Showing posts with label hell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hell. Show all posts

Monday, February 6, 2023

Witness in the Making


The funeral service my husband and I attended today 
was closed with this sacred text from
the final words in the Holy Bible;
Rev.22:12-17&21
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, 
and I will give to each person according to what they have done.
 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, 
the First and the Last, 
the Beginning and the End.
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, 
that they may have the right to the tree of life 
and may go through the gates into the city. 
15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, 
the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters 
and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a] this testimony for the churches. 
I am the Root and the Offspring of David, 
and the bright Morning Star.”
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” 
And let the one who hears say, “Come!” 
Let the one who is thirsty come; 
and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life...

21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. 
Amen.



What will be said of you and I when we are laid to rest
Oh, what will be the legacy that transcends mortal goals
After we cease the evidence of what we now love best
When the reward of Recompense its sacred summons tolls

What are we doing to prepare for what waits one and all
Nobody knows how near or far we are to earth’s farewell
Thus, this sojourn is no eat-drink-be-merry festival
It is the holy prelude to either Heaven or hell

Where what and who we love most consumes thought’s most earnest quest
As thought’s most earnest quest turns into choice and consequence
And writes what will fill memories as we are laid to rest
And only God can break the seal that reveals Recompense

What will be said of you and I when death collects its due
Depends on here and now and how we use life’s little lease
Oh, pray that what will be remembered most of me and you
Is our love for God portrayed in love, hope, joy and peace

When we face what we all will face but once forevermore
What will God say when you and I step from this transient shell
When we witness the evidence of what we most adored
Will the reward be Heaven's joy or agony of hell?

© Janet Martin




Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Where Multitudes Still Follow (and many turn away)



Matt.4:16-17&25
The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
Light has dawned.”
   From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven [c]is at hand.”
Great multitudes followed Him—


It's been a gloomy stretch of weather here...


The billows of snow from a little over week ago reduced
in short order to puddles!

We long for the great light of the sun after a long stretch of none,
yet, this but a mild comparison to the light of the world that has already come
and eternally pierced the darkness of sin and death!
Are you living in the joyful light/awareness of God's great love for you?

***

Multitudes followed Him where a Great Light had dawned
In the manger at Bethlehem, 
then Egypt and beyond
The One, prophets foretold of glory’s suffering
Had stepped to redemption’s threshold, 
the hope of man to bring

…calling all to ‘repent, for God’s kingdom is near’
Goodness and mercy’s covenant 
would pour in gory tear
Where faithful unto death the Lamb of God became
For the believer’s dying breath, 
life only death can claim

…and Jesus is the Name whereby mankind is saved
No minor prophet, He who came 
to conquer death’s dark grave
With a great light unfurled throughout eternity
Jesus, the Savior of the world 
can set death’s captive free

The light that cannot dim still gleams unto this day
Where multitudes still follow Him 
and many turn away
But those who trust behold what bold doubters ignore
Of signs that prophets long foretold 
when time will be no more

When the clouds will be seared, and every eye shall see
And look upon the One they pierced
 with their iniquity
And the whole world will wail at the sight of I AM
His power and glory unveiled 
as all ‘behold The Lamb’

But lo, all who repent and died to self are saved
Their names are written on the hands 
that Calvary engraved
But oh, all who refused 
love’s grace and truth to claim
Are released, by their choosing to 
Hellfire's unquenched flame 

© Janet Martin

I kept veering from the last line,
inadvertently trying to 'soften' it
but why?!!
life/death is a Heaven or hell matter!
there is no in between!

P.S. it feels fantastic to be upright without a spinning head after a day in bed with the flu.
My heart and prayers have been rekindled for those who spend day after day in bed!
My sister-in-law (Karen) is in the hospital since last Thursday 
suffering from a twisted bowel. Please join me in praying for her healing and
her and her family's encouragement!
My cousin who is an invalid due to MS, 
and his family appreciated your continued prayers as well!




Tuesday, November 15, 2022

The Awful (Terrifying) Truth


Why this poem?!!
Because whoever and wherever we are,
God so loved us that He gave his only begotten son
that whosoever believes in Him
will not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
...and we all need to be reminded
 this sacred prelude, this day of grace
is leading to Forever and ever. either with God
or without!
🙏

We love to think about and praise God for his love, hallelujah!!
but His love would be a mockery
without judgement's wrath against all injustice and evil!

We don't hear the word hell much, used
in the context of its awful truth, do we?
And small wonder! 
There is no more sobering topic in the whole world.
But on the other hand, if this is so,
 why are we so afraid to speak of it
and perhaps snatch someone from a fiery grave?!!
Not everyone goes to Heaven,...
"“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ 
shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."
said Jesus in
Matt.7:21

While we are saved not by works, but by the gift of God's grace
through  His son, Jesus
works will always testify who we truly believe, honour and love above all!




Don’t buff truth with a lie
Don’t sugarcoat hell’s lair
Don’t wink and think the sin will die
Without confession’s prayer

The Word of God is just
And absolute and whole
The Word of God transcends the dust
That clothes the deathless soul

When God joins him and her
Or sever with a signature 
One, turned back into two

Beware, lest lies take root
Be careful lest you fall
The tree will be known by its fruit
God’s Word, infallible

Fall on your knees and pray
The hope God calls us to
Commands us to love and obey
In everything we do

Be on guard where deceit
Gains popularity
Because its laws seem kind and sweet
-er than God’s fixed decree

The Tempter’s cunning guile
Harkens back to that day
When he deceived Eve with a smile

There is a Promised Land
There is a lake of fire
One, for the Faithful to the End
The other for the liar

The want of man will fight
And fight and fight until
He sees God in dawn’s breaking light
And yields his stubborn will

Then, wanting above all
A life that God can bless
By honoring the sacred call
Of holy righteousness

Don’t buff the truth with lies
And think no one can tell
The Word of God does not disguise
The awful truth of hell

There is a way that seems
Right in the eyes of man
Beware, beware, the devil schemes
To seduce all he can

Forbid that we become
Wise in our own eyes
Untroubled by the condition 
Of truth exchanged for lies

It is a fearful thing
To live bold and unbowed
Far worse, the awful reckoning
To die, still cold and proud  

God's grace will intercede
And help us bear the cross
That guards against the lies that lead
To hell and endless loss

Forbid that we become
Emboldened by a lie
Until the conscience becomes numb
To what will never die

© Janet Martin

Luke 16:17-18
It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear 
than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery,
and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.


Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? 
Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters,
 nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves,
 nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified,
 you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Rev.20:15
And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.


But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, 
the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars,
 their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, 
which is the second death.”

When we are struggling to know if something is right or wrong
don't ask of someone 'what do you think??'
What we think is irrelevant!
Go to God's word and seek what He commands!


The Hands of God
D.H. Lawrence (1882-1930)

The Hands of God

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But it is a much more fearful thing to fall out of them.

Did Lucifer fall through knowledge?
oh, then, pity him, pity him that plunge!

Save me, O God, from falling into the ungodly knowledge
of myself as I am without God.
Let me never know, O God
let me never know what I am or should be
when I have fallen out of your hands, the hands of the living God.

That awful and sickening endless sinking, sinking
through the slow, corruptive levels of disintegrative knowledge
when the self has fallen from the hands of God,
and sinks, seething and sinking, corrupt
and sinking still, in depth after depth of disintegrative consciousness
sinking in the endless undoing, the awful katabolism into the abyss!
even of the soul, fallen from the hands of God!

Save me from that, O God!
Let me never know myself apart from the living God!


Monday, June 20, 2022

Anguish...

Dear Believer, does your heart too, break for the lost and the cost of unbelief?
Do you weep for those who sleep in the darkness of sin?
Do you mourn for those not yet born again?
Do you pray
And pray
And pray?!




  


What script of desolation spills like ink-demonic seas
When naught but human logic fills thought’s godless theories
What darkness over darkness rolls without the light of Truth
How doleful daybreak's bower tolls, how hopeless is youth’s youth
Without the faith that rends the veil
And trusts the love that cannot fail

What fathoms of futility soon lie in wanton waste
What claim to shame’s depravity tunes knowledge, mortal-based
What agonizing anguish rings beyond time’s transient bar
When fullness of rejection flings the gates of hell ajar
When, without faith that makes us whole
Denial faces Deathless Soul

What weight of sorrow sears the prayer that reaches Mercy’s ears
As groan on groan beyond compare beseeches, tears on tears
Because the love and truth of God, by some, is thought a sham
No reverence, no fear, no laud for salvation’s I AM
Where without He who justifies
Hell claims the soul that never dies

What Gethsemane-like appeal should bleed from prayer on prayer
What throes of love should bid us kneel, love’s pleading cross to bear
For what good is the best laid plan unfurled if its sad goal
Is but the wink-span of the world in exchange for the soul
Where nothing, when Last Breath is spent
Can comfort Unbelief’s Lament

© Janet Martin

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

Prov.14:26-27

He who fears the LORD is secure in confidence,
and his children shall have a place of refuge.

The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life,
turning a man from the snares of death.

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

There Will Be Hell To Pay...

There is a lot of focus on 'fun' these days...
Hellfire sermons are not fun,
nor are hellfire poems.
Hell is no laughing matter 
but as surely as there is a Heaven., 
there is a hell!!!

Sometimes something happens to remind us, 
as just as physical check-ups are wise/vital
so too are spiritual checkups!

To the pure, all things are pure, 
but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. 
In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him.
They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

1 Cor.6:9
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?
 Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters 
nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men...

Rom.1:24-25
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity
for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,
and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—
who is forever praised.
Amen.

1 John 2:3
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God [a]is perfected in him.
By this we know that we are in Him.
6He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

1 Tim.1:8-11
We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.
9We also know that the law is made not for the righteous
but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious,
for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,
10for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality,
for slave traders and liars and perjurers—
and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine
11that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God,
which he entrusted to me.

Rev.21:8
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, 
the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—
they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 
This is the second death.”




There will be hell to pay
For all whose works deny
The God of earth and heaven and
Turn truth into a lie

There will be hell to pay 
For all they who approve
The disobedience of they
Who dare to call it love

There will be hell to pay
For lovers of the world
After Time's wink is done away
And judgement is unfurled

There will be hell to pay
God is not mocked; His truth
Will save. remember him today
In the days of your youth

Before your heart turns hard
Before death's dreadful day
When disobedience is judged
There will be hell to pay

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"—

Saturday, April 20, 2019

The Darkest Darkness of All

PAD Challenge day 20; For today’s prompt, write a dark poem. 

This was not a fun poem to write!
Oh, the darkest darkness of all is surely Spiritual Darkness
where Satan who has vowed vengeance through seduction of souls, rules.

Below, an excerpt from John Milton's Epic; Paradise Lost As Satan sees his fate...



Ah, cup of sorrow’s bitter draught
Ah, darkness of hope lost
Ah, longing for those days we laughed
Before the Door was locked

Ah, dread that weighs the heart with fear
Ah, fear, dark screams its cries
Ah, cold and comfortless the tear
That none can cheer with lies

Ah, darkness of eternity
Where demon-hordes applaud
As Soul meets death’s calamity
Unprepared to meet God

© Janet Martin


 
John 3:19
And this is the verdict:
The Light has come into the world,
but men loved the darkness rather than the Light,
because their deeds were evil.

John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said,
 "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness,
 but will have the light of life."


John 12:35
Then Jesus told them, "For a little while longer, the Light will be among you. 
Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you.
 The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

Friday, February 1, 2019

Hell's Kitchen




Let’s make temptation
Feel like the right thing
Feather its outcome
With ribbons and string

Let’s make Sin’s poison
Look and taste rather nice
Let’s sweeten death’s symptoms
With sugar and spice

Let’s make the cost of love
Seem much too large
Let’s offer lots of stuff
At no extra charge

Let’s keep the sheep-ple
Distracted until
They find out too late
The full price of the thrill


© Janet Martin

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Real Deal NOT A Fair Deal, But A Very Big Deal...and a Done Deal!

For today’s Two-for-Tuesday prompt:
  1. Write a deal poem.
  2. Write a no deal poem.


God said,
So, here’s the deal
Man’s doomed to hell
Their best works
Infested by pride
A hopeless lot
Me, oft forgot
Unless their
Comfort is denied
The curse they bear
Since Eden where
Evil dared Eve to take a bite
Then Adam too, brought, through these two a need man's sacrifice can't right
We need a Lamb, A perfect Lamb without blemish or spot, to heal
Jesus said, ‘Father, here I AM’... God said, my Beloved, so, here’s the deal...
Son, I'll send You
Faultless and true
To be the scapegoat
for My Bride
Humility
And love will be
Tortured, hated,
then crucified
So that The Lost
(though vile the cost)
May find hope through
their sins forgiven
The cross becomes
A footbridge from
the gates of hell
to the gates of Heaven
That's the deal,
Mt precious Son
Jesus replied,


© Janet Martin