We Love God!

God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)

Embrace the paradox of God's sovereignty and man’s responsibility. The sad thing is that some embrace the sovereignty of God over the human will and say: “It is wrong to portray God with His arms stretched out, inviting and calling.” And others embrace the responsibility of man and say, “If God invites and calls and beckons, then he can’t really be sovereign over man’s will, and man really is ultimately self-determining and God is not really in control of all things.” Both of these are sad mistakes. It is sad, because one group rejects something deep and precious that God has revealed about Himself for our strength and hope and joy and love – namely, his absolute sovereignty. Oh, how sweet it is when all around our soul gives way, and we need a reliable and firm rock in a world that sometimes seems utterly out of control and meaningless and cruel. Oh, how sweet at these times to know that God is not good and helpless, but good and sovereign. And the other group (who embrace the sovereignty of God) sometimes rejects something utterly crucial for understanding the justice of God in dealing with people, and they fail to see how we should plead with people and persuade people and invite people and woo people with tears, to Christ, and on behalf of Christ.
John Piper

Sinners want their will to be done, and they will fight with whoever gets in their way. Consequently, sinners are much better at making war then they are at making peace, much better at hatred than they are at love. They are much better at causing division then they are at creating unity.
Paul David Tripp

XVIII. Learning of Christ.

MATT. xi. 29. “Learn of Me.”

JESUS is the Great Teacher, but that will be of no avail
unless we are also great learners. We may “learn of,” or,
as the word means, “from Christ,”—
I. By listening to His direct teachings.
As a teacher Jesus is authoritative. He made statements
regarding things—those of the unseen world, for instance—
which were to be received because He made them. Yet
He never frowned upon inquiry into the truth of what He
taught.
II. By contemplating His character we learn of Christ.
Teaching by precept and teaching by example has each its
place, but the teaching of the latter is the more attractive.
In Jesus we see everything that belongs to the ideal excel-
lence of our nature, so that to be Christlike is to be
perfect.
III. We learn of Christ from the practical, experiences
of the Christian life.
To get the full benefit of Christ’s teaching, it is not
enough that we “sit at His feet and hear His words.”
There must be the taking up of His yoke, which is easy,
and His burden, which is light. There must be the
growing like Christ, as well as the gaining of acquaintance
with His life. The whole every-day practice of our reli-
gion is a constant learning of Christ, just as the constant
practice of speaking and writing is the learning of a lan-
guage.
It is written that “he that increaseth knowledge in-
creaseth sorrow,” but the happy effect of “learning of
Christ” is that we “find rest to our souls.”
Walter Morrison, D.D.