“You’ve got to have an open life.
You’ve got to have a life open to God and open to the family of God.
There are no secrets with God.”
From a Sermon by Preacher Clark, Early 1974.
Beware the soul that attempts to pressure you not to talk to others about things that really matter to you. Such pressure comes from an evil heart. As a pastor, I don’t need or want to know everything the people in my congregation think or do or say, but the man who makes them feel they are being disloyal if they do want to talk to me about something important that has happened or been said is laying a snare for their soul. And the same thing applies to me. I am sometimes criticized by those who have fallen away from Christ for how open I am with my congregation. A backslidden relative wrote me several years ago and began by insisting that her email was only to be between her and me. But I will never hold anything from the saints here that will benefit them, and her communications with me had value for them, so I shared it. And I will always to that. I do not make deals with the devil. I am God’s servant, not his.
The first thing an abusive husband drills into his wife is the supreme importance of loyalty – to him, not to God and His righteousness! If he convinces his wife that she is a disloyal, bad person if she ever talks about family matters to anyone outside the family (“family” meaning just him), then he can abuse her without fear of her exposing him.
Search your heart. Is there someone making you feel that loyalty to him or her means that you cannot talk to others about things he has said or done to you? If so, you had better wake up before that person’s foul spirit makes you its slave. Or on the other hand, is there anyone that you are now pressuring to keep silent about what you have said or done to him, or to her? If so, fall down right now and ask Jesus to forgive you for trying to enslave another person to your will and divide the body of Christ.
I beg you all to give earnest heed to Preacher Clark’s wisdom! Do not live in darkness! Live in the peace of openness among the saints, and stay free and happy!
