Showing posts with label crowns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crowns. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

A Head Start In Heaven - Now Think On This by Steve Martin


A Head Start In Heaven
- Now Think On This
by Steve Martin


"…but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. “Matt. 20:14 NASU



As was my usual custom, when I cleared the parking deck ramp, after leaving the uptown Charlotte, North Carolina office, I turned on the radio news. Seemed to be the same usual as usual. Before much too long I turned it off to have some “quiet time” while travelling southbound down the busy late afternoon NC I77 traffic toward home.

Thankfully I began humming in my head a song by Joshua Aaron, a Messianic Jew, singing about his bride and his promise to her, for a long time. Forever in fact. The song, My Beloved (Wedding Waltz) kept going over and over in my head. I was singing along, “I am no longer mine, I am yours forever. I give it all to you, my beloved.

As you may know yourself, your mind often goes onto another subject. Most of the time they don’t seemed to be related, but as I traced back my thoughts later, they were. It was the Holy Spirit giving me a little revelation blessing of His Word. Follow the thread as it unwinds.

A close friend’s father had passed on to eternity two weeks earlier, and I began thinking about her loss. With my own dad having crossed over to his eternal reward in heaven over 15 years ago, it occurred to me that my dad had already a head start in heaven. He was already enjoying eternity that I know will someday be mine too. Only because Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.

Then somehow (Holy Spirit in action) I got to thinking about the parable Yeshua (Jesus) shared with His disciples about the workers, or laborers as He called them, in the Gospel of Matthew. Here is the story, which you probably know well.

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.'  When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.  When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.  When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.' 

"But he answered and said to one of them, ' Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?  ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.  'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?'  So the last shall be first, and the first last." Matthew 20:8-16 NASU

Now in times past, when trying to understand this Scripture, I couldn’t justify in my mind how the owner could be so unjust. Or even generous, as it says he actually was. After all, if I worked a full day on my job, beginning at 7:00 am, and another got hired and started at 3 pm, and then both of us got off at 4 pm, I would expect I’d get paid for eight hours, and he for only one hour. But if we both got paid for eight hours…

Catch my figuring at what seems unfair?

So back to the “head start in heaven” thought. Still driving down the road at the 65 mph going rate, it seemed the Holy Spirit wanted to enlighten me on that Scripture, to further my understanding. He started to say that those who have gone on ahead of us to their eternal reward, that being heaven and His presence, are enjoying their time even now. Though some have been there for centuries, once you and I who know the Lord get there, it will be as if we had been there just as long as they have too. There won’t be any “unfairness”, for His reward (pay) at the “end of the day” would be the same for each of us. (Now I know there are different crowns passed out to each for their labors on earth, but that is for another message.)

The head start in heaven, because of eternity’s timelessness, makes it seem as if it is all the same time for all. I know, my head spins too just trying to imagine that. Heaven and eternity are bigger than we can comprehend at this point. It is because His thoughts and plans are so much greater than ours.

It amazes me how the Holy Spirit speaks to us as we give Him moments to do so. In just a short amount of time, whether it is during a drive down the interstate after a busy work day, or starting the morning off in a Bible reading and prayer time, little things like that revelation above encourage us. And yes, I sure am looking forward to heaven.

And I know He is looking forward to us being with Him there too!

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.

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.

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Now Think On This #178 “A Head Start In Heaven” by Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (09.08.15) Tuesday at 6:00 pm 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


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Saturday, February 8, 2014

Get the Gold! - Now Think On This (Steve Martin)



“Get the Gold!”


“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” (Matt. 6:19-21, The Message)


I love the Olympics! Be it the winter or summer games, I enjoy watching all the nations’ athletes walk in for the opening ceremonies, all dressed in their colorful and smartly dressed uniforms (as my Brit friends would say) and cultural garments, waving their flags and their hands to the crowd, as they proudly represent their countries. It is a great sight of unity among the people, and the hosting country always puts on a fascinating show. Russians, Chinese, Americans, Europeans, Asians and more have all hosted the grand celebration of completion among athletes. I commend them for it.

It amazes me each time a new country is represented that I have never even heard of, or a country is in the games for the first time. Especially the lone athlete carrying his flag by him or herself. I hope they do well and make new friends. They certainly have worked hard to get there too.

Training and coming together through teamwork, in preparation for the honor of their country and their sport, has been the foundation built on for the competition. It certainly brings out the best. The goal of standing on the podium after their event is completed, holding onto the precious metal of gold, silver or bronze is a grand sight, as their home flag is lifted and their national anthem is played.

As a former athlete myself, in middle and high school, I understand a measure of the effort it certainly takes for these competing. To spend hours, days, months and even years preparing; and then to give it all you have at that specific moment in time, when you have a few minutes to excel in an individual event, or as your teams goes through the bracket toward the championship game, is quite the effort. May they all do well, and accomplish their heart’s desire.

I am chasing gold too. Mine isn’t made up of the earthly metal, but it is being stored up as an eternal reward, to fit on my head as a crown. The King Himself, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) will be giving them out. And then we will participate in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb ceremony too. That will indeed be a "crowning moment" for those who have received His salvation through His shed blood. It will be a joyous occasion, as much perseverance and running the race He has given us while in our human body has been accomplished. I look forward to sharing that eternal time with those I have walked with, and those who I will meet for the first time.

While our time remains here on this planet, our hearts are to be set on stockpiling treasure in heaven, as The Message Bible puts it in terms we certainly understand. Laying up those crowns prepared for those who have followed in His plans and purposes will be the award, along with the eternal realm of heaven itself. This is not just a dream or fairy tale, but it is reality. Our labors here on earth are to be for eternal, not just temporal, achievements. My heart and yours must be set on that purpose.

Enjoy the Olympics as you can. Celebrate with the victors as they raise their hands and winning metals in triumph, knowing that your reward, being stored up in heaven, is a treasure worth living for in this time we have been given. This too is a shadow of things yet to come, for those who know the Lord Jesus.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin
Love For His People
Founder



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 letters minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless known families 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 this Ahava Love Letter/Now Think On This with your friends.