Good Monday morning (5-16-11),

When I was in first grade, the small rural school I went to was so tiny that we didn’t even have a library. Instead, a mobile library bus came around, and that’s how we were able to get things to read. As an avid bookworm, I was always in line to check out something new whenever I could. I can still remember the smell and sounds of that old bus. I loved it.

However, one day, I forgot to return some books I had checked out. No problem because they let me check out more of them. For some reason they continued to let me check out more and more books, even though I wasn’t bringing any back. After a while, I knew I had a problem. How was I going to explain all these library books in my bedroom? Little boys know how to be conniving, so my solution was to hide the growing pile under my house!

Now I know we’re not talking about hiding a body, but my immature mind knew I was in big trouble should anyone ever discover my stash under the house. I knew I was doing wrong; I was stealing public property. I was never so glad when we moved away from that old house. It was the perfect crime, at the young age of seven.

After all these years, I still know what I did was wrong, thankfully. I knew stealing was wrong then, as I know it’s wrong now. I had a conscience.

The word conscience can be oversimplified as self-awareness of ones conduct, whether that conduct is right or wrong. A conscience, like physical pain, serves a purpose. It’s meant to guide and protect us.

Even though I was a little terror, something in my young mind was always steering me to do the right thing. Some would say it was the fear of punishment, but I think, as a little boy, the teachings of Christianity within my community had a huge impact on my life.

I wasn’t churched, but my school did post the Ten Commandments, we sometimes did pray before class, and I still remember my grandparents praying before meals and telling me things such as, “God says, ‘You shall not lie or steal.’” Those things had a huge impact on the way I lived my life, you could say they moderated my behavior.

When we watch the news today, who can help but notice we’re in big trouble, what else can be said!

There’s a minister, Rick Joyner, who best says what I’m thinking as he tells of a dream he recently had. In this dream, Rick believes that God showed him that the foundation of America is on fire, its house is ready to fall, and the only thing that can save us is Christians actually living and obeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I know that there are churches on every corner. The airwaves are packed with ministries, all competing for our increasingly diluted attention. America has no shortage of preachers preaching their version of Christianity.

Still, with all our influence, why does everything seem so unraveled, our foundations so uncertain? Why is identifying what is right and wrong such a controversy? Since, as polls generalize, our country’s population is by majority Christian, shouldn’t our elected officials at least represent our Biblical values?

If Christians believe that God ordained the family, shouldn’t we do everything possible to defend the sovereignty of mom and dad’s right to train up children in right values, molding their young minds to know the difference between right and wrong?

Instead, I recently read an article about the mother of a high school student who was “fuming” because her daughter’s school put her in a taxi and sent that 15 year old to a clinic to abort the baby (mom’s grandbaby) without either mom or dad’s knowledge.

How does this news affect your conscience? How would you feel if you were the parent of this little girl, if it was your grandbaby? Is it right or wrong that a school counselor’s conscience can secretly influence a student to abort her unborn baby? Yet this is not a random event. It happens all the time in our schools around this nation, because it’s legally accepted public policy.

I wonder if I was born seven years ago what kind of conscience I would have today?

Being trained by the new collectivity, how would I determine right from wrong? After all, God is banished, and erected in His place is the idol of self-serving reason. Would my heart be void of conviction, thinking that stealing books from the library is fine, as long as I’m not caught in the act? Or would I completely dismiss my actions because my modern throw-away-world-view allows that I am to be served, at the expense of everyone else?

As a young Christian, would I know that my actions, good or bad, affect my relationship with God? They do! Would I think that living a holy life is optional? It’s not! Would I know that, “Thou shalt not steal,” is still a standing and valid command, even though it is one of them “old testament” Ten Commandments?

I’m thinking that these are very important times we live in. If we are paying attention at all, we must know it’s as important as ever to overcome the spirit of deception.

Otherwise, we may be unfortunate enough to see the fulfillment of 1^st Timothy 4, which warned of some future generation’s grand failure, the Spirit expressly foretelling a time in which many will, “Depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.”

I pray we’re not that generation!

Wayne Witcher