FYI

Hey all:

I feel bad that I am not in a position right now to adequately publish to this forum as I wish. So, I just thought I would take a break until summer hits. Thanks for sticking around, I promise I will be back.

--much love
Josh

Rise Against

I promised that my next post would be on Part Two of why I love Elijah, but that will come in time--promise.

Lately, I have been listening to a band called Rise Against. If you know anything about them, you know that they are advocates. Their neo-punk riffs never cease to amaze me. The music is genuine and the singer has a great voice.

There songs plead for the reclaiming of humanity and for justice in the world. "Prayer of the Refugee," in particular, talks about all of the brands that claim to be "Made in America" and are actually made in third-world countries. The song, in essence, is about Fair Trade and the necessity of it.

You won't notice this much in the lyrics. The lyrics are written in a wonderful style that allows them to be interpreted in multiple avenues; however, watch the music videos. They are what shines the light on the lyrics. The videos are where the true intent of the song can be found.

The guys get a bad reputation for being anti-everything. This is true, in a sense. They are anti-consumerism, anti-drugs, anti-republican, anti-democrat, anti-government, anti-selfish, anti-faith, anti-(fill in the blank).

They are anti-everything.

Frequently, I ask myself, "Josh, you are a very professing Christian; you love God; you follow Jesus; how can you listen to these guys when they are anti-faith?"

Because they get it.

These guys, being anti-faith (which means that they are not a fan of Christianity as well) and what most church-goers would call heretics, get it. They understand what Isaiah was talking about in Chapter 58 when he talked about, "freeing the wrongly-imprisoned, free the oppressed, feed the hungry, help the needy."

Their song, "Give it All" talks about committing to a cause that helps others. This song talks about "giving ourselves to the distance-muffled voices." Seriously, these guys may not be fans of Christianity, but they seem to be stealing Isaiah's words from his mouth.

For those of us reading this post, and call ourselves Christians, I pose a question: how are you learning from this? What are we doing with our lives that can match, or maybe out-do these guys in an attempt to bring the Kingdom to Earth?

I am not saying we don the mentality, "Well, I have to out-do these heathens." I am saying we need to take a look at ourselves, and evaluate our abilities.

These guys are clearly gifted musicians. They wouldn't be where they are if they weren't talented. With their abilities in music, they are changing the world--one song at a time.

All of us have abilities. How can we follow suit and give our abilities to God? When we do something for the least of these we do it for God.

Who out there is a doctor that can give up 50% of their income and not feel the financial crunch? Who of us can sing and be leaders in outreach to the lost and broken? Who can write, and inspire you guys (hopefully me)?

Seriously, I listen to these guys because they make me question the validity of my faith. Faith that is pleasing to God is taking care of the orphans and widows (the poor and needy).

What are we doing?

Encouraged by Elijah; Part 1

If it is at all possible, I would like to take a moment to be perfectly frank with you guys. In fact, I really hope that you all can take a moment and reflect on this.

God will not stop using us despite our inequities.

Think about this for a moment.

***

Does that blow your mind? It baffles me! God won't stop using me, despite how terrible of a person that I am--God will not stop using me.

Honestly, I don't find this to be fair. For me, if I am going to be a jerk and continue to slip and stumble through this human experience, I would fully understand if God stopped finding use in me. Frankly, it just seems fair. This wonderful Creator has given me a plethora of chances and keeps believing in me. If I were God, I would stop. I would stop believing in me.

However, while I sit in this little self-pity bubble of mine, I am reminded of Elijah.

If you are reading this, you might be a Christian, or you might not be. In the case of the later, you can find the story of Elijah (the portions I will use for this post and the next) here.

Elijah, was the coolest Christian (although, he wouldn't have been called a Christian since Christ is in the title. Elijah was pre-Christ) in the world, if you ask me. Them man was fed by birds, made it stop raining, mocked the prophets of Baal and brought down fire from heaven to burn up everything from his offering to the dirt that he built the alter on.

This guy was hardcore.

Oh, and he also ran and hid under a tree, begging to die, after he irritated a queen. We can't forget that part.

So what makes this man so cool? Well, it was that God didn't stop using him. And this is what I want to talk about.

In my next post, I will talk about how God used Elijah, despite his inequities.

For those of you who stuck around!

I have not died--fear not!

I am still reformatting on what I want this blog to be. I have written a few posts and am in the process of editing and putting some new ones up.

Keep checking; it will be here soon. For those of you who have been commenting, thank you! I will be putting up new content up soon. In fact, I am going to give myself a due date: March 23. I vow to have at least one post up by then. It might be that day, but it will be up.

Thanks for reading.

Keep it up!

More to come.

After reading Donald Miller's Blog more and more, I am convinced that I am going about this blogging-thing wrong. I have only posted trivial matters about myself, and at best, have treated this blog as a place for me to post journal entries.

I am going to start developing a focus. I am not sure what it is yet, but I am going to start developing a focus to this blog. I want to help people learn to enjoy life more, and to live the one life they have in a better fashion.

So, I will be away this weekend, as I am going with my boss to a speaking gig he has, but I will be back. And hopefully, God willing, I will have a focus to it.

Josh

Defeated--quite.

Man, who knew one person could feel so down....

I should have seen this coming, in all honesty. With all the stuff I did for God yesterday, every ill-spirit in the spiritual world has my name on their head, and they want to finish me off.

If you don't believe that spiritual oppression is real--do something for God.

Every bad force in the spiritual world is pissed at me. I am alright with this. I just wish I didn't feel like dying.

I have felt so isolated all day, and I have felt so alone.

This is what comes with being a spiritual leader, I suppose. Oh how I hate it. All day I have felt as if everyone in the world, including those I care about the most, hate me. It is just so frustrating. I know truth, but I can't feel it.

I feel like I am utterly alone, again. Tomorrow it will be different. Right now, I just don't know what to do with myself. I am going to commit myself to prayer for a while; I can't even eat right now.

With any luck, I will have someone to talk to before I go to bed tonight. If not, it is going to be a long night.

Can a man work too hard?

I am feeling reflective, again. This has to be the curse of a blogger, is that we always have something we have been thinking about.

Curses.

Well, I am writing this from my bed, because I am sick. I just got done talking with my mom and she told me I shouldn't go to the office today and I just need to relax--fat chance.

I have so much work that needs to be done. I passed my Government and English classes with flying colors, but I still have to focus on my Trig. and Spanish classes. I have about half of each class left to get done in the next two weeks, well less than that!

How can I honestly afford to not work hard?

This week, with my internship responsibilities, I have to do so much. This Sunday, I am am: teaching a Sunday School class (which I am loving, it is on Crazy Love), leading worship for the church (this means practicing the songs all week), leading worship at youth group (I always do, but it still needs done), and I have to teach youth group!

How can one man have so many hats? With my church and school responsibilities--how on earth can I not work hard?

Things between the lady-friend (I will not put her name on the internet) and I are awesome! We have never been closer, and we seem to grow closer to each other day-by-day.

It is really amazing what happens between two people when they seek God first and allow Him to bring them together.

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I am sorry, but I am just busy. I will be home-free after the 22nd of this month. I am trusting God to get me there--I am sick and everything hurts.

I am in serious need of a hug, food, and coffee. I have enough Spanish to keep me busy for eternity....

God grant me peace, and make time slow down, that way I can get all of this done. And don't let it kill me in the process.

Blessings,

--Josh