Of Flesh and Spirit War...

Ah, flesh and Spirit war

This battleground within

Bids us examine our thought

Of what is good or sin

Flesh wars against the Good

Its weakness covets filth

The Spirit bids us suffer long

To glean eternal wealth

Awesome Inheritance

How brief these wars of earth

Only what we have done for God

Will be of any worth

Ah, flesh and Spirit war

Tempter and Holy Word

Clash soundlessly within the mind

As deed reveals our lord

We know God is not mocked

What a man sows he reaps

Touch sacredly this gifted ground

Where eternity sleeps

© Janet Martin

Reading in Galatians 5&6. Warning and tender encouragement!

Of Imagination and Temptation

   

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Mankind’s thought super-power

Is imagination

Prone to both good or evil

For with it comes temptation

How subtle is deception

This testing of our will

Amplifies weakness or brute strength

To fight for good or ill

How can we battle purely

What thought perceives as ‘nice’?

Prayer is our single sure defense

Against temptation’s vice

For thought, the lone precursor

To everything we do

Proves through our action who we serve

In places hid from view

...and mankind’s super-power

Is imagination

Thought is the doorway whereby we

Are led into temptation

 How can we guard the barracks

Immune to force of limb?

The Word of God is faultless

and fills our thoughts with Him

© Janet Martin

What a great undertaking imagination is...

soon it reveals its colors in wisdom or foolishness

Imagination is a great thing. Every astonishing invention was the fruit of someone’s imagination, but imagination is also the first-fruit of temptation!

 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. 1 Cor. 10:13

Showdown with Temptation

 

Surely that right thing we think hard to do

Is worth every effort of valor

Think of those others depending on you

…one foot, then the other will conquer

One bowl of pottage for lifetime of penance

Think of the price, little one

Action soon falls to the passage of moments

Consequence is not so soon gone

One hand an angel, the other the devil
Smooth are the laws of attraction
We all are soldiers thrown into battle
With every act comes reaction

Surely the right thing will yield in due season

Fruit that is worthy of joy

Cling to the faith that defies mortal reason

To do what is right, my dear boy

© Janet Martin

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright. Gen. 25:34

Of Things Cursed

Temptation dangles like a serpent

In an idle, slothful mind

The fruit gleams, sweet upon the tree

As to its vice we're blind

We long to reach and pluck it

Taste its sugar-coated dread

But its afterglow would haunt us

Like vile ghosts inside our head

While the thing that seemed so lovely

Is a curs-ed, empty shell

And the fruit that promised heaven

But a tragic glimpse of hell

For the well of carnal thirsting

Is a void nothing can quench

As the harvest of our tasting

Bears the fruit of consequence

© Janet Martin

Temptation

You do not ask permission

Though I bolt and lock the door

Your perilous seduction

Sweeps in oceans ‘cross my floor

You spread your virile body

On my vulnerability

And without a Higher Power

You would get the best of me

How you move with subtle motive

Accommodating taste and size

Preying on my strongest weakness

As you tease and tantalize

Oh, the folly when I stumble

Oh, the bitter after-taste

For your offering of pleasure

Yields a bluff of barren waste

…and the thing perceived as fortune

Turns to ashes on my tongue

All your promises are ruin

Whether pledged to old or young

I cannot afford acquiescence

As you dangle from the vine

Splaying fruit of disguised grievance

Should I sip your tainted wine

Master of lust’s apparition

How I loathe your sleek facade

As you tempt me with a vision

Far from truth and hope and God

I could not resist your peril

Your allure; beguiling charm

But for One; not of this world

…and I lean upon His arm

© Janet Martin