1. Katoomba Youth Leadership Conference (KYLC). This is a week long conference run in mid-January each year. They repeat the program over two weeks, so you can choose which week to go to, and is pretty much the best thing you can do with your holidays.
   
   KYLC exposes you to great talks, and strand groups designed to help you handle the Bible better. It actually functions as a three-year programme which deals with exegesis of a NT passage (strand 1), exegesis of an OT passage (strand 2), and then systematic theology (strand 3). So to make the most of it, try to get to KYLC three years running.
   
   If you can't make it to KYLC there is also the AFES National Training Event (held in mid-December), which is similar to KYLC, but also contains a mission component where you join a team that does outreach at a local church for several days.
   
   
2. Scripture Union Family Missions (SUFM), otherwise known as Beach Missions, runs at various beach holiday spots up and down the coast, where a team of people does outreach to holidaymakers (and locals) in early January.
   
   Country missions (such as Cowra Mission) do a similar thing, but in inland locations such as country towns.
   
   These sort of missions are things where you go to people, and do mission among them (often in conjunction with local churches).
   
   
3. A slightly different proposition, where you hold a camp and people come to you, are things like Kid's Camp, run by Fitzroy Falls Conference Centre. Kid's Camp is a week-long Christian camp in early January aimed at underprivileged primary aged children and does awesome coal-face outreach work.
   
   Similar things are Summer Breakaway Camp also for primary aged kids, and Summer Youth Camp (SYC) for high schoolers.
   
   The impact you can have over the course of a week is simply tremendous, which makes such camps so worthwhile.
   
   
4. Read a Christian book. Some good sales on at the moment at Christian bookshops. If you're the kind of person that's so busy during the year that you never get to read a good Christian book, then why not pick one up now?
   
   
5. Catch up with people. A lot of the best ministry can be done informally, over a cup of coffee. Why not meet up with some of your friends from church or uni, and encourage them along, or read the Bible together with them?
   

Just say you've got a Bible study series coming up (or a series of talks), and you want to get yourself a good commentary for reference in your preparations. And just say that there might even be some sales on at Christian bookshops. How do you work out what a good commentary is?

• Moore Theological College puts out a student magazine called Societas each year (costs around $7). It contains a few articles about college life, profiles of every student at college - and most valuable of all - every few years they also include a reference section.
  
  This is where they get the college lecturers to nominate which commentaries they recommend for each book of the Bible! They include Easy commentaries (for those who don't want to wade through Greek or Hebrew), as well as Advanced commentaries (for those who do, and have the money to spend).
  
• Moore Books, the bookshop attached to Moore Theological College in Sydney has, on its website, a list of those recommended commentaries, again divided into Easy and Advanced. You can clik on the links to order the books from Moore Books. See the list here!
  
• Oak Hill College in the UK has, buried in its website, a list of recommended commentaries as well, for Old Testament and New Testament books. You select which biblical book you want from the drop-down list, and it provides you with their recommendations, again both for expositional (ie. easy) and exegetical (ie. hard) commentaries.

It was back at Uni when I got my first taste of the operating system Unix - and its PC counterpart Linux. Back in the 90's it was a real challenge to install Linux on your system - but I got a Slackware distribution and set up a dual boot system, and was the proud owner and sysadmin of my very own Linux system!

In the end I deleted that Linux partition (because I needed the disk space)... but Linux distributions have come a long way since. And it now seems that there is even a free Christian OS, called Ubuntu Christian Edition (or Ubuntu CE). Essentially it's Ubuntu, a Linux distribution, bundled together with Bible software, some graphical changes and web filtering software.

Does that make for a Christian OS? I'm not sure, but if you're curious, if you're annoyed at Vista's bloat, and you want to be the proud owner and sysadmin of your own Ubuntu CE system, you can download it from here...

[ PS: hope you had a great Christmas! ]

The last post we looked at some of the lies, half-truths and false promises that we allow ourselves to be taken in by when it comes to materialism and greed. It's amazing, isn't it, how many ways we have of sneaking things past our defences?

"Our relationship will last forever anyway."

 

When you're going out, it might feel like your relationship is going to be forever - but you're not yet married. And BGRs that feel like forever sometimes will break up.

 

"It feels so good, it must be right."

 

This is the argument of the hedonist, where pleasure is the ultimate good. And yes, there's lots of pleasure to be had in sex - but as with other things, it can be used in a way that honours God's purpose and design, or which ignores it.

 

"The feeling was just too strong!"

 

We're promised that we won't be tempted beyond what we can bear, and that God would provide a way out (1 Cor 10). However, we often do the most silliest thing by actually placing ourselves in the place of temptation, instead of avoiding the situation entirely.

 

"Everyone is having sex early these days."

This is the democratisation trick - everyone else is doing it, so it must be okay, I'm not too bad compared to everyone else! However our real standard is not what other people are doing - but the purity of God. John says that we will one day see God as he is - and those who have such a hope will purify themselves, as he is pure.
 

"I was born this way."

"I have to be true to myself."

 

The argument of someone struggling with strong homosexual feelings. And the greatest 'sin' in our world (taught by our movies to believe Maslow's heirarchy of needs) is to deny one's own self-actualisation. But by the same reasoning, a hetrosexual man who lusts after a woman should act on that lust, in order to be true to himself. Remember when Jesus called his followers to deny themselves?

 

"I'm only admiring God's work."

"It's only looking."

"It's a small thing I can safely ignore."

 

This minimalises (or in one case excuses) lust or pornography as something small. However Jesus won't let us minimise it. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus reveals that lust is as serious as actually committing adultery itself! And close by is his admonition to pluck out your eye / cut off your hand lest it take you to hell...

 

"It doesn't hurt anybody."

"It won't have any far-reaching effects."

These are related to the ones above, but have a slightly different edge - they have to do with the effects. The belief here is that no one is hurt or damaged by this act, so it should be okay. However lust and pornography have the potential to damage your future relationships. Once seen, you will find it hard to erase images and thoughts from your mind, and you will carry this burden into every future relationship.

"I should take / do whatever I want (sexually)."

 

This is the outcome of the previous belief. Watch enough pornography, and you'll start to think that women are there to take and use sexually - because that's what gets depicted! However in the bedroom, as in every other area of life, the husband should exercise loving headship, and the wife Christlike submission.

"It will make me feel better about myself."
"Just once more, and then I'll stop."

 

Something important that you should know is that most sexual sins acutally put us into a vicious circle!

What happens is that we commit the sin, and get an initial good feeling - but then begin to feel bad about ourselves. When we feel really bad about ourselves, we go back to that sexual sin again, which gives us that initial good feeling and covers over those bad feelings - but then after a short while, we feel guilty and ashamed...

Sexual sin promises a wonderful feeling, but can actually suck us into a never-ending cycle of guilt and despair!

Our Bible study group has been doing a series of Bible studies on sin, temptation and holiness. It's been awesome, but most recently we had a look at some of the specific temptations that people struggle with. And in particular, we've looked at some of the lies, half-truths, and false promises of greed and materialism.

"I will be satisfied / happy once I get this one thing."
"You will feel good about yourself if you get this thing."

 

These are slightly different from each other. In the first one we imagine that we are at a certain level of happiness (say, 40%), and that after we buy this new thing, we will then move up to a new level of happiness for the rest of our life (say, 60%). However what actually happens is that it makes us happy only for a short while - perhaps a day or two - and then we drop back to our previous level of discontentment. As Jesus says, a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions!

 

The second one is a lot more subtle. Somtimes we tie our identity and self-worth to the things that we have, or the amount  that we earn. And so if we earn $60,000 we feel better about ourselves than if we earnt $40,000. If we drove a shiny new BMW we feel better about ourselves than if we drove an old Datsun. For Christians, it is completely wrong to get our self-worth from these external things! And for non-Christians, how pathetic that they need such things to prop up their ego.

 

"Everyone is getting one, so it must be okay."

 

Here we are comparing our use of money not to God's standard of contentment and generosity, but to what we see others around us doing. If we aren't doing something outrageously different, it must be okay. However this is a problem since our society is also captivated by greed and materialism!

 

"At least I'm not blowing my money on a Ferrari or something like that!"
"It's only a new pair of shoes."

 

Related to the previous one is when we play the extreme game. We know that we're not at the very extreme (eg. buying or wanting a shiny red Ferrari) - so therefore whatever I want or do must be okay by comparison! You can't show me clearly that it's defintely wrong! And so by this we justify getting ourselves a nice new Mitsubishi instead. However it still may not be a good use of money, and it may hide what we really have on our hearts.

 

"My money is mine to do with as I want. I was the one who earnt it!"

 

Yes, it is a good thing to enjoy the good things of this world. But don't forget that we are called to be good stewards of the resources that God has given us. This includes our time, our energy - but also our money.

 

"I need to look after number one"
"Money gives me security for the future."

 

One of the lies about money is that it provides security and protection for life in an uncertain world. We can buy good healthcare when we are sick, or buy a few months' worth of grocieries if we lose our job. Paul warns us about this in 1 Timothy 6, and Jesus himself also in the parable of the rich fool - it is not the foolproof and ultimate protection that we pretend that it is.

 

"I'm just being careful with money."
"I'm just saving for the kids."

 

This justifies our hoarding of money (and its consequent lack of generosity) by pointing out that it is a good to be wise with money. And yes, it is good to be wise with money - there are quite a few verses in Proverbs about this very thing. However this thinking conveniently ignores that we are also called to be generous with money - and uses the virtue of wisdom as a cover up for our greed.