Of God and Mankind

Revelation 5:15-19 (AMPC)  “ I (Jesus Christ) know your [record of] works  and what you are doing; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot!   16 So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth!   17 For you say, I am rich; I have prospered  and grown wealthy, and I am in need of nothing; and you do not realize  and understand that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. [Hos. 12:8.]   18 Therefore I counsel you to purchase from Me gold refined  and tested by fire, that you may be [truly] wealthy, and white clothes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nudity from being seen, and salve to put on your eyes, that you may see.   19 Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict  and convince  and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic  and in earnest  and burning with ze...

Titus 1:16 (AMPC)  “ They profess to know God [to recognize, perceive, and be acquainted with Him], but deny  and disown  and renounce Him by what they do; they are detestable  and loathsome, unbelieving  and disobedient  and disloyal  and rebellious, and [they are] unfit  and worthless for good work (deed or enterprise) of any kind.”   Dear people of God, whenever I hear someone commending his character, one thing I tell him is that it is difficult for someone to OBJECTIVELY assess himself.   As a result of sycophancy as well, it is also difficult even these days to obtain an objective assessment of oneself from others.   However, if a number of people are complaining about the same person’s character and the person does not see anything wrong with his or her character, then something is definitely wrong.   Do others describe you as hostile? Unfriendly? Unkind? Untrustworthy? Unstable? Unreliable? Can you be trusted to handle...