By Dr. Bill Lewis
February is a month filled with festivities with a holiday designated for almost every day of the month. For instance, you certainly are making plans to celebrate Toothache Day on February 9^th. Or perhaps you are planning a great celebration for National Gum Drop Day on February 15^th. Somehow those two celebrations seem related. My personal two favorite holidays in February are Do a Grouch a Favor Day on the 16^th and Public Sleeping Day on the 28^th. Surely you haven’t forgotten these great days of celebration. Although the days mentioned have been designated as holidays by someone in some place, the February holidays you are most familiar with are Groundhog Day on the 2^nd, President’s Day on the 20^th, and Valentines Day on the 14^th. Of these three, Valentines Day is the most profitable for the business world. Valentines Day generates untold millions of dollars through sales of cards, candies, and flowers with its emphasis on love and romance. The only other holiday that rivals Valentines Day on the sales of cards, candies, and flowers is National Get Out of the Dog House Day which is actually not a holiday at all but is celebrated throughout the year by many men. The emphasis on Valentines Day is love and romance; however, the holiday comes up short on the subject. The love promoted on Valentines Day is a shallow, almost meaningless emotion. The Bible, not the brief jingle in a Valentines card, is the true authority on deep, abiding love. A search of the New Testament in the New King James Version for the word love returns some 236 verses dealing with the subject. Some of these verses you think of immediately when the word love is mentioned. John 3:16 is certainly one that is embedded in the heart and mind of every believer. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (NKJV). For me, John 15:12-13 also comes to mind. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends (NKJV). Another set of verses that illustrates God’s great love for us is found in Romans 5 where it says scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (verses 7-8, NKJV). While we were sinners, God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us. Valentines are given to friends and family, but God loves us even when we are His enemy. That is truly an amazing love. In a world filled with hate and violence such an amazing love is the great need. God’s amazing love is the believer’s message to the world. Pray for us at Open Door Fellowship that we would remember His great love for us, that we would become excited about His great love, and that we would be eager to share His great love with others.