Coming out of the closet, really need to do it
August 16, 2005
A friend of mine that I spent a lot of time in prison with sent me an e-mail this morning. After I got to know him, I learned that he and a chum held up a convenience story and, in the process, put a number of rounds in the clerk, who subsequently lived.
I first saw his work when he and another guy engaged in some recreational fireworks inside their high school. Their homemade concoction made a big bang and got them in big trouble.
Fast forward about thirty years and that brings us to today's e-mail. He asked me what I read in my quient time. For those not familiar with the term, it's where you sit down with the Bible and read a small portion and let God speak to you.
It's easy to let that become just another activity and not something that you let become a relationship building activity with the Triune God. And it's a relationship that I really want. As I approach my 59th birthday within a week, I can see that my relationship with Jesus Christ is the foundation for everything else in my life.
It sets my agenda, my values and my purpose. Then, why have I been neglecting it. Satan who we all know is there has been trying to steal and ruin my heart. I know it and I've let it happen more often than I like to admit.
I'm coming out of the closet as a Christ-follower. I'm out. The problem has always been and always will be that I still try to keep the door open, so I can go back in. It's time to weld that door shut, so there's no going back.
That's why I prayed from Psalm 51 this morning that God would create a new heart in me.
My identity comes from that and nothing else. Satan will try to tell me something else, but I need to keep hitting him with the Word as the late E.V. Hill used to say.
I appreciate my friend's e-mail and his checking up on me about my quiet time. I hope he does it again and soon. I encourage others to try it out.
<p><script type="text/javascript"><!--
ch_client = "westhorp";
ch_width = 468;
ch_height = 60;
ch_color_border = "#FFFF99";
ch_color_title = "My Min-";
//--></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.chitika.net/eminimalls/mm.js"> </script>