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E-Letter Week of February 19, 2004 Dear Friend,
Last E-letter was supposed to be the final of our series on Coming Clean, but I can’t stop yet. Please forgive me; it will end someday, perhaps. Please note that these letters are just a brief summation of a more exhaustive exposition on the subject. If you desire you may contact our ministry and we will send you a CD titled Coming Clean. As we transition to our new series Staying Clean I am constantly asked questions such as: what is the process of coming clean like? What does it really mean to Come Clean? Who do we Come Clean with and about what? My answer is always the same. There is no set rule or formula. What I needed to come clean about is much different than what others need to come clean about. How I came clean is also different how others come clean. What I do know without any doubt is the fact that if God is going to do a work in our lives, and give us a new life, we need to come clean. What this meant to me and how it was to take place I had no idea. I just knew that it was something I needed to do. Last night on Diane Sawyer America saw Mel Gibson coming clean. He came clean with the world as to his drug use, his alcohol abuse and his desire at one time to die and jump from a window. Mel Gibson let the world know in a very powerful, yet simple and probably the most evangelistic message I have heard in a long time that he had what the entire world had to offer and yet wanted to die. He let the world know that here was Mel Gibson, one of Hollywood’s greatest star, enjoying fame, looks, wealth and popularity and without Christ he was miserable, empty and had no desire to go on living. I am almost certain that before Mel Gibson came clean with us on February 16, 2004, he came clean with God and that precious wife, who he said, “deserves all the medals.” I will venture to say that His coming clean with God is one of the main reasons why he took on Hollywood and produced the most powerful portrayal of an amazing God who lived, and died a horrendous death so that you and I can one day enjoy paradise, and while on earth not feel empty and meaningless. I thank God for Mel’s boldness, and his conviction to portray to the world a real Jesus. I pray that the Lord will use this movie to not only convict the world of their need of for a Savior, but that to convict the “church” to be bold in proclaiming to the world why we have placed our faith in Jesus. It is amazing how often time evangelicals criticize Roman Catholics, yet it took a devout Roman Catholic to go first. I pray that Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” will convict me of how I crucified my Savior, and how much His love for me was that even before I came clean with Him, He died a very brutal death for me. Therefore like the Psalmist I also pray: “Come and listen world so that I can tell you what Jesus did for me. I cried out to him for help, praising him as I wept. If I had not come clean with Him, my Lord would not have listened. But I came clean and Jesus did listen! He paid attention to my prayer and even as dirty and frail as I am He did not withdraw His unfailing love from me.” This is my prayer. I pray that you would also come clean and allow His unfailing love expressed in His brutal death to set you free! Next week I will present what Coming Clean Ministries considers are the Seven Steps in Coming Clean.
God Bless,
Jorge Valdes, Ph.D.
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