When God Laughs! Part 4

Psalm 2:7-8, “I will declare the decree: ‘The Lord has said to Me, You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.’”

In between teachings I began looking at this Psalm a little differently, not really through a different prism, but merely from a different angle. If we analyze this Psalm we realize there are a lot of parties doing a lot of talking, and just from a rudimentary reading we can discern four distinct voices trying to get our attention, trying to teach us something, or trying to distract us. 

As we've already discussed, the first voice is the voice of the nations who rage, the nations who counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed One.

One thing that I found interesting and even pertinent to our current situation as a nation is that it was the leaders and the men of authority in these nations who were encouraging the people to ‘break the bonds and cast away the cords’.

It was the leaders of the nations encouraging the people to lawlessness, and rebellion. It was those in authority who shook their fist at God and incited others to do likewise.

The voices rage to this day, the voices of kings and princes and presidents and judges, and all manner of men who have some sort of authority or wield some sort of power.

If we give these voices half the chance, it is very probable we will grow discouraged and dour in our outlook, rather than retain the joy of the Lord which is our strength. As a side note, you know that you have the joy of the Lord when everyone else around you is on the edge of despair, yet you still have an unexplained yet very real and tangible joy in your heart.

It’s one thing to have joy when everyone else has it; it’s another to have joy when few others do.

The second voice we saw as the Psalm continues to progress was the voice of the Father who declared that He had set His King on His Holy hill of Zion. We saw the Father declaring the immutability of His Son’s place, and though the nations raged and the kings plotted, Jesus is still upon the throne the Father has given Him.

The third voice we begin to hear now is the voice of the Son.

It is the Son declaring the decree of the Father, who promised Him the nations for His inheritance and the ends of the earth for His possession if He so desired and asked.

The one profound thing we must understand from this Psalm above all others is how much God the Father loves His Son!

The nations and the ends of the earth were His if He so asked, yet God so loved the world, that  He sent this Son He loved so much to  die upon a tree so His rebellious, disobedient, duplicitous and indifferent creation might be reconciled unto Him.

In order to fully understand the love God has for His creation, for you and me and all who breathe and walk this earth, we must understand the love God has for His Son first.

If God the Father and the Son were at odds, if they'd been arguing or they didn't see eye to eye, then perhaps we could reason that having sent Jesus was not such a monumental thing.

But this was not the case. God loved His Son to the point of offering Him everything if He so desired it, and it would not have seemed burdensome or extravagant to Him.

It’s as though Jesus was saying, ‘this is what My Father promised me, even offered if I so desired it.’

By the same token we can also understand why God grows wrathful and shows His deep displeasure when the Son He so loves is mocked and ridiculed and belittled and ignored and marginalized by both the world and the church.

Imagine having a son whom you loved with all your heart, whom you would do anything for, then seeing that selfsame son being maligned and spat upon and vilified though there was no evil in him.

Would you get angry? Would you grow wrathful? 

Even if we got angry and grew wrathful there isn't much we could do about it, but God can, and yet He tarries. Perhaps longer than some of us think He ought. 

It’s in the layered complexity of God’s emotions and attributes that we begin to realize the depth of the multidimensional God we serve, a God who loves, a God who forgives, a God who restores and receives, but also a God who is capable of exhibiting wrath, and bringing forth justice.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.  

When God Laughs! Part 3

Psalm 2:5-6, “Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: ‘Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.’”

Even though God holds those who plot against Him in derision, it does not mean He does not grow angry when men repeatedly attempt to circumvent His will and authority. God’s displeasure is deep, and He even grows wrathful when rebellion is the order of the day, and those who ought to humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways and seek His face, instead choose to rebel against Him all the more, and incite others to similar action.

Ever notice how the godless attempt to convince others that godlessness is a good and noble and desired ideal? Ever notice how they attempt to belittle anyone who believes in God, or make them out to seem unbalanced and odd?

It’s because they are not content with having become reprobate themselves, they are not content with having surrendered to godlessness and walking in rebellion, they desire others to follow suit and do as they have done.

Within these two verses we also discover why nations are distressed, why things are going from bad to worse, and why every remedy seems to backfire and make the situation even direr than it was before.

Once again, it is an issue of causality…of cause and effect. Because the nations rage and the people plot against the Lord, the Lord grows wrathful and in His deep displeasure distresses the selfsame nations and kings which were plotting against Him.

Depending on the prism through which one sees the world, it would be easy to grow despondent if not outright terrified of what is happening and what is likely to happen based on the pieces which have moved into place on the global chessboard.

Just seeing the world as it is through natural eyes, seeing how the nations plot and scheme and with each bluster and threat come closer to actual, literal war, it would be easy for someone to conclude that we are spinning out of control, and eventually we’re going to come to that culminant point wherein even if we wanted to walk back the rhetoric and be a little less dire in our wording, it will be too late.

As children of God however, we do not see through the prism of the natural. We do not see through natural eyes, but through the prism of the Word of God, and His promises to His children.

No matter how dark the times, no matter how dire the days, we must remember the words of God, and not be swayed or caused to tremble.

“Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.”

These are not the words of any mere man; they are the words of God. Though you might see distress of nations, though you might see wars and rumors of wars, though you might see trials and famines and all manner of things, remember, God has set His King on His holy hill of Zion, and no matter what the world might go through, Jesus is still upon the throne.

God made a declaration. He declared something He had done – not something He would do – and there was no shadow of doubt as to His having done it. God never hinted he would ‘try to set His King upon His holy hill,’ or ‘if everything worked as it should He would set His King upon His holy hill,’ He had already done it. It was a declaration in the past tense of something which had already come to pass, and this knowledge ought to enliven our wearied souls and give us a new and fresh hope. Jesus is on the throne!

Although God laughs at the lawless and rebellious, and distresses them, He has long made provision for His sons and daughters. He has long prepared their place of safety upon His holy hill of Zion with His beloved Son Jesus. He is the place of refuge and safety. He is the place where all worry melts away and fear for tomorrow fades into nonexistence.

We can either be among those whom God laughs at, mocks, and distresses, or among those whom God protects, comforts, and keeps. We can either be true sons and daughters of the Kingdom, submitting to the will of our Father, or rebellious, ungrateful, illegitimate sons and daughters who have somehow grown tired of the Father’s love and mercy.

Depending upon our choice, we reap either God’s goodwill and abundant blessing or His derision and distress.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

When God Laughs! Part 2

What more can be learned from these first handful of verses of the second Psalm?

It is clear upon reading the first four verses of Psalm 2 that the kings and rulers of the earth raged and plotted and conspired because they no longer wanted to be accountable to God, and desired to declare their independence from Him. Whether consciously or unconsciously many an individual is guilty of the selfsame plotting and scheming against God as the rulers of the earth are.

Just look around, and you’ll see this spirit taking hold not only of nations, but of churches, and individuals, wherein they no longer want to be associated with the Christ, they no longer want to declare their loyalty to Him, they just want to be free to do as they desire.

In the end, this is what declaring one’s independence from God really means. It means that the decision was consciously made to remove oneself from beneath God’s covering and protection, just so they could do as they please, live as they please, and act as they please without that nagging feeling of God’s eye upon them.

Seeing as this pertains to those who desire independence from God, I wanted to look at this verse from a different angle to see how it might pertain to those of us who will choose faithfulness, and obedience, and devotion to God no matter how many choose to attempt to do away with Him.

It is inevitable and logical that life for those of us desiring to live for truth will grow harder and harder, because the more men hate God and turn their hearts against Him, the more they will persecute His true servants and do what they can to do away with them as well.

The world cannot hate God and love us. If God’s nature is in us, if the Spirit of God is indwelling in our hearts and as servants of the most High we strive to be more like Jesus, the world will inevitably associate us with the God they hate and hate us just as passionately as it hates Him.

This is why I find it troublesome when the world falls in love with one or another of our preachers and embraces him and elevates him and praises him as an oasis of reason amidst a sea of irrationality.

Men today will try anything except for submitting to God and obeying Him. Even the most outlandish plans are tried by those desperate enough to resort to desperate measures, but when someone has the insight to say that perhaps the remedy for what ails us lies in turning back toward the God we abandoned, the reaction is swift and violent.

What the world today fails to understand is that true freedom is achieved through submission and not through rebellion.

Other than seeing that God hears, is engaged, and is neither indifferent nor too busy to care, what more can we perceive and understand of His nature and His glorious attributes?

Even though God laughs, it is not because someone told a funny joke, or because He saw something amusing, his laugh is not one of mirth, but one of derision and irony as He beholds the rulers of the earth attempting to counsel together against Him.

God is not perturbed by the noises of the squeaky wheels, or by their exaggerated fist shaking at His expense. Seeing how animated some people get protesting the notion of God, or trying to convince others of God’s nonexistence, you’d think they thought they were hurting God’s feelings by how angry they are.

God laughs when kings and rulers plot against him, never mind some infinitesimally less relevant twenty something who thinks they are edgy because they hold up some sign or another. They scream and wave and shake their fists, and God laughs holding them in derision.

In his rebellion man desires to make God in his own image, and in a vivid show of madness begins to demand that the one true God act and react in accordance with the image they created. Many do the same with the Word of God, not seeing what it says, but seeing what they want it to say, and when you hear some men try to explain a simple, straightforward Biblical passage that they've reinterpreted through the prism of their own understanding, you can’t help but stand there and scratch your head wondering just how they were able to get to where they got based on the verses they’d just quoted.

Have you ever, perchance heard an individual say ‘I don’t feel that’s really a sin,’ even though the Bible clearly says it is? If you have, then you've just witnessed someone declaring their independence from God.

We submit to God in all things not just some things. We obey His Word not only when it suits our interests or when it is in harmony with how we’d like God to act in a certain instance, but even when it’s detrimental to our flesh or we might suffer loss because of it.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.  

Who Do You Love?

I preached the following message earlier this month in Michigan, and since the church put it on the internet, I thought I'd share it with you.

It's not a long message, but I believe it is a timely one.

We will continue with the teaching on Psalm 2 sometime later this week, as I have to film some new programs, as well as do some radio interviews during the next couple days.

Thank you, to all those who came to the meetings. It was lovely meeting everyone of you, and thank you as well for your prayers. Yep, we drove 1600 miles in 2 days. I guess if God ever releases me from ministry I could always become a truck driver.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

P.S. Since I can't seem to get the video imbedded onto the post, you'll just have to click on the link and a new page will pop up. God bless.

Who Do You Love? Sermon

When God Laughs! Part 1

Psalm 2:1-4, “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.”

With everything that’s been happening in this nation and the world as of late it is easy to lose sight of certain inescapable and absolute truths. When we lose sight of these truths, we can’t help but allow fear to creep into our hearts, and if not fear, in the least, concern for the future in general, and concern for the future of our children and grandchildren in particular depending on our age bracket.

Upon doing any sort of study in regards to the book of Psalms one quickly realizes that although the first Psalm was geared toward individuals, and had individuals in mind, the second Psalm is geared toward nations, and has entire nations in mind.

The first Psalm gave us counsel as individuals, highlighting the difference between the blessed and the cursed, between the righteous and the lawless, and although many believe the second Psalm is a continuation of the first, the message of it broadens and begins to include nations as well.

Another way of looking at the first and second Psalm – by the way, neither of which were written by David but by an anonymous source – is that the first Psalm deals with the law, and the second Psalm deals with the Prophets, or prophecies concerning a future time, and events not yet manifested in the present.

If in the first Psalm the accent and predominant central theme was man, in the second Psalm, the accent and predominant central theme is God.

It is in this second Psalm that we discover certain attributes of God’s nature, and the way He beholds those who resist, rebel, and defy Him.

Given everything that’s happening in the world today, the first verse of the second Psalm poses a very apropos and timely question: ‘Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain?’

Granted, none of those who are currently plotting and planning and raging and fuming believe that they are doing so in vain - their actions amounting to nothing more than attempting to empty out the ocean with a thimble - but the Word of God tells us that all their machinations are hollow, futile, and pointless.

Although we will get deeper into this Psalm as I am planning on making it a multi-part teaching, the first thing that stuck out and as such the first thing I want to share with you, is that regardless of what we see with our physical eyes, regardless of everything our senses are telling us and contrary to what the natural man is trying to imply, God is in control!

There has not been a second since the beginning of creation that God has not been in control. There has never been a circumstance, there has never been a situation that God did not foresee, or that somehow caught God by surprise and unaware.

Even the best laid plans of men turn to ruination when the God of heaven is against them. Even the most thought out, meticulous, infinitesimally detailed plots are stillborn when God’s plan differs from the plans of men.

It is when we forget that God is in control, it is when we forget that though the nations rage and the kings and rulers of the earth plot together they do so in vain that we grow despondent and concerned regarding a future which looks bleaker with each passing day.

Men plan, God laughs. Men work themselves up into a tizzy, thinking they can outmaneuver God, thinking they can go against His will and still prevail, and all God does in response is laugh and hold them in derision.

As this Psalm begins to unfold, we notice that the kings of the earth and the rulers thereof are not plotting and planning a war or a skirmish against a third party, they are not uniting under one banner to vanquish a foe, they’ve gathered together against the Lord and against His anointed.

In essence, the kings and rulers of the earth take counsel together to determine how they can do away with God and His anointed who is none other than Christ Jesus our Lord.

This ought to open our eyes to the reality that though we’re told by every media outlet that no one’s got anything against Christians and Christianity, the Word of God forewarned us even during the times of King David that rulers and kings would plot to break the bonds and cast away the cords of God from them.

In layman’s terms, these kings and rulers were plotting how they could acquire their independence from God. Certain truths begin to break away as we continue to meditate on this passage, and one of the most glaring ones is that in order to desire independence from God, one must have, at some point, been dependent upon Him.

One cannot desire independence from something or someone unless they were dependent to begin with.

These kings and rulers had decided they no longer wanted to submit themselves to God’s authority, and as such they began looking for ways and means by which they could break the bonds, and cast away the cords of God altogether.

The thing we must not lose sight of, is that God is not ignorant of these plans. God is not ignorant of the plots and counsels of kings and rulers, far removed from what goes on here on earth. He listens, He sees, and taking into account all they venture to do, He laughs.

We begin to see a portrait of an engaged God emerging from just these four verses, a God who is present, and involved, a God who has not removed Himself nor lost interest in His creation.

This gives us hope and joy and peace, because contrary to the vociferous declarations of some, God is still implicated in His creation’s existence, He still watches over the righteous, and yes, He still judges the ungodly.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Speaking in Nebraska and Iowa

It looks like this weekend I'll be doing more than my fair share of driving as we will be in Nebraska on Saturday evening, and in Iowa on Sunday morning.

Please keep us in your prayers, and pray for good weather as the past few days have been very unpredictable as far as rain, sleet, and other natural phenomenon are concerned.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Saturday April 20, 2013, 6:30 pm
Hastings Nebraska Holiday Inn Express Conference Room
3605 Cimarron Plaza
Hastings Nebraska 68901

Sunday April 21, 2013, 10:00 am
Cresco Iowa Assembly of God Church
317 3rd W Ave
Cresco, Iowa 52136

The Times We Live In

There have always been evil men. Since the beginning of creation when Cain slew his brother Abel and watched the life seep out of him, violent men have committed violent acts, often without rhyme or reason.

Most of us never come close to the viciousness of the evil some men are capable of. We live our lives in relative safety, sheltered to a certain degree, yet once in a while something gruesome and bloody takes center stage and once again we are reminded of the times we are living in.

Try as we might to ignore the realities taking shape around us, it has become nigh to impossible not to acknowledge that our perceived safety is just an illusion. More and more, we are seeing the evil lash out, whether by randomly stabbing individuals on a college campus, gunning down innocent children in a school, or detonating bombs meant to maim and kill all within their blast radius regardless of age, gender, or nationality.

True evil, the evil that is being manifest in this country as of late is an equal opportunity destroyer. Try as it might to hide under the umbrella of religious zealotry, the face of evil is easily recognizable if we would only have the strength of character to see it for what it is, and call it by its name.

The defining paradox of our age is that we have marginalized, condescended, and trivialized the only hope we have to stem the tide of evil, believing there would be no negative effects to our abandonment of God. The further one draws from the message of Jesus, the further one gets from the truth of God’s Word, the darker and more prone to evil the heart becomes.

A society protects what it values, and the fact that so many nowadays have no qualms or resentments about taking a human life, proves we no longer value the concept of life as a people.

I fear that we’ve always thought of as isolated incidents and something out of the ordinary will become the norm as long as we continue to treat the preciousness of life with contempt and disdain.

Soon enough we will be in a perpetual state of shellshock, no longer able to process or react in an appropriate manner to the things happening around us.

We will try – as we always do – to rationalize recent events, and find another explanation for their occurrence than the one staring us in the face. We will dig in our heels as a people and harden our hearts and shake our fists and reassure ourselves that these things aren’t happening because we abandoned God, but because the world hates us for our freedom. Look around. The freedom you once had is no longer the freedom you have presently, and with each passing day we are being corralled, and forced into the mold our betters believe we ought to be.

We knew these days were coming. Jesus warned of them, Paul warned of them, even Old Testament prophets warned of them. So if these times have caught us unaware, it was not for lack of trying to warn us on God’s part. We read what Jesus said about the last days, but in the back of our minds we always think it’s talking about another time, off into the future. A time perhaps our great grandchildren will have to contend with, but certainly not us.

We’ve gotten used to all of this. We’ve grown comfortable and made a permanent residence out of what was to be a temporary stay, willfully choosing to ignore the gnawing feeling that this isn’t home try as we might to make it seem so.

The times are not changing. The times have already changed. We can sense it and feel it and see it, and no matter how much we try to pacify this constant feeling of unease, it just won’t go away.

In times such as these we either draw closer to God, or allow fear to paralyze us. We either learn to trust Him unequivocally, or we allow hopelessness to sink its claws into our hearts.

One thing is certain: indifference is no longer an option, nor is pretending we are not living in the times we are living in.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

The Consequences of Words

For the past few weeks I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with a seminary student who is on the threshold of losing his faith. He is in his third year, having first walked through the halls of his school with a burning love for God and a desire to follow Him, and now, three years later he is teetering on the edge of the abyss known as doubt and despair.

In his first e-mail he began by explaining how he’d had zeal for God in his youth, but no direction or instruction in regards to practically living out the Word, being a disciplined believer, and walking the narrow path of faith. Hence the reason he decided to borrow a bunch of money and go off to seminary. He wanted to get to know God, and apparently nobody told him the best way to get to know God is on your knees, in your prayer closet, with your Bible beside you, and a desire to receive.

The reason this young man is on the edge of losing his faith is because what he was taught about God during these past three years made God out to be no more than a magic genie whose singular desire is to bless you, and having fallen on hard times, the young man concluded that God had failed him by not continuing to bless him as He once did.

In subsequent e-mails, as we continued to communicate, this young man said before he’d gotten to seminary, he’d never felt entitled or as though God owed him anything. After three years of being told he was special, and could readily claim all that he desired, he started to believe it, and is now bitter toward God for not meeting his demands.

Honestly I don’t know how much headway I’m going to make – although we keep writing back and forth – because every time, I get the patented ‘I told my professor what you said, and he said you were wrong.’  

If I’d given my own opinion on any given matter, I admit there might be a chance of my having been wrong, but all I did was quote scriptures from throughout the Old and New Testament disputing some of his assertions. As such, if I was wrong, then so was the Word of God, and if that’s the case we have far bigger issues to deal with than whether or not God owes us prosperity in this life.

Words have consequences, and what we sow in the lives of others – especially those new to the faith, or those trusting us to feed them the truth of God’s Word – will either bear good fruit or bitter fruit. We will either see the men and women in whose lives we speak Jesus growing in the faith, becoming self-sufficient, reading and rightly dividing the Word for themselves, or we will see them linger in this semi-comatose state for the rest of their lives, having their expectations of what they were told God was dashed and broken upon the jagged surface of reality.

Some men love the notion of having others dependent upon their words, their teachings, or their doctrines. It is those men who nurture and foment dependency upon themselves rather than Christ that we should flee from, and do so speedily.

The walk has never been about a man, a denomination, a tertiary issue, or some other thing overzealous and underworked individuals concoct in the hopes of catching a few more innocents in their web of lies. The walk has always been about Christ, and any man not consistently, joyfully, vociferously, adamantly, and singularly pointing the way to Him, is not one of His ambassadors nor does he have your best interest at heart.

This protracted interaction with the young man has been troubling me for the past few days, reminding me just how easy it is to twist someone’s theology, and as consequence distort the way the see God for themselves. I thought I’d share it if for no other reason than as a cautionary tale, and ask if you would, please say a prayer for him. His name is Anthony.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Gnosticus Modernicus

Every once  in a great while a news story pops up wherein a species once thought to be extinct is rediscovered in some Amazonian wilderness. As seems to be the case nowadays, the story starts to trend, specialists in the field are befuddled by the reality of a species they thought extinct prancing about in flesh and bone, then something new comes along and the newly no-longer-extinct species is summarily forgotten about.

Even within Christendom there are certain species we thought extinct. We read of their existence some nineteen hundred years ago then as though they never existed they disappear into the vast storehouse of history thought never to return.

Truth be told, it would have been far better for the species to I am referring to have stayed extinct, but alas, it seems to have been rediscovered, and many a soul, especially the young and impressionable are enamored if not outright enraptured.

Recently I was reading a passage out of John’s first epistle, and a handful of words moved me so, that I began to research what it was John’s heart was so broken over, and why his writings to the churches seemed so emotional.

1 John 2:18-19, “Little children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”

John wrote his first, second and third epistles near the tail end of his life. He knew he was close to going home, to finishing his race faithfully and receiving his just reward, and he set about writing a letter of warning to those he considered his spiritual children, in an almost paternal and fatherly manner.

‘Little children, it is the last hour,’ I keep rereading these words over and over again, and I can’t help but think that if during John’s time it was the last hour, then we must be living in the last seconds of the last minute of the last hour.

Strangely enough, the selfsame individuals John was warning against in his first epistle have reemerged from the shadows, with the selfsame polluted doctrine and teaching. These individuals no longer go by the name Gnostics, but have modernized their title and rebranded themselves Emergent. Make no mistake, the roots of such individuals can be traced back to the Gnostics of old, and the heresies they preach are an echo of centuries past.

The Gnostics believed – like so many do today – that the Word of God was not the final authority, and because of their spirituality they had somehow tapped in to a hidden knowledge that caused them to be above the normal distinctions of right and wrong, giving them license to sin with impunity.

Because sin became relative to them, the Gnostics were known for their deplorable conduct and complete disregard for Christian ethics.

Certain denominations today believe, and wrongly so, that all revelation can be labeled heretical because John labeled the Gnostics are heretics.

I agree, any revelation which attempts to redefine Christ, or contradicts the Word of God is heretical. However, we cannot make the broad claim that all prophecy is likewise heretical, because this is not what John was saying, and he clarifies this further in letter.

John’s issue was with men attempting to redefine Christ, the teachings of Christ, and the standard of Christ based on their own hidden knowledge.

It’s like some men today who say it is within their right to leave their present wives, and marry another while still being in leadership because the Lord told them to.

Sorry, out of bounds, no can do. God will not tell you to do something His own Word tells you, you cannot do.

It wasn’t the God of the Bible that told you to divorce your spouse for another; it was your lust which you’ve made your new god.

Like the Gnostics of old, men attempt to justify their licentiousness, their lust, their sin and their perversions by employing the notion of hidden knowledge or special dispensation based on a self-analysis of their own spirituality.

There’s no deception like self-deception, but just because some men deceive themselves, it does not mean that God will change His mind on what He has already established in His word.

Perhaps the Gnostics of old are no more, but their offspring are still skulking about, admittedly under a different name. So the next time you see Gnosticus Modernicus know that it is not a new, as yet undiscovered species, but an old one thought to be extinct all this time.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

I'm Angry and You Should Be Too!

After finishing one of three sermons I was scheduled to preach this past Sunday, a brother came up to me and as we were talking he said he’d heard something the idiocy of which was so astounding that at first I had to chuckle.

During the six hour drive back to Wisconsin the next day, I had time to dwell on what he’d said, and with each passing mile I grew angrier and angrier.

What the brother said he’d heard a pastor say is that God did not punish Sodom and Gomorrah for the sin of sodomy, He punished Sodom and Gomorrah because they were inhospitable.

To hear him tell the tale, one would readily conclude it wasn’t the fact that they attempted to break down Lot’s door to have their way with the messenger of the Lord that angered God, it was that they didn’t bring a bunt cake along.

The reason I grew progressively angrier and I continue to be angry to this moment, is because the church is doing everything in its power to validate and justify the perversions of the world –  twisting Scripture to the point that one doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry – so long as they don’t have to call sin, sin.

The men speaking these nonsensical idiocies are those whom we look up to as our spiritual authorities, and those whose only mandate is to lead us to all truth in Christ Jesus. They are failing at their singular duty, and failing miserably.

It doesn’t take genius IQ to read the word of God and see why God judged Sodom and Gomorrah. It doesn’t take a diploma in expository exegesis or hermeneutics to come to the realization that two plus two equals four, and if the intent of the Sodomites were honorable in any way, first, Lot would not have offered up his daughter in the messenger’s stead, and second, the messenger of the Lord would not have blinded the entire city.

I for one am angry and I think you should be too. The Bible is okay with anger. It even tells us to be angry and sin not, but that really isn’t telling us anything is it?

Are we just supposed to sit here and fume as I’ve been doing for the past few days? Are we supposed to go and lift weights until our back starts to spasm, or run until we realize we’re so far from home we need to call a taxi?

I believe there is an answer as to what we can do, and I believe it is the only thing that will work. No, it’s not calling these men on the carpet for the heresies they are teaching, because they lost their ability to blush long ago, and their conscience has likewise been seared.

The answer is to simply stop!

Stop attending their churches, stop giving them your hard earned money, stop buying their books, just stop.

‘Here we go Martha, now he’s going to tell us to support his ministry instead. I knew there was a catch.’

Actually, although we do good, noble, Biblical work and feed orphans, widows, and the poor, just so you don’t think I have a vested interest, I will not ask you to support my ministry.

You can however take the money you would have put in the  plate, and go buy ten large pizzas, find the poorest most desperate section of your city, and go give the pizzas to those who are hungry.

There are countless things you can do, wherever you happen to live, that will exemplify Christ far more profoundly than giving in to the pressure of being told you must sow an extra special seed this month, because last month’s extra special seed didn’t quite cover the cost of all the time the pastor put in to his heretical reinterpretation of God’s Holy Word.

Be the hands of Christ yourself. Be the feet of Christ yourself. Be the heart of Christ yourself. You will never know how good it feels to give – even if what you’re giving is something seemingly insignificant to you – until you actually do it yourself.

If you can’t find a place that feeds you spiritually, make your home the place where you get fed. Get together with your spouse, pray, read the Word, pray again, and you will be amazed at the revelation God begins to pour into your heart.

The reason so many understand so little is because there is an epidemic lack of sincerity in the hearts of most individuals calling themselves believers today.

They don’t want to know the will of God…they just want their current lifestyle and peccadillos to be validated and rubberstamped by God. And so, they would rather live off of platitudes and affirmations and declarations, and looking in the mirror telling themselves how capable and lovable they are, just as long as no one challenges them or highlights their need for repentance.

If in freedom the best the modern day church can muster is a duplicitous, lukewarm, halfhearted imitation of true worship, what pray tell will the selfsame church do when persecution descends upon it?

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Speaking in Indiana Again

Since I met some of you at the Michigan meeting the other day and you did inform me you had to juggle your schedule in order to be able to attend, I am posting the following a couple days early.

Yes, I will be speaking in Indiana again. There are a few reasons for this. First, I love my brothers in Elkhart, and there is a real hunger for the Word. Second,  it's close enough to the Illinois border wherein it's only a four hour drive from Wisconsin.  Third, it's also close to the Michigan border so some of our Michigan friends attend sometimes. And fourth, It's just the way the schedule worked out.

Gene had planned to go by himself, but I pushed some things back and here we are.

I'm only leaving this up today, so if you know someone in the area, please let them know.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Friday, April 12, 2013 7:00 pm
Comfort Suites North Pointe
404 North Pointe Blvd.
Elkhart Indiana 46514
For more information contact Pastor Gary Rogel: 574-206-1555

The Subtle Devices

Since I know the following will raise much ire, I’ve already emptied out my inbox in anticipation of all the hate mail.

The more I grow in God, the more I seek Him and spend time in His presence, the more I realize how subtle the devil’s devices and deceptions truly are. The Word of God tells us to be watchful for a reason, and the reason is that only by being watchful will we be able to see the subtle works of the enemy and not be caught up in them.

Today I want to discuss two of those subtle devices, and I know at least one will seem anathema to the ‘God is love and nothing more’ generation, and because they are unwilling to search out the Word and see whether what I say is in harmony with it, they will lash out and call me names, perhaps even put up another website denouncing me as an unrepentant heretic.

(Don’t bother looking for the website I am referring to. The ‘prophetess’ who ran it was sued for fraud by people she’d bilked out of their hard earned money over the years, and closed up shop. Her web domain is no longer viable.)

The first subtle device which incidentally serves to warp men’s perception of God, who He is, and why Jesus had to come and be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, is the notion that all Jesus preached was love.

Every time a conversation arises around topic that is volatile, the ‘Jesus preached love’ card gets pulled from the sleeve, replete with hand gestures and a hardy voilà.

‘It’s not our concern that men are dying in their sins, it’s not our job to protect the church from the wolves, it’s not our duty to preach the righteousness of God, all we have to do is preach love, ‘cause Jesus preached love!’

Really though? Was all Jesus ever preached, love?

What about repentance? Did He ever preach that? Maybe a little bit, just a smidge? What about self-denial and self-renunciation and picking up our crosses and following after Him? What about the Kingdom to come or the home He went to prepare or the Helper who was to come after His ascension? Did He speak on those things too, or was Jesus just a less haggard version of John Lenin telling everyone, everywhere, all the time that all they needed was love, man?

Matthew 10:34-36, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.’ And ‘a man’s foes will be those of his household.’”

Yes, Jesus did preach love, He preached loves for one’s brothers and sisters in Christ, He preached love for God, He even preached love for one’s enemies, but that’s not all He preached.

When we attempt to eliminate all the other things Jesus preached and taught, and take it upon ourselves to say all He spoke on was love, we are distorting the truth, and men will not see the real Christ for the distortion we are attempting to show Him through.

Sin destroys. For us to say with a straight face that God winks at, accepts, embraces, and even loves something which destroys His creation is ludicrous and asinine.

Sin also separates man from God. In being separated from God, those unwilling to repent can never enter in, can never partake, nor can they be welcome into His kingdom. If God is okay with His creation being separated from Him for all eternity, why go through the trouble of sending His only begotten Son to die on a tree so that selfsame creation might be reconciled unto Him?

If you love your child and you see them playing with a knife you don’t roll your eyes and say ‘you silly goose, here’s a sharper one,’ you run and you pluck it from their hand and make it known to them how dangerous playing with knives is.

The second subtle device which I began to notice as I was outlining the series on prayer is the notion or presupposition that the act of praying or being a prayer warrior is somehow reserved for the widows and the elderly ladies in the church, the selfsame ones who make the same sweet potato casserole at every potluck.

Kings prayed, priests prayed, soldiers prayed, generals prayed, the Apostles prayed, Jesus prayed, and yes, even widows and elderly ladies prayed. None of us is exempt from talking to God. None of us is exempt from establishing a relationship with Him, and the fact that when we say ‘prayer warrior’ the first thing to come to mind is that little old lady in our church, shows just how well the subtle devices work.

1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”  

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Speaking in Michigan

I realize it's short notice, but it couldn't be helped. For those of you who see this in time, or live close to the venue, I will be speaking in Michigan tomorrow, April 7th, at 8:30am and 11:00am.

This is a prophecy conference, so changes are good I will be speaking on something regarding the end times, or prophecy in general. As is my process, I've not prepared a sermon, but I have been praying for this meeting.

Again, I apologize for the short notice, and I will try to do better next time. For those unable to attend, please keep Geno and myself in your prayers as we travel, and if the audio of the meeting will be available I will post it on here eventually.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Sunday April 7, 2013 8:30 & 11:00 am
Prophecy Conference Crossroads Worship Center
9530 N. Federal Road
Howard City, Michigan

The Lie of the Age

There are many lies floating about Christendom today and some are more dangerous than others. From the ever popular ‘everyone goes to heaven eventually,’ to ‘Jesus couldn’t be the only way, there must be more,’ to ‘there is no hell so why bother,’ to ‘forms of mysticism such as transcendental meditation are an acceptable form of worship,’ these deceptions are meant to steer sincere individuals from the simplicity of the path of righteousness and away from the light of truth.

Wide ranging as these deceptions may be, there is one deception which overshadows them all, one I have dubbed ‘the lie of the age,’ and it is one growing in popularity by leaps and bounds. If one takes the time to trace some of the other deceptions back to their source, one discovers that many of them are rooted in the lie of the age, having their genesis therein.

So what is the lie of the age?

Quite simply, the lie of the age is that one can have salvation without the subsequent transformation.

‘Come as you are, leave as you came,’ is a popular mantra, one being spouted by many a man behind many a pulpit, but it doesn’t make it true, or Scriptural.

Throughout the New Testament we see the implicit and explicit admonition to be transformed, renewed, and born again, having been buried with Christ and raised up with Him, that we might live as He also lives.

Salvation begets transformation in one’s life. It begets a new mind, new desires, a new way of seeing the world, and prioritizing our lives in such a way wherein our singular desire is to bring glory to God.

Once we are saved, we can’t help but desire to know the One who saved us more fully, more intimately, and on a more profound level. Once we are saved, we can’t help but desire to be more like Jesus, walking in His ways, upholding His truths, and obeying His word.

‘But what about the thief on the cross? He wasn’t transformed, he didn’t repent, and Jesus said he would be with Him in paradise that very day.’

The thief on the cross was the exception, and not the rule. I daresay, if the man had not been nailed to a tree, experiencing the last violent moments of an agonizing death, he would have been transformed by having received Jesus.

Do you honestly think that if the thief on the cross would have gotten a stay of execution and been brought down off the cross he would have continued stealing and doing evil?

Jesus knew the man’s heart, he knew the sincerity thereof, and seeing it, allowing for the circumstances they found themselves in, Jesus promised him eternity.

Jesus couldn’t very well tell the man to go and sin no more because the man was about to die. He couldn’t tell the man to go sell his possessions and give them to the poor as He did with the rich young ruler, because he was nailed to a cross, and couldn’t go anywhere.

What I’m trying to say is that assuming an exception has become the rule is a dangerous, dangerous thing.

I know a few people, especially young ones, who believe they have all the time in the world to get their lives right with God and really start living for Him. Some of the more brazen ones even say they’ll repent on their deathbeds and settle the matter that way.

The only downside to this kind of thinking is that you may never get a deathbed, you may never get the time to get your life right with God, and even if you did, you can’t manufacture sincerity. You can’t fake brokenness or repentance, because the God who sees all, sees the hearts of men and knows whether or not their proclamations come from the heart, or whether they are just a last ditch effort to avoid the hell they aren’t quite certain exists.

To believe in the possibility of salvation without transformation, is akin to believing that the seatbelt everyone demands you fasten on a plane will do anything to save your life if the plane plunges into the ocean.

A fruitless tree – whether planted in the desert or in a garden – is still a fruitless tree, and an unrepentant sinner is still an unrepentant sinner whether he spends his Sunday mornings clapping along to Christian Rock, or sitting on his couch eating cereal.

By trying to make salvation and getting into heaven easier than the Bible makes it out to be, we’ve created an entire generation that thinks itself saved simply because they waved a hand at a crusade and filled out a commitment card on their way out.

The tragedy here is that they were never told otherwise. No one spoke to them of repentance, of righteousness, of holiness unto God, or of being transformed by the power of the Word. Such things would have been deemed offensive and counterproductive to the air of tolerance and all-inclusiveness the folks putting on the meetings wanted to project.

And so, never having established their faith in Jesus, never having been transformed by the power of Christ, these souls call themselves Christians, live like the world, and bring wholesale shame to the household of faith.

Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

I Guess It's Decided

Although I can’t speak for others who blog regularly, I can speak for myself and I can tell you most of the time it feels like you’re screaming in a vacuum, or throwing words down a bottomless pit from whence you never even hear a peep.

It is a solitary thing, this writing, and if not for the knowledge that God requires it of me that I might encourage and edify others, I would have given it up a long time ago.

As such, it was a surprise to get so many comments to my question as to whether I should continue the series on prayer, or continue writing standalone articles as the Lord leads, and I want to thank every one of you for taking the time and voicing your opinion.

As someone so astutely intuited the issue is time more than anything else, and having to juggle all I need to do is becoming increasingly difficult.

Throughout the course of the next two months I will be traveling and speaking beginning this weekend, filming more of the ‘truth in a nutshell’ teachings as well as longer teachings, finishing the second book on prayer, finishing a couple other books I’ve been working on in tandem, and getting some side gigs for a little extra scratch so I can do something nice for the wife for our thirteenth anniversary…and all this if the Lord wills.

So the decision I’ve made in regards to my conundrum is that I will do as the Lord leads, for as long as He gives me the strength to do it.

Since most of you have likely lost the thread on the prayer series, I will continue to post standalone teachings, and when I have a certain prayer done front to end, which will end up being a whole chapter in the book, I will post it in its entirety rather than a thousand words per day. That way, those of you who like to read can read the whole thing in one sitting, and won’t have to scroll through months’ worth of posts.

Again, thank you all for your encouragements and your comments. Who’d have thunk it? Someone actually reads this blog.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

My Conundrum

Some time ago I said we would resume our teaching on prayer entitled ‘Lord Teach Us to Pray’ today.

Although I am willing to do so, and do plan on finishing the second and third book in the series, my conundrum is this: when posting a standalone article or teaching, the number of visitors to the blog triples and even quadruples compared to when we have a protracted teaching series going on.

Although numbers in and of themselves don’t affect me in any way, what they imply must nevertheless be taken into account.

And so, my question to you is as follows: do I continue the teaching on prayer on the blog, or do I keep posting standalone articles and teachings as the Lord leads?

Since I value your opinion, and respect those of you who read this blog regularly, I will submit to the will of the majority.

And so, please let me know whether you would like to see more standalone articles, or the continuing of the series on prayer.

As I said, I am planning on continuing to write the books because I know there is a need for a deeper understanding of prayer…I’m just wondering if the blog is the best place to post these piece by piece.

Thank you for helping me with my conundrum and helping me make a choice in this regard. Whichever you choose, we will commence shortly. God bless every one of you.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.