘big’ church, but I’m REALLY praying for many of two particular kinds of pastors to attend: pastors from small churches, and pastor/fathers of disabled children.  One of my favorite times of year is the annual Desiring God Conference for Pastors because I get to see and spend some time with pastors who are on the front lines, often by themselves (with their wives), doing some great and hard work.  I love those men.

And the ones living in the dual fishbowls of the pastorate and raising a child with a disability – they are my heroes.

On Wednesday the Desiring God team let me post six reasons why pastors should attend at the Desiring God blog.  Please use these if you find them useful.  Even better, add your own reasons in the comments below!

Let’s make this conference look so attractive and enriching for church leaders to attend that suddenly our little niche issue of disability doesn’t feel so niche after all.

God will get the glory, and we will get the joy!

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“I found full freedom. . .” – Chai Ling

Posted in commentary, News on May 1, 2012| 3 Comments »

Chai Ling, who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Movement, writes an incredible summary of Chen Guangcheng’s story in the Huffington Post yesterday.

Chen Guangcheng’s story is amazing even before we learn he is blind!

But that isn’t the best part.  Coming at the end, Chai Ling expresses her greater hope for Chen Guangcheng and all of China:

I, too, glimpsed freedom when I escaped from the grasp of the Chinese government two decades ago. And more recently I found full freedom in the name of one who — like Chen — suffered beatings, threats and imprisonment for his challenging words: Jesus of Nazareth.

It is my hope that Jesus’ calling to “proclaim liberty to the oppressed, and set the captives free” will soon be realized throughout China. Chen’s story may only be the beginning.

Amen!

I had never heard of All Girls Allowed or Chai Ling until reading this article.  I encourage you to read her short testimony and marvel at the goodness and sovereignty of God.

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Why Chen Guangcheng makes me think of the man born blind

Posted in commentary, News, Scripture on April 30, 2012| 1 Comment »

As I write this, Chen Guangcheng is still reportedly at the United States embassy in China.  He is famous because he has stood against a great evil in China:

A self-taught lawyer, he has called attention to human rights abuses against the disabled and women who have been forcibly sterilized.

In Crisis Over Dissident, U.S. Sends Official to Beijing, The New York Times, April 29, 2012.

And he is blind.  I have yet to read a story that doesn’t make mention, usually multiple times, to his blindness.

Obviously, God has gifted him with both intellectual gifts and with courage.  We value those gifts a great deal, especially when applied to helping others who are weak.  And since we consider him inherently part of the weak because of his disability, we are doubly amazed.

It does not appear his life has been easy at any point. If I am reading his history correctly, Chen Guangcheng couldn’t even read until he was 23 yet by the time he was 34 he was bringing a lawsuit against the Chinese government in Shandong  Province for their brutal enforcement of the one-child policy.

The man born blind lived with such a problem of lack of opportunity.  He was only allowed to beg in his adulthood (John 9:8).

But when given the opportunity, he spoke truth to authority:

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”  (John 9:24-25 ESV)

Those in authority gave him another chance, and he refused to back down or be caught in their political games:

They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:26-33 ESV)

The result: he was cast out (John 9:34).

Chen Guangcheng and the man born blind had unexpected gifts of insight, articulation and courage – and it appears both were underestimated until it was impossible to ignore them.

Are we doing the same with our church members with disabilities, missing the gifts and the opportunities for their expressing those gifts for the benefit of others?

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“I want (the moms) to know, the Lord will always give them hope.” William Delahoyde

Posted in News on April 27, 2012| 2 Comments »

I had the pleasure of meeting Melinda Delahoyde a couple of weeks ago when she passed through town.  She is the president of Care Net, a network of more than 1,100 pregnancy centers across the United States that are dedicated to helping pregnant mothers and saving babies from abortion.

She also happens to be the mother of a child with a disability.

Her oldest son, William, lives with Down syndrome.  Together, they made the two-minute video below.

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Jason Meyer on Suffering: “My hope has not shifted.”

Posted in News on April 24, 2012| 4 Comments »

Dr. Meyer, candidate for Associate Pastor for Preaching and Vision, was interviewed last week by Pastor Sam Crabtree.  The very last question dealt with suffering, and I found his spontaneous response helpful.  It is about five minutes.

You can watch the entire 75 minute interview here.

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Let’s do less of this, and more of that.

Posted in News on April 18, 2012| 1 Comment »

Verinata Health describes their purpose this way:

Verinata Health, Inc. (Verinata), a privately-held company, is driven by a sole and extraordinary purpose — maternal and fetal health. Our initial focus is to develop and offer non-invasive tests for early identification of fetal chromosomal abnormalities through our proprietary technologies.

They are very careful not to use the words terminate, termination or abortion on their website. But that’s really what this is about – finding out early in a pregnancy if a child has Down syndrome and then ending the pregnancy.

Matthew Rabinowitz, CEO of Gene Security Network – yet another company that is developing tests for Down syndrome – clarified what it means for parents:

“If a couple finds an abnormality, and chooses to terminate the pregnancy, it’s better to do it earlier,” Rabinowitz said in a telephone interview.

Explain to me exactly how this improves maternal and fetal health?

I’m a big proponent of scientific research so that we can save and improve the lives of more babies. But this isn’t about saving babies. I would be ok, even in a down economy, with fewer businesses like these.

Contrast that news with the work one brother did to serve his brother with autism: he created an iPad app! Why did he create it?

“I found that parents and therapists felt the communication apps currently on the market were very limiting, over priced, and not user friendly,” says Izak.

I’m not endorsing this product as I’ve never even seen it yet alone used it.

But wouldn’t it be great if more people invested into the lives of people with all kinds of disabilities, rather than sought profits through destroying them? What kind of benefits would we all experience if we worked harder to see the gifts people with disabilities have and then let them use those gifts for God’s glory and for our good?

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God’s sovereign goodness in all things, like trips and tornadoes

Posted in News, Prayer Requests on April 17, 2012| 1 Comment »

Lord willing, I’ll be in Woodward, Oklahoma by this evening (Tuesday) to visit some friends.  Early Sunday morning a tornado hit this small town and six people entered eternity, with more than two dozen injured and many homes destroyed.

I’m not going because of the tornado; this trip was planned several weeks ago.  But a tornado came, and I know it can raise questions about the goodness of God.

The family I’m visiting is rock-solid in their understanding of God’s goodness and sovereignty over all things.  But what of the others I will meet, if even only once?  I’m assuming God will present opportunities to speak of his goodness in all things, including the hardest of things.

Just a few weeks ago Pastor John wrote on this very subject after tornadoes claimed 38 lives.  And he reminded me there is always a greater purpose God has in mind:

Therefore, God’s will for America under his mighty hand, is that every Christian, every Jew, every Muslim, every person of every religion or non-religion, turn from sin and come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and eternal life. Jesus rules the wind. The tornadoes were his.

But before Jesus took any life in rural America, he gave his own on the rugged cross. Come to me, he says, to America — to the devastated and to the smugly self-sufficient. Come to me, and I will give you hope and help now, and in the resurrection, more than you have ever lost.

If there’s one thing I’ve experienced and learned about suffering, it is that suffering people hold credible other people who have suffered, even if the circumstances of their suffering are very different.  Maybe God will use our Paul, again, to help people see we aren’t playing around with religion, but clinging to Jesus.  Maybe he’ll help them see Jesus.

So, please pray for Woodward, Oklahoma.  And please pray for me, that God would let me be useful while I’m down there, for his glory and for the ultimate, eternal comfort of hurting people.

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“Why do Americans Balk at Euthanasia Laws?” – The New York Times

Posted in News on April 14, 2012| 3 Comments »

If you want an overview for how some people view ‘religion,’ euthanasia, disability and health care in the United States, the eight essays associated with the New York Times ‘Room for Debate’ series Why Do Americans Balk at Euthanasia Laws is a quick and telling read.

To be fair, none of the writers was given much room to explain their positions.  But the hostility to those of us who hold a theistic worldview is pretty clear.

We see the world so differently.  We understand the value of human life so differently.

And I just can’t let one of the writers off the hook, even with the lack of space she was given for her editorial.

Dr. Petra da Jong, a proponent of assisted suicide wrote:

In the Netherlands, euthanasia and assisted suicide have been regulated by law since 2002. Euthanasia has been openly debated since the 1970s, by doctors, patients, attorneys, judges and politicians. This has been a decades-long process. Slowly, the legal system here became more lenient toward doctors performing euthanasia on humanitarian grounds, as requested by the patients.

She entirely neglected that in 2004 The Groningen Protocol was approved to protect doctors who euthanize infants with disabilities.  Those children most certainly never requested that their caretakers kill them.

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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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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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