Showing posts with label unbelief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unbelief. Show all posts

Saturday, January 20, 2024

For This Unprecedented Age...

For this unprecedented age of immorality; 
 of abortion, adultery, homosexuality, 
transgenderism, mass confusion, child neglect and abuse, 
agnosticism, atheism, theism and paganism 
on and on it goes; 
there is only one cure! 
Repentance and belief in the One True God! 

Then as belief yields fruits of repentance/obedience 
to Him through His Word, only then can any real cure begin!
In this age of unprecedented distraction
esp. through the buffet of options offered through modern technology,
God's still, small Voice can be drowned out
until it goes away...!!!🙏🙏
Without careful, prayerful awareness we are all at the risk
of drowning the quietness with just enough noise
to keep us from thinking too deeply/aka, hearing God speak!

(I use the phrase 'unprecedented' cautiously but also with awareness
to the reality that due to modern technology
 and approval by the powers that be, access to
certain atrocities has become medically promoted/commonplace
like never before!)

Thus, thanks in part to modern technology
we are living in an age of unprecedented opportunity and opposition!

The cure for the problem is what it has always been...
2 Chron.7:14
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves
 and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
 then I will hear from heaven,
 and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

The page below read a few days ago,(from the book mentioned here and here)
first sparked this poem from a train of thought that has been
ongoing recently..
.(and this book was written in the '60's!!
The line that esp. hits home is this one;
'and they will be tomorrow's leaders')


And also in part by yesterday's devotion
from Pathways to His Presence by Charles Stanley



For this unprecedented age
Where, at epidemical rates
Mortal rejects its Creator
And fundaments of Truth, debates
Or altogether disregards
What once was reverenced, with awe
Choosing darkness, rather than light
Without godly order or law…

For this unprecedented age
Of lack of fear and faith in He
Who is the Saviour of the soul
The sole hope of humanity
Where churches, once ringing with praise
And sounds of glorious gospel truth
Have been abandoned for the gasp
Of worldly pleasure and pursuit

For this unprecedented age
Of pride going before the fall
As nations, founded on God’s Word
Promote abandoning it all
To be gods, wise in their own eyes
But are in fact, blind leading blind
Where deceit, like a gaping pit
Swallows the unbelieving mind

For this unprecedented age
Of impropriety endorsed
And applauded by worldly-wise
Without guilt and shame, or remorse
For this unprecedented age
Of wolves wearing sheep-like disguise
Soothing, smoothing the inner prick
With unbiblical, sweet, sweet lies

For this unprecedented age
Of unbelief, we pray and pray
We, who with faith and fear believe
In the approach of That Great Day
Oh Lord, we pray and pray that ‘they’
Would repent and believe in You
And that we who believe would be
A vessel that your Light shines through

© Janet Martin

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, 
we do not lose heart. 
2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; 
we do not use deception,
 nor do we distort the word of God.
 On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly 
we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
 3 And even if our gospel is veiled,
 it is veiled to those who are perishing.
 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers,
 so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, 
who is the image of God. 
5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, 
and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”[a
made his light shine in our hearts
 to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory 
displayed in the face of Christ.





Friday, October 27, 2023

Bat Not Thine Eye Lash at Thy Guilt...or, Earnest Plea


Reading through the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah kindles
much sober reflection and speechless awe
for the sure judgment and the abounding love and mercy of God



Brush not at sin, like lint on sleeves
To save everyone who believes

Rush not, bold-faced, into the day
Without reckoning He who grants
The morn its light; bow down and pray

Mock not, nor take in vain the Name
Above all names; but chastely fear
The One, whereby prophets proclaim

Let not imagination rule
In rebel disobedience
Approach today with reverence

Lest, poorly and blindly content
With pomp and show of Noble Thought
Thy deathless soul reaps hell’s lament/torment

Thy futile prayers when troubles groan
Fall on thy knees, repent, revere
The God of gods and God alone

For love, devoted to obey
He whose decrees are undeterred

Bat not thy eye at the grave rift
Each soul must ford ‘neath death’s cold knife

© Janet Martin




1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Monday, April 10, 2023

A Hope-Hug



Heb.11:6
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.

Earlier this week a commentator for The Masters remarked how
there are far more games being played than the one we see on the greens;
the games of the mind!
We can all relate to that comment, can't we?!
But above all that fuels the duels of the mind
there is faith, hope and love. (1 Cor.13:13)
These are no game!
These equip us for what waits after life's/faith's grueling duels are done!
Images like the ones below can't help but rouse a sort of reflection
and stir a sacred anticipation for That Day
when by the grace of God for His eternal glory, believers, faithful and true
 celebrate the Victory of all Victories!
When it will be our arms lifted in unceasing praise to the One who made triumph possible!




Dear Christian, are you discouraged, weary beyond words, with love's cares and prayers?
Press on. A Heavenly hug awaits!



Hope heals many a hurt
Hope drives us from despair
Hope endorses the holy work
Of meek and patient prayer
And does not make ashamed
All who through faith, trust Him
Who once upon a cross proclaimed
Hope that no woe/foe can dim

Though oft we groan with grief
Where hell’s painted façade
Promotes the plague of unbelief
And fearlessness of God
Still, mercy is renewed
Each morn, His truth remains
Where faith keeps hopelessness subdued
Through grace His love sustains

Whoever will may come
Trust in God and repent
Before the certain, sacred sum
Of numbered days is spent
Before it is too late
To prepare to meet God
Because Last Breath has sealed the gate
With judgment’s solemn rod

Without His gift of grace
Without redemption’s stream
How can we bear to think to face
He who died to redeem
And break the curse of sin
To save the deathless soul
To anchor hope beneath the skin
Of faith that makes us whole

© Janet Martin

 In Need 



Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope
 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
even as we put our hope in you.

But if we choose to reject and disregard Him,
what then?!!
If we choose through unrepentance, God's wrath?!!

A somber reflection from a devotion by Charles Spurgeon 





Sunday, January 22, 2023

As We Face What Waits To Be...

 

After two funerals, one on Friday and one yesterday
it is impossible not to be impacted by the brevity and sacredness of life on earth.
For, even though both funerals were for elderly women who had outlived
the moment life ceases to be all that matters is how we prepared for eternity!
Here we all still are, where God tips the scales of mercy in our favour,
where the invitation to 'come' resounds, 
and where redemption for sin still flows full and free!

Heb.9:27-28
Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment, 
28so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many;
 and He will appear a second time, 
not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.

Are you among those 'who eagerly await Him 
because of His gift of salvation'?!





Daybreak tips God’s scales of mercy in our favour; faith ahoy
With the promise of his Presence we proceed with hope and joy
Armed with the awesome awareness of the power of His Word
Gladness rekindles commitment to our calling undeterred

Because no matter what happens as we face what waits to be
Nothing in the world can sever us from God and love's decree
As Time’s thread runs through His fingers and our numbered days decrease
May Hope’s finished work through Jesus fill our hearts with joy and peace

We who believe in Him receive so much to be thankful for
As the Hour is approaching that nobody should ignore
When the joy still set before us is unveiled and we shall see
He who tips morn’s scales of mercy and beckons ‘come unto Me’

Death demands life’s full attention ere it cuts time’s sacred cord
And it ushers us to reckon with the love we most adored
Pray before the hour ceases when repentance comes too late
We have put our trust in Jesus, who will greet us at death’s gate

Then, when like a little vapor time’s brief sojourn disappears
We who have believed will enter in to ‘no more pain or tears’
But for all who disregarded He whose love tips mercy’s scales
There remains the endless horror of rejection’s endless wails

© Janet Martin









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.

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Today's Prayer


“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ 
will enter the kingdom of heaven, 
but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Jesus~
Matt.7:21

Almost Persuaded-Josh Turner
Four years ago I shared the song below on this post:
as we mourned the loss of a young man in our community


God loves us all, so poor, needy and broken without Him,
He is mankind's Healer, Deliverer and Savior!
He is love

For all who have not heard or trusted God, so good and kind
I pray today unveils the way that only faith can find
Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord, heaven’s passport will win
But only those who do the will of God will enter in

For all who have not yet bowed heads to repent and believe
I pray today the Truth will reveal doubt's lies that deceive
That eyes once blind will see and hearts once hard will yield to He
Who is not mocked; but is the Saviour of humanity

For all who have not understood the gravity of life
I pray today they find the peace that surpasses all strife
Before it is too late, I pray they roam earth’s futile sod
Until they turn from self and sin to want the love of God

© Janet Martin

Today's Bible Love Note:

2 Pet.3:3
Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come,
 scoffing and following their own evil desires.

John 12:48
There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not receive My words:
 The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

1 Timothy 4:1
Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith 
to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,

2 Timothy 3:2
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
 boastful, arrogant, abusive, 
disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

Jude 1:16
These men are discontented grumblers, 
following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance;
 they flatter others for their own advantage.

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Where Still The Call To All Remains...

 Inspired in part by Luke 3

Unto Us-Living Stones Quartet




In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea
2and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Matt.3:1

And all people will see God’s salvation.
Luke 3:6

Truth’s Voice cries in the wilderness ‘prepare’ for He who will return
The advent of His holiness trembles in hearts that wait and yearn
Where still the call to all remains, ‘repent, ‘be baptized’, ‘come, adore’
Before the Lord winnows the grains from chaff on Judgment’s threshing floor

Faith bows before Him in reply, whose feet we are not fit to kiss
Whose appearing will fill the sky; no foretold oracle amiss
Whose example still fills the Word, whose Truth will never shift or sway
Whose Spirit abides, undeterred to all who trust Him and obey

The advent of the Lord’s return burns in hearts fixed beyond time’s strife
While Mercy pleads where unfaith spurns the Only Way, the Truth, The Life
As believers become the voice that cries in holy urgency
Because belief becomes the choice that becomes soul’s eternity

Hark! Where the angels praised his birth, they will fill up the sky again
As the Lord of Heaven and earth returns forevermore to reign
Where the God of Deliverance tarries because so many doubt
And do not grasp the recompense of what God's gift is all about

Truth’s Voice cries in the wilderness ‘prepare’ for He who will return
The advent of His holiness trembles in hearts that wait and yearn
Where still the call to all remains, ‘repent, ‘be baptized’, ‘come, adore’
Before the Lord winnows the grains from chaff on Judgment’s threshing floor

© Janet Martin



Someone posted the suggestion on Facebook to read a chapter of Luke every day till Christmas Eve to read the whole book of Luke and his account of the whole life of Jesus!
So, before I go to bed I will try to read a chapter of Luke until Christmas.
I might not have a poem for every chapter but wow!
so much wonder in the Word to kindle inspiration, rejoicing and Hope!

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Sucker-Punch Eye-openers (or The Grief of Unbelief)

A message worth the little while it takes to hear it!



This link below is also worth the click:
 Flying Blind- Franklin Graham

Hebrews 10:29
Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose,
will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot,
 counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, 
and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Sometimes life deals a sucker-punch to our
utter heart and soul and love is grieved beyond words!

Sometimes those sucker-punches turn out to be shocking eye-openers
(and knee-benders and head-bow-ers)

Sometimes it seems to take a sucker-punch to wake/shake us up!

Sometimes we just don't want to believe that 'they' don't believe!!
The practice of disobedience speaks like writing on the wall 
regardless of what 'they' may say.

The Grief of Unbelief
Kinda like part 2 to this morning's post'


They mock the straight and narrow
They scorn the black and white
The spit into the face of grace;
The Way, the Truth and Life

They grieve the Holy Spirit
And trample underfoot
The Son of God; they profane Mercy's
Covenant of blood 

They treat as something common
Salvation's Cornerstone
As if they have no One to fear
Before the Judgement throne 

They do not seem to grasp
Death and hell's hopeless fate
And that dread day of reckoning
When it will be too late

Lord, hear our pleading prayer
Where cold, bold unbelief 
Is like a cruel sucker-punch
That breaks love's heart with grief

How much more You must weep
To know what waits for they
Who once confessed and professed faith
Who knew, then turned away

Janet Martin

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just 
and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.


 

The Bedrock of Belief, Or Not



2 Tim.1:12
For this reason I also suffer these things; 
nevertheless I am not ashamed,
 for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able 
to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

Matt.7:21 NIV
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Heb.3:18-19
And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest?
Was it not to those who disobeyed?

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Romans 12:3
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: 
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, 
but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,
 in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.



Matt 7:7
Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.



The bedrock of Belief, or not
Is the chief Cornerstone of thought
Belief is more than a mere nod
To accede existence of God
Where voice of choice cannot long hide
God either adored or denied

The bedrock of belief or not
Is confirmed by response to Ought
Rebellion or obedience
Prove who we serve and reverence
Either the Name above all names
Or Shame’s shameless and brazen claims

The bedrock of belief or not
Is more than a set of truths taught
These truths become love’s vow fulfilled
Proven by where and how we build
With treasure here or gathered up
Where moth and rust cannot corrupt

The bedrock of belief or not
Is either shifting sand or Rock
Graver than anything can be
For it impacts eternity
And is sacred above all else
For soul outlives this Splash of Self

We ought to give most earnest heed
To I AM’s righteousness decreed
Before Reckoning and Reward
When all confess that He is Lord
As we receive what we begot
On Bedrock of Belief, or not

© Janet Martin


So this is what the Lord GOD says:
 "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, 
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
 the one who believes will never be shaken.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
 but he that believeth not shall be damned.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:
 and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; 
but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Onus of Belief (and unbelief)

 PAD Challenge 27:


For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:
Write a believe poem and/or...
Write a don't believe poem.



 


Some are afraid to Believe
For the onus it will bring
Because belief is grounded in
The soil of reckoning
And reckoning becomes
When this mist-kiss is through
The price of Belief’s soldered sums
Not in the what, but Who

Still, some avoid Belief
As if this will annul
The Soul that cannot die
And reply's inevitable
They scorn love’s Beckoning
Disregard the reward
But oh, unbelief's reckoning
Ought not to be ignored

© Janet Martin

John 3:16-21

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
 that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 
 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
but to save the world through him. 
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, 
but whoever does not believe stands condemned already 
because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 
 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, 
but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 
 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light 
for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 
 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, 
so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done 
has been done in the sight of God.


Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,
but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord,"
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved