In a previously-published post, I pointed to what I see as one of the most concerning things in the current Christian community and overall society, and that is a lack of discernment with the cited Bible verse of 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

In the August 2023 issue of the Grace To You monthly newsletter, John MacArthur (that’s his Bible-teaching ministry which is closely aligned with Grace Community Church in North Hollywood, California, where he has been the Senior Pastor since 1969) points to what he sees as one of the most concerning things in the current Christian community and overall society:  yep, you guessed it, a lack of discernment.  And he too keys on 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

One might very well conclude that he had read my post (published 18 months prior) but I don’t think so; rather, the explanation is far more likely this:  that the same Holy Spirit who indwells and fills and teaches me is the exact same Holy Spirit who indwells and fills and teaches him!  So of course  there will be many times that two Christians are going to come to the exact same conclusion and even use the exact same phrases in communicating such to others.  Ironically, given his huge platform, this usually works in the reverse direction regarding John MacArthur, i.e., it’s usually other pastors who preach the exact same passages of Scripture and utilize the exact same language as he had previously – same Spirit, same Teacher (1 John 2:27).

In fact, while I got a kick out of seeing my post of well over a year ago reappearing – pretty much verbatim in some parts – in the current Grace To You newsletter, what I find even more amazing, truly, is this:  I’ve lost count of the times I’ve prayed and shared my heart with the Lord, often on a Saturday evening, and the very next morning  heard a preacher on TV or the radio or the internet lead the congregation in prayer and say the exact same words  which I had prayed the night before!  This often occurs with John MacArthur’s Sunday morning prayers but many other preachers, too, so it certainly can’t be a phenomenon of human origin or explanation, it must be spiritual.  It must be the fact that ONE Spirit teaches and guides and prepares our hearts and minds.

I’ll just finish this post, aptly, by saying that the most unifying entity alive and active in the world should never, ever, ever be or have been allowed by us to become arguably the most divisive, today and indeed for the past 50+ years.  The Holy Spirit is all about love and peace and unity, so it’s obviously not His fault, it’s ours, it’s the current Church’s failure but one of my motivations to dedicating my life to this historic effort of memorzing the ENTIRE Bible and then reciting it back to the Lord as a love gift and “thank You” gift for all He does and who He is, one of my main motivations is that God will use it to bring back together the various “factions” of His body, the Church, into deep and abiding harmony, so we can stop wasting precious time and effort and energy and mindspace on one or two doctrines about which we may disagree and instead focus on evangelizing the majority of people (Matthew 7:13-14) who don’t know Christ or the Holy Spirit or the Heavenly Father at all, so we can “conduct [ourselves] in a manner worthy of the GOSPEL of Christ” and be “standing firm in ONE SPIRIT, with ONE MIND striving TOGETHER for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27, emphasis added).

We Christians can be downright prolific when it comes to focusing on what might divide us, on our differences of opinion about one thing or another, but we can all come together and agree on this:  that the Bible is the most beautiful, loving, true, and powerful book ever written and words ever spoken, and that it surely brings boundless, unbridled pleasure to the Lord whenever it is memorized (and read, studied, meditated upon, and obeyed and shared with others).  How much more so when memorized in its entirety.

 

If you’d like to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me as I seek to fulfill His calling to do just that even as the whole world watches at BibleMemory.ORG and YouTube.com/BibleMemory and have your name included on the “From” card when we collectively give this gift to Him, here are three great ways to do so!

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