Become My “Twitter Valentine”! … and I’ll Help You Love Jesus More With Every Passing Day
[Editor’s Note: February 14, 2018, is Valentine’s Day. With this blog post, David Bryant introduces the first-of–its-kind opportunity for you to experience a whole new dynamic involvement with God’s Son—by signing up for his soon-to-be-launched Twitter service called “Meet Him Again!” Let this daily feed take you into a whole new experience of discovering the greatness of Jesus and loving him in new ways.]
Do you remember the first Valentine card you ever received and how it made you feel? I do.
I was in the third grade. Emily, my very first girlfriend (although she never knew it!), made a greeting card for me using a clothespin to form the body of a butterfly. On one of its paper wings she printed “Come fly with me,” and on the other “And be my Valentine.” My heart fluttered as I held it!
Interestingly, the historical origins of Valentine’s Day take us back to a third-century Christian martyr by that very name. Thus, to become someone’s “Valentine” has come to mean that we want to share in a love that is stronger than death—a love you’re willing to die for, one might say. In this case, St. Valentine died for his love for Jesus.
So, as we approach February 14, let me ask you: Would you be my Valentine?
What I mean is this: Would you allow me to help you grow in a whole new kind of love for Jesus—a stronger, deeper, truly undying love for our Savior, a love for him that will carry you into greater intimacy with him in the fullness of his supremacy?
Throughout the coming months, I’m offering to help you expand your vision of God’s Son, as well as fire up your passion for him like never before. Here’s how this will work:
Jesus Is Our Living Valentine
Humanly speaking, my long-time permanent Valentine is my dear wife, Robyne. I gave her a Valentine card for the first time while we were still teenagers.
When we decided to love each other forever, we took for our marriage this motto from Romans 15:6 (and had the reference inscribed inside our wedding bands): “That you may with one heart and one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
One heart. One voice. One life.
So how is it working for us?
This dream has required us to keep striving to know each other better and better—not just when convenient. We have to work at it day by day.
We’ve stayed intentional about sharing more and more of ourselves with each other, helping us both discover more about each other than we knew before. Even in times of conflict. Especially in times of conflict.
To our joy, a miracle has overtaken us: The more we’ve uncovered about each other, the more powerful, the more exciting, the more unifying, and the more life-giving our love for each other has become.
Day after day after day.
The same has proven true in our expanding love for Jesus!
Here’s what we’ve learned about this:
The more clearly we see our Savior for all he is right now, the more we want to seek him for all he is—which leads us to savor him for all he is and then share him for all he is.
In other words, increased revelation of Jesus has led us into increased devotion to Jesus.
The stronger our appreciation of who he is in his supremacy, the deeper our connection with who he is in his mercy. It follows as surely as spring follows winter.
Here’s how fourth-century North African church father, Augustine, described his experience of this two-step process: “You called, you shouted, you shattered my deafness. You burned, you shined, you scattered my darkness. You shed forth your fragrance. Now my soul pants for you alone.”
Notice his final sentence is the natural response to the previous three—which means the previous three had to happen to him first.
Augustine’s declaration sounds as if it were taken straight from a Valentine card, don’t you think? That’s because Jesus had become his living Valentine!
Well, this is the direction I want to take you to help you experience new dimensions in your relationship with God’s Son!
So, here’s my invitation to you:
Let My New Twitter Feed Fuel Your Love for Jesus
We’re calling this first-of-its-kind service “Meet Him Again!”
Starting March 1, ChristNow will offer to everyone a daily tweet that will use its 280 characters to give my Twitter followers a fresh insight into the wonders of our Redeemer—a snapshot of the glory of his supremacy. It will be designed to stoke affections you may already have for him but cause them to burn even hotter!
Like what happened to Augustine.
Here’s one way it might work for you: The moment you wake up in the morning, a special tweet will be waiting for you. Begin your day reading it. Reflect on it as you dress. Offer a prayer or praise in response to it as you head out the door. Then come back to it from time to time throughout the day. Let it soak down into your heart. Invite the Holy Spirit to take you deeper into the realities beyond the tweet’s 280 characters. Celebrate this insight on the greatness of Jesus as you fall asleep that night.
You’ll be amazed at how even one short, Christ-magnifying insight can begin to transform your entire relationship with him. Over time, the tweets will add up, reshaping how you see him, enjoy him, and respond to him—as well as how you allow him to work in you and through you during the course of your day.
So, again I invite you: Be my “Twitter Valentine” so you’ll not miss one opportunity to
“Meet Him Again!”
Sign up here today. We launch March 1.
What will these tweets read like? Here are a few samples focused on truths about Jesus and love—in keeping with Valentine’s Day:
- For all eternity, love has reigned supreme. Before anything was made—before there were any humans to forgive or restore or reconcile or embrace—love still existed. The Father loved his Son and the Son loved his Father. And now you are wrapped in that love throughout this day.
- Within the Trinity, love is dynamic, not static. The Father gives everything to bless the Son. The Son offers back all of it to glorify the Father. The love of each is exchanged and sustained by the Holy Spirit who serves them both. Today you live bound to Jesus in that love.
- Forever together in a life of love, the triune God never acts out of need. He loves us in the fullness of the perfect love of the Trinity. Today Christ is drawing you into the fullness of this triune love—undiluted and unconditional. Alive in Christ you’re alive in this love.
- Whoever loved us the way Jesus loved us? Whoever gave up as much as he did when he traded in that eternally unbroken “Circle of Love” to become our hope of salvation? “Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us—in one stroke he became poor and we became rich (2 Corinthians 8).
Those are examples of what will land on your mobile device to help you begin each morning focused on the wonders of Jesus—to help you meet him again and again, in a very real sense, every single day of 2018.
Join me on this exciting unparalleled adventure with Twitter.
Let’s grow together in our vision of the greatness of God’s Son.
And become more fully consumed by a love for him for all he is today!
“Meet Him Again!”
Is there a way to read these without a twitter account?
I don’t (and won”t) have one.
Tim, great question. At this point this is the only way to receive these daily nuggets. If something else develops we’ll let you know. Glad to know you were interested enough to write and ask. David
Being deaf all my life, i have always been up-beat and productive, I cannot imagine losing hearing after having it, must be so tough
Aida: Thanks for sharing this with me. For sure we can ALL love and follow Jesus, living under the fullness of his supremacy, with the “ears of our hearts”, listening to him day by day. And as this blog post discusses, our daily MEET HIM AGAIN tweets from ChristNow.com can help each of us “hear” something from our King as we begin each day that leads us to love him even more. Press on! DAVID