From Pastor Todd

“Love”

As we enter into February, we are in the heart of winter. It is not hard for anyone to figure this out, and I’m sure you are looking forward to spring as much as I am.

Yet in February, we find ourselves thinking about love, especially with Valentine’s Day on February 14.

The first valentine was posted around 1806. Almost one billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year on or near February 14, with females purchasing 85% of them. This is second only to the number of Christmas cards sent. The history is somewhat murky as to how Valentine’s Day has become what we know and celebrate today.

Saint Valentine served in third‑century Rome. Emperor Claudius decided that single men made better soldiers and therefore banned soldiers from marrying. One version of the story is that Valentine continued to perform weddings for young soldiers who were in love, and Claudius had Valentine imprisoned. While imprisoned, Valentine reportedly fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and sent her a card signed, “Love, your Valentine.”

Another version says that Valentine defied Claudius by helping Christians escape Roman torture.

Valentine died around A.D. 270. Others claim the church may have chosen mid‑February to “Christianize” the pagan Roman celebration of Lupercalia. The first Valentine sent in the United States was in the 1840s by Esther Howgald.
(Information provided by Got Questions.)

Whether or not one chooses to celebrate Valentine’s Day is up to personal conviction.

For the Christian, we actually celebrate and enjoy God’s LOVE every day.

This LOVE is different because it is not romantic in nature—it is unconditional, coming from the word AGAPE, [a gop eh] meaning that God loves unconditionally. He loved us before we could ever understand His love for us.

John 3:16 is the most popular and well‑known verse in the Bible:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever (whosoever) believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

God’s LOVE is Voluntary

  • We don’t have to beg God for His love; He already loves you, and He freely gives His love.

  • We see this in the fact that He gave His Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) to be the sacrifice for anyone who will believe in Him for salvation.

God’s LOVE is Vicarious

This has to do with the actions of another—the atoning work Jesus accomplished on the cross of Calvary demonstrates God’s love for us.

  • Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

  • This is Amazing Grace—that’s how we are saved, by God’s grace.

  • Ephesians 2:8–9 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

God’s LOVE is Victorious

We come to the last thought, and perhaps the “Greatest Truth.” This is where Christianity thrives.

Jesus was victorious over three things when He rose from the dead:

  1. SIN

Sin is what separates man from God.
You might say, “But you just said God loves us.”
Absolutely—God loves us. But God is holy, and the Bible clearly teaches that without a sacrifice (specifically a blood sacrifice), God cannot look upon our sin.
This is why Jesus had to die.

The great news is He arose from the grave, and now He lives to make intercession for all who will trust in His saving work.

  1. DEATH

This goes back to the Garden of Eden. God had given Adam and Eve every tree in the garden to eat from except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
He told them that the day they ate of it, they would surely die (Genesis 2:17).

They were deceived and gave in to temptation.
The death that occurred was twofold:

  1. Spiritual death — separation from Almighty God.

  2. Physical death — Adam lived many years afterward, but the relationship he once had with God was now disrupted.

  3. THE GRAVE

Jesus was also victorious over the grave. This ties directly to what was said above.

One day Jesus will return to raise the bodies that are in the grave—some to eternal life, and others (unfortunately, and with much warning as I write this) to eternal separation from Almighty God.

JESUS IS THE VICTOR

He is victor over sin, death, and the grave, and He wants to give you life in Him, because God loved the world that much.

Loving God through the Lord Jesus Christ is the “Greatest Valentine.”

Blessings to you and yours this month of February!

Pastor Todd Lint