Now Think On This
Steve Martin
"There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves..." (Luke 21:25, NAS)
Back in the day, and maybe even today, there was a cute children's story we learned as little kids. You may remember it. Chicken Little (*Henny Penny, 1823).
If my memory banks serve me right, Chicken Little went around saying the sky was falling. Wherever he went, he told people, "The sky is falling." He was wanting them to be ready, but when it didn't fall, he became the laughing stock.
All around us in these days, particularly in Christian circles, there are many declaring that the sky is falling, and we better be prepared for the times we are living in. Some laugh and call them crazy; others would fault them for being over spiritual, for after all, these aren't the only times "the sky has been falling."
You know, I for one believe them. I am taking heed to the ones who are saying to look up, to get ready, for these are the times when the signs in the heavens are telling us the sky is falling. Maybe not literally, but maybe so.
Men of integrity and prophetic insight, such as Jim Bakker, Jonathan Cahn, Jesus, Mark Biltz, Perry Stone, Michael Snyder and rick Wiles, to name a few, aren't to be scoffed at. The Lord has given them a word of warning, and we are the foolish ones if we think they are nuts. Again, I for one am eating those words they speak forth. Based on their past history in prophetic understanding, I suggest you might too. (That is why I regularly post their messages on our Love For His People website.)
Personally, I get the weird look from the other's eye when I tell people I have food stored up in my closet. (After all, North Carolina has had hurricanes before.)
"You lack faith if you do that," was one comment many people will profess. Oh really?
Did Noah lack faith when he was told by Someone not seen to build a big, big boat in the middle of a dry, dry desert, for a worldwide flooding rain storm that he didn't even know would really come? But he did. And it did. 120 years later - after he was first told. It took him between 55-75 years to actually accomplish the immense task, trusting and obeying all along the way. (You have to keep doing it, from start to finish!) But he did obey in faith, and thus he was ready.
Did Joseph lack faith when the Lord God of the Hebrews (Israel) told him how to prepare for the coming seven years? Where did Jesus keep His bank account, other than in Judas's back pocket, whom He knew would do what he would actually do with the money. Yeshua wasn't putting His trust in that back pocket, nor did He have a 401(k) to live off when He retired.
Did Noah lack faith when he was told by Someone not seen to build a big, big boat in the middle of a dry, dry desert, for a worldwide flooding rain storm that he didn't even know would really come? But he did. And it did. 120 years later - after he was first told. It took him between 55-75 years to actually accomplish the immense task, trusting and obeying all along the way. (You have to keep doing it, from start to finish!) But he did obey in faith, and thus he was ready.
Did Joseph lack faith when the Lord God of the Hebrews (Israel) told him how to prepare for the coming seven years? Where did Jesus keep His bank account, other than in Judas's back pocket, whom He knew would do what he would actually do with the money. Yeshua wasn't putting His trust in that back pocket, nor did He have a 401(k) to live off when He retired.
"We must save for the rainy day?" Where in the Bible does it say to do that? Not in my Bible - the Complete Jewish Bible, New American Standard, New King James, The Tree of Life, and others I read and quote from daily. That is truly a European/American financial concept, because people quit believing in the Lord of All, Jehovah Jireh as their provider, and thus had (have) to trust in their money.
What happens when the money is not there the day you are going to need it? Then whose god are you going to trust in? Wall Street's, or the friendly banker supposedly holding your cash in their vaults? It won't be there anymore when you really want it.
Ever try getting a few thousand in cash out of your bank account today, if you have that much? The majority of people don't even have a few hundred to draw on. The worldwide financial system is making it more difficult every day to handle your own money. They really don't want you to have it, as they make their wealth off of you. This I know, for the bank tells me so. I work in accounting/finance.
Chicken Little may have a good point if the story was to be rewritten today. The sky may not be literally falling, but the sun, the moon, the stars - put in place at the very beginning of creation, literally, by the Creator Himself, are there for a purpose other than just light. God the Father, and His Only Son Jesus Christ, gave them to us, to speak to us, so that we would not be unaware of the times and the seasons.
"Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.19There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day." Genesis 1:14-19
"He himself existed before anything else did, and he holds all things together." Colossians 1:17
"Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." John 8:58
"I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke." Joel 2:30.
Today may not be the day the Lord Jesus returns in glory and power, as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, but it might be. It certainly is closer today than when He left the first time, promising to return. Among all the prophets of the Jews (who through the Holy Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh) gave us the full Bible, Yeshua was among the chief prophets.
Yeshua (Jesus) said He would be crucified, die, and would rise on the third day. It happened. He did. Just as He said it would.
And that which He prophesied about the End of Days, the times which I firmly believe began moving forward in the fast lane, is ticking majorly on. That historically and spiritual eternal timepiece started the fast track in 1948, when the Jews got their Promised Land back and Israel became a nation again. The fig tree burst forth and is growing rapidly. Have you considered the reality of Israel lately, and the ingathering of the Jewish people? I highly suggest you do.
You have the choice to believe or not what the Lord is clearly displaying in the heavens. How you act upon it is your choice.
Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).
Now think on this,
Steve Martin
Founder/President
Love For His People, Inc.
P.S. I like that this is my number #307 published Now Think On This message. I believe the Lord gives us numbers for a purpose...
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*Wikipedia: Chicken Little The story is listed as Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 20C, which includes international examples of folktales that make light of paranoia and mass hysteria.[2] There are several Western versions of the story, of which the best-known concerns a chick that believes the sky is falling when an acorn falls on its head. The chick decides to tell the King and on its journey meets other animals (mostly other fowl) which join it in the quest. After this point, there are many endings. In the most familiar, a fox invites them to its lair and there eats them all. Alternatively, the last one, usually Cocky Lockey, survives long enough to warn the chick, who escapes. In others all are rescued and finally speak to the King.
Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.) Please share Now Think On This with your friends. Steve Martin
In most retellings, the animals have rhyming names, commonly Chicken Licken or Chicken Little, Henny Penny or Hen-Len, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky or Ducky Daddles, Drakey Lakey, Goosey Loosey or Goosey Poosey, Gander Lander, Turkey Lurkey and Foxy Loxy or Foxy Woxy.
The moral to be drawn changes, depending on the version. Where there is a "happy ending", the moral is not to be a "Chicken" but to have courage. In other versions where the birds are eaten by the fox, the fable is interpreted as a warning not to believe everything one is told.
In the United States, the most common name for the story is "Chicken Little", as attested by illustrated books for children dating from the early 19th century. In Britain and its other former colonies, it is best known as "Henny Penny" and "Chicken Licken", titles by which it also went in the United States.
Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.) Please share Now Think On This with your friends. Steve Martin
Now Think On This - in the Year of our Lord 08.18.17 - #307 – “Another Chicken Little” – Friday, 7:37 am
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