Every Christian community must know that not only do the weak need the strong, but that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the community.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 94.
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I had the pleasure of meeting Melinda Delahoyde a couple of weeks ago when she passed through town. She is the president of Care Net, a network of more than 1,100 pregnancy centers across the United States that are dedicated to helping pregnant mothers and saving babies from abortion.
She also happens to be the mother of a child with a disability.
Her oldest son, William, lives with Down syndrome. Together, they made the two-minute video below.
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Something a little different today.
I’m very grateful for Bethlehem. In addition to the preaching and teaching, which has changed everything in how I think about and view God’s sovereignty over disability in this present age, they also help me be a better father and husband, sometimes in very specific ways. One example was this past Saturday where Hannah and I enjoyed the annual Father-Daughter Tea.
My daughter is a great gift to me, and for my church to encourage special investment in her life was more than helpful – it was also a joy!
The following was at every father’s seat. Yes, we bless Jesus’ name together, for he is our joy and salvation! May God delight in granting you such joy in his good gifts of children today.
A Father’s Prayer Author of all existence, for my wonderful children’s sake do not keep silent, and for their sake do not be quiet, until their righteousness goes forth as brightness, and their salvation as a burning torch. Let men see their righteousness, and women their glory, because You have called them by a new name that Your mouth has given. May they be as a crown of beauty in Your hand, and a royal diadem in the hand of their God. Let them be called My Delight Is In Them, for You delight in Your servants. Fill them with the joyful knowledge that You take pleasure in them, that as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so You rejoice over them. Please establish them and make them a praise in the earth. Let those who eat the grain and drink the wine of their houses praise the LORD, and exult in Your holiness. My children, behold, your salvation has come; behold, His reward is Himself! Rejoice! For you are numbered among the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD; and you are called Sought Out, A Child Not Forsaken. O Mighty One, help them to put their hope in You-You who are splendid in Your apparel, marching in the greatness of Your strength, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save. Thank you for sparing their lifeblood and bringing to them salvation by Your powerful arm. Thank you, that when they deserved to be trod in Your anger and trampled in Your wrath, You gave Jesus Christ to bear their punishment! We bless His name together, for He is our joy and our salvation. Amen. adapted from Isaiab 62 & 63 ©2010 Setting Their Hope in God by Andrew Case
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If you’re God’s child you don’t have to wonder about how your story will end because your future is sealed and secure in Christ.
God knows what he is doing, for his glory and for our good, for everybody of every ability. God knows the story of the lives of our children with disabilities. We can live free because of who God is and who we are in Christ!
I have set the LORD always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
(Psalm 16:8-9 ESV)
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Dr. Meyer, candidate for Associate Pastor for Preaching and Vision, was interviewed last week by Pastor Sam Crabtree. The very last question dealt with suffering, and I found his spontaneous response helpful. It is about five minutes.
You can watch the entire 75 minute interview here.
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I first heard Mark Talbot at the 2005 Desiring God Conference, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, and was blown away with his personal understanding and articulation of the sovereignty of God.
This four minute video provides a great introduction into why Mark Talbot was invited to speak at Desiring God’s disability conference The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability. I hope you will consider joining us to hear directly from Dr. Talbot.
Thank you to Justin Taylor who posted this interview last week at his blog.
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(S)uffering is nothing more than the taking away of bad things or good things that the world offers for our enjoyment—reputation, esteem among peers, job, money, spouse, sexual life, children, friends, health, strength, sight, hearing, success, etc. When these things are taken away (by force or by circumstance or by choice), we suffer. But if we have followed Paul and the teaching of Jesus and have already counted them as loss for the surpassing value of gaining Christ, then we are prepared to suffer.
If when you become a Christian you write a big red “LOSS” across all the things in the world except Christ, then when Christ calls you to forfeit some of those things, it is not strange or unexpected. The pain and the sorrow may be great. The tears may be many, as they were for Jesus in Gethsemane. But we will be prepared. We will know that the value of Christ surpasses all the things the world can offer and that in losing them we gain more of Christ.
John Piper, Called to Suffer and Rejoice: That We Might Gain Christ, August 23, 1992.
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From Pastor John’s sermon, The Works of God and the Worship of Jesus. Paragraph formatting and emphasis in bold are mine.
When Jesus says, the purpose of this blindness is “that the works of God might be displayed in him,” he assumes the manifestation of the works of God, has a value that outweighs years and years of blindness. Both for the man and his parents.
In order to embrace that, we have to value the manifestation of the works of God more than we value seeing. Indeed more than we value life itself.
Psalm 63:3 says, “Your steadfast love is better than life.” And Jesus said to the prisoners in Smyrna, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Being loved by God, and being with God forever, is better than having eyes and better than being alive in this world.
If we don’t believe that, then saying that God has wise and good purposes in all our losses, will not be much comfort.
But if we do believe it, not only will God’s purposes comfort us and strengthen us, but they will make us able to patiently, and gently help others through their times of darkness.
John Piper, The Works of God and the Worship of Jesus, presented June 4, 2011.
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If you’re God’s child you have greater wisdom than your intellect or experience since you’re now in relationship with the One who is Wisdom.
Paul Tripp
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All conference audio and video for The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability are now available at Desiring God!
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The Works of God 
“He can go places I can’t go.”
April 20, 2012 by John Knight
During my travels to Oklahoma this week I met a man with tattoos up and down his arms who loves Jesus, rides a motorcycle – and who lives with multiple sclerosis. He visits men in jail and tells them about a transformed life in Christ. A friend of mine simply remarked, ‘he can go places I can’t go’ to tell others about Jesus.
I met a lawyer who, I was told, provides significant amounts of pro bono legal advice to members of his church. In a very different way he can go places where I can’t go.
I met a pastor who loves Jesus and proclaims his sovereignty over all things and who will lead the funeral of two little girls and their father who died in the tornado this past week. He is going to a place where most men fear to go.
I heard the story of a grandfather who daily cared for his wife for the last six years of her life when she could no longer take care of her own needs. He willingly accepted that this was his special role reserved for him. His grandson spoke so affectionally about the lessons he keeps learning today about the loving sacrifice he watched many years ago. I look forward to meeting that man in heaven someday.
And I had the chance to tell our own story of God’s goodness and mercy and love in the midst of the hard things in our family.
God gives us stories to use them for his glory. Sometimes our stories convict others about their need for a God who is this powerful and this good. Sometimes our stories encourage weary saints to persevere in the strength that only God can provide. Sometimes we just get enjoy, in fresh ways, who our God is and how much we can depend on him in all circumstances.
Let’s make much of him today, and possibly go places others cannot go or fear to go because we have been given a special story of God’s extraordinary goodness and sovereignty over all things, for his glory and for our good.
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