Showing posts with label temptation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label temptation. Show all posts

Monday, October 23, 2023

Of First Glances




If all was as pure as fall-morning's delight when earth is dipped in frost
First glance could indulge its appetite without ever weighing the cost

But Guile preys on First Glance, it seems, to captivate its prey
 Then test the quests that Want esteems with very subtle sway

 For all is not pure as fall-morn's delight, when earth is dipped in frost
Where first glance indulges its appetite without ever weighing the cost




At first glance, Guile seems to tick the right boxes
A fine façade can play tricks on the eye
But oh, my dear, be on guard for sly foxes
Tickling Thought’s tendrils of reason awry

Study the fruit of the tree, trace its branches
Past the entrancing sigh of wind through leaves
Past the impressions offered to first glances
Past the distraction attraction achieves

Guile, though it smiles, is still, just a smooth-talker
Sin, clothed in lamb’s wool does not make it pure
Vice, masquerading as Nice, is a mocker
Tempting gullible first glance with its lure

…that seems at First-Glance to tick the right boxes
Making us second guess That Still Small Voice
Whispering, ‘Oh! be aware of sly foxes
Teasing Thought’s tendrils of reason to Choice

© Janet Martin







When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food 
and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, 
she took some and ate it. 
Gen.3:6

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, 
our vineyards that are in bloom.
Song of Solomon 2:15



 

Friday, April 12, 2019

The Art of Temptation...

PAD Challenge day 12: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “The Art of (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem




Thought presents a small suggestion
Just a whim, ever-so-slight
Then it softens shock with logic
That would justify one bite

Thoughts defends with good intention
To soothe Guilt with Reason’s ruse
Where This Master of Invention
Hones the old art of Excuse

Then, before Conscience can triumph
Over evil’s well-dressed vice
Thought entices with nice visions
That will blind us to the price

Preying on Want’s thirst for pleasure
Thought twists truth, ever-so-slight
As its tests the best-laid logic
With the promise of delight

© Janet Martin


Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Desire, Without Second Thought...Oh!!!


 This morning to someone who slept in I suggested turning in a little earlier at night remarking,
"I know it feels nice at the time but it often is not worth it in the morning" 
and I was struck how this applies to most things that please first glance or natural inclination...
and we all have something/things we struggle with at some point/points!



Face value often-times betrays
Seducing us in wily ways
For gaze is eager to indulge
On pleasantries sight will divulge
And as we covet its delight
Oh, soon we yearn to try a bite
Then when we try a bite we earn
The consequence of its return
So we should discern (not with eyes)
If what we desire is wise

This training ground for what remains
Tests want and will with subtle chains
Beware; lest fare that freedom craves
Is that which in the end enslaves
For Vice appears so nice, oh my,
In colours pleasing to the eye
As Endeavor is caught off guard
Sound Choice seems just a bit too hard
Charmed by the teasing, pleasing form
That takes a ling’ring look by storm

Deception cons Want with decoys
First glance perceives as promised joys
Desire without second thought
Ah, what disaster it has brought
Where face-value often betrays
Seducing us with wily ways
As what appeared so nice before
Is the costume Temptation wore
And gaze was eager to indulge
The pleasantries it might divulge

© Janet Martin

 Do not love the world or anything in the world. 
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—
is not from the Father but from the world.  
The world is passing away along with its desires, 
but whoever does the will of God remains forever. 
1 John 2:15-17

Worth our while just to listen to the first sentence in the video below!
(of course, then hopefully we are 'tempted' to listen to the rest!
Isn't good Temptation The BEST!!?)



Thursday, April 19, 2018

The Poet's Vice

For yesterday’s prompt, write a temptation poem.

The sun setting across ice-shards stopped this poet mid dishwashing!!

Inkwells cupped by earth and heavens
Can seduce the bard mid-step
Temptation is shaped in shimmers
Of Poem not written yet

Color mistrals flare and capsize 
What if no one snares the gold
That turns twilight into treasures
That only Poem can hold

Janet~






Wednesday, April 18, 2018

To We Who Are Tempted...

PAD Challenge day 18: For today’s prompt, write a temptation poem.

Yielding to temptation is the mother of sin Gen. 3
Jesus was tempted and sinned not. Luke 4
 We are all tempted.
Temptation is not the problem...
but what we do with it might possibly be!


We are masters
Of Invention
When temptation
Needs excuse
My, but somehow
Human weakness
Finds a vice
It can't refuse

We are creatures
Born to habit
Temptation
Dangles its bait
But it never
Ever forces
Anyone to
Take a bite

Eve, for all
The trees in Eden
Lusted for
Forbidden fruit
Took a bite
Gave some to Adam
And from there
Sin's seed took root

Don't you hate it
When first morning
Meets its golden
Sunshine mark
...and the 'crumbs'
Of 'secret snacking'
Looked much better
In the dark

Janet Martin~







Thursday, January 25, 2018

Of Wily Want...

...and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. 
This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, 
and is already in the world at this time.
They are of the world. 
That is why they speak from the world’s perspective,
and the world listens to them.…
1 John 4:3-5 


I planned to peg a quickie today but it seemed another Hand kept pushing mine!
I'm over-whelmed with concern sometimes when I think about the world
 our precious, precious 'littles' are growing up in...


People teaching lies (with an eternal impact) that they believe are truth; 
Trying to teach youngsters not to lie, with a lie!
Why? Some have perhaps never been taught the Truth  

 

Sometimes I feel a sad sort of sympathy
 for country-leaders who seem unaware of what they do not know...
'cause maybe they only know what their daddies taught them!
As long as Bibles stay closed how is anyone armed with Truth?!
Without God's Word in our heart how do we battle the Tempter, full of lies?


What a wily Want, temptation
Fills the mind with silky sigh
Where thought’s wild imagination
Tricks the heart into a lie

Ignorance is like a cancer
Feeding on Moral Decay
Looking for another answer
Rather than the One True Way

Sad, the bane that follows after
The Deceiver does not care
Not in vain his heinous laughter
Sets a sugar-coated snare

Distraction is like pink frosting
Disguising death’s poisoned bite
Sample craves sample, thus costing
Loss of Wholesome Appetite

Without Truth, love has no basis
While the seeker of it chases
Hope, like rolling tumbleweed

Wanders the earth to and fro
Seeking who he may devour
Luring victims with The Show

What a wily, heartless hunter
After he is satisfied
Leaves his prey with howling hunger
In the street where wisdom cried

Run! Death’s cold, cunning tormentor
Tests the best of you and I
Robed as an angel, the Tempter
Tricks the heart into a lie

Beams His Light into heart-altars
Heaped with ashes of Want’s strife

© Janet Martin


 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains would tremble before you!
 As when fire sets twigs ablaze
    and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
    and cause the nations to quake before you! 
 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
    you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 
 Since ancient times no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
Isa.64:1-4 


Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Surefire Rebuttal



 In spite of resolutions resolved, prayers prayed, promises promised,
Ultimately,only one thing combats temptation; Just.Don't.


When we meet with sweet temptation
And we think we might give in
Here is one surefire weapon
That will keep us from its sin
Don’t do it

When our rigid resolutions
Seem to weaken, one by one
Until giving in feels human
And its pay-off –no harm done
Don’t do it

When the banter of the devil
Disguises evil as good
There is one no-fail acquittal
That has test of time withstood
Just. Don’t do it

© Janet Martin


 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
 James 1:13-15