LayGuy

I loved watching the movie Avatar.  To say it was one of the most graphically stunning movies I have ever seen would be to understate the situation.  The storyline was pretty average however this is quickly forgotten – especially when you watch it on 3D!

I remember walking out from the cinema’s and having a chat with my wife as to “how boring the real world seemed” compared to the reality portrayed in Avatar.

I even read how many people had committed suicide after watching Avatar as they couldn’t stand to live in the “evil real world”. 

And to top it off, it has become the most watched movie at the Cinema’s ever.  Period.

Quite an achievement!

However, while I watched, I was also really uncomfortable at the overt Pagan and New Age themes running rampant throughout the story line.  What was uncomfortable was that it really, REALLY appealed to my fallen sinful nature.

It painted a picture of utopia – and my flesh loved it.  And I knew it was wrong – for so many reasons.

And tonight I come across Mark Driscoll’s take on Avatar.  And in typical Driscoll style, he slams the movie for what it is – and advert, albeit an expensive one, for paganism…

Be sure to grab yourself a free Audio Book download of Mark Driscoll’s, “Religion Saves: + nine other misconceptions” – available now @ www.christianaudio.com.

This book is based on the same titled sermon series held at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  Check out the sermons here.

Basically Mars Hill Church opened up a web based survey and asked for people to post any questions they would like Mark Driscoll to address.  After receiving thousands of questions and thousands of votes against these questions, the top ten areas were addressed in a sermon series and a book was put together.

Now you can download a copy of the audio book for free thanks to www.christianaudio.com!

Simply log in or create an account and for the month of February, it’s yours for free!  Simple!

I’m looking forward to the next sermon series @ Mars Hill Church.  I dig the whole Bible but it’s something about the Gospels that grabs me like nothing else.

So when one of my favourite teachers is doing a sermon series on the Gospel of Luke, this kind of makes my day.

And as an added bonus, the series will contain a tonne of footage from Driscoll’s recent trip to Israel. I had the privilege of touring Israel back in 1998 and it seems as if a part of me never left that place and is still wondering around.  For those of you who have visited, I bet this resonates with you – reading your Bible is simply never the same again.

To actually be in the places the Bible talks about, to view the landscape, to sail the seas, to experience the climate, to taste the cuisines and to gaze upon the same buildings and trees and rivers that Biblical characters experienced is life changing.

An example of this is the following short video of Driscoll at what is believed to be Peter’s house in Capernaum..

So do yourself a favour and head on over to Mars Hill Church and check out the series on Luke – it all begins on September 20.   Download the free 32 page PDF Introduction to Luke here.  And finally, have a watch of this video as Driscoll walks down a street in Jerusalem – I assume it’s David Street – and introduces the sermon series.

To say that I’ve been flat out with work lately would be to understate the situation.  Fourteen hour days have become the norm for me lately.

As part of my job, today I had to drive 4 hours to a regional hospital for a 1 hour meeting and then drive back.

But the drive gave me the opportunity to listen to a tonne of Ravi Zacharia’s preaching on my iPod.  I must have gone through about 8 of his sermons and have developed a great admiration of how this man thinks.

He became a Christian at the age of seventeen after a failed suicide attempt and has developed into one Christianity’s brightest sparks – especially in the area of philosophy and apologetics.

He routinely speaks on the coherency of the Christian world-view,claiming that Christianity is capable of withstanding the toughest philosophical attacks.  And this is what I admire about this man – he systematically cuts down every argument stacked up against Christianity.

Someone may ask a question and he simply launches into a response.  By the time he finishes, you just sit back and think, “Wow!  The thought process this guy has is amazing!”

Have a look at the following video as a typical example of what I’m talking about…

And this is just a mild response.  A few posts ago, I talked about the debate ABC Nightline recently had regarding the existence of Satan and a friend pointed out the Ravi should have been present to take on Deepak Chopra.  Now I make no excuse for despising the world view Chopra has – he glorifies “self” above anything and everything.

Personally I thought Mark Driscoll handled him quite well.  But he didn’t nail Chopra on some of his claims.  Chopra has now released a new book called, “The 3rd Jesus” – a complete mish mash of Hindu/Buddhist and Christian teaching to make Jesus more acceptable in this “self” elevated world.

And Ravi has responded to this book – completely exposing the fallacies of Chopra’s claims as well as exposing the limitations of Chopra’s own understanding of the faith’s he embraces.  I encourage you to listen to Ravi’s critique below.

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If you want to dig deeper into your faith and if you want proof the the faith we embrace can withstand secular assaults upon it, then I strongly encourage you to check out more of Ravi’s materials.

Main Website

Just Thinking Podcast

Let My People Think Podcast

Thanks to Adrian Warnock’s blog, today I got the chance to taste the awesome resource known as “The City” – the Mars Hill Church online community building tool.

Turns out the good people at Mars Hill have made available a fully functional version of the The City at The Gospel Coalition.

Adrian Warnock describes the Gospel Coalition as;

“..a growing fellowship of Christian churches, organizations and individuals who are committed to a certain kind of ministry—that which is biblically-faithful and gospel-centered.”

Sounds good to me.  These guys have a tonne of material centred on exulting a biblical view on the Gospel free from some of the modern assaults on its interpretation and application.  If you haven’t checked it out yet, click here for more.

The City was developed by Mars Hill and actually purchased by Zondervan and will be made available for churches in the near future.  Here’s your chance to try it out and also get plugged into one of the best ministries around. Click on one of the options below to join.  No matter where you join, you will have access to all the tools.

For more Gospel Coalition resources, check out any of the following links:

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