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“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD. . .”

June 7, 2012 by John Knight

Reflecting on Jeremiah 31 yesterday nearly always points me to another great text in Jeremiah, which I know also happens to be a favorite of Krista Horning:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)

“The blind and the lame” in Jeremiah 31 are not a surprise to God, and not a mistake!  He has plans for every one of his elect, with disabilities and without.  And it is a plan meant for our good.

What a thing it is to live with the assurance of a future spent with Jesus!

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Knowing and enjoying the glory of God – we were made for this. All of us, of every ability!

June 6, 2012 by John Knight

For devotions on Tuesday, Jon Bloom read the entire first chapter of Pastor John’s Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ.

My heart leapt when I heard this (again)!

The deepest longing of the human heart is to know and enjoy the glory of God. We were made for this. “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth. . . whom I created for my glory,” says the Lord (Isaiah 43:6-7). To see it, to savor it, and to show it—that is why we exist.

John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, p. 14.

Part of why this brought me joy was remembering another place in the Bible where God is specific that when he gathers, it includes those who live with disabilities:

Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.  (Jeremiah 31:8 ESV)

None of God’s elect will be forgotten, and all will gather because GOD WILL DO IT!

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“The daughters of Sarah fight the anxiety that rises in their hearts.” John Piper

June 5, 2012 by John Knight

In 2007 Pastor John was preaching in 1 Peter 3:1-7 on The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission.

This statement then and now reminded me of my Dianne:

So verse 5 said that the holy women of old hoped in God. And then verse 6 gives Sarah, Abraham’s wife, as an example and then refers to all other Christian women as her daughters. Verse 6b: “And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.”

So this portrait of Christian womanhood is marked first by hope in God and then what grows out of that hope, namely, fearlessness. She does not fear the future; she laughs at the future. The presence of hope in the invincible sovereignty of God drives out fear. Or to say it more carefully and realistically, the daughters of Sarah fight the anxiety that rises in their hearts. They wage war on fear, and they defeat it with hope in the promises of God.

Today is Dianne’s birthday.

I’ve observed that the anniversary of another year of life produces great anxiety in some people.  Not true for her.

She also has an infusion appointment today related to her cancer.  For more than seven years she has endured an almost-monthly reminder that this life is unpredictable and the future is unknown to us.  She doesn’t live with anxiety about that either.

Not perfectly, of course.  Pastor John was right and wise to say we must wage war on fear.

God has granted her the faith to fight, and to make this Proverb a reality in our home:

Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. (Proverbs 31:25 ESV)

I am a very blessed man and very grateful to God for my wife!

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“I will come to you.” Jesus

June 4, 2012 by John Knight

Pastor John used this text in his sermon yesterday.  Even before he began preaching, I was encouraged!

Jesus speaking as recorded in John 14:15-18:

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

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“Beware the thought that all is vain.” John Piper

June 3, 2012 by John Knight

Pastor John wrote an advent poem on the book of Job many years ago.  It was later turned into a book.

It is a stunning portrait of one man’s clinging to God.

And now it is available as a movie with Pastor John’s narration for just $1.99 at iTunes.

The two-minute trailer is below.

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Fight the chaos – believe!

June 2, 2012 by John Knight

Thursday morning was chaotic, even for us.

So, of course, I complained in my spirit and felt sorry for myself.

God is kind to look at that mess and rather than incinerate me for my idolatry, he brings me  to himself through his word with reminders that he alone is in control:

Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.
Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people.
Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.
Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it?
And you are my witnesses!
Is there a God besides me?
There is no Rock; I know not any.”
(Isaiah 44:6-8 ESV)

No, there is no god like our God.  And there is no person who can do what God can do.

And Jesus has already provided what we need the most, and he will continue as we cling to him in faith:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
(John 14:27 ESV)

My day never felt like it was under control – I was moving from one thing to another, one conversation to another, one child’s activity to another.  But I could rest under the assurance that God most certainly is in control and continually moving, shaping and ordering all things for his glory and for my good.

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We must warn the enemies of our children – God is coming

June 1, 2012 by John Knight

As I’ve explored here before, there is a horrible, unbiblical, idolatrous line of thinking that says only people who are strong and have some sort of usefulness really deserve to live.  The evil is breath-taking.

God warns about such thinking, and what will happen to those who take advantage of the weaker member:

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.  (Ezekiel 34:15-16 ESV)

And God also tells us in several places how he will behave toward the weaker members, the ones cast off by the strong:

In that day, declares the LORD, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted; and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.
(Micah 4:6-7 ESV)

God is coming.  Those who would destroy our children with disabilities need to be warned that he will deal with them either as they deserve for abusing little ones he has created, or he will NOT deal with them as they deserve because they cling to Jesus as their righteousness.

And for those who are being abused and afflicted and ignored today, God himself is making them into a strong nation – one that will last forever.

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“Our lives count.” Joni Eareckson Tada

May 31, 2012 by John Knight

Life worth living is not found in a set of circumstances – whether pleasant or painful. Life worth living is found in a person, the Prince of Life. The Resurrection and the Life. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He has the words of life. And Christ the Savior is the One who will desires to be Lord of your days, as well as your Wisdom for living. When you look to him each day, each minute and hour, your life will count… and it will count for all of eternity.

Joni Eareckson Tada, Making Your Days Count!

The link above will take you to an incredible reflection on a conversation Joni had with a young woman who was dying, and who is now with Jesus.  Take a few minutes and be blessed.

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Good books remind me, I am free!

May 30, 2012 by John Knight

Every time I read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis I am convicted – and embarrassed – by how often I have looked away from Jesus to find my hope.  I am prone to feel sorry for myself.  The world is oriented to feeling sorry for me, giving me permission to focus on how “hard” things are in our home.  The enemy of my faith loves to use misdirection, encouraging me to search for hope in the wrong things.

It is good to be reminded that this life is war.

But not a war with an undecided outcome! And we don’t fight in our own strength.  Jesus has already secured the victory over sin , and we are already free when we cling to him:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2 ESV)

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Seeing reality through pain and pleasure

May 29, 2012 by John Knight

The characteristic of Pains and Pleasures is that they are unmistakably real, and therefore, as far as they go, give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality. . . How can you have failed to see that a real pleasure was the last thing you ought to have let him meet?

The Devil Screwtape writing to his nephew Wormword in C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, p. 67.

How relevant this is to unborn children with disabilities!

Parents are presented possible scenarios for their unborn child with whatever disability has been discovered.  Lists of facts about the disability feel very real and often overwhelming and frightening.

Yet that is not their child! That list is NOT reality! Their child is so much more than his or her disability.

Best of all, that little one is God’s own, created to exist for eternity.

Even after 16 years I only know my son in part (1 Corinthians 13:12).  But one thing I do know: he is a real boy and not a list of medical terms.

The pain of dealing with his disabilities has been sharper than I thought I could stand, and the pleasure of knowing him in light of his creator has been sweeter than I ever would have expected.  Paul has been a touchstone of reality in my life.

The enemy of our faith and of the indispensable weaker members, of course, would rather see them destroyed. They are dangerous to his plans of keeping us in a fog of little pains and little pleasures that deny the reality of hell and the joy of eternity with Jesus. Cleverly, before these little ones can be known as people, he attempts to turn them into something less than human and therefore easily cast away.

Let us continually invite people to experience real pleasure and real pain by inviting them to know real little people.  And may God use that taste to introduce them to the reality of ‘as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ (2 Corinthians 6:10).

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