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Showing posts with label shalom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shalom. Show all posts
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Forgive, Forget, Move On - Now Think On This by Steve Martin
Forgive, Forget, Move On
Now Think On This
Steve Martin
“Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-15, NASU)
Have you ever noticed the “tools of the trade” that fishermen, who want to catch the bottom-feeding fish, use? One of them that I am aware of is the sinker, the little lead ball-shaped object. Once tightly fastened to the fishing line, not too far from the hook and bait, its purpose is to take the fishing bait to the bottom of the pond or lake. That is where the bottom-feeders are sucking up what garbage and other less-nutrient food particles end up once they have fallen to the bottom. Down to where it is dark and murky.
The enemy of our soul likes to hang around bottom-feeders. These are the ones who have been hurt, wounded and continue to walk around in bitterness. They too would rather live where it is dark and murky; where leaden lines bring down more bait to subsist on. Rather than forgive and forget, as we are commanded to do, they choose to hang onto the hardness of heart which has resulted, and stay as they are. Living in darkness, in the basement, means you don’t have to face the light. "No more chance to get hurt again by others" is your mindset.
But in fact, it is the light which will save you from the darkness. It is getting the infection out, the scab removed, the hurt and wounds healed that will give you the life you were meant to be free to participate in. The cross of Jesus sets us free from all this.
I have seen many people wounded in their walk with Christian brethren, both from leadership and other members of the church congregation. Rather than walk in forgiveness and forgetting what lies behind, they instead make the choice to not let go of the hurt and carry their wounds. What once was great fellowship and sharing a common bond in the Lord’s grace and mercy, it has instead become an infected sore, which never seems to go away. Another church, another day, another attempt at hiding it away doesn’t make it go away.
“Bear with one another; if anyone has a complaint against someone else, forgive him. Indeed, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive.” (Colossians 3:13, Complete Jewish Bible)
The ones who resist the command to forgive will continue to grow in the hardness of heart, the darkness, that robs all of the freedom to walk in love. By not letting go, through the act of forgiveness, will keep you from the trust and forbearance we need in walking with one another. The new relationships you will endeavor to make will have the shadow of the previous ones preventing you from true fellowship.
We must learn to forgive each other continually, forgetting the past, and move on to fulfill the call and purpose we each have in the Body of Messiah. There are too many dying people out there whom we are sent to help, but will not be able to if we insist on protecting our space and not letting these things go.
“Above all these, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together perfectly; and let the shalom which comes from the Messiah be your heart’s decision-maker, for this is why you were called to be part of a single Body.
And be thankful - let the Word of the Messiah, in all its richness, live in you, as you teach and counsel each other in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude to God in your hearts. That is, everything you do or say, do in the name of the Lord Yeshua, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:14-17, Complete Jewish Bible)
We don’t have the “luxury” of being bottom-feeders. We can't continue to let offenses, being offended, and petty arguments keep us from walking in the light.
We must bring everything to the His light, to forgive those who hurt us, and get on with the work we instead must be doing. There are bigger issues to deal with, so walking in forgiveness daily is a necessity.
We must bring everything to the His light, to forgive those who hurt us, and get on with the work we instead must be doing. There are bigger issues to deal with, so walking in forgiveness daily is a necessity.
I have been hurt. You have been hurt. Insisting on living in unforgiveness will only deepen the infection that Jesus Christ died for, to save you from.
We must repent from our sin of allowing unforgiveness to rule in our hearts. There must not be any place for it in your life, nor mine.
We must repent from our sin of allowing unforgiveness to rule in our hearts. There must not be any place for it in your life, nor mine.
I am still learning how to live in forgiving others. Some days are better than others, but I have no choice but choose forgiveness, if I am to do that which He has saved me to do, and requiring of me to walk out.
I hope you are too.
Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).
Now think on this,
Steve Martin
Founder/President
Love For His People, Inc.
If these messages have ministered to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families in Israel whom we consistently help monthly through our humanitarian work. Your tax-deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.
I recorded this also: Arms of Love video message - "Forgive, Forget, Move On"
Secure, conveniently contributions can be done online now through our website using the DONATE buttons on either side column of our blog.
Contribution checks can be sent to:
Love For His People, Inc.
P.O. Box 414
Pineville, NC 28134
Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)
Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. (And all other social media platforms!)
Now Think On This - in the Year of our Lord 08.23.17 - #309 – “Forgive, Forget, Move On” – Sunday, 5:55 pm
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Who (Whose) Are You? - Now Think On This by Steve Martin
Who (Whose) Are You?
Now Think On This
Steve Martin
“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works,
and that my soul knows very well.” (Psalm 139:14, NKJV)
Struggling with self-image is quite common in all nations. We strive to live up to the perfected images blasted out through social media, television, magazines, radio and newspapers. If we aren’t the “perfect” specimen, then we have a problem. Or we “are a problem” and unacceptable. Right?
Aren’t you far too often made to believe that - daily, continually, until you actually believe it, and think it must be true? It doesn’t matter if you are 10, 17, 25, 48 or 63. Or even the golden age of 82 and beyond. We have all struggled with not being accepted, but rejected, for who we are. Or who we are made to believe we are not.
We all are so bombarded with what is the “norm”, that we lose all matter of reality, and Whose we really are.
We each for sure have had a degrading parent, a demanding boss, a deliberate, insecure person in leadership who believes they know who we are and what we should be. They have asked the question so pointedly to us, either out loud or silently to themselves and others around us, “Why can’t you live up to the expectation and perfection that I demand of you?”
How wearing on our soul that becomes. Not receiving the encouragement needed, but instead getting the regular dose of that which discourages us, which makes us feel and believe we are less than what we should be. As a human being no less.
But who is to be our judge? And who sets the so-called life standards? Who decides who is worth living, even from conception, or who can continue to live on?
“If you can’t function “normal” anymore, you are gone.”
Who has the authority and right perspective, taking all matters of judgment into being, in deciding if your very being is worth the very ground you stand on?
Here is the answer! Here is the One Who alone can, and will, decide who you are, who you were created to be, who you can be if your trust and confidence rest in Him.
Take this truth from the very one Who created you. Believe the One who knows all, sees all and will establish you in all.
“Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God — you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration — what a creation!
You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.
Your thoughts — how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them — any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!” (Psalm 139:13-18, THE MESSAGE)
Often I purposefully quote the Lord’s Word to myself, which declares, “my times are in Your hands.” It is He who decides the what, when, how, and so what in my life.
As He states so forthright in Psalm 31.
“You, O Lord, I put my trust; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness.
2 Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily; be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me.
3 For You are my rock and my fortress; therefore, for Your name's sake, Lead me and guide me. 4 Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my strength. 5 Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.
6 I have hated those who regard useless idols; but I trust in the Lord. 7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities,
8 And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a wide place.
9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body! 10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
11 I am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances; those who see me outside flee from me. 12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I hear the slander of many; fear is on every side; while they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life.
14 But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, "You are my God."
18 Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
19 Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men! 20 You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord, for He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city! 22 For I said in my haste, "I am cut off from before Your eyes"; nevertheless, You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You.
23 Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person.
24 Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” (NKJV)
Yes, we have the One Who will preserve us, Who will strengthen our heart; Whom we can place our hope in and know that He Who is faithful will always be faithful.
Be assured today, that whatever, whoever comes against you, that your Creator stands with you, and will see you to the end.
Thank You, Jesus. We love You, Yeshua.
Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).
Now think on this,
Steve Martin
Founder/President
Love For His People, Inc.
If these messages have ministered to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families in Israel whom we consistently help monthly through our humanitarian work. Your tax-deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.
Contribution checks can be sent to:
Love For His People, Inc.
P.O. Box 414
Pineville, NC 28134
We'd love to keep in touch with you.
Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.) Please share Now Think On This with your friends. Steve Martin
Now Think On This - in the Year of our Lord 08.13.17 - #306 – “Who (Whose) Are You?” – Sunday 5:35 am
Friday, August 11, 2017
SHABBAT SHALOM ALL ISRAEL!
SHABBAT SHALOM ALL ISRAEL!
We send blessings upon ye heads - to all our Israeli friends and to all the good people around the world who stand with you daily with love and encouragement!
May you know even more today the love of Yeshua, as He continues to bring you back to the Land He promised to give to you, to your Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Wherever we stand, we stand with Israel!
Ahava and shalom,
Steve & Laurie Martin
Love For His People
Charlotte, North Carolina
The United States of America
Monday, July 24, 2017
Shalom, Shalom to our Highway to Zion Friends! Here's a Calendar Update for the remainder of 2017!
Photo: Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem, Israel "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure....I will seek your prosperity." (Psalm 122:6-9)
Shalom, Shalom to our Highway to Zion Friends!
Here's a Calendar Update for the remainder of 2017!
Please mark your calendar and join us for upcoming events!
J U L Y
7/29, Saturday - One New Man and Highway to Zion Assembly - 6-8pm at Steele Creek Church of Charlotte in the "little tent" at 1929 W. Arrowood Road, Charlotte, NC
A U G U S T
8/15, Tuesday - Song of Songs Study and Dance Worship - 7-8:30 pm at Raintree Country Club, 8600 Raintree Lane, Charlotte, NC
Ze'ev Nevo - Israel Media Ministries
8/18, Friday - Evening Honoring Israel at Beit Yeshua - with Ze'ev Nevo speaking!
7-9 pm - 2168 Gastonia Highway, Lincolnton, NC
S E P T E M B E R
9/12, Tuesday - Song of Songs Study and Dance Worship - 7-8:30 pm at Raintree Country Club, 8600 Raintree Lane, Charlotte, NC
O C T O B E R
10/3-10/14 - Israel Immersion Tour "City of the Great King" during Succot
Feast of Tabernacles Succah in Jerusalem
10/24, Tuesday - Song of Songs Study and Dance Worship - 7-8:30 pm at Raintree Country Club, 8600 Raintree Lane, Charlotte, NC
N O V E M B E R
11/4, Saturday - Highway to Zion Assembly with Ze'ev Nevo of Israel Media Ministries! - 7-9:30 pm at Raintree Country Club, 8600 Raintree Lane, Charlotte, NC
Come join us!
Shalom,
Cathy Hargett
Highway To Zion
Cathy Hargett, Founder
Highway To Zion
Charlotte, NC
For Additional Info or to RSVP
(Fine tuning and most photos added by Steve Martin, Love For His People)
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
South Africa’s Shalom! - Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY
South Africa’s Shalom!
Wednesday, April 05, 2017 | Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY
Although hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – have been affected by it, few in the Northern Hemisphere seem to have heard of the South African revival.
I’m not referring to the 1860 awakening led by my ancestor (by adoption) Andrew Murray[1], but to a current movement that is drawing huge crowds – especially men – to Christ. And it is my belief that there is a distinct correlation between this move of the Spirit and a general understanding and support of Israel, to whom Christians are indelibly attached – if we cut ourselves off from our Judaic roots, the Church cannot truly exist. (Romans 11.17f)
Churches in all parts of South Africa – incorporating black and white as well as English and Afrikaans-speaking – are bursting with new life as they prove a counter-cultural provocation to secularists, humanists and others (who are trying it on there too) and especially to a government rife with corruption and virulently opposed to Israel, even to the extent of virtually cutting off diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. This is in spite of the fact that it was Jews who led the resistance to apartheid in the days of the old whites-only Parliament.
One man perhaps stands out among the many leaders of this movement for the influence he has had – and that is Angus Buchan, a humble farmer who doubled as an evangelist soon after a dramatic encounter with Christ in 1979.
His campaigns reaped rewards, but then God called him to focus his attention on men – and he has been faithful to this task ever since, drawing both young and old men to weekend camps initially held at Shalom, his KwaZulu-Natal farm, for seven consecutive years.
It began with just family and a few friends but, six years later, was accommodating a staggering 400,000 men who had gathered from all corners of the land to hear the uncompromising word of God challenging them to take responsibility as head of their families by serving Christ with all their hearts.
The so-called Mighty Men’s Conferences have since spread elsewhere, including the UK, as faith in God has swept across the countryside like a prairie fire. Friends of mine from the Karoo area of the Cape, who in the early days travelled 500 miles to join the camps in far-off KwaZulu-Natal, are now involved in helping to host events in their own farming district.
Angus has proved a huge inspiration as he urges men to run their homes, love their wives and discipline their children in the fear of God, leading to inevitable clashes with political correctness. But as the corridors of political power darken, the light of Christ shines brighter.
Author of the best-selling Faith Like Potatoes which has been made into a powerful movie, Angus has also led meetings in Israel, where Pentecostal-type manifestations such as a mighty, rushing wind (see Acts 2.2) have been evident.
Moreover, the default position of many of South Africa’s churches today is an understanding of God’s everlasting love for Israel and of the church’s enormous debt to them – for the Bible, for their Saviour and much more. This is certainly reflected in the publishing realm, led by Joy magazine (also published in Afrikaans as Juig), the biggest circulation Christian periodical outside the United States. The same can be said for the popular South African news portal, Gateway News.
A recent event involving CMJ (the Church’s Ministry among the Jewish people), for whom I volunteer, bore this out in no uncertain terms. One of our workers travelled a thousand miles from Cape Town to KwaZulu-Natal to speak at a Christian gathering about the significance of Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – and how Jesus is the fulfillment of this Jewish holiday, their holiest day of the year.
About 70 people turned up to hear her at a farm in the shadow of the Drakensberg mountains, where I grew up. It so happened that a secular Israeli family touring South Africa rang to inquire about overnight guest accommodation. The owners, Hendrik and Ina Goosen, warned them that a Christian meeting would be taking place. But they said they didn’t mind, and the family – mum, dad and three children – turned up for the entire talk which was followed by refreshments. They were overwhelmed by the experience, and by the love people had for Israel.
I have re-visited my home country a number of times in recent years to see family and friends, and I became aware that it was no longer divided along apartheid lines, but between those who live in fear – the secularists who erect huge steel barriers to protect their property from burglars – and those who live by faith and in freedom, who love their neighbours and believe in the country’s future under God.
Following the latest London terror attack, a South African journalist friend of mine told me of how his daughter was commuting from Wimbledon to central London when the 7/7 terrorist attack occurred (in 2005). “She ended up taking a long walk to work along Tottenham Court Road and only found out what was happening by viewing TVs in shop windows. She was 23 at the time and very much a junior at her work, but we were proud of her witness when her colleagues asked her to pray for them all on that day.”
South Africa has a wonderful spiritual legacy. I have already mentioned the legendary devotional writer and revivalist Rev Andrew Murray who, after learning Dutch in Holland, came out from Scotland to pastor Afrikaners who had fled the British-ruled Cape in search of more favourable pastures. The country was also greatly influenced by the Pentecostal pioneers of the early 20th century – particularly John G Lake and David du Plessis – and it was around this time that the young Nelson Mandela was strongly influenced by Methodist missionaries, who also paid for his education.
My thesis of the link between Holy Spirit revival and love for the Jews is backed up by another famous Scot, Robert Murray McCheyne, along with his fellow countryman Andrew Bonar, who together encouraged the evangelization of the Jews back in the 1830s. Both led missions to Palestine (as it was then known) and Jewish communities in Europe. And when revival broke out in his local parish of Kilsyth, McCheyne took this as a sign of God’s promise to Abraham and his heirs that “I will bless those who bless you” (Genesis 12.3). God’s favour was on them because they honoured the Jews, the apple of God’s eye.[2]
On the other side of the same coin is the horrendous legacy of the so-called Berlin Declaration of 1909 in which 56 evangelical leaders concluded that the Pentecostal outpourings at Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906 and in Sunderland, England, in 1907, were of the devil. Werner Oder, a UK-based pastor and son of a Nazi, believes this amounted to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and sowed the seeds of the Holocaust.[3]
It is interesting that, despite early success in Europe, the Pentecostal movement made comparatively little impact on this part of the world whereas it has been a very different story in Asia, Africa and South America.
I appreciate that Jesus warned of deception in the last days, but I feel that sometimes we are in danger of straining at a gnat but swallowing a camel on this point. My favourite author/preacher R T Kendall, writing of how Israel as a whole failed to recognize their Messiah when he came, says: “We are all so sure that we would recognize the authentic when it arrives. You could not have told a Sadducee or a Pharisee that the Messiah would come to Israel without them knowing and acknowledging him. But he came and they rejected him.”[4]
Some years ago I received a dramatic vision of revival in Doncaster, my home town, during a celebration service involving a number of churches, and immediately shared it with those present. It was of a beautiful new square complete with fountains, trees and smart buildings, and I told them that, although I believed God was saying this would indeed become a reality, it was also a picture of revival to come.
Two weeks later the local paper published an artist’s impression precisely reflecting that vision – and this lovely square, complete with 16 fountains, now adorns the Waterdale area of the town centre and is flanked by the new municipal offices and a modern theatre called Cast, where the town’s pastors recently met for the first time for mutual encouragement. A similar feature, also with fountains, has now been announced for the area adjacent to Doncaster’s railway station.
I keep telling friends and pastors here that, if they wish to see this vision (of revival) fulfilled, they must start blessing Israel – by praying for them, helping their poor, defending them from unwarranted attack and anti-Semitism and, most of all, by reaching out to them with the very gospel which has so blessed us (Romans 1.16 & 10.14).
In South Africa, meanwhile, up to a million people are expected to descend on the central city of Bloemfontein (which, incidentally, translates “flower fountain”) in a fortnight’s time (April 22) to pray for their nation following a call from the man they have all come to know as Oom (Uncle) Angus!
Don’t forget that Jesus is returning – not to London, New York, Paris or Cape Town, but to Jerusalem, as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah! (Revelation 5.5)
If you really love Jesus, you will love the Jews!
PHOTO: MIGHTY TURNOUT - Men gather in great numbers for the Karoo Mighty Men’s Conference in the heart of South Africa’s farming community. Picture: Robert Southey
- My orphaned great-grandfather, also Charles, was brought up in the Murray parsonage in Graaff-Reinet, 500 miles from Cape Town. Our family is forever indebted to Rev Andrew Murray Snr and his wife Maria, who had 16 children of their own! ↩
- Peace in Jerusalem by Charles Gardner (olivepresspublisher.com) p164 ↩
- Peace in Jerusalem p162/3 ↩
- Why Jesus Died (Monarch Books) p40 ↩
Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon, and Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com
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