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Saturday, June 29, 2024

Devotion's Utter Proof (or, Let Love BE)



Not everyone in this world is quite as easily lovable,
(or as eager to help!!) as tots, 
but we are commanded to owe no one anything 
but to love them. (Rom.13:8)
By the grace and love of God, who sees us as we are
and loves us completely, we are able to love one another,
for we are all partly lovable and unlovable

Wishing you a Happy Last Weekend of June overcome with love!!
This deliciously, rain-soft morning affords me some much needed indoor-chore time!!



Rom.12:9-10, 21
Love must be sincere. 
Detest what is evil; 
cling to what is good.
 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. 
Outdo yourselves in honoring one another...
Do not be overcome by evil, 
but overcome evil with good

Let love BE more than idle words that brush the ear with sound
Let love BE honour undeterred (for this is holy ground)
Let love BE willing to become a living sacrifice
And never count the paltry sum that constitutes the price
Let love BE faith’s unyielding walk, unaltered by the view
Let love BE anchored in the Rock that is Faithful and True
Let love hold nothing nearer than the cross that Jesus bore
Content to count Christ dearer, and in that, want nothing more
Let love put on the armour that equips us to fight well
Against a cunning charmer bent and bound for death and hell
Let love seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
Let love BE wholly, holy shod with sacrificial ‘yes’
And not rebel beneath the rod that disciplines The Child
Let love BE daily humbly awed by God’s law, undefiled
Let love BE glad in every day that love’s author has lent
Let love BE ready to obey Him without argument
Let love BE patient, kind, befitted for its altar call
With heart, soul, strength and mind, committed to Christ above all
Who (He) satisfies the purpose in the high calling of love
Who (He) bestows sorrow’s solace that this world knows nothing of
Let love secure endurance, where often its foes contend
Let love’s pure perseverance keep us faithful to end
Let love BE more than pleasure that sacrifice holds aloof
Let love BE the full measure of devotion’s utter proof

© Janet Martin

1 John 2: 15-17
Do not love the world or anything in the world. 
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
 16For 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. 
17The world is passing away, along with its desires; 
but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

1 John 3:11
This is the message you have heard from the beginning: 
We should love one another. 

John 16:33
“I have told you these things, 
so that in me you may have peace. 
In this world you will have trouble. 
But take heart! I have overcome the world.”



  

A poem from my devotion this morning...




 

Friday, June 28, 2024

Grace Unfurled

This is the day the Lord has made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Ps. 118:24

I began this poem, inspired by dawn's golden tide
as it rolled across the waking countryside...
(side note; did you know the word 'countryside' is one of my
favorite words in the English language?!!) 


...but helping a friend with strawberry-picking
and Cutie-duty prevailed before it was finished!




Once more summer morn’s golden tide
Washes across the countryside
Duty’s demand wakens a world
Of consumers, to grace unfurled

The grand escape from Yesterday
Rouses both hunter and its prey
…the padlock on dusk’s westward arc
Is obsolete; Dawn melts the dark

As tug of wars of want and need
Either encourage or impede
Our will to do or rue the task
That sparkles from a new day’s flask

This is the day the Lord has lent
We reply with hope or lament
Blessed are they who live to praise
The faithful Giver of our days

Where we, consumers of His grace
Should view nothing as commonplace
But revere He who frees the tide 
That rolls across the countryside

...transforming the place where we stand
To holy ground, beneath the Hand
That wears the scars that paid the price
That authored grace through sacrifice

...a sacrifice second to none
That paid sin's debt for everyone
But left it up to you and me
To choose the grace that sets us free

'for it is by grace we are saved'
Pardon's proof on God's Hands engraved
The hands that reach to you and I
To draw night's mantle from the sky 

© Janet Martin

Where we, consumers of His grace
Should view nothing as commonplace...


But revere He who frees the tide 
That rolls across the countryside




Thursday, June 27, 2024

June-Hymn


June seemed to beg in my bones
to be turned/tuned to a hymn today...



As you may have noticed over the years...
I never tire of this view!
Each season turns it into its own masterpiece,
But June, oh, sweet, fleet June
must be its Crown Jewel!

(p.s.) the farmers have no idea of the close heed I pay in spring
as to what crops are being planted around me! because it greatly affects my summer-view!
Seems this year I will soon be fenced in by
knee-high corn by the first of July, thanks in huge part to last week's heat wave!!)


And so, we smile where lunch beguiles from garden salad bowls...




Where June unwinds its green-hued isles like rivers/ribbons through our souls...



June always hath too short a lease; Summer’s virginity
As God unfurls a Masterpiece of bird-bloom symphony...



June has too many loveliness-es to name, but we try
Because we know how soon its comeliness yields to July
The moments that compose its song like music notes that brim
Where bowers cannot keep for long each lily-lifted/gifted hymn

And so, we smile where lunch beguiles from garden salad bowls
Where June unwinds its green-hued isles like rivers/ribbons through our souls
And takes each summer heart by storm, thrilling spectator-woes
As wild flowers begin to perform annual roadside shows

June always hath too short a lease; Summer’s virginity
As God unfurls a Masterpiece of bird-bloom symphony
Where earth is fair of face; she dances like a carefree child
While Nature’s Magnum Opus grants a free-for-all run wild

June’s laughter is contagious, kindling laughter in us too
In spite of wars life wages and sorrows that run us through
We find a kindly Comforter as flower-fountains spill
Healing Want’s wounded wonderer/wanderer with thund’ring canticle

Front porches become perfect perches for hiatuses
Vistas of pop-up churches births worship in all of us
Where oh-so-many pleasures leave its seekers humbly awed
By the manifold measures of the handiwork of God

The earth and its fullness thereof belong to Him. Amen
In spite of mortal’s lack of love He blesses us again
And sets to perfect timing, lilt of leaf and butterfly
And vine labyrinths climbing trellises crowned with blue sky

The busy bee bumbles from rose to rose and drinks and drinks 
Heedless of pollen crumbs, he nosedives into reds and pinks
Heady with happiness of honey-sweet, sweet dreams, oh my
He knows that earth and heaven meet, first in June, then July 

June grins with lovely things like hummingbirds that dart and flit
From plume to plume; and we delight to be a part of it
Partakers of a love-song, where joy is never off-tune
But beckons us to sing along because God gave us June

© Janet Martin

June has too many loveliness-es to name, but we try...










Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Order of Priorities

2 Thess.3:1-5
...pray for us, that the word of the Lord may spread quickly 
and be held in honor, just as it was with you.
  2And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men;
 for not everyone holds to the faith.
  3But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you 
and guard you from the evil one.a 
4And we have confidence in the Lord that you are doing 
and will continue to do what we command. 
5May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

***

Day breaks; responsibility rouses mankind from slumber’s cot...




I began this poem last Saturday, as I juggled demands
where 'cares (and duties) of this world tug and weigh'...
On Monday I stayed with my (ever-growing-frailer) mother-in-law as she listened
to the funeral message as another of her dear friends
was laid to rest; a 93 yr. old mother of 13! 
(side note; my mother-in-law will turn 93, if the Lord wills, on Aug.2)
During the funeral service
one of the ministers shared a story he read about a farmer
who was building a new milk house.
When the building inspector asked to see his permit he confessed that he forgot to get one.
The Inspector asked him if he remembered to order gravel. 'yes' said the farmer.
And cement? again, the farmer answered yes. And did you remember to
line up help for this project, the inspector pressed.
Yes, said the farmer once more.
 Then the inspector said to him,
Now I know, you did not forget to get a building permit.
You just didn't deem it important!
The minister was seeking to impress on the listener
the importance of recognizing what is truly important and preparing for it; 
preparing the Soul to meet God is life's most dire urgency
for no one knows when 'dust-to-dust’s mandate will appease'
all earthly priorities.

What is important to us we remember!
What is important to us takes its place in our order of priorities!
Below, a few beautiful paragraphs from the book
George Muller of Bristol 




The order of priorities is sometimes hard to reconcile
So many tasks of ‘me first, please’, where weeds abound and flowers smile
Where happiness and heartache meet and mingle in the human breast
Where weariness and work compete and put will power to the test
Where souls to tend and bills to pay keep us on our knees and toes
Where cares of this world tug and weigh and what yet waits God only knows

The order of priorities reveals the hierarchy within
Where a most sacred diocese exists beneath our cloak of skin
No matter who or where we are, God sees the hearts of you and me
Where who we worship sets the bar for what will take priority
And, holy is the consequence of what is just as it appears
As precedence yields evidence by what Priority reveres

Day breaks; responsibility rouses mankind from slumber’s cot
Where instantly Priority beckons in the throne-room of Thought
Oh Lord, how great Thou art; oh, guard us from the evil one today
Let Thy word in our minds and hearts equip us to trust and obey
Before this boon of beckoning, dust-to-dust’s mandate will appease
And then will be the reckoning for order of priorities

© Janet Martin

2 Pet.1:3-9
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness
 through the knowledge of Him who called us by His owna glory and excellence. 
4Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises,
 so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature,
 now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue;
 and to virtue, knowledge;
  6and to knowledge, self-control; 
and to self-control, perseverance; 
and to perseverance, godliness;
  7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; 
and to brotherly kindness, love.
  8For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, 
they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive
 in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
9But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, 
having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

Galatians 6:10
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men
especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Yesterday I spent a while tackling
 'where weeds were abounding!


(and flowers smiling!)





Monday, June 24, 2024

To Be the Oldest Sister/Daughter

(Belated) Happy Birthday, Emily 💝🙏🙏
Because it's never really 'belated' to celebrate those we love!


We finally had a chance to celebrate our oldest daughter's birthday, 
on Sat. evening two weeks after the official date! 
This poem was written for her and for 
my oldest sister who turned 60 a week ago!
We who are blessed to have an older sister to follow
 can easily take a lot for granted!! 

We also had an opportunity to try out Jim's/Grandpa's birthday present from his grandchildren;
an oldie game, croquet! lots of laughter from all 
(except the two year old who was soon comforted with a swing ride)



To be the oldest sister bears a charge she does not choose
Of feet anointed with a fine pair of trailblazer-shoes
The familial ground-breaker, whereby younger sisters gauge
Unspoken preparation for wars time and nature wage

The oldest sister shoulders an unalterable yoke
While younger sisters walk on luxury of ground she broke
Keeping a wary watch for firsts that steadfastly commence
Where time insists on countless reluctant relinquishments

Mother's first little helper and daddy's second sweetheart
First to test many waters that life is bound to impart
First scholar, first teenager, first to leave the nest called 'home'
First to face every new season of what is yet to come

To be the oldest sister, is to first weather the tide
That wakens her to winds of change, with gaze, less starry-eyed 
Than once-upon-more-youthful-years, soon strewn upon a wake 
That each sister behind her, Lord-willing, is bound to take 

God bless you, Oldest Sister/daughter, may His hope keep joy unfazed 
And grant you faith and courage where new trails wait to be blazed
Ere younger sisters follow where once first your footsteps fell 
God bless and keep you as you step into a new year's swell

© Janet Martin







 
 

Friday, June 21, 2024

Sweet Summer (part 1)

 Welcome, sweet summer!

Ps.19: part of verses 4 and 6
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun...
...nothing is deprived of its warmth.

Sweet summer, with so much to love we hardly know where to begin…

Where heady scent of fresh-mown hay hangs heavy on dawn’s dewy hush/brush...

Where countless hues of green imbue the rolling view, leafy and lush...



I love the calm after a storm, thunders through twilight like a train
Leaving behind a dazzling world, adorned with jewelry of rain...







Sweet summer, with so much to love, each day feels like precious fling
As earth and its fulness thereof begins to laugh, and leap and sing
Where heady scent of fresh-mown hay hangs heavy on dawn’s dewy hush/brush
Where countless hues of green imbue the rolling view, leafy and lush

Sweet summer’s thoroughfare is frilled with flowers, wonderful and wild
The garden bears the eager, carefree, banter of a bare foot child
Tree canopies cast cooling pools of shadow play across the yard
Against the wall behind the house, handsome hollyhocks stand on guard

I love the calm after a storm, thunders through twilight like a train
Leaving behind a dazzling world, adorned with jewelry of rain
I love the caroling of songbirds welcoming the day, still dark
I love the sounds of children playing in the splash pad at the park

In sweet summer we slow our pace lest we miss beauty to behold
Where duty’s never-ending chase runs through joys that never grow old
Beneath the arbor lavished with fragrant, purple wisteria-sigh
Through puddles on the laneway, strewn like mirror-fragments, full of sky

Sweet summer, with so much to touch and taste and smell and see and do
Ah, ‘what is man?’ we cry to He who runs awe’s happy wonder through
With strawberry and cherry bliss pleasing palates of everyone
With wheat fields billowing like oceans turning gold beneath the sun

Sweet summertime, when life is like a gift we open every morn
Its misty wrapping melts like butter over gleaming fields of corn
And we are glad with simple things like picnic basket’s smorgasbord
A pleasure fit for queens and kings, that everybody can afford

Sweet summer, tugging us between task and basking in pools of shade
Content with a good book and glass of iced coffee or lemonade
Where days flit by like butterflies, where school doors close and scholars grin
Sweet summer, with so much to love we hardly know where to begin…

© Janet Martin

Sweet summertime, when life is like a gift we open every morn




Its misty wrapping melts like butter over gleaming fields of corn...





Beneath the arbor lavished with fragrant, purple wisteria-sigh...




With wheat fields billowing like oceans turning gold beneath the sun...