Job CCXXIV

 Because self-discipline is looked down upon as legalistic and prudish, and self-control is seen as limiting the freedoms we have in Christ, much of what calls itself the church today is impulsive, reactionary, fickle, faithless, easily swayed, and prone to speaking before thinking, and doing so with such inflection and passion as to convince others they actually know what they’re talking about.

The moment their words are challenged, not because someone has a bone to pick with them personally, but because the words they are speaking do not harmonize with Scripture but rather contradict it, the moment people look beyond the presentation to the substance of their claims, they’re quick to insist that it was the Lord telling them these things as a means of deflection.

It was some type of new revelation that they alone received, and if you dare to rebuke them, or call them out for the liars they are, you are resisting the Lord himself. That it’s usually some self-serving drivel that puts them squarely in the spotlight is unsurprising and should be a clear warning sign, but we’ve been cultivating a culture of man worship for so long that a hefty spoonful of self-promotion no longer raises any alarms.

One can’t help but shake their head and wonder if some people really have no shame, and the short answer is no, they don’t, they have no shame at all. Shame left the building decades ago, and now their entire purpose is to elevate themselves above Scripture itself and insulate themselves from criticism by invoking the Lord and insisting He is the originator of their fabrications.

We’ve adopted the mindset that the institution must be defended at all costs, even if it means giving false teachers and false prophets a pass, without realizing we’re voluntarily walking into the enemy’s snare. Jesus is not an institution, He is not a denomination, and the idea that the faith itself will not survive if some big name gets exposed for the evils they’ve committed is a bold-faced lie, and one that has damaged the household of faith to the point that it’s on life support, gasping for breath, with no strength or purpose to speak of.

You cannot build a house on rotten timbers and expect it to stand. You cannot prop up a ministry or a denomination on the shoulders of a compromised, deceptive individual and expect it to thrive. It doesn’t matter who the person is if the person isn’t Jesus; whatever they’ve managed to build will come to ruin, for He is the One who sustains, refines, and builds up a work not for the glory of man but for the glory of God the Father.

When we are not rooted in the Word of God, we swing from one extreme to the other like a pendulum, ever a slave to its own momentum. We go from believing everything to believing nothing, from desiring spiritual gifts to wanting nothing to do with them, when our position as children of God should be nuanced and purposeful.

We can believe in the prophetic without despising it, as we were instructed, yet also test all things to ensure they originate from God and are in harmony with His word.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

Those are the guardrails. Those are the dos and don’ts. As long as you do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesies, but test all things and hold fast what is good, you will not be swayed nor blown to and fro like a reed in a hurricane.

The key is to test all things not through the prism of one’s own understanding, prejudices, or inclinations, but via the prism of God’s Word. That is how we determine whether something is good and worth holding fast to, or whether it is deception couched in a layer of truth and to be discarded, knowing it will be detrimental to our spiritual walk.

I do not have the authority to determine what is good, and neither do you. God does, and He has detailed it in His Word. If we dismiss the Word of God as the filter by which we test all things and lean on our own understanding, our understanding will draw us further away from the light because our understanding is rooted in the heart and the mind, which are flesh, and flesh is at enmity with God.

Follow your heart, and it will lead you to ruin. Follow men, and they will lead you to resentment and disillusionment. Follow God, and He will lead you to green pastures and still waters.        

Misery, loving company, would be a satisfactory explanation for why the deceived do their utmost to draw others into their deception if it were not for the reality that there is a nefarious third party involved who is willing to do anything, say anything, and align himself with anyone to reach his intended ends.

One inevitably grows more sober-minded, disciplined, and cautious when they realize the lengths to which the devil will go to sow doubt, fear, deception, resentment, or bitterness in their hearts. The presence of Christ in one’s life, not occasionally but perpetually, is the antidote to all of these and more.          

Job 20:25-29, “He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him; total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent. The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him. A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath. Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.”

Evil has no future. It is a truth that Zophar repeatedly hammered home, the only problem being that it did not apply to Job. No, Zophar wasn’t wrong about anything he said regarding the wicked and their ultimate end, for it is the fate God allots the wicked; however, Job was not in the camp of the wicked as Zophar and his friends presumed, and that is where they erred.

It would be myopic to dismiss Zophar’s words altogether just because they did not apply to Job. He wasn’t wrong about the fate of the wicked, just about his friend being numbered among them. There is truth in the words he spoke, and that truth is both revelatory and pertinent when removing Job from the equation.

You can be right and wrong at the same time, depending on the context and a specific situation. Zophar proved it beyond a doubt, but rather than stir him to humility, his pride compelled him to double down.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXXIII

 When a man is wise in his own eyes, it’s difficult to get him to acknowledge the flaws in his logic. You’d have an easier time rolling a boulder up a hill while on crutches than getting them to concede that, although, generally speaking, their words are valid, and their conclusions are apt, in this specific context, they are flawed, and do not apply.

It’s not as though Job hadn’t tried to convince his friends that they were barking up the wrong tree. It’s not as though he hadn’t pointed out time and again that he was not guilty of the wickedness they’d assumed him guilty of because of what he was going through. He had repeatedly, yet in their hubris, they would not allow for another possibility than the one they’d already come to.

Professing to be wise, thinking oneself wise, and being wise are neither the same thing nor are they interchangeable. Anyone can profess to be wise. Anyone can claim wisdom. Only God can determine who is wise indeed. What makes a man wise? That is the fundamental question. Is it the piece of paper from the online seminary that makes one wise? Is it being a professional student collecting degrees like some people collect baseball cards? Is it a position you hold? Is it a title you possess, or is it something else?

As is always the case, the Word of God has the answer, and it is neither opaque nor difficult to understand.

Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

The first step on one’s journey toward wisdom is the fear of the Lord. That’s what the Book says. Absent the fear of the Lord, one cannot hope to attain true wisdom, no matter how many classes they take, how many workshops they attend, or how many sweaty hands are laid upon their heads, imparting wisdom to them. The fear of the Lord is the environment in which wisdom can grow, flourish, broaden, deepen, and mature. Without it, true wisdom is always out of reach, ethereal, and unattainable.

Proverbs 26:12, “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

Harsh? Perhaps. True? Undeniably so. It’s evident in every arena and on a daily basis. You have individuals who are wise in their own eyes with the degrees to prove it, unable to answer a question as fundamental as whether men can get pregnant. Anyone could be stumped by a question, I guess, but I never thought anyone would get stumped by that specific question.

Ask a farmer, a welder, a fisherman, or a handyman the same question, and although they might not have diplomas gracing the walls of their shack, they can answer the question without missing a beat because while one is wise in their own eyes, the other has basic common sense that goes a long way to proving wisdom.

A degree from Harvard or Yale is not the beginning of wisdom, but the fear of the Lord is. All the things the world obsesses about, focuses on, and sacrifices its time to don’t amount to anything more than stroking one’s vanity, especially if what you’re learning doesn’t apply to everyday life, if you haven’t learned a skill, whatever that skill might be, or if you don’t add any value to anyone but your ego.

It’s why you have people with college degrees working at the local Piggly Wiggly. You have a degree in liberal arts with a minor in indigenous Peloponnesian women’s fashion of the seventeenth century? That’s fabulous, congratulations. Now remember, you have to double-bag anything made of glass or that weighs more than three pounds. Oh, and remember to smile and wish the customers a good day.

A piece of paper saying you are educated is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay you in order to ply your trade and put your skills to use. Evidently, knowing the ins and outs of Peloponnesian high fashion in the seventeenth century is worth precisely $12.50 an hour.

There is only one way to gauge true wisdom, and that is whether or not the individual possesses the fear of the Lord. It is a wisdom that acts as a guiding light, as a prism by which you make the choices you make and pursue the things you pursue.

If the fear of the Lord is at the forefront of your mind daily, you will inherently understand the futility of this present world and the things thereof and set your sights firmly upon Christ and the cross. There will be no turning, no second-guessing, no feeling of regret for not having taken a different road or pursued a different vocation. He satisfies. His presence and power never wither nor fade, for His mercies are new every morning.

Those who say Jesus is not enough and go on endless crusades to convince others to likewise deconstruct their faith never really knew Jesus. They may have read of Him, heard of Him, seen others in true relationship with Him, waved a hand, said a prayer, had an intellectual understanding of who He is, but as far as feeling His indwelling presence, love, peace, comfort, and joy, they never did. How could I be so certain? Because once you feel the presence of God, everything else is dim and unsatisfying. Once you know Him as Lord, King, and Master of your life, there is no going back to the bondage and despair of yesterday.

It’s no accident that those who decide to deny the Lordship of Christ, deconstruct their faith, and insist that they’re now spiritual rather than saved and sanctified find the tallest rooftops from which they can announce their rebellion. You don’t see such rabid denunciation of anything else in their lives, yet this is the one thing they have to be loud and proud about. No one’s out there screeching how they left their wife, left their job, or left their pet pug on the side of the road, but the chorus of those who left Christianity behind is growing ever louder, and it’s with a purpose. The purpose is to demoralize those who are still walking faithfully with Jesus, and hoping to plant seeds of doubt in their hearts. It is a tool of the enemy, and these individuals are being used by Satan, whether wittingly or unwittingly.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCXXII

 Two things can be true at the same time. Water is both necessary for the continuity of life, but it can also kill. You can’t go without water for more than three days, but you can also drown in a pond if you don’t know how to swim.

God can be love and an all-consuming fire simultaneously. In fact, He is both of these things. The contemporary church has been laser-focused on His love for so long that they’ve forgotten, dismissed, or ignored that He is also an all-consuming fire. It’s the only rational explanation as to why so many take liberties with Him, speak in His name, or shamelessly make up lies regarding their stature in His eyes, and how they’ve gotten to experience what no individual in the Bible has.

Look at me! Look at me! I’m not just your average, run-of-the-mill special; I’m extra special, the most special, and I know that because I got a guided tour of heaven in my physical form and was even asked to give God my two cents about how to better run the universe! Sorry, pumpkin, but being delusional nowadays isn’t special; it’s ordinary and commonplace.

Even those who had a glimpse into the spiritual world, those who had the honor of seeing beyond the physical, were so rare as to stand out throughout the four-thousand-year span of the Biblical record. Through it all, there doesn’t seem to have been a shortage of false prophets, seers, revelators, or teachers, but the supply of the authentic was always finite in comparison. That should tell us something, but our need for experience over relationship makes us disregard what was for the illusion of what could be.

There will always be more false prophets than true prophets of God. There will always be more false teachers than true ministers of the Word who rightly divide it. It has always been the case, and will continue to be thus until the return of Jesus. The only thing that has changed from generation to generation is the numbers, not as far as percentages, but the volume itself. The more populated the earth becomes, the more false prophets there will be, because the enemy understands the math behind deception more readily than most preachers.

Technology has also allowed them to reach a broader audience, or in fishermen's parlance, get more lines in the water, and the more lines you have in the water, the likelier the chance of getting a nibble.

Could you imagine the sort of following David Koresh would have had, had all the social media platforms been around when he was trying to convince everyone he was the reincarnate Christ? The wise among us still would have pointed out that Jesus needing coke bottle glasses seemed a bit iffy, but the reach would have been broader, and the gullible would have been more numerous, to be sure.

People without an anchor, those who are not rooted in Christ and the Word, tend to gravitate toward extremes, however those extremes might manifest themselves. Rather than purposefully picking up their crosses and following after Jesus, they spend their days ricocheting from one guardrail to the other, like some out-of-control projectile, until they reach terminal velocity and leap over the guardrail altogether.

I’ve seen people oscillate between insisting you have to wear homespun linen tunics to church, and insisting you can show up in a wife-beater and a pair of board shorts, to then giving up on going to church altogether because those in attendance were unwilling to submit themselves to them and follow their meandering path.

Jesus is not some fixed point off in the distance, so far away that He’s almost imperceptible, giving us license to wander about on switchbacks until we end up in the same spot we started. He is near, right before us, and sticks closer than a brother, keeping pace, and leading us the way we must go.

I’ve never once considered what I was wearing when the trials of life were so pronounced that the only thing I could do was fall on my face before God and weep. It’s in those moments that the pretense, posturing, and pontification of whether you should use cologne or have gel in your hair when you come before God are stripped away and become irrelevant. When your heart is overwhelmed, there is nothing performative about your brokenness, nor are you concerned about how others perceive you in that moment.

What will others say if they see me crying? Who cares? What will others say if they see me fall on my face before God with groanings and heart cries? Who cares? I am not in the presence of God to impress others or elevate their opinion of me or my spiritual maturity. I am in the presence of God to feel His embrace, to feel His comfort, to feel His joy and His peace that surpasses understanding.

Job wasn’t looking to impress anyone. He didn’t care what anyone thought of him. It’s obvious he wasn’t looking his best. He was not wearing fine linens, nor was he freshly bathed. He no longer held any clout with his contemporaries or even those of his own household. He was at his lowest, likely lower than any of us have ever been, so much so that we cannot fully relate to his situation. Chances are his flesh reeked of putrefaction as he lay in a pile of ashes, but God still heard him when he cried out, and did not turn away because he wasn’t wearing his Sunday best.

The only ones who will judge your appearance for good or ill are other people. God cares not for your garments, whether they are made of linen or cotton, whether they are freshly pressed or have some wrinkles to them. There’s no bouncer at the door checking if you’re freshly shaven or if you’re wearing cologne. He looks at the heart, for that is what He desires to make His throne.

But what about the man who didn’t have on a wedding garment at the king’s feast? If it’s true that you don’t have to wear a three-piece suit to approach God, why was that man kicked out? That was a parable not about the outer garments of the individual but the inward condition of his heart. If you plan on attending the wedding feast of the Lamb, then know that His expectation is that you be washed, made clean, born again, transformed, and sanctified, without spot or wrinkle, for nothing wicked or defiled will enter His kingdom. You can’t sneak your way into heaven. You can’t fake your way into His wedding feast. There is a list, and if your name isn’t on it, there’s no one you can bribe, cajole, or intimidate into letting you in.

What Jesus said to Nicodemus holds true to this day, and beyond to the last day: unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God!

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCXXI

 The difference between Zophar’s accusations against Job and what is happening in much of the church, as far as sin being exposed, is that Zophar had no witnesses against Job; no one had accused him of committing acts of wickedness, it was just a conclusion Zophar and his friends had come to based on the fact that Job was suffering.

Let’s not get it twisted here, because I know there’s bound to be someone eager to defend a wolf who will conflate what Zophar did with what is happening in the church, and conclude that perhaps the dozen witnesses who tell the same story of inappropriate touching by a man that could be their grandfather while using their spiritual authority to perpetrate his evil is the same thing by a different name.

Job was a blameless and upright man by God’s standard, and whom God declared as such. Some of these monsters are so heinous in their criminality that they deserve to be thrown in a dungeon and have the key melted down to slag. The two are not the same. They don’t belong in the same hemisphere, never mind in the same category.   

Men err. Men make assumptions that later prove to be false. Men interpret what they see and come to the wrong conclusions so often as to make it a certainty that if it hasn’t happened yet, it will happen in the near future. God, on the other hand, does not err; He does not make assumptions but knows all things.

If you are an individual giving an opinion regarding some event or situation, you’re allowed to be wrong, you’re allowed to make a mistake, and the honest ones will come out and say as much. If, however, you are an individual claiming to speak on behalf of God, you have no such luxury. You can’t back paddle or obfuscate and say you got it wrong because your previous claim was that you were speaking for God. Either you must admit it was you and not Him, and you claimed His authority to increase your standing, or insist that the omniscient God of the universe gave you the wrong info.

People who insist they are never wrong about anything are dangerous. People who claim prophetic insight and get it wrong are more dangerous still because they present their conclusions as originating from God and should therefore be received as the authoritative voice of the Divine. There is a reason for the harsh words directed at those who claim to speak on behalf of God when God has not spoken.

Deuteronomy 18:20-22, “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ – when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously you shall not be afraid of him.”

Why was the standard so high? Because these men spoke words in the name of the Lord, and the people feared them for the authority they walked in. It wasn’t some trivial thing; it still isn’t, and God has not changed His view on the matter.

It’s not that we’ve lowered the standard of true prophetic utterances; we’ve eliminated them altogether. It’s the fuel that feeds the fires of deception, and with each newly minted prophet, the sheep soon realize is no prophet at all, only after they’ve hurt, wounded, misled, and shipwrecked people’s faith, there is a new slew of excuses trying to shield them from criticism rather than call them out for what they are.

It’s reached a level of absurdity wherein men have what can only be categorized as prophecy wars among themselves, each giving words regarding the other, insisting that the Lord isn’t with this one or that, when in reality He is with neither of them. All they’re doing is trying to protect their wallets.

When God speaks through an individual, that individual isn’t presuming, hoping, or feeling as though they've received a message; they know with certainty and clarity that thus says the Lord, and they are not reticent to declare it.

God will not contradict Himself, nor His word through prophecy. This only occurs when men presume to speak a word in God’s name which God has not spoken. That they are not judged in the moment does not mean judgment isn’t coming. That they can continue deceiving and being deceived does not mean that God is not keeping a record of their pronouncements and will one day judge righteously.

There is no fear of God or fear of judgment with such individuals. There can’t be. If you believe that God is a consuming fire, that He will judge every man individually, wherein everything will be laid bare, and nothing will be hidden, how could you continue down this path? How can you continue to presume and speak in the name of the Lord when He has not spoken?

Not even Jesus presumed. He made it clear that the words He spoke, He did not speak of His own authority, but by the Father who dwelt in Him. Wrap your mind around that one, then juxtapose it with how flippantly some men use the prophetic for their own greedy, self-serving ends.

John 14:10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”

If Jesus Himself did not speak on His own authority, what makes anyone currently living think that they can speak on His behalf in their authority? That is the question that must be answered in order to understand how deep the rebellion goes. Someone laid hands on you? Someone spoke a word that told you that you would be a prophet to the nations? Jesus was the Son of God, born of a virgin, perfect and sinless, and even He declared that the words He spoke were not with His own authority but that of the Father.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXX

 Currently, we know in part. Although there is a purpose for all things, God is not obligated to explain what that purpose is. Rest assured, it is according to His purpose, whether you currently see it or not. He sees it, and that’s what counts. He knows your struggle, your hardship, your pain, and were they in vain, were they purposeless, He would not be the loving God we know Him to be.

We trust in His plan because we know His character. We trust in His plan because we know His heart. We trust in His plan because we know His love and the eternal goal He has for those He loves and those who are His. Whether it requires chastening, so be it. Whether it requires pruning, refinement, testing, or purifying, He is fully aware of what is required, of what is needed, of what we must traverse in order to reach the other side stronger, more sanctified, committed, and focused on the prize.

God will not cheer us on if we’re running in the wrong direction simply for the sake of encouraging us. In His love, He will point out that although we are running, it’s not toward the finish line, but further away from it.

That’s one of the elephants in the room that the contemporary church needs to acknowledge and remedy: too often, we offer encouragement rather than rebuke out of a misplaced desire to show love. If someone is headed toward a cliff at full sprint, it isn’t loving to cheer them on. If someone’s actions, habits, or lifestyle are leading them away from Jesus rather than toward Him, it’s not loving to ignore it or validate their practices for the sake of feigning empathy.

Yes, all are welcome as they are, but the message must be unequivocally clear that they cannot remain that way if they desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. All are broken when they come before Him, but they must be told that He must make them whole if they desire His indwelling presence.

As Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again! There is no other way but this. There is no alternative path leading to the same destination; there is but one, without exception, since the moment Jesus said, “It is finished!”

Those who are His, those who belong to Him, those whom He calls sons and daughters, know that He is near, that His eyes are upon them, and that He hears their cry. They are as sure of this truth as they are of anything in life that comes about with the regularity of a rising sun or the changing of the seasons. There is no doubt or shadow of turning. There is no wondering or second-guessing whether He is present, whether He hears, or whether He is invested.

Psalm 34:18-19, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have contrite spirits. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

If you are His, His presence is enough to chase away fear, His presence is enough to chase away despair, His presence is enough to chase away uncertainty and doubt, and replace them with His peace, love, and joy.

Those who do not belong to God have no such respite. In this, Zophar was on point. Since repetition is the mother of learning, generally speaking, Zophar was not wrong about the wicked and what their inevitable outcome will be; where he erred was in assuming that Job was counted among the wicked.

You can say all the right things, but target them at the wrong individual. You can also say the right thing, to the right person, and do it in the wrong spirit. There are nuances and factors beyond the words we speak, and intentionality and purpose play a big part. Is my intention to comfort or wound? Is my purpose to elevate my own self-righteousness in the eyes of others, or to highlight the righteousness of God in the words that I speak?   

Doing more harm than good, even though that’s not what we set out to do, happens often enough when there is no spiritual guidance and only an intellectual reaction to a particular situation.

But, brother, the Bible tells us to speak the truth. Actually, what the Bible says is to speak the truth in love. Yes, you can speak rebuke, you can speak correction, but if they are tethered in love, you are speaking life rather than death, and hope rather than despair. Zophar was not being led by the Spirit, even though the words he spoke were valid as far as the wicked were concerned. He was accusing an innocent man of things he hadn’t done, not correcting or rebuking him for things he had.   

Job 20:20-24, “Because he knows no quietness in his heart, he will not save anything he desires. Nothing is left for him to eat; Therefore his well-being will not last. In his self-sufficiency he will be in distress; every hand of misery will come against him. When he is about to fill his stomach, God will cast on him the fury of His wrath, and will rain it on him while he is eating. He will flee from the iron weapon; a bronze bow will pierce him through.”

Whether it was projection, jealousy, insecurity, or the whispers of the enemy that led Zophar to continue his litany of accusations, given what occurs later in the book, we know without a doubt that he was in the wrong regarding his accusations against Job. God Himself would declare as much, and when God says something, we don’t have to wonder about its veracity. It’s a practical lesson we should all take to heart, and one that would save many much heartache.

Whatever you hear, whomever you hear it from, your first instinct should be to go to the Word and confirm that the two are in harmony, and complementary of each other. If they are not, reject whatever you hear from the lips of men because the Bible is always right.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXIX

 Scripture is timeless. The lessons it teaches us are likewise timeless. To put it another way, the Word of God is evergreen, never withering, changing with the seasons, or with the times. You receive spiritual succor from God’s Word today, as readily as someone two hundred years ago, or five hundred years ago. The only thing that has changed is man’s willingness to humble himself and receive the truth of Scripture. Access to knowledge and its availability have increased exponentially, but those who avail themselves of it have not kept pace. Broadly speaking, it’s undeniable that knowledge has increased, but wisdom has not.

Even when it comes to knowledge, not all knowledge is created equal. There is worldly knowledge, then there is knowledge that comes from God. When God points out that His people perish for lack of knowledge, it’s not knowledge of how to work a universal remote, but rather knowledge of Him, His character, His will, and His attributes.

Knowledge has increased, but it’s knowledge of the wrong things. As far as wisdom is concerned, by all available evidence, it seems as though wisdom has fallen off a cliff, rolled down the side of a mountain, and tumbled its way into a deep crevice.

That doesn’t keep us from beating our chests until we’re bruised and screaming “look at me, look at me, I’ve built a better mousetrap” from the top of our lungs. It wasn’t broken. We just didn’t like it in its original form. There was nothing that needed fixing, but we took to changing it with gusto nevertheless. That, in a nutshell, is the crux of the madness. We’ve gone from “look to Him” to “look at me”, and because there’s only so much market share to go around, we needed a hook. We needed something that would make us stand out.

Given that I’ve run across both, I can say with a high degree of certainty that the gypsy fortunetellers in the old country possess more real power than many of the so-called prophets of today, who are being raised up on pedestals as the newest spokespersons for the divine. At least the gypsy women can guess your name, your age, your birthday, or your dog’s name without the aid of Facebook. This is what ignorance of the word gets us, and since there is never a mention of repentance from those pretending to be the next Oz Pearlman or the next Amazing Kreskin, the sheep lap it up hungrily.

What does guessing the first three numbers of your home address have to do with Jesus? What does guessing how many children you fathered have to do with repentance, righteousness, or holiness unto the Lord? We don’t want God, just our own spiritualized version of bread and circuses. We don’t want sanctification; we just want a carney act to tell us how special we are, because that just reinforces our beliefs.    

Our conceit has convinced us that we know better than God, that we can take liberties with the written Word as we will, do away with the parts we don’t like, abolish context altogether, dismantle the text, then clobber it back together in a way that best suits us, insisting it’s still as originally intended, just an upgraded version. The hubris is mindboggling, yet here we are.

Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

That just won’t do; it won’t do at all. Piercing and cleaving, even to the division of soul and spirit, sounded too painful, so we found a workaround to mitigate the corrective attributes of the living and powerful word of God. Rather than have the Word pierce us to the depths of our hearts and expose the thoughts and intents of the heart, we decided to take a hatchet to the Word itself, make it say things it never did, and so avoid its sharpened edges.

It took a generation or more, but we’ve gone and done it and couldn’t be prouder of ourselves. We managed to blunt the sharpness of the Word, tone down the controversial bits, roll our eyes whenever anyone happened to remind us of them, convincing ourselves that we’d gotten one over on God. Hi fives all around; we’ve perfected the magic sauce. You can now have revelation without relationship, be a servant without submitting to the Master, and live like hell and be guaranteed heaven.

Isn’t that more appealing to the masses? Isn’t that more palatable? No more talk of the Word being sharper than a two-edged sword. No more talk of the Word having the ability to pierce even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, or the most troubling part, discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It’s easier to wag our fingers and point at what the world is doing than to look inward and see the catastrophic tragedy the contemporary church has become. As far as God is concerned, however, his first priority is His house, and that is where judgment will begin, flowing outward to the wicked and the godless. God deals with His own kids first before taking the rod to someone else’s kids.

1 Peter 4:17, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

It makes no sense that we want to change the world while resisting and refusing to be changed by the Word of God. It makes no sense that we expect the wicked to be more righteous than those declaring themselves to be ambassadors of Christ and prophets to the nations. Physician heal thyself, indeed.

It is the church itself that must return to the living, powerful Word of God, and not shrink back from its sharpness. It is the church itself that must clean house and tear down its idols, and the altars at which they worship that are as a stench in God’s nostrils, before it can be useful to the Kingdom and preach the gospel with the power and authority that have been missing for so long.

Will it? Will the church have a come-to-Jesus moment, a moment of true epiphany wherein it not only realizes how far it has strayed from the truth, but repents of it, acknowledges it, and returns to the basic tenets of Scripture? Given what the word tells us, given what we can see with our own eyes, it is unlikely. The getting’s too good, the vanity too deeply rooted, the praise of men too intoxicating. The hubris has metastasized to the point that we think we can dictate terms to the Creator of the universe. Rebellion has become so commonplace as to have been normalized, and wickedness is now considered par for the course, something we willfully ignore and sweep under the rug because exposing it will risk the income streams we’ve made our de facto gods.

Even so, a remnant remains, the few are being sanctified, the bride is being prepared, and those striving to enter through the narrow gate will see what their heart yearns for, their Redeemer, face to face, and hear two of the most profound words they will ever hear, well done!

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCXVIII

 So, which came first, the chicken or the egg? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Was there an ice cream land in heaven before ice cream was invented, or is heaven expanding in tandem with human invention and ingenuity? The same applies to Jello-Land, and isn’t there some sort of copyright infringement happening because, technically, Jello is a company that sells flavored gelatin, not the actual product itself? Does the Jello company have a legitimate lawsuit against heaven for naming it Jello-land? Inquiring minds want to know.

Why are you focusing on this? To highlight the absurdity of the claims some people are making on behalf of God, and in the name of God, that’s why. They’re jesters, farceurs, tellers of fables and ticklers of ears, wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest with no connection to the vine or foundation in truth.

Tell us more, tell us more about how cows drive around on tractors, about the unicorns in heaven, about the sasquatch, and other such fables. Make us smile, make us laugh, make us cringe and roll our eyes, but by no means insist that we reflect on our own wretchedness, our faithlessness, our hypocrisy, and ignorance of truth.

It takes less effort to pop a Twinkie in your mouth than it does to cook a meal, but while one may take longer, it’s packed with nutrients and vitamins, while the other is just empty calories that leave a coat of mystery oil on the roof of your mouth. One provides sustenance that is lasting and beneficial, the other an insulin spike that leaves you hungrier than you were before consuming it.

The choice of which to gravitate toward is yours as an individual. I’m not going to hide in the bushes and stuff a Twinkie in your mouth while jump scaring you, nor am I going to drive out and cook you a meal every night. It is you who must determine which is better for you and take steps to ensure you acquire it regularly.

You choose whether you will pursue fables and bedtime stories meant to lull children to sleep, or the power and authority that comes with walking in the will of God. One requires little to no effort, the other demands the putting to death of the old man and the forfeiting of all things for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.    

How do cows turn the key in the ignition if they have no thumbs? How do they know to change gears? Are the tractors automatic? Are there gas stations in heaven, or do the tractors run on sustainable energy sources heretofore unheard of? When it comes to the nature, character, sovereignty, providence, and supremacy of God, there is no need for such banal, laughable questions. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forevermore, unchanging, everlasting, sovereign, and omnipotent.

That’s all well and good, but you have to admit heaven sounds quirky, cute, and fun, I mean, cows driving tractors of all things. You can’t make that stuff up! Actually, you can.

Oddly enough, of all the things John the Revelator saw during his glimpse of heaven, there was no mention of cows driving tractors. He saw the throne, the One who sat on the throne, the twenty-four thrones surrounding the central one, he saw the elders, the seven lamps of fire, the sea of glass, and the four living creatures, not resting day or night saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come”, but no mention of pet dinosaurs or tractor-driving cows.

Granted, John admits he was in the spirit while the individual to whom the tractor-driving cows are attributed says she was translated bodily, but unless there is a different wing of heaven for receiving physical guests, like a solarium, it’s more than likely it’s pure, undiluted fiction.

Just compare and contrast the two. The solemnity, awe, reverence, worship, and grandeur of John’s vision of heaven, with the pitiful recreation of pet dragons and unicorns. Perhaps God remodeled to keep up with the times, one might say, but God is outside of time and does not seek the affirmation or validation of man. He is God! Worthy of honor and praise, worthy of glory and power, for He created all things and by His will they exist.

The God Job knew was the God who reigns in majesty, the God who is high and lifted up, whose train of his robe fills the temple. He knew the God who is from everlasting to everlasting, his Redeemer, and that’s the prism through which he served, worshipped, and had fellowship with Him. Had it been a child’s cartoonish version, replete with tractor-driving cows and sasquatch, would his faith have endured, I wonder?

It doesn’t take exhaustive research to discern the lies vomited upon the unsuspecting by self-professing heaven-hoppers, just a rudimentary knowledge of the Word of God and how ones such as John, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, or Stephen described what they saw.

Just because we want to believe fables, it doesn’t make them true. Just because what is described is fanciful and imaginative, lighthearted and eccentric, it doesn’t make it Biblical. No, you didn’t sit on God’s lap, no, you didn’t braid His beard, no, you didn’t beat Him at pinochle or spend a week playing Pictionary.

2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

Even though we knew it was coming, it’s still tragic to behold. Even though we tried to steel ourselves, it still smarts because real people are getting hurt, even though they’re the ones who sought out teachers who, rather than challenge them, rightly divide scripture, and preach the truth, would tickle their ears and speak fanciful fables to them. If you have a heart for people, you can’t help but be saddened by it, even though you know they participated in and invited their own deception while actively turning their ears away from the truth.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.