Job LV

 I overslept. It happens rarely, but it does happen on occasion. I am only human, after all. Blessings.

The presence of God makes the most unbearable of situations bearable. As children of God, our attitude and disposition are not dictated by our circumstances but by His living presence in our hearts. Paul and Silas were in the inner prison, with their feet fastened in stocks, yet they sang hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

It’s not as though they live during a time when three hots and a cot were guaranteed if you happened to be incarcerated. They were likely sitting on the ground, unable to move, muscle aches and sore backs getting worse with each passing minute, with no respite in sight as they had not even been tried yet, but their hearts were full of the peace and joy of the Lord, to the point that they sang hymns to Him.

I’ll be the first to confess that I like my freedom, a warm blanket, and the ability to move my legs at will. By any metric, comparatively speaking, I live a pampered life when considering others who came before me. If I cannot bring myself to sing hymns to God in my comfort, with a roof over my head and heat to keep me warm, how will I be able to justify my apathy and indifferent attitude toward His blessings when standing shoulder to shoulder with those who in the midst of being brutalized had the wherewithal to praise God?

When our focus is on Him, the circumstances we find ourselves in don’t influence us or affect our state of mind. It’s not that we don’t feel pain or loss, privation or hunger. Job himself was unrecognizable to his three friends, but we don’t fixate on our problems; we focus on the One who is the solution to all our problems. God is where hope originates and resides. In Him, we can look at the present and know with certainty and no shadow of turning that He is already into tomorrow, making a way when there seems to be no way.

We serve, obey, and follow because it is our heart’s desire to do so, not because we’re looking for something other than the bond of friendship and intimacy that can only come about by spending time in His presence. If my service to God is conditional on Him blessing me by way of the material, then it is stained and done with ulterior motives. All I do in His name amounts to nothing more than Cain’s sacrifice, something done out of rigidity and tradition rather than true desire.

We serve God because we want to serve Him, not because we have to out of fear of Him taking away our creature comforts or the toys we spend more time with than with Him. 

In the era of the participation trophy, even believers who should know better seem to demand praise from on high for doing the bare minimum as far as spending time with God, praising Him, and declaring that He is worthy.

Neither God’s expectations nor His standard of servanthood have changed from generation to generation. A good and faithful servant was deemed such two thousand years ago as they are today. We go back and forth and round and round as to why we’re not seeing the presence and power of God in our day and age as those who came before us did, and we find ever more inventive ways to remove ourselves from the equation and bypass accountability altogether. Well, you see, the reason we’re not seeing the manifest power of God is because God just doesn’t do that anymore. So much of His power was poured out during the early church that God needed to take a break and recharge His batteries.

We dread to consider the possibility that in order for God to pour out, He must have a vessel to pour into, and He won’t pour into just any vessel. It must be a vessel of honor, once that has been washed and made clean without and within, for only in this way can what has been poured in remain pure and untainted.

Once that consideration comes to the fore, we’d have to deal with the reality that many claiming to be prophets, apostles, and men of spiritual acclaim are only playing at it, never having received what only God could give because the desire of their heart is personal acclaim, popularity, and self-serving mindset that always seems to have the individual as the pinnacle of purpose. Your job is to bring glory to God, not to man. Every time you fail to do so, you’ve failed in your mission.

God’s hand is not short, nor have His promises ceased to be true in our modern age. The problem isn’t with God; it’s never been. The problem lies at the feet of those claiming to be His because words are only words until they are put into action, and the fruit of that action determines whether we are a good tree bearing good fruit or otherwise.

Your spiritual well-being is not a tertiary issue, something to get around to when all else is done. It is primary and paramount, the single most important thing you have to nurture and grow while you walk this earth. Throughout the millennia, men who prioritized God over all else saw His presence and power manifest themselves in their daily lives to the point that they’ve become legendary men of renown, whom we look to as examples of faithfulness and steadfastness. They were no different than you or I. They had responsibilities, jobs, friends, and families, but they prioritized God and their relationship with Him over all else. The desire of their hearts was neither fame nor fortune; it was not to rub elbows with the powerful or influential of their day but to do the work to which they were called consistently and without the thought of whether it would lead to something more consuming their minds. Be satisfied with where God has placed you, doing the work He has called you to do, because it’s the obedience that He rewards and not the scope of the work itself, for it is better to obey the Lord than to offer sacrifices to Him.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job LIV

 Some deal with loneliness better than others. I revel in solitude; I enjoy it, and a quiet corner where I can read, write, study, and pray is all I really need in order to make me happy or satisfied. I’m not what some might call a social butterfly. I don’t go out of my way to be among other people, and depending on my state of mind and the things that need to get done on a given day, it’s more likely than not that being by my lonesome is preferable. The only exceptions to this generality are my wife and daughters, whom I love spending time with, whether it’s just sitting around the dinner table and reading the Word or playing my oldest daughter’s most recent obsession, Clue.

Each of us deals with being alone differently, and for some people, the worst possible thing they could think of is being alone with their thoughts, with no one to talk to and no one to socialize with.

It’s in those moments of quiet and solitude that some of the most profound insights regarding the Word, the character of God, and the wisdom of the Bible come to the fore, and were I the only one to insist upon it, you could wave it off as anecdotal. Going back as far as Paul the apostle, however, we see that some of the deepest truths he penned were done so from inside a prison cell. We know from his writings, as well as historical context, that he wrote his letters to the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Philippians, and Philemon from prison and that they are some of the most liberating words he ever put to parchment.

In conversation with those who were incarcerated and persecuted for the name of Christ, whether they were songwriters, preachers, teachers of the word, or authors, the running theme has been that their most substantive and insightful body of work took place when they were in solitary confinement, in prison, or suffering at the hands of those who would see the name Jesus expunged from the lips of all in their generation. God is near to those who are near to Him, and in their seasons of hardship and trial, He is an ever-present refuge.

Embrace solitude. Make time daily to be alone with God and tune out all the noise. Do it consistently, and you will see the growth in intimacy you have with God for yourself. Allowing oneself to be distracted constantly is one of the quickest ways to watch the fire of your once-burning love turn to embers. As the adage goes, out of sight, out of mind, and if the enemy can keep us from pressing in and growing in God if he can distract us from being in His presence, he might not have won the war, but he’s winning the battle for our attention. What we do consistently over time will become habitual, a common practice without which we feel incomplete on a given day.

When we begin our day with God, being in His presence, and reading His word daily for a prolonged period, the day we fail to do it, we realize something is amiss even if we didn’t consciously set out to bypass that alone time. Most men are creatures of habit, and your habits will determine whether you’re drawing closer to God or slipping further away from Him.   

It’s different when you’re suffering, bedridden, or going through something so emotionally vexing as to curse the day you were born, however. That’s when you hunger for the presence of another to be there with you, for you, hopefully taking a bit of the weight off your back and being a shoulder to cry on.

The beauty of knowing Christ and walking with Him is that even when we are alone, we are not alone. He is a forever friend, forever confidant, forever faithful and present, the one we could reach out to knowing He will be there, and an ever-present comfort and balm. There’s a reason Christians don’t go to therapy, and it’s not because they’re too rigid or don’t think that it’s an actual thing, although, let’s be fair, some of the worst advice I’ve heard came from people with degrees in psychology, but because they always have someone to confide in, someone at whose feet they can lay their burdens down.

When you’re given a choice between the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, and a scruffy-looking guy in a tweed jacket whose own life is a steaming mess talking about triggers and repressed memories, it’s no choice at all. Everyone’s in therapy nowadays, but nobody seems to be getting any better. They’re medicated to the gills just to get through an ordinary day, one little pill to make them happy, another to make them sad, and another to balance them out, never coming to the realization that until they deal with the root cause of their malaise, they will not improve. It’s the absence of His presence that’s making them feel as though their lives are in a tailspin when they’re likely living better than the top one percent of the top one percent in the world.

When men reject Christ and all that He offers, they try to find ways and means to counterfeit the peace and joy only He can bring. They hoard things, seek admiration, obsess over careers, or run to men, hoping they can fix what only God can because their hearts are hard and darkened, and rather than humble themselves and come to the foot of the cross in repentance, they’ll talk themselves into believing that nothing so simple as surrender and obedience can be the balm or cure for the maelstrom of their hearts.

Until his friends showed up, Job was alone, with the brief respite of his wife insisting that he relinquish the integrity he held onto, curse God, and put an end to the pain. Even at his lowest, God was still present and had Job doubted God’s love for him; he would have likely succumbed to the overwhelming fear of desperation. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job LIII

 Given their actions when they first saw Job from afar, we can intuit that his three friends were also men of faith. They may not have reached Job’s level of uprightness, nor were they blameless in God’s eyes as he was, but they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven, an act of brokenness and repentance for the time. This practice would later come to be known as an outward sign of mourning, abasement, and repentance, with men having repented in sackcloth and ashes being mentioned in Daniel, Lamentations, Isaiah, and in the case of Jonah, the whole of Nineveh.

These were likely the predecessors or forerunners of what became common practice given the timeline of when the Book of Job likely occurred. Before the books of Moses or the Pentateuch were penned, before the law was given and Moses descended with the tablets, before the tabernacle or tent of meeting was erected, there was Job, a blameless and upright man the likes of which could not be found on the earth.

There’s a reason Job has been relegated to one of those names we dare not speak or topics we dare not delve into in the modern-day church because what happened to him, what he went through, and what God allowed in his life is antithetical to the now tired and overused trope that if you just try to be a good person all good things will flow into your life, so much so that you’ll be looking for a spigot to turn it off only to find there isn’t one.

Your Best Life Now sold eight million copies and was number one for two years straight on the New York Times Self-Help bestseller list. That it was placed on the self-help list rather than Christianity, religion, or theology should tell you everything you need to know about its scriptural integrity, but one look at Job and his life, the trials and travails he went through as one who was blameless and upright before God is all it takes to turn the entire tome into little more than Swiss cheese.

Every day may be a Friday for someone raking in millions by telling people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear, but as far as equating prosperity, excess, or material overflow with God’s stamp of approval and a vociferous declaration that you too are blameless and upright, a singularity among your fellow man to be looked upon as the pinnacle of spiritual maturity, that way lies danger as for many it becomes a self-fulfilling litmus test of walking in a righteousness they do not possess.

Well, no, I haven’t denied myself since that one time I didn’t order a second dessert, and as far as picking up my cross, I wear silk suits, and they’re very delicate. I’ll follow Jesus if He leads where I intend on going in the first place, if His will is in harmony with my own, and our five-year plans coalesce, but I’ve got stuff. Lots and lots of stuff, and that’s all the proof I need that I’m doing good, walking right, and have the faith to manifest my dreams into reality. When did that become the standard? When did that become the plumb line? When was it that we shifted from humbly walking with the Lord and working out our salvation with fear and trembling to using the trappings of this life as proof of our uprightness?

Some of the more shameless among us will be quick to say that Job didn’t have enough faith because everyone knows it takes faith to activate prosperity, and once it’s activated, continuity of faith is required to keep the gravy train chugging along on its biscuit wheels. They use the same reasoning when it comes to brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering untold horrors at the hands of evil men, being persecuted to the point of martyrdom. It’s not their lack of faith that keeps them clinging to Jesus, holding fast to their integrity, and trusting in His sovereignty when going through such horrors, and for anyone to make such an egregious claim tells me they don’t have the first clue of what it is to walk by faith, fully trusting in the will of God for their lives.

When is it that we grew so jaded that we will look down upon and condescend to those who are walking in a realm of faith that few of us can even conceive? I’ve never been called upon to lay down my life, not just hypothetically, but in actuality, nor have I had to endure the loss of everything, but I have enough humility to look upon such individuals as examples to aspire to rather than cautionary tales I should avoid.

There he goes again, beating up on American Christianity. That you call it Christianity is in and of itself generous beyond what I am willing to allow, but beyond that, it’s not just an American problem; it’s a contemporary Christianity the world over problem, with the exception of nations where there is active, and ongoing persecution of the church. Such nations may not have plush seating, air-conditioned sanctuaries, or pastors bragging about their newest Rolex acquisition, but they do have something the others don’t, which is the power and presence of God.

They walk into a service or a prayer meeting fully aware that it may be their last time, or even their last day, accepting the reality that they may have to suffer or even die for the fellowship others dismiss and are indifferent toward. It’s not that they’re better believers, but they are undoubtedly more committed to the way of Christ, given that their faith costs them something tangible every time they boldly declare that they are willing to pay the price and incur the wrath of the godless by the outwardly demonstration of the faith burning in their hearts.

A man can only give away what he already possesses. This goes for truth, money, a cup of water, or a hot meal. If you don’t have it to give, then you don’t have it to give, and you’ll give what you have. When the lame man asked Peter and John for alms as they were about to walk into the temple, Peter said to him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”

Peter knew what he had. He knew what he possessed and willingly gave it to the lame man, taking him by the hand and lifting him up. We cannot expect certain preachers to give us what they don’t have. If the truth is not in them, if they are not walking in it, then they cannot give it to another. If, to them, faith is merely a quaint notion but not an active, living, substantive, ever-present reality, then they can never understand how true faith can stretch and carry an individual beyond the point of their physical strength, giving them the capacity to endure what most would call impossible. That’s why they avoid the Book of Job like the plague or someone with a cough and a scratchy throat.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job LII

Job was not the rock of Gibraltar being beaten by crashing waves and stoically withstanding it all as though nothing was amiss. He felt the pain of loss for his ten children, he felt the physical pain of his boils, and in the time it took for his friends to come to him, he had become unrecognizable. The memory of what he’d been and what he looked like now was so different that, to their eyes, it did not seem like the same man.

The same thing happens to each of us when we come to Jesus but in the inverse. We start out sick and dirty, covered in tattered rags, lifeless and hollow, and then we encounter Him. He takes a wretch like me and patiently cleanses me with His blood, restores my soul, clothes me in white garments, and breathes new life in me. How could I not sing His praises? How could I not serve Him all the days of my life, knowing what would have been had He not found me and called me His own?

Throughout the week, we take turns saying grace as we sit down to dinner. We hold hands as a family, bow our heads, and one of us proceeds to give thanks to God for His many blessings. When they were younger, the girls would always start out thanking God for the food, the hands that prepared it, and the grace of having something to eat when others in the world might not. As they grew and began to understand who Jesus is and what He did on the cross, I noticed that both of their prayers changed, and nowadays, more often than not, they start out by thanking God for sending Jesus. They still include the food, the heat, and the roof over our heads, but Jesus and His salvific sacrifice come first.

Even at their tender age, without the benefit of attending seminary and getting a degree in pastoral studies, they understand the immeasurable gift we are freely given by the hand of God in that we were once lost, separated from His love and grace, wandering in the dark and standoffish of the light. It doesn’t take a genius-level IQ or endless hours of sitting in a classroom to understand the simple truth of the gospel. Jesus came to set the captives free. He came to give His life that we might have life, then rose again on the third day, leaving all who would believe, repent, and follow after Him with the promise that we would one day be with Him in the place He has prepared, where every tear will be wiped from our eyes, and everlasting joy will abound.

Historical context is important in understanding both that Job was now an outcast among his own people, given his painful boils and the perpetual fear of the time of contracting some incurable disease, and the depth of love his friends had for him in that they were not concerned or fearful for themselves. It’s not as though Job had the benefit of modern medicine to determine whether or not he was contagious. It’s not as though he’d gone out and done a blood panel to determine what he was suffering from. It’s not as though his friends were presented with a clean bill of health before they sat down with him for seven days and seven nights, and for all they knew, they could have contracted the same malady he suffered from if they breathed the same air or were around him for a prolonged period of time.

Whether they took the possibility of getting sick themselves into account, we will never know, but what is clearly written is that when his three friends saw the state Job was in, they lifted their voices and wept, and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. They cried out for mercy on behalf of their friend, given that it was the only thing they could do.

We know what man is capable of and the lengths to which he will go if he feels as though his health or his life are in danger. To this day, I still see people driving around by themselves with face diapers firmly secured to their faces, although it's rarer now than it was two years ago. Imagine living in a time before the ability to determine what someone was suffering from, before electricity or WebMD, before Urgent Care, and the encyclopedia of diseases and disorders.

Imagine seeing a friend you once knew as strong and vibrant, now unrecognizable, sitting on an ash pile, covered in painful boils from head to toe, not knowing if coming close to him will bring you to the same state. We cannot dismiss the depth of love Job’s friends had for him. We can’t wave it off and say it doesn’t count unless we try to put ourselves in their situation and determine whether we would have done likewise. These three men likely had families of their own, wives and children, servants and acquaintances, and the thought that not only would they catch what Job had but spread it to their loved ones, in turn, must have come to the fore at some point. Even so, they sat down with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights.

When we look at this event through the prism of the spiritual, we can’t help but notice some deeper truths. Jesus will sit with you at your lowest when all others have abandoned you, when the world has shunned you, and those you called friends will do everything they can to avoid you. Even in your mess, your pain, in the disfigurement sin has wrought upon your countenance, He will sit on the ground with you in the hope of lifting you up out of the dust and ash and bringing you to a new understanding of life, most notably that it doesn’t end when you go back to the dust, but that it continues into eternity with only two possible destinations.

We choose to either take His outstretched hand and humble ourselves to the point of letting Him do on our behalf what we could have never done on our own or resign ourselves to the idea that all there is is ash and dust, and painful boils, and His promise of restoration and wholeness is nothing more than a fable. Call it a fable, call it a lie, call it a fanciful tale akin to spaghetti monsters, but I know what I know, I’ve felt what I’ve felt, I know Him as my Lord, my King, and my Savior, and nothing anyone says can sway me from what I know to be true. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job LI

 Job had true friends because he was a true friend in kind. When the three men heard of his troubles, they didn’t shrug their shoulders and say it was well deserved or that it’s what you get for being a double-dealing weasel; they made a plan to visit Job and mourn with him in his time of travail.

Sometimes, people will say behind your back what they wouldn’t dare say to your face. Their true heart, feelings, and what they think of you come out when a third party delivers news to them regarding something that’s happened to you because you’re not there, and they don’t have to put on airs.

Sometimes, the response by someone who was supposed to be a friend of another to their predicament is so vitriolic and hate-filled as to shock you into silence. Because I used to travel back and forth to Romania a lot, back before the time of Zoom calls and instant messages, I’d be used as what I’d come to affectionately call a news mule. Everyone in church knew I was planning a trip, so they’d come by the apartment with either a letter, a small package, or a pair of shoes and ask if I would be so kind as to deliver these things to family and friends. It got to the point that I’d barely have room for a pair of pants and a shirt in my allotted two seventy-pound suitcases because if you say yes to one person, you have to say yes to everyone else; otherwise, they’ll infer some nefarious reason as to why you said no, or think you harbor ill will toward them.

People will take advantage of your kind nature if they can, and if you give an inch, they’ll take a mile. If you say you’re willing to deliver a letter to their grandmother, they’ll show up with a forty-pound audio mixing board and even give you instructions to pack it well and make sure it doesn’t get damaged en route. Have you seen how they throw suitcases onto those carts at the airport? I’m not guaranteeing that it will make it in one piece, never mind that it will function when it gets there.

Eventually, it got to the point that I was running an amateur DHL service without getting paid every time I’d go back to the homeland, and I realized the easiest way out of my predicament was to not tell anyone I was planning a trip, or when I was going back, and just like that, I had enough room in my suitcases for my own changes of clothing.

During one such trip, the mother of a man I knew in church asked me to pass on some news about one of his neighborhood friends who’d gotten into an accident and had to have their leg amputated because it was too badly mangled and couldn’t be saved. I’d gotten into the habit of always carrying a notebook with me because it was just too much to keep track of in my brain, so I wrote it down and who it was meant for. When I got back home after a Sunday service, I went up to him and gave him the news that his mother had asked me to pass on.

I don’t know what had transpired between the two men, but it was evident that his mother was not in the loop because after telling him of his friend’s troubles, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, sometimes we get what we deserve. I just stood there with my mouth half open, not able to think of anything to say. Even if they’d had a falling out, his reaction and response was needlessly cruel, and it made me see him in a whole new light.

One’s true friends are revealed in times of trouble. Job’s friends heard, and their first reaction was to come to be with him, comfort him, and mourn with him. They didn’t send flowers or a card; they went out of their way and put their lives on hold to travel to where Job was and see what, if anything, they could do to help him in his moment of need.

Job 2:12-13, “And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lived their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.”

These three men did something Job’s own brothers hadn’t, which was to come to him and be with him in his time of devastation. Yes, Job had brothers; we are told this in the latter chapters of the book, but the only people to show up were these three friends. Surely, Job had helped a multitude of people closer to home along the way. He was, after all, a generous man who gave freely of his goods, yet none came to offer words of comfort in his grief. He was forgotten and dispensed with as soon as they saw nothing they could benefit from him by way of the material.

When doing a kindness to someone, whether a stranger or a friend, it’s instinctual to expect reciprocity, or at the least gratitude. Sometimes, you don’t get either, and this is why we are commanded to do all things as unto the Lord, knowing that He keeps track of it all and will reward us in due season. If we are generous or magnanimous because we expect accolades or for someone to return the favor, we’re doing it for the wrong reasons anyway and will have no part of the reward we otherwise would have had.

Choose your friends wisely. It is advice I’ve received over the years from various gray-haired souls, and I’ve taken it to heart. Too many nowadays let people who ought not to be into their inner circle just to boast that they have so many friends. I’m neither cold nor standoffish, but it takes me a while to call someone my friend because I have to know that they truly are. Once that occurs, and I call someone my friend, I’m as loyal as a shelter-rescued pit bull. Yes, that type of loyalty has come back to bite me when those to which I’d shown loyalty did not reciprocate in kind, but I know of no other way to be.

We are not made privy to how many friends Job had before his season of testing, but we know how many he had during his travails. Three. Three men put their lives on hold and came to Job after hearing of his hardship.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job L

 What remains after the fire of testing is the only thing of eternal value we possess. It’s one of those hard truths we learn individually, even though the Word makes it clear this is the case. Some will toil their entire lives only to discover it was all vanity, having only a fistful of ashes and a mountain of regrets to show for the life they lived, while others will reap the reward of having built something that endures.

If what energizes and animates us is something other than the Kingdom of God, if what we pursue are the fleeting things of this life rather than those which hold an eternal weight of glory, once the passing things of earth go the way of dust, all we are left with is the foreboding reality that we’ve squandered the time we were given in pursuit of worthless things.

When we consistently prioritize our relationship with Jesus and build up our most holy faith throughout our lives, when the fire of testing comes, those things will remain while the dross will be burned away. It is in those moments that we discover He is enough, He is sufficient, and everything else was but a vapor, something that is here today and gone tomorrow with no permanence or continuity into eternity.

What is the purpose of your life here on earth? That is the ever-present question that should determine what we commit our time and resources to on a daily basis. If my purpose is an eternity in His presence, if the desire of my heart is to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant,” then all that I do and all that I am will be focused on that singular goal. When my goal is firmly established, I will intuitively know what serves as a distraction when it appears. I will know that whatever the thing is, whether it is a new hobby, a new job, a new friendship, or a new goal, noble as these things might be, they are trying to take away from the time I’ve been given to pursue Him.

Some things can’t be avoided. We all need to eat, so we all have to work. Human connection is part of life, so we all need friends, but through it all, we must still be aware that time is slipping away and the desire to remove ourselves from the hustle and bustle of life and be alone with Him and in His presence must be ever-present.

When I first started courting my wife, whenever we would part, I couldn’t wait until the next time I saw her. There was an expectation and anticipation of a future encounter, to the point that I couldn’t wait for the night to end, the sun to rise, and for me to pick her up and take her to breakfast just so we could talk or hold hands again.

This is the type of mindset we must nurture when it comes to spending time in God’s presence. I wake up every morning excited about the prospect of spending a few hours alone with God before everyone wakes up and the business of life begins anew, from packing lunches for the girls, taking them to school, answering e-mails, paying bills, and everything else that goes along with existing entails.

If the desire of your heart is to spend time with God, you will find the time. If it’s not, then every other breath will provide a fresh excuse to put it off, delay it, or ignore it altogether.

There are also moments in life when we get so busy that it seems as though we’re running on an endless hamster wheel just to keep up. Then, suddenly, something happens, and everything comes to a standstill. At first, we wonder why such a thing could happen to us, why God would allow it since He knows how busy we are, and that we need to have the energy to work those eighteen-hour days, but the more we grow, and the more mature we become, we see those events for what they are, a loving reminder that God misses us, and we should miss Him, and there’s nothing like being bedridden for a couple of days to give us the time to reacquaint ourselves with Him.

When we look at life’s events through the prism of human reason or logic and don’t apply a spiritual filter to them, we often miss out on the lesson God is trying to teach us or the true purpose of what it is we’re going through. I often made the same mistake in my younger years, especially when it came to the constant gout attacks I’d have in my early twenties. If you happen to have gout, then you know. If you don’t have it, you can’t imagine. Just thank the Lord that you don’t, and believe me when I tell you that you are being spared a pain akin to childbirth.

I tried everything from diet to cherry extract to drinking enough water to drown a small village, all to no avail. Every few months, I’d get a flare-up, and I’d be out of circulation for a week or more. I even got a prescription for allopurinol at one point, but it just made it worse, and I didn’t like the way it made me feel.

Then it was my mom, of all people, who said something that made me pause and look at the situation from a different angle: “Maybe God’s trying to tell you something.” That was it. Six words that changed my life for the better. I thought about what she said, looked back on the times I’d gotten sidelined by my gout, and realized it was usually during the moments in life when I was so focused on other things that I failed to make enough time for God.

Although correlation is not causation, and my experience is anecdotal, I can attest that after making that mind shift and prioritizing spending time with God over anything else that might be happening in my life, I haven’t had a gout attack since. God chastens those He loves, and the purpose thereof is always to draw us closer to Him.

Our need for God must extend beyond the moments when we have a problem only He can fix to every day and every hour of our lives. We must understand that without Him, without His presence in our lives and His being established on the thrones of our hearts, we have nothing.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job XLIX

 Often, it’s what’s staring us in the face that we seem not to notice or appreciate until it’s gone, whether it’s snatched away suddenly or slips through our fingers incrementally until it is no more. Perhaps it’s because we’re used to it, or take it for granted, or because we feel as though we are entitled to whatever it may be to a certain extent. I wake up in the morning, come downstairs, brew some coffee, and get to work, only aware of how I’m feeling, if something is off, or if my joints are achy because it’s been raining all night. I don’t wake up and consciously appreciate it when I’m feeling fine, and nothing is clicking or popping like someone was snapping celery by hand.

While during the days of Job, there was no church or household of faith as a support system during his time of hardship, we have the grace of brothers and sisters in Christ, members of His body, who will come alongside us in prayer when we need them most. At least, that’s the way it should be.

There are a multitude of reasons we were exhorted not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and allowing for the rest of the body to be there for us when we are weak, wounded, or on the brink of despair is one of them. A fractured body is a weakened body, and a weakened body is easy prey for the enemy who prowls and seeks to devour.

Because most of us have gone through seasons of hardship and can appreciate the importance of having someone to lean on, we reciprocate in kind when another within the body is being buffeted and are quick to be a comfort and a means of encouragement to them as well. It doesn’t matter what body part is hurting, whether the toe you stubbed on a side table because your kids moved it just a smidge and your muscle memory told you the way was clear or your head because one of those occasional migraines you get decided to pay you a visit. Pain in one area ripples throughout your body and affects it in its entirety.

I am well aware that it’s challenging to find a church body that preaches the Word, feeds the soul, and lives out the gospel as it should nowadays. I’m not ignorant of this reality, but just because something is difficult, it doesn’t make it impossible, and rather than give up, stop looking, and resign ourselves to going at it alone, we must be diligent in making the quest of finding people to fellowship with a priority in our lives.

You’re never going to find a perfect church full of perfect people. If such a church existed, I’d likely be the odd man out because I am far from perfect, as is everyone else. The problem, as I see it, is that many people have a laundry list of expectations of what a church should offer before they get to biblical teaching. It has to have a good children’s program, a modern building, comfortable seats, pizza nights, stirring praise and worship, an affable, well-groomed pastor, service under forty-five minutes, and multiple services, so if I miss the first and the second one, the third is still an option, no more than five minutes from my house, an overall positive vibe, and the list goes on.

All these things must be secondary concerns, paling in comparison to the primary concern, which is whether or not the Word is being rightly divided, the Bible is being taught, and the focus is on Christ and the cross. Well, yes, I found a church that preaches the whole counsel of God, but it’s small, and the seats are uncomfortable. Then your purpose wasn’t the truth in and of itself, but rather your comfort or the need to attach yourself to something the world deems a success. We place more value on the things that don’t matter than on the one thing that does because if the teaching isn’t biblical, then nothing else that particular church might have on offer is beneficial to your spiritual man.

When we compare and contrast the time of Job with our current generation and see the many blessings and graces we have as opposed to them, we come to realize that there is no excuse or justification for our lukewarm state or our unwillingness to pursue righteousness with all the gusto of a starving man seeing a banquet laid out before him. We have the Word, which Job did not have; we have the body of Christ, which Job did not have; we have the freedom to worship God in spirit and truth, which others throughout the world today do not enjoy, yet we are indifferent to it all, focusing on the things of this earth and the baseless promises sleazy snake oil salesmen continue to make to the gullible when all evidence is pointing to the contrary.

When we fix our eyes upon the Lord and make Him the desire of our heart, when His truth is established therein, our focus and energy are spent on building up the spiritual man rather than earthly kingdoms, and the things men covet and seek after will be as dull baubles, used and broken toys left in a box gathering dust with no inherent value.

It is Satan’s good pleasure to draw our attention away from knowing Jesus, denying ourselves, and picking up our crosses, and he is quick to point to the worthless, insisting that they are the priceless treasures we seek. The reason he keeps at it is because it works. A myriad of souls stumble in their walk, get distracted, and go off chasing fool’s gold, believing that it will satisfy their soul when nothing but the presence of God can.

Those who have tasted the goodness of the Lord know that nothing compares to it. Those who have known the transformative power of His presence in their lives understand that He is sufficient no matter their current circumstance or lot in life. Seek Him, and you will find Him. Pursue Him, and your pursuit will not be in vain, for if you open the door of your heart, He will come in, and your life, beyond this life, will be forever changed.

Revelation 3:20-21, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Escalation

 The biggest lie currently circulating and making its way through the general consciousness like some malignant poison is that a man who shakes hands with ghosts wanders off into the woods and is only concerned about his next diaper change and the flavor of ice cream he will enjoy once the afternoon rolls around is somehow in charge, or making decisions that could potentially lead to the escalation of an already volatile and drawn out conflict, and the very real probability of a full scale, all-out world war.

It’s like having an aging grandparent who’s been missing a step or five and putting them in charge of retrofitting the gas line coming into the house while the rest of the family is in the basement planning their retirement party. He was never good at such things, even on his best day, but now, in his twilight, when more often than not he forgets his own name and has extended bouts of senility, is when we put him in charge of something that could turn the entire home into ash and rubble in five seconds flat.

It’s not so much that it beggars belief. It’s more akin to shattering it all together, asking the world to believe something demonstrably fallacious with a straight face. We’re expected to suspend reality and believe that he is the decider when it’s likely the only thing he’s decided over the last few years is the flavor of ice cream he’d get in his waffle cone.

Apparently, it’s only when the cameras are on that the man seems lost in space and time. Turn them off, and you’ve got one sharp cookie who understands the inner workings and dynamics of global politics to the point that he concluded the only way to peace is through war and escalation of a conflict that was weeks away from being resolved diplomatically.

Ever since the day after the elections when we got the results faster than anyone would dare hope, and the most hated man in Washington got a mandate to try and dismantle the machine, I’ve stated, and repeatedly so that it’s too quiet. Something was off, felt strange, and barring the handful of women who’ve taken to shaving their heads on Tic Toc and swearing off the intimacy they were never likely to be the recipients of in the first place and the talking heads who accused half the country of deep seeded misogyny, racism, ageism, sexism, and every other ism you could think of, everything seemed relatively peaceful.

I got that same sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when my kids have been upstairs for half an hour, with nary a peep to be heard. Sure, the quiet is a nice respite, but it’s also foreboding, and even though every ounce of me wants to enjoy it for a few more minutes, I know I have to go and check on them.

With less than two months to go before he has to vacate the office and enjoy his ice cream in Delaware rather than DC, the man who never saw a shadow he didn’t threaten has decided to give Ukraine the green light to use American-made long-range missiles to attack Russia. This is a departure from this administration’s previous position, but elections have consequences, and if the consequence of having chosen not to descend into full-blown Communism and rejecting globalism is full-scale war, none of the octogenarians on the Hill seem to be overly bothered by it.

The instant Ukraine got the green light to escalate, they did so, and reports are coming in that an American missile was used against a military depot in Russia. What the world is currently banking on and hoping for is Russian restraint, wherein they don’t reciprocate in kind and drag the rest of Europe into this conflict, a conflict that all parties acknowledged was likely to end with some sort of peace deal within days of the man who took on Corn Pop was to vacate the oval office.

Feral animals are at their most dangerous when they are cornered. Even with the uptick in business by the paper shredding trucks, there’s still a lot of dirt that those who’ve been in power for decades, pulling strings, and doing things that would turn the stomach of the most hardened of criminals, don’t ever want to see the light of day.

We are in uncharted territory, and the next few weeks will be very telling indeed. The worst thing you can do to the powerful is threaten their power. Because the narcissism of power is such that the only thing the individual in question is concerned with is himself and his influence, he will readily barter the lives of others and his own nation’s safety and security if he believes there is a chance to retain it.

This mindset is not exclusive to one side of the political aisle or the other. There is bipartisanship when it comes to protecting one’s self-interests, even if it comes at the cost of the lives and safety of those they are supposed to represent. If you thought we were out of the woods, one objective look will tell you we’re still deep in the forest. This is not the time to rest on our laurels or take a victory lap. It is a time to be watchful and sober, trusting God in all things and knowing where our help comes from. Spoiler alert: it’s not government!

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” If only.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job XLVIII

 Job 2:11, “Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place – Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him.”

Bad news travels fast. It’s one of those truisms that has been around for ages, and it will continue to make the rounds because it’s so relatable. If one person shares good news with another, it’s likely to stay between them. I’ve rarely, if ever, heard someone say, “Did you hear the good thing that happened to so and so? I’m so happy for him!” If it’s ever said, it’s usually with a tinge of envy or a rolling of the eyes, as though the person was unworthy or undeserving of that good thing because unregenerate human nature is biased, vindictive, jealous, envious, and rarely do you find someone who is genuinely happy about another’s success.

If, perchance, success finds someone, and another happens to be in their inner circle, the first thought crossing their mind isn’t that they deserve it because they’ve worked hard for it, but how they could profit from it themselves, whether to ride their coattails or siphon off as much as they can in as short a time as they can.

We’ve all heard the stories of musicians who found success and suddenly had an entourage of fifty people following them everywhere until they fell on hard times, couldn’t afford the entourage anymore, and discovered who their true friends were in real-time. If anyone calling themselves your friend is only there for the feasting, but come the hard days they disappear into the ether, they were never your friend to begin with. It’s one of those painful but necessary lessons we learn as we grow older.

Job had been a fortunate man, not only in that God blessed the work of his hands but that by all available evidence, he had true friends. As the saying goes, if you have one true friend in life, you’re fortunate; if you have two, you’re blessed; and if you have three, you’re highly favored. Anything beyond that, and you’re just fooling yourself.

News didn’t travel so fast back in the day, yet somehow, Job’s friends had heard of his adversity. Nowadays, we have Facebook, so everyone’s business, whether good or bad, is out there, like so much laundry hanging on the line, for people to peruse and either shrug their shoulders, shake their heads, or roll their eyes. It’s okay to keep some things to yourself. It really is. Whether it’s because some people have become addicted to attention, sympathy, or the praying hands emoji, most today tend to overshare, especially when it comes to situations that need to be dealt with personally and not in the public eye.

Does the entire world really need to know that your wife made you scrambled eggs when you asked for an omelet this morning? I didn’t think so. Eat the eggs, be grateful, thank her for doing it, and get on with your day.

It seems as though Social Media allows us to revert back to our childhoods when we whined and complained about everything, whether valid or imagined. I get that it’s a release or a way to vent, but you’re not doing yourself any favors by crying wolf about every little thing to the point that people just ignore you altogether.

But if they were real friends, they wouldn’t ignore me! Honestly, how many times can someone read that you were disappointed by the quality of the avocados you purchased at the local grocery store, even though they were discounted and looked like their best days were behind them? You live in North Dakota. To the best of my knowledge, it doesn’t even crack the top ten of the best places to grow or find fresh avocados. Granted, it’s been a minute since I’ve seen an updated list, but unless something has changed dramatically, I still think I’m right about this.

Job was well known enough throughout the land, and his situation was so cataclysmic that without the aid of telephones, telegraphs, interwebs, e-mail, snail mail, or CB Radio, news of his demise traveled far and wide, so much so that his three friends heard of it and decided to come to mourn with him. That’s how we know they were true friends and not just friends in name only.

It’s likely they weren’t neighbors or even lived close by because they actually had to make plans to come visit Job, making an effort and going out of their way hoping they could be a comfort, or in the least, mourn with their friend.

Their reaction to hearing the news of what Job was going through says a lot about their character, as well as Job’s. If he’d been a fair-weather friend to them, they would have reciprocated in kind. Because he’d been a true friend to them, they went to be by his side and be there for him in his time of need and despondency. Be the kind of friend you’d like to have, and you will have that kind of friend. Reciprocity is demonstrably real, whether in a friendship, a marriage, or our relationship with God. The more we draw close to Him, the more He draws close to us. The more we value and cherish our wives or husbands, the more they will cherish us because most people mirror behavior without even being aware of it.

It’s easier by far to have expectations of everyone else around us than to have the self-awareness to look at ourselves and see if we are living up to our own standards. This goes beyond friendships to every area of our lives, wherein we expect of others what we ourselves fall short of, yet sit in judgment over them because they failed our litmus test. Rather than constantly pointing out how someone could have been a better friend in a given situation, perhaps it's time to ask if we could have been better friends as well—just a thought.      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job XLVII

 Sometimes, the best thing we can do in a given situation is to keep silent. I realize this goes against our instincts, perhaps even against our nature because everyone has to have an opinion about everything, and if you don’t have an opinion, they’ll have an opinion as to why you don’t have an opinion.

Unsolicited advice is everywhere, and the more you try to tune it out, the louder it gets because those offering it think they can whittle you down to the point that you go along with whatever they’re saying just to make them stop talking.

We have to make the requisite allowances for the fact that Job’s wife was likewise feeling, heretofore, unfelt depths of pain. She’d just lost all ten of her children as well; the life she’d known up until days ago was smashed to smithereens, and her husband, the father of her children and the protector, provider, and overseer of a vast, well-oiled homestead which spanned hundreds of souls and thousands of livestock lay in ruin, covered in painful boils, scratching at himself while sitting atop an ash heap.

Respect is one of the most important virtues one spouse must possess for the other, and it must be a reciprocal act. I can hear the eyebrows arching, see the wagging fingers, and the need to give in to the desire to write me a quick note, insisting that love is the most important virtue. In my defense, I said respect is one of the most important virtues, but beyond that, if there’s no love in a marriage, then any respect one might emote is feigned and situational and is tethered to a hidden motive of some kind.

Come June of next year, I will have been married for a quarter of a century. Said marriage produced two wonderful daughters, as well as the requisite moments of joy, pain, laughter, tears, jubilation, and anxiety. Through it all, we were there for each other, sharing in the joy and the sorrow, with mutual respect being the cornerstone upon which trust, value, and self-sacrifice were built.

The easiest way to navigate life’s storms and keep from crashing against the rocky outcroppings is to put God first in every area of your life, and that includes marriage. It is something we discussed at length before getting married and something we committed to from the outset. The question was never about what was best for our situation or what could help us get ahead as a new family, but what the will of God was for us and where He needed us to be. It’s something both parties have to agree with and commit to. Otherwise, there will be tension, there will be arguments, and it’s hard to make progress when one individual is pulling to the left and the other is pulling to the right.  

Whether Job’s wife lost respect for him or not, I cannot say with certainty, but her reaction to seeing him in his current condition hints at the probability that she did. She saw a once strong, assertive, decisive man, seemingly in control of everything around him, reduced to little more than a homeless beggar covered in boils. At the time, for fear of contracting whatever the malady was, the individual in question would be removed to the outskirts of the city and left alone to live out the rest of their days in solitude. Whether it was leprosy or boils, the sufferer would be shunned by society and forced into isolation for fear of the disease spreading.

Job’s wife being used by the enemy and her continuing to have love for him in her heart are not mutually exclusive. Two ideas can be true at the same time, so it’s not so much that she stopped loving him or thinking of him as her husband, but in the moment, she allowed herself to be used by Satan for the nefarious purpose of insisting that he curse God and die.

Satan wanted to prove God wrong. He wanted to be able to return anew when the sons of God were gathered together, gloat at having broken Job, and pressured him to the point of sinning against God in some way. We clearly see the lengths to which he was willing to go to accomplish his plan, so the idea that he whispered in Job’s wife’s ear to encourage him to cease holding onto his integrity and to curse God isn’t just a possibility but highly probable.

When you understand the lengths to which the enemy of your soul will go to plant bitterness or rebellion in your heart, it will make you cling to Jesus all the more. All he needs is a moment of weakness, a chink in your armor, something he can leverage and use to get you to take your eyes off Christ and the cross and think you can beat back the enemy all on your own.

Most of us are predisposed to speak first and think later. It’s not a noble virtue, and it’s something I’ve dealt with for the better part of my life, especially since the girls were old enough to walk, climb, and hang onto things they shouldn’t be hanging onto. Even after repeatedly telling them not to climb the tree in the backyard or try to do somersaults off the kitchen counter, they’d still do it and end up with a bruise or a knot on their forehead. I had to fight the urge to say, “I told you so!” because it was neither the time nor the place for it. It’s what I wanted to say; it was on the tip of my tongue, but I could see the tears in their eyes and the pain they were in, and I knew that what they needed at that moment was comfort, a hug, and someone to ask if they were okay.

We can be brutal and coldhearted when it comes to another’s suffering, kicking them while they’re down or making it about ourselves, insisting that we warned them, told them, pleaded with them not to do what they did that got them in the situation they were in, but sometimes it’s best to bite our tongue, say nothing, and weep with those who weep.

Don’t allow yourself to be used of the enemy to shred another’s last ounce of hope by insisting that they abandon it altogether and give in to the despair. Be wise in your counsel, and know when, rather than counsel, the person just needs a shoulder to cry on.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job XLVI

Some would readily wither on the vine, merely contemplating Job’s trials, never mind going through them. We all have our version of what tragedy, adversity, hardship, and calamity may look like in our mind’s eye, and the limits of my imagination may be different than yours, and yours may be different than another’s.

Depending on where you grew up, how you grew up, and the type of difficulty you had to overcome, not finding the right brand of cereal at the local grocer can seem like an unbearable and unduly cruel hardship. If you happen to tell someone who had to eat tree bark as a kid just to keep their stomach from growling that the Piggly Wiggly was out of Grape Nuts and it ruined your day, they’re likely to roll their eyes and think some less than kind things about your affirmation.

It’s all a matter of context and previous experience, but wherever you land on the spectrum of what you believe true suffering to be, we can all agree that Job is the gold standard. Whatever trivial thing I may be going through on a given day, from a flat tire or the car not starting to getting stuck in traffic for an hour on an ordinary Tuesday, all I have to do is bring to mind the things Job endured to feel a sense of gratefulness wash over me and repent for considering such things hardships worthy of bemoaning.

For the last three decades and change, I’ve traveled back and forth to Romania consistently. Less so since the girls were born, but my little brother was there to pick up the slack, so I didn’t feel the need to leave my wife and children in order to go and do what someone else could. The ministry began as an outreach to the poor, abandoned, and forgotten of Romania, and although we have broadened our work to include Ukraine of late, the core of our mission statement remains intact. We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and look after the orphan and the widow to the best of our ability. In so doing, I have come to realize that my definition of poverty is someone else’s definition of wealth and prosperity.

It’s hard to be bitter about having to buy a second-hand car or clothes from a thrift store when you’re daily hearing stories from people not knowing if they’ll survive the coming winter because they have no firewood and no means with which to purchase some. Unless you are made of stone, it changes your perspective about how blessed you are and that countless millions worldwide dream of the life you currently despise and deem cumbersome and needlessly cruel.

I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone; I’m speaking for myself. There are a myriad of daily graces and blessings I take for granted, from decent health to a roof over my head to the ability to work and earn enough, wherein I don’t have to be fearful about my children freezing to death. These are not things I am entitled to or deserve, yet on a certain level, I feel as though will always be there in some form or fashion.

The attitude of gratitude we must possess is not something naturally occurring in the human heart. It is something that must be nurtured and encouraged to grow, and in so doing, it keeps the desire for more or the tendency to compare our lot to those who have more by way of the material at bay.

A couple of years back, shortly after they started attending classes in person again, I noticed my daughters were coming home with stories of what the other kids in their class had been gifted or the new toys their parents had acquired, to the point that every week someone had gotten a new doll house, a pony, a new car, or were planning a vacation somewhere exotic. There was always a tinge of expectation or a questioning look in their eyes as to why we weren’t doing the same, and it was largely the reason my wife and I decided to take a family trip to Romania, so they could see the other side of life, and hopefully learn to appreciate what they had and not envy what others did.

For the two weeks we were there, I took my daughters and my dad, and we went out to numerous villages, passing out food packages, clothing, and finances where needed, and they got to see true poverty in a way very few in our Western culture get to do. Young as they were, they were able to make the connection between the life they lived, with running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, and something to eat always within reach, and the lengths to which others have to go just to survive.

I could see the shift in their mindset and the change in their outlook. It was a transformative experience for them. They went from asking when they could get a new toy some girl at school had just gotten to giving their stuffies to children their age who had no more to play with than a rusty bucket and a stick.

Perspective matters. It allows us to be thankful for the things God has given us rather than be envious of others who have more. Even in our hardship, our suffering, or our testing, though it may seem unbearable to us, we must acknowledge that others have been where we are, and they had to endure far worse, yet they persevered.

Given the examples and testimonies of those who came before us, rather than bemoaning our current lot, our time would be far better spent discovering how men such as Job endured all that came upon him while remaining faithful, retaining his integrity, and not growing disillusioned, bitter, or disheartened.

Once you know how something is done, you can replicate it, using the same means to achieve the same result. First, Job knew the God he served intimately and profoundly. Second, Job trusted the God he served and His sovereignty throughout. Third, Job clung to his faith and hope regardless of the situation he found himself in, knowing the goodness of God, even when his life was reduced to a pile of ash and a potsherd.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.     

Job XLV

 Job’s integrity was an observable virtue. It was not cloaked or hidden, or something you had to search high and low for, but readily seen to the point that his wife pointed out the fact that he still held onto it after his life came crashing down around him. It’s very likely his wife wasn’t the only one to notice. Whether the servants who survived, his neighbors or those who interacted with him regularly, his current steadfastness and preservation of his integrity only confirmed to them what they already knew of the man.  

That said, it wasn’t something he actively sought to exude, something he thought about, or something he focused on. This is an important distinction because far too many try to put on airs, pretending to be spiritual, thinking it’s the image people want them to project. In some instances, they need to project an image rather than who they are authentically because they are presenting themselves as spiritual authorities rather than genuinely desire to serve God and be one of His children both in word and deed.

When you see an individual playing at being spiritual or having integrity instead of genuinely possessing these virtues, there’s always something that seems off, a bit odd, with that not quite authentic feel to it. It’s reminiscent of politicians pretending to be human, smiling awkwardly, pretending to grill burgers on a grill with no flame, or biting babies for whatever reason. Their humanity is not naturally occurring. They are not genuine and take their cues from those around them as to how a real human with real emotions should act.

That which is in the heart of a man will shape his character, his attitude, and the way he interacts with those around him. If God is on the throne of his heart, then his actions will speak for themselves. He won’t need to carry a bullhorn around and insist that he is a prophet, an apostle, or a man of God; his attitude will show it without him having to trumpet it to anyone within earshot.

Whenever someone tries to draw more attention to themselves than to the God they serve, it’s always a warning sign. We are here for the sole purpose of pointing the way to Jesus and telling anyone who would hear that He is the way, the truth, and the life. It’s not about us or our ego, it’s not about us and our pride, it’s not about what we can do but what He’s already done.

When we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, and faithfully pick up our crosses and follow after Him, it is He who will raise us up. It’s not something we need to try and do on our own or by ourselves because that is not the purpose of the exercise; that’s not the reason you were called to serve. We’ve lost sight of the reality that a servant is not greater than his Master, and there’s an ongoing, evermore violent scramble for the spotlight nowadays, wherein men will actively try to tear down another in the hopes of being elevated themselves.

If someone is teaching aberrant doctrine, they must be called out. If, however, you begin to undermine an individual just because you feel as though he’s encroaching on your slice of the pie, your heart is not in the right place, and you’re not doing it for the glory of God.

There is also this tendency among the sheep to pit shepherds against each other and try to get them to start slinging mud. I’ve often been asked what I think of certain individuals within ministry, and every time this happens, my focus is always on whether they are teaching the truth of Scripture. I’m not concerned about their delivery or eccentricities or whether they wear suits or sweaters when they preach. My only concern is whether or not they are teaching the salvific truth of the gospel of Christ, and if they are, God bless them. I hope the Lord gives them strength, endurance, and a bigger platform than what they already have to do the work of the Kingdom.

Trying to protect, defend, or otherwise elevate something that isn’t yours to begin with is wasted energy and a horrible use of one’s time. Although a former president was wrong when he said, “You didn’t build that,” in relation to individuals who started businesses and built them up, if he’d been referencing ministries or the work of God, he would have been spot on. I don’t care how big your ministry is or how many campuses your church has; you didn’t build that! If you insist that it was you, that you built it and made it grow, then God wasn’t in it, and it wasn’t His work. You can’t have it both ways. It’s either God’s work, and He builds it to a size He desires, or it’s your work, and God’s not in it, and you’re off on your own, doing your own thing, using God as a foil for your aspirations and goals.

On the other side of it, Job didn’t pretend as though he wasn’t hurting or that he wasn’t feeling the pain attributed to losing his children and being covered in painful boils. He didn’t put on a brave face and pretend as though what was happening to him wasn’t. When Jesus said we shouldn’t have a sad countenance, it was within the context of fasting, not within the context of feeling sadness, pain, or hardship.

The difference between how those of the world and those of the household of faith process and go through affliction and heartache is that while the world does so alone, we do so anchored in hope, whether the hope that we will one day be reunited with our love ones, or that God has a plan we are currently unable to see. Having gone through my fair share of heartache, I can testify that hope makes the difference, and it is a sure comfort we can cling to even in the worst of times.

Because we know the God we serve, because we know He is with us, because we know that He will make a way and that the valley will soon give way to the mountaintop, we hold fast to our integrity, we cling to faith and hope in the God we serve, we persevere and press ever onward toward the prize.

1 Peter 5:10, “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job XLIV

 There are moments in life that define us. There are situations and circumstances we go through that compel us to either rise to the challenge, dig deep, and discover new wells of heretofore unexpected strength, or crush us beneath the weight of their bulk, leaving us broken and untethered. These are the make-or-break moments, the ones that shape us and we remember for the rest of our lives. When we find ourselves at the crossroads of such monumental, life-defining choices, the deciding factor will always be whether we trust God beyond what we can see with our eyes of flesh or surrender to the avalanche of despair that the situation produced.

Trust, faith, and hope are all choices we make as individuals, and once the choice is made, we contend with the consequences, whether for good or ill. It takes self-awareness and brutal honesty to look at where we are and admit, if only to ourselves, that it's due to our choices and decisions over the span of months, years, or decades that we find ourselves in certain situations and conclude that had we heeded God at certain bifurcations in the road, we would be in a different place altogether.

You can’t blame God for where you are if every step of the way, you turned left when He told you to turn right, moved forward when He told you to stand still, and pressed on trying to make it work on your own when His instruction was to rest in Him and see what He can do.

Beyond the ripples and waves the fall of prominent men within Christendom has caused of late, what I find equally tragic is that few, if any, have taken accountability for their actions, acknowledged their failures, and sought repentance. I’m not talking about those who, eying a return to ministry, have half-heartedly apologized for their sin, but those who, understanding the gravity of their situation, repented before God in sackcloth and ash.

It’s not my job to gauge true repentance of heart because only God knows the hearts of men, but with true repentance comes a new humility, a change of one’s ways, and a rejection of the sins that beset them, then exposed them, then made them the topic of the news cycle for weeks on end.

How do you know so and so didn’t repent? Because they’re still trying to find someone to blame for their actions, attempting to scapegoat their sin, and laying the blame at the feet of anyone else other than themselves, that’s how.

Recently, a pastor of one of the biggest churches in America tried to blame his twelve-year-old victim for the unspeakable things he did, claiming that she seduced him, having a Jezebel spirit and a spirit of seduction upon her. Yes, you read that right, twelve. This occurred while he was a fully grown adult, married, with a child, but it was the twelve-year-old’s fault for his being creepy and perverted and grooming her to the point of taking her innocence. Sorry, not sorry, but that’s not true repentance of heart. That’s trying to justify your perversion and licentiousness.

This is where we are, and it’s not because God desired the church to be full of hypocrites and perverts doing unspeakable things to those under their spiritual authority but because those men made choices. Conscious, repeated, ongoing choices contrary to the Word and will of God.

Nobody wakes up five hundred pounds overweight, huffing and puffing as they waddle to the door to take delivery of their Dominos order. It happened gradually, over time, one choice leading to another, compounding its effects, until one either acknowledges the state they’re in or continues to blame the dryer for shrinking their clothes and buying a new dryer.

Sin lies at the door of every man’s heart, and its desire is to corrupt and destroy, but it is our duty to resist it and rule over it, knowing that we have the power to do so through the grace of God. It has been this way since the beginning, when God warned Cain of the enemy’s devices, clearly defining the two paths that were before him. He could have chosen to do well, and he would be accepted, or harden his heart, grow bitter, and do the unthinkable, rising up against his brother Abel and killing him.

Man does not disobey, rebel, or sin in a vacuum. There are always consequences to the path they choose to take, whether those consequences are evident instantly or over time. In His love, God warns us to choose what is good, to do well, and to let faith be the anchor that keeps us from being swept away by the roaring sea, but the choice is ultimately ours as individuals as to whether we will heed His counsel, or do as we will.

Not only did Job not find fault with God for his situation, but he also didn’t go looking for someone to blame for it. He didn’t lash out at his wife, trying to blame her for having lost everything, or his servants who came to bring him the devastating news of what had occurred to his children and his possessions; he didn’t inquire if the cook had made some bad lamb and that’s why he was covered in boils, he retained his integrity and his faith in the God he served and humbled himself in worship. All this while God deemed him a blameless and upright man. It’s not as though Job had some secret sin that had been exposed or knew himself to be faithless, pretending to be faithful. He was not suffering the consequences of his actions or the repercussions of his rebellion. His faith was being tested, all the while remaining in the dark as to why and for what purpose.

Job made the choice to remain faithful even though he could not see the whole picture and was operating with incomplete information. All he knew was that he’d just suffered the loss of all his earthly possessions, the loss of his children, and the loss of his health. Even so, he trusted the God he served and had confidence in His sovereignty.

How far are you willing to trust God? If not all the way, then your faith has not been established, and the only question is how hard the enemy has to press to make you waiver.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.