Preparing For Persecution XXIX

 With the advent of the participation trophy, we’ve been taught to believe that half-measures are perfectly reasonable and acceptable. You don’t really have to try; you just have to show up, and someone will hand you a prize for something you never did and make you feel accomplished when, in truth, you accomplished nothing. We need to spare feelings because feelings have become the new currency. If you’ve got a winning smile and learn how to praise people who’ve done nothing praiseworthy, stroke their egos just so, and feed them spiritual scraps, leavings, and cast-offs, you’ll be living in high cotton with not a care in the world.

Whatever you do, however much your conscience hammers away at you, however often that doom-fraught sense that you are leading people into Sheol overwhelms you, if you want to retain the lifestyle to which you’ve become accustomed, you must resist the urge to preach the truth or rightly divide the Word. That way lies poverty and the vitriol of the godless. That way lies invitations to gladhand with Oprah, sip champagne on some rapper’s yacht, or attend a nonbinary wedding between two famous men drying up.

Clout chasing and the gospel are like oil and water. They don’t mix, never have, never will, and if you want to be well-received by the world, you must compromise the Word of God. Turning your face toward one necessitates turning your back on the other. You can have either the world or Jesus. You can’t have both. You must choose one.

Rather than being humbled by Stephen’s faithfulness unto death, as is the correct response, most Christians today tend to roll their eyes and find reasons why they think it was wrong for him to antagonize the ruling class and that, perhaps, he had it coming since he wasn’t willing to compromise, meet in the middle, give a little to get a little, and so on.

We have stripped the modern-day gospel of the Gospel, then wonder why there is so much confusion, division, and acrimony. Everyone’s a theologian, and they’ll make sure you know it given half the chance. Whenever anyone dares to point out that their theology isn’t Biblical, they’ll call you unenlightened and resistant to the spirit. If it’s unbiblical, it’s wrong. Yes, I am resistant to that spirit, as everyone who seeks the truth ought to be because great monsters have been birthed from within the household of faith who went on to persecute the saints because they placed their dogma above the Word of God and deemed it to be the final arbiter.

When someone’s counterargument to Biblical truth is to stone you to death or call for your demise, they have no counterargument and are lashing out in rage and vitriol. It’s to be expected. It’s something we were told to prepare for throughout the New Testament, but we’d rather listen to fairy tales about pet dinosaurs in heaven. Giving our last full measure, enduring to the end, and suffering for the sake of righteousness have become so anathema in the modern-day church that if anyone dares to mention it, they are looked upon as strange and out of touch.

It’s eye-opening to see how some churchgoers react to reading a Bible passage from the pulpit, as though they were hearing it for the first time or had never encountered something so controversial before.

Revelation 2:8-11, “And to the angel of the church of Smyrna write, ‘These things say the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life: “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.’”

Yes, I’ve heard the snarky theories of pampered boys in grown men’s bodies wearing horn-rimmed glasses and skinny jeans about how you don’t beat up your bride on her wedding night, and so because our ways must necessarily be His ways and our thoughts His thoughts, that childish anecdote should be enough for us to dismiss the words Jesus spoke through John the revelator.

We’re faithful; just take our word for it. We are committed and steadfast, resolute, and purposed to follow You to the end, but please don’t call our bluff.

In case anyone missed it, the First and the Last, the one who was dead and came to life, is none other than Jesus. It is He who gives the message to the church of Smyrna, encouraging them, but not in the way one might define encouragement where hurt feelings are compared to the worst of tortures and disagreement of any kind to the pains of death itself.

Jesus didn’t say he knew their tribulation and poverty but that soon they would prosper beyond their wildest dreams. Nor did Jesus say that they would be spared suffering, but rather that they should not fear the things they were about to suffer.

The image of a magic genie Jesus who’s there to serve at your pleasure and pamper you however you see fit, giving you everything, requiring nothing, and denying you nothing is a fabrication of the modern-day church, dare I say the Western church. It’s the only image that would have the mass market appeal they needed to push out enough product to keep them in the lifestyle after which they lusted and to which they’ve become accustomed.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that between a book on holiness unto the Lord and one on unlocking the keys to endless prosperity, the one about getting stuff will outsell the one on being holy a thousand to one. It’s market dynamics dictating what the shepherds feed the sheep, and if the demand is there for sin-affirming doctrine, the supply will manifest.

It’s not as though the church of Smyrna had not endured persecution up to that point. Jesus knew of their persecution and was preparing them for more persecution still. They had not shied away from it, but the foreknowledge of what was to come served as an encouragement to them to persevere and be faithful to the end. It’s not what we want to hear, though. Lord, don’t tell us that we’ll be persecuted; tell us that we’ll be spared persecution. In that case, we’re asking for Jesus to lie to us, and if He does as we will, then when persecution comes, we’ll shake our fists at the sky and call Him a liar.

If the Word of God tells us to prepare for persecution, and if Jesus insists that being hated by the world is a certainty and not a possibility, then it doesn’t matter how many degrees those speaking to the contrary might possess; they’re still wrong. One is a declaration by the omniscient Creator of all that is; the other is the opinions of men who see the world through the prism of having never had their faith tested nor ever having endured hardship for the sake of Christ.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Preparing For Persecution XXVIII

 If you think you’re going to get a fair shake from the godless, you’ve got another thing coming. The same goes for those within the household of faith with hidden agendas, vested interests, and pursuits other than the glory of God. It doesn’t matter what the thing they value more than Jesus is, whether a specific denomination, a theological bend, or a particular individual; they will fight tooth and nail to defend it and are willing to use nefarious means to silence any opposition.

Then you have the profiteers. Those who see the children of God as so many bleating sheep ready to be sheered and fleeced because not only are many of them gullible, they won’t do anything about it once they realize they’ve been taken to the cleaners. The profiteers know they have no credibility or standing, so they attempt to employ those who’ve amassed some sort of trust equity to shill their products and try to sell people worthless things. You may get a nice kickback from selling self-assembly nuclear bunkers or radiation-deflecting underoos, but is it worth the price of your integrity and credibility? If you believe in the product, it’s one thing; if you’re in it for nothing more than filthy lucre, that’s wholly different.

You can’t defend God with lies. It’s not that people don’t try; it’s that it’s impossible to do so. Men can band together, form coalitions, try to shout the truth down, and become vitriolic when you don’t fall in line, but God is still God, He is still on the throne, and He knows the intent of men’s hearts.

The ego and pride of unteachable men led to Stephen’s stoning, and though he tried his best to open their eyes so that they might see the truth, they would not. Their hearts were hard as stone, their minds were made up, and though his face looked as that of an angel, and his words cut them to their hearts, their reaction was one of hatred and their intent one of murder.

You can’t control how those to whom you speak the truth will react to it. Your duty is to speak the truth of Christ’s power to save, restore, and reconcile men unto God; how they respond to it is solely on them. The presumption that everyone will welcome the message with open arms and consider you a friend for speaking truth into their lives is demonstrably false. Yes, some will receive the message, but some will reject it and do so violently. You must be prepared for either outcome and willing to endure the backlash of the hard-hearted when their rejection is made manifest.

Jesus commands us to love those who hate us, to have compassion for their fallen state, and to do our utmost to bring them to truth, light, and life, even at the risk of our comfort, well-being, or lives. He never said it would be easy; He just said it is what we must do. For anyone who believes it’s easy to love one’s enemies, they’ve never had a true enemy. An enemy is not someone who is passive, indifferent, or otherwise neutral regarding your well-being but someone who is actively trying to undermine and destroy you. That some of your enemies will turn out to be those whom you once called brother or sister is doubly painful, and I say this as someone who has lived it.

It is undeniable that Stephen is an example, a prototype of what it means to walk humbly with God and suffer well. Just as Stephen had his heroes, we, too, have ours, and the entire point of it is to look upon their lives and learn from them. Stephen knew the history of God’s people. He highlighted those to whom he looked up and took the time to learn everything he could from their lived experiences walking with God. It’s an odd thing that we know more about baseball stats or the football rosters of our favorite teams than we know about the Word of God, the things Jesus said, and the things the forerunners of the faith had to endure for the sake of Christ.

We learn about things we respect. We learn about things we value. We learn about things that we deem needful. How is it that learning the Bible is so far down the list for so many calling themselves Christians and followers of Christ? Stephen didn’t mumble himself through a weak defense of his position. He knew what he was talking about, and it showed. It was largely the reason those who heard him despised him, so because they could not refute his arguments.

While growing up, there wasn’t much for us to do as children. Gaming consoles hadn’t yet made an appearance on the scene, so our primary entertainment was playing chicken with some rusty lawn darts a neighbor gave us rather than throw away. It was fun for a while until my middle brother Sergiu decided he wouldn’t move, and I planted a lawn dart in his foot. After that, we were prohibited from using them, so we switched to rocks. We’d stand a few feet apart and toss rocks at each other’s heads; whoever flinched or moved was the loser. I never said we were overly bright, but it was entertaining, and no, we weren’t throwing underhand. I mention this only because I know what it’s like to have a rock bounce off your kisser, and even then, it was a small rock compared to what they were using to stone Stephen.

Being stoned to death is not like being beheaded or speared through the heart. It takes time for the individual to expire depending on how many people do the throwing, how big the rocks are, and how violently they are throwing them. Given that the same people who stoned Stephen were the ones who gnashed at him with their teeth, chances are they weren’t holding back.

Through it all, Stephen never once prayed for himself but rather for those who were slowly murdering him because that’s what it was. Imagine being surrounded by men whom you once considered brothers, lobbing stones at your head, being struck over and over, yet having the presence of mind to pray for them. It’s one of those details that is often overlooked but one that is profoundly impacting if you think through it for a breath.

Just as Stephen was not alone during his final moments, neither will any of God’s children if they must walk the road of persecution and martyrdom. He looked up and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. In his darkest hour, God’s presence was made manifest. He was not absentee; He was not otherwise engaged; He was present and revealed His glory to Stephen as he gave his full measure for the sake of Christ Jesus his Lord.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Preparing For Persecution XVII

 We’ve become so mealy-mouthed and duplicitous that bonafide theologians have questioned Stephen’s actions, insisting that he could have denied Jesus presently and repented for it later. He didn’t need to be that confrontational, that standoffish, that unwilling to bend and compromise, or in the least omit the things he knew would trigger those to whom he was answering.  

He could have placated them, couldn’t he? That way, they say, he could have gone on to minister and preach the gospel and kept himself from being martyred. You live to fight another day. That’s the end goal, isn’t it? Actually, no. If you have to deny Christ to live another day, then the cost of living another day is not worth it.

Numerous people have tried to find excuses for cowardice and even encouraged others to practice it. Still, none of them can definitively state where the cowardice will end once it begins. Is once the cutoff? Is it twice or three times? How many times can you deny Jesus to get out of a scrape or avoid hardship before it becomes one too many? Those who insist Jesus would understand denying Him in certain circumstances conveniently ignore Christ's words, wherein He declared that if we deny Him before men, He will deny us before the Father because, to them, looking out for number one is their number one goal.

And you wonder why we’re not seeing the presence of God in most churches today? Do you still have to wonder why so many are lukewarm and willing to betray Jesus at the drop of a hat if it means elevation, promotion, or being left alone by those who would see harm come to the household of faith?

To go into Stephen’s entire discourse would be a book unto itself since he went through the entire history of Israel’s journey from Abraham to Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, reminding them of the prophecies given concerning the Christ and pointing out the resistance of their fathers to the Holy Spirit just as they were resisting the Holy Spirit. He encapsulated Israel’s journey up to that point in time and pled with them to open their eyes and see the truth of Jesus.

It likely wouldn’t have mattered if Stephen had been more conciliatory in his discourse because these men who had plotted his demise had been humiliated, and whatever he said would have landed on stony hearts anyway. If you believe compromising the truth will ingratiate you with those who hate you, you’re in for a surprise.

Why humiliate and prostrate yourself before the godless when their hatred of you will not be tamped down, and their desire to see your destruction will not be satiated? Perhaps, for a little while, they will leave you be, using you as an example to others who’ve not been cowed. Still, eventually, unless you renounce your faith altogether and join the forces of darkness in persecuting the followers of Christ, they will still see you as an enemy.

We’ve all seen what happens to those who give in to the pressure. Although they spoke something demonstrably factual, they backpedaled, apologized, and groveled, only to be shunned and ostracized by those they were trying to placate. Not only are they left with nothing, but they’ve also betrayed their ethics, values, and morals.

Know the truth, live the truth, and speak the truth. Then let the chips fall where they may because although you can control your actions, you can’t control the world’s reaction to who you are.

Acts 7:54-60, “When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord, and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not charge them with this sin.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.’”

They knew Stephen's words were true; they just didn’t care. It’s as simple as that. These were supposed fellow saints who could not bear the thought of being theologically humiliated and so orchestrated the murder of a man whose only desire was to see the hearts of men turned to Jesus.

It takes monumental rage to gnash at someone with your teeth, perhaps something even beyond rage. I’ve been angry in life, but it never once crossed my mind to gnash at someone with my teeth. These men were convicted and cut to the heart, yet their pride kept them from seeking repentance. If you can’t kill the message, go target the messenger, hoping the message dies with him.

If there had been a shadow of doubt in Stephen’s conviction, if, at any moment, he had valued his life more than Jesus, his story would have had a different ending. If man has not purposed in his heart to endure what may come for the sake of Christ, he will find a way to bypass suffering, hardship, and martyrdom. The opportunity to do so will be presented.

It is a far greater boon for the devil to coerce someone into denying Jesus than to facilitate their murder for His sake. Martyrs have the undesired effect of being looked up to as examples of steadfastness and faithfulness, while cowards are dismissed, and rightly so. The enemy would far rather see a church full of cowards than one of committed saints willing to pay the ultimate price for the sake of Christ. A coward can be brought to heel one way or another. One whose life is forfeit and whose only desire is to do the will of God is impossible to corral.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Preparing For Persecution XXVI

 When winning is the only thing that matters, man can justify any action undertaken in the pursuit of victory, both to himself and to others. The object of the exercise was not to play fair, play nice, play by the rules, make sure everyone’s having fun, or that everyone gets to participate, but that you win. Last man standing, all foes vanquished, bring me my medal, my giant trophy, and the heads of my enemies on a platter! To the victor go the spoils; as an added bonus, more often than not, the victor gets to write the story of how it all went down.

If the agents of darkness see it as war and you see it as a game, who do you think will win?

Come on now. We all know Jesus wins in the end, don’t we? Yes, He does win in the end, but if you treat the entire exercise as nothing more than fire insurance and consider this faith of ours as nothing more than a game we play to ensure our perpetual comfort, are you still on team Jesus?

When ensuring my comfort supersedes His glory, I will find a way to skirt, bypass, or otherwise circumvent enduring or suffering for His name’s sake. If I’m more concerned about me than I am about His glory, I will find a way to beg off the difficult season, justifying it as prudence rather than cowardice, self-preservation rather than betrayal.

When we are committed to Christ, we will not look for ways to bend the truth, massage it, or otherwise omit it for fear of what others might think, say, or do in retaliation. Stephen knew full well that he could have lived to see another day if he was willing to compromise the truth. He knew he could have worded his response in such a fashion wherein the crowd's anger would have been tampered down, and the situation de-escalated. He likewise knew that doing so would betray his conviction of who Jesus was and the message of a risen Christ who was the only way, truth, and life.

While Stephen did not set out to get martyred, he didn’t shy away from the possibility of it or betray Jesus for the sake of his own continued existence on this earth. He was not needlessly antagonistic, nor did he insult those to whom he spoke on purpose. He spoke the truth of Christ fearlessly and committed His ways to the Lord wherever they might lead.

We are already experiencing a soft tyranny when it comes to speaking the truth, unadulterated and undiluted. Whether it’s social media platforms that strike you when you get out of line or entire denominations who demonize you when you point out that the Bible says things contrary to what they are preaching, the silencing of truth is already well on its way. For fear of being de-platformed or no longer allowed on certain mediums, many have taken to self-censoring and holding back the things they know they ought to be trumpeting.

As yet, there is no threat of physical persecution, but that will come in time, and if someone is willing to compromise the truth today, they will surely do so when the threat of violence and death come to the fore, and those who wield power begin to condone it.

You don’t show up to a weightlifting competition, having never lifted weights in your life, and expect to place or win. Some things in life require preparation, dedication, focus, and commitment. People train for years on end just to be able to deadlift three times their body weight or run a marathon without their hearts quitting on them, but they have a goal firmly affixed in their minds and will let nothing stand in the way of achieving it.

When our minds and hearts are prepared for the advent of persecution, and we purpose therein to speak the truth no matter the threats and consequences, when the time comes that we are called upon to make a choice, we will not hesitate or retreat.

At some point along the way, Stephen likely saw where this was going. If you read through his discourse, you realize this was a wise man, if not a learned one, whose dedication to the word was proven out in the handful of truths he reminded those he stood before. This was no monosyllabic troglodyte who could barely put two words together, so when he saw false witnesses accusing him of things he’d never done, he likely put two and two together.

He knew where this was going and could have put it in neutral. Stephen could have backpedaled and obfuscated as we’ve seen so many self-professing spiritual leaders do time and again when asked about whether abortion, adultery, homosexuality, and all manner of hot-button issues being a sin, but he knew that by omitting the truth, he would be betraying it, thereby making himself unworthy of the name Jesus.

The Christian message has been so sterilized and neutered in our day and age that when someone stands boldly on the truth of God’s word and declares it unashamedly, we view them as brave, bold, courageous to a fault, and a rarity among men. It should not be so. Boldness should be the standard, not the exception. Courage and speaking the truth should be the baseline, not the unattainable ideal.

If you can get the same thing from Tony Robbins as you would from your pastor, then your pastor is not teaching the gospel of Christ. Your spiritual man is not being fed, and though you may not notice it momentarily, it is being starved and weakened due to a lack of spiritual succor. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If we eliminate the Word of God from what we are hearing, are we not faithless, powerless, rudderless souls who are as vulnerable to the storms of life as the godless among us?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Preparing For Persecution XXV

 One could say Stephen was overqualified for his position as he served widows day in and day out, but God’s plan wasn’t for Stephen to serve tables for the rest of his life. By the same token, Stephen didn’t beg off the responsibility or point out that the task was beneath him. It reveals his servant’s heart more than any words he could have spoken, and it is a testament to the character of those who made up the early church.

Imagine going up to one of the pompous peacocks masquerading as clergymen who siphon the glory rightly due God unto themselves, reveling in the praise of men and asking them to do something they might consider beneath their station. The tongue-lashing you would get would likely give you flashbacks to the one your mom gave you when she discovered you’d eaten a Costco-sized jar of Nutella in one sitting. How dare you ask someone of their station to sacrifice the time they set aside for golfing to serve food to widows. I mean, if one of them inherited a nice investment portfolio from her late husband, they could, perhaps, pencil her in, but just run-of-the-mill widows?

For the Apostles, it was a time issue, and they needed to prioritize preaching the word. It wasn’t that they thought the task was beneath them; they just realized their time would be better spent focusing on prayer and the ministering of the word. It’s not a sin to delegate, but it is a heart issue when the reason for delegating a certain task to others is because you deem it beneath you or your station. Whether it’s mopping the bathroom floor, feeding widows, or preaching the gospel, they all fall under the umbrella of obedience and are rewarded in like fashion. Obedience gives value to the action; the action does not assume value on its own. It matters not how grand a thing you do if God didn’t tell you to do it. However, even the smallest of things is seen and recorded by God if He commanded you to do it, and you obeyed.

Those who were plotting the demise of Christ’s followers knew that targeting Peter, John, or any of the others who’d garnered name recognition and were seen as those through whom God did miracles was out of the question. As yet, the people were on their side, and going after them would incur more blowback than they were ready to endure, so they hatched a scheme to go after a lesser-known individual, fabricate a crime so heinous that it may sway the populace, and make an example of them.

What they had not yet realized is that the power of the Holy Spirit and the working of miracles was not reserved exclusively for the twelve. God doesn’t work based on a caste system, and He does not imbue with power only those who are deemed to be in leadership but all who hunger for His presence and purpose to live lives worthy of the name of Jesus.

Acts 6:8-15, And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then there arose from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.’ And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.”

If you’re expecting the devil or his minions to play fair, you’ve got another thing coming. There are no lengths to which the devil will not go, no depths to which he will not sink in order to upend, hurt, damage, or destroy the people of God.

Knowing full well that Stephen was innocent, those who would see him come to harm set up false witnesses to accuse him of blasphemy. Keep in mind it wasn’t the Roman soldiers or Pontius Pilate that was after Stephen’s head; it was those of the Synagogue of Freedmen who’d debated him and were not able to resist his wisdom. If you can’t nullify the message, you seek to destroy the messenger, hoping the message dies with him.

I have no counterargument to your declared position, so I’m going to plot and scheme against you personally, get others to join in, accuse you of things you never did, and hopefully, everyone’s blood will be boiling by then, and they’ll do something to you they’ll live to regret, and which will be a stain on their conscience until the day they die. But hey, eggs and omelets and whatnot. At least we’ll be rid of the instigator, the person who says things we can’t refute, and in such a way that it draws others to his cause.

There have always been instigators and useful idiots who get steered into doing their bidding. Rather than acknowledge the inferiority of their argument or receive Jesus as Lord, they chose door number two, inducing men to say things Stephen never did and finding false witnesses to corroborate their stories. And you thought the old Soviets came up with the notion of showing them the man, and they would show you the crime. The old religious order had one-upped them two thousand years prior when they concluded that since there was no crime, they’d fabricate one out of whole cloth.

Do you think the servants of darkness today would hesitate for one second to accuse you of things you never did and even find false witnesses to corroborate their claims?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Preparing For Persecution XXIV

 The first recorded martyr of what would be countless martyrs throughout the history of the early church and beyond was a man named Stephen. History may have forgotten some of the names of those who gave their full measure for the name of Christ, but God has not forgotten a one. Every name, to the last, is remembered and cataloged, and their reward has already been set aside. There is nothing any principality, power, demon, or the devil himself can do to take away that reward or erase their names from the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Studying how persecution came about in the early church is worthwhile because although the enemy has refined his methods, his methods have not changed. When it comes to the attempted silencing of those who preach a risen Christ or those who would hold firm to the faith once delivered to the saints, he reacts in much the same fashion, hoping that the next generation of believers will be weaker or less committed than the previous one.

There’s no escalation from torture and death. That’s the end game for the enemy, and it’s the last hand he can play. His hope is that you don’t endure to the end. His hope is that somewhere along the way of escalation, you give up, cry, uncle, and retreat.

One of the most fascinating things about the early church that few notice today is the standard to which everyone who was tasked with ministering was held. When we dig down and see what Stephen’s function was within the body, we come to realize that there are no menial tasks in the kingdom, and the standard of faithfulness, maturity, and righteousness is the same across the board for everyone who is called to serve.

Perhaps the reason God is not moving among believers today as He was among the early church is because what was once the standard has been erased altogether, and individuals with divided loyalties would rather remain so than surrender their all to Christ that they might walk in the fullness of what belongs to those who are His by right.

Acts 6:1-6, “Now in those days, when the number of disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable that we should leave the world of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.”

It didn’t take long for the grumbling to begin. Whenever the New Testament writers speak of grumblers among the brethren, they are speaking from experience. This time, it was the Hellenists, who were Greek-speaking Jews who had returned to Jerusalem. They, too, were believers, but they felt as though their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution and began to raise a fuss. It only took one voice to insist that they were being neglected because they spoke Greek and not Hebrew, and soon enough, it snowballed into a big enough problem wherein the twelve had to summon the multitude of the disciples and task them with choosing seven from among themselves which they could appoint to the task of serving the Hellenist widows.

The twelve understood the dangers of division among the brethren well enough to try to ameliorate the situation, but some people just can’t be placated, and they will continue with their invectives even when they are shown grace and deference.

To put it into context, the men who were singled out to serve widow women were supposed to meet the standard of being of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. These men were to be glorified waiters, yet these were the qualifications they were supposed to possess in order to be considered for the position.

If we were to use the same standard today, not for glorified waiters but for church elders, a good chunk of America’s pulpits would be left empty and void of leadership. Again, perhaps we should consider that we’ve lowered our standards while God has not rather than insist that God stopped being God and making Himself known to His children—just a thought.

Of the seven, two are mentioned again in the Book of Acts: Stephen and his martyrdom, and Philip, who went on to preach the gospel in Samaria and baptize the Ethiopian man whose chariot he outran on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.

It doesn’t matter where you begin within the body. Wherever it is God needs you, whatever it is God calls you to, do it faithfully and to the best of your ability, because if you are given little and are faithful in it, you will be called to greater things.

The standard is the standard whether you’re serving tables, preaching the gospel, or being used to perform signs and wonders. The problem is that some start out being of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and falsely conclude that the greater the ministry God calls them to, the laxer they can become in their walk.

You begin with a good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and grow from there. You don’t decrease; you increase and build up your most holy faith as you see God's presence and power move in ways that leave you humbled and in awe. We must be daily refined, perfected, and made more vividly into the image of Christ, for that is the natural way of the believer whom God can use in greater and greater ways.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Preparing For Persecution XXIII

 It didn’t take long for the forces of darkness to mobilize. It didn’t take long for threats of violence to become actual violence. The enemy does not make empty threats, and when he reveals his purpose and his desire to destroy the household of faith is verbalized and on full display, be prepared for him to follow through. When anyone is vocal about their intent to do you harm, take them seriously and take them at their word. If someone says they’re intent on your destruction and the destruction of everyone you hold dear, you can’t assume they’re joking or that, at some point, they won’t attempt to carry out their threats.

There is one chapter in the Acts of the Apostles between the arrest of Peter and John and the escalation to deadly violence, and it’s filled with all the apostles being arrested, this time not just Peter and John, an angel of the Lord opening the prison doors, and them preaching in the temple. Once more, they were brought before the council, but this time, they didn’t get away with just a verbal warning.

So incensed were those who’d ordered Peter and John to keep silent that now they had to deal with six times the original number that they plotted to kill them outright. The ‘we got off on the wrong foot’ heart-to-heart hadn’t worked, and neither had their threats of intimidation because, you know, we can coexist as long as you do everything I say and stop doing everything I don’t like. The problem had not been fixed, the threats had not been taken to heart, and what’s worse, now there were more of them. Save for the intervention of one man, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, they would have likely followed through with their plot, but his was a voice of reason and one that could not be readily ignored.

His argument against killing the apostles outright was logical. Others throughout the ages had claimed divine inspiration or revelation, but they’d all come to naught. No action needed to be taken regarding those others, at least not anything close to the drastic measures the council was proposing, and the matters had worked themselves out without them having to get their hands dirty.

Acts 5:38-39, “And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it – lest you even be found to fight against God.”

As far as closing arguments go, it was a solid one. Calling back on recent history, Gamaliel pointed to two previous examples where the fervor died down, and those causing a ruckus blended back into the background, returning to society and no longer making nuisances of themselves.

Acts 5:38-39, “And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

Peter and John got off with a warning. This time, they had the apostles beaten. The next time, a life would be taken. There is always escalation, and it’s always evident. What I’ve always found fascinating is how matter of fact Luke was about the council having the apostles beaten. They went, they preached, they got arrested, they were beaten, and then let go. Wait a minute; one of these things is not like the other.

There are no details forthcoming as to how long or how aggressively they were beaten, but it was enough for them to rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus.

Threats had not deterred them, and now neither had a beating. They continued doing what they’d been called to do even though they knew that at some point, the Pharisees, Sadducees, high priest, and Sanhedrin would stop playing nice.

Their purpose and desire was not focused on themselves, their well-being, their safety, or security, but rather on preaching the Christ to all who would hear, whether daily in the temple or in every house. They were more committed than the Pharisees because their love for Jesus burned bright. Although Gamaliel’s counsel may have been wise, at some point, they realized this was something new, something different, something they’d not encountered before, and ignoring it wasn’t working. They were multiplying, growing, expanding, and drawing ever more people to their cause, and there was no sign of their slowing down. What had been but a mere nuisance had turned into an existential crisis and a direct threat to their power and control.

It’s hard to deter a person or a group of people who believe that suffering shame is honor and death is gain. The early church had no hidden agenda, no vested interest, no dreams of blueberry pies, gated seaside mansions, blinged-out chariots, or personal profits, so trying to bribe them was also out the window. They’d found that one guy, Judas, and he’d been so guilt-ridden he found the nearest sturdy tree and a strong rope and played hangman before he spent a piece of the silver they’d paid him for his betrayal. All that was before they started talking about a risen Christ. Now that these people were fully convinced Jesus had risen from the dead, and they were doing miracles that no one among the Pharisees could explain away, they’d become a real problem and one that needed to be dealt with.

There’s nothing left to threaten them with; there is nothing left you can use as a deterrent because the thing you think will harm them or hurt them they perceive as joyful. For them, it was a distinction, a mark of honor to suffer beatings and shame for the name of Jesus.

These were not the kind of people who would see reason as far as the Pharisees were concerned. There was no negotiating with individuals who sold everything they had and gave it to the poor and who were over the moon about being beaten because they deemed it a badge of honor. A man that can’t be moved can’t be moved, whether by threats or actions. His purpose is clear, his course is set, and come what may, he will faithfully follow the way of Christ.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.