Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Isaiah 12 - You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
    for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
    that you might comfort me.

² “Behold, God is my salvation;
    I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
    and he has become my salvation.”

³ With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. ⁴ And you will say in that day:

“Give thanks to the Lord,
    call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
    proclaim that his name is exalted.

⁵ “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
    let this be made known in all the earth.
⁶ Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
    for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Christmas is about purpose.  So often when it comes to the things that God does, understanding the purpose God has for what he does helps us understand what he is doing.  If knowing God's will is difficult, how much more understanding his purpose?  As so many have said there is no cross without a manger.  Correctly then, we celebrate this time of Christ's coming to us as the time when the redemptive act begins to gather our attention.  However, there is much more to be learned than just this amazing act of redemption.

In Acts 13, when Paul is speaking at the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, he quotes the prophet Habakkuk, and the quote intimates that God does things his own way.  Through his prophets he told everyone for hundreds of years what Messiah would be like, where he would be born, his purpose, how he would die, etc.  In spite of all that forewarning, no one understood what was happening until afterwards.  Why was this the case?  I would argue that it was because of expectations.

When you are a "religious" person there is a pitfall of the utmost danger.  You become familiar with human religious expression and thus you think that you are familiar with God.  Clearly, and thankfully, the two are not the same thing.  So many Christians read about the Pharisees in the Gospels, their failure to understand Jesus, and chide them for their foolishness; yet this is the very same trap we are in danger of falling into.

Consider the events of Jesus' birth from the perspective of Joseph.  Joseph is apparently a righteous man, and he is about to marry a young lady whom he had treated properly and respectfully.  Then he hears she is with child, and he knows it isn't his child.  Even then, he didn't want to humiliate her.  If the explanation he received came from anyone other than an angel, do you think he would have believed it?  "Oh sure, the Holy Spirit! Why didn't I think of that?"  Joseph had to have believed it, or else he would not have been there when the child was born.  As the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians, God's wisdom is foolishness to people.  "Congratulations Joseph!  You get to raise the Messiah as your own son.  And for your trouble, people will laugh behind your back and you'll be exposed to social shame." From the perspective of the world, Joseph was given a thankless task by God, and he did it anyway.  Apparently he also did it well.  Jesus was clearly raised in a devout household.

If Joseph had been convinced that he knew how God worked, he could never have accepted Jesus.  So then, let us not allow expectation to prevent acceptance.  Whether they be expectations about God, or other people.  Expectations have a way of leading to confusion, disappointment, anger and other negatives because we base our expectation on incomplete or bad information.  Our only expectation: Christ will come again.  This has been promised.  The manner has not been fully described to us.  So we say once again: "Come, thou long expected Jesus!"

Merry Christmas to all from Aparri!  The work here continues.  Choir tour has just ended, the choir performed 11 different shows in the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, and Ilocos Norte in northern Luzon.  Those of us attached to the tour in various roles are now resting comfortably after 8 straight days of travel and Filipino hospitality (read: lots of food) from the brothers and sisters who played host to us.  We continue to pray that people were encouraged and edified by the Christmas message that was presented.  I again played to role of assistant light director and stage manager.

Personally, I'm doing pretty well.  I always miss home during the holidays, but it is something that I'm used to now.  On the bright side, it is Christmas day already here, as well as being sunny and hot.  As always the blessings of the Lord sustain me.

Nick

Watching Him Work

So often, a person can take pleasure in watching a craftsmen or artist work.  Especially if that craftsmen is doing something that you know you couldn't do.  You are in awe of the experience and skill that is being expressed.

One of the interesting and most beneficial things about being in my present situation is being able to see how God works.  I've seen so many things, so many examples of how God works in my life but, this time I am just in awe of seeing him work at the Aparri Church of Christ.  In the month of August about 30 people (by my own recollection) were baptized.  So much of this growth has come from neighborhood Bible studies.  Sometimes we forget about the basics, we're concerned about the newest, most seeker sensitive stuff.  It really strikes me that the church is showing some initiative, but God's doing the work.

So many things have been happening here lately, probably the biggest change from previous years has been some additional teaching that I get to do at Philippine Bible Seminary in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.  PBS is a sister school of ABS, and they didn't have anyone to teach Greek, so I'm helping them out twice a month.  It's been going well and I'm excited about being able to help them.  If the school doesn't offer Greek, then they cannot offer the Bachelor of Theology degree that is the mainstay of seminary degrees here.

There is a lot to discuss, I'll have a longer post later.  Until then, God bless.

Nick

"Visiting" the U.S. and Other Observations

So here I am, I've been running around Kentucky and the United States again for the past 2 months or so and I feel obligated to share some thoughts about my "visit" here.  When you live in the Philippines for 9+ months a year and you're only home for 9 or 10 weeks it seems like you're visiting home, not vice-versa.  It is striking to be asked when I'm going home by people here.  It then begins to sink in that yes, I do make my home in the Philippines.  Of course we all remember the saying, 'home is where the heart is', that being the case I'm confident in saying I have two homes, or maybe even three.

For so long it seems like I was interested in how much things were changing in my life.  Moving to another hemisphere can produce a lot of changes.  Now, I'm kind of used to the idea of living in two places on opposite sides of the world, the changes are expected changes, and I'm not sure if that's good or bad.  Possibly it's neither, only a testament to what a person can become accustomed to.  However, part of me thinks that it is bad because that initial trust, the actions that required what, at the time, seemed like such large amounts of faith are now routine sorts of things.  Contrariwise, part of me says that it's good because I at least have a much better idea of what is worth worrying about now.  Life consistently teaches us that expectations have a way of leading to more bad things than good because we start taking things for granted, maybe getting a little prideful, less cognizant of significance and so forth.  The tragedy is that we let this very thing happen in our relationship with the Lord all the time, in both the everyday and not so everyday things. 

One of the more common Christian (and especially Evangelical) refrains of the past 300 or so years has been the idea that nowhere on this Earth is our home.  If the heart is with God in Christ and home is where the heart is, then we get things like "This World Is Not My Home."  That's fine, and it's a great hymn, but I would like to balance it by adding that God is the one who put us here.  Yes, we've done a fine job of messing things up, but it doesn't change the fact that God put us here and we were designed to be a part of what is here. 

So call it home or don't call it home, but I can tell you there will always be affection in my heart for the hills and "hollers" that are Bracken County, Kentucky.  That part of God's creation that we are most familiar with probably inspires some nostalgia for most of us because of all the memories.  There's no reason that this can't be true spiritually.  It is much more dangerous though.  If your most common spiritual place is one of anger, disappointment, apathy; you are going to feel most comfortable there with those spiritual surroundings.  And of course the opposite is true as well.  If you've been blessed enough to exercise a little faith to "test and see that the Lord is good" as Scripture puts it, then you will be as comfortable as you can be there; trusting God and waiting for him to work.

If I live and the Lord wills, I'm about to return to the Philippines for a fourth time.  The first time seemed like a momentous faith event, but in hindsight all three years have presented their own challenges and triumphs, their own spots where momentous faith events occurred.  I think I've said it before, but it's worth repeating.  When you're in the mission field you are constantly reminded how dependent you are on God for what you need.  What I have to keep reminding myself is that this is a fundamental truth wherever I live, in whatever situation.  In essence, nothing has changed in that regard except that I am more cognizant of it.  That, I dare say, is a good thing.  Becoming more aware of it isn't always pleasant; it can be quite challenging.  Just remember that a cliché became a cliché for a reason.  "Let go and let God" reminds us all of church camp, but at some point there is freedom in leaving the worrying behind and knowing God is taking care of you.  It's not easy, I'm not there yet, but I feel like I'm closer than I was before I went to Aparri.

As my comfort level in Aparri increases, I hope that this progress does not reverse itself.  Hopefully we can all develop that comfortable nostalgia with trusting God.

I want to say thank you to everyone for the continued support, both financially and in prayer.  We're all a part of this ministry, no role more important than another.  We're all just doing what God asks us.  Please continue to support this ministry, I'll keep doing my part.

Nick

Old and New

When New Year's comes rolling around, so often we get caught up in the idea of new.  A new year reminds us of some the good things about new things.  Even though most of us can remember a situation where something new turned out to be much less enjoyable, much less beneficial, or much less useful than the old, the month of January brims with optimism about nearly every subject. 

Because of the way that the school calendar is set up here in the Philippines, I get to participate in the odd (to me) combination of new year = mid term tests.  This provides some interesting contrast between something most people are excited about (a new year) and something that most of my students are tired of already (a half completed semester). 

Any close examination of advertising will result in the recognition of two of the most common tools of persuasion: our old friends old and new.  New is exciting, it's better, it's more efficient, it looks nicer.  Old (or classic) is tried, tested, proven, stable and reliable.  It's not often we can learn positive things from advertising but the lesson here is that both old and new have positive aspects to them.  Surprise! Surprise! The bible already tried to teach us this a long time ago.

Regarding old, see Numbers 23:19, Psalm 55:19, and Malachi 3:6.

Regarding new, see Psalm 96, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Lamentations 3:22-24, Ezekiel 18:31, Romans 6:4 and 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Regarding both together: Matthew 9:16-18 (and parallels), and Matthew 13:51-52. 

From that last passage we can see that the truly important thing is finding something of value, be it new or old.  The key to finding has always been recognition.  Recognizing treasure is only part of Jesus point, in his stories about the matter action followed the recognition.  As Jesus points out, you have to able to use something for it to be valuable.

So then, be it old or new, let us be able to discern value, and especially spiritual value in our lives.  Things that will help us be more like Christ in a new year.

As for updates, there is not much to report other than the usual sorts of things.  Teaching ministry involves teaching; a lot of it actually.  We have about 80 full time students for the second semester.  Like I said we just had mid terms.  Graduation is mid-March, and I'm planning on being home to visit shortly thereafter.

As of right now, I fully expect to be back in Aparri next school year.  I've adopted the "until the Lord tells me to do something different, I need to keep working with this ministry and mission" philosophy.  The Lord continues to bless me in countless ways including many I know nothing about.  If the Lord wills, I still want to get my PhD.  at some point, other than that I'm good.  Seeing how the Lord blesses this mission over and over again makes me think that it will be obvious when it is time to move on.  The Lord's will be done.

The school calendar is about to get jammed again, there are many events upcoming including our fellowship with the two other Restoration Movement seminaries in northern Luzon and recitals.  It should be fun. 

Please continue to pray for me and this ministry.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the mission team from Fairview that is headed to Haiti in just a few hours.  Praying for safe travel and that they accomplish their goals for the trip.

Nick

Because Dad Said To

Both parents and children being familiar with the phrase, "because ________  said to," I thought it would be a good jumping off point for a post on this oft neglected blog. 

My classes this year have me working in Paul's letters quite a bit, which is something that I enjoy.  However, I am teaching Hebrews for the first time and the study that I do to prepare for teaching Hebrews has been immensely valuable to me. In particular when the author of Hebrews says: "Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.  But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house.  And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory." (Hebrews 3:5-6). 

The other thought that has been intertwining with the above is one that arose because of New Testament Theology class that I just taught in our Master's of Ministry program here at ABS.  Since it was a theology class we spent a lot of time discussing Jesus, both as God and as a person.  We were noting the importance of the Spirit in the baptism and temptation narratives in the Gospels.

So these two thoughts come together in my head about the feat that the author of Hebrews mentioned.  Jesus being faithful as a son/the Son.  What makes a faithful son?  Without trying to be trite I offer Luke 22:42 as the answer to that question.  If I were to paraphrase in Kentucky vernacular, "do what Dad says to do." That s what makes a faithful son.  All this leads me to this further point, that human part of Jesus had to be convinced that God knew what he was doing.  "Because Dad said to" had to be good enough for him.  Some of us can get to this point with our human fathers even, but find it quite difficult to get there with our heavenly father.

Think about how much that title, that form of address, meant to Jesus.  When he taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to call God father.  Something that is ho-hum church language for us was a revolutionary new idea then.  Hosea 11:1 and other passages of the Hebrew bible refer to Israel collectively as God's son, but to refer to God as your father, to be considered an individual son of God was a different thing entirely.

When we add to this the consistent teaching from Paul, that accepting Christ as Lord and Savior means a person is adopted into God's family, we should see that while it is a privilege to call God father, it is our privilege as believers.  Amen.

So when my Dad told me I needed to update this blog, I quickly agreed with him.  And not just because I knew he was right.  Hopefully that attitude can translate spiritually. 

So how goes the mission?  I just extended my tourist visa this week.  Hoping to apply for a missionary visa next week.

First semester here is officially over.  Unbelievable, I know.  I've graded most of my finals but I haven't calculated grades yet because I was preparing for that Master's class this week.

This year we had about 80 students first semester, we are hoping we pick up a few more for the second semester.

Preparation for the annual Christmas Choir Tour will begin in earnest when the students return on November 4th.  (Really good news is that the arranger this year apparently knows what an actual bass line is; something that seemed elusive to the illustrious David T. Clydesdale.)

I'm still playing as much basketball as possible; I'm not really any better but I still like to play.

Favorite Filipino-English quote of the semester: "Sir, why do you off your hair?  If you grow it out I will crush you!" (She meant have a crush on me.)

Filipino-English runner-up quote and third truest thing I've ever heard: "Lovers are blind." (Instead of "Love is blind").

So I'm still here, having fun, teaching the Bible, singing special music with the young adult group at Aparri Church, avoiding bagoong and balut, and trying to show people that God isn't the only one who cares about them.

I hope everyone back home is well.  Since they are putting up Christmas decorations here I might as well go ahead and say "Merry Christmas" to you.  Even though I wouldn't dare forget about Thanksgiving. 

Regards and thanks,

Nick

Returning toTransition

Another exciting experience with trans-pacific air travel has left me in my adopted home once again.  I've been back in Aparri now for 3 weeks.  Many things have happened already; I'll try and stick to some semblance of order in presenting them.

First, my flight to Asia from Detroit was delayed a mere 9 hours because of a mechanical issue with the plane.  This was frustrating, but better than the alternative.  We arrived in Japan and when we were ready to leave for Manila we were promptly delayed another 2 hours by computer problems.  The end result being that I was supposed to arrive in Manila late Wednesday evening but didn't manage to arrive until Thursday afternoon.  Though I did have enough time on the flights to watch "Lincoln" and "The Avengers" as well as the newest "Die Hard".

The Friday after I arrived I tried to implement my missionary visa that had been renewed and was told after waiting a mere 4 hours that I couldn't implement it and I would have to re-file for the visa.  I was really excited about this because it meant I had a mere three weeks in the country to either file for a tourist extension or get all my paperwork together.  I was also excited because this means a minimum of 3 trips to Manila all of which cost money and take time away from the classroom.

I arrived in Aparri and found out that the girls had kicked me out of the mission house and that I would be living in the new Men's Dorm here on campus.  The building isn't quite complete, but it's been comfortable so far and I'm a lot closer to the basketball court, although I'm farther from the office.  Since I have no furniture (I'm trying to wait it out because furniture is part of the building contract), I still haven't technically unpacked my bag.

I was late coming back because I stayed in the States for a convention, this meant that I was already behind in my classes and so we've been playing catch-up.  Basically I've had two weeks of class and mid-terms are next week.  We've also had a few scheduling conflicts where classes had to be moved so that students planning on graduating could take everything they needed.

The city of Aparri is mostly on the East side of the Cagayan river valley, but part of the municipality is on the West side of the river, and I'd never been there until a few weeks ago when I attended an Aparri chapter men's fellowship hosted by the Backiling Church of Christ.  The highlight of the trip was taking a boat across the river/estuary instead of riding 75 minutes in a car to go all the way around.  This boat was built for Filipinos and I could just barely get in the boat because it had a very short roof over the seating area.  I was completely bent over and had my knees bent as well and still could barely fit in this boat.  It was really amusing for the folks at the west side landing who got to watch me unfold myself out of that boat.

It's apparently a rule of nature that I have to get hit in the face playing basketball shortly after my arrival in the Philippines.  That's three years in a row now.  I got hit in the eye and lost a brand new contact.  Awesome.

It has been enjoyable getting to know the new students, I'm still trying to learn all the names.  We have several new students this year and last night was their talent night.  They did a good job with their presentations and I'll hopefully have some pictures up soon.  I also got to see some ladies who graduated last year at the talent program.  That was nice too. 

Other than that I've been trying to keep up with my lessons and grading as well as organizing and supervising my student assistants. I've also been playing in the basketball league the students organized which has been fun.  Streetball is enjoyable but I like an organized game once in a while; and hopefully the students will play better in organized games now.

I'm still impressed with God's faithfulness; he's so faithful it's embarrassing some times how worried I was about something.

Keep praying for me, I need it.

Nick

Playoff Hockey

"It's the most wonderful time of the yeaaarrrrrrrr!"  Lord Stanley's Cup is once again up for grabs and this makes me tremendously happy.  Few things are more exciting that playoff ice hockey.  But it isn't just that.  My birthday is also approaching, the approach of my birthday means the Kentucky Derby is simultaneously approaching, one of my favorite events.  When the University of Louisville marching band plays "My Old Kentucky Home," I know where home is.

These events are fun and enjoyable, more importantly the events themselves represent good memories: past times where fun and enjoyment played prominent roles.  One of the things that I've always enjoyed about ice hockey, and especially the playoffs is the amount of commitment that is necessary to win the Stanley Cup.  Guys are expected to play injured, and they do unless they don't have movement in a limb or something equally serious.  The playoff beard is also a wonderful tradition that I enjoy.  If you don't know about playoff beards, many hockey players believe that it is bad luck to shave, and so they won't shave until their team is eliminated from the playoffs or wins the Stanley Cup.

Let's think about this playoff beard idea.  Every morning, a player growing a playoff beard makes a decision not to shave.  Every morning a decision has to be made to continue in something.  Ladies might be unaware that the worst part of growing a beard is the first week or ten days.  Your face itches constantly and there is an adjustment period to your changing face.  But it gets easier to deal with.  Growing a beard is a lot like christian life.  Starting can be difficult, and there are times when it is easier, times when it is more difficult.  Each requires a daily decision to continue in the activity.

This daily decision to continue, we call this faithfulness.  Paul had this to say in 2 Timothy 2:11-13:

If we died with him, we will also live with him.
¹² If we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we deny him, he will also deny us.
¹³ If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, since he cannot deny himself.

God is faithful, even if we are not.  This has been foremost in my thoughts recently.  I go through times where I feel unfaithful because I worry about things that God has taken care of.  Things where I've seen His faithfulness before.  Even though I'm unfaithful, God is still growing his beard.  And this is wonderful.  I hope that I can understand this more and more deeply.

God is faithful: I've been home a few weeks and I've already seen so many wonderful people that I hadn't seen in a long time.

God is faithful: I've seen most of my family and friends.

God is faithful: I have a job.

God is faithful: I have a car to drive.

God is faithful: I keep hearing from people and churches that are excited to support me.

God is faithful: I have the opportunity to go to so many different churches to talk about the Philippines.

God is faithful: I get to visit Dairy Queen and have an Oreo blizzard as often as I want.

God is faithful: I've had a chance to visit all of my favorite restaurants.

God is faithful in many other ways, some more significant and some less, but the point is the same: God is still growing the beard, he's still faithful.

I miss my Filipino friends, but I'm having a great time here at home.  It's been great spending time in Bracken County.

Nick