Proof The Bible Is True

 It’s human nature to accept good things with open arms. Whether it’s a compliment, a promotion, or finding out someone slipped an extra nugget in your six-piece value meal, it tends to make us feel warm and cozy, elevate our spirits, and more often than not, we find ourselves smiling for no other reason than that something good and unexpected just occurred.

Although we are not as jubilant about embracing adversity, it too has a purpose that is well-defined and readily identified, especially in hindsight. Hardship, adversity, trials, and testing mold character, and once we’ve gone through it and come out the other side victorious, we are stronger for it, with a deeper faith in the God we serve.

Even at his low point, Job had the wherewithal to acknowledge that both good things and adversity come from the hand of God and, as such, must be received with equal aplomb. But that just can’t be! We’re told day in and day out that our expectations of God should extend no further than good things, pressed down, shaken together, all the time, without fail, whether we’re awake or sleeping. Otherwise, we’re lacking in faith or failed to make a seed offering to our preferred televangelist.

While the modern-day church needlessly complicates some things, it also oversimplifies others, to the point that the entirety of our spiritual man’s succor is boiled down to a handful of overused clichés or morning affirmations we’ve taken to repeating in the mirror. We wouldn’t want to burden people with deeper discussions about faithfulness, obedience, or perseverance. They’re busy people with busy lives, and if we insist they take an extra second to consider deeper truths, they’re likely to go to the church across the street that has an hour of praise of worship followed by a five-minute sermon about karma.

The shepherds have failed the sheep, the church has failed God, and what was to be an army marching through the land with healing in their hand and everlasting joy and gladness in their hearts has been reduced to a bunch of man-babies who whine and stomp their feet until someone comes along to shove a pacifier in their mouth, and tell them it’s all going to be fine, and their breakthrough is just an offering away.

You get what we have when there is a systemic failure to preach the Gospel in any given generation by those whose sole purpose and duty was to do just that. The whole counsel of God means even those things your flesh is uncomfortable with, even those areas that call for the mortification thereof, and the undeniable reality that the testing of one’s faith, whichever way it may manifest, is not something outside the realm of possibility, or even a probability, but a certainty.

When an entire generation has been conditioned to believe that only good things will abound and overflow in their lives once they’ve made a half-hearted commitment to call themselves spiritual, their immediate reaction to any adversity is to arch their eyebrows and back away slowly because it’s neither what they signed up for, nor what they were promised by the guy in the three-piece suit and the Rolex on his wrist.

Job did not react in the flesh. He did not shake his fists at the heavens or insist he didn’t deserve to go through the adversity he was currently going through; he didn’t get bitter, angry, or vindictive because his focus was exclusively on God, and he trusted in His sovereignty, the way a child trusts their mother or father. He did not doubt God’s goodness and mercy, nor did he charge Him with wrong.

We can dwell on our current situation or circumstance, and the more we do, the bigger the problem seems to get, or we can fix our gaze upon God and worship Him, fully confident that He knows the end from the beginning and has made a way of escape for us.

1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it.”

Although when we think of temptation, we tend to associate it with a seduction of some kind, the broader definition of the word is the desire to do something wrong or unwise. Yes, wanting to eat that triple-layer chocolate cake in one sitting is a form of temptation, but so is the desire to question the authority of God. As far as the cake is concerned, it’s an easy fix: walk away. If you can’t walk away, throw it in the garbage. If it’s still tempting you while sitting in the garbage can, toss some wet coffee grounds on it, or if, perchance, you happen to have a child still in diapers, a dirty diaper draped across it should dissuade you from digging it out.

When it comes to resisting the temptation to grow bitter or resentful, it’s a bit more complicated because you can’t walk away from your feelings or what’s burdening your heart. The means of escape from such temptations requires deep, unyielding, and abiding faith in the God you serve because it’s your faith that will be the means of escape from spiraling into despondency and the nagging question of whether He is still with you or not.

Job knew that God was with him still, even as he sat on a heap of ashes, scratching at his boils with a potsherd. He knew the presence of God in the midst of his trial and was unshakeable in his resolve.

Avoiding the storm isn’t proof that God is with you. Knowing His abiding presence in the midst of the storm is. The storms of life are purposeful, whether to teach us dependence and reliance on Him or for the works of God to be revealed in them.

When Jesus noticed a man who had been blind from birth, his disciples wanted to know whether the man or his parents had sinned that he’d been born blind. Jesus answered, saying, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

Not as simple as chanting, “Money cometh unto me now,” then again, few things in life are.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 If a stranger were to approach either of my daughters, insisting that they’d seen me kicking a puppy, they’d call him a liar to his face because they know my character. They wouldn’t even entertain the thought or ask for evidence; they would know offhand that it was a lie and that there was no further need for debate.

As true children of God, there is not a shadow of doubt regarding God’s love, goodness, mercy, and grace because we know the character of the God we serve just as readily as my daughters know mine. Our reaction to trials and hardships, testing and chastening, reveals the level to which we know God. If God is established in your heart, and you acknowledge Him in all your ways, come what may, you will not be moved or shaken. The valleys may be uncomfortable, even painful to the flesh, but your assurance that God is working all things together for good to those who are called according to His purpose will remain resolute.

When we do not know the nature of the God we serve or have a limited understanding of it, then we will interpret the goings on of life in the worst possible light, likely growing bitter and hardened in our hearts along the way.

My little one is not what anyone may call overly cautious. She’s happy and carefree, as children should be for as long as you can manage it, but sometimes, as a father who wants the best for his children and is ever aware of the dangers lurking everywhere, I have to step in and keep her from doing something that will hurt her.

My daughters have a youth Bible study session at church every Wednesday night. I’m usually the one to take them since I like to give my wife a couple of hours of free time when no one’s calling her name every fifteen seconds, and she can decompress. Although both of my daughters know that they should look both ways before crossing the street, the little one is not as cautious when it comes to walking through parking lots. We’d parked in the church parking lot, and before I could turn off the engine, the little one was already out the door. I rushed to catch up, seeing as she was getting ready to sprint to the church door, and as I caught up to her and put my hand on her shoulder to stop her progress, a car zipped by, perhaps two feet from where she was now standing since I’d stopped her momentum.

She didn’t bristle or argue; she just turned her head, and with big eyes, realizing what could have happened had I not stopped her in her tracks, she said, ‘Sorry, Daddy.” Then she took my hand, and we walked into church.

We must allow for the reality that God sees the future far clearer than we, creations with limited understanding, can. In truth, unless we are giving divine insight or some prophetic revelation, we cannot know what the future holds for us as individuals. We have hopes, and we work toward goals, but as far as achieving them or things turning out the way we’d imagined, they rarely do. When God stops our forward momentum, our progress, or takes our hand and steers us away from something we’d intended to pursue, it’s not because He’s being mean or doesn’t want us to have good things, but because He sees the impending danger, and the tragedy that would befall us had we continued on our way.

Some people think they know better than God, so they resist His guidance. They push on, even though His hand is upon them, insisting that they stand still. They pursue their goals even though they are not in harmony with God’s plan for their life, then turn around and blame Him when it comes to ruin, and all that they’d worked and labored for, slips through their fingers like so much ash.

The same goes for when our level of maturity is tested. For every spiritual lesson there is a corresponding exam, and only once we’ve passed the exam can we graduate to the next lesson. If we fail to study to show ourselves approved, we get held back, just as one would get held back in the first grade if he failed to learn the alphabet. Granted, spiritually speaking, some people are still in first grade after decades of failing to learn the most basic or elementary principles of Christ, but that’s on them and not on God.  

Have we learned what we were meant to learn, or did we go through the lesson without applying any of the wisdom to our daily lives? Are we changed for the better? Do we see the world and our place in it through a more spiritually-centered prism? Are we striving for and seeking after the things above and not the things of this earth?

The testing determines the truth of it, and as is often the case, what is on our lips and what is in our hearts are two wholly different things. You can’t cheat your way out of God’s testing or have someone else take the exam for you.

God’s purpose is your maturity, your sanctification, your walking in faith, and the authority rightly due to His children. The reason you have to grow in order to be entrusted with greater responsibility, a greater calling, or a greater gifting is the same reason you don’t let a toddler play with a loaded gun. You need to know the rules, go through safety training, and be mature enough in your understanding to know that there is power in what you’ve been given, and it’s not to be abused, misappropriated, misused, or treated lightly.

Job was a man whom God deemed worthy of testing. The testing of one’s faith ought not to be looked upon as a negative or something to be begged off but as something God deems us worthy of. It’s an honor, a promotion, an achievement, and not a punishment or demotion.

It’s a difficult, almost counterintuitive mind-shift to embrace, especially given all the ignorant voices equating God’s testing with His punishment or reproof. Shortly after being beaten for preaching a risen Christ, the apostles departed from the presence of the council of the Pharisees, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.

If you are being tested, it’s because God finds you worthy of testing. If you are being chastened, it’s because God loves you, He sees you as a son or daughter, and He chastens those He loves. It may be uncomfortable, disconcerting, even painful in the moment, but the end result will be more of God and less of you, which is the ultimate goal of every believer.

Romans 5:3-5, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character, and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 When God asked Satan if he’d considered His servant Job, Satan did not feign ignorance or insist he knew not of what God spoke. Not once, but on two occasions, we see that Satan is aware of those who cling to faith, who walk upright, and who serve God just as readily as he is about those who are his or those who pretend to be of the household of faith but are not.

If you are a true servant of God, then you have a target on your back. Satan is fully aware of your faithfulness, just as God is, but while one rejoices in your faithfulness, the other is scheming and plotting ways to shatter it and destroy it. Far too many believers are walking about today, not fully cognizant of the lengths to which the enemy of their soul will go in his attempts to stall their commitment to walking in the way or stifle the fire of their love for God.

Ignorance of the enemy and his devices will likely cause an individual to be taken by surprise when the attacks commence, especially if they’ve been sitting under teaching that does not allow for the possibility of being tested, tried, attacked, or targeted.

Awareness of our enemy and the plots he schemes is directly related to our spiritual maturity and understanding of the spiritual warfare in which we are bound to engage if we continue walking in faith and growing in God. Neither of my daughters was naturally aware that fire was dangerous when they were babies. They had to be told not to touch a hot stove or a hot skillet, and when they’d ask the inevitable why, either their mother or myself would sit down and explain it to them. Fire burns. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are aware of its effects, and it does not spare someone who stuck their hand in it out of ignorance. Having to contend with scars for the rest of your life is a high price to pay in order to learn that fire is not to be played with, but some individuals are unwilling to learn from the mistakes of others and have to prove it to themselves.

Mature believers, especially those in leadership, such as elders or pastors, have the duty to warn those who are babes in Christ of the dangers the enemy poses and instruct them to guard their hearts against his devices. Not doing so is not an oversight but a failure of their spiritual duty toward the body of Christ, and something that will not go unnoticed by God.

We act as though we’re trying to sell a timeshare when preaching Christ, as though we have to trick people into signing on the dotted line and becoming active members of something that would otherwise not be worth it were it not for the prettied-up presentation. We feel as though we need to add extra value to what is already the best, most generous offer we will run across in a thousand lifetimes, thinking that we are doing God a favor or that we’re the ones nudging the individual toward a commitment of some kind.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Anything other than the Word of God may produce an emotional reaction, a temporary sense of remorse or regret of some kind, but it will not produce faith because faith can only come by hearing the Word. True conversion in Western nations is rarer than one might imagine for the simple fact that what is being preached from the pulpit today is not the Word of God, but the words of men made up to look like the Word of God, spoken with enough inflection and pregnant pauses that the newly initiated, or the outright ignorant can’t tell the difference between the two.

Although I’ve made this point repeatedly, some might even say excessively, I will make it anew: You must study to show yourself approved! You can’t outsource your knowledge of God’s word to another; you can’t hire an assistant to do it for you; it can’t be transferred to your heart via telekinesis or telepathy. You must sit with the word of God, read it, contemplate it, meditate upon it, let it feed you, take root in your heart, and nourish your faith.

Brother, tell me what I need to do to grow in God and deepen my faith. Read His word, pray, and spend time with Him. But I’m looking for a shortcut, something that won’t take up so much of my time. Isn’t there another way? No, there isn’t, and anyone who tells you differently is lying to you and, at some point in the future, will try to sell you some magic beans or a genie in a bottle.

It’s easy to focus solely on Job’s travails. All things being equal, it’s hard to look away. It’s like driving by a recent car crash on the other side of the road. You slow down, take a long look, make sure someone is there to help already, then close your eyes, breathe a sigh, and thank God it wasn’t you being extricated from a pile of twisted metal with the jaws of life.

We shouldn’t discount what Job suffered, but at the same time, as believers, we must focus on the perseverance of his faith and submission to God in all things far more readily than we would the loss of all things or the painful boils covering him from head to toe. Job’s reaction to all that befell him is a master class in placing one’s faith and trust in God and being unshakeable when it comes to the knowledge of His character. In order to endure what Job endured and come through it with your integrity intact, you must know the God you serve intimately and personally. Job hadn’t heard about God; he knew God. He hadn’t watched others worship Him; Job worshiped Him.

There is a tendency in our modern age to put men up on pedestals and think them spiritually superior, and there are plenty who take advantage of this esteem and make merchandise of those who see them with starry eyes and fluttering hearts. They lean into it and project an air of spirituality that they do not possess, doing such impeccable acting as to be worthy of an Oscar. As for the sheep, they come to believe that by giving a few shekels to someone whom they deem close to God, they themselves draw closer to God, not understanding that the only way to grow in God is to do it themselves.

You are not made righteous by another’s righteousness. You are not sanctified because someone you know or esteem is so. You’re not spiritually mature because you sit under the teaching of someone who is. There are no shortcuts, no cheat sheets, no mantras, no secret pathways, just a daily fellowship with God, spending time with Him, growing in Him, and learning to trust Him in all things. That’s how we get from where we are to having faith like Job. What many fail to understand is that such a faith isn’t optional for the believer but necessary in the days ahead.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Specialists in the area of breaking the human will have concluded that everyone has a breaking point. You can’t hold out indefinitely. Eventually, the pain becomes too much, the privation too intense, and something snaps. You relent. You give in. You tell the interrogator what he wants to know, and some besides just to make it stop. This is by no means a new revelation. It’s been common knowledge among those whose profession is to hurt others in varied and ever-crueler ways for a very long time. This is why the fortitude, perseverance, tenacity, and grit of the Christians baffled the Communists so. They were supposed to relent, they were supposed to break, they were supposed to give up the ghost and tell their torturers what they wanted to hear, yet they didn’t.

For many, it was a long road to martyrdom, nothing so swift as a guillotine or a bullet to the back of the head because they had information their persecutors needed in order to ferret out their brothers and sisters in Christ and stamp out this obstinate resistance to the system. It’s how they viewed believers, not because they were overtly political or partisan, but because their hope in Christ eliminated the need to be dependent on the current power structure, and that, in turn, weakened their control over them.

What those who doled out merciless pain didn’t understand is that those they were persecuting had hope and faith in the God they served. Those were the unquantifiable factors that allowed common men to endure uncommon hardships, all the while deepening their bond of love and devotion with the God they served. They understood that whatever hardship they had to endure was temporary. The pain, the tears, the cold, the hunger, the dehumanization rituals that were a favorite of the old regime couldn’t last forever.

Sometime in the 1950s, an experiment was conducted by a professor at Johns Hopkins that attempted to quantify the power of hope. The professor’s name was Curt Richter, and he used rats for his experiment. He took a group of rats, put them in water, and timed how long it took them to drown. I know, cruel, perhaps needlessly so, but bear with me.

Then he took another group of rats, put them in water, and just as they were about to drown, pulled them out. He allowed them to rest, then put them back in the water, and to his surprise, the rats that had been saved, having returned to the water, swam for far longer than those who had never known the hope of being plucked from the water and jubilation of being saved.

Believers endure and persevere because they have faith and hope in the God who saved them. They know what it is to be on the brink of death, drowning in sin, and to be plucked from the depths by His loving hand. We go on when others give up, and we endure when others surrender because we know our hope is not misplaced and our faith is not without substance. Our prior experience of having been given life through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross solidifies our hope and faith that God is able, He will make a way, and He can do the impossible.

No matter how violent the storm or how strong the waves buffeting us, our attitude must always be one of trust and full assurance in the God we serve. God is in control. It is a sentiment that has been echoed by every true servant throughout the ages whenever faced with circumstances deemed impossible by others.

We can’t get around the reality that faith involves putting yourself at risk by acting on what you have confidence in. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood before an enraged Nebuchadnezzar, they had confidence that their God was able to preserve them, keep them, and save them. Whether He would or not was another matter entirely, but they’d made their peace that whether God saved them or they succumbed to the flames, He was still God, and they would remain faithful.

The only assurance they had was that God was God, and He would continue to remain God even after the events that would transpire, whether He chose to keep them from becoming human torches or supernaturally spare their lives. Their faith in God’s omnipotence was unwavering even though they stood before a king and his assembled acolytes, with the flames of a raging furnace within view.

It’s one thing to be threatened with some future, potential punishment; it’s another to watch the fire and know that the man threatening to cast you in it has both the power, authority, and inclination to do so. It wasn’t hypothetical; it was actual, factual, and real. They did not doubt Nebuchadnezzar’s resolve; they trusted in the power of the God they served.

You can’t quantify faith and hope. You can’t bottle them up and sell them, and acquiring them requires a lifelong commitment to obeying the will and Word of God in all things. Faith and hope begin as infants, and with diligent nurture and attention, they grow to maturation, just like a child would.

When we begin the journey, we have faith in the little things because our faith is small. It is alive, a substantive thing, and we can feel it in our hearts, but the more we exercise it, stretch it, feed it, and lean on it, the more it grows. As your faith grows, you learn to walk in it with ever greater boldness, looking back on the road you traveled and seeing the countless times it kept you surefooted and upright.

By the time Job’s trial came his faith in God had fully matured. He’d served God, worshiped Him, and fellowshipped with Him for many years before Satan asked to sift him, and we know this because, by the time of his testing, he already had ten fully grown children living on their own. Satan was as befuddled as the torturers of the old regime as to why this man’s faith held strong, and he did not waiver because even though the demons believe and tremble, they cannot possess salvific faith.

It’s easy to conflate belief and faith, but they are not the same. Faith involves reliance and trust. Faith endures in the face of trial and doubt. Belief, on the other hand, is something we take to be true. You may believe you can walk on water, but Peter had the faith to step from the shore and walk toward Jesus upon the waves. That’s what faith does. It keeps you pressing onward even when your sense of self-preservation and all available physical evidence is screaming that you should turn around. Faith takes us from the realm of the impossible to that of all things being possible with God.

Jude 20-21, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Although I will not set out to answer such impossible questions as to which came first, the chicken or the egg, there is something that stood out in the life of Job that is an indispensable lesson for every believer and something that should quell the back and forth between the camps that have formed within the church, who tragically spend more time at each other’s throats than preaching a risen, glorified Christ.

Job’s goal and purpose were never to be an upright and blameless man. The desire of Job’s heart was to serve God, worship Him, and walk in the fear of the Lord. Blamelessness and uprightness are naturally occurring virtues in the lives and hearts of those who seek to know God and worship Him. The beginning of every journey must have a destination in mind. Otherwise, we are but vagabonds going to and fro on the highways and byways of life without purpose or vision.

When we begin our journey of faith, our goal isn’t a better version of the old man but a reborn, transformed, new creation that naturally gravitates toward the good, the noble, and the light. It’s not the old thing, prettied up and made to look like a new thing; it’s actually a whole new thing. Because our minds have been renewed, and our old desires have been replaced with the new, we don’t have to force ourselves to spend time in God’s presence, read His word, serve Him, or glorify Him. These things are not looked upon as chores or tasks we would rather someone else perform in our stead but as the pinnacle of our day and the one thing we’re most excited to do upon waking. The best part of waking up isn’t Folgers in your cup; it’s getting to spend time with Jesus and have fellowship with Him.

Easy for you to say you’ve got the extra time. As I type these words, it is 3:17 AM, and I’ve been up for a solid hour already, just spending time with God and reading a few verses out of Romans. Is my point that I’m more spiritual than you? Hardly. My point is that every morning, I forfeit a couple of hours of extra sleep just to have the quiet time with God because I prioritize that experience over a bit of extra slumber. If you can’t seem to find time for God on a given day, you’re not trying hard enough. Either that or He isn’t as high on your list of priorities as you might think.

Because we want to instill values, morals, a solid work ethic, and personal accountability in our daughters, my wife and I have come up with a list of family contributions for which every member of the family is responsible. Whether it’s emptying the dishwasher, setting the table, vacuuming, taking out the trash, doing laundry, or folding clothes, each of us has a daily task that needs to be completed. To see my daughters’ faces when it comes time to do their family contribution, one would think they’re starting their twelve-hour shift at the iPhone factory and not taking two minutes to put some plates away. Many believers have the same attitude when it comes to spending time with God, in His presence, or in His word.

If we use every excuse under the sun not to spend time with God and worship Him, if we find ever more inventive reasons not to take the time to read and meditate on His word, then I think it’s fair to ask whether we are aware that the heaven we’re so eager to go to is God’s habitation, and He will be there in perpetuity.

If you set out to be a ‘good person’ rather than know God, you’ve lived a wasted life, and your goodness, however noble in the eyes of your contemporaries, will be as filthy rags when you stand before the Creator of all that is.

If, however, you set out to be wholly committed to the way and cling to God and His grace no matter what may be going on around you, the transformation into a blameless and upright man will occur without you having to force it, dwell on it, or squint your eyes and hold your breath until it occurs.

The presence of God compels transformation. Some men are quick to denounce it as works salvation, but it’s God transforming you, not you transforming yourself. The only thing incumbent upon you as an individual is to not resist the potter as he molds the clay that is you. It’s hard for us to wrap our minds around the fact that we don’t get to choose the shape we’re molded into, nor do we get to choose what we are filled with once the molding and firing is complete.

The notion that we can make demands of God both in terms of what we want to end up as and what gifting we want to receive from His hand is a fairy tale opportunists tell gullible people to try and get them to buy their course on unlocking their prophetic superpowers.

Yes, we are to desire spiritual gifts, especially that we prophesy but it doesn’t mean that we’ll get what we want. We get what God deems as necessary for the body, whether that’s prophesy, wisdom, healing, knowledge, tongues, discernment, or interpretation of tongues.

I did not choose the area of ministry I would serve in; I just chose to serve. I would have been just as happy rubbing Pine-Sol into the pews of an old country church if I knew I was where God wanted me to be. When your singular purpose and desire is to serve God, when He is firmly established on the throne of your heart, then everything else comes into focus. All the baggage, all the aspirations, all the plans and planning fall by the wayside, and the only thing that remains in perpetuity is daily following after Him.

For those who are still trying to build a ministry, a church, or a reputation on their own, the most liberating feeling you will ever experience is surrendering it to God, leaving it in His care, and putting your hand to the plow wherever He puts you in His harvest field.

There were no underhanded schemes, feigned worship to achieve some goal down the line, or lip service as far as Job’s commitment to God and His sovereignty are concerned. He was authentically worshipful and desirous of the presence of God in his life and prioritized these things above all else.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 The devil is shameless. Even when he knows he’s been beaten, even when he knows he’s lost, he doubles down and continues with his machinations in the hope that he can sway the faithful and bring them harm. Empathy is as foreign to him as algebra is to a pet hamster, and he does not seek to tamp down his hatred of God’s people. When it suits him, he will attempt to mask it, hide it, or slip a sheep mask over his wolf snout, but as far as wanting to change, there is no desire for such things.

Satan pulled no punches when it came to Job, yet through it all, Job did not sin with his lips. Pressure reveals the true character of a man. When he gets blindsided, what’s in his heart flows forth from his lips. We’ve all seen exchanges between people who seem affable and cool as cucumbers get needled to the point of letting their mask slip, then the claws come out in quick fashion, and the things that come out of their mouth are wholly antithetical to the image they tried to project. Job did not sin with his lips because he had God in his heart. It is a lesson well worth learning, given that we see the tailspins some individuals go into and the things they say they later apologize for but, in the heat of the moment, fail to control.

Job was at his most vulnerable. He was likely still processing all that had happened to him, mourning, grieving, dealing with the pain of his boils, then his wife all but calls him a fool for holding on to his integrity and suggesting he’d be better off dead.

It is said you can only push a man so far. In Job’s case, he could be pushed no further. Satan had been commanded to spare his life, and this was the only reason Job was still breathing, but as far as living, far from it. Being alive and living are two different things. You’re technically alive if you’re drawing breath, but if you’re laying on a pile of ashes, pain wracking your body, it’s more akin to surviving than living. It’s a hard thing to imagine, going from being the greatest of all the people of the East one day, then sitting on an ash pile scratching at your boils with a potsherd the next, with your wife being used by the enemy to encourage you to pack it in, curse God, and die.

This is the sort of pressure that turns coals into diamonds, the type of pressure about which stories are told, and the men who persevere through it are seen as heroes of the faith and examples worthy of emulating.

Comfort and ease of life make men soft and given enough time, living a life of ease tends to make one forget that trials, tribulations, and hardships are only a breath away. When the sun is shining, we tend not to appreciate the value of a life vest, but come the storm and the battering waves, come the howling winds and the sheeting rain, we’re quick to strap it on, tighten the fasteners, and prepare for the worst.

Analogously speaking, some have had it so good for so long, and their life preservers have been out of mind for so many years that they failed to notice they’d gotten moldy and rotten, and when they reach for them, they crumble between their fingers. Most men remember God in their times of hardship, but up until that point, they’ve ignored their relationship with Him for so long that when they need Him, they discover He has become little more than a stranger or a long-forgotten acquaintance.

The authenticity of our relationship with God is readily discerned when we hold fast to Him, serve Him, and worship Him during our season of plenty as readily and wholeheartedly as we do in our time of distress. When men run to God only when they need something from Him, it denotes an underlying lukewarmness and an underhanded usury, wherein they don’t spare Him a second thought until they need Him to intervene on some matter or another.

God is beyond being deceived by situational affection. I love you, Lord, now fix this problem for me. But where were you when there were no problems in sight? Where were you when all was well, things were running smoothly, and the focus of your existence was yourself?

You can’t fake loyalty and faithfulness to God. He sees through the charade readily enough. He sees all that resides within the hearts of men, whether true love or duplicity, obedience or feigned allegiance, and nothing is hidden from Him.

The intent of the heart matters. It’s the reason God called David a man after His own heart, even though he was flawed in many ways. David was not a perfect man, far from it. Unlike Job, God never looked upon David and deemed him blameless and upright. However, through all of his ups and downs, David’s singular desire remained to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord and to have a genuine and reciprocal relationship with Him. When David sinned, he repented. When God called him out on his failures, David did not deny it or try to justify it but humbled himself in the sight of the Lord and felt genuine remorse for what he’d done.  

The Word of God serves as both His love letter to mankind as well as an instruction manual for His creation. We have both positive and negative examples, virtues and practices we should strive for, and flaws and shortcomings we should avoid and steer clear of. We have the benefit of aggregate wisdom spanning thousands of years in a handy volume we can carry anywhere and read at any time. It is a grace most don’t appreciate and do not avail themselves of except superficially, taking little account of all the sacrifices made throughout the centuries so that they could possess that book that’s been gathering dust on a side table for months without once being cracked open.

When it stands before God, one day, this generation will be without excuse. Especially those who have lived in freedom to the point that they’ve abused it, taken it for granted, and begun to pine for the shackles others bled and died to be free of. God doesn’t judge on a curve. He judges according to His standard, which is immutable.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 I’ve never been happier to be wrong. It’s like thinking you’re having a heart attack, and all it was is indigestion from the slice of gas station pizza you scarfed down because you hadn’t eaten in a day, and your stomach was starting to sound like one of the brass bands that frequent the French Quarter in New Orleans on Sundays.

For those thinking it’s over and blue skies paint the horizon as far as the eye can see, not even close, but at least we won’t have to hear that Rachel Lavine is a brave and beautiful woman or that pronouns trump accomplishments, that gender outweighs ability, or that the way to a glorious future is the indiscriminate murder of the unborn, at least not for a little while.

Evidently, enough people showed up, hoping against hope, that their vote mattered, wherein they beat the spread. It’s not as though they didn’t try their hardest, but you could only do so much with what you’ve been handed, and a guy on crutches with a torn Achilles can’t be expected to be the deciding factor in a soccer game.

Jaded as the following may sound, there are still seventy-five days until inauguration day, and a lot can happen between now and then. The game has now shifted into overdrive. Those currently in power understand the existential threat the current projected winner of the 2024 presidential elections and the rogue's gallery of competent, accomplished, and motivated individuals he’s surrounded himself with this time around pose to permanent Washington and the deep-seated animus they have toward the unelected bureaucrats ruling and pulling strings from the shadows.

They are now backed into a corner with nothing left to lose, and the thought of what’s best for the country is the farthest thing from their mind. Havoc and chaos are two words that come to mind when I think about the next two and a half months, and once again, I hope from the depths of my heart that I am wrong.

Unlike many this morning, I am not in a celebratory mood; I’m just breathing a sigh of relief, being cautiously optimistic about being given a little more time to do what I’ve been called to do and not have to hand out charcoal pills to my girls every morning before they enjoy their squirrel ragout. A thing delayed is not a thing denied. A thing forestalled is just that. It has been put off but not reversed.

Band-aids on bullet wounds may staunch the bleeding for a while, but you still need to contend with the wound itself. There are no easy fixes, no magic wands, or other levers anyone can pull that will fix what’s been broken for decades on end. Spiritual problems cannot be fixed politically, no matter who’s in charge, but as I’ve stated before, being left alone to serve God and raise my children is enough of an incentive for me. That I won’t have someone with pink hair and a septum piercing knocking at my door asking why I’m not flying the rainbow flag, that transgender ideology won’t be mandated in my daughters’ school curriculum, or that the local burger joint won’t be offering a free abortion with the purchase of a happy meal, is a good thing. That’s as far as my expectations extend, and anything beyond that is a boon.

Globalism may have lost this battle, but those in the shadows are still fully intent on fighting the war to the last. For those who insist this election was inconsequential, look at the reactions of those pushing various depraved agendas over the next few weeks, and you’ll understand that it wasn’t.

We will resume our study of Job shortly. With this new wrinkle, we may still be around long enough to finish it. In all things, God’s will be done, and to Him be the glory.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

You can either curse the darkness or light a candle. I heard that somewhere once, and it stuck. When in full dark, with no moon or stars to bleed a little light into the murk, even a flickering, sputtering candle will push back the cloying darkness enough for it not to seem a tangible thing, pressing in all around you. We’d all rather have a spotlight or a flashlight with enough lumens to burn our shadow into a neighboring tree, but sometimes you have to use what’s at your disposal, and a half-used wax candle is all we’ve got.

The thing about darkness is that it hates any light whatsoever, including something as seemingly innocuous as a flickering candle. Light is light, and it seeks to extinguish it no matter how small and infrequent it might be. Once it can convince enough people to give up their candles voluntarily, it will inevitably try to take those remaining by force.

I grew up in a Communist country for the first nine years of my life. My parents and grandparents lived under the regime for much longer. I know what it becomes when it’s fully implemented in a nation where the people no longer have a voice, a choice, or a means of redress for the abuse they endure at the hands of those with a chip on their shoulder and an inferiority complex.

I’ve heard enough stories and spoken to enough people about what it was like to know the lengths to which those in power will go to retain the power they’ve amassed and how they view everyone except their inner circle as disposable fodder for the utopia they’ve envisioned that will never materialize because human nature is what it is, and hedonism is alive and well.

This is why I chuckle at those who’ve never lived it pining for the equity of Socialism or Communism. Although with their lips, they say the only thing they’ve ever wanted was equality, in their hearts, they echo George Orwell's sentiment, insisting that some animals are more equal than others. Serendipitously, they never see themselves as the inferior animals. It’s always you and I, the people who just want to be left alone to raise their children and serve their God, who derive joy from something other than power or possessions that are deemed less than.

Those who tried to exterminate Christians and Christianity did so not because they held some special hatred toward Jesus but because Jesus gave men hope, and they didn’t like the competition. The system wants exclusive rights to hope, and anything standing in the way of total dependence on the government must be excised and done away with.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That’s the price of ignorance, and eventually, everyone must pay it. By the time enough people realize what their nation has become, it’s too late to do anything about it except go along, hoping that you won’t be singled out by the machine and have your life turned inside out, villainized, and demonized for not going along with every twisted thing a finite minority now deems as the new normal.

Even though people were starving, being abused, sent to labor camps, imprisoned, tortured, and having everything the system deemed excessive seized on a whim, Nicolae Ceausescu still managed to get 99% of the votes when they were all counted, but even that wasn’t good enough. After every election, they would release the hounds to find that 1% who dared not comply and reeducate them in very violent ways. The 99% were used as the undeniable proof that the 1% were just rabble-rousers and needed to be dealt with lest the 1% turn into 2% come the next election cycle.

As I sat in my chair sipping my coffee this morning, I was left with three choices: say nothing and pretend as though we are not at a crossroads, be hyper-pious and acknowledge the situation for what it is but insist that all I’m willing to do is watch the darkness encroaching, or share my heart knowing that some will take it the wrong way and judge me for it.

The possibility that America can be saved is not on the table. It hasn’t been for quite some time. Judgment is coming, so the only variable left to consider is when. If I can have another four years of watching my daughters grow up in relative peace and continue to do the work to which God has called me, being left alone and not being forced to bend the knee or suffer the consequences of my refusal, then I will make an effort to light my candle, though some within the household of faith may deem it unseemly. Yes, it’s a gnarled, half-burned, wax-laden candle, but it’s still a candle and can produce a bit of light. I will not forfeit my right to push back against the darkness, even if, in the aggregate, it’s but a flicker.

Will it do anything to change the course of this nation? Likely not, but neither will cursing the darkness and being unwilling to do anything to halt its progression. I will not be a coward. I will not. I don’t think I could bear looking my daughters in the face if I were.

Sometimes in life, you have to take a stand, even against overwhelming odds. It’s not because you think you’ll win, but because it’s the right thing to do. Who knows? Perhaps someone will see your boldness, and another theirs, and eventually, enough people stand up and shake off the dust that they bring the fight to the enemy and give him a run for his money.

I write the following with a heavy heart: The day will come, and sooner than some may think, when those who stood on the sidelines and did nothing will wish they had, but it will be too late.

We will return to our journey through Job shortly. For now, remember that those who despise the God you serve have no love for you either. You cannot hate one’s Master but love His servants, no matter how much they try to convince you otherwise. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.         

 The more we draw near to God, the more we grow in Him, the more we see our own wretchedness and those areas in our lives that must be pruned and tended to. Since we’ve become fans of labeling everything, the term that has been coined for this continual maturing and growing in righteousness is progressive sanctification. Daily, we become more like Him; daily, our desires, aspirations, goals, and ambitions are transformed because the more of Him we know, the more humbled we are by His love and grace.

We are being transformed, and daily so, from glory to glory, and that which we took pleasure in yesterday becomes as a bitter taste in our mouth today because we realize it is hindering our walk with Him.

What should be more troubling than world events or politics to some today is the reality that they’ve been in a static spiritual state for years, if not decades. They have not grown, matured, or been transformed but are the same as they ever were, the only difference being a fish sticker on their car. It may not be spiritual death, but it’s close enough, and the more time passes that they remain in that inert state, the colder their hearts become toward the things of God.

The pinnacle of your spiritual maturity isn’t when you surrender your heart to Christ; that’s just the beginning of a lifelong journey, and with each passing day, your spiritual man must become more robust, your faith more steadfast, and your walk more surefooted. It took a lifetime of Job walking with God, knowing Him, and serving Him for him to be able to hold fast to his integrity when his trial buffeted him. Had he not prioritized his relationship with God over all else, we may have never been privy to the story of Job or his faithfulness in the bleakest of circumstances.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Men abuse liberty just as they abuse grace, not understanding that the message Paul was trying to send to the Corinthians via his second letter wasn’t permission to do as they willed but rather a reminder that although they had liberty, lest they forget, the natural progression of an individual is to be transformed into the image of the Lord, from glory to glory.

When men refuse to put away childish things, any excuse will do. They’ll butcher scripture, take it out of context, twist it to say something it clearly doesn’t, all because their sin is more important to them than serving, worshipping, and knowing God. That’s the reality of it. They forfeit the knowledge of God for the momentary, fleeting pleasures of life but still have the temerity to insist that they are walking in His will because they have liberty.

If Job had been looking for an excuse to give up, one was within reach. He could have deemed his trials undeserved, too harsh for a loving God to allow, or not what he signed up for, but instead, he held fast to his integrity and worshipped God.

Even when his wife came up with the brilliant idea that he should curse God and die, he didn’t react in anger, browbeat her, or demand that she remove herself from his presence. Even at his lowest, as she poured salt into the open wounds, his character remained intact, and his response was in accordance with it.

Job 2:10, “But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

We know next to nothing about Job’s life up until the point the enemy asked to sift him. By then, he’d already amassed a great fortune, had ten children, and oversaw a large household. Given the time of Job, however, it would not be a stretch to conclude that he was a hard man, as all the men of that time needed to be in order to survive, yet when he addressed his wife, even though she’d been used by the enemy to try and get him to curse God, he spoke to her with a tenderness inherent in decades-long marriages the world over. It may be a small, often overlooked thing, but having been married for a quarter of a century, come next June, his tenderness toward his wife even as he sat in ashes, covered in painful boils, and scratching himself with a potsherd, speaks volumes to me.

He didn’t berate her, call her an idiot, scream at her, or strike her as was common in those days, but inferred he was surprised that she would speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Job thought much of his wife, the mother of his children, and he couldn’t reconcile her words with the woman with whom he’d shared his life.

The transformative power of God extends to every area of our lives. It’s not just in the consistency of worship but in how we interact with those around us, whether disagreeable spouses, snarky progeny, obtuse bosses, or angry neighbors. It’s that transformation into the likeness of Christ that those who knew us while we were still of the world notice and react to first before we even get a chance to tell them about Jesus.

My grandfather’s brother was neither a kind nor gentle man while he was still of the world. He was gruff, barrel-chested, with a short fuse and calloused knuckles. Violence was his go-to, no matter the situation, and any perceived sleight was enough to set him off. That he was a heavy drinker, what some may deem a functioning alcoholic nowadays, didn’t help matters either. Then he encountered Jesus, surrendered his life to Him, and he was a man transformed, a new man, in every sense of the word. He stopped drinking, cursing, being short-tempered and easily offended, and the man who once stirred so much fear in the hearts of others as to make them cross the street if they saw him coming now smiled, and laughed, and asked others if they needed help for no other reason than to be helpful.

Every time I went back to Romania after the revolution, I’d make it a point to visit the village I grew up in, and it was inevitable that I would hear stories of the Duduman boys and their rebellious years, each story ending with the requisite, “You should have seen them when they were young. I can’t believe it’s the same person.”

It’s not that I didn’t believe the core of the stories; I just thought they were a bit exaggerated until one day, I was in a Zody’s department store parking lot with my grandfather. Zody’s was a discount version of K-Mart back in the day, which in its own right had been a discount version of Montgomery Ward. My grandmother had bought him a Botany 500 shirt from there, a brand which by that time had fallen out of favor, and they had them on clearance for a whopping three dollars. He liked the feel and fit of it, so we went back to get a few more.

As we were getting ready to leave, a man began to yell something about denting his Volkswagen Beetle, parked a few spots away from our car, even though we hadn’t gone near it. My grandfather asked what the man wanted, and I told him. My grandpa shook his head, and we turned to leave, but the man just kept yelling and started walking toward us.

I’d never seen the other side of my grandfather, the side I’d heard stories about. He’d been a believer for many years by the time I came along, and all I’d ever known was the gentle side of him, but as the man came closer, yelling and wagging his finger, I saw my grandfather’s jaw muscles working and a look flash in his eyes that I’d never seen before. He didn’t bunch his fists or peacock; he didn’t become outwardly aggressive, just a look passing over his face, and evidently, the man saw it too because he stopped midstride, raised his hands, and said, “You know what, sorry, perhaps I was mistaken,” then turned and walked to his car.

It was years later that I realized the old man was trying to wiggle off the cross, and though my grandfather had always been the gentlest man I’ve ever known, his capacity for violence was real and true, lending credence to all the stories I’d heard.

That’s what the Spirit of the Lord does: He inhabits, and He transforms, from glory to glory, continually molding us into His likeness.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

We often romanticize the Christian walk. Especially in our day and age, rather than portraying it as warfare, we tend to sing of holding hands with Jesus and walking side by side or staring dreamily into His eyes. Perhaps it’s because, for the few minutes, we’re crooning about sweet nothings, the sting of what it means to stand and having done all to stand isn’t quite so pronounced, but we dare not live in an environment of puffy clouds and flower-strewn meadows lest the enemy sneak up on us unaware and hamstring our resolve with one swipe of his claws.

Even those who teach it seem to have never done it because how they frame and present walking in the way seems so carefree and effortless that it evokes thoughts of summer frolics in the grass and windswept sands upon a beach.

Raise your hand right where you are, repeat these words, and you’re in the clear. A catchall cure-all for whatever ails you, and all you have to do is send in a tithe check!

But what about striving to enter through the narrow gate? What about many being called but few chosen? What about endurance and perseverance? We poll-tested those talking points, and they didn’t do so well with our audience. Prosperity, though, is off the charts and popular with every age demographic.

But what of the gospel and rightly dividing the Word? Well, you see, in order to spread the gospel, we must have money, and in order to get money, we must preach another gospel until we get enough money to go forth and preach the real gospel. You wouldn’t understand. By the way, you’re late on your tithe check. That’s two strikes. If we get to three, we’ll disfellowship with you and call you Ichabod.

Yes, I exaggerate to make a point, but just barely. The reason true faith is no longer discussed in many churches and the Christian walk is not presented in its true light is because, gullible as some of the sheep may be, the inconsistency between the message and the lifestyle of the messenger will be too obvious.

There he goes with his poverty mindset again. If that’s what you got from it, you missed the point entirely. I begrudge no man who works hard and is rightly compensated for his labors, but even the rich must contend with the reality that the spiritual man, the spiritual walk, and the eternity that beckons with every breath must be prioritized over this present life and material possessions. Job is the constant reminder that wealth is not a replacement for God. Not even close. If we can’t muster more energy seeking God than we do seeking earthly comforts, our priorities are skewed and improperly ranked.

We don’t live to work; we work to live, to earn our daily bread, but the overarching purpose of our endeavors must be serving God and serving people. You can easily spot the self-serving among the household of faith because they always seem to be the tip of the funnel of what has become a spiritualized form of a pyramid scheme. 

Because the hearts of those tasked with offering spiritual succor are tethered to the things of this earth, and seeking the things above comes second to their seeking the things of this earth, they are reticent in presenting the true gospel. If they were to speak the truth and tell people that the Christian walk is warfare and battle, wounds and bruises, but that through it all, God will be there to carry you through, you’d likely get a few raised eyebrows wondering how Bishop, Pastor, or Apostle are doing warfare from behind the wheel of a Bentley or a McLaren.

Some of the brasher ones might come up with the narrative that they need a fast car to run the devil over in the spirit, but rather than have to explain why every minute of their day seems to be focused on the here, the now, and their physical comfort, they’ll beat the prosperity drum until there’s nothing left to beat.

Job was rich one day, then destitute the next. He had seven sons and three daughters whom he loved enough to bring burnt offerings on behalf of one day, then buried what remained of them the next after being crushed by the house they were in. He was healthy one day and covered in painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Through it all, Job held fast to his integrity.

If you don’t particularly like roller coasters but you got on one because you didn’t want your ten-year-old daughter to think you a coward, then you have an idea of what holding fast means. It’s not a passive action; it is an active one. You cling to that bar in front of you for all you’re worth because if you were meant to corkscrew and loop-di-loop, God would have given you wings and the ability to fly.

The enemy’s attacks will always be aimed at separating you from your integrity. There will always be the temptation to make a compromise, small and subtle at first, but if you relent and make it, the temptation for ever greater compromises will be short in coming. Hold fast to faith, hold fast to hope, hold fast to your integrity and the Word of God, even if everything around you is trying to pull you away.

It’s a lot like being on the aforementioned roller coaster but without a safety harness. The centrifugal force of it is constantly pulling at you, and all you have is that shiny metal bar across your lap that you’re holding onto for dear life, for to let go would spell ruin. You know it’s a passing thing. You know the ride will end in thirty or forty seconds, but until it does, until it comes to a screeching stop, you hang on.

One of the most destructive lies being repeated from pulpits throughout the denominational panoply is that the Christian walk is an easy, carefree prospect, requiring little or nothing of us as individuals. The Word itself proves these men liars, whether the Old or New Testaments, because to the last, every man of substance that was singled out each had some form of hardship to contend with, some sort of trial to overcome, and some challenge through which they had to persevere and hold fast to the integrity they possessed. Giving up is easy, but it’s not right. Giving up is only an option for those who as yet fail to understand that this is a life-or-death struggle with nothing in between. Either we live for Him, in Him, and through Him, and die to the word, or we live for the world and are dead toward God. No man can serve two masters. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 There are only so many keys on a piano and only so many ways to make a quiche. Although you can add ingredients to the recipe, the base ingredients remain predictably similar. Although grand compositions can be played on a piano, the base notes never change. It’s the way in which they are arranged and the skill with which they are played that grips one’s attention and that makes a concert either memorable or something soon forgotten.

Although the enemy is quick to add a wrinkle or two when it comes to his attacks on the household of faith, three primary and indispensable ingredients are always included in the mix because they are the most effective by far. There’s the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These are the three mainstays the enemy uses as his vehicles of attack, and knowing this, we must do our utmost to guard against them.

While the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes weren’t on the table as far as Job was concerned because he’d already proven he was an upright and blameless man, the pride of life was what the enemy focused on, thinking this would be his way in.

Satan wrongly assumed that since Job was the greatest of all the people of the East, his identity and purpose were wrapped up in his possessions and that he leaned on them rather than God for his peace and joy. If the enemy believes that you draw your strength from anything other than God, he will attack that thing. He will do so repeatedly, mercilessly, and inventively, believing that if the position or possession is brought to ruin, then your faith in God and His goodness will be shaken and shattered.

We’ve all known people who were so wrapped up in a title they held or a possession they’d acquired that when the thing they focused on, sacrificed for, and obsessed over for so long began to crumble under the weight of its own design, they grow bitter toward God, rejecting the way, and hardening their hearts. If your hope is rooted in the fleeting and insubstantial, you have no abiding hope. If what animates you and gives you purpose are the things of this earth, once they are shaken, shattered, and are no more, all you’ll have left is that hollow, empty feeling that becomes a constant companion.

When God is your everything when He alone satisfies the longing of your soul, then come what may, as long as you have Him, cling to Him, and follow Him, you will not be shaken or broken upon the rocks of life.

Tragedy befalls all men. The one choice we have is how we react to it. When I was younger, I sang in a choir and played guitar in church. It was back before the days of the interwebs, where all the information you ever wanted to know about any given subject was just a few clicks away, but I made it a point to research how certain hymns we sang in church had come about and originated.

While Hillsong is the flavor du jour for most today, I still gravitate toward the old hymns that have a message which resonates and that isn’t so vague as to be interchangeable with a love ballad lip-synced by an over-the-hill crooner. I figured there had to be something more than writing out a few verses to songs that, over the years, had been translated into hundreds of languages, Romanian included.

The first song I researched was Amazing Grace, which, it turns out, was written by a formerly foul-mouthed slaver named John Newton, who, once converted, became an abolitionist and preacher.

The second song I spent endless hours discovering the history of was “It is Well With My Soul,” which was penned by a man with a story very similar to Job’s. It was written by a man named Horatio Spafford, a devout Christian who also happened to be a lawyer and businessman. He’d lost most of his real estate holdings in the great Chicago fire, then his four daughters in a shipwreck, and from the depths of his soul, he penned the lyrics to a song that would stand the test of time and be a comfort to many who found themselves traversing the valleys of life.

It is a grace beyond words to have the wherewithal to cling to Jesus in the midst of trial, knowing that while the storms of life will pass, Jesus will remain ever steadfast, faithful, and true.

Just as Paul would verbalize thousands of years later, Job had his priorities well established, and God came first, always, without fail, no matter the circumstance or situation. We have countless testimonies spanning millennia wherein men and women persevered and overcame not because there was something inherently special in their family tree or their upbringing but because they made the conscious decision to steadfastly cling to God no matter what they faced.

Looking at their life stories in the aggregate, one readily concludes that martyrdom might not be so bad after all. I know where I’m going when this journey is done. It is well with my soul, no matter what may come. Do not let fear of tomorrow keep you from worshipping God today or the concerns of this life keep you from cementing your relationship with Him.

There is a permanence in God that stretches beyond this present life into eternity. We squander so much time focusing on the temporal while giving the eternal so little attention when eternity is all that matters.

Where is your treasure? Who is your treasure? The answer to these all-important questions will determine whether your testimony will be one of a conqueror or a cautionary tale of one who has been conquered.

Philippians 3:8, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

It is unsettling to the mind of flesh to come to terms with the reality that not only does God choose how to respond to His creation, but also chooses when, within what context, and how clearly. Sometimes, God chooses to be silent. More often than not, it’s when He’s already given us clear direction, we didn’t like the directions we were given, and so return to Him with the same question hoping we’ll get a different answer. God didn’t stutter. He is neither double-minded nor duplicitous. He meant what He said, He said what He meant, and it’s incumbent upon us to obey. God’s not one for playing games, and usually, His answers are direct and forthright, without ambiguity or any wiggle room for our minds to interpret something other than what was intended.

When the Word of God says one thing, and men insist it says the opposite, it’s not that the Word itself is ambiguous. It’s that men are attempting to twist it into a pretzel to make it say something it clearly doesn’t. If you’re wondering why men would do such things, then you haven’t been paying attention. Life isn’t an oasis, a paradise, a safe place where we can while away the hours staring at our navels waiting on Christ’s return. It is a warzone rife with infiltrators, deceivers, betrayers, double-dealing faux brethren, and an enemy ever on the prowl.

If you’ve ever wondered how far the church has strayed from the gospel, take a verse deemed controversial by the modern-day church, read it to a six-year-old, and ask them what they think it means. You’re likely to get a more biblically accurate interpretation than you would from some of the clowns pretending to be shepherds who call evil good, darkness light, and bitter sweet.

Their aim is to sow confusion, doubt, and unbelief in the hearts of God’s children, to steer them from the way of truth into the murky shadows where personal opinion supersedes the word of God and where men become defacto gods, following their own way rather than God’s way.

There is purpose in God’s silence, just as there is purpose in God speaking. Especially when we are going through a trial, we would prefer He addresses us sooner rather than later, but our preferences, like our feelings, don’t enter the equation, contrary to what we may have been told by those trying to sell us a course on how to force God’s hand to do our bidding.

Job was not perturbed or deterred by God’s silence because his faith was well-established, and he knew the nature and character of the God he served. Here he sat, covered in boils, upon the ashes of his former life, scratching at himself with a potsherd, and his attitude was not one of self-pity or bitterness at having to endure something he’d concluded was undeserved.

When the knowledge of the God we serve has no depth, when we have not entered a relationship or fellowship with Him but possess only a superficial understanding of His glory, whenever sudden trials come upon us, the feeling that we are being maltreated or abused will inevitably rise to the fore, attempting to sow bitterness and despair.

My grandmother was a strict disciplinarian. While some might have the requisite “Bless This House” or “Joy Lives Here” needlepoint pillows about their homes, if my grandmother had ever gotten into needlepoint, I’m sure her pillow would have had “Spare The Rod, Spoil The Child” as its preeminent message. Even in her later years, when she needed to employ the aid of a walker, she found a way to administer discipline in varied and inventive ways.

Granted, we lived in a small apartment, and few corners were out of reach of her outstretched hands, even from a sitting position on the couch, but however many times she chose the way of the rod, I never doubted that she loved all three of us. Since my brother Daniel is the youngest, I tend to think she preferred him, but even he was not spared her discipline when it was deemed necessary.

God doesn’t stop loving us when He allows us to undergo testing. On the contrary, His correction is proof that we are His and that He considers us sons and daughters. He loves us enough to steer us clear of the pitfalls that would ensure our demise were we to follow through with what the flesh insists we ought. The flesh might resist the idea, but whenever a trial or a test comes upon us, it is intended for maturing and growth.

Proverbs 3:11-12, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.”

If you’re a parent, you know that love as your children as you might, sometimes correction is necessary. It’s love that compels you to use the stern daddy voice, as my little one likes to call it, whenever you see them doing something you know will end in a bruise, a cut, or something much worse.

To them, climbing things that shouldn’t be climbed and jumping off is all in good fun—until it isn’t. The tile floor they’re about to belly flop on is unmerciful in its consistency, and rather than have to rush to urgent care to cast a leg or splint a finger, I step in as a loving father and end the festivities before mirth turns into tears. Those of you who have sons rather than daughters are likely rolling your eyes, thinking I don’t know the half of it, but I, too, was young once, with two little brothers, so I do know. My brother Sergiu still has a scar on his foot from when we played chicken with lawn darts. He didn’t move; a pyrrhic victory, indeed.

God never stops being a loving father, even when He chastens and corrects us. As wise children, we must never stop seeing Him as a good and loving father. I keep returning to this point because it is of paramount importance: Job never once, throughout his entire ordeal, doubted the character of the God he served. Had he done so, it would have unraveled in real-time, and he likely would have taken his wife’s advice to heart and done the unthinkable.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Any objective observer of God’s Word can’t help but point out its interconnected consistency, something so profoundly difficult to pull off that the reality of its interwoven message and clearly emphasized main themes spanning thousands of years gave them reason for pause, introspection, and acknowledgment that there was something more to it than human happenstance or a happy accident. They acknowledged the unseen hand of God throughout the entirety of the Bible, bringing some, even grudgingly, to the conclusion that divine input was evident.

It’s not the only time we see the enemy using a person to try and steer someone’s heart or convince them to do something other than the will of God, most notably, Peter, whom the enemy used to try and sway Jesus from the reality that He would suffer many things, be killed, and be raised on the third day.

Within the span of one conversation, Jesus went from telling Peter that he would be the rock upon which He would build His church to rebuking him in the harshest manner Jesus had ever rebuked anyone.

Matthew 16:21-23, “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”’

One could argue that Peter’s denunciation of what Jesus said came from a good place. He didn’t want to see Jesus, His Lord, suffer and die. Even so, Jesus knew that the enemy was trying to use Peter in the moment to diminish His resolve. Yes, sometimes well-intentioned people can give horrible advice because the way they see a situation unfolding and its purposes are different from how God sees it.

The same cannot be said of Job’s wife, even in the best possible light. Perhaps there’s a chance she did not want him to suffer needlessly or thought his pain too much for him to bear, but her solution was that he should curse God and die.

Even at this juncture, I would give her the benefit of the doubt if not for her questioning his integrity being intact. It is clear the enemy was using her as an agent of doubt, attempting to shake his resolve and have Job throw in the towel.

It is our duty to take every thought captive and filter it through the lens of God's will and Word. The ways of God are always counterintuitive to the ways of the flesh, and if we fall into the snare of seeing a situation, an event, a trial, or a hardship through the prism of flesh, we will kick against the goads and resist them.

Whether one calls it a snowball effect or a domino effect, once we give in to seeing our circumstances through the eyes of flesh rather than spiritual eyes, one decision in the flesh will lead to another, and the effects will compound exponentially. Whenever I counsel someone who has strayed from the path, it is inevitable that I hear some version of “I don’t know how I got here” as they work through the choices they made to bring them to the place they find themselves in.

One wrong decision turned into two, two turned into five, and before they knew it, they were unmoored, beaten to and fro by the waves of life, with no obvious means of relief for their predicament.

Even after all he’d endured, Satan still held out hope that he could get Job to grow bitter against the God he served to the point of cursing Him. Holding fast to one’s integrity is a choice. Especially when from the outside looking in, there is no reason for it. Had Job not known God on a fundamental level, had he not built up a relationship with Him to the point of trusting Him without fail in every area of his life, the worm of doubt would surely have found a way in.

If Job’s faith in God were tethered and dependent upon the things he possessed or, by this time, his own physical health, he would have had no viable reason for continuing in his faithfulness. Establishing why we serve God and ensuring it’s not because of any reason other than His presence in our lives is paramount and often the deciding factor as to whether or not someone will remain faithful in the midst of trial.

If my serving God were predicated upon material things, once those material things dry up and go away, then so does my commitment and willingness to serve Him. If, however, I serve Him because He has redeemed my life from destruction and His presence is all I desire, forfeiting all else for the knowledge of Him, then whatever may come, however cumbersome the travails of life, I will hold fast to my integrity.

There is a reason the Word instructs us to be wise about where we build our spiritual house. There are only two choices. Either we build our spiritual house upon the rock, ensuring that it will weather any storm and remain standing once the storm passes, or we build it upon the sand, which, although easier to do and requiring less effort and exertion, will likely result in our spiritual house being swept away.

A wise man prioritizes the spirit over the flesh and commits himself to building a spiritual house well-established in the truth of God’s word. A foolish man is indifferent toward his spiritual man’s well-being, haphazardly building upon the sand because his end goal isn’t to know Him and the power of His resurrection but to see himself as spiritual, hoping to get some discount fire insurance in the process. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 There’s a reason Isaiah analogized the enemy coming in like a flood and not like a pipe leak. Granted, they didn’t have pipes during the time of Isaiah’s writing, but they did have water skins, and they did leak sometimes, so if he’d not intended to use such a devastatingly graphic analogy, he could have found something else to compare the enemy’s attacks to.

As far as Job’s life was concerned, the enemy had come in like a flood. Everything had been churned beneath the waters, upended and soiled, until he himself remained untouched, but the devil had a plan for that, too.

Since we’ve become an overly sensitive brood of late, actively seeking something to take offense at, trigger warning, the following may be uncomfortable to ponder: the enemy’s attacks on your individual person are proportionate to your level of spiritual maturity, at least as far as he can gauge. He won’t use a rocket launcher to take out a molehill if a solid boot heel will do the job.

Some actively brag about being left alone by the devil. They revel in the thought that their faith has not been tested and that they’ve never gone through trials of any noteworthy ferocity, not realizing that there is a reason the enemy is leaving them be, and it’s because they pose no threat to him and his plans.

Satan seeks to shake people’s faith in God. If the people in question have no faith to begin with, why bother? The enemy seeks to undermine one’s steadfastness and confidence in God’s providence, to cause doubt to seep into their hearts, and take their eyes off the things above, but if they’re already in that condition to begin with, if they’re already compromised, deceived, easily swayed, and wholly focused on the things of this earth, why try to fix something that’s not broken?

There is the general malaise sweeping the earth and general hardships that most go through, such as not having enough to pay bills or put food on their tables; then there are the targeted attacks against God’s faithful, the persecutions and hardships especially tailored for them.

Because of the things God had said about Job, singling him out as being a man apart, he knew that Job would not be easily rattled, and so went in like a flood, sparing none of Job’s children or possessions. Even so, Job remained steadfast and faithful, neither sinning nor finding fault with God.

Satan had lost the first round, and he knew it. It wasn’t a draw; it wasn’t even close to needing a judge’s decision on who came out the winner in this battle. Satan landed punch after punch that would have felled any other opponent, but Job still stood—bruised, hurting, battered, heartbroken, but still standing.

Now it was time for round two, and though he’d lost the first round, Satan was no less enthusiastic about trying again. It seems as though it’s the one lesson we’re slow to learn about the devil and his minions. Failure does not seem to bother or affect them. It emboldens them. If they fail once, they dust themselves off and try again and again, and because we’re busy celebrating our first-round win, oftentimes, the enemy gets a sucker punch in when we least expect it. Just because we’ve won a battle, it doesn’t mean we’ve won the war. While the war is still raging around you, although a battle has been won, keep your armor on and your sword sharp because another battle is a matter of when and not if.

Job 2:7-9, “So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”’

There’s nothing like the love of a good woman to lift you up when you’re feeling down. In order to understand the true depth of Satan’s nefarious nature and the perversity of his plots and schemes, one need look no further than what he did to Job. He took away every person who could offer him encouragement or a shoulder to cry on and left his wife alone and unharmed, whose one piece of advice is to get it over with. There was no “we’ll get through this together,” no “God’s ways are not our ways”; she didn’t sit in the ashes next to him and try to console him; she looked down on her husband, the father of her children, the man she’d made a life with and not only questioned why he still held to his integrity but insisted that he should curse God and die.

These thoughts were not of her own making, but the enemy was speaking through her as surely as day gives way to night. It’s another lesson from the life of Job we would do well to learn because the enemy will use those around us to attempt to dishearten us and abandon our hope in the sovereignty of the God we serve.

If you’ve ever asked a friend, an elder, a spouse, or a relative for advice while you’re going through a trial, and the advice they give you is antithetical to what Scripture prescribes, reject it because, at the moment, it’s not them speaking it’s the enemy speaking through them.

“Brother, I’m barely hanging on. It’s hard, and I find myself running to God every morning, every night, and throughout the day just to keep my head above water.”

“Well, then just give up! Let go, and let the waters drag you to the deep.”

“Huh? But the Word tells me to persevere, to endure, to trust that God knows, and sees, and has made a way for me.”

“Well, yeah, but you could also do the other thing.”

I don’t know which would hurt more. To be covered in painful boils from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head, sitting in the midst of ashes, scratching myself with a potsherd, or hearing my wife tell me I should pack it in, give up, curse God, and die.

Whenever a loved one is going through a trial, make sure that the counsel you give them is Biblical counsel. If it isn’t, it is better to keep silent and give no counsel at all. They’re already hurting; there’s no need to add to the hurt. They’re barely hanging on, and you trying to kick at their fingers and encouraging them to let go of hope is neither loving nor godly.   

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Although Job never referred to himself as being blameless and upright, God had, not just once but multiple times. If Job had done something to displease God, rather than fall on the ground and worship, he would have fallen on the ground and repented. Although the book of Job does not detail Job’s inner monologue, there was likely a momentary introspection of whether or not he’d done anything to displease God to such an extent as to have everything shattered and broken around him in one day.

Job knew God well enough to know that He chastens those He loves, not because He wants to see them flinch away in fear or cry out in pain, but to draw them back nearer to Him and remind them that He sees all and He knows all. Job knew that it was neither punishment, reproof, nor correction, so the one act left to him was to worship God.

For his part, the accuser of the brethren remained true to his nature, and rather than admit defeat and acknowledge that Job was a true and faithful man, he doubled down and insisted that the reason Job remained faithful was because his flesh was most important to him, and as long as he was left intact, he would continue to maintain his integrity. Satan’s underlying assumption was that even though he’d wreaked havoc in Job’s life, turning everything into ash and crumbling cinders, his love of self and sense of self-preservation were what kept him faithful and not steadfast love and sincerity of heart.

In reading his attempt to twist things to his advantage and interpret pure intent into being something other than what it was, it’s easy to conclude that Satan could have been the world’s first politician. There is no black and white, just an endless sea of gray. Every noble act has an ulterior motive, every act of worship has a vested interest, and even one such as Job, who was blameless and upright, had to be so for some reason other than a desire to know God.

Job 2:4-6, “So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has, he will give for his life. But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.’”

If Satan had been right and a man would give all that he has for his life, then we would have no testimonies of martyrs to look back upon and see as heroes of the faith. All would have relented, bowed, and denied the name of Jesus to save their skin; all would have slinked away to lick their wounds and live out their days as those who had been found unworthy of His name. Because he is disloyal, a betrayer, and his nature is steeped in rebellion, Satan cannot fathom the thought that some men love God rather than their own lives, even unto death.

Satan had taken everything from Job but left him untouched as per God’s instruction. Now, upon his return before God, he’s got one more play: touching Job’s flesh. Even now, God sets boundaries, wherein Satan is allowed to touch his bone and flesh but commanded to spare his life.

Just as he had the previous time, Satan takes to this task with gusto, hoping to shake Job’s resolve and hoping that he does not possess the requisite perseverance to endure the next salvo. It is said there’s no worse feeling than outliving a child, and I tend to agree. Job had to bury all ten of his children on the same day, so whether attacking his flesh was worse than what he’d already been through is a matter of opinion, but it was Satan’s last play. There was nothing else he could point to as the reason for Job’s faithfulness, and he went after the one thing in Job’s life that was still intact.

If you’ve ever gone through a trial so severe as to cause you to fall on your face before God and cry out to Him because it was the only thing left to do, and once that trial passes, another comes along that you deem less ferocious than the last, it’s not because the devil’s giving you a breather, or he decided to be a bit nicer, it’s because there’s nothing worse in his bag of tricks that he can throw at you. He’s petty enough to keep trying, to try and cause you pain for pain’s sake, but if his second salvo is less brutal than his opening one, it’s because he tried his best during the first go round, and now he’s just hoping you’ve let down your guard.

Granted for those of the world their bodily health, their flesh is the most important thing of all, and since Satan cannot possess the mind of Christ, he cannot understand how some would lay down their lives for His name’s sake, but what Job had already gone through thus far makes what is to follow seem tame, at least from my perspective. Yes, all that he’d endured was emotional loss, having had his heart hollowed out and the works of his hands brought to ruin. It did occur within the span of a day, while bodily decay is a drawn-out, protracted experience. However, I’m still reticent to believe that having his bones and flesh attacked by Satan impacted him more profoundly than having heard that all of his progeny were no more and all that he’d labored for was gone in a breath.

Ultimately, I guess it matters which side of the coin you land on. Some people are more apt to endure physical pain than emotional, while others endure emotional pain with more aplomb than they would physical pain. Job had to contend with both and with such ferocity as to leave anyone not anchored in God and wholly devoted to Him reeling and despondent.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 It’s one thing to have a persecution buddy; it’s another to go through it alone. Paul had Silas as they sat in prison, their feet in stocks, singing hymns to God. Moses had Aaron and Joshua to lift up his hands when he grew weary and drew strength in the knowledge that they were there, but Job was alone, his life torn asunder, everything he’d build having come to ruin, yet he found the strength worship God.

Even when you have no one to lean on, you still have God, and God knows. God is not ignorant of our suffering, our testing, our hardship, or our persecution. He has not turned a blind eye, nor has He abandoned His children.

When the letter to the angel of the church of Smyrna was penned, Jesus made sure to encourage them by reminding them that He knew of their afflictions and poverty, as well as the slander brought against them. It’s easy to gloss over such passages and not understand the depth of the suffering they were going through. As far as Smyrna is concerned, at the time of the letter’s writing, those in power had instituted a law that if you reported someone within the city of being a Christian, all their belongings would be seized, and the person that turned them in would get ten percent of whatever had been confiscated as recompense.

Thousands of years later, the Communists instituted similar incentives, but ten percent seemed a bit much, so you’d get an extra bread ration or sugar ration for having informed on a neighbor, a friend, or a family member. The crimes of those being informed upon were that they were Christians, or followers of Christ, not that they’d murdered, stolen, cheated, or lied. It wasn’t so much ‘see something, say something’ but ‘suspect something, say something’ because you’d be rewarded for your betrayal.

All the enemy needs to despise you, hate you, and desire your destruction is that you serve Jesus. You could be all the other things the world deems offputting, you can commit the most heinous of crimes, and the devil will leave you alone, but if the desire of your heart is to humbly follow after Christ, know that you are in the bullseye, and the enemy of your soul is actively seeking your destruction.

Even though Satan’s second encounter with God is similar to the first, wherein he got permission to touch everything Job possessed but not lay a hand on his person, it is not identical. It started out much the same way, where the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them, God asking him where he was coming from, then asking if he’d considered Job, a blameless and upright man, but then a new wrinkle is added to the conversation.

After the whirlwind of destruction, after Satan did everything he could in attempting to shake Job’s faith, God pointed out that he still held fast to his integrity, although he’d incited God against him to destroy him without cause.

For those who insist that there is an underlying cause for everything that happens to us, I present to you exhibit A. They are God’s words, and so they must be taken with the requisite import, and God said that Satan had incited Him against Job to destroy him without cause. Sometimes, it’s hard to resist the urge to play judge and jury. We see someone going through a trial or struggling, and as we will see later, just as Job’s friends did, we assume they sinned or did something to bring the ire of God upon themselves. We can’t wrap our minds around the idea that sometimes there is no cause, but there is always a purpose.

Job’s troubles had no instigating cause. He had not sinned against God, he had not wandered from the truth, nor had he done anything to stir God’s wrath against him. His troubles, however, did have a purpose: to test his faithfulness and prove to Satan that Job served God from a pure heart, with pure intentions, and not because he’d been given wealth and prominence.

Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

All means all, even if you can’t understand it or see how something you’re going through might work together for good. Do you love God? Are you called according to His purpose? Then rest in the knowledge that it will work together for good. Paul didn’t say they would work together for good in the material, but more often than not, that’s where our expectations gravitate toward.

In hindsight, it’s easy to see that our physical trials served to strengthen our spiritual man to heights we dared not imagine. It’s easy to look back on the seasons of hardship and determine that they taught us to lean on God, and run to Him, trust Him, and build up our faith more than anything else would have, but while we’re going through it, all we can do is cling to the hem of His garment.

As children of God, it’s perfectly acceptable to acknowledge that we do not know why we are going through what we’re going through sometimes, but we should take strength in the knowledge that God knows.

God’s not a politician. He doesn’t sign laws and decrees He has no clue about, and no intention of following up on. God cannot be bought; He doesn’t do anything without a purpose, nor does He allow His children to suffer needlessly. There is a purpose in my suffering, just as there is a purpose in your suffering, and God knows the purpose; it is clearly defined, and one day, we will look back upon it and realize that it was as the Word says: it worked together for good.

God didn’t need an assistant to whisper into His ear about the Job matter, nor did He arch His eyebrows and whisper, “Job who?” He was fully invested in Job’s life and knew that he’d held fast to His integrity and continued to be a faithful servant. God is no less invested in your life. If you are His, He knows you by name, and your faithfulness in times of plenty as well as in times of trial brings joy and gladness to His heart.   

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 It’s sad to think that the theme song to The Facts of Life had a better grasp on human existence than many preachers today. Good and bad alike are part of our human journey. There has never been anyone who’s had all of one and none of the other. The difference between the children of God and those of the world is that we have the hope of future glory and His presence to keep us in our darkest hour, knowing that He will make away even when no way is visible to the human eye.

When we teach an entire generation that their expectations of living a life devoted to God should extend no further than good things heaped upon good things, when something bad comes along, as it always does, they begin to question not just the teaching they heard being proffered from the pulpit but the goodness of God Himself.

The preacher man told me I should be expecting blessings upon blessings, pressed down and shaken together, and here I am getting evicted and getting my car repossessed. If he was wrong about the blessing part, perhaps he is wrong about the God part, too. The desire for a lie to become truth does not transform a lie into the truth. Regardless of how much you want it to be the truth, it's still a lie, and if you cling to it in the midst of the storm, you’re clinging to a cement block that’s bound to take you under.

This is why doctrine matters. This is why men tasked with rightly dividing the Word must preach the Word and not their own vain imaginings. Yes, bad things happen to good people. Yes, the children of God grow old and feeble and die. The greatest preachers, evangelists, and writers of the eighteen hundreds have all returned to the earth because no one escapes this life alive. It is what happens after that gives us hope. It is eternity with Him that makes this present journey sufferable.

Job was able to remain faithful because his sufficiency was not predicated upon the things he possessed. He was able to fall to the ground and worship because his worship was not contingent upon whether or not God blessed him but because He is God and worthy of worship.

Fluffy clouds and chubby cherubs sell because they confirm our bias that if we surrender to God, our rightful expectation ought to be good things, always, for as long as we have breath. The only problem with that mindset is that it’s not Biblical. It is the presence of God in the midst of our suffering that we must focus on, and not the idea that we won’t have to suffer while we are here.

Trials, tribulations, hardships, and suffering are part and parcel of the human experience. As children of God, we also have persecution to contend with, wherein we may have to endure the ire of the godless for our faithfulness to Jesus. If you signed on to team Jesus because you thought you would be spared these things, someone lied to you, and you believed the lie.

Well, it’s your word against theirs. Not so. It’s their word against the Word and the anecdotal evidence of countless generations that came before us who suffered well and went to their reward, having remained faithful. We tend to gloss over the fact that of the twelve apostles, eleven were martyred for their faith. Whether crucified upside down, hung, stabbed, flayed, stoned, or decapitated, had these men been sold on the idea that the whole of their existence would forthwith be prosperity and plenty, they would not have given their last full measure for the great high calling of Christ.

If we have any hope of standing and having done all to stand, we must do away with childish machinations and be established in the Word of God, receiving both good and bad from his hand without grumbling, wavering, or growing bitter in our hearts. God knows what He is doing. If we don’t have that singular concept well cemented in our minds, we will wander to and fro, questioning why such and such is happening rather than falling down and worshipping at His feet.  

Our belief structure, what we believe, and why we believe it will determine our reaction to adversity, trial, and hardship. If our faith is anchored in God, if we are firmly rooted in the Word, and the desire of our heart is Him alone, then we will stand in the midst of the tempest and worship Him. If our faith is anchored in the things He gives us, the blessings He bestows, or the safety nets we’ve fashioned for ourselves, when they begin to crumble or are taken away, our faith will be shaken.

In reading the book of Job, one gets the sense that Satan does a lot of walking back and forth upon the earth. It’s not because he’s trying to get his ten thousand steps in or because he’s got a nifty new Apple watch that tells him he needs to make one more trek around the block, but because he is always on the prowl looking for opportunities to do harm to the household of faith, and situations where he can try and tip the scales in his favor.

His easiest prey has always been those that are on the outskirts of Christ and not in Christ. It’s not semantics or splitting hairs; it’s the difference between enduring and overcoming and being trampled underfoot.

Do you know Jesus, or do you know of Him? That is the question of this late hour because if we only know of Jesus and do not know Him as Lord and King of our lives, then we will sway with every wind that comes about attempting to deceive us away from the truth of His word.

You can’t say you know someone when all you’ve had is second-hand accounts of who they are or how they are. Every human experience is subjective, and although I may meet someone and think they’re the bee's knees, another person might meet them and wholly dislike them for whatever reason. It’s why so many reject Christ until they have a personal encounter with Him. They may have heard wonderful things about Him, but they always had their doubts until, like Paul, they meet Him on the road, and their lives are forever transformed. Once you know Him, you will love Him. Once you know Him, you will serve Him. Once you know Him, you will obey Him.

Why some today live duplicitous lives, hopscotching between the darkness and the light, is because they never knew Him. Had they known Him, their commitment would be unwavering and their purpose established. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 In a culture obsessed with self, an individual obsessed with God will stand out like a ray of sunshine peeking through an overcast sky. It’s not because they are trying to draw attention to themselves or vying for the spotlight, but their nature is such that though they are but a man walking among men, they will be singled out as something different, special, and unique. Those of the darkness whose conscience has been seared will bristle at their conduct, their way of life, and their attitude toward their circumstances, seeking to deride and downplay their seemingly contrarian existence, while those being stirred and called toward the light will see them as a beacon toward which they will naturally gravitate.

In the world’s eyes, they are not special but rather an oddity. They know something is different about the lady working the register at the local grocery store, but they can’t put their finger on what. They know that the guy who stopped to help them change a tire on the side of the road for no other reason than to help someone in trouble isn’t common, but they do not perceive what makes him uncommon.

When we are true followers of Christ, walking in His way and clothed in righteousness, even though we might go about our day as anyone else, our attitude and demeanor will be noticed. It’s not about how we dress or how we present ourselves but about the inner light that shines in us and the way we interact with those around us. It’s not about what’s on the outside; it’s about what’s inside of us that makes us peculiar people.

Last night, I had to go to the store to pick up some lemons. My wife’s been on this cayenne pepper and lemon juice kick lately, and noticing that she was out of lemons and would need some in the morning, I thought I’d save myself from trudging to the store upon waking. I’m a creature of habit, so when I wake up, it’s usually a couple of hours before anyone in the house does. I can read, write, and drink my coffee without the melodic sounds of violins, cellos, or children asking where their tennis shoes went. Spoiler alert: the tennis shoes didn’t go anywhere; no one snuck in and took them, and they are exactly where they were left the previous night.

I grabbed my lemons and went to the checkout. The lady at the register scanned my purchase. As I handed her a five-dollar bill, she looked at me and said, “You’re the first person to smile at me today, and I’m at the end of my eight-hour shift.” It wasn’t intentional; it wasn’t something I’d planned, and I hadn’t thought about smiling as I walked up to the register; it’s who I am, my nature, and it is naturally occurring.

Job didn’t have to force faithfulness. He didn’t have to force worship or obedience. He didn’t have to force being blameless and upright, it was who he was, his nature, and he couldn’t help being any other way.

The knowledge of Christ, rebirth, salvation, and sanctification are transformative experiences. One’s life is forever transformed once they encounter God, and the clear demarcation will always be clear. You had a life before Christ; now you have a life after Christ. They cannot be the same because it is impossible for someone to be born again and still remain the old man, laden with sin and vice, taking succor from the darkness the world has to offer. Your life is no longer your own. You are in Christ, belonging to Him; otherwise, whatever experience you might have had was superficial, a surface-level emotional response, and not salvific.

We must be anchored in Christ if we are to keep from getting swept away by the storms of life. We cannot face trial in our own strength, or in our own understanding, but through the power of Christ in us, submitting to His will, clinging to faith in all things that we might overcome. Whether or not we endure to the end is a choice we make, but we must have the capacity for endurance well established before being required to endure.

Nobody wakes up the morning of a marathon and decides to run it. I’m well aware that the first thing that crossed your mind was what I could possibly know about running marathons, to which I can only say that I read a lot. I run only if I’m being chased by something that wants to eat me, and since I live in Wisconsin, there aren’t that many things that see yours truly as a tasty morsel. However, I’ve known people who got into running, and they’ll train for upwards of six months, steadily building up their endurance until the day of the race, where they’ll have to test their limits and exert themselves to the utmost in order to cross the finish line. Building up endurance is a process, and in order to stick it out, you must have a purpose and a goal in mind.

Job’s purpose was the presence of God in his life and the desire to bring glory to God through his endeavors. It’s not something that started when his world crumbled around him. It had been established for years on end, so much so that God took note. Not even Satan could find something negative to point to in Job’s conduct, even though he likely scoured the whole of his existence hoping to find some small thing he could magnify disproportionately and then present to God as the reason He overestimated Job’s faithfulness.

If Satan’s got nothing on you, then he’s got nothing on you. It’s the reason the Word insists that we, as children of God, must walk circumspectly, being above reproach, sober-minded, and self-controlled.

Whenever compromise is allowed to nest in men’s hearts, it’s akin to the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, creating an atmosphere of anxiousness and trepidation as they wonder when the horsehair will break and the sword will pierce their flesh. Though they have built kingdoms, because their kingdoms were of this earth, they live in constant fear of what they’ve built coming to ruin due to their hidden sin. Because their sin holds sway over their lives, and they are unwilling to humble themselves and repent, the entirety of their existence revolves around keeping the plates spinning rather than serving God. Because their purpose is not the will of God but rather their reputations, the fortunes they’ve amassed, or the fiefs they’ve cobbled together when their sin finds them out, their first reaction is damage control or putting a positive spin on it. As John so eloquently said, “They went out from among us because they were not of us.” Do not mourn those who were never of the household of faith to begin with. They are wasted tears.

“Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” - Jesus

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr. 

 Job 2:1, “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and from on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”’

Since we get the privilege of glimpsing what is going on behind the curtain, so to speak, it’s easy to forget that Job himself was wholly unaware of any of it. Job did not know that God had singled him out as blameless and upright. He did not know that Satan had asked to sift him, nor was he aware that God had allowed for all Job possessed to be done with as Satan saw fit. His physical person was off limits up to this point, but as far as everything else in Job’s life, it was up for grabs.

It would have been much easier on Job had he known everything that had gone on between God and Satan. Had he known, however, his story would likely not have resonated the way it does. If this life is a journey and the only purpose is to get from here to there, then whatever we must contend with in order to hear ‘well done, good and faithful servant,’ we do so gladly, knowing the reward that awaits.

Satan’s first instinct was to bum rush Job, to overwhelm him, to stack calamity upon calamity until he broke and either sinned against God by finding fault with Him or cursing Him outright. Satan’s gambit was the presupposition that Job served God because God blessed him. His entire attack was predicated upon that singular assumption, and had his premise been correct, Job likely would have relented.

Contrary to popular modern-day opinion, we do not serve God because of what He can give us in the way of material things. We do not worship Him because we’re hoping for a windfall or an injection of cash but because He is God, He is worthy, and He is the prize. He is the treasure we seek, the pearl of great price that, once discovered, we forfeit all else in pursuit of.

God is what holds value, not the things He can give us. It is a worthwhile distinction with which we must familiarize ourselves, lest we be tempted to trade Him for the baubles and trinkets of this earth.

In the gospel, according to Matthew, Jesus spoke two concurrent parables, one about a treasure in a field, the other about a pearl of great price. In both instances, the men who found them sold all they had in order to obtain either the field in which the treasure was buried or the pearl because they understood the inherent value of what they had discovered and rightly concluded they were worth everything.

The one thing Satan hadn’t considered was that Job had found his treasure. He had found his pearl of great price, and having God was worth more to him than anything in the world. Only in testing do we discover the value we place on God and our relationship with Him. Men are good at lip service; they’re quick to declare they worship God or insist that they would gladly die a martyr’s death for the sake of Christ until they’re put to the test. That’s when you know what someone is made of, how deep their convictions and commitment run, and not when all is going well, the sea is calm, and there’s no storm cloud in the sky.

One’s faithfulness must be established before the storm. It cannot be established during the storm. Job had spent a lifetime serving God, knowing God, and walking with God before his day of testing came, and it was the foundation of faith he’d built throughout his life that allowed him to weather the maelstrom he found himself in.

Sensitive as the question might be, it is nevertheless worth pondering: Do we spend more time wondering what tomorrow will bring, how the events of the last days will play out, or in establishing a sure foundation of faith and making sure that we have built our spiritual house upon the rock?

The knowledge of what is to come will not keep you from being overwhelmed by it. Building up our most holy faith and ensuring that we are walking in God’s will will. It’s the difference between looking out on the horizon, seeing the storm approaching, and going back to playing Scrabble, and seeing the storm, boarding up your house, laying out sandbags, and doing what you know you need to do to mitigate the storm's effects. Granted, some storms are so violent that nothing one does in the physical will make any difference, but in the spiritual, learning to walk in faith and trust God is never a wasted effort. Faith in the goodness, providence, protection, and sovereignty of God will always pay dividends. It’s a given, a certainty, and not just a probability.

Whether Satan presented himself before God the second go-round grudgingly will ever remain a mystery, but given that Job remained faithful even after all he’d done in trying to shake him, it’s likely he was not enthused by the prospect of having to eat his own words and acknowledge failure. Being defined by his pride and arrogance, having to admit he’d misjudged Job would have been a hard pill to swallow, and so rather than admit defeat, he proceeds to double down. The devil doesn’t give up easily. If you’ve resisted him once, be certain he will try again because it’s his nature, and he can’t help it.

If resisting him worked the first time, however, it will work the second and the third. Once something is proven effective, there is no reason to try and find an alternative. This is why an axe has been an axe ever since the axe was invented: because it works. So does resisting the devil. Don’t try to needlessly complicate something that works simply, when simply applied.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Anyone who claims to have been in God’s presence without showing the requisite reverence is lying through their teeth about their alleged experience. Yes, I could have been nicer in my wording, but at some point, we have to be grown-ups and understand that sometimes harsh words must be spoken in order to avoid calamity in the future.

Perhaps it’s because we roll our eyes and brush off such claims and don’t confront them outright that those making them feel emboldened to continue in their foolishness. With each retelling, it gets more grandiose, and those given to believing fables stand in awe and astonishment of foolish people making foolish claims as though what they imagined in their fevered burrito dream actually had some basis in fact.

You’re telling me your heart went pitter-patter more profusely when you saw some aging musician strolling through the airport than when you stood in the presence of God? Meeting some D-list actor or some semi-famous individual gave you the goosebumps more than sitting on God’s lap, as you claim? Got it. Thanks. I think I’ll pass.   

Isaiah had a vision of God in His majesty, and a vision was all it took for him to declare that he was a man undone. If the presence of God does not reveal our own shortfalls and shortcomings, if His righteousness does not compel us to see our own unrighteousness more clearly, then we should be skeptical of the entire experience.

Brother Mike, that sounds a bit harsh. Are you saying? Yes, I am. An increasing number of people are trying to bolster their own authority by claiming to have seen God face-to-face, and the absence of reverence, awe, and veneration is the first clue that they are lying. You’re not on par with God, no matter how much of your donor’s money you spent on lip fillers and Botox injections.

Man’s reaction to glimpsing an image of the glory of God can be nothing less than reality-shattering. You can’t help but be humbled to the point of being undone. Isaiah had been a prophet of the Lord and had received prophetic words before his vision of God’s glory. It was not as though he’d been anything less than a servant of God before that experience, yet here he was declaring he was a man of unclean lips. His righteousness, no matter how close to the mark, was as dross when compared to God’s glory, and he was humble enough to understand this.

Likewise, Job knew the God he served. He knew of His majesty and accepted His lordship over his life, and as such, with all that befell him, he neither sinned nor charged God with wrong. If you hang around church folk long enough, you’re bound to hear someone say that God has wronged them. When you ask how so, the answer usually revolves around them not getting something they really wanted, whether a promotion, a new car, or straight teeth. You juxtapose this mindset with what Job lost while still maintaining his blamelessness and not charging God with wrongdoing, and you realize we have a long way to go in both understanding the nature of God, the dynamics of our relationship with Him, and the type of servanthood required for God to see us as blameless and upright.

Job didn’t go to seminary; he didn’t have a doctorate in hermeneutics, yet he possessed the existential realization that we end as we begin. Naked, we come from our mother’s womb, and naked, we return there, some sooner, some later. Knowing that our end will be as our beginning, the only thing that should matter is the eternity that follows. Do we know God? Do we serve God? Have we been born again and washed clean by the blood of Christ that we may be where He is?

The evil day is just that. It is a season, temporary, passing, and with an established expiration date. Eternity is forever, beyond our minds to comprehend, yet so many choose to focus on the fleeting and passing things of this earth while ignoring the reality of time without end once they are gone. Existence transcends this present life, and we would do well to remember this reality, for with each passing day, we are that much closer to it.  

Job was a man whose priorities were well-established and hierarchically correct. God first. His will first. His lordship first. Then everything else. If everything was taken, it was the Lord’s to take, for He was the one who gave, and even in the midst of heartbreak, disaster, tragedy, mourning, and loss, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Oh, to have such a faith, such a clarity of purpose as to look upon the ashes of the life we’ve built and still glory in the God we serve. To look upon the devastation of having everything snatched away and not only keep from sinning but worshipping God in the midst of it.

Blessings are always easier to accept than testing. As those who understand the sovereignty of God, however, we must thank God for the testing just as readily as we do for the blessing. Granted, it’s easier said than done, and oftentimes, in the midst of the testing, the last thing on our minds is to come before God with thankful hearts, but we must nevertheless do so because even in the seasons of sorrow that come upon us His love and goodness are ever-present.

We don’t always understand why some hardship or tragedy befalls us, but we can always trust that God does. Knowing He is a good Father gives us the strength to carry on, persevere, endure, and continue to worship Him in spirit and truth.

Job exalted God in the midst of his trial, and from the outside looking in, one could rightly conclude that he’d lost the thread. The world will never understand how you can have joy in the midst of sorrow or peace in the midst of tumult because they do not know the God you serve. Therefore, their ability to understand your reaction to suffering is nonexistent. They will likely deem you mad with grief upon seeing you worshipping God in your trial, but you know something they never will unless they, too, come to the saving knowledge of Christ: life is but a flicker, a breath, a drop of water in a raging sea, then comes eternity. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 As with most other things nowadays, people have come up with new and inventive ways to complicate worship. We have replaced desire and a hunger for God with contrived and formulaic catchphrases that do nothing to soothe the heart or feed the soul. I wonder how many would have stood in judgment of Job at seeing him tear his robe, shave his head, and fall on the ground and worship God? That seems a bit overly dramatic, the whole robe tearing thing and then falling to the ground. Really? He couldn’t have been more demure about it? He’s scaring the old ladies or the young children with his antics. Yes, it’s a horrible thing that happened to him, but that doesn’t negate the need for matters. Matters maketh man, after all, and he should know better.

Then you’d have those who weren’t so much bothered by his falling on the ground but by his putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable when he spoke the name of God. No wonder God does not hear the cry of his heart; he’s not addressing Him by His proper name.

Rather than weep with those who weep, nowadays, we tend to pour salt on the wound and watch those who are bruised, broken, hurting, and wounded as they traverse their valleys, judging their composure in the midst of trial. Perhaps it makes us feel spiritually superior, or we like the idea of playing god, but whatever the reason, we are quick to point out how they should be grieving instead of being a healing balm in the midst of their grief.

It’s not that they didn’t run to God, cling to Him, cry out to Him in their suffering; it’s the way they did it that bothers us, and we are quick to point it out at the most inappropriate of times, insisting that had they taken the course on the proper way to groan before the Almighty, then perhaps their situation wouldn’t have gotten as bad as it did.

Well, you know, brother, God doesn’t respond to our pleas when we address Him as God. Says who? Is He so petty as to turn a deaf ear to His children if they fail to address Him in a specific manner?

I’ve seen this sort of mind-numbing attitude one too many times, and it extends to those who, with sincerity of heart and a true desire to know more of God, get overwhelmed by those insisting upon tertiary issues that have no bearing on spiritual growth. We love to insert personal opinions in the lives of others, insisting that it’s more than what it is, then take no responsibility or accountability for the damage we cause when the individual in question goes in search of extra-biblical experiences rather than humbly remaining at the foot of the cross.

We’ve stopped teaching the sufficiency of Christ and have taken to teaching Christ, plus some other thing. Christ revealed Himself both as sufficient and singular. In Him, we find the truth, the way, and the life without needing to add any other tradition, ritual, ceremony, or formality.    

When your heart is crushed, when you’re overwhelmed, when you can barely keep from being dragged beneath the waves, every piece of fluff, every contrivance, every estimation of our own strength and prowess go out the window, and the only thing we have left is God.

It won’t matter if you’re standing, kneeling, bowing, genuflecting, or falling on the ground, and the last thing on your mind will be what others think of the way you’re crying out to God. There have been times in prayer meetings when the presence of God utterly wrecked me. I’d be on my knees, balling my eyes out, snot hanging off the tip of my nose, and the last thing on my mind was if anyone was watching or noticing or what they thought of a fully grown man balling like a baby.

When you enter into the presence of God, when you are in true worship, self-consciousness ceases to be an issue, as does one’s need to put their best foot forward or project some air of spirituality. True worship is not performative. It’s not about clapping along with the rhythm of a song or reading a prayer off a teleprompter; it’s about pouring out your heart to the God who promised to be a comfort and a present help in times of trouble.

Many today have never felt the true, tangible, undeniable presence of God because they refuse to humble themselves and be vulnerable in His presence. Intimacy with God demands vulnerability. When you cry out for God to search your heart, you must be prepared to have Him search all of it—not just the space you cleaned up and made nice, not just the living room you recently vacuumed, but the basement and the attic, the alcoves where there may still be spider webs and creepy crawly things.

When you ask for a heart inspection, you must be prepared to make the necessary changes when the report comes in. If there are things you need to fix, God will tell you, but then it’s up to you as an individual to follow through and excise the things standing in the way of your spiritual maturation. We ask God to search our hearts to see if there is any wicked way in us, then proceed to lead us in the way everlasting. If we’ve already determined that we’re not willing to change anything, that we’re not willing to surrender what may be required of us to surrender, that we’re not willing to follow where He leads us, why go through the motions of asking God to search our hearts? Change, transformation, sanctification, and the pruning of things and practices contrary to the spiritual man are not merely suggestions but indispensable necessities for spiritual growth.

True worship does not demand ritualistic rigidity; it demands a contrite heart. It’s about the condition of our hearts, not about formalities. True worship is a sacrifice well pleasing in the sight of God, and as individuals, we choose to either worship Him or go through the motions and feign worship that does not translate into a well-pleasing sacrifice.

Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart – These, O God, You will not despise.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 If Job had felt unduly entitled or had unrealistic expectations of God in exchange for being a blameless and upright man, he likely would have charged God with wrong at seeing everything in his life turn to rubble and ash. Thankfully, Job wasn’t a blameless and upright man because he thought it might cause him to prosper or become wealthy; he was blameless and upright because he desired to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord. People do the right thing for the wrong reasons all the time, and it's why the intent and attitude of the heart are so important.

I’ve seen people go on ten-day fasts hoping to change God’s mind on something He was clear and explicit about. Fasting is all well and good, but you’re doing it in order to twist God’s arm into doing something He already said He wasn’t going to. When it turns out that missing a few meals did nothing to convince God that He should go against His Word just to appease you, the feigned worship turns to anger and deep-rooted bitterness because you did the thing. You fasted, and He didn’t notice. You even fasted through the Friday fish fry, and other than a few hunger pangs, you’ve got nothing to show for it.

Both Cain and Abel brought sacrifices before the Lord. One was accepted, the other was rejected, and it had little to do with the sacrifice itself and everything to do with the attitude and condition of each man’s heart. While one brought the best he had, in faith, with a pure heart and pure intentions, the other did so out of a sense of obligation, perhaps grudgingly and out of duty rather than genuine gratitude and love for God.

If I’m serving God in the hopes of winning the lottery or finding buried treasure in my backyard, the action itself is noble enough—after all, I am serving God—but the intent behind the action is neither pure nor noble. My motives and motivation aren’t right, and so when I don’t find the treasure or win the lottery, when I don’t get what I expect, and I’m not rubbing elbows with the elites on Martha’s Vineyard talking about how scary it was when a handful of the much-praised migrants were dropped off in our town square, I will cease serving Him and grow bitter toward Him to boot.

Doesn’t He know how loyal I would have been had I hit the billion-dollar jackpot? I would have been so generous and philanthropic had He given me a chance. Doesn’t He know how much good I could have done with that kind of wealth? Doesn’t He know how many souls I would have reached? And the more you listen to such individuals, the more you realize that it was never about God but always about them. God was used as a foil for their vanity and pride because, had such individuals come out and said what they really thought of themselves and how indispensable they are in their own eyes, it would leave a sour taste in the mouths of anyone within earshot. Self-importance is easy to spot when you know what to look for.

Self-important people aren’t nearly as important in God’s eyes as they think themselves to be. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. It is God who declared it so, and any man who seeks to esteem himself, his station, his abilities, aptitudes, or gifts is already being actively resisted by God.

Job didn’t believe himself to be the center of the universe; he did not think the world revolved around his wants or that God was there to do his bidding. His attitude toward God was that of a servant, and as such, he understood that, at best, he was a caretaker of whatever he’d been given. It all belonged to God, and if God chose to take it away, He was within His right to do so.

Had Job been a proponent of the prosperity doctrine, the least we could have expected of him was to decry how unfair God had been in allowing such things to befall him. From the outside looking in, if anyone was ever within their rights to throw the biggest pity party known to man, it was Job. He could have pointed to his faithfulness, to his tireless bringing of sacrifice before the Lord, to his being upright and blameless, but instead, he blessed the name of the Lord and neither sinned nor charged God with doing wrong.

Not that I would wish it upon them, but a few well-known modern-day names come to mind when I ponder how some men would react to Satan’s speed and savagery at decimating Job’s children and worldly possessions. They, too, would likely tear their robes and fall on the ground, but worship would be the last thing on their minds. They would be too busy trying to convince God why there must have been some miscommunication in heaven, how someone had gotten it wrong, and horribly so, because they’d called money down from heaven, exerted themselves, built their gaudy kingdoms, and had done so while claiming to be serving Him. Surely, that had to have counted for something.

Purity of heart and purity of purpose are paramount. You may not see it currently or understand it momentarily, but serving God for the right reasons, in spirit, and in truth, loving Him for what He has already done in sending Christ to die that we might live, and not for what we hope to gain in the material, is vital beyond my ability to verbalize.

The day is coming and will soon be upon us when many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another because their expectations of what this life should be and the reality of what it has become will be as different as day is from night. What they were told, and what they came to believe being a servant of God meant, and what it actually is, will turn out to be very different indeed.

In all that he endured, Job did not sin. He did not shake his fists at the heavens, he did not resent God in his heart, he didn’t grow bitter and disillusioned, nor did he attempt to convince God how undeserving he was of this monumental trial.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 By definition, an enemy cannot be your friend. Whatever an enemy offers you, however pleasing to the eye, know with certainty that it is poison, something that will weaken if not outright kill you because even though he pretends to be empathetic to your situation or seems as though he’s had a change of heart, he isn’t, and he hasn’t.

The modern-day church doesn’t give the devil enough credit, and this is largely the reason so many find themselves in sinking sand rather than a sure foundation, not knowing how they got to where they are, yearning for the freedom they once took for granted. The devil is cunning. He is a tactician of the highest order, and when he allowed for one of Job’s servants to survive each calamity, it wasn’t because he was being nice or genteel. Their survival served to aid Satan in his purpose of breaking Job. Job needed to know what was happening in real time so that he wouldn’t have the opportunity to recover from the last catastrophe. As far as plans go, it was well thought out and brilliantly executed.

The only thing Satan didn’t figure into the equation was Job’s steadfastness and faithfulness. He was a man who had become superior to pleasure and, as such, had likewise become superior to pain. When God is your everything, there is nothing the enemy can do to shake you from your foundation. It doesn’t mean he won’t try; it means he won’t succeed.

Whether it’s in the form of pleasure or pain, the devil’s purpose is the same. Sadly, many today give in to the pleasure before the pain can ensue because it’s more convenient and beneficial for the devil to tempt someone away from the truth with pleasure than it is through suffering. He can wring more shame and embarrassment out of someone falling into temptation than he can from someone despondent over the pain that has been visited upon them.

You’re more likely to hear of pastors, preachers, and evangelists who fell into sin than you are of ministers who stepped away from ministry because of some tragedy that befell them.

My grandmother’s passing was hard on my grandfather. It was the only time in my life that I saw the light go out of his eyes. I witnessed the same thing with my father when my mother passed. It wasn’t easy, but it was a season they had to battle through, and nothing could alleviate the pain of their loss except for spending time in the presence of God.

As most Eastern European families are wont to do, we were close. The seven of us lived in a two-bedroom apartment for the better part of thirteen years, and when seven turned into six, the loss was monumental and evident. By the time my mother went to her reward, half of us were living in the States and half in Romania, so the constant reminder of loss wasn’t so vivid, but still, it is inevitable that we feel loss when a loved one is no more. Even so, we do not sorrow as those who have no hope. We know that one day, we will be reunited with those who sleep in Jesus, and if our day comes that we return to the earth before His return, those who will mourn us will do so with the same hope.  

The overarching hope of salvation and the promises of God must be an ever-present reality in our hearts and minds, no matter the valley we must presently traverse. It is faith in Him and nothing else that will see us through, perhaps scarred and wounded, but whole and with our conviction that God is good fully intact.

Positivity, witticisms, mantras, slogans, platitudes, and catchphrases will fail you when the pain gets unbearable. The comfort that the presence of God brings never will. It is the reason that throughout the ages, those who knew God only desired more of Him. He is not some side dish we can pay the extra dollar for if we are so inclined. He is the main course, the one thing without which nothing in life would make sense.

Job didn’t have a church family to lean on, he didn’t have a counselor he could pour his heart out to, he didn’t have the modern conveniences we take for granted in that he could pick up a telephone and call a friend. All Job had was God, and God was enough.

Millennia later, God is still enough. He is unchanging in His power, He is unchanging in His attributes, He is unchanging in His promises, and He is unchanging in His love for His creation. This unchanging nature of God provides us with a sense of security and reassurance in our faith, knowing that we serve a God who is consistent and reliable.

Satan had wrongly assumed that Job’s relationship with God was superficial. He wrongly assumed that Job served God because God blessed the work of His hands, not out of a genuine desire to know Him. Upon hearing of the multiple tragedies that had befallen him, Job’s response was direct and unwavering: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

No more needed to be said. There was no need for Job to elaborate. Two sentences encapsulated Job’s most fundamental conviction that God was sovereign over all, and whether He gave or He took, His name is to be blessed. How many people walking about today, beating their chests, and insisting they are prophets to the nations and the apple of God’s eye would have the same reaction given the same circumstances Job faced?

That is the hard question with which we must all contend as individuals: Will we serve God as faithfully and unwaveringly if everything we’ve come to take for granted in this life were snatched away in an instant? Our answer will be contingent on whether our relationship with Him is deep, profound, and all-consuming or merely a superficial thing we wouldn’t miss were it to go away.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Among the household responsibilities my wife and I divide among ourselves, picking up the girls from school is high on the list. Sometimes one has an after-school activity such as volleyball, so the other must be picked up early, or my wife has an afternoon meeting and I have to pick up both, but communication being the key to a healthy relationship, we figure out who’s picking up whom that morning over breakfast and, as yet, no child has had to have the front office call one of us reminding us to come pick them up.

We make it work. We have to. We’re parents responsible for two pre-teen girls who have more of a social calendar than we did combined as adults, but I guess that’s just the way of things nowadays, with extracurricular activities, sports, music class, adventure club, Bible study, and a handful of other things that make us feel like an odd combination of chauffer and indentured servant.

Whenever it’s my turn to pick them up, the conversation goes the same way. I ask them how their day went, and they regale me with stories, whether of making a new friend, doing well on a test, learning a new fun fact, or not liking what mom packed them for lunch since it contained the dreaded green stuff. She knows I never eat the broccoli, but she still packs it, to which I answer, because she loves you. Not everything they share with me is positive. They don’t hold back on discussing bad experiences, whether it’s the naughty boy in class pulling their hair or not having made any new friends this year.

I’ve often said that fatherhood helps you understand the heart of God better than any seminary course on the attributes of God ever will. It’s hands-on, and you’re emotionally invested. It’s your child that comes to you with a smile on their face or tears in their eyes. It’s your child who needs an encouraging word, a high five, or a long, heartfelt hug. God’s not a stranger. He is our Father who is in heaven, and whether it’s to share our joy or our sorrow, we run to Him, always, every time, without fail.

Whenever either of my daughters approaches me, they know I will take the time to listen. I will not reject them, ignore them, tell them to come back later because I’m busy doing something else, or act aloof or indifferent. I love them. They are mine to protect, provide for, teach, instruct, see myself in, and yes, sometimes correct.

One of the most frequent discussions I have with my wife is whether we’re making life too easy for our girls. We are each other’s accountability partners in this area because I grew up poor, and my instinct is always to spoil them. All the while, I know that if they grow up thinking life is easy and there will be no hurdles to overcome, I’m not doing them any favors. I know what it’s like to walk into a store, want something, and have your mother tell you we can’t afford it. I still remember the look in my mom’s eyes whenever such situations came about, and I learned to ask less frequently because of the evident pain in her countenance whenever she’d have to deny a request.

Conversely, growing up the way we did made me more resilient. It taught me the value of a dollar and the importance of not shying away from hard work. These are good virtues that I want my daughters to possess, and if it means saying new to a new pack of gum until the last one we bought is done, even though wintergreen isn’t their favorite flavor, so be it.

Job knew God as Father and knew he would not be turned away. He knew that God's presence was the only place he could be, where he could pour out his heart, cry out, and verbalize his pain, and that God would listen.

As any good Father would be, God is involved and invested in the lives of His children. He desires to see Himself in us, and although momentarily it would seem loving if He let us have all the cotton candy our hearts desire, He knows that eventually, the stomach ache that would ensue would be more harmful by far. I’ve seen spoiled children who pitch a fit and roll on the floor in the middle of a supermarket, and it’s not something I want to see in my own daughters. I’ve seen toddlers bunch up their little fists and strike out at their mothers for denying them their third Kit Kat bar or scream like their hair was on fire because the adult chose to put back the mountain of stuffies they’d thrown into the shopping cart.

God has a reason and purpose for allowing trials and testing in our lives; whenever such things happen, we trust in His goodness and providence. We know He is good, we know He is loving, and we know that our temporary affliction is creating an eternal weight of glory in us.

If Job had known God as a cruel taskmaster, one absent love and affection, his first instinct would not have been to run to Him in worship. The most important knowledge one must possess amid trial is the character of the God they serve. We cannot separate the love and goodness of God from the trials of life. He does not cease being good or loving when He allows hardship to buffet us. There is a purpose in it, perhaps, momentarily out of the reach of our limited understanding, and knowing this, we press into Him all the more.

God tests your strengths. The devil focuses on your weaknesses. There is a difference in approach as well as the intended goal. While God’s testing is meant to strengthen you, solidify you, teach you to trust Him and walk in greater faith, Satan’s attacks are intended to weaken, cripple, and destroy you. It’s the difference between holding on to the bicycle seat as your daughter is learning to ride a two-wheeler for the first time, jogging alongside, ready to catch them if they fall, or kicking the bike out from under them, hoping they get a concussion in the process. In either case, the child will exhibit fear and anxiousness, as they are trying to do something they’ve never done before, the bike wobbling, and their reaction uncertain, but one is intended to grow them and teach them something while the other is needlessly cruel and hurtful. Know the difference and react accordingly.

James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 A man’s true character is revealed not in his time of plenty but in his time of lack. One can readily pretend at being virtuous and noble when it costs them nothing, but things change, and the mask slips off when you go from hurt to hurt to more hurt and you weren’t truly anchored in Christ but just pretending to be.

It’s in moments of dread and despair that one’s nobility, virtue, and integrity shine through all the brighter if they possessed them to begin with. Your circumstances do not dictate your uprightness or blamelessness. The situation you find yourself in on any given day does not dictate your virtue or integrity. If all it takes for you to give in to despair is a change in tax brackets or the loss of something you attached value to, then your spiritual house was not built upon the rock but upon shifting sand.

1 Corinthians 3:12-13, “Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.”

Upon hearing that all he had, including his children, were no more, Job’s first reaction wasn’t to try and get what he could back or salvage what little, if anything, remained. He didn’t run to his Rolodex to find a crisis management firm or contact the attorney he had on retainer. He didn’t try to find someone to blame, shake his fists at the heavens, punish the servants who brought him the bad news, or shut himself away from everyone. He arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell on the ground, and worshipped. He ran to God first. His instinct wasn’t to try and staunch the bleeding or mitigate the loss; it was to go before God and be in His presence.

What is your first reaction upon getting devastating news? What is your first impulse when you hear something that makes you stop dead in your tracks and instantly changes the course of your life? Is it to try and find answers, to understand the why, to insist you didn’t deserve this happening to you, to get angry, deny it, or is it to run to God, knowing He is the only place where you will find peace and comfort?

When tragedy strikes, the only thing we have complete control over is how we react to it. We can’t turn back time and undo what has been done. Time machines exist in novels and movies but not in real life, so spending days on end wondering what we could have done differently is a wasted effort on our part. In hindsight, everyone’s a genius who would have invested in Amazon when it was two bucks or Tesla when it was a buck and change. We would have been able to identify disruptive technologies like Uber and live on easy street next to a televangelist or his ex-wife, but one shot is all you get at this life, and there are no redos.

Eternity’s a long time to get something as important as eternity wrong. It’s why I involuntarily cringe when I hear someone half my age going on about only living once, not understanding what that really means. It’s not a license to act the fool; it’s an impetus to be sober and make the choices that will lend themselves to an eternity in God’s presence and not the outer darkness.

Had Job’s hope been tethered in anything other than God, his reaction would have been markedly different than what it was. It wasn’t that Job didn’t feel loss or sorrow; he tore his robe and shaved his head, but then he worshiped. Here was a man at the end of his tether, with Satan having done the worst his wicked mind could conceive, having planned the escalation of the destruction and catastrophe as though directing a symphony, and broken, humbled, grieving, shattered, Job worshiped God.

That single tableau, that moment in time, that frame of a man to whom four servants brought worse and worse news, including the death of his ten children, having shaved his head and torn his robe rather than shaking his fists at the heavens, or wailing, inconsolable and broken, worshiped is both humbling and revelatory.

What would it take for you to keep from worshiping God? We find excuses every other day to spend as little time in His presence as possible, and we’re not dealing with the loss of all things material and the death of ten children. It is something to ponder next time we feel too tired at the end of the day to spend time in His presence or are in too much of a rush to get to where we’re going to take a breath and show God gratitude and thankfulness.

Before you think I’m scolding you or I’m sitting perched atop my high horse, I’m as guilty as anyone of not making more time for God than I do. I have my morning routine ironed out well enough. I get a solid two to three hours before the girls wake up and the house comes alive that I can read the Word, meditate upon it, and spend time in prayer, but it seems as though the smallest distraction derails my good intentions, and rather than a full three hours I get maybe a solid two of unadulterated, uninterrupted time with God. It’s little things, too, like the coffee maker not working and having to drive to the local gas station for a cup or the phone blinking telling me a new message came through during the night; distractions are everywhere, and the older I get, the more I learn to tune them out.

Distractions are not innocuous or accidental. They are intentional and purposeful, seeking to keep you from pressing in and spending time with God. The enemy knows that the less time we spend with God, the less likely we are to be strengthened, equipped, encouraged, and edified. He is hoping that one failure to spend time with God turns into two, two turns into three, and then eventually that it becomes a pattern wherein we are always finding reasons not to worship, not to be in His presence, and not to commune with Him.

On his best day, Job worshiped the Lord. On his worst day, Job worshiped the Lord. Every day in between his best day and his worst day, Job likewise worshiped the Lord because God was the desire of Job’s heart, and his circumstances, his environment, his excess, or his lack held no sway and had no bearing on the singular object of his desire. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.