Valentines Special

This is Darren Kuhn with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day-to-day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it. Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw.

Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolob. Now, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up.

Welcome back. It's time to man up with a special edition today, Valentine's Day. It is said, Valentine's Day is for lovers. Well, is it?

I don't know. Let's dig deeper into that today. So today on the show, let's talk about Valentine's Day. Across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers, gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of Saint Valentine. Well, a few questions just to test your knowledge. Let's see how knowledgeable you are regarding Saint Valentine's Day. Question number one. Approximately how much will be spent in America for Valentine's Day?

Give you a second to think about that. What would you guess? What would you guess how much money will be spent in America? Now, this is just in America on Valentine's Day.

Planned Valentine's Day sales in the United States. You ready for this? As expected. When I saw these numbers, I was like, really? There's no way.

Then I thought, yeah, maybe there is a way, I guess. I don't know. But ready?

I can't even get this out. The planned expected sale is approximately to reach $27.4 billion in the United States. Like, for real? $27.4 billion. That's with a B. A billion dollars in the U.S. Question number two. Approximately how many cards are sent each year on Valentine's Day?

What would you guess? Give you a second to think about that. Are you ready? How about 145 million Valentine's cards are sent out each year in the U.S. Now, I'm still kind of the traditional card guy, right? I mean, I know there's a lot of electronic stuff that's done nowadays.

Electronic cards and all this technology. But I'm old school, right? I grew up old school.

I was an old school wrestler. And I guess I'm old school when it comes to this. Whether it's Valentine's cards, birthday cards, Christmas cards, or whatever other card you can think of, I just like to send out cards. So I can kind of see that 145 million Valentine's cards sent out each year. Now, this is excluding, by the way, packaged kids Valentine's for classroom exchanges.

Now, that's probably going to look different going forward into the future as well. Look, if these kids can't, I guess they're going to have to send out electronics Valentine's to their classmates because they're not allowed in school, right? Well, hopefully they'll get back in school full time one day and they can celebrate some of these traditions. Like the exchanging of Valentine's in the classroom, right? But according to estimates by the U.S. Greeting Card Association, second only to what holiday would you guess? Well, if you guessed Christmas, you would be right. 1,500 types of Valentine's Day greeting cards were being offered by a Hallmark.

There's a plug for Hallmark there. Question number, where are we on? Three?

Question number three. How much on average, now these are just averages here, right? These numbers might be plus or minus, a little higher, or a little bit lower, but how much on average is spent by an individual?

What would you guess? I'm trying to think, like I have four daughters and grandchildren now and I have no idea how much I might spend on some of these different holidays and I don't know that I want to add it up or no. But a survey by the National Retail Federation shows Americans will spend an average, I don't know how they come up with these surveys, but they did, will spend on average $161.96 each to lavish their loved ones.

How do you like that? Get your wallets out, men. Start lavishing your loved ones. $161.96 each. Now that's on average, right? Our next question. Want to guess what the number one gift is? Now this is not cards, this is something other than a card. What would you guess is the number one gift given on Saint Valentine's Day?

Got that answer in your head? Well, have you guessed flowers? You would be right.

You would be right. Flowers are the most popular Valentine's Day gift, get this, costing about an average of $73 per order. Most men opt for what kind of flowers? Come on, I'll give you a hint, they're usually red, sometimes they might be white, or perhaps pink, but if you guessed roses, you would be right.

And it is in the color of red or white or soft pink. There you go, here's another one. Let me ask you this, just how much chocolate do Americans buy every year for Valentine's Day? Come on, for real, right? How much chocolate? Now, I haven't met a woman yet that doesn't love chocolate.

I'm sure one day I might, maybe I will. I know all my daughters love chocolate, and my grandkids, my granddaughters, not to mention my grandsons. But how much chocolate do the average Americans buy every year for Valentine's Day? Turns out 58 million pounds of chocolate are purchased in the seven days leading up to February 14th. 58 million pounds, that's a lot of chocolate.

That's a lot of, you better hit the treadmill an extra day or two if you're going to even come close to eating, no. But, chocolate, what, next question, what's the most popular candy? Think about that for a moment. What's the most popular candy? I hope I'm helping somebody out here. Guys, I hope I'm helping you out here to win over that loved one on Valentine's Day. Ready? Heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are the most popular Valentine's candy in America with pink and red M&M's not far behind.

Would you have thought of that? Pink and red M&M's. But heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are the most popular Valentine's candy in America. There are even some states, ready for this? There are some states that look forward to cupid corn.

How about that? That must be like in Nebraska, I'm thinking. The Cornhusker state of Nebraska. Only in the Midwest, right? Would they have cupid corn? A seasonal take on the traditional candy corn. Well, who is this mysterious saint that we celebrate every February 14th?

And where did these traditions come from? You ever thought about that? Maybe you don't even care about that.

But hopefully today you find the show educational and enjoyable. Well, the history of Valentine's Day, it's a little, truthfully it's a little sketchy. I mean there's some different stories in my research of Valentine's Day, Saint Valentine to be exact. That the story of the patron saint, let me just say it this way, it's shrouded in a bit of mystery. Let's just say that. It's shrouded in a bit of mystery.

But you ever thought about that? Like, why, why are we celebrating this dude? You know, this Saint Valentine dude? And was he even real? Or how did all this marketing come about, right? But, in my research, we do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance.

Maybe you didn't know that, probably didn't know that, right? But February for a long, long time has been celebrated as a month of romance, and Saint Valentine Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who, more specifically, was this Saint Valentine guy? Who, who, who?

And how did he become associated with this ancient rite? How? How? Hmm. Well, if you know what? I'm gonna leave you hanging on that.

I'll be right back. Hang tight just for a moment. Welcome back to It's Time to Man Up, and I'm just reminded, I'm reminded of, if February is the month of romance, then I guess October is the month of birthdays. It seems like, oh, well, that would make sense, wouldn't it? Let's see.

Hello. I mean, let's, let's do the math there. You can tell I'm not a mathematician, right? You, you get that. You got that, right?

I am not a mathematician. I'm thinking, okay, yeah, nine months, October, yeah, okay. In fact, I'm trying to think, do I have any children born in October? I'll have to think about that.

I'll get back to you on that. Okay. Let's, let's search the internet and see what we can find about this Saint Valentine dude, right? And, and you can find, now there are plenty of stories out there about him or about them.

You're like, wait a minute, what exactly are you talking, what do you mean, him, them? Well, if you search the internet, try and do a little homework here, you find out that Saint Valentine, there's, there's different stories out there, right? I said it's a little shrouded about who this dude really was. One of the Saint Valentine's was supposedly a Roman priest who performed secret weddings against the wishes of the authorities in the third century. So this is going all the way back to the third century and apparently, he, he wasn't, apparently they weren't all that secret because apparently word got out and the dude, the dude got imprisoned, but he was imprisoned in the home of a noble and, and, and in this, this noble, he apparently healed his captor's blind daughter, causing the whole household, as the story goes, to convert to Christianity, but also sealing his fate. So before being, now this, this, before being tortured on February 14th, he sent the girl a note. It is said, signed, your Valentine.

So that's one fabled story, right? Then there's the English poet, Geoffrey Chauncer, who may have invented Valentine's Day. How did this English poet perhaps invent Valentine's Day? Well, the medieval English poet often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious historical context that he represented as real. Hmm. Now, no record exists of, of romantic celebrations on Valentine's Day prior to a poem Chauncer, I think that's how you say it, wrote around 1375. Again, I'm, English wasn't my major, nor was math. Can you tell that about the Russian nightmare? Come on.

But I excelled at sports though, straight A's all the way. So 1375, in his work, Parliament of Foils, and I think that's how you say that, bear with me here, he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of Saint Valentine's feast day, an association that didn't exist until after his poem received widespread attention, so it is said. So, we, we could conclude, one could conclude that the Valentine's Day focuses on what then? Romance and love.

Love, love, love. The day of love, the celebration of love. Well, let me transition here to examine what perhaps the Bible says about romance and about love, and maybe this will give all of us a little bit different perspective on Valentine's Day. A lot, in fact, the Bible has a lot to say, in fact, I would say that the Bible in and of itself is a love story.

I mean, from start to finish, the love of God the creator for his creation, for all of his creation, not just mankind, but just all of his creation. I mean, when you read, just open up the Bible and read Genesis, and it's like, day one, he made this and he said, it is good. And day two, he made that and he said, it is good. And then he made mankind and said, it is good. And then he, he said, it's not good for man to be alone. And so he put Adam to sleep and took out a rib and created woman and a helpmate, and thus blossomed the first love affair between Adam and Eve.

And fast forward all these years later, and we're still trying to wrap our head around this whole love thing. But the Bible is, in fact, a love story. And I want to share with you today just a few examples of what the Bible says about love. Now a very, a very, a very, I don't want to say, I don't know, famous, but well known.

How about that? A very well known chapter in the Bible is 1 Corinthians chapter 13. In fact, it's kind of been dubbed the love chapter. And here's what it says. If I could speak all the languages of the earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had a great gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains but didn't love others, I would be nothing.

If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it. But if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way.

It's not irritable. It keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices when the truth wins out.

Boy, we need that today, don't we? Truth? Love never gives up. Love never loses faith.

It's always hopeful and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless, but love will last forever. Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture. But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child, but when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.

All that I know is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me completely. Three things, it concludes, will last forever. Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these?

You guessed it. Love. The Song of Solomon, or some call it the Song of Songs, is considered the love book, or you might even say the love book. I mean the most lyric, poet, rich, symbolism, and romantic book in the Bible, if you've never read it.

In fact, some have said, or some have deemed it an allegory, giving us a picture of three things. God's love for Israel, Jesus' love for his church, and the king's love for his bride. One example of the Song of Solomon in chapter 4 verse 10 says, How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!

How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice! In chapter 2 verse 16 it says, My lover is mine, and I am his. A portion of scripture in 1 John chapter 4 starting verse 7 says this, Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God, but anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

How many times have you heard that? God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only son into the world, so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us first, and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

No one, no one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. Just some of what the Bible has to say about love. On this Valentine's weekend, when so many others will be celebrating love, handing out candy, and cards, and gifts, and taking family and friends to dinner, and loved ones, and spouses, and that, you might say, significant other, that fiancé, or that boyfriend, or that girlfriend. Can I remind you of our first love, and that's the love of Jesus? As much as we love others, can I challenge you to make sure you have a relationship with him, and you've established a love for him?

And then once you've established that relationship, can I challenge you on this Valentine weekend? Can I challenge you to be determined to grow that love every single day? Don't take your love for God for granted. Don't take your love for Jesus for granted.

Oh, I prayed a prayer, I gave my life to Jesus one day. No, it's a relationship that you build upon every single day. In fact, this is Valentine weekend, but what if you made your love for him? What if every day was Valentine's Day?

Because you approached your love for him that way, like you are going to do this weekend for others. So I just want to challenge you with that. I just want to do this special show today for Valentine's. But more than anything, conclude this show by challenging you. First and foremost, make sure you've got a personal relationship with Jesus, that you love God, and that by loving him and growing that intimate, passionate relationship with God is then going to, guess who benefits from that? You know who benefits from that? If you work on that vertical relationship with your creator, the creator of the universe, your love relationship with Jesus, guess who benefits from that? Everybody else around you. Spouses, children, co-workers, strangers you might come across who can experience the love that's inside of you, that love for Jesus. So I hope you have a blessed Valentine weekend. But more than anything, surrender your life to Jesus and fall in love with him more than anyone else. That's the first commandment. Thanks for tuning in to It's Time to Man Up. We'll see you next week. Because you are number one. Go to www.coloft.net and donate today.