Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Awakened Church Will Rise Again - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

The Awakened Church Will Rise Again
Now Think On This
by Steve Martin


“So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;  but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
(Acts 1:6-8, NASU)


The long, powerless slumber is coming to a quick end. The time of living for ourselves and our own pleasures is over. Either we will get in or get out. The Lord God Almighty is saying enough is enough. It is time for His people to awaken and get on with His plan, not ours. Ours hasn’t worked. His will.

The church of Jesus Christ will rise again.

For decades the people of God have spent hours upon hours siting in Sunday’s church pew, believing that being part of the club would change the world. Many indeed wanted to be part of something to raise our families in, hoping the good Lord was pleased with our weekly commitment. But for so many it was back to the regular routine the rest of the days, living in the world as if we were part of them too.

That was not the way it was meant to be.

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah is telling the nations, in clear and prominent, historical ways, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, that the time of playing church is over. No longer will it be Sunday as usual. What He has planned to be, it will be. No more que sera sera Doris Day. This is His day!

I sense the Holy Spirit releasing in power His glorious power. With certainty and intense purpose, He is sending another Pentecost (Shavuot Feast in Hebrew) to fall on those called from the beginning of time, to take His Gospel of the Good News to the peoples in all nations. When thus filled with His holy fire and unstoppable spirit, we will see the darkness dispelled through the awesome miracles, signs and wonders of healing and undeniable power displayed before the very gates of hell. It has started.

Satan will not stop Him. Government officials will not box Him in. The supreme court and supreme leaders will no longer get away by ruling His laws obsolete and old school. The power of the Holy Spirit will overtake the lies that have wrongly been proclaimed. He will have the last word.

Jesus is the Real Thing. Yeshua is the Alpha and Omega. No one and nothing will stop Him from redeeming His Church to be the Bride He has redeemed with His very own Blood. His sacrifice on the Tree was worth every drop of precious Blood that literally fell - from His cruelly crowned head, His badly beaten scourged back, the tremendous, excruciating pain of His pierced hands and His ruthlessly nailed human feet to the God forsaken cross.

The awakened Church, redeemed for this very anointed and appointed hour, will rise again to fulfill all the prophetic words that were spoken of Her, His chosen vessel, throughout the centuries.

Trust His Word that is found only in the Bible. Believe it when He says He will do it. Act upon it when His Holy Spirit grabs you once again and says, “Now it the time to get up and do that which I created you to do.”

He is coming. He has stood up from His heavenly throne. He will get you ready.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People. Inc.

P.S. We sure could use your help to bless the families we do in Israel, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the hurting ones here in the USA. Please give out of the abundance you have been given. Details below.

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.
If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Click here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

Contribution checks can be sent to: 
Love For His People, Inc.  P.O. Box414   Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)
Please share Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  
martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  
Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Full website: Love For His People

Now Think On This #195 “The Awakened Church Will Rise Again” by Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (10.25.15) Sunday at 10:30 am in Charlotte, NC

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This


Please share this message on your social media with family and friends. You can easily use the icons below for Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Twitter. Encourage one another!

Keep Walking - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Keep Walking
Now Think On This
by Steve Martin


“Do you see what this means — all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running — and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed — that exhilarating finish in and with God — he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.

When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!” (Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message)


Hanging on our family room wall is a worn out record album. You can see that it had gotten much use during it’s time from 1976 on. The cover itself, framed in black with a glass covering, has special meaning to me. Whenever I see it, going in and out of that room, it reminds me of the need to keep walking in faith, and to keep my hand to the plow.

The black 33 1/3 vinyl enclosed within is entitled Hand To The Plow, one of Paul Clark’s many albums produced during the time of my early Christian walk. To this day he is still a Christian guitarist and soloist, though maybe not as well known.

On the front of that framed piece of artwork, in simple black and white color, is a pair of well worn, rather hairy hands. They surely had seen better days in their prime years. But these calloused hands were still holding onto the wooden plow. Obviously they were preparing the fields for another harvest yet to come. They had faithfully kept walking as the seasons went by.

Growing up in Minnesota and Iowa (located in the Midwest of America, for the sake of the international readers) I had plenty of summer opportunities to be on a working farm. Of the 11 uncles I had (both sides of the family) I remember at least four of them raising their families on farms. Each would put in the annual field crops, in addition to all the dairy cows, pigs, sheep, chickens or all of the above.

In those years from 1954 -1970, tractors had long since taken over the single steel blade as the method of plowing. But being aware of how the early pioneers had to sweat, endure, and pray to the Lord of the weather for favor, I understood what it would have physically cost to keep those hands on the plow to prepare the black soil.

Staying on the path takes courage and commitment. The apostle Paul wrote to disciple Timothy to be continually mindful of the prophetic words spoken over him in his faith walk. In order to do that in my own life I transcribed all prophetic words that had been recorded. Keeping them in a three ring binder for easy access, and also saved on my laptop, it is an encouraging reminder to go back and read what the Lord had spoken through His people.

We often need to be reminded of that which the Lord has revealed to us in our earlier years. In February, 2007, that was such a time for me.

After a period of discouragement in my life, I sought the Lord for a prophetic word. What amazes me now, looking back (October, 2015 as I write this), little did I know that three years later, in July of 2010, I would leave a $70,000 a year ministry director position, with full benefits, to start our own new ministry organization called Love For His People, Inc.

When I filed my income tax for 2011, my individual total taxable income had fallen to $11,000 for that year. Needless to say, either I had missed the Lord or He was doing a deep work in my spirit, soul and body. Not only for myself, but also for Laurie my wife. (We are thankful she still had her part time day care job.)

The following is a prophetic word that I still read as a reminder to this day. It helps me to keep walking the walk and my hands on the plow.

As transcribed from the cassette tape that was recorded that night:


Robbie Phillips, from Columbia, SC, met with a group at Michael & Mary Ann Blade's home in Charlotte, NC. Here is a word prophesied to me.

Robbie Phillips: We call for the blessings of God. Everything he puts his hands to, bless. Everything he puts his hands to, bless, in Jesus’ name.

It seems to me in your work – talk about plowing – brother it seems to me that you have been plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing. And there is a verse in Haggai. In Haggai it is in the negative sense but in your case it is in the positive sense, where the word of the prophet was that you have sown much but have harvested little.

And it seems to me that in the ministry that you have been in the last few years, that you have sown far more than what you have seen coming back. But it’s almost like as I see you are going down, like you have one of the old time plows and you have an oxen or a mule or something ahead of you, and here you are, just getting it done day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

And it’s like I see this tremendously long row, and there is this man standing there, and he has a linen garment on, he’s right out of Ezekiel, and you recognize that this is an angelic visitor, and you stop, and he says, “Steve, look behind you. And you look back and you thought you had been plowing, but in the distance, where you had plowed a long time ago, whole forests have sprung up, and they are seeding new forests, and right behind you there has been an acceleration of what God is doing in your ministry, so that it’s not just a place where you just plowed, but there are already small trees that have sprung up even a few feet behind you.

And I see about you, I think it is just trickling in now, but I see the blessings of God beginning to come now, to the point where they are going to overtake you. It talks about when you are faithful to the Lord, and in the 7th year when the land has the Sabbath, that you don’t need to worry about plowing and harvesting in that 7th year, because what you sowed three years before, and the next year and the following year, will all seem to come in on top of you at one time, and you will have more than enough, in fact you will have so much coming in, that you will have to move out some of the old to bring the new in.

And I see the blessing of the Lord and it’s like you have been looking and trusting God for His faithfulness and you are going to see a demonstration of the faithfulness of God and not just in spiritual things but in financial ways and material ways.

I see you, brother, you riding the high places of the earth with the Lord. I see you at 50,000 feet in jet liners just about all the time, flying all over the world. I see you a connector in the hand of the Lord. I see you being behind the scenes man, much of the time, major conferences and things like that, but the people that really know, the people that are the shakers and the movers in the Kingdom, the people that are well known, they’ll say that if you really want to meet a shaker and a mover, then you go and meet Steve Martin. He’s the guy behind the scenes, and he’s the guy that really gets things done.

And I see you being able to go to Scandinavian countries, European countries, the countries of the Far East, South America, all over the world, and I see you having contacts all over the world, and I see you being able to be used of the Lord to connect this person on one end of the world to a person over here and to bring things together in just the right timing of the Lord.

I see a tremendous amount of influence in your life, and I see that teaching anointing of your life. I see situation, particularly with leadership, it seems to me the Lord, just like with Elijah, suddenly “Boom!” out of nowhere Elijah appears, he wasn’t there one day and suddenly he’s the talk of the nation and I see the Lord just suddenly revealing you, revealing a teaching anointing, particularly for leadership and with leaders, and a lot of it having to do with the holiness of God, and your own personal, their own personal walk with God, the things that are near and dear to your heart, about right relationships with your wife and your family. How your relationships with that, how those dynamics work, things that really matter. The nitty gritty stuff that drive the kingdom. These things being those that are really near to your heart.

Being able to be a real impact to people who are key leaders. But I see that in a teaching format, even more so than your own personal encouragement and strengthening. I see the Lord giving you teachings to begin to bring to leadership, in due season.”

We know that not all personal prophetic words may come to pass, for a variety of reasons. (Another message for another day.) But there are several spoken in this word from that 2007 date that have since been fulfilled already. I anticipate that more of them will be in the years ahead.

I shared this to encourage you to keep believing the Lord on your faith walk. There are many days when things don’t look like they are moving; when advancement would be great if even just a step forward happened one day, rather than the two steps backward that seemed to occur yesterday. We must keep pressing on towards the goal set before us. (Philippians 3:14)

Winston Churchill is famously known for a simple but profound speech he gave, where he walked out onto the stage, said, “Never, never, never give up” and then walked off.

Scripture also encourages us to never quit, but to keep walking and standing firm in our commitment to the Lord and His eternal purposes.

“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:11-17 NASU)

Days of trial and tribulations are coming even more so on the earth. For many believers in the Middle East and the Far East, they can’t get much worse than what they already are. But wherever we find ourselves, we are called to stand in the power of the Lord’s might, and be witnesses in the nations.

The Lord God Almighty, Victor of All, is on His eternal throne in heaven, along with many witnesses who have gone on before us, interceding and cheering us on.

Keep walking.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People. Inc.

P.S. We sure could use your help to bless the families we do in Israel, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the hurting ones here in the USA. Please give out of the abundance you have been given. Details below.




Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.  
If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Click here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

Contribution checks can be sent to: 
Love For His People, Inc.  P.O. Box414   Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)
Please share Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  
martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  
Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Full website: Love For His People

Now Think On This #195 “Keep Walking” by Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (10.23.15) Friday at 6:30 pm in Charlotte, NC

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This




Please share this message on your social media with family and friends. You can easily use the icons below for Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Twitter. Encourage one another with these words!

I Wish We’d All Been Ready Now Think On This by Steve Martin

I Wish We’d All Been Ready
Now Think On This
by Steve Martin


“Upon being told what Ester had said, Mordekhai asked them to give Ester this answer: “Don’t suppose that merely because you happen to be in the royal palace you will escape any more than the other Jews. For if you fail to speak up now, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from a different direction; but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows whether you didn’t come into your royal position precisely for such a time as this.” 
(Esther 4:12-14 Complete Jewish Bible)


As we drove back from the Wednesday night  Bible study at MorningStar, where Tom Hardiman had begun a month long series on eschatology (end times), my son Ben spoke of waking up the previous morning with the DC Talk song in his head, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” That was cool. I remember waking up 46 years ago with the Larry Norman song in my head, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” (Larry wrote that classic way back in 1969 and had it first recorded on the album I bought in 1970 called Upon This Rock. I then bought the cassette. Probably the CD too. And yes, the MP3 is on my smartphone.)

Be that as it may…I hope you and I are ready.

These times are a changin’. Somewhere that sounds like another song lyric. (If you know, please fill me in. Thanks.) We are living in times like no other. The world as we once knew it is gone. What used to be is no more. What will come, well, you better find out so you too are ready.

In Esther’s time (her Hebrew name was Hadassah) she was placed in a strategic appointed position by the Lord God to help save the Jews from extermination. Today that day of deliverance is annually celebrated as Purim, in the spring by the Jewish people. It once again acknowledges another time of protection and deliverance, given for and to them by the awesome Living God of Israel. 

Often throughout the recorded documents of truth, found in the historical centuries of life beginning with Father Abraham, living in the very promised land of Israel, Yahweh has kept in existence His chosen people. They have been revealed as demonstrations, testaments and further undeniable proof of His own existence (as if creation itself was not enough) and for this current time, during the fulfillment of His end time plans and purposes.

No other nation or people group, since the creation of the world, has survived the destruction, displacement, or rampant displeasure placed upon them. And yet, as another living reality of His immense heart, their God, the same for those of us grafted into their olive tree, has returned them to that land given to them by Himself, the Eternal Father.

And now too, for such a time as this, Christians are being called upon to stand beside our brothers and sisters in the Land of Eretz Israel. We have been chosen to support and defend, with our mouths, with our written words, and no less our wallets, the Jewish nation, both in Israel and those yet to return (by making aliyah).

Because of the tremendous debt we owe to the Jewish people we can do no less. Through them was birthed the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, born in Bethlehem as prophesied by Micah centuries prior. Through them, the Bible (Torah), inspired by the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh), came to us. Moses (Hebrew - Moshe), the prophets, Daniel (Hebrew - same), Ezekiel (Hebrew - same), Matthew (Matityahu), Mark Mordechai), James (Yaakov), John (Yochahnahn) and Paul (Tzuar) – all Jews – heard the word, wrote the word, and because of their faithfulness we have it in our hands today, bringing life in our daily faith walk.

These times we live in are the fulfillment of the prophetic events they saw and declared. We get to experience what it is to be a part of the One New Man, the future Bride of Christ, that Jesus (Yeshua) is coming back for. After gathering many peoples, from all the nations around the world, our hope and trust is founded on that, His Word revealed to us.

I ask you to be saved in your spirit, soul and body, through the salvation only found in Jesus’ atoning Blood, sacrificed on the cross for each of us. Then you too will be ready, for such a time as this.

That is my prayer for you today.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People. Inc.

P.S. We sure could use your help to bless the families we do in Israel, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the hurting ones here in the USA. Please give out of the abundance you have been given.

P.S.S. Thank the Lord too for Larry and the former members of DC Talk!

In May, 2106, my wife Laurie and I will be traveling to Israel to spend time we our friends. We support them in word and deed.

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.
  
If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Click here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

Contribution checks can be sent to: 
Love For His People, Inc.  P.O. Box414   Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)
Please share Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  
martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  
Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Full website: Love For His People

Now Think On This #194 “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” by Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (10.22.15) Thursday at 7:15 am in Charlotte, NC

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This



I Wish We’d All Been Ready – Larry Norman, 1969

Life was filled with guns and war
And all of us got trampled on the floor
I wish we'd all been ready

The children died, the days grew cold
A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold
I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind
The son has come and you've been left behind

A man and wife asleep in bed
She hears a noise and
Turns her head, he's gone
I wish we'd all been ready

Two men walking up a hill
One disappears and
One's left standing still
I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind
The son has come and you've been left behind

The father spoke, the demons dined
How could you have been so blind?

There's no time to change your mind
The son has come and you've been left behind
There's no time to change your mind
The son has come and you've been left behind

I hope we'll all be ready
You've been left behind
You've been left behind
You've been left behind

Friday, October 23, 2015

Bold & Beautiful Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Bold & Beautiful
Now Think On This
by Steve Martin

Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." (Revelation 21:9, NASU)


Often we heard in our churches and ministries these past decades (at least in the several my wife and I were involved with) that the Lord Jesus (Yeshua) would have a chosen people, empowered to take the Gospel to the nations. Looking around, I was somewhat skeptical, and rather uncertain, that that was going to happen. Even while working with ministries and churches during that period, I could see that the reality within revealed deep problems. Churches were splitting. Ministry staffs were dealing with ongoing personnel problems. People were continually getting hurt. Many left the walk after all the talk.

Doubt and unbelief fought often against the faith I had. It didn’t take much spiritual discernment to see it as a battle also going on in the rest of my family. It may not have always manifested on the outside, but I could tell they felt the strain in their spirits too.

On the American scene and elsewhere, Christians were going backwards. Giving up rather than leading on.

Living as those around them culturally, the light of the world wasn’t shining too bright through lukewarm believers.  Separation from the world became very thin, weakened on every level. Strong, Biblical teaching gave way to watered down messages. Ear -tickled congregations grew substantially. The true, Living Word of God, the foundational Scriptures, sat on the back pew as the “abundant grace and all forgiving love” sayings of the day were declared.

What power the church once had no longer had enough spirit to stop the millions of babies from being aborted; marriage from becoming just civil law rather than the sacramental institution it was established as; and the rich getting richer while all the time the poor among us got poorer.

It would certainly take a miracle to change the direction the church as a whole was going. The ugly bride wasn’t going to make it to the ceremony at this rate.

It seems that the enemy of our souls, who himself thought he had defeated Jesus at the cross, was again ruling and reigning. Evil continues to abound, as Muslims murder Christians worldwide. The devil has taken over the seven mountain spheres that some have spoken about. Churches have died off, literally, as the previous generation has gone on. Most young people have never stepped foot in places once revered as holy.

At least that is the way it seems. In fact, that was just last month.

But the Son is going to rise.

Seated on His heavenly throne, since His ascent following His resurrection from the dead, Jesus (His given name Yeshua, meaning "salvation" in Hebrew), is about to be given the go ahead by His Father to return to this planet.

The signs of the times are on high speed, accelerating as they check off the fulfillment of prophecy set before time began. From all eternity, the Father God’s plan and purpose has been to give His Son a beautiful Bride. He will keep His word to Yeshua.

Again I will repeat the written Word of God. “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." (Revelation 21:9, NASU)

How is this going to happen?

It is up to the Father to make it happen. We do not have the power within us, apart from His Holy Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh, for it to come to pass. But He does.

After Jesus’ return to heaven the first time, as promised He sent Holy Spirit to the chosen Jews, as He Himself was, and is. The power needed to accomplish His will had been given to them, to begin His church.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4, NASU

I believe the Lord will again send His Holy Spirit in a most powerful and dramatic way, to fill us, work through us, and bring in the last day harvest before His soon coming return. Through the fire without and within, and the pressure from our surroundings, even as coal is compressed into a diamond, we will experience that which it will take to get us to where we are going.

The nations will be reached; His Gospel will be preached, and the gates of hell shall not prevail.

Out of what is coming on the earth will come forth a bold and beautiful bride, made up of both believing Jews and grafted-in Gentiles, transformed by the saving grace of Almighty God. We will not fall back in fear, cowardliness or weakness, but will be empowered to carry out His mission.

When it is all said and done, we will be transformed and ready to be handed over to the Groom at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

I believe it. You can too.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People. Inc.


Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.  
 If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Click here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

Contribution checks can be sent to: 
Love For His People, Inc.  P.O. Box414   Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)
Please share Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  
martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  
Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Full website: Love For His People

Now Think On This #193 “Bold & Beautiful” by Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (10.20.15) Tuesday at 8:45 pm in Charlotte, NC



All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Make It Count Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Make It Count
 Now Think On This
by Steve Martin


“But it's trouble ahead if you think you have it made. What you have is all you'll ever get. And it's trouble ahead if you're satisfied with yourself. Your self will not satisfy you for long. And it's trouble ahead if you think life's all fun and games. There's suffering to be met, and you're going to meet it.” (Luke 6:24-25, The Message)


High above the city streets, comfortably living in the multi-millionaire condo, the pro NFL quarterback rests on his laurels. After achieving his early notoriety by leading his football team to the playoffs, he has it made. Now his $20 million a year contract, good for the next five years, has put him in a category few will ever know outside his bubble. The fans rave him. The advertisers laud him. The rest of the world lives on, scrapping by with what little they have. They live on the street below, with nowhere to go.

I will spend nine hours on the job today, among the same towering office buildings. I see it for what it is worth, breaking my heart in the process. Bustling with overachievers, the good life is just waiting to be had. Chasing after the gold, the glory and the girls motivates the majority. In America, wealth is. Get it. Spend it. Get some more of it.

But myself, having left a Christian ministry top administration job in 2010 (after a total of 24 years with three ministries) in order to start a new humanitarian ministry that same year (Love For His People, Inc.), I had to go back to a full time accounting job. I still had to pay the home mortgage and car payment, while keeping the water running and lights on. Typical American.

My good wife at that time had completed 10 full years on her daycare job. Now she is on her 16th year as of this writing. She continues to buy the food and other necessities.

During my office day, on occasion as I sit at my desk, I observe those around me. Several are earning the big bucks (easily $100,000 and much further up the scale each year) and spending company money like there is no limit. Makes no difference if it is today or tomorrow (with our USA government printing it freely, there isn’t.)

In my heart I cry out to the Lord. “Help us raise $150 to buy a sewing machine for a woman in a foreign land, so she can feed her family in the coming days.”

There has always been within me a sense of what Francis of Assisi must have felt like, when his soul became disgusted with the luxury life, and threw it off. These days that reality has become more prominent in our culture. Live like there is no end in sight.

While He walked the earth, coming to save mankind from their lost way, Jesus told the true story of a man named Lazarus. It is, as is true for all of Scripture, still very relevant to us today.

“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.  "And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,  and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 

"Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.  "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.  "And he cried out and said, ' Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.' 

"But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.  'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'  "And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house —   for I have five brothers — in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

"But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'  "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'" Luke 16:19-17:31 (NASU)

I have decided to quit watching pro football and NASCAR. (Never did like pro basketball or hockey. NASCAR occupied too much time in the past 20 years of my life.) Yes, I have been among those who got into it when young, cheering for the home team to beat the arch rivals. But knowing the vast amounts of money that those very few now make, while others go without, convicts and prevents me from adding to their rich coffers, to play the games people play.

When I stand before my Lord and He asks me, “What did I do with the time and money entrusted to me?” I want to be able to respond as Jesus did and say, “I was about my Father’s business.”

Each of us, having been given allotted time and resources entrusted to us, must choose how we will use them. What we do with what we have, during our remaining life here on earth, will be made known when we each will give an account, standing before the throne of the Almighty God. All things will be revealed when the books are opened.

What are you doing with your time and energy? I encourage you to make it count for eternity.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People. Inc.

P.S. We sure could use your help to bless the families we do in Israel, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the hurting ones here in the USA. Please give out of the abundance you have been given.

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.
  

If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Click here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

Contribution checks can be sent to: 
Love For His People, Inc.  P.O. Box414   Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)
Please share Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  
martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  
Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Full website: Love For His People

Now Think On This #192 “Make It Count” by Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (10.19.15) Monday at 7:25 am in Charlotte, NC




All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This