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

O Morning Star

Ears to Hear...Today's Song (and a funny video of my grandson's reaction to the snow!)

Where muffled footsteps fall

En route to find a perch

To revel in the madrigal

In nature’s perfect church...

…to listen as we should

(for time’s timing is keen)

To sermons from the winnowed wood...

That once stood, lush and green

Snow-lovers are singing winter's praises this morning!🎜🎝🎝❄❄❄

(the video doesn't pick up the excited and what I am interpreting as happy tweet-tweets😊)

other's not so much💖😂😂😂

Lord, grant us ears to hear

The melodies of life

Help us find today’s song, so dear

From orchestras run rife

In hush of morn beguiled

By rush of notes dusk quells

In darling laughter of a child (or other sounds of a child😂)

In chimes of Christmas bells

Lord, give us ears to hear

Sacred commonplace lays

That kindle in the eye a tear

And set heart-hearths ablaze

The tea, as it is poured

The click of spoons in cups

Symphonies all ears can afford

To cheer life’s downs with ups

The heave of billows borne

On time’s four-season tide

The brittle leaves in sheaves of corn

Snow-truffled countryside

Where muffled footsteps fall

En route to find a perch

To revel in the madrigal

In nature’s perfect church

…to listen as we should

(for time’s timing is keen)

To sermons from the winnowed wood

That once stood, lush and green

To treasure tenderly

The timbre of ‘hello’

Before the solemn harmony

Of final farewells flow

Lord, give us ears to hear

The cries of those in need

Your still, small Voice to counter fear

And condemn lust and greed

Lord, grant us ears to hear

Beyond the noise of strife

The tempo of love’s songs so dear

Tuning the joys of life

© Janet Martin

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Matt.11:15

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!

Come to Jesus

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.

Rescue the Perishing

Far More Than Some Yon Phantom Force...

Imagine if we could see as clearly the sacred date of Happy-halfway-through-life!

as we see dates like Happy-halfway-through-November!!

That's tomorrow, if we live to see it!

In the twinkling of an eye, time/mortality's skin-thin veneer will be rent and we will see God.

How we see Him here will greatly impact how we see Him there!

Do we see Him as precious Saviour of our Soul and glorious Lord of our life

or is He some far-off, antiquated Dictator of dos and don't that we decide not to bother with?!!

Is He our Friend and Heavenly Father or simply some yon force of fate??

Psalm 8:1 ESV

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! 

You have set your glory above the heavens.

November Dusk is one glorious example of Majesty's Showcases!

Friday Dusk...

Our God is He whose majesty fills land and sea and air...

Sunday Dusk...

a coral and lavender festooned sky

Monday Dusk...

(north-facing)

an eruption of grandeur that drew humanity to windows and out-of-doors

in exclamations of wonder aka worship!

(east-facing)

...and west-facing

Far more than some yon phantom Force that rules with iron hand

Or sets in motion each life’s course, to curb with cold command

Far more than One who sits enthroned above the galaxies

Far removed from agonies groaned and troubles that must be

Our God is He whose majesty fills land and sea and air

Yet is acquainted thoroughly with all grief that we bear

Who suffered every sorrow known, who endured brutal loss

Who was rejected by His own, and nailed upon a cross

Far more than a Religious Chief of dos and don’ts uncouth

He is the Bedrock of Belief, the Cornerstone of Truth

A faithful Shepherd where we all like sheep have gone astray

His Rod and Staff lift all who fall and call upon his Name

He is the ear that bends to hear the prayer we cannot speak

His voice whispers, ’be of good cheer’ and ‘blessed are the meek’

He, Holy Spirit dwells in us, our power is His Word

Salvation, through his Son Jesus is the hope of the world

Far more than imagination’s rebellious negligence

The God of all creation’s decree is obedience

He is not mocked; therefore, we ought to give more earnest heed

To what we hear and hunger more for what He has decreed

Rather than fleeting pleasure that is destined to decay

We ought to dearly treasure what will never fade away

For, far more than a Rider on a White Horse up above

He is the glorious, Source of living hope, joy, peace and love

In Him, faith’s foothold is secure; trust leans upon His breast

His promises are just and sure; His timing always best

God, who is rich in mercy, bends this tent of time and place

And ushers into existence, a new, lent day of grace

That draws us ever nearer to the answer of the Soul

When God unveils the mirror that now darkly hides the Whole

Where, how we see and love Him here is authoring reply

Transcending time’s skin-thin veneer in the wink of an eye

© Janet Martin

We are all without excuse when

it comes to the evidence of God!

Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—

his eternal power and divine nature—

have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, 

so that people are without excuse.

At Life's Smorgasbord of Choices...

 

Life is not a big empty table like this one...

...before the guests arrived each with a freshly-baked delectable delight!

...turning the empty table into a smorgasbord of choices! 

Yesterday I was honored to host my mother's annual birthday tea.

All of her daughter's and daughter-in-laws are the annual guests;

this birthday tradition a long-standing, treasured highlight for all! 

Happy 81st birthday, dear Mother!

I am so thankful when weighing choices and responses/responsibilities

 that so many times without thinking I resort to 'what would mom do/say?'

And I know one of the answers was, is and will always be 'pray!' 

At life’s smorgasbord of choices

Desire is often tried

Where a host of friendly voices

Can make it hard to decide

Which to taste and which to turn from

Which to take and what to leave

For this is no feckless ho-hum

That our choices will achieve

…where each life is like a courtship

Between mortal and his/her Lord/lord

Exposing, through choice, true worship

Which in turn earns just reward

For, life’s smorgasbord of choices

When we listen, seems to be

Like a smorgasbord of voices

All shouting ‘pick me, pick me!’

Oho, there is no evasion

All are subject to reply

And we do; Delight’s elation

Is eager to satisfy

At life’s smorgasbord of choices

Replenished with each new day

Thus, because of all the voices

Wouldn’t it be wise to pray?

Pray for prudence and discretion

For hearts of humility

Where choice triggers a succession

Of choice-cruciality

Then, before we touch or savor

Today’s options, we should weigh

Their merit against God’s favor

And ask Him to lead the way

© Janet Martin

Phil.4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, 

whatever is noble, 

whatever is right, 

whatever is pure, 

whatever is lovely, 

whatever is admirable—

if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—

think about such things.

Now! on a more mundane note I must choose between

doing up some apples to applesauce

or

apple pie-filling

or

Clean and bag more potatoes

or sort through those I have bagged

because they are very rot-prone this year

due to all the rain we had.

Better Examples

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase "Better (blank),"

replace the blank with a new word or phrase,

make the new phrase the title of your poem,

and then, write your poem...

Children are imitators of Example...

As soon as Big Brother clapped, so did Little Brother...

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children,

Eph.5:1(NIV)

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

Eph.1:5 (NKJV)

The only hope we have of improving what waits to be

Is a better Example set by likes of you and me

Therefore, the likes of you and me ought to pay earnest heed

To what and who influences power of word and deed

Because it is our words and deeds that set the sacred sway

For those who follow in the footsteps that we leave Today

For what we leave today is not as fleeting as it seems

But sets the stage where morrow's wage of today's onus teems

With the after-effects of who we strive to imitate

Subject either to laws of love or lawlessness of hate

Then, there is only one solution that passes the test;

To be better examples is to imitate The Best

Anything less is but our children's futures sacrificed

Our only hope, the perfect Example of Jesus Christ

© Janet Martin

Phil.2:5-11

(Isaiah 52:13–15)

5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus:

6Who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped,a

7but emptied Himself,

taking the form of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross.

9Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place

and gave Him the name above all names,

10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Rom.13:8-10

Owe no one anything except to love one another, 

for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,”

 “You shall not murder,”

 “You shall not steal,” [a]

“You shall not bear false witness,”

 “You shall not covet,” 

and if there is any other commandment, 

are all summed up in this saying, namely,

 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

10 Love does no harm to a neighbor;

 therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Worth Every Tender Mercy

God is not who we imagine Him to be.

God is who He says He is in His Word.

God's Word is not filled with suggestions of how to live

but sacred commandments.

 God, through the prophet Jeremiah, has repeated, dire warnings for

all 'who walk after the imaginations of their hearts'

To live, to love and do our part

With strength and mind, to serve the Lord

Is no charge for the faint of heart

Or those impatient for reward

For oftentimes, what seems so small

On the grand scale of recompense

Is not what it appears at all

When trust chooses obedience

Rather than the darling appeal

Of ‘happiness’ that money buys

No glamorous façade, the zeal

That presses to the Greater Prize

…God has prepared for the Blest Meek

Who look beyond the god/laud of Self

To heed the commandment to seek

God’s kingdom first, not worldly pelf

Who loathe the cunning Tempter bent

On preening false illusion’s sway/prey

With logic’s soothing argument

To woo with ‘did God really say?’

Who earnestly guard heart and mind

Where Imagination deceives

The proud with promised lands that blind

With sight, what faith alone perceives

Where the recompense of reward

Is not yet, but someday will be

Worth every (secret) tender mercy poured

Into vaults of eternity

© Janet Martin

Pride is a great enemy to obedience

And quite the cunning foe!

Pride comes in so many forms...

last month our church participated in a fund-raised

meal-pack through Lifeline.

When donating online, the default-setting for donations

is to publicly display the donation amount (why??)

Mortified, I realized too late, after a few corrections

that my 'private' setting had switched back to 'public'!

I contacted Lifeline to please switch it to 'private'

but I think they had more pressing concerns😅🙏

(and it was very hard on my 'pride' to simply let it go)

Pride is such a stinker and humility SO hard to get;

the minute we think we have it we've lost it!!😂

Jesus taught us to give like this...

Matt.6:4

But when you give to the needy, 

do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

 4so that your giving may be in secret. 

And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 5

Sacred Similes or Art-Accountability Awareness

Like a vast lake,

blush, blue and gold

unfolding overhead...

...where daybreak, like a threshold to pictures that dusk will seal

Ought first to be a blush-blue-golden altar where we kneel ...

Like canvases to sketch upon, Today is always new...

The art succeeding stretch-and-yawn is up to me and you

Where circumstance is but the scrim we splash with artistry...

Like a vast lake, blush, blue and gold unfolding overhead

Day breaks; and from yon welkin hold dawn’s fledgling wings are spread

Where, young and old alike embark, like a migrating surge

Of souls, pressing toward the mark of eternity’s verge

Where it is not made known to us how far the future splays

Until we tread the exodus of mist-like, numbered days

Like canvases to sketch upon, Today is always new

The art succeeding stretch-and-yawn is up to me and you

Where circumstance is but the scrim we splash with artistry

From mercy-granted trays that brim with opportunity

To sing a hymn, to breathe a prayer, to lend a helping hand

To be kind and humbly aware of time’s trickle of sand

Like a tree softly doffed of leaves, moment-momentum keens

The seed that grows into the sheaves that harvest-season gleans/weans

Like artists poised before pedestals as dawn hoists Today

We brush-daub-lob Originals that appear drawn away

But not forever; someday when our ‘painting-days’ are done

God will be the Appraiser, studying them, one by one

Oho, surely in light of this, there is no Commonplace

Each day is like a holy kiss from God, a gift of grace

Dawn’s debut, as it rends the air, propels eternity

Toward each one of us, bearing Soul’s immortality

Thus, whether young or old, before we start Art of Today

Not one of us should be so bold as to forget to pray

...where daybreak, like a threshold to pictures that dusk will seal

Ought first to be a blush-blue-golden altar where we kneel 

To thank God for His favours and to ask Him to direct

Where many tints and flavours taunt, flaunt, wink and interject

Then, beseech His whisper to wage, where brushstrokes heed command  

So all that remains on the page are imprints of His Hand

   

© Janet Martin

The trees are definitely being 'softly-doffed' today!

Today's post inspired in part by part of my morning Scripture reading...

Jer.17:5-10

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who draws strength from mere flesh

and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;

they will not see prosperity when it comes.

They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.

7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in him.

8 They will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.”

9 The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

10 “I the Lord search the heart

and examine the mind,

to reward each person according to their conduct,

according to what their deeds deserve.”

Also,

Partly by a line in the book The Irrational Season

by Madeleine L'Engle

"If you were arrested as a Christian, 

would there be enough

evidence against you to convict you?"

...and partly by an immense sense of standing on a fresh canvas of Time,

as I watched the sunrise unfolding

May You ask for and sense God's Hand over yours today!

Happy Painting!

Mine involves a scrub bucket and other

fall-cleaning essentials!

(like good music!)

Like this one!

Only a Holy God

Bat Not Thine Eye Lash at Thy Guilt...or, Earnest Plea

Reading through the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah kindles

much sober reflection and speechless awe

for the sure judgment and the abounding love and mercy of God

Bat not thine eye lash at thy guilt

Brush not at sin, like lint on sleeves

Shrug not thy shoulders at blood spilt

To save everyone who believes

Rush not, bold-faced, into the day

Without reckoning He who grants

The morn its light; bow down and pray

For temptation’s deliverance

Mock not, nor take in vain the Name

Above all names; but chastely fear

The One, whereby prophets proclaim

‘Look up, redemption draweth near’

Let not imagination rule

In rebel disobedience

Refuse the logic of the fool

Approach today with reverence

Lest, poorly and blindly content

With pomp and show of Noble Thought

Thy deathless soul reaps hell’s lament/torment

Because God called but ‘you would not’

The gods of this world cannot hear

Thy futile prayers when troubles groan

Fall on thy knees, repent, revere

The God of gods and God alone

Do not deceive thyself, but pray

For faith, to tremble at His Word

For love, devoted to obey

He whose decrees are undeterred

Bat not thy eye at the grave rift

Each soul must ford ‘neath death’s cold knife

Repent, believe, receive God’s gift

Forgiveness and eternal life

© Janet Martin

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.