Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
AWAKE O ZION!
birth. Truth? We are naturally false. We are naturally superior
and selfish. Truth? We hate it! Knowing the truth about
ourselves can be awfully painful. Some of you are going
through it here as God’s searchlight explores the very fabric
of your lives. You see, the truth of God is active in our hearts!
The rigorous practice of truth!
‘Brothers and sisters, Zion is the “city of truth”. Only truth
will be attractive to those who are searching for an answer.
They are looking for a people of truth and equality.
‘Dare we be that? Dare we set ourselves against the current
of the world? Dare we be a holy people? Dare you join us
in what your heart so desperately longs for, but what your
flesh shrinks from? Jesus did it. He practised truth. He practised
love. It brought the resurrection. But the cross came
first. The rigorous practice of truth!’
Noel’s voice had faded into a whisper.
‘Brethren,’ he continued, lowering the book, ‘if you cannot
receive this here, you’ll never apply it there. This retreat is
as close to community living with all its beautiful outflow as
we are likely to see for some time. With all the pressures on
you back home to conform to the world, unless you are prepared
to be real now, the devil will lead you a dance.
‘Now Os Guinness remarks that the early Christians faced
a twofold cultural threat. They acknowledged neither the Lordship
of Caesar, nor the wisdom of the Greeks: “They refused
to be classified. They were neither Romans, nor Greeks, nor
Jews, nor Gentiles, nor masters, nor slaves, nor rich, nor poor.
They were a healing community, they were one in Christ. They
were a third race.” 37
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