modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 77 Page 1

modern Jesus army: bringing spiritual and social help to all people No. 77 FREE

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THE CHANCE OF A LIFETIME...

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But listen: Jesus Christ said we don’t just need that first natural birth; we need a second birth, a spiritual birth. He spoke of it as being “born again” or “born of water (baptism) and Spirit”. This new birth experience is something which any of us can

BIRTHS can be messy, sometimes dangerous – and not every baby is a pretty baby. If you’re reading this you made it and here you are now – strong, healthy and good looking to prove it! Good for you!

have. Most of us feel a need for God’s help, God’s forgiveness. We have selfish thoughts, words and actions. We’ve all got sin in us: that’s why we need a new birth, so that goodness and love becomes our character – like God Himself!

Sin has removed our spiritual life-power. We need a spiritual new start; we need to be born again. Believing in Jesus Christ, who saves us from sin, brings God’s Spirit into action. He triggers this new birth. Then we get baptised

(immersed) in water and receive what Jesus called “the baptism with the Holy Spirit” – being filled with the power and life of God – and so we experience being “born of God”. Don’t be put off by people who claim to be “born again” but don’t

live the life. They’ve just lost it! Get into the experi-ence and enjoy what God brings to you. Then you’ll not only be strong, healthy and good look-ing, but you’ll be a warm, loving, generous and good person. It’s worth thinking about!

modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 77 Page 2 modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 77 Page 3

JESUS Fellowship Church is an evangelical Christian Church with a charismatic emphasis. It upholds the full historical, Christian faith, in particular it upholds the doctrine of the Trinity and the full divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Fellowship Church is a part of the Multiply Christian Network and a member of the Evangelical Alliance. To receive Jesus Fellowship literature regularly, free, send the response form on page 6 to Jesus Fellowship Central Offices, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3BR. Tel. 0845 123 5550. modern Jesus army Streetpaper No.77 © 2006, published three times a year by Jesus Fellowship Church, Nether Heyford, Northampton NN7 3LB. Editor James Stacey. All photographs supplied and copyright by Jesus Army Photo Library unless stated otherwise. Printed by BGP Ltd., Bicester, Oxon. Reproduction of any part of this newspaper in any form requires written permission. All articles are contributed by members of the Jesus Fellowship Church, also known as the Jesus Army and Jesus People. Many members live as part of the New Creation Christian Community. Readers wishing to contact authors may do so by writing to the Jesus Fellowship Central Office. Gospel series adapted from ‘Can You Believe It’, © Lifewords, 2006. Used with permission. To obtain a copy, see www.lifewords-global.com.

ALL GOOD armies have an HQ, and we are no exception.

We will answer your queries, provide you with free literature

or a John’s Gospel, even pray with you over the

telephone if you are in special need.

You can call us: our National Helpline is 0845 123 5550 (local call rate), and generally there are real people to talk to, not machines.

But in these days of hi-tech, we still have an address and lots of people write in.Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST, Nether Heyford,Northampton, NN7 3BR

Bit more hi-tech? Email us at info@jesus.org.ukWant to have a look at what the mJa is all about? With a PC, you can do this from anywhere in the world using our website: www.jesus.org.uk

Across the UK, though, you are welcome to call one of our local churches if they are near you. There are Jesus Army congregations and groups around the UK. They are not all the same size, they meet in different sorts of premises, but they are all made up of people who love Jesus and are ready to help you on in your faith too.

Belfast .......................................................0845 123 5552Birmingham...............................................0845 166 8153Bournemouth............................................0845 123 5558Brighton.....................................................0845 166 8151Bristol .......................................................0845 123 5339Coventry ....................................................0845 166 8154Croydon.....................................................0845 226 1972Chester/ North Wales ...............................0845 123 5561Hastings ....................................................0845 123 5551Huntingdon ...............................................0845 166 2697Ipswich ......................................................0845 166 8156Kettering....................................................0845 166 8157Leeds .......................................................0845 166 8167Leicester....................................................0845 644 9705Liverpool ...................................................0845 166 8168London Central .........................................0845 166 8152London West .............................................0845 833 1319London South ...........................................0845 226 1972Manchester................................................0845 166 8169Milton Keynes ...........................................0845 166 8159Newcastle-upon-Tyne...............................0845 166 8187Northampton.............................................0845 166 8161Norwich .....................................................0845 166 8162Nottingham................................................0845 166 8163Oxford .......................................................0845 166 8164Preston ......................................................0845 123 5554Sheffi eld ....................................................0845 166 8183Stoke-on-Trent ..........................................0845 123 5334Swansea ....................................................0845 123 5556Wolverhampton.........................................0845 123 5563

JESUS ARMY HQJESUS ARMY HQ

Pauline Bentley (Brit-ish): I was a rebellious child of the sixties but everything has changed since I started living as a disciple of Jesus. My life is full of challenge and

fulfilment.

JEZUS CHRISTUS IS HEER DUTCH. YESHU NAI PRABHU HUNUHUNCHHA NEPALI. MAHAL KITA PANGANOON

TAGALOG. JESUS CRISTO ES SEÑOR SPANISH. JESUS CRISTO É O SENHOR PORTUGUESE

GUJU YESU GRISDO KOREAN

Jesus is Lord of every colour, every culture, every languageThis group of Christians from the Jesus Army in London come from across the globe, but they all agree that Jesus Christ is Lord – in any language. Here they tell Streetpaper the difference that their faith in Jesus has made in their lives

OI! OI! JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!OI! OI! JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!

MAN LIVES BEFORE BIRTH

IT’S THE undeniable statistic: one out of every one people have been born. It’s watertight. Everyone you pass in the streets: whatever else may be different about them, they’ve all been born. The only other reliable hundred-per-center is death: it’s everyone’s destina-tion. We have no choice about dying or not, but we have some choice about the way we go. Muppet creator Jim Henson arranged to have Big Bird attend his upbeat funeral. Mao Tse Tung had more than one million Chinese attend his. But neither of them was alive to see it. And nobody’s ever been able to ar-range their birth. Well – nobody apart from one person, according to the Bible. God’s Son, Jesus, existed before He was born. In fact, He existed before the begin-ning of time: “In the beginning the Word (Jesus) already existed. He was with God, and He was God.” (John 1:1 CEV) He chose to become a man, to be born and live a human life: God is one of us. He chose to die as well – but that’s another part of the story. (See page 3)

Curd de Vries (Dutch Surinamese): I was withdrawn and full of negativity before I met Jesus; now I am full of joy and my life is filled with God and his people.

Rosemary Sebastian (British Afro-Carib-bean): I had a sense of being in prison though I have never been in prison in the physical way; now I am learning to trust Jesus. It’s very exciting.

Justin Gerald (British, mixed race): I was a drunken, stoned trou-ble maker, with ASBO-like behaviour until I found Jesus in 2004.

Christina Chiriboga (Ec-uadorian): In the year 2000 I heard some life-changing words: He died for you. Before I heard them, it was like I did not have a life; now I’ve got a life full of sunshine!

Unju Han (Korean): Be-fore I found Jesus I was trying to accomplish my own plans; now I live for Him and it’s challenging but fulfilling.

John Baruch (Brazilian): I had a gay lifestyle: regu-lar clubbing and all that went with it; now I have decided to live only for Jesus for the rest of my

days.

Tseten Sherpa (Nepa-lese): I was lost, but now I feel renewed through my faith in Jesus.

(SOUTH LONDON)(SOUTH LONDON)

>> >>

FIGHTER FIGHTER FINDS FINDS FAITHFAITHIn 1989, Manchester street fighter, John Lomas wanted to hurt and kill just about everyone he met. Today, you couldn’t meet a nicer fella. So what happened? MURDER

PREDICTED CENTURIES

EARLIERIF IT had been predicted that you were going to be murdered, you might do your best to avoid your date with destiny. Be out of town that day. Lock yourself in the toi-let. Stay in bed. Not so Jesus Christ. His murder had been predicted 700 years earlier by a big time Jewish prophet, Isaiah, who wrote about Jesus’ death as though it had already hap-pened. Here’s an extract: ‘He was wounded and crushed because of our sins... He was painfully abused, but He did not complain... He was con-demned to death without a fair trial’. (Isaiah 53: 5, 7, 8 CEV) Jesus didn’t try to escape death. He chose to die – for you. (See page 4)

Putting the boot in: street violence

John Lomas has changed dramatically since finding faith

“WE’D BEATEN up this security guard” says John, 42. “He was lying on the edge of the street and I booted him in the head, cracked it on the kerb. This woman screamed ‘Murder!’ and I ran off. “Later, the police stopped us. The woman identified us and I was sent to a detention centre for six months. I was 15 at the time. This stuff was just the norm for me – and when I heard the bloke was going to be okay, I never thought anything more of it.” John had been brought up as a good Catholic boy, but “lost interest” and got into his own thing in his early teens. He drifted into petty crime – thieving and fighting. “I had the mind-set that I had to be stronger, faster, fitter than anyone else” says John. “I became obsessed with sport – boxing and weight training – so that when I went looking for fights I’d know I was invincible”. John became a heavy drinker and in the late eighties he was getting into three or four fights a week, “fists, weapons, whatever”. By 1989 John de-scribes himself as having a “real desire to hurt, to kill”. You wouldn’t want to have met him in a dark alley. But something inside John was nig-gling at his conscience. “In about 1991 I began to dislike the person I’d become,” remembers John.

“I wished I could start over again, be different. But I couldn’t see a way out of the life I was living.” This nagging feeling grew and John began to hate what he was doing, who he was. Bit by bit, John started to reach out to God. “I’d heard some Christian preachers say that you could actually know the Lord,” says John. “Underneath it all, I still believed in God. I just didn’t know how I could get to know Him”.

John started to seriously examine his life and want change. He began to “pop into churches” to be quiet and pray. As he asked God into his life, he started to change. He knew that he needed the support of other Christians if he was going to make it, but John just couldn’t set-tle in any of the churches he tried out. Getting des-perate, he prayed “God show me”. Shortly afterwards,

he was walking through a park when he stopped and stared at a building with the words “Jesus Army Centre”. He’d never heard of it before. Later that day, a friend said to John, out of the blue: “Why don’t you try going to the Jesus Army?” So he did. That was January 2004 and John describes life since then as “amazing experiences of God”. Having found God and found friendship with the Jesus Army, John has become a warm, friendly, passionate Christian with a burning desire to help others to find the love of God. You’d like him.

>> >>

Romanyy revival

A HUGE REVIVAL of Christianity is taking place among Slovakian Romanies. Hundreds of Romanies have been converted to Christian faith. Since October 2005 some seventy Romanies have been baptised and joined the Jesus Army in Sheffi eld which now has a roughly 50/50 mix of British/Slovakian (with the Brits just slightly outnum-bered). This is a unique develop-ment: a mixed Slovakian Romany/British church.

Brutal jjunggle murder

FIFTY YEARS ago fi ve missionaries were brutally murdered in the Ecuado-rian jungle by members of the Waodani tribe they went to serve. And then something amazing hap-pened: the killers became Christians – and later baptised the children of the men they’d speared.

A new fi lm, End of the Spear, commemorates these events.

One of the missionaries explained why they didn’t carry a gun for self-de-fence: “We’re ready to see heaven; they’re not.”

Children on

breadline

ABOUT ONE in fi ve de-prived children cannot afford to invite a friend for a snack once a fortnight or to go swimming once a month, according to the fi rst offi cial survey of material deprivation.

The offi cial breadline is measured at 60 per cent of the national aver-age income.

Selfi shAT SELFRIDGES, Oxford St, you could now shell out £85 for a sandwich.

The McDonald sand-wich is said to be the world’s most expensive. Its cost is down to the Wagyu beef that makes up most of the fi lling.

“Between the beef and the foie gras with black truffl e mayonnaise and some fi ne cheese, it’s a real delight,” said food and catering director Ewan Venters.

Others might think it’s too much to swallow.

HE GOSPEL of John s part of the Bible and ells the story of the Life of Christ. Packed into 70 pages you can fi nd how one man bridged the gap between man

d God. Find out what living water is. Hear how the dead were

raised. Test for yourself the claims of Jesus. The Bible in its entirety has now been translated into 414 languages, and a part is now available in over 2,000 languages. If listed in the bestsellers, it would regularly top the list in all its versions. For your FREE copy of John’s Gospel contact us (see address below). Or text on 07969 679 501 or phone on 0845 123 5550 to reserve your copy.

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modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 77 Page 4 modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 77 Page 5

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allsorts • army of allsorts • army of allsorts • army of allsorts • army of allsorts • army of allsorts • army of

ARMY ARMY‘‘IN YER FACEIN YER FACE’’TOO OFTEN Christians are ‘invisible’ in the UK. They’re somewhere out there or they’re hiding in churches; they’re having a cof-fee morning, a jumble sale, or a prayer meeting. Somewhere. Maybe. But Jesus said Christians should let their light shine before men – or, as one modern Bible version puts it, ‘God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.’ (‘The Message’)

Sometimes the modern Jesus army are greeted with the chant “Barmy Army”! It’s usually in (fairly) good humour and we don’t mind, if it means we’re being noticed. The first Christians were accused of being ‘out of their minds’ or ‘drunk on too much

wine’, so we’re in good company. Actually, we are madly in love with a God who has demonstrated such great love for us: sending His Son to die for us, giving us His Spirit to live in us. So we’re happy to be ‘mad for God’. And the modern Jesus army is a peo-ple’s army, an army of ‘allsorts’, with all kinds of people in its ranks. Young and old. Black, white, brown, yellow. Fat and thin, tall and short. Some have PhDs, some were kicked out of school – but all are equal. And every mJa soldier burns with passion to share the amazing love of God with other people everywhere. As a result, the movement is growing. The life-changing message of our attrac-tive, passionate, awesome, loving God is drawing many people to nail their colours to the mast, to join the revolution.

Like other revolutionary groups, the modern Jesus army has a manifesto. Here’s an extract: The modern Jesus army brings the Christian gospel to the searchers in to-day’s spiritual culture... The modern Jesus army will go any-where to help men and women in need through addiction, degradation or unfor-tunate circumstances... The modern Jesus army offers friend-ship, without discrimination and preju-dice, and identifies with all people groups, meeting them in UK cities and towns and showing the love and life of Jesus. It’s a cause worth fighting for: come and join us.

For more info check out www.jesus.org.uk

‘modern Jesus armymodern Jesus army’ are a common sight in towns and cities across the UK. are a common sight in towns and cities across the UK. Streetpaper reports on the very public image that the church has adopted.Streetpaper reports on the very public image that the church has adopted.‘modern Jesus army’ are a common sight in towns and cities across the UK. Streetpaper reports on the very public image that the church has adopted.

I WAS IN London’s gay scene for five years. I felt like I was in a maze and couldn’t find the way out. I didn’t really feel it was the real me. I think others doubted whether I was a lesbian too. My ex-boyfriend Steve had led me into human and animal rights, local Labour Party politics and having gay friends, which is all very well, but I had no idea who I really was. On reflection, I just had sympathy for people. In 1993, I was out shop-ping in Camden when I met Ruth and Andrew from the Jesus Army. An-drew invited me onto the colourful bus and Ruth explained about Jesus’ love for me and we prayed together for me to receive Jesus. Since then I’ve been finding out who I am through my experience of

Mhairi, London

friendship in the church. Right from the start I knew acceptance. In the past twelve and a half years I’ve known a lot of healing inside. God has reached down and touched me. I’ve been freed from confusion and found my place.

MHAIRI ESCAPED HER MAZE...

I INVITED Jesus into my life when I was a child; however, it wasn’t until I was sev-enteen that I realised how real Jesus was. I was in the Jesus Ar-my’s giant marquee. As I sang, I started to cry and for the first time, I felt God’s love. From that moment on I real-ised that God loved me and was always going to be there for me.

David, Birmingham

MY ROUTINE was always the same - collect my pen-sion, pay my bills, then spend the evening in the pub. One night in 1998, two Je-sus Army women sat down at my table and told me about Jesus. I was fed up with the bru-tality, bullying and break-ins where I lived. ‘There must be a good per-son who can get me out of all this’ I’d thought, and here they were, saying that Jesus could give me a new life. A few days 1ater I walked into the Jesus Army house in Brighton and found family and peace. So I was baptised in the river and moved in - and here I am still, at 80!

Fred, Brighton

Family found

I DIDN’T really fit in at school in Coven-try where I grew up. Things got better when I moved to a boarding school in Shrewsbury and made some good friends. But back in Coventry a few years later, I started feeling depressed and lonely. In September last year, I met a member of the Jesus Army in Cov-entry and was invited me to a meal at one of the Jesus Army’s com-munity houses. I have never looked back. God filled the gap I’d been feeling in-side. I have found that the warm arms of God have wrapped around me and the Holy Spirit has filled me.

James, Coventry

People’s army: every kind of person

MURDER VICTIM CHOOSES DEATH

JESUS knew He was destined to die – and to live again. A few weeks before His trial and execution, He said, ‘We are now on our way to Jerusalem. Eve-rything that the prophets wrote about the Son of Man (Jesus) will happen there. He will be handed over to foreigners, who will make fun of Him, mistreat Him, and spit on Him. They will beat Him and kill Him, but three days later He will rise to life’

(Luke 18:31-33 CEV). So did Jesus have a death-wish, some kind of “martyr complex”? In fact, Jesus (under-standably) didn’t want to die a violent death and later prayed ag-onised prayers that there might be another way. But He knew that in dying, He was paying the price for human evil and making a way for us to come back to God – so He went willingly, suffered... and died. (See page 5)

>> >>

CRIMINAL SENTENCED TO HEAVEN

RECENTLY, British relatives of victims of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks have welcomed a US jury’s decision that a confessed plotter could be executed. Zacarias Moussaoui says he lied to stop officials uncovering the 9/11 plot. “The death penalty would be OK by me,” said Patricia Bingley, whose son Kevin Dennis died in the New York at-tacks. Charles Berkeley, whose son Gra-ham was on one of the planes flown into the World Trade Center, said Moussaoui “deserves everything he gets”. Moussaoui has denied direct involve-ment with the 9/11 attacks. Nearly 2000 years ago, one man de-clared that he ‘deserved’ to be executed. But He insisted that the man strung up next to him was innocent: “We got what was coming to us, but He didn’t do anything wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into power!” Jesus replied, “I promise that today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:41-43 CEV) How about you – are you prepared to confess that you’ve blown it before God and need Jesus to ‘remember you’ if you’re going to have a hope in hell of making it to heaven? (See page 6)

>> >>

modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 77 Page 6 modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 77 Page 7

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DEAD MAN EATS BREAKFAST

MANY great thinkers, founders of religions and philosophers have come and gone over the centuries. They thought therefore they were. But now, however profound their words or actions, they’re gone. Many of them have tombs you can visit. You can visit the tomb of Jesus Christ – but there’s something startlingly different about it: it’s empty. He isn’t there. Jesus rose from the dead. And He wasn’t a ghost: on one occasion, He even

cooked and ate breakfast with His aston-ished friends – barbecued fish (the way He’d always liked it). How else do we explain how His first fol-lowers, crushed and defeated at His death were suddenly galvanised into a world-changing force? How else do we explain the millions of Christians who claim to have experienced the life-changing power of a Jesus who is alive today?

(See page 7)

>> >>

Solitary existenceHEATING on, television droning away, unopened Christ-mas presents and a mountain of mail – as a woman’s dead body lay undiscovered for two years. Joyce Vincent, 40, was found in the main room of her tiny North London fl at when an offi cer from the Metro-politan Housing Trust took a locksmith to the fl at after thousands of pounds of rent arrears had accumulated. “Where was everybody?” asked the local MP. “A lot of people live here on their own”, said a neigh-bour. “Everyone keeps to themselves.” “It is a sad refl ection of the individualist times we are living in”, commented a local minister. Seven million people live alone in the UK, almost a third of UK households. The proportion of one-person households has more than trebled for working-age peo-ple over the last four decades, while people of pension age are twice as likely to be living on their own. And it is acknowledged that isolation and loneliness are key factors in the increase of depression. Ten times more people suffer from major (clinical) depression now than sixty years ago. There’s no getting away from it: people need to be tied together by something stronger than mere proximity. Next door may as well be ten miles away. We need true friend-ship. We need shared lives. We need to heed the Maker’s instructions: it was God, back at the beginning, who said, “It is not good for man to be alone”.

Many Jesus Army members live together in shared houses. If you would like to visit or come for a meal phone 0845 123 5550 for details.

Souces: The Times, www.statistics.gov.uk, www.clinical-depression.co.uk

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Half ppippe is a hit

A JESUS ARMY team in Northampton recently got hold of a big ‘half pipe’ – a ramp used by skaters and roller bladers (pushed together they’re a half pipe, back to back they’re a ‘spine’) – and took it to the town’s main drag. The response was un-anticipated and sudden as team leader, Nathan White described it: ‘Within seconds there were forty or fi fty blad-ers with us. They loved it! Af-ter about half an hour we took the half pipe to a car park and they all followed us. It was like the Pied Piper’.

Jesus Armyy

befriendsggayys

CHRISTIANS haven’t always been the most welcome visitors to Manchester’s ‘Gay Village’ – they associate Christians with judgmental attitudes towards gays. But the Jesus Army have become accepted there – even getting invites to come to some of the gay clubs and bars. “One time, we met a bloke who’d had some really bad experiences of Christians. He gave us a really hard time, but I kept just repeating to him ‘God loves you’. Later, he wrote a letter saying how he’d become a Christian. “We just want to love peo-ple and share God’s amazing love with them”.

ART IN TOO!

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Lynn lost Lynn lost 6 stone6 stone

HEART trouble spurred her to make radical changes to her lifestyle…‘It’s not fair. Why can’t I stuff my face with chocolate like everyone else? I just look at food and I feel the pounds going on!’ That was how I used to think. I’d struggled for years trying to diet, but I’d just go up and down on an exhausting emo-tional roller-coaster. Then I’d get fed up, cover up my flab, and say to myself ‘People don’t mind fat as long as you’re fun.’ But inside I knew I was a failure in keep-ing on track with food and exercise. And in December 2003, at 18st 6lb, I landed up in hos-pital - I couldn’t even walk across the ward without pain. Of course I prayed! I had got into a self-hat-ing mode. I’d look in the mirror and say, ‘It doesn’t matter how clever you are or how good at this or that, or even as a Christian, how good you are at trying to serve God, you are YUK! YUK! YUK! YUK! Friends would say, ‘Never mind! We love you as you are,’ but I didn’t believe them. After all, I knew I found it hard to love myself. That takes you on a spi-ral downwards.

Kick Start from God Anyway, in hospital I met a girl who had serious heart trouble and she

Lynn565ft 4in18st 6lb6st12st 6lb

NAMEAGE

HEIGHTWAS

LOSTWEIGHT

...and found a new lease of lifeasked me about my faith. Bottom line is, I said, that God made us and loves us. I prayed for her, and her monitor registered an immediate improvement! She was gob-smacked and I knew God was kick-starting me into action. I left hospital after three weeks with tablets and an appointment for an angiogram.

Sunday 8 February was a red letter day.

During sing-ing in church

I felt movement in my chest and sensed

God had healed me. On Tues-day 10th I had the angiogram and the results were that I have A GREAT HEART!! Wow. Thanks Jesus! Get moving Lynn! This is what I felt God was telling me. I asked for prayer support, found a healthy, fit, young friend – Carolyn – to mentor me and we got cracking. By the way I was now 54.

PEOPLE EXTRA

God knows it wasn’t easy. But I now wanted to live life to the max. So, it was time for a new regime – hard-core diet, exercise and daily encouragement. Carolyn didn’t know

or care a b o u t

my

past failures but be-lieved I could make it, step by step. We went from walking to power walking to jogging around a lake in all weathers. I could

hardly believe it. It was a time of constant change and willing for challenge no matter what I felt and as mum said, ‘to keep one foot in front of the other’. In just under a year

I lost 6 stone and climbed Snowdon with some friends as a thank you to Jesus.

What have I proved?

1. It’s pos-sible for our body, soul and spirit to work together in harmony and be healthy.

2. That it is love and kind-ness that frees us from the ug-liness of failure and self-hate.

3. That God can change us, wants to, and desires above all to lead us more deeply into HIS love.

LYNN’S TOP TIPS

1. Get inspired2. Get support3. Get accountable4. Get moving

FAVE INSPIRATIONS

Delight yourself in the Lord (not food!) (Psalm 37v4)

The Word of God is a source of energyListen to the still small voice (Isaiah 30 v 20 / 21)

GOD will never give up on you, so start again!

Feast on HIM!

FACT:

Fasting improves circulation, promotes endurance and stamina, renovates, revives and purifi es the cells of the body.

www.jesuspeople.bizSEND for a free catalogue to: Jesus People Shop FREE POST, Nether Heyford, North amp ton NN7 3BR t: 0845 166 8172 f: 0845 166 8178

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“I’LL BE BACK!” SAYS RESURRECTION MAN

“I’LL BELIEVE in God if He comes down here right now and shows me”. Ever heard it said? (Ever said it?) But imagine if He did – terrifying! Are we really ready to come face to face with God, who the Bible de-scribes as ‘like a destructive fire’? In fact, He is going to “come down here”. Jesus said He would return to planet Earth again before wrapping up human history: Jesus said to His disciples, “Don’t be wor-ried! Have faith in God and have faith in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I am go-ing there to prepare a place for each of you. After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me.” Get to know Him now so His re-turn can be something you can look forward to: not something to dread.

(See page 8)

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modern JESUS army Streetpaper No. 77 Page 8

SOCK IT TO ‘EM!Put a sock in it: part of Coventry Jesus Centre’s appeal involved drama. Comic character ‘Jim’ (left) donates his much-treasured football socks to a good cause, much to the disgust of his mate ‘Len’.

VOLUNTEERS at the Jesus Centres have been working their socks off to fulfil the Jesus Centres’ aim to be “places where the love of Jesus is ex-pressed daily in worship, friendship and care for

When Coventry Jesus Centre appealed for socks for the homeless recently, the response knocked their socks off: they received over 12,000 pairs.

Check out: www.jesuscentre.org.uk to find out what’s happening near you and how you can help.

every type of person”. Coventry Jesus Centre manager, Piers Young, says, ‘We aim to give peo-ple hope for the future and practical help to make it happen.’ Jesus Centres are al-

ready open in Coventry and Northampton, with a Jesus Centre due to open in central London around the end of this year. Other possible future locations include Sheffield, Leices-ter and Birmingham.

WHAT do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh. (Not funny?) My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli. A strong currant pulled him in. (Worse?) Comedians say a joke depends on a good punchline. How about life? Live for seventy years or so and then die (boom boom). Funny? We weren’t made to live and just die like a joke with a bad punchline. Jesus has died for us (literally, done our dying for us) and risen from death leaving it behind. If we trust in Him, follow Him, we can escape everlasting death and find everlast-ing life. Life with God. Life without end. Pray (talk to Him) like this: Jesus, I be-lieve you died and rose again. You have bro-ken the power of evil and death. Thank you for dying for me. Please give me new life.

YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER

mJa UK: 0845 123 5550 (local call rate)www.jesus.org.uk e-mail: info@jesus.org.uk

For further help/info: Jesus Fellowship, FREEPOST,Nether Heyford, North amp ton NN7 3BRtel: 0845 166 8171 fax: 0845 166 8178

NEWS PA PERS SUPPORT RECYCLINGRe cy cled paper made up 75.5% of the raw ma te ri al for UK news pa pers in 2004

JESUS SAID: “I am the one who raises the dead to life!

Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25-26, CEV