“So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.” – Acts 24:16

March 18, 1937. The date is chiseled on dozens of tombstones in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in New London, Texas. On the fateful day, some 1200 students were in attendance at the town’s only school. At 3:10 pm, just twenty minutes before the end of the school day, the shop teacher flipped off the electrical switch to the power saws. Suddenly, a spark from the switch touched off an explosion and the entire stone building was leveled. The blast killed 297 students and teachers. It was heard some 35 miles away in Tyler and Kilgore Texas.

A subsequent investigation found that a spark had ignited some 6,000 cubic feet of natural gas that had accumulated in the basement the school. A nearby oil company had an oil pipeline close to the school. Someone had decided to siphon the natural gas, the by-product of petroleum extraction, from the company’s pipeline to fuel the school’s furnace free of charge.

The one positive effect of this disastrous event was a government regulation requiring companies to add an odorant to natural gas. The distinctive “rotten eggs smell” of sulfur is now so familiar that we forget natural gas is actually odorless.

Just as the odorant in natural gas warns us of danger, a guilty conscience can warn us of sin in our lives. We need to heed this warning and seek always to keep a clear conscience before God and man. Do you have a guilty conscience? Today in prayer, confess any sin to Christ, make any wrong right, and seek to keep a clear conscience before God and man.

“A conscience void of offense before God and man is an inheritance for eternity.” – Daniel Webster

God’s Word: “I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.” – Job 27:6

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2002, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS IN ACTS pkennedy@devotional.com