Bin Laden - The Bad News - Jesus Army
Bin Laden - The Bad News - Jesus Army
Bin Laden - The Bad News - Jesus Army
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6 modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 92<br />
STREETPAPER CHALLENGE<br />
streetpaper@jesus.org.uk<br />
Photo: Pixel Form, flickr.com<br />
<strong>Bin</strong><br />
<strong>Laden</strong> –<br />
the bad news<br />
CAN ANY TRUE follower of <strong>Jesus</strong> have<br />
been out on the streets, whooping,<br />
cheering and celebrating the death of<br />
Osama bin <strong>Laden</strong>? It’s not conceivable.<br />
It’s not possible. It is like saying that<br />
cats can write sonnets or that snails<br />
can drive cars.<br />
Christians do not glory in death.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y love their enemies and glory in the<br />
resurrected son of God who triumphed<br />
over death. “Love your enemies” said <strong>Jesus</strong>,<br />
not “Laugh, dance and holler over their<br />
tattered corpses.”<br />
No, the repulsive scenes of crowing<br />
outside the White House and in New York<br />
and elsewhere are the carnival celebration of<br />
the old lie: that violence is a bringer of peace,<br />
rather than a generator of further carnage<br />
and mayhem.<br />
Those who celebrate imperial executions<br />
with joy accept with shocking ignorance<br />
the deadly fiction that a bit of gun-slinging<br />
can deal once and for all with those evil Red<br />
Indians. <strong>The</strong>y worship the power of the gun,<br />
the missile – the might of Caesar, not the<br />
rule and reign of the Prince of Peace.<br />
And yet they may call themselves<br />
Christians; many do.<br />
<strong>Bad</strong> news. <strong>The</strong> gospel of <strong>Jesus</strong> is actually<br />
bad news for those who think they are<br />
already sorted, rather than acknowledging<br />
that there is a bit of <strong>Bin</strong> <strong>Laden</strong> in all of us.<br />
It’s bad news to think you’re sorted when<br />
you’re not. To think you’re a Christian when<br />
you’re not.<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> came for those who knew they were<br />
in need,<br />
not the ...they may<br />
ones for<br />
whom call themselves<br />
nominal<br />
subscription<br />
to a<br />
Christians...<br />
creed takes the place of a living, moment by<br />
moment, connection to Christ.<br />
<strong>The</strong> good news of <strong>Jesus</strong> is, therefore,<br />
terrible bad news if at the last you have to<br />
face the fact – when <strong>Jesus</strong> returns – that you<br />
never knew Him.<br />
<strong>The</strong> healed sick, the saved criminals, yes,<br />
even some rescued terrorists – along with all<br />
the rest of those saved by grace – will go in to<br />
feast with the crucified revolutionary.<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong>, the most famous victim of an imperial<br />
execution in history, invites you to join in.<br />
Mind your head in the doorway as you come<br />
in. You’ll need to enter on your knees.<br />
HELP & INFORMATION?<br />
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IN UK<br />
“SELF-HELP OR SELF-HELPLESS”<br />
HOW TO Get a life<br />
THE SHELVES of the<br />
book stores groan<br />
with self-help books,<br />
all utterly useless if<br />
self is all there is.<br />
After all, what are you?<br />
What is your self, exactly?<br />
You’re an organism with a<br />
very short shelf life on a<br />
planet in a vast universe.<br />
Don’t mean to depress<br />
you, but in 100 years or so, it’s<br />
more than likely that no one<br />
will remember you. Those<br />
relationships with friends,<br />
family that you treasure so<br />
much and which define you?<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’ll cease to be, in the<br />
blink of a galactic eye.<br />
dVds<br />
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Where will you be then?<br />
We live in a society<br />
dedicated to the improvement<br />
of self, but without an eye to<br />
ultimate value. <strong>The</strong> truth is<br />
that our “self’s” story has no<br />
meaning unless it is part of<br />
a bigger story that reflects<br />
existence as it really is.<br />
Otherwise, you’re just<br />
reading one sentence (your<br />
life) in a big book (existence),<br />
over and over again, never<br />
digesting the whole. You won’t<br />
see where the story is going.<br />
Really, the important part<br />
of the story is not you at all.<br />
You won’t find this<br />
advertised much, but in fact,<br />
existence is centred on the<br />
glory that is God. We only<br />
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live and breathe and have our<br />
being because He does.<br />
Yes, your hopes and<br />
dreams and pains and<br />
longings are significant, but<br />
only because they are –<br />
unfathomably, incredibly – of<br />
interest to God.<br />
<strong>The</strong> TV won’t tell you this.<br />
Google ads won’t tell you this.<br />
<strong>The</strong> commercial world exists<br />
to tell you that you are the<br />
main event – and that you can<br />
improve yourself by buying<br />
product X.<br />
But you can’t. And you’re<br />
not that important. Sorry. Only<br />
He is really important.<br />
But if you can start to get<br />
your head around this then<br />
you can come to a place<br />
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Photo: Robert Banh, flickr.com<br />
where, ironically, you realise<br />
that you are actually of<br />
incredible value since you’re<br />
made in the image of the<br />
creator God<br />
You’ll realise that you’re<br />
helpless to fix yourself, but<br />
that you’re important enough<br />
for the awesome God of the<br />
Universe to want to help, to<br />
fix, to heal.<br />
I would tell you to go<br />
and look for a Bible in your<br />
local bookstore, but the<br />
section is so small you won’t<br />
easily find it. It’s not a selfhelp<br />
book, you see, it’s not<br />
entertainment. It’s about<br />
uncomfortable truth and a<br />
God who doesn’t sit nicely<br />
on your coffee table.<br />
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WATER AID<br />
REFRESHED Runners<br />
Well watered<br />
A JESUS ARMY house<br />
in Coventry have been<br />
getting experimental in<br />
bringing life to the people<br />
they meet.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y gave out free<br />
bottles of mineral water to<br />
runners at a local fun run.<br />
One came back, after he’d<br />
finished, to tell them that<br />
he was really refreshed by<br />
their generosity and that<br />
he looks forward to seeing<br />
them again.<br />
A lot of those in the<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> group are<br />
young people or students,<br />
so they often bring their<br />
friends along. <strong>The</strong>y met a<br />
young man recently who<br />
is scripting a Christian<br />
version of Have I got <strong>News</strong><br />
for You? called Have I got<br />
Good <strong>News</strong> for You?<br />
WILL AND KATE<br />
BBQ BASH Coventry<br />
Right royal<br />
ALL AROUND the UK on<br />
the day of the Royal Wedding,<br />
people celebrated with street<br />
parties. In Sheffield, a <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
<strong>Army</strong> group enjoyed getting<br />
involved in a street party in<br />
their neighbourhood.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Royal Wedding<br />
proved to be a good way to<br />
meet the locals, have nice<br />
food and a good laugh” says<br />
Charis Kurpiel, 16, “It was a<br />
great day and we made some<br />
new friends.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>y weren’t the only<br />
ones to make the most of<br />
the day. Members of the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
<strong>Army</strong> in Coventry hosted<br />
a street barbecue in their<br />
area, which was “really wellattended”,<br />
and the <strong>Jesus</strong><br />
<strong>Army</strong> in Northampton also<br />
played host to their local<br />
street party.<br />
MEN ONLY<br />
MEN Alive for God<br />
Male bonding<br />
IN MARCH this year, 600<br />
men from all around the UK<br />
met in Northampton for the<br />
<strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong>’s annual “Men<br />
Alive for God” conference.<br />
One commented: “It’s<br />
unusual to have an event<br />
with just men, but it’s really<br />
powerful. You can go deep<br />
in a different way and face<br />
up to issues honestly. It was<br />
pretty life-changing.”<br />
Meanwhile, women<br />
from the <strong>Jesus</strong> <strong>Army</strong> in<br />
Brighton were joined<br />
by women from another<br />
church, Kings Church,<br />
in Medway, Kent, for a<br />
day with an international<br />
flavour. <strong>The</strong>y sang “Glory<br />
to God” in the mother<br />
tongue of the various<br />
nationalities<br />
at the event.<br />
represented