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Saturday, November 30, 2019

Well We Know...or Are Learning To Know




Want without Jesus,will never be filled
Its tempest of longing will never be stilled



Acts. 4:12
 Salvation is found in no one else, 
for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind 
by which we must be saved."

Matthew 1:21
She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, 
because He will save His people from their sins."
Acts 10:43
All the prophets testify about Him 
that everyone who believes in Him 
receives forgiveness of sins through His name."

A song to satisfy Want...

 

This is how God showed his love among us:
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
1 John 4:9

Well we know want wars with gladness
Haunts the hope that shores the heart
Daunts desire with deep sadness
And dejection’s stinging smart

Well the struggle for survival
Without God hones hard defeat
Joy, a sympathetic rival
Or a laughing hypocrite

Well we know we know so little
Save what we learn from the past
While the frond of youth grows brittle
As the bond of Truth holds fast

Well the trouble we encounter
Taunts the apple of Want's gain
Faith subjects us to a future
Where sight-blind we peer in vain

Well we know Want’s wage is worry
If we forge forth without God
His great timing none can hurry
Beneath Mercy’s bitter rod

Well we know Want is oft smitten
With the shallow scope of gaze
While the prize of hope is hidden
In God’s higher, perfect ways

Well we know heads full of knowledge
Fill rooms with noise-metered mist
If the heart is but a college
For the want-worn narcissist

© Janet Martin





Thursday, November 28, 2019

Grateful...(Happy American Thanksgiving Day!)

At 3:00 I was still trying to decide what I could make for supper
that could cook while I put a second coat of paint on the 'purple room'! 
When in menu limbo thaw ground beef.
so I did; 2 lbs.
 While it thawed in the microwave I scrubbed a few potatoes
 then tried to decide what next.
I chose meat-loaf, with baked potato-wedges and butternut squash
because this could bake at alike temps.
I put the meatloaf in for 45 min@325F before adding the pan of squash-potato.
I left it at 325F for an hour then reduced the heat around 6;00
because on Thursdays no one is home before 6:30.
Second coat of paint was done by 6:00
allowing time to make a spinach salad to complete the menu.


Meatloaf
2 lbs ground beef thawed.
I small onion chopped
3 or 4 bread-crusts, crumbled
1 teaspoon each of salt and black pepper
2 eggs
squirt each of ketchup and mustard (according to taste)
2/3 cup milk
Mix and press in pan
Baking instructions above
 (if using a deep loaf pan bake covered for 11/2 hrs at 350 then uncover for the last 15 minutes.)
I topped this meatloaf with a BBQ sauce when I uncovered it
1/3 cup ketchup
1tbsp. br. sugar
1 tsp. chili powder
I tsp (heaping) honey mustard 


Cut clean, dry potatoes into wedges. 
Peel and slice squash into 1/2" rings
place in buttered casserole dish
 sprinkle salt and pepper to taste
as well as paprika and
parsley flakes or fresh chopped parsley
another drizzle of butter and enough water just to cover bottom of pan
Cover with foil and bake 1 hour at 325/350F
Remove foil for the last 15 min.
Spinach Salad
base of baby spinach
topped with thinly sliced red and green cabbage
celery, chopped
toasted sunflower seeds and sliced almonds
dried cranberries
Leave dressing on side
I used a soy-sauce dressing
the recipe for a full batch is;
Mississippi Salad dressing
put in blender 3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
3 tbsp. soy sause
1 tbsp black pepper
blend then slowly add 3/4 cup oil
 (I use 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup canola or veg. oil)
put in glass bottle or jar.
Lightly drizzle salad
refrigerate unused dressing


Grateful for goodness that graces the table
Grateful for strength to do what I am able
Grateful for mercies renewed every morn
Fields that were laden with harvest, now shorn
Flicker of leaf-lanterns strewn ‘neath our feet
November’s embers where earth and sky meet

Grateful for love that gives heartstrings a tug
Wood fire warmth, like a welcome home hug
Seasons that stir us then startle us, oh
Swift gifted shimmer from first bud to snow
Teaching us tenderly as time goes by
To look the moment at hand in the eye

Grateful for touch, for hands still within reach
Grateful for much love’s demands seem to teach
Grateful for blessings too countless to name
(God, my forgetfulness puts me to shame)
Day made for labour and night deigned for rest
Purpose that bids us strive to give our best

Grateful that God always faithful and true
Never stops caring for me and for you
Grateful to know His ways are always good
Even when His grace is misunderstood
Grateful, when trouble and heartache assails
To know no matter what, love never fails


© Janet Martin

Colossians 3:17
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,
 do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.


Wednesday, November 27, 2019

No Quick Fix...

Yesterdays poem-a-day challenge was its traditional final two-for-Tuesday;
 Write a love poem or write an anti-love poem. 

Love was never made strong enough to bear what might be, only what is. 
Love never fails.

this morning love was treated to a good chuckle.
Little Girl arrived, proudly bearing gifts!
From a purple polka-dot bag she produced
...a cold hotdog?!!

Her mother explained that at supper last night she insisted on saving one for Janet
and she wanted to put it in her purple polka-dot bag like a real present!๐Ÿ˜

Ah irony of love; it heals and wounds,
...a reel of laughter and tears



There is no quick fix for the heart
For all the hurt love heals
Just like the rose, hope’s thorn-pricks smart
Beneath beauty’s appeal

And could we count the cost and care
That composes love’s rod
T’would seem a charge, too large to bear
But by the grace of God

Love suffers long and it is kind
It tugs and strains heart-strings
Yet balances its tear-prayer grind
With the laughter it brings

Love never fails; where grin and groan
Composes its discourse
As carriages of skin and bone
Transport us to its Source

...and no quick fix can mend the glove
Worn thin with mercy’s Must
Thus, step-by-step we trust

© Janet Martin



Tuesday, November 26, 2019

For Matadors Where The Day Runs Wild...


Yesterday did not happen as planned;
but isn't that the way of most of love/life?!


 Instead of working in 'purple room'
we trucked down back-roads looking for filler for outdoor winter-urns,
(after looking at appointments, weather and schedules and realizing today is the best day)
Resulting in a job for grand-sonny, who took washing Grandpa's truck very seriously
(until he realized it was more fun to point it at Grandma and listen to her shriek๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜‚)

( so, indoor plans turned to outdoor art
 ...and we return to to-do lists today, Lord willing)

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, 
do it all for the glory of God.
1 Cor.10:31



Day folded ere the work was through
(seems there is always much to do)
The challenge to prioritize
Trains jockeys of all shapes and size

My, my, the momentum of day
Can ease a whole lifetime away
Where what now keeps us on our toes
Will all be stilled at curtain-close

Thus we with humble heart and soul
Should re-evaluate our goal
As highs and lows of joy and strife
Become the story of our life

For the handshake of Father Time
Is brief at best, this crest we climb
But a threshold before a door
That opens into Evermore

...and death will win want’s raging bull
Snuff the red cape of push and pull
As the footwork of matadors
No longer sparks spectator’s roars

...where mist-exhale of day-to-day
In one last breath is done away
And we return from whence we came
With nothing but our given name

© Janet Martin


 I've always loved this somber hymn