Hope
Notes
Return to Main Page
- After her paralyzing accident,
Joni Eareckson Tada was in a stryker frame - - facing downward - strapped to an
archaic machine.... Her thoughts grew dark and hopeless....One week, a friend
came to see her, and this friend opened a bible on a stool, as Joni lay face
down in the stryker, looking directly at the bible on the stool. The friend put
Joni's mouth stick in Joni's mouth and asked Joni to turn to Psalm 18 and
read:
- Psalm 18:6-19 - 6
In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God
for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his
ears. 7 The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the
mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. 8 Smoke rose from his
nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. 9
He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. 10 He
mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. 11 He made
darkness his covering, his canopy around him the dark rain clouds of the
sky. 12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones
and bolts of lightning. 13 The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the
Most High resounded. 14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great
bolts of lightning he routed them. 15 The valleys of the sea were exposed and
the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of
breath from your nostrils. 16 He reached down from on
high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. 17 He rescued me from
my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. 18 They
confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. 19 He
brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me
because he delighted in me.
- Listen now- - the Lord delights
in you !!!! The Lord will come to your rescue !!!!
- Psalm 10:17 - 17 You, LORD, hear
the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
- If, every morning,you feel like
you cannot get up, you cannot continue in pain, you can't go on- - remember
this - -
- Hebrews 12:2b 2b For the joy set
before him he (Jesus) endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God.
- Should we expect to do
less?
- 2 Corinthians 12:9 - 9 But he
said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect
in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more
gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christs power may rest on me.
- You might be in all the pain the
world can throw at you - - in an impossible situation - but remember this - -
- 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 7
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that
this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on
every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but
not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our
body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus
may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always
being given over to death for Jesus sake, so that his life may also be
revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at
work in you.
- Who is handicapped anyway???
It's the proud person who does not give thanks to God for all he has - - and
James 4:6 says- "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble......
and who is the humble? these are the people who are
humiliated by their weaknesses....and let Christ's power come into their lives
through their own weakness!
- Luke 9:23 - 23 Then he (Jesus)
said to them all: Whoever wants to be my disciple
must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."
- Joni says her cross is not her
wheelchair and she adds it's not your pains - - it is your attitude..... we are
called to die daily to our complaining attitudes.... Not only to die daily in
them but also to experience the power of the resurrection which puts to death
any doubts, fears, and grumblings.
- When we die daily, we share in
the fellowship of Jesus' sufferings.... and to be in God's presence is to be
holy - - not sinless - - but it helps us to sin less.....
- This suffering in our lives and
this "dying to self" is not pretty - - it sandbalsts us to the core -
- revealing who we really are...
- Joni says about suffering
disabled Christians - - "we are to God, the fragrance of Christ - - the
world can't see Jesus because He's not here on earth, but you and I are. And we
can fill up in our flesh what is lacking in his afflictions (Col 1:24), and in
so doing become the sweet fragrance, the aroma of Christ to God."
- Consider what we have as
Believers:
- Matt 13:11 - 11And He replied to
them, To you it has been given to know the secrets and
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been
given
- Luke 12:48 - 48But he who did
not know and did things worthy of a beating shall be beaten with few [lashes].
For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be
required; and of him to whom men entrust much, they will require and
demand all the more.
- Joni says -
"God mandates that we go out into the streets and
the alleys and find the poor, the blind, the disabled and help them "get
busy living" because misery might enjoy company but joy craves a crowd !
the Father, Son and Spirit crave a crowd of joy filling the hearts of thirsty
people who are absolutely dehydrated from a lack of
hope."...
Return to Main Page