Showing posts with label fear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fear. Show all posts

Monday, August 9, 2021

The Poet's Plight-Fight-Fright-Rite/Write



I cringe beneath the critic's eye
Yet crave honest un-flattery
Lest I should run ink-rivers dry
With shadows of half-poetry

I blush to feel them crush the page
Splattered with pieces of my heart
While learning to embrace the wage
As rejection finetunes the art

I laugh and weep, am lost, then found
Drawn from despair's unholy brink
Toward the Holy Parchment Ground
Of a blank page begging for ink

Janet Martin

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

The Beginning of Knowledge...



The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Prov.1:7

I have been pondering the above verse for the past week;
how fear of God or lack thereof, affects every single decision we make!
Then, lo and behold, it was the key verse in today's Daily Bread Devotion!

All things were made by Him...





The beginning of knowledge is not by some college taught
But as we meet God through his Word and revere His commands
For what starts with a niggle in our hearts or in our thought
Will soon wiggle its way into our mouth, or feet and hands

The beginning of knowledge does not age-discriminate
We are all never too old to discover something new
Our Father up in Heaven is a God of love, not hate
We prove how much we fear Him by the things we say and do

The beginning of knowledge is to fear the Lord, our God
Then tremble at His word and reverence His holy Name
Do not stand in the way that wicked wanderers applaud 
The fool that loathes wisdom's instruction will be brought to shame

The beginning of knowledge is to recognize our place
Beneath the grace of God who forgives and sets sinners free
The fool does not tremble to think of 'someday face to face'
The wise seek godly counsel with fear and humility

Janet Martin

Prov.3:7
Do not be wise in your own eyes; 
Fear the LORD and depart from evil.

Proverbs 14:26-27
He who fears the LORD is secure in confidence, 
and his children shall have a place of refuge.
The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, 
turning a person from the snares of death.

Proverbs 10:27
The fear of the LORD prolongs life, 
but the years of the wicked will be cut short.


Proverbs 11:14
For lack of guidance, a nation falls, 
but with many counselors comes deliverance.


Isa.66:4-6
So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened. But they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.” 5You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the LORD: “Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of My name have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified that we may see your joy!’ But they will be put to shame.” 6Hear the uproar from the city; listen to the voice from the temple! It is the voice of the LORD, repaying His enemies what they deserve!…

Thursday, February 18, 2021

Loving Proof

 

A new day is upon us; what waits, we do not know
Only the One who grants it can see where it will go
Then, with this sweet assurance that He will lead the way
We ought not to proceed, love, before we pause to pray

Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? 
Be strong and courageous. 
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, 
for the LORD your God will be with you 
wherever you go."

An Important Truth to learn and remember
whether we are very young or very old...



We don’t know what the day will bring 
Before its fling is through 
We don’t what we’ll lose or win 
But Lord, you do 

We don’t always love like we should 
Or use time’s gifted due 
To work toward the greater good 
But Lord, you do 

We don’t have what it takes to earn 
Eternal life, it’s true 
Or open Heaven’s gates in turn 
But Lord, you do 

© Janet Martin


Deut.6:5-8

 5Love the Lord your God with all your heart 
and with all your soul and with all your strength. 
6These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
 7Impress them on your children. 
Talk about them when you sit at home 
and when you walk along the road, 
when you lie down and when you get up. 
8Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
 9Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Choosing the Whether (for whatever waits to be)

 

Stunning start to what waits to be...


How easily and often we check the weather forecast, 
No one can choose what weather will be.
Thankfully not so with Whether;
And the Whether we choose makes all the difference in the world.
Our viewpoint is shaped by the 'whether' we choose!


Due to an unexpected week off I am on a closet-drawer-room fall-cleaning rampage!
Today, hopefully the living/dining-room.
tomorrow...um, let's wait till then to decide because plans
are always subject to change and rearrangement!




Heaven spills magenta oceans o’er emerging land and sea 
Dawn is like a door flung open to whatever waits to be 
We could hound the bounds of morrow with sorrows not suffered (yet) 
Or borrow from Present Mercy, faith to proceed step by step 

Fear is like a crouched predator too afraid to show its face 
Stalking doubt’s perimeter with harsh predictions void of grace 
Ah, we could fall prey to Dread’s bandit; fretting and forgetting He 
Who will never leave us stranded no matter what waits to be 

We are all today’s First-timers grappling with Time’s Now and Here 
Are we agile, faith-child climbers, or are we crippled by fear 
We are all in this together; tethered to the hand we’ve got 
Where God lets us choose the Whether; whether we trust Him, or not 

Happiness is not a lender favouring a Lucky Few 
It waits for all who surrender, heart and soul, to you know Who 
It is up to us to do it; take faith’s flying leap to see 
Whether God will help us through It, no matter what waits to be 

© Janet Martin 

"Be strong and courageous, 
do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria 
nor because of all the horde that is with him; 
for the one with us is greater than the one with him.
2 Chron.32:7




Saturday, October 24, 2020

Soul/Sole Security


Seems fall-lovers here in Ontario
continue to be thrilled to the max by 
an exceptionally colorful version of the season
in what has been an exceptionally trying year!
The picture below is from a photo-poem desk calendar 
I received out of the blue (no birthday or anything) the other year
from my sister; I keep re-enjoying it because there's always pages I've missed or forgotten!
(I think that's why each season never loses its splendor; the missing and forgetting😊)



No matter what season we are in
may it always be a season of prayer,
Because Time is a turbulent tide!
Sickness of body and soul 
and so much beyond our control
insist we choose either faith or fear
to be compass and guide...

Fear flings us into foaming deeps
without a hope or prayer
is the firm anchor that keeps
us from drowning in despair


We surf a sea of season-tides 
What hides in its momentous deep 
Could keep us from hope’s sheer delight 
And rob us of laughter and sleep 

We bobble between faith and fear 
Because there is no clear-cut course 
Carved through the waves that vault and veer 
And dash us with violent force 

No one can claim clear-sailing grants 
Or tame the turbulence of Test 
Where surf and turf of circumstance 
Is always volatile at best 

Nobody knows what lies ahead 
How then can we find joy and peace 
Fear fills our hearts with doubt and dread 
Where dark the doleful clouds increase 

Faith finds the anchor that abides 
In He who hears each humble prayer 
And cups the sea of season-tides 
And all its ‘surfers’ in His care 

Then since, beyond our control
The toll of time rolls like the sea
Surely the faith that makes us whole
Is our sole/soul security

 
© Janet Martin 

Matthew 8:26
"You of little faith," Jesus replied, "why are you so afraid?" 
Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, 
and it was perfectly calm.

There are SO many seasons in life not marked by a calendar!
For whatever season we are in here's hoping
we have a Friend to weather whatever the weather be...






Wednesday, August 19, 2020

The Real Covid-test



This 'Covid-test' we are all caught in
is certainly showing us what happens 
when Fear takes the reign/reins!
God help us!

When Fear governs
Havoc ensues!
When Faith anchors
Hope renews

 My Faith Looks Up To Thee

 

 



Fear wreaks havoc
Faith grants peace
Fear takes captive
While Faith frees

Fear clings wildly
Faith lets go
Faith yields wonder
Fear yields woe

Faith is God-fixed
Fear, a noose
Faith or fear
Which will we choose?

Fear will hobble
Faith IS shod
Fear seeks reasons
Faith trusts God

© Janet Martin
 
What is the worst/best thing that can happen
to the household of faith?!!
Death then Heaven
 
 “I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.  
He freed me from all my fears.”
 
  “Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand, 
so that he will lift you up in his own good time.  
Leave all your worries with him, 
because he cares for you.” 
 
 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
 I will fear no evil, for you are with me; 
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
 
 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear,
 but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

 

 

Saturday, July 11, 2020

Where Fear of God Has Ceased...





We vow that we are smarter now than they were ‘way back when’
Those terrible mistakes they made we will not make again
But then the way it always was, is; history repeats
Because good versus evil never offers easy streets
And as long as the earth remains people will be at odds
And many will be fooled by what Popular Voice applauds
And many, hoping things will not turn out the way they fear
Put faith in something they can see rather than trust/revere
And like a dog returns to its vomit, after the feast
So fools return to folly where the fear of God has ceased

© Janet Martin


 Proverbs 26:11
As a dog returns to its vomit, 
so a fool repeats his folly.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Fear or Faith


A few wonderful hymns of comfort.


Version #1

Fear hoists its dark harpoon
Anxiety and dread
Cause chaos in a sea of doom
Where faith in God is dead

Faith lifts hope’s beacon high
What tender peace it gives
As believers take up the cry
God is not dead, but lives

© Janet Martin

Version # 2


Fear hoists its dark harpoon
Waves of dread and despair
Cause chaos in a sea of doom
And anguish without prayer

Faith lifts its Mustard Seed
Hope and peace flood the soul
As Trust grants courage to proceed
For God is in control


© Janet Martin
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. 
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Hebrews 3:6
But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house.

 And we are His house, if we hold firmly
 to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.

Having faith does not mean we are never afraid. 
See message below...