Your Valentine Loves You

According to the ancient legends, Valentine was a young Christian priest who lived in ancient Rome. His was an age when young Roman men were not overly eager to leave home and hearth to fight in the emperor's unpopular and seemingly unceasing wars.

According to the story, the emperor placed a ban on marriage for all of Rome's young men, for men without a love connection to wife and family would more readily march away to distant lands. Valentine felt sorry for the unhappy Christian men and their sweethearts, so he secretly performed a large number of Christian marriages. Eventually his compassion placed him in prison.

Outside Valentine's cell window was a cluster of violets. Valentine picked some of the heart-shaped leaves and painstakingly spelled "Remember, your Valentine loves you." Then he would drop those leaves carrying the reflected message of Jesus' love to the streets below.

Eventually, Valentine was put to death because of his faith in the Savior. Valentine died knowing that in the Bethlehem manger, God, in the person of His Son, our Savior, had sent humanity, and him, a message saying, "I love you." On the cross of Calvary as His Son carried our sins, God sent a message which said, "I love you." In the open and empty tomb, the Lord gives us the promise that His love cannot be confined to our days on earth, but continues on from this world even into heaven.

Sadly, still today there are many who, in spite of the Savior's life of sacrifice, feel unloved, unappreciated, uncared for, lost, or lonely. If you are among those who believe you are forlorn and friendless, know that God's gracious love is there for all who have faith in Jesus.

With Jesus as your ever-living Savior, you are given a wonderful, lasting friend who will never forget you. And if you are already part of Jesus' family of faith, hold fast to Him, who is proof of God's love. Believe that no matter how others may treat you, in Jesus you have God's unending, all-encompassing love.

Your Valentine loves you!

By Pastor Timothy Satryan.

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 11.06. Live for God, on purpose, remembering on Valentine's Day, God IS Love!

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Some Fun With Hymns

Dentist's Hymn............................Crown Him with Many Crowns
Weatherman's Hymn.....................There Shall Be Showers of Blessings
Contractor's Hymn........................The Church's One Foundation
The Tailor's Hymn.........................Holy, Holy, Holy
The Golfer's Hymn........................There's a Green Hill Far Away
The Politician's Hymn..................Standing on the Promises
Optometrist's Hymn......................Open My Eyes That I Might See
The IRS Agent's Hymn.................I Surrender All
The Gossip's Hymn......................Pass It On
The Electrician's Hymn................Send The Light
The Shopper's Hymn....................Sweet Bye and Bye
The Realtor's Hymn......................I've Got a Mansion, Just Over the Hilltop
The Massage Therapists Hymn....He Touched Me
The Doctor's Hymn......................The Great Physician

AND for those who speed on the highway - a few hymns:
45mph....................God Will Take Care of You
65mph....................Nearer My God To Thee
85mph....................This World Is Not My Home
95mph....................Lord, I'm Coming Home
100mph..................Precious Memories

Give me a sense of humor, Lord,
Give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some humor out of life,
And pass it on to other folk.

Window Through Which We Look

Window Through
Which We Look

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman watched her neighbor hanging wash outside. "That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband,

"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this."

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others may depend on the purity of the window through which we look.