I Wish We’d All Been Ready Now Think On This by Steve Martin

I Wish We’d All Been Ready

Now Think On This

by Steve Martin

“Upon being told what Ester had said, Mordekhai asked them to give Ester this answer: “Don’t suppose that merely because you happen to be in the royal palace you will escape any more than the other Jews. For if you fail to speak up now, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from a different direction; but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows whether you didn’t come into your royal position precisely for such a time as this.” 
(Esther 4:12-14 Complete Jewish Bible)

As we drove back from the Wednesday night  Bible study at MorningStar, where Tom Hardiman had begun a month long series on eschatology (end times), my son Ben spoke of waking up the previous morning with the DC Talk song in his head, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” That was cool. I remember waking up 46 years ago with the Larry Norman song in my head, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” (Larry wrote that classic way back in 1969 and had it first recorded on the album I bought in 1970 called Upon This Rock. I then bought the cassette. Probably the CD too. And yes, the MP3 is on my smartphone.)

Be that as it may…I hope you and I are ready.

These times are a changin’. Somewhere that sounds like another song lyric. (If you know, please fill me in. Thanks.) We are living in times like no other. The world as we once knew it is gone. What used to be is no more. What will come, well, you better find out so you too are ready.

In Esther’s time (her Hebrew name was Hadassah) she was placed in a strategic appointed position by the Lord God to help save the Jews from extermination. Today that day of deliverance is annually celebrated as Purim, in the spring by the Jewish people. It once again acknowledges another time of protection and deliverance, given for and to them by the awesome Living God of Israel. 

Often throughout the recorded documents of truth, found in the historical centuries of life beginning with Father Abraham, living in the very promised land of Israel, Yahweh has kept in existence His chosen people. They have been revealed as demonstrations, testaments and further undeniable proof of His own existence (as if creation itself was not enough) and for this current time, during the fulfillment of His end time plans and purposes.

No other nation or people group, since the creation of the world, has survived the destruction, displacement, or rampant displeasure placed upon them. And yet, as another living reality of His immense heart, their God, the same for those of us grafted into their olive tree, has returned them to that land given to them by Himself, the Eternal Father.

And now too, for such a time as this, Christians are being called upon to stand beside our brothers and sisters in the Land of Eretz Israel. We have been chosen to support and defend, with our mouths, with our written words, and no less our wallets, the Jewish nation, both in Israel and those yet to return (by making aliyah).

Because of the tremendous debt we owe to the Jewish people we can do no less. Through them was birthed the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, born in Bethlehem as prophesied by Micah centuries prior. Through them, the Bible (Torah), inspired by the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh), came to us. Moses (Hebrew - Moshe), the prophets, Daniel (Hebrew - same), Ezekiel (Hebrew - same), Matthew (Matityahu), Mark Mordechai), James (Yaakov), John (Yochahnahn) and Paul (Tzuar) – all Jews – heard the word, wrote the word, and because of their faithfulness we have it in our hands today, bringing life in our daily faith walk.

These times we live in are the fulfillment of the prophetic events they saw and declared. We get to experience what it is to be a part of the One New Man, the future Bride of Christ, that Jesus (Yeshua) is coming back for. After gathering many peoples, from all the nations around the world, our hope and trust is founded on that, His Word revealed to us.

I ask you to be saved in your spirit, soul and body, through the salvation only found in Jesus’ atoning Blood, sacrificed on the cross for each of us. Then you too will be ready, for such a time as this.

That is my prayer for you today.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People. Inc.

P.S. We sure could use your help to bless the families we do in Israel, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the hurting ones here in the USA. Please give out of the abundance you have been given.

P.S.S. Thank the Lord too for Larry and the former members of DC Talk!

In May, 2106, my wife Laurie and I will be traveling to Israel to spend time we our friends. We support them in word and deed.

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 #194 “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” by Steve Martin 

Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (10.22.15) Thursday at 7:15 am 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

I Wish We’d All Been Ready – Larry Norman, 1969

Life was filled with guns and war
And all of us got trampled on the floor
I wish we'd all been ready

The children died, the days grew cold
A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold
I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind
The son has come and you've been left behind

A man and wife asleep in bed
She hears a noise and
Turns her head, he's gone
I wish we'd all been ready

Two men walking up a hill
One disappears and
One's left standing still
I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind
The son has come and you've been left behind

The father spoke, the demons dined
How could you have been so blind?

There's no time to change your mind
The son has come and you've been left behind
There's no time to change your mind
The son has come and you've been left behind

I hope we'll all be ready
You've been left behind
You've been left behind
You've been left behind

Songs of the Jesus Movement (26 videos including Love Song, Children of the Day, Larry Norman & More)

Love Song - "Two Hands" (1972), Sometimes Allelujah"

Children of the Day - "For Those Tears I Died"

Larry Norman - "I Wish We'd All Been Ready"
                       - "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus"
                       - "Only Visiting This Planet"

In the early 70's, during the beginnings of what became known as the "Jesus Movement," a group of young, longhaired, "hippie" musicians called LOVE SONG began to use their music to express their newfound faith in Jesus Christ. A mixture of rock and pop, LOVE SONG's music was entirely new and unique for the Christian music world.

The music was fresh, sometimes radical, and yet truly inspirational for a generation of young people searching for truth. It helped blaze the path for what we know today as Contemporary Christian Music. They flourished amidst the swirl of national media attention from top record labels and interviews with magazines including ROLLING STONE. God used them in a powerful way to bring many people to Himself. “In a world of imitators, Love Song has been an originator, the first domino that started the others going” - Stan Jantz

LOVE SONG has reunited for their 2010 Feel The Love tour, bringing their timeless music and message to a new generation. Whether you are revisiting an amazing era called the Jesus Movement, or discovering the impact of this group for the first time, join LOVE SONG in experiencing God's love…and bring a friend.

Love Song 

...was one of the main Jesus music bands, one of the first Christian rock bands. It was founded in 1970 by Chuck Girard, Tommy Coomes, Jay Truax, and Fred Field. Additionally, the earliest members included David Ingram on keyboards, Ernie Earnshaw on drums and Jack Schaeffer on bass. It was Schaeffer who came up with the group's name. Denny Correll, formerly of Blues Image, also sang with the group early on before they became Christians. Field was replaced by Bob Wall, who played guitar on all three albums. Drummer John Mehler, who had joined the fledgling group in its infancy, then left with Field, rejoined in time to play on Final Touch andFeel the Love. Another latter-day member was Phil Keaggy, who joined to replace departing Wall in 1973 but had already left the group before the recording of Final Touch and Feel the Love.

They were a part of the Jesus Movement of the late 60s and early 70s, coming out of Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel. Their classic debut album, Love Song (1972), is considered one of the greatest Christian music albums of all time.^[1] The group toured heavily in the early 70s, becoming very popular both in the US and abroad. By 1976, the Jesus Movement was being replaced by Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) as the leading style of Christian rock, and it was becoming more business than ministry. Many of the bands that had started the movement began to break up, and after a final "Reunion Tour" in 1976 which resulted in the Feel the Love double live album, Love Song was no more.

Many of the original members continued with solo careers and a few are still performing today. In 1994, the band recorded another reunion album, Welcome Back which included new versions of the songs off the first three albums.

Love Song has released a box-set containing their first three albums plus a DVD of their 1973 concert in San Antonio. All original tapes on all three projects (Love Song, Final Touch, and the live Feel the Love albums) have been re-mastered at Mastering Lab. Recording engineer Bill Schnee assisted Tommy Coomes and Chuck Girard in the work. The drum solo has been re-included in the live album, which will mark the first time that there has been a full digitally re-mastered version of that album.

Love Song started a reunion tour in 2010 with Calvary Chapel founding Pastor Chuck Smith touring throughout the U.S.

Larry Norman 1947-2008

Larry David Norman (April 8, 1947 – February 24, 2008) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, record label owner, and record producer. He was one of the pioneers of Christian rock music. Since Norman's first professional release in 1967 as a lead singer of the one-hit wonder band People!, more than 100 of his own albums have been released through labels as Capitol, MGM, Verve, and his own independent labels: One Way Records, Solid Rock Records, Street Level Records, and Phydeaux Records.

In January 1973 Cashbox named Norman as one of the Best New Male Artists of the year. In 1989 Norman was awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award. On November 27, 2001 Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium, and was voted into the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) Hall of Fame in January 2004 by the readers of CCM magazine. In 2007 Norman was inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame, both as a member of People! and as a solo artist. At that time Norman reunited for a concert with People! In 2009 Norman was among those honored in a tribute segment of the Grammy Awards.