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God’s Good Design: An Interview with Krista Horning

September 12, 2012 by John Knight

Mike Farris of Home School Heartbeat Radio recently interviewed Krista Horning about her disabilities, God, and hope.

All five 2-minute programs and their transcripts can be found here, along with Krista’s entire interview.  You really should listen to the entire interview to hear Krista’s impact on Mike Farris – she blew him away and it isn’t as apparent in the five two-minute interviews.

I’ve known Krista for more than a decade and heard her speak several times. God helped her take his story of his goodness in her life to a whole new level in these interviews.  This is a clear articulation of experiencing the goodness of God in the midst of a hard circumstance.  And it is full of references to God’s word!

I was also pleased to see that her book, Just the Way I Am: God’s Good Design in Disability was prominently mentioned as a resource for families like ours!

Mr. Farris ended the fifth interview this way:

Krista, my calculations say that this is my 565th program of Home School Heartbeat. Nothing has touched me like this one. This is an amazing story.

Amen.

Reminder: Krista will be speaking immediately following Pastor John’s presentation at our conference, The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability. She will also be attending the conference all day.

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Another way God helped our disability ministry

September 11, 2012 by John Knight

We knew we would have a significant need for volunteers (again) for the disability ministry, and it was particularly true at the North Campus.  Many prayers were being offered up to God.

God brought a godly man, a long-time member at Bethlehem, with skill in videography and a heart for the ministry to Brenda Fischer, our disability ministry coordinator, with an offer to make a free video.

That video showed this past weekend, just two weeks before everything kicks off and with a large need for volunteers remaining.

God moved – addressing the entire need for volunteers at the North Campus in one day and giving the North Campus two available substitutes!  Brenda summed it up really well when she told me, “isn’t this awesome!”

Yes, it is, because God did it all, and we’re happy to give him all the glory and to freely enjoy the benefits of his kindness toward us.

Rick Busch is the man who did the video below. I’m grateful God put us on his heart, and also grateful God provided some immediate encouragement to Rick’s work.

We haven’t stopped praying – our needs continue to be significant.  And we would be pleased to have even more families join us, though it will once again strain Brenda and her team’s ability to respond.  God will help.

Posted in commentary | 1 Comment »

Encourage one another – just as you are doing!

September 10, 2012 by John Knight

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Some dear friends organized a gathering yesterday for many of us who benefit from Bethlehem’s Disability Ministry.  I think about 90 people showed up.  I enjoyed meeting some of the young men in His Works at our North Campus.

It has been a challenging few weeks in our family and I didn’t think I could make it, but God made a way.  When I arrived at the picnic they were being lead in worship through song, and then Kempton Turner took us to 2 Samuel 19.  Pastor John and Kempton agree that 2 Samuel 19:30 is one of the most beautiful sentences in all the Bible:

And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Oh, let him take it all, since my lord the king has come safely home.”  (2 Samuel 19:30 ESV)

It isn’t easy having being one church with three campuses, mostly because we don’t get to see each other.  Yesterday was sweet, and a reminder that God is good to give us friends who encourage us in our faith and seek to build us up.

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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,” says Paul Knight

September 9, 2012 by John Knight

It was a sober Friday evening at our house as Grandpa was back in the hospital.

Paul was goofing around on the piano and I decided to get some video.

Then God gave me this:

The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
The LORD is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed. Psalm 28:7-8

Posted in Helpful things | 5 Comments »

Two months away – please pray!

September 8, 2012 by John Knight

The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability is two months from today, on November 8!

As you think about it, would you pray?

  • For registration; we have plenty of space left and we’d like hundreds more to come.
  • For our speakers as they prepare, travel, and present – John Piper, Nancy Guthrie, Mark Talbot, Greg Lucas
  • For the equipment (live-stream on the web, CART, video for archiving on the web)
  • For God to move on hearts and change lives!

Thank you for joining me in prayer.

Posted in Prayer Requests | 1 Comment »

Blessed is he. . . whose hope is in the LORD his God. . .

September 7, 2012 by John Knight

As I catch pieces of the political conventions, I am comforted by God’s word and reminders of where my hope really is secure:

Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!
(Psalm 146 ESV)

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God’s gift of Henryk

September 6, 2012 by John Knight

I met a really remarkable young man yesterday.  He’s leading his family through what will likely be the death of his youngest son.

Michael and his wife started a blog to keep their family up to date on how their son was doing.  It has expanded far beyond that inner circle to encourage many, including me.  I highly recommend it.  Here is a taste:

We have death all around us.  However, it is not all that we have around us.  We have grace all around us too.  Like author Paul Tripp says, God, in grace, is using death to lead us to where life can be found.  There would be no way for us to endure this impending physical death without the promise of spiritual life in Christ.  If this life was ultimate, we would be in despair.  But because we have eternal life in Christ and his resurrection we believe that the time Henryk is here is a piece of the thread of his life that will go on into eternity.  We are so blessed to have this time with him.

Please pray for this young couple.  These days are hard in ways that can’t be fully described.  And God is good.

Posted in commentary, Prayer Requests | 2 Comments »

Why was Paul struck blind?

September 5, 2012 by John Knight

I appreciate when my pastors use disability in ways that illuminate what God has done for us.

As he prayed to God on Saturday evening, Pastor Sam referenced Paul’s temporary blindness, and why:

Paul was struck blind so that he could see you.

We know Paul was struck blind by God temporarily on the road to Damascus:  Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. (Acts 9:8 ESV)

So what was Pastor Sam referring to in referencing sight?

. . .that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. . . (Ephesians 1:17-18 ESV)

Until he was visited by Jesus on the road to Damascus (with eyes that worked just fine), he couldn’t see God!  But following his blindness, God gave him what became a significant portion of our Bible.  With God’s help, that Bible helps us to see God!

Some have suggested that Paul had trouble with his vision through the rest of his life: See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. (Galatians 6:11 ESV)

But his heart eyes never appear to have dimmed, sustaining him to the very end:

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8 ESV)

And that’s the kind of vision we should all long to have!

Posted in Scripture | 2 Comments »

Good news: God does what he pleases!

September 4, 2012 by John Knight

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
(Psalm 115:1-3 ESV)

For I know that the LORD is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the LORD pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all deeps.
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain
and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
(Psalm 135:5-7 ESV)

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Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

September 4, 2012 by John Knight

63 years ago today my parents married.  My mother reminded me last week that she’s known dad since she was three!

 

Dad needed surgery last week on his heart, so they’ll celebrate today in a hospital.

I had the chance to pray with my dad before his surgery and thanked God for my Psalm 78 father:

He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
(Psalm 78:5-7 ESV)

If you’re curious to meet this man, I’ve written about him before here and here.

I’m grateful to God for the common grace of medical care, but even more grateful for the uncommon grace of being into a home that trusted and trusts God in all circumstances.

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