A Hope-Hug

I love listening to the above powerful hymn when hope needs a little hug...

It inspired a sudden 'hymn' from my heart...

as I prayed for my friend Jen 

thrust suddenly into the unwelcome world of cancer.

(please, pray too?)

He is greater, 

The Creator 

Of the rooming house of stars

He moves mountains 

With a whisper 

And persuades dawn from yon bars

He is mercy

Everlasting

When this cast of days dissolves

He is greater

The Creator

Of the home for redeemed souls

He is holy

Great and lowly

Are called to repent, believe

He is Awesome

He, the promise

Of life that death cannot grieve

He is greater

Than the crater

Twixt time and eternity

He is Father

and the Saviour 

Of sin-cursed humanity

He is greater
Mediator
Of words stuttered into prayer
No matter
How dark the valley
Still His faithful Light beams there

He is greater

The Creator

Of the world and all therein

He is mercy

He is holy

He is peace, hope, joy within

Hellelujah!

Janet Martin

No Fickle Trickster, God

PAD Challenge 10; Here is our next prmpt from Robert Lee Brewer at Poetics Aside!
Wow! We’re already one-third of the way through this challenge, and I’ve been impressed (as usual) by the creative approaches to each prompt. It never fails to amaze and delight me to see a prompt take life once in the hands of poets.

For today’s Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

1. Write a deal poem.
2. Write a no deal poem.

Imagine being at the mercy

Of a God we could not trust

Known for shady business dealings

Stealing, trickery and such

What if seeds were stripped of bearing?

Or the bud bereft of bloom

Or the sun slipped from its mooring

And ricocheted off the moon

What if night might stay forever

Morning, an uncertain thing

What if just for fun He ordered

Winter again, after spring

Imagine being at the mercy

Of a God that we could prove

No bigger-than-mortal-answers

No unfathomable love

What if grace was just a fable

And faith didn’t need our prayers

Everything spread on a table

Like a merchant selling wares

What if, with vile angst and trembling

We, without His Word assured

Approached death with nothing more than

Maybe soul will be secured

Imagine being at the mercy

Of a fickle, two-faced God

Who, instead of dealing kindly

Gave us just what we deserved

…where the air would scar our faces

With the curses we have spewed

As He deals with the excuses

Explaining ingratitude

© Janet Martin

 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
            Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

Ps.103: 10

 Whether you've read it 100 times or never...

Please, read the whole glorious chapter here!

Psalm 103 

Of Wily Want...

...and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. 

This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, 

and is already in the world at this time.

You, little children, are from God and have overcome them,  

because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 

They are of the world. 

That is why they speak from the world’s perspective,
and the world listens to them.…

1 John 4:3-5 

I planned to peg a quickie today but it seemed another Hand kept pushing mine!

I'm over-whelmed with concern sometimes when I think about the world

 our precious, precious 'littles' are growing up in...

People teaching lies (with an eternal impact) that they believe are truth; 

Trying to teach youngsters not to lie, with a lie!

Why? Some have perhaps never been taught the Truth  

or perhaps exchanged the truth for a lie.

 

Sometimes I feel a sad sort of sympathy

 for country-leaders who seem unaware of what they do not know...

'cause maybe they only know what their daddies taught them!

As long as Bibles stay closed how is anyone armed with Truth?!

Without God's Word in our heart how do we battle the Tempter, full of lies?

What a wily Want, temptation

Fills the mind with silky sigh

Where thought’s wild imagination

Tricks the heart into a lie

Ignorance is like a cancer

Feeding on Moral Decay

Looking for another answer

Rather than the One True Way

Sad, the bane that follows after

The Deceiver does not care

Not in vain his heinous laughter

Sets a sugar-coated snare

Distraction is like pink frosting

Disguising death’s poisoned bite

Sample craves sample, thus costing

Loss of Wholesome Appetite

Without Truth, love has no basis

Wisdom cries loud in the street

While the seeker of it chases

Hope, like rolling tumbleweed

Evil, like a roaring lion

Wanders the earth to and fro

Seeking who he may devour

Luring victims with The Show

What a wily, heartless hunter

After he is satisfied

Leaves his prey with howling hunger

In the street where wisdom cried

Run! Death’s cold, cunning tormentor

Tests the best of you and I

Robed as an angel, the Tempter

Tricks the heart into a lie

Run to One who never falters

He, the Way, The Truth and Life

Beams His Light into heart-altars

Heaped with ashes of Want’s strife

© Janet Martin

 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains would tremble before you!

 As when fire sets twigs ablaze
    and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
    and cause the nations to quake before you! 

 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
    you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 

 Since ancient times no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

Isa.64:1-4 

Time Takes Its Toll...and A Dave update!

 Time definitely takes its toll on bodies, no matter who we are sooner or later something gives out!
I have a friend who suddenly without warning lost sight in one eye. She, so youngish-seeming, will turn 70 at the end of the year, Lord willing, but oh, adapting to one-eyed vision is such a test!
Hard to drive, hard to read, hard to judge distance! Will you pray for her encouragement?
Jenny 15 yrs. old, one day a school-girl, the next in hospital with no feeling in her legs, then a cancer diagnosis, still in hospital and undergoing chemo-treatments!
Please pray for her and her family's encouragement!
I have a brother whose journey of healing after a fall at work in June is a huge test of patience for someone who loved work, and life! Will you pray for him and his family and their encouragement?
We all deal with small surrenders as we age, no matter how hard we fight;-)
Time takes its toll...on all but Soul!
Let's pray for each other's encouragement to fight the good fight!

Time takes its toll on all but Soul

This fragile flesh born for decay

Bears highs and lows as days disclose

High hopes and doubt, joy and dismay

And all that we can know for sure

Where we know trouble will not cease

Is this; nothing keeps us secure

Save God who grants midst mayhem, peace

In days of old wild flood-deeps rolled

Across the world, where Noah’s ark

Because he did what he was told

Carried him through days long and dark

…the ark of mercy waits today

Its door to safety beckons, come

Before grace seals The Only Way

Through His spilled blood to heaven’s Home

Then lest we, caught, when we think not

Are swept from this world up to God

We should pay heed to what we ought

And never scorn what saints applaud

Time does not wait but nears A Gate

Then pray the Lord Thy soul to keep

Lest caught off guard, we learn too late

That only flesh succumbs to sleep

© Janet Martin

 We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
For if the message spoken by angels was binding,
and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment,
how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
Heb. 2:1-3

The author of this song Fanny J. Crosby, was blind!

So no matter how hard the journey the believer's hope is fixed on things to come!


Dave update: It's been a while! but the journey is on-going.
(for previous updates click on Dave and Karen in labels section at the bottom of the post)

Yesterday he had an appointment with a specialist in Toronto.

 Here is an update from Dave's wife, Karen.

Hi Everyone

Here is the update from today's appointment

Today we went to meet with the specialist in Toronto. Came out of it with a lot of mixed emotions.
He has two problems. First is that he has a frozen shoulder, 2nd that the tear of the rotor cuff is so large not sure if surgery will even work.
He said surgery would not have happened right now anyways until we get the frozen shoulder fixed. He said that Dave's shoulder just doesn't move at all and has no strength in it. So he will be in contact with Dave's Physiotherapist in Elmira and let him know what he wants him to work on with him. Once we get that fixed then I think we will meet with the specialist again and go over our options.
I was kinda surprised,( I was sure that he would have surgery and it would be fixed) so at the appointment we didn't ask a lot of questions, but of course thought of a lot of questions that we should have asked on our way home - First we need to get the frozen shoulder gone- and see if that helps him to move that right shoulder and arm.
The one good thing is Dave doesn't have any pain with that arm ( unless of course he moves it the wrong way)
2nd is I was so worried about Dave going under for surgery with his lung - but I don't have to worry about that now. I know that God has the right time for everything, so please remember us in your prayers for us to have the patience we need with this part of his healing.
Dave ribs are still sore, but we know they said that that can take up to 6 months and we are not at 4 months yet.
Have a great weekend.

Poetry For Eyes

Life leaves little allowance these end-of-August days

 for longing's Muse to pen her dues....

of beautiful bittersweet!

 But Her whole gallery is free for Beholding...

Nature’s color-palette nurtures hungry eyes

Like a soulful ballad set against blue skies

Mountain-ash spills garnet, ditch spills goldenrod

Hillside spills a garden wild with lily-laud

Tug of heart and soul, oh, morning spills new day

Heaping girth of earth so, with beauty’s buffet

God’s artwork is awesome, orchards swathed in mist

Cradle in a blossom, harvest’s catalyst

Free four-season canvas hung north-south-east-west

Gallery of gladness thrills the mortal breast

Stunning sweeps of summer, flaming fronds of fall

Whitewashed worlds of winter, sweet spring’s budding shawl

Tracery of treetops etched on eventide

Pretty petal pit-stops halt Hurry mid-stride

Periwinkle twinkles, diamond-dazzled dawn

Peach-pink-purple pimpernel, leaf embellished lawn

Perpetual wonder, look ah, look again

Subliminal splendor mantles moor and main

Gentle is its granting, gentle its demise

Nature’s Author painting poetry for eyes

© Janet Martin