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Getting Your Conscience Back on Track

God has given us different means for us to know the difference between right and wrong. They include the ten commands in Exodus 20, the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, and many other commands. There is no excuse for saying, “I didn’t know it was wrong.” He has also given us civil and criminal laws in Romans 13 and other people we should obey: our slave masters (1 Peter 2), our fathers (Ephesians 6), and our husbands (Ephesians 5), and, finally, He has given us a cleansed conscience (1 Corinthians 6:11). The difficulty with our conscience is that it cannot be trusted. Paul says it this way: “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Corinthians 4:4). There are several reasons for the conscience not working properly. • It has adjusted to the culture. “Everyone does it” or these are the “laws of the land.” • It has deliberately, willfully, not conformed to the Scripture. • It has been “seared as by a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4...
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Christ Shall Suffice

Yea thro' life, death, thro' sorrow and thro' sinning He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed: Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning, Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ. - Excerpt from St. Paul by FWH Myers
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Simeon's Christmas

by Bessie Wilson "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people." Luke 2:29-31 When Simeon held the tiny Babe in his arms that day in the Temple and said these words, he said all that we need to know for our eternal salvation. How this salvation was wrought out in the days of his flesh, culminating in His sacrifice on Calvary, is the full story of the Gospel. But at the Christmas season the Babe captures our imaginations. The manger scene becomes a decoration, and the danger is that the wonder of the Incarnation may be lost under all the Christmas pageantry. What is the wonder of the Incarnation? The Eternal Christ "in the bosom of the Father" (John 1.18) entered the human race, born of the Virgin Mary. Who, being in the form of God…made Himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of me...
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The Loveliness of Christ

This post is an excerpt from The Loveliness of Christ by Samuel Rutherford. If your Lord call you to suffering, be not dismayed; there shall be a new allowance of the King for you when ye come to it. One of the softest pillows Christ hath is laid under His witnesses’ head, though often they must set down their bare feet among thorns. God hath called you to Christ’s side, and the wind is now in Christ’s face in this land; and seeing ye are with Him, ye cannot expect the lee-side or the sunny side of the brae. He delighteth to take up fallen bairns and to mend broken brows: binding up of wounds is His office. Wants are my best riches, for I have these supplied by Christ. I think the sense of our wants, when withal we have a restlessness and a sort of spiritual impatience under them, and can make a din, because we want Him whom our soul loveth, is that which maketh an open door to Christ: and when we think we are going backward, because we feel deadness, we are going forward; for...
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Act Like It

Recently, I have been meditating on Colossians 2:20-3:3.                  “Therefore if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations—‘do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,’ which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religions, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against indulgence of the flesh. If then you were raised with Christ , seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” If you are dead with Christ and dead to the world, act like it. Do not conform to the world. If you are risen with Christ, act like it. Let your hearts and minds be...
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Strength & Continuance

This post is an excerpt from Living at the Mercy Seat  by R.C. Chapman. It is Christ’s hold upon us that enables us, by faith, to lay hold on and to keep hold of Him. “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12). They who seem the most tried are not always those that have the sharpest warfare. Sometimes things appear to us so difficult that we are daunted; at other times so easy that we think we are equal to them; and thus in either case we fail. He that is running a race looks not at witnesses admiring, but only at the mark. We need to “discern the Lord’s body,” i.e., Christ having been crucified (1 Cor. 11:29) for steadfastness of communion with God, no less than to trust in His blood to obtain salvation from wrath to come (John 6:54, 56). The fulfilling of God’s promises depends not upon the creature’s strength, and cannot be prevented b...
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When Sin Creeps Up Behind You

Many years ago, I received the following question: “Lately, I haven’t had trouble staying away from sin, and I want it to stay that way. Usually when I hit a high point like this, I get lazy and screw up again. It often seems that sin will creep up behind me, and then there I am having to deal with it and try to get back to where I left off. Could you give me advice to avoid falling into that pattern again?” Regarding prospective sin, keep your mind and heart on Christ , not on the temptation or weakness. “ Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:14). For more advice on this topic, read my How to Be a Strong Christian: Walking in the Light blog post series.
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Demon Possession

Dear Friends, I have been carrying your letter around for a few weeks anticipating answering it concerning your friend. Whether it is demon possession or whether it is mental illness of some sort of physical variety, I think praying is more important than horizontal communication unless the horizontal communication is much love given to him. If he is a Christian, I don’t think it is possible for him to be demon-possessed. The Scripture is very clear that He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world . We have no examples in Scripture of demon possession in believers. On the other hand, if he never came to Christ, it could well be that he is demon-possessed. In any case, the power of God, the power of the name of Jesus, the power of the cross, is what will set him free. In His Love, Jim
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