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.