I love God.
I know I don't "say it" a lot in my blog because it is so personal to me and I feel like if I try to "preach it" continually I might cheapen the gospel as I know it. But there are those times when I've been so inspired and then I will write what is on my heart and let the world out there read my thoughts on faith and my walk in it. Otherwise, I try to convey my love for God through the pictures I take and the experiences I have, they are all connected for me, but for the reader they may not always get it as it feels inside of my heart and mind.
Today is one of those days that I wish to write from my heart what I have experienced in church. What an amazing time I had, and for me it never only is about how I feel, but it is also those times of conviction, when God's word has been presented to me in a way that opens my eyes. Those thoughts that make me pause and think and contemplate and search my innermost parts and realize where I have failed and then have a time of repentance and moving forward yet again in my walk with the One I serve daily.
Our church is going through the book of Acts at the moment and today's sermon notes read:
What is your Conscience?
It's that still small voice inside my head that tells me what is right and wrong. Yes?
Yes, but so much more when you fully dissect it. As I was reading over each point and as our pastor was preaching; a few things became more clear to me about my own life and I found where I have instances in which I need to think things through and change my thinking a little bit and my actions or in-actions as well.
I was so glad the sermon notes were so detailed this morning and I'm going to share a few of them here.
The Function of Conscience
May cause guilt and shame when we sin
May warn us when we contemplate wrongdoing
May approve us when we do what we believe to be right
I think these three points explain the conscience so much better than to simply say "my conscience is a still small voice inside my head that tells me what is right and wrong." These points help us think it through.
Your Conscience can be Many Things
You can have a weak conscience
You can have a defiled conscience
You can have an evil conscience
You can have a seared conscience
You can have a pure conscience
This is where I had to start looking at things a bit differently. I had never thought of it like this before. Maybe my conscience is weak because when I watch a television show that portrays sin as funny and I laugh...I'm going against what God would have me do. Or a friend tells me something and I agree verbally, but disagree in my heart just because I don't want to offend them. Maybe, just maybe I have a weak conscience and I need to figure out how to have a pure conscience.
In great detail our pastor gave us a definition of having a seared conscience...not in his words, but the gist of what he said, it is when you are involving yourself in something that goes against scripture and you "justify" your actions. That is big stuff. You don't have to look too far, too deep or too wide to see it happening all around us, folks justifying their sinful ways. Our pastor gave us the word picture of branding a calf and how once that skin is branded the nerve endings are dead and the calf no longer has feelings in that area. The same can be said for our hearts, once our conscience has been seared with sin being justified - there are no more feelings of wrongdoing.
That is a bit scary for me because I wonder if there is anything in my life that I've justified to the point of almost no return?
It really brings me pause to think of this.
Train Your Conscience.....
With knowledge of God's word
Learn and live the commands of God
Grow in faith
Serve God in love from a pure conscience
Basically, we have to keep on keeping on, doing what we know we should do to remain strong and not have a weak, defiled, seared or evil conscience. Our goal should be to have.....a pure conscience.
The last point...is what really made me pause and question myself.
Protect Your Conscience
What defiles the conscience?
Apathy
False Doctrine
Willful sin
I am probably overly cautious when it comes to all the happening preachers and teachers out there, but this is a good example of why, because I do not want to fall under false doctrine and so many big mainstream preachers and teachers can be a little bit shady and we have to protect ourselves from such things. I would rather not be the most knowledgeable in the room and use the Bible for my main source of spiritual inspiration than to be misled by someone who honestly doesn't have all the pieces to the puzzle, or has intentions that are not good.
The main thought I had through this whole sermon today was that when we left the Amish we were told by former Amish folks themselves that we need to forget everything we have been taught and relearn how we think of God. I still believe we needed to do that from the bottom of my heart, but I wonder, is there anything that I'm missing, not from the Amish, but more from an attitude of "I am free from being told what to do and so now I get to do what I wanna do." I know I've had a change of heart a long time ago from that kind of mentality, I have come to learn that there is great responsibility in having that kind of spiritual freedom, all of a sudden I have to be responsible to know why I do the things I do and I have to talk to God and learn from his word and form conviction with his word in my heart.
This sermon made me think about things and want to explore more deeply how I allow my conscience to work. Do I do "willful sin"? You know, watching something on television that is laughing at sin and I laugh with it? Or listening to music with lyrics that are nasty...in fact...very recently...I had looked up a particular song on YouTube...I wanted to see what the video would look like and maybe have more insight on the meaning of the song and right there in the middle of the song, there was an occultic symbol and I was taken aback by it, and YET...when I page through the radio and that song comes on, more than not I linger, because the music is so catchy. I'm totally convinced that I've been willfully sinning by giving that song any second of a listen and so I had to repent this afternoon.
As I travel through this world I've been inspired to be more mindful of my conscience, to listen to it, and to give it the proper training and protection so that I don't have to live with a seared, defiled, evil or weak conscience.
The Function of Conscience
May cause guilt and shame when we sin
May warn us when we contemplate wrongdoing
May approve us when we do what we believe to be right
I think these three points explain the conscience so much better than to simply say "my conscience is a still small voice inside my head that tells me what is right and wrong." These points help us think it through.
Your Conscience can be Many Things
You can have a weak conscience
You can have a defiled conscience
You can have an evil conscience
You can have a seared conscience
You can have a pure conscience
This is where I had to start looking at things a bit differently. I had never thought of it like this before. Maybe my conscience is weak because when I watch a television show that portrays sin as funny and I laugh...I'm going against what God would have me do. Or a friend tells me something and I agree verbally, but disagree in my heart just because I don't want to offend them. Maybe, just maybe I have a weak conscience and I need to figure out how to have a pure conscience.
In great detail our pastor gave us a definition of having a seared conscience...not in his words, but the gist of what he said, it is when you are involving yourself in something that goes against scripture and you "justify" your actions. That is big stuff. You don't have to look too far, too deep or too wide to see it happening all around us, folks justifying their sinful ways. Our pastor gave us the word picture of branding a calf and how once that skin is branded the nerve endings are dead and the calf no longer has feelings in that area. The same can be said for our hearts, once our conscience has been seared with sin being justified - there are no more feelings of wrongdoing.
That is a bit scary for me because I wonder if there is anything in my life that I've justified to the point of almost no return?
It really brings me pause to think of this.
Train Your Conscience.....
With knowledge of God's word
Learn and live the commands of God
Grow in faith
Serve God in love from a pure conscience
Basically, we have to keep on keeping on, doing what we know we should do to remain strong and not have a weak, defiled, seared or evil conscience. Our goal should be to have.....a pure conscience.
The last point...is what really made me pause and question myself.
Protect Your Conscience
What defiles the conscience?
Apathy
False Doctrine
Willful sin
I am probably overly cautious when it comes to all the happening preachers and teachers out there, but this is a good example of why, because I do not want to fall under false doctrine and so many big mainstream preachers and teachers can be a little bit shady and we have to protect ourselves from such things. I would rather not be the most knowledgeable in the room and use the Bible for my main source of spiritual inspiration than to be misled by someone who honestly doesn't have all the pieces to the puzzle, or has intentions that are not good.
The main thought I had through this whole sermon today was that when we left the Amish we were told by former Amish folks themselves that we need to forget everything we have been taught and relearn how we think of God. I still believe we needed to do that from the bottom of my heart, but I wonder, is there anything that I'm missing, not from the Amish, but more from an attitude of "I am free from being told what to do and so now I get to do what I wanna do." I know I've had a change of heart a long time ago from that kind of mentality, I have come to learn that there is great responsibility in having that kind of spiritual freedom, all of a sudden I have to be responsible to know why I do the things I do and I have to talk to God and learn from his word and form conviction with his word in my heart.
This sermon made me think about things and want to explore more deeply how I allow my conscience to work. Do I do "willful sin"? You know, watching something on television that is laughing at sin and I laugh with it? Or listening to music with lyrics that are nasty...in fact...very recently...I had looked up a particular song on YouTube...I wanted to see what the video would look like and maybe have more insight on the meaning of the song and right there in the middle of the song, there was an occultic symbol and I was taken aback by it, and YET...when I page through the radio and that song comes on, more than not I linger, because the music is so catchy. I'm totally convinced that I've been willfully sinning by giving that song any second of a listen and so I had to repent this afternoon.
As I travel through this world I've been inspired to be more mindful of my conscience, to listen to it, and to give it the proper training and protection so that I don't have to live with a seared, defiled, evil or weak conscience.
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