https:\/\/youtu.be\/c6m66seqSNc<\/a><\/p>\nGreetings Everyone!<\/strong><\/p>\nHappy Valentines Day! What a great time to talk about love and what love looks like. Although the Bible tells us what love look like we still come up short or even empty. As new creation believers we know love is a person. But do we understand that this means love is fixed and unchangeable? Do we not understand that love as a person is not based on how feel at any given time? Or any given circumstance and situation? Many look at Valentines Day as a foundation to secure or acknowledge one’s love for another. In many cases it expected and often demanded! Why? Is the lack of one’s value? Or is it to give someone value? Some might say it is to acknowledge one’s value. But before we talk about it let’s have a little history of Valentine Day. For those of you who enjoy history here we go!<\/strong><\/p>\nThe history of Valentine\u2019s Day\u2013and the story of its patron saint\u2013is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine\u2019s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine\u2019s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.<\/strong><\/p>\nOther stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first \u201cvalentine\u201d greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl\u2013possibly his jailor\u2019s daughter\u2013who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed \u201cFrom your Valentine,\u201d an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and\u2013most importantly\u2013romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile some believe that Valentine\u2019s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine\u2019s death or burial\u2013which probably occurred around A.D. 270\u2013others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine\u2019s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to \u201cChristianize\u201d the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.<\/strong><\/p>\nLupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity and but was outlawed\u2014as it was deemed \u201cun-Christian\u201d\u2013at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine\u2019s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds\u2019 mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine\u2019s Day should be a day for romance.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nAmericans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the \u201cMother of the Valentine,\u201d made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as \u201cscrap.\u201d Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine\u2019s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine\u2019s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.<\/strong><\/p>\nBut where is the person of Christ in all of this? Now, let’s talk about it!<\/strong><\/p>\nLove in Christ,<\/strong><\/p>\nDavid & Katherine<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2016 FEb 14th Streaming Greetings Everyone! Happy Valentines Day! What a great time to talk about love and what love looks like. Although the Bible tells us what love look like we still come up short or even empty. As new creation believers we know love is a person. But do we understand that this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-david-kenebrew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":721,"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions\/721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inchristmessage.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}