Keeping Seeking Thy Kingdom First

 

Matt.6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, 

and all these things shall be added to you.

Come, Let Us All Unite To Sing, God Is Love

The fine line between hate and love is sometimes blurred by word and deed 

We ought to give our thought-parade our utmost, honest, earnest heed 

…and guard our hearts; for from its parts the mouth draws the laws it employs 

We are called to stand firm and true, not loud and proud and full of noise 

Love, keep us kind; for soon behind us strews the ash of taste and touch 

I’ve watched where hatred raised a glass and toasted love, justice and such 

Whilst wild and bold a shameless throng swarms, storms a baby-blood-bathed street 

Lord, teach us how to suffer long and how to wash each other’s feet 

Let those who look see You in us; beholding joy in mortal glove 

Lord, fill us with your righteousness so that we are equipped to love 

For blessed are the peace-makers, the pure in heart, the poor, the meek 

And blessed are the thirsty, hungry who firstly Your kingdom seek 

© Janet Martin 

Col.3:1-2, 12-17

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, 

where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God

. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things...

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, 

clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

  13Bear with each other and forgive one another 

if any of you has a grievance against someone. 

Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

  14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, 

since as members of one body you were called to peace. 

And be thankful.

  16Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly 

as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom 

through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, 

singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

  17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, 

do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 

giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

Of Endless Possibilities (finally, a foodie post)

People are like cooking ingredients; 

Capable of so much more when put together! 

Like today's lunch salad...

each ingredient is okay on its own 

but outstanding when mixed!

(Today's version. this style of salad is fantastically versatile!)

A few handfuls of chopped cauliflower, 

Approximately 1 cup chopped cucumber,

chopped red onion (to taste) 1/2 can chick peas, 1/2 cup black beans,

1 large carrot, shredded, crumbled feta cheese

Dressing; put in blender

 Juice of 2 lemons

2 tbsp. sugar or honey

pinch of pepper flakes

dash of dill

smidgeon of salt and fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup oil

blend approx. 1 min.

optional ingred. handfuls of chopped kale or spinach, avocado, red peppers, broccoli, celery, etc.

Blending the ingredients of the recipe below, published in the latest Rural Route

(tweaked a bit so I can share the recipe and because I don't like using margarine in cooking)

is a delicious break-the-muffin-blahs. a little different too, blending the whole orange!

 For Christmas I received a recipe book; on my wish list for a while!

The recipe below has quickly become a favorite!

Seriously yummy!

Unfortunately, midst the excitement of eating

I always forget to take a picture of the finished product... here it is not quite all gone!

the first one (no pic)had the cherry tomatoes...definitely a nice finishing touch if you have them!

Together we can do far more than each of us alone 

Imagine, flour without butter trying to be Scone 

Imagine if an egg were only scrambled, boiled or fried 

Or if measure-and-stir was Cook’s simple pleasure, denied 

Imagine if a wooden spoon could never mix and beat 

No pinch ‘o this and-bit-‘o-that to make it salty, sweet 

No culinary prizes, nothing to whip, froth or fold 

No new supper-surprises from ingredients age-old 

No simmer, sauté, season, sift or mince, chop, slice and dice 

No making something special for somebody very nice 

No chill, bake, broil, nothing pinched, dashed or smidgen-ed into bowls 

No pudding, pie, soup, cookies, cakes, chowders or casseroles 

Imagine if we couldn’t toss a medley in a bowl 

To make something that satisfies the stomach, heart and soul 

Imagine if we never had discovered shredded cheese !!!

Imagine life, without love's endless possibilities😋😊 

© Janet Martin

Last night's supper included a never-gets-old-version

of roasted Veggies,

cube veggies and toss with seasonings

Last night I kept it simple

Salt and pepper, garlic powder and thyme

drizzle of olive oil. 

spread on baking sheet. Bake at 375-400

Baking time depends on amount and veggie kinds...from 40-60 minutes.

I always do a huge batch so leftovers can be used for lunches etc.

Measure of Joy

The 'plan' and the 'pen' don't seem to be in sync these days...

This was supposed to be a poem about food/cooking-pleasure 

('cause its been a while since the *last foodie or Thursday-what's-for-supper-post)

but the poem took off in a whole other direction😂 

The joy of poetry!💓💗💝

(ya' just never know what you're gonna end up with at the end of a whisper-chase)

It bursts across horizon lines in orchestras of gold 

Victoria and I went out to the fence to watch the prelude break into full song!

 

Its good cannot be measured by a scale or spoon or cup 

Its pleasure, greatly treasured none can order for pick up 

Its prize no greed can garner; no miser its worth can hoard 

A candle-gentled corner, or musician’s perfect chord 

It sparkles in sheer beauty like sun-diamonds on the sea 

It blesses common duty with an apron’s majesty 

It lightens loads we shoulder with unbridled thankfulness 

It brightens the soul’s window with hope’s humble happiness 

It beautifies the pan and pot with culinary art 

It satisfies all that is not with a surrendered heart 

From founts of skin and bone its milk of human kindness spills 

It bounces like a beach ball, gleams like streams of daffodils 

There is no substitute for it; no alternate envoy 

No Panglossian surrogate can take the place of joy 

Or fill us with the perfect peace surpassing Reason’s nod 

Or bid the inner tempest cease with promises of God 

It bursts across horizon lines in orchestras of gold 

It births in us something so fine and wondrous to enfold 

It lavishes the ordinary with dazzling delight 

And makes us feel too very merry to play host to spite 

It keeps our fears in check as we count blessings, my, oh my, 

The greatest being Heaven (if forgiven) when we die 

Joy overflows the trouble that began after The Fall 

And causes us to tremble with the wonder of it all 

Joy makes us so much sweeter from the bottom of the heart 

Like licking off the beater and eating the whipped cream tart 

Like a boy going fishing after all his chores are through 

Like trading well-worn wishing for a great, big, fat Thank-You (God) 

Joy is a horse at full-gallop, joy is a purring cat 

The satisfying wallop on the sweet spot of the bat 

A holy, wholesome attuning to tick-tock’s tolling tide 

Joy is the closest thing to Heaven while we are earth-side 

Have you received its measure to cheer you upon your way 

Or marveled at the treasure God pours into jars of clay 

Have you trusted the promise that no scoffer can destroy 

And dusted off the book by the Author of love’s full joy 

Joy; it cannot be bartered for, it is no lottery 

Joy is the harvest from a heart of true humility 

Joy is the precious awareness of Mercy’s kind embrace 

Of pleasure in the measure of the treasure of God’s grace 

© Janet Martin

 

Phil.1:3-5

 I thank my God every time I remember you.

 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 

5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,

 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you 

will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Phil.2:1-2

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ

, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, 

if any tenderness and compassion, 

2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, 

having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 

Phil.3:1

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! 

It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, 

and it is a safeguard for you. 

Phil.4:1

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, 

you whom I love and long for, 

my joy and crown, 

stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

*hopefully a foodie-post to follow this one!

I've been having lots of kitchen-joy this winter.

(most of the time without photos;-/)

The Wonder-full Wake Of It All

This poem began with the intention of being about life

but turned into a poem that could also be about marriage

Life is full of lessons on learning how to get along and share!

Every summer the ducks at our cottage make me chuckle;

they seem like people in a way; some greedy and noisy

 and others more easy-going as they learn how to share

their food and their lake😊 

You know how it is; the kick and the kiss 

The sorrow that sweetens the joy 

The worlds that fly through hello and good-bye 

The duty that gathers our dreams in a sigh 

The beauty that feathers a tear to our eye 

And weathers the once-girl-and-boy 

You know how it goes, high-fives and low blows 

The wonder-full wake of it all 

The twist, turn and tug, the live-learn, the hug 

The pain-staking prayers for loads that we lug 

The haste of a year full of chug-chug-chug 

The sparkle of stars as they fall 

You know how it hurts; for better or worse 

So worth keeping hand to the plow 

The pull and the shove as we work through the rough 

Knowing sometimes showing up is enough 

Heave-ho, hold, let go, for the sake of love 

And the sanctity of a vow 

You know how it takes what we have and makes 

A heart-and-soul art-gallery 

The tint of Time slips through fingers and lips 

My, how the brush of the rush of days drips 

Into a mural of tempests and ships 

And by God’s grace, love’s legacy 

© Janet Martin 

 

 

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, 

but also for the interests of others.

Phil.2:4

Gift Over Gift or Ode to Loveliness

 Look! Loveliness is like a Rembrandt of Reason Renewed!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, 

who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

And if all else fails...Earl Grey Tea😋

Look! Loveliness is lilting in lyrics of sound and sight 

It spills in sweet surprises, stirring sighs of sheer delight 

Where ‘we’, the best word in the world, are altogether bound 

By high and low, wonder and woe bestowing common ground 

Look! Loveliness is lavishing the way from here to there 

(Without the love that authors it we wouldn’t have a prayer) 

But God, so rich in mercy knew that we would need a lift 

From time to time, so ushered to life’s climb/clime, gift over gift 

Look! Loveliness is lending what soon farewell will enfold 

Where brokenness would break us without beauty to behold 

Where hope and heartache tug and war and weather tethered strings 

And we are never very far from what tomorrow brings 

Look! Loveliness is leaving so much to be thankful for 

In spite of all we lack or wish we could take back, the door 

Is always open leading to where we have never trod 

Ah, look! The Hand that holds it open is the hand of God 

Look! Loveliness is like a Rembrandt of Reason Renewed 

It rouses from the rubble, humble hymns of gratitude 

And beckons us to better what we can, no more, no less 

Then entrust all the rest to He who grants each loveliness 

© Janet Martin 

Wishing you lots of loveliness in your corner of creation!

Trickle Effect or Tsunami

 

Oh, the sacred runnel 

that runs through channels

 where its trickle effect

sets the course of  lives 

that are not even born yet!

The trickle is fed by a source

It courses from, into

a force far greater than the crater

that it first ran through... 

  Somewhere the thundering power of Niagara Falls 

is fed by a trickle...

It seems invisible at first; The progeny Thought breeds 

In an arena that hosts entertainment and neglect 

But Evidence is soon unveiled in the bold font of deeds 

A virile force that sets the course of thought’s trickle effect 

The guests we host, of good or ill soon spill seeds of its kind 

Where what we do and say begins in thought’s ivory cell 

With how we satisfy the howling hunger of the mind 

And prove who we love best by what quest and interest tell 

Thought is a battlefield; the wars twixt enemy and Friend 

(Though we brandish no weapons to expose its crucial spree) 

Are fought where we are prone to forget aftermaths that wend 

In striking trickle effects of pride or humility 

Thought is the control-tower of the body that displays 

The Trickle Effect of Influence; what a sacred spring 

That feeds the Fount that bleeds into the voice that choice obeys 

And makes what seemed invisible the Most Apparent Thing 

The Trickle Effect may seem unassuming at first glance 

A gathering tsunami veiled in Equilibrium 

That cannot long contain the force that roars with allegiance 

To stay or change the course of generations yet to come 

© Janet Martin

2 Cor.10:5

...and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Phil.4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, 

whatever is noble, whatever is right, 

whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, 

whatever is admirable--

if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--

think about such things.

Time Travel-ers

Time teases today's tableau with a topper of brooding blue...

Time’s tender, slender blip that slips its seasons through our skin 

Launches from yonder mothership, dawn’s Beauty of Begin 

It shakes out starry tresses, wakening our wonder to 

The Faithfulness that blesses us with breath of day brand-new 

Time’s wonder-full and sorrow-full and colorful collage 

Turns temporary Today into echo-decoupage 

The beautiful and terrible inevitably meld 

Into mem’ry-mosaics of moments we briefly held 

Time’s fragile, agile, potent, voracious velocity 

That no one can deny though time itself, no one can see 

Is the gifted bestowal from He to Whom we owe all 

Though some deny the Existence of The Invisible 

Time’s one-and-only, sometimes lonely, lovely thoroughfare 

Is quite a holy day and night appointed here to Where 

There is no turning back the clock to refill its fair fount 

Thus, this should be the impetus to make each moment count 

For Time is like a ledge that holds the candle-stick of life 

Death is the lurking wedge that wields its mantle, like a knife 

And when the flame is snuffed that stands between love and the goal 

Time is the ash that rend the sash that unveils God and Soul 

© Janet Martin 

Eccles.3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

 He has also set eternity in the human heart;

 yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Uncomplicated...

Shall we share a picnic

Bit o' bread (scone) and tea? (coffee)?

Shall we go together...

 

Shall we go together? 

Come whatever may 

Life is so much better 

When weathered this way 

Shall we sit a little 

Underneath the sky 

While the jot and tittle 

Of time passes by 

Shall we share a picnic 

Bit o’ bread and tea 

Marvel as a minute 

Makes a memory 

© Janet Martin