Bearing Fruit on My Birthday
Ministries > Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope with Joni Eareckson Tada
Help Shauna celebrate Joni’s birthday by listening in to this special program – it’s her sweet 77th! Praise God!
Shauna Amick: Welcome to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. When it comes to birthdays, our friend Johnny does much more than blow the candles out on her cake. She knows that every October 15th is for her. Well, it's a miraculous milestone. And Johnny, today you've reached your 77th birthday. I can just hear our friends listening shouting, Happy Birthday, Johnny.
Joni Eareckson Tada: Oh, and don't I know it. I've got lots of friends who are praising God along with me, except in all my many years of living with quadriplegia, you know, I have never been able to blow out all the candles on my cake.
Shauna Amick: What?
Joni Eareckson Tada: I think I only have enough lung power to extinguish maybe four or five, but definitely not 77.
Shauna Amick: Well, Johnny, I know that you always listen to what scripture God puts on your heart every birthday. So what scripture is it this year?
Joni Eareckson Tada: Well, I was going to say Psalm 92 where God says, They shall bear fruit in old age. And I'm not young anymore, but the one Bible verse that keeps ringing in my heart is where Jesus says in John chapter 15, The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me. I want to do everything from my end to be the branch that abides, that that remains and dwells and stays in the vine because God promises that I can still bear fruit at this age and actually that I can produce much fruit. And this birthday I want about as much as I can get. And for every listener today, I want you to join me. Would you be the branch that draws strength, be nourished through the vine Jesus Christ? Then together let's live abundant lives overflowing with spirit-blessed fruit, telling everyone, oh, taste and see how very good the Lord is.
Shauna Amick: Oh, that is such a wonderful invitation. And I know I'm going to join you.
Joni Eareckson Tada: And Shauna, I am the most blessed quadriplegic in the entire world. I mean, think of it. Despite cancer and chronic pain, just look. Look at me. I'm sitting up in my wheelchair
Shauna Amick: Yes. Hallelujah.
Joni Eareckson Tada: at my age today, and for the 60 years I've been paralyzed, I am amazed at how good, how very good the Lord has been to me. Today I'm 77. I keep repeating that and I keep saying, Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. And that's another thing I want my listening friend to do. Because of my paralysis, I cannot raise my arms above my shoulders. I wish I could applaud my Savior. So friend listening, just for a moment, would you join me in doing that right now? Go before God with lifted hands and bless him for keeping your friend this this happy aging quadriplegic. Bless him for keeping me fit for service in his kingdom, bearing much fruit.
Shauna Amick: Oh, and Johnny, I know how hard your life is away from this microphone. My goodness, you need two of us in order to help you cough.
Joni Eareckson Tada: Yeah, maybe that way I would have enough air to blow out all my birthday candles today.
Shauna Amick: Well, you know I'm here to help anytime.
Joni Eareckson Tada: Thank you.
Shauna Amick: And here's one last question. What are you looking forward to in the year to come?
Joni Eareckson Tada: Well, every morning when I sit up in my wheelchair, Shauna, it's like my first day, my first day at work. I cannot wait to wheel through the front doors of Johnny and Friends and put my hand to the plow in God's vineyard as it were because there are millions of people with disabilities who are drowning in hopelessness. And on my birthday and for birthdays to come, I want to do everything I can to reach them with the good news of Jesus Christ.
Shauna Amick: Well, Johnny, that's our birthday prayer for you today.
Joni Eareckson Tada: And thank you for giving me a very happy birthday.
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About Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope
Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope is a broadcast ministry of Joni and Friends committed to bringing the Gospel and practical help to people impacted by disability around the world. Joni and Friends has been advancing disability ministry for over 40 years. Their mission to glorify God, communicate the Gospel and mobilize the global church to evangelize, disciple and serve people living with disability answers the call found in Luke 14 to “bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame… so that my house will be full.”
About Joni Eareckson Tada
Paralyzed as the result of a diving accident at age 17, Joni Eareckson Tada envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. As the Founder and CEO of Joni and Friends, she is known worldwide as an author, speaker, disability rights advocate and radio personality. Her 10,000 radio programs are broadcast across the country and around the world, inspiring listeners to realize that there is hope in every hardship.Joni Eareckson Tada is an esteemed Christian stateswoman and respected global leader in disability advocacy. Although a 1967 diving accident left her a quadriplegic, she emerged from rehabilitation with a determination to help others with similar disabilities. Mrs. Tada serves as CEO of Joni and Friends, a Christian organization which provides programs and services for thousands of special-needs families around the world. President Reagan appointed Mrs. Tada to the National Council on Disability, then reappointed by President George H.W. Bush. During her tenure, the ADA was passed and signed into law. Mrs. Tada served as advisor to Condoleezza Rice on the Disability Advisory Committee to the U.S. State Department. She served as Senior Associate for Disability Concerns for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. The Colson Center on Christian Worldview awarded Joni Tada its prestigious William Wilberforce Award, and she was also inducted into
Indiana Wesleyan University’s Society of World Changers.
Joni Eareckson Tada has been awarded several honorary degrees, including Doctor of Humanities from Gordon College and Doctor of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary. She is an effective communicator, sharing her inspirational message in books, through artwork, radio, and other media. Joni Tada served as General Editor of the Beyond Suffering Bible, a special edition published by Tyndale for people affected by disability. Joni and her husband Ken were married in 1982 and reside in Calabasas, California.
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