Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Guest (Female): Welcome to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Did you know that Joni and Ken read through the Bible together every year? They sure do. And here's Joni to talk about what they're learning.

Joni Eareckson Tada: My husband Ken and I are reading through the Bible again this year, and we are coming across so many names! We were talking the other night how we know that God has a particular reason for mentioning each and every name, like the name of Paseah. We came across it in a list of genealogies in 1 Chronicles. It's just one little name squeezed in between hundreds, but God thinks it's important enough to list. And Paseah, we learned, means "the lame one." Isn't that interesting? Paseah was a biblical name given to someone with a disability that's always mentioned in the Bible.

There are all sorts of lame people listed in scripture though, and I think it's laudable that most of them are given honorable mention. In fact, in Isaiah 33, it says that with God, even the disabled carry off the plunder. Isn't that great? That's quite a promise for you today if you're feeling the aches and pains of limitations. It's a great promise for anyone feeling the crunch of diabetes or multiple sclerosis. It's a glorious promise for anyone with arthritis today who's thinking, "What use am I to the Lord? What good can I do?" Well, you know what? You can carry off the plunder.

You are ever much used for the Lord when you are yielded to God. Because for those who lean on the Lord in their weakness, God promises in Isaiah chapter 33, verse 23, that "the lame will take the prey," or the plunder. In Christ, you're a captor, you're a victor. We are defeating the enemy, and we are mighty in battle. A physical disability, as far as God is concerned, doesn't have to be a handicap. Actually, it can be an asset for the Christian because, as Amy Carmichael once wrote, "a physical affliction is an opportunity to prove in practice the fullness of God's enabling love."

God is supposed to show up through weak people like you. People who are wheelchair users, or people who, now because of a stroke, must use a cane or hearing aids. People with arthritis or fibromyalgia. They hold a special place close to the heart of Jesus, because it is not by your power, friend, or by your might or your strength, but always by the Spirit of God. Weak people like me, we know that. We live there.

It's the message we are giving this week among hundreds of disabled people in developing nations where we are delivering wheelchairs and Bibles. We're telling all the Paseahs we meet, all the "lame ones," that they can take the prey, that they can take the plunder. They're victors and mighty in battle against the forces of evil. For as they yield their limitations to Almighty God, He's going to show His breathtaking power through that weakness, and everyone's going to sit up and take notice. God has done this. God has given this person His smile. Truly, the God of the Bible must be great and glorious to inspire this kind of loyalty that we keep seeing in the middle of this person's affliction.

Are you a Paseah? Don't think of yourself as just one more person, physically weak, squeezed between a long genealogy of healthy, able-bodied people around you. And please don't look at others who are more able than you and try to convince yourself that you just don't measure up. Don't compare your abilities to others. Bear the name of Paseah, "the lame one," with honor. For it means that you are lame, and that's good. It's a good name, it's an honorable name, and best of all, it's a privileged name because you take the plunder. You take the prey.

Guest (Female): And hey, if you need more inspiration, you just have to go to joniradio.org where you'll find this program and so much more. So we'll see you soon at joniradio.org.