Open Your Bible and Love One Another...

John 13:34-35

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples. If you love one another.

                The above quoted bible verse comes from the book of John Chapter 13 which is titled “Jesus Washes His Disciples Feet”. In this Chapter, Jesus washes the feet of all his disciples to demonstrate and set the example of how a Servant is no greater than his Master. Jesus shows what a true humble heart and love of another is, no matter how great one may be.

                Chapter 13 goes on to a second section titled ‘Jesus Predicts his Denial’ where after Jesus predicts his betrayal at the hands of one of his own disciples, he notifies his disciples of his limited time and soon to come departure from the world. To close he gives the command of “Loving one another so all men will know they are disciples of Christ”. Simon Peter then boldly claims that wherever Jesus goes he will go and lay down his life. Jesus then predicts that Simon Peter will disown Christ three times before the Rooster crows.

                This story in the book a John greatly depicts modern Christians today. Many of us boldly claim our love for Christ. We feel empowered and strong and as if we can do anything for Christ, even cease to sin. I don’t need to be the one to tell you that this is not the case. Even if no one knows, or it is only in our minds, we are still going to be the same wretched sinner. It is amazing that we dare make bold statements as Simon Peter did. However, our God already knew of our short comings and lack of strength, he already knew of the sin and the evil that takes control of our lives. Yet, we were still given Gods only son to take upon our sin and die for us on the cross. Not only did Jesus Christ take upon our sin and die on the cross, but he came to wash our feet and give teachings with actions that still humble us today. This is the love to us that Jesus wants us to share with one another.

                QT’s force me to do hard reflection upon myself and find a way to apply the lesson I learned to my daily life. On more than one occasion I find the teachings of Christ and the life of a Christian to be so repetitive. In fact, there are several books in the bible telling the same story, just from different views. For a while Christian life had me bored and overlooking the need for QT’s and prayer. I say to myself, “It’s the same lesson” or “It’s the same prayer”. But I realized, even with the amount of times I repeated all these things, did I truly apply them to my life? Do I truly live them out so people know I am a “Disciple of Christ?” The answer is “No, and I can to a lot better”. There is always room to do better. Look at our God today, doing the same thing everyday millions of times in a day. Someone opens the bible and God teaches the word. It’s the same word every single time. Yet, no one can seem to fully grasp it.

                It’s said the best things in life never change. It’s also said if something isn’t broken don’t fix it. How often is it we do the exact opposite in our lives because something doesn’t seem right because it doesn’t change, so we try to fix it, but make things worse. Our father God has never changed, he is everlasting and always good, despite our shortcomings and sins, we need to be reminded of that every day. Let’s start by loving one another more so people will know we are disciples of Christ. Love one another despite any short coming and sin, because after all, God still chose to save you with all your short comings and sin. If we can live out that love with one another, not only will it witness Christ to others, but remind us to be humble and appreciative of what God did for us. It will only get through to us if we do it every day in every moment in repetition as God does or us with the opening of our bibles.

spending time with god...

Hey all!

So i just went through a time of spiritual low. There was no real cause or reason, I think it was just at a stagnant point. Being the type of person to always push for progress, not seeing any gets me anxious and worried.

D6 had been put off for so long because of scheduling conflicts and this past Sunday was the first meeting we had in a while... or the 2nd...

I hadn't done a QT in a long while, and didn't real feel the yearning to. It was always blessing, but it always felt like homework...

Then Pastor made a great point.... "Is QT homework or is it time spent with God?"

I realised from the beginning i was focused on the wrong thing...

So I don't have many updates or and pictures... BUT... i do have a QT!

Luke 6:45

“The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For Out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

The above quoted bible verse comes from the book of Luke in a section titled “Lord of the Sabbath”. In this section, Jesus travels the lands with his disciples and in various locations runs into different situations where Jesus’s gives his teachings. The quoted bible verse comes from a section where Jesus uses the parable of a tree and the fruit it bears.

                “Jesus says that a good tree will bear good fruit and a bad tree will bear bad fruit. A good tree will not bear bad fruit and a bad tree will not bear bad fruit.”

                At first glance, such a statement seems obvious. But taking a step back and really looking back and reflecting upon it, I realised numurous times in a single say without even realising, I often make the mistake of trying to bear good fruit from bad trees. However in real life, it is not bad fruit, it is sin.

                As we grow older, we become more aware of the world around us. However, being more aware does not neccessairily mean we keep our selves from sin. In fact most of the time, what happens is, becoming more aware means we find more ways to justify doing sin.

                One example is the use of drugs. As a youngster, we are always taught that marijuana is bad. However, as you get older and hear about more drugs, you’ll at some point hear, “Its only Marijuana, its not like Coke or Herione”. 

                In the quoted bible verse, Jesus states “the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart.” After becoming so aware of sin, and find ways of justifying it. We often mistaken sin as “good” and have that placed in our hearts. This is Satan’s great craft and abilities at work, he is working without you even knowing. If your not careful, your heart will keep filling with sin to a point you can’t see how deep inside you’ve fallen.

                When I look at myself, I do feel there is a lot of good in my heart and that there always has been. However at some point in my life, I realised how hard it is to keep holding and living up to the good in my heart. I was always hit with moral situations where “the fun” was in the “Bad”.  We often look upon that in a secular point of view as “growing up”. How often are we confronted with “its time to grow up” or  “your not a baby anymore” in hard situations of moral issue.

After years of polluting my heart with sin and evil, I can feel the cleansing hand of the lord at work after accepting him as my lord and savior. However even with the good being restored and a new life style, sin is always there at work. There will always be temptation, however its up to you to accept it into your heart or not.

“For out of the over of his heart his mouth speaks”. Take a hard listen to what you say to others. Everyone in your life in all types of relationships. Is there really good over flowing? If so, then keep the word close to your heart and it will protect that good, and if not, then still keep the word close and allow it to cleanse you.     

Bad Dream and Renovation

Hello my Faithful readers!

Wassup?

So my studio renovation is going great! I'm 90% done... just have to do a little touch up paint and cleaning... then i can start setting up all my equipment... which i've already begun...

To be honest... as of right now... the studio feels really cold. I think its because of a lack of stuff in the room... but the brown color of the walls hit the nail on the head of getting the "Cafe" feel.

Its going to be strange having so such a large room for the studio... This is the first time i'll have this much space availible to do my music stuff... at one point in the my life i thought i'd never do music again... but i'm at the peak of it nonw! WOO HOO! but Jesus... keep me humble...

So last night I had this nightmare that i don't know what to make of... It wasn't so much of a nightmare than it was a "BAM" scenario...

It was so bad that i was crying my eyes out... and i know i was because it got so bad i would wake up... then i would be like... "For real? What the heck?" but i'd be so tired to think about it more and i'd knock out again and have the dream again... cry... wake up... repeat...

Now... before i tell you my dream... let me get one thing straight... Brian Tsao is no emotional cry baby! I never cry!

Ok... so i cried at my baptism... and during thanks giving service... but thats it!

hahaha... actually i don't care... I'm a cryer... so what? I don't care what you think... cause if you make fun of me... I'LL CUT YOU! 

The dream was repetitive through out the night... It was really blurry as far as details... colors of the wall, people in it, etc... 

I walk into a room and a phone rings... and someone on the other side of the phone in a really urgent voice tells me my Dad's been killed... Before I can even think... upon hearing those words I just break down in horrific tears... the type you cry in serious desperation and horror... The person on the phone goes onto explain how he was killed, but in my grief i just hang up the phone and continue to cry... This is when i wake up...

Then after waking up and knocking out again... 

The phone rings again and the same person who called before informs me my Mom's been killed... \and in the same way i break down in tears while the person on the phone try's to explain what happened... but in my gried I hang up again...

Then in my crying fit i see my parents in the room with me smiling as if they were alive and well, but it was just an illusion cause the room filled with people telling me how my parents died... It was quite overwheling because so many blurred faces were all trying to explain to me how my parents we killed... I remember the people coming into the room were tall and skinny wearing matching clothes of clean cut khaki and white... but there faces were blurred out like smudged brown and white paint with pitch black eyes... 

So many people came in the room got really dark... and the people started looking more like demons... but my parents image was still crystal clear... bright, standing together and happy...

I remember... even though the room was filled with demon people like a scene from a horror ghost movie... I wasn't afriad at all... I was totally focused on my parents but at the same time in total grief...

Nothing happened at home or to anyone i know to trigger this kind of dream... In fact... I was pretty darn jolly before i went to bed... What the heck?

I haven't had a dream that felt so real or hit me this hard since my reoccuring "White Evil Clown" dreams which have long since passed... 

weird eh?

Stay Cool and Rock on with God!

Bri Guy

Pushing Beyond Human Boundary

So I was remembering a section of my last Xanga Entry...

The part where i say

"A lot of people think living a life for Christ means conforming to a "Bullshit and Hypocritical" System designed to turn us into mindless zombies..."

While i was at work today, I remembered another moment of my life where i had a thought something similar to a "Mindless Zombie"

It was about 2 and a half years ago when i was working at Fine Pastries (substituted name) and I was just promoted from Dish Washer to Cook!!! It was the first time i was really getting hands on with fine foods and i was really proud of myself. The owner of Fine Pastries and the same man who promoted me was a Famous Champion Pastry Chef and still very respected man in the Food Industry... lets call him Mick. I'm not revealing names for respectful purposes.

I washed a lot dishes to get promoted and my work ethic caught the attention of the Head Chef of Fine Pastries...

I remember so vividly the day he promoted me... he told me...

"Brian, In this business, I can shape you into one of the best! Just follow me, learn, listen and work hard."

I took his words very seriously... In fact, i think i still live by those words today...

At the begining i was doing a lot of assisting... basically a kitchen Gofer... "Gofer this, Gofer that"

but after a couple of weeks i was finally given an assignment to take from start to finish completely on my own.

It was 500 peices of an indiviual portioned dersert called a "Lemon Keylime Beehive". Basically it a Keylime Meringue Pie in an individual serving size. Below is a picture in plated form...

Upon recieving this assignment... it was a proud moment for myself cause i felt at that moment... "I'M ON MY WAY TO BE THE BEST!"

I started the assignment and right off the bat i was struggling...

To do this kind of work as an assistant is one thing, but to do it on your own is a completely different animal... In that instant, i began to realise the amount of unpredictable variables that pop up as you work. Fire Temperature, Weather, Speed, Cleanliness all play major roles in your cooking that smack you at one time like a BATTERING RAM RIGHT right on your head...

Head Chef  Mick would come into the kitchen i was working in through out the say to check up on me, he would watch for a few moments and leave without saying a word.

Around the end of the work day, i was FAR FAR behind... I knew I was going to hold up production for the next day if i didn't get this work done! BUT it was 8pm and I came in at 6am that morning... I was DEAD TIRED!

Just about when i thought i was going to freak out, the Head Chef walked into the kitchen calmly, rolled up his Chef Coat Sleeves and began to take over the assignment. Everyone else in the Factory had left for the day. It was just Him, Myself and my crumbling pride in the kitchen... 

The pace he worked at was so fast, so hard and so precise, I was completely AWE struck!

This was the first time i saw what a Champion Chef looks like when he works at his full potential.

While he was working he gave me a lecture i will never forget... not only for the lesson he taught me that night, but also what i felt inside my heart...

He Said...

"Brian, to become the best is not easy, you must have discipline, you must have focus, you must not loose sight of your big picture that you're trying to paint!"

"Brian, to have a winning game plan... the bottle necks of a work process cannot be the person doing the work, but only on the equipment. If a peice of equipment is a bottle neck in a work process, then dispose of it and get a new one! Or get an even better one! But if the bottleneck is the person, then that person is already shooting themselves on the foot!"

"Brian, to become the best, you must find your weak spots and turn them into new strength! You must find your boundries and bottle necks and figure out how to make your work flow with ease!"

"Brian, to become the best, you must WORK AND PUSH BEYOND HUMAN BOUNDARY!"

That last one really struck me hard... because the first thing that came into my mind was...

"Aren't we only human though? If we push beyond human boundry... won't that make us into another peice of equipment?......."

Because think of it... isn't that what tools and equipment do for us in this day and age? Work and Push Beyond Human Boundary?

a WRENCH was invented so that we can have a stronger grip on a nut of bolt... a grip stronger than what our bare hands are capable of but yet still uses less strength...

a PEN was invented so that we won't have to use animal blood or something like dirty chalk to write... with such a small tool, we can write and draw super intricate pictures to 1000 word essays...

Get my point?

"won't that make us another peice of equipment? That would make us into a MINDLESS ZOMBIES?"

Don't get me wrong, I do understand he was trying to teach me some kitchen ideals and lessons... To this day, i still take off my hat for Mick the Head Chef... but remembering this moment of my life today as a Christian... i realised A LOT of new things i didn't see before a life with Christ...

First thing i noticed was...

Even a Champion Pastry Chef who is one of the best in his feilds still has boundries... That is HUMAN BOUNDRIES... It is boundries he has spent a good part of his life trying to break to become "THE BEST". Why is it we always yearn to break Human Boundary? Look at todays world! Music was first on records that only held 5 songs, and today we have MP3 players that hold yo mama's record collection and your own! We're always craving more beyond what we have? Why are we not satisfied?

Second thing i noticed...

Why is there so much grand prosperity and bedazzlement with being "THE BEST". Trophies, Award, even legacy's Fade Away In Time! There is momentary satisfaction with Awards, Popularity, Trophies, ETC... but what is you do become "THE BEST" what is you accomplish everything this world has to offer? Where do we go from there?

Third thing i noticed...

Even in a secular world, you can still become a "MINDLESS ZOMBIE"

In my last post... I mentioned how a lot of people view Christianity as a "Bullshit and Hypocritical" Religion to turn its beleivers into Mindless Zombies...

Even if that is... whats to say a life without Christ won't do the same?

Working in a Pastry Factory... your surrounded by UNIMAGINABLE SWEETS! SERIOUSLY DUDES, ITS ENDLESS!

Rooms dedicated to various different types of Chocolate, We're talking 500 pounds minimum!

Sugar Candies in the shapes that is only bound by the imagination...

Cakes with so many flavor layers it becomes a game to remember whats inside!

But even when i was in a world full of the worlds sweets... I was still being shaped into a Mindless Zombie...

For those who don't beleive in Christ... One thing we learn is that God is Infinite...

God is Infinite Joy, Infinite Understanding, Infinite Care, Infinite Love... the list goes on!

I Challenge you to take some time and think...

If this Infinite God is your savior and is the foundation upon which you live you life...

Then my friends... there is no such thing as Human Boundries... anything is possible!

It just takes some Patience, Trust and Faith!

Pretty Cool Huh?

Stay Cool and Rock on with God!

Bri Guy

Hola again to all who still go on Xanga!

I wonder if anyone from the past i knew still checks this out... cause dude... a lot has changed!

I actually avoid things like this nowadays... I think its a waste of time and a brain killer... however, i thought to myself... Bri Guy... Why so Negative?

then pause...

then... i thought... cause IT IS a waste of time and a brain killer...

then pause...

A memory came back! (its been happening a lot since i stopped the drugs and drinking ) 

I remembered the first time i heard of Xanga... it was when i was a Senoir in High School and this girl in my class in wrote some MUCHO MUCHO BOGUS stuff about all her classmates and teachers on the WORLD WIDE WEB...

She knew it was well hidden and would never be found by anyone on the WORLD WIDE WED... but SOMEHOW... it managed to be found by another classmate who then told her fellow classmates about all the MUCHO MUCHO BOGUS stuff written about all them... then the students told the teachers about the MUCHO MUCHO BOGUS stuff written about them...

THEN...

There were a lot of PISSED OFF people at my school

But there was nothing we could really do... it is the WORLD WIDE WEB after all, and it is her own private space on the WORLD WIDE WEB to do as she pleases...

So everyone else opened Xanga accounts to write MUCHO MUCHO BOGUS stuff about other people... and then began a vicous chain of MUCHO MUCHO BOGUS stuff written about various people who in turn opened Xanga accounts to write MUCHO MUCHO BOGUS STUFF about them ... which was hidden in the WORLD WIDE WEB!!!!

Funny Huh...  In that very moment i remembered this story... i realised why I think so negatively about this kind of WORLD WIDE WEB stuff... MUCHO MUCHO BOGUS...

So... I found out my cousin from Korea who's been living with me for the past year and a half will be heading back to Korea for good in July...

I was actually pretty bummed out about it... I rarely talk to the guy and when we do talk... its about his frustrations over talking to "American" women in English... I try to explain he's coming on too strong... but then it never seems to get through to him...

He came down to my studio while i was doing some work, and beleive or not... we had a good hours long conversation... it wasn't anything special, just typical catching up and chit chat... but i realised... we found a way to communicate with bits and peices of Korean, English and various hand signals (such as the middle finger and a thumbs up).

In that moment, i realised... There is always a way to communicate with someone... It just takes some effort...

He's been in the states living in the same house as me for a year and a half, but i just never made the effort to really communicate with the guy... but man... i'm gonna miss him... he's become a pleasant presence in the house... you know... one of those dudes who's always cheery, happy and plesant... like the guy you can easily persuade into taking another shot of tequilla even though he's already intensly intoxicated... hahahahaha... jk...

But seriously... with a little bit of effort, you can open up a lot of doors to learning a lot of new things about others... Not only learning new things, but also learning more about youself...

I'm usually the Party Organiser type as opposed to the Party Attender type... and i like to things in granduer... some of you know better than others... but when i do something, especially when its something i enjoy... it has to be 110%...

But i also noticed doing such things in granduer, you miss out on a lot of small little things that go by...

I'm always told by my best friend... "Brian, you have to stop what your doing and stand completely still every now  and look up at the stars"

Friends have been spiritually low lately... and even before in the past, I use to brush off things if they didn't help me accomplish my "GRAND PLANS"

The excuse is usually "I'm too busy"... be it thats what you tell someone thats in need or reaching out to you.. or even telling youself...

After becoming Christian... A lot has changed... in everything i do in life... i reconsider... is the way i'm living glorifying Christ?

A lot of people think living a life for Christ means conforming to a "Bullshit and Hypocritical" System designed to turn us into mindless zombies... I know, cause i use to be one of them...

Even if that is true... Today as a Christian... I find myself trying to make time in my busy schedule to build upon relationships... reaching out to people who may need a helping hand... and making the time to think how i can better myself to help others... I do this for Christ who sacrificed himself for me so i may be with him in his kingdom of heaven...

But can you imagine a world where everyone took the time out of there busy day to do the same thing?

Even if it was for the "Bullshit Hypocritical" System... at least we're thinking of something other than ourselves... people rarely admit how selfish they are...

Don't get me wrong... i don't think I'm perfect... infact, i still have a lot of things to work out, and always will...

But DANG! Am i Happy living a life with Christ!

but getting back to my point... with all the crazy and busy lives we live... lets take a minute to make the effort to communicate with those who are close to us... yet are so far away... they're so far away because we haven't made the effort to communicate...

Before you know it... they may be gone...

Stay Cool and Rock on with God!

Bri Guy