Hebrews 12:12-29 - A Serious Warning Against Refusing God
12 So tighten your loosening hold! Stiffen your wavering stand! 13 And keep your feet in straight paths, so that limbs that are lame may not be dislocated but instead be cured.
14 Try to be at peace with everyone, and strive for that consecration without which no one can see the Lord. 15 Be careful that no one fails to gain God's favor, or some poisonous root may come up to trouble and contaminate you all??16 some immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his very birthright for one single meal. 17 For you know how, when he afterward wished to claim the blessing, he was refused it, although he begged for it with tears, for he had no opportunity to repent of what he had done.
18 For it is no tangible blazing fire that you have come up to, no blackness and darkness and storm, 19 no trumpet blast and voice whose words made those who heard them beg to be told no more, 20 for they could not bear the order, "Even a wild animal, if it touches the mountain, must be stoned to death," 21 and so awful was the sight that Moses said, "I am aghast and appalled!" 22 But you have come up to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless angels, 23 to the solemn gathering of all God's elder sons, enrolled as citizens in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of upright men now at last enjoying the fulfilment of their hopes, 24 to Jesus the negotiator of a new agreement, and to sprinkled blood that speaks more powerfully than even Abel's.
25 Take care not to refuse to listen to him who is speaking. For if they could not escape because they would not listen to him who warned them here on earth, how much less can we, who reject him who is from heaven! 26 Then his voice shook the earth, but now his promise is, "But once more I will make not only the earth but the very heaven to tremble!" 27 Now the words "But once more" indicate the final removal of all that is shaken, as only created, leaving only what is unshaken to be permanent. 28 Let us, therefore, be thankful that the kingdom given to us cannot be shaken, and so please God by worshiping him with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.