Showing posts with label The Daily Bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Daily Bread. Show all posts

Monday, February 13, 2023

A Precious 'Pressing' Presence



'prayerfully pressing into His presence.' 
is the final phrase in today's Daily Bread Devotion.

Oh, what would we do without this refuge?! 
When all else fails, never God. 
No matter what may seem...

Ps.31:19
How great is Your goodness,
Which You have stored up for those who fear You,
Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You,
Before the sons of men!



He gives sufficient grace where Unknown’s tempest rolls
He tests the treasures we embrace as we pour our souls
Goodness and mercy’s trove no trial can expend
Nor drain the storehouses of love no thought can comprehend

He teaches us to trust only as all else fails
He reaches through our rue of dust to hoist hope’s weathered sails
His promises endure to comfort mortal care
He keeps faith’s falt’ring bark secure as we press into prayer

…where God’s presence defends faith’s groaning cruciform
As peace, not of this world transcends the substance of the storm
Where no power on earth can begin to compare
To the inimitable worth of full surrender’s prayer

© Janet Martin





Friday, December 2, 2022

So That We Are Without Excuse

1 Tim.4:12-16 (NKJV)
12 Let no one [a]despise your youth, but be an example to the believers
 in word, in conduct, in love, [b]in spirit, in faith, in purity. 
13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to [c]doctrine. 
14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, 
which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. 
15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, 
that your progress may be evident to all. 
16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. 
Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself 
and those who hear you.

  first laid the groundwork for today's poem,
(click link for beautiful encouragement
to persevere faithfully, right where we are)

...then I looked up to see a burst of pink permeating the atmosphere


 ...as I gazed I was smitten with this passage in Romans 1:18-20

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven 
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, 
who [d]suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 
19 because what may be known of God is [e]manifest [f]in them, 
for God has shown it to them. 
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen,
 being understood by the things that are made,
 even His eternal power and [g]Godhead, 
so that they are without excuse,...

He bestows to the heavens, rose and periwinkle hues
He fills them with splendor no one can ignore or refuse
He imbues earth and sky and sea with wonder’s pedestal
So that His divine nature will be evident to all
Since the creation of the world God’s hidden attributes
Are clearly seen and understood; we are without excuse

He stirs within the human breast, an urge to satisfy
Where none but He can fill the quest that tests longing’s reply
Though much will try to take His place, where the devil deceives
His peace, his hope, His joy, His grace only true faith receives
Where His goodness, mercy and love abound to one and all

Ho, everyone that thirsts, come and drink where God’s grace runs rife
And gives us Living Water from a blood-bought Fount of life
Call upon Him while He is near, while He may yet be found
Seek Him with reverential fear (we tread on holy ground)
Beneath majestic heavens, while creation’s creatures groan

His love decreed that none should miss faith’s opportunity
So He instilled in what He made, His divine deity
So that we are without excuse; and no one is exempt
Oh, pray we do not look on Him with unbelief’s contempt
When everyone will look upon the Saviour of the Soul

© Janet Martin






Wednesday, August 24, 2022

The Glorious Goal

The glorious gift of a new day gleams!
What is our goal?



helped to inspire today's poem...

2 Cor.5:6-10
So we are always confident, knowing that 
while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 
7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 
8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body 
and to be present with the Lord.
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, 
to be well pleasing to Him. 
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, 
that each one may receive the things done in the body, 
according to what he has done, whether good or bad.


What will our life collage, as we reach the goal,
 look like as it is analyzed frame by frame?
Will it be, by the grace of God a testimony of loving service to Him
or will it be, to our shame a futile fling of Self-serving?

Below a collage of a week or two of only a glint of moments...



The glorious goal of pleasing God makes every day full worth its while
Where souls that brim with hymnal laud, and walk by faith though sights beguile
And tune the heart and mind with kindness even when things may go wrong
Will find within the common grind of love and life, a happy song

The glorious goal of pleasing God fills every hour with intent
To serve Him with feet gospel shod, and worship’s awestruck wonderment
That God so loved the world He gave His Son to take my/our rightful place
Upon the cross; He died to save us not by works but by His grace

The glorious goal of pleasing God seems far too small a price to pay
As we behold the thwarted rod where death and hell are done away
For all who repent and believe; no longer victims of sin’s curse
But who, through faith alone receive redemption none can reimburse

Then, with heart and soul, humbly awed, pray we aspire to obey
And make the goal of pleasing God, our true desire every day
For someday we will all appear before His holy judgement seat
To give account of our life here; flight to the glorious goal complete

© Janet Martin





Thursday, March 18, 2021

Our Greatest Awe of All

 Today's Daily Bread Bible reading is one of my favorite passages of scripture;

Eph.2:4-10

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 
 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ
 (by grace you have been saved), 
 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 
 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
 in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 
 For by grace you have been saved through faith, 
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 
 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, 
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.




The wonders of creation, too manifold to tell
Still pale when in comparison to Living Water’s well
A worldwide invitation to come, to taste and see
The wonders of salvation through grace that sets us free
Where no more condemnation awaits all who believe
In He who paid our pardon, so mortal may receive
Redemption, thus exemption from death’s inherent doom
The hour of repentance, the flower of the tomb
Where the grave has no power, because of Calvary
Where Jesus became our scapegoat and victory
Where all who come to Jesus, He will not turn away
He gave His life to free us from Debt we could not pay
Then come, taste and behold through faith, Mercy's miracle 
The wonders of salvation, our greatest awe of all

© Janet Martin

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

This Holy Hush...



'The poet’s heart within us craves the holy hush.'
This is the last line in yesterday's Daily Bread Devotion..
My oldest sister called around 8:00 to see if I had read it yet,
and if it inspired any writing at my end😀 (bless her heart)

I had read it a few hours earlier as a quick devotion 
before an early morning tots-arrival day etc. .Beautiful!
I tried to squirrel the sparks away hoping the iron (or ashes) wouldn't grow too cold...

This, the last paragraph in the devotional, felt a poem :

"Nature sometimes seizes 
our attention in ways 
we don’t like
. Regardless of what happens to us 
or what we observe around us, 
each moment—
magnificent, 
menacing, 
or mundane—
can inspire 
our worship. 
The poet’s heart 
within us craves 
the holy hush."

By Tim Gustafson

'Worship inspired by the ways Nature applies its brush'








The poet's heart within us craves creation's holy hush
Worship inspired by the ways Nature applies its brush
Where That which no one can annul is strange and sweetly drawn 
Toward Something Invisible This Holy Hush will spawn 

In woodland's deep, or break of day, or plush-prism snowfall
Or twilight as it tucks away the rush of beck and call
Or earth after autumn has stripped leaf-mirth from lofty limb
Or August nights stippled with cricket-choir's vibrant hymn
 
...or as we bask in waning winter's pools of golden sun
Where heaven tips a blue flask full of gardens, dream-dirt spun
Or after tot is fast asleep and childish noise subdued
Like the calm after storms that little girls and boys exude 

In the crook of a countryside brook-bank as we recline
Wooed by a wand of willow-frond or wild cucumber vine 
Or as we gaze at silver haze of stars on black backdrop
Or as we drink the winsome ink of rain-song's drip and plop

Or as we taste the brickle from a 'cicle, maple-sweet
Or as we dash with dusty splash through pastures in bare feet
Or as we pause beneath the gauze of apple-blossomed arc
Something we cannot quite explain ignites a sacred spark

The poet's heart within us craves This Holy Hush, God-bent
Worship whispers awe's spark into a blaze of wonderment
Where That which no one can annul is drawn with tender stare  
 Toward Someone Invisible, but also walking there 

 © Janet Martin