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“You do all things well.” Pastor Josh McPherson

Posted in Sermons on May 7, 2012| 1 Comment »

I am very grateful to Justin Tayor for pointing to these videos from Josh McPherson, Pastor of Grace Covenant Church, who just welcomed his fourth child and second with disabilities into the world.

Josh and I corresponded earlier this year.  I’m grateful to God for men like him!  One thing I’m grateful for is in how he prepares his people for suffering through his own experiences.  For example, he shared with them this past January what he wrote in his journal just before they learned their son, Gideon, would also live with Spina Bifida:

“We will entrust ourselves into your hands. We love you Father. Thanks for being good, and for being in control. There is nothing sweeter, nor brings more comfort, than this. You do all things well.”

45 minutes after writing those words, I heard the words, for the second time in my life, “Spina Bifida”, and nothing about what I wrote changed. Will it be hard in the days to come? Most definitely. Has it changed our family forever? Completely. Is there pain? Absolutely. Is there heartache? Certainly. But oh how much more quickly the sun broke through the clouds this time, for we knew that there was design in this suffering, and that brings tremendous hope.

The two minute introduction below is amazing.  Then read or watch the entire sermon and feel the weight of Paul’s description of the Christian life in this man’s home, “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2 Corinthians 6:10).”  I was tremendously blessed and encouraged by it!

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Satan rightly sings his song of accusation. But he forgot the refrain!

Posted in Sermons on April 7, 2012| 1 Comment »

The song is Embracing Accusation by Shane and Shane.

The sermon clip in this video came from Pastor John’s sermon, Command of God: The Obedience of Faith delivered December 3, 2006.

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What does ‘all things new’ actually mean?

Posted in Scripture, Sermons on March 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5 ESV)

There is an unfortunate stream of thinking amongst some that this is related exclusively to a change in our physical existence. Some theologians react so strongly against that incomplete understanding that they deny that disability will end someday.

It certainly means an end to disability.  But it also means so much more!  Emphases in bold are mine:

When God makes all things new, he will make us spiritually and morally as pure as flawless crystal, he will give us a body like the body of his glory, he will renovate all creation to take all futility and evil and pain out of it, and finally he himself will come to us and let us see his face. And so forever and ever we will live with pure hearts and glorious bodies on a new earth in the presence and the glory of our heavenly Father.

John Piper, Behold, I Make All Things New, delivered April 26, 1992

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The main issue isn’t healing

Posted in Quotes, Sermons on February 9, 2012| 2 Comments »

From Pastor John’s sermon, Healed for the Sake of Holiness, delivered on August 23, 2009.  Emphases in bold are mine:

Healing Is the Exception, Not the Rule—For Now

Most people who suffer from disabilities in this life will have them to the day they die. And all of us, till Jesus comes again, will die of something. Here and there, some are healed. We believe in miracles. But even though Jesus had all the power to heal, he did not usher in the final day of perfect wholeness. His ministry points to that day. But while this age of groaning lasts (Romans 8:23), healing is the exception, not the rule. And that is not because we are weak in faith. To be sure, we might see more miracles if we expected more and believed more.

But Jesus left hundreds unhealed at the pool of Bethesda. And told the one man he did heal, who had not even believed on him—to wake up. I am pursuing your holiness. The main issue in this age till Jesus comes back is that we meet him—meet him—in our brokenness, and receive the power of his forgiveness to pursue holiness. In this calling to faith and holiness, the disabled often run faster and farther than many of us who have our legs and arms.

And in the mentally disabled, we simply don’t know how far they are running. Perhaps farther than we think. Jesus knows. Jesus knows everything. And he is compassionate. And he is sovereign.

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In a moment, his future changed forever

Posted in Quotes, Sermons on February 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Luke 5:18-20 ESV

This is, of course, the beginning of the account of Jesus healing a paralytic.  It is told in three of the Gospels – Matthew 9, Mark 2 and here in Luke 5.

The healing that comes is terrific!  But it pales in comparison to that statement: ‘your sins are forgiven you.’  Eventually this man’s body failed and he died, but death could not take away his new life in Jesus!

It is breath-taking how quickly it all changes for him, moving from darkness to light in a single moment.

Charles Spurgeon pointed that out for me in his sermon on Luke 5:20, First Forgiveness, Then Healing:

Observe, that the pardon of sin came in a single sentence. He spake, and it was done. Jesus said “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee,” and they were forgiven him. Christ’s voice had such almighty power about it that it needed not to utter many words. There was no long lesson for the poor man to repeat, there was no intricate problem for him to work out in his mind. The Master said all that was required in that one sentence, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” The burden of a sinner does not need two ticks of the clock for it to be removed; swifter than the lightning’s hash is that verdict of absolution which comes from the eternal lips, when the sinner lies hoping, believing, repenting at the feet of Jesus. It was a single sentence which declared that the man was forgiven.

Simple. Beautiful. Eternal. And entirely about Jesus!

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Do not treat God’s supreme creation with contempt, any of them.

Posted in commentary, Quotes, Sermons on January 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?

Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!

Psalm 8:2-5 NASB

Some argue that rationality and self-awareness are necessary for a human being to be considered a person.  That leaves out all kinds of people with certain kinds of disabilities.

Pastor John points out something a little different – human dignity is not granted based on rationality, but granted by the one who created them!  And though this is not specifically about little ones with disabilities, the connection is clearly evident:

Why is it that what comes out of the mouth of these little humans has such strength that it can overcome the enemies of God? I think the answer is, at least in part, given by verse 5—these little ones are made by God. Job said in Job 31:15, “Did not he who made me in the womb make him [my servant], and the same one fashion us in the womb?” Little infants and sucking babes are each made by God in the womb.

Moreover they are made in the womb, like no other being, a little less than the angels, and they are made in the womb by God and crowned with glory and majesty. In other words, their supreme place in creation under God (or the angels) is so profound even at the stage of being sucklings that when they open their mouth to cry or to coo or to babble as a human being, they are bearing witness to their unspeakable dignity in creation and therefore to the majesty of God’s name in all the earth. God does not wait until a sucking babe is rational and independent to ascribe to him the glory and majesty of verse 5—he doesn’t have to be a NASA scientist. When the suckling opens his mouth, God is praised, strength is established by the sheer truth that a human creation in the image of the majestic God is here.

Let all the adversaries of God take note and tremble. If they treat God’s supreme creation with contempt, they will lose. They will be silenced.

And so I appeal to you, do not join with the adversaries of God in killing unborn children or scorning any race of human beings. Because the truth of this text stands sure: You cannot worship and glorify the majesty of God while treating his supreme creation with contempt.

John Piper, What Is Man?, delivered January 16, 1994.

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Bitter or angry? APTAT

Posted in commentary, Sermons on January 13, 2012| 6 Comments »

Dianne to me: the doctor’s office called and he wants to increase Paul’s meds to 8 ml morning and evening.

Me: you’ve got to be kidding.  What are they thinking?

Backstory: Paul’s medications have helped control his seizures, until a recent five-day span when he had multiple seizures every day.  Dianne has been trying to get some answers and possible changes.  This particular medicine makes him sleepy.  We’ve already seen what happens when we increase this medication – the sleepiness just gets more pronounced.  We don’t want to lose any more time with him!

So, my first response started me down a very bad path, which I don’t say out loud but is rather intensely going on inside: they aren’t paying attention; we’ve gone down this path before; they really don’t care at all about him; what if there’s no real help for him; what is God thinking in adding to our. . . . . . . . . . . .

Then God spoke:

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32 ESV

Time to refocus and engage:

APTAT (from Pastor John’s sermon of this past Sunday, The Word of God Is at Work in You):

Admit – Lord, I hate this and I’m angry.  And I know this could swallow me up whole; I can’t beat it.

Pray – Lord, we need a good answer for Paul and I don’t believe this is it.  Please provide a better course to help him.  Please give us wisdom to do the right thing – what if this is the right thing? And please don’t let me turn my anger into doubting your goodness; I hate that I used to do that and I never want to go back to that.

Trust -But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children. . . Psalm 103:17 ESV  He has not stopped loving Paul or me. Whatever he wants to do, he can do and will do.

Act – Dianne reminded the doctor about the sleepiness and asked for another course. He has prescribed yet another medication, and we are investigating it for ourselves before starting.  We are inclined to pursue this course of action.

Thank – Lord, thank you for 1) helping the doctor to hear Dianne’s concern and thinking through another course, and more importantly 2) reminding me that you did not spare your own son, which immediately reoriented my heart.  Even before I asked for help, you were already providing it.

And here is APTAT in Pastor John’s own words in less than four minutes:

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Tempted to fear? APTAT

Posted in commentary, Scripture, Sermons on January 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I’m going to blatantly steal from Pastor John the next couple of days, from his sermon The Word of God Is At Work In You.

His closing remarks were very practically and particularly helpful:

It helps me to have an acronym called APTAT.

A — I admit I can’t in myself do what needs to be done.
P — I pray for God’s help.
T — I trust a particular promise he has given.
A — I act to do whatever God is calling me to do.
T — I thank him for his help when I am done.

So here’s how it works.

The Temptation of Fear

God has called you do something. You know it’s right, but you’re afraid. What do you do?

You admit honestly and humbly: “I am afraid and I cannot do this by myself.” Then you pray: “O God, grant me courage. Please don’t let me be ruled by fear. Take it away.”

Then you call to mind a specific, tailor-made, blood-bought promise that Christ has guaranteed for you by his blood: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). You trust this promise. You say to God, “I take this promise for myself. I trust you. You are now my help.”

And you act. You act, believing that God, the Holy Spirit, is acting in you by his word through your faith. And when you are done, you bow your head and say, “Thank you. Thank you.”

Fear is something I know; I’m guessing you do as well.  In fact, with Paul’s seizures seeming to have returned, I’m often thinking about how much I don’t want to return to what happened this past summer.

A – I don’t want him to hurt like that again and I’m afraid.  I can’t do anything about them.  I can’t help him.  His body hurts; he hurts; I hurt.

P – Lord, please help him.  Help me know what to do.

T – I frequently go to this verse: “in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16 ESV).  I remember that God knows his days, including the hardest days, and that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39 ESV).  The days are hard, yet we will say with God that it was all worth it.

A – We clean him up, and make sure he is safe and warm and as comfortable as he can be.  Dianne pursues his good through doctors and medicine.  We don’t stop pursuing his good.

T – It is easy to thank God for this boy, and for the help that God provides; “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 ESV).

And we live ‘as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ (2 Corinthians 6:10).

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Should we teach the Bible to those with severe cognitive disabilities?

Posted in commentary, Scripture, Sermons on January 10, 2012| 38 Comments »

Pastor John’s message, The Word of God Is at Work in You, was exceedingly helpful to me and I commend it to you.

As he made seven observations about the text, 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16, to open the sermon, observations 3 and 4 particularly caught my attention.

3. The Thessalonians heard the words of Paul.

Verse 13b: “When you received the word of God, which you heard from us . . .” God spoke, humans gave his word through their words, and the Thessalonians heard that. They heard the sounds. They knew the Greek language. They construed meaning with their minds.

God uses humans to deliver his word, and he delivers it to humans. Human minds hear and understand the word from God, and then another set of human minds receive it from those human mouths and again hear and understand it.

From the perspective of having a child with severe cognitive disabilities, this appears to raise a problem.  My son Paul can ‘hear’ from the sense that his ears work, but he cannot understand or make sense of most of what he hears.  And he also cannot communicate much of what he actually understands.  Is the Gospel closed to him?

Thankfully, the fourth observation follows:

4. As they heard, God acted on their minds and hearts.

What did he do? And how do we know this?

What he did was enable them to receive Paul’s words as the word of God. Verse 13b: “When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.” That’s what God did.  He opened their mind and heart to know that Paul was speaking the word of God, and he gave them the inclination to receive it for what it is, not mere human words, but God’s word.

How do we know God did this? Because at the beginning of verse 13, just before saying that they received his word as the word of God, Paul says, “And we also thank God constantly for this.” For what?, “That when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.”

But why would Paul thank God for this? Why would he thank God that the hearts of the Thessalonians grasped the divine nature of the human word? Why would he thank God that the hearts of the Thessalonians embraced the human words as divine word? The reason is that God enabled them to do this.

I may be going out on a limb with this, but if it is necessary for God to make this understanding possible for people with ‘normal’ cognitive abilities, is it not also possible for God to do so for those with limited cognitive abilities?  After all, he knows everything about every human being that he has made, and when compared to God, all of us live with pretty impaired cognitive abilities!

The Thessalonians could communicate that they understood these words were coming from God, but that doesn’t change the primary actor being God.  Paul was obviously encouraged to know how it was being received!  But the evidence of their receiving it was only that – evidence of God’s prior actions to give them understanding.

So, I don’t think it is a stretch to include those who have limited abilities to understand anything and no ability to communicate what they understand as being entirely able, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to embrace truths about who God is and what he has done for them.

When Paul was younger we spent time teaching him Bible verses. He even earned a bag after reciting five verses.  But I gave up on that because I didn’t think it was really worthwhile; he was just repeating a string of words.

Or so I assumed.  Maybe there was more going on than I realized through the work of the Holy Spirit.  It raises questions about whether I believe Isaiah 55:10-11 to be true:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
(Isaiah 55:10-11 ESV)

What do you think?

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God kindly prepared us for worship in the Word – then blew me away

Posted in commentary, Sermons on January 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Church was about as good as it gets yesterday.

I ran into this verse on a wall before we headed into the sanctuary:

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)

What a comfort – sorrow will flee rather than cling to us!  Joy – everlasting joy! – will be on our heads!

That was a good start.

Then the service began.  Over lunch every member of the family commented on how helpful the music was!

This was new for me: All Flesh Is Like the Grass

A favorite of mine: Our Great God:

Especially appreciated by the children: Christ is Risen:

And then the sermon!  Pastor John addressed a significant issue for those of us with children with severe cognitive impairment – not intentionally and not specifically in those words and I’m guessing he didn’t even have us in mind.

But as soon as the words left his lips, the connection between the point he made and comfort for those of us raising children with severe cognitive impairment seemed clear.  Lord willing, I’ll raise it later this week, after the sermon is up at Desiring God so I can read and listen to it again to make sure I heard what I think I heard.

Paul slept through the sermon and then through Sunday School, so he didn’t get as much out of it as I did!  But even that was a grace, in a way.  God is good.

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