Disabilities break into life in various forms: as the product of genetic misalignments in the womb, as the result of tragic and regrettable accidents, as the byproducts of infectious disease, and from the degenerative effects of old age. They affect joints, bones, nervous systems, lungs, hearts, and brains. And even in the United States — a country that leads the world in medical innovation and technology — roughly 20% of its citizens live with a disability.
No church is immune. This means every church leader must be prepared to answer very hard questions about the goodness and sovereignty of God.
Does God have a good design in my disability?
To this hard question God is not silent. But if we're to hear his answer, we must submit our hearts to his word. Looking at what the Bible says is the aim of this collection of resources from pastor John Piper.
This ebook — including four sermons and an interview with a man of a disabled son — focuses on John 5:1–18 and John 9:1–38 and is designed to serve pastors who will be called on to minister God’s Word to God’s people at decisive points in their lives. The question is not if disabilities will surface in your church, the question is how you will respond when they do? At that decisive moment, what will you say?
John Piper (1946 - Present)
is a Calvinistic Baptist Christian preacher and author currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His books include ECPA Christian Book Award winners Spectacular Sins, What Jesus Demands from the World, Pierced by the Word, and God's Passion for His Glory, and bestsellers Don't Waste Your Life and The Passion of Jesus Christ. The evangelical organization Desiring God is named for his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986).In 1980, after what he described as an "irresistible call of the Lord to preach", Piper became Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he has been ministering ever since. Piper hit the evangelical scene after the publication of his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986) and has continued to publish dozens of other books further articulating this theological perspective. In 1994, he founded Desiring God Ministries, which provides all of Piper's sermons and articles from the past three decades, and most of his books online free of charge, as well as offering for sale books, CDs, and DVDs and regularly hosting conferences.
John Stephen Piper is a Reformed and Baptist theologian, preacher, and author, currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the author of numerous books.
Piper's motto in ministry, preaching, and teaching is: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." He calls those who live out this motto Christian Hedonists. Piper places a heavy emphasis on the objective and absolute nature of truth and is confident in the Christian's ability to grasp that truth through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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