The Pain Machine

Acts 24:16

16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

Ephesians 4:31-32

31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Reflection of Bee:

How can one forgive, be kind, and compassionate when one has been hurt over and over again by the same person? How can one not feel angry or bitter in such situation? Yet the above passage is asking us to do what seems impossible.

Yes, it is really impossible if we do it in our strength. The above passage says we can do it because God has first forgiven us (though we have hurt Him over and over again too). Because of Christ, we can forgive, we can do the impossible just like what the poem, Forgiveness, by Brenda Terrell says.

I do feel hurt and very sad each time I think of the past and present hurts. Yet when I think of Jesus, forgiveness is the word that rings in my heart. Forgive just as I have been forgiven. I can't forgive in my own strength, I have to rely on God's strength to do it.

Dear Lord,
Thank You for forgiving me. Thank You for giving me strength to forgive too. Teach me to release all past and future hurts to You. Teach me to forgive and bless those who have hurt me, betrayed me, and made me miserable.
I raise my hands now to give You all of them. Please take over and do what is necessary that Your name may be praised.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.


Reflection of Tommy:

God gives each one of us conscience that alerts us of spiritual harm. But, often we find ourselves ignoring it and allow ourselves to be controlled by our sinful nature. We hide ourselves from God for a moment, foolishly thinking He can’t see us for deliberately avoiding His commands and sinning against Him.

Like what Paul mentioned in today’s passage, he always strives to keep his conscience clear before God and man (Acts 24:16). Likewise, we should do the same whenever the Holy Spirit alerts us of our wrongful ways. Ask God for strength and wisdom to obey and allow His reminder to train and produce in us godly character.

Dear Lord, thank You for Your constant reminder whenever I begin to swerve from Your way. Teach me also to confess and repent from any wrongdoing, keeping my conscience clear before You and others. Remind me also that as Your children I can always choose not to sin against You and others, as You have said that You who is in me is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). I thank You and pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Who Is To Judge What’s Right?

Romans 2:12-16

12All 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. 13For 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. 14(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, 15since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) 16This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

Reflection of Bee:

God made us with a conscience. Whenever we are about to do something wrong, our conscience will e pricked so we would pause to think if we should proceed. However, we may also numb our conscience by disobeying it. After sometimes, this conscience might be dead and we will sin w/o even feeling guilty. That's the case for the hard-core convicts.

We need to be careful not to impaired the conscience God has given to us. In fact, for Christian our conscience becomes very sensitive as we let the Holy Spirit fill us. We would have discernment in situations we come across.

Dear Lord,
I pray that my conscience will be sharp so that I may do what is right all the time. I pray that Your Holy Spirit will grant me the discernment to judge right from wrong.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.



Reflection of Tommy:
General Revelation is given and available to all people at all times and at all places. It can be through nature, human history, or our conscience (Romans 1:20). But through the history of mankind, we see how despite the availably of general revelation, men still did not keep even those standards that their own consciences dictated. We know what is right, but still insist on doing what’s wrong.

We should know that people are condemned not for what they don’t know, but for what they do with what they know. As a first step to forgiveness and healing, we need to admit to ourselves and to God if we constantly fail to live up to our own standards (much more to God’s).

Dear Father, forgive me for so often turn away from what I know from Your Word and do exactly the opposite. Guide me not to merely know about Your commands but to follow them obediently daily. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

Living Water

John 7:33-43

33Jesus said, "I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. 34You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come."

35The Jews said to one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36What did he mean when he said, 'You will look for me, but you will not Christians are just like any non believers in have a conscience of the mind. They do struggle with issues and matter of the conscience.find me,' and 'Where I am, you cannot come'?"

37On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

40On hearing his words, some of the people said, "Surely this man is the Prophet."

41Others said, "He is the Christ."

Still others asked, "How can the Christ come from Galilee? 42Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family[b] and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?" 43Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.

Bee's Thoughts:

Christians are just like any non believers in having a God-given conscience. They do struggle with issues and matters of the conscience like anybody else. However, because their conscience is cleansed by the blood of Christ, they are more sensitive to the right and wrong of things. But this can only be maintained if they allow the Holy Spirit to constantly fill their hearts. Otherwise, their conscience can also be darkened.

Dear Lord,
I pray that You will constantly cleanse me so that I will have a clean conscience before You. I pray and ask that the Holy Spirit will indwell me always, that I may do what is right in Your sight.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.


Tommy's Thoughts:

In today’s passage, we see how some of the crowd wrongly disqualified Jesus as the Messiah by arguing that He was from Nazareth, and not Bethlehem. But, Jesus was in fact born in Bethlehem, but grew up in Nazareth.

Likewise, we sometimes may easily jump to conclusion about a person by the little we know about them or what they’ve said. Without looking more carefully and thoughtfully, we hastily made wrong assumption and even unfair accusation over the other person. We need to be aware always of not jumping into wrong conclusion before knowing more about a situation or what the other person really meant.

Dear Father, thank You for teaching me to be a good listener to others. Guide me not to easily assume or conclude about other’s intention without looking more carefully and thoughtfully. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.