Tag Archives: valentines day 2015

Lou Coleman

By Lou Coleman

“I found Him whom my soul loveth: I held Him, and would not let Him go” {Song of Solomon 3}…  I want you to know that “My Beloved is mine, and I am His…” A love I never dreamed possible… Oh Lord, my heart belongs to you alone! Take me now and let me be the bride who will bring you great joy. Cause me each day of my life to walk so closely to you that I will experience your intimacy which will begin to change me into your blessed image forever.…. Oh when I contemplate the rich love of Jesus I am drawn to Him like iron to the magnet… I tell you, to be loved by Jesus is literally an indescribable thing.  God demonstrating His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I don’t know about you but this text ministers powerfully to my heart. If you want a visible definition of love, look at what God did for you in Christ…  If you really want to understand love, don’t listen to love songs, or people who throw the term love around… If you want to get to the depths of what it means to love and be loved, look to the cross of Christ. The cross is the ultimate expression of God’s incomprehensible love to us… For the cross is God’s way of saying, “I love you this much,” with His arms outstretched. His final words etched on a Roman cross. They are blood red. They scream to be heard… I tell you I have been captured by love…  A love that knows no limits, no bounds, and no end… Jesus… My Sweet Valentine!

You know there have been many definitions of love. There have been many people who have written books about love. There are songs about love. There are poems about love. There are discussions about love. But when you’ve said it all and you’ve read it all and you’ve sung it all, you just might wonder “What Love Got to Do with It,” because the things they talk about, sing about and write about really aren’t about love at all, but rather about affection, longing, goose-bumps types of emotional thrills. The love they talk about runs hot, it runs cold, and it runs lukewarm. It brings tears of joy, tears of depression, and screams of excitement and hollers of disappointment. The Bible however, addresses a “Greater Love” that uses an entirely different term than “philo.” That term is “Agape.” The difference, Agape is a love characterized by commitment.  If you believe in Jesus Christ, don’t think of His love for you merely in terms of the love He has for the world. Think of the love that takes captive and cleaves and unites and cherishes and defends. Think of a marriage covenant between you and God in which He has sworn by His Holiness to love you with a saving, cleansing, and glorifying love. Remember His Words in Psalm 89:34 that says, “I will not violate My covenant, or alter the word that went forth from My lips.” This is what we long for, and this is what we have by faith, an experience of being loved with a love that lasts, that is not fickle, or uncertain, or capricious, but durable, constant, and stable. Not, only, a love that is extensive, but that lasts over time, all time, but also a love that is intensive. We long to be loved radically, deeply, excessively, passionately. I tell you, My Beloved is mine and I am His! Oh may God give us the power to comprehend what is the height and depth and length and breadth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that we might be filled with all the fullness of Him.

If you would allow me to make this very personal, love being the high point of everything, the fulfilling of the whole law and the number one ingredient in life {Romans chapter 13}.  I want you to know that God knew every flaw and weakness I would have and every mistake I would make when He called me into relationship with Himself. Nothing about me surprises Him. God knows and has always known everything about me. He knows what I will think, do and say every day for the rest of my life. He also knows how He will help me, teach me, correct me, encourage me, and give me grace for all my faults and failures. He is always for me and never against me, no matter what I do. God loves unconditionally, and that means He accepts us the way we are and then helps us to be all we can be. When you have someone who loves holding you, it doesn’t matter anymore what everyone else does or what the circumstances are or what the future holds. When you are in the arms of a loving God, when you have been consumed with His love, you share in His benefits. God’s love is beyond comprehension. Amazing, isn’t it? God knows us and still loves us. God knows that we are sinners, yet He forgives; we are diseased, yet He heals; we are in a pit, yet He pulls us out; we are ungrateful for His good gifts, yet He gives them anyway; and we deserve justice, yet He grants mercy. When God says I love you, He is saying that you matter to Him. You are a person of worth. You are valuable to Him. Regardless of what others think, in His eyes you are wonderful! God’s love touches every part of our life. Nothing – no calling or circumstance, no adversity or advancement, no pain or promotion, no status or station – escapes the brush strokes of God’s love. God’s love bleeds into every fabric and fiber of our lives. God has loved us with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness He has drawn us. Indeed, we belong to Divine Love, and only God’s love is unfailing and always fully satisfying. In these last days, there has never been a time when we so desperately need to spend significant daily time contemplating the life of Jesus. “No greater love than this that a man would lay down his life for his friends” {John 15:13}. Oh, how He loves you and me! My Sweet Valentine! To the only wise God my Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen!

ROSEMEAD, CA — There are at least 656 reasons balloons should not be released outdoors. If the adrift metallic balloons that caused the 656 power outages last year in Southern California Edison’s (SCE) service territory had been tied to a weight — as required by California law — or not released by someone, that number and the safety hazards it presents could have been drastically lower.

With Valentine’s Day approaching and balloons traditionally leading to an increase in those outages in February, SCE is urging its customers to make sure their balloons are always tied to those weights. This will help prevent the helium-filled objects from floating into power lines and causing power outages and potential injuries and property damage.

Last February, SCE experienced 30 balloon-related outages, down nearly 50 percent from the 59 in February 2013. But, last year’s 656 overall outages were down only 5 percent from the 689 in 2013. This led to 2,965 hours of interruption to customers compared to 2,455 hours in 2013.

“They’re easy to prevent, but it only takes one floating balloon on Valentine’s Day or any day to cause an outage for thousands,” said James Mackenzie, SCE principal manager of Corporate Safety Programs. “Keep them indoors if possible. But, tying them down or attaching them to a weight is the best prevention outdoors.”

SCE recommends some other safety tips for handling metallic balloons:

• Do not attempt to retrieve a balloon — or any foreign object — tangled in power lines. Instead, call SCE at 800-611-1911 and report the problem. • Never tie a metallic balloon to a child’s wrist. If the balloon comes into contact with electricity, it will travel through the balloon and into the child, causing serious injury or even death.
• Never attach streamers to any balloon — latex or metallic.
• If you see a downed line or dangling wire — even if it appears not to be live — don’t touch or approach it or anything in contact with it and call 911 immediately.
• When done with balloons, do not release them. Puncture them several times or cut the knot and throw them in the garbage to prevent them from floating away.

More on metallic balloon safety can be found at on.sce.com/staysafe. Follow Edision on Twitter and Facebook.

About Southern California Edison

An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.