Video Transcript: Introduction to Discernment

Henry - I want to welcome you to the Christian discernment class. I'm Henry  Reyenga. And with me is Steve Elzinga. And we're really enjoying doing these  mini classes together. And here in another one, we are going to talk about  Christian discernment.  

Steve - And I mean, that is so relevant, because discernment is all about what is true, right? And how do you know what is true and what is not? And in our world  today, especially in the age of information, or the age of disinformation, right? It's a confusing mess out there. And so how do you how do you find your way in  

these confusing seas?  

Henry - You know, and I think also too, we live in this postmodern era, where we you have to be intentional about who you are to be intentional about what you  want to do, because everything is about your choices and your discernment  anyway, right. So Christian discernment is an extremely relevant topic.  

Steve - So what is Christian discernment?  

Henry - Discernment is the ability to perceive insights that are scripturally,  guided, or self evident. Now we we mean scripturally guided we also mean led  by the Holy Spirit out of your relationship with Christ, but just a very the scripture really is for God's word and core to truth,  

Steve - and our self evident. So some things are just evident. But they're also  scriptural, right, right. Often that's the case because God is the inventor of both.  

Henry - There's two Bible passages here. Romans 15:4, for everything that was  written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance, and the  encouragement of scriptures, we might have hope. It's interesting that word  endurance means your walk with God, endurance, prayer, reading the Bible, the encouragement of Scripture, we may have hope, right? So that that idea is that  we are scripturally guided through our walk with God and through Scripture.  

Steve - And then Psalm 19:1, The heavens declare the glory of God in the skies  proclaim the work of his hands. So that's the whole idea that God reveals  Himself, not only in Scripture, which is special revelation, he also reveals himself in general revelation in what he has made. And that's that self evident thing,  right? Some things are just evident, because God has put it that way.  

Henry - So you can discernment comes out of that self- evidency as well. Very  interesting. 

Steve - So, what we want to do with this intro lecture is just touch on all the  different discerning areas that we want to talk about in this course,  

Henry - in this mini course. Okay, so one of them is just worldview discernment,  which is huge,  

Steve - right? I mean, that's the step back and look at, you know, What's your  philosophy of life?  

Henry - It's almost like everything now is worldview driven truth, right? News.  There's a worldview behind it a religious,  

Steve - right. But But what, why we want to talk about it in terms of discernment  is the news doesn't come on and say, by the way, this is our worldview at our  station, we want to let you know our biases, right? Everyone speaks their  worldview as if it is the only word right? And that's why you have to be  discerning as a Christian.  

Henry - So we're going to learn how to spot truth and falsehood, right? Right and pretty good, right? In our premise, or are the insights the pillars are scripture and Christian literacy, academic skills and walk with God so we're gonna hone these  things in to focus on how to spot truth and (unintelligible),  

Steve - right? You need these things. You need scripture, Christian literacy,  academic skills, a walk with God, right? Otherwise, you're gonna miss out on  what this world view discernment thing is,  

Henry - like I John 4:1, Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the  spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have  gone out into the world. So that's one. 

Steve - relational discernment. Interesting. So now we're in we have the  telescope or was sort of zooming in one aspect of a worldview.  

Henry - Discernment, learn how to be motivated by love and showing it. I John  4:20, if anyone says, I love God yet hates his brother. He's a liar for anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen. God who has not seen and he  has given us this command. Whoever loves God also loves his brother.  

Steve - This whole arena is so important because most of our lives are about  relationships. From family, to friends, to church, to community, politics, nations, 

it's all how we relate to one another. And the rules of engagement, these days  are changing quickly. And so what we've what we're seeing is a lot of  brokenness in relationships. So why is that?  

Henry - Right? And learn how to discern boundaries, learn how to forgive.  Learning. I mean, this is a huge discernment topic, like what's appropriate?  What is the most loving response to any situation? Here's one,  

Steve - all right, moral, or grateful living discernment.  

Henry - Learning how to live as a living sacrifice. Romans 12  

Steve - kind of interesting that we're combining here moral or grateful living.  How does that go together?  

Henry - Well, after you are saved, in Jesus Christ, you know, you're sin and  misery and you've been saved. Christianity is a relationship driven lifestyle,  you're already forgiven. So you're not going to try to impress God with your  morality. Or anything, right, your morale. But yet, grateful if you want to live the  

10 commandments.  

Steve - And this, and this is so big, because it seems like the culture sees  Christianity as just a moral thing for moral rules, and this is what you must do.  And they miss the whole thing that our motivation is not to earn anything, right?  Our motivation is the gratefulness that we feel because we've been saved.  Because even though we haven't done things, right,  

Henry - and the law convicts us, we know we're sinners. But Jesus has saved us and now we just want to live for him. Yes, Ephesians 5:1-3, Be imitators of God,  therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us,  

and gave himself up for us, as a fragrant offering the sacrifice to God. And in  notice now you're dealing with immorality, though, but among you, there must  not be even a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Notice how it's different. We live a life  of love. And then the other there is morality here, but we have to discern what's  right and right.  

Steve - But I like how it starts out, the imitators of God. Why, therefore, as dearly loved children, right to see that the the relationship before morality, if not  religion, 

Henry - its relationship as a phrase people I hear. Common Sense Discernment  learning how to live in the world, but not of the world. And common sense. It's an interesting one. Discernment. In I've met people like that that are crazy smart.  They're interesting people that they have in back in our day, we call that they  have no common sense.  

Steve - They're book smart, but they have no common sense, right? Or either.  They're smart in this arena. But when it comes to just things that come should  come naturally, right, they're missing that. So how do you how do you how do  you get that? 

Henry - right? Luke 16:9, but I tell you use worldly wealth to gain friends for  yourself so that when it is gone, you'll be welcomed into eternal dwellings.  

Steve – Luke 16:11, So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly  wealth, who will trust you with true riches?  

Henry - Now, that's a interesting passage, and you can dive into that deeper if  you're interested. But here Jesus is actually said, you know, for the people of  light, we should be driven by somewhat common discern common sense, right.  

Steve - All right, let's go to the next one.  

Henry - Calling Discernment, this is relevant for a lot of Christian leaders,  Institute students, and college students and alliances. What is God calling me to do?  

Steve - The process of asking God to direct your life path and your identity?  

Henry - Romans 11:29, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. And I  Corinthians 1:1, Paul called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God  and our brother Sosthenes.  

Steve - Right, so my guess is that many of you have this question. Am I called?  Right. What am I called to? Right? And how do I know? So we want to talk about that. So you can have a sense because a lot of times people are called, but they 

don't even know it. Right? Or they, or they for sure don't know what it is. Right?  So that's going to be a really relevant topic.  

Henry - Here's another one discernment of spirits identifying demonic  influences, and ideas, people and organization. And Mark 8:23. But when Jesus  turned and looked at his disciples, He rebuked Peter, Get behind me Satan, he 

said, You did not have in mind the things of God but the things of man. I don't  know about you, I've always found it interesting, Peter somehow had, like, in  that moment, Chris gave an idea that basically was from the demonic side.  Right?  

Steve - And so and why discernment is so important is because we live sort of in science, what you see is what is world. And as Christians, we know that a lot of  things are happening behind the scenes. And so in order to successfully  navigate your time on this earth, you really have to take into account the spiritual side of things. And so how do you do that? Right, and  

Henry - we're gonna talk about that in this class. Right. And lastly, get ready for  this one, gender discernments. Many cultures, especially the West, are  separating sex from gender. And again, we know, God created man in his own  image in the image of God, He created male and female, He created them,  however, in the West, especially to discern and know why you are the gender  you were born into. And what that ordinarily means. self evident, in some were  in discernment. 

Steve - So we're going to talk about this in one of our sessions, actually  dedicated a whole mini course on this topic, because it's so relevant. Frankly, it's just a lot of confusion out there now.  

Henry - So, there you go. We're gonna look at these topics of discernment. We  have been praying about this course. This course has taken some time to  develop just like the gender course. Because today Christians face self aware  decisions that need analysis, prayer, community, all of these things. So we  welcome you to this class and we trust that God will bless you as you discern.  Christian discernment