Maybe you have suffered a good deal in your time,

but you still understand nothing;

you are ignorant of everything about life.

Even though you have been chastised and judged,

you have not changed at all,

and deep within, you have not gained life.

When the time comes to test your work,

you will experience a trial as fierce as fire

and even greater tribulation.

This fire will turn your entire being into ashes.

As someone who does not possess life,

someone without an ounce of pure gold inside,

someone still stuck with the old corrupt disposition,

and someone who cannot even do a good job at being a foil,

how could you not be eliminated?

What use does the work of conquest have

for someone who is worth less than a penny,

someone who does not possess life?

When that time comes,

your days will be harder than those of Noah and Sodom!

Your prayers will do you no good then.

How can you come back later and start to repent anew,

when the work of salvation has already ended?

Once all the work of salvation has been done, there will be no more;

what there will be is the start of

the work of punishing those who are evil.

You resist, you rebel, and you do things that you know are evil.

Are you not the target of severe punishment?

You resist, you rebel, and you do things that you know are evil.

Are you not the target of severe punishment?

God is spelling this out for you today.

If you choose not to listen,

then when disaster befalls you later,

will it not be too late if you only then start to feel regret

and start to believe?

God does not remember your past transgressions today;

He forgives you again and again,

turning away from your negative side

to look only at your positive side,

to look only at your positive side,

because all God's present words and work are meant to save you

and He has no ill intention toward you.

Yet you refuse to enter; you cannot tell good from bad

and do not know how to appreciate kindness.

Do such people not merely await

the arrival of punishment and righteous retribution?

from Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs