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Setting an example to the believers from her youth

Posted in commentary, Scripture on August 3, 2010| 6 Comments »

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

God is raising up a number of young people at Bethlehem who set an example for the adult believers in how to serve in love on this issue of disability.

I happen to live with one of them.  And it is her birthday today.

Hannah, it is a joy to watch how you love your older brother so freely.  I already see evidence that God is making you into a woman with steel in your spine – just like your mom, and so many of the other moms we know also raising boys and girls with disabilities.

I love you very much.  Dad

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Hurtful words and killing sin

Posted in commentary, News, Scripture on July 31, 2010| 2 Comments »

Justin Taylor pointed to a heart-breakingly real statement on miscarriage yesterday: Unwanted Counsel during Times of Grief.  I recommend it.

Unwanted counsel is another thing those of us dealing with disability live with.

I learned recently that a distant family member has been quietly questioning our parenting of Paul – that if only we had done things differently during his earlier years, he would have had a different outcome in behavior today.

After 15 years, such ‘observations’ are just so ridiculous that my first response was laughter.  We’re not perfect parents by any means, but where he lands on the autism spectrum means certain things just won’t ever be possible for him, even if we had done things perfectly.

But feeling like I can ‘handle’ such comments, that they don’t affect me anymore, also meant I didn’t come to the cross and lay it before Jesus.  I might have laughed, but it was certainly not with joy.

Over the next days I let myself feed bitterness, but just around the edges.  A self-righteous comparison would come, and rather than kill it, I would just let it be.  Then another thought would come.  The bitterness grew, and a seed of anger was planted beside it.

Dragging such thoughts into the light is good for me; it encourages me to kill the sin feeding those evil thoughts.

We need to help people know how to talk to us about disability in ways that are helpful and life-giving, for them and for ourselves.  That isn’t easy for me because it means I have to actually do something for their benefit rather than stew in my own hurt.

People will think foolish, hurtful thoughts.  Some of those people will make it worse by actually saying foolish, hurtful things.  The wounds can go very deep, right to the core.

And, thankfully, Jesus remains the answer to every sin, and to our being reconciled with each other:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:7-9

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Trust God to think and feel deeply

Posted in Scripture on July 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

We continue to be mystified by Paul’s ‘spells’ that leave him uncomfortable, unable to eat, and without his usual, happy spark.

I hate these episodes. Dianne hates them more.

But we cannot let our emotions rule how we respond and advocate for him with medical professionals. We must be thinking clearly; we must pay careful attention to what is being advised and make rational assessments on his behalf.

And this is nothing compared to some previous episodes, which I know many of you can identify with:

  • The surgeon who comes out, in the middle of surgery, to let us know he is seeing something other than what he expected, and now he wants to change the surgical intervention. In seconds, while this new and anxiety-producing information is just being processed, we must make a decision and give our consent to proceed as advised or not.
  • Surrounded by professional educators and therapists in IEP or IFSP meetings, a new and devastating ‘diagnosis’ is put on the table without prior knowledge. The ‘team’ wants to make a decision about his educational plan even as this new information is sinking in.

Thinking carefully while feeling and hurting deeply is the only option for those of us dealing with disability.

I’m grateful God is a perfect thinker:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” Romans 11:33-34

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:25

I’m grateful God feels perfectly with a great love:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7

And this God, who thinks and feels infinitely more than we can imagine, has promised us that he will help us in our time of need, including when we must think most clearly after getting news that has just shattered and devastated our world:

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

Thank you, Lord, for who you are and that all your promises are true!

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Repost: More than a conqueror?

Posted in commentary, Scripture on July 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

A reposting from March 17, 2009:

Frequently I hear from parents what I have also experienced – that our children with disabilities bring qualities and a sweetness into our lives that we would have never received but for their disabilities.  And frequently our children’s disabilities, and the extraordinary difficulties of parenting a child who is different in this culture, are the very means by which God demonstrates his power and mercy in our lives.  The promises of God become very precious.

But do we believe every promise is for our children with disabilities, particularly for those children with disabilities that make them very vulnerable and weak?

Consider this familiar passage from Romans 8:35-39.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I love the not-being-separated part, for myself and for my son.  I understand about being slaughtered for God’s sake.  I love the ‘for I am sure’ part as well.  But ‘more than a conqueror’?  How can that be for my very small, vulnerable, blind son with autism?

Pastor John answers it for me in Don’t Waste Your Life (pp 96-97):

One biblical answer is that a conqueror defeats his enemy, but one who is more than a conqueror subjugates his enemy. A conqueror nullifies the purpose of his enemy; one who is more than a conqueror makes the enemy serve his own purposes. A conqueror strikes down his foe; one who is more than a conqueror makes his foe his slave.

Practically what does this mean? Let’s use Paul’s own words in 2 Corinthians 4:17: “This slight momentary affliction is preparing [effecting, or working, or bringing about] for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Here we could say that “affliction” is one of the attacking enemies. What has happened in Paul’s conflict with it? It has certainly not separated him from the love of Christ. But even more, it has been taken captive, so to speak. It has been enslaved and made to serve Paul’s everlasting joy. “Affliction,” the former enemy, is now working for Paul. It is preparing for Paul “an eternal weight of glory.” His enemy is now his slave. He has not only conquered his enemy. He has more than conquered him.

So, my son, who’s days AND disabilities were planned for and implemented by my good and righteous God (Psalm 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.) for his glory – that son has already demonstrated he is more than a conqueror.  His disability, the very thing the enemy was using to shipwreck my faith, was the means God used and uses today to bring me to the cross.

Yes, Lord, I believe my boy is more than a conqueror through Jesus.  And this sweet, hard-to-hear song in this video takes on a new significance in light of that reality.  I imagine heaven rejoices and demons quake when this little boy sings about being in the Lord’s army.

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Repost: Matthew Henry Commentary on Matthew 12:15

Posted in commentary, Scripture on July 22, 2010| 5 Comments »

A reposting from January 20, 2009:

He healed them all!  That’s what Matthew says about Jesus.  While people were preparing to destroy him, Jesus healed everyone who was following him. 

Matthew 12:14-15 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all. . .  

I deeply appreciate Matthew Henry’s commentary on the bible, which can be found online for free.  I have used it for several years, less as a commentary and more as a devotional.  I find his words encouraging and beautiful on this passage from Matthew: 

When the Pharisees, the great dons and doctors of the nation, drove Christ from then, and forced him to withdraw himself, yet the common people crowded after him; great multitudes followed him and found him out. This some would turn to his reproach, and call him the ring-leader of the mob; but it was really his honour, that all who were unbiased and unprejudiced, and not blinded by the pomp of the world, were so hearty, so zealous for him, that they would follow him whithersoever he went, and whatever hazards they ran with him; as it was also the honour of his grace, that the poor were evangelized; that when they received him, he received them and healed them all. (emphasis mine).  Christ came into the world to be a Physician-general, as the sun to the lower world, with healing under his wings. Though the Pharisees persecuted Christ for doing good, yet he went on in it, and did not let the people fare the worse for the wickedness of their rulers. Note, Though some are unkind to us, we must not on that account be unkind to others. 

May all of us be described as hearty and zealous for Jesus!  All will be received who trust in this Physician-general! 

You can read his entire commentary on Matthew 12 here. 

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Repost: The Bible is Powerful

Posted in Book Commentary, commentary, Scripture on July 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I laughed out loud at myself when I ran across the first sentence to this post.  It seems I have been comparing and contrasting things from the beginning of my writing for the blog.

This was written and first published on the old disability ministry blog site on October 6, 2008.  It looked so awful there that I’m posting it in its entirety here:

I was reading two different articles recently, and found the contrast between them to be startling.

The first was by a mother of a child with Down Syndrome, and her desire to understand it from a biblical perspective:

(You can read the whole article here: God, do you care)

Here’s the situation. Moses is at the burning bush. God wants him to go to Pharaoh, and Moses begins making excuses. “Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently, nor in time past, nor since Thou hast spoken to Thy servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” And the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.” Exodus 4:10-12

Here the Lord is taking responsibility for a “disability.” And He claimed to have made it that way on purpose! (emphasis mine) My Mary was not a genetic “accident.” She was designed that way by God. But the real exciting thing is that God doesn’t see dumbness, or blindness or deafness as a disability at all. He couldn’t see any reason that Moses’ speech impediment should stop him. God promised to not only be with him, but to teach his mouth what to say. Moses’ success in life did not depend on his own skills, but on the God who would be with him.

Now contrast the above with a more scholarly look at disability and theology:

(You can read the entire article, a book review of The Disabled God, here: Theology Today )

Any given event or series of events in the world – a Beethoven symphony; the overthrow of long-established repressive governments in eastern Europe; the church bus crash in Carrollton County, Kentucky, killing thirty-seven children; the governmentally-sanctioned disappearance, torture, and killing of hundreds of Argentinean citizens during the 1970s; the birth of “crack” babies and babies born with AIDS or other horrible maladies-is seen not as lying under or within God’s controlling power and will, but as emerging from a multiplicity of factors. God is one determining factor, even a necessary determining factor, but not the controlling, determining factor. (emphasis mine)

There is a world because there is God, but every event in that world arises out of the mutually creative activities of God and the creatures. In this sense, though strictly in this sense, God and the world are co-creators of each event. God draws the world into being and draws individual creatures toward particular, relevant responses on the basis of God’s aims of love, justice, and richness of experience. But creatures respond not only to God’s aim but out of their own history, environment, and perspective. That response can vary from radical rejection of God’s will to mild qualification. Thus, in this view, Hitler’s murderous policy toward European Jews or the recent Philippine earthquake or the AIDS epidemic or deafness or blindness or paralysis of limbs would never simply be attributed to God. (emphasis mine) Rather, God would be seen as responding to these kinds of events as God responds to all kinds of events: by seeking to draw or lure from them consequences that are compassionate, creative, and redemptive.

Why the difference?  A first answer is that this mother is taking into consideration the entire scripture, rather than a single text.  Knowing all the scripture is important to grasping something of the character of God.  In this case, she sees, rightly, that God claims responsibility for hard things like disability.   In Exodus 4 and John 9, God specifically says he created some to be disabled – end of story, no other explanation possible. And thus she is able to grasp something of the wisdom of God:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.  2 Timothy 3:14-17

The second answer is that this mother is taking seriously that God is God, and has authority over everything:

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?   Romas 9:20-21

It is best summed up by this quote from Abraham Kuyper:

There is not an inch in the whole area of human existence of which Christ, the sovereign of all, does not cry ‘It is mine.’

Oh people of God, cling to that kind of sovereign, powerful Jesus, and not one who is ‘just one factor’ in all that happens in the world!

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Repost: A Young Man’s Testimony to Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

Posted in commentary, Scripture on July 18, 2010| 1 Comment »

As I wrote last November, this is one of the finest statements on disability and the sovereignty of God I have read.  It was written by Joe Eaton, who may not have even been twenty years old when he wrote it.  Joe lives with spina bifida.

If you have not read it, enjoy and be encouraged!  If you remember it, read it again.

Please notice and praise God for how much Bible Joe works into his reflection!

A Young Man’s Testimony to Suffering and the Sovereignty of God from November 7, 2009.

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A taste from “God’s Sovereignty and Genetic Anomalies” by Michael Beates

Posted in Book Commentary, Scripture on July 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve emailed Dr. Beates to see if there’s a way to get the entire chapter he wrote, “God’s Sovereignty and Genetic Anomalies,” posted here.  Some of the other contributors to the book, Genetic Ethics, are also interesting, but his is the best articulation of God’s sovereignty thus far.  I’ll let you know what I think after I read the entire book.

Here’s another excerpt from his chapter that I found both sobering and encouraging:

One of the most frequently-quoted but least-believed verses of Scripture is Romans 8:28.  ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’  If we really believe that verse, if we really believed it to be true, we could rest in peace even in the midst of painful realities of life, such as children born with genetic anomalies. (Beates, p. 57-58)

“If we really believe that verse. . .” That is about as clear as it comes, and part of why I appreciate his writing.  For Dr. Beates, the scripture is the anchor for assessing reality, not how he feels about his circumstance as a father of a daughter with significant disabilities.  He trusts that God is able to do exactly what God has promised.

Dr. Beates then articulates the result of knowing who God is as revealed in God’s word: peace in the midst of painful realities of life.

I hope there will be a way to provide access to the entire chapter for you.  It is not an easy read; I found myself pausing several times to make sure I understood things.  But it isn’t overly academic, either.  There were a couple of places I paused because I’m not sure I agreed.  On the central question about God’s sovereignty, however, I absolutely agree with him!

And he freely and frequently quotes the Bible.  Maybe I read my own desires into it, but I got the impression he quoted so freely because he loves the Bible so much.  I like that as well.

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God is pointing us to something greater than our bodies

Posted in Scripture on July 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The One-Year Tract Bible Reading Plan has been incredibly helpful for me this year.  If you’ve never done it, start today!  There is no reason to begin something this useful only on January 1.

These verses were part of Tuesday’s reading:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart. Jeremiah 9:25-26

Merely in the flesh – that is hard for me to even comprehend because I live in a culture that glorifies the flesh.  What more could there be than my immediate physical needs and desires?  It is no surprise that this culture glorifies strong bodies and denigrates those with disabilities.

Yet, what happens to those ‘circumcised merely in the flesh’?  Punishment. God’s punishment.

The Jeremiah verses above brought to mind another reference to the heart:

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a 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, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. Ephesians 1:16-21

A ‘perfect’ body with an evil heart will end up eternally separated from Jesus, bearing the righteous wrath of God.

Blind eyes attached to an enlightened heart will enjoy Jesus forever.  And they won’t be blind beyond this short life.

But better than seeing, our hearts won’t be tempted to sin anymore!  We will be entirely free!

Not because we toughed it out and earned some little favor from God.  Rather – “that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you (Ephesians 1:18).”  God does it all.

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Tired arguments, good preaching and helpful books

Posted in Scripture on July 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

There are a lot of tired arguments out there.

I just finished watching another preacher try to explain why John 9 (which is about Jesus healing the man born blind) couldn’t possibly be about what it says, “that the works of God might be displayed in him (John 9:3).”   We know it couldn’t mean that, this preacher asserted, because we know that God is love and a loving God would never subject someone to years of blindness.

That would be a mean thing to do to that blind man, said this preacher.  So, rather than try to understand it, we’ll work really hard to turn that passage into a pretzel to mean something else.

It is so tiresome, this desire to turn passages into something else rather than consider God’s word.

Just for the sake of argument, I decided to give this one to him.  Let John 9 mean something else entirely.

But then what do we do with all the other places where God asserts his sovereignty over things we might consider to be ‘bad’?

I didn’t have to dig; I used my readings my One-Year Tract Reading Plan for July 4, from Psalm 135:5-12.  The emphases in bold are mine:

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.

He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast;
who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants;
who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings,
Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan,
and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel.

The Bible returns again and again to this theme:  God is sovereign and free to do whatever he pleases.  I’m glad that John 9:3 actually means what it says it means, without the need to make God into something that he is not.  If you want to hear a proper sermon on this passage, Born Blind for the Glory of God is a good place to start!

And I have this image in my head that this man born blind, rather than accusing God of being mean to him, has spent the last two millenia praising God for granting him spiritual eyes to see and enjoy Jesus forever!  And not only that, his story is part of the story of Jesus!

Then on Monday I started reading The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering  the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism by Kevin DeYoung.  In the foreword, I was surprised and delighted to find that Jerry Bridges deals with several problems when we assert that God is simply a God of love:

The second error in “my God is a God of love” is that it ignores the fact that God is also a God of justice and righteousness.  It ignores the fact that the Bible says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:18).  Because it ignores the bad news of God’s righteous judgment, it fails to tells us the really good news that the God of love did indeed love us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins (1 John 4:10, 1 Corinthians 15:1-3).

This is just one illustration of the bad theology abroad among Christians today. . . pp. 9-10

God has been doing that a lot for me lately.  I’ll read something that is discouraging or hard, or, in this case, simply tired and wearying.  And then he’ll give me multiple gifts – something from his word, a reminder of a helpful sermon, and a phrase from a new book or author that is very encouraging.

And that God, who is both entirely free and entirely sovereign, has said specific things about disability and his intentionality.  I, for one, am grateful that God is so clear that he is the author of disability, for his glory and for my good.

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