{"id":35692,"date":"2023-08-26T03:30:19","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T10:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=35692"},"modified":"2023-08-25T21:13:01","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T04:13:01","slug":"august-26-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2023\/08\/26\/august-26-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"August 26, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 has-pattern-background has-mask-background fusion-parallax-none nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-background-position:center top;--awb-background-repeat:repeat-y;--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-background-image:url(&quot;https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/August-2023.jpg&quot;);--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_6 1_6 fusion-one-sixth fusion-column-first\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;width:16.666666666667%;width:calc(16.666666666667% - ( ( 4% ) * 0.16666666666667 ) );margin-right: 4%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_3_4 3_4 fusion-three-fourth fusion-column-last\" style=\"--awb-padding-top:40px;--awb-padding-right:10px;--awb-padding-bottom:40px;--awb-padding-left:10px;--awb-bg-size:cover;width:75%;width:calc(75% - ( ( 4% ) * 0.75 ) );\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><h2><strong>\u201cSTOP, in the name of love&#8230;\u201d <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cFor the love of Christ constrains us&#8230;\u201d <\/em>2 Corinthians 5:14a<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em>Remember that song by the Supremes in 1965? It was wildly popular, evidenced by the fact that I remember it all these years later. It seemed everywhere we went, we\u2019d be told to stop, in the name of love, before we broke somebody\u2019s heart!<\/p>\n<p>As believers, Christ tells us the same thing, but for a different reason. We aren\u2019t breaking His heart. His heart broke when He was separated from the Father on the Cross, but now He is with the Father, in fullness of joy.<\/p>\n<p>Still, in the name of love, or perhaps \u201cbecause He loves us\u201d would be a better way to say it, He tells us to STOP. Because of His great love for us, He tells us to stop sinning. Stop comparing ourselves to others. Stop being self-centered. Stop our hypocrisy. The list could go on and on.<\/p>\n<p>Are we to view these as \u201crules\u201d given by a God who demands perfection? A God who will only allow law-abiding citizens in His kingdom? A tight-fisted tyrant bent on being sure no one has any fun? Surely not! Yet haven\u2019t we all, at some time, wondered just how close to the edge of the \u201crules\u201d we could go and still not be sinning?<\/p>\n<p>The Bible says that the love of Christ constrains us. <strong>Constrains <\/strong>means <em>to compel, confine, leave no option.<\/em> It indicates a strong grip that prevents escape.<\/p>\n<p>Christ\u2019s love for us compelled Him to go to the cross. Love gripped Him, preventing Him from choosing to escape from the cross.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, His love for us should compel us to follow Him in all things, to live our lives for Him. His love for us grips us, holds us tight, and doesn\u2019t let go.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Father, may Your love be so real to me that I am compelled to live for You in all things. Living for You will not be a difficult burden but my great joy. Let me know Your love in all its fullness. In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-9hG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35693,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35692\/revisions\/35693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}