Showing posts with label anchor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anchor. Show all posts

Thursday, April 15, 2021

For Sailors on Life's Sea

 Life is no pleasure-cruise; Soul’s sacred ship is not a yacht...

Below, a rough sketch of a picture that formed in my mind
as I wrote this poem...


The sea of life is filled with precious barks of humankind
Uncharted waters spill across eastern horizon-line
Where we, all deftly drawn toward where we have never been
Need to learn how to trust the Lord who orders the Unseen

For fear is like a fiend that wreaks havoc where moments break
It draws our eyes from God who promised never to forsake
Peter could walk on water while his gaze was fixed on He
Who beckoned ‘come’ though wild the tempest tossed the roiling sea

The stormy gale will not prevail though sometimes, so it seems
The love of God will never fail though loss may shatter dreams
Hope, like an anchor will secure faith’s bark in Mercy’s keep
To grant assurance as we face today’s uncharted deep

Life is no pleasure-cruise; Soul’s sacred ship is not a yacht
Time's rocks and waves may dash and bruise us in a course, hard-fought
But, as we cling to the life-line unfurled at Calvary
Love's firm anchor of hope secures barks of humanity

© Janet Martin









Saturday, October 24, 2020

Soul/Sole Security


Seems fall-lovers here in Ontario
continue to be thrilled to the max by 
an exceptionally colorful version of the season
in what has been an exceptionally trying year!
The picture below is from a photo-poem desk calendar 
I received out of the blue (no birthday or anything) the other year
from my sister; I keep re-enjoying it because there's always pages I've missed or forgotten!
(I think that's why each season never loses its splendor; the missing and forgetting😊)



No matter what season we are in
may it always be a season of prayer,
Because Time is a turbulent tide!
Sickness of body and soul 
and so much beyond our control
insist we choose either faith or fear
to be compass and guide...

Fear flings us into foaming deeps
without a hope or prayer
is the firm anchor that keeps
us from drowning in despair


We surf a sea of season-tides 
What hides in its momentous deep 
Could keep us from hope’s sheer delight 
And rob us of laughter and sleep 

We bobble between faith and fear 
Because there is no clear-cut course 
Carved through the waves that vault and veer 
And dash us with violent force 

No one can claim clear-sailing grants 
Or tame the turbulence of Test 
Where surf and turf of circumstance 
Is always volatile at best 

Nobody knows what lies ahead 
How then can we find joy and peace 
Fear fills our hearts with doubt and dread 
Where dark the doleful clouds increase 

Faith finds the anchor that abides 
In He who hears each humble prayer 
And cups the sea of season-tides 
And all its ‘surfers’ in His care 

Then since, beyond our control
The toll of time rolls like the sea
Surely the faith that makes us whole
Is our sole/soul security

 
© Janet Martin 

Matthew 8:26
"You of little faith," Jesus replied, "why are you so afraid?" 
Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, 
and it was perfectly calm.

There are SO many seasons in life not marked by a calendar!
For whatever season we are in here's hoping
we have a Friend to weather whatever the weather be...






Friday, October 16, 2020

Then Ships Ahoy And On We Sail...





This sea upon which we set sail 
Where thick of night is a black veil 
Until white, fading stars exhale 
To fill the mast of morn with day... 








This sea upon which we set sail 
Where thick of night is a black veil 
Until white, fading stars exhale 
To fill the mast of morn with day 
Is glossed with frost in autumn-tide 
Is tossed with waves of want-fear-pride 
Where drops of moment-measure hide 
What waits to test the vessel’s sway 

This surge of highways, hills and trees 
Composes a landscape of seas 
-ons juxtaposed with jeopardies 
Of treachery, hunger and woe 
But we of the household of faith 
Are not doomed to death's dreaded fate
Christ anchors hope beneath the spate 
Of deadly current’s undertow 

Then ships ahoy and on we sail 
Buoyed by joy that will not fail 
Mercy deploys both calm and gale 
With loving kindness, full and free 
Then to the drifting dory call 
Caution the careless, reckless yawl 
Lest by some sudden 'weather-brawl'
They fall into eternity 

© Janet Martin 

God's Infallible Purpose in Christ

Hebrews 6:13-20
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the [f]immutability of His counsel, [g]confirmed it by an oath, 18that by two [h]immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we [i]might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Monday, December 9, 2019

Abiding Anchor


 This song has been going round in my head since last week
when my son played a small bit he recorded
as a man in the next room on a job site sang this hymn as he worked...


Against the tides that surge and crash and moan
Unwavering amidst the foaming crest
Steadfast within the gales that wail and groan
Abides the anchor of God’s promises

Unshakeable while wild life’s mistrals seethe
Until it feels like hell its depth unchains
Still resolute, unmovable beneath
The anchor of God’s promises remains

Unyielding as grief wields a numbing blow
And courage crumples in sorrow’s travail
Firm in the roiling spoil of Eden’s woe
God’s perfect promises will never fail

My love, though earth and heavens pass away
And stars fall like green figs from storm-tossed tress
Rock-solid in the tempest's spewing fray
Abides the anchor of God’s promises

© Janet Martin

 Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie,
we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.
 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and steadfast. 
It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 
 where Jesus our forerunner has entered on our behalf.
 He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.…