Monday, October 18, 2021

Hallelujah, What a Promise


Inspired by my sister-in-law's mom's funeral message and prayers
of hope, comfort and exhortation...
The minister who opened the funeral service stated
'If it were not for people dying a minister’s words would be vanity.'





What a privilege and wonder to we who, partakers of
God’s compassion, grace and comfort cannot drain His wells of love

What a hope we have through Jesus; debt no ram could reimburse
Paid upon the cross that frees us from mortal’s inherent curse

Hark! an open invitation, calls to all ‘come unto me’
Beckons to each tribe and nation with salvation’s guarantee

What a blessing to be bidden to draw from Mercy’s wellspring
Though His reasoning is hidden, God is good in everything

Hallelujah, what a Savior, man’s preaching is not in vain
Resurrection’s glorious favour turns death into life again

By one sin we all were blighted; by one death we are set free
By grace we are all invited to a Banquet yet to be

What a joy in spite sorrow, what a peace instills the gale
Yesterday, today, tomorrow, Jesus Christ will never fail

What a journey dust-to-dust is, paved with prayers and washed with tears
What a life of learning trust is, before Jesus reappears

Hallelujah, what a Promise keeps us pressing to the Prize
What a little vapour time is before death opens our eyes

© Janet Martin

Lam.3:24
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

Battle Cry...



Yea, though we walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, we will fear no evil.
Your rod and Your staff comfort us...
clinging to these verses this morning
from Psalm 23

Please, join us in praying for this situation!!


What next?!! I cried as this headline surfaced
and prayers weep and plead on their behalf!

What next we cry 
as sorrows try
and Trial wields its rod
What next for sheep
In the Shepherd's keep?
The goodness and mercy of God!

Prayer is the believer's battle cry!
If God is for us who can be against us?
Rom.8:31



Wars without and wars within
God, deliver us from sin...

The wars that wage within us can stage bitter battle zones
Where wars that wage without conflict where reasoning intones
Where, while we dally in the valley because hills look hard
Windows of opportunity expire, shut and barred

To trust the Lord with all our hearts and not logic of thought
Is to yield humbly, and to seek first the kingdom of God
In all our ways acknowledge Him, and turn the other cheek
For the spirit is willing but the flesh is oh, so weak

To fall is not to fail; it is to learn to grasp the Hand
That leads not to temptation but helps us securely stand
Our Father, who art in Heaven, You are truth and light
Through you the grace is given that will fit us for the fight

Your Word is a lamp to our feet, a light unto our path
And suffering is not a foretaste of Your righteous wrath
But is like a refining fire burning off the dross
To see if what remains is broken chains beneath the cross

© Janet Martin

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
 he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: 
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
 I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
 thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: 
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.


Saturday, October 16, 2021

Portrait of October








(still waiting for weather and freedom to work together amiably,
 for a colorful woodland wander/wonder trek.)
These shots were taken on a hike on Monday
 but the trees had not reached their peaks in colours yet

October’s trees are knitted scarves unraveled leaf by leaf
In rivers ruddy fleets embark to ports unmarked, unknown
The aftermath of flowers reminds us that life is brief
Its path of hours more than roulette wheels of dust and stone

October’s artist brushes fleeting frescoes, russet- gold
Where one day the world blushes and the next its colors thin
A sentimental charmer and a body growing old
A Beulah Land for farmer as harvest is gathered in

October’s wind chills to the bone and thrills through heart and soul
It riles the woodland’s dappled domes until they disappear
A Romeo, a scavenger, a tide that takes its toll
From glory to surrender, leaf by leaf and tear by tear

October’s days run wild with ways to spark wonder and praise
Earth’s hills and valleys set ablaze; awe unstoppers its flask
Outpoured where autumn’s Magnum Opus astonishes gaze
While we shoulder the onus of each season’s tender task

October’s umber halls are decked in melodies undone
Where summer’s ballads spilled unchecked through night, morning and noon
But now the bow as it is drawn across strings, season-spun
Begins to slow the tempo on a cello out of tune

© Janet Martin



Friday, October 15, 2021

Autumn's Rainy Goodnight Serenade

 'Simple and quite ordinary but sometimes utterly stunning.' 

from Brenda @ It's a Beautiful Life


The above comment from today's post at Brenda's blog
 aroused a wild desire to draw from the simple and quite ordinary evening, something
(okay, maybe this isn't utterly stunning) 
but something to remember it by...
the beauty of simple things~








The harmony of supper-hour traffic homeward bound through autumn rain evokes a sweet and sentimental tug where gleaming decoupage of leaves, like lamplight on the ground enchants workaday weariness with something like a hug

The lowering of lullabies as dusk begins to fold autumnal red and gold into umbral, blue-gray manteau
Seems to reflect idyllic scenes from simpler days of old as daylight slips and drips into frameworks of long ago

Raindrop tap-dancers dapple driveway, street and promenade, punctuating farewell with silver exclamation tears while we delight in Autumn’s Rainy Goodnight Serenade until the world above and all around us disappears

© Janet Martin

or this...

The harmony of supper-hour traffic homeward bound 
through autumn rain evokes a sweet and sentimental tug 
where gleaming decoupage of leaves, like lamplight on the ground 
enchants workaday weariness with something like a hug

The lowering of lullabies as dusk begins to fold 
autumnal red and gold into umbral, blue-gray manteau
Seems to reflect idyllic scenes from simpler days of old 
as daylight slips and drips into frameworks of long ago

Raindrop tap-dancers dapple driveway, street and promenade,
punctuating farewell with silver exclamation tears
while we delight in Autumn’s Rainy Goodnight Serenade 
until the world above and all around us disappears

© Janet Martin





Pumpkin Pilaf and Meeting Jesus

inspired last night's supper!
So, no recipe...
I just tried to imitate what she did, 
the huge difference being, mine was not cooked on a campfire...






The result was pure delight!
SO good😋


(I missed a picture of one step)
After soaked rice, sugared, spiced pumpkin and boiling water-soaked raisins
 are layered in the pan make a sauce of melted butter, white sugar...

Add milk or light cream and boiling water to pan, 
enough liquid to make enough sauce to barely cover pilaf...
Bake at 350-375 till rice and pumpkin are cooked!

Life is like a buffet with lots on display
to whet desire's appetite and keen delight!
This morning's Daily Bread Devotion
challenges us to 
'Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

Just between you and me
Oh, wouldn’t it be grand
If we would find felicity
In love’s greatest command

And wouldn’t it be nice
To train our taste and touch
To glory in the sacrifice
Of second miles and such

The common bond of need
Makes us like family
Where we all shoulder word and deed’s
Responsibility

The common bond of grace
Levels the playing field
Where delight and desire chase
What soon turns into yield

Just between you and me
Let’s picture if we can
Beneath the faces that we see
Jesus as fellowman

Ah, suddenly want's wish
We'd reevaluate
Embarrassed by the empty dish
Beside our heaping plates

Just between you and me
Oh, wouldn't it be grand
If, as we/He reached out we would see
The nail-scars in His hands  

© Janet Martin

Matt.25:40
And the King will answer and say to them,
 ‘Assuredly, I say to you, 
inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, 
you did it to Me.’



Thursday, October 14, 2021

Like a World-wide Barge


Isa.26:3
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You, 
Because he trusts in You

In case you missed a few of the previous posts, an update:
My brother Lewis and his wife are passing through some storms of life.
Their almost 15 yr. old daughter suffered extensive injuries
 in an accident on the weekend.
While they stayed with her, Lewis's wife's mom passed away 
last night after a battle with cancer!
My sister-in-law suffered the angst of a mother wanting to be with her daughter,
and of a daughter wanting to be with her mother!🙏💔




Tango of mango and merlot, cotton-candy pink
Draws a world of eyes toward dawn’s mercy-immersed brink
Where time's twirl, so full of troubles takes its tender toll
On the body (but the chariot of the deathless soul)

Often we are prone to cater to Self’s dying dust
Rather than our Creator in whom we may trust
He is faithful though we do not understand His ways
Never does He break a promise (this world oft betrays)

Yet we are prone to seek answers not found in His Word
Doubting His love-letters because acumen is blurred
He, who unfetters each morning, like a world-wide barge
Bearing on life’s sea of learning (His most precious charge)

Once again, we embark where uncharted highs and lows
Wait to test our ways of thinking with what grace bestows
As tangos of mango, merlot, cotton candy pink
Fade, never the Giver’s love (no matter what we think)

© Janet Martin









Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Poem-tation

pōəm -ˈtāSH(ə)n/ Definition: Temptation to compose poem😉😊😍


Watching Tot chase bubbles reminded me a bit
of Poet chasing Poem...







The art of poem-tation seeps through every shade of sky
It vexes concentration in each leaf that flutters by
Four seasons worth of beauty with life’s troubles juxtapose
To cheer the thorns of duty with an unrelenting rose

The tug of poem-tation surges from dawn’s teeming brink
The clockwork of creation hoists premieres streaming with ink
Disparity twixt hand and heart, resumes its rivalry
Where charity pursues the part that authors poetry

The joy of poem-tation reels beneath the wheels of grief
A constant invitation to pursue hues veiled beneath
What meets the eye to stoke the sky and tint the glint of blooms
Soon lowered like a lullaby to stubble-stippled tombs

The wink of poem-tation is both flirtatious and grim
The fruit of inspiration bends the lyric-laden limb
Where words threaded together should do more than lilt and rhyme
Ah, pray they cheer and help us weather ups and downs of Time

The dust of poem-tation is stirred by a breath of breeze
That sparks a celebration shimmering in poplar trees
Rousing the strange impression of a river rushing where
Time’s four-season succession flows through shores of leaf and air

The prize of poem-tation dangles like a pendulum
Hope’s eager expectation wonders if the words will come
How cautiously Want clutches at inklings that start to drop
Lest, as soon as Thought touches it, like bubbles…
Poem
Goes 
‘Pop’

© Janet Martin

Soon lowered like a lullaby to stubble-stippled tombs...







A Teeny Prayer and Prayer Request (updated)


My niece is conscious and cognitively healthy! (mentioned here)
Praise God
She has a long road to recovery ahead but has youth on her side
and with that, the hopes of full recovery!



The above hymn is extremely near and dear right now
More on why when it is mine to tell...
In the meantime can you pray without ceasing for my brother and his wife?
***Their injured daughter is not the only very heavy cross they are bearing today...
***update. My brother's wife's mother (Erma Bauman)  passed away this evening
after a battle with cancer.

Sometimes a poem 
is a prayer
Sometimes a prayer, 
a tear
Dear God, you understand 
what-e'er
We entrust 
to Thy ear
And though we do not 
know the why
or what yet 
waits to be
Your grace,
 sufficient in supply
will satisfy 
the plea

Amen

Janet💓🙏

Praying the words to this song over them as well...


He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase
To added affliction He addeth His mercy
To multiplied trials His multiplied peace

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure
His pow'r has no boundary known unto men
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again

When we have exhausted our store of endurance
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father's full giving is only begun

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure
His pow'r has no boundary known unto men
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure
His pow'r has no boundary known unto men
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again