The Constant Battle

The easiest thing to do in life is to give up. It’s easy to relent, it’s easy to give in, it’s easy to throw our hands up in disgust, exhaustion, or frustration and just go along like everybody else. This is why so many people do it. They get tired of fighting the current, of trying to swim upstream, because even though as individuals we get spent and exhausted, the tide is a constant, always pulling, pushing, trying to get us off balance and off kilter.

We keep forgetting that life is a marathon and not a sprint, and though we do well for a few days, or a couple of weeks, eventually life happens, distractions begin to appear, and what we were once passionate about, what we were once on fire for, begins to wane and dwindle.

This is as much true in the physical as it is in the spiritual, and we are warned regarding the dangers of losing our first love, of becoming lukewarm, of giving up and joining the rest of the spectators, munching on popcorn and a nice cold beverage. It’s a lot easier to sit by and critique others as they toil, than to get into the thick of it yourself, and run the risk of being targeted, of being singled out, and of being wounded. We have an aversion to exertion. This is why weight loss pills that promise results without exercise are so popular!

We choose champions because we are cowards, then critique the champions we’ve chosen to fight on our behalf because not only are we cowards, we are sanctimonious cowards.

“Is that the best you can do? Is that the most you can bleed? Try harder! We are not sufficiently entertained.”

Couple this with the ever pervasive platitudes that go against the grain of what Scripture clearly spells out, and not only do we have a generation that has chosen to give up the fight, they are told it was perfectly reasonable and understandable to do so.

From the ever popular ‘let go and let God’ to ‘Jesus take the wheel’ to a hundred other baseless mantras we see stenciled on pieces of wood hanging in Christians’ homes, the message of today’s church culture is crystal clear: Stop fighting the tide! Stop trying to stand in the gap! Go along. Let the current carry you, and don’t you dare feel bad about it.

I have yet to see ‘resist the devil and he will flee’ stenciled on any piece of wood, or ‘fight the good fight of faith’, or ‘all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution’. Those are not so popular anymore. They’ve fallen out of favor. They are deemed extreme, and confrontational. It’s so much easier just to keep your head down, your mouth shut, your eyes averted, as everything that is good and decent gets dismantled around you as everything beautiful and majestic gets sullied and soiled.

It’s okay though, Jesus wins in the end! I guess no one ever mentions that He wins in spite of you, in spite of your cowardice, in spite of your double mindedness, and in spite of your duplicity.

Not angry, just frustrated. We see it slipping away, and instead of trying to turn the tide, we bemoan its current flow. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

What Could Have Been!

I was seventeen when the Rodney King verdict was handed down. Coincidentally, I was also living in Southern California. I remember the fires, I remember the violence, but most of all I remember a construction truck driver by the name of Reginald Denny who was beaten to within an inch of his life as retaliation for the verdict, even though the man had nothing to do with it, and was simply driving his truck filled with sand to a plant in Inglewood.

Recently, an actor who felt the limelight slipping, or wanted more publicity, or just hated Trump voters, faked an attack on himself that included bruised ribs, a noose, an attempted lynching, and the requisite homophobic and racist slurs that completed the macabre scene. Supposedly this was all carried out by two Trump supporters, evidenced by their red MAGA hats, and their yelling out that this was MAGA country, in downtown Chicago, at 2 am, during a polar vortex.

It was when I first heard the description of the two alleged attackers that I knew this was all a farce. The way the two alleged attackers were described was like a caricature of what you supposed someone might be like if you saw them through a prism of utter disdain. The only thing missing from the description was missing teeth and overalls, but since it was below freezing, they just might have been wearing overalls underneath their jackets.

The reason this story matters, the reason it is important, the reason we can’t let every media pundit who pushed this as a homophobic, racist attack off the hook so readily is because of what could have been, what could have occurred, what could have happened, just because an over privileged, entitled actor decided he wanted to play the part of a victim even if he had to invent attackers out of whole cloth, and make them out to be white Republican Trump supporters.

This story stank from the beginning, and if there was any journalistic integrity left in America, someone would have called it out from the jump. But since there isn’t, everyone piled on, and for a few days every race baiting poverty pimp was out in full force talking about a modern day lynching, and how this entire country is irredeemably racist to its very core.

They didn’t just try to stoke the flames of division and pit blacks and white against each other, they threw gas on them, insisting that we had somehow been teleported back to the time of slavery and wholesale lynching.

Given that context, imagine what could have been. Given how the media drove the narrative of this story, imagine how easily we could have had another Reginald Denny, or two, or five, or five hundred. Innocent people, living their lives, then summarily used like a piñata, as payback and retaliation for the supposed attempted lynching of a talentless actor.

Will all the pundits, reporters, race baiters, poverty pimps, and overpaid, pampered actors apologize for the words they spoke, the violence they attempted to incite, and the broad brushing of sixty odd million people as hateful, homophobic racists? Likely not. Why? Because they are never called out, never called to account, and never held accountable for the things they say. Maybe it’s time! Maybe it’s past time!

This time the nation was lucky. Violence did not erupt, innocent people didn’t have their heads caved in, homes were not burned, and business were not destroyed. The truth came out in time to avoid all that. 

But what about the next time? Or the time after that? What about the next hoax, the next alleged racist, homophobic attack replete with noose and bruises, and Al Sharpton demanding justice for this undeniable act of ‘racism with steroids’?

How many more of these can we avoid before one of them lands center mass, and cities burn anew?

By the same token, how many more of these hoaxes need to unfold before the ‘little boy who cried wolf’ syndrome takes full effect, and we fail to believe even those who have been victimized in some form or fashion?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr. 

Making Monsters

Men create monsters out of vanity. At least they attempt it. It is not out of necessity, as some might think, or out of a need to better the world they live in, it is hubris. They do their utmost to play at being gods, not willing to accept the reality that there is only One God, there is only One Creator, and any attempt at creation outside of His will is both abominable and an abomination.

I find it deliciously ironic that the selfsame monsters these pretend gods have created, are now turning on their creators. I would find it utterly hilarious if not for the very real fact that we the little, lowly folk will likely take the brunt of the fall out, and be hurt by these monsters as well.

The unintended consequence of creating monsters is that at some point you may lose control of them, or in a fit of rage they may eventually turn on you.

I love watching the squirming, the backpedaling, the denunciations, and the double-talk as the selfsame people who created the monsters have now lost control of them, and they’re floating ideas like 70% marginal tax rates, confiscating wealth after a certain threshold, banning meat, cheese, and dairy, or making everything a government run enterprise. That would be super! Have you seen how efficient the DMV is?

The really rabid ones are screaming at every camera or cell phone that they want no borders, no walls, no USA at all, and of course, the ever present infanticide adopters who are beside themselves when you attempt to point out that if a baby is outside your womb, it is no longer your body, therefore, no matter how debased, immoral, repugnant, and ghoulish your moral standard, you ought not to have the right to kill it.

The selfsame monster makers who financed and encouraged their creations to take to the street and make their voices heard, are now realizing the utter lunacy of what they’ve created, and the cold chill of certain foresight that they will not be exempted from the wrath of their creation is beginning to sink in.

It’s easy to roll our eyes and chuckle when we see proclamations one more absurd than the other. It’s easy to arch our eye brows and think to ourselves that their plans can never come to fruition, that their utopia can never be fully implemented. It doesn’t have to be! Whether or not they succeed in killing every cow because of their flatulence, tearing down every home in the US only to rebuild them to energy efficient specks, or running a high speed rail between the mainland and Hawaii, it is in their attempt to implement these lunatic policies that they will bankrupt the nation, and destroy the lives and livelihoods of untold millions.

The rabid dogs have been unfettered, they have slipped the leash, and if the normal, rational, logical majority doesn’t stand in unison and continually call out their lunacy for what it is, it is only a matter of time before we find ourselves in bread lines, trying to keep down imitation beef while ignoring its gelatinous appearance.

We have seen that time and again when the silent majority actually speaks up, the butchers and the ghouls, the madmen and insane are pushed back. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and all we need to do to keep the mental patients from running the asylum, is drag their ideas into the light, and point out the utter lunacy of them.

Do not be afraid to speak the truth. Your fear is what they are counting on!

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr. 

Understanding Love

This morning I went and asked my one-year-old what the square root of 745 was, and rather than answer my question, all she did was coo, and smile her gap toothed smile, reach out, and say “dada”. I summarily had her banished from my presence, and commanded my wife never to refer to her as our daughter again. She should’ve known the answer to my question. Never mind that she is only one and can’t even speak.

If this had really happened, you would have every right to think that I was either insane, or a monster. However, this is the way many people view God, and how He relates to His children.

I was having a pre-interview conversation with a friend recently, and among the many things we discussed, I said something to him that I have since contemplated in a more profound fashion. We were discussing the goodness of God, and I said to him that I’d never truly understood the love of God until I held my first daughter in my arms. I thought I did. I thought I had it all figured out. I’d read the passage countless times regarding God loving the world, and sending His only begotten Son, but in the moment I first held my daughter I realized just how little I understood of what true love meant.

As human beings we have a strange way of broad brushing everything and everyone. We live with the unrealistic expectation that everyone with which we come in contact must be as spiritually mature as ourselves, otherwise something is wrong. We are rigid. We make no allowances, and we refuse to tease out the nuance of a situation.

We do not take the time to find out how long it has been since someone has been reborn, how long they’ve been walking with the Lord, or how long it’s been since they’ve repented and sought to be reconciled to God. We don’t even bother to find out if they’ve been discipled, or even if they have a Bible. If a one-year-old can’t tell you what the square root of 745 is, well, then, away with them.

I expect more from someone who is fifty, than from someone who is five. I expect someone who is mature to perceive, understand, and act upon mature topics, while with a child I speak as to a child, focusing on trying to make them understand in the simplest of terms.

Yes, there is an expectation of growth, and yes, stagnation is a dangerous spiritual environment to find ourselves in, but by the same token, expecting someone whose first experience with a church service is less than a week old to be a spiritual gargantuan, is unrealistic and counterproductive.

Maybe someday we will realize that none of us are either the owner of the vineyard, or the dresser of the vineyard. We are all trees, and it is the owner coupled with the dresser who know how young a sapling is, how long it has been planted, and when they ought to have a rightful expectation of fruit.

Rather than trees pointing at other trees insisting that they ought to have produced fruit by now, we ought to be ever more vigilant concerning our own individual roots, and our own individual fruitfulness.

As the old gospel song so succinctly puts it, not my mother, or my father, or my stranger, or my neighbor, but it’s me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. 

I believe that with maturity comes humility, and with humility comes the undeniable realization that we are in constant need of Him. Once we establish that dependence and begin to perceive the multifaceted way in which we are loved by the eternal God of all creation, that is, perhaps, when we begin to feel around the edges of what true love really is. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Sometimes They're Not!

Sometimes things are exactly as they seem. Those are the easy times wherein you need no wisdom or discernment to reach a conclusion based on the evidence at hand. If it’s freezing outside, and someone’s sitting on a street corner barefoot, chances are they either can’t afford a pair of shoes, or they got robbed of their shoes, but whether the former or the latter, they need shoes!

Other times, however, things are not as they seem. I remember a story I heard of an over eager faith healer, who took a situation at face value, and ended up with egg all over his face. 

As the story goes, there was a line of individuals waiting to get prayed for by this particular faith healer, and as a middle aged woman stepped up to be prayed for, the faith healer thundered “I know the Lord will heal your skin cancer this very day sister. I know it as sure as I am standing here.”

The woman took a sharp breath, and said, “What skin cancer? Do you know something I don’t?”

“That, on your face”, the faith healer said.

The woman felt around her face until she happened upon the thing the faith healer was pointing at. She pinched it, removed it from her face, and promptly popped it into her mouth.

“Oh, that? That’s a raisin my daughter stuck to my face. I need prayer for my arthritis.”

Then there are those special times when what you hear is so ludicrous, so out of place, so improbable, that you just have to call it out, even at the risk of being labeled a hater, a doubter, someone who doesn’t believe victims, or some other trope they are yet to invent to pressure people into not voicing dissent no matter how far-fetched what they hear is.

If I were to tell you that I was walking through Dallas Texas, and I got assaulted by two pale, thin men wearing bicycle shorts and Male Feminist T-shirts, yelling ‘fat, fat, fatty’ at me, and telling me that this was Vegan Country after hanging a pork sausage around my neck, you’d have a right to be skeptical. Too many variables in that story don’t make sense. Too many things seem out of place.

Yet, something just as improbable was said to have happened in Chicago a couple weeks ago, and nobody ever questioned it, or pointed out the holes and inconsistencies in the story that made it look like a half-eaten slice of Swiss cheese.

We all went along with it, a chorus of sympathetic souls, not allowing for the very real possibility that some individuals are so eager to claim victimhood they are willing to stage a hate crime in order to do so.

We seem to have forgotten that we were exhorted to test all things, as we’ve seemingly forgotten so many of the other warnings peppered throughout the Bible. Because of our forgetfulness we do thing we ought not to do, we do not do things we ought to do, then sit on the sidelines, deflated and disillusioned wondering why there is no forward momentum.

These are just a few thoughts after a handful of sleepless nights due to two kids with the flu.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Volunteer Fruit Inspectors!

It must have been one doozy of a sight. On one side, you have John the baptizer, dressed in a camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and on the other side you had the Pharisees and Sadducees, likely prim and proper, dressed to the nines, and smelling of oils and incense.

The difference between John and the religious leaders of the time could not have been more stark. The closest comparison I could come up with would be if the poorest of Appalachian country preachers was standing by a river, and the Pope, replete with all his pomp and circumstance showed up to get baptized by him. That would come close to the contrast that played out on the banks of the Jordan river.

Everyone knew who the Pharisees and Sadducees were, just as readily as everyone would know who the Pope was if he showed up to get baptized by the aforementioned country preacher. They knew these men were the religious luminaries of their time, the ones the masses went to for spiritual direction and succor.

This is where overeager volunteer fruit inspectors conflate something that ought not to be conflated. They take the words John the Baptizer spoke to the Pharisees, men who were outwardly religious, perhaps even said all the right things at exactly the right time, and broad brush everyone in the world with the same sentiment.

Mention that anyone not a spiritual leader did something good, or noble, or decent, and their response is, “pish tosh, there’s no fruit there.”

Even so, does it take away from the nobility, decency, or goodness of what the individual did?

It’s no secret I am far harsher on pastors, preachers, or evangelists who fall into sin than I am on individuals who do not label themselves as such. The reason for this ought to be self-evident: when a preacher falls, there’s a good chance his fall will precipitate the fall of others in his orbit, or at least sow doubt in their hearts as to whether or not they can hold fast and battle the sin that would so easily beset them.

“If Preacher, Bishop, Prophet, or Evangelist so and so couldn’t keep on the straight and narrow, what chance do I have?”

These people are responsible for the spiritual lives of others, just as the Pharisees and Sadducees were responsible back in the day. This is likewise the reason John was so harsh on them, calling them a brood of vipers, and admonishing them to bear fruit worthy of repentance.

Why didn’t Jesus rebuke Pilate as heatedly as John rebuked the Pharisees? In fact, why didn’t Jesus rebuke Pilate as heatedly as He rebuked Peter? Because Jesus made the distinction between a spiritual leader and a political leader.

I don’t think anyone is saying that Donald Trump is a paragon of virtue and righteousness to rival the saints of old. What I am saying, is that within the context of him being a political leader, it doesn’t matter. Do I pray that he is truly saved? Yes, I do. Am I in any position to judge whether or not the man has any fruit of repentance? No I am not.

None of the would be fruit inspectors trolling the internet know anything more about the man than you or I do. I see him for a few minutes on television just like they do, and no, I cannot bring myself to possess the level of hubris required for me to unequivocally say, “Fruitless! Cut it down and burn it!”

I don’t know what the man is doing the other twenty-three hours per day I’m not seeing him, or what he does when he’s alone, and neither do they.

If we do not allow for the possibility of change, then the guy that acted as the coat check for the men who stoned Stephen to death would never have had a chance to become Paul the Apostle of Christ.

To paraphrase the aforementioned Paul, whether Donald Trump is defending the unborn out of envy and rivalry or out of goodwill, whether he is standing up for life out of love or selfish ambition, whether he is doing it out of false motives or true, it is being done, and because of this I rejoice.

Just as an aside, and a purely objective observation, if it were truly out of false motives, or just to get my vote, I think he already knows he wouldn’t have to try so hard. Between the current field of psychotics on the other side, who are one vote away from demanding life sentences for parents who object to gender reassignment hormone treatments for their three year old, and the full and legal right to murder a baby for any reason well after it’s born viable, and the guy who actually shows up at the national prayer breakfast, defends the unborn, and highlights Christian persecution around the world more than any other president that came before him, I know where my vote’s going.

Funny how the past administration loathed and despised anything Christian, including individuals who practiced Christianity, yet none of the keyboard warriors inspected those fruits. 

With love in Christ, 

Michael Boldea Jr.

No Laughing Matter

The latest darling of both the media and the left has proven time again that she is certifiable. In laymen’s terms, she’s nuttier than a metric ton of squirrel droppings, and that’s being nice. It’s easy to make fun of what she says, it’s easy to poke holes in her vision of utopia, but just because it’s easy it doesn’t mean we should be flippant about her intentions, or miss the big picture point of someone like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arriving on the scene.

I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of adjectives used to describe the new poster child of old Communism, but one you’ve likely not heard as yet is dangerous. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is dangerous. The reason she is dangerous is not because she wants to do away with all cow flatulence in order to save the planet, or because she wants to pay people unwilling to work a basic income, or because she wants to tear down every building in America just to rebuild it to energy efficient specs, or even because she wants to do away with air travel, cars, and every means of transportation not electric, and replace them all with a rail system.

The reason Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is dangerous is because she is a true believer. She is an idealist, and to idealists, to true believers, the ends justify the means. Throughout history we have seen the rise of true believers, and the havoc they wreaked upon the innocent and unsuspecting in their pursuit of reaching their desired goals.

We’re not talking tiny blips on the radar here, we’re talking millions of dead left in their wake, and entire continents ravaged by war, destruction, starvation, and genocide.

I know, I know, there’s no way a petite former bartender could possibly be so ruthless as to upturn the lives of some 300 million people just because she thinks cow flatulence will be the end of us. I’m sure that’s what they said about a young man with a cowlick and a goofy looking mustache the first time he started making speeches in beer halls.

In a sane world we could laugh off this lunacy and go back to our normal lives. Today’s world, however, is anything but sane, and more and more young people are swooning over the idea of ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.’

The reason they are so enamored with this particular tenet of Marxism, is because they have yet to realize that it is not the individual who determines their own need, it is a bureaucrat who will never have to conform to the standards they themselves set forth for everyone else. On the flip side, if those with abilities know that what they produce will simply be confiscated and redistributed to others whose only ambitions in life are video games and spicy Doritos, let’s just say they may rethink living up to their potential, or making full use of their abilities.

If you do happen to be young, and enamored with the idea of Socialism, which is a nice way of saying Communism, before putting on your Socialism Rocks t-shirt, and Che Guevara beret, ask someone who’s actually lived it how wonderful it was, and just for a second ask yourself why so many who do live in Communist countries are willing to risk life and limb just to get out. Maybe, just maybe, it’s not the utopia they’re telling you it is.

On the bright side, if somehow this lunacy does gain traction, and these new old ideas are implemented, we won’t need a wall on the southern border anymore, and it is highly likely the Canadians will show us just how fast a nation can erect a barrier when confronted with the prospect of millions of individuals flocking to its shores like rats fleeing a sinking ship engulfed in flames.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr. 

Unlikely Champions

What does it say about the current crop of spiritual leaders when a billionaire playboy former reality television star turned president is more vocal about being pro-life than most of them? What does it say about the current state of the church when a man who is largely deemed as unsavory by the pearl clutching self-righteous among us, is more resolute in his defense of the unborn than those who ought to be their loudest defenders?

If the shepherds are too busy sheering the sheep and selling the wool to see that their flocks are being buffeted on all sides, then maybe, just maybe, the sheep ought to be grateful for the sheepdog standing between them and the wolves instead of pointing out how unseemly he looks, or how violent he acts.

In case you’ve never seen a sheepdog fight a wolf, the sheepdog can be just as vicious as the wolf, but one is trying to butcher the sheep while the other is doing his best to protect them. If we judge the viciousness without taking into account the intent, then all we will see is two animals tearing at each other, locked in a heated fight for supremacy. There is no moral equivalence between the wolf and the sheepdog. One is fighting to protect life; the other is fighting to snuff it out.

Sure, I would prefer for the shepherds to do their job and protect the sheep from the wolves, but since they seem to be too busy making sure they’ve got enough shekels squirreled away for ten lifetimes instead of keeping the sheep safe, I sure am thankful that the sheepdog is around, mangy and misunderstood as he might be. 

In case you missed it, the sheepdog threw down the gauntlet in no uncertain terms during his state of the union address, and asked congress to pass legislation prohibiting the late term abortion of babies who can feel pain in a mother’s womb.

Just when the wolves thought they could feast to their hearts’ content, just when they thought they’d routed the sheep while the shepherds were sleeping, here comes the orange haired sheepdog, and howls so boldly that it sets the wolves back on their heels.

Sometimes the champion we need doesn’t look like the champion we wanted, or what we imagined our champion would be. Instead of a strapping young preacher with a baritone voice and a penchant for quoting long dead philosophers, we get a 72-year-old man who is getting a bit soft around the middle, and has ample baggage from a life lived in the public eye.

Personally, I don’t care about the packaging. All I care about is whether or not he is willing to stand between the sheep and the wolves, and give as good as he gets. I am utterly mystified that there are still some within the church that expect a fight to the death to be G rated, absent claw marks and torn flesh, absent spilled blood and gaping wounds.

“Don’t mind us trying to pass legislation that would allow for the murder of a baby after it’s been born; look at how crass the orange haired sheepdog is.”

Make no mistake. This is, without equivocation a fight to the death, and it is a fight worth fighting because of what’s at stake. Will we descend into barbarism, an orgy of hedonism and nihilism wherein we cheer the murder of the newly born, or will we defend those who cannot defend themselves, and speak up for those who have no voice?

I don’t know about you, but between the orange haired sheepdog doing his best to protect the sanctity of life, and the hell-hound that would have gloried and celebrated the murder of the innocent with a glee reserved for the soulless and demented, I am glad we have the sheepdog.  Unlikely a champion as he might be, I do believe few if any others would have possessed the steel spine required to do what he just did. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Productive Cattle

If Ralph Northam doesn’t see a baby cooing in a bassinet as human and is willing to allow for a tete-a-tete as to whether or not it gets to live, what makes you think he sees the would be mother as a human being? It’s not as though the man is ignorant of what a baby looks like, or what qualifies as a human baby. He was, after all, a pediatric neurologist. The plain truth is that people like Ralph Northam know. They just don’t care.

The question has never been whether or not a baby is a baby, it’s whether productive cattle is worth more than gestating cattle. You see, to those chomping at the bit to socially engineer society into their version of utopia, we are all cattle. You cannot see your fellow man as anything other than cattle and still be so flippant about killing a recently delivered baby. It’s just not possible.

Imagine a man in a smock, face mask and surgical gloves standing by and watching a dog deliver a litter of puppies, then picking each one up individually, determining they are not cute enough, and wringing their necks one by one. 

Horrid, isn’t it? 

Couldn’t even bring yourself to imagine something so grotesque, could you?

Is the murder of a recently born baby more or less grotesque than puppies being murdered? Point made!

Unless every person who cheered the signing of the legislation in New York was a homicidal psychopath, it’s the only thing that makes sense.

So why are productive cattle worth more than gestating cattle to these people?

I will answer that question with a question of my own: How dark do you want to get?

We can scratch the surface and likely cause you to lose a few nights’ worth of sleep, or go real deep down this particular rabbit hole and make it impossible for you to hold any solid food down for the foreseeable future.

In large part it all has to do with what you believe human nature to be. Do you believe that everyone is generally good, noble, sentient, and generally well intentioned? Or do you believe that the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked?

Depending on which avenue we take once this particular thought bifurcates, it’s either as simple and clinical as stay at home moms produce less tax dollars than women who choose career over family, or as sinister and well thought out as when the productive cattle can no longer produce, it is much easier to get rid of one without family, children, and next of kin, than it is one surrounded by grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

When we excise our empathy, and humanity, when we allow for the belief that we are gods and as such can do as we will, we get the likes of Ralph Northam, Andrew Cuomo, and countless others who see their fellow man as nothing more than numbers on a spreadsheet. Cattle, to be corralled, manipulated, milked, and ultimately done away once it is too old and costly. If having a baby will get in the way of you producing optimally, kill it! If you’re getting too old to produce optimally, well, it’s only a matter of time before legislation is passed that they will vote kill you! 

Think I’m being hyperbolic? Think again.

All that matters is that elected officials, who see themselves as superior to those who voted them into office continue to live the lifestyle to which they have been accustomed. The means to the desired end are irrelevant if the desired end is ultimately achieved. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Common Ground

There are certain issues I am more than willing to find common ground on. If you insist that a McDonald's hamburger is made up of entirely beef, and I insist that it’s spray painted Styrofoam, given enough time and evidence to the contrary, I will concede that there may be some beef, or beef like particulates floating around in said patty. I will never concede that it’s all beef, you will never concede that it’s all Styrofoam, but we found a happy medium where no one gets 100% of what they want, but are nevertheless sufficiently satisfied with the conclusion. See, common ground.

There are other issues, however, for which common ground can never be found, no matter how much the cowards, and those averse to conflict among us may wish it to be so. If your opening gambit is that you want to kill me, and my counter is that I don’t want to die, even if you insist that we will find common ground, it is highly unlikely that we will. We desire two diametrically opposed things, and any compromise by either party will not accomplish the ultimate goal.

This is where we find ourselves with the infanticide issue. Yes, infanticide, let’s call it what it is and not beat around the bush. Even if some in the media see the fact that the baby would be made comfortable before being murdered as the other side trying to find some middle ground, it really isn’t.

The fact that you will be holding the baby’s hand while injecting poison into its brain stem does not in any way change the reality that you are murdering a viable human being, outside it’s mother’s womb. Sorry, not sorry, there is no common ground here, and I refuse to try and find it.

You can chant ‘my body my right’ until you’re blue in the face, but we’re talking about something that is outside your body, a separate entity, a fully formed human baby, which would grow up to be a fully formed human being if it were allowed to live. That’s murder any way you cut it, and no amount of obfuscation, and backtracking will change the reality of the bill that was proposed in Virginia.

I realize action without consequence is all the rage in today’s society, but if your actions produce a human baby, and that human baby managed to escape your murderous womb alive and unscathed, you no longer have the right to kill it! In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have the right to kill it ever, but we’re not talking what could be, or what we hope will be. We have to see things through the prism of what is.

As it stands, as grotesque as it is, abortion is legal and in most cases tax payer funded. That is the reality we are living, that is what the modern day church allowed to happen under its watch. They tried to take it one step further and introduce a bill that would allow for infanticide, and so far they’ve been beaten back.

If the church goes back to sleep or starts blathering on about finding common ground, it’s only a matter of time before another state legislature will take up the same bill, because the other side will not give up on its evil schemes so readily.

The question is this: Are we content with simply having beaten back a bill that would have allowed for infanticide, or will we press on, fighting for the ideal, which is no babies murdered, at any time, simply for the sake of convenience or a change of heart?

What the church does matters. It also matters what the church doesn’t do. If we speak out when innocent lives hang in the balance, He who sees all will make note. If we sit on the sidelines and say nothing for fear of retribution, He who sees all will likewise make note.

He is coming quickly, His reward is with Him, and He will give to each according to his work. I know, I know, blasphemy! Works! How dare you! Not my words, His words. Argue with Him if you must! Just remember, you can’t plead ignorance. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Picking Sides!

The glaring differences between the light and the darkness have never been more evident. It’s not like we’re trying to pick out the differences between robin’s egg blue and turquoise here. Light and dark, black and white, noble and debased, sacrosanct and defiled, good and evil, these are the two poles toward which all men must gravitate, because at this juncture neutrality is not an option. There is no Switzerland here. This is war, it is a war of attrition, and the longer the church keeps silent, the bolder all manner of devils get.

Now, before we proceed, something must be said that will likely rub some of you the wrong way. As long as we treat this war as one isolated battle rather than a protracted, exhaustive, draining series of battles that we must win consistently, our victories will be small, and our defeats will be disastrous.

That’s the one thing the other side has going for it. They’re in it for the long haul, and even when they’re so badly beaten they look like an armless pugilist that just went twelve rounds, they go on to the next skirmish, the next battle, the next tenet they’ve decided to chip away at. They are undeterred by their losses, and emboldened by their victories.

The church on the other hand celebrates its victories for far too long, and bemoans its losses in like manner. Learn from the setback, armor up, and get back at it! Be rejuvenated by the victory, armor up, and get back at it! Don’t dawdle; it’s unseemly.

The reality of evil is becoming so vivid, and the level of debasement to which they are willing to sink so profound, even some who have not been transformed by the renewing of their minds are alarmed by the direction the world is headed in. We knew this would be the case. We were warned, repeatedly, clearly, and without equivocation that in the last days, evil men and seducers would wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

As far as I’m concerned, whenever the Word of God warns of some future shift, some future trend, some future event or wave, it’s not so we could shrug our shoulders and nod our heads awestruck by how right the Bible was. Whenever the future is mentioned in the Word of God, it is for the benefit of the believer, giving the believer time to prepare, to gird himself, and to be ready for what was foretold would come to pass.

If you are not ready for this, then you’ve got no one to blame but you!

Had you been diligent, had you been awake, had you been aware of what the Word said, you would have seen this coming long before it was evident to everyone, and would not currently be breathless going to and fro asking what could be done.

Not to seem too harsh, however, if you don’t know what needs to be done at this juncture, the first thing you must do is to pick a side! Once you’ve picked a side, commit to it, and make it so obvious, so evident, so clear and beyond equivocation, that you will nevermore run the risk of being mistaken for an enemy combatant.

After you have picked your side, seek out and identify those of like mind, those who raise the same banner, and have the same noble pursuits, then together, push back against the enemy, not for an inch or a yard, or a hundred yards, but until they have no more avenues of retreat.

Be bold enough to call a lie what it is when you hear it, and be wise enough to be armed with the truth, thereby successfully winning the argument you have engaged in.

There is nothing more detrimental to the truth than ill prepared foot soldiers. Be instant in season and out of season. There are no time outs in war. Possess the requisite knowledge, and be so immersed in it, that when it is required, it is instant.

It all begins with picking a side, and tragically, it seems much of the church still hasn’t taken that first step as yet. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

No Leg To Stand On!

The devil has no shame and neither do his minions. It is a truth that the church seems to have forgotten, and because of its forgetfulness it truly believes that when Satan’s handmaiden’s give them unsolicited advice, spiritual or otherwise, it is coming from a good place, a noble place, a place of concern and magnanimity.

As such, we now have open homosexuals, convicted rapists, alleged pedophiles, serial fornicators, and all manner of shadow dwellers pontificating and attempting to shame the household of faith for clinging to pillars of civilization such as God, family, patriotism, and a right to life for the unborn.

You have individuals who would not dare walk into any house of worship for fear of spontaneously combusting, waxing on and on as to what Jesus would do, and what Jesus would say, and how He would react to the current political climate.

It’s enough to make you upchuck!

The reason they are doing this is obvious to anyone who is willing to take a second and think it through. It’s the same play their father the devil tried on Jesus as He was taken to the pinnacle of the temple and encouraged to throw Himself off because it was written that the angels would bear Him up. Jesus was smart enough to see through the ruse. Most of the church isn’t.

We choose to take the criticisms of human pustules so debased that they applaud and cheer the murder of babies in their 40^th week of gestation, and run with it as though our hair was on fire.

“Well, you know, they’re right. He’s no angel.”

No, he’s no angel, but he sure is a far cry from the devil that would have been the alternative, now isn’t he?

At some point during their ministry the apostles came to Christ breathless and proud, informing Him that they had come across someone driving out demons in His name, and they had set him straight. They told him to stop, yea, even forbade him from doing it, because he wasn’t part of the clique.

Jesus could have said, “well done! He didn’t pay for the workshop, he didn’t attend the conference, and he doesn’t have an authentic emblazoned diploma signifying that he can cast out demons”, but instead Jesus said something that the church should take to heart, and understand the ramifications of.

Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you.”

Simple words, simply put, but with a depth and substance that ought to leave us breathless.

Understand that every condescending talking head on television insisting that you are not Christian because you still support someone who is ‘no angel’, despises you to your core. They not only hate you, they have contempt for you, your beliefs, your God, and your way of life to the deepest recesses of their being. They believe that you are naïve, uncultured, unrefined, unread, believing in imaginary deities, and spaghetti monsters up in the sky. You are an impediment to their agenda. You are an impediment to their desired goal, and they know that if they can propagandize loud enough, long enough, there just might be some weaker souls out there that will become discouraged or disillusioned.

That’s their plan. That’s their scheme. To get the church to be silent, to get the church to tune out, to get to church to judge others with a scrutiny they themselves would never endure for more than a minute.

What these people are doing is no less egregious than the world’s most prolific prostitute looking down her nose and judging another woman because her dress isn’t long enough to cover her ankles.

There are those who have demonstrably proven time and again that they are not against you, that they stand for the same principles and values you, yourself stand for. Imperfect as they might be as humans, they are still doing the right thing. The forces of darkness know this, so their singular purpose at this juncture is to muddy the waters enough wherein it will cause you to doubt or hesitate. Do neither! They have no leg to stand on, and they know it. All they have is their bluster, and the limitless air time to pollute the airwaves with their partisan propaganda.

With love in Christ, 

Michael Boldea Jr. 

Which Are You?

I’ve always been a big fan of numbers. Numbers don’t lie. Numbers don’t care about your feelings. Numbers have no desire to be politically correct. If you subtract seven from ten, you get three every time, without fail, that is unless you are trying to solve the problem with Common Core math, which is another topic for another time.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying, facts don’t lie, and emotional screeching does not an argument make. When you peel back the layers of propaganda, and willful omission regarding the modern day holocaust we are witnessing, the dire reality of the situation crystallizes and forms an undeniable pattern.

The facts are these: Since 1973 when Roe V Wade was decided by the Supreme Court, over 57 million abortions have been performed in the United States. Just to put that number into perspective, it’s about 17 million more lives than the holocaust and Stalin were responsible for exterminating, combined. You read that right. It is not a misprint. It is said the holocaust snuffed out some 17 million lives, while Stalin and his purge managed to ratchet that number up to some 23 million. Just in case you need some clarification on just how big a number 57 million is, that’s 3 million shy of the total population of Italy, and over twice the number of the total population of North Korea.

These are not paltry numbers we are bandying about. These are not numbers we can scoff at or dismiss offhand. It’s not thousands, or hundreds of thousands, it’s not even millions, but rather tens of millions of lives. This is genocide on a mass scale, and all we can manage is to tweet #heartbroken. When does our heartbreak transition into righteous anger?

Is the best we can muster heartbreak? Is binge eating raw cookie dough and shaking their heads in resignation all the church willing to do? Do we really think that if we just ignore it this issue will just go away? What will it take to mobilize, animate, and otherwise get us out of the stupor we’ve allowed ourselves to be lulled into?

We’ve hopscotched from a clump of cells, and abortion exclusively for saving the life of the mother, to murdering fully born babies out of the womb, for any reason, at any time, without any explanation.

I would say it’s well past time for some righteous indignation, some righteous anger, some men and women of God with enough steel in their spines not to be silenced or assuaged by something as sinister as being called names, or being tweeted at. We have become so soft. So willing to roll over and show the whites of our bellies, not because our lives are threatened, but because someone might say mean things about us on Facebook.

Which are you? Are you angry, or just heartbroken? Are you righteously indignant, or just feel really bad about the fact that 57 million babies have been murdered?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.