So, today I decided to write about the origins of the popular holiday known as Valentine's Day since the holiday is coming up this week. There probably aren't many people out in the world that actually know the true origins of the holiday of love, as most probably remain in the dark, thinking that it is just a day to give out love notes, flowers and chocolates to the people that they care most about. However, the true story, like many holidays, is not exactly what most believe it to be.
In reality, the holiday started in order to commemorate a martyr that died centuries before our time, around the year 278 AD on February 14th. Valentine (or Valentinus in Latin, a name derived from the word valens, meaning worthy, strong or powerful) a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II. The emperor needed a strong army for his violent campaigns across the land but seemed to have a hard time getting soldiers to join in the fight. He believed that this hesitation was rooted in the soldiers' dedication to their wives and children over their duty to their emperor. In retaliation, Emperor Claudius II banned all any Romans from getting engaged or married.
The priest, Valentine, defied the emperor and kept marrying young Christian couples in secret. Once Emperor Claudius II found out about Valentine's defiance of the law and unwillingness to renounce his faith, the young priest was arrested and sentenced to death by being beaten with clubs. When this was unsuccessful in killing Valentine (I have no clue how THAT could be unsuccessful), he was then ordered to be beheaded. This happened on or around February 14th, 270 AD.
There are legends that exist which say that St. Valentine, while incarcerated, befriended the jailer's blind daughter and healed her blindness before being executed. It also says that on the day before his death, he left her a farewell note signed, "From Your Valentine."
Because Valentine risked his life to protect Christians and was willing to be martyred for his faith, he was honored by the Church by being made a saint posthumously (after his death).
No one REALLY knows exactly how the feast day became remembered as a day of love, but some historians think that the pagan festival of love and fertility, the Feast of Lupercalia, was celebrated around the same time of the year as St. Valentine's feast day, from February 13th through the 15th.
In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius decided to put an end to the Feast of Lupercalia, and he declared that February 14 be celebrated as St. Valentine's Day exclusively, almost 200 years after the martyr's death.
As the centuries passed by, the day became remembered more and more by the exchange of love messages, cards and gifts to celebrate love for one another. This probably resulted from remembering how St. Valentine cared for young couples in love and helped them marry in secret.
However it came about, the holiday has now evolved from a Catholic feast day to honor a brave martyr into a day to show a loved one how much you care for them through the exchange of gifts and love notes, much like the note in the legends that was given to the jailer's daughter before the saint's execution, signed: "From Your Valentine."
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Jesus is Better by Caleb & Sol
Altogether, it’s 13 letters, 3 words, and 1 complete sentence.
And I hope you never forget it.
In fact, I hope it haunts you.
I hope you always remember these 13 letters, these 3 words, and this one complete sentence.
Jesus is better.
You say…Better than what?
I say…Better than everything else.
He’s better than any passing dream you might be chasing after.
He’s better than any worldly ambition that may have captured your devotion.
He’s better than anything that could distract you from doing what you were created to do.
Jesus is better.
He’s better than a 6-figure salary.
He’s better than a 3-story home.
He’s better than a trophy wife, a job promotion, and a Caribbean cruise.
Jesus is better.
He’s better than a starting position on the football team.
He’s better than a lead role in the spring musical.
He’s better than a 4.0 GPA, a college scholarship, and a nomination to homecoming court.
Jesus is better.
He’s better than money, cars, clothes, sex, entertainment, achievement, and popularity.
He’s better than anything this world can offer you.
Jesus is better.
He’s better than any person that has ever walked this earth.
He’s wiser than Gandhi and smarter than Einstein.
He’s more holy than Mohammed and more spiritual than Buddha.
He’s more eloquent than Shakespeare and more creative than Mozart.
He’s more powerful than Napoleon and more compassionate than Mother Theresa.
Jesus is better.
The Bible says…
He’s better than Adam, better than Abraham, better than Moses, David, and Mary.
He’s better than the angels, better than the demons, and better than any prophet, priest, or saint.
Jesus is better!
And there will be times when it’s hard to believe: times when it doesn’t feel like Jesus is better.
The world will hate you. Your flesh will fight you. And the devil will lie to you.
Storms…will…come.
You’re gonna face disappointment, deception, betrayal, rejection, regret, sickness, and death.
You’re gonna feel tired, empty, broken-hearted, scared, and alone.
But don’t forget in the darkness what you learned in the light.
Jesus is better.
He’s the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
He is the Prince of Peace and the light of the world
He is the friend of sinners and the enemy of Satan.
He is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
He is the way and the truth and the life.
Jesus is better.
And if you really, truly believe it, it’s gonna cost you.
You’re gonna deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him.
You’re gonna help the poor, swallow your pride, and love your enemies.
You’re gonna read your Bible when you’d rather watch TV.
You’re gonna pray when you’d rather sleep.
You’re gonna serve when you’d rather be served.
You’re gonna speak up when you’d rather be silent.
But when it’s all said and done, you won’t regret it.
You’ll say, "It was worth it. Jesus is better."
"I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ…"Jesus is better.
So my hope for you isn’t that you’re safe, successful, and well-liked.
Sometimes those are the very things that get in the way of you learning the one thing you can’t afford to ignore; that Jesus is better.
So, if being unsafe, unsuccessful, and unliked is what it’s gonna take for you to see that Jesus is better, well then I’ll pray that your life is filled with danger, failure, and persecution.
Whatever it takes;I want you to know that Jesus…is…better.
13 letters, 3 words, 1 sentence, and no question about it.
Jesus…is better.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Journey to Canaan: The Struggle
Hey there!
My posts haven't been as frequent as I had initially hoped they would be but hey, I'm trying here.
So now that I have finished the 504 fast for 21 days I find that I am now experiencing that feeling of coming down from the mountaintop again.
You know that feeling, when you have had such an AMAZING unique experience with God and then, when it's all said and done, you have to leave and trek it all on your own out in the scary world called Reality.
I loved having the resources that were available to me during the fast like multiple chapel services throughout the week, a 24/7 prayer room at the church and that feeling of being "high" on God's Presence and the Holy Spirit. It was this support and the fact that the fast occurred during a time when I wasn't at school that helped me to be able to focus on God rather than the world. I wasn't constantly being distracted by the media and other worldly factors that tried to tear me away from God at every moment.
Now I am back at The College at Brockport, in classes for 5 hours a day, 3 days a week while also working as well on my off days (for the most part).
During the fast, I was able to be constantly surrounded by godly people who encouraged me and sowed seeds of knowledge and wisdom into me for 3 weeks. Now I'm kinda out there on my own to fend for myself it seems.
Of course I know that I am not REALLY alone but it does seem like that when I am not in constant fellowship with believers and reading my Bible all the time. It's like I am a radio on one setting that, if I don't constantly keep tuned on the right frequency, the song will fade out intil it's too hard to hear properly.
This past Sunday, I was at church and my pastor was speaking about Moses and how he led the Israelites out of Egypt after centuries of being kept in slavery. This message gave me a whole new perspective and outlook on my journey after 504. Pastor Pierre talked about the well-known 10 plagues that struck Egypt's population and how Pharaoh kept on reneging on his agreements to let the Israelites go after each plague was lifted, etc. If you know the story, you already know what happens. They were eventually allowed to go and left Egypt together out into the wilderness.
The parts Pastor Pierre focused on was the fact that when they became trapped between the Red Sea and an oncoming army of Egyptian soldiers, they actually had the gall to exclaim "Why did you bring us out here to die? At least in Egypt we had food in our stomachs and could have died with a full stomach instead of starving out here in the desert!" (or something to that effect; my paraphrasing isn't exactly the most accurate).
Even despite their complaining, God still saved them by parting the Red Sea so that they could cross over on the dry land. When the Egyptians tried to follow them once they had crossed, God returned the sea to its watery bed and drowned them all.
In the 40 or more years that followed, the Israelite people kept returning to this idea of regressing back into their old habits wanting to go back to Egypt. They thought that going back to a life of slavery and opression would be better than wandering in the desert as they journeyed towards the Promised Land! WHAT?!?
Now, I don't know about you, but from what I have heard of and read about slavery, it must have seemed PRETTY bad if they wanted to go back there again. They were unwilling to endure hardship and fight to finally arrive at what God had promised for His people.
Pastor Pierre then related this story to our lives today. The congregation of The Father's House has just ended this 21 day fast where people have been freed from various chains of bondage that came in many different forms: a bad relationship, an addiction, bad habits, negative thoughts, suicidal tendencies, etc. We were finally free!
He said however, that many people, even the day after the fast ended, probably went right back into their old ways, or at least wanted badly to do so. How is it that we can go back to such a bad place in our lives SO quickly? Just like the Israelites longed for Egypt as soon as they had left, we also long to return to our own "Egypt" once we have been freed.
A few points to remember in your own "Journey to Canaan":
1. Your focus will become your reality
*God will not contaminate your destination with where you came from. The Promised Land will be better beyond our imagining; it will be so much better that when we look at the old life, it will be a mere shadow compared to life in God's Presence.
*Do not desire where you came from but instead, set your mind on the place you come from, using it as motivation in your journey into a new life.
2. Do Not Forget
*We have a tendency to mask truth with desire. We justify our decisions rather than facing the truth of our own sin
*Don't put makeup on the monster! Unmask the sin in your life
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)
*Don't allow sin to crush your courage to stay out of Egypt
-If you slip up, don't let it get you down too much because there is redemption for our mistakes.
1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
3. Renewing of My Mind
*It may have taken a short time to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took around 45 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites.
*Change the way you think so that instead of focusing on the past, you can look forward to the future.
*Just like blood dialysis must be used frequently to keep purifying the blood for the kidneys on a person's body, our soul must also go through a spiritual "dialysis" by reading the Word of God and talking to God every day.
*Don't turn off your spiritual engine or else like a plane, you'll take a quick and dangerous nosedive.
1) Read your Bible
2) Talk to God every day. It doesn't have to be formal prayer, but just as if you were talking to Him face to face.
3) Surround yourself with people who refuse to go back. They can keep you accountable for your choices and actions (even when you wish they wouldn't)
*There is no such thing as "Christian-friendly" for your "Egypt"
-For example, if drinking is your "Egypt," don't even put yourself into a situation where it will be present to tempt you
Finally, Pastor Pierre addressed how Israel's oppressors were drowned and killed by the waters of the Red Sea after being delivered from Egypt.
In order to be saved from their enemy, they had to first choose to cross through the parted waters to the other side. If they had stayed on the shore, they would have died. If they had stopped halfway through, they would have perished along with the other Egyptian soldiers. They had to go all the way in order to be delivered. I imagine that they even had to leave things behind that would not go through the muck and mire with them that would bog them down on their way across to the other side. It would be hard to leave these things behind because they didn't know what was to become of them in the years ahead. What if they needed these things later on? How would they survive? However, they must have left them behind anyways because they were able to make it to the other side before the waters obliterated the enemy's army that had oppressed them for so long.
What is this miraculous, life-saving water to us in our own spiritual journey?
~Galatians 2:20 says: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
~Romans 6:3-4 "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
~Acts 2:38-39 "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call."
The next step after turning your life around and committing your life to Christ is to be baptized to publicly declare to other believers that you belong to God FOR GOOD. By being baptized, you also symbolically take the same place as Jesus in His resurrection by going under the water where your old life is left behind and you come up again a new person.
You don't have to have gone through a 21 day fast where your soul got an intense spiritual cleansing like I did. Even if you have simply made a decision to turn your life around to live right, you will ALWAYS be tempted to go back, every single day of your life.
I know that it will always be a struggle for me for the rest of my life but I want to be up for the task when it comes to that.
That's why this past Sunday I made the decision to finally be baptized in church this coming Sunday. I held it off for a long time and I feel that now is the time to make that final commitment. People say that when you accept Christ into your life, it's like that is only being engaged in the relationship. You aren't "married" to Christ until you formally declare your true and permanent commitment by being baptized. If that's true then I have been engaged to my faith for too long and I want to take the leap and finalize my "transformation" into who I am supposed to be in Christ. I want to have the boldness to change my world and not just stand back and watch others do my work for me. I'm sick of complaining and going back to old habits.
I want a fresh start. How about you?
My posts haven't been as frequent as I had initially hoped they would be but hey, I'm trying here.
So now that I have finished the 504 fast for 21 days I find that I am now experiencing that feeling of coming down from the mountaintop again.
You know that feeling, when you have had such an AMAZING unique experience with God and then, when it's all said and done, you have to leave and trek it all on your own out in the scary world called Reality.
I loved having the resources that were available to me during the fast like multiple chapel services throughout the week, a 24/7 prayer room at the church and that feeling of being "high" on God's Presence and the Holy Spirit. It was this support and the fact that the fast occurred during a time when I wasn't at school that helped me to be able to focus on God rather than the world. I wasn't constantly being distracted by the media and other worldly factors that tried to tear me away from God at every moment.
Now I am back at The College at Brockport, in classes for 5 hours a day, 3 days a week while also working as well on my off days (for the most part).
During the fast, I was able to be constantly surrounded by godly people who encouraged me and sowed seeds of knowledge and wisdom into me for 3 weeks. Now I'm kinda out there on my own to fend for myself it seems.
Of course I know that I am not REALLY alone but it does seem like that when I am not in constant fellowship with believers and reading my Bible all the time. It's like I am a radio on one setting that, if I don't constantly keep tuned on the right frequency, the song will fade out intil it's too hard to hear properly.
This past Sunday, I was at church and my pastor was speaking about Moses and how he led the Israelites out of Egypt after centuries of being kept in slavery. This message gave me a whole new perspective and outlook on my journey after 504. Pastor Pierre talked about the well-known 10 plagues that struck Egypt's population and how Pharaoh kept on reneging on his agreements to let the Israelites go after each plague was lifted, etc. If you know the story, you already know what happens. They were eventually allowed to go and left Egypt together out into the wilderness.
The parts Pastor Pierre focused on was the fact that when they became trapped between the Red Sea and an oncoming army of Egyptian soldiers, they actually had the gall to exclaim "Why did you bring us out here to die? At least in Egypt we had food in our stomachs and could have died with a full stomach instead of starving out here in the desert!" (or something to that effect; my paraphrasing isn't exactly the most accurate).
Even despite their complaining, God still saved them by parting the Red Sea so that they could cross over on the dry land. When the Egyptians tried to follow them once they had crossed, God returned the sea to its watery bed and drowned them all.
In the 40 or more years that followed, the Israelite people kept returning to this idea of regressing back into their old habits wanting to go back to Egypt. They thought that going back to a life of slavery and opression would be better than wandering in the desert as they journeyed towards the Promised Land! WHAT?!?
Now, I don't know about you, but from what I have heard of and read about slavery, it must have seemed PRETTY bad if they wanted to go back there again. They were unwilling to endure hardship and fight to finally arrive at what God had promised for His people.
Pastor Pierre then related this story to our lives today. The congregation of The Father's House has just ended this 21 day fast where people have been freed from various chains of bondage that came in many different forms: a bad relationship, an addiction, bad habits, negative thoughts, suicidal tendencies, etc. We were finally free!
He said however, that many people, even the day after the fast ended, probably went right back into their old ways, or at least wanted badly to do so. How is it that we can go back to such a bad place in our lives SO quickly? Just like the Israelites longed for Egypt as soon as they had left, we also long to return to our own "Egypt" once we have been freed.
A few points to remember in your own "Journey to Canaan":
1. Your focus will become your reality
*God will not contaminate your destination with where you came from. The Promised Land will be better beyond our imagining; it will be so much better that when we look at the old life, it will be a mere shadow compared to life in God's Presence.
*Do not desire where you came from but instead, set your mind on the place you come from, using it as motivation in your journey into a new life.
2. Do Not Forget
*We have a tendency to mask truth with desire. We justify our decisions rather than facing the truth of our own sin
*Don't put makeup on the monster! Unmask the sin in your life
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)
*Don't allow sin to crush your courage to stay out of Egypt
-If you slip up, don't let it get you down too much because there is redemption for our mistakes.
1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
3. Renewing of My Mind
*It may have taken a short time to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took around 45 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites.
*Change the way you think so that instead of focusing on the past, you can look forward to the future.
*Just like blood dialysis must be used frequently to keep purifying the blood for the kidneys on a person's body, our soul must also go through a spiritual "dialysis" by reading the Word of God and talking to God every day.
*Don't turn off your spiritual engine or else like a plane, you'll take a quick and dangerous nosedive.
1) Read your Bible
2) Talk to God every day. It doesn't have to be formal prayer, but just as if you were talking to Him face to face.
3) Surround yourself with people who refuse to go back. They can keep you accountable for your choices and actions (even when you wish they wouldn't)
*There is no such thing as "Christian-friendly" for your "Egypt"
-For example, if drinking is your "Egypt," don't even put yourself into a situation where it will be present to tempt you
Finally, Pastor Pierre addressed how Israel's oppressors were drowned and killed by the waters of the Red Sea after being delivered from Egypt.
In order to be saved from their enemy, they had to first choose to cross through the parted waters to the other side. If they had stayed on the shore, they would have died. If they had stopped halfway through, they would have perished along with the other Egyptian soldiers. They had to go all the way in order to be delivered. I imagine that they even had to leave things behind that would not go through the muck and mire with them that would bog them down on their way across to the other side. It would be hard to leave these things behind because they didn't know what was to become of them in the years ahead. What if they needed these things later on? How would they survive? However, they must have left them behind anyways because they were able to make it to the other side before the waters obliterated the enemy's army that had oppressed them for so long.
What is this miraculous, life-saving water to us in our own spiritual journey?
~Galatians 2:20 says: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
~Romans 6:3-4 "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
~Acts 2:38-39 "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call."
The next step after turning your life around and committing your life to Christ is to be baptized to publicly declare to other believers that you belong to God FOR GOOD. By being baptized, you also symbolically take the same place as Jesus in His resurrection by going under the water where your old life is left behind and you come up again a new person.
You don't have to have gone through a 21 day fast where your soul got an intense spiritual cleansing like I did. Even if you have simply made a decision to turn your life around to live right, you will ALWAYS be tempted to go back, every single day of your life.
I know that it will always be a struggle for me for the rest of my life but I want to be up for the task when it comes to that.
That's why this past Sunday I made the decision to finally be baptized in church this coming Sunday. I held it off for a long time and I feel that now is the time to make that final commitment. People say that when you accept Christ into your life, it's like that is only being engaged in the relationship. You aren't "married" to Christ until you formally declare your true and permanent commitment by being baptized. If that's true then I have been engaged to my faith for too long and I want to take the leap and finalize my "transformation" into who I am supposed to be in Christ. I want to have the boldness to change my world and not just stand back and watch others do my work for me. I'm sick of complaining and going back to old habits.
I want a fresh start. How about you?
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