Desiring the Discipline of Discernment

Spiritual discernment is an art, a science, and the responsibility of every disciple of Jesus Christ. At the same time, we live in a culture that rejects discernment and we see churches that have failed in the task of preparing Christian believers to practice spiritual discernment. A Christian without discernment is unable to see the difference between the truth and the lie, the artificial and the real, the orthodox and the heretical, even right and wrong.

The discipline of spiritual discernment will train the disciple to aim at the good, the beautiful, and the true and to be more faithful in every arena of life.

In this confused age, Tim Challies offers help in The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment [Crossway]. Tim is a young writer and web designer who is one of the most recognized names in the Christian blogosphere. He is also a fine young evangelical thinker. The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment is a book with great promise that is both timely and substantial.

An excerpt:

Many who profess to believe in Christ affirm Christianity as a collection of truths, and even very important, life-altering truths, but not as Truth; not as a worldview that encompasses all of life. To be people of discernment, we must acknowledge the existence of both truth and error. And, just as there will always be counterfeit currency, where there is truth, there will be counterfeits of the truth. Our task as people of discernment is to separate what is truth from what is error. It is to ensure that we think of God and believe in God in ways that are consistent with how he has revealed himself to us in the Bible. Our confidence is not in ourselves, but that God has made his truth clear to us. We have confidence that God is capable of communicating to us in a way that we will be able to understand.

You will also want to visit www.challies.com.