Issues facing Christians in Sudan today. - by Thomas Tut Puot Justice means “treatment of people that is morally fair and right” and “the legal process of judging and punishing people”. The word “justice” occurs 115 times in the New International Version (N.I.V.) Old Testament, usually translating the Hebrew word “mispat”. One example is, “For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love”, Psalm 33:4-5. God’s people were warned to live by justice: “Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you”, Deuteronomy 16:18-20. In the older King James Version (Authorised Version, A.V.) of the Bible, “justice” is presented from “mispat” only once, in Job 36:17. Elsewhere that version translates “sedeq” as “justice”, mainly with the meaning of rightness or righteousness, but sometimes emphasising faithfulness and truthfulness. The meaning is brought out well in the first occurrence of “sedeq” in the Bible. Two explanatory clauses follow the initial statement: “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly”, Leviticus 19:15. Where the two words “mispat” and “sedaq” appear together the A.V. translates the whole phrase as “judgement”. In Genesis 18:19 God speaks about Abraham. He says, “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgement, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him”. The N.I.V. translates the key phrase as, “”to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just”. Similarly, comparing the two translations of Deuteronomy 16:20 we discover all God’s people are to, “Follow justice and justice alone”, (N.I.V.), “That which is altogether just shalt thou follow”, (A.V.). Things that are “just” are things that are “fair and morally right” and “fair or impartial in action or judgement”. Good judgement is the practice of what is right and just. Justice (or judgement) specifies what is right, not only as measured by a code of law, but also by what makes for right relationships so people can live together in harmony and peace. Judgement with justice is the rule that should always guide the Christian judge. The English term “justice” has a strong legal flavour. But the concept of justice in the Bible goes beyond the law courts into everyday life. The Bible speaks of “doing justice”, see Psalm 82:1-4 and Proverbs 21:3, whereas we speak of “getting justice.” Doing justice is to maintain what is right, or, to set things right that are at present wrong. Justice is done when honourable relations are maintained between husbands and wives, between parents and children, between employers and employees, between government and citizens, and between human beings and God. Justice refers to neighbourliness in spirit and action. Our Lord Jesus said that doing this justice – expressing our love to our neighbours – was a big part of the two most important commandments God has ever given, Mark 12:30-31. Kings, rulers, and all those in governmental power are to be instruments of justice. Solomon prayed this for himself, Psalm 72:1-2, a good prayer for anyone in authority to pray: “Endow the king with Your justice, O God, the royal son with Your righteousness. May he judge Your people in righteousness, Your afflicted ones with justice”. This is exemplified by testimonies to David in 2 Samuel 8:15, and Josiah in Jeremiah 22:15–16. The prophet Micah declared to at least three kings, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”, Micah 6:8. Isaiah describes God’s suffering Servant, a description best fulfilled in Jesus Himself, as One whose task as ruler will be to bring justice to the nations, a task He will accomplish without oppressing the needy, Isaiah 42:1–4.10. In the Old Testament the prophets were champions of social justice. Today Christian pastors should be among God’s instruments of justice in our country, justice which has been destroyed by wars over many years. The Lord told to the tribal leaders of Israel, those who had been selected to be the judges alongside Moses, “Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of any man, for judgement belongs to God”, Deuteronomy 1:17. During those days, justice was often perverted through bribery and favouritism or partiality, Proverbs 17:23. In order to work for justice we have to know that God’s rewards come to those who practice justice in all their dealings with others. In the words of the prophet, “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream”, Amos 5:24. The mighty river Nile flows through Sudan, the Blue and the White joining together at Khartoum. Whatever else is going on in the country the river gives life to our land. So as Christians we must continually work for justice to permeate all of our society. The Bible teaches that God is fair and impartial in His treatment of all people. “The Lord is a God of justice”, Isaiah 30:18. As such He is interested in fairness and in all things that promote right relationships between all people. God’s own actions and His decisions are always true and always right, Job 34:12; Revelation 16:7. God’s demands on individuals and on nations to look after victims of oppression are just demands, Psalm 82. Ultimately God is the Judge of all the earth, verse 8. We are all accountable to Him. As Lord and Judge God brings justice to nations, Psalm 67:4, and, if I may summarise, He “sets things right” on behalf of the oppressed, the hungry poor, the prisoners who are victims of injustice, the blind, those burdened with cares, those in places strange to them, the orphans and the bereaved, Psalms 103:6; 146:6–9. For the wicked, the unjust, and the oppressor, God as supreme Judge of the earth is a dreaded force. ”The Lord reigns forever”, Psalm 146:10. But for all who are unjustly treated, God’s just action is the ultimate reason for hope. For those of us who work for Christian justice, God is our hope too. We rightly talk about the duties of a Christian in relation to himself but we also have to examine his or her obligations in relation to others. The first important element for a proper relationship with all other people is justice. However we see everyday life, we all know that there are marked differences in the conditions of just relationships between people. Christian justice is the most complete type of justice because it is the justice of the Christian heart. Its most basic, wise, clear and comprehensible principle is expressed in the Gospel by these words of Jesus: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you”, Matthew 7:12. This positive statement of “the royal law” shows it is not enough to do nothing! All people, especially those who are with us in this beloved country, despite their religions and their ethnic backgrounds, are our neighbours. Do not do to them what we do not wish for ourselves! “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord”, Leviticus 19:18. Moreover, not only must we do no evil, we must positively do good. Our actions must follow our Christian conscience, flowing from our Christ-centred hearts, being motivated by the gospel law of love, mercy and forgiveness. As the church of God in Sudan we have to share the love of Christ to all the people of Sudan, including those we may have considered as enemies. If we want people to treat us sincerely, then we must open our hearts to our neighbours. Do not be an egoist. Do not consider your rights more important than anything or anyone else. Some loyal and correct people do this in a cold-hearted clinical way. Rather place the welfare and good of your neighbour above all of your own rights. This is the challenging law of Christian love. In this country today the egos of some people are the real cause of all miserable situations we are facing. The Christian church should be the place for anyone in Sudan to have a challenging encounter with the Prince of Peace, the source of justice: Jesus Christ. In a prophecy about Him, Isaiah says: “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this”, Isaiah 9:7. Christians all over the world, including here in Sudan, live under the rule of Jesus now in His trans-national kingdom. At the climax of history His unavoidable government will be far-flung, peaceful, and endless. Sitting upon the throne of David, He will rule with judgement and justice. How will all this be brought about? The Lord’s jealous care for His people will perform this. Since God is working for justice, so should we. Christian justice speaks to us about ourselves too. We contribute to our own misery! The Lord Jesus said, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye, and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to remove the speck from your brother's eye”, Matthew 7:3-5. We can learn from the ascetics of Christianity, while grieving so terribly about their own sins, and being almost heartlessly strict and demanding of themselves, they were unbelievably all-forgiving and compassionate towards other people, covering the faults of their neighbours, with kindness and love. Generally speaking, the Christian rule of life teaches us that in such sorrowful events as arguments and misunderstandings, we must not seek to find guilt in others but in ourselves. Our own lusts, obduracy, self-love and egoism contribute to strife. Christian justice demands from us consideration towards others. Even this, however, is not sufficient. Christian justice calls us to see, in every person, our own human brother, perhaps a brother in Christ, certainly a beloved creation in the image of almighty God. And no matter how a man or woman might fall, no matter how seriously he darkens the image of God in himself by sins and vices, crimes and violence, we must still seek the spark of God in his soul. We must love him because he is still our neighbour. St. John of Kronstadt once said: "Sins are sins, but the basis in man is God's image...Hate sin, but love the sinner”. Together with respect for the person who is our neighbour, we must also exhibit trust in him. This is especially necessary when a person who has fallen into error uses the evangelical words, "I repent" and promises correction. How often the good intentions of such a repenting person are met with mistrust and coldness from Christians who should accept him! Sadly then, the good desires towards correction disappear and are replaced by destructive anger and a decision to revert. Who answers for the destruction of this soul? In contrast a sincerely loving Christian, joyfully receives the good volition of the repentant and contrite neighbour. The Christian emphasises by deeds and words his or her full trust and respect for the person. The Christian will often support and strengthen the one who is still weak and faltering, helping them to follow Jesus along the right path. Of course it sometimes happens that a person who has promised to correct himself will misuse the trust of the neighbour, either through weakness of will or with a conscious desire to deceive. As traumatic as this is, it must not be allowed to completely crush our feelings of trust and good-will. Christian love "always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres", I Corinthians 13:7. We should seek to pay the price ourselves, and not to pass it on to others. I am so glad Jesus gives me more than one chance! The Bible declares that the world is fallen and sinful. Our world is full of injustice. But the Christian church is the voice for justice in an unjust world. Therefore we Christians have to learn how to rescue the oppressed, the child held in forced prostitution during war, the prisoner illegally detained and tortured, the widow robbed of her land and livelihood, the children sold into slavery, and the many people who have little or no freedom to worship their God in their own chosen way. We have to be witnesses to the world of Christ’s unending love, His transforming power and His impartial justice. We know that the Bible declares this world’s need for salvation and for justice. Christ has called us to be His witnesses to uttermost parts of this very dark and unjust world. We have to prepare our minds for action in the world, beyond the walls of our church buildings. We must serve our Lord by serving all of our neighbours to create hope and justice. We are sent to be the salt in the world’s corruption and to be the light in the world’s dark injustice. “The church must always remember that God’s truth, peace and justice as revealed by the cross of Christ are intended not only for the church and believers, but also for the entire world. We are called not merely to believe in peace and justice but to work to achieve them for anyone without any distinction or discrimination”. The oppressor knows that the prime reason Christians do nothing is because we have lost the hope of making any difference in our world. Our absence from the task only makes the oppressor look stronger, compounding our own despair and weakness. But the Christian gospel changes people. We believe it and we have seen it happen. And our Lord Jesus has promised to be with us as we fulfill the commission He has given us. We do not need to be afraid. Through the love of Christ we can establish Sudan (and South Sudan) as a country of peace, prosperity and justice. The Lord’s jealous care for His people is the same today as it has always been. Let justice be done! As we work for justice, we know our God will be on our side. Discussion guide Using this chapter and Scriptures quoted: 1. Share something you think is unjust (not fair to everyone) about life in Sudan or South Sudan today. 2. Why did God say, “Follow justice and justice alone” just as the people of Israel were about to settle in their own land as a nation? Deuteronomy 16:20. What are the results of injustice? Leviticus 19:15. 3. What are the main differences between “doing justice” and “getting justice”? 4. What do the examples of the “bruised reed” and the “smouldering wick” in Isaiah 42:1-4 tell you about the way in which Christians should follow our Lord Jesus in working for justice? Discover the key resource Christians have for justice from those verses. 5. Why should Christian leaders be instruments of social justice? 6. For what kind of causes should Christians be the champions of justice? Compare your ideas with Psalm 146:1-10 and Luke 4:18-19. 7. What is the positive aim (or focus) of “the royal law”? Consider how you can “do justice” for a particular person or group – not for yourself. 8. Discuss the place of self-examination in working for justice. 9. Why is it so difficult to trust a repentant person? Share ideas for accepting such a person back into society.

Leadership, Integrity and Nation building. – by Caesar Drasi Bua A. Key lessons from the book of Judges Before we discuss leadership and people’s roles in nation-building, we would like to discuss some key factors that made Israel fail to build and establish their nation in the land God promised to them. Our key verse is, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit”, Judges 17:6, 18:1. This statement is one of the key texts in the study of Judges. It drives us to dig deeper and understand the surrounding circumstances that led to Israel having no king in those days. To get into that exploration, first we need to ask the question, why Israel had no king? Here we shall find out that Israel had a king but not a human king like the other nations. Why, because: 1) God was Israel’s King The historical narrative of Israel tells us that, before Israel became a nation or a sovereign state, it was a family. God called a couple – a man by name Abram and his wife Sarai. God told them to leave their parents’ families and community to go to a new land, which He (God) would give to them. When Abram accepted the call of God, his name was changed to Abraham, which means ‘father of many nations’. That of his wife Sarai became Sarah, meaning ‘mother of many nations’, Genesis 17. Indeed, God fulfilled His promise to Abraham, in that by the time his grandson Jacob went to Egypt due to famine, the number of his family[1] had reached to seventy people, Genesis 46:27. While in Egypt the descendants of Jacob increased greatly until the Egyptian king was threatened. Despite his policy that all male children of the Israelites be killed, the number of Israelite men reached six hundred thousand (600,000) by the time they came out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, Exodus 12:37. And that was only the men of military age. Women and children were not included in that number. Note that, up to this time, Israel was not a nation but a community[2] of God’s people, Exodus 16:1. Moses died before reaching the Promised Land. After his death, God called Joshua to replace him. Joshua then led the community of Israel across the river Jordan. Under Joshua’s leadership, the number of Israel’s men at the age of fighting reached six hundred and one thousand, seven hundred and thirty (601,730), Numbers 26:4,51. Those men with their families crossed on the other side of river Jordan. Joshua’s task as a leader was to subdue the land of Canaan, which was then inhabited by other nations. He was to fight, capture, settle and occupy every land of all these nations because they were being given by God to Israel. All along, God was the King over Abraham’s family growing into Israel’s community. Joshua operated under God’s Kingship. Both Moses and Joshua were servants of God. “After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD. The LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: “Moses my servant is dead. Now, then you and all these people get ready to cross the River Jordan into the land I am about to give them – to the Israelites”, Joshua 1:1-2. From here Joshua took over the leadership and crossed the River Jordan and did his work faithfully until his death. Then things changed for the worse. 2) The act of connectivity “After the whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what He had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served Baals”, Judges 2:10-11. One great failure of Israel’s older generation was forgetting to teach and instruct their younger generation about God, His deeds and His commandments. Though God had earlier told the parents and elders again and again to teach His ways to their children: “These commandments that I give you today … Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up”, Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Sadly, the parents and their elders failed in their God-given responsibility. So the children grew up without the true knowledge of God. Hence, they became wicked and rebellious, worshipping idols, because there was no connectivity with the God-fearing foundation that had gone before. In our days, we see this dangerously happen in our own homes. Many parents do not invest time teaching their children things of God. Even though, in our church denominations parents take oaths during children’s baptisms and dedications that they will teach their children about God and His commandments. But, so often after water baptism and baby dedication parents forget about their own vows before God. They make no time to sit down with their children to do the work they promised God and the church to do. This makes new generations grow with little or no knowledge of God. There is ‘dis-connectivity’ between God, leaders and people. 3) Attitude of rebellion The third thing we see in the book of Judges that led to this failure of nation-building is the attitude of rebellion. Earlier, God gave a clear job description to Joshua the leader of the Israelite community. God’s will for the Israelites was for them to dislodge all the people who inhabited the land of Canaan at that time. Joshua, Moses’ successor, was to lead Israel in that commission. On his part as an individual leader, Joshua conquered some lands and settled some of Israel’s tribes in them. Before he died he appointed Caleb with the same task to lead Israel’s community. After his death, several tribes of Israel intentionally failed to obey the instruction Joshua left with them from God. They did not conquer the lands or chase away the tribes who were already there. Instead, they settled among the people who should have been dislodged. Henceforth, those people influenced Israel’s community with ideas of pagan worship, which God considered an act of disobedience and rebellion, Judges 1:27-35; 2:1-5. Rebellion, also known as insurrection, is an act of open resistance to an established authority. It originates from the mind-set or attitude of the rebellious person. Such an individual usually thinks or says ‘I can do it on my own way’. ‘I don’t need someone else to instruct me’. A rebellious attitude is aggressive and arrogant towards God and His established standards. God does not tolerate rebellion or disobedience. He decisively deals with a rebellious attitude. In Judges 2, when the other tribes refused to chase out those nations settled in the land God gave Israel, God refused to help the people of those tribes. He said, “… you have disobeyed me … Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them (the original populations) out before you, they will be thorns in your sides and their gods a snare to you”, Judges 2:2-3 (brackets mine). True to His own word God refused to help the Israelites in chasing away the native nations. Instead He used those nations to punish Israel whenever they sinned. There are so many occasions recorded where God killed rebellious people with the earth opening to swallow the people. He sent snakes among the Israelites and the snakes bit several people who died of their snake bites, Numbers 16:1-32; 21:6; 26:10. This is reality, not just a story of the things that happened in the past to the generations before us. No! It is even happening today to nations, communities, families and individuals. In the book of Prophet Samuel, God punished King Saul because he refused to obey Him. God told Samuel to tell King Saul, “You have rejected the word of the LORD and the LORD has rejected you as King over Israel”, 1Samuel 15:26. It is dangerous to disobey God and rebel against Him. When we do that He punishes us with terrible diseases and even civil wars. Does this remind you of today? The book of Judges may be old, but it is still very relevant. B. Leadership 1. Understanding leadership Leadership is an old and complex concept to understand and define. It does not have one single definition. There are hundreds of definitions in books on leadership but none of them is absolutely similar to another unless it is a quote. Every author or leadership guru gives his own definition as he understands the term leadership. As such I am going to state here that, leadership is not a position and a title in a particular set hierarchy nor a place in an organisational or administrative structure. Rather, leadership is a process, commitment, an attitude to life of an individual leader. Now, to grasp ideas on the difficulties of understanding leadership, I wish to provide some reasons: a) Leadership exists at different levels To understand this, you think about an organisation that has majorly three levels: top, middle and low. People at the top who guide the others are called leaders; the middle people likewise have leaders and then the lower level of the hierarchy also have people who are called leaders of that lower level. So, at every level there is a leadership. This for sure sets a dilemma in a person’s mind whenever he wants to define the term “leadership”. Why, because in the definition to which level do you connect or refer? In other words which level of leadership do you define? b) Leadership exists at different ages This is like the previous point. It simply states that when you consider different ages of social groups in society, you will discover that in every age group there is a leader or leadership. For example, when children gather together to play, you will find that one of them is a leader. In same manner if aged people sit under a shade whether in rural area, town or city, in each group you will find one person is a leader for the group. So, when we define leadership; for which age group are we defining? Is it that of the old people or the youth and the children? Leadership is ambiguous When you think about the word ‘leadership’ what comes in to your mind? To who or what are you referring? Is it to the activity of the leader or to the person? You need to know whether your definition describes a person, or refers to the functions or activity of the leader. 2. Understanding the nature of leadership The current understanding of leadership is that it is a long-term relationship or partnership between the leader and followers. The leader and the followers are connected in such a way that the power between them is approximately balanced. It is vital to understand here that the partnership is the opposite to that which exists between parents and children. In parents/children partnerships, the parents have the responsibility of their children and the children are recipients of their parent’s services. It is not so with the nature of leadership we are discussing here. We are saying that the partnership between leadership and followers occurs only when authority for control shifts from the leader to the followers because in this type of partnership authoritarian leadership is not entertained. It is a far-off thought. Good leadership promotes shared decision making processes.[3] Another vital thing to consider in this is that leadership effectively takes place when followers consciously make decisions on the issues. This means that leaders can never make their own views normative for others. Moreover, they need to recall that even the service of others can become dedicated manipulation. Rather, contemporary leaders need personal ethics that include constant self-scrutiny and keeping the focus on the common task. This begins with making a difference in others through respect, valuation of their dignity and celebrating their successes. A leader needs to have a relentless pursuit for the organisation (or the nation’s) mission. He must foster self-leadership in his followers as he balances a sense of urgency with patience.[4] C. Nation-building requirements 1) The fear of God “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”, Proverbs 9:10. Earlier we discussed that the Israelites failed to overcome their enemies to settle in the land God promised for them because they rebelled against God. That is, they rejected God as their King. God did not appoint anybody to lead them since their relationship with God was not good, which also means there was no fear of God in their hearts. To fear God is to revere and honour Him in everything about your daily life. In human history, there was a man by the name of Job. The Bible says, Job had the fear of God, and continues “was blameless, upright and shunned evil”, Job 1:1. A leader who fears God will refrain from evil and exclusively embrace uprightness in his motives, his attitudes, his words and his actions. Yet the question comes, why is it important for a leader to have the fear of God? The leader is to have the fear of God because: a) He is God’s servant, Roman 13:4 Ultimately, the concept of servanthood is far-fetched in our minds and in practice by this generation. We think being a servant is being low in position and doing mostly low works such as sweeping, serving tea in the offices and being a messenger. Yet in Romans 13:4, Apostle Paul refers to every authority God institutes as ‘servants’. The leaders in these authorities are servants in the sense that God is the owner of the estates for which the leaders are responsible. As the Psalmist says, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it …”, Psalm 24:1. “The highest heavens belong to the LORD but the earth he has given to the human race …”, Psalm 115:16. These two scriptural texts, and many others, affirm that God is the creator and owner of the universe. But because of His good will He assigned the earth to man to manage, Genesis 1:28. According to the Apostle Paul, God dispensed to the leaders’ responsibilities in their nations to do “good” works. He emphasised that existing authorities are God’s servants to do good to the people they lead. Now to do “good” in this context is a requirement not an option and it is not simply relative to the performance of others. It is imperative to the leader and for his assignment. Note that to do “good” is an absolute moral purity as portrayed in the eyes of God. God’s expectation from His servants is life that is untouched/detached from sin but dedicated to Him and His word. Job was such a leader in his very early nation and generation. He feared God, in that he was blameless, upright and shunned evil. Even though trials came to him and all his resources were destroyed in a single day, Job never forsook his integrity. He remained focused on his attitude towards God and His commandments. All political leaders who hold authority in the nations today are expected to administer justice in those countries. As God showed His ways to the people of Israel in days’ gone by, so He is doing today. His requirement is “To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”, Micah 6:8. When leaders fear God, the country experiences peace, unity and prosperity, for God will bless the country through the leadership. The key point here is that, it is righteousness that exalts a nation. Only nations whose leaders fear God are promised prosperity, peace and unity, Proverbs 14:34. If any leader does not fear God or does not serve God’s people with justice, mercy and love, God has this to say: “Among my people are wicked men who lie in wait like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch men…their houses are full of deceit; they have become rich and powerful and have grown fat and sleek…Their evil deeds have not limit; they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor…The Prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority and my people love it this way…From the least to the greatest all are greedy for gain; Prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit…They dress the wounds of my people as though it were not serious. Peace, peace they say when there is no peace…they have no shame at all”, Jeremiah 5:26-31; 6:13-15. b) He is appointed by God, Romans 13:1-2 Every leadership, regardless of who they are and their different leadership positions, is instituted by God. “The authorities that exist have been established by God … whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves”. God’s purpose is that there may be order and administration in every nation. His main intentions for authorities are that they may observe order and provide services to the populace under their leadership. As they do so they equally combat lawlessness in the society. In Old Testament times God appointed a man, by name Nehemiah, governor in Jerusalem during the reign of King Artaxerxes of the Medo-Persian Empire. In later life he did a lot of reforms in Israel because he was a God-fearing man. After hearing that his home city, Jerusalem, was demolished and the gates were burnt by fire, Nehemiah fasted, confessed the sins of his people to God asking that God would forgive them. Thereafter, he journeyed to Jerusalem, rebuilt the walls that were broken down and led other repair work in the city. When the construction work was over, Nehemiah appointed leaders and made a census of the people. So, it is important for a leader to know God personally and walk in God’s ways during the course of his life and leadership. 2) A heart for the nation A true story was told of two South Sudanese brothers. The younger brother asked his elder brother who was working with the government in those days when the country was still one, ‘how was the government?’. His elder brother answered that the government was like a cow that has a lot of milk. Everybody wanted to milk that cow. Whenever the cow entered in a person’s fence, the person closed the door and milked the cow, taking as much as he wanted. Then the person released the cow to go. The cow went and entered in another person’s fence, and the second person did exactly like the first person. He closed the door of his fence, milked the cow until he was satisfied. And the cow continued to go after it was released by the second person, to the third, the fourth, and so on. According to that elder brother, this told the state of affairs in the government of the then united Sudan! A true heart for the country encompasses the leader’s own state of mind concerning his country, plus his degree of commitment to national affairs and the quality of his performance in terms of service delivery. Being effective in this is what people call “patriotism”.[5] Patriotism is a culture in the sense that it is learned, developed and nurtured over a period. This culture is measured by being loyal to set national standards. Hence, ‘heart for the nation’ can never remain a wish. If you as the leader do not learn, develop and nurture patriotism it will vanish from your heart and many others. Your leadership becomes a run of the mill leadership, not at all the lifestyle Almighty God wants from you. People who have heart for their nation: care for the affairs of their country protect and respect all the resources of the country serve all fellow citizens, respecting them and their properties plan for the development of the country respect (or legally amend) its laws. People who don’t have heart for their country: plunder the government resources cheat other people favour one group or community over another even kill their fellow citizens, (or order such killings and turn a blind eye). God hates leaders who have no heart for their countries and the people. He warned those leaders in the books of prophets such as Isaiah and Micah. He gave them this message, “Woe to those who make unjust laws; to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed on my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless”, Isaiah 10:1-2. “…Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them and houses and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance. Therefore the Lord says, ‘I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves … a time of calamity”, Micah 2:1-3. As a national or civic leader you must know that the LORD God is against leaders who do not respect their fellow citizens. He is against men and women who take away public funds for personal or family use. To God such leaders are incredulous individuals. So as a leader with a God-given trust you need to have a sincere heart for the nation; then you and the people may enjoy peace, unity and growth. 3) Promote national well-being The process of promoting a nation’s well-being includes the leader and the citizens as one package. The implication here is that, both leader and citizens work together in building their nation. Governor Nehemiah demonstrated this when he and the people of Israel built the wall of Jerusalem together as a family. For this to happen citizens must collaborate successfully with their leadership and with one another. But for collaboration to happen between the leadership and the followers, the leader needs to exemplify both personal and vocational integrity, in which his main task is to encourage citizens to be free in expressing their opinions. Leaders should value justice for all, the dignity of every individual citizen, services delivery to everyone, in complete trust and loving respect for each other. I think fragmented society in any nation can never achieve development in any setting; never! Let me illustrate this with the true story of the tower of Babel. The Bible says, “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved east-ward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly”. They used bricks instead of stones; and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we can make name for ourselves otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the people were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth and they stopped building the city”, Genesis 11:1-9. This narrative provides use with two main facts; which are: a) There is strength in unity As the old saying goes, ‘unity is strength’, and it is. The LORD God bore witness that, “If as one people speaking the same language have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them”, verse 6. This statement is absolutely true and very practical. Let us take as an example the impact of national unity on sustainable development in Rwanda. A research done within a sociological framework there showed a "democratic state and the state based on the rule of law, media freedom including the participation of people in national planning resulted in imperative sustainable development”. This was confirmed by 64.4% of the politicians, 72.4% of representatives of the military, journalists, civil and public societies and 63.5% of the ordinary population. The respondents stated that presently Rwanda is slowly becoming a democratic state, with the application of the rule of law and media freedom. It was also noticed that Rwandan national unity facilitates, promotes and encourages the bilateral collaboration between people, between people and authorities, and between authorities themselves. The involvement and participation of the people in national planning and protection of national developmental projects for future generations has led to sustainable development. Rwandan national unity has improved and positively influenced Rwandan social, economic and political systems in a confirmed way. In addition, there is good governance, security, peace, unity and popular education.[6] b) Disunity is disgrace The causes of disunity are misplaced priorities and mistaken enemies. Once, these happen the consequences are terrible on the people. People who were once strong when united, suddenly become weak and fail to achieve their dreams. They hate one another and dissipate their energy in self-centred quarrels. You remember from the history of the tower of Babel, once mankind was confused because their centre of unity – the language – was removed by God, those people never remained one. They became divided and their project died as result of their disunity. God was the author of disunity at Babel, but He is firmly against it in nation-building. So often leaders begin to mistake their colleagues as enemies. Once this begins to happen more energy is spent fighting each other than combatting the causes of wrongs. And most cases, before you realise that you are fighting each other, you will have already destroyed more precious resources, including people, the most precious of all. 4) Observe leadership ethics Ethics[7] are moral principles or recognised rules of conduct that govern a person’s behaviour in respect to a particular class or human group. They can also be described as desirable, appropriate values and morals used in a given community or society. It is worth noting that each society, community and specialised group have their own ethics or moral principles. Leadership being one of the specialised groups in human society has its own ethical requirements, for example, things like dressing codes for certain groups of leaders. Therefore ethics, in general, deals with the purity of the individual leader and his intentions, while leadership ethics in particular serve as guidelines for analysing “what is good or bad” in a specific scenario. Correlating ethics with leadership, we find that ethics is all about the leader’s identity and role. Ethical theories on leadership talk about two main things: a) the actions and behaviour of the leader b) the personality and character of the leader It is therefore essential to note that good, positive ethics are essential ingredients to leadership. A leader drives, inspires and influences the followers to achieve a common goal of their nation or organisation by exemplifying an ethical life. For example, the leader is to ensure that everyone is treated with trust, respect and dignity. So, it is an ethical job of the leader to treat his subordinates with respect as each of them has a unique personality. He knows that the ethical environment in his organisation is built and developed by himself, because he has an influential role in the enterprise. Similarly, the leader has an influence in developing the values for everyone else to follow. An effective and ethically positive leader has the following traits: a) Dignity and respectfulness This simply means he respects others and should not merely use his followers as a medium to achieve his personal goals. Instead he should respect peoples’ feelings, decisions and values. This implies listening effectively to them, being compassionate, as well as being liberal in hearing and considering opposing viewpoints. In short, it implies treating followers in a manner that authenticates their combined values and beliefs. b) Service to others An ethical leader should place his followers’ interests ahead of his own. He should be humane and act in a manner that is always fruitful for his followers, even if not for himself. c) Justice An ethical leader is fair and just. He treats all his followers equally because there is no personal bias in his heart. This is vital because wherever there is a need for some followers to be treated differently, the ground for differential treatment should be fair, clear, and built on morality. If it is not there will likely be trouble. d) Community building An ethical leader develops community because he considers his own purposes as well as his followers’ purposes, while making efforts to achieve goals suitable to all of them. He is considerate to the community interests. He does not overlook the followers’ intentions so he works harder for the community goals. e) Honesty An ethical and effective leader presents the facts and circumstances 100% truthfully and completely. No matter how critical or harmful the facts may be for himself or his friends he does not misrepresent (or politically spin) anything. It is essential to note that leadership is all about values, and it is impossible to be a leader if you lack the awareness and concern for your own personal values together with those of the entire people you serve. Leadership has a moral and ethical aspect. These ethics define leadership. Leaders can use the above-mentioned traits as yardsticks for influencing their own behaviour. Followers can use them too when it comes to voting at the next elections. D. Leadership and integrity Integrity is the leader’s adherence to moral and ethical principles that shall result in the soundness, wholeness and unimpaired moral character of the leader. Integrity is a state of the leader being undivided, being unified in his moral values. In search of leadership, integrity is consistently rated as one of the most important character traits for a prospective leader, and an existing leader, to be respected. It is so often considered to be the basis upon which all other good leadership traits are built. Integrity is developed through constant practice of moral and ethical principles. No leader is born with integrity. It is learned and practised through willingness and a commitment to the required moral and ethical codes. The requirement for leadership integrity in our days surpasses all other demands. Sadly however, few leaders give attention to developing their integrity as compared to their commitment to practising politics. The understanding of many leaders is that their integrity is a private affair, not a public concern. This is not so. The public are more interested in their leader’s integrity. Leaders need to know that provision of service to the public with no good lifestyle is an abomination to the public. For example, a leader has affairs with other sexual partners outside their marriage. They misappropriate public funds, smoke and get drunk in public. They insult fellow leaders publicly in the media and lie openly about national issues. Such leaders are moral failures and disqualify themselves from public office. Recent years have evidenced a series of such shifts. Though it remains a fact that people want to see their leaders are genuine, there seems to be a need to defend every issue that is questioned. As the leader, you have arrived where you are by being yourself. You have striven to make your own life as it is. To have this perspective, two attitudes are required of you: a) Personal integrity in relation to your vision for life b) Integrity in relation to primary public values and resources We have some great leaders in every walk of life. We also have a lot of mediocre personalities who claim to be leading people but morally they fall below the expected character. To fight this antagonism in himself the leader needs to identify some leadership pitfalls in his surroundings, two of which are briefly discussed here: 1) Traditions In communities and the society we live in, well known ethical and moral standards are often those archaic standards formulated long ago by our forefathers. Some have become impractical in the new generations we live in, simply because they are undefined and self-centred, only pleasing to individual leaders and perhaps their immediate supporters. Leaders in such dysfunctional communities and societies frequently need to strive for the development of their own integrity and that of others too. To do that effectively, they must eliminate some of the old community norms or their efforts to change would not succeed. Those society or community norms will suppress their efforts since they are supporting evil actions of a few past or present leaders. Let us take for example a society where people support theft from public resources, sexual immorality for men and so on. Leaders in such communities cannot practise integrity easily because of the obstacles of traditions. But practise they must, even at great personal effort. But it is important to know that trust in leaders is born from the combination of their integrity and competence – not competence alone. In many cases leaders count on their academic qualifications, experience and output through service delivery, to gain trust from their followers. Service delivery via well qualified leadership is a great endeavour but it does not equally measure a leader’s moral and ethical quality in earning trust. Therefore it must not be substituted, because lack of trust leads to competition between the leader and followers and eventually it leads to fragmentation of the nation, group or organisation. In such situations the important thing to note is that a leader cannot just pay lip service. He must work out ways to create the environment of trust so his followers can believe him. 2) Handling criticism Criticism has two sides to it: There is what is termed to be ‘positive’ criticism. By this I mean commendable feedback from people concerning your leadership and services to them. But there is also what is known as ‘negative’ criticism. This is bad comments people give about their leader and his service to them, often not said directly face to face but spread through others. Negative criticism is the most difficult to handle, (although positive can lead to pride!), simply because many leaders don’t entertain bad comments concerning their personalities and performance. The impression leaders have after they are appointed to posts is that they have become ‘super beings’. Their words are now infallible. Little do they remember that they are still human, hence full of shortcomings. Many a time the easiest response of leaders, when people criticise them, is either to dismiss the comments or retaliate by punishing those involved. But when a leader punishes a person or community because they criticise him, does he not create more room for more criticisms? In the process of self-defence, the leader does self-destruction to his leadership instead. Henceforth, the best way to handle criticism is to adopt King David’s style of leadership: “As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul’s family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera and he cursed as he came out. He pelted David and all the king’s officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David’s right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said, “Get out, get out, you murderer, you scoundrel! The LORD has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The LORD has given the kingdom into the hands of your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a murderer!” “Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head.” But the king said, “What does this have to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the LORD said to him, ‘Curse David’. Who can ask, “Why do you do this?”” “David then said to Abishai and all his officials, “My son, my own flesh, is trying to kill me. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to do it. It may be that the LORD will look upon my misery and restore me to His covenant blessing instead of his curse today”, 2 Samuel 16:5-12. Leaders who know their standing and character do not panic at criticism from either their followers or fellow leaders. Negative criticism instead serves as fuel for them to go ahead with their serving and gain even more trust from the watching people. Nobody defeats negative with negative, rather negative is overcome with positive as King David did here. Discussion guide Using this chapter and Scriptures quoted 1. “God was Israel’s king”. Comparing Judges 17:6; 18:1 and 1 Samuel 8:1-9, why did Israel want “a king”? What did their request show (a) about themselves? (b) about God? What are any parallels for us today? 2. “Israel’s older generation was forgetting to teach … their younger generation about God”. List some of the values in knowing the national history, from Deuteronomy 6:4-25. Do these values apply to Sudan/South Sudan today. 3. “Rebellion … is an act of open resistance to an established authority”. Thinking about Judges 2:1-7, what are ways we rebel against God today? Driving enemies out of our land, as Joshua was told to do, is surely not an option for us today? So what is? 4. “Leadership is a process, commitment, an attitude to life of an individual leader”. True/false? Why? Romans 12:1-21. 5. “Nation-building requires … the fear of God”. Why? How? For who? Be as practical as you can. Proverbs 1:7; 1:28-29; 2:1-6; 3:5-7; 8:13-16; 9:10; 10:27; 14:2; 14:16; 14:26-27; 15:16; 15:33; 16:6; 19:23; 22:4; 23:17; 24:21-22; 29:25; 31:30. 6. “If the leader does not nurture patriotism … it will vanish”. Of the nine positives and negatives suggested by Rev. Caesar, which are the best and worst? Why? Micah 2:1-3. 7. “Handling criticism” is a very tricky subject. Why should a leader be open to criticism? Share positive and negative experiences you have seen or heard. James 3:9-10. [1] Family: “A group consisting of parents and children; or all the people who are related to you, including people now dead”. Macmillan School Dictionary (Oxford) 2004. [2] Community: “People living in (or belonging to) a small area; people in a larger society who are the same in some way”. Macmillan School Dictionary (Oxford) 2004. [3] Andrew J. Dubrin Principles of Leadership (South Western: Nashville, TN.) 2010, p.4. [4] Leonard Doohan Spiritual Leadership the Quest for Integrity (Paulist Press: New York) 2007, p.31-32. [5] Patriotism: “Feeling a lot of love, respect and duty towards your country”, Macmillan School Dictionary (Oxford) 2004. [6] Justin Rutayisire Enviromental Science, University of Kwazulu-Natal, 2002, researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/3676 . [7] Ethics: “a set of principles that people use to decide what is right and wrong”; “a general principle or belief that affects the way people behave”. Macmillan School Dictionary (Oxford) 2004.

Christian theology in a Sudanese context. The essential nature and character of God. The Omnipresence of God To be ‘omnipresent’ means to be ‘present in all places at the same time’. Have you ever wished you could be in two places at one time? May be there is a conference you would like to attend in Khartoum, but you have responsibilities to your family at a wedding in Port Sudan. If only you could be there and here as well, but you cannot. God, of course, is! A.W.Tozer, an American preacher and author of the twentieth century, wrote: “God is our environment as the sea is to the fish and the air to the bird”. “The doctrine of the divine omnipresence personalises man’s relation to the universe in which he finds himself”. We are never alone. God is with us everywhere. The writer of Psalm 139:7-12asked if there was anywhere he could get away from God’s Spirit. The obvious answer is ‘No’. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God declared that He filled earth and heaven, that He was both nearby and far away, and that He could see all that was happening even if people thought they were keeping it secret. (Jeremiah 23:23,24). We could think even beyond that: before heaven and earth were created there was no ‘where’ to be; but God was still ‘there’! It is all of God that is everywhere. Remember God is Spirit and has no size. God is not partly here and partly there. We make a mistake when we ask God to ‘come amongst us’ at a meeting. Since He is omnipresent He is already there! Of course it is reasonable to ask for His help so that everyone there will recognise His presence, but leaders should be careful not to mislead by careless use of words. Jacob did not realise he was in God’s presence when he was running away from Esau. Only after his dream of a ladder reaching up to heaven, did he acknowledge he was always in God’s awesome presence. (Genesis 28:10-22). We often forget we are in God’s holy presence. There are special times when God is felt nearby but other times when He seems away in the distance, or even not there at all. We can be more aware or less aware of His presence, but He is always there. God is always close to us whatever is happening. We should practise His presence. We should keep uppermost in our minds that God is there. I read of Dinka tribesmen who carved crosses on their walking sticks to help them remember that God was still with them even as they walked away from their homelands due to fighting, famine or both. Many Christians find the wearing of a cross or the early Christian sign of the fish helpful in remembering this. A favourite Bible text hand-written on a small card can serve the same purpose. God is transcendent – over and above all of His creation, and He is also immanent – His strongly influencing presence is within all of life. He is distinct from the world, but directing the overall course of events. A major key to Christian living is to consciously recognise God’s presence everywhere and in every situation. People are more aware of God in some places than in others. Scripture shows that we can know God in some places more than in others (for example “the Most Holy Place”, Exodus 26:33; Exodus 28:30; Hebrews 10:19). The following exercise caused much discussion among students at Gideon Theological College: Keeping in your mind the omnipresence of God … 1. How far away from the burning bush was the ground still holy? Exodus 3:5. 2. Could God’s “Presence” possibly be taken away from Moses and the Israelites? Exodus 33:14,15. 3. What “presence” of God could David possibly lose? Psalm 51:11. 4. What does Jesus mean on Judgement Day, “Depart from Me …”? Matthew 25:41. 5. What does James mean: “Come near to God and He will come near to you”? James 4:8. God’s presence is not to be limited to being in one place, but is to be enjoyed within a relationship experience. Thinking it through. (a). Since God is omnipresent, can it be right to say “We invite You to come and be with us, Jesus”, at the beginning of a worship service? (b). What do we really mean? How can we express it better? (c). If you were on your own in a very bad situation, (prison, danger, etc.),how would thinking of God’s omnipresence be a help to you?

Bible readings Colossians 2vs9; Luke 2vs11. My life (put) alongside God's word, volume 1. Early in 2011, when the then Southerners voted overwhelmingly to secede from Sudan, two new countries were created: the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan. When one left the other, two new countries were formed. When God the Son left the glory of heaven and came to earth as baby Jesus, it did not affect God the Holy Trinity. All of God was still in the heavenly realm even though all of God was also present in Jesus Christ on earth. “For in Christ the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form”, Colossians 2:9. God’s presence in one place does not exclude His presence anywhere else. I understand some of you pastors now have congregations in both Sudanese countries, because some of your people have migrated back to their original tribal homelands while others have chosen to remain in the rather more developed north. How unlike God we humans are! It is only as we think about these deep and glorious issues that we begin to understand a very small part of the mysterious Incarnation of God. All of God is present everywhere. We can’t even be in two places at once! This remarkable God came to save us from sin and from ourselves. “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord”, Luke 2:11. Some people wrongly believe that Christians worship three gods. This has led to some heated discussions between Christians and others. Yet we know that Jesus is not the production of God and Mary in any normal biological sense and Jesus is not the result of the Holy Spirit and Mary in any natural, sexual way. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” Luke 1:35. In a totally miraculous way, never before or afterwards duplicated, God the Son – one aspect of the plural singularity of God – this God the Son, chose to become a human embryo in Mary’s virgin womb, just so that He could live and die for humankind. Please note: Our word “aspect” means, “appearance to the eye; the way in which an idea may be considered”. “Plural” means, “composed of more than one person, thing, item, etc.” “Singularity” means, “the state, fact or quality of being singular – with “singular” meaning “remarkable, exceptional, extraordinary, unusual, unique, not more than one””. Slot these dictionary definitions into the previous paragraph and I’m sure your heart will begin to uplift to a larger vision of Who God is and what He has done. My try is, “God the Son, appeared to the human eye as the complete God, a remarkably unique human, yet opening a window into being a God Who is so much more!” If you get the sense that our language is straining to put this Almighty Creator God into words, you are totally right! Describing God, or attempting to define God, will stretch any language, Arabic, Dinka, Nuer, Mabaan, Loro and even my Englishman’s English! Jim Packer writes, “Ordinary language is being used for extraordinary purpose when we use it to speak of God”.[1] Think for a moment: how unlike us is God? This is a good question to ask because we tend to think only in ideas we can understand. When we think this “understandable” way about God we are in danger of misunderstanding because God Almighty, our Creator, is incomprehensible – we can never fully appreciate what He is like, or, in a sense, Whom He really is. When we reach a particular point in our investigation we must stop and simply bow ourselves in absolute worship, admitting we do not know, nor do we need to know, now. We have eternity to discover God! Within God the Holy Trinity we have three Persons Who in themselves are different but not distinct. “Different” means “not identical or the same as”, while “distinct” means “easily sensed or understood”. Christians believe in One single, lone God Almighty before Whom every human being stands condemned as full of sinful selfishness. We try to understand more of God, while what we do know forces us to look at how we must be saved before we meet God on our own at Judgement Day. Thankfully, our God looked with loving pity on the entire human race since Adam walked, then stumbled, in Eden’s garden. One of the early disciples of Jesus wrote, “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world.” 1 John 4:14. At the Incarnation (that is, Christmas) celebrations Christians remember, “the assuming of a body by the Son of God”. “Assuming” means, “taking upon oneself”. God the Son existed forever before Jesus son of Mary was conceived. As One person of the Holy Trinity, God the Son is eternal, with an everlasting past and future. This God the Son became human just so that God could substitutionally sacrifice Himself for the collective sin of humanity. The Ever-Living God humanly lived for only 33 years on our earth. He moved around real places including Bethlehem, Capernaum, and Jerusalem. People saw Him. The authorities knew Him as Jesus of Nazareth. Some followers expected Him to deliver the Jews from their Roman oppressors, but Jesus did much more than that! He was interested in human living conditions – as He still is – but His primary focus and objective was to: “save His people from their sins”, Matthew 1:21. It was this purpose that gave Him His name, JESUS, “a transliteration of the Hebrew, Joshua, meaning, “Jehovah is salvation”, “Jehovah is the Saviour””.[2] Discussion questions: 1. Read Colossians 1:15-20, 2:8-10. Try to put in your own words (not simply quoting the texts) “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form”, Colossians 2:9. 2. John was one of the early disciples. He knew our Lord Jesus personally when he followed Him, called from his fishing boat, Matthew 4:21-22. From the gospel accounts of our Lord’s earthly life, what do you think helped John to his conclusion, written in 1 John 4:14? [1] J.I.Packer Honouring the People of God (Paternoster Press, Carlisle) 1999, p.90. [2] W.E.Vine Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament words (Thomas Nelson, Nashville) 1996, p.333.

Acts 8vs26-40. Church Growing Pains. In witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ two things are of paramount importance. The first is that the individual Christian is living in the Spirit and the second is that God is working by His spirit in the person being witnessed to. They are both illustrated here in this story of Acts 8vs26-40. As we work through it we will see, to begin with, six ways Philip was living and moving in the Holy Spirit of God. Then we will see five ways in which God was working in the Ethiopian eunuch to whom Philip had the chance to witness. It is likely that this encounter was the first time an African had heard the Gospel and believed. Jesus had said much earlier that the disciples would receive "power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses" 1vs8. Philip was a man in whom the fulness of God's Holy Spirit, could be seen, 6vs3 and 5. He was "known to be full of the Holy Spirit". It must be a constant prayer for us to know the continuing blessing of God the Holy Spirit in and on our lives. These six subsequent happenings show why. 1. Philip was listening to the Holy Spirit, 8vs26. God spoke directly to him, and Philip heard him. It was through an angel that God spoke. The command was to "Go". To obey would mean both action and movement. It was specifically to "Go south". That was against human logic and reason. Why should Philip leave a successful mission and go into the desert? But that was what God said, and he must obey. The church needs Christians who are listening to God's voice today, whether it is through an angel, through a human messenger, by a sermon, in a circumstance, or in regular daily Bible reading, we must hear Him. If Philip had not listened, none of the rest would have happened. Jesus often said "He who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit says ... to the churches". Rev 2vs7, etc. It is often good to ask a Christian congregation what they believe God is saying to them. What is He asking them to do? What challenge is He putting before them? In our Schools of Evangelism in Cornwall we usually give 2 or 3 "The Answer" tracts to the students. Having taught them to go through it with someone, we pray and trust God to put on to our hearts how we can use them during the course. Students have been so encouraged to see themselves being used by God. One farmer from near Liskeard actually gave away nearly fifty during a School, every one with a good word of personal witness. He prayed with several people to trust Christ. 2. Philip was walking in the Spirit, 8vs27. "So he started out". A walk begins with a step. It may be a tottering, staggering, unsteady step - holding on to something else for extra balance to start with like a toddler learning to walk. But it will lead to another step and another, until a lot of ground is covered in the end. Don't expect big things too soon and don't be disappointed too easily either. In Romans 8 Paul says: "those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God", Romans 8vs14. Someone walking can be led. Someone not walking can be advised - but gets nowhere until he moves. A son has the Father's characteristics in him - he shows he has learned from and about his Father. As Jesus was always about his Father's business so should we be, whatever else we are doing and wherever we are. Are you walking with the Holy Spirit? It was "on his way" Acts 8vs27, he met the man he led to Christ. Are you on your way? 3. Philip was keeping in step with the Spirit, 8vs29. It would not have been enough just to have gone to the desert road. That was one step of obedience, but only one step. Had he stayed there by the roadside and purely watched this chariot go by, he would have been close to God's will, but not in it. And the Ethiopian would have stayed lost. The same Holy Spirit who told him through the angel to go south, now said "Go to that chariot and stay near it". In other words God was saying "Well done. Now move to continue what I have started". It was a specific command " - go to that chariot". He was going to be required there for a while "and stay near it". Keep going and stick at it. It is the people that I have lived amongst for a while that pose the greatest challenge to me in personal evangelism. It is relatively easy to talk to someone you don't know and are never likely to see again. But the people we can spend a lot of time with over weeks and even years, are those who see us live out our Christianity. They watch us through the ups and downs of life. How do we know when God is telling us to speak more directly to them about Jesus Christ? I have found that as I pray for an opportunity with a particular person so God brings it about. One elderly man who lives near my office stopped me in the street and asked me about what I had written in the local newspaper. An ex-neighbour couple called me for help when their father was dying. Some of my fellow school governors have asked me what I believe and why. Every time these opportunities arise I can share something of Jesus Christ if I am walking in the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5vs25 says "Since we live by the Spirit, let's keep in step with the Spirit". Are you still in step with God? Are you completing what He started in and with you? Don't be proud and complacent about yesterday's achievements. 4. Philip was using the sword of the Spirit, 8vs30-33. His witness was based on God's authority and not on his own. He made good use of the Bible which was seen to be God's word. We are always looking for the conviction of God to come upon the sinner. That conviction is spiritual and is the work of the Holy Spirit. No-one can be argued into or out of conviction by the Holy Spirit of God. Ephesians 6vs17, 18 tie together two important things: "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" and "pray in the Spirit on all occasions". Paul encourages the personal worker to use God's word and to light the touch paper with his spiritual praying for the people he is witnessing to. Philip began where the Ethiopian was (another lesson for us in witness) and it was obvious that he himself had an understanding of Scripture. When the eunuch begged for instruction - Philip gave it to him. I remember a couple coming to dinner with Brenda and me. The wife was a believer and the husband was not. We went for an after dinner walk along the beautiful Atlantic Coast. The ladies were in front and I was chatting to this man about cars. Now I have virtually no interest in cars and even less knowledge about them. But this chap was very much into cars and so I began where he was - and listened politely. After quite a long while he said "I appreciate this conversation, and I must say I'm very grateful that you haven't buttonholed me about God. I thought you'd try to convert me." From that moment on, by asking him what he meant, by showing him what the Bible said about conversion and by sharing my own testimony this man was under the influence of the sword of the Spirit. He is now a lovely born again believer with a call to be a Christian in business. Are you ready to be an instrument like Philip in God's hands? Are you ready to use the sword? Are you ready because you have prepared by getting a reasonable grasp of God's word? 5. Philip was following the mission of the Spirit, 8vs35. "He began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus." Jesus had said, John 14vs26, "the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." John 16vs8 "He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement." John 16vs14 "He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you." Pushing yourself or your church is not the Holy Spirit's mission. He will "push" only Jesus. Do you follow Him on His mission? Even building bridges between Christians and non-Christians is of no value unless you cross the bridge and bring those people back with you - into the Kingdom of God. A bridge never saved anyone: Jesus Christ alone saves. 6. Philip was bringing assurance in the Spirit, 8vs36-39. Philip led this Ethiopian man to a place where he was committed to Christ - as evidenced by his baptism by immersion as a believer. Even if vs37 is suspect, and does not appear in all Bible versions, it is obvious from the fact the African was baptised, that he was committed to Jesus Christ. Whatever form it took, whatever words were used, he raised up a new flag over his life, the flag of Jesus' cross. Vs39 says "(he) went on his way rejoicing". He was happy as he knew his sins were forgiven and he began a personal walk with God in the Spirit through Jesus. Joy is one of the Holy Spirit's fruits. Make it your aim to lead people right through to a full experience of joy as a Christian. Do not be content with a number of decisions only. Real evangelism leads to new Christians being solidly cemented into God's building as living stones. We don't want isolated stones that easily move away from the right place and are lost to the building. Romans 8vs16 "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children". Bring people to this point to see them really saved and trust God to continue His work in their lives. So we have seen six ways the personal evangelist can speak effectively to people about Christ:- - by listening to the Holy Spirit - by walking in the Spirit - by keeping in step with the Spirit - by using the sword of the Spirit - by following the mission of the Spirit - and by bringing the assurance of the Spirit It is as we work for God that God Himself works with us. The real blessing of this can only be learned by experience. The church I pastored in Ascot decided to visit the village house by house over a year. We prayed God would lead us to people in whom He was working. The schedule for visitation got further and further delayed as we found more and more people wanted to talk about Christian things. If we had not gone door to door we would never have discovered how God was answering our prayers in so many people. Many congregations do not go because they say, "people don't want to know about Christ". The truth is that Christians don't want to go and tell folk! The activity of God is what we count on in our witnessing. We can only tune in to it by prayer and by walking in the Spirit. These five activities are always true and can be relied upon. 1. God had a plan, Acts 8vs26, 27. He spoke to Philip and "on his way", in response, God drew Philip into the plan. It could all have stopped if Philip was too busy to listen. 2. God had a person, 8vs27, 28. "on his way" home! God, who knows everything, planned for an evangelist to meet a ready heart in the middle of a boring desert - where there was plenty of time to talk! 3. God had prepared that person, 8vs28-31. The eunuch wanted to worship God, he wanted to understand the Scripture, and he was open to good teaching. The Spirit of God was already active in that man's life. 4. God had provided His word, 8vs32-33. This prophecy of Jesus as the Lamb of God was part of the way God chose to speak to the Ethiopian. His inspired word always has a place in the forefront of evangelism. He has given it to us, and we should use it. Evangelism without the Bible is like a gun with no ammunition. It may look the part but it will never achieve anything. 5. God's purpose was worked out, 8vs36-39. His plan, for these two men, was fulfilled. Philip led the Ethiopian to Christ. Then he was whisked off elsewhere by God. The Eunuch rejoiced as he journeyed home, because he had sought and found, God. We put ourselves into the middle of God working out His will by praying in, following after, and being led by, the Holy Spirit of God. By faith, go on your way this week - and lead someone to Christ. By faith, pray and see God at work. God will use you to your own blessing, in fulfilling His purposes for other people too. This incident is not an isolated one in the book of Acts, although it may be the most detailed. Acts 10 details how God prepared both Peter and Cornelius for an encounter that resulted in Cornelius' household being saved. Acts 16vs13-15 we see how God brought both Paul and Lydia to the right place at the right time for another family conversion. These happenings enforce my belief that it is a partnership between prayer and personal evangelism that brings people to Christ. Either without the other is less than God intends. Let us make sure we use all our own abilities in conjunction with all of God's enabling to reach to people around and about us for Jesus Christ. Discussion questions What is the next step God is asking you to take as an individual? as a fellowship? Think of a situation where you would like to speak for Christ. Decide on a small but specific opportunity. Share in the group and pray for each other. Pray for each other every day and watch for that opportunity. Take it. How can a fellowship "solidly cement" new Christians into God's building? Be specific in the context of your fellowship.

Thoughts on my journey with Jesus. Bible reading 2 Corinthians 11:1-4. Paul and the false apostles “I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one Husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the snake’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough”, (italics mine). More than One Jesus? “A Jesus other than the Jesus we preached”. Does this mean there is more than one Jesus? The answer is both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. We need some spiritually careful discernment[1] based on some solid Bible definitions to distinguish what is true from what is false. I believe this discernment is the mark of maturity[2] in anyone’s Christian growth.[3] In the sower parable that our Lord Jesus told, He warned that not all who become Christians would progress on to Christian maturity, Luke 8:4-15, (one could argue mathematically that only 8% will). Answer ‘Yes’, there is only one Lord Jesus Christ. He was God expressing Himself as one Human Being known as Jesus, understandable by all other human beings, when “(God) the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, Who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”, John 1:14. In Bethlehem, Palestine, this God-Man Baby was humanly born, apparently to a faithful but fearful carpenter named Joseph, a little over 2,000 years ago. “ … an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins”, Matthew 1:20-21. The historical Jesus of the Bible and our Christianity was a real Person, born in actual calendar time, at a known place on our planet Earth. “But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’”, Galatians 4:4-6. Yet the answer to my question is also Answer ‘no’ because not every person with the name ‘Jesus’ is this same ‘Word Jesus’ of John 1:14. ‘Jesus’ is quite a common name among Middle eastern people, South Americans and others today. Gabriel Jesus is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for the English Premier League champions Manchester City and for the Brazilian national team in this 2019/2020 season. Neither is the ‘Jesus’ who some preachers and some miracle prosperity workers preach. He is not the true and genuine ‘Jesus God incarnate’, ultimately from and for ‘out of this world’. The closer we get to the end of human time the more false teachers appear, exactly as our Lord Jesus warned us. “Jesus answered: ‘Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, claiming, “I am the Messiah”, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth-pains”. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”, Matthew 24:4-14, (italics mine). Notice the words our Lord Jesus used, “false” and “deceive”. ‘False’ may mean ‘incorrect, untrue or mistaken’. It may mean ‘artificial, but intended to look like the real thing is being used when something else, a substitute, actually is’. ‘To deceive’ means ‘to make someone believe something that is not true, usually in order to gain some personal advantage for yourself’. [4] Learn to be spiritually discerning Sadly there are men and women around Christian communities in South Sudan and even parts of Moslem Sudan today, - as there are around the world of course - who minister these ‘nearly Jesus’s’ as if they were preaching, promising and healing in the name of the true One and Only Son of God Jesus and His gospel. It is only the maturing Christians who can tell the difference, as God gives them the ability to discriminate the true Bible teaching, preaching and miracles from the plethora of false. Please my precious friend, I urge you, keep on learning to be spiritually discerning. I became a victim of fraud Last week, 18th June 2019, I realised I had become the victim of a fraud. Somebody making out that they were me, visited my bank on line (electronically) using a computer or mobile phone of some type. They somehow got all the correct details of the bank account where Brenda and I keep the monies that we raise from our supporters for the printing, publishing and distribution of our Juba books. Five times this person took around £45 from this account and transferred it away into their own ‘NOVEL.COM’ account somewhere in Europe. (I know the location because they stole our money in Euros not in UK£, and made us pay the charges!). This person did a very good job of impersonating me. He/she was word and number perfect in their dealings with my account at my bank. I only realised what was happening when carrying out my monthly account check. Foolishly I had not been careful enough doing the checks for a little while. Fortunately the bank immediately stopped this deceiver from doing it anymore and are currently working at getting our money back to us. We are thankful (to them and to God) because it could have been a lot more money in value that was stolen. One more Jesus – and so nearly genuine Why am I sharing this with you? To illustrate that ‘a fraud may use true facts, but for their own profit, not for their intended purpose. A fraudster is ‘someone who is not genuine and much less good than they claim to be’.[5] Christian sisters and brothers, be on constant look out for “a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached”, 2 Corinthians 11:4. Big differences are easy to spot, so we disciples of the real Jesus must learn to discern the vitally important little differences: · Does this other Jesus, and his messenger, seem to promise health and wealth in this world when the biblical Jesus focuses much more on heaven? · Does this other Jesus, and his messenger, require you to take Old Testament promises out of their context and drop them into 21st century life? · Does this other Jesus, and his messenger, live like the genuine Lord Jesus Who “had nowhere to lay His head”, Matthew 8:20, and Who “went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him”? Acts 10:38. · Does this other Jesus, and his messenger, live with the same attitudes and to the same standards as the true Jesus revealed in the four Gospels? For example check these five example Scriptures: 1. “Jesus looked at (the rich young ruler) and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ He said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me’”, Mark 10:21 (italics mine). 2. “I do not accept glory from human beings”, John 5:41 (italics mine). 3. “I am not seeking glory for Myself; but there is One Who seeks it, and He is the Judge”, John 8:50 (italics mine) . 4. “The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round Him”, John 13:2-5 (italics mine) . 5. “I am among you as one who serves”, Luke 22:27(italics mine) . Lifestyles often say much about those who preach a false Jesus. And remember, you can hardly see the home lifestyles of people like me who visit your country from overseas. Therefore it is very difficult to test us. Do your best not to become a victim of a ‘spiritual Christian fraud’. Beware wrong uses of the Bible One last but important point on this issue. I read Psalm 91 in my devotions this morning. It contains the words Satan used to tempt our Lord Jesus from the top of the temple, Psalm 91:11-12; compared to Matthew 4:6. “If You are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone’”. Cyril Okorocha comments well: “Because the devil can use Scripture for his own purposes, we must be aware of that danger… Jesus rejected this use of the psalm. He knew that God’s promise of protection is not intended to cover every foolish thing that a person may choose to do. We must understand that our lives are in God’s hands, but we cannot ‘control’ Him by using the cross or the Bible as a good luck charm”. Christians gain wonderful comfort and strength from Scriptures like a later verse in Psalm 91, where verse 15 says that God will be with us in trouble. He does not promise we will never have trouble! He may not pluck us out of our difficulties but He will be present in them. Keep your hand firmly in His. Jesus is my Salvation – Yeshua is my Saviour We saw above that carpenter Joseph was told by God to give Mary’s baby the name Jesus. My predecessor as British director for Ambassadors for Christ wrote a book called ‘The Jesus I have come to know – also known as Yeshua’. In it he explains: “In some respects, it is unfortunate that we use the English transliteration (via the Greek) for the name of Jesus, because His Hebrew name Yeshua is much more meaningful and powerful. In the English language the name Jesus does not carry the depth of meaning (although it has become precious to those who have a personal relationship with Him). In Hebrew the name Yeshua means “Salvation” or “God saves” or “YHWH is salvation”. Matthew 1:21 says, “You are to give Him the name Jesus (insert Yeshua), because He will save His people from their sins”. In English, that verse does not carry any linguistic weight. But when you realise what is being said by applying the Hebrew, it carries significant meaning”. If I insert this meaning into our Matthew 1:21 text you will see what he means: “Joseph – You are to give this Baby the name Yeshua, ‘Salvation, God saves, YHWH is salvation’ because He will save His people from their sins”.[6] Simeon, the elderly prophet who blessed the holy family at Jesus’ circumcision in Jerusalem’s temple, had the baby Jesus in his arms when he said to God, “For my eyes have seen your salvation (Yeshua)”, Luke 2:30. Jesus is God’s salvation. Jesus is the salvation God has provided for every human being who will personally repent of their sin and trustingly commit themselves to Jesus-the-Son-of-God-Saviour for ever. Discovering the True Jesus “Jesus told His disciples, ‘You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where You are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.’Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on My own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves”, John 14:4-11, (italics mine). Among Jesus’ disciples it was Peter who made the first confession,[7] known as ‘the great confession’, when answering Jesus’ questions: “Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, am?” and then “Who do you say that I am?” See Matthew 16:13-17. His confession was, “You are the Messiah, (i.e. the Christ) the Son of the Living God”, verse 16. Christians must always know what they believe and Who they believe in, especially about the essentials of our Lord Jesus Christ and genuine Christianity. We must be able to ‘confess our faith’. After all it is a basic part of our witness to our Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour and our salvation, Romans 10:9-10. Jesus was sharing a meal with the disciples one evening in a place that had been prepared for them. In conversation He suddenly says, “I am going (away to My Father’s house) to prepare a place for you”, John 14:2. Then He promised to return and escort them to their reserved places there. Almost the only thing Jesus did not say was when this would happen. The Only Way to the Father R. C. Sproul is minister of preaching and teaching at St Andrew’s church, Sanford, Florida. In his commentary on John’s gospel he writes about 14:4-11: “I once took a college class that was taught by a woman who was openly hostile to the Christian faith. She never missed an opportunity to attack Christianity in her classroom, so I tried to melt into the woodwork to escape the arrows of her wrath. One day, however, she called me in front of the class. She said, “Mr Sproul, do you believe that Jesus is the only way to God?” I knew how she felt about any exclusive claims to Jesus, so I knew I was caught between a rock and a hard place. If I said what I believed, I would experience an avalanche of wrath from the instructor. But if I didn’t say what I believed, I would be guilty of nothing less than treason to the King of kings. I mumbled an answer, but she said, “What was that?” So I said: “Yes, ma’am. I do believe that Jesus is the only way to God”. She went into a paroxysm of rage that spilled out on me. She said, “That is the most narrow-minded, arrogant, bigoted thing I’ve ever heard a student say”. The rest of the class glared at me as she heaped her scorn on me.” “After the class, as I was walking out the door, she stopped me and said: “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so hard on you. But I just can’t understand how anybody could be that narrow-minded”. I said to her: “Well, I hope you can understand my problem. I have been persuaded that Christ is the Son of God. I am a Christian. There’s nothing more foundational to Christianity than the confession that Jesus is the Son of God. Now if I believed that Jesus was the only way because He happened to be my way, and the unspoken premise of my logic was that anything R. C. Sproul believes must, by logical necessity, be the only true way to think, then I would agree with your assessment that that would be unspeakably arrogant, bigoted and narrow-minded. But I hope you understand why I believe Jesus is the only way. It is because Jesus said that He was the only way, and if I deny that, I deny Him”. [8] I believe what my Lord Jesus said as recorded in our Bibles. My ‘believe’ is an active word, describing my deliberate and personal committed trust. As long as Jesus my Saviour is welcome at the Father’s right hand of authority and power, I know I live or I die securely under His all-seeing eyes. Positive narrow-mindedness Since 2006 I have had several operations to take cancers out from my body. I have had 33 radiotherapy sessions designed to kill any traces of malignant cancers that escaped the surgeon’s knife. A targeted beam of high energy radiation focuses narrowly and specifically on the cancerous area. If the target is missed perfectly good and healthy body tissue will be destroyed by it. I know, because I have experienced this since 2009 after a second operation on my neck badly damaged my trigeminal nerve around the left side of my head, leaving me with awful pain which has had to be controlled by strong drugs and injections. If only the surgery and radiotherapy had been more specifically ‘narrow-minded’ I could have been spared all of that suffering! (Of course I know that the medical people did not err deliberately). For us now the lesson is to keep a firm but narrow hold in mind and heart on the truth about our Lord Jesus Christ. This will help us discern error from truth. The Sole Jesus is the Sovereign[9] The Great Commission our Lord gave to His disciples, including us, was: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”, Matthew 28:19-20. As we obediently follow His will for our lives, Jesus has “promised that such a ministry would result in people leaving their other religions in order to follow Him”. Our Lord’s clear command is at variance with the dominant spirit of pluralism in many postmodern institutions. Pluralism makes the false assertion that “No ideology can claim to possess absolute truth; all the religions are more or less equals in the universe of faiths”. “Their main objection is to the Christian claim to have the only ultimate truth”.[10] Sadly many so-called Christian institutions teach this, so beware! You have been warned. It is ‘another Jesus’. My Christian faith stands squarely on the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ. My 50 year ministry has preached and taught this unique Lord Jesus Christ in the middle of, and in spite of, the pluralistic world in which we live. Other people believe there may be a multiplicity of ‘ultimate beings’, or a variety of ways to reach one or many of them. I do not. My Christianity rests firmly on the facts revealed about the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God Himself, having been One with God from everlasting past, then supernaturally disclosed to humanity when born as Jesus of Nazareth. Between His return home from the temple visit as a baby and starting His ministry in Galilee, about eighteen years passed for Jesus: “And the child grew and became strong; He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on Him… Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness… Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside”, Luke 2:40 and 4:1,14. The above are all facts told us by God in the Bible. The following are well-researched ‘best-guesses’ from a book I read at Christmas 2018: ‘Almost certainly the growing young Jesus worked as a builder/carpenter in the daytime and then discussed with the local ‘haberim’ (friends) of an evening. They were part of a lay movement of ‘Friends’, serious-minded Jews who examined their Torah together after work and made suggested applications of this law to their everyday lives.[11] Our Lord Jesus shows His skills in this rabbinic style of debate during His ministry’,[12] see at least six examples in Matthew 5:21-48, usually beginning something like: “You have heard that it was said … but I tell you …”, compare verses 21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-35, 38-42, 43-45. God sovereignly prepared His own Son Jesus for His future ministry, just like He has prepared you and me for ours. We want a good education for our children as they grow up. So did He. God has always known what He will do in the course of worldwide human history and in each individual personal life too. He still knows today, and is planning His use of big international events and even little old you and me . How wonderful is that? Choose the side of the Sovereign Lord Simeon used the words “Sovereign Lord” in his temple prayer, Luke 2:29. He was speaking to God the Father in Heaven. He had seen God fulfil His promise by providing the Saviour Jesus, who was cradled in Simeon’s arms. The early Christian believers with Peter and John began their prayer after they were intimidated by the chief priests and elders, Acts 4:24, using those same words. They had had to choose between obeying their Lord Jesus’ Great Commission and knowing His ‘absent presence’ with them, or stopping speaking about Jesus because of the orders of the ruling Jewish council, the Sanhedrin. They had made their choice clear a little earlier: “Then they (the Sanhedrin) called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to Him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard”, Acts 4:18-20 (italics mine). This stand that they took arose from their clear and concise, theological and gospel beliefs. That is always the way it works. When you know what you believe, your life will show what you believe. Earlier still they had witnessed: “Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone’. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved”, Acts 4:11-12 (italics mine). Worshipful theology helps us in our living praise expressed often to the only true God. I unreservedly believe that our Sovereign God became a sinless Human Being while He remained the unchanging Triune God. “Jesus is the exact duplicate of the nature (or being, Gk. hypostasis) of God, making Him exactly equal to God in every attribute. Moreover, He continually upholds the universe “by His word of power”, something that only God can do”.[13] Jesus is the Son of God. Our Jesus is God the Son. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven”, Hebrews 1:3. “Jesus Christ is God and man. This is the Jesus the church is to proclaim to a needy and dying world. This Jesus the church is to keep before God’s people in order that each one may be presented mature in Christ, Colossians 1:28. This is the real Jesus …”[14] (italics mine). The Lord Jesus Christ sovereignly was (and is) the crystal clear Image of God; sovereignly Man as God always intended mankind to be. Sin has meant that since Adam and Eve chose to separate from God we humans can only by ourselves show a corrupted image of the One majestic and mysterious Almighty God, the Holy Trinity. Jesus visited us, as we have seen above. He came to remake our distorted image of God into its original God-given glory. He did so by completely dealing with all of mankind’s sin over the centuries through His death on His cross. We were “created to reflect God’s glory – indeed, to be like Him in all ways appropriate for human beings, male and female, to imitate God”.[15] Now, in Jesus Christ, we can do so once again. And one day in Heaven we Christian believers will all be like Him! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen! Believer, since you say Jesus is your Saviour, your salvation and your sovereign, I want to pray for you: ‘Lord God of all heaven and earth, keep your servant firm and strong in his or her understanding of You. May all people he or she daily lives among see our Lord Jesus Christ more and more, in your servant’s Christian attitudes, actions and hear Him in his or her words. May those people soon come to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord too. I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen’. Will you say ‘Amen’ too, as you pray for yourself and for me? Discussion guide 1. Share examples you have seen, heard or read, when folk have preached or taught “a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached”, 2 Corinthians 11:4. What was the particular ‘give away point’? 2. Suggest Bible ways to help a young Christian become more and more spiritually discerning. Consider my thoughts under the heading ‘One more Jesus – and so nearly genuine’ in this chapter. 3. Think about the Scripture Satan quoted at Jesus in Matthew 4:6. “If You are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’” Satan used Psalm 91:11-12. Why did Satan try to get our Lord Jesus to do this? There are several reasons I can think of. 4. How might Satan or his friends (should I say ‘fiends’?) attack you similarly? What is your best defence – always? See what Jesus did every time in Matthew 4. Memorise Psalm 119:11, and if you’re in a group, test one another! 5. Spend time recalling all you can of what the Bible says about our sovereign Lord Jesus Christ. You may start with Hebrews 1:3. End notes: [1] ‘Discernment’ is having keen perception or judgement; the ability to discriminate which things of any particular kind are good and which are bad. [2] If you describe a Christian as ‘mature’, you think that they are well developed, balanced in their personality, emotions and behaviour, showing good understanding by applying the Bible in all actions of their daily life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. [3] See ‘mature’ in NIV Luke 8:14; 1 Corinthians 2:6; Ephesians 4:13, 4:15; Philippians 3:15; Colossians 1:28, 4:12; Hebrews 5:14 and James 1:4. [4] www.collinsdictionary.com [5] www.collinsdictionary.com [6] Fraser Harding The Jesus I have Come to Know (Gawler Publishing: Runaway Bay, Queensland) 2014, page 8. [7] Among several English meanings, confession here means ‘you publicly tell people that this is what you believe or feel’. www.collinsdictionary.com [8] R. C. Sproul John - St Andrew’s expositional commentary (Reformation Trust Publishing: Lake Mary, FL.) 2009, pages 262-263. [9] This spelling of ‘sole’ means ‘only’. [10] Ajith Fernando Acts NIV Application Commentary (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI) 1998, page 59. [11] In the Jewish religion, the Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, regarded collectively. Reading them it is good to remember you are reading your Lord Jesus’ ‘bible’. [12] Kenneth Bailey Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (S.P.C.K.: London) 2008, page 147. [13] Wayne Grudem Systematic Theology an introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Inter-Varsity Press: Leicester) 1994, page 547. [14] Stephen Clark The Forgotten Christ (Apollos/Affinity, IVP :Nottingham) 2007, page 9. [15] D. A. Carson Jesus the Son of God (Inter-Varsity Press: Nottingham) 2012, page 29.

Issues facing Christians in Sudan and South Sudan today. by Ed Walker. How can we in Sudan come to terms with the atrocities committed in our country, against our people, tribe, clan, friends or family? The savagery and brutality which have occurred in Sudan can leave us suffering a range of emotions: numbed, stressed, sickened and shocked. An estimated 2 million died in the North South war and 200,000 in Darfur. As an outsider I cannot begin to understand what it must be like to have a close relative killed. But having lived and worked in Sudan (the lakes, Bhar el Ghazel, Upper Nile, Khartoum, West and South Darfur) for over 6 years, I can offer a few reflections which I pray maybe of help. When back in England, I am often asked why there is so much fighting in Sudan. I have also had Sudanese ask me if their nation is somehow “cursed” or whether God is punishing them by inflicting these wars. Sometimes it feels like the subliminal question (even if people don’t always realise it) is whether there is something unique or different with the Sudanese. One of the aims of this chapter is to show that in a given set of circumstances we are all capable of extreme acts of violence. Similar incidents have occurred on every continent, in every war, which suggests they are the result of a certain combination of stresses. It suggests that war has a power that pushes people to their most carnal extremes. Reading a few books on the psychology of killing and rape has helped me understand more fully how humans get to such a point. And understanding helps us learn how to forgive. I have also worked in and visited other war zones (Burundi, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Northern Ireland, Rwanda) and read about many others from Europe and across the globe. I have drawn from these countries, in part to show that these are experiences common to war everywhere and not something unique to the Sudanese experience! In Burundi, a matter of miles from my base in the north of the country an attack occurred on an Internally Displaced People’s (I.D.P.) camp. The attackers, armed with machetes, hacked indiscriminately against anyone they could find, including women and children. I believe the number killed was seventeen. Casualties were also carried to the hospital with large chunks hacked out of their heads, limbs and bodies. In southern Sudan a colleague confessed he had held a gun and watched as a fellow tribesman threw a baby of a different tribe into a burning hut. In Darfur a woman was gang raped in front of her brother, then her genitalia mutilated and thrown into her brother’s face. In case you think this would never happen in Europe, in Croatia a man had his throat slit from one ear to another with a tool. In Germany nearly 6 million Jews were slaughtered. In Northern Ireland there are people who specialise in smashing knee caps with a sledgehammer. In London an eighty year-old patient was raped in her toilet cubicle. Similar stories seem to have occurred in every war zone I have read about. I find it easier to see how someone can pull a trigger at a faceless human-shaped target some distance away rather than attack an innocent female or kill a baby. I once read an article in a respectable newspaper, propagating the theory that humans in central Africa could achieve such staggering depths of savagery because they were lower down in the human evolutionary chain. That article was wrong. Human beings are human beings. Incidents such as My Lai in Vietnam or even, to a lesser extent, Abu Ghraib in Iraq, suggest that such savagery is not an unfortunate side-effect of war, but an unavoidable result. Savagery is created by the negative energy of war. The combined mix of corruption, dehumanising the enemy, the addiction and adrenaline of killing, peer pressure and the intoxicating power of evil, might help explain why these events occur. Corruption In the book “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”3 the author describes the effect of the 2nd World War on a young man called Mandras. Before the war he is a lovable, charming, kind, young rogue. During the war he is sent to fight the Italians invading Greece where he suffers hardships almost unimaginable: frostbite, hunger, terrible sanitation, and war in its most brutal. He left home utterly unprepared for war and returned scarred emotionally and physically. He became a wayward layabout and was taken in by misguided rebels who poisoned his innocent mind with perverted philosophies. They forced him to beat an old man. He was reluctant at first but then: “it became an exhilaration. It was as if every rage from the earliest year of childhood was welling up inside him, purging him, leaving him renewed and cleansed.” Later he was forced to shoot the man in the head. Once innocent blood was on his hands, without reprisal, there was no turning back. He was a rapist and a killer. The author shows how easy it is, in a matter of months, for an innocent, likeable young lad to be turned into a killer. How can someone kill another man? Chris Hedges, a war correspondent for fifteen years, writes: “It takes little in wartime to turn ordinary men into killers. Most give themselves willingly to the seduction of unlimited power to destroy and all feel the heavy weight of peer pressure. Few, once in battle, can find the strength to resist.” An American soldier in Vietnam came to the same conclusion: “You put those same (American) kids in the jungle for a while, get them real scared, deprive them of sleep and let a few incidents change some of their fears to hate. Give them a sergeant…add mob pressure, and those nice kids who accompany us today would rape like champions.” Dehumanising the Victim Children captured by the Lord’s Resistance Army, after being repeatedly raped, “were forced to stab corpses. They were only allowed to stop when their captor decided he had seen enough blood spurting on to their clothes and bodies.” In order to turn them into killers “they have to be brutalized, their nascent sense of what is right and what is wrong erased … overcome by guilt and self-loathing, they subsequently shut out reason and emotion. In this numb state they do their masters bidding, however gruesome the task.” A question explored after the Second World War was how so many Germans could have killed so many Jews. It must be the same for all massacres. One of the explanations put forward was that the victims were dehumanised. The leaders managed to dehumanise their victims and, crucially, convince their followers to do so as well. The killers no longer related to the humanity of those they killed; they objectified them and reduced them to something far lower than themselves. Their victims had become stigmatised, despised, hated, blamed for all their ills and so were almost deserving of their punishment. Somehow the reality of these killers had become distorted, they had lost sight of truth. (Of course by dehumanising others they dehumanised themselves. A part of their own humanity was lost and, importantly, they too become victims of the war and of their own crimes). The Thrill and Addiction of Killing In Sierra Leone we were infested by rats. My natural reaction to such a problem was to pretend they were not there. My colleague Janet, with whom I was sharing the accommodation, didn’t share my feelings. Janet’s senses appeared to be honed in to detecting exactly where the rats were. I would stagger from my room bleary eyed in the morning, to see Janet staring behind some cupboard claiming: “He’s behind here, I know he is.” Finally after Janet had awoken with rat pooh on her pillow I had to agree she could no longer simply cohabit with the furry foes. Rat traps were not working, a change in policy was needed for normal sanity levels to prevail. I got my large shoes on and Janet, with courage only bestowed on brave hearted Scots, chased the rat into the open where I trembled with a large club. The first rat came – I missed with the first shot but stamped hard with my left foot. My boot thudded down on the rat and it was no more! Success. With confidence high we followed the second rat into the office until it scurried out; one sharp jab to the head finished him off. The adrenaline pumped through our veins as we declared the victory of man over rat. We felt a sense of relief, pride and joy because of our bravery, intelligence, and skill. Give me another rat – we could kill anything now. We were on a high. I realised later they were the first mammals I had ever killed. After the war in Sierra Leone, child soldiers confessed their stories: They told how initially they resisted harming anyone, but then, under enormous pressure, they committed their first kill. Soon it was a handful, and later they became both immune to their wrongs and almost attached to the power that killing brought. And they are, for a moment, gods, swatting down powerless human beings like flies.” The adrenaline and high and power they received from killing became almost addictive. As a result they became detached from themselves and almost disintegrated as the cycle of evil took greater control of their lives, overcoming their humanity. This high is not unique just to those in Sierra Leone. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman studied the psychology of killing (mainly in Vietnam) and concluded: “Immediately after the kill the soldier goes through a period of euphoria and elation.” Grossman quotes a soldier from the First World War, who after killing a Turk, wrote, “I had a feeling of the most intense satisfaction.” Once the natural resistance to killing is overcome, men find there is something in the act of killing which has an addictive power. Peer Pressure As well as the thrill and addiction to killing, the power of peer pressure is significant, especially when mixed with the recipe of extreme, intense or vulnerable situations. I read an account of a young man in his late teens, conscripted and taught to kill as part of a militia. He did it purely out of peer pressure from his country’s Government and from his own tribe. The pressure on him was so great! An experience I had in Burundi taught me how vulnerable we all are to such pressure. There was a military curfew at 10.00 p.m. across the city of Bujumbura, which meant we had to be home by 9.30. It was 9.15, and were heading for our car and saw above us what looked liked shooting stars. An instant later we realised what it was, and we ran inside. The sight was tracer bullets, the sound was the crack of a gun. The first sounds were followed by many more. The crack of the gun was joined by the cackle of a machine gun and then the boom of mortar fire. We agreed to stay the night at Stefan’s home. Stefan was a large, loud man with a strong character and powerful presence. Myself and Paula (also working for Tearfund) were to spend the night at his house with a few of his other friends. The sound of guns intensified and at times seemed very near. His house was not 50 yards from the president’s palace and it was conceivable this was under attack. It was the first time I had heard a battle like this and it was unsettling. Stefan had heard it many times before and seemed to revel it. It excited him – he disappeared into a room and marched out with his AK-47 rifle. He handed a pistol to one of his friends and came to me, as the only other male, with another cased pistol. “You might need it” he said with certainty and assurance. I stared at the silver pistol. I was now completely unsettled. I had no idea how to react or what to do. I fingered the gun. Was I to carry it? What was I to do in this situation? It was a scenario I had never been in before, nor imagined I ever would be. I was lost and overloaded and did not know how to react. After a while the shaken kaleidoscope that was my mind returned to order and I could see once again. I replaced the gun in its box and timidly said, “No thanks”. We watched a video and eventually went to bed. My point is this. Here I was, a man in my early twenties, fully convinced of my principles, a Christian all my life, educated to degree level from a British university, someone with more than average self-confidence and self-esteem, and yet for a while I did not know what to do. It is perfectly obvious to me now that I should never have touched the gun, but at the time it wasn’t. Imagine if the scenario had been even more intensified and I had been more vulnerable: imagine if the shooting had been nearer. Maybe if there had been no women in the room, the peer pressure on me would have been much greater. What if there were more men, all of them wielding guns and imploring me to as well. Would I have said no then? It is not impossible that I would have bowed to the peer pressure. If that is true for me, imagine a child in Darfur or perhaps the rural clans 100 miles north of Rumbek growing up with no school. He grows up with myths about great battles against neighbouring clans or tribes. Maybe he has seen some of his relatives killed, maybe not. Certainly he could not have escaped the stories of death which must rattle around the cattle campfire or dreary evenings in a lonely Dhamra (small round village house). Living as a near naked nomad traipsing through the toic or over long desert sands he is regularly hungry. With no education he is(dry season cattle raising ground) bored and illiterate. He is not so much conscripted into joining the older men but more forced into it from a lack of choice. Staying at home with the women and children is not an option. All the causes of his sufferings, he is told, are due to the other tribe. He is shown a gun and taught how to use it. Killing chickens, goats, sheep, cows, camels, and wild animals is part of his everyday survival. Humans are only the next step up. Somehow war fills a spiritual void within him. For redundant adolescents in a depraved area, be they bored Arab nomads in Darfur, impoverished youths in Equatoria, disaffected Dinka in Bhar el Ghazel or uneducated Nuer in Upper Nile, war gives them all something to believe in. It becomes something to get up for, something into which they can channel their anger and their energy. War is a force that gives them a meaning. Those that survived the first gun-fight or cattle raid have tasted the adrenalin of battle and maybe the power in killing. Having killed your first victim, a psychological threshold is breached and your next is that much easier. Turning back becomes that much harder. The soldier is speeding along a slippery slope to becoming a murderer. Soon this child is very capable of shooting someone at close range and throwing a child into a fire. The Intoxicating Power of Evil Finally there appears to be something in killing and war that grips people with an evil power. Even secular writers notice this: “(In the Second World War) mass murder and execution can be sources of mass empowerment. It is as if a pact with the devil has been made and a host of evil demons (are released) … empowering its nation with an evil strength as a reward for its blood sacrifices. Each killing affirmed and validated in blood the demon of Nazi racial superiority.” “Killing unleashes within us dark undercurrents that see us desecrate and whip ourselves into greater orgies of destruction.” If secular writers recognise this, then how much more should we as Christians understand some of the spiritual powers at play behind – for example – some of the Nuer attacks on the Dinkas in the early 90’s, and also behind the retaliation by Dinka on Nuer? Rape is harder for me to understand as nothing in me can relate to it. I think all the above factors also come together in rape. (For example rape most often occurs in gangs where peer pressure is a factor.) The above factors break down long-established prohibitions against violence and at the same time, in a similar way, sexual prohibitions are broken too. This is why one often sees the crumbling of sexual and social norms when the domination and brutality of the battlefield is carried over into personal life. “Rape, mutilation, abuse and theft are the natural outcomes of a world in which force rules, in which human beings are objects.” “The linkage between sex and killing becomes unpleasantly apparent when we enter the realm of warfare.” When “life becomes worth nothing, when one is not sure of survival, when a society is ruled by fear, there often seems only death or fleeting, carnal pleasure.” What terrible alternatives! There is something in war that inverts all moral order and hierarchies. The moral universe is turned upside down. In a functioning society criminals are put in jail. In a dysfunctional society (war), these criminals are often the ones who rise to the top. Perhaps readers can think of people from their own settings who were once criminals and yet are now seen as heroes by those who have hired their violent skills? It is said that 2 per cent of a population have a tendency for psychopathic behaviour. War provides an environment for these behaviours to be expressed. When these guys are wielding power, people follow them. Only the very exceptional seem to have the moral courage to resist. In such an environment, sex becomes less about lovemaking and more about exercising power and gratifying base instincts. Walking as Jesus walked, even after atrocities So perhaps our insight into these inter-related factors – corruption, dehumanising the victim, peer pressure, the addiction of killing and the power of evil, can soften our emotions? Instead of anger and disbelief we begin to understand and maybe feel pity? There but for the grace of God, I may have gone. Once our hearts and our wills reach this point, perhaps forgiving may become easier for us? From this point one can build upwards and begin to understand how families, clans, and tribes have risen against one another. The pressure to hate can be so great it can build towards a massacre! The majority of the rebel movements in Sudan and elsewhere have begun with good ideologies, but they lack the discipline and organisation of western armies and so are more susceptible to the lure of indiscriminate killing and rape. So where does that leave us as Christians? How should we respond? Whatever one’s view, it is certainly a terrible tragedy that a child or young man can grow up learning to kill. I once met a militia soldier. He was no more than 19. I could read the shame in his eyes. They revealed someone who had exchanged the joys and freedom of childhood – games, education, and parental love, for hopeless loss, intense hatred and mind numbing trauma. Maybe those who forced them into fighting were themselves earlier victims of the same abuse? Should we see them as delinquents that require justice or should we treat them as people in need, captives who need freeing? Should we consign them to live on in their hell of an existence, expecting divine vengeance, or should we show them the merciful forgiveness God shows to us? Are they killers or are they victims? Are they both? Maybe we are all to blame – maybe none of us are.23 Alexander Solzhenitsyn grappled with this question when he wrote: “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” I have heard of rulers, rebels and despots who have established “training camps” for children. Perhaps those who set them up with cold hearted calculation, driven by a lust for power, should carry the greatest responsibility? “Woe to you who make unjust laws.” I met one man who had interviewed a number of such ideologists. He said on one occasion he had to end the interview early as he felt physically sick and reviled by the man. Maybe we can hold onto the fact Jesus also felt a similar distress, but strongly hinted at a hope of future justice: “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they (the things that cause people to sin) come!” As a Christian who believes in the God of love, the subject of hell is not my favourite topic, and it is one I instinctively shy away from. It is, however, one referred to by Jesus, and by Paul: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” When staring at the darkest evils of perverting children, the fact everyone will have to give account to God might be of some comfort. Atrocities got away with on earth, will be justly dealt with in heaven. I still do not fully understand who should receive justice for the crimes we are discussing. I am not sure who should shoulder the blame for turning humans beings into killers. Since “the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them” then maybe we are each responsible for our own actions? If I murder or rape, I am accountable to my Maker. And if I refuse to forgive, I am accountable to my Maker too! I do know this! We can all repent from the sin in our own hearts and try to encourage others along a similar journey. None of us know what will happen when we die, but whilst living, we can encourage others towards repenting of the darkness that holds them back from the freedom of God’s love and forgiveness. No one is beyond hope or redemption. Nelson Mandela’s watertight logic is full of understanding, grace, forgiveness and hope: “No child is born hating another man because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going. Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.” We can all trust in God’s forgiveness, grace, understanding and love for ourselves, and we can encourage all others around us to follow a similar path. We cannot condemn anyone to being irredeemable, as Jesus reminded us from the cross. A thief crucified alongside Jesus repented. He could make no restitution. He could not even ask his victims for forgiveness. But the thief was promised an immediate personal appointment in paradise with our Lord Jesus. God appears predominantly a God of grace. He likes to transform the most hopeless of cases. He took the murderous Saul and changed him from a religious killer to grace spreading saviour. Like Jesus, our task is to associate with all others and reach out in love across enemy lines. As we warmly embrace across the whole variety of ethnic groups, regardless of history, we show we trust in His transforming power. Discussion guide Using this chapter and Scriptures quoted: 1. Share some of the hurts you have experienced from the conflicts in Sudan. 2. List the factors that may work together to turn any person into a wartime killer or rapist. How does knowing this change your view of the people who have hurt you? How can the dangers of these evil influences be taught to forewarn young people? 3. Reading 1 John 1:5-2:6 What does it mean to “walk in the light”? Whose sin threatens to stop a Christian living as they should? Is anyone said to be beyond the forgiveness of God? Does this make a difference to how you view people who have hurt you? 4. What can we learn from the conversion of Saul (Paul) about God’s grace towards those who aggressively oppose Christianity? Acts 9:1-31. What can we learn from Ananias and from Barnabas? Since God forgives, how should we respond to those who have hurt us? 5. Since people learn to hate or learn to love, how can we promote the Christian way? 6. Consider why an understanding of the grace of God helps Christians forgive. Ephesians 2:1-10; Ephesians 3:7-11.

Leadership, Integrity and Nation building. – by David Fugoyo-Baime ‘Integrity’ is what the world needs today. Most of the man-made calamities in the world are the result of lack of integrity. Operationally, integrity can be defined as the willingness and ability to act up to the required standard. Doing everything which is required to healthily promote human life without bias is what integrity is all about. Integrity is acting as if people were watching you. It is to be consistent in upholding certain principles and values that make a person be exemplary and trustworthy. The word ‘secular’ has been misunderstood by many. During the time of peace negotiation between the Government of Sudan in Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) before the year 2005, one of the main factors that hindered the process of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was the word “secular”. The SPLM/A wanted a secular Sudan whereas the Government wanted a Sharia-led government. It was clear that the Government viewed secular to mean “evil or without God”. In essence, secular should be understood as where everybody and every religion and every culture is allowed to operate equally. ‘Leadership’ is another important variable in this chapter. Leadership is a practised phenomenon but is not easy to define. Leadership should be thought of as the ability to influence people to see, believe and act in a certain way. Leaders, therefore, are those who have the charisma to make others see vision and act toward the vision. Leadership is about the people and their well-being. It is first and foremost a call to serve and meet the needs of the people. Leadership can be defined as “the influence of others in a productive, vision-driven direction and is done through the example, conviction, and character of the leader”[1] and “the use of power to serve the people.”[2] D’Souza sees that leadership “involves working with and through people to achieve results which are not necessarily institutional or organisational goals.”[3] From these definitions, it is clear that influence and service are vital in leadership. Leaders of integrity must be the people who are able to positively influence the people (through their positive behaviours and speeches) and who are willing to serve the people rather than to serve their own interests. This chapter stresses the point that integrity must be practised by everyone everywhere. In leadership, integrity is about treating others the way you would want them treat you or the way they should be treated. Using our leadership position to mistreat others is a complete lack of integrity. Exploration of integrity Integrity is the key word in this article. Pursuing integrity in leadership is painful most of the time. It is painful because the world around us encourages shortcuts rather than integrity. Proverbs 10:9 and 11:3 clearly state that those who follow integrity will always prosper but those who hate integrity fail. Though pursuing integrity is painful, the Apostle Peter encourages us to live a life of integrity in this wicked world. He says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us”, 1 Peter 2:12. Integrity is the most important attribute in leadership, both in secular and in Christian circles. Recently, a survey by Robert Half Management Resources was conducted to find out the most important attribute in leadership. The survey was conducted in a secular environment where over 1,000 employees and 2,200 leaders (Chief Financial Officers—CFOs) were asked the following question: “Which of these are the most important attributes in a corporate leader?”[4] Each respondent was allowed to choose up to three responses to the question. The list of the attributes to choose from included transparency, accessibility, collaborative mind-set, fairness, integrity, decisiveness, strategic mindset and competitiveness. The respondents rated the attributes as follows: Workers CFOs Integrity 75% 46% Fairness 58% 45% Decisiveness 37% 22% Strategic mindset 32% 32% Transparency 25% 33% Accessibility 23% 33% Collaborative mindset 20% 39% Competitiveness 10% 30% Terri Williams analysed the importance of integrity and concluded that organisations must have leaders of integrity. Williams observed that employees considered integrity as vital, especially in the leadership of the leaders. The executive director of the firm that ran the survey said, “People want to work for those who are ethical. They know that if their leader acts with integrity, that leader will treat them right and do what’s best for the business. Companies with strong, ethical management teams enhance their ability to attract investors, customers and talented professionals”[5] The importance of integrity, therefore, is not only realised in a religious or Christian circle, but it is an attribute needed in every leadership. Integrity is such a big idea that encapsulates the entire life of a leader. There are areas where leaders must pay keen attention to in order to deliver leadership with integrity. In relation to leadership, integrity can be viewed as an acronym. Each letter in integrity stands for a certain word and practice that define integrity more broadly as follows: Inspiration/Insight The letter “I” in integrity stands for inspiration or insight. Inspiration simply means being enabled by God or by surrounding happenings to do what one ought to do. Having external force that encourages leaders to do what they are supposed to do is vital in leadership. Leaders who lack source of motivation are never motivated to execute their duties as they should. Leaders should rely on God for counsel and also seek advice from godly and experienced people. Nationalism The letter “N” stands for nationalism. Nationalism or patriotism is vital in leadership. If a leader lacks the sense of patriotism, this leader will definitely not lead with integrity. Nationalism creates the zeal to do things the right way and for the sake of the people and nation. Nationalistic leaders are unselfish—they do not lead for their own benefits, but for the benefit of the people they lead. The people, or the nation, might have acted against the leaders in the past. Leaders of integrity should not act based on the bad experiences of the past. They should embrace and work for the betterment of the nation. Transparency The letter “T” stands for transparency. People can do nasty things when they are alone, but try to do their best when others are watching them. Doing what one needs to do without hiding it from those that are supposed to be part of it or know of it is integrity in leadership. Leaders of integrity know that what they do is the right thing, and for this reason they do let others see and know what they are doing. Transparency is, therefore, the letting of others know and see what one does, and this in turn forces the leader to do what is right—this is now integrity. Excellence The letter “E” stands for excellence. Excellence is the process of aspiring for the best practice. Every work done without the spirit of excellence is doomed to failure. Integrity must be accompanied by excellence, and excellence must be in the heart of every leadership. In the Bible, Daniel had an excellent spirit, and this made him prosperous in everything he did, Daniel 2:19-23; 2:47; 4:9; 5:12-17. In his leadership, Daniel was unique and prosperous, not only because he was wise, but because the Spirit of God—the Spirit Who endowed him with excellence—was with him all the time. For God to be with Daniel, Daniel had to be committed to doing the right thing first. Only those leaders with the willingness to do the right and excellent things can excel in their leadership. Gratitude The letter “G” stands for gratitude. A complaining leader is almost a failed leader. Those who complain rather than doing what they are supposed to do can hardly be grateful to God. Gratitude here is the act of being grateful, satisfied and happy with the opportunity to serve. To be grateful does not mean everything around you is moving as you would want it to. It is rather the decision to be grateful for the opportunity to serve the people. While serving the people there are many problems that keep popping up every now and then. Despite all this, leaders should always have the sense of gratitude for the task of serving the people entrusted to them. Relevance The letter “R” stands for relevance. Leaders do not live on an island. They live among the people and they need to do and execute duties that make sense and bring solutions to the people’s status quo. The continent of Africa, as an example, grapples with myriads of socio-political problems ranging from poverty, to war, to famine, etc. Leaders should work and solicit for change as a way of bringing remedies to these problems. Bringing remedies requires the understanding of the problems people face and working with the people to bring about solutions to the problems. Leaders of integrity must be relevant to the situation and the people they live among. Initiative This letter “I” stands for initiative. Initiative is the game of brave and visionary leaders. Initiative involves planning and visualising the future. Integrity in leadership does not think and concentrate on today only, but tomorrow too. The tomorrow planned for is a successful tomorrow. Planning is part of integrity because integrity does not come as a surprise, integrity must be planned for. Planning needs the action to execute the plan. This is the initiative needed in leading with integrity. Teachability This letter “T” stands for teachability. Leaders of integrity are good listeners and are receptive of criticism and corrections. Since everybody should be teachable, leaders are in as much need for learning, perhaps more, than anyone else. They should be open to learn and be taught by the people around them. True leaders know that they do not know everything and that they also need to be taught by those who know more they do in one way or another. Leaders of integrity will benchmark with other leaders to learn and improve their leadership. They are the type of leaders who study other successful leaders and learn from them. Because of this, they improve in their leadership day by day. Yearning for transformation The last letter “Y” in integrity stands for transformation!  The strong desire to bring about transformation in a society is the ultimate goal of leadership, leadership with integrity. Leaders who lead with integrity are agents of transformation wherever they lead. Transformation, in this context, is the process of bettering and improving the life of the people in every way. If transformation is missing in any leadership, then the leadership is mere self-centred activities of the individuals claiming to lead the people. This should be a clue to help the people choose leaders. Leaders who concentrate on bringing about positive change to the community should be elected or chosen to lead the people. Jesus’ leadership was all about transformation, changing people from sons of darkness, where people lived under the authority of Satan, to the sons of light, where people would live under the authority of God, doing what was good for them and for their neighbours. Positive life-changing transformation cannot take place in the absence of justice and peace. Seeing the hand of God in their lives, Mary and Zechariah realised the justice and peace in God’s deeds as He transforms His people by bringing about justice and peace. Mary sang these words, “He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty”, Luke 1:51-53. Through his song, Zechariah said, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come to His people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David (as He said through His holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember His holy covenant, the oath He swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days…to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace”, Luke 1:68-79. The two songs by Mary and Zechariah came as a direct result of their personal experiences with God. Both declared the fact that God was a God of justice and peace. Through justice and peace, God brought transformation to His people—Jesus was to be born to bring transformation; John the Baptist was to be born to bring justice and peace as he prepared the way for the Saviour. Biblical examples Ø Paul said no one could point a finger at him Paul was one of the Apostles who suffered both from the people and the authorities who resisted the Gospel of Jesus (for example, 2 Corinthians 11:23-29). He severally wrote that he suffered from the people and endured hardship for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus—the Gospel that taught him how to maintain integrity. In his teaching on “Paul’s Integrity”, Pastor John Miller used 2 Corinthians 1:12–2:11 to explain Paul’s suffering and endurance in ministry.[6] Miller reiterates the truth that all those serving God will be opposed, just as Paul was opposed. However, he urges the leaders or servants to copy these three qualities that Paul had during his service: We should have a clear conscience according to 1:12-22. Paul and his team’s clear conscience was evident in his conduct, character and consistency in ministry. “Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom, but on God’s grace”, verse 12. He did not hold grudges against anyone, or take the grudges of others to his heart. Leaders of integrity should mind about their consciences when challenged or opposed by others. Consistency in doing the right thing, with conduct and character reflecting what the leaders claim to be, is an essential and integral part in the leadership of those leading with integrity. We should have a loving concern according to 1:23-2:4. Paul was concerned about both those he served amongst and those he served with. “I wrote to you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you”, verse 4. Many leaders do care about their positions and personal life. But leaders of integrity would always care about the people they serve because people matter more than anything else. The people were created in the image of God not anything (anyone?) else! Concern is about knowing what people are going through, how people are doing, how the people can be helped and empowered, etc. We should have a forgiving heart according to 2:5-11. Working with or leading people will always require forgiveness, probably both ways. Leaders will always meet people who will offend and oppose them. Forgiveness, therefore, is highly needed in order for leaders to lead healthily. “Anyone you forgive, I also forgive – if there was anything to forgive – I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes”, verses10-11. Lack of forgiveness is nothing but a blockage to an exemplary leadership. Leaders who are concerned about and practise integrity must see to it that they forgive always. Ø Jesus did not commit sin or crime Jesus is the perfect example of integrity in leadership. The Apostle Peter says that Jesus committed no sin, 1 Peter 2:22, and that makes Him a perfect leader. Jesus Himself stood before the people and asked, “Can any of you prove Me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe Me?” John 8:46. We can learn the following integrity lessons from this verse: People hated Jesus and accused Him falsely: people will always hate those who uphold integrity in leading others. This world does not favour those who want to live the ideal Christian life, nor does it commend leaders who front integrity in their leadership. But the great lesson is that Jesus did not give up; He continued to uphold integrity in His leadership despite the challenges. If you uphold integrity, people, including your close friends and family members, will hate you and accuse you falsely because they do not like your lifestyle. But lead on, with your integrity intact! People did not believe Jesus: because Jesus lived differently, the people around Him made up their minds not to believe Him. This may well always happen to leaders who value and practise integrity. The people around you may know that what you do and believe is true, but they can choose not to believe you because you do not belong to their group—the group of those who hate or do not practise integrity. Jesus was not what they claimed He was: Jesus knew He upheld integrity, but the people around Him accused Him of being guilty of sin. They consider Him a sinful man who misled the people. Many a time they said He had demons – for example in Luke 11:15-20, and, He broke the laws of Moses – for example in John 9:16. But the truth is they hated Him because His teaching was so powerful and penetrating. People will always say what they want to say about leaders of integrity. But the leaders need to stand up and defend their integrity through both works and words. Jesus always said the truth: despite the challenges, accusations and criticism by the people around Him, Jesus continued to say the truth. Even during the time of His crucifixion, Jesus said the truth, John 18:19-23; 18:37-38. This means that leaders of integrity do not change colours; they do not say one thing today and another tomorrow. They are consistent in telling the truth. Leaders of integrity are consistent because truth does not change. What leaders should learn from Jesus is that He did not feel bad or abandon His integrity because the people around Him hated Him because of it. Many leaders who want to pursue integrity in their leadership have given up because of peer pressure, family pressure or other reasons. Ø Old Testament Samuel was a leader in Israel for a long time. As a judge, he had the political authority over the people; as a prophet and a priest, he had the spiritual authority over the people. In today’s understanding, one would say that Samuel was all in all as far as leadership is concerned. However, Samuel did his best to maintain his integrity. He did not use his authority and influence to take advantage of his people. Being confident of his integrity in leadership, he shouted, “Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these things, I will make it right”, 1 Samuel 12:3. Because the people were sure that Samuel had not done any of the evil against them, they replied, “‘You have not cheated or oppressed us,’ they replied. ‘You have not taken anything from anyone’s hand’”, verse 4. This story teaches us about integrity in leadership. The following can be learned from it: 1. Only leaders who are sincere in their leadership can ask their people to evaluate them. If you know you have been a cheater, a land grabber, a corrupt leader, you cannot stand before your subordinates, asking them to evaluate you. Every leader knows where they belong as far as integrity is concerned, even before others evaluate them. Samuel could only ask people to sincerely evaluate him because he knew he had done no evil to his people. 2. Leaders of integrity know that they will not remain in a leadership position for ever. Every leadership opportunity has got a beginning and an end. Recognising the fact that other leaders will always come after us to lead the people is a healthy practice. It prepares leaders to do their best, to practise integrity and to aim at the goals for which they lead the people. Samuel gave this speech when he was retiring, and he was ready to allow another leader come and take over leadership. 3. Leading with integrity recognises God. Leaders who push God away from their leadership can hardly lead with integrity. Samuel recognised God in his leadership. He replied to the people saying, “The Lord is witness against you, and also his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand”, 1 Samuel 12:5. What Samuel says here is that his treatment to the people was done before God and that God saw everything he did while leading the people. We must remember He sees all of us all the time today too. 4. Those who lead with integrity do not intimidate the people to say or do what they want them to. The Bible is clear that Samuel asked the people to sincerely tell him if he had caused any harm against them. It was a sincere request, not done through intimidation. Areas that need integrity in both secular and Christian leadership Leading in an environment which is not necessarily Christian can be challenging. Certain Christian values are not upheld by many non-Christians. Most of the leadership challenges in the secular and Christian worlds are the same, but Christian leadership has additional challenges. The following are among the top challenges for leaders in the secular and Christian worlds: Dealing with money: Money is not evil, but it is tempting. Being a leader in a secular organisation where cash flows on regular basis has been a great challenge testing the integrity of many leaders in the organisations. For a time no one doubts what leaders do and/or how they handle the money. Because of the leadership position, it is easy to request or authorise the release of money at any time. Integrity in leadership is needed for the leader to follow the right and authorised procedures of dealing with money. Dealing with the opposite sex: Generally, illicit sexual relationships and activities are not allowed in institutions, but that does not mean it does not happen. Many subordinates or followers get interested in leaders and many leaders get interested in their subordinates. Dealing with the opposite sex has caused many leaders to lose their integrity and engage in illicit sexual relationships. Leadership with integrity requires precautions and boundaries are in place to minimise the chances of and opportunities for such relationships. Dealing with different tribes: in Africa, tribalism or negative ethnicity is a big phenomenon. Many leaders prefer to employ or favour their relatives. Leaders of integrity are those who know they are leading people from different tribes and that all the people from all the tribes deserve the opportunities. The best qualified people should have what they deserve whatever their ethnic background. Dealing with enemies: Whoever aspires to become a leader will have enemies. Enemies are not necessarily made or created; enemies are born naturally. Whether you lead with integrity or not, you will always have enemies as a leader. Leaders of integrity do not work against their enemies, they do not wish harm to their enemies; leaders work for the good of all people including their enemies. Most of the time, enemies may suck the positive energy from the leaders, but leaders who lead with integrity should not allow the negative thoughts and deeds by their enemies to suck the goodness from them. Because of the spiritual aspects which are not considered in the secular world, leadership in the Christian world tends to be more difficult. This is more than just a behaviour and action challenge—since love, fear of God and positive intention in public and in private are motivationally very important. In Christianity, the heart of integrity is love. Christian leaders need to love both their supporters and their opponents. John encourages followers of Christ to love one another, 1 John 3:11. Paul says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing”, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. Both John and Paul stress the fact that love should go beyond words and be translated into actions. Leaders who hate—even if they do not put the hatred into action—are not of integrity. In fact, they do not deserve to be leaders. Integrity is also seen in the way leaders interpret the word of God. Those who manipulate the Scripture to suit their own interests cannot be considered leaders of integrity. Integrity is the faithful and sincere interpretation of the word of God whether or not the Bible supports us. Integrity is when a leader repents rather than defends himself, or herself, when challenged by the Scripture. The wealth and health gospel, where leaders speak of God’s material blessings and where followers are requested or coerced to pay money to the leaders, is a clear example of lack of integrity. Giving is biblical and is a sign of commitment in Christianity. However, many leaders have used this opportunity to compel their followers to give, not to God, but to the leaders. As a result, these leaders are getting richer everyday while their subjects get poorer everyday. This is an example of how even the word of God can be misused by the leaders who lack integrity. In regard to dealing with the opposite sex, integrity comes not only in how appropriate one is related to the opposite sex as discussed earlier, but also in how one feels or what one thinks about the opposite sex. Jesus said, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”, Matthew 5:28. So, it is not only about action but feeling and thoughts. Integrity in leadership is the mind-struggle not to harbour evil thoughts. Evil thoughts lead to inappropriate actions. What we have realised to be the difference between the secular and spiritual leadership is that secular leadership ends at the ethics (what is seen) level, whereas Christian leadership goes beyond ethics to the heart (what is not seen). Integrity in Christian leadership is more complex because of this fact. Fruit of integrity Integrity is always reciprocated by trust. When people see a leader of integrity, they tend to trust the leader. When the people trust the leader, then the leader has more chances to influence the people. Integrity is very foundational to leadership. So, trust is one of the fruit of integrity. Integrity yields peace and tranquillity in every society. Most of the post-election violence and rebellion of some individuals in several African countries are caused by lack of integrity. When people realise that the leaders act maliciously and in a corrupt way, people become upset and this causes many to rebel and cause chaos which takes away the peace and tranquillity of respectful society. Integrity brings about harmony among communities. Harmony is so important for every society to advance. Coexistence is broken in the absence of integrity. It is only leaders of integrity who love and genuinely work for the unity of their people. They do their best to shun negative ethnicity by building diverse unity with people from different tribes. To bring about unity, leaders need to work hand in hand with the church. The church, through the help of God, is able to unite the people of South Sudan. Though the word unity does not appear in the Bible, the idea of unity is found in the Bible. Ngewa sees that unity is strength in many aspects of life in Africa.[7] Kosse has also seen unity in the African villages, but he has also said that this kind of unity is only among the people of the same ethnic group and can be used against anyone who comes from a different ethnic group. He believes in the unity that comes from God because it is “fostered and maintained by the work of the Holy Spirit, the agent of new birth, the source of life in the believer, the giver of the gifts and fruit of the Spirit.”[8] Please note: Unity within one ethnic group or tribe or culture is not the same as Jesus prayed in John 17:20-21: “that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You”. That “oneness” must be a compound unity, a unity with those without, giving unity and at the same time respecting diversity. It is like each of three Persons in God the Holy Trinity fully embracing and being embraced by one another. As we worship One God, so we must live and be one united diverse people. Concluding remarks and suggested way forward In this chapter we have defined and discussed the terms integrity, leadership, Christian and secular. We discussed that integrity should be in every leadership. The difference between secular leadership and Christian leadership is Christ. Christ is the foundation of Christian leadership whereas other principles and religions inform the foundation of secular leadership. As a way forward, we should always bear in mind that integrity is integral in every activity in life. Many people may think that integrity is only for leaders. But each of us, including you dear reader, is a leader in one way or another. Even if you lead a very small group or your family members, you are also a leader and you are supposed to uphold and exercise integrity. We should teach our children, our neighbours, our relatives and friends to uphold unity and respect all others. We should teach them not to look for opportunities only for their tribesmen but for everyone who is qualified or who deserves the opportunity. South Sudan is complex at the moment. Jok says, “South Sudanese citizens remain confronted by myriad forms of violence, ranging from localised ethnic conflicts to urban crime and violence perpetrated by security forces.”[9] This condition can only be changed by leaders of integrity. Integrity in leadership means striving to curb violence by all positive means so all people may live in trust, peace, tranquillity and harmony. Discussion guide Using this chapter and Scriptures quoted Discuss the offered acronym for INTEGRITY: (Inspiration/nationalism/transparency/excellence/gratitude/relevance/initiative/teachability/yearning for change). Produce your own short (3 or 4 line?) definition of the word. Why do you think “integrity what the world needs (most) today”? Proverbs 10:9; 11:3. Why is “pursuing integrity in leadership painful most of the time”? 1 Peter 2:11-21; 5:1-11. Be as practical as you can. “Now this is our boast: our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity (holiness) and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace”. Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:12. Explain any links between “integrity” and the NIV margin alternative, “holiness”. How does one help describe the other? “People will always hate those who uphold integrity in leading others”. Why is our Lord Jesus such a good example in this? John 8:45-47. 18:19-24. Would you be able to give a testimony about your life and service, like Samuel did in 1 Samuel 12:1-5? Why? Why not? Discuss ways of putting wrongs right. Luke 19:7-10; Exodus 22:1; Leviticus 6:4-5; Numbers 5:7. How does God’s all-seeing eye help us live with integrity? Hebrews 4:13. [1] Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward Launching A Leadership Revolution: Mastering the Five Levels of Influence (Business Plus:New York) 2005, p. 7. [2] Walter C. Wright Relational Leadership: A Biblical Model for Leadership Service (Paternoster: Cumbria) 2000, p. 180. [3] Anthony D’Souza Leadership: Trilogy on Leadership and Effective Management (Paulines Publications: Nairobi, Kenya) 2008, p.23. [4] What is the Most Important Leadership Attribute? Robert Half Management Resources (September 2016), http://rhmr.mediaroom.com/most-important-leadership-attribute (accessed August 12, 2017). [5] Terri Williams Why Integrity Remains One of the Top Leadership Attributes The Economist, https://execed.economist.com/blog/industry-trends/why-integrity-remains-one-top-leadership-attributes (accessed August 12, 2017). [6] John Miller Paul’s Integrity: 2 Corinthians 1:12-2:11 http://www.revival.tv/pdf/sermons/w1102.pdf, (accessed June 4, 2017). [7] Samuel Ngewa What Is the Church?,Africa Bible Commentary (Word Alive:Nairobi, Kenya) 2006, p.1431. [8] Kuzuli Kosse Unity of Believers Africa Bible Commentary (Word Alive:Nairobi, Kenya) 2006, p.1288. [9] Jok Madut Jok Mapping the Sources of Conflict and Insecurity in South Sudan The Sudd Institute: Report No 1 (January 2013): 2-21. Accessed 3 October 2013. Online: http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article45193.

Acts 9vs10-28; 22vs12-16. Church Growing Pains. When a baby joins a family the family changes. The parents in particular and any older brothers or sisters, all have to adapt to the new life who has been entrusted to them. The demands of the youngster are put first because he cannot yet be reasoned with like the others. Parents make sure his needs are met in the best way they possibly can. They also find themselves severely embarrassed sometimes by the spills and smells of their new baby - who appears to have no sense of occasion! When people are born again and join the Christian family it is essential that the existing Christian family provides all it possibly can to welcome and to nurture these new disciples. It is not always easy but it is essential. One event that made a real impression on me was when some elderly ladies prayed in a prayer meeting at Blackheath Baptist in Australia. The church had had an influx of young adults and it was a great answer to prayer. But these folk did not know how to behave in church. They would get up and walk around, sit with their feet on the pew in front, sit when others were standing and shout questions or comments to the preacher during his sermon. This one prayer meeting though, impressed me because these older saints prayed "Lord, we don't like what these people do, how they dress, their bad language and rudeness, but we know you love them and we want you to help us accept them as they are." Gradually some were converted from the group, others lost interest, and over the months the situation calmed down. What a prayer! When we pray for converts do we put restrictions on God? Must they be from our race, our tribe, our social status, must they be 'normal' families with no messy divorces or criminal ties? Unfortunately all these things can make us have a wrong attitude to accepting into the church everybody God draws to Himself. If the Jerusalem church had a problem between races, the Greek speaking Jews and the Hebraic Jews of Acts 6vs1, it is not surprising that Christian churches over the years have had problems accepting blacks in America and South Africa, accepting Asians from Pakistan or India in England, accepting tribal people in the Arab dominated churches of Khartoum. I have always thought it a pity that different tribes and people of different ethnic origins meet for worship as separate groups, even though our own Ambassadors For Christ ministry has encouraged it in Britain with Rev S H Massey's God-given vision of Asian Christian Fellowships in many towns and cities. Language differences do give one obvious reason, but I feel every effort should be made to show that Christians genuinely are all one in Christ Jesus. Now for a moment I want you to think of the most unlikely person you know, who is alive and in your sphere of influence today, who is most unlikely to become a born again believer. Perhaps he is of another religion and he knows all the answers. Perhaps he is aggressively self-assertive and utterly intolerant of any other faiths. Perhaps he has the civic authorities on his side and has already done much harm to the Christian cause. Once you have thought of him (or her!) pray for him. Pray for his conversion. Then imagine you receive a phone call or a letter in a few weeks to say "please come and meet this person because God wants you to be his mouthpiece in affirming them in their new found faith." How easily would you go? How many excuses could you find? What would it take to convince you that God really had done a genuine work of salvation in his life? The name Ananias means 'God is gracious'. I don't expect the disciple of that name in Acts 9vs10-19 agreed with the definition when he was called to visit Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a man of some reputation, and all of it bad news for Christians. He was the instigator of the "great persecution that broke out against the church at Jerusalem" Acts 8vs2. His personal role is described in vs3 "Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison." He "was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples" when he obtained letters of authority to extend his vicious work to Damascus, 9vs2. You and I both know what happened in Acts 9vs3-9. We know how Saul was confronted by the risen Lord Jesus, convicted of his own sin, and converted to being a disciple of Jesus Christ. But Ananias did not know that. He could have heard a rumour from someone who thought he may have seen Saul being led by the hand into Damascus, but he had no concrete evidence. Then God called him by name. "Ananias". "Yes Lord" he answered. The Lord told him "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight," Acts 9vs10-12. Six qualities in Ananias' life made him usable to God at this point. His role was simply to confirm the call of God to this one new convert and to point him in the direction of future service. If Ananias had made a mess of it however, you could rip out chunks of your New Testament because they would not have been written. There would have been no church at Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe etc. The narrative of Acts would have ended at roughly chapter 12. The cause of Christ is immensely indebted to Ananias who went to meet a man Christ had changed. How can we be useful to God in this sphere? We may have to take risks for ourselves and for our families. I know of Christians in the Arab world who have paid with their own freedom for trying to help converts from Islam. In my own churches there have been immense demands made on myself and my family when the teenage daughter of a family going through a bitter divorce became a Christian and came to stay. She came for one night and stayed eighteen months. There was a man with bleeding wounds to his eyes and mouth who turned up on the doorstep and said "Can you hide me because they're trying to do me in?" There have been people with mental difficulties, with criminal backgrounds including paedophiles. What does Ananias teach us about how to be useful to God? 1. He was a disciple, Acts 9vs10. He himself was a man who had heard the call of Jesus Christ and had come to Him and was now seeking to carry a daily cross, Luke 9vs23, Luke 14vs26. 2. He was a devout man, Acts 22vs12. He was a pious, reverent, sincere and earnest man who was loyal to the law of the Lord and who loved the Lord of the law. 3. He had a good reputation, Acts 22vs12. Other people inside and outside the Christian church could 4. He was calm enough to hear God's call, Acts 9vs10. He was close enough to God to listen and learn what God wanted him to do. It was a vision, literally "an appearance, that which is seen", that came to a disciple. The message was more important than the medium used. Ananias was less aware of the room where he was and life's present circumstance. He was more aware of sights and words implanted into him by God Himself. 5. He was willing to overcome his own reticence, Acts 9vs13-16. Having expressed his personal questions to God he accepted God's answers. He overcame his own statement 'I am unsure' with a resounding 'I am willing'. 6. He was faithful in doing what God told him, Acts 9vs17. We can see that he laid hands on Saul, prayed for him, and told him what God had revealed about the future plans for his life, Acts 22vs14-16. He challenged him towards believers baptism too. We must be available for God to use us in parenting new Christians. Just as parents of human babies will only leave their children in a creche properly staffed and prepared, I am convinced that God entrusts spiritual babies to those who have taken on this responsibility seriously. Perhaps we should notice in passing the three things that nearly stopped him from being usable by God. Firstly, there were the things he had heard from others, 9vs13, linked with an obvious personal fear for his own safety. Secondly, Ananias was unaware of God's plan for Saul's life, compare 9vs13 and 9vs15. Once God had shared His overall purpose, doing the task assigned became easier. Thirdly there was the danger of only going on outward appearances. He initially saw everything from a human perspective. He ultimately viewed the situation from a heavenly perspective and it changed his own actions. Ananias took six steps of faith: he listened to God, Acts 9vs10; he went to the house and entered the house, 9vs17; he placed his hands on Saul 9vs17; he told Saul what God had told him was in store, 22vs14, 15; he challenged Saul to be baptised, 22vs16. Now, of course, visiting Saul on behalf of the church was only the beginning. Saul had to be introduced to the church back in Jerusalem so that they could accept him and attest to what God had done. Acts 9vs26 says "when he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple". At least several weeks had gone by since his Damascus Road experience and news must surely have filtered back to the apostles. But even these greatly used servants of God were sceptical of his testimony. Of course, they all knew families bereaved by Saul's murderous activities and perhaps the bitterness of some of them made a powerful lobby to give Saul the cold shoulder. So God raised up another man to keep His work on track. Vs27 "But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus". Barnabas went out of his way to welcome Saul. Just suppose he had been wrong. If he had introduced Saul to the meeting place and to all the key figures of the church and Saul had then thrown off his disguise of conversion and arrested them all, Barnabas would have been a name spat rather than spoken! Barnabas risked his own reputation. He did five wonderful things for Saul. Paul was what he was because Barnabas helped him. Thank God for Barnabas. 1. Barnabas accepted Saul as from God, compare Acts 9vs26, 27. When everyone else was going by what they had heard and remaining afraid of Saul, Barnabas was actually going to meet Saul to find out for himself. 2. Barnabas introduced Saul to the church. He believed the best about Saul, not the worst. Romans 15vs7 "Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God." He did not hold his past against him, Colossians 3vs13, "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." 3. Barnabas was mindful of Saul, Acts 11vs25, even though several years had gone by he was still concerned that Saul's calling and potential were realised. 4. Barnabas shared his own ministry with Saul, Acts 11vs26. There was a large number of young uninstructed believers in Antioch and for a year Saul and Barnabas taught them all they could. The older Christian gave ample opportunity for the young Christian to find his feet. 5. Barnabas teamed up with Saul on missionary service. Acts 13vs1-3. He saw Saul right through from the elementary Bible class to being a missionary planting churches everywhere he possibly could. All of this could have been stopped if Barnabas had not persistently knocked on the closed door of the Jerusalem church with one hand while holding firmly to Saul with the other. Aquila and Priscilla give yet another example of this in Ephesus, Acts 18vs24-28. The Egyptian Apollos came to Ephesus and, although he was an enthusiastic teacher of some truth, it was evident to Aquila and Priscilla that something was missing from his experience. Rather than stand back and criticise, as some would have done, this couple opened their home, their hearts and gave their help to the itinerant preacher. Apollos learned well. When the time came to move on he went with a letter of commendation to the church in Achaia. A Christian church must welcome newcomers, whether newly converted or somewhat lacking in understanding and experience. If the church is to do it, you and I must do it because we are the church. We know God is still at work in our own lives, transforming us more and more into the image of Christ. We are probably ashamed now of some of the things we did, or we championed, in the past. Thank God people accepted us as we were and loved us into maturity. Let's make sure we do the same for others now. Discussion questions Think through what obedience means in your relationship with God. Share what obedience meant to Ananias. Think of an attitude or action you personally find vile or horrific. Someone you have come to respect shares their testimony. He/She did that. Share how you would react, and think through the situation as their friend in Christ.

Christian theology in a Sudanese context. The essential nature and character of God. The Personality of God God is a living Person. He is more than a power or a force. You may have a photo of someone special to you. Having that photo with you is not the same as having the real person with you! In the Ten Commandments we are forbidden to make images of God. (Exodus 20:4; Psalm 115:1-8; Jeremiah 10:6-10). Any image of God would take away something from His glory. Any image of God would present a false idea about God. This is because God is alive! No image lives, but God lives. God’s personality enables us to talk with Him as well as talk about Him. God is a personal Spirit with Whom we can have a relationship. Although God does not have a body, He hears, sees, knows, feels, wills and acts. God is a real Person. Idols are things; God is a Person. In the Bible people were encouraged to know that the living God was among them. (Joshua 3:10; 1 Samuel 17:34-37; Daniel 6:19-23). God cares for everything that He has made. He feeds and watches over the birds, even the house sparrows, passer domesticus, and common bulbuls, pycnonotus barbatus, (Matthew 6:26; 10:29). Many of us have enjoyed parents who have looked after us while we were growing up. Jesus lived on this earth in constant touch with One He called ‘Father’ in heaven. Christians are brought to be children of God the Father in this close family sense. (Matthew 6:9). Our Father God will help us to walk properly, when we would rather just lie down and wriggle like babies. He will teach us how to work in order to feed ourselves, when we would like other people to serve us while we play at our own games. Our Father God will guide us and advise us through the most difficult circumstances. He has even more than the wisdom of experience. God is used to relationships. He has them within Himself. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three distinct Persons in One undivided Being. God made us people so that we personally could have a relationship with Him (Acts 17:24-27). Our relational knowledge of God is the fruit of the Christian gospel. A Christian is born by the Holy Spirit into God’s own family. (John 1:12,13). God is so great a Person that He is always able to make even the activities of evil people work out to His own plan (Genesis 50:20). Things that give us great distress and bring much trouble for a while in this lifetime, are none-the-less activities of our living, loving Father in heaven (Isaiah 45:7). Thinking it through. (a). The personality of God enables our ‘relationship with Him’ rather than just a ‘knowledge of Him’. What are the differences between these two? (b). After thinking about this, list as many differences as you can. Which do you want?

Bible reading: Matthew 5vs38-47. My life (put) alongside God's word, volume 1. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy’. But I (Jesus) tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”, Matthew 5:43-45. (Italics mine). Listen to what Joe Kapolyo from Zambia writes about these words: “In Leviticus 19:18, the commandment to love your neighbour applied where the neighbour was a fellow Israelite (5:43a). Attitudes towards outsiders and Israelites who had rejected their faith and their people were quite different (Exodus 34:12; Deuteronomy 7:2; 23:3-6; Psalm 139:21-22). Although hate your enemy is not commanded in the OT, it can be inferred from the passages quoted above. But Jesus commanded His followers to love their enemies (5:44). The word translated ‘love’ is agape, which means a strong commitment of goodwill towards another, regardless of whether or not they deserve it.” “Our attitude towards outsiders, the unlovely and unloving, and even those who persecute us, must not be hatred, rejection or indifference. We must positively seek their good. God has given us the example to follow. His gifts are given freely even to those who do not acknowledge Him as Lord (Matthew 5:45-47). Similarly, Jesus’ followers must learn to shower all people indiscriminately with love. The African church urgently needs to learn this lesson in order to curb the scourge of tribalism and racism that is ravaging this continent”. [1] That last line is so relevant to Sudanese and South Sudanese people at this time in history. There are still several disputed border areas between Sudan and South Sudan. There are ongoing disputed rights for grazing animals and others for arable farming. There are disagreements over oil and mineral mining rights. Unresolved disputes can quickly degenerate into anger with hatred. “They” become your enemy in daily life. You spit out their name with contempt. You don’t believe anything good can come from “them”. It is exactly here that each individual Sudanese and South Sudanese Christian must answer my question, “Why does Jesus tell us to Love our Enemies”? Before you read on, what is your answer? Here is mine: A deliberate choice to obey Jesus in daily life puts a whole new perspective on my situation. The hot responses of hatred become impossible for me. I cannot let myself be carried along with the crowd. Following God’s willing example makes me responsible for encouraging the daily provision for “our enemies” as well as for ourselves. When the impulses of anger and the selfishness of a “this is what I want” attitude are taken out of the situation, there is flexibility for constructive dialogue to develop between parties. Sons have the characteristics of their fathers. Sudanese and South Sudanese Christian children of God will exhibit God their Father’s qualities of love, mercy, graciousness, forgiveness, care, patience, forbearance, and a gentle firmness, always with a clear understanding (working definition) of right against wrong. I will not hide the fact that this type of living is very difficult. It is not what comes naturally to a proud Arab, Dinka, Nuere, Moro, Mabaan, Nuba, etc., nor to a proud Englishman like me! Yet I know I must be a Christian first, and an Englishman second – even if that makes me stand almost alone against my people on some occasions. The NT Greek word translated “enemies” in Matthew 5:43 is echthros. It means “hated or hateful, hostile one”.[2] As well as meaning our outright foes, the word is big enough to include even our own people when they do not respond Christianly to things happening. The godly-living Christian may have to show his own people, from the Bible, how and why we should love those we have become accustomed to hating. A tough job has just become tougher! In Matthew 5:38-42 Jesus offers four ways to live very differently to the world around about. They include giving gentle but constructive responses to hostility and exploitation. Then, after our passage in Matthew chapter 6, our Lord Jesus reminds bold Christians that our Heavenly Father sees the secret things we do to become godly-living believers. Our giving 6:1-4, our praying 6:5-13, our forgiving 6:14-15, our fasting 6:16-18, our goal-setting 6:19-23, can all help us to “love our enemies”. When you get the chance you may want to discuss in small groups of believers ‘how’ these things could work out in practice. Secret devotion evidences itself in true Christian living (that is living as Jesus Christ Himself would live). His closest disciple John wrote: “Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus walked”, 1 John 2:6. “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His (Jesus’) commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love”, 2 John verse 6. Discussion questions: 1. Matthew 5:45 uses the sun as an example of God’s generous sharing the blessings of creation with everyone. What does this teach us about our attitudes towards other people? Why? 2. How does the fact that God sees what is done secretly (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18) help us to love our enemies? 3. How can you show practical Christian love to your enemy in your own life situation? [1] Joe Kapolyo Africa Bible Commentary Matthew (Word Alive: Nairobi) 2006, p.1121 [2] Vine W.E., Expository Dictionary of OT & NT words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1996, p.201

Issues facing Christians in Sudan today. Bible reading Genesis 37-50. by Tamba David "But Joseph said to (his brothers), “Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives”, Genesis 50:19-20. Andrew pours himself out tirelessly serving thousands of Sudanese people in a city in North Africa. Self taught in music, he leads worship with guitar or keyboards and has formed a zealous worship group. One night he approached a dark area near one of the churches where Sudanese youth congregate. It is also where one of fifty gangs has its turf. Being mistaken as another gang member, Andrew was seized and his face sliced open. Blood poured down over his shirt and trousers. As the gang members left him, his emotions flared and he became very, very angry. Being a former gang member himself, he thought, “I could go out and get a big knife right now. Or, I could choose to forgive”. What should Andrew do? As he prayed his heart cried out, "Lord help me to forgive." Andrew then chose to forgive his attackers. He began to pray for the people who had done this to him. One day there was a sports programme by the Refuge North Africa office in a section of the city with many refugees from Sudan. A young man strutted up to Andrew and said, "Do you remember me?" As it was extremely hard to see in the dark exactly who it was, Andrew told him, “No”. "I'm the one who did this line on your face for you," he said smugly. He was referring to the long scar that still runs down the side of Andrew's face. "It's okay. I forgive you and I pray for you," said Andrew. Shock covered the assailant's face. He began to call Andrew, "Uncle" and went on to apologise profusely. Then everything became normal in their relationship as he realised that Andrew meant what he said. Probably for the first time in this man's life, he experienced the forgiveness of a Christian, reflecting the love of Jesus Christ. One night Andrew shared this personal testimony (above) with the youth group after hearing the story of Joseph. He told them that he realised all this had happened so that these gang members could have good relationships with him and with others. That which had happened was allowed by God because God wanted to do something in their young lives. He ended by saying, "Forgive, even though it's expensive, it's very painful ... to chose to forgive. Forgive, because if you do not you will join evil." "Forgiveness is agreeing to live with the consequences of another person's sin." This definition helped the youth to better understand Andrew's experience. Certain of those present listening were actually involved in gangs and they heard the wonderful Bible story of Joseph that evening. Andrew's powerful life experience was a window through which they could see the message. Neil Anderson’s phrase (above) poignantly reiterates what Jesus said from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing," Luke 23:34. Do we realise that when the words "I forgive you" pass from our lips, we are actually agreeing, yes, even accepting, to bear the consequences of another's sin against us? For sure this might slow us, caution us against glibly and thoughtlessly allowing these words to come out of our mouths! We don't have options if we want to reflect the Lord who we are loved by, and the One we are called to “Follow”. Jesus accepted to bear the consequences of our sin in His own body on the cross. And when God forgave us it was just and perfect forgiveness because He bore the pain. He has every right to say, "I forgive you”, 1 John 1:8-9. Gangs in the City The Non Governmental Organisation (N.G.O.) we are volunteering with has a great youth department. It has been reaching out and taking risks to love the gang members of the city for several years. Involvement with youth takes many forms. There is chronological Bible storying with rap and hip-hop music, for instance, where the divine message is shared in simplicity. We include the message of forgiveness shared above. It is able to be heard and understood by the youth on the streets of the city. There are conferences held for rival gangs to come together on one conference ground. They learn that peace is possible when the Prince of Peace is present and at the head of the programme. Weekly youth recreation like football and classes to learn English, with other forms of training, are all saying to the youth that they are important to the Lord. Youth know there are people who love them and want them to chose another life path besides the one involving violence arising out of heart of non-forgiveness. The hearts of these youth are full of pain. This drew us to serve alongside Andrew to help in anyway possible. Gangs were born here partially as the result of the terrible experiences of their families in Southern Sudan added to the inescapable experiences of discrimination against darker skinned people living in North Africa. There are negative stereotypes regarding who the Sudanese are which affect how they are treated. There is much for the refugees to be angry about, so forgiveness must become a vital part of their way of life. As many peoples have learned while they have dealt with their experience of suffering injustice at the hands of others, and as Andrew put it, forgiveness is as an act of the will not the feelings. Forgive or "join evil." Some have expressed this in this way. If we do not forgive we become like the ones who are doing evil against us. A young Dinka man told me how his mother was taken into the hospital for a supposedly necessary surgery. He said that when the surgery was finished, it was discovered that her kidney had been removed “unnecessarily”. After this, and as a result of this, she died. The anger and pain he felt from this experience, now several years past, still remain as an issue for my friend. He deals with this by his music and by the input he receives from the Bible stories. Now he has just left to return to his home area in Dinka land. This kind of pain and evil cannot be met or coped with in our human strength alone. I work with the Dinka in the city every week and have been so deeply impressed by their community and spiritual lives. Yet the power to forgive is not found in any people apart from Jesus Christ living in our hearts empowering us to forgive. This young Dinka man appreciated so much the story of Cain and Abel. God had warned Cain about the danger of anger. But Cain did not listen and murdered his brother, the first murder in human history. My friend also learned from the comments in the youth group as we processed this story. We dare not follow the path of Cain, jealousy—hatred—murder. This dangerous progression of sin is possible in any heart. Yet there is an opposite path just as real and just as possible by our choice. Prayer for the enemy or person sinning against us—forgiveness—love. The choice is ours. The will is the strongest part of our being as God has made us. Body, soul, and spirit, we are composed to reflect our triune God. And in our souls we are mind, emotions and will. The power of the Spirit of God is released into the level of the will as we chose and yield. This eliminates striving or depending on our weak humanity for God-sized tasks like forgiving people who knife us, or who take our own mother's life by treachery. Only God in us can empower us to respond with these beautiful attitudes. It is simply not in us to forgive like this. Within the past few years, another group of people from Sudan have joined the other tens and hundreds of thousands of refugees from Sudan in North Africa. They are from Darfur. And for some, they have found that there is no way to remain loyal to a religious ideology that allows what they have borne—systematic extermination of their people and theft of all that is theirs by people from another ethnic group. Some have come into a relationship with the God of love. And for them as well, the path is exactly the same. Prayer—forgiveness—love, not anger-hatred-revenge. There is no other choice. On the level of government and military organisation for defence, there is Romans 13:1-5 to consider. It states that the sword is to be used rightly for justice—not injustice. Where there is gross injustice, in this kind of political situation, it may be that defence of and reorganisation of a people for survival may be necessary. But on the level of the individual disciple, and in day to day life, all that is shared here is the only path to internal peace. Jesus is the role-model. He asks his followers to forgive as He forgave. Personal Experience in Sudan God had put it on our hearts for years to pray for Sudan. Serving in another country of Africa at the time we had rallied our believers to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters, and they had joyfully and zealously risen to the occasion by prayer. Never did we imagine we would actually set foot in Sudan ourselves. But two years after watching busloads of Sudanese refugees go past our home and having the privilege of serving them in their camp, the day came to enter Sudan. Yet after four short months there, the very brothers who we had begun to love and serve betrayed us. Suddenly we found ourselves without the required letter of invitation for our Sudanese visas. We felt displaced as a result, and ended up like Joseph in Egypt involuntarily. God in His grace opened new vistas of work for us. God’s mercy we were not anticipating flooded our lives. Within days of arriving we visited an N.G.O. ministry working with refugees. As we walked in the gate the huge courtyard was filled with Sudanese. We were welcomed into the director’s offices shortly after this. The invitation to work together opened the widest of doors to us. We were given back our chance to love and work with Sudanese. Opportunities to work with Dinka youth and Darfur peoples all came our way. As Joseph told his brothers in Egypt, “What was intended by the enemy for one thing was turned around by God for quite another”. Joseph's words and Andrew’s very similar words were proven true in our own lives and experience. God intended it all for good. We have forgiven our brothers who betrayed us and we are at peace. It is true for us, as Andrew once said, “There is nothing—all is normal again in relationships”. My brother or sister from Sudan or South Sudan, if you are not at peace as you read these stories of forgiveness, and if something is stirred up in you—may I encourage you to walk with Jesus down the path of forgiveness. It truly leads to peace and it turns on the flow of love. It revives the life of prayer we all need so desperately. Cain, Joseph's brothers, gang members in a dark alley in the city waiting for a rival gang member, church leaders needing affirmation, and many, many others have chosen a path that is evil and sinful. They keep hold of anger, hatred, bitterness, looking for the chance of revenge. The Lord offers to them something more powerful following His own humility and self-less love. We need to say to those who offend us, “I accept to bear the consequences of your sin”. They may never actually hear those words come out of our mouths, but Jesus does! He hears and knows our hearts. When we walk down this path we will never be alone. Our Lord Jesus is in front of us, walking beside us, and He is with us all along the way. Discussion guide Using this chapter and Scriptures quoted: 1. Share why you find it hard to forgive someone who has wronged you. “Forgiveness is a God-sized task”. True or false? Why? 2. Describe the battle a person goes through in choosing to forgive someone. Why is it a battle? Is this good or bad? 3. Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:14-15 follow Him giving “The Lord’s prayer”, verses 9-13. Why do you think He explains verse 12, forgiveness, and not the other themes? 4. Explain what it means to “accept on yourself the consequences of another’s sin”. Why should a Christian do this? Illustrate this phrase from the lives of Joseph and the Lord Jesus. Genesis 37-50; Luke 23:34. 5. What are some of the results of not offering forgiveness? Matthew 6:14-15; Matthew 18:21-35; Luke 6:35-37;Luke 17:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:1-5. 6. Why is forgiveness an act of the will and not feelings? Colossians 3:13 gives a governing principle. What is it?