Doing V

 I learned to read people while traveling with my grandfather and serving as his interpreter. I did it for ten years. By reading people, I don’t mean their palms, coffee grounds, tea leaves, or chicken bones, but rather their expressions. To this day, I can spot a fake smile from a mile away, even if every attempt at authenticity is made. It’s not hard if you know what to look for, and after enough uncomfortable squirms, eye rolls, wrinkled brows, pouts, and turns of the head, you know precisely how a crowd is reacting to what you’re saying, even if they’re not being vocal about it.

You could see the postures change in an instant whenever talk of impending judgment or America not being the bastion of righteousness they thought it to be came around. It was like flicking an open wound. One night, the pastor of a local church in rural Indiana took us to dinner after the service, and in our conversation, he asked my grandfather a question that I remember to this day: how can you say what you need to say to a church body that doesn’t want to hear it?

My grandfather’s answer was simple and folksy, as was his nature: “I treat every sermon as though it were my last because one day it will be,” he said. It’s an interesting mindset, to be sure. Whether it’s a sermon, a day, an interaction, or a goodbye with a loved one, if you treated it as though it was your last, you’d likely act very differently than you would otherwise.

Oftentimes, we take life for granted when we have no right to. We assume that we will have a thousand more days in which we can watch a sunset, hold a hand, kiss a cheek, speak a bold truth, do a good work, write that poem, tell someone they are loved, or enjoy the simple pleasure of a gas station grilled cheese sandwich. Nobody really wants their last meal to be a kale salad with balsamic reduction and a leafy sprout garnish, but for some, it is.

We put off the important things, thinking we’ll get to them someday, and more often than not, we never do. Not so much the gas station grilled cheese, but the other things. The meaningful things. The things we leave behind when we are gone, like the echo of a memory that we were once here.

Men have built palaces and temples to themselves, only to be erased by time. They tried their hand at immortality only to fail miserably, and one out of a hundred men who thought they would be remembered and memorialized for time immemorial are still mentioned once in a great while.

What is never forgotten, what cannot be overlooked, is anything you do in Jesus’ name, from feeding someone who is hungry to being a shoulder to cry on or someone simply willing to take time and spend time with another who has no one left in this world. Let them tell you their story. Read them a book. Hold their hand. Be the sort of man or woman God created you to be, not the hollowed-out husk of selfishness, greed, and hedonism this culture wants you to be.

For just a second, consider which would be more fulfilling: fighting with strangers on the internet over the shape of the earth or bringing a smile to a bedraggled face. Try bringing a smile to someone, preferably a stranger; you’ll see what I’m talking about.

We are consumed by our need to be right to the point that we would compromise ourselves to achieve our desired result. If I treat a brother as an enemy when all he’s done is dare to vocalize his differing opinion on a tertiary issue, I’m going to run out of brothers and sisters in the time it takes to write that strongly worded e-mail denouncing them.

I’ve made this point before, but it bears repeating: you can’t lone wolf it through life and expect to cross the finish line in one piece. There’s a reason the Word tells us we ought not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and it’s not because of sister Bertha’s double-baked mac ‘n cheese during the bi-monthly potluck.

Not only that but we are encouraged to increase the frequency with which we assemble and exhort one another so much more as we see the Day approaching. The day is swiftly approaching when all we will have is each other. The entire world and every vitriolic, demonic minion the devil has at his disposal will be targeting the children of God, and if we can’t have each other’s backs, if we can’t encourage and exhort one another, if one little disagreement is enough to torch lifelong friendships and burn every bridge in our wake, then we will suffer the consequences of our actions along with the rebellious.

We seem to have gotten away from the idea that we are one body, and if a member suffers, the entire body operates at a less-than-optimal level. Although, thankfully, I haven’t had an attack in years now, I have gout. For those of you who don’t know how bad it can get, it has been compared to childbirth as far as the pain level is concerned. What it is is uric acid crystalizing between the joints of your toes, knees, elbows, or fingers, and it feels like someone’s shoving razor blades between your bones with all the abandon of a dog chasing a ball. Whenever I would have an attack, it would be localized to a toe, a knee, or an elbow, but the entire body would drag because of that one area. The same goes for the body of Christ. It’s not just one member that suffers; one member is suffering more, but the entire body is affected.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Doing IV

 Words don’t fill bellies. Even kind words fail to satiate hunger or thirst. You can have a thousand flowery, poetic, inspiring words and a warm bowl of soup, and the hungry man will choose the bowl of soup each and every time. If he doesn’t, if he says he’d prefer to hear your emotional rendition of an ode to hunger, they weren’t hungry to begin with.

James 2:18, “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’”

James is not trying to be snarky or combative, as some have claimed when he turns the tables and tries to elucidate the matter of faith and works being intertwined. It’s not a matter of semantics or hair-splitting. It’s not as though we can agree to disagree, and you attain salvation through works, I attain salvation through faith, and we meet in heaven in the end. There isn’t some fork in the road where you choose works or faith. There aren’t two paths or ten; there is one. Works evidence faith.

This does not mean it’s works salvation, it simply means that the faith you possess is living and animated and stirs you to good works. Whatever way those works manifest is between you and God. There is no preset list of works or an itemized list of bullet points that must be completed to progress to the next level. When people begin to look at it that way, it betrays their immaturity and lack of understanding in relation to the responsibility of a servant. Move when God stirs you. Don’t resist when God moves you. That nudge, that voice, that impetus, that feeling of empathy or sympathy for that one individual out of ten thousand is the urging of the Holy Spirit and not some accidental, random thing.

The ministry I spearhead puts out a newsletter once in a while. In it, we present various needs, whether it’s for firewood, cows, goats, fixing a roof, renovating an existing home, or building a new one for a family. All we can do is present the needs as we find them. Those who respond usually send a note designating their donation and, in various ways, telling us that this particular need spoke to them in some form or fashion. Nobody’s standing behind them, breathing down their neck, pointing to the need they should help with. It’s the Holy Spirit speaking to them, and they in turn being sensitive enough to the urging of the Holy Spirit to follow through.

When James insists that one show their faith without works, he already knows they can’t. It’s like the people who got everybody to buy Iraqi dinars while they themselves were not invested in the currency. Show me you believe in the investment. Do you own any? Well, no, you see, I’m diversified, and my portfolio can’t take the risk of this particular investment. Hold on a minute; you’re trying to get me to invest in what amounts to colored toilet tissue because you say my returns will be thousands of percent. Why wouldn’t you liquidate everything and go all in if you believed that to be the case?

Before what I’m sure is a large number of my Iraqi readers get angry and start shooting off e-mails. I am not saying the dinar is toilet tissue; it’s not sanitary enough to be used as such. What I am saying is that your currency is largely worthless, especially in the eyes of those who exchanged US legal tender for dinars in the hopes of reaping billions.

If you say you have faith, but your actions or works do not confirm it, you’re lying to yourself and others. It’s not an easy truth to accept, but it is the truth nevertheless. Good trees bear good fruit. Barren trees bear no fruit, and eventually, the tree that bears no fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Jesus said that. I know; that pesky Bible again.

Essentially, James was saying, look at my works, and you will discern my faith therein. My works are not salvific. They are evidence of my deep, abiding, and living faith. Works highlight and accentuate the existence of faith in an individual life. Should someone consider themselves spiritually superior because they have works? Certainly not; all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so feeling entitled, superior, or better than your brothers or sisters in Christ because you have works is a fool’s position.

Works are a byproduct of true faith and, as such, come naturally to the believer without being forced, coerced, or performed only when reward or remuneration are promised on the back end. We do them because they come naturally once hearts are anchored in Christ.

One thing that I will always praise Americans for is the culture of giving that is inherent in their upbringing. At least it was back in the day. Things are changing, and not for the better, but that’s another story for another time.

My people do not have a culture of giving. Being gracious and charitable, welcoming and hospitable is not innately commonplace, yet you’ll never find a more selfless group than the believers there. My mother was the most generous person I’ve ever known, willing to give of herself until there was nothing left to give, and not because she was born this way or because she modeled others around her, but because it’s what Jesus transformed her heart into once she surrendered at the foot of the cross.

Anyone who’s visited our apartment in California or the ministry in Romania while my mother was alive can attest to her tireless dedication. You never left the Duduman Boldea home hungry, and you were never turned away if you needed a place to sleep. Back in the early nineties, even though there were seven of us in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment that we also ran the ministry out of, we hosted an elderly Romanian couple for almost a year because they had nowhere to go. They slept on the couch in the living room/dining room/ministry headquarters.

The point isn’t to make you imagine the mélange of odors nine people can produce in a hot California apartment on a summer’s day. It’s to reaffirm that if you desire to help someone, you’ll always find a way to do so, resource-scarce as you might be.

I know what you’re thinking. Old Spice existed back in the early 90s, along with Drakkar Noir and Eternity for Men. True, they did, but food trumps deodorant when you only have the money for one. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Doing III

 Another worthwhile point worth mentioning is that James didn’t say ‘if someone says they have faith in Jesus,’ rather, he said ‘if someone says they have faith.’ The faith he was referring to was not faith in Christ but this amorphous, ethereal, indefinable faith that has become so popular nowadays. It was his way of saying if someone insists they are spiritual. It’s not a new thing, but it has recently exploded in popularity.

People want to claim spirituality; they want to say they have faith, but they don’t want to associate themselves with any religion in particular. They’ll insist they are people of faith, but when you press them and ask faith in whom or in what, they’ll start to stutter and throw out some hackneyed line like karma or the universe or the god within.

That’s when you know you’ve happened upon someone who would stink to high heaven if ignorance had a scent attached to it. Their spirituality is not some inward experience bringing them closer to truth; it’s a way to highlight their self-importance. What such people believe to be enticing, exciting, cutting-edge, and noteworthy is vapid, tedious, cumbersome, and trite. Whenever I hear someone say they are spiritual, my Pavlovian response is to roll my eyes and throw up in my mouth just a little bit.

You have no rudder, no compass, no anchor, no clear path in life, no direction, and no purpose, but sure, you’re spiritual because you ate some dried-up mushrooms and did ayahuasca with the hippie that smelled like stale sweat and patchouli. At least the Gnostics of old had knowledge as their objective. What does this new iteration of spiritual persons have, exactly?

Faith must have a focus, an objective, and an anchor point. Faith in nothing is no faith at all, but if your faith is in Christ, then you will do the things Christ commands you to do. It’s the process of supplanting their will with God’s will that bothers many people. They want to be in control. Some even need to be in control, and when called upon to surrender that control and become a bondservant of Christ, it riles the flesh.

If the function of the faith God requires of us is to place us in possession of all His promises, does it not stand to reason that the enemy’s singular purpose is to keep you from developing true and abiding faith?

God has something great for you. The devil wants to keep you from getting it at all costs. In his quest to keep you from receiving the promises of God, the enemy is willing to give you baubles, trinkets, influence, power, wealth, and even a harem if that’s what it will take. Few stop to question why the devil is offering them such shiny things in exchange for something he calls worthless, meaningless, and not worth pursuing. Few ponder what the true value and worth of God’s promises is if the devil is willing to part with vast fortunes just to keep you from them.

The enemy knows what heaven is. He knows he can never return. His jealous rage has funneled into a single point of purpose, that of keeping everyone else from going there as well. If you look at the situation objectively, dangerous as he might be, the devil is still just a petulant child who doesn’t want anyone else to have heaven if he can’t.

By what James says, we can infer that there is dead faith, and there is living faith. There is faith that moves mountains; then there is faith that lays comatose in the fetal position, waiting for it all to end. There is active faith, looking to do the work of the kingdom, looking to be a good and faithful servant of the cross, and then there is faith that restricts itself to an early exit and as little exertion as possible.

God’s function is to give, and mine is to receive. That’s all I know, and it sounds good even though the rational part of me tends to wonder why the guy telling me it’s God’s job to give and mine to receive is asking me to give to him. I’m sure it’s just an oversight that will be remedied posthaste. I mean, doesn’t he want to unclog the torrent of blessings by being sacrificial in his giving too?

Sometimes, we want to believe the lie so much that we ignore the inconsistencies. We want the easy win, the comfy life, and the prosperous future without enduring or overcoming because we know what those things imply, and it’s not summer hats and cotton candy.

If the enemy can manage to eliminate certain concepts from the Christian ethos, then when those things appear in one’s life, they are rejected wholesale because they will be associated with something other than faithful obedience and perseverance.

If, as a new believer, I’m constantly told I will not have to suffer persecution even though Paul said all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus would, and Jesus Himself said that if the world hated Him, they would likewise hate us, then when persecution arises, wouldn’t I do anything to avoid it?

If, as a new believer, I’m constantly told that all I have to do is raise a hand in the air, and I’m set for life when the opportunity arises to be an answer to prayer and a blessing to a brother or a sister in need, wouldn’t I turn my head and walk the other way because I could use the extra twenty in my pocket like anyone else.

The least we can do is be honest with ourselves and admit that we gravitate toward certain teachings because they are more pleasing to the flesh. The least we can do is admit that if we rightly divide the Word, a healthy, vibrant, living faith is active and purposeful in doing the work of the Kingdom, putting its hand to the plow wherever a need arises.

You can tell a thirsty man you pray his thirst be quenched and send him on his way, or you can give him a cup of water. Never discount the possibility that you may be the miracle that man’s been praying for.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Doing II

 Faith without works is dead not because faith itself is deficient but because it cannot truly exist without being accompanied by works. Works are a natural byproduct of faith. A package deal. Inseparable, and interwoven. Your faith ignites the desire in your heart to do the works of the kingdom. Your faith allows you to snatch glimpses of eternity and stand on the promise of God that He will give to each one according to his work.

 When you have faith, your desire is to obey and do what God commands without question or delay. A writer writes, a painter paints, a singer sings, and a servant serves. Without serving, you are not a servant, just as without writing, you cannot be a writer. You can tell people you’re a writer, but if they ask you what you’ve written and you say nothing, they’ll roll their eyes and realize you could have just as easily said you’re a scientist, an archeologist, or a Reiki healer. In case you’ve never run across one, those last people are a hoot.

I’ve mentioned wanting to be an archeologist when I grew up, but I’ve never introduced myself as an archeologist just because I wanted to be one. When it suits them, or there is some profit in it, some people like to identify as Christian without being Christian and doing Christian things. By that, I don’t mean going to Gaither concerts or putting a fish sticker on your car, but daily picking up their crosses, denying themselves, and following after Christ.

When one is determined to be a follower, it presupposes that they will follow the one leading wherever He may do so. It’s not about where the follower wants to go, nor is it the follower that determines the pace the leader sets. The follower has one function: to follow. He does not determine anything more about the journey than just that.

You can’t follow Jesus without denying yourself. People have tried, and people have failed because the self does not desire to follow after Him. Picking up your cross not just once or once in a blue moon requires discipline and a singularly focused purpose. Yes, there will be days when you won’t want to pick up your cross. There will be days when it’s the last thing you want to do because you’re tired and sore, and everything the world is throwing at you is leaving a bruise, but you do it nonetheless because He said you must, and that you have no choice in the matter if you desire to follow Him.

Many have taken to believe that intellectual acknowledgment of a thing is all that’s required for living, transforming, and saving faith to be ignited in the heart of man without any of the transformative byproducts that true and abiding faith produces. When someone says they are spiritual or believe there is a god, they’re not referring exclusively to the God of the Bible or the redeeming work of Christ. To them, God is a concept rather than a person, an idea rather than the embodied reality of God’s love in Christ Jesus.

All dogs don’t go to heaven, and all paths don’t lead to the same destination. The lies we tell ourselves are multitudinous, but the intent and purpose of every lie is to distract you and take your eyes off Jesus and the cross.

The example James puts forth is reminiscent of what politicians do whenever there’s a disaster somewhere, and they want some face time with the peasants, showing how empathetic they are to their pain while in reality doing nothing substantive to help them in their time of need.

James 2:15-16, “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?”

The demographic isn’t the world’s poor or someone in a far-flung country, but a brother or sister. Someone you know, someone you fellowship with, someone within your circle of acquaintances, if not outright friends. If you see them naked and destitute of daily food, and all you do is pay them lip service without seeing to their need, what have you really done?

We’ve all seen it at one point or another, and it’s always grating. Some politician landing near some devastation in a helicopter, with rubber boots so new they didn’t even bother to take the tags off, looking around, glad-handing a few folks he made sure used some Purel first, and insisting that they are all in this together.

How so, mister politician? How exactly are we all in this together? There’s a little girl fifteen feet away, covered in mud, with a torn dress, petting a dead cat, with a hollow look that reveals she’s seen more than any child her age ever should. You’re about to board a jet and go back to Washington because you don’t want to miss your reservation at Mastro’s.

Tell me how seeing a brother or sister in need, being able to do something to ameliorate their need, yet choosing to do nothing is any different. Worse still are those who would do something only if a camera crew were around or their name ended up on a plaque somewhere. It’s not the rich James is referring to; it’s everyone and the condition of their heart. If someone’s naked and destitute of daily food, you don’t have to be a millionaire to make their lives better. A loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and some hand-me-down clothes would be an answer to prayer.

It’s not about the grand gestures. It’s not about building the wings of a hospital if you are unable to do so. It’s about the little things and the people that fall through the cracks, those who could use not just a reassuring word and an encouragement but also a hot meal.

I’ve been married for twenty-three years. In all that time, I realized that my wife is more excited when I remember to pick up eggs and milk than when I gift her a pair of earrings or some trinket or another. Grand gestures play well in the eyes of others, but the little things are what warm people’s hearts.

With love in Christ, 

Michael Boldea, Jr.

Doing

 I’m fully aware of the madness gripping the world wherein someone believes just because they say they are something, or might even believe they are that something, they are somehow transformed into the thing they believe they are. We’ve seen people believe they’re dogs, cats, a reincarnated Tutankhamun, or the space lord Zip come from a galaxy far, far away, but all they really are is attention-seeking clowns. Either that or people with severe mental disorders who are as likely to try and bite off your nose as they are to pitch a fit for misgendering them.

There’s a difference between saying you’re something and being something, between intending to do something and actually doing it. It may just be me, but I’ve been planning to get in shape for the better part of thirty years now. However, here I still am, Rubenesque as always, glowing with vitality and high animal fat content because even when I start to go to the gym and exercise, something always comes up. It’s enough of an excuse for me to torpedo the entire thing.

Yes, I’m fully aware bodily exercise profits little, and I’ve discovered there are enough things that profit more that by the time I’m done with those, the day is done, and I need rest. That profits a little, too, but I’ve decided I like sleep as much as the next guy, even if I don’t get enough.

James 2:14-17, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or a sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.’”

Ever wonder if James and Jude ever got together to figure out how to annoy the sanctimonious and self-righteous? They were, after all, brothers, so they must have hung out more than they would have with strangers. I wonder about that a lot.

Here’s the plan: You write to the churches, I’ll write to the Jews, but let’s be brave and bold and direct in our writing like our big brother would have been. Then we’ll see who gets martyred first.

Spoiler alert: historically speaking, James won by a nose, but Jude’s martyrdom was more gruesome, being beaten with a club and then crucified rather than just being stoned like his brother. I know, if only they knew the prosperity keys to unlock the storehouse of all the wealth of the wicked that was laid up for the righteous. Perhaps they could have purchased their freedom. Oh wait, that wasn’t their intent. It wasn’t about a comfortable life here; it was about eternity there. It still is for those who want what Jesus offers, not what men are peddling.

To understand the deeper truth of what James is trying to impart we must first determine what he means by works. The other thing we must be aware of is the way in which he frames the question.

Yes, I’m well aware that I’m likely to catch flack from ‘the you don’t have to do anything to obtain eternity, except perhaps throw a hand in the air and a few bucks in the plate,’ but when we come to understand what faith works in us, how it transforms us, and how it directs us, we will come to realize that James is right, as is Paul, Peter, and Jesus, and any other Biblical author who insist upon devotion, surrender, faithfulness, and obedience.

James doesn’t start out by saying, ‘if someone has faith,’ but rather ‘if someone says he has faith.’ Again, it’s one thing to say you have something and another to demonstrably prove it. You can say you have faith, but the evidence of faith is the aforementioned works, and if there are no works to be had, if there is no fruit to be gleaned, if all you have is your say so and you have no solid evidence to back up your claims, do you really have anything?

Life is not a video game, and you don’t need to perform a certain number of tasks in order to get to the next level. No one is standing at heaven’s gate with a clipboard, checking off all the things you were supposed to do to gain entry as far as works are concerned. James is saying that faith transforms you as an individual, and the works of which he speaks are a byproduct of true and abiding faith in Jesus.

Although everyone is quick to say that Paul contradicts James, Jude, and Peter, and to a certain extent Jesus, because let’s face it, telling someone you love that they need to go and sell all they have and then come and follow can be seen as having to put in some kind of work, he doesn’t.

The only time people can vociferously say that Paul contradicts everyone else is when they take one verse out of context and Forrest Gump it until the wheels fall off.

The same Paul, whom some say insists on a fast pass to heaven also insisted on doing works befitting repentance, but nobody really likes to talk about that. It pokes a hole in the narrative, and we’d rather gloss over anything attempting to do so.

Acts 26:19-20, “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn, to God, and do works befitting repentance.”

True faith produces works, and those with true faith do not have to tell others that they have faith; they will witness it in their works. It’s not works salvation; it’s the natural byproduct of a life lived in obedience.

I’m well aware that every avenue we’ve pursued of late reveals that there are far fewer people of faith in what we call the church than we first assumed, but that can’t be helped. The truth will out whether I speak it or not because if we remain silent, the stones will cry out in our stead.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Judgment

 If mercy triumphs over judgment, does this mean we should never judge? Are we to keep silent, turn a blind eye, and pretend as though we are not witness to what we are seeing and go about our lives indifferently, disconnected, and unaffected?

The Bible never says we ought not to judge; the lukewarm, duplicitous, and godless just want you to think it does. What the Bible does is warn that we will be judged with the same judgment we judge with. If you judge righteously, then you will be judged righteously. If you judge biblically, using the Word as your plumb line, you likewise will be judged biblically.

We will all be judged one day. No man can escape judgment, and when we stand before God and His throne, everything will be laid bare, and one of the things that will be taken into account is the judgment with which we judged and the measure we used to do so. This does not mean that if you’ve never judged righteously or otherwise, you get a waiver and go straight to the feasting. The whole process begins with separating those on His right from those on His left, those who knew Him from those who pretended to.

Matthew 7:1-2, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

That’s what Jesus said, but we only like to quote that first part because it immunizes us from responsibility or defending righteousness. Well, yes, Bob came to church in a dress and expects everyone to call him Brenda now, but you know, judge not. Is that what Jesus said, though?

Are we to turn a blind eye to perversion, depravity, and sin because calling it out might be construed as judging? Are we to stop preaching the gospel because some who might hear it being laden with sin will conclude that they are being judged?

Jesus isn’t condemning judging righteously; He is condemning hypocrisy. Jesus isn’t saying the church shouldn’t have a standard; He is saying the church should hold itself to the standard it has first and foremost before pointing out the shortcomings of others.

I don’t know how we got it this twisted, but I do know it all began when unscrupulous men started to make the narrow way wide and the straight way crooked because it meant more bodies in the seats, which translated to more cash in the coffers. Wouldn’t you know it if you tell sinners that rather than repent of their sin, they can just throw a few bucks in the plate, they’ll throw the few bucks in the plate every time.

We built monstrously large ministries on a foundation of lies because no matter how warm and fuzzy it may sound to your flesh if the Bible is not that which forms the construct of a work, it is doomed to crumble and fail. We’ve seen an entire generation come into maturity who is no less broken, no less lost, no less hopeless, and no less disenchanted than the world, the only difference being a few less dollars in their pocket because if they got anything drilled into them, it was the indispensable necessity of the tithe.

What many failed to realize when they were building these monstrosities is that once you build a monster, you have to feed it, and in order for it to get fed, greater and greater compromises must be made to incur the favor of more and more lukewarm souls.

If the gate that leads to life is narrow and the way difficult, and few find it, how is it that we can broaden the definition of what is to be saved to the point that if you walked by a church on a given day and they were holding service inside you were saved by osmosis?

You’ve got fully grown adults playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but instead of Kevin Bacon, it’s Jesus. They know someone who knows someone who was in church that one time, so they’re pretty much guaranteed eternal security.

If you dare to mention what Jesus said about the gate being narrow and the way being difficult, you’re just a mean old meany who’s seeped in legalism and doesn’t understand that this is a new Christianity for a new generation, rebranded and streamlined.

I’m sure you’re just exaggerating or misquoting Jesus about the way being difficult. That would mean our evangelists have been lying to us all this time, and that doesn’t seem right to me.

Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

But I thought Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden was light. What’s this talk about the way which leads to life being difficult? Getting to that point of walking through the narrow gate or journeying in the way that leads to life is difficult. It requires breaking ties with all the old things that were comfortable and had become habitual in nature. It requires the thorough cleaning out of the vessel that new life might be poured in. Once you’ve found life, once you’ve received it, and He resides within, his yoke is indeed easy, and His burden light.

It’s like hunting for the greatest treasure known to man, following maps and directions, being diligent and not giving up when others have, then finally unearthing what you’ve been searching for all that time. You don’t remember the blistered feet and the sore back. You don’t remember the cold nights and the hot days. All of that seems long forgotten because you’ve claimed what you’ve been searching for.

Another apropos illustration is childbirth. I was in the room when both of my daughters were born. If my wife’s screaming is any indication, the process is not a walk in the park, and that’s putting it mildly. Once it’s over, once that first cry breaks the silence, and the baby is laid on its mother’s chest, all the pain is forgotten instantaneously.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Liberty

 You can’t be a body without members. For a body to function properly, you need arms and legs, hands and feet, fingers and toes, a nose, ears, lips, a mouth, eyes, a tongue, and everything else combined to make a body complete. No single member is more important than the integrity of the whole body. If a finger becomes necrotic, you remove the finger. If a toe, you remove the toe. Whatever poses a danger to the well-being of the entire body must be removed if it cannot be healed, rehabilitated, and brought back into full functionality. Given enough time to spread, an infected member is an existential danger to the whole body.

That said, you can’t go around hacking off fingers because you didn’t like the hair on the knuckles. The finger was perfectly healthy and functional, doing its assigned duties; you just didn’t like the aesthetic of it.

In order to determine whether a member is necrotic and in need of removal or just a tad different than what you would prefer in a member, you must diagnose it and use the Bible to determine the truth of it. It’s not up to personal opinion; it’s not up to a denomination whether something should be deemed a sin; it’s up to the Bible, and the Bible has the final say.

My brother Sergiu has a goofy third toe. By goofy, I mean it’s about half an inch longer than all his other toes, and it’s different enough that it stands out. Even though his foot looks different because of the uncommon length of the toe, never once has it crossed his mind to hack off his toe or his foot. Why? Because the toe isn’t bad, it’s not diseased, it’s not necrotic, it’s just different. The toe does not threaten the viability of the body, nor does it hinder the functionality thereof. It’s just a big toe. Sure, people notice, but it is what it is.

The Word of God must determine whether a member is just different, marching to the beat of his own drum but overall harmless and absent malice or ill intent, or if they are in rebellion and need to be set aside for the wellbeing of the body.

We’re too quick with the cleaver and too slow with the balm, and we’ve managed to create ever smaller niches within Christendom akin to warring factions. Just as a house divided against itself cannot stand, neither can a body. Imagine your feet wanting to go one way and your torso the other. Imagine you trying to scratch an itch on your upper lip, and your finger pokes you in the eye instead. Eventually, because you’re afraid of what your body might do, you just end up sitting on your hands and doing nothing. And voila, there you have the modern-day church.

What’s the cause of all this? Glad you asked. The answer is staring us in the face, but to admit to the reality of what it implies is too earth-shattering to contemplate. The body is off-kilter, divided, and wholly unfocused because it is no longer subservient to the head.

If the body is functioning properly, it takes all its orders from the head and does nothing outside what it is instructed to do. When the head determines that the body should move forward, the body moves forward. When it determines that it should turn right, it will turn right.

Even those of you who slept through Bible study class should know who the head of the church is. Well done: the head of the church is Christ. Now, if a church is chasing every wind of doctrine, running to and fro without focus or direction, you know that somewhere along the way, it’s lost its head, and just like a chicken after a run-in with the chopping block, it’s running around bleeding all over the place, but is already dead.

Although it’s not my intent to sound mean-spirited, the reality of the situation is too evident to ignore. Whole churches, even whole denominations, are already dead; they just haven’t gotten the message yet. The body is still performing macabre acrobatics, but it’s just an illusion, sort of like when a cadaver releases gasses, and everyone thinks uncle Tom came back from the dead. Jesus hasn’t been their head for a long time, and without His guidance and direction, they pursued all manner of things that lead to ruination, justifying their actions by their not having been struck deaf, dumb and blind. That would have been light punishment. Far worse is to be left to your heart's desire because once it comes to its final iteration and the metamorphosis is complete, most would have wished for deafness, dumbness, and blindness.

We can lie to ourselves, and we can even find others to lie to us and reassure us that the church is doing great, the devil’s on the run, and all that awaits is the victory lap, but at this juncture, it would mean not believing your own eyes, senses, and the reality of all that surrounds you and taking place within Christendom. Yes, I know; you’re waging war in the heavenlies and doing it from a barstool and half in the bag, no less.

What passes for Christianity today is far removed from the Christianity of the Bible, and it shows in our decaying culture, fraying morals, and tepid response from self-titled warriors of the cross to the call of Christ. Seeing all that we’re seeing, one wonders if perhaps Jesus knew more than He was letting on when He asked if the Son of Man would find faith on the earth when He returned.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.