Job CC

 The message of the gospel and biblical salvation are simple enough concepts to understand as long as we’re not trying to cling to the old man with a Charlton Heston-like death grip. A life for a life. That’s the contract, that’s the offer, and it’s standard for each and every one of us. There are no addenda, no amendments, no carve-outs, or exemptions for either individuals, races of people, or specific nationalities.

Your life, your bleak, dull, uninspired, guilt-ridden, rudderless, and empty life, for His life. Your heart of stone for His heart of flesh. Your darkened, duplicitous, indecisive, self-doubting mind for a new mind, His mind, a mind of clarity and purpose. A mind that seeks to do the will of the Father in all things. Your will for His will. Your purpose for His purpose. You, dead in your sin, for a life in Christ, a life that promises eternity in His presence for the handful of years you journey on this earth. It’s an either-or proposition. Either you believe, have been set free, and regenerated, or you continue to remain in the mire of sin and despair.

If I desire for Christ to live in me, it’s a given that I must die to self. If nothing wicked or defiled will enter into His kingdom, then if we desire to enter in, we must ensure that we are washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb, and that no spot or wrinkle is present upon our garments.

Why is it that we take some of God’s words at face value, believing them to the fullest, while others we downplay and try to discount? The same Scripture that says blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out, says that God abhors wickedness and the lukewarm will be spewed from His mouth. Why do we stand on the one, but not on the other? Why do we quote one over the other at a rate of 10:1 on a good day?  

It’s not complicated; we choose to complicate it. We complicate it because we think we can wriggle out of repentance, righteousness, and obedience, and that in itself is more telling than any Hillsong we may be lip-syncing on a given Sunday.

It’s when men want the impossible, to live as the world, yet retain the hope of salvation, that things get muddled, and they exist in what can best be described as the in between, where they’re neither fully committed to Christ, nor fully committed to the hedonism of this world. That in-between place is one of constant defeats, setbacks, disappointments, and disillusionment, because they’re trying to be ‘good people’ rather than saved people, and knowing that what they are pursuing is self-destructive, they pursue it nevertheless because they never surrendered their life to gain His life. They attempted to blend the two, something that is wholly impossible.    

Job 19:13-20, “He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me. Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants, count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. I call my servant, but he gives no answer; I beg him with my mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife, and I am repulsive to the children of my own body. Even young children despise me; I arise and they speak against me. All my close friends abhor me, and those whom I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.”

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it’s not hard to visualize what Job looked like at this stage. He paints a word picture like few others could, pouring his pain, frustration, and desperation into a handful of words that bring together a portrait of a once-influential, powerful man whose servants were at his beck and call, being ignored and altogether overlooked by them.

Out of sight, out of mind may be true in theory, but Job wasn’t out of sight. He was still there, calling to his servant, begging him, and yet receiving no answer. Job likely treated his servant well before his trial came upon him. The character of a man of God is clearly visible in all his actions, whether anyone is watching or not.

It’s those with duplicitous, divided hearts that act one way when the world is watching, and a completely different way when no one is. It’s one of the contributing factors why so many PK’s -and for those of you who don’t know what that stands for, it’s pastors’ kids - want nothing to do with God, church, or the Bible. They witnessed the hypocrisy firsthand. They witnessed the transformation from a smiling, jovial, handclapping, and glad-handing man to one with no fuse to speak of and a temper so short that he flew off the handle at the merest breeze.

I’ve been open enough over the years that everyone knows the impact my grandfather has had on my spiritual walk and maturation. I grew up in a neighborhood where everyone and their cousin had a side hustle of some kind, and most of it was of the illegal variety. I couldn’t help but interact with the neighborhood kids, and everyone would try to teach me their tried-and-true methods for making extra cash. Whether it was boosting airbags, yes, that was a thing back in the day, to car stereos, to hubcaps, to more complicated schemes that involved a partner and a bit of planning, everyone had an angle they were exploiting and were gracious enough to try and get me to participate.

I can’t say I was never tempted. I grew up poor. It was all my mom and dad could do with their two jobs to make rent every month, and my grandfather and I would go through the neighborhood dumpster-diving for aluminum cans. It crossed my mind more than once that I could make more in thirty minutes than what took us a month of recycling aluminum cans to make.

It wasn’t fear of getting caught that kept me from going down that particular path. The police were as intrepid back then about petty crime in California as they are today, and we weren’t close enough to the rich part of town for them to make an effort.

If anything, what kept me on the straight and narrow was seeing the faithfulness, commitment, and genuine love for Jesus, not only in my grandfather, but also in my mom, my dad, and my grandmother as well. I was surrounded by examples of honesty, conviction, and virtue. They genuinely loved Jesus, and it showed in the words they spoke, the people they helped, the meals they prepared, and the joy they possessed. Raising up a child in the way they should go, goes beyond words or good advice. It must extend to being an example, a role model, someone they can see as one who possesses the attributes of Christ in perpetuity.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.