But You!

 The Word of God is consistent in delineating the just from the unjust and the godly from the ungodly. Standoffish as it may seem, there is an us and them; there are those of the light and those of the darkness. There’s no way around this reality, no matter how many coexist stickers we plaster on our bumpers or how many interfaith potlucks we have with the community.

Contrary to the once famous country song, we don’t worship the same god from different kinds of pews because there is only one God, and all others are idols and false deities. If all paths lead to the same destination, that would make Jesus a liar. It’s not mean-spirited, combative, or cruel to say Jesus is the only way; it’s just the truth. Oftentimes, when people don’t want to deal with the truth, they’ll accuse the truth-teller of being a hatemonger. That’s just their way of coping with the feelings of unease crawling up their spine because they know somewhere deep down that what they’ve heard is the truth.

I don’t mean to get on Joel Osteen’s bad side; I’m still holding out for an invitation to preach his pulpit, but when he goes on about people of other religions whose deep faith in their chosen god will somehow get them into heaven, he’s contradicting Jesus.

John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

There is no ambiguity in Christ’s declaration. He didn’t leave room for doubt or interpretation. After He said no one came to the Father except through Him, there was no addendum stating except for really spiritual people, emotive people, or spirit animal folk.

What the likes of Joel Osteen are preaching is not Christianity. It’s closer to Baha’i than anything resembling the faith once delivered to the saints, where a little bit of this and a little bit of that makes for a tasty religious stew. When was it that Christian leaders started teaching the essential worth of all religions rather than the singularity of Christ and the supremacy of the God of the Bible?

Then we wonder why the devil’s kids are outworking and outhustling those of the church. While they have one purpose, one goal, and one idol, today’s church is standing at the crossroads of indecision, with a hundred different trails forking in different directions, and they’re told by those they consider their spiritual authorities that any old trail will do. Close your eyes, spin around twice, then whatever fork in the road you’re standing in front of, take that one. It all leads to the same place anyway.  

If that’s the case, why not just pick the easiest path? Why go through the hassle of denying myself, picking up my cross, and following after Jesus, when I can party hardy all the live long day, live in the moment, surrender to my baser instincts, then meet the suckers who trudged along with crosses on their backs at the pearly gates? It’s their fault they believed Jesus over Joel Osteen, after all, isn’t it?

They could have been living their best lives, become a better them, they could have thought better and lived better, declared, and discovered the power of I am, but instead, they kept going on and on about the Bible and what Jesus said. If you ask me, I think they were just afraid of a little good old-fashioned competition. Jesus only fed five thousand. Joel’s got forty-five thousand spiritual corpses eating out of his hand every Sunday.

Jude 20-21, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

There are those who grumble, complain, mock, and walk according to their own ungodly lust; then there’s you. Jude makes the separation quite clear, and after twenty verses of warning regarding those who would creep into the household unnoticed and attempt to tear the body of Christ asunder, he turns his focus on you, and me, and all those who walk humbly with God, and look for the mercy of Christ Jesus unto eternal life.

Our mission is simple and well-defined. It is a four-step process that will keep us strong, vibrant, and useful to the kingdom of God if we follow through with it. These are not complicated or beyond basic understanding. You don’t need to take a course, and you don’t need to pay for a workshop. You just need to put in the time and prioritize God and a relationship with Him over everything else in your life. For some, it’s easier said than done, but there are no alternatives, shortcuts, or magic mantras you can repeat in the mirror.

The first step is to build ourselves up on our most holy faith. By this, we understand that it’s not a one-and-done deal but a constant growth from faith to faith, continually maturing and developing. If your faith is not stronger today than it was yesterday and stronger tomorrow than it was today, you have a problem that needs to be dealt with posthaste. Stagnant Christianity is as dangerous as lukewarm Christianity. If you are not building yourself up in your most holy faith, it should be alarming to you and making it a priority of paramount importance. That the faith must be holy goes without saying, for if your faith is built upon a foundation other than Christ, the Gospel, and the truth, it is no faith at all.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.