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Aghavea Advent Challenge

"We need a hero!!"

This has been the main premise in every superhero movie of the last ten years. Marvel have given us Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Captain Marvel, and many more!  DC Comics have given us Batman, Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman, and many more too.  Of course, we always need an enemy too - heroes are no good on their own!  Again we've been given Thanos, Steppenwolf, Lex Luthor, Loki, alien armies - all threatening the end of human civilisation as we know it!  People all over the world have flocked to see the movies, sometimes several times for each movie, and the result is always the same - despite the enemies' best (or worst) tactics, the hero always wins!

This isn't a new story line - we've had westerns, gangster, horror movies in the previous decades that have told the same story.  Legends passed down over generations have told the same story too.

But what if we had a real story about the premise of good versus evil?  Let's make the enemy the worst there can possibly be, say.... the Devil himself?  For such a formidable enemy we will need a hero that we've never seen the likes of before... God in human form - Jesus! Let's include his backstory - why he's here, where he came from, what he did, and how he finally defeated the age-old enemy of the human race.  Let's call it the Good News or the Gospel.

That's exactly what our challenge is this Advent!  We will be reading through the Gospel of Jesus Christ accordsing to Luke - 24 glorious chapters of the only greatest superhero that has ever existed.  Reading one chapter per day, we will finish on Christmas Eve, linking the humble birth of Jesus in Bethlehem to the Suffering Servant of Holy Week, to the Son of God's death on a cross and the ressurection of our Messiah.

Luke was a doctor and historian who was commissioned to report of the history of Jesus and the early Christian Church and its leaders.  In his gospel, he will tell of the humble beginnings of Jesus, his family, his relatives, and lead us on a spiritual journey throughout Jesus' life - all culminating in his death at Calvary.  He will report on miracles, teachings, healings and challenges that Jesus will bring to the crowds and his closest friends, the disciples.

This is a story that I don't mind spoiling - it's amazing, it's miraculous, it's challenging, it's life-changing, it's brilliant, it's a love story, it's a story of prejudices and evil practices, it's Good vs Evil, God vs the Devil, it's the story of our salvation, it's a Good News story of the Son of God, it's the Gospel of Jesus as told to us by Luke.

Join us on an Advent Challenge that will change how we see Christmas - not as an overhyped present-fest, but as the start of the ultimate super hero story that has ever been told, and this one is the gospel truth!!

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