Morally Handicapped<\/b><\/p>\n
The haunting story of fourteen-year-old Rod Matthews serves as a warning to a culture gone adrift. Rod was not interested in the things that normally interest teenagers. Neither sports nor books were enough to quench his insatiable boredom. Only one thing excited him: death. He spent hours watching the video Faces of Death, a collection of film clips of people dying violently. Rod\u2019s curiosity about death led him to want to see death personally, not just on the television or movie screen.<\/p>\n
Eventually, he found a way to satisfy his curiosity. One winter afternoon he lured a friend out into the woods and proceeded to beat him to death with a baseball bat. During his trial for murder, the most telling remark was made by a child psychiatrist who was asked to give a clinical evaluation of Rod\u2019s condition. The doctor\u2019s assessment was that Rod was not insane in the conventional sense but that he simply didn\u2019t \u201cknow right from wrong. \u2026 He [was] morally handicapped\u201d (emphasis mine)\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark DeVries, Family-Based Youth Ministry, (Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press, 1994, p. 53<\/p>\n
Troubled <\/p>\n
A man consulted a doctor, \u201cI\u2019ve been misbehaving, Doc, and my conscience is troubling me,\u201d he complained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you want something that will strengthen your willpower?\u201d asked the doctor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, no,\u201d said the fellow. \u201cI was thinking of something that would weaken my conscience.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bits & Pieces, May 27, 1993, Page 21<\/p>\n
Myself<\/b><\/p>\n
I have to live with myself, and so I want to be fit for myself to know, I want to be able, as days go by, Always to look myself straight in the eye;<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to stand, with the setting sun, And hate myself for the things I\u2019ve done. I don\u2019t want to keep on the closet shelf A lot of secrets about myself,<\/p>\n
And fool myself, as I come and go, Into thinking that nobody else will know The kind of a man I really am; I don\u2019t want to dress up myself in sham.<\/p>\n
I want to go out with my head erect, I want to deserve all men\u2019s respect; But here in the struggle for fame and pelf I want to be able to like myself.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to look at myself and know That I\u2019m bluster and bluff and empty show. I can never hide myself from me; I see what others may never see;<\/p>\n
I know what others may never know, I never can fool myself, and so, Whatever happens, I want to be Self-respecting and conscience free.<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Good Quotes<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cA good conscience is able to bear very much and is very cheerful in adversities. An evil conscience is always fearful and unquiet. Never rejoice except when you have done well. You shall rest sweetly if your heart does not accuse you.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cSinners never have true joy or feel inward peace, because \u2018there is no peace for the wicked,\u2019 says the Lord (Isaiah 57:21). <\/p>\n
\u2022 The glory of the good is in their consciences, and not in the tongues of others, The gladness of the just is of God, and in God; and their joy is of the truth.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cA person will easily be content and pacified whose conscience is pure. If you consider what you are within, you will not care what others say concerning you. People consider the deeds, but God weighs the intentions.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cTo be always doing well and to esteem little of one\u2019s self is the sign of a humble soul.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cFor not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends,\u201d says Paul (2 Corinthians 10:18). To walk inwardly with God, and not to be kept abroad by any outward affection, is the state of a spiritual person.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cConscience is that faculty in me which attaches itself to the highest that I know, and tells me what the highest I know demands that I do.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cIt is the eye of the soul which looks out either toward God or toward what it regards as the highest authority.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cIf I am in the habit of steadily facing toward God, my conscience will always introduce God\u2019s perfect law and indicate what I should do.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cThe point is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I walk without offense. I should be living in such perfect sympathy with God\u2019s Son that in every circumstance the spirit of my mind is renewed.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cThe one thing that keeps the conscience sensitive to Him is the habit of being open to God on the inside.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cWhen there is any debate, quit. There is no debate possible when conscience speaks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christian Personal Ethics, C.F.H. Henry, Eerdmans, 1957, p. 509ff<\/p>\n
The Friend Inside<\/b><\/p>\n
Throughout his administration, Abraham Lincoln was a president under fire, especially during the scarring years of the Civil War. And though he knew he would make errors of office, he resolved never to compromise his integrity. So strong was this resolve that he once said, \u201cI desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Today In The Word, August, 1989, p. 21<\/p>\n
A Necessary Evil<\/b><\/p>\n
Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a \u201cnecessary evil,\u201d it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil. – Sidney J. Harris<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
The Highest<\/b><\/p>\n
Conscience is that faculty in me which attaches itself to the highest that I know, and tells me what the highest I know demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul which looks out either toward God or toward what it regards as the highest authority. If I am in the habit of steadily facing toward God, my conscience will always introduce God\u2019s perfect law and indicate what I should do. The point is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I walk without offense. I should be living in such perfect sympathy with God\u2019s Son that in every circumstance the spirit of my mind is renewed. <\/p>\n
The one thing that keeps the conscience sensitive to Him is the habit of being open to God on the inside. When there is any debate, quit. There is no debate possible when conscience speaks. – Oswald Chambers<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Expired License<\/b><\/p>\n
When Sgt. Ray Baarz of the Midvale, Utah, police department opened his wallet the other day, he noticed his driver\u2019s license had expired. Embarrassed at having caught himself red-handed, he had no alternative. He calmly and deliberately pulled out his ticket book and wrote himself a citation. Then Baarz took the ticket to the city judge who fined him five dollars. \u201cHow could I give a ticket to anyone else for an expired license in the future if I didn\u2019t cite myself?\u201d Baarz asked.<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Total Stranger<\/b><\/p>\n
As someone else has said, \u201cShe won\u2019t listen to her conscience. She doesn\u2019t want to take advice from a total stranger.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bob Goddard, St. Louis Globe-Democrat<\/p>\n
Antagonism<\/b><\/p>\n
The antagonism between life and conscience may be removed in two ways: by a change of life or by a change of conscience. Leo Tolstoy<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
God\u2019s Word<\/b><\/p>\n
Conscience tells us that we ought to do right, but it does not tell us what right is\u2014that we are taught by God\u2019s word. H.C. Trumbull<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Like a Wheelbarrow<\/b><\/p>\n
The trouble with the advice, \u201cFollow your conscience\u201d is that most people follow it like someone following a wheelbarrow\u2014they direct it wherever they want it to go, and then follow behind. <\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Conscience Fund<\/b><\/p>\n
Did you know that ever since 1811 (when someone who had defrauded the government anonymously sent $5 to Washington D.C.) the U.S. Treasury has operated a Conscience Fund? Since that time almost $3.5 million has been received from guilt-ridden citizens. <\/p>\n
Swindoll, The Quest For Character, Multnomah, p. 70<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Morally Handicapped The haunting story of fourteen-year-old Rod Matthews serves as a warning to a culture gone adrift. Rod was not interested in the things that normally interest teenagers. Neither sports nor books were enough to quench his insatiable boredom. Only one thing excited him: death. He spent hours watching the video Faces of Death, … Continue reading “Conscience”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}