Gold Stars - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Gold Stars

“…and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ” This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” Matthew 3:17, NASU

Remember getting a gold star on your school paper in grade school? Even adults love it. This I know, for on my accounting job in a corporate office setting, after I had finished reconciling the credit card expense report of a staff’s individual month expenditures, I would send a “gold star’ back to one or more in an email, if deserving. That is if they did their work accurately and in excellent order.

I loved rewarding those doing a job well done. And they loved it if they got one! A gold star!

That may have happened a few years ago, but just today I heard someone say they had heard another express how they had loved getting them. I’ll have to start it again.

People receive and appreciate affirmation. We all love gold stars.

What was it like when your dad and mom said to you, “Good job” after you knew you did a job well done on the task, no matter how small or large, that they had given you to accomplish? It felt good, right?

Imagine if God the Father spoke out loud to you, in the presence of others, as He did for Jesus, saying, “This is My beloved son (or daughter) in whom I am well pleased.” What would that do for your spirit! It sure would cause mine to soar!

Affirmation, or being assured of who you are or what you have done, is so vital to each of us. Many did not receive it growing up, though. No father or mother who gave approval but should have. Or not having a good teacher, who acknowledged your best efforts, but missed it. Maybe it was a sports coach who really loved the other one but rarely noticed you. (Sit on the bench as I did in football senior year? At least #88 was between #87 and #89. Comrades on the bench.)

We can be confident that once we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, that He affirms us. When the Father sees us, He sees Jesus, His Holy Spirit, in us. And He is well pleased. With His precious blood having covered all our sins, through His death on the tree, what the Father sees then is His redemption having been received by those who call on His Son’s Name for salvation.

Not only should we desire affirmation, but we should also seek to keep doing those things which deserve being acknowledged, and even doing so even if it doesn’t. (For our God sees all.) Paul urges us to keep striving to do that which pleases our Lord and to do it continually and increasingly in our lives.

“Therefore, brothers, just as you learned from us how you had to live in order to please God, and just as you are living this way now, we ask you — indeed, united with the Lord Yeshua, we urge you — to keep doing so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Yeshua.” 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3, Complete Jewish Bible

Be affirmed in your knowledge of your place in the Lord’s heart. Then practice affirming those around you, encouraging them to keep striving and not grow weary in doing good. (2 Thessalonians 3:13)

Getting gold stars is minor compared to the crowns we will receive once we reach our heavenly destination and eternal rewards. Won’t that be great!

Now think on this and see what good things the Lord has in store for you and those around you.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin, Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

Thank you for reading!

Please sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter: Now Think On This. The sign-up form is on our ministry website: https://loveforhispeople.com

You are welcome to help support the families in Israel that we do. Give now. Givelify.

Love For His People ministry P.O. Box 414 Pineville, NC 28134

loveforhispeople@gmail.com

Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.  Others will be thankful you did.

Now Think On This #456 – in the year of our Lord 09.04.19 – “Gold Stars” – Wednesday, 8:30 pm

"Weep" Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Weep 

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” Romans 12:15, Complete Jewish Bible

In the last two days, when I sat down in my prayer chair for my early morning time with the Lord, this sense of weeping came over me. It began as a swelling up in my chest, and then it came forth through my eyes, as the Holy Spirit moved upon me.

I wasn’t sure why He was sharing this experience with me, so I prayed in tongues and let Him use my intercession for His purposes. Most often we can choose to freely give of ourselves as His channel of love and act out of obedience for His plans. The knowing may not be made fully aware, but the doing certainly should.

Maybe this was for our friends in Israel, as He watches over His returning people coming from all the nations where they had been dispersed during the centuries. He clearly sees them, making provision from His holy throne from which He broadcasts His love, through those who have accepted His call to support and provide the means of doing so, both in the natural and the spiritual.

Maybe this intercession weeping was for the one on the dark, secluded street last night, left out of life, clinging to any hope available. May they find the joy that is in You, Jesus, the Savior of the world. You died so that all could live who seek and find You.

It could have been for the nation of Hong Kong, as the people have been crying out publicly for weeks, desiring for the freedom in their country that He alone can truly bring. He may have wanted me to join with them in their longing for that truth.

We may not understand why He leads us in this form of intercession, but we must be open vessels for those times He leads us in the manner.

In Isaiah 30:18-22, the prophet spoke forth this to the people, “Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him.

 O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher.

Your ears will hear a word behind you, " This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left. And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, " Be gone!" (NASU)

There is an eternal longing in the Father’s heart, expressed through His Only Begotten Son Jesus (Yeshua) and His Holy Spirit, the Comforter sent to earth to bring forth His purposes in love.

We are called to be intercessors – to pray, to fast, to weep for the answers and solutions needing to come, which will bring healing, restoration, life fulfillment, and redemption offered only through His shed blood on the cross. As His Spirit directs us, we must follow. He is our only hope.

We read of the time Yeshua wept when his friend Lazarus had died and was buried. His emotions as He walked among us those 33 years displayed the Father’s loving heart.

“When Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him.  He said, "Where did you put him?" "Master, come and see," they said. Now Jesus wept. The Jews said, "Look how deeply he loved him." John 11:33-36 (THE MESSAGE)

There will be plenty of opportunities we will have to join with the Father in interceding for our families, our friends, the nations around the planet. As we give ourselves to Him, He will lead us, direct our steps, and allow us to experience what is on His heart.

He knows what the end results will bring, that of victory and rejoicing. But the path we walk on to get there will take us through much tribulation and warfare. We must present ourselves as ones to share in this.

Now think on this and see what good things the Lord has in store for you and those around you.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

Thank you for reading!

Please sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter: Now Think On This. The sign-up form is on our ministry website: www.loveforhispeople.blogspot.com

You are welcome to help support the families in Israel that we do. Give now. Givelify.

Love For His People ministry

P.O. Box 414

Pineville, NC 28134

loveforhispeople@gmail.com

Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.  Others will be thankful you did.

Now Think On This #451 - in the year of our Lord 08.25.19 – “Weep” – Sunday, 6:00 am

"If I Be Lifted Up" - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

“If I Be Lifted Up”

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." John 12:32, NASU

Speaking of His soon approaching death on the wooden cross, Jesus (Yeshua) told His disciples that when He was lifted up, this would be the main catalyst that would then draw all men to Himself.

When Jesus was lifted up, He drew all people to Himself.

In a recent Sunday worship time, before the speaker came to the podium, the beautiful song being sung wonderfully proclaimed Jesus. As the congregation focused in on praising His Name, I could really sense the move of the Holy Spirit drawing those focused on Jesus, and bringing them into a greater realm of the spirit. Jesus was being lifted up in our midst. He was drawing the people even closer to Him.

We weren’t focused on our needs. We weren’t singing, “Bless me. Bless mine.” Or, “Woe is me. Help me. Take care of me.”

We were singing Jesus.

Over 7 years ago now I led a worship team at a local Highway to Zion assembly here in Charlotte, North Carolina, headed by founder Cathy Hargett. We sang several Messianic songs, written by Messianic Jews, and a few written by popular Christian worship leaders. Present in the meeting was a Messianic Jewish leader from Israel, one very prominent in the movement taking place among believers in the Land of His people.

After the time set for all on the schedule had been concluded, he came up to me afterward and said, “I never heard the name of Yeshua in all of the songs sung during the singing and worship time.”

I was startled and immediately said, “We sang all songs written by a Messianic Jew!”

His reply was, “You never mentioned the Name, Yeshua.”

A bit offended, for days, I dismissed it as, “Who is he to come here to America and tell us what we should sing, when we are singing Messianic songs, written by Messianic believers.” Others who had been there agreed, and yet the Lord wouldn’t let it go in my thoughts and spirit.

Again, during this recent time of Christian worship in the Sunday gathering, when Jesus’ Name was lifted up, the Holy Spirit began moving among the people. Hearts and souls were being centered on Jesus, not on themselves.

In many Christian circles these days, with a lot of the songs played on the radio, sung in our churches, or used among small and large gatherings, a self-centered theme is very prominent.

Even in the sermons and messages being delivered from the pulpit, it is a lot of the “me” stuff.

What can Jesus do for me today? What needs will be met if I seek Him to have them fulfilled? When will my hurt and pain and suffering endured daily as I drink my Starbucks and drive my new car to the high-paying job be over with?

I write this in a somewhat demeaning way, but isn’t it often how we think? It is “Me, me, me. It is all about me.”

When Yeshua (Jesus) is lifted up in our lives, when it is Him Whom we are focused on, for Who He is, high and lifted up in the heavens, and not on ourselves, things will change. When He is praised, when He is worshiped, when we vocally and prominently declare His supernatural actions and reflect on the results of overflowing His love and grace for the nations, then we will be amazed at how He will move among us.

“If I be lifted up” Jesus said, He promised to draw all men and women unto Him. Not only did He then on the cross, but He will now among us this day.

That will be amazing when we finally do.

Lift up Jesus. Glorify His Name. Forget about yourself for a moment and think, thank Him.

Now think on this and see what good things the Lord has in store for you and those around you.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

Please sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter: Now Think On This

This Friday night, Aug. 2, 2019, at 7 pm, Strength For Israel will be having our monthly meeting, the 2^nd one to be held in the main auditorium of The Barn, at Antioch International Church in Fort Mill, SC. Come and celebrate the goodness of our God! Look here: Strength For Israel

Love For His People ministry

P.O. Box 414

Pineville, NC 28134

loveforhispeople@gmail.com

Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.  Others will be thankful you did.

Now Think On This #443 - in the year of our Lord 07.30.19 – “If I Be Lifted Up” – Tuesday, 5:30 am

"Friend" - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

“Friend”

“Some “friends” pretend to be friends, but a true friend sticks closer than a brother.”

Proverbs 18:24, Complete Jewish Bible

When I heard someone say recently, “He has no friends”, my heart immediately felt the pain and loneliness that that one must feel at times. I know. I have been there. So have you.

Each of us can recall during our childhood years those times when it seemed like no one liked us when the “kid down the street” had all the friends to laugh and play with, while you sat on your front steps just silently crying to yourself for just one friend.

You too wanted to be a part of the sports team. You too wanted to be invited to the birthday party that most kids in your class were going to. You too just wanted someone to talk with, be around, experience more than being by yourself.

And as we went through middle school and high school the pain of loneliness, even while sitting or walking in the midst of the hundreds of other kids around you, only increased. Why didn’t your clothes, or hair, or skin complexion be as good as they had it?

Even with several people in the company office, or on the highway road crew, or in the congregation gatherings every weekend - it still seems hard to really have a friend to share your joys, your sorrows, those longings you want to share with at least one other person who relates and enjoys what you do. We all want that.

Without a friend, it can really be lonely.

The NASU version of Proverbs 18:24 reads as this, “A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Even the rich and famous don’t really have it all. Ever see a man or woman once rich in money, fame, and attraction for a period, and then after they no longer have none of these, what then? Not a pretty picture. For these things, temporal items, once no longer around, do not keep friends after they are no longer available to seemingly once, and now long gone, “friends”.

I remember as a kid many times, especially during the summer months, of being lonely, without a neighborhood kid nearby who could come out and play (no video games then). Nor the friend I had in school, who lived too far away to even ride my Schwinn bike, the one complete with the cool banana seat and the high handlebars which looked like they were fashioned after the Texas steer.

Heh, don’t laugh. You probably had one too!

But during those times I am glad that I knew the Lord, even beginning at the age of 10 and onward. I can still remember on a few occasions when His Holy Spirit would somehow speak to me, though I can’t say I really knew Who it was at times. I just felt comfort in my soul, a sense that I was not really alone.

I had a friend. He was my friend.

With all the rushing madness, and this no stop turning of the planet we live on, it can be pretty easy to not experience the real friendship that we all long for.

But we do have a Friend. We do have Someone that knows the longing in our heart. He is actually the One who put it there, so we would draw near to Him. And not just to draw near, but also to know and love Him, and others, as He knows and loves us.

You may be lonely at times. You may say to yourself, “I don’t have a friend.”

But you do. His name is Jesus. His name is Yeshua.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8, NKJV

Your true Friend is waiting to show Himself to you, to be with you, to let you know He is ever-present, never far off, always wanting you to get to know Him even more.

Give Him that time today. You will be glad you did and will come to know, even more so if you already do, that you have a friend in Jesus.

Now think on this and see what good things the Lord has in store for you and those around you.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

Please sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter: Now Think On This

On Friday night, Aug. 2, 2019, at 7 pm, Strength For Israel will be having our monthly meeting, the 2^ndone to be held in the main auditorium of The Barn, at Antioch International Church in Fort Mill, SC. Come and celebrate the goodness of our God! Look here: Strength For Israel
Love For His People ministry

P.O. Box 414

Pineville, NC 28134

loveforhispeople@gmail.com

Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.  Others will be thankful you did.

Now Think On This #439 - in the year of our Lord 07.19.19 – “Friend” – Friday, 5:30 am