God's Purified : Separating Darkness from Light

How to Have Discernment in a Culture that Says, "Do What Feels Right to You."

This was our first meeting of the fall 2016 semester! We started out with singing, and we were blessed to have Taylor leading beautifully on violin.

Be Thou My Vision

In Christ Alone

Holy, Holy, Holy

After singing, we took prayer requests and prayed as a group, then did our typical icebreaker: tell your name, age, and the color of your toothbrush. We also introduced our new leaders: Taylor, Cecily, Sophi, and Olivia.

Finally, we started the lesson, Separating Darkness from Light. Notes are below.

Holiness

1. That which is separated to the service of God.

2. A sheep may look white next to the green grass, but when it snows, you can see that the sheep is really dirty!

3. “Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.” –Charles Spurgeon

4. Applecottagecheesesauce!

We need to…

· Discern between things that seem good and things that are good

· Evaluate everything in the light of God’s word

· Take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5)

· Not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God (1 John 4:1)

· Look carefully how we walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time (Ephesians 5:15-16)

· Keep ourselves pure from polluting influences

Examples of polluting influences:

Movies

· Books (romance novels especially can give birth to unprofitable thoughts)

· TV

· Friends (you become like the 5 people you are around most...spend time with Jesus! :))

· Internet

· Music (even some Christian music...)

· Games

· Magazines

· Social Media

· Advertising

· Activities/ Activity Groups (is the attitude of the group you're with honoring to God? If not, are you following that pattern or setting the example of godliness?)

*Note: Not all of these things are bad in and of themselves--we have to evaluate if a certain activity is affecting us in a way that harms our relationship with God, even if the activity itself isn't bad.

Dealing with polluting influences…

• Evaluate and be aware of what is impacting us and how it is doing so.

– Watching a movie: what is it trying to teach me?

– Class at school: does this line up with Scripture?

• When possible, choose to fill our minds with better things

– Leisure time: Studio C or Intro to Classical Music? Random eBook that looks okay or Christian biography? Prayer or daydreaming?

• Pray that God will help us to be in the world, but not of the world

Discernment in a Nutshell

• Resisting temptations

• Not compromising (Romans 12:2 J)

• Seeking accountability (2 Timothy 2:22)

• Avoiding “harmless” things that can lead further… (Especially on the Internet, make sure that you are VERY open with your parents about what you see!)

• Getting wise counsel

1 Peter 5:8-9

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

Our lesson activity was a "trust walk" in teams, but with a twist. We played the game as usual, with girls partnering up into mini-teams of two, with one girl blindfolded and the other girl directing her through an obstacle course. Each of these mini-teams was part of one of two bigger teams. The twist: while two of the girls from team A were navigating through the obstacle course, Team B was allowed to shout wrong directions and try to get the Team A girls off course. The blindfolded girl from Team A had to be very careful to show discernment about which voices she listened to!