I know that I said I was going to do “blogging light” around here during the holidays, but sometimes things just beg to be written. Today I feel compelled to write about discernment.
I believe Holy Spirit-enabled discernment is critical to biblical living. Unfortunately, because our culture constantly preaches tolerance, many Christians have come to believe that demonstrating discernment and judging whether things are bibically true or not is somehow wrong. I am all for a simple relationship with Jesus because in a sense our salvation is simple. But there is nothing simple about living the Christian life in this day and age and in this culture. However much we may want that to be the case, it simply is not possible. Discernment and making judgements are critical to walking in biblical truth in this day and age.
Now I will admit that I am more “tuned in” to this kind of stuff than the average Christian. I know that discernment is one of my spiritual gifts. For years I never understood why things were so obvious to me and almost no one else could “see” it until much further down the line. I’ve walked into more situations than I can count and I immediately knew that there was something significantly amiss. Sometimes I knew right away what it was. Sometimes it took a little longer. But I could tell. It wasn’t until a while later that a friend who also has the gift of discernment helped me to understand that I, too, have that spiritual gift.
So while some Christians have to train themselves to be discerning, I am apparently already naturally wired by God that way. And discernment is a challenging gift to have and use appropriately. For someone who is naturally discerning, it is hard to “turn it off”. I don’t have to look for this stuff most of the time. It just jumps right out at me. It is like an editor who is reading the paper or a novel. She doesn’t have to look for the mistakes. She can’t NOT see them. They just glare off the page. So it is with people with the gift of discernment. The stuff just stares us right in the face, without our even looking for it. And because people with the gift of discernment so easily see this stuff, I think we are sometimes seen as overly critical or overly picky about things. That generally isn’t the case. We discern things without even trying. It is just there, screaming at us. The hard part is knowing what to do about it when you see it.
And so it was on Christmas Sunday.
Last year we attended a Christmas Eve service at a church. I was pleasantly surprised by it. I felt that it was pretty solid all the way around. Imagine my surprise this year when we went back to the same church for the Christmas Sunday service and it was oh so emergent in what happened. (This church is not in a denomination known for its movement toward all things emergent.)
I knew very shortly after the service started that this was not the same church we visited last year. And by the half way point of the service it took everything I had to not walk out of the service. After training my mind over the past year, certain things just glared at me. Reading the “Scriptures” from The Message. The “casual, conversational talk” rather than a biblical message. The overemphasis on love, acceptance, and “light” as opposed to explanation of why Christ the Savior is born. Sin was never mentioned. Repentance was never mentioned. But there was plenty of talk about the low class shepherds and going to Bethlehem. To what significant spiritual end, we were never actually told. There was just a lot of talk about “light”.
As I said after we left the service, if someone came into that service lost they never received enough biblical instruction to understand what it means to need a Savior. It grieved me deeply. After we left the service and started talking about it, David mentioned that he had noticed I was taking “notes” during the service. He had correctly guessed that they weren’t sermon notes. (There wasn’t any meat there for notes.) He had guessed they were thoughts to blog about and he was right. I was so disturbed by some of what was going on that I had to write it down. I could hardly focus on the service because I was so distressed by what was going on around me.
Along these same lines…
I am always amazed at the stuff that gets passed around the internet among Christians. Some of it is great and the great stuff usually finds it way onto my blog. Some of it, I believe, is blatantly unbiblical. It gets deleted after David and I have a lively conversation over it. Some of it bothers me right away, but it is so subtle in its unbiblicalness that I have to ponder it and pick it apart before I figure out what it is about it that bothers me. And some of it comes as an “angel of light”, but brings false and unbiblical messages. However, it looks so nice and uses such “biblical” words that many Christians pass it on without really understanding what it is they are passing on to others in their address book.
I just received one of these that I would call “an angel of light” type emails.
So in the interest of a good discussion (that I hope will remain non-controversial), I invite you to take this link and then leave a comment about whether or not you think I am right about this being an “angel of light”. What tips you off? What makes the red lights start flashing when you view this? Is this a biblical message? I hope this will be a good exercise in discernment for all of us.
So I didn’t even get to see the whole thing because I apparently have a computer that recognizes error when it sees it. Nice. Yep, that thing was one of those squishy, feel good quasi-Christian things that conforms to the world. Yuck. “We can feel the oneness with the heavens and earth”? WHAT? whatever…that is so new age. I am glad that you posted this for a couple of reasons.
1. Now I totally think that I have the gift of discernment. That would be a relief to know because for years and years I have left many a church service almost in tears at the stuff that I saw. Frustrated that no one else saw it. I just thought I was hyper-critical.
2. This was my Christmas experience. Not in church this year (YEA!) but in gatherings with others who feel themselves to be “mature” Christians. Only I was a coward and didn’t blog it.
So…what are the biblical references for the gift of discernment?
I am not sure if I was gifted with a strong sense of dicernment but I can usually tell when something just doesn’t seem right. As the others have said there is a strong new-agey theme here of tolerance of accetance of others – NO Jesus is presant but just a trick with a picture of a baby. How sad that many may be falsely lead by these messages of Peace when the only true peace is found in Christ.
Thanks for sharing this!
Hi Sallie!
Just to add to all the other wonderful comments. This saddened me on a personal level as I have been praying for and struggling with some of my families very Catholic “religion”. You know: God at a distance. The belief that it’s all about “peace”. That God is a God of peace. When we are warned that he will return with a sword. Nothing personal, so no need for a Savior. Jesus is warm and fuzzy because He gave us 2 holidays that are “religious”-Christmas and Easter. But that’s all. That’s a deception that is sooo deep and so prevelant that it makes me weep!
Thank you for your post. It blessed me today!
Melissa
Yikes!
That was a stomach turning experience! They are crying “Peace, Peace” sounds like a world ripe for the plucking by the antiChrist.
I think I agree with what every other person has posted. hollow empty words drawing people away from the real point of Christmas.
If someone really wants something awe inspiring, think of the love that propted the all powerful creator to limit himself to time and space putting on human flesh (starting as a helpless infant) so that he could pay the ultimate ransom for His creation by becoming SIN for our salvation, He who knew no sin (and cannot look upon it) took our sins upon himself & died in our place. I cannot know which was harder for him, the intimate aquaintance with our SIN or the resulting separation from the Father “my God my God why have you forsaken me?” until the sin was delt with
we don’t get peace by ‘thinking peaceful thoughts’ Romans 5:1 says “therefore since we have been justified though faith, we have peace with God though our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Mrs Nehemiah
I get a lot of these kinds of things from well-meaning Christian friends…..and I am not saying I am the queen of discernment, but the error in it just jumps out right and left.
We also had an experience with a church using the “Message” as it’s text of choice—tell me, are there any truly Biblical Christ preaching, sin exposing, salvation teaching churches out there anymore?????
Thanks for the thought provoking blog—God bless your week!
Nancy
I perused the website of the maker of the presentation (which apparently is sold out on DVD–yikes!) and here’s an encapsulation of her “masterminding” gig (feel free to delete it, but I thought it was pretty telling):
In spiritual terms, the bible is a study in “substance.” and how to mold it into tangible abundance.
Quantum Physics explains exactly how you intend manifestation and how you are either attracting it or repelling it based upon your current level of thinking – beliefs – about just how hard creating financial freedom has to be!
Your thoughts are composed of “Energy” which do, in fact, affect substance, right here, right now.
The MasterMind principle states that: “No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.”
The human mind is a form of energy, a part of it being spiritual in nature. When the minds of two people are coordinated in a spirit of harmony and agreement, the spiritual units of energy of each mind form an affinity, which constitutes setting energy in motion toward a desired result.
So, if you’re tired of forcing things, handing out boxes of business cards, constantly shaking hands with strangers, making uncomfortable cold calls and attending every networking function within a five-hundred mile radius …
Then you’re going to love what I reveal to you in my MasterMinding 101â„¢ Online Course.
As you utilize my MasterMinding system, you will experience the new energy – the new approaches – currently trying to make their way through to you.
You will learn how to let new gutsy rich ideas, about what you really want, to come through your consciousness, and then you will deliberately and intentionally initiate requests that set energy in motion so that you become the attractor – rather than the chaser of the wealth you seek.
MasterMinding is about setting energy in motion by ASKING for what you really want.
MasterMinding is completely and totally about what happens when two or more minds come together in the spirit of harmony for the achievement of a specific objective – it is in this energy-time-space-reality of agreement that Infinite Intelligence is available to give you what you are asking for!
Ask for the easiest, quickest way to become a Millionaire this year!
Ask for competent and prosperous minded people to do business with.
You can stop chasing money, love, health, and prosperity in any and all areas of your life, and start allowing it to come to you, through you because of weekly MasterMinding sessions.
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As soon as I saw A new consciousness I knew where it was leading. Another clue was the use of “spirit” with Holy in front of it. IT’s another ‘Oprah-ish’ video. I am reminded of a line from one of Casting Crowns songs “quite asking Oprah what to do”. My thoughts have already been expressed here by many others so I won’t say any more!
I couldnt finish it in its entirety….and appreciate
and thank you for this message on discernment….all should be blessed.
I just realized my earlier post was mis-typed. I meant to say that the word ‘spirit’ without the word Holy in front of it set off alarms for me.
Hello again, Ladies (and David!),
I was struck by how many said they could not finish the video or had a hard time finishing it. I think that speaks volumes too. It is HARD to watch something so contrary to the Holy Spirit indwelling us. Most of the time I will click off things like this, but I guess because I was already thinking about these topics, I felt compelled to force myself to finish it and write about it.
I am so glad that so many enjoyed the exercise. I have another post that I started months ago that was also one of these “what do you think of this” type entries, but I hadn’t put it up yet. Maybe I will do that sometime. I found it really interesting to read what everyone observed.
Thanks again and blessings to each of you,
Sallie