A Request for Input

The following is the introduction to the next book I will be publishing, Lord willing, within the next few weeks. I know it is a project God kept putting on my heart until I finally relented and put it together. The book is called The Battle Ready Believer, and I believe it is relevant for the times we are living in.
I would appreciate your input on what amounts to the synopsis of this upcoming book, as well as any other chapters you believe should be included. Thanks in advance for taking the time, and God bless.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

We are living amidst a generation of spiritual marshmallows. A disproportionate number of those calling themselves soldiers for Christ and warriors of the cross know nothing of spiritual warfare, the weapons employed in said warfare, or what it means to stand one’s ground before the onslaught of the enemy. By and large they are soft, sickly sweet with political correctness, full of air, and melt at the first sign of heat just like a marshmallow.

We have replaced character and moral fortitude with snarky condescension, and rather than aspire to spiritual greatness like those who came before us we find reasons to demean them and degrade their accomplishments on behalf of the Kingdom.

Since when do hipsters with questionable degrees from online seminaries have the right to question Paul, Peter, John, Luke, Mark, or even Jesus Himself? Since when does a spiritual homunculus have the right to contradict the Word of God itself, and still have the temerity to call himself a pastor of one of the largest congregations in the world?

In the estimation of this present generation martyrs were only martyrs because they weren’t bright enough to doubletalk their way out of their predicaments. There is little to no understanding of duty in today’s modern church, and what passes for spiritual maturity is a cross between pathetic and terrifying.

When compromise becomes our banner and cowardice is seen as virtue is it any wonder that so few among professing believers today are battle ready?

We have been seduced. We have become so enamored with the world and this present life that we give not a thought to the reality that eternity beckons with every breath, and the enemy’s sole purpose is to keep us from spending eternity with God.

A battle is coming whether the church is ready for it or not. The enemy has assembled his armies, they have amassed on the battlefield, and in short order the final assault against the children of God will commence.

The level of your spiritual readiness will determine whether you will survive the battle or be so much fodder having fallen like so many others. One cannot prepare for battle on the battlefield. One cannot begin to know the weapons of his warfare as the enemy is charging, and the air is thick with the expectation of battle.

In understanding that battle is inevitable the wise will ready themselves in advance, learning what it is to be a soldier and taking the necessary steps to become it.

Men wage war for various reasons at various times. While some are compelled by patriotism or religious beliefs, others still are driven by ambition or lust for power. Whatever the underlying reason for war, it is powerful enough to cause an individual to risk their life for it.

In any battle, in any war, the possible loss of one’s life is implied. There has never been a war waged without casualties, and every individual who enlists does so with the full knowledge that it may very well mean their life.

Physical war is bloody, brutal, and taxing in every way possible. What believers seem to have forgotten over the years is that spiritual warfare is just as brutal, just as taxing, and just as ruthless as any war in the physical. Spiritual warfare also carries greater far reaching consequences than war in the natural does, because the consequences of spiritual warfare are eternal in their scope.

Wherever I happen to be on any given Sunday it seems I hear more about the victory party after the battle than I do about the battle itself anymore. Preachers don’t like to preach on spiritual warfare, parishioners don’t like to hear about spiritual warfare, and so we focus on the hereafter instead. We focus on that moment beyond time when the last sword will have been swung and the last blow will have been struck, utterly failing to prepare or even make the individual aware of the war they are currently embroiled in.

If you call yourself a son or daughter of God then you are at war. Since the fact that you are already at war is a foregone reality and you have no say in the matter would it not be wise and prudent to learn all you can about your enemy and about the weapons you have at your disposal?

Would it not be wisdom itself to learn how we can defend ourselves and even go on the offensive against an enemy who has already made it perfectly clear that he will take no prisoners?

Even though the spectator stands are overflowing and the warriors on the field of battle are decreasing in number at an alarming rate we who remain cannot give up the fight. We cannot lay down our arms, we cannot take off our armor, and we cannot surrender to the enemy, for if we do we will be counted among the rebellious and disobedient. We will be counted among those who ought to have known what it is to stand, to fight, and to overcome an enemy who fears our General, and who has given us the privilege and right to walk in His authority.  

Many claim bravery when there is no call for it, but very few exhibit bravery in the face of certain violence or mortal danger. In modern day parlance many Christians talk a good game, but when their mettle is tested, when the battle is upon them, they turn tail and run. They surrender to the enemy, or worse still become traitors to the cause of Christ attempting to weaken the household of faith from within.

If all we can do is talk a good game, if we have not trained, equipped, prepared, and honed our spiritual selves, when the day of battle is upon us, though we may think ourselves brave, though we may think ourselves steadfast, we will flee from before the onslaught of the enemy.

Battle presupposes many things, but certain ones are essential. Among the essentials of any conflict are armies, arms, tactics, strategy, and the knowledge of one’s adversary. If any of these essentials is missing, one’s loss of the battle is ensured even before the first blow is struck.

Without having the right soldiers, the right arms, the right strategy and a fundamental understanding of one’s enemy, we are inhibited and stunted in our ability to fight the fight in such a manner that victory is certain.

Brutal and coldhearted as it may seem, one need only give a passing glance to the current church to realize that though we might call ourselves an army we are weaponless, absent of strategy, ignorant of tactics, and woefully unaware of our enemy, what he can do, and the lengths he will go to in any conflict.

A soldier’s ignorance of his weapons on the battlefield will almost always ensure his demise. If he stands face to face against his enemy and does not know how to wield his sword, raise his shield, or have a passing knowledge of all the weapons in his arsenal, that moment of hesitation, the fumbling with one’s scabbard, the overreach of one’s sword, the wrong placement of one’s shield, and the enemy will strike the mortal blow.

By the same token, a soldier who does not know the tactics of his enemy or how to defend against them is at a serious disadvantage on the battlefield. We are warned, and forthrightly so in God’s word not to be ignorant of the devil’s devices. The reason this warning is found within the pages of scripture is because once we are aware of the devil’s devices, we will naturally begin to take steps to protect ourselves against them and guard our hearts against their influences.

If battle finds us unprepared, if the enemy finds us defenseless, if we find ourselves standing on the battlefield with no weapons of either defense or offense, know that our ill preparedness was not God’s fault but our own. We have been warned and repeatedly so to prepare, to put on our armor, to know how to wield the power granted to us by  the blood of the Lamb, and if we have failed to do these things, or believed that they somehow did not pertain to us, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

A wise man prepares. A wise man does his utmost to make certain that he has done his utmost, then trusts in the arm of God to do what he cannot.

Laziness has made many within the church indifferent toward the reality of the times they are living in and though the Word of God urges us to prepare, to be as faithful soldiers, to know the weapons of our warfare and be diligent about growing spiritually, many roll their eyes and fail at stifling their yawns.

This book is not meant for the indifferent. This book is not meant for the spiritually lazy. This book is meant for those who see the storm clouds on the horizon, those that understand on an very basic level that battle is inevitable, and who realize that they have little time to prepare but prepare they must.

This book is meant for those searching for truth, those who refuse to buy into the lie that we are impotent in the face of the enemy, that we have no weapons to speak of, or that we are at the mercy of evil and evil men.

We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. We were commanded to stand, and do all to stand, being fearless in our battle against the darkness, knowing that God stands with us, and fights alongside us.

By the end of this book you will hopefully be able to answer the following questions for yourself:

1.      Who taught you how to fight?

2.      What are you fighting for?

3.      How far are you willing to go?

4.      Are you mature enough?

5.      Have you built up your endurance?

6.      Do you understand your authority?

7.      Do you know your weapons?

8.      Do you know your General?

9.      Do you know your weakness?

10.  Do you know your enemy?

These are all questions we must answer individually, being honest with ourselves, and making the requisite changes if and where they are needed.

The time for sailing through our spiritual existence without consequence is far past. The time for spiritual immaturity has long since expired, and though many a man continue to espouse the fallacy that being battle ready is a choice rather than a requirement, what we are witnessing with our own eyes throughout the world is exposing such men for the liars they are.

In His grace God has given us time to prepare for the battle but whether or not we take advantage of this grace and actually do prepare spiritually is wholly and solely on us. God will not do for us what we can do for ourselves, nor will He force us to train and exercise our spiritual selves even if we don’t want to.

It is incumbent upon us as individuals to understand the days in which we are living and act accordingly. It is incumbent upon us as individuals to put away the childish things, and grow into the warriors God expects us to be.

A Timely Sermon

I preached this sermon some three years ago. I believe it is more timely now than ever before. Someone e-mailed me and reminded me of it, and since it is on YouTube i thought I'd share it. 

I may be biased, but I believe it's worth the 50 minutes. 

As for me, I am back in the States with the family, trying to juggle more projects than I have a reasonable expectation of completing, but feeling pulled to each one for a different reason. 
Please keep my family and I in your prayers. 

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr. 

Choose Ye a Champion

For some time now everyone’s been wondering who it would be. Who would be the one to take a stand? Who would be the one to draw the proverbial line in the sand? Who would waive the banner of truth unashamedly for all to see?

Would it be the theological homunculus with the capped teeth who’s always going on about abomination not being God’s best? Would it be the man who would win the world for Christ but for his lack of a multimillion dollar jet to do it in? Or, perhaps, the man whose arm was forcibly twisted until he finally saw the light, and halfheartedly made some sort of retraction about endorsing that which God abhors?

The field was wide ranging, hearts were aflutter, everyone was anxious, and to everyone’s surprise save those who actually bother to read the Word of God, the person who would stand was some no name city clerk, in a little known town, in Kentucky of all places.

In case this is the first you are hearing of this, the backstory in its most basic form is that a city clerk is currently in jail because she refused to sign a marriage license for two homosexuals, citing that it would conflict with God’s definition of marriage.

As a sidebar, to all the dullard faux-Christians who were excitedly waving rainbow flags in front of their churches and insisting that they were the tolerant sort of Christian and very different from the curmudgeonly Bible believing ones, you have cast your lot. That whole spiel you swallowed and regurgitated about homosexuals having no agenda and simply being good at coordinating their wardrobe, knowing good wine, and keeping the stinky cheese industry afloat, has proven itself the lie it always was, and now all you can do is sit there and stew in your tolerance and pray God have mercy on your soul. You wretched things! You betrayers of truth!

What was it you were calling those who were warning of what would be unleashed against the church? Delusional fear mongers, bigots, knuckle draggers, and worse? All in the hope that some pervert or another would point out how fiercely you defend their perversion.  Are you still as orgasmic in your unfettered support of abomination now that you see it’s not so harmless after all? You slavish fools! You useful idiots! You have made the heart of the righteous sad. For this, and all your other atrocities, may God judge you rightly and speedily.

What surprised me is the surprise which much of the church exhibited at who it was that finally took a stand for righteousness. Why haven’t we as yet grasped the simple truth that the true men and women of God aren’t being wined and dined by Oprah, flown around in private jets, and adored by the world? Why haven’t we as yet grasped that all these prophets of Baal passing themselves off as true believers are already bought and paid for, pipers for their overseers who in turn shower them with baubles and material excesses?

These men will continue to remain silent because they do not want to risk having their baubles taken away. The only time any of them seem to raise a stink is when there is a senate inquiry into their finances and lavish lifestyles, but that’s a different matter for a different time.

Those who will astound in the coming days will not be the famous or well known, but men and women as yet unheard of who are living out their faith daily, and manifesting that faith in their lives. Before David picked five stones out of a brook and stood to face Goliath, he was a mere sheep herder. Before Gideon stood to face the Midianites he was a scared young man hiding in a cave.

We must stop expecting our champions to be named men among Christendom and simply pray that God raise up faithful men and women whose lives have already become forfeit, who are already buried with Christ in God, and as such have nothing to lose when the enemy attempts to force them into subservience.

A storm is coming in which the true men and women of God will shine bright as the sun. As for the chaff it will blow away in the coming storm, leaving behind only that which is true, and pure, and godly.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

How Far We've Fallen

High standards seem to be a thing of the past. What once was ordinary and expected of everyone is now deemed gifted, talented, and exceptional. Even simple things like being able to write longhand are considered extraordinary, and if perchance you happen to be an immigrant that speaks fluent English without the frequent insertion of ‘know what I’m sayin’?’ in your dialogue, people are surprised and dumbfounded.

We have consistently lowered the bar to accommodate the lazy and uninspired, and although that is a choice the world is free to make it ought not to be so when it comes to those responsible for the spiritual welfare of the household of faith.

The quality of shepherd has been steadily diminishing during the first few decades. We have let things slide, we have ignored the warning signs, and now the quality of shepherd has diminished to the point that no one seems to be put off by the idea that some 400 pastors, deacons, elders, and other church leadership have enrolled themselves and pay fees to a website whose sole purpose is to provide partners for illicit extramarital affairs.

In layman’s terms, they pay a subscription to facilitate the commission of adultery with other individuals who pay a subscription to likewise commit adultery on their significant other.

The surprise in the church was almost nonexistent. Some are even breathing a sigh of relief that the names of these pastors and elders were found on a website that facilitates heterosexual intercourse rather than one providing hookups for men to reciprocally sodomize each other.

At least they were looking to commit adultery with women. The fact that we can even think of framing the argument in such a manner proves how far we’ve fallen and how little is expected of our spiritual leaders nowadays.
It used to be men whose function was to serve food to widows were expected to be of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Nowadays, as long as you can fit into a pair of skinny jeans and look hip enough wearing a pair of horn rimmed glasses, your spiritual pedigree, how much you know of the Word, or even what you believe is no longer relevant.

We make idols of men only to be overcome by hopelessness and despair once our idols turn out to be less then human, never mind a demigod.

In this entire unfolding there are no innocents. Everyone is culpable for the spiritual condition we find ourselves in. Everyone is culpable for the lukewarm, halfhearted, heretical offerings we bring before God, thinking we are doing Him a favor, and expecting to be generously rewarded via the material for our efforts.

The leaders are culpable because they stopped preaching truth, and began floating the idea that sin is no longer sin, and what you do  the rest of the week is irrelevant as long as you pay your tithe and show up on Sunday.

The sheep are culpable because they desired a wider path than that the Bible prescribes, and found themselves teachers to suit their proclivities and give them license to sin.

Those still preaching truth are likewise culpable, because they didn’t yell loud enough, or long enough, or often enough, but in their defense, even a dog can only be smacked upon the head so many times by those he considers friends before he just gives up his barking, and goes to sit in a corner somewhere.

We tried preaching the Word, and were called legalists. We tried preaching righteousness and were called zealots. We tried preaching the power of the Holy Spirit and were called mystics. We tried preaching Jesus and were called intolerant. We tried preaching the narrow path and were called exclusivists. We tried preaching the cross and were called old-fashioned, outmoded, and obsolete.

 

We were not called these things by the world; it was not the world that was persecuting us, but those who claimed to be of the household of faith, those who claimed to be of Christ, those who claimed to stand for truth. Yes, the selfsame individuals who now embrace sin with open arms, who see no problems with adultery, and whose notion of salvation is one even a toddler can poke holes in until it looks like a slice of Swiss cheese.

Who have we to blame for the world we’ve created but ourselves?

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

A Much Needed Perspective

‘I’m going to kill you! I want to kill you! My loftiest dream, the pinnacle of my existence is to bathe in your blood!’

What if you had a neighbor who repeated these lines every time he got the chance? What if you had a neighbor who on any given day went out of his way to remind you that you are nothing, that your very existence offends him, and as soon as he is able he will end your life by any means available to him? What if said neighbor took it beyond mere words every time he got a chance, breaking your windows, killing your pets, assaulting your family, and even financing others to do you harm? Would you ignore this individual? Would you just shrug your shoulders and go about your business?  Would you just roll your eyes and call him a silly rascal? Would you not take him seriously? Would you entertain the idea that this was all a farce as some insist even though the manner in which he threatens your life bears no semblance of it being a joke or a slip of the tongue?

Let’s look at this a different way, because I really want to get the absolute lunacy of what we are seeing play out before our eyes through to you.

Imagine you are witnessing the following conversation between two people:

“I’m going to kill you.”

“No you are not.”

“But I’ve been referring to you as the great Satan and calling for your destruction for decades.”

“No you haven’t.”

“But I have a knife and I’m going to stab you with it.”

“I don’t believe you, but here’s a gun in any case.”

“You just made it easier for me to kill you.”

“No I didn’t.”

“I just pulled the trigger.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You are bleeding.”

“No I’m not.”

At this point would you not be questioning the mental wherewithal of the second individual? At this point would you not be wondering, perhaps aloud, if the need for a psych evaluation were not preeminent?

There is something incongruent with logic and reason when we attempt to go out of our way to further militarize a people whose stated purpose is our destruction. The reality of the situation is so obvious, that one rightly wonders whether or not our leaders have been blinded by an invisible hand, and are setting about doing things antithetical to their own self-preservation.

We are living days the likes of which the world has never seen, and will never see again. We are living prophetic times, and are made witness to the fulfillment of Scripture almost comparable in scope to the birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection of the Christ.

The nagging question isn’t so much what will occur in the short term. It is what sort of persons ought we to be, knowing what we know of the end times landscape.  

Perhaps an even more relevant question is: are we the persons we ought to be, in holy conduct and godliness as Scripture commands? Because knowing a thing and doing a thing are two very different things and many a soul today possess the knowledge of what they ought to be but not the wherewithal to make the necessary changes in order to be it.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

All the King's Horses

I will begin this post by stating that I am no financial wizard. Like most of you, at the end of the month I’m looking through the couch cushions for spare change, but in my defense diapers aren’t cheap, and I think they set the price for baby formula by the gold standard.

That said, I recently read that Puerto Rico defaulted on a $58 million dollar debt. Sure, for us mere mortals that seems like a lot of money, but when you juxtapose our national debt, which is currently weighing in at an obese $18.6 trillion, $58 million seems downright paltry, anorexic even.

Some things there is no coming back from. Some things take such a toll that try as one might to rectify their past mistakes, it is impossible. I’ve known people who abused their bodies over the course of decades in a systematic fashion with alcohol and drugs, only to try and right the ship, better themselves, and get healthier, when their livers were already shot, their lungs were black with cancer, and their hearts had swelled to the size of a cantaloupe.

Sometimes it takes a physical, other times a blood test, but something has to awaken an individual to the reality of the sad shape they’re in, in order for them to see that no matter how much you try to put it off, eventually the bill comes due for everything in this life.

We’ve been buying things we don’t need with money we don’t have for years and years now. What ought to have stirred us to wakefulness and shown us the approaching disaster only served to embolden us to more spending. Even though you can only sleep in one bed and sit in one chair and eat at one table the magnitude and sheer size of our adobes have become so mammoth that many a soul could easily convert their homes into mid-size bed and breakfasts, and still have plenty of room for themselves.

Am I judging people with big homes? Far from it. If you earned it, it’s your right to spend it however you see fit. What I do have an issue with are people who know in their heart of hearts they could never afford the mansion, but still sign the papers and get themselves into debt far exceeding what they can hope to repay, sort of like our country at this point in time.

The end result is an inevitable one. Sooner or later both the individual with the too high mortgage, as well as the nation in question begin to default on their debt, and no optimistic outlook or more printing of money can circumvent this reality.

The only thing that can be done is to kick the can down the road a ways, to put off the inevitable, but with each passing day, with every delay, the pain of it all will be that much greater when it finally comes crashing to the ground.

So what’s the point of this post? Why talk about this? Because there are many today, even within the household of faith who trust in the arm of the flesh, who trust in the system, who trust in the things they can see, and do not exercise their faith, or build up their intimacy with God. Their perceived security and the amassing of more perceived security makes them lethargic when it comes to their spiritual growth, their myopic view keeping them from seeking the fullness of relationship with God while the birds are still chirping and the sun is still shining.

Do you know God, or do you know of God? Does He know you? Are you a son or daughter, or some illegitimate offspring whom God does not acknowledge as His own? These are questions we must answer far in advance of what is now a certain collapse, questions of far greater import than how long we can manage to delay the inevitable.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

The Simplest of Equations

How is it that we always seem to find topics of conversation that focus on anything other than Jesus within the church nowadays? How is it that we make time to have pointless, useless debates over issues that the Bible has already settled, but fail to find the time to concentrate on the risen Christ, and the message of the cross?

When real world examples do not exist, we start to spin hypothetical webs, asking the same redundant questions over and over again, just in a different context, as though making someone an usher and not a choir leader excuses a sin which they’ve chosen as their identity and refuse to repent of.

Sin is sin whether it’s committed by the pastor, the deacon, or the person sitting in the last pew.

Sin of which men do not repent separates said men from God, whether their chosen televangelist insists that they’ve been given a waiver, or their chosen denomination chooses to embrace it as wholesome.

God is not beholden to denominations. God is not beholden to televangelists. God is not beholden to anyone or anything, because everything other than God is creation, He is creator, and therefore He need not debase Himself in any way to either humor us or indulge us.

There is finality to what God established in His Word. There are absolutes over which men cannot gloss though they have tried, and continue to try with rabid ferocity.

I still find it laughable that we believe we can dictate terms to God, and if a handful of lost souls in a dying denomination decides something, then God must do as they decide or else.

I’ve said it before, and I will continue to repeat it until it either connects or you get weary of reading what I write and no longer visit this blog: men either love God more than their sin and part ways with their sin, or they love their sin more than they love God and as such find some huckster somewhere to offer them fire insurance and tell them they can be waved through the pearly gates without ever having been washed in the blood of the Lamb, without having gone and sinned no more, without having broken ties with the darkness and having embraced the light of truth and righteousness.

Men can say all sorts of things, and if there is a financial incentive in there somewhere they will be insistent upon the deception they try to force feed you, contending that those feelings of something not being quite right are due to the bigoted society we live in, and not due to the urging of the Holy Spirit to repent and be reconciled unto God.

How can you not feel obliged to bless the individual who insisted that you need not go through the trouble of repenting of your sins? How can you not feel obliged to bless the individual who insisted everyone goes to heaven regardless, even your long lost pets? How can you not feel obliged to bless the individual who essentially gave you license to live as the world and still cling to the illusion of being saved, sanctified, and heaven bound?

It’s like sending a muffin basket to the doctor who told you that you don’t have heart disease even though you do.

‘Thanks doc, I know the tests came out all wrong and it seemed like I only had a few months to live, but you reinterpreting them and telling me they’re not so bad after all really took a load off.’

Sin kills. It has a 100% mortality rate if not repented of. The reason so much of the New Testament focuses on the need to repent of one’s sins, to be renewed of mind and heart, is because the matter of sin is a serious one, one that we cannot gloss over or overlook because it has eternal implications.

Revelation 22:14-15, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”

When the dust settles and all is said and done, when the final word is written, and the last song is sung, there will be those without and those within. There will be those who will have the right to the tree of life, and those who will not. There will be those who will be allowed to enter through the gates into the city, and those who will be cast into the outer darkness. Anyone who tells you different is a liar, a deceiver, a fraud, and a swindler, who cares not for your eternal soul, and whose desire to pacify your conscience is thoroughly tethered to your checkbook.

Either your sin or God! Whoever this is for, you can’t have both, and it is within your purview to choose one or the other. Choose wisely!

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.