Of Painful Joy or Of Boundless Love

 

Ps. 23:4

Yea, though I walk through the valley

 of the shadow of death,

 I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

 thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

1 Pet.1:6

In this you greatly rejoice, 

though now for a little while, 

if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,..

Whether on faith's mountaintop

or in the dark, lonely valley

the incomprehensible, steadfast love of God abides

to minister to body and soul's need 

Tell Me the Old, Old Story

This is a poem I am still in the process of learning...

through deep disappointments

and divine epiphanies 🙏

There is no limit to the love of God

Its height and depth thought cannot comprehend

Whether beneath the guerdon of its rod

Or in a garden where soft breezes wend

His love cannot be measured or contained

Nor with ingenious eloquence explained

The love of God is beyond reckoning

He knows the heart of man is vile indeed

The hub of prideful Fancy’s beckoning

Left unbroken, would choke faith’s mustard seed

So, lest we covet what we cannot keep

Faith’s Great Perfecter runs love’s plowshares deep

…with piercing love, He works for our good

Ah, pray for faith to see beyond the part

That is often sadly misunderstood

While He prepares the test-plots of the heart

Until faith’s finely-tilled furrows are sown

With seed that grows for His glory alone

We are the sheep of His pasture. He tends

The welfare of His flock with rod and staff

He rescues, rebukes, comforts and defends

No cost too great to work on our behalf

Because the love of the Good Shepherd knows

The dire danger of wolves in sheep’s clothes

The love of God produces painful joys

For He too faced the Tempter’s crafty charms

A shrewd maneuverer of deadly ploys

To blind us to love’s everlasting arms

To draw us from His word that girds and feeds

Thus, with both rod and staff, love intercedes

Then, for a season, if need be, love grieves

The proving of faith’s shield to quench sin’s darts

Until at last with patience, God achieves

His joy complete, only His love imparts

As the heart yields He overflows its sod

With bounty from the boundless love of God

© Janet Martin

As for This Fellow...

...as for this fellow, we know not from whence He is!

John 9:29

Amazing Grace

Do we listen when He asks us

To trust Him implicitly

On the roadway to Damascus

Have we been struck blind, to see? 

Have we committed to follow

Jesus; to 'fight the good fight'

Or do His precepts ring hollow

Because we still walk by sight 

Does 'the joy still set before us'

Satisfy our cup of grief

Does faith's Canaan-land implore us

To guard against unbelief

Has our stubborn will been broken 

As we looked on Calvary

Have we echoed Wonder spoken

'I was blind but now I see'

Have we fixed our eyes on Jesus

Has 'this fellow' been revealed;

He whose blood-bought pardon frees us

He, by whose wounds we are healed 

Is 'this fellow' our Saviour?

Has transformation begun?

Turning sight-governed behaviour 

Into faith's 'Thy will be done' 

Has Belief sight's barrier broken

By 'this fellow' humbly/wholly awed

Have our eyes of faith been opened  

To behold the Son of God

Dear, once-blind-but-now-I-see-man

Keep your courage undeterred

You will not fall prey to man's plan

Through the keeping of His Word 

Janet Martin 

 

John 9:25

He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. 

One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

Awakening to 'Living the 'Dream'

Today's poem was inspired by my niece who, yesterday, wrote on her Facebook post...

(after recovering from another round of sickness in their household)

'Walking around our property tonight, I took a moment

and realized in all the busyness & stress of home ownership & motherhood,

this is everything I've dreamed for' 💗

Thank-you J, for the reminder to treasure the moment and find the joy in it

no matter how hectic the 'happiness' spills!

'The dream' isn't only the picture-perfect moments but all of it together;

the lows make us more thankful for the highs.

This is the day the Lord has made;

we will rejoice and be glad in it!

Ps.118:24

Family milestone celebrations

are one of the happiest blessings on earth...

The other evening we celebrated Granddaughter's 6th birthday,

Which means it was her turn to receive her mommy-box/gramma box

'mommy' is the Pennsylvania-Dutch word for gramma.

(a short 'e' sound at the end rather than long)

In a mommy box 'treasures' are buried in popcorn...

Gum-lover's delight below 😂

the inside of the box is lined with little poems, pictures and bible verses

(I forgot to take a photo of the inside)

Awakening to 'Living the Dream'

To recognize that sorrow is the price we pay for joy

Loss is the proof of having had; everything comes, to pass

And grief and love are life’s most tenderly entwined alloy

Moment’s momentous momentum, sand in life’s hourglass

To recognize that highs and lows comprise ‘living the dream’

Without the brutal ‘bitter’ we would not cherish the ‘sweet’

Or taste the lilt of laughter with more reverent esteem

After the tears we shed when life and death solemnly meet

To recognize the priceless prize disguised as here-and-now

Intangible and fleet, the font that fills history’s mold

And then, with fervent thankfulness to make a humble vow

To do our part to make its art a pleasure/treasure to behold

To, recognize today is all we have, no more or less

To ‘live the dream’ by faith, not fate; to be constantly awed

By He whose loving kindness is the key to happiness

To recognize, through lows and highs, the faithfulness of God

© Janet Martin

I have decided to center my posts after all.

It's hard to teach an 'old dog' new tricks, plus

I have discovered some 'centered' poetry volumes 

in my poem book collection.

See HERE for back story on this 😆

Love's Law Of...(First things First)

While the layout of each lesson-book may vary

the requirement and result are universal because

we reap what we sow

and God is not mocked! Gal.6:7

I've been on a stretch of demanding days and

half-sleep nights. During the night, last night

the electricity must have blinked off and since I don't

have a battery back-up in my alarm clock

and since I had the blind and room-darkening curtains pulled

and since I had a sound sleep last night, I was appalled when

I looked at my phone and it was... 8:48?!! 😭😬

The tempter was there instantly with 'you over-slept!

no time for devotions today! you must hurry! hurry!"

What a most terrible way, (I have learned from experience)

to hurry, hurry into the day without first thanking and praising God for his mercies renewed,

and then lifting up our 'broken' to Him, our sick, sorrowing and lost loved ones.

Then drinking from the wellspring of His word to have our spirit refreshed and strengthened

because the flesh is weak and prone to fall prey to what it sees...

Circumstance changes constantly...

Last night, snow and ice-ensconced world...

This morning, sunshine drenched world beneath rising temps!

Tis an art the heart must master for life's story to be sweet

Success can lead to disaster if we do not learn its creed

Where the spirit oft is willing but the wanting flesh is weak

Where sight oft seems more fulfilling than ‘faith as a mustard seed’

Tis a test the best of scholars and teachers cannot evade

Nor the tribe that wears blue collars nor miners, nor astronauts

In the end we all will answer for the choices we have made

Be it maestro, merchant, dancer, five-star chef, scrubber of pots

Tis a law of awe and wonder, impossible to detail

Where wellsprings of blessing thunder from each breath no longer cursed

It will enrich dream and duty, a rubric that will not fail

As we marvel at the beauty of love’s law of First things first

© Janet Martin

One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”26“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”

27He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’c and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’d”

28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”

29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Read Jesus answer HERE...v.30-37

Take Time to be Holy

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.

Heb.13:8

...leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way.
First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Matt. 5:24

Loved

Happy April!

Dear Lord, what waits, only You know

Daybreak heeds Your command

Your evidence puts on a show

As mercy floods the land

Enough, your grace whereby we go

To face the day at hand...

Without agape love I am
A beast by quick impulses ruled
My most noble ideal a sham
By pagan happinesses, schooled/fooled

Without I AM’s agape love
I am a ship tossed to and fro
No earthly anchor strong enough
To weather wanton winds that blow

Without love greater than my own
To truly love I cannot do
Until God sits on my heart’s throne
And teaches love I never knew

...and then it is no longer 'I'

But He who is the good in me

I touch His scars to satisfy

What else would still a rebel be   

© Janet Martin

Rom.5:5
And hope does not put us to shame, 

because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts 

through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

1 John 4:7-11
Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God.

 Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is how God’s love was revealed among us:

God sent His one and onlyc Son into the world, 

so that we might live through Him.

And love consists in this: 

not that we loved God, but that He loved us 

and sent His Son as the atoning sacrificed for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another...