Friday, January 3, 2014

Inappropraite Reactions


When your house is on fire the last thing you should be concerned with is teaching others how to make shadow puppets. Given any circumstance or situation there are appropriate reactions, then there are inappropriate reactions.

This morning as I was making coffee, my wife turned on the television to check the weather and see if we would have to take a class on making igloos and ice sculptures, only to be met by the smiling face of a man made famous by writing one of the most uninspired pieces of pseudo Christian pabulum in recent history, The Purpose Driven Life.

Given the current condition of the church, and the undeniable fact that most professing Christians seem to be in a deep, deep slumber, and given that this man is a self-described pastor, one would have expected a call to repentance, a call to the old path, or an insistence upon spiritual wakefulness, but why speak on any of those things when you could be peddling a new diet book?

The house is burning, and we’re teaching people how to make shadow puppets. The church has become a spineless, ineffectual, duplicitous, and inert static mass, and what we deem appropriate and even immediate, is to use the platform of a national audience to try and sell a book which will inevitably tell you to visit the local buffet a little less, and move around a little more.

Take it from a guy who’s probably lost and gained close to a thousand pounds in his thirty-eight years on this rock, there is no secret to losing weight, there is no magic potion, or mysterious algorithm. Three quarters of your success will depend upon your diet, and the other quarter upon whether or not you are getting enough exercise. Eat less of the wrong foods – breads, pasta, cakes, cookies, fried foods – essentially everything that tastes really good, more of the right foods – lean chicken, broccoli, spinach, nuts – watch your calorie intake, do it consistently, and  voila, you are now a diet guru. There you go. You are welcome. I just saved you some money.

Given the current spiritual climate, there are only a handful of appropriate responses, especially when it concerns the leaders, or the spiritual authorities of our time. For many, the only appropriate response is mourning, and weeping, and repenting in sackcloth and ash for having led the people of God astray, and having taught a fraudulent, powerless gospel subservient to the flesh for so many years.

For the handful who have kept to the truth, their response will inevitably be standing in the gap, and weeping between the porch and the altar for the sheep of God’s pasture, that they might open their eyes and see the world lukewarm hearts have created in all its grizzly horror.

Is this really the right time to be peddling a new diet plan? Is it really the appropriate reaction to all that ails the household of faith?

Let’s not pretend a donkey is a zebra. It is intellectually dishonest, and what’s worse we are making light of the seriousness of the peril the church finds itself in.

The only way trying to sell a new diet book while the church is coming apart and being decimated from without as well as from within can be deemed appropriate is if money is your god, and not the God of the Bible.

Is this all the church has become? Are we simply a large pool of consumers to which unscrupulous souls can market Christmas albums, diet books, and family friendly movies? If this is all we are, then I weep openly, for what we were meant to be is so much more glorious, profound, and impacting.

Although men often react inappropriately, God’s reactions are always, without fail, appropriate. Seeing as God’s reactions are always appropriate, I fear this coming year will be one of great shaking for what we perceive to be the household of faith, and the separation which has been long in coming will finally commence.

I don’t mean to be a downer so close to the beginning of a new year, but circumstances dictate I must. One question remains, one with a profound and lasting impact on each of us as individuals. Knowing that the shaking is coming, knowing that the separation will begin, are we certain, beyond doubt that we are among the wheat and not among the tares?

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

8 comments:

Antipas Knight said...

Hello Michael,

All of your post have been excellent. Much of what you have been writing about is a very credible deception of the enemy. I pray that you would please read this and pray to Yashua HaMashiach test the scriptures with sound reason / judgement whether this is true or not.

Many "Christian individual and churches" are blinded by false messiah, unscriptural traditions that are based in paganism.
This false messiahs name and teaching is "Jesus (Hail Zeus)".
"Jesus (Hail Zeus) is pleased that attention is called to his birth (December 25 birthday of the Unconquered Sun / Nimrod and Zeus) and other pagan days and "Torah-less traditions"

The HaMashiachs Name is Y'shua (salvation / deliverance)
Yshua and the Apostles kept the FEASTS of YHVH (read the NT and search for Passover, Pentacost, and Tabernacles of which are significant to New Covenant Disciples).

The "wheat and the tare" are virtually indistinguishable (PLEASE CONSIDER & READ MATT 7:21-23 & 13:24 in this context and consider the cunning of the enemy and early church history that:

- removed/persecuted Jews(including Nazarene/Y'shua)
- Removed the Scriptures (eliminated reading of Moses and then ALL )
- Changed Holy-days to pagan days (Ishtar & Zeus B-Day)
- Changed the Sabbath to worship of the "Zeus sun day"
- Changed the name (KJV of 1611 had Y'shua not Jesus)

Search history and the scriptures "for many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah.' They will deceive many.(Matt 24:5) and see how many Jewish people, saints, wars have been started in the name of "Jesus/Hail Zeus" vs. Yashua HaMashiac.

The name of YHVH was/is forbidden to be spoken by Messianic and Orthodox Jews to this very day (HASHEM is used).
Christians neither know HASHEM /THE NAME of YHVH nor HIS SON Yashua HaMashiac and uses titles and pagan names.

Please consider the following:
- only "the name of YHVH(Name/Word/Way) is a strongtower and the righteous run to it and are "set on high" Proverb 18:30.
- if you ask anything in my name ("Yshua HaMashiac") .....
- "I have "manifested thy name" ( YHVH / ALL OF THEM) unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. John 17:6

There is too much paganism in Christianity and Talmud in Messianic.

THE WAY that Y'shua & disciples spoke/lived/taught is "THE WAY OF NAZARENE" Judaism as S'haul admitted to in Acts 24:14 "But this I confess to you, that according to THE WAY, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets" see Acts 9:2, 24:5, 24:22, 25:8, 2 Peter 2:21.

Please take this pray in the Yshua HaMashiach and be a noble Berean (iron) and search the OT/NT whether this is true or not.

Shalom in the Name of Yshua HaMashiach,

Mike

FionaB said...

Sadly Mr. Warren is but one of the many who are peddling pseudo-Christianity. My heart breaks especially for the new, young believers, those who have come to Christ looking for hope and redemption, wanting to be taught solid Biblical truths, only to be sold this bill of goods and to be taught that this is what Christianity is all about. These so called men (and women) of God have so pandered to the lukewarm amongst us that it is now commonplace to have our ears tickled and to be told all we need to do is not to be so narrow minded. The ONLY way the world can change is by coming on it's repentant knees before a holy God , asking for forgiveness and weeping at its sin. But, I suppose diet books sell better as we don't like anything uncomfortable or that requires much deep thought these days.

Anonymous said...

This is a great article to start the new year off. It is past time for the hirelings to stop peddling their books when the church in America is crumbling. Continue to write and speak the truth because it is greatly appreciated. Thank S Douglass

Barbara said...

Aren't we supposed to be led by the Holy Spirit and the Word and not a pastor? I thought pastoring really meant to keep the body of believers organized in the group, not to dictate their lives to them as so many regard them today. A pastor keeps the flock together, but he does not tell the sheep how to chew or be sheep. They are led by their own spirits.

If Rick Warren is selling diet books, I don't really care. I don't need a diet book and he looks overweight anyway. I don't need him to represent Christ to me. Many in the church are fat, so maybe it is a big concern of theirs. I think they like to fellowship after services at places like Cracker Barrel, thus the furor over the Phil Robertson incident that made Cracker Barrel take back their boycott.

The Bible is already a diet book. It says that gluttony is a sin. That should settle that. People make excuses for it like everything else they want to keep doing. You really don't need to read a book to know that something is wrong and to make yourself change your habits.

Helen Bowser said...

OH MY! I just posted a comment to "Compromised" and then, this! (Are you quite sure you've not been in our home unbeknownst to us and heard our conversations and prayers??) This is exactly what we have been discussing.
Our friends love their churches, some offering many wonderful classes and programs and activities. THESE ARE NOT WRONG IN AND OF THEMSELVES but we are missing the mark! We are, as you say, slumbering while the house burns. We have been so lulled into a sense of complacency, yea, APATHY, that we cannot discern spiritually. We don't see the big picture...
I, too am tempted to go into denial and enjoy myself BUT I CANNOT. And that is why we cannot attend church. We worship for the most part at home, sometimes with others, sometimes alone. When we do go, it is all I can do to not stand up and yell, "CHURCH, WAKE UP!!" I would just be escorted out and told to stay away until I can behave myself.... We attend 2 prayer groups weekly and have fellowship there but even so, prayers are largely for our own needs and those in our circles. We SHOULD bring those needs to the Lord but where is the burden for the lost around us? the lost around the world? the persecuted church? the unspeakable immorality? DO WE CARE?? If our hearts are cold, do we care enough to ask Him to give us HIS HEART? to line up our wills and passions with HIS? We deplore the condition of our country but see no need for repentance on the part of the Church, that we have contributed by our silence and inaction. That by not preaching and standing against sin, it has crept into the Church. Some of these are good churches with good pastors preaching the Word yet OBLIVIOUS to the urgency of the hour!!
We dread the shaking because we know we will suffer but we welcome it knowing it is needed and what it will take for the true church to emerge. We cannot bear to see the the staus quo continue. You are right-the Church was meant for so much more.
May God help us. He will!

Anonymous said...

At this time, I am updating our prayer list for ministries, nations, friends, family, restoration, peace, etc... But as I continue to write, I find myself not just putting American issues and different state concerns, but rather repeated I found myself writing about concerns of the church in America more than world peace. And the list continues to grow, as the Lord lays more things on my heart.

Your Sister in Christ,
Nila

Mary Lamoray said...

Excellent!!

Anonymous said...

Amen Michael.

While the angels will handle the "tares" we should weep and morn for those who are ditch bound. The "Candle Stand" has been removed and men like this are called America's pastor. Who would of thought that it would be like this except God. Most have been blinded to Truth by Pharesses who love the praises of men.

Few are able to walk in the Spirit. Fewer can walk in their own righteousness as Job, Noah or Daniel. Sons and daughters will prophesy. Where is the fruit?

Dave