Love With A Purpose

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Many of us celebrate Valentines Day by buying gifts, writing love notes or going out for an expensive meal. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Today however I wanted to look at the other side of "The Legend of St. Valentine", or one of the St Valentines that are honored every year. There is definitely a deeper more spiritual reason to celebrate or honor those that have gone before us today on February 14^th.

There were several saints that had the name Valentine or Valentinus. Many of them were martyred for their faith.

The ones that are celebrated on February 14^th are:

• Valentine of Rome who was a priest was martyred about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. The flower crowned skull.
• Valentine of Terni. He became a bishop and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome.
• The third Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies in the Catholic Encyclopedia under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.

In other Legend one of the Valentines is said to be a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D. This was a time when the church was under great persecution. Valentine’s ministry was to help the Christians escape their persecution.

Marriage was outlawed by the Roman Empire at that time. He is believed to have been performing secret marriages for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry. Roman Emperor Claudius II supposedly gave an order to cease marriage ceremonies in order to grow his army, believing that married men would not make very good soldiers.

In this same legend Valentine was said to be reminding Christians of God's love and encouraging them to remain faithful to Christ. It also has been said that St Valentine was persecuted for being a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was quite impressed with Valentine and had a discussion with him. Claudius was attempting to get Valentine to convert to Roman paganism in order to spare his life. Valentine of course refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed.

Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer Asterius. The jailer's daughter and his forty-four-member household (family members and servants) came to believe in Jesus and were baptized.

Saint Valentine is said to have cut out hearts from parchment, giving them to the soldiers and persecuted Christians, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on Saint Valentine's Day.

On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to the daughter of his jailer Asterius, who was no longer blind, signing as "Your Valentine." This expression "From your Valentine" is still used to this day.

John Foxe, an English historian states that Saint Valentine was buried in the Church of Praxedes in Rome, located near the cemetery of St Hippolytus.

According to legend, "Julia herself planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship."

It makes me a little sad to think that the part of this legend that stuck through the ages was the love story part.

Don’t get me wrong I love a good love story, but what about the really powerful part of this story? The part where Valentine stands up to Claudius for his faith. The part where he encouraged believers to stand up for Christ even though they risked persecution. This is by far what stood out so strongly to me. Would you do the same for Christ if you knew you would have to give up your life?

Matthew 16:24-25 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Love with a purpose! Love God above all else!

We need a sail when we are in a fat boat!

WE NEED A SAIL WHEN WE ARE IN A FAT BOAT!

I really love documentaries! 

A few days a week, I jump on my treadmill and click on Netflix and watch various documentaries.

I especially love archaeological ones, as that was a childhood dream of mine to dig up bones and artifacts. Maybe one day I will still get this opportunity, but for now I will live vicariously through the documentaries of others.

My documentary of choice one day was called Building Pharaoh's Ship. 

In 2010 a group of people set out on a task to build a replica of an ancient Egyptian ship, a fat ship, a ship that they knew very little about other than a few reliefs and writings.

This ship was an unusual ship as it was built by a female pharaoh, one of Egypts most controversial pharaohs. Her name was Hatshepsut.

As they were building the ship they (the experts) were nervous if this fat boat or PIG as they affectionately called it would be able to sail at all.

After completing the ship they put it in the Red Sea to test it out. It was filled with people and the crew was filled with emotions of nervousness and excitement.

Oh I should also mention another important fact... it had many cracks. They had to fill these cracks with only linen cloth and beeswax, not exactly modern materials, right? They were really trying to stay true to they original construction on all counts.

As they sailed the ship it tossed back and forth with such great force I grew nervous watching. The crew did all they could to keep it stable and even more importantly afloat!

They decided to raise the sail. This also was quite an adventure. It was so heavy and it made the ship move back and forth with great force. The boat fought that sail with all it's might, but the sail did prevail. It snapped that ship back into the reality that it was truly a ship that needed to sail.

The captain of the ship was now able to relax and know that the ship truly was a seaworthy vessel. This ancient design was indeed sound. He was so impressed that he made the statement, "I would sail across the ocean with this." Although, he was not saying that at the beginning of the voyage. Once the sail was raised it changed the outcome of this voyage. It changed the minds of the sailors on board. 

I think it really hit me hard watching that ship fight the waves and the sail being raised that our lives can be just like this at times.

Adversity and trials can try to rock your life and shipwreck you. You have two options. You can let the waves of struggles rock you back and forth or you can grab your sail and hoist that baby up and let the Lord carry you through the rough waters.

There are a couple scriptures that the Holy Spirit reminded me of:

Ephesians 4:14-15 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

James 1:6-8 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

Do not allow people to influence you to take your eyes off of the truth and off of the Lord!

It grieves me when I hear stories of people being swayed by the influence of others to do things contrary to His Word. Usually they are not big things, but little things, those little foxes that spoil the vine as it says in Song of Solomon 2:15. 

The Word also says in 1 Corinthians 15:33 - Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."

Choose this day who you will serve, yourself, others or the Living God! 

Raise the sail of your fat ship. 


Here is the link for the documentary if you are interested:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1379655910/

True Religion - What does the Bible say about it?

True Religion - What does the Bible say about it?

This passage in James 1 is so powerful! I read it over and over as a challenge for myself. 

I wanted to share my thoughts on what these verses have spoken to me.

I am a firm believer in finding 2-3 verses about a subject to give a clear picture of what the Bible is saying to us around a topic. Therefore I will break up these verses with other ones to show that this is not just one statement regarding these topics in the Bible. God often repeats ideas to get points across to us, just like when you teach children, repetition is one of the best teachers.

James 1:19-27

Hearing and Doing

19 Remember this, my dear friends! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry. 20 Human anger does not achieve God's righteous purpose.

I want to cross reference vs. 19-20 with a couple Proverbs that I believe reinforce these verses in James:

Proverbs 22:24-25 

(NLT)Don’t befriend angry people,or associate with hot-tempered people,or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul.

(NKJV) Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go,Lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul.

I once knew a woman that said this about her husband, "You don't want to make him angry he is like the hulk..." She was saying it with an admiration. Immediately those verses came to my mind along with these:

Proverbs 29:22 (KJV) - An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.

Proverbs 22:10(NKJV) - Cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave; Yes, strife and reproach will cease.

This women was speaking truth, however, as I watched this man so filled with anger and rage at times it was borderline scary to be in the room with him. In those angry moments he said things that were so extreme that you could not even reason with him or come to a peaceful solution. His viewpoint was the only one that he could see. He stirred up strife and contention in many situations in the churches he attended. Should this be how we are known as Christians?  

...and now back to James 1...

21 So get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you. 22 Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice. 

How do we "put the Word into practice or be a doer of the Word?

I believe we must bear the fruit of a Christian lifestyle. 

Galatians 5:22-26 But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires.25The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives. 26We must not be proud or irritate one another or be jealous of one another.

This Fruit topic will be for another blog though :) I'm sure you can see where this is going. 

Act like a Christian, not because you have to but as a result of your relationship with the Living God.

...Again back to James who shows us more regarding our Christian life...

23 If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are. 24 They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like.

25 But if you look closely into the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and do not simply listen and then forget it, but put it into practice—you will be blessed by God in what you do.26 Do any of you think you are religious? If you do not control your tongue, your religion is worthless and you deceive yourself.

27 What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.

So we see that the pure and genuine religion is caring for orphans and widows and not be corrupted by this world.

Let's look at these things through the eyes of other Scriptures.

There are a couple scriptures I would like to reference:

Jesus is in Nazareth on the Sabbath at the Synagogue and He opens the scroll of Isaiah and is quoting Chapter 61:1-2

Luke 4:18-19 -  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed 19and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people.”

Isaiah 58:1-3, 5-10 - The Lord says, “Shout as loud as you can! Tell my people Israel about their sins! 2They worship me every day, claiming that they are eager to know my ways and obey my laws. They say they want me to give them just laws and that they take pleasure in worshiping me.” 3The people ask, “Why should we fast if the Lord never notices? Why should we go without food if he pays no attention?” The Lord says to them, “The truth is that at the same time you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress your workers. 
5When you fast, you make yourselves suffer; you bow your heads low like a blade of grass and spread out sackcloth and ashes to lie on. Is that what you call fasting? Do you think I will be pleased with that?6“The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. 7 Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives.8“Then my favor will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed. I will always be with you to save you; my presence will protect you on every side. 9When you pray, I will answer you. When you call to me, I will respond.“If you put an end to oppression, to every gesture of contempt, and to every evil word; 10if you give food to the hungry and satisfy those who are in need, then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon. 

Wow! 

So Israel's sin was that they pursued their own interests and oppressed their workers. They did not care for the hungry, or give homes to the poor. They didn't cloth those in need and did not even help their own relatives.

In conclusion we see that God is very clear that we are to live the lives of True Religion - caring for the poor and oppressed, loosing the chains of injustice.

It is not all about going to church, going to prayer meetings, mission trips, and singing our spiritual songs or even fasting, especially if they are done with wrong motives which only God can evaluate or judge.

I love this quote from "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert:

Personal piety and formal worship are essential to the Christian life, but they MUST lead to lives that "act justly and love mercy" Micah 6:8

In fact Micah 6 is about What the Lord requires of us:

Verses 6-8What shall I bring to the Lord, the God of heaven, when I come to worship him? Shall I bring the best calves to burn as offerings to him?7Will the Lord be pleased if I bring him thousands of sheep or endless streams of olive oil? Shall I offer him my first-born child to pay for my sins? 8No, the Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.

In conclusion we need to look at these points:

• be quick to listen
• slow to speak
• slow to become angry
• get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct
• submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you.
• do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice
• control your tongue
• care for widows and orphans
• keep yourself from being corrupted by this world 
• be humble
• love mercy

Imagine these are your New Years Resolutions this year. Pure and Godly goals!