Job CCVI

Just as there is a difference between knowing and presuming, there is a difference between acknowledging that while God can do all things, and nothing is impossible for Him, it is within His purview, in light of His omniscience and ultimate purpose for your life, whether or not He will. Yes, God can. Will He? That is an altogether different question, the answer to which is dependent on whether what you are asking for is in harmony with Scripture and if receiving it will lead to greater sanctification for your spiritual man.

If we are asking for things that will make the flesh more comfortable while being detrimental to our spiritual man, because He loves us, and His purpose for us extends beyond this present life, God will say no. We may not see it as a kindness, a blessing, or a grace in the moment, but given enough time, in hindsight, we will come to understand that God said no for our own good.

If you have children, odds are you’ve had to say no to them at some point. It likely wasn’t because you didn’t love them, or were indifferent to them, but you understood that eating a three-pound block of chocolate fudge in one sitting likely wouldn’t have a positive outcome. Yes, they really wanted it, pleaded for it, insisted that they wouldn’t get a tummy ache, or that the sugar rush wouldn’t keep them up half the night, bouncing off the walls and asking what board game we could play at a quarter past midnight, but as a parent, you knew better.

You knew that even though they meant it when they said they wouldn’t get sick, once they consumed the entire block of fudge, they would not have control over the outcome. They could not control whether they got sick or not.

God tells us in His word that sin kills. It’s an across-the-board statement that allows for no exceptions or carveouts. Yes, there are some who, having read what the Bible says, roll their eyes and insist that they will be the exception to the rule, that although sin might kill weaker men, it will not bring them low. Although they might believe wholeheartedly that they can walk the fine line between God and the world, juggle satisfying the appetites of the flesh and being pleasing in God’s sight, by the time they figure out they overestimated the magnitude of their self-restraint and ability to say no, it’s too late.

The Word instructs us to flee youthful lust, abstain from every form of evil, and resist the devil, not because God doesn’t want us to have any fun, blow off some steam, or make merry. He instructs us not to do them for our own good, knowing that their end is death and destruction, and His desire for us is to have life, and life more abundantly.

That some have convinced themselves God is miserly because He tells us to walk circumspectly, pursue righteousness, pray without ceasing, rejoice always, and hold fast to what is good, reveals their ignorance of both God’s character and the dangers of sin. It’s like one’s children thinking their mother a villain for insisting that they eat their broccoli and putting the fudge in the high cupboard. If you do not possess enough maturity to see the benefits of what God instructs in His Word, the worst thing you can do for yourself is grow bitter and resentful and conclude that you know better.  

We can tell ourselves that if a sack of money dropped out of the sky, we would use every dime to do good, show charity, and be magnanimous, and perhaps even mean it at the time. That does not ensure that we will follow through once the money falls from the sky, and rather than causing our love for Him to wane and be replaced by the love of money, God declines our request.

I know individuals personally whose entire lives would be turned to ruin if they ever had more than four figures in their bank accounts. Whether it’s an addictive personality or an inability to budget, whatever sum would show up would summarily be squandered, with a bit extra to boot, making the latter end for them worse than the beginning.

If the end result of what we ask for is not God’s glory, then although God can, for our own good, He will politely decline the request. If our first reaction to God saying no to something we’ve been asking for is, that’s not fair, it reveals the truth that we were not seeking His kingdom, but the things of this world, which, had we been given them, would serve as both shackle and quicksand for our spiritual man; Ever sinking, yet unable to escape.

If you want to have it your way, Burger King is still an option. If you want it God’s way, then by definition you must submit to His authority, His will, His sovereignty, and His plan for your life. The reason so many find spiritual progress slow and difficult is because they’re spending their days digging in their heels, resisting the urging of the Holy Spirit, and attempting to debate God on whether where He is leading them is the best possible path. You see, they’ve done their research. They read dissenting opinions on the interwebs, and they seemed more practical and in harmony with their five-year plan than just praying, fasting, reading the Word, and spending time with God. All of that seems so tedious. Why not fork over the three grand, get yourself an authentic, freshly printed prophetic degree, and proceed to be the prophet to the nations you always knew yourself capable of being?

Where He leads, I will follow is simple enough in theory, but what if He leads where the flesh doesn’t want to go? Do I have to submit to His will? Yes, yes, you do. Life is easy when it’s easy, as are obedience, faithfulness, and living out your convictions. It’s when the road gets hard and what we are tasked with requires sacrifice and self-denial on a grand scale that we must be determined to press on, continuing to follow after Him, knowing He will lead us to green pastures and still waters. Try as we might to convince ourselves otherwise, it’s not about us, but about Him, and His working through us to bring about His glory in us. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCV

 Looking at the entirety of the book of Job in the aggregate, one can’t help but notice that though he started out as a man of faith, a man who was blameless and upright before God, by the end of his trial, the strength and magnitude of Job’s faith in God had increased exponentially. There is always room for growth when it comes to faith. We build upon it daily, and there’s never a cap or a limit wherein we can conclude that our faith is complete.

Faith is less like a house, with four walls and a roof, and more like a tower, ever ascending toward the heavens, and the more we build upon it, the closer we are to God. The higher the tower of our faith, the clearer we are able to see Him, know Him, feel His presence, and trust in His plan.

Today, you may have barely enough faith to trust God in the small things. Tomorrow, the things you trust Him for will be greater than today, and next month greater than tomorrow, because faith is ever-expanding, stretching, ascending, as with each brick we lay, we come to understand that it’s neither futile nor misplaced.

Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

The more we grow in faith, the clearer His thoughts and plans for us become. The more we grow in faith, the more certain we are that His plans and thoughts for us are of peace and not of evil, intended to give us a future and a hope. The more we grow in faith, the less likely we are to wonder if God truly loves us, because we see His love shine through with every breath we take, and every obstacle we overcome by His strength rather than our own.

Even so, oftentimes we see in a mirror, dimly, and don’t fully grasp the magnitude and intricacy of His plan. That’s when the trust equity that has been built up over time comes into play. If God never failed me, left me, nor forsook me thus far, if He always answered when I cried out to Him in my grief or desperation, if His presence has been consistent and uninterrupted, I trust that He will remain faithful even if the current trials of life seem greater than the previous ones.

Trust is the antidote to doubt. It is the antidote to timidity. It is the cure for hesitation when we are called to press in, press on, endure, and overcome. I trust God. I know He is not leading me down the wrong path; I know the trials He allows are not purposeless; I know that He will make a way even when there seems to be no way, because He is unchanging, and if He did these things before, He will do them again.

God doesn’t have a credibility problem. Men have a faith problem. Since the dawn of creation, God has never promised something He has not delivered. He never bragged about being able to do something, only to fall short of the mark. Even when it came to something as impossible to human reason and man’s intellect as a child being born of a virgin, because He spoke it, it came to pass. I know my God can do all things because He’s proven He can do all things.

Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”

This is a straightforward enough declarative. Nothing means nothing, and the angel that came to Mary did not elaborate any further. He didn’t say, except for this one thing, whatever that might be, but declared simply that nothing is impossible with God.

God is not limited to man’s understanding of Him, nor is He constrained by what men think He can do. He is God! Sovereign, supreme over all of creation, with full authority to do as He wills as the Creator of all that is. He does not need man’s permission nor man’s consent to fulfill His purpose over His creation.

Why were the three young men resolute as they refused to bow? Because they knew nothing was impossible with God. Why did Daniel stand fearless amidst the lions? Because he knew nothing was impossible with God. Every example in God’s word of men who exceeded their limitations, who went beyond themselves, and who stood unperturbed in the midst of the tempest, was due to their unflinching conviction that nothing is impossible with the God they served.  

There is a confidence that makes itself manifest when we walk by faith and not by sight. It is a confidence that is evident in our actions, decisions, and overall outlook. Even at his lowest, Job exhibited this confidence I speak of, wherein he declared without equivocation that he knew his Redeemer lived.

He had cried out, and God had remained silent. He had lost his wealth, his children, his health, and felt the grave calling to him, yet retained the presence of mind and faith to declare, I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth.

Do you know or do you hope? Do you know or do you presume? Every morning, I get ready to go to work, and I hope my car will start, but I don’t know that it will. Whenever it gets cold, I hope my heater can keep up, but I don’t know with certainty if it won’t finally decide to give up the ghost. It’s not a distinction without a difference; it’s the difference between being able to endure the trials of life while looking onward toward the prize and giving up the race and never receiving your crown. The race must be completed for you to receive the prize. There are no participation trophies mentioned in the Word.

Job knew. He knew that after all the pain, all the travail, all the heartache and despair, he would see God for Himself, and his eyes would behold Him and not another.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCIV

 The heart yearns for what it truly desires above all else. When one has a yearning, it’s not a take-it-or-leave-it proposition; it’s not something that can be substituted or replaced with something else, but an overwhelming longing the attaining of which eclipses all else. No sacrifice is too great, no toil is too excessive, because the yearning for what the heart desires is so great as to make any effort worthwhile.

One of the greatest tragedies of the modern-day church is that it has lost its yearning for God and the things thereof. We’ve gone from desiring God to desiring the things God can provide, from desiring fellowship with Him to having an experience. Whether the experience is of divine origin matters little to many. They just want something outside the norm, something that will animate them, or give them goose bumps, something that will assail the senses rather than pierce the heart so they can say they felt something.

When the heart is transformed and renewed, it yearns for God above all else. Because the desire and longing are singular, whenever someone offers a substitute for the intimacy that only a broken and contrite heart can experience with God, it is rejected outright. I want God, and you’re offering me prosperity? No, thank you, I think I’ll pass. I want God, and you’re offering me prominence? I’ll have to pass on that one as well.

The reason those appealing to the flesh are so popular is because much of their audience, although claiming to be blood bought and born again, are still in the flesh. God is not the yearning of their hearts; He is an afterthought. He is not the main meal, but a side dish. Give me the stuff first! Give me the McMansion and the cars, give me the name recognition and digital footprint, give me all these things first, then sure, I’ll take a smidgeon of God as well. Not so much as to make me change my ways, not so much as to cause me to repent and humble myself, not so much as to make me crucify my flesh, but just enough to give me fire insurance.

Coming from a man who once had everything life had to offer, whether wealth, prominence, authority, or the respect of his peers, Job’s words regarding the yearning of his heart to see God and behold him with his eyes should not only hold weight but reveal the vanity of everything the world deems as the pinnacle of success.

When men use God as the means by which they achieve the desire of their heart rather than make Him the desire of their heart, there will always be compromises, there will always be concessions; they’ll always try to strike a bargain with the world in order to achieve their goal. It’s why so many try to make excuses for the Word of God rather than preach it. It’s the reason so many inject their feelings or opinions when it comes to what God has declared, rather than unashamedly proclaiming the truth.

It’s a zero-sum game. Either your heart yearns for the presence of God, or for something else. You can’t yearn for God and something else. There is only room for one true, lasting, consistent, and permanent desire in the heart of man, and the actions, words, and lives of those claiming to desire Him above all else betray the truth they hope to keep buried.

Job had nothing to gain by pretending otherwise. He wasn’t trying to put on airs or pretend to be more spiritual than he was. He was beyond pretense, beyond caring what his friends thought of him. Even if he still cared, they’d already made up their minds.

In the depths of his despair, when everything that could be taken had been taken from him, when his strength had abandoned him and his body given to putrefaction, when breathing itself became a burden, he did not yearn for restoration of his wealth, restoration of his health, restoration of his respect or authority, but that he would know the presence of God, and behold Him.

That sentiment alone should serve as a rebuke to most spiritual leaders today if they were still capable of blushing. Alas, they’ve chosen their master; the desire and yearning of their heart is plain for all to see, and those of like mind gravitate to them as though drawn by some unseen force.

Tell us good things. Tickle our ears. Tell us that feeling in our gut that all the play-acting we’re doing, pretending to worship and adore Him, isn’t the Holy Spirit urging us to repentance, but the byproduct of an overactive mind. Tell us we’re fine just the way we are, duplicitous and lukewarm, faithless and hedonistic, and in exchange we will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams. Tell us lies, and we’ll believe them even though deep down we know they’re lies, because we love our lives too much to lose them.

We’ll take heaven as long as it requires no sacrifice. We’ll take sanctification as long as it requires no repentance, but if you want to keep your jet and your mansion, don’t you dare tell us we have to surrender the smallest of creature comforts the flesh has become so accustomed to. That is one bridge too far, and you know it!

It won’t take prison, torture, internment camps, or martyrdom to cause much of what calls itself the church in the West to abandon Christ, deny Him, and pretend they never knew Him, but simply the threat of having their toys taken away because they were always the true yearning of their hearts, and not Jesus. It’s the stuff they’ve always longed for. Jesus was just a convenient means of attaining it.

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus, you can have all this world, but give me Jesus! If only we meant the songs we sang. If only they were the genuine cry of our hearts rather than words that passed our lips. Wouldn’t that be something?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCIII

 Absent context and an understanding of Job's timeline and when he lived, his declaration that a living Redeemer is real and present would not seem as revelatory or divinely inspired. Job didn’t have the benefit of the canon of Scripture. He lived before the time of the Patriarchs, long before the Pentateuch was assembled and collated, yet, based on his experiences, he knew the truth of a living, present God beyond a shadow of doubt.

Men today don’t know God because they don’t want to know Him. It’s not that He’s being elusive, or hiding, difficult to find, or hard to intuit; the workmanship of His hands is present, readily visible, undeniably divine in everything that surrounds us. From the stars and the moon, to a sunrise or a sunset, to a field of lilies, or a forest of evergreens in the dead of winter, God’s fingerprints are everywhere. While the righteousness of God is revealed through the gospel of Christ from faith to faith, the undeniable existence thereof is made manifest to all in all that exists.

Romans 1:20-21, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

From the moment God said, “Let there be light”, and “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters to divide the waters from the waters”, His invisible attributes are clearly seen. They were understood by the things that are made.

Long before Abraham and the ram, long before Moses and the burning bush, from the genesis of creation onward, men understood that the world and everything in it, including themselves, could not have come about accidentally, or by some serendipitous twist of fate. It’s too perfect, too ordered, too interconnected and interdependent to have been the byproduct of an accidental explosion, solar discharge, big bang, wormhole, or whatever explanation those whose hearts are hardened to the reality of His eternal power and Godhead come up with to explain away the precision and artistry, majesty, and intricacy of creation.

One miscalculation, one error in computing, putting the earth closer or further from the sun would make this entire rock uninhabitable. One missing organ in the human body, whether the lungs, the kidneys, or the heart, would render every human on the planet unable to exist.

It is easier by far to conclude that there is a Creator, that a master craftsman put everything in place as it ought to be, than to believe that an accident was the cause of it all. You can’t plan the outcome of an accident. You don’t know, to the minutest of detail, what will occur if you crash into someone or something. It takes more faith to believe that everything in the universe is accidental than to believe in a Creator. Yet, here we are, supposedly the most learned generation the world has ever known, denying the reality of He whose invisible attributes are clearly seen.

Job knew. Not simply by opening his eyes to the world around him and acknowledging God’s invisible hand in all that exists, but through personal experience of having walked with the selfsame God who spoke the universe into being.

This assurance was his anchor. This knowledge that his Redeemer lives was the only thing keeping him from descending into despondency, from giving up, and drowning in hopelessness.

The difference between a just man’s suffering and a wicked man’s suffering is that the suffering of the just has a redemptive component, an eternal dimension, and a revealing of God’s love in the most personal and intimate way possible. The righteous see purpose in the trials they endure, while the only thing the godless see is the trial itself. The righteous clings to the hope they have in Him, not in the hope they have in themselves, their doctors, their counselors, or their abilities.

Would you have the level of faith you have were it not for the trials you’ve had to endure? Would you have the level of trust in the sovereignty of God were it not for the valleys you had to traverse by your lonesome, with no one to lean on but Him? Would you be as refined, pruned, or sanctified absent the testing of your faith? These are questions only you can answer for yourself, but as for me, I know that every trial, hardship, setback, or test has produced quantifiable fruit in my life. They grew me, matured me, strengthened me, and drew me ever closer to Jesus.

The testing of one’s faith is not arbitrary. It is intentional and purposeful. It is a teachable moment, whether to show you the folly of trusting in the arm of the flesh, or the vanity of hubris, thinking you can do on your own only what God can do on your behalf. Suffering will always be a better teacher than prosperity, and trials a better tutor than a life of ease and comfort. God chastens those He loves not because He wants to see them suffer but because He wants to see them grow, mature, and become that which He desires them to be.  

The closer one draws to God, the more one’s own weakness and ineptitude become visible. They become acutely aware that of themselves they can do nothing, but the God in whom they trust can do all things. Fellowship with God does not stoke the fires of one’s pride or ego, but amplifies one’s humility. If the inverse occurs, then what one may deem as spiritual maturity or awakening isn’t.

Although God deemed him a blameless and upright man, the closer Job got to God, the more he acknowledged his own wretchedness. It is both a gift and a virtue to be so self-aware as to understand that your righteousness, or mine for that matter, is like a filthy rag in light of His righteousness.          

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCII

 Job 19:21-29, “Have pity on me, have pity on me, o you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me! Why do you persecute me as God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! If you should say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’ – Since the root of the matter is found in me, be afraid of the sword for yourselves; for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”

Mercy, pity, or compassion are not about deserving. If every time we had the opportunity to extend compassion, to extend pity, or mercy, we did an exhaustive dive into whether the individual in question was deserving of it, we never would. If one is not predisposed to being compassionate, they will always find a reason to withhold their compassion. It can be as arbitrary a reason as the color of the shirt they chose to wear that day, or because they drive an import rather than a domestic car, even though the car is a twenty-year-old, had me down from an aunt they barely knew. They’re not really needy, they’re just pretending to be. They’re not really grieving; they’re just looking for attention.

Man will always find a way to excuse his behavior. He will always find a way to justify his callousness because it’s easier to justify one’s hard heart than admit to being hard-hearted. My pretending not to see the old lady scrounging in the dumpster for a crust of bread does not define me! I’m a good person! Plus, I left my phone in my car, so I couldn’t take a picture of me giving her a dollar, then post it on the Book of Face so I could get thumbs-ups and smiley-face emojis. I mean, if an act of kindness is done in secret and no one ever knows about it except the individual in question and me, does it even matter? Does it even count? It’s like the age-old philosophical question: if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

I know I’m a good person because, unlike you, I am concerned about all the things I have no way of controlling or affecting that the people with clipboards and petitions tell me are an existential threat. I signed sixteen just last week. How many did you sign? Well, yes, some of them contradicted each other, and a couple of them would require every person on the planet to live in a cave and cook their meager meals over open flames, but it’s the thought that counts.

Every time I go to the store, I even round up for charity if the amount is less than a quarter. I recycle, drive an EV that costs more to charge than my monthly electric bill for the entire house, and even have a “Save the Polar Bears” bumper sticker on my car that’s more than you can point to.

Genuine compassion, mercy, or pity, as was the case with Job, in that it was what he needed desperately, are not performative acts, or something by which we get others to cheer us on or applaud our altruism. They are not meant to feed our ego or elevate our status in the eyes of others. Likewise, they’re not about the other person; they’re about ourselves and how we respond to those around us when we see them suffering, going through trials, or enduring hardships, not when everyone is watching, but when no one is.

After one last plea for pity from his friends, Job speaks some of the most profound words ever recorded, words to rival the wisdom of Solomon or the soul-searching introspection of David: I know that my Redeemer lives!

There was no plurality in his declaration. There was no guessing in his statement, nor were they tethered to an idea, or the hope that God was real, but an implacable certainty that left no room for doubt. I know! I don’t hope, I don’t presume, I don’t take the preacher’s words on faith, I know that my Redeemer lives, personally, intimately, experientially, I know. I have felt His touch, I have known His presence, I have been in fellowship with Him, I know that my Redeemer lives.

It matters not what I am currently going through, how challenging the climb is, how frail my flesh is, how hopeless others might see my situation, I know He lives, and that’s all that matters. Everything else is noise. Everything else is temporary. Everything else is fleeting and passing and irrelevant to that singular truth. He lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, and I am His, and one day I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. Even in his condition, that was Job’s singular desire. It wasn’t for his health to be restored, it wasn’t for his strength to return, but to see the God he served, stand before Him, and be welcomed into His kingdom.

What is it that you yearn for? What is the desire of your heart? Is it wealth, riches, fame, prominence, or is it to know Him, walk with Him, feel His presence, and know that He lives? There is one Redeemer. He is a singularity. It’s not like picking a name out of a hat and concluding that any old god will do. There is one God, there is one Redeemer, there is only one who can reconcile us to the Father, and His name is Jesus.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCI

 Genuine faith produces good fruit. Job’s life had been lived in service to God, and that reality had affected, permeated, and guided all of his actions, whether how he treated his wife, his children, or his servants. The genuineness of one’s devotion and relationship with God isn’t something they can turn on and off like a spigot. It’s not something that materializes and suddenly appears on weekends or when we’re in church. We are changed, transformed, and made new creations in Him; by definition, a new creation with the old attributes, inclinations, predilections, vices, desires, and emotional triggers is just the old man pretending to be new.

Therein lies the beauty of the testimonies of those who were once at enmity with God, living lives of hatred, bitterness, violence, and chaos, who, having been born again, renewed of mind and heart, became the polar opposites of who they once were. Rather than hate, they love; rather than bitterness, they exude joy; rather than visit violence upon others, they turn the other cheek.

When we are born again in Christ, we’re not trying to be better men and women; we become better men and women. No, it’s not a distinction without a difference, but one of the signs that we have been regenerated, sanctified, and transformed into His likeness.

The true heart of an individual is revealed in how they interact with you when they have nothing more to gain from you. The heart of Job’s servant was revealed to be less than noble as he’d already concluded that Job was a gasp away from dying, had come to the lowly place of sitting on an ash heap, scratching at his boils with a potsherd, and lost everything that the world, including himself, saw as valuable. His attitude toward Job had changed because Job’s position in society had changed. That is a sure sign that no genuine affection ever existed, but only a feigned subservience, dependent on whether Job could continue to keep him employed.

Some twenty-five years ago, the ministry went through a trial of unprecedented proportions. Individuals whom we’d trusted decided they could take the ministry to another level if they were in charge, and so did everything they could to take it and run with it. My grandfather had gone to his reward some years prior, the whole family had moved back to Romania, and at the time, we’d needed someone to focus on the work in the States. Little did we know of the aspirations these individuals had.

I get it. It’s always easier to attempt a hostile takeover of an established ministry than to put in the time and sweat equity to start your own. The problem is that it wasn’t my ministry, or my mother’s ministry, or my family’s ministry, but God’s ministry. This isn’t a business; it’s a calling.

The issue dragged on, and we found ourselves unable to make payroll for the orphanage staff, even after we’d sold the ministry vans and pretty much everything that wasn’t nailed down. We gathered the staff, who numbered well over forty, and had a heart-to-heart. We explained the situation and told them we would do our best to ensure they were paid, but there was no guarantee.

We understood they had families of their own to feed, so if they chose to find employment elsewhere, we wouldn’t hold it against them. Not one left! That was a defining moment for me because I understood that those we’d surrounded ourselves with weren’t doing what they did solely for the paycheck but because they, too, had been called to the work of watching over the children in our care.

God made a way, as He always does, and we were able to pay our employees on time, keep the lights on, and the children fed, but that moment when they had nothing to gain, could have walked away, but chose to continue serving is still something I remember fondly, even though it’s been nigh on twenty-five years.

Some of those individuals remain employed by the ministry in Romania to this day. They stuck it out when times were tough, when the situation seemed untenable, not because they knew it would work out in our favor or that the situation would be remedied, but because they understood it was the right thing to do. An individual's character is revealed in difficult times. Job’s servant failed the test.

Among the handful of people I consider my friends, a couple of them are relatively well off, so much so that in conversation with them, a nagging concern, something always in the back of their mind, is whether those in their orbit are there only because of what they can do for them, rather than a genuine desire to be in their presence.

My take was simple enough: pretend you lost it all, then see who sticks around. Those are your true friends. Neither of them took me up on my counsel because they confided a latent fear that more people than they believed would disavow them and have nothing to do with them. If that’s the case, then you’re enabling people who care nothing for you anyway.

I’d rather know and let the chips fall where they may. Pretend friends who are only present during the good seasons of life aren’t really friends; they’re opportunists who see a ticket to easy street and will do anything and say anything to stay in your good graces until such a time as you are no longer able to throw them a few bucks. They’ll never challenge or correct their benefactors even when they know correction is warranted because their goal isn’t your well-being, but theirs. Those are not the kinds of people you want to be around, and enough stories are floating about to confirm this truth.

You will never have to wonder about Jesus. He has no ulterior motive or vested interest. He’s not pretending to love you. He’s already proven His love by laying His life down for you. He loved you first. He proved His love to the point of death, and it is a love worthy of being reciprocated in kind.

1 John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.” 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CC

 The message of the gospel and biblical salvation are simple enough concepts to understand as long as we’re not trying to cling to the old man with a Charlton Heston-like death grip. A life for a life. That’s the contract, that’s the offer, and it’s standard for each and every one of us. There are no addenda, no amendments, no carve-outs, or exemptions for either individuals, races of people, or specific nationalities.

Your life, your bleak, dull, uninspired, guilt-ridden, rudderless, and empty life, for His life. Your heart of stone for His heart of flesh. Your darkened, duplicitous, indecisive, self-doubting mind for a new mind, His mind, a mind of clarity and purpose. A mind that seeks to do the will of the Father in all things. Your will for His will. Your purpose for His purpose. You, dead in your sin, for a life in Christ, a life that promises eternity in His presence for the handful of years you journey on this earth. It’s an either-or proposition. Either you believe, have been set free, and regenerated, or you continue to remain in the mire of sin and despair.

If I desire for Christ to live in me, it’s a given that I must die to self. If nothing wicked or defiled will enter into His kingdom, then if we desire to enter in, we must ensure that we are washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb, and that no spot or wrinkle is present upon our garments.

Why is it that we take some of God’s words at face value, believing them to the fullest, while others we downplay and try to discount? The same Scripture that says blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out, says that God abhors wickedness and the lukewarm will be spewed from His mouth. Why do we stand on the one, but not on the other? Why do we quote one over the other at a rate of 10:1 on a good day?  

It’s not complicated; we choose to complicate it. We complicate it because we think we can wriggle out of repentance, righteousness, and obedience, and that in itself is more telling than any Hillsong we may be lip-syncing on a given Sunday.

It’s when men want the impossible, to live as the world, yet retain the hope of salvation, that things get muddled, and they exist in what can best be described as the in between, where they’re neither fully committed to Christ, nor fully committed to the hedonism of this world. That in-between place is one of constant defeats, setbacks, disappointments, and disillusionment, because they’re trying to be ‘good people’ rather than saved people, and knowing that what they are pursuing is self-destructive, they pursue it nevertheless because they never surrendered their life to gain His life. They attempted to blend the two, something that is wholly impossible.    

Job 19:13-20, “He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me. Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants, count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. I call my servant, but he gives no answer; I beg him with my mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife, and I am repulsive to the children of my own body. Even young children despise me; I arise and they speak against me. All my close friends abhor me, and those whom I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.”

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it’s not hard to visualize what Job looked like at this stage. He paints a word picture like few others could, pouring his pain, frustration, and desperation into a handful of words that bring together a portrait of a once-influential, powerful man whose servants were at his beck and call, being ignored and altogether overlooked by them.

Out of sight, out of mind may be true in theory, but Job wasn’t out of sight. He was still there, calling to his servant, begging him, and yet receiving no answer. Job likely treated his servant well before his trial came upon him. The character of a man of God is clearly visible in all his actions, whether anyone is watching or not.

It’s those with duplicitous, divided hearts that act one way when the world is watching, and a completely different way when no one is. It’s one of the contributing factors why so many PK’s -and for those of you who don’t know what that stands for, it’s pastors’ kids - want nothing to do with God, church, or the Bible. They witnessed the hypocrisy firsthand. They witnessed the transformation from a smiling, jovial, handclapping, and glad-handing man to one with no fuse to speak of and a temper so short that he flew off the handle at the merest breeze.

I’ve been open enough over the years that everyone knows the impact my grandfather has had on my spiritual walk and maturation. I grew up in a neighborhood where everyone and their cousin had a side hustle of some kind, and most of it was of the illegal variety. I couldn’t help but interact with the neighborhood kids, and everyone would try to teach me their tried-and-true methods for making extra cash. Whether it was boosting airbags, yes, that was a thing back in the day, to car stereos, to hubcaps, to more complicated schemes that involved a partner and a bit of planning, everyone had an angle they were exploiting and were gracious enough to try and get me to participate.

I can’t say I was never tempted. I grew up poor. It was all my mom and dad could do with their two jobs to make rent every month, and my grandfather and I would go through the neighborhood dumpster-diving for aluminum cans. It crossed my mind more than once that I could make more in thirty minutes than what took us a month of recycling aluminum cans to make.

It wasn’t fear of getting caught that kept me from going down that particular path. The police were as intrepid back then about petty crime in California as they are today, and we weren’t close enough to the rich part of town for them to make an effort.

If anything, what kept me on the straight and narrow was seeing the faithfulness, commitment, and genuine love for Jesus, not only in my grandfather, but also in my mom, my dad, and my grandmother as well. I was surrounded by examples of honesty, conviction, and virtue. They genuinely loved Jesus, and it showed in the words they spoke, the people they helped, the meals they prepared, and the joy they possessed. Raising up a child in the way they should go, goes beyond words or good advice. It must extend to being an example, a role model, someone they can see as one who possesses the attributes of Christ in perpetuity.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.