Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition

-noun

1. An act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.
2. The state of being close together or side by side.

I think I experienced a Juxtaposition today.

I was driving from middle-of-nowhere Arley, Alabama to Birmingham as I do about once a week. I try to get to the big town and experience a little civilization- Starbucks, Moe's...and spending time with my friend Gina (one of my former "youths" from Gulfport; now a college student at Samford U. in B'ham).

Anyway, along the way I spotted this sign on a church or ministry.














Now here's where the Juxtaposition comes in.

I had just started listening to one of the latest Passion Podcasts (google it!). In particular I was listening to the podcast that was recorded prior to, during, and immediately after the Passion World Tour event in Hong Kong. I was in tears listening to Louie Giglio describe the scene of thousands of people from all over the world- many from mainland China- worshiping God full-tilt. I was stirred by images of my own from the month I spent in China last year. I was nearly overwhelmed with this glimpse of what God is doing in His world to redeem His people from every tribe and nation.

If you're not getting a steady diet of good news by listening to a podcasts like Louie's then you're missing some really good supplements!

And in the midst of this amazing testimony of what God is doing in the world... there's the "vision" of New Vision Ministries . . . "Tribulation is Coming!" See the Juxtaposition?

Wow. Is that the best you can do? I mean...I've read the end of the book. Yes...there is tribulation. But it's not the tribulation that I'm concerned with; it's HE who walks through tribulation with me.

Lamentations, well not really

I just read a nice blog from a guy I met who is a missionary in Moldova (raatz.blogs.com). I think he and his family have been over there for 5 years or so. It's a rugged place to serve. My very brief experience with the "church" over there is that it is pretty legalistic and boring. Definitely not "modern" in a good sense. Yet every week he goes to "church" while understanding at the same time that he and his fellow believers are the church. As I think ahead to going to Ukraine I know I will experience much of what he wrote about.

Maybe living in Arley, Alabama is part of God's plan to prepare me for living over there. I've been attending one the churches here in town. I really like the staff. The "services" are about as traditional as you can get though. If it has a "leaning" stylistically, then it leans toward "Southern Gospel". All the "special music" has a "twang" if you know what I mean.

For those of you that know me, you know my head starts pulsing like it's going to explode- sort of like the Martians in the movie Mars Attacks, when they hear Country Music.

Give me a darkened room with music that's so loud that I can sing loud without any thought (or fear) that anyone near me can hear me! I don't listen to piano's or organs in any other context in life- not at home, not in my car- why would I want to hear that on Sunday morning? And it's not the hymns- I love most of them.

Nearly every Sunday morning after church here in Arley, I want to call or text Michael B at Bayou View and give him a digital hug and slap on the back. I attended Bayou View in Gulfport last weekend and the worship was glorious. Mostly hymns...but that Acoustic Guitar, slighty updated arrangement, the Djembe and Bass along with the Piano minus the twang... well, I liked it alot. I realize it's not all about me. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying that if I have a choice, then that's what I want. If I were planting a church I would lean towards assuming there are other people like me and that's the direction I would go. I'm just saying...there's a difference between a timeless message and a dated method.

Yet in the end- "going" to church is more about being with God's people; being connected with fellow believers- regardless of the worship style or the trappings. So that's why I get up and go. I need to be connected with other believers. I can listen to Crowder in my Jeep anytime I guess. And maybe my head won't explode from over-exposure to Southern Gospel.

My latest book recommendation

Just read this book last week.  Pretty amazing.

I saw an article in a PEOPLE magazine about it and it piqued my interest.

It's pretty much written in first person by Somaly Mam- a Cambodia Woman born just before the Khmer Rouge period in Cambodia in the mid-70's.  After surviving that terrible period in her country's history, she was subsequently sold into sexual slavery.  She surved that too, and for more than 10 years now has been an advocate for others also sold into slavery in SE Asia.

Much of what she wrote about; I've seen with my own eyes.  It's a powerful book  By the way, there's new World Race teams in Cambodia right now.  Pray for them

I really like Cambodia.  If I weren't going to Ukraine I think I would go to Cambodia.

Funny story about buying this book though.  I browsed around in Borders for several minutes and couldn't find a copy.  I finally asked a clerk who looked it up in his computer and informed me the book was in the "Women's Studies" section.  I have to admit, I was a little uncomfortable searching the Women's Studies section for this book!

Call and Response

I saw CallandResponse last night. Everyone in America should see this film. I hope there will be a time when it’s shown in churches and on campuses all over the country.

Especially at a time when all of America is transfixed on the election and our own economic woes it isn’t a bad idea to consider the bigger picture. And yes, there is a bigger picture in the world.

The film is about the Modern Slave Trade. Sex Trafficking. Child Soldiers. Slaves. It’s not new to me; I’ve seen some of it with my own eyes. What is exciting is that this film/movement is what is needed in our entertainment bent, visually oriented society. Maybe this film will bring this atrocity to the fore.

I have often wondered what it would have been like to live in America when Slavery was legal or to have been an adult during the tumultuous Civil Rights era. Where would I have stood? What would I have done or said? What position would my church have taken?

It’s easy from where I stand now as a Christian to say that slavery is/was categorically wrong and that I would have stood up for those who couldn’t. I once denied a State funded public service to a well known Mississippi white supremacist simply because I didn’t want to have anything to do with the guy. I guess I wasn’t “salt and light” to the guy. He was finally convicted 30 years later of murder and died in prison.

Christians have always been among the leaders of Abolitionist movements. The Call and Response film mentions a meeting of political leaders and abolitionist like Wilberforce in England that led to the downfall of slavery in that great empire (see the movie Amazing Grace). My British friend Andrew Shearman says that Prophets precede Politics. Former slave trader turned preacher John Newton along with Great Awakening preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield and later Finney and Beecher and others were the prophets that preceded the political end of slavery during the first Abolitionist Movement.

I know many Christians were involved in the Civil Rights Movements of the 60’s. I also know many were not. Many of the churches in the South were silent at best. My own denomination was birthed in part because Baptist in the northern states received more Foreign Mission appointments than their slave-holding Southern counterparts. Imagine that? Because you’re a Southern Slave Holder you fail to receive an appointment from the mission board so you feel discriminated against and therefore form your own denomination. Oh the irony!

But I digress. That was then. This is now. There are more slaves in the world today than all those who were forcibly removed from Africa in more than 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade. And they are considerably cheaper now. Call it outsourcing I guess. A slave bought in 1840 in America might cost $1400.00…which is about $30,000.00 in 2008 currency. TODAY a child can be bought in India for $300.00. It’s about money. Greed. Evil. Trafficking in Drugs, Arms, and Humans are the 3 biggest illicit money-makers in the world today.

So. 20 years from now. 50 years from now. 100 years from now. When the world looks back at you and me. When the world looks at our generation. What will history record of us? Where did we stand? What did we do? Were we a part of the struggle? Did we turn a blind eye?

I am overwhelmed at the thought of 27 million slaves in the world. I am overwhelmed at the amount of money that’s involved. I am overwhelmed when I even consider doing something about it. Where to start? What to do?

I know you are too. That’s ok. Just do something, even if it seems small and insignificant. Start by visiting the Call and Response website. Maybe check out some of the current World Race blogs from teams that recently ministered in Vietnam. Just do something. Be on the right side of this issue for them . . .for you. . . for your children and grandchildren.