Test-Run

This test-run offers no 'test-run'!

We are all first-timers to each day

and its come-what-may.

Let's be kind.

The success of life's tests

depend greatly on the attitude/gratitude

 of the 'Student'.

How often life's greatest tests are wrapped in

the common cloth of day-to-day!

Pray, on our Pilgrim-progress, we press with reverence 

'toward the mark for the prize of the high calling 

of God in Christ Jesus.'

Phil.3:14

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. 

But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; 

rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Gal.5:13

Everything is a test 

Weighed on a scale of love 

The way we treat our fellowman 

Is the law that will prove 

By how we spend our time 

The heart of you and I 

With what we have and what we do 

And who we serve and why 

Everything is a test

Our onus of reply

That may seem small is always hinged

To more than meets the eye

And presents everyone

With a subtle exam

Where often the way we respond

Reveals the hidden man

 

Everything is a test 

This moment-marathon

Runs rife with 'second-miles' where life

And time wait for no one

Thus, it is up to us

To choose right here, right now

Who we will serve and worship with

Today's momentous How

 

Everything is God’s grace 

All that we have is lent 

And in case we forget our place 

We all are called and sent 

Not to earn Heaven’s pass 

But humbly do our best 

To honour He who grants each day 

Where everything is a test 

© Janet Martin

Heavenly Declaration

A glimpse of I AM!

The heavens declare the glory of God 

We gaze, like David did, utterly awed 

Worship beholds as an artist unfolds 

Purple and fuchsia, coral, pinks and golds 

Filling the canvas of west unto east 

With a magnificent, free-for-all feast 

The heavens declare the glory of He 

Who wrought the universe with ‘let there be’ 

Love pours the pigment of sunrise and set 

Before we, who all too quickly forget 

Thus, over and over He fills up his tray 

And pours out His glory in gorgeous array 

The heavens declare to man's common ground

He who by nothing and no one is bound

He drapes the sky with but the Outer Fringe

Of Who suspends earth on time's sacred hinge

Pitiful soul who dares to affront He

Who fills the heavens with His majesty

The heavens declare, what none can deny 

The incomprehensible ways of His eye

Oh, what a showcase of His Evidence 

Only a fool denies God’s existence 

We gaze amazed, from our perches of sod 

As heavens declare the glory of God 

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

3They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

4Yet their voice b goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

5It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

6It rises at one end of the heavens

and makes its circuit to the other;

nothing is deprived of its warmth.

Sons and Heirs (How can it be?)

Glorious truth (for we who believe) to ponder!

Gal.4:4-7

But when the set time had fully come, 

God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

  to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[b] 

 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, 

the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[c] Father.” 

 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; 

and since you are his child, 

God has made you also an heir.

Tell me the Story of Jesus

Then, when we were still dead in sin 

As lost, as lost can be 

The Son of God came down to man 

To die for you and me 

To die, and thereby conquer death 

Oh, sacred mystery 

To make we, lowly sons of earth 

Part of God’s family 

To do through love what law could not 

To set sin’s captive free 

No longer slaves, but sons of God 

Then heirs of Royalty 

As sons of God, we, sons of men 

Dare not Freedom forsake 

Lest we become enslaved again 

By chains He came to break 

© Janet Martin 

Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. 

Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves 

be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Today's Daily Bread Devotion

Book-Shopping

I keep creating a delightful dilemma;

running out of room for books!

Books are becoming the décor of necessity!😀

 

And any neat and tidy bookcases are constantly be messed! 

Isn't that great?!!😊

Is this then 

Ink-toxication? 

I wonder, what else could it be 

The slur of the ditty 

Makes me rather giddy 

Not as sedate as I should be 

Are these yellow pages 

Imbibed with the ages 

Somehow playing tricks on my brain 

This spell I am under 

Is it real, I wonder 

This feeling is hard to explain 

My logic is muddled 

Will-power befuddled 

I don’t feel at all like myself 

I'm hypnotized, I confess  

By ink-induced happiness 

Lining shelf after shelf after shelf 

Those enticing hard covers

Are like starry-eyed lovers

All calling out, pick me, pick me

Oh, tell me, how do

I choose only one or two

Inhale, exhale, I'll take twenty-three

© Janet Martin 

This Exposé of Day-to-Day...

This was part of a text from my sister last night as I poured out my latest 'woe'

in what feels like a long line of little disappointments/frustrations...

Nothing major (like the crosses so many are called to suffer)

But wow. How her kind words helped me refocus 

and reminded me of a Much Bigger Picture.

Thank-you, Lucy💗

This exposé of day-to-day is so much more, my dears 

Than hip-hooray or plan’s ‘nay, nay’, more than laughter and tears 

This life we live that gives us much to celebrate and grieve 

Is far more than time’s gifted span before we take our leave 

This no return where Live-and-Learn’s law never disappears 

Where rise and fall of sky-high shawl numbers our days and years 

Where dawn to dusk is but the husk of morrow’s brittle vine 

Where Mystery and Poetry and Holy intertwine 

Where what we hold is but the mold to farewell’s swinging door 

Where what we do is but the flue to Something far, far More 

Where we are all far more than small dots on four-seasoned sod 

This exposé of day-to-day is our way back to God 

So, friend, take heart, this sting and smart of love’s longing and loss 

This grin and groan as skin and bone takes up its daily cross 

This wrenching pain of ‘try again’, this utter need for grace 

Is but the span twixt God and man before we see His face 

© Janet Martin 

2 Cor.4:18

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, 

but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, 

but what is unseen is eternal.

I know I've shared this version before but I love it

Keep your eyes on Jesus-The Louvin Brothers

Turn your Eyes upon Jesus-Alan Jackson

Disappointments, We All Get 'Em...

It feels like it's been a stretch

 of vexing little set-backs and disappointments; 

(just life-headaches, but...)

The latest:

I opened a pack of pre-ordered printed Christmas photos and the first thing I see is this...

I had a terrible (well, for technically-challenged me) time getting everything to fit and save 

and didn't notice the date had reverted back to the template setting??😐

That's all I can figure out though I thought I checked everything thrice!!

...so nothing to do but fix it; At least it's not a wedding invitation or something like that!

 

Earlier this month a bright spot was delivered in form of apple pie 

courtesy of many volunteers from our church

assembling them for our young families  

as an encouragement during these trying Covid-times.

(No! We are not considered 'younger family'😊)

 but I had the honour of writing a poem for

 the lids of the pie-boxes and received a pie as a thank-you!

Because someone had framed the poem 

in lovely autumn- artwork I hung it on the fridge. 

Tonight I reread it and decided this coming weekend 

we are baking the pie to enjoy,

and forget disappointments for a bit!

Victoria comforted me with these words

'Sure, in the big picture these are little things

but in the moment they still hurt💛

She makes me want to count my blessings, 

not my disappointments!

And she is one of our best!

What Faith Is This?

How To Please God-Charles Spurgeon 

And without faith it is impossible to please God, 

because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists 

and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Heb.11:6

A few sermon-excerpts; 

'this faith must believe that there is a great reward in keeping his commandments, 

that He does hear prayer, 

that He does grant great blessings to those who truly seek Him.

We must believe this or else there is no real seeking of Him.

If we believe in God 

'we must believe that he exists 

and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him'.

for,

'where trust has died out love has always died out too'!

Modern Theology...takes man from what is Written to what is thought.

It does not allow the sovereign Authority of Revelation and in disallowing that

their very foundations are removed, and much of the abounding vice of this day is

the direct result of this abounding unbelief in God, this

philosophical mistrust in Infinite Wisdom

A man only believes that which affects his life,

- Charles Spurgeon from the Sermon How To Please God 

What faith is this that we profess? 

Is what we cannot see 

That which turns would-be commonness 

Into holy, holy 

Faith without works is dead as dirt 

A cold and clanging bell 

Its specious substitutions flirt 

With godless death and hell 

What faith is this that we profane 

When we with pious nod 

Pronounce its syllables in vain 

With hearts afar from God 

What is this faith, mighty to save 

That sires sacred fear 

Is it the Confidence/Righteousness we have 

Or religious veneer 

Better to be without our eyes 

Or ears or homes or food 

Than to forsake Faith’s Enterprise 

And thus, God who is good 

Without faith we are naked, poor 

Lost, hopeless and condemned 

A ship without anchor secure 

A Soul without a Friend 

‘Without faith’ who would dare to wear 

Such a most awful plaque 

Or who would choose faithless despair 

If we beheld its lack 

In this land of revivals, bibles, 

Sunday morning church 

How is it that so much else rivals 

He who loved us first? 

What faith is this if once declared 

No work will prove its life 

What faith is this if it runs scared 

Beneath the Sculptor’s knife 

What faith were this that could attain 

The crown without the cross 

Or think ‘without works’ will retain 

Faith’s gain without its loss 

God is not mocked; no idol, He 

To put upon some shelf 

To gaze at whilst our loyalty 

Is faithful first, to Self 

Faith is Belief in One True God 

Its Must, a gift of grace 

A trust that very few applaud 

And fewer yet embrace 

Faith is greater than futile law 

Or works that cannot save 

Faith first believes, with humble awe 

God’s glorious gift of grace 

How can we approach Mercy’s throne 

Or know His love is just 

Without the essence of faith’s terms 

Belief and utter trust 

Ah, living, loving lasting faith 

In Jesus Christ, our Lord 

What profit hath each gifted breath 

If we miss faith’s reward 

Faith drives afar doubt’s shadowland 

And when things are the worst 

It reaches out and takes the Hand 

Of He who loved us first 

Oh, Spirit of the living God

Send home the Truth of Thee

By the power which saints applaud

Through faith that sets us free 

...free from fear's shackles, can it be

Anxiety and dread

Are swallowed up in victory

As we choose Faith instead 

© Janet Martin 

Momentous Exodus

 

Before the Door is closed 

To opportunity 

Lord, help us find its uttermost 

Potentiality 

Not with a host of Stuff 

To boast of sweet success 

But with the accolades of love 

Turned into holiness

Before the Door is closed 

To what Time will allow 

Lord, show us how to make the most 

Of its Momentous Now

Amen 

© Janet Martin