Do you remember the old saying you can’t believe everything you hear? That is true. I found myself recently listening to another guy preach. He made a statement and as soon as I heard it alarm bells went off in my mind alerting me to what I had just heard did not ring true. He made the same statement two other times in the course of the message. I heard myself instinctively saying that is not true out loud.
It alarms me how many Christians sit and listen to things so casually and passively. We must be discerning as to what we listen to or put before our eyes. We most especially need to do this as we listen to someone preaching and teaching the Bible. Does the text say what the preacher is saying? Does the preacher’s comments line up with all of scripture? Can the preacher back up his comments with the scripture? Maybe these are three different ways of asking the same question. My point is that few people listen with discernment.
People are so gullible. The masses fall for the politician’s promises and public policies while people like Adolph Hitler preyed on such naïve people and then he ruled with fear and intimidation. There have been people like David Koresh, Jim Jones, and others who manipulated the scriptures and deceived many. More than one college professor has sought to undermine the authority of scripture and I am referring to professors who teach at many of our Christian colleges in addition to those who teach at secular universities. Just because someone is in a position of influence or authority does not make everything they say or write true.
Just because a person is a celebrity like Tom Cruise does not mean he has a handle on the truth like he promotes as a Scientologist. Just because a person calls himself a preacher does not mean that he preaches the truth. There are many young preachers coming out of Bible school these days who do not believe the authority or the infallibility of scripture. They honestly believe that there are errors in the text. They will go to churches and over time as they preach a generation will arise who do not the difference in truth and false teaching. What a said and tragic day that already is and will be.
So reader, I am honored that you take time out of your busy schedule to read what I write but if you do not read with discernment and listen with discernment you are setting up to be deceived. Just three days ago I overheard a young man in our church talking about reading and saying that it didn’t matter what it was he would read everything. At that point I interjected a word of warning. We have to read and listen with discernment.
That means two things. First, we have to know the scriptures for ourselves. You must dig, read, meditate, hold fast, memorize, and study the scriptures with the utmost diligence. When I was saved in 1983 I knew next to nothing about the Bible. I went out and bought one and started reading. I was fascinated by Jesus and spent most of my time in those early years reading the gospel and the miracle accounts of Jesus. After a few years I got into Acts and some of the New Testament writings. Then I cultivated a love for the Old Testament.
Many years ago I heard an old preacher preaching on the topic of the Bible. God moved in my heart that night and I fell in love with the scriptures. I committed to the Lord that I would spend the rest of my days reading them and see how many times I could read through the entire Bible in my lifetime. Later I was inspired again by reading the account of George Mueller who read the Bible through nearly two hundred times in his life. When I read and study about people God used in significant ways in the past those people all loved the scriptures and gave vast amounts of their life to studying, reading, teaching, preaching, or meditating on them.
The second thing I would challenge all of us to do is to think more. We have become an intellectually lazy society. We are content to let others or machines think for us. We must continually stimulate our minds and exercise our reasoning skills to ponder the deep issues of life. Go to your local Christian bookstore and see the top selling books today. They do not care the theological weight of many of the books written hundreds of years ago. There are books that have withstood the test of time that are like red oaks in a library forest of saplings. We should not be afraid to be challenged to think deeply. Why are so many people afraid to think for themselves and to walk out of step with the masses when need be? We need thinkers in society who give themselves to reflection, reasoning, and mental wrestling with weighty truths
I am grateful to a college professor who inspired me to learn to think for myself. At times that has gotten me into some hot water but I refuse to live my life dumbed down. I am not the smartest person but God did give me a mind and he expects me to use it and develop it. Therefore I read continually but I am selective about what I read. I have had to learn that I will never read all the books that I want to so I must make the best use of the time I have and read ones that will have the greatest impact on me. I read with discernment and from time time have scribbled notes in the margins of some books disagreeing with the author and citing my reasons why.
I hope you will begin to work hard at listening and reading with discernment. In a day of abounding falsehood, multitudes of people in authority are less concerned with truth and more concerned with their personal agendas. This will serve us well. The next time we crack open a book, log onto a blog, or hear someone speaking; please read and listen with discernment.
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