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Archive for the ‘Scripture’ Category

Evidence of God’s Grace: Devotion at Mom’s Event Last Week

Posted in Scripture, Special Events, tagged , on October 19, 2009| 3 Comments »

When God blesses, he is often extravagant!  When he called Kempton Turner to Bethlehem, he called Caryn Turner as well.  This brother and sister in Jesus live the command to ‘encourage one another every day’ in how they speak, write, parent and give of themselves to tell the world about Jesus.

Caryn prepared this devotion for the mothers of children with disabilities last week.  God is glorified when he is made much of in all circumstances!

Evidence of God’s Grace in Affliction (presented by Caryn Turner on Tuesday, October 13)

“I can’t do that!”, “What are they thinking?”, “Don’t they know what I go through?”

“My life is hard enough!”, “How can I serve others with a child like this?”

I’ve said all of these statements before.  I’m sure I’m not alone.  Many times parents of children with special needs feel that their circumstances or afflictions give them a valid excuse from doing many things.  Logically speaking, they’re right!  Families affected by disability tend to have less time and energy to do anything extra besides caring for the immediate needs of their family.  However, whether your trials and afflictions are pertaining to disability or not, the Bible says that all believers will be afflicted in some way.  Psalm 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.”  So, as we wait & hope for Christ’s deliverance, how are we to live?  How can we serve others and glorify God in our afflictions? (more…)

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Pastor Kempton at Grace Church Yesterday

Posted in Scripture, Special Events on October 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The audio and video are both a little rough.  We’re working on getting it cleaned up and hopefully posted soon.

But for now, be encouraged by finding your strength in the joy of the Lord!

Pastor Kempton Turner at Grace Church 10-17-09 from John Knight on Vimeo.

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A Strange Anniversary

Posted in News, Prayer Requests, Scripture, tagged on October 12, 2009| 6 Comments »

Five years ago today, Dianne went to see a surgical oncologist who confirmed that she has breast cancer.  By the end of that week it would be diagnosed as Stage IV cancer, having spread from her breast through her lymph nodes to her bones in her back and ribs.

Stage IV cancer is a strange thing.  As her doctors have said on more than one occasion, “you will die with it; our goal is that you don’t die of it.”  And, praise God, she is able to serve in the roles she loves best today, as mother and wife and member of the church.

To this day, Dianne, good mother that she is, counts the 17 days that Johnny was in the NICU as the hardest days of her life.  My hardest days were those following that cancer diagnosis, through chemotherapy, surgery and then radiation.

Hardest days, but not the worst days. (more…)

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Be Not Anxious – Including About Finances?

Posted in News, Scripture on October 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The Star Tribune had a good summary of the impact of having a child with a disability on the financial planning of a family in today’s paper.  Appropriate levels of life and disability insurance, special-needs trusts, and other plans are all important and familiar to most families experiencing disability.  Many of those plans are driven by a concern about what the future will hold, both for the child and for the rest of the family.

But being prepared or knowledgeable is not the same as living without anxiety.  For me, those plans actually serve to raise my anxiety while I’m in the midst of thinking about and finalizing those plans.

Paul brought together both things – reasonableness and living without anxiety – in his closing of his letter to the Philippians:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice – always?  Yes, the Lord is at hand!  Do not be anxious about anything?  Pray that God will help in all that we need.  God will provide, even after we can no longer take care of our children with disabilities ourselves.

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Helpful Things: Young People Who Treasure the Word of God

Posted in Scripture on September 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

One of my favorite young adults in the world, who also happens to have a disability, has this as her life verse:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

It is helpful when young people who have gone through very hard things remind me that God is good and he can be trusted!  She loves Jesus (as do her parents!), prays diligently, and is working on a book that I believe God will use to change lives and attitudes.  This book doesn’t exist yet, but Lord willing, it will by spring of 2010.  Please pray that will happen.

And it started with believing that God’s word is reliable and true.  Thank you, Krista, for your happy example that God is sovereign in all things.

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Pray for our colleges and seminaries

Posted in commentary, Scripture on September 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

One of the reasons I’m praying for the Bethlehem College and Seminary is because they are filled with passionate faculty!  Please consider subscribing to their weekly prayer email so you can pray with them through the year.  Affections for God are important, and should not be assumed.  Here’s why:

I’m reading an old Journal of Biblical Literature article from 1970 on Mark 2 and the use of the term ‘son of man’ in the account of Jesus healing the paralytic.

It is very dry.

But that isn’t the problem because the subject is inherently interesting for me.

The problem is that the writer is completely lacking any affections for the scripture, God or Jesus. Or if he has some, those affections are so buried under his academic language I can’t find them!  And that leads to a bigger problem.

(more…)

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Flash: Isaac, Jacob and Eli Had Eye Problems Because They Were Elderly!

Posted in Scripture on September 12, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Ok, the title is a little sarcastic, and I actually like the fact that an Israeli doctor took the time to consider what might have physically happened to those three men from the Old Testament.

I was looking up something else and I came across “What Diseases of the Eyes Affected Biblical Men?”  in the 2002 edition of the journal Gerontology. Unfortunately I can’t provide a link to that article.

Dr. Ben-Noun’s conclusion:

It is more likely that either mature cataract, or age-related macular degeneration, or asymptomatic open-angle glaucoma, or ischemic optic neuropathy or optic nerve atrophy were associated with visual loss. Corneal ulceration or scarring can also be considered. Hereditary causes of optic nerve atrophy and retinal degeneration can be excluded.

What Diseases of the Eyes Affected
Biblical Men?

In other words, they were getting older and their eyesight was failing.

As we get older, the opportunity for disability also increases, and increases substantially.  God knows that, and even in the lives of those men he used their failing sight to orchestrate very important things.   So it is good to hang onto his word:

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26

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Defining Moments: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Posted in Scripture, tagged , , on September 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

You already know how much I appreciate Caryn Turner’s blog, and she again has provided a personal, helpful reminder of who God is.  It is also in the spirit of yesterday’s blog about Fighter Verses on this site.

So, enjoy Caryn’s Fearfully and Wonderfully Made post for its God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-believing truths.  Our God really is that good.

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Fearfully and Wonderfully Disabled: Fighterverses.com

Posted in Scripture, tagged on September 9, 2009| 2 Comments »

Isn’t that a great title!  I wish I had thought of it.

Tyler Kinney, a friend and colleague at Desiring God, writes and posts the weekly verse at FighterVerses.com.

As he was posting this week’s verses, Psalm 139:13-14, he remembered that I had made a connection between Psalm 139:13-14, Exodus 4:11 and John 9:2-3.  So, he brought it together under that great title above, Fearfully and Wonderfully Disabled.  And then he linked it all to my talk on disability and the Bible at the Children Desiring God conference earlier this year.

I’m going to use that title for something.  After I ask him, of course.

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Bad Books Still Deserve Good Proofreaders and Editors

Posted in Scripture, tagged , on September 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Graduate Theological Education and the Human Experience of Disability represents scripture poorly.  It is one of the most disappointing books on theology and the Bible I have yet to read.

But there is one example of quoting scripture that is particularly problematic.  On page 9, in an article written by the late Harold Wilke, he has begun a discussion of the passage in Leviticus 21 which outlines 12 diseases or disabling conditions that would prevent one of Aaron’s descendants from becoming the high priest.

It is a difficult passage.  But when rightly understood as pointing to the perfect High Priest, Jesus, the difficulty melts away in the extraordinary goodness and beauty of God.  I may write on this as I did 2 Kings 5 at some point in the future.

Unfortunately, in a pivotal sentence in Leviticus 21:22, the proofreader completely blew it!  Here is what is in the book, quoting from the Goodspeed and Smith Translation:

He may at his God’s food, some of the most sacred as well as the sacred. . .

It should read:

He may eat his God’s food, some of the most sacred as well as the sacred. . .

In other words, God himself is guaranteeing that those descendants of Aaron who have disabling conditions may eat of God’s food, even the most sacred.  Several thousand years before the ADA was passed, God is making a legal statement about his creation with disabilities and specifically protecting their economic interests.  But you won’t see that in Wilke’s article because the proofreader missed an awkward sentence and didn’t double-check the scriptures for accuracy.

In God’s providence, I wonder if God wants that awkward sentence to be placed in Wilke’s article in that book.  Might at least some scholars (this is a book for graduate students) read the awkward sentence above and realize a mistake was made?  And in looking up the actual wording, become exposed to the power and wonder of a sovereign God?

I pray that is the case.  But overall, I hope nobody is reading that book.

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