When we found out my wife was pregnant with our second child,
we were still living in an apartment barely big enough for the three of us,
with no prospects of finding a bigger place. We were scrambling, realizing we
were now on the clock, and in a few months’ time, a fourth member would join
our family, and there would be no way around needing to move to a bigger place.
The housing craze had started in earnest, and people were
offering tens of thousands of dollars above asking price, waving inspections,
and making all manner of exceptions they otherwise would not have, just to sign
the papers and ensure they got into a home.
We’d been actively looking for a bigger place for some time,
and on more than one occasion, by the time we got to an open house, it had already
sold above asking, via telephone, without the individual who bought it ever
seeing it in person.
Pursuing something from a position of desperation is never a
good idea. When doing so, thinking clearly becomes almost impossible, and only
in hindsight does one realize that the desperation drove them to make decisions
they otherwise would not have, that in the moment seemed like the right choice,
but that have a lifelong negative impact.
We thought we’d finally caught a break when we showed up at a
viewing, and the real estate agent was there, informing us that the home was
still available. On the outside, the house seemed nice enough, cozy even, but
as we started the walk-through, I began to notice a few things that didn’t quite
add up. The floor seemed slanted in places, a couple of the doors seemed to
stick, but the biggest giveaway was when we got to the basement and noticed a
handful of cracks and fissures in the foundation.
I will admit I am no expert in how a home should look, but
even I knew that cracks and slanted floors were a bad sign, and something that
should be avoided. Our desperation, coupled with my wife’s now-evident morning
sickness, and the ever-present thought that we were running out of time before
the baby arrived, actually made us consider putting an offer in on the house,
but after we got back to our apartment and discussed it at length, we concluded
it was a risk we couldn’t afford to take. Cosmetic issues are one thing.
Foundation issues when it comes to a home are something wholly different and
can end up being very expensive.
You can have a less-than-ideal structure sitting on a good
foundation, or you can have a structure pleasing to the eye, yet whose
foundation is in ruins. The wise man will always choose the former over the
latter because he understands that if the foundation is bad, the entire edifice
is at risk, and there is very little you can do to make it habitable once the
foundations have crumbled.
For decades now, the Western church has focused on cosmetic
issues while ignoring its crumbling foundation. Nobody visits the basement anyway,
so why bother? We need to have fresh paint on the walls to cover up the cracks,
we need to plush seats to make the people feel at ease, we need to have good
entertainment to keep people engaged and enthusiastic, but as far as the
foundation goes, the one thing that holds it all together, and allows the house
to stand, that’s thankless work that nobody notices, and some people get put
off by insisting that foundation matters, anyway.
We need to appeal to emotion, be sensitive to seekers,
embrace compromise, and align ourselves with the majority in order to grow.
Once we’ve grown, then we can consider the foundation and see if it needs a bit
of work. By then, it’s too late. By then, you’ve built a monster you have to
feed every month with payrolls and ad buys with air time and billboards. We can’t
risk upsetting the apple cart by insisting on proper biblical standards, or
unpopular practices such as praying, fasting, studying Scripture, and
submitting to God’s authority. We have a brand to think about, and we can’t
damage it because we have big plans and we can’t impede our momentum.
All the while, the things that make the faith what it is are
being ignored, minimized, and memory-holed for fear of upsetting the vast
majority who are only looking for fire insurance and a good time. Any mention
of repentance, sanctification, or holiness is met with an onslaught of angry
sheep who insist that had they known the pastor would turn into a fire-and-brimstone
sort of preacher, they never would have signed up, reminding the elder board
that there are plenty of other options within a two-mile radius that are more
than happy to take their money and let them live as they will without all that
judgmental stuff.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5, “And my speech and my preaching were not
with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and
of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power
of God.”
If anyone were able to entreat men with persuasive words of
human wisdom, it would have been Paul. Known for having written thirteen of the
twenty-seven books of the New Testament, even if we exclude Hebrews, since it’s
been a point of contention for so many, his body of work makes his wisdom
undeniable. Having been a student of Gamaliel, one of the most renowned
scholars of his time, didn’t hurt either, yet he laid all his wealth of knowledge
aside, dispensed with words of human wisdom, and came to the masses in demonstration
of the Spirit and power of God.
He clearly states the reason for this, wherein he declares
that his desire was that their faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in
the power of God. Comparatively speaking, Paul was a wise man among his peers,
but he understood that the wisdom of God so far transcends the wisdom of men
that it’s not even worthy of mention.
The wisdom of men dictates that compromise is necessary in order to build a church or a ministry. The power of God, however, proves that God can do through one man what the world cannot accomplish with ten thousand, as long as that one man yields, submits, obeys, follows, and keeps the lines of communication between him and God open at all times.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
Posted on 12 May 2025 | 11:33 am
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