“Encouragement” - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

“Encouragement”

“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15:4-6, NASU)

Courage comes. Courage delivers. Courage allows us to hear the Lord, obey His commands, and see the world touched out of His grace and mercy working through us as we go forth.

I remember reading the required book, “The Red Badge of Courage” in high school about a young Union soldier during the Civil War. It was later made into a movie in 1974, starring Richard Thomas of “The Waltons” TV series. (Our family loved that show. With 8 kids in ours, we could relate to theirs!)

Though I don’t recall a lot of the details, the young soldier discovered he needed more within him than what he had, to carry out the mission he was about.

All of us need more courage. We are called by God to be on a specific mission, to carry out His command to take the Gospel to all the nations. Some will do it while communicating in friendship among their neighbors. Others will be a light in the work office, being there to speak hope and encouragement to the other staff members who may be struggling to make ends meet or who need a word of truth and love in helping the difficult child at home.

Still, others will hear the call to join a mission organization, or travel through contacts in their church congregation, to bring the light of the Gospel to the distant land.

But more likely our need for courage proves itself most in the ongoing struggle we face daily as we stand strong against the winds of change, the forces arrayed against believers, who are committed to adhering yet to the principles and foundational stones found in the eternal Word of God. Even as the Bible itself is mocked, lied about, and spoken as irrelevant to this day and age, we who have been taught the truth must be the ones to stand strong upon it.

Joab, a commander under King David, called on his fighting men to be of good courage.

“When Joab saw that the battle line was against him before and behind, he chose some of Israel's best, and put them in battle array against the Syrians. And the rest of the people he put under the command of Abishai his brother, and they set themselves in battle array against the people of Ammon. Then he said, "If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the people of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you. Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in His sight." (1 Chronicles 19:101-13, NKJV)

Today, Jews in Israel must also always on the alert and must stand ready in good courage to protect their families and their God-given promised land. Christians supporting Israel and the Jews will also need to stand strong in good courage, as they also face the demonic onslaught of the fallen angel and his hordes who hate them and us to the utmost.

As I have written many words of encouragement and inspiration received through the Holy Spirit to share with those who read them, it is He Himself Who is the One we must continually turn to. He saw that we would have words to read and consume, in order to be built up daily with His spoken and written words from the Scriptures themselves. The Psalms, the Proverbs, the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible), the Prophets, the Gospels, the Epistles (almost 90% or more written by Jews through the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit) have been given to us, believing Jews and Gentiles, to bring us through to the glorious end that awaits us.

As you get serious about reading the Bible I pray you are encouraged in your walk. Hear the Word of God, read the Word of God, walk out the Word of God. For through these everlasting words we will receive the encouragement to fulfill the call on our lives, and see His kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.

May you be richly blessed then to bless others you touch around you in these coming days.

Now think on this and see what good things the Lord has in store for you and those around you.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

*The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). Taking place during the American Civil War, the story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. Wikipedia

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Now Think On This #442 - in the year of our Lord 07.21.19 – “Encouragement” – Sunday, 7:00 pm

A Lesson for the Jews From 'The Waltons' - RAFAEL MEDOFF/JNS.ORG CHARISMA NEWS

A Lesson for the Jews From 'The Waltons'

4/4/2016 RAFAEL MEDOFF/JNS.ORG  charisma news

(From l to r) Ralph Waite, Richard Thomas and Michael Learned starred in the CBS television drama, "The Waltons." (Wikimedia Commons )

The passing of a television writer is not the sort of event that usually raises questions about the future of American society.

But the recent death of Earl Hamner Jr., creator of the 1970s series "The Waltons," coming as it does in the midst of an exceptionally tumultuous political season, invites fresh consideration of the state of the country—and its implications for American Jewry.

The Waltons, which debuted on CBS in 1972, was an hour-long drama that followed the lives of a family in rural West Virginia during the Great Depression. Based on Hamner's own childhood, The Waltons highlighted values such as hard work, religious faith, modesty, and the importance of family togetherness.

Throughout its nine years, The Waltons was one of the most popular shows on television. It's not unreasonable to conclude that the values which it promoted values were held in high esteem by most Americans in the 1970s.

When The Waltons was cancelled in 1981, Hamner began writing a new series for CBS, called Falcon Crest. One might say that it was the moral opposite of The Waltons. Set in contemporary times, Falcon Crest featured corrupt family members battling each other for control of a winery in northern California's Napa Valley. Greed, cruelty, deceit, backstabbing, and marital infidelity were among its major themes. Like The Waltons, Falcon Crest lasted for nine years.

Of course, television shows rise and fall for all sorts of reasons, but with the benefit of hindsight, one can see Hamner's two shows as indications of a certain transition in American culture. The wholesome Waltons family appealed to a generation that revered old-time values. The fact that The Waltons was supplanted by Falcon Crest(and similar shows, such as Dallas and Dynasty) were symbols of the erosion of traditional values and an increasing coarseness in American society. 

That coarseness has been on fully display in the current political season. Donald Trump has pioneered a new political style that is awash in vicious insults, wild threats, and crude vulgarities—yet he continues to maintain a significant base of support. And some would argue that the problem is more than just a matter of his distasteful style.

Recently, Trump's harsh manner, together with his suggestions that he would take extreme steps such as placing restrictions on the press, have prompted some critics to warn that a Trump presidency would move America in the direction of authoritarian rule.

Such fears may not give enough credit to the various legal and other safeguards that are in place to prevent any substantial changes to America's democratic system. Still, it would be foolhardy not to acknowledge that some of those safeguards could prove fragile if they are seriously tested.

The question of "Can It Happen Here?"—could Americans embrace totalitarianism—has long been the subject of heated discussion, in the Jewish community and beyond. A classic novel in this genre was the 1935 best-seller, It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis.

Written just two years after Adolf Hitler's rise to power, he book chronicles how a corrupt but charismatic politician, Buzz Windrip, rises to the presidency by appealing to nationalist sentiment and making pie-in-the-sky promises (such as giving every American a $5,000 government grant each year).

Aspects of Windrip's platform are somewhat similar to what one hears today from both Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders. Once in power, Windrip crushes all dissenters and imposes totalitarian rule.

All of which brings us back to The Waltons, which was set in the same time period as Sinclair Lewis' novel. In one particularly memorable episode, the family's eldest son, John-Boy, hears on the radio about book-burnings in Nazi Germany. He exclaims, "Burning books is like burning people! Why would people do such craziness?"

A local clergyman then attempts to organize a public burning of Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, and other German-language books. But John-Boy forestalls the burning at the last moment when he points out that one of the books thrown into the pile to be ignited is a German edition of the Bible.

Leaving aside the question of whether burning Mein Kampf is the moral equivalent of the Nazis burning great works of art, literature, and science, the writers of that Waltons episode did raise a valid point about what can happen when a mob mentality takes over.

And Jews—probably more than anyone else—understand that the abandonment of civility, combined with social and economic anxiety and appeals to extreme nationalism, can be a lethal mix indeed.

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and author of 16 books about Jewish history, Zionism, and the Holocaust.

For the original article, visit JNS.org.

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