1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
For some two thousand years the message of the cross has been the object of both scorn and adoration. It is a rare thing indeed to see such diametrically opposed reactions to the same object. Men either hate the cross, or they love the cross; they either fall to their knees in repentance, or turn their backs in anger.
Today I want to analyze the reactions of both believers and unbelievers to the cross of Christ, and see what we can glean, how we can grow, and what we can learn.
To those who are perishing, the cross is foolishness and an insult. Yes, the cross is an insult to human understanding, and to the wisdom of man, because the beauty and importance thereof has been hidden from them. Men have a tendency to despise that which both challenges them, and is beyond their realm of understanding.
Matthew 11:25, “At that time Jesus answered and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.”
It is difficult for the world to grasp that neither wisdom nor prudence are a prerequisite to understanding the cross. What is required for understanding the cross is the sincere and childlike desire to know the truth, and the willingness to receive it even if it conflicts with one’s preconceived notions on the matter.
The cross is also an insult to individual merit, because it proves that good works in and of themselves cannot save. The cross nullifies the ideology that if we just strive to be good people, to neuter our cats, and recycle our plastics, and hold the elevator for the lady with the shopping bags, then by the nature of our goodness, we can somehow obtain salvation. For those who are perishing, for the unregenerate, this is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the cross they have to contend with. They can’t get past the fact that their good works are meaningless in the sight of God, absent faith, the applied grace of Christ and the cross.
Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
There is one last segment of people for whom the cross is an insult and an offense, and that is religious people. The reason the cross is an insult to religious people, is because the cross refuses to play favorites, it refuses to be a respecter of persons or personalities. The cross sees no titles, the cross sees no office, the cross sees no bank account, and the cross sees no social standing. The cross only sees the heart, and for many religious people the heart is the one thing they desire to keep hidden. Ceremony has replaced true worship in many hearts, and a false piety has replaced true humility.
Acts 10:34-35, “Then Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘in truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.”
Romans 10:12, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.”
I’ve met people who have a difficult time accepting the fact that they are not special, simply because they get to preach a sermon once in awhile, or run a ministry. If you have been called to ministry, it does not make you better than your brother or sister, it only makes you more accountable to God in performing the tasks and duties that He has set before you.
To God, there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, between rich and poor, between young and old, between male and female, the only distinctions that God holds to are saved and unsaved, regenerate or unregenerate.
Those who are being saved perceive the cross very differently than those who are perishing. To the saved, the cross is wisdom, and the wisdom of the cross reveals four major themes to us.
The first thing the cross reveals to the saved is the wisdom and knowledge of both God and of Christ.
Colossians 2:1-3, “For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
At one point in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes what would have been an astounding claim to those who were still lost and perishing, ‘Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.’
It doesn’t matter how many diplomas one might have amassed, it does not matter how many degrees, if they consider the message of the cross to be foolishness they have no wisdom.
The second thing the cross reveals to the saved is the love of God. Yes, love compelled Jesus to hang upon a cross, love compelled Jesus to endure being mocked and ridiculed. By way of the cross we begin to understand the true magnitude of God’s love for us.
We are also shown salvation by way of the cross. Yes, the message of the cross, for those who are being saved is the power of God. If Jesus had not hung upon the cross, you and I could not have been redeemed. If Jesus had not bled, you and I could not have been healed. If Jesus had not died, you and I could not have life.
1 Corinthians 1:30-31, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
The last thing the cross reveals to those who are saved, is the power of God. We serve an omnipotent God, a God who is able to provide, to strengthen, to encourage, and to save.
Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”
The way in which we perceive the cross, will betray the condition of our hearts. May we look upon the cross and see the wisdom, love, salvation and power of our God.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
But I'm A Good Person!
You know how you hear something so many times it just doesn’t register anymore? Like the one car that still has an alarm in the entire parking lot of your apartment complex that seems to go off at all hours of the night, that alarm that would drive you up a wall the first few days but then just faded into the background somewhere?
I am the same way with commonly overused phraseology. It just doesn’t register anymore until I hear it one time too many and I have to bite my tongue in order to keep from saying something. There is no camel; there is no straw; just a very intense desire to shake the person until they snap back into reality.
My moment came, oddly enough as I was standing in line at the grocery store. Two ladies whom I assumed were friends were ahead of me, and as they were talking one said to the other, ‘but I’m a good person, I really am. Why can’t he see that?’
It was all I could do to keep myself from blurting out, ‘by whose standard? By whose standard are you a good person?’
If an individual establishes the standard of their own morality, then in their own eyes they are good people. It would be like me going into a class of second graders, and establishing my level of intelligence compared to theirs. I would have every right to say I was a genius wouldn’t I? But put me in a room with Nobel laureates, and the prism through which I viewed my intelligence level suddenly shifts. I’m no longer the smartest guy in the room, but rather the dumbest guy in the room.
There is a danger in establishing our own standard of morality, just as there is a danger in establishing our own standard of faith. It is easy to possess a faith for which we establish the standards. If we establish the standards of our faith, we look at ourselves and say, ‘I am so good, I am so righteous, I have so much faith’, just as by her own estimation the lady in the grocery store believed herself to be a good person.
However, when God establishes the standard of our morality, and the standard of our faith, the story is very different indeed. By viewing ourselves through the prism of how God views us, we soon discover that we need grace, we need forgiveness, we need to be reconciled unto God, because our own goodness, our own so called merits, our own wisdom, is nothing more than filthy rags in the sight of God.
Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.”
Sure compared to some infamous criminal the lady might have been a good person indeed, however the standard is not my neighbor, my father, my sister or my brother, or the guy on the news who got arrested for kicking kittens, the standard that I must hold myself to is God’s standard. In and of ourselves we cannot hope to reach the standard that God set forth, in and of ourselves, we will continually fall short. I guess the one point I am trying to make today, is that Jesus is the good in us, not some of the good, but all of the good in us.
I have met some unfortunate souls in recent months that have fallen into the trap of reveling in their own self righteousness. Whether it’s because they hold to a certain ceremony, or they practice a certain tradition, there is this sense that they are righteous because of these practices. Please understand for the love of your soul, there is nothing on this earth, above the earth, or below the earth that can wash and make you clean, that can reconcile you unto God, that can redeem your life from destruction, other than the blood that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God shed upon the cross.
Philippians 3:8-9, “But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”
When we attain the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus as Paul did, we come to the realization that our righteousness, can never compare to the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, that righteousness which comes from God.
Our purpose on this earth is not to be able to look in a mirror and think to ourselves how good we are, or compare ourselves to others and their shortcomings thereby elevating our own self worth, but to attain the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Once attained, we begin to see the worthlessness of not only everything that the world holds in high esteem, but also the worthlessness of our own self righteousness.
If there is any nobility in me, I assure you it is Jesus. If there is any nobility in you, it is the selfsame Christ. To think ourselves good people, to think ourselves better than, is to fall into a snare of the enemy wherein we start to believe our own hearts when they tell us that being good is good enough.
‘Why would you need Jesus? You know you’re a good person, and you try to live a good life, and you return your movies on time, always tip the mailman on Christmas, and you even recycle. That’s a definition of a good person if ever I heard one!’
Yes, by the world’s standard, by your standard, by your grandmother’s standard that always pinches your cheek and pats you on the hand and tells you what a good boy you are, you might be well, good. We will however, one day, all of us, to the last, stand before a great white throne, upon which the Creator of the universe will sit.
He will not ask what your grandmother thought of you, or if your neighbors believed you were a good person. He will not judge based on your standard or my standard but based on His standard. If Jesus is not found in us, wholly and completely, He will utter the dreaded words ‘depart from Me, I never knew you!”
What we need to understand is that if we plan to stand before God in our own self righteousness, there will be men and women who by their estimation were more righteous than us. They will stand before God, resume in hand and check off all the things they did on His behalf, from preaching, to casting out devils, to prophesying in His name, and all that they did will amount to nothing at all if Jesus was not evident in them throughout their existence.
Time is short, and it would be wise for us to disrobe ourselves of our own self righteousness, of this idea that we’re good people just because we go to church once in awhile, and put on the righteousness of Christ, which shines like the sun in the darkest of night. May we walk in His righteousness, that we might be approved of God, and welcomed into His eternal kingdom.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
I am the same way with commonly overused phraseology. It just doesn’t register anymore until I hear it one time too many and I have to bite my tongue in order to keep from saying something. There is no camel; there is no straw; just a very intense desire to shake the person until they snap back into reality.
My moment came, oddly enough as I was standing in line at the grocery store. Two ladies whom I assumed were friends were ahead of me, and as they were talking one said to the other, ‘but I’m a good person, I really am. Why can’t he see that?’
It was all I could do to keep myself from blurting out, ‘by whose standard? By whose standard are you a good person?’
If an individual establishes the standard of their own morality, then in their own eyes they are good people. It would be like me going into a class of second graders, and establishing my level of intelligence compared to theirs. I would have every right to say I was a genius wouldn’t I? But put me in a room with Nobel laureates, and the prism through which I viewed my intelligence level suddenly shifts. I’m no longer the smartest guy in the room, but rather the dumbest guy in the room.
There is a danger in establishing our own standard of morality, just as there is a danger in establishing our own standard of faith. It is easy to possess a faith for which we establish the standards. If we establish the standards of our faith, we look at ourselves and say, ‘I am so good, I am so righteous, I have so much faith’, just as by her own estimation the lady in the grocery store believed herself to be a good person.
However, when God establishes the standard of our morality, and the standard of our faith, the story is very different indeed. By viewing ourselves through the prism of how God views us, we soon discover that we need grace, we need forgiveness, we need to be reconciled unto God, because our own goodness, our own so called merits, our own wisdom, is nothing more than filthy rags in the sight of God.
Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.”
Sure compared to some infamous criminal the lady might have been a good person indeed, however the standard is not my neighbor, my father, my sister or my brother, or the guy on the news who got arrested for kicking kittens, the standard that I must hold myself to is God’s standard. In and of ourselves we cannot hope to reach the standard that God set forth, in and of ourselves, we will continually fall short. I guess the one point I am trying to make today, is that Jesus is the good in us, not some of the good, but all of the good in us.
I have met some unfortunate souls in recent months that have fallen into the trap of reveling in their own self righteousness. Whether it’s because they hold to a certain ceremony, or they practice a certain tradition, there is this sense that they are righteous because of these practices. Please understand for the love of your soul, there is nothing on this earth, above the earth, or below the earth that can wash and make you clean, that can reconcile you unto God, that can redeem your life from destruction, other than the blood that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God shed upon the cross.
Philippians 3:8-9, “But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”
When we attain the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus as Paul did, we come to the realization that our righteousness, can never compare to the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, that righteousness which comes from God.
Our purpose on this earth is not to be able to look in a mirror and think to ourselves how good we are, or compare ourselves to others and their shortcomings thereby elevating our own self worth, but to attain the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Once attained, we begin to see the worthlessness of not only everything that the world holds in high esteem, but also the worthlessness of our own self righteousness.
If there is any nobility in me, I assure you it is Jesus. If there is any nobility in you, it is the selfsame Christ. To think ourselves good people, to think ourselves better than, is to fall into a snare of the enemy wherein we start to believe our own hearts when they tell us that being good is good enough.
‘Why would you need Jesus? You know you’re a good person, and you try to live a good life, and you return your movies on time, always tip the mailman on Christmas, and you even recycle. That’s a definition of a good person if ever I heard one!’
Yes, by the world’s standard, by your standard, by your grandmother’s standard that always pinches your cheek and pats you on the hand and tells you what a good boy you are, you might be well, good. We will however, one day, all of us, to the last, stand before a great white throne, upon which the Creator of the universe will sit.
He will not ask what your grandmother thought of you, or if your neighbors believed you were a good person. He will not judge based on your standard or my standard but based on His standard. If Jesus is not found in us, wholly and completely, He will utter the dreaded words ‘depart from Me, I never knew you!”
What we need to understand is that if we plan to stand before God in our own self righteousness, there will be men and women who by their estimation were more righteous than us. They will stand before God, resume in hand and check off all the things they did on His behalf, from preaching, to casting out devils, to prophesying in His name, and all that they did will amount to nothing at all if Jesus was not evident in them throughout their existence.
Time is short, and it would be wise for us to disrobe ourselves of our own self righteousness, of this idea that we’re good people just because we go to church once in awhile, and put on the righteousness of Christ, which shines like the sun in the darkest of night. May we walk in His righteousness, that we might be approved of God, and welcomed into His eternal kingdom.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Be Filled!
The most effective kind of deception always has a grain of truth at its center. Taking a grain of truth and wrapping it with deception has been elevated to an art form in many Christian circles, and the danger of such a practice is that each time one notices the extra biblical doctrine they are summarily pointed to the grain of truth and told that fundamentally, it is biblical.
When I was younger, actually when I first arrived upon American shores, I was acquainted with cream stuffed donuts. There was a donut shop near the apartment we rented, (as of last March it is still there since nostalgia caused me and my brother Daniel to revisit it), that made the best cream stuffed donuts in the world. They had chocolate cream, strawberry cream and vanilla cream donuts, which in essence were just a mass of gooey goodness, surrounded by a thin donut layer. What made them so out of this world good, was the fact that they stuffed allot of cream inside the donut. After moving away, I would try the cream stuffed donuts in other shops, but there always seemed to be too little cream to notice it. Just as I got sick of playing ‘where’s the cream in my cream stuffed donut’ and finally gave up eating them altogether, allot of Christians are playing ‘where’s the truth in modern doctrine’, and are getting fed up with not finding it.
There is a nugget of truth in some of today’s teachings, but not nearly enough to warrant consuming them. One of the teachings that I’ve had to contend against most often is the teaching that God wants us to be full, and be filled but rather than with spiritual things, with the things and desires of this world. They take that nugget of truth and extrapolate it to mean that God wants us to have full wallets, full stomachs, be filled with what amounts to naked greed, be full of ourselves, and be filled with love for the things of this world.
So if God wants us to be filled, what exactly does He want us to be filled with?
Ephesians 5:18, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
The first and most essential thing we must be filled with is the Holy Spirit! If we are filled with the Spirit of God, then all the other virtues we are encouraged and admonished to be filled with are possible in our lives. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are transformed by the power of the living God, to desire what He desires, and aspire toward those things which bring us eternal reward, not just temporary pleasures. I’ve been working on a study of the Holy Spirit, which was meant to be an issue of the Prophetic Times but it has gotten so voluminous, that I am toying with the idea of just putting it in a book form. The Holy Spirit is one of those overlooked necessities in the life of the believer, and from the promise of the Spirit’s coming, to the day the Spirit descended, to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to the need of being filled with the Holy Spirit, it is an amazing, humbling, and eye opening study.
Another virtue that the Word encourages us to be filled with is the knowledge of God’s will. To know God’s will and to walk in it is to live a life of victory, a life of steadfastness, a life of faith and obedience. The knowledge of the will of God is not difficult to attain, because it is written in His word. It is when men attempt to impose their wills upon the will of God that we venture off the path of righteousness and holiness. God meant what He said, He has established His will, and just because we feel as though in our own minds we would not perceive an issue in the same manner God does, it does not negate His will. What God calls sin, we must call sin also! What God calls righteous we must call righteous as well. It is tragically laughable that so many are able to reconcile the ideas that they can disobey God, reject His nature, and yet somehow still be His. Those who are God’s have been imprinted with His nature.
Colossians 1:9-11, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.”
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, when we are filled with the knowledge of God’s will we are to also be filled with joy. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he described the reasons he was filled with joy, and it had nothing to do with someone making a faith pledge to his ministry, or purchasing that new carriage he’d had his eye on for so long.
That which filled Paul with joy was the remembrance of the genuine faith that he saw in Timothy, and the two generations that came before him that were also filled with faith, namely Timothy’s grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice.
As children of God we find our joy in the things of God. We are filled with joy when we see a soul repent and turn to God, we are filled with joy when we see the hand of God working mightily in the midst of the congregation, we are filled with joy when we see faith in the lives of our brethren and we are filled with joy when we feel His presence in our prayer time.
The Word tells us that we must also be filled with kindness. As those who were called of God, as the elect of God, as those who are holy and beloved, we must put on kindness. When we are filled with kindness, it is evident. The nature of Christ is not something that can be hidden or camouflaged, it is evident and ever present, and as those being filled with kindness, we show it not only toward those that are deserving of it, but even to those who we may deem undeserving.
If we are to make an impact in this world, if we are to draw men unto Christ, then we must also be filled with faith and power. We have an abundance of scholars, theologians, teachers, preachers, evangelists, men specializing in prophecy, deliverance, and a multitude of other niche topics, but what we are lacking in the church today is true faith and the power of God.
Acts 6:8, “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.”
So who was Stephen, and why was he filled with faith and power? Stephen was a man who was appointed to serve food to widows, and even for such a menial task, it was required that he be a man of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and wisdom. Where has that standard gone?
Today, men who have no business being behind the pulpit have hijacked God’s house, and in so doing have presented their own versions of the nugget of truth wrapped up in a well crafted lie.
They cannot encourage men to be filled with the Holy Spirit, or with the knowledge of the will of God, with joy, with kindness, or with faith and power, because they would be seen for the hypocrites that they are. No, they cannot encourage men to be filled with Godly virtues, because they do not possess them themselves. And so, what can they encourage people to be filled with? The selfsame things that they are filled to overflowing with, namely the things of this world, and the pride of life. God help the modern day church!
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
When I was younger, actually when I first arrived upon American shores, I was acquainted with cream stuffed donuts. There was a donut shop near the apartment we rented, (as of last March it is still there since nostalgia caused me and my brother Daniel to revisit it), that made the best cream stuffed donuts in the world. They had chocolate cream, strawberry cream and vanilla cream donuts, which in essence were just a mass of gooey goodness, surrounded by a thin donut layer. What made them so out of this world good, was the fact that they stuffed allot of cream inside the donut. After moving away, I would try the cream stuffed donuts in other shops, but there always seemed to be too little cream to notice it. Just as I got sick of playing ‘where’s the cream in my cream stuffed donut’ and finally gave up eating them altogether, allot of Christians are playing ‘where’s the truth in modern doctrine’, and are getting fed up with not finding it.
There is a nugget of truth in some of today’s teachings, but not nearly enough to warrant consuming them. One of the teachings that I’ve had to contend against most often is the teaching that God wants us to be full, and be filled but rather than with spiritual things, with the things and desires of this world. They take that nugget of truth and extrapolate it to mean that God wants us to have full wallets, full stomachs, be filled with what amounts to naked greed, be full of ourselves, and be filled with love for the things of this world.
So if God wants us to be filled, what exactly does He want us to be filled with?
Ephesians 5:18, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
The first and most essential thing we must be filled with is the Holy Spirit! If we are filled with the Spirit of God, then all the other virtues we are encouraged and admonished to be filled with are possible in our lives. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are transformed by the power of the living God, to desire what He desires, and aspire toward those things which bring us eternal reward, not just temporary pleasures. I’ve been working on a study of the Holy Spirit, which was meant to be an issue of the Prophetic Times but it has gotten so voluminous, that I am toying with the idea of just putting it in a book form. The Holy Spirit is one of those overlooked necessities in the life of the believer, and from the promise of the Spirit’s coming, to the day the Spirit descended, to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to the need of being filled with the Holy Spirit, it is an amazing, humbling, and eye opening study.
Another virtue that the Word encourages us to be filled with is the knowledge of God’s will. To know God’s will and to walk in it is to live a life of victory, a life of steadfastness, a life of faith and obedience. The knowledge of the will of God is not difficult to attain, because it is written in His word. It is when men attempt to impose their wills upon the will of God that we venture off the path of righteousness and holiness. God meant what He said, He has established His will, and just because we feel as though in our own minds we would not perceive an issue in the same manner God does, it does not negate His will. What God calls sin, we must call sin also! What God calls righteous we must call righteous as well. It is tragically laughable that so many are able to reconcile the ideas that they can disobey God, reject His nature, and yet somehow still be His. Those who are God’s have been imprinted with His nature.
Colossians 1:9-11, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.”
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, when we are filled with the knowledge of God’s will we are to also be filled with joy. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he described the reasons he was filled with joy, and it had nothing to do with someone making a faith pledge to his ministry, or purchasing that new carriage he’d had his eye on for so long.
That which filled Paul with joy was the remembrance of the genuine faith that he saw in Timothy, and the two generations that came before him that were also filled with faith, namely Timothy’s grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice.
As children of God we find our joy in the things of God. We are filled with joy when we see a soul repent and turn to God, we are filled with joy when we see the hand of God working mightily in the midst of the congregation, we are filled with joy when we see faith in the lives of our brethren and we are filled with joy when we feel His presence in our prayer time.
The Word tells us that we must also be filled with kindness. As those who were called of God, as the elect of God, as those who are holy and beloved, we must put on kindness. When we are filled with kindness, it is evident. The nature of Christ is not something that can be hidden or camouflaged, it is evident and ever present, and as those being filled with kindness, we show it not only toward those that are deserving of it, but even to those who we may deem undeserving.
If we are to make an impact in this world, if we are to draw men unto Christ, then we must also be filled with faith and power. We have an abundance of scholars, theologians, teachers, preachers, evangelists, men specializing in prophecy, deliverance, and a multitude of other niche topics, but what we are lacking in the church today is true faith and the power of God.
Acts 6:8, “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.”
So who was Stephen, and why was he filled with faith and power? Stephen was a man who was appointed to serve food to widows, and even for such a menial task, it was required that he be a man of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and wisdom. Where has that standard gone?
Today, men who have no business being behind the pulpit have hijacked God’s house, and in so doing have presented their own versions of the nugget of truth wrapped up in a well crafted lie.
They cannot encourage men to be filled with the Holy Spirit, or with the knowledge of the will of God, with joy, with kindness, or with faith and power, because they would be seen for the hypocrites that they are. No, they cannot encourage men to be filled with Godly virtues, because they do not possess them themselves. And so, what can they encourage people to be filled with? The selfsame things that they are filled to overflowing with, namely the things of this world, and the pride of life. God help the modern day church!
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Contrasts
The church of America is in trouble. It seems we’ve gotten a running start toward the dark abyss of homogenized doctrine, and the end result of our pursuit is readily visible wherein one cannot distinguish the difference between a churched world, and a worldly church. We employ gimmicks and tricks to get people in the door, but once we get them there we offer them nothing of substance, nothing of relevance, nothing of the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ.
From the pastor who promised to spend three days in a glass box atop his church if they exceeded a certain attendance ala David Blaine, to offering Ultimate Fighting on Easter Sunday, to the ever growing number of billboards that are deep and unique only in the minds of the infantile minds who penned them, we are doing everything in our power to draw people to churches, and it doesn’t seem to be working.
The reason why it isn’t working, the reason more and more people are tuning out, and refusing to turn out, is because substance is sorely lacking, and even if you can manage to get someone to attend by promising a new and exciting series on intimacy in the bedroom, they leave scratching their heads wondering to themselves if that’s what church is really supposed to be. We are running ourselves ragged trying to promote ourselves, our ministries, our churches, we are going to extremes, compromising, making concessions, hiring public relations firms, just to keep up, just to keep growing, just to continue believing the lie we’ve been telling ourselves, that we can be relevant in and of ourselves.
As much as the evidence substantiates our nagging feeling that we cannot do it on our own, but rather we must let God do it, we are stubborn and hard headed, impatient and unwilling to submit to God’s timetable. Waiting on the Lord was for the people who had time to spare! We are progressive and upwardly mobile, we have a purpose, we have a plan for growth, we have projections and pie charts, and we won’t let something as trivial as God’s will stand in the way of our vision.
The focus has shifted in this modern age from winning people to Christ, from seeing the spiritual growth and requisite discipleship transform a person from what they once were to what God desires them to be, to the number of people that show up for service on Sunday morning. We are so consumed with numbers that nothing is sacred anymore in our pursuit of filling the new sanctuary we’ve managed to build.
When we attempt to grow a work on our own, rather than allow God to grow it in His time, we are likened to someone who runs out of gas, and proceeds to try and push the car to their destination. Eventually exhaustion sets in, eventually your muscles give out, and you end up sitting by the side of the road sweating profusely, and bitter at the fact that you bought a car in good working condition, and it failed you, never once acknowledging your own foolishness for not fueling it. Jesus is the fuel, the word of God is the fuel, and if we have fuel, the ministry will run, and the church will run.
If we are to understand how God can grow a work, we need look no further than the ministry of Jesus. He was born in a Middle Eastern country, grew up in a village until the age of thirty, working in a carpenter’s shop, then for three and a half years traveled as an itinerant preacher. He had no home, no family, no public job; He did not study in any university, He had no diploma or degree, and never set foot in any of the major cities of the world. In fact he never traveled more than two hundred and fifty miles further than the place where He was born. From early youth, public opinion set itself against Him, His friends left and rejected Him, and one closest to Him betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver. He was given into the hands of His enemies who mocked and ridiculed Him, then summarily condemned Him to die on a cross between two thieves. While He hung upon a cross dying, his enemies cast lots for his only possession, a tunic, then he was buried in a borrowed tomb.
Twenty centuries have passed, yet today He is the cornerstone of human existence. All the armies that have ever marched upon this earth, all the ships that have been built, all the kings, princes, and presidents of the world, have not affected the lives of men in such a profound and impacting way as He has. He never wrote a book, but no library in the world can contain the writings that have been penned about Him. He never wrote any poetry, but is the subject of the most songs and poems ever sung or uttered. He never founded a university, He was never dean of any college, but no learning institution in the world can boast of so many disciples as He has even to this day.
He studied neither physics, philosophy, medicine nor psychiatry, but no one in the history of the world has healed as many people as He did. He never commanded an army, yet no general in history won so many rebel hearts without a shot being fired, nor have any enjoyed the astounding number of souls marching under their flags as Jesus has.
We remember the names of philosophers, of rulers, of kings and kingdoms but only for a season. Countless names have been relegated to long forgotten memories, their names no longer whispered either in anger or in love, yet somehow His name shines with every generation, the name of Jesus is still on the hearts, minds and lips of countless souls.
Pontius Pilate could not kill Him, the grave could not hold Him, death could not conquer Him, and now He sits at the right hand of God, the object of the saints’ adoration, the angels’ veneration, and the devil’s fear.
We scramble to find new programs, new gimmicks, and new means by which to draw people to the church, all the while dismissing the one sure way to bring people to the house of God that has stood the test of time. We dismiss Jesus, and this will be our own undoing.
If Jesus is not the fuel, if Jesus is not the object of our worship, teaching, exposition, and praise, whatever work we have constructed, whatever ministry we have established will come to ruination. It may work for awhile, it may be successful for a season, curiosity might make men walk through the doors once, maybe even twice, but eventually, the curiosity will fade, and the once booming congregation will wither back to a handful of souls that rather than change their attitude and the means by which they present the Gospel, will simply keep on keeping on, doing the same old thing, expecting a different result and outcome.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
From the pastor who promised to spend three days in a glass box atop his church if they exceeded a certain attendance ala David Blaine, to offering Ultimate Fighting on Easter Sunday, to the ever growing number of billboards that are deep and unique only in the minds of the infantile minds who penned them, we are doing everything in our power to draw people to churches, and it doesn’t seem to be working.
The reason why it isn’t working, the reason more and more people are tuning out, and refusing to turn out, is because substance is sorely lacking, and even if you can manage to get someone to attend by promising a new and exciting series on intimacy in the bedroom, they leave scratching their heads wondering to themselves if that’s what church is really supposed to be. We are running ourselves ragged trying to promote ourselves, our ministries, our churches, we are going to extremes, compromising, making concessions, hiring public relations firms, just to keep up, just to keep growing, just to continue believing the lie we’ve been telling ourselves, that we can be relevant in and of ourselves.
As much as the evidence substantiates our nagging feeling that we cannot do it on our own, but rather we must let God do it, we are stubborn and hard headed, impatient and unwilling to submit to God’s timetable. Waiting on the Lord was for the people who had time to spare! We are progressive and upwardly mobile, we have a purpose, we have a plan for growth, we have projections and pie charts, and we won’t let something as trivial as God’s will stand in the way of our vision.
The focus has shifted in this modern age from winning people to Christ, from seeing the spiritual growth and requisite discipleship transform a person from what they once were to what God desires them to be, to the number of people that show up for service on Sunday morning. We are so consumed with numbers that nothing is sacred anymore in our pursuit of filling the new sanctuary we’ve managed to build.
When we attempt to grow a work on our own, rather than allow God to grow it in His time, we are likened to someone who runs out of gas, and proceeds to try and push the car to their destination. Eventually exhaustion sets in, eventually your muscles give out, and you end up sitting by the side of the road sweating profusely, and bitter at the fact that you bought a car in good working condition, and it failed you, never once acknowledging your own foolishness for not fueling it. Jesus is the fuel, the word of God is the fuel, and if we have fuel, the ministry will run, and the church will run.
If we are to understand how God can grow a work, we need look no further than the ministry of Jesus. He was born in a Middle Eastern country, grew up in a village until the age of thirty, working in a carpenter’s shop, then for three and a half years traveled as an itinerant preacher. He had no home, no family, no public job; He did not study in any university, He had no diploma or degree, and never set foot in any of the major cities of the world. In fact he never traveled more than two hundred and fifty miles further than the place where He was born. From early youth, public opinion set itself against Him, His friends left and rejected Him, and one closest to Him betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver. He was given into the hands of His enemies who mocked and ridiculed Him, then summarily condemned Him to die on a cross between two thieves. While He hung upon a cross dying, his enemies cast lots for his only possession, a tunic, then he was buried in a borrowed tomb.
Twenty centuries have passed, yet today He is the cornerstone of human existence. All the armies that have ever marched upon this earth, all the ships that have been built, all the kings, princes, and presidents of the world, have not affected the lives of men in such a profound and impacting way as He has. He never wrote a book, but no library in the world can contain the writings that have been penned about Him. He never wrote any poetry, but is the subject of the most songs and poems ever sung or uttered. He never founded a university, He was never dean of any college, but no learning institution in the world can boast of so many disciples as He has even to this day.
He studied neither physics, philosophy, medicine nor psychiatry, but no one in the history of the world has healed as many people as He did. He never commanded an army, yet no general in history won so many rebel hearts without a shot being fired, nor have any enjoyed the astounding number of souls marching under their flags as Jesus has.
We remember the names of philosophers, of rulers, of kings and kingdoms but only for a season. Countless names have been relegated to long forgotten memories, their names no longer whispered either in anger or in love, yet somehow His name shines with every generation, the name of Jesus is still on the hearts, minds and lips of countless souls.
Pontius Pilate could not kill Him, the grave could not hold Him, death could not conquer Him, and now He sits at the right hand of God, the object of the saints’ adoration, the angels’ veneration, and the devil’s fear.
We scramble to find new programs, new gimmicks, and new means by which to draw people to the church, all the while dismissing the one sure way to bring people to the house of God that has stood the test of time. We dismiss Jesus, and this will be our own undoing.
If Jesus is not the fuel, if Jesus is not the object of our worship, teaching, exposition, and praise, whatever work we have constructed, whatever ministry we have established will come to ruination. It may work for awhile, it may be successful for a season, curiosity might make men walk through the doors once, maybe even twice, but eventually, the curiosity will fade, and the once booming congregation will wither back to a handful of souls that rather than change their attitude and the means by which they present the Gospel, will simply keep on keeping on, doing the same old thing, expecting a different result and outcome.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Christian Wardrobe
No, this is not a post complaining about people wearing cargo shorts in church. Personally, I choose to show a little more reverence when I enter the house of God than wearing flip flops and an ‘I love puppies’ shirt, but that’s just me. I guess at my core I am old fashioned, but I do not begrudge anyone’s choice of attire. As long as you don’t give me a dirty look for wearing a suit in church, I won’t give you a dirty look for wearing board shorts.
When speaking of the Christian wardrobe, most believers can readily quote the passage in Ephesians that encourages us to put on the armor of God, but there are other accessories that we are encouraged to put on and have on our person at all times. An incomplete Christian will have a walk of frequent failures and defeats, and although we might like to pass the buck and blame it on God, it is not His fault. If we do everything He commanded us to do, we will experience all the victories He promised we would experience. It is not God’s fault that we choose partial obedience; it is not God’s fault that we consider certain things unnecessary or outdated. Too often it seems we act like spoiled children who after being told over and over again not to put their tongue on a nine volt battery, blame their parents for getting a shock when they do it. God has laid out His instruction; our duty is to follow the aforementioned instruction.
So what is the Christian wardrobe and accessories that we not only have access to, but are encouraged to pursue and appropriate?
In the context of talking about the end times and describing the day of the Lord, Paul writes to the church of Thessalonica and after encouraging them that they were not in darkness that this Day should overtake them as a thief, he admonishes his readers, and those who follow after Christ to do one more thing.
1 Thessalonians 5:8, “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.”
While many put on the breastplate of faith and love, I have witnessed firsthand the disturbing trend of many a soul forgetting or neglecting to put on the helmet of the hope of salvation. When the helmet of the hope of salvation is firmly placed upon our heads, the circumstances of this present life do not dictate our attitude or the way we view our present trials. Because our hope is not tethered to this present earth, because the source of our hope is the risen Christ, we are able to have joy in the midst of tribulation; we are able to have hope even when hopelessness covers the earth like a foreboding storm front.
Another necessity in the wardrobe of every Christian is the armor of God. There are multiple benefits to not only having the armor of God, but being faithful in putting it on every day. Whether it be to withstand in the evil day, stand against the wiles of the enemy, or quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, the armor of God must be put on in order to be effective.
Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
Twice within the context of this passage we are encouraged to put on the whole armor of God. Not just gird our waist with truth, or only put on the breastplate of righteousness, but the whole armor of God. From the helmet of salvation, to the sword of the spirit, to the shield of faith, to the breastplate of righteousness, to having shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, to having girded our waist with truth, a Christian must be in complete armor that he may withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
There is also a great need today for every believer to put on the armor of light. It is an undeniable fact that light repels the darkness. Wherever light is present the darkness must retreat. It has no choice in the matter, for even in the darkest of night a single candle has its say, a single candle in the darkness can neither be denied nor dismissed.
Romans 13:12, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”
Since the fall of Adam, everyone is born in darkness. It matters not how noble a lineage one descends from, it matters not how righteous or godly one’s parents were, when we are born into this world we are born in darkness. The Word of God is straightforward on the matter, when it says that we must cast off the works of darkness before we can put on the armor of light. I repeat it often, because it is an overlooked and readily dismissed teaching within Christian circles today; light and darkness cannot coexist, truth and deception cannot make a home together, the children of God and the offspring of this world will always be at odds.
One of the enemy’s greatest deceptions is convincing those of the house of God that they can live in the gray area of duality and duplicity that they can somehow put on the armor of light without having first cast off the works of darkness. Jesus said it could not be done, and every God inspired servant who penned books of the New Testament echoed this sentiment over and over again. What makes us think we are wiser than Jesus? What brings us to that point of denying scripture and forging our own path toward the darkness, all the while comforting our conscience with the thought that we are journeying toward the light?
When we come to Christ, we are given a new garment, a garment that is spotless and without wrinkle. We are clothed with the robe of righteousness, the garments of salvation; in essence we are clothed in Christ.
Isaiah 61:10-11, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
If we possess the entire Christian wardrobe, and are wise to keep it clean, spotless, and without wrinkle, we will walk in light, we will walk in victory, we will walk in faith, we will walk in hope, we will walk in joy, and be in the perpetual fellowship that the soul so desires. Be clothed in Christ, and you will know true peace, be clothed in Christ and you will know true victory. The victory will not be simply a sporadic and infrequent experience, but a constant, because when one has cast of the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, they are renewed, and reborn to the unshakable knowledge that Jesus is our all in all.
Galatians 3:26-27, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
When speaking of the Christian wardrobe, most believers can readily quote the passage in Ephesians that encourages us to put on the armor of God, but there are other accessories that we are encouraged to put on and have on our person at all times. An incomplete Christian will have a walk of frequent failures and defeats, and although we might like to pass the buck and blame it on God, it is not His fault. If we do everything He commanded us to do, we will experience all the victories He promised we would experience. It is not God’s fault that we choose partial obedience; it is not God’s fault that we consider certain things unnecessary or outdated. Too often it seems we act like spoiled children who after being told over and over again not to put their tongue on a nine volt battery, blame their parents for getting a shock when they do it. God has laid out His instruction; our duty is to follow the aforementioned instruction.
So what is the Christian wardrobe and accessories that we not only have access to, but are encouraged to pursue and appropriate?
In the context of talking about the end times and describing the day of the Lord, Paul writes to the church of Thessalonica and after encouraging them that they were not in darkness that this Day should overtake them as a thief, he admonishes his readers, and those who follow after Christ to do one more thing.
1 Thessalonians 5:8, “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.”
While many put on the breastplate of faith and love, I have witnessed firsthand the disturbing trend of many a soul forgetting or neglecting to put on the helmet of the hope of salvation. When the helmet of the hope of salvation is firmly placed upon our heads, the circumstances of this present life do not dictate our attitude or the way we view our present trials. Because our hope is not tethered to this present earth, because the source of our hope is the risen Christ, we are able to have joy in the midst of tribulation; we are able to have hope even when hopelessness covers the earth like a foreboding storm front.
Another necessity in the wardrobe of every Christian is the armor of God. There are multiple benefits to not only having the armor of God, but being faithful in putting it on every day. Whether it be to withstand in the evil day, stand against the wiles of the enemy, or quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, the armor of God must be put on in order to be effective.
Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
Twice within the context of this passage we are encouraged to put on the whole armor of God. Not just gird our waist with truth, or only put on the breastplate of righteousness, but the whole armor of God. From the helmet of salvation, to the sword of the spirit, to the shield of faith, to the breastplate of righteousness, to having shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, to having girded our waist with truth, a Christian must be in complete armor that he may withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
There is also a great need today for every believer to put on the armor of light. It is an undeniable fact that light repels the darkness. Wherever light is present the darkness must retreat. It has no choice in the matter, for even in the darkest of night a single candle has its say, a single candle in the darkness can neither be denied nor dismissed.
Romans 13:12, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”
Since the fall of Adam, everyone is born in darkness. It matters not how noble a lineage one descends from, it matters not how righteous or godly one’s parents were, when we are born into this world we are born in darkness. The Word of God is straightforward on the matter, when it says that we must cast off the works of darkness before we can put on the armor of light. I repeat it often, because it is an overlooked and readily dismissed teaching within Christian circles today; light and darkness cannot coexist, truth and deception cannot make a home together, the children of God and the offspring of this world will always be at odds.
One of the enemy’s greatest deceptions is convincing those of the house of God that they can live in the gray area of duality and duplicity that they can somehow put on the armor of light without having first cast off the works of darkness. Jesus said it could not be done, and every God inspired servant who penned books of the New Testament echoed this sentiment over and over again. What makes us think we are wiser than Jesus? What brings us to that point of denying scripture and forging our own path toward the darkness, all the while comforting our conscience with the thought that we are journeying toward the light?
When we come to Christ, we are given a new garment, a garment that is spotless and without wrinkle. We are clothed with the robe of righteousness, the garments of salvation; in essence we are clothed in Christ.
Isaiah 61:10-11, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
If we possess the entire Christian wardrobe, and are wise to keep it clean, spotless, and without wrinkle, we will walk in light, we will walk in victory, we will walk in faith, we will walk in hope, we will walk in joy, and be in the perpetual fellowship that the soul so desires. Be clothed in Christ, and you will know true peace, be clothed in Christ and you will know true victory. The victory will not be simply a sporadic and infrequent experience, but a constant, because when one has cast of the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, they are renewed, and reborn to the unshakable knowledge that Jesus is our all in all.
Galatians 3:26-27, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Strange Fire
Nadab and Abihu were the sons of Aaron. From early youth they were witness to the inner workings of the priesthood, having their father as an example of what it was to be consecrated unto God. Granted Aaron had some growing pains along the way, he didn’t always make the right decisions, building a golden calf from the gold and jewelry of the Israelites while Moses was up on Mount Sinai springs to mind, but since God received him as a priest, it is self evident that he repented, and learned obedience in his older years.
Their uncle was none other than Moses the servant of God who led the people of Israel through the red sea as though they were walking on dry land; the selfsame Moses whose relationship with God was so intimate that God allowed him to see His glory, and glimpse His back as He passed by, for no man could see the face of God and live.
Nadab and Abihu were not lacking in godly examples, nor were they lacking in hearing the Word of God, yet they made the fatal error of bringing strange or profane fire before the Lord, and as consequence were devoured by the fire of God.
So what is strange fire, and how can we keep ourselves from offering it before the Lord? It is indisputable that bringing strange fire before God is punishable by death, because the God who changes not, demands that those who come near Him regard Him as holy, and that He be glorified before all the people.
Nowadays the fear of the Lord being what it is among professing Christians, certain men and women who have reached the heights of Christian fame, seem to have no qualms about replacing the fire of God with their own fire. If it is ignorance that is causing them to offer God strange fire, I hazard to submit that ignorance is not an adequate excuse.
Offering God one’s own fire, rather than insisting on His fire, amounts to nothing less than the sacrifice of Cain that was brought before God absent of obedience. There is this sense of going through the motions in today’s church, following some ceremony, or program, simply to placate God. Just as Cain of old, we do not bring our sacrifice of praise, our sacrifice of worship, our sacrifice of reverence before God out of a pure and undefiled heart, but we view these things as necessary burdens we must carry to get God to bless us.
Some consider the path too narrow, some consider the ways of God too intolerant, some consider the standard of God too rigid, and so they take it upon themselves to replace the ways of God, with their own ideas and doctrines. Make no mistake, it is strange fire that many are offering before the Lord, and it was not at His command. They are wise in their own eyes, making straight paths crooked, and by so doing heap up for themselves the wrath and judgment of a righteous God.
Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
The second means by which the modern day sons of Aaron offer up strange fire, is by dismissing the commands of God. The Bible was given as a guide and a lamp unto our feet, not as a means by which we can find loopholes for less than total submission and surrender to God. Rather than search the Word for instruction and truth, there are men today whose entire purpose is to scour the Word of God in order to find justification for sin, to find an obscure passage a solitary verse that can then be butchered and twisted to mean something it clearly does not mean. We may think we can play games with God, but God is not mocked.
God’s instruction for us today is as clear and straightforward as it was for those who handled the censers of God in the olden days.
Leviticus 16:12-13, “Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die.”
1 Peter 1:15-16, “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.”
So what led to the sons of Aaron offering strange fire before the Lord? I believe the holy things of God had become common and routine for Nadab and Abihu. They had witnessed their father bringing sacrifice to God so many times, that they no longer had a reverence for it. Experiencing the presence of God, bringing sacrifice to God’s temple had become a common thing for them. The entire ceremony had become something they got used to insofar as they came to believe that if they wore the priestly robes they would be spared judgment.
Wearing a suit on Sunday morning as one stands behind the pulpit does not make them right in the sight of God! I have seen, on occasion, men absent of reverence as they treat the word of God as just another book, as a prop that looks good in their hands as they look into the camera and ask you to make the biggest sacrifice you can like that widow with the pancake.
It is a dangerous thing to treat the work of God with indifference and disregard, to set aside the standard of God, and just go through the motions, or worse yet, play it by ear and hope it all works out in the end.
Be in constant awe of God. Make standing in His presence a precious experience. Be reverent and come before Him with a clean heart, and a humble spirit. We learn what not to do from the sons of Aaron, we learn how not to take the things of God and the word of God lightly, we learn that God is righteous and just, and does not play favorites.
Yes, Aaron had done allot for God, but this did not exempt his sons from being obedient, but rather required them to live up to the expectation that God set forth.
The Word tells us that fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. What I find worthy of mentioning, is that Aaron held his peace, accepting the righteous judgment of God even as his two sons were being carried by their tunics out of the camp.
Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Their uncle was none other than Moses the servant of God who led the people of Israel through the red sea as though they were walking on dry land; the selfsame Moses whose relationship with God was so intimate that God allowed him to see His glory, and glimpse His back as He passed by, for no man could see the face of God and live.
Nadab and Abihu were not lacking in godly examples, nor were they lacking in hearing the Word of God, yet they made the fatal error of bringing strange or profane fire before the Lord, and as consequence were devoured by the fire of God.
So what is strange fire, and how can we keep ourselves from offering it before the Lord? It is indisputable that bringing strange fire before God is punishable by death, because the God who changes not, demands that those who come near Him regard Him as holy, and that He be glorified before all the people.
Nowadays the fear of the Lord being what it is among professing Christians, certain men and women who have reached the heights of Christian fame, seem to have no qualms about replacing the fire of God with their own fire. If it is ignorance that is causing them to offer God strange fire, I hazard to submit that ignorance is not an adequate excuse.
Offering God one’s own fire, rather than insisting on His fire, amounts to nothing less than the sacrifice of Cain that was brought before God absent of obedience. There is this sense of going through the motions in today’s church, following some ceremony, or program, simply to placate God. Just as Cain of old, we do not bring our sacrifice of praise, our sacrifice of worship, our sacrifice of reverence before God out of a pure and undefiled heart, but we view these things as necessary burdens we must carry to get God to bless us.
Some consider the path too narrow, some consider the ways of God too intolerant, some consider the standard of God too rigid, and so they take it upon themselves to replace the ways of God, with their own ideas and doctrines. Make no mistake, it is strange fire that many are offering before the Lord, and it was not at His command. They are wise in their own eyes, making straight paths crooked, and by so doing heap up for themselves the wrath and judgment of a righteous God.
Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
The second means by which the modern day sons of Aaron offer up strange fire, is by dismissing the commands of God. The Bible was given as a guide and a lamp unto our feet, not as a means by which we can find loopholes for less than total submission and surrender to God. Rather than search the Word for instruction and truth, there are men today whose entire purpose is to scour the Word of God in order to find justification for sin, to find an obscure passage a solitary verse that can then be butchered and twisted to mean something it clearly does not mean. We may think we can play games with God, but God is not mocked.
God’s instruction for us today is as clear and straightforward as it was for those who handled the censers of God in the olden days.
Leviticus 16:12-13, “Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die.”
1 Peter 1:15-16, “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.”
So what led to the sons of Aaron offering strange fire before the Lord? I believe the holy things of God had become common and routine for Nadab and Abihu. They had witnessed their father bringing sacrifice to God so many times, that they no longer had a reverence for it. Experiencing the presence of God, bringing sacrifice to God’s temple had become a common thing for them. The entire ceremony had become something they got used to insofar as they came to believe that if they wore the priestly robes they would be spared judgment.
Wearing a suit on Sunday morning as one stands behind the pulpit does not make them right in the sight of God! I have seen, on occasion, men absent of reverence as they treat the word of God as just another book, as a prop that looks good in their hands as they look into the camera and ask you to make the biggest sacrifice you can like that widow with the pancake.
It is a dangerous thing to treat the work of God with indifference and disregard, to set aside the standard of God, and just go through the motions, or worse yet, play it by ear and hope it all works out in the end.
Be in constant awe of God. Make standing in His presence a precious experience. Be reverent and come before Him with a clean heart, and a humble spirit. We learn what not to do from the sons of Aaron, we learn how not to take the things of God and the word of God lightly, we learn that God is righteous and just, and does not play favorites.
Yes, Aaron had done allot for God, but this did not exempt his sons from being obedient, but rather required them to live up to the expectation that God set forth.
The Word tells us that fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. What I find worthy of mentioning, is that Aaron held his peace, accepting the righteous judgment of God even as his two sons were being carried by their tunics out of the camp.
Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Old Leaven in New Molds
Well, I'm back. We had four meetings, in the same church, and I got to do something I don't get to do very often, I preached a series. Four different messages, interconnected, and their one common denominator was Jesus. I even met someone that reads the blog!
We stayed in someone's home, since they were away for the weekend, and it was in a lovely area, surrounded by mountains, and nothing but lots and lots of quiet. I even got to see a herd of elk, but the novelty wore off after a couple hours. I didn't realize how much I needed some quiet time until I was there with nothing to do but read and meditate. So, we made it back, safe and sound, with all limbs still in place. Thank you all for your prayers, for our safety.
Matthew 16:6, “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
I am often stunned at how readily the modern day churches are able to dismiss the warnings of Jesus. Because so many are no longer willing to spend time in the presence of God, to be fed and nourished of the Holy Spirit, to receive their inspiration from a divine source, we have adopted this lemming mentality wherein we will mimic anyone and anything that the world might deem as successful. Why spend time in prayer and supplication, why study the word of God, when for an annual fee of some three hundred dollars, you can have your Sunday sermon delivered to you via e-mail, every week of every month? Why take the time to grow in Jesus, to mature as a Christian, to stand for truth, to preach the Word, when a pre-sermon joke, a catchy mantra, and a thinly veiled spiritualized humanism are enough to get you the biggest church in the country?
That whole idea about spending ten hours in prayer before preaching for ten minutes is antiquated anyway, and if you do spend time in prayer, chances are the sermon God puts on your heart isn’t really what the crowd wants to hear, even though it is most assuredly what they need to hear.
Any rational person with an ounce of objectivity can readily surmise that much of what we call the church today is nothing more than old leaven in new molds. We talk like the world, act like the world, live like the world, want what the world has, and revel in their acceptance, but still manage to keep a straight face when we call ourselves children of God, elect, redeemed, and sanctified.
When Jesus warned us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, He knew of what He was speaking. He recognized the dangers of just a little leaven, and its ability to spoil the whole lump, and so was adamant in the gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke to warn against our indifference to it.
There are three primary types of leaven that I would like to discuss today, and I believe all three are equally dangerous for the body of Christ.
First is the leaven of the Pharisees, or what I like to call the outwardly alive, but inwardly dead condition. There was no one better than the Pharisee at external religiosity. These were men who knew the scriptures, who tithed, who fasted, who prayed, who by all outwardly appearances were upright men of character and integrity, righteous by earthly standards. I believe one of the reasons they hated Jesus so, is that He was able to see past the façade, He was able to see past their exterior shell, and when He peered inwardly, when He searched their hearts, he found them to be unclean and hypocritical.
If they saying that you can fool some of the people some of the time has any veracity if applied to humanity, Jesus was the exception that proved the rule. You cannot fool Jesus!
Jesus saw the wretched condition of their hearts, and had no qualms about speaking His mind, calling them whitewashed tombs, hypocrites, and warning those who truly desired to know God’s grace and mercy, to experience the love and beauty that is a relationship with Him, to stay away, and beware of their leaven.
It is easy to fall into formality, into a systematic ceremonial tradition of sorts, absent of true fruits of righteousness and repentance. “If I just say a certain prayer a certain amount of times, if I just memorize so many Bible verses, if I just give something up for forty days a year, than I’m alright!” This is the definition of the leaven of the Pharisees that can pollute the heart of man, and keep him from discovering Christ in all His glory.
The second form of leaven I want to discuss is the leaven of the Sadducees. Yes, the leaven of the Sadducees is different than that of the Pharisees. The leaven of the Sadducees is often referred to as the leaven of false teaching, or false doctrine.
Of the three, the leaven of the Sadducees is most prevalent in the American church today. The Sadducees believed only what they could see with their eyes, and touch with their hands. They did not believe in the resurrection, they did not believe in angels, because these were things that they had never witnessed for themselves. We have, in our modern age, reduced the gospel, the cross, the Christ, and the blood, to nothing more than means by which we obtain possessions and material excesses. If we can’t see it in the form of a new car, more money, a new house, or a boat, then we consider it irrelevant. I submit to you, that the most important things in this life are things not seen by the eyes of men. They cannot be touched, they must simply be believed.
Last but not least, we have the leaven of Herod. This particular leaven can also be called the leaven of using worldly methods, and worldly means.
Yes, the leaven of Herod is mentioned in the Bible, and it is something I believe Judas suffered from. The leaven of Herod leads one to believe that one can blend the power of this world, and the power of God, the kingdom of this world, and the kingdom of God, in order to achieve a certain objective.
Judas believed that Jesus would march on Jerusalem, and become the physical king. So blinded was Judas by the leaven of Herod, that He betrayed his Lord and Master in the hope that he could force Jesus into taking action, and becoming king.
Mark 8:15, “Then He charged them, saying, ‘Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
During the time of Jesus, there was a group known as the Herodites, who had spiritual authority but used it in a worldly manner. It was the Herodites that supported Herod, and the Roman powers of the time. One could say that they had political influence, and they wielded it to impose themselves on the people. Because their influence became more important to them than their worship of God, they compromised their beliefs, they compromised their standards, and they did whatever it took to maintain their political power.
If we are true followers of Christ, than the idea of achieving our objectives by any means necessary, must be stricken from our consciousness. If we are no longer of the world, then we cannot behave as the world, we cannot adopt the same principles and methods of the world.
“Well it worked for the world, why don’t we try it?” This is the first chink in the armor, the first thought that will lead to compromise, and to an inevitable ruination of our principles. There are examples of this leaven, even in our modern era, but since this is not about politics but about Jesus, I will refrain.
The message is clear and straightforward, to those who still have ears to hear. We must at all cost keep away from the leaven of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the leaven of Herod. Even a little will spoil the entire lump.
1 Corinthians 5:7, “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
We stayed in someone's home, since they were away for the weekend, and it was in a lovely area, surrounded by mountains, and nothing but lots and lots of quiet. I even got to see a herd of elk, but the novelty wore off after a couple hours. I didn't realize how much I needed some quiet time until I was there with nothing to do but read and meditate. So, we made it back, safe and sound, with all limbs still in place. Thank you all for your prayers, for our safety.
Matthew 16:6, “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
I am often stunned at how readily the modern day churches are able to dismiss the warnings of Jesus. Because so many are no longer willing to spend time in the presence of God, to be fed and nourished of the Holy Spirit, to receive their inspiration from a divine source, we have adopted this lemming mentality wherein we will mimic anyone and anything that the world might deem as successful. Why spend time in prayer and supplication, why study the word of God, when for an annual fee of some three hundred dollars, you can have your Sunday sermon delivered to you via e-mail, every week of every month? Why take the time to grow in Jesus, to mature as a Christian, to stand for truth, to preach the Word, when a pre-sermon joke, a catchy mantra, and a thinly veiled spiritualized humanism are enough to get you the biggest church in the country?
That whole idea about spending ten hours in prayer before preaching for ten minutes is antiquated anyway, and if you do spend time in prayer, chances are the sermon God puts on your heart isn’t really what the crowd wants to hear, even though it is most assuredly what they need to hear.
Any rational person with an ounce of objectivity can readily surmise that much of what we call the church today is nothing more than old leaven in new molds. We talk like the world, act like the world, live like the world, want what the world has, and revel in their acceptance, but still manage to keep a straight face when we call ourselves children of God, elect, redeemed, and sanctified.
When Jesus warned us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, He knew of what He was speaking. He recognized the dangers of just a little leaven, and its ability to spoil the whole lump, and so was adamant in the gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke to warn against our indifference to it.
There are three primary types of leaven that I would like to discuss today, and I believe all three are equally dangerous for the body of Christ.
First is the leaven of the Pharisees, or what I like to call the outwardly alive, but inwardly dead condition. There was no one better than the Pharisee at external religiosity. These were men who knew the scriptures, who tithed, who fasted, who prayed, who by all outwardly appearances were upright men of character and integrity, righteous by earthly standards. I believe one of the reasons they hated Jesus so, is that He was able to see past the façade, He was able to see past their exterior shell, and when He peered inwardly, when He searched their hearts, he found them to be unclean and hypocritical.
If they saying that you can fool some of the people some of the time has any veracity if applied to humanity, Jesus was the exception that proved the rule. You cannot fool Jesus!
Jesus saw the wretched condition of their hearts, and had no qualms about speaking His mind, calling them whitewashed tombs, hypocrites, and warning those who truly desired to know God’s grace and mercy, to experience the love and beauty that is a relationship with Him, to stay away, and beware of their leaven.
It is easy to fall into formality, into a systematic ceremonial tradition of sorts, absent of true fruits of righteousness and repentance. “If I just say a certain prayer a certain amount of times, if I just memorize so many Bible verses, if I just give something up for forty days a year, than I’m alright!” This is the definition of the leaven of the Pharisees that can pollute the heart of man, and keep him from discovering Christ in all His glory.
The second form of leaven I want to discuss is the leaven of the Sadducees. Yes, the leaven of the Sadducees is different than that of the Pharisees. The leaven of the Sadducees is often referred to as the leaven of false teaching, or false doctrine.
Of the three, the leaven of the Sadducees is most prevalent in the American church today. The Sadducees believed only what they could see with their eyes, and touch with their hands. They did not believe in the resurrection, they did not believe in angels, because these were things that they had never witnessed for themselves. We have, in our modern age, reduced the gospel, the cross, the Christ, and the blood, to nothing more than means by which we obtain possessions and material excesses. If we can’t see it in the form of a new car, more money, a new house, or a boat, then we consider it irrelevant. I submit to you, that the most important things in this life are things not seen by the eyes of men. They cannot be touched, they must simply be believed.
Last but not least, we have the leaven of Herod. This particular leaven can also be called the leaven of using worldly methods, and worldly means.
Yes, the leaven of Herod is mentioned in the Bible, and it is something I believe Judas suffered from. The leaven of Herod leads one to believe that one can blend the power of this world, and the power of God, the kingdom of this world, and the kingdom of God, in order to achieve a certain objective.
Judas believed that Jesus would march on Jerusalem, and become the physical king. So blinded was Judas by the leaven of Herod, that He betrayed his Lord and Master in the hope that he could force Jesus into taking action, and becoming king.
Mark 8:15, “Then He charged them, saying, ‘Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
During the time of Jesus, there was a group known as the Herodites, who had spiritual authority but used it in a worldly manner. It was the Herodites that supported Herod, and the Roman powers of the time. One could say that they had political influence, and they wielded it to impose themselves on the people. Because their influence became more important to them than their worship of God, they compromised their beliefs, they compromised their standards, and they did whatever it took to maintain their political power.
If we are true followers of Christ, than the idea of achieving our objectives by any means necessary, must be stricken from our consciousness. If we are no longer of the world, then we cannot behave as the world, we cannot adopt the same principles and methods of the world.
“Well it worked for the world, why don’t we try it?” This is the first chink in the armor, the first thought that will lead to compromise, and to an inevitable ruination of our principles. There are examples of this leaven, even in our modern era, but since this is not about politics but about Jesus, I will refrain.
The message is clear and straightforward, to those who still have ears to hear. We must at all cost keep away from the leaven of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the leaven of Herod. Even a little will spoil the entire lump.
1 Corinthians 5:7, “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
