Have
you noticed that many people’s consciences aren’t working? Nearly every week a
psychopath shoots up a school, concert, or mall. Violent people are bullying
and attacking others on social media using the most hateful and filthy words. Sexual
immorality is rampant, even with those who claim to be Christians. Don’t
people have consciences anymore? Perhaps the following story explains what has
happened.
Years
ago I rented an apartment located next to some railroad tracks. I was soundly
asleep on the first night when a train came roaring past my room, blaring its
horn. Immediately I jumped out of bed with my heart pounding, as I covered my
ears to block the noise. After the train passed, it took me a while to get back
to sleep.
The
next evening, the same thing happened. I covered my head with a pillow and went
back to sleep. Each night after that, I briefly woke up and then quickly went
to sleep. As I kept ignoring the train
horn, I eventually learned to sleep through the night without waking up.
This
explains what has happened to many people’s consciences. God has put a
conscience inside everyone where people instinctively know the difference
between right and wrong. “Their conscience bearing witness and their
thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them” (Rom. 2:15).
When
their conscience convicts them they’re doing something wrong, they keep
ignoring the warning (like me ignoring the blaring train horn) and they
eventually learn to not hear it anymore. Their consciences stop working. The
Bible calls this a “seared conscience” (1 Tim. 4:2, Eph. 4:18-19), meaning their
conscience loses sensitivity and fails to respond.
We’re
seeing an increasing number of people in the world with seared consciences. That’s
why they commit mass murders in schools and restaurants. This is why so many
people “call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and
light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isa.
5:20). The only remedy is that they will turn to God and come
to repentance. www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com
www.makinglifecount.net
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BIBLE STUDY: “Why
did Jesus talk about Himself in third person?”
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www.makinglifecount.net Twitter: @KentCrockett
