That Which Hope Veils or With Quietness and Confidence

The old week ended with a hard day's work in the garden...

(I had a bit of a 'what if we get frost?!! panic- moment 

on that crisp morning, so I picked all the ripening tomatoes)

and then, because our generous neighbour lent us his loader we

pulled out a lot of plants as well...

At break time Neighbour's puppy came for some Jim-love...

 

A new week begins and who knows what waits, but God!

What perfect reason then, to proceed in step with God

How do we begin to do that?

With godly repentance that leads to salvation without regret!

Without regret because when God forgives

He remembers our sin no more!

Because what God gives this world cannot begin to comprehend

2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret,

but worldly sorrow brings death.

Isa.30:15

For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

Isaiah 48:17

Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit,

who directs you in the way you should go.

The end that waits beyond the part of seeing, choosing, doing, oh

Of loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, then fellowman

Of trusting through the thick and thin of joy and sorrow's high and low

Until the end that will begin that which hope veils of Master Plan

...where wage of unrepentant sin is death; the gift of God is life

To all who yield their lives to Him in obedience, humbly awed

Where what is seen is temporal; where what hope veils awaits the knife

Of final breath; and the eternal aftermath of life with God 

...where we endure the hardship of love's discipline from He who cares

Like all good fathers should, enough to suffer reproof that corrects

So we revere, with diligence the part that hope yet veils with prayers

In quietness and confidence His strength sustains where He directs 

...until the day when we present the body He formed and gave breath

To do His work; to be content while hope yet veils the consequence 

May we throw off all earthly ties that entangle and end in death

And fix our eyes upon faith's Prize with quietness and confidence 

Janet Martin

Inspired in part as well by Heb.12

Be Still My Soul - Mount Royal Kantorei

Lyrics

Author: Kathrina von Schlegel (1752); 

Translator: Jane Borthwick (1855)

Tune: FINLANDIA

Published in 221 hymnals

1. Be still, my soul! the Lord is on your side;

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;

Leave to your God to order and provide;

In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul! your best, your heav’nly friend

Thru' thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul! your God does undertake

To guide the future as he has the past;

Your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake;

all now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while he lived below.

3. Be still, my soul! when dearest friends depart

And all is darkened in the vale of tears,

Then shall you better know his love, his heart,

Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears.

Be still, my soul! your Jesus can repay

From his own fullness all he takes away.

4. Be still, my soul! the hour is hast'ning on

When we shall be forever with the Lord,

When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.

Be still my soul! when change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Dear September or, From a Poet's Stuttering...

Ps.148:1-6

Praise the Lord.[a]

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights above.

2 Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his heavenly hosts.

3 Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all you shining stars.

4 Praise him, you highest heavens

and you waters above the skies.

5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for at his command they were created,

6 and he established them for ever and ever—

he issued a decree that will never pass away.

Happy, happy, final summer weekend of 2026!!

How grandly the gateway to summer's last Saturday, flung ajar!

White and purple aster-oceans, billow in gardens, exiled

Save by He who heaps earth's passion on September's smorgasbord...

my daughter just sent me the above photos, (used with permission) because

they were the perfect fit for today's poem and because

she was feeling exactly like me...thinking this year she won't fall in love with fall, then

something sparks and BAM!! head over heels we fall for fall!

You rush rapture's rivers through us; summer's last hurrah runs wild

Overflowing nature's storehouse with gold, no miser can hoard

White and purple aster-oceans, billow in gardens, exiled

Save by He who heaps earth's passion on September's smorgasbord

Your heavens declare God's glory; modern-day psalmists gaze, awed

As your ink spills a love story that surpasses mortal pen

As you bend vineyard and orchard with fruited favour from God 

As you seal the days of summer with Time's plum-pungent amen 

You must be an ardent lover; Hydrangea and sedum blush 

On your arm, butterflies hover, zinnia and salvia founts

Sparkle in a plumed piazza buzzing with the final rush

Of hummingbirds, bees and crickets; somewhere Jack Frost lurks and counts

...down Fair Flower's numbered hours, before he exacts his brass 

But for now you gild spilled bowers with an affront to his kiss   

Mauve milkweed, mullein-fringed fences, goldenrod and silver-grass

As you kindle summered senses with pumpkin and squash hued bliss

Dear September, you awaken a song of love and lament

Torn between scenes time has taken and its undefeated law  

Gently, where summer still lingers, where beauty is never spent 

You ease the grip of our fingers from summer, with autumn-awe 

...and chart pathways of osmosis through a confusion of blooms

Tangles of larkspur and cosmos catch at heart-strings, fluttering 

Where farewell's unflustered courtship draws us through disheveled rooms

Rousing humbled hymns of worship from a poet's stuttering   

Janet Martin

You must be an ardent lover; Hydrangea and sedum blush... 

 Tangles of larkspur and cosmos catch at heart-strings, fluttering...

 

Dear Lucy, Till We Meet (Over There)

Thank-you everyone for your beautiful thoughts, messages, cards,

 gifts and prayers this week. Deeply treasured!

I'm not sure if the two-year mark will close the collection of Dear Lucy poems,

but it perhaps might...to everything there is a season.

Yesterday both Lucy and her husband's sisters and sister-in-laws gathered

at their place to work and remember Lucy again, and touch the plants she planted

and fall-clean the home she poured such happiness and love into,

and to bless and encourage her family in a very practical way.

This motto in the laundry room reminded me of an important part in grief's journey...

Though it may be speaking of flowers it applies to life's garden as well,

don't you think??

To let go of grief is not to let go of the loved one we miss

(sometimes it can feel that way)

but, to try to cherish more intentionally, humbly, and fully the time/life we still have.

When I wrote today's poem a week or two ago I thought it would be the one

to share yesterday, but it turned out not to be.

Instead it will close out 'the week of' with tender reflection and love 🙏

Dear Lucy,

I'll never forget that solemn occasion

When loved ones gathered, to lay you to rest

When hearts grief-shattered yet cheered by salvation

Were comforted thus, in sorrow's sudden test

I'll never forget the tear-joyous chorus

'Amazing grace, oh, how sweet, sweet the sound'

While rain-misted breeze sighed through trees around us

We stood with heads bowed, on farewell's holy ground

...and found in the depth of death's undisguised hour

Someone who knew our pain, through and through

Comfort and courage beyond human power

Holds/helps/heals us till we cross death's threshold too

...into the light of our Glorious Saviour

Where no tearful sorrow or parting will be

Into the triumph of hope's final favour

Where we will dwell throughout eternity

Till then, while we tend to Time's holy duty

Pray, we may discover, in this broken world

Through God, the breath-taking, unearthly Beauty

Of Joy like a banner from Heaven, unfurled

I'll never forget what changed life forever

Dear Lucy, I (we) will miss you every day

But God grants what no circumstance can sever

His grace is sufficient, come whatever may

I'll never forget, but love with intention

Those still within reach of arms, voice and prayer

While cherishing ways, too many to mention

That I (we) miss you so, till we meet 'over there'  

Janet Martin

The scripture reference put on the chalkboard in Lucy's kitchen 2 years ago

still applies...

Romans 8:28
And we know that God works all things together for the good

 of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

A friend sent me this song last night.

Lucy would have loved it!

To everyone missing someone,

may it bless you today!

Brandon Heath - "Can We Go Home Now?"

We Do Not Weep Alone

Ps.145: 8&9, 14, 17-19

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,

Slow to anger and great in mercy.

The Lord is good to all,

And His tender mercies are over all His works...

The Lord upholds all who fall,

And raises up all who are bowed down...

The Lord is righteous in all His ways,

Gracious in all His works.

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,

To all who call upon Him in truth.

He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;

He also will hear their cry and save them.

Ps.146:5

Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,

Whose hope is in the Lord his God,

Ps.147:3

He heals the brokenhearted

and binds up their wounds...

On this two-year anniversary,

For everyone who remembers and misses Lucy,

A poem of comfort drawn

from the Wellspring of God's promises... 

"You have not truly lived until you've stuffed your face in a peony"

Lucy💗

He heals the broken heart

And binds grief's bleeding/gaping holes

As sorrow yields each longing part

He comforts and consoles

  

With everlasting love

With hope, not of this world

He soothes the sorrow-ravaged glove

With Ointment of His Word

...and though we know not how,

When crushed by death's fell blow

He raises up all who are bowed

Because He vowed it so

...and ministers to all

Who call on Him in truth

He gathers us close when we fall

Beneath lament, uncouth 

...and catches our tears

We do not weep alone

The Great Physician sees and hears

Each brokenhearted groan

He binds the wounds of grief

With gentle, nail-scarred Hands

And floods the soul with sweet relief

From sorrow's stark demands

He heals the broken heart

In His time, In His Way

Meanwhile, His promises impart

All we need for today

Janet💗🙏

In Everything...

I began today with a garden wander...

so I don't miss the bliss of This

blinded by Much To Do!

God, help me live and love

with open eyes, heart and hands...

The 'wander' is the prelude to tackling a red mountain of Tomato-Task.

In every up and down, 

and morning, noon or night

Laughter or tears 

or smile 

or frown 

or struggle 

or delight

In every twist and turn 

or smooth sailing, 

or gale

Or lesson yet to learn, 

or triumph 

or travail

In every loss 

or gain, 

heartache 

or happiness

Or measure of pleasure 

or pain, 

refreshment, 

weariness

In every ebb and flow 

Of seasons as they sweep

Through bloom 

to petal-snow,

Through waking hours, 

or sleep

In hold

or echo-font

In cold

or heat, my dear

In plenty 

or in want

In favours kind,

severe

In hello 

or farewell

In health 

or ailing bod

In all that we can think to tell

In everything, 

thank God

Janet Martin

It is not hard to give thanks

in a bountiful harvest season,

with health and strength for toil!

Kind Heavenly Father, thank-you.

Ephesians 5:20
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything

 in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:6
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, 

by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, 

present your requests to God.

Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, in word or deed,

 do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

 giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

1 Thessalonians 5:18
Give thanks in every circumstance,

 for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

We Thank Thee-Jim Reeves

 

Between Now and When...(A Sacred Consideration)

The somberness of this week, (remembering the sudden death of my sister)

stirs a sacred consideration/consciousness of The Inevitable;

Eccles.12:7

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, 

And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

No argument of man can thwart what God has decreed,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 John 3:16

Between Now and the moment When

our final breath transports us into the presence of God

we have the opportunity to Remember our Creator;

to repent from our sins and believe in Him!

Come As You Are-David Crowder

 

Between now and when our final, fatal breath is drawn

When the heart yields its bower bent with hope and heartache's spawn

As earthly order ceases in the twinkle of an eye

And time's temporal lease is sealed with one eternal sigh

  

Between now and when we will slip from life, through death's sheer veil 

When every former fellowship we knew is bound to fail

When the dark glass through which we peer dissolves in one felled breath 

And the soul sheds its dust veneer unfazed by mortal death

Between now and when we will face the Crucial Certainty

Of stepping from Time's transient grace/place into eternity  

How will we use each gifted chime, pouring from Favour's Fount

To pages sealed until non-Time, when we will give account  

Between now and when What Will Be, WILL BE forevermore  

We have fresh opportunity to prepare for the Shore

From which no bark returns to tell the world that it IS true

There is a Heaven or a hell when life on earth is through 

Between now and when we will see God, who loves you and me 

We ought to consider where we will spend eternity  

And pay more earnest heed to truth's decreed and undeterred

From God, who grants us all we need through the Light/Life of His Word

Janet Martin

Eccles.12

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,

Before the [a]difficult days come,

And the years draw near when you say,

“I have no pleasure in them”:

2While the sun and the light,

The moon and the stars,

Are not darkened,

And the clouds do not return after the rain;

3In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,

And the strong men bow down;

When the grinders cease because they are few,

And those that look through the windows grow dim;

4When the doors are shut in the streets,

And the sound of grinding is low;

When one rises up at the sound of a bird,

And all the daughters of music are brought low.

5Also they are afraid of height,

And of terrors in the way;

When the almond tree blossoms,

The grasshopper is a burden,

And desire fails.

For man goes to his eternal home,

And the mourners go about the streets.

6Remember your Creator before the silver cord is [b]loosed,

Or the golden bowl is broken,

Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,

Or the wheel broken at the well.

7Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,

And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

8“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,

“All is vanity.”

9And moreover, because the Preacher was wise,

 he still taught the people knowledge; yes, 

he pondered and sought out and set[c] in order many proverbs.

  10The Preacher sought to find [d]acceptable words; 

and what was written was upright—words of truth.

  11The words of the wise are like goads, 

and the words of [e]scholars are like well-driven nails,

 given by one Shepherd.

  12And further, my son, be admonished by these. 

Of making many books there is no end, 

and much study is wearisome to the flesh.

13Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,

For this is man’s all.

14For God will bring every work into judgment,

Including every secret thing,

Whether good or evil.

Dear Lucy, Where Death Has Left a (Deep and Temporary) Hole

This week holds the two-year anniversary of

Life without Lucy;

two years of lifting Lucy's family lovingly to God in prayer

and trusting Him,

*that they should seek the Lord, in the hope 

that they might grope for Him and find Him, 

though He is not far from each one of us; 

for in Him we live and move and have our being,...

(see reference below)

The heart-shaped rock, noticed and picked by her granddaughter, 

then painted by my daughter Victoria.

The sign from my niece-in-law Emma!

Precious mementos in memory of Lucy!

Because we never know what a week holds I am sharing

a tribute/poem that poured from my

slowly healing heart this mourning/morning...

partly due to how September's ambience sparks so many memories!

LUCY SO loved September's bittersweet scents and hues!

which, I'm sure she was drinking in on her (unbeknownst to her)

last bike ride to Heaven; to meet her Saviour

and the Creator of all she dearly loved! 

September hues and scents and sounds rouse a profound sense in the soul

Of life-scapes expanding around 'Ground-sorrow', where death left a hole

Nothing will fill, but Time persists with love, still very much alive

Its duty and labour insists on frameworks love and life contrive

The heart, where death has left a hole nothing will fill, still aches with grief 

The part that we cannot control we leave to God whose Way/will is Chief

Though mortal Want misunderstands Purposes that seem so unkind 

He reaches out His nail-scarred hands; scars that Calvary left/left Calvary behind 

...and bids us cast our care/grief on Him; He helps us bear/wear the hole death leaves 

He too has borne love's guerdon, grim, and shed real tears, wiped on God's sleeves

For He is not some far-off God, unable to commiserate

With our hurt; He too has trod the Mourner's Vale through Sorrow's Gate 

And suffered the climax of loss when He gave his life in our stead

Enduring death upon a cross to conquer death and crush death's head 

To break the curse that doomed us when first Eve, then Adam disobeyed

He scorned death's claim and rose again; the price for our redemption paid 

So, though the stroke of death may leave a deep and everlasting temporary hole

For all who repent and believe God grants to grief a glorious goal

And though nothing will fill the place where death has left its aching void

God, through the goodness of His grace, comforts grief with hope, overjoyed 

Janet Martin

1 Thess.4:13-14

Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed

 about those who sleep in death,

 so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope. 

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 

we also believe that God will bring with Jesus

 those who have fallen asleep in Him.

Acts 17:26-31

He has made from one blood every nation of men

 to dwell on all the face of the earth,

and has determined their preappointed times 

and the boundaries of their dwellings,

so *that they should seek the Lord, in the hope 

that they might grope for Him and find Him, 

though He is not far from each one of us; 

for in Him we live and move and have our being,

as also some of your own poets have said,

 ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 

Therefore, since we are the offspring of God,

 we ought not to think that the Divine Nature

 is like gold or silver or stone, 

something shaped by art and man’s devising. 

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, 

but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 

because He has appointed a day

 on which He will judge the world in righteousness 

by the Man whom He has ordained. 

He has given assurance of this to all 

by raising Him from the dead.”

(read the whole glorious chapter HERE)

I have also listened to this song countless times!

I Set My Hope on Jesus

Wooed By Proof (of Mercy's Bide)

Today marks the sober anniversary of the great tragedy, often referred to as 9/11.

If we truly remember, Lord, 

help us to be a vital part of Your goodness and love in this world,

to shine your Light rather than join the noise and darkness of hate!

Ps.139:5

You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

Day breaks; a gold, incoming tide, rolling across the countryside...

Day breaks; a gold, incoming tide, rolling across the countryside

Each dell and vale, an earthen bowl brimming and dimming night’s charcoal

Tableau; beauty’s banner unfurled, washes across a waking world

Bedazzling lawned and meadowed bars with wave on wave of silver stars

Rousing us from slumber’s repose to wade through streams where mercy flows

Unhindered and unruffled by mortal’s often-thankless reply

But on the threshold of Today/new-day, behooves us now, to pause and pray

Awed by God’s faithful custody of galaxies and you and me

This is the day the Lord has made, not to be anxious and afraid

But with confidence in His will, proceed, His purpose to fulfill

Rather than adding to the noise that lack of loving Him employs

Then, wooed by proof of Mercy’s Bide, sense Him in dawn’s incoming tide

...where so much more than we can see instills morn's regularity

God walks upon dawn's teeming tide, goodness and mercy, bona fide

Then let unbelief's lion's roar; He hems us in, behind, before

And lays his Invisible Hand upon all who trust His command

Janet Martin

Ps.118:1&8, 15-17, 21-24

(Read the whole awesome chapter HERE)

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever....

It is better to trust in the Lord

Than to put confidence in man.

The voice of rejoicing and salvation

Is in the tents of the righteous;

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

The right hand of the Lord is exalted;

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

I shall not die, but live,

And declare the works of the Lord.

I will praise You,

For You have answered me,

And have become my salvation.

 The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone.

 [c]This was the Lord’s doing;

It is marvelous in our eyes.

 This is the day the Lord has made;

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Ps.56:3-4

When I am afraid,

I put my trust in You.

In God, whose word I praise—

in God I trust.

I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?