I took my branding iron to Sunday School...

[Jayne]

I inherited my great-grandfather's branding iron. He had a lot of very, very large oxen [I have a picture of him with them and his workers and large wagons]. He was in the timber business.  I wish I'd known him.

I took it to Sunday School today as an object lesson. Our lesson in 1 Timothy 4 was about Paul's instructions to Timothy about the content of his preaching and his warnings against false teachers.

Paul said this, specifically in verses 1 and 2,  "Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared as with a hot iron."

My initial opinion? There about 4 or 5 sermons in those two verses alone.

I concentrated on the "consciences are seared as with a hot iron" part. This explains a lot about false teachers and why they will say anything that suits them. Their hearts are hardened like a thick, back, ugly scar on an animal showing to whom they belong. They don't care what the Biblical truth is. They teach hypocritically and as a liar.

Consider just these lies alone from today's progressive Christianity.

• Whether Jesus was a real person and actually resurrected from the dead is irrelevant to his teachings on how to live and love one another.
• Hell is just too offensive for many people today. Just stick to taking care of each other and loving one another.
• I used to think homosexuality was a sin until I made friends with some gay people and came to care for them
• I don't believe God will send people to hell.
• Paul was just giving his opinion and they really don't apply to our culture today.
• The Old Testament is irrelevant for New Testament Christians.
• We can't know all the ways to God. Jesus was just one of them.

Get the picture? How can a person who claims to be a preacher, teacher, or lover of the Bible say theses things with a straight face. Either they are under a delusion or their consciences are seared hard and black.

And what about you and me? Can our consciences become seared? Of course. Consider these things Christians become slaves to and justify their bondage.

• pornography
• gluttony
• drunkenness; substance abuse
• critical spirits; mean-spiritedness; bitterness; hatefulness
• 50 Shades of Gray; [and more]
• neglecting church, the bible, prayer, fellowship with other Christians, and spiritual growth

I would not wish to know how many Christians' consciences are seared to just these things and there is so much more.

We should pray for a softened heart.

I don't with to talk about anyone else's issues, but let me tell you this story about me and my seared conscience once.

I used to curse like sailor. Not as a teen or in my 20's or even my 30's. But in my early 40's I began to use pretty bad profanity. [I'm 57 today] If it contained the words God or Jesus, I did not use those words, but everything else was fine. I justified myself by saying, "I only say those words around a couple of people at work and they are Christians .....so, where's the harm. It makes them laugh, so ..... I'm good."

Yes, I REALLY believed that.

One day at work, a group of about 6 of us were given some news we didn't want to hear. After we were summarily chewed out for something we did NOT DO, I had had enough. We walked back to our classrooms [the students were not there that day] and I let those words fly - primarily the F-word.

My same old buddies laughed as usually, but a couple of ladies looked as if I had just murdered someone. They were offended and shocked.

The Holy Spirit used the look on their faces to stop me in my tracks. He showed me my bondage. I was smitten with conviction. I made the decision right there to never curse again. I apologized to them all the next day and shared that the Holy Spirit brought me under heavy conviction and that they would never hear that from me again. And they didn't.

That's been a long time ago. I though of it as I was preparing for this Sunday School lesson and thanked God for the umpteenth time that he delivered me from that.

The Holy Spirit taught me yesterday as I was finishing up my preparations that, "Even though that was a long time ago, I want you to know that your two friends who always went along with you and laughed were concerned about that habit and told others about it. And the look on the ladies' faces that were shocked is how your two friends really felt on the inside every time you used profanity back in those days. Don't forget how bondage comes from a seared conscience and tell the people this testimony."

So that's what I am doing.

We all need to search our hearts for any seared portions where we are dead to feeling any conviction.

What we watch, read, eat, drink, say, listen to, neglect, hate, or anything else.

Are you and I seared by - as Paul calls it - "teachings from demons"?