Showing posts with label Song of Songs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Song of Songs. Show all posts

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Intimacy - Now Think On This by Steve Martin


Intimacy
- Now Think On This
by Steve Martin


“My beloved responded and said to me,
'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along.
'For behold, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
'The flowers have already appeared in the land;
The time has arrived for pruning the vines,
And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.
'The fig tree has ripened its figs,
And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along!'"

Song of Songs 2:10-13 NASU)


As my bride came down the church aisle that beautiful early evening, I sang these Scriptural words to her that I had written in my song, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along.” Though I had intended to sing several verses, I choked up on the second one. My heart was just overwhelmed at her beauty, her movement in that flowing white laced gown, and the presence of the Lord’s Holy Spirit in that place of matrimony. The time had come for us to be joined together as man and wife.

What seemed to have been a decade long wait was about to be fulfilled in that moment, as we were acknowledging the Lord’s plans and purposes for unity. Out of our desire to share the love in our hearts, He would also bring forth a family to demonstrate His love on the earth, in preparation for the eternal love in heaven.

From that day forward, we have grown in our care and provision for each other, sharing the gifts and spiritual fruit we each have had to give. In physical, emotional and spiritual intimate moments, we have experienced a touch of what the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have shared for all eternity. Believing that through the times of trials and required persistency, our hearts have been bonded together, the intimacy becoming more real in our lives together.

Being intimate with one other is not an “overnight sensation” that one can have with another simply out of a physical act. To participate in the intent of the Father’s love for mankind, there must be that commitment to be joined together for the long haul; to stand strong when the temptation is to flee; to keep the promise that was spoken at the altar years before. Intimacy is not for those who are looking for a quick satisfaction of one’s emotional lust, but is given to committed hearts who have been and continue to be willing to sacrifice for each other, time and time again. From that solid promise to stay through sickness and health, riches or poverty, until death do we part, the intimate moments are fully experienced, fulfilling the longing in each heart to be accepted, nourished and kept in committed and submitted love.

In today’s society there is the prevailing belief that there can be emotional intimacy without having a strong commitment to one another beyond a sexual act. When the Lord says that sex outside of marriage is wrong, it is because the Creator knows that a deep soulish tie will occur, bringing hurt and lasting pain when an improper joining happens. We were not created to share this intimate act in a non-binding relationship.

The emotional and physical act also carries with it a spiritual bond that has to be kept within the protected walls of marriage. Thus doing that which was intended only within the committed relationship of sacred marriage will produce an emotional scar, keeping us from experiencing real love. It will also leave a strong imprint that will need to be healed later. Our loving Father thus has warned over and over again that sexual intimacy is for the marriage bed only.

Laws are made to protect us, not to keep us from the Lord’s goodness and favor. Abiding in His laws of love and protection will bring eternal satisfaction, keeping our hearts pure and emotions strong. Breaking His loving laws will produce destruction in our spirit, soul and body.

Intimacy between a man and a woman is a beautiful gift from God. Keeping it that way is a protection for our society and the good of all mankind.

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.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  
martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  
Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Full website: Love For His People

Now Think On This #169 “Intimacy” by Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (03.29.15) Sunday at 12:30 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

Monday, February 10, 2014

Always Loved You - Now Think On This (Steve Martin)



Always Loved You


"My beloved responded and said to me, ' Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along. 'For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. ‘The flowers have already appeared in the land; the time has arrived for pruning the vines,and the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.”
(Song of Songs 2:10-12 NASU)



As she walked down the aisle that cool October evening, my heart increased with skipped beats. The original song I had written for her, using those words from Song of Songs Chapter 2, had been prepared weeks earlier. Now as I tried to sing them, soft and gentle, while playing on the borrowed six string guitar, I got choked up on the second verse. She was so beautiful. And I had waited so long.

When she finished walking the eternal length of the aisle, I had to set my guitar down before I dropped it. This was the moment to soak it all in, as our gaze upon one another filled our souls with passion. Nights of crying out to the Lord had been fulfilled. She had come.

There was a time just two years earlier when I didn’t believe this was going to happen. I had been engaged to another, and it didn’t work out. That one was meant for another. But now this beautiful young woman, whom He knew was the right one, was coming to me. Is it any wonder why I love the Lord so much? Just one look at her, my sweet Laura Jean, is enough.

This really happened, when my awesome bride Laurie entered the church sanctuary and glided to the wedding altar. Her full length, laced pure white gown covered her entire body, while hazel eyes looked at me from under the sheer veil. What could I do, except try to contain my heart from leaping out with joyous ecstasy.

And now decades later, because of His everlasting mercy, grace and provision has sustained us through the thick and thin, the joys and the sorrows, while commitment to the full days of our lives continues to keep us, we both love the Lover of our souls. He has always loved us. He has always loved you.

“I am my beloved's, and His desire is for me.” (Song of Songs 7:10)

You may have come to the place where your soul needs to know His love, of His heart for yours, of His passion and desire for you, His beautiful creation and Bride. Doubts may have arisen from rejection, while forgotten and forsaken relationships have brought you to the point of giving up on your hopes and dreams. That desire for a man who really cares. The longing for that promised wife, or maybe just a little more of living the abundant life?

There is One whose desire for you is never ending. He has sought you in your sleeping hours, in your waking moments, in your hours of grief and despair. He is the One your being longs for.

The lover of your soul knows what price has been paid for you. Yeshua has come. He has suffered the ultimate. He has risen and now lives, so that you can too. For Him to be with you through thick and thin, through joys and sorrows, until the length of your days has been done, and then beyond.

“Hurry, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices." (Song of Songs 8:14)

He has come for you. He has always loved you, and He always will.

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 Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  
martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  
  
Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople and ahavaloveletter 

           Ahava Love Letters
           
  Full website: Love For His People


Now Think On This #111 – Always Loved You  Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2014 (02.10.14 Monday at 7:00 am in Charlotte, NC).


All previous editions of my Ahava Love Letters and Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and our messages website: Ahava Love Letters

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Edge of Eternity - Olam Haba (Cathy Hargett, Highway To Zion)

Cathy Hargett - Highway To Zion Founder

Looking through the mist of time, straining to see to the other side, feet barely touching the ground, and the edge that separates these two worlds so narrow and becoming narrower, to the point that when the transition to the other side happens, I realize that I have crossed over and find myself among the King’s chariots, immersed in a battle that is not of this world.  (Song of Songs 6:12)
 
In fact, I am fighting in many battles, joined together with my fellow warriors from this world, all of us fighting alongside heaven’s armies and the Captain of Heaven’s armies. The dust is thick and the battle is raging, the fight is fierce, and my hand is frozen to my sword.  I know that my destiny is to fight this fight.  (Josh. 5:13-15; I Sam. 17:45; II Sam. 23:10; II Cor. 10:3-5; I Tim. 6:12)
 
At times He brings me out of the battle, while I am still over the edge on the spiritual side, and He speaks with me in the thick of the forest while we stand on the Path that leads to the final clearing, the Way that I know I will continue to walk on when this particular battle is done. (Isa. 35:8)
 
In the thick of the forest, the battle is still raging, while I have this respite for a little while on the Path.  Sweat streams from my brow, my breath and heart heaving from the fight, but as I look into His beautiful face, the face of the One my soul loves, He goes over the Plan and reminds me of His strategy before He sends me back in.  There is refreshing and encouragement there with Him where I am renewed with His strength but I know for now, I must go back, with His peace and purpose encompassing me about, to do the thing I’ve been trained to do until the restoration of all things. (Isa. 26:3; Ps. 27:4, 8; Song 3:4; Isa. 40:29-31; Ps. 119:105; Ps. 144:1; Rom. 8:18-24)
 
Suddenly my feet are back on a familiar foundation, a physical earth, and the mist settles around me again.  I’m back from the other side but I know I will re-enter because of my calling as His warrior/worshiper.  I am no longer bound to the natural world around me and even in the physical realm the spiritual part of my being is more and more identified with the Olam Haba (the world to come). (John 17:16; Eph. 6:12)
 
At times I am aware that I am sitting with Him high above the earthly realm in a place that I don’t yet fully know, but it’s a place He is allowing me to see, even though dimly.  And the constant Presence enveloping my soul is becoming more tangible than ever before. This is not a natural place – this is a place that I know I cannot enter without Him, but He is there, and He bids me come even though in the natural it is impossible.  This is God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and nothing is impossible with Him.  Show me the Way, Lord, for my soul clings to You.  (Eph. 2:6-7; I Cor. 13:12; Ps. 63:8)
 
There is a chasm between where these battles are fought and Olam Haba,  but I know it is soon going to give total sway to the splendor of His coming and the battles in the heavenlies, where we are participating in so many wars, skirmishes, and mind challenges,  will clear out with the breath of His mouth – the sharp Sword of Life cutting through any remaining vestige of rebellion against Him.              (II Thes. 2:8; Heb. 4:12; Rev. 19:15)


 
Who is this King of Glory?  And who am I in this world that has become so strange to me – I am looking for a City with foundations and I can see it – I am viewing a Land afar off and I see the King in His beauty.  He is allowing a glimpse of what is to come. (Ps. 24:8; Heb.11:10; Heb. 11:13-16; Isa. 33:17; Zech. 14:3-5)
 
The Ruach and the Bride standing on the edge, moving in and out of both realms, and it is now the way we live, on the edge of eternity, knowing Olam Haba is soon to come to this planet.   And every knee will bow as we welcome the King of all kings, Yeshua ha Mashiach.  This is our destiny. (I Cor. 2:13; Rev. 22:17; Php. 2:10-11; Isa. 45:23; Rev. 3:11-13, 21; Rev. 5: 5, 10)
 
Be encouraged.  Let your hope be sure and your purity be increased as you look for Him and long for His appearing.  Let’s worship the King while we stand on the edge of eternity.  (I John 3:1-3; II Tim. 4:8; Rev. 19:6-7)
 
Love and shalom in Messiah Yeshua,
Cathy

Cathy Hargett
Highway to Zion Ministries, Inc.



Editor's Note: Photos and artwork added by me. Steve Martin