Dianne and I appreciate this young woman a great deal, who now goes by Amber Kay Satterfield as she married Eric since she gave this testimony! She has suffered much, and God is her treasure.
You can find other really helpful chapel talks and testimonies from Bethlehem College and Seminary here.
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After my Paul was born I concluded that God was powerful but not good. I was really, really wrong.
In less than a minute Pastor Jason describes the two ways Satan tries to use our circumstances to define God as less than who he really is. And then Pastor Jason closes with a great reminder!
You can hear, watch or read all of Pastor Jason’s sermon, Adult Discipleship, here, delivered on March 8, 2014.
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Pastor Jason Meyer on why children with disabilities are good – no, necessary – for the church:
His entire sermon can be watched, heard or read here.
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At Desiring God today they put up a post I wrote which they titled, “Four Kinds of Churches Worth Leaving.”
My original title was “Pastor, if you claim to believe the Bible and you say this to a family like mine, I will personally punch you in the nose.”
The content editors at Desiring God appreciated my passion, but wisely made the change. They also took a 1400 word post and shaved it down to 600 words. That was a good thing as well. There was a lot more heat than light in what I sent them!
I hate, to my core, the stories of churches that tell families like ours to leave – until I started thinking about the churches where that would be a kindness and came up with four.
For the churches who do dumb things out of love, I have a lot more patience. May God grant us the wisdom to see when churches and leaders are pursuing our good in wrong-headed ways out of love for God and affection for us and confidence in the Bible! And may we respond with kindness and confidence that God is good – along with a thought or two about what might actually be useful.
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A ‘rare disease’ is one that affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. There are more than 6,000 of these diseases! Most cause debilitating disabilities.
And God is sovereign over every one of them. No exceptions.
Together, they impact almost one in 20 people. That’s a lot of people!
And a great mission field for the church. Let’s begin by praying that more families experiencing a rare disease become part of our church families – so much so that the next time they make a video they reference families, professionals AND churches!
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Sometimes I read things that just make me want to stand and cheer at their insight and clarity on hard issues. Tim Challies, discussing a new technology designed to eliminate genetic abnormalities, does that by reminding us that God has a perspective on this issue – and it is glorious and good!
We do well to end suffering when we are able to. We do well to cure disease and eliminate curable pain. But we dare not step into God’s place as those who will design babies according to our plan rather than his. We dare not trust our goodness ahead of his goodness, our wisdom ahead of his wisdom. Sometimes God’s good and wise plans involve something we would not choose and would never design, such as a child with a severe genetic abnormality. But when we trust a good and wise God, we rejoice that the works of God might be displayed in all of these. (Emphasis mine)
You’ll want to read the entire article by Tim Challies, The Dawn of the Designer Babies.
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The conference is only for women, though. Bummer for me, but I’m still excited she’s coming back to the Twin Cities.
In addition to writing one of the most helpful books on suffering and God’s sovereignty, Holding on to Hope, and regularly speaking on the topic of suffering, Nancy Guthrie and her husband, David started a ministry for families who have lost a child.
And if that doesn’t convince you, please read this interview with Mary Horning on the impact Nancy Guthrie has had on her life.
The Bethlehem Women’s Spring Conference, is Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26, 2014. Nancy Guthrie will be speaking on, “Be Holy For I Am Holy; Growing in Holiness…How?”
More information and online registration can be found here.
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At the 2014 Desiring God Conference for Pastors last week, Sinclair Ferguson offered a great vision, and challenge, to churches around communion:
Do you agree? And do you think we could actually pull this off?
The entire panel discussion can be viewed here.
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In the busy-ness of my week I nearly missed this post by Vaneetha Rendall Demski at Desiring God, and it is too powerful to miss!
Countless childhood surgeries. Yearlong stints in the hospital. Verbal and physical bullying from classmates. Multiple miscarriages as a young wife. The unexpected death of a child. A debilitating progressive disease. Riveting pain. Betrayal. A husband who leaves.
If it were up to me, I would have written my story differently. Not one of those phrases would be included. Each line represents something hard. Gut wrenching. Life changing.
But now, in retrospect, I wouldn’t erase a single line.
You can read the entire post here: When God Does the Miracle We Didn’t Ask For
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The Works of God 
“Dear future mom.” Young people with Down syndrome encourage a mother-to-be
March 17, 2014 by John Knight
An Italian organization, CoorDown, created this exceptional video of people with Down syndrome answering a question from a pregnant mother.
World Down Syndrome Day is March 21 (3/21 – get it?).
Let’s make sure people don’t just know about Down syndrome, but actually get to know people who live with it by letting the babies live, welcoming them into our churches, and letting their gifts be expressed for the glory of God and the good of God’s church.
Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind (or with Down syndrome)? Is it not I, the LORD?” (Exodus 4:11 ESV)
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