February 14, 2025, 7:00 PM
Greetings in Christ! Happy Valentine's Day! I hope and pray you had a good week.
We've all been hearing a lot about LOVE over the past few days with Valentine's Day being today, the 14th of February.
Love is one of the most misused words in the English vocabulary. Consider the following example: We use the word "love" to describe our feelings for our closest loved ones AND how we feel about our favorite sports team or restaurant. "I LOVE my wife!" "I LOVE the UK Wildcats!" That's one of the reasons the English language can be difficult to understand!
Jesus tells us about REAL LOVE. Jesus gives us a great formula for how to live life the right way. The key is LOVE.
When asked by the religious teachers of His day in Matthew 22 about the greatest commandant, Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
This is not only a formula, but it is also a great example. We are to love God. That is VERTICAL love. And we are to love others as well. That is HORIZONTAL love. The vertical and horizontal together form a CROSS. The cross is THE ULTIMATE symbol of Love.
Lately, you've heard me say on more than one occasion that we are seeing God moving on our college campuses in this country, including our neighbor, the University of Kentucky. We witnessed a great thing in our city of Lexington this week.
An event that began in September 2023 at Auburn University in Alabama came to Lexington and Rupp Arena this past Wednesday night (02.12.25).
The event was called "Unite Kentucky" and is part of the larger "UniteUS" movement. This movement is encouraging college students and young adults across the country to seek Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of their lives. These events have attracted more than 70,000 college students from all around the United States during the past 17 months.
We had several of our college students from FCC attend the event in Rupp Arena. The common word that all of them used in telling me how the evening went was, "amazing."
Daniel Johnson, the director of UK's Baptist Campus Ministry was in attendance. He told Kentucky Today, “We’re seeing these pop up around a ton of different campuses. We are praying that heart change is happening and we will see a ripple effect. It can lead to a different culture on campus. That there would be spiritual fruit from this, and lives are so changed that Kentucky is not seen as a place of darkness as a campus but a place of light." While numbers are not official, it's believed there were more than 7,000 in attendance on Wednesday night with around 2,000 people making some decision of faith or recommitment.
Our worship minister Rafaelito Fraden was among those in attendance. Rafaelito was a volunteer, helping with baptisms. The baptisms had to be done outside Rupp Arena. Rafaelito reported being able to assist in NINE baptisms himself!
We thank God for this. We also thank God for allowing His Holy Spirit to move among so many of this nation's young adults. Here at FCC, I believe we've been placed in a special location near the University of Kentucky campus. We've been praying for a spiritual harvest. Let's all BE READY to answer because God is on the move and doing something special.
I hope and pray to see you soon. Until then...
God bless,
Greg H
