In Keeping (With the Name That We Confess)

Ps.116:15

Precious in the sight of the LORD 

Is the death of His saints.

No dark and hopeless misery

where parting's tender teardrops fall;

the death of faithful saints must be

the sweetest sorrow-joy of all

...because farewell is not the end

but simply 'till we meet again'

Yesterday, the author of this book

The God Who Is Real,

...laid his beloved wife to rest.

  (mentioned in July on this post)

Finished!

 Faithful to the end! 

What a testimony!

Her example of devotion to her Saviour,

her ministry and heart's desire that all, young and old

would come to a saving faith in Jesus,

compels us to reevaluate/examine our own witness,

and whether it is in keeping with the Name that we confess!

Because far more than merely memories made/left behind by how we live

Our words and deeds compose the 'personal account' we will give...

Rom.14:12

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

The funeral service was opened with this beautiful hymn

Blessed Assurance

She truly, truly did live this command of Jesus...

Matt.5:16

Let your light so shine before men, 

that they may see your good works 

and glorify your Father in heaven.

In keeping with the Name that we confess

(The only name by which man can be saved)

In keeping with the hope and righteousness

Accomplished in the cross that Jesus braved

May the fruit that our labour achieves

Be in keeping with the gift faith receives

In keeping with the everlasting Word

God speaks to us through Jesus Christ, His Son

In keeping with the gospel, we have heard

How Jesus gave His life for everyone

…when we repent, pray the life we begin

Is in keeping with His Spirit within

In keeping with the joy still set before

That sustains faith’s diligence to endure

In keeping with the Saviour we adore

Because in Him our future is secure

Believing this, then may all we embrace

Be in kind keeping with God’s saving grace

…so by the light of love others may see

The love of God and glorify His name

Through glad, good deeds of true humility

We will not bring the love of God to shame

But, in keeping with the Name above all

Walk in a manner worthy of His call

© Janet Martin

Rom.10:8-12

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”

(that is, the word of faith which we preach):

9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus

and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, 

you will be saved.

10For with the heart one believes unto righteousness,

and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek,

for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.

13For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Eph.4:1-3

As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk 

in a manner worthy of the calling you have received:

 2with all humility and gentleness, 

with patience, bearing with one another in love,

 3and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit

 through the bond of peace.

Heb.1:1-3

On many past occasions and in many different ways,

God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.

2But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son,a

whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.

3The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature,

upholding all things by His powerful word.

After He had provided purification for sins,

He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Showcasing Time...

Over and over we ask this question, 

without ever really expecting an answer, right?!😅

'Where does the time go?!!'

already almost mid-September?!

How can it be?!

Last week my granddaughter, 

during a tea-break gasped,

" Grandma!, what happened to the garden?!!"

"Harvest", I replied.

 "We brought in all the potatoes and onions!"

No matter what we are doing we are planting and/or harvesting!

We reap what we sow!

Proverbs 13:4
The slacker craves yet has nothing, 

but the soul of the diligent is fully satisfied.

***

Today's 'time' was spent at church this morning,

prepping food for a funeral tomorrow,

 then a bit of this and that at home this afternoon,

including starting to harvest marigold and lavender 

for hopefully lots and lots more tea-breaks to come!

A splash of summer sunshine in a cup 

while winter gales howl...

I cannot hear or feel or see

Where you go as you slip through me

…each day, a little like a door

To what has never been before

A dissonance of highs and lows

Of gates agape and curtain-close

Of lissome waltz and trip-and-fall

Of grinning, groaning beck-and-call

Your seasoned tide of seasons, rife

With encounters that turn to ‘life’

Where nothing I can do or say

Will keep you from slipping away

Above my head, beneath my feet

Through skin-and-bone-cradled heartbeat

Into a place I cannot see

An intangible gallery

...of moments, melding as they fall

To pictures on a phantom wall

Showcasing you, a pantomime

Of once-upon-what-once-was-time

© Janet Martin

A verse to live by while time allows and the secret to happiness...

Prov.16:20

He who heeds the word wisely will find good, 

And whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he.

September's Soul-Storm

This is the kind of poem I cannot rush...

September’s tent is gray then blue and apple-dappled, where

Pungent scents of surrender’s hues hang heavy on the air....

As evidence of summer’s curtain close intensifies

In blush of sedum’s dusty rose...

 and rush of butterflies...

In rusty-singed zinnia-rainbows,

... in tardier sunrise

Goldenrod tapers flicker, undaunted by fits of rain...

And footsteps start to hurry through dawn’s barely-parted gates

Tomato-plum-pear flurry fills jars, crocks, pots, pans and plates...

(a few recipes below)

*Glug-glug-blip-blop, the steaming canning-kettle seems to say...

Frost-flavoured innuendos start to infiltrate green glade

As cricket-song crescendos in an ardent serenade

A vibrato that ebbs and flows into a subtle fade...

September’s tent is gray then blue and apple-dappled, where

Pungent scents of surrender’s hues hang heavy on the air

As evidence of summer’s curtain close intensifies

In blush of sedum’s dusty rose and rush of butterflies

In rusty-singed zinnia-rainbows, in tardier sunrise

September’s bliss is bittersweet, aster-embellished grief

Happiness and heartache compete, bloom-beauty is so brief

Frost-flavoured innuendos start to infiltrate green glade

As cricket-song crescendos in an ardent serenade

A vibrato that ebbs and flows into a subtle fade

Goldenrod tapers flicker, undaunted by fits of rain

Birdfeeder patrons bicker over dinner-bits of grain

While squirrels dart and scurry and harvest-hum escalates

And footsteps start to hurry through dawn’s barely-parted gates

Tomato-plum-pear flurry fills jars, crocks, pots, pans and plates

September authors sorrows joy is privileged to bear

Futile to suffer morrow’s unaccomplished weight of care

While dahlias beam, and cornfields gleam and backroad haunts beguile

While summer’s remnant hours stream beneath noon’s sky wide smile

And flower-bowers beckon dreamers to loiter awhile

Glug-glug-blip-blop, the steaming canning-kettle seems to say

Too busy to stop for too long to dream the day away

Though it would be a terrible pity to never pause

To be a duty-rebel and revel in Now because

The tree the breeze dishevels will soon wear the leaf that was

September seems to keenly whet time’s teeming undertow

With destinies that we forget while lost in June’s hello

A cello I cannot quite see is playing Fur Elise

A green and yellow melody of love’s fond agonies

Rolls, nay tolls from a welkin belfry through fields and hills and trees

September is a poem that the poet cannot rush

It feels a bit like coming home, a Voice that whispers 'hush'

Yet kindles in the bosom a war-cry nobody hears

A medley culled from blossoms felled and held in yesteryears

An arch that leads to autumn, through which summer disappears

© Janet Martin

due to a bumper crop of summer squash  and an

almost tomato-crop failure

 someone suggested trying zucchini salsa, so I did!

it's delicious!!

(I used yellow and green squash and seems to have worked)

If you like sweet heat you might want to try this!

Zucchini Salsa

INGREDIENTS

10cups zucchini, peeled & shredded

4onions, chopped

2green peppers, chopped

2red peppers, chopped

1⁄4cup pickling salt

1tablespoon pickling salt

2tablespoons dry mustard

1tablespoon garlic powder

1tablespoon cumin

2cups white vinegar

1cup brown sugar

2tablespoons red pepper flakes

1teaspoon nutmeg

1teaspoon pepper

5cups chopped ripe tomatoes

2tablespoons cornstarch

12ounces tomato paste

Method:

Day one:

In a large bowl combine; 

Zucchini, onions, green pepper, red pepper and the salt 

Mix together cover and let stand over night.

Day two.

Next day rinse, drain well and put into a large pot then add

 mustard, garlic, cumin, vinegar, brown sugar, pepper flakes, salt,

cornstarch, nutmeg, pepper, 1 tablespoon salt, 

tomatoes and tomato paste.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Water bath jars for 15 minutes.

***

Now dessert!

recipe two;

Pear-Plum Crisp

Wash, peel, (optional) pare, pit,

approx. 7 cups fruit into baking pan. I used 8X12 pyrex pan.

mix 1/2 cup sugar

2 TBSP flour

1/2 teas. cinnamon 

1/4 teas. each of cloves, nutmeg and ginger

Toss with fruit

and top with 

Topping

Mix 1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup br. sugar

then blend in 1/3 cup soft butter

top and bake at 350F till bubbly and golden, approx. 30 min.

(after sampling the unbaked version I feel safe to say-it's scrumptious!)

while dahlias beam...

Ode to the Clay/Way of Shadow-fall

Off to a new day and a new week we go,

shoulder to shoulder, for better or worse!

and being mindful of a Shadow that will fall, for all of us...

and none of us knows when,

transporting us either to a life infinitely better than This

or a death infinitely worse!

Beauty is poised on joy’s wheel of surprises...

Wonder is waiting to win our praise...

Beauty is poised on joy’s wheel of surprises

Wonder is waiting to win our praise

While duty dusts off devotion’s disguises

While morning light restores earth to our gaze

Where God’s rich mercy, and great love still lavish

Longing and learning with wisdom’s increase

Where His Word waits to astonish/admonish and ravish

Would-be discouragement with hope and peace

Laughter will sparkle like sunlight on water

Kind words soft-spoken, will gladden a heart

While we, like clay in the hands of a Potter

Often are baffled by methods of art

Grappling with goodness that vexes our reason

Humbled by Incomprehensible Ways

Tuning ‘to-everything-there-is-a-season’

Dwindling the remnant robe of numbered days

While dust is stirred beneath musts we must shoulder

Shoulder to shoulder, a world full of ‘we’

Weather the common ground of growing older

No matter how rich or poor we may be

Where Beauty, poised on the brink of beholding

Thunders in a wonderful free-for-all

Turning a wheel that is deftly unmolding/unfolding

A very subtle, sacred Shadow-fall

© Janet Martin

Revelation 4:11 ESV

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Is this the joyful and triumphant highlight of our week?

To gather with fellow-believers and adore Him?!!

For the believer this song is an all-year song, isn't it?!

O, Come Let Us Adore Him

O, come, all ye faithful, ye weary, ye grateful

O, come all ye seekers of hope, joy and peace

To worship our Maker, our God and our Saviour

To praise He who purchased doomed sinner’s release

O, come all ye thirsty, O, come to the waters

Come, ye without money, O, come, buy and eat

Come and adore He whose love never wavers

But whose delight makes the Soul’s joy complete

O, come, for the cross of Christ makes no exception

Salvations waits for all who call on Him

Worthy the Lamb who achieved our redemption

Come, let the music of thanksgiving brim

O, come all ye faithful, happy, heavy-laden

Come and partake in love’s feast of delight

O, come all ye faithful to praise and adore Him

He who will always guide seekers aright

He who will arm and fit us for the fight

© Janet Martin

Isa.55:1-3

Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you without money,

come, buy, and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost!

2Why spend money on that which is not bread,

and your labor on that which does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,

and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.

3Incline your ear and come to Me;

listen, so that your soul may live.

A Little Ink Reminder...

Life/love is poetry

waiting to be written...

Some days poem-possibility is like fruit, ripe for harvest and preserving,

...other days require (soul)-searching!

Ps.139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

...but every poet does well to remember Who bestows the ink

then, to be diligent and conscientious in our reply!

***

The troubles of this world could drain the poet’s pen of verse

Its weight of care could crush the lyric-spring within the heart

But what doth it profit a man to clench a fist and curse

When all it takes is each of us to do our willing part

To make this world a kinder place for our fellowman

To help each other weather trouble’s trouble while we can

The poet’s charge is more than ink-caper to paper pressed

But rather, an attempt to keep us wonderfully awed

A page can capture beauty, like a cloud by pink caressed

To replay when the day grows dark and we start to doubt God

Poetry preserves pictures long after seasons have set

So we remember tinctures we might otherwise forget

…the laughter after it has passed, the once-upon-childhood

Before the way time flies teaches the fledgling how to fly

It gentles bitter aftermath of love misunderstood

As the whisper of God compels the poet to reply

And rally us to be more humbly glad for me-‘n-you

Remembering who we will answer to when life is through

The trouble of this world will always be; the poet knows

The pen is mightier than sword; font is a holy thing

For the sacred longevity of written word bestows

Accountability for all touched by its rendering

Thus, before thought entrusts its erring tendencies to ink

The poet ought to ask the Author of Love how to think

The troubles of this world could drain the poet’s pen of rhyme

Its weight of care could crush the raring rush to write and write

Without the One whose replenishes joy, time after time

And overflows the wellspring of the heart with sheer delight

To share without exception, every hymn that frets to spill

And follow the direction of the Hand that lets the quill

...where the trouble that groans is never greater than His grace

Though pleasure/measure of a poem cannot erase creature-care

Like a soft kiss upon the cheek, a handshake or embrace

A poem can kindle a smile, a tear, a song, a prayer

To cheer each other on with kindness and humility

A little ink-reminder of God, spilled in poetry  

© Janet Martin

Happy September Saturday!

The Driving Force of Love...

Vain, ah vain is love's façade

We try to maintain, without God

Futile, futile, its driving force

Until we recognize love's Source

It is impossible to deny God yet claim to love...

1 John 4:7

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

 Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

 

The 'brutal honesty' of the book

  My Utmost for His Highest' by Oswald Chambers

leaves no stone unturned in life's journey,

(after we have confessed the name of Jesus)

often challenging the reader with realizations of what 

we may try to gloss over or ignore!!!

These below are no exception!

The driving force of love challenges you and I

Because its evidence will prove love cannot tell a lie

Though noise of bluff and boast can put on quite a show

Who we love and honour the most is bound to overflow

Into life’s daily grind of want and sacrifice

The driving force of love will find a way to pay the price

….for love comes with a cost that love alone pursues

Love is no thoughtless penny tossed with nothing much to lose

Oh no, love always takes to give; this is the part

That will reveal, by how we live, whose love reigns in the heart

© Janet Martin

1 John 2:15-17

Do not love the world or the things in the world.

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

16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, 

the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—

is not of the Father but is of the world. 

17And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; 

but he who does the will of God abides forever.

2 Tim.3:1-5

But know this, that in the last days [a]perilous times will come:

 2For men will be lovers of themselves,

 lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, 

disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3unloving,

 [b]unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, 

brutal, despisers of good, 

4traitors, headstrong, haughty, 

lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

 5having a form of godliness but denying its power.

 And from such people turn away!

Give Me Jesus-Fernando Ortega

 

Delight's Attention Spans

A few delights caught on camera,

that helped inspire today's poem...

Clouds heaped on deeps of boundless blue, 

a grape-embellished vine...

He spills Majesty’s showcases, in petals, paper-thin...

A flower in its precious prime,

 a bud, bursting to tell

 (I am so eager for this hibiscus to begin blooming!!)

A bloom, bowed by the toll of Time’s unyielding carousel...

To mint and silver-dazzled mist of dew-kissed fennel-frond

God draws delight’s attentions to beauties and mercies fine

Clouds heaped on deeps of boundless blue, a grape-embellished vine

A flower in its precious prime, a bud, bursting to tell

A bloom, bowed by the toll of Time’s unyielding carousel

A treetop, cobbled to the moon, a pot of garden stew

A bit of summer afternoon left after work is through

He spills Majesty’s showcases, in petals, paper-thin

He wills unfathomed graces to a world blighted by sin

Four-season feasts of grandeur, great and small, thrill and confound

Impressions of His splendor thunder, oft without a sound

As glory of the earth and sky declares the glory of

The Lord. Ah, here a butterfly, ah, there a cooing dove

Coruscant vim of brook-verve curves through wood and meadowland

God’s evidence, without reserve, anoints Want’s blind demand

And fills us with anticipation for impending praise;

Impromptu celebrations as we marvel at His ways

Mantled in morning amethyst, hailed from Welkin Beyond

To mint and silver-dazzled mist of dew-kissed fennel-frond

How holy is the lowly spud, how God’s providence awes

Incomprehensible, the Thought that ordain nature’s laws

And draws delights attentions to beauties and mercies fair

And kindles endless anthems to a God beyond compare

Whose outer fringes flourish in frames filled with ‘let there be’

Whose Inner Whispers nourish gladness and humility

Delight's attention spans the gap twixt worshipper and God

It joins the the trees that clap their hands, the hill-and-field pealed laud

Where spoken tokens of his Word yield what He has decreed

His proclamation, undeterred for He is Lord indeed

Who draws delight's attention to creation's chief employ

To lift our hearts and voices and to shout and sing for joy

© Janet Martin

a pot of garden-stew...

***

Yesterday the morning was turning swiftly sweltering...

when, what to my wondering eyes should appear

but my dear neighbor with a potato-digger!

My hallelujah-hymn, 

(kindled as the potato-fork

unearthed Yukon gold and Idaho red treasure

 in astonishing measure)

reached new and unexpected heights;

the kind of height that only (unexpected) kindness 

(esp. potato-digger kindness)

achieves!!

(my apologies for the WOW!!!

in my delight, I forgot I was recording😂💗)

Isaiah 55:12

You will indeed go out with joy and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Psalm 47:1

Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout unto God with a voice of triumph.

Psalm 65:12

The pastures of the wilderness overflow; the hills are robed with joy.

Psalm 65:13

The pastures are clothed with flocks, 

and the valleys are decked with grain. 

They shout in triumph; indeed, they sing.

Psalm 89:12

North and south You created; 

Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name.

Psalm 93:3

The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; 

the rivers have raised their voice;

 the seas lift up their pounding waves.

Isaiah 44:23

Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; 

shout aloud, O depths of the earth.

 Break forth in song, O mountains, 

you forests and all your trees. 

For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, 

and revealed His glory in Israel.