Matthew 23:13-22 (MSG)
13 “I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.

Mark 13:5-6 (NIV)
5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.

James 3:7-10 (MSG)
7-10 This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

How long have we fought God? Since the beginning. How often do we miss the intention of God and replace it with what we’re all about? How Christ must weep for us.

How many people (people are The Church) have taken God’s message and twisted it to serve purposes of power and intrigue? Far, far, far too many. Where is the Church Christ died for?

Why does our tongue have more power than anything else? Why does our tongue wag our brain? How does a soft piece of muscle cut like a knife? It’s our heart, it’s the fiber of who we are in our native state. It’s who Christ came to save.

All that said, it’s not a mystery to God that it’s happening. It can be OK at the end. Eternity waits where some will have pure love, joy and peace. Some won’t.

When the world is overwhelming, there’s a sanctuary, the protective grace of Christ, that waits with open arms for us. Christ waits for us to come to Him. His transformative power will lead us away from the lies, will tame our tongue (sure wish He’d hurry up with that) and bring us home.

Mark 13:7-8 (NIV)
7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

James 3:10-12 (MSG)
10-12 My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?