Love-reminders or For Prize-Fighters

Lest in life’s greed and haste we waste the best of what we have

Lest, with feet shod with chase we serve the gods of self and sin

Lest grace is overlooked because of idols that enslave

God sends us love- reminders to help us remember Him

Lest we forget to purpose in our hearts to follow He

Who gave His Son in our stead, full sacrifice for sin

Lest we become distracted by world-offers that we see

God sends us love-reminders to turn our cries to Him

Lest in life’s heave-ho, hello and farewell we compromise

And hope we once revered becomes a thing that we ignore

God sends us love-reminders, trouble-shaped in our eyes

But He knows it is this that stirs our want to need Him more

© Janet Martin

My friend Diane continues to battle the afflictions of cancer. When she gets low she cries out for more prayer knowing that only through Him can she endure!

Will you help bathe her in prayer as she battles pain and waits for surgeons to reply? 

Hard, hard times but still she will put up FB posts bringing praise, honor and glory to Jesus Christ!

"God bless you, Diane, as you shine Jesus to all of us!"

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Phil.3:14

 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--
may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

1 Peter 1:7

Painting

 This morn's painting is entitled Silver...

(no my dear fellow-friends, not gray;-)

 And yes, the sun still exists even if it's missed us for two weeks!

Sweep the vale with silver mist

Brush hushed dale with amethyst

Paint heaven soft-indigo

Wash walkways with stars of snow

Help us, as we look, to find

Masterpieces of the mind

Drench the dawn with yawning sky

Smooth to gray frayed lullaby

Sketch new day and etch blue night

With highlights of fetching white

Teach us, as we gaze to see

More than just a place to be

Skim earth’s brim of dust with pink

Stir the heart of us to drink

Splash landscapes with hills and brooks

Art made for long second looks

Draw each face like shadows where

Human race has paused to stare

Hang upon yon walls of space

Scrawl of sapling Jack Frost laced

Move us to be wooed and awed

From a palette held by God

Then, as we look, help us hear

Pictures of Him everywhere

© Janet Martin

If our moment is looking *mostly ordinary maybe we should look again just in case we’ve missed something!

 

...and if you're still not convinced maybe looking longer indoors is more your style!

Like this...sneak-peek here 

Recipe here..Best Banana Bread

 Delicious!

 (Mine suffered a few baking challenges, like being doughy in the middle but black on the bottom. Not sure if its my oven temp. or the pan, but it disappears in spite of its 'roastiness'.)

'*mostly ordinary' being such a best-blessed life! 

Psalm 73: 21-28

 When my heart was grieved

    and my spirit embittered, 

 I was senseless and ignorant;

    I was a brute beast before you.

  Yet I am always with you;
    you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will take me into glory. 

 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 

 My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart
    and my portion forever.

  Those who are far from you will perish;
    you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. 

 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
    I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
    I will tell of all your deeds.

Of Sneak-peeks and Such

 A Sneak-peek at our lunch-treat;-)

No one gets a sneak-peak

Into morrow’s day

No one knows for sure what waits

One hour away

No one knows for certain

What, before day’s end

Waits to pin its curtain

To past’s dividend

But one thing we do know

Without slight or fail

God’s love opes dawn’s window

Mercy tips its grail

© Janet Martin

 Since my youth, God, you have taught me,
    and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.

Even when I am old and gray,
    do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
    your mighty acts to all who are to come.

Ps.71:17-18

Yes, Lets

 What are your 'Let's' of the day...

I'm trying to think of ways to add some 'glitter' to lines like

Let's do laundry, let's tidy up. 

'Let's make muffins' always has a nice ring to it because it goes with words like

'let's take a break' or 'let's have tea' :)

Splendor of time’s clime unbroken

Lends its ‘Let’ like thread unspun

Soon, soon it will be a token

Of words spoken and deeds done

Let’s honor its ‘let’ with gladness

Let’s be honest, eager, kind

Let’s comfort the sick, the sad, yes

Let’s live with others in mind

Let’s do lunch, let’s dance; let’s laugh, love

Let’s let morrow’s measure sit

Today’s ‘Let’ is quite enough, love

To keep us busy with it

Let’s make muffins, let’s make music,

Let’s make memories to hold

Let’s look longer at life’s rubric

Running rife with moment-gold

Time unfolds fresh untrained tendrils

Like a flower, like a child

Let’s be careful, let’s be gentle

Lest the ‘Let’ of it runs wild

© Janet Martin

 Let us not become weary in doing good, 

for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 

Gal. 6:9

In Jesus Name I Pray...

 It's been a while since I posted my favorite  'prayer-song'...

and below, a little prayer to an Almighty God

Lord, bless life’s common busyness

And help us keep in mind

Thy eye of grace and righteousness

That tends all humankind

Lord, keep us from doubt’s dark despair

Let sin be our great fear

And love be our greatest care

Knowing You see and hear

Lord, when we cannot understand

The way that you deem fit

Still, with faith help us hold your Hand

You know the whole of it

Each prayer we pray, each word we say

Lord, help us keep in mind

Hope’s Reason, when this day to day

Of life is left behind

© Janet Martin