Steve Martin Messages
Inspirational Encouragement For You
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.”
Ahava (love) and Shalom (peace),
Steve Martin
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.
7-8 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. And now I have come down to help them, pry them loose from the grip of Egypt, get them out of that country and bring them to a good land with wide-open spaces, a land lush with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
9-10 “The Israelite cry for help has come to me, and I’ve seen for myself how cruelly they’re being treated by the Egyptians. It’s time for you to go back: I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the People of Israel, out of Egypt.”
11 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)
12 “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.”
13 Then Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the People of Israel and I tell them, ‘The God of your fathers sent me to you’; and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What do I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I-AM-WHO-I-AM. Tell the People of Israel, ‘I-AM sent me to you.’” The Message
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!
Ahava and Shalom,
Steve Martin
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. (I'll see you in heaven, Dad.)
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 forevermore.
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 (emphasis mine)
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
