Come out, Come out where ever you are

It’s so easy to recognize the pattern of whenever I ask for a chore to be fulfilled or homework to be done or the truth about a situation that happened at school, I’ll find my son locked in the bathroom. What a perfect picture of the “Fall” in all of us! What’s with the hiding? Can we be honest, be real? Our human nature has us doomed to repeat the retreat to the bushes and covering up in fig leaves. Did you know those leaves were poison to human skin? Makes a lot more sense how harmful hiding can be emotionally, spiritually and physically when you think of having an irritating rash in that location! There is actually a full lesson on underwear in the Bible. The purpose for the garment was for priests to be covered waist to knee before the “Holy of Holies” to present oneself reverently before the Lord. Strength was associated with the area covered in other Old Testament references. A belt of truth girds this area in the New Testament. According to online research, the only time the same word for undergarment in Exodus is used in Jesus’ day was when the Savior was stripped during His trial. T.D. Jakes explains the true exposure of humanity’s hero on Calvary as a victorious struggle. But humanity often finds a need to cover up the brutality. “Where did this loincloth come from? Why is it painted on most of the pictures I see of the cross? Isn’t that what hinders us now? Are we, the Body of Christ, hiding beneath a loincloth that has stifled our testimony and blocked our ability to be transparent, even with one another? There is seemingly some secret order whereby we have not been allowed to share our struggles as well as our successes. Our ministers are dying of loneliness because they feel obligated to maintain some false image of perfection in order to be serviceable in our society. We have no one to laugh with, no one to cry with, and no one who will sit down and share a sandwich with us. Beneath the loincloth of human expectation and excessive demands, many men and women are bleeding to death!” – T.D. Jakes’ Naked and not Ashamed My favorite author goes on to say religion is like a loincloth making a cover over what God meant to expose. The raw humanity and transparency in a person’s testimony always drew my attention to a sermon. Those are the speakers I want advice and mentoring from! Such honesty means genuine faith. Someone who is walking the talk or still stumbling through. I want to hear from more Davids who will tell you they lusted after that girl so much they killed her husband before they got on their knees and begged God to help them undo what they became. I want to hear from more Rahabs who bared themselves unashamed before many before realizing they were temples of a Holy Spirit worthy of keeping themselves presentable before a One, True, God. Tell me like it is because living as a Christian isn’t ever going to be easy and I wasn’t called to cover up anything or sugar coat my Bible. In a Beth Moore study on freedom, she talks about how Gideon was found threshing wheat in a wine press. Apparently wheat can't grow in a cave where he was hiding-it has to get out in the open air and let the breeze get to it. Breathe out that testimony, all its details and all your concerns. Breathe in the life giving Spirit. Think if it as Lamaze for God birthing something new from within you. Let it be delivered. Let it grow. But don't hide it in the bathroom for private reading hours only.