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

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

The Two Paths of Life

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'

The Bedrock of Belief Or Not

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

I Know Whom I Have Believed 

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?

19So we see that it was because of their unbelief 

that they were unable to enter.

John 3:18

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.

Trouble Believing in God- Charles Stanley 

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

Isaiah 28:16

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.

Mark 16:16

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;

 but he that believeth not shall be damned.

John 3:36

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.

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!

Titus 1:15-16

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.”

The Great Judgement Morning

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"—

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.

Jesus, Lover of My Soul - The Living Stones Quartet

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, 

is deceitful and desperately wicked

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,

My lips shall praise You.

Psalm 63:3

The Creator of earth and heavens loves us with

an everlasting love!

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

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.

 The Dying Thief- The Spurgeon Library

 

 

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.

 

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,

 that spent many hours at our house

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...

 

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

Eph.4:17-24

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—

Faithful One-Robin Mark

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...

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