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Do you have a broken spirit?

February 24, 2011 by John Knight

Do certain words ever leap off a page at you?

My reading through the Bible yesterday had me in Exodus 6.  God has heard the prayers of the people of Israel and seen their oppression.  Moses has spoken to Pharaoh, and his response is to make it significantly worse for the people of Israel.  Even Moses accuses God: “you have not delivered your people at all (Exodus 5:23).”  God responds, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh (Exodus 6:1).”

And the people can’t hear it: Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery (Exodus 6:9).

That phrase, ‘because of their broken spirit,’ crashed into my brain and then exploded.

I know what a broken spirit feels like.  Many of you know it as well when your hopes have been crushed one more time, and you can’t even hear good news.

Look at their situation. The elders had believed the signs that Moses had offered from God (Exodus 4:31).  Hope was being kindled.  Moses goes to Pharaoh. Rather than being released, Pharaoh made the situation even worse for them, and they blamed Moses.

Their hopes had been crushed.  Even Moses says he can’t go back to Pharaoh (Exodus 6:12).

What do health, wealth and prosperity preachers do with that?  Obviously God won’t be able to do anything since these people all lack faith.

Except, of course, God isn’t constrained by anything!

God looks at his spirit-broken people and the very man he has called to lead them, and begins to move with such power that we’re still reading and talking about it thousands of years later.  God says such astonishing, outrageous (except that it is God saying them) things about his sovereignty over all things in the next chapters that we will either bow down and worship him for his majesty and goodness and wisdom, or we will reject him entirely.

And, the irony is, because God isn’t constrained by our lack of faith, we can have faith that he will do all that he has promised to do for those he has called.  That’s what made my brain explode – God looks at dead, unbelieving, anxious, hopeless, broken hearts, and makes them alive.  Not one hint of faith on the Israelite’s part, and he moves to rescue them.

Because he knows the ends from the beginning, and has promised that all things work together for good, and truly knows what love looks like in all situations, and has given us a future hope that is so glorious it is indescribable, we can have faith that even our broken spirits will bring God glory and will be for our good.

These are not easy days in our household; I am fighting discouragement on several fronts.  But I KNOW that God is not hindered in his purposes when I am battling the sins of unbelief and anxiety.  I know that my dependency on him rather than on myself brings him greater honor.

Do you have a broken spirit?  Pray. God will help.  Trust his blood-bought promises rather than your perceptions.

Do you know someone with a broken spirit, and they can’t hear anything you say?  God will help.  Pray, and trust him that he will do the right thing.  Pray, and by doing so fight for them when they can’t fight for themselves.

Posted in Scripture | 36 Comments »

Maybe our experiences are the normal ones.

February 23, 2011 by John Knight

Old books remind me how unusual our ‘normal’ experiences are today.

In The Death of Ivan Ilych, on page 53, is this simple statement:

Though the salary was higher the cost of living was greater, besides which two of their children died and family life became still more unpleasant for him.

It seems very normal for Tolstoy to include that sentence, even in the life of a rising professional with access to doctors and resources in 1880’s Russia.

Yet how strange it seems in our own North American context.  We think we know what ‘unpleasant’ means, and that does not include the death of children.  We do not consider it normal at all within professional, middle-class families.

Maybe we should.

Buried in an article on a school for children with disabilities was this sentence:

Almost every year, a few medically frail students die.

That has been true at Paul’s school as well.  A short, sad announcement from the principle comes home in Paul’s backpack about a student who has died.  It isn’t every year.  But we have gotten several such notices over the years.  In seven years that has not happened even once at the school my other three ‘normally developing’ children attend.

Many people look at our lives, with all the doctors and complications and expense, and consider it strange and to be avoided at every cost.  Yet the ‘cost’ of avoiding it is usually the very life of our little one, the one God himself has given us to parent.

And when we look around the world, our ‘abnormal’ existence is experienced by millions and millions of families.  It is frequently the very thing that keeps bringing us back to God.

There is something else that seems more normal in old books: the presence of God.  I just finished A Narrative of The Mutiny, on Board His Majesty’s Ship Bounty by William Bligh and noted how freely he spoke of prayers and Providence:

For my own part, I consider the general run of cloudy and wet weather to be a blessing of Providence. Hot weather would have caused us to have died with thirst; and perhaps being so constantly covered with rain or sea protected us from that dreadful calamity.

So, though our experiences are abnormal in this culture, maybe we have been granted special insight into what normal life is really like, both historically and for much of the world’s population today.  What should we do with that insight?

Posted in Book Commentary, commentary | 5 Comments »

What’s a little snow when you get to pray for friends overseas?

February 22, 2011 by John Knight

This really doesn’t have anything to do with disability – except for this reminder to you Minnesotans to shovel your walk! Those with mobility issues and blind individuals using canes (and your neighbors) will appreciate not having to trudge through a foot of snow.  Use some ice melt as well.

South Carolina and Kansas transplants braved five inches of snow (more than seven by the time they left) to join our monthly Barnabas prayer meeting for friends serving as missionaries in Asia. (It was at our house, so our effort was a little less impressive!)

The prayer time was very sweet; we love these friends who live so far away answering the call of God on their lives.

For those same friends who probably aren’t experiencing snow right now (and our other friends in other places of the the world), we caught this picture on Sunday afternoon when the snow was coming down at about 1 – 2 inches per hour.  They were coming to eat the crab apples.

Spring will eventually get here.  This was from LAST week, when temperatures were closer to 50 degrees.

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:26

Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Psalm 148:7-8

Posted in News, Scripture | 1 Comment »

The ‘Any/Particular Distinction’ for our unborn babies with disabilities does not protect them

February 21, 2011 by John Knight

The first time I read the ‘Any/Particular Distinction’ argument in defense of unborn children with disabilities, I knew it had to have its origins in a university or research institution.  It sounded academic, but it is built on a house of cards that cannot stand.

I don’t know if I’ve found the origins of that argument, but I have found a lengthy articulation.  While I have 116 notes on the book, Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights, there is really only one thought that needs to be addressed.  And rather than break it up into several posts, I’ll deal with it here and get back to happier things.

First, one positive aspect of this book that deserves attention.  Nearly all the contributors to this book recognize that the deck is stacked against parents making a truly informed decision about their child identified as having a disability before he or she is born.  The authors recognized that medical systems encourage abortion.  Many noted that we should spend more time and effort understanding several areas: the circumstances in our culture that encourage discrimination against people with disabilities; the wrong assumptions about the perceived quality of their lives; and the positive aspects of parenting a child with a disability.

That is helpful.  But they didn’t go nearly far enough.

And the core problem in their logic is that they granted a right to abortion even as they found selective abortions due to disability a problem worth addressing.

Adrienne Asch, Henry R. Luce Professor in Biology, Ethics, and the Politics of Human Reproduction at Wellesley College, wants to address the problem of selective abortion due to disability through the ‘Any/Particular Distinction.’  Here is how she describes it:

(T)his one characteristic of the embryo or fetus (disability) is the basis for the decision not to continue the pregnancy or to implant the embryo. That decision still concludes that one piece of information about a potential child suffices to predict whether the experience of raising that child will meet parental expectations. In most cases of preimplantation genetic diagnosis or prenatal diagnosis, the woman or couple desires to be pregnant at this time; the termination of the process only occurs because of something learned about this child. Adrienne Asch, Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights, p. 236

I completely agree with this aspect of Dr. Asch’s argument: many people do make the decision to abort simply on the basis of one piece of genetic information.

Unfortunately, the ‘Any/Particular Distinction’ is built on this foundation: abortion is acceptable when a woman chooses to abort for reasons unrelated to disability.  Only if disability is known does abortion become problematic.

And that is a terrible foundation.  If abortion is generally acceptable, the burden of creating exceptions is incredibly high.  And in this case, the exception that is desired simply doesn’t have any qualitative difference from the other reasons people choose to abort their babies.  For example:

  • Economics – relative financial security or ability, or perceived economic cost of the child, determines the acceptability of the child.
  • Number of Children – relative desire for family size (three children are acceptable and four are not; unless, of course, four are acceptable, or two, or six).
  • Timing – relative predictions about the future being a better time than now to have a child.
  • Parentage – having a child with this man’s genetics is unacceptable.
  • Sex – a desire for a girl after three boys; this unborn boy is unacceptable.
  • Disability – having a child with this physical genetic characteristic is unacceptable.

The list could go on.  And not one of them is based on principles, but in attempts to control an unknowable future.

One thing that isn’t relative about the list above – in every case, the child is dead.

Dr. Asch attempts to make the argument that because of how disability is perceived in this culture, there should be particular concerns for unborn children with disabilities to avoid selective abortions based exclusively on disability:

The property of ‘fourth-bornness’ (arguing against an assertion that a family who does not want a fourth child is similar to a family that does not want a child with disabilities) does not inhere in the fetus/child in the same way that disability does; the fourth-born child could just as easily have been the first or only child if adopted into another family. Moreover, being a fourth child, or even a family with four children, does not subject the child or the family to the invidious treatment that has marked the lives of people with disabilities. Asch, p. 237.

Invidious treatment is a definite problem. Living in a culture that hates disability is a definite problem as well.

But aborting a child simply because he is the fourth-born is also a problem!

Trying to carve out space where abortion is both acceptable (for ‘any’ child) and not acceptable (for this ‘particular’ child) will not address that societal issue about disability.  In fact, it won’t even save any babies with disabilities.  Parents will be offered other reasons, and the availability of abortion for THAT reason will result in the child being terminated.

After all, parents could choose an economic argument instead. There are real expenses related to most disabilities that typically-developing children do not incur.  So, the family has nothing against the child with the disability, but doesn’t want to bear the financial cost. (To be fair, Dr. Asch would say this demonstrates the problem she is trying to address; she argues that society should not expect families to bear all that cost, and this is further evidence that discrimination exists against people with disabilities.)  Or, parents could conclude, on further thought, having a third child really isn’t in their interests.  Or the timing of this pregnancy isn’t convenient, etc. etc.

The desire to protect unborn children with disabilities is laudable.  But leaving abortion as an acceptable option for other reasons simply moves the problem around and ultimately won’t protect these children.

Unfortunately, abortion is settled for most of the contributors of that book.  Another contributor, Dr. Steven Ralston stated it clearly:

I am pro-choice and I believe all women and couples should have the right to and access to abortion services regardless of their motivations. Period. Asch, p. 339.

Lest you think he was just being dogmatic in his beliefs, I found most of his chapter to be nuanced and thoughtful, which makes the above statement even more sad.  For example he also wrote:

I found myself continually questioning my underlying assumptions about prenatal diagnosis, genetic testing, parenthood, families and disability.  I wouldn’t say I was thrown into an existential crisis, but I certainly spent a lot of energy trying to resolve what for me was clearly a conflict: my belief that society would be better if it were more tolerant and accepting of those with different abilities and needs, and my belief that insofar as the world is not yet ideal, the decision to terminate a pregnancy with an abnormal fetus is reasonable.

He’s right about the conflict; those are two contradictory beliefs.

Unfortunately, his belief system is ultimately about a radical, unconstrained self-determination of the powerful, granting big people ultimate authority over tiny people.  How else to describe his conclusion about abortion “regardless of motivations”?  Even Dr. Asch includes ‘parental expectations’ as part of her argument even though no parent has ever accurately predicted what parenting would be like.

Those are not principles upon which anything can stand.

Self-determination leads to death, not just through abortion but in an eternal sense. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)” and “the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)” and “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot (Romans 8:7).”

There is an eternal answer!  “BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5).”

And it is that God who supplies every need for families in our situations (Philippians 4:19), who truly knows the ends from the beginnings (Revelation 21:6), and who has plans to benefit us (Jeremiah 29:11).

In fact, the best argument of all is that because we are weak and unable to control or predict the future we should welcome our children with disabilities into our families, churches and society.  God himself has regard for the weak, will fulfill every promise he has made, and longs for us to enjoy him forever.

Because only God is truly strong and wise and knows the future, our weakness becomes a strong argument against aborting our children with disabilities – or any children.

So, I admit to being grateful for a secular argument being raised against aborting our children with disabilities.  But it does not have the power to save the little ones, nor does it have the power to save for eternal life.  And I fear in the end it actually makes it worse.

Posted in Book Commentary, commentary, Quotes, Scripture | 1 Comment »

How will we prepare the young people?

February 20, 2011 by John Knight

As I write this I’m sitting about 200 yards away from more than 200 junior- and senior-high aged young people at a retreat in northern Minnesota.  Next to me is a book, Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights, that just makes me want to weep in frustration.  It is full of illogical conclusions from some very intelligent people.  And, for the most part, the people writing for this book are arguing against the destruction through abortion of babies with disabilities – I should be encouraged!

But there is no real, lasting defense of babies in this book.  There are lessons I’m learning, but I’m not sure how to articulate them just yet.

So, I’m thinking about those 200 young people, who are being lead by some of the most disciplined, most Bible-saturated, most delighting-in-God men and women Bethlehem has to offer.  Their schedule is full of Bible (and recreation – those young bodies do need to move around!).  Yet, that won’t be enough if God doesn’t do what only he can do, calling them from death to his marvelous life and light.

So, I find myself praying this morning, please, father, please, save them all, call them all, fill them all with the wonder of who you are and a desire to know your word.  Please give their leaders words of praise and life and hope.

And then, Lord, help us to teach them to think so that they will respect but not be blinded by academic credentials or peer-reviewed journals that do not have one hint of the eternal reality to come or the present, daily help you provide.  Help us to teach them to search for truth, even when that truth is hard, like the reality of living with disability – but in the knowledge that you will never leave us, you will never forsake us, you will always supply what we need, that not one of your children can be snatched from your hand.  That it is better to live ‘as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ with a hope in future grace than it is to kill our babies.

Father, please let us be examples of trusting in you.  Let these young people be surrounded by adults who love them and love you.

Lord, help us prepare them for a world that will be perplexed, confused and hostile to a young couple who are not afraid of prenatal tests, but fear you and know they are only safe when close to you.  A world that will wonder at, question and confront why they choose not to destroy their unborn child with Down syndrome or spina bifida, why their grandparents and church don’t counsel them to get rid of that baby, why they choose a life they know will be complicated and full of hardship.

Father, let these young people at this camp taste a little bit of real, God-centered joy this weekend.  Please, Lord, open the eyes of their hearts.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Posted in commentary, Prayer Requests | 1 Comment »

D.A. Carson on how to avoid being pastorally insensitive and theologically stupid

February 19, 2011 by John Knight

I hate the health, wealth and prosperity gospel. Pastor John does as well:

In D.A. Carson’s book, How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil, Carson goes directly at the question of sin, sickness and death.  These are hard subjects, but he looks at them through a Biblical lens.

And in a few short sentences, he puts a dagger into the health, wealth and prosperity gospel on one of their worst principles – that God will automatically give us what we want if we just have enough faith:

Practically speaking, this means that it is almost always wrong, not to say pastorally insensitive and theologically stupid, to add to the distress of those who are suffering illness, impending death, or bereavement, by charging them with either: a) some secret sin they have not confessed, or b) inadequate faith, for otherwise they would certainly have been healed. The first charge wrongly assumes that there is always a link between a specific ailment and a specific sin; the second wrongly assumes that it is always God’s will to heal any ailment, instantly, and he is blocked from doing so only by inadequate or insufficient faith.  D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p. 101.

Personally, nobody has ever hinted at a) in my presence, and usually just the opposite (citing John 9:3).  But I’ve heard hints of b) a few times.  Neither one is helpful.

Rather, let us hold tightly to Jesus in the midst of great suffering!  Jesus knows suffering.  And God knows what he is doing, and he wants us to ask him for help with our full knowledge that he will provide what is best for us.  So, let us continue to ask from the one who can supply and trust that he loves us to give us the best thing!

To repeat from yesterday something Pastor John wrote (emphases in bold mine):

But let us not tell Jesus what love is. Let us not instruct him how he should love us and make us central. Let us learn from Jesus what love is and what our true well-being is. Love is doing whatever you need to do to help people see and savor the glory of God forever and ever. Love keeps God central. Because the soul was made for God.

Posted in commentary, Quotes | 7 Comments »

A thought on severe cognitive impairment and the power of Jesus

February 18, 2011 by John Knight

For those of us with cognitively impaired children, especially those with severe impairment, we live with the question of what they can possibly know and understand about God.

I find comfort in who Jesus is, as expressed in his word.

We’ve been going through the book of John in our daily staff devotions, and have come to the great accounting of Jesus and Lazarus this week:

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”  The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” John 11:38-44

It hit me fresh – Jesus was DEEPLY moved. Jesus was not hindered by Martha’s concerns.  Those in the crowd must have understood he had authority because they did, in fact, remove the stone. Jesus prayed like he already knew the outcome. Jesus was talking to a dead man.  Nothing works on a dead man.  Lazarus’ ears were literally decaying.  The cells in his brain were entirely, permanently still.

And when Jesus spoke, the dead man came out!

Our children with severe cognitive impairment have that kind of God who cares about them.

Pastor John included the accounting of Lazarus in a great meditation from several years ago:

But let us not tell Jesus what love is. Let us not instruct him how he should love us and make us central. Let us learn from Jesus what love is and what our true well-being is. Love is doing whatever you need to do to help people see and savor the glory of God forever and ever. Love keeps God central. Because the soul was made for God.

I don’t know what my son understands about God, and he can’t tell me.  But I know he was made for God’s glory.  And I know the one who made him is entirely unconstrained by his lack of cognitive abilities in this present age.  And how sweet it will be someday to talk and run and just look at our savior with my boy!

 

Posted in commentary, Scripture | 2 Comments »

A reason why pastors should want families like ours in their churches

February 17, 2011 by John Knight

Some of the most heart-breaking stories I’ve heard or read about church and disability are from families who did not feel welcome at church.  I think about those stories frequently.

Following the Sunday School service last week, I was reminded of at least one reason pastors should want families like ours attending:

We are intensely interested in the question of God’s sovereignty.

I won’t say every family experiencing disability is settled on the answer, or even that most believe God’s sovereignty is good!  It took a fairly dramatic, God-ordained series of events over time – and the miracle of God granting the eyes of my heart to see – to bring me to a Biblically-sound, life-giving conclusion to that question.

To pastors: I know we are intense, and we often do not advocate for our families in ways that are kind or gracious. The existence of our children (and their behaviors) makes other people uncomfortable. The hurts we bring feel like they will overwhelm you and the capacities of your church. Our questions may reveal the bitterness and the hostility that we feel toward you, or God, or the church.

But if we’re coming to your church, we are interested in what you think about God. You cannot do God’s work of giving us new spiritual eyes to see, but you might be the means God uses. For pastors, in particular, I hope that gives meaning to all the prayer and time and preparation and tears and sacrifice you make.  And I hope you live with the assurance that God’s promises to supply every need, when families like mine are right in front of you, are promises meant for you.

Posted in commentary | 2 Comments »

The transitions never end, and God is always faithful

February 16, 2011 by John Knight

Julie and Mark Martindale are one of those couples who love Jesus and do really hard things because of what Jesus has done for them.  As Julie writes in her ‘about me‘ page on her blog, “Lest you think we are either crazy or saints, we are neither–just followers of Jesus Christ who desire to follow his commands to take care of the orphans and widows.”

I was catching up on Julie’s blog and was struck by how beautifully she writes about very, very hard things.  And continues to trust in God.

How else can you explain statements like this?

I felt so thankful  that I get to be her Mom. It is an incredible honor–one I don’t always appreciate in the way that I should. My experiences with her changed me in ways I didn’t even know needed changing..and stretched me farther than I could have ever thought possible. Through her disability, God has ordered by priorities.  Read the entire post.

Or facing an entirely new set of circumstances in a young adult with disabilities, and ending with this statement?

But, the game isn’t over for us as McKenna’s parents..it is just beginning in many ways…and we will learn to navigate the system again like we did 18 years ago. Read the entire post here.

This life is full of hardship of every kind.  And God is greatly to be praised in how he provides in every circumstance.

Julie and Mark, thank you for living this reality:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 2 Corinthians 4:7-10

 

Posted in commentary, Helpful things | Leave a Comment »

God’s Goodness and Sovereignty Over Disability – A Presentation

February 15, 2011 by John Knight

Dr. Jason DeRouchie invited me to speak to his adult Sunday School class this past Sunday, and I was grateful for the opportunity.

He helpfully set up the context by focusing on what God has to say about disability in Deuteronomy and a few other selected texts.  Hopefully I’ll be able to hear it again and get it recorded, because he made a beautiful, concise explanation of the impact of sin and the curse (which has resulted in disability in this present age), God’s sovereignty and goodness over all things, and God’s mighty power to provide.  I should have taken notes.

What follows is my portion of that class.  I mostly stuck with this transcript.

Joint Heirs – Bethlehem Baptist Church North Campus
February 13, 2011
Jason DeRouchie introducing; John Knight presenting

My goal is not to convince you that you should care about disability through statistics or specific examples of families experiencing suffering or a sentimental view of rescuing families experiencing hardship.

But in loving God and soaking in God’s word you would love God’s sovereignty over all things and cling to all his promises for you SO THAT when disability enters your life – you will boldly and confidently and lovingly, with great anticipation and ‘as sorrowful yet always rejoicing’ cling to God in your circumstances or rush to welcome families like mine, to serve these precious families he has given as gifts to you with the strength God provides with the wisdom he provides with the resources he provides.

And not just to serve those with disabilities, but to be served by those the world and the culture considers expendable, weak, and worthless.  To actually long for and seek out fellowship with those who are daily being destroyed and discounted because of disability.  To understand and enjoy and soak in the reality of God’s purposes.  To rise into your places of responsibility with this counter-cultural, God-centered reality: On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable (1 Corinthians 12:22).

As Pastor John lead us this morning, do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment – including about disability and God’s purposes in it.  As he said, “Love your paralyzed neighbor as yourself!”

Short history: At 30, as a member in good standing at Bethlehem, as part of small group, as a regular Sunday School attender and as a volunteer – I took my family out of this place because I believed that God was certainly strong but he was not wise, not caring, not loving – but capricious and cruel.

My evidence – a little boy born without eyes.  And I was not afraid to throw that evidence in the face of anyone who dared disagree.  I cared nothing for the word of God and turned to my drug of choice – which was television.

Yet, obviously I am standing here with you today – so what happened?

God, primarily.  Using one family who believed that all the promises of God are true and who were so gripped by this Biblical vision of God being sovereign over all things that they kept pursuing us.  And they confounded us with their love for us and confidence in God’s word. (Soap example)  And God used the good men he has called into leadership here – David Michael, Pastor John, Pastor Tom – I could go on – to take me back to the scriptures; they persevered.

Then, one day, God revealed the depths of my depravity to me.  And this member of Bethlehem, this outwardly ‘good’ guy who was full of pride and sin and who had run away from this church, became finally alive.

Lesson – never give up.

Our circumstances have not gotten easier – they have gotten more difficult.  My son born blind also lives with autism and mental retardation and growth hormone deficiency and doesn’t eat well and doesn’t sleep well.  And this past year we added a seizure-like disorder to the list.

In 2004, God added Stage IV breast cancer in my wife.  Our story has only gotten more complicated.

Yet, what has changed in me is in an increasing understanding of God’s sovereignty over disability as demonstrated in his word.  The Bible has a great deal to say about disability and disease – a great confirmation of God’s goodness in the midst of great suffering.  It is almost entirely counter-cultural.  There are those who want to re-write God’s word.  Some people even call his word evil.

And I want you to love it and trust it and cling to it and quote and teach your families all about it.  For his glory and your joy!

Disability is clearly an important issue to God

  1. God states that He created some to live with disability
  2. Disability and dissease can be found in 40 of the 66 books of the Bible.
  3. Jesus made disease and disability a central part of his ministry.
  4. There are clear instructions about behavior towards and by those with disabilities.

Let’s take a quick look at the Word:

Exodus 4:11  Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”

Could it be more clear?

John 9:1-3 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

As helpful as these passages are, God has proclaimed his sovereignty over his human creation in many other places:

Psalm 139:13-16 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

(Note: This provides particular hope for those of us dealing with a daily hardship – every day is known by God.)  No surprises to God; only purpose.

John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

These are overwhelming, incredible, extraordinary, truths about God!  They are worth loving and clinging to and helping people to see the beauty in!

And, you won’t treat any of God’s words lightly when you are God-centered.  We’ll let our people see that the cleansing of Naaman’s leprosy in 2 Kings 5 is not just a story for children!

Verse 1: Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

We will not allow people to take Jesus’ statement in John 5:14 and turn it into a statement about sin and disability:  Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

Jesus is warning him about eternity!  Pastor John took this on in his very helpful sermon on John 5 back a couple of years ago.

And for those, like me, who say scandalous, bitter, heretical things, remember Job 6:26: Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?

Wounded hearts speak harshly – out of their sore and hurt.  Let them be words on the wind, not even to be confronted.

Let love guide you.

But love does not let challenges to the Bible and God’s sovereignty go unanswered by wolves who would seek to steal your joy and confidence in God.

Jennie Weiss Block, Copious Hosting

“Therefore, scriptural exegesis of the disability passages begins with a “hermeneutic of suspicion,” asking a question not unlike the question posed by many feminist theologians when they inquire if Scripture, with its decidedly patriarchal bias, can be relevant and meaningful to women. Likewise, disability advocates must ask difficult questions such as: Do the Scriptures have an ‘ableist’ bias that ultimately oppresses people with disabilities?” p. 101

Kathy Black, A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability

“Devastations, sufferings, frustrations, and disabilities happen in this world. God does not cause them, but God is present in their midst to uphold us and transform us. Resurrection can happen in our lives without God causing the suffering and death in order for the resurrection to occur.” P. 37

Really?  What about the suffering and death of Jesus?

Don’t let this happen in your own homes – letting the culture (and a response to the culture) be the measure of truth rather than the Word of Truth itself.

Most people are simply not prepared for these arguments, because we live in a culture that celebrates ‘experience’ above everything else.

And the culture?  The culture hates people with disabilities!  If you think that word is too strong, then tell me what it means when 90 percent of our children with down syndrome are being aborted?  When rates of abortion for other disabling conditions also approach 90%?  When some studies I read in New York and Switzerland had 100% of the children with certain kinds of disabling conditions being aborted?  When professors can hold prestigious chairs at Ivy League institutions and argue for children who are already born to be ‘mercifully killed.’  In the Netherlands they have developed the Groningen Protocol: It contains directives with criteria under which physicians can perform “active ending of life on infants” without fear of legal prosecution.

So, on one side are so-called scholars who are seeking to strip the Bible and God himself of his power.  And the other side you have a culture which is actively abandoning its responsibilities to people with disabilities – giving ‘government’ more and more authority over their lives.  And then you will have parents like I was, bitter, angry, hurt, wanting answers – from you – about how God could have done such a thing.  And right in front of you will be people who claim Christ but are completely ignorant of his word.

And in the midst of that soup of disregard for God and his word – God will provide gifts to his church, individuals who have been given certain gifts of teaching or preaching or encouragement – who live with disabilities.

And sometimes we need to work to see the gift.

We have children at Bethlehem who are difficult because of their emotional or behavioral or sensory disabilities – will we love them?

Will we trust, when confronted, that Philippians 4:19 covers this issue as well?  And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

That’s where the answer lies – in God’s word!  God thinks very highly of his own ability to do with his creation whatever he pleases – for his glory and for our joy!  And he specifically talks about having regard for the weaker members – calling them indispensable.  A God-centered view of disability will be radical and sacrificial and will cling to the word of God as having authority.  And it will also see the gifts that people have, rather than just the disability – gifts for exhorting, encouraging, loving.

And the place to start giving people an imagination for how big God is in every area and arena of life – is with us and with the children.  Children deserve to know that God is God – powerful and wise and judgmental and merciful and kind – rather than the God of fairy tales and myths.  They deserve to know that 2 Kings 5 is about God and not about God being ‘nice’ to a man with spots on his body.  The point of God’s healing the man born blind is not that God is kind to formerly blind people.  They need to know that God is sovereign over hard things – and all things work together for good for those who are in Christ Jesus.

God has used my son to change me, but not just me.  Paul, who cannot articulate much, lives a life full of grace and truth.  And because of the suffering God has visited on my family, God is sweeter and greater and more powerful than I ever imagined, and he just keeps getting better.  A big reason that is so is because of his word; God is continuing to reveal more of himself to me through his word.

So, I beg you, love God’s word, including the hard ones about disability and suffering.  Enjoy this teaching you are receiving from Jason and others – then think on it and prepare your families as well.

We just had a conference on prayer.  Please, pray for the disability ministry at Bethlehem; we are very needy:

  • For wisdom in serving these families, now and through the summer. We have kids who have very difficult behaviors – biting, hitting, running away.  We have children who are medically fragile.  We have families who have been rejected by other churches.  How can we possibly serve all these needs?  Only with the help of God.
  • For more volunteers.  We need more people involved to help make BBC accessible to more families.
  • For the CDG conference in March. Brenda Fischer and I are presenting separate seminars – hers specifically on disability ministry, mine on helping families deal with the unexpected.  We need your prayers to serve the church leaders who are attending.
  • For strength to persevere.  Disability is relentless – and we know that God is greater!  And we know that God hears prayers and strengthens weakening faith and provides hope.

If you’d like to know more about how we think about this issue of disability and the Bible, we have a number of resources at our blog – theworksofGod.com.

I’ll let Jason close us in prayer and I’ll be happy to answer any questions.

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