Conquering Worry's 'What-if'

The dark of night is borne away

and swallowed in the light of day

The dark of life is like this too

If we trust God to see us through

Worry’s ‘what if’ robs us of peace

It crushes us with constant care

And fuels the futile increase

Of anxiety and despair

Worry’ s ’what if’, by God’s kind grace

Through faith’s unfeigned humility

Will help us find our rightful place

Leaning on God on bended knee

Worry’s ‘what if’ is mercy-blind

To He who knows and sees our need

Only a heart fully resigned

Can find the courage to proceed

Worry’s ‘what if’ is hard to bear

It robs us of strength for today

Until we place its burden where

God helps us to trust and obey

Worry’s ‘what if’ is like a noose

That snuffs life’s light with dread’s dark rope

Until we cut agendas loose

And humbly cling to Living Hope

© Janet Martin

And we know that in all things God works for the good 

of those who love him,

who[i] have been called according to his purpose.

Rom.8:28

This verse is not a blanket statement to all humanity; 

but it is a promise to all who love God

and are called according to his purpose!

Pray then, that we confess our sin/pride 

to He who is faithful and just

 to forgive our sins and cleanse us 

from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Pray our whole Soul-goal is the first and greatest command

and the second like it...

“’Love the Lord your God 

with all your heart 

and with all your soul 

and with all your strength 

and with all your mind’ 

and,

 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

As We Behold, Face to Face

 

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:

 now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

1 Cor.13:12

Face To Face

Now we see through faith’s glass darkly

But then, face to face, someday

When the murk of all things earthly

Is dissolved and washed away

Then there will be no more questions

As we, behold with rapt gaze

He who tested Best Intention

With Mercy’s mysterious ways

When this splash of dust is settled

And the ash of days wind-blown

We will no longer be nettled

By the whys of the unknown

Then there will be no more sorrow

As we behold, face to face

Without need to beg or borrow

He who saved us by His grace

He, by whom we are forgiven

Teaches us to trust His Word

While the way twixt earth and heaven

Is like a glass darkly blurred

But then, in death’s sacred barter

When we meet its awesome Yet

As we behold God, our Father

All our longings will be met

© Janet Martin

Someday The Silver Cord Will Break

(and I shall see Him face to face)

Consolation Canticle

This post is inspired be this dear old hymn;

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

We may come to Him just as we are!

Just As I Am

When life doles out double trouble; when hearts break with bitter grief

Each day like an uphill struggle where disappointment seems chief

What sweet comfort to remember There is One who will defend

Then we weep with joyful wonder ‘What a friend, oh, what a friend’

When love feels too great a burden; thorns bereft of Beauty’s crown

When we groan beneath the hurtin’ and we want to lay it down

What sweet solace to remember There is One who will restore

As we lean on Him and murmur ‘What a Saviour I adore’

When the weight of what is waiting seeks to steal our present strength

When the process of the breaking strips away well-trained pretense

What sweet release to remember There is One who fully heeds

As we hope with humble hunger in He who supplies our needs’

When faith's altar is the rubble that remains of plans and dreams

What a friend we have in Jesus; no matter how all else seems

What sweet goodness to remember, there is One who will prevail

Then we walk, stronger than ever because Jesus will not fail

© Janet Martin

Matt.11:28-30

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, 

and I will give you rest. 

29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, 

for I am [f]gentle and lowly in heart, 

and you will find rest for your souls. 

30For My yoke is easy 

and My burden is light.”

Jesus~

A Light-Matter (of Grave Import)

Below is a story of someone who came to

our very stomping grounds centuries ago to

light the world!

His commitment challenges us to a 

hold our own lights a little higher!!

From this Book-

Sometimes when those we dearly love devastate us with blatantly, 

unrepentant, sinful choices

it makes us examine how or if we have been lighting the world

or hiding it under a bushel of busyness, selfishness and distraction!

Go light your world

And fight love’s war

With kind humility

This is the day

Made by the Lord

Then lent to you and me

Go, light your world

With truth and grace

Of God’s unchanging Word

For who knows who

Is next to face

Death’s sickle undeterred

Pray for faith’s

Saving miracle

Where the drum-roll of doom

Is drowned out by

Hell’s carnival

While Judgment’s verdicts loom

A spark pierces

The deepest night

Then lift your Beacon high

For who knows who

Will see the light

That readies them to die

 

Go light your world

Proceed with prayer

And confidence in this;

No matter who, what,

When or where

God keeps his promises

© Janet Martin

Matt. 5:14-16

“You are the light of the world. 

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 

Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, 

but on a lampstand, 

and it gives light to all who are in the house.

 Let your light so shine before men, 

that they may see your good works 

and glorify your Father in heaven.

Let Your Lower Lights Be Burning-Redeemed Quartet

Carry Your Candle- Chris Rice

This Little Light of Mine

You Can't Be a Beacon If Your Light Don't Shine

Oh, True North, How Long Will You Be Strong and Free

I can't help but shed a tear as I listen to our glorious, national anthem...

The Canada this song was written for is still geographically accurate

but the people, oh, it's the people that make a country, 

not the dirt we stand on...

Another great rendition of our national anthem!

Oh Canada virtual Choir

I love Canada, and thankfully, we still enjoy many freedoms

however, I cannot glaze with praise that which is not praise-worthy...

Oh, True North strong and free

I mourn for you today

Bills like C-10 and 36

Are stripping ‘free’ away

Our home and native land

Poised on a precipice

As faith that it was founded on

Is scorned, ignored, dismissed

Our national anthem

Tweaked to please man, not God

Our House of Commons, prayer-devoid

Our leadership, a fraud

Grand worship-cathedrals

Deserted now for dreams

That disregard man’s Source of Strength

That binds a country’s seams

Oh Canada, you are

Hearts that once glowed with pride

You are the land for which so many

Sons and daughters died

And now some dare to think

(Wise in their own conceit)

That History’s permanent ink

They somehow can delete

...where ignorance is god

And atheism lord

And debt, a noose of corruption

Nobody can afford

Oh, True North Strong and Free

I mourn for you today

Because your/our strength and freedoms

Are being stripped away

© Janet Martin

Truth (and history) are indestructible

no matter what man destroys!

March on, Christian soldier/soul-dier

2 Chronicles 7:14

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves 

and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, 

then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin 

and will heal their land.

Psalm 60:2
You have shaken the land and torn it open. 

Heal its fractures, for it is quaking.

James 4:10
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Keep old books, find them, protect them

 because the info on the internet is censored and unreliable

at the discretion of darkened understanding!

Above all keep This Book front and foremost!

Our country is in the state we are in because this book of Everlasting Truth

God's Word, is no longer front and foremost in our homes!

Strong faith = strong families 

strong families= strong homes 

strong homes= strong country!

My heart bursts with concern for the country these  precious tots

are growing up in!!!

Faith of Our Fathers...

Star-Trek

The pulpit from which the sermons through

my childhood were preached is tattooed with echoes of this verse (among others)

2 Pet.1:10

Wherefore the rather, brethren, 

give diligence to make your calling and election sure:

as Ira Brubacher's passionate cautions reverberated through the building

(and which I thought, back then, were quite repetitive)

but now begin to understand his pleading 

often accentuated with a somber, softened 'ye-e-e-s! y-e-e-e-s!

Because no one can afford not to make their calling and election sure!

No one can afford eternity 

without hope, without light, without goodness, without God

Our journey through the stars to God

Is traveled on earth’s blip of sod

A myriad of highs and lows

Until the sacred curtain close

When beyond the shortfall of sight

The mystery of Soul takes flight

Whether a feather or a bird

The flight of Soul is undeterred

Untethered in that final breath

To the un-brevity of death

Whether we believe or deny

The Soul will prove God does not lie

Where time is but the toll we trod

On soul-journeys through stars to God

© Janet Martin

Sucker-Punch Eye-openers (or The Grief of Unbelief)

A message worth the little while it takes to hear it!

The Two Paths of Life

This link below is also worth the click:

 Flying Blind- Franklin Graham

Hebrews 10:29

Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose,

will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot,

 counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, 

and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Sometimes life deals a sucker-punch to our

utter heart and soul and love is grieved beyond words!

Sometimes those sucker-punches turn out to be shocking eye-openers

(and knee-benders and head-bow-ers)

Sometimes it seems to take a sucker-punch to wake/shake us up!

Sometimes we just don't want to believe that 'they' don't believe!!

The practice of disobedience speaks like writing on the wall 

regardless of what 'they' may say.

The Grief of Unbelief

Kinda like part 2 to this morning's post'

The Bedrock of Belief Or Not

They mock the straight and narrow

They scorn the black and white

The spit into the face of grace;

The Way, the Truth and Life

They grieve the Holy Spirit

And trample underfoot

The Son of God; they profane Mercy's

Covenant of blood 

They treat as something common

Salvation's Cornerstone

As if they have no One to fear

Before the Judgement throne 

They do not seem to grasp

Death and hell's hopeless fate

And that dread day of reckoning

When it will be too late

Lord, hear our pleading prayer

Where cold, bold unbelief 

Is like a cruel sucker-punch

That breaks love's heart with grief

How much more You must weep

To know what waits for they

Who once confessed and professed faith

Who knew, then turned away

Janet Martin

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just 

and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

 

The Bedrock of Belief, Or Not

I Know Whom I Have Believed 

2 Tim.1:12

For this reason I also suffer these things; 

nevertheless I am not ashamed,

 for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able 

to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

Matt.7:21 NIV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,

but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Heb.3:18-19

And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest?

Was it not to those who disobeyed?

19So we see that it was because of their unbelief 

that they were unable to enter.

John 3:18

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned,

but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,

because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Romans 12:3

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: 

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, 

but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,

 in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

Trouble Believing in God- Charles Stanley 

Matt 7:7

Ask and it will be given to you;

seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

The bedrock of Belief, or not

Is the chief Cornerstone of thought

Belief is more than a mere nod

To accede existence of God

Where voice of choice cannot long hide

God either adored or denied

The bedrock of belief or not

Is confirmed by response to Ought

Rebellion or obedience

Prove who we serve and reverence

Either the Name above all names

Or Shame’s shameless and brazen claims

The bedrock of belief or not

Is more than a set of truths taught

These truths become love’s vow fulfilled

Proven by where and how we build

With treasure here or gathered up

Where moth and rust cannot corrupt

The bedrock of belief or not

Is either shifting sand or Rock

Graver than anything can be

For it impacts eternity

And is sacred above all else

For soul outlives this Splash of Self

We ought to give most earnest heed

To I AM’s righteousness decreed

Before Reckoning and Reward

When all confess that He is Lord

As we receive what we begot

On Bedrock of Belief, or not

© Janet Martin

Isaiah 28:16

So this is what the Lord GOD says:

 "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, 

a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;

 the one who believes will never be shaken.

Mark 16:16

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;

 but he that believeth not shall be damned.

John 3:36

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:

 and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; 

but the wrath of God abideth on him.