Celebrating the band’s third major label release, Finally
Awake, Seventh Day Slumber’s lead singer, Joseph Rojas
is an ideal example of the resurrection power of Christ in
us and through us. His story is chilling, powerful, and
glorious. If you examine his past, it’s crystal clear that
this 8-time convicted felon was headed on a path of
destruction through lifetime incarceration or a violent
death.
But Christ stepped in, and when Jesus makes his move, look
out, lives are about to be transformed.
It really
wasn’t long ago
that I
was bound by chains and trampled on
I felt like all my days were numbered
I felt so all alone, but I was wrong
Oh the Lord has never left me.
He’s always there to catch me when I fall
I believe
in Jesus
He’s Lord
of Lords
And King
of Kings
I believe
in Jesus
He rescued
me
- I Believe
You’ve
always had a history of loving music.
My
favorite bands were Slayer, Rage Against the Machine and
Stone Temple Pilots. I knew that I wanted to rock out, but
after I was saved, I wanted to do it for God. This time,
instead of playing secular tunes and taking all of the
glory, when I formed this band, I didn’t want it to just be
a band, I wanted there to be a ministry - music would come
second - that was how I wanted it to be.
And I love
how God works because you found the right guys to unite
with, both musically and in Christ.
I’m so
blessed to be in a band where I can say that first and
foremost we’re family. We’re best friends. We get along
better than a lot of bands that are out there because you
know they always say - a family that prays together stays
together. That’s the way our bus is, we pray together,
nothing is off limits. If one of us is struggling with
something, even if it’s an embarrassing thing to talk about,
it’s open, and none of us will judge him. We just want to
love each other and help each other get through it because
the truth is that none of us are perfect and we’re all going
to make mistakes. So if it’s something that stems from the
internet or from looking at something we shouldn’t be, or
from this or that, I mean each and every one of us want each
other to know that we’re there and we love each other.
There’s
nothing off limits to talk about on our bus. We just want
you to be honest because you can’t get help if you’re not
honest about something. Three of us are married and that’s
awesome because I get to be around two other married men
that are madly in love with our wives and I am madly in love
with my wife, you know and so it’s just awesome that we can
encourage each other as husbands to be good husbands to our
wives. It’s powerful man, it’s powerful.
On your
first CD you thank your fans and supporters for helping sell
your merchandise, for gas money, and specifically send out a
thanks by stating: ’You make broken down buses, dollar
menus, sleepless nights, dingy hotel rooms, overdrawn bank
accounts and greasy hands all worth it.’
Well you
know, being on the road is not easy. A lot of people think
you get to stay in Marriott’s and Hilton’s and I’m not going
to lie because we have stayed in some nice hotel rooms, but
we stay in them for an hour and then we have to jump back
into a bus and drive off. We’ve done six shows in a row
this week and we’ve driven 7 – 9 hours between shows and if
you add that up, once you get to the venue, you get to set
up, do a soundcheck, and by the time you’re done
soundchecking it’s already time to open the doors so you
can’t go to the hotel. After the show you get to go shower
in the hotel and jump back in the bus and drive off.
There’s
also a lot of spiritual warfare going on when you have the
sole quest of evangelizing the life and love of Jesus
Christ.
There’s a
lot of trials and tribulations because the devil hates us -
he can’t stand us. We’re on his hit list and we love it. I
wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ve seen more than
52,000
kids come to Christ since 1998 so the devil hates us and he
brings all kinds of things to us. Like people have always
said: you can’t have a testimony without a test, and so what
we do is we just stay prayed up and we try to stay focused.
All the things that we’ve been through, from broken down
buses, missing our families, all the things that you have to
go through I believe have literally prepared us for where we
are now.
I heard
someone say, ‘God, show me the place I’ll be ten years from
now. I say, God, show me the way. I don’t want to know the
place I’ll be ten years from now because I can’t handle it.
If God were to show me the place I’d be ten years ago, I
wouldn’t be able to handle it. If God would have showed me
what I’m doing right now, ten years ago, that I’d be a
leader of a band that’s led 52,000 kids to Christ, and that
I’d be sharing my testimony every night, that I would be
doing alter calls, oh my gosh, me? I’d have to be the
speaker? I would have probably had a heart attack out of
fear. So I don’t pray show me the place, I pray, God, show
me the way.
The band
has a powerful calling to outreach.
We keep in
touch with all the kids; we answer every single email. We
don’t send a blanket email to everybody. We read every
email and we answer every email and we stay in touch with
the kids. I believe that’s what’s made our music; our
writings are so relative to today’s culture, to today’s
youth, because we stay in touch with them.
We get a
lot of feedback from the kids. We deal with a lot of kids
who are involved in cutting, where they cut themselves, and
a lot of kids that have wanted to commit suicide. These are
kids who have never drank alcohol but feel like ending their
life. Kids that have never used drugs before but they’re in
prison, and it’s not because there’s bars around them, it’s
because they’re imprisoned in their own mind because they
feel like they’re worthless and their life is hopeless and
helpless.
And many
have deep pain within.
There’s
all kinds of theories on why they cut. One is because they
want attention so hopefully you’ll see the cut and you’ll
ask them and you’ll inquire about them. Number two, they
cut because it releases serotonins because we have our own
pain killers in our bodies, it’s our own high. Another
theory is they cut because they want to commit suicide but
they don’t want to go all the way. Another one is just
because they’re so numb inside that this is the only way to
feel anything. Everyone has theories of why people cut -
and the people themselves have different reasons - but the
truth is it doesn’t even matter because the cutting is just
a symptom of the real problem, and the real problem if you
really, really want to know why kids cut, is the same reason
why you drank alcohol and the same reason why I used
cocaine, it’s because we’re trying to bury something inside
of us, we’re missing something in our lives and we need
Jesus. We need Him to fill us completely. We need Him to
take the pain away. The blood of Jesus can wash the pain
away. And that’s the message we give - the blood of Jesus
can wash it all away. Cutting and cocaine and alcohol and
eating and sex and all the other addictions are just a
symptom of the real problem, and that’s emptiness and a
brokenness in our lives that we need filled and fixed. And
it can only be fixed and filled by Jesus.
Therapy is
everywhere, I’ve been to so many counseling sessions and all
I did was spend a bunch of money and felt dependant on
therapy. I was never completely healed. I’m not saying
that therapy doesn’t work because I believe there are some
great counselors out there that do a great thing, but the
truth is a life without Jesus is a life filled with pain. I
don’t care how many Dr. Phil’s you have, a life without
Jesus is a life filled with pain.
One of the
reasons you’re so passionate with that statement is it
resonates from your heart; it reflects your personal pain
and emptiness before Christ came into your life.
Here’s how
far off I was when I didn’t know Jesus, my mother took her
life savings - $30,000 – I’m ashamed to even tell you this,
but it’s part of my testimony and it’s part of how powerful
God is because of where I am now. My mom, the woman I love
with all my heart, took $30,000 because she wanted to help
me and put it in rehab. I went and was clean for thirty
days, and thirty days later I was high, and my Mom’s life
savings were gone. I tried everything, but I didn’t have
Jesus. It was just crazy, I was sober for a little while,
but like you it was worse because now the problem wasn’t
numb anymore and I didn’t know how to deal with it, even
therapy couldn’t help me deal with it. I needed the problem
gone. I would have rather been high then deal with what I
had to deal with.
Sometimes
our initial sobriety without Christ can backfire on us, it
did with me. Before Christ came into my life I honestly
thought that if I was sober, all of my problems would
disappear. My friends and family thought the same, that my
life was in a downward spiral because of the alcohol, but
the truth is, I was in a self-destructive mode because I
didn’t have a Savior.
Exactly.
I had my sobriety for thirty days and decided that life
wasn’t worth living for sure. I had enough reasons to end
it and I decided to commit suicide. I took a lethal dose of
cocaine. My mother used to pray for me every single night
and tell me that Jesus loves me and that He’s real. She
kept saying, “He’s real, He’s real son, He’s real, and
you’ve got to believe me, I’m telling you I’ve met Him, He’s
real, He’s real, and you’ve got to believe me.”
I thought
Jesus was her imaginary friend.
I took a
lethal dose of cocaine and my mother wasn’t supposed to be
the one to find me but she walked in unexpectedly and I
dropped to my knees and I overdosed on cocaine in front of
my mother on our living room floor. She called the
paramedics and she was screaming and crying out to God,
praying and praying. The paramedics came and they hooked me
up to all of these wires. In the back of the ambulance I
had an encounter with God. I was coming in and out of
consciousness.
I always
say that if I had a million years to explain it, I
couldn’t. The truth is I felt like every cell in my blood,
every organ in my body, every hair on my skin, every bit of
it was telling me that Jesus was real. Every part of my
body told me that Jesus was alive and that’s He’s seated at
the right hand of the Father. I don’t know how to explain
it to you but through my soul, through my spirit, through my
blood flowing inside of my body, I knew that Jesus was real
and I asked, ‘Would You save me?’ I could never deny Him.
I remember
the day I met You
The
emptiness I had could fill a mountain
And I
believed it was true,
My pain
would never go away
I’m a
brand new man
And I will
never be the same
You’ve
made me a brand new man
I will
never be the same
- Brand New Man
Now that
doesn’t mean I could never mess up. I can’t count how many
times I’ve slapped Jesus across the face after giving my
life to Him; I’m ashamed to tell you that. I can’t count how
many times I’ve spit in His face and what does He do? He
loves me. He loves us and it’s so baffling to me how He
could love that much and how He could love a man like me
after all I’ve done. But I’ll tell you this: even though
I’ve unintentionally slapped God across the face and even
sometimes intentionally I’ve done something knowing this is
gonna hurt God and I’ve done it anyway because it’s human
nature, I could never deny Him and I will never deny that
He’s real, and that He’s alive today, and that He changed my
life, and I am not the man I used to be.
I still
sin and I still make bad decisions but I’m not the man I
used to be and I thank God for that.
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