Past

 If you’re still peacocking about, beating your chest and insisting that America is a Christian nation, you are as untethered from reality as a biological man claiming to have become a woman by putting on a dress. The sad thing is that as little as a decade ago, that would not have been deemed an edgy statement or something that might get you censored by the overlords of the interwebs. Not the thing about America being a Christian nation, the thing about men being men and women being women. In the grand scheme, a decade isn’t that long, but it shows how quickly the enemy has moved to consolidate his power and begin silencing dissenting voices.

It doesn’t matter how plush and thick the velvet glove is; if you’re squeezed hard enough, you’ll begin to feel the iron fist beneath it. We’ve come a long way, baby, but unfortunately, in the wrong direction.

We’ve gone from live and let live, to submit or die in the blink of an eye, and as has become customary, even expected, the church is silent, asleep at the rudder, waiting to pick its spot, its moment, that battle that will finally be worth getting out of bed for. If nothing else, it’s an excellent way to justify protracted cowardice.

I realized early on that I was a bully magnet. Come the third grade; I was a Rubenesque kid wearing pin-striped polyester pants to school that my grandmother had sewn for me, so I wasn’t screaming cool or anything. Thankfully I wasn’t the only goofy-looking third grader, so the bullying got spread around. There was a Korean boy with Coke bottle glasses that got his fair share and a Mexican kid named Alberto who always brought enchiladas for lunch. By always, I mean every day, five days a week, with no exceptions. I think he had a culinary version of my grandmother living with them. I got pants; he got enchiladas.

In third grade, I learned what inmates refer to as prison rules. If you let a bully bully you once, he will continue to do it for the rest of your life. Win, lose, or draw, if you stand up for yourself the first time, the bullies will tend to pass you by because even if you don’t know how to fight, there’s still the chance of a busted lip, a black eye, or some scratches if your victim puts up a fight.

I don’t even remember the name of the boy who messed around and found out, but he was Mexican. Not that it matters, but even in elementary school, there were cliques. The big clique was the Mexican kids because, even back then, they were the majority. We didn’t have many white kids attending, perhaps a handful; it wasn’t that kind of neighborhood.

Perhaps two weeks into my third-grade year, my time in the crosshairs finally arrived. My mom had made crapes for lunch, rolled up with some jam in the middle. They are quite lovely, actually, and I still enjoy them to this day. When the lunch bell rang, I found a table outside and unwrapped my lunch, only to see a shadow blocking the sun shining on my face a moment before.

“What’s that?” the Mexican boy asked.

“Crapes,” I answered.

“More like crap,” he said, snickering, waiting for the kids at the other tables to join in. When they didn’t, he got angry and punched me in the shoulder. It didn’t hurt. I was bigger than he was, and he hit like a girl. I told him to go away, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

“You think you’re tough? Come on, crap eater”, he said, pumping himself up for another swing. My backpack was a briefcase. Leather, brown, well built, with a rigid handle, hard edges, and a two-clasp closure. It was sitting on the bench next to me. It was one of the few things the Communists let my parents bring from the home country when we got exiled. I think because it was empty and ugly.

I grabbed the handle, and as I pushed myself up to stand, I swung the briefcase at his head as hard as I could. It connected. He went down, and I was never bullied again.

The same can’t be said for my friend Kwan, the boy with the Coke bottle glasses. Every time he’d get picked on, I’d ask him why he wasn’t standing up for himself, and his answer was always next time. He never did, though, and he was constantly bullied until they moved away sometime in the sixth grade.

Bullies don’t stop on their own. They must be stopped. The devil doesn’t stop on his own. He must be stopped. Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity to resist the devil. There will never be one. The Bible doesn’t say to resist the devil when you feel like it, or when all your laundry is done, when your kids are off to college, or when your retirement is all squared away. The Bible says to resist the devil, and he will flee.

Most people just don’t want the conflict. They don’t like the discomfort of being contrarian, so they keep taking the abuse until abuse is all they know. The enemy is counting on your silence. He expects the church to do what it’s done for the past few decades and just roll over and take it.

If you want to scare the devil, break the pattern. Stop taking the condescension, the bullying, and the verbal harassment from the intellectual midgets who represent him. Resist him, and he will flee, and so will his minions.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Stand

 Even though evil has been around since shortly after the creation of man, you’ll never find the devil apologizing for anything he did, said, or instigated, no matter how heinous or depraved. The same goes for his minions, who of late have gotten bolder and more in your face about their true intentions, no longer bothering to mask it in any way but being direct and forthright about their vision for the future.

Their vision involves your children and grandchildren, and if you dare object to toddlers being groomed and sexualized, you’re the intolerant bigot. You’re what’s wrong with society. You’re the one that needs to go.

Even though the devil’s children feel no need to qualify their words or offer apologies, it seems modern Christianity is set on apologizing for everything God said that might be deemed offensive by those in darkness, trying to reinterpret the meaning of His proclamations so that any mention of hell, punishment, or consequences is expunged from the text. Sin? What sin? God is love, and that is all, and if you say anything different, you’re the problem!

It took less than a generation to go from boldly proclaiming the word of God to self-censoring, telling ourselves we can’t say that because it might be deemed offensive and non-inclusive.

We gave up ground, thinking it would pacify the enemy when in hindsight, it only served to embolden him. Those who saw what the future held and were brave enough to sound the alarm were mocked incessantly for being provocateurs, hyperbolists, and instigators. They even made up songs about how they were targeting the youth, and the church just guffawed and ignored it like they do everything else because if it didn’t involve beefing up the building fund, it wasn’t worth focusing on.

That they feel confident enough in their position to come right out and tell you that their goal is the perversion of innocence should concern you. That federal agencies, including the executive branch, envision criminalizing any objection to the most grotesque practices should terrify you. Alas, we have better things to focus on to notice that suddenly pedophilia has rebranded and is being included in the alphabet soup as though people won’t notice.

The first unforced error the church made was that it did not readily push back on the idea that love and perverted lust were interchangeable. They are not. One is pure; the other is twisted. Because no one pushed back on the idea, the love is love mantra has been broadened to include fully grown adults who are sexually attracted to minors. If nothing is perverted and everything is love, then why would you not embrace love in all its forms?

Why would you be bigoted about this love versus another love? You stayed silent when homosexuality was all the rage; that was just love; why are you bristling at pedophilia?

I understand that most people choose to ignore these issues in the hope that they will just go away. It’s like ignoring that noise your car makes, thinking it will fix itself. It won’t. Because we did not take a stand when we needed to, now we’re caught wrong-footed defending our objection to one perversion when we kept silent about the other.

The church allowed this to get out of hand, and now that it has, the push for more, worse, and increasingly perverse is a foregone conclusion. What’s left, you may ask? They’ll come up with something, they always do, because the devil is very inventive and imaginative, and as long as the corruption of innocence can be had, he’ll strive tirelessly to bring it about.

It’s hard to right a ship after it’s hit an iceberg. It’s hard to call people to repentance when half the church is practicing the same sins the world is. Under the guise of love and tolerance, we’ve disregarded the warnings of Scripture. We believed ourselves to be smarter and more erudite than those who came before us and were convinced that we could put light and darkness in a blender and no one would be the wiser. We thought we could think as the world, be as the world, live as the world, act as the world, and still call ourselves bondservants of Christ.

What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? Plenty! The church answered back with one accord. We thought we could make it work. Or the devil talked us into believing we could because the words of Jesus were just too intolerant for us to heed.

This is what happens when an entire generation sacrifices truth for personal comfort. This is what happens when a heart is divided, and although our love for God is a mere pretense, our love of sin and the world burns bright and undeniably.

The difference shouldn’t be between lawlessness and diet lawlessness. The difference should be between lawlessness and righteousness. The devil has dragged the modern-day church away from the light, and now that they’re beginning to see how complete and impenetrable the darkness is, they’re pulling back, trying to slow the pace, but the devil will have none of it. Now you’re a bigot if you object to pedophilia, or as it is now known, minor-attracted persons.

See how that works? You were okay with a bit of sin, a slight perversion, a little compromise, and a little darkness, and now the darkness wants to eliminate the light altogether. I’m sure some church denominations will be right there, rolling up their sleeves and helping, because they wouldn’t want to be misconstrued as intolerant or unloving.

John 16:1-4, “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Tight

 Perhaps we thought we needed to compete with the world for men’s attention and figured if we preached the whole counsel of God, if we preached the gospel of Jesus Christ in its entirety, and not carving out the bits and parts they wouldn’t like, we’d have so few people sitting in the pews we’d be hard pressed to cover the heating bill, nevermind the bloated benefits package.

As every billionaire is fond of telling their employees when he’s about to fire half of them, sacrifices must be made. They usually don’t do it face to face; it’s too risky. It’s generally via Skype from their yacht somewhere in Cannes because not only did they luck out stealing someone else’s idea, they consider themselves erudite and world-wise, and what better place to rub shoulders with other learned folk?

People in marketing, those who spend their days trying to convince their fellow man that something is too good to be true and they should jump on the deal before it expires, have concluded that getting someone to click on the three-for-two apple corer offer is only half the battle. After they click on the offer, they have to follow through and pay for their new acquisition, then wait the six to eight weeks while it’s shipped from China by a three-fingered toddler who chain smokes a pack of Camel unfiltered a day.

It’s not as though they don’t have to walk a fine line. The product you paid thirty bucks for can’t cost more than five cents to produce, but it can’t be flimsy enough that it breaks on the first coring. Sure, you have two spares, it was a great deal, after all, but it puts a bad taste in your mouth if you can’t get past that first coring successfully. Once the first one is a success, they’re pretty much home free because, let’s face it, how many people use an apple corer more than once?

When it comes to modern-day Churchianity, most of the people that don’t want to be there but come because their wives nagged them, or the girl they’re trying to woo insists that for a man to be her man, he must be very spiritual, will stay put as long as nothing is required or demanded of them. That’s why you have to make the entire thing seamless and pain-free. It can’t get any more pain-free than raising your hand and saying a prayer, then forgetting all about it, can it?

You came in bleary-eyed and with a hangover and a pounding headache. Forty-five minutes later, some sweaty fellow is slapping you on the back, congratulating you for getting saved, and encouraging you to fill out the visitor card and drop it in the offering plate on your way out.

Nothing has changed; you don’t feel saved, you don’t even know what feeling saved is supposed to feel like, but if the guy said it, you must be it, and now you can return to your life as though nothing has changed because nothing has.

You keep going back because you feel you’re making progress with the girl, and sure, they ask for a couple of bucks for every service, but you’ve to got to pay for your entertainment, and other than the talking part, the music’s pretty good.

Your presence confirms true and transformative salvation to the preacher, his insistence that you were saved confirms it for you, and one blind man leads another by the hand, all the while trying hard not to make waves or put you off in any way, shape, or fashion.

As I heard a pastor say once, by way of excusing his reticence to talk about Jesus, “You’ve got to ease them into this whole thing.”

If someone’s at the bottom of the lake drowning, you don’t hand them a straw and tell them to take shallow breaths; you pull them out. The whole notion that we ought not to preach repentance for fear of spooking the visitors is ludicrous. Church without Jesus is unsustainable. The recent hemorrhage of members from all major denominations is a testament to this.

When you look at the letters to the seven churches and realize that even the faithful church received an admonishment to hold fast to that which it possessed, it begins to dawn on you that there is never a point in your Christian walk where you can coast. There is no mountaintop, just a steady climb, and every inch of the way, you must be cautious and aware of pitfalls, snares, diverging paths, rockslides, and predatory beasts that would tear you asunder.

Revelation 3:11, “Behold I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.”

Keeping your eyes upon Jesus isn’t just a quaint hymn; it’s proper instruction for the times we are living in. To hold fast is to hold tight, to grip, to ensure that even if someone tries, they will be unable to take your crown.

This isn’t some new revelation or doctrine; these are the words of Jesus to a church that kept His word and did not deny His name. These are souls who persevered, yet they are commanded to hold fast to what they have because the enemy hadn’t stopped pursuing them or trying to devour them.

It’s easy for some to be flippant about salvation nowadays because it is no longer Biblically defined by those tasked with rightly dividing the Word. Eventually, some church will have an Oprah moment where some fool will start pointing at people and yelling, “You’re saved, and you’re saved, and you’re saved!”

Most of the audience will be as stunned as those who got a free car. It came as a surprise to them too.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Representative

 I’m sure we’ve all yelled it into a cell phone or two at some point in our lives. “Representative!”, “Representative! No, I don’t want to go back to the main menu, or press star, or anything other than talk to a representative.”

Technology’s gotten better, so the program either detects the frustration in your voice, or the actual word being spoken, because a syrupy, indulgent voice comes on and assures you that you’ll be connected with a representative shortly.

From that point forward, depending on the representative, the situation either escalates or your issue is resolved in a timely fashion. Usually, it’s the former rather than the latter. Some companies are less than diligent when hiring their representatives. Those companies typically suffer in the long run because whenever anyone needs to talk to an actual human, it’s usually someone surly, disinterested, with a heavy accent, and put off by your very existence. In their view, the fact that you dared to ask for a representative deserves capital punishment, which should be carried out hastily and without delay. How dare anyone expect you to carry out the tasks you were hired for?

By definition, a representative is someone who represents the interests, purpose, goals, and values of the individual or company being represented. They do not represent themselves or their agenda but rather their master or employer. A faithful servant brings honor to his master. An unfaithful servant dishonor.

God is judicious in the representative He picks, not in that they’re all finely dressed, well-spoken, charming, eloquent, or even possess a full set of teeth. The criteria God employs when calling a representative is faithfulness. Will they be faithful to the uttermost? Will they sacrifice their comfort, reputation, position, and clout in order to bring glory to the King?

If someone is making it about themselves, then they weren’t sent. If someone is tirelessly trying to elevate their stature, make a name for themselves, and insist that they are the way rather than Christ, you already know what they are, and you shouldn’t even bother with them.

The key to Paul’s warning to the Ephesians was that after his departure, men would rise up from among the brethren to draw disciples unto themselves. Their purpose would not be to exalt the name of Christ but rather exalt themselves in His place. 

If someone who is supposed to represent Jesus never speaks the name of Jesus, then you know you’ve got a problem. Worse still, if someone who is supposed to represent Him speaks ill of Him and sows doubt as to His rightful place, authority, and sovereignty, they are at enmity with Him, pretending to be otherwise.

A few weeks back, having had no reason to dread my existence for some time, I decided to go through the Taco Bell drive-thru. Sometimes, if you can’t recall the pain vividly, you must reacquaint yourself with it to remember why you avoided certain things in the first place. I’d heard they were serving breakfast, and I thought I’d gamble with my digestive system since it was breakfast and not the other stuff that has you hoping for the sweet release of death in sixty minutes or less.

After hearing, “Welcome to Taco Bell, how may I help you?” and asking if they did serve breakfast since it wasn’t on the board, she explained that she hadn’t bothered to switch out the signs but that they indeed had the full breakfast menu.

Since I was curious and hadn’t heard any feedback, I asked her if the breakfast was any good, to which she replied, “Oh, Lord, no, I wouldn’t eat it, that’s for sure.”

I sat in my car for a second, stunned and unable to formulate a comeback, then asked, “If you wouldn’t eat it, why do you think I should?”

All I heard was static on the other end, and after realizing she wasn’t going to answer, I drove away.

I find it odd that the individuals endlessly preaching about sowing seeds don’t sow any themselves. Likewise, with individuals droning on about building the Kingdom of God, obsessed with building their own kingdoms at the expense of His.

Contrary to popular opinion, words are neither action nor violence. Saying something and doing something are two different things. When you do contrary to what you say, that’s an outright lie, and the fact that we’ve allowed it to go on in the church for as long as we have tells me that people are either disinterested or comfortable with being lied to.

If you are a child of God, you are His representative here on earth. Everything you say and do is being studied, archived, and judged because the enemy is looking for any opportunity to bring shame to the household of faith and cast a shadow on the people of God.

No one exists in a bubble, and every chance encounter is an opportunity to represent Jesus faithfully and in a manner that brings glory to Him.

Good and faithful servants are individually rewarded. It is not a collective endeavor. Just because your neighbor, wife, husband, son, daughter, pastor, or usher served with distinction does not mean you will share in their reward. He will give to each one according to their deeds.

Knowing this, the preeminent question at the forefront of our minds every morning ought not to be who the antichrist is, when the seals will be broken, or when the bowls will be poured out, but what we can do on that day, while we have breath, to bring glory and honor to the name of Christ Jesus.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Whence

 We’re so hungry for anything remotely supernatural that we’re no longer interested in its origins. As long as it defies the humdrum of everyday life and there’s something new to see, whether it’s divine or not is no longer of any consequence. If the assumption is that everything is divine, then the assumption is contrary to Scripture. I feel as though I’m fighting a losing battle insisting upon the Bible being the final authority for anything having to do with the spiritual, divine, or supernatural, but here I am again, banging my head against the proverbial wall because if we allow for the ignoring of Scripture, then all is lost and we are doomed.

Parlor tricks are not the power of God, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or any sort of apostolic authority. Jesus wasn’t guessing zip codes; He was healing the sick. The apostles weren’t guessing birth years; they were casting out demons. We’re giving Carnac the Magnificent a run for his money, and Johnny Carson was just trying to get a laugh.

We want to be entertained, not edified, and if the shtick has enough flare, you could make an entire career out of throwing your coat at people and watching them fall like dominos. Never mind that the only time someone was thrown back or leveled was when Jesus cast the demon out of the possessed man in Capernaum. So, are we to infer that everyone who fell under the power of the suit coat was demon possessed? Did the demons fear the Joseph Abboud pinstripe so much that they came out without being commanded to do so?

“I was with you up until you started picking’ on Brother Benny. That’s one bridge too far in my book; nobody’s good enough, I guess.”

It’s not about being good enough; it’s about being Biblical. If we hope to change the world, like so many are insisting, we must first heal the church. In order for the church to heal, the rot must be excised. If you think clown shows and palm readers spark revival, you’ve got another thing coming.

As long as we are unwilling to entertain the things that stir God’s heart, like brokenness, humility, repentance, and obedience, we should probably table any talk of revival and great awakenings. I know they make us feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, but only for a season, then the precipitous letdown when the world goes from bad to worse, the modern church with it, with no revival in sight.

The only way through the Gordian knot the church has become is with the sword of truth cutting it. To untangle it is a hopeless endeavor, and one many a soul has given up in frustration while attempting to do so. It’s too big, too complex, too vexing. They started out with the best of intentions, using reason and will, only to grow exhausted and disillusioned when for every knot they undid, two more appeared in its place.

Biblical truth is the only way to cut through the mess, but what is required are souls brave enough to wield that particular sword. It requires bravery because it is likely, if not guaranteed, that you will make enemies on both sides of the divide.

The origin of something matters, whether a teaching, a healing, a revelation, or a miracle. Knowing where it came from can determine the authenticity of something faster than anything else. If you buy a sweater or a shirt, a scarf, or a suit from a brand that was to be made exclusively in Italy, and the label reads proudly made in China, you know something is amiss.

No matter how impressive, entertaining, or mind-bending, where that power originated from matters. If you’re living under the assumption that the devil has no power, think again. It’s not me saying it; it’s Jesus.

Matthew 24:24, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

Do you know what they won’t be doing? They won’t insist upon repentance, holiness, sanctification, brokenness, humility, obedience, and walking humbly with God. They will always focus on some tertiary thing, a secondary issue, usually something to do with manifestation rather than sanctification and consecration. Because sanctification and consecration are so hard to stomach for most, they’ll settle for entertainment.

If you receive a revelation or a word of prophecy, give it, then pivot back to Christ and the cross. If God chooses to heal or deliver through your prayers and laying on of hands, give the glory and honor to Him, then pivot back to Christ and the cross. See how that works? You’re not supposed to spend an entire lifetime talking about yourself in the third person or how you saw something once that you then extrapolated to the point that it no longer resembles the source material.

Every true messenger of God would rather retreat into obscurity if given a chance once they delivered the message because their objective is being faithful to God, not elevating man’s status. None of them traded on the fact that they were prophets of the Lord to build kingdoms for themselves or elevate their stature. The most Elijah asked for was a piece of bread; even then, it was at God’s command.

In the olden days, before the pony express, messengers would be sent to deliver a message. The message had to have the seal of the lord, lady, king, or duke who sent it, and the emissary had to declare who had sent him and by whose authority he was delivering the proclamation he was about to deliver.

I’m betting you’d get a lot less junk mail if it were still the case. There is a contrast between that and the self-titled prophetic voices yelling over each other to be heard. Perhaps if they had to declare that they came in the name of the Lord and show receipts to prove it, there wouldn’t be so many errant voices claiming divine authority.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Quandary

If the knowledge of Christ is the preeminent quest in the believer’s life, why do we spend so much time on tertiary issues that have no impact or effect on salvation or a greater understanding of Him? It’s a fair question. Uncomfortable, but fair.

If some of us spent as much time studying the words of Jesus as we do aliens, giants, runes, temples, and whom the antichrist will end up being, we’d be so much further along in our spiritual awareness, maturity, and strength. The presence of Christ feeds the spiritual man. When fed, the spiritual man grows strong and bold, useful for the kingdom of God.

What your spiritual diet consists of matters because it will determine whether or not you are growing in God. It will also determine whether or not you are easily swayed by the enemy’s attempts at shipwrecking your faith.

1 Peter 2:1-3, “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

Why should you desire the pure milk of the word instead of fanciful stories and fables? Because only the pure milk of the word can make you grow. The math is simple. In order to grow in God, you must consume His word. Peter wasn’t the only one to point out the necessity of consistent spiritual nourishment, but he did it in the nicest fashion.

Hebrews 5:12-14, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Lack of spiritual food impedes timely maturity. The author of Hebrews laments that by this stage, they ought to have been teachers, but for whatever reason, they stagnated in their growth to the point of needing milk anew and not solid food. The problem with a perpetual milk diet is that one is not skilled in the word of righteousness nor in discerning good and evil. They are babes, and so their abilities are stunted. They cannot perform the tasks that one who is full of age can.

Spiritual growth is healthy and necessary. If you find yourself stagnant, in the same spot for weeks, months, or years as far as spiritual maturity is concerned, if you find yourself making excuses for the lack of progress or growth, know that you are not where you’re supposed to be, or where God expects you to be.

The quandary the modern church faces is that individuals who haven’t even bothered with the milk insist that they’re eating steak medium rare and offering to teach others to do the same. They’re talking about things like deliverance and casting out demons when they haven’t clarified the basics of holiness, repentance, or sanctification.

If you’re going around insisting that deliverance is necessary for believers yet never once insisting that repentance and holiness unto the Lord are, you’re pretending to be a carnivore while you haven’t even sampled milk yet.

While we’re on the subject, the Bible talks extensively about repentance and sanctification, not so much about deliverance for believers. Whether or not true believers need deliverance is a discussion for another day, but why are we so quick to embrace something the Bible does not refer to while putting the things it insists upon on the back burner?

It sheds a whole new light on those who will insist they performed wonders in His name. “Lord, we did all these things!” 

“You may have, but it’s not what I told you to do.”

Neither of my daughters like doing the dishes. It is a family contribution that everyone must tackle once a week, and there are no substitutions. They found that out the hard way when after being told that their contribution for the day was for one of them to set up the table and the other to do the dishes after dinner, Victoria, my eldest, came up to me and said, “Daddy, I folded the laundry, my contribution is done.”

“Is that what Mom asked you to do?” I asked, already knowing what her answer would be.

After mumbling a dejected no, I told her that although I appreciated her folding the laundry, she still had to wash the dishes since her sister had set up the table earlier in the evening.

Just because we choose to focus on something other than what Jesus commanded doesn’t mean we’re no longer required to do what He commanded. There are no substitutions for repentance, holiness, or sanctification. There just aren’t.

You can cast generational demons out of your neighbor’s labradoodle until you’re blue in the face. It still doesn’t nullify the other things God commanded you to do via His Word. Substitutionary obedience really isn’t. I didn’t do what You told me, but I did something else, and that should suffice. Why can’t You appreciate the effort I put into doing this other thing? Because the other thing isn’t the thing He commanded you to do.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Place

 The world is full of silly people encouraging sillier people to aim for the stars, shoot for the moon, dream bigger, reach higher, and never be content or satisfied. Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, our visions of grandeur are bigger than our abilities to achieve them, and no matter how blessed we are, we remain in the perpetual mindset that there’s got to be something more. The grass is always greener, the ox is always fatter, the sun is always brighter, and the snow is always whiter on the other side of an imaginary fence.

Before anger makes anyone waste fifteen minutes in writing an angry e-mail, when I speak of vision, it is not the vision God has for us but the inward monologue that runs on a loop in our heads about how we would be the envy of the known world if only we were given half a chance. I could show the world the greatness in me if only they were willing to open their eyes and see. You make miniature dolls out of belly button lint. I get it, your art is precious to you, but you’re no Michelangelo or Bernini.

A God-given vision comes equipped with all the tools, ability, and wherewithal to carry it to its rightful conclusion. God-given visions, however, usually involve self-sacrifice, toil, humility, and unshakeable faith in His provision to fulfill His vision. I’m sure if some intrepid prosperity pimp ever comes across this, they’ll jerry-rig that last part and make it so it’s clear that if you want to reap a harvest, you must plant a seed. The seed, as always, isn’t being a shoulder to cry on, spending time with the abandoned, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, or showing the love of Jesus; the seed must be legal tender; otherwise, no harvest for you.

People are becoming disillusioned, and I don’t blame them, even though, at least partially, they must take accountability for what they chose to believe while the getting was good and the gravy train was rolling toward biscuit town. What we choose to believe matters because there are always consequences tethered to those beliefs that will drag behind us no matter how hard we try to outrun them.

To paraphrase Paul, you are, of all men, most miserable if you anchor your faith in the here and now, in the things you can feel and touch, without regard or consideration for eternity. In other translations, the word used is pitiable, but whether miserable or pitiable, to be number one with a bullet in either category is no laughing matter.

Hypersensitivity is not in your best interest, spiritual or otherwise. I thought I’d lead with that since this is likely to offend some people, but like pulling a stick out of someone’s eye, some things can’t be helped. For some reason, I suspect arrogance and pride, the notion of knowing one’s place has garnered a negative connotation.

If you want to see someone’s hackles rise instantly, tell them to know their place or stay in their lane. Especially if it’s a woman who was told she has a calling on her life, a mantle on her shoulders, or a crown on her head, you can see the transformation from docile, loving sister to pit viper in real-time.

At the risk of getting pushback, it’s good to know your place. If my car starts making a noise, I take it to the mechanic. If my drain starts backing up, I call a plumber. I can try fixing my car or snaking my drain, but buying a drain snake isn’t cheap, and attempting automotive repairs is like physics to me. It saves me both time, money, and a pounding headache to call someone proficient at whatever I need to do and have them deal with it.

Another way of referring to the angels who did not keep their proper domain is angels who forgot their place. Because they forgot their place and left their own abode or habitation, they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

When men forget their place and leave their proper domain, it’s never in pursuit of more humility, obedience, or labor. By their assertions, they’re constantly pursuing higher callings, wider ministries, with the term global impact thrown in at some point because if it’s not global, it’s not big enough.

They forget that if God called them to ministry, He placed them where He needs them, not where their ego would like them to be. The tug of pride, the pull of the id, must be resisted because if we venture out on our own, following our vision of ourselves rather than His vision for us, we end up alone, without the covering of His power or authority, then the wolves come. When the enemy can distract the shepherd, in that he is following after his heart rather than tending to the sheep, there is no one to stand between the sheep and the wolves.

Sometimes success in ministry, at least as the world defines it, is not a gift from God but a snare of the devil. I’ve known men who lost their families, their wives, and some even their will to endure because they got so caught up in building a brand, in building a ministry, in growth year over year, with charts and figures and all manner of planning that it consumed them to the point of ignoring all else.

Is God growing a work, or is it ego, pride, and an inflated sense of self? If it’s God, His yoke is not heavy, and His burden is light. If it’s you, it will be a slog on the best of days.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.