I don’t know exactly when it will be ready, but we are now weeks rather than months away from having it, Lord willing.
Here is the cover.
That is Pastor Kempton Turner with his oldest son, Christian.
There is more I will say about this cover later. For now, just enjoy.
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Paul and Barnabas go to Lystra in Acts 14, and God performs a miracle:
Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. Acts 14:8-10
The crowds literally go wild:
And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” Act 14:11
Shortly after, the people of Lystra respond differently:
But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. Act 14:19
I believe God has the sovereign authority and ability to do whatever he wants with his creation, including miracles of physical healing in our present day. I don’t believe they are the norm, however.
And the above example from Acts 14 demonstrates that the presence of miracles is not enough to change hearts. Those people in Lystra observed the healing, proclaimed Paul a god, and then tried to kill him!
So, I pray, earnestly, for my wife that God would keep her cancer at bay. But neither she nor I need a miracle to believe that God is who he says he is. God did that work when he gave us faith.
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Christian Turner is one of my favorite works of God, and it is his birthday today (Wednesday)!
See pictures and a delightful, God-honoring testimony from his mother here.
The handsome man in the pictures is his father. Kempton is one of my pastors at Bethlehem, and a man I deeply respect. He loves Jesus, and knows how to preach – you can listen to him here!
Thank you, Father, for this boy and for his entire family. They are a precious gift to me and to Bethlehem! Amen.
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Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.
The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 29:15-19
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Frances Kissling, the former president of Catholics for Choice and Kate Michelman, the former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post a week before what is now known as the Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad was aired.
Titled “What Tim Tebow’s Super Bowl ad can teach the pro-choice movement,” they seem to believe that the leaders in the pro-life movement are just better at messaging than those who support abortion. For example:
People want to be inspired, and abortion is as tough and courageous a decision as is the decision to continue a pregnancy. But the conversation is being led by Focus on the Family and its quarterback ambassador. It’s a high-profile example of the savvy way the antiabortion movement has tailored its message. . .
Women’s and choice groups responding to the Tebow ad should take a page from the Focus on the Family playbook. Erin Matson, the National Organization for Women’s new vice president, called the Tebow spot “hate masquerading as love.” That kind of comment may play well in the choice choir, but to others, it makes no sense, at best; at worst, it’s seen as the kind of stridency that reinforces the view that pro-choice simply means pro-abortion.
Yes, I would agree it reinforces that view.
The editorial struck me as odd. Without any sense of irony or even acknowledging a difference in principles, they talk about the abhorrent practice of partial-birth abortion, the numbers of abortions in 1989, the advances that science has allowed in watching the development of a baby in the womb, how Americans increasingly consider themselves pro-life, and even quote an African-American football player equating Roe v. Wade with the shameful Dred Scott Decision of the Supreme Court in 1857. And Frances Kissling and Kate Michelman are for legalized abortion! Talk about a problem with marketing.
They close their editorial with this paragraph:
So here’s our Super Bowl strategy for the choice movement. We’d go with a 30-second spot, too. The camera focuses on one woman after another, posed in the situations of daily life: rushing out the door in the morning for work, flipping through a magazine, washing dishes, teaching a class of sixth-graders, wheeling a baby stroller. Each woman looks calmly into the camera and describes her different and successful choice: having a baby and giving it up for adoption, having an abortion, having a baby and raising it lovingly. Each one being clear that making choices isn’t easy, but that life without tough choices doesn’t exist.
Of course life includes difficult choices; that isn’t even an argument worth raising. This is not a marketing campaign. And I notice there are some important female voices not included in the above suggestions from Frances Kissling and Kate Michelman: the more than 500,000 baby girls who were aborted last year.
Part of the controversy, though it did not end up in the ads that I saw, was the fact that Pam Tebow chose to continue her pregnancy with Tim even though there was a risk of fetal deformity. Pam Tebow chose the better, harder path – and ended up with a Heisman Trophy-winning son.
Now, 23 years later, doctors can diagnose more accurately and at earlier stages of development many types of disabilities in the womb. Going forward, more women will know with greater certainty that the unborn child they carry has a disability. And we must still make the case that having that child is the better, harder path to take.
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Politicians from both sides of the aisle have been caught using the word ‘retarded’ in a demeaning way over the past several months. Of all people, those who have their words scrutinized should know better.
But I’m not writing today to pile on – I know my own heart well enough to know that while certain words are off-limits, my heart still harbors evil against others.
I’ve been thinking about how to address the issue of language and the condition of my heart. The church covenant I entered into at Bethlehem includes several helpful statements. For example, here is statement four of the six that make up the entire covenant:
We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay.
I know the Church Covenant is specifically addressing the community of members at Bethlehem. But the principles of being ‘slow to take offense’ and ‘always ready for reconciliation’ are worth striving for as one who clings to a savior who sacrificed his very life for sinners like me.
Plus, I know that God has already assigned special protection to those with disabilities:
You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:14
So, let us not demean politicians who use language carelessly. Yes, such things need to be addressed because they do harm others, like my own boy. But their words are only pointing to the condition of their hearts. We do them no favors by merely encouraging them to hide that condition rather than turning their trust to our savior.
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February is Black History Month in the United States, so it seems appropriate to point out a common evil: abortions are disproportionately carried out on babies with disabilities and babies with black skin.
Abort73.com reports what this means in percentages and actual numbers of black children being aborted:
According to the most recent census data, black women make up 12.3% of the female population in America, but account for 35% of all U.S. abortions – that according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The Guttmacher Institute (AGI) puts the percentage of black abortions at 37% of the U.S. total. . .
Not only are black children being killed at a far greater percentage than white children, they’re being killed in greater numbers, period. Is that not shocking?! Though the white population in the U.S. outnumbers the black population five to one, abortion kills more black children than white children, every day.
And what should our response be?
John Ensor provides this endorsement of one strategy:
African-American Sylvia Johnson created a “best practice” pregnancy help clinic in Houston starting in the 1980’s. For nearly 25 years she has been quietly cross-bearing for the child-bearing. By 2033, I expect the Black Church to have opened similar clinics in the most abortion-targeted neighborhoods of our cities. Where they open, abortion businesses close (emphasis mine)—because most women resort to abortion more than choose it; and when they are provided help they choose life.
Let us find many more ways to help women and men choose life.
But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14
Let the little children come – all of them, including the babies with disabilities and the babies who would be born with black skin.
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Lord willing, Krista Horning’s book, Just the Way I Am, will be ready in March for distribution.
It is one of the most important books on disability and the Bible yet written. You will understand that is not an exaggeration when you see it.
Pastor John has been wonderfully supportive of its creation, and you can listen to what he had to say about it a couple of weeks ago. This clip is about 90 seconds long:
John Piper on Just the Way I Am by Krista Horning
He made that statement during his January 24, 2010 sermon, Born Blind for the Glory of God. If you have been touched at all by disability, this is a sermon you will want to watch.
Please pray that the book will be ready soon! I will provide more details as I have them.
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The Desiring God Conference for Pastors is over and all the messages can be found here.
I met some incredible men over the three days. Some of those men have dealt with extraordinary personal pain:
There were others, and judging by attendance in the prayer room and after the Tuesday evening session, the pastors experiencing deep waters outnumbered those who are not.
There were two consistent things I observed in and heard from these leaders who are experiencing joy in God in the midst of serious trials:
I want to be part of that second group for my pastors! I’m not entirely sure what that means for me as I write this. I know it includes prayer – and I love praying for the many men God has used in my life at Bethlehem.
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 1 Timothy 5:17
I have been ‘ruled well’ by my pastors and want to give them double honor. What can we do for these men who carry so much as they faithfully serve their churches?
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The Works of God 
Kempton Turner: When Lightning Strikes Twice
February 13, 2010 by John Knight
The man featured yesterday on the cover of Just the Way I Am is Kempton Turner, a pastor at Bethlehem. God has made him into a remarkable man.
God gave a special gift to my family, which is echoed by all the families with disabled children, when he called Kempton and Caryn and their children to Bethlehem over two years ago. They are a joy-filled, God-centered couple who fill up our network of families with encouragement in the word and confidence in God. I count it a privilege to know them. And I recommend Caryn’s blog as well!
Pastor Kempton was interviewed last year on a local radio station regarding his multiply disabled son and the sovereignty of God. That interview was included in this week’s Bethlehem Star, our weekly church e-newsletter.
You can read the entire article here.
Here is an excerpt:
So, how are you able to hold up in the midst of such a heavy and painful and life-long trial?
We are not able to “hold up.” We are “held up” by the God of Isaiah 41:10 who says, “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.” Jesus, our Creator-Savior, who “holds all things together,” holds us up “by the word of his power”! (Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3). Are we sometimes depressed and discouraged? Yes. But we preach the Word to ourselves, “Soul, hope in God!” (Psalm 42:5–6) and God’s word produces a happy hope in our hearts again and again, even unto this day.
So God allowed this (his son to be born with disabilities)?
No, God did it, not just allowed it. The Bible says so in passages like Exodus 4:11, Psalm 139:13, and John 9:3. It was God’s good and purposeful design to create Christian just the way he is for our good and His glory.
Now that’s the way to talk about God!
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