Showing posts with label Acts 4:11-12. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acts 4:11-12. Show all posts

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Rejection to Resurrection - Now Think On This by Steve Martin


Rejection to Resurrection
Steve Martin


“This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!” (Acts 4:11-12, Complete Jewish Bible)


A highly respected and noted Bible teacher in the 1970s and beyond, Bob Mumford of North Carolina, had a unique way of presenting truth as he spoke. He would get the gathered believers laughing about an incident or story he would tell, and then, “Bam!”, the truth would hit you, figuratively, in your smiling teeth, with your mouth wide open, when the last sentence of truth proclaimed came forth. When the reality of the situation he was telling became shockingly clear, suddenly exploding in your heart’s understanding, it was like you just got hit in the mind with clarity. You never saw it coming, but when it did, the presented truth immediately enlightened your head and heart. It was, “Yes, that is it. I never saw it before. How could I have missed that? Wow!”

Bob Mumford
Bob went on to say that so very often, when we hear the Word of the Lord come to us the first time, as a word of instruction and direction, that which is given as the answer to our prayer and supplication, our immediate human response is so often, “No, I cannot. I will not. I must not.” We reject that very thing which would save us. Only later, when we find out that that very truth is spoken, the one we so easily cast aside as ridiculous or impossible at first, would be the exact one that was sent to us, to bring us from rejection to resurrection. Only then do we receive it and rise, being resurrected ourselves with it.

But as happens far too often, we at first dismiss it. We at first toss it aside. We let it be buried in the ground.

As happened with Jesus Himself, that which was rejected and buried later became that which was the very cornerstone that was needed. Salvation has come. We need only to receive Him, day in and day out, to get out from under that which had been dead and buried.

And so it was when Yeshua came the first time. The very one that could save each from all that held us in bondage was the very one rejected. Only after His resurrection did the understanding come, to fully realize He was Who He said He was. The Truth once rejected was the Truth resurrected.

How often have you and I been presented the truth of reality, the “way it is, because that is the way it is?” When we first hear what can save us, what will give us the answer to that which we have prayed for, we dismiss it. Only after the Holy Spirit continues to open our closed eyes and our closed heart do we finally realize that, yes, that is what I need, this is what I have been looking for, this is what my spirit has been longing for, for so long.

That very thing we rejected, in the beginning, is the very one thing that will bring resurrection to the dead reality we had brought on ourselves.



The builders rejected the cornerstone. So had we.

We have been given the opportunity to hear the Lord speak to us in our daily walk, directing our steps, and moving us onward in resurrected power and anointing. We must take heed to not reject that which He sends our way, but to trust in His guidance and provision. The walk of faith is a daily movement away from rejecting His Word to us and receiving His resurrection power to carry it out.

The world is waiting for believers to demonstrate the living resurrection power that has been given to us. They too will reject it at first, but when the Holy Spirit opens their eyes to the eternal truth, they will join the saved ranks and likewise be witnesses of His resurrection too.

Let the rejection in your life become His resurrection in your life. Accept the truth He brings, for He alone has the power to raise you up and get you to where He is ultimately wanting to take you.

Now think on this.

Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).

Steve Martin
Founder/President
Love For His People, Inc.

If these messages have ministered to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families in Israel whom we consistently help monthly through our humanitarian work. Your tax-deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.
  
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Now Think On This #410 - in the year of our Lord 04.13.19 – “Rejection to Resurrection” – Saturday 4:50 am.


Sunday, December 27, 2015

Yeshua (Jesus) Our Salvation - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Yeshua (Jesus)
Our Salvation

Now Think On This
Steve Martin


“This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone.  There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!” (Acts 4:11-12 Complete Jewish Bible)


There has always been an eternal plan, in the everlasting heart of love found in God the Father, to redeem mankind (save, buy back, pay off the debt) after the Fall. When Adam and Eve sinned, which is an historical fact by the way, the relationship they had experienced with the Creator Father brought separation and banishment from the Garden of Eden. Nothing they personally could do would get that friendship back.

They needed to be saved, they needed a redeemer, or they would face the consequences of their sin, which would be eternal separation from God.

Sin does that. It brings separation from the holy God. And He, the One God who sits on His throne in heaven, requires that the sin be removed, covered by perfect blood, before we can have that relationship with Him restored. He required that blood be shed. That blood had to be without spot or blemish. It had to be perfect. No animal’s blood would accomplish it, for it had to be totally without sin itself.

Only one person’s blood was perfect, who alone could be sacrificed. He himself had to be perfect, to satisfy the holiness required. It was God’s only son, Yeshua, who would and could be that only one.

Throughout the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, known as the Scriptures, the redemptive plan of salvation for mankind is found. God the Father unveiled it, using the chosen people, the Jews, to show it. Moses wrote it, the prophets spoke of it, the centuries since have proven it.

In fact, their very own Hebrew/Jewish Tanakh (Scriptures/Bible) clearly states this in Isaiah 53:1-12.

“Who believes our report? To whom is the arm of Adonai revealed? For before him he grew up like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He was not well-formed or especially handsome; we saw him, but his appearance did not attract us.

People despised and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him. In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God. But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed because of our sins; the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises we are healed.

We all, like sheep, went astray; we turned, each one, to his own way; yet Adonai laid on him the guilt of all of us.

Though mistreated, he was submissive —he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to be slaughtered, like a sheep silent before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. After forcible arrest and sentencing, he was taken away; and none of his generation protested his being cut off from the land of the living for the crimes of my people, who deserved the punishment themselves.

He was given a grave among the wicked; in his death he was with a rich man. Although he had done no violence and had said nothing deceptive, yet it pleased Adonai to crush him with illness, to see if he would present himself as a guilt offering. If he does, he will see his offspring; and he will prolong his days; and at his hand Adonai’s desire will be accomplished.

After this ordeal, he will see satisfaction. “By his knowing [pain and sacrifice], my righteous servant makes many righteous; it is for their sins that he suffers. Therefore I will assign him a share with the great, he will divide the spoil with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and being counted among the sinners, while actually bearing the sin of many and interceding for the offenders.” 
(Isaiah 53:1-12 Complete Jewish Bible)

The reason satan (the devil, the fallen angel) hates Israel and the Jews so much, and is continually seeking to destroy, kill and annihilate them, as he has done since the creation of man, is because he knows of the plan. It is recorded in all historical truths down through the ages.

Yeshua is the plan.

We see the enemies' purpose, for it commonly depicted with anti-Semitism in all the world, and also Replacement Theology in the church. This fallen angel, eternal enemy of Israel, Jews and Christians, knows that the Lord’s plan was and is to bring salvation to the nations through Yeshua. It is Emmanuel (God with us), the Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Who was born, raised, crucified as the Lamb of God, buried in a borrowed tomb, and three days He gloriously rose from the dead. Over 500 eyewitnesses were with Him after His resurrection.

Yeshua (Jesus) then ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father. He will be coming back soon, as the roaring Lion from the tribe of Judah.

Kill the Jews – kill God’s plan of redemption? Just read the end of the Bible, Lucifer.

From the Tanakh (Hebrew) made up of the Torah (the five books of Moses, known as The Law, from Genesis through Deuteronomy) the Prophets (Neviim – Joshua through Malachi) and the Writings (Ketuvim – Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the two Chronicles), and then continuing on with the New Testament (Matthew through Revelation) the red thread of redemption, of the perfect sacrificial blood to come, is revealed.

It may seem as a total mystery to the masses. But those who seek the Truth will know the truth, as the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) will guide all to Yeshua, Who alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. All who desire to know the truth will be given the light.

“Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." (John 8:12, NKJV)

The apostle John (his name being Yochanan in Hebrew), who witnessed the truth of our Redeemer Yeshua, wrote this,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing made had being.
In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not suppressed it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was Yochanan. He came to be a testimony, to bear witness concerning the light; so that through him, everyone might put his trust in God and be faithful to him. He himself was not that light; no, he came to bear witness concerning the light.

This was the true light, which gives light to everyone entering the world. He was in the world — the world came to be through him — yet the world did not know him. He came to his own homeland, yet his own people did not receive him. But to as many as did receive him, to those who put their trust in his person and power, he gave the right to become children of God, not because of bloodline, physical impulse or human intention, but because of God.

The Word became a human being and lived with us, and we saw his Sh’khinah, the Sh’khinah of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.

Yochanan witnessed concerning him when he cried out, “This is the man I was talking about when I said, ‘The one coming after me has come to rank ahead of me, because he existed before me.’”

We have all received from his fullness, yes, grace upon grace. For the Torah was given through Moshe; grace and truth came through Yeshua the Messiah. No one has ever seen God; but the only and unique Son, who is identical with God and is at the Father’s side — he has made him known.” (John 1:1-18 Complete Jewish Bible)

Adam and Eve sinned. From that point on we all were separated from God. But the Lord’s plan had always been to bring us back to Him, to redeem us, to save us, to provide a way back to Him. There had to be a sacrifice made. But it could only be a perfect sacrifice, for He is a holy God who requires it that way.

The Jews were given the task of revealing the salvation plan of God. Through the centuries they lived it, wrote of it, and through their lineage Yeshua came to earth to fulfill it. Now they are living proof of His Only Son, Yeshua, as their eyes too are being opened to the eternal plan of salvation.

After being scourged, nailed to the tree (the cross), during the time of Pesach (Passover), the sacrificial Lamb shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins. Our sins. Through Him the relationship with God the Father is now restored, and eternal life in heaven is the great reward.

Today you too need to receive the saving blood of Yeshua, God’s Only Son, as our sacrificial offering, if you have not done so already.

Mohamed won’t save you. Allah certainly cannot. Buddha nor Confucius will ever do it for you. Only Yeshua (Jesus) - the Son of God who came down from His throne in heaven, can do it for you. He who lived on this planet, died an awful death, and then gloriously rose from the dead - all to prove that He is Whom He said He is, and share the love He has for us – is the only Way, the only Truth and the only Life.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

"He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 

But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." (John 3:16-21, NKJV)

There is no other name under heaven by which man can be saved. Yeshua (Jesus) became man to save us from our sins and eternal damnation in hell. Simple truth shared in what is called the Gospel, the Good News.

Call on His name today.  For the first time, or in your daily walk with Him.

Now think on this, with His love and mine,

Steve Martin
Love For His People, Inc.


P.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

We are blessed when the ministry receives gifts to bless the families that we do in Israel, India, Pakistan and the hurting ones here in the USA. You also can share 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.

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Now Think On This - In the year of our Lord 12.27.15 - #225 –“Yeshua (Jesus) Our Salvation” – Sunday at 6:30 am

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Again, 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