{"id":6272,"date":"2022-10-11T12:57:53","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T12:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6272"},"modified":"2022-10-11T12:57:53","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T12:57:53","slug":"we-love-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6272","title":{"rendered":"We Love Him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWe Love Him\u201d 1 John 4:19<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We readily acknowledge that God\u2019s love for us precedes our love for him. \u201cThe<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee\u201d (Jeremiah<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

31:3). His love is without beginning, without cause, without change, and without<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

end. God loves his own elect with an eternal love!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We gladly confess that God\u2019s love for us is the cause of our love for him. If<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he had not loved us first, we would never have loved him at all. We had no love<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

for God. But he loved us. In everlasting, covenant love he chose us and<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

determined to save us. And in time he created love in our hearts for him by his<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

almighty grace (Hosea 2:6-23).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we do love him. This is the testimony of all true believers. We love our<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God and Savior. We do not love him as we should, as we would, or as we shall;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

but \u201cwe love him.\u201d Those who are born of God love God. We love the triune<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God as he is revealed in the Scriptures. We love everything about him because<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

everything about him is perfect. Show me a man who has any quarrel with<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

anything God is, or anything he says, or anything he does, and I will show you a<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

man whose heart is enmity against God. I will show you a man who is lost,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

altogether without faith.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We who are born of God love God the Father, our covenant keeping God.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We love his will, his Word, his works, and his ways. We love all that he is and<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

all that he does. His attributes are not distasteful to us. They are his beauty, his<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

character, and his glory. His holiness, sovereignty, love, mercy, and truth are<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the very things that cause us to love him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We love God the Son, our Surety, Substitute, Mediator, Redeemer,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocate, and Friend. There is nothing about Christ that is the least disturbing<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

or distressing to us. We love him entirely because he is entirely perfect and<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

lovely. We love Christ in all his offices and works. We love him as our Prophet<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

who teaches us, our Priest who redeemed and intercedes for us, and our King<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

who rules over us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we love God the Holy Spirit, our Divine Comforter, Teacher,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preserver, and Guide. His irresistible grace charms us. His witness within<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

assures us. His power preserves us. Because we love our God, we rejoice in<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

anything by which he is exalted, magnified, and honoured. And we are distressed<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and angered by anything that would rob him of his glory.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Fortner<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe Love Him\u201d 1 John 4:19 We readily acknowledge that God\u2019s love for us precedes our love for him. \u201cThe LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee\u201d (Jeremiah 31:3). His love is without beginning, without cause, without change, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,71,72,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-don-fortner","category-believers-rule-of-life","category-christ-and-his-church","category-christ-his-person-and-excellencies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6273,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272\/revisions\/6273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}