Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
two ugly giants reared their heads — worldliness and independence.
They had one effective cure — the cross — and it came in
many shapes and sizes. For some it was the loss of worldly
interests. The Spirit wasn’t keen on aspects of our old life.
Apart from smoking and drinking, it was entertainment, television
and secular music that gave way. When we were lukewarm,
these things seemed all right, but in revival these
amusements were hindrances to spiritual power.
The Lord challenged me, too. Heavy metal wasn’t my problem,
but giving up my stereophonic Sibelius was painful. I
heard the call of Jesus to forsake everything and ditched my
pipe and herbal tobacco, too! Many of us parted with relationships,
possessions and pursuits that, though not sinful in
themselves, hindered us in our quest to travel light and love
God supremely.
The cross cut us away from worldly opinions. By now we’d
had enough of Christmas. Apart from the New Testament
stance of avoiding ‘special days and months and seasons’ (Gal
4:10; Col 2:16), such so-called Christian festivals seemed full
of hypocrisy. In family life, too, we gained a vision of loving
authority, and determined to rear our kids for Christ. All this
invited criticism — and got it!
The cross was reducing middle-classness to ashes as we
took hold of a new lifestyle. It was breaking down the aloofness
bred through education. We saw clearly that ‘What is
highly valued among men, is detestable in God’s sight’ (Luke
16:15).
The cross crucified our independence. Meeting so often
didn’t leave too much time to do our own thing. We moved in
106