Sovereignty

Wow, I've been gone a long time from this blog. It's almost been a month.

I recently read a couple of quotes on the sovereignty of God (a favorite topic of mine), and I wanted to share them and hopefully get some feedback from my readers.

The following quotes are from the Desiring God blog. The first one relates to God's sovereignty in salvation, and the second relates to God's sovereignty in everyday occurrences. We do not cause the new birth. God causes the new birth. Any spiritually good thing that we do is a result of the new birth, not a cause of the new birth. This means that the new birth is taken out of our hands. It is not in our control. And so it confronts us with our helplessness and our absolute dependence on Someone outside ourselves. (Finally Alive, pg. 27)

The painful things that come into our lives are not described by God as accidental or as out of his control. This would be no comfort. That God cannot stop a germ or a car or a bullet or a demon is not good news; it is not the news of the Bible. God can. And ten thousand times he does. But when he doesn't, he has his reasons. And in Christ Jesus they are all loving. We are taught this sovereignty so that we will drink it in till it saturates our bones. (A Sweet and Bitter Providence, pgs. 136-37)So what do you think? Are these quotes supported by scripture? If you disagree with these quotes can you think of scripture that contradicts these thoughts? For more resources on this topic see here.