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The following TALKCAST is from PHAT 2008. They were given by Daniel Godden to the Juniors.

If you have any feedback or questions email ccecyouth@gmail.com
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Hey all!

So the next jwalk coming up and we’re keen for it to be one written mainly by you guys [we hope]. This is an opportunity write something for jwalk you’ve always wanted to, or just thought of. We want anything and everything, within reason of course.

You can write:

a story;
a feature article;
reviews on your favourite band; movie; book; place to eat;
send us your pictures if you want to help out with the photography side of things;

If you want to contribute leave a comment here and we’ll get in touch with you about what your keen to give a go.

We’re pretty excited to make this one the best yet and the longest yet so if would be great if everyone could get something in there even if its just a snippet.

Talk to your leaders if you have any other questions.

Hey everyone that read jwalk and everyone who didn’t feel free to let us know what would the top ten songs on your mixtape.

They’ll be published in the next issue of jwalk.

If you haven’t read jwalk yet check it out on here you can download it and read from the site or bring up the printable version and get yourself a hard copy.

Hey all don’t forget to get along to the Cafe del Freeo Night on Saturday the 17th of May
It starts at 7.30pm @ the Bakehouse Cafe at Fountain Plaza 

There’s going to be music; coffee; and some great discussions.

Bring your friends for a relaxing fun night.

Ask your leader if you have any other questions.

[there'll be other drinks too if you don't like coffee]

One question that we often ask and should often ask is the question "What is God like?" Equally as often, when answering this question, we fall into traps that limit our view of God. Rather than searching and striving to understand God incomprehensible, we can satisfy ourselves with small views of God, making Him in our image rather than accepting the important truth that we are the ones made in His image.

The first trap that we commonly fall into is the belief that the attributes of God are distinct, separate portions of God. The clearest example of this is the common view that God’s justice and mercy are in competition, as if God is a kindly judge who, only as compelled by the law, sentences a man to death with tears and apologies. But to think such of God is to hold an understanding of God that is far below the holy I Am. God’s justice and mercy are coexistent and act together in all that God does. More than that, God’s justice and mercy are equally and at the same time who he is. This is true for all the divine attributes. We need to strain our souls to see God as unity, as perfect unity. God is not a composition of various character traits in the same way as humans are. He is whole, and there can be no conflict within Him. To think of God as a composition is to make Him a creature, and not the almighty Lord.

The second trap we can fall into is to apply a human understanding of concepts, such as love, to God, as if that is what it means for God to be loving. But how far from the mark such an understanding can be. To continue with the example of love, we can see the way the apostle John came to define love: "God is love…This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:8-10) God defines what it means to love. Similarly, God defines what it is to be just. How many times I have heard the question, "How then can God be just?" This question completely misses the point! God is just! That is the statement of truth that the Scriptures present us with. The question we are to ask is "What actions of God display justice, and how then should we display justice?" Again, with reference to wisdom, ought we to conceive of God’s wisdom as simply and extension of what it means for man to be wise. Not at all! Human wisdom is barely a shadow of the divine wisdom. God defines wisdom.

Why do we fall into these traps? We are finite creatures seeking to understand the infinite. It is not possible for us to do so. Do we therefore stop seeking? By no means. Rather we recognize like Ezekiel the limitations of the language that we have, that we can but describe "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD." (Ez. 1:28). We can only come to understand God as He has so graciously revealed Himself; both in the person of Jesus Christ, and the revelation of His divinely inspired scriptures.

Recently on PHAT camp, we spent a week looking at different aspects of God’s character in the book of Amos. We saw that God is a God who roars, a fierce and mighty God coming with all authority to judge all nations and all peoples. We saw that God is a God who cares for the poor and oppressed the weak and powerless. We saw that God is a God who deserves worship, the wonderful Creator and great revealer. Don’t let these pictures of God fall from your mind because they are too difficult, too lofty to maintain. Instead, strive to understand the infinite God insofar as you are able, not compromising the difficult and at times impossible truths for a lesser vision of the infinite, incomprehensible Alpha and Omega. And long for the day when you will see God face to face, approaching Him through the precious blood of Christ.

May God work through His Spirit in you to give you eyes to see His glorious being.

Growth is a funny thing, we all kind of know it is good, but so often we would rather just leave things the way they are.

The bigger things get the more complicated they become and sometimes feel less personal. You see this when you compare small shops to supermarkets, small towns to cities and yes sometimes sadly even small churches to big ones. I feel this tension quite a bit. Though I would never say that I don’t want people to come to youth or a bible study so often when you do have a small group for things like this I find them more
relaxed and enjoyable. Read the rest of this entry »

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“Five stars….I simply have not seen a movie this good in years”  (SMH)

Read the rest of this entry »

Two Viking nations; The Saxons led by Thod the Mighty and The Danes under the instruction of Dalos the Brave were driven from their homelands in desperate need of fertile land, livestock and women.

It was indeed women that they found. Read the rest of this entry »