Wage the Good warfare!

We are in a war!
Often we say it is a spiritual war as though it doesn't affect other areas of our lives. But the spiritual affects all other areas. In fact the spiritual is first and then the physical. So we are in a war battling for souls for eternity.

In 1 Tim 1:18-19 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck

One of the most important gift that God has given man is the conscience.
What is conscience?
The following story by Theodore parker illustrates it very well.
" I saw a little spotted turtle," he writes, " sunning itself in the shallow water. I lifted the stick in my hand to kill it; for though I had never killed any creature, yet I had seen other boys, out of sport, destroy birds, squirrels and the like, and I had a disposition to follow their example. But all at once something checked my little arm, and a voice within me said, clear and loud, ' It is wrong.' I held my uplifted stick in wonder at the new emotion, till the turtle vanished from sight." I hastened home and told the tale to my mother, and asked what it was that told me it was wrong. She wiped a tear from her eye, and taking me in her arms, said, ' Some men call it conscience, but I prefer to call it the voice of God in the soul of man. If you listen and obey it, it will speak clearer and clearer, and always guide you right; but if you turn a deaf ear or disobey, then it will fade out little by little, and leave you in the dark without a guide. Your life my son depends on heeding that little voice.'"

Definitions of conscience
· The consciousness within oneself of the choice one ought to make between right and wrong. (Oxford)
· From a Christian perspective a conscience is all about having God’s standard in our hearts to guide us in how we conduct ourselves.
· Conscience is a group of laws in our hearts. Mankind has demonstrated that they know God’s principles. No matter if we know the Bible or not, we know we should not murder, steal, be jealous of other people, and generally not do the things that displease our Creator.
· A good conscience is one that allows me to look every person in the eye knowing that not one of them can point a finger and say, “You wronged me and you never tried to make it right”.

Then why do man made in the image of God do “beastly”, ungodly and wicked things? What happened to their conscience?

THE BIBLE SAYS THAT CONSCIENCE CAN....
seared – burned and destroyed with hot iron (1 Tim 4:2),
defiled – made corrupted by impurities and filth (Titus 1:15) and
weakened – a conscience that is seared and defiled and a conscience that has been filled with lies and wrong examples will be weak (1 Cor 8:7,10).

How can one’s conscience be weakened? If we keep seeing wrong things done around us we can accustom ourselves to it until what we consider as wrong become "acceptable". If our parents uses foul language, the children will soon follow and they have no shame feelings about it.

GOD’S WANTS OUR CONSCIENCE TO BE:
good - strong and healthy - 1 Tim 1:5, 19;
pure - cleansed and kept clean - 1 Tim 3:9 and
clear - void of offence towards God and men

CONSCIENCE CAN BE AWAKENED BY TRUTH:
John 8 :9. When Jesus spoke the truth; the men beginning with the oldest were convicted in their conscience of their own sins.
We need to constantly expose ourselves to the truth of God’s word to keep our conscience healthy and strong.

WAGE A GOOD WARFARE BY HAVING FAITH AND A GOOD CONSCIENCE: 1 Tim 1:18-19
We can’t fight against the devil if our conscience is pricking us or condemning us. The devil’s scheme is to defile, sear and weaken man’s conscience till he doesn’t know what’s right and wrong. Then he can easily tempt man to do the wrong things i.e. to sin against God and be destroyed.

What can we do to maintain a good conscience
§ Love truth & not compromise it
§ Please God
§ Live by God’s standard
§ Be sincere

CONCLUSION:
Let’s be like Paul who said in Acts 24:15,16 …I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.

Don't ever bow to compromise; to fear; to self preservation.

Only bow to God and His Word; to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Poor People are more Compassionate and more Blessed

Recently the news of Yue Yue the 2 years plus baby who was ran over by a van and was ignored for 7 minutes by 18 passers by, shocked us all. How could human beings (in this case the Chinese people) be so heartless that they could totally ignore a critically injured baby by the road side right before their eyes.

Has the busyness of life in the city made cold hearts out of us. Notice I use "us" and not them. Before we point the finger and criticise the 18 people let us do some soul searching. Could we have done the same? Perhaps we are rushing to go to work, to an appointment or even to go home to take care of our family members at home. There could be a 101 reasons, right? As someone puts it, " we could have made the money but we have lost our hearts (the loving compassionate human hearts). Is progress, development and higher standards of living beneficial to us? Maybe to our physical comfort but I'm certainly doubtful about it's benefit to our souls/hearts.

In contrast I have a heartwarming story to tell.
Ten of us from our church went to India for a Mission Trip recently. We went to a small town about 10 hours drive from the city of Hyderabad. It is one of those poor towns where roads are bad and where everything seems so messy and dirty. You see cows strolling on the roads or resting right in the middle of the road. On top of that there are wild pigs like dogs running around, scavengering for food amidst rubbish thrown everywhere. There are lots of pedestrians and people on bicycles and motorcycles. On top of that cars are always honking.

On one of our trips on the road, the car in front just went past a junction and a motorcycle came out and hit the car and the riders fell to the ground. We exclaimed! But what amazed me was that almost immediately 6 to 10 people came from different direction to help to lift up the riders and the bike. The sight really left a deep impression in my heart. They just "dropped" whatever they were doing to come to aid. I know that these people were the "poor" people of a small town in India. But they were "real" human beings. They have compassion. They are helpful. They are caring.

In this Mission trip we were serving the villagers. They live in simple small one room thatched roofed houses. When we preached the Good News to them, they responded enthusiastically and many (numbering above thousands) lifted their hands to receive Jesus into their hearts. In the last night I preached a message on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and many responded and came forward to ask the Lord to fill them with the Holy Spirit. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to pray in the heavenly language.

No wonder Jesus declared in Luke 6:20-21
"Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled."