The High Stakes of Steppingstones

Sunday's teaching message at our church

was based on Matt. 6, 

a chapter that leaves no stone unturned when it comes to

how we ought to live/give...

19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, 

where moths and vermin destroy, 

and where thieves break in and steal.

 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

where moths and vermin do not destroy, 

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

 21 For where your treasure is,

 there your heart will be also.

Today; a steppingstone cradled in the hand of God

No matter how we look at it...

...we are in good hands

Dawn breaks; earth’s shadowed tide recedes as flood of daylight fills the sky

And sets beneath a world of feet far more than meets the naked eye

Where each day, like a steppingstone is cradled in the Giver’s Hands

On it, Creature of grin and groan shoulders love’s duties and demands

Often paying minimal heed to He who keeps us in His care

While we, a soul-instilled stampede, resume Transport from Here to There

And because God wills hearts to soften, rather than grow proud and cold

His tutorship of mercy often clashes with our stubborn/selfish hold

Upon the east a Feast of Goodness, promise-anchored, rends the air

But poverty can’t eat a promise; God bids all who 'have', to share

To bear in mind the measure of love’s evidence naught can Disguise

Residence of the treasure-trove will tell where our allegiance lies

Without a word to justify, without excuses to explain

For we are all servants either for this world or for heaven’s gain

There is no in between; nothing to counter living proof of choice

Twixt beckoning and reckoning a world of hands and feet give voice

…to Who we dearly love the most and who is the heart’s true delight

Who rushes our tongues with boast and cheers us onward in the fight/flight

Who fills our hope with happiness and whose name we thrill to repeat

What definition of success commands our hands and march of feet

Who makes it worth the give and take that may seem of small consequence

Before we behold the high stakes as steppingstones yield recompense

Dawn breaks; the stakes of steppingstones may seem a payoff far and dim

But one glimpse of God on His throne and we would all be heirs of Him

© Janet Martin

Every Moment Holy...

This poem was inspired by the title of the book below,

given to me by some dear friends following the loss of my beloved sister Lucy.

It is filled with profound and comforting liturgies of

faith and encouragement 

This is not some hum-drum duty drawn to vex man’s days with strife

Nor simply four-season-beauty doomed to earth’s titanic urn...

This is more than days tugged slowly from the wounds of love and life

This is every moment holy laden with so much to learn...

This is not some hum-drum duty drawn to vex man’s days with strife

Nor simply four-season-beauty doomed to earth’s titanic urn

This is more than days tugged slowly from the wounds of love and life

This is every moment holy laden with so much to learn

This is more than lilt of hours, bent with what no one can snare

Or a door to Bygone’s bowers that no squire can bolt or bar

More than both lofty and lowly, climbing Time’s ethereal stair

This is every moment holy, no matter who-where we are

This is more than Yore’s momentum tripping through rooms of the heart

More than dust-to-dust’s decorum or satire’s mean comedy

More than skin-graft sagging slowly on frames fated from the start

This is every moment holy like notes in life’s symphony

Every moment mercy-measured, sparkling from a fount of grace

Every-moment to be treasured like a jewel of great worth

Every moment like a flicker on a wick we cannot trace

Or like tincture in a picture, we cannot behold on earth

This is more than hope grope-groping at straws of positive thought

Or Destiny’s downward sloping to be swallowed up by sod

This is more than laughter, lament, more than favors trouble-fraught

Holy, holy, every moment drawing mortal back to God

© Janet Martin

Psalm 144:4
Man is like a breath; 

his days are like a passing shadow.

Psalm 39:5
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, 

and my lifetime as nothing before You. 

Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath.

 Selah

1 Peter 1:24
For, “All flesh is like grass, 

and all its glory like the flowers of the field;

 the grass withers and the flowers fall,

A Life Well Lived or Because of Him

Jim, when he called this morning,

because I attended a funeral yesterday,

wondered if I am writing about death and sorrow...again🙏

'Actually, the total opposite' I replied,

'I'm writing about life and living'

 (hopefully joyfully in spite of sorrow)

Yesterday, at a another funeral service at our church 

for another beloved, ripe-old-aged, faithful saint laid to rest

the relevance of the phrase 'life well-lived' impacted me.

No fancy or exceptional faculty or status required

to earn this accolade.

What first may seem quite commonplace;

Morn's light-replenished sky 

Is fresh evidence of God's grace

Waiting for our reply... 

A life well-lived; a culmination of moments well spent

Of recognition that its gift begets its testament

Aware that by God’s grace who and wherever we may be

He grants to all this universal opportunity

To triumph in what matters most, not for fortune or fame

But, with one sole objective; to bring glory to God’s name

To know it is enough, no matter how common the task

To render service for the King; He helps us if we ask

Transforming what, in the grand scheme of things may seem so small

And commonplace, because of love, into life’s Best of All

A life well-lived does not depend on rare ability

Superior intelligence or physicality

A life well-lived is something we are all able to do

And its account we give to God is up to me and you

With no one else to blame, because in every circumstance

He does not leave us helpless or without His providence

He never turns a blind eye or deaf ear to prayer or need

His Word is truth; We ought to give his word more earnest heed

And recognize Today is of great price, an altar where

We prove through fruit of sacrifice, who we love and revere  

A life well lived; what better witness can we leave behind

Than the track-record of love, generous, patient and kind

With God, then others first in mind, and not begrudgingly

But with a heart that overflows with joy of ‘Christ in me’

His light no dark hour can dim, His grace our want supplies

And as we cast our cares on Him His faithfulness replies

To keep us in His perfect peace though sorrow-storms assail

To know that He is able, His promises never fail

To help us, for His glory to accomplish day by day

A life well-lived, because of Him, when Soul’s shroud slips away

© Janet Martin

Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do, in word or deed, 

do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

 giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before men, 

that they may see your good deeds 

and glorify your Father in heaven.

1 Peter 4:11
If anyone speaks, 

he should speak as one conveying the words of God.

 If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides,

 so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, 

to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. 

Amen.

I've had much occasion recently to ponder this song...

We Are Going down the Valley

Richly Blessed

'Whatever it is that presses us'

 the first words in today's devotion

immediately had my full attention!

So much presses us, doesn't it?!

The sorrow of loss of loved ones,

Compassion for many who shoulder 

long-term caring for loved ones,

such as elderly parents/spouses with dementia,

Anguish presses us, for all who are living in sin,

who have not come to saving faith in Christ

who do not know and are not cheered

by the joy of God's love for us

and humble love for Him.

We suffer with the sick, (so many)

We weep for the lonely,

We mourn for the poor...

...then, the next words in this devotion;

'go tell the Father;

put the whole matter into His hands'...

As I pondered His faithfulness, though 'pressed'

I realized again, I am/we are richly blessed

1 Peter 4:10-12

For

“Whoever would love life
    and see good days
must keep their tongue from evil
    and their lips from deceitful speech.
They must turn from evil and do good;
    they must seek peace and pursue it.
 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
    and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil

Are we not richly blessed?

Through every circumstance

The way and will of God is best

What peace this knowledge grants

What comfort for the soul

Whatever storm assails

God's will is in perfect control

His goodness never fails

What then, has faith to fear?

Though harsh may seem the test 

Surrender fills the heart with cheer

Because God's way is best

...by whose stripes we are healed

By whose grace we are saved

By whose Spirit faith's hope is sealed

By the pardon He braved

The part that we behold

Is never long possessed

Salvation ensures wealth untold

Are we not richly blessed?

© Janet Martin

Eph.1:18-19

I ask that the eyes of your heartb may be enlightened,

 so that you may know the hope of His calling, 

the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, 

19and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. 

What Wondrous Love Is This-Fernando Ortega

 

Content (A Prayer)

The message at my mother-in-law's funeral yesterday

filled my sorrow-worn heart with comfort as we

'press toward the mark for the prize 

of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Phil.3:14

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

 For we brought nothing into the world,

 and we can take nothing out of it.

1 Tim.6:6-7

As I listened I was impacted by a wonder-filled wave

of comfort, joy and gratitude for the enough-ness of God's Word!

It inspired a prayer for contentment...

Lord, today before we embark toward its setting sun

And press anew toward the mark for the prize not yet won

Lord, grant us eyes to see Your Hand and ears to hear Your voice

And hearts content to understand faith's reasons to rejoice

Content to trust the measure of Your ever-present care

Content to count Your perfect love worth every cross we bear

Content to comfort sorrow's pleas with promises to claim

Content to fall upon our knees and call upon Your name

Content to live a hymn of praise for Your kind faithfulness  

Content to commit all our ways to You; You cheer and bless 

Content to know You will not cease throughout eternity 

That you will keep in perfect peace each mind stayed upon Thee

Content to satisfy Want's thirst from wellsprings of Your word

Content where daybreak's bowers burst with mercies undeterred  

Content, because Your grace bridges the depths of death and hell

Content because your Word's riches no tallying can tell 

Content because better than gold, is the joy of You, Lord

Content because we know You hold Time's vulnerable cord

Content because You hold the key to happiness unfurled

Without You reigns depravity though we gain all the world  

Content to strive to imitate Divine Humility 

To be obedient, though great the cross and cost may be

Content to know without a doubt what You say You will do

Content to make today about eternity with You 

Content to live to give you all honor and glory, oh

Forgive me, Lord, sometimes I fall prey to Self, as You know 

Content because Your love is true, your Word is too, and then

Content because greater are You than anything. Amen 

  © Janet Martin

The song below is comforting too...

Wish You Were Here

 

When We All Get To Heaven | Official Music Video | Redeemed Quartet

Death Wakens Awareness....To Life/Love

It is a season of mourning in our family...

 Now we bid fond earthly farewell

to James's (my husband's) beloved 93 year old mother,

who passed away on Friday.

(obituary HERE)

How we will miss her,

but how we rejoice that she is released from her

weary and worn out body.

Dear mother,

No more precious shared lunches and coffees and chats...

or birthday celebrations

(Cake decorating credit goes to my sister-in-law)

or being greeted by your sweet, welcoming smile

from your chair where you delighted in watching birds

and people come and go.

No more hardships for you, dear mother!

Your chair is empty...

Once again death rouses awareness...

Death, is a Certain Doorway through which all will disappear

A sacred, solemn, Supreme Inevitability

And when its Immutable Must summons one near and dear

It tunes Thought to Time's Holy Lease hinged to eternity

Death wakens re-awareness to the gift of Here and Now

It spotlights love's track-record forged by what we do and say

And brings us boldly face to face with ourselves, somehow

And Precious Opportunity afforded in Today

Death stirs in us a sense of so much more than meets the eye

The Part no lens can captivate, and knowledge cannot quell 

It bids us ponder somberly love's breath-by-breath reply

To He who gave himself to break the curse of death and hell  

Death rouses us to look at life and its impending goal

It begs for answers to questions none should flee or ignore   

'What doth it profit us to gain the world and lose our soul?

And who can carry anything through death's leveling Door?

Death wakens fresh awareness to the preciousness of 'us' 

And how it is a privilege to live to give and share

Each others joys and sorrows;  then, rather than fret and fuss

Or point accusing fingers, to fold them in thankful prayer 

 © Janet Martin

1 Cor.15:53-58

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, 

and this mortal must put on immortality.

 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption,

and this mortal has put on immortality, 

then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written:

 “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55 “O[n] Death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 

57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, 

be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work 

of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Awaiting the Transfiguration...

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

 And what does the LORD require of you? 

To act justly and to love mercy

 and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Far fairer than the beauty of the bloom that steals the show...

(The hardy hollyhock steals the show in November 💗)

The sunrise as it fills east-skies with color-feasts unfurled

The solace of the countryside in twilight's afterglow

Far fairer than the beauty of the bloom that steals the show

The sunrise as it fills east-skies with color-feasts unfurled

The solace of the countryside in twilight's afterglow

Or gardens silver-dazzled, each frond frost-rain-dew-drop pearled

Or autumn's glory transcending poetic eloquence

Or fleeting fame and fortune's pedestal, precarious

Far finer, nobler, priceless, precious, is the diligence 

Of all whose footsteps etch in daily dust, unbeauteous     

Kind second miles and detours that no world-stage will applaud

A legacy of seemingly small and forgotten deeds 

Enough to love mercy, act justly, walk humbly with God  

Awaiting the transfiguration of love's scattered seeds

© Janet Martin

I am among the Walking Blessed these days...

blessed by so many continued comforting messages and deeds of kindness!

No wonder Jesus said 'Blessed are those who mourn'!

Nothing Is Mine Alone Save This...

Lest I harbour an unforgiving spirit,

Lest I forget whose love and grace grants what I consider 'mine',

Lest I grow greedy, self-serving/reliant, proud, bitter, 

Lord open my eyes and remind me,

The only thing that is mine 

is my reply to You

for all You have given/done for me

On Sunday we were challenged to contemplate our

response, attitude and gratitude for forgiveness

Click HERE and then click Nov. 10 service

for beautiful baptism testimonies, 

and meaningful message!

Mark 11:26

But if ye do not forgive, 

neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Lord, you forgive, You bore my shame/blame

Not one sin saved to damn 

Then Lord, help me in the same way

To forgive fellowman  

May these words forever strike a chill to our undying souls,

'I will not forgive'

Thy handiwork and love, my awe...

Dear Lord,

Remind me, what is 'mine' is Thine

All that First Glances own

Are but gifts from Thy Hand divine

Nothing is 'mine' alone

Save Thy forgiveness for my sin

Thy Presence for my fear

Thy Love, my stubborn will to win

Thy Word, my hope and cheer

Thy promises, my faith's delight

My joy, Thy grief achieved

Thy death for my eternal life

The hour I believed

Thy rod and staff to comfort me

Thy pardon for my debt

Thy mercy, my humility

Thy grace for my regret

Thy life for mine; Thy life-blood shed

Thy prayer-groaned/honed albatross

'Father forgive'; Thyself instead

Of me upon the cross 

Thy penance for my reckoning

My power by Thy Name

My reply to Thy beckoning

Is all that I can claim

Thy handiwork and love, my awe

Thy Righteousness, my peace

No hope have I save by Thy law

That anchors my release

From death and hell, My freedom sealed

By Thy decree divine 

My brokenness, by Thy Wounds healed

All that I have is Thine 

So, when my erring attitude

Forgets Thy goodness, then

Correct my lack of gratitude

As You see fit. Amen

© Janet Martin

I've shared the songs below many times

because I love them!

There Is A Fountain With Lyrics By Selah

Forgiven-Crowder

Come As You Are-Crowder