Living from Conscience (Part III)

Dearly Beloved of the Lord,

If you are truly His, then the fullness of God is toward you every moment of all your earthly days. God delights in working good into your life continually. Why do we judge God as if this were not so? If God gave His son and secured your redemption and your eternal future with Him, will He not also ensure what you truly require during the remainder of this earthly journey is given? How go the issues of your heart toward God this day? Do you receive the items defining your day with a worldly eye, an earthly heart, a godless spirit, or do you see the items of your day with heavenly eyes, a heavenly heart, and a holy, thankful, spirit? One will lead to an increase of your flesh, thus distancing you from God and others. One will fuel your intimacy with God and interest in others.

Dear reader, reflect on this statement: "It is unchristian to doubt the omnipotence and mercy of God, and still more unchristian to say, 'I cannot bear it.'" (*) May what is of God in you allow this statement to sit on your mind and heart and show you what pertains to your peace. What remains of the flesh in you has already rejected such an invite and soon you will forget the offer. Remind yourself, dear Christian, to contemplate this statement often.

In concluding the topic "Living from Conscience" I can only state that the subject is extensive and beyond the scope of a few writings. The subject must be lived out during the remainder of your days. For conscience is itself a living thing. The more one engages God's word on the subject of living from conscience, the more one becomes connected to God's view on the nature of it—what it is in truth. This path facilitates a continual awakening of the mind and heart before God and others. The outcome is a continued "refreshing" of the understanding which the self gains, each time lifting the self to a new vista from which to see relationships of life not earlier seen nor understood.

God engages you in this process by drawing what is of Him in you back to Himself, thus separating you from the world. The process is one of becoming more like Him. If your heart prefers what is earthly, temporal and godless, you will experience severe tension and unrest at your core and you will follow the desire to self-protect and flee from the presence of God. The prophet Jonah demonstrates this for you. Yet God continually and in wisdom and love works for your good to separate from you what seeks to damn you. He continually works out His redemption in your life. Dear Christian, you have neither the wisdom nor power, nor concern for your own soul, as God does for you. Release yourself to His care for you this very moment, and live christianly by resting in His omnipotence and mercy always.

Dearly Loved of God,

Our beloved brother James in the third chapter of his letter writes, "...no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh."

Our beloved brother Paul in the first chapter of his first letter to Timothy writes, "As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm."

Christian reader, it may seem strange to employ the above passages in a discourse on living by conscience, yet allow me the following points. First, you know, dear reader, from which stream you live. Unto your self, before God, as testified to by others, what fruit does your mouth bear? What water pours forth? What spring, what source, is most true of you? Both James and Paul highlight the centrality of one’s thoughts, words and actions. You must possess, as Paul states, a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith or you will not edify. And if you are not edifying by your thoughts, words and deeds, you are straying and perhaps even feeding disputes.


Secondly, whatever the commandment is which Paul references, it results in love. True love, (Do you believe you have ever actually demonstrated this love to another human being? Is your idea of love too earthly and shy of heaven?), true love stems only from living with your heart pure, living with your conscience good, and can only be grounded in sincere faith. If you have not a clean conscience unto your self, before God, and before others, what love do you seek to give? All of us are inconsistent, sinning, creatures. We all have access to our Advocate. Yet, what is the beat of your heart on these things? Let your conscience speak to you on this matter.

Beloved of God, I leave you with the following. Examine, frequently, your mind, heart, words, deeds, passions, affections, directions and idle times. Invite God to examine you. Hear from Christ’s Body about your self. What water, what fruit, characterize your life? Do you edify? A pure (undivided) heart is necessary. Sincere faith is your ground. And a good conscience will serve you well. You must listen and follow.

With you in Christ



“Your days, like a tale that is told, pass away;
The lusts of earth that beset you are vain;
Too precious your time for such trifling and play:
Then employ it that glory at last you may gain.

From the stream of your life, so fleeting and strange,
Draw forth every day something good that may last;
From the trifles of earth turn away: they shall change,
And no blessing shall leave when the vision is past.

Awake! Seek they constant refreshment in God;
Sow the seed that will yield stores of joy to thy soul,
Redeeming the time both at home and abroad,
And thy peace shall endure, like a river shall roll.” **



* Credited to John Arndt, in Pictures from The Life of John Arndt.
** Golden Treasury, October 17, hymn writer not identified.

Living from Conscience (Part II)

Friend,

How goes it with you and God this day? Is He your undisputed source of life? Do you live this day as From Him, Though Him and Unto Him? He is your bread of life. He is your fount of living water. Honor Him as such. Feed on Him. Live from Him and with Him. Flee all other objects and desires that seek to be as God to your soul.

Beloved,

If you have not yet read Living from Conscience (Part I), visit and consider that post before venturing further. May it prompt you to imagine what your life, and that of Christ's Body as a community, could be like, if living from conscience were understood and faithfully pursued.

Dear Reader,

Your conscience is that final back-drop of self-witness in your life. So it is with all others, as well. Often hidden, though, the voice of conscience seems dead, chained, or faintly heard. The natural self hates conscience, seeks to remove it. What is fallen in you fears you living from your conscience. The fallen self passionately works to turn you away from your conscience. Conscience because of fallen-ness and sin is not free to most of us, not able to live joined to who we are in Christ and all we do, whether in private or public. It is as if one must first be thoughtful of having a conscience, then momentarily examine one’s life, instead of living continually from a platform of conscience. Living from Conscience, therefore, seems unlivable.

In respect to edification, the desire is to lift you, dear Christian, to see the path of life with God which He has given for you to travel. The natural disposition which you retain, that related to your fallen-ness, cannot see this without divine illumination effecting what is of God in you, nor does the natural disposition want this path. What remains "fallen" in you wants with all its natural strength to retain is own life of self-love and godlessness. What is of God in you craves the journey with and toward God, away from all that is natural, godless and temporal. God has given us His word to speak to us of such distinctions and to enlighten us to where we can see His life for us and see our way with Him. You must, dear Christian, feed on God’s word.

Having been built up to see and understand the way, we remain in need of being encouraged to move in concert with God's life and His ways for us, which is a movement internally in mind and heart "and" a movement externally in our relations with others because of our renewed mind and heart. We must "see" and we must "move." [Christian, you will see and you will move. The questions pertain to what you are seeing and how you are moving.] This seeing and moving is how God relates and the Christian life works. Godly movement, though, stems from humility and a yielded life, not duty void of love. Such movement is a grace-based consequence of those with eyes to see and hearts that truly desire God above all else.

Conscience serves as the personal witness of one's life to one's self: self testimony. The New Testament speaks of one's conscience regarding one's self, with respect to others, and with respect to God. It may be pure, good, weak, wounded, evil, defiled, seared or cleansed. It may testify of another person’s life. One may be convicted by it, yet may also corrupt it. One can subject one's self to it and subject one's self to the conscience of another. One can live for one's own conscience and live for the sake of another's conscience. In summary, one can live for the sake of a conscience without offence toward one's self, others and God. I submit, we as Christians should desire this life, that of living without offence toward God, self and others. It is presented in the New Testament as part of the structure for the Christian life. Sadly, it remains absent.

You see, beloved, the deep worth of understanding the centrality of conscience and living by conscience, letting conscience fulfill its role? Conscience is like a glass cube which one can remove from the heart and hold up to the rays of God's omniscient love and honestly examine before and with God and understand its cleanness. The presence of God's Spirit and His Word enable us to examine our conscience unto ourselves and with Him. Yet, we can also petition others to address our lives in good conscience. This speaks not only to how we live in relation to others, but it shows us and others our trust in God's work in their lives as they speak to us. We submit one to another in love. (See 2 Corinthians 4:2)

Christian, is the dynamic of Living from Conscience excluded from your life? Do you perceive it in the life of any you know? Do you ever hear of its reality in the life of those in your Christian fellowship? If so, God be praised! If not, and if you recognize its absence in your own life, begin to petition God to show you His way regarding Living from Conscience. Introduce this dynamic to others on the pilgrims way with you. Perhaps God would be pleased to ignite a holy passion for Him in your life, and those you meet, which would transform the life of Christ's Body on earth.

There remains yet more to uncover on Living from Conscience, and at least one future entry will speak to that. Yet, lest you be discouraged and turn away from considering before God how you are living in relation to your conscience, be aware that it is a moment for you recorded in time and eternity. God has given us His Son as the means of cleansing our conscience (Hebrews 9:14, 13:18). Relationally, we need this continually, for none of us will live from consciences as we should.

To the Honor of His Name,
A struggling Christian

Living from Conscience (Part I)

Beloved, how goes your conversations with God? Not your external and public displays of God talk, but your private and never to be made public acknowledgments and confessions with God as the only audience. If you were to be questioned by the world on “these” conversations, would you be found empty? If you were to be questioned by God regarding “these” conversations, would you also be found empty? If you were to question yourself, would you agree that you “should” be found empty? Christian reader, there will come a moment where the reality of your relation to God will be manifest to you for your agreement as to what your life before the God who loves you and redeemed you has been.

What say you to this? Why delay the day, the moment? The world need not question you with proper intent, for it cannot understand grace nor a godly passion. But you, dear reader, if you be of Christ, you can question your self continually and thus erase the delay whereby you will acknowledge before God who He has been to you, and your doing so will move you deeper into His presence and love. How does your conscience witness to you regarding this? What is your inner witness saying to you today about this issue just now?

Living from conscience seems remote to the Christian’s manner of life in our age, at least in my experience, yet (primarily) the apostle Paul, and Peter in addition, speak as if living from one’s conscience is an anticipated dynamic for your Christian life. How goes this with you? Can you identify one godly example in your life of someone you know who lives from a clear conscience before God, self and others? If not, why not? And you, dear reader, are you such a one?

Spend time with God and His word and you will see the range of relations associated with living from your conscience as this pertains to your self, others, and God. Subsequent blog writings will present these to you for your edification and encouragement. Until such time, petition God to move your heart and mind in such a way that you become curious before Him about who you are to Him, about your method of living, and about what He would desire that to become. You may begin with a simple faith prayer of “Lord, grant me a desire to live with a clear conscience before You and all others this day. Where my conscience is not clear, not clean, where it informs me that I have sinned against You or any other [or even my self], lead me to awareness, confession and reconciliation.”

Beloved of God, what thoughts and images come to you as you consider the whole of Christ’s Body, His Bride, the Church, living from a godly conscience? Do you see a different Body, a difference that inflames godly desires and passions? What stands as the chief hindrance to this for Christ’s Body, for you? That, we must all in honesty discern unto ourselves. Yet, the root most likely abides with self-love.

What follows is a hymn recorded in Carl H. von Bogatzky’s unique and prized devotional A Golden Treasury (12th ed.) from the October 4th reading. Bogatzky chose to not cite authors of the poems and hymns used in his devotional, thus we know not whom to credit. Still, the work is worth reflecting through. I can only imagine singing such a work aloud with others during a meeting of the Saints.

May you pursue God wholeheartedly. He has pursued you wholeheartedly. May you realize His goodness and presence.


Thy progress is so slow! Dost thou inquire
Where lies the fault? In thine own lofty mind.
At what is great and grand thou dost aspire;
To meekness’ tis too hard to be resign’d.

On towering heights too oft art speculating,
In thine own reason’s ways too prone to go,
On fruitless plans and schemes still calculating,
No wonder that thy progress is so slow.

It yet remains for God to send confusion
On plans by which thou hast deluded been:
Then shalt thou rise, when saved from thy delusion,
When meekness in thy heart, and love, are seen.