Scary Crazy

In this great big world of ours, there’s crazy then there’s scary crazy. There’s the lady on the park bench feeding invisible pigeons and talking to a stray cat as though it were her husband, Hubert. That is someone who you sort of feel sorry for but who isn’t hurting anyone by throwing bread crumbs on the ground. Sure, she rolled on through eccentric to the land of mental instability some time ago, but her actions aren’t bringing harm to her fellow man, the stray cat, or the invisible pigeons.

Then there are the scary crazy kind of folks, and these are the ones you should be concerned about. The scary crazies want to transform the world or their nation at your expense. It’s not harmless, and it’s not a victimless pursuit. They have a dream, a purpose, an agenda, and it doesn’t matter to them one tittle if you end up broke and destitute, living under a bridge and grilling rats over an open flame, as long as they can make their dream a reality.

I have a high tolerance for pain. I’ve been living with gout since my early twenties, and not even I could make it through the entire democrat debates last night. After hearing Bernard Sanders praising the Canadian healthcare system, which has a 20 week wait time to see a doctor for the umpteenth time, I started missing Cory Booker trying to speak Spanish.

If anyone dared attempt to be the voice of reason and point out that all these wonderful plans of open borders, healthcare for all, and cancellation of student debt would bankrupt the country, they’d just get booed by the audience. How dare they attempt to shatter the fantasy? How dare they attempt to inject a dose of reality into a debate that was nothing short of a circus?

Tell people lies, and they will love you; tell them the truth, and they will despise you for it.

Tragically, there is a growing number in this country who care not a whit that the national debt is more than 20 trillion dollars, or that most government programs are unsustainable in the long term, they just want to know what they’ll get for free if they vote for you. That is a recipe not only for disaster but for the utter decimation of the nation itself.

The scary crazies don’t care about any of that. Don’t just throw out the baby with the bathwater, burn down the house, then bulldoze the remains. We need to start fresh, they insist, but not one moderator had the honesty to ask why. Why tear down a system that is working for an overwhelming majority to replace it with one that has been a proven failure time and again?

Why punish hard-working, responsible people who ate baked beans and week-old bread for years on end so they could pay their college loan debt by taxing them anew to pay off the debt of some dunce who majored in the feminist history of the Congo region? It’s not my fault you got a worthless degree from a pretentious college and are beside yourself because your plumber is making more money than you. Choices have consequences.

It’s difficult to fathom that we’re still a year and change out from the next elections. Can you imagine how unhinged the scary crazies will get by then? According to famed scientist Beto ‘, I can skateboard’ O’Rourke, we now only have ten years before the planet will self-destruct, contradicting famed scientist Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s claim that we have 12. 

The godfather of global warming fearmongering, Al Gore, said we had until 2008 and the polar ice caps would be gone. I guess they didn’t get the memo since they’re still here. But that’s the thing about the scary crazies; they have to use the unproven existential crisis to fuel men’s fear in the hope that the fear will make it more difficult to see just how crazy they are. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Having Done All

If ever there was a generation that chose to abdicate personal responsibility, it is this present generation. It has become a way of life for both believer and non-believer alike. The believers justify it by shrugging their shoulders and murmuring something about Jesus winning in the end, the non-believer by rationalizing that their loss of freedom is a small price to pay for the promise of free stuff.

My quarrel is not with the unbelievers. They possess neither the knowledge, nor the tools to stand, and the notion of doing what is right for a righteous cause is alien to them. Godlessness is self-serving, and the godless are self-centered. It’s always about them, and it matters not at whose expense.

My quarrel is with the church. It is with the household of faith which staggers to and fro, lethargic, purposeless, and drained of life, content with filling their existence with endless distractions rather than get in the fight.

What’s worse, those on the sidelines look down on those who have taken Paul’s counsel to heart, and not only put on the whole armor of God, but have done all to stand. For some, putting on the armor and putting forth the effort to stand is a waste of time, for others, it seems like too much work, but the end result is still the same.

Lethargy and inaction are choices we make. We choose these things because it requires no exertion on our part. Rather than stand, rather than push against the darkness, rather than risk being wounded in battle, it is a far easier thing to grab some popcorn, find a comfy chair, and judge.

“Well, you know, I wouldn’t have said it quite that way, I wouldn’t have done it quite that way, his delivery could have been better, I would have kept the message shorter,” are things I’ve heard in meetings, and church services.

Once upon a time, I used to bite my tongue and not say anything. I’d nod, or shrug my shoulders, but no more. I’ve grown tired of those who choose to do nothing nitpicking every word and action of those who do, and as a direct result, I am less than kind in my responses, especially when the conversation is about a third party that is not present.

“Did you hear what so and so said? They could have been more gentle in their delivery; don’t you think?”

“Well, why don’t you get up there and say it better? Why don’t you get up there and say it with more gentility?”

As long as the message is Biblical, as long as what is said is consistent with the gospel, I will not judge another man’s delivery or the way he formulates his exegesis. I would rather someone give an unpolished Biblical message than an endlessly rehearsed soliloquy that has no scriptural foundation.

Perhaps rather than being overly concerned with judging the service of others using the world’s metrics, we should be about our Father’s business and make certain that not only have we put on the whole armor making us ready for battle but that we have done all to stand.

God will not judge you based on what your brother did with his talents, and He will not judge me based on what you did with yours. We are individually accountable to God for what we do with what we’ve been given, regardless of whether or not we think we can get away with abdicating our responsibility. 

With love in Christ, 

Michael Boldea Jr.

Unspeakable Truths

If we censor the truths we speak based on who is before us, if we omit certain truths because they are difficult to stomach, if we sidestep controversial topics because we know telling the truth will likely spark outrage, then all we are is cowards.

It’s easy to be bold when you know everyone’s on your side. It’s easy to be vociferous and pound your chest when you know there will be no pushback to what you are saying when you know there aren’t gluts of angry people waiting in the wings ready to dissect your every word, and brand you the worst type of human being for the words you uttered.

There are many reasons our nation is in decline. There are many reasons the empire is crumbling both literally and figuratively, and among those reasons is a general aversion to speaking difficult truths.

It has become an open secret of sorts. Certain truths are unspeakable. Only if you’re a glutton for punishment, or want your life upturned in the worst possible way, will you wade into these topics. Those whose only mission in life is to bludgeon the ones bold enough to utter the unspeakable truths, are coiled and ready to spring into action, and even if what you say is factually incontestable, they will, nevertheless, attack you mercilessly.

They are ruthless because they know that if they don’t make an example of those who dare speak unspeakable truths if they don’t ruin their lives and tarnish their reputations, others will inevitably take up the call, and the truth will spread. There comes a tipping point wherein if enough people dare speak the truth, the established narrative falls apart, and with it, their plans for the social engineering of the masses.

It is an insidious thing to behold, made all the more so by the reprobate minds that lie unflinchingly about everything, and insist that your own eyes are deceiving you.

We have come to the point where we are free to think, only insofar as what we think is in sync with the established narrative.

There is a fundamental reason why the first amendment encapsulates the idea that there shall be no abridging of free speech. It’s not so everyone could say the same exact thing and walk in lockstep toward destruction. It is because, in a constitutional republic, there must always be room for voices of dissent. Dissenting voices must be allowed to speak their mind, and if their opinion is based upon fact, then they may just sway the minds of their fellow man.

When you have nothing but pipe dreams and rosy platitudes, free speech is your mortal enemy!

When you have no arguments or facts to back up your claims, all you have left is personal attacks and cries of racism, or homophobia, transphobia, or prejudice.

There is a concerted effort being put forth to silence those who dare speak the unspeakable truth. There is a concerted effort to destroy those who would dare to point to the root cause of a problem, and not just gloss over it with idiotic mantras like diversity is our strength.

We are edging ever closer to a time wherein even if you wanted to make your voice heard; it will be next to impossible. Speak now, or forever hold your peace. Act now, or forever live with the knowledge that your children and your children’s children will inherit a nation that will nowhere near resemble the nation you grew up in. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

The Principal Thing

You can tell a lot about the spiritual wellbeing of a church or congregation by reading their mission statement. For the uninitiated, a mission statement is a formal summary of the aims and values of a particular ministry or church, their core goals and aspirations.

Some churches still have the preaching of the Gospel in their mission statement, but many have replaced it with flowery, less biblical pabulum such as community outreach, self-improvement, self-realization, and self-esteem.

I’m not saying there shouldn’t be more than one thing in a mission statement, whether it be for a church or a ministry, but the principal thing should be identical across the board, unchanged from congregation to congregation, because without this one thing, we are of no benefit to the kingdom of God.

It is because we have abandoned this principal thing that so many congregations are floundering about like fish on dry sand, without direction, purpose or vision, other than adding an annex to the gymnasium, or getting new pews with fluffier cushions.

When Jesus sent the twelve out two by two, although He gave them power over unclean spirits, although it was within their authority to anoint the sick and watch them be healed, their mission statement had a singular purpose: to preach that people should repent!

That’s it! That was the charter, that was the mission statement, that was the vision and the aim, to tell people that they should repent. What the people did with the message, how they responded to the call, was entirely on them.

Their mission was not to push a certain denomination, their mission was not to showcase their abilities, or compel people with their well-rehearsed testimonies, it was to call men to repentance.

Everything else flowed out of the principal thing, the principal task they were commanded to carry out. If they would have cast out demons and healed the sick without calling men to repentance, though noble on the surface, in reality they would have failed in their mission.

Nowadays men glory in the irrelevant and altogether ignore the essential.

You can watch countless hours of evangelists and preachers, heads of international ministries and pastors of star-like fame drone on about their jets, their pets, their homes, and their jewelry, yet none dares bring up the subject of repentance.

You can hear leaders of some of the largest churches in the world tell you to look in the mirror and lie to yourself until you believe the lie, insist that God’s only desire is to make you happy, and that soon and very soon the wealth of the wicked will be transferred to the righteous, but of repentance not a peep.

When it comes to calling men to repentance they are silent!

We have inverted the message of Christ to such a degree, wherein we focus on the things He deemed irrelevant and not worth pursuing, and disregarding the one thing He commands all of His Apostles to preach unashamedly and unabashedly.

It’s not a mystery why church attendance is down, or why more churches than ever are shuttering their doors. It’s not a mystery why more people than ever are disillusioned with their spiritual growth and just throw in the towel. Repentance was never preached to them as the principal thing, and they’ve just grown weary pursuing other avenues to the destination only repentance can facilitate. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

The Subversives

Every nation, throughout the history of the world, has had subversives in its midst. The nations that were able to identify them and call them out for what they were managed to survive; Those who ignored them, or otherwise allowed them to go about establishing a foothold and pursuing their agenda saw what had taken generations to build, crumble within a single generation. By the time the subversives got done, all the nation had to show for it was regret and destruction.

When it comes to subversives, there are two types. There are those who have a plan, those whose singular desire is to upturn the existing power structure to gain power for themselves, then there are the useful idiots, those who have no purpose or goals in life, and just want to see the world burn to see what color the flames are.

The ones with a plan count on the ones without to be their foot soldiers, to be their mouthpieces, to make the noise, to crack the ribs, to bruise the skulls, and make people so fearful of retaliation that they will keep silent while they watch their children’s future go up in smoke.

Oddly enough, a subversive individual will never come out and tell you what their plans for you, your children, or your nation are. If they would, they would either be incarcerated indefinitely or exiled to some far off land from whence they can never again infect and pollute the minds of the easily swayed.

Instead of telling you the truth of what they envision, which is always the citizenry on a short leash which they are firmly gripping and can yank at the first signs of insurrection, the subversive will always attempt to convince you that your life is horrible. Even though it might not be, they will convince you it is, then paint such a utopian future as to make you daydream of what could be.

The way they succeed in conning people into hating their present existence is by convincing them to compare their current life with a utopian idea of what it would be like if everything was perfect, rather than to the average citizen of any other country in the whole wide world.

Because they understand the envious bend of man’s base nature, the subversives will always point to those who have more, to those who have succeeded, or to those who have amassed wealth, then convince the masses that save for those who are accomplished, they would be even more so.

It’s their fault you’re not rich; it’s their fault you’re not accomplished, it’s their fault you’re not driving a new car. The fact that you play video games 18 hours per day has nothing to do with it!

It’s far easier to blame someone else for your choices, your circumstances, and your current lot in life than to admit that you bear the responsibility for your actions, and the outcome thereof.

In layman’s terms, it’s like blaming McDonald's for my weight problem, and not myself for getting into my car, driving to the place, handing over legal tender, and getting my bakers’ dozen of two faux beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.

Another telltale mark of the subversives is their propensity to play the victim until they acquire the power. They readily project weakness and fragility until power is theirs, after which, as if on a dime, they turn into the tyrants they warned everyone else about.

I share these things with you because I must. I will not face a future of guilt ridden vexation because I chose silence for fear of blowback. If this nation chooses to surrender to the subversives in her midst, it will be with open eyes, and full knowledge of what the future holds. I cannot choose for others. I can only choose for myself, and I choose to stand for as long as I can in opposition to tyranny masquerading itself as selfless magnanimity. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Perspective

I despise attempts to shame the citizenry of an entire nation into silence when they have no logical reason to be ashamed. It is vile, and it demeans not only the history of the nation itself but all the lives sacrificed throughout the decades to keep and maintain it.

Understand that the following comes from the perspective of an immigrant to this nation the son of parents and grandson of grandparents whose own native land no longer wanted them, disavowed them, and whom they threatened to have executed if ever they set foot on their country’s soil again.

Granted, the regime fell, the system changed, dictators were summarily executed, and we were able to visit our homeland once more, but if they had remained in power, it would nevermore be an option.

I know what would have become of my family had America not opened its arms and received us, and because of this, in spite of its many shortcomings, I will always have a deep and profound love for this nation. Hence the reason I’m still calling for repentance thirty years in. It’s not hate; it’s not aversion that compels me, it’s love.

Because I’ve lived through what certain other people have lived through, I find it all the more difficult to understand where all the hate and vitriol is coming from. There are those whom this nation received from places arguably far worse than my homeland, who now insist that the selfsame people who accepted them with open arms are somehow racist.

For the sake of clarity, and to fully understand just how insidious this new narrative is, let’s play a game. It will require your imagination, I can’t promise it will be fun, but by the end, I believe it will be illuminating to the point that you will no longer flinch when presidential candidates and elected congress members imply that you are racist.

Imagine you were going about your day, running errands, keeping busy when suddenly you hear a cry of despair coming from a dark alley. Being a decent human being, you go to investigate and happen upon a dirty, disheveled girl, begging for your help, and insisting that if you do not help her, if you do not intervene, she will surely die.

Your heart is stirred with compassion. You take the dirty girl into your home, you take the rags she was wearing and replace them with your clothing, you show her where she can take a bath, then show her the spare bedroom where she can sleep rent-free for as long as she wants, you feed her, and you make her feel welcome.

In no time at all, the girl looks very different than she did in that dark alley. Even though you are eating a little less so she can eat too, even though you are making sacrifices and allotting resources that could have gone to your own children, rather than show gratitude she begins to list all the things she doesn’t like about her room. At first, you let it slide. Maybe it’s just her culture or something, but one day, as you are sitting down to lunch, she takes the plate you prepared her, throws it across the room, and starts screaming about you having to tear down your entire house and rebuild it the way she wants. Otherwise, you’re a racist.

You calmly put your knife and fork down, and say, “if you don’t like it here, you can always go back to where you came from. No one is keeping you by force.” Then you go back to your meal.

Some come to this country hoping to assimilate, while others come to this country hoping to transform it. Just because you don’t want to embrace Socialism doesn’t make you racist. Just because you don’t want to do away with the Constitutional Republic untold numbers died to preserve doesn’t make you xenophobic, or a hateful human being.

Reject the narrative, reject the label, and realize that this war of words is not about migrants, immigration, race, or ethnicity. It’s about transforming this country into another Russia, Cuba, or Venezuela.

Just my perspective as someone who has lived it, and understands the power of propaganda. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Steady Hands

My wife likes farmer’s cheese. I don’t know why, it must be something to do with our heritage, but whenever I’m driving by any bigger city that has a European market, she asks me to stop in and get her some farmer’s cheese. I prefer feta, but that’s just personal preference.

Being the kind of husband who believes that little things matter, even something as inconsequential as farmer’s cheese, I went about twenty minutes out of my way, and pulled into the parking lot of a local international market.

As I was walking through the parking lot, I heard a commotion, and being one who believes that situational awareness can save your life, I started scanning the area to see where the noise was coming from.

I located the source of the noise, and by the looks of it two men had gotten into an argument, and it had gotten the point that one of them was punching the air, and bouncing up in the air, while the other stood there, relaxed, hands at his side, as though he had no care in the world.

I don’t know what the argument was about; I was perhaps three minutes too late, but it was obvious it had escalated. The shadow boxer now started to punch himself in the chest, trying to psyche himself up, yelling at the other man who was still standing passively, about putting up or shutting up.

Then something very odd happened. The shadow boxer’s friend grabbed him by the elbow and tried pulling him away. “Dude, let it go, trust me, let it go,” he was saying loud enough that I could hear him from three car lengths away.

The shadow boxer kept trying to pull away, but his friend was all the more insistent. “Let it go, man, I’m telling you.”

The two men were pretty much the same size give or take a few pounds, so I was more than a bit intrigued as to what had spooked the shadow boxer’s friend. All things being equal, the shadow boxer stood a fair chance of felling the other man, but his friend was acting as though he was about to get slaughtered.

At this point, the friend had gotten in between the two men and was staring his friend in the face, pushing against his chest, but the other man was still amped up and ready to rumble.

Finally, the friend said to the shadow boxer, “look at his hands, dude, his hands are steady. Look at his hands.”

It was true. The other man hadn’t moved, hadn’t flinched, hadn’t even balled up his fists. He didn’t have the jitters; he wasn’t shaky or sweating. He seemed like a man comfortable with violence, and could readily carry it out if he was forced to.

He wasn’t screaming, or punching the air, beating his chest, or hopping around, he was just standing, facing his opponent, both ready to defend himself, and walk away.

Most often it’s those who boast most that do the least. It’s those who beat their chests and make a fuss that turn tail and run when the rubber hits the road, and the dark day arrives.

Don’t tell the devil how dangerous or how lethal you are. Don’t boast of your accomplishments, or how many adversaries you’ve felled. Just stand your ground, have steady hands, and he will see you for what you are, and flee from you. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

It's The Power

Countless books have been written on the topic of deliverance. Videos have been produced, workbooks have been printed, workshops have been held, and still, a cloud of otherworldliness hangs over the topic.

It has been mystified to such a level wherein it is no longer considered a function within the body of Christ, but rather some rare attribute that only a handful of people on the planet have been endowed with. If one needs deliverance, they must look far and wide for someone who knows what they are doing.

Some insist that there are special prayers that need be said, others that there needs to be anointing oil, or that the oil must be from olives grown in Israel, but it ought not to be this complicated. Everything that the body of Christ is mandated to do Scripturally is simple, straightforward, and easily put into practice. 

God’s intent was not to overly complicate things but to simplify them to the point that anyone with an open, obedient, and humble heart might readily understand.

The simple, straightforward truth is that when it comes to deliverance, the authority in which you approach the spirit is key as to whether or not the spirit will obey and come out.

You can have the purest of olive oils, from the highest of hilltops in the Holy Land, you can memorize prayers and have perfect inflection if you do not possess authority, if you are not hooked up to the power source that is Christ, there will be no deliverance forthcoming.

When Paul happened upon the slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination, there was no need for spectacle, Paul commanded the spirit to come out of the girl in the name of Jesus Christ, and the spirit came out that very hour.

Simple, straightforward, and effective. But see, Paul wasn’t trying to build a brand, he wasn’t trying to put on a show, he wasn’t trying to promote himself as the next great deliverance ministry, he was annoyed by the spirit’s proclamations, and knowing the authority he had in Christ, he commanded the spirit to depart.

Yes, there are those rare occasions when prayer and fasting are required for a spirit to depart. Much of the time it has to do with unconfessed sin because the spirit feels as though it has been granted residence due to said sin, but more often than not, the power and authority given you as a servant of Christ are more than enough.

You can lay hands; you can anoint, you can yell in a commanding voice if you do not possess the power, it’s all for naught.

Men continue to try to substitute the power with methodology, or props, but there is no substitute for it. They may be able to put on a good show, blow on people, punch them in the gut, or throw their sweaty blazers at them, but in the end, if there is no authority behind their words, if there is no power residing in them, the spirit will remain, and the individual will continue to be tormented. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Choosing Sodom

It has been said that life can be summed up as being a myriad of choices, coalescing, leading into each other, intertwining, and blending, weaving the fabric of existence. We make countless choices every day, all day, from what color socks to wear, to what to eat for breakfast, to whether to give the panhandler on the corner some spare change.

Some choices require very little thought since they are binary. If the only two options afforded you are to go either left or right, the time it would take you to reach a decision would be far less than if you were asked to choose a place on the map to travel to. Other choices require prayer, thought, meditation, the weighing out of all the benefits and drawbacks, because only then will we make the right choice.

Certain choices we make have very little collateral implications, while others affect us for the rest of our lives, whether for the good or the bad. When we spend more time pondering where to eat dinner than we do where our spiritual man might best grow and mature, we allocate more time to the non-essential than to the essential things of life.

There came the point where Abraham and Lot could no longer share the same land. Their flocks had grown to the point that the grazing lands could not sustain both, and rather than argue among themselves, Abraham proposed that they go their separate ways.

Even though Abraham had seniority, and was Lot’s uncle, he allowed Lot to have the first choice as to where he would go. To Abraham, it mattered very little because he knew that whether he went to the left or the right God would be with him, and God would provide.

Lot, on the other hand, did not look with eyes of faith; he did not weigh the toll his choice would take on his spiritual man. He saw well-watered, fertile land, and he chose it hastily, even though the men of the region were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.

Did Lot know this? What did he know, and when did he know it?

I’m assuming at some point the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had some decent people living in them, people with families and children. How long did the descent into hedonism take to unfold in these cities? How long before young and old alike gave themselves over to lust and perversion to the point that one couldn’t have visitors without running the risk of them being violated and molested?

Because the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is so dramatic, we tend to forget that Lot chose Sodom. 

Because he prized possessions over peace, Lot chose to bring his family to a godless place where the people had no bounds, no moral code, and no humanity.

An entire city full of biped animals burning with lust, to the point that nothing mattered more to them than to satisfy their desires.

By the time Lot realized what he had done, by the time he had realized the consequences of his choice, it was already too late. Yes, his flocks had plenty of water and grass, his possessions increased, but his soul was tormented and vexed by what he saw.

Even if a righteous man happens to live in Sodom, whether by choice, necessity, or circumstance, he does not embrace, validate, or celebrate the ways of Sodom. The natural reaction of righteousness to witnessing unrighteous acts is vexing and torment of the soul. Just as truth cannot abide the lie, and light cannot abide the darkness, righteousness cannot abide sin. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

The Offended Generation

Never ask my wife if she thinks you’re getting fat. If you are, you won’t like her answer. She is one of those brutally honest people who will tell you the truth without regard for how it lands.

I was within the general vicinity when one of her friends asked if she thought she was getting pudgy around the middle, to which she replied, “I don’t think you are, you are.”

Later on, after her friend left, I asked her about the exchange and whether she could have been more tactful, to which she replied, “why would I lie to someone I love?” Made sense at the time, and it still does to this day.

It used to be you could tell people the truth, and they would appreciate your candor. Even if the truth you shared didn’t land well, or make them feel good, they knew it wasn’t coming from a place of animosity, but rather a place of love, or concern, or just honesty. Those days are long gone, and what’s worse, this destructive mindset has weaseled its way into the household of faith.

Because the number of pastors, preachers, evangelists, and spiritual leaders would rather see people end up in hell than risk offending them in any way keeps multiplying, repentance, righteousness, and holiness unto God are no longer preached, focused upon, or taught.

This new trend is wreaking havoc and leaving countless souls with a false sense of security. Because no one loved them enough to speak truth to them, they cling to their sin; they cling to their vices, they cling to the things God himself finds abominable, all the while believing that it is well with their soul.

On the flip side, the number of those who approach God not from a place of humility and repentance, but one of entitlement and pride has skyrocketed to heretofore unseen levels as well. The question is no longer what must I do to be saved; it’s not even phrased as a question anymore. Rather, men today approach God with a laundry list of demands, exemptions, and cutouts, then command Him to assure them that they are saved.

If perchance one in ten does ask what they must do to be saved, the Biblical answer will likely be met with perplexed looks, quickly followed by accusations of legalism and works salvation.

When the sheep start leading the shepherd rather than the shepherd leading the sheep, disaster is certain, and the outcome is foreseeable. Watching these role reversals take place is sad, and what’s worse, as long as the so-called shepherds get their monthly stipend, they don’t much care. Less work for them translates to more time to enjoy the links.

Even if they tried, they would likely be met with resistance and a reprimand from the deacon board, the treasury board, or the board of overseers. Who wants to pack up and move their family to yet another town, to get to know yet another group of stiff-necked souls whose only desire is to revel in their sin while still being assured that heaven’s gates are flung wide open ready to receive them?

This is the offended generation, and they have Yelp. It takes thirty seconds to find a church that fits their predilections, and they can even leave you a bad review while walking to their car. Remember that the next time you try to challenge sin, or preach the Gospel. How dare you try to lead them to still waters or green pastures? Sugar water and cream puffs taste so much better! 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

The Chicken or the Egg?

It is the quintessential question. The question that has likely passed the lips of everyone reading these words at some point, in some context or another, because it is ubiquitous. Which came first the chicken or the egg?

If we think it through logically, it’s not such a complicated question, especially if you believe as we do that God created all things. The chicken came first. That’s obvious enough. God created the chicken, the chicken laid the egg, and the universal question was answered at its genesis.

I woke up early this morning. I usually do. It’s quiet. The kids and wife are still sleeping, the house is silent, and it’s my time to be alone with God. Some mornings it’s as early as 3 am, others as late as 4, but for at least an hour I get to read, pray, and meditate on the Word of God.  

As I looked out my window and watched the breaking of the dawn, a thought forced its way to the forefront of my mind, and would not relent: Which comes first, passion or vision? Do you first have to have the vision to stir up the passion, or do you first have to have the passion to birth the vision?

Simple as this question might be on its surface, it is an intellectual conundrum, one that took up most of my morning. In the end, as I heard the rustling from upstairs, and knew that my alone time would be short-lived, the conclusion I came to was that passion must exist for vision to materialize.

Passion must precede vision. If you have a passion for serving God, He will provide you with the vision, and since the passion is already there, you will take the necessary steps to make the vision a reality.

It begins with an all-consuming desire to serve. Once that passion, that desire is there, God will supply the vision, but not just. Not only will God tell you what to do, He will also show you how to do it, and instruct you as to when to do it.

Because you desired to serve, and not to make a name for yourself, or be great in your own eyes, you will be humble enough to follow the instructions you are given without deviating from them.

This is where countless souls get stuck in the mud. They have the passion; they get the vision with the requisite instructions, then start believing they can do it better, faster, or on a larger scale.

Why just have a congregation of fifty when it can easily be five thousand? Why just preach to one nation when I can be an apostle to the nations? Why just have one orphanage when you can have five?

Because fifty souls, or one nation, or one orphanage, was the extent of the vision God gave you. Be faithful in that, and if a new vision is birthed in you, you will once more receive the necessary instructions to accomplish it as well.

The importance of following God’s instructions to make a vision a reality cannot be understated.

One of the most humbling experiences of my life was putting a child’s bed from Ikea together. I leafed through the instructions, and they made no sense. They seemed out of sequence, so I lay the instructions aside, and proceeded to do it on my own. How hard could it be? It was a child’s bed, not a nuclear reactor.

Three hours later, frustrated, and sweating, I had to take apart everything I’d put together up until that point, and go back to the instruction manual. I was done within the hour.

If God gives you a vision and gives you clear instructions, even if they seem out of sequence, even if intuitively you would have started somewhere else, trust the plan, follow the instructions, and you will see the vision come to life.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

The One Place

Wherever you find yourself in this great big world, there’s always a chance of running face first into a natural disaster, or some event that will require divine intervention for you to survive. It’s the reality of the world we live in, and anyone who says they live in the one place where there aren’t any earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic activity, flooding, or typhoons, where they live, just haven’t lived there long enough.

Strange things are afoot, and although we are seeing things such as earthquakes in places where we would expect to see them, we are also seeing them in places we’d never expect. The same goes for tornadoes, flooding, and other things we deem to be natural disasters.

Those who believe they can affect the earth’s core temperature just because they drive their Buick to the local stop-n-go keep insisting that we should stop cows from tooting, planes from flying, and cars from driving to save the planet. The self-importance some people give themselves nowadays is laughable, but they are zealous in their beliefs and fierce crusaders for the extermination of plastic straws and Styrofoam cups. They need to cling to these fairy tales, because of the need to hold out hope that they have some sort of control. They need to believe that by their actions, they can affect the outcome of the world.

 Those of us who have read the Word of God understand that these are just signs of the times. They are things we should be living in anticipation of because along with sings in the sun, the moon, and the stars, there will be perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the seas, earthquakes in various places and various other things we tend to call natural disasters.

Such things will not diminish. They will increase as time goes on, both in frequency and intensity, and it has nothing to do with man-caused global warming, global cooling, climate change, or climate disruption. It’s just a dog shaking off fleas when they start to become an annoyance. It is a reminder of man’s impotence though he thinks himself a god.

It is inevitable that with every tremor, or increased geyser activity, flooding, or tornadic activity, the fear mongers come out of the woodwork, and hysterically insist that you should pack up, move out, do it now, don’t wait until dawn. What they never seem to tell you is where exactly you’re supposed to go, or if their insistence is born of a human reaction to fear, or if God spoke to them regarding you specifically.

Because their hysteria is meant to amplify fear, and amplified fear leads to irrational decisions, some people find themselves in a U-Haul truck five hundred miles from home before they start asking themselves where it is that they’re going.

As someone who hasn’t bought a bunch of land in the middle of the jungles of Paraguay or Uruguay or Belize trying to start my version of Jonestown, let me be the one to tell you that there is only one safe place you can be, and you can’t find it on any map.

It won’t require you to purchase acreage deep in the Amazon or reserve your below ground bunker at the cost of a million dollars; it will require your heart, your obedience, and your faithfulness. The one place you will be safe even in the midst of chaos is Christ. The one place you will have peace even amid uproar is in Christ.

I’m not looking for a place to run to, I’m working toward growing deeper in Him, trusting Him, and serving Him every day, knowing that He can protect, He can sustain, and He can provide. Surrender to God’s will, and your fear will evaporate. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

Straws and Camels

I’ve always found the straw that broke the camel’s back to be an odd saying. I guess to me it’s the contrast between a stalk of hay, something so weightless it gets blown around by a light breeze, and a camel’s back, which I have personally seen carry well-fed tourists a good hundred pounds on the wrong side of rubenesque, without complaint.

A camel is built to carry heavy loads, yet, at some point, even a camel has its limits. There is always a point when one ounce becomes an ounce too much, and what seemed indestructible collapses under the weight hoisted upon it.

Everywhere you turn there seem to be camels nearing the breaking point. From culture to society, to elected officials, hay bale after hay bale is being foisted upon the backs of the camels, and it’s obvious that they are struggling under the weight, and are nearing the inevitable snap.

The pressure builds and builds, until a small thing, something which in the great scheme would go unnoticed, brings everything crumbling to the ground, and chaos ensues.

By now it is obvious that those who keep hoisting the hay bales on the backs of the American citizenry are neither good-hearted nor well-intentioned. It is obvious that their intent, purpose, and goal is to collapse the system, to break the back of the camel so that the camel has no choice but to lay there and acquiesce to whatever they decide the best course of action is.

On the culture front, we see the systematic indoctrination of four and five-year-olds regarding gender, with schools now being mandated to teach that rather than male and female, as many as one hundred genders exist, depending on what someone feels like identifying as that particular day.

We see what were once fringe perversions being normalized and celebrated, even making inroads into the church, with some denominations allowing for transsexual story time in their sanctuaries.

These people understand the power of propaganda, of indoctrinating children while they are young, and they are relentless in their pursuit. Though they despise the Bible and the God of the Bible, they inherently see the wisdom of training up a child in the way he should go. They are fully aware that if a child is trained up as a child, he will not depart for that which he was taught when he is old.

On the societal front, we see tax paying citizens accosted, beaten, and violently abused by masked mobs while the police, those whose duty and responsibility is to protect and serve, sit idly by and watch it happen. The rule of law is no longer upheld unilaterally, and more people than ever feel as though they do not have equal protection under the law.

On the national front, you have swarms of individuals from a multitude of nations streaming into the country overwhelming the borders, and demanding to be naturalized the moment they set foot on US soil. The notion of legal immigration, of going through the process is scoffed at and ridiculed, and if anyone dares object, they are branded racists and told to pay their fair share.

Whether or not the camel’s back will break is a foregone conclusion. We know that it will. It’s only a matter of time. We are at a point where the only question that remains unanswered is which camel buckles first. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr. .

Little Children

I wake up every morning with a smile on my face looking forward to what is about to take place. Every morning, without fail, when I hear rustling in my younger daughter’s room, I walk in and say good morning, and am rewarded with a smile. It is an indescribable smile. It is innocent and loving, glorious and sublime, a smile that is Shakespearean in its ability to convey the deepest of emotion and the purest of intent. No words are spoken. No words are needed. That smile says it all, and it fills my heart to overflowing.

I relish every morning because I know at some point in the near future that smile will no longer greet me in the morning, but rather, like her older sister, I will be greeted with an oftentimes sullen “good morning daddy”, followed by “what’s for breakfast, or can I watch some cartoons.”

If you have children, you know what I’m talking about. That innocence and wonder dissipate at a certain point, and I know this because I lived it with my eldest daughter. By my calculation, I still have a good ten months of morning smiles that are like a starburst in the dead of night for my soul. After that, I may get the smile once in a while, but not every day, not every morning, it is not something I will be able to count on as surely as the rising sun.

As I have often said, I believe wholeheartedly that fatherhood allows you to understand the heart of God better than any seminary or workshop on divinity. This morning, as I walked into my daughter’s room anticipating that awe-inspiring smile, I couldn’t help but wonder if God’s heart is likewise filled when we greet him innocently and lovingly every morning and if He too anticipates with sadness a time when we will no longer do so?

I wonder, is this innocent, trusting, selfless smile the true meaning of first love? Is this innocence and excitement at seeing our Father every morning the thing we are warned against leaving?

Since I’ve never branded myself the perfect Christian, I can be honest with you and tell you that there are mornings when I catch myself going through the motions. There are mornings when rather than give God that loving smile, and bask in His presence, I give Him a “good morning, daddy.”

Maybe I’m in pain that morning, or I’ve got a lot on my mind, the mortgage is due, or I have to catch a flight, but whatever my excuse, this morning I couldn’t help but wonder if God misses my smile as much as I miss my eldest daughter’s smile whenever I don’t get it.

Whatever your circumstance, whatever your situation, whatever your trial, your hardship, or your thorn, greet God every morning with a smile. If His heart reacts to our smile as my heart reacts to my daughter’s smile, I know with certitude that it is something He looks forward to every single day. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.