Sunday, November 01, 2009

Levels of Discernment

The easiest and most effortless level of discernment is the assessment of others. But the most difficult and arduous level is found in a mirror and not in a telescope.

Rick Frueh circa A.D. 2009

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another one for the collection! The most revealing mirror of all, of course, is His Word. Read it and weep.

Anonymous said...

online discernment "ministries" = virtual busybodies

Rick Frueh said...

I cannot see a New Testament calling that is exclusively for discernment. All preachers and pastors should have a discernment element in their ministries.

But when a person is constantly looking for things like that, it tends to mold a person's thought process and eventually he is susceptible to nitpicking and self righteousness, and his relationship with Christ can easily become cold and doctrinal.

Anonymous said...

One thing I do see in the New Testament is that the Pharisees of Jesus' time thought they had a so-called discernment ministry, too. (Among other things.) We know where that led.

Unknown said...

Online discernment ministries alerted me to the apostasy currently rampant in the church (of which i was totally ignorant - not having attended a church for 10yrs and only recently coming back to loving Jesus. God is faithful!). So, I am grateful that they exist and have tried to use some discernment myself in testing what they say. I believe that it is good to have watchmen in the body and that the warning they sound encourages me to be prepared for what might lie ahead before Jesus returns.

Unknown said...

Online discernment ministries alerted me to the apostasy currently rampant in the church (of which i was totally ignorant - not having attended a church for 10yrs and only recently coming back to loving Jesus. God is faithful!). So, I am grateful that they exist and have tried to use some discernment myself in testing what they say. I believe that it is good to have watchmen in the body and that the warning they sound encourages me to be prepared for what might lie ahead before Jesus returns.