Stand By Night

Oh, I Like This Song

Josiah — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:06:40 +0000

When was the last time you walked into someplace that plays background music and thought, “Oh, I like this song”? Probably pretty recently, since it doesn’t take much to get someone to like a song. If it has a poppy beat and gets played often enough, people will like it.

I had to listen to Billionaire by Travie McCoy about a billion times at school the other day and I was struck by how closely it resembled a Christian rock song. Same catchy but over-used drum beat, same 1-6-4-5 chord progression, same lyrics trying to sound convincing even though they have no idea what they’re talking about.

That got me thinking; is this what we look for in worship too? For a worship song to “catch on” within the American church does it have to get people to think, “oh I like this song” when they walk in the front doors? Just how shallow is our relationship with God becoming if we worship Him based on how much the song the band is playing sounds like one we heard on the radio?

-J

Good Ground

Josiah — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:01:26 +0000

There is a trend in the church that says that a Christian should only “sow into good ground”. I.e. “I want to give $100 to someone who needs it, but I want to make sure they are a good person, and aren’t going to waste it.” I don’t know how this got started, and I held to it myself for some time, but I have come to rethink my position. This is my reasoning:

First, it is not for us to decide who is “good ground” and who isn’t. For me to sow into what I think is good soil, I first have to judge a person (or persons) based on what I see. That’s usually a bad idea. Samuel thought David’s older brothers were God’s choice based on their appearance, but God knows the condition of the heart. I mean, who would have guessed that Zacchaeus was good ground to sow into? Not me; Jesus knew better though.

Also, in Matthew 5 as Jesus described how we are to treat those who don’t deserve to be treated well He said that God, “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” So, even if we could know who would make the best use of our gift or who deserved it the most, it still wouldn’t be Christlike to make a decision based on that knowledge alone.

It seems like Jesus made a habit of giving the most to the people who deserved it the least. I mean, He gave His life for billions of people who ended up rejecting Him completely. Was His gift any less valuable because it was not accepted by so many people? No. I believe the value of a gift is determined by how much it cost to give, not by how well it is received.

-J

Strategy for Failure

Josiah — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:16:26 +0000

Everyone fails. It’s just logic that as imperfect beings we are all going to get something wrong at one time or another. Some people fail more often than others, some people recover from failure faster than others, and some people seem to be trying to fail. For those of you that enjoy failure I have decided to give a simple guide for failing every time, at everything.

The first step in achieving consistent failure is having the right mindset. You have to prepare yourself for the opportunity to fail before it comes up or you might miss it. Once the setup is mastered, I believe you’ll find that failure is mostly in your head, and you can fail at absolutely everything.

To start, have an “all or nothing” approach to everything. You can get more fails in if you consider more things failures. Put simply: decide before-hand that nothing is ever good enough. The two most common methods are the “high bar” and the “no bar”.
The high bar method is very simple; if the bar is so high it’s impossible to reach, there is zero risk of success. You got a 95%? You wanted 200%. Fail. You got 100%? No problem; you wanted 200%, still fail. This is the easiest method.
The no bar method is a little trickier. You have to not decide what you want until you have what you are going to get, and then be disappointed. You got 95%? You wanted 96%. Fail. This method can be a little less effective at first since it leaves room for hope all the way up until the fail, but once mastered the constant up and down can really wreck you emotionally, making this a good option for those of you that want depression as well as fail.

I’m sure that with this guide, and a little practice, you can soon be feeling like crap 24/7.

Tongue-in-cheek, signing off…

Keep your chin up. If you never quit, you can never fail.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

-J

Old Truth, New Metaphor

Josiah — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:48:11 +0000

I’ve come to a realization recently: I mature much faster by focusing on doing what I’m supposed to do, rather than avoiding what I’m not supposed to do.

Actually, this is not a new concept for me. I can’t even count the times in a day I tell myself, “You travel in the direction of your focus. You have a choice.” But I am re-realizing how much this concept pertains to even seemingly insignificant issues.

I think I’ve found a way to describe why there is such a big difference in the two perspectives. Think of your maturity in life as if it were a really steep hill. You were born at the bottom, and as you mature you are working your way to the top. By focusing everything you have on not falling you may be able to keep yourself from ever slipping backward, but it will never move you up the hill. If you focus on moving forward, you may lose your footing and slip back every once and a while, but you will be moving up the hill.

Now that I have that all written down, I’m pretty sure I’ve said it all before. Oh well, it’s worth posting again, I think.

-J

Contemporary Christian Music is Lame

Josiah — Sat, 09 May 2009 11:48:29 +0000

A musical stanza in and of itself is not Christian or secular. Take instrumental music for example: if the chord structure of Pachelbel’s Canon in D is played by a non-Christian we say it’s secular, but if it’s played by a Christian then it’s “Christian” music. Given this fact, if a Christian were to play an instrumental piece originally played by a secular artist, it would become “Christian” due to the only thing making it secular being removed. I think the church understood this a little better 200 years ago, since many old hymns were set to music that was “secular” at the time it was written.

In reality, that “Christian” piano CD you have is not any more holy than the plain old classical piano CD your neighbor listens to, and you are listening to a self-taught guy on a Yamaha P90 while your neighbor gets to hear a virtuoso whose life’s work is being poured out on an antique Steinway & Sons. In all probability, your “quiet time” could actually stand to benefit from some “secular” music.

Any subculture that doesn’t recognize the skillful and exalts the mediocre will cause two reactions: the mediocre will start to think they are skilled, and the truly skilled will leave because they are not appreciated. I believe this has been going on so for long in the Christian music world that many of our singers and musicians have the mindset of a high-school football star: they think they’re great, and most of the people around them are telling them they’re great, but they are not even close to being in the same league as an actual pro. It’s pitiful really.

Is it wrong that I wish Christian musicians would stop listening exclusively to each other, and let themselves be influenced by people who are actually great musicians? If they did, I may actually consider listening to them.

-J

Different God?

Josiah — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:31:38 +0000

Jehovah’s Witnesses have only been around since 1931, but before that there was a group called The Watch Tower Tract Society that was founded in 1881 by Charles Russell. The Society’s purpose was basically to print tracts containing Russell’s beliefs, and a magazine focusing mostly on the “last days”. But in 1916 Russell died, and the society’s lawyer Joseph Rutherford was elected president. Within six months he had dismissed all the board members that disagreed with him and started publishing his own doctrine. He later also dismissed the entire editorial committee, giving him sole control of what was published. He started demanding that his readers meet in congregations, and thus a new cult was formed. They called themselves “Bible Students” until 1931 when the name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” was chosen by popular vote. JWs claim to use the Bible as their source of teaching and practices, but it is often taken completely out of context. JWs have also attempted to predict the year of Jesus’ return several times. They said He was returning to Earth in 1914, and then they said 1925, and then 1975.

My neighborhood gets a lot of JWs knocking on our doors; I’ve talked with three in the last two months. If there are any JWs out there who read this, I have a question for you.

In the most recent conversation I had with a JW missionary he started by asking if I believed in God. After I said I did he asked if I believed God has a name and I said, “Yeah, His name is Yahweh.” The missionary agreed with me adding that “Jehovah” is the English translation of the Hebrew. He then asked if I would agree that the Bible is the Word of God, to which I said I absolutely did.

Then we had a long conversation about whether or not God is omniscient, during the course of which my missionary friend contradicted himself a few times and failed to defend his statements against his own previous statements when I showed the logical fallacy of his position(s?). But that’s not my point.
After almost an hour he said he had to go. I asked if we could say a quick prayer asking for the knowledge of God before he left (that was the one thing we agreed on: we all need the knowledge of God). Now here’s the weird part: he didn’t say he’d rather not, or that he didn’t have time, of that he wasn’t comfortable praying with a guy without a shirt on (that’s what happens when you knock on a Nightwatcher’s door at 10:30am); he said, “No. No offense, but I don’t think we’d be praying to the same god.”

Here’s my question: If we started the conversation by agreeing that God’s name is Yahweh (or Jehovah), and that the Bible is His word, why is my Jehovah is different than his? And even if we were not “praying to the same god” wouldn’t he still be able to pray for me to receive the knowledge of his god (whomever that may be)?

Just a thought.

-J

The Nightwatch is Back, for a Season

Josiah — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:17:43 +0000

The Rock of Roseville (the church that has partnered with the House of Prayer here in Roseville) has called a 40 day fast, starting today. To be honest, I’m pretty disappointed with the over-all response to the fast. We had originally planned to keep the prayer room open 24/7 for the duration of the fast, but we didn’t have enough people volunteer to help keep the prayer room open. It’s kind of sad really, we only needed about 3% of the Rock attendees to volunteer for one hour each. God has different plans I guess.

We Nightwatchers changed our hours to cover 9pm to 6am for the fast, and even though we won’t be 24/7, we’re going to keep those hours for the 40 days. I’m quite happy about the change in night hours; 12am to 6am is what I signed up for nine months ago, I only changed my schedule to accommodate the need at the time.

Tonight we had all of the Nightwatch here in the prayer room at the same time. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time that’s happened since we moved into the building we’re in now. It was really cool to be praying together as one group of intercessors. As I write this there are only five of us that are still here, but that’s part of what I love about the night: everyone else is asleep, and I’m praying.

I expect God to change things in the House of Prayer during this fast. I’m eager to see what He has planned, and I completely trust Him. This is going to be a good season, not because it will be comfortable, but because it is ordained by God for my good and I’m going to embrace it.

-J

Engaged

Josiah — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:17:28 +0000

I just realized that I haven’t posted since I proposed to my girlfriend of two years, Alyssa. She said yes, and we’re engaged. It’s amazing how busy one gets when planning a wedding.

The chances of my life slowing down in the near future are very slim, but now that my blogging (or recent lack thereof) is fresh on my mind I intend to post somewhat sort-of kind-of regularly again.

-J

Read With Your Ears Open (The Good Book, Part Two)

Josiah — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:17:19 +0000

I believe in absolute truth. To say, “what you believe is true for you, and what I believe is true for me” is crazy. While reality is often determined by people’s beliefs, belief alone doesn’t make something reality. Bible interpretation is a VERY controversial subject. I could pick nearly any verse in the Bible and say, “it means this” and probably get half a dozen people who would immediately disagree. But as soon as you say that a verse can mean one thing for you and something else for me, you have crossed into the realm of relative truth. If the Bible is true that means it’s all true, all the time, for everyone. Or else it’s not true.

Now for the really controversial stuff…

I believe that each and every verse in the Bible has one primary meaning (that is usually quite clearly stated), and then varying numbers of implied and/or “double” meanings. I also believe that Bible meditation is an important part of the “Christian walk”; not so that God can show you the ‘secret meaning’ of a verse or passage, but so that God can speak to you through His word. I almost never bring a verse before God asking, “what does this really mean?” However, I often come before the Lord with, “Is there anything else you want to say to me regarding this?” Then He can show me other verses, or give me personal revelation on a subject without me going and redefining scripture every time I meditate.

2 Peter 1 says, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.“

Read the Bible expecting God to show you things. But when He does, don’t think that He has changed what He said; He’s just adding to it.

-J

Sick

Josiah — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:46:16 +0000

I’ve been sick with a fever of 103 for days now. That’s why there’s been no updates. I’ve got stuff in my Drafts folder waiting to be finished. Really.

-J