Apart from What God's Grace Bestows

While works do not save, it is a person's works that ultimately bears witness

 of whether or not we are attached to the Vine!

As the fruits of the Spirit begin to grow there should be a stark/marked difference

between the old life and the new...

Matt. 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, 

that they may see your good works

 and glorify your Father in heaven.

    

Apart from what God’s grace bestows, no boast have I to claim

Praise God; where judgement’s verdict rose in condemnation’s blame/shame

Grace did abound, through Jesus Christ, the hour I believed

By the Lamb that God sacrificed, full pardon I received

Shall I then sin where grace runs through and through me; God forbid

The new man in no way should do the things the old man did

For then I mock the sacredness where Jesus Christ’s shed blood

Clothes me in robes of righteousness, but by the grace of God

How can I, who have died to sin, live therein anymore

The miracle grace wrought within ends who I was before

Through salvation, the gift God gives, the sinner is set free

Henceforth it is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me

Apart from what God’s grace bestows, dwells in me no good thing

Praise God from whom all blessing flows, for death has lost its sting

Because the old man, crucified, wears newness in its place

Where Jesus Christ is glorified through sinners saved by grace

© Janet Martin

Romans 6: 1-4

 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 

3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus

 were baptized into His death? 

 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, 

that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, 

even so we also should walk in newness of life.

A Breath-Staking Honour

It is not hard to hear nature's worship hymn 

on a raindrop-dazzled peony-pink June morning!

Happy over-halfway through June already!!

Let's not waste a single breath-note on anything but praise!

iris, lupine, columbine and wisteria-purple

are pretty sweet too!

The last paragraph in today's devotion stole my breath

and inspired today's offering of awareness...

(from My Utmost For His Highest)

Lord, You grant every breath we take

With each breath we reply

Where your great honour is at stake

In such a worm as I

Lord, you grant every morn that rolls

Across the land and sea

Each breath draws vessels bearing souls

Toward eternity

Lord, who but You deserves all praise

Where your willed mercies brim

May we be honour-awed to raise

A breath-by-breath spilled hymn

True worship, who can know but You

You see each hidden place

Where redemption’s wellspring runs through

Each gifted breath of grace

Not all is as it may appear

Too often we suppose

Where You alone behold and hear

What breath does not disclose

Then Lord, with every breath we take

Make us humbly aware

Of the honour that is at stake

Beneath the cross we bear

…and may it be enough to know

With what each breath imparts

Worship needs not put on a show

For You to hear our hearts

© Janet Martin

Psalm 150:6

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. 

Praise the LORD!

After some much-desired/prayed for rain

the gardens and fields are singing especially lustily!

Take My Life and Let It Be

The Certainty of Uncertainty

One thing is certain; uncertainty!!

The uncertainty of North America

feels more ominous than ever before

as leaders,

once seeking to be led by God

have been replaced

by leaders who disregard the Christian faith

these countries where founded on!

I was touched by this phrase, 

'the good hand of God'

repeated through the book of Ezra

in the Old Testament, as he viewed 

the ruinous results of rebellion and disobedience, 

when he came to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple...

Oh God, are there yet men of understanding that your good hand will

bring to the high places of our fallen countries, 

Canada and the United States of America?!!

Oh God, for all who seek You and obey your commands Your

good hand is faithful in its guiding and keeping!

Your rod and staff comfort us! (Ps.23)

***

The certainty of uncertainty could cause us to fear

Could rob us of joy’s sweet delight because of dread’s veneer

Could blind us to the blessings where mercy’s fount overflows

Could keep our eyes fixed on the thorns rather than on the Rose

Could oppress us with ominous impressions of despair

Could shackle us beneath anxiety’s burdens of air

Could distract us from promises that anchor hope and trust

Could steal the perfect peace that ought to cheer faith’s frames of dust

The certainty of uncertainty should cause us to pray

And reach for God’s good hand outstretched to lead us day by day

Should make us more aware of He who is Faithful and True

Where come what may, nothing can His perfect purpose undo

© Janet Martin

Rev.19:11

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.

And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True...

(The only) Harvest Worth Gathering

Disclaimer; 

(Today is one of those

'much-easier-writ-than-run/said-than-done' posts)

The older I get the more evident this age-old Bible truth becomes;

Without faith it is impossible to please God.

Faith's foolproof  evidence is obedience💗

Faith without works is dead

Obedience opens the doors to the extra-ordinary life

every believer may experience.

God's invitation to 'come' is extended to everyone!

All are created by Him, 

and dearly loved by Him:

 nobody is a nobody

and His word is for everybody!!)

Hallelujah!

1 Sam.15:22

So Samuel said: 

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, 

As in obeying the voice of the LORD? 

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, 

And to heed 

than the fat of rams.

Today's post was inspired in part by a few recent devotions in

My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers 

Oho, what want and woe we sow when we usurp God’s Word with vice

And disregard and oft forego the waiting that His way requires

But oh, what hope and joy and peace rains on altars of sacrifice

As we, with yielded will release the impetus of vain desires

How fraudulent, faith’s holy fight if we reserve the right to ‘I’

How fickle, the compass of sight and logic’s crafty rigmarole

The words we say do not portray the ‘yay’ of love’s utter reply

To trust in God and to obey is the love-language of the soul

For all the change that spills its art through progression’s scarred institute

The proneness of the human heart, no ‘enlightenment’ reinvents

The Tempter’s ‘did God really say’ when eying the forbidden fruit

Still presses us to disobey, blinding us to its consequence

Oh, what sad harvest we commence when we cultivate pious talk

Justifying glossed ignorance, without surrender to God’s way

Oh God, convict us of our sin, lest we become a stumbling block

Oh, work Your miracle within, and make us eager to obey

God’s everlasting Word is true; a light that never beams awry

A Beacon to guide pilgrims through a world that aggrandizes sin

Oho, what blessing we forego when Self is too stubborn to die

Only obedience can sow a harvest worth gathering in

© Janet Martin

To Obey is Better Than Sacrifice-Keith Green

 

Jer.17:5-10

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who draws strength from mere flesh

and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;

they will not see prosperity when it comes.

They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.

7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in him.

8 They will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.”

9 The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

10 “I the Lord search the heart

and examine the mind,

to reward each person according to their conduct,

according to what their deeds deserve.”

Rain Rhapsody

 

I was going to mow lawn this afternoon but

it began to rain...h-m-m. What to do?!!

Some rare extra-poem time, maybe?

to celebrate what we have been watching/praying for

in the weather forecast for weeks!!!

Thank-you, gracious Heavenly Father!

This afternoon the rain plays like a piano and violin-serenade

I like the rain

The way the lane

Is dappled with its drops

The way its runnels slip and drip

And run and plip and plop

I like the way it puddles in

The double-chins of earth

And how we sense

In nature’s thirst quencher

Immense rebirth

I like the glimmer on the grass

The shimmer of a sheaf

Forlorn, before

The splish and splash

Restored the drooping leaf

I like the swooshing sound, that hisses

Beneath traffic rush

The stinging pelt,

The velvet kisses

Whisp’ring hush, hush, hush

I like the rain

Silver-note strains

That lilt and laugh and glide

And wash the world

With hymns unfurled

On town and countryside

...and when they halt

I like the way earth's vault,

is filled with praise

Of feathered throng song exalting

The kind Creator's ways 

© Janet Martin

Imagine if God didn't send rain until all people who have sinned against Him repent?!

From 1 Kings 8:35-36 (From Solomon's prayer of dedication)

“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain 

because your people have sinned against you, 

and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name

 and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, 

36 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. 

Teach them the right way to live, 

and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.

Between Becoming and Became

It's been a whirlwind of special occasions and celebrations recently!

Convocation Ceremony

(proud parent-moment💗)

Congratulations, Victoria!

Below shot blurred for privacy sake; birthday celebrations

with two young men who used to be in my childcare💖

(photo courtesy of their mom/host)

Birthday Picnic with Grand-kiddos

to celebrate their mom's/our daughter's birthday

Missing all the fun is school-age brother!

He is counting the days to the end of June😂

Hello, new today! I sure wonder what wonders you will spill!

The earth is singing its heart out after a much needed rain!!

releasing/reviving petal-pleasure!

Gold melts away deep shadow-gray; today bursts into bloom...

Wow! a busy-dizzy morning has turned

what began as an early morning post into noon-post!!😅😘

Gold melts away deep shadow-gray; today bursts into bloom

A flower held while being felled; flickers of blush and blue

Soon to become part of a sum no finesse can exhume

As we collect what only retrospect has access to

…where how we love will always prove the measure of the heart

Where how we live will always give ‘reap what we sowed’ return

While what yet waits pushes at gates that only God can part

While we proceed where want and need will always feed and yearn

Hello, today! I hope, nay, pray as you slip out of reach

That, as you test our humble best with what yet waits to be

As Goodness grants a whole new chance to learn what you will teach

I pray that you will turn into a lovely memory

A flower felled while being held unravels rose and thorn

A rush of green tucked in between Becoming and Became

A twinkle in time’s eye, a sigh of summer-leaf soon borne

From overhead to gently wed with footfalls none can tame

© Janet Martin

1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, 

do it all to the glory of God.

Ephesians 5:20
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything

 in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

pretty peony at my friend's house!

There Is No Other Place (in all the world so dear to me)

Yesterday evening we attended a hymn sing at our church;

*(click link then the Hymn Sing link)

an evening dedicated to opening the hymn books in the pews 

and singing with the accompaniment of piano and organ only, 

and four part harmony that seemed like it should have brought the house down!!

Awesome foretaste of Heaven!??😊

(* also, if you click on this link you will hear 

a young woman's heartfelt reasons for her love of hymns, 

You will be treated to some special features as well:

a violin solo, 

a men's quartet 

and an organ solo!!)

I love many new worship songs as well!

Below are a few of my 'newish' favs...

Goodness of God

All of our Tomorrows

Make Room

Is He Worthy?

Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me

Greater is He

Shadow of Shaddai (Psalm 91)

...but oh, these wonderful new songs can never entirely replace the old hymns

often inspired by great adversity and trial!

And, as one song leader stated, the older we grow,

and the more we experience

the more we identify with many of them!

Below, just a few of my personal favourite hymns...

We couldn't sing all of them last night;

(there are enough to fill eternity! hallelujah!!)

Hallelujah! What a Saviour

Rock of Ages

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Nearer My God to Thee

Be Thou My Vision

Wonderful Words of Life

Lead Me To Calvary

I've come to the conclusion that music is a bit like traveling;

The new songs are like visiting sights and places new to us,

and they fill us with awe

and worship for our Creator,

but the old songs are like coming home!

Like familiar faces, like arms outstretched in warm welcome

to home, sweet home

 that never grows old!

Before we sang Lead me to Calvary

The song leader asked 'have we been there?

He has and

there's no other place so dear!'

This comment inspired today's poem

***

There is no other place so dear in all the world to me

No other place can calm and cheer my soul, like Calvary

For there, beneath the bloodstained tree where pardon’s payment fell

There Jesus conquered death for me, and saved my soul from hell

There is no other place in all the world, to make me whole

No other place where grace unfurls hope’s anchor for the soul

Here blood-streams bridge the damning Fall that brought to Eden, shame

Here, Salvation is free to all who call upon His name

There is no other dearer place in all the world to me

I feel His blood drops on my face, I hear His dying plea

‘Father forgive, deliver,’ …the bloody sword falls; I cry

‘Father forgive’ redemption’s river gushes in reply

There is no other place as wonderful as Calvary

No other solace thwarts the pull of Jealous Enemy

As I behold the Conqueror that death could not destroy

As I behold my dear Saviour, I weep and sing for joy

…and press anew toward faith’s Prize I could never afford

So undeserved, its fortune lies beneath my bloodstained sword

And nothing in this world can ever be dearer to me

Than the place where grace was unfurled; the cross of Calvary

© Janet Martin

Earlier this past week I looked up and listened to this hymn below,

and couldn't help but weep! 

Once I was that lost sheep, but now I am found

At Calvary!

Still so many lost sheep though, right?!!

Let's not grow weary in praying!

The Ninety and Nine-Eddie Harrison

Luke 15:1-7

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.

 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, 

“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 Then Jesus told them this parable:

 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. 

Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country 

and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. 

Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says,

 ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 

7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven 

over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons 

who do not need to repent.

Awesome, Awesome Anchor

Lam.3:21-24

Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope;

22 Because of the Lord’s great love 

we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, 

“The Lord is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him.”

With renewed joy our eyes feast on the skies where this morning

the smoke haze has dissipated and we can see clouds!

Oh, the things we take for granted!

Lord, pray we never breeze over Thy bounty of blessings

that anchor the soul!

It crowns the cross of creature care with vision’s from above

It transforms Sense of Duty with the beauty of true love

It fuels faith and kindles prayer and makes our joy complete

It keeps eyes fixed upon a prize beyond time’s one-way street

It fits us with the armor that equips us for the fight

Into the darkest hour gleams its everlasting Light

From fear it gathers courage as it draws us from despair

To comforts us and cheers us in our trek from here to There

It conquers greed and fulfills need and helps love suffer long

It leads in paths of righteousness and feeds souls with its song

It awes us as we realize the cost God sacrificed

To keep us in His perfect peace; it is our hope, through Christ

© Janet Martin

Heb.6:18-20

Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, 

we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.

19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. 

It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 

20where Jesus our forerunner has entered on our behalf. 

He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

 1 Peter 1:3 ~ 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

 According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again 

to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Psalm 43:5

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? 

and why art thou disquieted within me?

 hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, 

who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 39:7

And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.

Psalm 62:5

Rest in God alone, O my soul, for my hope comes from Him.

On Christ, The Solid Rock I Stand