Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Random Thoughts and Passing Observations

This will not be a long post, at least it is not intended as such. After spending most of the night somewhere between a dream and a waking vision with vividly apocalyptic nuances, around 5:30 AM I found myself in a twenty four hour pharmacy looking for Midol. (Yes the dream will be in next month's newsletter, and yes I will post it on this web log sometime tomorrow.) As I passed through the aisles there was a big cardboard cutout of yet another smiling face, encouraging me to enjoy every day life, and I had to laugh. Yes, I laughed out loud, because let's face it every day life for those of us who don't have chauffeurs and gardeners, servants and cooks, private jets waiting on landing strips, and personal secretaries, looks more like a triage center on a battlefield, than a walk through the rose garden with acquaintances named Biff, and Bunny, Chester and Kitty.
Every day life consists of trying to make time for the important things, the worthwhile things, while cutting out those things which are dead and dying, those things that have no value to our spiritual growth or our ongoing relationships with wives, husbands, brothers, fathers and children.
Every day life consists of the wife waking you at five in the morning telling you she has cramps, of driving your brother to an airport three hours away, and in between the duties of the daily grind, find those few rare, uninterrupted moments of bliss where you can be alone with God, where you call Him Father, and He calls you son or daughter. This life, is anything but a walk in a rose garden.
After a hearty laugh I continued my trek through the pharmacy, seeing more cardboard cutouts of Christian superstars, all vying for my attention, all promising happiness, ease, bliss, money, and fulfillment.
I started thinking about what the average Christian, the babe in Christ must be going through, seeing all these smiling faces, and empty promises, and I likened it to a child whose parents have had a falling out, but still get together once in awhile only to disagree with each other.
In my mind I flashed to an image of a five or six year old, one parent on each side, walking through a park, when they happen upon a puppy. The child smiles, pointing out the puppy, and the father says 'yes, that is a beautiful brown puppy', while the mother says, 'actually son, it's mocha colored.'
They both agree on the puppy being there, but disagree on every other detail. The child, being unable to draw conclusions for itself, first listens to his father and says, 'yes daddy', then after the mother is done with her observation, turns to her and says, 'yes mommy.'
Many of today's hirelings are not vying for something as innocent as your affections, or attention. Many are like professional Gypsies, giving you a big warm hug while they try to lift your wallet, the resounding chorus, the one thing they can all agree on, is that you've got to give them your money, and some out of innocence or ignorance, simply say 'okay.'
Due to the disturbing lack of spiritual maturity, many Christians today are like small children who will agree with anyone and everyone, concerning anything, and everything. Since they have not as yet, ventured out to feed themselves, study for themselves, and draw conclusions based on what they learned, they will simply believe what they hear, only to later discover that another well respected scholar has the opposite opinion, and the cycle begins anew.
If there is a point to my ramblings this morning, it is this: There will always be many voices, faces teachings and doctrines vying for your attention, affections, and financial support, but there is only one Truth! My prayer this morning is that the children of God grow in Him, that they learn to feed themselves, and only let the good Shepherd lead them to green pastures.
More could be said, but I have to get my brother to the airport so he doesn't miss his flight.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Michael,
This post reminds me of the dream you shared sometime back about drinking water from the source (at the top of the mountain)instead of relying on muddled/polluted pools at the base of the mountain. There are so many "prophecies" and "words of the lord" all over the place and unless we truly purpose in our hearts to pursue truth through the study of the word and prayer, and ask God for greater discernment...it will really be difficult to differentiate between the truth and the lie. This is what I am learning...to know how God speaks to me coze He speaks to all of us ...to learn to do away with pride and be sensitive to His word, His spirit, His teaching and guidance...

In His Grace,
Joyce

Elm Street Chapel said...

Micheal,
First,who ever said that you weren't funny? Second, what store do you shop at? Third, does your wife read this?, because you are one brave soul.

Does ever learning and never coming to knowledge of truth sound about right? The hirelings have failed to point to the end of salvation. They like to keep God's people in a properous (for them) holding pattern (better for business). Yup, they say, "I am the way, most of the truth, and allot of the light, just don't get out of my shadow, because I live by faith, just keep those cards and letters coming in, ps. don't forget the check, visa or master card".
L,J,P&HG
Dave

Anonymous said...

Bro. Michael, while reading your blog, a dream that the Lord gave me came to mind and I feel impressed that it applied to you also.

*The Life Guard-

I have been reluctant to give out this dream, but with the encouragement of my cousin, she says that it need be told.

I dreamt that I was at a public swimming pool. Suddenly a young man began to drown and the lifeguard just sat there and did nothing to help him.

As this young man now lay face down in the water, I jumped in and brought him to the pool’s edge and the lifeguard continued to just sit there and do nothing. My girlfriend Barb, who I hadn’t noticed before, showed up and helped me pull him out of the water and as in the days of old, we worked together assessing the young man and started CPR. (Barb and I have been friends for over 28 years and worked 16 years together on the ambulance.)

Barb and I continued to work endlessly on the young man and wondered why help wasn’t coming. We yelled for someone to call 911, but no one did, not even the lifeguard who continued to just sit there.

After awhile, Barb and I just started talking as if this was just routine for us and wondered why we were even trying, as no one seemed to care and still no one came to help.

Suddenly the young man revived, much to our amazement. And while he was still in his weakened condition, the lifeguard suddenly got up and became furious and outraged. He then grabbed the young man, dragged him to the balcony’s edge and threw him over it. The young man then lay there motionless on the pavement below and we couldn’t see if he was dead or alive and my heart grieved.

I wondered and was saddened by the dream for the next few days and another well-meaning ministry tried to give me the interpretation of it, saying that it was a message to me, that I was doing wrong in the body of Christ.

The Lord then spoke to me and said, “This is the dream.”

“The church is not teaching My ways, but rather their own ways for their own purpose and they are letting those die around them with their words, while not caring.”

“I have given My words to you and with them you shall revive some of the dying. But this will anger the church and they will try to grab and drag them back, attempting to kill them for their own glory. This is the church of today and I will punish them.”

“Give My words as I give them to you or I will punish you as I will punish them, for I am the Lord and I have spoken it.” Winter 2006

Anonymous said...

WOW...by the way you wrote that post you must have had a long night! You sounded very irritable. At least you received a good laugh while analyzing billboard faces with smiles. Besides your ramblings(LOL), I do agree with your assessment of most Christians(in America) who depend on others to do their studying and meditating of the Holy Scriptures for them. I actually was one of those Christians for a long time. Until Jesus, out of His faithfulness, awoke me to my wayward, doubleminded, milk loving, complacent pig pen. Jesus sees the heart of men and I know that He knows who will wake up and who will not. Time will tell!

Love in Christ Jesus,
Paul

Marcel said...

The false advertising ,the false prophets of our day will have no influence on us if our heart is right with God.
We always will go where our hearts lead us.
If we are greedy for riches then the religious hucksters will hold sway over our wallets.
it's so much a repeat of what has already happened in the past to the people of God.
REPEAT,REPEAT,REPEAT.
In Jereimiah's day ,the message was negative and harsh because the people were in deep apostacy.
99% of the people ignored & rejected God's message and messenger because it was so negative and the false prophets were selling such a more positive message where the people could just continue in their evil and the god of their vain imaginations would keep smileing on them.
The King, President of Israel even threw God's warning message ,Jeremiah's scroll in the fire hopeing to remove the negative threat to Israel's sound economy.
The same today as the church refuses to rock the boat and continue with everything as it is.

It's the same delusion today and the same wrath is coming to the same backslid children of God.

Anonymous said...

Brother Michael,

It is true that the Christian life is definitely not a walk in the park. Rather, Paul likens it to warfare, a race, and a farmer toiling by the sweat of his brow to get the cursed ground to bear fruit. This is probably why Christ said that many are called, but few are chosen. It's easy to start well, but enduring to the end requires us to lose our own lives, which is something that few are willing to give up.

When I woke up this morning, the Holy Spirit was speaking the following verse to me from 1 Timothy 4:1, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."

During my time with the Lord, the Spirit really began to speak to me from Paul's entire first epistle to Timothy, his son in the faith. I believe that it would do us all well to read and meditate on the instructions that Paul gives to Timothy in light of the world we live in today. The irony is that the issues of Paul's day have changed very little from today. The devil is still scheming and deceiving and using the same bag of tricks to take men captive to do his will.

There are so many teachings and doctrines being espoused today over the radio, pulpits, and internet that it is very easy to get confused. I tend to be more of an intellectual person and I can tell you that it is very easy to get sidetracked and start going off on some rabbit trail in pursuit of truth and unknowingly shipwreck your faith. Paul warns Timothy against this and reminds him to keep the main things the main things.

King Solomon was a man of great wisdom and he wanted to try and test every teaching to increase his knowledge. This seems good and we are to test everything and cling to what is good, but be very careful that what you end up holding to does not shipwreck your faith. We all know what happened to Solomon and his testimony from Ecclesiastes 1:18 reads, "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge the more grief."

As Michael encourages in the post, it is essential that we be good Bereans and seek the truth for ourselves. Don't seek the latest and greatest teaching, but rather first and foremost open the word of God and let His Spirit lead you into all truth. It might be easier being spoon fed, but you don't always know what you're eating.

Finally, I would like to encourage everyone with Michael's words from the December 2005 Newsletter. He said, "Though it may sound simplisctic, we must take TIME now, while we still can grow in the knowledge and understanding of God, to learn to hear His voice, that we may distinguish His voice from the myriad of counterfeit voices. I say this, because soon a new wave of deception will sweep over this land, and false gospels and false Christs will begin to reveal themselves at an unprecedented rate. Our Father's voice is unique, and even in correction His love for us is evident."

May all with ears to hear what the Spirit is saying be blessed with peace and understanding in these days!

Brother Andrew

A Seed Sower said...

To whom ever posted the life-guard dream, God Bless you and thank you for sharing it with us.
Bro Michael your a trip, hope your still in good graces with your dear wee wife...lol.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous Blogger with the dream, I couldn't believe it when I read your dream. I had just listened to and watched the recent posting on Times Square Church in New York ...founded by David Wilkerson ... Pastor Carter Conlon preached a warning, word from Heaven in his message "Beware of Angry Watchmen" this last Sunday 10/28/20007. It was just like your dream. God had warned you and He is warning the Bride!
Thank you for being faithful in telling your dream ....

Anonymous said...

I was having pity for all those I know in the church who don't seem to grasp, to see the truth; then, my wonderful husband whom God has given his wisdom, pointed out to me:

We ALL have a CHOICE. Many refuse to except or to even receive the truth that is available to all of us. Not just the few who seem to GET IT.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your kind words, concerning the dream of the life-guard.

By the way, I was resently pulled into a meeting with a pastor from another church and distinctly told that the Lord doesn't speak to people in dreams and visions, that this is only for the Jews in the end-times. (For being a woman, my husband was proud of me, as I held my tongue and didn't tell them that I am Jewish decent and that these are the end-times.)

Because I had sent the Dreams and Visions to the local churchs in Michigan from north of Grand Rapids to south of Kalamazoo and Allegan to Detroit, I also included those from Hand of Help, I was told that this is why the churchs don't support our small ministry.

I was then told to "Shut my mouth."

Sorry, can't do it. Blessings to you.

Anonymous said...

Concerning the person who wrote about Carter Conlon's lastest message "Beware of the Angry Watchmen." I also listened to his message online, like I do every week. God has been warning all of the leaders at Times Square Church that something is about to happen again. Their website is excellent and you can listen to thier weekly sermons online. Also you can download them for free and give to other people. David Wilkerson's ministry has been a blessing to me for nearly 22 years now.