Now Think On This - Steve Martin: May 2017

Friday, May 26, 2017

Sam the Jesus Shouter - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Sam the Jesus Shouter

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS. (Matthew 16:24-27, NASU)

Often during my 40-hour a week accounting job on the 16^th floor in uptown Charlotte, NC, I will walk to Romare Bearden Park, located just two blocks from the office. If you have seen my Facebook pages (Steve Martin and/or Love For His People), or just know me through my writings, you have seen that I like to observe people, buildings, and especially flowers on my way there. And usually a photo (or more) will appear on my social media outlets an hour or less later.

With the prophetic gifting I believe that the Lord has given me with some perspectives I have, I can sometimes see beyond the outward shell people have encased themselves with, while putting forth something else in their public presentation. We all have done it – wanting to please men rather than please God, or even know Him in many cases.

Uptown Charlotte has really been booming with new office space, new city parks, new apartment buildings, and thus, new people. Many of the private companies, commercial banks and real estate profit-makers rise up far above the Trade and Tryon Street level below. Most of the days these past few years, an abundance of cranes have lifted heavy steel girders, massive loads of concrete, and men (along with women) construction workers to the 10, 20 and 30 floors sky bound.

At lunchtime the building builders fill the park, eating Mexican, Vietnamese, or assorted pizza pies, often from the food trucks that are close by. As for me, I hustle over to the 7-Eleven on Martin Luther King Blvd. to get a Big Bite and Big Gulp (for $2.00) before the construction workers clean out the condiments!

That I do most Fridays. Monday-Thursday I always enjoy the leftovers from the supper before that my good wife Laurie always prepares, and carry it to the park bench in a blue plastic grocery bag. Works for me.

Watching the young people, which now make up a large percentage of the task force, make their way to the sit-down restaurants, is an altogether different sight. Dressed up in suits, ties, and fine dresses or slacks, or as the ones do on 3^rd and 4^th in our building, using Microsoft Surface or laptop computers primarily at an online marketing firm - torn jeans and a t-shirt are the preferred choice of attire.

Though many seem to have a great time, as they laugh and walk in confidence at their quickly achieved success, I tend to wonder what lies beneath the proper hair, smile and exterior given to the world around them? Is there meaningful life beneath? Do they have the character and strength to resist the temptations to get drunk, party on the latest drug, or have sex with the other gender, or same gender, in the cubicle next to theirs?

They need Jesus.

Sam Bethea, the “Jesus Shouter”
(Photo by Steve Martin May 19, 2017 in uptown Charlotte, NC)

I agree with Sam Bethea, the “Jesus Shouter” as some call him, laugh about him, and resist the Holy Spirit trying to change their heart for eternity through him. He has been calling out, like John the Baptist, loudly and clearly on the city sidewalks for many months now.

“I have Good News. Jesus loves you. He really does!”

Yesterday when I asked him his name, at Trade and Tryon, he told me he was arrested 29 times before he came to repentance, and now loves Jesus with all his heart.

Save them Lord. Save the people in our city, in our nation, in our world.

Let us be Your instruments of peace and salvation, as you have called and anointed us to be, on the jobs where we toil so many hours a week. This is where us church people should be Monday through Saturday. Touching the lost found among the glamorous city concrete towers.

They need Jesus too.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People, Inc.

Sam Bethea's tracks he hands out

on the corner of Trade & Tryon in Charlotte, NC.

(Photo: May 19, 2017 by Steve Martin)

P.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

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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.

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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

Blogs: Love For His People, Now Think On This

Full website: Love For His People

YouTube: Love For His People Inc.

Now Think On This - In the Year of our Lord 05.20.17 - #284 – “Sam the Jesus Shouter” – Saturday, 8:30 am

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

Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

Monday, May 22, 2017

More Clearly - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

More Clearly

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“O God, You are awesome from Your sanctuary. The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people. Blessed be God!” (Psalm 68:35, NASU)

Have you ever driven west from Iowa, Illinois or Minnesota, heading to the region in the USA known as the Rocky Mountains? Then you will know what I am talking about.

I remember as a pre-teen kid Dad and Mom would load up the 1962 Ford station wagon, sky blue in color, hitch Dad’s homemade camper trailer to it, painted to exactly match the color of the Martin vehicle, and haul all eight of us (at that time, before there were 10) on a camping trip to Colorado. A bit crowded it could be, but with the very back end having a bench seat on each side of the car that came up out of the floor, we made it work.

Clark Griswold and his wife Ellen, kids Rusty and Audrey in the box-office hit National Lampoon’s Vacation (Warner Bros 1983) couldn’t have carried it out any better than we did. Four is no match for eight.

As we cruised along Highway 80 into the setting sun, passing the six foot high cornfields in the flat (very flat) farmland of Nebraska, we entered the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado. At first, no big deal. All looked about the same. But then, up ahead, a hazy outline began to be seen off in the distance. Just clouds? Maybe a rain storm? Car window needing washing? (Probably that especially.)

When the outline came more into focus, the gray became blacker. Then we could see white caps on sections at the top. And finally, the awesome, majestic, created mountains of the Lord came into full view. What a spectacular sight to behold!

Our God is like that. At times we can barely make out who He is, or what He is doing with us. It is just as the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see obscurely in a mirror, but then it will be face to face. Now I know partly; then I will know fully, just as God has fully known me.” (Complete Jewish Bible)

Our God is an awesome God. We do not see or understand everything clearly now. Sometimes we seem to be just walking in a haze. But as we continue to stick to the path set before us in obedience, step by step, we will eventually see what He is doing, and more fully understand later how He actually did it.

Thinking of the Jewish Patriarchs of Old – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of course Joseph and Moses (along with their faithful wives!) – following after the Lord will always mean having to push forward in faith. (Hey, there may even be a step backward or two. Each of the afore mentioned had their times of doubt, unbelief, and misguided moments. But the faithful Lord they served didn’t leave them there, but carried them through.)

We who bow our knees and serve the living God of Israel, the awesome and perfect One, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, will more clearly see Him as He is. We will comprehend the greatness of His works, the love of His heart, and the prefect ways He watches over His People.

There is nothing or no one who can stop His eternal plan from being fulfilled, for again, our God is the awesome God. There is none like Him in all His glory and power.

Thank you Lord!

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. And if you are ever to Colorado, and in the Denver area, give my good friend Morris Ruddick a shout out!

P.S.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

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.

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

Blogs: Love For His People, Now Think On This

Full website: Love For His People

YouTube: Love For His People Inc.

Now Think On This - In the Year of our Lord 05.14.17 - #283 – “More Clearly” – Sunday, 6:30 am

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

Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Changing My Heart - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Changing My Heart

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“My heart is throbbing, my strength is gone, and the light in my eyes has left me.” (Psalm 38:11, Complete Jewish Bible)

Back in the day, 2001 to be exact, the contemporary Christian group named 4HIM came out with their 9th album, entitled “Walk On” (WORD Music Group). When the 8^th song on the CD, “Who You Are”, played on the car CD player as I drove home from work these 16 years later, I could feel the Holy Spirit’s refreshing come. I hit the repeat button. Even now, He was touching my spirit, changing my heart once again.

The lyrics speak of the Lord constantly changing our hearts (video link and full lyrics are below). As for me, that is a good thing. This past year I had felt that my heart was growing weary, a bit colder than before, with the constant battle going on that surrounds us. Church meetings were becoming routine; days at the accounting office were hard to get through; situations happened that just made life less than expected or desired. It was not a good thing, as I saw it.

Now I know there are seasons of the soul, as I and others have written about over the years. In the dead of winter, you feel just like that. Dead to the world and even in your spiritual life. You may wonder what is the purpose of reading the Bible, praying, or having fellowship with other believers. You just let the days and months pass by, hopefully soon enough.

Then your spiritual spring and summer come. They can occur at the same time as it is in the natural, but not necessarily. This is when you can sense your spirit coming alive again, as hope is renewed, joy returns, and you get your vision from Him back.

For without vision, we perish. Or as The Message puts it, in Proverbs 29:18, “If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; but when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.”

We all need refreshing for our weary souls. We need a “battery charge”, as we used to hear in conference messages. We certainly need the Holy Spirit to renew our vision, to bring that encouragement desperately desired at several points in our walk with the Lord Jesus.

Constantly changing our hearts is what the Lord wants to do daily in us. He longs to have us renewed, refreshed, and revisited with the first love, the one we had for Him at the start of our journey. Yes, even for those of us in the older generation, living in the later decades of our natural life.

“Come Lord Jesus” we ask today. We will give thanks and praise for Your faithfulness.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

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.

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

Blogs: Love For His People, Now Think On This

Full website: Love For His People

YouTube: Love For His People Inc.

Now Think On This - In the Year of our Lord 05.12.17 - #282 – “Changing My Heart” – Friday, 5:15 pm

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

Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

Who You Are

Album: Walk On

· Artist: 4Him

· Release year: 2001

· Duration: 4:30

· Genre: Pop music, Contemporary Pop

Who You Are LISTEN HEAR

4Him

When I see the sun
Coming up in the sky
When I see the stars
In the still of the night
Then I, I see who You are

When I feel the breath of
The wind in my face
I rest in the warmth
Of a Father's embrace
Then I, I feel You Are

And who You are
Is all I'll ever want to be
Take my life
Make what You will of me
'Cause You're constantly changing my heart
Leading me out of the dark
Bringing me closer to who You are

I'm ready to run
And I'm ready to dance
Live every moment
Leave nothing to chance
'Cause I, I know who You are

I consider the Cross
And the price that You paid
I know that You live
'Cause the stone's rolled away
Oh I, I love who You are

And who You are
Is all I'll ever want to be
Take my life
Make what You will of me
'Cause You're constantly changing my heart
Leading me out of the dark
Bringing me closer to who You are

'Cause You're constantly changing my heart
Leading me out of the dark
And You're bringing me closer to who You are

Songwriters: CHRISTOPHER NEVILLE EATON, MARK R. HARRIS

For non-commercial use only.

Who You Are: LISTEN HEAR

Lives Laid Down - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Lives Laid Down

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16-17 NKJV)

After recently gotten back from Israel, the Land which the Lord has prophetically brought His chosen people back to, I have been contemplating on some of what I experienced. Seeing, hearing, feeling and touching what He has done there is simply miraculous. The Jews truly are becoming a light to the nations, as He said He would make them.

"I am God. I have called you to live right and well.

I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.

I have set you among my people to bind them to me,

and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,

To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:

opening blind eyes,

releasing prisoners from dungeons,

emptying the dark prisons.”

(Isaiah 42:6-7 THE MESSAGE)

One amazing sight that touched me over and over again was to see in action the mothers of Israel raising their children. Now I am not saying this just because we are close to Mother’s Day here in the USA. I am writing this because many have lost something when it comes to family, and need encouragement to walk in the truth.

By the mercy and grace of God over these many centuries, the Jewish people have kept, and continue to keep, what the Lord had intended from the beginning. When He created and ordained husbands and wives, to be fathers and mothers, He knew only the existence of love and sacrificial life, as lives laid down, would be the bedrock to have families flourish, and raise children unto Him.

One family I spent time with there in the Jerusalem area was celebrating their child’s first birthday. Now that is a great thing for those of us who have had a child, or a grandchild, and have done that. The first birthday is always really special.

But when it is the ninth child that has come out of the marriage covenant of man and woman, that simply is God. Fulfilling the word, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, " Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:27-28 NASU) is the very first commandment given to mankind.

Mother of nine in Israel, with birthday child on lap

In much of today’s society we have almost reached the point where we scorn those who, as man and woman, do get married, have children, and spend a great portion of their lives raising them. Day in and day out, by so often laying down their own wants, pleasures and pursuits, these who do as the Lord has directed, are giving themselves to their children. Even more so, seeing these Jewish mothers giving so much of themselves by raising their children, makes one again thank God that there are still ones fulfilling His purpose and plan, walking them out in reality, within families.

Women who choose to do this – biblically marrying and having children, raising them with all they have - are to be the most highly commended among mankind.

My own mother, Lila Martin Parker, now reaching an age a bit beyond 80, still gives of herself for her eight children that she and Dad raised, and the many, many grandchildren that followed. Over those decades, much sacrifice, much heart, soul and body were totally given to do this marvelous life act – to give out so her children and their children could receive.

Louis and Lila Martin family 1973

And my own good wife Laurie, herself the mother of four, lives daily to bless her children ongoing. And now also, with her seven grandchildren, is seeing part of her life’s generational reward come through them.

Steve and Laurie Martin Family in 2013 (We need an updated one, as Levi is not present yet!)

Indeed, let us honor and bless all mothers, these admirably women of God, who are truly walking out His divine will. I so do myself.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. And may the good Lord bless my daughters Hannah and Christen as they raise their children, and daughter-in-law Chelsie with her four!

P.S.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

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.

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

Blogs: Love For His People, Now Think On This

Full website: Love For His People

YouTube: Love For His People Inc.

Now Think On This - In the Year of our Lord 05.11.17 - #281 – “Lives Laid Down” – Thursday, 4:15 am

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

Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

Pages

Friday, May 26, 2017

Sam the Jesus Shouter - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Monday, May 22, 2017

More Clearly - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Changing My Heart - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Lives Laid Down - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

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