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Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Sucker-Punch Eye-openers (or The Grief of Unbelief)

A message worth the little while it takes to hear it!



This link below is also worth the click:
 Flying Blind- Franklin Graham

Hebrews 10:29
Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose,
will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot,
 counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, 
and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Sometimes life deals a sucker-punch to our
utter heart and soul and love is grieved beyond words!

Sometimes those sucker-punches turn out to be shocking eye-openers
(and knee-benders and head-bow-ers)

Sometimes it seems to take a sucker-punch to wake/shake us up!

Sometimes we just don't want to believe that 'they' don't believe!!
The practice of disobedience speaks like writing on the wall 
regardless of what 'they' may say.

The Grief of Unbelief
Kinda like part 2 to this morning's post'


They mock the straight and narrow
They scorn the black and white
The spit into the face of grace;
The Way, the Truth and Life

They grieve the Holy Spirit
And trample underfoot
The Son of God; they profane Mercy's
Covenant of blood 

They treat as something common
Salvation's Cornerstone
As if they have no One to fear
Before the Judgement throne 

They do not seem to grasp
Death and hell's hopeless fate
And that dread day of reckoning
When it will be too late

Lord, hear our pleading prayer
Where cold, bold unbelief 
Is like a cruel sucker-punch
That breaks love's heart with grief

How much more You must weep
To know what waits for they
Who once confessed and professed faith
Who knew, then turned away

Janet Martin

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just 
and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.


 

The Bedrock of Belief, Or Not



2 Tim.1:12
For this reason I also suffer these things; 
nevertheless I am not ashamed,
 for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able 
to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

Matt.7:21 NIV
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Heb.3:18-19
And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest?
Was it not to those who disobeyed?

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Romans 12:3
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: 
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, 
but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,
 in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.



Matt 7:7
Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.



The bedrock of Belief, or not
Is the chief Cornerstone of thought
Belief is more than a mere nod
To accede existence of God
Where voice of choice cannot long hide
God either adored or denied

The bedrock of belief or not
Is confirmed by response to Ought
Rebellion or obedience
Prove who we serve and reverence
Either the Name above all names
Or Shame’s shameless and brazen claims

The bedrock of belief or not
Is more than a set of truths taught
These truths become love’s vow fulfilled
Proven by where and how we build
With treasure here or gathered up
Where moth and rust cannot corrupt

The bedrock of belief or not
Is either shifting sand or Rock
Graver than anything can be
For it impacts eternity
And is sacred above all else
For soul outlives this Splash of Self

We ought to give most earnest heed
To I AM’s righteousness decreed
Before Reckoning and Reward
When all confess that He is Lord
As we receive what we begot
On Bedrock of Belief, or not

© Janet Martin


So this is what the Lord GOD says:
 "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, 
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
 the one who believes will never be shaken.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
 but he that believeth not shall be damned.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:
 and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; 
but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Thou Fairest Bower Of Them All...

 Because I have a photo for almost every line it was hard to choose just a few...


Thou winsome, wonderworld of gnomes
Of fairy-hunts ‘neath mushroom domes...


Of woman, always girl at heart
And girl awed at Creator’s art...


Of buds that burst...


...with perfect pink


Of cloud-piers immersed in God’s ink...



Thou that didst heap upon our hearts
The joy that only June imparts
Thou that didst drench the dell with blooms
And turn backyards to living-rooms
And probe the planted seed to birth
Where hints of heaven deck the earth
As thou didst overflow our gaze
With nature’s myriad of praise

Thou, belle of beauty and delight
That doth our dearest dreams recite
That never holds summer at bay
But flings ajar its hip-hooray
With copious color-pizzazz
A symphony of petal-jazz
With bowls we skim thy verdant sheaf
Of buttercrunch and spinach leaf

Thou winsome, wonderworld of gnomes
Of fairy-hunts ‘neath mushroom domes
Of woman, always girl at heart
And girl awed at Creator’s art
Of buds that burst with perfect pink
Of cloud-piers immersed in God’s ink
Of picnics packed on sudden whim
Of dusk, reluctant to grow dim

Thou fairest bower of them all
Thou flower-fragrant festival
A sun and shadow rendezvous
Of greenest green and bluest blue
Of longest day that slips away
Too fast to casts of yesterday
Thou dost spill with such subtle ease
Thy breathless thrill to memories

© Janet Martin

A symphony of petal-jazz...






With bowls we skim thy verdant sheaf
Of buttercrunch and spinach leaf...




There Will Be Hell To Pay...

There is a lot of focus on 'fun' these days...
Hellfire sermons are not fun,
nor are hellfire poems.
Hell is no laughing matter 
but as surely as there is a Heaven., 
there is a hell!!!

Sometimes something happens to remind us, 
as just as physical check-ups are wise/vital
so too are spiritual checkups!

To the pure, all things are pure, 
but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. 
In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him.
They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

1 Cor.6:9
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?
 Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters 
nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men...

Rom.1:24-25
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity
for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,
and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—
who is forever praised.
Amen.

1 John 2:3
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God [a]is perfected in him.
By this we know that we are in Him.
6He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

1 Tim.1:8-11
We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.
9We also know that the law is made not for the righteous
but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious,
for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,
10for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality,
for slave traders and liars and perjurers—
and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine
11that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God,
which he entrusted to me.

Rev.21:8
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, 
the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—
they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 
This is the second death.”




There will be hell to pay
For all whose works deny
The God of earth and heaven and
Turn truth into a lie

There will be hell to pay 
For all they who approve
The disobedience of they
Who dare to call it love

There will be hell to pay
For lovers of the world
After Time's wink is done away
And judgement is unfurled

There will be hell to pay
God is not mocked; His truth
Will save. remember him today
In the days of your youth

Before your heart turns hard
Before death's dreadful day
When disobedience is judged
There will be hell to pay

Janet Martin

Eccles.12:1
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, 
before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say,
 “I find no pleasure in them"—

Monday, June 28, 2021

Heart-sick

From The Dying Thief- Charles H. Spurgeon
The fact is, there is nothing so good but men can pervert it into evil, if they have evil hearts: 
the justice of God is made a motive for despair, and his mercy an argument for sin. 
Wicked men will drown themselves in the rivers of truth as readily as in the pools of error. 
He that has a mind to destroy himself can choke his soul with the Bread of life, 
or dash himself in pieces against the Rock of ages. 
There is no doctrine of the grace of God so gracious 
that graceless men may not turn it into licentiousness.




Sometimes the heart gets sick
The evils of this world
Can cruelly cut us to the quick
So shamelessly unfurled

Debauchery and greed
Pay no heed to the cost
But dark and dangerously feed
On lost leading the lost

The troubles that we face
Would crush and overthrow
But for the fountain of God’s grace
That washes white as snow

Beware of the soul’s foe
The craft of finite pow’r
Who seeks while roaming to and fro
All who he can devour

Dear soul, be on thy guard
Take up thy Spirit-sword
Lest, by a lie you should discard
The armour of the Lord

Lest, by sin’s sleight of hand
We lose sight of the Prize
Without God’s armour, who can stand
Against satan’s disguise

Sometimes, the heart is sick
Of evil’s hellish sway
Oh God, when life cuts to the quick
Hear the tears that we pray

...and let Belief's increase
Be more than idle talk
Lest faith is shattered piece by piece
Against the Solid Rock

© Janet Martin

Psalm 62:1-2

Truly my soul finds rest in God;
    my salvation comes from him.

Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Perfecting Love...


Life/love's blows pay no attention to heart's desire...
Hearts desire, unless guarded with God's Word 
and honed with humility, 

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
Psalm 63:3

The Creator of earth and heavens loves us with



Yesterday we attended a beautiful outdoor service,
where nine believers with totally different life/love-stories/testimonies
all with the very same ending;
 faith in Jesus, in God's everlasting love, were baptized!

One young man shared being impacted by
 the story of the dying thief on the cross beside Jesus;
how only faith can save...
The thief had no time left to 'do', only repent and believe.
It's easy to become performance-driven and distracted.
Only by God's grace are we saved and through His grace
we are forgiven and in His grace,
we are able to follow Him and live obedient lives.

Rom.6:1-4
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
 2Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
 3Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized 
into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
 4Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, 
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
 even so we also should walk in newness of life.

One young woman testified,
'I put my faith in Him and it changed everything'.
When we trust and believe in Him
it changes our focus and motives!
Hallelujah!

Here is an excerpt from our daughter's testimony...
(one of the nine who were baptized)

We 'oldies' are often extra-refreshed and re-encouraged as we witness
faith's obedience of baptism!

Listening to the testimonies stirred reflection on the
purpose of the body of Christ on earth, the church...
While watching live-stream or 'screen' messages
 is certainly better than nothing, to teach and edify,
it cannot ever be a sufficient substitute for face-to-face fellowship
which produces and strengthens a bond of love and unity.

When each for the other lives
With love, with a lot of prayer
When the attention one gives
Is wholehearted in its care

When we seek God’s kingdom first
Longing for His holiness
When our hunger and our thirst
Is for more of righteousness

When we bind each other’s wounds
With compassion’s healing pow’rs
We will find our spirits tuned
To He whose love perfects ours

© Janet Martin



There is a fountain filled with blood
  Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
  Lose all their guilty stains:
  Lose all their guilty stains,
  Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
  Lose all their guilty stains.
2
The dying thief rejoiced to see
  That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
  Wash all my sins away:
  Wash all my sins away,
  Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
  Wash all my sins away.
3
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
  Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed ones of God
  Be saved, to sin no more:
  Be saved, to sin no more,
  Be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed ones of God,
  Be saved to sin no more.
4
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
  Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
  And shall be till I die:
  And shall be till I die,
  And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
  And shall be till I die.
5
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
  Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
  I’ll sing Thy power to save:
  I’ll sing Thy power to save,
  I’ll sing Thy power to save;
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
  I’ll sing Thy power to save.


 

 


Saturday, June 26, 2021

June's Joy...

 It's the final Saturday of this most darling of months; June

June’s pink peony pom-poms melt in russet afterglow...

June’s strawberry and cream delights, delight...


...then disappear 😋

And leave satisfied appetites grinning from ear to ear...


June’s pink peony pom-poms melt in russet afterglow
The meadow is a showcase of green-sheen and daisy-snow
The deluxe maple-parasol unfurls cool pools of shade
Enticing us to linger in its umbrous serenade

June’s hints of harvest ripple ‘neath an invisible bow
If we have eyes to see we are seated in the front row
For prime shows from a Maestro conducting a symphony
Where fields are full of music and gardens with poetry

June’s first-rate backyard getaways leave little to desire
The rise and fall of laughter and chatter round a camp-fire
The sweet mini-vacation beneath luscious, leafy limbs
The fading out of feathered flutes as drawn-out twilight dims

June bends the breeze with banter we all feel a small part of
It tips yon blue decanter and pours out a song of love
Romancing us with roses and enchanting us with show’rs
And sweeping us off bare feet with a grand fleet of wild flow’rs

June’s yearly visit is always too short and sweet, it seems
How dearly we anticipate this darling of our dreams
How butter-smooth and utter, the undoing of Her days
While hearts are heaped with happiness and lips are steeped with praise

June’s strawberry and cream delights, delight then disappear
And leave satisfied appetites grinning from ear to ear
While jolly shocks of hollyhocks are reaching for the sky
Arranged where June estranged gives way to heartthrobs of July

© Janet Martin


Facing Life' s Biggest Challenge; Love...


Life is full of test and disappointment,
frustration and disagreement,
but never justifies our rebellion to
the Giver of all we have...

So much more than meets the eye
is in the bud of bloom...

...in bud of day

in the bud of youth

Beloved, let us love one another, 
for love is of God;...
1 John 4:7

Let’s count our blessings, not our woes
Let’s love in spite of how life goes
For what good is all else we claim
If we put charity to shame
Let’s make the most of moment-gold
Poured, tick by tock into a mold
That we can never modify
No matter how hard we may try
Let’s live the first, Greatest Command
With humble heart and helping hand
Let’s pray while we traverse earth’s sod
And leave the details up to God

© Janet Martin

Luke 6:32-36
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? 
Even sinners love those who love them. 
 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? 
Even sinners do that. 
 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? 
Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 
 But love your enemies, do good to them, 
and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. 
Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, 
because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 
 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.


A Call To Persevere...Jude 18-21

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 
 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers 
who will follow their own ungodly desires.”  
These are the people who divide you, 
who follow mere natural instincts 
and do not have the Spirit.
 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith 
and praying in the Holy Spirit,  
keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ 
to bring you to eternal life.

 

Friday, June 25, 2021

Best-Of-All Blessings

This poem was inspired by the flood of loving grad photos on social-media
from proud moms and dads...
One photo esp. inspired this poem as I stared at the tall, handsome, young man,
and seems, was the size of the tots in the photos below not so long ago.

Reminds us to cherish the Here and Now,
the 'noisy joys of girls and boys' 💗
which filled the morning at Janet's/Grandma's house

They start so small;
life's best-of-all-blessings...


The momentum of to...


...and from, is subtle in its tugs






They start so small
Life’s ‘best-of-all-
Blessing' fills arms and hearts
The noisy joys
Of girls and boys
One of love’s sweetest parts

…while sparkling streams
Of hopes and dreams
Become the tender tide
Of smiles and tears
And days and years
That draw them from our side

The momentum
Of to-and-from
Is subtle in its tugs
As moments meld
To seasons felled
Beneath kisses and hugs

Time’s stellar flight
Of morn to night
Turns little people tall
While ‘I love you’
Fashions the flue
Through which youth's contrails fall

And keens us to
An avenue
Trampled, but not with feet
Where blessings of
Life’s best part; love
Makes thankfulness complete
 
© Janet Martin

Eph.5:2
And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us...
 

Thursday, June 24, 2021

On Going Through The Change...

They don't call it The Change for nothing, my sister and I conceded as we
lamented some of the maladies of middle-age😓
As I pondered this it made me think of a few other changes
that we should, by God's grace, go through
(and some that eventually we will) by God's promise, 
go through...

***

Some changes are anticipated eagerly,,
like the change a new baby brings
or winter warming to spring
Others we would dodge if we could,
But changeless God, if we allow Him
works change for our good!

***

Always day changes to night


then night to day...

Change challenges and teaches us
It vexes and delights
It startles and beseeches us
With ruthless appetites

Oh, nothing stays the same for long
In life’s foray of days
The hand of change is sure and strong
Insisting on its ways

Both good and ill do not stand still
As surge of seasons roll
Change wistfully winnows until
All that remains is Soul

Change tempers us and teases us
The wrinkles it bestows
For all the ways it squeezes us
The least of our woes

Change changes us, estranges us
From who we used to be
A slow and steady genesis
To immortality

© Janet Martin

Behold, I tell you a [m]mystery: 
 shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 
52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, 
and the dead will be raised incorruptible, 
and we shall be changed.
1 Cor.15:51-52


So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, 
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 
18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God 
because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
  19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality 
so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
20That, however, is not the way of life you learned
  21when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, 
to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 
23to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
  24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Colossians 3:9-10
Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 
and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge 
according to the image of the One who created him—







Wednesday, June 23, 2021

June Is Like a Poem

 

Some sweet June-stanzas already savoured today...💗💗😊






June is like a poem waiting to be reined
Earth a-throb with lyrics spilling unrestrained
Woodland, field and garden sparkle, pulse and brim
Filling hills and hearts and dells with nature’s hymn

June is like a poem written without ink
Filling loose-leaf pages with gold-orange-pink
From sunup to sundown stanzas dance and drip
Land and welkin burgeon with God’s penmanship

June is like a poem, summer-warm and sweet
Spilling like a love-song to earth’s music-sheet
From daisy-decanter, through leaf-canopies
Snared in barefoot banter, sighing on the breeze

June is like a poem waiting to be read
Wonderfully woven with botanic thread
Luring us with lyrics’ gleaming, teeming sheen
From the lily-lantern and fields silver-green

June is like a poem people cannot write
Lesser poets grapple with its pure delight
Delving into inkwells, dew and raindrop pearled
June is like a poem from God to the world

© Janet Martin

From the lily-lantern


and fields silver-green...





Tuesday, June 22, 2021

The Farewell We Are In...


Whenever I see the peonies begin to wilt and wither
I'm filled with a sense of loss...




Loss tends to make us bend a little closer to the bloom
To revel in the fragrant folds falling from summer’s loom
How subtle whirs the shuttle taming tendrils of the vine
Into a paisley fretwork of echo-woven design

Loss tends to make us kinder where we had been blind before
To how swift petals fade and fall to bloom for-nevermore
Whether the loss we suffer is a friend or season-flit
We find our hearts grow softer in the aftermath of it

Loss tends to make us more aware and thankful for Today
That ever- fleeting chariot that draws the years away
Filled with a holy hunger we can never quite appease
While petals fall from flowers like hours to memories

Loss tends to make us mindful of a deeper sense of Now
Its sorrow seems to kindle sweeter happiness somehow
As we learn to live slower and take time to take time in
Because Loss tends to tune us to the Farewell we are in

© Janet Martin

But as I mourn the end of another peony season I turn to
see that once again, the lily-lanterns are lit...


Loss tends to make us bend a little closer to the bloom...



The grass withers, the flower fades, 
But the word of our God stands forever.”
Isa.40:8

Always and All For God

 


The fruit of our labour is sometimes strawberries.
The fruit of our faith, ah, who can fathom?!


This poem was inspired first by a glorious wave of morning-tide
rolling over the rain-washed countryside...





...before heading out for a berry delightful morning
 at a nearby pick-your-own strawberry patch!




Always, and all for God who gives, may our motive be
Each moment-metered life one lives leads to eternity
All that we have, by time is tried; a sacred sea that pours
In waves of morn-to-eventide, awash twixt Eon’s shores

In waves of morn to eventide awash twixt Eon’s shores
Across still gaping graves, time flies, in season-repertoires
While we must choose who we will serve and thus the Soul’s reward
Some never look beyond Self-worth, some live to please the Lord

Some never look beyond Self-worth, some live to please the Lord
Some set their sights upon this earth as if they can afford
To ignore what some cling to like a lifeline sure and keen;
The substance of things hoped for and its evidence unseen

The substance of things hoped for and its evidence unseen
Instills with awesome purpose what would oft seem harsh and mean
Aware while moments dance and race we owe their no return
Always and all for God who grants the grace that none can earn

Always and all for God who grants the grace that none can earn
Where mercy meets us face to face as surely as the morn
Where wealth accrued cannot provide that which will save the soul
When waves of morn to eventide no longer swell and roll

© Janet Martin

And whatever you do, do it heartily, 
as to the Lord and not to men,
Col.3:23

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen.
Heb.11:1