All Too Human!

Warning: If you are excessively sensitive, insist on political correctness, or even have a fondness for it, I suggest you stop reading right now. Odds are, the following will offend you.
Let me begin by saying, that I believe all of God's children are equal in His eyes. However, some within Christendom, have fostered the misconception that those whom God chooses for special tasks, or endows with special gifts, are supposed to be different, or better than the rest. They have fostered this misconception to fuel their own egos and pride, reveling in the idea of being praised, raised up on a pedestal and otherwise treated as something special.
I was in Romania last year, and a man from the States was visiting, a man who had read the website, and some of the visions and dreams God has given our ministry over the years. As it so happened, as he arrived I was returning from a volleyball game, wearing a pair of sweat pants that had not aged so gracefully, as well as a now damp sweat shirt. He looked me up and down, and I guess I didn't make a great first impression, because he said, 'you're not what I expected.'
To be honest, I wondered to myself exactly what he had expected, perhaps someone with a halo around his head, wearing a white robe, followed everywhere he went by a children's choir singing old church hymns. The truth of the matter, is that I am all too human, just like any other man of God that has ever lived. I have my hopes, I have my fears, I have my dreams, I have my sorrows, but through it all, the will of God takes preeminence.
The reason I shared this with you, is that today I have given myself license to just rant. I promise it will be a one time event, and tomorrow we will return to more spiritual matters, but today is a different story. Yes, you read right, I am going to rant. I see this world, I see what it has become, I see where it is headed, and perhaps a better title for this article would have been, 'stuff I need to get off my chest', or 'some body's got to say it', but here we go nonetheless.
Here we are, the year of our Lord 2007, and I think it's about time we take an inventory of how far we've come as a civilization, what some may call the most advanced civilization in the history of mankind, the pinnacle of science and technology, the end result of thousands of years of accumulated knowledge. I don't know about you, but I wholeheartedly believe that if the scholars and philosophers of generations past could see us now, they would weep with sorrow and gnash their teeth, while the founding fathers would shake their heads in shame at what this nation has become.
Somehow we have managed to take the parasites and dregs of society, the most worthless and vile among us, and deemed it fit to make idols of them. We perceive the lowest common denominators of this society as those we should be emulating, bankrupting our morals in the process.
Children are killing children, horrible crimes are being committed every day, and we still attempt to do something that is indicative only of the human race, something that is wholly counter intuitive, even self destructive, we continue on the same course, we pursue the same avenues, and we reject those things we know with certainty will bring back a modicum of order in the midst of all this chaos.
Even though we have seen that the further society removes itself, and rejects Biblical principles, the worse it becomes, and the more they embrace the darkness, the more vile their deeds, we have become like the man who having realized he is growing tired while swimming, continues to paddle toward the center of the lake, rather than return to shore. Because as a nation we have so hardened our hearts toward God, we would rather witness our own demise, aid and take part in our own destruction, than humble ourselves and return to the foot of the cross.
What of the church you ask? What of that which by all rights should be a shining light in the midst of the darkness? To be perfectly honest, the church has lost its backbone, it has lost its spine, it has lost its boldness, and its silence makes it complicit in what is happening in today's society. The church's rejection of truth, and its constant need to be accepted by the world has rendered it irrelevant as a source of change, while its indifference makes it culpable.
As being all too human, I am angry, disappointed, and disheartened, but above all else I am tired. We have squandered the greatest of gifts for the most useless of morsels.
I often find myself reading of the great men that grace the pages of the Word, and weeping, wondering where they are in our age. I read of their valor, their courage, their willingness to live, and die for that which they believed, and question whether such men still exist today. I see the darkness growing, and the light flickering, and pray for the strength to go on just one more day, to preach just one more sermon, to write just one more article, to reach just one more soul.
But hey, don't mind me, I'm just ranting. It can't be that bad, why just the other day the guy on television promised you bountiful blessings, and endless prosperity, if only you would help him purchase that new jet he's had his eye on for the past few months.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.