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Care for your conscience
'"... I have lived in all good conscience before God ..."' Acts 23:1
Back in the 1970's (ask your parents if they remember it!), there was a massive political scandal that was known as Watergate. It was so bad that the US President Richard Nixon decided to resign. Nixon's aide Jeb Magruder told the Senate Investigation Committee, 'We conned ourselves into thinking we weren't doing anything wrong, and by the time we were doing things that were illegal, we'd lost control.' First Timothy 4:2 mentions people '... whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron'.
In Bible times, there were no ambulances or A&E departments in hospitals with specialised surgeons like we have today. So to stop a wound from bleeding they would burn it shut with a big piece of hot iron ... ouch! As you can imagine this would leave a big ugly scab that created very hard skin; tough scabby skin that loses all feeling, very different to how skin usually is.
God gave us a conscience and He wants us to use it. If not we can end up creating a big scab over it that doesn't even notice when we are doing stuff wrong. Your conscience is like a motion detector, letting you know that a thief has entered your home intending to rob, or even kill you.
Today, 'cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked...' (1 Timothy 1:19 NLT).
written by Bob Gass
'"... I have lived in all good conscience before God ..."' Acts 23:1
Back in the 1970's (ask your parents if they remember it!), there was a massive political scandal that was known as Watergate. It was so bad that the US President Richard Nixon decided to resign. Nixon's aide Jeb Magruder told the Senate Investigation Committee, 'We conned ourselves into thinking we weren't doing anything wrong, and by the time we were doing things that were illegal, we'd lost control.' First Timothy 4:2 mentions people '... whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron'.
In Bible times, there were no ambulances or A&E departments in hospitals with specialised surgeons like we have today. So to stop a wound from bleeding they would burn it shut with a big piece of hot iron ... ouch! As you can imagine this would leave a big ugly scab that created very hard skin; tough scabby skin that loses all feeling, very different to how skin usually is.
God gave us a conscience and He wants us to use it. If not we can end up creating a big scab over it that doesn't even notice when we are doing stuff wrong. Your conscience is like a motion detector, letting you know that a thief has entered your home intending to rob, or even kill you.
Today, 'cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked...' (1 Timothy 1:19 NLT).
written by Bob Gass
