Before It Is Too Late

Because death forgets no one,

 today's post is an earnest and urgent beckoning

because of a reckoning none will escape...

The Ninety and Nine...

Luke 15:4-7

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, 

does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness,

 and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 

5And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

  6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, 

saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 

7I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven 

over one sinner who repents 

than over ninety-nine [b]just persons who need no repentance.

On his deathbed the other week, my sister-in-law's brother put his faith in Jesus

before, at 51 years of age, he passed from time into eternity.

Praise the Lord! He did not dismiss the window of opportunity still open,

 to repent and believe!

Death forever closes the window of every opportunity

but ultimately the opportunity to receive the gift of salvation!

Sometimes death comes too suddenly to call upon God's name,

so then, we should prepare to meet God today!

God, who so loved us He gave His Son as the final sacrifice for sin because

'without shedding of blood is no remission/forgiveness. Heb.9:22

Matt.24:43-44

But know this, that if the master of the house had known

 what [a]hour the thief would come, 

he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.

 44 Therefore you also be ready, 

for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

What can be sadder than to be Almost Persuaded?!

Acts 26:28 NKJV

Then Agrippa said to Paul,

 “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”

Almost Persuaded

Death stops us in our tracks,

In leaps of faith, mid-prayer/air

It accomplishes hope’s climax

Or eternal despair

It adjourns highs and lows

When death lowers its bar

It executes life’s curtain-close

No matter who we are

It strips the soul’s veneer

(Pray we prepare to meet

Our God, for we must all appear

Before His judgment seat)

It lurks in every breath

In every step we take

We live in the shadow of death

Eternity at stake

Between Will Be and Was

God’s grace unfurls Time’s mast

And grants what none should waste, because

Today could be our last

Salvation, none can earn

Saves us from sin's dire fate

Because, Death waits at every turn

Who can afford to wait

…to call upon the Name

Of God, mighty to save

All who believe, death cannot claim

For Christ conquered the grave

Therefore, though death is sure

We need not dread its scythe 

All who believe, God holds secure

In everlasting life   

Then pray, do not delay

To make repentance true

Because maybe this very day

Death will take me or you

Then, hearken/listen unto He

Who calls us all by name 

Who gave Himself to set us free

From death's unyielding claim 

Before it is too late

(for death forgets no one)

Pray for faith's gift of saving grace

Through Jesus Christ, God's Son

© Janet Martin

Isa. 51:5-6

My righteousness is near,

My salvation has gone forth,
And My arms will judge the peoples;
The coastlands will wait upon Me,
And on My arm they will trust.
 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
And look on the earth beneath.
For the heavens will vanish away like smoke,
The earth will grow old like a garment,
And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;
But My salvation will be forever,
And My righteousness will not be [b]abolished.

Read the full glorious chapter HERE

Titus 2:11-14

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,

 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, 

we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 

13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing

 of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 

14 who gave Himself for us, 

that He might redeem us from every lawless deed

 and purify for Himself His own special people,

 zealous for good works.

Unlike Bridal Shower Gifts

It pained me to crop off all the smiling faces in the photos below

but for respect of privacy I must!

Photo credit; Bridal shower hosts-my sister and niece

Last night I attended a bridal shower for my nephew's fiancée.

Each gift she opened was different but all were thoughtfully

chosen and wrapped for the bride-to-be to open,

and she did with smiles of delight, excitement and thankfulness!

It reminded me of a tidbit of conversation with my mother-in-law yesterday

as we talked of the day when we are 'presented'

back to God, all in our different wrappings,

but unlike bridal shower gifts, 

when God tugs at/opens the diverse wrappings

what remains will be the same in every 'gift';

The Living Soul returned to God,

who so thoughtfully and lovingly 'chose' us,

designed/created us so differently 

and, just as we carefully choose gifts for those we love

He too chose a gift for those He so loves!!

Knowing we are born sinners God provided an

eternal and universal gift/pardon for all who believe in Him.

For God so loved the world that

He gave His only begotten Son,

that whosoever believes in Him will not perish

but have everlasting life

John 3:16

Whatever shapes our share of trials, disappointments and griefs,

God loves us with an unfailing love and justice!

How His face will beam as He welcomes His Bride in the

Greatest Wedding of all Time;

all honor and glory and praise will be for Him

who, through His Redeeming gift purchased Soul's salvation!!

To try and grasp the fulness of his love is mind-blowing!! 

No matter what befalls, God knows

Beneath the Wrapping that we see

His gift of boundless love bestows

More than enough for you and me

God's love no thought can comprehend

He weaves time's ephemeral gauze 

 That drapes The Day when all will bend

Before WHO IS, WILL BE and WAS 

How carefully He fashioned us

Beneath the fleeting part we see

God instilled the mysterious, 

Profound pulse of eternity

The pride and ignorance of fools

Blasphemes/rejects the Name, mighty to save

They do not fear the One who rules

Beyond the tissue of the grave 

God is not mocked; His love is just

Where mercy sparkles from morn's flask 

He grants, to humble faith-hope-trust

Beyond what we can think to ask

No matter what befalls, God knows

Beneath the Wrapping that we see

Each gifted moment overflows

With shimmers of eternity

© Janet Martin

What Gift of Grace is Jesus My Redeemer

Eph.2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 

 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world 

and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,

 the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 

All of us also lived among them at one time,

 gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts.

 Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 

 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,  made us alive with Christ

 even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 

 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, 

expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 

 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—

and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 

 not by works, so that no one can boast. 

 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, 

which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Of (Fleeting) Time and Place

I'm currently working at painting and preparing a vacant bedroom

as a spare bedroom (aka grandchildren's sleepover room😊😉💓)

Two coats of primer later, Matt's old room colour, 

the colour of a basketball, is simply a memory!

painted during the boyhood basketball phase of his life;

 a phase long overtaken by more pressing matters, (like mortgages,😅)

Proof of the fleeting POOF!! 

of stages and ages, interests and passions!

Reminding us to build on the eternal 

rather than the temporal because...

 ...the things which are seen are temporary, 

 the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Cor.4:18

I finished listening to this book yesterday as I painted...

God's Smuggler

The book is filled with profound thoughts and experiences 

but the one below, near the end of the book

made me put down my brush and jot it down!

Starkly relevant for the age we are in...

(When, after gaining access to a country through great effort and pains,

 he (Brother Andrew) proceeded to hand out Bibles, but no one seemed interested)

And he was struck with this revelation-

'Persecution was an enemy the church had met and mastered many times.

Indifference could prove to be a far more dangerous foe!'

**

Pray, we do not slip into indifference, 

but live, deeply aware that we are all 

on a very impending verge... of  eternity

***

Jude 1:3-4

Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share,

 I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith

 entrusted once for all to the saints. 

4For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—

ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. 

They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, 

and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

***

 

The blessings we enjoy

The heartaches we endure

Grievances that annoy

Dreams loosed from the mind’s moor

The ups and downs we face

The fights twixt faith and fear

Are all hallmarks of time and place

And temporary, dear

Love’s holy exercise

Of hold-and-letting-go

Of glad hellos and hard goodbyes

Of retrospect’s slideshow

Of choice, for better-worse

And not all it appears

Of consequence we bless or curse

With laughter or with tears

Pleasure’s brief blitz of bliss

Suffering’s griefs and pains

All pass way; the genesis

To all that yet remains

Of everlasting gain

Or everlasting loss

These moments in the sun and rain

Are but bridges we cross

That lead away from This

Brief encounter with grace

Where soul alone transcends What Is

Of fleeting Time and Place

The fool rejects this truth

The wise take heed and pray

Because death is the living proof

Of this world’s little stay

Then, while we can, prepare

To meet Thy God, before

We step from time’s fleet thoroughfare

Into Forevermore

© Janet Martin

Through the Means of Today

"That our sanctification did not depend upon changing

our works, but, in doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own.

That it was lamentable to see how many people mistook the means for the end,

addicting themselves to certain works which they performed

very imperfectly, by reason of their human or selfish regards...."

Above excerpt from The Practice of the Presence of God

by Brother Lawrence

We ought to pay close heed

To dawn’s gift on display

Because of where its moments lead

Through the means of Today...

Some folk I have outlived

And some will outlive me

Through the means of Today, a gift

God grants mortality

The tally of the sum

Of Today-shadows cast

Are like flickers that will become

My life, when life is passed

The breath that holds the soul

At bay, someday will cease

The means of getting to the goal

Will expire its lease

We ought to pay close heed

To dawn’s gift on display

Because of where its moments lead

Through the means of Today

The means is not the end

The ‘seen’ will soon be through

Let’s live as if Today could rend

The veil between the two

…where there is no release

To what none can outlive;

The end begins what cannot cease

And God alone can give

Oh, pray we bear in mind

Far more than dust of clay

In grave-strewn worlds soon left behind

Through the means of Today

© Janet Martin

Ps.107:8-9

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
 For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Sharing some morning robin and finch cheeriness!

(in between traffic noise!)

Building For Eternity-New Heights Quartet

The Great Redeemer

Of Payoffs In Waiting (or Something About a Gaping Grave)

Yesterday my dad's oldest brother (and Wayne's father) was laid to rest.

He is an uncle fondly remembered by his nieces and nephews

 for his good-natured, uncomplaining and optimistic outlook

 though his life had many hardships!

We cousins are in a stage where funerals have become our meeting place

and with these gatherings comes the solemn reminder

our childhood playmates are not children anymore,

all of us under the influence of Time's unflinching touch 

and we are reminded of this truth;

that death can come to the young

but it will come to the old

and the realization is dawning that our generation

 is on the heels of the one we are, 

one by one, laying to rest!

A ripe old age turns to mist

 in death's twinkling of an eye!

So then, as we turn again 

to shoulder our yokes of scarred delight

pray we do not lose sight 

of the only payoff that counts

when, for all 'momentary mountains/afflictions, 

the eternal payoff is unveiled!

2 Cor.4:16-18

Therefore we do not lose heart.

 Though our outer self is wasting away, 

yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.

 17For our light and momentary affliction is producing 

for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.

 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. 

For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Just beyond what we can see ...

(No matter how bitter/sweet)

lies Payoff's Eternity...

Below, a bit of 'sweet'.

This dog can be sassy and silly one minute

and sound asleep at my feet the next!!😂

Though the payoff of push and shove

Through ups and downs of life and love

May appear, to the sphere of sight

Like a showcase of scarred delight

While grappling with the yoke of truth

By fresh parades of fading youth

And though the payoff may seem small

For prayers that rise and tears that fall

Where today holds no guarantees

That Circumstance will aim to please

The Hierarchy of Hope and Dream

We nurture with fondest esteem

…and though the payoff drags its feet

Where hold and letting go compete

Something about a gaping grave

When mourners meet, its scene to brave

Reminds us with sobriety

Of a payoff we cannot see

The payoff for man’s hope and hurt

Is not a fresh-turned mound of dirt

Is not a final farewell tear

Is not the boon of now and here

Oh no! Death is the turn of key

Where push and shove/life and love’s payoff will be

So then, before it is too late

Pray we would reevaluate

The quests and payments we applaud

And rest our confidence in God

Who will, for all eternity

Unveil what the payoff will be

© Janet Martin

We sang two of my favourite hymns yesterday

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

and Abide With Me

Brief Encounter (with Today) or Truth's Long Encounter (with Eternity)

 Ps.139:16

all my days were written in Your book

and ordained for me

before one of them came to be...

Heb.3:12-13

Take heed, brethren, lest there be

in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,

in departing from the living God.

but exhort one another daily

while it is called Today;

lest any of you be hardened through

the deceitfulness of sin

I wonder what today will bring!

Yesterday brought a sweet visit with my sister 

at a friend's beautiful home!

...and an opportunity to be utterly enchanted 

by our Creator's handiwork

as we walked on a riverside trail nearby!

this poem originally was the first three stanzas, 

then, as I was posting it, three more tumbled out😅😏

so, maybe you just want to read three or maybe you will read six.

Either way, may God bless and guide you and me 

 as we try to make the most of

Today's Brief Encounter

Where you will go, I know; your predecessors lead the way

Through twilight’s westward gate each brief encounter disappears

Yet, when I wake, once more you fill each window, like a tray

Replenished with what waits to fuel prayers, laughter and tears

And, though I do not know the ins and outs of ups and downs

I know Whose faithfulness abides to cup each come-what-may

That waits to weave an echo-labyrinth of smiles and frowns

As yesterday’s tomorrow dons the fleet shoes of Today

…to run beneath my feet, the sacred sweep that ekes toward

The finish line where Time and taker’s marathon is through

Thus, dear Today, before you fade where dusk tugs heaven’s cord

And tucks you beneath stars, I want to make the most of you

Because only God knows how many of you yet remain

Before each Today He ordained for me has come to be

So then, because I know that you will never pass again

I want to make the most of mercy's gift of you to me  

Because there is much more than memories to make, at stake

Much more than love's emotional or sentimental spree

Today is the day of salvation; a gift all should take

To prepare for Truth's Long Encounter with Eternity 

Then we should pay attention to each Today that we have

(As surely as the upward flight of sparks, its end will be)

But, Soul transcends the trek that spans between cradle and grave

Where Today's brief encounter hems Truth's Long Eternity

© Janet Martin

Today Twofer ...Cradle of Eternity and Today's Most Estimable Gift

Yesterday we celebrated the child that turned Jim and I into grandparents!

Happy 7th Birthday, Grandson!

Simply being there may look like nothing much

(dear weary, young mother/parent),

 but, is in essence, everything!

Oh, the efforts that may seem to count for nothing here

 but may count for everything There!🙏🙏🙏

By God's grace, keep on.

Above, we simply see a birthday cake!!

 not the baking of it by Very Sleep-deprived mom 

after children are tucked into bed,

We don't see the many, messy, mundane, oops, 

I mean SACRED interruptions/frustrations

 to bring it to fulfillment!😅💓

Technology/screen-time has many negatives in the development of children BUT

this is one of the best positives; being able to laugh and chat with cousins 

over 2000 kilometers away!!

“Children are not a distraction from more important work.

 They are the most important work.”

– Dr. John Trainer

(according to this site, the above quote is misattributed to C.S. Lewis)

Children are by far the most important work!

because...

Beneath the wide, missing-toothed grin

That six and seven year old sports

Beneath Innocent Countenance 

That Time's Insistence soon aborts

 Beneath the sweet Cocoon of Youth

Trembles an Immutable Flame

As irrefutable as Truth

Unthwarted by denial's claim

This truth kindles a deeper look

At faces that we love so dear

At babies nestled in arm's crook

At hugs, as we draw loved ones near

Because, beneath the part we see

Exists the Thing That Never Dies

The Cradle of Eternity

Has missing teeth and eager eyes 

...a-sparkle with dream-giddy stars

Where footsteps that dash wild and free

Are bearing a most sacred charge

The Cradle of Eternity

Because, the part that melts the heart

With the velocity/Curiosity of Youth 

Cradles the soul, that precious Part

That looks to us to teach/tell the Truth 

© 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"—

I began the poem below yesterday...

Inspired in part by this passage

 (which also helped inspire the above poem) 

Ps.78:5-7

For He established a testimony in Jacob,

And appointed a law in Israel,

Which He commanded our fathers,

That they should make them known to their children;

 That the generation to come might know them,

The children who would be born,

That they may arise and declare them to their children,

That they may set their hope in God,

And not forget the works of God,

But keep His commandments;...

from this devotion...

from this book...

Before the poem was completed Eagerness arrived to steal the show with sweetness!

when Little Brother noticed Big Sister about to be the 'star',

he, ever-so-full-of -'innocent'-mischief did his thing😂😂😇

Can't you just about hear his very enthusiastic 'CHE-E-E-ESE!!'💖😅

We still managed one without his shenanigans 

(that keep everyone laughing and pulling their hair out!😂😅)

After they left, Gramma needed a nap before

heading out to above birthday celebration!

Today's most estimable part is valuable to know

Though its most vital works of art may never steal the show

It ought to stoke a lion’s roar in hearts of you and me

Because today swings wide the Door of Opportunity

Where what we do with what we have holds more than first appears

The impact of Now’s aftermath fills more than yesteryears

As repercussion of reply unravels in its wake

A footpath forged by you and I, for future feet to take

Today’s most estimable part is sacred to the touch

Though, at first glance its works of art may not appear as much

Beneath the part we see the root establishes the tree

That will, for good or ill, bear fruit for all eternity

Sometimes eternity can feel far off, and quite unreal

Sometimes Impulse can spar and scoff at God’s/time’s/love’s patient appeal

Sometimes, today’s most estimable gift, we hardly see

As God fills up the cup we lift with Opportunity

© Janet Martin

Let's not lose heart by dwelling on

 opportunities lost or missed

but seize the part we build upon;

Now, 

goodness-glossed and mercy-kissed

No Mean Miracle This...

A preacher once challenged his listeners with this thought;

If God granted us one glimpse of heaven

or one glimpse of hell...hell would be empty;

Heaven so awesome, hell so awful!

This mortal body instilled with immortal soul is no mean miracle

It is the awesome opportunity to believe in the One who made it possible

through his death and resurrection, to spend eternity

in a perfection we cannot begin to fathom...

1 Cor.2:9

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

Nor have entered into the heart of man

The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Do you love Him?

Have you believed in Him and

received his gift?

Eph.2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—

and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Therefore, because every one of us is an Immortal Soul clad with a temporary cloak

let's treat each other with utmost awareness of what we all bear

in common... this, then eternity!

No mean miracle this; Soul stoked/cloaked with breath of life

No game of chance, no traitor’s kiss of death to insult strife

No futile farse is faith, no hoax, hope’s holy stairs

No pompous or pious charade, worship’s parade of prayers

Time tunes a transient toll; the body like a barge

That bears the cargo of the soul; a very sacred charge

Through life, a precious gift we unwrap day by day

Until the final, fleeting weft/breath of wrapping falls away

God’s love is without lack; His armor has no chink

His goodness groans on our behalf beyond what thought can think

His ways transcend the scope of logic’s keenest ken

His promises anchor the hope of all who trust. Amen.

No mean miracle this; body with soul instilled

For God, so rich in mercy is the law of love fulfilled

He beckons all to come; to repent and believe

This is no mean ultimatum He suffered to achieve

…His pardon for our sin; a debt we could not pay

Ah, heed the Voice that pleads within! Believe in Him today

Lest what is mean at last is our rebel pride

Who knew the miracle, but cast its saving grace aside

© Janet Martin

The Holy Whole (of Soul's eternity)

Gorgeous sunny, spring daybreak!

I'm sure everyone in our neck of the woods wants to make the most 

of FINALLY, a fabulous stretch of sunshine warming winter-weary bones! 

Lawn-raking never felt so fine, like spring-cleaning the outdoors!

The wise in this world endeavor to make the most 

of every day, no matter the weather! 

Because, no matter who or where we are, death is life's gravest matter 

and none of us knows how near its Door draws with each breath we take...

***

We live but once; the wise weigh well the measure of its lease

For there are none who can foretell how soon a life will cease

But only God, who grants each breath beholds the holy Whole

Of numbered days before the death that bares the deathless soul

Not one of us can know who next will hear His summons fall

To draw us from time’s brief context to meet the Lord of all

Death is life’s gravest matter borne on seasons as they roll

Its dust and ash we scatter, the torn garment of the soul

The holy Whole of moment-sums slip subtly, yet rife

Through the undoing that becomes the measure of a life

The wise, aware of today’s momentous fragility

Weigh well the flickering blaze of accountability

Oho, how soon the afternoon dons twilight's dusky hues  

How swift life's gleaming gift spawns the shadow of deathly dues

How surely no one knows That Rending Toll's proximity 

That will  unveil The Holy Whole of Soul's eternity 

© Janet Martin

Luke 12:35-40

Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 

36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, 

so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.

 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. 

Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, 

will have them recline at the table 

and will come and wait on them. 

38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready,

 even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak.

 39 But understand this:

 If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming,

 he would not have let his house be broken into. 

40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come 

at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Oho, how soon the afternoon dons twilight's dusky hues...