Showing posts with label mercy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mercy. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Beneath a Rush of Rose and Gold



A glorious spring-like morning 
can't help but rouse a humble tip o' the poet's hat
to the Giver

Wishing/praying God's blessing of joy to you today!
(my extra-special joy comes today in the form
of two little girls who used to be in my childcare!)



Earth’s ridges reappear beneath a rush of rose and gold
Birds warble welcome-hymns of cheer where days to years run bold
From the hand of the Giver like a bud bursting with hope
Like a gleam-giddy river as the snow melts from the slope
Light eddies into nooks and crooks like ocean-surge run wild
It overflows the air like brooks, like laughter of a child
And suddenly, like lambs in spring, faith leaps with joy, reborn
Beneath the rush of mercy’s Wing, the night is turned to morn

© Janet Martin

Acts 17:24-31

The God who made the world and everything in it 
is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 
25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything.
 Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 
26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; 
and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, 
though he is not far from any one of us. 
28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b
As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, 
we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—
an image made by human design and skill. 
30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, 
but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 
31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. 
He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”




Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Morning (or Afternoon) Minuet



I needed to head out before I got this morning's post up...
Better late than never😅💗


I 'adopted' a bit of Anne of Green Gables' logic this morning
as I headed outdoors for my morning 'commune' with
my Heavenly Father...


In Ontario we are accustomed to white landscapes in February
making this year's gray-blue-bronze panoramas seem sort of surreal! 




The music of a new day starts to play upon the air
Earth emerges from beneath the soft surge of morning-tide
Where something like a greeting hymn and something like a prayer
Erases slumber’s eulogy from waking countryside

Hope’s precedence persuades us to face forward and look up
And bids us by the grace of God, once more to hoist faith’s cup
And trust Him for whatever spills to overflow its brim

Then sing to Him, whose love anoints/appoints each virgin steppingstone 
And bow before the one whose perfect will, will lead the way
And worship He who shepherds us through valleys of Unknown 
And trust the Hand that orchestrates each moment of each day

The music of a new day crescendos and fills the sky 
A little like a lilting celestial serenade
Or like a welkin minuet that kindles love's reply
With raised voices, to rejoice in this day the Lord has made 


© Janet Martin

Psalm 5:3
My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; 
In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.


Psalm 59:16
But I will sing of Your strength 
and proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning.
 For You are my fortress, 
my refuge in times of trouble.




Lamentations 3:22-23
English Standard Version

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[a]
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

This Life Is Full of Lovely Things (in a much-amiss world)

To sun-rise starved Southern Ontarion-ers this morning's stunner
was like a sweet elixir to the soul!


Beneath a rush of blushing wings
A fresh start is unfurled...







This life is filled with lovely things
The fresh start that each new day brings
As dawn unfolds translucent wings
Where God prolongs Time’s grace
Child’s laughter to set hearts aglow
Gardens asleep beneath the snow
Waiting for spring to steal the show
As bud-looms burst with lace

This life is filled with countless joys
Mischievous pups and little boys
The beauty each season deploys
To leave us humbly awed
With handiwork by God designed
Then etched, splashed, pearled, swirled and entwined
Like surprises we thrill to find
On sky and sea and sod

This life is filled with wondrous ways
God wills and grants to gladden days
And turn would-be lament to praise
And weight of want to love
Where learning’s tattered lesson-book
Is brightened by bird-song, a brook
And God-ness, everywhere we look
(If we look long enough)

…where life is full of you and me
And Today’s opportunity
A hand to hold, a friend to be
A tender word to cheer
Each other on, through ups and downs
To be part of the art that crowns
The heart and face with smiles, as frowns
That would-be, disappear

This life, filled with mercies renewed
As morning rends night’s tent, star-strewed
Kindles courage with gratitude
In a much-amiss world
Where life is full of lovely things
To counter cares it surely brings
Beneath dawn's rush of blushing wings
A fresh start is unfurled

© Janet Martin

It was impossible to capture the full scale of the magnitude of the sunrise with
a camera lens. Its colors ran north and south without bound!



I began today's poem yesterday morning before Duty prevailed...
I wonder what yesterday's poem would have been??😅

Yesterday afternoon I was treated to this 'bird-song'
from a treetop symphony!


Before I finished 'yesterday's' poem this morning,
the wonderful Psalm below from today's devotion
began Today with utter loveliness!!

Ps. 130
Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord;
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.

3 If You, Lord, should [a]mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
More than those who watch for the morning—
Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord;
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
8 And He shall redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.

Yesterday's poem-kindling...






Tuesday, December 12, 2023

More than It (December Dawn) Seems...


This morning kicked off its tick-tock shaped sun-kissed socks and shoes
before I was able to complete the poem 
that burst into wanting-to-be shortly after waking...

The beauty of meditation 
and the duty of obligation
 always com/posing stiff competition!

Sometimes a poem culminates best 
not pressed/suppressed by sheer determination
but by releasing its fragments until they return
in whispers begging to be penned.
So it was today...
I began dipping chocolate bars and maybe because my
fingertips were chocolatey and my mind at ease
lines teased and flickered,  begging me to wash my hands
and capture them before they waft irretrievably away 😂🙏

On Saturday's post I forgot to flip over the recipe card 
for homemade Chocolate Bars, to show dipping instructions.
I am sharing the dipping instructions instead,  from Jim's (husbands') aunt.
(who makes perfect chocolate bars every Christmas)
Melt your preferred variety of chocolate (I used semi-sweet blocks)
over LOW heat. 
(put water in a pot and set another pot on top and let  the chocolate melt at 
around 3 or 4 temperature on the burner.)
(add a bit of shortening or Paro-wax for glossier finish.)


Dip and cool!


This morning showcased a most welcome sunrise after a stretch of unsunny dawns!


Dawn seems to wear a prayer-like solemnity where new mercies spill
As heavens pale and lift the veil that yester-dusk lowered until
We couldn’t see December’s close-cropped lea, the dark and leafless copse
Etched in stark magnificence against brilliant, westerly backdrops
That dimmed and disappeared; earth’s tiered sweeps shrouded by a sea
That drew away Today laden with ample opportunity

Dawn seems to sing! Every morning the old is reborn and made new
As mercy grants rekindled chance to learn to love as we ought to
Humbly aware of He who cares and helps us bear our shares of Must
Before we pass through that last door of Soul-to-God and dust to dust
And thus, because life is precious and Time a Very Fleeting Flow’r
Dawn seems to wake an urgent ache to make the most of every hour

….each moment rife with unlived life becoming lived; the untouched, touched
And often we forget what we beget as dawn is crudely crushed
By hands and feet; demands compete and how we meet them will become
Without disguise, the ink that dries in a Book tabling each day’s sum
While ticking clocks keep kicking off the shoes and socks at dawn reborn
And sometimes we are prone to see nothing at all but 'morn-to-morn'

…and often dawn seems here and gone without a second thought or prayer
A gift from God we barely nod at as it drifts, not to thin air
But to a page, where age to age is recording daily reply
Its telling proof spelling the truth that will be futile to deny
Then, pray that want may be subdued by gratitude as mercy streams
Renewed; where dawn is like a glimpse of Heaven bursting at its seams

© Janet Martin

And, let we forget!!!
As true now as in the days of Jeremiah's lament...

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are
 new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.
 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
Lam.3:22-24











Friday, November 17, 2023

Gifted Gravity...

 

2 Cor.6:1-2
As God’s fellow workers,a then, we urge you
not to receive God’s grace in vain.
  2For He says:
“In the time of favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”b
Behold, now is the time of favor;
 now is the day of salvation!



Sometimes, sorrow for lost souls
is almost more than hearts can bear,
But love clings to love's sacred sorrow
and turns its tears to prayer on prayer

***

Night’s dark wave on dawn’s shoreline breaks
Shadows are drawn away
A tide of humanity wakes
To face another day
To tread the Sands of Time that brace
A very sacred Verge
Where morning thunders with God’s grace
Where slumbering masses surge

The Preacher cries in Jesus’ Name
Awake!’ where footsteps roll
Past gaping graves that soon will tame
The dust, but not the Soul
Alas, the House of Prayer, has turned
Into a den of thieves
The faith that saves obtusely spurned
For a handful of leaves/sheaves

The Son is trodden underfoot
Understanding defiled
Where wrong is right and evil good
Opprobrium runs wild
‘Repent, repent!’ The preacher pleads
While the proud crowds rebel
And poison Innocence with creeds
That lead to death and hell

The ears that hear are far and few
So too, the eyes that see
Yet, morning breaks, and stirs anew
Time’s gifted gravity
Light shines into the dark once more
Hope takes a holy breath
Where Sands of Time compose a shore
That cannot withstand death

Behold, Salvation’s Day unfurled
From greatest to the least
Life cries into a dying world
Dawn spills a mercy-feast
Again, the Patient Preacher takes
Love's post most tenderly
For lost souls, on the verge that breaks
Into eternity

© Janet Martin

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise,
 as some understand slowness. 
Instead he is patient with you,
 not wanting anyone to perish, 
but everyone to come to repentance.





Saturday, September 16, 2023

For Modern Day Adams and Eves...


Now the serpent was more crafty
than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
And he said to the woman,
"Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'"

I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning,
your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

Gilt-edged dawns and gold-ambience-dusks
 are two of my favorite September things...
a bit like glimpses of a long-lost garden called Eden.

This poem's potential began a few mornings ago, though I was unable to
wrangle it into verse at the time due to other commitments...






Day wakens, crisp and silver-glossed
Dew glistens, on the fringe of frost
September morning, a showcase
Of mist-sashes and gilt-edged grace
Where modern-day Adams and Eves
Are still prey for he who deceives
And all the progress of the age
Cannot temptation's lures assuage 
Where Eden’s aftermath abounds
With unrelenting battlegrounds
And only God’s armor can stay
The charmer’s cunning ploy and play
Of ‘Did God really say?’ and such
To test the quests of taste and touch
With subtle rebuttals of scorn
For He who metes September’s morn
And tumbles before our eyes
Gilt-edged glimpses of paradise
Where each new day is like a flue
God's goodness ad mercy runs through

© Janet Martin

Ps.23:6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

***

Before we face each day we ought to do an equipment safety check
so we are fitted for battle because
'we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,'...

Eph.6:10-18
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to stand against the [b]wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of [c]the darkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,
having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—

Thursday, August 31, 2023

For His Enduring Mercy...

A Hallelujah Hymn
even if it is the last day of August which makes me kind of sad...

David's hymn of praise for God's enduring mercy in Psalms 136, 
written long before Calvary,
inspired today's hymn, 
written long after Calvary, 
worshiping He whose mercy is everlasting...

Psalm 136:1
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

a few on-the-ground-glimpses of His mercy
before heading back to the garden to harvest
 more mercy-tokens🙏💓

Zinnia-forest...

Caterpillar-study...

Pick of the petal-crop

Wrapping piggy in pastry blankie...m-m-m!

Oh! The excitement when there's a mousie in Janet's housie!!!
I will leave the ending of the tale to your apt imaginations
but it involved a trap😂


To count Thy mercies, Lord, is more than ink can summarize
You woo the light of morn to chase night’s shadows from yon skies
With love that never fails you keep Your promises intact
Happy is the heart that avails itself of this kind fact
At Calvary, upon a cross, once for all you became
Sin’s final sacrifice, for all who call upon Your name
Mercy for blind accusers, for hearts, hard with unbelief
Mercy for the abusers of love’s brutal, blood-drenched grief
Mercy that spills in flowers to anoint the earth that groans
But not the Soul; the deathless Soul, whose bearing You decree
Where mercy cannot break its Vow; God is not mocked but keeps
Beyond the visage of all who approach the solemn goal
That each breath draws us nearer to; the Saviour of the Soul
Whose everlasting mercy pours with comfort and appeal
Whose everlasting love implores with agonizing zeal
Whose will it is that none should die, doomed to the wage of sin
Because He gave Himself to buy the gift of Life, to win
Where Mercy meets us where we are with love, not blow for blow
He does not curse, or nurse the scar where once we struck Him, no
But bends to bind hate’s gaping wounds with redemption unmarred/unbarred
He draws us to His bosom with Hands, gentle though nail-scarred
With everlasting mercy, God unfurls before our gaze
A virgin opportunity to honor Him with praise
For His enduring mercy in spite of oft thankless stance
For His enduring mercy that His faithful favor grants

© Janet Martin


Ps,136:26
Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven!
For His mercy endures forever.


Monday, June 26, 2023

Gratitude-Quest...



Sometimes love's realities/cruelties/crosses
could wake excuses that could make us bitter...
Oh my Lord, may it never be!!





Lest by bitterness betaken
Lest by prideful boast or greed
Lord, each day let me awaken
To Your mercy for my need
Lest in my pursuits of gladness
I, by reason of a fool
Miss Your goodness, for the madness
Of Want without rod or rule

Lest I trade eternal treasure
And the blessing You bestow
For the very temp’ral pleasure
Of a temporary show
Lord, each day let me awaken
To renewed awareness of
Hope’s sweet confidence unshaken
Anchored in grace, truth, and love

Lest, by my impatient nature
I demand what is not mine
Puffing up my puny stature
In the face of Grace Divine
Lest, by some distorted notion
I perceive rather than trust
And redirect my devotion
From You to idols/merchants of dust

Lest the lure of the beholding
Blinds me to Faith’s surety
Lest the pace of grace unfolding
Heaven, is too hard for me
Lord, each day let me awaken
So that I am overtaken
With nothing, but gratitude

© Janet Martin

Psalm 107:15&31

Oh, that men would give thanks
 to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works
 to the children of men!



Friday, May 5, 2023

Today Page

 


oh look! Breakfast visitors!



Our lives are like a book
Each day a page we fill
With choice and consequence. Ah, look
Where morning’s mercies spill
Not willing that we turn
To where we were before
Love splays beneath the ways we learn
A pristine page once more

Duty and beauty brim
Ah look; the earth is green
Spring hoists a hallelujah hymn
Where Barren World had been
How much God’s grace allots
To be so thankful for
His goodness overflows with what
Has never been before

…yet age to age proclaims
The faithfulness of He
Who lowers death’s verge to life’s frames
Hinged to eternity
Where the ink we employ
Is poured from virgin grails
God beckons us to sing for joy
For His kindness prevails

Oh pray, as we advance
In years, life’s lessons earn
More than a weathered countenance
But wisdom’s rich return
Run through with thankfulness
For each new Today Page
From God’s enduring faithfulness
From age to age to age

© Janet Martin

Psalm 95:1-7
Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout to the Rock of our salvation!
2Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to Him in song.
3For the LORD is a great God,
a great King above all gods.
4In His hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
5The sea is His, for He made it,
and His hands formed the dry land.
6O come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
7For He is our God,
and we are the people of His pasture,
the sheep under His care.

Song-sparrows are singing their little birdie-hearts out
this morning, but I couldn't get a long clip
because of a steady stream of noisy traffic...






Friday, April 21, 2023

Mercy-bespoke...


Today's poem was inspired in part by the surprise of a pretty sunrise, 
where I had mentally prepared for a rainy start to today, 
and the lusty robin heralding new morning and maybe forecasted rain too 😅💖
Also by the sudden conviction that we all should want to wonder more
 at our Creator whose morning/mercy never misses its mark!

...and, mercy bespoke??
yes! not the way man orders it 
but the way God orders it, perfectly, undeservedly!

The gilt-edged grace-pledged morning spills
From molten molds, mercy-bespoke
To draw the dark from dells and rills
And hills and fields like a plush cloak
Tugged from yon verge’s frameless clime
Unveiling vistas perched like art
On pedestals as old as time
To strike sheer wonder to the heart
For He, whose faithfulness remains
In spite of recreant reply
God’s covenant of old sustains
Renewal, filling earth and sky
Where you and I are not forgot
Caught between what was and will be
On a fresh threshold, mercy-wrought
On the verge of eternity

Where none can see how near or far
We are to The Sunrise That Flings
One Final Gilt-edged Gate Ajar
To draw the soul on welkin wings
Beyond this Bar of Burdened Must
And trust, not for the faint of heart
Where gilt-edged daybreak cheers tear-dust
With mercy-bespoke works of art
While we weather four-season’s wraith
The tether round wings not yet spanned
Where warp and weft of hope and faith
Confounds the ground whereon we stand
Feathering from the soul, the shroud
That fickle fools dote on and laud
Forgetting the fate of the proud
On That Morning that unveils God

…where gilt-edged, grace-pledged morn extends
The great divide, where heavens brim
With glimpses of He who befriends
The creature who confides in Him
Where, without fail He fills the dark
Awakens the trill of the lark
Kindles anew, devotion’s prayer
Where often we misunderstand
The Faithful Hand that tips the grail
That pours across the slumb’ring land
Ethereal sands that rend night’s veil
Where, on Creation’s Pedestal
Once more He plants love’s Living Proof
An every-morn Original
That only fools dare hold aloof

© Janet Martin

Lam.3:21-26-31-33

his I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord...

For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
33 For He does not afflict [i]willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.

I've shared this song many times because I love to listen to it
in the morning when I rise...I hope you do too🙏💓