In response to Nathan Lee’s challenge… (The rules are: your testimony in 100 words or less).

“My parents are Christians and introduced me to Jesus from my early childhood. At age 11 I publicly confirmed that I would continue to follow Jesus from my childhood and into the rest of my life.Despite the worldly persuasions that I toyed and flirted with in my adolescent years, I was held to the faith by God’s grace and the faithful men and women who - compelled by Christ’s love - never ceased to invest themselves in my welfare.I continue to love the God who invites me to have a lifelong conversation with him by his word and his grace.” 

That’s my story… Bang on 100 words!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged so I thought I’d give an update on me.

Not sure what the deal is, maybe it’s the country air or something, but currently these are things I now partake in that I may not have last time you saw me… (I say currently cause hey who knows what I’ll have given up by the time we next get together?!)

• Applying Hair Product Daily
• Shaving Daily
• Eating tomato (only in some things, actually just not by itself)
• Eating cucumber
• Drinking Tea (Twinnings English Breakfast)
• Dressing like I’m going to a wedding everyday (well work days)

Thought it only fair that I warn you… these traits may not present themselves, but at least now you may be able to handle them when they do…

So… I recently have moved from PC to mac, and the transfer of files has been quite a pleasant experience thus fair.
However, as is bound to happen, one program in particular has given me grief… My macromedia studio MX 2004 program. Some will know that I like to dabble with graphics from time to time, and in 2005 I invested about $260.00 to purchase macromedia studio to draw and manipulate images. It works fine, and I’ve taught myself how to use it. So you can imagine how upset I was when I went to transfer the activation license from my PC to the mac and was denied!

Apparently some genius at Macromedia decided that once you activate the product on a chosen computer platform (pc or mac) it couldn’t be used on the other platform… Great!

Not wanting to purchase new software (adobe cs3 is still $630.00 on student rates…) I decided to ring their support line. But of course, Adobe had bought out Macromedia a couple of years ago and they couldn’t care less that I had problems with an old program of a previous competitor and recently acquired company… Boohoo…

What next?

Well, enter Google. The internet has the answers.
As is true to form, someone out there apparently broke the activation code on the software within 24hrs of it being released back in 2004, so all I needed was to find someone who posted the code on their website and hey presto!

A couple of hours trawling the internet over several days and bingo! there it was. I copied. I pasted. And now my Macromedia studio mx 2004 software is all go. Hoorah!

If you’re wondering how my Christian ethics are holding up under the celebration of using a program activated with an illegal code, then all I have to answer is that I payed for my software and my code. And if adobe can’t be bothered helping their customers then they should be happy that at least someone out there is helping their customers. Rah!

I’ve been away for a weekend retreat with a bunch of other people from Vineyard churches around Australia, to work on developing new songs and so forth. I’ll try to find something interesting to write about that at some stage, but for now I’ll leave you with this:

This is a follow on post from ‘Thanks Victor Kelleher‘

I just finished reading another of his books called Del-Del. It’s a book that won the Children’s book of the year in 1992 but for some reason I had neglected to read it until now (even though I bought my copy of the book in 1993!). It was a fantastic read! It had me up late and gave me some very tired mornings!

I don’t want to give away too much for those who haven’t read it, but all in all it’s a very clever book on how families - and children in particular - deal with grief, death, and loss of someone they love. I don’t know how VK came up with the concept to write a book about this issue in such a unique and creative way. Brilliant!

And for those who’ve read the book before, here is my theory on the name Del-Del which is left open ended at the conclusion of the book: Perhaps the delete key on the keyboard “DEL”? and the parrallels with deleting feelings, erasing memories? Well I like it. It fits well with me.

Victor Kelleher has visited this site at least once before so maybe he can give us his thoughts? Though, I suspect that if he wanted to make it clear he probably would’ve written it…

Worth the read. Buy it. Borrow it. Read it. 

This is inspired by a conversation we had at Bible study last night, in fact the above slogan belongs to Dave our BS leader, but I like it, and seeing as I’m the first one to put it on the net that more or less makes it mine.

The “Make Poverty History” campaign is a good campaign, a worthy cause, and one which Christians should support in their quest to love their neighbour and show the same care and concern for God’s world that He does.

However, that being said… it is unrealistic that poverty will ever be made history in this world. It’s impossible from a mathematical point of view because the statistics are too enormous… It’s impossible from a human nature point of view because we are too greedy. It’s impossible from a Biblical point of view because even Jesus teaches “the poor you will always have with you.” (Mark 14:7).

And here there is subtle but important difference in how the Christian goes about the “Make Poverty History” campaign.

We cannot make poverty history. But… a time is coming when poverty will be history - not by our hand but by the hand of Jesus. The Christian strives to alleviate poverty not because they will see it fulfilled in this world, but in the new creation that Jesus commands. “God’s dwelling place will be among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

This is the image that the Christian has in mind. Not that we will make poverty history, but that “Poverty Will Be Made History” in the new creation.

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 death metal and thrasher 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:

1. If it is leading you into sin, flee from it!
In the case of rock music (or any music for that matter) it may not be a sin to listen to it, but it is a sin to promote a false view of God, hatred towards God, hatred towards others, and to racially or sexually vilify another person. I think all of these would be examples of failing “to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength”, and failure “to love your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27).


2. If it is occupying the priority of Jesus in your life, then flee from it!
There is no other influence that has shaped youth culture like music does. It seems that almost every genre (and sub-genre!) of music comes with an image, and a certain dress code, language, and behaviour that is associated with it. For example, if you like goth music you wear a lot of black, Dr Martin’s boots, white make up and dark hair. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the question we need to ask is: How much does the music I choose to listen to shape my identity?

I love music, but when music shapes my values and behaviour more than the Lord Jesus, then it’s become my idol, and the apostle Paul says “flee from it!” (1 Cor. 10:14).


3. If it is causing problems for other people, then for their sake don’t do it.
The music I listen to may not be leading me into sin, 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 the very least, not 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.

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!