Bin Laden - The Bad News - Jesus Army

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