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Don’t Waste Your Life – for your son’s sake

March 25, 2010 by John Knight

A few months ago my dad was looking around his church in Winona and thinking about his grandson with disabilities – and decided he needed to do something at his church.

If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know my affections for my dad.  God made him into a truly great man in my life, and about the best grandfather that exists on the planet for a little boy with multiple disabilities.  I am grateful to God for him.

He just turned 80 in January.

So, his phone call to me last night was to report on the most recent meeting of the group that is creating a disability ministry at his church, a group that he quietly started and includes pastoral leadership as well as several others from the church.  He was pretty excited about it.

I am sitting here in tears, grateful that my dad isn’t wasting his life but still looking for ways to bring more people into the kingdom of Jesus.

And I think about my boy, who will never be ‘productive’ from a worldly sense.  Through his grandfather’s love for him, expressed in an entirely different setting, how many people will God call into that kingdom?  Outcomes that lead to an eternity with Jesus seem productive to me!

I don’t think of my dad as ‘aged.’  But this verse is really appropriate tonight from Proverbs 17:6:

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged,
and the glory of children is their fathers.

Thanks, Dad, for continuing to teach me what love and perseverance look like.

Posted in Helpful things | 3 Comments »

“God is still God. And God is still good.”

March 24, 2010 by John Knight

Zac Smith is a young man dealing with cancer.  It is worth the four and a half minutes to watch to the end.

Thank you to my friend Martin who sent me this link.

Posted in Helpful things | Tagged | 1 Comment »

Pastor David Michael on God’s Good Design in Disability

March 23, 2010 by John Knight

Is Just the Way I Am simply the product of a family, particularly one young woman, who has made ‘lemonade out of lemons’ by persevering through hardship and now has a good story to tell?  Or is there something much more profound, God-centered and God glorifying happening?

David Michael is the Pastor for Parenting and Family Discipleship at Bethlehem, and has been an advocate for the disability ministry at Bethlehem from before its beginnings.  Here is what he has to say about God’s work in Krista Horning’s life:

Nearly a decade has passed since I first met Krista and her family. Her teen years proved to be fruitful and life-shaping. For Krista, Apert syndrome was not a curse to be endured; it was an asset to be invested. Her Maker had a plan for her life and that plan was unfolding before our eyes. Her heart had been uniquely shaped in a way that gave her special understanding, special love, and special influence with other disabled children. She volunteered her time to bless these children and the organizations that serve them.

Our church has many members, and Krista is one of them. There are varieties of gifts and varieties of service. Krista has been given her portion and she has not wasted it.

From Just the Way I Am: God’s Good Design in Disability, p. 54.

The entire Horning family is very special to me.  Krista served my own son for several years before they started attending the South Campus.

But this book is not primarily about Krista – it is rightly focused on God and his good, sovereign design as evidenced in Krista’s life and the lives of all the children who are pictured.

What God is doing through young people like Krista Horning is exciting and life-giving!  And I can hardly wait for more of you to see this book to better understand who our God is – great and mighty in all his ways, kind in all he does, and sovereign over all his creation.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Just the Way I Am – Book Sample

March 22, 2010 by John Knight

I had the privilege of being with Krista and Mary Horning when a sample of their book arrived.  It was a very sweet moment!

Lord willing, it will arrive for distribution sometime in May!  Please pray – there are so many families and churches who need this message that God is sovereign over all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ, including disability.

Posted in Book Commentary, News | 5 Comments »

In His Image – a blog by a healthcare professional

March 21, 2010 by John Knight

God has blessed me with many people as we have walked this path of disability.  One is a young woman who writes the blog, In the Small Stuff.

Her blog posting for March 19 is stunning; I highly recommend it.

And please join me in asking God to make her view of God and his purposeful creation of people with disabilities the norm among medical professionals rather than the exception.

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What would you tell them?

March 20, 2010 by John Knight

On Monday I’ll be speaking to a group of Bethlehem volunteers who serve our children as small group leaders in the Sunday School program.  In many ways, they are the ‘front-line’ in our disability ministry, as the children with disabilities are also included, as much as possible, in the small groups in the Sunday School classes.

The disability aides make the classes accessible for the individual children with disabilities.  But it is the small group leaders, by their words, actions, and attitudes, who lead the other children in how to think about, welcome, include and love the children with disabilities.

I have some preparations remaining, but am mostly ready to speak to them.  I usually organize it around the story of God’s goodness to my family and the great truth of God’s sovereignty as expressed in the following:

Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Exodus 4:11

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; 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 139:13-16

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”  John 9:1-3

If you were to talk to such a group, what would you tell them?

Posted in Special Events | 6 Comments »

Pray – and fuel the fire from heaven

March 19, 2010 by John Knight

Thank you to my wife who pointed me to Kevin DeYoung’s blog posting on Wednesday where he was highlighting the books of Ben Patterson, who wrote the following, which I found really helpful:

Ponder this scene in the throne room of heaven: An angel stands before God holding a golden censer, burning incense that is mixed with the prayers of the saints on earth. These prayers go up before God, and then are mixed with fire from the altar and hurled back down on earth. The amazing result is cataclysm on earth, “peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake” (Rev. 8:5).

Now picture the saints on earth, huddled in their prayer meetings. If their experience of prayer is anything like mine can be, they may often feel their prayers are barely making it to the ceiling, or are dribbling out and rustling across the floor like dry leaves. Prayer doesn’t frequently bring with it the sensation of cosmic power unleashed, what poet Georg Herbert called “reversed thunder.” But that is exactly what is happening! The whole creation is shaken by the prayers of the saints. Something is happening as they pray. Work is being done, whether they see it or not. Deepening Your Conversation, 24-25

I need encouragements like that!  The unusual daily routines associated with disability in many families can become a grind.  The prayers for strength to face the day can become rote, or feel ineffective. I’m glad the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1).  And I am grateful for faithful men who point me to the power of God.

Posted in Book Commentary | 1 Comment »

An update from Matt Chandler

March 18, 2010 by John Knight

Pastor Matt Chander continues his fight against cancer, with a future hope of eternal joy!

“Wanted to root myself in the truth.”  Powerful example of continuing to read in the word, even passages we might consider familiar.

I loved his preaching before he became ill with the cancer.  God has given him even more credibility as he now lives suffering and the sovereignty of God.

Thank you to Justin Taylor for pointing me to it.

Posted in commentary | 1 Comment »

A mission to pray for and watch

March 17, 2010 by John Knight

I had the privilege of meeting with Rod Conner of To Every Tribe Ministries on Tuesday.

God has given them a potential opportunity to serve deaf Christians in Mexico!  Please pray that this opportunity would become reality.  The impact could be huge!

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Jesus takes away every evil thing by his own power

March 16, 2010 by John Knight

What are we like?  We are entirely covered in our own sin, like a body covered with the sores of leprosy.

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged.

Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.  Isaiah 1:4-6

What is Jesus like?  He takes away every sin making us entirely clean by his own power, like he healed a man covered from head to toe with leprosy.

While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. Luke 5:12-13

Thank you to Pastor Mark Driscoll who helped me see this when he preached on Luke 5 in February.  I’m only half-way through that sermon and looking forward to the rest!

Posted in Sermons | Leave a Comment »

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