Monday, March 18, 2024

Unchanging

 It may not seem like a comfort to some, but as far as I’m concerned, knowing that God is unchanging, that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, provides me with great joy. I don’t have to guess at what God’s thinking today or whether He’ll be moody tomorrow. He is the same and has been since Adam first opened his eyes and looked upon the garden God had created for him and eons before that. He will remain the same for all eternity because He said He would.

You’ll never get a memo from God informing you that the user agreement has changed or that due to a rapidly changing financial environment, your property tax payment has been reassessed, and you owe a couple hundred more every month to cover it. Everything around us is in flux. Everything changes, but God remains the same. You’re never going to find hidden charges or processing fees in God’s contract, nor will there be exemptions for a particular class or group of people.

God will never try to bait and switch you, nor will you ever be expected to dole out more than the prearranged price. Your wretchedness for His glory. Your darkness for His light. Your all for His all.

It was disheartening to walk into my local Dollar store a few weeks back and find nothing for a dollar. Their name alone would make one think that you would, but alas, they had two-dollar shelves, three-dollar shelves, and even five-dollar shelves, but no dollar shelves.

People have the same reaction when they believe the things people tell them that God promised rather than go to the source for themselves and see what God, in fact, promised. They’ve multiplied of late, being too many to count, but all have similar messages of you resting easy and God throwing wheelbarrows of money onto your sleeping form. Some even journey into the land of heresy by insisting that the reason Jesus had to die on the cross was so that you could be rich.

The gospel, according to John, makes it clear as to why God sent His only begotten Son, and it’s not so you could have a six-car garage. Anyone who tells you that God’s purpose for Jesus extends only insofar as getting what you could otherwise by the sweat of your brow if only you applied yourself is lying to your face and keeping you from seeing the glory of Christ and who He is. The Bible is not a magic lamp, and Jesus isn’t a magic genie. He will not be treated as such or be used and abused for the sake of a handful of soulless ghouls to make fortunes off the backs of the naïve and innocent.

Granted, there is an argument to be made that those seeking fortunes via Jesus are neither naïve nor innocent, gravitating toward those who tickle their ears and seeking out those who lie to their faces in the vain hope that the lies may become truth if repeated often enough, but if those pretending to be servants of Christ did not exist, if the fallacious doctrine was not made available, then even though they seek teachers whose only function is to echo their sentiments back to them, they couldn’t find them.

Believing God will never disappoint. Believing what people say about God and the assurances they dole out on His behalf, without His consent or command, will always disappoint. It’s just a matter of when, not if.

James 5:13-15, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

James painstakingly outlines how we should react to different circumstances throughout life so that it might be well with us. The first thing he mentions is suffering because it’s a reality in the lives of every person, whether rich or poor, wise or foolish. Suffering is not exclusive to any one group. We all have our seasons and valleys, and in the midst of our suffering, our singular response is to pray.

Since James is writing to believers, we can infer that believers are not exempted from suffering in this life either, but we do have a recourse, a go-to, something we can do to mitigate and find relief, and that is to pray. He doesn’t exhort us to wail and pull out our hair or go door to door and tell everyone willing to hear about our suffering; he doesn’t instruct us to go on Facebook and put up some mysterious one-sentence post that makes everyone think we’re suicidal or about to hurt ourselves just for the sympathy, rather he tells us to pray.

If you are suffering, run to God. Entreat Him via prayer, which is one of the best ways to spend our time, but one that has fallen out of favor with much of today’s church because it’s neither entertaining nor exciting to get into your prayer closet and be alone with God.

Every true servant of God, every individual who stood out in the pages of Scripture as being bold and fearless, had prayer as their foundation. It was a common and consistent practice to the point that even on pain of death were they to pray to God, they still did so because they could not be apart from fellowship with Him.

As wise servants, prayer should be our first go-to whenever suffering occurs in our lives, not our last resort. We run to God in our moments of hardship and trial, knowing He will comfort us, strengthen us, and journey with us on our way home.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Yes and No

 We’ve all been lied to at some point in our lives. We’ve all been betrayed, used, exploited, and taken advantage of, but it stings differently when a supposed brother or sister does it. Perhaps it’s because you didn’t expect the attack to come from within the camp, or you’d put your trust in the individual because they presented themselves as being of the household of faith, but it seems as though it takes longer to heal from a knife to the back than one you see coming. Maybe the one in the back just goes deeper. The one in the front you have a split second to flinch away from, if anything.

Getting blindsided is no fun. It’s happened a couple of times throughout my life, and I’ve learned enough from those experiences to know that trust should be hard-earned and not readily handed out. We are more prone to trust people who say they are of the same tribe, whether that tribe is ethnicity, nationality, denomination, or local church. It’s why most predators prey on their kind, and it’s across the board, no exceptions.

When we first arrived in America, my dad worked for a Romanian for six months without seeing a red cent for his sweat and labor. It was a construction job, and the guy kept putting off paying him until my dad demanded his back pay, and then he summarily fired him. He spoke no English and didn’t know the law or any means of redress, so he just walked away, found another job, and went to it. He’d learned his lesson, though, and never worked for another Romanian again. Is it that Romanians are disproportionately dishonest? No, but they prey on their kind, just like the Jamaicans, Chinese, Hungarians, Poles, and Germans.

We’ve all heard the stories of churches getting taken by Christian companies who took a down payment on a project only to abscond with the money or people who the pastor vouched for getting parishioners involved in some sort of pyramid scheme because the pastor was getting a cut on the back end. Countless such stories are just a Google search away, and the innocent are constantly victimized. Whether the little old lady who trusted her bishop and got bamboozled or an entire body of believers to find the building fund raided while the church secretary and the pastor are posting pictures from Fiji with the hashtag ‘Your Best Life Now!’ online, it’s always sad to witness. That it adds a new bruise to the already black-and-blue reputation and testimony of the general church goes without saying.  

I find it troubling that someone would destroy their reputation and obliterate their testimony over a payday, but these are the things we have to navigate in this life. When it comes to church folk, it’s because some have not taken James’s admonishment to heart.

James 5:12, “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.”

This is one of the reasons Christians make bad politicians, or at least they should. A politician will say one thing today, say the opposite tomorrow, and do so with a straight enough face, wherein those listening have to go back and make sure they heard the first thing right just to conclude that they’re speaking out both sides of their mouth.

When you say yes, mean it. When you say no, mean that too. Don’t be wishy-washy in word or deed, allowing your convictions to be situational rather than firm and absolute, no matter the situation or circumstance.

If you say yes to something, and the individual you say yes to requires reassurances, if they demand that you put it in writing or that you repeat your statement, then you’re likely one of those people who garnered a reputation for saying yes, then backing out, or changing your mind at a later date.

The worst words a salesman can hear are “I’m going to have to sleep on it,” followed closely by “I have to ask my wife or husband,” or “Let me think about it for a few days.” They know that the chances of follow-through plummet once those words spill out of someone’s mouth, so they’re angling for a “yes,” then once they get it as if out of thin air, they pull out the paperwork and insist that you sign on the dotted line before you leave their presence. If you’ve ever sat through a timeshare pitch, you know exactly what I’m talking about. That portable black and white rabbit ear television doesn’t seem like such a bargain now that you, your children, and your children’s children are saddled with paying the maintenance fees for the rest of your bloodline.

Never be hasty in saying yes because you’ll have to commit to the thing you said you would do, even if it becomes an inconvenience for you down the road. It used to be that a man’s word was his bond. All it took was a handshake, and you could rest assured that whatever you agreed upon would run its rightful course. The times are changing, and they already have, until finding an honest man is harder to pull off than a fat man doing cartwheels. Sadly, it’s hard to find honest people nowadays, but that shouldn’t be the case within the church. It is, I know, but it shouldn’t be, especially if we realize that there is a penalty for not being so. Lest you fall under judgment is no idle threat. It’s not something James came up with just to drive home the point of the need to be consistent, but a true and undeniable reality.

There is no place for duplicity among God’s people. It is something God will judge, for to be duplicitous is to be double-minded, and to be double-minded is to have a divided heart.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Job

 We can’t deny the reality of what is for what we hope will be or what we imagine, feel, or would otherwise like to be. It’s how we got into this mess in the first place. You can’t just identify as a child of God; you must be a child of God in word and deed for God to acknowledge you as His own. Saved isn’t a pronoun you can appropriate; it’s something that you become and are transformed into, having repented and turned your back on the world and surrendered at the foot of the cross. You become born again, dead to the world and alive in Christ, with Him on the throne of your heart, rather than in some competition with the old man for it. You are a child of God. Not a child of God and the world. There is no shared custody as far as you are concerned. God is not satisfied with getting you on weekends and the world getting you the rest of the week. He will not share His glory with another.

I’ve always found it telling who people look up to or use as examples of who they aspire to be like. Nowadays, especially the younger generation has lists that include either athletes or artists for the most part, with a handful of those who desire to contribute something to society naming someone like Ben Carson or Elon Musk. While what Ben Carson contributed to society is demonstrably positive, whether for ill or good, Elon Musk’s contribution has yet to be determined. Let’s just say I get a bit leery whenever someone wants to put chips in people’s brains, but that’s just me. I get squeamish at the sight of blood or at the thought of being powered down like a machine. Before you say it’s voluntary, everything is until it isn’t. Remember masks, and shots, and pronouns? They were voluntary once upon a time too. Now, in some places, you have to decide whether or not you like the taste of prison food before you call a guy a guy if he says he wants to be called a gal.

James could have named one of a hundred men as an illustrative example of faithfulness, obedience, and perseverance, but he chose Job, who is by far the most difficult to aspire to of all the notable figures he could have named.

We cannot minimize or trivialize what Job went through. We cannot look at the life of a man who once had it all and came to the point of saying that his spirit was broken, his days were extinguished, and the grave was ready for him and be flippant about his suffering or insist that we are as prepared to endure likewise.

It is humbling, or at least it ought to be when we consider what others have endured and persevered through, and it should stir an introspective reflection in our hearts because although, as yet, most of us have not been called to persevere in such a fashion it is not outside the realm of possibility. In all fairness, given what Jesus said regarding those of the world hating us just as they hated Him, the probability that you will have to endure hardship for Christ's sake is high.

Whatever hardship, struggle, or trial we may be experiencing presently, we must never forget that the Lord intends an end, which we may not yet see but the foundation of which is His mercy and compassion.

If your spiritual heroes consist of individuals who flaunt earthly possessions and use their position to squeeze every last nickel from the little old lady who’s one busted hip away from homelessness, then when you read about Job being an example, you likely react negatively, thinking to yourself that it couldn’t possibly be so.

Perhaps all those people who insist that James, along with Jude, the Epistles of Peter, the first, second, and third epistle of John, just to name a few, should be stricken from the canon of scripture because they grate against the doctrine they’ve fashioned for themselves are right. I mean, of all the people he could have picked, he picked Job?

It’s hard to convince people who will not allow for the possibility of the valley that God is the same on the mountaintop as He is in those valleys that are hard and difficult to traverse. He is unchanging and omnipotent, and His ability to see us through is not diminished by our trials or successes. They equate the mountaintop with God and all else with a lack of Him. If you ain’t first, you’re last, and we all know God’s kids are supposed to be the head and not the tail. That’s pretty much the average level of spiritual maturity you’re likely to run across in many a church.

You are responsible for sharing what you get from God on the mountaintop with others presently in the valley. You are called upon to look up and behold His glory shining through in the deepest of gorges because He is ever the same regardless of current circumstances. No one can stay on the mountaintop forever because that’s never what life was meant to be.

Men like Job persevered because they understood the nature of the God they served, knowing Him to be loving, gracious, merciful, and compassionate.

If they had any doubts about God’s character, if they had doubts about God’s nature, or if they questioned God’s mercy and compassion to any degree, then they would have bent and broken, fallen apart, and been scattered to the winds.

To persevere, to maintain one’s composure in the face of quick, drastic, and heart-wrenching changes in one’s life, you must know the God you serve and not simply know of Him. Knowing Him keeps us from giving up, from losing ourselves, from relinquishing hope, and from growing ever more discordant and despondent.

Trials mature us in ways nothing else can. It’s one thing to talk about theoretical perseverance; it’s another to actively practice it because you’re living practically what you learned theoretically. It’s not an easy transition. It’s not an easy mindset to adopt and cling to, but one we must nevertheless nurture so that when trials come when the valley opens up before us, we will not despair, grow weary, or lessen our pace toward eternity. Know the God you serve and trust in His providence no matter the present environment. He sees beyond your today into your tomorrows and will not waver in His promises to you.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Reactions

 When you spend enough time in front of crowds, whether preaching or giving a talk, you learn to read expressions better than most. You know whether a message is having an impact or they’re just waiting for noon to roll around and find the nearest exit so they can get a primo spot at the local buffet. It’s not coincidental that messages that stroke men’s egos, telling them how beloved and highly favored they are, land better than ones that carry a word of warning or rebuke, but the messages of warning and rebuke are just as necessary as those of encouragement if not more so.

Correction is biblical; so is rebuke. James isn’t out of pocket when he admonishes the brethren not to grumble against one another, but it’s likely just as many took it the wrong way then as they do today. I’m sure ‘Who does he think he is?’ or ‘Who is he to judge’ or perhaps even, ‘I agree with the sentiment, but surely this was meant for someone else’ crossed the minds of many who read his letter, because whenever we come across something corrective, whether in the Word or a sermon, we rarely acknowledge that it may just be talking about us, or to us.

James then proceeds with a layered and vivid illustration, reminding those who would read his words of those who came before them, namely the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord and their example of suffering and patience. It’s easy to look to past generations and see those who served the Lord as beyond human, giants in their own right, whose faithfulness we could never hope to replicate, dismissing the fact that they were just as human as you and I in every way. There was nothing inherently special about them, whether being physically imposing or psychologically superior; they just understood the cost, and their obedience was paramount, secondary to nothing in their life. The blueprint for an exceptional spiritual life is not difficult to decipher. It’s not a mysterious thing that must be teased out after countless years of introspection. Every man of God who stood out throughout the pages of scripture was a man of prayer, faithfulness, and obedience. There you go. I just saved you years of trying to assemble a puzzle that was never a puzzle but rather something self-evident and clearly proven in the Bible.

While some had it harder than others, none had it easy. The messages they were tasked with delivering were not conciliatory or congratulatory but rather warnings and rebukes for a people who had strayed from the will of God, who had gone their own way and served their own interests without regard for the insults they leveled at God, and the rebellion they exhibited in perpetuity.

If you want to know whether you’ll be loved, adored, praised, elevated, and have an easy life if you are called to be a messenger to a rebellious nation, all you have to do is look at what happened to the prophets of old, and what they had to endure for following through and delivering the words they were tasked with delivering.

Whether it was rejection of the messages they delivered or physical violence upon their person as a way of lashing out against the message, there isn’t a prophet in the Old Testament who did not endure some sort of hardship.

It’s not as though Jeremiah ever came off as overly dramatic, but even if he had, you’ve got to be going through something pretty grim to wish you were never born.

Juxtapose the lives of Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses, Ezekiel, and even lesser-known prophets such as Hosea with those claiming to be prophets today. Compare and contrast their lives, what they had to endure, and the obedience they had to live out in order to be entrusted with a message from God and tell me if they harmonize or rhyme in any way.

When one of these men came on the scene declaring they were prophets of the Lord, it wasn’t braggadocio or a way to assert some sort of spiritual authority over others; it was a statement of fact, something they did not relish declaring but had to because the Lord had deemed them as such. 

James admonishes us to look at their example of suffering and patience, not their rock star lifestyle or how many people they convinced to sow into their ministry so they might continue proclaiming their sappy, indulgent, generalized, and unbiblical words of knowledge.

No, I didn’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but too many believers are taken in by the claims of people who have nothing of God’s authority without taking the time to vet their claims and determine if the words match the actions.

You can’t keep telling people that the Lord showed you California was going to drop off into the ocean while you’re buying multi-million dollar beachfront properties. It just doesn’t add up. Either you’re lying, you don’t believe what the Lord showed you, or you are spurning God's message personally while declaring it generally.

No, this isn’t grumbling against the brethren; this is pointing out inconsistencies that should be as alarm bells to anyone with an iota of wisdom.

We no longer count those who endure blessed; we count them suckers and insist that they don’t have enough faith to believe for a mansion and a Bentley. Yet, the Word tells us we should count those who endure blessed because they are.

We must learn to discern the difference between truth and error, embrace the one, and reject the other. Even if the error is sugar-coated and seems a tasty morsel, even if the lie is flattering and puts us in the best possible light, even though we know we don’t deserve to be there, it’s still a lie and will lead to ruination. No good can come from deception. No good can come of obfuscating the Word of God or insisting that it says something it clearly doesn’t.

In case you haven’t noticed, half-truths are big business, and they attract many adherents. They prosper and boast but only for a season, only for a time, and that time is coming to a swift end.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Grumblers

 Shepherds don’t lead by committee. I take no umbrage with a board of elders or deacons to whom the shepherd can delegate some of the labor, but as far as what the sheep are fed, it is the shepherd that must decide, and not of his own volition but in submission and obedience to the Shepherd. If a shepherd had to wait for everything he taught to be vetted and decided on by a committee, the sheep would either starve, or there would be so many differing opinions that it would overwhelm the individual in charge of providing spiritual sustenance.

Even though James specifically warns against grumbling against one another lest we be condemned, there have always been grumblers among God’s people, and they will continue to exist until the Lord returns. They fail to acknowledge the dire warning that the Judge is standing at the door because those who are career grumblers see themselves as the ultimate authority, the ultimate judge, and the one to whom all must bow in deference.

There are various reasons why some descend into grumbling against the brethren, but from purely anecdotal evidence, I’ve concluded that much of the time, it’s because they are dissatisfied with their station or consider their calling inferior to their perceived gifting. They identify as gifted, just as a homeless man identifies as a billionaire, with much the same effect.

God calls. Men answer. Once we answer the call, God will send us where he needs us and imbue us with the gifting necessary to carry out the calling to which we have been called. Some of us have natural inclinations toward the gift God entrusts us with. My mother was always generous, kind to a fault, and ready to help anyone at any time, so her natural inclinations were a perfect fit for the gift of service and hospitality God entrusted her with. My mother died while cooking a meal in her home for visitors who had come to visit Romania. It was who she was. You’d always find her doing something kind, something selfless, something that would bring a smile to the faces of those around her.

Although my wife comes close, I’ve yet to meet anyone who can make a crape like my mother. She must have made tens of thousands throughout her life, and all for those who graced her table and accepted an offer of a hot meal and some fellowship.

When someone insists that they have a calling or a gift but is inconsistent with their character, you know it’s more of a wish than a reality. In His wisdom, God places us in roles, positions, and callings complimentary to our character. In those rare instances where someone is an introvert yet is called upon to preach the Gospel, He gives them the necessary gift and wherewithal to carry out their duty faithfully and with aplomb.

Lest we forget, judgment begins at the house of God. If it starts with us first, then there are those things worthy of judgment among us. If it were not so, then God would have proceeded directly to those who do not obey the gospel, as Peter says.

There are those among us who know Christ and those who know of Christ. There are those among us who are in Christ and those who are near to Christ. Those near to Christ, those who know of Him, will always take issue with those wholly sold out to Him because whether they admit it to themselves or not, deep inside, they know their judgment is near.

One of the surest ways to know that you will fall under God’s judgment when the Judge returns is if you are constantly grumbling against the brethren over personal convictions rather than Biblical truth.

I wear a wedding band—I have been wearing one since the day I was married. It’s not an issue of pride or salvific significance, and I have no quarrel with anyone who chooses not to wear one. It’s a personal choice and eliminates the need to explain that I’m married to anyone dropping hints of this or that.

Wearing a wedding band won’t get me into heaven any faster than not wearing one would, but if I were to start grumbling against those who choose not to wear one, thinking myself spiritually superior for wearing it, I would risk being condemned just as James warned.

Don’t make doctrine out of personal conviction or opinion, then grumble against those who don’t go along with you, no matter how noble your idea might be in your own mind. Be wise enough to allow for cultural differences, for the fact that someone grew up on a different continent with different norms, and be gracious when they show up for evening prayer in a three-piece suit while you’re in flip-flops and shorts. It’s not pride rearing its ugly head because they’re wearing a suit; it’s that they were raised with the idea of showing reverence whenever you come together with the people of God, akin to being in the presence of royalty and having the requisite attire.

Back when I was still traveling with my grandfather, there was an instance where we were scheduled to speak at a church. It was the Sunday morning service, and during worship, everyone stood and clapped and sang, but my grandfather sat through the entire song repertoire. After he was done speaking, having a noticeably difficult time shuffling to the pulpit and leaning heavily on it throughout his talk, an incensed lady came up to us and, speaking directly to him, said, “I can’t receive any of what you said because you didn’t stand up and clap during the worship service.”

When he asked what she’d said, I told him it was nothing worth repeating, and I thanked her for her input as we walked away. What she didn’t know is that I was the one who’d carried my grandfather into the sanctuary before the service because he was having a full-blown gout attack and could barely contain himself from all the pain. She was just looking for a reason not to accept what she’d heard, and she’d found it. She didn’t bother to ask why he hadn’t stood or clapped along, and evidently, she was so myopic that she didn’t put two and two together to figure out that since he needed an interpreter, he likely didn’t know any of the songs in English.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Monday, March 11, 2024

Steadfast

 Have you ever wondered why some situations that seem insurmountable in your life were readily conquered while others you thought would be a breeze to get through turned out to be like an albatross around your neck? It wasn’t accidental or coincidental. It had everything to do with where you placed your trust and whom you expected to get you through it.

When a situation arises that seems outside of our ability to deal with, we are more likely to run to God. We are more likely to defer to Him and His will; we are more likely to not lean on our understanding but on His wisdom.

On the other hand, when a situation seems readily solvable, our instinct is to go at it alone, find a remedy by ourselves, and never ask God how He would have us deal with it. We vanquish our Jerichos and get trounced by our Ais, and those of us with the wherewithal to look back on the situation and determine what went right and what went wrong come to the conclusion that in the one case we trusted in the arm of the flesh, and in the other we trusted in the arm of God.

If we don’t learn from our missteps, we will repeat them. Thankfully, if the lesson is painful enough, we will recall it for the rest of our lives. Doing it one time is all it takes to learn that we should never grab a hot pan off the stove barehanded. Every time after that, we are cautious and run to the oven mitt before even thinking about grabbing at the pan. It becomes ingrained in our minds, and we associate the action with the pain it caused and take steps to avoid that pain.

If only we’d take the spiritual lessons we learn along the way to heart in such a fashion, there would be far fewer chronic backsliders in today’s church, but for some reason, we forget the spiritual pain more readily than the physical, and we find ourselves repeating the cycle of our failure over and over again. We remember the momentary pleasure of sin and block out the endless pain it caused so that when we are presented with it again, unless we are watchful, wholly submitted to God, and resist the devil, we fall into the same snare.

James 5:9-11, “Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord – that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”

We have enough enemies on the outside, and we don’t need to make new ones on the inside. Somewhere along the way, we lost sight of the real enemy and have broad-brushed everyone who disagrees with us, even on the most tertiary of matters, as our sworn, lifelong, and irreconcilable foes.

James is writing to the brethren. The true brethren, no those pretending to be, and even among them, even back then, there was enough contention wherein it warranted a reminder that they should not grumble against one another lest they be condemned. The operative word in the first sentence of verse nine is brethren. Not false brethren, not wolves, not pretenders who would just as readily watch you drown than lend a hand to pull you out, but actual brethren.

We need constant reminding that we are one body and must operate as such. That does not mean we have to agree on the slightest detail, but it does mean we complement each other and function as one unit. The enemy should be outside the camp. In some instances, he’s crept into the camp as well, and that’s when things get complicated because the first thing the enemy does when he’s infiltrated a congregation is proceed to draw people to his side, form cliques, then drive wedges where none existed prior to his arrival. Then the backbiting gets ramped up, and those who built a given work from its inception, those who labored and bled to see the vision God had placed in their heart come to fruition, are marginalized, vilified, and shunned by those they served for decades.

The whispers of there needing to be a new vision, a new direction, someone younger and more vibrant to take the helm turn into full-throated declarations, and wouldn’t you know it, the wolf in sheep’s clothing, humbled as he pretends to be, throws his hat in the ring and offers to be that one that will lead them to bigger and better tomorrows.

Nobody bothers to ask whether bigger and better is what God had in store or whether that was His will because we’ve been conditioned to believe that they’re synonymous with God’s will, for why wouldn’t He want a bigger budget, a bigger sanctuary, a bigger, grander vision? Because sometimes He doesn’t. God always wants purer; He doesn’t always want bigger. God always wants more obedience, more faithfulness, more humility, and more brokenness; He doesn’t always want a bigger building or a grander vision.

Every time I have pastor friends confide in me about their congregation having turned in a negative direction, every time they ask what they can do to lessen the contention and the acrimony, my first question is who the instigator is. Who is that singular individual who comes to mind from whom the entire drama seems to flow repeatedly and consistently?

Usually, it’s one clear individual, and unsurprisingly, it’s someone who’s only been attending their church for a few months or a couple of years. If God has called a shepherd to shepherd a congregation, if they are rightly dividing the word and their doctrine is biblical, and someone comes along attempting to cause division based on form rather than substance, defend your shepherd, and do not lend your ear to those who would see the wholesale destruction of a body just so they can pick at the leftover pieces.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Takeaways

 Whether you’ve heard it said that repetition is the mother of learning, retention, or skill, it’s valuable and beneficial to repeat certain truths until they become ingrained. It’s the reason for basic training when someone goes into the army or why, as an aspiring chef, you spend endless hours learning to chop all manner of vegetables. You may not be quick on the draw or fluid loading and unloading on your first day, but three months in, it’s all muscle memory, and you surprise yourself at how quick you’ve become. The same goes for any skill you diligently repeat with consistency and regularity.

The world likewise knows this, and so they repeat and regurgitate lies often and with great conviction until more and more of the population believes them to be true. They will even employ the services of trustworthy and reputable individuals to push their narrative because they know it works.

There is no shortage of examples, and we are seeing an entire generation believe demonstrable lies because everywhere they turn, the lie is repeated by talking heads with fake smiles and no morals or ethics. I guess the call to believe the science only applies in certain situations. When science bumps up against the narrative, science is subjective and malleable. When it agrees with it, it is absolute and unerring.

There are two main takeaways from the first few verses of the fifth chapter of James’s epistle that are likewise worth repeating because just as one can retain and learn nonsensical lies through repetition, one can learn the truth through the same practice as well.

The first big takeaway is that everything in your life must submit to God’s authority, including your plans, personal aspirations, or vision for your future. It matters not how right they might look in your eyes; they must be right in God’s eye. God’s not there just to rubber-stamp everything you want. He is there to guide you in the way He desires you to go.

The second takeaway is that though you are presently persecuted, reviled, exploited, marginalized, and abused, your attitude must be one of patient perseverance until the coming of the Lord. Be anxious for nothing. It’s hard to pull off, I know, especially given the times we’re living in, but there is a peace that abounds in the heart that has learned to lean fully upon Christ that no amount of safety nets we’ve built for ourselves can match.

The coming of the Lord is at hand; everything else is static. When He returns is solely God’s purview, but because we know He will, we can be patient and persevere however long it might take. When our focus is on patience and perseverance rather than a particular date or a particular year, it repositions our mindset on our relationship with God rather than an end goal. Too many believers are living like they’re holding their breath underwater, hoping they make it to the surface before they pass out, rather than in joyous unity and fellowship and intimacy with God. The journey is not the destination, but the journey has its own merits as well. God’s creation is a glorious thing to behold. Family, friends, brothers, and sisters in Christ are all experiences we should cherish.

Some people find joy in the direst of circumstances, while others fail to find it while living lives others would only dare to dream of. It’s an issue of perception and what we choose to focus on. It’s whether or not we’re constantly assessing whether the neighbor’s grass is greener or appreciating our own lawn.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.