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There have been times when my prayer has just been a groan. . . – Joni Eareckson Tada

October 11, 2012 by John Knight

Today is an anniversary of sorts.  On October 11, 2004, Dianne came home from her doctor to tell me something was very wrong. The next day it was confirmed to be cancer. A few days later we knew it to be Stage IV cancer. And that started an entirely new chapter in our lives.

Dianne still has her port.  She takes a drug every day.  She still sees her oncologist several times a year.

And she manages the household, cares for her family, volunteers at church, participates in Bible studies and encourages me.  In fact, until she reads this she probably won’t even remember the importance of this date – she’s got real things to attend to right now rather than bother with something in the past.

Cancer does not rule our household. But God used it to change our household.

Pastor John also had cancer, and that lead him to write a short booklet available at Desiring God:  Don’t Waste Your Cancer.  Please, read it and share it with somebody you know.

Joni Eareckson Tada also faced cancer, and did a one-hour video on her journey, which can be found here. Caution: this is a raw look at cancer and includes some frightening, very real images.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV)

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Sorrows? Run to Jesus!

October 10, 2012 by John Knight

Of course, these are hard things to contemplate, both the memory of sorrows past as well as the prospect of pains that may yet lie in our future. . . Have past sorrows shackled you like so many cold, heavy chains? Christian, child of God, throw them off. Cry out to Christ, ‘Set me free!’ Run to him with all the sorrows you have ever known. They will not be too much for him to handle. Run to him, and keep running until you meet him in the world to come. Like Bunyan’s pilgrim, run and cry, ‘Life! life! eternal life!’

Paul Wolfe, Setting Our Sights on Heaven: Why It’s Hard and Why It’s Worth It, p. 105.

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Like the paralyzed man was carried to Jesus, Jesus carries us!

October 9, 2012 by John Knight

Dianne was reading Dr. Grudem’s Systematic Theology and shared another insight about how the paralyzed man in Luke 5 points us to Jesus as God (paragraph formatting and emphases in bold are mine; all others are by the author):

God keeps all created things existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them.

Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Christ is “upholding the universe by his word of power.” The Greek word translated “upholding” is phero, “carry, bear.” This is commonly used in the New Testament for carrying something from one place to another, such as bringing a paralyzed man on a bed to Jesus (Luke 5:18). . .

It does not mean simply “sustain,” but has the sense of active, purposeful control over the thing being carried from one place to another. In Hebrews 1:3, the use of the present participle indicates that Jesus is “continually carrying all things” in the universe by the word of power.

Christ is actively involved in the work of providence.

Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 316.

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One month to go – and grateful for Joni Eareckson Tada’s endorsement!

October 8, 2012 by John Knight

Exactly one month from today we will be gathering for The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability.

Joni Eareckson Tada was kind enough to post our disability conference on her blog yesterday.  I was very grateful to see it!  God has used her books and conference messages to deeply influence how I think about this issue, and this encouragement meant a great deal to me.

Joni’s relationship with Pastor John and Noel and Desiring God goes back many years.  If you have never watched or listened to her conference message, Suffering for the Sake of . . ., at the 2005 Desiring God National Conference on Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, it is a great way to prepare for our upcoming conference.

Dr. Mark Talbot spoke at that 2005 conference as well, and also gave a highly recommended presentation.

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We are created in Christ Jesus for good works!

October 7, 2012 by John Knight

In preparing for some upcoming speaking opportunities I was drawn back to Ephesians 2 – and once again blown away by God’s kindness!

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  (Ephesians 2:4-10 ESV)

“For we are his workmanship” – I don’t see any statement here ‘except for those with disabilities.’ Everyone called by God into life with Jesus, regardless of ability, is created in Christ Jesus for good works.  Let’s look hard for everyone’s gifts and let them use those gifts as Jesus intended, for his glory and for our joy!

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God works all things!

October 6, 2012 by John Knight

We’ve been camped out on Ephesians 1 for morning devotions at work.  This phrase in bold jumped off the page at me on Friday:

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. (Ephesians 1:11-12 ESV)

Him = God!

Works=purposeful activity

ALL THINGS – including disability

God has a great purpose in disability.  We may not be able to see any of God’s purposes now (though sometimes we get glimpses!); we can still confidently say that God reigns and he is good.

Ephesians has a magnificent beginning! And we haven’t even gotten to one of the sweetest statements in the Bible: having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. . . (Ephesians 1:18 ESV)

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Why disability ministry is a constant testimony to ‘as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’

October 5, 2012 by John Knight

Earlier this week I was talking to Brenda Fischer, our very fine and godly coordinator for the disability ministry at Bethlehem. She spends a lot of time with hurting people.

She shared about a hard situation on one of Bethlehem’s campuses, and the seeming lack of any good solution for the people involved.  Real people, with despairing hearts, and no answers evident with the resources available.  She longs for them to find peace and comfort in their lives, and for Bethlehem to be a conduit of God’s grace and mercy.

In those moments we pray desperate prayers, like this from 2 Chronicles 20:12 – We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

And she also shared that she spent time last Sunday with a little guy with disabilities that manifest in some really difficult behaviors.  At one point he lost control.  This got the interest of the other children but it didn’t phase the adult volunteers at all.

Brenda shared that she was seeing this all over Bethlehem: volunteers demonstrating through their own reactions that all the children are welcome even when a child’s disabilities bring on disruptive behaviors.  Not perfectly, of course – we are a church full of finite, sinful human beings after all!  But such a difference from when she started as coordinator nearly five years ago and many people had no experience or training in disability.  God IS helping us!

We have yet to experience a season of ‘coasting’ with this ministry.  The pain and the suffering in families continues and even seems to grow. But the victories God grants also are accumulating.

God in his kindness uses our disability ministry to help us really feel and understand what Paul meant:

as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. (2 Corinthians 6:10 ESV)

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Shannon Macfarlane Sproul is no longer in her wheelchair

October 4, 2012 by John Knight

Tears came at this announcement from Ligonier this afternoon, though I have never met her or her dad or grandfather.

This beautiful young woman died yesterday. Shannon Macfarlane Sproul, daughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. and granddaughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul, was fifteen years old. She was born with a condition called Lissencephaly, a condition that left her profoundly disabled. She was a blessing to all who knew her. In fact, a few years ago, Joni Eareckson Tada produced a short TV program that showed how Shannon and her family handled disability in light of the sovereignty of God. Shannon now has not only the memory of her earthly father singing over her, but in a way that we cannot fathom, has the joy of having her Heavenly Father sing over her (Zeph. 3:17).

She and her father have helped me, and I’m guessing quite a few others.

Frankly, I cannot imagine her daddy’s pain right now.  But I know God knows his pain, and loves him, and will help him.

Please pray for the family.

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We need to prepare our people to suffer – David Platt

October 4, 2012 by John Knight

Yesterday Desiring God posted this interview with David Platt on suffering.  I loved that he started with Romans 8:28!

It is well worth the fourteen minutes.

I am definitely checking out his series on suffering and the cross.

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God creates some people with genetic anomalies simply for the sake of his glory – Michael Beates

October 3, 2012 by John Knight

Another book to consider reading as we prepare for The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability is Michael Beates’ new book, Disability and the Gospel (paragraph formatting and emphases in bold are mine):

God creates some people with genetic anomalies simply for the sake of his glory.

Scripture teaches that all things are made by him (John 1:3) and for his glory (Isa. 48:10–11; Rom. 11:33). Many people are not willing to bear the truth that everything God makes and does he uses to glorify himself. It is too much for many to believe that all that happens to them is for the sake of the glory of God’s name.

That is a hard teaching, but in it there is great comfort, and by our very affirmation of it, we further glorify our awesome sovereign God.

The comfort is that when we embrace the truth that God will glorify himself through everything that happens, we know that in the providence of God nothing is lost or in vain. Nothing we experience is meaningless; everything is significant, the bitter and the sweet.

We may not see the sweet side of it in this life. We may not be able to say at the time of the death of loved ones that their death glorifies God. However, we can rest absolutely certain that such things are not mistakes nor do they happen by chance.

We can also be certain that even such awful things will glorify God because he has said so, and he keeps his promise.

Michael S. Beates (2012-07-10). Disability and the Gospel (p. 162). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

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