Job CCXXVII

 People approach life from different angles, via different avenues, but they all lead to the same core, the same center, regardless of where they start. For some, the path is straight; for others, it's meandering. Some get to it quickly, while others struggle against its pull, intuiting that giving in is an empty, meaningless life, but in the end, save for divine intervention and the revelation of a new path heretofore unseen, everyone finds themselves in the same spot. It’s the center of the maze, the reason for lies, deceit, heartlessness, greed, selfishness, malice, and all forms of evil.  

Well? What is it? I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now, but in case you haven’t, that center is the self. Whether it’s self-reliance, self-esteem, self-worth, self-motivation, self-promotion, or selfishness, it all funnels to the self, gravitates toward it, and makes the self the singular priority of one’s existence.

As long as I get mine, I am unconcerned with what others are going through. As long as I have my mansion on the hill, my private jet, my chauffeured limo, and my excesses, I will compromise, obfuscate, align myself with the worst kind of evil, and not lose a minute’s sleep over it. The ends justify the means every time, even if the means require that I sell my soul, hurt people who trusted me, and betray the gospel of Christ, because I am my own god and my entire existence is in service to me.

The current state of the contemporary church, and especially its leaders, has more to do with those who ought to know better living in service to their flesh, catering to it, and prioritizing it, than with the active meddling of the devil. It’s not that he wouldn’t have meddled if he needed to, but why bother when the televangelists, preachers, pastors, and heads of denominations were doing his work for him voluntarily and free of charge? We haven’t seen false prophets and false Christs showing great signs and wonders as yet because it’s been unnecessary.

The focus on the self, this present life, the here and now, is but the first salvo in a multi-pronged war, and it’s been more successful than the enemy could have ever dreamed. There was no need to threaten prison, persecution, or martyrdom when all it took for the church to capitulate was an offer of luxury, country clubs, gated communities, and Japanese Wagyu.

Those days are coming, be sure of it, because the Bible warns us that they will, but that will only be after the sifting, the purging, and the separation of those who serve Jesus with their hearts from those who say they serve Him with their lips. When a glut of souls pretends to serve Jesus only for the earthly benefits they’ve been told He offers, once that offer is no longer on the table, they will gravitate toward some other deity that promises them the comfort and ease of life they were promised by the faux-representatives of Christ.

It was never about fealty to Christ; it was about fealty to self and using Christ as the means by which they could achieve what their flesh wanted all along. That’s the hard part we must come to terms with: that many claiming to be His were never really His to begin with. They were never true soldiers of the cross but mercenaries offering their services to the highest bidder, no matter who that bidder happened to be. Their loyalty extended only as far as themselves, and whatever master they served was interchangeable as long as they got what they were after.

For the better part of a generation, if not longer, Christianity has been incrementally made less about Jesus and more about self, to the point that, for many, Jesus has become an afterthought. How can we be the temple of God without the presence of His Spirit indwelling in us? How can His Spirit indwell in us if we refuse to repent or resist being transformed into His likeness because we love the sin in our lives more than we love Him?

1 Corinthians 3:16-17, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”  

While we are told from various pulpits that we are the pinnacle of everything, that it’s all about us, and the universe itself must bend to our will, God says crucify the flesh, crucify the self, crucify the image of you that you have in your mind’s eye, and become reliant on Me. Become dependent on me. Find your joy, your fulfilment, your purpose, and your worth in what My Son did for you on the cross, and understand that any nobility you may attain, any righteousness you may project is as filthy rags without My Son’s blood having washed and made you clean.

For some, it’s a big ask. So much so that they try to thread the needle in such a way that they’ll rely on their strength, intelligence, aptitudes, and abilities for as long as they can, and only after they see the ragged edges, the threads pulling apart, and the ground upon which they stand begin to shift do they run to God for aid. They make it all about themselves until it’s no longer tenable, and only then do they grudgingly acknowledge their own weakness, impotence, and frailty.

Even when Job was on top of the world, he was still reliant on God. Even when he had everything he’d ever want or need, he served God from a pure heart and a genuine desire to fellowship with Him and not because he wanted more stuff or felt as though he had to fake his faithfulness in order to retain the things he had. How can I be sure of this? Because God knows the heart of man, and He declared it to be so. You can fake it until you make it in the eyes of the world, but God is not so gullible. You can’t get one over on Him. He knows the intent behind all we do, and those who serve Him out of a genuine desire for relationship and fellowship with Him will know His presence and hear His voice.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXXVI

 Job 21:4-8, “As for me, is my complaint against man? And if it were, why should I not be impatient? Look at me and be astonished; put your hand over your mouth. Even when I remember I am terrified, and trembling takes hold of my flesh. Why do the wicked live and become old, yes, become mighty in power? Their descendants are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.”

You’re attacking me, and I’m beseeching, entreating, pleading with, and crying out to God. The two are not the same. You accuse me of things I haven’t done, and I plead my innocence. The two are not the same. You conspire to shake my faith, to make me give up, to curse God and die, and conclude that I am deserving of my lot. I cry out to God, asking that He reveal my error to me if there is error, that He reveal my wickedness to me if there is wickedness, and I will repent of it. The two are not the same.

Job didn’t threaten to sue for defamation; he didn’t pull out a stack of NDAs and insist that his friends sign them; he didn’t try to create a straw man or point to others in similar situations, thereby justifying his own actions. He was an innocent man who pleaded with God in the presence of his friends, and not with his friends in the presence of God.

If there was any doubt, Job made it clear: as for me, is my complaint against man? Obviously not, because what could any man do to ease my suffering, or remedy my situation? What could any man do to take away the pain or inject some hope into my weary soul?

Job knew that if there was any hope, it was found in God. His friends had become burdensome, cumbersome, a noisy nuisance that he felt obliged to answer, but as far as hoping they had some means of rectifying his situation, there was none to be found.

Few in the history of mankind have found themselves in a situation as dire as Job’s. I can’t think of one offhand, but there must have been at least a handful that came close. Conversely, we’ve all had varying degrees of hardship, of seemingly impossible situations, or valleys and rocky roads that seemed to never end, and in those moments, we choose to run to God or to men.

Perhaps it’s thinking that the problem isn’t big enough to bother God with, so we will try to rectify it on our own, only to discover we’ve made it worse than we could have imagined. Perhaps it’s hoping we can prove to God that we can manage without His intervention. Maybe we’re just stubborn and stiff-necked, but whatever the reason may be that we don’t run to God first, in the end, we live to regret it.

The best man can offer, whether friends, brothers, sisters, or family, however well-meaning and well-intentioned, is what amounts to a temporary fix. God is the only one who can offer permanent solutions.

It’s the difference between discovering you have a flat tire, putting air in it, only to discover it’s flat again come the morning, and getting a new tire, without a puncture that will hold air for months if not years to come.

I’ve lived long enough to see the folly of trusting men to solve issues God could readily remedy. I’ve also seen the danger of impatience when it comes to not waiting on the Lord to do it, and striking out on one’s own, thinking we know better. Job knew enough to know that men would not have a hand in his restoration if there were any to be had. He knew that trying to appease his friends was likewise a nonstarter.

All he had left was God, and God was more than enough. This is a good reminder and a teachable moment for everyone, including myself. God is sufficient, no matter your trial or situation. He is enough. Even in your most desperate moments and your darkest season, God is all you need. Run to Him! Not after you’ve exhausted every avenue, not when there’s nothing left to cling to, but first, every time, without fail, and your faith will grow and mature with every iteration of seeing that your trust was not misplaced, and that He did not fail you.

Job’s complaint was not against man, but if it had been, he would have been within his rights to be impatient. Job knew that man cannot see as God sees, man cannot hear as God hears, and man cannot intervene as God can, and his first salvo seems a bit tongue-in-cheek.

If my words were targeted toward you, by now I would be within my rights to be impatient given that I’ve seen nothing by way of resolution, but fear not, my friends, I know the extent of your impotence and inability to affect my current lot, and so it’s not you I’m pleading with, it’s with the God whom I know can do what you cannot.

Were my hope tethered in you, I would be a man bereft, watching the ashes of my life slip through my fingers, adrift in an ocean of pain and hopelessness, with no shoreline in sight, or hope for redress.

But, even as I am, broken, shattered, and stripped of everything, including my own dignity, I cling to the One who knew me before He formed me in my mother’s womb, who counts the hairs on my head, who sees me as I am, and I will trust Him still.

Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. If that sounds familiar, Job spoke those words some eight chapters back. His position had not shifted. He had not given up addressing God, nor had he shifted his focus from what God saw in him to what his friends thought of him. He remained consistent, knowing that how God sees us is the only thing that matters. Does God view you as a son or daughter? Does God count you as His own? If so, it matters not what the world, your family, your friends, or anyone else thinks of you. Strive to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord and not praised by the forked tongues of the world, and you will always have God on your side, no matter the situation.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXXV

 Job 21:1-3, “Then Job answered and said: “Listen carefully to my speech, and let this be your consolation. Bear with me that I may speak, and after I have spoken, keep mocking.’”

Some people are talkers, others are listeners, and a handful know how to balance the two and speak when they ought, listen when they should, and do it in such a way as to make the other person feel as though they weren’t speaking to a brick wall, or listening to a monologue rather than having a dialogue.

When someone has a tendency to ramble, I let them. If they like the sound of their own voice so much, why should I be the one to yuck their yum? It happens on occasion when someone asks to interview me, and for thirty minutes or an hour, depending on the length of the program, I hear my life story read back to me, and other than thanking the individual for having me on their program, I could barely get a word in edgeways. I’m glad they did their research, or at least know how to use the interwebs well enough to pull up my bio, but if I made the time to block out an hour of my life to focus solely on having a conversation, it would be nice to actually have one.

Some of the most brilliant interviewers of our day have mastered one skill: listening. Especially when it comes to long-form interviews, it’s not the ones that like to flex their vocabulary muscles, those who want to prove how smart they are, or those that like to hear the sound of their own voice that stand out, but those that ask a simple question, and wait for the answer, allowing for the interviewee to make their point without interruption.

Once they’ve made their point, if the need arises, there are follow-up questions, requests for clarification, or the fleshing out of an idea, but for the most part, the interviewer listens.

Conversely, some of the most insufferable individuals roaming about today are those who act as though the person they’re trying to have a dialogue with isn’t even there, because they need to make their point, they need to be right, and they deem the person before them to be beneath them, whether socially or intellectually.

Job knew his friends would likely bristle at what he had to say and would feel compelled to interrupt, challenge, or otherwise verbally try to steamroll over him, so he made it clear that it would be greatly appreciated if they’d let him get his point across, and once that was done, they could return to their previously scheduled program of mocking him. It wasn’t that he held out hope of convincing them. That ship had already sailed, and he knew their mockery would return anew once he was done speaking, but sometimes things must be said for posterity if nothing else.

Even though Job knew the three men who had been accusing him would not change course, and that they would continue down the path of accusation, insinuation, and mockery, he likewise knew he could not keep silent. Even at the risk of having his words seen as cynical, serving to solidify their preconceptions, because an innocent person wouldn’t get so defensive about such things, Job knew he must answer.

One of the most off-putting things you can witness is when an accuser starts playing the victim in order to save face. They can’t prove that the individual they’ve accused has done anything untoward; there is no evidence to substantiate their claim. Yet they keep at it until the person speaks up, and suddenly they feel victimized for being called out. It’s a defense mechanism, a way of saving face without having to concede to the fact that there was nothing substantive in the words you spoke against them.

Some people project guilt on others simply because they’ve concluded that the individual they are attempting to sully needs to come down a peg or two. Taking the words of Job’s friends in the aggregate and at face value, one can’t help but wonder if they’d harbored some resentment against him, and now was the perfect opportunity to let it all out.

The greatest of all the people of the East, huh? How did that turn out for you?

Everyone has someone in their life who will gleefully celebrate their demise. It’s sad, it’s tragic, but it’s also true. What’s worse is that sometimes the individual in question is so unexpected as to blindside you, and now, rather than dealing with one heartache, heartbreak, loss, or tragedy, you’re dealing with two because someone you thought was a friend is holding a bloody knife, grinning maliciously, and waiting for you to expire.

My words may not sway you, you may not alter your course, you will likely think worse of me by the time I’m done, but I need to speak them nonetheless. If ever you were my friends, if ever you cared for me, show me this mercy, extend this grace, bear with me that I may speak, and when I am done, do as you will.

It would not require an overactive imagination to conclude that this seemed like the last wish of a dying man. Given that conjecture was the bread and butter of Job’s three friends, by this point, I doubt any of them held out hope of his being restored. In their minds, Job was getting what he deserved because if he wasn’t guilty of everything they’d presumed him to be guilty of, why would God have allowed him to fall so far so quickly?

Between their confirmation biases, feedback loops agreeing with each other, and the undeniable wretched condition Job was in, there was no other plausible explanation that Job’s three friends would entertain, and he saw the reality of it plainly written on their faces. He was no longer asking that they believe him, just that they bite their tongues long enough for him to say what he needed to say.      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXXIV

 Because self-discipline is looked down upon as legalistic and prudish, and self-control is seen as limiting the freedoms we have in Christ, much of what calls itself the church today is impulsive, reactionary, fickle, faithless, easily swayed, and prone to speaking before thinking, and doing so with such inflection and passion as to convince others they actually know what they’re talking about.

The moment their words are challenged, not because someone has a bone to pick with them personally, but because the words they are speaking do not harmonize with Scripture but rather contradict it, the moment people look beyond the presentation to the substance of their claims, they’re quick to insist that it was the Lord telling them these things as a means of deflection.

It was some type of new revelation that they alone received, and if you dare to rebuke them, or call them out for the liars they are, you are resisting the Lord himself. That it’s usually some self-serving drivel that puts them squarely in the spotlight is unsurprising and should be a clear warning sign, but we’ve been cultivating a culture of man worship for so long that a hefty spoonful of self-promotion no longer raises any alarms.

One can’t help but shake their head and wonder if some people really have no shame, and the short answer is no, they don’t, they have no shame at all. Shame left the building decades ago, and now their entire purpose is to elevate themselves above Scripture itself and insulate themselves from criticism by invoking the Lord and insisting He is the originator of their fabrications.

We’ve adopted the mindset that the institution must be defended at all costs, even if it means giving false teachers and false prophets a pass, without realizing we’re voluntarily walking into the enemy’s snare. Jesus is not an institution, He is not a denomination, and the idea that the faith itself will not survive if some big name gets exposed for the evils they’ve committed is a bold-faced lie, and one that has damaged the household of faith to the point that it’s on life support, gasping for breath, with no strength or purpose to speak of.

You cannot build a house on rotten timbers and expect it to stand. You cannot prop up a ministry or a denomination on the shoulders of a compromised, deceptive individual and expect it to thrive. It doesn’t matter who the person is if the person isn’t Jesus; whatever they’ve managed to build will come to ruin, for He is the One who sustains, refines, and builds up a work not for the glory of man but for the glory of God the Father.

When we are not rooted in the Word of God, we swing from one extreme to the other like a pendulum, ever a slave to its own momentum. We go from believing everything to believing nothing, from desiring spiritual gifts to wanting nothing to do with them, when our position as children of God should be nuanced and purposeful.

We can believe in the prophetic without despising it, as we were instructed, yet also test all things to ensure they originate from God and are in harmony with His word.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

Those are the guardrails. Those are the dos and don’ts. As long as you do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesies, but test all things and hold fast what is good, you will not be swayed nor blown to and fro like a reed in a hurricane.

The key is to test all things not through the prism of one’s own understanding, prejudices, or inclinations, but via the prism of God’s Word. That is how we determine whether something is good and worth holding fast to, or whether it is deception couched in a layer of truth and to be discarded, knowing it will be detrimental to our spiritual walk.

I do not have the authority to determine what is good, and neither do you. God does, and He has detailed it in His Word. If we dismiss the Word of God as the filter by which we test all things and lean on our own understanding, our understanding will draw us further away from the light because our understanding is rooted in the heart and the mind, which are flesh, and flesh is at enmity with God.

Follow your heart, and it will lead you to ruin. Follow men, and they will lead you to resentment and disillusionment. Follow God, and He will lead you to green pastures and still waters.        

Misery, loving company, would be a satisfactory explanation for why the deceived do their utmost to draw others into their deception if it were not for the reality that there is a nefarious third party involved who is willing to do anything, say anything, and align himself with anyone to reach his intended ends.

One inevitably grows more sober-minded, disciplined, and cautious when they realize the lengths to which the devil will go to sow doubt, fear, deception, resentment, or bitterness in their hearts. The presence of Christ in one’s life, not occasionally but perpetually, is the antidote to all of these and more.          

Job 20:25-29, “He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him; total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent. The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him. A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath. Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.”

Evil has no future. It is a truth that Zophar repeatedly hammered home, the only problem being that it did not apply to Job. No, Zophar wasn’t wrong about anything he said regarding the wicked and their ultimate end, for it is the fate God allots the wicked; however, Job was not in the camp of the wicked as Zophar and his friends presumed, and that is where they erred.

It would be myopic to dismiss Zophar’s words altogether just because they did not apply to Job. He wasn’t wrong about the fate of the wicked, just about his friend being numbered among them. There is truth in the words he spoke, and that truth is both revelatory and pertinent when removing Job from the equation.

You can be right and wrong at the same time, depending on the context and a specific situation. Zophar proved it beyond a doubt, but rather than stir him to humility, his pride compelled him to double down.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCXXIII

 When a man is wise in his own eyes, it’s difficult to get him to acknowledge the flaws in his logic. You’d have an easier time rolling a boulder up a hill while on crutches than getting them to concede that, although, generally speaking, their words are valid, and their conclusions are apt, in this specific context, they are flawed, and do not apply.

It’s not as though Job hadn’t tried to convince his friends that they were barking up the wrong tree. It’s not as though he hadn’t pointed out time and again that he was not guilty of the wickedness they’d assumed him guilty of because of what he was going through. He had repeatedly, yet in their hubris, they would not allow for another possibility than the one they’d already come to.

Professing to be wise, thinking oneself wise, and being wise are neither the same thing nor are they interchangeable. Anyone can profess to be wise. Anyone can claim wisdom. Only God can determine who is wise indeed. What makes a man wise? That is the fundamental question. Is it the piece of paper from the online seminary that makes one wise? Is it being a professional student collecting degrees like some people collect baseball cards? Is it a position you hold? Is it a title you possess, or is it something else?

As is always the case, the Word of God has the answer, and it is neither opaque nor difficult to understand.

Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

The first step on one’s journey toward wisdom is the fear of the Lord. That’s what the Book says. Absent the fear of the Lord, one cannot hope to attain true wisdom, no matter how many classes they take, how many workshops they attend, or how many sweaty hands are laid upon their heads, imparting wisdom to them. The fear of the Lord is the environment in which wisdom can grow, flourish, broaden, deepen, and mature. Without it, true wisdom is always out of reach, ethereal, and unattainable.

Proverbs 26:12, “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

Harsh? Perhaps. True? Undeniably so. It’s evident in every arena and on a daily basis. You have individuals who are wise in their own eyes with the degrees to prove it, unable to answer a question as fundamental as whether men can get pregnant. Anyone could be stumped by a question, I guess, but I never thought anyone would get stumped by that specific question.

Ask a farmer, a welder, a fisherman, or a handyman the same question, and although they might not have diplomas gracing the walls of their shack, they can answer the question without missing a beat because while one is wise in their own eyes, the other has basic common sense that goes a long way to proving wisdom.

A degree from Harvard or Yale is not the beginning of wisdom, but the fear of the Lord is. All the things the world obsesses about, focuses on, and sacrifices its time to don’t amount to anything more than stroking one’s vanity, especially if what you’re learning doesn’t apply to everyday life, if you haven’t learned a skill, whatever that skill might be, or if you don’t add any value to anyone but your ego.

It’s why you have people with college degrees working at the local Piggly Wiggly. You have a degree in liberal arts with a minor in indigenous Peloponnesian women’s fashion of the seventeenth century? That’s fabulous, congratulations. Now remember, you have to double-bag anything made of glass or that weighs more than three pounds. Oh, and remember to smile and wish the customers a good day.

A piece of paper saying you are educated is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay you in order to ply your trade and put your skills to use. Evidently, knowing the ins and outs of Peloponnesian high fashion in the seventeenth century is worth precisely $12.50 an hour.

There is only one way to gauge true wisdom, and that is whether or not the individual possesses the fear of the Lord. It is a wisdom that acts as a guiding light, as a prism by which you make the choices you make and pursue the things you pursue.

If the fear of the Lord is at the forefront of your mind daily, you will inherently understand the futility of this present world and the things thereof and set your sights firmly upon Christ and the cross. There will be no turning, no second-guessing, no feeling of regret for not having taken a different road or pursued a different vocation. He satisfies. His presence and power never wither nor fade, for His mercies are new every morning.

Those who say Jesus is not enough and go on endless crusades to convince others to likewise deconstruct their faith never really knew Jesus. They may have read of Him, heard of Him, seen others in true relationship with Him, waved a hand, said a prayer, had an intellectual understanding of who He is, but as far as feeling His indwelling presence, love, peace, comfort, and joy, they never did. How could I be so certain? Because once you feel the presence of God, everything else is dim and unsatisfying. Once you know Him as Lord, King, and Master of your life, there is no going back to the bondage and despair of yesterday.

It’s no accident that those who decide to deny the Lordship of Christ, deconstruct their faith, and insist that they’re now spiritual rather than saved and sanctified find the tallest rooftops from which they can announce their rebellion. You don’t see such rabid denunciation of anything else in their lives, yet this is the one thing they have to be loud and proud about. No one’s out there screeching how they left their wife, left their job, or left their pet pug on the side of the road, but the chorus of those who left Christianity behind is growing ever louder, and it’s with a purpose. The purpose is to demoralize those who are still walking faithfully with Jesus, and hoping to plant seeds of doubt in their hearts. It is a tool of the enemy, and these individuals are being used by Satan, whether wittingly or unwittingly.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCXXII

 Two things can be true at the same time. Water is both necessary for the continuity of life, but it can also kill. You can’t go without water for more than three days, but you can also drown in a pond if you don’t know how to swim.

God can be love and an all-consuming fire simultaneously. In fact, He is both of these things. The contemporary church has been laser-focused on His love for so long that they’ve forgotten, dismissed, or ignored that He is also an all-consuming fire. It’s the only rational explanation as to why so many take liberties with Him, speak in His name, or shamelessly make up lies regarding their stature in His eyes, and how they’ve gotten to experience what no individual in the Bible has.

Look at me! Look at me! I’m not just your average, run-of-the-mill special; I’m extra special, the most special, and I know that because I got a guided tour of heaven in my physical form and was even asked to give God my two cents about how to better run the universe! Sorry, pumpkin, but being delusional nowadays isn’t special; it’s ordinary and commonplace.

Even those who had a glimpse into the spiritual world, those who had the honor of seeing beyond the physical, were so rare as to stand out throughout the four-thousand-year span of the Biblical record. Through it all, there doesn’t seem to have been a shortage of false prophets, seers, revelators, or teachers, but the supply of the authentic was always finite in comparison. That should tell us something, but our need for experience over relationship makes us disregard what was for the illusion of what could be.

There will always be more false prophets than true prophets of God. There will always be more false teachers than true ministers of the Word who rightly divide it. It has always been the case, and will continue to be thus until the return of Jesus. The only thing that has changed from generation to generation is the numbers, not as far as percentages, but the volume itself. The more populated the earth becomes, the more false prophets there will be, because the enemy understands the math behind deception more readily than most preachers.

Technology has also allowed them to reach a broader audience, or in fishermen's parlance, get more lines in the water, and the more lines you have in the water, the likelier the chance of getting a nibble.

Could you imagine the sort of following David Koresh would have had, had all the social media platforms been around when he was trying to convince everyone he was the reincarnate Christ? The wise among us still would have pointed out that Jesus needing coke bottle glasses seemed a bit iffy, but the reach would have been broader, and the gullible would have been more numerous, to be sure.

People without an anchor, those who are not rooted in Christ and the Word, tend to gravitate toward extremes, however those extremes might manifest themselves. Rather than purposefully picking up their crosses and following after Jesus, they spend their days ricocheting from one guardrail to the other, like some out-of-control projectile, until they reach terminal velocity and leap over the guardrail altogether.

I’ve seen people oscillate between insisting you have to wear homespun linen tunics to church, and insisting you can show up in a wife-beater and a pair of board shorts, to then giving up on going to church altogether because those in attendance were unwilling to submit themselves to them and follow their meandering path.

Jesus is not some fixed point off in the distance, so far away that He’s almost imperceptible, giving us license to wander about on switchbacks until we end up in the same spot we started. He is near, right before us, and sticks closer than a brother, keeping pace, and leading us the way we must go.

I’ve never once considered what I was wearing when the trials of life were so pronounced that the only thing I could do was fall on my face before God and weep. It’s in those moments that the pretense, posturing, and pontification of whether you should use cologne or have gel in your hair when you come before God are stripped away and become irrelevant. When your heart is overwhelmed, there is nothing performative about your brokenness, nor are you concerned about how others perceive you in that moment.

What will others say if they see me crying? Who cares? What will others say if they see me fall on my face before God with groanings and heart cries? Who cares? I am not in the presence of God to impress others or elevate their opinion of me or my spiritual maturity. I am in the presence of God to feel His embrace, to feel His comfort, to feel His joy and His peace that surpasses understanding.

Job wasn’t looking to impress anyone. He didn’t care what anyone thought of him. It’s obvious he wasn’t looking his best. He was not wearing fine linens, nor was he freshly bathed. He no longer held any clout with his contemporaries or even those of his own household. He was at his lowest, likely lower than any of us have ever been, so much so that we cannot fully relate to his situation. Chances are his flesh reeked of putrefaction as he lay in a pile of ashes, but God still heard him when he cried out, and did not turn away because he wasn’t wearing his Sunday best.

The only ones who will judge your appearance for good or ill are other people. God cares not for your garments, whether they are made of linen or cotton, whether they are freshly pressed or have some wrinkles to them. There’s no bouncer at the door checking if you’re freshly shaven or if you’re wearing cologne. He looks at the heart, for that is what He desires to make His throne.

But what about the man who didn’t have on a wedding garment at the king’s feast? If it’s true that you don’t have to wear a three-piece suit to approach God, why was that man kicked out? That was a parable not about the outer garments of the individual but the inward condition of his heart. If you plan on attending the wedding feast of the Lamb, then know that His expectation is that you be washed, made clean, born again, transformed, and sanctified, without spot or wrinkle, for nothing wicked or defiled will enter His kingdom. You can’t sneak your way into heaven. You can’t fake your way into His wedding feast. There is a list, and if your name isn’t on it, there’s no one you can bribe, cajole, or intimidate into letting you in.

What Jesus said to Nicodemus holds true to this day, and beyond to the last day: unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God!

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCXXI

 The difference between Zophar’s accusations against Job and what is happening in much of the church, as far as sin being exposed, is that Zophar had no witnesses against Job; no one had accused him of committing acts of wickedness, it was just a conclusion Zophar and his friends had come to based on the fact that Job was suffering.

Let’s not get it twisted here, because I know there’s bound to be someone eager to defend a wolf who will conflate what Zophar did with what is happening in the church, and conclude that perhaps the dozen witnesses who tell the same story of inappropriate touching by a man that could be their grandfather while using their spiritual authority to perpetrate his evil is the same thing by a different name.

Job was a blameless and upright man by God’s standard, and whom God declared as such. Some of these monsters are so heinous in their criminality that they deserve to be thrown in a dungeon and have the key melted down to slag. The two are not the same. They don’t belong in the same hemisphere, never mind in the same category.   

Men err. Men make assumptions that later prove to be false. Men interpret what they see and come to the wrong conclusions so often as to make it a certainty that if it hasn’t happened yet, it will happen in the near future. God, on the other hand, does not err; He does not make assumptions but knows all things.

If you are an individual giving an opinion regarding some event or situation, you’re allowed to be wrong, you’re allowed to make a mistake, and the honest ones will come out and say as much. If, however, you are an individual claiming to speak on behalf of God, you have no such luxury. You can’t back paddle or obfuscate and say you got it wrong because your previous claim was that you were speaking for God. Either you must admit it was you and not Him, and you claimed His authority to increase your standing, or insist that the omniscient God of the universe gave you the wrong info.

People who insist they are never wrong about anything are dangerous. People who claim prophetic insight and get it wrong are more dangerous still because they present their conclusions as originating from God and should therefore be received as the authoritative voice of the Divine. There is a reason for the harsh words directed at those who claim to speak on behalf of God when God has not spoken.

Deuteronomy 18:20-22, “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ – when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously you shall not be afraid of him.”

Why was the standard so high? Because these men spoke words in the name of the Lord, and the people feared them for the authority they walked in. It wasn’t some trivial thing; it still isn’t, and God has not changed His view on the matter.

It’s not that we’ve lowered the standard of true prophetic utterances; we’ve eliminated them altogether. It’s the fuel that feeds the fires of deception, and with each newly minted prophet, the sheep soon realize is no prophet at all, only after they’ve hurt, wounded, misled, and shipwrecked people’s faith, there is a new slew of excuses trying to shield them from criticism rather than call them out for what they are.

It’s reached a level of absurdity wherein men have what can only be categorized as prophecy wars among themselves, each giving words regarding the other, insisting that the Lord isn’t with this one or that, when in reality He is with neither of them. All they’re doing is trying to protect their wallets.

When God speaks through an individual, that individual isn’t presuming, hoping, or feeling as though they've received a message; they know with certainty and clarity that thus says the Lord, and they are not reticent to declare it.

God will not contradict Himself, nor His word through prophecy. This only occurs when men presume to speak a word in God’s name which God has not spoken. That they are not judged in the moment does not mean judgment isn’t coming. That they can continue deceiving and being deceived does not mean that God is not keeping a record of their pronouncements and will one day judge righteously.

There is no fear of God or fear of judgment with such individuals. There can’t be. If you believe that God is a consuming fire, that He will judge every man individually, wherein everything will be laid bare, and nothing will be hidden, how could you continue down this path? How can you continue to presume and speak in the name of the Lord when He has not spoken?

Not even Jesus presumed. He made it clear that the words He spoke, He did not speak of His own authority, but by the Father who dwelt in Him. Wrap your mind around that one, then juxtapose it with how flippantly some men use the prophetic for their own greedy, self-serving ends.

John 14:10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”

If Jesus Himself did not speak on His own authority, what makes anyone currently living think that they can speak on His behalf in their authority? That is the question that must be answered in order to understand how deep the rebellion goes. Someone laid hands on you? Someone spoke a word that told you that you would be a prophet to the nations? Jesus was the Son of God, born of a virgin, perfect and sinless, and even He declared that the words He spoke were not with His own authority but that of the Father.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.