I got a precious and prized Thank you note from Pastor Martin,

after the fudge, stating that he couldn't eat the fudge and that he had received alot of confections for the holidays, but that he really appreciated the effort and the affections that sent it. I was very glad to receive such a correspondence and probably wouldn't have remembered the occasion, if he had eaten the fudge. Honest and intentional and discriminating in his pastoral affections was a deliberate action to Pastor Martin. I do appreciate the efforts for my soul that were expressed. They did much, to impress my soul of the multidimensional facets of the love of God. I know that that was the intent.

I made my very first batch of fudge for the first Christmas at Trinity.

It was a mystical trip to a far away land for us. We had traveled so far outside of our comfort zone. I really felt convicted of the Holy Spirit to give what I had to those who labored for our souls.
The Elders there had nurtured such a relationship of sheep to shepherd that you felt that you could nearly see the labors that they were doing on our behalf. It was like taking the box off of a motor. You could see the gears moving. You could pray specifically for them in their work of instructing and guiding. The work of breaking forth the Word to us was not taken for granted. We prayed at prayer meeting for God to meet with us on His Day and instruct us and to break through the human limitations of sloth and self serving to give us real benefit from the fellowship of one with another. It seemed and was tangible and a seed of faith growing in our souls. All that I could bring was my fledgling abilities to cook some fudge. It was my favorite and I gave what I could. I was blessed to receive and I gave whatever else I could.
God had given knitted hearts to brethren from other cultures and places and we were apprectiative that although we had left father and mother and sisters and brethren, God had given us of Himself and fellowship with other of like mind.

Hezekiah's clean up of the Temple

Tracing the path of Joy through the OT. Pastor’s sermon on Hezekiah, showed me much of what God placed in that portion of Scripture. I only think about Hez as the man that compromised his faith and sought repentance and won 15 extra years of life, in mercy. I really didn’t notice the passage that Pastor remarked about until a couple of weeks ago. I had read it, but I hadn’t noticed the joy that was restored to God’s people through the ministry of Hezekiah. A king that had a heart for God and God gave him the gift of joy and it says that there had not been joy like that in Israel since the temple was built in Solomon’s day. Sacrifices were made such that they had to hire people other than the Levites to process the sacrifices. What an amazing revelation of God’s true gifts to His people. We look at the gifts of gold and frankenscense and myrrh and stuff around the tree as gifts. But God, gave to these people something that was felt and noted in scripture as a better gift than the wealth that there was in Solomon’s day. Wealth has its place and God does give even that to people richly to enjoy. He lavishes and enjoys the wealth of the beauty of His creation and said each day of creation that it was good. He joys and comes present and basks, as it were in the praises of His people. He is rich with those praises from His redeemed creation. That is a song that no other portion of creation can raise and the scripture states that God inhabits it. He expects us to note the presence and the absence of joy in the midst of the people and seek it when absent. Something that is very hard to ascertain in some ways. I have been in places where the music and the beauty of praise of God was there and the joy of the Lord was not. I have been in places where there were no instruments and not a trained voice in the bunch and the joy of the Lord was most evident. God gives us discernment. Making His praise glorious can have much to do with as it were “tuning our hearts to sing His praise” “ Streams of mercy calling for sounds of loudest praise.” If God has taught us the sonnet, we should sing it with trained or untrained voices. Let us not be deceived by the beauty of the sound. Let us not be deceived by the riches of the things that we posess as the children of Israel may have been and then get surprised when it is said of us,there was no joy in the camp from this time to that time, and we were not aware. Let us offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving to God and stoke those flames daily lest the muck and mire of the garbage thrown in the temple keep our hearts from truly giving Him the glory. Choirs of angelic voices and orchestras of the most beautiful arrangements cannot replace the joy of the Lord, in the midst of the people of God. When God is praised, the most special gift that He bestows is the joy of the Lord. It is our strength. When we were without strength…We know that Jesus died for us. Also there is a return that He receives for the gifts that He gives. Rejoicing and praise, the sacrifice of praise in difficulty, sometimes through blinding tears. And the liberty of praise, whether loud or quiet undimmed by human dismay and grief is something to truly enjoy. God enters into that. God gives strength for the weary and rejoicing to His people in the midst of every circumstance.

In introduction...~Pastor Martin... III

We were introduced to Pastor Martin the first time. It was a while after our having gone to the church. A young married couple seeking direction to stay married and become a godly family. I was, a fearful person of these people and not aggressive in socialization. My husband, on the other hand was, blessedly affected by the preaching. He was aware that it was directive and concentrated preaching from the Word of God. Because of our upbringing of integration, we had no limits to the lengths that we would go for spiritual food that would give us what we needed. We had figured that, if we had gone to the "ends of the earth" for mental development and education, does not God deserve more of us than that. God did. 6am we woke to travel from Queens to Mid New Jersey for the best preaching and teaching systematic theology and churchmanship and pastoral instruction, that I believe there could have been on the earth. Why we did what we did was explained and proven from scripture and even if we didn't agree we were carried in our consciences that this was a conviction from scripture. Ben went to Pastor Martin and said, somewhat idolizing, yet innocently, "Didn't our hearts burn within us..." Pastor Martin rebuked him sharply, the only thing he could do at such a statement. Hey man, I am not Jesus! was the gist of his response. The instruction was taken to heart and over our time there we would learn that he was mature in the Lord, but certainly not a perfect man and no one is worthy of the praise, but God. Respect, yes, but praise, no. I was the other type of sheep. No idolatry for me. You are just a tool of the Lord and as far as I was concerned, I didn't even want to say hello to such a great man. He could have thought that I was being impolite, but he chose to see shyness. He noticed this also and never let me get back to Queens without a greeting. No matter which door I snuck out of. Godly care was evident on both ends of the spectrum, as was our experience. That is not an easy thing to do.
Distinguished and gifted can be scary and intimidating to people. There can be people who would never have socialized together, except for the grace of God. God used some of the distinguished Christian men in my acquaintance to heal my heart and give me some different pictures of God other than austere and unswerving. I could see gracious and even condescending in some of the experiences of interacting with godly men throughout my life. Fathers and brothers and uncles and other godly relationships that the Lord restored to me, did much to draw me to a more well rounded view of God as the father, teacher, healer, deliverer, friend...
I am indeed grateful and am sure I would have turned away by now from the initial view of God that I had developed in my mind, even from reading the scriptures, minus the godly examples that the Lord tossed my way to direct my thinking from the eskewed views that I had developed. I saw, initially only militant and warrior God. He is so much more merciful, than militant...

Thy work not mine, O Lord!

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new like the dew. David was rejecting man worship, in a way that Herod, in the New Testament did not. When the people spoke to Herod and said this man speaks like a God, He did not give the glory to the Lord.
They sang of David, Saul has killed his thousands... and David his ten-thousands. This would have killed most men in their pride. David, though, was aware of the motive of idolatry that makes men go beyond the bounds to honor their leader. He, in response poured that kind glory to the Lord alone. He poured, as it were, a drink offering to the Lord. Sometimes our children may honor us more than is due. Sometimes students or those of lesser station may hear our hearts bearing witness of a need or want and they may go beyond the bounds of reason to grant that request. Mary did with Jesus. Only because He was the Lord of Glory could He have received such a pouring out of human emptying, in public. I really can't think of any other situation where that would be appropriate. Jesus is God and worthy of all of the glory. We can receive praise and respect to a point, but we must give all the glory to the Lord who made us and redeemed our souls.
The rich young ruler was deceived into believing that he could be good enough for God. People tell rich people this. We are guilty of coddling people or manipulating people in their sensitive consciences. Steven Curtis Chapman wrote, It is Your World Lord!
In a sense he was saying, what am I supposed to do about all of the mass of human need and my sense of ability in some sense and yet inability in another sense. There are billions of people who would or could use what I could give them. That song takes me to the people and reminds me that it is never wrong to pray about the mass of human need. Only God can meet all of the human needs. The greatest king and the best mother could never meet all of her children's or subjects needs.
Guilt is not what God wants for us. Making real attempts at usefulness and aid and having plans and planners for the needs that we can meet and prayer for the needs that are beyond us. I love the fact that in the Valley of Decision, it shows that the boss knew that he was being held responsible for his employee's infirmity and was being cursed daily by that man in his grief. His response was respect and care for the man as much as possible and doing what he could to promote moving ahead and forward with a good conscience. This is My Father's World, not mine.

Jesus, called the rich young ruler into fellowship with Himself by offering Him a relationship. Sell what you have and follow me. That was only due to Him because He was the Lord of Glory. The demoniac on the other hand begged to be with Jesus and Jesus denied him. God became sin for us, that we, whoever we are, rich or poor, Redeemed clean or redeemed demoniac, should have the peace of God and own the righteousness of God through Christ. No strings attached.
Dec. 6, 2009

The Things that I learned from Pastor Martin.II

We were a motley pair and so very different. He showed us, by example the ability to keep an equivolent distance between yourself and whoever it is you come in contact. I tease that he and Ben have no sense of personal space and that does come from being in and about a large family where there is no such thing as personal space. But, he seemed to know how to push the dashing sheep to an appropriate distance lovingly and draw the fearful sheep to a closer proximity. Ben and I were opposites in socializing. I ran like the plague from any proximity to intimacy that there could be. Ben ran into it. He told Ben, in a kind way, this is my personal interactive space and here is the line, and yet with me, he seemed to bid me to come nearer. No way! No Way! It took years to build the shepherd sheep intimacy that was allowed us as members of that local body for me. My baggage, is my excuse. He saw my baggage and slowly, like a shepherd tried to chip away at it.
That is godliness. The wicked, lay upon their beds and try to devise plans to take advantage and the godly (especially shepherds) chew the cud of the personality of the sheep and what might benefit them.
There were personal attempts to address me in my seeming shyness. There were public remarks made, not directly about me, but about controversial subjects that might spark some sort of emotional response. Where are you? He seemed to say. That is a shepherd in the introduction. Where are you and if I can see where you are teaching you how to interact with himself in an appropriate way.
Probably, many people are like that. It just seems unusual to me because I was so injured at the time.
I can see that God was doing the same thing in my soul. Speaking my language to teach me His.

Proverbs 8 verses 34-36 Meditations - It's Me, O Lord...Standing in the need of Prayer.

Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. The Lord shows His love and mercy to those who make it the business of their souls to honor Him in their practice. Going to worship Him. Giving to the Kingdom of the Lord. When a person sins against the Word of the Lord, that is the sin of loving death. It is so dangerous to be those whose responsibility it is to work in the cutting room of the Word of the Lord. Making meals for those whose hearts have come to worship the King of Glory. As when the priest went in, unprepared and he died, that is the loving of death. When we make merchandise of the Word of God, we are the ones most in danger of loving death. Death to our souls can ensue and we may not even know it. It is almost as though, the ones who teach the Word of the LOrd have the most privy to the disentery, than those who eat it. The devil, himself sets up shop in the workshop of the Word of God to cut it in a way to damn men's souls. Annanias and Saphira lied to the Holy Ghost and their lot was death. Those who lie to the Holy Ghost and make merchandise of the people of God are the ones most in danger of loving death. There is help and healing for every sin of the soul and all who come to God in repentance can find cleansing and healing and mercy. But those who eat the flesh of the people of God, may be blinded to their own infirmity and love death and not know it until that day. Proverbs 8:36

The Blessed Man in verse 34 is seen listening to the LOrd and listening for the Lord. Where are You? He is saying. These obtain favor from the Lord. The imagination of David as being in deep thought and yet thinking about the Lord in that thought is a true one. How much else we can get caught up in, other than the goodness of the LOrd. All the more the more family that we have. We can spend our time thinking how to sow discord in the family unit. We can think about what someone else has that we don't have. David thought about all of those things in the light of the goodness of God. That is a discipline and a nurture of thought. Not what God has not given me, but what God has given me when He has given others that. That is finding life. Finding life in the circumstances that God has given to me. Am I a king? I can be humbled in the thought that God has given to me the privilege of shining His goodness in reflecting His mercy in my kingliness. Am I a pauper? I can reflect that God has given me the privilege of reflecting the humility of His Son coming to save us from our sins. God, in Christ has salvation for all stations in life, not just for the rich and those who can buy the Gospel. All stations. Listen for His Word in the place where I am.

Things that I learned from Pastor Martin!

There is a man, other than my father, whose name I call just about every day. Although we spent many days under the shepherding care of so very many men, I have recently had reason to glorify God for the specific lessons of grace and mercy through the ministry of this one. I pray that now that he is retired, I will be enabled by God to shed some light on the purposeful ministry that did much to instruct my soul.
Like a child, much of the disciplines that I had seen in Pastor Martin, at the time did not seem pleasant but burdensome, yet, in retrospect they have gleaned much in the way of edification and I do hope that the relationship of sheep to shepherd would help and guide my children to know some of the ingredients of the things that I attempt to pass along to them. These things are a posession of the soul, which no thief can steal, but it can be horded and not passed along. I cannot talk enough to tell them of the many relationships that God has used to bless my soul.

I. The Introduction of the Shepherd.
a. careful approach
b. small guidance given initially
c. waiting for a response from the sheep
d. small increments of familiarity developed
e. building a give and take relationship
f. improving communication regularly

I came to Jesus just as I was, Weary, Worn and Sad. I found in Him a resting place and He has made me glad.

Introduction of the Shepherd



A newly wed and with much baggage, but a great love for God and His Word, we became enamored with the reformed doctrines and the ministry of Trinity Baptist Church. It would have been easy for a person to just accept our fanclub like relationship and leave it there. In this day of idol making, it is easy or would have been easy to stand aloof from a real shepherding relationship with us, in leu of an easy distant tutorial, professor, student relationship. Pastor Martin didn't accept that from us. We learned about real relating shepherd to sheep...