Day 10/4 – A Pliable Conscience

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
A Pliable Conscience
Day Two Hundred Seventy-seven

“To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted.” Titus 1:15

A person can believe that it is wrong to murder, but if someone breaks into his home and threatens his family, he can take the intruder’s life without his conscience bothering him. All he has to do is convince himself that the intruder was his enemy and he can justify the killing, possibly even feel good about doing it. The ease with which you can override your conscience should sober you.

People can violate their conscience with no sense of pain or regret for doing it. The serial killer may even enjoy the act of killing. His conscience remains intact; he knows right from wrong, evidenced by his ability to identify wrong in other circumstances. Society incarcerates the mentally insane, but not because they have no conscience. Rather, it is due to their establishing values that are at variance with society’s. Such a person may consider it wrong to kill an animal, and permissible to kill humans. Most people override their conscience regarding speed limits every day. The difference between them and the mentally insane is their value system rather than their conscience; society condones one and not the other. Although conscience has its origin in God, it is appreciably influenced by society.

Your purpose or worldview shapes your values, which in tum shape your conscience. Without a biblical purpose your appetites will shape your values. At that point you are heading toward being impure with a corrupted conscience. Society cannot help you. Only God can.

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Isaiah 20-22 Ephesians 6 (New King James Version)

Isaiah 20-22
The Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia
20 In the year that Tartan[a] came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, 2 at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your [b]body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
3 Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. 6 And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?’ ”
The Fall of Babylon Proclaimed
21 The [c]burden against the Wilderness of the Sea.
As whirlwinds in the South pass through,
So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
2
A distressing vision is declared to me;
The treacherous dealer deals treacherously,
And the plunderer plunders.
Go up, O Elam!
Besiege, O Media!
All its sighing I have made to cease.
3
Therefore my loins are filled with pain;
Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.
I was [d]distressed when I heard it;
I was dismayed when I saw it.
4
My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;
The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.
5
Prepare the table,
Set a watchman in the tower,
Eat and drink.
Arise, you princes,
Anoint the shield!
6
For thus has the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman,
Let him declare what he sees.”
7
And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,
A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,
And he listened earnestly with great care.
8
[e]Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord!
I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime;
I have sat at my post every night.
9
And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!”
Then he answered and said,
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen!
And all the carved images of her gods
He has broken to the ground.”
10
Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!
That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel,
I have declared to you.
Proclamation Against Edom
11 The [f]burden against Dumah.
He calls to me out of Seir,
“Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?”
12
The watchman said,
“The morning comes, and also the night.
If you will inquire, inquire;
Return! Come back!”
Proclamation Against Arabia
13 The [g]burden against Arabia.
In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,
O you traveling companies of Dedanites.
14
O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Bring water to him who is thirsty;
With their bread they met him who fled.
15
For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.
16 For thus the Lord has said to me: “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail; 17 and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.”
Proclamation Against Jerusalem
22 The [h]burden against the Valley of Vision.
What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
2
You who are full of noise,
A [i]tumultuous city, a joyous city?
Your slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.
3
All your rulers have fled together;
They are captured by the archers.
All who are found in you are bound together;
They have fled from afar.
4
Therefore I said, “Look away from me,
I will weep bitterly;
Do not labor to comfort me
Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.”
5
For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity
By the Lord God of hosts
In the Valley of Vision—
Breaking down the walls
And of crying to the mountain.
6
Elam bore the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And Kir uncovered the shield.
7
It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys
Shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
8
He removed the [j]protection of Judah.
You looked in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest;
9
You also saw the [k]damage to the city of David,
That it was great;
And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10
You numbered the houses of Jerusalem,
And the houses you broke down
To fortify the wall.
11
You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the water of the old pool.
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago.
12
And in that day the Lord God of hosts
Called for weeping and for mourning,
For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
13
But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and drinking wine:
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
14
Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts,
“Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you,
Even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts.
The Judgment on Shebna
15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts:
“Go, proceed to this steward,
To Shebna, who is over the house, and say:
16
‘What have you here, and whom have you here,
That you have hewn a sepulcher here,
As he who hews himself a sepulcher on high,
Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock?
17
Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently,
O mighty man,
And will surely seize you.
18
He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball
Into a large country;
There you shall die, and there your glorious chariots
Shall be the shame of your master’s house.
19
So I will drive you out of your office,
And from your position [l]he will pull you down.
20
‘Then it shall be in that day,
That I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah;
21
I will clothe him with your robe
And strengthen him with your belt;
I will commit your responsibility into his hand.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And to the house of Judah.
22
The key of the house of David
I will lay on his shoulder;
So he shall open, and no one shall shut;
And he shall shut, and no one shall open.
23
I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place,
And he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24 ‘They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the posterity, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pitchers. 25 In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘the peg that is fastened in the secure place will be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off; for the Lord has spoken.’ ”
Footnotes:
• Isaiah 20:1 Or the Commander in Chief
• Isaiah 20:2 Lit. loins
• Isaiah 21:1 oracle, prophecy
• Isaiah 21:3 Lit. bowed
• Isaiah 21:8 DSS Then the observer cried, “My Lord!
• Isaiah 21:11 oracle, prophecy
• Isaiah 21:13 oracle, prophecy
• Isaiah 22:1 oracle, prophecy
• Isaiah 22:2 boisterous
• Isaiah 22:8 Lit. covering
• Isaiah 22:9 Lit. breaches in the city walls
• Isaiah 22:19 LXX omits he will pull you down; Syr., Tg., Vg. I will pull you down

Ephesians 6
Children and Parents
6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Bondservants and Masters
5 Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; 6 not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.
9 And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that [a]your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.
The Whole Armor of God
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the [b]wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of [c]the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— 19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
A Gracious Greeting
21 But that you also may know my affairs and how I am doing, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you; 22 whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs, and that he may comfort your hearts.
23 Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.
Footnotes:
• Ephesians 6:9 NU He who is both their Master and yours is
• Ephesians 6:11 schemings
• Ephesians 6:12 NU this darkness,