Comforter

When sorrow’s tear meets Mercy’s ear

What tender touch God’s love bestows

The mourner feels the Hand that heals

Oft soft upon grief’s anguished throes

For we are not alone, forgot

Though death may wield a bitter sting

Our Lord will bless grief’s loneliness

With comfort only He can bring

© Janet Martin


My friend who lost her mother at the end of June,
misses her deeply.(so I sent this little verse to her yesterday)
She was a stay-at-home-daughter who tended to the needs of her mother
(bed-ridden for years!!)  when the others were at work
so now the hole in her life is huge.
Will you pray that she can feel God's comfort near and dear?

Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted
Matt.5:4

For Track-Record Blazers

Sometimes there are pics I simply can't take...like little fellows ( really cute too:)  on chairs facing the wall because they told a falsehood and 'he did too' is not an acceptable reason 

 ...so we talk about how this is not just about trying to get out of a consequence that telling the truth might bring(and that's a big decision for a little fellow) but then we discuss how terrible could consequence be compared to what is at stake if lying becomes a habit hard to break?!) 

because habits of today shape men of tomorrow, either trustworthy or not at all!? 

and which would they rather be?! 

Who we want to be when we are old begins today!

I'm not sure what actually happened because it all happened 'under-cover'😉after they
had played very long and well together in their spacious hideout.

A rainy day means couch-forts are allowed!...and various other in-door escapades!

The tool that blazes track-records into the sands of time

Can fool us by its common habits of humanity

Where touch and taste with moment’s haste makes more than echo’s chime

But something that tolls far beyond the grave; our legacy

The way we are is more than merely that or this, my dear

The footing we build on is set through simple do-and-say

Where choices made by long-gone men and women are still here

Like stitches in the fabric of the world we know today

The shirker and the worker will soon slumber side by side

And what they leave behind no up-and-comer can undo

Where a new era spreads its wings and sings ‘here comes the bride’

…where children teach their children what they learned through me and you

…where God is great and good and changeless through each age to age

His precepts infallible; the builder’s Chief Cornerstone

Then, come what may, where war against demons of darkness wage

Faithful abides The Rock that never can be overthrown

There is no new religion; we are all born Worshippers

Where who or what we worship we prove through the voice of choice

We frown or smile and all the while with fellow hims-and-hers

Leave mile on mile of aftermath; a path nothing destroys

Then we should all look long and well at what we leave behind

The tool that blazes track-records cannot be done away

But is a simple testament of footfalls of the mind

Ah, pray we set down trusty steps that lead no one astray

© Janet Martin

Our ancestors sinned and are no more,
    and we bear their punishment.

Lam.5:7

Keeping It Real

 The only way we can truly keep 'it' real is to keep Him real.

The only way to keep Him real is through His Word.

I have to confess I do not 'feel' excited 

when yesterday's 'undone' is the first thing I see when I wake up, 

even though I know these are all blessing-tatters.

Yesterday after supper, after dark I chose to calm kitchen chaos,

after I mowed the lawn,
 after I canned the pasta sauce
after the kiddos went home 😛

(one of my main helpers is away this week)

Oh, keep it real; the way we feel can take us down a tricky path

For feelings are subject to change; some days we weep and some we laugh

So, what we know, by this we go; and this world’s only certainty

Is love; the love that will not fail from God for all humanity

Oh, keep it real; the rise and keel of highs and lows will toss and test

Where what we feel is nothing but response to circumstance, at best

So then, where can we turn for assurance that will not fool or bend?

Aha, the word of God is sure; its promises will never end

Oh, keep it real; though zest and zeal falls prey to grays of doubt and woe

The hope for all believers is God’s saving grace whereby we go

Then, even when we feel we are a wreck and damned to deeps of hell

His Word, through ages undeterred will calm the storm with ‘peace, be still’

So, keep it real; where love will heal the hurt that we are all part of

Small wonder then of faith-hope-love, that ‘the greatest of these is love’

And love will be enough if we make it the worth of all we do

Where love of God (who gave his Son) is love’s blueprint for me and you

© Janet Martin

1 Peter 1:3-6
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved
by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold
that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

For Fall-lovers

 

Soon the tug of Time will triumph

…teeny tick and tock somehow

Siphons summer from the tree trunk

Giddy with the green of Now

Soon a scroll of gold and scarlet

Will unfold autumnal awe

Seduce us with apple-tartlet

And lands rife with nature’s law

Soon this sweat-sweet toil and tilling

Will fall prey to pumpkin pie  

Where winds will be bent on chilling

To the bone and to the sky

Soon we’ll dig for sweaters, furry

Finding knitted ways to brave

Worlds where we no longer worry

About words like ‘long heat-wave’

Soon we’ll stand and study skylines

Stripped of all but brittle sound

Of leaf-cartwheels or battalion

Of corn-fields still harvest-bound

Soon the g-r-r-r of b-r-r-r will tarnish

Lily-laughter with lament

Soon the swoon of bloom will garnish

Time’s tomb-room of summer spent

© Janet Martin

My friend wondered if perchance there will be a fall-flavored poem soon... 

for those not quite so fond of sweat-glistening hymns😉😀😂
so this is for all the eager fall-lovers!

But Mostly Lord, We Thank You For...

Yesterday many from our church family had the privilege of witnessing 26 baptisms, 

listening to 26 declarations of faith in Jesus in a language foreign to us in dialect 

but familiar to us in praise. 

Hallelujah!

One line stands out to me still as I reflect on the day; a line in a prayer,

"but mostly Lord, we thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ"

because believers know there is no other name whereby we must be saved and
 without faith in Him it is impossible to please Him!

Oh, what a glorious reason we have for Hope,

for waking up each morning and pressing on in spite of all that life seems not...

Jesus reigns, victorious over sin and death!


1 John 5:13-14
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

…for courage to step forward

Into Time’s Great Unknowns

For kindness of new morning

To polish stepping stones

We thank You for each season

Filled with favors from high

But above all, Hope’s Reason

Your love and grace supply

…for bread to feed the body

For Word to feed the soul

For mercy heaped on mercy

While age to ages roll

For loved ones to come home to

For rest when toil is done

But most of all we thank You

For Jesus Christ, Your Son

For harvest’s holy humbling

For mysteries of prayer

Where words, oft frail and fumbling

Climb earth-to-heaven’s stair

…and there You release Something

That faith alone can see

Your peace past understanding

Through Truth that sets us free

For blessings that we hold, Lord

We offer songs of praise

For more than we deserve, Lord

You overflow our days

But then we think how beggared

Each earth-blessing would be

Without Jesus who suffered

And died at Calvary

…to purchase mankind’s pardon

To triumph over death

To grant to living’s burden

More than mere-breath-to-breath

…to put Your worth within us

Where hallelujahs swell

With thank-you God, for Jesus

Who saves our souls from hell

© Janet Martin

 Galatians 3:26
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

(doesn't this promise move you to humble tears of joy and worship?!)
Doesn't this promise move us to forgive others as He forgave us; fully?!)

What Jesus puts within us
Nobody else can give
Love's holy, highest purpose
In every day we live! 

1 Peter 1:3-6
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.