July 15 -- It Seemed Like a Good Idea -- Prague

When I am talking with young men, I often hear the response, "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time." 

The good idea, however, resulted in a disaster for the young man and his companions.  

Do you know right from wrong ?  Most of us assume everyone does.  But the Book exhorts us to develop that skill by practice.  Why would we need to practice at something we all already know how to do ?  This skill is very important if we desire not to be deceived.  The enemy specializes in deceiving us about this very issue.  He will try to make that which is evil seem very very good; and that which is good evil.

Look at how he deceived Eve in the Garden.  He seduced her to believe that the good, God Himself, was actually self centered and evil. And, he seduced her to believe that evil, eating the forbidden fruit, was very good and would empower her to be like God Himself.

In our every day lives we see young men using the exact same techniques to seduce naive young women into extra-marital sex.  We even see romance writers affirming the notion that having such sex is what will make the girl into a woman, with all the power that implies.

Throughout our societies we see leaders seducing us with evil courses of action.  Continually they argue that their plans will make our lives or our nations better, more powerful, more pleasant.  They tell us that good and Godly paths will harm us and that evil paths will bless us.

All these effects originate not in the hormones of young men nor in the greed of politicians.  No, they originate in satan the father of lies and deception.  When we, in our parents - Adam and Eve, made the decision to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil we made a decision.  That decision was to believe that we ourselves are the ultimate judges of what is good and what is evil.  We ate the fruit and committed ourselves to believe a lie.  But, it is a LIE !  We are not the ultimate judges of what is good and what is evil.  That is a responsibility that remains in God alone.  

Jesus personally gave His life in an act that was inherently evil (an innocent man painfully intentionally crucified).  But, that which we know to be evil was in fact the ultimate act of goodness.  He turned our purported knowledge of good and evil upside down.  He gave us a completely new standard of good and evil.  Old things did pass away and all things became new.  No longer can good and evil be determined by turning to a set of rules.  All things have become lawful for us, if we are in Him and motivated by His love.  

So then how is it that we can practice to become skillful at decerning between good and evil ?  We must return to the Truth who was with Adam and Eve in the Garden each evening.  He the Truth, Jesus, who lives and speaks by His Holy Spirit in each and every saint, He is the ultimate judge of what is good and what is evil.  He looks upon our hearts, not merely at the superficial appearance of our actions.  The developed skill of discerning between good and evil demands a capacity and willingness to continually listen to the voice of Holy Spirit within each saint.  

Holy Spirit carefully instructs each believer individually.  Thus, while your broad view of morality and mine may look very similar, there may be some things which are good for you that would be evil for me, and things evil for you that may be good for me.  There will be things that would be good for you when you were age 4 but the same will be evil for you at age 24.  So, we are exhorted to practice discerning between good and evil which is at the same time practicing at hearing the gentle quiet whispers of Holy Spirit within us. 

Love requires us to discern between good and evil.  Ponder how difficult it is to believe the best about other people if we are deceived about what is the best and what is the worst.

Sadly, I have many friends whose discernment is not yet developed.  They indulge in believing that things which feel pleasant must be good and things that feel unpleasant must be evil.  Such non-sense lies behind many forms of depravity from sexual perversions to drug abuse to worship of physical fitness and many others.  It is certainly not true that everything that feels pleasant is good.  Conversely, it is equally untrue that everything that feels pleasant is evil.  Good and evil are discerned by hearing Holy Spirit not by trusting our feelings.  Indeed the Book is clear that trusting in our own feelings or our own understandings is always a trap that leads to our being deceived.  There is only one thing in your world that is more deceptive than satan.  That deceiver is you yourself.

So let us stop listening to our own self deception.  Let us listen to Holy Spirit and practice the discernment between good and evil, today, and every day.  It is a very basic skill.  Practice daily.

His, thus Yours,

  Stuart