HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Today is a day for lovers. All over the world today, thousands....maybe MILLIONS of women will be lavished with roses, chocolate, perfume, teddy bears, diamonds and more....all in the name of LOVE.

Maybe you are one of the lucky women who will be acknowledged and pampered and treated with one of the above. Or maybe you are alone and for you Valentine's Day is a day that makes you feel more alone than ever...more unloved, more unwanted, more undesirable than any other day of the year.

Maybe you are a widow and you remember your husband today and all the Valentines you shared together, and you miss him terribly today. Today makes you sad.

So here's a thought today for ALL of us...men and women, attached and unattached, expecting a Valentine or expecting nothing. Today is ultimately about L-O-V-E. And Love is about giving. Think back to our Love chapter, I Corinthians 13: 4-8:

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.

Love doesn't strut,

Doesn't have a swelled head,

Doesn't force itself on others,

Isn't always "me first,"

Doesn't fly off the handle,

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn't revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

(The Message)

If we read this and remember, IT'S NOT ABOUT ME....Let me say that again....IT'S NOT ABOUT ME (OR YOU!!), it's about glorifying God with all that we are and all that we have, we can ultimately make this the best Valentines Day ever!

How? By reaching out to someone else today. Reach out to someone who may not normally receive a Valentine. Maybe you have an elderly neighbor who lives alone. Maybe you know of a young woman who is not in a relationship and will probably spend today alone. Maybe it's the girl in the checkout line at Walmart who will check out every guy's last minute Valentine purchase today, standing 8-10 hours on her feet, making minimum wage to put food on the table for her kids, with no thought of a Valentine from her husband....maybe while you are picking up a bouquet for YOUR sweetheart....you could pick up one for her and just give it to her after she checks you out....or leave it anonymously at the Service Desk and ask them to give it to her. Maybe you could do something nice for your parents or your grandparents today or an aunt or uncle. Maybe you could take a bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolates to the local nursing home and ask the manager to just give them anonymously to someone who never has a visitor or gets a gift...they will know.

Ask God to direct you today. Ask Him who YOU can be a blessing to today! I guarantee you He will show you and this will be the BEST Valentine's Day you will ever have!!!!!!!!!

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Want to see a picture of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE? Turn to I Corinthians 13: 4-8

4Love endures long and is patient and kind;

love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy,

is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

5It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride);

it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly.

Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking;

it is not touchy or fretful or resentful;

it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

6It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

7Love bears up under anything and everything that comes,

is ever ready to believe the best of every person,

its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances,

and it endures everything [without weakening].

8Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].

--Amplified Bible

Do you love like that?

Have you ever been loved like that by another person?

Would you like to be?

If you are like me, your answer would be : No, No, and ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!

Well....the bad news is that I don't think there has ever been anyone who loved like that completely aside from Jesus. But, the good news is that HE Does love us just like that.

So, here's the thing. We are not to get our expectations for love met through other people because they are incapable at their best of loving like Jesus. We are to take our expectations to Him, allow Him to love us just like that and have our expectations met in Him. Then, we will be free to love others with abandon because we will not be looking to them to meet our needs. Psalm 62: 5 says "My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him."

You see what hangs us up 99% of the time in our relationships is that we are expecting something from the other person in return. Oh we say we don't. But if we are honest, we really do. And, when they fail to meet those expectations, we tend to withhold our love from them.

Maybe not altogether...but to a degree. And, over time, the more expectations that person fails to meet, our love for them begins to erode. We begin to keep a checklist and the less they measure up, the more we withhold.

Who is REALLY the focus of that relationship? Me, myself and I!! And that, my Friend, is the problem.

Jesus Himself said He came to serve. He is our role model. Can we do any less? The passage above is a description of how JESUS loves. Can we do any less?

This week I challenge you to give your expectations...whatever they may be...to the Lord. Take your husband, your wife, your children, your best friend, your pastor, etc. off the hook. Instead, look at how you can serve that person in your life this week, how you can live out I Corinthians 13 to them this week.

It won't be easy and I assure you that Satan will thwart you at every turn, but I have a feeling that IF you will take this challenge, you will discover your relationship with this person changing before the end of the week. I'd love to hear your results. (Use the comment button below).

A GIFT FOR ALL SEASONS

He is a forgotten man.

His role in history was significant, yet little is known about him and little is made of him. He is almost like an "extra" in a cast of famous characters. There are no religions built around him as was the case with his wife. He was never cannonized, or made a "saint".

He was of royal lineage, being a descendent of King David, yet he was a poor man by Bethlehem standards, as he only had 2 turtledoves to offer at the time of sacrifice...the lowest of offerings accepted.

When time came for he and his wife to go to Bethlehem to pay their taxes, he could not afford a suite at the Bethlehem Hilton. Instead, he was grateful for a warm dry stable for them to spend the night in as she was expecting her first child and the time of delivery was imminent.

No, he was not royalty. He was a simple carpenter. His name was Joseph.

In the CHRISTmas story, Mary gets all the notice....and all well deserved. But what about Joseph? Joseph's role was certainly significant too. After all, he was just as chosen to be Jesus's earthly father as Mary was to be his mother. No....an angel did not appear to him and call him out, nonetheless, he was handpicked by God for this extremely important role.

Joseph would be the one the little boy would look up to, the one He would follow around the carpenter shop, trying to hammer nails into scraps of wood. He would be the one Jesus would call "Abba". He would take him to the synagogue where the scriptures would be read and he would teach him about His Heavenly Father.

Joseph was obedient to His Father. When the angels appeared to him in a dream, telling him it was ok to take Mary for his wife, he obeyed. Most of us gloss over that when reading the CHRISTmas story. However, we do not realize what it must have cost Joseph to do that.

His wife-to-be was pregnant and she was not yet officially married. By Hebrew law, she could be stoned. Joseph wielded the power to have her stoned or to give her a bill of divorcement. His nature is revealed when scripture tells us that "he had a mind to put her away privately". But, after the angel appeared to him, he was to take her as his wife...."marry her but not know her intimately until she gave birth" (Matt. 1: 24, 25) Can you imagine what the townspeople must have said? Can you imagine the ridicule he must have endured to take this tainted woman as his bride? For surely no one believed her incredible story that she was with child by the Holy Spirit!!! Would YOU have believed her?!

I think Joseph really loved Mary. It could have been a pre-arranged marriage...the Bible does not really provide us with those details. But for him to have wanted to "put her away privately" tells me that Joseph was kind and that although he must have been terribly hurt by the news that she was pregnant, he did not want to harm her in any way...and that was BEFORE the angel appeared to him. His heart was tender toward her. He thought more of her than he did himself.
His love "suffered long and was kind." It was not selfish, nor easily provoked, not conceited or boastful. It bore a lot. It rejoiced in the real truth. He loved her with God's love. (I Cor. 13)

Joseph was the one who delivered Mary's baby...the very Son of God. He heard His first cry. He held him first. He provided for Him. He protected Him, again listening and obeying as the angel warned him in a dream to flee Herod.

Yes, Joseph is forgotten by many.....but NOT by God. God used Joseph in the life of Jesus in many different ways. But he was not there by accident. God chose Joseph to be Jesus's earthly father.

God also chose you and me to play the roles He has assigned to us. I am not my husband's wife by accident. God chose us for each other. I am not mother to my son and daughter by accident...God chose me to be their mother. I have a role to play in their lives and the most important thing I can do is to listen to my Heavenly Father, so that I, like Joseph, might be obedient in fulfilling the destiny He had for me from the foundation of the world. I might be insignificant on planet earth, but to God I have a purpose that only I can fulfill. However, I cannot fulfill it with out Him.

What is the role God has called YOU to? Are you trusting Him today to help you live out His plans for you, or are you fighting Him all the way? How different would the CHRISTmas story be today had Joseph refused to obey God? What if he had said he wanted no part of Mary? What would he have missed? It was not an easy role for him. He undoubtedly suffered much ridicule and hardship because of it. Yet he got to be a part of bringing the Son of God into the world, to hold Him in his arms, to cuddle Him close, to sing to Him, to teach Him to talk and how to hold a hammer and how to make a table. He walked with Him on a daily basis. Look at the blessings he would have missed had he said 'No' to God. What blessings will you miss if you say 'NO'?