Proof The Bible Is True

Once the dust settles, everyone comes out of the woodwork insisting they were by your side all along. When you’re in the midst of being battered and bruised, radio silence is the expectation du jour, with those only pretending to be your friends or fellow soldiers of the cross giving you a wide berth as though you were toxic, or your hardship was somehow contagious, but once you get through it, they reappear like mushrooms after a summer rain, as if out of nowhere.

Those who strive for honesty will proffer an apology of some sort, unwilling to meet your eyes for fear that the guilt they feel is too plainly written therein, while those who don’t will insist they were always there, holding your hand, but you were just too busy to notice.

The only one you need standing beside you to get through the fire and out the other side is God. If God stands with you, all is well, will end well, and there’s nothing the devil can do to change the course that God has established if you remain faithful to Him.

Where were all of Job’s brothers, sisters, and those who had been his acquaintances while he sat on an ash heap scratching at himself with a potsherd? Unhelpful as they had been in the final analysis, at least Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had shown up. At least they’d traveled from afar to try and comfort their friend. Other than Job’s wife, nothing was mentioned of his surviving extended family or acquaintances until the last chapter of the book. Once they’d learned of his downfall, they were nowhere to be found, yet now that he had been restored, and doubly so, they were quick to make amends.

“Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity the Lord had brought upon him.”

There are always bound to be men highlighting their bravery after a battle is won, and more often than not the loudest ones were never on the front line. The boisterous, self-aggrandizing, and those insisting that without them the battle would have been lost usually never saw the whites of the enemy’s eyes, nor did they go toe-to-toe in a life-or-death struggle. Those that do are usually quiet, reserved, unwilling to revisit the horrors of battle, grateful to be alive, and looking forward to returning to their loved ones.

The household of faith is overflowing with what amounts to stolen valor, and it’s those who’ve never seen a day of spiritual warfare that are the loudest, insisting that they are the warriors Jeremiah, Isaiah, Moses, and Job wished they’d been.

The problem is that boasts and theatrics will only get you so far. At the end of the day, you will have to answer for pretending to be something you weren’t, not to men, but to God. You will be called to account for having pretended to be a warrior without possessing armor, or insisting you were on the battlefield without the scars to show for it, when all you were was a teller of fables, regurgitating the lives others have lived, pretending as though it was your own.

The real ones know that the victory was not of their own making, design, or due to their knowledge of battle stratagem. They understand that victory was had by the power of God residing in them, and they are but servants, soldiers, vessels who could do nothing if they remained empty and were not filled with His presence.

The funny thing is that some of the most powerfully used men of God that I have been honored to know throughout the years never boasted of themselves, never attempted to stand in the spotlight, or insisted they were spiritually superior to anyone else. To the last, they were humble men who humbled themselves, picked up their crosses, and followed after Jesus every day, like everyone else.

Beware the man who elevates himself above the station of servant, or thinks himself special in his own eyes. Beware the individual for whom being known by a particular title is more important than being known for their humility.

Yes, Job’s brothers, sisters, and acquaintances had wronged him, just as Joseph’s brothers would later wrong him, yet the reaction of both men is almost identical in that they did not resent, browbeat, or hold it over their heads, but forgave. Job did not turn them away, but ate food with them in his house, and even at this late hour, although Job understood God’s plan, his brothers and sisters did not.

They still assumed that the adversity that had come upon him was brought upon him by the Lord. They still viewed God as a cruel taskmaster who took joy in seeing his servants suffer, rather than understanding that although God had allowed Satan to sift Job, it was not God doing the sifting Himself.

This distinction matters because it shapes the lens through which we view God. Yes, God allowed Job’s testing, and the devil went as far as he could go in attempting to sway Job into abandoning his hope, but even then there were guardrails and limitations placed on the devil by which he had to abide. Understand that were Satan allowed to run loose and do as he willed, there would be nothing of this world but ash and ruin. There is no sympathy, empathy, kindness, gentleness, or mercy when it comes to the enemy of our souls. He takes delight in suffering; nothing makes him squeamish or think he’s gone too far, and any armistice the church thinks it has with him is no less than an illusion.

If God desired to crush Job, it would have been done on day one, so utterly and completely that though he had once been the greatest of all the people of the East, his name would have been a long-forgotten byword within a generation. God allowed Job’s testing, not his destruction. Job proved faithful, and now all that had been lost during his testing was restored, and doubly so.

Mark 10:29-30, “So Jesus answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time – houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life.”’

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 When Job’s life began to unravel, and everything that could go wrong went wrong and then some, he made an often-quoted statement that, at the time, had no proof of concept beyond his current lot. He summarized what had occurred in his life thus far, acknowledging the reality of it without bitterness, resentment, or animosity. He had no way of knowing how it would turn out, or that the Lord would give him twice as much as he had before, but was at peace with the reality that the Lord is sovereign; He does as He wills, and whether He gives or takes, His name is blessed in equal measure. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Yes, the Lord had given, and He had taken away, and even in the taking, Job was resolute in blessing the name of the Lord, wholly unaware of how the drama would unfold, how it would play out, and how it would eventually end.

Job never saw himself as the star of his own show, the nexus of his universe, or the linchpin of this narrative. Job saw himself as a servant, one whose desire was intimacy with his Master, and whatever his Master deemed the best course, whether in the valley or on the mountaintop, He was deserving of praise.

Did he at times grow weary? Most assuredly, any man would, but through it all Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. There is a reason beyond our understanding when our best-laid plans go sidewise, seemingly in an instant, and if our faith is not cemented in the truth of who God is, and we are serving a projection of who we would like God to be, despondency, gloom, and hopelessness are sure to pay us a visit and stay for a while.

The same God who took away can restore, and doubly so, just as easily as He took away. That’s His purview; it’s under His control, and the only thing we have agency over is how we react to the trials, the hardships, the setbacks, and the valleys. What is my attitude in the valley? Is it the same as it would be on the mountaintop? How do I react to failure? Is it with the same words of blessing and praise to the Lord on my lips as would have been had I succeeded?

If your praise, adoration, worship, obedience, and faithfulness are contingent on outcome, if you only praise Him when things are going well, or serve Him when you have not a care in the world, that’s not true and abiding faith. It is a reaction to a perceived favor, and the continuation of that fealty is not rooted in love, but fear that the favor you’ve been shown would be removed were you to reveal your true self. God already knows your true self. He knows if you serve Him out of love or obligation. He knows whether your loyalty is dependent on anything other than what He’s already done to save you from the mire and reconcile you to Him.

God knew Job. He knew his heart; He knew his intentions; He knew his innermost desire, and the sincerity with which he yearned to be in His presence. God knew that Job’s fealty wasn’t feigned, that he wasn’t faking it until he made it, or pretending to desire more of God, hoping He wouldn’t see through his charade and bless him even more. His desire for more of God superseded all else in His life, and as long as God’s presence was evident, he could abide anything.

Even with all that he’d been through, the one thing that Job insisted he could not abide was God’s silence and the absence of His presence. He’d endured the loss of all his material possessions, had borne the pain of burying his children, had gritted his teeth in the face of the pain he was in, but the one thing that was too much for him to contend with was God’s silence.

Testing and trial reveal one’s innermost heart. If the heart is singularly focused on being pleasing in the sight of the Lord, on growing in Him and knowing Him more fully, then nothing that life may bring will detour you from that singular purpose.

It answers the ever-present question of why some men can stand in the midst of the tempest, while others get bowled over by the softest breeze. Those who endure and manage to stand, coming through fire all the stronger for it, not only have a right understanding of what the purpose of this life is, but pursue God and Him alone. They don’t chase after fortune nor fame; they don’t desire to be known or leave their mark on the world, but simply to serve, follow, and obey.

The idea that coming to Jesus is a guarantee of ease and comfort for the rest of one’s life, or that life will be lived on easy mode for the rest of your days, isn’t just unbiblical but contrary to the words of Jesus Himself. If that’s the Jesus you’ve been sold, if that’s the pitch that stirred you to respond in the affirmative to the call, you will be shaken at the first wave that barrels into your boat, or the first unexpected trial that surfaces seemingly out of nowhere.

 There is a profundity to the second sentence in this passage that many overlook, or seem not to notice, but that nevertheless applies to everyone who has ever had to forgive, let go, and unburden themselves of resentments, past wrongs done to them, and the individuals responsible: “And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.”

The only ones to receive instruction regarding Job praying for them were his three friends. We are never told that God also went to Job to instruct him to pray for them, nor that He commanded Job to do so. God left it up to Job whether he would pray for his three friends, but by the same token, God restored Job’s losses only when he prayed for his friends. That reality is deeper than many perceive or understand.

Forgiveness was Job’s final test. I’ve looked at this passage, pondered it, meditated upon it, and it’s the only conclusion I can come to. Before everything could be restored to him, Job had one final hurdle, one last action he must undertake, and that was to forgive.

Like all his other testing, God was silent on the matter. He didn’t hint at what Job should do; He just sent his friends to be prayed for, and waited to see what would come of it. Job already knew what the right thing was; now he just had to follow through and release any latent bitterness that might still be present in his heart.

It’s far easier to tell someone else they must forgive than to go through the process of forgiveness yourself. Not merely saying you’ve forgiven someone, not simply speaking words, but actually doing it in your heart, when no resentment or bitterness remains for the way you were treated, or the things that were falsely said about you.

Unless you’ve lived in a bubble all your life, or aren’t old enough to ride in a car without a car seat, we’ve all been mistreated, spoken evil of, or mischaracterized at some point. Doubly so if you happen to be in the public eye, are in some type of ministry, or have a large circle of acquaintances you interact with regularly.

To many, especially in our hyper-sensitive day and age when we’ve invented terms such as microaggression and unconscious bias, what Job’s friends did would be unforgivable. This wasn’t an arched eyebrow or some perceived slight. They came out and accused him of wickedness deserving of his loss, pain, and situation, and concluded that he wasn’t suffering enough. He should be grateful that after losing all his worldly possessions, his children, his health, the respect of his spouse, and the abandonment of those he once deemed loyal, he still wasn’t getting what he deserved; for had he been, it would have been far worse. How could it have been worse? His friends never elaborated, but they were certain that it would have been.

All this while Job knew himself to be innocent, and more importantly, God knew him to be innocent. It wasn’t making a mountain out of a molehill; there was no molehill to begin with. Every accusation brought against him had been wholly fabricated; everything hinged on the theory of causation, wherein, since Job was suffering, he must have been guilty of wickedness because he was suffering.

Anyone believing this was an easy thing to forgive or get over has never gone through something similar, but as one who has, let me assure you, it’s not as easy as one might think. Even so, unless you enjoy the weight of a mountain pressing down on you, you must do your utmost to forgive those who have wronged you because only then will the peace and light of joy burn away the bitterness, frustration, anger, angst, and resentment.

I can speak on this because I’ve lived it. Not once, but multiple times, and every time, true peace came about only when I determined in my heart to forgive those who had wronged me. No, I didn’t show up to their door informing them that they’d been forgiven; they never asked for forgiveness, but it wasn’t about them and me; it was about me and God, my relationship with Him, and the attitude I knew I must exhibit as one of His children.

The issue was not about whether Job could ever restore his relationship with his three friends; it was about the attitude of his heart toward the God he served. When God sent the three to ask Job to pray for them, it wasn’t so much a test of their obedience as a test of Job’s heart.

Why do I say this? Because if God ever spoke to me and said His wrath had been stirred against me, and I must go and ask another whom I’d judged wrongly for prayer lest I be dealt according to my folly, it wouldn’t really be a choice. It wouldn’t be about doing the right thing, but about doing what I needed to do to ensure that I did not incur God’s wrath.

Job, on the other hand, had no vested interest in praying for his three friends, other than the rightness of his heart and the awareness that it would be pleasing in the sight of the Lord. He did the right thing because it was the right thing to do, even if in light of what had transpired they were undeserving of his kindness or prayer.

Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

We do not forgive only when we deem someone was apologetic enough, humble enough, or when they’ve asked for forgiveness enough times. We forgive knowing that when we do, we are likewise forgiven by our heavenly Father.

If you deem yourself so righteous as to never require forgiveness, then by all means, don’t forgive, ever, no matter how small or insignificant the matter. But if you know yourself to be in need of forgiveness from your heavenly Father, then be quick to forgive, without delay or recrimination.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 42:9-11, “So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord commanded them; for the Lord had accepted Job. And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity the Lord had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold.”

There are two important takeaways in the first two sentences of this passage, one more obvious than the other if one is not meditating upon the passage and simply skimming it. The obvious takeaway is that all three of Job’s friends did as the Lord commanded, without delay or grumbling, because God had spoken it. They did not attempt to justify their actions, nor did they deem what God had asked of them too humbling; they did as they were commanded.

Give credit where credit is due: they did far more than many are willing to do today, because where they obeyed without delay, men spend years, if not decades, attempting to convince God that it’s better for them in the grand scheme if they didn’t obey, if they didn’t do as they were commanded, and followed their own urgings rather than the voice of God.

Some have even gone so far as to manufacture entire denominations just to keep from obeying the voice of God, thinking the denomination serves as a shield against God’s wrath, or will change His mind on what He previously commanded. God is not impressed by incorporation papers. Just because the state of Delaware recognizes you as a legal entity, it does nothing to countermand what God established in His word as the way in which we must follow.

We keep looking for false christs, thinking that since there’s no one of renown walking around in a robe and sandals claiming to be him, we still have time to drag our feet, stare at our navels, and take up whittling as a hobby. What many fail to realize is that a false Christ is nothing more than a counterfeit, a fake, a fugazy, something pretending to be authentic. The false christs are here, and multiplying; the false prophets, too, have made themselves known. Counterfeit gospels and those who peddle them seem to outnumber the true gospel at every turn. Yet, there we sit trying to convince ourselves that the hour is not so late, that we still have time, and that those insisting that we are in the endgame are no more than alarmists who feed off the fear of others.

If the preacher behind the pulpit is preaching a Jesus that is not mirrored in the Bible, if the Jesus they present is not in harmony with the Jesus of Scripture, then by definition they are preaching a false Christ. Anyone who’s ever gone through an ID check knows the process. You present your ID, the individual looks at the picture, then at you, then at the picture, then at you, to determine that it’s one and the same person. If, perchance, you present someone else’s ID, and the pictures don’t match, no matter how fervently you insist it’s you, you’re not getting on the flight. Scripture is Christ’s ID card. In it, we are presented with the reality of who He is, so clearly that even someone with a stigmatism can discern when what is said about Him doesn’t match what Scripture declares Him to be.

If the Christ presented to you doesn’t match up with the Christ presented in the Word, no matter how appealing, permissive, lax, non-judgmental, or accommodating he may seem, it’s not the real Christ!

If the Christ men present requires no repentance, sanctification, rebirth, obedience, and the daily picking up of one’s cross, it’s a false Christ, and one who has nothing in common with the true Christ.

Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

If the self-appointed prophet insists that they received revelation contrary to what the Word says, or if, perchance, they attribute qualities to the One True God that He never claimed, then by definition they are a false prophet. We can try to split hairs, but that’s the reality of it, and many are being deceived. It’s no longer a future-time proposition; it’s happening in real time, and has been for years now.

We’ve lived through countless episodes of tomorrow’s rapture, and no matter how many times the predictions have failed, people still believe it, get amped up, put their pets in long-term care, tell everyone about it, only to suffer through the disappointment and deflation of not seeing it come to pass.      

It’s one thing to hear the voice of the Lord; it’s another to follow through and do as He commands. Jesus said, “Don’t go,” but we do. Jesus said, “Don’t believe them,” but we can’t help ourselves. We do the opposite of what He commanded, yet somehow manage to find a way to blame Him for not keeping to the words men spoke about Him, to the schedule they insisted He should abide by, and grow resentful toward Him, rather than rejecting the words of fools and their foolishness.

Deception gains traction because there is a demand for it. The devil does what he’s always done, but the appetite for far-flung theories, aberrant theology, and the twisting of Scripture has reached its zenith. Those with no fear of God, those whose only interest is the bottom line and the dollar amount attached to whatever bandwagon they get on, are more than happy to give the people what they want, to offer the supply for the endless demand of anything but Jesus.

Aliens? Sure, double helping please. Stargates? Absolutely! Hybrid humans, alien breeding cults, lizard people, playing hopscotch with God Himself as the twenty-four elders watch on and cheer? By all means, that sounds scrumptious. Jesus? Walking humbly with your Lord, denying yourself, picking up your cross? I think I’ll pass; I’m so full from all the other stuff, I don’t think I could manage another morsel.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 A few years back, when I was still traveling a lot more than I am today, I’d gotten to my destination a little before midnight, ready to check in and get some much-needed sleep. Even as I walked through the sliding double doors, I could hear raised voices coming from the check-in counter, but since I needed a bed, and the only way to get to it was to go through the process, I shuffled closer to the counter to see what the hubbub was all about.

An incensed woman was almost screaming and gesturing at a young lady who couldn’t have been more than twenty about how she wanted her room comped because although she’d requested two queen beds, she’d gotten a king, and that just wouldn’t do.

To her credit, the young lady did not reciprocate in raising her voice, but in a calm tone said, “I don’t have the authority to do that, ma’am. The manager will be here in the morning, and you can speak to him.”

Although that did nothing to lighten the mood or calm the yelling woman’s anger, the terms of the conversation had been established, and no matter how much she pointed, waived, yelled, threatened, and insisted that she was about to call her lawyer- which, since it was almost midnight, was absurd on its face, never mind that it was a La Quinta, and people who stay at La Quinta rarely, if ever, have a lawyer on retainer that they can wake up in the middle of the night- the young lady just stood there, a passive, serene look on her face.

Eventually, she asked the screaming woman to move aside so she could help the next customer, which happened to be me, also the only other customer. When I got up to the counter, after giving her a credit card for incidentals and a form of ID, and watching her chicken peck something into her computer, she looked up and said, “Your reservation is for a king bed, but unfortunately we’re sold out for the night. I can give you two queens if that’s okay.”

I shrugged, told her a bed was a bed and I just needed some sleep, and after asking how many keys I needed and gesturing with my index finger, I was in my room in less than five minutes.

I never did find out whether the screaming woman got comped for her room, but the point of the story is one we would do well to heed: know the limits of our authority, and do not exceed them!

The young lady knew she couldn’t accommodate the screaming woman because she didn't have the authority to hand out free rooms to every irate customer. It wasn't in her job description, and if she had done as the woman demanded and the manager found out the next morning, it would have either come out of her paycheck or she would have been fired for the presumption.

When men assume the mantle of God’s authority without His express permission, when they presume that their word is law and God must accede to their judgment, there will always be consequences, whether that entails a rebuke or, if it persists, punishment.

It’s neither sinful nor wrong, but wisdom itself to say I do not have the authority to make a judgment on this matter! It may not be what the other parties want to hear, and it will do nothing to balloon your pride; then again, you won’t be courting God’s wrath being aroused against you either.

Between trying to play at being Solomon and remaining humble enough to acknowledge that God’s authority on any given matter far exceeds yours, choose the latter over the former every time.

It’s one thing to call out a consistent, unrepentant pattern of sin; it’s another to assume that the individual has sinned because they are going through a trial, a hardship, or a testing. One is provable, demonstrable, and something that must be dealt with; the other is an assumption of causality that has no basis in fact.

It must have been a tough pill to swallow, being told that the man you tried to convince was guilty of wickedness was the selfsame man who was now supposed to pray and intercede on your behalf before God, lest God deal with you according to your folly. If Job’s friends had the right of it as they’d assumed, then it would have been they that would have been called upon to go and pray for Job, and perhaps lay hands on him. If their presumptions had proven true, this story would not have ended with them having to humble themselves and go to Job entreating him to pray for them.

Once God speaks, nothing else matters. Neither Eliphaz nor his two friends attempted to justify their behavior or debate God on the merits of their conclusions. They neither tried to mitigate their actions, nor did they insist that God was asking too much of them, since they were well-intentioned in attempting to get Job to see the error of their ways.

God told them what they needed to do so that they would not be dealt with according to their folly, and they did it: no backpedaling, no whining, no justifying, just obedience to the prescribed remedy.      

Psalm 96:10-13, “Say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns; the world also is firmly established; it shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously.’ Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and all its fullness; let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord. For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth.”

When God speaks, we either obey or go the way of rebellion. When He calls us out and identifies what we must repent of, we either follow through and do as He commands, or continue pursuing the things He’s told us we ought not to pursue.

It’s not that God doesn’t offer us a remedy, a means of reconciliation and restoration; it’s that many are too stubborn and stiff-necked to humble themselves in the sight of the Lord, do as He instructs, and receive forgiveness.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 The prospect of one’s words arousing God's wrath is terrifying. More specifically, the words men speak regarding God. God made it clear as to why He was angry with Eliphaz, and there was no ambiguity about the reason: “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right.”

We’ve all witnessed the flippant way some individuals speak of God, the lack of reverence, the absence of godly fear, and every time you can’t help but wince and cringe and wonder if they truly understand what they’re doing, or if their desire for an audience overrides the reality that God does not take words spoken of Him that are untrue lightly.

When we attribute anything to God that He does not Himself declare to be true, we do what Eliphaz and his two friends did. We are speaking of God what is not right; we are projecting upon Him attributes He never claimed, and given His reaction to Eliphaz, we cannot conclude that He waves it off, or is indifferent toward them.

Yes, God gets wrathful. Yes, His wrath is aroused. Even the idea that God is a cheerful, grandfatherly sort who’s never cross with anyone, who does not judge sin, who does not punish the wicked, or is stirred in His wrath, is a projection by individuals, words they spoke about Him, that are not right, and for which they will one day have to answer.

My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. Nothing in the world can make a man wilt faster than hearing that he has aroused God’s wrath against him. God does not make baseless threats. He does not declare a thing without the ability to follow through. God is not in the empty words business. He spoke the universe into existence; He fashioned man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him, so if God says his wrath is aroused, whether against an individual or a nation, He has the wherewithal to punish the transgressor for their transgression.

Even in His wrath, God was not absent mercy. This was not blind rage; God is not dictated by emotion as some men are, so He didn’t feel compelled to lash out, but offered Eliphaz and his two friends an opportunity to make it right, to repent, and what that entailed was seven bulls and seven rams to be offered as a burnt offering, and the prayer of the man they’d judged, mistreated, disheartened, and accosted, on their behalf.

The time had come for Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar to account for the words they spoke about God that were not right. They weren’t words of denial, nor were they words of irreverence; some of the things they’d said were noble and complimentary, yet they were not right.

You can say nice things about God and still be wrong. Saying something complimentary doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing, as Eliphaz just discovered. Just because they were nice words, they were not right words, because they assigned qualities to God that He never claimed.

Some people get so caught up in being praised that, even though they know the words being spoken about them fall short of the truth, they accept them and revel in them. This is how we get the inflated numbers we hear once in a while about how, at one crusade, more people gave their lives to Christ than the entire population of the country they were in, even though the largest space the crusade could have taken place in wouldn’t accommodate a tenth of the total number.

If we were to do a quick tally of some of the claims men have made regarding revival meetings and add them all together, every man, woman, and child within these United States ought to, by now, be saved and sanctified believers. Millions upon millions, they say, or someone says about them, and they never correct them, because, well, it is more impactful to hear that a million people gave their hearts to Jesus in one night at their altar call than twenty-three.

Notice, God’s wrath was not aroused against Eliphaz and his two friends because of what they’d spoken about Job that was not right, but what they’d spoken about Him that was not right. It’s not a distinction without a difference. Yes, they had misjudged Job; they had spoken things that were not right about him, but that was something they could have hashed out between themselves. They could have repented and apologized; Job would have graciously accepted their apology, and there was a chance that it could have been water under the bridge, forgiven and forgotten.

The three, however, had taken it upon themselves to speak things of God, to assume that they knew His thoughts and ways, His plan and purpose, and that was something God would not abide.

Not only did God reveal His displeasure at Eliphaz and his two friends for speaking things of Him that were not right, but He also justified Job in the same breath by declaring that what Job had said was right.

God picked a winner, and it ended the matter. Between Eliphaz and his two friends, and Job, one had spoken what was right regarding God, and the other three had not. Make certain you are on the side of right, because if God has to step in and clear up the matter, you may not like the outcome.

The same individuals who insist they would never be as myopic as Job’s three friends have no reservations about who they think will make it into heaven and who will be cast out. They can’t help themselves; it’s empowering. To sit in your moomoo on a given weekday and unequivocally decide who gets to walk through the pearly gates and who will find the doors barred is euphoric. While the euphoria passes, the words you spoke remain, and one day God will declare whether what you spoke was right or not, and be certain, consequences will follow. God is not mocked; it is one of those absolute realities that will not bend for anyone.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 None of Job’s three friends hesitated in passing their judgments. None of them had any hesitation when it came to declaring who God was, how He operated, what His will was, and what the ultimate reason for Job’s suffering stemmed from. They were certain. They would not be swayed, yet they were wrong. So wrong, in fact, that unless Job interceded on their behalf, unless he prayed for them, God would deal with them according to their folly.

God didn’t say they’d gotten it half right, or that there were some things they said about Him and about Job that made sense. He didn’t give them a pass, or insist that they’d spoken out of ignorance, but that what they’d spoken of Him was not right.

Men have varied opinions about God. Nowadays, it seems such opinions have little to no Scriptural basis, more a reflection of how they would like God to be if they could fashion Him for themselves. It is the same snare Job’s friends fell into, wherein they did not perceive God as He is, but as they would have preferred Him to be. They assigned attributes of their own design to His nature, they insisted that because they willed it to be so, God must be as they described Him, and all of it was folly, so off the mark that God had to step in and say, what you have spoken of me was not right; it wasn’t true; that’s not who I am, and you were wholly ignorant of my plan and purpose for my servant Job.

If your view and understanding of who God is contradicts who Scripture unequivocally declares that He is, it is not God who must change to suit your understanding, but you who must change to be in harmony with Scripture. If man’s will alone is sufficient to compel God to become something other than what He is, then Job’s three friends wouldn’t have found themselves in the position they were in.

God would not have rebuked them, nor demanded sacrifice, nor commanded that they go and entreat Job to pray and intercede on their behalf. Well, that’s how you see Me, so that’s who I’ll be, wasn’t God’s reply or attitude to their folly.

Idols are malleable. Gods of man’s own making upon which he can project the attributes and characteristics he desires are inconsistent and ever-changing depending on man's mood, wants, needs, desires, and peccadillos. They may be more permissive, tolerant, less demanding, and easily swayed, but they are not real. They are imagined, created, and shaped by the minds and hands of men, with no inherent power, identity, or will.

My god does as I will! Then he is no God. The Creator will never be subservient to His creation, nor His will inferior to their will. Job’s friends tried to paint a picture of the One True God, and God said, that looks nothing like me. You may have painted something to be sure, but as far as any likeness or resemblance, you missed the mark so thoroughly that unless my servant Job prays on your behalf, I will deal with you according to your folly.

God doesn’t change at man’s whims. He’s not looking to capture an audience, pander to a certain demographic, or ingratiate himself to a particular class. He is God! His will is supreme, He is sovereign, and history proves that everyone who has attempted to stand against Him, or demand that He change for their sake, has failed utterly.

You thought you knew Me, but you didn’t. You thought you knew My will and purpose, but your conclusions were flawed and limited to your anecdotal understanding. You could have said, this is beyond us to comprehend. You could have humbled yourselves and admitted that this was beyond your capacity to perceive, but instead you took it upon yourselves to pass judgment, to draw conclusions, to insist that the way you saw the situation was the only way it could be, and that there could be no other explanation for what was happening to My servant Job than that which you surmised.

If you labor under the misconception that God will eventually see it your way, or that you’re so special that He will change His mind on things He has declared in His Word, you are in for a rude awakening. God doesn’t give in to peer pressure, because He has no peers. God does not side with the majority opinion, because He’s not looking to win an election. Once again, even at the risk of belaboring the point, He is God! He does as He wills, and there is nothing in heaven, on earth, or beyond the galaxy that can stand against Him. If God declared a thing, it is so, no matter how many rant and rage against it.

Our duty as sons and daughters of God is to humble ourselves, deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow after Jesus. Those who insist that those steps can be circumvented will one day stand before Him and be told that although they did many wonders in His name, including prophesying and casting out demons, He never knew them. It’s no small thing. It’s not negligible. Eternity hangs in the balance.

Does He know you? Not your title, not your bona fides, not how many churches you’ve planted or built, not how many sermons you’ve preached, not how many books you’ve authored, or how many hungry you’ve fed, but does He know you as one of His own, one who has been reborn, transformed, and sanctified by the power of His blood?

Do you know of Him, or do you have a relationship with Him? Do you serve out of fear or out of love? Is fellowship with Him your preeminent desire, or do you approach Him only when you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place with no way out of the situation you find yourself in? Does He know you?

Job’s three friends believed wholeheartedly that they had a handle on the situation, knew the mind of God, understood His ways, and were unabashed in declaring it. Only when God rebuked them and called out the folly of their judgments did they come to understand that His ways are not their ways, and His thought are not their thoughts. The same can be said of many today who insist God is something He never declared Himself to be. Rather than submit to the authority of Scripture, they double down on their conclusions, because to do otherwise would be to admit that they were wrong all along, and that is something they cannot abide.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 42:7-8, “And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.’”

When the dust has settled, the only thing that matters in this life is how God views you. How does God see you? What is His assessment of you? Not your friends, strangers, family, or the guy behind the deli counter trying to sell you expired bologna, but God and God alone.

Both Elihu and Job’s three friends had judged Job to be a wicked man deserving of punishment, a man who, although he had lost everything and was sitting in a pile of ashes scratching at himself with a potsherd they deemed wasn’t suffering commensurate with his sin. Yet, within the span of two verses, God called the selfsame man whom others believed to be a wicked hypocrite of the worst kind His servant no less than four times.

He made no such distinction regarding Elihu, Eliphaz, Bildad, or Zophar. He had not called them His servants; rather, He rebuked them, informing them that His wrath was aroused against them for having spoken of God things that were not right, in contrast to Job, who had.

It’s a heady thing having your entire worldview, the way you perceive God, and what you understand of Him be turned on its head in a heartbeat. Unlike His interaction with Job, God did not attempt to show the three friends where they had erred, or where they may have made assumptions that did not align with God’s wisdom, because the true intent and desire of their hearts was not to know the truth, but to bring Job low and get him to admit to wickedness he had never committed.

Some men God corrects lovingly, showing them areas in their lives that must be pruned, repented of, and realigned with His purpose, while others He stands before, arm outstretched like a crossing guard, and says, “Stop! Proceed no further; turn around, because this is not the path you should be walking, and if you insist on proceeding further, it will not end well for you.”

Within God’s rebuke of Job’s three friends, there is a twist that some may miss if their goal was simply to get done with the book and be on to the next, given that we’re so close to the finish line, and only a handful of verses remain before this forty-two-chapter journey is complete. Upon speaking directly to Eliphaz, God commanded that he and his two friends take for themselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to Job, and offer up for themselves a burnt offering. That was not the twist, but it came on the heels of this command: have Job pray for you, because Job’s prayer is the only prayer I will accept.

Could you imagine having to go to the person you’ve been judging and maligning for days on end, the person you’ve accused of being wicked beyond measure, the one you insisted knew nothing of God, or His purpose, and ask that they pray for you? This isn’t having to eat a slice of humble pie; it’s the pie in its entirety, crumbs and all.

It’s also in this that we see Job's true heart. God never wondered whether Job would pray for them; He knew that Job would, because though they had berated, maligned, and judged him harshly, Job’s heart was still pure, and serving God remained his singular desire.

A lesser man would have likely taken the opportunity to exact his revenge. A lesser man would have likely turned Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar away, showering them with platitudes and clichés such as you get what you deserve, or who’s the wicked one now, but Job didn’t.

Practical as it might be, the lesson is nevertheless profound: even when people hurt you, malign you, speak ill of you, judge you wrongly, despise you, and eagerly await your destruction, forgive them. I know, it’s easier said than done. I’ve had occasions where supposed friends and brothers did things so egregious that I had to force myself not to give in to bitterness and resentment. I had to pray not once or twice, but for extended periods, for God to search my heart and make sure there were no seeds of hatred or animosity waiting to sprout in the soil of my heart.

Even when they don’t ask for forgiveness, forgive. Even when they won’t admit wrong or fault, forgive. This doesn’t mean that the relationship will be as it was, or even that it can be repaired and restored, but what it does mean is that you don’t have the weight of unforgiveness pressing you into the dust of the earth every moment of every day.

If you believe it was no small thing for Job to now pray for the same three men who had been certain of his wickedness no more than a handful of minutes prior, try to put yourself in his shoes and be honest with yourself about how easy it would really be. They’d spent a considerable amount of time not trying to encourage, uplift, or comfort him, but trying to convince him that his entire life had been spent in ignorance, that his wickedness far surpassed that of the most reprobate men in society, and that his suffering wasn’t just deserved, but was less than he deserved.

They looked down on him, belittled him, made him question things he was certain of before they began their insistent diatribes, and now they were asking him to intercede with God on their behalf and pray for them, for it was only his prayer that God would acknowledge and accept.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 You may need grace and mercy, but I surely don’t. I’m spiritually superior, don’t you see? I’m the apple of God’s eye, as a once-famous alcoholic televangelist was fond of saying. Sure, the Bible says there is no partiality with God; yes, we’re all equal, but come on, you and I both know that some are more equal than others. Unscrupulous men have created a caste system within the household of faith, and we’ve allowed it.

And yet, as we get a glimpse of the lives of those who came before us, the man whom God declared to be blameless and upright said, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes, because I have seen your glory with my eyes.”

The man to whom Christ said, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” fell at His feet and declared, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

Is it just me, or do you get the sense that the modern crop of those who deem themselves spiritual leaders are needlessly and undeservingly arrogant? Is it just me, or is the pride, haughtiness, and conceit off-putting and unpalatable?

But you don’t get it; the figurehead of a ministry or a church has to have presence and charisma. They have to have swagger and flash; they have to look the part! Show that to me in the Bible, though. If you can, then sure, grab a Patek or Piguet off the shelf, and for the middle tier, perhaps a Rolex, or a TAG Heuer. Array yourself in fine linens, and do your best to look like some Arab sheik fresh off of signing a billion-dollar oil deal, but if those are not attributes to which the Bible says we should aspire, then cut it out.

At this point, the gullible and those who tend to idolize individuals rather than worship God and serve Jesus will angrily begin to shout ‘touch not God’s anointed’, even though that passage is taken out of context, and by the sheer absence of fruit, it’s questionable whether some of those who think so highly of themselves are God’s anointed to begin with. It’s an easy way to ensure there’s never any pushback, and that no one questions their lack of Christian living, isn’t it?

I’m God’s anointed, so you can’t touch me! But if your life does not reflect what you claim to be, is there any danger in challenging your view of yourself as one of God’s anointed? No, there isn’t, and it is our duty as believers, and those who comprise the body of Christ, to admonish and correct those who’ve taken it upon themselves to twist, mutilate, and distort the Word of God for their own selfish gain.

Yes, there are noble pastors, shepherds, preachers, and evangelists, but more often than not they’re not the flashy sort. It’s far easier to wrap a piece of coal with a shiny piece of foil that draws the eye than endure the pressure required for the coal to become a diamond. Diamonds don’t need wrapping. They don’t need fancy boxes. They stand out all on their own. It is because of what they are that they are exposed to the light, so all can behold their brilliance. Nobody buys a diamond sight unseen. Nobody purchases the box hoping there’s a diamond inside.

Unlike Beanie Babies, or any of a hundred other flash-in-the-pan must-have things that came and went, a diamond retains its value without influencers shilling it, insisting you click their link for an extra-special discount.

Scripture is truth. It is the diamond. It retains its value and relevance from generation to generation, and those who strive to discover it are never disappointed, let down, or feel as though they were underwhelmed by the treasures contained therein. It has the power to enlighten, transform, challenge, correct, and instruct, without decreasing in its potency, because it is the Word of God, and remains constant and unchanging as God Himself is.

Ephesians 3:14-19, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

This was Paul’s heartfelt desire for the church at Ephesus: not to form cliques, castes, or hierarchies, but that together, as one, they would comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height of God. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God. How can one know God without knowing His word? How can one follow God when men are all they seem to want to follow?

Does Christ dwell in your heart through faith? Are you being strengthened with might through His Spirit? These are the relevant questions we must ask ourselves consistently, not whether this denomination is better than that, or who the next luminary that the world will foist upon a pedestal will be. Let nothing distract you from intimacy with God. Not men, not denominations, not fringe ideologies, or tertiary doctrinal issues. The goal is to be filled with the fullness of God, and know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, not shill for a particular individual and defend them even when their actions become indefensible.

Man is flawed; God is not. If your desire is to know God, go directly to the source. Go to Scripture, and devour it like a starving man who's been out to sea for a month with no food would devour the first meal after his rescue. Do you think such a man cares whether he uses the proper fork, or if his napkin should be on his lap or tucked under his shirt collar? No. He’s starving, and all pretense of propriety flies out the window at the sight and smell of food.

Read your Bible as often as you can, wherever you can, even if it’s for fifteen minutes on your lunch break, or waiting in the lobby for your dentist appointment. There is no place or time more special than the other; you don’t need to be sitting in an atrium, accompanied by a symphony, in a leather-backed chair to read Scripture; the cab of your pickup will do just as well. Food is food, whether it comes in a wrapper, from a food truck, a greasy spoon, or a Michelin-starred restaurant. And, unlike the food we eat, whose ingredients may be suspect, the Word of God is never spoiled, rotten, or of unknown origins. It is always pure and nourishing to the spiritual man.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Little is said of obedience nowadays. It goes against the grain of modern thinking, wherein everyone is right in their own eyes, everyone’s opinion is the only opinion that matters, and, twisting Scripture as some are fond of doing, many have concluded that if they must still obey the will of God, submit to the plan and purpose of God, and deny themselves, then their freedom is an illusion.

You’re a little god, baby. Your will is supreme, your plans are what matter most, and even if they stand in stark opposition to the plan of God, all you need do is set your jaw and, by sheer will alone, push against the mountainside until the mountain itself gives way.

Why take the time to ask God what His will is when you already know what your will is? Why take the time to listen for His voice, His direction, His unction, His instruction, when you can make it up on the fly, and be zip codes further along your preplanned route at the end of the day?

We have so elevated ourselves in our eyes that some deem it perfectly acceptable to set themselves against the will of God, thinking they know better, or that their will countermands God’s own will. Even while doing it, even while setting ourselves in diametrical opposition to God’s will, we come up with the oddest excuses for our rebellion, because the outcome, as far as we’re concerned, is already a foregone conclusion: we are right, we will always be right, and nothing can change our minds about the reality of our own rightness.

We are seeing the effects of this type of hubris in the physical, which mirrors the spiritual. It’s largely why people hesitate to hire the younger generation for any task, because they’re simply unwilling to follow instructions and do as they’re told. They think they know better, and even though they’ve gone through the training program, and told what they need to do, and the tasks they need to perform to remain gainfully employed, they still do as they will, causing issue and disruption so regularly that those in charge of productivity or the smooth continuity of whatever business they’re in have no choice but to let them go.

Even when the reason for their dismissal is plainly presented to them, they still create their own narrative insisting that the boss felt threatened, was jealous, or couldn’t see the genius of their approach in revamping a business that has been operating for nearing on a century, and successfully so.

We’ve become enamored with the idea of change for change’s sake, trying to fix what isn’t broken while ignoring the things that are, because it’s easier by far to lament what could have been had everything worked out the way we thought it would than roll up one’s sleeves and actually try to fix a problem.

This morning I was in Luke chapter 5 during my quiet time, and for those without perfect recall, it’s the story of the first miracle Simon Peter ever witnessed, one that was relatable to him since he was a fisherman by trade.

Jesus stood by the lake of Gennesaret, teaching the word of God, and the crowd began to press in. Seeing two boats by the lakeshore, He got into one of them and asked the man whose boat it was to put out a little from the land.

From the onset, there were two boats, but Jesus picked Simon’s boat to get into. Do you believe for an instant that this was coincidence? Did Jesus flip a coin when deciding whose boat he would get into?

God’s plan for your life started long before you were aware of it. God’s plan and purpose for you began while you were still in your mother’s womb. Jesus knew whose boat it was. He did not pick it randomly or by accident, and after speaking to the crowd, he told Simon to launch out into the deep and let his nets out for a catch.

Luke 5:5, “But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”

Ask any avid fisherman, and they can tell you they know when the fish are biting and when they aren’t. They know where to cast, what bait to use, each having their favorite spot from where to fish, anchored by the memories of past outings when the catch was plentiful. Peter knew his business. He knew when the time was right to go fishing, and when it would have been nothing more than wasted effort on his part.

His reasoning mind, his logical side, had concluded that launching into the deep and letting his nets out for a catch wouldn’t amount to much, and even said as such, his hesitation plain. Yet, his desire to be obedient overshadowed his doubt, and he said, “nevertheless, at Your word I will let down the net.”

I’ve tried this thing on my own already, and it didn’t pan out. I did everything you’re supposed to do to ensure a bountiful catch, and nothing came of it. We’ve toiled all night and caught nothing, but because You say to do it again, I will.

Anecdotal evidence and past experiences inevitably shape our future actions. We’ve even coined a term for it: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The difference between Simon toiling all night and having no success, and doing it anew, is that this time Jesus told him to do it.

Peter likely thought nothing would come of this endeavor, but because Jesus had said it, he nevertheless relented and did as he was asked.

Luke 5:6-8, “And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”’

Had he not obeyed, Peter would have never seen the miracle with his own eyes. Had he not done what Jesus asked him to do, all he’d have is an empty boat and a story he could tell his friends about how Jesus had asked him to launch out into the deep and let down his nets for a catch, which only meant that Jesus didn’t know much about fishing.

Men have come up with the wildest theories regarding what it takes to have a breakthrough in one’s life. They’ve complicated it to the point that they put on weeklong seminars, sell instruction manuals, and pen endless books, when all it takes is simple obedience. Do what God tells you to, even if it seems counterintuitive. Obey, even when you think nothing will come of it, because this time it’s different than all the other times, not because you’re older and wiser, not because you’ve been training for it, but because the One who spoke the universe into being commanded you to do it.

Then, having obeyed, seeing that your nets are full to bursting, and your boat is about to sink for all the fish you’ve caught, have the humility to acknowledge that it wasn’t you, your wisdom, your ingenuity, or ability, or your tenacity, but that it was all Him.

The pattern is undeniable. Whether Simon Peter or Job, once they saw the wondrous hand of God, once His plan and purpose were revealed to them, they could not help but be humbled into the dust and acknowledge the power, holiness, and omnipotence of God.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Good intentions without follow-through are nothing more than wishful thinking. I know it may sound harsh, but it is nevertheless the truth. You know it, I know it; we just have to admit it to ourselves and do something about it. We can tell ourselves otherwise, trying to mollify our burdened conscience, but if we know what we ought to be doing and delay doing it, it risks becoming chronic procrastination.

Timing matters. If I know I have to pay my electric bill by the 27^th of the month, but I only get around to doing it on the fifteenth of next month, it should come as no surprise that I get hit with a late payment fee, and if it goes on for much longer than that, then dinner by candlelight and spoiling food in the now dormant refrigerator is not outside the realm of possibility.

Not only is procrastination counterproductive, but it is also dangerous to our spiritual progress. Tomorrow becomes next week, next week becomes next month, and by the time we know it, years have passed, and that Bible we had planned on reading from cover to cover, even having bought the multi-color highlighter pens to underline the passages that stood out, has an inch-thick layer of dust, and if we had to find it, we would be hard pressed to remember what room we left it in.

You can’t get back wasted time. Once it’s gone, it’s gone, and you’re one year older, a little grayer, the wrinkles more pronounced, and the only thing you can do is break the cycle and set about doing what you’ve determined to do without delay. Even wallowing in regret, thinking of how far along we could have been had we started when we’d purposed to, is in itself a form of procrastination.

If I’d started my diet last year, I would be at my goal weight today, but I didn’t, and I’m not, and rather than dwelling on it for another year, there’s no better time than the present. There will never be a perfect time to start doing something that requires exertion on our part, or demands that we stretch ourselves beyond our comfort zone. Rather than focus on the difficulty of the task itself, focus on the results and understand what the end of the journey will look like instead of the beginning; that can, in and of itself, motivate you to focus, press in, take that first step, and keep moving forward.

Every moment spent with God will deepen your understanding of Him. Every moment spent in Scripture will more firmly establish your foundation and stretch your faith. It is inevitable that there will be growth; it is inevitable that there will be forward momentum; it is inevitable that you will graduate past the milk stage to the meat stage, the more you devote yourself to the things of God.

Those who insist that they’ve plateaued, or feel like they’re spinning their wheels when it comes to spiritual growth, just aren’t putting in enough time and effort to get alone with the Word, study it for themselves, and meditate on the profundity of what it reveals.

Although up until this point Job confesses that he’d only heard of God by the hearing of the ear, it did nothing to dampen his desire to know God more fully, spend time in His presence, and devote himself to being pleasing in His sight. All his years of devotion, prayer, supplication, and striving to be an upright and blameless man had brought him to this, wherein he was no longer hearing of God by the hearing of his ear, but seeing Him with his eye.

Does this mean God appeared bodily to Job and his three friends? No. What it does mean is that Job’s understanding of God was stretched beyond the point of a conceptual deity, some formless omnipotent, omnipresent power that did as it willed, to seeing Him fleshed out, and understanding His character, His love, His compassion, and His mercy. He saw the righteousness of God on full display and could come to no other conclusion than to abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes.

It’s the difference between hearing about God and having a personal experience with Him. Men hear about God every day, and some are so stiff-necked and brittle that they don’t give Him a second thought. Others may even acknowledge that there is something greater than them in this great big universe of ours, but they fall short of understanding who He is, thereby refusing to humble themselves and repent.

Job had heard, but now he saw the glory, majesty, and holiness of the God he served, and though God deemed him blameless, though he was one of one in his generation as far as uprightness is concerned, in contrast to God’s holiness, Job abhorred himself.

Men have a tendency to compare themselves to those with different flaws than their own, and deem themselves more righteous because they do not share them. That’s not to say they don’t have their own flaws, but while their flaws are permissible to themselves, the flaws they do not exhibit that others do are the ones they tend to focus on because it makes them righteous in their own eyes. We can play that game, especially given the ego boost that’s likely to occur at seeing ourselves superior in some way, but to what end?

A man whom God deemed blameless abhorred himself when he beheld the holiness of God. A man whom God deemed upright repented in dust and ashes, not because he wasn’t what God deemed him to be, but because even he fell short of the holiness of God, and knew it to be the case.

Unlike the Pharisee, Job did not see another man’s shortcoming or sin as evidence of his own worthiness, nor did he point to his friends and insist he was not like them. He humbled himself before the righteousness of God and repented in dust and ashes. It is one of the many worthwhile lessons we can glean from the life of Job, one that will serve us throughout our lives here on earth if only we would apply it to ourselves. Tend to your own garden, pluck your own weeds, focus on your relationship with the God and Creator of all that is, because when you stand before Him on that day of days, you will be held accountable for you, and I will be held accountable for me.             

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Whenever our garage starts looking like an abandoned homeless encampment, my wife starts dropping hints. It’s nothing egregious, at least as far as I’m concerned, empty delivery boxes, pots and pans that have outlived their usefulness, the slow cooker that decided to give up the ghost after two decades of faithful service, but things that don’t bother me bother her, and if I don’t get the hint the first couple of times, the hints become more on the nose.

I had a couple of hours to spare recently, when there were no children to shuttle to and from music class, or swim, or dance, or theater, or any of the dozen other things that have become the norm as opposed to how I grew up, and I decided to clean the garage, cut down some boxes, take it all to the curb and wait for the garbage man to do his thing.

Amidst the clutter, I found three packs of wildflower seeds I remember buying with the girls a few months back; at the time, it was something we really needed, couldn’t do without, and with the insistence that they would get planted the instant we arrived home, I relented and purchased them. There they were, still intact, at the bottom of a grocery bag someone assumed was empty and threw in the garage, and wouldn’t you know it, having sat in their packs all this time, none had sprouted; there were no wildflowers blooming, just three packs of inert seed waiting for someone to plant them.

Since it’s already too late into the season to do anything about it, I set them aside and promised to remind myself that come next spring we would be out in the yard sprinkling seeds into the dirt and seeing what comes of it.

To those who plant, tend, and harvest regularly, the following is so obvious as to demand an eye roll, but a seed is just a seed until it is planted in the soil. All those beautiful leather-bound Bibles we have strewn around the house cannot feed the soul or take root in the heart until they’re cracked open, read, and meditated upon.

Even though we live in a time when access to the Word of God is, by far, the easiest of any generation that has come before us, we also live in a time when ignorance of God’s word is at an all-time high. A Bible sitting on the shelf does nothing for your spiritual man, just as seeds sitting in a packet in the garage will never bloom and become what they were intended to be.

2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Whether intended for doctrine, reproof, correction, or instruction in righteousness, without being consumed, without being planted in the heart, Scripture cannot do its work; it cannot produce the fruit it is specifically intended to produce.

God speaks to us through His word far more often than through prophecy, dreams, visions, or divine revelation. Scripture is the primary source of our understanding of God and His will, and what’s more, it is what establishes doctrine and determines whether something is true or a lie. At times, as we read Scripture, He gives us exactly what we need at that moment in our lives, whether it’s reproof, correction, or instruction in righteousness. If you’ve ever read a passage you’ve likely read fifty other times, but this time it hits different, and the meaning is something you hadn't considered before, it is God speaking to you directly through His word.

Sometimes one verse is such a comfort that you can’t help but shed tears of gratitude. At other times, a passage is so revelatory and enlightening that you can’t help but say, as Job did, that I did not know this until You revealed it to me.

There’s what the Bible says, then there’s what people say the Bible says, and the two are not always in harmony or aligned. The only way to know what the Bible says is to read it for yourself, not once in a blue moon, but every day, as though it were food for your soul, because it is.

Job did not understand the full breadth, width, and depth of God, but what little he understood kept him from abandoning his integrity or giving in to bitterness and disillusionment. Job himself admitted to not understanding and not knowing things too wonderful for him, but he was a man committed to serving God and desired to grow in his relationship with Him.

The attitude, passion, and focus with which we pursue God and study His word matter, because the more of Him we discover, the more of Him we will desire to know. If your copy of Tom Clancy is more dog-eared than your Bible is, that’s a problem whether you choose to admit it or not.

We have what Job did not; we have Scripture at our fingertips, only an arm’s length away, we have countless commentaries spanning centuries, we have all the tools we need to be complete, and thoroughly equipped for every good work, and yet, so many fumble, stumble, get frustrated, and resentful because they refuse to take the time, be still, and delve into the Word for themselves.

The will of God is made clear to all in His word. The way in which man must go is likewise clearly defined. It’s when we refuse to submit and obey, when we allow the voices of men to drown out the voice of God, that confusion is a constant companion, and what should be simple to understand becomes muddled, a Gordian knot of gigantic proportions we endlessly try to untangle.

Because it is to their benefit, some who claim to be leaders of men and shepherds of God’s flock do their utmost to keep the confusion and uncertainty at a low simmer, because it keeps the masses dependent on them, rather than discovering true freedom. There is nothing more liberating in this life than to know that God is there, He listens, He sees, and He knows, and that I do not require a middleman to go before Him in humility and sincerity of heart and form a relationship with Him.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 In the life of every believer, there is a before and an after. There was a time when we were without understanding, but no longer. There was a time when we were without hope, but no longer. There was a time when we were dead in our trespasses, but now we have become alive in Christ. Perhaps there was even a time when, as Job, we spoke without understanding, and uttered things we did not understand, things too wonderful for us, which we did not know, but that was the before. It was before we surrendered, repented, humbled ourselves, and picked up our crosses to follow Him. It was before we denied ourselves, relinquished the illusion of control, and determined that we would follow wherever He led, we would obey whatever He spoke, and we would strive to be those good and faithful servants whom He will one day reward and welcome into His kingdom.

There is a turning point in the life of every soul who has been saved by the redemptive power of the blood of Christ. If you ask it of them, even decades later, those who have found peace, hope, and joy in Jesus can pinpoint and recall the day, the hour, even the minute this occurred, when the scales were removed from their eyes, the shackles removed from their wrists, the prison doors opened, and they were made free. No matter what one might achieve, how prominent they become, how well known or successful, that is the defining moment of their existence. They acknowledge the reality that once they were lost but are now found, blind but now they see, ignorant of the ways of God, but now possessing understanding of His love and grace.

Had Job been a proud man, he could have insisted he’d already known all the things God had said. He could have waved off the things he’d heard, failing to acknowledge that he’d uttered things he did not understand that were too wonderful for him, but Job’s heart remained true, and when God spoke he listened, and he was not reticent in confessing his lack of understanding.  

In a time when everyone pretends to know everything about everything, it’s becoming rare to find someone who will acknowledge their shortcomings or lack of understanding on a given topic. Even when their insistence that they knew what they didn’t know is proven demonstrably false, they will double down and insist that it’s not the case.

Diesel doesn’t go in a gasoline engine; that’s why your car’s not running. Oh, I knew that! Then why did you put diesel in your car? Shoulder shrug, roll of the eyes, and that’s that. It’s become harder to make that particular mistake since they’ve changed the nozzles and the ones for diesel are thicker than the ones for gasoline, but you’d be surprised at the lengths to which people will go to do something foolish, all the while insisting that they knew better.

Know what you don’t know and don’t pretend otherwise. When understanding comes, when what you didn’t know is revealed to you, be humble enough to acknowledge it and thank God for His grace and mercy in having shown it to you.

Lately, my daughters have gotten into slingshots. Granted, in hindsight it wasn’t the best idea, what with the windows and all, but they enjoy it enough that the constant dread of hearing a clay ball going through the kitchen window is worth it to me. As children are wont to do, the moment I brought the slingshots home, they grabbed them and started fumbling to see how they work.

I asked them for a minute of their time, showed them the proper way to hold it, load the clay ball into the sling, aim, pull back, and fire, to which the eldest quickly retorted, “Oh, I knew that!” Given that the rubber band had almost hit her in the face not once but twice in the little time she was trying to figure out how it worked, I was somewhat skeptical, but I let it go because it wasn’t worth the back and forth.

Sometime later, after they’d run through half a bag of clay balls trying to hit a target I’d taped to the back fence, Victoria walks into the house and says, “Daddy, thank you for showing us how the slingshots work. I didn’t really know how to use it, after all.”

My heart beamed with pride, not because she was thanking me for doing something that is my parental duty, but because she was humble enough to acknowledge that she hadn’t known something, was humble enough to receive instruction, and was the better for it in the end.

When God corrects us, it’s not to berate us, shame us, make us feel inferior, or belittle us. He corrects us with the singular desire to see us walking in His way, and showing us the means by which we can mature, grow our faith, and become the warriors we always said we wanted to be.

God corrected Job, and Job received correction as it was intended, not as something to be despised, rejected, or dismissed, but as a sign of His love and mercy.

Hebrews 12:5-9, “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son who He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?”

I’m a girl dad. As I often say to my wife, if they were boys it would be different, from my tone to the level of correction I would have to employ, but I’m a girl dad. I have two wonderful, beautiful, bubbly, happy, independent daughters, both of whom inherited a double portion of sarcasm from yours truly. Each is unique in her own right, and as their father, I know the level of discipline, correction, and chastening each of them requires for the message to get through. More often than not, one raised eyebrow is enough for the eldest to take a breath and assess her actions. At the same time, her younger sister usually requires a conversation to get the point and take accountability for her actions.

Not all chastening is the same across the board. Not all correction is cookie-cutter, for while some require the mildest of rebukes to correct their behavior, others require a harsher response to their choices in order for them to see the error of their ways. God knows not only how many hairs you have on your head, but also your character, how you respond to conflict, what is required for Him to get through to you, and treats you as the individual you are.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Given that these words were penned some two thousand years ago, it’s not a new problem. There have always been those who took it upon themselves to color outside the lines, to believe things contrary to what the Word of God and the teachings of the apostles clearly stated, and John felt the need to reiterate something obvious yet, for some, simultaneously difficult to grasp: not every spirit is of God! Not every dream is of divine origin, nor does every dream have some revelatory meaning. Not every experience one has is automatically of divine origin, nor does every experience originate from God.

It is incumbent upon us, as individuals, to test the spirits not via the prism of our understanding, inclination, or predisposition but via the prism of God’s word. It has the final say-so. It is the final authority, and no matter how much one might want to believe they played rock, paper, scissors with God while sitting on His lap, the Word says it is an impossibility; therefore, it did not happen, and if it did, it wasn’t God!

I’m not so much denying that someone had an experience. What I am unequivocally denying is that it was of divine origin, that it was of God, or that God went against His own established Word because he was so desperate for someone to comb His beard.

Whether out of ignorance of the source, or a tacit and willful cooperation with evil matters not as far as those who are caught in their web are concerned, only their individual punishment and the severity thereof. Yes, I believe, in His wisdom God views those unwittingly deceived, and those willingly doing the bidding of Satan, having pledged their allegiance to him, differently. While one who is deceived may see the way of truth given time, and acknowledge the error of their ways, one who has knowingly embraced the darkness is far less apt to be redirected.

Your duty as well as mine is to be wise, sober-minded, and test the spirits to see their origin, to see from whence they come, and what their intentions are. Our wanting to believe something happened cannot override the truth, nor the means by which the truth is attained.

Whether out of boredom, instinct, or hunger, when the wolf slaughters the sheep, the sheep are still as dead regardless of motive.  

Job’s second statement is equally as profound as his first: no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. The God who knows the end from the beginning has a purpose in all things and for all things, even if we cannot clearly see it or define it. Just because I can’t see what’s on the other side of the valley, or past the mountain range before me, doesn’t mean nothing else exists beyond them.

If God purposes a thing, that thing will come to pass no matter what forces array themselves against it, or how insistently the influential and powerful might protest, and attempt to avoid it. No purpose of God’s, whether for an individual or a nation, can be withheld from Him, and when He declares a thing, nothing man can do can stand in the way of fulfilling His divine plan.

You try to stand in the way of an oncoming hurricane, and do your best to keep from being swept away, but you’ll still be swept away. Job understood that man cannot stand against the plan of God and succeed. He understood that God’s purpose will prevail, even if entire armies array themselves against it. We either submit to the will of God, or resist it. Those are the only two options afforded to us. It’s in knowing the nature of the God we serve that we can have peace in the midst of the storm. It’s in the awareness that He is a good Father that we do not rage, rebel, or grow indignant during the trials of life, because God sees beyond today into tomorrow and knows what the future holds in ways we cannot hope to.

My wife is a hawk when it comes to what our daughters eat. From the moment they were able to verbalize their dismay, there were conversations aplenty as to why the other kids at school brought such culinary delights as Sour Patch Kids, Nerds, Oreos, Doritos, and Twinkies for their snacks, while they were relegated to slices of apple, grapes, pears, figs, and other less appetizing fare. The hard no on soda pop almost caused a civil war, but my wife held her ground, and their palate molded itself to the healthier fare she offered.

A few weeks ago, our oldest ran into a girl she’d gone to kindergarten with as we walked around the lake in our town. It was a chance encounter, and although they're the same age, the other girl looks very different. It’s not so much that Victoria noticed her size, and yes, I know, I’m not one to talk, but this girl was husky to put it mildly. Barring a medical condition, which this girl did not have, if your twelve-year-old is wearing adult-size XXL clothing, you may have failed in your mission to watch what they eat. What Victoria did notice was the acne that covered her face, another byproduct of a steady diet of chemicals, food dyes, and ingredients most adults can’t pronounce. On the drive home, she tapped my wife on the shoulder from the backseat and said, “Thank you, momma.”

“For what?” my wife asked, genuinely curious, to which Victoria answered, “Just thank you.”

I’d seen her reaction upon meeting her kindergarten friend after all these years, and I knew exactly what she was thanking my wife for.

You and I may not currently see the benefits of the chastening, or the trials we are going through, but one day, when we are mature enough, when enough time has passed, when the suffering of this present time is eclipsed by the glory that will be revealed in us, we will have no choice but to thank Him. When understanding finally dawns, we will fall to our knees and thank God for His mercy, His love, His grace, His correction, as well as for the trials that matured us and grew our faith. It may not be today, but it will surely come to pass one day.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job 42:1-6, “Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

It took forty-two chapters, but Job finally comes to his epiphany. Some men take far longer to reach this monumental realization that shifts the perspective of everything else in one’s life, namely that God can do everything. There is no purpose of His that can be withheld from Him, and others, in their stubborn stiff-neckedness, never do, insisting until their last breath that they are in control, the masters of their destiny, and the captains of their ship. They fail to understand that whether they accept the reality that God does as He wills, and no purpose of His can be withheld from Him, or they kick against the goads, resist Him, and throw fists at their own shadows in frustration, God will still have His way.

There are two distinct statements in Job’s first sentence as he begins to answer God. The first is his profound realization that God can do everything. He didn’t say he thought, hoped, believed, or presumed God can do everything; he knew. Deep down in the marrow of his bones, without doubt or equivocation, Job knew that God can do everything.

That statement alone is more profound than one might think, especially given the spiritual confusion blanketing the contemporary church. On the one side, you have individuals who insist that God has a governor of sorts, in that they can declare things that are not within the parameters of God’s will for them, and somehow God is compelled to do as they demand. That would mean that God is beholden to the whims and wants of men, and if I declare a thing, He is honor-bound to make it happen. To such individuals, God’s will and purpose are not supreme; they are arbitrary and only come into play as long as His will and their will coincide.

It’s tempting, isn’t it, the idea that I can declare a thing and it must be so regardless of God’s will or purpose. There was even a book, and merch to go along with this premise, by a self-styled Texas pastor who will remain unnamed. I’m sure you can Google it.

The will of God is supreme. You can declare until you’re blue in the face, and if that is not God’s will for you, all you’ll end up with is bitterness and resentment, because unlike Job you have not come to the understanding that not only can God do everything, but no purpose of His can be withheld from Him.

On the other side of the coin, you have those who outright deny God’s authority and ability to do everything, insisting that whatever they’ve decided no longer applies to this modern age is something that God can no longer do. I’ve heard it, as have we all, and each time it’s as cringeworthy as the last: God doesn’t do that anymore! Says who? Did God say it? If He didn’t, then don’t assume or presume to know the mind of God, and declare something He never did.

It runs the gamut, and once you begin to think about how many things men say God doesn’t do or can’t do anymore, it’s frightening how often the attempt to supplant and appropriate the authority of God is made.

I know you can do everything! No carveouts, no addendums, no exceptions, no limitations; everything means everything. Yes, due to our own limitations, we sometimes have difficulty grasping the reality that God can do everything, but my inability to run a five-minute mile does not mean that no one else could ever run a five-minute mile. It has been proven and documented that some, albeit a finite number, can indeed run a five-minute mile. So an appropriate response to the reality of the situation ought to be, I can’t do it, but I know it’s possible, because others have.

Then, by your own logic, you can’t dismiss any of the claims people have made of being teleported to heaven in a porta-potty or visiting ice cream land for a double scoop of mint chocolate chip. Not so. While it is possible for someone to run a five-minute mile, they must still run it. If they rode a bike, they are disqualified. If they used a motorcycle to get to the mile marker in less than five minutes, they are disqualified. They must attempt the feat on foot, as everyone who accomplished it before them did.

There are rules set forth that were established since the beginning, and they cannot be broken, ignored, brushed off, or countermanded.

Exodus 33:17-20, “So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight and I know you by name.'” And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”’

That’s the rule, clear as day, and if God would not break it for one such as Moses, He will not break it for anyone. Our desire for new experiences cannot make us turn a blind eye or disregard the order God has established in His word. To do so is to court and invite the one who masquerades as an angel of light to sow chaos, deceit, and confusion.  

With love in Christ.

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Job 41:23-34, “The folds of his flesh are joined together; they are firm on him and cannot be moved. His heart is as hard as stone, even as hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; because of his crashings they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail. Nor does spear, dart, or javelin. He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him. Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the threat of javelins. His undersides are like sharp potsherds; he spreads pointed marks in the mire. He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. He leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair. On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear. He beholds every high thing; He is king over all the children of pride.”

If even one such as Job, whom God deemed blameless and upright, could not justify himself before God, what hope do we have? What hope do we have of standing in our own righteousness? What hope do we have of working our way into heaven? What hope do we have of standing before the all-knowing God and maker of all that is, the Creator who spoke the behemoth and leviathan into being, and insisting that it was by our machinations, labors, the traditions we held to, or rites and rituals we practiced that we are worthy and deserving of being welcomed into His kingdom?

It is not man who justifies himself before God; it is God who justifies man by the faith one exhibits in the sacrifice and atoning power of the blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus. Does this mean we ought not to strive? No, Jesus Himself said that we must strive to enter through the narrow gate. Does this mean we ought not to be holy? No, God Himself said that we ought to be holy, for He is holy. It’s not an either-or proposition.

What it does mean is that all our striving, all our perceived holiness, would not tip the scales in our favor without the grace, mercy, love, and redemption of the God we serve, who facilitated our being reconciled to Him anew through what Jesus did on the cross.

It’s not works salvation; there’s no such thing, but by the same token, faith without works is dead, as the Book also states. True faith compels us to be active in our pursuit of sanctification. It will not allow us to be sedate and stagnant, or remain in the sorry state Jesus found us in.

Faith is transformative. If the faith a man claims to have does nothing to draw him closer to God, compel repentance, and create a hunger for more of Him, then it is not true faith but words spoken on the wind.

James 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

Millennia before James penned these words, Job was practicing them. By his own words, he never turned away the hungry, the poor, or the downtrodden; he went out of his way to care for the widow and the orphan, and his heart was always tender toward those in need. Likewise, he feared God and shunned evil, committing his ways to the Lord. Even so, Job could not justify himself.

When it comes to this topic, there are two distinct camps: the first is to raise a hand, then stare at your navel for the rest of your days, because by the raising of the hand and the saying of a prayer you’ve secured your place in eternity. The second is to whip oneself into a frenzy, endlessly checking off boxes of performative tasks someone told you must be completed, even if your heart’s not in it and you’re just going through the motions. Usually the motivation isn’t love or a desire for more of God, but a ritualistic sort of muscle memory, like brushing your teeth in the morning or taking a shower when you get home from work.

When Job cared for the poor, it was not performative. When he fed the hungry, it wasn’t hoping someone would see him doing it. When he cared for the widow and the orphan, it wasn’t for brownie points, but a sincere desire to be a comfort and a source of joy. He did these things because they were the right thing to do, and not because he believed doing them would make him holier. Nobody had to force Job’s hand to do good; nobody had to twist his arm or present him with the choice between a carrot and a stick. His relationship with God framed his worldview in such a way that if he could be a comfort, a help, the means by which the hungry could be fed and the naked clothed, he did not hesitate.  

James 2:18, “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

If man is undone at the sight of God’s creation, how much more so ought he be before the God who created them? If one feels small standing before the behemoth or the leviathan, how much smaller ought he feel standing before God? The evidently similar reactions to the presence of God we see throughout the Bible are not the exceptions; they are the norm. This is how creation rightly reacts when presented with its Creator, not flippantly, arrogantly, or laissez-faire, but with reverence, holy fear, and a vivid knowledge of how insignificant we are in the presence of His infinite power.

We are precious in God’s sight because He deemed it so.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 41:12-22, “I will not conceal his limbs, his mighty power, or his graceful proportions. Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around? His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal; one is so near another that no air can come between them; they are joined one to another, they stick together and cannot be parted. His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth. Strength dwells in his neck, and sorrow dances before him.”

You can tell when someone is passionate about a given topic and when they’re just phoning it in. It doesn’t take long to conclude whether the individual in question knows what they’re talking about or they’re just hoping a pointless word salad absent substance will be enough to convince you of their imagined body of knowledge.

Whether it’s birds, cars, the different species of wildlife in a given area, or regional history, someone’s true passion for the topic shines through, whether they mean for it to do so or not. I’ve heard plenty of sermons where passion was so lacking that it was obvious the preacher was just doing his job. Scroll down the iPad, going through the bullet points of a canned sermon, sprinkle in a joke or two, and take up the offering at the end. Another week, another paycheck, and to them that’s all that it was: a job.

The crowd’s reaction, or lack thereof, was of little concern, as were the raised eyebrows when they tried to imply something the biblical text obviously did not allude to; but they pressed on, delivered their twenty-five-minute sermon, unperturbed or unaffected by the absence of impact or spiritual unction.

I’ve also had the honor of being in services where the preacher was passionate about God, the things of God, the ways of God, and the Word of God. You could see the passion in their demeanor, in their eyes, and in the words they spoke, giving them the respect they deserved as being God’s message to His creation, inspired, profound, and impactful, because they followed the urging of the Holy Spirit and not some words they’d scratched on a piece of paper.

You can always tell when there is passion behind an action, and in God’s detailing of the leviathan, one can’t help but notice how passionate He is about His creation. It’s akin to starting up a conversation with a bona fide car guy, who can go on for days about how an engine works, and why you need to change the spark plugs because two out of four are misfiring. While you’re trying to figure out what a spark plug is, he’s painstakingly explaining combustion to you, and all you can do is stand there, listen, and absorb.

Nothing God has created, nothing He spoke into existence, was thrown together haphazardly. There was no moment during the process of creation when God shrugged His shoulders and said, good enough, that’ll do, or the oft-repeated, perfect is the enemy of the good. When God beheld what He had created and said, “it is good,” His version of Good is perfection, for nothing else would suffice.

Take any of God’s myriad of creations, whether a beast of the air, a beast of the sea, and everything in between, and He can tell you why He fashioned them the way He did, all the detail that went into it, and how it was created in such a way as to coexist with the ecosystem to which it was assigned.

But sure, it was all an accident, a serendipitous quirk of the universe where everything from a microbe to a cell to chromosomes to behemoths and leviathans had a purpose and was created with such specificity as to boggle the mind. It’s easy enough to say something that dumb, but far harder to back it up with any reason or logic.

Even those who lean on the crutch of evolution to explain the majesty of creation can’t come up with a viable explanation as to how everything evolved so perfectly. You’ve never seen a zebra with gills, or a tiger with flippers, a dolphin with hooves, or a seal with horns, but sure, it was all by accident, perfectly aligned and put together, but by accident.

Absence of evidence exists only in the minds of those who refuse to open their eyes and acknowledge God’s design in all that surrounds them. It is the refuge of the dull-witted, and those who suffer from god complexes, because to admit that there is One greater than them, One who created them, and put bone upon bone, and sinew atop those bones, One who is responsible for the spark of life that animates them, is to acknowledge God Himself, and be confronted with the reality that one day they will have to stand before Him.

It is unlikely that Job ever saw a leviathan up close and personal, but God’s vivid description of His creation paints a word picture so clear that one can close their eyes and imagine the size, scope, majesty, and ferocity of this beast of the deep. This wasn’t a sketch or an outline; it wasn’t an ink blot where one can imagine whatever they will if they stare at it long enough, but a detailed account of what went into its creation and the minute details that went into its forging.

We may sing songs about serving an awesome God, and about Him being a God of wonder, but can our feeble minds ever truly grasp the extent of His majesty? Are we even able to perceive His greatness while in these husks of flesh? We can get a glimpse from time to time, but as far as the fullness thereof, I do believe we fall short. We worship Him because He is worthy, far beyond what we can comprehend, and the knowledge that this infinite, indescribable, omnipotent God loves us should be more humbling still.       

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 41:1-11, “Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? Can you put a reed through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you? Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you leash him for your maidens? Will your companions make a banquet of him? Will they apportion him among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears? Lay your hand on him; remember the battle – never do it again! Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false; shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against Me? Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.” 

Other than offering Elihu a backhanded rebuke, God had thus far addressed none of the others who thought themselves wiser, of greater understanding, and more righteous than Job. God’s words were laser-focused on the man everyone had written off, discarded, avoided, and judged as being wicked, stubborn, and unwilling to admit to the sin he had surely committed.

When God does eventually get around to answering Job’s friends, it isn’t an answer to their prayers and supplications, as was the case with Job, but a rebuke for the words they spoke in haste, without understanding what was taking place. God’s conversation with Job is an answer to prayer. God’s address to Job’s friends is a rebuke and condemnation of their words and actions. The two are not the same.  

It’s been said before, but it bears repeating: what men think of you, how men see you, how men judge you, is irrelevant; how God views you is all that matters. The desire of one’s heart ought not to center on how best to be pleasing in their sight, but to be pleasing in God’s sight. It is He who is the judge over His creation. It is He who weighs the hearts of men and sees them as they are.

Everything under heaven is Mine. That encapsulates the extent of God’s power to the point that His omnipotence is undeniable. Everything. Not some things, or most things, but everything. This is the God we serve. Not one limited in authority, not one of minimal power, not one who wishes He could do something but can’t because His reach does not extend that far.

Nothing is impossible with God! But if that’s the case, why haven’t I gotten my wish list? Why don’t I have the things I want? Once again, because you’re not God, and His will, plan, and purpose are paramount rather than our wants or desires. If Jesus had to submit to the authority of God’s will, what makes any of us think we don’t?

Matthew 26:39, “He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”’

When we pray God’s will be done in our lives, it’s not only when it aligns with our will, when they are in harmony, or when it requires no valley, trial, testing, or hardship. Without the fiery furnace, the three young men would not have had the testimony of God’s power to sustain them through it. Without the lion’s den, Daniel would not have seen God shutting up the mouths of the lions. Without the suffering and loss, the book of Job would not exist, nor would we have as great an understanding of God’s power to restore and rebuild as we do. You may not see the purpose in something, but God does. As long as we remain faithful, true, and obedient, His plan will reveal itself and in understanding it, we will glory in Him all the more.

Often, we focus on the battle and not on the victory that is sure to come if we endure and persist, cling to our integrity, and praise Him even in the midst of the storm. We see the night, but not the dawn, the affliction but not the cessation thereof, the sorrow but not the comforting hand of He who sees all and knows all.

The enemy is masterful at keeping us focused on the suffering of this present time, and not the future glory, because given enough time, marinating in despondency and hopelessness turns into bitterness and disillusionment.

If the book of Job teaches us anything, it’s that God is there even when it seems He isn’t. He is near even when He seems far off. He is present and engaged even when He seems indifferent, and when the world seems to be spinning out of control, everything under heaven is still His.

While the behemoth is a beast of the land, the Leviathan God refers to is a creature of the sea, one which men feared and could not bring down, but which God treats as a pet, playing with him as with a bird. The imagery is astounding and humbling all at once, because the things men fear most are things well within God’s control, for while even the hope of overcoming one as fearsome as Leviathan is a false one for any man, it is no great thing for God to leash him and take him as a servant forever.

Whether viewed through the lens of an allegory of the supernatural that seeks to depict the power of God even over the most fearsome beasts of land and sea, or the literal beasts themselves, the point is clear: Everything under heaven is His, and He rules over all of His creation!

This is the God we serve. Not some idol fashioned of wood and stone, not some dead thing, unresponsive and unconcerned with our trials, but a living, active, all-powerful God, who is in control of everything.

Isaiah 26:4, “Trust in the Lord forever, for in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Man didn’t save me; Jesus did. He didn’t save me from slipping on a banana peel or touching poison ivy; He saved me from hell, from the eternal darkness, and from the fire that is never quenched. My salvation and redemption, just like yours, came at a cost that wasn’t paltry or insignificant, but one that was astronomical: a life for a life. Not the life of another, but His life; not the pain of another but His pain. He did not delegate the responsibility of redemption or reconciliation to God because there was no one He could delegate it to. It is to Jesus that I owe my undying fealty, loyalty, devotion, and love, because He did what no other could on my behalf.

Anyone attempting to supplant or replace Jesus in your life, insisting that they, rather than Him, should be followed and obeyed, didn’t die for you! Remember that the next time you entertain the idea that following after a man is an option because it’s more convenient, less time-consuming, or because they demand less of you than Jesus would.

Jesus warned, but it seems His warning fell on deaf ears. He spoke of a time when men would come in His name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and would deceive many. That time is here. That time is now, and it’s only going to get worse going forward.     

Job 40:15-24, “Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; he eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze, his ribs like bars of iron. He is the first of the ways of God; only He who made him can bring near His sword. Surely the mountains yield food for him, and all the beasts of the field play there. He lies under the lotus trees, in a covert of reeds and marsh. The lotus trees cover him with their shade; the willows by the brook surround him. Indeed the river may rage, yet he is not disturbed; he is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth, though he takes it in his eyes, or one pierces his nose with a snare.”

There are those among us who desire to know God and understand the mysteries thereof; then there are those whose only reason for desiring discourse with Him is to prove how wise they are in their own eyes and tell Him how they would have done it differently. Likewise, there are those who approach God in humility and reverence, submitting to His will, deferring to His wisdom, and obeying His commands, and those whose pride will not allow them to bow before His majesty, and if ever they approach Him it is with a combative spirit, challenging His authority, and insisting that they are on equal footing even though they are His creation, and He their creator.

God is patient with those with sincere hearts. If we ask for bread, He will not give us a stone, and if we ask for understanding, He will not be vague or ambiguous. We can neither plead ignorance of God’s will nor His commands, because the Word is clear on both accounts, and only those whose desire isn’t to serve Him, but to find ways of bypassing what He has commanded, pretend as though He wasn’t clear.

God does not withhold pertinent, necessary information, nor does He play coy when we desire more of Him. He doesn’t require that we enter a credit card number to get behind a paywall where all the good information is, but freely reveals His will to us because He is motivated by love, and love alone.

God so loved the world! That sentence alone can readily be contemplated for an entire lifetime, and we would still only grasp the edges of the depth of what it means, and what all it implies. Is it because we are so lovable? Is it because we deserved redemption at the cost of the life of God’s only begotten Son? Or is it because God loved His creation, unworthy and undeserving as it was?

God could have been short with Job; He could have answered in a handful of words, but He took the time to explain His authority so thoroughly that Job was left speechless, in awe of the God he served and all the detail that went into everything He created.

As far as the behemoth goes, and what it is, the learned men of our day as well as those who came before them, have concluded that it’s a catchall term for large, four-legged, ponderous animals, whether the hippopotamus or the elephant; many are inclined to believe that God was referring to a hippo when addressing Job because of the description He proffers of the behemoth opening its mouth and the Jordan gushing therein.

Some, however, insist that God was speaking of dinosaurs when referring to the behemoth, although more often than not it’s wishful thinking rather than any substantive evidence that Job lived during the time of the dinosaurs. Between the two, I would err on the side of caution and say God was speaking of a hippopotamus rather than a dinosaur; then again, I’m not often given to flights of fancy and unsubstantiated claims. Whatever it was God was referring to as far as the behemoth is concerned, the purpose of the example He used is more relevant than what the animal itself was. God was attempting to highlight the clear purpose and design of His creation, including for something as cumbersome, slow, and indomitable as the behemoth.

Even for something like the behemoth, God made sure the mountains yielded food, the lotus trees provided shade, and the Jordan satisfied its thirst. It is neither troubled nor worried about what it will eat or what it will drink, and the raging river does not disturb it. The behemoth is confident not because it has the wherewithal to provide for itself, but because it knows it has been provided for. Even the behemoth can teach us lessons on how we should approach life, only if we are willing to learn.   

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 In all the questions God asked Job, He was also attempting to show him the depth and breadth of the chasm between the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God. Job was humble enough to acknowledge what he did not know, but God made clear the breadth of it by pointing out just how many there were. Everyone acknowledges that they don’t know everything, at least anyone who isn’t delusional, but the realization of just how much they don’t know is often jarring and discombobulating.  

We are predisposed to being wise in our own eyes, and those who see it as their defining trait tend to surround themselves with fools simply so they could highlight their own understanding. Every ship of fools must have a captain, and in the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king. When God steps into the picture, however, no matter how highly a man might think of himself, it is for naught, for God isn’t simply wise; He is wisdom personified. Elihu learned as much when God dismissed him as speaking words without knowledge, even though he’d spent a considerable amount of time trying to convince Job and his three friends otherwise.

Accusations aren’t evidence; assumptions aren’t facts, and even the wisest among us understands in part. Knowing this, the best course of action, without fail, is to defer to God, because whether we defer to Him or not, submit to His wisdom or don’t, He will have the final word, and His judgments will be absolute and irrevocable. It’s akin to a grain of sand disagreeing with the crashing waves, or a pebble disagreeing with the rushing river. God will do as He wills, and no created thing, whether man or beast, can stand in His way or hinder His plan from coming to fruition.

We choose to submit ourselves to God and abide by His Word, or attempt to twist it or altogether circumvent it because the desire of our heart is not to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord, but to do as we will and still have the hope of squeaking by and somehow making it into heaven. It doesn’t even have to be something egregious, just small changes here and there that attempt to change the intended meaning of what the gospel says.

Take, for example, one of the most often-heard claims within Christendom over the past few decades: that God has a wonderful plan for your life. It is indisputable that God has a plan for your life, but the Bible never says it’s wonderful, at least not as long as we are in these husks of flesh, making our way to eternity. One word changes both the implied expectations and the meaning of the entire phrase. The wonderful, glorious part comes after, when we stand before God and hear “Well done.” Jesus Himself said that in this world we would have tribulation, yet the expectation of many nominal believers is the wonderful life the smiling snake-oil merchant spoke of, and when tribulation comes, their entire world gets turned on its ear because of one word added to the truth of Scripture.  

The dichotomy between how Job’s friends reacted to his claim of being blameless, having found nothing in his heart of wickedness or evil, and how God reacted, knowing Job was, in truth, all that he claimed to be, is unnerving. On the one hand, Elihu and Job’s three friends could not believe that one could attain such a level of blamelessness, while God, knowing Job was blameless, saw him as one in need of grace and mercy.

Any other man or woman during Job’s generation would have fallen short of his blamelessness and uprightness, but when compared to the righteousness of God, Job himself fell short. Lest anyone be tempted to boast of their righteousness, remember this and be humbled anew.   

Both the presence of God, the voice of God, and the wisdom of God humble man. There can be no other response. Anyone walking away from an encounter with God feeling proud, puffed up, accomplished, and validated hasn’t had an encounter with the one true God. God is not in the cheerleading business. He doesn’t have to cheer every time you finish your peas and carrots because He does not see you as an infant but as a soldier. He doesn’t see you as a toddler but as a warrior.

We sing songs about being in the Lord’s army but act nothing like the soldiers we claim to be. If we are in the Lord’s army, He commands, and we obey, and if, perchance, something requires improvement, whether in the wielding of our weapons or the carrying out of our duties, He lets us know.

Yes, there was a time when you were a lost sheep and the good Shepherd left the ninety-nine and went after the one, but you are a lost sheep no longer. You have been found, you have been saved, you have been sanctified, and you cannot remain in the same spiritual condition as you were when your spiritual eyes were opened. It’s past time that those expecting God to rummage through His pockets for a hanky to wipe their noses learn to put on their armor and stand because they’ve been in a state of spiritual infancy for as long as they’ve been alive.

Stop expecting God to be a mother hen and gravitating toward people who infantilize you to the point of thinking you are incapable of studying the Word of God for yourself. There’s a difference between being babied and being trained, between being pandered to and being discipled. Given that itching ears are all the rage, it’s no surprise the contemporary church is in the deplorable spiritual condition it’s in.

The purpose of a preacher, a teacher, a pastor, a bishop, or an evangelist isn’t to make you dependent on them, but to point the way to Jesus. Anyone who claims to be any of these things and does otherwise has the ulterior motive of controlling you rather than showing you the way by which you can be made free.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 If you claim to be a chef, you must know how to cook. If you claim to be a carpenter, you must know how to build a house. If you claim to be a woodsman, you must know how to chop down a tree. Not only must you know how to do these things, but you must also be able to follow through and actually do them. Theoretical knowledge of something isn’t practical application. Saying you’re a little god yet not being able to do godlike things only proves you’re a liar, and your pride and arrogance have compelled your tongue to speak things that are wholly fabricated, untrue, and worthy of scorn.

Job never claimed to be a little god, as so many have taken to doing today, but in his pain and despair he wondered out loud why all these things had happened to him. God’s first question to Job is one that those of us who have suffered loss, or the untimely death of a loved one, have likewise had to contend with: Would you indeed annul my judgment?

It’s an easy question to ask but a hard question to answer due to the duality with which all of us must contend. I was heartbroken when my mother died, as well as when my grandfather and most recently my father, and I would be lying if I didn’t say I wished we had more time together. Part of me rejoiced that they had gone to their reward, that they had run their races and now had received their crowns, but another part of me felt sorrow for their departure.

Especially when it came to my grandfather’s passing, I was tempted to do as Job did, and ask why, contend with God, and insist that there was still work to be done had He allowed him to live, but in the end, all I could do was submit to God’s authority and say, “Your will be done!”

To those who have been taught an erroneous dynamic of who God is and who man is, insisting that we are on equal footing with Him, and that He must bend to our will whenever we pout or hold our breath, accepting the trials of life is the hardest thing of all.

I spoke life, yet death has come. I spoke joy, yet I am shrouded in mourning. I spoke prosperity, but I could barely pay my bills. Why is this happening? I did what the preacher on TV said I should: I spoke all these things, yet none have come to pass. Why? Because you’re not God! You may have been talked into believing you are a little god, but you have neither the power nor the authority to make the claim, for there is only one God, and His plan and purpose are known to Him.

Our duty is neither to annul God’s judgment, nor is it to condemn Him that we may be justified, but to submit ourselves to Him. I know you are a good Father; I know you are a gracious God; I know you are faithful even when I am faithless; and I know you have a plan. I may not see it, especially in the valley, but you know the way I must go and what I must endure to reach the destination You have in mind for me, and so I submit willingly, wholeheartedly, completely, without exception or exemption.  

If you feel you are entitled to play God, to question, to disagree, to challenge, or override Him, then do what only God can do such as adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, array yourself with glory and beauty, look on the proud and humble him, and if you are able to do those things, God said, then I will confess to you that your own right hand can save you.

Anyone can claim to be a brain surgeon until they’re staring down at a brain pan and asked to remove a tumor. In their hubris, some might attempt it, inevitably killing the patient, but unless you possess the authority and attributes exclusive to the one true God, stop claiming that you are one.

Job already knew the dynamic between himself and God, but God nevertheless reminded him of it, setting up the framework for the rest of their conversation.

There is one thought that I can’t shake as I read this chapter, and that is, if a man whom God deemed blameless and upright could be taken to task for questioning God, whether in his heart, or with his words, how many times have we fallen short of the mark given that none of us have been singled out as one in a generation when it comes to uprightness and blamelessness.

If you think you can save yourself, have at it. If you believe you do not require the grace, mercy, and redemptive, atoning power of the blood of Jesus, and that by your will alone you will accomplish only what He can, I can’t twist your arm into changing your mind. The only thing I can do is tell you what the Word says, and encourage you to consider that even one such as Job could not save himself.

Job did not rebel; he did not sin against God, nor did he charge God with wrong. He did, however, perhaps in his heart, wish that things had been different, that he hadn’t had to go through what he had, and even that small, seemingly insignificant action was enough for God to call him to task and ask a series of questions that would reacquaint Job with the sovereignty of the God he served.

So what is the practical application for us today, when considering the conversation between Job and God thus far? Simply put, what Isaiah would later declare so succinctly: our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. By God’s own words, Job was a righteous man, blameless and upright, yet even his righteousness fell short of the holiness of God and required His grace and mercy.

Walk humbly with your Lord. Lean on Him, depend on Him, understand that no matter how righteous you may see yourself, you still require His grace to carry on, press forward, and reach the finish line.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Job 40:6-14, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ‘Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me: ‘Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty. Disperse the rage of your wrath; look on everyone who is proud, and humble him. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low; tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, bind their faces in hidden darkness. Then I will confess to you that your own right hand can save you.’”

To a hypersensitive, perpetually offended, endlessly emotive generation insisting they’re the victim in every story, God’s words seem less than conciliatory. To some among the aforementioned generation, His words seem downright mean, because as is the case with every self-important naïve who insists that they could do everything better, they’ll rattle off a hundred things they would have done differently, or said differently, all beginning with the famous last words, “If it was me in that situation.”

If it was me in that situation, I would have picked Job up and held him close, and told him how great he was doing. If it were me in that situation, I would have praised Job’s steadfastness. If it were me in that situation, I would have never agreed to Job’s being so sifted by the devil. The thing is, it wasn’t you, it wasn’t me, and our ways are not His ways; our thoughts are not His thoughts, and rather than demand that God align His ways with ours, we must endeavor to align our ways with His.

God was not addressing a child; He was addressing a man. God was not addressing someone who crumbled under the weight of the first trial he’d ever had to endure, but one who walked through the valley and came out the other side with the scars to show for it. Modern-day preachers may coddle and excuse the sheep of His pastures as though any sort of correction were akin to being flogged in the public square, but God chastens those He loves and will not omit or ignore shortcomings for the sake of sparing our feelings.

It’s not out of cruelty, malice, or callousness that God corrects and chastens us, but out of love and a desire to see us grow in righteousness, holiness, and purity of heart. God knows what the end product must look like, and He will not accept an inferior iteration to avoid hurt feelings.

Correction is part of the process; it is part of the walk, and it confirms that God sees us as His own, sons and daughters whom He desires to see walking in the fullness of all that He has for them.   

Hebrews 12:7-11, “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Absence of correction is not a demonstration of love; it is proof of indifference. Whether in a spiritual sense, or as it relates to one’s children, if love is the driving force, if love is what motivates, you will do your utmost to correct and chasten them whenever you see them doing something that will ultimately lead to either their destruction or a life absent joy, peace, and purpose.

We are where we are as a society because men have redefined indifference to mean love, and no matter how far-fetched a child’s ideas, they are validated and celebrated rather than corrected and challenged. I love my babies enough to let them destroy themselves utterly, mutilate their bodies in irreversible ways, and ensure that they have no future other than a lifelong cycle of pain and regret! Can that really be called love? You can call it many things, but love isn’t one of them.

That’s just one example, but there are plenty we can point to. The tragedy of it is that by the time the parents realize that permissiveness isn’t truly love, it’s far too late to do anything about it but mourn over what could have been had they done their duty and chastened their children, corrected them, and trained them up in the way they should go.

The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and instructed him to prepare himself like a man. We’re going to have a conversation, you and I; I will question you, and you will answer me. Job wasn’t given the option to curl up in a corner and pretend as though he had not heard the voice of God, he wasn’t given the option to throw a tantrum and insist that he would only entertain God’s request if He spoke in a kinder tone, God answered out of the whirlwind and said, this is how it’s going to be, now man up, prepare yourself like a man, and let’s hash this out.

If the Lord tarries, perhaps one day we will look back on the last forty years and begin to acknowledge the damage that was done to the household of faith by those who, pretending to be shepherds, turned out to be nothing more than soothsayers, speaking lies and distorting the Word of life for fear of being deemed unkind or unloving. Perhaps, one day, we will acknowledge that turning a blind eye to sin, rebellion, and the twisting of the gospel was not the act of love they claimed it was, but something far more nefarious, destructive, and deadly.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 40:1-6, “Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said: ‘Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it.’ Then Job answered the Lord and said: ‘Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer; yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.’”

How does a man that God described as blameless and upright react upon hearing the voice of God addressing him personally? Whether it’s Job or Isaiah, when contrasted with the holiness of God, one saw himself as vile; the other insisted he was a man of unclean lips, a man undone by the presence of the One he served.

Even though both men had served God faithfully for years, even though their hearts were pure in the sight of God, and He saw them as true servants, the moment God made His presence known, they saw themselves in the light of His righteousness and couldn’t help but conclude that there was no comparison.

There was no familiarity; nobody in the Bible attempted to high-five God, braid His beard, sit on His throne, or challenge Him to a game of backgammon. The holiness and omnipotence of God demanded the humbling of one’s very being, because they understood who was addressing them, whose voice they had heard, and faithful as they were, blameless and upright as they were, the magnitude of God’s holiness brought them low.

One of the reasons I am ever skeptical of individuals who claim to have wandered the halls of heaven and shared a rainbow sherbet with God is the utter lack of holy reverence, holy fear, and holy awe. Are you telling me there was no reaction similar to Job or Isaiah as you stood before the Almighty? You got to look into His eyes while Moses had to turn his back, for as God said, “no man shall see Me and live?”

What you are inferring is that you exceed the uprightness of Job, Isaiah, and Moses put together, and that you are the singular exception in the history of mankind given that God went back on His own word and allowed you to not only see Him face to face, but sit on His lap, toy with His beard, and have a familiarity with Him that none other claimed to have.

If that’s the claim you’re making, just come out and say it. Don’t be coy; don’t allow others to draw that conclusion based on your insinuations, then when called on the carpet for the claims you made, obfuscate and act demure, insisting that you never said those things yourself; people just assumed them.

You’re attempting to play games with a God who doesn’t. You’re attempting to elevate your status by claiming things you’ve never experienced, speaking words God has never spoken, and appropriating authority that was never yours to appropriate.

Perhaps the best course of action would be to imitate Job, lay your hand over your mouth, and be silent. It is a profound thing to consider and contemplate: the one man that God deemed blameless and upright in his generation saw himself as vile in the light of God’s presence, His voice, and His holiness.

It’s only on extremely rare occasions that men see themselves as less rather than more of what they truly are. Whether it’s more faithful, wise, knowledgeable, or righteous, men usually round up rather than round down. The see themselves in a more positive light than objectively deserved, then in what soon becomes an endless loop of self-aggrandizement, they use that positive assessment of themselves to elevate their status in their own minds, excusing behaviors otherwise looked down upon and condemned by the Word, because if God deemed it so bad they wouldn’t see themselves as being so righteous, take one step further away from truth and light, and the cycle begins anew again.

Was Job truly vile? Had Elihu and Job’s three friends been right all along? Was his love for God just a pretense? Was he putting on airs for the sake of saving face? In light of how God viewed him, and being told that Job never sinned with his lips, it’s unlikely, but that’s how he saw himself in the moment when God addressed him. That’s how he viewed all that he had done, because it wasn’t man striving for God any longer, but God striving with man.

God had thrown down the gauntlet, addressed Job specifically, and the only response Job had to hand was to say, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer you?” Then immediately he laid his hand over his mouth.

Those who fault God, who insist that He has treated them unfairly, that He fell short of righteous judgment regarding some issue or another, would have the wind knocked out of their sail in an instant if God were to turn their gaze upon them and ask that they substantiate their claims.

Feelings and facts are distinctly different and separate from each other. They are not interchangeable, nor can you claim something is fact when it is a feeling. Conversely, you cannot accuse someone of being emotional, or reacting based on feelings when facts have been presented to them, and they are unwilling to contend with the matter with objective intellectual honesty.

Job knew two things at this point: first, that God had addressed him personally, and second, in light of His holiness, the only thing he could say was, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You?”

In the end, Job was just a man. Blameless and upright he might have been, diligently fearing the Lord and shunning evil, but he was flesh and bone, sinew and blood, now having the God of the universe addressing him, with the light of God’s holiness making any measure of it Job may have achieved seem vile in comparison.

No man can stand before God in his own righteousness. No man can insist that by their merit, their labors, their adherence to a particular set of practices, they have no need of the atoning, redemptive blood of Jesus to wash them and make them clean. All fall short of the glory of God, and though he was singularly blameless and upright in his generation, so did Job. Now all he could do was humble himself in the sight of the Lord, with sincerity of heart and purpose, understanding that God owed him no answers, but in His love He would nevertheless provide them.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 39:26-30, “Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, and spread its wings toward the south? Does the eagle mount up at your command, and make its nest on high? On the rock it dwells and resides, on the crag of the rock and the stronghold. From there it spies out the prey; its eyes observe from afar. Its young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there it is.”

Were God addressing any one of a multitude of self-appointed modern-day prophets, by now they would have attempted to interrupt him at least a dozen times, shoehorning their opinions, attempting to highlight their own perceived wisdom, or even contradicting He who is eternal, Almighty, creator of all that is, without beginning or end.

Self-importance is a disease that is spreading like an out-of-control brushfire within the household of faith, and the damage it has wrought is unquantifiable. It doesn’t matter that those who suffer from this malady are proven wrong time and time again. Whenever the current topic du jour runs its course, and they realize they’re out of runway, they pivot to another just as irrelevant, tertiary, and pointless as the one before.

Oddly enough, they never get around to talking about Jesus, the existential need of Him, the sacrifice He made upon the cross, or that no man can come to the Father but by Him. Up until a couple of weeks ago, the alien disclosure was the thing everyone was talking about, not realizing it was a way of marketing a movie that ended up bombing at the box office anyway, but you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing the anxiety in people’s voices when discussing what it was they were ready to reveal to the world.

The hubristic among the godless even went so far as to gleefully insist that what they’ve got cooking would destroy the faith of countless Christians, put an end to Christianity itself, and upturn the world and what it considered the norm. That only goes to show how little they understand of faith. What was meant to be a bonfire was less than a fizzle, and since the silence must be filled with something, anything, no matter how inane or ridiculous, they jumped onto the next bandwagon, the next thing, that new and fresh take on an old idea that has been around for centuries.

Meanwhile, God is still on the throne; He is still in control, and He looks upon the machinations of men not with dread or a sense of foreboding, but with mockery and derision.

Psalm 2:1-4, “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision.’”

If I had a dollar for every time someone insisted that they would drive a death nail into the heart of Christianity, I’d have a lot of dollars. The only instance I can think of where I would have more dollars still is if I had a dollar for every time someone predicted the date of the rapture that came and went only to be replaced by another date in the not-so-distant future.

Men have always plotted and schemed to find ways of casting away the existence of God, because while He remains, they cannot replace Him. Technology has gotten better, but the root of their desire remains the same: to be like God. From the onset, when there were only two walking in the garden, and no other human existed on the face of the earth, that was the offer, the temptation, the lure, enticement, and appeal: the day you eat of it you will be like God!

God only said you shouldn’t eat of the tree because He doesn’t want the competition. It’s selfish of Him to withhold the knowledge of good and evil, blessing and calamity from you, isn’t it? All it takes is one act of disobedience, one act of rebellion, for you to be on equal footing with Him, then you won’t have to submit to His will, you won’t have to submit to His purpose, you won’t have to submit to His sovereignty; you can do as you will, and He won’t be able to do a thing about it.

People can think themselves little gods until the One True God steps in and makes His voice heard above the roar of the thundering waves. He doesn’t have to shout; He doesn’t have to ball up His fists and get red in the face, because His whisper holds the authority of infinite power, and it’s no hard thing for Him to prove to the stiff-necked and proud that they are not what they claim to be.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. That’s the first rule of living a life of peace, joy, and fulfillment. Notice that I did not say abundance and prosperity, because those rarely bring you peace, joy, or fulfillment. More often than not, the more men have, the more they want, endlessly churning themselves into a lather on the hamster wheel until their heart gives out and they fall off, only to be replaced by another who’s fallen into the snare of believing that this is where joy is found.

Men demand respect, reverence, and awe; they demand that you defer to their wisdom or the way they see things, but God deserves and is worthy of these things by the nature of who He is and all that He has done.

God’s not asking for something He does not deserve or isn’t owed. From commanding the morning and causing the dawn to know its place, to dividing a channel for the overflowing water, to causing the tender grass to grow, to binding the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosening the belt of Orion, to the ostrich, the horse, the hawk, and man himself, God spoke all into being, and governs them by His mighty hand.

He is worthy! He is worthy of all praise, all honor, all glory, and worship. He is worthy of our obedience, faithfulness, and service. When one is worthy, it means they merit the recognition assigned to them; they have earned it, and not simply implied that they have. He is worthy and none other, no matter how many might claim otherwise.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 39:19-25, “Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror. He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he gallops into the clash of arms. He mocks at fear and is not frightened; nor does he turn back from the sword. The quiver rattles against him, the glittering spear and javelin. He devours the distance with fierceness and rage; nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded. At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of captains and shouting.”

I am not given to equestrian endeavors. I like being on things that can’t buck me off if they get a mind to, like a comfy couch or the beat-up chair in the corner of our den from where I do most of my writing. Even so, it is undeniable that horses are beautiful beasts, majestic creatures, and that’s before realizing how many different breeds there are, and how much they differ in both temperament, size, and purpose.

God did not pick the horse at random when speaking of the nuance of His creation. There is a purpose in it, as there is a purpose in all God says and does, even if we fail to see it or glean the underlying lesson in what He is attempting to convey.

Even someone as admittedly ignorant as myself when it comes to horses in general knows enough to know that, unlike the stork or the ostrich, there are countless variations and breeds of horses. You’ve got Arabians, Appaloosas, Clydesdales, Mustangs, Andalusians, Holsteiners, Palfreys, thoroughbreds, Coursers, and destriers, just to name a few, each with its specific temperament and size.

In the olden days, a good war horse could mean the difference between life and death, victory or defeat, because if the horse is skittish, reticent, or unwilling to go where its rider is guiding it, it will end up either running away from the battle or in the midst of a mêlée the rider never intended to be in.

God drills down and focuses on what one might readily call a warhorse. He focuses on the warhorse’s attributes, different from other breeds and types, attempting to highlight the finite, granular detail in the difference between them and other breeds like Shetland ponies or miniature horses.

I have a friend who, for some unexplained reason, decided having a miniature pony was a good decision. I’ve never seen a more skittish animal in my life. It would jump at its own shadow, and if ever a squirrel decided to square up to him, he would run into the barn as if his tail was on fire. Had someone decided to ride the tiny trotter into battle, they would have been laughed off the battlefield, because the first lesson we must learn from this discourse into what makes for a good warhorse is to pick the right tool for the job, whether that’s a screwdriver, a socket wrench, a saw, a hammer, or the right type of horse.

It doesn’t matter how expensive your socket wrench set was if what you need at that moment is to hammer in a nail. Likewise, a miniature pony might be fun to look at and let the neighbor kids ride once in a while, but it wasn’t bred for war, no matter how fearsome you try to make it look.

The second lesson that, for some, is hard learned is that more often than not, we learn to appreciate the true value of something only once it's gone and no longer within reach. In his famous last words, Richard III cried aloud, “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” only after he’d been knocked off his destrier was he forced to fight on foot.

Just because you’ve had the freedom to worship, fellowship, gather, and openly declare your faith for as long as you can remember doesn’t guarantee it will always be this way. Just because you could get a free Bible upon request from most churches, and in a pinch request one from the Gideons, it doesn’t guarantee it will always be as readily accessible. Value the things you take for granted before they are gone, and redeem the time you have in availing yourself of them with the enthusiasm that comes with knowing what they are truly worth.

The warriors of old had an unbreakable bond with their mounts because they understood their value. They cared for their horses, made sure they were well shod, well fed, well groomed, and cared for, because they understood that at some point they would need to depend on their mounts to press on when others would not, mock at fear, and not turn back from the sword.

History tells us that men of unequaled bravery whose lives were spent in war and on the battlefield wept openly when their horses were felled, because to them their warhorse was more than an animal used in service of a purpose, but a companion and friend.

That a warhorse gallops into the clash of arms, that he does not come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded, or that he is not frightened nor turns back from the sword is not a happy accident. There are no such things as happy accidents. God makes it clear that this fierceness and fearlessness were ingrained in their nature from creation, and like all things, it was done purposefully and for a purpose.

Again, the question begs to be asked and answered: if God took such painstaking details into account when it comes to the horse, what makes you think for one second He doesn’t have your situation well in hand? If He meticulously designed and crafted a horse for battle, making it different in temperament and disposition from the placid, timid horses that just want a carrot, what makes you think He is less engaged or aware of your need or pain?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.