Inexhaustible Invitation and Consolation

1 Cor.2:9

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,

 neither have entered into the heart of man,

 the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Take heart, dear sick or struggling or sorrowing soul!

The Best is yet to come!! (For all who love God)

God Will Take Care of You

We all, without exception, are facing the valley of the Shadow of Death!

God, whose ear no one can exhaust

beckons all to come! 

to call on Him!

to believe in Him!

To receive salvation's gift of forgiveness and eternal life!

(because it is our sin that separates us from God

And all have sinned!! and only Christ's shed blood pardons us)

then, we can all claim the words of David...

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.'

Matt.11:28

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 

and I will give you rest.

John 7:37
On the last and greatest day of the feast, 

Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice,

 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

John 6:35
Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. 

Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, 

and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.

Isaiah 55:1-3
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; 

and you without money, come, buy, and eat! 

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! 

Why spend money on that which is not bread, 

and your labor on that which does not satisfy?

 Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,

 and your soul will delight in the richest of foods. 

 Incline your ear and come to Me; 

listen, so that your soul may live. 

I will make with you an everlasting covenant—

My loving devotion promised to David.

Psalm 55:22
Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you;

We cannot exhaust God

However oft we plead

His ear is tuned to our thought

His eye to our need

We cannot weary He

Who satisfies our want

And aids us in faith’s ministry

Where doubt's temptations taunt

We cannot drain love’s stores

However oft we cry

He who forgives our sins outpours

Mercy’s unplumbed supply

We cannot tire Him

With amen and amen

Or faze the fount where favours brim

Beyond our wildest ken

We cannot overtax

Or impoverish grace

Or fall beyond the rod and staff

Of the Shepherd’s embrace

Or ever deplete He

Whose love transcends time’s toll

For within our mortality

Lodges a deathless soul

It is for This Christ came

Our debt of shame He braved

So all who call upon His name

When death comes, will be saved

In the vale of death’s hour

Lord, crown our fear with peace

For no one can exhaust the pow’r

That purchased death’s release

….for death stalks one and all

But all who trust in You

Know, as death’s solemn shadows fall

You wait to walk us through

Thank-you Lord, as we face

The pall of Final Breath

None can exhaust Love's/Life's gift of grace

You purchased with Your death

Janet Martin

Rom.10:8-13

But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”d 

that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:

  9that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”

 and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

  10For with your heart you believe and are justified, 

and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

11It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”e

12For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: 

The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him,

  13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”f

Prayer For Dads on Father's Day For Every Day

Happy Father's Day!

For all the dad jokes, and jokes at dad's expense 

most dads I think would agree, being a dad is no joke!!

It's often hard and always holy!

Today many in our community's hearts and prayers are with the dad(and mother)

who lost five children in a terrible traffic collision, and laid them to rest yesterday.

Today we also think of the families who have bid farewell on earth to precious dad.

And today we think of our dear dads still with us and say

 'thank-you for all you do! and we love you!!'

My dad...

My children's dad...

My grandchildren's dad...

Dear Father in Heaven, I pray

For fathers far and wide today 

That you would grant them strength to bear

Love's worthy weight of constant care

That You would kindle in their hearts 

 Faith, for what fatherhood imparts;

A call You crown with holy due

Until their life on earth is through

Dear Lord, a father’s charge would be

A grim responsibility

Of bread to win and bills to pay

And teaching children to obey

Without Your word to cheer and bless

Without home's humble happiness

Without hugs, kisses, prayers and such

From those for whom they give so much

 

Heavenly Father, You are kind

Then pray each earthly dad may find

Prayers for kindness and patience met

Aware of examples they set

Help them, through grace and love to show

Each child the way they ought to go

Provide wisdom and courage when

Training morrow’s women and men

Dear Father in Heaven, I pray

For fathers young and old today

That, as You faithfully supply

Their needs as days and years go by

That they would reap the rich reward

Of honour for their lives outpoured 

Without reserve and willingly 

For love of God and family 

Lord, through the power of Your Word

Keep love's diligence undeterred

And through the goodness of Your grace

Equip them for all they must face

And through Your love's priority

Help them to love their family

Lest we forget, remind us to

Say 'thank-you Dad' and ' I love you' 

Janet Martin

As a father has compassion on his children, 

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. 

Psalm 103:13

Train up a child in the way he should go,

 and when he is old, he will not depart from it. 

 Proverbs 22:6

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, 

but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 

 Ephesians 6:4

Masterpiece of Memories

Time's moment-ous Tempo 

is composing a Masterpiece;

the piece we call Memories, 

The Piece returned to the Master when 

our gift called life is through.

This Piece is precious because

it is the part for which we give account!

Each day's  'Memories' are piece of a priceless Masterpiece...

This poem 'happened' in part as I stood on my tippy-toes the other night

to hug 'my little boys', from bygone days;

 the older brothers just turned 20 & 17!

And 'little' brother is graduating from Grade 8!! 

Time composes a kind of hymn

With moments, as they glance and glim

Like notes in an arpeggio

Of highest high and lowest low

And as life's lyrics lilt and weep

As season-measures soar and sweep 

They draw from intangible keys

A Masterpiece called Memories

Time gathers in its rushing streams

The ebb and flowing throb of dreams

Where hope's immortal blossom spars

With petal-snow and falling stars

To spark a sentimental show

Of holding close and letting go

A ballad of spent harmonies;

This Masterpiece of Memories

Behold the beauty of today

Hark! where nuances wait to play

Ah, feel the reel as rhythms roll 

From touch and taste to heart and soul

A holy toll that tunes a hymn

As laughter and tears glance and glim

As burden and blessing increase

Mortal's Memory-Masterpiece

Life is a gift; each melody

Part of a Greater Harmony

Of precision and dissonance

Of decision and recompense

Of petals settled where they fall

Of 'nothing new' Original

And ungraspable as a breeze

Life's Masterpiece of Memories

Before today melts in the breach

Of moments slipping beyond reach

Before its melodies are set

In Bygone's changeless pirouette 

Let's do our kind and humble part

To make Today a Work of Art

Before God wills Time's Tempo stilled

Of life's memories, Master-willed

Janet Martin

Ps.92:12

So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Comfort Beyond Comprehension...

We live in a stunningly beautiful, badly broken world!!

Jim and I enjoyed a little getaway to the rolling hills of Holmes County, Ohio

from Friday to Sunday.

My cup of awe overflowed as I marveled at bucolic views

 of majestic hills, winding roads and Amish farms

and homes tucked in every curve, crook and cranny! 

On Friday and Saturday the community bustled with industry,

buggies and E-bikes...

 but on Sunday all was quiet,

as man and beast (and E-bikes!!) rested!

Then we returned home to the news of a horrific tragedy in our community

that claimed the lives of  five children/siblings

and there are no words to try reconcile such shock and grief!

But there are prayers and just as Jesus promised

before He went to the cross so it is.

'I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.'

The way to His comfort is found in the gospel of

John chapters 14, 15, and 16 as He prepares and comforts His disciples

just before He who knew no sin was crucified for all of humanity's sins.

In the garden of Eden, sin broke the state of perfection in this world 

and as long as there is sin;

 disobedience to God, there will be trouble and sorrow...

and always God who forgives, strengthens, comforts and helps us

if we confess our sin and trust in Him!

We are so small but God is so Big.

Rom. 11:33

O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! 

How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

Isa.55:9

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, 

so are my ways higher than your ways 

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Ps.103:11

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, 

so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.

What this day holds we cannot know

Time's bloom unfolds wonder and woe

Where hope and heartbreak intertwine

As dreams and plans their schemes resign

To He whose steadfast faithfulness

Will never leave us comfortless 

What waits to be of smiles and tears

Of tested faith and holy fears

Of battles fought or triumphs won

Before this fleeting Day is done

Only God knows; His thoughts and ways

Confound the small frames we appraise

What consolation this; to know

When sorrow strikes its sacred blow

We find within our brokenness

'He does not leave us comfortless

With nail-scarred hands He draws us near

And counts and cups each falling tear

Someday, we all will take our turn

To exit this world's live-and-learn

Time is eternity's façade  

And all who put their hope in God

Are comforted, in spite of grief

As we await Promised Relief 

...as beauty and brokenness meet

In awe and horror, bittersweet

As faith alone encounters He

Whose comfort transcends tragedy

A Mystery that He unveils

To all who trust when all else fails

Janet Martin

John 14:23

 Jesus answered and said to him,

 “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word;

 and My Father will love him, 

and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Blessing-Bestowed or Love-lavished

The first line of this poem was born as I delighted

 in another beautiful shower this morning! 

Fields and gardens are leaping with joy!

1 John 3:1

See what great love the Father has lavished/bestowed on us, 

that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

He sends the sunshine and the rain,

His mercy new each morn, amen

He sends, to prayers of you and I

The perfect timing of reply

And to each test of trust we face

He sends His all-sufficient grace

He sends us hope for every care

And many angels, unaware

Where doubt and dread could oft prevail

He sends His love that cannot fail

Through the sovereignty of His Word

His purpose abides, undeterred

To grief, love is bound to incur

He sends a Faithful Comforter

And to each sin that we confess

He sends His complete forgiveness

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow

He sends a Way through every woe

He sets upon the thorny stem

A delicate rose diadem

He sends the fruit, instilled in seeds

He sends the means to supply needs

Where the enemy flaunts dark fear

He sends his Word to gird and cheer

He sends, in every breath, a gift

He sent a cross to bridge the rift

Sin’s debt would make impassible

But His shed blood has paid in full

Then, when our life on earth is done

He sends Himself to bring us Home

Janet Martin

This poem was part of today's devotion...stunning and true!

The Secret

I met God in the morning

When my day was at its best,

And his presence came like sunrise

Like a glory in my breast.

All day long the Presence lingered,

All day long he stayed with me,

And we sailed in perfect calmness

O’er a very troubled sea.

Other ships were blown and battered,

Other ships were sore distressed,

But the winds that seemed to drive them

Brought to us a peace and rest.

Then I thought of other mornings,

With a keen remorse of mind,

When I too had loosed the moorings,

With the Presence left behind.

So I think I know the secret,

Learned from many a troubled way:

You must seek him in the morning

If you want him through the day!

From Spiritual Hilltops by Ralph S. Cushman

Take Time Out For Jesus-Charlie Pride

Time's Fragile, Fleeting Flower-span

'The old will die,

the young can die'

a quote I heard my grandma repeat

numerous times when I was a child

A quote to remind us that life is uncertain at best

and all should call ' on the name of the Lord and be saved' Rom.10:13

before 'the dust returns into its earth, from whence it was,

and the spirit returns to God, who gave it'. Eccles.12:7

...to remember our Creator in the days of our youth

before the difficult days come 

and the years draw near that we say

'I have no pleasure in them' Eccles.12:1

To make the Reason personal; the Reason we can say

with confidence every morning

'Lord, this is the day that You have made;

we will rejoice and be glad in it' Ps.118:24

We will rejoice and be glad

because no matter what happens

the Giver of salvation's gift is with us.

The little parts we can see, of highs and lows

'are like a mist that appears for a little while,

then vanishes'. James 4:14

Prov.27:1

Do not boast about tomorrow, 

for you do not know what a day may bring.

Like a flower, the days of man unfold,

and fall away...

The old will die, but oh, the young are often taken too

The part that sobers you and I, not for a chosen few

And no one knows the time or place  when we return to He

Who knew the number of our days before one came to be

Like a flower, the days of man unfold and fall away

The old will die but the young can; death visits every day

How urgently we ought to view the lease of Mercy's toll 

Before the dust reclaims its due, and God, the deathless soul

Prepare to meet thy God; this is no archaic cliché 

This is the Voice that rends the sod and winds and waves obey

This is the God whose pure love braved death's cruel duel, grim

And triumphed; so we can be saved if we believe in Him

The old will die, but the young can; the days of man are wee 

 Time's Fragile, Fleeting Flower-Span fans Vast Eternity

A vastness none can comprehend; yet bids our worship brim!! 

God broke sin's curse so we may spend eternity with Him

Janet Martin

Time's Fragile, Fleeting, flower-span fans vast eternity...

 

...prepare to meet your God, (O Israel)

For behold, He who forms the mountains,

who creates the winds,

who reveals His thoughts to man,

who turns the dawn to darkness,

who strides on the heights of the earth,---

the Lord, the God of hosts is His name

Amos 4:12-13

Who Am I-Casting Crowns

Dear Lucy, Here You Will Always Be...

Lucy, I was in the middle of some late spring cleaning doing the upstairs windows...

missing you missing my 60th birthday fuss and love... 

Oh, I can almost hear you exclaiming how 60 sounds surreal and wowing, and half-listening

as I explain 'things', how sometimes out of nowhere

 a poem just seizes my senses and needs out!

 and then we talk... in breathless mostly half-sentences between questions, 

catching up on each other's lives...

and laughing and weeping and praying...

 depending on the joy or grief of love...

Lucy, the grief of our parting has sweetened/refined my joys. 

I sense you in a harvest of deepened friendships... 

you opened my eyes to a world of outstretched arms...

two of them, mine...

because its the hard times that remind us how much we need each other. 

You are teaching me the bitter-sweetness of this verse, dear Lucy...

John 12:24 

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, 

it remains only a single seed.

 But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

What?! oh! you're asking 'why so many ellipses?!!'

That's where I was pausing to gather my thoughts...

and words! 😅😘

Dear Lucy,

In one sense, you're not here

and in that sense its true

But somehow I still feel you near

in every thought of you

in every want to hear

more than echoes to trace

in every peony my dear 

I press against my face

In every memory

That pray, Time will not steal

In every aching void of 'we'

That Time can never heal

In every hope renewed

Because God loves us so

In every prayer of gratitude

In spite of tears that flow

In spite of sight bereft

For God bid we should part

There is a sense of you still left

To hold within my heart

To comfort sorrow's tear

To remind me again

That in one sense you are not here

But in one you remain

...and here you'll always be

 In ever younger years

You slipped beyond the reach of me

Save in my smiles and tears 

Janet💔🙏💝

  

The Older That We Grow...

Yesterday we celebrated my turning 60!

I was young...

 but now I am old(er); 

...yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken. 

Ps.37:25

***

Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, 

until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, 

Your might to all who are to come.

Ps.71:18

***

Sometimes we may be tempted to lament the grunt and groan

That Time is bound to introduce if given time enough

But age is not all doom and gloom, for all we may bemoan

The older that we grow the more we cherish those we love

The older that we grow the more we find to thank God for

Aware that life at best, is like a flower; it will fade

That days are laid like steppingstone we traverse to a Door

All will pass through, and none knows when death's Farewells will invade

Thus, each day is a gift from God, filled with loving commands

With beauty and duty's sacred accountability

Because what matters most is not what we hold in our hands

But in our hearts, with reverence and kind humility 

Growing older grants far more than what meets the eye, my dears

Where steps may slow and any resemblance to youth is spent 

But loss has deepened love for those still privy to our tears

And prayers. Joy is refined through grief and laughter through lament

...and even if given the chance to turn back time somehow 

Not many would choose to re-weather life's lessons once more

Far better this, to find happiness in the gift of Now

For happiness is found in what we find to thank God for

The scenery of looking back, the older that we grow

Becomes a panoramic view of things we cannot change

And things that never will; though generations come and go

God's love and promises, no passage of Time can estrange 

Janet Martin

Amos Raber - The Older I Get - (LYRIC VIDEO)

 

The Joy of June (makes glad the heart)

Nature's fingers are threaded through with petal-floss...

and gossamer scarves, trailing skylines, misty-blue...

Ps.150:6

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

 Praise the Lord!

May swept by in a busy blur without opportunity

to grapple its gladness for spring-things to page!

Finally a rainy June morning allows time for the Poet

to purge Her soul of pleasures to share

and hopefully bring joy to fellow June-lovers! 

Nature’s Artist breathes upon

Earth’s stage, with leaf-refurbished isles

And coral light of early dawn

God...gilds fronds with jewels of rain...

The joy of June makes glad the heart

And stirs a soul-sweet psalm of praise

Where bliss time cannot change imparts

The happiness of summer days

This is the Time of singing birds

Of cheery chime of flower-bell

Of hundred hues of green that girds

The sunny hill and bowered dell

Of gardens reaching for the moon

Of days that linger gloriously

Beneath awnings, where azure noon

Kindles dusk’s drawn-out panoply

Nature's fingers are threaded through

With petal-floss and gossamer

Scarves, trailing skylines, misty-blue

And woven with hymn-tinctured shirr  

A universal childhood smiles

As Nature’s Artist breathes upon

Earth’s stage, with leaf-refurbished isles

And coral light of early dawn

Winter-weary spirits once more

Soar with hope, burgeoning and hale

Where, like each joyous June before

God tips a lily-laden grail

…and gilds fronds with jewels of rain

And fuels blossom-to-fruit boon

And makes hearts humbly glad again

With summer’s sweet, sweet joys of June

Janet Martin

Of gardens reaching for the moon...

(With this rain the garden grew overnight!!)

This is the Time of singing birds...