New Adventures

I haven't blogged in a while, but there's been some cool new developments in my life, so here's an update!

The last few years have been very eventful for me, full of music, school, performing, stress, and so many other things. Amidst all the busyness, though, as my undergraduate degree drew to a close I once again found myself facing the question of 'Whats Next?' 

I've been pursuing a career in music for the last few years, while at the same time pursuing education in the realm of apologetics and evangelism via Christian conferences, lots of reading, and a 1 year diploma program in theology.  

The answer to my 'What Next' question presented itself rather suddenly at a conference I was at last summer, where I was approached by an organization that works in the Middle East doing 'Creative Outreach', which basically means they share their faith via creative means like music, art, and drama!  Long story short, after some correspondence with them, I've signed on to join them in their work for 4 months, starting in August.

The preparation has been intense, I've been training with my sending organization, learning how to be culturally sensitive AND culturally relevant in an atmosphere I am totally unfamiliar with.  This has involved a lot of cultural training, as well as security training, and lots of research into the religious views of the areas that I'll be interacting with. I've also been doing some language training via podcasts and online forums, it's always good to know a little of the local language!

Part of the preparation of course is also monetary.  I've been doing lots of working, busking, playing for weddings, playing concerts, picking up shifts at other places...  My budget for the trip has been placed at around $13,425, which is a little overwhelming since my departure date is fast approaching!!  Luckily, my work over the last year and this summer should enable me to cover about 25-30% of that out of my savings, and my very generous sponsors have already come through with about 28% of what is needed!  So, by God's grace, I'm definitely getting there. 

So that's my life right now!  I'm very excited, and eager to see what God does with me in the next few months  

If you're interested in hearing more, or would like to be part of this work by sponsoring me, email me! I'd love to tell you all about it.  Unfortunately due to security concerns I can't put the sponsor link into here, but if you email me at rjsoenen@hotmail.com I can send you the link! :)

In Christ,
Rose Soenen

Mirrors: Cloudy or Clear?

Hey guys! I felt the need to do something other than music homework, so here's a short one... something that I've been thinking about today.

I wiped my mirror with bleach a few days ago to get rid of some fruit flies, rendering the mirror slightly cloudy, and I finally got around to properly cleaning it this evening.   It struck me as I looked at my face in the newly cleaned mirror that several little flaws were apparent that hadn't been visible when the glass was a bit clouded.  

It made me think...In James 1, a comparison is made between a man looking into a mirror and forgetting what he looks like, and a man who hears the word but doesn't obey it/take it to heart.   So if the Word is supposed to be a 'mirror' for us, then what happens if can't see it properly?  I think that it's fairly common for a Christian to let things take his mind off of the 'mirror' of the word...whether that be his own success that is taking his mind off God, or perhaps he just gets a little lazy after he looks at the world, and he thinks 'Hey, I'm doing pretty darn good compared to some other people in the world, I think I'll take it easy for a while.'    This second example is the one I want to warn against.

Make no mistake brothers and sisters, the world is NOT your mirror.  If you are looking at the world and letting it define you, you are heading for destruction.  The world wants to make you comfortable, the world wants you to look at yourself and say 'Hey, I'm a good person, yeah..I'm cool!'   The world is trying to cloud up your mirror, trying not to let you see yourself for who you are.

The true mirror of mankind is Jesus Christ.  When Christ looks at us, he should see His own character mirrored back to him.  I know that in this life it is impossible to fully live up to what you see in Christ, but that is what we should be striving for.   To truly strive for that, you have to know Christ, you have to understand who He was, who He is, and what He did.   If you stop trying to understand Christ, your mirror gets cloudy. You can't see as well. You don't see Christ's perfection properly, and therefore you don't see your own faults properly.  

So, what am I saying then?  Wash your mirror! Keep it clean! The Word is to us what Windex is to mirrors! Read the Word, read books about the Word, understand Christ, get to know Christ, and always always always look up!  Don't look at yourself compared to those around you, look at yourself compared to your savior. 

How clean is your mirror?

Are You Fit To Sell?

'Are you fit to sell?' So read the headline of an article in a newspaper I was looking at today.  The article was written on whether or not your house is in 'sell-able' condition, but for some reason, the title got me thinking. 

Walking around the campus of my university this week, I've noticed a lot of people 'advertising' things. Sex, partying, drinking....education is obviously only a convenient 'side effect' of university for a lot of these students.  When I talk about people advertising themselves, the first thing that comes to your mind is probably immodest women, advertising their bodies to any guy who wants to look.  But the truth is, everyone is 'selling' themselves as something, whether they know it or not.  I met a young man on the bus yesterday who carrying a bag with music notes and the word 'Handel' on it.  Obviously he was advertising himself as a music guy.  He was also reading 'The Hobbit' on the bus. I deduced that he was advertising himself as a classical literature kind of guy.  You get my point. everything you wear or carry can say something about you.  But it doesn't just come down to what you wear or how you accessorize, the way you act also advertises something about you. Let's take the movie Lord of the Rings, for a nerdy example. What was the thing that differentiated Aragorn and Borimir? On the surface both were noble men of noble birth and noble bearing. What truly created the difference between them was their attitudes. Aragorn's attitude was one of service and self-sacrifice, whilst Borimir's was one of self-serving and self-gain.   And for all of you Pride & Prejudice-loving girls (and guys) out there...what separated Elizabeth and Lydia Bennett? They were both pretty, sweet, young women with good reputations.  Again, it was the way they advertised themselves! Lizzie advertised herself as a sensible young woman, while Lydia advertised herself as somewhat silly and very boy-crazy.  The reason that Lydia got into such terrible trouble was that she, by her behaviour, opened herself up to it. Elizabeth may well have fallen into the same sin as her sister, but she kept herself from doing so by acting in such a way as to keep herself out of such situations. 

So, what am I saying? I am asking a simple question....'Are you fit to sell'?  Are you, by the way you dress, the way you speak, the way you act, the way you text, the way you email, the way you update your facebook or twitter status, the pictures you post online, advertising yourself in the way you really want to be advertised?

 To all of you single young women looking to impress guys, are you advertising yourself as cheap, shallow, immodest, immoral, silly, boy-crazy, girls, or are you advertising yourself as mature, intelligent, Christian, Christ-minded girls?  This translates to those who may be in relationships already too, by the way. Whether you are seeking friendships or relationships, the way you advertise yourself will decide the types of people you attract. If you advertise yourself as shallow, you will have shallow friends or a shallow boyfriend, if you advertise yourself as a mature christian woman, you will attract mature, christian friends.

Men, this applies to you too!  Walking around my university campus, I have seen many many guys who are advertising themselves (whether they know it or not) as...well...as idiots.  Shirts with 'funny' quotes on them or pants that hang so low it's a miracle they stay on, vulgar language and crude jokes, nudging and laughing when a pretty girl walks by, trying to impress guys and girls with their amazing athletic abilities or their way with words......Blah, it is unbearably annoying.   Guys, if you are really trying to impress girls, think for a minute about what you want in a girl... Do you desire a girlfriend who is going to drool over your good looks, your athletic ability, or your macho talk? Or do you desire a girlfriend who is attracted to your godly character, your kindness to others, and your maturity?  Like I said to the girls....if you advertise yourself as a cheap, shallow, girl-crazy guy, you're going to get a cheap, shallow, boy-crazy girl! 

I know, I know...you're thinking 'Hey, that's all great, but I would really like my significant other to think I'm good-looking, and I would like my friends to think I'm fun to be around as well as being a mature christian!' 
I'll tell you a secret..I can't speak for guys, and I can't speak for girls as a whole, but I tend to think that this is more common than you'd think...

Guys who are not good looking become more and more attractive the nicer and more mature they are, and guys who are super-handsome become progressively less and less attractive the more immature and self-absorbed they are! 

You way not be inclined to believe this, but it is actually true. There are many guys who I have met and  found very physically attractive. Many of those guys, however have revealed themselves to be very rude, immature, and self-seeking young men.  There are often times that I will find myself looking at those guys and thinking to myself 'How in the world did I ever think he was attractive?'  Those guys literally become 'ugly' to my eyes.   On the other hand there are other guys who I have not, at first, found overly handsome.  A lot of these men, however, I have gotten to know and have found to be such mature, spiritual, kind, and Christian guys that I suddenly find myself looking at them and wondering... 'How did I ever think they weren't good-looking?' Those are the type of guys that I truly find 'handsome'.  The kind of guys that are handsome not just on the surface, but whose attractiveness stems from Jesus Christ who they try to emulate.

To end off this long-winded article, I would like to issue a plea to men and women alike. 
Be the kind of person you want to attract. 
It's hard to be that person when you are surrounded by people who are immature and ungodly and you just want to fit in, but be that person. Be that person, and you will eventually find those who, like you, are mature, godly people.  Never settle for second best just because best is taking a while to arrive.

The Fairy Song

The Fairy Song

There's a fairy in my bedroom,
Escaping from the rainfall,
She flew in my broken window,
And she perched upon my wall.

I pretended to be sleeping
As she started to explore,
I heard her flit around the roof,
and prance across the floor.

She dried her wings upon my hair,
And sang a cradle-song,
Her voice so sweet and magical,
I yearned to sing along. 

She sang the wind among the trees,
The crashing of the waves,
The enchantment of a foggy day,
The secrets of the caves. 

I whispered to her softly,
'Teach me your melody'
She smiled, bent down to my ear,
And sang her song to me.

That morning when I wakened,
The fairy girl had flown away.
But on my bed she left gold dust,
In my memory music lay.  

I know most will think I'm dreaming,
They'll tell me that I'm wrong,
But I'll smile and keep on singing,
For I know the fairy's song.

Change

Change. It happens.  Not all at once, not all of a sudden, but gradually, over days, weeks, months, and years.  Looking back over the last 5 years, I can see a lot of gradual changes have taken place.  In my community, in my friends, in my family, and in my myself, there has been change. Some of these changes have been small and some have been large, some have been good changes, and some have been decidedly bad changes.

What do you do when something changes for the worse?  When we undergo a change that benefits us, it seems natural for us to thank and worship God for it, and to revel in the change.  These good changes are so easy to understand.  In these sort of changes it is immediately apparent to us what God is doing in us through that change, and we therefore feel loved and included in the great plan.   However, when something changes for the worse, our tendency is to do the opposite...we complain to God and rage on about how unfair it is that this, whatever 'this' may be, is happening to us.   This is, of course, a natural human tendency.  When something causes us, or someone close to us, pain, we want it to stop, to end, to leave and to never come back. We find it positively mind-boggling that anything painful could possibly be part of God's plan for our lives.

Unfortunately, while a natural tendency, this is a very wrong way to look at it.  Suffering has always been part of the Christian life, and it is in fact, on this earth at least, meant to be a part of it.  This is not to say that the Christian life is a constant vale of tears, not at all!  To live as a Christian is to live with the only true hope that there is to find in this whole earth, and that brings Christians a greater joy than can be expressed or imagined.  But the Christian life does come with trials, and these trials are meant to refine us for the glory of our God.  1 Peter 1:6-8 says this: 'In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.'
  
As I look at my life right now, there are many changes that have occurred and are yet occurring. Some of these changes are very painful, for myself and especially for those close to me.  But I have come to realize that as a child of the most High King, I have nothing to fear.  As unbearable as the present may sometimes seem, as uncertain as the future may be, I stand firm in the confidence that my Heavenly Father will walk by my side and lead me down a path that he has specifically chosen for me.  There will be obstacles on the road, I know that.  I know that I will walk through refining fires that may seem close to destroying me, but I also know that my Lord is love, and as his child, I can stand in the knowledge that just as he made three men capable of standing in a furnace heated to 7 times its normal heat and emerging unscathed, so he will make me capable of bearing the heat of whatever refining fires await me.  And I know that at the end of that path, I will come into glory fully refined, pure, and beautiful in the eyes of my savior.

What does the future hold?

 I have recently had the enormous honor and pleasure of spending 2 weeks with a short-term mission team in the poor, but immensely beautiful country of Ecuador.  I was struck by the amazing beauty that co-existed with the poverty of the people.  Walking or driving through the streets of Quito I was surrounded by poorly made concrete houses, most of which have barred windows and/or security gates because of the high crime rate there. Every store had a heavily armed security guard hanging around the entrance, and the city had a pervading air of volatility.  And yet, looking beyond and above this atmosphere there was such a glorious beauty to be seen.  Mountains tower above the city on every side, green with trees and farmland, and the cap  of every mountain is shrouded in a misty enchanting fog.  I found myself convicted of something.....The Lord, He is God, and he never ever abandons his people, or leaves them without blessing.  Where God leaves his people lacking of one blessing, He showers them with an overabundance of other blessings.  The people living in Ecuador may not be as materially wealthy as we living in North America are, but they have been given an overabundance of beauty in their surroundings.  And really, in the end, what is better, the material belongings that we fight to own and keep, or to be able to freely explore and glory in our great God's creations, which is no man's belonging, and yet every man's treasure?

Working in the coast town of Quininde for a week we spent several days working with the children there. Working with these boys and girls, most, if not all of whom were from shattered families, made me realize how many people the world over need to be shown the love of Jesus Christ, and how much of a responsibility we have, as Christians, to do that.  Does that mean that I am going to move to Ecuador and be a missionary for the rest of my life? Actually, it does mean that I am going to be a missionary for the rest of my life...I am a Christian, and that makes me a messenger of the most high God, and no matter where I am I will speak for Him and of Him.  At this point in my life I am still planning to go ahead with university, but this trip has made me realize that plans can change in the blink of an eye...God may show me a different calling at any given moment, and I need to be ready to follow his lead, wherever that will take me.  Several people have recently asked me what the future holds for me, and I have not been quite sure what to say to them...but this is my answer, as cliche as it might sound.   My future holds whatever God has in store for me. My goal is to glorify God in whatever capacity I can.  My plan is to seek God's plan for me, for I know that His plan is far beyond anything my human mind could ever imagine.

Is God Unfair? Part 3 - Does God Condone Slavery?

  

I realize it has been several months since I posted part 2 of this series, but unfortunately I have been so busy with school that I have not had the time to devote to trying to research this next question.  I had a difficult time with this one, it is indeed a very tough question to answer.  After discussing it with my father and my professor (who is also a pastor) among other people, I finally feel ready to tackle it.  So..here we go.

Does God Condone Slavery?
Exodus 21:20-21 says this 'Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.' This seems, at first, to be a puzzling case law to find in the bible.  If God does not condone slavery, why would he put forth a law about it?  But let's back up a bit....two very important question needs to be addressed before we decide whether or not God truly condones slavery.

What Is Slavery?
When we think of slavery, we often think of the vile practice of kidnapping people and selling them to others. However, this kind of slavery, otherwise known as 'man-stealing' is expressly forbade only four verses before. Exodus 21:16 says '  He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.'  So then, whatever biblical slavery means, it does NOT mean the kidnapping of another person and forcibly selling them.

What Was The Cultural Context?
In the culture in which Exodus was written, it is important to remember that it was a time in which it was actually quite normal for a man without money to sell himself into slavery to someone he owed. Exodus 21:2 says ' If you buy a Hebrew servant...'  It is interesting, is it not, that the section dealing with the treatment of slaves begins by saying 'If you buy a Hebrew servant'?  This seems to refer more to the cultural practice of slavery to pay debts, rather than to a kidnapping and selling of people from other places as slaves.  Another question that may come up in the slavery issue may be Exodus 21:7-11, in which it talks about a father selling his daughter as a slave.  A friend of mine recently asked my opinion on this passage, and I must say, I was very grateful to him for bringing it up, since it is a very important aspect of the issue, and maybe a difficult one to understand as well.  I will tell you basically the same thing that I told him. Again, you MUST understand the cultural context of the time. Men and women were thought of very differently then than they are now. Men were leaders, while women were always owned, and thought of as possessions. A father had protection of his sons until they came of age, but he owned his daughters forever, and he therefore had the right to choose her fate.  In the Old Testament times, if a man married a woman he had to pay her father for her, whether that was by labor or by material possessions.  Given this idea of ownership, in a culture where a man would sell himself into slavery in order to pay a debt, it makes a great deal of sense that a father would sell his child into a form of slavery instead of himself, thereby enabling the father to continue supporting the remainder of his family.  Also, Exodus 21:7-11 does not imply at all that this slavery is to be a brutal one. On the contrary, verse 10 states that 'If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one'.  This would imply that this 'selling into slavery' was really more along the lines of a marriage agreement, rather than a slave. There is one more question that may come to your mind when reading the passage. Why does the passage seem to allow for the beating of the slaves? That can't be right, can it?  Again, think of the cultural context...a man owned his children and any servants that were in his household, and he was completely within his rights to discipline them in any way he saw fit. This did indeed include beatings, as harsh as that may seem in today's anti-disciplinarian society.

 In Conclusion:
So, does God condone slavery?  Yes, in fact, I believe he does. I also believe that 'slavery' as we think of it today does not in any way equate with the slavery of the bible.  In today's society, it is not unthinkable for a man to 'work off' a debt with labor, and I believe this is exactly what is happening in Exodus, but in a culture where the agreement was not temporary, but permanent.

><>RileyRose<><