Disability and the Sovereignty of God. John Piper, John Knight and the Gospel of John.

The works of God.

It was thrilling for about fifteen seconds. My boy came, it was just before noon 4th of July, 1985. Very much anticipated birth, and the nurse was cleaning him up and said I think we have a problem here. And there was a quality in her voice, that I knew this was a big problem, this was not a little problem. And because he was born without eyes they could tell us right away that he had no sight at all.

John Knight. May 24, 2011. http://bit.ly/O4Zs5i

John Piper interviews John Knight.

John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in this moving and challenging three part video series, Piper talks with John Knight who is Sr. Director of Development at Desiring God and author of the blog: The Works of God, about how he and his wife Diane live with the reality of their son’s disability and God’s sovereignty.

Direct links and transcripts: John Piper’s video interview with John Knight: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Why Was This Child Born Blind?

One of the reasons I believe the Bible and love the Bible is because it deals with the hardest issues in life. It doesn’t sweep painful things under the rug—or complex things or confusing things or provoking things or shocking things or controversial things. In fact, Jesus sometimes went out of his way to create controversy with the Pharisees so that more truth about himself and about unbelief would come out, so that we could be warned by examples of hardness and wooed by images of his glory.

John Piper. Why Was This Child Born Blind? May 22, 2011. http://bit.ly/YEIimS

The direct link and transcript: John Piper’s May 22, 2011 sermon on John 9:1-23: Why Was This Child Born Blind?

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

ESV. John 9:1-7.