Life

 Eternity’s a long time to be wrong about something so critical as eternity. In most cases, the fool and coward being indistinguishable, the reaction to a topic as heady as eternity is usually to scoff, mock, and brush it off with some ignorant trope like “I don’t care; I’ll be dead anyway.” Your flesh surely will, but that which is more than flesh that resides in you will not.

Perhaps it’s because that part of them knows the truth of it that some people are so reticent when it comes to considering and pondering eternity. If that which animates man and constitutes life comes from God, then that breath, that spark, that divine sliver knows when it is no longer in an environment conducive to His nature.

Most people say that the longing for God in the heart of man is like a hole that only He can fill. I’m sure you’ve heard the God-shaped hole theory at least once in your life; all of us have. What if it’s not a hole, after all, but that which God put of Himself in man that longs to be reunited with Him?

Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

Whether your relationship with your parents is good or otherwise, they’re still your parents. No matter how much you disagree, no matter how distant you grow, and no matter how far away you run, your mom and dad remain your mom and dad. It’s whether you want to acknowledge them as such and submit to their authority that’s in question, not whether or not they made you.

Since the big tech firms have determined that drinking boba tea, getting your septum pierced, and daydreaming about personal pronouns isn’t really worth shelling out six figures, many a youth with no life skill other than watching numbers on a screen has been forced to move back in with their aging parents. What they’ve found is that although the parents are welcoming, they have boundaries and standards they insist their children live by while under their roof.

Some find the idea of submitting to the authority of their parents so off-putting that they choose to live on the street and scrounge in garbage cans for their daily bread. Whether it’s their pride or that their sin has so consumed them that they cannot consider parting with it, they would rather descend into rot and ruin than humble themselves.

If you want to enjoy the safety and comfort of your Father’s house and avail yourself of His promises, then you have to submit to His authority and live according to His precepts.

It’s why I’ve never understood those who insist that you can come out of the world and continue to live like the world but enjoy all the perks of belonging to God, including eternal life. Did you climb out of a dumpster only to make your Father’s house a dumpster? How does that work exactly?

We pretend as though the only thing Jesus said to the adulterous woman was that He did not condemn her. That go and sin no more part, well, that was never really confirmed. It may have just been an artistic flare on John’s part or something that got lost in translation. It happens, you know, but that ‘I don’t condemn you’ part, that’s solid. It’s the sin no more part, that’s in question.

We play these games thinking that God’s participating, but He isn’t. They’re games we’re playing by ourselves, with our flesh, and diluting ourselves into believing that our machinations will somehow have an impact on God’s decision-making or that we will be able to scripture twist enough verses to get Him to change His position. It won’t, and He won’t.

God will not go back on His word because this generation is so enthralled by the sin that so easily besets it. He’s not going to have a change of heart because we’re whinier and more entitled than any generation to come before us.

1 John 5:10-13, “Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

The litmus test isn’t whether you performed signs or wonders if you prophesied or cast out demons or if you belonged to a specific denomination. The litmus test that determines whether I have eternal life or not is whether or not I have the Son of God and if I believe in the name of the Son of God. That’s what the apostle who focused more on eternal life than any other declared inspired by the Holy Spirit.

I get that it’s enticing, even tempting to chase after movements, manifestations, winds, and revivals, but if we ignore the Bible because we like the sound of clanging cymbals too much, we do so at our own peril.

Back in the day, a commercial was going around with a genius tagline. If you’re as old as I am, then you surely remember it. Got Milk? That was it! That was their pitch and the entirety of their messaging. As believes our messaging should be just as clear and succinct: Got Jesus?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Eternity

 Some ideas are so vast that even the most brilliant minds can only touch the edges, never mind fully understand them. They grope for enlightenment, excuse their limitations, come up with hypothetical situations of what may be, and extrapolate the little they know, yet they remain in the dark. Some who have the wherewithal to realize it, and the honesty to verbalize it, admit that they know very little, whether the topic is the capacity of the human brain, the universe, or eternity.

It is impossible for a temporal being to fully understand the depth and breadth of eternity. We’ve come up with terms to try and explain it, such as forever or time without end, but again, these are abstract and do very little to pierce the veil of understanding.

As they get older, the girls are starting to ask more difficult questions. Last week I spent a good hour trying to explain the reality that God has no beginning to my oldest, and every time her retort was, but everything has to have a beginning. Yes, everything that is created, I would answer, but God was not created; He has always existed. It may be too much to ask of an eight-year-old to understand, but she asked it, and I couldn’t just brush her off.

When it comes to eternity and eternal life, it is one of those promises that we know God made yet oftentimes fail to understand the full implications of. If men understood eternity, perhaps they would be more concerned about their immortal souls than they currently are, especially where those immortal souls will spend the aforementioned eternity.

It may be a subtle influence, but if the enemy can get someone not to ponder the implications of eternity, then perhaps, he may just get them to put off repentance until it becomes too late. As if things weren’t bad enough, I’m about to strike a blow to the candle industry and confirm what you’ve suspected all along: once you’re dead, you’re dead, and no amount of candle lighting will lead your soul back to the light.

Romanians are big into lighting candles, but so are all predominantly Orthodox cultures. You can walk into any Orthodox church, and some old lady will be there to sell you some candles, day or night, weekdays or weekends. When I used to live there, whether, in the markets or the shops, you were bound to hear someone say that they were on their way to light a candle for a mom, a dad, an aunt, or an alcoholic uncle who drowned in his own well. You could light a million candles until the world looks like a pyre; all it will do is make smoke.

Eternity is promised to us, but we must lay hold of the promise on this side of eternity. Just because there is some tacit agreement between the preacher and the bereaved that, at some point, the dearly departed will be seen as looking down from heaven doesn’t make it so. I understand the notion of not being needlessly cruel, but by the same token, we can’t tell lies just to soothe someone’s burdened conscience.

If many are called, but few are chosen, if narrow is the way and few are those who find it, but every funeral you’ve ever been to the departed is smiling down from heaven, either you know an exceptionally sanctified group of folks, or some of those declarations were lies.

This isn’t me picking at scabs. I’m not that petty. However, let’s say an unsaved individual is at a funeral, and they knew the person in the casket well. They hung out together and did the same nefarious things together, throughout it all, there being no sign of remorse, repentance, regret, or change, yet the man in the starched collar is saying he’s in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father. Would that make the individual reflect on their mortality or their need for a savior? Would that even compel them to see themselves as they were and realize that their destination wouldn’t be heaven if they died that day?

Our sloppy handling of the Word can have eternal consequences for others. It is something we ought never to forget because their blood may be required of our hands if we fail to warn them and speak the truth unflinchingly.

Ezekiel 3:18-19, “When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.”

We have a fiduciary responsibility to warn the wicked from their wicked way. Whether they turn from that wicked way or not is up to them. They decide their course, and by deciding their course, they determine their destination. Once I’ve warned someone, my job is done, my hands are clean, and though they may not turn, though they may die in their iniquity, my soul has been delivered.

If, however, I fail to warn the wicked from his wicked way, and he dies in his iniquity, his blood shall be required of my hands. Nowhere does the Bible say I can go light a candle for them and make it all right or go sit by their gravestone and bid them repent.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Cruel

 It is evil itself when under the guise of love, cruelty is visited upon the unsuspecting to the point of bringing them to the brink of destruction. That’s not to say they are without fault because you choose what you believe and gravitate toward the things you want to believe. Faith is a choice followed by an action. What you put your faith in determines what action you will take. Fantasy and reality are perpetually at war in one’s heart, and the rational mind tries its best to reestablish the reality that absolute truth is, by its nature, absolute.

If you have difficulty walking from your microwave to your kitchen table, no matter how much body positivity you possess, chances are, one day, and one day soon, you won’t even be able to make that two-step trek.

One of the cruelest lies to be visited upon the contemporary church and one that made a handful of unscrupulous leeches wealthy beyond their wildest dreams is that this present life was about them rather than Christ. While some may deem this shift in focus and priority as nothing to be concerned over, in all practical terms, we’ve supplanted God, and His will, for ourselves and our will.

 As a philosopher whose name now escapes me once said, whatever sits atop your pinnacle of value, is functionally equivalent to God. That is why the me gospel is so dangerous. That is why this infatuation with self is so detrimental. We have made the flesh our foremost priority. It is the individual and not God that sits atop our pinnacle of value, and so, the self has become a de facto god, a god we serve and service, strive to please and appease.

This is why not loving one’s life to death is so difficult in our era. This is why, I believe, at the first sign of resistance, difficulty, or persecution, the modern-day church will fold like a paper airplane in the hands of an excitable child. When the self is sitting atop our pinnace of value, we attempt to protect it and keep it comfortable at the expense of everything else.

If keeping their life at its current comfort level demands that they turn their back on God because their flesh is more of a priority than a relationship with God, they will not hesitate to betray Him.

Do I love Jesus and what He did for me more than I love my life, my comfort, or my possessions? It is a fundamental question we must contend with presently that we might either continue to grow our conviction or make the requisite adjustments so that when the day comes, we would not falter.

Am I saying all of us will be called to martyrdom? No, I am not, but there’s a lot that can happen between our current existence and martyrdom that will require us to choose Him over ourselves. It doesn’t always have to be the threat of being beheaded; sometimes, it’s something as innocuous or insignificant as being marginalized by your social circle for standing up for Jesus.  

Since my social circle can fit into a midsize sedan, I’m not much bothered by their opinion regarding my stance on Jesus. Others, however, put great value on how their peers, coworkers, family, and friends view them, and if Christ is not their all in all, they will self-censor when they are in their presence and hold back for fear of retaliation.

Matthew 10:33, “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

That puts a crimp in the undercover brother mindset, doesn’t it? Camouflage Christianity is not Christianity. If you can blend in with the world to such a degree that those of the world embrace you as one of their own, you are of the world.

“I don’t like this fat man anymore, Martha. He’s making me feel uncomfortable now. Go back to brother Joel’s morning affirmations.”

Perhaps I’m just an odd duck, but if my destination is heaven, I appreciate anyone who points the way, even if the road is uneven, difficult, or taxing. If you’re serving a god you’ve manufactured, or if you’ve decided you are the god you will serve, then don’t be surprised when on that day of days, He will say He never knew you.

The implication of Jesus saying if you deny me before men, then I will deny you before My Father, was that it would cost your flesh something if you declared Him as Lord and King. It’s not like you’d be denying Jesus in a church setting or when surrounded by other believers. If everyone around you is saying Jesus is Lord, it’s an easy thing to echo the sentiment.

If, however, proclaiming that Jesus is Lord would ensure that you will either be marginalized or otherwise persecuted, if He is not your all in all, it wouldn’t be all that easy a thing to do. Jesus knew those who followed after Him would be persecuted. He knew that those who followed after Him would be hated. In so knowing, He also foresaw that some would have to choose faithfulness or betrayal. He made it very clear to those who chose to deny Him before men that He would likewise deny them before His Father, who is in heaven.

This is just another example of something men say Jesus would never do, even though Jesus said He would. You either believe Him over the words of men or the words of men over what He said.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Scales

You can gauge what a person loves by what they devote time, resources, and passion to. No one can accuse me of being a gamer because I don’t own a video game console. Someone who owns everyone and has built an entire room around it, replete with the gaming chair, and the mood lighting, can rightly be labeled a gamer.

Actions regarding what one loves speak louder than words, so when someone insists that they love Jesus but spend their time hip deep in depravity more days than not, their words ring hollow and untrue based on the demonstrable and contrary nature of their actions.

Walking the path of victory or living a victorious life requires three constant companions. The first companion is the blood of the Lamb, the second is the word of our testimony, and the third is not loving our lives to death.

Although, as the saying goes, two out of three ain’t bad, all three are necessary to guarantee victory. If a man is clothed in the blood of Jesus, has the word of his testimony, and does not love his life, not only is he a force to be reckoned with, he is a force the enemy fears.

When we look at those who came before us and the lives they lived, we often wonder how they could be so brave, so consistent, so faithful, and so strong. How could they have endured torture, imprisonment, threats, violence, psychological warfare, and confinement, and not despair, not given up, not done as they were told just to make it stop?

Granted, some did. Some became informants, turncoats, people who would infiltrate churches and prayer groups, then once having gained their trust betray them to the authorities, but there were also those who stood. One was no different from the other as far as genetic makeup was concerned. All were individuals raised in the same culture, converted to the same faith, and living at the same time, yet some overcame, some remained faithful, while others surrendered and broke faith.

When it came down to it, it was whether they had the blood, the testimony, and did not love their lives unto death that made the difference as to whether they stood or fell. Those who stood, those who remained faithful and survived their ordeals, freely admit that it was not in their strength that they remained standing but in His.

When you make the conscious choice that you will not love your life even unto death, that you will remain faithful no matter what you might have to endure, God will give you the strength to persevere and withstand.

The old adage in the intelligence communities is that everyone breaks. Apply enough pressure for a long enough period, and whatever information you are attempting to extract will be yours eventually. Find the weakness, find the chink in the armor, and apply pressure. Squeeze until something gives, then squeeze some more to ensure you got everything. Accurate as that might be, with people that held states’ secrets or knew some sort of intelligence the other side was trying to extricate, it was not so with Christians during Communist persecution.

There were men whom professional torturers deemed unbreakable. It’s not as though they weren’t skilled at torture or that they were squeamish about doing their worst. After all, it doesn’t take a genius to yank fingernails with pliers or beat on someone’s kidneys and lungs until they vomit blood. Torture is a pretty straightforward business if you have the appetite for it, and those who were put in charge of squelching the spread of Christianity were highly motivated and reveled in the breaking of their fellow man. They took at it with gusto and enthusiasm because if one could garner a reputation of breaking Christians, then the sky was the limit as far as promotions went.

Illiterate as some of them were, they had enough presence of mind to realize that save for their penchant for brutality, there was nothing else they possessed that would have allowed them to be elevated among their peers.

So it wasn’t lack of skill that kept them from breaking certain believers, nor was it lack of motivation. By process of elimination, the only thing it could have been was something that their victims possessed that they had yet to run across when torturing political dissidents or supposed spies.

I hope you understand what I’m trying to get at, not because it’s a nifty intellectual exercise, but because the very real possibility of Christian persecution, even in a place like America, is closer than you think. If you hope to overcome if you wish to be victorious, then you must understand how those before you overcame and obtained victory.

You must be fully prepared not only to live for Christ but to die for Him long before you are called upon to make the choice. The reality that you do not love your life to the death must be grown and matured by the time you are called upon to choose because if it is but a sapling, it will sway in the storm and snap if the wind is strong enough.

Yes, I’ve heard the Americanism that dying is easy, living is hard, but perhaps we can revisit that statement when you’re strapped to an electric chair, knowing that speaking a handful of names will let you see your wife and kids again.

Living for Christ and dying for Him both have their moments, but we must be willing to do both if we are to be effective for the Kingdom and victorious in our journey.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Engaged

Some Christians never encounter resistance because they’ve never been actively engaged in warfare. Others are so used to getting rolled by the enemy that they’ve succumbed to a spiritual version of Stockholm syndrome, defending their tormentors and viciously attacking anyone who points the way to freedom. I’ve often thought about what triggers this mindset. Is it the fear of freedom? Is it the fear of escape? Is it the fear of the unknown? Is it a subconscious coping mechanism of the flesh that never believed you were worthy of freedom in the first place? What makes the dungeons of sin so attractive? Is it, perhaps, that while ensnared and imprisoned, men are not called upon to be accountable and live worthy of the name of Christ?

I see the struggle of those who live with the burdens of their past because they have yet to accept that what they were was cast into the sea of forgetfulness, and they are skittish and timid about drawing near to the love of Christ. Although God sees them through the prism of the blood of the Lamb, they still see themselves through the prism of who they were before their encounter with Jesus.  

This is why I have such an issue with the contemporary reimagining of what getting saved means. We’re talking about the difference between a commutation of one’s sentence and a prison furlough once in a great while. Because, at this juncture, we would betray Christ before hurting someone’s feelings, few dare to preach the whole counsel of God, and what you get are people who see the hope of being set free so close that they can touch it then it gets snatched away again. They were never taught they had to pick a side, never mind that they had to actively fight.

It’s not that I’m blaming any nation in particular. Still, we’ve been afforded the opportunity to live in relative comfort, where one’s faith cost them nothing more than a tithe and a few hours in church, thereby being offered the option of living duplicitous existences. Just because it’s free to you, it doesn’t mean it’s worthless. The blood of Jesus isn’t the plastic letter opener your bank hands out with their phone number and hours of operation. The blood is free to you because you couldn’t afford it otherwise.

More people than we want to admit jumped at the chance of having one foot in the world and one foot in heaven because it cost them nothing to ensure a first-class ticket to the land of cherubs and harps. Their preacher told them so. All they had to do was raise a hand, and that’s a good thing because that was all the sacrifice they were willing to make anyway. Ask for anything more, and the deal’s off the table!

2 Timothy 2:4, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”

What is a light that does not shine? What is a spring that does not flow? What is a soldier that is not engaged in warfare? These are all anomalies, things that ought not to be yet are because we make allowances for them, excuse them, and justify them.

What are the affairs of this life, exactly, because some use this verse to shirk their responsibilities altogether and live as though they don’t have a wife, four kids, and a three-legged cat to provide for?

Knowing that scripture interprets scripture, we need to look no further than the Word to establish what the affairs of this life are and what they aren’t. Spoiler alert: providing for your household, your family, your wife, and your children is not what the Bible means by being entangled in the affairs of this life.

1 Timothy 5:8, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

I bring this up because I’ve met a handful of individuals throughout my years in ministry who use the scripture about the affairs of this life to justify laziness and slothfulness. It’s not like they’re doing anything productive as far as the Kingdom of God is concerned, but they’re not holding down a job either.

How about spending less time Facebook beefing with strangers half a world away? How about spending less time being idle, scrolling Twitter, and trying to find something you can be offended about? Those qualify as the affairs of this life, but we sure do fill up our days pursuing them.

If you can tweet battle and Instagram insult, you can hold down a job and provide for your own. But I don’t want to! That qualifier is not in the Bible. It doesn’t say to provide for those of your household if you feel like it. It says to do it lest you become worse than an unbeliever.

You can be engaged in warfare and make sure your kids have clothes on their backs and your wife has something to cook come dinner time. Yes, it is taxing. No, it does not allow you much of what today’s generation likes to call ‘me time,’ but the Bible doesn’t talk about me time either.

When fully grown adults are being infantilized by the culture that surrounds them, it’s not for their own good or because the culture wants the best possible outcome for their life. They are infantilized because an adult who spends his waking hours playing video games in a dimly lit basement covered in Cheetos dust is easier to control and manipulate. You just keep from being distracted by what’s going on around you; it makes it so much easier for them to implement their nefarious plans.

The same goes for the enemy. As long as you are not a clear and present danger to his plans, he will leave you be. Keep naming and claiming and tearing down strongholds, Boo, as long as they are the financial kinds.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

As Advertised

 My wife places a lot of credence on product reviews. When it comes to the opinions of others about herself, she couldn’t care less, but product reviews, those are indispensable. It doesn’t matter what she’s looking to buy. She goes to the reviews page of the item and reads through whether or not those who purchased it in the past were satisfied with their purchase, and if not, why not? She’s been doing it for so long that I don’t have the heart to tell her that a nail clipper is a nail clipper, whether it has five stars or three or that there are hordes of unscrupulous companies who buy reviews for their products. If you’re getting it for free or paid to review it, chances are you’re not going to knock the guys that just bought you lunch.

The unsavory and unscrupulous were so numerous at one point that the Better Business Bureau was created in order to combat them. If a company rips you off, you can give them a call, and they’ll place the company on a list, but as far as being made whole, that’s a bit more complicated.

As is the case with every pendulum swing, the unscrupulous on the consumer side started coming out of the woodwork as well, demanding free meals, free rooms, and free merchandise, threatening to leave blistering reviews on every website they could find if they didn’t get their way. The whole thing became so convoluted that for most people, reviews have become meaningless unless you’re getting one firsthand, face to face, from the person who either ate where you plan to eat or owns the nose hair clippers you’ve been eyeing.

Even then, their opinion is subjective at best because they might like their Mexican food to scorch the inner lining of their mouth, while one jalapeno seed will send you to the emergency room. If you, as an individual, take everything with a grain of salt and weigh the things people tell you, it would be duplicitous for you to expect everyone you come in contact with to believe everything you say outright. That’s not to say you shouldn’t speak. On the contrary, it is by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies that we overcome. One is exclusively a Jesus matter, namely the blood of the Lamb. The other is exclusively an us matter, namely the word of our testimony.

When you tell those you come in contact with that Jesus is as advertised, it undermines the enemy’s narrative. Some may not believe you, and some may have their doubts, but if, on a given day, ten people tell me the same thing, that tenth one just might get me to look into the matter for myself.

It’s even more compelling for those who knew you before Christ and what the power of His love transformed you into after surrendering at the foot of the cross. You can have all the doubts in the world about methodology, viability, or feasibility. Still, someone who was pushing half a ton shows up at your door, having lost a couple of hundred pounds, the evidence is undeniable.

We’re quick to tell anyone who would hear what the devil did to us. For some unexplained reason, however, some of us are reticent when it comes to telling others what Jesus did for us. There is power in the word of your testimony because it is the confirmation that the blood of Jesus isn’t just a placeholder or something interchangeable. The blood of the Lamb has the power to wash you clean of all your sin, and having been made clean, the word of your testimony confirms that present reality.

If He has freed you and brought you from death to life, why wouldn’t you shout His name from the rooftop? Why wouldn’t you glory in the name of Jesus? And while we’re on the topic, that’s how you can also gauge the authenticity of someone’s words. The word of their testimony isn’t about them. It’s not about their achievements, their accomplishments, their education, or the scope of their ministry. The word of their testimony is about Jesus and what He has done in their lives. It always goes back to Christ, the cross, repentance, sanctification, and the need for Him, rather than connecting with them, their ministry, or their vision.

But how will we build an international ministry and become the prophetesses to the nations if we don’t promote ourselves at every turn? What’s the point of interacting with the little people if there’s no ad funnel at the end of the fifteen minutes, with some sort of recurring commitment request to help spread the message of pet dinosaurs in heaven to the peoples of the earth?

I had to learn about all these schemes in order to actively avoid them in ministry. It always elicits a negative reaction when I see ministries and ministers employing them. There is nothing wrong in presenting a need when it comes to ministry. There is something very wrong with attempting to manipulate or guilt someone into parting with their cheddar. There’s a difference between saying this family needs a home; if the Lord leads, please help, and insisting that if you don’t dial that number right now, this family will die! The same goes for presenting the act of giving as some sort of pyramid scheme where you put in a fiver and get back fifty.

The reaction of the redeemed man, once he has been redeemed, is not a protracted treatise on why he was deserving of redemption but overwhelming gratitude for his redeemer. When you make it about Jesus, you have my attention and my respect. When you make it about you, you have my disdain because you are using Christ as a vehicle to further your agenda, not His kingdom.

Learn to be spiritually aware enough to discern between those who come in their name and those who come in the name of the Lord. It’s a good start and will save you much heartache in the long run.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Candid

 The path to victory cannot bypass submission to the will and Word of God. We are victorious against the enemy and the flesh because we submit to the will of God, and obey His word, not because we venture out on our own and attempt to be a one-man army. We used to sing the song well enough, the one about the only thing that can wash away our sins, but we stopped a few years back because it was too on the nose. We needed something more ambiguous, more esoteric, something given to interpretation because some people might take offense at the singularity of Christ and the cross, and we couldn’t offend people. That would be counterproductive to the bottom line, and the whole point of the exercise is to grow and expand and have multi-campus sanctuaries, not preach sanctification.

Hillsong saw a niche, and they filled it with all the gusto of the first guy to come up with the idea of an energy drink. Gone were the simple, biblical declarations about Christ alone and His blood being able to make you new, and we started singing about winds, and impressions, and the feelings in the atmosphere.

We went from telling people that Jesus was enough to telling them that they were good enough, even though bringing a hog into a palace doesn’t change the nature of the hog; it just allows the hog to dirty up the place a bit.

We make allowances for all manner of unbiblical practice if the individual is charismatic enough because it’s no longer about the power of the Word to convict; it’s about the individual’s charisma and ability to spin a yarn. That thing about God saying depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you, even though they’d performed signs and wonders in His name, that was just God having a bad day; He spoke out of anger. Don’t pay any mind to it. Yeah, that’s it. It couldn’t possibly be that He prioritizes holiness, obedience, and genuine fellowship over bombastic overtures and magic shows.

It’s kind of a weird flex to mock someone for pointing out what the Bible says about a given topic. I know, that pesky Bible, if only it didn’t warn about the sort of times we’d be living in. If only it didn’t warn of false teachers, false prophets, and those with a form of godliness who would flood the household of faith and seduce the gullible into turning their ears to fables.

You can’t claim victory if you’ve never stepped onto the battlefield. You can’t say you are victorious when it was a battle of your own making, shadowboxing in the corner like there was no tomorrow. We have this image in our minds that the victorious believer is resplendent and manicured, when in truth, the victorious believer is scarred, dented, and scored. The only people who walk away unscathed are those who never enter the fray, yet they’re always the most vocal about how everyone else goes about fighting their fight.

I don’t have time to judge your posture, how you hold your shield, how you swing your sword, or how you deflect the arrows of the enemy. I’ve got my own battle to fight, and I’m engaging the same enemy you are. If I see an arrow coming your way, I’ll do my best to warn you or even deflect it if I am able; if I see you are being flanked, I’ll fight alongside for as long as I can swing a sword, but you should know how to fight by now. You should have the basics well in hand so that you might stand against the enemy. This isn’t a synchronized swim contest. It’s not about form; it’s about functionality and survival. The Bible tells you to put on the whole armor of God, not to make sure you’re color-coordinated. Any battle you walk away from, scarred and bruised as you might be, is still a good day. Get some rest; tomorrow is likely to be another bruiser.

There are only two immutable laws in life: the law of sin and death and the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus. One is required to free you from the other, and whom Christ sets free is free indeed.

Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Either you are free, or you aren’t; there is no middle ground. God is not interested in joint custody, where He gets you every other Sunday, but you’re under the sway of the law of sin and death the rest of the time. The blood of Christ has made you free; why would you return to the bondage of darkness and despair?

Victory isn’t you pretending to be free; it is you being free. It’s not hoping for a renewed mind; it’s receiving a renewed mind. What victory looks like is you walking in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, which God promised the believer.

If you have been made free, then you are supposed to feel out of place among those who have not. If you have been made free, then it is natural to feel out of sorts, as though you don’t belong here. If the blood of Jesus has cleansed you, and you are a new creature, any attempt at reintegration into the world you once belonged to will be rejected until you either stop trying or return to your previous state of worldliness.

The world rejects what is not of the world. Be glad that you are rejected, marginalized, and vilified by it. If they’d hated Jesus yet loved you, you’d have something to worry about.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.