I will say the following plainly, because I could think of no other way of saying it. At the risk of bringing the readership of this blog to zero, at the risk of having to wade through dozens of less than friendly e-mails, the following must be stated, and clearly so.
If the gospel messages you’ve been hearing lo’ these many years have never once made you feel uncomfortable then you’ve never really heard the true gospel message. If the gospel messages you’ve been hearing lo’ these many years have never once challenged you then you’ve never really heard the true gospel message. If the gospel messages you’ve been hearing lo’ these many years haven’t accentuated Christ and the cross in perpetuity then you’ve never really heard the true gospel message. If the gospel messages you’ve been hearing lo’ these many years have never once stirred you to repentance, prompted inward introspection, humbled you, caused you to weep and truly see the enormity of your sin, then you’ve never really heard the true gospel message, but a neutered version wherein God is always smiling, the sun is always shining, the birds are always chirping and no matter what you do, God’s holding onto you so tight that you’ll never be able to get away.
In this brave new world of ours, pastors have redefined their roles and become life coaches, no longer preaching a crucified Christ, but rather playing the part of guidance counselor to scores of individuals that can be likened to overactive, petulant, and overgrown children who will not accept being accountable to anyone, be they God or man.
Preachers too have redefined their roles and rather than be concerned about the spiritual wellbeing of those to whom they are ministering they play the therapist, speaking soothing words, in a soothing tone, ensuring anyone within earshot that everything’s going to be alright, that God has mellowed over the centuries, and as long as they ‘bring the tithe into the storehouse’ God will overlook everything else.
It is an understatement when I say that there is enough blame to go around for the farce of a faith many are presenting, living and promulgating today, and the sheep are just as much to blame as the shepherds. In the end these so called shepherds are just giving the people what they wanted aren’t they?
If you preach the truth, if you preach the unadulterated Word of God, wherever you happen to be, you are bound to hear those famous words that seem to be on everyone’s lips nowadays: ‘That’s not the god I serve!’
I’ve heard it more times than I would like to recall, and no matter how often I hear it, it’s still shocking.
‘I don’t like your god, your god is mean, that’s not the god I serve.’
‘But all I did was read from His book’, I would retort, ‘all I did was read from the Bible!’
If you hear the truth being preached, if someone is reading out of the Bible and in your heart you say ‘that’s not the god I serve’, then may I humbly submit to you that you are not serving the true God, but a god of your own making and imagining. A god that you have fashioned in your heart who requires no submission, who requires no obedience, who requires no sacrifice on your part, but is more than happy to let you win the lotto time and again.
It is because we have refashioned and remade God in our own image that the neutered gospel is so widely accepted and received. It is because we didn’t like what God had to say that we chose rebellion rather than submission, and with hammer and chisel in hand we began to sculpt our new and improved deity.
Like the prophets of Baal however, we will know the true impotence of the gods we’ve fashioned when we need them most. When we see the gods of our own making for what they truly are, nothing more than mists and vanities, it will be too late, and though we might cut ourselves and bleed, though we might cry out to the heavens for a sign, these deities we so revel in today, these gods we so honor and worship will remain silent as the empty tomb from which the Christ, the Son of the one true God walked out of two millennia ago.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Why Can't We?
There is one question I am asked most often, one question that tops the list each and every time, and that question is, ‘what has the Lord been showing you lately?’ In recent years, I have made it a habit, to answer this question with the same exact question, and the response I get varies from a shrug of the shoulders, to a rolling of the eyes, to a look of indignation and the ever present, ‘what do you mean? You’re the one that the Lord shows things to.’
I believe one of the greatest setbacks in today’s Christian thinking, is that God speaks only to a select few, or works only through a select few. God speaks to all of us, in greater or lesser measure, and He works through all whose vessels are clean, and who are willing to submit themselves to His authority. We have been living in the land of spiritual surrogacy for so long, that we’ve assigned others to look after all of our spiritual needs. If we need prayer, we have prayer warriors we can go to and ask to pray for us. If we desire understanding of a certain Biblical passage, we have theologians who are eager to offer their interpretation. If we desire a word from the Lord, there’s someone for that too, and all it takes is a phone call or a short drive to see what the Lord is saying. When we practice spiritual surrogacy, when we outsource our spiritual needs to others, it cuts down on the need for an intimate and personal relationship, it cuts down on the hours we ought to have spent on our knees, in prayer, and in reading the Word, but even though it saves time, it is by no means beneficial for our spiritual man.
We read the Word of God, we read of the miracles, we read of the power, we read of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, then by simply juxtaposing the early church to today’s modern church, one question inevitably leaps out: ‘Why aren’t we seeing these things today? Why can’t we do what they did?’
Most believers choose to gloss over this all important question, because it takes a humble heart and a painful honesty to acknowledge that men and women two thousand years ago were closer to God, saw more of the power of God, and experienced more of the presence of God than we are in our modern age. The ‘can do’ attitude has ensconced itself upon the throne of many believers’ hearts, and if they can’t do something, well it’s because it can’t be done.
‘Nope, God doesn’t do that anymore. Because He’s not doing it through me, because I am not seeing miracles, because I do not know the power of the Holy Spirit, the logical conclusion is that they no longer exist. Surely if they existed, I would be the first in line, asking for a double portion. It can’t be me, it couldn’t be me. My self esteem is tip top, and my positive attitude has never been more positive. Ergo, scrap the book of Acts, blot out all the passages referring to healings, miracles, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the repeated assertion by none other than Christ Jesus that the Comforter would be with us until the end of time, because if I’m not experiencing it, than no one on the face of the earth is.’
It takes a certain kind of narcissistic pride, and a helping of shameless arrogance to conclude that if I am not experiencing something, than it is impossible for anyone else to.
‘We’re the American church dear sir! We are the fountainhead of newfangled doctrine, progressive theology, humanistic dogma, surely if anyone in the world were to know the fullness of the power of God, it would be us. Why would God choose some poverty stricken third world folks, who aren’t even allowed to practice their faith in their country, who are beaten and tortured, persecuted and despised? They don’t have the resources to get the message out; they don’t have the knowhow to run a successful publicity campaign, and don’t even get me started on interfaith relations and tolerance toward opposing views. We are the logical choice to experience the fullness of God’s power, to use it, abuse it, monetize it and profit from it, and since we are not, well then it just doesn’t exist anymore. That stuff about God choosing the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world to put to shame the mighty, well that’s just hyperbole.’
The lack of power in the house of God is obvious to one and all, as is the lack of character in the lives of some who call themselves children of God. These two things are interconnected, and one of the reasons we are not seeing the power of God, is because we are lacking the requisite purity, the requisite righteousness that is demanded of those who would be used of Him.
Another reason the power of God is absent from many of today’s churches, another reason why we can’t do what the primary church did is because we are lacking that true, living and abiding faith that God requires of us. Living faith is not about what I can do, but about what He can do. Once we’ve bought into the notion that we can do it, we can manufacture it, and we can make it happen, we’ve already lost out on any chance of seeing the true power of God.
If all things are possible to those who believe, then the painful truth is that we are not seeing the power of God manifest in our churches because we do not believe. Saving faith brings salvation by way of the cross, but living by faith and in faith brings the power of God by way of the Holy Spirit.
As we go down the list of the reasons we are not seeing the power of God in today’s churches, I would be remiss if I did not include the lack of a prayer life. From individuals, to families to entire congregations we have tried to replace prayer with other activities, be they spiritual or otherwise, ignoring the fact that there can be no replacing prayer in the life of a believer. If Jesus couldn’t find something to replace prayer with, if the Son of God would go off on His own and pray for hours on end, what pray tell makes us more special, more spiritual, and more knowledgeable that we can so flippantly dismiss prayer as nothing more than a waste of time?
Jesus didn’t teach His disciples homiletics, He did not teach His disciples hermeneutics, He did not teach His disciples apologetics, inflection, cadence, or speech delivery. Jesus taught His disciples how to pray!
We do not see the power of God in the churches today, because the churches have actively and successfully abolished and done away with prayer. Add to the absence of prayer the absence of fasting as well, and the reasons we are not seeing the power of God manifesting itself in the churches are evident to all.
There are certain practices in our Christian walk that are indispensable. Having a prayer life and fasting are two of those indispensable things. When Jesus preached His sermon on the mount, He did not begin it by saying, ‘if you pray, or if you fast’ but rather, ‘when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut the door pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and when you fast do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance.’
It was not ‘if’ it was ‘when’!
The reason we are not seeing the power of God as the primary church did is not because it is no longer available to us, but rather because we are not doing what is required of us in order to experience it. The primary church was formed in an atmosphere of prayer and fasting, in an atmosphere of dependency upon God and righteousness. It was then than the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them, it was then that they went everywhere preaching the Word and performing miracles.
Throughout the Word, whether it be individuals or churches, from the church of Antioch, to Paul, to Jesus Himself, we see the running themes of prayer, fasting, purity of heart and dependency upon God. We cannot hope to experience the power of God today, unless we return to the selfsame practices, the selfsame goal, and the selfsame hunger for God as the primary church.
God is not to blame for the impotence that is running rampant in today’s churches. God is not to blame for the powerlessness that is evident in today’s congregations. God is the same, yesterday, today and forevermore and if we must place blame on someone, if we must lay the burden of our impotence and powerlessness at someone’s feet, than we need look no further than the nearest mirror.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
I believe one of the greatest setbacks in today’s Christian thinking, is that God speaks only to a select few, or works only through a select few. God speaks to all of us, in greater or lesser measure, and He works through all whose vessels are clean, and who are willing to submit themselves to His authority. We have been living in the land of spiritual surrogacy for so long, that we’ve assigned others to look after all of our spiritual needs. If we need prayer, we have prayer warriors we can go to and ask to pray for us. If we desire understanding of a certain Biblical passage, we have theologians who are eager to offer their interpretation. If we desire a word from the Lord, there’s someone for that too, and all it takes is a phone call or a short drive to see what the Lord is saying. When we practice spiritual surrogacy, when we outsource our spiritual needs to others, it cuts down on the need for an intimate and personal relationship, it cuts down on the hours we ought to have spent on our knees, in prayer, and in reading the Word, but even though it saves time, it is by no means beneficial for our spiritual man.
We read the Word of God, we read of the miracles, we read of the power, we read of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, then by simply juxtaposing the early church to today’s modern church, one question inevitably leaps out: ‘Why aren’t we seeing these things today? Why can’t we do what they did?’
Most believers choose to gloss over this all important question, because it takes a humble heart and a painful honesty to acknowledge that men and women two thousand years ago were closer to God, saw more of the power of God, and experienced more of the presence of God than we are in our modern age. The ‘can do’ attitude has ensconced itself upon the throne of many believers’ hearts, and if they can’t do something, well it’s because it can’t be done.
‘Nope, God doesn’t do that anymore. Because He’s not doing it through me, because I am not seeing miracles, because I do not know the power of the Holy Spirit, the logical conclusion is that they no longer exist. Surely if they existed, I would be the first in line, asking for a double portion. It can’t be me, it couldn’t be me. My self esteem is tip top, and my positive attitude has never been more positive. Ergo, scrap the book of Acts, blot out all the passages referring to healings, miracles, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the repeated assertion by none other than Christ Jesus that the Comforter would be with us until the end of time, because if I’m not experiencing it, than no one on the face of the earth is.’
It takes a certain kind of narcissistic pride, and a helping of shameless arrogance to conclude that if I am not experiencing something, than it is impossible for anyone else to.
‘We’re the American church dear sir! We are the fountainhead of newfangled doctrine, progressive theology, humanistic dogma, surely if anyone in the world were to know the fullness of the power of God, it would be us. Why would God choose some poverty stricken third world folks, who aren’t even allowed to practice their faith in their country, who are beaten and tortured, persecuted and despised? They don’t have the resources to get the message out; they don’t have the knowhow to run a successful publicity campaign, and don’t even get me started on interfaith relations and tolerance toward opposing views. We are the logical choice to experience the fullness of God’s power, to use it, abuse it, monetize it and profit from it, and since we are not, well then it just doesn’t exist anymore. That stuff about God choosing the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world to put to shame the mighty, well that’s just hyperbole.’
The lack of power in the house of God is obvious to one and all, as is the lack of character in the lives of some who call themselves children of God. These two things are interconnected, and one of the reasons we are not seeing the power of God, is because we are lacking the requisite purity, the requisite righteousness that is demanded of those who would be used of Him.
Another reason the power of God is absent from many of today’s churches, another reason why we can’t do what the primary church did is because we are lacking that true, living and abiding faith that God requires of us. Living faith is not about what I can do, but about what He can do. Once we’ve bought into the notion that we can do it, we can manufacture it, and we can make it happen, we’ve already lost out on any chance of seeing the true power of God.
If all things are possible to those who believe, then the painful truth is that we are not seeing the power of God manifest in our churches because we do not believe. Saving faith brings salvation by way of the cross, but living by faith and in faith brings the power of God by way of the Holy Spirit.
As we go down the list of the reasons we are not seeing the power of God in today’s churches, I would be remiss if I did not include the lack of a prayer life. From individuals, to families to entire congregations we have tried to replace prayer with other activities, be they spiritual or otherwise, ignoring the fact that there can be no replacing prayer in the life of a believer. If Jesus couldn’t find something to replace prayer with, if the Son of God would go off on His own and pray for hours on end, what pray tell makes us more special, more spiritual, and more knowledgeable that we can so flippantly dismiss prayer as nothing more than a waste of time?
Jesus didn’t teach His disciples homiletics, He did not teach His disciples hermeneutics, He did not teach His disciples apologetics, inflection, cadence, or speech delivery. Jesus taught His disciples how to pray!
We do not see the power of God in the churches today, because the churches have actively and successfully abolished and done away with prayer. Add to the absence of prayer the absence of fasting as well, and the reasons we are not seeing the power of God manifesting itself in the churches are evident to all.
There are certain practices in our Christian walk that are indispensable. Having a prayer life and fasting are two of those indispensable things. When Jesus preached His sermon on the mount, He did not begin it by saying, ‘if you pray, or if you fast’ but rather, ‘when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut the door pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and when you fast do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance.’
It was not ‘if’ it was ‘when’!
The reason we are not seeing the power of God as the primary church did is not because it is no longer available to us, but rather because we are not doing what is required of us in order to experience it. The primary church was formed in an atmosphere of prayer and fasting, in an atmosphere of dependency upon God and righteousness. It was then than the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them, it was then that they went everywhere preaching the Word and performing miracles.
Throughout the Word, whether it be individuals or churches, from the church of Antioch, to Paul, to Jesus Himself, we see the running themes of prayer, fasting, purity of heart and dependency upon God. We cannot hope to experience the power of God today, unless we return to the selfsame practices, the selfsame goal, and the selfsame hunger for God as the primary church.
God is not to blame for the impotence that is running rampant in today’s churches. God is not to blame for the powerlessness that is evident in today’s congregations. God is the same, yesterday, today and forevermore and if we must place blame on someone, if we must lay the burden of our impotence and powerlessness at someone’s feet, than we need look no further than the nearest mirror.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Personal Examinations
One of the most difficult things for us as human beings is to look into a mirror, whether a mirror hanging on a wall, or the mirror of God’s word, examine ourselves, and come to a truthful conclusion, one which is unbiased, impartial, dispassionate and unprejudiced. Since the beginning of human existence man has had a tendency to see himself through the subjective prism of individualism, perpetually highlighting the positives, and minimizing the negatives that are visible to everyone but himself. Objectivity is difficult, dare I say near impossible when it comes to our own person, to our own shortcomings, and to our own faults.
As difficult as a right and true examination of oneself might be, the Word encourages us to examine certain things in our lives, not once in a lifetime, but on a regular basis that we might know the truth of our spiritual maturity, the truth of our walk, the truth of our strength, the truth of what we have chosen to believe, and by knowing these truths, amend, repent, and change the course of our trajectory that we might reach our desired destination.
Anyone who says examining oneself is an easy task, has never approached self examination with the requisite honesty it demands. As imperfect creatures, if we are honest and forthright before an all knowing God, there will always be something in us, something in our actions, something in our conduct, something in our walk, that God will demand we chisel and refine, because this faith, this journey is an ongoing transformation, an ongoing maturity and ascent toward the utter mortification and death of self, and complete surrender to our heavenly Father.
The first and most important examination we must undertake, as pertains to eternity, is to examine ourselves as to whether we are in the faith. The Bible doesn’t tell us to take someone else’s word for it as to whether we are in the faith, it doesn’t tell us to believe our relatives when they tell us we are on the right path, but rather to examine ourselves, personally and intimately looking into the mirror of God’s holy Word to see if we are in the faith.
2 Corinthians 13:5-7, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – Unless you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified.”
Although there are many profound topics we can discuss at length in this passage of God’s Word, from proving ourselves, to the possibility of being disqualified as Paul so readily states, the main reason I included this passage is self explanatory enough. We must examine ourselves, we must look into the Word and make certain that we are not following after men, but rather after Christ, that we might do no evil, that we might not stray, but that we would be led by Christ and Christ alone.
The second aspect of our lives we must examine is our own work. We ought to know by now that a bad tree cannot bare good fruit, nor can a good tree bare bad fruit. We must examine our work and see that we are truly serving God, being led of God, and laboring on behalf of the Kingdom of God and not our own self interests or agendas.
Galatians 6:4, “But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.”
I realize the notion of personal accountability has fallen out of favor with much of today’s church, and that far too many have embraced the idea that God has to love us no matter what we do, but the Word encourages us to examine or own work, to look at our labors and our sacrifices and make certain that they were made with a pure heart, and pure intentions seeking only to please God.
When it comes to spiritual matters, we are also encouraged in the Word to test all things. Within the context of Paul writing to the church of Thessalonica, and admonishing them not to quench the Spirit, or despise prophecies, he also warns them that they must test all things for the sake of their spiritual wellbeing. Time consuming as some might think it to be, whenever we hear a word of prophecy, we must make certain that it lines up with the Word of God first and foremost.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 “Test all things; hold fast what is good.”
Much deception has been wrought upon the house of God because believers are simply too lazy or too indifferent to go into the Word and test the things that they hear. If it sounds good, well then it must be good, and so they receive doctrine and teaching contrary to the Word of God simply because the flesh liked what it heard. For the sake of your spiritual well being, test all things, and once you have tested them, hold fast what is good.
The last thing that we must examine or test is the spirits, to see whether they are of God. In our ongoing quest for newness and supernatural manifestations, we have lost sight of John’s admonition to test the spirits, whether they are of God. It is vitally important to know the source of a power, and not merely accept someone as a messenger of God simply because they posses power.
1 John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
It would seem that when it comes to spiritual things we have the tendency not to learn from our mistakes. There is an easily recognizable cycle wherein every few years a new and ‘gifted’ individual comes on the scene, kicks a few people in the face, blows on a few others, punches a cancer patient in the gut, and he is crowned the new spiritual leader of the age. Shortly afterwards however the mask begins to slip, and rather than bring glory to God, these selfsame individuals who everyone looked to, to bring about a worldwide revival, begin to bring shame upon shame to the name of God by their actions and conduct. Test the spirits, whether they are of God, because the enemy is by no means impotent.
A wise man tests and examines both himself, his works, the things he hears, and the things he sees, having the Word of God as the yardstick by which everything is measured, as the prism by which everything is seen, and the final authority by which everything is judged. We can choose to be wise, or choose to be fools; the choice in the end is ours and ours alone.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
As difficult as a right and true examination of oneself might be, the Word encourages us to examine certain things in our lives, not once in a lifetime, but on a regular basis that we might know the truth of our spiritual maturity, the truth of our walk, the truth of our strength, the truth of what we have chosen to believe, and by knowing these truths, amend, repent, and change the course of our trajectory that we might reach our desired destination.
Anyone who says examining oneself is an easy task, has never approached self examination with the requisite honesty it demands. As imperfect creatures, if we are honest and forthright before an all knowing God, there will always be something in us, something in our actions, something in our conduct, something in our walk, that God will demand we chisel and refine, because this faith, this journey is an ongoing transformation, an ongoing maturity and ascent toward the utter mortification and death of self, and complete surrender to our heavenly Father.
The first and most important examination we must undertake, as pertains to eternity, is to examine ourselves as to whether we are in the faith. The Bible doesn’t tell us to take someone else’s word for it as to whether we are in the faith, it doesn’t tell us to believe our relatives when they tell us we are on the right path, but rather to examine ourselves, personally and intimately looking into the mirror of God’s holy Word to see if we are in the faith.
2 Corinthians 13:5-7, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – Unless you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified.”
Although there are many profound topics we can discuss at length in this passage of God’s Word, from proving ourselves, to the possibility of being disqualified as Paul so readily states, the main reason I included this passage is self explanatory enough. We must examine ourselves, we must look into the Word and make certain that we are not following after men, but rather after Christ, that we might do no evil, that we might not stray, but that we would be led by Christ and Christ alone.
The second aspect of our lives we must examine is our own work. We ought to know by now that a bad tree cannot bare good fruit, nor can a good tree bare bad fruit. We must examine our work and see that we are truly serving God, being led of God, and laboring on behalf of the Kingdom of God and not our own self interests or agendas.
Galatians 6:4, “But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.”
I realize the notion of personal accountability has fallen out of favor with much of today’s church, and that far too many have embraced the idea that God has to love us no matter what we do, but the Word encourages us to examine or own work, to look at our labors and our sacrifices and make certain that they were made with a pure heart, and pure intentions seeking only to please God.
When it comes to spiritual matters, we are also encouraged in the Word to test all things. Within the context of Paul writing to the church of Thessalonica, and admonishing them not to quench the Spirit, or despise prophecies, he also warns them that they must test all things for the sake of their spiritual wellbeing. Time consuming as some might think it to be, whenever we hear a word of prophecy, we must make certain that it lines up with the Word of God first and foremost.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 “Test all things; hold fast what is good.”
Much deception has been wrought upon the house of God because believers are simply too lazy or too indifferent to go into the Word and test the things that they hear. If it sounds good, well then it must be good, and so they receive doctrine and teaching contrary to the Word of God simply because the flesh liked what it heard. For the sake of your spiritual well being, test all things, and once you have tested them, hold fast what is good.
The last thing that we must examine or test is the spirits, to see whether they are of God. In our ongoing quest for newness and supernatural manifestations, we have lost sight of John’s admonition to test the spirits, whether they are of God. It is vitally important to know the source of a power, and not merely accept someone as a messenger of God simply because they posses power.
1 John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
It would seem that when it comes to spiritual things we have the tendency not to learn from our mistakes. There is an easily recognizable cycle wherein every few years a new and ‘gifted’ individual comes on the scene, kicks a few people in the face, blows on a few others, punches a cancer patient in the gut, and he is crowned the new spiritual leader of the age. Shortly afterwards however the mask begins to slip, and rather than bring glory to God, these selfsame individuals who everyone looked to, to bring about a worldwide revival, begin to bring shame upon shame to the name of God by their actions and conduct. Test the spirits, whether they are of God, because the enemy is by no means impotent.
A wise man tests and examines both himself, his works, the things he hears, and the things he sees, having the Word of God as the yardstick by which everything is measured, as the prism by which everything is seen, and the final authority by which everything is judged. We can choose to be wise, or choose to be fools; the choice in the end is ours and ours alone.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Day after Today
Matthew 6:34, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
James 4:13-14, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
In my youth I had a friend who had five year plans for everything. He had charted out his career trajectory, he had charted out the time he would need to meet, court, propose to, and marry the love of his life, and since he was on the husky side like myself, he had even drawn up a five year plan to shed the pounds, and see once and for all if he had those six pack abs hiding under the adipose tissue, or if he was, as he expected a genetic abnormality with no abdominal muscles to speak of.
It had been close to thirteen year since we last spoke, and oddly enough we got back in touch through Facebook of all things. When I asked him how his five year plans had panned out, his answer was short and clipped: ‘Still fat, still single, still earning minimum wage!’
It is no doubt men and women of every color, creed and nationality love to make plans. We are encouraged to plan for our retirement, to plan for the future, to plan for a rainy day, to plan for the unexpected, and in my country the more prudent and aged folks even plan for their death, buying coffins in their mid fifties, only to see them start to rot up in the attic since they are well into their seventies by now, still above ground, and still breathing in the smoggy air that was supposed to have felled them decades ago.
Men plan for the strangest things, yet when it comes to planning for eternity we have the tendency of putting it off. There are countless souls today who share the misconception that they can wait just a while longer, right up until one minute to midnight, and then with all the repentance they can muster, fall on their faces and recite the sinner’s prayer. What such souls fail to take into account, the part of the equation that upturns the entire notion of having plenty of time to do what we will, is that we cannot be certain of making it to one minute to midnight. The day after today, tomorrow, or the day after are beyond our certitude. Tomorrow is beyond my control, and it is beyond your control as well. Whether I will live another day, or go into the earth from which I came is a knowledge that only God and God alone possesses, one that He does not share with the rest of us, and as such we cannot put off until tomorrow, what we ought rightly do today.
We plan, and scheme, we have growth charts and visibility graphs, all the while forgetting that life is but a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. It may just be my melancholy mood of late, but I find myself wondering more and more often whether by our ceaseless worrying about tomorrow we don’t somehow slow our pace toward the eternity that beckons to us, and the home that is waiting for us. What I am certain of, is that in the least it divides our focus and our attention, this worrying about tomorrow, and we are no longer exclusively focused on the kingdom of God, we are no longer exclusively seeking His righteousness, but are divided between planning for tomorrow, and planning for eternity.
Are there moments in which I find myself worrying about tomorrow? Of course, I am human, I have a family, I see the writing on the wall, and the storm that is descending, and on top of that I have close to one hundred children, which I am responsible for feeding and keeping warm so yes, there are moments. No matter how grim the future might seem however, I always catch myself before descending into desperation, or hopelessness, because the promises of God are as a warm blanket on a cold winter’s day for me. The promises of God comfort me, they keep me, they satiate me, and allow me to press ever onward.
We ought not to worry about tomorrow, because there is more than enough work to do today. We ought not to worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow is in our Father’s hands, and He is already there preparing the way for us. We ought not to worry about tomorrow, because this life is not about our tomorrows, but about that instant, that one moment in the eternal expanse of the universe that our tomorrows cease to be and we take our first tentative step into eternity.
In His goodness God forewarns us of what will come tomorrow and the day after, but whether or not we as individuals will be here to see it is another matter entirely. Life is a vapor, it is a fleeting, fragile thing that we often get so used to that we forget to appreciate it. Just like the stars that light the heavens at night, which we take for granted because they are always there, we take this life for granted because in our insolence we think we will be here for many more tomorrows. What if we could see the starts only once a year, or better yet only once a decade? Would we then appreciate them more? What if we realized the beauty of today, and the gift that is life? Would we perhaps cease to worry so much about tomorrow?
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
James 4:13-14, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
In my youth I had a friend who had five year plans for everything. He had charted out his career trajectory, he had charted out the time he would need to meet, court, propose to, and marry the love of his life, and since he was on the husky side like myself, he had even drawn up a five year plan to shed the pounds, and see once and for all if he had those six pack abs hiding under the adipose tissue, or if he was, as he expected a genetic abnormality with no abdominal muscles to speak of.
It had been close to thirteen year since we last spoke, and oddly enough we got back in touch through Facebook of all things. When I asked him how his five year plans had panned out, his answer was short and clipped: ‘Still fat, still single, still earning minimum wage!’
It is no doubt men and women of every color, creed and nationality love to make plans. We are encouraged to plan for our retirement, to plan for the future, to plan for a rainy day, to plan for the unexpected, and in my country the more prudent and aged folks even plan for their death, buying coffins in their mid fifties, only to see them start to rot up in the attic since they are well into their seventies by now, still above ground, and still breathing in the smoggy air that was supposed to have felled them decades ago.
Men plan for the strangest things, yet when it comes to planning for eternity we have the tendency of putting it off. There are countless souls today who share the misconception that they can wait just a while longer, right up until one minute to midnight, and then with all the repentance they can muster, fall on their faces and recite the sinner’s prayer. What such souls fail to take into account, the part of the equation that upturns the entire notion of having plenty of time to do what we will, is that we cannot be certain of making it to one minute to midnight. The day after today, tomorrow, or the day after are beyond our certitude. Tomorrow is beyond my control, and it is beyond your control as well. Whether I will live another day, or go into the earth from which I came is a knowledge that only God and God alone possesses, one that He does not share with the rest of us, and as such we cannot put off until tomorrow, what we ought rightly do today.
We plan, and scheme, we have growth charts and visibility graphs, all the while forgetting that life is but a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. It may just be my melancholy mood of late, but I find myself wondering more and more often whether by our ceaseless worrying about tomorrow we don’t somehow slow our pace toward the eternity that beckons to us, and the home that is waiting for us. What I am certain of, is that in the least it divides our focus and our attention, this worrying about tomorrow, and we are no longer exclusively focused on the kingdom of God, we are no longer exclusively seeking His righteousness, but are divided between planning for tomorrow, and planning for eternity.
Are there moments in which I find myself worrying about tomorrow? Of course, I am human, I have a family, I see the writing on the wall, and the storm that is descending, and on top of that I have close to one hundred children, which I am responsible for feeding and keeping warm so yes, there are moments. No matter how grim the future might seem however, I always catch myself before descending into desperation, or hopelessness, because the promises of God are as a warm blanket on a cold winter’s day for me. The promises of God comfort me, they keep me, they satiate me, and allow me to press ever onward.
We ought not to worry about tomorrow, because there is more than enough work to do today. We ought not to worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow is in our Father’s hands, and He is already there preparing the way for us. We ought not to worry about tomorrow, because this life is not about our tomorrows, but about that instant, that one moment in the eternal expanse of the universe that our tomorrows cease to be and we take our first tentative step into eternity.
In His goodness God forewarns us of what will come tomorrow and the day after, but whether or not we as individuals will be here to see it is another matter entirely. Life is a vapor, it is a fleeting, fragile thing that we often get so used to that we forget to appreciate it. Just like the stars that light the heavens at night, which we take for granted because they are always there, we take this life for granted because in our insolence we think we will be here for many more tomorrows. What if we could see the starts only once a year, or better yet only once a decade? Would we then appreciate them more? What if we realized the beauty of today, and the gift that is life? Would we perhaps cease to worry so much about tomorrow?
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Not Alone
Judging by the response to my last post, I can see that many of you have, to some extent, been feeling what I’ve been feeling lately. Anyone who says that they’ve never gone through these seasons of spiritual weariness, or that it is somehow wrong or sinful, has either not read the Word of God, or they are attempting to project a certain image of superiority and invincibility that is merely an illusion.
Throughout the Word I read of men whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, who in my eyes are true spiritual giants of the faith, and at certain points in their walk, in certain seasons of their lives, they do something that at first seems contrary to the image I had of them in my mind’s eye. I see once invincible, bold, courageous, fearless men, men who stood alone against hundreds, men who would not retreat even from before kings and queens, agonize in the wilderness, hopeless and afraid, beseeching God to take their lives.
From David who fled from before his own son Absalom, the selfsame David who stood before Goliath fearless and undeterred with a slingshot and a stone, to Elijah who having stood alone against four hundred and fifty of Baal’s prophets, won a great victory, and made the Brook Kishon run red with their blood, who we then find in the wilderness desiring to die.
What I constantly have to remind myself when I come upon a passage that is uncharacteristic of these men, these great giants of the faith, is that in the end they were just men. They were men given to the same concerns, fears, apprehensions, and insecurities as we are today, and that which made them great, that which made them invincible and brave and strong in our eyes had nothing to do with them but it had everything to do with the power of God residing in them.
It is the power of God that makes us bold, it is the power of God that makes us strong, it is the power of God that makes us fearless, and in those moments when we are ourselves, when the power of God is dormant, when we are not standing against the prophets of Baal, when we are not confronting the darkness, but are merely trying not to burn the eggs in the frying pan, our fears and insecurities resurface if only briefly.
Once in awhile our humanity must be evident to ourselves that we would learn never to trust in ourselves. I believe this is one of the reasons God allows those moments in our lives, those moments when we’ve just come off a great spiritual victory, when we saw the power of God made manifest in us and through us, then suddenly, we are ourselves again. If we are honest with ourselves, it is in these instances that we realize it’s not us preaching the great sermon, it’s not us writing the great teaching, it’s not us casting out devils, it is the power of God in us, and we are wholly and completely dependent upon it, and absent of it, we are those stuttering, shy, introverted, fearful creatures we’ve always known ourselves to be.
There was no hesitation on the part of Elijah as he stood before the people of Israel, as he rebuilt the altar, and called fire down from heaven, there was no moment of doubt our uncertainty as he took the prophets of Baal and executed them, it was when he was home, after all these things, that he grew fearful upon receiving a message from Jezebel that within the day he would be as dead as the prophets of Baal he had killed. And so, Elijah ran first to Beersheba, then into the wilderness, praying for God to take his life.
It was there, in the wilderness that the angel of the Lord came and fed him, and from there Elijah went to Horeb, the mountain of God, where God would speak to him and strengthen him. Elijah believed he was alone, one solitary servant, one sole survivor, until God made it very clear that grim as the situation might have seemed, sparse as the true servants of God might have appeared, there were still those who had not defiled themselves, there were still those who clung to God faithfully.
Elijah discovered he was not alone, but rather there were seven thousand in Israel, whose knees had not bowed to Baal, and whose lips had not kissed him. Yes, God keeps a very accurate accounting!
If the response to my last post tells me anything, it is that I am not alone, and this is the selfsame truth that you must take to heart. You are not alone! God still has servants throughout, God still has those that have not bowed to the idols of this world, and whose lips have not kissed wickedness.
Unpleasant as it might be, the dark night of the soul is unavoidable, but it benefits us in ways that we cannot imagine. In Elijah’s moment of distress, God spoke to him; in Christ’s time in the garden, weeping tears of blood, an angel came to strengthen Him. No, we are not alone, by any means, we have brothers and sisters in Christ, some we might not even know exist, who can encourage us and pray for us, but most of all we have a heavenly Father who sees us, and knows us, and is there to see us through our seasons of weariness, afflictions and hardships.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Throughout the Word I read of men whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, who in my eyes are true spiritual giants of the faith, and at certain points in their walk, in certain seasons of their lives, they do something that at first seems contrary to the image I had of them in my mind’s eye. I see once invincible, bold, courageous, fearless men, men who stood alone against hundreds, men who would not retreat even from before kings and queens, agonize in the wilderness, hopeless and afraid, beseeching God to take their lives.
From David who fled from before his own son Absalom, the selfsame David who stood before Goliath fearless and undeterred with a slingshot and a stone, to Elijah who having stood alone against four hundred and fifty of Baal’s prophets, won a great victory, and made the Brook Kishon run red with their blood, who we then find in the wilderness desiring to die.
What I constantly have to remind myself when I come upon a passage that is uncharacteristic of these men, these great giants of the faith, is that in the end they were just men. They were men given to the same concerns, fears, apprehensions, and insecurities as we are today, and that which made them great, that which made them invincible and brave and strong in our eyes had nothing to do with them but it had everything to do with the power of God residing in them.
It is the power of God that makes us bold, it is the power of God that makes us strong, it is the power of God that makes us fearless, and in those moments when we are ourselves, when the power of God is dormant, when we are not standing against the prophets of Baal, when we are not confronting the darkness, but are merely trying not to burn the eggs in the frying pan, our fears and insecurities resurface if only briefly.
Once in awhile our humanity must be evident to ourselves that we would learn never to trust in ourselves. I believe this is one of the reasons God allows those moments in our lives, those moments when we’ve just come off a great spiritual victory, when we saw the power of God made manifest in us and through us, then suddenly, we are ourselves again. If we are honest with ourselves, it is in these instances that we realize it’s not us preaching the great sermon, it’s not us writing the great teaching, it’s not us casting out devils, it is the power of God in us, and we are wholly and completely dependent upon it, and absent of it, we are those stuttering, shy, introverted, fearful creatures we’ve always known ourselves to be.
There was no hesitation on the part of Elijah as he stood before the people of Israel, as he rebuilt the altar, and called fire down from heaven, there was no moment of doubt our uncertainty as he took the prophets of Baal and executed them, it was when he was home, after all these things, that he grew fearful upon receiving a message from Jezebel that within the day he would be as dead as the prophets of Baal he had killed. And so, Elijah ran first to Beersheba, then into the wilderness, praying for God to take his life.
It was there, in the wilderness that the angel of the Lord came and fed him, and from there Elijah went to Horeb, the mountain of God, where God would speak to him and strengthen him. Elijah believed he was alone, one solitary servant, one sole survivor, until God made it very clear that grim as the situation might have seemed, sparse as the true servants of God might have appeared, there were still those who had not defiled themselves, there were still those who clung to God faithfully.
Elijah discovered he was not alone, but rather there were seven thousand in Israel, whose knees had not bowed to Baal, and whose lips had not kissed him. Yes, God keeps a very accurate accounting!
If the response to my last post tells me anything, it is that I am not alone, and this is the selfsame truth that you must take to heart. You are not alone! God still has servants throughout, God still has those that have not bowed to the idols of this world, and whose lips have not kissed wickedness.
Unpleasant as it might be, the dark night of the soul is unavoidable, but it benefits us in ways that we cannot imagine. In Elijah’s moment of distress, God spoke to him; in Christ’s time in the garden, weeping tears of blood, an angel came to strengthen Him. No, we are not alone, by any means, we have brothers and sisters in Christ, some we might not even know exist, who can encourage us and pray for us, but most of all we have a heavenly Father who sees us, and knows us, and is there to see us through our seasons of weariness, afflictions and hardships.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Haggard and Worn
A furtive glance in the mirror confirms what I have been suspecting all along, time is leaving its mark. With each passing day I notice more hairs from atop my head going on one way trips down the shower drain, and the graying temples that once seemed distinguished seem so no longer. The harbingers of a fleeting life seem more pronounced, from sprouting hairs in odd places such as my ears, to achy joints, to a constant and unnerving need for quiet and solitude.
Futile and foolish things such as a leaky roof or a persistent toothache monopolize my time, and when I take an accounting of the day that was, I realize very little time was dedicated to lasting or purposeful pursuits.
I find myself spending more and more time in prayer not to grow, or to ascend, but merely to stay level, merely to hold my ground and not retreat. Already, I am haggard and worn, and then I have to remind myself that we have not yet begun to fight, we have not yet stood against the full fury of the enemy’s last siege.
In talking to friends and fellow ministers, I’ve discovered I am not alone in this state of being. The enemy is attempting to whittle away our resolve, to whittle away our dedication, to dampen our fire, and bring us to a place of sluggish spirituality, a state of spiritual dryness, wherein spiritually speaking we’re just drudging along, getting by from one day to the next, and the very act of spiritual survival seems like an overwhelming and taxing effort.
Every minister I’ve spoken to thus far has confirmed what I’ve been suspecting for awhile, the enemy is not employing full frontal assaults, but rather sneak attacks, small jabs and pricks that accumulate over time and both frustrate and weaken us.
I’ve been debating whether or not I should post this, it’s mostly just my early morning ramblings, but I decided to post it because I think there are many others who are feeling this selfsame oppression, this persistent onslaught that isn’t coming from anywhere in particular but is evident nevertheless.
There is one conclusive truth that we must never lose sight of, even when spiritually speaking we are not feeling like giants, or supermen, but rather like tired souls trying to break through the storm clouds and into the light.
Whether haggard, worn, bruised, bloodied, blistered or exhausted, the only thing that matters is that we make it home. There are no believers that make it to heaven with their garments in pristine condition. By the time we get there our garments will be torn and bloodied, caked in our own exhaustion, hence the reason we are given a new garment, a white garment upon arrival. Our duty is not to try and spare ourselves, to keep ourselves from battle, to avoid the hard tasks and the dark times, but to commit to holding our ground, to commit to putting one foot in front of the other and barreling through until that glorious day when we will see Him face to face, when our fight will have been fought, and our race will have been run, and the only thing left to do will be to enter into His eternal rest.
Haggard, worn, bruised and bloodied as I might be I will not give up because home is closer now than ever before. There is finality to every journey, there is a point of arrival, and our destination, our point of arrival is within view.
Hebrews 10:37, “For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry.”
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Futile and foolish things such as a leaky roof or a persistent toothache monopolize my time, and when I take an accounting of the day that was, I realize very little time was dedicated to lasting or purposeful pursuits.
I find myself spending more and more time in prayer not to grow, or to ascend, but merely to stay level, merely to hold my ground and not retreat. Already, I am haggard and worn, and then I have to remind myself that we have not yet begun to fight, we have not yet stood against the full fury of the enemy’s last siege.
In talking to friends and fellow ministers, I’ve discovered I am not alone in this state of being. The enemy is attempting to whittle away our resolve, to whittle away our dedication, to dampen our fire, and bring us to a place of sluggish spirituality, a state of spiritual dryness, wherein spiritually speaking we’re just drudging along, getting by from one day to the next, and the very act of spiritual survival seems like an overwhelming and taxing effort.
Every minister I’ve spoken to thus far has confirmed what I’ve been suspecting for awhile, the enemy is not employing full frontal assaults, but rather sneak attacks, small jabs and pricks that accumulate over time and both frustrate and weaken us.
I’ve been debating whether or not I should post this, it’s mostly just my early morning ramblings, but I decided to post it because I think there are many others who are feeling this selfsame oppression, this persistent onslaught that isn’t coming from anywhere in particular but is evident nevertheless.
There is one conclusive truth that we must never lose sight of, even when spiritually speaking we are not feeling like giants, or supermen, but rather like tired souls trying to break through the storm clouds and into the light.
Whether haggard, worn, bruised, bloodied, blistered or exhausted, the only thing that matters is that we make it home. There are no believers that make it to heaven with their garments in pristine condition. By the time we get there our garments will be torn and bloodied, caked in our own exhaustion, hence the reason we are given a new garment, a white garment upon arrival. Our duty is not to try and spare ourselves, to keep ourselves from battle, to avoid the hard tasks and the dark times, but to commit to holding our ground, to commit to putting one foot in front of the other and barreling through until that glorious day when we will see Him face to face, when our fight will have been fought, and our race will have been run, and the only thing left to do will be to enter into His eternal rest.
Haggard, worn, bruised and bloodied as I might be I will not give up because home is closer now than ever before. There is finality to every journey, there is a point of arrival, and our destination, our point of arrival is within view.
Hebrews 10:37, “For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry.”
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
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