THE BEACON ON THE BOULEVARD

      Keep your conscience clear before the Lord. This has stuck with me since I read the following scripture during Easter Week: “Who indeed can harm you if you are committed deeply to doing
what is right? Even if you should have to suffer for justice’ sake, happy will you be. Fear not and do not stand in awe of what this people fears. Venerate the Lord, that is, Christ in your hearts. Keep your conscience clear. If it should be God’s will that you suffer, it is better to do so for good deeds than for evils ones.” (1 Peter 3:1-17) We hear often we have to “get right with the Lord.” That doesn’t mean be perfect. He is Lord. We are lifelong works in progress. I
think it’s a great daily motivation to desire and strive to have a clear conscience before Him, Him above all others. As I so frequently say, seek to have nothing to hide from Jesus. We start there. Trusting Him means not being afraid to face Him with anything. There are no shortage of thoughts, stressors, anxieties, frustrations, the pains of others’ sins we feel and the pains of our sins we carry. So it is a daily goal to keep reconciling ourselves and our day with Him. A good
day that pleases the Lord is when there is nothing we have withheld from Him; nothing we didn’t acknowledge; think about; talk about; pray about and surrender to Him. In other words, we said “Yes”, “Yes” to His will and “Yes to His love. As we might tell friends or family “I need to talk”, there should be nothing we can’t share with Him first and most. We know we can hide things from others. It is a challenge that we can’t hide anything from Jesus and a consolation
that we don’t have to.
      It is said elsewhere in scripture: “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth
comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God. (John 3:19-21) On such a beautiful day that I am writing this, I think to myself: why would anyone stay out of the sunlight? The light is warm, beautiful, bright and rejuvenating. Yes, our wounds and sins are felt more in the light, but where else can they be exposed to a physician’s care? If we hide in the shadows, our whole body suffers for it. Any joy we hope for can only, truly be felt within the light of Jesus’ friendship. So I don’t want to choose sin. It hurts the one I love and dampens the friendship I have with Him. It’s better to suffer the sins of others or the hatred of the enemy,
than our own sins. Let us strive daily to keep our conscience clear before the Lord.