The Key to Happiness

 

Matt.22: 34-40

And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,

 they themselves gathered together.

  35One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question:

  36“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”

37Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart

and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 

39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

When love for God and fellowman

become the cause for all we pursue

then each day, no matter how unglamorous

love's roles may appear, they are  

a privilege and honour to perform!

So whatever we do today

'whether we eat or drink, 

or whatever we do, 

do all to the glory of God.'

1 Cor.10:31

Happy over the halfway mark of October already!!

How will you 'celebrate?!'

My first 'celebration' for today is repainting a room I painted last week,

and turns out I was a bit too hasty; the colour is NOT working,

though I really like it!

I have had a number of suggestions for updates for this room

from painting out the wood and bricks, 

ripping out the wainscoting, but I was hoping for something

not quite as costly or labour intensive!

Yesterday at the flooring store, we realized the paint might be

the problem, so here goes round two! 

hoping to bring it from this...

to this!

While the paint dries I will pop out to my daughter

And help her make applesauce

with some very lovely fallen apples we picked up at

a local orchard last week! 

...and yes, we soon realized her basket isn't working very well!! 😂

To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind

Requires more than verbose works of art, however kind

To follow in Jesus’ footsteps is no small enterprise

But when we do, He teaches us far more than meets our eyes

He is the Way, the Truth, the Life; when by faith love esteems

His love, He fits us for the strife of evil's vilest schemes

And girds us with grace He imparts, to do the best we can

To love God first, with all our hearts, and then our fellowman

To set our minds on things above and not on earthly things

Is possible through God whose love transforms our deep longings

To be a living sacrifice, in the light of God’s grace

Who bought our souls with a great price, sin’s wages to erase

Requires more than now and then a noble kindness shown

Love bids us live in the amen of Christ, and Christ alone

Then, through the strength He gives we can do all things, come what may

Loving God first then fellowman, as we trust and obey

His goodness and mercy will follow us until we dwell

Forevermore in the Lord’s House, saved from the wrath of hell

Where there will be no death or grief, no tears, no suffering

For all whose hour of belief delivered us to Him

For all who loved the Lord and strove, with heart, soul, strength and mind

To owe no debt save this; to love the more all humankind

Through the power of God in us, whose love perfects our own

Through the death of His Son, Jesus, sin’s debtor to atone

To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind

Compels a universal call to be more humbly kind

And love our worldwide neighbor more than thus far we have done

As we genuinely adore the Godhead, Three-in-one

And do not balk at His ‘take up your cross and follow Me’

But willingly drink from the cup that mirrors Calvary

Until the day when all proclaim, when every knee will bow

And every tongue confess the Name, mighty to save us now

To love the Lord, our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind

Will help us choose the things we ought, and through love, we will find

The Best there is to help us live and love purposefully  

Reminding us we ought to give more earnest heed to He

Who does not speak in dialects we cannot understand

So that if anyone rejects His first and great command

We cannot blame Him if we cannot find a guarantee 

To happiness; because His plan and order is The Key  

Janet Martin

So here's to pressing on, however fumbling-humbling-stumbling we go...

God is love and He is patient and forgiving

and helps us if we ask!

Whatever Our Lot In Life...

 

CeCe Winans - What A Friend We Have In Jesus (Official Lyric Video)

Whatever our lot in life today

Thank God if we have eyes to look and see

The beauty of earth and sky's grand buffet

Of evidence-proclaiming Majesty/scenery

Whatever our lot in life bestows

Thank God, if we have ears able to hear

Oft overlooked and underrated prose

From voices of nature and loved ones dear

Whatever our lot in life imbues

Thank God if we have clarity of thought

And the ability to speak and to tie shoes

And pray and praise His Name the way we ought

Whatever our lot in life appoints

Thank God for the kind counsel of His Word

Unfailing and unchanging, He anoints

All who seek Him, with guidance undeterred 

Whatever our lot in life may be

In sickness or in health, in toil or rest

Thank God, for food, clothes, home and family

For earthly hopes and struggles, heaven-blessed 

 

Whatever our lot in life, thank God

Lest we forget from whence all mercies brim

Each granted breath is grace and goodness-shod 

Each lot of life a path that leads to Him 

Then, as we thank God for all He provides

Whatever our lot in life imparts 

Darkest despair and crippling fear subsides

In the light of His gladness in our hearts

Janet Martin

The beautiful, timeless Psalm below

 was the benediction to our 

 Thanksgiving Sunday morning service...

Ps.100 NIV

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

2 Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his[a];

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Ps.100 NKJV

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, [a]all you lands!

2 Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come before His presence with singing.

3 Know that the Lord, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and [b]not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5 For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

And His truth endures to all generations.

Each Autumn (a Sonnet)

Autumn anoints awe’s points of view with fuel...

Each frame, a work of art second to none...

Each drop of rain, a heaven-rendered/splendored jewel

Each leaf a candle, kindled by the sun

Autumn anoints awe’s points of view with fuel

Each frame, a work of art second to none

Each drop of rain, a heaven-rendered/splendored jewel

Each leaf a candle, kindled by the sun

Each bloom an image of mortality

Each gourd, an opaque gleam midst frost-felled maze

Each tree, a flower-like appeal ‘pick-me!’

Each orchard, a postcard of Good Ole Days

Each swell of hill and dell, a sweeping song

Each turn of head, an elixir for hearts

Each task, permission to trespass among

Foothills no human handiwork imparts

Each morn-noon-night a glory-crowned façade

Each Autumn anoints points of view with God

Janet Martin

A Thanksgiving-living Lay

Each autumn in the heart, a lay of gratitude is stirred...

For the kind generosity of mercy’s countless ways

For goodness we can taste and see and hear, hold and let go...

Heavens and earth spill a buffet of beauty, undeterred...

Each autumn in the heart, a lay of gratitude is stirred

Heavens and earth spill a buffet of beauty, undeterred

By oft thoughtless regard for He who deserves ceaseless praise

For the kind generosity of mercy’s countless ways

For goodness we can taste and see and hear, hold and let go

For blessings poured abundantly that we will never know

For all that makes us laugh and sing and dance and pray and weep

Because true love is bound to bring sorrows that run soul-deep

To teach far-too-forgetful, far-too-hurried/worried you and I

To be more humbly grateful in our manner of reply

To the Giver of ev’ry day whose lavish grace and love

Sustains a bountiful array, far over-and-above

What we can think to ask; exceeding our wildest ken

With Benefit that He may mask in seeming loss/suffering; Amen

As seasons ebb and overflow our hearts with thankfulness

As autumn casts its golden glow through woodland’s auburn tress

As we with wonderment behold the heavens’ welkin span

And echo, like David of old, dumbfounded ‘what is man'

That you are mindful of us still, and crown us with the spoil

Of the Creator’s perfect will, to worship while we toil

And care for the work of your hands; the flocks, the herds, the beasts

The offspring of Thy first commands of ‘let-there-be’ laid feasts

Of the birds of the air, of all that swims, flies, leaps and grows

To kindle in our prayer a madrigal of gaping prose

An uncurbed surge of utter bliss no words can quite construe

For the God who made/gave all of this is mankind’s Saviour too

He bore our debt of sin and shame; He died and rose again

Lord, how majestic is Your name in Heav’n and earth. Amen

Then, as we bow before You, Lord on this Thanksgiving Day

As our gladness is outpoured in grateful lay, we pray

That this is not a one-day hymn we piously extend

But a long, ceaseless song we sing forever without end

A humble, holy, heartfelt cry of gratitude unfurled

To honour and to glorify the Saviour of the world

Who, without partiality, will pardon me and you

Then surely thanksgiving must be repentance, meek and true

For who besides God can forgive, and break the curse sin wrought

And who but God can help us live and love the way we ought

And who but God grants treasures that surpass Time's finite wink

And promises us pleasures beyond what mortal can think 

And who but God has loved like this; He forgives us and then

Showers us, undeserved, with His kind faithfulness. Amen

Janet Martin

My grandchildren invited me to come with them on their hike today.

It was my pleasure and honour!

Happy, Happy Thanks-living!! 

Rom.11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom

 and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable his judgments,

and his paths beyond tracing out!

 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God,

that God should repay them?”

For from him 

and through him 

and for him 

are all things.

To him be the glory forever!

 Amen.

CityAlight - Only A Holy God

Without a Sound, Yet Thundering

On Tuesday morning we were treated to a spectacular Production of

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

Pink wonder thunders without sound

We gaze from plots of holy ground

Beholding the heavens afire

With praise from an infinite choir

Leaving the small spectator awed

Beneath shouts of glory to God

Without a sound, yet thundering

Through mortal's finite wondering

As the heavens declare the birth

Of a new day to all the earth 

Janet Martin

Ps.19:1-4

The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament[a] shows [b]His handiwork.

 Day unto day utters speech,

And night unto night reveals knowledge.

 There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

 Their [c]line has gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.

Holy, Holy, Holy

Dear Flowers, This Brevity Is Not Goodbye

The bittersweet season for gardeners approaches once again,

when flower-wicks are snuffed and the work of

pulling, shearing and tucking begins...

Dear Flowers

This brevity is not goodbye though each year we must part

Yet, when we do I find your beauty woven through my heart

You turn me strangely sorrowful and bittersweetly glad

For fond frames filled with friendship's flower-hours that we had

...and, though I rue the loss of you when Jack Frost steals the show

I know beyond our brief adieu waits a world of hello

To keep hope humbly thankful, though farewells tug at heart strings

Love and joy always make worthwhile the sorrows Farewell brings

...and we are never far apart; the brevity between

The season of farewell and hello brims with blooms unseen

In gardens waiting beneath what seems bereft of all life

Where farewell forges paths that lead to flowers/hellos running rife  

So, though it seems that we must part; but only for a rest

The brevity between is petal-strewn and dream-caressed 

The plot that slumbers beneath blankets while winter's gale blows

Will soon waken from farewells to a world wild with hellos 

Janet Martin

My little 'helpers' from next door...

dashed about, 'saving' flowers!

Ps.103:15-18

As for man, his days are like grass;

As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

16 For the wind passes over it, and it is [b]gone,

And its place remembers it no more.

17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting

On those who fear Him,

And His righteousness to children’s children,

18 To such as keep His covenant,

And to those who remember His commandments to do them.

Spoiled For Choice

Psalm 100:3

Know that the LORD is God.

 It is He who made us,

 and we are His; we are His people,

 and the sheep of His pasture.

Isaiah 64:8

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; 

we are the clay, and You are the potter;

 we are all the work of Your hand.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, 

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand

 that we should walk in them.

Once more a smorgasbord of choice is set before our hungry eyes

Our bellies roar and soon give voice to more than we may first surmise...

Two wedding showers this weekend to celebrate our daughter's marriage

allowed us to be spoiled for choice of yummy refreshment...

and allowed our daughter to be showered with gifts/aka love!

On any given day we are spoiled for choice as we gaze at Mercy's Feast!

Once more life’s workaday resumes its give and take of smiles and tears

Day breaks across a splay of tombs left in the wake of Yesteryears

What was is gone; what waits to be, veiled by breath-sheer breadth of What Is,

The gaping yon of history shaped by Now-and-here’s That and This

Once more we meet God-granted morn and touch feet to tarmacs of grace

The heart, oft sweetly-softly torn twixt shiny, new and fond embrace

But no one can afford to waste Gift of Today in vain lament

While untried hordes of touch-and-taste soon slip away to Season spent

Once more a smorgasbord of choice is set before our hungry eyes

Our bellies roar and soon give voice to more than we may first surmise

Each soul approaches Mercy’s feast, with gratitude or thoughtless greed

For Want exposes man or beast in replies strewed, oft without heed

Once more we face what waits to be where He who grants life never fails

He sustains grace; His Constancy not by wild chance where love prevails

No matter what today may bring, fear not what lurks 'neath its façade

For we are not fortune’s play-thing; we are the workmanship of God

Once more we hold in hands and heart, Time's gift we too oft barely scan

Holy the gold, moments impart; holy the woo of God to man

Once more, Lord, we are spoiled for choice as at Mercy's buffet we gaze

Then thankfully lift our voice in melodies of humble/heartfelt praise  

Janet Martin

Spending time with extended family on both sides reminded me again

what a beautiful thing family is, and how dearly I love them all!

A glimpse of how God loves us infinitely more than we can

possibly imagine and showers us with gifts!

Sisters...💕💖💗