I've had several similar questions that were asked of me. Most of them I try to answer on my email but this one I wanted to post about. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me (mochibeats@gmail.com)
I really just want to say that GOD puts people on earth for a purpose, some may be cops, some may be electricians, what are you doing wasting your talent and throwing it in thin air? Some would give their life to have a career they enjoy and have a passion for . . some even sleep in there cars to become pop stars! GOD also gave us the ability to choose and choose to balance our lives with our careers, talents and beliefs. -Alex
I agree with you that God has a purpose for everyone. I also believe He has given each of us various talents. He talks about this in Matthew 25:13-30 in the parable of the talents. “Talents” in the Bible, was originally a form of money. But in the parable, talents also refers to the talents we think of today. It refers to every gift from God, whether it be abilities, gifts, money, or time. Ellen White expounds upon the parable of the talents in her book “Christ's Object Lessons” Chapter 25.
I ask, for whom am I wasting my talents? For man or for God? I never said I was quitting music, I said I was quitting Mochi Beats. I believe the purpose of music is to glorify God, not to glorify ourselves, man, or the devil. If it is God’s will, I will use my talent of music to glorify Him, not myself. For in Mochi Beats, I was glorifying my own self. I believe He can bless me and use me to praise Him through music if it is His will. He can and will bless your talents as well if they are used for Him.
You mention that people will sleep in their cars to become pop stars. Does God want us to be pop stars? Does a pop star bring glory to God through their lives or do they bring glory to themselves? At a concert, does the crowd worship God or the performer and music? I believe they worship the performer and music. God says that we are either for Him or against Him (Matthew 12:30) and that we should have no other gods except Him (Exodus 20:3). There is no middle ground.
Did the mashups and remixes I made happen instantaneously? No. It was a commitment of time. Time is also a talent we are given. Our lives are very brief, the amount of time we are given on this Earth is very limited. Am I making the most of my time by making mashups? No. Is it spreading truth about God? No. As mentioned in the parable, we will be held accountable for the use of our time and talents. Is my purpose here on Earth to make mashups? Is my potential so limited that that’s all I am good for? No!
There are other reasons why I walked away from Mochi Beats. But first I must give God the glory for giving me the strength to walk away. I had gotten to the point where two well known DJ agencies had contacted me. I could easily have pursued it professionally. It was only through Him that I was convicted to walk away. Why did I walk away? Many reasons. As above, I did not believe it was right in God’s eyes in the use of my time or talent. Secondly, many events are on the Sabbath. I believe that the 10 Commandments are the law of God (Exodus 20). In the 4th commandment, we are told to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. “Six days shall thou labor and do all thy work but the 7th is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” The 7th day, Saturday is the true Sabbath. If we look at over a hundred languages, even their word for Saturday is similar to Sabbath : Sabado (Spanish, Portuguese), Sabato (Italian), Shabbath (Hebrew) etc. Is that a coincidence? God never changed his Sabbath to Sunday. It was man (Emporer Constantine of Rome ) that changed it. Who gave him the right to change the law of God? Nobody.
Biblically the day and thus the Sabbath begins at sundown and continues until sundown the next day. That means Sabbath begins on Friday night until Saturday night. How could I keep the Sabbath holy in good conscience by djing at parties (especially on Sabbath) where people are drunk and high and I myself would be tempted to partake in that?
The other reason I walked away was because Mochi Beats was a source of pride for me. There are many sins, but God views pride as one of the worst. Yet oftentimes, pride is respected among men. I do not believe that is the attitude God wants me to have. I have often heard people tell me to have ‘balance’. I believe there should be no compromise with sin. Our God does not want a divided heart but our whole hearts. He does not want us to cherish even one sin in our hearts. The Bible is clear that even one sin cherished will destroy a person.
So what is the reason for obeying God? We obey out of love for Him who died for us. He is amazing and infinitely powerful. Have you ever seen the sky at night with all the stars, or seen pictures of galaxies taken from the Hubble telescope? He made all of that. Do you know how much power one sun harnesses? Yet there are trillions and trillions of stars. He made those. That same God came to our wretched planet and humiliated Himself by becoming man, and died the humiliating death on the cross for us that we may be saved! What love is this! It is breathtaking and beyond comprehension.
When you are pulled over speeding, and you ask the police officer if he could give you a break, and he does and writes a warning, do you drive away burning rubber on your tires speeding down the freeway after that? Of course not. You were pardoned and you want to obey the law out of gratitude.
There was a lady married to an abusive husband. And every morning he made a list of things he wanted her to do. “1. Clean the house 2. Make my dinner 3. Wash my clothes” etc. When he came home at night he would check the list and if she didn’t do any of them he would beat her. Eventually through some merciful event he passed away and she remarried. But this time she married someone completely different. He was kind and didn’t make these lists for her to do. One day she was cleaning the attic and found one of the old lists that her former husband made and she became very upset and angry. As she read over the list she began to realize that she still did all those things on the list. She still cleaned the house, made dinner, washed the clothes. But this time it was not forced. She did them out of love. In the same way do we obey the law (10 Commandments) out of love for God.
Ultimately my decision to walk away is out of love for God. Why would I want to waste precious hours devoting myself to selfish pursuits when I could be devoting that time to Him. He wants us to be with Him throughout eternity. To take care of us, to protect us, to love us. To take away our pain and suffering, our loneliness and sorrow. We love Him because He first loved us. God bless you.
