by Roseanna White | Feb 2, 2015 | Word of the Week
We think of our conscience as part of our spirit or soul…something that operates apart from thought. Our consciences are the little cricket on our shoulder telling us right from wrong. Right? It’s something we feel in our gut and have to learn to listen to.
Well the word conscience is pretty telling–it’s no coincidence that the word science is in it. Science, you see, literally means “knowledge” in Latin. And con means “with.” So conscience literally means “with knowledge.” Common use applied it to that knowledge within oneself, a meaning that moved into Old French and from there to Old English.
So it’s not separate from our intellect–in fact, I would say it’s something that binds our intellect to our spirit, and to our will.
Although hey, if you need a cricket to help you out… 😉
by Roseanna White | Jan 29, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Be good. It’s a familiar refrain, one we probably say to our children a gazillion times. Whenever we send them off to a friend’s house, or on those days when The Sibling Wars are especially fierce. It’s understood that there are the good things to do and the bad. That those are, to a point, what define us. That it’s by what we’re judged by the people around us, at the least.
And in my ongoing quest to figure out how to be who God wants me to be in this world that seems more intent upon pursuing all the bad things rather than the good, I came across this verse.
“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. 17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.”
~ I Peter 2:15-17
In this section, Peter is cautioning people to live a Godly life before the world, abstaining from lusts of the flush and sinful things. Obeying the government. Then these verses above. I’ve no doubt read them quite a few times, but they really struck me the last time I did. Look closely.
By doing good you my put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
What does that mean? It means that our actions speak louder than the words of our enemies, of our detractors. It means that by doing good, doing the will of God, we point to Him, and in the face of it, no one can really say anything bad about us. It means that by being/doing good, we force the other side to bite their tongues. Because how can they argue with what is universally acknowledged as good?
But then it goes on. Let’s examine verse 16. …as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice…
This reminds me of the part in I Corinthians where Paul says, “Look, guys. You’re free from the law. That means all things are lawful for you. But don’t be stupid. It doesn’t mean all things are good for you, that all things are helpful. Act like they are and you’re just going to become a slave to them.” (That’s the Roseanna paraphrase.)
We are free. Yes, absolutely. Faith in Jesus frees us from law, from religion. But we’re still responsible for our actions in the world. And what’s more, people are still watching us. So we don’t want to use freedom as an excuse to do bad things. That’s just stupid. We have to find the balance to strike–embracing the freedom without abusing it. Rejecting the chains of the law, be it the ancient ones that Jesus was arguing with or the ones the church was pretty quick to develop within the first couple hundred years of Christianity–but not betraying the spirit behind all those constricting rules.
And here’s the clincher. …as bondservants of God.
I’ve talked before about what it really means to be a bondservant of God. (Read that post here. It’s one I go back to frequently.) In a nutshell, it means we freely turn our will over to Him. We swear to serve Him for all our lives, and in return we become part of His family, part of His household. A servant, yes, but one beloved by our master and even able to inherit. So if we’re living out our liberty as bondservants of God, then that means EVERYTHING WE DO is for Him. In His interests. What He asks of us.
It means we’re going to show respect to those in authority. We’re going to love our brethren in Christ. We’re going to be good citizens. We’re never going to forget what God can do. We’re going to be good. And because we are, others will see and respect us and love us and seek God. It means that the worst thing people will be able to say about us is that we follow a strange God who doesn’t do the things that the world does, doesn’t worship what the world worships, and leads others to this same God.
Now that’s a criticism we should all seek to have lobbed at us!
by Roseanna White | Jan 28, 2015 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
It’s my day on Colonial Quills, and today I’m telling you a fun story about General Washington used farmers’ hunting gear–and their newfangled hunting rifles–to strike fear into the British militia.
It’s a fun story! Hop on over to the CQ to read it!
by Roseanna White | Jan 26, 2015 | Word of the Week
Willy-nilly. It’s a phrase I’ve heard most of my life, and I knew how to use it. But it wasn’t until a few years ago, when I was reading an old book and saw it written a different way, that I had a clue where in the world this word came from. In this book, it was written will he, nill he.
Suddenly it made more sense! It wasn’t just a silly sounding word meant to portray a crazy method of doing things by its very sound (although…). It was a contraction! (Go ahead–say “duh” if you must, LOL.)
This phrase has been around since about 1600 and appeals to the verb will not in the “being” sense, but in the “purpose or intent” sense. So will he, nill he (or I or ye) meant “whether he means to or not.” If something was done willy-nilly, it was without obvious purpose, haphazardly.
Now to begin my week in a way not willy-nilly. 😉
by Roseanna White | Jan 22, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
This week, my husband went to a friend’s Bible study to see about helping them with recordings. Then the next day we went to our Bible study with other young parents. Then the next day, we went to church.
And those three days in a row, using three different scriptures, the same message was spoken. Purify yourselves.
Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
~ II Corinthians 7:1 (NIV)
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded…. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.
~ James 4:8, 10 (NKJV)
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
~Titus 2:11-14 (NKJV)
The force of them all, in the various contexts, was the same. If we want to be something different…if we want to be set apart…if we want to avoid getting sucked down into the culture around us…well, this is how we do it. We purify ourselves of the things of the world. We get rid of all the contaminants.
How? In the first of those Bible studies my husband attended, that’s what they were talking about. The how. And I love the answer they came to. That we do it by filling ourselves up with God. When we do that, when we fill ourselves up with Him, we don’t have to worry about how to get rid of the earthly things. They just don’t fit us anymore.
It’s kind of like eating right. I don’t know about you, but I love my junk food. And if I just try to cut out junk food, it’s agonizing. BUT, if I instead focus on putting good stuff in–if I make up my mind that I WILL eat 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, do you know what I’ve found? That I’m so busy eating the good stuff, which fills me up, that I don’t have room or time for the bad stuff. It just stops mattering.
On the way home from church we were discussing the Purify Yourselves theme of the week, and my husband asked, “So why do you think this message is being preached right now? Is it something ominous? I mean why do we have to do this right now? What’s coming?”
I can’t really answer that, obviously. But to me, it didn’t feel like a doom-and-gloom threat–purify yourselves or else. It felt like a key to a promise. So often lately we’ve been talking about how we can change our culture. How we get the attention of the world and point it toward Him. How we speak to this generation.
To me, this message felt like a how-to. It felt like God saying, “Do you want to change the world around you? Then start with you. Get rid of the world inside you so that I can fill you up. And then you’ll Shine with Me, and others will see, and things will start changing.”
It goes back to a saying we heard a few years ago:
I wanted to change the world.
But I couldn’t.
So I decided I’d change my community.
But I couldn’t.
So I thought I’d change my church.
But I couldn’t.
I figured I’d change my family.
But I couldn’t.
So I decided to change myself.
With God, I changed me.
And then my family saw and was changed.
Then my church saw and was changed.
Then my community saw and was changed.
And then the world saw…
We can’t just change the world. We can only change ourselves. But WHEN we change ourselves…it doesn’t go unnoticed, my friends. But I also believe this isn’t a message just for my house. This is a message for the church.
Do we want things to change? Do we want the culture to realize where they’re heading? Do we want to reclaim our spiritual heritage? To we want to embrace the full authority of the Holy Spirit and all He can do through us?
Then it’s time we get off our rears and onto our knees. It’s time we purify ourselves. That we wash away the filth of the world by filling ourselves with Him so fully that there’s just no room for anything else.
And then…then we get to watch what He will do through His servants.
Pouring Water photo credit: Global Water Partnership – a water secure world via photopin cc
Overflowing Bucket photo credit: Kamoteus (A New Beginning) via photopin cc
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.