Welcome!
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Date: Thursday, November 18, 2010 ________________________________________
Today: A good conscience! ________________________________________
Passage: 1 Tim 1:5, 18 NIV
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5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.
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9 They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. (1 Tim 3:9)
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2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.(4:2) ________________________________________
The scriptures above are from 1Timothy (NIV- emphasis added) Paul is mentioning the word “conscience” a couple of times, in his letter to Timothy, the spiritual son of Paul Paul calls him: “Timothy my true son in the faith” (1:2) The whole matter of Christianity is about a good conscience with God first, followed by a good conscience with people When people of God do things for selfish gains, their actions could be the result of a corrupted conscience When conscience is corrupted, actions could be corrupted as well True love will be missing; you can say, “I love you” and not mean anything at all! We will be calling “Lord, Lord”, but that may not make any sense to God! We will be reading the Bible ritualistically, but we won’t be gaining anything out of that, nor does such reading please God As long as “what we do in the name of God” does not bring us closer to God or does not glorify His name, it is time spent in vain The very people who killed Jesus were very religious It is possible to be very religious and “kill Jesus” at the same time In the beginning of this letter to the Thessalonians, this is what Paul says:
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2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.(1 Thess 1: 2-3, NIV- emphasis added)________________________________________ Paul is always using these adjectives like good conscience, work produce
d by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope The essence of what Paul stresses in most of his letters is this: God is more concerned about our attitudes, than our actions That is what Jesus was about; He strongly criticized the religion that was not from a good conscience- the religion without true love Today, we can see this corrupted conscience among the leaders as well as people Once conscience is corrupted, it spreads like a cancer to others as well True church is an organism; it is not an organization! When an individual commits a sin for the first time, it pricks their conscience But then, someone may say: “that’s OK; everybody else is doing it” That “someone” could be another person or the devil, whispering in our heart Then, with a corrupted conscience, the person continues to do it The word of God is no longer a prescription, but like an option to such people This morning, what kind of conscience do we have- towards God as well as others? What is our attitude to work and worship? God bless your day, as you take time to dig it out BG ________________________________________
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank you for speaking to me. I know that I need to have a conscience that is clear, not corrupted; good, and not bad. Sometimes, it is difficult, but I know it is possible. I need it Oh Lord. Thank you. Amen