The Journey to Finding an Apartment in Louisville - The Decision

I previously wrote about our trip down to Kentucky a few weeks ago. After looking at a few apartments, Courtney and I needed to decide between two different options. For more details on the two options, you can read my post here.

 

We decided we would spend a week in intentional prayer and see where the Lord would lead us and hopefully one of us would feel inclined to change our minds on the apartment we would apply for. For myself, there were a series of events over the two weeks following our trip that have taught me a lot about making important decisions, about trusting the Lord in prayer, about trusting the leading of the Holy Spirit, and about the beauty of a life not lived for myself. Here are the situations that acted as definitive steps on our way to our decision.

 

PRAYING – NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS:

The very first thing that I believe lead to peace and clarity in our decision is a prayer we prayed together the first night we got back home. Just before we fell asleep we closed our eyes and we prayed, “God, we look to you for wisdom and guidance in this decision. Please allow our hearts and minds to be open to what you will lead us to, give us strength to be honest with each other about where we feel you are leading us individually, and give us sensitivity to not ignore your leading”. As soon as I said “Amen” I automatically sensed “you should apply to the first apartment”. It was real, it was there, but it was just a feeling, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

 

THE WORD – ELIJAH’s UNCOMFORTABLE JOURNEY:

We started a series at Harvest looking at the life of Elijah starting in Chapter 17. The first Sunday after we got back Robbie preached on 1 Kings 17:8-16 on a message titled “Walking in the Will of God”. One of the points Robbie made was that the will of God involves the test of believing. Both Elijah and the widow were tested in their faith for the Lord. Robbie made the point that contributing to the kingdom of God is always better than contributing to the kingdom of self. Spiritual maturity involves growing in generous giving, sacrificial giving, cheerful giving, and faithful giving.

 

COUNSEL – LIVES LIVED FOR THE LORD

It was at around this time that I began looking into Christian biographies. One of the biographies I heard our first week back was the biography of Charles Simeon. I saw and heard about this man with whom the Lord walked for many years. I saw the faith that the Lord gave him to endure trials, to not avoid suffering, and to remain faithful in the calling he sensed for his life. He endured so much suffering, so much disease, so many deaths in his family, so much discouragement, so much affliction, so much discomfort, so much alienation, so much hatred, and so much loneliness. When asked, after 49 hard years of ministry he was asked by one of his friends how he had surmounted persecution and outlasted all the great prejudice against him. He answered, “My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ’s sake”. That line stuck with me. We indeed must not mind a little suffering, and we must certainly not mind a good dose of discomfort. I was inspired to have such a loose grip on material possessions and on personal comfort and instead to have a strong vision and desire for the gospel, for ministry, for sacrifice.

 

SACRIFICE – NOT MY KINGOM BUT HIS KINGDOM

One of the things Courtney and I both knew would probably have to happen if we were to choose the second apartment, is that we would probably have to stop our sponsorship of our two little kids through Compassion Canada. By choosing to stop the sponsorship of Yulianis and Lincon, we would essentially have the $100/month that we would need to make things work at the second apartment. After days of prayer, hearing about Elijah, hearing about, a pool and a nice balcony didn’t seem as desirable as a ministering to people that might have never heard about Jesus. It didn’t seem adequate or right for us to stop sending money to our two sponsor kids who are being fed with the Gospel , with love, and with daily necessities in Colombia through Compassion Canada so that we could enjoy what would be a more comfortable and glamorous place. I began to see that this decision was not about us, but like everything else in our lives, it was about the Lord.

 

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT – WHEN I ABIDED MOST IN CHRIST

Despite all of these things, for most of the two weeks after we got back, I really wanted to live in the second apartment and was kind of hoping that Courtney would change her mind. At work, I would be thinking about how nice it would be to have a pool to relax in during the hot summer, and to read and to study. I thought about how nice it would be to have the nice patio. I thought about how hard it would be to have such a tiny kitchen. I just thought about how nice it would be to live in the second apartment. This is what I thought about, most of the time. However, this is not what I thought after a deep time of prayer, this is not what I thought after worshiping the Lord and hearing his Word preached on Sunday, this is not what I thought after spending time learning about the life of Charles Simeon. When I felt like I was leaning the least on my own understanding, when I felt like was trusting the most in the Lord, when I felt like I was acknowledging most his purposes and his desires, I thought about how great it would be to live in the first apartment.

 

When I thought about all these things, it seemed clear to me that if the Holy Spirit does in fact lead the people of God, this is very likely the way He does that. We ended up applying to the first apartment after being convinced that this was the right thing for us to do at this point.

The Journey to finding an Apartment in Louisville - The Options

It is about time to write of the journey that the Lord has taken us on in finding, applying for, and finalizing the details of where we will be living once we move to Louisville. This little piece of the journey has been, for me, one of the most encouraging and blessed parts of our journey so far. I have learned much about myself, about my wife, and about our God and how He is looking to work in our lives even now, manifesting his guidance through the Holy Spirit and His unchanging Word.

Prior to going down to Louisville a couple of weeks ago, we wanted to narrow down the search of apartments we had found online to a number that we might be able to actually go on see during the weekend (maybe 3 or 4) without overwhelming ourselves. After filtering our findings more by the budget that we had and by location (close to campus) we ended up with one apartment. We were going to go down and just look at the one apartment.

That seemed fine up until the night before we were leaving. All of a sudden we started having our doubts - "Are we REALLY going to drive 9 hours to look at ONE apartment?". In a bit of a panic, we loosened up our criteria and came up with a list of 4 that we would go see. That weekend we went and looked at the four apartments on our second list and left to come back home with a big decision on our hands.

 

OPTION #1:

 

 

The first apartment (the only one we were originally going to see) is in an older complex in a very quiet and green neighbourhood. There are lots of trees around, nice paths and a little park in the complex (all things that attracted Courtney to this option right off the bat). It is a 20 minute walk from campus and would be a good option if we were to have different class and work schedules. It is relatively inexpensive, as it is only available for low-income families. The 2-bedroom option we were looking at would be enough space for us, although the kitchen is tiny (one-person-in-the-kitchen-at-a-time kind of kitchen). We walked around and saw some of the immigrant families and kids that lived in the complex, which reminds us of the community where we live now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPTION #2:

The second apartment we were considering is a newer complex about 13 minutes away from campus in good traffic. This one caught my attention right off the bat. The grounds were wonderfully kept, the buildings looked newer, and the person who helped us and showed us around was very likeable, helpful, and courteous. It also had a really nice pool! The model apartment that we looked was VERY nice and we were both very impressed. It had a really nice kitchen, great walkout patio, nice windows, and great space. The price of this second option was a little higher (by almost $100/month) than the first option, but it still seemed manageable and worth the consideration.

 

 

There was much to consider, much thinking to be done, and much prayer to do. Courtney was leaning more towards the first option while I was very happy to apply for the second apartment. Overall, our trip ended up being productive and now we just needed to make a decision.

Baby 59 - The Moral and Sentimental Antithesis to our Pro-Choice Obsessed Culture

Baby 59 made headlines all over the world earlier this week when a video of his rescue began to circulate. The newborn baby boy, named after the incubator number where he spent the first couple of days of his life, was rescued from a toilet drainage pipe after residents of the apartment building heard cries coming from the plumbing. Initially, authorities thought the baby had been abandoned and said they would be treating the case as one of attempted homicide. However, local authorities have now concluded that the baby was trapped by accident after reports coming from the mother insisted that she went to the shared bathroom when she felt abdominal cramps. She explained that the baby slipped into the sewer pipe and she was unable to free him. It was the mother herself who sounded the alarm for the rescue team to come. She was present during the rescue that lasted well over two hours and explained that she wanted to raise the child herself but had no idea how to do it.

I have found the images and videos from the baby's rescue to be some of the most deeply heart-wrenching and emotionally disturbing I have seen in a very long time. British columnist Jonathan Jones writes, "Some pictures are moving because they make you sympathize with victims of violence. This one exerts a terrible psychological hold because the baby's release from the pipe is a macabre travesty of birth". He then goes on to describe his own emotional response to the images, "For me this poor baby is a figure of ultimate abandonment, a child whose early hours were spent in a filthy claustrophobic tube, with injuries that include a broken skull, fighting for life – and crying, successfully, for help – in the darkness and dirt."

Ultimate abandonment, filth, broken skull, fighting for life, crying for help - that was the state of this Chinese baby when the world first heard of him. The images and sounds that were witnessed can hardly be imagined. I cannot think of one person that was not, at that moment in time, waiting patiently and hoping that somehow this baby could survive.

There was, however, another person present at that rescue who needed help, who needed care and who needed support. It is hard to imagine what the mother was going through. Single, alone, and afraid, she watched as local authorities cut the pipe open to reveal her baby boy still attached to the placenta. Whether or not her story is completely true and regardless of whether or not more details about her circumstances will come up later, there is a sense of sympathy for the mentally and emotionally paralyzed mother.

Nevertheless, at that moment, all efforts were on the baby, all eyes were on the baby, all hopes were on the baby, all prayers were for the baby.

It is hard to imagine that any person at that moment would hesitate to do everything within their power to save the baby's life. We know, however, that in our culture that is exactly what takes place. The moral and natural priorities exhibited in the rescue of Baby 59 to savea baby's life regardless of any circumstances or desires stand in stark contrast to those of our nation, where a mother's choice trumps the decision to keep her baby alive.

To this day, Canada remains the only country in the developed world where there are no laws regulating abortions. In our nation, a mother can legally abort her baby at any point in time during her pregnancy - including up to the delivery itself. It is not a crime for a doctor (or anyone else for that matter) to kill the baby as per the mother's instructions as long as the child is not yet fully born. While there are different provincial and medical policies and regulations whereby a doctor might lose his or her license to practice if such an event were to take place, they would not be charged with a crime.

According to Stats Canada, there were 377,213 live births in Canada in 2010(1). In that same year there were also 64,641 abortions reported nationwide(2). That's more than 1 abortion for every 7 births! However, since the court struck down reporting requirements in 1988, it is difficult to know how accurate these figures are - they are obviously reflective of only a fraction of the abortions that took place.

It is hard to rationalize or imagine an alternate conclusion to the baby's rescue in China. The authorities could have stopped and asked the mother what she wanted to do with the baby prior to beginning the rescue, and she might have said "I'm not ready to have a baby", or "the baby is really sick", or "the baby is an inconvenience to me at this time, please kill it". The rescuers might have then heeded the mother's instructions and proceeded to remove the crying baby from the pipes and done as the mother had asked.

That alternate video would have undoubtedly sparked a warranted debate and protest against what had just happened. The truth, however, is that this alternate story would not be very different from what happens in our city, in our hospitals, in our clinics, in our own backyard every single day - legally, quietly and privately.

This alternate ending to Baby 59's life is not unlike what Alisa LaPolt Snow, a lobbyist representing Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, argued should happen to a live baby of a "botched" abortion. When asked what Planned Parenthood would want to have happen to a child that is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, she responded, "We believe that any decision that's made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician". You can watch the shocking response she gave on behalf of Planned Parenthood during the Civil Justice Subcommittee's consideration of the "Infants Born Alive Act" just a few weeks ago by clicking here. 

The fact that any decision that is made regarding a baby's life should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician is exactly what Canadian laws seem to endorse and support. A mother in Canada can give any or no reason at all for wanting to abort her baby at any point in her pregnancy. While she might find it hard to find a reputable doctor to do so later on in pregnancy, it not something that is illegal and many times it is deemed "understandable". That veto over a child's life in the form of a choice is precisely what pro-choice advocates believe the priorities are. They believe the decisive verdit in determining whether a baby should live or die should come down to a choice, and not the baby's. But that is precisely what we don't see or could imagine seeing when we watch the video of this baby's rescue. When it comes to Baby 59, it is simply unfathomable to think that there could have existed any reason or circumstance given by the baby's mother that would have changed the outcome of the rescue.

Maybe it was the video. Maybe it was actually seeing a baby fighting to survive the only way it knows to fight - through tears and wailing. Maybe we don't really believe that choice trumps  life. Maybe Gregg Cunningham was right, "Injustice that is invisible inevitably becomes tolerable. But injustice that is made visible inevitably becomes intolerable".

(1). Stats Canada, CANSIM, "Table 102-4503: Births and total fertility rate, by province and territory", Statistics Canada, 2013, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/hlth85a-eng.htm

(2). CIHI, "Induced Abortions Performed in Canada in 2010", Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2010, http://www.cihi.ca/CIHI-ext-portal/pdf/internet/TA_10_ALLDATATABLES20120417_EN

One Year Later - The Seminary Impossibilities Seem Bigger, But Our God Seems Greater Still

This weekend, Courtney and I had the opportunity to drive back to Louisville on our second trip to the city and the seminary to take a second look at what our life might look like in just a few months.

 

So many things have changed since we came down for the first time last year. A year ago, we were only beginning to think about going to seminary at all, Courtney had no desire to do more studying, we had not applied, everything - absolutely EVERYTHING was new and almost overwhelming to think about.
 

Over the past couple of months since getting accepted, there has been little break from googling apartments in the area, selecting courses, figuring out finances, thinking about moving trucks, praying for guidance, applying for visas, looking at health insurance, organizing paperwork, praying for faith, looking for jobs and applying for jobs, applying for scholarships. There always seems to be something we need to work on, have to submit, or should start looking at. It's amazing to think that although we have almost none of the same questions we had last year (Are we called to seminary? Is it feasable to move to Kentucky? Would we get accepted?) the impossibility of this journey is so much more evident - the impossibility of this journey without the Lord.

 

Our thinking from the beginning has always been the same - this is crazy, and unless the Lord guides and directs every one of the ten thousand steps required for this, it will never happen. All it takes is 1 door to close and we would have no choice but to stay in Canada. What we see one year later is that our God has been with us and has done a massive work of faith in our hearts. Looking back at how far we have come fills us with faith in an unfathomably strong and loving God who cares deeply for us. This faith strengthens us to carry forward to honour the Lord through the thousands of questions and uncertainties.

 

The Lord has also done a massive work of humility in our hearts. This humility keeps us from letting go of the Lord's hand as we get closer and closer to the end of the beginning of this journey. His mercy in humbling our hearts keeps us from thinking that we can fill out paperwork without the Holy Spirit, that we will have the finances needed outside of the generous hand of the Lord, that we will have the sanity and holiness to continue to strengthen our marriage without the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In some ways the question marks in our life have only gotten bigger and multiplied. And yet, Jesus has revealed Himself able and willing to carry His weak and immature children through the purifying fires of trials and uncertainties to open our eyes to see His glory more fully and more clearly.

 

The irony of it all that the more the Lord walks us on this path, and opens doors for us in this life, the more that we love Him and the less we care about this life and this path. The more the Lord is providing and blessing our lives right now, the more I long to be with Him in glory. The more the Gospel becomes my life, the more I want to run on greener pastures, the more we want to drink from sweeter waters. My soul is getting restless for the place where we belong, I can't wait to join the angels and sing to Jesus - forever.  

 

 

How Should Baptism Weekends Affect Our Lives and Ministries?

This weekend, our worship service ended with the testimonies of some believers in our church who had decided to follow Jesus in obedience by getting baptized. That is, because they had repented of their sins and they had been given a new life in Christ, they wanted to continue in obedience by sharing  in front of their entire church family how they came to understand and have faith in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They would do this through being baptized as an outward declaration of what had happened in their souls (Acts 2:38, Acts 8:12).
 

Baptism, as described and taught in the New Testament, is the outward declaration of an inner reality. This inner reality is the reality of a life that has been crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20), has been buried with Christ (Rom 6:4), and has been raised in Christ as a new creation (Col 2:12, 2 Cor 5:17). These three realities describe what happens at salvation when a person surrenders his or her life by repenting of their sins and chooses to receive the forgiveness purchased by the blood of Jesus on the cross.

There were, however, numerous Christians in our church who came to worship this weekend who had not been baptized yet as believers and had no intention of doing so. Through the Word of God and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, dozens of people spontaneously decided that this weekend was the weekend to get baptized. As a result, this weekend we heard the stories of 105 people who had committed their lives to obeying the Lord and who finally submitted to His desire for them to declare it publicly through baptism.

 

So, what do you and I do as a lovers and disciples of Jesus Christ after witnessing the miracle of spiritual regeneration as proclaimed in baptism testimonies? What are we to think when we see dozens of children, youth, adults, and elderly people stand up front of hundreds of people, many of them in tears, sharing from their hearts the wonderful things the Lord has done in their lives starting with the new life they received through faith? What should your heart and my heart feel after seeing the salvation of God yet again? How should a baptism weekend like this one change our lives and the way we do ministry?

 

First of all, we need to remember that baptisms are only exciting, because salvation is exciting. Believer's baptism is so much more exciting and thrilling than infant baptism because salvation precedes believer's baptism. There is something real and awesome that has occurred that can be celebrated in believers' baptisms. So, as we look to celebrate this weekend, what we are really celebrating is the mercy of God that results in the salvation of those who give their lives up for the sake of following Jesus.

 

Baptisms should change our lives and ministries because baptisms represent the fulfilling of our mission as Christians, as the universal Church. Our success in life is measured by the depth and authenticity of our love for God and for other people. This love is demonstrated as we lay down our agendas, desires, and lives for the sake of our God and His people. Jesus instructed his disciples to love their God and love His people by going and making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything he commanded them (Matt 28:18-20).

Going to the nations, making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey the commandments of God are the delight of Christians who are seeking to live an obedient and God glorifying lives. Witnessing the testimonies of those being baptized should first of all fill our hearts with great joy. There is joy in seeing people who have been rescued from drugs, alcohol, self-hate, misery, depression, pride, lust, and ultimately, death (Acts 15:3). There is also gratitude expressed through smiles, tears, and applause to our merciful, faithful and AWESOME God.

This joy and gratitude changes our lives by giving us strength and encouragement as we run the race of the Christian life. Joy in salvation is the fruit of our labour that fuels us and allows us to persevere through our sacrificial gospel-centered, mission-focused walk. Joy in seeing the work of God helps to strengthen the hope that we have in the promises of God (Rom 15:13) and allows us to delight not only in what the Lord has done or is doing, but also in what He will do. The baptisms we witness should also act as a great mirror into the inner realities that took place in our souls as Christians. For many of us, our death, burial, and resurrection took place many years ago, and we tend to forget what that was like - we forget the enslavement of sin, we forget the overwhelming joy of finally seeing Jesus Christ, we forget the humility that is natural when we look at the cross. Baptisms help us to reflect and remember the joy of the miracle of our own salvation.

Baptism weekends should also impact our ministries. Our ministry is the glory of God in the spreading of the good news of the gospel. The joy we feel from hearing the testimonies of salvation should increase our urgency and zeal for our mission (Acts 12:14). This joy also serves to counter-balance the weight of our afflictions and struggles in the mission for world evangelism. For me, the joy in seeing one life saved and transformed is enough to get me through the fear and anxiety of reflecting the light of the gospel to ten others around me.

The people who were baptized this weekend were someone's parents, someone's neighbours, someone's friends, someone's coworkers, someone's brothers. This baptism service helped to encourage me to live in such a way that I would one day see my neighbours, my friends, my coworkers, my brothers declaring the glory of God - perhaps at our next baptism service.

The Pain and Evil of Jesus' Rejection (John 1:10-11)

"He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him" - John 1:10-11

Our ability to remember events in our lives and to recognize people is foundational to forming and maintaining relationships. Under some situations, though, our brains can lose their ability to make connections between the things we once knew and the things we now see and experience. There is something deeply painful and exceptionally difficult about not being able to remember events or suddenly losing the ability to recognize people that are the closest and dearest to us and with whom we have the deepest of intimate relationships. I have only heard stories about the devastation that dementia or brain damage can cause to families, but there is something very painful and disturbing in the stories of people waking up in the hospital after an accident having no recollection of who their spouses or children are. None of these stories, however, is as painful to hear and read as the story of the Jews, who did not recognize their own Messiah when he finally came for them.

The Father, who had a perfect relationship with the Son, also had a deep and unique relationship with His people, the Jews. Jesus himself created this people, Jesus himself formed them in their mother's wombs and provided for them the breath to sustain their delicate lives. For centuries, Jesus himself had specifically guided, protected, and saved the Jewish people from the enemies who sought to wipe them out. Jesus had been quiet for 400 years, and now, the unimaginable was going to happen. Jesus, the creator of the earth and the people of the earth (John 1:3) was coming to the earth as a man, to walk with his people, and eat with his people - to save his people. Yet John tells us that his own people did not receive him, in fact, they outright rejected him.

John summarizes the encounter between Jesus and the Jewish people who had been waiting for his arrival for centuries in these few verses, and he says that although Jesus had now entered the world he had created, the world did not know who he was. More than that, John says that "his own people" did not receive him and goes on to say later that they rejected him and condemned him to death. The reality of Jesus' rejection had been predicted in the Old Testament (Ps 118:22-23), but it did not diminish the very real pain, sorrow, and loneliness experienced by the man Jesus Christ. Jesus was rejected, mocked, stricken, and betrayed by his friends, his family (including his half-brother James), and many of the priests and scribes. All these people had read the prophecies, they knew what to expect, they knew the signs, but when the light finally came into the world (John 1:9), they turned away. From the moment of his birth in a manger, to his last breath on a cross, Jesus lived his life being despised and rejected, alone and unrecognized (Isa 53:3).

The Jewish people did not suffer any brain damage that prevented them from recognizing the Messiah as described in the Scriptures when they finally met him face to face. Their problem was not in their brain, but in their heart. The sin in their hearts was a worse disease than Alzheimer's, with far more devastating consequences. Their evil hearts made it impossible for them to "make straight the way of the Lord" as was cried out by John the Baptist (John 1:23). The people were expecting a political king, but instead were given a homeless teacher. They were expecting a ruthless conqueror, but instead were given a merciful saviour. They were expecting to be honoured and exalted, but instead were rebuked and humbled. The light had come, and it had come into the darkeness, but the darkness could not remain dark in the light and so the darkness rejected the light (John 3:19). In the same way, the Jews rejected Jesus because turning to Jesus would mean turning away from darkness, from who they were. Turning away from our own sin is the single greatest obstacle for every human being, and it involves receiving the true light that is so contrary to all we know ourselves to be.

Reformatting the Blog

I've spent quite a bit of time over the past couple of days learning more about HTML and the different things that Blogger allows you to do on my blog. For those of you who have blogs, or enjoy reading blogs, you know that having a good template and format is important. I admit that I am still a big newb to me and I still have a lot to learn about blogging (right now, I'm thinking that length of posts is something I need to work on...) but I've taken some time and tried to work on the blog itself, which is why I haven't been posting anything recently.

 

So what is it I've been working on? If you can't tell, that's a good thing. The biggest thing I've been working on is the combination of the blogs. I had been working with multiple blogs that were all interconnected - when you clicked on "DAILY WALK" or "SEMINARY" on the tabs, it would actually take you to an entirely different blog not connected to the previous one at all. My biggest problem with that was the inability for the blogger archive to display posts from all 5 blogs, and the inability for followers to be able to follow all the categories in all 5 blogs by just following once.

In order to get all the pages I wanted on the same blog, I had to somehow link pages that would contain categorized blogs without going to a completely different blog altogether. This was not something that Blogger allowed you to do too easily and required me to learn a little bit about the HTML coding that dictates the template of the blog itself.

I have also added the Bible-verse display feature when hovering over a reference. There were times when I wanted the verse to be visible but in an attempt to work on reducing the length of my posts, I didn't feel like including the entire verse. This little gadget allowed me to have my cake and eat it too in terms of having the verses I wanted without taking up room on the post.

I'll still be looking for ways to continually improve the appearance of the blog as well as improve the quality (and length...) of the posts. If you are blogging on Blogger (or are thinking about starting), I'd like to hear from you about your blog formatting frustrations, solutions, tips, or questions. Thanks again for reading (and following...)!