Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS THE LORD TOOK HOLD OF BUGBROOKE
A gracious little bombshell! It meant they were breaking
free from tradition and the battle was shifting from personal
blessing to church renewal.
Meanwhile, Carol was feeling the need for water baptism.
Jesus had been baptised, and the formula in Acts 2 was clear
enough: ‘Repent! Be baptised! Receive the Spirit!’ Baptism
spelt goodbye to the old life. It was the burial of a sinful nature
already slain upon the cross. The old Carol with the sinstained
life, and the broken heart, had come to an end. She
could bury it all, and rise with no shadow to follow her.
One July evening she stood in the warm water. All around
the baptistry were friendly faces and cross-legged kids peering
excitedly down. Carol was plunged into the water and up
she came again spluttering and radiant. A ripple of laughter
went through the chapel, and the organ groaned into action.
A word of prophecy was given that she would be a ‘fruitful
vine’. A brief pause, then a tambourine swung into a song.
‘Lifted! I’ve been lifted, I’ve been lifted by his love, out of sin
and sorrow into boundless realms above!’ The congregation
burst into praise.
Within days a minibus and two cars were speeding through
the night to Scotland. Another chapel holiday had begun. Carol
had brought a friend, Mim, with her. Mim was excited but
Carol slept peacefully on her shoulder. ‘Thirty-two Spirit-filled
Christians in a castle for two weeks!’ thought Mim. ‘Well,
thirty-one plus me!’
Mim was from the Elim Pentecostal Church and there was
a kinship between the two fellowships. The chapel admired
their well-established pentecostalism, and the Elim young-
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