The LoveLetter - February 14, 2008
Vol. VI. No. 2
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Dear Friends of the God Is Love Ministries (GIL Publications):
Well, since this is a love letter and today is Valentine’s Day, we would like to wish all of you a Happy Valentine’s Day!
Now, of course as an educated Christian you probably know that Valentine’s Day has come to represent many things over the centuries. The tradition of giving cards and gifts is relatively new (400 hundred years or so) beginning in the 17th century.
Who was Valentine? A quick search on the internet reveals that there may have been as many as seven different men well known by that name in the early days of the church. Some resources say there were only three: a priest in Rome, a bishop in Terni and a third in Africa. All three were supposedly martyred on February 14th.
As legend would have it, one of them married couples when it was forbidden by the Roman Emperor Claudius II in the third century AD and another was killed while helping Christian prisoners escape the harsh conditions in Roman prisons.
The act of giving love letters allegedly began when Valentine was in prison. He wrote love letters to the jailer’s daughter. Well over one thousands years later it became a festive ritual.
The story of Valentine is only one of the many stories that came out of the early church. His story, whichever version is accurate, demonstrates that the early church was under attack yet through the grace of God it survived.
The history of the early church is a very exciting story that goes beyond what we read today in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts) in the Bible. We could only benefit from knowing how the early church survived the first few hundred years.
We could learn a lot about our faith if we knew why and how the church split over fifteen-hundred years later in the time of John Calvin and how those seeds were sown much earlier.
For instance, how the body of writings that we accept as the Word of God came to be the Bible is one of the most important historical stories, yet many Christians do not know it.
We encourage you today to read up on the holidays that we mindlessly celebrate. Know what the origin is and what it represents. How is it related to your faith?
New Publishing Service for Christian Authors
We are encouraging Christian Authors to write what God has impressed on your hearts. As we celebrate our fifth anniversary in Christian publishing we have begun a new service for Christian author through our new website, PublishChristianBooks.com.
Find out about our huge sale that runs until the end of this month. See how you can get your book printed and into the hands of Christian readers.
Newsletters
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The second newsletter to be updated is this newsletter, The Love Letter. To continue receiving this newsletter – or to start receiving it - please confirm at this website: Register for the The Love Letter.
The third newsletter currently being updated is the all new PublishChrist. This is a monthly newsletter to help Christian authors write, publish and sell their Christian books. To register to receive PublishChrist just go to: Register for PublishChrist.
God’s Love To You,
Akili & Daisy Kumasi
GIL Publications
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