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Why I am optimistic about 2012

Posted in commentary, Scripture, Sermons on December 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Friday morning I woke up with no heat in the house because the boiler had failed, Desiring God was still $200,000 from its year-end goal, and Paul had multiple seizures the day before.

I felt crummy.  The little darts and arrows of anxiety and doubt were multiplying.  Yet, I knew enough to say to Dianne, “I am commanded to live without anxiety.” To which she rightly replied, “yes, you are.”

So, the fight began.  And God provided, through something Pastor John had preached just this past Sunday.

This is a longer piece from Pastor John’s most recent sermon, but I encourage you to read it all:

And because we have peace with God because of being justified by faith, we can begin to grow in the enjoyment of peace with ourselves — and here I include any sense of guilt or anxiety that tends to paralyze us or make us hopeless. Here again believing the promises of God with a view to glorifying God in our lives is key.

Philippians 4:6–7 is one of the most precious passages in this regard: “Do not be anxious about anything [the opposite of anxiety is peace], but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God [in other words, roll your anxieties onto God]. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The picture here is that our hearts and our minds are under assault. Guilt, worries, threats, confusions, uncertainties — they all threaten our peace. And Paul says that God wants to “guard” your hearts and minds. He guards them with his peace. He guards them in a way that goes beyond what human understanding can fathom. Don’t limit the peace of God by what your understanding can see. He gives us inexplicable peace, supra-rational peace. And he does it when we take our anxieties to him in prayer and trust him, that he will carry them for us (1 Peter 5:7) and protect us.

When we do this, when we come to him — and remember we already have peace with him! — and trust him as our loving and almighty heavenly Father to help us, his peace comes to us and steadies us, and protects us from the disabling effects of fear and anxiety and guilt. And then we are able to carry on and our God gets the glory for what we do, because we trusted him.

And God provided, again.  As I write this, I am at peace.  The house is still cold (repairman is on the way, Lord willing), I have no idea what donations will look like for Desiring God, and Paul’s doctor is off until next week so we must wait.

In all this, I know God is good.  I have a foreign righteousness supplied by Jesus that lets me come into the presence of the Lord of the universe to seek his help!  Amazing.

That is why I am optimistic about 2012, and I pray you are as well – not because of our circumstances, but because God himself is for us.  And we know how that story will end someday!

And for my friends who are weary this last day of the year, I also recommend a beautiful post by Jon Bloom, A Year-End Prayer for Weary Waiters.  Yes, come quickly, Lord Jesus – next year in Jerusalem!

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Remember, God wins with weakness

Posted in Quotes, Scripture, Sermons on December 10, 2011| 1 Comment »

Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
(Psalm 8:2 ESV)

The peculiar mark of God’s majesty is not just that he stoops to listen to or take thought of or care for infants, but that he makes them the means of his triumphs. God conquers his foes through the weaknesses of the weak—the speech of babies. When you think of God as a warrior, remember: He wins with weakness.

John Piper, The Peculiar Mark of Majesty, Part 1, delivered April 1, 2007.

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With Jesus, two things become unmistakably clear

Posted in commentary, Sermons on November 15, 2011| 1 Comment »

Related to yesterday’s post on joy, Pastor John dealt with the reality of this life and the wonder of Jesus in a helpful way during his sermon on Sunday, If a Grain of Wheat Dies, It Bears Much Fruit:

(Jesus) says, I am going to glory. I am going to bear much fruit. And the way I am going is by hating my life in this world, by suffering and dying for you.

And then he says, Follow me. Die with me. Hate your life in this world with me. Serve me.

Two things become unmistakably clear. One is that this is hard. And the other is that this is glorious.

That’s a little more realistic about the opportunity for joy than buying tools or shoes!

Specifically, Pastor John speaks to how this feeds joy as he concluded the sermon:

So don’t miss the glory and the overflowing joy in this hard life of being a Christian.

  • We die;
  • we hate our lives in this world;
  • we follow Jesus on the Calvary road;
  • we become servants.

And when we do, what we find is that

  • We bear much fruit;
  • we keep our lives for eternal life;
  • we join Jesus where he is in glory;
  • the Father honors us.

The culture, and our own sinful hearts, would have us believe that a child with disabilities destroys any opportunity for joy.  Ironically, to a culture that prizes ease and entertainment, experiencing disability or disease in our families prepares us for real joy guaranteed.

But only if we know Jesus.

Because of Jesus, the Christian looks directly at hard things and understands there is a greater, richer, infinitely glorious thing happening that will bring glory to the Father.  But that isn’t all – it is also ultimately and eternally for our good because we get to be with Jesus.

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God isn’t surprised by disability, or anything else.

Posted in Scripture, Sermons on November 1, 2011| 1 Comment »

Well-meaning preachers and writers will suggest that God never ’causes’ disability, but when disability shows up he is ready and able to do something about it.  I believe that most who say and write such things are hoping to protect God from being accused of doing bad things.

But God takes credit for even worse things than disability.  Like initiating the death of his own son.

And he does it for his glory and our eternal good.

Pastor John’s sermon on Sunday, Jesus Died to Gather the Children of God, landed with unusual power and helpfulness on our family.  The connections to God’s sovereignty – for our good – in really hard things was everywhere, like in the following (emphases in bold are mine):

Caiaphas prophesied (in John 11:49-52), that is, he spoke God’s words, and God said: “It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” God said that. “Better that Jesus die.”Better. “Better than any other plan in the universe.” This is what God said.

Therefore, the death of Jesus was not mainly a tragic set of events which God turned for our good. It was a loving set of events which God planned for our good. God himself served the death warrant on his own Son. He did not just predict it. He unleashed it. This word of prophecy tracked Jesus down into Gethsemane and put him under arrest. There was no escape. This was the word of God. “It is better that he die.”

Pastor John concludes the sermon with five applications, of which this is the first:

Be strong in the face of hard times and seeming defeat, because God is not simply watching and waiting to turn it all for good. He is in it from the beginning planning it for your good.

From the outside, the words of Caiaphas simply looked like a hostile human plan that would bring the Messiah to ruin. But from inside, John shows us that the very words of execution were not just the words of Caiaphas, but God’s words— and God had a totally different plan for these events that anyone could see. And so it will be in your life, again and again. You will see the outside. It will look hostile and destructive. Inside God is at work—for your good.

Don’t judge by appearances. Trust the sovereign planning of God for your good. He gets many victories through apparent defeats.

God is never surprised, nor is he ever defeated.  The best plan ever initiated by God looks like total failure, for a season.  But everything, including disability, will work for your good and my good.  Eventually we will see that clearly, and we will praise him for eternity for it.

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Pastor John has gotten disability right for a long time

Posted in Quotes, Sermons on October 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Sometimes I search the DG website for terms related to disability and find interesting things Pastor John preached or wrote years or even decades ago, like this from his 1982 sermon, Calling All Clay Pots:

Your ordinariness is not a liability; it is an asset, if you really want God to get the glory. No one is too common, too weak, too shy, too inarticulate, too disabled to do what God wants you to do with your gift.

He comes back to this idea as he concluded the sermon:

(B)eing ordinary or disabled is not a liability in the kingdom, but may be an asset if your aim is to glorify God and not yourself in the use of your gift. Therefore, no one is excluded from the call to all clay pots.

No one is excluded.  All have gifts.  Disability can be an asset to glorify God.  Pretty radical stuff for a 36-year-old preacher with healthy, typically-developing children in his home!

Of course, the Bible is full of radical stuff like that.  So my title for this blog post is probably inaccurate and should read something like: God has ALWAYS gotten disability right and Pastor John helpfully points me to God.

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Embarrassed – and happy.

Posted in commentary, Sermons on September 5, 2011| 1 Comment »

I had a feeling this might happen.

Paul was feeling pretty good as we entered church on Saturday evening.  This often means he will be more vocal, especially if a room is quiet.

Pastor Kenny was praying after some music, and the room was much quieter with his lone voice, even amplified.  So, Paul decided to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  He really wasn’t that loud, but I whispered in his hear that he needed to stop singing.

To which he replied, as loud as he could while Pastor Kenny was praying, “STOOOOOPPPPPP ITTTTTT!”

The two of us left the sanctuary.

That was embarrassing.

But, I was also happy – taking him off one drug recently and starting another has actually allowed some of the old Paul to return, the one with personality and the occasional embarrassing outburst.  I was thankful to God for it!

A friend of mine sitting in the front row said he didn’t hear Paul shout out, so maybe he wasn’t as loud as I thought.

But Paul continued chattering away and flapping his hands, so it was a good decision to leave the sanctuary.  Thankfully, I could see and hear everything from the back.  God gave Pastor Sam an extraordinary word from 1 Peter 2, with a closing application on suffering and hope that was jaw-dropping in its power and love.  I’ll post the link when Bethlehem puts it up.

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“Ah, beloved, he loves us better every day.”

Posted in Quotes, Sermons on August 22, 2011| 1 Comment »

From Robert Murray MCheyne, The Lord’s Dealings with His People:

Ah, beloved, he loves us better every day. It was said of Jesus, “He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). So it is with all that are united to him. If, when we were enemies, God loved and Jesus died for us, how much more now, being reconciled by the death of his Son! Ah, yes! he will love us – “I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” 

I would now apply this subject.

To you that are bold, and have no fears – no doubts. Ah! rejoice with trembling. Believer, you are carried by the same hand. The nailed hand of Jesus is underneath you. Walk softly.

To you that are fearful, fear not: your Redeemer is strong. He that brought you to Christ will bring you safe to glory. He, from his throne, will put the crown upon your head – the crown of victory. He will do it -“I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” Greater is he that is for you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). “Fear not, little flock: it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). 

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“Oh, what a blessed privilege it is to be able to ‘think,’ and not be afraid!”

Posted in Quotes, Sermons on August 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I love J.C. Ryle.  And I am deeply grateful to those who preserved his sermons!

The true Christian is the only happy man, because he can “sit down quietly and think about his soul.”

He can look behind him and ahead of him, he can look within him and around him, and feel, “All is well.”

He can think calmly on his past life, and however many and great his sins, take comfort in the thought that they are all forgiven. The righteousness of Christ covers all, as Noah’s flood covered the highest mountain.

He can think calmly about things to come, and yet not be afraid. Sickness is painful; death is solemn; the judgment day is an awful thing: but having Christ for him, he has nothing to fear.

He can think calmly about the Holy God, whose eyes are on all his ways, and feel, “He is my Father, my reconciled Father in Christ Jesus. I am weak; I am unprofitable: yet in Christ He regards me as His dear child, and is well-pleased.”

Oh, what a blessed privilege it is to be able to “think,” and not be afraid!

J.C. Ryle, “Happiness” – a sermon on Psalm 144:15.

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Christianity is not therapy

Posted in commentary, Sermons on August 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

There is too much in our culture that is left to subjective feelings of the moment.  Yet, as we all know and have experienced, feelings change.

Some of the decisions made in the moment have lifelong, even eternal, consequences.

More news on abortion over the weekend left me shaken and angry.

Yet, in the end, no matter what our culture or our churches do or don’t ultimately do to protect the lives of our unborn babies with disabilities, God reigns over all things.

And there is the hope – Jesus is the king, perfect and just and good in everything he does.  All things will be made right by our king; every injustice will be accounted for.

We are not Christians because it makes us feel better; we are Christians because the very source of all joy has called us to himself and personally accounted for every evil we have committed against our Holy God and declared us righteous.

We can experience joy in the midst of great sorrow because he is God and he is glorious.  And that objective reality will help us do what we need to do today as we deal with disability in a culture that would prefer that we or our loved ones would just cease to exist.

Christianity begins with the conviction that God is an objective reality outside ourselves. We do not make him what he is by thinking a certain way about him. As Francis Schaefer said, he is the God who is there.

We don’t make him. He makes us. We don’t decide what he is going to be like. He decides what we are going to be like. He created the universe, and it has the meaning he gives it, not the meaning we give it.

If we give it a meaning different from his, we are fools. And our lives will be tragic in the end. Christianity is not a game; it’s not a therapy. All of its doctrines flow from what God is and what he has done in history.

They correspond to hard facts. Christianity is more than facts. There is faith and hope and love. But these don’t float in the air. They grow like great cedar trees in the rock of God’s truth. . .

Rootless emotionalism that treats Christianity like a therapeutic option will be swept away in the Last Days. Those who will be left standing will be those who have built their house on the rock of great, objective truth with Jesus Christ as the origin, center, and goal of it all.

John Piper, The Fatal Disobedience of Adam and the Triumphant Obedience of Christ, August 26, 2007.

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The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings – Malachi 4:2

Posted in Scripture, Sermons on August 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Back in December of 1987, Pastor John was preaching on Malachi 4:1-3:

“1 For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 4:1-3

And he offered this helpful word on Jesus and the hope before us:

This sun of righteousness rises with healing in its wings.

I can remember the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean nineteen years ago this week. Noël and I were on our honeymoon. We were up early one morning and saw how it happens on the rim of the ocean.

A thin line of orange and red appears along the water. Then it intensifies, brighter and brighter, and you see the brightness focusing more and more on the center of the line, until the flaming ball surges up out of the water. And then you watch it rise up, and in a sense it brings that whole red line on the rim of the water up into the air as though the sun had wings.

When Malachi saw that, God told him: the coming of the Messiah will be like that and the effect of his beauty will be healing. And Jesus was a great healer. All I have time to say now is that though Jesus does not heal every disease in this life, he will heal every disease in the resurrection. In other words Jesus meets the tremendous need we all feel for hope beyond the grave—that all sickness and pain and sorrow and crying will be gone forever.

Amen, Pastor John!

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