Proof The Bible Is True

Job 23:1-7, “Then Job answered and said: ‘Even today my complaint is bitter; my hand is listless because of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I first met Him, that I might come to His seat! I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me. Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. There the upright could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.”’

If the enemy can’t steamroll you into submission, he will attempt to chip away at your conviction, assurance, and confidence that you have in Jesus. If a frontal attack won’t work, he’ll try the sneak attack, hoping he catches you off guard, or in the midst of celebrating that you resisted his frontal attack. Winning a battle is not winning the war. There will be enough time to celebrate once you’ve crossed the finish line; until then, keep pressing on.

By Job’s own words, it seems Eliphaz’s latest tactic had worked more than the others because it’s the first time we notice a lessening of the determined confidence he’d exhibited thus far. He went from declaring “For I know my Redeemer lives and in my flesh I shall see Him”, to “Oh, that I knew where I first met Him, that I might come to His seat.”

Sowing doubt is like planting seeds. Not all of them will take root, mature, and grow, but the enemy wasn’t looking to plant an herb garden. He was looking for a chink in the armor, for one seedling to grow, which he could then exploit to no end.

Every once in a while, we have to remind ourselves that Job was human. He was a man like any other among his generation, made unique by his faithfulness and uprightness before God. It wasn’t his wealth that made him stand out; it wasn’t his large family that caught God’s eye, but that he feared Him and shunned evil.

There’s a reason the Word tells us to be watchful and on guard without qualifiers. It doesn’t say to be watchful unless you’re a preacher, to be on guard unless you’re a pastor, or unless you’ve been in church for less than a decade. If the enemy never ceases trying to find a way in, then we should never cease being watchful and on guard.

How men who’ve been in ministry for decades, who’ve pastored churches since bellbottoms were en vogue, and who others looked up to as spiritual giants fall is no mystery. At some point along their journey, they stopped being watchful. They stopped guarding their hearts and minds, they stopped being wary of the devil’s plots and schemes because they thought themselves above it all.

I’m the head of an entire denomination; the devil could never get to me. I’m the head of an international ministry; the enemy could never blindside me. I’m on television every other day; Satan could never outmaneuver me. The problem with this mindset is twofold: first, you’re standing in your own strength rather than His, and second, you ceased to do what the Word insists you must, which is to be watchful and sober-minded.

1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

To take heed within this context is to be aware, to pay attention, to acknowledge reality for what it is, and not dismiss the warning signs that appear long before the bear trap shears your leg off at the knee.

There is a balance that must be struck: we are not seeing demons behind every tree and hiding in every bush, imagining demonic attacks even when they’re not there, but are also keen enough to notice when something isn’t right and to remove ourselves from the situation before it becomes a situation.

Whenever I travel back to the home country, I like to check in on some of the old guard who are still around. They were grown men when I was young, and now, in the twilight of their lives, it does my heart and theirs good to reminisce, break bread, and look back on all the things the Lord has done.

I was visiting a brother who used to play a mean accordion before the arthritis set in. During our conversation, after asking how he was, he arched his eyebrows and said, “The devil just won’t leave me alone”. Since I knew him to be a talker, I didn’t bother asking a follow-up question, knowing he’d continue his story, and he didn’t disappoint.

“Brother Mike, for the past few weeks, the devil has been trying to keep me from going to church. I’m fine the whole week, then the morning of, I wake up, get dressed, and the moment I put on my good shoes, there’s a shooting pain in the sole of my foot that makes it almost impossible to walk to church.”

Being the rationally minded individual I am, I asked, “You only wear those shoes for church?”

“That’s right, they’re my good shoes, so I only wear them to church, they’re right there”, he said, pointing a gnarled finger at the entryway. I saw the pair of Chinese-made fake-leather loafers he was pointing to well enough, and yes, they were nicer than the tennis shoes next to them. I bent over and picked them up, turning them over to look at the soles, thinking that maybe he’d stepped on a nail, when a decent-sized pebble rolled out of the left shoe and clinked on the floor.

I picked up the pebble, and smiling, I said, “I found your devil.”

Blushing, he arched his brows again and said, “I never thought to look inside.”

Some things have rational explanations and are not demonic attacks. Others are, and demonstrably so, and knowing the difference will keep us from hyperventilating every time a squirrel ruffles some branches in a tree, while concomitantly identifying the enemy’s snares and avoiding them.        

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Job 22:27-30, “You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say, ‘Exaltation will come!’ Then He will save the humble person.” He will even deliver one who is not innocent; yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands.”

Do what I tell you, the way I tell you to do it, and things will work out. That was the conclusion of Eliphaz’s third and final oration. Generally speaking, there was nothing improper about the advice he was giving to Job, but contextually speaking, as it pertained to Job himself, Eliphaz missed the mark because his underlying premise was that Job was guilty of sin, had committed wickedness, and must therefore acknowledge it, repent of it, and return to God. If anything, the purpose for which Job should have done these things was a bit off kilter, but we will get to that in due course.

Imagine someone knocking on your door and insisting you have to go home. But I am home. You came to my house, knocked on my door, and insisted I ought to go to the place I’m already in. Return to God, and He will hear you. Return to God, and He will deliver you. But I never left! I’m exactly where I’ve always been at my Master’s feet, crying out to Him, knowing He is the only remedy to my current situation.

Someone trying to invalidate your relationship with God because you don’t see some tertiary issue the way they do, don’t idolize the preacher they do, or don’t belong to the same denomination as them, isn’t your friend, nor are they looking out for your spiritual well-being. The plumbline isn’t their opinion; the plumbline is the Word of God.

That more and more seem to be following after the words of men while disregarding the Word of God is not accidental. It was foretold and prophesied. It’s not that they don’t have access to the Word; it’s that they don’t like what the Word has to say, and so, having itching ears, they turn away from the truth and are turned aside to fables.

2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

The reason for it isn’t something as noble as wanting to get to the truth, or because they want to unravel some mystery they deem of existential import, but because they prioritize their own desires over sound doctrine, and will find a way to facilitate dismissing it. If the Bible is clear on a topic and I happen to disagree with it, doing the opposite of what it prescribes, I know I’m walking in rebellion. If, however, I find someone deemed a spiritual authority who validates my rebellion, who insists that God didn’t mean what He said, then I have enough of a justification wherein I won’t have to repent, turn, and follow after the truth.

Men gravitate toward those who offer them liberties the Scriptures would otherwise not allow because their true heart is not about denying themselves, picking up their crosses, and following after Jesus, but having some perceived fire insurance while doing as they will.

It’s no longer about finding a church that focuses on prayer, studying the Word, and sound doctrine; it’s about finding one that entertains, puts men at ease, and doesn’t last longer than forty minutes on the dot because we’ve got things to do and places to be, and being there isn’t about being in His presence anymore, but about making sure we were checked off at roll call as though attendance was the thing God takes into account and not the hearts of men.

Although I have no concrete evidence, given the early date of the book of Job, it seems to me that Eliphaz was likely the first-ever quasi-prosperity preacher, the forefather of what has become the doctrine du jour for so many today. Do good, and good will come to you; declare a thing, and it will be established for you. Be God’s friend, and nothing bad will ever happen in your life.

This creates a false standard of righteousness, wherein men can boast that because they are rich, they are favored of God, because they have wealth, God is on their side, and those who don’t aren’t as special in the eyes of God, nor are they walking uprightly, because if they were, they too would live in opulence and luxury.

We’ve all seen the clips of supposed shepherds boasting to their flock about the new jets, the watches that cost more than a single-family home, the mansions they’ve acquired, or the money they’ve amassed, insisting that their way is right, evidenced by the earthly goods they’ve procured.

This is the selfsame mindset Eliphaz had, insisting that if Job would reacquaint himself with God and return to Him, his coffers would be so overflowing as to lay his gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

If you serve God in the hope that He will make you rich, you’re serving riches and not God. All you’re doing is using God to obtain what your heart truly desires, which isn’t Him, but the things He can give.

Eliphaz insists that God prospers the righteous in the material sense, and their prosperity is a sure sign of their righteousness. Paul insists that God chastens those He loves, and scourges every son whom He receives. Given all the times he’s been wrong thus far, I’d take anything Eliphaz has to say with a grain of salt. The same goes for the modern-day Eliphazes, who insist that trials, tests, tribulations, pruning, scourging, and chastenings are not of God.

Without trials, there would never be a need for long-suffering, which is a fruit of the Spirit. Without being wronged, we would never have to learn to forgive. Without need, we would never have to have faith that God will provide. Without temptation, we would never need to resist it, thereby proving our faithfulness. All the things that the flesh deems as negative facilitate the growth, maturing, and sanctification of our spiritual man. All the things the world looks down upon and mocks only serve to deepen our relationship with God.

Some of us don’t need deliverance; we just need to see the world through spiritual eyes. Then, rather than praying for deliverance, we will pray for endurance; rather than pray for escape, we will pray for boldness, rather than pray for riches, we will pray for contentment of heart, and find our joy and satisfaction in what He’s already done, and not what we’re hoping He will do on our behalf.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 There are clear and well-defined guardrails in the Word of God. There are practices the Word calls sin that are sin, regardless of how many people insist otherwise, or who the individual giving license to practice them might be. There are virtues we are called upon to nurture, grow, and mature, such as prayer, fasting, the study of Scripture, and the building up of our most holy faith; then there are personal convictions that are by definition personal, and not to be insisted upon as divine commandments for the rest of the body of Christ. Personal convictions and God’s commands are not interchangeable, nor do they hold equal weight.

Romans 14:1, “Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.”

The verse itself is clear enough, but when did we ever allow Scripture to get in the way of imposing our will on others or insisting that our personal convictions are on par with the voice of God Himself? It is, after all, so much fun sitting in judgment and judging everything everyone else is doing as though we were responsible for keeping the judgment seat of Christ warm until He gets around to judging those who will stand before it on the day of days.

We are not to shun but rather to receive those who are weak in the faith, and we are to do so for a specific purpose. Contrary to popular belief, the purpose is not to dispute over doubtful things. Another applicable word for “doubtful” within this context is “unclear”. If the Word of God is clear on a topic, whatever that topic might be, then we must declare it as such boldly and without equivocation. If, however, it is unclear as to whether wearing a necktie is cause to cast you into outer darkness, or wearing a wedding band will bar you from entry into the Kingdom, then insisting it is so means you are playing God, and making up rules for others to follow that the Bible never said one should. A personal conviction is just that: personal!

Romans 14:2-4, “For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.”

So does this mean we have freedom to do as we will? Are the few preachers and teachers insisting upon holiness, repentance, righteousness, and purity just old fuddy-duddies, relics of a bygone era, clinging to precepts that no longer apply? No, this passage does not give anyone the freedom to sin; it reaffirms the truth that those who have been freed from sin are allowed to be individuals, preferring peaches over kale, steak over tofu, and a nice baked potato over a salad with fat-free drizzle dressing on the side. The entire passage is within the context of those who belong to the Lord, who live or die to the Lord, and whose purpose is the glory of God in their lives.

I don’t have the right to judge you for drinking tea, just as you don’t have the right to judge me for drinking coffee. This passage is not about rebellion, disobedience, or disregard for the Word of God and its guardrails; it’s about picking out one thing that you don’t do that someone else is doing that is not defined as a sin in the Bible, yet judging them for doing it and thinking them less spiritual than yourself.

Romans 14:5-10, “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

If the grace of God were as hard to come by as the grace brothers show brothers nowadays, heaven would end up being an empty place. Again, Paul isn’t talking about sin in the camp or disobedience of God’s Word. He is specifically pointing out that a personal conviction, or a personal preference, does not give me the right to feel spiritually superior to another, nor does it give me the right to judge or show contempt for a fellow brother in Christ.

Insisting that someone isn’t saved because they don’t believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, don’t read the King James exclusively, or wear jeans to church that one time instead of khakis, is as absurd as Eliphaz insisting that Job’s suffering was evidence of his wickedness.

He’s not clapping along, so he must not be feeling the Spirit. That’s a leap, isn’t it? Perhaps you failed to notice the tears and the groaning because you were so focused on the clapping. Perhaps their relationship and intimacy with God go beyond the performative to something real, tangible, and heart-piercing.

Paul noticed enough of a pattern of both judgment and contempt among brothers developing in the early church that he felt obliged to address it. It has not lessened over the millennia; it has only increased, and more and more people feel entitled to determine the eternity of others based on their personal convictions rather than on the Word of God.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Job 22:21-26, “Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; Thereby good will come to you. Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; You will remove iniquity far from your tents. Then you will lay your gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver; For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God.”

It’s as if Eliphaz had tuned out everything Job had said up until this point. Not willing to relent or give up his perception of intellectual and spiritual superiority, believing himself a physician of both soul and flesh, he begins to prescribe the steps Job must take in order to be at peace and for good to return to him.

It’s hard not to notice the spiritual elitism in Eliphaz’s words, because not only does he assume that Job had so far removed himself from the presence of God that he needed to reacquaint himself with the Almighty, but considered the words he spoke as divine, or at least of divine origin.

He did not tell Job to consider his words, but insinuated that the words were from God Himself and the instructions from His mouth. Assumption, presumption, and undeservedly appropriated spiritual authority are a heady mix, and though the words Eliphaz spoke may have been true when applied to another, they were not true of Job. He had not departed from the Almighty, so had no need to return to Him. He had not abandoned the knowledge of Him, so he had no need to reacquaint himself with God.

Everything Eliphaz said was based on the wrong assumption that Job was being punished, that he had committed wickedness, that he had turned his back on God, and had strayed from Him. Without spiritual insight, and purely from a physical point of view, it would be an easy conclusion to reach, and one that made the most logical sense.

There’s a meme floating about the interwebs of a man asking a faith healer to pray for his hearing, and the faith healer takes to his performative theatrics with gusto, sticking his fingers in the man’s ears, cupping his hands over them, and after some time the faith healer asks, how’s your hearing, to which the man answers, I don’t know, it’s next week.

We are either guided by the spirit or by the flesh. We either take everything we see with our physical eyes at face value and dismiss the unction of the Spirit, or allow for the Spirit of God to reveal the truth of a situation to us that goes beyond the mere physical.

Sometimes things are exactly as they seem; sometimes they are not. If we lean on our understanding and dismiss the possibility of something other than what we concluded occurred, sooner or later, we will fall into the same snare as Eliphaz did.

Again, the things Eliphaz said would have been sound advice for someone who had strayed from the presence of God. Yes, by all means, acquaint yourself with God, lay up His words in your heart, return to the Almighty, but what if you never left, never ceased crying out to Him, never stopped trusting Him, never wandered away from Him? Then the counsel, sound as it may be, generally speaking, wouldn’t make much sense for that particular individual.

Curse God and die hadn’t worked, stop clinging to your integrity hadn’t worked, and now, via Eliphaz, the enemy begins to employ a new tactic: make him doubt his relationship with God.

I’m sure you believe that you are well acquainted with the Almighty, but you’re really not. I’m sure you believe you’ve been faithful, but you haven’t. I’m sure you believe you’ve kept His words in your heart, but let’s face it, buddy, if you’d done all these things, you wouldn’t be in the predicament you find yourself in now, would you?

It’s a nefarious approach to be sure, but the devil was getting desperate. Coincidentally, it’s one he continues to employ to this day in various guises and differing nuances, but in the end, his purpose is the same. At first glance, the individuals who come across your path seem well-meaning enough. But then, once rapport has been established, they start throwing out those poisoned pellets that feel off, wrong, and less than the whole truth.

If you are not firmly established in the truth of Scripture, if you are not fully assured of your place in God’s kingdom, you start to teeter and miss a step; you start to doubt and second-guess the simplicity of the gospel, thinking there must be something you’re missing. Perhaps there are more hoops I need to jump through; perhaps the letter of the law does have supremacy over the spirit thereof.

You were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Well, that just won’t do. You have to do it again, this time just in the name of Jesus. Were you baptized in the name of Jesus? Unless it was done in His Hebrew name, the entire thing is null and void. Sure, your heart desired to know God; you made an outward expression of your inward faith; you’ve repented, crucified your flesh, picked up your cross, and diligently follow after Him. Sure, you declare that Christ is Lord of your life, the King that sits upon the throne of your heart, but is that enough? Sure, you asked Him for bread, and He promised He would not give you a stone, but are you sure bread is what you got?

You pray standing up? Everyone knows that God only hears prayers if you're kneeling or prostrate before Him. You read your Bible daily? I guess that’s okay, but what you really need is for me to mentor you in the secret mysteries that only I can reveal.

I’m sure by now you get the point. Let’s keep this on the brass tacks: anyone insisting that Jesus is not sufficient, and that you need something more, or other, is a liar, and the truth is not found in them. Anyone attempting to sow doubt in your heart regarding your relationship with God, when you know, as Job did, that you’ve been faithful, obedient, and humble, is being used of the enemy to dispirit you. Anyone who insists that they alone hold the keys to unlocking the mysteries of Scripture, prophecy, the future, or the ancient past is a conceited liar, bloated with pride, arrogant beyond measure, attempting to elevate their status in your eyes as though they were on equal footing with God. It’s nothing new. Eliphaz tried it, and as we will see further in, God Himself rebuked him for his hubris.          

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 22:19-20, “The righteous see it and are glad, and the innocent laugh at them: ‘Surely our adversaries are cut down, and the fire consumes their remnant.’”

If you don’t know what to look for, these two verses may seem innocuous enough. They could readily be glossed over and thought to be the bookend of a longer thread, the conclusion of Eliphaz’s verbal processing as to why he knew Job was suffering, but as is always the case, details matter, and given that more often than not those whose hobby is to carpet bomb anyone they deem worthy with baseless accusations, have the tendency to do likewise it’s worth pausing and seeing the whole sordid picture for what it is.

Not only did Eliphaz accuse Job of things he’d never done, horrendous, heartless, and needlessly cruel practices that would make any sensible person cringe, but he also placed himself among the righteous, since seeing the fate of the wicked, the righteous see it and are glad, and the innocent laugh at them.

It wasn’t enough for Job to be seen as a wicked man; Eliphaz insisted that he himself must be viewed as righteous, a noble man doing a noble deed as he kicked at the almost-corpse of his friend and made him out to be a monster when all he’d ever done was fear God and shun evil. If an individual is attempting to elevate themselves by tearing someone down, it’s suspect, and you should be wary of getting on the bandwagon, grabbing a handful of stones, and joining in the fun.

The madness of the crowd is a real and well-documented thing. One stone thrower turns into two, two turns into five, five into twenty, and eventually everyone’s throwing stones, but only a handful know exactly why the stones are being thrown.

God had not called Eliphaz a blameless and upright man, so he took it upon himself to allude to it, insisting upon his own righteousness as evidenced by his reaction to Job’s suffering. Learned as he thought himself to be, one’s reaction to another’s suffering does not a righteous man make.

There are situations where confrontation is unavoidable, when something must be dealt with lest it metastasizes and threatens an entire body, but that ought never be done in the hope of elevating one’s status by standing on the corpses of the accused, especially if the accused are innocent both in the sight of God and in the sight of man. The tragedy of it all is that the wolves surround themselves with yes men who have a vested interest in seeing them retain their authority because they’re usually on staff, cashing checks every other week, they insulate themselves, and aggregate power to the point that, lest something truly vile gets leaked or the authorities get involved, they are viewed as untouchable. The entire leadership structure and their livelihood depend on one individual, and rather than defend the truth, their entire purpose becomes the protection of the man, even at the expense of justice.

A true shepherd doesn’t think about concentrating power or about the position he holds as his, and when a wolf makes its way into his congregation, he is much easier to undermine than one whose entire existence is predicated upon his dominance and retaining his office.

We’ve all seen situations where a pastor gets run out of town, not because he committed sin but because a handful of people deemed him too direct, or not loving enough, only to see the person who headed up the mob take his place and be placed in the position of authority. Their first move out of the gate is absurd loyalty tests, not to Christ, but to himself, followed by the signing of non-disclosure agreements, and the purging of anyone who dares to point out that it's not his kingdom but God’s kingdom that we must be laboring for.

Eliphaz was using Job’s situation to elevate and highlight his own righteousness by juxtaposing his situation with Job’s and concluding that one was being punished for his wickedness while the other was walking in righteousness by being glad of it. It wasn’t to take over Job’s household, or replace him, but to save face before their mutual friends, and position himself as the chief elder and wise man among them.

Eliphaz was growing exceedingly confrontational and accusatory, not because new evidence had come to light, not because witnesses had come forward to accuse Job of wrongdoing, but because his attacks weren’t working, he was not making any headway, and his pride would not allow him to lose. Eliphaz was likely the one man among the three who was always deferred to, who was always acknowledged as being right, who won every argument, and to whom the others acquiesced, yet this man on the verge of death scratching at himself with a potsherd, covered in boils, and laying in the dust had the temerity to push back, and contradict his well thought out thesis. How dare he?

Vanity, hubris, the pride of life, and the constant feeding of one’s ego become as de facto gods to some men, and when this occurs, their only concern, their only purpose, that for which they struggle, claw, and tear, is the man in the mirror and the perception of those whom he surrounds himself with.

Anyone willing to sacrifice truth for the sake of their ego is not a righteous man, no matter how much they might insist upon it. Anyone willing to accuse the innocent, just to win an argument, is not a noble man, no matter how many times he tells you he is. It’s not up to me to gauge or assess my righteousness, nor is it up to you to measure yours. My duty is to pick up my cross and follow Jesus. God is the one who determines the level of righteousness one rises to. Whether a man or a nation, it is God who weighs and has the final say as to whether they are found wanting. A man calling another man righteous means nothing. Man’s praise and a two-dollar bill will get you a gas station grilled cheese and nothing more. God calling a man righteous, however, means everything, and when God deems him upright and blameless, though the whole world may call him wicked, he is what God said he was.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 The problem with rationalism is that it is limited to the understanding of the individual and takes into account only what the person can see with his physical eyes and reason out with his physical mind. It does not allow for the unknown, it rejects the notion of the supernatural, and there are no such things as mysteries or exceptions to their predetermined rules. For Eliphaz, it was a simple matter of causality, and in order to rationalize Job’s situation, to make it make sense in his own mind, the only conclusion he could logically come to was that Job was a wicked man, so much so as to eclipse any other wicked man he’d ever come across. If you have no facts or evidence, you just make it up out of whole cloth, start lobbing accusations, and see what sticks.

Even though all evidence pointed to the contrary and refuted Eliphaz’s accusations, this was now a crusade for him, for to admit otherwise would be to shake the foundation of his entire belief system. If Job were innocent, as he claimed to be, then he would have to rethink his entire worldview. What else could he have been wrong about if he was wrong about this? Better to conclude that his lifelong friend was heartless and cruel. Better to conclude that he would turn away the hungry and watch someone die of thirst than to acknowledge that he might be in the wrong about this.

Pride is a many-tentacled beast, and once it wraps itself around one’s heart, it constricts their ability to consider any other plausible explanation than that which they’ve already come to. It makes one myopic and stiff-necked, to the point that they will insist that water isn’t wet, fire doesn’t burn, and the sun does not shine, all to undergird their preconceptions.

No matter how elevated human wisdom, no matter how well learned one might be in the ways of the world, only God can know the why of a thing with certainty. Eliphaz thought he knew, was even certain he knew, why Job was suffering as he was, but he didn’t. He was guessing and drawing conclusions based on incomplete data and anecdotal accounts he’d heard or read about.

The need to rationalize and discover the cause of a thing is not exclusive to Eliphaz. He wasn’t special or unique; he was human, and as such, had the typical instincts of those who came before him and those who would come after him.

One day, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. The first instinct of His disciples was to inquire as to the cause of his blindness. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” To them, it was a binary question that required one of two answers. Either the man had sinned, or the parents had sinned. Their worldview was such that it did not allow for the possibility of a third option. In their minds, there were only two plausible answers, and one must have been the right one. That someone had sinned was a given to them. Their only concern was to discover who it was.

John 9:3-6, “Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ When He said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.”

The answer Jesus gave His disciples could readily be applied to Job. He had not sinned, he was not being punished for his wickedness, but he was enduring all this that the works of God should be revealed in him. It was an answer Eliphaz had not bothered to consider, one he was not willing to entertain, because he’d already made up his mind.

Sometimes things are not as they appear. Sometimes the answer isn’t binary. Sometimes what you think you know with absolute certainty turns out to be less than certain, so rather than jump to conclusions and insist that I have the right of it on any matter at any time, the best course of action is to humbly acknowledge that I know in part, and understand in part, but God knows it all and I will trust Him even when I cannot see clearly.

Sure, we can get petulant and demand answers, but God is not obligated to give them. When He chooses not to, your duty is to submit to His sovereignty rather than try to come up with answers on your own. If You won’t tell me why, if You won’t show me the roadmap to the end of my existence, if You won’t tell me why I’m hurting, why I’m in the valley, why I’m being buffeted, I’ll just make up my own story, and draw my own map. That type of mindset never ends well. It never bears good fruit, and more often than not, men talk themselves into walking further away from God than toward Him when they take it upon themselves to blaze their own trail.

I understand that it may grate against our sensibilities, or deflate our ego a bit, but we know in part, and we prophesy in part, and it will ever be thus until that which is perfect has come, and that which is in part will be done away with. These words were not penned by a naïve, but by the selfsame man responsible for writing two-thirds of the New Testament. If he could acknowledge the reality that he understood in part, it should be no hard thing for us to acknowledge likewise.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job 22:12-18, “Is not God in the height of heaven? And see the highest stars, how lofty they are! And you say, ‘What does God know? Can He judge through the deep darkness? Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see, and He walks above the circle of heaven.’ Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod, who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by a flood? They said to God, ‘Depart from us! What can the Almighty do to them?’ Yet He filled their houses with good things; but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.”

Although who said it first remains a mystery, none of the individuals to whom the following quote is attributed are wholesome, noble, virtuous, or upright individuals. The quote in question is “accuse your enemy of what you are doing, as you are doing it, to create confusion.”

While I do not believe Eliphaz saw Job as his enemy, the projection is undeniable. Here was a man who refused to allow for the possibility that anything beyond his understanding was taking place, accusing Job of insinuating that he thought God to be ignorant, that He did not see, know, or understand.

You’re wicked because I say you are. I am innocent because God says I am. God would never say that, and your suffering is proof that He never would. God must see it my way, otherwise His omniscience will be in doubt as far as I’m concerned, for surely, an innocent man would not suffer the things you have.

Convoluted? Yes, most assuredly, but this sort of circular logic that eliminates the possibility of any other explanation than that which we’ve determined to be the truth is prevalent, especially within certain denominations and church circles. They choose a tertiary hill they’re willing to die on, and will not acknowledge the possibility that they can be wrong. Newsflash: I can be wrong. You can be wrong. Everyone on the face of the earth can be wrong. The only one that cannot be wrong is God.

This is why, at the first sign of uncertainty, when something isn’t clear, we must run to His Word and allow it to be the final arbiter. We don’t poll to see what the majority thinks; we don’t ask for the opinions of friends or family; we go to the Word and allow it to shed light, elucidate, and clarify, allowing for a change of heart, a change of mind if the Word deems it warranted.

The worst thing we can do to our spiritual man is to go to the Word and reject what it says because it contradicts our own biases. Then what was the point of going to the Word in the first place? You weren’t planning on letting it change your mind; you just wanted confirmation of your conclusions, and when that didn’t happen, you rejected the Word.

We’ve gone from this is the way, walk in it, to questioning every bend in the road, every hill, every valley, and every uneven patch, thinking ourselves wise in our own eyes from doing so. Because the Bible says so should be all the answer a believer needs.

Another tactic of the enemy that Eliphaz attempted to employ was to lump Job in with his contemporaries and conclude that the prototype was identical from generation to generation. The old way that the wicked men who came before you have trodden is clear enough. Will you likewise continue to follow in their footsteps? They rejected God yet seemed to have it all, their houses being filled with good things, but I know better. I’m not going to fall for that old bait and switch, no, sir.

The one thing Eliphaz failed to acknowledge is that, while the wicked said to God, “Depart from us,” Job continued to cry out to God throughout his testing. Job didn’t run away from God; he ran toward Him during his time of hardship. He did not shake his fist at God, but encouraged those of his household to receive the good things at the hands of God just as readily as those deemed less than optimal.

Job had not done these things in secret, yet in his quest to be proven right, Eliphaz failed to acknowledge any of them. Sometimes people only see what they want to see from the angle and through the prism they choose to see it. If they’ve made up their minds about the situation ahead of time, then anything that contradicts their preconception is summarily dismissed, ignored, or downplayed, and anything that hints at supporting their thesis is magnified and blown up. That’s when you end up with a world where a sequoia looks like scrub brush and a blade of grass looks like a mighty oak. An ant looks like an elephant, and a mountain looks like a molehill, not because it’s reality but because it’s been reshaped to form a narrative.

This gives way to selective outrage so pronounced as to be stripped of any reason or logic. We’ve all seen it a time or five where people fly off the handle and start acting in a manner more akin to an animal than to a human being. They say things that are so far removed from anything logical as to make one wonder if they were having an episode, all the while thinking themselves entitled, justified, and within their right to beat the snot out of the pimply-faced kid at the drive-through because they asked for three dipping sauces for their nuggets and they only got two.

The surefire way to avoid a warped reality is to filter everything through the prism of God’s Word. Be intellectually honest, and neither discard the evidence that contradicts your stated position, nor make up scenarios as Eliphaz did and pass them off as the truth. If the evidence is there, then it’s there, plain for all to see. If it’s not, then you wanting the preacher that hurt your feelings to be the villain is not enough to accuse him of wickedness deserving of death and eternal darkness.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Cogito, ergo sum, is how Descartes defined his existence. I think, therefore I am was the summation of the first principle of his philosophy, although it doesn’t sound nearly as cool in French. Perhaps that’s why he decided to go the Latin route, because, let’s face it, few things sound robust and masculine in French. 

Eliphaz had come to the same conclusion about Job, insisting that he had committed wickedness; therefore, he was justly suffering as punishment for those sins. You suffer, therefore you’ve sinned. To him, it was a simple premise of cause and effect. What has befallen you is a direct result and consequence of what you did, and there could be no other explanation for it. Therefore, snares are all around you, and sudden fear troubles you, or darkness so that you cannot see, and an abundance of water covers you.

Job wasn’t in a court of law; he wasn’t being tried by a jury of his peers, but it sure felt like it by this point. What’s worse, the prosecution had no evidence, no witnesses, no tangible proof that their accusations had any teeth or legs upon which to stand. There wasn’t even the pretense of a kangaroo court. The jury wouldn’t be locked away for deliberation; there would be no appeal. As far as Job’s friends were concerned, it was a done deal. Job’s suffering was proof of his wrongdoing and wickedness. The guilt as well as the sentence was predetermined, baked in the cake, regardless of the evidence or lack thereof. Guilt had already been pronounced, and all that was left was for the accused to admit to it. Just say you did the things we’re accusing you of, and we can move on from this!

An accusation without proof is, by definition, a false accusation: groundless, unfounded, and unsubstantiated. When the Word tells us that Satan is the accuser of the brethren, who accused them before God day and night, we can infer that his accusations were as baseless as the accusations Eliphaz was making against Job.

There is a difference between exposing sin in the camp and making false accusations. One is biblical, right, and noble, and should be done if the underlying purpose is to have a healthy, vibrant body of believers, while the other is something the devil would do. I’m coming up on forty years of ministry. I started out as my grandfather’s interpreter at the age of twelve, and over the course of four decades, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen people who, under the guise of exposing wickedness, were just trying to tear someone down so they could take their place, I’ve seen true and actionable evidence brought forth for the purpose of exposing wickedness, and everything in between.

You learn to tell which is which, even when the individual who is letting you into their confidence is a good actor. If it comes in the form of gossip, if what they’re inferring is second and third-hand innuendo, your duty isn’t to entertain it or give it credence, but ask for evidence, witnesses, or something that will make the situation more than an attempted smear campaign. I heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend, isn’t evidence; it’s gossip. If no such witnesses or evidence exists, shut it down, do not entertain it, because the purpose of the interaction isn’t truth but rather the planting of seeds in the hope of making you pick a side, get into a clique, and adopt a narrative.

Monsters exist, but not everyone who is labeled a monster is one. Evil exists, but not everyone you may disagree with on some tertiary issue is evil. Just because I like pineapple on my pizza and you don’t, it doesn’t make me Ichabod.

Two things can be true at the same time: there is sin in the camp that must be exposed and excised, but the enemy is also doing his utmost to sow division, cause chaos, and bring on a barrage of baseless accusations in the hopes of creating a rift among the household of faith. If we’re busy with the infighting, chances are, we won’t be fighting Satan, and the enemy knows this.

Just because someone takes offense at the way a message was delivered, if it was biblically sound and the individual who delivered it is above reproach, it does not mean they are disqualified from ministry because feelings were bruised. Just because some individuals don’t like what the Bible says, it doesn’t mean we must change the Bible in order to suit their worldview. It is man who must submit to the authority of Scripture, and not Scripture to the authority of man.

The sad reality is that if the unrepentant can’t attack God in person, they’ll seek to undermine, defame, and destroy His representative. To them, it’s nothing personal; it’s a way of validating their unrepentant nature by tearing down the individual who had the temerity to preach the unadulterated truth that convicted them in the moment.

That there are sheep, goats, true shepherds, and hirelings among church-going folk is undeniable. The secret is to be a sheep and not a goat, to find a shepherd and not a hireling, and make certain that what you are being fed is the meat of God’s Word and not just the milk. A true shepherd’s duty is not to accommodate or cater to your flesh but feed your spiritual man. It’s why the consumer-based model of Christianity can never produce true warriors of the faith. The devil knows that, too, so he’s more than happy to prop up, promote, and advance anyone whose mainstay is the superficial, earthly, and fleeting.

The enemy is tenacious. He won’t give up after the first time he fails, nor after the fifth. Satan knows God is omniscient. He knows God knows the end from the beginning of all things, yet that didn’t stop him from repeatedly attempting the same failed tactics. If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again is the enemy’s motto, and this is why we are instructed to be on guard, vigilant, and aware of the enemy’s devices.

Eliphaz had allowed himself to be used by Satan to level soul-crushing accusations against Job without a shred of evidence. If anything, this should be a teachable moment for all: do not be an Eliphaz.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Sometimes you wish there were a few more adverbs scattered throughout scripture, not because the Word itself or its meaning is difficult to understand, but because they would add a whole new layer of comprehension as to what the individual was feeling at the moment. It would make the heart of certain dialogues and monologues a lot easier to appreciate. Eliphaz’s words to Job were just such a case, where an adverb at the end of his question of whether it was because Job feared God that He corrected him and entered into judgment with him would reveal whether he was getting close to seeing the heart of the matter or was still miles away from recognizing what was happening.

Whether asked sarcastically, condescendingly, introspectively, or inquiringly, we will never know, but given that his follow-up question was “is not your wickedness great, and your iniquity without end”, it’s unlikely that Eliphaz had experienced a moment of epiphany and discernment.

That’s the thing about the Bible: it’s not a novel, and it shouldn’t be read like one. It is the Word of the living God, and as such, adverbs are in short supply because rarely does knowing that someone was sulking, sad, angry, joyful, boisterous, or sarcastic add to the narrative.

Nowadays, we elevate feelings and emotions to such lofty heights as to conclude that they outweigh what the Word of God has to say on a particular topic. The Word of God will always be superior, regardless of the situation or issue. Our duty is obedience and adherence to the Word of God, not trying to explain to the Almighty why we feel what He is asking of us isn’t fair, or that we have a different angle we would encourage Him to pursue. You’re not that smart; I’m not that smart, not by a long shot, and if God has made the way clear, if His Word declares a thing, then whatever it declares is absolute.

A heart not wholly surrendered will always look for wiggle room, exemptions, or worst of all, feel entitled to taking liberties with sin because they hold a certain office or position. To whom much is given, much is required; it’s what the Book says. To allow the flesh to twist it to the point that one comes to believe that the more they are given, the less is required of them isn’t just foolhardy and dangerous, it’s treasonous and criminal.

Eliphaz had not changed his mind on why he believed Job was suffering. He had not been swayed by his friend’s words, nor was he allowing for a different explanation. He was doubling down, and what’s worse, he was making up an entire backstory to justify his position and explain why Job was getting exactly what he deserved.

Job 22:6-11, “For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason, and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have not given the weary water to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. But the mighty man possessed the land, and the honorable man dwelt in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed. Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden fear troubles you, or darkness so that you cannot see; and an abundance of water covers you.”

If any of the accusations Eliphaz leveled against Job were true, then he was neither blameless nor upright, nor did he fear God and shun evil. What Eliphaz was describing was a man with a heart of stone who would not give the weary water to drink, who would withhold bread from the hungry, who would send widows away empty, and crush the strength of the fatherless.

At this juncture, we must determine that only one of the two could be right in their assessment of Job. Either God was wrong in calling him a blameless and upright man, or Eliphaz was wrong in accusing Job of being what amounts to a monster in human flesh who stripped the naked of their clothing, and sent the hungry away while his larders were full.

Given that man can often be wrong but God never is, I know whose report I would believe, and it’s not Eliphaz’s.

This is what happens when we get into our own heads and don’t allow for spiritual discernment to deter us from following the rabbit trail we’ve happened upon to its rightful end. Three men traveled a long way to comfort their friend in his time of trial, and ended up accusing him of cruelty, sin, and wickedness. If anything Eliphaz had said about Job was true, then Job was a tyrant, and there was no fear of God in him. All three men had known Job long enough to call him a friend, to see his character and devotion to God, yet their preconceptions and reasoning about why they believed he was suffering had brought them to this place of utter callousness.

You know me. You know I would never turn away the hungry or refuse to give water to the thirsty. You know I’ve always helped the poor and have comforted those who were hurting!

We thought we did, we thought we knew you, but then again, would you be in this predicament if you were truly the righteous man you pretended to be?

If their back and forth had ever been about getting to the truth, by this point, it ceased to be. Eliphaz needed to be right, even if he had to make up falsehoods regarding Job’s character to do so. In his heart of hearts, he likely knew Job was not the man he portrayed him to be; he knew Job had never shunned the hungry or the thirsty, or exploited the widow and the orphan, but the all-consuming desire to be right made all of those things irrelevant.

If being right comes at the expense of the truth, if the truth must be left to bleed in the street to satisfy your ego, you’re already in the wrong. You’ve already lost. Whatever victory you think may be had by sacrificing the truth will be a pyrrhic one at best. Truth must be the ideal, the purpose, the goal, even if it requires admitting and acknowledging that we were wrong. For some, that’s one bridge too far, and so they begin to unravel in real time, making up stories in their own heads which they eventually verbalize and insist upon as truth.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 22:1-5, “Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: “Can a man be profitable to God, though he who is wise may be profitable to himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless? Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you, and enters into judgment with you? Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquity without end?”

A man can wax poetic about his deep wisdom for hours on end, then one slip of the tongue upturns the apple cart. It’s usually when they’re frustrated, vexed, or defensive about some untenable position that the mask slips, and the handful of words they say exposes the reality that they were only wise in their own eyes. The knowledge they claimed to have was nonexistent, and although utterly ignorant regarding the nature and character of the God they took it upon themselves to speak on, their pride will convince them they are in the right.

Something Job had said had gotten under Eliphaz’s skin to the extent that whatever façade of wisdom he was trying to project collapsed, and in its stead, we see a man grasping at straws, insisting that God doesn’t care either way. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or is it a gain to Him that you make your ways blameless? Even if you were the innocent, upright man you claim to be, do you really think God notices or even cares?

Which is it, sir? You can’t have it both ways; you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Either Job was the wicked, unrepentant man you painted him to be, or a righteous man whose righteousness did not move the heart of God, nor affected the way God viewed him. A proverbial ocean separates the righteous from the wicked, the upright from the evil, those who fear the Lord, and those who are indifferent toward Him, and a man can’t be both simultaneously. You have to pick a lane. Either Job was wicked or righteous, but to insist that God didn’t care either way is something so intellectually dishonest as to make us look at Eliphaz in a whole new light.

Perhaps it was due to his status as the eldest among his three friends, the most respected, since he always the first to speak from among them, or the perceived superior wisdom he thought himself to possess over the others, but it seems as though Eliphaz has something to prove, and this last and final speech of his differs in tone and content from all the others we’ve studied thus far.

While the first half of the chapter is brutal in its accusations, assumptions, and innuendos, the second half is far more conciliatory, almost poetic, as though two different streams of thought are vying for control. There is an undeniable duality in Eliphaz. He is a man at odds with himself, struggling between leaning on his own understanding and allowing for the possibility of seeing the situation from a different angle.

Eliphaz is not unique in his struggle between what he can see, touch, intuit, or perceive with his human intellect, and what is beyond his understanding, or ability to reason out on his own. Whatever the situation, whenever we start out believing we know everything there is to know, and there is no new information or evidence that can sway us from this knowledge, or the conclusions we’ve come to in our minds, we’ve shut ourselves off from the possibility that things aren’t as they seem, or that we are not as wise as we thought ourselves to be in our own eyes. I have declared it thusly, and it must be so because I have declared it! And you would be?

Although humility is not a popular virtue nowadays, it is a necessary one for the children of God, because when we walk in humility, we acknowledge that only God is all-knowing, only He is omniscient, and defer to Him on matters that aren’t as clear as we once thought.

Job’s predicament was obvious to everyone. What wasn’t as obvious was why he was in the predicament he was in. Based on what they could see, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had concluded that the reason for his suffering could be none other than wickedness on his part, some sin heretofore unconfessed that spurned the wrath of God against him.

It’s human nature to try to make sense of what we see and process it in a way that fits neatly into our understanding of the world around us. If I see a bedraggled man on the street, clothes torn and grimy, my first thought is that he must be homeless. If I took a closer look and processed what I was seeing without the filter of my preconception that unkempt, grimy, disheveled individuals are likely homeless, I would have noticed certain details that would contradict my previous conclusions, such as the shoes the man was wearing were higher-end wing tips, the torn suit seemed finely tailored, and based on the new evidence I would have to conclude he’d likely been robbed, beaten bloody, and left in an alley until he came to.

Man judges based on what he can see. God judges based on what is seen, unseen, and what can only be seen by Him. When we appropriate the authority and omniscience of God, and go beyond what we rightly understand, passing judgment on individuals or situations regarding which we do not have complete knowledge, it isn’t a quest for truth that’s egging us on, but our own pride and arrogance.

It’s no sin to abstain from passing judgment. It’s not your place to judge anyway. We cannot infer causality based on probability, then conclude that someone lost a child, a spouse, a parent, or a loved one because they were wicked, or that they’re bedridden because God was punishing them. We’re not talking about sin or wickedness, which, biblically speaking, we have a duty to call out, but rather about assigning guilt for sin or wickedness to someone based on a hardship or trial they are going through.

You are suffering, therefore you have sinned. But I’ve searched my heart, I’ve cried out to God, I’ve asked Him to show me if there is any wickedness in me, and there is nothing. I’m not hiding anything; there is nothing I would not be willing to repent of if He showed me it was contrary to His will because my singular desire is to be pleasing in His sight. Well, that just won’t cut it, because if you hadn’t committed great wickedness, you wouldn’t be suffering; therefore, you must have!

Do not assign purpose to someone’s suffering when no purpose is clear. Only God knows the purpose, and it may be that what we see as punishment for sin is a testing of one’s faith that, once they have endured, will bring about the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 21:27-34, “Look, I know your thoughts, and the schemes with which you would wrong me. For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? And where is the tent, the dwelling place of the wicked?’ Have you not asked those who travel the road? And do you not know their signs? For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom; they shall be brought out on the day of wrath. Who condemns his way to his face? And who repays him for what he has done? Yet he shall be brought to the grave, and a vigil kept over the tomb. The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him; everyone shall follow him, as countless have gone before him. How then can you comfort me with empty words, since falsehood remains in your answers?”

Job knew his friends well enough to predict what they would say in response to his oratory. Even in the midst of the pain and loss he was suffering, he still had presence of mind, he still heard their words, and was able to formulate a cogent, coherent retort in kind. It’s undeniable that Job was made of sturdy stuff, not only possessing a noble character, a pure heart, but also a steel spine that refused to bend to the onslaught of words and accusations spewed at him by his friends. Job was a man of character who held to his convictions and stood on principle. It would be refreshing to see likewise in much of Christendom today, especially when it comes to the self-titled spiritual elites who boast of little to nothing, then somehow always make their way back to sacrificial giving so they can do more of the same.

When the ratio between those who wilt like a plucked rose every time they are called upon to stand for the truth and defend it, and those who will speak the truth, well aware of the backlash they will likely endure, is ten to one, you no longer have to wonder why the church is in the shape it’s in, or why it seems as though we’re spinning our wheels doing little more than going through the motions hoping for something different to occur.

One of the great lessons of life that many today fail to learn is the ability to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. We were never called upon to be man pleasers; we were called upon to be God pleasers. If my words or actions are intended to please men, placate them, or compel them to accept me in their clique, rather than be pleasing to God, I have failed in my mission and will be called to answer for my timidity and disloyalty. Yes, it is disloyal when, knowing what the Word of God says, we choose to dilute it, twist it, and reinterpret it for the sake of acceptance.   

The sifting that is coming upon the household of faith, and some might say the sifting that has already begun, is not undeserved. God didn’t suddenly decide to lay down the law or insist upon righteousness among those claiming to be His. His standard has always been clearly defined in His Word; men just thought they could get away with not even striving to live up to it.

Job knew his friends would either try to twist his words or insist upon evidence regarding the wicked and their seemingly prosperous lives. He likewise knew that their reasoning wouldn’t come from an honest desire to understand, but because they saw their interactions with him as a tug of war, a war of wills, and one they were determined to win, even if they had to play dumb and ask for proof of the obvious.

You speak of these things, but where is the house of the prince, and the dwelling place of the wicked? We don’t see them; can you point them out? I’ve been faced with the same reaction when confronting sin in the church, and how far too many choose the flesh over their spiritual man. Where are these sinners you speak of? Where is all this sin you’re insisting exists in the church? My answer is the same as Job’s was to his friends: just open your eyes and look around. It’s not hard to find. It’s not something hidden anymore; it’s prevalent, cross-denominational, and not reserved to the laymen, but to those who are in authority, and who insist they are the shepherds of the flock of God’s people.

This was to be Zophar’s last attempt at convincing Job he was in the wrong, that he had sinned, that he’d committed wickedness of such offense in God’s sight as to deserve what he was getting and more besides. Job’s final words to his friend were honest and heartbreaking all at once because his friend had not set out to cause him to despair, but rather to comfort him. Somewhere along the way, whether knowingly or unknowingly, he’d turned into his accuser, and once he set out upon his path, he never looked back.

I’ve had a counterargument for everything you’ve said. I’ve shown you that it’s not black and white, but that sometimes what occurs doesn’t make sense, and is incongruent with how we view the world, and existence itself. Sometimes the wicked do prosper, sometimes the righteous do suffer, but you’re unwilling to allow for the possibility that you were wrong in your assessment. How then can you comfort me with empty words, since falsehood remains in your answers?

In the end, we all return to the earth. In the end, we will all stand before an omniscient God who judges with righteous judgment, not based on the titles we held, the wealth we amassed, the honor we received from men, or the image we projected. We will stand before God, who does not see as man sees, but who judges the heart and from whom nothing is hidden.

Joel 2:13, “So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

There’s a reason we are instructed to flee not just evil itself, but the appearance of evil. It’s not because we’re self-righteous, judgmental, or consider ourselves above it all, but because even when in the orbit of the appearance of evil, there is a chance of getting caught in its wake, being associated with things, situations, and individuals who will drag our names down into the mud as surely as theirs. It’s not judgmental to protect one’s spiritual purity. It’s not judgmental to choose not to validate, celebrate, or cosign for the choices of certain individuals who would use your validation as confirmation that the life they’re living really isn’t all that bad.

If the pastor of a mega church, celebrated and elevated to a position of spiritual authority unseen since Paul the Apostle walked the earth, visits me at my house, takes pictures with me, hugs me, smiling as the cameras are rolling, perhaps the things I thought I should divest myself of, repent of, turn away from aren’t necessarily evil. If they were, surely the preacher man would have called me to repentance and insisted I turn from my wicked ways instead of reserving a front row pew for me and my entourage for Sunday service.

No, accidental, or even sporadic proximity is not evidence of guilt, or evidence of sin for that matter, perhaps the most you can say is that they were unwise in choosing their circle of friends, but it goes beyond all that, and when you’re actively courting individuals not because you want to share the light of the Gospel with them but because of the influence you can exploit or the check they might write, don’t be surprised when the chickens start coming home to roost.

As the old world saying goes, you can’t play in the mud and not expect to get any on you.

If we understand that the wages of sin is death, and that those who die in their sins have no hope for recourse once they breathe their last, we likewise understand that anyone in spiritual authority turning a blind eye to someone’s sin because they fear offending them if they were to call them on it, has no love in their heart for the individual but quite the opposite. If you see someone drowning, you throw them a life preserver; you don’t ask them to write you a check to build a new wing on your already opulent building. Eventually, the intent becomes evident, and the drowning man will grow both embittered and disillusioned upon realizing that the individual who presented himself as a caretaker of men’s souls cares nothing for the souls of men but how many zeros they can write on a check.

When Solomon wrote that a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, he knew what he was talking about, even though he ended up not following his own advice. When the richest man to ever live talks about great riches, I would wager it’s not a paltry sum of any sort. One cannot separate who said the thing from the thing itself.

If someone whose diet consists of gas station grilled cheeses tells you that the best meal you’ll ever have is from the rusty food truck down the road, you have every right to be suspicious. If the individual who wouldn’t be caught dead in anything less than a one-star Michelin restaurant says the same thing, you’re more likely to give them the benefit of the doubt. It wasn’t a beggar who said that a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches; it was the richest man ever to walk the earth. That should hold some weight, but alas, here we are, thinking nothing of sullying our reputation in exchange for some imagined clout.     

Job 21:22-26, “Can anyone teach God knowledge, since He judges those on high? One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and secure; his pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is moist. Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, never having eaten with pleasure. They lie down alike in the dust, and worms cover them.”

Although Job wasn’t having an existential crisis, he was in the throes of an existential introspection regarding the purpose of man, and trying to make sense of things the human mind could not wrap itself around. We can grapple with it, consider it, question it, but as far as understanding goes, that would mean we understood the mind of God Himself, which the Word clearly states that we cannot.

His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, and before we think to question, dissent, or otherwise disagree with His sovereign actions or decrees, we must remember He judges those on high.

When those who are tasked with rightly dividing the Word actively attempt to undermine it, twist it, distort it, or outright insist that God was wrong on some topic or another, they are no less attempting to play god as the wicked who believe their rebellion will eventually succeed and God will have to bow to their will rather than them bowing to His will.

Job was a man who went from having everything he’d ever needed to having nothing to his name but a potsherd and some ashes. He’d lived the highest highs and the lowest lows, and with his anecdotal experience as the baseline, concludes that rich or poor, prince or pauper, of great renown or a total unknown, all lie down alike in the dust, and worms cover them. Whether we live to sixty or a hundred, eventually, we all lie down alike in the dust. Whether our pails are full of milk or we’ve never eaten with pleasure, we all share these two things in common: we are all born, and we all die.

It’s as though Job is trying to highlight the absurdity of living for the here and now, for this present life, for this present existence, knowing what the end of all flesh will be. Men build great temples to themselves only to see them torn down and bulldozed to be replaced by fresh temples that will eventually suffer the same fate. There is only one thing we can do in this life that will echo throughout eternity, and that is to be born again, to know Jesus as Lord, King, and Savior, for all else is vanity, folly, and a wasted life.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 There is one truth Job hits upon that is worth exploring beyond surface level, and that is one of the hallmarks of the wicked being an all-encompassing obsession with self, the moment, their success, and wellbeing, while treating everyone around them, whether friends, family, or their own progeny, with utter disregard.

Were the wicked to hear that God lays up one’s iniquity for his children, their reaction would be a shoulder shrug, an eye roll, and likely an offhand, “what do I care what happens after I’m gone?”

This is what Job means when he asks, what does the wicked care about his household after him? They are the center of their own universe, and if they are no more, then nothing that happens from the moment they breathe their last matters to them in the least.

This mindset isn’t narcissism, as some misdiagnose the malady, because narcissism has more to do with the excessive admiration of oneself, especially one’s physical appearance. If you’ve ever walked by someone who’s been staring at themselves in the mirror for the better part of five minutes, admiring every angle, puckering their lips, sucking in their gut, while smiling approvingly, you’ve come across a narcissist.

What Job is describing when referencing the wicked goes beyond self-admiration, to the point of having a god complex. They see themselves as the masters of their universe, and every relationship they establish, every thing they do, every avenue they pursue, must be in service to them.

Seeing that some of the most wicked men of our generation were also obsessed with extending their lives, immortality, transfers of consciousness, transhumanism, and other pursuits that had them playing at being little gods, only confirms what Job iterated long before these things were technologically feasible, or theoretically probable, if not currently possible.

A narcissist is easy enough to deal with: refuse to acknowledge or validate their self-image or self-importance, and they’ll slink off in a huff, insisting that it’s your loss for failing to see how amazing they are. If narcissism were a rare occurrence, it wouldn’t be a multi-billion-dollar business. The focus isn’t on feeling better but looking better, and those who have no desire to stand out or be admired for their looks, abs, symmetry, or full head of hair can just ignore the narcissists, give them a wide berth, and go on with their lives, unaffected and unperturbed.

A wicked man won’t leave it at that. It is beyond a wicked man’s ability to accept being denied or acknowledge that he is not a godlike figure, and his wrath will be kindled against anyone who dares to stand in his way or contradict him in any manner. A wicked man is dangerous; a narcissist not so much.

There is no thought of what he leaves behind when it comes to a wicked man. Whether it’s a good name, a legacy, children, a family, or relationships, they are a means to an end, and in and of themselves mean nothing to the wicked. So fixated is the wicked on the moment, themselves, and their pleasure that the thought of eternity doesn’t even cross their minds. They refuse to acknowledge that they have a soul, or that there is anything after it is cleaved from the flesh, and they walk the earth no more.

They tend to be in the camp of the mockers, the scoffers, and those who do not acknowledge the existence of a higher power or authority other than themselves. Because of how they view themselves, they will always look down on everyone else, even those demonstrably wiser than themselves, because in their minds, there could be no one wiser than themselves.

Just because the wicked is indifferent toward God, it does not mean God is indifferent toward the wicked.

Psalm 7:11-13, “God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; He bends His bow and makes it ready. He also prepares for Himself instruments of death; He makes His arrows into fiery shafts.”

That should utterly terrify anyone who thinks God has given them a pass or does not notice their wickedness and chooses not to repent and turn back from it. They know right from wrong, good from evil, honorable from dishonorable, noble from ignoble, yet choose the wrong, evil, dishonorable, and ignoble consistently.

Romans 1:28-32, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

Why are the wicked wicked? Because they choose to be. Why do wicked men do wicked things? Because it brings them momentary pleasure, or some perverse fulfillment. It’s not that they don’t know any better. It’s not that they don’t know murder is evil, or marring the innocence of the young is vile, demonic, and deserving of death; they just don’t care. They can’t be bothered, and not only do they practice such evils, but also approve of those who practice them. They surround themselves with those of like mind, with hatred of God as their uniting principle.

Whatever the sin, whatever the vice, whatever the perversion, horror, or aberrant practice, the end goal is the same: an outward manifestation of rebellion against God, a shaking of the impotent fist, a beating of the withered chest, and a feeble cry of “we are as gods” heard by no one but themselves.

If not for the pain they cause and the ruin they leave in their wake, the wicked would be pitiable for their self-aggrandizing delusions. Given what we know of the harm they’ve wrought, however, they are contemptible.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 21:17-21, “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them, the sorrows God distributes in His anger? They are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that a storm carries away. They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’; let Him recompense him, that he may know it. Let his eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months is cut in half?”

Injustice in a fallen world is not a new thing. Wickedness perpetrated by the wicked is likewise not something novel, yet it still manages to stun us into silence or flush our cheeks with anger when the full breadth of it is exposed, and we see the level of depravity to which men will sink.

Likewise, the righteous wrestling with the reality that, for the most part, there seems to be no punishment or negative impact for the wicked is not new. Job found himself contemplating the lives of the wicked, juxtaposed with his own, and while he suffered in ways difficult to comprehend, it seemed as though the lamp of the wicked did not go out, nor had destruction come upon them.

To his eyes, it seemed unfair and unjust, and if all we had to go by was a snapshot of that moment in time, we might tend to agree with his conclusion. If all you see of the Mona Lisa is her disjointed, crooked nose, and you wonder to yourself why it’s considered a masterpiece, you’re too close. Take a few steps back, and see the whole painting for what it is. Then, perhaps, it will make sense.

When we focus on a single moment in time, or see a snapshot without considering the aggregate, the full picture, or the reality that God’s sovereignty and justice extend beyond this present life, we're likely to reach the same conclusion as Job.

Knowing that all men will answer for their choices, and whether here or beyond this life, they will know true justice, however, gives us a certain level of peace. God is not blind, God is not deaf, God is not indifferent. He sees all, knows all, and though we might feel as though justice tarries, in His time God will avenge, punish, and judge with righteous judgment.

Even the heathen has an innate sense of justice, and of right and wrong. Even the godless know the difference between virtue and hedonism. The only ones who no longer possess this innate moral scale are those whose consciences have been seared, who have wholly given themselves over to wickedness, darkness, and debasement, becoming something other than human beings created in God’s image.

After going without food for two weeks, being battered by a storm that Luke describes as no small tempest, having seen neither sun nor stars for many days, and having given up all hope of being saved, a ship of prisoners being transported to Rome, Paul being among them, ran aground off the coast of the island of Malta.

With no other choice but to make for the coast, those who could swim swam to safety, and those who couldn’t floated on pieces of timber that had once been a mighty galleon of the Roman Empire. Paul had prophesied this outcome. He had seen it unfolding and did not hold back from informing those with whom he was being held captive of what they would encounter.

Once they made it to shore, they ran across the natives, who showed unusual kindness, kindling a fire and making the prisoners and Roman soldiers feel welcome. Although the natives had no knowledge or understanding of God’s law or the justice system of the Roman Empire, they nevertheless possessed that inborn awareness of right and wrong to the point that when Paul was bitten by a viper, they concluded he must have been a murderer, since having escaped the sea, justice would not allow him to live.

Acts 28:3-6, “But when Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow him to live.” But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.”

There’s what men think, then there’s what God knows. We live in an age when men are readily taken in by the image others project, and we’ve gone from being able to fool some of the people some of the time to being able to fool most people most of the time. Even so, it’s for a season. Eventually, the truth will out. While the wicked rest easy believing their wickedness will never be exposed, sooner or later their actions come to light because nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.

It’s a certainty, so the only unknown variable is the timing of it all. Some hidden things come to light quickly, while others take years, if not decades, to bubble to the surface and be exposed and revealed. Examples of this are numerous and too many to count, but one thing is certain: God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

As pendulum swings go, you couldn’t get more extreme than thinking a man guilty of murder, and concluding justice had found him and his life was forfeit, then believing him to be a god because he survived what no other man could. Job’s friends came close enough, though. Seeing his situation, they had likewise concluded he was guilty, convinced that God was dispensing justice in His righteous anger. Thankfully, upon seeing his restoration, they did not deem Job a god.

 Anything that can be obtained in exchange for legal tender is as fleeting as the legal tender itself. Nothing of eternal weight can be purchased with temporal fiat, no matter how much certain televangelists might insist upon it. Giving money to a ministry, a church, or to the poor is not a substitute for spending time in God’s presence. You cannot do one in lieu of the other. This is why priorities matter. When we seek first the kingdom of God, our purpose is to grow in Him and in the knowledge of Him, first and foremost. Everything else takes second place to this all-encompassing, all-consuming purpose.

From the outside looking in, those who have never felt God’s presence, those who do not know the glory of Him, will think us fools, not understanding the fulfillment, peace, and unspeakable joy a relationship with Him brings. They perceive the time you spend in prayer as wasted effort, time you could have put toward career advancement or learning the lineup of your local football team. Little do they know that there is no greater pursuit in this life than the knowledge of the one true God, a sentiment echoed by every individual who has walked with Him throughout history.

Not all knowledge is the same. Not all knowledge is of equal worth or value. There is one knowledge that is superior: the knowledge of God. All other knowledge is inferior and pales in comparison to this, because the knowledge of God is the only knowledge that holds eternal weight and opens the way to fellowship with Him.

Philippians 3:8-11, “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 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

There is the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, then there is everything else. It stands alone, it stands apart, and for the children of God, it must be the ideal, overshadowing all else, because to be found in Him, to know Him, and to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, to be saved, sanctified, and born again is to lay hold of eternity itself.

No other knowledge can offer such a reward. No other pursuit can open the way to intimacy with God, fellowship with Christ, and the blessed assurance that He is ever present via His Spirit, as you journey toward eternity.

When we view this life through the prism of eternity, we soon realize how much of the time we’ve been given is wasted on trivial pursuits and how little of it is spent deepening our relationship with God. Realizing and acknowledging something, however, is not the same as taking steps to remedy the situation and shift our focus or acquire new pursuits. Some people know they are squandering the time they’ve been given, but never take the next step or make the necessary changes to become redeemers of time rather than squanderers.

If we are a new creation in Christ and the old things have passed away, why do we find ourselves bogged down with the old things so often? It’s not an accusation; it’s an honest question. I’ll be the first to admit I still catch myself sometimes, and I have to repent of it. I sit down to spend some quiet time reading the Word, in the middle of it, I get a notice that I have a new message, and thirty minutes later, I find myself engrossed in a story about a deep-sea diver finding a treasure trove of ancient relics sitting at the bottom of the sea, untouched by human hands for thousands of years.

It’s a good story, and it harkens back to what I wanted to pursue when I was younger, but I know that it did nothing to feed my spirit. All you can do when you catch yourself not pursuing the excellence of the knowledge of Christ is commit to making up the time you should have, whether that means waking up an hour earlier or going to bed an hour later.

I realize to some this may sound rigid and legalistic, but it’s not. It’s an issue of discipline, and if I allow myself to miss spending time in the Word today and think nothing of it, it will happen tomorrow, then the day after, becoming a pattern, then a habit, and I promise you, there will always be a new article about some sunken treasure or newly discovered remnants of a long forgotten civilization you’ll run across to distract and leech away the time.

Is having a hobby or enjoying articles on archeological endeavors inherently bad? No, not if viewed in isolation, but it becomes problematic when those things take time you otherwise would have spent in the Word.

Spending time with God is not a chore; it’s a gift and a grace. It’s not like eating your broccoli, doing your homework, or going to the gym because you know you have to. The spiritual man yearns to be in the presence of God, but what remains of the flesh will constantly try to keep you from it, knowing that the stronger you grow spiritually, the weaker its influence will become.

See the distractions for what they are: A means by which one is kept from pursuing that which they know they ought. We can either attempt to justify the lack of time spent in God’s presence and in His Word or acknowledge it for what it is and take steps to remedy it.

Absence does not make the heart grow fonder; it makes the heart grow colder. If we allow it, what once convicted us will become normalized to the point that it no longer convicts, and that is a slippery slope that leads further away from God with each passing day. It’s like those who allow themselves a cheat meal while on a diet, only to find themselves six months later having gained twenty pounds and never returning to the discipline they once had. It is always easier to cut off a weed than it is to cut down a tree. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him? Perhaps the two most myopic questions ever strung together that reveal the ignorance of the wicked as to who God is, as well as their inability to see beyond this present life. There was no eternal perspective, no consideration for what comes after the handful of years we are given on the earth, because the moment was all that mattered, and for the moment, they were rich and in need of nothing.

To answer the first question, the Almighty is the Almighty. It’s in the name, and had the wicked not been so wrapped up in their wickedness, a moment’s worth of introspection would have solved this riddle for them. Simply defined, almighty means complete power, omnipotence, and sovereignty over all things great and small, physical or intangible, flesh or spirit, of this earth or beyond the stars. The Almighty, therefore, is the omnipotent One, the sovereign One, the all-powerful One, the singularity in the entirety of the universe who possesses complete power and dominion.

The answer to the second question hinges on perspective. What profit do we have if we pray to Him? As far as extra shekels in your coffers, visible on a profit and loss balance sheet, none. If the things of this earth are what your existence revolves around, if every morning upon waking and every night before going to sleep, your only purpose is to increase your possessions, you will inevitably see no profit in forming a relationship with the Almighty.

Sooner or later, though, even the richest among us come to realize that riches are an illusion, that unless you burn it, the green paper with dead men’s faces on it gives no warmth, and all the money in the world, stacked up to the moon and back, will not extend their life by one millisecond. No matter how vast the fortune, no matter how layered the offshore accounts, once you breathe your last, it’s no longer yours, left behind for family and friends to bicker and fight over.

Throughout human history, everyone who thought they could take it with them was wrong. Everyone who tried failed. In the end, all anyone gets is a pine box and a hole in the ground. If they were well known, a few more people may show up to say their farewells, but the one in the box wouldn’t know either way, so what does it matter?

You can’t help but feel sadness and pity for those whose sole focus is the temporal things of this earth, with no time to spare a thought for eternity. It’s as though, millennia later, Jesus was answering the question with a question of his own when He asked, “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul?”

Far too many spend their days obsessing over things they can’t control, or pursuits so irrelevant in the context of eternity as to make one roll their eyes and face palm. This is what you’re consumed by: an extra 2% in your 401 (k)? This is the pinnacle of what you chose to concern yourself with instead of establishing, broadening, and deepening a relationship with the Almighty?

If you want to eat, you have to work. We earn our daily bread with the sweat of our brow, some sweating more than others. That said, whenever it comes to prioritizing and structuring our lives, the kingdom of God must come first. Between an extra hour of overtime and an hour spent in prayer, our inclination must be to choose the time in prayer because we know it will have a greater benefit than the fifteen bucks minus the FICA withholdings.

When we consistently prioritize God over the things of this earth, we soon come to realize that the things we thought we needed and therefore sacrificed our time for, we didn’t really need, for whatever joy, security, peace, or comfort they may have provided, pale in comparison to the presence of God in our lives.

Matthew 6:33-34, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

These were the words of Jesus, not taken out of context, not reimagined, not finely chopped and reassembled to make them mean something they were never intended to mean, but as the conclusion of a discourse focused on not worrying about what you will wear, or what you will eat, because your heavenly Father is well aware of your earthly needs and will provide for them.

There is a difference between want and need, and while God will provide for our needs, if He concludes that providing our wants will cripple our spiritual man, stunt our spiritual growth, or cause us to shift our focus from Him to the things of this earth, for our own good, our request for the wants of life will be refused and declined.

As the story goes, a rich man was walking the city with his entourage in tow, and noticed a beggar on the side of the road. In the hope of impressing his friends with his brilliance, he approached the beggar and asked if he believed in God. The beggar answered that he did, and that he prayed to God every day, to which the rich man smirked and said, “Your prayers do not seem to be working, given your current lot. However, I am feeling generous, so if you can answer one question to my satisfaction, I will give you five gold coins for your trouble.”

The beggar nodded his head in agreement, and the rich man posed his question: “I have all I’ll ever need or want. I am rich and will be so for the rest of my days. Name me one thing I do not have that you believe I should pray for, given what I’ve told you.”

Without missing a beat, the beggar looked the rich man in the eyes and said, “Humility.”

The rich man reached into his pocket, pulled out five gold coins, and handed them to the beggar without another word.

Any man who believes he has nothing left to pray and entreat God for is a fool, and those who trust in the arm of the flesh will be brought to ruin.

1 Timothy 6:17-19, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 If suffering is to be had, whether great or small, whether momentary or protracted, we know with absolute certainty that it will cease once we shuffle off this mortal coil. It is a temporary thing, and in light of eternity, akin to a drop of water in an endless ocean.

For the saints of God, for the sons and daughters of the Almighty, there is no suffering beyond the veil, there is no weeping or gnashing of teeth, there is no heartbreak, no sorrow, no pain, and God Himself will wipe away every tear.

Though the wicked prosper for the moment, their eternal suffering begins when our eternal glory does. Our suffering is defined and limited to the time we have on this earth. The suffering of those who do not desire to know His ways and perish lost in their sin without having known the salvific power of Jesus has no end or terminus. It’s not a timeout, it’s an eternal punishment.

The Word of God is clear on the reality of hell just as it is clear on the reality of heaven. We cannot preach that there is a heaven without acknowledging that there is a hell, an outer darkness, a lake of fire, into which all who rejected the Son of God will be cast. Try as the godless might to redefine it, reimagine it, or reinterpret it, hell is not the place where the cool kids hang out and make music; it is not an eternal mosh pit, it’s not the place to be once your soul is free, but a place where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. The reality of hell wouldn’t make for a good poster on its best day, but some part of those who speak of it as just another week at Burning Man must know the reality of it and use the flippancy with which they speak of it as a coping mechanism.  

Hell is a horror beyond imagining, and an eternal one to boot. If you’ve ever wondered how difficult it was for the Father to see the Son expire on the cross, you need only consider the punishment that will be served upon those who reject Him.

Hebrews 10:28-31, “Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

God sending His Son was not a trivial matter. God watching His Son hang on a cross was not a trivial matter. God hearing the heart cry of His Only Begotten asking why He’d forsaken Him was not a trivial matter!

I’m a dad of two beautiful daughters. It breaks me just thinking about the possibility of watching them suffer in any way, them crying out to me for help, and my not rampaging through entire armies to get to them and help them. God’s love for His Son was no less all-encompassing; He did not love Him less than I do my daughters, yet He witnessed His pain, His tears, His torn body nailed to a tree and restrained Himself from intervening because He knew how important it was for this sacrifice to be carried out in full.

Jeremiah says that it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, not because He enjoyed seeing Him in pain or the throes of death, but because He knew that it was the only way by which you and I could be reconciled to Him.

This is what men reject when they trample the Son of God underfoot. This is what men reject when they insult the Spirit of grace. We speak of God’s love, grace, and forgiveness flippantly, as though it cost Him nothing to facilitate the sanctification of man, when in reality it cost Him His Beloved Son. We repeat certain words so often as to risk diluting, watering down, or losing their meaning altogether. The covenant by which we are sanctified is not a common thing; it was sealed in the blood of the Lamb, it came at a price, and that price was the pouring out of the life of the only perfect Man ever to walk the earth.

But God knew He would rise on the third day! Do you think that made the pain any less real, whether God’s or Christ’s? Do you think knowing He would rise from the dead made Jesus feel any less alone when He no longer sensed the Father's presence and cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”?

This wasn’t a performative utterance. It wasn’t something Jesus thought would be cool to say. It was the reality of what He was experiencing at the moment of His death, hanging between two thieves, bleeding and broken.

Never forget that you and I were bought with a price, and that price was the life of the Son of God. This realization alone should take us beyond mere humility. This realization alone should compel us to press in, serve Him, praise Him, worship Him, follow Him, love Him, and not simply pay Him lip service whenever it’s convenient. He saved my soul from everlasting darkness. He took my wretchedness and the filthy rags with which I was clothed, bought me, cleansed me, sanctified me, made me His own, and gave me white garments that I might be welcomed into His kingdom and given a seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

He took my death and gave me life. He took my blindness and gave me sight. He took my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh. He took my will and replaced it with the indwelling of His Spirit, and He did all those things for you as well. When we keep the reality of what Jesus did and what God sacrificed on our behalf at the forefront of our minds, we will evermore walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

  Job 21:14-16, “Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’ Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand; the counsel of the wicked is far from me.”

It’s easy to fall into the snare of envying the wicked who prosper. As was the case in Job’s day, it’s easy to look upon those who want nothing to do with God, who say to God depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of your ways, yet they nevertheless prosper, and to conclude that it’s unfair, or that the deck is stacked against the righteous.

If wealth, riches, or prosperity were the pinnacle of what God could offer to His children, we would all be doing backflips into swimming pools filled with cash. If opulence were the best God could offer those who are His, we would all be living in it. When we shift our perspective from seeing the world through the eyes of flesh to seeing it through spiritual eyes, we come to understand that the things men boast in, the wealth they flaunt and revel in, are the leavings, the trash, the detritus, rather than God’s best.

I realize it may not feel like it, or even seem like it at times, but it is nevertheless true. What God offers His children is superior to what the wicked enjoy in every way. Yes, you can be a child of God and have wealth, but you cannot be a child of Satan and feel God’s presence, Spirit, peace, joy, and love.

The defining question is whether we want what the world offers or what God offers. Do we look upon the wicked with envy or with pity? Does the desire of our heart extend to those things exclusive to God’s children, or are we satisfied with earthly scraps and useless trinkets that do nothing to strengthen our spiritual man?

It’s both telling and revelatory that much of what calls itself the church today focuses on the things of this world as though they were the apex of what God can give to His beloved, while dismissing the things that truly matter, that hold eternal weight, and that cannot be bottled, packaged, traded, sold, or bartered for.

No matter the amount of wealth he possesses, a rich man cannot buy eternal life, spiritual gifting, or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It’s not as though if they offer a million and God says no, He’ll change His mind if they offer ten. You cannot put a price on intimacy with God. You cannot put a price on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. No dollar amount will get God’s attention and make Him reconsider. These things are reserved exclusively, unequivocally, and unapologetically for His sons and daughters alone.

The mindset that if you have enough money, you can buy anything is pervasive but false. Perhaps you can buy most things, but not everything, especially when it comes to what truly matters. You can’t buy happiness, you can’t buy contentment, you can’t buy salvation, you can’t buy fulfilment, you can’t buy peace, joy, or true purpose for that matter. When you think about it, there’s a lot that money can’t buy, and some of the most miserably unhappy people I’ve ever met happened to have overflowing coffers. Between acquiring it and figuring out how to keep it, many affluent individuals find themselves in the twilight of their existence with nothing to show for the life they’ve lived but a few zeros on a screen, which is cold comfort indeed.

God is not a salesman. He is not in the business of selling His children’s inheritance for baubles or things that will eventually be burned up. There was a man who tried, early on, when the church was barely getting off the ground and could have used an injection of capital. If everything revolves around money as some would have us believe, and the only reason we give is to get more of it, then Peter should have tried to work out a deal, maybe bargain a bit, or at least see what Simon’s opening gambit was. There were, after all, widows to feed, the poor to tend to, and I’m sure the kitchen could have used an upgrade.

Acts 8:18-20, “And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, ‘Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’ But Peter said to him, ‘Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.”’

It never crossed Peter’s mind to entertain the offer. His interest was not piqued; he did not ask what number Simon was thinking of, but in his brutally honest fashion, Peter shut down the possibility of Simon’s request ever being considered. We’ve seen far too many spiritual leaders compromise and prostitute themselves for the sake of clout or the promise of a hefty tithe check. We see the preferential treatment certain people get, and it’s not the poor or downtrodden, but usually someone with prominence, name recognition, and influence.

By all accounts, Simon was a man of influence in Samaria, with some being convinced that he was the great power of God. He was a sorcerer and had been astonishing the people for a long time. Why didn’t Peter consider a collaboration? Why didn’t he ride Simon’s coattails and stand on the stage hand in hand with him, smiling broadly as Simon vouched for him? He was, after all, a known commodity in Samaria, and the people would have responded more positively to Peter had he included Simon in his evangelistic outreach.

The simple answer is that light and darkness do not mix. It is a lesson many pastors, evangelists, bishops, or preachers should have taken to heart, and it would have saved them from having to wipe egg off their faces time after time.

Peter’s answer wasn’t a simple no, or I don’t think so, but he drove the point home to such an extent as to open Simon’s eyes to his sin, his need for repentance, and expose his heart as being poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. There was no glad-handing to be had, no shout-outs from the pulpit, just a rebuke and a call to repentance. Radical, I know, but maybe, just maybe, we should reintroduce the call for repentance to our sermons and insist upon its need resolutely and unapologetically, no matter who’s sitting in the front row, rather than coddling them into hell.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

God’s purpose is what matters. More than our temporary pain, discomfort, embarrassment, humiliation, loss, or hardship, the ultimate goal of God’s purpose through all these is what we must focus on and draw strength from. What will I become once I traverse this valley? What will you be transformed into once you finish your climb? What attributes, virtues, and unquantifiable benefits will make themselves known once my faith has been tested and proven? How much greater will your faith be? How much will your trust in God deepen once He has shown His faithfulness?

There is no such thing as needless suffering when it comes to the children of God. The trials He allows in our lives are not from a position of cruelty, but rather from a place of love, correction, and the purpose of refining, strengthening, maturing, and growing our faith in Him.

The fiery furnace of affliction was never meant to be comfortable; by both definition and purpose, it cannot be. If we focus on the fire, on the affliction, on the hardship, or the heartache, we will always tend to pull back or shrink away. If, however, we focus on what the fire will produce once we’ve gone through it, we will continue planting one foot in front of the other, and walking boldly through it with the full assurance that God will make a way, and we will come out the other side the stronger for it.

Even at his lowest, Job had faith in God’s plan and purpose. He did not know what they were. There was no clear path before him, no silver lining in the storm. He could not see how they would reveal themselves, but he retained his faith in the God who had never failed him.

What do I do when the unexpected happens? Trust God. What do I do when nothing seems to be going right, and everything around me is crumbling? Trust God. What do I do when the thing I thought would be my safety net gets pulled out from under me? Trust God. That is the answer to every situation in which we are overwhelmed, or from which there seems to be no obvious escape. Trust God!

Psalm 56:3-4, “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?”

No one expects you to be an emotionless robot, feeling nothing, plodding along, unaffected by anything, ever, no matter how difficult, no matter how protracted, or debilitating. It’s okay to cry, weep, mourn, and acknowledge pain; it makes you no less of a saint, a believer, or a Christian.

Throughout the Bible, men and women of God felt fear and acknowledged it, felt pain and acknowledged it, felt loss, disappointment, betrayal, privation and acknowledged them all, but through those moments of hurt they chose to focus on God, trusting Him implicitly, thereby concluding that as long as their trust was firmly rooted in God there was nothing to fear. There was nothing to fear, not because fear was unwarranted, but because the God they served was greater than their fear, greater than their circumstances, and greater than their trial.

God did not look down on Job or think less of him for honestly seeing himself and his situation as hopeless in the eyes of men. He didn’t rebuke Job and demand that he put on a brave face, scrub off the puss and maggots feasting on his rotting flesh, and go about his day as though nothing untoward was happening. God will never ask you to do the impossible. He asks you to trust Him to do the impossible. This is not a distinction without a difference, nor is it something arbitrary and inconsequential.

Whether I believe I can fix a problem on my own or fully trust that God can, makes all the difference in the world and affects everything from my attitude to my focus to my mood to the level of hope I possess and in whom I place that hope.

If I put my trust in myself, whenever I hit a brick wall or the path before me becomes impossible to traverse, I struggle harder, focusing more on the problem than on God, who can fix the problem. I tilt at windmills, thinking I can affect the change only God can, and when I fail repeatedly, I get more stubborn, determined to prove to myself and the rest of the world that I can do it when obviously I can’t.

If I put my trust in God, I am at peace knowing that it’s not within my ability to rectify the situation, but that it’s within His, and when He chooses to do so, all glory will be given to Him.

God or man. God or self. God or position. God or possessions. God or government. God or the socially awkward guy with the heavy accent in the white lab coat who graduated last in his class but is nevertheless a doctor. Every day, we choose whom to trust, and if you haven't noticed the pattern, God stands alone against everything and everyone we can place our trust in as human beings.

Perhaps the government might solve one problem, man another, position another still, but God can solve all of them with equal ability, competence, and aptitude.

Job’s was not a single issue needing to be remedied. There was a plethora of things that needed to be addressed, from his health to his wealth, to his family, to everything in between, and so, counting on an individual to solve one problem, even if they were able to do so, would leave all the other issues hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles. Salves and poultices may have relieved his pain momentarily, but that still left the problem of having nothing left to his name but a pile of ash. The generosity of his friends might have helped him scrape by and feed himself, but that still left his failing flesh and the loss of his children.

Only God can make all things new. Only God can restore, heal, and provide to the point that those who know of your situation will see it as a miracle. The one thing we struggle with is that God does these things His way, in His time, for His purposes, and sometimes His timing or the way He resolves an issue differs from what we imagined or hoped for.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Between the “nothing is as it seems crowd” and the “everything is exactly as it seems crowd”, there are those blessed few who understand that some things are not as they seem, some are, and some will remain a mystery no matter how much they dwell on it. From doctors who can’t explain the miraculous recovery of a terminal patient, to why your wife’s smile is broader when you do the dishes without being asked than when you bring her flowers, some things just can’t be understood, no matter how hard we try to understand them.

As far as the sudden recoveries go, the doctors who don’t view themselves as something akin to a god possessing the power of life and death will allow for the possibility of a miracle and concede that some things are beyond their understanding. As far as the reason for the wife’s broader smile, that’s a mystery unlikely to ever be solved.

Job was attempting to show his friends that not everything was black and white, that some things don’t fit neatly into one box or the other, but in order for them to concede the point, they would have to admit that they had erred, and that would mean swallowing their pride. Better to accuse an innocent man of wickedness than to admit your conclusion was in error. They were, after all, learned men, men who understood patterns and historical precedent, and that was enough for them to keep doubling down.

Recent events and disclosures prove that sometimes the most despicable among us continue to prosper for a season, even when the best they deserve for the rest of their existence is a damp, windowless dungeon with the resident rats and mice as their only company and source of sustenance. Some of the most notable names and richest men on the planet have been exposed as being monsters wearing human flesh, and if Zophar’s conclusions had been true of every wicked man, they would have been served justice decades ago.

That’s what Job was trying to point out. From the outside looking in, at least some percentage of the time, the wicked did not suffer the consequences of their actions but enjoyed lives filled with mirth and abundance.

The thing Job’s friends failed to understand is that for those walking in the Spirit, for those wholly submitted to God, there are no longer qualifiers for the things occurring in their lives. They don’t live out their days dividing the good and the bad that occurred in a given week, weighing and measuring if more good than bad took place, but receive it all as God’s plan and purpose, trusting that even what seems bad in the moment will work together for good at some point in the future.

My grandfather’s passing was hard on me. To be fair, hard doesn’t even begin to describe it. I pleaded with God, begged with Him, tried to bargain with Him, all in the hope that God would extend his days. It turned out it was his time, God took him home, he went to his reward, and for the briefest of moments, I was bitter, broken, disillusioned, and bereft.

This was the man who’d taught me how to fish, ride a bike, shoot a slingshot, a man whose faithfulness I’d witnessed my whole life, who did his duty even when the pain would have felled any other, who sacrificed everything to preach an unpopular message to an indifferent church, and for all that he would return to the earth from which he came while others whose only concern was for themselves lived on to ripe old ages.

Yes, I thought as a child, and in my defense, I was still a child, comparatively speaking. I could not see God’s plan in taking him home as anything positive, as something good, and I wrestled with God over this matter because I wanted an answer. I needed a resolution, closure, something that would make it make sense.

I was my grandfather’s interpreter. I traveled with him not because God gave me the message for America, but because he needed someone to translate his words into English and deliver them to the people in a way they could understand. I had no aspiration for ministry beyond my grandfather’s need for my being his translator. In the back of my mind, there was always a plan for after; I just never imagined the after would come so soon.

I didn’t have a clear plan for what I would do with my life after my duty to my grandfather ended, but I had an outline. I was going to go back to school, become an archeologist, and spend the rest of my days digging in the dirt in hard-to-reach places far away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, alone with God, with a chisel and a trowel. That was the dream. That was all I wanted, and it did not seem unattainable.

There’s the adage that if you want to make God laugh, all you have to do is tell Him your plans. I told God my plans, and He didn’t laugh; He just said no. I tried explaining it again, with more context and detail this time, and He still said no. Having never been one given to petulance, stomping my feet and holding my breath until God saw it my way, I offered up all the reasons why this would be the best course for my life, harkening back to the decade-plus I’d faithfully served without groaning or demands for remuneration, and once again I was denied.

Sometimes it takes more than once for God to say no before you resign yourself and submit to His will. Perhaps it’s just me. Perhaps everyone else takes having their life’s trajectory derailed and their plans turned to ash in stride, but I wasn’t as smart as all that.

When God finally revealed what He wanted me to do, it was the one thing I prayed He would never ask of me: to continue the work my grandfather had started. I’d lived it since I was twelve, and I knew the sacrifices it required, the hardships that would have to be endured, and if I’d had a choice in the matter, I would have gladly passed it off to another without a second thought.

I didn’t have a choice, though, not really. The one choice afforded to me was no choice at all, which was to disobey God, and that was something I would not, and could not do. Would I have been as content digging in the dirt instead of doing what I’m doing? Perhaps, perhaps not, but I would have been in rebellion had I chosen the path not taken, and that would have been detrimental to my spiritual man.

When God changes the plans you’ve made for yourself, it’s for a purpose. It’s not because He doesn’t want you to be happy, or fulfilled, it’s not because He doesn’t want you to live your dream, but because He has a different path in mind for you, a different calling, a different journey, a different purpose, one that you may not see in the moment as greater than your own plans, but that will be exceedingly more rewarding if you choose to pick up your cross and follow after Him.       

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 The proud, the haughty, the hedonistic, and the self-indulgent may scoff at the idea that the true worth of a man is not in the wealth he possesses, the authority he commands, or the respect he garners from his contemporaries, but it is one of the most profound truths that one can learn early in life. It frames the entirety of your existence wherein you extend kindness to prince and pauper alike, wherein you show humility in every area of your life, and you learn to value the thing that matters above all else, which is the knowledge of God as Father, Lord, King, and Savior.

Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the Lord.”

Any pursuit not directly beneficial to your spiritual man is wasted effort, and worse still, a waste of time that you can never get back, no matter how much you try. Any spiritual pursuit not directly focused, anchored, and centered on Jesus is likewise a waste.

If that sounds restrictive or exclusionary, it’s because it is. The supremacy of Christ is not a point of debate. He is singularly the Son of God, He singularly died on the cross for the sins of man, He singularly rose again on the third day, and He is singularly the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Him.

It’s a straightforward enough statement, yet time and again the spiritual leaders of the day try to water down this all-encompassing truth, insisting that there are different paths to the same destination and that choosing which god to serve is like choosing the flavor of ice cream you prefer. It’s all ice cream in the end, just different flavors. Sure, there are some outliers like sherbet or gelato, but in a pinch, they’ll pass for ice cream, too, because the more choices you give someone, the likelier they are to become a customer.

There is no other way by which a man can be saved than through Jesus. There is only one item on that menu, and there are no specials or substitutions, nor can you bring your own bagged lunch to eat inside. Jesus is the only way.

That doesn’t sound very inclusive. What happened to the big tent mindset? It was a lie, it is a lie, and it will continue to be a lie. If the desire of your heart is to serve God, then you must do so based on His rules and not your own. Anyone who insists on playing by their own rules while claiming to serve the God of the Bible is lying to themselves and the world at large.

No, eternity is not a game, but the analogy applies because of the implicit and explicit rules. If you’re playing basketball and someone starts body slamming his opponents, taking the ball and walking it to the net, they’re no longer playing basketball because they are not adhering to the pre-established rules.

If you want to enter heaven, there is only one door, and you must walk through it to enter therein. The door is Jesus, for only He can save, transform, and sanctify. Only He can reconcile man to God, and anyone who hints at another avenue, or the possibility that there is another way, is lying to your face.

Job 21:9-13, “Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull breeds without failure; their cow calves without miscarriage. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice to the sound of the flute. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.”

While Zophar outlined what the lot of the wicked was, insinuating that Job was wicked because he was checking off all the boxes, Job looked at the world from a different angle, one that shattered Zophar’s thesis.

Without absolute intellectual honesty, we tend to see only what we want to see. Zophar saw what he wanted to see. He saw the ultimate judgment of the wicked, but failed to acknowledge that wicked men still prospered until they didn’t.

Job’s approach was more nuanced, more balanced, because given his former status, he’d likely run across such men with regularity. In Job’s eyes, it seemed as though the wicked had not a care in the world. The wicked prospered, became mighty in power, lived and grew old, they spent their days in wealth, and when the time came for them to shuffle off this mortal coil, they did so quickly and without a protracted season of pain and torment.

It’s far easier to wrap our minds around the prospering of the wicked than it is the trials of the righteous, because, while on the one hand God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good alike, and sends rain on the just and the unjust, the trials and tribulations of the righteous seem unfair to both our sensibilities and our intellect.

We’ve adopted the world’s mindset that good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people, and when something bad happens to a good person, we can’t understand it. Because our understanding is limited, because our thoughts and God’s thoughts are oceans apart, and our purpose and His purpose differ, we tend to become modern-day Zophars, concluding there must be some hidden wickedness that precipitated their trial.

It’s the most straightforward conclusion to reach, requiring no thought, nuance, or follow-up questions. I have a few questions, though. Who determines that the thing is bad, man or God? Who determines that a man is good? Who can rightly say they see the end from the beginning as God does, and conclude that God is being unjust or unfair, given that their view is limited to the present and unable to see into tomorrow?

Whatever trial you may be going through, trust God. Whatever hardship you may be enduring, trust God. He sees what you cannot, He knows what you do not, and His word tells us that all things work together for good to those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose.       

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 People approach life from different angles, via different avenues, but they all lead to the same core, the same center, regardless of where they start. For some, the path is straight; for others, it's meandering. Some get to it quickly, while others struggle against its pull, intuiting that giving in is an empty, meaningless life, but in the end, save for divine intervention and the revelation of a new path heretofore unseen, everyone finds themselves in the same spot. It’s the center of the maze, the reason for lies, deceit, heartlessness, greed, selfishness, malice, and all forms of evil.  

Well? What is it? I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now, but in case you haven’t, that center is the self. Whether it’s self-reliance, self-esteem, self-worth, self-motivation, self-promotion, or selfishness, it all funnels to the self, gravitates toward it, and makes the self the singular priority of one’s existence.

As long as I get mine, I am unconcerned with what others are going through. As long as I have my mansion on the hill, my private jet, my chauffeured limo, and my excesses, I will compromise, obfuscate, align myself with the worst kind of evil, and not lose a minute’s sleep over it. The ends justify the means every time, even if the means require that I sell my soul, hurt people who trusted me, and betray the gospel of Christ, because I am my own god and my entire existence is in service to me.

The current state of the contemporary church, and especially its leaders, has more to do with those who ought to know better living in service to their flesh, catering to it, and prioritizing it, than with the active meddling of the devil. It’s not that he wouldn’t have meddled if he needed to, but why bother when the televangelists, preachers, pastors, and heads of denominations were doing his work for him voluntarily and free of charge? We haven’t seen false prophets and false Christs showing great signs and wonders as yet because it’s been unnecessary.

The focus on the self, this present life, the here and now, is but the first salvo in a multi-pronged war, and it’s been more successful than the enemy could have ever dreamed. There was no need to threaten prison, persecution, or martyrdom when all it took for the church to capitulate was an offer of luxury, country clubs, gated communities, and Japanese Wagyu.

Those days are coming, be sure of it, because the Bible warns us that they will, but that will only be after the sifting, the purging, and the separation of those who serve Jesus with their hearts from those who say they serve Him with their lips. When a glut of souls pretends to serve Jesus only for the earthly benefits they’ve been told He offers, once that offer is no longer on the table, they will gravitate toward some other deity that promises them the comfort and ease of life they were promised by the faux-representatives of Christ.

It was never about fealty to Christ; it was about fealty to self and using Christ as the means by which they could achieve what their flesh wanted all along. That’s the hard part we must come to terms with: that many claiming to be His were never really His to begin with. They were never true soldiers of the cross but mercenaries offering their services to the highest bidder, no matter who that bidder happened to be. Their loyalty extended only as far as themselves, and whatever master they served was interchangeable as long as they got what they were after.

For the better part of a generation, if not longer, Christianity has been incrementally made less about Jesus and more about self, to the point that, for many, Jesus has become an afterthought. How can we be the temple of God without the presence of His Spirit indwelling in us? How can His Spirit indwell in us if we refuse to repent or resist being transformed into His likeness because we love the sin in our lives more than we love Him?

1 Corinthians 3:16-17, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”  

While we are told from various pulpits that we are the pinnacle of everything, that it’s all about us, and the universe itself must bend to our will, God says crucify the flesh, crucify the self, crucify the image of you that you have in your mind’s eye, and become reliant on Me. Become dependent on me. Find your joy, your fulfilment, your purpose, and your worth in what My Son did for you on the cross, and understand that any nobility you may attain, any righteousness you may project is as filthy rags without My Son’s blood having washed and made you clean.

For some, it’s a big ask. So much so that they try to thread the needle in such a way that they’ll rely on their strength, intelligence, aptitudes, and abilities for as long as they can, and only after they see the ragged edges, the threads pulling apart, and the ground upon which they stand begin to shift do they run to God for aid. They make it all about themselves until it’s no longer tenable, and only then do they grudgingly acknowledge their own weakness, impotence, and frailty.

Even when Job was on top of the world, he was still reliant on God. Even when he had everything he’d ever want or need, he served God from a pure heart and a genuine desire to fellowship with Him and not because he wanted more stuff or felt as though he had to fake his faithfulness in order to retain the things he had. How can I be sure of this? Because God knows the heart of man, and He declared it to be so. You can fake it until you make it in the eyes of the world, but God is not so gullible. You can’t get one over on Him. He knows the intent behind all we do, and those who serve Him out of a genuine desire for relationship and fellowship with Him will know His presence and hear His voice.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 21:4-8, “As for me, is my complaint against man? And if it were, why should I not be impatient? Look at me and be astonished; put your hand over your mouth. Even when I remember I am terrified, and trembling takes hold of my flesh. Why do the wicked live and become old, yes, become mighty in power? Their descendants are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.”

You’re attacking me, and I’m beseeching, entreating, pleading with, and crying out to God. The two are not the same. You accuse me of things I haven’t done, and I plead my innocence. The two are not the same. You conspire to shake my faith, to make me give up, to curse God and die, and conclude that I am deserving of my lot. I cry out to God, asking that He reveal my error to me if there is error, that He reveal my wickedness to me if there is wickedness, and I will repent of it. The two are not the same.

Job didn’t threaten to sue for defamation; he didn’t pull out a stack of NDAs and insist that his friends sign them; he didn’t try to create a straw man or point to others in similar situations, thereby justifying his own actions. He was an innocent man who pleaded with God in the presence of his friends, and not with his friends in the presence of God.

If there was any doubt, Job made it clear: as for me, is my complaint against man? Obviously not, because what could any man do to ease my suffering, or remedy my situation? What could any man do to take away the pain or inject some hope into my weary soul?

Job knew that if there was any hope, it was found in God. His friends had become burdensome, cumbersome, a noisy nuisance that he felt obliged to answer, but as far as hoping they had some means of rectifying his situation, there was none to be found.

Few in the history of mankind have found themselves in a situation as dire as Job’s. I can’t think of one offhand, but there must have been at least a handful that came close. Conversely, we’ve all had varying degrees of hardship, of seemingly impossible situations, or valleys and rocky roads that seemed to never end, and in those moments, we choose to run to God or to men.

Perhaps it’s thinking that the problem isn’t big enough to bother God with, so we will try to rectify it on our own, only to discover we’ve made it worse than we could have imagined. Perhaps it’s hoping we can prove to God that we can manage without His intervention. Maybe we’re just stubborn and stiff-necked, but whatever the reason may be that we don’t run to God first, in the end, we live to regret it.

The best man can offer, whether friends, brothers, sisters, or family, however well-meaning and well-intentioned, is what amounts to a temporary fix. God is the only one who can offer permanent solutions.

It’s the difference between discovering you have a flat tire, putting air in it, only to discover it’s flat again come the morning, and getting a new tire, without a puncture that will hold air for months if not years to come.

I’ve lived long enough to see the folly of trusting men to solve issues God could readily remedy. I’ve also seen the danger of impatience when it comes to not waiting on the Lord to do it, and striking out on one’s own, thinking we know better. Job knew enough to know that men would not have a hand in his restoration if there were any to be had. He knew that trying to appease his friends was likewise a nonstarter.

All he had left was God, and God was more than enough. This is a good reminder and a teachable moment for everyone, including myself. God is sufficient, no matter your trial or situation. He is enough. Even in your most desperate moments and your darkest season, God is all you need. Run to Him! Not after you’ve exhausted every avenue, not when there’s nothing left to cling to, but first, every time, without fail, and your faith will grow and mature with every iteration of seeing that your trust was not misplaced, and that He did not fail you.

Job’s complaint was not against man, but if it had been, he would have been within his rights to be impatient. Job knew that man cannot see as God sees, man cannot hear as God hears, and man cannot intervene as God can, and his first salvo seems a bit tongue-in-cheek.

If my words were targeted toward you, by now I would be within my rights to be impatient given that I’ve seen nothing by way of resolution, but fear not, my friends, I know the extent of your impotence and inability to affect my current lot, and so it’s not you I’m pleading with, it’s with the God whom I know can do what you cannot.

Were my hope tethered in you, I would be a man bereft, watching the ashes of my life slip through my fingers, adrift in an ocean of pain and hopelessness, with no shoreline in sight, or hope for redress.

But, even as I am, broken, shattered, and stripped of everything, including my own dignity, I cling to the One who knew me before He formed me in my mother’s womb, who counts the hairs on my head, who sees me as I am, and I will trust Him still.

Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. If that sounds familiar, Job spoke those words some eight chapters back. His position had not shifted. He had not given up addressing God, nor had he shifted his focus from what God saw in him to what his friends thought of him. He remained consistent, knowing that how God sees us is the only thing that matters. Does God view you as a son or daughter? Does God count you as His own? If so, it matters not what the world, your family, your friends, or anyone else thinks of you. Strive to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord and not praised by the forked tongues of the world, and you will always have God on your side, no matter the situation.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 21:1-3, “Then Job answered and said: “Listen carefully to my speech, and let this be your consolation. Bear with me that I may speak, and after I have spoken, keep mocking.’”

Some people are talkers, others are listeners, and a handful know how to balance the two and speak when they ought, listen when they should, and do it in such a way as to make the other person feel as though they weren’t speaking to a brick wall, or listening to a monologue rather than having a dialogue.

When someone has a tendency to ramble, I let them. If they like the sound of their own voice so much, why should I be the one to yuck their yum? It happens on occasion when someone asks to interview me, and for thirty minutes or an hour, depending on the length of the program, I hear my life story read back to me, and other than thanking the individual for having me on their program, I could barely get a word in edgeways. I’m glad they did their research, or at least know how to use the interwebs well enough to pull up my bio, but if I made the time to block out an hour of my life to focus solely on having a conversation, it would be nice to actually have one.

Some of the most brilliant interviewers of our day have mastered one skill: listening. Especially when it comes to long-form interviews, it’s not the ones that like to flex their vocabulary muscles, those who want to prove how smart they are, or those that like to hear the sound of their own voice that stand out, but those that ask a simple question, and wait for the answer, allowing for the interviewee to make their point without interruption.

Once they’ve made their point, if the need arises, there are follow-up questions, requests for clarification, or the fleshing out of an idea, but for the most part, the interviewer listens.

Conversely, some of the most insufferable individuals roaming about today are those who act as though the person they’re trying to have a dialogue with isn’t even there, because they need to make their point, they need to be right, and they deem the person before them to be beneath them, whether socially or intellectually.

Job knew his friends would likely bristle at what he had to say and would feel compelled to interrupt, challenge, or otherwise verbally try to steamroll over him, so he made it clear that it would be greatly appreciated if they’d let him get his point across, and once that was done, they could return to their previously scheduled program of mocking him. It wasn’t that he held out hope of convincing them. That ship had already sailed, and he knew their mockery would return anew once he was done speaking, but sometimes things must be said for posterity if nothing else.

Even though Job knew the three men who had been accusing him would not change course, and that they would continue down the path of accusation, insinuation, and mockery, he likewise knew he could not keep silent. Even at the risk of having his words seen as cynical, serving to solidify their preconceptions, because an innocent person wouldn’t get so defensive about such things, Job knew he must answer.

One of the most off-putting things you can witness is when an accuser starts playing the victim in order to save face. They can’t prove that the individual they’ve accused has done anything untoward; there is no evidence to substantiate their claim. Yet they keep at it until the person speaks up, and suddenly they feel victimized for being called out. It’s a defense mechanism, a way of saving face without having to concede to the fact that there was nothing substantive in the words you spoke against them.

Some people project guilt on others simply because they’ve concluded that the individual they are attempting to sully needs to come down a peg or two. Taking the words of Job’s friends in the aggregate and at face value, one can’t help but wonder if they’d harbored some resentment against him, and now was the perfect opportunity to let it all out.

The greatest of all the people of the East, huh? How did that turn out for you?

Everyone has someone in their life who will gleefully celebrate their demise. It’s sad, it’s tragic, but it’s also true. What’s worse is that sometimes the individual in question is so unexpected as to blindside you, and now, rather than dealing with one heartache, heartbreak, loss, or tragedy, you’re dealing with two because someone you thought was a friend is holding a bloody knife, grinning maliciously, and waiting for you to expire.

My words may not sway you, you may not alter your course, you will likely think worse of me by the time I’m done, but I need to speak them nonetheless. If ever you were my friends, if ever you cared for me, show me this mercy, extend this grace, bear with me that I may speak, and when I am done, do as you will.

It would not require an overactive imagination to conclude that this seemed like the last wish of a dying man. Given that conjecture was the bread and butter of Job’s three friends, by this point, I doubt any of them held out hope of his being restored. In their minds, Job was getting what he deserved because if he wasn’t guilty of everything they’d presumed him to be guilty of, why would God have allowed him to fall so far so quickly?

Between their confirmation biases, feedback loops agreeing with each other, and the undeniable wretched condition Job was in, there was no other plausible explanation that Job’s three friends would entertain, and he saw the reality of it plainly written on their faces. He was no longer asking that they believe him, just that they bite their tongues long enough for him to say what he needed to say.      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Because self-discipline is looked down upon as legalistic and prudish, and self-control is seen as limiting the freedoms we have in Christ, much of what calls itself the church today is impulsive, reactionary, fickle, faithless, easily swayed, and prone to speaking before thinking, and doing so with such inflection and passion as to convince others they actually know what they’re talking about.

The moment their words are challenged, not because someone has a bone to pick with them personally, but because the words they are speaking do not harmonize with Scripture but rather contradict it, the moment people look beyond the presentation to the substance of their claims, they’re quick to insist that it was the Lord telling them these things as a means of deflection.

It was some type of new revelation that they alone received, and if you dare to rebuke them, or call them out for the liars they are, you are resisting the Lord himself. That it’s usually some self-serving drivel that puts them squarely in the spotlight is unsurprising and should be a clear warning sign, but we’ve been cultivating a culture of man worship for so long that a hefty spoonful of self-promotion no longer raises any alarms.

One can’t help but shake their head and wonder if some people really have no shame, and the short answer is no, they don’t, they have no shame at all. Shame left the building decades ago, and now their entire purpose is to elevate themselves above Scripture itself and insulate themselves from criticism by invoking the Lord and insisting He is the originator of their fabrications.

We’ve adopted the mindset that the institution must be defended at all costs, even if it means giving false teachers and false prophets a pass, without realizing we’re voluntarily walking into the enemy’s snare. Jesus is not an institution, He is not a denomination, and the idea that the faith itself will not survive if some big name gets exposed for the evils they’ve committed is a bold-faced lie, and one that has damaged the household of faith to the point that it’s on life support, gasping for breath, with no strength or purpose to speak of.

You cannot build a house on rotten timbers and expect it to stand. You cannot prop up a ministry or a denomination on the shoulders of a compromised, deceptive individual and expect it to thrive. It doesn’t matter who the person is if the person isn’t Jesus; whatever they’ve managed to build will come to ruin, for He is the One who sustains, refines, and builds up a work not for the glory of man but for the glory of God the Father.

When we are not rooted in the Word of God, we swing from one extreme to the other like a pendulum, ever a slave to its own momentum. We go from believing everything to believing nothing, from desiring spiritual gifts to wanting nothing to do with them, when our position as children of God should be nuanced and purposeful.

We can believe in the prophetic without despising it, as we were instructed, yet also test all things to ensure they originate from God and are in harmony with His word.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

Those are the guardrails. Those are the dos and don’ts. As long as you do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesies, but test all things and hold fast what is good, you will not be swayed nor blown to and fro like a reed in a hurricane.

The key is to test all things not through the prism of one’s own understanding, prejudices, or inclinations, but via the prism of God’s Word. That is how we determine whether something is good and worth holding fast to, or whether it is deception couched in a layer of truth and to be discarded, knowing it will be detrimental to our spiritual walk.

I do not have the authority to determine what is good, and neither do you. God does, and He has detailed it in His Word. If we dismiss the Word of God as the filter by which we test all things and lean on our own understanding, our understanding will draw us further away from the light because our understanding is rooted in the heart and the mind, which are flesh, and flesh is at enmity with God.

Follow your heart, and it will lead you to ruin. Follow men, and they will lead you to resentment and disillusionment. Follow God, and He will lead you to green pastures and still waters.        

Misery, loving company, would be a satisfactory explanation for why the deceived do their utmost to draw others into their deception if it were not for the reality that there is a nefarious third party involved who is willing to do anything, say anything, and align himself with anyone to reach his intended ends.

One inevitably grows more sober-minded, disciplined, and cautious when they realize the lengths to which the devil will go to sow doubt, fear, deception, resentment, or bitterness in their hearts. The presence of Christ in one’s life, not occasionally but perpetually, is the antidote to all of these and more.          

Job 20:25-29, “He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him; total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent. The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him. A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath. Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.”

Evil has no future. It is a truth that Zophar repeatedly hammered home, the only problem being that it did not apply to Job. No, Zophar wasn’t wrong about anything he said regarding the wicked and their ultimate end, for it is the fate God allots the wicked; however, Job was not in the camp of the wicked as Zophar and his friends presumed, and that is where they erred.

It would be myopic to dismiss Zophar’s words altogether just because they did not apply to Job. He wasn’t wrong about the fate of the wicked, just about his friend being numbered among them. There is truth in the words he spoke, and that truth is both revelatory and pertinent when removing Job from the equation.

You can be right and wrong at the same time, depending on the context and a specific situation. Zophar proved it beyond a doubt, but rather than stir him to humility, his pride compelled him to double down.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.