LOVE FOR SALE PART 2

Love for sale! It’s amazing when you take a look at the facts about sales of some particular items at valentine. The volume of sales of these items have been known to hit record high synonymous with valentine season i.e. between 12 – 14 February every calendar year. It must indeed be, love for sale, or what do you think? How beautiful love is if shown and shared rightly. Did God (love personified 1 Jh. 4:8), make a commerce or merchandize of Jesus when he sent him, out of love to us (Jh. 3:16)? How much chocolate, roses or dinners would you have paid to God to buy his love? A lot goes into the celebration of love on Valentine’s Day beloved (recall the origin in our opening). If we are the light of the world, then we must (like the original valentines), be torch bearers, direction-givers to the world on how to celebrate love. The bible says we should not be conformed to the practices of this world; we should come out from amongst them and be different, separate and unique.
Love in itself is such a deep and wide issue that does not bother only on relationships but we talk about love for our nation for instance, for humanity, which propels us to do the extraordinary in order to make a difference, like bishop valentine who defied the king’s unrighteous decree against young marriageable men. This valentine, we encourage you take a deeps, look into the meaning of love in all it’s ramification and truly make an Endeavour to love not just in worlds but in deeds, not just on February 14th , but for the 365 calendar days. Keep this atmosphere alive in your life in every way. The love we know to share or show, whether with our spouse (or spouse-to-be), neighbor, family members, friends, has no commercial undertone to it. This love is selfless, sacrificial, unconditional, unlimited (i.e. not limited to February 14), boundless (i.e. not only to a lover, spouse or known person).
We would make a difference to the world every February 14th if we spread and share love to the destitute the poor, hungry, widowed, hospitalized, incarcerated, orphans, disable, aged, etc. February 14th can just be a day we die to self for others. We may choose instead (on personal levels) a day, season or times when we show love to our spouses without any form of merchandizing. This is one way we can choose not to conform to the patterns of this world. God truly wants us to live as light in the world (Isa. 60:2-3).
VAL JOKE:
I will die 4 you in the spirit of valentine, a Nigeria man expressing love to his wife: “I love you; you are my heart beat, soul & body. What will I have been without you? In fact, I will die for you” the wife responded: “God forbid! You will not die o! Who will take care of the kids?” somewhere in US, another man was also appreciating his wife on vals day, using the same words, “I love…….. I will die for you”. His American wife’s response was, “How soon? Because properties will change hands”
Emperor or Oba 1 0805-633-1127.
Did You Know That…..? For there is nothing…….. Hid, that shall not be know (Mt. 10:26)
Approximately one billion valentine cards are exchange each year…. The largest seasonal card-selling occasion of the year next to Christmas. Are you a part of this one billion?
Engrave in your heart….. Write them upon the table of thine heart (prov.3:3)
Love is not blind – it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.
When I think about Valentine's Day, a day when people give special love gifts to one another, I think most of all about God's great gift to us in the form of His son, Jesus. Then I think of how all the love that we feel for others on Valentine’s Day and every day of the year is possible because of His love. There’s no time for Him that isn’t a time to give. I want to follow His example as much as I can.
I found a poem that was very meaningful to me and expresses some of the gifts we receive from our great Valentine every day of the year. When our love cups are overflowing with His gifts, it makes us want to share that love with others so they can experience it too.
Here’s the poem:
He doesn’t bring me roses,
For He is my Rose of Sharon.
Nor does He leave flowers at my door,
For He grows them in my garden.
He doesn’t kiss my lips,
For He caresses my entire being with the touch of warm sunshine and softly falling rain.
He doesn’t give me sparkling diamonds to wear,
For He set the sparkling stars in the night sky and made them mine.
He doesn’t whisper in my ear,
For His still, small voice fills my spirit and is ever with me.
He isn’t a Valentine who has pledged lifelong love,
For He is eternal love.
He isn’t limited to only sending gifts or making sweet promises,
For He Himself is the ultimate gift and fulfillment of promise.
He won’t fill my life by standing at the wedding altar with me.
For He placed Himself on the altar, that I may know life, that I may know Him,
That I may love Him forever.
Jesus I love you.
Gbengademujimi (PastorGee)
Life Coach/National Reformer

LOVE FOR SALE PART 1

Valentine: Love for Sale!
The Story of St. Valentine
The Roman Emperor Claudius II was fighting many wars. He wanted a strong army, but any men did not want to be soldiers. Claudius thought the men wanted to stay home to be with their wives and children instead of leaving to fight wars.
Claudius thought of an awful solution to his problem. He decided to cancel all marriages! No one in all of Rome could get married. Claudius thought that if the men couldn’t get married, the men would ignore the women and want to be soldiers.
Valentine, who was a priest, believed that people needed to get married. He thought that if they were not married, they would be tempted to sin by living together without being married. So he secretly and illegally married couples anyway! He performed the weddings in secret places, so the Roman soldiers would not find out.
But they did find out. Valentine was arrested and brought before the Emperor. The Emperor thought Valentine was a well spoken and wise young man, and encouraged him to stop being a Christian and become a loyal Roman. Valentine would not deny his beliefs, and he refused. He was sent to prison until he could be executed. While he was in prison, he sent out letters to his friends and asked to be prayed for by writing Remember
your Valentine.
Valentine was killed on the 14th hence the celebration of Valentine’s Day in honour of St. Valentine
Today as many celebrate love or intensify their search for it, experts are encouraging the exercise of caution in light of Valentine’s Day rape statistics.
Numbers show the evening of Feb. 14 to be a “boom season” for sexual predators, reports the Chinatimes Express.
Turns out the biggest threat is not from strangers.
In Taiwan, date rape accounts for 65 percent of all reported female sexual assault cases. Of those, a full 40 percent of victims say they were assaulted by their boyfriend.
While most victims are below the age of 18, Taipei’s oldest victim this year was an 81-year-old woman.
According to a research report, Taiwan has 3,000 reported sexual assault cases each year. But since victims often do not report the crime, researchers estimate an actual number of about 15,000 cases per year, many of them being date rape.
In the past 10 years, the age of victims has ranged for the most part between 18 and 29.
Of the 203 reported cases in Taipei last year, 36.5 percent allegedly occurred in the home of the perpetrator. Next were hotels and motels.
The development of Internet has also brought a new dynamic to dating — and consequently to date rape. The rate of sexual crime resulting from Internet encounters is on the rise.
An analysis of the relationship between rape victims and their alleged perpetrators showed that most commonly, the parties were initially friends, classmates, or even boyfriend and girlfriend, but had known each other for less than six months.
The study lists hatred, anger and sexual desire as rapists’ key motivating factors.
Alcohol consumption may also play a role, as 50 percent of sexual assault perpetrators had been drinking. Thirty percent of victims say they were also imbibing.
Eighty-five percent of Taiwan’s rape cases do not involve a weapon. Instead, perpetrators used persuasion, threats, physical force, or drugs.
For their part, as many as 90 percent of victims tolerate the assault and do not dare report it to authorities. The top reason for this is a perceived lack of physical evidence.
That leaves only 10 percent of victims who go to the hospital, where authorities can collect forensic evidence as soon after the assault as possible.
To prevent the crime and raise awareness of its risks, the Modern Women’s Federation last year distributed a free booklet with safety tips to girls under 18.
Federation President Chang Jing-li told the Chinatimes Express that typical rape victims are young, single and have three low points that enable victimization: low level of education, low rate of resistance and low rate of reporting the crime.

DANGERS ON VALENTINE'S DAY
1. In 2011, Iran banned Valentine cards, gifts, teddy bears, and other Valentine tokens as part of an Islamic republic backlash against the spread of Western culture. Additionally, some religious activists in India and Pakistan protest Valentine’s Day as a day of shame of lust. They view it as a Western holiday in which Westerners satisfy their “sex thirst.”
2. Red hearts are a ubiquitous Valentine symbol. Red is traditionally associated with the color of blood. At one time, people thought that the heart, which pumps blood, was the part of the body that felt love. In fact, when the Egyptians mummified their dead for burial, they removed every organ but the heart because they believed the heart was the only part of the body necessary for the trip through eternity.j
3. The condom company Durex reports that condom sales are 20-30% higher around Valentine’s Day.b
4. Approximately one billion Valentine cards are sent each year around the world. An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent during the Christmas holidays.l
5. On Valentine’s Day 2010, 39,897 people in Mexico City broke the record for the world’s largest group kiss.m
6. On Valentine’s Day, many people buy flowers. Different colored roses have different meanings. Red means love, yellow means friendship, and pink means friendship or sweetheart. Red carnations mean admiration, white carnations mean pure love, red chrysanthemums mean love, forget-me-nots mean true love, primrose means young love, and larkspur means an open heart.l
7. In 2010, 25% of adults bought flowers or plants as a Valentine’s gift. Of these, 60% were men and 40% were women. Men mainly bought flowers for romantic reasons, while women bought flowers for their mothers and friends as well as their sweethearts.n
8. Each year 300,000 letters go through Loveland, Colorado, to get a special heart stamp cancellation for Valentine’s Day which causes heart attack.
9. A common symbol of Valentine’s Day is Cupid (“desire”),
the Roman god of love. The son of Venus and Mars, he was originally depicted as a young man who would sharpen his arrows on a grindstone whetted with blood from an infant, though now he is commonly presented as a pudgy baby. This transformation occurred during the Victorian era when business owners wanted to promote Valentine’s Day as more suitable for women and children
10. Over 100 years ago, the Chicago post office refused to deliver about 25,000 Valentine postcards because their messages were not nice. The caustic cards were called “vinegar Valentines.” ...SOUR VALENTINE.

• California produces 60% of American roses, but the vast majority sold on valentine’s day in the Unity States are imported…….. Mostly from South American.
• Approximately 110 million roses…….. The majority of them being red….. will be sold and delivered within a three day time period during the valentine’s day celebrations.
• 36% of males and 28% of females put off their valentine’s day shopping until February 14 or the day before……… 64% of consumers will plan to do their shopping a week or more prior to the date.
• Males tend to spend more money on valentine’s day gifts than do females and are more likely to buy big-ticket items………
• Approximately 3% of pet owners will give a Valentine’s Day gift to their pet.
• Alexander Graham Bell applied for his patent on the telephone on Valentine’s Day in 1876.
• The chief colors associated with Valentine’s Day are pink, red and white. Pink is a delicate, almost innocent shade of red and is also connected with saint valentine, whose burial was said to have caused the pink almond tree to blossom. Red is a symbol of warmth and feeling…… the color of the heart, while white represents purity and faith…… a faith between two who love each other.

gbengademujimi(Pastor Gee)
Life Coach/National Reformer