Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The Unintended Criminal


When fools and madmen criminalize rational thought, then every sane man becomes a criminal by default. Perhaps it was indifference or even outright apathy, but whatever caused the deafening silence to perpetuate itself in this nation, and rational people to go along just to get along, has done a masterful job thus far.

Even in the delusional faux utopia many convinced themselves they were living in, there were a handful of voices warning of the consequences of our silence, but they were quickly muzzled, marginalized, or branded some sort of extremist hater who refuses to come into the glorious light of progress and innovation, content with clinging to God and guns alike, believing they will somehow slow the tide.

Those who ought to have stood with the trumpeters of truth and trumpeted the truth themselves, instead found reasons and means by which to distance themselves, and make themselves seem more embracing and tolerant of the sin being warned against, not wanting to be mistaken for an ally or friend of someone who would dare speak such divisive words as repentance or holiness.

I realize that to the casual Christian, my words might sound bitter, but I assure you I am not. There’s no energy for bitterness anymore, I fear, just a sadness that blooms ever wider like a bloodstain from a gunshot wound.

We did our best. We tried our hardest. We preached until our throats were raw, and warned until we were speaking to empty pews, and left wives and sons and daughters behind for the sake of the Gospel and in the hopes of awakening a slumbering nation, and all we have to show for it are achy joints, bad backs, and a gnawing question in the back of our minds if any of it was really worth it.

Not only was love mistaken for intolerance and truth mistaken for divisiveness by most, soon, it seems, those still clinging to truth will be branded criminals because they refuse to put on the muzzle.

Even now I’m still getting the ‘what if’ e-mails from well-meaning individuals who just don’t want to see how hard the hearts of most have become, and how unwilling to repent they are.

In their quest to sin guilt free, even a most beautiful truth such as grace has been perverted and bastardized by supposed Christians to mean that because of it, because of grace, we can do as we will, when we will, with no consequence or repercussion.

We keep bulldozing the path and making it ever wider, without a thought to what God has to say, without an ounce of remorse or introspection, because we love our sin more than we love Him and that is the defining characteristic of the modern day church.

There it is, simple and clean. We love sin more than we love God, and we make concessions for our sins to the detriment of God’s holy Word time and again, because the self is our idol, and the pleasing of the self is of paramount importance.

If only a heart broken and stripped of pride can truly understand what God counts as important and necessary, then before we can place a single foot on the right path, God must break us asunder and strip us of our pride and hedonism. If this does not occur, then He has left us to the desire of our own hearts, and this above all ought to be ample reason to humble ourselves into the dust of the earth and heap ash upon ourselves.

The church isn’t ready for what is coming, not by a longshot, and when being a follower of Christ becomes a criminal act, far fewer individuals will claim to be followers of Christ. At least then we will know the true believer from the pretend.

Whether in this life, or the life beyond, those who have perpetrated the chaos we are seeing from within the church itself will be held to account, for nothing done in open or in secret goes unseen, and the God we serve is a meticulous record keeper.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

9 comments:

jerry mcfarland said...

Well said Brother.

I have no words to match the heart of this article. May you be encouraged that some are/have listened and been changed.

Mary Lamoray said...

Excellent...and sad...but very true.

meema said...

I’ve finally moved on past the grief stage. Partly because people, whom I thought were among the faithful remnant have suddenly chosen something else to worship, to focus on, to idolize, i.e., Christian Mysticism, among other things. Passion feels so good, you know. It feels spiritual.

And whether it is fleshly passion or spiritual passion, that converts earnest prayer into divine manipulation and renames it ‘faith’, it’s so subtle a shift that one hardly notices the refocus from Christ Crucified to, fix this, heal this, sing and shout this in a din of percussion.

So, at the very bottom of my grief, knowing that nothing I can say can open eyes that will not see, I asked specifically if I could stop speaking because no one is listening. In the quietest voice, He said to me, "I am listening. Speak for me. Not you, not them."

Speak for Him and nothing else matters. There is no sacrifice we can make that can equal His anyway. Understanding this is where I discovered my joy again.

So, I’ll stand and speak for Him, with a huge smile on my face, even if it lands me in shackles. Paul and Silas knew how to speak and sing in the worst situations. Can we do less?

j said...

I was reading The Living Bible Paraphrased. Isaiah 30:1 says this.
Woe to my rebellious children says the Lord; you ask advice from everyone but me, and decide to do what I don't want you to do. You yoke yourselves with unbelievers thus piling up your sins.

Anonymous said...

God bless you Michael. Sadly, you are right on. We need to all fall on our faces before our Holy God for not standing up when we had the opportunity. Forgive us Lord, and let us spend the remainder of our days getting Your Word out.

Anonymous said...

So, Michael, I totally get what you're saying and I pray daily for ALL of God's people to wake up and be strengthened; but those of us who have never lived outside the US are kind of at a loss to grasp what is coming. You've seen it in communist nations and your parents and grandparents have told you about what you didn't see. You have said you see it beginning to take place here ....... we have noticed the forbidding of prayer in schools, the removal of the 10 commandments from public places, the acceptance of homosexuality ... and we who read about it are aware of persecuted Christians being slaughtered in the middle east, imprisoned and tortured in many other places .... but what comes in between those extremes? How does it happen? What should we be looking out for and preparing for (spiritually, not "prepping") next?

And P.S., not everyone is silent; God bless you Mrs. Thomas, my 5th grade teacher, who told our class that 1. it is illegal to pray in school and 2. we are going to say the Lord's Prayer every morning. And we did.

Holly said...

Your preaching has made a big difference for me,Mike. I am very glad for the Holy Spirit & Prayer studies. I can't always get the truth from church. But I can get the truth from this blog. Thank you.

Barbara said...

Protestantism used to be against twisting the doctrines of Christ to suit another agenda. It was opposed to what Catholics did to the word of God by making it other than what it was. Now Protestants do the same thing, coming up with their own ways how what they think is actually what God is saying, instead of humbly searching it out through self discipline.

They will tell you whatever they feel like doing is fine, cause they already asked forgiveness. So they can be as cruel and obnoxious as hell, and they think that God is all for it. They think they can tear apart sincere believers to make themselves look good, and it is all even doing God a favor.

These people can make you insane. They may call you crazy, but they don't have a clue. You have to leave these people in the dust. Their lamps are devoid of oil, and they will deplete yours with their idiocy. They will try to wear you out for not agreeing with them.

They think the louder they sing and the more enthusiastically they dance to their worship music, the more they are in touch with God. They might as well be worshiping a rock star.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for adding the sharer buton. I finally found it!

Recently, the Army has stated that anyone within the organization supporting "evangelical Christians" and other hate groups, will be penalized.


The time is drawing very near for intense persecution of Christians in America. Obama recently fieed 9 Generals in an effort to "cleanse" our military of non"Yes-Men".