Years ago, I was petrified of what other people thought of me. As a result, I felt compelled to project a facsimile image of myself, reserved and lacking spontaneity.

It usually took a glass of wine or two for the “real” me to surface, and then only temporarily. I had no idea what I was missing. 

Then the Holy Spirit got hold of me …

It took time, but as I surrendered to His patient “still, small” promptings, my previous reservations faded, and I became a more accurate expression outwardly of what God was doing for me inwardly.

It was then that my new life in Christ got interesting. As I began wearing my faith “on my sleeve,” people around me could sense it, and the spiritual sparks started to fly.

It takes courage to “let it all hang out.”

Trouble is, when you live transparently regarding your faith, you’re bound to “make headlines in Hell” and the Enemy isn’t about to sit still in the face of such unbridled excitement about Christ.

In John 10:10, Jesus said, “The thief (the Devil) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life and have it abundantly.”

The Devil wants to rob Christians of their joy, their childlike spontaneity, their freedom to express themselves spiritually.

Jesus encouraged His followers to step out and unhesitatingly, joyfully declare themselves regardless of the consequences.

And, yes, it takes guts to “let it all hang out” spiritually, and yes, it can also be risky.

Consider John 19:38-42, the story of two late-blooming Christians who saw to the burial of Jesus’ body following His crucifixion:

“Now after these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, requested of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So, he came and took away His body. Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came … and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews … Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”

In caring lovingly for Jesus’ body, these former “closet Christians” were risking excommunication, persecution, loss of position, loss of income and even their lives.

These were powerful, privileged, prominent men who had much to lose. It is doubtful that either one would ever see the inside of the Sanhedrin again.

Yet these courageous men are forever memorialized on the pages of scripture as heroes of the faith because they came out of their closets in time to make a difference.

Do not be put off by spiritual spoilsports.

As written in Matthew 21:15-17, “But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He (Jesus) had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple area, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they became indignant, and they said to Him, ‘Do You hear what these children are saying?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes. Have you never read, ‘From the mouths of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself?’ And He (Jesus) left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.”

Scary words those: “He left them.” Ouch.

The Savior of the world, God manifest in the flesh, turning around and walking away from the blatant, blind unbelief of the chief priests and scribes.

It was the children who saw, who believed, who proclaimed — and they lit up the halls of that storied temple with the angelic voices of unrestrained little ones pouring out their hearts to God.

If not now, when? If not you, who?

The last days are upon us. If ever there was a need for voices lifted for God, it is now.

Dinesh D’Souza, in his book, What’s so Great about Christianity, summarized the current war on religion that is being waged on a global scale:

The atheists no longer want to be tolerated. They want to monopolize the public square and to expel Christians from it. They want political questions like abortion to be divorced from religious and moral claims. They want to control school curricula so they can promote a secular ideology and undermine Christianity. They want to discredit the factual claims of religion, and they want to convince the rest of society that Christianity is not only mistaken but also evil. They blame religion for the crimes of history and for the ongoing conflicts in the world today. In short, they want to make religion — and especially the Christian religion — disappear from the face of the earth.

How About You?

Are you still stuck in the closet as a Christian? If someone at work, in your neighborhood, at the supermarket accused you of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict?