The Chronicles Of…

Getting your driver’s licence used to be such a straight forward affair…

You read your learner’s booklet from the RTA. You turn up, pay $15.00 and do your knowledge test. You pass and book in your P’s test for 6 months later… 6 months goes by, you pass your driving test. A year goes by after that and hey presto! You’re on your blacks and the world is your oyster… if you can get the car off your parents…

But nowadays it just aint that simple anymore…

First it was the log book. Do 50 hours driving in different conditions. OK.

Then there was the 3 different levels of P plates… And now do 70 hours recorded driving. OK.

Then it just got stupid. 120 hours of recorded driving in your log book, and there’s talk of 150!!

Really, this doesn’t effect me that much because I got my licence when you just had to turn up to the RTA and if you didn’t trip over the mat at the front door they gave you a licence…
But I am involved in youth ministry in the inner west, and some of my youth group kids are going for their L’s.

This is particularly a hassle for kids in the inner west and I feel their pain…
The average car trip in the inner west is probably only 5-15 minutes, and yet these kids have to somehow work up 120 hours of driving! And unless you organise a car trip to Perth with a learner driving at 80kph for 3 weeks it’s gonna take like 20 years!

And so there’s 2 options: Do it the right way - fill in the log book truthfully, do the hours, and get on the road 2 years later than everyone else.
OR…
Do it the easy way - drive when you can, and make up the hours in your log book so that it looks like you did the hours. It’s my guess that all the honest drivers who will obey the speed limits will go through the whole system and get on the road when they’re 20 years old. While all the hoons who flaunt the speed limits, drive recklessly, and are really the ones who are responsible for the new driving laws, will probably lie about their driving hours and be on the road sooner than the law-abiding drivers…

Does anyone else see a problem here? 

This is a blog I’m writing for a youth site called life7 and I would love to hear some feed back about this argument. Things I’ve missed? Things that don’t follow logic?

Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, KISS, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Megadeath, Pantera… the list of popular rock bands that market themselves with a the hell-devil-satanic kinda theme could fill up a ream of paper before we even got to the hard core deathmetal bands like Slayer, and Cannibal Corpse. The reputation of rock as the Devil’s music has been well deserved… but does that mean it is the Devil’s music?

There’s a range of “Christian” sources out there that want to affirm that it is. Some even claim that Satanists use the 4/4 rock beat in their satanic worship ceremonies… Others will encourage you to throw away your rock T-shirts and CD’s because “that kind of music” is not compatible with the christian life…

But the Bible is far from giving us any reason to believe rock music is of the Devil. In fact, the Bible declares that “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1), and surely this must include (yes, you guessed it…) rock music. All things belong to God, the earth is his and so is all the music within it.

However, you could make a good case to say that the devil uses rock music to sometimes promote himself and his values. But this is nothing new. There is a range of good, God created, and enjoyable things that the Devil has used and still uses to tempt us into selfishness and rebellion against God. For instance, in Genesis 3 the serpent uses the God created and pleasing fruit to tempt Adam and Eve into rebellion against God. So if we wanted to run with the line that “anything the Devil uses must be his” then we would also have to say that fruit is Satanic… but that’s just not the case. In fact, when it comes to food Jesus declares “all food clean” (Mark 7:19).

So what do you do with good, God created, and enjoyable rock music that is being used by the Devil to promote selfishness and rebellion against God? What do you do with anything that is God created, and enjoyable but has been manipulated by the Devil?

This is a much harder question because most things we experience in life are like this. Sex is good and created by God for our enjoyment, and yet, in billboards and advertisements and on TV and in relationships all around us, it has been manipulated and distorted by the Devil’s influence to arouse our lust. Money, sport, work, beauty, entertainment, music, are all good, God created things for our enjoyment, but often they are manipulated and distorted into instruments we use to serve ourselves.

Living in a world that opposes the values of the God who created it presents tough choices everyday for the Christian believer who is trying to follow the way of Jesus.
So here are some quick tips from the Bible:

If it is blatantly opposing God’s values then, flee from it! Pornography is a good example. Pornography is clearly against God’s intention for sex to be enjoyed only within the safety of marriage. The teaching of Jesus is specific on this issue “cut it out!” (Matt 5:27-30). And the apostle Paul says “flee from it!” (1 Cor. 6:18).

If it is occupying the priority of Jesus in your life, then flee from it! I love sport, but when sport steals my time and money and energy away from Jesus then it’s become my idol, and the apostle Paul says “flee from it!” (1 Cor. 10:14).

If it is causing problems for other people, then for their sake don’t do it. The music I listen to may not be blatantly opposing God’s values, and it may not be occupying the priority of Jesus in my life, but if the music I listen to is unhelpful for other people to know I’m listening to, then for their sake I won’t listen to it - at least around them. This is Paul’s instruction to the Christian church in Corinth: “I have the right to do anything - but not everything is beneficial [helpful]… No one should seek their own good, but the good of others… So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God” (1 Cor. 10:23, 24, 31, 32).

So what’s the deal? Is rock n’ roll really the Devil’s music?
Short answer: no.

Can I listen to rock music?
Short answer: go for it. Be mindful of the influence it has on your life and the people around you.

Should I only listen to Christian rock music?
Short answer: no.

Walking through a back lane in Stanmore the other day and saw this very familiar stencil (see pics).

It is none other than a very well known graffiti stencil from (quite possibly) the most famous graffiti artis in the world: Banksy - from Bristol in London.

It’s not the first time Banksy has come to Sydney to complement the public Sydney canvas with his free artistry, but I never expected to see one in a very out-of-the-way back lane in Stanmore… But this is the inner west! And low and behold I saw the first stencil go up and then a few weeks later, some more stencils added… Has Banksy been in Sydney for weeks? Staying with mates in Stanmore?

To add more fuel to my curiosity, I even saw one of his trademark rat stencils in Petersham with one of his slogans, and also a bunch of street posters and billboards in Newtown that had bright yellow smiley face stickers plastered over the top - another banksy trademark…

It could very well be that these are rip-offs (it does happen), but they may be genuine. I prefer to believe the latter.

I’d love to meet the man, but that’d be difficult seeing as no one really seems to know who he is… the problems of being brilliant yet illegal artist… (Banksy, if you’re googling your name and end up here, feel free to leave comment!)

Either way, my advice to young players is to keep your eye out for the little Banksy gems that might be gracing the streets of Sydney and start by familiarising yourself with his works at www.banksy.co.uk

Just got back from Kyck this last weekend. It was a brilliant weekend for our youth group, and I think for others as well. We had about 8 of our kids declare publicly that they wanted to give their whole lives to following Jesus, and that’s always fantastic, even one. And as always, there was quality preaching of God’s Word by Graham Stanton and Steve Chong.

Here’s a critical reflection about the weekend.

Compared to last year (which I consider the best Kyck I’ve been to in terms of program), I don’t think the program was as smooth as last year, but was still pretty well arranged. The hosts for the in-between segments last year were awesome, and these new guys this year had big shoes to fill. There presentability was great, but the segments meant to tie in with the theme “something to live for” were a bit of a stretch… I could see where they were coming from, but not so convincing. The first night they played a youtube video of a japanese guy (who is a professional hotdog eater) competing against a bear to see who could eat the most hotdogs! The bear obviously won, and it was kinda entertaining, but the link to the theme was “the Japanese guy lives for hotdogs, what do you live for?”. Quite a tenuous link I think. The Japanese guy could be a Christian for all we know and still be a professional hotdog eater. I don’t believe the Bible would be against being a pro hotdog eater while you still follow Jesus…

The music was pretty flash as always, and the band managed to somehow weave secular song tunes in to some well known Christian songs (like the Jackson 5’s ABC tune into Highest Place… I don’t know how the did it? very funky). I always like a bit of creativity like that. But I must say I was slightly frustrated with not being able to sing along well as a congregation… This may be due to the fact that I didn’t know all the songs, or it could be the sound mixer’s fault, or it could be that the band was bit too creative… I don’t know. But i found it hard to see the songs together, and often I looked around and people weren’t singing.

I think it might even be a good idea to next year get the boys from Playjerise to come and lead the music next year with just their vocals and 2 acoustic guitars. It’d help everybody sing in unison, and I think the sound of the masses raising their voices together to God against the minimalist background of acoustic guitars would be quite powerful and encouraging.

When it comes to music, I like to think I’m quite generous with how it’s done because I think there’s a bit of a culture of complaining when it comes to church music, but I do think less is more sometimes in leading church singing… If the words are true to Jesus, and it’s singable, bring it on!

I’m looking forward to next year!

My modeling career just took a turn for the worst…

Enough said.

From a fantastically bad film called Mac and Me:

I just did the craziest thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I subscribed to thechriniclesof.net as an RSS feed in my mail account!

WOW!

I didn’t even know what RSS was… well still don’t exactly… but now I’ll know when I blog something, or more to the point, when Pete and Chris blog something.

I’m riding the technology super highway baby, oh yeah…

I’m trying to study today, but really not having much success.

I’m not even procrastinating by doing something useful - the washing up from last night’s dinner is still on the sink.

I think I’m going to watch The Bill on ABC in a few minutes while I have some lunch.

Then I’ll clean up.

Then I’ll think about doing some study.

If nothing else comes to mind…

I hate the way that songs downloaded from iTunes can be at different volumes and the way you have too keep turning the volume up and down to hear some songs and to not be blasted by others!!

Oh, and I hate it when you accidentally download the wrong version of a song, like you don’t realise that it’s a re-mix that really doesn’t sound at that much like the song you like.

Just got back from a cycle class at the gym.

I find it amazing how you can and love and hate something, the same amount, at the same time.

I wake early, go and during it can feel really average, complain and feeling like I’m going to die, but at the feel better than ever.