CONSCIENTIOUS LIVING
Thursday, August 04, 2016
Psalm 86:11-13 Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to
fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will
glorify thy name for evermore. For great is
thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
Psalm 119:9-12 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole
heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have
I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.
1Corinthians 3:9-11 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of
God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the
foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he
buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ.
My childhood familial
education was filled with moral and ethical teaching accompanied by healthy discipline.
Within our upbringing was, though I never heard the term until the 1960s, that
racial prejudice was not any part of our family way of life. Though previously
taught, I well remember the day this was made crystal clear to me.
Arriving home in
answer to the evening supper call, Uncle Jim inquired as to who I had played
with that day. I, proudly speaking a term I’d heard the older boys use,
responded “I’ve been playing with those kike kids that live a few streets over.”
Supper meal was
normal but the unusual then happened. When I asked “May I be excused from the
table?” I was not. What’s going on? I
wondered. I soon found out . . . and gained another rock in foundation of family
conscience.
“Let your
conscience be your guide.” Was then a constant in our family, the public school
I attended, the neighborhood (“Where’s your conscience boy?!!”), community, and
so far as I knew, the United States of America.
Soon after in my
27th year trusting Lord Jesus Christ as personal Redeemer was closely
followed by mentors’ encouragement and guidance in why and how to study God’s
Word and thereby gain utmost genuine thought and life application . . . I realized
that conscience not gripped by Logos, John 1:1 “Word”, is not reliable as
life-guide, especially in unexpected unforeseen unprepared for circumstances.
To illustrate: If
I were raised to believe Klingons are
born stupid lesser-than-me beings I would not be “conscience stricken” (Another
term of yesteryear.) about their suppression or destruction as a race and
culture. With enough misbegotten conscience I could even rejoice in Klingon suffering and demise.
For Christian,
our conscience is only as reliable as much as it is operatively grounded in He
that is the only truly authentic Reliable One.
If you are not
already doing so as a child in God’s John 1:12 family, I encourage you to
agreeably build on the one and only solid foundation, Jesus Christ.
“Let the wise
hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to
understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The
fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and
instruction.” (Pr.1:5-7)
EBB4
For additional contemplation: Act.23:1; 24:16; Rom.2:14-15;
9:1;12:1-3; !Cor.4:4; 2Cor.1:12; 5:11; 1Tim.4:1-2
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