Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
CITY ON A HILL
At the elders’ meeting Noel dealt with the critics, and applied
the Scripture: Those [elders] who sin are to be rebuked
publicly, so that the others may take warning’ (1 Tim 5:20). It
did the trick. The advocates of ‘cheap grace’ saw the dangers,
were humbled, and opened up to conviction.
Noel’s ministry now became more visionary. One morning
he spoke on identification with Christ in suffering and read
accounts of some of the martyrs. ‘We will bear reproach,’ he
said. ‘We will never turn back. We will fight and endure hardness.
We will win through, whatever the cost!’
I looked at him. He could be stern and perfectionist, but he
was an inspiring leader. Not one public meeting had he missed
for years. Through sickness and loneliness, through opposition
and disloyalty, he had endured. He stood rocklike, visionary
and devoted, knowing well that the tide in Britain
could only be turned by sacrifice and guts.
At school, I’d been showing videos on the Second World
War:
‘We shall not fail, nor falter. We shall not weaken or tire...
Give us the tools and we will finish the job!’ That was Churchill.
We too were fighting a battle. It was hymn-worthy. We were a
people ‘adorned with grace and crowned with thorns’:
Despised below, yet loved above,
Companions of those men of love
Who for the truth of Christ laid down
Their lives, and gained the martyr’s crown.
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