Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS THE LORD TOOK HOLD OF BUGBROOKEThese young prodigals demonstrated that new birth, baptismin water and in the Spirit were power encounters withsalvation. Alan had a lot of old life to bury. His eyes had grownso weak from drugs that he wore shades. When he came outof the water his eyes were healed. Baptism was no mere confessionof faith: it was power.It was also an exit from the world’s value system. ‘Repentand be baptised,’ Peter had cried. ‘Save yourselves from thiscorrupt generation!’ (Acts 2:38, 40). It was going to be tough,but Alan was identifying with the people of God.Around this time we discovered Love Not The World byWatchman Nee. Nee wrote: ‘Salvation is essentially a presentexit from a doomed order... [In baptism] a whole world goesdown with you. When you come up, you come up in Christ —in the ark that rides the waves. You have entered a new orderof things.’ 19Clearly the hippy culture was not the Jesus culture, but neitherwas the status quo. Everything in the New Testamentcried revolution, transformation and a new society. ‘If anyoneis in Christ,’ declared Paul, ‘he is a new creation; the oldhas gone, the new has come!’ (2 Cor 5:17).New creation became our theme song as we broke newground. New creation called for a reassessment of values thathad been drummed into us from birth. It meant hacking out ahallowed spot from the tangle of worldliness. It put a questionmark on everything we did simply because everybodyelse did it. Television, theatre, sport, vacations abroad, religiousfestivals — they all came under the searchlight.Many questions arose as we glimpsed the magnitude ofGod’s will. ‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this87