A Redemption From Obscurity...

I have not been very familiar with the Book of Ruth.

I was reading up on passages in the Bible concerning God and social justice, and the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz was referenced; I think I spent a good 5-7 minutes thumbing through the pages looking for the Book of Ruth (I was in the Job, Proverbs, Psalms area, haha) before I finally gave up and used the Table of Contents only to find out that this 4-chapter book was snuggled right in between of Judges and I Samuel. I evidently need to brush up on my Old Testament book order... but in hindsight, it seemed an appropriate beginning to a lesson about obscurity- and the quite glorious redemption from it. (Oh, God... You're so clever...)

Ruth's story, simply put: Widowed, loyally living with her mother-in-law who was also widowed, in Bethlehem where her people (Moabites) weren't exactly in great standing with the Israelites, making her a foreigner with not that much going her way. Not very impressive on paper, undoubtedly; and I can only assume the day-to-day living of such a life wouldn't prove so comfortable either. And yet, such is God's inexplicable workings that Ruth, through a series of circumstances earmarked by her obedience and submission, goes from an unenviable widow to a direct ancestor of David, Solomon, and ultimately Jesus himself. Her legacy may have been unbeknownst to her during her lifetime, but she became an active agent in defining human history.

I try to imagine who Ruth was before she married one of Naomi's sons- what her family was like; if she had any siblings, and if so, what her relationship was like with them; what kind of friends she had; what kind of desires and hopes she may have had for herself, if during those days luxuries such as those could be had, and so on. I try to imagine her and her failed Plan A , then look around at my peers, my siblings, my colleagues, my parents, and myself with all of our failed Plan As, Bs, and Cs. I know for me there is a very real fear of living a life of uselessness and obscurity, and I see it and feel it with our entire generation- but I see Ruth, her circumstances, and God's hand of redemption and it restores my hope for the purposes and plans for every one of us. Her legacy was defined by her faithfulness to love (in her case, Naomi, her mother-in-law), and it would be an honor for of us once we're able to say the same.

"...where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God... May the Lord deal with me if anything but death separates you and me..."
Ruth 1:16-18

Love you guys and girls!

Sam from JesusBranded

Oh, Missing All Of You...

Hello everyone! First and foremost, on behalf of the entire JesusBranded team, we want you to know that we missed all of you this summer! For the last three years we've been driving and flying around the country to come and hang out with you, but this year we had a lot going on at home, so we diligently stayed home and did what we had to do... we've been thinking about all of you though, and we hope you've missed us too!

One of the things we've been working on is changing up the website starting this Fall season. We're gonna do our best to make it easier for you to get connected with us - whether its through you buying our shirts, reading our blogs, sharing your stories, and even connecting with other believers all over the world! So be expectant of the new JesusBranded.com, because we want to build our community around YOU.

Another change you can expect from the new JesusBranded.com is that we are going to be writing a lot more. We started JesusBranded as a way to really pour our faith out to the world, so we hope that our blog can become a resource for encouragement, affirmation, and community for everyone. So please help spread the word about us!

We hope you all had a very blessed and abundant summer, and again, we really missed seeing you face to face and hanging out with you! Til next time...

Love,

Sam from JesusBranded

I love my JB hoodie

Hey ya'll, this is Edward... 'the video guy'

I haven't been up to much, leading worship at church and video producing

our youth praise team all geared up in JB

this picture is from the local Christian Korean Times newspaper

I'm guessing none of you have ever read it...

so I finally got a facebook profile a couple months ago

The best part about it is the pictures and albums and people commenting on them

and I've come to notice how much I wear my favorite hoodie everywhere I go

the 'My Father's Heart' hoodie...

check it out, these pictures we're accumulated from the past couple months

here I am at a thai restaurant

bowling

bible study (honestly trying to stay awake after not sleeping for 27 hours)

trying to dunk

watching football with friends

playing drums on Rock Band

singing karaoke

my turn to rock the mic like a vandal

getting too excited over Wii boxing

sleeping on the floor of my friends house using a soda-pop bottle as my pillow

(i say soda-pop so it doesn't bicker between those who call it soda and those who call it pop)

getting 3 star massage treatment

ruining my friends ghetto picture

more ruined photos

dancing in the street

on the sidelines of a church basketball game

and finally at my local late night Denny's restaurant

I don't know why I put my hand up

Happy Easter everyone. Remember this day as the reason for who we are and remember to celebrate the resurrection all the time, not just once a year. 

Season Four Preview!!

Hey guys and gals! I know we're running low on some sizes of our Lost and Found Collection, but that's a praise report for us, because that means that 1.) we're doing something right, and 2.) you guys and gals like our stuff! But, we know it can be frustrating, so to hopefully help ease the stress, here's a sneak preview of the upcoming release that's set to come out at the end of March! We hope that you can get as excited about it as we are, so that you can get your shirts early before things sell out! Remember, once we sell through, it's tough beans til the next release... =)

Anyhow, this next collection is called The Journey Home, and it is very close to our hearts- Salil (our fearless CEO) and I (Sam, lead designer) were eating at Red Robin last October, and we both told each other that we felt like God's been leading us towards revelations of our identity as sons and daughters, and we both confirmed in each other's revelations that God really wanted to call the orphaned hearts back home to Himself... That's where this fourth collection was born, and I wanted to simply communicate how much we are lavishly loved by our Poppa, so much so that He continually reaches His arm to us, that even as we make our beds in the depths of Hell, His arm is never too short to save, and that He stoops down to make US great, that He fights to win us daily and He never tires of it...

He is an amazing Poppa, don't you think? Anyways, before I trail off, here is a sneak peek of JesusBranded's Fourth Collection: The Journey Home...








































































































We hope you like it! We'll keep you posted on the actual release date soon!

Love all of you!

Sam

victim, perpetrator, bystander.

Hello everyone, I just ran into this quote, and it kept me still for a good minute or so.

"...Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander."

I'm not sure who the person is who said it, but I believe it's a powerful word for all of us who are running after God's heart. Most of the time, we spend our moments hiding under the worldly radar as to avoid being "victims" of discussions, arguments, and confrontations about our faith; and we spend just as much time walking the line between piety and sin so as long as we don't commit something "that" bad as to be seen as "perpetrators" by men and women we strive to please. The most powerful message in that quote was that "Above all... YOU WILL NOT BE A BYSTANDER..." urging a sort of awareness that spurs action, that consequentially incites betterment; a far cry from being fearful of becoming a victim and being maliciously unloving to others.

I don't know, I guess all these terms and parallels get muddled up at the end of it all, but I hope that those words urging us not to be bystanders during the course of our lives will ring out and speak its own conviction into those who allow God to work through it.

Whew.

Love you guys and gals (even if I can't fully articulate it well sometimes...),

Sam

ps, we're working on our next release for March, and it's gonna be goooooooooooood!! Keep an eye out...