Messages from Steve Martin

Encouragement, inspiration, and guidance

Be Not Unaware

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction which occurred in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.” 2 Corinthians 1:8, NASB

Battles come. Be prepared. Prayed up. Read up. Connected.

The believer’s walk is not easy. Whoever sang the song, “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” sometime back may have been reading what Paul went through in his trials. Or what we go through as we seek to walk in the calling the Lord has given us.

In this life we have trials. Promised in the Bible. And yet the best is coming. Eternal life. But as we look to heaven, and the reward that awaits us, we must continue to walk on earth in faith, in assurance of His leading us.

God’s Word says that first the natural comes, and then the spiritual. “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.” 1 Cor. 15:46, NASB

Watch Israel and the Jewish people and you will know what I am talking about.

I often wondered about the verse that speaks about “abundant life” found in John 10:10. “The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.” (Complete Jewish Bible)

At times here on earth I don’t find it so abundantly. In fact, there are days I long to be where He is, seated in heavenly places and already there. Be true – so do you.

But until our appointed mission, the one we have been apprehended for has been completed, the grace, strength, willingness, hopefulness found only in the Lord Jesus, must remain strong. For He alone is the Faithful One, the Giver of Life, the One Who carries us on unto the end.

Be not unaware that our enemy continues to war against us. In many trials, temptations, discouragements, and roadblocks. But in the Lord, we have the victory, and He will see us to the end.

Phil Wickman, contemporary worship leader, sings it well. What An Awesome God!

Believe it and keep walking on. Press forward to the finish line!

Why now at 70 and not 30?

“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him (Moses) in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush.” Acts 7:30, NASB

In Exodus, we read a little bit more of Moses' response to the Lord’s calling to him, after the Lord appeared to him. "God said, “I’ve taken a good, long look at the affliction of my people in Egypt. I’ve heard their cries for deliverance from their slave masters; I know all about their pain."God then said He had chosen Moses to go deliver them.

"Moses answered God, “But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (emphasis mine)

“I’ll be with you,” God said. “And this will be the proof that I am the one who sent you: When you have brought my people out of Egypt, you will worship God right here at this very mountain.”

When I was 30, having already been married 7 years, with my wife being just 25, with two sons and two daughters having escaped out of the womb, the Lord had already put in my heart to “go to the nations”. I can remember being 10, and my mom talking about how she had always wanted to be a missionary and telling me about it. But with her marriage and eight kids to raise, that never happened.

I think her heart became mine, which had come from the same Father.

But now, at the ripe old age of 70, that long-held desire of my heart, which He had put there, is being fulfilled. My wife Laurie and I are going to Jerusalem to volunteer at Christian Friends of Israel for three months. Finally!

But why did the Lord wait so long? Why wasn’t the time right for me to go at 30, when I, really, really wanted to? When I was young, and full of wisdom, and knew more than the Lord did. Or so I thought at times.

Looking back at the patriarchs, i.e., Abraham, Moses, even David, it is almost plain to see that the Lord loves those who are “seasoned”, “prepared”, “having gone through the wringer” (an ancient term that very old people know about.)

I do see the wisdom of the Lord now. It has only taken me 40 years. Now firmly believing, as one should, that “when I am weak He is strong”.

“Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10, NASB

God the Father seems to know what is best. After all, “Father Knows Best”, as the TV show proved, beginning in 1954 (the year of my birth) through 1960, had us all believing in a godly father, a godly mother, a loving household, and the good ways of American life back then. Before much of it was stained by the ways of the world.

My heart is to see those of you who have reached those “golden years” to realize that it is not the time to retire, to sit on the front porch swing (which I do enjoy) and read the latest Robert Whitlow novel (whom I know personally and highly recommend.)

It is time for us to use that wisdom, those years of hard knocks and knives in the back, scares on our knees from praying, and joys that we know He has blessed us with, and go to the cities, the states, the nations…and do what our great Father, the Living God of Israel, has so prepared for us to do.

Let’s go!

Once Rejected But No More

“I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He?...”Romans 11:1, NASB

All of us have felt rejection at some point in our lives. From the days of school, when some received that report card and one line had the “F” on it. Or the time we worked so hard to make the team, be it sports, an educational achievement, or the next position “up the ladder” on the job and the word came back to us, “Not good enough.”

Rejection carries pain that can linger for a long time, pushing people into dark holes, unhealthy lifestyles, or emotional stress that one cannot just rid away and have it gone.

Jesus (Yeshua) knew rejection. His own people, whom He came to save as the first ones on His list, denied He was their Messiah. They rejected His truth He spoke and demonstrated. They said, “This can’t be the One. He is not giving us rule over our enemies, the Romans.” They did not comprehend in their minds, nor in their hearts, that the Savior of the world was to first come as the Lamb, before returning as the Lion.

Walking among the Jews of Israel, as I have done so many times in their rightful Land, has given me a piece of the Father’s heart for His people, the ones whom He called, chosen, and placed in that Land to be His light to the nations, the Gentiles, the “goyim” as we are known in Hebrew.

And yet, while the nations immediately surrounding them, and throughout the world, continue to seek to steal, kill, and destroy, even as “their father” works through them, the Jews of Israel are seeing the mighty hand of the Living God of Israel, protecting, providing, and enabling them to live. He has brought them back to the land of Israel. He has not rejected them.

Though the world rejects them, the Eternal Father, the Living Savior, and the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) are constantly revealing Himself to them. As they further call upon the Lord, He is drawing them to Himself.

Paul says in Romans 11:25-27, that Israel, the Jews, will be saved. “For I do not want you, brothers and sisters, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” “This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” (NASB)

Demonstrating the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit draws the chosen ones to Himself. As believers in Yeshua (Jesus), that too is in our hearts that HaShem, Adonai, Elohim has given us. We seek to love the Jews, even as He has loved us.

And so, we shall.

Am Yisrael Chai. “The people of Israel live.”