CONSCIENCE

CONSCIENCE

“Quality of Life Series”

8/10/04

LEADER: Do you hear voices?

Is there somebody inside you that says…

“Yes do this…”

And…”You better not do that…

Or boy hydee are you gonna be sorry!”

What’s that called…Your conscience.

Who leads your conscience?

If you’re a Christian, it’s the Holy Spirit.

I. PERSONAL CONSCIENCE:

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #1

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Conscience&id=1

“A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity within us; and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without.”

Joseph Addison 1672-1719, British Essayist, Poet, Statesman

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “ Keep a Clear Conscience” By Peter Kennedy

http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon3a/keep_a_clear_conscience.htm

"So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man." - Acts 24:16
March 18, 1937. The date is chiseled on dozens of tombstones in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in New London, Texas. On the fateful day, some 1200 students were in attendance at the town's only school. At 3:10 pm, just twenty minutes before the end of the school day, the shop teacher flipped off the electrical switch to the power saws. Suddenly, a spark from the switch touched off an explosion and the entire stone building was leveled. The blast killed 297 students and teachers. It was heard some 35 miles away in Tyler and Kilgore Texas.
A subsequent investigation found that a spark had ignited some 6,000 cubic feet of natural gas that had accumulated in the basement the school. A nearby oil company had an oil pipeline close to the school. Someone had decided to siphon the natural gas, the by-product of petroleum extraction, from the company's pipeline to fuel the school's furnace free of charge.
The one positive effect of this disastrous event was a government regulation requiring companies to add an odorant to natural gas. The distinctive "rotten eggs smell" of sulfur is now so familiar that we forget natural gas is actually odorless.

Just as the odorant in natural gas warns us of danger, a guilty conscience can warn us of sin in our lives. We need to heed this warning and seek always to keep a clear conscience before God and man. Do you have a guilty conscience? Today in prayer, confess any sin to Christ, make any wrong right, and seek to keep a clear conscience before God and man.
"A conscience void of offense before God and man is an inheritance for eternity." - Daniel Webster
God's Word: "I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live." - Job 27:6

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “A Clear Conscience” By Peter Kennedy

http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon4/a_clear_conscience.htm

"I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers." - 2 Timothy 1:3
In April 2001, Tim Shutt was the crew chief for NASCAR driver Mike McLaughlin. Tim was a new Christian who came to Christ at a Christian retreat for participants in the racing industry. Preparing for the major race in Talladega, Alabama, he was tempted to add an illegal part to the car. "Joe [Gibbs, team owner] is adamant that we don't cheat," said Shutt. Joe Gibbs is also a Christian and a former National Football League coach. Tim said to McLaughlin that morning in practice: "If we're no good in practice, I'll put this piece-the illegal piece-on. Probably 30 other teams are doing it." Tim knew he was justifying it. Tim said: "I got up under the car, I got halfway through putting it on, and that verse, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God,' came flashing in red in front of me, and whoa, that was it. I said, 'I'm leaving this up to you, God.'" Shutt didn't put the piece on the car. McLaughlin won the race at Talladega, and later reflected: "When we won, the first thing that came to my mind was that verse. God wanted to show himself to me."
You will be regularly tempted to cheat, but resist the temptation and serve the Lord with a clear conscience. Today in prayer, thank Christ for His infinite love for you and seek to live this day for His glory.
"Cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Consensus asks the question: Is it popular? Conscience asks: Is it right?" - Martin Luther King, Jr.
God's Word: "They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience." - 1 Timothy 3:9

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #2

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_conscience.html

“Conscience is our magnetic compass; reason, our chart.”

Joseph Cook 1796-1871 9^th Prime Minister of England

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #3

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_conscience.html

“While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind.”

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 1689-1762

Pioneer for Small Pox vaccine in England

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #4

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Conscience&id=1

“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.”

Lillian Hellman 1905-1984, American Playwright

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #5

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Conscience&id=1

“Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.”

Josh Billings1815-1885, American Humorist, Lecturer

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #6

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Conscience&id=1

“There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right.”

Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British Prime Minister

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #7

Today In The Word, August, 1989, p. 21.

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/conscience.htm

Throughout his administration, Abraham Lincoln was a president under fire, especially during the scarring years of the Civil War. And though he knew he would make errors of office, he resolved never to compromise his integrity. So strong was this resolve that he once said, "I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #8

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_conscience.html

“The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.” Izaak Walton 1593-1683 British Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Conscience Fund”

Swindoll, The Quest For Character, Multnomah, p. 70

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/conscience.htm

Did you know that ever since 1811 (when someone who had defrauded the government anonymously sent $5 to Washington D.C.) the U.S. Treasury has operated a Conscience Fund? Since that time almost $3.5 million has been received from guilt-ridden citizens.

II. SOCIAL CONSCIENCE:

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #9

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_conscience.html

“Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.”

Alexander Sozhenitsyn Born 1918 Exiled Russian Novelist

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #10

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_conscience.html

“First they came for the Jews. I was silent. I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists. I was silent. I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists. I was silent. I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me. There was no one left to speak for me.”

Martin Niemoller 1892-1984

President of the World Council of Churches (1961-1968)

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Standing Firm in Bulgaria”

Scott Higgins, using information from Christianity Today magazine,

Oct 4, 1999. Vol 43, No. 11.

http://www.ozsermonillustrations.com/illustrations/standing_firm_in_bulgaria.htm

Bulgaria was allied to Germany, with a formal agreement made in 1941. This agreement allowed for German military bases inside Bulgaria, while handing back to Bulgaria lands that had been in dispute between the two countries. Members of the Bulgarian government who wished to implement Hitler's "final solution" against the Jews planned to begin the first phase by sending all the Jews from the returned lands to Germany's concentration camps.

When the local member of Parliament, Peshev, heard of the plan he gathered other representatives and marched into the office of the Minister for the Interior, demanding an explanation. Peshev and the others pressured him to rescind the order, which he did.

However, not all regions received the telegram in time. In Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city, Jewish people were rounded up during the early morning, with most held in the local school hall, awaiting deportation by train to Germany. Here Metropolitan Kyrill, the head of the local church acted immediately. He sent a telegram of protest to the king, threatening to lie across the tracks in front of the first train to leave with Jews. He then went to the school where he was barred entry by the police. Announcing that he no longer felt himself bound by the laws of the government and would act according to his conscience as a minister of Christ, Kyrill climbed the fence promising the Jews gathered there "Wherever you go, I'll go."

Some time after the order not to deport the Jews arrived at Plovdin and they got to return to their homes. Meanwhile, local MP Peshev was expelled from the vice presidency of the Parliament and censured.

Foiled at their first effort the Gestapo pressured the king into an order that Jews be expelled from cities into the Bulgarian countryside. They hoped this would stir up anti-Semitism in the country and allow the deportations to go ahead. It was at this point that Metropolitan Stefan, head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church came into his own. He convened a meeting of his church's Synod which unanimously condemned the order to move Jews into the countryside.

The government made plans to go ahead with the deportation anyway, scheduling it for a day of national celebration, in the hope that the deportation would go unnoticed among the day's festivities. Stefan would have none of this. As head of the national church it was his job to officiate during the celebrations. Standing on the steps of the cathedral, a large crowd lay before him and the members of the government, including the Prime Minister, sat behind him. He threw away his prepared speech, strongly condemned the persecution of the Jews and called on the government to resist the influence of the Nazis. The Prime Minister rose after Stefan to denounce him and called on him to stop interfering in political matters.

The deportation to country areas proceeded, but Stefan was unbowed. In the face of threats to arrest him he offered to christen all Jews who wished to, a measure that would mean they could not be deported to Germany. The Minister for the Interior responded by refusing to recognize all christening certificates issued after January 1, 1943, and ordering the closure of the churches of Sofia. Stefan informed the government that his Churches would ignore the order and sent a circular to all his parish priests explaining the fate awaiting Jews in Germany. Fearing a public backlash the government backed down. The churches remained open until the end of the war and the Jews were allowed to remain in Bulgaria. Tens of thousands of lives were saved all because people of good conscience refused to be silent in the face of evil.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #11

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_conscience.html

“Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.”

Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #12

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_conscience.html

“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?”

Eleanor Roosevelt 1884 - 1962

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #13

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_conscience.html

“Abraham Lincoln did not go to Gettysburg having commissioned a poll to find out what would sell in Gettysburg. There were no people with percentages for him, cautioning him about this group or that group or what they found in exit polls a year earlier. When will we have the courage of Lincoln?”

Robert Coles Child Psychiatrist

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #14

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Conscience&id=1

“The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.” Harper Lee 1926-, American Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #15

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Conscience&id=1

“Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”

Albert Einstein 1879-1955, German-born American Physicist

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Romans 13:1
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #16

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Conscience&id=1

“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience” George Washington 1^st President of the US

III. SCARRED CONSCIENCE:

LEADER: “The Searing of Conscience” (From The Wilberforce Forum)

http://www.pfm.org/Content/ContentGroups/BreakPoint/Other_Content/Colsons_Page/Jubilee/The_Searing_of_Conscience.htm Chuck Colson’s Break Point EXERPT

American culture is in the midst of an unprecedented experiment—creating a society without the restraint of conscience. The means by which conscience is being suppressed takes two forms.

· The first is starving conscience. As Paul tells us in Romans 2, all men are born with a natural awareness of right and wrong. But this innate awareness needs to be cultivated. Over the last 30 years, however, those institutions in which conscience was traditionally trained—families, churches, schools—have been seriously weakened. And over the same time, the culture has systematically rejected moral absolutes. The result is that our young are not learning the objective standards by which conscience renders its judgments.

· Second, in the place of objective judgments, our culture has substituted feelings. In values-clarification courses, for example, students are presented with difficult moral choices; but given no right answers, the student relies on what "feels" right, or works best. Deciding what "feels right" has become part of the everyday moral language of our society.

· The result is that we have redefined conscience by replacing objective standards (like Scripture) or moral traditions with subjective ones that are more attuned to our "feel good" age and, unfortunately, often our "feel good" church.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Timothy 1:5
⁵ But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 2 Timothy 3:16-17

¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #17

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/conscience.htm

“Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a "necessary evil," it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil. “

Sidney J. Harris Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Pirate Confesses Hardening Conscience”

http://www.tanbible.com/tol_ill/tol_ill_conscience.htm J.H. Bomberger

The pirate Gibbs, whose name was for many years a terror to commerce with the West Indies and South America, was at last taken captive, condemned and executed in the city of New York.

He acknowledged before his death that when he committed the first murder and plundered the first ship, compunctions were severe; conscience was on the rack and made a hell within his bosom. But after he had sailed for years under the black flag, his conscience became so hardened and blunted that he could rob a vessel and murder all its crew, and then lie down and sleep as sweetly at night as an infant in its cradle. His remorse diminished as his crimes increased.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #18

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Conscience&id=1

“A seared conscience is one whose warning voice has been suppressed and perverted habitually, so that eventually instead of serving as a guide, it only confirms the person in his premeditatedly evil course.”

Robert J. Little Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Titus 1:15
¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.

LEADER: What can we do?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Cultivation of Conscience” FAMILY

http://www.pfm.org/Content/ContentGroups/BreakPoint/Other_Content/Colsons_Page/Speeches/The_Cultivation_of_Conscience.htm

The family is fundamental to a healthy society; yet today the family is in danger of being destroyed through redefinition. If everything is a family, then nothing is a family –– and that, I suspect, may well be the what those pressing to redefine the family are truly after. But it is important to resist this trend. The demand that we equate same-sex relationships with the God-ordained institution of marriage is ludicrous. Likewise, the rights of the family have to be defended against encroachments by the state. We have to fight these battles, not only because the Bible tells us to do so, but because the common good requires it. Society simply cannot survive without the family.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Cultivation of Conscience” CHURCH

http://www.pfm.org/Content/ContentGroups/BreakPoint/Other_Content/Colsons_Page/Speeches/The_Cultivation_of_Conscience.htm

Next, the Church has a role to play as the conscience of society. A letter by an early Christian, called the Epistle to Diognetus, written to a pagan friend, noted that Christians in society are like the soul in the body. The Church is essential; it is that deep sensory spirit which links us to the divine. In today’s climate of disbelief, we must get beyond the trendy, feel-good model of church-building, and start building authentic communities of faith in which conscience is once again the "stern monitor." And strong, virtuous Christians must serve one another by holding one another to a higher standard. This is the only real firewall against the corruption of conscience that comes from subjectivism and emotivism.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Cultivation of Conscience” CHURCH

http://www.pfm.org/Content/ContentGroups/BreakPoint/Other_Content/Colsons_Page/Speeches/The_Cultivation_of_Conscience.htm

Finally, there is the role of the academy. The history of colleges in the United States is a melancholy tale. Our great institutions began, almost without exception, with a great Christian apostolic task, to reform manners and educate future leaders with deep moral convictions and vital knowledge. The task was undertaken with zeal, but gradually, under the onslaught of modernity, Darwinism, the higher criticism, and social reforms, that great Christian mission was set aside. What remains today, even in those hallowed Christian universities, is often a thin veneer of empty traditions, commemorated merely by the singing of a hymn at commencement ceremonies.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Conscience and Sensitivity” Dan Vander Lugt

http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/questions/answer.php?catagory=ethics&folder=conscience&topic=Conscience&file=moraldirection.xml

The voice of conscience and sensitivity to the reactions of others are important elements of moral direction, but personal consciences vary. One conscience permits almost anything, while another conscience generates devastating amounts of shame and guilt. while conscience and the reactions of other people are helpful, they are insufficient moral indicators. Relying on them to guide moral choices is like using our sense of touch to determine the extent of a child's fever. When a child is sick, a more accurate measurement is in order. Our spiritual growth and the health of our soul are also worthy of a more accurate gauge than subjective human feelings.

The Bible offers to guide us through the subjective considerations of conscience and social opinion. Its appeal is cross-cultural. Its claims to authority are strongly supported by historical evidence. Its counsel has stood the test of time. It can be trusted.

IV. BIBLICAL CONSCIENCE:

LEADER: “Conscience check” By T.M. Moore 3/23/04 EXCERPT

http://www.pfm.org/Content/ContentGroups/BreakPoint/Columns/Second_Sight/200415/Conscience_Check.htm

The word, conscience – Greek, suneidesis – is almost exclusively a New Testament idea, occurring a little over thirty times, with only one usage of the word in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, translated before the time of Christ. The largest number of uses of “conscience” is by Paul, although Luke, Peter, the writer of Hebrews, and one version of John 8:9 account for 11 uses.

But not nearly as important as the number of times the Scripture speaks of conscience is what it says about conscience when it does speak. According to the New Testament, conscience has the ability to convict us of sin or to establish us in truth. The works of the Law of God are “written” on the conscience. The state of the conscience cannot be known by anyone other than God and the individual whose conscience serves him. Thus only you and I can ensure that our consciences are functioning as they ought, in a manner acceptable to God. The conscience can be pure and good, or it can be seared, evil, and encrusted with dead works. The conscience can bear witness to the validity of feelings, the truth of ideas, views or positions, and the propriety of actions, or it can mislead and deceive us in all these areas. We have all experienced the conscience working in us. Every time we say we “don’t feel right” about a matter, that our “conscience is clear” on some issue or decision, we are witnessing to the work of the conscience, affecting and integrating our feelings, thoughts, and actions.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Migrating Birds In Cage”

http://www.tanbible.com/tol_ill/tol_ill_conscience.htm Sunday School Times

When the birds are migrating in flocks to other lands, and the instinct is strong upon them, if you catch one and imprison it in a cage, it will beat its breast against the bars and pant back and forth. But let the migratory season pass, you may open the cage and the bird will not fly. You may even take it and throw it up into the air, but it will fall back limp to the ground. The tug on that little heart is gone. For a soul, for a nation, and I suppose even for a world there comes a time when the tug of the Holy Ghost at the heart may pass forever, if they know not the time of their visitation.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #19

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/conscience.htm

“Conscience tells us that we ought to do right, but it does not tell us what right is--that we are taught by God's word.”

H.C. Trumbull Pastor

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Statistics and Stuff”

C.F.H. Henry, Christian Personal Ethics, Eerdmans, 1957, p. 509ff

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/conscience.htm

The glory of a good person is the testimony of a good conscience. A good conscience is able to bear very much and is very cheerful in adversities. An evil conscience is always fearful and unquiet. Never rejoice except when you have done well. You shall rest sweetly if your heart does not accuse you. Sinners never have true joy or feel inward peace, because 'there is no peace for the wicked,' says the Lord (Isaiah 57:21). The glory of the good is in their consciences, and not in the tongues of others, The gladness of the just is of God, and in God; and their joy is of the truth.

A person will easily be content and pacified whose conscience is pure. If you consider what you are within, you will not care what others say concerning you. People consider the deeds, but God weighs the intentions. To be always doing well and to esteem little of one's self is the sign of a humble soul. For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends, 'says Paul (2 Corinthians 10:18). To walk inwardly with God, and not to be kept abroad by any outward affection, is the state of a spiritual person. Conscience is that faculty in me which attaches itself to the highest that I know, and tells me what the highest I know demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul which looks out either toward God or toward what it regards as the highest authority. If I am in the habit of steadily facing toward God, my conscience will always introduce God's perfect law and indicate what I should do. The point is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I walk without offense. I should be living in such perfect sympathy with God's Son that in every circumstance the spirit of my mind is renewed. The one thing that keeps the conscience sensitive to Him is the habit of being open to God on the inside. When there is any debate, quit. There is no debate possible when conscience speaks.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Sundial”

Adapted from John White, The Fight

http://www.ozsermonillustrations.com/illustrations/the_sundial.htm

Conscience is like a sundial. When the sun shines upon a sundial it points us to the right time. In the same way our consciences point us in the right direction in life. However, it’s important to remember that the sundial works only when the sun is shining upon it. When the moonlight shines on the dial it points to the wrong time. When a torch is shone upon the sundial it again points us to the wrong time. In these instances the sundial is unreliable. In the same way our consciences are sometimes unreliable because the "light" shining upon them is not the voice of God, but the voices of our families or our culture or even Satan. In these instances we’ll feel false guilt over things that should not make us feel guilty, or no guilt over things that should! The key for the Christian is to have their conscience continually illuminated by God’s Spirit.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Homing Pigeons”

Scott Higgins. Scientific info from Dr Karl Kruszelnicki’s New Moments in Science #1

http://www.ozsermonillustrations.com/illustrations/homing_pigeons.htm

Pigeons are famous for their ability to find their way home, even over enormous distances. One pigeon released by the US Army Signal Corps actually travelled over 3700 kilometres to find its way home!

That’s why it was extraordinary in 1988, when 3,000 homing pigeons released in France nearly all failed to find their way home. What went wrong? Well, scientists have discovered that one of the ways pigeons navigate is by following the earth’s magnetic field. In this instance, a solar flare, a massive explosion on the Sun, occurred just two days before the French pigeons were released. This flare temporarily but severely disrupted the earth’s magnetic field. The pigeons were confused and unable to find their way home.

In a way we’re like those pigeons. God designed us to home in on his truth, but the massive explosion of sin into the world has disrupted our ability to do this. Consequently our sense of right and wrong has become distorted, and we need the example and word of Jesus to realign our sights.

Our conscience is designed to help us home in on what is right and wrong. But it doesn't always work effectively. Sin, culture and upbringing can each act as a moral solar flare, with the result that our consciences can be as off course as those homing pigeons were.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #20

http://www.entwagon.com/cgi-bin/quotes/quotes.pl?cat=Conscience&id=1

“A conscience without God is like a court without a judge.”

Alphonse De Lamartine 1790-1869, French Poet, Statesman

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Daniel 3:1-7 “The King's Golden Image”
¹ Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. ² Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. ³ Then the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces were assembled for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. ⁴ Then the herald loudly proclaimed: "To you the command is given, O peoples, nations and men of every language,
⁵ that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. ⁶ "But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire." ⁷ Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Daniel 3:8-18 “Worship of the Image Refused”
⁸ For this reason at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and brought charges against the Jews. ⁹ They responded and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king: "O king, live forever! ¹⁰ "You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe and all kinds of music, is to fall down and worship the golden image. ¹¹ "But whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire. ¹² "There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. These men, O king, have disregarded you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up." ¹³ Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego; then these men were brought before the king. ¹⁴ Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? ¹⁵ "Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?" ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. ¹⁷ "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. ¹⁸ "But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Daniel 3:8-19-28 “Daniel's Friends Protected”
¹⁹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath, and his facial expression was altered toward Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. He answered by giving orders to heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. ²⁰ He commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. ²¹ Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes, and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. ²² For this reason, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. ²³ But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up. ²⁴ Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, "Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?" They replied to the king, "Certainly, O king." ²⁵ He said, "Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!"
²⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!" Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire. ²⁷ The ⁽satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king's high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them. ²⁸ Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who hassent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king's command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Conscience or Consequence”

January 10, 2000 Our Daily Bread

http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/odb/odb-01-10-00.shtml

He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, . . . we do not serve your gods. –Daniel 3:17-18

Nearly every day we face questions of conscience. We must choose between doing what pleases God and what appeals to our own selfish desires.

Government officials may be tempted to accept bribes and to make unethical decisions. Employees are sometimes asked to rearrange numbers or file false reports. Students often face temptations such as cheating and plagiarism.

As Christians, we face situations in our daily lives that are conscience-testers. They help us to see whether we are serious about the integrity God expects of us. We know our choices will have good or bad consequences, but the real test comes when we must decide what to do.

What is the greatest protection against making the wrong decision? It is trusting God to take care of us as we choose to do what's right, regardless of the outcome.

In Daniel 3, Shadrach and his friends made a decision not to bow down to the gold image. They dared to disobey the king because they trusted God. They said that even if the Lord did not deliver them, they would still trust Him (vv.17-18).

When we face matters of conscience, we too can do the right thing–and leave the consequences with God. –JDB

Let the road be rough and dreary,
And its end far out of sight;
Foot it bravely, strong or weary–
Trust in God and do the right. –Macleod

If God's Word guides your conscience, let your conscience be your guide.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Habit of Keeping a Clear Conscience”

May 11, My Utmost for His Highest – Oswald Chambers

http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/05/13/

. . . strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men
Acts 24:16

God’s commands to us are actually given to the life of His Son in us. Consequently, to our human nature in which God’s Son has been formed, His commands are difficult. But they become divinely easy once we obey.

Conscience is that ability within me that attaches itself to the highest standard I know, and then continually reminds me of what that standard demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul which looks out either toward God or toward what we regard as the highest standard. This explains why conscience is different in different people. If I am in the habit of continually holding God’s standard in front of me, my conscience will always direct me to God’s perfect law and indicate what I should do. The question is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I can live without any offense toward anyone. I should be living in such perfect harmony with God’s Son that the spirit of my mind is being renewed through every circumstance of life, and that I may be able to quickly "prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God".

God always instructs us down to the last detail. Is my ear sensitive enough to hear even the softest whisper of the Spirit, so that I know what I should do? "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God . . ." ( Ephesians 4:30 ). He does not speak with a voice like thunder—His voice is so gentle that it is easy for us to ignore. And the only thing that keeps our conscience sensitive to Him is the habit of being open to God on the inside. When you begin to debate, stop immediately. Don’t ask, "Why can’t I do this?" You are on the wrong track. There is no debating possible once your conscience speaks. Whatever it is—drop it, and see that you keep your inner vision clear.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Romans 12:2
² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Ephesians 4:22-23
²² that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
²³ and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Ephesians 4:30
³⁰ Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: 1 Thessalonians 2:10
¹⁰ You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;

LEADER: “Blameless” By Dr. Grant C. Richison.

http://www.crusade.org/word/word1214.html EXCERPT

The word "blamelessly" connotes the idea that no one can sustain a charge against us. No one can make any charges against us. We are people without blame.

No Thessalonian could blame the gospel team for some inconsistency in their lives. No one could censure their ministry in that city. They were without reproach in the eyes of men. They gave no cause of scandal.

Blamelessness is not sinlessness. Blamelessness has to do with accusations against us.

We should live our lives so that no one can point an accusing finger against our testimony.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “When He Has Come”

November 19 My Utmost for His Highest – Oswald Chambers

http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/11/19/

When He has come, He will convict the world of sin . . .
John 16:8

Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin. We know the experience of being disturbed because we have done wrong things. But conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit blots out every relationship on earth and makes us aware of only one—"Against You, You only, have I sinned . . ." ( Psalm 51:4 ). When a person is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every bit of his conscience that God would not dare to forgive him. If God did forgive him, then this person would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the breaking of His heart with grief in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. Once we have been convicted of sin, we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary—nothing less! The love of God is spelled out on the Cross and nowhere else. The only basis for which God can forgive me is the Cross of Christ. It is there that His conscience is satisfied.

Forgiveness doesn’t merely mean that I am saved from hell and have been made ready for heaven (no one would accept forgiveness on that level). Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new nature, the nature of Jesus Christ.

LEADER: “Myself”

http://www.higherpraise.org/illustrations/conscience.htm

I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know,
I want to be able, as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand, with the setting sun,
And hate myself for the things I've done.

I don't want to keep on the closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself, as I come and go,
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of a man I really am;
I don't want to dress up myself in sham.

I want to go out with my head erect,
I want to deserve all men's respect;
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to look at myself and know
That I'm bluster and bluff and empty show.

I can never hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself, and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.

COMMENTS IF TIME:

STOP AT 10 TILL FOR

PRAYER REQUESTS AND PRAISES:

QUOTE #1

Joseph Addison 1672-1719, British Essayist, Poet, Statesman

“ Keep a Clear Conscience”

"So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man." -

Acts 24:16
March 18, 1937. The date is chiseled on dozens of tombstones in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in New London, Texas. On the fateful day, some 1200 students were in attendance at the town's only school. At 3:10 pm, just twenty minutes before the end of the school day, the shop teacher flipped off the electrical switch to the power saws. Suddenly, a spark from the switch touched off an explosion and the entire stone building was leveled. The blast killed 297 students and teachers. It was heard some 35 miles away in Tyler and Kilgore Texas.
A subsequent investigation found that a spark had ignited some 6,000 cubic feet of natural gas that had accumulated in the basement the school. A nearby oil company had an oil pipeline close to the school. Someone had decided to siphon the natural gas, the by-product of petroleum extraction, from the company's pipeline to fuel the school's furnace free of charge.
The one positive effect of this disastrous event was a government regulation requiring companies to add an odorant to natural gas. The distinctive "rotten eggs smell" of sulfur is now so familiar that we forget natural gas is actually odorless.
Just as the odorant in natural gas warns us of danger, a guilty conscience can warn us of sin in our lives. We need to heed this warning and seek always to keep a clear conscience before God and man. Do you have a guilty conscience? Today in prayer, confess any sin to Christ, make any wrong right, and seek to keep a clear conscience before God and man.
"A conscience void of offense before God and man is an inheritance for eternity." - Daniel Webster
God's Word: "I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live." - Job 27:6

QUOTE #2

“Conscience is our magnetic compass; reason, our chart.”

Joseph Cook 1796-1871 9^th Prime Minister of England

QUOTE #3

“While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind.”

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 1689-1762

Pioneer for Small Pox vaccine in England

“A Clear Conscience”

QUOTE #4

“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.”

Lillian Hellman 1905-1984, American Playwright

QUOTE #5

“Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.”

Josh Billings1815-1885, American Humorist, Lecturer

QUOTE #6

“There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right.”

Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British Prime Minister

QUOTE #7

QUOTE #8

“The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.” Izaak Walton 1593-1683 British Author

“Conscience Fund”

QUOTE #9

Alexander Sozhenitsyn Born 1918 Exiled Russian Novelist

QUOTE #10

Martin Niemoller 1892-1984 President of the World Council of Churches (1961-1968)

QUOTE #11

“Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.” Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC

QUOTE #12

“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?” Eleanor Roosevelt 1884 - 1962

QUOTE #13

“Standing Firm in Bulgaria”

It has been said that all that is needed for evil to succeed is for good people to stay quiet. And the converse is also true, when good people speak up evil can be defeated. This was graphically illustrated inside Bulgaria during the dark days of World War 2.Bulgaria was allied to Germany, with a formal agreement made in 1941 that allowed for German military bases inside Bulgaria, while handing back to Bulgaria lands that had been in dispute between the two countries. Members of the Bulgarian government who wished to implement Hitler's "final solution" against the Jews planned to begin the first phase by sending all the Jews from the returned lands to Germany's concentration camps. When the local member of Parliament, Peshev, heard of the plan he gathered other members and marched into the office of the Minister for the Interior, demanding an explanation. Peshev and the others pressured him to rescind the order, which he did. However, not all regions received the telegram in time. In Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city, Jewish people were rounded up during the early morning, with most held in the local school hall, awaiting deportation by train to Germany. Here Metropolitan Kyrill, the head of the local church acted immediately. He sent a telegram of protest to the king, threatening to lie across the tracks in front of the first train to leave with Jews, then went to the school where he was barred entry by the police. Announcing that he no longer felt himself bound by the laws of the government and would act according to his conscience as a minister of Christ, Kyrill climbed the fence promising the Jews gathered there "Wherever you go, I'll go." Some time after the order not to deport the Jews arrived at Plovdin and they got to return to their homes. Meanwhile, local MP Peshev was expelled from the vice presidency of the Parliament and censured. Foiled at their first effort the Gestapo pressured the king into an order that Jews be expelled from cities into the Bulgarian countryside. They hoped this would stir up anti-Semitism in the country and allow the deportations to go ahead. It was at this point that Metropolitan Stefan, head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church came into his own. He convened a meeting of his church's Synod which unanimously condemned the order to move Jews into the countryside. The government made plans to go ahead with the deportation anyway, scheduling it for a day of national celebration, in the hope that the deportation would go unnoticed among the day's festivities. Stefan would have none of this. As head of the national church it was his job to officiate during the celebrations. Standing on the steps of the cathedral, a large crowd lay before him and the members of the government, including the Prime Minister, sat behind him. He threw away his prepared speech, strongly condemned the persecution of the Jews and called on the government to resist the influence of the Nazis. The Prime Minister rose after Stefan to denounce him and called on him to stop interfering in political matters. The deportation to country areas proceeded, but Stefan was unbowed. In the face of threats to arrest him he offered to christen all Jews who wished to, a measure that would mean they could not be deported to Germany. The Minister for the Interior responded by refusing to recognize all christening certificates issued after January 1, 1943, and ordering the closure of the churches of Sofia. Stefan informed the government that his Churches would ignore the order and sent a circular to all his parish priests explaining the fate awaiting Jews in Germany. Fearing a public backlash the government backed down. The churches remained open until the end of the war and the Jews were allowed to remain in Bulgaria. Tens of thousands of lives were saved all because people of good conscience refused to be silent in the face of evil.

QUOTE #14

“The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.” Harper Lee 1926-, American Author

QUOTE #15

“Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”

Albert Einstein 1879-1955, German-born American Physicist

Romans 13:1

QUOTE #16

“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience” George Washington 1^st President of the US

1 Timothy 1:5

2 Timothy 3:16-17

QUOTE #17

“Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a "necessary evil," it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil. “

Sidney J. Harris Author

“Pirate Confesses Hardening Conscience”

The pirate Gibbs, whose name was for many years a terror to commerce with the West Indies and South America, was at last taken captive, condemned and executed in the city of New York.

QUOTE #18

Robert J. Little Author

Titus 1:15

“The Cultivation of Conscience” FAMILY

“The Cultivation of Conscience” CHURCH

“Conscience and Sensitivity”

“Migrating Birds In Cage”

QUOTE #19

“Conscience tells us that we ought to do right, but it does not tell us what right is--that we are taught by God's word.”

H.C. Trumbull Pastor

“Statistics and Stuff”

QUOTE #20

“A conscience without God is like a court without a judge.”

Alphonse De Lamartine 1790-1869, French Poet, Statesman

Daniel 3:1-7

“The Sundial”

“Homing Pigeons”

Daniel 3:8-18

Daniel 3:8-19-28

Romans 12:2

Ephesians 4:22-23

Ephesians 4:30

“The Habit of Keeping a Clear Conscience”

. . . strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men Acts 24:16

“Conscience or Consequence” He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, . . . we do not serve your gods. – Daniel 3:17-18

Nearly every day we face questions of conscience. We must choose between doing what pleases God and what appeals to our own selfish desires. Government officials may be tempted to accept bribes and to make unethical decisions. Employees are sometimes asked to rearrange numbers or file false reports. Students often face temptations such as cheating and plagiarism. As Christians, we face situations in our daily lives that are conscience-testers. They help us to see whether we are serious about the integrity God expects of us. We know our choices will have good or bad consequences, but the real test comes when we must decide what to do. What is the greatest protection against making the wrong decision? It is trusting God to take care of us as we choose to do what's right, regardless of the outcome. In Daniel 3, Shadrach and his friends made a decision not to bow down to the gold image. They dared to disobey the king because they trusted God. They said that even if the Lord did not deliver them, they would still trust Him (vv.17-18). When we face matters of conscience, we too can do the right thing–and leave the consequences with God. (JDB) Let the road be rough and dreary, And its end far out of sight; Foot it bravely, strong or weary–Trust in God and do the right. –Macleod

If God's Word guides your conscience, let your conscience be your guide.

1 Thessalonians 2:10

Romans 3:23

“When He Has Come” When He has come, He will convict the world of sin . . .
John 16:8