I have a confession to make today. It’s one that I’ve never declared in my writing of Words for the Day for fifteen some odd years, in my book, or at all my public appearances. Okay here goes I’m coming out of the closet: There was a point in my life when I was a man trapped in a woman’s body . . .
But then I was born and got over it . . .
LOL Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha
I heard my good friend C.F. Hazlewood utter this statement at a spiritual enrichment meeting the other day and it cracked me up. He’s a big tough guy from Texas and it was a funny thing to hear him give this tongue in cheek “come out of the closet confession”.
On a more serious note, it grieves me to no end to see so many of my “Christian” friends and acquaintances who want to stay in the closet and actually seem ashamed for anyone to know that they love the Lord or make any effort to take a public stand for Jesus Christ.
Making public professions of faith in church is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, because many folks, (especially in contemporary churches), seem to be too shy to come forward during an invitation at the end of the service to publically profess their faith. Over-accommodating pastors seem eager to please and scratch “itching ears”.
An evangelist friend of mine watched a video of me preaching a sermon recently and called to admonish me for asking folks to come forward at the invitation and for saying that Jesus called everyone “publically”. He went on to say that nowhere in the Bible does it say that, and it was an old Baptist tradition and unnecessary requirement made up by men.
To be honest I’d never researched it per se, and I just assumed that those pastors who asked folks to come forward at the end of the service and receive Christ publically were doing so in accordance with Scripture.
Hmmm . . . I initially read the Bible so I wouldn’t have to rely on others to tell me what to believe. That includes my evangelist friend’s admonition, so I decided to research the Bible myself to see what it states.
One of the first verses I found is in 1Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession
in the presence of many witnesses.
Then I looked at another verse in Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised from the dead, you will be saved”.
Now, before you ask, yes, I suppose you could confess this aloud to yourself, but what’s the point? It makes more sense that we should confess to others that Jesus is our Lord.
Bah! I believe in public professions of faith.
Read Romans 10:9-10 again: “ . . . that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation . . .
I don’t know how this passage can be twisted. (Interestingly this was written at a time when saying you were a Christian publically could and likely would result in your martyrdom and a grisly death of being boiled alive, beheaded, crucified, or fed to wild animals.) The Romans would kill those early Christians who publically confessed that Jesus was Lord.
The Bible is clear that we are not to stay in the closet even if it could result in our death. Thank God we aren’t at that point in this country . . . YET! – So we should be all the more eager to tell of our love for our Savior – publically!
We are told in the Bible by Jesus Himself that we are to witness to others at every opportunity. Additionally we should join a church. Why? Because we need the support, prayers, help, and guidance from other Christians in order that it might better prepare us to win others to Christ, and be an instrument in God’s hand to transform society.
To tell the truth I don’t understand some of these so called “closet Christians”. I see them all of the time at parties and other public gatherings. They look as uncomfortable as a pimp walking past a police station if the word “God” or “Jesus” is mentioned in public in their presence.
Why?
Is societal approval so important to them that they will refuse to acknowledge the One who endured so much on the cross in order that they might live? I don’t get it . . .
If you are ashamed of Jesus Christ, or admitting that you are a believer, how can you claim to be one of His children? There is a stern warning for those who refuse to acknowledge God among men . . . Selah . . .
Matthew 10:32
Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
November 20, 2013 – Click here to listen