“Matchmaker” by Steve Martin

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Matchmaker

We all remember the movie “”Fiddler on the Roof”. Especially the one with Chaim Topol as Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman in early 20th-century Russia. I love his character!

Remember the matchmaker, the old lady who brought a young man and a young woman together? And the song the daughters sang, as their hearts longed for a good husband? (Full lyrics below.)

I love it when I see the good Lord connecting people for His purposes and plans. And when He brings together a man and a woman, as He fully intends in His awesome family plans. It is so special and the families rejoice as they should in celebration.

Marriage between a man and a woman should not be a decisive thing. Nor should we allow the enemy of the Lord and His people to make it so. Just basic “sight and science” show His creative design and great achievement to bring more on earth for His eternal family.

That is what a father, and the Father, has always wanted. And trust me, HE will always get what He wants. I can rest in that.

For those longing for a good husband, or a good wife, seek the Father who already knows who it is. And then be patient as He brings you together in love and grace.

Matchmaker! Make them a match! And we will give thanks to You again in joy and love!

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

 

Matchmaker, Matchmaker lyrics

Tzeitel you're the oldest
Yente has to arrange a match for you before she can make one for me
Oh Yente, Yente
Well, somebody has to arrange the matches
Young people can't decide these things themselves
She might bring someone wonderful
Someone interesting
And well off
And important
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Make me a match
Find me a find
Catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book
And make me a perfect match
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
I'll bring the veil
You bring the groom
Slender and pale
Bring me a ring for I'm longing to be
The envy of all I see
For Papa
Make him a scholar
For mama
Make him rich as a king
For me, well,
I wouldn't holler
If he were as handsome as anything
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Make me a match
Find me a find
Catch me a catch
Night after night in the dark I'm alone
So find me match
Of my own
Since when are you in a match, Chava?
I thought you had your eye on your books

And you have your eye on the Rabbi's son
Well, why not?
We have only one Rabbi and he has only one son
Why shouldn't I want the best?
Because you're a girl from a poor family
So whatever Yenta brings, you'll take, right?
Of course right
Hodel, oh Hodel
Have I made a match for you
He's handsome, he's young
Alright, he's 62
But he's a nice man, a good catch, true?
True
I promise you'll be happy
And even if you're not
There's more to life than that
Don't ask me what
Chava, I found him
Won't you be a lucky bride
He's handsome, he's tall
That is from side to side
But he's a nice man, a good catch, right?
Right
You heard he has a temper
He'll beat you every night
But only when he's sober
So you'll alright
Did you think you'd get a prince?
Well I do the best I can
With no dowry, no money, no family background
Be glad you got a man

Matchmaker, Matchmaker
You know that I'm
Still very young
Please, take your time
Up to this minute
I misunderstood
That I could get stuck for good

Dear Yenta
See that he's gentle
Remember
You were also a bride
It's not that
I'm sentimental

It's just that I'm terrified
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Plan me no plans
I'm in no rush
Maybe I've learned
Playing with matches
A girl can get burned
So
Bring me no ring
Groom me no groom
Find me no find
Catch me no catch
Unless he's a matchless match

 

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Lewis Bock Jerrold / Sheldon Harnick

Matchmaker lyrics © ACUM Ltd., Audiam, Inc, Concord Music Publishing LLC

 

Love For His People Ministry was founded in 2010 by Steve & Laurie Martin. Charlotte, NC USA

“They Love Too” - messgage by Steve Martin

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They Love Too

 

One of the joys of traveling in ministry is meeting new people. Especially those who are halfway across the USA in the state of Texas.

 

On Monday, while with our Christian Friends of Israel ministry team, I met and spent time with three couples (one my age in their 70s and two the age of my children, in their 40s) at a home meeting of about 24. (It was a big house. Yes, everything is big in Texas as they say.)

 

I like their names. I particularly love their heart for the Lord Jesus and thus their hearts for Israel and His Chosen people the Jews.

 

Ben is married to Cristen (her spelling.) James and Jamie are almost newlyweds (in their 70s.)

 

Thomas is from Pennsylvania but moved to Dallas 50 years ago. (Says he is not an NFL fan, so no Dallas Cowboys support there.) His wife Julie treasures him. (Just an observation.)

 

I gave them each a copy of my 40th book, “Back To Jerusalem”, being we had been talking about the red heifers in Shiloh, with a chapter in the book, with an abundance of photos of course!

 

Laurie and I had the joy of seeing the four red heifers, originally Texan cattle, now in Israel, in December 2025. I was able to interview their keeper, Larry Borntrager, a Mennonite from Indiana, and write of him also in a full chapter.

 

These are good people who support Israel too.

They continue to learn of the Lord’s heart for the Land and those He has, and continues to, bring back, to their promised Land.

 

 As believers, He has chosen us to lift up Jewish arms and bring His love to them. Blessing them brings blessing to us.

 

“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.” Isaiah 40:1

 

As we continue to travel this vast land of Texas, taking His Word of support as Christians for the Jews and our comforting work in Israel, His Holy Spirit, Ruach HaKodesh, is directing our steps (and loaded van) to meet more who love Him, and love His people.

 

Be blessed as you do the same.

 

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Steve Martin, James Tyler

#love #Jesus #Israel #Jews #JamesTyler #Texas #ChristianFriendsofIsrael

Valued in His Eyes - Steve Martin, Love For His People

Valued in His Eyes

“As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, and You place me in Your presence forever.” 

Psalm 41:12, NASB

It used to be that a penny was worth something. In fact, I remember when, as a little kid, even as old as 10, my dad would bend down to pick up a penny off the sidewalk that had fallen from another.

“To some people, this isn’t worth the effort. But to me it is”, he would say. He knew what it was like to be poor, and made sure his family never was. Mom said he would tell her, “I work two jobs, 60 hours a week, so my family and I will never be poor again.” Louis Martin gave his all for his family.

As of 2025, each penny costs $.03 to make. So, the government is planning on doing away with it. I guess it is a good thing, then, that I took my pennies to the coin machine at Food Lion to cash them in last week. No one will pick them up off the street again. There will not be any.

Being thankful that the Lord continually shows His love and how He values us is so important to our self-esteem. Without His ongoing affirmation, approval, and encouragement towards us, the lies of the world would beat us down to the point that we give up, turn back, or simply quit.

We are valued in His eyes. He created us. He wants us to be with Him, in His family, now and forever more.

He proved it then, and He proves it now as we spend time with Him.

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20, NASB

We are worth more than a penny. We are worth the life the Lord Yeshua (Jesus) freely gives us as we abide with Him in our daily walk. Keep on walking with Him as your guide.

 Ahava and Shalom,

Steve Martin

We welcome your prayers and support as we together bless Israel and His people in their Land.

Contributions are welcome online by clicking here on our webpage, when you look for the little DONATE button on each side column, Love For His People uses. DONATE HERE.

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Love For His People Ministry 12120 Woodside Falls Rd. Pineville, North Carolina, USA

Message #11 in my new series (2025): “Valued in His Eyes" - Aug. 12, 2025

#ValuedinHisEyes #SteveMartin #love #LoveForHisPeople #LouisMartin #poor #Jesus #Yeshua #JesusChrist #Jerusalem #grapes #grapevine #penny

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR OR LOVE YOURSELF? Cathy Hargett, Highway To Zion

 

                                             LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR OR LOVE YOURSELF?

By:  Cathy Hargett

August 3, 2025

 In a world where there seems to be no lack of people loving themselves and exalting themselves, perhaps the second greatest commandment makes sense - or maybe not?  Are we supposed to love ourselves first and then our neighbor?

Here is how Yeshua answered when one of the Torah scholars asked Him which is the greatest commandment in the Torah:

“And He said to him, ‘You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

(Matthew 22:37)

And then Yeshua went further and told the Torah scholar the second greatest commandment:

“And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’ ”

(Matthew 22:38-40)

Note that Yeshua said that these two commandments are the foundation for the entire Torah. In other words, without both of them, you do not have the Torah in its completeness, in its fulfillment.

And remember this, Yeshua said He did not come to abolish Torah but to fulfill it with His very life:

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Torah or the Prophets! I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.”

(Matthew 5:17)

To go right to the point, with the question “are we to love ourselves first and then love our neighbor”?  I think not.  The main reason for my conclusion is that Yeshua did not say there are three greatest commandments; i.e., “love God, love yourself, and love your neighbor”. No, He said there were two greatest commandments – “love God and love your neighbor as yourself”.

Getting to this conclusion was not without much prayer and study, especially because of the strain to filter out all the background noise and the voices “in the world”, and even in Christian psychology and counseling. So many of these voices are crying out to us with human logic, encouraging us to embrace “self-esteem” and “self-care” and to build ourselves up. But God says we are to build ourselves up in our most holy faith (Jude 20). It’s the Word that divides our flesh from our spirit (Hebrews 4:12). This is how we can hear the Lord. The answer for us, as followers of Yeshua, is in the Word, not in the world.

From what I have learned from the Scriptures, mankind does not need to practice ways to love themselves. It’s our default value. It’s clear in this passage:

“After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body….”

(Ephesians 5:29)

To be clear, the Lord made us in His image. This is our identity, but it is not the same as self-love. Neither are we to be self-deprecating. We are to respect and honor everything He has made. We honor Him who lives inside our mortal flesh. He gives us the responsibility to take care of His creation, which does include our own bodies. We are to steward everything that He has given us. He values us, and we are in awe that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. In this regard, yes, we have our identity. And in a manner of speaking, we can say, we love what He has made and we take care of it.

This is very different from being “lovers of ourselves”.  God makes this distinction in the Scripture when He says that being lovers of ourselves is not a good thing:

“..There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - ”

(II Timothy 3:2)

We are admonished throughout the Scripture not to love ourselves but to love others. This is the lesson we are taught, not the lesson about loving ourselves. We are to think of ourselves with “sober judgment”, to understand who we are, not to despise ourselves or to exalt ourselves, but to give freely of all that He has created us to be:

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”

(Romans 12:3)

 He is teaching us how to do what He has required – in Him:

 “with humility, consider others as more important than yourselves, looking out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others.”

(Philippians 3:3-4)

“Let your attitude toward one another be governed by your being in union with the Messiah Yeshua.”

(Philippians 2:5)

And let’s not miss that Yeshua is the fulfillment of Torah. He desires us to walk in this way, too. In this way we join our Rabbi in reflecting Torah and the Prophets:

“So in all things, do to others what you would want them to do to you – for this is the Torah and the Prophets.”

(Matthew 7:12)

Finally, and amazingly, let’s really listen to what Yeshua told us about the first and second commandments. He said that the “second commandment is like the first commandment”.

“And the second is like it..”

(Matthew 22:39)

This is the major key to the revelation of what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves. And it answers the question, “Are we to love ourselves”? 

I prayerfully asked Him, “in what way is the second commandment like the first commandment?”. “What do You mean that the second is like it?” He explained this to me with these words “love Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor the same way that you love Me, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength”. When you do this, you will fulfill all the Torah and the Prophets.

I am remembering, too, when Yeshua gave instructions to His disciples. He said, “a new commandment I give to you – to love one another..”. He is, once again, revealing the “Transcendent Torah”, higher than we’ve understood Scripture before. Not only are we to love Him, to love God, but we are also to love others the same way we love Him, with everything we’ve got.

There is only one way we can do this. We must allow Him to love us, to receive His great love for us. It’s not self-love that we need to nurture. It is the love of God inside of us that we must have in order to obey the first and second greatest commandments. In this way, yes, we do love ourselves, as the expression of Messiah inside of us, and only because He first loved us and chose us to be His. He is inside of us. He dwells here. In this way we understand that His life abides inside these mortal bodies, His temple. Because of this miracle, we are empowered to love others as we love ourselves.

Cathy Hargett
Highway to Zion Ministries
http://www.highwaytozion.org

#LOVEYOURNEIGHBOR #LOVEYOURSELF #CathyHargett #HighwayToZion #Jesus #Torah #Yeshua #Scripture #love

"Family" - Steve Martin, Love For His People

 

Family

 

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, And all the families of the nations will worship before You." Psalm 22:27, NAS

Sitting on the back porch of my brother Tom Martin’s house in Cedar Falls, Iowa, as the sun rises in the east, brings back memories of our days growing up in Cedar Falls, Iowa, just north up the road on Hwy. 218 an hour or so. 

Tom and I, along with our little brother Rob, had five sisters between us. Sue, Mary, Colleen, Janet, and Lynn completed the sibling count of eight. Dad and Mom raised a good Catholic family during the 1950s and 1960s.

Family and the memories they bring can be a solid foundation for each of us. Though some are happy to get on with life, leaving their childhood years behind with all the trauma and conflict that went with it, the Lord desires His children to be raised in a good family, with a loving Dad and Mom in the home, and children that honor, respect, and cherish their parents, brothers and sisters.

"Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only right. Honor your father and mother” is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely, “so you will live well and have a long life.” Ephesians 6:2-3, The Message

I could speak on the problems destroying family life today, as there are many, but I choose to consider the blessings that do come when men and women have families, seeking to follow the Lord and His ways.

There are good families in our society these days. There are those who have committed themselves to know the Lord Jesus (Yeshua) and walk in His ways, as He intended.

The man and woman who come together, in godly marriage as set by the Creator, will in turn give themselves, in sacrifice, to have children, with the full intent of raising them to know and fear the Lord.

They will seek to forgo worldly pleasures, to lay down their needs and wants for the sake of the ones the Lord has given into their care.

These men and women believe that children are a blessing from God. They “go without”, as my parents did, to give more to the boys and girls they have in their care, so they too learn the purpose of family and the love it expresses from the Father’s heart.

A society with strong families has the strength to resist ungodly principles, withstand attacks from unruly individuals, and the fortitude to stand firm when forces rise against them from all sides.

I am always encouraged when I see young Israeli families walking the streets of Jerusalem, carriages being pushed by fathers, mothers walking alongside in their place of dignity, honor, and love for all.

This is the intent of our heavenly Father, who looks down with pleasure and enjoyment Himself on those who choose to walk in His plans and purposes.

For those of us in our later years, we can encourage the younger generations to give themselves to having families, as the Lord purposed. To live for others whom He would place in their care. To reveal His heart to the nations, through the prime example of godly families.

I also want to thank you, who are now grandparents, for the tremendous sacrifices you made years ago, giving of yourselves for your children, and who now enjoy the fruit of your labor as your grandchildren rise up among you.

“Well done, good and faithful servants!”

Ahava and Shalom,

Steve Martin

P.S. Laurie and I are volunteering in Jerusalem, Israel, with Christian Friends of Israel for three months, Oct. 15, 2025 – Jan. 12, 2026. Read all about it! Steve & Laurie - Time Coming for Jerusalem Volunteers.

We welcome your prayers and support as we together bless Israel and His people in their Land.

In addition, we are indeed grateful for your support, as it costs this ministry to send these messages each week. For example, Love For His People’s Constant Contact subscription is $45/month alone. We also have no paid staff to prepare them, but it does cost. To continue sending these weekly messages, I need your help. Thank you.

Contributions are welcome online by clicking on our webpage, when you look for the little DONATE button on each side column, Love For His People uses.

 Are you new to these messages, or has another shared them with you? Sign up here to receive it directly in your email InBox. Click on the nice, full of brew coffee mug with the Love For His People logo on it, found on each side column of the webpage. You will be glad you did! Sign Up for Steve Martin's Messages

Love For His People Ministry 12120 Woodside Falls Rd. Pineville, North Carolina, USA

Message #9 in my new series (2025): "Family" July 27, 2025

#Family #SteveMartin #LoveForHisPeople #Jesus #God #love #parents #grandparents #father #mother #servants