Tag Archive for 'Suffering'

The Trouble With Christianity

Published
by
LayGuy
on October 1, 2008
in Books, Christianity, Church and Digging Deeper
. 2 Comments

In this day and age where “truth” is relative to someones own worldview and “absolute truth” seems like an oxymoron, the claims made in the Bible are often seen as ludicrous by our postmodern (and increasingly post “everything”) society.

Standing up to the onslaught of questions and attacks on what we believe and why we do the things we do, a “tolerant” society is becoming increasingly intolerant to sound Christian doctrine.  Even some in the “church” seemed to have caved in and have allowed humanistic world views determine what’s right and what’s wrong in the Bible - instead of declaring the Bible perfect and having ultimate authority.

So it’s in this climate that I want to introduce to you, if you are a small percentage of the population that don’t already know about him, Tim Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian Church.  Check out Keller on Wikipedia for some background on the guy. In a nut shell, he is passionate about the Bible, has a brilliant mind and is a goldmine resource for church planting.

I’ve started listening to the guy only recently and have enjoyed the way he engages you in his, what I like to call, “philosophically stylised, yet easily accessible sermons.”  And it’s this style that allows him to do a sermon series on “The Problem With Christianity - Why it’s so hard to believe it.” Listen in below via an audio stream or right click on the “download” and save to your PC.

He takes complex issues and hits them head on in a way that almost makes you feel really dumb if you held onto the issues in the first place.  Fascinating stuff!  These are the themes from his latest book “The Reasons For God.”  Click here to purchase from amazon.com. Hope you enjoy the messages…

Exclusivity: How can there be just one true religion? | Download

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Suffering: If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world? | Download

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Absolutism: Don’t we all have to find truth for ourselves? | Download

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Injustice: Hasn’t Christianity been an instrument for oppression? | Download

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Hell: Isn’t the God of Christianity an angry Judge? | Download

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Literalism: Isn’t the Bible historically unreliable and regressive? | Download

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For more Tim Keller resources - constantly updated, click here and here.

John Piper Resources

Published
by
LayGuy
on August 9, 2007
in Bible Study, Christianity and Church
. 2 Comments

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In his classic style, John Piper has made available a bunch of resources for those wanting to dig deeper into their faith. One of my favourite teachers of the Word and a guy totally sold out to teaching people about the Glory of our Father, John Piper has just released a bunch of materials available for listening and free download.

In a world where everyone is charging for everything, many Christian teachers are also jumping on this band wagon and having the audacity to actually charge people to download sermons!

I see this as totally wrong. Imagine Jesus setting up tolls on the Mount before delivering His classic Sermon on The Mount teaching. Imagine Paul setting a seal on his letters he wrote from prison and before they were read in Churches, a “love offering” had to be made.

Give me a break! Many try to justify charging people for MP3 downloads saying that web hosting and bandwidth is expensive. As a lay webmaster of my church website, I can tell you that after thousands of downloads of our sermons in the last couple of months, it hasn’t cost me a cent.

Sure, we are a small church and our downloads aren’t as big as some churches. But with bigger churches, come larger offerings - and this should cover the costs of getting the Word out there.

I have a “holy discontent” to use the words of Bill Hybels when it comes to charging people for sermons. One of my favourite teachers was Chuck Missler. A guy gifted in his understanding and a brilliant communicator of the Word - albeit a little repetitive. I don’t listen to him anymore simply because he charges for his sermons.

Piper, on the other hand, is different. Check out his website, desiringgod.org and you will be amazed at the amount of resources he has made freely available. And it’s not JUST resources - it’s quality resources. Below is a taste of his latest offerings. Every two years John Piper completes a rotation of weekend seminars on different aspects of Christian doctrine and practice. Although much of it was spoken years ago, these have now been made available online.

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