The Works of God

Today is the second day of the Desiring God annual Conference for Pastors.  This year’s topic is God, Manhood and Ministry: Building Men for the Body of Christ.

Please pray for these pastors (and all pastors!) who lead hundreds of churches that reach tens of thousands of people.  This issue is really important for children with disabilities – if ever men needed to be built up for the sake of the body of Christ, it is for them!

And I know of exactly one disability ministry (and its a good one) that didn’t have the active, vocal support of their pastors as they got started. Good, Biblical leadership is really important.

May God be pleased to build up our leaders who serve us and lead us to God.  And may we be a pleasure for them to serve:

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 1 Timothy 5:17 ESV

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I ran into Sears and saw at least twenty of these signs hanging from the ceiling and on the door.

I mean, come on!  Even hardened materialists understand that more ‘stuff” only buys a fleeting moment of satisfaction and just as frequently a longer season of buyer’s regret.

But then I found myself feeling sorry for the marketing department of this very large retailer.  They have to find some way to make their store stand out from other stores.

So, they tap into something that people actually want, something real and lasting.  From that standpoint, choosing joy wasn’t such a bad idea.

Except that you can’t really attach ‘joy’ to clothes and tools and television sets.

A year ago I posted the McDonalds ad that featured coffee as the pathway to joy.  Joy is still a powerful motivator, even in a culture as materialistic and cynical as ours.  And this sign was an indicator, again, that we want our joy cheap and easily accessible.

Our children with disabilities help us understand that joy frequently isn’t cheap or easily accessible.  In fact, in the early years I would have said that joy was impossible in the midst of all the emotional, financial, spiritual and educational ‘stuff’ attached to disability.  Yet, today, I can say that I have experienced joy in the midst of hard things.

It is one of the reasons I quote Paul so frequently: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything (2 Corinthians 6:10 ESV).

And, in fact, we do have a guarantee of real joy!

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:11-14 ESV).

Now that is real joy, indeed!

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Today is a sad day of remembrance.

Like the extraordinary events of previous generations – the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the assassination of President Kennedy, for example – I can immediately answer the question of where I was on the morning of September 11, 2001 when I heard an airplane had struck a tower in New York.

None of my children can do that.  They will have their own extraordinary event someday.

It would be beyond wonderful if that event was the return of Jesus!  What an extraordinary event that will be!

Someday. . .

Until that day let us not forget that in addition to the thousands who died in New York and Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, thousands more became disabled – like the first responders who are developing cancers related to breathing the poisonous fumes or the survivors who have lived with crippling depression and anxiety since that day.

God knows what we all need.  He will help us.

I appreciated the prayer posted by The Gospel Coalition for this day.  It also ends with a great plea: Come Lord Jesus!

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Pastor Bud Burk shepherds the children’s program at the downtown and south campuses and has been a great proponent for including all the children, including our ‘different’ children.  From the first time I met this man, before he was hired at Bethlehem, I knew I could learn a great deal from him about trusting in the sovereignty of God in all things.

On Sunday he prayed so beautifully and powerfully before Pastor Kempton’s sermon that I asked him if I could have it and post it. His response (with his trademark earnestness and humility): “it wasn’t me; it was all scripture!”  But he allowed that if it would help the body, he would share it.

Here it is.  May we all learn to pray like this!

Bud Burk, Prayer of Praise: July 24, 2011

Previous Song: “Hallelujah What a Savior”

Following Song: “Wonderful Merciful Savior”

“Savior, You showed Your love – Defeated our sin, poured out Your blood

So we praise You, Lamb that was slain – We offer our lives to proclaim – What a Savior!”

(Drawn from Isaiah 53)

You were despised and rejected by men

You were a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief

As one from whom men hide their faces

You were despised and we did not esteem You

Surely You have born our griefs and carried our sorrows

Yet we esteemed You stricken, smitten of God and afflicted

But You were wounded for our transgressions

But You were crushed for our iniquities

But You received chastisement that brought our peace

But You healed us by the stripes You received

What a Savior!

You are supreme in kindness

You are supreme in goodness

You are supreme in compassion

You are supreme in mercy

You are supreme in grace

You are supreme in wrath without sin

You are supreme in wisdom

(Drawn from Philippians 4:8)

You are supreme in all that is true

You are supreme in all that is honorable

You are supreme in all that is just

You are supreme in all that is pure

You are supreme in all that is lovely

You are supreme in all that is commendable

You are supreme in all that is excellent

You are supreme in all that is worthy of praise

What a Savior – We praise You

“When He comes, our glorious King – All His ransomed home to bring

Then anew this song we’ll sing – Hallelujah, hallelujah”

(Drawn from Revelation 5:9, 13)

Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals

For by Your blood You ransomed people for God

From every tribe and language and people and nation

To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be

Blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever

We pray in Your name Jesus

Our wonderful, merciful Savior; our precious Redeemer and Friend

Amen

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A couple of weeks ago I was lamenting that I would never experience my oldest son learning how to drive.

His mother and grandmother reminded me that he already knows how to drive!

That little driver in the middle is a boy who is completely blind, living with severe autism and cognitive disabilities, driving a golf cart as fast as it will go.

It has been a few years since he was interested in doing that.  But its a fun memory.

This was from last week on our vacation.  He still enjoys riding!

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Now a ‘what’ but a ‘who’!

My niece came to visit this past weekend, and she was able to coax a few smiles out of our boy (and a lot of smiles out of the rest of us!).  Those smiles have been few and far between with these spells of his, so that little smile on his face is like gold.

God is kind to provide good gifts, like people who can light up a house with their presence!

A glad heart makes a cheerful face. Proverbs 15:13a

May God be pleased to provide such a person in your life today.

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Thank you to Jan Lacher for pointing me to this.  This video has been around for almost a year, but I just saw it and was reminded, again, how extraordinary is the love of God toward us.

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On Thursday morning I received one of those work emails that nobody likes to get.  A project was not going as planned and would require significant thought and redirection.

So, as I got Paul up to get him ready for school my mind was not on him or on God, but was filled with thoughts and ideas along with a bit of a complaining spirit.

And God intervened.

As I walked Paul to the toilet he happily cried out, “trust in the Lord with all your heart!”

Why did he do that?  I can only conclude the Holy Spirit told him to.  There weren’t any other external factors to encourage him to do it – no music tapes, no conversation about God, certainly nothing I was doing in that moment.

It had the effect of both chastising me and encouraging me.  Even the little spark of mumbling in my soul appeared very wicked in that instant.  And at the same time, I knew that God would help me on every level – with the project, with killing my sin, even with trusting him.

I found Dianne and told her what Paul had done, to which she replied, “our little prophet.”  Indeed!

And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:19-21

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Thanks to Daniel Knight who was searching through books I read as a boy, read these strips to his mother who then suggested them for the blog.

From Take it easy, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz.

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