Come To Jesus

 Come to Jesus - Chris Rice

One scandal after another after another...

One we are all a part of; Sin

We all need Jesus

for there is no one righteous, no, not one

So when they continued asking him, 

he lifted up himself, and said unto them, 

He that is without sin among you,

let him first cast a stone at her.

John 8:7

Matthew 1:21
She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, 

because He will save His people from their sins."

Acts 4:12

Salvation is found in no one else, 

for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind 

by which we must be saved."

Come to Jesus, 

Full forgiveness 

Waits the sinner to immerse 

Come to Jesus 

He releases 

Condemnation’s 

Woeful curse 

What is man 

But bent and broken 

‘neath a debt of guilt and shame 

Come to Jesus 

Mercy frees us 

There is hope in Jesus’ Name 

Come to Jesus 

Heavy-laden 

Come to love that will not fail 

Lay down dread 

And regret’s burden 

Death and hell will not prevail 

Let the rivers 

Of salvation 

In scarlet redemption flow 

There is no more 

Condemnation 

To sinner’s washed white as snow 

Come to Jesus 

He receives us 

Without prejudice and blame 

Come to Jesus 

Trust His promise 

‘to pardon is why He came’ 

Do not let the 

Lies of evil 

Keep you bound by doubt’s dark hour 

This is but 

The blight of Eden 

Seeking who he may devour 

Come to Jesus 

Rock of ages 

Anchoring the storm-tossed Soul

Come to Jesus 

He will save us 

Only faith can make us whole 

© Janet Martin 

Only God/Love

In the Court of Thought

do you sometimes feel like shouting,

'Order in the house, please!'

That's when hopefully

Humble Prayer rises up

and orders Thought

to 'be still and know 

that He is God/love'!

 (Ps.46:10)

What a power-house for good or evil every single one of us

 carries on our shoulders, right?!

Around a table full of people

there is always so much more than

meets the eye...

so much more than

Sunday-night supper at Gramma's House...

Some after-homemade-pizza and carrot cake-reflection/digestion😋😊

As we shed innocence, we all struggle at times with that hidden world of thought!

Here's hoping, nay, here's praying we do not try to order thought's steps on our own!

Thought can be a darksome dungeon wrought with dangers in disguise 

Carving warpaths through assumption with the razor-edge of sighs 

Mercy meets us in the moment if we reach beyond the noose 

That inflicts its guarded torment and that only God/love can loose 

Thought can rage, a cage of demons bent on carnage of good cheer 

Who knows what can brim unbidden, havoc hidden in a tear 

Consequence’s score is settled on a stage none can outsmart 

Only God/love can melt the mettle of a cold and bitter heart 

Thought can threaten course of action it ought not to contemplate 

Only God/love can break the pattern wrought by thoughts of spite and hate 

Lest stones heaped for easy access in a quick slip of the tongue 

Hones a hotbed of responses often rude and rashly flung 

Thought can set a deadly snare and snuff the flame the love would fan

Who can bear for long the brute that shakes its fist at fellowman

Hosting a cruel slew of reasons for vengeance to vindicate

Only God/love is fully qualified to set the record straight

Thought can be a harsh task master, sarcastic, heartless and mean 

Authoring certain disaster without God/love to intervene 

Thought alone can never conquer what thought ought not to resound

Only God/love can overcome the foe that rushes Holy Ground

Thought can rise on wings of worship from the belly of despair 

Turn discouragement to courage as hope’s feathers beat the air 

Not by sudden surge of honor as noble logic gives chase 

But by God/love alone who offers and authors goodness and grace

© Janet Martin 

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, 

whatsoever things are honest, 

whatsoever things are just, 

whatsoever things are pure, 

whatsoever things are lovely, 

whatsoever things are of good report; 

if there be any virtue, 

and if there be any praise, 

think on these things.

Phil.4:8

For the word of God is living and powerful, 

and sharper than any two-edged sword, 

piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, 

and of joints and marrow, 

and is a discerner of the thoughts 

and intents of the heart.

Heb.4:12

Spring of Sod and Soul (Happy March!)

Okay, in Ontario we are not quite 

at the verses below yet,

but here's hoping, soon! 

See! The winter is past;

the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come,

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

 

Just as the warmth of sun can melt cold winter from earth’s slope 

Thus, the kind grace of God can pierce soul’s dark with Light of hope 

And just as spring brings back bud-beauty of the blossomed limb 

So too God replenishes gladness when we trust in Him 

And just as spring whispers deep in the chill of dormant sod 

So too, the heart is reawakened ‘neath the touch of God 

© Janet Martin

Disappointment's Catalyst

There is no getting around it; life is full of disappointments!

The future as it passes seldom looks like we imagined!

Without utter faith in God, hope is a lost cause!

Disappointment can be as minor as unwanted weather

and fender-benders

and as major as life and death matters!

This life is lavished with beauty (often in the broken),

and happiness (often full of holes)

and little time-outs (often when we least want them)

This is one of my battle-songs 

Here's My Heart, Lord

when things come along

I cannot understand

The first line is 

'Here's my heart, Lord, Speak what is true'

We cannot however, hear what is true unless we

turn to His Word and hide it

in our hearts so we do not sin against Him, 

the One who gives and takes away

as we surrender personal opinion and interpretation to

'Thy Will be done'

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, 

that I might not sin against thee.

Psalm 119:11

Disappointment does not cater to the hopes and dreams of we 

Weathering, in spite of wishes, the brunt of reality 

What a fete of faith and labour paves the street from here to where 

We shake off the dust of trusting and take off the yoke of prayer 

We are not equipped to carry more than one day at a time 

Worry drains us of The Very Present Help we need to climb 

Where no one can build a barrack that can thwart life’s suffering 

But where faith always has access to the Shelter of God’s Wing 

The Best Way to shoulder burdens is to walk by faith, not sight 

And to put on the full armour that will fit us for the fight 

Then to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice 

On an altar of surrender to the One who paid sin’s price 

Disappointment is most often the unwanted catalyst 

God allows in hopes to soften hearts and rebellion’s clenched fist 

What a fete of hard-fought yielding to the higher, perfect ways 

As we learn to trust the Giver and the keeper of our days 

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 121:5

The LORD is your keeper; 

The LORD is your shade at your right hand.

Aurora Awe

 

This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm118:24

Shake off the dust of dreams waylaid 

Fling wide hope’s hoary door 

For this, the day the Lord has made 

Has never been before 

Reach past the cast of wave-washed sand 

To what is grand and new 

For where we go He holds our hand 

If we but ask Him to 

And though we cannot see what waits 

To tune trust’s latest buzz 

The One who draws ajar gauze-gates 

Of mist-kissed morning does 

© Janet Martin 

So many fresh cares to fill our prayers, right?!

Seems like so many young moms in this community 

are struggling with sudden, hard health-crosses

Made me look up this hymn this morning

when I cried 'Why?'

by Charles W. Naylor

God’s way is best; if human wisdom

A fairer way may seem to show,

’Tis only that our earth-dimmed vision

The truth can never clearly know.

Refrain:

God’s way is best, I will not murmur,

Although the end I may not see;

Where’er He leads I’ll meekly follow,

God’s way is best, is best for me.

Had I the choosing of my pathway,

In blindness I should go astray,

And wander far away in darkness,

Nor reach that land of endless day.

He leadeth true; I will not question,

Though through the valley I shall go;

Though I should pass through clouds of trial,

And drink the cup of human woe.

God’s way is best; heart, cease thy struggling

To see and know and understand;

Forsake thy fears and doubts, but trusting,

Submit thyself into His hand.

Thy way is best, so lead me onward,

My all I give to Thy control;

Thy loving hand will truly guide me,

And safe to glory bring my soul.

Awe's Oceanic Aftermath=Art aka Worship

 

Completely and perfectly awed 

By the grand handiwork of God 

Dusk draws our eyes westward until 

Day falls beneath earth’s windowsill 

Night snuffs its picture like a flame 

That disappears from whence it came 

Where we are left to contemplate 

The crumb-sum on time’s dinner plate 

Like moments turned to memories 

From joy’s startling complexities 

How holes and hues of happiness 

Transform our views of more and less 

How wealth is not in what we hold 

But in the worth of moment-gold 

And how we are too very small 

To cup the wonder of it all 

Completely and perfectly awed 

By the grand handiwork of God 

Awe’s oceans seem to rush the heart 

Insisting on becoming art 

And so, we sing, paint, pen and gaze

 Until oceans turn into praise

© Janet Martin 

Prelude to the Awakening

Whoa!! 

The morning dissolved in errands that started at sun-up, 

then to a batch of bread...

a pan of granola bars

(recipe note: substitute dried cranberries with  any dried fruit, or chipits)

and if I don't have barley flakes I substitute quick oats and ground flax seed

...also, speaking from experience, the 20 min. cool time is optional if you want a sample sooner😀

and the whole morning had intermittent explosions/interruptions of harmonica music 

(my new toy thanks to some Christmas gift$$$ 

and an invitation to play for the kids at church on Sunday)!

Hello, heaven’s halo gleaming 

From a vault unplumbed, unfurled 

Like a fount of sequins streaming 

Through Want’s dreaming, scheming world 

Where progression and tradition 

Engage in clashing ideals 

Locking horns in opposition 

While time spins and thins its wheels 

Hello morning, Mercy’s token 

Fixed where every eye can see 

God has spoken, darkness broken 

By Ageless Authority 

He bestows gracious oblation 

Dawn throbs with love’s melody 

Pouring like an invitation 

Beckoning ‘come unto Me’ 

Hello, hope and heartache tango 

Teaching us the art of trust 

How to hold and how to let go 

In this dance of dust-to-dust 

Hello, happiness and hunger 

Learning love’s rhythm and rhyme 

Where no one is growing younger 

In the arms of Father Time 

Hello, season-circuit rider

On a phantom carousel

Of spring, summer, autumn, winter

Until we bid time farewell

Farewell, legacy-composer  

Farewell, fleeting breath-by-breath

Hello, morning drawing closer

The awakening in death

© Janet Martin 

Listened to this song from my daughter's playlist

this morning... 

Finally Free-Rend Collective

Psalm 136:1

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! 

For His mercy endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; 

His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalm 145:9
The LORD is good to all; 

His compassion rests on all He has made.

Sacred Synopsis

 

True love does not come easily...

but with God

who is love

and loves you and me

everything is possible!

the challenge?

the verses below;

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. 

Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

not looking to your own interests 

but each of you to the interests of the others.

Phil.2:3-4

That is why we labor and strive, 

because we have put our hope in the living God, 

who is the Savior of all people, 

and especially of those who believe.

1 Tim.4:10

Oh, what  reason to shine!

The best we have for rich or poor wherever life may lead 

Is to offer the best we have to thought and word and deed 

But thought and word and deed will not be what they ought to be 

Until we entrust want and need to God’s authority 

For want and need will always be part of this human race 

Beneath God’s kind authority of love, mercy and grace 

Where without faith in He whose love, mercy and grace sustain 

The grounds of hope and joy and peace, our best will be in vain 

Because no matter what we win it will not be enough 

Until the best we have begins with God, for He is love 

And love makes possible the best that we can ever be

By faith in He who grants through grace, love's kind humility

© Janet Martin

1 Tim.6:6-10

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap 

and into many foolish and harmful desires t

hat plunge people into ruin and destruction. 

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 

Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith 

and pierced themselves with many griefs.