Jr. Combat Unit

Questions

"Questions change people. They unlock secrets and dreams that lie hidden in the heart."

Through his questions, Jesus inspired people to recieve healing, confront struggles, and expose secrets that they didn't even know they needed, had or had kept.

I've been reading a book that has about 600 eye opening questions and been going through asking people them as I evangelise daily.

Some are pretty practical that get you to know more about the person that your speaking to like...

If you could visit any place~real or imaginary~where would you go?

If you could meet any character in any book, whom would you meet?

If you could be any age, how old would you be and why?

I'm really enjoying the book, and some of these questions are so good, I'm going to give you a few more to just ponder about... or you can leave your comments, theres going to be quite a few, so you can comment more than once.

If you only lived to be 30, what would you hope to have accomplished (or if your already or older, what did you hope to accomplish)?

What was the hardest thing you ever had to apologize for?

If you had to spend 10 years of your life in jail, which 10 years of your life would you choose and why?

If you could choose dying with your best friend and dying alone, which would you choose?

If your plane was about to crash, but you had about 5 minutes to write a note, what would you write? Who would you write it to?

Of all your family members, whose death would affect you the most?

If you could change one about your physical appearance, what one thing would you change?

What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

If you could ask God any question, what question would you ask?

Who is the best example of a Christian that you know and why?

In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle that keeps people from believing in God?

If God agreed to do one thing to prove he exists, what would you want him to do?

If Jesus went to your school, what one group would he hang out with the most?

If God is good, why does he allow pain and suffering in the world?

If Jesus wanted to hang out with you this Friday night, where would you take him?

If there's only one God, why do you suppose there are so many religions?

What parts of the bible do you have the hardest time believing?

If someone were dying and asked you how to know God, what would you tell that person?

Do you think God is happy with the way he is represented in the world?

If you had one minute on national tv to say something about God, what would you say?

If Jesus were to follow you around one day, is there anything you'd differently?

Do you believe it's acceptable to watch R-rated movies?

Do you believe there's music Christians shouldn't listen to? If so, what music? What about TV? If so, what shows?

Do you believe it's okay for Christians to have guns in their homes? Why or why not?

Is it okay for Christians to drink if they're of age? Why or why not?

How would you define racism? Is it still a problem today?

Do you believe a Christian can be a homosexual? Why or why not?

Is abortion ever ok? If so, when?

---

Those are just a few...

A'ight bloggers,

-Brent Out

Answers, or just false hope?

I was in Celebrations awhile back, (which for those who are unaware a Christian merchandise store) and I'm all for the "Jesus Saves" t-shirt and what not.. but I haven't been in one of those stores very often and I glanced around it looking at all the hip-new Christian stuff.

The clothes, the books, the coffee mugs... sure Christianity is a lifestyle, but we reflect it in our actions, not by what we wear or drink out of. This type of merchandising isn't harmful, but I'm getting the impression that it's almost like wearing the hip new Christian stuff as a trend.

I was glancing at the books sections, and even though everything pointed to God, some books I worried about whether or not they actually provided the answers to certain questions or gave Christians a false hope.

Before we digress further into my thoughts of what I saw let me point out, I'm not trashing Christian merchandising. I'm just pondering that like most things in this world, we need to not keep our eyes open to everything we see, even if it has the tag of Jesus on it.

Glancing back in that book section I picked up a book called "How to become a man in 17 simple steps".... umm... ok... as I read the back, it mentioned it was a book to help the Christian man become a man after God's own heart in 17 simple steps... I wondered if really a book could simply do this, or whether or not it could just point guys in the right direction with these 17 steps. Seriously... some books just screamed self-help with a Jesus sticker put on the front and in the margins.

I don't know, maybe there isn't anything underneath the top-layer of Christian merchandising, maybe I'm just imagining that we need to be careful... but with all the money this generation is spending on Christian merchandising, could it possibly become an idol?

I'm not saying don't buy Christian merchandise.... but maybe I'm getting at spending a couple bucks on kids who need it as well. OH wait... here's an idea, buy children in Africa christian merchandise!.. mmm... nah... I think food and water is a better idea..

mmm... I'm at school and suppose to be working on an advanced program in web design, but I'm stuck, so I decided to ponder about my day yesterday...

-Brent Out

Commitment, and going to far

Being a servant is enlightening, but I find evangelism one of my most difficult tasks to carry out on a daily basis. I'm worried that my quest to open the eyes of the nations will interfere with my quest to build relationships with those around me. Is the goal to win people to Jesus? Or is it to be a friend to those in need? Of course both go hand in hand, but sometimes you have to choose between them.

I was sitting on the bus, and a man was curteous to allow me to sit next to him. I don't get the chance to speak to alot of elderly people on the bus, so I decided to try and make a new friend. Long story short, he wasn't the talking type, at least not in a crowded smelly bus atmosphere. I didn't even get to learn his name to interceed for him, sigh*. I worried, that my quest to make a new friend turned him off from me as a Christian. For those who aren't aware I'm now wearing my uniform at school, and everywhere, pretty much, at least the tunic jacket to distiguish me amongst others. Anyways, wearing that jacket makes me very self aware of my actions, and I have to be constantly on guard to not turn to my flesh for answers on what to speak or do next. It's cool, try it, you never know it might work for you.

On the way home, off the bus, I saw this guy, whom was carrying a recycling bin(the whole thing, not just like a small one, but the big blue park bin ones) on the back of his bike, and he stopped to talk to me(maybe noticing my uniform, or not, I don't know). I was going to offer to help him with his stuff up the hill, but I noticed a dismantled bike in the back of the bin, and I was contimplating if it was a good thing to do to help someone transport what appeared to be, stolen goods. He asked me for a light... I didn't have one, other than Jesus who was shining through me, and he was on his way. I was still thinking about whether or not I did the right thing, and I'm waiting for God's response on the matter.

Maybe he'll speak through your thoughts about this post so far, sheesh I love it when he does that.

mmm... that's about it for my day. I felt more convicted to post on here with my thoughts about my day, or just an update to let all you, my wonderful supporting readers in on the exciting life of Brent White. So you'll probably see more posts like these, the poorly written, not proof read ones, that are quite simple.

ANyways, keep me in your prayers.

-Brent

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”- Colossians 3:15

Just some notes for myself

John 9

Religious Leader Talk

Church experiences- Hallway church?

Apologizing to friends whom I've not been a good friend too

Making friends with kids in all my classes

10 minutes to find and memorize one scripture

Not helping

Ok sorry too all those who are like... what happened Brent you used to be so cool, posting like once every two weeks...

I'm not helping much by switching my blog template to incorperate Java script and flash..

The changes will be coming soon, and my blog will be down for like two days... but this won't happen for like a week, I just wanted to basically draw your attention to this, so when it is done you all notice it and are like "dang... Brent's blog looks cooler than usual"

The Uniform prevails again.

Alright this is actually a post about what happened to me on SundayNovember 12th 2006. But I had an interesting conversation with a bunch of people in the past day or so that have prolonged me from actually updating my long-over due blog.

Haha I'm back..

Anyhoo...

Here

We

Go!

So on Sunday I decided to wear my uniform but my alarm didn't wake me up at my desired time so I woke up and... bleh COLD WATER in the showers, so no... I decided I'm not going to take a shower. But I still said I was going to wear my uniform... what to do what to do... I know! I wear my tunic jacket with regular clothes on to not get my unclean skin to rub up against my nice clean uniform and make have to clean all of it when I get home... anyways, I do the same when I'm out and about anyways so, this won't make a difference right? Apparently it does. Apparently it's "disrepecting the uniform"... well people are intitled to their opinions, but Christ is about love and love is about compromising your own opinions to respect others, so I decided to take off my jacket like some asked me to and went about my normal sunday buisness. No harm no foil.

ANyways, that day me and my sis were going to see a movie with Ami because that day was her birthday, I bought her a Teenage mutant ninja turtle costume to wear the whole day, but she refused to wear it... why I asked? She didn't have an answer... fun wrecker... ANyways movie had to be watched at 7:00pm... sigh... so I cancelled my Cariboo Plans... Sorry Darren Hails...
and finished it about 9:00pm... took the skytrain home ^_^ YAY!

On the way home a man and his wife were harassing this girl on the train, so the spirit within noticed that she was uncomfortable so I drew their attention away by talking to them, they came over and I chatted up the drunk couple, about bicycles recently purchased for $50, where they were heading too, why Nanimo is on Vancouver Island and not the mainland, but the conversation turned for the better, when the man noticed I was wearing a Salvation Army Uniform Jacket. YAY for Jesus telling me to put that on in the morning. Anyways, after talking about Creationism, Jesus, Sin and it's redemption, and how my testimony works to point out that I was just like him, they had to switch to the expo line at Columbia... sigh... no salvation. But here's praying.

Anyway, just goes to show you that even though the uniform deserves the respect of being worn in full the evangelistic power of it can still be in good use when only worn in part.

Praise the Lord.

-Brent

Successful life?

What is a successful life?
The world tells us it's 'being all that you can be', that you are 'unique'; and they are right in the fact you are unique, but how come the lobbyist of any company tries to convince you that you need to be like everyone else; to purchase and consume as much as you possible can, in fact more than anyone else; in their eyes having more than everyone is unique and successful.

What's the truth though? Well you can't be successful in those circumstances, you are fordoomed to failure. For you can never have enough, there is someone always out there who has more, or is better in some way. It's a never ending cycle, you won't find success in the eyes of the world, at least not more than the typical 15-minutes of fame.

So then how do you live a successful life? Well here's some more truth, from the beginning of our life we have been destined to end up 'failures' because no matter how far we get in life the end result is that it will all end, that there will be a point to where we won't be successful of inhabiting this earth.

So what then? Well if you understand those truth then let me convey another truth your way, God is real. To facade around the idea that you are alive by some random chance in the universe is almost some plain insanity. The fact is God has created you to have a successful life.

But wait, didn't I already say we were destined to fail? Yet God created us to have a successful life? That doesn't make sense right? It's true, living a life that results in failure does seem pointless right? Well even though God created us to live a successful life, we can't do that alone. Why you might ask? Because of our sinful desires. I have them, you have them, we all have. From birth we have had them, as soon as we come out of the womb we are already crying for attention, trying to acheive a successful life (at least get 15-minutes of attention from Mommy and Daddy), but it's sinful desire to do it on our own, is what will end up in failure. The only way for us to even come close to a life of success is to follow the man who gave the perfect example of a successful life. Jesus Christ.

Not only was the guy successful in his life, he is successful even after his life on earth. Who is talked about more, Adolf Hitler( a radical man who affected the world entirely with his selfish attempts at success in his eyes; in the early 1900's... the not too long ago period) or Jesus, the guy who even are calendar is based off of. He had some much of a influence we even based our timeline off the guy. How successful is that?

But really he was successful because he was truely and ultimately the perfect example of how we need to live if we want this success.

Here's the kicker as well, not only does Jesus live the successful path, he dies in it as well, and makes our path of ultimate failure have a road to hope. He can make our lives a success, a life that does not go down the roads of failure but instead ends at a successful everlasting destination.

How's that for success, even succeeding over death. Jesus did it, he conquered the grave. He gives us hope and a guide to how to live a successful life.

Thank you Jesus for all you have done. Praise the Lord.

Asymmetry

Asymmetry;

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized, he denounced them. "You brood of snakes!" he exclaimed. "Who warned you to flee God's coming judgment? Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God. Don't just say, `We're safe--we're the descendants of Abraham.' That proves nothing. God can change these stones here into children of Abraham. Even now the ax of God's judgment is poised, ready to sever your roots. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here's what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn't wisdom. It's the furthest thing from wisdom—it's animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats.
Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites.

Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

How can you think of saying, `Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.

He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

---

YHWH give me a clean heart. Lord I want to not be two-faced in situations of my lifestyle. Lord you want the heart in everything we do, and Father I need to surrender every aspect of my life to you so I can absolutely-without-a-doubt-undeniably-no-turning-back live for you. King of Kings, I am a hypocritical Pharisee. Jesus, the amount of times I've read your law and not used it as a road map for my whole life. I made excuses saying "I'll just follow these directions from here to here" instead of looking at the whole and in the end I just ended up getting lost. Rescue me Abba, save me from my pride Christ, remind to constantly stop and ask directions so I can continue down the right road. Beautiful One tear off these masks I've created and reveal to the world who I am in you! Only then can your word flow through me Emmanuel. Saviour thank you for your saving grace for redeeming me and declaring me worthy enough to die for. God you are for me, none can stand against you, even my egotiscal pride and selfishness, kill it off. Let your elders declare today that I am sanctified in your presence and unless that holiness in all aspects of my life.

---

Google's great dictionary services provided me with great defitions of the word God recently revealed to me before I wrote this.

Asymmetry: the depiction in a work of art of two sides as being not identical without impairing the general harmony of the work. Asymmetry is used to prevent a work from appearing static and superficial, as no two sides of a life form are identical.

Lack of balance.

Lack or absence of balanced proportions between parts of a thing.

Got an idea of what the word means? If not well how's this it means all the sides of an object don't match. That's exactly what I've been called on in my life.

I have a great idea of who God is, and what it looks like to be a Christian. At Battle School, Danielle Stricklen gave us a great eye-opening shocker that has stuck ever since, and has been developing ever since I got back. Many times Jesus calls the Pharisee's two-faced. They act that way in the synagogue, but when they leave they become a totally different person. Which in turn makes their prayers not from the heart, it makes their sacrifices ugly, and makes their faces two-sided, wished washed and straight up hypocritical. Usually we go, ya, those Pharisee's they deserved what was coming to them, and it's true, unless they turned from their selfish, hypocritical ways, they sure in fact were not going to be apart of the kingdom. But what is interesting, is that if you compare me to anyone in the scriptures I'm alot like a Pharisee. I know the law, I know what God wants, I have the gifts and the talents for his kingdom, people recognize me as a leader, etc. But even in my own life, I am a hypocrite.

It was really bad before Battle School. I disrespected my parents, used and abused my friends, and was honestly really only looking out for my own interests. Not so much now, that I've started to realize what it looks like to be a Christian in my family life. But school, man that's hard. What does it look like to be a Christian in the school anyway? Sure I made a post about what "actions/outward" signs you could do to be an ideal Christian in school, and that's great in theory, but honestly it's really hard. Your Athiest friends are talking about smoking pot, sex, pornography, or that friend at school who's a real big loser. The list continues, they talk about how school sucks, or swear about this or that, about how they just jacked some guy from his ipod, or even about the latest trend or about Jeni told Cindy who told Sara that Lorean totally flunked yesterday's test. What does it look like to NOT conform and to love everyone. It's so hard, so much easier to just go with the conversation. For me, when I know nothing about the story or have nothing to input from experience, I just fabricate one to look cool. It happens alot. I'm really really good at it. I can trace my roots back to fibbing to my parents about who broke the picture frame. Anyway, as Christ followers, we are called to live the example of Christ in all aspects of our lives.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

That last one might seem strange in this context; but let me reveal to you what God recently layed out about it. Laying down our lives, actually looks like giving up are "easy" life we have around our friends and families and instead taking up Jesus' Cross and boldly living a Christ like life in even those circumstances.

God hasn't called us to do the idiotic, the reward is there, if we want this holiness/sanctification that God has ordained for us, we need to live in Christ.

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

New School Year

Well it's that time of year again, when everyone is going off back to school (Well not everyone, but a lot of people my age that's for sure) and your probably wondering "Brent, what are your plans for your last year of highschool?" among other questions such as "Brent, what is some advice for being a Christian in your school?" or my favorite "Brent, what are some things I should do in order to make this year at school a success".

Well your in luck because this blog is dedicated to all you school-goers alike. But first, a look at last year.

Well last year was a good year for me, it opened my eyes to see that a vision can actually shape others around you. Most of you know God planned for me to start a Cell-group in my school, so I took him right up on his offer, and at first it had some good results. Evendently do to my egotiscal controlling like personality it soon had some bad results due to the fact that Jesus was still teaching about leadership. Still it was a year to open my eyes to see what doesn't work in Cell Group formats. That is, doing it alone, will have you end up taking it alone. I lost God's direction and went ways off from what he had in mind. But at least I did make a few new friends and learn a lot along the way.

It was also a year of good disciplining from Cory, a great end to XLR:8 and probably the thing that impacted my life the most; the year in which I took upon the Battle School Program. I've been shaped in so many ways it's almost hard to recognize me anymore. At the start of the year I had good understanding of what a servant was, and how to serve God whole-heartily but God wasn't done with me there. I've had my gifts of evangelism, prophecy, and leadership go through intensive toning. God's plans for me have been way more wide and almost hard to grasp, and I've only been looking at the narrow version I had figured out.

The one thing I did pick up that I find has shaped my views of God; is the intimate relationship he longs for with us. I've learned how to overcome the flesh with spirit, how to listen to God's voice in all circumstances, and to shut-up when I want to say something and to speak what God wants to say instead (very hard lesson, I'm still trying to master).

Now then onto this year of School... hooray!

What are my plans for this year of School?
Nothing other than rely on God and his guidance this year. I'll only do what he tells me and follow as he says. What that looks like is still being revealed to me, but I do know I get to put into practice daily evangelism (ie. Like making friends in the hallway, like talking about Jesus in every circumstance, not holding back anything due to the fears of the world... etc. I actually can't think of anything right now, it'll be a difference experience daily.) I am probably going to get a few good friends in my school together at lunch for a small cell group, where we look at the bible intensely and a place where you can bring your friends. I really want to look at concrete footings for Christianity. I find too often we forget who Jesus was, what he did, why he did it, how he did it, and pretty much the basis of the early Christian church; figure out what it means to love in pratical ways. But that's an idea, I'll pretty much go as the spirit leads. I am taking guitar class, and history, chemistry, and english. Not sure about taking Math or not. Drama, web design and going to be changed Portfolio class (Praise the Lord).

What's my advice for being a Christian in your school?
Be who God created you to be, and follow his direction. Pretty much if you do that, you'll go far.
Practical ways? Don't conform, uphold your school rules, pretty much be like Jesus. If you wanna do extreme things... how about, mmm buy your whole first class candy bars, go early and put them on everyone's desk and attach like a Jesus loves you note... or something. My idea was sell all your possesions including your clothes, and only buy like two pairs of pants, two shirts, two pairs of socks, one pair of runners. Give all your other clothes to charity or something. Who knows, the list is limitless with Jesus; Even sitting down with a person you've never met and talking to the whole lunch period is pretty extreme. If you Be who God created you to be, and follow his direction; everything else will fall in line.

Making your school-year a success:
TOP TEN THINGS IMP You Should do to make your School-Year a successful one.

1) Make one new friend and have a strong relationship with them
2) Know all your peers in all your classes
3) Buy a Hampster for your science class as a "pet"... if there is some rule against it, then ask for the rule to be enulled, if that fails, buy one and put it in your locker.
4) Start or join a ministry in your school
5) If you don't have one; get a mentor, if you do; take on a disciple
6) Read your bible for 5 minutes a day
7) Spend 30 minutes in prayer a day
8) Eat at least 5 chocolate bars, everyone loves chocolate
9) Excersise at least 5 chocolate bar lengths a day (what that even means, I have no clue)
10) Come up with a list of things you'd like to do yourself.

Praise the Lord,

-Brent

Get your own!

Opinion.

Mine is mine.

Where did I get mine? Experiences in my life. From reading the bible. From people who impacted me in my life.

Where do you get yours? Same place. But for you not me.

Clear?

PS. I'm not saying this to point out people take my opinion, but I think people's beliefs are too richly based off others opinions instead of their own. Well that's what feel anyway.

-Brent

I'm for Christ

I was talking to my friend on msn today.

Derek and I were discussing my beliefs and we started to discuss religion.

I simply added my view of how I view Christianity.

"Religion is about Power, Christ is about Love, I'm about Christ."

When the government couldn't control Christians they established the clergy.. and through that power and selfishness took place over love, and the maintaince of this system became vital.

Revivals have occured now and again to show the love of Christ in a way "out of your comfort zone" but if we look at modern church-goers who all flock to a single place to "do" their worship, we are still controlled by the government, aren't we?

Not saying we need to revolt, but I'm just putting my thoughts onto paper again.

I'm not really making an argument, just stating my point. I'm for Christ. I really don't care for religion, or at least my view of religion.

-Brent

Beach Day

I had a reunion with some of my "distant" relatives at the beach today. We met up at White Pine Beach, which is a lovely beach about 35 minutes from our house. When we arrived it was nearly empty and breezy. When I say empty I mean, on our side of the beach (their are actually two beachs on the coast of the lake we were on) there were about 50 people or less. Which is like no one compared to the like 300 people packed on a small space of land like the last time I recently went.

Anyway, we met up with our relatives had a picnic. Discussed Battle School, and then because I was fairly bored, I wanted to toss a football my dad recently pulled out of his back-pack. Because none of my family wanted to, I went on search to make a new friend at the beach. The first kid I walked up to couldn't be older than six. I met him on a rock, and we said our hi's and how are you's, mostly with me asking him, and him giving me short answers. Then he was off, wearing his towel like superman to go into all sorts of 5 year-old adventures. Anyway, I was out of luck for making a new friend, so I sent off in the other direction to try and make a friend. I saw a man on a towel sitting by himself, so I went over to talk with the fellow. I said hi, and how are you, and he just was sitting there, responding much like the kid. Then he said "I don't want any company" so I said "Ok" and I was off. After that all I could see were kids swimming and people sun-bathing, so I returned to my family and eventually pursuaded my dad to play with me.

I was amazed how hard it was to make a new friend at the beach, compared to my six weeks at Battle School, where I probably made at least 150 new friends. Then I look back in my community, how no one smiles at each other, we all converse with our work colleges or peers and when we walk outside, we keep our heads down and don't speak to anyone we don't know.

I know children aren't suppose to talk to strangers, but grown adults are scared of a little social conversation? Come on.. something is terribly wrong with this generation. I should know, it wasn't so long ago that I would spend 8-12 hours in my basement playing computer games, and only talking to people on my msn buddy list. But if we are going to bring Jesus to the people of this world, it can't be done from our basement. You can argue me on this, but evangelism requires a one on one interaction between the person and Jesus within us.

Anyway, I really did have fun, I got to read alot more of Luke today, which I have to say is my favorite gospel now. I understand the parables alot better when I read Luke's version, and I find he has all the timbits I missed in the other Gospels.

-Brent

Be Ready

It's a large part of Jesus' teachings. I was reading Luke 12 today when I finally got out of my stubborn laziness and sat down and did my rations to the sound of "Fire Fall Down" by Hillsong United.

What stuck out to me was the parable Jesus taught of interpreting the signs of this age, and how they point towards Jesus' resurrection. What I got confused on was when he said:
"Why can't you decide for yourselves what is right? When you are on the way to court with your accuser, try to settle the matter before you get there. Otherwise, your accuser may drag you before the judge, who will hand you over to the officer, who will throw you into prison. And if that happens, you won't be free until you won't be free, until you have paid the very last penny."

Then looking at it in context it all came together. Jesus wasn't only literally talking about how to settle grivences with one another before we take it to the court, he was also referring to our crime against God. The sin in our lives that we will be guilty of unless we settle the grievence here on earth before the day of judgement.

Then once I had that revealed to me the whole chapter made sense, I knew why Jesus told us to fear God and not man or death, I knew why Jesus pointed out we need to acknowledge him, I knew why he told us to not to store up earthy goods but lose our relationship with God. It all made sense. These were guides on how to live the like the servant who is dressed and has kept his lamp burning.

All I got to say is I've learnt I needed to settle my grievences with God before the day of judgement comes so now I can be ready all the time for my master's return.

-Brent

Lie of this generation

" You shouldn't be ashamed of who you are."

Ponder about it..
I'll update this later.

-Brent

Character

A good one is crucial to leadership. Not just leadership either, every part of your life, good character will turn you from a "Christian" to the guy who people want to aspire to be.

Danielle Stricklen gave us a great class about character, and how it applies to leadership.

She gave a great analogy about a sailboat and its comparison to our lives.
All the parts of a sailboat are esscential to making it work. Most of the time people only see the part of the boat that is above the water, this is your gifts/abilities, which are esscential to making the boat go anywhere, but there is the bottom of our boats that people can't see that are also there so we don't sink. This is our character. People might not be able to see it up close, but it's still very crucial for a sailboat to have. Especially a strong, sturdy, good character. Our character is how we act in every situation, it's how we are in all circumstances, and it's what people are looking for in good leaders.

Your character needs to be one like Jesus, and often times our bottom of our boat needs alot of work. I noticed the one thing I lacked in my leadership was good character, and only recently have I learnt to be a servant leader, one who listens, encourages and helps the group instead of being an aggressive, selfish, egotistical know it all.

I still got lots of work to do, and I need you guys to hold me accountable and to help with with this part of my life. I believe we can't be two faced about who we are, and we have to be the same person we are to our friends, as we are to our enemies. That means a caring and loving person in all circumstances. Like for me it's serving even the people who tell me "how it's done" or encouraging those who just insulted me. It's reading my bible everyday, and asking questions to a trusted friend when I don't understand, other than letting my pride get in the way and being stubborn and refusing to ask.

How is your sailboat?

-Brent

Intimacy

God's been laying on my heart most recently that I need to work on my intimacy with him. The Battle School was a great way to do this.

"A scheduled life is a simple life" after all, and it helped me to focus on what's really important. I had to sacrifice my video games and my computer time at Battle School, because God called me to instead spend the time reading his work and in time of prayer with him.

Now I come back with a schedule, that no longer includes six hours of video games with friends topped off with three hours of television. Instead those things no longer matter to me at all. My scheduled day starts off with a shower, a meal, and rations (reading the word for 45 minutes).

God has been teaching me that the fundamental goal in life is not to serve, nor is it even worship (sorry Karyn Baker, but I totally am firm about this belief) it is to have intimacy with our Creator.

Truely, how can you even serve for the right reason if you don't know why your serving? If you serve to make people happy, there will be a time where people will spit in your face for helping them. If you do it for God your service will always matter.

How can you worship something if you don't even understand what that something is. I realized that in my life I was producing gifts for God without even knowing who God really was. I was missing intimacy. I was serving, doing ministry, worshipping, disicpling others, but I wasn't reading God's word, nor was a I praying as much as I should've.

I should have been spending more time with God, and letting those things come out of what I learnt about him.

One last thing, and it's something I've just been starting to dig into hardcore, what's with Christians who don't know God's word? Seriously you can't really grasp God without his word in your life. You can't understand who God really is by listening to the sermon, or worshiping him up on a platform. You understand someone through spending time with them. How do we spend time with God? Reading his word and praying. Raw basics of our Christian faith.

Time to shape up though, I've had six weeks of discipline spending more time with God, and now that I've experienced it, I never want to lose it.

-Brent

My Battle School Synopsis

To say Battle School was a while new experience for me would be like saying the 700 dollars to get there was easy to obtain.

But the difference between a mission trip to the DTES and living an incarnational ministry out for 6 weeks is contrast of large proportions to say the least.

First theirs living in community with your fellow Battle Schooler's, and mine were the "cream-of the-crop".

First there's Jordan, who's stubborn attitude and perfectionism ideally suited a lot of the situations we faced living together in the apartments. Not to mention she is soft hearted, has a tight fatherly relationship with God, and her freedom in worship can encourage you to keep on trucking till you bleed.

Then comes Chris, this guy can make you smile as soon as he opens his mouth, and then about in 5 seconds make you want to hit him so he stops talking about your mother. This guy can serve, I would have to honestly say I've never seen him complain while given an instruction or task, something that encourages me a lot and a aspect that I need to have while I serve. His willingness to follow along with anyone in the group is another crucial character trait that makes him awesome. This guy will do anything with anyone, and not give a second shake on the subject.

Finally there is Ed Bell. Enough said.

Honestly though, that kid is like the squirrel from "Hoodwinked" on 5 cups of coffee. He has more energy (when he gets out of his "morning phase") than all the electricity on this planet put together. Ed's able to talk to anyone without a fear in the world. Now he is usually picking fights with them in the conversation eventually, but still loving them with the same love Jesus would give. I think.

Next I'll talk about the people who discipled into my experience during Battle School.

Jeni was always trying to wake us up in the morning, to get us roaring for the rest of our exciting day. She loves God passionately more than I love monkeys, and her experience with him as a healer and comforter really showed in her classes as she caused us to lay things aside that distracted us from the real reason we were at Battle School. To love God and to Love others.
We went through the experience of "fun" workbooks but her attitude while teaching is what brightened your day up and made you want to actually "play" with the kids at Oppenheimer instead of just watching them.

Let's move onto Danielle. This lady classes I found were the most upbeat for our group. Comfortable couches, movies as homework, questions that made you think. Man my type of class. Her knowledge of God and experience with leadership opened my eyes to a whole new playing field of what it really meant to lead. Her ability to be humble with who she is and where God has placed her in her life inspires me to go deeper in finding a firm "character" of who I am as not only a leader but every aspect of my life. Plus, as I meationed earlier, we watched movies as homework. How sweet is that?

Then there was Stephen Court. His classes were like taking a test, long, annoying, agitating, and you left feeling relieved that it was finally over, until the next test. Steve was very in our face about everything. Especially when he switched from teaching us "Inner city Mission/Ministry" to just plain old Evangelism. It's not like his classes were hard, it's just his "fun-loving" character he brought to each one of them that made them so exciting. I did get to learn about the Bridge finally, and sharing the Gospel is now as easy for me as 2 minutes, a napkin, and a pen. I think the best part of his classes were the homework assignments, where you had no idea what the question was, so when you came to class, you hoped you did it right. Yay fun!

Lisa, Andrew MacDonald, Jenea and Aaron White were great influences as well. Lisa managed the group and kept us focused, as well as just kept us from killing each other the whole 6 weeks. Andy was like the pal for me out of the whole 614 group there, as soon as I met him we had the weirdest relationship ever, that if you were an atheist you'd be like "Dude, your touching his butt".. on the other hand, it really doesn't matter what your stance on faith is for that.

Umm, moving along. Jenea and Aaron were awesome with us getting us hooked up with UGM and chilling with the kids at Oppenheimer. Both knew how to assign tasks, and then once all the work was assigned go and relax... I mean find something to occupy themselves. They were great to have us motivated there and were the backbone to why Oppenheimer was exciting.

Jacynta, did you think I'd forget you? Well I did, so tough love... I'll blog about you some other time. :P

Then of course there is Jonathan Evans, who influenced my Battle School experience, about as much as the Queen influences Canada's government. But really, without Jon we wouldn't even be here, so I have to give him major props for having a very successful impact on my life with the organization of this past 6 weeks. He gave out bonus blessing when we deserved them, he encouraged us during pray the bible, he took the credit for all the hard work we did with all the places we helped. You know he was just a great role model for us.

Ok now that the personal attacks are over, and I have about 20 less friends then I did two days ago..

I have to say the whole 614 community was awesome, from Steve Bell, to Becs, to Kathleen and Katie. Don't worry (Wes, Crystal, Lindsey, Sean, Matthew Champ, Dallas, Tara, Darren, Rebecca, Ashley, and anyone else I might I missed) I didn't forget you. You guys rocked!

My experience overall was tiring. I was poured out spiritually, emotionally and physically during this six weeks, and God just emptied me out. He also poured a lot into me. Ultimately, I finally understand that he has been making me into that new wine skin so that the new wine and the skin both can be preserved.

I've had to learn sacrifice, true love, what to take home with me, character, a true grasp of intimacy, a new desire for worship, I stronger passion for service and prophesy, no longer a fear of man especially when it comes to encouragement. I'll be talking specifics in other post through-out this week so stay posted.

All in all, I'm never going to forget this six weeks, and it's a start to a whole new side of Brent the world has never seen.

I don't think their ready for it, but Jesus is going full throttle anyway.. So look out.

I just want to thank you guys for all your prayer, all your support, and especially your love.

-Brent

Returned from War

Long days these past six weeks. Learnt so much.

Updates Monday*

-Brent

It's good to be back.

Deployed into action

As of July 4th I will be enrolled in the Battle School for six weeks.

I ask for constant intercession on my behalf for my safety as well that God works through this experience to change me in ways beyond imagination. Of course in ways that with uplift his name and bring him glory, not ways that will devestate me beyond sanity.

I'm off to Battle,

Sincerly

-Brent

Restoration

The world is never changing day in, day out
It's the same old story, week after week
World is often said to be going to hell
and the critics appear to be right
Children are dying in the streets
Hungry are starving no where to keep put feet
No body seems to care for the broken anymore
Now is the time for restoration

What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for?

What would Jesus say?
If he saw the world today
What would Jesus do?
If he sat beside you there?

He'd get up and move

You sit there in your comfortable pews
I stand here declaring the truth
These are the steps to changing the world
Believe that these words are prophetically true
God is a god of mercy
But he’s also a God of grace
He’s given you talents and abilities to use
So what are you waiting for?

What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for?

What would Jesus say?
If he saw the church today?
What would Jesus do?
If saw your heart in full
are you doing as you should

The truth of the fact remains
That he sees it anyway
And he wants it all to change
So what are you waiting for?

Get up and move

Guess who's going to Battle School?

Me,

God provided me with the $700 dollars I needed so from July 4 to August 11 continue to keep me in your prayers as I follow through with God's ministry in my life.

Man I love it when God calls you to something then builds your faith by destroying all obsticles that stand in the way.

yay,

Faith in Healing

So recently a girl at my school, her name is Becky (short for Rebecca) came to gym class one afternoon with a injured ankle.

I asked God when I saw her in the morning (the first time I noticed she was using crutches) and I asked God if I was the one who could heal her. He said sure, but that he was going to use this to build my faith. Well basically because God knows my faith in healing is very doubtful. I don't even know why.

Anyway, he gave me clear prophetic instruction on how to accomplish his will.

That day I had to ask Becky if I could pray for ankle.
Then in three days if I continued to pray daily for her ankle on the third day it would be completly healed.

Well so I asked her if I could that very day in gym class, she was hesitate but said I could, anyway so I prayed over her, and she really didn't know how to react so I left it at that.

The next day, I saw her with her usual friends and I prayed silently in my head that her ankle would be healed.

I continued doing this every time I saw her..

On day two when I saw her, she wasn't using crutches anymore, I filled with Joy was really excited, she was still limping but I knew God was doing his part.

On the last day, I didn't see her in the morning, but I remember the prophecy and that day, when I saw her gym class, she was walking fine. No limp nothing.

I'm glad that God allowed my faith in his power of healing to grow through this miracle.

Don't be afraid to ask God to build your faith.

-Brent

Realize

The thing about life is we get so wrapped up in it, that forget the basic truths of our beliefs, or we don't fully grasp them.

I had to realize this in the most unlikely places as God allowed me to comprehend the truth of it all.

No matter what we do in life, we still can't escape that Christ died for our sin, he suffered for our bad choice.

I think we need to realize this more, so we can begin to truely surrender everything we have for him.

Anyway I was inspired to write a song on this very subject as soon as I finished that conversation.

We wake up in the mornings, put on our pants.
We go through yet another day, indure the daily rants
But do we remember, why he died?
Do we hide our tears, or openly cry?

Everybody rushing, to and fro.
Never stoping, always stuck in go,
but do we realize all the pain,
he bore for us to hide our shame?

(Chorus)
Jesus Christ paid the price
for all our sin, for all our lives
so from sin we truely could be free
Jesus Christ bled and died
upon the cross for all the lost
join in praising him for all eternity

(Bridge)
He toiled for all our sin
Now for victory we win.

---

It's pretty straight forward, but the way I see it, is no matter how plainly it can be laid out, we tend to forget the fact that he did it for us.

That's a saviour... saving a wretch like me.

-Brent

Chord request

Could anyone find me the song chords for the song that goes like;

Jesus loves me this I know,
For the bible tells me so,
Little ones to him belong,
they are weak but he is strong

Hallelujah, Hallelu, Hallelujah, Hallelu, Hallelujah.

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound...

and so forth, or at least give me the name of this song so I can limit my search.

Thanks
-Brent

RAW 2006: Day Four

Pictures:

Darren

Joe and Xander

Micheal Colins

Jonathan Evans

Writing Raw Testimony

Jedi and Evans

Carla and Jedi

Cell Group Photo

Fiona's Paintings

Ezekial 37

Danielle Stricklen

Stephan Court

Worship through Dancing

Worship

Mr. Rogers

Ashley Mayer

-Brent

RAW 2006: Day 3

Pics:

Tunic Tuesday

$20 Dollar Shirt

Xander and his tunic

Praying the Bible

Worship

Aaron White

Jonathan Evans + Tunic = Best picture ever

Andrew (Speaker)

Cell Group

Planning a letter

Lunch

Open Air

Thrift Store

Dinner

Worship

Darren

Amy

Task; writing qualities of God

Mission 2: Street Combat with Joe and Cory

-Brent

RAW 2006: Day Two

When we arrived at †Culture I met with Mark at the youth drop, since there was a ping pong table, I decided to play him. He was pretty good, but I feel we walked away with an equal game.
Anyway afterwards we traversed upstairs for morning worship. After some more time spent in worshiping our Lord, Aaron White talked to us about opening our eyes;

Open Your Eyes- Notes taken in a discussion by: Aaron White; Side commentary by Brent White
Ezekial 37;
How freaky it would've been to be traversing along as Ezekial and then bam, God places you in a crypt full of, oh guess what? Dead, dusty bones. You can see the darkness and smell the stench of the place full of death. Ezekial is forced to face a reality in this crypt; just like how our missions forced us to look around in the darker places of Vancouver to see the hardships there. What is a reality check though? Well plainly put it is forcing you to be aware of the things around you; or forcing you to see the reality of harsh times.

When the Lord brought Ezekial to this crypt it was the reality check that the Lord wanted him to experience. God forces Ezekial to face these bones (which represented his people); to look at this depression, this death, and defeat.

Looking at loss isn't easy to look at. Take this time to find a place in your life where you were defeated. Mine wasn't long ago. We were playing soccer in gym class, and the other team just beat us, watching their victory was not fun, they were laughing, patting each other on the butt, busting out the high fives; while our team trailed off to the bench in defeat, in failure. Looking at defeat is hard.

But Aaron brought up the good point in his discussion; just like Ezekial we are going to be forced to look at, to look at these dry bones.

Then Ezekial, after being forced to look at these bones, is asked by God, the seemingly impossible: "Can these bones live?". Which Ezekial being an intellectual prophet replies the only answer that seems reasonable; "Only you know Lord."

You see God wants us to look at the unseen in our lives, like if there is hope in the dry bones around us. Still only God knows the answer whether they can live or not, and we should work towards the goal he wants.

We were brought to RAW to be able to look past our comfy couches and our warm churches. We needed to have our eyes opened so we could see the dry bones in our own world.

Aaron meations a few dry bones that can be overlooked and go unseen

• World Poverty
• War
• Child Slavery
• Parents killed in Africa
• Unadoptable Foster Children
• Suicide
• Addicts

We see these dry bones on the television sometimes, or we hear about them, but at RAW we couldn't change the channel to some of these, and it taught us not to. It taught us to ask the question; Can these dry bones live?

It is these dry bones God will use for great things, not us, we are used to breath life into these dry bones, to bring hope to the hopeless so that they may do the great things God has in store for his army.

So take an eye test, what are the dry bones in your life, and can these dry bones live?

So after Aaron talked to us, we went to go have lunch, which was nice except for the fact that I'm allergic to mustard and can't eat it and so I couldn't eat my sandwich. Alas, our first mission for that day came next and it was the prayer room.

Mission One- Prayer Room

So everyone was getting in the mood of prayer to God, I started to pray for the other groups and their missions, I heard God ask me if I wanted to learn more about Obedience. Well God then told me to wear sock on my ears as a sign of obedience, at first I was pretty skepitcal if this was God, or more own insanity. As a sign of obedience to God, I decided to wear my socks on my ears anyway. Other than looking like an idiot I really didn't see the point, but as time went through reading God's word and talking to him, I began to forget about the socks, until I had problems with them falling off. Now God told me to keep them on, so I decided to tape the socks to my ears so they wouldnt fall off. Now this hurt alot for anyone who has hair by their ears. But the tape represented that even though the task was hard, I needed to perservere and be durable for my God. The socks actually represented my obedience, and how obedience can only be a part of you if you listen to what God says and then do it, and to be durable in completing the task, even if it becomes more difficult. I'm just glad that I didn't have to wear socks on my ears all day, nor have any pictures of me with socks on my ears. Thank you oh God of mercy.

After our first mission then we got to hear from Jonathan Evans either before or after our night worship.

He talked about the breath in dry bones, and how prophecy was that breath, b/c Ezekial had to prophecy into those bones, and tell them what they were, before the breath of God came upon them.

He brought up key points about prophesy;

We first have to receieve prophesy, then interpret, then apply it. You have to have all parts for the prophesy to really work.

Jesus was the breath of life, and he gave life to the dry bones of his disciples, although, I'm pretty sure when he did it, he didn't look like he was vomiting all over them.

Then Aaron White made us practice breathing, and then I think worship followed.

Anyway afterwards we were off to Re:Cr8 again, where I met Ricky and Alfredo, both cool and interesting guys.

By the time the night was over I was pooped b/c of the long day, and all the stuff I had learnt.

All of the day two pictures: (Click to enlarge)

Annoucements

April and Christine

Ashley and the coolest hat ever

Evans vomiting over everyone

The discipline of sleeping, err.. breathing, yes breathing.

Cell Group

CORY

Cory and a mouthfull of pie

Dinner

Evans preaching

Butt wooped Cory

Juan

Jill+ Pudding= Yum

Joel

Joel + Matrix Glasses = wootness

Lunch (told you no order)

I heard about a mansion, He has built for me in Glory..

Mark Armstrong

Me

Me + Xander + Both Smiling = Creepy

Mike Birge the average bum

Rest of New Westminster

The newspaper disgusts me too

Parking, too bad it was the wrong place

OWN'D

Joe and Pool

War Room

Aaron White

This is why mail is always late

Song book time

STOMP

Out for a Walk

Aaron got the word... wor'd

Worship

Xander

-Brent