Hello everyone,
Recently we had the 'privilege' of attending our local Special Assembly Day. The theme for this year was Safeguard Your Conscience, and you guessed it, they looked up every reference to the word 'conscience' in the bible and then wrote a talk about each one. It was most definitely a case of "pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip."
So here are my notes, I just wrote down what was said, I am reporting, not supporting.
Would love to hear your feedback.
Why Your Inner Voice Needs Safeguarding
- When Jesus created man, he was created with a conscience. The conscience will either accuse or excuse the individual it works upon.
- When properly trained by God's word, the conscience can be a powerful thing.
- Why dedicate a whole assembly to this subject? Because we are in a fight. The Devil wants to make our conscience falter.
- Today we will cover a number of questions:
> What is hazardous to the conscience?
> How can we train our conscience?
> How is it possible to be clean from the blood of all men?
> What does our thinking and acting on bible principles reveal about us?
> How can we avoid wounding others in the matter of conscience?
> Young ones, how can you bear up when pressured to compromise?
> What blessings come to those who follow their bible trained conscience?
- Entertainment is one thing that can be hazardous to our conscience. This is because it promotes worldly things like spiritism and homosexuality as being normal. Movies show the misuse of blood, and the shedding of innocent blood.
- The world thinks these things are fine, but they are not acceptable to Jehovah. Even a brief glimpse can begin the damage process on our conscience.
- Workmates and social networking is also a way for our conscience to be harmed. Spending excessive time with people who don't have Jehovah's view on matters can have a gradual detrimental effect.
- Our conscience may say 'Maybe this isn't good' and then turn away from what they were doing. This is what God wants.
- Some may hear that voice and continue what they are doing anyway. It is about these ones that Paul spoke at 1 Timothy 1:19.
- This is what happened to Adam and Eve. They knew what was wrong, and did it anyway.
- Some like to find fault with the organisation, they cast aside the trust that comes loyal service.
- Some have preferred to live a life of sensuousness.
- These ones will come upon spiritual shipwreck.
- 1 Corinthians 4:4. We can only be guided by God's standards, as was Paul.
How to Train Your Conscience
- Some people work one on one with a personal trainer to get themselves fit.
- We need assistance to train our conscience. We would not trust men to do this, Jeremiah 10:23. We would not listen to self help guides. They always change. What is 'in' one day is 'out' the next. How can you trust these ones when they change their mind so easily?
- The best person we can turn to to help us with our conscience is Jehovah.
- Psalm 37:23. When we follow our bible trained conscience, this pleases Jehovah.
- Our conscience is like a muscle. When nourished and exercised it is healthy.
- How do we nourish our conscience? Study. Learn as much as possible about our creator. How do we do this? Read the bible daily and meditate. These are the basics. The more we are immersed in the scriptures, the more we become familiar with Jehovah and his thinking.
- How do we exercise our conscience? Find out Jehovah's thoughts on matters and apply this I our daily actions. The popular attitude is 'if it doesn't bother my conscience, then it's okay' but remember, Saul persecuted the Christians with a clear conscience. Hebrews 5:14. Proper training results in proper use.
- Just like we can't depend on others to make us fit, we can't depend on others to develop our conscience. We are all accountable for our decisions, so it is important that welearnto make wise decisions.
"Clean From the Blood of All Men" - How So?
- Brothers, have you ever nicked your neck while shaving and got blood spots on your collar? Sisters, have you ever nicked your finger while preparing dinner and got blood on your dress? The blood is hard to get rid of. How on earth could one get rid of bloodguilt?
- Acts 20:24. The ministry was very important to Paul. He could view himself as free from bloodguilt. He could say that confidently, even though he was an accomplice to Stephen's murder, because he knew Jesus had offered his forgiveness. 1 Timothy 1:15.
- Paul proved that his repentance was real by fully accomplishing his ministry. He exerted himself for Jesus. Acts 20:26. He preached in the market, the synagogue, and from house to house.
- If you saw a car crash happen in front of you and kept driving because you didn't want to be late for a sports game, and later learned that people died in that crash, could you be free from bloodguilt? No. If you don't want to get put out by having to help in order to do your personal things it is shameful and you would be bloodguilty.
- We commend those who sacrifice their Saturday mornings to out in the ministry. You may have to put personal things on hold, in order to do this life saving work, but by doing so, we free ourselves of bloodguilt.
- Acts 20:35. Paul laboured in this work. As a result of his efforts, he could freely say that he was free from bloodguilt. He sat an example for others both then, and now. We too devote ourselves, and are happy to be called Jehovah's people.
- We don't serve God with a date in mind. No, we are happy to go out in the ministry until Jehovah tells us this work is done.
- This brings us to the matter of counting time in the ministry. Have you noticed how everyone seems to have a different way of counting it? When someone asks us how we count our time, do we tell people, or do we direct them to the Organised book on page 87 where it advises on this subject. Each month, does the Governing Body get the elders to check up on how you counted your time? No, they have put the guideline in the book, and leave it up to our conscience.
- We love seeing our beloved elders taking the lead. We love turning up to the group and seeing the elder and his family there taking the lead and heading out in the ministry. We too must be completely devoted to doing Gods will and fulfilling our ministry.
- Our territory is like that car crash, people are trapped inside and need to be rescued. If we do so, we will be free from bloodguilt.
Is Your Conscience Truly Guided by Bible Principles?
- Isaiah 30:21. The words of this scripture are fulfilled when we have assemblies like we have today. We are here to learn, not just to socialise. We are here to learn the mind of Jehovah and have our consciences trained. We have never had a whole program dedicated to the conscience. It's a good chance for us to look at ourselves, and see how we measure up.
- The way we think and act on our conscience reveals a lot about our spirituality. Muttonbirds fly from Coffs Harbour to Perth, then to Siberia. How does it do this? By instinct. Recently the Mars explorer flew from Cape Canaveral and landed within 200m of its target on Mars. It was guided by men. We are designed to be guided by our conscience. We aren't programmed like a bird acting on instinct or a machine controlled by others.
- When God made Adam and Eve, he didn't give them a lot of laws, he just said here is everything, just don't eat off that tree. He let their conscience be their guide. If we relax our vigilance like Adam and Eve did, well, that is where Satan is waiting to mislead us and take us away. Our conscience is our first line of defence.
- There is a difference between laws and principles. A law is "don't do that" a principle is "you decide what to do" it is up to us to make the right decision when working with principles. Making the wrong choice can be fatal, that is why it is so important to have our conscience trained by the bible.
- Romans 15:3. What do we get from this principle? What will we do? Jesus did things with God and others in mind.
- 1 Corinthinas 15:33. What do we get from this principle? What will we do? Make wise decisions on who we associate with.
- Principles are like a window to our heart to see what we are really like.
- There are three steps for making a decison based on principles. Search for the principle. Reason on the principle. Apply the principle.
- Use the WT library to find out what information has been printed about a principle. When Jehovah sees us earnestly searching his word for answers, this pleases him. Once we have found information on a principle, reason and compare it to our situation. Use the guidelines provided to act on what we have ressoned out. It is an act of maturity to make a well thought out decision that is in harmony with he scriptures.
- Principles come into play when there is something that can't be enforced by the elders. We have to be our own spiritual policemen.
- Lets pick out a law and a principle. Matthew 5:21,22. The law stated is "do not murder" and the principle is that we should not speak badly of others. How can we apply this? Think, how is my reputation in the congregation? Am I known as a gossiper, a back stabber, a grudge holder? Based on the principle given by Jesus, are we complying with it?
Dedication and Baptism
- Matthew 25:34 contains the most wonderful invitation ever. The sheep who have been judged righteous will inherit God's kingdom with life on a cleansed earth. Those getting baptised today have opened up the way to have this invitation extended to them.
- There are a few things required of us when we get baptised.
- Continue to assist Christ's brothers . The most important way we can do this is by supporting the ministry. The anointed ones can't do the whole preaching work on their own. They can't translate print and distribute all the literature on their own. They need to have assistance from the Other Sheep. Do we have a burning desire to preach and share the good news? This work is in full swing and now is the most urgent time for us to be involved. Millions are involved and they are having great success. When there is a disaster, the government has an obligation to warn its people. It is up to the people to listen to them. It is the same with the preaching work. How do we measure our success? By hours? RVs? Studies? No it is by our faithfulnes to this work. This should motivate us to not hold back in the preaching work. We demonstrate our desire to help Christ's brothers. Our work in the ministry will determine if we get that invitation from Jesus. A great way to show this is by signing up to be an AP during the coming months. Make the preaching your main career. This will be the deciding factor on whether Jesus extends this invitation to us.
- Acknowledge that we need the spirit. Without the avenue of prayer, we have no way of accessing the holy spirit. We need to beg Jehovah each day to give us his spirit. This is why we are encouraged to read the bible, study, go to meetings and go witnessing. What happens if a beggar stops begging? He will go hungry and die. This will happen to us too if we don't have holy spirit.
- Realise that we need Jesus sacrifice. We are imperfect. The world I designed to draw us into it. If we make bad choices in entertainment and association this will have a detrimental effect on us. We show that we don't appreciate the sacrifice Jesus made.
- Endure under persecution. We know that we will be persecuted. This could be physically or mentally. Verbal abuse can have a strong effect on us. When we get through such persecution, we become stronger. Jesus came out happy from the trials he faced. This will be the same for us. Maybe, because our example of endurance our persecutors may become servants of Jehovah.
- This is a special date for you. Jehovah is happy you are taking this step.
Experiences
"Recently the Governing Body allowed others to share in the Auxillary Pioneer work by reducing the hour requirement to 30."
Do Not Wound the Conscience of Your Brother!
- We need to be sensitive about how the decisions we make have on other people. Matthew 18:6.
- Those who are strong must adjust their behaviour to suit those who may be weaker. A lot ofnthoguht needs to go I no what we do. Our conscience must be accurately trained in the ways of the bible.
- Philippians 1:9,10. Love is what moves us to do this. We are mindful that everyone in the congregation are at various stages of spiritual development.
- We should not demand that people change their conscience to match ours. We should not dictate to others what they should do on things that are not expressly stated in the scriptures.
- All things are lawful, but not all things are advantageous. We must be mindful that just because we can do something shouldn't necessarily mean that we should, especially if those who have weaker conscience might be upset.
Young Ones Who Bear Up Under Grievous Things
- The attitudes that are prevalent in this world can cause us to question ourselves.
- 1 Peter 2:19,20. We expect persecution. What makes God happy is not the persecution, but rather the endurance. Our young ones especially have their moral strength tested daily.
- Interview with two school aged recently baptised young ones.
Follow Your Spirit Directed Conscience
- The voice of our conscience can keep us on track. When this is built up on sound bible principles, we can be safe and protected. A good conscience makes us like a boat with a rudder, firm and strong as we keep on course.
- A compass will always point to north. It is a valuable tool, and can get us out of trouble. Our conscience does the same thing. It speaks and guides us and can help us to get out of, or avoid trouble.
- We need something to prod our conscience. Something not from this world as it will lead us astray. We need holy spirit. The conscience was only ever designed to work in harmony with holy spirit. Romans 9:1.
- If, on a regular basis we ignore the prodding of our conscience, we can let ourselves drift away from Jehovah. We should not let our I perfect flesh guide us, but rather, holy spirit.
- How do we get the holy spirit to work on us?
> Acts 5:32. Obedience to Jehovah is key. He has promised to help us.
> Proberbs 1:23. We must study God's word, mull it over, and act on what we have learned.
> Matthew 24:45-47. Without the help of the FDS class we would never understand what the holy spirit is telling us.
- Holy spirit is needed for a God oriented conscience.
- Our conscience can:
> Condemn us - We can feel bad and sorry when we do things wrong. This was true in the case of Adam and Eve. When they broke God's law they felt unclean. This was their guilty conscience at work. They realised they were naked. They hid from God because they felt guilty.
> Correct us - We might have made a decision, and realised it was not the wisest, then turned around and done the right thing. This is what happened when David cut off the sleeveless coat of Saul. He felt really bad after that and prevented his men from doing Saul any harm.
- We were given a conscience so it can guide us. To advise us on the right way to go. We will know in advance that something is wrong and make the necessary arrangements to correct things. Our properly trained conscience protects us from a bad decision rather than criticising us after we did it.
- 1 Timothy 1:5. Our conscience is a reflection of our moral centre. Love that is clean is free of hypocrisy.
- Let's use our bible trained conscience to look at some situations:
> Weddings. We do all things for God's glory. When a couple are making arrangements for this, they should always keep Jehovah in mind. They would of course want to use a Kingdom Hall, because they love and are thankful to Jehovah as the originator of mariage. The husband would take the lead in the arrangements. There are no rules, but many have chosen to have a modest small occasion that focuses on praise of Jehovah.
> Employment and standard of living. Some have made changes because their work conflicts with Jehovah's standards. This may lead them to having a simple life. It can involve a change in thinking and a realisation that we don't need to work as much because Jehovah will look after us.
- Luke 16:10. Our conscience should move us to shame, even if we take a false step in something small. Some may be habitually late to the meeting. Is this because of their schedule? No it is because of conscience. They are not guided by their conscience to show respect to Jehovah and their fellow brothers and sisters by being at the meeting on time.
- Jehovah's blessings are there for us, we just have to reach out for them.
- Where else would you get information like we have today about how we can train our conscience? We are drawn here because God has drawn us.