Don't Wait (until it is too late)

 

His basket of peppers spilled over and over...

but he wanted to carry it,

so we picked them up, over and over

 and finally, with exhausted triumph

we made it to the goal!!!

SO, whatever our load happens to be today, peppers or otherwise, keep on!

Don't give up in despair...

Love 's care is worth every tear, every prayer

Someday (it could be as soon as today!)

We too with exhausted triumph will reach the goal! 

Our community has suffered a number of reminders

this year of the uncertainty of what a day may hold!

Don't wait to want what today still offers!!

***

Don’t wait to do the best you can

To love God first, then fellowman

To give thanks to the One who grants

His grace in every circumstance

Don’t wait to make the most of life

But, bury the hatchet of strife

Before we meet The Righteous Judge

Don’t nurse the wounds of bitter grudge

Don’t harbor anger in your heart

But with each breath, let’s do our part

Before today is history

To make a treasured memory

Don’t wait until it is too late

To linger at the soldered gate

Of a thousand longings untold

Thy lips still smile, thy arms still hold

Life is a gift, its curtain close

Only the Giver of it knows

Then do not wait to love, to pray

To wish for what God grants today

Take up love’s yoke of joy and grief

Plead God to turn blind unbelief

To faith, then trust love's nail-scarred Hand

With all we do not understand

Then live as if today could be

The gateway to eternity

Love God and fellowman, don't wait

Till it is forever too late

© Janet Martin

2 Cor.6:1-2

As God’s fellow workers,a then, 

we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

  2For He says:

“In the time of favor I heard you,

and in the day of salvation I helped you.”b

Behold, now is the time of favor;

 now is the day of salvation!

Perseverance Perspective...

First perseverance, 

then the prize!

Sometimes we forget 

and want the Prize now!

Lead Me to Calvary

James 1:2-8

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] 

whenever you face trials of many kinds, 

3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 

4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature 

and complete, not lacking anything.

 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God,

 who gives generously to all without finding fault, 

and it will be given to you.

 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, 

because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea,

 blown and tossed by the wind.

 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

The testing of our faith produces perseverance!

I used to subconsciously equate the word 'testing' with physical trials

such as sickness, death, natural disasters etc.

but in the phrase 'trials of many kinds' one I had not considered

until perhaps the past few years,

and one that has many once confessed believers denying their faith,

is the fact that because our minds cannot explain or reconcile

God's thoughts and ways and commands

 (whether in the Old Testament or

 in this age of love and holiness misunderstood)

disillusionment/confusion/anger forsakes faith

rather than letting the test produce perseverance.

Heb.6:11

And without faith it is impossible to please God, 

because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists

 and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

God doesn't meet us on our terms.

We meet Him on His, laid out ever-so-changelessly

and perfectly in His Word,

Let's pray for a more humble faith, 

Eph.1:15-20

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus 

and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, 

remembering you in my prayers.

 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation,

 so that you may know him better. 

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened 

in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, 

*the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 

19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. 

That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted

 when he raised Christ from the dead 

and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

The first temptation and sin was a desire to be as wise as God!

That sin seems still to test the faith of many!

Lord, help us hate the sinfulness of sin (in so many subtle forms).

Lord, help us to look on You,  soberly and thankfully remembering

 what You suffered on our behalf to save us from sin's penalty!

Forgive us if we should forget!

Forgive us, Lord, when we forget

And wise in our own eyes debate

Thy love and righteousness and fret

At the prerequisites of faith;

'the substance of hope, unashamed

the evidence of Things Unseen'

Believing all You have proclaimed

And trusting You to intervene

Where often love misunderstood

Could kindle a fault-finding rue 

Remind us You work for the good

Of all who put their trust in You

Remind us of the patriarchs

Who died without having received

The Promise, yet with humble hearts

Being assured, they still believed

Forgive us Lord, when we neglect

To see the sinfulness of sin

And thus, unconsciously reject

Thy loving, still, small Voice within

Forgive us when we minimize

The bloodstained cross of Calvary

And far to often fail to prize

The price You paid to set us free 

Forgive us when we, with proud thought

Contest Your higher thoughts and ways

And dare to grumble at our lot

Rather than lifting hymns of praise

And should faith tremble in the gale

Of tests and troubles that must be

Remind us, this is but the veil

Faith's Last Gasp rends, then we will see

(*the riches of the glorious inheritance)

© Janet Martin

The Potter's Hand

No Commonplace Charge (is parenting)

Baby is teething and objects loudly to being put down for long...

Mommy is so weary!🙏

...with these two to keep her on her toes (and knees) besides!

I am no longer parenting little children but

I am grand-parenting little children 

which makes the messages below very relevant to my season of life as well!

***

To leave children without principles is

not to make them free but it is to render them helpless

Alistair Begg in Teach Your Children Well Part 2 of 4)

We have within our keeping a very precious charge

of innocence soon reaping the harvest of its guards

no commonplace appointing from God, is parenthood

a baby the anointing of wonder, pure and good 

we have within our caring, besides child's sweet delight

the onus of preparing the soul-dier for the fight

no commonplace employment is the call they bestow

far more than mere enjoyment of watching Soul-dier grow  

we have within our reaching (for such a little time)

wide flung windows of teaching far more than nursery rhyme 

no commonplace vocation to all whom God assigns

the careful cultivation of very tender vines

What a priceless investment; the training of a child

how soon the world's resistance tests with lures, lie-defiled

no commonplace endurance, a parent's prayers outpoured

For wisdom and assurance established in God's Word

we have within our asking a very present Aid

Who tenders with love's tasking, commands to be obeyed

For this is no small gracing, a child, innocence-wrought

But a Soul-dier soon facing life, armed with what was taught  

© Janet Martin

Link to all four messages in this series below

Teach Your Children Well (Part 1 of 4)

Teach Your Children Well Part 2 of 4)

Teach Your Children Well (Part 3 of 4)

Teach Your Children Well (Part 4 of 4)

The Poet's Plight-Fight-Fright-Rite/Write

I cringe beneath the critic's eye

Yet crave honest un-flattery

Lest I should run ink-rivers dry

With shadows of half-poetry

I blush to feel them crush the page

Splattered with pieces of my heart

While learning to embrace the wage

As rejection finetunes the art

I laugh and weep, am lost, then found

Drawn from despair's unholy brink

Toward the Holy Parchment Ground

Of a blank page begging for ink

Janet Martin

Of Weathered 'Would'

 

Weathered wood flaunts fresh foliage...

just as weathered 'would' unfolds fresh faith!

We try to turn the other cheek

To think twice, thrice before we speak

To make the most of More with less

To simplify our happiness

When life holds up to trembling lips

Its Cup of Joy, we savour sips

Where delight and despair compete

To cull a vintage, bittersweet

We work to win a well-earned rest

With good intent we strive for Best

We pray, we till time’s teeming sod

We plant, we wait; no ‘late’ with God

We wage wars twixt wonder and want

We struggle with faith’s feathered font

We try, but every now and then

We trip and need to try again

Inhale deeply, then exhale, slow

One foot forward, ah, here we go

Not crippled by Discipline's rod

But bolstered by the grace of God

From weathered wood/would fresh bud is borne

From Bygone's bloody bars, new morn

From slip and trip's face-planted low

We learn the little that we know

© Janet Martin

Phil.3:12-14

"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; 

but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, 

forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

To Become a Champion

PAD Challenge day 4: For today's prompt, write an active poem.

I can still hear my mom and gramma encouraging us 

when we were children and ready to quit,

 'deah veah ohaldt, winned'. 

Translation from Pennsylvania Dutch,..

 'the one who keeps on wins!'

Jordan Spieth is living proof!

The one thing he did not do was quit!

'sometimes I shot balls till my hands bled

and nothing seemed to help' said

Jordan Spieth in an interview 

after his win at the Valero Texas Open

Anyone who follows golf is surely celebrating and rejoicing

with Jordan Spieth, after yesterday's triumph at the Valero Texas Open

  ended a four year victory-drought; his first win in 83 starts!!

Eagle, birdie, bogie, par

What a lot of ways there are

To test confidence and grit

Suffer long and do not quit

Grimace, grumble, grapple, grin

Take a few knocks on the chin

Weep, pray, rant, rave if you must

Slam your club into the dust

Weather heat and wind and rain

Take a deep breath, try again

Perfect drive or bunker-shot

Sometimes high-five, sometimes…not

Sometimes fairway, sometimes rough

Sometimes ace and sometimes duff

There is no way to win but

To keep on with drive-chip-putt

If you want the winner’s cup

Do not, oh, do not give up

This is the only way, son

To become a champion

© Janet Martin

For All This-A for Effort, Please?

Yesterday This chair 

held a replay of This

because already Little Boy is struggling with this law in all of us...

 For I do not do the good I want to do, 

but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 

Romans 7:19

Read the glorious analysis to the quandary here; 

Romans 7 & 

Romans 8

For all the failures I could count 

In Learning’s stumble-humbled chase 

In the end all seems to amount 

To ‘try again, all by God’s grace’ 

For all the 'bumble-pie' life serves 

Without waiting for ‘seconds please?’ 

I should stagger beneath cruel curves 

If it packed, not lacked calories 

For all the things I thought I knew 

Until life puts it to the test 

Becomes The Thing that draws me to 

My knees with pleas of meek request 

For all the gritty grunts and groans 

That could forge millstones from my tears 

But mercy turns to stepping-stones 

And keeps me from drowning in fears 

For all that at first glance would seem 

To be failure’s shining success 

I pray that God would kindly glean 

An A for effort from its mess 

And save me from would-be despair 

Not by some credit proudly earned 

But by His whisper in my prayer 

For all my spoil, His grace returned 

© Janet Martin 

Happy Birthday, Matt!

 Happy 22nd Birthday, Matt!

We are so blessed and thankful by the laughter and love you bring to our home!
Whether you're working, working out, laughing and sharing crazy youtube videos,

or discussing life's more serious side,
may God bless and lead you in the year ahead!

The mettle of a runner is not proven at the start

The middle-to-end of the race proves who we are at heart

The most important matter is not how the race began

But how we finish that confirms the measure of a man

Then choose to be strong in the Lord; the power of His might

No matter what may try and test, will fit you for the fight

Do not be wise in your own eyes (for we see but in part)

We walk by faith and not by sight; Trust God with all your heart

Young man, rejoice while you are young but keep one thing in mind

The greatest mark of success is to be honest and kind

For these will bring true happiness through living’s highs and lows

And leave a good example for Small Fellow who follows

Who knows what you must brave before you reach the other side

While fire pulses in your veins with many dreams untried

Remember this, while you are young and feeling fit and fine

The measure of a man is proven at the Finish Line

© Janet Martin

Ecclesiastes 11:9

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, 

and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. 

Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. 

But know that for all these things 

God will bring you into judgment.
 

Titus 2:6 NKJV

Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded,  

1 Cor.9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run,

 but only one gets the prize? 

Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Process of Performance

1 Samuel 2:9
He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness;

 for by his own strength shall no man prevail.

a humorous look at 'anything is possible if we take baby steps'!!😁

Wherever in the calms or qualms of love and life, my dear

That we may find ourselves one thing remains perfectly clear

That where we are is not the measure of one giant leap

But the effect of step by step appointments that we keep

Our feet follow the fearless fellow simply known as Thought

Good and evil compete where what seems hidden soon is not

Then we should take a closer look at hopes and dreams we prize

The mind can be a crook and tries to trick the heart sometimes

How simple seems the left foot right foot choreography

A virile composition of Great Possibility

Where all that is accomplished, great or small for good or ill

Through step by step repetition makes all things possible

Then the conclusion of the matter when faith feels inept

Is but to trust enough to muster courage step by step

For we are always in the midst of the next tallied sum

Where step by step waits to surprise us at how far we’ve come

© Janet Martin

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional touched on a topic I've been contemplating recently...
the outcome of step-by-step

Scripture Reading; 2 Samuel 12:1-14

In northern Thailand, the Wild Boars youth soccer team decided to explore a cave together. After an hour they turned to go back and found that the entrance to the cave was flooded. Rising water pushed them deeper into the cave, day after day, until they were finally trapped more than two miles (four kilometers) inside. When they were heroically rescued two weeks later, many wondered how they had become so hopelessly trapped. Answer: one step at a time.

In Israel, Nathan confronted David for killing his loyal soldier, Uriah. How did the man “after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14) become guilty of murder? One step at a time. David didn’t go from zero to murder in one afternoon. He warmed up to it, over time, as one bad decision bled into others. It started with a second glance that turned into a lustful stare. He abused his kingly power by sending for Bathsheba, then tried to cover up her pregnancy by calling her husband home from the front. When Uriah refused to visit his wife while his comrades were at war, David decided he would have to die.

We may not be guilty of murder or trapped in a cave of our own making, but we’re either moving toward Jesus or toward trouble. Big problems don’t develop overnight. They break upon us gradually, one step at a time.

By Mike Wittmer