‘Kony 2012′

Make Kony Famous

Jason Russell made a film called ‘Kony 2012′ to highlight the crimes of the LRA and to move the world to action. Their aim is to make Joseph Kony famous so that every person, especially those in positions of leadership and influence, take note and together, see this man removed. Through intensive lobbying of governments and broadcasting over the internet their dream is becoming true. People are responding, signing up and taking action to see this cruel and violent leader brought to justice. In fact the other day when I was walking through some local woods I came across a stone with ‘Kony 2012′ written on it. While you or I may not be able to do anything on our own – this world movement can.
On April 20 2012 ‘cover the night’ will take place as people are encouraged to put up posters of Kony and make his name and face unavoidable. The goal is to see this man removed and children to be released. The efforts of Jason Russell and his team have been immense and the impact has not been without effect. World leaders are taking note and the hope is by 2013 Kony will be captured.
I, along with millions of others support this and have signed up to see this dream become a reality. I encourage you to do the same.

Replacing Kony

While I support this venture I also dream of something greater to happen. My fear is that should Kony be brought to trial there will be another ‘Kony’ to replace him. Just before Saddam Hussain was captured he boasted that there would be a thousand more to take his place. The same happened with Osama Bib Laden – he may have been killed but there are many more lining up to take his place. While on holiday in Germany we visited Dachau, the former concentration camp. In the camp was a memorial which had been put there by some of the survivors. It was a promise that these things would never happen again. Sadly history tells another story – genocide is still all too common. My point is there will always be another Kony. While we may see the end of Joseph Kony the reality is there are many more who will continue to do the same. The dream of Jason Russell is great but I dream of something greater.

Make Jesus Famous

Today is Good Friday, a day when millions around the world remember and yes, celebrate, the torture and execution of Jesus Christ. The New Testament Gospels record for us what happened – the betrayal, the trial, the injustice and the agonizing death. Now while the suffering was great, many others have suffered far worse including many of the children Kony has abducted. But here is what makes the death and suffering of Jesus Christ so unique. On the cross Jesus cried out

‘My God My God why have you forsaken me?’ On the cross Jesus went beyond the worst kind of human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection. He suffered infinite separation from the Father, foresaken for you and for me. The bible tells us that this was God’s way to pay and deal with our sins so that he could end all suffering and evil without ending us.
But the story does not end there. Three days later Jesus would rise and walk out from the tomb. His resurrection is proof of the restoration and renewal that God has promised. This world as we know it will be made new. All evil and suffering will end. All that has been broken will be made beautiful. Every horrible experience will be repaired and will become better and greater. There will be no more Joseph kony’s and no one to take his place.
This is what I dream of and the death and resurrection of Jesus makes it a reality.
So rather than make Kony Famous lets make Jesus Famous. He is the one to end all wars. He is the one to change and transform lives. He is the one who can make the world we all long for a reality.

In the meantime we fight for justice we seek the removal of men like Joseph Kony and we do all we can to care for the abducted children. Why? Because this is what Jesus came to do – he came to rescue creation.

Part 1

Suffering World
The problem is not if we suffer but when we suffer. Live long enough in this world and we will suffer. This is the message of the bible and this is the reality for Job. Suffering may be experienced in different ways. It can be physical as we deal with chronic pain or an incurable disease. It can be emotional as we come to terms with the loss of a loved one be they young or well on in years. Suffering can also be seen in natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes and floods and it can be witnessed through human evil like terrorism, genocide and corruption. The cold reality is we live in a world of inevitable suffering. While there is much that is beautiful in creation and while there is so much to enjoy in life, we live with the fact that so much of what we see and touch is terribly broken and disordered.

Of course the issue is further complicated when experience tells us that it’s the innocent that seem to suffer most. That’s the big theme of Job. Those who are corrupt and wicked and care nothing for God seem to live better than those who seek justice and show compassion and love the ways of God. (21v7-15)

Introducing Job
Job is introduced to us as the ‘greatest man among all the people of the East’ 1v3. Materially he was wealthy but it’s his spiritual health that is the focus. He is ‘upright and and blameless, he feared God and shunned evil’ 1v1,8. Job even takes time to pray for his children after there parties ‘perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts’ 1v5. In fact at the very end of the book God commends Job as speaking what is right 42v7.
Because Job is so righteous it makes his subsequent suffering all the more difficult to comprehend. Within the space of a few days Job’s wealth and health is destroyed (1v13ff). His livelihood is wiped out by invading armies, his children and their families have all been killed in a natural disaster and his health has been snatched away. None of it makes sense. Why does God allow it? Why does God not intervene? These are questions Job begins to ask as he lives with the reality of such awful suffering (3v11-12, 20-23). As we read through Job we are left asking the big question: ‘What kind of God runs a world like this?’ From chapters 1-3 we are left to conclude that God is either Not Loving or Not powerful or perhaps both!

Introducing Satan
Unknown to Job, but known to us the reader, Satan has come to God. Surprisingly it’s God who reminds Satan of Job: ‘Have you considered my servant Job?’ 1v8. Behind the scenes and in the control room of power God gives Satan ‘permission’ to pursue Job. It seems Satan is convinced that Job only loves God because he has a good life. But upset his life, bring some suffering and he will soon turn his back on God. While Satan wants to cause harm to Job’s life with the intent of turning him away from God – in everything that happens – Job remains true to God. Amidst all his questions Job can say: ‘I know that my redeemer lives…and after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh I will see God.’ 19v25-26. Apart from chapter one and two we hear no more from Satan. It seems the writer wants our focus, not on Satan but on God.

Introducing God
Despite all the suffering and all the questions about suffering God remains in absolute control. No where are we to think that this world is in ‘free fall’ or that somehow Satan is a force that God is struggling to cope with. In fact the opposite is true. Behind all the suffering stands a God who remains firmly in charge of Job’s life, Satan and the world in which we live.
While Satan pursues Job, it’s at God’s initiative and under God’s control. In fact the writer wants us to see that Satan is on a leash – he can only do what God permits him to do. ‘Very well then everything he has is in your hands,…’1v12, 2v6. Job himself recognises that his life is under the Sovereign care of God, ‘The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away…1v21′ ‘Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? 2v10′. While Job knows it in his head he only comes to experience it in his heart as he listens to God speak to him. The concluding chapters remind us that God alone is the creator of the world and is therefore in change of all that happens in the world (Ch 38-41). We are left to conclude that there is just one God with absolute power and supreme authority. The creator God stands behind both good and evil, but yet God is never charged with evil. In ways that remain a mystery God is seen to allow, permit and even cause suffering in the world and in the lives people – even innocent and righteous people like Job. That God stands behind all suffering raises many questions but it also provides our hope.

With these introductions we are now better placed to understand the structure and therefore the message of Job.

Part 2

Chapters 1-3: Job and his suffering
The first three chapters introduce us to Job and the suffering that invades his life.
While much suffering is the direct consequence of sin the suffering of Job is what we might call ‘innocent suffering’. It does not mean Job was sinless, rather he was a man who loved God and sought to do good. This kind of suffering is the hardest to deal with. In seems irrational and threatens to destroy our understanding of God and the world in which we live.
Job’s lament in chapter 3 reminds us that this is something we all fear: ‘What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.’ v26

Chapters 4-31: Job and his ‘comforters’
We have all heard about Job’s comforters Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. If we want an example of how not to comfort someone who suffers then this is it! Their only positive contribution is the first week of Job’s suffering when they just sit with him and grieve with him. (2v11-13) Sometimes words are not appropriate.
What follows is three cycles of ‘advice’ from these three comforters. (ch 4-31)
Each one takes a turn which is followed by a response from Job. This happens three times with advice turning to accusation.
Their primary line of reasoning is this: Innocent people don’t suffer. ‘Who being innocent has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? 4v7. Together they counsel Job to repent of his sin and God will restore him (5v27, 8v6). In fact their accusation only intensifies – Job, they say, deserves his suffering (15v20-26).
Job’s response is to continue to claim his innocence, however his response turns to one of questioning God: ‘I desire to speak to the almighty and to argue my case with God’ 13v3. Job longs for the day when he can ask God why he is suffering when he has done nothing wrong. He wants vindication: ‘As surly as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul…I will never admit you are in the right..I will not deny my integrity.’ 27v2-6

This is the heart of the message. Job is not denying his faith he is working out his faith. He is angry and annoyed. If God is loving and powerful then why does he not do anything about it? Like Job we are drawn in to ask and reason with God, to tell him what we think. It’s only as we do this that we begin to find a way to deal with innocent suffering.

Chapters 32-37: Job and his friend
Ironically the three ‘comforters’ only bring more suffering to job. Far from being wise they fail to understand the way in which God works.
Elihu is next up. While he is angry with Job for speaking against God, he speaks with compassion and concern. His desire is to help Job see that fighting against God and charging God with injustice is not right (33v12). God does answer, God does speak but not in the ways that we want (33v13). God is not unjust and we should never think that God is evil or vindictive: ‘It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the almighty would pervert justice. Who appointed him over the earth? Who put him in charge of the whole world?‘ 34v12-13. Elihu does not have an answer to the ‘why’ question, but he begins to help Job and us get perspective. In short he prepares Job for an encounter with God.

Chapters 38-42: Job and his God
The last time we heard God speak was to Satan back in chapter two. Now God breaks his silence and speaks to Job: ‘Who is this that darkens my counsel..? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer me’ 38v2-3. What follows is two chapters of questions from God directed at Job … Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?….Have you ever given orders to the morning?….Do you send lightening bolts on their way? Do they report to you?….Do you give the horse his strength? The answers all lead to one conclusion, only God can do all this, we can’t control the world or nature so who are we to find fault with the ways of God? Job responds in humility: ‘I am unworthy – how can I reply to you? I spoke once, but I have no answer – twice, but I will say no more’ 40v4-5.
God does not answer Job directly but God does tell us what answers are unacceptable. If Job can’t control the *’Behemoth’ (40v15) or the *’Leviathan’ (41v1) then who are we to say we know better than God? Who are we to say what God should or should not do?
Once more Job responds: ‘I know you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted…My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes’ 42v2-5. Job does not repent because of sin but because he has been angry at God and accusing God and holding him guilty. Job has learned to let God be God to trust Him in the suffering – that He is Sovereign and in control. We might not have an answer, we may not understand God’s ways but we rest in the knowledge that God is right and he remains firmly in charge. No plan of God’s can be thwarted. This is our comfort and our hope.

*The Behemoth and the Leviathan are thought to be large land and sea creatures. They are also thought to be symbolic for the evil and destruction we see all around us.

Job and Jesus
The book of Job is long, 42 chapters, perhaps because there are no easy answers to the question of innocent suffering! We should not read Job with the expectation that we will find answers to everything we ask, however as we read Job we will find Jesus. In Job we get a glimpse of the ultimate ‘innocent sufferer’ Jesus Christ. Jesus was truly righteous, blameless and upright, the man who feared God and shunned evil. He did nothing wrong yet God was pleased to see him suffer the pain and death of the cross. Jesus took my sin your sin on himself and suffered the punishment that you and I deserve. The truly innocent one suffered for you and for me, death and hell, forsaken by the Father, so that we might live. Like Job Jesus cried out in agony and pain..’why have you forsaken me? The answer was silence. God does not always answer what we ask but he does provide comfort and hope. The book of Job ends with a reversal of all that he endured: ‘The Lord blessed the latter part of his (Job) life more than the first…’ 42v12. Perhaps this is a glimpse of all that is promised to those who love and trust Jesus – a reversal of all that we might endure. Because of Jesus we have the hope of a new heaven and a new earth. One day our short suffering life will end and ‘we will be his people and God himself will be with us and be our God. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who is seated on the throne says: I am making everything new!’ Revelation 21v3-5.

Instead we’d encourage people to join us on the Sunday at our weekend venue near Bandon, Co. Cork. If you need further details then please contact us.

The centre is unavailable for our usual meeting time of 11.00am, so instead we’re going to meet at 3.30pm instead! We will then be having a “bring-your-own” tea afterwards, so please come along to our time together and enjoy some food and friendship afterwards. Hope to see you there….

All are welcome, so please come and feel free to bring others as well!

Why?
Of course the question we all ask is why? Not just about Garry Speed but every suicide that we hear about all too often in the news.
While there are no easy answers I do think that suicide is a search for Grace, even though it might not be recognised as such. The fact of Gary’s death tells us that not even his closest friends or family knew what he was struggling and suffering with deep inside. What ever he faced in his personal life, death, it seemed was the only means of escape. While we may not agree it is certainly very understandable. The reality is we live in a very broken world with broken lives and human answers are very often insufficient and incomplete. Whatever Gary experienced we can say that he longed for peace, hope and an end to his pain. And that’s what Grace offers us. Grace is God’s intervention into this broken world and our disordered lives. God sees that we have not got the inner strength or resources to change our circumstances or transform our lives and so he offers us Grace. That Grace comes through a person, Jesus Christ who enters into our struggles and suffering offering hope and freedom.

Hope
While we do not know the full story behind any suicide it seems that the suffering and struggles of an individual remain deeply hidden. External pressures mean we must appear strong and so we cover up our suffering. Internal pressures mean we must prove to ourselves our ability to cope so we push down our struggles. All the time the longing to be ‘set free’ intensifies. Grace enables us to be open and honest without fear or shame. We can come as we are with all our weakness and admit to our suffering and struggles. Rather than crushed we are cleaned, rather than broken we are restored. We find forgiveness, a fresh start and a new life. Of course it does not mean an end to our suffering and struggles but we find one who identifies and gives a way out while not losing those most dear to us, our family and friends.

Community of Grace
How do we help and how can we respond? We need to create communities of Grace. A place where people can tell the truth and not be condemned, where we can admit weakness and not be shamed, where we can ask for help and not be rejected. In short we need to live the gospel, where Christ welcomes us and creates a place where we can come as we are to experience his forgiveness and freedom.

May God pour his Grace into the family and friends of Gary Speed.

Well it’s for this very reason that I need to remind myself again (because I am a sinner) of what there is to celebrate: ‘But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour…’ Titus 3v4-6. A grumpy and cynical heart needs forgiveness, the grace and mercy of God to change us and transform us. Of course it’s not just at Christmas that we need reminded we need the gospel 365 days of the year.
So here are two great presents you can use throughout the year that you might like to buy for someone else or put it on your Christmas list. The first is a book by Paul Tripp ‘Whiter than Snow – meditations on sin and mercy’. In 52 short meditations Paul takes us through Psalm 51 exploring the darkness of our own hearts and the wonderful grace and redemption in Christ. The second is an album produced by Sovereign Grace ‘The Gathering’ – which contains 15 songs that progressively tell the story of the gospel and our appropriate response to it. It’s a story God’s people have been celebrating together for thousands of years. Jesus Christ died for our sins, rose from the dead, and will come back one day to live forever with those he redeemed.
The book can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Whiter-Than-Snow-Meditations-Mercy/dp/1433502305
The Album can be found here: http://sovereigngracemusic.bandcamp.com/track/there-is-one-reason

Happy Christmas!

It’s at times like this we need to be reminded of our Sovereign God, the creator and controller of the universe, with absolute power and supreme authority. The reality is, as history has proved, human leaders and institutions will always fail because we are sinful and broken people intent on running our lives and our world our way. In response we need to repent and turn to the one God promised through his prophet Daniel: ‘In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man…He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an ever lasting dominion that will not pass away, and his Kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.’ (Daniel 7v13-14)

I am no prophet and I do not know what will happen Europe or the Euro. We may have a new ‘two tier’ system we may see others kicked out – but what I do know is that God’s prophecy has come true. Christmas is a time of celebration because in Jesus Christ we have the gift of a leader who has come to unite all peoples round him. The angel spoke to Mary: ‘Do not be afraid Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his Father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his Kingdom will never end.’ Luke 1v31-33

Jesus is the fulfilment of Daniels prophecy, he is the King who will unite all people round him. His is the Kingdom that will never be broken by banks or leaders. His Kingdom is eternal and he will reign for ever and ever. Christmas reminds us of the leader we all look for. The one who will unite us together not on the basis of race or riches but on the basis that we are forgiven of a greater debt, our sin, and redeemed from a more hopeless and eternal situation, hell.
The decisions made by Europe in the coming days will no doubt impact us all, we can’t escape cuts and taxes as will be seen in the coming budget. However we have a eternal hope in Jesus. He is the Sovereign Lord who is not controlled by a nations debt or a leaders decision. He is God, supreme over all. His kingdom will continue to grow whether Europe as we know it exists or not. His Kingdom will last for ever and ever – beyond anything that dominates our news today.
Thank God we have something to celebrate this Christmas even if our materials gifts to one another might be smaller!

Below are the notes used week by week for those that may have missed any of the sessions.  They’re based on a book by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester called “Everyday Church”.

1. Life at the Margins

2. Everyday Community

3. Everyday Pastoral Care

4. Everyday Mission

5. Everyday Evangelism

6. Hope at the Margins

7. The Next Steps

To view these files you need a free pdf reader like Adobe Acrobat.

A collection will be taken on that day for the Cork/Kerry project.

Directions: As you approach Bandon from Cork you will come to a roundabout. Take 1st exit signed for “Relief Road/Bypass”

As you climb to the very top of the hill you will pass a garage on the left, then some retail units (FBD and Easy Living).

The school is immediately after the Easy Living store on the left hand side (Colaiste na Toirbhirte/Presentation College) just before the pedestrian crossing traffic lights.