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| One of These Things is Not Like the Other |
Posted: 02/18/2008
One of These Things is Not Like the Other
Stare at the picture above and find which donut is not like the others. "Take your time…good job I knew you could do it!" That, my friend, is called discernment. Some of you might not have been able to be discerning because you did not want to pass judgment on the donuts. Maybe you feel that it is not your place to say if there is any difference between the donuts and that it is for God to judge. For those that believe we are called to be discerning, you followed a simple process. You put the suspecting donut to the test. From across the room everything looks fine but as you come closer you start to see some differences. You just distinguished between a Krispy Kreme donut and a McDonald's cheeseburger, which was pretty tricky since they are the same size and shape. But, you know enough about Krispy Kreme donuts to sniff out a copycat.
The world we live in is becoming one ecumenical lazy river of religion. Where religious deception abounds, how can we possibly discern the true from the false? So many churches, so many preachers. Here is a simple strategy for seeing clearly. Study the Word of God verse by verse. It is the measuring stick for testing all preaching and teaching. The more you know the truth, the easier it will be to identify or expose a false teaching.
Why is it so important? It was the apostle Paul who wrote, "...there are some that...would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:7-9).
The Apostle Paul was pretty clear with his continued warnings.
"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).
Having discernment means that you can separate truth from error. You examine teaching; you don't believe everything you hear, but you test the teachings. Even the Bereans tested Paul's teaching to see if it was in harmony with the Word of God.
You will never notice the counterfeit unless you know what the original looks like. The Bible is clear that there is only one true gospel and MANY false gospels. Don't be afraid to contend for the faith. No one is above being tested against scripture, not even the angels. Test, evaluate, and examine the teacher and the message.
Discernment is your responsibility. Use your brain to reason what you hear against scripture. It should become a life's discipline.
I John 4 1-4 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com
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Spirit and the Word
| Posted On: 02/25/08 05:05:40 PM |
Age 31, ENGLAND |
Stalin and Hitler were not born again, so how they are relevant to a comment that Christians need to spend time reading and studying and meditating the Word of God is beyond me.
Once you are born again, you pass from death into life, from darkness into light. Your reborn self can then understand the Word as you read it. If you are not born again, you need someone to explain it to you just as the Ethiopian eunuch needed Philip to explain Isaiah to himself.
The Word is a two-edged sword. Some people, and some Christians unfortunately, like to wield just one side and cut everyone that moves. People who truly know the Word cut themselves as well, using the Bible as a tool to develop and investigate their own lives and change because of it.
James says the Word is a mirror. Hitler looked in the mirror, he might have even carried one around with him, but if he never examined his reflection and alter his appearance, the mirror has been useless to him.
The role of the Spirit is to convince us of sin, righteousness and justice. And most of the sin, it is our sin that we need to be made aware of as we read the Word. We need to know our righteousness as well, so we can rest in the complete work of Jesus. That we are the only religion on earth with a Saviour.
When both elements are together, we look into the mirror of the Word, and the Spirit energises us (the same power that raised Christ from the dead!) to change from glory to glory, from faith to faith and from strength to strength.
With the Spirit and no Word, we have no way of knowing what is right or wrong, no plumbline and we are ripe to led astray by every wind of doctrine.
With the Word only, we are impotent to follow it, to obey it, to change. Then we use it to scalpel others and hurt them. Then we become Pharisees.
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Biblical Discernment
| Posted On: 02/19/08 06:56:01 PM |
Age 71, CO |
This article is Good, Powerful, True and Right to the Point! Thanks
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Simple truth
| Posted On: 02/19/08 12:38:08 PM |
Age 47, MO |
This is humerous because truth is true. It's a simple reality that we complicate things to appease the pull of the flesh and the spirit. But the Gospel is simple. Faith is simple, Christ is discerned by children and the faith of a child moves mountains. Sin corrupts our minds and seeks its own rightousness, this is why humanity embrases sin and shuns truth. Good article. John
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Discernment
| Posted On: 02/18/08 09:08:08 PM |
Age 22, WA |
Good Word.....That picture is to funny the lack of discernment by professing Christians not so funny..
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Spend time in the Holy Scriptures
| Posted On: 02/18/08 06:11:36 PM |
Age 61, MO |
Excellent advice. Spending time in the Word should be a daily routine. George Cancilla
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- daily bible reading
| Posted On: 02/18/08 09:36:33 PM | | Age 50, TX |
It has been reported that both Adolf Hitler and J. Stalin were regular readers of the Bible, able to quote large portions from memory.
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- Glad you straightened us out!
| Posted On: 02/19/08 05:48:12 PM | | Age 52, KS |
Wow! I guess this means that daily Bible reading is a bad thing, since these guys were daily Bible readers and turned out like they did. What a solid Cause-and-effect argument! Sure can't find any holes in your logic.
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- RE: Glad you straightened us out
| Posted On: 02/20/08 01:04:32 AM | | Age 19, CA |
Congratulations on answering a question that wasn't asked! I'm sure the original commenter couldn't have been thinking anything else when stating that information. Wait... oh, maybe there WAS something else the commenter could have meant. Maybe reading and memorizing the Bible isn't enough. Maybe we need to have the Holy Spirit in our lives, helping us to interpret the Bible. But obviously, the person you replied to didn't mean this...
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- reasonable mmm
| Posted On: 02/20/08 05:48:18 PM | | Age 50, TX |
Thanks for the post of clarity. I did indeed mean to point out that too many chant the mantra that we just need to read our Bibles every day and the world will get better. There is no proven correlation to this effect. Instead, we should be checking to clarify how closely we are walking with God and how keenly we listen for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Any one can open a book and read and memorize its contents without internal change. How about we seek the movement of God in our lives by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit instead of some mechanistic approach that says plug in Bible reading "a" into church attendance "b" to turn out disciples "c"?
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- Both are necessary
| Posted On: 02/22/08 04:53:54 PM | | Age 34, CO |
The Bible alone without the Holy Spirit will provide a mechanistic approach. But the Holy Spirit alone has its cons also. How do you know if it indeed is the Holy Spirit and not your flesh? By comparing what you feel the Holy Spirit is leading you to do with what scripture teaches and seeing if it is compatible. We should worship in Spirit and in Truth. In Spirit: guided by The Holy Spirit; In Truth: guided by God's Holy Word (Scriptures). Can't have one without the other.
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- THE HOLY SPIRIT ALONE HAS NO CONS
| Posted On: 02/28/08 10:05:03 AM | | Age 64, OH |
You say, "The Holy Spirit alone has it's cons also". GOD FORBID, HOW CAN THE HOLY SPIRIT EVER HAVE ANYTHING AGAINST HIM. It is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone that saves us. We are not saved by Jesus and the Bible. It is Christ alone. The Holy Scriptures are unique and the only Book that every letter is inspired by the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no Book like it. I read it everyday, all day long. But the Bible itself tells us to worship ONLY the CREATOR and NOT the creation. The Bible is part of the creation. Yes, most who claim to follow the Holy Spirit, do not follow Him but their own desires. But the pharisees read the book and followed it and were all lost forever. So should we say the Book has cons or is wrong in some way. Of course not. But just because some who claim to follow the Holy Spirit do not; it is no fault of the Holy Spirit. It is the fault of those who follow their desires while claiming to love God. God has given us the Bible so we should value it very highly as a gift from God; as we should value the gift of healing. But we dare not follow the gift; but we need to follow the giver of the gift. Enoch had no Bible and yet he walked and talked with God Almighty. There was no CON to Enoch walking with God. Enoch pleased God so much that God took Enoch without him experiencing death. Who among us can say the same. Lou
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- A little common sense please...
| Posted On: 02/21/08 09:41:38 AM | | Age 51, NC |
While I agree that simply reading the Bible and going to church do not make one a Christian and that we should always be checking that we are walking close to God, I think you have misunderstood Mr. Cancilla's remarks. What he is saying is that as Christians, if we don't KNOW God's Word, then we can't DISCERN whether or not something agrees with God's Word. We can't tell "truth from error." As Ray Baumann said, "You will never notice the counterfeit unless you know what the original looks like." You won't know what the original looks like if you don't read and study it!
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