Honor Everyone

Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. 1 Peter 2:13-17
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. Titus 3:1-2
This is a scripture that convicted me when I had Presidents in office that I disagreed with. I have a conscience that tells me when I am doing wrong. It has gotten me in to trouble over the years as I obeyed that conscience. Conscience can be wrong. We need to make sure that what our conscience tells us agrees with scripture. One of my most difficult times I went through during the 32 years I worked for the company I retired from, came at a time I followed my conscience. Even my own brother criticized me for following my conscience. You think you need to be the conscience for the whole world, were his words. No, but I do need to follow my conscience when it tells me something is wrong and scripture backs me up. I feel human institutions would cover my job. I still remember my line of thinking that day. If I saw someone stealing from my neighbor I would speak up. I wouldn't just look the other way. My employer had been really good to me better than my neighbors. They had paid me a good wage at that time for many years. I loved my job. Years earlier I had worked at a wood products company. There were three of us on second shift. One of my co-workers took it upon himself to steal an oak plank. It must have been 16 feet long, at least 12 inches wide, and at least 6 inches thick. He could barely handle it himself as he loaded it on the top of his car and took it home. Me and the other guy couldn't figure out what he would even do with it when he got it home. How would he make anything useful out of that big chunk of wood with out the equipment built to handle wood that size. We wondered if he would just end up cutting it up for fire wood. What expensive fire wood that would be.  I said nothing, did nothing and it bothered me. Our conscience can be wrong. We can override our conscience and like I did that day do nothing.  Scripture tells us much about living after we become Christians. This scripture above be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. To our rulers, our President and our governors, and even police officers. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood. Fear God. Many misunderstand the word fear, it is a healthy respect for a sovereign God. A God that loved us enough to send his son to die on a cross for our sins. The scripture in Titus goes on to say to be submissive to rulers and authorities. We are to be obedient, and to be ready for every good work. Here is were I felt convicted of my words that I spoke about some Presidents that I disagreed with. To speak evil of no one. Wouldn't that include a President I didn't like? To avoid quarreling, as I thought about these words, I went through face book and stopped following stuff that would irritate me and cause me to feel quarrelsome. These are hard words, to be gentle. I don't always feel like being gentle and to show perfect courtesy to all people. I think of much of what I see in our world today and the protesting and rioting we see today. When I look at these scriptures, my conscience tells me it is wrong. I want to think these people that are fighting against our current government must know their actions are wrong, when they break windows, destroy vehicles and buildings. Looting and even speaking evil of those in authority. I know there is room for liberal thought, and I am sure if I thought that way there would be scripture to back it up. But how do you justify the words and the actions we see played out in our world today? God is sovereign and sees all and hears all. We do give an account for our lives some day. I look back at the difficult years when I followed my conscience and aggravated many of my co-workers. I can face God with my actions. Yesterday I took action because I misread a situation and felt foolish afterwards. We had new deacons and I felt responsible to see everything went good. We had some confusion as recently we changed the taking of offering from front to back when last year we went to the back and worked forward. The chairman was gone this weekend and I being the vice chair was trying to do a good job in his absence. As I came to the front of my row and stood there, I saw the new guys on the far side were almost to the back of their section, I didn't realize they started at the front and worked back where as the rest of us had started in the back and worked forward. I also knew that as we were given out the elements for communion, we each had two trays except for the last two deacons they had only one tray each and their section was just as big. Taking all this into account and not knowing the had started in the front, I thought they were behind and perhaps running out of elements. We had plenty and I was not needed to help out. I felt foolish as I walked across in front of 500 people and found out my thinking was faulty. I'll get over it, my intentions were good. I have a tendency to be my own worst critic. I was embarrassed to say the least.  Do we follow our conscience and does it match God's word? We can make mistakes, but God knows the intent of the heart. God bless, LVZ.