Rejection. We all deal with it in one form or another in our lives. It can be as bitter as any human experience as hopes and dreams are dashed while thoughts of not being "good enough" set in to sow seeds of doubt. Rejection is seen mostly as a negative thing, but in reality it can be used as motivation, or even mark a person as set apart for something much greater. For these reasons as well as many others, the team at Fyerbrand has chosen Rejection as the topic of this album titled "REJX".

“The one who hears you hears Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me, and the one who rejects Me rejects Him who sent me.” Luke 10:16.

"standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake" Philippians 1:27-30

The scriptures above give clear indication that Christ fully expects us to be rejected, hated, and even harmed or killed for professing faith in Him. In the first scripture found in Luke, Jesus explains that when the world rejects us for His name sake is not without consequence. The second scripture found in Philippians states that in the worlds rejection of the Gospel and the persecution of it's carriers there is a system of sorting at play, marking those who reject Christ for destruction and those who receive Him as worthy to suffer for His sake. It is also written in James 1:2-3 "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." All of this together points to what our attitude should be towards suffering. We should count it as joy to suffer for Christ, because it bot marks us as His, and is used by Him to do a work in us. So then the worlds rejection of us should be viewed as an honor, because when they label us outcasts they are effectively marking us as set apart for Christ.

As a symbol for "REJX" we have chosen the letter X for various reasons. In ancient greek the word for Christ (another word for anointed one or messiah) is christos. The greek letter chi is the foundation for the word and appears as the modern letter X. So then for all intensive purposes, X can be used as an equivalent for Christ. In fact, early christian writings by monks and church members often abbreviated the word Christians as Xians. This can be observed in todays culture during Christmas when many exchange the word Christ in Christmas for the letter X to make the shortened version Xmas…So removing Christ from Christmas and replacing it with the letter X was either a stroke of genius or a failed attempt at discounting the reason for the season. That being said, we found that there was a unique opportunity for us here. The X is also commonly used as a symbol for rejection, as one might draw a big fat X over the picture of a person not selected to be a part of an established group such as a sports team during tryouts, or actors going out for a role in a play or film. We found it to be pretty perfect that the X can be used as both a symbol of rejection from the world, but may also act as the mark of Christ (X) to brand those who belong to Him.