Do you struggle with feelings of guilt about your past? Or are you bogged down by a conscience that haunts or imprisons you? This is not how God intends for you to live. Your conscience was not created to hold you prisoner, but to guide you and point you to freedom from guilt and bad habits. It's designed to tell you the truth so you are not held in bondage to lies or sin. A clear conscience enables you to live in the present without being distracted, both mentally and emotionally, by your past. Longtime pastor and bestselling author Erwin W. Lutzer shares what it means to live in the power of a clear conscience as you
A Clean Conscience Song Free Download
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Chord charts are available all over the internet for free, but in many cases, they are not legal, not accurate, and not based on any particular arrangements. We have decided to take chord charts to the next level. It is almost unheard of to find a place that actually sells chord charts, because you can so easily just download and print them for free from hundreds of places on the internet. Unfortunately, most of those places are not legal, and not authorized by the music publishers. PraiseCharts has obtained copyright clearance to make all of these chord charts available. With a CCLI subscription, you can make unlimited copies of these charts for your musicians for use within your church -- all legally, with a clean conscience. The price for these charts is more than reasonable, and well worth the effort we have put into creating them. Read more about our chord charts under the black Products tab on the home page.
God never overlooks rebellion against his throne--never pardons the rebeluntil he repent and submit. God does not command us to forgive ouroffending fellow-men, unless they repent. "If thy brother trespass againstthee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn to thee, saying,I repent, thou shalt forgive him." God is in a forgiving attitude; soought we to be. But he does not express forgiveness until the rebelexpresses penitence; neither are we under obligation to pronounce anenemy forgiven until he signify his compunction and sorrow, and desistfrom his injurious conduct. If my child rebel against my law and myrightful discipline, I am not allowed by the spirit of love to pursue himwith vengeance; neither am I bound by the law of God to release him fromthe penalty of his sin, until he shall have exhibited signs of submission,of sorrow, and of obedience. I may pity him, and cherish toward him thespirit of forgiveness; but for his own sake, for the order of thehousehold, and on account of my innate sense of justice, I must notpronounce his acquittal, nor declare the controversy ended, until he shallhave satisfied my governmental authority, and the sentiment of justicewhich both his own conscience and mine, constitutionally, and therefore bynecessity, cherish. And I do not see that Government can safely pardon arebel against its statutes, its honor and its common brotherhood, untilhis rebellion cease; until he bow to law, confess his crime, and signifyhis sorrow. I speak not of oppressive government, of iniquitous law; butof good government, of statutes healthful, humane, equal. Although inthe former case rebellion cannot be justified until every constitutionalmeasure has been resorted to for redress,--then, if redress be not given,the voice of the people in all representative governments may legallychange oppressive for just laws, and oppressors for rulers who shallregard the popular will. And in despotisms, when the people have thepower to redress their wrongs, and to enter on a career of developmentin mind and morals, in the arts of civilization,--when every other coursefails--"resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!" Man was not made fortyranny. He was not made for any form of government that crushes out hisintellect and his religious capabilities. He was made to be governedmorally; to be under righteous law; law which, while it restrains passion,selfishness and crime, gives a man all the freedom that he is able andwilling to use safely for himself, and for the commonwealth; all that isconsistent with individual development and the national good.
I am not one of those who believe that the voice of the people is, withoutexception, the voice of God. It was not so at the Deluge, but quite thereverse. It was not so when Israel clamored for a king--not in mercy butin anger, God gave them their request. It was not so when Absalom stolethe hearts of the people, and stirred up rebellion against his father. Andyet, when a nation, independent of party, free from the excitements ofmomentary interest, without the influence of ambitious leaders, under thecalm guidance of reason, history, and the spirit of the age,--risesspontaneously against oppression, against iniquity, and demands justlaws; rights for all; free thought, free speech, free labor, free worship;when compacts are not violated; when moderation is maintained; when thespirit of humanity is preserved,--then, I believe, "the voice of thepeople is the voice of God." I have no question that, in the greatprinciple, Cromwell and his puritan hosts were right in theirrevolutionary action. I could never doubt that our fathers did a noble,glorious, and Christian deed in throwing off the yoke of Britain, andproclaiming a new government for themselves and their posterity. It wasright to contend and bleed for equal representation, for freedom ofconscience, and for an independent nationality in which these high endscould be secured.
The first government of which we have account was a Theocracy--that is,"the government of God." He was the only King. He revealed the law,appointed leaders, gave rules for worship, instruction and warfare. Thusin the outset did he set up his claims among men. He established the greatprecedent, which men ought to have followed, which the world has ignored;but to which the thoughts and the will of the race shall ultimatelyreturn. It is true now that government, as such, is ordained of God. Allgovernment, in its elemental authority, is a theocracy. All power is ofGod; he ordains law. He originates the idea of civil compact. While,therefore, the principles of governments among men may be defective, andthe administration wrong and hurtful, the great fact of government is aDivine fact. Good government is emphatically God's government--intendedto suppress evil, to promote holiness and happiness. "The powers that beare ordained of God." "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteththe ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselvesdamnation." Despisers of government are enumerated by the Apostle as amongthe most flagitious of men. There are statutes in almost every governmentwhich may not be absolutely right; some which may be oppressive. These areto be distinguished from the principles, from the general bearing of agovernment, and endured for the good therein, or be rid of byconstitutional and safe methods. It is a duty of each subject and citizento surrender some of his desires and preferences--some of his convictionspossibly--for the general sentiment--the comprehensive good; while he hasthe privilege of convincing by fair argument all others, and winning themto his views and measures if possible, without violence, withoutinfringement of law. It is not to be expected that every man should beabsolutely satisfied with any government. If he is called to yield onlyhis share of personal interest and preference, for the sake of all theprotection and blessing in which he participates in common with the state,his reason, his conscience, his patriotism will joyfully acquiesce; he willfreely make so much sacrifice for the interests of the whole, knowing verywell that every other citizen is likely to be under an equal sacrifice.Natural, individual liberty, without law, is only barbarism. Where everyman is free to do whatever his worst passions prompt, there is in fact nofreedom; there is tyranny; for the strong will subdue the weak, bone andmuscle will govern mind and conscience. In laws and governments men havetheir best thoughts; human law is likely to be better than humannature. Men feel the need of restraint--are convinced of the necessity oflaw. They therefore make laws in self-defence; if thereby they would notrestrain their own selfishness, they would restrain the selfishnessof others; but that which is made a barrier to one bad subject isalso a defence against all;--thus men do restrain themselves by theirdefences against others. Thus it is that, with healthful convictions, menmay control diseased passion; with a right ideal is intimatelyjoined a safe actuality; with good law, a comparatively good condition.Even in the worst administration, and when the public mind is mostdemoralized, there may remain the purity of law; the sublime thought.If the mind finds itself sinking into lawlessness and disorganism, andborne away by the pressure of evil, it can look upward, and, catching newenergy from the unquenched light-- 2ff7e9595c
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