Showing posts with label discipleship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discipleship. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

As We Press Toward the Goal

Dawn’s hoists its mast, ahoy, we cast off to another day
Who knows, but our Captain the full of its come-what-may...

Some of my come-what-may suddenly needs to include a grocery run
when a sudden discovery is made that the household
is in short supply of bathroom tissue!
Nothing quite commands our attention like an empty roll😅😂




It's another frigid and blustery 'ahoy' in southern Ontario


 I LOVE this song as regular readers over the years, may guess😅🙏


Life sometimes tests our focus as we press toward the goal
Its Glance of Circumstances sometimes blinds us to the Whole
Where Time is like a Barge, heaped with its charge of creature care
And we are like the crew, appointed to our sacred share
Of doing our part to serve, first God, then fellowman
And not to grumble at the task, but do the best we can
With humble recognition of that Final Port of Call
When we will meet the Captain and give account for it all

Sometimes we become disillusioned by That Which Is Not
And seeds of discontentment may start to sprout in our thought
And sometimes we forget, in the belly of much-to-do
The Captain’s main concern is for the welfare of the crew
And though his methods of correction may vex you and me
He never fails; his love is steadfast as steadfast can be
A hand upon the shoulder and an anchor for the Soul
To fit us for each tumult, as we press toward the goal

Dawn’s hoists its mast, ahoy, we cast off to another day
Who knows, but our Captain the full of its come-what-may
But if we trust His promises and follow His command
He will not let us blow off course or wallow in quicksand
Though sometimes we are puzzled by the strategies He takes
To reel in our focus till the last stubborn hold breaks
Then, as we surrender both want and will to His control
We will be of good courage as we press toward the Goal

© Janet Martin


Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling,
 set your focus on Jesus, 
the apostle and high priest whom we confess.

Lord, lest we who ought to by now be anchored unwaveringly in the faith
we confessed as a child, 
lest we wallow in doubt and disillusionment,
and neglect to teach by setting a mature, humble and godly example  
for our children and grandchildren as we ought,
adjust our focus where needful, to remain fixed on you, 
and not the Glance of Circumstance!
Amen

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Thank God For Truth

 Tell Me the Old, Old Story




Thank God for faithful fathers
Who steadfastly uphold
The truth that does not falter
From age to age retold

Thank God for faithful mothers
Who teach children to pray
To love God and each other
To trust Him, and obey

Thank God for faithful children
Who love Him in their youth
Seeking firstly, His kingdom
Of righteousness and truth

Thank God for faithful foll’wers
Who do not doubt and stray
But bear truth’s torch so others
May find and know the Way

Thank God for Truth abiding
Divine and absolute
For those, rightly dividing
The word that yields good fruit

© Janet Martin

2 Tim.2:15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God,
 a worker who does not need to be ashamed,
 rightly dividing the word of truth.

Saturday, August 7, 2021

We Are More Than People...

My sister's family went from the house of mourning on Thursday
 to the house of joy on Friday,
My brother-in-law, Father of the bride, 
brother of the man laid to rest the day before
opened the wedding service with this verse,
'This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it!'
Psalm 118;24

My niece's wedding yesterday was beautiful.
The bittersweet blend of joy and sorrow
touched the ceremony, rich with profound exhortation from God's Word
reminding us of His order in both marriage and life.

My Uncle, during the ceremony, recounted a day when he went to the clinic
to find out if the cancer-treatments he received helped .
When the Doctor said, 'you are a new man. your cancer is gone!'
his emotional response was 'you have been a vessel in the hands of the Lord. God is good'
Then he went on to say he couldn't help but wonder if his response would have been the
same with a different result. The point he wanted to emphasize is that God is good all the time
in sickness and in health, in joy or grief 
and to remind the young bride and groom (and all of us)
to try to remember this truth, no matter what life brings!

The words 'you have been a vessel in the hands of the Lord' struck a chord!
How often we buzz and bumble through our days
forgetting we are vessels in the hands of the Lord!

When Ananias was called to go and baptize Saul he was confused,
because Saul had persecuted Christians!
 The Lord reminded him in Acts 9:15-16
“Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name 
before Gentiles, kings, and the children[c] of Israel. 
For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

Paul, not long after encouraged and exhorted 
believers in the church of Corinth with this reminder;
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, 
to show that the surpassing power 
belongs to God and not to us. 
 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; 
perplexed, but not driven to despair; 
 persecuted, but not forsaken; 
struck down, but not destroyed; 
 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, 
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 
 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, 
 that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Lots to ponder as we return to what could seem quite commonplace
if we lose sight of who/what we are!

We are more than jars filled with beans and pickles, 
hallelujah! 😊



We are more than people born to life’s demands
We are vessels cradled in God’s faithful hands

Belief and repentance call us to obey
Where more than allegiance fills these jars of clay

An unfailing treasure; God’s surpassing pow’r
Cascades without measure through man’s fading flow’r

Through Soul’s transient trestles, pours faith’s glorious laud
To we, chosen vessels in the hands of God

Then what holy, true love instills commonplace
As we bear the call of sinners saved by grace

Praise the name of Jesus; by his darkest hour
We are vessels filled with God’s surpassing pow’r

Mercy’s priceless measure meets us where we are
To pour His good treasure into faith’s clay jar

© Janet Martin

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Love's Kind Command

PAD Challenge 19: Today is our third Two-for-Tuesday prompt day. 
Pick one prompt for your poem today, or write a poem for each prompt, 
or write one poem that works with both. Today’s prompts are:
  1. Write a protagonist poem, and/or…
  2. Write an antagonist poem.

 We are wired to like to know...
God's love commands us to trust.
How can we learn to trust?
First we need to learn to listen to the still small voice,
then we need to learn to surrender our will/obey
only then will we be able to trust.



We could not but for mercy’s Hand
Face what not one of us can see
Lord, help us trust love's kind command
To all disciples, ‘follow me’

There is an enemy that lurks
And seeks to thwart and lead astray
He distracts us from righteous works
With what at first glance seems okay

Lust rules with want and taunts with fear
Unlike the Love that sets us free
And guides our step, comforts our tear
And whispers gently ‘follow me’

Then like the twelve, teach us to trust
And heed love’s call to ‘follow me’
For we can do all things we must
Through Christ who strengthens faithfully

© Janet Martin

 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
  Phil.4:13

  “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
Matt 4:19

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

By This One Thing...




Not in great knowledge we may boast
Nor by the words we say
Not through stiff laws that we enforce
Nor lengthy prayers we pray
Not by the wisdom we may glean
Or monetary gifts
No, this is not what will be seen
By hungry souls adrift

Not by the food we choose to eat
Nor by our clothes or car
Not through some grand and glorious feat
Will men know who we are
Not by a staunch, religious show
Of solemn piety
No, this is not how they will know
Who follows faithfully

Not by a ceremonial chant
Or what we’ve sacrificed
Nor by tradition’s rigid rant
Will we be recognized
But by one trait and one alone
We prove our difference
After the chaff from wheat has blown
Remains the evidence

And by this humble surety
Will be the single proof
Of they who follow faithfully
And do not stand aloof
Not by some impassable request
Will we reflect our Father
But purely, clearly, simply this

© Janet Martin

What is Love?