Have you ever read a book or heard a sermon and said to yourself something like “That has been inside me for a long time, I just could not get it out.” That is exactly what I have been thinking as I have been reading “The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment” by Tim Challies. He is best known for his website http://discerningreader.com/. (The website is dedicated to book reviews of books that would be beneficial to the believer and offering warnings to books we should look out for and why.)
The book on Spiritual Discernment has come at a critical moment in my life both personally and as I attempt to minister the Word in this age. Spiritual relativism has duped our minds into taking at face value and accepting what they say as true anyone who quotes a Bible verse or calls themselves a Christian. Recently, one of my daughters and I were talking about stuff. One of those talks that I enjoy so much. She said to me, “Dad, one of my friends said that we should listen to the music of a particular group(I will not name them) because they are Christians.” I replied, “What did you say?” She basically said to her friend “They do not seem to act or sing like Christians.” To which she was met with hostility by both her friend and the others present, “Oh yes they are they said so!” Her young heart and mind was attempting to move toward spiritual discernment when she said to me “Dad, is that true?” A conversation continued with far deeper conclusions and I pray lasting impressions on her mind and heart.
Part of that conversation had to do with what Challies meant when he said “Many Christians wish they could live in a bubble…a bubble that would protect them from false teaching and allow them to avoid having to develop or use spiritual discernment…We live in a world that is in direct opposition to Christianity. Just as germs are constantly waging war on our bodies, false doctrine is constantly waging against our faith. God has provided us with discernment to enable us to withstand these attacks.”
The bubble is not possible long term. Spiritual discernment lasts a lifetime.
Discernment is the anti-bacterial soap that we carry in the pocket of our minds.
Next time–I will offer an opportunity, concerning Oprah and McDonalds, to practice a little discernment…