We Love God!

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

If we recognize the Spirit of God as the unique fountain of truth, we shall never despise the truth wherever it may appear, unless we wish to do dishonor to the Spirit of God.
John Calvin

Gossip leaves a wide trail of devastation wherever and however it goes – word of mouth, email, blogging, YouTube. It erodes trust and destroys morale. It creates a social environment of suspicion where everyone must wonder what is being said behind their backs and whether appearances of friendship are sincere. It ruins hard-won reputations with cowardly but effective weapons of misrepresentation. It manipulates people into taking sides when no such action is necessary or beneficial. It unleashes the dark powers of psychological transference, doing violence to the gossiper, to the one receiving the gossip and to the person being spoken against. It makes the Body of Christ look like the Body of Antichrist – destroyers rather than healers. It exhausts the energies we would otherwise devote to positive witness. It robs our Lord of the Church he deserves. It exposes the hostility in our hearts and discredits the gospel in the eyes of the world. Then we wonder why we don’t see more conversions, why “the ground is so hard.”
Ray Ortlund

Bible – chinese – 新标点和合本 何西阿书 8

8
以色列人因拜偶像被定罪
你用口吹角吧!
敌人如鹰来攻打耶和华的家;
因为这民违背我的约,
干犯我的律法。
他们必呼叫我说:
我的 神啊,我们以色列认识你了。
以色列丢弃良善+
仇敌必追逼他。
 
他们立君王,却不由我;
他们立首领,我却不认。
他们用金银为自己制造偶像,
以致被剪除。
撒马利亚啊,耶和华已经丢弃你的牛犊;
我的怒气向拜牛犊的人发作。
他们到几时方能无罪呢?
牛犊出于以色列
是匠人所造的,并不是神。
撒马利亚的牛犊必被打碎。
他们所种的是风,所收的是暴风;
所种的不成禾稼,就是发苗也不结实;
即便结实,外邦人必吞吃。
以色列被吞吃;
现今在列国中,好像人不喜悦的器皿。
他们投奔亚述,如同独行的野驴;
以法莲贿买朋党。
10 他们虽在列邦中贿买人,
现在我却要聚集惩罚他们;
他们因君王和首领所加的重担日渐衰微。
 
11  以法莲增添祭坛取罪;
因此,祭坛使他犯罪。
12 我为他写了律法万条,
他却以为与他毫无关涉。
13 至于献给我的祭物,
他们自食其肉,
耶和华却不悦纳他们。
现在必记念他们的罪孽,
追讨他们的罪恶;
他们必归回埃及
14  以色列忘记造他的主,建造宫殿;
犹大多造坚固城,
我却要降火焚烧他的城邑,
烧灭其中的宫殿。

+ 8:3 或译:福分