It’s spring.  New growth is popping up everywhere.  New buds are blossoming, new leaves are giving everything a fresh look, and new gardens are being planted.  It’s a great time of year, even with the pollen woes many of us face.  This week as I looked around at the signs of spring in Middle Georgia, I got to thinking about a statement I read several days ago.  In our world of Christianity, it seems that new things are always popping up.  New ministry models, philosophies, methods, and teachings spring up on a regular basis.  New ways of looking at moral issues and standards of conduct seem to be blossoming as well.  How is the believer supposed to discern the rightness or wrongness of all this budding change?  Honestly, just because something is new doesn’t make it bad.  “We’ve never done it that way before” is a dubious reason to avoid change.  But on the other hand, today’s believer must not embrace change just for the sake of change.  Or because it’s something shiny and new.  How do we decide?  Dwight L. Moody, the 19th century evangelist, made this statement, and it seems to me to settle the dilemma of discernment.  Moody said, “The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.”  Now that’s some good, common sense.  We’ve been given a “straight stick.”  It’s called the Bible.  Psalm 119:89 says, “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.”  Lay God’s unchanging word, literally interpreted, alongside any “stick” of a new anything, and you’ll quickly see if that “stick” is straight or not.  Remember, our authority is not the latest methodology “guru,” the new best-selling book, the up-and-coming preaching phenomenon, or even “the way we’ve always done it.”  God’s Word is the authority on, as we say, all matters of faith and practice.  There are some good new things out there, and there are some dangerous ones as well.  So keep your “straight stick” handy!