The day of rest has arrived again. Some hot oatmeal to warm the body is in order, as rain is imminent in my province. One day several years ago I came across a beggar in Baguio City, Philippines, while I was on my way to the market one late morning. She was frail as were her kids.
She was a woman who was fairly young and who had two children who appeared to be around the ages of 5 or 7. As I neared the top of the stairs, her hand was out, as were the hands of her children. All sought alms.
The gift
Knowing full well that syndicates frequent the Philippines and wrongly use the destitute for their own greedy gain, I was reluctant to give any money. I had to make a judgment in mere seconds. We all do this daily - snap judgments, sometimes right, sometimes wrong.
Since I has just traversed Session Road, I had bought some donuts and other snacks on the way down.
At the market I needed to exchange some US dollars for pesos and pick up some fresh vegetables and some fish. The woman tugged at my arm rather rudely and mumbled something I could not understand - perhaps another dialect I was unfamiliar with.
Brought up with the notion that we should give to the needy rather than to the greedy, my conscience bid me to give the lady what I could. I offered her the donuts and some quail eggs.
The reaction
I was initially stunned when the woman slapped the food out of my hand as I extended the gift. Her kids seemed ready to accept and eat. The woman shook her hand violently at me demanding money. I refused. Like other vendors nearby, if she truly wanted money, she could have sold my meager gifts and purchased what she really wanted.
I carried on towards my destination with a clear conscience. I made no immediate judgment regarding her conscience, but subsequently suspected it had been hardened.
The Conscience
We are all born and gifted with a conscience. The conscience is a God-given capacity for human beings to exercise self-evaluation. In Romans chapter two (and elsewhere) we read about the conscience from the Apostle Paul and other writers.
Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes:
"All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)" (Romans 2:12-15, NIV).
The challenge
The challenge set before us is whether to follow our conscience or ignore the still small voice in our minds. Oftentimes we ignore the voice and consequently sin. And as we consistently ignore our conscience our hearts become hardened to the extent that, like a needle in a drug addicts arm, the Holy Spirit's reach is difficult to penetrate the heart because people will not allow Him to do so.
We read about Pharaoh in Egypt, who refused to hear and grant the petitions of God's servant Moses.
"The Lord instructed Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt, make sure you do all the wonders before Pharaoh that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he won’t let the people go.” And in Exodus 7:3 the Lord reiterated to Moses: “… I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.”
It would appear that God made his heart hard but that is not actually the case. God already knew what Pharaoh's responses would be. As Pharaoh refused to heed the requests of Moses, that is, God's requests, his heart was hardened. The same thing happens today and has throughout the history of humanity. People simply refuse to listen to their conscience.
As a consequence, addictions (sins), immorality, violence, and greed are frequently profoundly rooted in the fertile soil of a guilty conscience.
The application
Since God gifted us all with a conscience, and since He also gifts us with the Holy Spirit when we believe on Jesus by faith alone, when we yield to the Spirit's promptings, we are able to maintain a good conscience.
If we want to have our consciences cleansed, this happens when we bring our sin, our failures, and our miserable attempts to appease God to the foot of the cross. The one-time atonement of Christ forgives our sin and cleanses our conscience.
This we may discern from the writer of Hebrews: "...let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water" (Hebres 1022. NIV).
May you yield to your conscience today and be cleansed by the Holy Spirit when you believe on Jesus for the remission of your sins.
Conscience is what we should always pay attention to cos it decides what's right for us most times, but we always fail to listen to it cos we are human.