The Unforeseen Known by The Unseen One...

The Priority of Prayer

(for mobile devices click web version at the end of the post to see video)

Charles Stanley reminds us often in his messages to

hand the day over to God each morning before our feet touch the floor

in a prayer something like this,

 "Lord, you know what today holds. We don't.

We entrust all our plans, comings and goings to your care'.

What comfort to know when plans go awry 

someone far above you and I is in perfect control!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, no kiddos today...

Plans are always subject to change 

No matter how well laid 

Often, we need to rearrange 

The careful plans we made 

Life is an intermingling of 

Hopes and matters of fact 

Relinquishment, the test of love 

Leaves no heartstring intact 

But if we entrust by God’s grace 

Life’s highway to Love’s Chief 

Then no matter what we may face 

He fills us with His peace 

© Janet Martin 

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, 

spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 

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. 

instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

James 4:13-15

Someday When Time Is Freer

 

On yesterday's post Summer Farewell I commented how 

'someday when time is freer' and

it sparked a train of thought...

On Sunday some of us lamented how work gets in the way

of soaking up an afternoon in a sauna of sunshine

(such as we were blissfully doing at that moment)

For me it was one of only a few times all summer-long😏

I was always going to but it seems the moment 

my keister hit the chair 

Duty rang 

or called 

or pleaded from the garden😘

Today's happiness includes hopes of tomato-preserving,

listening to little child's chatter and logic

 and fall decorating!

Happy First day of Fall!

Some day when time is freer and not in such high demand 

I’d like to think that I’ll recall what stirred my longing sigh 

But I have a strange sense the best of life is close at hand 

And not in some distant, idyllic, carefree by and by 

The best of life is Here and Now; for better or for worse 

The morrow waits with its buffet of brute reality 

Where all the wishing in the world is happiness’s curse 

Because we miss the moment we are in and its beauty 

Someday when time is freer will the thrill be quite as sweet 

As it is now, when we make time to take the time today 

Where we are all trapeze artists; our tight-rope is a street 

Filled with keen amateurs learning to balance work and play 

I want to make the most of thund’ring wonders close at hand 

Lest in some quiet aftermath silence cuts like a knife 

Because I cannot find The Thing that made freedom seem grand 

Because it is love’s busyness that makes a happy life 

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 39:4
"Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. 

Let me know how fleeting my life is.

Farewell Summer

I'm working at cleaning out the garden

after a few September frosts 

finished off some of the foliage.

Farewell summer.

To everything there is a season but, oh, 

why does summer always seems shortest of all?!

 

(photo below from my sister Lucy's garden)

(Someday when time is freer I hope to do a photo-tour of her enchanting gardens and nooks)

Winsome whisper 

Flutter, flicker 

Glimmer, shimmer 

Butterfly 

High-five, blunder 

Starlight thunder 

Wide-eyed wonder 

My, oh my 

Finger waggle 

Barter, haggle 

Vim-bedraggled 

Yep and nope 

Lend and borrow, 

Joy and sorrow 

Hail the morrow’s 

Brighter hope 

Tears and laughter 

Days fly faster 

Before-after 

Empty-full 

Oops-a-daisy 

Drives us crazy 

Don’t be lazy 

Push and pull 

Pick a rosy 

Pretty posy 

Linger-mosey 

Dosey-doe 

Blue and yellow 

Friendly hello 

Hurried fellow 

Hold, let go 

Plant a garden 

Beg no pardon 

For chores undone 

Hoe and weed 

Sun-kissed pleasure 

Spills its measure 

Into treasure 

Born of seed 

Hustle-bustle 

Bowls and bushels 

Muster muscle 

Grin and groan 

Cricket-cadence 

Sedum radiance 

Winnows dreamlands 

To the bone 

Poplar-shiver 

Aspen-quiver 

Petal-river 

Poetry 

Pours the murmur 

Of sweet summer 

To become her 

Memory 

© Janet Martin 

The Futility of Poetry/Words Alone...

Better to walk than talk it 

For who we serve shines through 

And words will often mock it 

If they spar with what we do 

Better to live love’s token 

Than write them in a song 

Love that is simply spoken 

Is like a clanging gong 

Better to be a sermon 

Rather than just sit by 

For words can weave a poem 

But second miles don’t lie 

Better to serve God wholly 

With kind humility 

For all our boasts are lowly 

Compared to Calvary

Better to guard heart-lockets

Than paint a fine façade 

Better to walk than talk it

And leave the rest to God

Fear God; keep His commandments

This whole duty of man

Speaks louder through obedience

Than any fine speech can

© Janet Martin

Ecles.12:13-14 NKJV

 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter;

Fear God and keep His commandments,

For this is man’s all.

14 For God will bring every work into judgment,

Including every secret thing,

Whether good or evil.

Luke 6:45

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, 

and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. 

For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Quick Quest-Quiz

 

If God would ask of us today 

To sell all that we own 

To feed the poor, would we obey 

And say, ‘Thy will be done’? 

If God, so rich in mercy bid 

Us to take up our cross 

And follow Him with nothing hid 

Would we count all else loss? 

If God who gave His all for us 

Stripped all away but Him 

Would we confess ‘He is enough’ 

And glorify our King 

© Janet Martin 

 Matt.16:24

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Matthew 10:38
...and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.

Christ in Us

 

The darkness of this world is great 

But never greater than the light 

No matter how cruel the hate 

Love will always exceed its might 

For all the trouble that we see 

Is not too hard for Christ in me 

One cannot win without the One 

Through Whom no challenge is too hard 

This world of sin is doomed, my son 

Therefore, dear soul be on thy guard 

Where the whole of humanity 

Would perish without ‘Christ in me’ 

Be not dismayed when you behold 

These days unfold the prophet’s voice 

How accurate Last Days foretold 

Then be of good cheer and rejoice 

For what no peril can undo 

The hope of Christ in me and you 

© Janet Martin 

...which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Col.1:27

Consolation Prize

Thank-you Lord for Your works of art...

  

 
 

Thank-you Lord, for your works of art

You always satisfy the heart

The wonder of Your ways and means

Consoles this breadth of in-betweens

You wow us with Your majesty

In spite of all we cannot see

While Time unfurls trouble’s torment

To a world full of discontent

The forge of faith is full of prayer

The gorge of grace is full of care

Life would be too dreary to bear

Without You; You are everywhere

Lord, Your indescribable worth

Overflows hearts, heaven and earth

Pity the one who cannot see

Beyond visual periphery

...where hate can never overthrow

The love and grace whereby we go

And fear, for all its dread and doom

Can never infiltrate the bloom

© Janet Martin

Palm 92:4-8

For You, O LORD, have made me glad by Your deeds;

I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

5How great are Your works, O LORD,

how deep are Your thoughts!

6A senseless man does not know,

and a fool does not understand,

7that though the wicked sprout like grass,

and all evildoers flourish,

they will be forever destroyed.

8But You, O LORD, are exalted forever!

Quest-Mark

In God's Eyes- Willie Nelson

To fault another for our faults is but to prove where true fault lies

To tally secret sacrifices is to forfeit giving’s prize

To give up before we are finished is to fail; try, try again

For we are all still works in progress; no best effort wrought in vain

Life tests the best of good intent to weigh the measure of the man

That wrestles with deep woes and wants that vex the taunts of dream and plan

To fight against all odds takes more than we can muster on our own

Where lesser gods with winks and nods pretend one true God to dethrone

To turn the other cheek is not a response that comes naturally

The one and only way we may is through utter humility

To make the most of what we have is to focus on what remains

Till choice is tendered to the grave and soul will reap its endless gains

We cannot hold a grudge and yet somehow be all that we can be

Enough to let God be the judge; He knows more than the part we see

For he beholds the heart; then let love be our daily enterprise

Lest in the quest of doing good we miss the mark and true love dies

© Janet Martin

Romans 7:21-25

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;  but I see another law at work in me,

waging war against the law of my mind 

and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.  

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!