Friday, October 19, 2007

Ashamed and Offended

I don't follow trends, but I pick up on them. When I was younger, still in high school as a matter of fact, (in hindsight that seems so far off, I must be getting old), we had to come up with a fake stock portfolio, and track it for six months. If only I'd had real money in it, I could have retired before turning twenty one.
I fake invested in beginning trends, rather than existing markets, and I made a ton of imaginary money on a little thing known as the 'world wide web' back then, and as they are still known by some today the 'internets' as well as oddly enough, bottled iced tea.
As of late, I've noticed another trend, no, not an investment opportunity, but something truly sinister and vile. It appears it is no longer popular, or acceptable in the mainstream to call yourself a preacher, evangelist, pastor or disciple of Christ. These titles, have been replaced by such ambiguous ones as life coach, motivational speaker, spiritual advisor, or my personal favorite of the bunch, although a little wordy, authority on supernatural phenomenon and spirituality.
There are two passages in the Bible that in my more hopeful and optimistic youth never thought would come to pass during my lifetime.
Luke 7:23, "And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."
Luke 9:26, "For whosoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels."
It isn't the sheep that are ashamed of, and offended because of Christ, but the very men and women that we've propped up on pedestals, those whom the great majority have chosen to lead them, and to whom they've entrusted their spiritual nourishment.
So if you're in need of a life coach, a mentor, or a motivational speaker, keep listening, applauding, fawning, begging for autographs, and throwing your money down the bottomless pit they call their ministries. If however you are looking to be fed, nourished, if you are looking to be saved, to grow and mature in Christ, you might want to start by cracking the Bible open yourself, and following the instructions therein. Why not try Jesus as your life coach?
He might not tell you 'you're all that' (the title of the newest book by one of America's leading life coaches / evangelists / soon to be divorced pastors / motivational speaker / you get the point...
God's not in the business of making you feel good about yourself He's in the business of molding and transforming you until He feels good about you. Until He can look upon your countenance, peer into your heart and say as He did of Job, that truly you are His servant, blameless and upright, one who fears God and shuns evil.
What a frightfully tragic thing that men and women who would boast of knowing God, of having heard Him, spoken to Him, and one lady with pink hair having sat on His lap, would be ashamed of Christ and His words, words that give life, and meaning and substance to this life on earth.
Many are those who are offended because of Christ, seemingly even within the church, but blessed are those who are not offended because of Him. Be blessed.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

P.S. As the cool kids say, I will be out of pocket for the next three days. In fact I'm traveling to Baltimore tomorrow morning, and returning sometime Monday evening. God bless you all, and thank you for your prayers.

10 comments:

Elm Street Chapel said...

May the Holy Spirit go before you that your path would be straight, keep you and your family safe, God's Glory be your rear guard, and God our Father confirm His Word with signs and wonders in Jesus name.

It's funny when I find myself agreeing with carnal, deaf and blind Christians. I don't think that many who are called (that is a play on words)Pastor, Teacher, Evangelist, Prophet and Apostle should be either. Coach, Cheerleader or Motvational Speaker is far more accurate and much more spiritually in tune with the song and dance they perform.

It is so sad that weightier matters, like judgement, rightious, spiritual discernment, truth, honor, recognition of true callings and gifting, ears to hear, accountability and power are not in vogue. They seem to love the verse, "don't judge". Of course if they would jump to the back of the Book, they would find out that God still approves of those who judge men that say they are apostles and are not. The same should be said for all the ministry offices.
L,J,P&HG
Dave

James Kinsman said...

The whole stacks of "Better Life Now" bombarded me as I entered the Barnes and Noble's book store. It is amazing how popular it must be among the world to have it placed outside of it's supposed Christian category.

The catchy title is sure to draw the world right into church looking for more ways to win favor among men.

A month or so ago I was reading an article by Thomas Shepherd, a puritan. One of the things I remembered in his article was how he pointed out that Peter went out of His way to tell the people that they "by wicked hands have crucified and slain" the great Jesus of Nazareth. The article was humbling as it was written long ago sharing the fact that there is no such thing as salvation without repentance.

Perhaps Peter would have titled a book "Your wickedness killed Jesus"

With love,
Jim

Marcel said...

I think the hired shepherds are just getting back to their true roots.
They figure why hide what they truly are any more.
Jesus' words;
He that gathereth no with me scattereth abroad.
The sheep under the strong delusion have gone so far away that the deception has engulfed them they are drowned by the anti-christ spirit of this age where every god except one is acceptable.
As long as your jesus bows to the image of the globalist beast state your jesus will be OK.
If your Jesus is the unique only way and King of Kings returning to ovethrow every corrupt world system and set up His everlating Kingdom in Jerusalem then you are an enemy of this world worthy of death.
Soon there will no longer be any fence for those who claim to follow Jesus to perch on.
We will be forced to bow to the state or to Jesus.
No mopre middle ground as it has been for so many Chrisitan's from the beginning.
We've had it way too easy here and it has put us into a deep comfortable sleep.
Thank God if it hasen't been easy for us.
That is a blessing in disguise.


exerpt from chuck Baldwin article;
The reason Christians were persecuted while people of other beliefs were not was not because they worshipped Jesus Christ. Obviously, Jewish leaders persecuted the early Christians because of their hatred of Jesus, which was due to the fact that He claimed to be their Messiah and Savior--a claim they vehemently rejected. However, the Roman Empire's persecution of Christians was for an entirely different matter.

Rome persecuted Christians because they believed that Jesus Christ was the ONLY God. Under Roman law, Caesar was a god, equal to any other god. Therefore, to be a good Roman, one had to worship Caesar. If one chose to worship another deity, it was fine. As long as he also bowed to Caesar. This was something the early Christians could not and would not do.

You see, from the very beginning of Church history, Christians believed that Jesus Christ was not a way, He was THE way; not a truth, but THE truth; not a god, but THE God. And for this declaration, for this conviction, and for this belief, early Christians were persecuted, imprisoned, and fed to hungry lions.

Yet today, the Church of Jesus Christ sits silent and still when the President of the United States, himself a professing Christian, publicly denies the central doctrine of Christ and embraces the pagan doctrine of universalism. Again, there is only one explanation: the Church is in a state of apostasy.

Anonymous said...

AMEN AMEN

We have gotten so far from the Lord and His ways. We as a nation put people up where God is supposed to be, very sad. It grieves my heart to see it running rampant, and we are taking it to other countries now via satilite. Sad, sad..

debbi rennier

Elm Street Chapel said...

God be with you, brother, and may His Spirit go before you. I pray that the Lord would cause those who you speak to to have ears to hear what His Spirit is saying.

Love In Jesus,
Ryan

A Seed Sower said...

Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. Luke 6:26
When even the world loves you, your in BIG TROUBLE!
Where do these poor misguided preachers get the idea that we are to strive to be loved by everyone?
Don't they know that our Saviour was betrayed and sent to the cross because people didn't want to hear the truth? And He died on that cross to pay for our miserable sinful souls.
It seems that The Truth doesn't play a role in the agendas of these poor folks. I say poor folks because Hebrews 10:31 tells us:It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
God isn't a fool,he didn't give His Son, so that we could then make a mockery of His ministry and His Word, and His commandments.
Yes God is love, but God can't deny all His Truth and His commandments.He loves us enough to give us The Whole Truth.

A Seed Sower said...

Oh my giddy aunt martha, i just did a web search on that book "your all that", and went to the persons website, Oh great galloping globs of clotted gravy.
Now how someone with 1/2 a functioning brain cell could be taken in by that woman is beyond me. The falsehood looks to be oozing out of every hollywood stylized pore. Jezebel, Jezebel, Jezebel...it's ok if you don't publish this Bro Michael,just had to get that off my chest. Guess I am not exposed to all the charlatins that you are, thank the Good Lord.

Anonymous said...

I struggle with sexual addiction..and ijust wanted to get some help and wisdom from you bro. Bodea......

Anonymous said...

Check out my website:

I hope it blesses and touches eaches heart....

I love u bro. Mike.

www.theunveilingofgodministries.com

Marcel said...

I wonder if this was the time of your granfdfathers vision of california on fire because more and more fires are poping up across the state ?

A few weeks ago the city of San Franciscio had their city and state approved homosexual deviant parade whith sex acts and nudity on the streets even in front of churches.
The pictures were so incredibly wicked that God has to respond and respond He has .
Today in Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead,Malibu,Escondido,San Diego,Rancho Bernardo,Pohoway,Forrest Ranch ,Lake Hodges,Ramona,Lakeside
hundreds if not thousands of homes are burnt to the ground with the worst still to come.
There can be no doubt that God has responded to Sodom and Gomorrah on the west coast as I see so many people suffering homeless because wickedness and perversion was exalted by our leaders.
Sadly this is just the beginning.