Conscience is the Cinderella of the contemporary world. We hardly speak or think about our conscience. She is left behind while we get on with the party of life, untroubled by any serious self-examination. And yet conscience is a God-given part of being human, with tremendous potential for good - if it is cleansed and kept clean - or for harm - if it becomes hardened or calloused.  
'This book is about the joy of a clear conscience in every day of living and in the day of death,'' enthuses Christopher Ash.  
'With a clear conscience, we can enjoy not just the stuff we think of as "spiritual", but all sorts of things like sleep, sport, friendship and holidays. With a good conscience none of these things ever leaves a sour taste in our mouths.'  
Christopher is eager to get all of us thinking about conscience again: 'I want you to take your conscience out of the cupboard, dust it down, bring it back into daily life and discover its power to do you good.'

Christopher Ash

Pure Joy

Part A: Conscience as guide

Part B: Conscience as symptom

Part C: The choice we all face

Part D: Developing a Christian conscience

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Clean inside!

Notes

Part A Conscience as guide

1 The inner voice

What does conscience mean?

Moral self-awareness

Moral self-awareness which touches my affections and my will

Five features of conscience

2. Conscience speaks with a voice that looks forwards and backwards

3. Other people can appeal to my conscience

4. God can appeal to my conscience

5. I do not need a Bible to hear the voice of my conscience

So what is conscience?

Questions for personal study or discussion

2 The unreliable voice

Always let your conscience be your guide?

Conscience is an unreliable guide

Health warning 1: you may think you are innocent when you are guilty

Health warning 2: you may think you are guilty when you have been forgiven

Depressive illness and distortions of conscience

There is such a thing as objective right and wrong

Issues of conscience in Rome and Corinth

3 The indispensable voice

Conscience and integrity in Corinth and Rome

But what if I'm not sure what the Bible teaches?

Part B Conscience as symptom

4 The guilty conscience

A story about guilty consciences

A warning conscience

The guilty conscience of all ten brothers

The conscience of guilt uncovered

Anticipated terror

Still guilty even at the end

What a guilty conscience does

It makes me want to hide

It isolates me

It makes me fearful and anxious

It is a heavy and painful burden

It makes me angry and resentful

It makes me restless

It makes us look for religious solutions

It can lead finally to despair

Conscience: God's courtroom

5 The awakened conscience

A challenged conscience faces us with a choice

Godly sorrow responds to a guilty conscience with repentance

Godly sorrow is a gracious work of the Spirit of God

An Old Testament example of godly sorrow

A vivid Old Testament example of an awakened conscience

Marks of an awakened conscience

An awakened conscience is a painful sign of hope

What does conscience have to do with real Christianity?

The Christian gospel begins with the pain of an awakened conscience

Faithful Christian ministry speaks to awaken consciences

Part C The choice we all face

6 The hardened conscience

God's alarm

Five reasons why we reject conscience

2. Being swept along by an ungodly culture

3. The fear of what will happen to me if I obey my conscience

4. The love of money

5. A gradual hardening of the heart

Sin is very powerful

How do some people make their conscience hurt less?

Strategy 1: Moral effort

Strategy 2: Escapism

Strategy 3: Blaming others

Strategy 4: Gradually desensitizing the conscience

Strategy 5: Rejection of the Bible

Strategy 6: Self-righteousness

Strategy 7: Persuading myself that godliness is an external thing

Strategy 8: Repeatedly hearing the Word of God without repenting

Danger alarm

The grace and patience of God

7 The cleansed conscience

Happy inside! A painful diagnosis for a wonderful cure

The objective truth: what did Jesus do on the cross?

A guilty conscience is a symptom of being alienated from God

The death of Jesus removes the objective barrier between his people and God

The objective conclusion

The subjective benefit: how can I feel that my conscience has been made clean?

Grasping the difference between the process of change in us and the perfection of what Jesus has done for us

'Pure Joy will attune you to your own inner voice of conscience as well as revealing its limitations and showing how you can bring you conscience more in sync with God's will. It's great to see this neglected area being so helpfully explained and I'm sure this book will be a blessing to many people.' - Tim Chester  
   
 'This rare treatment of a complex practical issue shines clear Biblical light into the dark areas of our thought and behaviour, with lucidity and great pastoral relevance. It will make you think and do you good. I warmly commend it.' - David J Jackman, Past President of the Proclamation Trust.  
   
 'In an age when so much attention is paid to our physical well-being, here is a liberating and nourishing book that addresses the urgent need of our souls. Whether we are haunted by past failure, paralysed by sinful habits, hardened by disobedience, or longing for the joyful freedom of a conscience cleansed and a life lived by God

The Good Book Stall

As the sub-title implies, conscience is something that often gets waylaid, buried or even forgotten.   
Self-examination, which used to be seen as a pre-requisite before receiving Holy Communion, is now often relegated to being a minority exercise, which we may think of doing, perhaps in Lent.   
This well presented 200-page paperback, with good bibliography and scriptural notes, aims to encourage readers to let Christ’s light sine into their consciences, to clean and liberate them. The four parts of the books look at what conscience is, what it tells you about yourself, how you respond to a guilty conscience, and how conscience can guide you and give you the blessings of joy following full and free forgiveness.  
Although delving deeply into the subject this book is given added readability by the many fictional, but none the less realistic scenarios of people and their consciences (or lack of!) At the end of each chapter there is a helpful list of questions for personal study or group discussion.  
However I found this book to be a journey of rediscovery of a very personal nature, as conscience is a most personal thing, which only you can examine. If you are prepared to go on this journey I would hope that you would find the route enlightening and, as a result, be helped to recalibrate your conscience according to God’s word.

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