Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
AWAKE O ZION!
Young Darren weaved through the assembly and plonked
himself on my lap. I looked over at Kelly. His twelve-string
guitar hung across his chest as he pursed his lips and looked
contemplatively at the ceiling. What a sight! Kelly was a guy
you learned from. No frills — just spiritual reality. ‘Once you
were not a people, but now you are the people of God’ (1 Pet
2:10). That was his favourite scripture.
It had been a fascinating year at the Hall. New friendships
were a tremendous inspiration and my path to spirituality
was no longer a lonely road. Most of all we were a people. As
the worship faded into silence I looked around the room. Victor
was still lost in worship. He loved the silent times. A great
contentment came over me. I’d come home to ‘Zion’.
From the corner of the room a squeaky voice began to sing:
‘Out of Zion, our God shines forth.’ It was far too high and the
assembly dissolved into laughter. Verna came to the rescue
on the keyboard and the tambourines started up.
‘We are his Zion, perfection of his beauty, radiance of his
glory, bearers of his name.’ The song came to an end after
the fifteenth time and we erupted into loud cries of Jesus!
Bless God! and Hallelujah!
Some of the Ashburnham staff crept in and lined up along
the wall. They exchanged glances and smiled. Noel stood up
and swept his greying hair off his forehead.
‘Ashburnham ’75,’ he began quietly, ‘is radically different
from ’74, because then God established a structure and now
he is building on it with his goodness, his sweetness and his
life. Before us lies the task of perfecting the beauty of Zion.
We sing from Psalm 50: “Out of Zion... God shines forth.”
Now some are using the word “Zion” a great deal nowadays
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