Job CCXXXV

 Job 21:17-21, “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them, the sorrows God distributes in His anger? They are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that a storm carries away. They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’; let Him recompense him, that he may know it. Let his eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months is cut in half?”

Injustice in a fallen world is not a new thing. Wickedness perpetrated by the wicked is likewise not something novel, yet it still manages to stun us into silence or flush our cheeks with anger when the full breadth of it is exposed, and we see the level of depravity to which men will sink.

Likewise, the righteous wrestling with the reality that, for the most part, there seems to be no punishment or negative impact for the wicked is not new. Job found himself contemplating the lives of the wicked, juxtaposed with his own, and while he suffered in ways difficult to comprehend, it seemed as though the lamp of the wicked did not go out, nor had destruction come upon them.

To his eyes, it seemed unfair and unjust, and if all we had to go by was a snapshot of that moment in time, we might tend to agree with his conclusion. If all you see of the Mona Lisa is her disjointed, crooked nose, and you wonder to yourself why it’s considered a masterpiece, you’re too close. Take a few steps back, and see the whole painting for what it is. Then, perhaps, it will make sense.

When we focus on a single moment in time, or see a snapshot without considering the aggregate, the full picture, or the reality that God’s sovereignty and justice extend beyond this present life, we're likely to reach the same conclusion as Job.

Knowing that all men will answer for their choices, and whether here or beyond this life, they will know true justice, however, gives us a certain level of peace. God is not blind, God is not deaf, God is not indifferent. He sees all, knows all, and though we might feel as though justice tarries, in His time God will avenge, punish, and judge with righteous judgment.

Even the heathen has an innate sense of justice, and of right and wrong. Even the godless know the difference between virtue and hedonism. The only ones who no longer possess this innate moral scale are those whose consciences have been seared, who have wholly given themselves over to wickedness, darkness, and debasement, becoming something other than human beings created in God’s image.

After going without food for two weeks, being battered by a storm that Luke describes as no small tempest, having seen neither sun nor stars for many days, and having given up all hope of being saved, a ship of prisoners being transported to Rome, Paul being among them, ran aground off the coast of the island of Malta.

With no other choice but to make for the coast, those who could swim swam to safety, and those who couldn’t floated on pieces of timber that had once been a mighty galleon of the Roman Empire. Paul had prophesied this outcome. He had seen it unfolding and did not hold back from informing those with whom he was being held captive of what they would encounter.

Once they made it to shore, they ran across the natives, who showed unusual kindness, kindling a fire and making the prisoners and Roman soldiers feel welcome. Although the natives had no knowledge or understanding of God’s law or the justice system of the Roman Empire, they nevertheless possessed that inborn awareness of right and wrong to the point that when Paul was bitten by a viper, they concluded he must have been a murderer, since having escaped the sea, justice would not allow him to live.

Acts 28:3-6, “But when Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow him to live.” But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.”

There’s what men think, then there’s what God knows. We live in an age when men are readily taken in by the image others project, and we’ve gone from being able to fool some of the people some of the time to being able to fool most people most of the time. Even so, it’s for a season. Eventually, the truth will out. While the wicked rest easy believing their wickedness will never be exposed, sooner or later their actions come to light because nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.

It’s a certainty, so the only unknown variable is the timing of it all. Some hidden things come to light quickly, while others take years, if not decades, to bubble to the surface and be exposed and revealed. Examples of this are numerous and too many to count, but one thing is certain: God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

As pendulum swings go, you couldn’t get more extreme than thinking a man guilty of murder, and concluding justice had found him and his life was forfeit, then believing him to be a god because he survived what no other man could. Job’s friends came close enough, though. Seeing his situation, they had likewise concluded he was guilty, convinced that God was dispensing justice in His righteous anger. Thankfully, upon seeing his restoration, they did not deem Job a god.

Just because the wicked seem to prosper for a season, it will not always be thus. Just because justice seems delayed for some, it does not mean it is denied. Our relationship with God is vertical, and not horizontal. It is not dependent on what others are doing, how they’re living, or whether or not they are prospering. It is not a collective endeavor; it is intimate and personal. The soul that sins will die. The righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCXXXIV

 Anything that can be obtained in exchange for legal tender is as fleeting as the legal tender itself. Nothing of eternal weight can be purchased with temporal fiat, no matter how much certain televangelists might insist upon it. Giving money to a ministry, a church, or to the poor is not a substitute for spending time in God’s presence. You cannot do one in lieu of the other. This is why priorities matter. When we seek first the kingdom of God, our purpose is to grow in Him and in the knowledge of Him, first and foremost. Everything else takes second place to this all-encompassing, all-consuming purpose.

From the outside looking in, those who have never felt God’s presence, those who do not know the glory of Him, will think us fools, not understanding the fulfillment, peace, and unspeakable joy a relationship with Him brings. They perceive the time you spend in prayer as wasted effort, time you could have put toward career advancement or learning the lineup of your local football team. Little do they know that there is no greater pursuit in this life than the knowledge of the one true God, a sentiment echoed by every individual who has walked with Him throughout history.

Not all knowledge is the same. Not all knowledge is of equal worth or value. There is one knowledge that is superior: the knowledge of God. All other knowledge is inferior and pales in comparison to this, because the knowledge of God is the only knowledge that holds eternal weight and opens the way to fellowship with Him.

Philippians 3:8-11, “Yet 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; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

There is the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, then there is everything else. It stands alone, it stands apart, and for the children of God, it must be the ideal, overshadowing all else, because to be found in Him, to know Him, and to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, to be saved, sanctified, and born again is to lay hold of eternity itself.

No other knowledge can offer such a reward. No other pursuit can open the way to intimacy with God, fellowship with Christ, and the blessed assurance that He is ever present via His Spirit, as you journey toward eternity.

When we view this life through the prism of eternity, we soon realize how much of the time we’ve been given is wasted on trivial pursuits and how little of it is spent deepening our relationship with God. Realizing and acknowledging something, however, is not the same as taking steps to remedy the situation and shift our focus or acquire new pursuits. Some people know they are squandering the time they’ve been given, but never take the next step or make the necessary changes to become redeemers of time rather than squanderers.

If we are a new creation in Christ and the old things have passed away, why do we find ourselves bogged down with the old things so often? It’s not an accusation; it’s an honest question. I’ll be the first to admit I still catch myself sometimes, and I have to repent of it. I sit down to spend some quiet time reading the Word, in the middle of it, I get a notice that I have a new message, and thirty minutes later, I find myself engrossed in a story about a deep-sea diver finding a treasure trove of ancient relics sitting at the bottom of the sea, untouched by human hands for thousands of years.

It’s a good story, and it harkens back to what I wanted to pursue when I was younger, but I know that it did nothing to feed my spirit. All you can do when you catch yourself not pursuing the excellence of the knowledge of Christ is commit to making up the time you should have, whether that means waking up an hour earlier or going to bed an hour later.

I realize to some this may sound rigid and legalistic, but it’s not. It’s an issue of discipline, and if I allow myself to miss spending time in the Word today and think nothing of it, it will happen tomorrow, then the day after, becoming a pattern, then a habit, and I promise you, there will always be a new article about some sunken treasure or newly discovered remnants of a long forgotten civilization you’ll run across to distract and leech away the time.

Is having a hobby or enjoying articles on archeological endeavors inherently bad? No, not if viewed in isolation, but it becomes problematic when those things take time you otherwise would have spent in the Word.

Spending time with God is not a chore; it’s a gift and a grace. It’s not like eating your broccoli, doing your homework, or going to the gym because you know you have to. The spiritual man yearns to be in the presence of God, but what remains of the flesh will constantly try to keep you from it, knowing that the stronger you grow spiritually, the weaker its influence will become.

See the distractions for what they are: A means by which one is kept from pursuing that which they know they ought. We can either attempt to justify the lack of time spent in God’s presence and in His Word or acknowledge it for what it is and take steps to remedy it.

Absence does not make the heart grow fonder; it makes the heart grow colder. If we allow it, what once convicted us will become normalized to the point that it no longer convicts, and that is a slippery slope that leads further away from God with each passing day. It’s like those who allow themselves a cheat meal while on a diet, only to find themselves six months later having gained twenty pounds and never returning to the discipline they once had. It is always easier to cut off a weed than it is to cut down a tree. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXXXIII

 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him? Perhaps the two most myopic questions ever strung together that reveal the ignorance of the wicked as to who God is, as well as their inability to see beyond this present life. There was no eternal perspective, no consideration for what comes after the handful of years we are given on the earth, because the moment was all that mattered, and for the moment, they were rich and in need of nothing.

To answer the first question, the Almighty is the Almighty. It’s in the name, and had the wicked not been so wrapped up in their wickedness, a moment’s worth of introspection would have solved this riddle for them. Simply defined, almighty means complete power, omnipotence, and sovereignty over all things great and small, physical or intangible, flesh or spirit, of this earth or beyond the stars. The Almighty, therefore, is the omnipotent One, the sovereign One, the all-powerful One, the singularity in the entirety of the universe who possesses complete power and dominion.

The answer to the second question hinges on perspective. What profit do we have if we pray to Him? As far as extra shekels in your coffers, visible on a profit and loss balance sheet, none. If the things of this earth are what your existence revolves around, if every morning upon waking and every night before going to sleep, your only purpose is to increase your possessions, you will inevitably see no profit in forming a relationship with the Almighty.

Sooner or later, though, even the richest among us come to realize that riches are an illusion, that unless you burn it, the green paper with dead men’s faces on it gives no warmth, and all the money in the world, stacked up to the moon and back, will not extend their life by one millisecond. No matter how vast the fortune, no matter how layered the offshore accounts, once you breathe your last, it’s no longer yours, left behind for family and friends to bicker and fight over.

Throughout human history, everyone who thought they could take it with them was wrong. Everyone who tried failed. In the end, all anyone gets is a pine box and a hole in the ground. If they were well known, a few more people may show up to say their farewells, but the one in the box wouldn’t know either way, so what does it matter?

You can’t help but feel sadness and pity for those whose sole focus is the temporal things of this earth, with no time to spare a thought for eternity. It’s as though, millennia later, Jesus was answering the question with a question of his own when He asked, “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul?”

Far too many spend their days obsessing over things they can’t control, or pursuits so irrelevant in the context of eternity as to make one roll their eyes and face palm. This is what you’re consumed by: an extra 2% in your 401 (k)? This is the pinnacle of what you chose to concern yourself with instead of establishing, broadening, and deepening a relationship with the Almighty?

If you want to eat, you have to work. We earn our daily bread with the sweat of our brow, some sweating more than others. That said, whenever it comes to prioritizing and structuring our lives, the kingdom of God must come first. Between an extra hour of overtime and an hour spent in prayer, our inclination must be to choose the time in prayer because we know it will have a greater benefit than the fifteen bucks minus the FICA withholdings.

When we consistently prioritize God over the things of this earth, we soon come to realize that the things we thought we needed and therefore sacrificed our time for, we didn’t really need, for whatever joy, security, peace, or comfort they may have provided, pale in comparison to the presence of God in our lives.

Matthew 6:33-34, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

These were the words of Jesus, not taken out of context, not reimagined, not finely chopped and reassembled to make them mean something they were never intended to mean, but as the conclusion of a discourse focused on not worrying about what you will wear, or what you will eat, because your heavenly Father is well aware of your earthly needs and will provide for them.

There is a difference between want and need, and while God will provide for our needs, if He concludes that providing our wants will cripple our spiritual man, stunt our spiritual growth, or cause us to shift our focus from Him to the things of this earth, for our own good, our request for the wants of life will be refused and declined.

As the story goes, a rich man was walking the city with his entourage in tow, and noticed a beggar on the side of the road. In the hope of impressing his friends with his brilliance, he approached the beggar and asked if he believed in God. The beggar answered that he did, and that he prayed to God every day, to which the rich man smirked and said, “Your prayers do not seem to be working, given your current lot. However, I am feeling generous, so if you can answer one question to my satisfaction, I will give you five gold coins for your trouble.”

The beggar nodded his head in agreement, and the rich man posed his question: “I have all I’ll ever need or want. I am rich and will be so for the rest of my days. Name me one thing I do not have that you believe I should pray for, given what I’ve told you.”

Without missing a beat, the beggar looked the rich man in the eyes and said, “Humility.”

The rich man reached into his pocket, pulled out five gold coins, and handed them to the beggar without another word.

Any man who believes he has nothing left to pray and entreat God for is a fool, and those who trust in the arm of the flesh will be brought to ruin.

1 Timothy 6:17-19, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXXXII

 If suffering is to be had, whether great or small, whether momentary or protracted, we know with absolute certainty that it will cease once we shuffle off this mortal coil. It is a temporary thing, and in light of eternity, akin to a drop of water in an endless ocean.

For the saints of God, for the sons and daughters of the Almighty, there is no suffering beyond the veil, there is no weeping or gnashing of teeth, there is no heartbreak, no sorrow, no pain, and God Himself will wipe away every tear.

Though the wicked prosper for the moment, their eternal suffering begins when our eternal glory does. Our suffering is defined and limited to the time we have on this earth. The suffering of those who do not desire to know His ways and perish lost in their sin without having known the salvific power of Jesus has no end or terminus. It’s not a timeout, it’s an eternal punishment.

The Word of God is clear on the reality of hell just as it is clear on the reality of heaven. We cannot preach that there is a heaven without acknowledging that there is a hell, an outer darkness, a lake of fire, into which all who rejected the Son of God will be cast. Try as the godless might to redefine it, reimagine it, or reinterpret it, hell is not the place where the cool kids hang out and make music; it is not an eternal mosh pit, it’s not the place to be once your soul is free, but a place where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. The reality of hell wouldn’t make for a good poster on its best day, but some part of those who speak of it as just another week at Burning Man must know the reality of it and use the flippancy with which they speak of it as a coping mechanism.  

Hell is a horror beyond imagining, and an eternal one to boot. If you’ve ever wondered how difficult it was for the Father to see the Son expire on the cross, you need only consider the punishment that will be served upon those who reject Him.

Hebrews 10:28-31, “Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

God sending His Son was not a trivial matter. God watching His Son hang on a cross was not a trivial matter. God hearing the heart cry of His Only Begotten asking why He’d forsaken Him was not a trivial matter!

I’m a dad of two beautiful daughters. It breaks me just thinking about the possibility of watching them suffer in any way, them crying out to me for help, and my not rampaging through entire armies to get to them and help them. God’s love for His Son was no less all-encompassing; He did not love Him less than I do my daughters, yet He witnessed His pain, His tears, His torn body nailed to a tree and restrained Himself from intervening because He knew how important it was for this sacrifice to be carried out in full.

Jeremiah says that it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, not because He enjoyed seeing Him in pain or the throes of death, but because He knew that it was the only way by which you and I could be reconciled to Him.

This is what men reject when they trample the Son of God underfoot. This is what men reject when they insult the Spirit of grace. We speak of God’s love, grace, and forgiveness flippantly, as though it cost Him nothing to facilitate the sanctification of man, when in reality it cost Him His Beloved Son. We repeat certain words so often as to risk diluting, watering down, or losing their meaning altogether. The covenant by which we are sanctified is not a common thing; it was sealed in the blood of the Lamb, it came at a price, and that price was the pouring out of the life of the only perfect Man ever to walk the earth.

But God knew He would rise on the third day! Do you think that made the pain any less real, whether God’s or Christ’s? Do you think knowing He would rise from the dead made Jesus feel any less alone when He no longer sensed the Father's presence and cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”?

This wasn’t a performative utterance. It wasn’t something Jesus thought would be cool to say. It was the reality of what He was experiencing at the moment of His death, hanging between two thieves, bleeding and broken.

Never forget that you and I were bought with a price, and that price was the life of the Son of God. This realization alone should take us beyond mere humility. This realization alone should compel us to press in, serve Him, praise Him, worship Him, follow Him, love Him, and not simply pay Him lip service whenever it’s convenient. He saved my soul from everlasting darkness. He took my wretchedness and the filthy rags with which I was clothed, bought me, cleansed me, sanctified me, made me His own, and gave me white garments that I might be welcomed into His kingdom and given a seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

He took my death and gave me life. He took my blindness and gave me sight. He took my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh. He took my will and replaced it with the indwelling of His Spirit, and He did all those things for you as well. When we keep the reality of what Jesus did and what God sacrificed on our behalf at the forefront of our minds, we will evermore walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXXXI

  Job 21:14-16, “Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’ Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand; the counsel of the wicked is far from me.”

It’s easy to fall into the snare of envying the wicked who prosper. As was the case in Job’s day, it’s easy to look upon those who want nothing to do with God, who say to God depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of your ways, yet they nevertheless prosper, and to conclude that it’s unfair, or that the deck is stacked against the righteous.

If wealth, riches, or prosperity were the pinnacle of what God could offer to His children, we would all be doing backflips into swimming pools filled with cash. If opulence were the best God could offer those who are His, we would all be living in it. When we shift our perspective from seeing the world through the eyes of flesh to seeing it through spiritual eyes, we come to understand that the things men boast in, the wealth they flaunt and revel in, are the leavings, the trash, the detritus, rather than God’s best.

I realize it may not feel like it, or even seem like it at times, but it is nevertheless true. What God offers His children is superior to what the wicked enjoy in every way. Yes, you can be a child of God and have wealth, but you cannot be a child of Satan and feel God’s presence, Spirit, peace, joy, and love.

The defining question is whether we want what the world offers or what God offers. Do we look upon the wicked with envy or with pity? Does the desire of our heart extend to those things exclusive to God’s children, or are we satisfied with earthly scraps and useless trinkets that do nothing to strengthen our spiritual man?

It’s both telling and revelatory that much of what calls itself the church today focuses on the things of this world as though they were the apex of what God can give to His beloved, while dismissing the things that truly matter, that hold eternal weight, and that cannot be bottled, packaged, traded, sold, or bartered for.

No matter the amount of wealth he possesses, a rich man cannot buy eternal life, spiritual gifting, or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It’s not as though if they offer a million and God says no, He’ll change His mind if they offer ten. You cannot put a price on intimacy with God. You cannot put a price on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. No dollar amount will get God’s attention and make Him reconsider. These things are reserved exclusively, unequivocally, and unapologetically for His sons and daughters alone.

The mindset that if you have enough money, you can buy anything is pervasive but false. Perhaps you can buy most things, but not everything, especially when it comes to what truly matters. You can’t buy happiness, you can’t buy contentment, you can’t buy salvation, you can’t buy fulfilment, you can’t buy peace, joy, or true purpose for that matter. When you think about it, there’s a lot that money can’t buy, and some of the most miserably unhappy people I’ve ever met happened to have overflowing coffers. Between acquiring it and figuring out how to keep it, many affluent individuals find themselves in the twilight of their existence with nothing to show for the life they’ve lived but a few zeros on a screen, which is cold comfort indeed.

God is not a salesman. He is not in the business of selling His children’s inheritance for baubles or things that will eventually be burned up. There was a man who tried, early on, when the church was barely getting off the ground and could have used an injection of capital. If everything revolves around money as some would have us believe, and the only reason we give is to get more of it, then Peter should have tried to work out a deal, maybe bargain a bit, or at least see what Simon’s opening gambit was. There were, after all, widows to feed, the poor to tend to, and I’m sure the kitchen could have used an upgrade.

Acts 8:18-20, “And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, ‘Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’ But Peter said to him, ‘Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.”’

It never crossed Peter’s mind to entertain the offer. His interest was not piqued; he did not ask what number Simon was thinking of, but in his brutally honest fashion, Peter shut down the possibility of Simon’s request ever being considered. We’ve seen far too many spiritual leaders compromise and prostitute themselves for the sake of clout or the promise of a hefty tithe check. We see the preferential treatment certain people get, and it’s not the poor or downtrodden, but usually someone with prominence, name recognition, and influence.

By all accounts, Simon was a man of influence in Samaria, with some being convinced that he was the great power of God. He was a sorcerer and had been astonishing the people for a long time. Why didn’t Peter consider a collaboration? Why didn’t he ride Simon’s coattails and stand on the stage hand in hand with him, smiling broadly as Simon vouched for him? He was, after all, a known commodity in Samaria, and the people would have responded more positively to Peter had he included Simon in his evangelistic outreach.

The simple answer is that light and darkness do not mix. It is a lesson many pastors, evangelists, bishops, or preachers should have taken to heart, and it would have saved them from having to wipe egg off their faces time after time.

Peter’s answer wasn’t a simple no, or I don’t think so, but he drove the point home to such an extent as to open Simon’s eyes to his sin, his need for repentance, and expose his heart as being poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. There was no glad-handing to be had, no shout-outs from the pulpit, just a rebuke and a call to repentance. Radical, I know, but maybe, just maybe, we should reintroduce the call for repentance to our sermons and insist upon its need resolutely and unapologetically, no matter who’s sitting in the front row, rather than coddling them into hell.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXXX

God’s purpose is what matters. More than our temporary pain, discomfort, embarrassment, humiliation, loss, or hardship, the ultimate goal of God’s purpose through all these is what we must focus on and draw strength from. What will I become once I traverse this valley? What will you be transformed into once you finish your climb? What attributes, virtues, and unquantifiable benefits will make themselves known once my faith has been tested and proven? How much greater will your faith be? How much will your trust in God deepen once He has shown His faithfulness?

There is no such thing as needless suffering when it comes to the children of God. The trials He allows in our lives are not from a position of cruelty, but rather from a place of love, correction, and the purpose of refining, strengthening, maturing, and growing our faith in Him.

The fiery furnace of affliction was never meant to be comfortable; by both definition and purpose, it cannot be. If we focus on the fire, on the affliction, on the hardship, or the heartache, we will always tend to pull back or shrink away. If, however, we focus on what the fire will produce once we’ve gone through it, we will continue planting one foot in front of the other, and walking boldly through it with the full assurance that God will make a way, and we will come out the other side the stronger for it.

Even at his lowest, Job had faith in God’s plan and purpose. He did not know what they were. There was no clear path before him, no silver lining in the storm. He could not see how they would reveal themselves, but he retained his faith in the God who had never failed him.

What do I do when the unexpected happens? Trust God. What do I do when nothing seems to be going right, and everything around me is crumbling? Trust God. What do I do when the thing I thought would be my safety net gets pulled out from under me? Trust God. That is the answer to every situation in which we are overwhelmed, or from which there seems to be no obvious escape. Trust God!

Psalm 56:3-4, “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?”

No one expects you to be an emotionless robot, feeling nothing, plodding along, unaffected by anything, ever, no matter how difficult, no matter how protracted, or debilitating. It’s okay to cry, weep, mourn, and acknowledge pain; it makes you no less of a saint, a believer, or a Christian.

Throughout the Bible, men and women of God felt fear and acknowledged it, felt pain and acknowledged it, felt loss, disappointment, betrayal, privation and acknowledged them all, but through those moments of hurt they chose to focus on God, trusting Him implicitly, thereby concluding that as long as their trust was firmly rooted in God there was nothing to fear. There was nothing to fear, not because fear was unwarranted, but because the God they served was greater than their fear, greater than their circumstances, and greater than their trial.

God did not look down on Job or think less of him for honestly seeing himself and his situation as hopeless in the eyes of men. He didn’t rebuke Job and demand that he put on a brave face, scrub off the puss and maggots feasting on his rotting flesh, and go about his day as though nothing untoward was happening. God will never ask you to do the impossible. He asks you to trust Him to do the impossible. This is not a distinction without a difference, nor is it something arbitrary and inconsequential.

Whether I believe I can fix a problem on my own or fully trust that God can, makes all the difference in the world and affects everything from my attitude to my focus to my mood to the level of hope I possess and in whom I place that hope.

If I put my trust in myself, whenever I hit a brick wall or the path before me becomes impossible to traverse, I struggle harder, focusing more on the problem than on God, who can fix the problem. I tilt at windmills, thinking I can affect the change only God can, and when I fail repeatedly, I get more stubborn, determined to prove to myself and the rest of the world that I can do it when obviously I can’t.

If I put my trust in God, I am at peace knowing that it’s not within my ability to rectify the situation, but that it’s within His, and when He chooses to do so, all glory will be given to Him.

God or man. God or self. God or position. God or possessions. God or government. God or the socially awkward guy with the heavy accent in the white lab coat who graduated last in his class but is nevertheless a doctor. Every day, we choose whom to trust, and if you haven't noticed the pattern, God stands alone against everything and everyone we can place our trust in as human beings.

Perhaps the government might solve one problem, man another, position another still, but God can solve all of them with equal ability, competence, and aptitude.

Job’s was not a single issue needing to be remedied. There was a plethora of things that needed to be addressed, from his health to his wealth, to his family, to everything in between, and so, counting on an individual to solve one problem, even if they were able to do so, would leave all the other issues hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles. Salves and poultices may have relieved his pain momentarily, but that still left the problem of having nothing left to his name but a pile of ash. The generosity of his friends might have helped him scrape by and feed himself, but that still left his failing flesh and the loss of his children.

Only God can make all things new. Only God can restore, heal, and provide to the point that those who know of your situation will see it as a miracle. The one thing we struggle with is that God does these things His way, in His time, for His purposes, and sometimes His timing or the way He resolves an issue differs from what we imagined or hoped for.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCXXIX

 Between the “nothing is as it seems crowd” and the “everything is exactly as it seems crowd”, there are those blessed few who understand that some things are not as they seem, some are, and some will remain a mystery no matter how much they dwell on it. From doctors who can’t explain the miraculous recovery of a terminal patient, to why your wife’s smile is broader when you do the dishes without being asked than when you bring her flowers, some things just can’t be understood, no matter how hard we try to understand them.

As far as the sudden recoveries go, the doctors who don’t view themselves as something akin to a god possessing the power of life and death will allow for the possibility of a miracle and concede that some things are beyond their understanding. As far as the reason for the wife’s broader smile, that’s a mystery unlikely to ever be solved.

Job was attempting to show his friends that not everything was black and white, that some things don’t fit neatly into one box or the other, but in order for them to concede the point, they would have to admit that they had erred, and that would mean swallowing their pride. Better to accuse an innocent man of wickedness than to admit your conclusion was in error. They were, after all, learned men, men who understood patterns and historical precedent, and that was enough for them to keep doubling down.

Recent events and disclosures prove that sometimes the most despicable among us continue to prosper for a season, even when the best they deserve for the rest of their existence is a damp, windowless dungeon with the resident rats and mice as their only company and source of sustenance. Some of the most notable names and richest men on the planet have been exposed as being monsters wearing human flesh, and if Zophar’s conclusions had been true of every wicked man, they would have been served justice decades ago.

That’s what Job was trying to point out. From the outside looking in, at least some percentage of the time, the wicked did not suffer the consequences of their actions but enjoyed lives filled with mirth and abundance.

The thing Job’s friends failed to understand is that for those walking in the Spirit, for those wholly submitted to God, there are no longer qualifiers for the things occurring in their lives. They don’t live out their days dividing the good and the bad that occurred in a given week, weighing and measuring if more good than bad took place, but receive it all as God’s plan and purpose, trusting that even what seems bad in the moment will work together for good at some point in the future.

My grandfather’s passing was hard on me. To be fair, hard doesn’t even begin to describe it. I pleaded with God, begged with Him, tried to bargain with Him, all in the hope that God would extend his days. It turned out it was his time, God took him home, he went to his reward, and for the briefest of moments, I was bitter, broken, disillusioned, and bereft.

This was the man who’d taught me how to fish, ride a bike, shoot a slingshot, a man whose faithfulness I’d witnessed my whole life, who did his duty even when the pain would have felled any other, who sacrificed everything to preach an unpopular message to an indifferent church, and for all that he would return to the earth from which he came while others whose only concern was for themselves lived on to ripe old ages.

Yes, I thought as a child, and in my defense, I was still a child, comparatively speaking. I could not see God’s plan in taking him home as anything positive, as something good, and I wrestled with God over this matter because I wanted an answer. I needed a resolution, closure, something that would make it make sense.

I was my grandfather’s interpreter. I traveled with him not because God gave me the message for America, but because he needed someone to translate his words into English and deliver them to the people in a way they could understand. I had no aspiration for ministry beyond my grandfather’s need for my being his translator. In the back of my mind, there was always a plan for after; I just never imagined the after would come so soon.

I didn’t have a clear plan for what I would do with my life after my duty to my grandfather ended, but I had an outline. I was going to go back to school, become an archeologist, and spend the rest of my days digging in the dirt in hard-to-reach places far away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, alone with God, with a chisel and a trowel. That was the dream. That was all I wanted, and it did not seem unattainable.

There’s the adage that if you want to make God laugh, all you have to do is tell Him your plans. I told God my plans, and He didn’t laugh; He just said no. I tried explaining it again, with more context and detail this time, and He still said no. Having never been one given to petulance, stomping my feet and holding my breath until God saw it my way, I offered up all the reasons why this would be the best course for my life, harkening back to the decade-plus I’d faithfully served without groaning or demands for remuneration, and once again I was denied.

Sometimes it takes more than once for God to say no before you resign yourself and submit to His will. Perhaps it’s just me. Perhaps everyone else takes having their life’s trajectory derailed and their plans turned to ash in stride, but I wasn’t as smart as all that.

When God finally revealed what He wanted me to do, it was the one thing I prayed He would never ask of me: to continue the work my grandfather had started. I’d lived it since I was twelve, and I knew the sacrifices it required, the hardships that would have to be endured, and if I’d had a choice in the matter, I would have gladly passed it off to another without a second thought.

I didn’t have a choice, though, not really. The one choice afforded to me was no choice at all, which was to disobey God, and that was something I would not, and could not do. Would I have been as content digging in the dirt instead of doing what I’m doing? Perhaps, perhaps not, but I would have been in rebellion had I chosen the path not taken, and that would have been detrimental to my spiritual man.

When God changes the plans you’ve made for yourself, it’s for a purpose. It’s not because He doesn’t want you to be happy, or fulfilled, it’s not because He doesn’t want you to live your dream, but because He has a different path in mind for you, a different calling, a different journey, a different purpose, one that you may not see in the moment as greater than your own plans, but that will be exceedingly more rewarding if you choose to pick up your cross and follow after Him.       

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.