Discernment - We Need Some!

The other day I needed to get some targets from the sporting goods store. I went on line and researched the opening time and laid plans to get to the store at its opening. I hopped in the little car with the top down and the morning was perfect. The heat had not moved in yet. As I drove I thought of various things from the day the Lord had made to visiting a new place and developing a new skill. I drove up to the shopping center and pulled in only to see large signs saying “Open at 11am”! I saw lights on so I got out of the car and checked the doors. The outer one was open but not the inner one. I went back to the car, pushed the top back down and contemplated where else to get targets. As I drove toward the entrance of the lot I realized I had automatically gone to my wife’s favorite store which was next door to where I wanted to go! Two things occurred to me. One my wife has me trained better than I thought and operating on autopilot in this world can get you in trouble,

Discernment is defined as the ability to distinguish reality from appearances and truth from falsehood. The ability to apply common sense, good judgment and maturity to understanding life in our day of information overload is desperately needed. The ability to see there are things that matter and things that do not, the ability to see there are things that make a difference and things that do not, and the wisdom to know the difference isn’t as easy as it seems. Is there any among us who can help us?

Let’s start at the bottom of the skill set for discernment. There are some human skills to be understood as people flood us with seemingly convincing arguments. There is manipulation. Mark Twain once said, “The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake it you’ve got it made.” And then there’s us. Sam Johnson once said, “Go into the street and give a man a lecture on morality and give another a schilling and see which will respect you the most.” The problem of discernment goes both ways, after all as a man thinks so is he.

I’ll suggest a resource and then give you some highlights. “Asking the Right Questions –A Guide to Critical Thinking 7^th ed.” by Browne and Keeley, is not for the faint of heart. It can be skimmed by the highlights and you will gain enough situational awareness to know you’re being sold something from the wrong store.

First the structure behind what you are reading, hearing or watching. Somebody wants us to believe something, feel something and likely to conclude something. What is the solution or, like medicine, what is the prescription? Not only serious stuff has a message but often entertainment sends us messages. For instance is your entertainment prescribing the way life should be or is it simply reflecting life as it is? Simply put: How much stock should you put in what you took in? Remember the law of unintended consequences applies here. The message may not be the obvious one.

There are some questions to ask about the structure of what we are given in say, advertisement for instance. Does the belief, evidence or statements offered actually support the conclusion? New and improved for instance. As opposed to what? Does it mean it is the latest batch to hit the store and the box art is new and improved or it the product actually changed? Is the ad just meant to make you feel out of date because you have the old stuff? What does the product date mean anyway? Is what you are being told unclear, capable of saying a lot without saying anything?

Value statements may or may not be apparent. When being told such and such will make your life better, will it? Hidden here are unspoken values that drive the value of what is being said. If it connects with your values, it may be easily agreed with. If it makes you think, then think. Do a little research. Then decide. Did the emotional story or pictures portray reality overall or just in a narrow particular situation? Knowledge is not wisdom but knowledge can serve wisdom.

It is also common to have gaps in reasoning so the information given doesn’t match the conclusion proposed. Everything from marital and family arguments to political ads and product comparison uses this technique. The Personal Attack method: a person or item is attacked and insulted instead of directly addressing the issue. The Slippery Slope method: we are made to assume if a certain action is taken it will set off a chain reaction of events, even if there are safeguards that would not allow it. The Perfectionist Barrier: if some of the problem would be helped but not all of it, it is best to do nothing. The Redefining a Word method: Talk clearly about apples but all the while actually mean oranges. The Attack a Straw Man method: Set up an argument that leaves only one solution but never mention alternative options, especially if the “other side” suggested it. Teens are especially good at this next one but many adults having learned this trick use it, just more subtly. It’s the Claim Questionable Authority Method. “ALL my friends are doing it.” The world thinks such and such about Americans. What source are they using to make that statement? Claiming world opinion is a bit sketchy don't you think?

There is so much more available to us to learn how to process and filter information. This is only the first level of situational awareness. There are more questions to consider: How good is the evidence? Are there rival causes of this behavior? Are the statistics deceptive? What significant information is omitted? What reasonable conclusions are possible? Start with being aware it is your responsibility to look beneath the surface to gain wisdom and insight.

The deeper level of discernment is a more powerful filter. Our own world view comes into play. It is made up of our own values, assumptions, life experience and spiritual life or lack of it. You may not realize you have a world view but you do. It is the filter of your heart and we all have the problem of the penny. We say, “A penny for your thoughts and then put in our two cents.” Where does the other cent come from? If our hearts are rebellious and self centered, if that is the other “cent,” we can gain not understanding but negativity, hostility, and a general spirit of skepticism. So one more thing needs to be said:

We choose our “philosophic position” (world view) based on our perceived desires – this is a direct reflection of the condition of the heart. “The deepest problems of the human race are spiritual. They are rooted in man’s refusal to seek God’s way for his life. The problem is the human heart, which God alone can change.” Billy Graham

All discernment without considering your heart filter is incomplete and capable of leading according to our own wants and sin. Consider this timeless heart cleanser as you develop true discernment. “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation-the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ-for this will bring much glory and praise to God.”Phil 1:9-11 NLT

Ice Cream and Spiritual Growth

The other day I got some ice cream, homemade coffee ice cream with heath bar chunks in it. I had a decision to make. Would I like it in a regular flat bottomed cone or in a tapered waffle cone?

That sent my mind down memory lane to a professor who used an ice cream cone to teach a spiritual truth. The tapered end of the ice cream cone was likened to the point of spiritual decision. It could be the beginning place of repentance, forgiveness and freedom from our past acts of sin. Or it could be choosing to live a fully surrendered life to develop the character of Christ, walking in the Spirit. The work of the Spirit in those moments of decision in either repentance or full sanctification is precise. It deals specifically with beginning a new relationship with God.

Because we speak of the point of decision and emphasize it, preachers, teachers and our own presuppositions can unintentionally lead us to expect all the implications for living out the Christian life are done at the moment of decision. In reality the Holy Spirit downloads into our lives his transforming presence and connects us to the Father but the application and action of this experience requires us to be a willing partner working out this new power in everyday life. There is another reason we like the idea of one and done at the point of decision. We prefer the idea of instant. We do start out in the context of immaturity after all. It would be easier if we didn’t have to work out our faith. Looking at our analogy how would it work if we thought the ice cream cone was only its tapered tip? Our ice cream cone needs two things: the expanding size of the cone to be filled and someone to eat the ice cream and the cone.

There are no shortcuts to maturity. It is true God can and will make us clean and holy in a moment when we choose to ask him into our lives. But it is also true the motive of love placed within us takes a lifetime to unfold. New standards of behavior become the norm. We are challenged to think of others differently and to do life differently. We call this discipleship. “I am crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live, Jesus Christ now lives in me. The life that I now live I live through faith in God’s own Son who loved and gave his life for me.” That’s a pretty radical change. And in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit we find we can begin to live out these changes. But we also find in our humanness we must learn obedience even through suffering and that we can live in deep reverence (love) of the Father and this growth in relationship spills out in everyday behavior.

Because there are no shortcuts to maturity, we must come face to face with past emotional pain often derived from those who were the most significant to us. Perhaps we could say the sins of the fathers visit down unto the even the third and fourth generations. Within the context of temperament, heredity, environment and our own subculture, we each find we developed coping mechanisms to which we may be blind. We truly asked Jesus for forgiveness and it was given. We truly are now his children. We come to grasp the truth of full surrender to deal with our character not just our behavior, yet for many something just seems to misfire. We discover not everything was dealt with in an instant. Yes we are the Lord’s, but something like healing forgiveness needs to happen within us, something that allows us to establish new patterns of coping. Unless we understand a decision point is the beginning and not the end of our life in Christ and in the fullness of the Spirit, we are going to struggle with the ability to live compassionately with ourselves and others.

One of the most difficult things about living in Christian communities is to understand how to live loving our neighbor as ourselves. Kingdom living is a skill to develop. What if people who claim to love Jesus, claim to have surrendered to the Holy Spirit yet STILL have hurts and struggles that result in outbreaks of contradictory behaviors and confusions? What if their personalities and quirks cause us to judge them harshly, to be impatient with them and to be critical of them? What if the survival tactics of the past rise up under pressure that confuse and discourage us and unknown to us they are discouraged by it too? They are not fakes, phonies or hypocrites. They are people like you and me that have hurts and scars and wounds that interfere with ordinary everyday living. People just like us. And the Healer has hope for them IF they will push through the suffering with deep reverence and trust. The combination of fear, and deep hurt combined with the expectation for all the workings of the Holy Spirit to be instantaneous can be a real barrier.

It is true that by their fruits we shall know them and ourselves, but it is also true by our roots we can know and not judge them and ourselves in the sense of bitter criticism. Some who come through this journey become wounded healers. NO we are not to continue in sin that grace might grow more, but all growth and Christlikeness is not equal. Think about habits that you were delivered from at the beginning of your walk. For some deliverance was instantaneous. For others it was a period of time. Think through the lessons of grace you are learning and applying in the mid-season of your walk. Be aware that you are not done learning to grow in wisdom and stature with God and man. It is a life long journey and just when you think you have found your footing, it is time extend that same grace and wisdom to mentor others.

Let’s go back to the ice cream shop. The tapered end of the cone is the beginning of the structure of the cone. It enables the scoops of delicious ice cream to be delivered until it is full and rising above your cone. Unless you do your part it becomes a sticky mess nobody likes. So hop to it Skippy and LICK IT!

What's Going On?

I was thinking this morning about what God was doing with the pandemic and people's "pandemia". I have heard it said that the more things change the more people stay the same. I wonder in what way this is true?

I thought about cultural shifts even in my lifetime. Matters like attitudes toward women at work after WWII, the hippie movement, love and Woodstock, Viet Nam war protests and the response to returning vets as opposed to today. I thought about the historical shift under Constantine with Christianity being the scapegoat of governments and kingdoms to becoming the favored child. How the  context of morality has shifted from that day till this. I thought about how the development of "pandemia" and its fear can add to the impact of world wars, world pollution, world disease, could add to the idea of need for a one world government.

And I thought to myself people are indeed still the same. Being lost is not just a religious idea. It is a moral truth. We seek answers from government, leaders and others and they are never enough.

What is God up to in a pandemic? In answer to that thought, I found some things that made sense. There is an abundance of scripture that indicates it was the work of God to provide the fundamental structure of our existence. You know, the inanimate stuff of physics, quantum physics, math, science and such. Next it was the work of God to bring life to interact with those building blocks. Now comes the very interesting development: moral structure to deal with the freedom we have to play with God's building blocks.I bet your mom told you very early on not to throw the blocks. Right?

The first two steps are PROVISION and the third step is OPERATION. In operation God has shifted gears. The question, what is God doing, has to do with purpose and that may or may not interfere with my purpose. After all it is my life isn't it? Now we're getting to the meaning of the phrase the more things change the more they stay the same. When it comes to purpose we are pretty focused on what's in it for me. But out lives are a part of things much larger than ourselves. We live in the context of the movement of men and nations, of pandemic disease (Covid-19 is not the first nor the last), moral shifts, cultural shifts, immigrant and emigrant shifts, World Wars and we want to know: What is going on?

Let's shift gears for a bit. Her name was Grace Griffin. She was my great Aunt on my mother's side. Late in life she came to live with my folks but before that she was a lifelong resident of Maine and lived with my grandmother in So. Portland. When we went to visit grandmother, we visited grandma and Aunt Grace. I remember her reading her bible or commentary and marking them with a red pencil she kept handy. It had no eraser just a gold cap and it said Harris Oil Company on it. She might look up and share with delight some insight or truth she had just found as naturally as we might talk about some movie or TV show we saw when we were at school in homeroom. After her death I inherited her G. Campbell Morgan commentaries on the Gospels. I still love to see what she had marked and wonder about her conversations with the Lord concerning those thoughts.

His name was Collins Cramer (Rev). He was my grandfather on my dad's side. It was my privilege to live with him and grandmother on the farm for one summer. He farmed for Old Home Manor in PA and pastored a country church. Like my Aunt Grace he delighted in the scripture. On occasion as I passed by his study he would emerge to share his insight and excitement about a passage of scripture and what it said to him. In the morning when I rose I would hear him at prayer, prayer for people, his world and his grandson. After a bit he would call me to breakfast and we would go out to work in the fields with other men and equipment.

My parents and many others of the family on both sides shared these common traits of naturally delighting in concepts they found in the bible and sharing insights as to how they would work in life. Life was very much about what God was doing. They too wanted to know what God was doing, but their perspective on that was very different. Faith did not mean pie in the sky. The Christian life meant going to God. And in the going to God they traveled the same ground as everyone else, they breathed the same air, drank the same water, shopped in stores, read newspapers, were citizens under government, paid for groceries and gas, feared the same dangers, had the same pressures and got buried in the same ground.

So what is the difference? They knew each step, each breath, each success, each tragedy, in all of life, they were preserved by God, accompanied by God, ruled by God and in it all they would be guarded from every evil by the One who guards our very life.

Eternal life given to them by repentance and faith is a quality of life that never perishes nor fails. It keeps us untarnished in the midst of life regardless of its trouble. And when life comes to its end in an expected manner or unexpectedly, it never wins for those marked by eternal life. The quality of life goes on in greater power and depth after death, for it is the quality of life needed to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "But to deviate from the truth for the sake of some prospect of hope of our own can never be wise, however slight that deviation might be. It is not our judgement of the situation which can show us what is wise, but only the truth of the Word of God. Here alone lies the promise of God's faithfulness and help. It will always be true that the wisest course for the disciple is always to abide soley by the Word of God in all simplicity."

It occurs to me while under stay at home orders, that we would do well to not only be concerned about online teaching but about the offline teaching we have modeled and shared concerning what God is doing.

It was from the lives of other Christians I came to lay the foundation of knowing God provides that which I need to even exist. I came to see the activity of God in the lives of those who knew him well. I came to hunger for and find the same indwelling God they had found. If flows down to me and out through me to my kids, my grandkids and others around me. Indoctrination? Hardly. It's just water that spills over from the well springs of everyday life in Christ.

What falls from your bucket?

What About a Cure?

In 1996 a movie called Spitfire Grill came along. Its setting was Gilead, Maine so I purchased the video and still have it. The main character is a young woman who gets released from prison in Southern Maine and comes to Gilead for work in answer to an advertisement. She meets folk who are broken in some way and discovers a secret that impacts the little town and links to Viet Nam. A key moment in the story has two characters looking out over the beauty of Maine and the music is an old hymn based on Jeremiah 8:22 “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” The words of the chorus:

                                    There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;

                                    There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.

Now in Jeremiah’s day there was a national pandemic of behavior that denied their spiritual heritage and redefined the ways of God according to their own desires and wishes. The use and moments of plague in the OT interrupts all illusion of being in charge, for as we know, in the time of plague there seems to be no cure. During these times the sovereign God calls people back to himself, to the place of healing for their sin sick soul. I cannot help but wonder, and pray that this might be a time calling us individually and nationally to a time of healing and redemption with God.

Our lives have been interrupted. Patterns of politics, exercise of authority, business life, financial desperation, marital pain, kids without school and their friends, where abuse was present it intensified, death that could not be met in normal ways, all these things have been our reality. As we cautiously begin to come out of the grip of our pandemic, we are not able to do things quite the same way. In fact we may never do some things in the same way. We are praying for no resurgence and for a cure to come.  Before us lies the possibility of new ways, to consider the balm of Gilead – the reality of God to not only change our ways but to change our heart.

Herein is the sticking point. As evidenced by our stay at home order, state of emergency order, social pressure for masking and distancing, with enough pressure, we can change behavior as long as there seems a pay off. Religion is often thought of as just another pressure point to make us to change behavior. Popular opinion considers the pay off of religion to be shallow and of little value. And in some cases it may be true. But where a healthy church lives in relationship to the living God, there is spiritual transformation, courage, community, faith, connected friendship, emotional wisdom, all the things we need to do life and continue on even through pandemics. With proper obedience to the wisdom of those who deal with disease, our denied one hour per week might have been one of the most needed sources of strength for people. It still happened by going online but it required the church has to flex and change and not just do business as usual. To our surprise we found we often doubled our listeners. Many churches will continue to be online and never look back. Encouraging, mentoring, teaching and more can be done at odd times and in one on one connection with online capability. The tendency to do what we always did only to get only what we always got is very strong. In these new days God is leading us to build new flexibility upon a solid thought, through biblical truth that brings light to the ways of living into all who seek after the truth and life in Christ.

Let me speak to this religious devaluation. I am the grandson of a pastor, the son of a pastor, the nephew of pastors on both sides of the family, the 1^st and 2^nd cousin of pastors on both sides and I am a pastor. I know about the real and alleged complaints about Christians. Truth: In the world of people of faith and not faith there are people who live as judgmental legalists. The following statement cuts two ways: Judge not lest ye be judged for the judgment you use will be the judgment used against you. Simply put: It takes one to know one. In our immaturity, a journey for which there are no shortcuts, we have the process of growing in favor and wisdom and stature with God and man. How did Jesus grow? He surrendered his heart and will to the Father and followed him with deep reverence and learned obedience through suffering. Where do you see an exit door for you based on the behavior of others? Is it not just evidence that God is not more important than your judgment?  Isn’t the truth of your struggle with faith that it often operates when you cannot see the evidence of your faith? Some politicians have the same problem. We need to hunger for our growing knowledge of God to develop emotional wisdom. The cost is a deep surrender and to walk with God. Consider the following coming out of and being used within your relationship with God and people:

1.       The ability to accept people as they are, not as you would have them to be

2.       The capacity to approach relationships and problems in terms of the present rather than in the past

3.       The ability to treat those who are close to you with the same courteous attention that you extend to strangers and casual acquaintances

4.       The ability to trust others, even if the risk seems great

5.       The ability to do without constant approval and recognition of others

So the goal of faith is not just more followers, but growing understanding of how Jesus functioned at every level. Remember Jesus did not come to abolish moral standards but to exceed them by living to their intent. Living by the letter of the law alone only makes us a crank! Theology and biblical understanding requires us to be in partnership with God transforming us. Not only are we forgiven of our sin and have a born again experience, but we are engaged in the journey of becoming more like Jesus. We are a people of grace, drawing others. By our words and life we say, “Come meet the one who has changed and is changing me.”

One day Jesus came by my house. I was glad to see him. I had just purchased a tandem bike and with the stay at home order lifted, his timing was perfect. I invited him to go with me on this beautiful day of freedom and he agreed. We laughed and talked and enjoyed the beauty of newly minted green and bright colored flowers peeking out. We stopped by a water fall and explored the trail and jumped the rocks looking at the pools. I learned of him and I learned about me, to my surprise. After that he was always around for our trips and supplied power and commentary on our daily trips. There were places I did not want to go and conditions under which I didn’t want ride and occasionally I grew lost and afraid. After all I was driving and had control of the steering and brakes.

One day the trail turned steep and rocky and I was unsure of our balance and our way. It occurred to me this happened in our travels more than I realized and that day I thought to ask Jesus to take the front seat. I would pedal from the back. As soon as that happened I discovered a peace and joy that I had not known even though I had Jesus as my companion on my tandem bike. But when I became his companion, everything changed. We went on paths I would not have traveled. Sometimes the steepness or roughness or even wildness of his ways intimidated me. But along the journey we would stop and find places of incredible beauty and rest that I never would have discovered on my own. I began to discover the way of considering the adventure in life rather than the struggle of life. I began to know my companion, myself and others at a depth I had not known. My new way of viewing life’s travels came from my deep surrender and obedience to Jesus. Oh and we became a part of a band of bikers. Life has never been the same and I’ll never look back.

Has Jesus stopped by your house and offered to go riding with you? Take him up on it. You’ll never see life the same again.

Practicing a Freedom Fundamental to My First Bill of Rights

I parked my car and watched for a bit. Reluctantly I put my mask on. I never liked using it even when I was painting and needed it. I liked it less when I wasn’t sure it really did much good. Slowly I wandered across the lot and claimed my six feet. It did feel a lot like death. A nicely dressed couple older than me got in line behind me. No masks. He disappears and after a bit I notice him coming across the parking lot clutching masks. They were reluctant too. We would have to go by the counters and the mask police to get in. The line advanced.

I looked out to some distant mountains and up toward the clouds and warm sunshine. I was already feeling uncomfortable, no irritated, no an edge of anger. The last weeks when the numbers were higher, no masks were needed. We handled social distancing on our own. And now two days late and a dollar short mandatory masks? I decided I better practice my religious freedom right then and there in the rather resigned waiting line. Now your first thought might be, “You left the line and went to church?” Why would you think that? Is it because our culture has conditioned us to think church is the gathering place? No our first amendment is broader and deeper than that. No I lifted my eyes to the distant shadowy mountains and considered who I was and where I was. I began to consider what the fictitious character Father Tim in the Mittford series by Jan Karon, would call the prayer that never fails. The line advanced.

My father who is not dead but present in the heavens, your name is hallowed. The impact and worth of that is so far above valuing my frustration and speaking out of that emotion. Your character/name speaks power to my heart. In the midst of “governmental control” my place in the kingdom come, your will be done not in abstract religiosity but in your will flowing down to me and out through me. I began to think of the weary lady leaning on the cart before me and the quietly resigned gentle couple behind me. I began to want the will/presence of my Father to be done in my spirit on this little piece of sidewalk. I was there to get some daily bread, true but its availability was now a matter of interest but not of disgust if it were not present. I am of the forgiven. My advocate and intercessor was present in line with me through the person of the Holy Spirit. And in those moments of worship my own spirit began to change with peace and presence of my own that would come to make a difference in the way I regarded those around me. The line advanced.

I was being gently led past the temptation to kill the peace and purpose of being a child of king. The fruit of the tree of knowledge good and evil led me to be aware of the faulty distribution of safety, the misuse of information not for good but for manipulation, some untrustworthy leaders led to distrust of all leaders dealing with human reaction to the unknown. I was being tempted to go down a rabbit hole. I was nearing the entrance. My heart was being freed from the one who was saying, “What of your rights? What of your freedom? What of fairness?” Not today. Not today, evil one. And the line advanced.

I thought about the benefit of social distancing. I wouldn’t have need of as much deodorant and therefore would save money! And I thought of the disappointment of the day. Unlike many of the long lines I stood in, at the end there would be no ride or entertainment venue. Now I was past the counter and the masker. I got my cart and wiped down the handle as my wife said I should. It felt like the first time I bought eggs after getting married. I went to the store full of new importance. As I approached the eggs I saw a lady picking up her eggs and turning them slightly. Wanting to stay in good graces with my new wife, I opened the lid and turned the eggs for some reason. Nothing. So a bit desperate I turned to the lady and asked, “Why are we turning the eggs?” After laughing she said, “To make sure they weren’t cracked!” Oh.  After being in the store a little while I crossed paths with the couple who had been in line behind me. Since we were in the personal products area, I shared my observations about deodorant and the end of the line. Amidst the laughter we soldiered on a bit lighter. And the line advanced.

Augustine wrote when “force is applied, the will is not aroused. One can enter the Church unwillingly, one can approach the altar unwillingly, one can receive the sacrament unwillingly; no one can believe except willingly.” It is incredible how faith misdirected can take you all kinds of places, even to the evil ones delight. But to fix your eyes on Jesus, set him as the navigational point in your everyday ordinary running around life, there is religious freedom. 

So yesterday at Walmart I practiced my religious freedom in a broad and most powerful sense. I trusted the Lord with all my heart, soul mind and strength. If it be possible let the pandemic pass, “yet not as I will, but as you will.” And the line moved…