To help us prepare for the Question and Answer session at the Disability Conference in two weeks, I asked for questions on this blog. Registered participants were emailed asking for their questions.
We received more than 100 responses!
Not one of them is ‘simple’ in terms of how to respond. Some were heart-breaking – sometimes because I have struggled with exactly the same thing about culture, or church, or my own feelings, or finances, or how other people talk about disability, or not clearly understanding God’s word.
And some were hopeful – how to help a church that is awakening to this issue of disability and God’s word, how to encourage other families experiencing similar things, how a pastor can be more proactive for his people with disabilities.
Every question made me pause to ask God for help. Frankly, it was overwhelming to see them all in one place, this range of hurt and disappointment and desire and expectation and pain. Is it even possible to do this in ways that will help people? God brought this scripture to me:
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31 ESV)
Yes, let us boast in the Lord! He will help.
Please pray for us as we prepare, particularly for Pastor Kempton in his facilitation role. May God make it an unusually fruitful time for discussion about God, disability and the church.
Reminder: This event will be live-streamed at http://www.desiringGod.org/live on November 8, including the questions and answer session. The times on the conference schedule are all central standard time. There is also still time to register to attend in person!
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The Works of God 
Three weeks from today – please pray!
Posted in commentary, Prayer Requests, Special Events on October 18, 2012| 2 Comments »
I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf . . . (Romans 15:30 ESV)
In three weeks we will gather to celebrate God’s Good Design in Disability at Bethlehem’s North Campus. It is a weighty and ultimately beautiful subject. But it requires us to constantly fight against the tide of culture and, I must admit, my own sinful desires for an easy life.
I’m praying that God will change peoples’ lives through this conference – that their heart eyes (Ephesians 1:18) will be opened, maybe for the first time, to who Jesus is. And for those who already know God this way, to be encouraged and emboldened in their faith. Would you pray with me about that?
Would you also pray for our speakers? They carry a joyous and heavy responsibility to help us see God and his word more clearly on this subject of disability and suffering.
Please also pray for our events staff and volunteers. I am so encouraged by their faithfulness in attending to details for our sake, and there are hundreds of details they are attending to these days!
Please pray, and then let us see what God might be pleased to do!
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