Bin Laden - The Bad News - Jesus Army

‘Don’t
modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 92 3
give up’
A voice in the dark on a
freezing night rescued
Chris from the brink.
THEY SOLD the
TV and the X-box.
Now they had only
a Birmingham flat,
empty except for one
bed, and a heroin
habit each. Chris
Needham and his
twin brother James
were down on their
luck.
“It was the middle of
winter with no heating”
says Chris, now 29. “We
could see our breath.”
Being penniless was
a new experience for
them. They’d always had
plenty of money from the
age of 12 when they first
started to deal drugs.
Chris was the youngest
of four boys, younger
than James “by a whole
minute”.
“Dad was an alcoholic”
says Chris. “He left when
we were 11. Mum was
mentally ill. When the
dog died, her mum died,
and Dad left, she lost the
plot.” For the next seven
years, she was in hospital
more than she was at
home.
The four boys fended
for themselves. Mates
of Chris and James’s
older brothers, “looked
after them” by supplying
drugs for the younger
boys to sell.
“We were industrious”
says Chris. Profits from
the school playground,
then Birmingham’s
nightclub scene at the
weekend, made the
brothers rich. “We had
‘Pringles’ tubes stuffed
full of cash” recalls Chris.
And both boys had
growing drug habits of
their own: “E’s at the
weekend and weed to
come down.”
There were some
heavy episodes: a gun
pulled on them in a local
park, the time James
was beaten up by some
bouncers. But they survived:
“James was the
muscle, I was the mouth”
says Chris. “It worked.”
They steered clear
of heroin because they
saw “smack heads” as
“dirty”. But when they
ripped off a local lad
and found themselves in
possession of 24 grams
of heroin, the brothers
couldn’t resist trying it.
“We smoked an impossible
amount of heroin
that night” remembers
Chris.
As addiction set in,
Chris replaced clubbing
with “getting caned on
crack and smack. I was
a heroin addict for 11
years” he says – 11 years
that led to a freezing flat
in Birmingham.
“The money ran out.
We had no food. My body
was a mess. I was injecting
smack.”
“It was the middle of
the night” remembers
Chris. “James was asleep
next to me. Suddenly –
ping – the room became
warm. I felt someone
was there and sensed a
voice saying ‘Don’t give
up. You’re both special.
Something good is
coming.’”
Chris wasn’t religious,
though sometimes he sat
in churches, enjoying the
peaceful atmosphere. But
comfortable Christians
turned him off. James
thought Chris was “off his
head” when he told him
about the voice.
But another mate told
him about the Jesus
Army house where she’d
been a few times.
“When I walked in”
says Chris “there was
the same peace I’d felt in
the churches – in abundance.
But, flippin’ heck,
the people – they really
cared. They weren’t in it
for themselves.”
Chris barely looked
back. It took him time to
get off drugs, but his new
friends were with him
through it. Some months
later, Chris was baptised
as a Christian. Powerful
prayer and an experience
of God’s power at a Jesus
Army event was a turning
point.
An “unbelievable” and
unexpected blessing
came three years later.
James came to a Jesus
Army festival and to
Chris’s amazement,
“stuck his hands in the
air in the first song”. By
the end of the festival,
he’d experienced God for
himself and wanted to be
a Christian.
Chris was blown away.
But James had seen
the reality of what had
happened in Chris’s life
– and he wanted it, too.
Now they both have a
purpose in life. As Chris
says “I’ve realised that
Jesus died for me – the
weight of that. Also –
these beautiful people!
I owe it not only to God,
but also to them, to live
a new life.”
Desperate? Need a lifeline?
Text the Jesus
Army on 0774 0774 200
SAVED Chris is a new man
“BECAUSE WE’RE WORTH IT”
SO MUCH brain power,
time and trouble (not
to mention $) goes
into making us try to
buy beauty.
Cosmetic company
L’Oréal’s famous slogan
was “Because I’m worth it”.
In the mid 2000’s, this was
replaced by “Because you’re
worth it”. In late 2009, the
slogan was changed again
to “Because we’re worth it”
following motivation analysis
and the work in consumer
psychology of Dr. Maxim
Titorenko.
But whether it’s me, you,
or all of us, every day it’s
the same message: pamper
yourself. Augment your life.
Get whiter teeth. Remove
those wrinkles. Get a superb
all over suntan.
All men now know they can
shave so much better with
that all-important extra blade.
All women now know which
canned drink contains just
the right number of calories
for them (usually as few as
possible).
A mind-boggling array of
consumer goods with one
essential promise: change
the surface and you’ll create
a happier you.
God offers no cosmetic
treatments. His one offer
meets our real need: heart
surgery.
His reality can cut into
our life, exposing who we
really are. Selfishness is
uncovered. Insensitivity and
insecurity come to light, those
dark impulses of our nature
which burrow at our core like
parasites.
God’s love, applied through
the power of the Holy Spirit
He sends, digs out the
rottenness in our lives.
It’s not an easy fix, nor is it
a one off experience; it takes
a lifetime to complete this
surgery. It’s messy, painful
and expensive: God allowed
the death of His Son to
complete the work.
If you want the only beauty
treatment that works, God
offers it to you now. God has
made it possible for us to be
fixed from the inside out.
He seems to think we are
worth it.