Daily Gift (already in full swing)

By the time we swing our legs over the side of the bed 

to go from horizontal to vertical, 

before our toes touch the floor

we have already been presented with opportunity

to turn our heart/mind earthward or heavenward!

Last night before I went to bed I told Victoria 

I really should write a timetable for today, 

so I don't waste a minute of trying to complete 

a whole bunch of odds-and-ends tasks such as...

wash out and tidy the fridge and freezing compartment

stack wood so we can get more on Saturday,

 

organize pantry again (sometimes I wonder if somewhere the pantry has a sign;

 if you don't know what to do with it pitch it in here) 

tidy fruit cellar because last week I hauled a shelf out of it

when I was fall-cleaning the livingroom that I decided 

would be the perfect size for the back wall and the first

step/shelf toward the dream of creating a little book-nook!

 

now, what to do with everything that was on it before...

(I know how to make a lot of extra work for myself😛)

All this to say, this morning... 

I woke up with a rip-roaring headache and nausea 

so I went back to bed, woke up at 10:30 (thankfully childcare is Thursday and Friday this week)

and feel much better! now I am having a coffee and pretending it's six in the morning

instead of eleven, oops noon!

(lots of pause-and-serve opportunities already!)

Each day is like a gift laden with opportunity

No matter what our circumstance or vocation may be

It tests our best intention with basic matters of fact

Where it is up to us to decide how we will react

The vantage-points from agendas we cannot set in stone

Are always at the mercy of a hand over our own

It moves through plans like a toddler through sibling’s well-laid blocks

And doesn’t mind a mite about the steady pace of clocks

Each day presents a heap of ways to think, then say and do

To learn to bend, not break, with God’s kind grace to help us through

It challenges our patience, tests our words and tries our trust

And offers endless opportunities to readjust

No day, try as hard as we may, is ever quite bespoke

My, my how swift its gift soon drifts like curlicues of smoke

While we are wrangling into practice the fine filigree

Of learning how to make the most of opportunity

© Janet Martin

Gal. 6:10

Therefore, as we have opportunity, 

let us do good to all people, 

especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

 

Mission Manifesto

 

Lord, let the Certainty of what we know

guide us through all we do not!

I love you, Lord

We stand so small beneath the tall outpouring of the sky 

Ah, what is man that God, who spreads yon span knows you and I 

And loves us still, and bids us trust in His unfailing care 

While round about the world seems bound with doubt, hate and despair 

If God is for us who can be against us; hence we go 

In kind humility to bind the wounds of our foe 

For if we simply love our own, we mimic pagan spec 

Ah, who can stay afloat with hate’s millstone tied round the neck 

We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of our God 

And who are we, if God loves us that He should spare the rod 

For a father who loves his child will discipline and chide 

Lest by omission we perceive his blessing on our pride 

We cannot understand the thoughts and ways of He who gave 

His sinless Son to suffer unto death our souls to save 

But by his grace (and only by His grace) we will succeed 

Because His love will be enough to supply our need 

Lord, grant us wisdom through your Word to see through evil’s lies 

Lest, by conceit or folly we fall prey to truth’s disguise 

Lead us not into temptation; deliver us from vice 

And thought’s unrighteousness into love’s law of sacrifice 

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 8

Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

in the heavens.

2 Through the praise of children and infants

you have established a stronghold against your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

3 When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?[c]

5 You have made them[d] a little lower than the angels[e]

and crowned them[f] with glory and honor.

6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their[g] feet:

7 all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,

8 the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Does His Name, the Name of Jesus...

It's not too early, is it...

to turn our eyes toward Bethlehem?

Behold Him (Official Lyric Video) - Paul Baloche ft. Kim Walker-Smith

 

Immanuel (From The Squalor of a Borrowed Stable)

Does His name, the name of Jesus stir a love song in Thy soul 

Does He melt the mountain-shadows from landscapes beyond control 

Does He thrill and fill with wonder the eternal child within 

Does He satisfy heart-hunger when we fix our gaze on Him? 

Does His Name, the name of Jesus calm the waves of doubt and fear 

Do You feel Him right beside you in the trench of Now and Here 

When the darkness starts to thicken and threatens to snuff hope’s flame 

Tell me then, does your pulse quicken at the mention of his Name 

Does His name, the name of Jesus draw you back to Bethlehem 

Have you peered into the manger like the shepherds way back when 

Have you followed with the masses through the streets, or climbed a tree 

Have you knelt and wept with sorrow at the cross of Calvary? 

Does His name, the name of Jesus take you to an empty tomb 

Where a Rock would never deter or detain Heaven’s Bridegroom 

Does His name, the name of Jesus as trouble and strife increase 

Fill thy vessel in the tempest with an everlasting peace 

© Janet Martin 

Mayah Strofflah All (translated We All Struggle...)

The song below I could understand some of the words but not all;

I think the German words might be low German

but the song is good for a chuckle!

Quonset Bros. Mennonites Put the Oba in Manitoba

...and below, a few I do understand😆

John Schmid: Buhnesupp un Latwarickbrot

btw, I had Latwarickbrot for breakfast! (apple-buttered bread😅)

 

Gott Ist De Liebe

Ruben's James (an English song)

Schnitzelbank 

Hi Lee, Hi  Lo

my personal fav by John Schmid is the link below

Es Sin Zween Weg

Now a poem in my my 'mother-tongue/mudda tsoong...

Swabian German aka Pennsylvania Dutch

click Pennsylvania Dutch label below for previous posts in PD

(spelling by ear only😄)

Mayah strofflah oll mitt du Auld Shvatz 

Ach ya, ma fallah awl feel kotz 

Mayah hen awl schvacheit an shoolt 

Un felleitah all ebmulz getuldt 

Maya brouccha all de leiblich Gott 

Sis neemond es ken Gebrach hott 

Mahay sin all feil druvel-fulade 

Oony Gott, du letz vage gudrade 

Feelsht du fullusah un fudrade 

Saug mich, von husht doo lecht gubade? 

Bisht du uft gonz fulade un baung? 

Von husht du letcht gubade…un vee laung? 

Dee veld is uft net friendlich, nay 

So leibe un leibe un leibe noch mae 

Vile mayah strofflah oll mitt du auld Shvatz 

Un fallah uft un blenty kotz 

© Janet Martin 

(loosely, best as I could, translation) 

We all struggle with Old Black (aka devil) 

Oh yes, we all often fall short 

We all have weakness and blame/fault/guilt 

And all sometimes lose patience 

We all need loving God 

There is no one who has no need 

We are all trouble-burdened 

Without God, turned the wrong way 

Do you feel lonely and grumpy? 

Tell me, when have you last prayed? 

Are you often depressed and afraid? 

When have you last prayed…and for how long? 

This world is often not friendly, no 

So love and love and love some more 

Because we all struggle with Old Black 

And all fall often and plenty short

Janet Martin

May Love Be...

“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon 

without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.”

-Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

I 'borrowed' this quote from my friend Cyndy's blog!

Have you benefited from her GORGEOUS Montana-pics 

and food for thought therapy recently?

I've noticed something after years of living...

loving/humble people have a greater sense of humour.

So may humility/love be our greatest quest

not only for the sake of happiness of others

but as we love, we ourselves become best-blessed beneficiaries!

Joy and peace are by-products of love!

Due to the misfortune of misunderstanding 

Victoria and I were quarantined for eight days...

thankfully we were healthy and happy 

and did a whole LOT of fall-cleaning

in places suffering a whole lot of neglect.

And to top it off my sister Lucy

 sent of box of 'love'  to spoil us!

all the above, plus spinach and cheese which turned into next day's lunch!

(Sisters know things about sisters that others may not like

she knows how much I LOVE spinach and cheese😍)

May love be the sweet instilling in the fulfilling of tasks 

May it make us more than willing to do more than duty asks 

May it be the flawless fuel in the battles that we brave 

Where sly adversaries duel with satisfactions we crave 

May we model, just like Jesus, compassion for fellowman 

Spread the glad tidings of Christmas all year through to all we can 

May love be a wordless witness in a walk worthy of Christ 

Who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light 

May love, without reservation, be the fortune that we seek 

May we shun discrimination and the pride that makes us weak 

May we look with humble honor to the author of our hope 

As we cherish one another so that everyone can cope 

May love be the flame that kindles what refills our cups of joy 

When goodwill or patience dwindles, may love its forces deploy 

Transforming the ‘ordinary’ into honor’s role renewed 

May love be mercy’s outpouring that fills us with gratitude 

© Janet Martin 

and last but not least,

a LONG sentence of thanks for the love of fellow-believers😇

Col.1:3-8

We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

praying always for you, 

since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus 

and the love which you have for all the saints; 

because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, 

of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel 

which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit 

and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also 

since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; 

just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, 

who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, 

and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

From Time's Tailor...

November's late-day hues are hard to top!

When Victoria and I saw these colours unfolding

yesterday afternoon

we dropped what we were doing to drench ourselves in

November's Masterpiece

Last leaves vacate the lofty limb 

Branches like black embroidery 

Are etched upon dusk’s flaming scrim 

Of pink fading to ebony 

Where autumn’s awesome oriflamme 

Dwindles until it is no more 

Save flecks upon the sprawling calm 

Of November’s stark corridor 

November’s barren beauty sparks 

A reverential spectacle 

Thought, like a wanderer embarks 

On excursions, ephemeral 

Thankfulness is joy’s saving grace 

As seasons skim and sweep and glance 

Through have-and-hold’s futile embrace 

Leaving only echo-Rembrandts 

The undertow of season-strains 

No mortal means can overthrow 

The One who is supreme sustains 

The framework of Soul-sacred throe 

Nature showcases Deity 

His flawless handiwork imbues

November with Tranquility 

Captured in brooding, burnished hues

Earth nestles 'neath November's arch

Lowering trestles dark with snow

Thought wrestles with the steady march

Of moments as they come and go

Where sum of Season's aftermath

Is more than fabric tossed afar

God cuts the pattern of time's path

And grafts it to Right Where We Are

© Janet Martin 

Yesterday...

Today...

To We Who Walk By Faith

I am pondering my way through Paul's letters to the early church

still ever-relevant and ever as exhorting/encouraging to the church of today!

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Cor.5:7

By Faith - Keith & Kristyn Getty

Faith floods our darkest days with light
No matter how dark visage seems
Though, to walk by faith, not by sight
Conflicts with human nature’s schemes

The Evidence of things to come
Makes scorners spit in Mercy’s face
Pity the pittance of the sum
Of life without God’s saving grace

He loves us, wretched as we are
And flawed beyond excuse’s blame
Nobody is a super-star
On the merit of mortal claim

He sent his Son to seal the deal
That long before, prophets foretold
Faith exceeds sight or how we feel
Hope's firm, immovable foothold

Faith sets its mind on Prize Obscure
While sands of time flow undeterred
Through constant change, Faith stands secure
And trusts in Love’s enduring word

Faith is the substance we embrace
Without evidence of its seal
The substance of hope none can trace
With fingers to prove it is real

Each jot and tittle of God’s Word
Will be fulfilled before Full Proof
  Appears to confirm what we heard
And faith upheld; Abiding Truth

© Janet Martin

My faith looks up the Thee

Psalm 9:9-10

The Lord also will be a refuge[c] for the oppressed,
A refuge in times of trouble.
10And those who know Your name will put their trust in You;
For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

Read the whole glorious Psalm here

Reason Enough

  

I Stand Amazed

Your Will Be Done

What a tragedy to have enough religion 

to believe in the existence of God but,

not familiar with His word,

  His precious, enduring promises,

 have nothing to cling to in troubled and uncertain times 

to ground, guide, caution, comfort and cheer.

The wellspring of God’s goodness brims 

With Reason Enough to sing praise 

For Hope transcends all mortal things 

Which fuel sorrow’s troubled days 

What love approved Salvation’s rod 

He became sin who knew no sin 

So that the righteousness of God 

Becomes the righteousness of man 

The promises of God endure 

This, Reason Enough to press on 

None else can annul or secure 

The pardon purchased through God’s Son 

Then, though the bold world make-believes 

That it can reason all things well 

Beware, for arrogance deceives 

Unbelief achieves only hell 

Therefore, gird up thy loins of thought 

Be sober, and hope to the end 

In the salvation Jesus wrought 

Yet to reveal in full, my friend 

Oh, think upon His wondrous grace 

As we, hope’s advocates behold 

The grim fulfillment taking place 

That ancient prophecy foretold 

And let hope be Reason Enough 

To shout for joy and trust always 

In the wellspring where Perfect love 

Grants Reason Enough to sing praise 

…where but two destinies exist 

Heaven or hell, without a doubt 

And Death is but the catalyst 

To Who this life is all about 

© Janet Martin

1 Peter 1:13-21

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace

that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 

as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 

but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 

because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, 

conduct yourselves throughout the time of your [f]stay here in fear; 

knowing that you were not redeemed with [g]corruptible things, like silver or gold, 

from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 

but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 

He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, 

but was [h]manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, 

who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.