Discernment

A Hidden Wholeness, Parker Palmer

  • sometimes it helps to understand the “church” they belong to. Parker Palmer is a Quaker. Their church is gathering together to worship, and to pray. There is no one single pastor or elder, but a congregation of folks from new to old, I don’t know entirely what goes on, but I do know that they listen to God in their hearts, and take turns, as God leads, speaking the word given in the moment to the whole congregation for the edification of the body. Edification being the building up of others through exhortation and/or encouragement.
  • particularly, this book speaks to what he calls “third things” a way of listening to one’s own soul, through reflecting on poetry, both our own, and the poetry of others
  • Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    • This was a man put to death by Adolf Hitler, martyred for his faith, which in part was why he dared to oppose Hitler. In the preface of this book you will learn how he “took on” the Nazi’s… and lived his life sacrificially for God.
    • He has profound truth about how to live our lives in fellowship with other believers
  • Bird by Bird; Anne Lamott
    • this is a book about how to write a book, but no need to venture that far! Just learning to get the thoughts of your heart from there to the page! She tells you about how to just write without worrying about anyone else reading it before you’re able to ‘edit’ what has come out onto the page
    • She gives a solid example of what it is to write about something you didn’t know was in you!
  • A Life of One’s Own, Marion Milner
    • This is a profoundly interesting book, and must be read with the knowledge that she lived in an era that is in some ways unfamiliar to us in 2024. In the early 1900’s during what is known as the Victorian Age. She explains all this.
    • It is a book that is NOT a Christian book, it is an honest, open diary of a young lady seeking to understand who she is, and to gain her own sense of SELF in a world that tries to form it according to its own image.
    • She describes “automatic writing” a concept that when I first encountered it, I wondered it was some sort of consorted with spirits other than God. But after reading Anne Lamott’s description of it, and experiencing it myself, I realize its my own unconscious mind surfacing when I lose myself in writing. Genius comes from here!

Those are the books I’m recommending for you. You can decide which ones you want to take on, all or none 🙂 Below is the “thinking out loud” that I’ve done in regards to the books I’m recommending here, since we do not yet know each other all that well.

I have some books to recommend on the topic of writing. They are to some extent Christian Books… but they require a certain level of discernment. Regardless of whom I listen to, I always do my due diligence, by seeking to know how it lines up with God’s word. Even my own thoughts, I hold them subject to the authority of God’s word! I should say, especially my own thoughts. We are not alone in this, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, and by “the work” I mean his mandate, it is his ministry in our lives! He teaches us his word, remind us, to lead us, guide us.

I don’t expect that it is anything new that I am saying, I am merely pointing it out so that you know where I stand on the books I would like to recommend.

But before we get to that, I’ll say that all the books I’ve ever read have been given to me through my relationships with others. As I get to know others, I like to read books that have meant something to them, and I get to know them, as well as grow in my own life through that author. God has been faithful to me, and kept me close to himself, as I learn to listen to others. Even the most diverse ideas can be read about, when we keep God’s word as the primary authority that all else bows the knee to. Years ago, my two older brothers and I, for example, had a book club, through our own Facebook page. My brothers chose the books to read together. Some of the authors I read I became disgusted with, and will not mention them!

I think the most dangerous place we could be in is when we leave our minds in neutral, like a bard door left ajar, for the coyotes to just walk in and eat the horst and cattle!

  • ie) Never swallow anything whole, chew it over, pray about it, ask God
  • God’s word is the whole truth, everything else is in submission to God’s revealed word
    • 2 Corinthians 10:1-6
      • 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
    • Hebrews 5:11-14 is a scripture passage that most of us are familiar with. Its the one that tell us about the Christian who continually feeds on milk, not having graduated to solid food.
      • 11… but it is not easy to explain to you since you seem so slow to grasp spiritual truth. (J B Phillips)
      • 11… seeing ye are dull of hearing. (KJV)
      • 11… especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. (NLT)
      • 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (NIV)

Father God, I venture to speak the truth in love, from my heart, as brother to sister, I lay this message at your feet, for you to teach me, give me the words to say, enter into the heart of the one who listens, teach, guide, and we know that you are in control, in Jesus name, Amen

Scripture seems to be in my heart as I venture to speak my words from that place. I am just adding links for your reference, to de-clutter the page. When you click on them it will take you to the particular scripture reference on Biblegateway.com website.

Our entire lives are a living sacrifice to God. The more we are able to do this, the more we will find out just how wholly true is his word, and his faithfulness shines ever brighter. In Romans 14 Paul describes the delicate details of living our life before him in humility, as we encounter agreement and disagreement with others on just what’s what in what we say and do. He finishes up that teaching in the final verse, “…and everything that does not come from faith is sin” Does that seem overwhelming? What’s your hurry! Each and every moment of the day you have our precious savior to heal and to guide your every move. Its about him calling us to include him in all that we say and do. Indeed, Jesus gave this as our ultimate example.

So… the business of discernment is about listening obedience. The more we listen to God from our hearts, the more we intuitively understand what it is to know it is HE who leads us. That’s what Hebrews 5:11-14 is about…

Books>

Pretty much every book listed below needs to be read with caution, but then again, that’s always true! Even what you are reading now, written by ME, listen with caution. Ask God to teach, guide, protect.

The word Ecumenical comes to mind. The way that I understand that word, ecumenical, is it means that there is a broader spectrum of believers than just me. There are others who believe many of the same things as me, but we do not necessarily agree on everything, nor believe exactly the same. We will one day stand before God, we will stand before him, with nobody but Christ Jesus our savior. There will be no, “…this is what we believed…” talked about… we will answer to God the Father, the Judge, according to what our own hearts held to be true. There is no group pass, its all one by one! Accepting where our fellow believers are at is not about agreeing with them, its about accepting them. Look at Romans 14:4. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians describes this judging…

The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments…

1 Corinthians 2:15 NIV

Take a look at what Paul says about himself in 1 Corinthians 4:3, he says he does not even judge himself. The judgement he is speaking about is spiritual judgement, aka discernment. So, where you disagree with each author, make note of that. Would God teach you something? Are you listening?

My un-saved son-in-law once told me, when discussing a counselling situation (he’s a psychologist) “never ask why” The first thing I wanted to do was to ask him why, but instead I decided to try this advice out. As I’ve read my bible, I’ve tried to see where the bible agrees or disagrees with that dictum. I’ve found that it is liberating to listen to my son, an Autistic adult, and to say, “Tell me more about _____ ” rather than asking WHY. I even Googled it.