Reality Check Part 4

With each passing day it seems these teachings are becoming more timely. This is the fourth part of a ten part series I filmed before leaving the US this last time. I hope you enjoy, but I pray you are edified.

Thanks for watching, and commenting. With the New Year afoot, I will withold from any longwinded posts until after 2012 is in our rearview. God bless you all, and may He keep you safe in His embrace.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

The Boy Who Cried Rapture

I’ve tried to stay away from this topic. I really have. Among the handful of divisive topic within Christendom, the topic of the timing of the rapture seems to top the list, or at least run neck and neck with the once saved always saved doctrine.

I’ve bitten my tongue more times than I can count, I tried to find distractions and other things to take my mind off of what I’ve been seeing, but to no avail. I guess something just doesn’t go away if you ignore it long enough.

In the past three weeks I’ve gotten no less than twenty e-mails encouraging me to get my affairs in order, find someone to take care of my cat, (a cat which I don’t have, but I think they were just generalizing to make a point) because the rapture was happening. This time it was for real because they felt it, and we all know how reliable feelings are in regards to God’s timing on any given matter.

And so, patiently as always, I would write back to these individuals, give them scriptural references as to why I did not believe they knew the timing of the catching away, and all I got in return were threats that if I didn’t get on board and believe in the rapture, I’d get left behind just to be taught a lesson.

Now hold on just a minute. Since when is a man’s salvation predicated upon believing in the rapture and not believing in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who came and lived and died and rose again?

We’re starting to tread dangerous ground here, and the more the world comes undone, the more shrill the voices of those who cry rapture will become. By my count, just from the people who have contacted me, we should have been raptured no less than twenty times in the last three weeks. And yet we’re still here, still having to go to work and earn a living and feed our families and serve our God and be living epistles of the love of Jesus in us.

In between visiting my family and my wife’s family over Christmas, I got a little quiet time and started meditating upon the book of second Peter. I went through it verse by verse, wrote down impressions and thoughts, and when I came upon the verses talking about the scoffers who would come in the last days asking where the promise of the Lord’s coming was, I began to wonder if these scoffers would be justified in their scoffing to a certain extent.

If we keep asking family, friends and neighbors alike to watch our pets and feed our goldfish ‘cause we’re about to go on a one way trip to heaven every few days, chances are they will eventually start rolling their eyes, and shaking their heads in pity.

It’s not about the rapture, it’s about Jesus!

Believe me when I tell you I am as desperate to get to heaven as you are. It is the goal. It is the prize. It is the crown we receive as ones who having been good and faithful servants are welcome into their Father’s rest.

Desiring something and convincing ourselves that what we desire will manifest itself if we desire it hard enough are two different things. Just because I want to leave this mortal coil behind and be with my Lord does not mean I can will Him into appearing on the clouds before the time God has established.

If we believe God at His word, and come to terms with the truth that no man knows the day or the hour, then we will not live lives of distraction and failed expectations, but labor ceaselessly until that blessed day when Jesus does return.

Matthew 24:36, “But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 211

Prayers of the Old Testament
The Prayer of Elisha continued...

We are not doing anyone any favors by twisting and distorting Scripture in the hopes that our pews and offering baskets will be fuller. The day will come and it is soon approaching when those to whom we have preached a counterfeit gospel and a counterfeit Christ will call us to task for not having prepared them spiritually, and for not having told them the truth while they still had time to draw closer and grow in God.

Elijah looks upon Elisha, and I can picture him shrugging his shoulders as he spoke to him. It wasn’t Elijah that called Elisha it was God who called him. Elijah was just the vessel by which Elisha was called, and having done his part, his answer is neither out of place or exceedingly unfeeling.

Is it man who has called you or is it God who has called you?

If it is God who has called you, why do you feel the need to explain your calling to men and get their approval?

1 Kings 19:21, “So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and served him.”

Most people I meet who want to be in ministry but have never been called to it, confide that they would do more for God if they could maintain their safety net. Essentially, they would be more willing to step out in faith if there was no faith required to do the work of God.

If you want to know how a man’s ministry will play out, look to see how it began. Elisha took his livelihood – having been a plowman who plowed with his oxen – slaughtered his livelihood, boiled the meat, and gave it to the people to eat.

There was no half measure to Elisha’s commitment. There was no notion of a safety net, or having something to come back to if serving Elijah didn’t pan out.

If God has called you then God will provide, supernaturally if need be. This is why it’s so important to know it is God who has called you. Some men get carried away because someone in the Sunday school class they taught told them they should have been a preacher, others look to the opulence to which some evangelists have become accustomed and pursue ministry for the selfsame reason, and others still see it as a safe career choice with a nice retirement from their chosen denomination.

Of all the reasons men enter ministry, it is only those whom God has called that stick to it during the hard times, and the trying times. The hirelings pack up and move on as soon the going gets tough, because they were never in ministry for the right reasons to begin with.

Elisha made a conscious decision to do away with every safety net, burn every bridge, and devote himself fully to his calling. There was no going back for Elisha, and knowing this, he focused all his effort on fulfilling his calling and being a vessel of honor in the hands of God.

Not surprisingly, Elisha performed more recorded miracles than anyone in the Bible other than Jesus.

The takeaway for us in having glimpsed Elisha’s calling, is that once we are called of God, and are certain we are called of God, we commit to the calling to which we have been called wholeheartedly, without reservation, and without delay.

Another aspect of Elisha’s calling we have a tendency to overlook is that he didn’t start out dividing the Jordan River, healing Naaman, or raising a woman’s son from the dead. He started out serving Elijah.

The first lesson all who are called of God must learn is to serve. No matter how great an anointing one might have, no matter how eloquent, mesmerizing, engaging or deep, if they have not learned to serve it will show in their character, and eventually adversely affect their ministry.

Elisha followed and served until God called him to greater things.

Some of us are called to serve for a year, some for ten, some for forty, but however long we are called to learn the lesson of serving, when we finally graduate, we will be called upon to continue serving others faithfully, humbly and selflessly.

We learn to lead by learning to follow, and we learn authority by learning to serve.

Although many would like nothing more than to bypass their season of serving and their season of following, it is something God has established so we might be ready, mature, balanced, and complete when He does call us to step out on our own.

Although opinions vary on how long Elisha followed and served Elijah, estimates range from six years, to ten years, to twelve years, and some even to twenty years. This was by no means a short term stint, it wasn’t something Elisha did over the summer, it was ongoing, protracted, and time consuming, yet Elisha continued to serve because it was what God called him to.

As obedient servants we perform the tasks and duties to which we have been called. No one said they would be glamorous, no one said they would garner us attention, fame and fortune, all we know is that God deemed them necessary, and appointed us to carry them out.

Knowing God needed it done and He chose you to do it ought to be enough, but for some it just isn’t. As pride continues to flare up at inappropriate times, men begin to think themselves underutilized in the plan of God, followed by a predisposition to drag their feet whenever called upon to labor, and capped off with the inevitable bitterness congruent with believing we deserve a higher profile task than has been assigned us.

What we so often fail to acknowledge is that it isn’t the size of the task God assigns us which determines our reward, but our obedience and faithfulness in carrying it out.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 210

Prayers of the Old Testament
The Prayer of Elisha

The day was hot and the dust kicked up by the eleven yoke of oxen before him caused the young man to wipe at his eyes and breathe through his nose. He was a plowman, one who plowed the tough and rugged ground until it broke under the constant strain. The young man knew there was nothing glamorous about his career, but without fertile soil one could not plant seed, without seed there would be no harvest, and without harvest men would starve.

For Elisha it was just another day, no different than any other which came before it. Oftentimes those days which change our lives forever start out like any other. There are no trumpeters heralding a change, there are no announcers forewarning us of those moments which alter the course of our very existence. Every day has a beginning, middle, and an end, twenty-four hours which in essence aren’t really hours, but a way by which us temporal beings measure time. This was the day in which Elisha’s life was going to change and he didn’t even know it.

We can’t plan for those days, we can’t prepare for those days, they come upon us suddenly and without warning, and all we have to do is be willing to step out of our comfort zone, and follow after the guidance of the Spirit of God.

Elisha was plowing a field, just one nameless face among twelve other men doing the exact same thing, when out of nowhere a man walks up to him and throws his mantle on him. There was no explanation, the man didn’t forewarn him of what he was about to do, and by reading the words of Scripture, he didn’t even place the mantle upon him gently, but rather threw it.

Instinctively Elisha knew what this meant, because in those days only kings and prophets generally wore such mantles. A mantle during Elisha’s time was symbolic of the owner’s calling, position, and authority.

Elisha’s only choice in this entire unfolding was to either accept the calling, or reject it, pretending as though he did not understand what had just occurred.

Even before we get into our discussion on the prayer of Elisha, there are great nuggets of wisdom we can glean from his calling, and his reaction to his calling.

There are moments in life when God calls us or instructs us to do a specific thing, and rather than comply and obey, we pretend as though we did not fully understand His instructions, or did not clearly hear His voice.

Although God knows we heard and we heard clearly, we attempt to call Him a liar to His face by shrugging our shoulders and saying, ‘I didn’t know you wanted me to do that.’

Elisha’s calling was not what you would call the clearest and most vivid of callings. There was plenty of room for him to pretend as though Elijah’s actions did not compute, and that the mantle being thrown upon him had been an accident.

Elisha, however, had an honest and sincere heart. Having understood what Elijah’s actions meant Elisha left his oxen and ran after him.

There was no delay in Elisha’s reaction. There was no concern for what his fellow plowmen would say, or what his employer would say. A stranger had thrown a mantle upon him, and knowing what it meant Elisha ran after him.

1 Kings 19:20, “And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, ‘please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.’ And he said to him, ‘Go back again, for what have I done to you?’”

By all accounts a man like Elijah would be labeled unloving, abrasive, short tempered, and downright mean-spirited by today’s exceedingly sensitive culture. Here was a young man who left his oxen in the field, chased down the man who had thrown his mantle upon him, asked to go say goodbye to his father and mother, and all the fellow said was, ‘go back again, for what have I done to you?’

Why, Elijah didn’t even acknowledge Elisha’s implied honor of him as many would nowadays, because to say ‘I will follow you’ implies one is worthy of being followed.

Nowadays, rather than do their duty and simply walk away, men hold up banners and signs and posters of themselves pleading and begging with people to follow them rather than the One who sent them. If one happens to come along as Elisha did to Elijah, they are quickly made to feel at ease to the point that truth isn’t even spoken in their lives for fear of losing a follower.

The system may have jaded me over the years, this I cannot deny, but it doesn’t make me any less right, and you know it because you’re seeing it. Men love to be praised, adored, followed, and obeyed. Men love to have authority over others, and they exert that authority liberally whenever it suits them.

I know I am in the minority, but I respect Elijah’s reaction to Elisha’s statement.

Elijah knew all he had done was what God had told him to do, and now the choice and decision making was up to Elisha alone. Elijah did not try to sugarcoat the calling, he didn’t try to talk Elisha into following him, he threw his mantle upon him, and having completed the task with which he had been tasked, walked away.

Since when did it become our duty to make Jesus appealing in lieu of preaching the Christ of the Bible? Since when did it become our duty to highlight notions such as prosperity, blessing, perfect health, and an existence absent of trials in lieu of the truth the Scriptures bear out in regards to what a true servant of God can expect to endure at the hands of the godless?

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

This Christmas

When it comes to Christmas, Christians have a wide range of beliefs. Some refuse to acknowledge Christmas altogether, others believe it ought to be celebrated to the fullest, and others still forego the mention of Christ in lieu of an overweight man with a beard, wearing a red suit, sneaking into people’s homes and leaving unrequited presents just for the fun of it.

Although we as believers can disagree about a great many things, from whether or not Jesus was born on Christmas, to what kind of animals were in the manger, to what ethnicity the wise men were, there are certain things all who name the name of Christ can agree upon, and in fact must agree upon.

We know that Jesus was born of a virgin, Christ the Lord the Savior of mankind. Above all, this is the most important component of our entire faith, and one we must agree upon. Whether you celebrate Christmas or you don’t, let the knowledge that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son fill you with joy, peace, and gratitude toward Him.

And to those of you who do celebrate Christmas, by all means, Merry Christmas. May Christ dwell in you!

Luke 2:10, “Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’”

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

P.S. The Kindle version of 'Fundamental Doctrines' is up and live on Amazon, and for a limited time you can get it for free through the kindle lending program known as KDP Select. I will include the link, and by all means take advantage of the opportunity. If not, you will have to shell out a whole $3.99, the price of a cup of coffee, and I know I will likely get flack for putting a price on it, but then again, the minimal proceeds do go to a good cause. I did check the conversion, it is good, no weird code or anything. God bless.

Fundamental Doctrines Kindle Edition

The Sacred and The Profane

Put on your dancing shoes, shake loose your tambourine, we survived December 21, 2012, and now it’s time to celebrate. Somehow we avoided the end of the world. No meteors collided with our little blue planet, no aliens showed up unannounced, nobody sprouted a third eye, nor was the whole of mankind magically transformed into kinder gentler versions of themselves.

Yes! We avoided annihilation in spite of the fact that a bunch of guys in loincloths a few thousand years ago ran out of rock while chiseling their calendar. If you can’t trust the Mayans, I guess you can’t trust anybody anymore. Hey, weren’t they the guys who cut the beating hearts out of people’s chests, decapitated folk to appease weather gods, and other gruesome things that weren’t very Christ like?

Only I know the amount of e-mails I’ve gotten concerning this singular topic over the past few months, and from men and women whom I would have considered mature in the faith. Each – in their unique and roundabout way – wanted to know the same thing, that is, what I thought would happen on December 21, 2012.

At first I would jokingly write back something pithy, since I am known for my pith, but then I started getting annoyed and even somewhat perturbed, because these were after all professing Christians, who were taking a myth from a culture that had no tangential relationship with Christ Jesus, and running with it as though their hair was on fire.

It has become very easy and even somewhat of a frequent occurrence for our generation of believers to mix the sacred and the profane as though they belonged together under the same umbrella of general philosophy or belief structure.

Rather than submit to the authority of God’s word, we are quick to borrow from the godless and the heathen to uphold our preconceived notions and suppositions. Even though the Bible may hold the contrarian view to what we’ve adopted as our pet doctrine, we will site some long extinct tribe whose shaman once read the selfsame thing we assert in the intestines of a freshly slaughtered bovine as our reason for believing what we believe.

We will go out of our way, bend ourselves into pretzels, and butcher the word of God beyond recognition just to make it say what we want it to say, but we will take some guys whose notion of a good time was speed decapitations at their word.

The world was supposed to end, but it didn’t. We’re still here, still breathing the same air, still having to deal with the neighbor who thinks the hallway is the new dumpster. In case you got distracted by this distraction, until the next distraction, if it wouldn’t be too much of a bother could you possible lend a hand, perhaps put your shoulder into it a tad, and help those of us who never stopped laboring to further the kingdom of God?

No, I’m not asking for money, just for professing Christians to start preaching Christ with sincerity of heart, and the same feverish fervor they preached the Mayan End of Days.

Some of us have grown past holding our breaths from one date to another, and keep working through the frenzy, all the way through the big letdown, without rest or respite. Once in a while it would be nice to know we have some company along the way since safety in numbers is a proven truism.

There will always be a date, whether in the distant or not too distant future toward which men look with anticipation. Whether from men setting dates for the catching away, Mayans getting bored with chiseling into rock and giving up the project, or an ancient Swahili legend about an old lady who counted 2014 pebbles into a jar after which it spontaneously combusted (fear not, I made the last one up) there’s always some date to which we look as the definitive day when everything will change.

As I said, the world did not end this morning. This, however, does not mean that the world will never end, or that the approaching darkness is not a real and present reality. When it does happen, it will happen on God’s time, the One God, the only God, the God who spoke the universe into being, and due to whose good pleasure this rock we call home still spins.

If we do not stop trying to blend the sacred and the profane, to borrow what we like from a dozen different cultures while marginalizing the word of God, we will find ourselves shackled and silenced before we realize what’s happening.

While believers of all levels of maturity were having a hissy fit over the Mayan calendar and what it meant, real things have been happening in the world…troubling, dangerous things which will have dire consequences.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 209

Prayers of the Old Testament
The Prayer of Solomon continued...

1 Kings 3:10, “And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.”

The Lord can be pleased, but He can also be displeased by what we ask of Him. Our requests, petitions and prayers can bring joy to His heart, or cause His heart to grow weary. It all depends upon what we ask of Him, and whether or not it shows the requisite maturity God has come to expect of His children.

God has invested wisdom, God has invested knowledge, He has invested His Spirit and His will in our lives, and He wants to see the transformation in our thinking and our actions because of this. God does not invest in us hoping we remain the same, perpetually childish, perpetually unthankful, and perpetually distracted by the things of this world. When God pours into us, it is with the singular purpose of transforming us into an image pleasing in His sight.

Anyone who’s had children knows that one of the greatest joys of parenthood is seeing one’s offspring go through the stages of development, becoming wiser, more mature, and more self-sufficient with each subsequent stage. In short, parents love to see their children grow up.

When we are infants we are wholly dependent upon our parents for survival. As we grow, we begin to fend for ourselves, growing more self-reliant with time, until we are finally on our own earning our own way.

Our spiritual wellbeing is dependent and predicated upon continued growth and maturity. If we remain in a state of infancy, then we can never hope to be the warriors God grooms His children to become. If our prayers continue to be self-centered and vain, they will never please the Lord, nor bring joy to His heart.

1 Kings 3:11-12, “Then God said to him: ‘Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.’”

Of all the things Solomon could have asked for, of all the things he could have requested of God, things which would have profited and benefited him, he asked for something that would profit and benefit the people of God instead.

Due to the fact that Solomon did not put himself first, God answered his prayer, and gave him a wise and understanding heart to the extent that there had not been anyone like him before, nor would any like him arise after.

What would you ask God for if you were given this once in a lifetime opportunity?

What would you request of the Lord if He came to you in a dream and said, ‘Ask! What shall I give you?’ Would your request be as selfless as Solomon’s? Would you ask for something that would benefit the people of God rather than yourself?

Each of us must come to the place of self-denial in our walk as Solomon did. It is in selflessness that love for others can thrive, and grow, and produce much fruit for the kingdom of God. It is in selflessness that we are able to devote our time, our effort and our resources toward doing good and making an impact in a world which is becoming increasingly hedonistic with each passing day.

If selfishness still has a place in our hearts, we will always find a reason or excuse not to reach out or stand in the gap. If selfishness has not been thoroughly exterminated, we will always find a way of justifying inaction, and even if we manage to go and do what God has commanded us to do, we do it halfheartedly, attempting to find the easiest route to obedience rather than the most fulfilling.

It is when we grasp the true value of wisdom, understanding, discernment, and other intangibles only God can grant us that we begin to desire them. If I do not value wisdom, I will not ask God for wisdom. If I do not value understanding, I will not ask God for understanding.

When the offer is made, and we are able to ask for anything, we will ask for what we perceive as having the greatest value.

If our minds are renewed, and our hearts beat for Christ alone, we will know the true worth of more of Him in our lives, and because we know, it will be the thing we ask for. If we live for His glory, then we will ask for the necessary virtues wherein we can bring glory to His name. Yes, it all comes back to the heart, and to whom our heart truly belongs.

1 Kings 3:13, “And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days.”

Because he was selfless in his request and because his request pleased the Lord, the Lord also gave Solomon certain things He didn’t ask for.

The lesson in Solomon’s prayer is as simple as it is profound. It is a lesson echoed by Christ Jesus Himself when he admonished us to ‘seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,’ and when we are faithful in this, everything else will be added on.

There are issues of paramount importance in our life, as well as issues which are peripherally important. To our detriment we often confuse and interchange the two, and seek after the peripherally important things, while neglecting those of paramount importance.

Even before God granted him wisdom and understanding Solomon was wise enough to know the difference between the two, and having realized the incalculable value of a wise and understanding heart, it is the one thing he asked of the Lord.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.