Love Has Everything To Do With It

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Premiered Feb 1, 2025  #messianicworship #praiseandworship #worshipsong

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Truth Drips | Motivational

Transcript

Love’s Purpose And Modern Confusion

Dina LaFargue Augustin 0:00

Welcome, welcome to this week's broadcast of the drip line Healing for Your Soul. It is my hope that this week's message will touch your heart and make you more self-aware so you can feel better, love better, forgive more, and be empowered to make better life decisions. The message today specifically is about the hopes and desires we all have to share love and be loved, and how we mostly miserably fail in so many ways. Tina Turner's lyrics come to mind. When I reflect on the negativities surrounding marriage and one-on-one monogamous relationships, I think of her song What's Love Got to Do with It? Yes, I reflect on how that song seems to support casual sex and casual relationships over monogamous long-term relationships. It seems that today especially, romance has been replaced and during love has been forsaken. So what's love got to do with it, she asked? What's love got to do with it? She challenges us to answer the question. But contrary to Tina Turner's lyrics, Jesus would have a lot to say. His answer would be love has everything to do with it. Love matters, and anything done outside of it misses the mark. It is fruitless, harmful, and moot. Now let's talk about Valentine's Day. The origins of Valentine's Day stretch back long before heart-shaped chocolates and red roses filled store shelves. The history behind Valentine's Day includes dark origins, muddled stories, and a surprising amount of chance. What began as the mix of ancient rituals, religious honor, and poetic imagination slowly evolved into a widely celebrated holiday centered on romantic love. Long before the holiday carried romantic connotations, ancient Rome marked February with a pagan festival tied to fertility. Participants

The History Behind Valentine’s Day

Dina LaFargue Augustin 2:26

engaged in rituals associated with fertility. These pagan rituals focused on fertility. This can be found in Britannica.com and history.com and various websites about Valentine's Day and its origins. Now the festival took place in mid-February and avows ceremonies that modern readers might find unsettling. But over time, some later writers have suggested that Christian leaders sought to replace pagan practices with a feast honoring a Christian figure. Not unlike Christmas, which was placed on a date where pagan gods were worshipped in relationship to the winter solstice. Now there were two priests, or perhaps one that are historically documented as having been martyred for the faith. A common hagiography describes Saint Valentine as a priest of Rome or as the former bishop of Terni, an important town of Umbria in central Italy. While under house arrest, under the authority of Judge Asterius and discussing his faith with him, Valentinus, the Latin version of the name Valentine, was discussing the validity of Jesus. The judge put Valentinus to the test and brought to him the judge's adopted blind daughter. If Valentinus succeeded in restoring the girl's sight, Asterius would do whatever he asked. Yes, the judge put Valentinus to the test and God to the test. That was Valentinus praying to God, laid his hands on her eyes, and the child's vision was restored. Immediately humbled, the judge Asterius asked Valentinus what he should do. And the priest Valentinus replied that all the idols around the judge's house should be broken and destroyed, and that the judge should fast for three days and then undergo the Christian sacrament of baptism. The judge obeyed, and as a result of his fasting and prayer, freed all the Christian inmates under his authority. And we know Rome at one time martyred a lot of Christians. The judge, his family, and his 44-member household of adult family members and servants were all baptized. The priest Valentinus was later arrested again for continuing to evangelize. He was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the emperor Claudius Gothicus, also known as Claudius II himself. Now Claudius took a liking to him until Valentinus tried to convince him to embrace Christianity. Claudius refused to do so and thus condemned Valentinus to death, commanding that Valentinus either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs and beheaded. Valentinus refused and was executed outside the Flaminian gate on February 14, 269 A.D. Now, before his death, it was also believed that Saint Valentinus or Valentine allegedly sent the girl that he had cured from blindness through the power of God a note with a heart. This is where it is believed that the legend begins to celebrate Valentine's Day as a day of love. Now it is also written that the priest Valentine defied the order of the Emperor Claudius II who had outlawed marriage for couples. Thus, Valentinus secretly performed Christian weddings for couples, allowing the husbands involved to escape conscription into the Roman army. This legend claims that soldiers were sparse at this time, so this was a great inconvenience to the emperor who needed soldiers. He believed that

Saint Valentine’s Witness And Martyrdom

Dina LaFargue Augustin 6:40

unwed men would make better soldiers, not being distracted by their wives at home. This defiance similarly provoked the emperor's ire and led to Valentine or Valentinus's beheading. This account mentions that in order to remind this man of these vows of God's love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment, giving them to these persecuted Christians. Also a possible origin of the riots spread use of hearts on Valentine's Day. The real point, though, is that this priest sacrificed his love for the love of God. This priest sacrificed his life for the truth of God. He was willing to stand for the faith and profess it in a profound way, in a true expression of selflessness, of service and duty to the Lord on behalf of others. True love was expressed and real love was died for. True love is actually selfless. True love determines itself on behalf of someone else. So when I think of the commercialism of Valentine's Day, I hate it and I love it all at the same time. Yes, it is a lot of fun to share hearts and kisses and stuffed animals with friends and family. Yet at the same time, I see the damage done when teenagers and new couples spend their life savings on another due to the demand suggested by aggressive marketing and not on the real depth of emotion and devotion to one another or for one another. To spend money on expensive jewelry, on trinkets and dinners, to invest in someone that they barely know, only to suffer great heartache when their gesture or sentiment is not reciprocated to the same degree is a waste. I think we have all witnessed people spending extravagant amounts of money and effort on people that will be gone tomorrow. I hate it. I hate it when men ignore the desire of their girlfriend or wives that are waiting excitedly to be to be the recipient of some special romantic act when most of our days are spent working, cooking, toiling, stressing, cleaning, andor caring for others. These days it seems that people want love but are not willing to do what it takes to be loved, be lovable, to give love, or to maintain it. A student sent me an Instagram post the other day by a man who was definitely suffering from bitterness in his soul. This man felt that being a good man was worthless because no one respects a good man, and a good man is never rewarded on earth. He was adamant about his point. He said that he always wanted to be a good friend to his guy friends and a good man to a woman, but always got stepped on, betrayed, belittled, looked down upon, and disrespected. He's hurt. He continued, ranting that men and women treat good people badly and that most good men will remain single. He said he is speaking to those who are hurt to forget about being good, but to continue to be you and not try to please anyone else because you won't be respected for it. He said good women will choose bad men and bad women and bad men will always hunt good women, win and then ruin them. There was some truth to his words, I must admit. But he kept on and he said that earth was essentially a prison, and that in this earth, supposedly being owned by an all-knowing and all powerful God must be some twisted story since all this evil occurs, and that being a good person only gets your a foot up your A double S. So he says, just be you. Don't be good, because it is one of the worst decisions you could ever make. Yes, that was the gist of his post, and he felt it, and I felt his heart, and I cried on his behalf because I understood exactly what he meant. I didn't agree with his position, but I understood it. I heard his heart and the truth in his claims and the bitterness of his wounds. This is a man that needs hope. This man's bitterness of soul echoes that of so many people, and it is what it is what ails so much of the world today. He sounds like a good man, actually, but a man ruined by heartless, selfish minded people who don't know it really matters. It seems as though he was wounded by women who perhaps felt material things proved a man's love, and to get them from a man meant power to these women. It seems as though his guy friends had their own insecurities and agendas, and that perhaps he was only a stepping stone for their own well being and nothing more. It's very sad. Manipulation, the Lord says, is liken unto witchcraft, and when we deceitfully misuse and use someone, it's evil. When we ignore the humanity in someone, it is evil. For as we do unto others, we do unto God, for each human was created and is created in God's image. Listen and listen carefully. When a man forgets a birthday, Mother's Day, Christmas, or Valentine's because they hate the holidays or for whatever reason, or were just too preoccupied. Know that you are not their priority. A message is being sent. If a pattern emerges, something is very wrong and their love is defiled. Their ability to love perhaps has been castrated in some form. It has been corrupted. Their lack of expression is all about them and not you at all. It is not about the woman, it is about the damage that has been done to them. Yet if they are trying and generally want to remain in the relationship, they must remember the day is not about them, but about their

Commercial Romance And Costly Illusions

Dina LaFargue Augustin 13:20

loved ones, about the loved ones in their life. If they remain, they have to fight to satisfy the heart of who they're with. That is what we all should do. Now when a woman does not understand the type of man they're partnered with, they set themselves up for an unending life of disappointments. We must realize we cannot change anyone. The person must want to change. The person must realize that there is something lacking or something wrong. The list of reasons for this slight can be many. A man missing holidays on end and repeatedly may have a fear of real commitment, a fear of expression, a fear of being vulnerable, or just not really in it for the long haul. They may be testing, they may be manipulative, they may be express as they may be expressing anger, displaced anger, and also really maybe not knowing how to share their hearts at all. What I am saying is that we have to know what we are getting into and why. If men enter into relationships for comfort and convenience and continue to engage in affairs or extramarital sexual activity, it is an evil that has been planted that has never been addressed. There is a moment when that behavior was triggered in their life sometime in the past. The behavior is systematic, problematic, and symptomatic of earlier injuries that most likely are results of unhealthy maternal relationships or a lack thereof. Any woman now is their enemy and a target of their ire and a tool to satisfy their bitterness and rejection. So I say beware. Hence come the words of Tina Turner's songs. It may seem to you that I'm acting confused, she says. When you're close to me, if I tend to look dazed, if I read it someplace I've got cause to be. There's a name for it. There's a phrase that fits, but whatever the reason you do it for me. Oh oh what's love got to do with it? What's love got to do with it? What's love but a second hand emotion? What's love got to do and got to do with it? Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? Yes, those are the lyrics. That is the message. Sounds like bitterness to me, sounds like fear is being served to me, sounds like hopelessness to me. Sounds like a world that has fallen and lost in confusion about what we are supposed to be doing and emulating. So if you're one of these women slighted on Valentine's Day, you have some thinking to do. Thus, the slight, the being overlooked or ignored on Valentine's Day by a significant other or loved one is an intentional wrong. The behavior is not to be dismissed, but yelling and screaming will not solve the problem or fix the man. Tempered real conversation is necessary if you want to continue. Healing is necessary. If it is not forthcoming, if the person is not cooperating, you have to decide if this person, this man is worth your patience and effort or not. In a marriage, work must be done. In a marriage, work should be done and should be continual. This man on Instagram that I was talking about continued to complain about the uselessness of being good and that we are all products of a depraved world, of a world that has turned on itself. It is a give me world, an I must have world, an I must get world. It's a world where people need titles, money, and wealth to feel successful. It is a world where the person says, I need to prove my success and material work to be valid and relevant. If I can rule and reign over people, if I have the power to use, to influence and to manipulate people, I have succeeded. I have arrived, and I am worthy. In a psychology today article, a doctor of psychology and researcher Tim Casser at Knox College quoted, materialism, the bedrock of consumer culture, the fuel that powers our economic and in many ways our social engines. Where would we be, he says, without our

Bitterness, Manipulation, And Wounded Souls

Dina LaFargue Augustin 18:10

designer clothes, handbags, cars, big mansions, and smartphones? He says we'd be a heck of a lot happier. Of his over 10 years of experience and research, he states, substantial evidence shows that people who place a relatively high priority on materialistic values, goals, consume more products and incur more debt, have lower quality interpersonal relationships, act in more ecologically destructive ways, have adverse work and educational motivation, and report lower personal and physical well-being. That's scary to me. On the other side of the coin, the same goes that good women choose bad men. I'm sure you've heard that. The women always choose the bad boys. I hate that. I try not to. I don't think I have. I don't think a lot of my friends have. But again, the same goes. And there are many variables involved in women choosing those bad boys. But invariably, if this is truly the case, a level of immaturity exists in how we make our choices. Materialism. Again, the bedrock of consumer culture can fuel us. Maybe that bad boy seems to have a lot, a lot of charisma, a lot of things, thus attracting the woman. Is it the spider's web? Continuing in psychologue.com, an article discusses why do some women fall for toxic men? It says women who had a difficult childhood or might have faced trauma from past experiences are more likely to be attracted to bad boys because it gives them familiar feelings even though it is not a healthy relationship. Women with an anxious attachment style may be drawn to unpredictable partners, mistaking instability for passion. This often stems from childhood experiences where love was inconsistent or conditional. E.G. a woman who grew up with emotionally unavailable parents might subconsciously seek relationships that mirror that inconsistency, believing that if she “wins” over the bad boy, it will heal her wounds. Before that ever happens, the inconsistent messages from the bad boy have already done damage to the woman's self-esteem, self-worth, and joy. Peace is replaced with confusion, and frustration and trust turns to mistrust, and that mistrust can evolve into a woman that becomes abusive in her own right and might, or a user and abuser of a good man, or detached altogether. End of quote.Ladies we know we are natural caregivers and nurtures but we must proceed very cautiously. Even if we are for some legit reason, attracted to the bad boy we see in the movies we cannot heal them - they are not a project. We should not enter into a relationship with the purpose of healing and nurturing someone back to life. We can be an example, we can be a source of comfort, but the damaged soul is too complicated for the untrained person. Any woman that does not value herself enough will more than likely overlook the kinder, gentler man and needs to soul search. Yes, there is a need to soul search. Do some introspection. Likewise, a woman who chooses a weak-minded man so she can rule and manipulate him is abusive. She needs to do some soul searching. This woman will literally castrate a man's psyche. Hence, a damaged man available for a damaged woman. Can this woman appreciate a stable, self-disciplined man who exhibits self-control and generosity? Can this man who is castrated ever provide a stable, loving household when he feels less than? Has this woman even had the opportunity to learn what a good man looks like to be able to recognize a good man and what a good man should emulate? Would this woman be able to appreciate the true value of a man that is self-confident for all the right reasons? Many women may not feel worthy because they never experienced it. Many women may not feel worthy because they never felt worthy at all. It's typical, and it may sound cliche, but it is very true. The article states in its conclusion, the attractive of women to bad boys can be attributed to various factors, including confidence and charm, excitement and adventure, the challenge of fixing them, media influence, and past psychological experiences. These elements contribute significantly to the appeal of these bad boys. However, this attraction often comes with consequences, serious consequences such as emotional instability, heartbreak, difficulties in trusting future partners, unresolved emotional needs, and missed opportunities for personal growth. Women drawn to bad boys may experience psychological challenges that negatively impact their well-being. Often, the line between love and attachment becomes blurred, causing them to mistake unhealthy dynamics for real love, which should encompass trust, respect, and care. It's crucial to recognize the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors,

Missed Milestones And What They Mean

Dina LaFargue Augustin 24:20

as unhealthy patterns can have long-term effects on both psychological and physical health. On the other hand, fostering healthy behaviors leads to overall well-being and personal growth. End of quote. So fret not, whether you're a woman or a man listening to this podcast. We can minimize our negative experiences when we recognize our own weaknesses and flaws, the damage that was done to us. We can learn to recognize them in others also and begin to heal. I say, put the person to the test. Let the relationship be tested. Let the relationship naturally evolve, allowing things to progress slowly through time where life experiences will naturally unravel or expose the flaws or naturally strengthen the bond. Too many times without thinking, we try to force people to be what they are not, or to do what is not in them to do, or what they are not capable of doing. We should be able to relate to the person without forcing a person or relationship into what we want it to be. Before we become so romantically and sexually engaged that we are too entangled to let go, we should regulate the flow. Too often we jump too fast into relationships. Too often we deceive ourselves into thinking we don't want more of the person when we really do. We must be willing to wait and put things to the test. We should put ourselves to the test. That way, if things fail, if things fail, emotional devastation will not be the result. But only a better prepared man or woman will result for the next go round. So men, ladies listening, put yourself to the test. Do some self-analysis and be truthful. Be real before ruining another relationship or being ruined by someone else. In saying that, mind you, it is possible if one has put in real effort to be prepared for life's challenges and matured enough emotionally to work together with another toward a better future with the person who already knows who they are and what they really want. All things are possible. Yes, it is possible to have a healthy, long-lasting relationship. God knows us. God made us, he made us in his image and made a desire, passion, and romance into our beingness. So I'm not trying to be a killjoy. And love is not practical. Love is very powerful. And love can be very irrational and erratic. But I'm just trying to give us some guidance here. Now, the fact that God knows us and made us in his image and that love is no accident because he is love and that love is passionate. We can read about this in the Song of Songs or in the Song of Solomon in the Bible. This poem expresses deep passion, love, desperation, uh heartfelt desire, patience, timing, and just exuberance and desperation to be with the lover, a lover of their soul. And it reads, Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love. His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me. Daughters of Jerusalem I charge you, by the gazelles and by the does of the field, do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires. The poem goes on and on, expressing the same theme over and over. The lover after her beloved, the beloved seeking his lover, the two desirous of one another, but the warning is do not awaken love until it so desires. God is love. God created love, and God is an expression of passion. This poem is an expression of passion and romance reigned by patience and perfect timing. According to the Bibleproject.com, this poem highlights the power and intensity of love. It's beautiful, consuming, and dangerous. Like fire, it says it can destroy people if abused, but it can be life-giving if protected and nurtured. Ultimately, the article says, love expresses the insatiable human longing to know and be fully known and desired by another. Love is one of the most transcendent and mysterious experiences in human life. And as a part of the Bible's wisdom tradition, this book says that it is a gift of God. So, we cannot dive into relationships

Patterns, Roots, And Accountability

Dina LaFargue Augustin 30:10

with wild abandoned, forgetting everything else. Like the poem reiterates over and over, love must not be awakened until it's time. Therefore, young passion and wild passion must be tempered despite intense emotions. Yes, we cannot be ruled by love, but we can be ruled by true love. True love, healthy love, should rule. The desire for a deep knowing and acceptance of one to another should matter and should be at the core. There is a hope that we all have experiencing true love. And when we know the love of God and learn to appreciate the selflessness in Jesus after dying on the cross, we can also learn what love really means and looks like. So I go back to Saint Valentine the priest, and the celebration of his martyrdom helps us to understand what real love, lasting love, means. So let's make this day truly meaningful and express it in genuine sincerity, thinking back to those who express love most perfectly, most devotedly, not rushed, not fraudulently, not with manipulation, but in purity of heart. Valentine's Day should be about real giving and true expressions of love. The priest Valentinus, aka Valentine, served God and not the emperor. He served love despite the cost. He was not afraid. Valentine was on a mission as we should be. Jesus was on a mission as we should be. My mentor, Bishop D.A. Davis, a Spirit Fellowship Church in DeSoto, Texas, is an expert on relationship management. He hosts a relationship line where couples can come to discuss their relationships and learn how to build them. He has also authored more than one book that discusses the flaws that disrupt and derail healthy relationships between men and women and the tools that can help them and heal them. On his webpage, the Declaration over Every Relationship and Marriage, he talks about the role of men and women in respect of marital relationships. He says, Every one of us, as men and women, must recognize that God has a specific assignment for our relationships and marriages to accomplish. Often, when two people are together, whether in a dating or marital relationship, destinies are at stake. He goes on to say that if we are unaware of destiny, we end up mishandling our relationships. In essence, the trajectory of our destinies is in danger. So you see, we should not be so casual or so rushed to be in a relationship, especially a one-on-one relationship, or to mistake infatuation for love, or to fall in lust over love. He continues to state that we are on assignments. We each have an assignment which involves continual progression and obeying what God has asked of us. And that assignment involves experiencing God's power and that the God factor will fuel the fulfillment of our prophetic relational assignment in Him. Sound like a lot? In short, know that God matters, know that God has destined us, know that God is love and has a plan for us, that we are not to live life haphazardly or to enter into relationships haphazardly or to mistreat one another. In the Bible, in Genesis chapter 1 through 26, it reads, God blessed Adam and Eve and gave the mandate for them to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it. Thus, Adam and Eve were given dominion over all things made in the earth, the sea, and in the air. Hence, in summary, a prayerless couple unaware of God's will and mandate is less likely to overcome the temptations that light brings that can so easily destroy not only our lives and our relationships, but our destinies. Hence, we must be aware of why we're here. In another statement, he says, when we learn how to respect boundaries and never cross them, we start to operate in the power of selfless love, which is the key to every relationship and marriage. So let's skip the frills and thrills. I do not mean stop being romantic. Every relationship that lasts understands how to make love to that partner. And I do not just mean having sex or the physical act of making love. What I mean is true love, mature love, knows how to sacrifice, how to fight for love, and how to ensure that love overcomes every pitfall, that that relationship can overcome because each partner knows how to make love to the other. Each partner knows how to assist the other. Each partner knows how to vibe with the other, to uh move in synchronization with the other. When one is up, the other might be down, when one is down, the other might be up. But how to vibe and how to ebb and flow with one another. Temptations will rise and there will be bad seasons. But when the couple knows how to make love to one another and support one another, they can last. Bishop D.A. Davis reminds us, money isn't the problem, affairs aren't the problem, health isn't the problem. Those are tests and trials that must be prioritized by God, meaning God is a priority. If God is relied on, then all those tests can be overcome. God is interested in our faith and in our

Why We Choose “Bad” Partners

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relationship with Him, in our obedience and trust with Him and in Him. It's not about our ability to keep a job. It's not about measuring our savings account. It's not about how skilled we are or whether we can pay our mortgage next month. No, the test is about something far more valuable. The test is about our resiliency and our faith in him. He is testing whether with him we can keep our household intact, we can maintain our family intact when the world is falling apart. He is interested in the fact that no matter what is going on, do we keep our face towards him or do we turn away? When everything stacks up against the relationship, do you abandon ship? Do you abandon your family? Or do you become the anchor your family needs? Do you turn them to God? Do you maintain faith in him? That is the question. That is the test. So in my understanding, and in my faith, God anchors, God holds, and God keeps. Hardship is temporary, he says. Hardship is not the relationship. Hardship is a thing, I say, that seeks to destroy the relationship. But hardship, I say, is something to be beat and put in its place. And that place is under your feet. So as God says, we sit in high places when we accept Christ as our Savior. So when a couple is anchored in Christ, and if the couple is mature emotionally and spiritually, if the couple is secure in who they are and who they are to one another, and what the end game is all about, they win. Victor victory is theirs against all odds and odyssees, for everything is beneath their feet. So let's pay attention to what really matters. Let's learn about who we are, what we are, and why we are. Let's understand our Maker, who is love, and learn from him. Let's put love in its rightful place and honor it as it should be. We can learn. So with the next Valentine's Day that comes around, it should be better than the last because love should grow. But will it truly be a celebration of the love that God has blessed us with? Will it be celebrated through his victory on the cross, the most magnificent and powerful act of love ever? Or will it be another frivolous expression? He is victorious, and we are victorious in him. Christ's sacrificial act of love on our behalf is what makes our lives and love possible. It is Christ's love that moves Saint Valentine and what he was willing to die for. Because of Christ, his enduring love for us, we should be willing to die to self and live and love for Christ. Yes, Christ endured for us. Let us endure for him. Love is all. Until next time, be blessed, be at peace, be in him, and be in love. Truth drips.