UPDATE 4/14/09: Wesley Sleep Program Puts Me To Sleep – That’s A Good Thing!
We’ve got Biblically-based diets and cookbooks. We’ve got Christian books and music and movies and power drinks and sneakers and breath mints. If we can endorse a product with a Jesus fish, we do it.
And now, we have a Biblically-based sleep program? I don’t mean to snark, really I don’t. But … a Biblically-based sleep program?

Billy Wilkins, one of the original members of the band Third Day, created the program after his own struggle with sleep problems. He tried medications but found relief in Scripture. The press release says:

Wilkins found so many scriptures that answered and supported his spiritual quest that he soon began to realize that this level of peace was God’s desire for all of His children. He began to chronicle his findings, while following his musical instincts and researching music therapy, and was soon on the path to developing the Wesley Sleep Program.

The Wesley Sleep Program claims a 75% success rate, and at $14.99, has a lower cost than sleep and anxiety medications.
I don’t have any problem with a guy who uses the Bible to find Scriptures related to sleep sharing that information. But really, do you need a whole program?:

The first portion of the audio CD is designed to soothingly equip the listener for real rest, while combating four common sleep hindrances. The remaining musical portion leads to even deeper levels of relaxation and calm sleep.

OK, here comes the snark:
People! Open up your own Bibles! Get a concordance and look up Scriptures about rest and peace and sleep for yourself! Why, why, why are we constantly looking to other people to read the Bible for us, learn from it and then regurgitate it for us in tiny, digestible pieces? When are we going to start being responsible for our own spiritual health and growth?
Ahem. Sorry about that.
And to help promote the new Wesley Sleep Program, creator Billy Wilkins is drawing on his credits as one of the original members of the group Third Day.
Wilkins was one of the three first members of the group, joining founders Mac Powell and Mark Lee in 1991, right after the Powell and Lee graduated from high school. (Powell and Lee has been playing together in a group called Nuclear Hoedown but wanted to form a group where they could sing about God. Now there’s a bit of trivia for you: Nuclear Hoedown. Can’t even begin to imagine that music. But I digress …) In 1992, the band added Tai Anderson and David Carr, and Wilkins left the band in 1993. Third Day continuted, added Brad Avery, eventually signed with Reunion Records in 1996, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Wilkin’s bio on the Wesley Sleep Program website says that he “remains a professional songwriter, studio musician, and performer, working with Third Day and other talented musicians since his departure from the band.” (It also has this nifty picture of the band from 1992. The website ObscureGenius.com identifies them as L to R: Tai Anderson, David Carr, Mark Lee, Mac Powell, Billy Wilkins. Wow, look at Mac Powell.)
You can learn more about Billy Wilkins and the Wesley Sleep Program on the website.
You can learn more about the Bible at places like Bible Gateway, where you can actually search for terms like “sleep” and “rest” and “peace” all on your own and start your own study of what God has to say about the subject. And it’s free!
UPDATE 3/2/09: Read Billy’s response to this post!
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