Tag bible

Discernment

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Discernment is the ability to evaluate the qualities in any choices. The most personal and or important discernment might be between good and evil because that affects an individual person at a potentially eternal level.

There must be a solid standard for discernment to work. Many people choose standards which do not require moral and or ethical standards like the controlling values of money, wealth, prestige, power, and the like. False standards, or gods, are dangerous and can create tremendous levels of life and relationship damage. It is important to know whether a god or the God is the controlling influence.

Scams require discernment to see through them and not be trapped by them. Scams appeal to desires and feelings, not to standards of virtue that are greater. You see so many pitches for instant (or extremely speedy) health, wealth, appearance, power, or pleasure of some sort. The worst scams we face might be the lies we tell ourselves. “I can break _ (list any healthy life discipline broken) because __ (list any excuse you’ve ever used).”

Discernment teaches us to see who or what benefits from the program, sales pitch, or idea being presented. The detective movies always say, “follow the money.” Another way of checking for scams is the old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, be assured it is.” The Bible is the best measure. This measure or standard can be applied to business, politics, relationships, and church.

Prosperity preachers are being treated like scammers because their messages appeal to man’s desired outcomes more than the preferences and purposes of God according to the Bible. However, any preacher or person who shares the gospel can cherry pick their preferred verses to make the Bible appear to say what they want it to say. The problem isn’t the Bible. It is the person distorting the Bible for their own purpose. It’s up to each person to know the difference: discernment.

It is important to protect ourselves from the scammers in this life and the scammers who misrepresent truth for their own benefit. “Is this the truth of God as verified throughout the Bible or the preference of man?” Is a good guiding question. It is important for each of us to know what is having a controlling influence over our choices. A critical life skill is discernment between the self oriented values of this world and the true virtues of God. Jesus is a proven standard and is verified throughout the Bible.

Something Better

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I think on this day before Thanksgiving I would like to offer a thought about being thankful for more than the pleasant things.

It is natural to be thankful for all the benefits and comforts of life, the things that go our way, and the things that bring satisfaction in our accomplishments. I think that it’s equally important to give thanks to the rest, the gifts of life that form and shape us into the people we are.

It is the discomforts in life that grow us towards maturity and that teach us how to make decisions with experience and wisdom. The discomforts teach us to learn from this mistake because a bigger one is in the wings waiting for us if we don’t. It is how we learn to endure, be strong, have courage, and stand fast in adversity. It is the proof of true and deep friendships. It is the comfort that God is the Father who trains his children as we train our own for success, discipline, and hope.

It is the drill instructor that pushes a soldier beyond his limits and forces him into the routines that will save his life on the battlefield. It is the coach or circumstance that pushes an athlete beyond all his/her known abilities to unearth the greater abilities within. It is the parents that discipline to shape the ship that will carry a person through the waters of life. It is the nagging doubts that give insight and strength and stabilize beliefs. It is the frustration that empowers someone to have patience and endurance. It is the losses that teach compassion.

Today, in addition to being thankful for all the blessings, I am thankful for the blessing and education of discomfort, challenge, disappointment and all the training in hope, discipline, and love they provide. I am thankful for the worst things that have happened in my life because they have become testimonies of hope to persons needing encouragement. I am grateful that I have never been alone no matter how isolated I felt.

We may provide God the fertilizer of all the sorrows we experience in this world, but He uses those things to plant beautiful flowerbeds and fruit bearing plants. God does not wish our sorrow, but He knows how to transform them into something better.

Deceit

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My youngest son believed his older brother to be a great hero. We came upon our youngest right after he broke something. He immediately proclaimed that his brother did it. We reminded him that his brother wasn’t home. It didn’t matter to our young son. He didn’t want to be caught or punished, so he blamed his brother. Humans tend to tell others what they want them to believe or what it is believed the other wants to hear.

Wanting justification and/or forgiveness without consequences shows prominently in every form of media we experience. The media also shows that those avoiding honesty are willing to see others being punished because they are not of the same mind, thought, and/or priorities in life. Some of the most brutal people on the planet seem to be those crying out for acceptance without equal willingness to show it in return.

Accountability is tough. It is facing your responsibilities regardless of what anyone else faces. It is standing in the face of your own right and wrong honestly, without hiding, without avoiding, and accepting what comes from the actions or behaviors.

Like my son, confusion comes when we deceive ourselves that mistakes can be covered up or will go unseen. Lies always tell on themselves. It may take a while, but they will be revealed. It is easier to face earlier than later.

My son got in trouble twice, once for breaking something and another for lying. We have seen politicians create more crimes in their cover up than the original issue, all while being run to the ground by reporters.

There is a place in each of us where we want truth to be as we want it rather than as it is. I recognize this in me. I have become more sophisticated as I aged, but sometimes my behavior is little different from my son: cover up, blame others, act as though it didn’t happen. No one wants to be punished, even when it is amply deserved.

The church was created to focus on God and to create a loving environment where people can have the courage to face themselves honestly. God meets us where we are and is not confused by where we tell Him we are. Honesty with Him is a basic requirement. It is the best and safest path.

Saying Is Seeing

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I had a long conversation with my pastor about the beauty and growth of our church. The more we spoke, the more I realized that everything I said exposed where I am in my personal growth. I see the church in terms of where I am. That may or may not directly correlate with where the church is. We, the church, are a single group made up of diverse individuals, as my friend Heather says. We are each a unique part of the same creature.

The pastor has the unenviable position of seeing all the individual parts, hearing each speak from his/her point of view, and the requirement to discern what they say in the context of the whole. He has a most difficult job, especially when you consider that He has to apply what he hears the family say to where the Lord is leading and to move all the family toward God. Anyone who has had to keep a group in a good working relationship while on a journey together knows the challenge.

Speaking to the pastor shows me my limitations and individual point of view. I may not have really seen myself honestly in my thoughts. My insight became much clearer as I opened my mouth to speak. My words, out loud and in the open, began to be more clear when put in the context of a broader and deeper point of view. The pastors ideas, responses, and point of view acted as a mirror, reflecting my words and ideas back to me so I could see them better through context than when they were just located in my mind.

The insights give me the opportunity to pursue the Lord with what I’m seeing inside myself. Though the pastor made no complaint or correction to me, my words showed me immaturity in my thinking and insecurity in my feelings. What was not seen or said by my pastor became obvious to me through my own words.

I used to say things to my students like, “You can’t write any assignment without exposing the author behind it.” It is as true in me as it was for them. Listening is a two way proposition. It is hearing the other and hearing what is really behind what you are saying. It is the complex art of self correction and awareness for growth’s sake. It is choosing to reflect and become aware of your own motives, good and bad. Your own words can help you see what growth lies in your future. God uses relationships so that, through our communications, we can see Him, each other, and ourselves with clearer vision. God’s plan is our growth toward Him. Our openness allows Him to teach us, even through our own words.

Thoughts on Prayer

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What is prayer? A wish, a hope, purposeful thoughts, or a conversation? Prayer as a conversation means there is another engaged in the dialogue. Who is the other you converse with? Is it an idea, a standard, a disconnected deity, a person in power, or possibly a true God who responds and engages in the conversation with you? Faith and religion can be as simple as the Bible describes or as complicated as humans can make it, and we often complicate things extraordinarily.

Consider an ant holding a conversation with a blue whale as a wild example. The whale is beyond any ant’s imagination in size and power. It lives in an environment beyond anything an ant can experience. An ant entering a whale’s environment, though natural to the whale, is death to the ant. Neither can the whale live in the small, earth-bound environment of the ant. There is no way the two can coexist in the natural. These two creatures are incompatible due to their different natures. We are both whale and ant in this strange example.

That relates to humans and God only to a point. There is a third element that is within humans that can directly connect to God’s nature, and that is spirit. Spirit is that part of us that is made of the divine nature in that it is a forever piece of us that is bonded to flesh and blood. That means there is a piece of God’s environment tied to this physical nature. We are, to keep with the example, part whale and part ant. It is no wonder that the differences do not leap into harmony with each other within us.

Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God in both natures to connect with humanity, body and soul/spirit. Jesus is the perfect wedding between spirit and physical humanity. He is able to communicate through all barriers and confusions to create understanding for productive conversation. He is spirit made physical for the work of relationship. His life, death, and resurrection is convincing proof that God wants the conversation/ relationship. He has truly gone the “extra mile” by coming to us as only He can. Prayer is a living conversation with God who starts the conversation, carries the conversation, and responds to the conversation. Prayer is not words on the wind, but a dialogue, a two way conversation.

Dad’s Complaint

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I’ve talked to many fathers who have a similar complaint about how children hear. Dad would tell us some truth that we children needed to hear and master. A neighbor would mention this truth in passing, after father had told us the same many times over, and we would come home with that truth as a sudden revelation. Dad would complain, “I’ve been telling you that for months,” and he had.

Recently, like many times before, I went to church and had the same experience. Ideas floating through my mind would be coalesced into clear images during the songs and/or sermon, and it was like I heard it for the first time. I can imagine the Lord, like my dad, saying, “I’ve been saying that to you for a long time,” and He has. Sometimes it is easier to hear it from someone else than to trust that my thoughts are being encouraged from heaven.

I have talked to many people, faith and non faith, whose ideas have been encouraged from heaven. Maybe it is easier for me to see/hear it than it is for them because the ideas form in their minds. They are aware of the thought, but not the source. I had an atheist explain his beliefs to me one day. He was all about life being random, but his love was order and organization. He perfectly described intelligent design of creation while saying it was all formed by random. He was saying one thing, but we were hearing different things. Order and random are absolute opposites, but he didn’t hear it in what he was saying. I think that he loved the qualities of God but just didn’t want anyone to interfere with the way he structured and lived his life.

Artists see beauty and want to have it, be it, create it. They accept that discipline is a requirement of the process. Christians perceive that God has invited them into His beauty and accept that discipline is a necessary part of the process. The beauty of God’s life is way beyond us requiring us to have help and leave the bad parts of ourselves behind. Non believers see what we believe to be wonderful as God the enforcer shoving His will and priorities down their throats. What Christians see as rescue, non believers see as having their boat torpedoed.

I find this confusing because everyone seems to love the values of God like love, joy, peace, justice, honor, truth, and the like. We all seem to be in agreement on one level, but not in agreement as to the source or the process for gaining those true values. The purest qualities of all those values only come from God’s warehouse. All other sources are like bathtub gin, pretty low grade and chancy, the difference between street drugs and medicine from the pharmacy.