A Conscience Void of Offence
by Rebekah


“And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” (Acts 24:16 KJV).


There are three types of consciences:
1) A good conscience - when we know when we have sinned and humbly make confession
2) A guilty conscience - when we know when we have sinned and hide it. This leads to a dead conscience.
3) A dead conscience - when we don’t even know when we have sinned. We have deadened, or dulled our conscience, putting it to sleep. Paul speaks of those with seared (cauterized) consciences.


It is ever so important in our relationship with God that we maintain a clear and pure conscience before Him. What is the most important thing in life? Our eternity. The life that goes beyond this world. What we need is the eternal life of God. What is that eternal life of God? As Jesus said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3 KJV).


Read I Peter 1:18-19 and Romans 3:24-25.
When we realize how indebted we are to God, it should motivate us to clear up our offences!


Read I Peter 3:16-17, Titus 1:15, and 2 Corinthians 1:12. What do these verses tell you about why you should maintain a clear conscience?


Read I Timothy 4:2 and I Timothy 1:19 and review Titus 1:15 and I Peter 3:16-17. What can happen if you don’t maintain a clear conscience?


When we harbor sin, we not only open the door for the enemy to come in, but we also put a blockage between ourselves and God. Read Revelation 12:10. The devil is the accuser and wishes to accuse us and make us doubt the blood of Christ, and one way he does it is by reminding us of past sins. If he can convince us that he still has victory over us, then we have lost. When we stand firm in Christ’s victory then we are standing by faith in God, who is on our side!


David was a man who always sought to maintain fellowship with God and to restore the relationship, clearing out any sin and blockage. After David sinned with Bathsheba, he wrote Psalm 51, a prayer of repentance and brokenness. David never took his relationship with God for granted but sought God with all his heart.


....Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in his book, Life Together, “God can only meet us on the condition of truth. He Himself is truth, and He will not meet us on the basis of phoniness or pretense. His grace is available, copiously and freely, but on the condition of truth alone. That is why so many Christian lives remain fixed at an unhappy level. They do not meet Him on the level of truth because they do not meet the saints on the level of truth. We can measure the truth of our relationship with God by our relationship with men. If it is deceitful, phony and secretive there, and withholding and unloving, then we are not to presume to think that our relationship with God is somehow better or separate. The two are inextricably joined together. It is our relationship to men that unmasks us, and it is our relationship with men that is the true requirement and reveals our condition before God.”


Read the rest at http://www.lightedlampmagazine.yolasite.com/resources/February2011.pdf