Arms of Love - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Arms of Love

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”

John 15:13, NKJV)

Do you need a hug today? It sure would be nice to give you one right now.

When I receive prayer requests from my beloved friends in Jerusalem, Sweden, Pakistan, India, and even right here in the USA from my best friend in Peru, Illinois, sometimes I just wish I could go to them and give them a big hug. Just to let them know that they are not alone; that the Lord Jesus is not only their Savior and Redeemer, but that He has also given others for them, to share His immense heart of love and compassion with them.

He has created us with loving arms – to wrap around others as He Himself does.

Generally I am not a hugger as much as I’d like to be. I guess it has something to do with growing up. Coming from a family of eight kids, just getting the daily jobs done and the home managed was quite a bit for Mom and Dad in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Weariness, and all that goes with it, doesn’t always allow for giving out a bunch of hugs. (But Mom sure does give them now. Thanks Mom! Dad has passed onto glory.)

As a father myself, even with our own four children, I regret that I didn’t give out the hugs I am sure they wanted, and needed, as they grew up. I do pray that what they missed out on then has now been received, as they walk in faith and love with their Lord Jesus, and have much to share with their own.

As a husband, I am also aware that I don’t give as many hugs as my good wife would love to have. But thank God that by His everlasting grace I am still working on that, even after all these 38 years.

In years gone by, when Laurie and I led worship at various Charlotte, NC church and ministry gatherings, we would sing a song from Vineyard Music called Arms of Love (see lyrics below). It is a very simple song, and yet it grips the heart when you hear of the Lord’s love, and how He so often wants to wrap us up in His arms of love.

You see, one can have these as you give of yourself to those in need, and whom you care about. When Jesus came to earth - to walk among us, experience all that we too would go through, and then in death gave us the opportunity to experience eternal life by His sacrificial blood poured out - He demonstrated what love is all about. We are to lay down our life for our friends, and to others whom He gives us.

Yeshua wrapped His loving arms around the whole world as He hung on the tree, stretched out, fully exposed, suffering a torturous death in order that you and I could have life. As Jesus obeyed the Eternal Father, by abiding in His love, He poured out His precious, cleansing blood, while graphically revealing the abundant love He bore in His heart. His blood now covers our sins, and redeems us.

His life lived among us was given because He loves us so much, and desires that we not perish in hell, but abide forever with Him in His heavenly home. That is what love is all about. Even Charlie Brown knows that.

My prayer for you today is that you know of your Father’s loving arms, that you experience a true friend who also does, and that together they would wrap their arms around you at those times you desperately need a hug.

The Lord doesn’t leave us alone to face that which often comes our way. He not only has given us Himself, but desires to place us in a spiritual family to walk with, together laying our lives down for one another, and sharing His arms of love with the world.

He loves you. He really does.

Go share His love, and hug someone today. Wrap your loving arms around them.

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.

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

In May, 2016, my wife Laurie and I will be traveling to Israel to spend time with our friends. We support them in word and deed. We have our plane tickets in hand. We support Israel.

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 

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 #203 “Arms of Love” by Steve Martin 

Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (11.08.15) Sunday at 6:00 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 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

Arms of Love, Vineyard

I sing a simple song of love
To my Savior, to my Jesus
I'm grateful for the things You've done
My loving Savior, oh precious Jesus
My heart is glad that
You called me Your own
There's no place I'd rather be

Than in Your arms of love
In Your arms of love
Holding me still
Holding me near in Your arms of love

CCLI Song Number 824481

Author(s): Craig Musseau

Copyright: 1991 Mercy / Vineyard Publishing, Vineyard Songs Canada

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 16^th 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 

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 #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

Burdens Lifted - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Burdens Lifted

- Now Think On This

by Steve Martin

"In fact, God wants to help you out of your troubles. He wants to take away your burdens that are crushing you. He wants to load your table with plenty of food.” Job 36:16

In 2010 I made my first trip to India. I say my first because I expect the Lord to take me back there soon again. The people of Hyderabad, Kamman and Muerchela touched my heart, as the Lord Yeshua had taken me there to touch theirs with His love for His people.

Traveling down the road with my good friend John Ebenezer, a pastor on the never-ending go, I was amazed at the load people would carry on their heads and back. They slowly walked along the side of the road, heading to their daily destination as they had done so many times before. From my vantage point the weight they carried seemed overbearing on their frail bodies.  It was a heavy burden to carry, and I wondered how they could do it day after day.

In the southeastern India big city of Hyderabad, having well over sixteen million inhabitants, we had stopped at a local store to get some provision for the evening meeting. Out front of the intended destination, wearing a sarai, a full colorful dress, a woman was carrying sand bags to the one man mixing cement for the construction job they had. I was able to capture a few shots with my Canon camera, as I watched in amazement as she quietly worked in the hot sun. What a picture it was, both in the natural and the spiritual. What a burden she had.

Carrying a heavy load is mentioned several times in the Word of God. The Holy Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh, inspired the writers to share of the day to day efforts put forth by people, to simply get daily bread. We can read of the daily routine – getting up in the morning early hours, sweating through the day in the hot sun, and going back home to rest as best one can for the next day. And then only to do it all over again. As it is today for many in the nations’ populations.

The burdens we tend to carry weigh us down, in spirit, soul and body. The conflicts we experience in relationships; the stress we have in constantly carrying concern for getting the bills paid, raising the kids, or the sickness that drags on, drains our emotions and saps the life out of us. And then we go through it again the next day.

This reality in life deeply effects both our natural and spiritual state. Sometimes it can be so overwhelming that we want to be as Job’s wife spoke to him in Job 2:9-10, “Why do you still hold on to your integrity? Curse God, and die!” But he answered her, “You’re talking like a low-class woman! Are we to receive the good at God’s hands but reject the bad?” CJB

As I observe people around me on the job, stress levels at a peak, or those walking the streets, while constantly on the go, I find myself drawing near to the Lord, pressing in to experience more of His care, for them and myself. Resting in His peace, finding the shalom He has given, and trusting in the promise to cover us in His grace, puts my heart at ease. Just knowing He understands and provides for everything we need lifts the heavy burden we often feel we have to carry alone.

Having that peace in our heart, that our burdens don’t have to rest squarely on our shoulders, but on His, gives you and I the break we need. As we seek Him, in order to know of His love, to do His will, and walk in His grace and provision, we experience the sense of contentment and assurance He alone provides. He is there to carry us along, and the burdens we have.

We are not called to bear it alone. Jesus, Yeshua, has made a way for us to keep our eyes fixed on Him, and to rest in His Almighty love. As we turn to Him, giving Him once again the concerns that want to load us down, we can find that His load is light.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 NASU

You don’t have to carry that heavy daily load by yourself. He has made a way, and we are to walk in it. Call upon Him today.

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.

Go 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 

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 #148 “Burdens Lifted” by Steve Martin 

Date: In the year of our Lord 2014 (05.07.14) Wednesday at 5:00 am in Charlotte, NC.

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog.