"Won't you Be My Valentine?"

takes on deeper meaning

when one looks into the person for whom this day is named

Valentine was a man of long ago who shared his faith in Jesus Christ at a time

when it was illegal to publicly profess such faith.

And as a result, he was executed on February 14th.

His message was expressing a belief in Jesus,

and the love of God seen in Jesus Christ

He understood he was loved by God through Jesus Christ.

We share our love for one another if we are truly

in the spirit of St. Valentine because God loves us first

and we understand enough to be gripped

by that truth and respond to it, embracing a faith

in which God sent Jesus

We can learn of this love in His book, the Bible.

Its a journey into all kinds of possibilities.

If we want to know where God does His best

work in transforming our lives,

look no further than taking in the words of His book

but do so with open eyes and heart

The Words in His book are truly the Words of life.

Eternal Words.

Man's words are not eternal, they will pass, as will our candy,

cards, and flowers, which are expressions of our love.

And yet there is much more to this day for expressing our love.

God loves us - we often stop there.

But He loves us too much to allow usto stay the way we are.

He plans to grow us up to the image of His Son Jesus Christ

so we can be His image on earth to love Him, and to fellow man.

it is a process that begins on earth and is completed when we

meet Jesus face to face in heaven or upon His return to earth.

There is plenty of growth and change yet to come in our lives.

We will not become mature on our own;

but as we mature we can begin to see God in the world

and see that as an invitation to join Him in His work

Worship is focused upon God

and includes being engaged in the lives of other believers

to wrestle with God and what He calls us to in scripture

We are able to love because He first loved us -

we come to love the God and the overflow of that love will be seen

in our love for fellow man:

those who believe, those who have yet to believe,

and those who will refuse to believe.

That my friend, is what St. Valentine represented.

So shower God's love upon those you love,

and upon those who need love.

Truth For Life

One of them, a lawyer, asked Him (Jesus) a question, testing Him,

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"

And He said to him,

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'

"This is the greatest and foremost commandment.

"The second is like it,

'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

"On these two commandments depend

the whole Law and the Prophets."

Matthew 22:35-40