If you do not reform yourselves after this, and go against me, then I also will go against you, and smite you to the utmost for your sins, and will bring a vengeful sword against you to avenge the covenant. but if you take refuge in your cities, I will send a plague upon you, and you will be delivered into the hands of the enemy. the bread that sustains man I will destroy from among you; Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and shall give your bread by weight; you will eat and you will not be full.

But if you do not listen to me after this, and go against me, then I also will go against you in a rage, and will punish you to the fullest for your sins, and you will eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters; I will destroy your high places, and I will break down your pillars, and I will cast your corpses on the ruins of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. I will make your cities desolate, and I will lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will not smell the sweet fragrance of your sacrifices. I will lay waste [your land], so that your enemies who dwell in it will be amazed at it; but I will scatter you among the nations, and draw the sword after you, and your land will be desolate, and your cities destroyed" (Lev. 26:14-33).

Therefore, in fact, jealousy is His attribute. That is, this is not jealousy in the sense of passion, but the fact that He does not want people to leave Him. Therefore, God requires man everything. You become Christians in order to give your whole heart to God: not half, not a quarter, not even ninety percent, but all of yourself. God will not settle for less.

God is the rest and source of all bliss. The words "God" and "rich" are words of the same root, so He is All-Satisfied, that is, He does not need anything. "What does that mean?" God does not need anything from man for His own existence. Some say: but I will do it in spite of God. Do you think He will get worse? No. It's like in the famous joke: I set fire to my own house so that my mother-in-law would have a homeless son-in-law.

Do you think God can be bribed? — No, I don't. "And some foolishly believe that they can give something to God. They come to church, buy thick candles, put them up and think that God will forgive their sins from such a thick candle and they will go do the same. And God will say, "Do not put your trust in the deceitful words, 'Here is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'

But if you will completely correct your ways and your deeds, if you will rightly execute judgment between a man and his adversary, if you will not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed innocent blood in this place, and do not follow in the footsteps of other gods to your own misfortune, then I will leave you to dwell in this place, in this land which I gave to your fathers for generations to come. Behold, you are hoping for deceitful words that will not benefit you. How!

you steal, and kill, and commit adultery, and swear lies, and burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you do not know, and then come and stand before me in this house over which my name is called, and say, We are saved, to do all these abominations again. Has not this house, over which My name is called, become a den of thieves in your eyes?" (Jeremiah 7:4-11)

No, says the Lord God, you will not be saved, I will punish you and punish you for all your deeds. And in another place, in the forty-ninth Psalm, God says this: "The God of Gods, the Lord has spoken, and is calling the earth, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun. From Zion, which is the height of beauty, God appears, our God comes, and not in silence: before Him is a consuming fire, and around Him is a mighty storm.

He calls heaven and earth from above to judge His people: "Gather to Me My saints, who have entered into a covenant with Me at the sacrifice." And the heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God is the judge. "Hear, my people, I will speak; Israel! I will bear witness against you: I am God, your God. It is not for thy sacrifices that I will reproach thee; thy burnt offerings are always before me; I will not receive a bull out of your house, nor a goat out of your courts: for I am all the beasts in the forest, and the cattle in a thousand mountains, I know all the birds in the mountains, and the animals in the fields before me.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for My universe and all that fills it. Do I eat the flesh of oxen and drink the blood of goats? Offer praise to God, and render thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me." And God saith unto the sinner, Why dost thou preach my statutes, and take my covenant in thy mouth, and yet thou hatest my instruction, and cast my words for yourselves?

when you see a thief, you associate with him, and you associate with adulterers; Thou hast opened thy mouth to reproach, and thy tongue weaveth deceit; you sit and speak against your brother, you slander your mother's son; you did this, and I was silent; you thought I was just like you. I will expose thee, and set thee before thy eyes. Consider this, you who forget God, lest I rapture, and there shall be no one to deliver.

He that sacrificeth praise honours me, and he that watcheth his way to him will I shew the salvation of God" (Psalm 49:1-23). It is important to understand and remember that God can never be bribed. When we donate something to the poor, do good, light candles, we do not bribe God, we act according to the law of mercy in order to be like God. We sacrifice something to say that we recognize that everything we are given is God's. That we give Him to Him.

Who owns all the gold and silver in the world? Creator. And this is why we give alms, and not in order to bribe God. on the other hand, God is the source of all joy and silence. It is said: "His work is glory and beauty, and His righteousness endures forever. He made His miracles memorable; the Lord is merciful and bountiful" (Psalm 110:3-4). God said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30).

People are looking for happiness, everyone is looking for happiness, people are looking for peace, but where are they looking for it? They look for it in the family, they look for it in vodka, they look for it in drugs, they look for it in art, they look for it in books and... They do not find it. Is it possible to find it? Can joy be found anywhere outside of God? I mean real joy. Can there be that real joy that ends? "This is how any joy ends. "Except for one." "Which one?" — Except for the joy of God Himself.