Your Conscience and Mine

One of the special qualities about a human being is that we were all born with a conscience. This conscience enables us to know a right from a wrong and it is this which seperates us from other beasts of the animal kingdom. St. Paul calls the conscience, "the law (which was) written on (our) hearts" by none other than God Himself. For example: in most (if not all) countries, to kill another fellow human is a crime - notice this commonality shared by people worldwide despite the diferences in terms of culture and geographic locations. This shows that we have a common conscience given to us by the same God.

But since Sin came into the world through our first parents (i.e. Adam & Eve) our conscience was never the same. According to Titus "both ... minds and consciences are corrupted" Which was why we are now more inclined to sin. Do you remember who was the one who taught you to steal? Or the last time you took lessons on "how to lie"? No one taught us any of these but we did it anyway because of our inclination to sin due to a corrupted conscience. Therefore "...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and "(if) we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves..."

We can all agree that crime calls for punishment and so does sin. The sin I am talking about covers from abortion to lying. One thing everyone should know about sin is that we can never atone for the sins we have done. There is no amount of good one can do to "balance off" sin, it just does not work that way. For the "...wages of sin is death". Can a death row prisoner get off the hook just by doing good deeds? By all means, no. We are all "prisoners on death row". That presents us a problem for "(nothing) impure will ever enter (heaven)", are we all doomed to Hell without a slightest chance to go to Heaven?

Fortunately not and thank God for that. Someone has already paid the price of sin. That someone was Jesus (fully Man and fully God), He "(gave) his life as a ransom for many" for the sake of our salvation. He died not just for mankind as a whole but also individually - for you and for me.

Say this prayer if you would like to take the first step towards receiving the gift of salvation Jesus won for you,

"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be."

If you have said this prayer, Congratulations! I would like to invite you to participate in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) to learn more about the Catholic Christian faith as well as to be on your way to be a full-fledged baptised Catholic Christian by Easter 2006. For more information on this please email me.

And for those who have yet to make your decision, please feel free to email me if you have any questions regarding the Faith. I promise I will do my best in answering your questions. :) Last but not least my all time favourite quote by Jesus...

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me"

Amen.