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Then they seized him [Jesus] and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. --Luke 22:54 We find so many people today who want to follow Christ at a distance. They want a relationship, but they want it at an arm’s length. You know, Simon Peter fell in with a crowd like this on the night that Jesus was arrested. Look at today’s verse of Scripture. It says, “Peter was following at a distance.” He didn’t want to be identified with Christ; he was afraid to reveal his commitment. This remains a common problem, doesn’t it? You and I can find a lot of people sitting in churches today who don’t want to make a real commitment to Christ. They shop from church to church and take a little bit here and a little bit there. But this is a formula for disaster. If you follow Jesus at a distance, you’re setting yourself up for failure in every area of your life… in your spiritual life, in your home, and in your future. Don’t be the kind of believer who shows up at church only when you feel like it or when it’s convenient. If you want to experience spiritual success, you need to be in close relationship with Jesus. God calls you to draw near to him and he will draw near to you. IF YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE SPIRITUAL SUCCESS, YOU NEED TO BE IN CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS.

The Path to a Strong Conscience

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.”
Acts 24:14–16

I came across a humorous story about a man who went to seek advice. He confessed to the counselor that he had been doing some things that he knew were wrong, and his conscience was bothering him. “So you’re looking for some help to strengthen your will power so you stop doing what you’re doing?” he was asked. “No,” the man replied. “I was hoping for something that would weaken my conscience.”
While the Bible is the only unfailing and completely reliable guide to what is wrong, God has given each person an internal moral compass. The conscience can be a powerful voice that helps guide our behavior, but it can also be beaten into silence so that it no longer warns us that what we are about to do is wrong. First Timothy 4:2 describes this as a seared conscience: “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”
If we want our conscience to play the role God intended, we have to work at it. Paul said, “I exercise myself” when it came to keeping his conscience right. The best way to strengthen our conscience is to fill our hearts and minds with the Word of God. When we use that as our guide, our conscience will be giving us the right warnings before we act. The more we listen to those warnings, following Scripture and yielding to the Holy Spirit, rather than just doing what seems best for us or convenient, the stronger our conscience will become.
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Be careful not to silence your conscience—you need to be able to hear from it.