“Us Four and No More” – Steve Martin, Love For His People Ministry
| Sept. 28, 2022 Charlotte, North Carolina USA Greetings to my family and friends of Love For His People Ministry. We all need friends, community life, and those with whom we can live His life together. Our Lord Jesus (Yeshua) His Father, and the Holy Spirit all love family, and They want us to experience it here before we do for all eternity. And so I wrote, “Us Four, No More”. See below. David Peterman and I have also recorded several new videos (6 in fact) of our series, “Ahava Moments With You“. We now have recorded 62! Check them out, and be sure to “Like” and “Subscribe” so you know when new ones are released. (Everybody says that, so I best do so too!) I have a favorite one that I also included below, entitled The Falls Feasts of the Lord. Be involved in celebrating the Feasts of the Lord these coming days. Along with our Jewish friends, who have been the lights as the Lord directed them to be, these feasts have continued on for centuries. All believers can take part in them. They are the Lord’s feasts. Ahava and shalom,  Steve Martin, Founder, Love For His People Ministry  P.S. Please pray for our good friends for over 35 years, Edgar and Indira Persad, of Charlotte, North Carolina, along with their family (Nadira & Alan, Shamila and Joel, Robbie and his). Edgar has been in the hospital for 7 days now with a tumor in his brain. He is supposed to go on his first trip to Israel with me in late October. Our Lord creates miracles!  P.S. S. Laurie and I celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary on October 8, 2022. You can blow the shofar for that event too! |
 Us Four, No More “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart…” 1 Peter 1:22-23, NKJV Growing up it was our family practice, as often as we could, to gather together for supper around 5 pm, when my Dad was home in between his Viking Pump maintenance job and his evening entrepreneur electrical work, Martin Electrical Services. With a tribe of eight kids, the extra money was most needed. My two brothers and I think maybe some of my five sisters, helped him pull electrical wires, and such as he re-wired homes and churches and installed lawn light poles in the Cedar Falls, Iowa, community, and surrounding towns. When all 10 of us were seated at the dinner table, we prayed together the common Roman Catholic prayer, “Bless us O Lord and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive, from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” A good, short prayer of thanks. Families were very important then. And we each had our place at the table. Jokingly, or so I thought, I would sometimes hear how others prayed. “Bless us four and no more.” (That worked with those who had two kids.) When I heard it, I remember thinking to myself, “That’s not really a good prayer.” As Laurie and I had our own four kids, we were committed to raising them to know the Lord Jesus and His ways, along with those others in our “extended family” – ones in the church community who believed likewise. And so, we would have gatherings in our homes, as members of the “home group”, with me as the “shepherd”, teaching and leading, both in LaSalle/Peru, Illinois in the late 1970s and then again in East Lansing, Michigan in the 1980s. We wanted to be as “Acts 2” taught us. Acts 2:40-47, “And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” NKJV I recently heard a message from a local church pulpit that you can’t have the last part of that historical fact, “the Lord added to the church daily” until after you have done the first part, “continuing daily…broke bread together…praising God.” As part of the Victory Church Community (we actually did the “common purse” stuff in name as well as in deed with about 40 others) in LaSalle/Peru, and later moving to be a part of life at Shiloh Fellowship/New Covenant Christian Church in East Lansing, it was our common practice that we truly expressed love in action, and not just in lip service only. When a woman in the home group had a newborn baby, all would take turns bringing supper to their home to help the family. It was also our common practice to visit each other at home or in the hospital when sick, to bring encouragement, joy, the healing of the Lord, and maybe even flowers and a card (or even a stuffed “Lion of Judah” animal…) Being in a committed community was important back then. We knew each other. We cared for one another. We actually loved, and liked, one another. We practiced what our good Lord had taught His people. Yeshua did teach us to love. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35, NASU A prophet named Bob Jones, a good friend of many in these parts of the South and beyond, once asked us what the Lord had asked him, “Did you learn to love?” (He is now rejoicing in heaven.) For love to be seen it must be shown. Makes sense to me. If we say we love, then we must “do love” by actually displaying it to one another. And then the world will know, “all men will know” as Jesus promised, that we were His disciples. Do some love today. Call that one whom you know needs to hear a voice of love, or even a short, meaningful text, or through another messaging media. (But I sincerely hope it is more than that. In-person is really what matters.) Go out of your way and visit that other, who really wants to have a friend, just like you do. Be the one the Lord has called you to be. Today. And…don’t ever pray that prayer, “Us four and no more.” We are much more than that as a community reflecting the Father’s love! Ahava and shalom, Steve Martin Love For His PeopleFounder P.S. I really encourage each of you to get in a home group. If your church, congregation, or community doesn’t have one, go to one that does. You are always welcome to come to ours! Message #113 in this series – in the year of our Lord 09.28.2022 – “Us Four, No More”, Wednesday, 6:22 am in Charlotte, North Carolina |
Watch here: Walking in the Spirit (2) – Walk With Me, Ahava Moments With You, Steve Martin, David Peterman
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