Hope Is...

 Crank it up and praise Him!

There’s no right thinking apart from really thanking.

   A Holy Experience post by Ann Voskamp



Lord, let us learn to live a humble song of gratitude
Not by the What but through The Whom whereby hope is renewed
And let us not grow weary in well-doing for we know
That it is not through our power but Your grace, we go

Lord, let us learn to love in truth, and glorify the Name
That saves us from the curse of death, whereby we justly came
Hope, once a Sacred Stranger, suffered earth's vile dust of dross
His birthplace was a manger and His death-place was a cross

Lord, even in forgetfulness help us remember this;
Though fear and horror have their way, Lord, where You are Hope IS
Then let hope's thankfulness to You imbue each day we live
Lord, let us learn to be the love that only You can give

 Janet Martin

Free Indeed

What good, that morbid pity that inflicts our hidden core

And causes us to tremble as if God’s grace needed more

…like abstinence from laughter or the joys that we estrange

In guilt-appointed penance for the things we cannot change

What good to fret about regret and doubt the truth of He

Who said,’ indeed, who I set free will truly be set free’

So then, pray love inspires us to follow where He leads

Not to pay for redemption but to do as His love pleads

What good is vain religion; like an ombudsman for naught

And what is hope if all we grope are gods wrought within thought?

Alas, alas, would be the apex of our numbered days

If Circumstance would dictate when, if or how much man pays

What good would come of anything, without the grace of God

And who of us are more or less; we are equal through blood

…the blood of He who sets us free; then we are free indeed

To serve our Lord and Master through each other’s humble need

© Janet Martin

 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

  

I esp. love this version of this hymn partly because it features the harmonica, the one musical instrument I learned to play :)

No Greater Love

For all the loves of life

That tongue may dare to boast

The love of God exceeds the realm

Of thought’s meek uttermost

The hurts of life can press us

Prostrate on the ground

The Love of God will find us there

No greater love is found

He did not come to earth

To taste its finer side

A manger met Him at His birth

On lifted cross, He died

Thus, in life’s suffering

His faithful love attends

A kind and patient comforter

A close and constant Friend

In living’s high and low

Here on time’s season-sod

Hope lends its everlasting glow

Through this; the love of God

© Janet Martin

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13, NKJV

My prayer is that we all may know His love.

~Happy Valentine's Day~

Where Change Begins

We cannot change from the outside in

The heart is where true change begins

Though law may force the hand and such

The heart no scripted law can touch

…where edict of rules oft estrange

The heart to rudiments of change

For only love the heart can move

Yet, who can force a heart to love?

Love and belief; oh who can bend

The matrix of the heart, my friend?

Ah, there is One; a still small voice

Beckons; response is our choice

Yet, in this choice the crux of change

And all that follows it remains

For God is love; love does not force

The heart that yields in true remorse

Then, in the yielding change can start

For only Love can change the heart

© Janet Martin

One of the pastors interviewed yesterday in Ferguson Missouri reminded us that all the social programs in the world cannot change the heart where true change begins. Only Jesus can change the heart; the same Jesus that shed His blood for our sins. He died to set us free!