Basic Life Principles - Living How God Meant It To Be For You - Steve Martin Martin Lighthouse Publishing

Basic Life Principles 

Living How God Meant It To Be For You 

Steve Martin, Martin Lighthouse Publishing

June 29, 2017

We all want to enjoy having the good things in life, and often do that which is good, or not so good, to achieve that goal. 

But what if we sought the One who created us, to find out what His thoughts are, what His ways were meant to be, and to actually walk in the chosen path He ordained for each one of us to go on? I personally think we might discover the best way to live, and find real purpose in discovering, and walking out, His perfect plan and purposes for you and I. 

These messages, from my regularly published Now Think On This, will help to encourage you to get on the path that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, specifically created for you to walk on. Life has purpose. Life has meaning. If we look to the Creator, we will know what that is. 

Enjoy the read, while seeking the Living God in all His ways. You will surely be rewarded for it, now and forever, amen.

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

Available now in paperback on Amazon $11.95: Basic Life Principles

Also available in Kindle e-book. Regular price $2.99 FREE July 3-7, 2017 only

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication                                       Page 5

Introduction                                     Page 6


1. Basics of Life                              Page 7

2. Fruit. Gifts. We need them now. Page 11

3. We Need His Gifts                      Page 18

4. Learning to Prophesy                  Page 23

5. Persistently Consistent                Page 26

6. The Battle in the Race                 Page 29

7.  Sam the Jesus Shouter                Page 35

8. Eat Your Food Zoe                      Page 39

9. The Snake That Bites – Part 1     Page 43

10. The Snake That Bites - Part 2    Page 46

11. Sex (Part 1) – The Evil Side       Page 51

12. Sex (Part 2 – The Beautiful Side Page 55

13. Why Israel?                                 Page 61

14. Israel & Our Friends                   Page 66

15. Closed Doors. Open Doors.        Page 69

16. Sarah Believed Too                     Page 74

17. Obedience. I Had To Choose      Page 81

18. Anything To Talk About?           Page 86

19. My Times Are In Your Hands    Page 90

20. In the 7th Year                            Page 96


ABOUT THE AUTHOR                 Page 105

CONTACT INFORMATION          Page 107

THE OTHER 14 BOOKS  by STEVE MARTIN                     Page 109

My retirement letter to my secular employer May 30, 2017    Page 140

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve and Laurie Martin

Steve Martin served with three Christian ministries from 1987-2010, all having a national and international outreach focus. During that time he made 14 ministry trips to Israel, China, India, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom.

On his overseas journeys, Steve enjoyed sharing written journal entries with family and friends back home, through Internet media. His light-hearted stories gave an up close and personal touch for those reading along. Many could imagine being there themselves.

His extensive collection of photos taken during these trips, of both local scenery and common people on the streets, has touched thousands through their varied images.

In 2010, Steve and Laurie began Love For His People, Inc, a 501©3 non-profit humanitarian aid ministry. This work touches the natural and spiritual lives of those around them with needed encouragement and strength.

His regular messages Now Think On This are posted on the ministries Love For His People and Now Think of This blogs. They are also on Facebook and Twitter, featuring words of spiritual enrichment, along with selected photos.

Since 1994, Steve and his good wife Laurie have lived in the Charlotte, NC area, after having homes in Illinois, Michigan and Florida. Now married for more than 39 years, they enjoy their four adult children and spouses (Josh and Chelsie, Ben, Hannah and Jonathan, Christen and Andrew), along with our seven additional grandchildren – Daniel, Logan, Dylan Joy, Jensen, Payton, Jack and Levi Zachary.

While continuing to serve organizations with his accounting skills, he enjoys writing, photography and growing the ministry of Love For His People, Inc.

Steve Martin

Love For His People, Inc.

P.O. Box 414

Pineville, NC 28134 USA

E-mail: loveforhispeople@gmail.com 

              martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin  and  Love For His People

       

Twitter: martinlighthous,   LovingHisPeople,  LoveHisPeople  and ahavaloveletters

Blogger: http://loveforhispeople.blogspot.com  

YouTube: Steve Martin (loveforhispeopleinc)

Website: www.loveforhispeople.org

Our organization, Love For His People, Inc., is a USA non-profit 501(c)3 ministry.   Fed. ID #27-1633858.

We welcome your gifts and communications of support, as we continue to provide humanitarian aid to our Israel and other connections. We hope you will become connected too along with us, and send a one-time gift or become a regular, monthly friend.

Thank you very much for this consideration!

You can donate safely and securely now on our website: Donate

 We send tax deductible receipts for all gifts received for the work of the ministry.

DEDICATION

Living a life, and then living the one your Creator meant you to live, are two different things.

I dedicate this book to my seven grandchildren –

Daniel Louis Martin

Logan Riley Martin

Dylan Joy Martin

Jensen Seth Martin

Payton Avalos

Jack Blade

Levi Zachary Avalos

…and the others who may yet join our tribe!

Seek the Lord Jesus (Yeshua) early and often, and He will delightfully direct your steps in all His ways.

I love you! (Mean it!)

Grandpa Martin

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

June 27, 2017

4 Ways to Survive the Evangelical Dark Age - GREG GORDON CHARISMA NEWS

The church has survived a dark age before, and the Lord says that Satan will not overthrow the church, so we are certain tto make it through this coming one. (Public domain)

4 Ways to Survive the Evangelical Dark Age

 6/27/2017 GREG GORDON  CHARISMA NEWS

"For by it the men of old obtained a good report" (Heb. 11:2).

Many philosophers, Christian theologians and prophetic men are speaking of Western civilization entering into a new dark age similar to the medieval dark ages. Human history has been short, fickle and full of uncertainty and the time of darkening upon the world should concern us as Christian believers. Arthur W. Hunt says, "We cannot ignore the parallels between the Dark Ages and our own time. The great irony of our age is that for all our technological prowess we are remarkably less articulate, less civil, and more irrational than we were 100 or even 200 years ago. The technological shift from the printed word to the visual image is pulling us back into the Dark Ages."

Morality changes with no girting in reality or reason are just one of the signs of the times. The church has survived a dark age before, and the Lord says that Satan will not overthrow the church, so we are certain to make it through this coming one. Rod Dreher, the author of Benedict Option, says, "We see ourselves as living in the ruins (though very comfortable ones!) of Christian civilization, and tasked with preserving the living faith through the coming Dark Ages."

Evangelical Christianity has never had so much knowledge, resources, programs and helps. Yet never has there been such a lack of godly wisdom being lived out in moral character and godliness. We live in a information, knowledge-based age with very little ability to gain wisdom in the midst of it. We know all the facts about faith but need to have a "living faith" that is displayed before the world. One might say, "Why worry about these things and make a big deal about it?" Yet look at our lives, how shallow, plastic, pleasure-oriented, materialistic, self-centered. We are living for the present world in many ways in the modern church and things of eternity are not gripping us. We can test ourselves in one way to ask ourselves the question, "Am I living for the present pleasures and comforts or for a future eternity and eternal purpose of God in my daily actions?"

We can look to Hebrews chapter 11 as a light in the midst of the coming darkness. There is a lineage of men in the history of mankind who walked in the light and left us a path to follow. The men of old were men of faith, so their decisions revolved around "things to come" (Heb. 11:20b). They "desired" (Heb. 11:16) for something better than the present world. They caught the real reality of God willing to "prepare a city for them" (Heb. 11:16) and therefore they gladly forfeited what all other men seek after here below. We can see this example of godliness and other-worldliness throughout church history in especially in godly leaders in the early church. Yet when the first dark ages consumed upon the church, we see men leaving even society itself to found monasteries where faith and practice was kept with an eternal mindset. It is interesting to note that the Bible itself, literature, school, medicine and many other things we enjoy as the Western culture were preserved through these Christian communities. Many, known as the Desert Fathers, departed to the desert seeking God for Himself when the reality of worship was being lost.

And once we take a large-lens view of the Church of 2000 years, we can see these communities where faith and practice were preserved, that they themselves were the salt and light to the rest of the church. Without faith that displays itself with deeds done with an eternal mindset, we are left with formality of a religious kind that ends in a lack of changed lives. How then do we survive a coming dark age of the church?

In way of application and help, here are some possible helps for you to consider and apply to your Christian walk:

1. "Others": Remember that Christianity is not a religion about the individual but rather the community. We are called the body of Christ (Rom. 12:5) and we always need each other. Many modern believers live as an island to themselves, with every little meaningful relation with believers throughout the week. One of the marks of the dark ages and a coming evil age is people seeking self over others (2 Timothy 3:2). Make priority to practice Christianity community daily with other believers, share your life together.

2. "Living Faith": How do I live out my faith? It is actually simple, choose to spend time practicing what we believe. Disciplines in the Christian life are what keep us alive and strong in our faith. Early church believers recited the Lord's Prayer meaningfully three times a day out loud. It was a practice in Christian communities to pray five times a day, called the hours of prayer. Daily Bible reading and deciding to obey what we read instead of just reading for knowledge are key. Following the commands of Christ for believers is not burdensome but freeing. Read Hebrews 11 again and note how each believer was commended in their obedience.

3. "Looking Backward": In a time of dark ages, we must not look forward to try and follow the newest trend in evangelical Christianity, but rather, look backward and find those solid, time-tested principles and examples that were shining lights in the darkness. The speaking of a new doctrine, new revelation, new emphasis that apparently the entire church has missed throughout history will resound, but we must not listen to these voices. Find the solid footing of what the church has always believed, what godly men stood on and passed on to the next generation.

4. "Eternal Thinking": The men of old were those who put their mind on eternity. In our modern societies Evangelical Christians are caught up in all the rat race of large homes, latest technology, creature comforts and all the extra pleasures offered. If we are to be a people who will be shining lights in the coming Dark Ages we must say no to ungodliness and worldly passions (Titus 2:11). And choose a simpler way of life. This can mean moving from the city to the country. It can mean to associate in a Christian community. Other ways to practice this are to minimize one's life and say no to all the offers of society to indulge the flesh. For we are looking for a "heavenly country" let us start that journey now or continue on it and look away from all that distracts. 

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Did Pope Francis Just Make Another Move for One World Religion? - LIN NOUEIHED AND CRISPIAN BALMER/REUTERS

Pope Francis embraces Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb. (REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi)

Did Pope Francis Just Make Another Move for One World Religion?

4/28/2017 LIN NOUEIHED AND CRISPIAN BALMER/REUTERS

Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

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Pope Francis arrived in Cairo on Friday hoping to mend ties with Muslim leaders, just as Egypt's ancient Christian community faces unprecedented pressure from Islamic State militants who have threatened to wipe it out.

In an address to the Egyptian people this week, Francis said he hoped his visit would help bring peace and encourage dialog and reconciliation with the Islamic world.

But it comes at a painful time for Egypt's Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, three weeks after Islamic State suicide bombers killed 45 people in twin church bombings.

Those attacks followed a cathedral bombing that killed 28 people in December and a spree of murders that has forced hundreds of Christians to flee North Sinai, where the group is most active.

"Pope of Peace in Egypt of Peace," read posters plastered along the road leading from the airport to central Cairo, showing a smiling pope, his hand raised above the Christian cross and the Crescent moon of Islam.

Military Humvees patrolled the streets and soldiers guarded routes the pope will take. As on other foreign visits, Pope Francis will shun armored limousines during his 27-hour stay and use a normal car, saying this lets him be nearer the people.

Streets close to the Vatican embassy in Cairo and other sites have been cleared of cars and blocked off, and pedestrians were not allowed to linger.

"After all the pain we have experienced ... we are satisfied and confident that the state is taking strong security measures to prevent terrorism and protect churches," said Father Boulos Halim, spokesman of the Coptic Orthodox church to which the majority of Egypt's Christians belong.

"It's in the state's interests to protect its nationals, and the Copts are not an independent people, they are part and parcel of the nation itself."

Strained Relations

Francis will meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi; Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, the world's most influential seat of Sunni Islamic theology and learning; and PopeTawadros II, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church who narrowly escaped a church bombing in Alexandria on Palm Sunday.

Francis is expected to give his key address to a conference on religious dialog at Al-Azhar, part of efforts to improve relations with the 1,000-year-old center after Egyptian Muslim leaders cut ties in 2011 over what they said were repeated insults against Islam by Pope Benedict.

Tayeb visited the Vatican last year after restoring relations. Widely considered among the most moderate clerics in Egypt, Tayeb has condemned Islamic State and its practice of declaring others as infidels as a pretext for waging jihad.

Francis denounces violence in God's name and papal aides say a moderate like Tayeb would be an important ally in condemning radical Islam.

But Tayeb is under fire over the slow pace of reform at Azhar, which critics in Egypt's parliament and media accuse of failing to combat the religious foundations of Islamist extremism. They say Azhar is an ossified institution whose clerics have resisted pressure from Sisi to modernize their religious discourse. 

© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.

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China Gripped by Spiritual Revival as 'Hundreds of Millions Turn to Religion and Faith' - CBN News

China Gripped by Spiritual Revival as 'Hundreds of Millions Turn to Religion and Faith'

CBN News 04-25-2017

Forty-one years after China's Cultural Revolution snuffed out all forms of religious expression, hundreds of millions of Chinese people are flocking to religions like Christianity.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ian Johnson believes what's transpiring in China is nothing short of "one of the world's great spiritual revivals" and says the world better take note because the impact of this "spiritual transformation" could have significant global implications.  

"People {in China} are looking for new moral guideposts, some sort of moral compass to organize society," said Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion after Mao. "So they are turning to religion as a source of values to help reorganize society."

Related

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Non-Stop Prayer Movement Grips Atheist China

Radical Revival Falls on China's State-Controlled Churches

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Johnson spent six years researching the "values and faiths of today's China." He says the fastest-growing drivers of this "religious revolution" are unregistered churches or so-called "house" or "underground" churches.

"These groups have become surprisingly well-organized, meeting very openly and often counting hundreds of congregants," Johnson wrote in an article for The Atlantic. "They've helped the number of Protestants soar from about one million when the communists took power to at least 60 million today."

Over the past 15 years, CBN News has also documented this unprecedented revival.

From the countryside to the big cities, we've highlighted how a new generation of believers is changing the face of Chinese Christianity.

"Any casual visitor to the country can tell you that the number of churches, mosques, and temples has soared in recent years, and that many of them are full," Johnson wrote. "While problems abound, the space for religious expression has grown rapidly, and Chinese believers eagerly grab it as they search for new ideas and values to underpin a society that long ago discarded traditional morality."

Church leaders that CBN News spoke with say prayer has played a key role in sparking the Christian revival.

For example, in one corner of northeast China, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, thousands of Christians have been meeting for an unprecedented prayer movement.

What started as a small gathering several years ago has turned into a nationwide prayer initiative uniting hundreds of Chinese churches.

In some cases, this revival is even touching China's state-controlled churches known as Three-Self Church.

"Now there's big revivals happening in the Three-Self Churches," Dr. Zhao Xiao told CBN News from his offices on the outskirts of China's capital city.

Zhao is one of China's foremost experts on Christianity. A former Communist Party member and atheist, Zhao converted after reading the Bible.

"If you go to Haidian Church, you'll find yourself in a more than 100-meter line trying to get inside and worship. In Shenzhen, there are usually an average of 500 people being baptized each Sunday!" he shared.

Decades ago, the Chinese government had a law that said that young men and women below the age of 18 could not attend Three-Self Churches. Zhao says those rules have been loosened in recent years.

"There's an increasing proportion of them in churches now -- more young male believers, professionals, mainstream celebrities, especially in the big cities, that are attending the church unlike the past when it was mainly the elderly who attended."

While the government remains deeply suspicious of China's religious revival, Johnson says it hasn't stopped people from exploring matters of faith.

"Hundreds of millions of Chinese are consumed with doubt about their society and turning to religion and faith for answers that they do not find in the radically secular world constructed around them," Johnson writes in his book.

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Are the Restorations of Israel and the Church Converging? - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Are the Restorations of Israel and the Church Converging?

Thursday, March 16, 2017 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY

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I believe God is doing an amazing thing in our day that has flown largely under the radar. It appears He is merging His restoration of the church with His restoration of Israel.

In my previous article I discussed how the Feasts of Israel were actually dress rehearsals intended to point to a spiritual fulfillment in Messiah. Passover, of course, was fulfilled in Yeshua on Passover when he died and was resurrected. And Pentecost on Pentecost when he sent the Holy Spirit to the early church. Only the third Feast of Tabernacles remained without a New Covenant fulfillment.

However, as I said, I now believe the first of the three Tabernacle feasts, the Feast of Trumpets, received its spiritual fulfillment on June 7, 1967 when Jerusalem was liberated in the Six-Day War. But as some commented, it didn’t happen on the exact date of the feast. Didn’t that disqualify it?

That puzzled me at first also, until I saw it in the context of the restoration of the church. Let me explain.

To begin, it’s important to understand that the church was taken captive in the fourth century when Constantine married the church to the state. He did so with the help of many church leaders whose Biblical understanding had been corrupted by Greek philosophy.

Convening at Nicea in 325 AD, the Emperor Constantine established Christianity as a new Gentile religion that would have its own feast days (Easter, a Sunday Sabbath), rituals and priesthood. His goal was to separate Christianity from Judaism. To quote the words of Constantine: “Nothing should be held in common with that nation of liars and Christ-killers.”

In doing so, Constantine severed the church from its Hebraic roots and established the Roman Catholic Church as the official expression of Christianity. His actions plunged the church and Europe into spiritual darkness for centuries. A period appropriately termed The Dark Ages.

But God in His mercy did not leave us there. In time He began to restore our stolen heritage and the spiritual truths connected to the seven Biblical Feasts of Israel. As it played out in history, His restoration came as extended seasons which didn’t necessarily start on the Biblical Feast dates.

It officially began when Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis in October of 1517 and the Protestant Reformation was launched. In his awakening to the truth that “the just shall live by faith,” and not by religious works, he discovered he’d been born-again. And the spiritual fulfillment of Passover was restored to the church.

Soon afterwards, the Bible was translated into the common language of the people, first by Luther in Germany, and then by Tyndale in England. As a result, more and more false teachings of the Roman Church were uncovered and discarded and slowly replaced with the correct Biblical understandings. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was restored.

In the process, many believers began to see God required more than just a true knowledge of salvation. He wanted us to put on the new man and live godly lives from then on. The first to switch obedience from the traditions of the Catholic/Protestant Church-state systems to the teaching of Scripture were called Anabaptists. They simply wanted to practice believer’s baptism, not the Church’s infant baptism. And for that they were cruelly persecuted. God soon raised up gifted teachers, men like John Calvin, the Wesley brothers, George Whitfield, George Mueller to build up the body of Messiah. And a new wave offering of faithful believers began to serve the Lord, restoring the Feast of First Fruits.

Then at the start of the Twentieth Century a small group of believers in Kansas sought for, and experienced, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with its spiritual gifts. That led to the Azusa Street revival, which spread around the world. And the power of Pentecost was back.

Then came June 7, 1967 when Israel miraculously recaptured Jerusalem and precipitated several historic awakenings in both the Jewish and Christian communities.

For Christians, it was the trumpet call that awakened us to the Hebraic roots of our faith. And to discover the enormity of the crime that had taken place at Nicea so long ago.

So even though the event itself didn’t happen on the exact date of Trumpets, it did happen in Jerusalem. And led to tens of thousands of Christians coming up to Jerusalem to bless the nation and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. But this restoration, which resulted in such a huge spiritual victory in the hearts and minds of so many Christians, was significantly different from all the rest. Instead of being initiated from within Christianity, it was instead triggered by a Jewish military victory in Israel.

Doesn’t that suggest a spiritual convergence of our two communities not seen since the first century?

If I am correct in this discernment, it means we are coming into the unity that Yeshua prayed for just before his death (John 17:21). Because the next feast to be fulfilled in both our restorations from “Babylon” will be the Feast of Atonement. If that feast results in a large scale Jewish/Israeli awakening to Yeshua, and a cleansing of the body of Messiah - as many anticipate - wouldn’t that bring about a complete spiritual merger of the church and Israel in Messiah? Wouldn’t that truly make us “one flock with one shepherd”? (John 10:16)

After Atonement, of course, comes the Feast of Tabernacles, also called the Feast of Ingathering. That convocation speaks loudly of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him” (2 Thess.2:1) But before all that happens there must come the Day of the Lord with the apostasy and revealing of antichrist.

Surely we live in prophetic times.

Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples

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