Wow, I seem to be consistently posting...or at least this month. I don't know really what I'm going to blog about quite yet, it will probably just be rambling and nonsense. The reason I'm still up is because I was supposed to have a softball game today at 9:30. I say supposed to because it got rained out. The thing that sucks most about it? I drove all the way there before they cancelled it. I've been up since 12:15 AM, no nap, so my lovely wife made me coffee so I could stay more awake than I felt. So now I had no softball to take off the buzz of caffeine, and I'm awake...22 hours...oh dear Lord help me sleep. So for the past few weeks I've started being mentored. It's been fantastic, and I've been doing a LOT better about reading my Bible. I have grown so much closer to God, and I feel like I'm learning and being more disciplined in the way I've approached my relationship with God. I don't feel like reading your Bible and praying are items on a checklist, but if you love God and want to grow closer to Him you NEED to be doing those things. You shouldn't do them out of obligation, but actually want to do it. It's been great, and I'm so glad that I have started this path of my life.
Another new thing in my life has been starting volunteering in Youth Ministry at church. Last Thursday I went to a Home Group, and met some guys who are doing a Bible study/accountability group. I had heard about them from the Sr High Ministries Leader, and had been praying about becoming their leader. I found out Thursday they had been praying for a leader just the week before. So, it seems as if I'm going to be a small group leader soon. I'm super excited, but also super anxious. I definitely know that God will always give me the words to say and the paths to lead, but I always still feel so inadequate and unqualified. It will involve LOTS of prayer and LOTS of prayer!
Anyways, I think I *might* be tired enough to sleep, so I will bring this post to a close. Thanks for reading, even though I'm sure not many people are. It's ok, I don't blog for anyone but me. If you're reading it, thank you for stopping by and I hope that you're having an awesome day/evening/afternoon/night/whatever.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Human trafficking and slavery
Ok, this story is super graphic and hard to read, but this is not an uncommon story among young girls right now. So many young girls and women are forced into a slavery that I wish wasn't happening and for so many years pretended didn't exist. My heart breaks for these girls and women, and I hope that it breaks your heart too. It is a nasty part of what is going on in the world today, and an issue that really has been on the hearts of our family. Right now, through the end of this week if you donate to RescueLife, your gift WILL BE DOUBLED! Normally, $128 will rescue ONE GIRL, but with the doubling it will save TWO GIRLS caught up in slavery. Please consider contributing to this cause and saving lives!
The story of Anjali:
My father called me "the child he never wanted."
When I was young at home with my parents, I quickly learned that my father despised us girls.
My earliest memory is of a birthday. I was having such a great day and was so pleased with my pretty dress. My cousin had come over for my birthday and we were celebrating. Then my uncle came along and said, "Let's go for a walk in the woods." That was the first time I remember being raped. I was 4 years old.
At that time my family could not figure out what was wrong with me. I had a very high fever and wouldn't get out of bed. It was from the abuse. I did not tell what happened to me because I was too afraid.
But my father also molested me and even had other men have sex with me. This started when I was 6 or 7 years old. I thought my only role and purpose in life was to be an object of abuse.
As horrible as my story sounds, it got even worse. One day I watched as my father strangled my mother to death. After that, my father forced me to go on the streets and beg. And the abuse grew even worse.
After my father died, we were moved to where my aunt lived. I don't remember exactly how old I was at that time...around 8 or 9. I had a lot of anger in my heart at this time from all the pain.
When I was only 10, my aunt and uncle wanted me to marry a man. I wanted to run away because I did not want to marry this man. However, I was forced to marry him. The first night he was very hurtful and cruel to me, so the next day I took 60 rupees and ran away.
I didn't know where to go, but three older women in the village told me they would help me. They said they would take me to my grandmother's house, but instead they took me to the city.
They brought me to a strange place. I did not know where I was. They started dressing me up and putting lipstick on me, telling me I needed to look good for my grandmother. Finally, one sweet girl told me that the ladies had sold me.
If I resisted or protested, they would beat me until I submitted. I would scream and cry, but the ladies would still force me to sleep with the men. They were horrible to me. The men were cruel, dirty and sick. I got HIV, TB and many infections.
I witnessed horrible things. I saw one girl get her throat cut and another one mutilated with a knife. I saw many girls die, so I stopped resisting and started doing the work. Still, over and over I asked, "What can I do to get out of here?" They told me I had to work and pay my debt.
Then one day my life completely changed.
Some wonderful, kind people came and rescued me. They gave me a safe place to live. They taught me that God loved me and that gave me value. They assured me that my pain was not God's plan. For the first time I didn't feel that my purpose in life was to be hurt and used. I thank God I am now in a place of hope.
I have seen so many girls murdered. I am just praying that many others can be rescued so they will not have to go through what I did. I want them to be able to enjoy simple things like Christmas, sunlight and freedom.
I now believe God gives each of us a way to help others. Now I am being able to speak up for other girls. I was the victim; now I am a part of the solution.
The story of Anjali:
My father called me "the child he never wanted."
When I was young at home with my parents, I quickly learned that my father despised us girls.
My earliest memory is of a birthday. I was having such a great day and was so pleased with my pretty dress. My cousin had come over for my birthday and we were celebrating. Then my uncle came along and said, "Let's go for a walk in the woods." That was the first time I remember being raped. I was 4 years old.
At that time my family could not figure out what was wrong with me. I had a very high fever and wouldn't get out of bed. It was from the abuse. I did not tell what happened to me because I was too afraid.
But my father also molested me and even had other men have sex with me. This started when I was 6 or 7 years old. I thought my only role and purpose in life was to be an object of abuse.
As horrible as my story sounds, it got even worse. One day I watched as my father strangled my mother to death. After that, my father forced me to go on the streets and beg. And the abuse grew even worse.
After my father died, we were moved to where my aunt lived. I don't remember exactly how old I was at that time...around 8 or 9. I had a lot of anger in my heart at this time from all the pain.
When I was only 10, my aunt and uncle wanted me to marry a man. I wanted to run away because I did not want to marry this man. However, I was forced to marry him. The first night he was very hurtful and cruel to me, so the next day I took 60 rupees and ran away.
I didn't know where to go, but three older women in the village told me they would help me. They said they would take me to my grandmother's house, but instead they took me to the city.
They brought me to a strange place. I did not know where I was. They started dressing me up and putting lipstick on me, telling me I needed to look good for my grandmother. Finally, one sweet girl told me that the ladies had sold me.
If I resisted or protested, they would beat me until I submitted. I would scream and cry, but the ladies would still force me to sleep with the men. They were horrible to me. The men were cruel, dirty and sick. I got HIV, TB and many infections.
I witnessed horrible things. I saw one girl get her throat cut and another one mutilated with a knife. I saw many girls die, so I stopped resisting and started doing the work. Still, over and over I asked, "What can I do to get out of here?" They told me I had to work and pay my debt.
Then one day my life completely changed.
Some wonderful, kind people came and rescued me. They gave me a safe place to live. They taught me that God loved me and that gave me value. They assured me that my pain was not God's plan. For the first time I didn't feel that my purpose in life was to be hurt and used. I thank God I am now in a place of hope.
I have seen so many girls murdered. I am just praying that many others can be rescued so they will not have to go through what I did. I want them to be able to enjoy simple things like Christmas, sunlight and freedom.
I now believe God gives each of us a way to help others. Now I am being able to speak up for other girls. I was the victim; now I am a part of the solution.
Friday, April 13, 2012
My affinity for Hip-Hop and lack of TV shows to watch
As I have gotten closer in my relationship with God I have given up quite a bit of my entertainment choices. I have given up some music and quit watching a lot of TV shows that I was religiously watching. Not that any of my music was bad, or watching those TV shows were sinful, but that I couldn't grow closer to God and keep up with all of that stuff. I work a lot, and so watching a TV show takes a much bigger sacrifice than for most people. Work takes up roughly half of my day between the commute and long hours, so to sit and watch an hour long show (or even a half an hour for that matter) is a huge sacrifice and cuts into family and Bible time. That's not even including the content, which is getting worse and worse as time goes on. I used to LOVE How I Met Your Mother. I still would like to keep up with it, but the ideals of sex before marriage and sex as a joke are very prevalent in them. Also, drinking a LOT and living together before marriage are seen as normal. Those aren't positive moral choices and not what God wants at all from us. I used to find those funny, but now I just see how lost and depraved our society is and it makes me sad. I want to know how Ted meets his wife and if Marshall and Lily have a baby, but neither makes me want to watch the show anymore. I don't want anyone to think that I'm saying watching How I Met Your Mother is a sin, it just wasn't good for my relationships that mean the most to me; God, Shannon and Sofi. And with music, I was listening to a lot of music that had swear words in it, and music that talked about a lot of things that weren't in line with the Bible. This was causing my world view to mimic more of that line of thinking than God's line of thinking. Again, I'm not saying non-Christian music is wrong, or that you're a horrible Christian if you don't listen solely to worship music and CCM music (gag!). What I'm saying is this; as I get closer to God, my convictions about those things have changed. I have also re-discovered my love for hip-hop. By re-discover I mean this; I now LOVE hip-hop music. I had a phase late in high school/early in college where I *loved* Eminem. I knew the lyrics to most of his hit songs, and was quite the "rebel." Now I've been listening to Christian hip-hop, and there is such a thing. No I'm not talking about TobyMac or KJ-52, but real hip-hop. Lecrae and Trip Lee are the only two albums I have, but I plan on getting more as time goes on. I don't know what it is, but I can't get enough. I also can't get enough worship music. In the last eight months we've bought worship albums from a bunch of mega-churches over the US. They're fantastic, and they're not lame (yes, I mean lame in the sense of Chris Tomlin, who isn't bad, just sings CCM worship). These churches have worship pastors who write most of the songs they sing in their church, and these albums are all original songs. It's SO good, and I can't stress enough how badly you need these albums. Elevation Worship - For the Honor, The Village Church - God of Victory, Bethel Live - Be Lifted High, North Point Live - Awake, and a few Hillsong United albums are what we have right now, but I think we're going to look at getting some of these churches other albums as well. Like I said, these are just what God has convicted ME of (and Shannon too), so I'm not saying if you watch How I Met Your Mother or listen to non-Christian music you're going to Hell, just that I have let go of those things to get closer to God.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Eliminating Facebook
I am going to be deactivating my Facebook account in the next week. I really don't need it, and I really feel like I waste WAY too much time on it. It is a place where we put on our best and try to make other people jealous of our lives, or try to look uber spiritual and cool. I'm not saying everyone on there is fake, or that every post I do is fake, or anything. I just think it can get that way, and I don't want to get sucked in that kind of thing. I also get on there wondering if anyone commented on my latest status update or if people think I'm cool because of my latest update, or like my profile. I don't need it to keep in contact with people, there are calls that can be made and emails or texts that can be sent instead. I might get rid of Twitter too, and just eliminate social networking all together. I have less problems with Twitter addiction than Facebook addiction, so I will have to re-evaluate in a month or so. It will be weird to get on our computer and click on Facebook and realize I don't have a Facebook account anymore, but I will eventually get used to it and not have that habit anymore. I might sound like an old person, but I really want my security and self-worth to be wrapped in Jesus rather than what people think about my life and latest status update. Maybe I'm being over dramatic, but maybe I'm trying to just eliminate distractions from God and what He is doing in my life. I want to be able to focus on Him, and if I'm focused on the happenings on Facebook more than Him, I have a problem. Anyways, if you want to contact me and Facebook was your main way, my email is justinjjohnston@comcast.net and if you want my phone number, email me. I'm not posting THAT on my blog! :-)
Monday, July 11, 2011
Top 5 Returns!
So a few months ago Shannon and I were trying to determine who would be the Top 5 Christian bands ever. This isn't favorite ones, but who is the best period. I had to put my feelings for certain bands aside and come up with the final list.
Here is what I came up with:
1. Jars of Clay - was there ever really a question? Easily the #1 choice, no one else compares to them. Look at their debut album and tell me which of those songs is still *not* relevant? I can't think of any, and they sound like they could be released today and seem contemporary, not 15 years old. No one has been better, or done it as well for so long. Not only did they top the Christian charts, but they also made some noise on secular charts as well. Ergo, #1.
2. dcTalk - Was there a bigger draw than dcTalk in the 90s? Big hits, big shows, big personalities. dcTalk WAS Christian music during the 90s. The problem they had en route to #1 was longevity. They broke up, and there went their shot at knocking off Jars. Don't get me wrong, I feel like they could be the best ever, but when you break up at the peak of your popularity, that makes me wonder what could have been. Seriously though, is "Jesus Freak" the best Christian music song ever?
3. Newsboys - Yes, I had to include some foriegners in my list. Just kidding, but the Newsboys have been a headlining band for YEARS. From "Shine" to whatever they're doing now (cuz I don't listen to them anymore), they are still a major attraction to Christian music fans. Definitely hit the worship music bandwagon and the popularity kicked up quite a bit. It's saying something to be this high and have gone through 3 lead singers and multiple other band members. I am a little weirded out though seeing Michael Tate (dcTalk) in their press pics as the lead singer...
4. Petra - Ok, for those of you who don't know Petra, they were a Johnston family favorite. They wrote some killer songs, from "Beyond Belief" to "This Means War!" they were great. Killer 80s/90s guitar rock with amazing vocals from John Schlitt, Petra defined 80s/early 90s Christian rock. Every rock band wanted to be them, and no one came close.
5. Audio Adrenaline - My childhood favorite. Can't say enough about a band that essentially is the same as when it formed, consistently made good music, stayed true to their sound while never sounding exactly the same, and always put on a great show. I never left an Audio A show disappointed, and I always wanted to go see them again. Mark Stuart's original voice (too bad that's the reason they also had to disband) and the classic rock sound, they are what I would declare, the U2 of Christian music (I'm sure that's a biased overstatement, but I LOVED Audio A)
Honorable Mentions - DC*B, Six Pence, Third Day, Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy
Update: I forgot 2 VERY important Honorable Mentions, which completely eluded me when I was writing this (and VERY tired I might add) : Switchfoot (duh) and Relient K
Here is what I came up with:
1. Jars of Clay - was there ever really a question? Easily the #1 choice, no one else compares to them. Look at their debut album and tell me which of those songs is still *not* relevant? I can't think of any, and they sound like they could be released today and seem contemporary, not 15 years old. No one has been better, or done it as well for so long. Not only did they top the Christian charts, but they also made some noise on secular charts as well. Ergo, #1.
2. dcTalk - Was there a bigger draw than dcTalk in the 90s? Big hits, big shows, big personalities. dcTalk WAS Christian music during the 90s. The problem they had en route to #1 was longevity. They broke up, and there went their shot at knocking off Jars. Don't get me wrong, I feel like they could be the best ever, but when you break up at the peak of your popularity, that makes me wonder what could have been. Seriously though, is "Jesus Freak" the best Christian music song ever?
3. Newsboys - Yes, I had to include some foriegners in my list. Just kidding, but the Newsboys have been a headlining band for YEARS. From "Shine" to whatever they're doing now (cuz I don't listen to them anymore), they are still a major attraction to Christian music fans. Definitely hit the worship music bandwagon and the popularity kicked up quite a bit. It's saying something to be this high and have gone through 3 lead singers and multiple other band members. I am a little weirded out though seeing Michael Tate (dcTalk) in their press pics as the lead singer...
4. Petra - Ok, for those of you who don't know Petra, they were a Johnston family favorite. They wrote some killer songs, from "Beyond Belief" to "This Means War!" they were great. Killer 80s/90s guitar rock with amazing vocals from John Schlitt, Petra defined 80s/early 90s Christian rock. Every rock band wanted to be them, and no one came close.
5. Audio Adrenaline - My childhood favorite. Can't say enough about a band that essentially is the same as when it formed, consistently made good music, stayed true to their sound while never sounding exactly the same, and always put on a great show. I never left an Audio A show disappointed, and I always wanted to go see them again. Mark Stuart's original voice (too bad that's the reason they also had to disband) and the classic rock sound, they are what I would declare, the U2 of Christian music (I'm sure that's a biased overstatement, but I LOVED Audio A)
Honorable Mentions - DC*B, Six Pence, Third Day, Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy
Update: I forgot 2 VERY important Honorable Mentions, which completely eluded me when I was writing this (and VERY tired I might add) : Switchfoot (duh) and Relient K
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