This was a quiet morning with fewer shiny things to distract me from my prayers. I chalk it up to the cooler weather - no bugs to swat, no uncomfortable sweat, just blessed coolness that made me grateful to God for surviving the fiery furnace so far. Just call me Shadrach.
I try to make the most of these moments by praying about the things I don't always get to day-to-day - like people around the world who are coping with wars and poverty; persecuted Christians; people in prison; our national government; the challenges facing the wider church - the people and things that really need our prayers, but are lower on our list of urgency than our daily prayer punch list of family, health, the grocery list, whether I want more brown streaks than blond streaks, wondering if the guest room is big enough for a queen size mattress and what day my eye appointment is. Squirrel!
Today I got to thinking about all the chaos in the world and toting up all the things that I never thought I'd live to see; things that would have been preposterous 24 hours ago, let alone preposterous since the beginning of time. I won't list them, because it will offend some of you, and you'll quit reading. I'm sure you have your own list anyway.
One of the things that frustrates and puzzles me is how quickly the wider church - which has always agreed about most Things That Matter, no matter how the different stripes felt about dunking, sprinkling and wine versus grape juice - has capitulated, and in many cases, joined in to support and celebrate what Scripture (God's Written Word) has called Sin, and who have been equally quick to condemn what God has called Good. It also flummoxes me that in the secular world, associations of educated professionals - historians, lawyers, sociologists, physicians and other scientists, (otherwise known as Groups of Smart People Who Should Know Better) - now collectively agree that the naked emperor has a nifty suit of clothes.
One of the (very) few friends with whom I can safely have conversations says the reason these folks have folded like cheap suits is because "their consciences are seared." What a vivid phrase that is! Who hasn't had a nasty red mark after touching a hot iron or stove, or grabbing a hot skillet? We sear steaks over high heat to seal in their juices. Searing brings something in contact with the heat longer than a quick touch. It brands, cauterizes and desensitizes. So people with seared consciences are those who have disobeyed their innate moral consciences so much over time that they are desensitized to right and wrong, reality and fantasy, and have closed their minds to reason and morals. The world has been here before: "In those days there was no king in Israel: everyone did that which as right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25) If you want to know what that looks like, read Judges 19, but make your kids leave the room.
Tasked with being Pinocchio's conscience, Jiminy Cricket instructed that to solve his dilemmas the wannabe boy should, "Give a little whistle," and "Always let your conscience be your guide." These days we would call that "following your heart." What was missing then - as now - is the warning of Paul to young Timothy: "Some have refused to let their faith guide their conscience and their faith has been destroyed like a wrecked ship." (I Tim. 1:19 GWT) It seems that before we can be guided by our conscience, our conscience must be fed by God's Word - otherwise, we can only be shoved out into the open ocean, headed towards the rocks without a rudder to redirect us to a safe harbor.
For their part, Mainline churches (which have been mainlining culture for decades now), have been fond of quoting the doctrinal version of "follow your heart," which is "God alone is the Lord of the conscience..." which is part of the formidable Westminster Confession of Faith. But in the same way they tend to leave out "...according to the Word of God," as the second phrase to the boast of being "Reformed and always reforming...," the appeal to God as the Lord of the conscience is usually put forward without its subsequent qualifying paragraph. For the uncatechized members and seminary graduates (as I was), and those whose catechisms preceded the discovery of dirt, the schematic for the workings of the Christian conscience follow:
"ii. God alone is Lord of the conscience, and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in any thing, contrary to His Word; or beside it, if matters of faith, or worship. So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience: and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.
"iii. They who, upon pretence of Christian liberty, do practice any sin, or cherish any lust, do thereby destroy the end of Christian liberty, which is, that being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life."
Westminster Confession of Faith, XX.ii.iii
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