Showing posts with label Holy God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy God. Show all posts

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Springs in our Valleys...



 Sharing a devotion from a book Springs in the Valley by Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman




Unwavering, Your kindness
Unshakeable, Your grace
Oh God, forgive our blindness
When we forget our place

Immeas’rable, Your mercy
Immutable, Your love
God, pardon naive posses
That loot love’s treasure trove

Infinite, is Your wisdom
Abiding is Your peace
Forgive mortal temptation
To let sight be belief

Universal, Your power
Encompassing, Your clout
You send sunshine and shower
Forgive us when we doubt

Eternal, Your redemption
To all who call on Thee
The Author of salvation
And Immortality

© Janet Martin

 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. 
The life I now live in the body, 
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 
Gal.2:20

Thursday, August 3, 2017

For Faithful Mercy Praise



 Psalm 40:5
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, 
And Your thoughts toward us; 
There is none to compare with You. 
If I would declare and speak of them, 
They would be too numerous to count.



 ...at first Grandson was not at all sure about the 'playpen' Grandma plunked him into while we finished blanching beans for his mommy's freezer...
But, after a moment or two of contemplating he seemed quite satisfied!(sorry the grin-shot blurred:(
oops, I forgot! This post was inspired by the breathy wisps of lavender birthing new day;-)


Benevolence of mercy’s constancy
Trails in a veil of lavender and pink
It drapes its ether shroud across earth’s lea
And draws our waking gaze to eastward brink
As we consider He whose might and grace
Are justice and redemption intertwined
He guards and quakes the cage where human race
Is privy to wonders, each God-designed

Whether of branch etched stark against near dark
Or buoyant with breeze-breathy seraphim
Whether of rivers carved into the rock
Or pretty petal-plumes detailed by Him
Nothing of human heart can fully hold
The magnitude of splendor such as this
The hemline of a robe purple and gold
Falls tender, from a star-enflamed abyss

To touch the eye with wild pleasure, ah, we
Will never tire of God’s handiwork
Time’s rampart groans with quiet majesty
Where angels tread and trembling demons lurk
We are engulfed, in spite of evil’s host
With Mercy’s unequivocal defense
For rebels This bestowed Love’s uttermost
And always supersedes man’s arrogance 

Or else we could not leap for humble joy
Doomed by the awful end that we deserve
How bittersweet Creation’s grand decoy
Would be; but Mercy tunes this earthy verve
Then, when ‘neath leaf-thatched blue we idly pause
To revel in a pool of cool respite
Pray, we lift high a heart of praise because
We walk in Mercy’s everlasting sight

For He does not forget this fretting clan
Who has nothing to boast save utter need
And its dependence on a Higher Hand
From whence Love’s floods of mercy intercede
He flowers careworn hours; scrawls a brook
Beneath half-moon pinned to twilight’s lapel
Mercy metes morning; everywhere we look
It shouts, thus man may whisper ‘it is well’

...and walk with confidence of heart and mind
Without need to cower in guilt, afraid
Of harsh tongue-lashings; God's mercy is kind
To we, fearfully, wonderfully made
Thus, forfeit not true hope for lawless gain
Then put away the old man for the new
The evidence of  Mercy makes it plain
Great God of love is God of judgement too

© Janet Martin

 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
your works are wonderful, 
I know that full well.

 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 
For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. 

Click on this link to the song below for a worthwhile read entitled Worship or Light Esteem

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Aha, Aha, Amen

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer.17:9



The heart, the heart of man
Is wicked to the core
We ought, we ought; all that we can
To read God’s scriptures more

The love, the love of God
Never betrays our trust
We should, we should humbly applaud
His compassion for us

The hope, the hope we have
Is found in Him alone
How cold, how cold the hostile grave
‘Neath unbeliever’s stone

Prepare, prepare with awe
For that from which none flee
The righteousness of Holy God
And Immortality

The way, the way we end
Depends Wholly on this;
Believe, believe, my soulmate, friend
In He who ever IS

© Janet Martin

It is IMPOSSIBLE not to realize it again and again,
as we turn from the graveyard filled with the dead
 back to the land of the 'still dying',
 how deceitful, wicked and worldly, when left to its own vices,
the heart is!
Let's face it; God's grace is our only, utter hope!


Monday, July 17, 2017

Praise God...



The Outreach/Teaching Pastor of our congregation is in a country in Africa...here is an excerpt on how he described a worship service where they congregated at a church in a massive slum...
 
  "The service started at 10:30 and 4 churches gathered as one.  The service lasted till about 4:00 p.m.  Yes – that is about 5 ½ hours! We sang and sang and danced and sang.  'Someone' led the breaking of bread and we sang a lot more, I preached and then we sang and sang and they welcomed each and every guest...."
Don't stories like this simply compel us to join in?! A foretaste of Heaven on earth!

(This is a read-one-verse-only-if-you-prefer poem, 
because penning praise is an on-going song...)

Praise God; time thunders with the proof of mercy’s boundless fount
Man’s visage cannot comprehend the endlessness of He
Who hangs on spans of nothingness wonders too rife to count
And runs us through and through with love’s unfailing Majesty

Praise God; let us full-awed bow down and lay before His throne
Off'rings of song and service to the One who grants His grace
And gave upon the cross His all, man’s sin-curse to atone
He saves us from a fall that would-should ban us from His face

Praise God; His rod, though it grieves us, He sends for our good
Pray we, with what He lends return a sacrifice of praise
His ways and thoughts, past finding out are oft misunderstood
Yet still He fills the seed that spills and overflows earth’s trays

Praise God; let everything with breath exalt His holy name
An orchestra of worship to his Lordship let us be
And magnify the One who loves and cares for you and me

Praise God; applaud the shepherd of the stars and mankind’s souls
He, like a Father pities us and provides ev’ry need
Each humble prayer he hears; His kindness through our blindness rolls
We, audience-recipients of goodness-mercy’s creed

Praise God; the air is like a thoroughfare hungry for song
Then, though cast down we can rise up, as on an eagle’s wing
Sufficient is the grace of He who makes the weakest strong
Then oh, forbid that we forget to sing and sing and sing

Praise God; the pod is full of fruit like faith's laud, full of joy
Then, though we see the outward and are often torn apart
We labor ‘neath Love’s watchfulness that nothing can destroy
And trust and fear the One who knows the fathoms of each heart

Praise God; for death has no awful dominion over us
Darkness and hate and greed cannot prevail, for He is Light
Thus evil cannot triumph over Living Hope; Jesus
Sing glory-hallelujah for the power of His might

Compassionate, He does not leave us comfortless in grief
A confidante to pour upon His list'ning ear, our pain
The solace of His sympathy anoints tears with relief
And helps us, in spite of our loss to love and laugh again

Praise He who tends the tree and bends the sea with the Unseen
He showers us with blessing; who the sum of them can tell?
His whisper calms fear's tempest, turns the barren backdrop green
From dark of night a spark expands and morning anthems swell

Praise God; where imminence of unknown rests in perfect peace
His promises steadfast, in Him believers bide, secure
No foe can overthrow the One whose favors never cease
Heavens and earth will pass away but His Word will endure
    
Praise God; for faithfulness and Love, for Truth and Righteousness
Praise Him for He is Holy, Healer, Hope, Redemption's Door
Praise Him; through His forgiveness man may live victorious
Let earth’s song be a prelude to Heaven's forevermore

© Janet Martin