Yondike Cult Part 2

Verily verily I say unto thee, there are schemers among thee that seek to cripple thy faith. These defilers have been striking against the very thing that gives thee thy strength: belief in my nonmnipresent existence.

Yea, there is a very good reason why I am sometimes here, sometimes there and somehaps not. It is not for the believer that I am sometimes unapparent, it is for the free will of all, for if I was to be so blatantly real that not one of thee could doubt my reality, then I have taken away the choice of faith or nonfaith.

Thus is the reason why I must be gone for the days of some upcoming time. It is not for anyone to know the time or date (unless I just sent you an email telling you), but, yea, I must go thither to yonder land known only as 'Geelong'. And, at the pinpointed location of 'Grandmother's Place', I shall abide for a time. At this place, it is unknown by me (who chooses not to know, for such purposes as fun and surprise, yet I could readily know if it were my choosing) whether I shall have access to the sweet lines that give us our connection, or, as some more crass have named it, the "internet".

Yea, verily verily, yea! I greet you all with bruscuits and a smirk!

Pulling off the pLAN

WOAH!

I just had the funnest past couple of days ever.

It all started when my family told me they'd be going to Adelaide for a week, and that I could stay at their place while they were gone...

I thought to myself "Hmmm... fun times were always had at my old place. I think we could do fun times again." I had a vision: a house filled with boys, computers, board games, dvds, cds, weird milkshakes, chips, biscuits and pizza. I shared this vision with my accountability group (Alex M and Matt T), who were equally enthused, and we decided to set aside the next Monday and Tuesday for the said event. Adrenaline buzzed around our veins as we pondered the fun that was coming our way.

However! Catastrophe stroke when I quickly forgot all about it the next day, thus nothing was planned.

And so it was that I walked into church on the Sunday evening oblivious to the fact that I was to shock and disappoint my friends.
Anyway, I'm bored of this text type. To cut a long story short, I kicked myself when I realised I forgot, but quickly remembered that I had the next two days free too, so Alex ran around an invited people while I rang to check with my wife (who was supportive and loving - what a gorgeous wife!). IT WAS ON!

We started setting up at about 12pm, pulling all tables together, organising extension cords and power boards, eating a lovely lunch provided by Alex Marriot. I thought that it would be quite difficult and take a long time to set up computers and set up the network, but it was relatively simple and easy.
Then the fun started. And goodness gracious we had it in the bucketload. Warcraft was the game of the moment, with tower defense (Burbenog - oooooh), hero survival (9.8) and three corridor (DOTA6.09) maps flying back and forth amongst the computers.
Then came the banter which makes the experience an experience: insults ("Hahaha! You're a nOOb!"), threats ("Oooooh... You're going down!"), commands ("Push mid! Push mid now! Aarrgghh! You dufus!"), advice ("Go to the special shop and get the Point Booster, Vitality Booster and Electric Intensification Unit so you can create the ultimate l33t killing device of The Yasha Butterfly Perseverance Nova Shocker! It roxor!"), requests ("Can I have 200 gold? Why not? That's dumb! Why can't we share gold on this map?"), and sneakiness ("Put that there. Hehehehee... he's gonna get a surprise..."). All this amongst a whole lot of yelling and extremely loud laughing ("AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA! I killed you! WHAT?!? Where did he come from?? AAAARRRRGGGHHH!!! I'm dead!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!").

Ahhhh... add to the mix very weird milkshakes (not my best ever, mind you), an Xbox, Monty Python, Weird Al Yankovich, Battlefield 2, Little Britain, Seinfeld, Futurama, Black Books and very little sleep, and you'd probably have a fair idea of our time together.

A big thankyou to all those who participated in the night: Matt T, Alex M, Sam and Alex W, Andrew, Will, Carl, Mark and Dan Grimes (oh yeah, he was amean machine on the Xbox).

Let's do it again!

Light FM: The Poor Man's RIMA

Ok, this is something that has been ticking over in my head for a very long time. Back in 2002, when I first heard that we were getting a Christian radio station, I was rapt. I had been following the est broadcasts of Triple 7 and Light Fm ever since I become a Christian, and I loved the stations. The test broadcast of Light FM was a little bit daggier, but I loved the fact that I could turn my radio on and hear awesome Christian content at any time of the day, especially the music.

Imagine my shock when I tuned into the permanent Light FM for the first time. What is going on?!?! I didn't, and still do not, understand how they justify playing non-Christian music. The very thing that drew me to the station was the thing that they were greatly compromising.

As it stands at the moment, Light FM play one Christian song in every 4, if you're lucky.
Not only that, but the Christian songs that they do play, are more often than not very mediocre in content (ie. generally no outward expression of faith - the only reason I know that they're Christian is because I know the artist).
Ok, the WHOLE REASON that we HAVE a Christian radio station is to provide Christian content! What do we gain if we, as Christians, are just like the rest of the world? I remember Martin (our pastor) giving a message a while ago saying that we are meant to be thermostats and not thermometers, changing the climate that we are in and not being changed by it.

Light FM's angle on why they play non-Christian music is something like this: to "build common ground with the vast majority of our listening audience" (taken from their website, www.lightfm.com.au).
Firstly, I don't think they have a clue who the 'vast majority' of their 'listening audience' is. Hello! Christian radio station = Christian listeners. Mainly.

Secondly, how do they think people come to know God? By exposing themselves to the same stuff they usually do, with the odd hidden Christian message underneath a whole lot of lyrics? Certainly not! But this is what Light FM is providing. Paul gives us a wonderful clue as to what turns people's hearts toward Jesus in 1 Cor 14:24-25: "But if an unbeliever... comes in while everyone is prophesying... the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"" (emphasis added).
The way to help people come to know God is NOT by being just like them! It is through love, prayer, prophecy, and all number of things that distinguish us from them.

Thirdly, they are doing an injustice to all of the Christian bands out there who are marginalised to time slots when noone is listening (ie. the "Green Room" from 10pm to 12am). This is an opportunity to give support to our brothers and sisters that has been wasted. Local Christian music should be intermingled in the normal playlists, not isolated and given a lesser level of respect than other non-Christian rubbish (and I mean rubbush).

Which brings me to my next point: the type of non-Christian music that they play. Seriously, if you're going to water down the radio station by diluting God content with other stuff, at least make it good other stuff!!! The crap that they play!!! If it isn't some crappy pop band from 10 years ago, it's some weird and stupid band from 20 years ago that noone has ever heard of!!! I reckon I've never even heard of 30% of the utter crap that they play on this station, and I've been an avid listener of Gold FM since I was in Grade 1! If you're going to play the most crappy music that you can get your hands on, at least make it Christian crappy music!

I am so disappointed with the way they have twisted what really worked as a test broadcast, and made it into a dungheap.

Ok, I've still got about 50 other things to say, but I'll pass the microphone around. What do you think?