Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTStwo ugly giants reared their heads — worldliness and independence.They had one effective cure — the cross — and it came inmany shapes and sizes. For some it was the loss of worldlyinterests. The Spirit wasn’t keen on aspects of our old life.Apart from smoking and drinking, it was entertainment, televisionand secular music that gave way. When we were lukewarm,these things seemed all right, but in revival theseamusements were hindrances to spiritual power.The Lord challenged me, too. Heavy metal wasn’t my problem,but giving up my stereophonic Sibelius was painful. Iheard the call of Jesus to forsake everything and ditched mypipe and herbal tobacco, too! Many of us parted with relationships,possessions and pursuits that, though not sinful inthemselves, hindered us in our quest to travel light and loveGod supremely.The cross cut us away from worldly opinions. By now we’dhad enough of Christmas. Apart from the New Testamentstance of avoiding ‘special days and months and seasons’ (Gal4:10; Col 2:16), such so-called Christian festivals seemed fullof hypocrisy. In family life, too, we gained a vision of lovingauthority, and determined to rear our kids for Christ. All thisinvited criticism — and got it!The cross was reducing middle-classness to ashes as wetook hold of a new lifestyle. It was breaking down the aloofnessbred through education. We saw clearly that ‘What ishighly valued among men, is detestable in God’s sight’ (Luke16:15).The cross crucified our independence. Meeting so oftendidn’t leave too much time to do our own thing. We moved in106