Entries from July 2005 ↓

For the few of you who follow this blog . . .

There likely won’t be any “real” entries here for the next week or two, due to the hubbub surrounding closing on the house, getting it ready (painting, decorating, getting services, etc), and finally moving.

I might post some progress updates on my LiveJournal, however, so stay tuned there.

Back soon from a new address!

The offer has been accepted! We close next Wednesday.

Amy’s Grandma Carol (her late dad’s mom) passed away the first week of June. She had been in pretty bad shape in the 6 months or so prior, letting her tiny house go to Hell in a Handbasket, going into a nursing home and suffering bouts of dementia, along with lots of physical ailments. Amy happens to be her only living descendent (well . . . her and Zoë), and thus her sole heir. Well, apparently Grandma Carol had been living well beneath her means, because we have received a sizable chunk of change from her bank accounts, with more coming from investments and insurance policies, along with the sale of her house. We’ve been using it to pay off our debts here and there, and we felt good about starting to look for a home of our own.

A few months prior to our moving here, the house next door to Amy’s mom (where we’re staying now) went up for sale, and was quickly bid upon by a potential buyer. We had joked here and there that “it’s too bad someone’s already bought the house next door.” Well, as of last week, the “In Contract” sign was still on top of the “For Sale” sign in the yard (most contracts are closed within a month . . . this one had been “in contract” for at least six). This past Friday, as Amy and her mom were leaving to go somewhere, they noticed that the realtor’s van was in the driveway of the house next door, so they decided to pop their heads in and ask him if it was still in contract. He said that technically, it wasn’t, since it’d gone way past the 21-day timeframe, and he gave us (I had showed up by then) an impromptu showing.

The house was perfect . . . the perfect size, the perfect amenities (comes with a deck, and with an outdoor playset for Zoë, for example), and the price was already $10K below the initial asking price . . . everything is perfect. We talked and prayed about it, met with the realtor on Sunday and had him show us a couple of other houses, and finally took a deep breath and said “we think the first one is the winner”. We made an offer, signed the contracts right there in the kitchen, and got a call on Monday morning that our offer had been accepted by the sellers!

We met with the realtor earlier this evening to put down our “earnest money” (kind of like a deposit), and will be drawing the cashier’s check next week to pay the rest. No mortgaging!

So . . . provided we have no issues (there are none forseeable), we’ll be homeowners one week from today. We never could have imagined this, considering the dire straits that necessitated our moving up here in the first place. Our God is so good!

(And for those of you wondering, living next door to Amy’s mom really won’t be a problem. She already gives us plenty of space under the same roof.)

Here are some clickable pics of “our” place (with the current owners’ stuff, of course).

. . . but it could be.

We made an offer on what will hopefully be our first owned home today.
God is so unbelievably and undeservedly good to us.
Prayers are appeciated immensely.

(Visited another church today, so there will be a new Church Search post in the next day or two.)

. . . this (along with its apparent motive) is still really unfortunate and deplorable.

(HT: K-Lo @ The Corner)

The upstanding citizens at NARAL Pro-Choice give us this gem . . .

No, folks; despite the childish double-entendre and terrible 3D rendering, this isn’t a joke promulgated by a sexually frustrated 15-year-old geek. This is an actual ad for NARAL Washington’s “Screw Abstinence Party”, an event supposedly designed to “secure comprehensive and medically accurate sex education” and to “[l]et them know you keep it real when it comes to your sexual health and decision making.” Apparently NARAL’s definition of “comprehensive” doesn’t include the fact that abstinence is oh . . . 100% effective (or so) in preventing pregnancy and STDs, nor do they believe that abstinence is a valid or realistic choice in “sexual health and decision making.” Their desire, it seems, is to have as many young women as possible having as much illicit sex as possible, creating as many pregnancies as possible, and therefore having as many abortions as possible. NARAL does, after all, stand for “National Abortion Rights Action League”. Gotta stay in business, right?

I suppose it can be considered a good thing of sorts that they’re “keeping it real” and not giving any illusions of tolerance for opposing viewpoints. Their fanaticism has run amok and they’re not ashamed of it.

Here’s a screenshot, just in case it mysteriously disappears after the event . . .

(I kind of wonder, though . . . since NARAL so strongly opposes parental notification for abortion, why do they bother making this a 21-and-over event? Why not just let all of the teens and pre-teens come play with the “adult” toys, too? Vibrators and dildos go great next to Barbie!)

The Northbrook podcast has made it into the iTunes Podcast Directory!

Oddly enough, I didn’t actually intend to submit it to Apple for inclusion. I was trying to subscribe to it in iTunes, and instead sent it in for consideration. Anyway, here’s the link . . .

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=73799569

This will (hopefully) be one of the few times I’ll blog about anything resembling politics.

Since last November’s election, the differences between “Christian Right” (ie: evangelicals) and the “Christian Left” (ie: mainliners) are being played up (and in some cases, created) by both sides so much that they have become glaringly apparent. I spotted an instance of this the other night when, while trolling around RELEVANT Media Group’s online store, I saw the below banner ad for the newly-launched Christian Alliance for Progress.

I smirked to myself a little when I saw this and wondered why in the world RELEVANT, a rather (theologically) conservative publisher and media compay, would accept advertising from a group proclaiming “THE RELIGIOUS LEFT IS HERE!” My interest was piqued, so I clicked on the banner. The main splash graphic (which, as of this writing, is still there) was of a rather serious-looking young woman with pleading green-blue eyes . . . the text next to her saying “I feel embarrassed and angry that Christianity has been used to divide our country and to promote bigotry and war. I joined this movement to stand up for compassion and justice.”

I’m certainly no Republican, registered or otherwise, but at this point, my blood started to simmer.

Just as the woman on the homepage was “embarrassed and angry”, I was angry (though not embarrassed) that this group, while playing at anger over division in our country, was using language that can and will even further divide the Church. Which is more important? I was angry that, while putting up a pretense of caring about lives, they were using Christianity to promote the legal murder of unborn children. I was angry this group claiming to be made up of followers of Christ was painting its more conservative brothers and sisters with a ridiculously broad brush stroke, implying that we all love war, don’t want all Americans to have health care, care nothing abot ecology, and hate homosexuals. I was angry that they implied that the values of “conservative Christians” and “liberal Christians” are somehow irreparably different . . . that they, for some reason, see evangelicals as the enemy, not as their brothers and sisters who are all under the headship of Christ.

As I browsed through the site, it quickly became apparent that this group existed to promote the usual leftist causes (with a “Christian” gloss over it). There was no need for this in recent years past, since evangelicals weren’t the political force to be reckoned with that they’ve become in the past four years. Now, out of nowhere, THE CHRISTIAN LEFT!! Look out! They use the usual liberal-Christian spin machine tactic of playing at care for Jesus’ own words and ministry, while dismissing or denying the words he spoke through his Apostles and through the whole of Scripture (e.g: Since Jesus himself didn’t talk much about sex, sexuality doesn’t really have anything to do with our religious beliefs.)

And trust me, folks, I don’t in any way believe that those on the conservative side are totally innocent of this either. It truly embarrasses me, as an evangelical Christian, to hear what some supposedly evangelical folks like Don Wildmon, Jim Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson have to say about the other side of the aisle. Is there truth in what they say? Usually. Is there anything wrong with being bold in truth-telling? No; in fact to not be bold would be wrong and deceptive. But, does boldness have to equal crassness and general boorishness? Again, absolutely not. The truth itself is offensive and divisive enough . . . why compound that by being an ass?

I digress. I have no interest in “conservative values” or “liberal values” . . . I want “Christian values” to prevail. Christ is the champion of those who are downtrodden and cannot defend themselves . . . seven-year-old Iraqi children and 12-week-old American fetuses alike . . . homosexuals and heterosexuals alike . . . and of course, the greatest way in which he manifests that mercy is in taking otherwise damned-to-Hell sinners and God-haters like me and giving them new hearts, new lives, and a desire to serve him. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Christ is not divided. Since we all supposedly serve one sovereign Lord, a Lord who prayed that we might “all be one”, it’s time to quit aimlessly shouting at and over eachother. There is certainly room and need for lovingly firm rebuke on both sides, but there’s equal, if not greater room and need for cooperation and for us to learn from eachother.

Is this idealistic? Perhaps. It’s something that Jesus asked his Father for, though, so it can’t be too far from reach.