Valentines Day - Selfless Love

Valentines Day, a day in our culture of hearts, cards, flowers, chocolate and of course love.  So many things are written about this day and its origins that are not totally correct.  Many legends have emerged over the centuries.  Yet when we look back at the early reasons for this day being a celebration maybe we will gain a different understanding of the day.

Since we do not have a lot of 1700 year old texts that provide a lot of detail for us about the "saint" that Valentines Day is named after, we use the best information we can find and the oldest to help us.  What we learn is that St. Valentine was a leader in the early Church that still endured an amount of persecution from the political leaders of the day.  Valentine was known to be martyred for dis-obeying the edict of the Emperor regarding marriage and soldiers.  So that regular troops would not feel the urge to leave the battle to go to their families, they wife and children.  The Emperor made it illegal for common soldiers to marry.  This created a difficulty for any of these men who were drawn to Christianity and the Biblical teaching on marriage and relationships.  So against the direct command of the Emperor, St. Valentine performed marriage ceremonies, bringing together these common soldiers and the love of their life to be a married couple.  When he was found out and caught, he was tortured and eventually killed.

Valentines Day needs to be a day where we are reminded to express our love to those we care about.  It is a day to celebrate the marriage that St. Valentine died to protect and teach.  Biblical marriage should be a part of our remembering why this day is on the calendar.  But also that as a leader, he would be willing to suffer and die to do what was right.

So even if you are single and have no "valentine" as our culture defines it, you can still live to celebrate the remembrance of Valentine.  You can live to benefit others, you can live to stand for what is True and Biblical.  You can seek to do what is right no matter what the cost and how others might respond to you.  You can show selfless love and care for others.

I am often reminded of selfless love when my wonderful wife Brenda shows such great care for me, even when I am not deserving of her love.  She will make me a card, give me a gift, a hug, encourage me in so many things she says.  She will patiently wait for me to wake up and become bearable for the day.  She will wait up with me and for me when there are things that keep me up late.  She sticks with me through the hard times and the good.  She does her best to share with me reminders from God's Word and the wisdom of life to help me stay on track.  She really seeks to serve me sacrificially to help me be a better man.  It challenges me and reminds me to look at how I am to love, care for and serve her. 

So whether it is Brenda and I or any of you, may we be reminded today to express a Christ-centered "selfless" Love for others like Valentine did.  Valentine is  not our ultimate example of this, Jesus is.  So may Valentine point you toward the True source of selfless Love, Jesus the Son of God our Savior and Lord.

Pastor Bruce

Olympic Motivation?

We are well into the Winter Olympics as I write this.  I find myself pondering the reality of the life of many of these great athletes and how much they focus and train as well as the amount that they compete.  I find myself being challenged by this concept of their lifestyle.

Don't worry, sure I try to exercise and eat right but I am not going to be writing today about some new training kick I am on to become a great athlete.  Instead I have found myself being challenged about how we as Christians are to be like those athletes in our Faith.

We are to be training and equipping ourselves and one another to be able to walk well in our lives.  We are to receive strong Biblical instruction so that our minds are renewed and we are prepared to share the Truth of the Gospel to those we encounter.  We need to practice these things with others in the Church, fellowshipping well in the Love of Christ, sharing testimony of how the Gospel has changed us, praying with and for eachother.  We are also to compete, not against each other but with each other, it is a team event.  We compete together as we put this all into practice seeking to intentionally give the Gospel to the lost around us.  This means we need to apply our lives to this endeavor, it is not a simple religion or a one day a week go to church type of idea.  Instead this is a life commitment to be an active and radical disciple of Jesus.  

So I urge you to be one who truly loves Jesus as the Lord of your life, displaying that love in your obedience to Him and His Word.  Hold fast to the community of Faith, the local Church and serve the Lord together, not in a ritualistic and empty way, not in traditions that no longer have effect, but with a fresh view to engage the culture around us with the living Truth of the Gospel as taught in the Bible.  May we actively love others and serve one another as a display of what the Gospel does in our lives.  If Jesus died for your sins and mine, if we have repented of our sin and received forgiveness through His name and placed all our faith and trust in Him, then we are to live in thankful response to this great gift by following Him and His teaching.  Do what He says, read the Bible and go to a Bible teaching Church that holds to the True Gospel as its core.  Be a part of serving Him.  

For those who have made up their minds that they do not need to be a part of a local Bible believing Church and that they do not need to actively serve Jesus or talk about the Gospel.  Read John 14 and ask yourself "If Jesus said that those who love me will do as I have commanded" then do I really Love Jesus if I refuse to follow what He has said about His Church?  About His Mission for us to make Disciples to follow Him?  

May we take seriously the life we have been given and not loose heart but apply ourselves diligently to the task we have received.

Amen

Pastor Bruce