Disappointment's Catalyst

There is no getting around it; life is full of disappointments!

The future as it passes seldom looks like we imagined!

Without utter faith in God, hope is a lost cause!

Disappointment can be as minor as unwanted weather

and fender-benders

and as major as life and death matters!

This life is lavished with beauty (often in the broken),

and happiness (often full of holes)

and little time-outs (often when we least want them)

This is one of my battle-songs 

Here's My Heart, Lord

when things come along

I cannot understand

The first line is 

'Here's my heart, Lord, Speak what is true'

We cannot however, hear what is true unless we

turn to His Word and hide it

in our hearts so we do not sin against Him, 

the One who gives and takes away

as we surrender personal opinion and interpretation to

'Thy Will be done'

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, 

that I might not sin against thee.

Psalm 119:11

Disappointment does not cater to the hopes and dreams of we 

Weathering, in spite of wishes, the brunt of reality 

What a fete of faith and labour paves the street from here to where 

We shake off the dust of trusting and take off the yoke of prayer 

We are not equipped to carry more than one day at a time 

Worry drains us of The Very Present Help we need to climb 

Where no one can build a barrack that can thwart life’s suffering 

But where faith always has access to the Shelter of God’s Wing 

The Best Way to shoulder burdens is to walk by faith, not sight 

And to put on the full armour that will fit us for the fight 

Then to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice 

On an altar of surrender to the One who paid sin’s price 

Disappointment is most often the unwanted catalyst 

God allows in hopes to soften hearts and rebellion’s clenched fist 

What a fete of hard-fought yielding to the higher, perfect ways 

As we learn to trust the Giver and the keeper of our days 

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 121:5

The LORD is your keeper; 

The LORD is your shade at your right hand.

Aurora Awe

 

This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm118:24

Shake off the dust of dreams waylaid 

Fling wide hope’s hoary door 

For this, the day the Lord has made 

Has never been before 

Reach past the cast of wave-washed sand 

To what is grand and new 

For where we go He holds our hand 

If we but ask Him to 

And though we cannot see what waits 

To tune trust’s latest buzz 

The One who draws ajar gauze-gates 

Of mist-kissed morning does 

© Janet Martin 

So many fresh cares to fill our prayers, right?!

Seems like so many young moms in this community 

are struggling with sudden, hard health-crosses

Made me look up this hymn this morning

when I cried 'Why?'

by Charles W. Naylor

God’s way is best; if human wisdom

A fairer way may seem to show,

’Tis only that our earth-dimmed vision

The truth can never clearly know.

Refrain:

God’s way is best, I will not murmur,

Although the end I may not see;

Where’er He leads I’ll meekly follow,

God’s way is best, is best for me.

Had I the choosing of my pathway,

In blindness I should go astray,

And wander far away in darkness,

Nor reach that land of endless day.

He leadeth true; I will not question,

Though through the valley I shall go;

Though I should pass through clouds of trial,

And drink the cup of human woe.

God’s way is best; heart, cease thy struggling

To see and know and understand;

Forsake thy fears and doubts, but trusting,

Submit thyself into His hand.

Thy way is best, so lead me onward,

My all I give to Thy control;

Thy loving hand will truly guide me,

And safe to glory bring my soul.

Awe's Oceanic Aftermath=Art aka Worship

 

Completely and perfectly awed 

By the grand handiwork of God 

Dusk draws our eyes westward until 

Day falls beneath earth’s windowsill 

Night snuffs its picture like a flame 

That disappears from whence it came 

Where we are left to contemplate 

The crumb-sum on time’s dinner plate 

Like moments turned to memories 

From joy’s startling complexities 

How holes and hues of happiness 

Transform our views of more and less 

How wealth is not in what we hold 

But in the worth of moment-gold 

And how we are too very small 

To cup the wonder of it all 

Completely and perfectly awed 

By the grand handiwork of God 

Awe’s oceans seem to rush the heart 

Insisting on becoming art 

And so, we sing, paint, pen and gaze

 Until oceans turn into praise

© Janet Martin 

Prelude to the Awakening

Whoa!! 

The morning dissolved in errands that started at sun-up, 

then to a batch of bread...

a pan of granola bars

(recipe note: substitute dried cranberries with  any dried fruit, or chipits)

and if I don't have barley flakes I substitute quick oats and ground flax seed

...also, speaking from experience, the 20 min. cool time is optional if you want a sample sooner😀

and the whole morning had intermittent explosions/interruptions of harmonica music 

(my new toy thanks to some Christmas gift$$$ 

and an invitation to play for the kids at church on Sunday)!

Hello, heaven’s halo gleaming 

From a vault unplumbed, unfurled 

Like a fount of sequins streaming 

Through Want’s dreaming, scheming world 

Where progression and tradition 

Engage in clashing ideals 

Locking horns in opposition 

While time spins and thins its wheels 

Hello morning, Mercy’s token 

Fixed where every eye can see 

God has spoken, darkness broken 

By Ageless Authority 

He bestows gracious oblation 

Dawn throbs with love’s melody 

Pouring like an invitation 

Beckoning ‘come unto Me’ 

Hello, hope and heartache tango 

Teaching us the art of trust 

How to hold and how to let go 

In this dance of dust-to-dust 

Hello, happiness and hunger 

Learning love’s rhythm and rhyme 

Where no one is growing younger 

In the arms of Father Time 

Hello, season-circuit rider

On a phantom carousel

Of spring, summer, autumn, winter

Until we bid time farewell

Farewell, legacy-composer  

Farewell, fleeting breath-by-breath

Hello, morning drawing closer

The awakening in death

© Janet Martin 

Listened to this song from my daughter's playlist

this morning... 

Finally Free-Rend Collective

Psalm 136:1

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

For His mercy endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; 

His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalm 145:9
The LORD is good to all; 

His compassion rests on all He has made.

Sacred Synopsis

 

True love does not come easily...

but with God

who is love

and loves you and me

everything is possible!

the challenge?

the verses below;

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. 

Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

not looking to your own interests 

but each of you to the interests of the others.

Phil.2:3-4

That is why we labor and strive, 

because we have put our hope in the living God, 

who is the Savior of all people, 

and especially of those who believe.

1 Tim.4:10

Oh, what  reason to shine!

The best we have for rich or poor wherever life may lead 

Is to offer the best we have to thought and word and deed 

But thought and word and deed will not be what they ought to be 

Until we entrust want and need to God’s authority 

For want and need will always be part of this human race 

Beneath God’s kind authority of love, mercy and grace 

Where without faith in He whose love, mercy and grace sustain 

The grounds of hope and joy and peace, our best will be in vain 

Because no matter what we win it will not be enough 

Until the best we have begins with God, for He is love 

And love makes possible the best that we can ever be

By faith in He who grants through grace, love's kind humility

© Janet Martin

1 Tim.6:6-10

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap 

and into many foolish and harmful desires t

hat plunge people into ruin and destruction. 

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 

Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith 

and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Hoar-frost Heaven...

These photos turned out to be just the start of Jack Frost's artwork

on Sunday morning!

By the time we left for church wonder was dizzy with delight, 

gazing hither and yon upon sheer perfection!

(More photos here)

Frosty fringes gild glossed hinges of a weathered winter-gate 

Gracing fences, tracing branches with vestige of crystal lace 

Teasing poets with a show of nature’s ‘look but do not touch’ 

Where the air is fairly bursting with the font of Jack Frost’s brush 

Worship thunders where awe wonders at frost-fretwork whisper-thin 

Earth showcasing interlacing detail of woven welkin 

Where nothing is ordinary or of very lowly class 

As we gaze in sheer amazement at a landscape etched in glass 

Hoar-halation crowns creation with boreal ambience 

Woodlands glisten with impressions of angel-host radiance 

Hill and hollow frilled and swaddled in a dazzling vertigo 

Once again and without question nature’s pageant steals the show 

Once again its flawless anthem raises praises to the One

Who is Alpha and Omega and will never be outdone

So we stutter from this gutter of utter depravity/dependency 

Where a vision of redemption grants a glimpse of purity 

© Janet Martin 

“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD,

 “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow;

 Though they are red like crimson, 

They shall be as wool.

Isa.1:18

Psalm 51:7

Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; 

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Time's Sacred No-return Return

A small glimpse of a bit of recent 'pleasure-treasure!'

Do you ever get the sense 

that earth is a boat

and we're passengers 

on time's massive float

being drawn breath by breath 

toward a shore

through the access called Death

to Forevermore?

Time draws its barge along 

on straits of day to day 

Beneath the chime of golden gong 

or clime of lowered gray 

We grapple with A Sail 

of Utmost Gravity 

Because Time’s sacred charge entails 

far more than we can see 

Time tugs its transient bark 

‘neath arcs of dark and light 

Where we are far more than tourists 

on floats of sound and sight 

We wear God-granted grace 

as breath-tones rise and fall 

And bear the very common place 

of duty’s beck and call

Time flies through outstretched arms 

and eyes wide with surprise 

It breezes through fists clenched against 

its resolute demise

It tosses plans awry 

and teaches us to trust

The invisible hand that makes 

visible dust to dust

Time takes its telling toll 

on mortal’s temple-gate 

Where carriages of deathless soul 

have much to contemplate 

For This, no pleasure cruise, 

transports us to a Shore 

Where every single passenger 

embarks forevermore 

Time steals our breath and seals 

its aftermath in years 

How swift its gift of empty reels 

fills up and disappears 

While heart-strings groan and fray, 

and pray, we start to sense 

The absolute approaching of 

That Day of Recompense 

Time ticks around the clock 

but cannot tell how far 

Or near to the most searing dock 

and final pier we are 

To meet the destiny 

of This Fleeting Sojourn 

Where verily, eternity 

is time's sacred return

© Janet Martin 

Some encouragement while we 'sail'...

(Imagine if the passage below said

 'to the churches of Canada' in place of Thessalonians

and this could/would be said of us from its letter-writer?!!)

2 Thess.1:1-5

Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,

*To the church of the Thessalonians 

in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,

[b] and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, 

and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 

Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance 

and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, 

and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, 

for which you are suffering. 

2 Thess.2:16-17

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, 

who loved us and by his grace gave us 

eternal encouragement and good hope, 

encourage your hearts and strengthen you 

in every good deed and word.

Whisper-Soft

 We woke to a whisper-soft world!

Happy One-month-till-spring-Saturday!!

The sun has a lot of gold beaming to do this year to get rid of white whispers...😊

White whispers cling to everything 

Like featherdown from angel-wings 

White whispers blanket barren limbs 

Like notes composing argent hymns 

White whispers deck hill, rill and dell 

Like stars that lost their grip and fell 

White whispers muffle sound, like feet 

A-dancing, down a downy street 

White whispers sparkle like a sweep 

Of diamond-dazzle-streams, knee-deep 

White whispers tumble, twirl and waft 

Until the world is whisper-soft 

© Janet Martin 

Some Best Reasons To Get Out of Bed

The empty side of the bed, when Jim was gone for the week,

used to be full of tots! 

Now those years have turned to echoes... and books!!!😀

I try to remember to put the little library away

before he comes home but sometimes I forget, 

earning all kinds of wisecracks😉😊

Sometimes the idea of staying in bed and reading for a day sounds divine,

but, we would never choose to be confined to our beds, would we?!!

We have so many Best Reasons to get out of bed every morning

while God grants health and strength!

My thoughts and prayers are with those confined to a sick-bed.

What a high, hard, holy calling that is!

It made me ponder some wonderful reasons 

to rise and Shine for the Giver!

And whatever you do, do it heartily, 

as to the Lord and not to men,

Col.3:23

To live to love and give heart, soul and mind to push and shove 

To know because God promised so makes Hope’s Reason enough 

To look into His word to keep faith’s vision undeterred 

Instead of trusting what we see, then doubting what we heard 

To place our want beneath the microscope of recompense 

Lest we become numb to the fact that choice reaps consequence 

To make the most of what we have before life throws a curve 

That takes away what is today, a gift we don’t deserve 

To worship without worry for what tomorrow might bring 

To work to turn today into a servant’s offering 

To recognize the prize that Mercy summons to our care 

And never try to touch it until it becomes a prayer 

To treasure teeny tots so soon turned to women and men

To measure motive moving thoughts that turn into action

To balance labour with 'be still and know that I am God'

And strive to love our neighbour with more than a passing nod

To live to give back to the One who grants each day, our best 

So someday we may hear Him say ‘well done, enter thy rest’ 

To not neglect to reverence and respect Mercy’s Hand 

Lest we fall prey to pride and thereby break ev’ry command 

To turn the other cheek and never speak of it again 

For what is done in secret will not in secret remain 

To make our calling and election sure, as sure can be 

Because the grave veils the grave matter of eternity 

© Janet Martin 

To treasure teeny tots that soon turn to women and men...

(nothing quite warms hearts like little faces, rosy from the cold!)

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.

What A Love!

 

Today, for some Christians, Lent begins.

This meditation is a reflection

to remind us we give

because
we have been given!

How does one select only one,

from a vast collection of amazing renditions of this song; 

Amazing Grace

Redemption, what a word 

Released from a debt we incurred 

Forgiveness signed by blood of He 

Who authored sky and sod and sea 

And died upon a cross for us 

Redeemed from sin by Him, Jesus 

Salvation, what a gift 

Divine atonement spans the rift 

That began when Adam and Eve 

Were ripe and ready to deceive 

When doubting God, they ate the fruit 

That He forbade, and sin took root 

Grace, mercy’s uttermost 

Saved, not by works lest any boast 

But for man’s universal Fall 

He sealed our pardon once for all 

And will our every sin forgive 

To all who repent, look, and live 

Hope, what a glorious goal

Awaits faith's death-victorious soul

No one can add or take away

What Christ accomplished on that day

When from death to life He arose

Triumphant over Eden's woes

Jehovah, what a God 

Demons tremble and saints applaud 

He who is coming back again 

But not even angels know when 

We will behold heavens ablaze 

With Son of Man, Ancient of Days 

© Janet Martin 

More Than Pecksniffian Narcissism

 

We are the clay the potter presses hard upon love's wheel

May we remember He sees more than how it makes us feel

Just as the Lord who looked beyond His Son at Calvary

Saw how loss on the cross would gain Ultimate Victory

After he has suffered,

he will see the light of life d 

and be satisfied

Isa.53:11

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

Jim Reeves

Lord, May Your Word be more than logic that I read but do not heed 

Oh, what a pity to be versed in knowledge without mercy’s creed 

And what a waste, if I but half-taste Your goodness and never see 

That it is You who heaps time’s table with love’s kind humility 

Lord, may your joy be more than clone of circumstantial confidence 

Oh, guard my mind from blinding decoys that can lure gullible glance 

And let the language of my mouth, the meditation of my heart 

Be purposed, conscious demonstrations of You in my inmost part 

Lord, let love be my greatest hunger and fulfillment synchronized 

May Thy divine denominator glorify You, undisguised 

When I am torn between the tug of Perfect Love and want’s design 

Lord, may I recognize Your hug and respond with ‘Thy will, not mine’ 

Lord, let my love be more than narcissism's canting avarice 

Oh God, forgive me when like Judas I betray you with a kiss

Then, when love suffers long, remind me how Paul and Silas replied

In chains at midnight praising and proclaiming You, Christ crucified

Lord, in Thy name I pray,

Amen

© Janet Martin

Paul's Message by the Spirit's Power
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom 

as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 

2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you 

except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.…

1 Cor.2:1-3

 

Whisper-weight

A whisper can move mountains...

I whispered as I watched the darkness begin to break 

beneath the weight of dawn's whisper

(and the next bit was a dash between keyboard and curtain-rise to a new day)😊

A whisper can move mountains When entrusted to the One 

Who woos from outer regions faithful rising of the sun 

Who decorates the heavens with a sumptuous glory-feast 

And feeds hunger for beauty from buffets poised on the east 

Who awes us, humbly human with his flawless majesty 

Who never turns a blind eye or deaf ear to you and me 

Who loves us so he gave the best He had, His only Son 

To pay the debt we never could for each and every one 

Who can call on His name if we but repent and believe 

A whisper can move mountains as His pardon we receive 

As mercy rends the veil of inner darkness with His Light 

Like morning's molten, golden whisper woos away the night 

© Janet Martin 

Matthew 17:20
"Because you have so little faith," He answered. 

"For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, 

you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' 

and it will move. 

Nothing will be impossible for you."

Matthew 21:21
"Truly I tell you," Jesus replied, "if you have faith and do not doubt, 

not only will you do what was done to the fig tree,

 but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,'

 it will happen.

1 Kings 19:11-12

The LORD Speaks to Elijah at Horeb
…11Then the LORD said,

 “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD.

 Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” 

And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains 

and shattered the rocks before the LORD,

 but the LORD was not in the wind.

 After the wind there was an earthquake, 

but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

 12After the earthquake there was a fire, 

but the LORD was not in the fire. 

And after the fire came a still, small voice.

Meanwhile westward as best as I could see...

 (pretend the three pics are side by side)

1 Corinthians 13:2
If I have the gift of prophecy 

and can fathom all mysteries 

and all knowledge, 

and if I have absolute faith 

so as to move mountains, 

but have not love, 

I am nothing.

I Love You, Lord