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Christianity was supposed to be about becoming like Jesus. | |
We went in the wrong direction. |
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Christian Pioneer - eBook for Cell Phone Everything you Know is Wrong |
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   Discernment Navigating through a world of baloney One might expect a salesman, card shark, or politician to lie. After having been taken advantage of over the years one generally develops a useful level of skepticism Useful skepticism is that which helps you identify that which would take advantage of you or lead you into some deception. In a way, this book is intended to help some recognize that which is false. Discernment however, should be more than recognizing and avoiding that which is false, it should also help identify that which is true. One thing that makes us vulnerable to deceptions is our desires. Buddhists see the elimination of desire as the doorway to Nirvana. Christians see the replacement of selfish desire with selfless desire as a more useful solution. It was not so much the apple that Satan tempted Eve with as the suggestion that “Ye shall be as gods”. Being able to discern truth is often a matter of trust (faith). Who did Eve trust more, God, Adam, or Satan? This can be a useful insight into discernment. If Eve had said to Satan when he asked, “Is it true God hath said...”, “I can’t remember exactly, let’s ask him”, history might have been different. There was a conspiracy theory that Abraham Lincoln was not dead. The rumor had spread so far that a commission was appointed and the grave opened and Lincoln was still there. The un-discerning might accept a rumor without question. A person more discerning might ask questions such as if he were still alive, wouldn’t someone have recognized him, or if someone stole the body, why would they do that.  Perhaps the first place to exercise discernment is with ourselves. While some are able to recognize what is wrong in the world, fewer are able to recognize what is wrong inside themselves. Being able to recognize our own deficiencies is helpful both to protect vulnerabilities as well as identify that in which we need to improve.  Bad experiences can contribute to discernment. One might think that being smart would also contribute to discernment, but when you consider what the people in college believe, you might not want to rely too much on intelligence. However, most in college were discerning enough to recognize what the politics of the group were in which they desired to prosper. If one considers truth as useful to discernment, then being immersed in truth would provide the highest ability to discern truth from what is false. Truth might be defined as what is absolute, unchangeable, and defines ultimate reality. If God created reality, he would be the ultimate source of truth. |
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Information about Christianity and the Christian life. |
Pictures and views of our farm | Some of our animals | See some of the old-fashioned crafts we are trying to relearn | ||