I am loving my time reading Spirit Rising by Jim Cymbala! This passage I just read leapt off the page:
“Many of us want more of God but not to the point of being ridiculed. Our Western minds think, I will serve the Lord, but I will remain in control as I do it. But whether we like it or not, that’s not how the church began. The church began with Spirit-controlled Christians who yielded themselves to God. That’s radical, yes, but that’s the way the Lord did it.
“Some might say, ‘Yeah, but we’ve improved upon the New Testament style of Christianity.’ If that’s true, I want to see the spiritual fruit our improvements have produced. People may have mocked those first, ‘unsophisticated’ Christians, but thousands got saved in the first four chapters of Acts. The Word of God was treasured. The churches were filled with sacrificial love. A holy excitement pervaded the atmosphere. Have we really improved upon that?”
Oh, how I want that in my life, and in Calvary Assembly of God, and in my city!
If it takes being “unsophisticated” and ridiculed, bring it on, Lord!
I want to be totally Spirit-controlled.
Bring. It. On!
Craig T. Owens 