A Poem About the Tempter and God's Everlasting Arms

Today's post kinda evolved as the morning dissolved...

It began with the passage below- today's Our Daily Bread Scripture reading...

12 For the word of God is living and powerful,

and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing

even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow,

and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight,

but all things are naked and open to the eyes

of Him to whom we must give account.

14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest

who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,

but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,

that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Heb.4:12-16

This morning my waking thoughts turned to today's young parents.

Sometimes my heart/prayer groans for those

who are training up future generations;

Teaching us(them) that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,

 we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Titus 2:12

Mankind's enemy since the beginning is the Tempter.

Gen.3:1

Now the serpenta was more crafty than any beast of the field

that the LORD God had made.

 And he said to the woman, “Did God really say,...?

He succeeded in deceiving Eve, and Adam also,

and sin entered into the previously perfect world.

where only a perfect sacrifice could wholly redeem sinful humanity, 

And so God, eternally perfect sent His Son/Himself!

'For when we were still without strength,

in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Rom.5:6

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

12But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name,

He gave the right to become children of God—

John 1:11-12

***

I'm in a season of life where children no longer

climb into my lap in the morning, or snuggle up beside me.

In that season, young mothers often find morning devotion-time interrupted! 

I am in a season of life where I can be the child, in a sense,

climbing into my Heavenly Father's lap or snuggling at His side

as I wake up, for reassurance, attention, love and kind affection

 that every child needs!

But ho!! The Tempter is there as well, so it seems!

trying to draw me away from being still

 to ever present distractions and tasks!!

I sat down with a coffee to begin my 'devotions'

then decided I should start the fire first,

then I noticed I should rotate the dry laundry on wooden clothes dryer

with a wet load still waiting...

...then I thought I should fold the dry laundry immediately

 to avoid more wrinkles...

...then, I decided to start another load of laundry

then, I noticed my house plants in the laundry room

were infested with little white gnats that seemed

to be feasting on the insecticidal soap spray 

I treated the plants with a few days ago...

So I snipped off the heavily infested sprigs

 and sprayed the plants and covered them with bags 

to contain things

then I returned to 'my devotions'... 

only to realize as I sat down that

the bird feeders are empty again!!

so I waded through the snow to fill them 

because the hungry birds are fluttering 

in unceasing flocks these snowy days...

...now, back to devotions. oops!

I need to add a log to the fire before it gets too low!!

While downstairs I remember I should take some food out of the freezer

to thaw for tomorrow night's family dinner...

The washer has stopped.

I should switch loads!

'get thee behind me, Satan,' 

My coffee is cold...😑

The tempter still roams earth's summits; young and old, potential prey

Daring us to test truth's limits, taunting 'did God really say...?'

He, an unscrupulous charmer dared to tempt the Son of God

We, without God's word and armour cannot recognize a fraud

...cannot overthrow the liar, cannot discern right from wrong

Cannot purify desire, cannot be holy or strong 

But, greater is He within us who believe God hears our prayer

All who trust the name of Jesus can conquer the Tempter's dare

Can, when doubt and despair cower lean on God's eternal arms

Knowing none can overpower He who frees us from sin's charms  

How commonplace the appearance of love's sacred battlefield

Where God increases assurance/endurance the more that we trust and yield

How comforting is faith's solace; cradled in the arms of He

Who never leaves or forsakes us. What sweeter bliss can there be? 

© Janet Martin 

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

Lyrics

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!

What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!

Leaning, leaning,

Safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning,

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.

2

O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!

O how bright the path grows from day to day,

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!

3

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!

I have peace complete with my Lord so near,

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!

Author: E. A. Hoffman

Elisha Hoffman (1839-1929) after graduating from Union Seminary in Pennsylvania was ordained in 1868. As a minister he was appointed to the circuit in Napoleon, Ohio in 1872. He worked with the Evangelical Association's publishing arm in Cleveland for eleven years. He served in many chapels and churches in Cleveland and in Grafton in the 1880s, among them Bethel Home for Sailors and Seamen, Chestnut Ridge Union Chapel, Grace Congregational Church and Rockport Congregational Church. In his lifetime he wrote more than 2,000 gospel songs including"Leaning on the everlasting arms" (1894). The fifty song books he edited include Pentecostal Hymns No. 1 and The Evergreen, 1873.

Of First Glances

If all was as pure as fall-morning's delight when earth is dipped in frost

First glance could indulge its appetite without ever weighing the cost

But Guile preys on First Glance, it seems, to captivate its prey

 Then test the quests that Want esteems with very subtle sway

 For all is not pure as fall-morn's delight, when earth is dipped in frost

Where first glance indulges its appetite without ever weighing the cost

At first glance, Guile seems to tick the right boxes

A fine façade can play tricks on the eye

But oh, my dear, be on guard for sly foxes

Tickling Thought’s tendrils of reason awry

Study the fruit of the tree, trace its branches

Past the entrancing sigh of wind through leaves

Past the impressions offered to first glances

Past the distraction attraction achieves

Guile, though it smiles, is still, just a smooth-talker

Sin, clothed in lamb’s wool does not make it pure

Vice, masquerading as Nice, is a mocker

Tempting gullible first glance with its lure

…that seems at First-Glance to tick the right boxes

Making us second guess That Still Small Voice

Whispering, ‘Oh! be aware of sly foxes

Teasing Thought’s tendrils of reason to Choice

© Janet Martin

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food 

and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, 

she took some and ate it. 

Gen.3:6

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, 

our vineyards that are in bloom.

Song of Solomon 2:15

What are the “little foxes that spoil the vine”? CQ Kids

 

The Art of Temptation...

PAD Challenge day 12: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “The Art of (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem

Thought presents a small suggestion

Just a whim, ever-so-slight

Then it softens shock with logic

That would justify one bite

Thoughts defends with good intention

To soothe Guilt with Reason’s ruse

Where This Master of Invention

Hones the old art of Excuse

Then, before Conscience can triumph

Over evil’s well-dressed vice

Thought entices with nice visions

That will blind us to the price

Preying on Want’s thirst for pleasure

Thought twists truth, ever-so-slight

As its tests the best-laid logic

With the promise of delight

© Janet Martin

Desire, Without Second Thought...Oh!!!

 This morning to someone who slept in I suggested turning in a little earlier at night remarking,

"I know it feels nice at the time but it often is not worth it in the morning" 

and I was struck how this applies to most things that please first glance or natural inclination...

and we all have something/things we struggle with at some point/points!

Face value often-times betrays

Seducing us in wily ways

For gaze is eager to indulge

On pleasantries sight will divulge

And as we covet its delight

Oh, soon we yearn to try a bite

Then when we try a bite we earn

The consequence of its return

So we should discern (not with eyes)

If what we desire is wise

This training ground for what remains

Tests want and will with subtle chains

Beware; lest fare that freedom craves

Is that which in the end enslaves

For Vice appears so nice, oh my,

In colours pleasing to the eye

As Endeavor is caught off guard

Sound Choice seems just a bit too hard

Charmed by the teasing, pleasing form

That takes a ling’ring look by storm

Deception cons Want with decoys

First glance perceives as promised joys

Desire without second thought

Ah, what disaster it has brought

Where face-value often betrays

Seducing us with wily ways

As what appeared so nice before

Is the costume Temptation wore

And gaze was eager to indulge

The pleasantries it might divulge

© Janet Martin

 Do not love the world or anything in the world. 

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—

is not from the Father but from the world.  

The world is passing away along with its desires, 

but whoever does the will of God remains forever. 

1 John 2:15-17

Worth our while just to listen to the first sentence in the video below!

(of course, then hopefully we are 'tempted' to listen to the rest!
Isn't good Temptation The BEST!!?)

The Poet's Vice

For yesterday’s prompt, write a temptation poem.

The sun setting across ice-shards stopped this poet mid dishwashing!!

Inkwells cupped by earth and heavens

Can seduce the bard mid-step

Temptation is shaped in shimmers

Of Poem not written yet

Color mistrals flare and capsize 

What if no one snares the gold

That turns twilight into treasures

That only Poem can hold

Janet~

To We Who Are Tempted...

PAD Challenge day 18: For today’s prompt, write a temptation poem.

Yielding to temptation is the mother of sin Gen. 3

Jesus was tempted and sinned not. Luke 4

 We are all tempted.
Temptation is not the problem...

but what we do with it might possibly be!

We are masters

Of Invention

When temptation

Needs excuse

My, but somehow

Human weakness

Finds a vice

It can't refuse

We are creatures
Born to habit
Temptation
Dangles its bait
But it never
Ever forces
Anyone to
Take a bite

Eve, for all
The trees in Eden
Lusted for
Forbidden fruit
Took a bite
Gave some to Adam
And from there
Sin's seed took root

Don't you hate it
When first morning
Meets its golden
Sunshine mark
...and the 'crumbs'
Of 'secret snacking'
Looked much better
In the dark

Janet Martin~

Of Wily Want...

...and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. 

This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, 

and is already in the world at this time.

You, little children, are from God and have overcome them,  

because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 

They are of the world. 

That is why they speak from the world’s perspective,
and the world listens to them.…

1 John 4:3-5 

I planned to peg a quickie today but it seemed another Hand kept pushing mine!

I'm over-whelmed with concern sometimes when I think about the world

 our precious, precious 'littles' are growing up in...

People teaching lies (with an eternal impact) that they believe are truth; 

Trying to teach youngsters not to lie, with a lie!

Why? Some have perhaps never been taught the Truth  

or perhaps exchanged the truth for a lie.

 

Sometimes I feel a sad sort of sympathy

 for country-leaders who seem unaware of what they do not know...

'cause maybe they only know what their daddies taught them!

As long as Bibles stay closed how is anyone armed with Truth?!

Without God's Word in our heart how do we battle the Tempter, full of lies?

What a wily Want, temptation

Fills the mind with silky sigh

Where thought’s wild imagination

Tricks the heart into a lie

Ignorance is like a cancer

Feeding on Moral Decay

Looking for another answer

Rather than the One True Way

Sad, the bane that follows after

The Deceiver does not care

Not in vain his heinous laughter

Sets a sugar-coated snare

Distraction is like pink frosting

Disguising death’s poisoned bite

Sample craves sample, thus costing

Loss of Wholesome Appetite

Without Truth, love has no basis

Wisdom cries loud in the street

While the seeker of it chases

Hope, like rolling tumbleweed

Evil, like a roaring lion

Wanders the earth to and fro

Seeking who he may devour

Luring victims with The Show

What a wily, heartless hunter

After he is satisfied

Leaves his prey with howling hunger

In the street where wisdom cried

Run! Death’s cold, cunning tormentor

Tests the best of you and I

Robed as an angel, the Tempter

Tricks the heart into a lie

Run to One who never falters

He, the Way, The Truth and Life

Beams His Light into heart-altars

Heaped with ashes of Want’s strife

© Janet Martin

 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains would tremble before you!

 As when fire sets twigs ablaze
    and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
    and cause the nations to quake before you! 

 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
    you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 

 Since ancient times no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

Isa.64:1-4