Finding Purpose

This past spring one of my junior-year courses was on church doctrine, and to be honest, I'm glad it's over.  I had really looked forward to it before I started it, but it soon became clear that it was just going to be a quagmire of contending theological perspectives-- one claiming superiority over another-- and that gets tedious to keep chewing after a while.  There were a few things taught in my textbook that I took issue with, and there were several things taught that I didn't necessarily agree with or felt that they could have been presented in a more comprehensive, non-biased manner.  After all, if you're going to write a book on theology, it's best to be humble about it, especially when there are various legitimate perspectives that can be taken into consideration. 

One of the things taught in my textbook that I took issue with was in the chapter about "Theology of the Edenic Era."  It's a chapter that covers what we are taught about God and ourselves in the first couple of chapters of Genesis during humanity's brief time in the Garden of Eden.  My textbook teaches that "God's purpose in creating man is stated in Genesis 1:26."  With that part, I fully agree.  But then the textbook goes on to say that man's purpose is to rule over God's creation.  With that part, I do not agree.  The textbook reiterates, "God's purpose for man from the very beginning was that man was destined to rule over creation."  This is a very human-centric teaching, focused on a desire to have authority and a lust to exercise that authority.  And it's also wrong.

My textbook is correct that the purpose of mankind is stated at Genesis 1:26, but the purpose of humanity is not to rule over God's creation, our purpose is to know God and reflect His image.  Genesis 1:26 begins, "God said, 'Let Us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness'..."  That is our purpose.  Our purpose is to reflect God's image and likeness, and to do that we must know Him by being in fellowship with Him.  Thus, the wholeness of our purpose is to know God and to be in relationship with Him so we can faithfully reflect His image.  In the Genesis account, after God created us for the purpose of fellowship and reflection, He gave us our job.  Which is why Genesis 1:26 continues, "...and let them rule..."  Our job is to have dominion over creation. There is a difference between a person's purpose and their job.  My friend is a teacher-- that is her job.  But her purpose as a human being is to bear the image of God.  She bears the image of God (purpose) while she teaches (job).  When we wrongly teach that the purpose of mankind is to rule and reign, it not only appeals to our fleshly proclivities, but it also puts the focus on us-- our desires, our rights, our ambitions, our understanding of ourselves.  When we rightly teach that the purpose of mankind is to know God so that we may accurately reflect His image, it appeals to our spirit and rightly puts the focus on God-- His desires, His will, His purposes and His understanding.

My textbook not only teaches a gross error about the purpose of humanity to countless seminary students, but to anyone who uses it as an authoritative source for correct doctrine.  I consider it a gross error because it perverts the very foundation of our understanding of ourselves.  Our understanding of ourselves should be based on our understanding of God and what He is like, only then can we accurately reflect His image.  When our understanding of purpose is in error, it affects everything else, including our relationship with God and our relationships with each other.  I already see how such a teaching has caused exponential damage in the church and our understanding of how we are to serve in the church and be in relationship with each other.  By putting the focus on mankind and ruling and reigning, the church has inadvertently made authority an idol.  The focus in the church is the authority of man and who is over whom, rather than God, Who is over all.  More time is spent defending the theology of hierarchy in the church, rather than laying any perceived authority at the feet of Christ and joining hands in humility with other believers.  Jesus' high priestly prayer the night before His death wasn't about the preservation of vertical authority, it was about the preservation of horizontal unity.

Then God said, "Let Us make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it." So God created mankind in His own image; in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Gen 1:26-2)

Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent. (John 17:3)

I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one-- I in them and You in Me-- that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me. (John 17:20-23)

For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. (Rom 8:29)

And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles rule over them, and those exercising authority over them are called benefactors. But you shall not be like them. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is not the one who reclines? But I am among you as the one who serves." (Luke 22:25-27)

Hearing God's Voice

What does God's voice sound like?  Not like you would think.  Not in my experience, anyway.  To differentiate God's voice from your own is difficult because the Holy Spirit is inside of you, it is part of who you are, yet it is also distinct and separate.  I remember the first time I realized the voice of the Spirit.  It was strange because it had been there all along, yet I just didn't realize it.  I didn't understand what it was.  I remember marveling to myself that I had for so long prayed for God to help me hear Him, when He had been speaking to me all along.  God speaks to all those who are in Christ Jesus, the only difference is awareness.

That I hear God's voice is always something that seems to cause suspicion in others and discomfit in me.  I get it.  Our immediate understanding of the word "voice" is a literal voice forming words with sound.  When someone says they hear God's voice, that's not what they mean.  Even so, there are a lot of people who claim to hear God and you never know which ones to believe.  The church is in such a mess right now and honestly you shouldn't believe anyone who says they hear God's voice.  My advice would be to cultivate such an intimate relationship with God that you hear His voice yourself.  Read the Old Testament dialogues of God with the patriarchs and prophets and read the red letter text in the New Testament so you can learn what God's voice sounds like.  That is my advice because God's voice sounds like Scripture.  His voice sounds like the word He's already given us.  Read your Bible with a seeking heart and you may find yourself just like I did one day, recognizing His voice and marveling that He has been speaking to you all along.

We gain knowledge of God and how He speaks by reading and studying the Bible.  But I learned what God was like and gained understanding of Him through countless hours of intimate prayer. Knowledge and understanding are not necessarily the same things.  There are many people in the church who have knowledge of God from Scripture, but they have no understanding of what God is really like because they spend little to no time in prayer.  Prayer is where the Holy Spirit puts your Scripture knowledge into proper understanding.  Prayer puts personality to the text.  It is where what you read about God in words is translated to understanding of what He is like through experience.  God has given us His word to learn about Him, but He has given us prayer to know Him.  Prayer is where you commune with God and experience His personal nature.  That is why there is so much disagreement in the church as to how certain Scriptures should be translated, interpreted, and understood.  Some people interpret according to the reasoning of their own mind and human understanding, and others translate according to spiritual understanding and their knowledge of what God is really like.  It is the difference between lifeless doctrine and the living word.

Every saint in Christ is capable of "hearing" the Holy Spirit.  Every disciple of Christ is capable of cultivating a personal relationship with God to a level of intimacy in which they perceive His presence, personality, instruction and guidance.  Everyone in the Body of Christ has been given some sort of spiritual gift to be used for the edification of the body and for God's will, purpose and glory.  Along with those gifts, comes an extra measure of the Holy Spirit for whatever is needed to use that gift effectively and uniquely.  For those with the gift of mercy, the Holy Spirit gives them a supernatural measure of empathy.  For those with the gift of giving, a supernatural measure of generosity.  For those with the gift of teaching, a supernatural measure of articulate communication.  For those with the gift of encouragement, a supernatural measure of hope and optimism.  For those with the gift of administration, a supernatural measure of organization and confidence.  For those with the gift of service, a supernatural measure of selflessness.  For those with the prophetic gift, a supernatural measure of discernment and sensitivity to God's voice.

God gives us these gifts because of His grace and by the power of His Spirit, but we still have to learn how to use them correctly or we can cause harm in the body rather than help.  If I gave my four-year-old daughter a Yukon Denali SUV, it would be a powerful, marvelous gift.  But it would take her time to grow in maturity and experience to have the knowledge and understanding of how to use it and not hurt herself or others.  So, discover what your spiritual gift of God's grace is.  Learn how to use it.  Mine is to hear Gods voice and even though He's been developing it in me for years, I'm still learning.  And one of the things I've learned is when people tell you they can hear God, don't believe them.  Never believe them.  First, learn to distinguish God's voice yourself.  Then, and only then, will you know which ones of us are telling the truth.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function, so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another.  We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one's gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith; if it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (Rom 12:4-8)

...All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, Who apportions them to each one as He determines. The body is a unit, though it is comprised of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ. (1 Cor 12:11,12)

Do not extinguish the Spirit.  Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test all things. Hold fast to what is good. (1 Thess 5:19-21)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

The Wisdom Of Fear

I asked God for wisdom, and He gave me fear and inexpressible understanding.  He showed me the delusion of the world, which filled me with hopeless frustration.  He showed me by allowing me to feel the weight of it in my spirit.  The weight of delusion.  The weight of sin.  The weight of sin on the scales of justice is immovable by our own effort.  We are crushed under the weight of our sin and the world groans, just as my spirit groaned when I understood the things God showed me that I have no words to express.  There are no words to express our sin, nor the weight of it.  So, I thought to myself, "What words could possibly get through to this generation?  What could be spoken, what could be said that would open their eyes?  What could be uttered that wouldn't be a breath of vanity?"  I thought these things because I understand that all truths spoken which are constructed by the mind of man are a wasted effort which bears no lasting fruit.

We are a generation that constructs our own truth.  We are a generation trying to live off of the fruit of our own mind.  We spend our lives building the tower of Babylon-- constructed by bricks of clay made by our own effort, and fired by the flames of our own ingenuity.  We pride ourselves on building our own towers to heaven, not realizing that they are towers which lead to judgment.  We assume once we reach the top of our tower, we will see the pearly gates at the entrance to the kingdom of God, but that is not so.  We are tower builders who build towers in ignorance and pride, the tops of which only lead to the judgment seat.

The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.  We are a generation that has much knowledge, yet it is our increase in knowledge which has led us away from God and caused a gross lack of fear and reverence for our Creator.  Our knowledge has made us genuinely ignorant.  The beginning of wisdom is very far away from a people full of pride-- both secular pride and spiritual pride, both political pride and religious pride, both atheistic pride and theistic pride.  "I am proud I had an abortion!"  "I am proud I have never had an abortion!"  "I am proud to be gay!"  "I am proud I am not gay!"  "I am proud I am a Republican!"  "I am proud I am not a Republican!"  "I am proud to be Christian!"  "I am proud I am not a Christian!"  Even now, there may be some reading this who say, "What is wrong with having pride in such things?"
Everything.
Everything is wrong with having pride.
But for the grace of God, you would be the very thing that you pride yourself that you are not.  But for the grace of God, you would be a sinning fool. But for the grace of God, you would have regret upon regret.  But for the grace of God, you would wander in wickedness until your Creator mercifully snuffed out your wicked wick.  Scripture says pride goes before the fall, which means the only immediate future to look forward to for those who walk in pride is the stripping of their ego and their flesh in the purifying fires of humility.  Does this message attack your sense of well-being?  Those of Jeremiah's day felt the same way.  I hear so many in the church say, "We need to preach the truth of God's word!"  As long as it's not preached to them.

Wisdom is not what I expected it to be.  I expected wisdom to be a knowledge based on intelligence.  But I am still as ignorant as I ever was, perhaps more so now, because now I recognize the true depths of my ignorance.  What I have come to understand is that wisdom is a knowledge based on fear-- because that is what you feel when you truly know God as He is-- worshipful reverence and the terror of His greatness and majesty, especially in light of our smallness and inadequacy.  I asked God for wisdom and He gave me exactly what I asked for, but not what I was expecting.  He gave me fear of Him and inexpressible understanding that I am incapable of explaining.  Even now, words elude me.

So much wonder, so much beauty, so much marvel,
that I can only behold You--
I cannot communicate what I behold
I can only behold with spiritual perception
because my mind cannot contain it,
nor can I translate it into human words--
You are too much
There is so much of You
and so very little of me
What words would You give us, My Lord?
What would Your words be to this generation?

~

Why should I give them words?
What good would words do
when they have no knowledge of Me?
They must first have knowledge of Me
before they will understand any words I give,
otherwise all your speaking and word-smithing is vanity.
You may as well speak poetry to a pig.

My words to this generation are trampled
because their minds and hearts
are already filled with their own knowledge.
They do not desire to know the way of the Lord.
They seek their own way,
so I will give them the path they desire:
the path of delusion,
the manifestation of their own obstinacy and pride.

If they would desire righteousness and truth,
their heart would lead them to Me;
but they desire pleasure, idleness and distraction.
My character is blasphemed because of ignorance,
saying, "Why does He put us away to hell?"
Not understanding that it is their own heart
that sends them there, not mine.
My heart is for them to know Me and My love,
My heart is not against them for destruction.
But even so, my judgments are righteous
and if I send to hell, I send to hell.
Because by their own unrighteous words and deeds
they stand condemned.

Ignorant children,
you are deceived by your own heart and you reject Me--
the only One Who can ever save you from its desperate wickedness,
"For the heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked-- who can understand it?"
Who among you wants to hear a word of humility?
Who among you wants to hear a word
commanding you to sit in the dust?
Here is My word to you:
Sit in the dust to be reminded you are dust.
The stiff-necked do not want to hear the word "bow";
the self-righteous do not want to hear the word "repent."
As a sow seeks out mud to comfort her parched, dry skin,
so this generation seeks words of comfort
so they do not have to face their own filth.


The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan with every kind of power, sign and false wonder, and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, in order that judgment will come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness. (2 Thess 2:9-12)

But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me. So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If only My people would listen to Me, if Israel would follow My ways, how soon I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes. (Ps 81:11-14)

Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity,
for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,
and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
Who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions.
Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women
and burned with lust for one another.
Men committed indecent acts with other men,
and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
The have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice.
They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful.
They invent new forms of evil, they disobey their parents.
They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.
Although they know God's righteous decree
that those who do such things are worthy of death, 
they not only continue to do these things,
but also approve of those who practice them.
You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another.
For whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself,
because you who pass judgment do the same things.
And we know that God's judgment against those who do such things 
is based on truth. (Rom 1:24-2:2)

The Approachable Unapproachable God

The people of Jeremiah’s day rejected his message because it attacked their sense of well-being.  The message that God preached through Jeremiah exposed.  It exposed ignorance.  It exposed pride.  It exposed futility and error.  It exposed faulty reasoning and willful delusion.  It exposed spiritual nakedness in a people full of spiritual pride. The people believed they were spiritually clothed because of their religious efforts, but the reality was that they were spiritually naked because they had no true understanding of God.  A true understanding of God always begins with fear of Him.  Scripture says so.  But this truth seems so contrary to what we have grown up hearing in the church.  We grow up learning about the approachability of God, but now I find myself wondering,  what good is teaching about God’s approachability before someone understands about His unapproachability?  How can we truly value and understand what it means to be able to approach the throne of God through Jesus Christ, unless one first grasps the magnitude of God’s unapproachability?  Paul understood this, which is why he describes Jesus, Who is both approachable Christ-Who-has-been-seen and unapproachable God-Whom-no-one-has-seen, as “the King of kings and Lord of lords, Who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see…” (1 Tim 6:15,16).

The writers of the Old Testament wisdom literature understood this also, which is why they repeatedly advise that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.  When we truly fear the Lord with reverential fear and awe, we recognize our true condition of being spiritual paupers in need of, and subject to, something greater than ourselves.  Jesus understood this, which is why He began His Sermon on the Mount by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:3).  You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless you fear God in such a way that a child fears their parent. “Truly I tell you, unless you convert [turn from your sinful ways] and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18:3).  That is the true gospel and that is the message Jesus had for the generation at His first coming, and that is the same message He has for the generation of His second coming.  To believe in Jesus is to follow Jesus and to follow Jesus is to fear God.

Jesus’ message to us in the Beatitudes is:  Blessed are those who fear God in such a way that they recognize they are nothing without Him (Matt 5:3); Blessed are those who fear God in such a way that they mourn their own unrighteousness, they mourn that they are sinners in need of a savior, they mourn the ongoing battle between their flesh and spirit, they mourn the sorrow, brokenness and devastation that is caused by sin, they mourn the suffering and death of Christ that was necessary to reconcile creation (Matt 5:4); Blessed are those who fear God in such a way that they dare not compare themselves to others or think that anything good in them comes from themselves (Matt 5:5); Blessed are those who fear God in such a way that their recognition of being paupers in the spirit causes them to long for the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness that comes from no other source or impetus but Him, a righteousness that will never be found in humanity and is even foreign to humanity and alien to this world because it is not of humanity or this world… it is “other than” all that we know or understand of humanity and this world (Matt 5:6);  Blessed are those who fear God in such a way that they forgive because they have been forgiven, and give to others the mercy and patience and empathy that they so desperately desire for God to give them (Matt 5:7); Blessed are those who fear God in such a way that they surrender themselves to His examination, surrendering their heart to the purifying, refining fire of His presence and nature (Matt 5:8);  Blessed are those who fear God in such a way that their sole ambition is for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven—to bring creation back into a state of peace and reconciliation through Jesus Christ (Matt 5:9); Blessed are those who fear God in such a way that they are willing to suffer for the sake of His righteousness being exampled and lived out in their own lives in a world that hates them for it (Matt 5:10); Blessed are those who fear God in such a way that they are willing to endure the hatred and insults and criticisms and disdain of others because the message that God preaches through them attacks the well-being of those whom the message is for (Matt 5:11)--  the message that exposes. 

The message that God preached through Jeremiah was more pointed at those who claimed to know and serve God, than for those who were ignorant of Him.  God speaks to His own before He speaks to anyone else (1 Pet 4:17).  Before the church can grieve over the sinful state of the world, it must first grieve the sinful state of itself.  An immoral church cannot preach righteousness to an immoral world. But that is what we see today.  The blind and foolish trying to lead the blind and foolish.  The church is full of those who say they fear God, but in reality have no understanding of what that truly means.  Those who know the fear of God begin seated in ashes, looking down at empty hands.  The fear of God begins in anguish over your desperate need for Him.  The fear of God begins in utter recognition that you have absolutely nothing to offer Him or His church, other than repentance and humility.  Once you reach that place, you have made your first step into the true realm of understanding.  Once you reach that place you understand the paradox of an approachable unapproachable God.  Once you reach that place, you hear the voice of the Spirit say, "Blessed are you, poor in spirit, welcome to the kingdom of God."

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:3)

But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder the from coming to Me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matt 19:14)

Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. (Mark 10:15)

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.. (Rom 1:21,22)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Prov 9:10)

But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living….Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding?  Thus is it hidden from the eyes of all living…God understands its way, and He knows its place, for He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. And to mankind He said, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” (Job 28:12-28)

Comfort Of The Sword

Christ cannot comfort you with His words until He first discomforts you with His words.  The teaching of Christ must first offend you and rile you, raise you up out of the comfort you have built for yourself-- a worldly comfort based on human reason and understanding.  A fleshly comfort that appeals to your sensibility and own sense of right and wrong.  "I believe in Jesus, I am not a sinner like that other person."  Yet we lie, we covet, we compromise. We worship and serve created things, rather than the Creator:  science, sexuality, social custom.  God does not measure righteousness by comparing us to other people, He measures righteousness by comparing us to Himself.  God is the standard of measurement, not us, not the church, but Christ alone.

We tend to think that Christ came to bring us comfort, but that is not so. Christ came to bring us discomfort.  Christ said "I come with a sword" because He first wounds us with His truth before He heals us with it.  His sword pierces through the darkness that surrounds our hearts to get at what's inside, then it cuts, it divides, it shears things off .  When we first approach God for salvation, we come in repentance as a beggar, there is no other way.  We must first be wounded by our sin before we can have a proper desire to be delivered from it.  Repentant, wounded, and humble-- that is why the in first three beatitudes Jesus says "Blessed are the poor in spirit...blessed are those who mourn...blessed are the meek..." (Matt 5:3-5).  Jesus is teaching us the correct disposition to enter into right relationship with God. 

Many people in the church seek a new word from God, a fresh perspective of the Gospel, but God's word and perspective are the same as they have always been.  Humanity is sinful and separated from God by their sin and He has provided the way to salvation through Jesus Christ. Many in the church say they want to glorify Christ, but I wonder, do they really?  Because to glorify Christ means to stand in light of all He is in comparison to all that we are not.  To glorify Christ is to shine the light of His truth which exposes all those things about us that we would rather keep hidden in the dark.  To glorify Christ is to bow down in humility before His image-- the image we desire to attain, yet still have so far to go.  To glorify Christ is to come before His cross and ask Him to examine us, to ask Him to show us all the ways in which we are not glorifying Him. 

Glorifying Christ comes at the expense of our own glory.  There can be only one, and it is not you, or your pastor, or your spouse, or your denomination, or your theology, or your ministry service.  There can be only Christ and the light of His glory that reveals all truth, even the truth we cannot see about our own heart.  And when His glory exposes such horrific truths, it causes us discomfort.  That is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ:  "After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 'The time has come,' He said. 'The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!'" (Mark 1:14,15).  When Jesus spoke these words, He was speaking to His own people.  Jesus' audience was those who claimed to be the people of God and He told them to repent and believe the good news of God.

What is the good news?  The good news is that Christ came with a sword.  It is His sword that both wounds us and delivers us.  His sword cuts sin's tether to our heart and divides us away from this world to make us fit for His kingdom.  His sword circumcises our heart by shearing away the lumps of flesh that bind our understanding.  His sword riles us up out of our sinful stupor, it offends us, and in so doing, it exposes all the things hidden in our heart that need to be cut away.  However the word of Christ offends you, is the very thing that separates you from Him.  Let Christ's words wound you with the truth so that you can then experience the sweet, healing comfort of them.

Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. (Matt 10:34)

That servant who knows his master's will but does not get ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows. But the one who unknowingly does things worthy of punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him who has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded. I have come to ignite a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! (Luke 12:47-49)

This is what the Lord Almighty says:

"Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;

they fill you with false hopes.

They speak from their own minds,

not from the mouth of the Lord.

They keep saying to those who despise me,

'The Lord says: You will have peace.'

And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts

they say, 'No harm will come to you.'

But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord

to see or to hear His word?

Who has listened and heard His word?....

But if they had stood in my council,

they would have proclaimed my words to my people

and would have turned them from their evil ways

and from their evil deeds....

Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream,

but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully.

For what has straw to do with grain?" declares the Lord.

"Is not my word like fire," declares the Lord,

"and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" (Jer 23:16-29)