Christmas YAY ^_^

Brent:

Yeah, Christmas is over; I don't know about you all out there in blogging land but Christmas time is becoming less and less exciting and more and more stressful.

BAH HUMBUG is an understandment of my Christmas season. There is the pressure of getting people presents, the stress of my family deciding what to do for Christmas, the stress of my mom, being my mom times 11 because it's Christmas.

But enough about complaining; my Christmas was turning to be disappointing until my beautiful lovely better half decided to hang out with me for Christmas. I was still disappointed to a point; but the fact that I had someone I could talk to, someone I could hold was really relieving to me. It reminds me about the access we have to Jesus through his spirit; how when in trouble we can always find our father ready to embrace us in his arms and to cheer us up. Or other times to push us forward to meet our goal. Like when we lose our cell phones and want to give up looking when you are driven to continue looking for it and eventually discouvering it in the snow.

Maybe this makes completely no sense, but to me it is insightful. Or not... bleh whatever.

Ok, your turn Jessica..

---

Jessica:

Christmas this year taught me a few things.
1) 6 hours a day of kettles is too much.
2) I'm way to unorganized.
3) I focus on silly things too much.

This was not a normal Christmas for me. I didn't get to do any of my usual Christmas time traditions, spend any time with my mom and sister before hand, or really, prepare for Christmas is any way.
I only got a few gifts for a few select people. One of which, hasn't even come in yet. I can't wait until Brent's present gets here. He's going to love it.

Christmas carols had a whole new meaning to me this year.. The one they are supposed to have. Last year I understood maybe a little bit about it.. But this year, I got a lot more of the actual meaning out of them. Singing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th verses to songs I thought only had one verse, understanding the idea of "round yon virgin mother and child, holy infant so tender and mild" and so on. It made kettle shifts more interesting. Up until Christmas day I could focus on that, but on Christmas eve and Christmas day I got distracted and focused on the old meaning of Christmas for me. Family, feasting, and presents.

It was cool to have Brent around for Christmas, 'cause, he's a kinda cool guy.
And by that, I mean it was probably my best Christmas yet.


Sorry about my gramatical/spelling errors Brent, I know you'll point them ALL out to me later.

What if his people prayed? (Music Video)

Well, I finally got a new computer; so I made compiled this video together with it's tremdous video editing power;

check it out:
What if his People Prayed
And for my college friends who can't access youtube due to dans guardian...

GodTube Link

And man my html editing is getting rusty I need a website to make...

December.

Kettles make my feet cold.

Free coffee makes my heart warm.

Christmas this year, has so much more meaning than all the previous years, partially because now I actually really care about the whole Christ's birth thing, and also, it will be the first time I'm not living at home. Even though I will be there anyways.

Should Pastors be put on a higher standard?

It's an open question.
Discuss.
-Brent

How can a young person stay pure?

By carefully following the commands written in your book.

Powerful words, yet do they really apply today?

More on this later.

A winding road

A winding road
A story untold
A heart unknown
A journey foretold

Deep dark pain in the middle of the night
The sharp regret of shame and fright
A bleak removal of everything right
Leaving you breathless without might

White roses across the sky
Give new hope to even try
To find new paths of this love
Will you soar forth spotless dove?

Now so free you still façade
To believe in misery a life decayed
Yet not to those you light ok?
Your gifts are his splendor forever portrayed

And so to one accord I say
To live a life of only one way
To be who you are and not to see
Who others than him believe you to be

RAW '07

This year of RAW I was blessed enough to attend for free.
Also I was able to bring along my girlfriend Jessica as well. Kinda signed her up against her will, and when I say kinda I mean, most definitly.

You see she was planning on attending VFS(Vancouver Film School) to learn more about filming, because that is her gifting. However she was crushed when it was cancelled. I had told her about RAW, and she asked if she could still go, last minute. Jon was willing to let her come for free, and film RAW, so I signed her up, then told her about it.
*GUYS* Learn from my mistake, never do this, always ask your girlfriend if she still wants to go. Anyway, she was forced, although my argument, is that she wouldn't have asked if she didn't want to go.

Man, 614's organizational skills are chaotic. We get there, we don't know who's cell were in, what are missions will be, how were getting to cariboo, yet god made it all happen.

We did missions, and Jessica got to film lots, but that's not the important stuff that I got from RAW.

I did learn, that if I truely want my church to evangelise I need to do it. Don't wait for them to do it, show them how it's done. So I have an action plan for the community, school, and my home on how to evangelise.

The main thing I got to see at RAW didn't even involve me, it was concerning my girl.

Jessica, accepts Jesus into her life. Ya it was done before, but I think she fell from the path a little and never came back. But she recommited to God, something I've prayed for since I've been dating her. It was totally awesome. Because before that, all the worship at RAW I was distracted by her, and whether or not she was involved. The one time I fully surrender to Christ 100%, commit to full worship, kneel and weep to my God, she comes over to comfort me. As I kneel there, surrendering to God in full for the first time in my life(which is a totally different story) she says in prayer "Me too, I want you to be a part of my life."

Understanding that this is the same person who is afraid to pray outloud, and was struggling understanding this whole Christian thing. It wasn't just a verbal thing either, I could see from that point, through her worship, her heart, and her new wisdom, that the change has really happened. She is freed from her past, her flesh. I have never seen this kind of change in a person so personal to my life. It's amazing.

I could talk about this all night, but my computer is lagging as I type. So I'm going to update this later.

See His Love(UpDAteD*)

this is my second and final draft of it.

What if everyone cared?

Man, I'm working on a music video for the Casting Crowns song called "What if his people prayed" and I just can't stop at remembering how much the music video "What if Everyone cared" by Nickelback had an impact on me.

Seriously it's a great vid, I'll give ya'll a youtube link to watch it. It's great.

Ski-weekend

Hey all, it's been awhile eh?

Well, recently our church went up to Vernon for a ski-trip.
I went tubbing and skating...

the pics our on the youth site which you should all check out, cuz well, I made it!

HAHA...

anyways here are the pics
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As for me, I'm doing this 40 days of lent thing with our youth group. It's actually pretty neat, we got a pamphlet for 40 days of scripture and little action tidbits to do daily. I'm going to put some discipline into this and stick with it.
---
I'm having problems coming up with something to give up for LENT... if you guys have ideas that'd be neat... I could give up wearing a shirt... but you know, that might not sit well....

Any idea would be cool.
-Brent

Let's act on Homeless(ness)... as if we weren't already?

I was reading the 24 free newspaper at the sky train and I read a poorly written article about solving the problems in the GVRD.

It's a good read, if you want to chuckle.
---
Let's act on homeless- *note* Typo? That was the exact title, not homelessness.
by: Erin Airton
(RIGHT ON)*note* this was posted underneath her name as to signal her writters voice.

It is finally time for innovative solutions for the homeless in our province.
Years and years of throwing money at the problem hasn't worked - the number continues to grow and taxpayers are weary.

In fact, what we've done is develop a whole network of government and non-profit agencies devoted to helping the homeless stay homeless. They provide emergency food, shelter, and medical care. There is an old adage in economics: If you want to encourage something, subsidize it; if you want to discourage something tax it.

Right now, in a sad way, we are encouraging homelessness, making it "bearable" to be homeless by providing these "emergency" services.

Now, before you get all twisted up, I'm not saying it is pleasant to be homeless and I'm not saying anyone wants to be homeless.

But let's not forget we have built up a substantial industry of well-meaning people who make their livelihoods and defend their funding on the basis of supporting a homeless population.
The 2005 GVRD counted total homeless population (in a 24 hour counting period) at 2,174. I would suggest the number is higher, just because of survey techniques... Let's say 3000 people in the GVRD are homeless. These, of course, are the truely homeless without access to a friends spare sofa and not knowing from night to night whether they will be sleeping in a crowded, fetid shelter or over a vent at Georgia and Burrard.

From GVRD reasearch, they are likely medically or mentally ill and struggle with some form of addiction. Most startling was the information that 55 per cent of homeless had some form of welfare, a pension or disability benefits.

So here's one radical idea and I'm sure there are more.
Why don't we gather together each and every homeless service organization at B.C. Place along with each and every homeless person? Why not take each person, one at a time, diagnose the issue at the root of the inability to find or maintain housing and then put a planned place for each?

More money for homeless services isn't going to rid us of homelessness. In fact, it will do the opposite. If we take those funds and direct them to removing each person from the streets, we may actually make some lives better.

In short term, we can house them at BC place while we sort it all out.

It is not right to help people stay on the streets. The only morla course of action is to remove them, forcibly if necessary, and assist them in building a new life.
---
Comment your hearts out bloggers

-Brent

Following a yellow brick road.

This week has been tough for me. Not only is the first school semester coming to an end, but also that I've realized that society really doesn't expect much from people.

I was in a play this week, A wizard of Oz production set in a high school setting called 'Oz High', and as I played a metal head rocker Tim, the Tinman... I enjoyed every laugh from every audience member I recieved. I took my role, added my own quirks and said my lines in a manner that I knew would get laughs out of even the most depressed people in the audience. Applause at a theatre is almost required in our day and age, ovations are not. To get people to really look at you, you need to go beyond the average. I realized the other day, that society is much like that.

My highschool year is coming to an end and I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do for a career. Part of me doesn't see the point in having one. I mean a career for the sake that people say you need one to do well, doesn't seem like a just cause to break my limbs to obtain.

I'm not saying I'm lazy, even though alot of me is most of the time, I'm saying that I'm at a crossroads and I have a lot of decisions to make in a short time. That's the stress society forces on us, even though I have my whole life ahead of me and in realistic sense, tons of time to think things through.

The bible brings up a very good example of how we should lead our lives, and that is the example of Jesus, but that golden standard is realistic terms is impossible to follow. I'm pretty glad my version of realism and God's version aren't the same. Anyways, my goal now is to keep follow my yellow brick road, and I'll hopefully end up back home again when my story ends.

-Brent

--> I just realized the Wizard of Oz has alot of Christian symbolism.

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.