Sometimes, In This Present Culture

Isaiah 11:2

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him-

-the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and strength,

the Spirit of knowledge

and fear of the LORD.

(this verse below fills my heart and prayers these day...)

Ephesians 1:17-19

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit ^f of wisdom and revelation,

 so that you may know him better. 

18I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened 

in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, 

the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 

19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. 

If we want something to grow we feed it.

What is fed will grow...

Spiritual growth or the hunger for spiritual blessing

happens as we feed on 'spiritual bread'!

John 6:35

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. 

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, 

and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Sometimes in this present culture

We could fall prey to despair

Where evil is like a vulture

And people don't seem to care

Or fall before God in prayer

Present culture's satisfaction

Fosters lies and unbelief

 Numbed by cyberspace-distraction

The god of opinion, chief

Dumb to God in heaven's grief 

Seems as if Spiritual Blessing

Is a treasure few esteem

Focused rather on possessing

Fortunes, fickle as a dream

While eternal riches stream

Seems as if mankind's redemption

 Purchased through God's only Son

Is the bull's eye of rejection

Though He died for everyone

Though He cried 'Thy will be done'

...to bring many sons to glory!

To lay down hope's solid rock

Seems as if God's Great Love story

Has become a laughing stock

Culture hails the stumbling block 

Fearless in the face of Mercy

Fearless, though death and hell wait

Scorning Christ with jeers and curses

Or with doubt's fruitless debate

Fearless in their dire state/strait

Blinded by the tempter's logic

Lured by sight's defeated stride

Seems this present culture's rock is

But the shifting sands of pride

Or the boast of God denied

Seems as if Spiritual Blessing

Is an odd and foreign phrase

Not a treasure worth confessing

And pursuing all our days

By denying self-bent ways  

Seems as if the fickle aweing 

Of excess, not sacrifice

Veils the subtle serpent drawing

The attention from the price

With enticements, 'fun' and 'nice'

Seems as if this present culture

Does not grasp the sacred Thence

Of heaven or hell, of judgement 

And the certain recompense 

Of the soul's inheritance

Seems as if 'riches in glory'

Falls on head-phone deafened ears

And the grace of God's love story

Is met with hate's bold-faced sneers 

Or Indifference-Veneers

As if the best we inherit

Is Something gold-silver-pearled

And as if life's Crowning Merit

Is This Fleeting Warp unfurled

Not riches beyond this world

Sometimes, in this present culture

Love weeps beneath faith's scorned cross

Hell's lord is a gilded vulture

Heaven's God tests us with loss

 And prayer's groaning albatross

God, open Faith's eyes within us

Tune us to truth's cunning foes

You are not slack in Your promise

Of wealth time cannot disclose

Of inheritance You chose

© Janet Martin

Psalm 47:4
He chooses our inheritance for us, 

the pride of Jacob, whom He loves. 

Selah

1 Pet.1:3-5

A Heavenly Inheritance

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope 

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4to an inheritance [b]incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, 

reserved in heaven for you,

  5who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation 

ready to be revealed in the last time.

***

We only progress in sound living

as we progress in sound understanding

Charles Spurgeon~

***

Surviving our Present Culture

 

...and if after you listen to the first message you are hungry for more...

Satan's Strategy to Defeat Us – Dr. Charles Stanley

Living With An Almost-Heaven Viewpoint

 Beulah Land

Yesterday's post Sing a Song of Almost Heaven

turned my train of thought down a slightly different track today...

Living with an Almost Heaven Viewpoint shifts our point of view

Makes us more aware of caring about death’s approaching due

Keeps us keened to what is promised that will forever endure

Rather than the cross upon us or temptation’s dangling lure

Time is such a fleeting measure, just a vapor, my dear friend

The soul is the single treasure that will final breath transcend

No matter where feet may take us or what success we may boast

‘Almost Heaven’s viewpoint tunes us to The Thing that Matters Most

What a joy when we envision as we pay Devotion’s Price

Jesus standing where the mission of true love is sacrifice

Jesus smiling as we smile back while we give and give and give

Because Almost Heaven waits after this little life we live

© Janet Martin

Matt.25:40

And the King shall answer and say unto them, 

Verily I say unto you, 

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 

ye have done it unto me.

Sing a Song of Almost Heaven

Did the first week of July leave you breathless too?

with an earth-warped sense of Almost Heaven?

Sing a song of bare foot princess

Loveliness of little girls...

Sing a song of sapphire rafter

Vaulted above saffron field

Sing a song of salad gladness

Sing a song of Almost Heaven

Heady scent of fresh mown hay

Landscape-sills lavishly laden

With summer’s floral buffet...

Sing a song of Almost Heaven

Heady scent of fresh mown hay

Landscape-sills lavishly laden

With summer’s floral buffet

Sing a song of sun-kissed hours

Cabbage amethyst and jade

Chubby child’s fist, full of flowers

Ice cube-crackling lemonade

Sing a song of bare foot princess

Loveliness of little girls

Pretty polka-dotted dresses

Tiara of tousled curls

Sing a song of sapphire rafter

Vaulted above saffron sweep

Lilting with hope’s hearty laughter

Of a soon-harvest to reap

Sing a song of pure devotion

Where the fruit of sweat and toil

Swells and billows like an ocean

Green and gold with mercy’s spoil

Wild bloom opulence fills ditches

Chamomile and chicory

Trefoil tapestry bewitches

Loosestrife pens pink poetry

Sing a song of School is Over

Garden-haven happiness

Honeybees imbibed with clover-

Nectar’s innocent excess

Sing a song of lily-lanterns

Candelabras, petal-plush

Daddies, laddies and blue herons

Fishing silver shallows, hush

While summer starts to unravel

Sing of hammock hideaways

Book vacations that don't travel

Holiday traffic highways

Sing a song of salad gladness

Bowls brimming with beans and peas

Hearts hurting with happy-sadness

Tuned to fleeting symphonies

Slow the music, pause primed pages

Tame the tempo of tick-tock

Let the ebb and flow of ages

Dare the dogma of the clock

Let love’s warm waves lap ‘round small talk

Feel the font of memories

Heatwave-rippled street and sidewalk

Honey-suckle tickled breeze

Sing a song of moments flitting

Like a finch or butterfly

Sing a song of front porch sitting

Sing a song of sweet July

© Janet Martin

While summer starts to unravel

Sing of hammock hideaways...

Today's poem was

Inspired in part by this gem of a July poem...

July

by Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

I am for the open meadows,

Open meadows full of sun,

Where the hot bee hugs the clover,

The hot breezes drop and run.

I am for the uncut hayfields

Open to the cloudless blue,—

For the wide unshadowed acres

Where the summer's pomps renew;

Where the grass-tops gather purple,

Where the oxeye daisies thrive,

And the mendicants of summer

Laugh to feel themselves alive;

Where the hot scent steams and quivers,

Where the hot saps thrill and stir,

Where in leaf-cells' green pavilions

Quaint artificers confer;

Where the bobolinks are merry,

Where the beetles bask and gleam,

Where above the powdered blossoms

Powdered moth-wings poise and dream;

Where the bead-eyed mice adventure

In the grass-roots green and dun.

Life is good and love is eager

In the playground of the sun!

Sunrise Reveille For Soul-diers

Arise and shine. God’s love divine beams brighter than the sun

No feckless race is yours and mine that we are called to run

Through hope that maketh not ashamed, because the love of God

By His Holy Spirit acclaimed, in hearts is shed abroad

Do not despair. God’s tender care is faithful to the end

Nothing in this world can compare to Jesus as our Friend

He heals the broken-hearted and instills in us His worth

Faith's every step is guarded by the God of heav’n and earth

Behold the Lamb. The Great I AM who takes away our sins

His Word is not an errant sham; He IS where hope begins

He is the Way, the Truth, the Life; by His grace we are saved

Redemption’s cleansing stream runs rife where Calvary was braved

Trust in the Lord. Who can afford to forfeit deathless soul?

Or doubt the infallible Word undeterred by time’s toll

The Bread of Life none can destroy. The truth that sets us free

Is but the foretaste of the joy that fills eternity

Oh taste and see. This is no fleeting pleasure or delight

The goodness of God will appease heart and soul's appetite 

Hunger and thirst for righteousness rather than worldly laud

Then He who loved us first will bless us with the peace of God

 

© Janet Martin

Rom.5:1-5

Therefore being justified by faith, 

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,

 and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

 3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: 

knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 

4And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

 5And hope maketh not ashamed; 

because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts 

by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

 

A Wedding Prayer

No matter how solid and secure love feels on the day of the wedding

that wicked old deceiver and destroyer , the devil,

will soon start to find subtle, or not so subtle ways to try to

wedge his way in to weaken and fray the tie that binds two into one

Matt. 19:6

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

If any thing is needful of constant attention and prayer

it is surely each and every one of our marriages!

Or, over and above that, our faith in Jesus 

and devotion to His counsel to guide and instruct.

Strong faith makes strong marriages/ families.

Strong marriages/families make strong nations.

Don't you feel like an honored wedding-guest as you enjoy the fruit

of carefully thought out and arranged details?!!

Dessert!

...and of course a lot of people-pictures that are not mine to share💖

This is the poem I put in the cards for the bride and groom 

of the two recent weddings I/we had the honor of attending

A Wedding Prayer

I pray the Lord to bless this new life that your vows begin

A little like a bud still unfolding the bloom within

And as the years go by, I pray by God’s grace, love bestows

Beauty we cannot see until the bud unfolds the rose

I pray God’s mercy crowns the ups and down that wait to be

As love withstands dues and demands because love’s strands are Three

And someday, looking back I pray that joy will awe your heart

Today, but the beginning of love’s sacred, sweetest part

I pray the honor that you feel for each other today

Will deepen and strengthen into a cord that cannot fray

I pray that God will help you keep love faithful, kind and true

As what God joins this happy day only death can undo

Janet Martin

Eccles.4:12

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

The Onus of a (Permanent Ink) Fount

The Best Laid Plan of me and you

can always only guess at the details

Thus, each of us should entrust Today into

The Divine Hand that leads with love that never fails

Below a few framed prints of yesterday...

Thanks to a huge fresh basil plant from our local grocery store

pizza was on the menu for yesterday's lunch!

Garden-fresh onions added some extra delish as well! (on one side😅)

...and later, peanut butter cookies!

This morning as I peer into its ethereal frame I see hopes of

a happy wedding day for my oldest sister's only daughter

💓🙏💖🙏💗🙏💝🙏

Each day lowers a frame to fill

The picture it will hold

Is always an Original

Spilled as moments unfold

From Goodness and Mercy, with love

Dawn’s fresh frame challenges

As we ponder time's palette of

Heartache and happiness

Colors of choice and circumstance

Mingle upon the tray

Where soon the frame that morning grants

Nightfall will draw way

The handiwork of Day Gone By

Sets in permanent ink

Before its paint is barely dry

Dusk claims More Than We Think

How swift the gifted frame bears Fact

As prayer, care, work and play

Fills galleries of Looking Back

That steal our breath away

Because what seems so commonplace

As day to day runs rife

Collects frames of grace-upon-grace

Into One Little Life

…where Far More than We Think becomes

The Onus of a Fount

That flows into The Sacred Sums

For which we give account

This morning as we peer into

A brand-new, empty frame

Pray, that at dusk the art we view

Honors the Giver’s Name

For oh, how very terrible

Would be a lifetime spent

Missing The Very Miracle

For which each frame was lent

…Love

© Janet Martin

Let's pray for the glorious miracle of love (like Jesus exemplified)

to fill today's frame with a masterpiece!

1 John 3:16-18

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

 And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 

17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need 

but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 

18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech 

but with actions and in truth.

Happiness of Rain

 Last week's little rainfall was lapped up by the sun in no time flat

so once again we are singing praises for a much needed rain!

Earth laughs; from laden heavens spills the happiness of rain

It splashes into flower cups and dances on the lane

It kisses thirsty gardens, and douses the dusty street

And draws a puddle world of bliss for children in bare feet

As thirsty hills and fields are drenched and quenched; the robin sings

With the contagious happiness of rain-drop dazzled things

© Janet Martin

Love Lyric

Looking forward to another wedding this week (my niece)!

Maybe that's what is drawing me to contemplate the

many-splendored thing;

Love

💝

From the bud of love’s increase

Emerges a glorious flower...

Love scatters the seeds that grow into flowers in the garden of life...

Warren Wiersbe — 'Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.'

1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. 

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:16

God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

In most of the lines in this poem the word 'love' 

could be replaced with the word 'God'

💗🙏

Love rises to the occasion

Fits us for life’s best and worst

Love's resounding adoration

Honors He who loved us first

Love elicits awestruck wonder

Love compels us to proceed

No matter what we encounter

Love will supply our need

Love equips us for each hour

From the bud of love’s increase

Emerges a glorious flower

Faith and hope and joy and peace

Love defies mind's comprehension

Love is oft misunderstood

Because Divine Intervention

Is love working greater good

Love conquers hate’s bitter rancor

In the eye of conflict’s gale

Love is like a steadfast anchor

That will never shift nor fail

Love is gentle, kind and humble

Love is thankful, patient, true

Love does not covet or grumble

Love is God in me and you

Love is a foretaste of Heaven

True love is always enough

By Love's grace we are forgiven

Love is God and God is love

Lord, if all else fails, love never

Let this be faith's comfort sweet

Nothing in this world can sever

Us from love and joy complete

© Janet Martin

It is impossible to truly love

yet disregard God.

To live a loving life is to live an obedient life.

To live in obedience to His commands is true love.

Sometimes love is falsely accused of hate 

because it does not approve or praise 

the disregard to God's Commandments.

Jesus reminds us in the passage below how to love...

John 15:9-17

Love and Joy Perfected

 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 

 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, 

just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, 

and that your joy may be full.  

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 

 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 

 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 

 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing;

 but I have called you friends, 

for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  

You did not choose Me, but I chose you 

and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, 

and that your fruit should remain, 

that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 

 These things I command you, that you love one another.

Next door the big tent is coming down.

The Big Event (wedding) is over 

...and though there may be an emotional letdown

after so much excitement and planning 

Love transcends the temporary!

So joy abides because

Love bears all things, 

believes all things, 

hopes all things, 

endures all things.

Love never fails

1 Cor.13:7-8