Speaking in Arizona

It has been at least seven years since I've spoken in Arizona, and this coming weekend, to make up for the long absence,  I will be speaking no less than three times.

I will leave the dates, times, and locations up for the next few days because only the good Lord knows when I will be back in Arizona. Chances are, it won't be any time soon.

Saturday May 25, 2013 6:30 pm
Stonebridge Christian Fellowship
2700 Jamaica Blvd.
Lake Havasu City AZ 86406

Sunday May 26, 2013 11:00 am
Inspire the Church
510 N Acoma Blvd
Lake Havasu City AZ

Sunday May 26, 2013 6:00 pm
Community Bible Church Aguila
50650 N First Avenue
Aguila AZ 85320

Please keep Gene and myself in your prayers as we travel.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

What God Hates Part 2

Since part two of this teaching series has already been uploaded, here it is. We will get back to our own series shortly, but first I get to go to Arizona, see the sun, and perhaps, even feel warmth on my skin after this unending Wisconsin winter.

I will post the dates and times of the Arizona meetings sometime this week, as I know I don't get out that way much. God bless, and thank you for watching these teachings.

Yep, technology hates me. So here's the link:

What God Hates Part 2

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

P.S. Keep the people of Oklahoma in your prayers. Looks like there will be much heartache and heartbreak when all is said and done.

What God Hates Part 1

Since we've been filming more of the 'Truth in a Nutshell' videos I wanted to start sharing the new series we just finished filming entitled 'What God Hates' or 'The Things God Hates' since I believe it is a timely and relevant word for the body of Christ.

I will interrupt the current teachings on growing in Christ periodically and share these videos as well. Hopefully they will be edifying and eye opening as to the nature of our God and the fact that He does hate certain things and practices.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

P.S. Since I'm either to inept or my computer hates me, I can't put up the video itself, so here is the link. God bless.

                                What God Hates Part 1

Speaking in Wisconsin

If nothing changes, this coming Sunday will be the last time I speak in Wisconsin on this trip. I am due to return to Romania in June, and I am fully booked until my departure.

As such, this is the last speaking engagement in Wisconsin.

Thank you all for your prayers and kind encouragements. Yes, we've been busy, but is been a good busy since the preaching of the Gospel is going forth, and the truth is heard by more ears than ever before.

Sunday May 19, 2013 at 10:45 am
Morgan Assembly of God Church
N8091 Morgan Road
Gresham WI 54128

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Growing in Christ Part 4

2 Peter 1:2-4, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

I wanted to include all three verses for the sake of continuity, and now that we’ve done that, we can proceed to digging deeper and taking the passage piece by piece to see the truths it holds and the lessons it would teach us.

‘Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord’

One of the first things I noticed as I read through this passage is what it was Peter wished upon the brethren, and those who shared in like faith. It was not health, wealth, prosperity, or blessing, but rather grace and peace.

If we presume that Peter desired the very best for his brothers and sisters in Christ, if we presume that the blessing he spoke upon the brethren was the pinnacle of what he could wish for them, then we realize that grace and peace ought to be prized more than material possessions and other things which we tend to wish for ourselves and others.

The other thing worthy of notice in this handful of words is Peter implies that the way to multiplied grace and peace is through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

It is God who is the giver of grace, it is God who is the giver of peace, and as we grow in the knowledge of Him, as we grow in Christ, we likewise grow in grace and peace.

Multiplied grace and peace are inseparable from the knowledge of God. We cannot grow in one without growing in the other.

Any grace or peace which does not have the knowledge of God and Jesus as their foundation, are counterfeit, no matter how close to the real thing they might seem to be.
This is the danger of pseudo-doctrines which minimize or altogether do away with the need for Christ and the need for the knowledge of Him. There can be no grace or peace without Christ being at the center of our faith, our worship, and our faith.

‘As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness’

If some are having difficulty with understanding godliness or coming in possession of fullness of life, it is not because God did not make it available, or because He made it purposefully difficult for us to perceive. Peter reminds us that God’s divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

We’re not talking about a handful of things, most things, some things, or a few things, but all things that pertain to life and godliness were given to us by His divine power.

If what Peter says is true and we know it is because it is in the Word, then I find it strange that so many individuals today fall for newfangled doctrines and modernized teachings that contradict the tenets of Scripture, all the while talking themselves into believing that they’ve finally come to understand the things pertaining to life and godliness.

How can we have godliness absent God? How can we have life absent the source of all life?

Once again, it is only through God and in God that we can come to understand the deeper things, the profound things, the things pertaining to the fundamental questions of our existence, as well as define what godliness truly is.

Peter tells us that all things that pertain to life and godliness were given to us by God’s divine power, and so, if we have as yet not attained these things, we must be diligent in our searching, and tireless in our pursuit of them.

We know they are there. We know they exist. We know that in God and by His divine power they were made known to us.

God did His part. God gave us all things pertaining to life and godliness, but He will not force these things upon us. They are there for the taking, they are there for the understanding, not for the wise or learned among us, but for everyone who seeks after them with diligence.

If we are ignorant of these things it is not God’s fault. If we fall short in our knowledge of godliness or life, it is not because these things were not revealed and made known to us.

Yes, I know taking responsibility is a difficult and often times derided practice, but eventually, when we run out of individuals to blame, we come around to the man or woman in the mirror and are forced to own up to the reality that perhaps it is we who did not knock, and as such the door was never opened. It is we who did not ask, and as such the knowledge of life and godliness were not made known to us. It is we who were too busy with other things to press in, and desire a deeper fellowship, and as such we make do with the superficial, trivial, and ceremonial.

It’s not too late. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened. Ask and it will be given to you.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Growing in Christ Part 3

Before we get started with today’s teaching, I seem to have stirred up some controversy over a scripture passage I quoted in my previous post.

The passage is out of the gospel according to Matthew, and it says this:

Matthew 16:18, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

So we can all agree that Jesus did speak these words. Yes? With that consensus, I will say that I never meant to insinuate that Peter was The Rock, but just a rock, because Peter does mean rock when interpreted.

No, I did not convert to Catholicism, nor did I adopt a new doctrinal belief system, but by the same token I will not attempt to do mental acrobatics to make the verse say something it doesn’t say just for the fun of it.

We all know Jesus is the foundation, the cornerstone, The Rock upon which the church is built, but He did speak those words, and if He did, then perhaps Peter is a small pebble there somewhere in the great construct known as the household of faith.

With that matter hopefully settled, we continue with our exegesis on the first chapter of second Peter, to see what more we can glean from it.

2 Peter 1:1, ‘Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Since during the last post we discussed whom this letter was from, today we will begin to discuss who it was addressed to.

We know Simon Peter wrote it, introducing himself as a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, but who did he write this letter to?

Peter’s letter was not penned for the rebellious, nor was it penned for the godless, it was penned for those who had obtained like precious faith, those who had been redeemed and sanctified by Christ Jesus.

It is important to make the distinction as to whom Peter was writing, because I’ve often heard it said that the whole growth in Christ thing is not for Christians, and every time I hear this it sounds ludicrous on its face and causes me great concern for the mental wellbeing of those peddling this pablum.

The reason men insist that growth in Christ is not for believers is because the notion of continually growing – adding to that which we already possess so we might become more like the One we serve – can be misconstrued as work, as labor, as striving, and they refuse to believe we have to do anything more than lift a limp hand at a crusade for Jesus.

Anything more than allowing the inertia and energy of the moment to overtake you and compel you to raise your hand would be just a tad too much for God to ask of you for the eternity He is offering in return.

Another thing we would do well to heed is the wording of Peter’s address to those who have obtained like precious faith.

Not all faith is the same, and not everyone who has faith has the same kind of faith you have. Peter is writing to those who have obtained like precious faith, meaning of the same nature, in the same God, and with the same passion.

Often wonder why even though someone says they have the same faith as you do for some reason you just can’t get into fellowship with them?

Ever wonder why even though someone professes a thing when it comes to living the thing they profess they are lacking?

It is because they do not have like precious faith; they have faith in the idol of their own imagining, the god of their own creation, who requires nothing of them, who demands no surrender, no faithfulness, no obedience, and no worship.

Peter was writing to those who knew they had obtained like precious faith, and who likewise knew who it was that made it possible for them to obtain it.

When we read quickly or haphazardly we often miss the beautiful nuances in the word of God, and this first verse of second Peter has one such nuance.

As he writes to those who have obtained like precious faith he is likewise quick to remind them that it was not by their own merit, it was no by their own work, but rather by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

It is by the righteousness of Christ Jesus, and only by the righteousness of Christ Jesus that we obtain like precious faith with the saints. Because it is in His righteousness that we stand, we walk boldly toward eternity, having His authority just as we have His righteousness and knowing that through Him and by Him we are more than conquerors.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Growing in Christ Part 2

Since this is a very rich text I thought it best to tackle it in an exegetical fashion, going through verse by verse, line by line, and word by word, to see what the Lord would teach us through Peter the man known as the rock upon which Christ said He would build His church.

Yes, Jesus could have picked someone more erudite, sophisticated, educated, refined and cultured, but instead He picked Peter, a fisherman who wasn’t always the bravest of souls, and with a temper to boot seeing as he lobbed off a guy’s ear without giving it a second thought.

Imperfect as Peter might have been, plagued by weakness and fear in the early part of his ministry, God worked mightily through him, and gave him a wisdom that transcended his own education, understanding, and intellect.

It is always awesome to see God take someone and in using them, make them capable of greater intellectual feats than reasonably expected of the person in question. That’s when you know God had a hand in it, when you see a person you’ve known all your life, who never struck you as a genius by any stretch of the imagination, yet who simply transcends himself as the power of God begins to work through him.

I’ve known a few such brothers throughout my life – I even consider myself one of those people – and each time it is an amazing thing to witness and behold.

As we begin to read the first few lines of Peter’s second epistle it is obvious he did not pen these words of his own volition, or dependent upon his own intellect. These words are much too glorious, too profound, and too insightful to have been thought up by the minds of men, giving credence to the notion of divine inspiration.

God spoke it, and Peter wrote it. God inspired it, and Peter reiterated the inspired words so we might all benefit from them and grow in Christ together.

2 Peter 2:1, “Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:”

‘Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.’

I stared at these nine words for the better part of thirty minutes because something had caught my eye, something had clicked, but I didn’t know what it was. I kept going back to Peter’s introduction of himself, trying to make the conscious connection that I’d made subconsciously, and as it finally broke the surface I began to write haphazardly on a piece of paper.

1.      Peter thought of himself as a servant first, then an apostle of Jesus Christ.

2.      It was more important for Peter to speak of his servanthood than his apostleship.  

3.      One cannot be a true apostle of Jesus Christ without first being a servant.

4.      Servanthood is a choice, apostleship is a calling.

5.      Both being a servant and an apostle require obedience and perpetual dependency upon Christ Jesus.

God’s desire is for us to be His servants, but we cannot be if our hearts are not filled with steadfast obedience toward Him. We obey not only when it suits our interests, we obey not only when what we are commanded to do comes easily to us, we obey not only when the sacrifice for our obedience is small, but even when it means losing everything, when it’s the most difficult thing we will ever have to do, and when it goes against what men perceive as our self-interest.
Peter didn’t say he was an ‘occasional servant’ or ‘sometime apostle’ of Christ. He didn’t quantify his position regarding these two things as having been anything other than perpetual.

Peter was a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

This is how he identified himself, this is how he defined himself, and this is how he saw himself. Nowadays most preachers and evangelists want to shy away from such titles, and instead be called life coaches, inspirational speakers, or motivators.

When did it become a shameful thing to be associated with Jesus? When did it become an embarrassment to say ‘I am a servant of Christ Jesus?’

It’s obvious that even if we kowtow to the world their intent is still to do away with us altogether, and wipe away the very name of Jesus from the hearts and minds of future generations.

If it’s not obvious to you, then perhaps it’s time to pull your head out of the sand, and sneak a peek at what’s been happening in this nation of late.  

Men who once called me mad to my face for insinuating that persecution against believers might come to the United States are now calling and repenting of their actions because they are seeing now what I admonished them to look out for three and four years ago.

Peter was a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, and he was no longer ashamed of this fact. He did not try to introduce himself as anything other than what he was, no longer concerned with the repercussions or negative effects being associated with the Christ might have.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.