November 05, 2023
Greetings and blessings to all of you. It’s all about Christ. We are God’s children in Christ Jesus. We have been baptized into Christ. We are clothed with Christ. All believers are one in Christ Jesus. We belong to Christ and thanks to Him we are spiritual descendants of Abraham and heirs of the King. How do we know all of this? The Holy Spirit of course. The Holy Spirit works not only to give us awareness of the truth; He works to convince us of the truth. He convicts us of sin and of righteousness. I may think or realize, for example that it is wrong to steal. Yet if that realization is vague and weak in my mind it is unlikely that my behavior will change. For every truth that God reveals there is a corresponding lie that attacks it. We may realize that fornication is a sin. Yet the voices of our culture so loudly and persistently proclaim that it is normal and okay that our resolve to say no is weakened. We must be firmly and thoroughly be convinced of the sinfulness of sin if we are to avoid the seductions of our culture. Pinocchio says, “always let your conscience be your guide.” Not only did he not have a brain but that is fatal advice if the conscience is seared and out of harmony with the Word of God. A good conscience is one trained by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. When we understand God’s truth clearly, we are convicted by the Holy Spirit. The Christian conscience is to be alive to the Word of God. If our conscience is trained by the Word of God, it will be a healthy conscience. The conscience of man is a powerful but changeable mechanism. It has been called the “internal voice of God it is a kind of built in governor that either accuses or excuses us. The conscience serves as a monitor of our behavior. The problem with our conscience is that it may be acutely sensitive to the Word of God or it may be desensitized. We can grieve the Holy Spirit. We can dismiss the Holy Spirit. As sinners we are adept at searing our conscience. We are a master at rationalization by which we mute the accusing sound of the inner voice. God has commanded us to be filled with His spirit and anything less than that is flagrant disobedience. If your life is characterized by disobedience understand this. I John1:6 says, “if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth”. In First John 3:6 It says,“No one who abides in him keeps in sinning, no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC