Honour-bound!

This poem was inspired by the closing remarks in a letter we received last week...

"The grand purpose of our lives is not that we...
(and they expressed their heart's desire which for privacy I cannot share)

—it is that God would use us to reflect his glory—may He accomplish this in all of us!"


Amen!
This perfect purpose keeps us grounded
no matter who or where we are
no matter what we do.

 Nature, decked in snow-glory is rousing hymns of awe and praise this morning!

No matter where we find ourselves in doing what we do

Whether it is a hard knock walk or prayers and dreams come true

Whether we gain peopled applause or labour without laud

We are created for one cause; to bring glory to God

The best and worst of ‘blessed and cursed’ does not affect the charge

One purpose binds us as all aboard time’s elemental barge

Where pray, we muster more than an obligatory nod

For ultimately we were born to bring glory to God

Then in the thick or thin of it;

The kick-caress, groan-grin of it

It helps us keep chins up a bit

If we remember this;

No matter what of loss or gain

Or flying high or cross of pain

Its albatross is not in vain

For where these are God IS

So then no matter who we are or where, or what we do

None of us are exempt from the purpose we are called to

Where in pursuit of hard-fought goals we will be mercy-awed

If we commit with heart and soul to bring glory to God

Ah, yes, his ways are higher than thought’s gaze can comprehend

And though our heart’s desire must oft learn to wait and bend

We will not languish in despair beneath love’s testing rod

If we make our wish and prayer to bring glory to God

© Janet Martin

 “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31.

A Prayer and A Humourous Parable

 It's a busy life isn't it?!

Hopefully never so busy that we forget what truly matters!

Building for Eternity!

Our church is adding onto its building because we are running over with

the future church aka young families/children!

We are all invited to be part of the donators Big Picture

in these exciting times of growth!

I was convicted humorously yesterday in my Sunday School class of grades one-to-three girls...

One big sister was so delighted because
she earned four mini chocolate bars after finding the verse first in a Bible sword-drill.
Her little sister, quite envious was sobbing quietly.

Big sister put her arm around her and whispered, 

"don't worry! Jesus is still your friend and you can still pray to Him"

...cold comfort to the one who looked at the chocolate tucked securely in her big sister's pocket!

How often are we guilty of the same kind of response!

'praying' for the 'needs/needy' while our pockets bulge?!

Giving is the one thing with a guaranteed return!

God loves a cheerful giver!

 Then Lord, I pray...

That greed should never bid me turn from need, unfeeling, bold and cold

That love would walk the second mile where no one but You will behold

And Lord, that whereas I am able I would give with meek intent

Remembering You set the table heaped with what Your mercy lent

That leer of fear won’t render fruitless the labourer of Your field

That far, far more than duty bids me to be mindful of the yield

That the purpose of loves' endeavor would never be self-apprised

And Lord, if I should spurn Your whisper that I would return, chastised

That the ever-dwindling measure of my numbered days on earth

Would not be spent seeking pleasure but bent on far greater worth

That a kind, careful awareness would keep mind and conscience keened

Lest seared by the repetition of love’s perfect law demeaned

That, when my time on earth is finished and the final battle won

That then full joy will be accomplished when I hear these words ‘well done’

And that the Substance of Things hoped for, evidence of things not seen

Will instill in me such a hunger that nothing can come between

© Janet Martin

Sacred Spending Spree

Happy Spending Spree on this glorious September Day!

May all that we 'purchase' be to give away...for the Giver's Glory!

All that we have the Good Lord gave

Though sometimes we forget

And think somehow we earned the ‘wow’

That butters our bread

Time’s teeny wink of say and think

Links to eternity

The gifts God grants a one-life chance

To use them carefully

Who, but Great God can claim the laud

Of health or wealth we boast/host

Ah, how one spends what His grace lends

Proves who we love the most

So then we ought with prayerful thought

To invest in far more

Than This small gust of dust-to-dust

And money’s futile score

For all we have the Good Lord gave

Thus no one can defend

Entitlement to one red cent

Of what He gave to spend

© Janet Martin

 Then He told them a parable: 

“The ground of a certain rich man produced an abundance.

So he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?’

Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, 

and there I will store up all my grain and my goods.

Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. 

Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. 

Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

This is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God.”

This Life We Have...

There's something about going to a funeral-visitation
and listening to what people remember about the deceased person that is a huge reality check...
the memory can be something that seemed like a little thing in the moment,
but made an impression quite unawares! 

So here's to the life we Have before it becomes the life we had!

As for man, his days are like grass—

he blooms like a flower of the field;

when the wind passes over, it vanishes,

and its place remembers it no more. 

Psalm 103:15-16

 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. 

What is your life?

 You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

James 4:14

So much of what we do may seem like nothing much at all

The days fly by as you and I reply to sundry call

Where in time’s seasoned swirl that twirls us round and round again

We might forget the awesome Yet that waits and who knows when

Life’s gauzy half-breath veil will fail and ope an Awesome Door

Where all that will remain is what we are remembered for

The give and take that sometimes shakes our will and wallets dry

The yes and no that in the moment is just a reply

The words we say that slip away through lips to listening ears

Melds moments into That which in a twinkle disappears

And thus Becomes the sum of all we said, did, took and gave

How very holy then, this one and only life we have

The plush brush that paints pictures on the canvas of the heart

Seems common but is sacred in its rendering of art

For graves can never gather into bearings cold and staid

The echoes warm with laughter or the memories we made

Where much of what we do may seem like nothing much at all

But shape, for those who yet remain the pictures they recall

...as all who've gone before cannot return to tell the worth
Of total compensation for what seemed so small on earth
Where now the days fly by like flashes on a phantom reel
But then, when the last breath is spent, The Ultimate Reveal
Where God forbid we turned our backs on His amazing grace
Until we open up our eyes and meet Him face to face

© Janet Martin

I wrote the first three stanzas before church
then the message spoke so clearly of The Big Picture I needed to squeeze in one more stanza!
Yes, making great memories is great but at the end of our lives if that is all we have it is not enough!
For all we can keep at the end of our lives is what we gave away!
Beginning with surrender of Self.

Here is a link to the message:
Free To Be Serving 
(one of my favourite quotes in this message is by Mother Theresa...
I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God
who is sending a love letter to the world.)

Job 34:11
For according to a man's deeds, He repays him; according to a man's ways, He brings consequences.

Matthew 16:27
For the Son of Man will come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.

Secret to Joy

  I prayed for strength... 

He gave me joy

The joy of the Lord is my strength. 

Neh.8:10

There’s a sacred joy in living when we learn to find kind worth

In each day that we are given by God of Heaven and earth

When we start to serve the Master with a more determined quest

Then the heart is filled with honour and the urge to give our best

…and the task that may seem common to the seeker of ‘success’

Is not the defining factor when it comes to happiness

…and the stumbles and the tumbles and the messes that man makes

Do not seem quite as defeating as we learn from our mistakes

…as we hear the Higher Calling in whatever lot we bear

Then we start to learn the secret of a joy beyond compare

As we prize the priceless treasure of God’s grace whereby man goes

We begin to taste the measure of joy only He bestows

© Janet Martin