Canyon Life

<sup>The Roman Emperor Claudius II was fighting many wars. He wanted a
strong army, but many men did not want to be soldiers. Claudius thought
the men wanted to stay home to be with their wives and children instead
of leaving to fight wars.
Claudius thought of an awful solution to his problem. He decided to cancel
all marriages! No one in all of Rome could get married. Claudius thought
that if the men couldn’t get married, the men would ignore the women
and want to be soldiers.
Valentine, who was a priest, believed that people needed to get married.
He thought that if they were not married, they would be tempted to sin by
living together without being married. So he secretly and illegally married
couples anyway! He performed the weddings in secret places, so the
Roman soldiers would not find out.
But they did find out. Valentine was arrested and brought before the
Emperor. The Emperor thought Valentine was a well spoken and wise
young man, and encouraged him to stop being a Christian and become a
loyal Roman. Valentine would not deny his beliefs, and he refused. He was
sent to prison until he could be executed. While he was in prison, he sent
out letters to his friends and asked to be prayed for by writing Remember
your Valentine.
Valentine was killed on the 14th or the 24th of February in the year 269 or
270. We celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th in honor of St.
Valentine.
Although it is not known whether this legend is factually true, it is a good
story anyway. It is nice to think of someone who believed in marriage and
was willing to risk death to do what he believed was right.</sup>

I recently read a series of books about Christian martyrdom that took place forty years after the death of Christ. People who wouldn't recant what they knew to be truth, saw Jesus after his death, rise into heaven. Did you know that over five hundred people witnessed that event? These people stood up for their belief that Jesus was the son of God, even when facing all sorts of torture. Being fed to lions in an arena for sport, covering men and women in pitch to be human torches at the arena, beheadings, crucifixions, starvation, beatings, just to name a few. Emperors like Nero, who would not tolerate religious freedom, especially Christianity. He wanted all the people to worship him! A man, who murdered innocent people, castrated little boys and dressed them up as women so he could marry them, tortured children, and much worse. Even now, in the middle east, people are not allowed to worship the Christian God. If you are a Muslim, and convert to Christianity, you will be put in jail. This happens today. You can be killed if you profess Jesus as Messiah. In North Korea, the people are required to bow down to their leader at various times throughout the day. Even in America, religious freedoms are slowly being revoked. ESPECIALLY Christianity. And no, don't lump Christians in with that horrible baptist church in the south, or churches that say they can predict the end, or preach hate, they are not Christians. The bible promised this would happen. Jesus told us that the world will HATE you, if you believe in me. Gauge your own reaction to what I write, does reading this paragraph make you think me a fool for calling Jesus my savior? If I said I love Allah, you would not have the same reaction. Why is that?