Brown's Daily Word 2-14-08

Good Morning, and happy Valentine's Day to you.
Approximately 250 years after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there was a priest who lived in Rome, by the name of Valentine. At that time Claudius, whom some people called Claudius the Cruel, was the Emperor of Rome. Valentine did not like Emperor Claudius, and he wasn’t the only one! Claudius wanted a great army, and he thought men should volunteer to join it, but many men just did not want to leave home and go off to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives, families, and girlfriends. Because of this not many men volunteered for the Roman army, making Emperor Claudius very angry. He then had the crazy idea that if men were not married, they would be more inclined to join his army. Claudius decreed that there would be no more marriages. Young people thought his new law was really cruel. Valentine thought it was ridiculous! One of his favorite duties as a priest was to marry people. After Emperor Claudius passed his law, Valentine kept on performing marriage ceremonies – but secretly. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.
One night, Valentine heard footsteps at his door. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was thrown in jail and told that his punishment would be death. St. Valentine tried to stay cheerful. Many young people came to the jail to visit him. They threw flowers and notes up to his window. They wanted him to know that they, too, believed in love.
One of these young people who visited him was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit him in his cell. They often sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and performing marriage ceremonies.
On the day Valentine was to die, he left her a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, "Love from your Valentine." That note started the custom of exchanging love notes on Valentine’s Day. It was written on the day he died, February 14, 269 A.D. Now, every year on this day, people remember. More importantly, they think about love and friendship. When they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh -- because they know that love can’t be beaten!
Jesus loved us enough to die for us! St. Valentine loved Jesus, enough to die for His Truth. What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to commit or recommit our lives to Jesus?
I want to close by sharing some Bible verses about love:
Psalm 36:8, "O Lord, how precious is your love. My God, the children
of the earth find refuge in the shelter of your wings."
Psalm 40:12, "Your merciful love and your truth will always guard me."
Psalm 13:5-6, "But I have trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart
shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me."
Psalm 19:20, "The Lord came to my support. He set me free in the open,
and rescued me, because He loves me."
Psalm 63:3. "For Your love is better than life; my lips will praise You."
Psalm 86:15, "But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow
to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."
Romans 8:35, 37-39, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?....No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else is all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
1 Corinthians 13, "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
Love is the greatest thing we can possess as Christians! It is the thing that will last! Praise the Lord for His gift of love!
In His Amazing Love and Grace,
Brown
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