Peter Rosenberger: Foreign. Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hope for the caregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver.com this is the program that is for the family caregivers. Now, if you're not a caregiver, you're going to get something out of what I'm talking about. But I'm not here for you. I'm here specifically for those who are waking up every day and taking care of somebody who has some type of chronic impairment. Now, it could be a disease, it could be trauma, it could be addiction, it could be mental illness, it could be all kinds of different things, but it's not going to necessarily get better. In fact, it more than likely will probably get more difficult. And that person who is standing between that chronically impaired loved one and even worse, disaster, that's who this program is for, hopefully the caregiver.com I'm bringing you a lifetime of experience to offer a lifeline to my fellow caregivers. I'm glad you are with me today. Two weeks ago, I started a new series that I want to spend a lot of time with, if that's okay with you. If it's not okay with you. Well, I don't know what to do about that, because I want to do it anyway. So if it's. If it's all right with you, that's what I'm going to do.
Three questions that every caregiver will eventually ask of some form
Now I started talking about theology, and before you change that dial, just hear me out, okay? Why is this important to us? What are we doing here? What's going on with this? And I started with three questions that every caregiver will eventually ask of some form. Now, they may not ask them at the same time, and they may not use the exact words. They may not even realize they're asking theological questions. But eventually, in some form, the questions come, where is God? And we talked about this two weeks ago. What kind of good and loving God would allow this? That's question number two. And the third one is, how long, O Lord? Then that third one, by the way, is biblical, because they're praying that right now, you know, how long, oh Lord? You see that in the Book of Revelation. How long will this continue? How long will my loved ones suffer? How long can I keep doing this? You see this throughout the Psalms. David expressed this a lot. How long, oh Lord? You know, he was anointed king and chased all over Israel for 20 years roughly while he was anointed king. He knew he was going to be king, and yet he was Dealing with this reality for a lifetime. How long can I keep doing this? How long before something changes? How long before somebody else. How long? Oh, Lord. We sometimes hear variations of that second question. You know, what kind of good and loving God would allow this? With the familiar? You've heard this long time ago. I forget the guy that came up with this. But if God is all good, then he cannot be all powerful. And if he's all powerful, then he cannot be all good. Okay, You've heard that before. They even had Lex Luthor do that in the Superman movie. You know, so it's been around the public discourse. There was some guy, I think he was German guy or something, that came up with this in the late 1800s, early 1900s or something. But anyway, it still distills down to the same question. What kind of good and loving God would allow this? You see where I'm going with this? Now, these are not caregiver questions. I mean, caregivers certainly ask them, and we may ask them more urgently than others because of what we witness and carry. But these questions transcend caregiving. They transcend sickness, disability, tragedy, war, loss. And they step into the realm of theology. Now, I realize that the word theology may cause some people to tense up. So I just want to start off with saying, chill out. Don't get tense on me. Don't get all worked up about this theology. It sounds academic. Sounds like it's something reserved for seminary professors, pastors, and people who enjoy using words that nobody else understands. And, sometimes that is conveyed. But don't let that word intimidate you. Theology simply means the study of God. The word comes from two Greek words, theos, meaning God, and logos, meaning word, reason or study. We get the word bio. Study, biology for bio, life, ology, study of life, anthropology, you know, that kind of thing. Theology. Ask who is good, what's he like, what's he done, what's he revealed about himself? What does he require of us, and how are we to live in the light of who he is? That is theology. And theology does not belong only in a classroom. And I suggest to you that it belongs at the bedside. The waiting room, intensive care unit, post op, pre op, the kitchen at 2 in the morning, the bathroom when you have a mop in your hand. The religion. There's a difference between religion and theology. Religion studies people and how they behave toward what they consider sacred. Okay, what do they believe? How do they worship? What rituals do they practice? And how do those beliefs shape their families and cultures. And those are important Questions, but they're questions about human beings. Religion studies man and what man does concerning God. Theology studies God. Theology subject is the nature and character of God himself. And that distinction matters for us as caregivers because when suffering comes, we are not merely asking why people behave the way they do. I don't care about other people's religion. When I'm dealing with chronic suffering, which I deal with every day, I'm asking questions about God. Where is He? Is he good? Is he powerful? Does he see this? Does he care? Can he be trusted? How long will he allow this to continue? My son asked me this when he was nine years old. He said, why should I believe that God cares about my suffering when I see what he allows mom to go through? Now think about that question he's asking as a nine year old. A nine year old. That's a heavy theological question.
Scripture tells us knowing God is the highest pursuit available to us
Scripture tells us that knowing God is the highest pursuit available to us. In Jeremiah, chapter 9, the Lord says, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. Wisdom, strength and money. Those are the things we usually depend upon to solve our problems. If we had enough this, we could get this done. Or if we knew why this was happening, we could do this or whatever. But if we had the strength, those are the things that we lean on. If I can understand it, I can manage it. If I'm strong enough, I can carry it. If I have enough money, I can fix it. But God continues in Jeremiah, let him who boast, boast in this that he understands and knows me. Now, think about that for just a moment. God does not tell us that the highest human pursuit is accumulating information, displaying strength or acquiring wealth. We have more information available to us now on our phones than the entire wealth of human knowledge has had up until this point. We can access all of that on our phones. It's not enough, is it? God says the highest pursuit is knowing him. That's theology. And then for centuries, theology was called the queen of, sciences. Now that sounds kind of strange to us, doesn't it? When we hear the word science, we think of laboratories and microscopes and all that kind of stuff. Experiments and people wearing white coats. And sometimes I Do I wear a white coat? No, I don't wear white. But the word science originally had a broader meaning. It comes from the Latin word scientia or scientia, meaning knowledge. That's it, just knowledge. A, science was simply an organized and disciplined body of knowledge. Theology was called the queen of Sciences because it dealt with the highest possible subject, God himself. Every other science studies some part of what exists. Physics studied matter and energy, Biology studies living things. Medicine studies the human body. Psychology studies people's thought and behavior. But theology asks why anything exists at all. Who made it? What's it for? What is a human being? What does being mean? Why does human life possess value? What makes something good or evil evil? What does suffering mean? And to whom are we ultimately accountable? You follow where I'm going with this? This is the world we live in as caregivers. And when we come back, we're going to delve even deeper into this. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. Don't go away. We got more to go. We'll be. Hello, I'm Peter Rosenberger. Did you know that this show is listener supported? Without people like you, this show would not exist. That's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio, specifically this show as we reach thousands of people each week with biblical truth. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netgive that's afr.net give.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This weekend on the Stand Radio, we'll hear how one crisis pregnancy center is making a huge difference in saving the lives of the unborn by reaching out to the fathers. David Thompson of Parkgate Pregnancy center will be with us across the board.
>> Peter Rosenberger: When a mom is trying to make a decision for life, she wants dad to be involved.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The Stand radio Saturdays at 4 and Sundays at 8pm Central on AFR.
>> Peter Rosenberger: Fear of failure, fear of financial hardship, fear of rejection, fear of death, and
>> Jeff Chamblee: fear because of all the evil that's
>> Larry: happening in the world today.
>> Joseph Parker: I'm Joseph Parker and we here at the American Family association would like to remind you that fear not put your trust in the Lord. Psalm 91 verses 1 and 2 tell us. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God in him I will trust. Pray Psalm 91 daily for yourself and your family, and keep your trust in him.
>> Peter Rosenberger: If you'd like a copy of the Psalm 91 prayer, simply email us at Psalm91fa.net again that's Psalm 91fa.net.
Peter Rosenberger continues conversation about theology on Hope for the Caregiver
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hope for the caregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver.com we're continuing on our conversation about theology. Now, two weeks ago, I started this, but if you want to go back to last week's program, I had my interview with Joni Eareckson Tada on there. And that is a crash course in theology, just to have a conversation with her. I've maintained for years that the moment Joni Eareckson Tada enters the room, people are having a theological question in their mind. I used to see that with Gracie all the time. The moment she walked out on stage and she would wear a skirt and you'd see her prosthetic legs, and she would get up there and sing and just. I mean, nail it, just whale on it. Gracie's such a good singer. And the moment that happened, people are having a theological question in their mind. How is this possible? What kind of good and loving God allows this? And how can she sing to him? What's going on here? And that's a theology question. And so that's why I'm going into this right now, spending the time talking about this. What is this about? Because this is where we live as caregivers. You know, medicine can tell us what's happening inside someone's body. That's what medical science can do. It can describe the disease, it can recommend the treatment. It may be able to even ease the pain. And we're grateful for the medicine. We're grateful for these things. But medicine doesn't tell us what a human life is worth. Medicine doesn't tell us why we should remain faithful when recovery is no longer expected. In my conversation with Johnny, she talks about medically assisted suicide and how it's becoming more and more popular, certainly in Europe and Canada, California and other states. In this country, it's becoming more and more the thing here. Medicine can't tell us whether suffering has meaning. And since our culture seems to think that suffering should be avoided at all cost, therefore, we need to eliminate it at all cost, even if that means eliminating the sufferer. And so now we're in a much deeper pond, if you will. Actually, it's not a pond, it's an ocean. And the water is very deep here. And so this is why it's important for us as caregivers to understand, what's going on, what do we believe, what we do, why do we believe this? And medicine today can't tell us where God is in the midst of this. It doesn't answer that. It doesn't deal with that. And for those questions, we've already left the laboratory, if you will. We've entered into a much bigger laboratory. We've entered into the realm of theology. And the Apostle Paul explains why theology stands over every other field of knowledge. In Romans 11, he writes, for from him and through him, and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Everything is from him. What is being, you know, do you think. Go back to the Big Bang theory, and everybody says, well, you know, that's what it all exploded and these gases and everything. Okay, well, where did the gas come from? Are you saying that gas has being in of itself? Are you saying that matter has being in of itself? It is eternal? Is that what you're saying? You see how these questions start forcing very uncomfortable things into the topic here that people want to. They say, well, you know, it just happened over a lot of time. We throw 14 billion years at it and think that makes it more palatable. But we still got to ask the question, well, where did this come from? Was it always here? Was gas and matter always here? Is it? Does it have being a saty being within itself, a satiety, a S C E I, T I T Y I mean, a S C E I T Y a satiety being in of itself. Does that. Is that what matter has? Now, do you see the questions that we're asking? And these are important questions to ask. Everything is from him. Everything is sustained in him because God has being in of himself. And studying this helps us understand these things. And, everything ultimately returns to him and exists for his glory. And that is why theology was called the queen of sciences. If all things are from God, through God and to God, then every other subject we study eventually leads us back to Him.
I remain convinced that theology and philosophy represent the highest forms of thought available
Do you believe that philosophy was sometimes called theology's handmaiden? And that's another term that might frighten people, you know, but, it shouldn't. And I don't want you to be frightened about it. I want you to go down in this pathway. We're both caregivers. We look at suffering and disability and chronic impairments and age and, impairments of all kinds every day. That's what we do as caregivers. That's why you're listening to this program. That's why I'm doing this program. And we don't need to be frightened of these things. We need to push ourselves to think through this. Philosophy simply means the love of wisdom. It helps us think carefully. It teaches us whether an argument makes sense or whether a conclusion follows from its premises, or we're Contradicting ourselves. For example, do you think that God is all knowing? I think. Can we agree on that as believers? Can we agree with it that Scripture teaches God is all knowing, omniscient? and yet there are people out there in pulpits today who are saying God looks down the corridor of time and sees who's going to pick him. So they're saying that God is all knowing, and yet he's learning something. Do you see how the argument breaks down? They're not thinking through this clearly. God learned something. He's all knowing, but he learned something. He learned who's going to pick him. And that's how predestination works. Or, you know, that's how they get around Romans 9 or whatever. I don't know. I hadn't figured out the particular pretzel of that logic. But, you know, that's another conversation. But philosophy gives us tool to reason with. And theology tells us about the God who gave us reason. Theology tells us about the God who is the source of truth, wisdom, goodness, life, and everything else there is to know. And I remain convinced that theology and philosophy represent the highest forms of thought available to the human mind and specifically available to the caregiver mind. And I'll tell you why. Let, me. Let me explain. Or as Ricky Ricardo would say, let me explain. When life hits, and it does, and you know this, otherwise you wouldn't be even listening to this program. This is where our minds go when the diagnosis comes. We do not merely ask, well, what is the scan show? We ask, why is this happening? When the surgeon walks into the room with that look on his face, we don't merely express a curiosity, well, how did the surgery go? Did you do that? No. We want to know, where's God? When suffering continues month after month, year after year, and in some cases like ours, decade after decade, we don't merely ask, what's the treatment plan? What's the plan of care? We ask, how long, O Lord? And sometimes people ask these questions out of rage. See, there is no God. Look at this tragedy. you've heard that. Maybe you've asked it. I have. to my shame. Well, I never said there was no God. I just got very angry with God. And I would say, see? Do you see this? Are you paying attention to this? I say that out of great shame. But I'm saying it because, full disclosure, there is nothing you're going to fail at as a caregiver that I haven't trumped you at. Okay? I am the Wiley Coyote of Caregivers.
Some people ask theological questions out of betrayal or confusion
By the way, there's a new movie out called, Coyote versus Acme, and I can't wait to see it. But I am the Wile E. Coyote of caregivers. If you could fail at it. I failed at it. I have jumped off the cliff holding an anvil and, you know, had fallen, plummeted while chasing the roadrunner. I've done it. So I say these things because I want you to understand. I have plowed this ground. I have field tested these. I have spent the nights contemplating these things and working these things out. Some people ask this stuff out of betrayal. Why would God do this to me? And sometimes people ask them out of confusion. I thought God loved me. I thought I was obeying him. I thought things were supposed to get better. I had a lady came into Gracie when she was in traction after her wreck. 17 years old. What did you do that God would do this to you? That's a theological question. It's just a really bad theological question. And some can no longer form the words at all. Some of us just sit in the wreckage and groan. You ever been there? I bet some of you have. But whether the question comes through clenched teeth or tears or stunned silence, they are theological questions. The Book of Job is filled with theological questions. They're bad theological questions. They got it all wrong. The moment those guys started talking, they got it wrong. The only question, really, is whether or not we will become thoughtful theologians or careless ones. You and I are both theologians. We don't necessarily think of ourselves that way, but we are. Are we careless ones or we thoughtful ones? Will we build our understanding of God on what he's revealed about himself? Or are we going to get it from some bumper sticker somewhere, some Instagram post that somebody posted that says, you know, God doesn't allow more than you can bear. He doesn't give you more than you can handle. Show me that in Scripture.
We're approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11th
Now, let me. Let me. Let me taken out of the caregiver world. We're approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11th. Now, you think back to that. What happened there. Some of you remember that pretty well. Now, the moment that happened, after that happened, we're all in stunned silence. We're all watching this thing was just. Was shocked. We don't even know how to even process this. But then you watch nearly every talk show. Ministers were invited on to news programs. Where's God? What kind of God would allow this? What kind of God permits such evil? The president, all the way down. We're talking about this I saw members of Congress gathered on the steps of the Capitol singing God Bless America. And there was. I mean, you know, I remember that. I'll never forget. Like, Hillary Clinton was right there as a senator singing God Bless America. And I was first off. The question I asked is, which God are they praying to? Do they know what they're saying? Do they know what they believe and why they believe it? But they're saying it. Is it out of sentiment? Is it out of understanding? Why would God allow this kind of thing? Ah. And for a brief time, God returned to the national discourse. God was everywhere as far as the topic, the conversation topic. Tragedy forced the conversation. But as it always seems to happen, the suffering kind of backed down a little bit. The immediate suffering kind of dissipated. Started playing baseball again, the stock market reopened, people went back to work, the smoke cleared, and God was eventually returned to the shelf. Because in the human mind, manageable suffering does not seem to require God. If we could medicate it, finance it, schedule it regulated, insure it, or distract ourselves from it, we can convince ourselves that we have everything under control. But what happens when the suffering does not become manageable? What happens when there is no return to normal? What happens when the wheelchair is still beside the bed 25 years later? When the disease doesn't go into remission? When the cognitive decline continues? When the addiction remains? When the prodigal does not come home, when the bills keep arriving but the sleep doesn't, when pain doesn't go away? That's where we live as caregivers. And the cry that comes from our heart is not a medical one. It is a theological one. And we're going to talk more when we come back. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back.
Fostering and adoption is not a band aid for infertility
>> Jenna Ellis: Fostering and adoption is not a, band aid for infertility. Like, it is a calling. And God can change the desire of your heart and make that so rewarding. It's the most beautiful, selfless thing. It's pure religion, but it's not a fix to I desire biological child. God has to deal with that in your heart separately.
>> Jeff Chamblee: Hannah's heart encouraging couples through infertility and miscarriage. Saturdays, 4:00am Central on AFR or on the AFR app.
>> Jenna Ellis: I see privacy, especially in the context of the Fourth Amendment just being more and more and more and more degraded, the higher and more precise these technologies get. And that's a huge constitutional concern. Does this technology require the courts to rethink existing legal standards that just simply aren't adequate enough under the Fourth Amendment to cover this and actually protect privacy.
>> Peter Rosenberger: Jenna Ellis in the morning, weekdays at 7 Central on American Family Radio.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This is Jon MacArthur with more portraits of grace. Christians often speak of salvation as coming to Christ. Well, that's an accurate biblical description because Jesus himself said, come to me all, ah, who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. But coming to Christ means more than just turning to him for salvation. It implies that you remain with him. When you came to him, he established a permanent relationship with you, one of intellectual personal communion. No longer are you without hope, alienated from God's promises. You've been born again to, an eternal living hope with wonderful spiritual privileges. And the greatest of those privileges is that you have a personal relationship with God through Christ forever. Continue to cultivate it through prayer and worship. This is Jon MacArthur praying. You're continuing to be portraits of grace.
Peter Roseberger sends prosthetic supplies to Ghana through Standing With Hope
>> Peter Rosenberger: Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Roseberger. Glad to be with you. Last week I, told you about a shipment that we are sending over to Ghana. It left this week of, prosthetic supplies through the work we do at Standing With Hope. Now, Standing with Hope is the presenting sponsor of this program. It's the ministry Gracie and I founded years and years and decades ago. And we have two programs for the wounded and those who care for them. A Prosthetic Limb Outreach and the Family Caregiver Outreach and the Prosthetic Limb Outreach. We've been working in the West African country of Ghana for more than 20 years. And we partner with them to provide prosthetic supplies, training, equipment, all kinds of things. And then we'll take teams over when we can. We haven't done it since COVID because of a lot of different factors. And also, Gracie has not been very well. And so my time has been somewhat constrained. We're trying to change that and go back over there. But in the meantime, the work continues because we're equipping them and sponsoring limbs and sending all kinds of things that are very, very needed right now. And this left this week.
Church in Montana ordered new Bibles and new hymnals for prosthetics outreach
But another thing that has happened just in the last week and a half, our church here in Montana ordered new Bibles and new hymnals. We replaced the ones we had. They were very old. We wanted to update it and go with a little different translation of the Bible and also a different kind of hymnal. There's nothing wrong with these hymnals and certainly nothing wrong with the scriptures. Our pastor didn't know what necessarily to do with them. He was thinking about. I said, we'll take them, we'll take them. And we're boxing them up and I'm going to have them shipped over as well. It'll be a separate ship. But I couldn't get it on the one with the prosthetic materials and the prosthetic feet, which would have been really cool because the Bibles are so heavy and they would have been perfectly rectangular. And put those on the bottom of the palate and then all the prosthetic feet on top of that. And so they could have been standing on the promises. And, you know, that's just the way my mind works. However, I couldn't get it time wise, logistics wise. And I didn't want to hold up the prosthetic supplies because they are really needing some of these things. So we're going to do a separate ship, but this was not part of our budget. But you know what, I'm just asking, do you guys want to help me with this? You want to help be a part of this? We're going to put a Bible in Every amputee that we treat put a Bible in their hands. We've sent over Bibles over the years, in the past. We've got, we keep an inventory there, but also these hymnals. The clinic director we work with, his name is Moses, and he has assured me that he will put these at a church locally there in Accra, Ghana, so that the congregation will be able to have a hymnal. If one of the patients wants a hymnal too, we will be glad to give them that as well. So if you want to be a part of both of these shipments, you can go to standingwithhope.com giving today. Standingwithhope.com giving it's going to be roughly about $5,000 and we could use the help with this. Again, we're just a small mom and pop ministry. Okay. And mostly pop right now. So if you want to be a part of this, if you're finding that this show is blessing you and you want to have a way to give back to this and say, you know what? I want to be a part of this ministry. This is a perfect way because you could put it all towards the prosthetic limb outreach and go towards shipping those supplies. When Gracie started this ministry, the whole purpose of this was, I'm going to put a leg on people and I'm going to tell them about Jesus. And we've been doing that for more than 20 years and we would invite you to be a part of that. Standingwithope.com giving today. Whatever you have in your heart to do, if you want to do the whole thing, underwrite the whole thing, I'd be grateful. If you want to tell some other people about it, if you want to get your Sunday school involved with it, your church involved, we could use the help. And I'm inviting you to be a part of this today. Standingwithhope.com giving all right, we're going to continue back to our conversation we're having about theology on why are we even talking about theology as caregivers?
What we believe about God determines what we attempt to carry as caregivers
What's this all about? Why should we? Why should a caregiver already overwhelmed by medication and appointments and bills and exhaustion and cleaning and laundry, lots of laundry, as a caregiver, why should we spend time with this, talking about the nature and character of God? Because what we believe about God determines what we believe about ourselves. And what we believe about ourselves determines what we attempt to carry. Now, every one of you are carrying something. You wouldn't be listening to this program if you weren't. How you carry that, how you try to carry things that aren't yours, how you try to manage m. This is a direct reflection of what you believe about God. Christian, what do you believe? Jon Calvin opened his institute and I don't get nervous when I say Jon Calvin. Jon Calvin opened his institutes of Christian religion with this sentence. Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts. The knowledge of God and of ourselves. The knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. those two things belong together. I can't understand who I am until I better understand who God is. And I can't understand what belongs to me until I understand what belongs to Him. He's the creator. I'm the creature. He is infinite. I am finite. He is all knowing. I am not. He is sovereign. I am not. And as you've heard me say many times, my wife has a savior. I'm not that savior. He's the Savior. I'm not. And as a caregiver, that. That is the penultimate conversation I want to have with my fellow caregivers to understand what belongs to us and what doesn't. We have responsibilities. We have difficult decisions to make. We do it every day. We're going to do it today. You may be the one that's giving the medicine, paying the bills, speaking with the doctors. You're probably the one that's dealing with the insurance company or changing the bandages or doing the laundry, sitting by the bed, cooking meals. all those Kinds of things. But you're still not the Savior. The knowledge of God teaches me who he is. The knowledge of myself teaches me who I am not. And there's tremendous freedom in learning the difference. Part of sound theology is learning to live with that distinction. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. There are secret things. There are things that God has not explained. There are questions whose answers he's not given us. That's why I heard one teaching on this. That's why God despises fortune tellers and mediums and all that kind of stuff. Because they're trying to go into the secret things. Those are God's things. And they're doing this under false pretenses, under demonic influence, under evil influence. Those things don't belong to us. Those are secret things that belong to God. There are questions whose answers he just hadn't given us, and he feels no compulsion to do so. Why this illness? Why this accident? Why this family? Why this long? Why this much pain? Why did that treatment fail? Why did that person recover while my loved one didn't? Why did the people who promised to stand with us disappear? Those questions are real. They're painful. And Scripture doesn't scold us for asking them. But Deuteronomy tells us that some things remain secret. They belong to God. That doesn't mean that God has revealed nothing. The same verse also says, the things that are revealed belong to us. God hasn't told us everything, but he's told us what we need to know in order to trust him, in order to obey him. He's revealed his character. He's revealed his laws, revealed his promises. Ultimately, he revealed himself in Christ. And we often become fixated upon what God has kept secret while neglecting what he's plainly revealed. So our response changes when we see these things come at us. I could say, I don't know why this has happened. I'm okay with saying, I don't know why, because here's what I do know. God's holy. I don't know how long this is going to continue. But here's what I do know. God is faithful. I don't know what tomorrow's phone call is going to bring. But I know that God does not change.
Sound theology helps caregivers deal with suffering, says Peter Rosenberger
Let's go to Malachi 3 6. Or as my brother Thom calls it, Malachi. The only Italian book in the Bible, Malachi. That's. I'm sorry, that's just funny. Malachi 36 says, For I, the Lord, do not change. There it is. Not. I don't change unless the diagnosis changes. Not. I don't change unless the surgery fails. I, the Lord, do not change. That's what it says right there in the text. The medical chart changes. The treatment plan changes. Your insurance coverage changes. People's promises changes. Politicians change. My ability to do this changes. My emotions change. My ability to cope with it changes. But God doesn't. Thou changes not Thy compassions, they fail not. That's not an abstract theological point. That's something solid. That's bedrock to put your weight on, that you can stand there. That's what sound theology does for us as caregivers. It gives us someplace to stand while everything around us is moving. We don't deny what's happening. we don't pretend the news is better than it is. We do not call evil good. We don't call suffering painless. We do not paste a Bible verse over a gaping wound and pretend that we no longer hurt. We don't misappropriate scripture and say stupid things. Remember I told you about that lady a couple weeks ago, during the ice storm? She said, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. I am thinking, what does that have to do with an ice storm? It is not a weapon forms against you. We don't have to do stupid stuff like that because we know he changes not. Charles Spurgeon once preached of God's compassion towards suffering people. He said that God is not only full of pity, but very full of pity. Not only of mercy, but of tender mercy. This is the God that Scripture reveals. We bring the wound to God, whose character does not change. He's not a distant force. He's not indifferent. He's not caught unaware. He doesn't play defense. He's not a deity we invent to make ourselves feel better. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who entered human suffering, the God who wept at the tomb of Lazarus, who took on flesh, who was acquainted with grief, who bore our sins upon the cross. Christianity doesn't answer suffering by giving us a theory. It gives us Christ. Our questions are not going to disappear, and that's okay. But our questions are brought into the presence of someone who is greater than our questions. And sometimes that's where our faith must rest. Not in knowing why, not in knowing when, not in knowing how everything's going to turn out, but in knowing whom we have believed. At the end of his ministry, Paul is writing in second Timothy 1:12. Now listen what Paul says. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. The King James says, for I know whom I have believed and am m persuaded that he is able convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. In other words, Paul is committing everything that is in his responsibility to the one he knows who he has believed. That's why we study theology. That is hope for the caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back.
Standing With Hope helps provide prosthetic limbs to amputees in Africa
I'll never forget walking into the hospital room after Gracie had her second amputation. Both legs are gone now. And she looked at me, she said, I know what I'm going going to do. And I was kind of startled. What are you going to do? She said, I'm going to help provide prosthetic limbs to my fellow amputees and tell them about Jesus. And I said, well, baby, can we get out of the hospital first? She never let it go. And for almost 20 years, we've been working out of Ghana, West Africa. We treat patients all over there from other countries that come there. We send supplies, we send teams, we sponsor patients. We work with a prison where inmates volunteer to disassemble used prosthetic limbs so we could recycle the parts. All of this because Gracie trusted God with her heartache. We've got a huge shipment of supplies that is being loaded up right now to go out soon. Would you help us do it? Standingwithhope.com giving standingwithhope.com giving there's prosthetic feet, knees, pylons, sleeves, adapters, all kinds of connectors. All of these things we are sending over there so that people can walk. We're going to point them to Christ. Help us out. Standingwithope.com giving with today's Dr. Dobson Minute,
>> Jeff Chamblee: here's Dr. James Dobson.
Sometimes the loneliness of single parenting can seem almost unbearable
>> Larry: Sometimes the loneliness of single parenting can seem almost unbearable. But let me share a story that was relayed to me by a single mother. She saw a mother robin with a brood of chicks. As the rain poured down, the mother bird covered her chirping little chicks beneath her extended wings. But then hail began to fall. And instead of tucking her own head safely into the nest, the mother robin extended her head upward and took the blows to protect her young. And they made it safely through the storm. Now, I don't want to oversimplify the complex task of the single parent, but I do want to offer a word of encouragement. I know you're taking the blows today to protect your little brood but there'll be a rainbow in the sky for those who refuse to panic and fly away. We extend our love and respect to you today.
>> Peter Rosenberger: For more information, visit drdobsonminute.org.
Peter Rosenberger discusses theology on Hope for the Caregiver podcast
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hopeforthecaregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver dot com if this is the first time you've ever listened to this program and you, you thought, gosh, a show for caregivers. He's talked about theology and all kinds of things. I was thinking we're going to talk about insurance companies or medical stuff or whatever. Well, you know, I've done that, okay? I've been doing the show for 14 years. I've covered dealing with doctors and all kinds of things like that. And you can see that on my podcast. You can read about in my book. But this issue of, dealing with the things of God, that is something that's going to weigh heavy on our hearts every single day. Because as long as we look at things that are unsettling, unpleasant, uncomfortable, painful, heartbreaking, and as caregivers, we do that every day. I mean, it's part of the journey. It's. That's the nature of it. It's a chronic impairment that we are addressing in someone that we love. And so every day, we're going to be asking these questions, and that's where the battle is. Okay? So that's. That's why I'm covering it. And then I've been doing a series on hymns that every caregiver ought to know. And if you think my conversation on theology today was abrupt to the caregiving conversation, wait till you hear what I'm about to do here.
Peter Zipp says he played Happy Trail at a Montana family funeral
All right? I'm going to deviate just a hair and not do a hymn. Okay, this is not a hymn, but it's a song that I played in a church setting that we're going to talk about today. When I first moved to Montana, one of the first things I ended up doing was playing at a funeral for, some friends of ours. the father died. He was a rancher here a long time in this community. And I played at the funeral and was happy to do so. I really, really am very fond of these, this family. And, at the end of it, they wanted a country western. I can't even remember the name of the tune. I think it was Gene Autry or something. And they wanted that kind of at the end. And I Played it. And then at the very end I threw in, you know, just as I rolled up the chords and ended on the tonic, I threw in a da da da, da da. Happy trails to you. Because I thought, what am I going to get a chance to do that? I mean, I'm in Montana. They had a saddle up there. his cowboy had his lar. The whole thing. You know, it's a, it's a Montana funeral. So I wanted to do that and play Happy Trail. So I did that. Well, they, the family told me that they wanted me to do this for the mother, who was dealing with a, long term illness. And they knew it was the direction it was going. And I told him, I said, when the time comes, you just let me know. And again, I'm very, very fond of this family and I've played many funerals in my journey as a, as a pianist. I've been a pianist longer than I've been a caregiver. And I'm always very honored when families ask me to play for them. And I try to accommodate that to the best of my abilities. I can't always do it. I won't do weddings unless you have an enormous amount of money or I love you so much that I just can't help myself because weddings are just too much drama. Funerals I try to do if I possibly can. And so sure enough, this woman passed away and I got a text from her son, my friend, and he said, we'd love for you to play. And we've been organizing the service. it was going to be a memorial service a couple weeks after the fact. And then he put in the text, do you know zippity doo da? Well, I looked down at the text and my, I was glad it was the text because I don't know how I would handle it if I was in person to person. And I wrote back, yes, yes, I do. why do you ask? Like Bob Newhart, why do you ask? But I do. And he said, well, it was mom's favorite song and she used to sing it all the time. And I said, I'm happy to do it. Happy to do it. And so I thought about this a lot and I did get a chuckle at it. My father had just passed away. My father's name was Burl. I was talking to my mother and I was talking to my sister. And I said, you know, I can imagine that dad would really enjoy this. In fact, I'm, thinking that he was probably having a conversation with the Lord, he said, lord, I'm a little concerned about Peter. He's writing a lot. He's getting well known. His show is getting well known. Do you have something in mind just to keep him in check? And I'm, thinking the Lord said, watch this, Burl. Watch this. Dad's probably still laughing about this. So, Zippity dot. Now, I have, you know, I've had some extensive training as a pianist, and I've been doing this for a long time and played in front of a lot of folks and. And some very complex pieces and things such as that over my years in my career. And I thought, zippity do duh at a funeral. And I. I didn't. I didn't really quite know how to process this at first. And I thought, well, I truly love this family, and I don't want to phone this in. I mean, you could go two ways with this. You could just perfunctorily do it, and then you can really bring everything you have to this to. To really spend some time with this and let the family know how much they mean to you and how much it means to them. And this moment is sacred. This is a. This is a precious moment for this family. And I learned the context of. She would sing this, you know, my, oh my, what a wonderful day. And she felt this way. She really did. and so I worked up the piece, and it was going to be set to a slideshow of this woman's life that her family put together. And I talked to one of the daughters, and I said, give me the exact time that you have. So I timed this out so I'd have it right. And I'm playing it live while they're showing the pictures. This was not synced up, and nobody knew what to expect. And I played it for Gracie a couple nights beforehand to say, what do you think? And she teared up, and she said, I've never heard it like this. And you did what you needed to do. And again, we just truly love this family. So I got up there to play, and I'm doing the service, and there's a pastor there that was. He was, not the pastor of this church, but he had been pastoring her at the nursing home. And so he got up and was officiating the service, and he said, and now we're going to have a slideshow that the family has put together, for her life. And it's set to one of her favorite songs, Zippity Doo Dah, played, by Peter Rosenberger. I've never had an intro like that before. And the whole audience was that. You could hear the laughter throughout the entire sanctuary. And I started right on the downbeat with the pictures and I played it. And afterwards there were a lot of tears. You could hear the sniffling. Because I knew that I needed to do something and communicate, bring the best of what I had for this family. And this is a theological moment for us because it's saying everything is satisfactorial, everything is going to be okay.
Peter Rosenberger played Zippity Do Die at his mother's funeral
It's. It's a beautiful day. And as Christians, that is our. I mean, we believe this. And she certainly did. And this kind of describes the reason I do everything on the show and everything else. I recognize the trauma that people are living with. My father was a big proponent of the ceremony, and nobody did a funeral quite like he did. Nobody did these things because he understood the ceremony. He gave the moment what it needed, and he brought the best of what he had. And I wanted to give this family the best of what I had. And so when I played it, I played my heart out. And I looked at the faces of the family and knew that I had achieved the mark. Because I could tell that they were genuinely touched. They were surprised because normally when you think of this song, you think of just kind of zip it, you know, that kind of thing. And I thought, this, no, this is going to reflect this woman's life and it's going to have the pictures of her life. This is going to be emblazoned, on, this big screen. And the whole community there that came out, the church was packed. And I want them to be able to feel the preciousness of her life and bring the best that I have. And so I thought I'd play this for you all today. And, this is just a snippet of the recording, but I thought you get a feel for what I did. And I never. I've never played Zippity Do Die at a funeral before. I'm not so sure it'll be the last time after I did this arrangement. But, you. You be the judge on that. This is just a snippet of what I played for this, but this is Zippity Do Du.
>> Peter Rosenberger: So that is my arrangement of Zippity Do Dah I did for this. My father had just passed away when I started working on this, and I was still dealing with my own grief. And I think that's the message I want to leave at the end of this segment for myself and for fellow caregivers is that even in our own pain, we can offer the best of what we have to say. Someone in their own agony as well. We're all beggars just showing others where the bread is, and in doing so, we find out that indeed, everything is satisfactual. This is Peter Rosenberger. Thanks so much for spending the time with me today. Don't forget to go out to standingwithhope.com giving and help us give the gift that keeps on walking through the gift of prosthetic limbs. Standingwithope.com we'll see you next time.
Peter Rosenberger: Foreign. Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hope for the caregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver.com this is the program that is for the family caregivers. Now, if you're not a caregiver, you're going to get something out of what I'm talking about. But I'm not here for you. I'm here specifically for those who are waking up every day and taking care of somebody who has some type of chronic impairment. Now, it could be a disease, it could be trauma, it could be addiction, it could be mental illness, it could be all kinds of different things, but it's not going to necessarily get better. In fact, it more than likely will probably get more difficult. And that person who is standing between that chronically impaired loved one and even worse, disaster, that's who this program is for, hopefully the caregiver.com I'm bringing you a lifetime of experience to offer a lifeline to my fellow caregivers. I'm glad you are with me today. Two weeks ago, I started a new series that I want to spend a lot of time with, if that's okay with you. If it's not okay with you. Well, I don't know what to do about that, because I want to do it anyway. So if it's. If it's all right with you, that's what I'm going to do.
Three questions that every caregiver will eventually ask of some form
Now I started talking about theology, and before you change that dial, just hear me out, okay? Why is this important to us? What are we doing here? What's going on with this? And I started with three questions that every caregiver will eventually ask of some form. Now, they may not ask them at the same time, and they may not use the exact words. They may not even realize they're asking theological questions. But eventually, in some form, the questions come, where is God? And we talked about this two weeks ago. What kind of good and loving God would allow this? That's question number two. And the third one is, how long, O Lord? Then that third one, by the way, is biblical, because they're praying that right now, you know, how long, oh Lord? You see that in the Book of Revelation. How long will this continue? How long will my loved ones suffer? How long can I keep doing this? You see this throughout the Psalms. David expressed this a lot. How long, oh Lord? You know, he was anointed king and chased all over Israel for 20 years roughly while he was anointed king. He knew he was going to be king, and yet he was Dealing with this reality for a lifetime. How long can I keep doing this? How long before something changes? How long before somebody else. How long? Oh, Lord. We sometimes hear variations of that second question. You know, what kind of good and loving God would allow this? With the familiar? You've heard this long time ago. I forget the guy that came up with this. But if God is all good, then he cannot be all powerful. And if he's all powerful, then he cannot be all good. Okay, You've heard that before. They even had Lex Luthor do that in the Superman movie. You know, so it's been around the public discourse. There was some guy, I think he was German guy or something, that came up with this in the late 1800s, early 1900s or something. But anyway, it still distills down to the same question. What kind of good and loving God would allow this? You see where I'm going with this? Now, these are not caregiver questions. I mean, caregivers certainly ask them, and we may ask them more urgently than others because of what we witness and carry. But these questions transcend caregiving. They transcend sickness, disability, tragedy, war, loss. And they step into the realm of theology. Now, I realize that the word theology may cause some people to tense up. So I just want to start off with saying, chill out. Don't get tense on me. Don't get all worked up about this theology. It sounds academic. Sounds like it's something reserved for seminary professors, pastors, and people who enjoy using words that nobody else understands. And, sometimes that is conveyed. But don't let that word intimidate you. Theology simply means the study of God. The word comes from two Greek words, theos, meaning God, and logos, meaning word, reason or study. We get the word bio. Study, biology for bio, life, ology, study of life, anthropology, you know, that kind of thing. Theology. Ask who is good, what's he like, what's he done, what's he revealed about himself? What does he require of us, and how are we to live in the light of who he is? That is theology. And theology does not belong only in a classroom. And I suggest to you that it belongs at the bedside. The waiting room, intensive care unit, post op, pre op, the kitchen at 2 in the morning, the bathroom when you have a mop in your hand. The religion. There's a difference between religion and theology. Religion studies people and how they behave toward what they consider sacred. Okay, what do they believe? How do they worship? What rituals do they practice? And how do those beliefs shape their families and cultures. And those are important Questions, but they're questions about human beings. Religion studies man and what man does concerning God. Theology studies God. Theology subject is the nature and character of God himself. And that distinction matters for us as caregivers because when suffering comes, we are not merely asking why people behave the way they do. I don't care about other people's religion. When I'm dealing with chronic suffering, which I deal with every day, I'm asking questions about God. Where is He? Is he good? Is he powerful? Does he see this? Does he care? Can he be trusted? How long will he allow this to continue? My son asked me this when he was nine years old. He said, why should I believe that God cares about my suffering when I see what he allows mom to go through? Now think about that question he's asking as a nine year old. A nine year old. That's a heavy theological question.
Scripture tells us knowing God is the highest pursuit available to us
Scripture tells us that knowing God is the highest pursuit available to us. In Jeremiah, chapter 9, the Lord says, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. Wisdom, strength and money. Those are the things we usually depend upon to solve our problems. If we had enough this, we could get this done. Or if we knew why this was happening, we could do this or whatever. But if we had the strength, those are the things that we lean on. If I can understand it, I can manage it. If I'm strong enough, I can carry it. If I have enough money, I can fix it. But God continues in Jeremiah, let him who boast, boast in this that he understands and knows me. Now, think about that for just a moment. God does not tell us that the highest human pursuit is accumulating information, displaying strength or acquiring wealth. We have more information available to us now on our phones than the entire wealth of human knowledge has had up until this point. We can access all of that on our phones. It's not enough, is it? God says the highest pursuit is knowing him. That's theology. And then for centuries, theology was called the queen of, sciences. Now that sounds kind of strange to us, doesn't it? When we hear the word science, we think of laboratories and microscopes and all that kind of stuff. Experiments and people wearing white coats. And sometimes I Do I wear a white coat? No, I don't wear white. But the word science originally had a broader meaning. It comes from the Latin word scientia or scientia, meaning knowledge. That's it, just knowledge. A, science was simply an organized and disciplined body of knowledge. Theology was called the queen of Sciences because it dealt with the highest possible subject, God himself. Every other science studies some part of what exists. Physics studied matter and energy, Biology studies living things. Medicine studies the human body. Psychology studies people's thought and behavior. But theology asks why anything exists at all. Who made it? What's it for? What is a human being? What does being mean? Why does human life possess value? What makes something good or evil evil? What does suffering mean? And to whom are we ultimately accountable? You follow where I'm going with this? This is the world we live in as caregivers. And when we come back, we're going to delve even deeper into this. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. Don't go away. We got more to go. We'll be. Hello, I'm Peter Rosenberger. Did you know that this show is listener supported? Without people like you, this show would not exist. That's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio, specifically this show as we reach thousands of people each week with biblical truth. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netgive that's afr.net give.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This weekend on the Stand Radio, we'll hear how one crisis pregnancy center is making a huge difference in saving the lives of the unborn by reaching out to the fathers. David Thompson of Parkgate Pregnancy center will be with us across the board.
>> Peter Rosenberger: When a mom is trying to make a decision for life, she wants dad to be involved.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The Stand radio Saturdays at 4 and Sundays at 8pm Central on AFR.
>> Peter Rosenberger: Fear of failure, fear of financial hardship, fear of rejection, fear of death, and
>> Jeff Chamblee: fear because of all the evil that's
>> Larry: happening in the world today.
>> Joseph Parker: I'm Joseph Parker and we here at the American Family association would like to remind you that fear not put your trust in the Lord. Psalm 91 verses 1 and 2 tell us. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God in him I will trust. Pray Psalm 91 daily for yourself and your family, and keep your trust in him.
>> Peter Rosenberger: If you'd like a copy of the Psalm 91 prayer, simply email us at Psalm91fa.net again that's Psalm 91fa.net.
Peter Rosenberger continues conversation about theology on Hope for the Caregiver
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hope for the caregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver.com we're continuing on our conversation about theology. Now, two weeks ago, I started this, but if you want to go back to last week's program, I had my interview with Joni Eareckson Tada on there. And that is a crash course in theology, just to have a conversation with her. I've maintained for years that the moment Joni Eareckson Tada enters the room, people are having a theological question in their mind. I used to see that with Gracie all the time. The moment she walked out on stage and she would wear a skirt and you'd see her prosthetic legs, and she would get up there and sing and just. I mean, nail it, just whale on it. Gracie's such a good singer. And the moment that happened, people are having a theological question in their mind. How is this possible? What kind of good and loving God allows this? And how can she sing to him? What's going on here? And that's a theology question. And so that's why I'm going into this right now, spending the time talking about this. What is this about? Because this is where we live as caregivers. You know, medicine can tell us what's happening inside someone's body. That's what medical science can do. It can describe the disease, it can recommend the treatment. It may be able to even ease the pain. And we're grateful for the medicine. We're grateful for these things. But medicine doesn't tell us what a human life is worth. Medicine doesn't tell us why we should remain faithful when recovery is no longer expected. In my conversation with Johnny, she talks about medically assisted suicide and how it's becoming more and more popular, certainly in Europe and Canada, California and other states. In this country, it's becoming more and more the thing here. Medicine can't tell us whether suffering has meaning. And since our culture seems to think that suffering should be avoided at all cost, therefore, we need to eliminate it at all cost, even if that means eliminating the sufferer. And so now we're in a much deeper pond, if you will. Actually, it's not a pond, it's an ocean. And the water is very deep here. And so this is why it's important for us as caregivers to understand, what's going on, what do we believe, what we do, why do we believe this? And medicine today can't tell us where God is in the midst of this. It doesn't answer that. It doesn't deal with that. And for those questions, we've already left the laboratory, if you will. We've entered into a much bigger laboratory. We've entered into the realm of theology. And the Apostle Paul explains why theology stands over every other field of knowledge. In Romans 11, he writes, for from him and through him, and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Everything is from him. What is being, you know, do you think. Go back to the Big Bang theory, and everybody says, well, you know, that's what it all exploded and these gases and everything. Okay, well, where did the gas come from? Are you saying that gas has being in of itself? Are you saying that matter has being in of itself? It is eternal? Is that what you're saying? You see how these questions start forcing very uncomfortable things into the topic here that people want to. They say, well, you know, it just happened over a lot of time. We throw 14 billion years at it and think that makes it more palatable. But we still got to ask the question, well, where did this come from? Was it always here? Was gas and matter always here? Is it? Does it have being a saty being within itself, a satiety, a S C E I, T I T Y I mean, a S C E I T Y a satiety being in of itself. Does that. Is that what matter has? Now, do you see the questions that we're asking? And these are important questions to ask. Everything is from him. Everything is sustained in him because God has being in of himself. And studying this helps us understand these things. And, everything ultimately returns to him and exists for his glory. And that is why theology was called the queen of sciences. If all things are from God, through God and to God, then every other subject we study eventually leads us back to Him.
I remain convinced that theology and philosophy represent the highest forms of thought available
Do you believe that philosophy was sometimes called theology's handmaiden? And that's another term that might frighten people, you know, but, it shouldn't. And I don't want you to be frightened about it. I want you to go down in this pathway. We're both caregivers. We look at suffering and disability and chronic impairments and age and, impairments of all kinds every day. That's what we do as caregivers. That's why you're listening to this program. That's why I'm doing this program. And we don't need to be frightened of these things. We need to push ourselves to think through this. Philosophy simply means the love of wisdom. It helps us think carefully. It teaches us whether an argument makes sense or whether a conclusion follows from its premises, or we're Contradicting ourselves. For example, do you think that God is all knowing? I think. Can we agree on that as believers? Can we agree with it that Scripture teaches God is all knowing, omniscient? and yet there are people out there in pulpits today who are saying God looks down the corridor of time and sees who's going to pick him. So they're saying that God is all knowing, and yet he's learning something. Do you see how the argument breaks down? They're not thinking through this clearly. God learned something. He's all knowing, but he learned something. He learned who's going to pick him. And that's how predestination works. Or, you know, that's how they get around Romans 9 or whatever. I don't know. I hadn't figured out the particular pretzel of that logic. But, you know, that's another conversation. But philosophy gives us tool to reason with. And theology tells us about the God who gave us reason. Theology tells us about the God who is the source of truth, wisdom, goodness, life, and everything else there is to know. And I remain convinced that theology and philosophy represent the highest forms of thought available to the human mind and specifically available to the caregiver mind. And I'll tell you why. Let, me. Let me explain. Or as Ricky Ricardo would say, let me explain. When life hits, and it does, and you know this, otherwise you wouldn't be even listening to this program. This is where our minds go when the diagnosis comes. We do not merely ask, well, what is the scan show? We ask, why is this happening? When the surgeon walks into the room with that look on his face, we don't merely express a curiosity, well, how did the surgery go? Did you do that? No. We want to know, where's God? When suffering continues month after month, year after year, and in some cases like ours, decade after decade, we don't merely ask, what's the treatment plan? What's the plan of care? We ask, how long, O Lord? And sometimes people ask these questions out of rage. See, there is no God. Look at this tragedy. you've heard that. Maybe you've asked it. I have. to my shame. Well, I never said there was no God. I just got very angry with God. And I would say, see? Do you see this? Are you paying attention to this? I say that out of great shame. But I'm saying it because, full disclosure, there is nothing you're going to fail at as a caregiver that I haven't trumped you at. Okay? I am the Wiley Coyote of Caregivers.
Some people ask theological questions out of betrayal or confusion
By the way, there's a new movie out called, Coyote versus Acme, and I can't wait to see it. But I am the Wile E. Coyote of caregivers. If you could fail at it. I failed at it. I have jumped off the cliff holding an anvil and, you know, had fallen, plummeted while chasing the roadrunner. I've done it. So I say these things because I want you to understand. I have plowed this ground. I have field tested these. I have spent the nights contemplating these things and working these things out. Some people ask this stuff out of betrayal. Why would God do this to me? And sometimes people ask them out of confusion. I thought God loved me. I thought I was obeying him. I thought things were supposed to get better. I had a lady came into Gracie when she was in traction after her wreck. 17 years old. What did you do that God would do this to you? That's a theological question. It's just a really bad theological question. And some can no longer form the words at all. Some of us just sit in the wreckage and groan. You ever been there? I bet some of you have. But whether the question comes through clenched teeth or tears or stunned silence, they are theological questions. The Book of Job is filled with theological questions. They're bad theological questions. They got it all wrong. The moment those guys started talking, they got it wrong. The only question, really, is whether or not we will become thoughtful theologians or careless ones. You and I are both theologians. We don't necessarily think of ourselves that way, but we are. Are we careless ones or we thoughtful ones? Will we build our understanding of God on what he's revealed about himself? Or are we going to get it from some bumper sticker somewhere, some Instagram post that somebody posted that says, you know, God doesn't allow more than you can bear. He doesn't give you more than you can handle. Show me that in Scripture.
We're approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11th
Now, let me. Let me. Let me taken out of the caregiver world. We're approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11th. Now, you think back to that. What happened there. Some of you remember that pretty well. Now, the moment that happened, after that happened, we're all in stunned silence. We're all watching this thing was just. Was shocked. We don't even know how to even process this. But then you watch nearly every talk show. Ministers were invited on to news programs. Where's God? What kind of God would allow this? What kind of God permits such evil? The president, all the way down. We're talking about this I saw members of Congress gathered on the steps of the Capitol singing God Bless America. And there was. I mean, you know, I remember that. I'll never forget. Like, Hillary Clinton was right there as a senator singing God Bless America. And I was first off. The question I asked is, which God are they praying to? Do they know what they're saying? Do they know what they believe and why they believe it? But they're saying it. Is it out of sentiment? Is it out of understanding? Why would God allow this kind of thing? Ah. And for a brief time, God returned to the national discourse. God was everywhere as far as the topic, the conversation topic. Tragedy forced the conversation. But as it always seems to happen, the suffering kind of backed down a little bit. The immediate suffering kind of dissipated. Started playing baseball again, the stock market reopened, people went back to work, the smoke cleared, and God was eventually returned to the shelf. Because in the human mind, manageable suffering does not seem to require God. If we could medicate it, finance it, schedule it regulated, insure it, or distract ourselves from it, we can convince ourselves that we have everything under control. But what happens when the suffering does not become manageable? What happens when there is no return to normal? What happens when the wheelchair is still beside the bed 25 years later? When the disease doesn't go into remission? When the cognitive decline continues? When the addiction remains? When the prodigal does not come home, when the bills keep arriving but the sleep doesn't, when pain doesn't go away? That's where we live as caregivers. And the cry that comes from our heart is not a medical one. It is a theological one. And we're going to talk more when we come back. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back.
Fostering and adoption is not a band aid for infertility
>> Jenna Ellis: Fostering and adoption is not a, band aid for infertility. Like, it is a calling. And God can change the desire of your heart and make that so rewarding. It's the most beautiful, selfless thing. It's pure religion, but it's not a fix to I desire biological child. God has to deal with that in your heart separately.
>> Jeff Chamblee: Hannah's heart encouraging couples through infertility and miscarriage. Saturdays, 4:00am Central on AFR or on the AFR app.
>> Jenna Ellis: I see privacy, especially in the context of the Fourth Amendment just being more and more and more and more degraded, the higher and more precise these technologies get. And that's a huge constitutional concern. Does this technology require the courts to rethink existing legal standards that just simply aren't adequate enough under the Fourth Amendment to cover this and actually protect privacy.
>> Peter Rosenberger: Jenna Ellis in the morning, weekdays at 7 Central on American Family Radio.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This is Jon MacArthur with more portraits of grace. Christians often speak of salvation as coming to Christ. Well, that's an accurate biblical description because Jesus himself said, come to me all, ah, who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. But coming to Christ means more than just turning to him for salvation. It implies that you remain with him. When you came to him, he established a permanent relationship with you, one of intellectual personal communion. No longer are you without hope, alienated from God's promises. You've been born again to, an eternal living hope with wonderful spiritual privileges. And the greatest of those privileges is that you have a personal relationship with God through Christ forever. Continue to cultivate it through prayer and worship. This is Jon MacArthur praying. You're continuing to be portraits of grace.
Peter Roseberger sends prosthetic supplies to Ghana through Standing With Hope
>> Peter Rosenberger: Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Roseberger. Glad to be with you. Last week I, told you about a shipment that we are sending over to Ghana. It left this week of, prosthetic supplies through the work we do at Standing With Hope. Now, Standing with Hope is the presenting sponsor of this program. It's the ministry Gracie and I founded years and years and decades ago. And we have two programs for the wounded and those who care for them. A Prosthetic Limb Outreach and the Family Caregiver Outreach and the Prosthetic Limb Outreach. We've been working in the West African country of Ghana for more than 20 years. And we partner with them to provide prosthetic supplies, training, equipment, all kinds of things. And then we'll take teams over when we can. We haven't done it since COVID because of a lot of different factors. And also, Gracie has not been very well. And so my time has been somewhat constrained. We're trying to change that and go back over there. But in the meantime, the work continues because we're equipping them and sponsoring limbs and sending all kinds of things that are very, very needed right now. And this left this week.
Church in Montana ordered new Bibles and new hymnals for prosthetics outreach
But another thing that has happened just in the last week and a half, our church here in Montana ordered new Bibles and new hymnals. We replaced the ones we had. They were very old. We wanted to update it and go with a little different translation of the Bible and also a different kind of hymnal. There's nothing wrong with these hymnals and certainly nothing wrong with the scriptures. Our pastor didn't know what necessarily to do with them. He was thinking about. I said, we'll take them, we'll take them. And we're boxing them up and I'm going to have them shipped over as well. It'll be a separate ship. But I couldn't get it on the one with the prosthetic materials and the prosthetic feet, which would have been really cool because the Bibles are so heavy and they would have been perfectly rectangular. And put those on the bottom of the palate and then all the prosthetic feet on top of that. And so they could have been standing on the promises. And, you know, that's just the way my mind works. However, I couldn't get it time wise, logistics wise. And I didn't want to hold up the prosthetic supplies because they are really needing some of these things. So we're going to do a separate ship, but this was not part of our budget. But you know what, I'm just asking, do you guys want to help me with this? You want to help be a part of this? We're going to put a Bible in Every amputee that we treat put a Bible in their hands. We've sent over Bibles over the years, in the past. We've got, we keep an inventory there, but also these hymnals. The clinic director we work with, his name is Moses, and he has assured me that he will put these at a church locally there in Accra, Ghana, so that the congregation will be able to have a hymnal. If one of the patients wants a hymnal too, we will be glad to give them that as well. So if you want to be a part of both of these shipments, you can go to standingwithhope.com giving today. Standingwithhope.com giving it's going to be roughly about $5,000 and we could use the help with this. Again, we're just a small mom and pop ministry. Okay. And mostly pop right now. So if you want to be a part of this, if you're finding that this show is blessing you and you want to have a way to give back to this and say, you know what? I want to be a part of this ministry. This is a perfect way because you could put it all towards the prosthetic limb outreach and go towards shipping those supplies. When Gracie started this ministry, the whole purpose of this was, I'm going to put a leg on people and I'm going to tell them about Jesus. And we've been doing that for more than 20 years and we would invite you to be a part of that. Standingwithope.com giving today. Whatever you have in your heart to do, if you want to do the whole thing, underwrite the whole thing, I'd be grateful. If you want to tell some other people about it, if you want to get your Sunday school involved with it, your church involved, we could use the help. And I'm inviting you to be a part of this today. Standingwithhope.com giving all right, we're going to continue back to our conversation we're having about theology on why are we even talking about theology as caregivers?
What we believe about God determines what we attempt to carry as caregivers
What's this all about? Why should we? Why should a caregiver already overwhelmed by medication and appointments and bills and exhaustion and cleaning and laundry, lots of laundry, as a caregiver, why should we spend time with this, talking about the nature and character of God? Because what we believe about God determines what we believe about ourselves. And what we believe about ourselves determines what we attempt to carry. Now, every one of you are carrying something. You wouldn't be listening to this program if you weren't. How you carry that, how you try to carry things that aren't yours, how you try to manage m. This is a direct reflection of what you believe about God. Christian, what do you believe? Jon Calvin opened his institute and I don't get nervous when I say Jon Calvin. Jon Calvin opened his institutes of Christian religion with this sentence. Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts. The knowledge of God and of ourselves. The knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. those two things belong together. I can't understand who I am until I better understand who God is. And I can't understand what belongs to me until I understand what belongs to Him. He's the creator. I'm the creature. He is infinite. I am finite. He is all knowing. I am not. He is sovereign. I am not. And as you've heard me say many times, my wife has a savior. I'm not that savior. He's the Savior. I'm not. And as a caregiver, that. That is the penultimate conversation I want to have with my fellow caregivers to understand what belongs to us and what doesn't. We have responsibilities. We have difficult decisions to make. We do it every day. We're going to do it today. You may be the one that's giving the medicine, paying the bills, speaking with the doctors. You're probably the one that's dealing with the insurance company or changing the bandages or doing the laundry, sitting by the bed, cooking meals. all those Kinds of things. But you're still not the Savior. The knowledge of God teaches me who he is. The knowledge of myself teaches me who I am not. And there's tremendous freedom in learning the difference. Part of sound theology is learning to live with that distinction. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. There are secret things. There are things that God has not explained. There are questions whose answers he's not given us. That's why I heard one teaching on this. That's why God despises fortune tellers and mediums and all that kind of stuff. Because they're trying to go into the secret things. Those are God's things. And they're doing this under false pretenses, under demonic influence, under evil influence. Those things don't belong to us. Those are secret things that belong to God. There are questions whose answers he just hadn't given us, and he feels no compulsion to do so. Why this illness? Why this accident? Why this family? Why this long? Why this much pain? Why did that treatment fail? Why did that person recover while my loved one didn't? Why did the people who promised to stand with us disappear? Those questions are real. They're painful. And Scripture doesn't scold us for asking them. But Deuteronomy tells us that some things remain secret. They belong to God. That doesn't mean that God has revealed nothing. The same verse also says, the things that are revealed belong to us. God hasn't told us everything, but he's told us what we need to know in order to trust him, in order to obey him. He's revealed his character. He's revealed his laws, revealed his promises. Ultimately, he revealed himself in Christ. And we often become fixated upon what God has kept secret while neglecting what he's plainly revealed. So our response changes when we see these things come at us. I could say, I don't know why this has happened. I'm okay with saying, I don't know why, because here's what I do know. God's holy. I don't know how long this is going to continue. But here's what I do know. God is faithful. I don't know what tomorrow's phone call is going to bring. But I know that God does not change.
Sound theology helps caregivers deal with suffering, says Peter Rosenberger
Let's go to Malachi 3 6. Or as my brother Thom calls it, Malachi. The only Italian book in the Bible, Malachi. That's. I'm sorry, that's just funny. Malachi 36 says, For I, the Lord, do not change. There it is. Not. I don't change unless the diagnosis changes. Not. I don't change unless the surgery fails. I, the Lord, do not change. That's what it says right there in the text. The medical chart changes. The treatment plan changes. Your insurance coverage changes. People's promises changes. Politicians change. My ability to do this changes. My emotions change. My ability to cope with it changes. But God doesn't. Thou changes not Thy compassions, they fail not. That's not an abstract theological point. That's something solid. That's bedrock to put your weight on, that you can stand there. That's what sound theology does for us as caregivers. It gives us someplace to stand while everything around us is moving. We don't deny what's happening. we don't pretend the news is better than it is. We do not call evil good. We don't call suffering painless. We do not paste a Bible verse over a gaping wound and pretend that we no longer hurt. We don't misappropriate scripture and say stupid things. Remember I told you about that lady a couple weeks ago, during the ice storm? She said, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. I am thinking, what does that have to do with an ice storm? It is not a weapon forms against you. We don't have to do stupid stuff like that because we know he changes not. Charles Spurgeon once preached of God's compassion towards suffering people. He said that God is not only full of pity, but very full of pity. Not only of mercy, but of tender mercy. This is the God that Scripture reveals. We bring the wound to God, whose character does not change. He's not a distant force. He's not indifferent. He's not caught unaware. He doesn't play defense. He's not a deity we invent to make ourselves feel better. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who entered human suffering, the God who wept at the tomb of Lazarus, who took on flesh, who was acquainted with grief, who bore our sins upon the cross. Christianity doesn't answer suffering by giving us a theory. It gives us Christ. Our questions are not going to disappear, and that's okay. But our questions are brought into the presence of someone who is greater than our questions. And sometimes that's where our faith must rest. Not in knowing why, not in knowing when, not in knowing how everything's going to turn out, but in knowing whom we have believed. At the end of his ministry, Paul is writing in second Timothy 1:12. Now listen what Paul says. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. The King James says, for I know whom I have believed and am m persuaded that he is able convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. In other words, Paul is committing everything that is in his responsibility to the one he knows who he has believed. That's why we study theology. That is hope for the caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back.
Standing With Hope helps provide prosthetic limbs to amputees in Africa
I'll never forget walking into the hospital room after Gracie had her second amputation. Both legs are gone now. And she looked at me, she said, I know what I'm going going to do. And I was kind of startled. What are you going to do? She said, I'm going to help provide prosthetic limbs to my fellow amputees and tell them about Jesus. And I said, well, baby, can we get out of the hospital first? She never let it go. And for almost 20 years, we've been working out of Ghana, West Africa. We treat patients all over there from other countries that come there. We send supplies, we send teams, we sponsor patients. We work with a prison where inmates volunteer to disassemble used prosthetic limbs so we could recycle the parts. All of this because Gracie trusted God with her heartache. We've got a huge shipment of supplies that is being loaded up right now to go out soon. Would you help us do it? Standingwithhope.com giving standingwithhope.com giving there's prosthetic feet, knees, pylons, sleeves, adapters, all kinds of connectors. All of these things we are sending over there so that people can walk. We're going to point them to Christ. Help us out. Standingwithope.com giving with today's Dr. Dobson Minute,
>> Jeff Chamblee: here's Dr. James Dobson.
Sometimes the loneliness of single parenting can seem almost unbearable
>> Larry: Sometimes the loneliness of single parenting can seem almost unbearable. But let me share a story that was relayed to me by a single mother. She saw a mother robin with a brood of chicks. As the rain poured down, the mother bird covered her chirping little chicks beneath her extended wings. But then hail began to fall. And instead of tucking her own head safely into the nest, the mother robin extended her head upward and took the blows to protect her young. And they made it safely through the storm. Now, I don't want to oversimplify the complex task of the single parent, but I do want to offer a word of encouragement. I know you're taking the blows today to protect your little brood but there'll be a rainbow in the sky for those who refuse to panic and fly away. We extend our love and respect to you today.
>> Peter Rosenberger: For more information, visit drdobsonminute.org.
Peter Rosenberger discusses theology on Hope for the Caregiver podcast
Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hopeforthecaregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver dot com if this is the first time you've ever listened to this program and you, you thought, gosh, a show for caregivers. He's talked about theology and all kinds of things. I was thinking we're going to talk about insurance companies or medical stuff or whatever. Well, you know, I've done that, okay? I've been doing the show for 14 years. I've covered dealing with doctors and all kinds of things like that. And you can see that on my podcast. You can read about in my book. But this issue of, dealing with the things of God, that is something that's going to weigh heavy on our hearts every single day. Because as long as we look at things that are unsettling, unpleasant, uncomfortable, painful, heartbreaking, and as caregivers, we do that every day. I mean, it's part of the journey. It's. That's the nature of it. It's a chronic impairment that we are addressing in someone that we love. And so every day, we're going to be asking these questions, and that's where the battle is. Okay? So that's. That's why I'm covering it. And then I've been doing a series on hymns that every caregiver ought to know. And if you think my conversation on theology today was abrupt to the caregiving conversation, wait till you hear what I'm about to do here.
Peter Zipp says he played Happy Trail at a Montana family funeral
All right? I'm going to deviate just a hair and not do a hymn. Okay, this is not a hymn, but it's a song that I played in a church setting that we're going to talk about today. When I first moved to Montana, one of the first things I ended up doing was playing at a funeral for, some friends of ours. the father died. He was a rancher here a long time in this community. And I played at the funeral and was happy to do so. I really, really am very fond of these, this family. And, at the end of it, they wanted a country western. I can't even remember the name of the tune. I think it was Gene Autry or something. And they wanted that kind of at the end. And I Played it. And then at the very end I threw in, you know, just as I rolled up the chords and ended on the tonic, I threw in a da da da, da da. Happy trails to you. Because I thought, what am I going to get a chance to do that? I mean, I'm in Montana. They had a saddle up there. his cowboy had his lar. The whole thing. You know, it's a, it's a Montana funeral. So I wanted to do that and play Happy Trail. So I did that. Well, they, the family told me that they wanted me to do this for the mother, who was dealing with a, long term illness. And they knew it was the direction it was going. And I told him, I said, when the time comes, you just let me know. And again, I'm very, very fond of this family and I've played many funerals in my journey as a, as a pianist. I've been a pianist longer than I've been a caregiver. And I'm always very honored when families ask me to play for them. And I try to accommodate that to the best of my abilities. I can't always do it. I won't do weddings unless you have an enormous amount of money or I love you so much that I just can't help myself because weddings are just too much drama. Funerals I try to do if I possibly can. And so sure enough, this woman passed away and I got a text from her son, my friend, and he said, we'd love for you to play. And we've been organizing the service. it was going to be a memorial service a couple weeks after the fact. And then he put in the text, do you know zippity doo da? Well, I looked down at the text and my, I was glad it was the text because I don't know how I would handle it if I was in person to person. And I wrote back, yes, yes, I do. why do you ask? Like Bob Newhart, why do you ask? But I do. And he said, well, it was mom's favorite song and she used to sing it all the time. And I said, I'm happy to do it. Happy to do it. And so I thought about this a lot and I did get a chuckle at it. My father had just passed away. My father's name was Burl. I was talking to my mother and I was talking to my sister. And I said, you know, I can imagine that dad would really enjoy this. In fact, I'm, thinking that he was probably having a conversation with the Lord, he said, lord, I'm a little concerned about Peter. He's writing a lot. He's getting well known. His show is getting well known. Do you have something in mind just to keep him in check? And I'm, thinking the Lord said, watch this, Burl. Watch this. Dad's probably still laughing about this. So, Zippity dot. Now, I have, you know, I've had some extensive training as a pianist, and I've been doing this for a long time and played in front of a lot of folks and. And some very complex pieces and things such as that over my years in my career. And I thought, zippity do duh at a funeral. And I. I didn't. I didn't really quite know how to process this at first. And I thought, well, I truly love this family, and I don't want to phone this in. I mean, you could go two ways with this. You could just perfunctorily do it, and then you can really bring everything you have to this to. To really spend some time with this and let the family know how much they mean to you and how much it means to them. And this moment is sacred. This is a. This is a precious moment for this family. And I learned the context of. She would sing this, you know, my, oh my, what a wonderful day. And she felt this way. She really did. and so I worked up the piece, and it was going to be set to a slideshow of this woman's life that her family put together. And I talked to one of the daughters, and I said, give me the exact time that you have. So I timed this out so I'd have it right. And I'm playing it live while they're showing the pictures. This was not synced up, and nobody knew what to expect. And I played it for Gracie a couple nights beforehand to say, what do you think? And she teared up, and she said, I've never heard it like this. And you did what you needed to do. And again, we just truly love this family. So I got up there to play, and I'm doing the service, and there's a pastor there that was. He was, not the pastor of this church, but he had been pastoring her at the nursing home. And so he got up and was officiating the service, and he said, and now we're going to have a slideshow that the family has put together, for her life. And it's set to one of her favorite songs, Zippity Doo Dah, played, by Peter Rosenberger. I've never had an intro like that before. And the whole audience was that. You could hear the laughter throughout the entire sanctuary. And I started right on the downbeat with the pictures and I played it. And afterwards there were a lot of tears. You could hear the sniffling. Because I knew that I needed to do something and communicate, bring the best of what I had for this family. And this is a theological moment for us because it's saying everything is satisfactorial, everything is going to be okay.
Peter Rosenberger played Zippity Do Die at his mother's funeral
It's. It's a beautiful day. And as Christians, that is our. I mean, we believe this. And she certainly did. And this kind of describes the reason I do everything on the show and everything else. I recognize the trauma that people are living with. My father was a big proponent of the ceremony, and nobody did a funeral quite like he did. Nobody did these things because he understood the ceremony. He gave the moment what it needed, and he brought the best of what he had. And I wanted to give this family the best of what I had. And so when I played it, I played my heart out. And I looked at the faces of the family and knew that I had achieved the mark. Because I could tell that they were genuinely touched. They were surprised because normally when you think of this song, you think of just kind of zip it, you know, that kind of thing. And I thought, this, no, this is going to reflect this woman's life and it's going to have the pictures of her life. This is going to be emblazoned, on, this big screen. And the whole community there that came out, the church was packed. And I want them to be able to feel the preciousness of her life and bring the best that I have. And so I thought I'd play this for you all today. And, this is just a snippet of the recording, but I thought you get a feel for what I did. And I never. I've never played Zippity Do Die at a funeral before. I'm not so sure it'll be the last time after I did this arrangement. But, you. You be the judge on that. This is just a snippet of what I played for this, but this is Zippity Do Du.
>> Peter Rosenberger: So that is my arrangement of Zippity Do Dah I did for this. My father had just passed away when I started working on this, and I was still dealing with my own grief. And I think that's the message I want to leave at the end of this segment for myself and for fellow caregivers is that even in our own pain, we can offer the best of what we have to say. Someone in their own agony as well. We're all beggars just showing others where the bread is, and in doing so, we find out that indeed, everything is satisfactual. This is Peter Rosenberger. Thanks so much for spending the time with me today. Don't forget to go out to standingwithhope.com giving and help us give the gift that keeps on walking through the gift of prosthetic limbs. Standingwithope.com we'll see you next time.
(00:00) Peter Rosenberger created Caregiver. com to help family caregivers
(01:22) Three questions that every caregiver will eventually ask of some form
(07:03) Scripture tells us knowing God is the highest pursuit available to us
(12:11) Peter Rosenberger continues conversation about theology on Hope for the Caregiver
(16:43) I remain convinced that theology and philosophy represent the highest forms of thought available
(20:14) Some people ask theological questions out of betrayal or confusion
(22:20) We're approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11th
(25:02) Fostering and adoption is not a band aid for infertility
(27:13) Peter Roseberger sends prosthetic supplies to Ghana through Standing With Hope
(28:17) Church in Montana ordered new Bibles and new hymnals for prosthetics outreach
(31:12) What we believe about God determines what we attempt to carry as caregivers
(36:05) Sound theology helps caregivers deal with suffering, says Peter Rosenberger
(40:02) Standing With Hope helps provide prosthetic limbs to amputees in Africa
(41:07) Sometimes the loneliness of single parenting can seem almost unbearable
(42:12) Peter Rosenberger discusses theology on Hope for the Caregiver podcast
(43:24) Peter Zipp says he played Happy Trail at a Montana family funeral
(49:31) Peter Rosenberger played Zippity Do Die at his mother's funeral
(00:00) Peter Rosenberger created Caregiver. com to help family caregivers
(01:22) Three questions that every caregiver will eventually ask of some form
(07:03) Scripture tells us knowing God is the highest pursuit available to us
(12:11) Peter Rosenberger continues conversation about theology on Hope for the Caregiver
(16:43) I remain convinced that theology and philosophy represent the highest forms of thought available
(20:14) Some people ask theological questions out of betrayal or confusion
(22:20) We're approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11th
(25:02) Fostering and adoption is not a band aid for infertility
(27:13) Peter Roseberger sends prosthetic supplies to Ghana through Standing With Hope
(28:17) Church in Montana ordered new Bibles and new hymnals for prosthetics outreach
(31:12) What we believe about God determines what we attempt to carry as caregivers
(36:05) Sound theology helps caregivers deal with suffering, says Peter Rosenberger
(40:02) Standing With Hope helps provide prosthetic limbs to amputees in Africa
(41:07) Sometimes the loneliness of single parenting can seem almost unbearable
(42:12) Peter Rosenberger discusses theology on Hope for the Caregiver podcast
(43:24) Peter Zipp says he played Happy Trail at a Montana family funeral
(49:31) Peter Rosenberger played Zippity Do Die at his mother's funeral
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