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Praising God for answering unasked prayers

September 12, 2011 by John Knight

Francis Chan provided a great perspective on unanswered prayer in a video on the DG blog on Friday.  If you haven’t watched it, it is worth the 2.5 minutes!

But God reminded me on a couple of occasions this past week how much he is for me, even though I didn’t come to him at all.

The school district decided to change the bus schedules, which seriously and negatively impacted our morning responsibilities.  I was mentally working through our options for several days, and not coming up with anything particularly helpful.

On the first day of school God just went ahead and provided a great gift that solved the whole thing.  And THAT was when I realized I had never come to him even once with this problem.

Of course I was grateful to God and thanked him for helping us.  But I also needed to ask forgiveness for not bringing this thing to him in the first place.  The joy and gratitude I felt was tempered by my knowing my battle against my willful, sinful independence continues.  But there was still a lot of joy and gratitude!

God knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8), but that isn’t an excuse not to ask him.  Jesus himself taught us how to pray and lived a life full of prayer.  And Paul taught us to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

I want to live like that; I don’t want anything getting in the way of my joy in God!  I pray you do as well.

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There is an extraordinary event coming that is unlike what we’re remembering today

September 11, 2011 by John Knight

Today is a sad day of remembrance.

Like the extraordinary events of previous generations – the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the assassination of President Kennedy, for example – I can immediately answer the question of where I was on the morning of September 11, 2001 when I heard an airplane had struck a tower in New York.

None of my children can do that.  They will have their own extraordinary event someday.

It would be beyond wonderful if that event was the return of Jesus!  What an extraordinary event that will be!

Someday. . .

Until that day let us not forget that in addition to the thousands who died in New York and Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, thousands more became disabled – like the first responders who are developing cancers related to breathing the poisonous fumes or the survivors who have lived with crippling depression and anxiety since that day.

God knows what we all need.  He will help us.

I appreciated the prayer posted by The Gospel Coalition for this day.  It also ends with a great plea: Come Lord Jesus!

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We can take refuge in Him!

September 10, 2011 by John Knight

A brother opened up Psalm 36:5-9 on Friday and it just rained grace and hope right down on me.

With all the rottenness in our own souls and all the dangers outside, sometimes against the very lives of our loved ones with disabilities, God never fails, never quits, provides abundantly, shines light in dark places and gives us life!  “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do (Luke 12:4).”

We are safe in God!

I pray that same hope rains down on you today.

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.

Psalm 36:5-9

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“I believe that God gave me cancer. . .”

September 9, 2011 by John Knight

Every time I hear that statement, I must pause and consider – do I really believe it?

I first heard it spoken out loud by my wife.  I knew she believed it then, and believes it now.

And now I see it written by a 14-year-old boy.  It is remarkable, both because it is hard and because it is presented without bitterness.

Trusting God like that is a gift.  Dianne didn’t earn it, nor did Victor.  God granted them the faith to believe that he is both sovereign and good in all circumstances, and he gave all of us a book telling us about him.

Brian Eaton, who is my friend, the Executive Director of Children Desiring God and lives with disability in his family, concluded his beautiful blog post about Victor this way:

God is the hero of Victor’s story. God has elected, called, justified, and glorified Victor in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:30). Victor was faithful to his Savior, and he sought every opportunity to share what was precious to him. May the Lord be pleased to use the testimony of the Watters family and Victor’s life and death to bring many into his kingdom.

Amen.  May God be pleased to use all of our stories to bring many more into the kingdom.

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God uses boys to teach us about important things.

September 8, 2011 by John Knight

The 14-year-old boy that Pastor Sam referenced as he closed his sermon on Saturday finally lost his battle with cancer.  He is now with Jesus.

For our devotions at work on Wednesday, Jon Bloom reflected on the example of a boy in teaching us how to die well.

He loved Jesus.  He made Jesus look beautiful and glorious.  His labor is over.

Our time is short.  How can we make Jesus look beautiful and glorious to a world that needs him and would find joy in him?

God has work for us to do – and he will help us complete it.  We do not labor in vain.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:54-58

In the Lord – what a help!  God will do it.

As I’m writing this on Wednesday, Pastor Sam’s sermon wasn’t up on the BBC website yet.  I’ll link to it when it is available.

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“Is terminating two to one really any different morally?”

September 7, 2011 by John Knight

The quote in the title is embedded in this paragraph in the New York Times Magazine article, The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy:

“I couldn’t have imagined reducing twins for nonmedical reasons,” she said, “but I had an amnio and would have had an abortion if I found out that one of the babies had an anomaly, even if it wasn’t life-threatening. I didn’t want to raise a handicapped child. Some people would call that selfish, but I wouldn’t. Parents who abort for an anomaly just don’t want that life for themselves, and it’s their prerogative to fashion their lives how they want. Is terminating two to one really any different morally?” Dr. Naomi Bloomfield

The first several times I read this quote, I was deeply discouraged.  The breezy way in which all children, not just a child with a disability, are presented as commodities under the complete control of parents rather than blessings from God himself is chilling.

But then I saw a glimmer of light.  She had equated the morality of two decisions to abort: one to abort a child with a disability, and the other to reduce a pregnancy to a single child.

She is right.  Those two decisions are not different morally.  Both result in dead children.

And even in our culture which so highly values independence and beauty and an easy life, there is still a great deal of discomfort with the idea of aborting a healthy twin just for the sake of convenience.

Could God use this discomfort to turn people away from the destruction of little babies with disabilities? Could God in his infinite wisdom connect disability to pregnancy reduction so that more people come to the right conclusion more quickly – all children are valuable?

Is that idea any more far-fetched than a politician being used by God to make slavery illegal?

God can do it!  Let us pray that he would!

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People with disabilities are a cultural canary in the coal mine

September 6, 2011 by John Knight

Before modern methods of ventilation and gas detection became common, coal miners would take a canary into the mine to warn them about the presence of dangerous gases like methane and carbon monoxide.  As long as the bird could sing, the air was safe for the miners.  If it died – everyone got out as quickly as they could.

People with disabilities, especially children, have played and are playing a similar role for the culture.  When people with disabilities are openly abused and killed, it shows a deep danger for all of society.

Just three examples:

  1. The eugenics movement in the United States started against the ‘feeble-minded’ but quickly grew to include the poor and those who were the wrong skin color.
  2. Hitler didn’t begin by murdering Jews; he authorized the ‘mercy killing’ of a child with multiple disabilities as his opening effort.
  3. Pregnancy ‘reduction’ has existed for some time for women who were pregnant with more than three babies.  Until just a few years ago, however, doctors would generally not reduce pregnancies down to a single child – except when one of the children was identified as having a disability.

The recent New York Times Magazine article, The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy, is shocking – women who have gone through extraordinary financial expense and physical difficulty to conceive a child are intentionally destroying a healthy twin so that they only have to deal with a single baby.

But it is no surprise.  Our babies with disabilities have been warning us for some time that this was coming.  And like the canary, by not getting away from these poisonous, murderous cultural fumes, more children are dying.

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Embarrassed – and happy.

September 5, 2011 by John Knight

I had a feeling this might happen.

Paul was feeling pretty good as we entered church on Saturday evening.  This often means he will be more vocal, especially if a room is quiet.

Pastor Kenny was praying after some music, and the room was much quieter with his lone voice, even amplified.  So, Paul decided to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  He really wasn’t that loud, but I whispered in his hear that he needed to stop singing.

To which he replied, as loud as he could while Pastor Kenny was praying, “STOOOOOPPPPPP ITTTTTT!”

The two of us left the sanctuary.

That was embarrassing.

But, I was also happy – taking him off one drug recently and starting another has actually allowed some of the old Paul to return, the one with personality and the occasional embarrassing outburst.  I was thankful to God for it!

A friend of mine sitting in the front row said he didn’t hear Paul shout out, so maybe he wasn’t as loud as I thought.

But Paul continued chattering away and flapping his hands, so it was a good decision to leave the sanctuary.  Thankfully, I could see and hear everything from the back.  God gave Pastor Sam an extraordinary word from 1 Peter 2, with a closing application on suffering and hope that was jaw-dropping in its power and love.  I’ll post the link when Bethlehem puts it up.

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Pray for our disability ministry programs – we all need it!

September 4, 2011 by John Knight

Sunday schools and other programs are starting up again at Bethlehem in a couple of weeks, which means volunteers are being recruited and trained for all that’s happening.  Brenda Fischer, our disability ministry coordinator, and her site leaders are working with more than 50 volunteers (so far)!

Most are working with individual children as one-to-one aides.  The disabilities range from severe physical disabilities to emotional/behavioral disorders with pretty extreme behaviors associated with them.  Not every child with a disability needs an aide, of course.  The total population of children with disabilities is growing.

It is an exciting time of year, full of hope and excitement about the new year.  It is also full of anxieties and problems and opportunities to disappoint.

The answer – God!  No matter the size or scope of any ministry, from serving a single child with disabilities to coordinating hundreds of volunteers (there are some ministries that large!), we all need God’s help.  Let’s pray for each other and see what God might be pleased to do, for his glory and for our good.

 

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This evil will not stand!

September 3, 2011 by John Knight

For almost three weeks I’ve been trying to write about the evils of pregnancy reduction – killing one twin in the womb so the family only has to ‘deal with’ one child – which was highlighted in the August 10 New York Times Magazine.

I’ve read about it before in the context of aborting a child with a disability and letting the ‘healthy’ twin live, but the evil of it still astonishes me.

And I haven’t been able to put a coherent thought together.

So, I’m trusting in this – someday this evil of abortion will end.  God will do it.

No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.

The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.

Proverbs 21:30-31

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