{"id":9175,"date":"2013-02-12T00:01:49","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T05:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=9175"},"modified":"2013-02-12T15:42:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T20:42:00","slug":"crazy-love-chapter-6-when-youre-in-love-pgs-101-103","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/12\/crazy-love-chapter-6-when-youre-in-love-pgs-101-103\/","title":{"rendered":"Crazy Love: Chapter 6 – When You’re In Love (pp 101-103)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t Try so Hard<\/b> is the topic of conversation on pages 101-103 in Crazy Love<\/span>.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try so hard to do \u201cwhat<\/span>\u201d <\/i>is the question we might be asking.<\/p>\n

Mr. Chan answers that with:\u00a0 “God wants us to crave a relationship with Him as we crave all genuine love relationships.\u00a0 He wants believers to desire <\/b>Him and not be slaves who serve Him out of obligation.”<\/p>\n

\"CrazyLove_Ch6_Martha\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chan then quotes Galatians 5:13, 14:\u00a0 \u201cYou, my brothers, were called to be free.\u00a0 But, do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather; serve one another in love.\u00a0 The entire law is summed up in a single command:\u00a0 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself<\/strong>.’\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

From this scripture, Chan points out that when we love, we\u2019re free<\/b>.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to worry about a burdensome load of commands.\u00a0 He then ask the question, \u201cD<\/strong>o you feel free in your Christian life?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Before, we can answer Chan\u2019s question, I think we must take into consideration what Galatians 5:1 says:\u00a0 \u201cStand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not <\/i>entangled<\/em><\/strong> again with the yoke of bondage<\/strong>.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The word in that verse that is blaring out to me is entangled<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/b>My handy on-line dictionary defines entangle as:\u00a0 ‘to twist together or entwine into a confusing mass; snarl, to complicate; confuse, to involve in a tangle.’<\/p>\n

Now back to Chan\u2019s question: \u00a0\u201cDo you feel free in your Christian life to genuinely love and desire God, and not serve Him out of obligation?<\/b>\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe before we can answer that question, we must first take a look at things that might have entangled<\/span><\/b> us.\u00a0 May I suggest a few:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pay God Back:<\/b>\u00a0 Straight to the point, and excuse my English:\u00a0 \u201cIt ain\u2019t even possible to pay God back for what His Son, Jesus, did for us.\u201d\u00a0 No Scripture is needed as a reference.\u00a0 If ever we should need a reminder, take a look at a picture of Jesus on the Cross; that should quench that little lie.<\/li>\n
  2. False Guilt<\/b>: A failure to trust God to forgive their sins may cause some people to try to serve God in order to work off their guilt, as in works of penance.\u00a0 But, this is contrary to God\u2019s promise of complete forgiveness to all who confess their sins.\u00a0 (Colossians 2:13; 1 John 1:9)<\/li>\n
  3. Inability to say No: <\/b>Are you one who says \u201cyes\u201d every time someone from the church calls and ask you to fill a certain position?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cDo you feel obligated, even though you don\u2019t feel right for the job?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAre you left with feelings of guilt if you say, \u2018No\u2019?\u201d\u00a0 I fell into this category until I learned that God had placed within me certain gifts as to how He wanted me to serve Him. (Ephesians 4:11)\u00a0 My pastor sums it up well:\u00a0 \u201cOur gift is the one we use with minimum effort, maximum effectiveness, and a maximum of joy.\u201d Believe me, that took a load of guilt off me as I began to serve Him in love with the gift He had placed within me rather than out of obligation. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And the obligation list could go and on into more areas, such as:\u00a0 legalism, self-seeking, performance-orientated, <\/b>to name a few.<\/p>\n

    Sir Walter Scott, noted novelist and poet in the 1800\u2019s said:\u00a0 \u201cOh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

    If we are serving God out of obligation, we have woven a tangled web, and we are the ones being deceived.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get untangled, so we can move forward and be free to serve God out of our Love for Him. \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Be blessed,<\/p>\n

    Martha<\/p>\n

     
    \n

    ************<\/center>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
    \nLet\u2019s Pray:\u00a0 <\/b>
    \nFather God, first of all, we open our hearts to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to show us where we have felt obligated to serve You.\u00a0 Help us to replace those motives and lies, so that we are free to love YOU with a genuine love as You desire.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name I pray.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n

    Your Assignment:\u00a0 <\/b>
    \nDo you feel obligated in any way to love and serve the Lord?\u00a0 If so, what has entangled you?<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
    \n<\/div>\n
    \n
    \n<\/div>\n

    If you would like more information about Crazy Love Bible study, click HERE<\/a> to sign up. \u00a0Once we receive your registration, we will email you further details.<\/p>\n

    If you would like to send Martha a personal message in regards to this blog, you may email her at: Martha@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Don\u2019t Try so Hard is the topic of conversation on pages 101-103 in Crazy Love.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try so hard to do \u201cwhat\u201d is the question we might be asking. Mr. Chan answers that with:\u00a0 “God wants us to crave a relationship with Him as we crave all genuine love relationships.\u00a0 He wants believers to desire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":9204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[44,1737,268,392,1734,1736,1735,425,649,1729,1733],"class_list":["post-9175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-1-john-19","tag-colossians-213","tag-crazy-love","tag-francis-chan","tag-galatians-5","tag-galatians-51","tag-galatians-513-14","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-martha-bush","tag-sir-walter-scott","tag-tangled-web-we-weave","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CrazyLove_Ch6_Martha.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-2nZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9175"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9206,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9175\/revisions\/9206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}