Making the Most of Opportunity

I take a lot of good-natured ribbing when it comes to poetry,(which is fair)
 teased, depending on what is happening that likely I'm coming up with a poem...
I wish it was that easy😊😉 

...but on the other hand, everything I do is poem-fodder, perhaps, Lord willing!

Last night was my turn to bring a meal to alpha and someone teased me that maybe this will be the topic for the next poem...in a way it is, but not because of the food, but rather the people who came out to eat before doing the next lesson in alpha on their journey to Bethlehem/discovering Jesus!

What is Alpha? below is the introductory video to the course...

 

What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? 

 To whom will you run for help? 

Where will you leave your riches?

Isa.10:3

The love of God is beckoning; oh loved one, do you hear

Because the day of reckoning is drawing ever near

Where we will meet the One whose hands are Calvary engraved

Who came not to condemn the world but that we may be saved

The Hope of God is imploring; oh, hopeless sinner, heed

For the cost of ignoring Him is terrible indeed

Ah, who can bear to meet Him, middle-step and unprepared

Too late to seek redemption when the soul from flesh is bared

The grace of God is pleading still, lest graceless death is Chief

Come, only Jesus can fulfill the Bulwark of Belief

Then haste, the way the shepherds did when angels hailed Christ's birth

To taste firsthand the wonder of Heaven come down to earth

The mercy of God moans and groans where moments hide His face

The One whose blood atones extends time’s steppingstones of grace

Until the breadth of moments yields unto eternity

The love-hope-grace-mercy of God grants opportunity

© Janet Martin

If you are interested in taking the alpha course google it to find one near you.
If you would like details on the one offered at WBC please contact me or WBC.

Anyone, everyone welcome!

Daily Sufficiency

I had the post ready to go at sunrise, but no internet! 

 

From the vault where starred deep dims

Morning’s oath of mercy brims

Brands the beck and call of days

With hope’s everlasting ways

Dream and duty’s darling spur

Tests the best of him and her

Wrests from beneath hope’s ribbed cage

Love and laughter’s healing wage

Rise and shine for it is dawn

Pray a prayer and carry on

God’s mercy is undeterred

Grace sufficient is His Word

© Janet Martin

Fount of Faithful Mercy...

 Sometimes certain repetitions in life can seem a little monotonous!
...others, never! (like that first cup of coffee each morning)😄

Aren't you EVER SO THANKFUL God's steadfast love and mercy are new every morning

and He never wearies or grows tired no matter how often we repeat ourselves to Him ...

The fount of faithful mercy fills yon vault and overflows

It sweeps from boundless deeps in an ocean of gold and rose

Where patient Goodness that employs man’s sorrow-joys once more

Does not grow weary but draws from love’s everlasting store

…as season unto season He delights expectant eyes

And startles fumbling reason with repetition’s surprise

Where oft we feel like strangers in life’s same yet changing place

While guzzling from a fountain rife with God's unchanging grace

…and drawing from His love often without much thought at all

To Who He gave to save us from the curse after The Fall

Still, Patient Goodness intercedes in spite of human flaw

On man’s helpless behalf He pleads with grace greater than law

…for law alone can never save us from the wrath to come

By grace through faith the soul is saved, then sing a joyful song

Where founts of faithful mercy spill to fill the heart with praise

For Patient Goodness that abides until the end of days

© Janet Martin

 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

 For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh,
God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. 

  He thus condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

Romans 8:1-4 

This post was also inspired in part by today's 1-minute Bible Love-note

Hitting Reset...

After spending half an hour with an internet technician all is up and running again,

after, on Saturday evening I hit the reset button on the bottom of the router 

after thinking this would fix the wifi problems, 

not erase EVERYTHING including the internet connection...

and this is the least of my recent 'fumbles'😕

We could be crushed, defeated, lost; the cost of love is hard

A tidal wave of dark despair could roll through heart and soul

The way we ought to pray is oft pride and prejudice-marred

We could be tempted to believe untruths that take their toll

We could be ill-equipped to forgive others as we must

And we could/would hate the sting and smart of love’s chastening rod

And we would be a stumbling block; a mockery of trust

Without humble awareness of the daily grace of God

© Janet Martin

Yesterday, (not on purpose) I betrayed a family-member’s confidence

and they were very disappointed in me and I feel terrible!

This was on top of a few other failure-flavoured fumbles

that sit a-top the regular weight of worry love

that wears a mother/wife’s knees thin…

So what is this fumbler-stumbler to do?

…other than consider Love’s/God’s kind mercies,

His grace and patience,

None of which I deserve,

And carry on

 And be kind to one another, 

tenderhearted, forgiving one another, 

even as God in Christ forgave you.

Eph.4:32

Power Source

When we are weak it bids us seek

Someone to lean upon

For we are all subject to fall

No one can stand alone

And who can bear life’s load of care

Without a faithful friend

And who can be our Surety

When human helpers end

This little life is filled with strife

And disappointment’s hits

We need God's grace to help us face

Whatever He permits

His grace will be enough to see

Us through the darkest vale

Faith’s intercourse, the Power Source

That can and will not fail

For He who probes the petal-globes

And fills Time's transient holds

Is omniscient and sufficient 

For all that it unfolds

© Janet Martin

 But He said to me, 

 “My grace is sufficient for you,

  for My power is 

perfected in weakness.” 

 Therefore I will boast 

all the more gladly 

 in my weaknesses,  

so that the power of Christ 

 may rest on me. 

That is why, 

for the sake of Christ, I delight

 in weaknesses, 

in insults, 

in hardships, 

in persecutions, 

in difficulties. 

For when I am weak, 

then I am strong.

2 Cor.12:9-10