The Plumbline

Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. (I Timothy 1:19) The conscience is made up of what we refer to as morals and principles - amassed while growing up. They act to define the actions we will allow in our lives and those we will reject because they don't align with this learned set of morals and principles. Whenever we are asked to violate our conscience, we might just feel a little anxious, fearful, or even guilty. In the strictest sense, the conscience has a "prohibiting" effect - if the conscience becomes a little "dulled" with the wrong set of morals or principles being applied, it may guide us into some pretty awkward circumstances. This is why we don't trust our conscience alone - it is only ONE tool used in the myriad of tools God gives us for our spiritual, emotional, and physical safety. Keep your conscience clear

Unprincipled really just says someone is lacking moral scruples.  Scruples are standards we live by - agreed upon as the "minimum set" of actions on one person's part which result in some type of restraint or inhibits some other form of action.  Is it safe to say that the "scruples" of our society have changed over the past twenty years?  I don't think anyone would disagree with this observation.  It would only take about one-half hour channel-surfing to get a flavor for how "low" the minimum set of actions has become.  We have housewives from somewhere out there acting like absolute terrors toward each other, their husbands, and their kids.  There are wives and husbands battling it out over how many photos she takes in a given day. Survivalists pit one against the other to get some coveted trophy and a little prize money, all the while changing up who they will "side" with based on who seems to be doing the best.  Divas galore flaunt th

It is almost election time in the United States.  The next President will be selected in just a matter of a few days.  The course of the next four years is held in the hands of those who will make their ways to the polling places, casting their ballot for their "favorite" candidate.  Note, I did not say the "best" candidate, but their "favorite" candidate.  After all, isn't this what the debates, campaign speeches, and advertisements have been devised to produce?  They were all put together in such a way so as to "sway" the voters to choose either one or the other - plain and simple.  I have heard many say, "Well, I guess we will just choose the lesser of two evils."  Nothing is sadder than having to choose a candidate who comes "close" to your beliefs, sort of close to the way you'd vote on issues, and marginally "inside" the values you adhere to as your own.  Yet, in many cases, we don't get the choice