Lest I Lose Sight of the Big Picture...

Our Father, Who art in Heaven,

Hallowed be Thy Name...

Matt.6:9

Lest I miss who fills and unfurls morning's mist-borne mercy-tide

Maybe hardship and heartache's main purpose is

to mold the faith that makes us whole!

Maybe the prayers we keep repeating seemingly to no avail

are The Refining/Refiner's Fire, 

because we have not yet fully surrendered heart and soul...

Maybe too often we're missing the main point 

because we focus on the wrong thing;

Us instead of Him!

Lest I look without beholding More than just the visual...

Lest I miss who fills and unfurls morning's mist-borne mercy-tide

Lest I harbor in some heart-nook, an idol of selfish pride

Lest I lose my first love by some lesser blandishment beguiled

Lest the prayers I keep repeating by doubt’s demons are defiled

Lest faith becomes disillusioned, by blindness of sight deterred

Our Father up in Heaven, lead me, feed me through Your Word

Lest I live as if tomorrow was a threshold guaranteed

Lest the quest for success outweighs compassion for one in need

Lest I forget all I have was given to give, not to keep

Lest I gorge while other’s hunger, (yet I give them naught to eat)

Lest I labor, leaving nothing but a castle made of sand

Our Father up in Heaven, guide me with your nail-scarred Hand

Lest the consequence for folly leaves me in depths of despair

Lest hope is shallow and hollow, not transcending death’s cold lair

Lest fear drives me from, not to the place where perfect peace prevails

Lest I discredit the promise of Your love that never fails

Lest I fall prey to the tempter, by hate’s master plan deceived

Keep me through your saving power, knowing Whom I have believed

Lest I weary in well-doing, lest I starve in a Bread-bowl

Lest I look without beholding More than just the visual 

Lest life becomes a collection of things, not relinquishment

Lest, instead of satisfaction, obtaining breeds discontent

Lest I lose faith's focus where distraction twirls Want's carousel

Our Father up in Heaven, help me to remember hell 

Lest I do not love my neighbour, second only, Lord, to Thee

Lest I never learn to linger in your Divine company

Lest I think that I can muster enough courage without You

Lest a heart of half-surrender infects all that I pursue

Lest joy in being forgiven does not satisfy my soul

Our Father up in Heaven, mold the faith that makes me whole

© Janet Martin

Savior, Lead Me Lest I Stray

Happy Birthday, Melissa

 

Happy Birthday, Melissa💗

In spite of this past winter and spring's thorns (aka lockdown)

we cherished its rose...Melissa living at home for a while!

We miss you and love you

and also are so thankful that life is feeling a bit more normal

and you can get your city-life fix again😊

So many precious moments enjoyed...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, 

pray continually, 

give thanks in all circumstances;

 for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Wishing you a wonder-full year ahead filled with happiness!

Happiness is life’s lovely prize

Not hiding in what money buys

But in contentment’s treasure trove

In trusting God, in faith and love

In cherishing the day in hand

As it washes across the land

Like waves that wash across the beach

In the sweet pleasure of a peach

In tasting fully every drop

That sparkles from yon Mercy-cup

Happiness is a job well done

Not found in wild-goose chase of ‘fun’

But in the awed awareness of

The One who grants life's work-pray-love

And gives us Hope no matter what

Perplexes us with ‘if’ and but’

It fills time's mist of highs and lows

Not just with thorns but with the rose

And as we trust God with each need

We will be most happy in deed

Happiness is love’s ‘welcome home’

The joys that turn into a poem

A willing-to-help attitude

A second-to-none gratitude

A hug, a smile, a love-you wave

Making the best of what we have

Embracing who we are because

Of Who created each of us

His one-of-a-kind works of art

Happiness is a thankful heart

© Janet Martin

SO thankful for sweet, determined beautiful you!

Thankful for God's faithful provision for you.

God bless and keep you well and hope to

See you soon!

Exactly Where We Are

Heb.12:1-2

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

 let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,

 and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

  2looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith, 

who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, 

and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I was convicted by the testimony from a suffering Christian in Afghanistan

who has committed to stay, even if granted the opportunity to leave,

 lest a soul could potentially be witnessed to

that might be lost eternally because they have not yet come to saving faith!

Oh, that we would all have such a commitment of faithfulness to our calling 

and such love for fellowman, exactly where we are!

Yet not I, but Christ in Me City Alight

Lord, be in us a Light so we may be a shining star

Help us be faithful in the fight exactly where we are

So many ways to spend our days and entertain a thought

Lord, keen in us conviction’s blaze to love the things we ought

…to be compassionate and kind; not bent on selfish quest

But ever keeping first in mind our mission and its test

We are all called to fight the fight until Death’s lowered bar

Then help us be a faithful Light exactly where we are

For we are encompassed by a great cloud of witnesses

Lord, help us throw off all that hinders and entangles us

Instill in us pure purpose as we seek to fix our eyes

On the joy set before us, ever pressing to its Prize

Time, like a spark that upward flies soon disappears from sight

Lord, help us be prudent and wise as we redeem its flight 

Then, fitted by Your Word let us not dread love's battle-scar

But help us to be faithful Lord, exactly where we are

© Janet Martin

It's Barefoot Days

One snared on the run as I chuckled over

a cute little collection of shoes left behind because

IT'S BAREFOOT DAYS!!

What's your summer happy place?

Mine is anywhere bare feet are allowed😊

It’s barefoot days

A dusty haze

And golden shimmered glance

Before the chill

Of snow-days spill

In diamond-studded dance

We revel in

Bronze-beveled grin

Of summer spent-too-soon

And part our lips

To snare the drips

Of honey-sweet high-noon

It’s barefoot bliss

Shoes strewn amiss

To feel Earth kiss our soles/souls

And taste the truth

Of hasty youth

Slipping through sky-blue holes

…to make the most

Of summer’s toast

To flower-bower joy

To celebrate

The blithesome gait

Of barefoot girl and boy

It’s barefoot days

Where landscapes blaze

Beneath a quickened clime

Where cricket and

Cicada-band

Serenade summer time

© Janet Martin

Thank-you, Lord (part Two)

Wishing you a good morning and great day!

It's a mist-mantled, dew-dazzled one here in southern Ontario!

This morning's devotion Bible Reading is Psalm 121

A beautiful encouragement and reminder of who is our keeper!

I will lift up my eyes to the hills—

From whence comes my help?

My help comes from the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2

Because I ran out of hours last night,

Thank-you Lord, Part two this morning.

(Part one here)

Because today is another busy one including a wedding

and because we can barely scratch the thankfulness-surface

in two little verses, maybe part three tomorrow??

Lord willing?

Here's to a wonder-smitten Friday!

…for help that cometh from the Lord as we lift up our eyes

For compassionate hearts outpoured with more than verbal cries

For faith to take our cross each day to humbly follow He

Who yielded His will to obey Abba at Calvary

For godly forefathers who held firm to the faith that saves

(For deathless soul transcends this terminal archive of graves)

For love to give great purpose to the most menial task

For stems topped off with roses, for needs filled before we ask

For zephyr-sigh and cherry pie, for ageless wonderment

For learning money cannot buy what makes the heart content

For helping hands and God’s commands to keep us holy, oh

For front row seats on earth-grandstands to witness heaven’s show

For summer snared in canning jars to warm cold winter’s clutch

For the way beauty breaks through bars of darkness, buds and such

For brides and grooms, for moms and dads, grammas and grandpas too

For darling lass, mischievous lads that make us lose our cool

For momentum of seasons surging like billows that roll

Through hills and fields, soft-merging with landscapes of heart and soul

For knowing prayer is more than words airborne like thistle-seed

For our help comes from the Lord who knows our every need

© Janet Martin

Thank-you, Lord...

For August’s gilt edge garden-climes, on crests of morning tide...

For pretty-princess dressed in pink and melting gramma’s heart....

For fresh-brewed happiness to drink when needing noon’s jump-start

For feet that dash through childhood’s wink and wakes of outgrown shoes...

(Two tots came sporting newer, bigger shoes and boots)

For fine fellow with yellow curls, with smiles too sweet to spell...

For work to do while little girls have big stories to tell...

For Hope, that in the worst of times, through Heaven’s Best, abides

For August’s gilt edge garden-climes, on crests of morning tide

For feet that dash through childhood’s wink in wakes of outgrown shoes

For summer’s flower-splash that twinkles in ten-thousand hues

For Duty’s humble, holy task with diligence maintained

For Beauty’s benevolent flask outpoured yet never drained

For garden-treasure dug-tugged-picked-scrubbed-sliced; delicious crunch

For table set for kiss-and-hug-full tots hungry for lunch

For pretty-princess dressed in pink and melting gramma’s heart

For fresh-brewed happiness to drink when needing noon’s jump-start

For energy refurbished after slumber’s charge is met

For westward burnished backdrops showcasing dusk’s silhouettes

For silver river-ribbons sparkling to the darkling sea

For weary want re-smitten with unwritten poetry

For mercies new each morning; oh, what would we do without

For dew-dazzle adorning every tendril, twig and sprout

For He who hears each prayer we groan and moan, murmur and weep

For baby tucked with teddy bear, ready to fall asleep

For fine fellow with yellow curls, with smiles too sweet to spell

For work to do while little girls have big stories to tell

For so much more than we could ever earn of blessing-tides

For Hope, that in the worst of times, through Heaven’s Best, abides

...we thank-you, Lord

© Janet Martin

 For garden-treasure dug-tugged-picked-scrubbed-sliced; delicious crunch...

Have you ever wept over the beautiful sight of a bowl of tomatoes...

or potatoes?

...and the sheer unworthiness to be partaker of dinner

 while millions suffer and starve?

Next Sunday our church is hosting a fundraiser to buy food to package to

send to Haiti.

Would you like to be part of this joy?

Click here to live these words

"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat"...

Matt. 25:35

If I Were An Onion...

2 Peter 1:8

For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, 

they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive

 in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Pet.3:18

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 To him be glory both now and forever! 

Amen.

Seeds that don't grow or bear fruit are good-for-nothing.

Which onion are we?

The onions I planted this year have not grown at all!

As I started pulling them in disappointed frustration

the thought struck me. 

Is this what God will pluck up when my life is over

or will I be a big, round Fruitful Onion?

(like the ones I purchased)

What a waste and pity

Seeds that never sprout

Always just a gritty-bitty

Shadow of a doubt

What a futile effort

After sun and rain

Not even a hint of fruit

Planted, but in vain

What a shameful outcome

Fruitless all the way

Still the same at harvest-time

As on planting day

© Janet Martin

John 15:2

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; 

and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

 

Faithful is God or We Are Not Helpless. Hallelujah!

A guttural *helpless, heart-cry best describes my prayers this morning

for a world groaning in tribulation...

For Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia,

(just a sad few of the many countries in dire distress)

Earthquakes, floods and wildfires rage.

Terrorists torture and terrorize.

Sickness and sorrow burdens.

America and Canada grow ever colder to the

Faith these countries were founded on

boldly proud and blind to the reaping of godless sowing!

God is not mocked

*But we are not helpless!

Hallelujah.

Deuteronomy 4:7

For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them

as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him?

Psalm 46:1-3 –

 "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way 

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 

though its waters roar and foam 

and the mountains quake with their surging."

Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past

The battleground that keeps us bound toward Reward’s indemnity

Is fraught with what we ought to do and snares set by the enemy

Soon evidence through recompense from seed of word and deed is shown

What was concealed will be revealed for by the fruit the tree is known

Oh Lord, increase Your peace in us as we trust, whether old or youth

Broad is the way where demons prey on those who stray from Steadfast Truth

Your Word is sure; all will endure who feast upon Thy Bread of Life

The pure in heart will not depart from You though evil’s ruse runs rife

Desire’s vice and sacrifice no one beholds in full but He

Who authors birth and instills worth to we, prone to depravity

Where we all prove who we most love by the testimony of choice

Oh God, forbid Your light is hid by its indisputable voice

This battleground of sight and sound confounds the intellectual

*But corruption cannot corrupt that which is Incorruptible

Faithful is God, no matter what the godless, blood-thirsty reply

Be of good cheer, He bends his ear to hear faith’s guttural heart-cry

© Janet Martin

*Line from a sermon recently

Another hope-filled Hymn

Behold Our God

Psalm 18:6-19 –

 "In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help.

From His temple he heard my voice, and my cry to Him reached His ears. 

Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, 

because He was angry. 

Smoke went up from His nostrils, and devouring fire from His mouth; 

glowing coals flamed forth from Him. He bowed the heavens and came down; 

thick darkness was under His feet. He rode on a cherub and flew;

 He came swiftly on the wings of the wind. 

He made darkness His covering, 

His canopy around Him, thick clouds dark with water.

 Out of the brightness before Him hailstones and coals of fire broke through His clouds.

 The Lord also thundered in the heavens, 

and the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire.

 And He sent out his arrows and scattered them; 

he flashed forth lightnings and routed them. 

Then the channels of the sea were seen,

 and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke,

 O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. 

He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.

 He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me,

 for they were too mighty for me. 

They confronted me in the day of my calamity, 

but the Lord was my support. 

He brought me out into a broad place;

 He rescued me, because He delighted in me."