Showing posts with label #99. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #99. Show all posts

Sunday, January 12, 2014

“Less IS More.” - Ahava Love Letter (Steve Martin)

                    

                                              “Less IS More.”

So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. John 6:67,68 NAS)


Dear family of friends,

My good wife is right. But it has taken me awhile to admit it.

It used to be whenever she’d say, “Less is more,” it was irritating. How can something less be something more? Are you kidding me?

But now I am a changed man. Yes, I believe less is more, as in what the Lord intends to do with His people.

In my previous Ahava Love Letter, #98, I wrote on “How Shall We Then Give”, in regards to those we support with our financial gifts. The encouragement I gave in advising readers was to give your support to those whom you personally know; more so than giving to big ministries, with big budgets, whom you have little knowledge of where your money actually goes. This being because it is about relationships, not just giving money.

If we see Yeshua (Jesus) as our model for ministry, as we should, we know that He gathered twelve together, with whom He spent the majority of His three years teaching. There were certainly the big crowds on occasion, but that wasn’t His main effort. It was the small settings, the intimate moments, the relationships with the ones who would be faithful to go forward. This is a critical lesson for us. Indeed, less is more.

We all know that Sunday church attendance is way down, especially in America, the UK, and Europe. There are many reasons for this, but I am not so certain we have to be discouraged about it. Perhaps it was the “wrong model” and God the Father is showing us that. Allowing the large church buildings to fill less and less might just be pushing the committed Christians into closer relationships with those who are in it for the long haul. We are to form those connections that the Lord is really after.

Just as it happened to Yeshua Himself towards the end of His earthly ministry, the crowds dropped off considerably. We hate to see it happen, but He has always seemed to prefer using small numbers to accomplish His purposes, rather than large crowds. You really can’t have much fellowship with hundreds of people attending a two hour service, and then each go off in every other direction afterwards. But you can build solid relationships when you are in the trenches with your brother and sister, spending real time with them.

I envision that the days of "large" ministries, with large budgets, are going to be over soon. Especially in America, where too much emphasis has been placed on the "one man, large ministry" model. This will end.

One very real sense I have had from the Lord is that He is taking us down to smaller numbers, in smaller settings, to build teams of solid believers properly jointed together. Just as He did Himself in His ministry. Just as Paul and the other apostles did with their small teams in the first century. And they changed the world.

The Lord’s concentration and life flow will take place through the close knit, one to one relationships He is establishing. These relationships will be where ministry for each other occurs. The end result will be to touch the nations with effective spiritual activity, flowing out from us.

As for my wife and I, we are seeking to get rightly jointed with the local body we attend, and be part of a team that will touch the nations. We must be committed to His purposes and desires to have His Bride joined properly together. I hope you are doing the same.

Ahava to my family of friends,

Steve Martin
Founder, Love For His People


Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA organization. Fed. ID#27-1633858.
Please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless the known families in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. 

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I hope you read my first two books The Promise (CreateSpace/Amazon 2013) and Ahava Love Letters (Xulon Press, 2013). Both available through Amazon.com Xulon Press.com, plus other website book stores.

You can also order both books, The Promise (on Amazon.com for $7.19 plus $3.95 S/H) and Ahava Love Letters Xulon Press for$14.90, plus $3.80) or you can get both from our office for $29. Send check to the address above. I will autograph all copies ordered through our office. (Hey, and please include a contribution for Israel too!)

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Ahava Love Letter #99   “Less IS More”   Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2014 (01.12.14) Sunday at 7:00 pm in Charlotte, NC).